Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

Title: Dungeon Crawler Carl (Dungeon Crawler Carl #1)

Author: Matt Dinniman

Publisher: 2021

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 446

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Book Club - More Than 40 Chapters

The apocalypse will be televised!

A man. His ex-girlfriend's cat. A sadistic game show unlike anything in the universe: a dungeon crawl where survival depends on killing your prey in the most entertaining way possible. 

In a flash, every human-erected construction on Earth - from Buckingham Palace to the tiniest of sheds - collapses in a heap, sinking into the ground.

The buildings and all the people inside have all been atomized and transformed into the dungeon: an 18-level labyrinth filled with traps, monsters, and loot. A dungeon so enormous, it circles the entire globe.

Only a few dare venture inside. But once you're in, you can't get out. And what's worse, each level has a time limit. You have but days to find a staircase to the next level down, or it's game over. In this game, it's not about your strength or your dexterity. It's about your followers, your views. Your clout. It's about building an audience and killing those goblins with style. 

You can't just survive here. You gotta survive big.

You gotta fight with vigor, with excitement. You gotta make them stand up and cheer. And if you do have that "it" factor, you may just find yourself with a following. That's the only way to truly survive in this game - with the help of the loot boxes dropped upon you by the generous benefactors watching from across the galaxy.

They call it Dungeon Crawler World. But for Carl, it's anything but a game.

J has been trying to get me to start reading this series for a few months now. I just wasn’t really in the mood for an RPG style narration until now. Once I started, I really couldn’t put this one down. Carl and Princess Doughnut are great protagonists that you can’t help but root for. As they stumble their way through Levels 1 and 2 of the dungeon causing chaos in their wake, I was on pins and needles desperate to see what was around the next corner. I really felt like we were in a video game encountering obstacles and bosses, figuring out puzzles, and attempting to survive just one more hour. Meeting other crawlers added the human element in a decidedly non-human environment. I can’t wait to read (or listen, the audio performance is great) the next book in the series.

Dungeon Crawler Carl

• #1 Dungeon Crawler Carl

• #2 Carl’s Doomsday Scenario

• #3 The Dungeon' Anarchist’s Cookbooks

• #4 The Gate of the Feral Gods

• #5 The Butcher’s Masquerade

• #6 The Eye of the Bedlam Bride

Next up on the TBR pile:

Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters

Title: Underground Airlines

Author: Ben H. Winters

Publisher: Mulholland Books 2016

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 336

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Unread Shelf; 52 Book Club

A young black man calling himself Victor has struck a bargain with federal law enforcement, working as a bounty hunter for the US Marshall Service in exchange for his freedom. He's got plenty of work. In this version of America, slavery continues in four states called "the Hard Four." On the trail of a runaway known as Jackdaw, Victor arrives in Indianapolis knowing that something isn't right -- with the case file, with his work, and with the country itself.

As he works to infiltrate the local cell of a abolitionist movement called the Underground Airlines, tracking Jackdaw through the back rooms of churches, empty parking garages, hotels, and medical offices, Victor believes he's hot on the trail. But his strange, increasingly uncanny pursuit is complicated by a boss who won't reveal the extraordinary stakes of Jackdaw's case, as well as by a heartbreaking young woman and her child -- who may be Victor's salvation.

Victor believes himself to be a good man doing bad work, unwilling to give up the freedom he has worked so hard to earn. But in pursuing Jackdaw, Victor discovers secrets at the core of the country's arrangement with the Hard Four, secrets the government will preserve at any cost.

I was intrigued by this alternative history, but ended up really disappointed in the execution. The main issue is that I am uncertain as to the point of this book. Are we supposed to understand that everyone is terrible? Are we supposed to root for any of the characters? Because I truly don’t. It’s a cluster of unlikeable characters, confusing sequences, and an unsatisfying ending. As an extra note, the narration alternates between straight forward descriptions to a strange bit of stream of consciousness. I did not enjoy the book.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Timeline by Michael Crichton

Title: Timeline

Author: Michael Crichton

Publisher: Alred A. Knopf 1999

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 489

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Book Club - Set in War other than WWI or WWII

In an Arizona desert, a man wanders in a daze, speaking words that make no sense. Within twenty-four hours he is dead, his body swiftly cremated by his only known associates. Halfway around the world, archaeologists make a shocking discovery at a medieval site. Suddenly they are swept off to the headquarters of a secretive multinational corporation that has developed an astounding technology. Now this group is about to get a chance not to study the past but to enter it. And with history opened up to the present, the dead awakened to the living, these men and women will soon find themselves fighting for their very survival—six hundred years ago.

Somehow the Nerdy Bookish Friends group picked two medieval time travel novels back to back. It’s going to make for an interesting discussion I think. I can’t say that really enjoyed either one of the books, but I might have enjoyed Timeline a bit more than Doomsday Book. Like all Crichton novels, this one takes a while to get going, but then we are dumped into pretty decent non-stop action. I was okay with the larger storyline and the intrigue associated with ITC. I was even okay with the “twists” that I saw coming a mile away. My biggest problem with this book were the characters. They were terrible. The only one that I actually like was Marek. The rest are whiny people that I cannot believe are competent professionals. And don’t get me started on the “romance” between Kate and Chris. Terrible! Makes absolutely no sense and really does Kate a disservice as Chris is the whiniest of the bunch. Despite not liking the book, I’m looking forward to discussing with my online book club. We always have great discussions about books!

Next up on the TBR pile:

The First Bright Thing by JR Dawson

Title: The First Bright Thing

Author: JR Dawson

Publisher: Tor Books 2023

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 336

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Book Club - Author with Same Name Town as You

Ringmaster — Rin, to those who know her best — can jump to different moments in time as easily as her wife, Odette, soars from bar to bar on the trapeze. And the circus they lead is a rare home and safe haven for magical misfits and outcasts, known as Sparks.

With the world still reeling from World War I, Rin and her troupe — the Circus of the Fantasticals — travel the midwest, offering a single night of enchantment and respite to all who step into their Big Top.

But threats come at Rin from all sides. The future holds an impending war that the Sparks can see barrelling toward their show and everyone in it. And Rin's past creeps closer every day, a malevolent shadow she can’t fully escape.

It takes the form of another circus, with tents as black as midnight and a ringmaster who rules over his troupe with a dangerous power. Rin's circus has something he wants, and he won't stop until it's his.

A friend at the bookish retreat recommended this new novel from an Omaha author. I finally got it from the library and dove straight in. I adored the world created in this fantasy novel. Apparently, I really enjoy fantasy novels set in circuses… This one was populated by an interesting array of circus inhabitants. We get to see how they have all created a family in the midst of a strange and changing world. I loved the idea of the Sparks and their various abilities. We get to see how some have used their powers for good while others have used their powers to hurt others. I loved connecting all the dots between timelines and characters. I wasn’t surprised by the big twist, but felt that it was an earned reveal. The last few chapters are really nonstop action. Thankfully we get a satisfying conclusion to the storyline. Such a great debut! I will have to see what the author writes next.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang

Title: Beautiful Country

Author: Qian Julie Wang

Publisher: Doubleday 2021

Genre: Memoir

Pages: 320

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Book Club - Refugee

In Chinese, the word for America, Mei Guo, translates directly to “beautiful country.” Yet when seven-year-old Qian arrives in New York City in 1994 full of curiosity, she is overwhelmed by crushing fear and scarcity. In China, Qian’s parents were professors; in America, her family is “illegal” and it will require all the determination and small joys they can muster to survive.

In Chinatown, Qian’s parents labor in sweatshops. Instead of laughing at her jokes, they fight constantly, taking out the stress of their new life on one another. Shunned by her classmates and teachers for her limited English, Qian takes refuge in the library and masters the language through books, coming to think of The Berenstain Bears as her first American friends. And where there is delight to be found, Qian relishes it: her first bite of gloriously greasy pizza, weekly “shopping days,” when Qian finds small treasures in the trash lining Brooklyn’s streets, and a magical Christmas visit to Rockefeller Center—confirmation that the New York City she saw in movies does exist after all.

But then Qian’s headstrong Ma Ma collapses, revealing an illness that she has kept secret for months for fear of the cost and scrutiny of a doctor’s visit. As Ba Ba retreats further inward, Qian has little to hold onto beyond his constant refrain: Whatever happens, say that you were born here, that you’ve always lived here.

Our August choice for book club and it just wasn’t my thing. Very rarely do I really enjoy a memoir/autobiography. They often fall a little flat for me and sometimes become very repetitive. This one started out interesting highlighting a life experience that is very different from my own. But… I found that Wang does not do enough self-reflection and commentary about her early life in America. We see many family members making terrible choices without commentary. Wide swathes of peoples are painted with a large brush, exactly what Wang argues is her own experience. I wanted to see a bit of self-reflection with her own biases and prejudices. We don’t get too much introspection. And then the book just ends. The last chapter does a bit of fast-forwarding to her later life, but it just felt unfinished in my mind.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

Title: The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

Author: Sandu Mandanna

Publisher: Berkley 2022

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 318

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Book Club - Books on the Cover; Romanceopoly - Journey’s End

As one of the few witches in Britain, Mika Moon knows she has to hide her magic, keep her head down, and stay away from other witches so their powers don’t mingle and draw attention. And as an orphan who lost her parents at a young age and was raised by strangers, she’s used to being alone and she follows the rules...with one exception: an online account, where she posts videos "pretending" to be a witch. She thinks no one will take it seriously.
 
But someone does. An unexpected message arrives, begging her to travel to the remote and mysterious Nowhere House to teach three young witches how to control their magic. It breaks all of the rules, but Mika goes anyway, and is immediately tangled up in the lives and secrets of not only her three charges, but also an absent archaeologist, a retired actor, two long-suffering caretakers, and…Jamie. The handsome and prickly librarian of Nowhere House would do anything to protect the children, and as far as he’s concerned, a stranger like Mika is a threat. An irritatingly appealing threat.
 
As Mika begins to find her place at Nowhere House, the thought of belonging somewhere begins to feel like a real possibility. But magic isn't the only danger in the world, and when peril comes knocking at their door, Mika will need to decide whether to risk everything to protect a found family she didn’t know she was looking for....

Our book club pick for August and it was a delightfully warm hug. We enter into a world full of secret witches and oddball characters all looking for a home. Thankfully they find their home, albeit after a few trials and some periods of self-doubt. I fell for every single one of the characters but I think Rosetta was my favorite. All the characters created their own space and place within the family. We get to see how they all fit together into a beautiful tapestry. I’m looking forward to reading the next book from Mandanna.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Silent Came the Monster by Amy Hill Hearth

Title: Silent Came the Monster

Author: Amy Hill Hearth

Publisher: Blackstone 2023

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 350

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Book Club - Related to the Word “Monster”

“Sharks are as timid as rabbits,” says a superintendent of the Coast Guard, dismissing the possibility that a shark could be the culprit in an unprecedented fatal attack at the Jersey Shore. It’s July, and swimming in the sea is a popular new pastime, but people up and down the East Coast are shocked and mystified by the swimmer’s death. A prominent surgeon at the shore, Dr. Edwin Halsey is the one who examines the victim, and the only one who believes the perpetrator was a shark—and that it will strike again.

With the public and the authorities—and even those who witnessed the attacks—so stubbornly disbelieving, Dr. Halsey finds himself fighting widespread confusion, conspiracy theories, and outright denial. Seeking the input of commercial fisherman, he soon learns they have long been concerned about a creature they call the Beast. The Lenape, one of the tribes native to the area, have their own beliefs about this creature, but can Dr. Halsey convince the rest of the world before it’s too late?

The story of the 1916 Jersey Shore shark changed the way Americans think of the seashore, reminding us once again that nature plays by its own rules.

Another recommendation from my favorite book podcast. I was intrigued by the fictionalized account of a very true horror story. This is a very horrifying story full of people who aren’t all real, but feel very real. We are put back into a bygone era. At times, the writing was a bit stilted and the characters were hard to understand. But that’s all a part of fully inhabiting the time period and the story. Overall, I enjoyed the story. I would have liked a bit more to the author’s note, but that’s a minor quibble.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Immortality by Dana Schwartz

Title: Immortality

Author: Dana Schwartz

Publisher: Wednesday Books 2023

Genre: YA Horror

Pages: 389

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Books Club - Includes a Funeral

Hazel Sinnett is alone and half-convinced the events of the year before—the immortality, Beecham’s vial—were a figment of her imagination. She doesn’t even know if Jack is alive or dead. All she can really do now is treat patients and maintain Hawthornden Castle as it starts to decay around her.

When saving a life leads to her arrest, Hazel seems doomed to rot in prison until a message intervenes: Hazel has been specifically requested to be the personal physician of Princess Charlotte, the sickly granddaughter of King George III. Soon Hazel is dragged into the glamor and romance of a court where everyone has something to hide, especially the enigmatic, brilliant members of a social club known as the Companions to the Death.

As Hazel’s work entangles her more and more with the British court, she realizes that her own future as a surgeon isn't the only thing at stake for her. Malicious forces are at work in the monarchy, and Hazel may be the only one capable of setting things right.

A successful and satisfying follow up to Anatomy. I was very annoyed by the cliffhanger at the end of the first book, but thankfully, this volume closes that storyline. We re-encounter Hazel continuing her work alone in her family’s house in Edinburgh. This story line is all fine and good, but the book finally picks up once Hazel is transported to London and meets Princess Charlotte. I loved the royal intrigue aspect of the story and Hazel’s relationships with Charlotte and Eliza. We don’t get quite as much medical talk in this one as the last, but it’s still there. This book did feel like a bit more of a stretch by including so many real characters into the plot line. Most of it was fine, but there were a few parts that I was a bit incredulous by the actions taken by some characters. As such, I still have issues with the supernatural aspects of this duology. A nice quick read, but it’s not going to make my top 10 of the year.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Love Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

Title: Love, Theoretically

Author: Ali Hazelwood

Publisher: Berkley 2023

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Pages: 389

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Book Club - Enemies to Lovers

Spice Rating: 5

The many lives of theoretical physicist Elsie Hannaway have finally caught up with her. By day, she’s an adjunct professor, toiling away at grading labs and teaching thermodynamics in the hopes of landing tenure. By other day, Elsie makes up for her non-existent paycheck by offering her services as a fake girlfriend, tapping into her expertly honed people-pleasing skills to embody whichever version of herself the client needs.
 
Honestly, it’s a pretty sweet gig—until her carefully constructed Elsie-verse comes crashing down. Because Jack Smith, the annoyingly attractive and arrogant older brother of her favorite client, turns out to be the cold-hearted experimental physicist who ruined her mentor’s career and undermined the reputation of theorists everywhere. And he’s the same Jack Smith who rules over the physics department at MIT, standing right between Elsie and her dream job.
 
Elsie is prepared for an all-out war of scholarly sabotage but…those long, penetrating looks? Not having to be anything other than her true self when she’s with him? Will falling into an experimentalist’s orbit finally tempt her to put her most guarded theories on love into practice?

I absolutely adored The Love Hypothesis and hoped that this one would be another winner. But, I apparently am a bit over Hazelwood’s romances. I was very annoyed with Elsie throughout most of the book. She was so oblivious to her issues that I wanted to shake her. I just really wanted to see more growth and acknowledgment throughout the book. The romance with Jack felt very one-sided. I loved Jack, but his feelings and issues were completely pushed to the back because of Elsie. I wanted more of a partnership in the romance. And I’m coming to realize that I don’t like Hazelwood’s sex scenes. They are very graphic, but not really well written and steamy enough for me. I keep reading her books and coming away with wanting more.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Starship Titanic by Douglas Adams and Terry Jones

Title: Starships Titanic

Author: Douglas Adams and Terry Jones

Publisher: Harmony 1997

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 246

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer Reading Challenge; 52 Books Club

In this thoroughly satisfying and completely disorienting novel based on a story line by Douglas Adams (author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), Terry Jones recounts an unforgettable tale of intergalactic travel and mishap. The saga of "the ship that cannot possibly go wrong" sparkles with wit, danger, and confusion that will keep readers guessing which reality they are in and how, on earth, to find their way out again.

A random pic from our server library for this week. J has been badgering me to read this for years now and I figured why not? To be clear, this is based on a Douglas Adams story that he didn’t complete before his death. Afterward, Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame) finished the story and recorded the audiobook. The Douglas Adams parts, full of asides and strange coincidences were great. The Terry Jones parts, I assume the weird relationships and sex talk, were not as great. If I could have reworked a few scenes, I would have really loved this story. As it stands, it’s a mostly fun space romp for fans of Adams and his quirky sense of humor.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Icebreaker by Hannah Grace

Title: Icebreaker

Author: Hannah Grace

Publisher: Atria Books 2022

Genre: Romance

Pages: 447

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Book Club - Starts with “I”

Spice Rating: 5

Anastasia Allen has worked her entire life for a shot at Team USA. It looks like everything is going according to plan when she gets a full scholarship to the University of California, Maple Hills and lands a place on their competitive figure skating team.

Nothing will stand in her way, not even the captain of the hockey team, Nate Hawkins.

Nate’s focus as team captain is on keeping his team on the ice. Which is tricky when a facilities mishap means they are forced to share a rink with the figure skating team—including Anastasia, who clearly can’t stand him.

But when Anastasia’s skating partner faces an uncertain future, she may have to look to Nate to take her shot.

Sparks fly, but Anastasia isn’t worried…because she could never like a hockey player, right?

Why did I pick this one up? Oh yeah, the Bookstagram got me on this one. I should have known that I wasn’t going to lovely a college romance book between a prickly figure skater and heart-of-gold hockey player. I could have gotten past that if the book had had substance to it. But alas, this is just full of parties, drama, and hookups. I wasn’t a fan of how their relationship progressed (seriously, hookups in the back of Ubers? no thank you, I am too old for that shit). I wasn’t a fan of how Anastasia and Ryan (her former FWB) continued on even after he supposed started to exclusively date another woman. I wasn’t a fan of how shallow all the characters seemed. I just need to scratch this series off my list of future reads. Not a fan.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Venmo by Cherie Dimaline

Title: VenCo

Author: Cherie Dimaline

Publisher: William Morrow 2023

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 400

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Book Club - Typographic Cover

Métis millennial Lucky St. James is barely hanging on when she learns she’ll be evicted from the tiny Toronto apartment she shares with her cantankerous but loving grandmother Stella. But then one night, something strange and irresistible calls out to Lucky. She burrows through a wall to find a tarnished silver spoon, humming with otherworldly energy, etched with a crooked-nosed witch and the word SALEM.

Lucky is familiar with the magic of her indigenous ancestors, but she has no idea that the spoon connects her to a teeming network of witches across North America who have anxiously awaited her discovery.

Enter VenCo, a front company fueled by vast resources of dark money (its name is an anagram of “coven.”) VenCo’s witches hide in plain sight wherever women gather: Tupperware parties, Mommy & Me classes, suburban book clubs. Since colonial times, they have awaited the moment the seven spoons will come together and ignite a new era, returning women to their rightful power.

But as reckoning approaches, a very powerful adversary is stalking their every move. He’s Jay Christos, a roguish and deadly witch-hunter as old as witchcraft itself.

To find the last spoon, Lucky and Stella embark on a rollicking and dangerous road trip to the darkly magical city of New Orleans, where the final showdown will determine whether VenCo will usher in a new beginning…or remain underground forever.

Our retreat book selection and I’m so excited that I really enjoyed it. Last year’s choice wasn’t a huge hit and the choice the year before was terrible. I picked a good one this year! It took me a few chapters to get into the story, but once Lucky meets the rest of the coven, I was complete drawn in. I really started to connect to every single one of the witches and of course was cheering for their success the entire way through. This is the type of feminist rage book that I love! We are not beating down all men or other women. Instead, we are uplifting women and their choices. We get to see how each of the women in the coven connects to their own power and reaches out to form friendships and familial ties. The book is full of action and adventure but also some great quiet moments between characters.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce

Title: Miss Benson’s Beetle

Author: Rachel Joyce

Publisher: Dial Press 2020

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 352

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Book Club - Alliterative Title

She’s going too far to go it alone.
 
It is 1950. London is still reeling from World War II, and Margery Benson, a schoolteacher and spinster, is trying to get through life, surviving on scraps. One day, she reaches her breaking point, abandoning her job and small existence to set out on an expedition to the other side of the world in search of her childhood obsession: an insect that may or may not exist—the golden beetle of New Caledonia. When she advertises for an assistant to accompany her, the woman she ends up with is the last person she had in mind. Fun-loving Enid Pretty in her tight-fitting pink suit and pom-pom sandals seems to attract trouble wherever she goes. But together these two British women find themselves drawn into a cross-ocean adventure that exceeds all expectations and delivers something neither of them expected to find: the transformative power of friendship.

I picked this one up on a recommendation from a Lit Society friend. She had said that this was a delightful friendship between two unusual women. I had hoped that this book would be a delightful little gem of a. book and one that I could recommend to a friend. I started reading and was immediately rooting for Margery and her escape from the drudgery of life. As soon as she meets Enid, the story kicks into high gear and it’s one ridiculous episode after another. Enid is a hard character to like, but she is interesting. The book sped along until everything eventually came together. I loved how we get to see these two women find their strength both individually and together. I took a few issues with some of the plot points, but overall I really enjoyed this book.

Next up on the TBR pile:

A Tempest at Sea by Sherry Thomas

Title: A Tempest at Sea (Lady Sherlock #7)

Author: Sherry Thomas

Publisher: Berkley 2023

Genre: Mystery

Pages: 353

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Book Club - Fashionable Character

After feigning her own death in Cornwall to escape from Moriarty’s perilous attention, Charlotte Holmes goes into hiding. But then she receives a tempting offer: Find a dossier the crown is desperately seeking, and she might be able to go back to a normal life.
 
Her search leads her aboard the RMS Provence. But on the night Charlotte makes her move to retrieve the dossier, in the midst of a terrifying storm in the Bay of Biscay, a brutal murder takes place on the ship.
 
Instead of solving the crime, as she is accustomed to doing, Charlotte must take care not to be embroiled in this investigation, lest it become known to those who harbor ill intentions that Sherlock Holmes is abroad and still very much alive.

Absolutely loved this locked-room style murder mystery. We get to come back to all our favorite characters all aboard a sea voyage. Thomas brings all of our characters together for a variety of reasons and then of course, we get a murder. You knew it was coming. I was just waiting for the entire first third of the book just waiting to see who would die. From there, we mainly follow Lord Ingram has he assists the Inspector in the mystery. The volume felt a little different in that we have shifted from Charlotte to Ash as the main character the reader follows. And the entire locked room idea felt very Agatha Christie like. But I loved every page of it. This felt like a fresh murder mystery instead of just a Sherlock Holmes story. My favorite parts were the interactions between Ash and Charlotte. I have been rooting for them since the beginning and we finally get to see their feelings towards each other expressed out loud. Hallelujah! I cannot wait to see where this series goes next.

Lady Sherlock

• #1 A Study in Scarlet Women

• #2 A Conspiracy in Belgravia

• #3 The Hollow of Fear

• #4 The Art of Theft

• #5 Murder on Cold Street

• #6 Miss Moriarty, I Presume?

• #7 A Tempest at Sea

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Siren of Sussex by Mimi Matthews

Title: The Siren of Sussex (Belles of London #1)

Author: Mimi Matthews

Publisher: Berkley 2022

Genre: Historical Romance

Pages: 400

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Book Club - City or Country in Title; Romanceopoly - Past Eaves (Read the historical romance that catches your interest)

Spice Rating: 2

Evelyn Maltravers understands exactly how little she's worth on the marriage mart. As an incurable bluestocking from a family tumbling swiftly toward ruin, she knows she'll never make a match in a ballroom. Her only hope is to distinguish herself by making the biggest splash in the one sphere she excels: on horseback. In haute couture. But to truly capture London's attention she'll need a habit-maker who's not afraid to take risks with his designs—and with his heart.

Half-Indian tailor Ahmad Malik has always had a talent for making women beautiful, inching his way toward recognition by designing riding habits for Rotten Row's infamous Pretty Horsebreakers—but no one compares to Evelyn. Her unbridled spirit enchants him, awakening a depth of feeling he never thought possible.

But pushing boundaries comes at a cost and not everyone is pleased to welcome Evelyn and Ahmad into fashionable society. With obstacles spanning between them, the indomitable pair must decide which hurdles they can jump and what matters most: making their mark or following their hearts?

I went into this book expecting a story like The Heiress Gets a Duke or Bringing Down the Duke. Unfortunately, we get a very staid book that dragged throughout the entire story veering off onto tangents about the exact details of habit making and horse breeding. Initially I was excited about the main characters and their individual back stories. But somehow, the characters never really connected to me or to each other. Weirdly, I felt like the was a second book in the series. Ahmad’s constant dropping of hints at an entire backstory was teasing. I thought I had accidentally picked up a second in a series book instead of a first. But alas, I was just annoyed about this great backstory that we never got to really hear about. I could have dealt with most of this, but then, we get absolutely no steamy scenes. Seriously, this was a 2 on my scale. Not even a fade to black for us. Not a series that I want to continue.

Belles of London

• #1 The Siren of Sussex

• #2 The Belle of Belgrave Square

• #3 The Lily of Legate Hill

• #4 The Muse of Maiden Lane

Next up on the TBR pile:

A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher

Title: A House with Good Bones

Author: T. Kingfisher

Publisher: Tor Nightfire 2023

Genre: Horror

Pages: 247

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Book Club - With a Dedication

"Mom seems off."

Her brother's words echo in Sam Montgomery's ear as she turns onto the quiet North Carolina street where their mother lives alone.

She brushes the thought away as she climbs the front steps. Sam's excited for this rare extended visit, and looking forward to nights with just the two of them, drinking boxed wine, watching murder mystery shows, and guessing who the killer is long before the characters figure it out.

But stepping inside, she quickly realizes home isn’t what it used to be. Gone is the warm, cluttered charm her mom is known for; now the walls are painted a sterile white. Her mom jumps at the smallest noises and looks over her shoulder even when she’s the only person in the room. And when Sam steps out back to clear her head, she finds a jar of teeth hidden beneath the magazine-worthy rose bushes, and vultures are circling the garden from above.

To find out what’s got her mom so frightened in her own home, Sam will go digging for the truth. But some secrets are better left buried.

Another very creepy horror story from Kingfisher that I absolutely adored. We started with a typically story about family. But pretty quickly we start to realize that something isn’t quite right in this house. The book follows along with quiet dread for awhile before the last third of the book kicks the horror into high gear. I loved Sam’s narration of her life and her memories of childhood. Once we get to the horror part, I was truly horrified. The reveal at the kitchen table made me gasp. And from there, it’s nonstop horror until the end. Oh so good! I am completely a Kingfisher convert and must read everything she has written.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill

Title: The Crane Husband

Author: Kelly Barnhill

Publisher: Tordotcom 2023

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 120

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Spring TBR; 52 Book Club - Book starts with “the”

“Mothers fly away like migrating birds. This is why farmers have daughters.”

A fifteen-year-old teenager is the backbone of her small Midwestern family, budgeting the household finances and raising her younger brother while her mom, a talented artist, weaves beautiful tapestries. For six years, it’s been just the three of them—her mom has brought home guests at times, but none have ever stayed.

Yet when her mom brings home a six-foot tall crane with a menacing air, the girl is powerless to prevent her mom letting the intruder into her heart, and her children’s lives. Utterly enchanted and numb to his sharp edges, her mom abandons the world around her to weave the masterpiece the crane demands.

I randomly picked this one up from the New Releases shelf at the library. And I was so glad that I did. This is a very strange slim novella based on a reimagining of a classic folklore story. Right away we are dropped into a world that seems just like our own except that our narrator’s mother has brought home a crane to be their new Father. Very strange indeed. Over the next 100 pages, we slowly have to come to terms with the fact that there’s a crane/man living in the house disrupting the usual goings on in the family. Ultimately this a very sad story of a broken family.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher

Title: The Hollow Places

Author: T. Kingfisher

Publisher: Gallery / Saga 2020

Genre: Horro

Pages: 341

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Books - Sends You Down a Rabbit Hole

Pray they are hungry.

Kara finds the words in the mysterious bunker that she’s discovered behind a hole in the wall of her uncle’s house. Freshly divorced and living back at home, Kara now becomes obsessed with these cryptic words and starts exploring this peculiar area—only to discover that it holds portals to countless alternate realities. But these places are haunted by creatures that seem to hear thoughts…and the more one fears them, the stronger they become.

A deliciously creepy and strange horror novel was just what I needed this week. Right away, we get a great description for the Museum of Oddities that really sets the stage for the story. And then Kara finds a hole and things get very strange. I was seriously having some weird dreams while reading this book. Definitely a sign that I’m really enjoying the book and it’s very scary. I can still picture Kara and Simon’s encounter with Sturdivant. So very very creepy! This book gave me all the Annihilation vibes that I was looking for. And now I want to read everything Kingfisher has every written. I’m craving all the horror.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Getaway by Lamar Giles

Title: The Getaway

Author: Lamar Giles

Publisher: Scholastic Press 2022

Genre: YA Thriller

Pages: 400

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Book Club - Starts with “G”

Jay is living his best life at Karloff Country, one of the world’s most famous resorts. He’s got his family, his crew, and an incredible after-school job at the property’s main theme park. Life isn’t so great for the rest of the world, but when people come here to vacation, it’s to get away from all that.

As things outside get worse, trouble starts seeping into Karloff. First, Jay’s friend Connie and her family disappear in the middle of the night and no one will talk about it. Then the richest and most powerful families start arriving, only... they aren’t leaving. Unknown to the employees, the resort has been selling shares in an end-of-the-world oasis. The best of the best at the end of days. And in order to deliver the top-notch customer service the wealthy clientele paid for, the employees will be at their total beck and call.

Whether they like it or not.

Yet Karloff Country didn’t count on Jay and his crew--and just how far they’ll go to find out the truth and save themselves. But what’s more dangerous: the monster you know in your home or the unknown nightmare outside the walls?

Another recommendation from my favorite book podcast. I was a bit leery, but just jumped into this one immediately without any really knowledge of the book. This is a ride. Not one that is for everyone, but such a ride. The book really gets into a lot of very serious topics all while setting the story in a future setting. Do not read if very affected by violence. I have to admit that there were even a few scenes that I struggled to get through due to the violence depicted. I really felt for the four main characters. Sure, they each had flaws, but that’s what made them real characters. I wish that the story would have spent a little more focused on the main characters and how they dealt with the interpersonal relationships. Still this was a force of a book.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Drift by C.J. Tudor

Title: The Drift

Author: C.J. Tudor

Publisher: Ballantine Books 2023

Genre: Thriller

Pages: 340

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Book Club - Published in 2013

Hannah awakens to carnage, all mangled metal and shattered glass. Evacuated from a secluded boarding school during a snowstorm, her coach careered off the road, trapping her with a handful of survivors. They’ll need to work together to escape—with their sanity and secrets intact.

Meg awakens to a gentle rocking. She’s in a cable car stranded high above snowy mountains, with five strangers and no memory of how they got on board. They are heading to a place known only as “The Retreat,” but as the temperature drops and tensions mount, Meg realizes they may not all make it there alive.

Carter is gazing out the window of an isolated ski chalet that he and his companions call home. As their generator begins to waver in the storm, something hiding in the chalet’s depths threatens to escape, and their fragile bonds will be tested when the power finally fails—for good.

The imminent dangers faced by Hannah, Meg, and Carter are each one part of the puzzle. Lurking in their shadows is an even greater danger—one with the power to consume all of humanity.

What an absolute ride! Usually books billed as thrillers really fall flat for me. They just lack the oomph that I’m looking for or the characters are so incredibly unlikeable that I’m wishing all of them would get murdered. This one I went in blind except for a recommendation from my favorite podcast. The host purposely left the summary mostly hidden so as not to spoil the reveals and that’s exactly the way to go with this one. I dove in and immediately started piecing the big connections and storyline together. We are plopped right into the middle of a bus crash, a stalled ski lift gondola, and a mysterious locked “retreat.” From there, we have to understand exactly what is going on in the outside world, who each of the characters actually are, and how they intend to survive the situation and the elements. I got so wrapped up into the story that I ended up finishing this book in one day. I was completely along for the ride. Once the big reveals happen, I actually gasped out loud (I hardly ever do that.) It was just so good! A great book to end my work on.

Next up on the TBR pile: