The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders

Title: The City in the Middle of the Night

Author: Charlie Jane Anders

Publisher: Tor Books 2019

Genre: Scifi

Pages: 366

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Unread Shelf; In Case You Missed It - 2019

"If you control our sleep, then you can own our dreams... And from there, it's easy to control our entire lives."

January is a dying planet—divided between a permanently frozen darkness on one side, and blazing endless sunshine on the other. Humanity clings to life, spread across two archaic cities built in the sliver of habitable dusk.

But life inside the cities is just as dangerous as the uninhabitable wastelands outside.

Sophie, a student and reluctant revolutionary, is supposed to be dead after being exiled into the night. Saved only by forming an unusual bond with the enigmatic beasts who roam the ice, Sophie vows to stay hidden from the world, hoping she can heal.

But fate has other plans—and Sophie's ensuing odyssey and the ragtag family she finds will change the entire world.

This was my choice for our Nerdy Bookish Friends selection. It’s been sitting on my library floor for years now and I thought it would be a good choice for us to discuss. Unfortunately, this one just didn’t completely land for me. I had a big problem getting into this story. It just didn’t hold me very well. I found it difficult to connect to any of the characters. It felt very young adult to me throughout. And Bianca’s obsession with Sophy really annoyed me. At times the story was confusing and hard to follow. I wanted to know more about the crocodiles, but the story just meandered away at times. I’m interested in our discussion on Sunday. I’m hoping that some of my fellow book clubbers have some interesting topics to discuss.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Kraken's Sacrifice by Katee Robert

Title: The Kraken’s Sacrifice (A Deal with a Demon #2)

Author: Katee Robert

Publisher: Trinkets & Tales 2022

Genre: Romance

Pages: 175

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Book Club - Begins with a “K”; She Reads Romance - Audiobook

Spice Rating: 6

Catalina only made her deal with the demon because she had nowhere else to go. The world has kicked her every chance it got, so she’s all too happy to leave the realm she knows behind. What’s the worst that could happen?

She doesn’t anticipate being auctioned away to a kraken.

Thane is cold and distant…but he’s not unkind. Isolated as they are, Catalina finds herself seeking his company again and again. And when she finally agrees to uphold her portion of the bargain?

That’s when things get really interesting.

But she only gave the demon seven years, and when the time is up, she’ll have no choice but to leave behind the kraken who’s stolen her heart and return to the world that doesn’t want her.

While I absolutely adore the Dark Olympus series, I find that this series it just not my favorite at all. I was intrigued by the set up and loved meeting Azaziel in The Court of the Vampire Queen. I wanted to see how these broken women found their place and happiness. And while I love the women, I have yet to actually enjoy the male characters. Even with chapters from their points of view, we don’t really get a good connection to them. Thane spent the entire time whining about losing his husband years ago. Dude, please stop. I imagine that I will keep reading the series, but I doubt that it will be a favorite of mine.

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:

Three Eight One by Aliya Whiteley

Title: Three Eight One

Author: Aliya Whiteley

Publisher: Solaris 2024

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 269

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Book Club - Has futuristic technology; Clock

In January 2314, Rowena Savalas – a curator of the vast archive of the twenty-first century’s primitive internet – stumbles upon a story posted in the summer of 2024. She’s quickly drawn into the mystery of the text: Is it autobiography, fantasy or fraud? What’s the significance of the recurring number 381?

In the story, the protagonist Fairly walks the Horned Road – a quest undertaken by youngsters in her village when they come of age. She is followed by the “breathing man,” a looming presence, dogging her heels every step of the way. Everything she was taught about her world is overturned.

Following Fairly’s quest, Rowena comes to question her own choices, and a predictable life of curation becomes one of exploration, adventure and love. As both women’s stories draw to a close, she realises it doesn’t matter whether the story is true or not: as with the quest itself, it’s the journey that matters.

A bit of a random find at the library. Someone had recommended it for people who were interested in strange speculative fiction with a focus on storytelling. Of course I grabbed it off the new release shelf. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite live up to the premise. I was very interested in the story within the story. I wanted to tease out the meaning of Fairly’s story alongside Rowena. As the story starts spiraling, it felt like it just started to get more and more confused instead of revealing. By the end of the book, I didn’t have any revelations or insights into the nature of humans. Not my favorite.

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Next up on the TBR pile:

Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave

Title: Everyone Brave is Forgiven

Author: Chris Cleave

Publisher: Simon & Schuster 2016

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 418

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Decades - 1940s; In Case You Missed It - 2016

London, 1939. The day war is declared, Mary North leaves finishing school unfinished, goes straight to the War Office, and signs up. Tom Shaw decides to ignore the war—until he learns his roommate Alistair Heath has unexpectedly enlisted. Then the conflict can no longer be avoided. Young, bright, and brave, Mary is certain she’d be a marvelous spy. When she is—bewilderingly—made a teacher, she finds herself defying prejudice to protect the children her country would rather forget. Tom, meanwhile, finds that he will do anything for Mary.

And when Mary and Alistair meet, it is love, as well as war, that will test them in ways they could not have imagined, entangling three lives in violence and passion, friendship, and deception, inexorably shaping their hopes and dreams. The three are drawn into a tragic love triangle and—as war escalates and bombs begin falling—further into a grim world of survival and desperation.

Set in London during the years of 1939–1942, when citizens had slim hope of survival, much less victory; and on the strategic island of Malta, which was daily devastated by the Axis barrage, Everyone Brave is Forgiven features little-known history and a perfect wartime love story inspired by the real-life love letters between Chris Cleave’s grandparents. This dazzling novel dares us to understand that, against the great theater of world events, it is the intimate losses, the small battles, the daily human triumphs that change us most.

A book club selection this month. I was pulled in by the summary. It’s been awhile since I have read a good World War II novel and I had hoped that this would be it. Unfortunately, this one really missed the mark. As a point of mark, the writing style is just not that good. It’s weird and choppy with terrible dialogue. There’s an attempt at witty dialogue and sentence construction, but it just becomes much too clever and silly at times. Even when he storyline is focused on very serious events and consequences, the writing style continues. And then we turn tot he characters. I could never understand why Mary was so desirable. It was complete milquetoast to me. Tom was even worse. It was the blandest of the bland. At least Alistair had a bit of personality and metal to him. But it wasn’t enough to actually redeem the book for me. Not the book for me.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia

Title: The Murmur of Bees

Author: Sofia Segovia

Publisher: Amazon Crossing 2015

Genre: Historical Fiction; Magical Realism

Pages: 471

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Book Club - Yellow Spine; COYER

From the day that old Nana Reja found a baby abandoned under a bridge, the life of a small Mexican town forever changed. Disfigured and covered in a blanket of bees, little Simonopio is for some locals the stuff of superstition, a child kissed by the devil. But he is welcomed by landowners Francisco and Beatriz Morales, who adopt him and care for him as if he were their own. As he grows up, Simonopio becomes a cause for wonder to the Morales family, because when the uncannily gifted child closes his eyes, he can see what no one else can—visions of all that’s yet to come, both beautiful and dangerous. Followed by his protective swarm of bees and living to deliver his adoptive family from threats—both human and those of nature—Simonopio’s purpose in Linares will, in time, be divined.

Set against the backdrop of the Mexican Revolution and the devastating influenza of 1918, The Murmur of Bees captures both the fate of a country in flux and the destiny of one family that has put their love, faith, and future in the unbelievable.

Our book club pick for March. Somehow I did not realize that I had this sitting on my Kindle app already. And this book did not work for me at all. It started out interesting with the story of this maybe magical boy who is taken in by a family. From there, I thought we would get to read about a magical story of found family and identity. But that’s not where the story went. Instead, we get bogged down in terrible people doing terrible things to those around them. We get an attempt at an examination of the corruption of the Mexican political regimes under Diaz. Unfortunately, none of it really landed for me. And then there were so many sections that I questioned whether or not the writing and story was racist. Ultimately the book became a slog and I dreaded picking it up every day.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Ruthless by Anne Stuart

Title: Ruthless (House of Rohan #1)

Author: Anne Stuart

Publisher: MIRA 2010

Genre: Romance

Pages: 409

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library Love

Spice Rating: 5

Viscount Rohan is a very bad man. Leader of the notorious Heavenly Host, he steers the dissolute and pleasure-seeking aristocracy in their revels. Content in his wickedness, he knows there is no room for a starchy, brave English spinster in his self-indulgent existence, but his body disagrees.

Elinor Harriman is so intent on protecting her baby sister and their dying mother that she doesn’t realize the danger she’s in. The notorious Viscount Rohan could have no interest in someone like her, thank God, and no idea that she melts with longing every time he touches her. She’s an intelligent, plain woman, and his tempting, his teasing has to be some kind of joke.

But Rohan takes his appetites very seriously, and sensible or not, he wants Elinor Harriman in his bed. There is only one problem with indulging himself–he’s starting to want her in his life as well. And that would destroy everything.

I picked this up because I had the three other books in this series sitting on my Unread Shelf. I dove in not knowing what to expect. I loved the first section of this book. The tension between Francis and Elinor was delightful. I was intrigued by the setup and was hoping for a good payoff. But I ultimately thought the book ended much to abruptly and without the catharsis that I wanted. I didn’t feel like Francis and Elinor ever really connected with each other. There wasn’t enough relationship talk for me. I will still continue on with the series as I own the rest. We’ll see how I feel after the next one about continuing farther.

House of Rohan

#1 Ruthless
#2 Reckless
#3 Breathless
#4 Shameless
#5 Heartless

Next up on the TBR pile:

So Not Meant to Be by Meghan Quinn

Title: So Not Meant to Be (Cane Brothers #2)

Author: Meghan Quinn

Publisher: Bloom Books 2022

Genre: Romance

Pages: 480

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library Love; She Reads Romance - Enemies to Lovers

Spice Meter: 5

Am I friends with JP Cane?
Ha! That's laughable.
Besides the fact that he’s adopted some far-fetched notion from the movie When Harry Met Sally that says men and women can't be friends and work together, it’s safe to say we're not friends. He's annoyingly loud, obnoxiously handsome, and has made an art out of poking all my hot buttons . . . multiple times a day.
So you can imagine how disgruntled I am when I not only have to fly to San Francisco with him for work, but stay in the same penthouse. Yup, we're sharing the same air, twenty-four-seven. We're talking full-fledged working roommates.
The man doesn't know what it means to wear a shirt, thrives off protein bars, and you guessed it, moans loud enough for people to believe he's Meg Ryan in a restaurant.
Spoiler Alert: I WON'T be having what he's having.
Tack on his continuous flirting and his polished good looks, and I'm caught staring down the barrel of a seductive temptation that makes it hard for me to sleep at night.
But guess who can control herself? This girl.
Because if there is one thing I know for certain, it's that JP Cane and I are so not meant to be.

Enemies to lovers is my favorite romance trope, so of course, I picked up this series. I was into the first book and hoped I would love the second. Unfortunately, I really disliked JP and that fact really turned me of to the entire book. We start out strong with a fun slightly antagonistic relationship between Kelsey and JP. We get some good banter and ridiculous situations. But then, JP’s entire demeanor and personality really started to bother me. At a certain point in the book, JP tells the readers that he is completely in love with Kelsey and is going to attempt to get her to see that. But all of his actions are so hot and cold. She does one thing, such as go on a date with another man, and he completely shuts her out. Mind you, she has no idea that JP supposedly loves her. He just completely shuts down and then gets mad at Kelsey when she questions him. His inability to communicate or at least modulate his moods raised some serious red flags for me. I doubt that them declaring their love is going to eliminate his mood swings. Very scary behavior from the male lead. I just couldn’t root for them at all.

Cane Brothers

#1 A Not So Meet Cute
#2 So Not Meant to Be
#3 A Long Time Coming

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland

Title: The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. (D.O.D.O. #1)

Author: Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland

Publisher: William Morrow 2017

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 752

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Unread Shelf; 52 Book Club - Chapters have date headings

When Melisande Stokes, an expert in linguistics and languages, accidently meets military intelligence operator Tristan Lyons in a hallway at Harvard University, it is the beginning of a chain of events that will alter their lives and human history itself. The young man from a shadowy government entity approaches Mel, a low-level faculty member, with an incredible offer. The only condition: she must sign a nondisclosure agreement in return for the rather large sum of money.

Tristan needs Mel to translate some very old documents, which, if authentic, are earth-shattering. They prove that magic actually existed and was practiced for centuries. But the arrival of the scientific revolution and the Age of Enlightenment weakened its power and endangered its practitioners. Magic stopped working altogether in 1851, at the time of the Great Exhibition at London’s Crystal Palace—the world’s fair celebrating the rise of industrial technology and commerce. Something about the modern world "jams" the "frequencies" used by magic, and it’s up to Tristan to find out why.

And so the Department of Diachronic Operations—D.O.D.O. —gets cracking on its real mission: to develop a device that can bring magic back, and send Diachronic Operatives back in time to keep it alive . . . and meddle with a little history at the same time. But while Tristan and his expanding operation master the science and build the technology, they overlook the mercurial—and treacherous—nature of the human heart.

I was so incredibly excited about this book that I picked up last year. First off, the dodo bird completely sucked me in. And then the summary really intrigued me. I love a good time travel novel and was hoping this one was it. Unfortunately, this book was way too long full of dry passages that seem to go on forever. Clearly those passages were written by Stephenson. He definitely has a way of stretching out the technical conversations and padding them with initialisms and acronyms. I found my mind wandering throughout many sections of this book. The only thing that kept me going was the overall mystery of how Mel got stuck back in 1851. Seriously, Mel and Tristan saves his novel for me. And now I’m debating about whether I actually want to read the sequel and get the conclusion of the story.

D.O.D.O.

#1 The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.
#2 Master of the Revels

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Paleontologist by Luke Dumas

Title: The Paleontologist

Author: Luke Dumas

Publisher: Atria Books 2023

Genre: Thriller

Pages: 356

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Unread Shelf Project; 52 Book Club - Grieving Character

Curator of paleontology Dr. Simon Nealy never expected to return to his Pennsylvania hometown, let alone the Hawthorne Museum of Natural History. He was just a boy when his six-year-old sister, Morgan, was abducted from the museum under his watch, and the guilt has haunted Simon ever since. After a recent breakup and the death of the aunt who raised him, Simon feels drawn back to the place where Morgan vanished, in search of the bones they never found.

But from the moment he arrives, things aren’t what he expected. The Hawthorne is a crumbling ruin, still closed amid the ongoing pandemic, and plummeting toward financial catastrophe. Worse, Simon begins seeing and hearing things he can’t explain. Strange animal sounds. Bloody footprints that no living creature could have left. A prehistoric killer looming in the shadows of the museum. Terrified he’s losing his grasp on reality, Simon turns to the handwritten research diaries of his predecessor and uncovers a blood-soaked mystery 150 million years in the making that could be the answer to everything.

A complete impulse buy around Christmastime. I thought it might be a fun thriller with a focus on dinosaurs. And it mostly is. We get a potentially unreliable narrator who decides that his next step in life is to revisit a place that holds the beginning of his trauma. Seems like a bad idea to me, but Simon does it. From there, the paranormal elements start to occur and we are left to piece out the mystery of just what is happening the museum. My biggest complaints are focused on the side characters. The various employees of the museum are pretty terrible. The board members are extra terrible. Every time I picked up the book, I really did it pretty begrudgingly. By the end of the book I really as pretty tired of every one and the story. A bit of a disappointment, but it was fine.

Next up on the TBR pile:

System Collapse by Martha Wells

Title: System Collapse (Murderbot Diaries #7)

Author: Martha Wells

Publisher: Tor.com 2023

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 245

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: COYER

Am I making it worse? I think I'm making it worse.

Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly-colonized planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there’s an ethical corporation out there, Murderbot has yet to find it, and if Barish-Estranza can’t have the planet, they’re sure as hell not leaving without something. If that something just happens to be an entire colony of humans, well, a free workforce is a decent runner-up prize.

But there’s something wrong with Murderbot; it isn’t running within normal operational parameters. ART’s crew and the humans from Preservation are doing everything they can to protect the colonists, but with Barish-Estranza’s SecUnit-heavy persuasion teams, they’re going to have to hope Murderbot figures out what’s wrong with itself, and fast!

Yeah, this plan is... not going to work.

This definitely should have just been the second half of Network Effect in that it picks up right after that book ends. We finally get to see the end to the story about the alien contamination on the planet. I was intrigued by the back-and-forth between Murderbot’s team and the Barish-Estranza team. Unfortunately, the story doesn’t have the snark and fun side commentary that I really enjoy about the Murderbot stories. I just wasn’t as connected to the story as I wanted to be.

Murderbot Diaries:

Next up on the TBR pile:

Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells

Title: Fugitive Telemetry (Murderbot Diaries #6)

Author: Martha Wells

Publisher: Tor.com 2021

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 172

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: COYER

No, I didn't kill the dead human. If I had, I wouldn't dump the body in the station mall.

When Murderbot discovers a dead body on Preservation Station, it knows it is going to have to assist station security to determine who the body is (was), how they were killed (that should be relatively straightforward, at least), and why (because apparently that matters to a lot of people—who knew?)

Yes, the unthinkable is about to happen: Murderbot must voluntarily speak to humans!

Again!

Apparently I did read this one when it came out, but completely forgot the plot. While it is #6 in the series, chronologically the story belongs between Exit Strategy and Network Effect. We are right back on Preservation Station solving a seemingly impossible murder. Of course Murderbot is stuck in the middle making sure the humans don’t die. This felt like a strange little side adventure and didn’t include much snark from Muderbot. The snark is why I read this series. Oh well.

Murderbot Diaries:

Next up on the TBR pile:

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: