The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

Title: The Snow Child

Author: Eowyn Ivey

Publisher: Reagan Arthur 2012

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 423

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Decades - 1920s; In Case You Missed It - 2012

Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart -- he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season's first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone -- but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees.

This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who could have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in this beautiful, violent place things are rarely as they appear, and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them.

Our Nerdy Bookish Friends selection for the month and it’s been on my TBR shelf for years. I’m glad that we decided to read it, but ended up being fairly disappointed in the book. I absolutely loved the writing of this book. Ivey manages to make the bleak landscape and the wilderness sound beautiful. I found myself lost in all nature descriptions. They are gorgeous and kept me engaged in the book. But that’s where my enjoyment ends. I wanted to love the storyline and I did enjoy the Russian fairy tale angle. Unfortunately, the characters and the storyline do not make much sense to me. Mabel and Jack are extremely unlikeable throughout the book and I never truly connected to them. They seemed to show growth and then would lose all growth in the next chapter. I had lots of thoughts about where the plot was going throughout most of the book and then the last section happens and nothing made sense. I don’t want to give it away, but the end of the book makes no sense to me at all. I just couldn’t get over the lack of logic.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Damaged Goods by Talia Hibbert

Title: Damaged Goods (Ravenswood #1.5)

Author: Talia Hibbert

Publisher: Nixon House 2018

Genre: Romance

Pages: 181

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: COYER

Spice Meter: 5

Second chances shouldn’t feel so sinful.

Laura Burne‘s husband is a monster, her diamond ring is a trap, and her pregnancy is the push she needs to finally escape. She runs away seeking safety… and finds Samir Bianchi, her long-lost teenage sweetheart.

With his kind eyes and dirty smile, Samir’s still hot as hell—and he still treats Laura like a goddess, baby bump and all. The wild boy she spent one magical summer with is every inch a man, and he’s more than ready to care for her tiny family.

But Laura’s been keeping a secret Samir might never forgive. When she finally confesses, will he remain by her side? Or is this fairytale ending too good to be true?

CW: Domestic Violence (in past, but discussed on the page)

And here we get Laura’s story as touched on very briefly in the previous book. I really wanted to love this story of empowerment and opening up to love, but ultimate, I didn’t love it. Laura is a prickly character that I really wished had sought out therapy instead of solitude. And I must say that pregnancy storylines are really not my favorite. They’re fine, but I have lots of mixed feelings about them. Samir is great and I really fell for him over the course of the novella. But their pairing just didn’t work for me. Oh well. They can’t all be winners.

Ravenswood

• #1 A Girl Like Her

• #1.5 Damaged Goods

• #2 Untouchable

• #3 That Kind of Guy

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Magician by Rebecca Serle

Title: The Magician

Author: Rebecca Serle

Publisher: Amazon 2023

Genre: Speculative Fiction

Pages: 25

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Book Club.- Magical Realism

A mother-to-be is awed by her own mother’s chaotic and unknowable approach to life and its natural mysteries in a smart, witty, and whimsical story by the New York Times bestselling author of One Italian Summer.

Growing up with an eccentric but loving mother who levitates for a living, Charlie always wondered, How does she do it? Defying gravity is no easy trick. Neither is motherhood. Now that her mother is leaving New York for bigger skies in New Mexico, it’s a new stage in life for both of them in an ever-evolving relationship that reveals the true magic of being a mother.

I was not a fan of the previous Serle book that I had read, but was intrigued by the summary of this one. Should have listened to my gut reaction and left this one unborrowed. Despite the magical realism, this is really a story of a mother and daughter going their separate ways. I didn’t love the ending and the (in my opinion) shoe-horned in magic. It just didn’t do it for me.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Under Her Skin by Adriana Anders

Title: Under Her Skin

Author: Adriana Anders

Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca 2017

Genre: Romance

Pages: 344

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: She Reads Romance - Small Town Romance; Library Love

Spice Meter: 5

His scarred hands are the gentlest I've ever known. If only life were a fairy tale where Beauty got to keep her Beast…

Every morning I wake up and remind myself I am not my past, but beneath my drab clothing hides a secret—proof of the abuse I suffered at the hands of my possessive ex, tattooed on my skin in a lurid reminder of everything I've survived. I'm alone and in hiding, trying to rebuild some semblance of a normal life. I didn't expect healing to come in the form of a rough ex-con whose rage drives him in ways I'll never understand.

Ivan's scars are on the inside—a wounded soul like me. But day by day, this gentle giant proves to me that there are second chances in life, and he deserves them as much as I do. And maybe finding each other will finally allow us to pick up our broken pieces and make something beautiful and new…

CW: Sexual and Domestic Violence (before the book begins, but discussed in detail)

This was one of the books that was on a list of older protagonists. I wanted to find an older protagonist for my book club pick. This one shuffled down the pile and I’m glad it didn’t. I ended up not loving this book very much. Sure we get an older protagonist, but it’s one that’s been on the receiving amount of a shocking amount of domestic and sexual violence. I really had to take some breaks in reading this book and even skimmed a few pages that detailed the violence. It’s a okay story with okay characters, but ultimately, I came to the end of the book hoping that Uma went to therapy instead of jumping into bed with Ivan. Seriously, consensual sex does not “fix” past trauma. I was very conflicted by the ending HEA and really wished that this had taken a much more empowering turn than it did. And the revelations from the neighbor really threw me. I do like black humor, but this seemed to be more a case of people not taking situations seriously.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

Title: The Bear and the Nightingale (Winternight #1)

Author: Katherine Arden

Publisher: Del Rey 2017

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 319

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: COYER; In Case You Missed It - 2017

Winter lasts most of the year at the edge of the Russian wilderness, and in the long nights, Vasilisa and her siblings love to gather by the fire to listen to their nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, Vasya loves the story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon. Wise Russians fear him, for he claims unwary souls, and they honor the spirits that protect their homes from evil.

Then Vasya’s widowed father brings home a new wife from Moscow. Fiercely devout, Vasya’s stepmother forbids her family from honoring their household spirits, but Vasya fears what this may bring. And indeed, misfortune begins to stalk the village.

But Vasya’s stepmother only grows harsher, determined to remake the village to her liking and to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for marriage or a convent. As the village’s defenses weaken and evil from the forest creeps nearer, Vasilisa must call upon dangerous gifts she has long concealed—to protect her family from a threat sprung to life from her nurse’s most frightening tales.

Plodding. That’s the one word that comes to mind in attempting a review of this book. I just couldn’t seem to stay engaged in the story or the characters. Most of the characters are highly unlikeable. It doesn’t help that we really don’t get to see much of them except of glimpses through Vasya. The main character isn’t even that interesting. Most of the story is things happening to her, not her doing things. And for that, I was just not that interested in the story at all. I do like a good Russian folk tale redone, but this one was too slow and not engaging enough to make me want to read the rest of the series.

Winternight

• #1 The Bear and the Nightingale

• #2 The Girl in the Tower

• #3 The Winter of the Witch

Next up on the TBR pile:

Share Your Stuff, I'll Go First by Laura Tremaine

Title: Share Your Stuff, I’ll Go First: 10 Questions to Take Your Friendships to the Next Level

Author: Laura Tremaine

Publisher: Zondervan 2021

Genre: Nonfiction

Pages: 224

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Unread Shelf; Nonfiction Reader

In spite of the hyper-connected culture we live in today, women still feel shamed for oversharing and being publicly vulnerable. And no matter how many friends we seem to have, many of us are still desperately lonely.

Laura Tremaine, blogger and podcaster behind 10 Things To Tell You, says it's time for something better. Openness and vulnerability are the foundation for human growth and healthy relationships, and it all starts when we share our stuff, the nitty-gritty daily details about ourselves with others. Laura has led the way in her personal life with her popular blog and podcast, and now with lighthearted self-awareness, a sensitivity to the important things in life, and compelling storytelling, Laura gives you the tools to build and deepen the conversations happening in your life.

Laura's stories about her childhood, her complicated shifts in faith and friendships, and her marriage to a Hollywood movie director will prompt you to identify the beautiful narrative and pivotal milestones of your own life. Each chapter offers intriguing and reflective questions that will reveal unique details and stories you've never thought to tell and will guide you into cultivating the authentic connection with others that only comes from sharing yourself.

This book has been sitting on my shelf for years now after reading rave reviews from my podcast community. I finally dove into this one and just felt very meh about it throughout. There’s some good questions and advice in here, but like in most self-help books, the text goes on and on. I kept getting bogged down in the repetitions and multiple scenarios detailed. I just couldn’t find myself caring much at all. Oh well. One less book on my Unread Shelf.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Stopover by TL Swan

Title: The Stopover (Miles High Club #1)

Author: TL Swan

Publisher: Montlake Romance 2019

Genre: Romance

Pages: 481

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

I was upgraded to first class on a flight from London to New York. The food, champagne, and service were impeccable. The blue-eyed man sitting next to me, even better. He was suave and intelligent. We talked and laughed, and something clicked. Fate took over and the plane was grounded, and we had an unexpected stopover for the night. With no plans, we made our own. We danced and laughed our way around Boston and had a night of crazy passion that no woman would ever forget. That was twelve months ago, and I haven’t heard from him—until today. I started a new job and met the CEO. You can imagine my surprise to see those naughty blue eyes dance with delight when he saw me across the mahogany desk. But I’m not that carefree girl anymore. My life has changed, I have responsibilities. I just got an email. He wants to see me in his office for a private meeting at 8:00 a.m. Naughty blue eyes have no place in the workplace. What kind of private meeting does he have in mind?

I picked this one up as a contender for Dirty Book Month, but I realized that I just couldn’t handle the drama within the storyline. Jameson was much too much an arrogant alpha male for me to root for him. I couldn’t believe some of the things that he did to and around Emily. She was way too immature most of the story. I was very annoyed by her constant whining and need to argue with Jameson. In the end, I didn’t feel like the characters actually resolved any of their fundamental differences. Their big problems were just swept under the rug. I was much too stressed out after reading this story. Not my cup of tea at all.

Miles High Club

• #1 The Stopover

• #2 The Takeover

• #3 The Casanova

• #4 The Do-Over

Next up on the TBR pile:

Miss Kane's Christmas by Caroline Mickelson

Title: Miss Kane’s Christmas (Christmas Central #1)

Author: Caroline Mickelson

Publisher: Bon Accord Press 2012

Genre: Holiday Romance

Pages: 154

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

Spice Meter: 1

With Christmas only three days away, Carol Claus agrees to her father’s request that she leave the North Pole on a mission to help save Christmas. Joining single father Ben Hanson and his children for the holidays seems an easy enough task until Santa informs her that Ben is the man behind the disturbing new book ‘Beyond Bah Humbug: Why Lying to Your Children about Santa Claus is a Bad Idea’. Posing as Miss Kane, the children’s new nanny, Carol pulls out all the stops to show Ben how fun Christmas can be, all the while struggling to understand how one man could hate the holidays so much. How could she, Santa’s only daughter, be so attracted to a man who refuses to believe her father exists? **Please note - this book was formerly titled 'Carol's Christmas'.

Cute little Christmas romance, but I must say that this one was just a little too cutesy for my tastes. We didn’t get enough setup and exploration of the characters for me to really love this one. Carol is fine, but she was much too much of a 2D character. Fine for an afternoon’s reading, but that’s it.

Christmas Central

• #1 Miss Kane’s Christmas

• #2 Mrs. Saint Nick

• #3 The Return of Kris Kringle

• #4 The North Pole Prize

• #5 The Christmas Makeover

• #6 Eve’s Christmas Wedding

• #7 A Very Marisol Christmas

Next up on the TBR pile:

A Winter in New York by Josie Silver

Title: A Winter in New York

Author: Josie Silver

Publisher: Delacorte Press 2023

Genre: Holiday Romance

Pages: 384

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

Spice Rating: 2

When Iris decides to move to New York to restart her life, she realizes she underestimated how big the Big Apple really is—all the nostalgic movies set in New York she’d watched with her mom while eating their special secret-recipe gelato didn’t quite do it justice. 

But Bobby, Iris’s best friend, isn’t about to let her hide away. He drags her to a famous autumn street fair in Little Italy, and as they walk through the food stalls, a little family-run gelateria catches her eye—could it be the same shop that’s in an old photo of her mother’s?

Curious, Iris returns the next day and meets the handsome Gio, who tells her that the shop is in danger of closing. His uncle, sole keeper of their family’s gelato recipe, is in a coma, so they can’t make more. When Iris samples the last remaining batch, she realizes that their gelato and her gelato are one and the same. But how can she tell them she knows their secret recipe when she’s not sure why Gio’s uncle gave it to her mother in the first place?

Iris offers her services as a chef to help them re-create the flavor and finds herself falling for Gio and his family. But when Gio’s uncle finally wakes up, all of the secrets Iris has been keeping threaten to ruin the new life—and new love—she’s been building all winter long.

While I deeply appreciated the references to Moonstruck, this book left me with a lackluster feeling in the end. Way more women’s lit than romance in my opinion. That’s okay, but I just really wasn’t in the mood for that type of story. I wanted to read more fun banter and sweet romance. Gil is a little too saccharine with a very closed off nature. I also wasn’t a fan of the narration. It felt like we just didn’t get to hear enough from the characters to really connect with them. Random side story: I actually have Josie Silver’s previous two book sitting on my Unread Shelf, but picked up and read this one from the library. I should probably read those other ones…

Next up on the TBR pile:

White Lie Christmas by Karla Doyle

Title: White Lie Christmas (Colorado Christmas #2; Hope Harbor)

Author: Karla Doyle

Publisher: Karla Doyle 2022

Genre: Holiday Romance

Pages: 74

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

Spice Meter: 5

When her friends choose skiing in Colorado for their annual girls’ holiday trip, Krista has to think on her feet to avoid setting foot on the mountaintop. What can a girl who’s afraid of heights do to ensure she stays put in the lodge? Fake a broken leg, of course. There’s plenty to do inside—such as making some very merry memories with the hot guy at the bar. When one night stretches into every night, their fling feels like it could be the start of something bigger than the Rocky Mountains, except Hayden is a ski instructor, and Krista has been telling a white lie this Christmas…

This read a bit more like a Penthouse letter than a romantic holiday story. The problem is that the timeline is so short that we rush into sex and ultimately an engagement!?!?!?!?! all in the space of three days. We don’t get to learn enough about the main characters. Oh well, it was a decently fun story.

Colorado Christmas

• #1 Roman Holiday by Kylie Marcus

• #2 White Lie Christmas by Karla Doyle

• #3 Mountain Lane by Andie Fenichal

• #4 Gingerbread House of Lies by Shyla Colt

• #5 Snow Candy Christmas by Silke Campion

• #6 Humbug Hang Up by Layne Daniels

Next up on the TBR pile:

Love in a Blizzard by Britney M. Mills

Title: Love in a Blizzard (Christmas at Goldwater Creek #1)

Author: Britney M. Mills

Publisher: Crystal Canyon Press

Genre: Holiday Romance

Pages: 168

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

Spice Meter: 2

His heart is closed off, her life is mapped out, and the snowstorm that forces them off course.

Jobless and heartbroken, Lauren Burke returns home to Coldwater Creek hoping to find comfort. On her way home, a blizzard hits, sending her car into a fence and her into the arms of her longtime teenage crush, Walker McBride.

After being dumped, ex-bull rider Walker McBride throws himself into restoring an old lodge in his small hometown of Coldwater Creek. With the grand opening only weeks away, he has no time to rescue damsels in distress, or for that matter, love. But when Lauren shows up, the loneliness he’s been ignoring quickly bubbles to the surface.

Now snowed in, they’re forced to confront their past.

Two hearts.

One snowstorm.

And the chance to find love.

Overall, a cute little Christmas romance novella. So-and-so’s little sister/brother trope is not a favorite of mine, but this one didn’t seem too forced or cutesy. I really hate it when all parties make a huge deal out of the circumstances. This story mostly focused on their current situation and looking to the future. My biggest complaint was the odd references to Christianity throughout the novella. It felt weirdly out of place and forced. And clearly, a spice rating of 2 is not going to be an absolute favorite of mine.

Christmas at Coldwater Creek

• #1 Love in a Blizzard

• #2 Love in the Lights

• #3 Love in a Snapshot

• #4 Love in the Details

• #5 Love a Contract

Next up on the TBR pile:

A Holiday by Gaslight by Mimi Matthews

Title: A Holiday by Gaslight

Author: Mimi Matthews

Publisher: Perfectly Proper Press 2018

Genre: Holiday Romance

Pages: 175

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

Spice Meter: 1

A Courtship of Convenience

Sophie Appersett is quite willing to marry outside of her class to ensure the survival of her family. But the darkly handsome Mr. Edward Sharpe is no run-of-the-mill London merchant. He's grim and silent. A man of little emotion--or perhaps no emotion at all. After two months of courtship, she's ready to put an end to things.

A Last Chance for Love

But severing ties with her taciturn suitor isn't as straightforward as Sophie envisioned. Her parents are outraged. And then there's Charles Darwin, Prince Albert, and that dratted gaslight. What's a girl to do except invite Mr. Sharpe to Appersett House for Christmas and give him one last chance to win her? Only this time there'll be no false formality. This time they'll get to know each other for who they really are.

Cute little Christmas romance story. I enjoyed the setting and a slightly different time than the usual Regency romances I read. But mostly, I really enjoyed the communication between Ned and Sophie. It’s refreshing to see two main characters talk to each other instead of relying on miscommunication.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Whalefall by Daniel Kraus

Title: Whalefall

Author: Daniel Kraus

Publisher: MTV Books 2023

Genre: Thriller

Pages: 327

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

Jay Gardiner has given himself a fool’s errand—to find the remains of his deceased father in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Monastery Beach. He knows it’s a long shot, but Jay feels it’s the only way for him to lift the weight of guilt he has carried since his dad’s death by suicide the previous year.

The dive begins well enough, but the sudden appearance of a giant squid puts Jay in very real jeopardy, made infinitely worse by the arrival of a sperm whale looking to feed. Suddenly, Jay is caught in the squid’s tentacles and drawn into the whale’s mouth where he is pulled into the first of its four stomachs. He quickly realizes he has only one hour before his oxygen tanks run out—one hour to defeat his demons and escape the belly of a whale.

Another mediocre read for me this week. I picked this up on th suggestion of a couple of lists with new horror style books for 2023. Ultimately, I wasn’t a huge fan. This read more like a thriller with long chapters of flashbacks and introspection. We didn’t get a sense of building dread that I really love in my horror novels. Instead, the whale swallows Jay pretty quickly and then we slowly have to follow his stream of consciousness and struggle to survive. There are a few parts that turned extremely gory, like even I was a bit grossed out. Overall, I just don’t think I really connected to this story and ended up with a “Meh” reaction at the end.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Counting the Cost by Jill Duggar

Title: Counting the Cost

Author: Jill Duggar

Publisher: Gallery Books 2023

Genre: Romance

Pages: 288

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

Jill and Derick knew a normal life wasn’t possible for them. As a star on the popular TLC reality show 19 Kids and Counting, Jill grew up in front of viewers who were fascinated by her family’s way of life. She was the responsible, second daughter of Jim Bob and Michelle’s nineteen kids; always with a baby on her hip and happy to wear the modest ankle-length dresses with throat-high necklines. She didn’t protest the strict model of patriarchy that her family followed, which declares that men are superior, that women are expected to be wives and mothers and are discouraged from attaining a higher education, and that parental authority over their children continues well into adulthood, even once they are married.

But as Jill got older, married Derick, and they embarked on their own lives, the red flags became too obvious to ignore.

For as long as they could, Jill and Derick tried to be obedient family members—they weren’t willing to rock the boat. But now they’re raising a family of their own, and they’re done with the secrets. Thanks to time, tears, therapy, and blessings from God, they have the strength to share their journey. Theirs is a remarkable story of the power of the truth and is a moving example of how to find healing through honesty.

I succumbed to publishing peer pressure and grabbed this one from the library shelves. I ended up pretty disappointed in this read, but wasn’t sure exactly why. Of course, I don’t believe in an higher power, but I don’t think that was my problem. The more I examined my thoughts, I can down to a few aspects that I did not like. The biggest of these is that it feels like Jill has not done enough reflection to see her upbringing clearly. She maintains that her childhood was overall very good. It’s only in the last sections of the book that she questions the authority model for her entire family. But the examination is cursory. I’m not asking her to turn her back on her entire family or faith, but clearly there were a lot of concerning situations and models that she just glosses over. I don’t need details of the abuse she suffered, but she seems to dismiss it throughout most of the book and only brings it up when discussing the financial compensation. Perhaps this book would have more reflection and nuance if it had been written five years in the future. It seems that she is too close to the situation to see clearly right now.

Next up on the TBR pile:

You Have Arrived at Your Destination by Amor Towles

Title: You Have Arrived at Your Destination (Forward #4)

Author: Amor Towles

Publisher: Amazon Original Stories 2019

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 54

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: COYER

Nature or nurture? Neither. Discover a bold new way to raise a child in this unsettling story of the near future by the New York Times bestselling author of A Gentleman in Moscow.

When Sam’s wife first tells him about Vitek, a twenty-first-century fertility lab, he sees it as the natural next step in trying to help their future child get a “leg up” in a competitive world. But the more Sam considers the lives that his child could lead, the more he begins to question his own relationships and the choices he has made in his life.

I absolutely adored A Gentleman in Moscow, but this story just didn’t quite intrigue me enough. There is a beginning of a larger story in here along with some interesting background world building. The problem is that it just doesn’t go anywhere for me. Oh well.

Forward

• #1 Ark by Veronica Roth

• #2 Summer Frost by Blake Crouch

• #3 Emergency Skin by NK Jemisin

• #4 You Have Arrived at Your Destination by Amor Towles

• #5 The Last Conversation by Paul Tremblay

• #6 Randomize by Andy Weir

Next up on the TBR pile:

Summer Frost by Blake Crouch

Title: Summer Frost (Forward #2)

Author: Black Crouch

Publisher: Amazon Original Stories 2019

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 75

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Fall TBR; COYER

A video game developer becomes obsessed with a willful character in her new project, in a mind-bending exploration of what it means to be human by the New York Times bestselling author of Recursion.

Maxine was made to do one thing: die. Except the minor non-player character in the world Riley is building makes her own impossible decision—veering wildly off course and exploring the boundaries of the map. When the curious Riley extracts her code for closer examination, an emotional relationship develops between them. Soon Riley has all new plans for her spontaneous AI, including bringing Max into the real world. But what if Max has real-world plans of her own?

While the story is fine, it’s one that I have read many times from previous authors. I guessed the ending about one page into the story. From there, it was just pretty boring for me. If I try to step outside of my own experience, the story is good. The progression is nicely paced and the questions raised are interesting. I just have read it before.

Forward

• #1 Ark by Veronica Roth

• #2 Summer Frost by Blake Crouch

• #3 Emergency Skin by NK Jemisin

• #4 You Have Arrived at Your Destination by Amor Towles

• #5 The Last Conversation by Paul Tremblay

• #6 Randomize by Andy Weir

Next up on the TBR pile:

Find Him Where You Left Him Dead by Kristen Simmons

Title: Find Him Where You Left Him Dead (Death Games #1)

Author: Kristen Simmons

Publisher: Tor Teen 2023

Genre: YA Horror

Pages: 272

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

Four years ago, five kids started a game. Not all of them survived.

Now, at the end of their senior year of high school, the survivors—Owen, Madeline, Emerson, and Dax—have reunited for one strange and terrible reason: they’ve been summoned by the ghost of Ian, the friend they left for dead.

Together they return to the place where their friendship ended with one goal: find Ian and bring him home. So they restart the deadly game they never finished—an innocent card-matching challenge called Meido. A game without instructions.

As soon as they begin, they're dragged out of their reality and into an eerie hellscape of Japanese underworlds, more horrifying than even the darkest folktales that Owen's grandmother told him. There, they meet Shinigami, an old wise woman who explains the rules:

They have one night to complete seven challenges or they'll all be stuck in this world forever.

Once inseparable, the survivors now can’t stand each other, but the challenges demand they work together, think quickly, and make sacrifices—blood, clothes, secrets, memories, and worse.

And once again, not everyone will make it out alive.

This was strange and weird and gory. Usually I would love those adjectives when describing a horror book, but ultimately this one wasn’t really for me. We’re thrown right into this story with little set-up. I had a little trouble connecting to the four main characters and getting their backstories straight to understand their current situation. From there, the game starts. I didn’t mind not knowing the rules. What I minded was the fact that I could never really get a sense of the setting and action. The writing was really unclear at times. I never could really see the story in my head. From that, I was annoyed. And the characters themselves. Too whiny, too closed off, not enough growth for anyone over the course of the novel. Plus there was a big subplot about the Empress character that just never went anywhere. Not my cup of tea.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Dragon's Bride by Katee Robert

Title: The Dragon’s Bride (A Deal with a Demon #1)

Author: Katee Robert

Publisher: Trinkets & Tales 2022

Genre: Romance

Pages: 179

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Romanceopoly - Haunted House (Monster Romance)

Spice Rating: 6

Briar Rose might have a name out of a storybook, but she learned at a very young age that no prince was coming to save her. She’ll have to save herself. Unfortunately, even that is an impossible task in her current situation—trapped in a terrifying marriage to a dangerous man.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, which is how she finds herself making a deal with a demon. Freedom from her husband…in return for seven years of service.

She expects the service to be backbreaking and harsh. She doesn’t expect to be put on an auction block in a room full of literal monsters and sold to the highest bidder.

To Sol. A dragon.

He might seem kinder than his fearsome looks imply, but she knows better than to trust the way he wants to take care of her, or how invested he is in her pleasure. In her experience, if something seems too good to be true, it certainly is.

Falling for Sol is out of the question. She’s suffered enough, and she has no intention of staying in this realm…even if she leaves her heart behind when she returns to her normal life.

Unlike yesterday’s 3 star book, I liked this one much more. But I still ended up coming to the end of this book with a general air of meh. We first meet the demon bargainer in another one of Robert’s book. I was intrigued but the setup of the auction of the various women in exchange for a favor. I’m glad to read about one of those women’s story in this book. Briar has so much trauma and I really connected to her anxiety and trepidation about getting involved in someone else. Sol creates a safe space for Briar to heal. All of those parts, I really enjoyed. The actual romance I enjoyed less. The sex scenes are often very strange. I don’t mean the monster-human pairing, I’m referring to the tone. The tone is often very weird and I wasn’t quite buying into the sexual attraction. Oh well. Maybe the next one will be more my style.

A Deal with a Demon

• #1 The Dragon’s Bride

• #2 The Kraken’s Sacrifice

• #3 The Gargoyle’s Captive

• #4 The Succubus’s Prize

• #5 The Demon’s Bargain

Next up on the TBR pile:

Brutal Prince by Sophie Lark

Title: Brutal Prince (Brutal Birthright #1)

Author: Sophie Lark

Publisher: Bloom Books 2020

Genre: Romance

Pages: 304

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Fall TBR

Spice Rating: 5

The Griffins and the Gallos have been battling for control of Chicago’s underworld for generations.

Their bitter rivalry reignites when Aida, the youngest and wildest Gallo sibling, crashes a party at the Griffin mansion, accidentally setting fire to the library.

To stave off all-out war, her father arranges a marriage with Callum Griffin, eldest son and heir.

Cold, ambitious, and brutal, Callum is determined to tame his headstrong bride. Aida is more than capable of giving as good as she gets – starting with poisoning Callum on their wedding night.

In their struggle for dominance, who will break first?

Pretty disappointed in this one. I was hoping for a good spicy romance with fun characters, an enemies-to-lovers setup, and spicy sex scenes. What I got was the pretty icky trope of forced marriage (forced by their families) with some episodes of dubious consent. Throw in an age-gap, which I’m not always opposed to, and I was not here for it at all. The age gap is now quite as much of a concern to me as the maturity gap. I wanted to like Aida so much, but she spent most of the book very horny for her husband while simultaneously acting like a spoiled teenager. But also constantly talking about how independent and mature she is. Spoiler alert, she’s not. I just couldn’t root for her at all. And then Lark decided to throw in some commentary about being sex positive. I do not have issues with being sex positive. I wanted to see communication and empowerment happening within characters. I did not see that at all. This was a contender for dirty book month, but I’m definitely crossing it off my list now.

Brutal Birthright

• #1 Brutal Prince

• #2 Stolen Heir

• #3 Savage Lover

• #4 Bloody Heart

• #5 Broken Vow

• #6 Heavy Crown

Next up on the TBR pile:

Goblin by Josh Malerman

Title: Goblin

Author: Josh Malerman

Publisher: Del Rey 2021

Genre: Horror

Pages: 416

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges:

Goblin seems like any other ordinary small town. But with the master storyteller Josh Malerman as your tour guide, you’ll discover the secrets that hide behind its closed doors. These six novellas tell the story of a place where the rain is always falling, nighttime is always near, and your darkest fears and desires await. Welcome to Goblin:

A Man in Slices: A man proves his “legendary love” to his girlfriend with a sacrifice even more daring than Vincent van Gogh’s—and sends her more than his heart.

Kamp: Walter Kamp is afraid of everything, but most afraid of being scared to death. As he sets traps around his home to catch the ghosts that haunt him, he learns that nothing is more terrifying than fear itself.

Happy Birthday, Hunter!: A famed big-game hunter is determined to capture—and kill—the ultimate prey: the mythic Great Owl who lives in Goblin’s dark forests. But this mysterious creature is not the only secret the woods are keeping.

Presto: All Peter wants is to be like his hero, Roman Emperor, the greatest magician in the world. When the famous magician comes to Goblin, Peter discovers that not all magic is just an illusion.

A Mix-Up at the Zoo: The new zookeeper feels a mysterious kinship with the animals in his care . . . and finds that his work is freeing dark forces inside him.

The Hedges: When his wife dies, a man builds a hedge maze so elaborate no one ever solves it—until a little girl resolves to be the first to find the mysteries that wait at its heart.

A collection of loosely collected short stories that wasn’t my favorite. I have really enjoyed a few of Malerman’s longer novels, but this one just do it for me. The stories were too much without a point and full of terrible people. I was intrigued b the prologue and the beginnings of a few of the stories, but most o the time, I wanted more. Short stories are never really my thing…

Next up on the TBR pile: