This book is tough. It’s centered around an emotionally devastating premise — the untimely death of a teen girl — and the tension of that mystery unfolding is coupled with a stark examination of gender politics and middle-class family dynamics. It’s the type of story that doesn’t let the reader breathe easily, as it seems too real, and, for many of us, too relate-able in a lot of ways. One minute, you feel deeply for James or Marilyn Lee, struggling with being an outsider and […]
“Here, tell me which scent you prefer. Lilies and whale vomit, or lemon balm and beaver’s arse.”
I like Tessa Dare. I know her books are derisively considered by many to be HINO (Historical In Name Only) but that’s something that’s never bothered me, personally. I like that her characters have modern sensibilities, because I don’t want to read about a hero with traditional Regency-era attitudes toward women. I like that her books each tend to have a designated Element of Silliness (see: Romancing the Duke‘s cosplayers, Any Duchess Will Do‘s terrible knitting) and in this one it’s the recurring joke of […]
Spooky and snoozy
This is the second Brenna Yovanoff novel I’ve read that, to my taste, didn’t quite stick the landing. She really knows how to set a scene around an intriguing premise. Here, that idea is that our main character, Mackie, is a replacement, a fae child that was left behind with a human family after their own was taken. In Mackie’s town, this sort of thing happens every seven years, except that most of the time, the replacement doesn’t live — it becomes sick and dies. […]
“Kate Daniels in Space”
Hoo-RAH! The Paradox series is so, so fun and so good. It’s basically Kate Daniels In Space, and as a huge Ilona Andrews/Kate Daniels fan and sci-fi/space opera fan, these books were like catnip. They center around a merc-for-hire named Devi Morris, who is the most competent, take no shit, battle trained soldier around. She’s a native Paradoxian, which makes her human but distinct from other humans called Terrans who are more closely connected in lineage to the original Earth. Paradoxians and those in Paradoxian […]