Dear Reader,
Allow me to apologize for the missing September blog post. I wrote it, then one of the tiny humans closed the webpage and NOTHING SAVED, so I crashed out and refused to rewrite it…because I am an adult. Please forgive me, and enjoy this, much longer, post that covers the 14 books that I read during September and October!
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow
“I loved you by then, or would soon, or always had. It was inevitable, foretold: When I look up, I will see the sky; when I fight, I will win; when I meet Owen Mallory, I will love him.”
I feel like loving this story was inevitable. I was obsessed within the first few pages, and my obsession grew as the tale evolved. The beauty and complexity of this heartbreaking epic romance through time had me completely enthralled. I’ve loved everything that I’ve read by Alix E. Harrow (The Ten Thousand Doors of January is one of my all time favorites that I have reread a few times) and starting this story felt like coming home to something comfortable and familiar, without feeling stale or like a story I’d heard before. Sir Una Everlasting was Dominion’s greatest hero: the orphaned girl who became a knight, who died for queen and country. Her legend lives on in songs and stories, in children’s books and recruiting posters―but her life as it truly happened has been forgotten. Centuries later, Owen Mallory―failed soldier, struggling scholar―falls in love with the tale of Una Everlasting. Her story takes him to war, to the archives―and then into the past itself. Una and Owen are tangled together in time, bound to retell the same story over and over again, no matter what it costs. But that story always ends the same way. If they want to rewrite Una’s legend―if they want to tell a different story–they’ll have to rewrite history itself. I’ve been raving about this book to anyone that will listen. I hope you all love it as much as I do!
A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft
I needed a break from the heavy series I was reading (more on that in a minute) and I wanted something a little *spicy* so I hopped on Booktok looking for recommendations and found this enemies to lovers sapphic romance that sounded right up my alley. Lorelei Kaskel, a folklorist with a quick temper and an even quicker wit, is on an expedition with six eccentric nobles in search of a fabled spring. The magical spring promises untold power, which the king wants to harness to secure his reign of the embattled country of Brunnestaad. Lorelei is determined to use this opportunity to prove herself and make her wildest, most impossible dream come to become a naturalist, able to travel freely to lands she’s only ever read about. The expedition gets off to a harrowing start when its leader—Lorelei’s beloved mentor—is murdered in her quarters aboard their ship. The suspects are her five remaining expedition mates, each with their own motive. The only person Lorelei knows must be innocent is her longtime academic rival, the insufferably gallant and maddeningly beautiful Sylvia von Wolff. Now in charge of the expedition, Lorelei must find the spring before the murderer strikes again—and a coup begins in earnest. But there are other dangers lurking in the forests that rearrange themselves at night, rivers with slumbering dragons waiting beneath the water, and shapeshifting beasts out for blood. As Lorelei and Sylvia grudgingly work together to uncover the truth—and resist their growing feelings for one another—they discover that their professor had secrets of her own. Secrets that make Lorelei question whether justice is worth pursuing, or if this kingdom is worth saving at all.I think I would have enjoyed this book a lot more if it wasn’t squished between two AMAZING books. It was a good story, but it was underwhelming in relation to the other things I have been reading recently, and it wasn’t as *spicy* as I anticipated. I enjoy a good murder mystery, and that aspect of the story was fun, but a bit predictable. Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys sapphic romance or romantasy in general as the world building and magic system was unique, but I don’t think I would reread this one.
Red Rising, Golden Son, Morning Star, and Iron Gold by Pierce Brown
“I would have lived in peace. But my enemies brought me war.”
This series is ruining my life in the best way. I’m four books into this 6 book series and had to take a break because my heart can’t handle the emotional damage. I’m not typically a sci-fi girlie, but my fiancee started this series and told me I had to read it. Red Rising takes place on Mars and it was easy to get sucked into the story. Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations. Yet he toils willingly, trusting that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children. But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and lush wilds spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class. Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity’s overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society’s ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies . . . even if it means he has to become one of them to do so. The next couple of books are much more space-y and that was kind of hard for me to get used to, but once I got past the space travel and super technology I fell in love with the characters and let Pierce Brown rip out my heart and stomp on it repeatedly. I’m at the point now where I am scared to love anyone because I’m not sure if I can handle the amount of ugly crying that will ensue, hence why I needed to take a break before reading the last 2 books in the series. I can’t stop recommending these books to everyone that comes into the shop. even if sci-fi isn’t normally in your comfort zone, this series is so worth it!
Dear Mothman by Robin Grow
I read this book for the October meeting of Rainbow Readers, and was so excited to get to share it with some of the kids in my life! Noah is a twelve year old trans boy who recently lost his best friend in a car accident, and begins writing letters to Mothman to prove he exists as part of a science fair project. Through the letters he begins to heal, finds some amazing new friends, and starts to feel more comfortable in his own skin. The book is written mostly in letters from Noah to Mothman and reminded me of The Perks of Being a Wallflower for a preteen audience. I bought several extra copies of this one to keep in the shop so I can recommend it to anyone looking for a great middle grades novel with LGBT and neurodivergent representation. I even made bookmarks to give everyone at our book club meeting with a couple of my favorite quotes!
Bog Queen by Anna North
I got this as an ALC audiobook from Libro.fm and loved the narration of this audiobook. When a body is found in a bog in northwest England, Agnes, an American forensic anthropologist, is called to investigate. But this body is not like any she has ever seen: Although its bones prove it was buried more than two thousand years ago, it is almost completely preserved. Soon Agnes is drawn into a mystery from the distant past, called to understand the death of an Iron Age woman more like her than she knows. Along the way she must contend with peat-cutters who want to profit from the bog and activists who demand that the land be left undisturbed. Then there is the moss itself: a complex repository of artifacts and remains with its own dark stories to tell. As Agnes faces the deep history of what she has unearthed, she is also forced to question what she thought she knew about her talent, her self-reliance, and her place in the world. Agnes reminded me a lot of the tv show Bones, which is one of my mom’s favorite shows. I loved the chapters written from the bogs perspective as a living entity that spans thousands of years with memories of its own.
Play Nice by Rachel Harrison
I saw this book on just about every social media platform and knew it had to be one of my spooky season reads. Thankfully I was not disappointed by this haunted house story. Clio Louise Barnes leads a picture-perfect life as a stylist and influencer, but beneath the glossy veneer she harbors a not-so glamorous secret: she grew up in a haunted house. Well, not haunted. Possessed. After Clio’s parent’s messy divorce, her mother, Alex, moved Clio and her sisters into a house occupied by a demon. Or so Alex claimed. That’s not what Clio’s sisters remember or what the courts determined when they stripped Alex of custody after she went off the deep end. But Alex was insistent; she even wrote a book about her experience in the house. After Alex’s sudden death, the supposedly possessed house passes to Clio and her sisters. Where her sisters see childhood trauma, Clio sees an opportunity for house flipping content. Only, as the home makeover process begins, Clio discovers there might be some truth to her mother’s claims. As memories resurface and Clio finally reads her mother’s book, the presence in the house becomes more real, and more sinister, revealing ugly truths that threaten to shake Clio’s beautiful life to its very foundation. I love a story with an unreliable narrator, and following along with Clio as she dives into her past while attempting to keep up appearances with content creation and her family was really exciting. This is one of the books we will be reading next year for Salem Book Club and I am excited to read it again!
We Live Here Now by Sarah Pinborough
This book has really pretty sprayed edges and I was very excited to read it for spooky season – haunted house stories have been my go to this year. After an accident that nearly kills her, Emily and her husband, Freddie, move from London to a beautiful Dartmoor country house called Larkin Lodge. The house is gorgeous, striking—and to Emily, something about it feels deeply wrong. Old boards creak at night; fires extinguish; and books fall from the shelves—all of it stemming from the terrible presence she feels in the third-floor room. But these things happen only when Emily is alone, so are they happening at all? She is still medically fragile. Her post-sepsis condition can cause hallucinatory side effects, which means she cannot fully trust her senses. Freddie does not notice anything odd and is happy with their chance at a fresh start. She, however, starts to believe the house is haunted by someone who had been murdered in it even though she can find no evidence of a wrongful death. As bizarre events pile up and her marriage starts to crumble, Emily becomes obsessed with discovering the truth about Larkin Lodge. Again, the unreliable narrator trope made this story so much fun. Is Emily hallucinating? What is Freddy hiding? What stories does Larkin Lodge hold in its walls? This was a great spooky season read, and I definitely have recommended it to a few people.
Wild and Wicked Things by Francesca May
We read this book for Sugar & Spice book club, and I was told this book was a sapphic romance where Practical Magic meets Great Gatsby, which sounds AMAZING but the story kind of fell flat, unfortunately. In the aftermath of World War I, a naive woman is swept into a glittering world filled with dark magic, romance, and murder in this lush and decadent debut. On Crow Island, people whisper, real magic lurks just below the surface. Neither real magic nor faux magic interests Annie Mason. Not after it stole her future. She’s only on the island to settle her late father’s estate and, hopefully, reconnect with her long-absent best friend, Beatrice, who fled their dreary lives for a more glamorous one. Yet Crow Island is brimming with temptation, and the biggest one may be her enigmatic new neighbor. Mysterious and alluring, Emmeline Delacroix is a figure shadowed by rumors of witchcraft. And when Annie witnesses a confrontation between Bea and Emmeline at one of the island’s extravagant parties, she is drawn into a glittering, haunted world. A world where the boundaries of wickedness are tested, and the cost of illicit magic might be death. There was so much potential in this story, but the more we discussed it at our book club meeting the more holes we found and the more disappointed I became. I really wanted to love it, but I feel like the story needed more.
80s Ghosts by V.S. Lawrence
This was October’s book for Salem Book Club and we had an awesome turn out and great conversation, but we all found the book to be a little predictable/cliche. The year is 2009, and Chrissy Rodriguez is determined to make her ghost hunting vlog an internet success. She’s only one more failed investigation away from financial ruin and having to move back home. When she receives an email asking her to investigate Merlin High, a school that burned down in the 80s, she is presented with a unique opportunity that could make or break her. As they explore the decaying halls searching for evidence of the paranormal, Chrissy notices that her team is acting a little…off. Everything begins to unravel, blurring the lines between past and present. With her team stretched to its limits, Chrissy realizes that some secrets want to be found. And some of them have even been waiting. It was good for what it was, and it was a super quick read, but I probably won’t be rereading this one. I did enjoy the writing of the “scary” scenes and was actually scared a couple of times.
A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna
I was in the mood for a cozy and whimsical story to kick off my autumnal reading and I am so glad I picked up this book. Sera Swan used to be one of the most powerful witches in Britain. Then she resurrected her great-aunt Jasmine from the (very recently) dead, lost most of her magic, befriended a semi-villainous talking fox, and was exiled from her Guild. Now she (slightly reluctantly and just a bit grumpily) helps her aunt run an enchanted inn in Lancashire, where she deals with her quirky guests’ shenanigans, tries to keep said talking fox in check, and longs for the future that seems lost to her. But then she finds out about an old spell that could hold the key to restoring her power…Enter Luke Larsen, handsome and icy magical historian, who arrives on a dark winter evening and might just know how to unlock the spell’s secrets. Luke has absolutely no interest in getting involved in the madcap goings-on of the inn and is definitely not about to let a certain bewitching innkeeper past his walls, so no one is more surprised than he is when he agrees to help Sera with her spell. Worse, he might actually be thawing. Running an inn, reclaiming lost magic, and staying one step ahead of the watchful Guild is a lot for anyone, but Sera Swan is about to discover that she doesn’t have to do it alone…and that the weird, wonderful family she’s made might be the best magic of all. I loved this story, especially all the great characters, and I look forward to reading other things by Sangu Mandanna soon!
Off With Their Heads by Zoe Hana Mikuta
We read this Korean inspired retelling of Alice in Wonderland for Rainbow Readers and it was really hard for me to get into. In a world where Saints are monsters and Wonderland is the dark forest where they lurk, it’s been five years since young witches and lovers Caro Rabbit and Iccadora Alice Sickle were both sentenced to that forest for a crime they didn’t commit—and four years since they shattered one another’s hearts, each willing to sacrifice the other for a chance at freedom. Now, Caro is a successful royal Saint-harvester, living the high life in the glittering capital and pretending not to know of the twisted monster experiments that her beloved Red Queen hides deep in the bowels of the palace. But for Icca, the memory of Caro’s betrayal has hardened her from timid girl to ruthless hunter. A hunter who will stop at nothing to exact her vengeance: On Caro. On the queen. On the throne itself. But there’s a secret about the Saints the Queen’s been guarding, and a volatile magic at play even more dangerous to Icca and Caro than they are to each other…Lush, terrifying, and uncanny, Zoe Hana Mikuta—author of Gearbreakers and Godslayers —takes a delicate knife straight through the heart of this beloved surrealist fairytale. I think if this book didn’t have any ties to an existing story like Alice in Wonderland it could have been great, but I just couldn’t separate what my preconceived notions from the story and it became distracting and took away from the story instead of adding to it. I enjoyed the world building and the magic system, but it wasn’t what I was expecting. All of the characters are terribly toxic, but we had a really great discussion at our book club meeting. Sometimes I think it is more fun when people don’t like the book because it gives us so much to talk about.
And that’s all she wrote…and by she I mean me. I did it. I finished it…again. Thanks for sticking around and being patient with me. I hope you enjoy my hot takes on these books, and take some time to pick up the ones that strike your fancy!
Until the next chapter,
