Speed-Reading Book Nerd Reviews

All Our Hidden Gifts

By Caroline O'Donoghue.

This is an odd book.

Maeve is an Irish lass at a Catholic private school. While having to clean out The Chokey (yup, they call the closet this), she finds an odd deck of tarot cards that she has an affinity with, and starts doing readings for all the girls at school. Except there's one extra card called "The Housekeeper" in there, and she's got a knife, and the card will magically show up in the deck even if Maeve takes it out.

Maeve dumped her best friend Lily for popularity reasons, and feels guilty about it. When people harass her into giving Lily a reading, it goes terribly, and much like in Home Alone, Lily soon disappears. Did Maeve make her disappear? Or was it The Housekeeper? What the hell is going on here? Maeve appears to be a witchy sort of girl, and this seems to tie in with a former student at the school decades ago as well. She comse to the conclusion that Lily was somehow magicked away, and plans on getting her back.

In other fun news, someone else who appears to be magically gifted on the dark side and a total bigot is getting people to join his creepy group, The Children of Brighid, and they start committing hate crimes. 

Maeve also gets romantically involved with Lily's...presumably transgender/genderqueer/non-binary brother Rory, a.k.a. Roe. Their romance is very sweet and cute and fairly insta and cuddly, which I enjoyed. Though I admit I was totally confused as to how Roe appears to feel about gender (i.e. name change, women's clothing) vs. still going by male pronouns. Maeve pretty much calls him her boyfriend. I really, really expected Roe to change pronouns/officially go by something other than male and that felt HEAVILY foreshadowed, bit that never happened, which surprised me. I'm just another cisgender straight Karen so what do I know on this topic, I suppose. Others in the anything-but-straight community may have a more correct understanding/opinion on that one than me though. Maybe that's normal? 

As for the ending, I'm not sure what's going on, exactly. The main conflict gets more or less resolved, but some definitely creepy stuff is left open, possibly for a sequel? I guess we'll see?

I'm not really sure what to make of this at all. Three and a half stars, I guess. Intriguing but a bit confusing. 

 

Paladin's Grace

By T. Kingfisher.

Stephen was a paladin of the Saint of Steel, a god who died. (How? Beats me.) Anyway, that particular god filled his paladins with his presence and gave them berserker powers/guidance/whatever, and when he died, a lot of them just basically lost it. Now only seven have survived, and they are currently working for the Order of the White Rat, a nice organization of problem solvers with an awesome leader, Bishop Beartongue. (More about her, please? Perhaps her own book in the future?) And they....have some reservations, to say the least, about how "safe" they are to be around other people if the berserker rage hits them again without godly assistance.

Stephen is pretty much along the lines of Sam in Sleepless in Seattle: he gets up, he goes about his day, he feels depressed. Oh yeah, and he knits socks a lot, which is adorable. Then he meets a damsel in distress, Grace, in a meet-cute-fake-a-relattionship-in-a-hurry-in-public way and kaboombah, the hormones he thought were dead are rising up.

Grace is a lovely woman, a professional perfume creator who's had a rough go in life. Orphaned, apprenticed, then married to a cheating jerk, she never did manage to get her "license" equivalent in this world, and then finally she and her pet ran away to another city, where she made friends with her spy landlady, Marguerite. Both she and Stephen are super attracted to each other and SUPER AWKWARD about that sort of thing. Grace's husband made her feel like was frigid (nope) and Stephen is all "what if I go berserk?" and that stuff is going on in their heads, but every time they touch or are around each other, it's a giant AWWWWWW.

However, some shit's going down in the city, like something or other that is beheading people. Oh yeah, and someone tried to poison a visiting crown prince that Grace sold perfume to and now she's been arrested for murder.

Literally about the only thing not good in this book--or at least weak--is the poisoner mystery bit. Grace clearly has no motive for murdering a client she likes but doesn't know very well, nor any clue as to how one would poison anyone, but gets suspected because she makes perfumes and the book goes down a pretty fast slope of DANGER YOU'RE GONNA GET EXECUTED on that score. (Though I did super like her nonbinary lawyer, who has a dry sense of humor and definite sense of honor and pragmatism about it all.) By the time the mystery is revealed--some folks may have guessed what's going on already--it Makes Everything Better Real Quick, but once that's revealed it's pretty clear how weakly the whole thing was set up and how nobody was really thinking through who is suspect or even checking on the victim. However, I did like how everyone in the White Rat came together to help Grace.

Also, this book is full of delightful lines and snark and hormones and it's just really fun to read. The author did an Internet rant on the angstiness of paladins years ago and clearly she writes characters who feel guilty and need to get over it and find ways to to make up for it. Good. I enjoyed how he runs off to confess to his fellow paladin Istvhan in the middle of the night and the dude is all "Dude, get laid, get over it," more or less. It's also kind of amusing how later Stephen goes "berserk" in the book and he's all angsting about it and everyone else is pretty much like "Dude, that was not very berserk. Chill. I think you're fine." I do note that both Stephen and Grace are SUPER ANGSTY about attraction and acting on it and are kinda self-flagellate-y in their heads (see below) and this is drawn out a bit. That may bother some people, but not I.

I read a lot of excellent reviews on this book, but I think this was the one that sold me the most, so I leave it here. The romance is adorable and close and steamy, and while the review talks about "bad sex," I don't think so--they acknowledge in the heat of the moment it might not be world's best ever and then end up enjoying themselves anyway, and awwwwwww. These two are adorable just cuddling, y'all. 

Four and a half stars from me. 

Quotes:

• "He wished that he could break out his knitting, but for some reason, people didn't take you seriously as a warrior when you were knitting. He'd never figured out why." (This is followed by a gory bit in which he imagined taking out someone's eye with double pointed needles, not that he wants to do that and mess up his knitting....)
• Bishop Beartongue to Stephen: "I tell you to go talk to a girl and you foil an assassination attempt. I'm a little frightened to think what might happen if I told you to go to get laid."
• Grace's POV on interacting with Stephen: "First you grind on him like a wanton, then you swoon all over him, now you're giving him a show. This is going marvelously. What's next, tripping and falling on his cock on accident?" This is soon followed by her having to explain dealing with her pet civette's anal gland issues. "It wasn't like the morning could get any worse." Stephen's reaction: "Perfume making is clearly a very glamorous occupation. I had no idea." 
• More from Grace's POV: "This is stupid. You just handed him a teacup, that's all. My god, you've climbed the man like a tree and screamed in his ear and fainted on him and made a fool of yourself thinking he wanted to talk to you about something other than the dead man, and now you're blushing over this?" 
• Grace: "I think you can generally rely on people to be inconvenient." 
• Stephen: "And you will go back to your normal life as well, untroubled by assassinations and attractive women accidentally setting themselves on fire."
• Grace: "First small talk, then pantomimed sex acts in an alley, then murder scene. I'm doing this all wrong, as usual." 
• "Granted, she hadn't known Stephen that long, but if you couldn't bond over multiple corpses, what could you bond over?" 
• Stephen: "Am I really the only person concerned about the severed head situation in this city? Really?"
• Marguerite: "Men don't panic and make a speech about how there can't be anything between you if there isn't something between you." (MADAM, THIS IS MY LIFE. Har har. Such as that goes.)
• And finally, a quote from the author at the end: "I had it in my mind that I was going to write a fluffy romance. I am a great fan of fluffy romance. I am told that there are generally fewer severed heads and rotting corpse golems in fluffy romance, so possibly this book didn't quite get there, but I'm certain I can write something fluffy eventually. Probably." 

Before We Disappear

By Shaun David Hutchinson.

Jack and Wilhelm are two teenage boys living parallel lives (of sorts) in 1908-1909.

Jack was orphaned at age seven and was taken in by a magician/con artist (mostly going by "Evangeline Dubois" or "The Enchantress") as her more-or-less adopted child/assistant. She also took in an engineering genius, Lucia, a few years later. Jack is more or less pretty content working for Evangeline even though he knows she's kind of emotionally divey, but Lucia is pretty well cheesed off at not getting credit or getting the "well" treatment Jack gets by comparison. Jack's used to being a rolling stone and never gets too attached to any guys he's dating before he leaves again and hasn't thought super much about what else he might do with his life without working for Evangeline. 

Wilhelm is pretty obviously a fairy child (it's not spelled out here, but he's got magic powers and a whopping allergy to iron so you do the math) who was abducted at age four by "Theodore Barnes," a con artist/thief guy who's raised him/kept him imprisoned with iron the entire time. Teddy has been forcing Wil to rob things for him, as Teddy is hoping to become famous somehow, but so far his trait of leaving origami animals at the scene of the crime hasn't paid off for him. (This seems very Wet Bandits to me, just saying...) Teddy decides to change tactics and go from thievery to being a professional magician under the name Laszlo. 

Both magicians end up performing at the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle for several months, where their respective assistants meet and get to know each other, and Jack deduces that Wilhelm has magical powers and that's the only way he could pull off what he does. Upon finding out what's going on with Wilhelm being imprisoned and threatened, Jack vows that he's going to take "Laszlo" down. 

The guys both make some great friends along the way. Jack befriends Ruth, an African-American performer who's looking to become a doctor someday. She's hard and tough and determined and awesome. Wilhelm befriends Jessamy, the other assistant "Laszlo" hires for his show, who's a lovely girl and a future detective/reporter. Of course she and Ruth fall for each other. (I do note that Ruth is getting sexually harassed by George, a guy who keeps hanging around and Not Taking No For An Answer, grrr. ) And Lucia is tough and stubborn but awesome. I really enjoyed seeing this bunch team up as a gang to help Wilhelm. It's a great crowd.

This is a pretty short summary for a pretty long book (nearly 500 pages), as the author takes his time with people hanging out and getting to know each other. Really, the only critique I have of this book is that it probably could have picked up the pace a bit and been a bit more urgent, though I certainly enjoyed it and kept on reading anyway. I really liked all the teenage characters and how smart and kind and loving they were (though clearly they're in a bit nicer of an environment as gay kids than they would have been in real 1909, sigh). The parallels between Evangeline and Teddy are pretty clear, with Evangeline being not-the-greatest-person and pretty self-centered/rude-ish to her "kids," but she still seems to kind of care about them on some level, at least. Teddy, well, wants Wilhelm's love and ALSO for Wilhelm to fear him, which he unfortunately isn't able to comprehend that aren't two great tastes that go together.  Jack sums them up well: "Laszlo's like a monster who remembers what it was like to be a man and has fooled himself into believing he still is one. Evangeline flirts with being a monster but hasn't got the heart to really commit." 

I have a comment on Evangeline and Teddy, but it's going to go below the spoiler cut.

Anyway, I enjoyed this very much and recommend it and give it about 4.5 stars. I'm not sure if this is the sort of book that would warrant a sequel or not--it both wraps up well as is but has potential for more--but either way, I'd be good. I like these people and would be happy to see them all again. 

The Impossible Us

By Sarah Lotz.

I read about this book a few months back and pre-ordered it (something I rarely do for a new to me author) upon the premise itself, which sounded a lot like Griffin and Sabine to me. (Disclaimer: link within is my notes on the G&S plotline and what happens there.) The day I got that book, I saw this Dear Author review and was all, "This review makes it sound bad/disturbing, I'm really concerned now." But I'd just gotten it, so I forged on anyway. 

The plot: Bee, a dress re-designer (for lack of a better phrase, but that is a cool job) gets a misaimed email from Nick, a struggling writer who's ticked at a client. The two of them end up having an extraordinary correspondence over email, really enjoy it, hit it off, decide to meet...and then the other one's not there when they go. They figure out soon after that that they seem to be living in parallel worlds that branched off after Chernobyl, with different cultural references, different energy practices, different rules about reproduction, etc. Bee lives in our world, Nick is in an alternate, more eco-friendly one. Nick attempts to get some help from a strange group he finds called the Berenstain Society, i.e. the only people who believe his story because they've had some experience of this parallel world thing themselves. One member, Geoffrey, actually has memories of another life he seems to have lived in the Beeverse before dying there (note this for later). 

Now, reading this premise, I thought this was going to go into Griffin and Sabine territory (see link above), in an "find a way to be together" sort of way. But nope. Nick and Bee conclude early on that there's no way they can ever meet, Nick is told it's not an option anyway. Then Bee gets an idea: track down the in-universe equivalents of them in their own worlds, meet those people, and presumably date them. This works great for Bee, as her world's Nicolas is a prominent author and a super sweet, nice guy and single. Nick's a bit jealous of his more successful counterpart, though he ends up using that information to become a novelist in his own right, so good for him. This does not go so well for Nick, as her equivalent, Becca, is married and has a child and her husband is an abusive rich guy. Bee smells a rat about the whole thing since Becca's done things Bee would not want to do, and she does some investigation into the husband, Benedict, in her own world and finds out he's awful. So this doesn't exactly turn into an adultery plot so much as it turns into a "how do we rescue Becca?" plot. 

There are clearly plusses and minusses to both universes and their counterparts in them, I'll put it that way. Eventually they tell a few people, who think it's unethical to be seeking out the counterparts. Is it? Maybe? I'm not sure. It doesn't quite go to straight up adultery, but you certainly kind of wonder. Is it cheating if you love someone who's an alternate version of your SO that you can never meet, if you're single? Also, is it unethical to use information you learn in other worlds, like telling Geoffrey what happened to his loved ones or trying to save the planet? 

The plot eventually goes back to the idea of "can you ever go to the other world/unite with your other self?' and that's definitely handled differently than Griffin and Sabine, for sure. I concur that the ending is...ambiguous with potential, I think? I hope? It's pretty...odd. This is an odd book for sure, but interesting as heck. Definitely not any kind of conventional romance, though, and I think how it's handled isn't going to work for everyone. It's not an easy-peasy ending, for sure. I suspect this may get a lot of discussion and conflicting opinions. That's why I'm getting as openly spoiler-y in this review as I am: I feel like you may need to know more about some of the places this book goes before you decide if you're in or out. 

I'll do a spoiler discussion below the spoiler cut on this one.

Overall, I'm giving it four stars for giving me a lot to think about. This will not be everyone's cup of tea, but if you can work with what the author is giving you, you may be up for that. 

Thoughts on Griffin and Sabine, first trilogy

This is some notes I wanted to make on another book series before I talked about reading The Impossible Us. This will be spoiler territory for the first Griffin and Sabine book trilogy.  I think I read this series long before I started this blog so there shouldn't be mentions of it already around these parts. Discussion of the plot below the spoiler cut. It's not a review since I haven't reread these lately. 

How The Multiverse Got Its Revenge

By K. Eason.

Previous book here. 

This is a contradiction in which I find the narration entertaining, but I honestly don't get what the hell was going on in the book enough to explain it. Like seriously, it has been a few years since I read the first one and I felt some lag in my brain over that, but also, I just...didn't get the plot? Other than the multiverse is going to be destroyed again? Rory's off living the pirate lifestyle with her bodyguards and Jaed and they come across a friendly sentient weapon named Rose who can't speak too much but makes it clear that it doesn't actually want to be a force of destruction. That was interesting. I liked seeing Rupert and Grytt again, and that green fairy. But otherwise, there were a lot of alien species and people seemed to be at war and I just flat out didn't get what was going on, sigh. I wanted to like it and I kept going enough to finish, but I sure as heck can't explain most of it. 

I dunno on the character development? There's not much of it and even less "romance" than the last one. I still think Rory/Rupert in particular are interesting, but Thorsdottir and Rose got the most of it this time, I think.

This book feels like it's going to be a middle book setting up some major things for book 3, but....maybe the author didn't get the book deal extended or something, because the whole thing is wrapped up in epilogue in which Rory becomes a great leader and saves the multiverse. But we're not going to get there, I guess, and the way this book went, maybe it's just as well?

Two and a half stars. I wish I liked it better, or just got what was going on. This review is a better read and attempt at explaining the plot and also explains better the issues I had with it.

 

One Last Stop

By Casey McQuiston:

August has moved to NYC to attend yet another college and get away from her mom's issues. Her mom's spent literal decades looking for her missing brother, who's been missing/presumed dead since the 70's. August was brought up with no other family and living the life of Nancy Drew, which she eventually got quite sick of. 

In her new NYC life, she acquires some great new queer roommates and a job at the pancake house. And she also gets a crush on the punk girl she spots on the subway. However, Subway Girl turns out to be a mystery of her own. Jane Su is somehow trapped on the Q train in perpetuity--not having to eat or go to the bathroom or sleep, but has been in some kind of weird half-netherworld for decades, operating as kind of an angel on the subway (my interpretation, not authorial) and not really being aware that it's not the 70's any more. Until she meets August, magic happens, and Jane starts to come into more focus.

It's very romantic to be the chosen one who starts helping this hot, sweet girl get her memories back, is what I am saying here. Fortunately, August has DIY PI skills and her roommates include a psychic and a former engineer with tech skills to help solve this incredibly weird semi-metaphysical situation. 

Overall I think this is a very well done book. It's an odd situation that's not fully explained but mostly explained as things go on, and I do like how Jane's 70's life actually lined up with things that went on in August's, though I won't get into details here. Their relationship is very sweet and romantic and they agree to be together as long as they can, even if somehow they can magic Jane back to her own timeline (or not). As per her previous book that I've read, the author can sure do awesome, steamy romantic passages, even if I was too lazy to bookmark them as I read on this time :P 

About the only thing I can quibble about is one thing that hit me a little personally. There's a slight beta romance going on between August's apartmentmate Wes and their neighbor Isaiah (a.k.a. the drag queen Annie Depressant). Upon meeting Annie, August is told that Annie has been in love with Wes for years, but Wes "has this thing where he's terrified of being loved and refuses to believe he deserves it," so it hasn't gone very far. Then there's this conversation, which hit me in the feels:

"Does it ever, like...I don't know. Make you lonely? To love somebody who can't meet you there?" "Sometimes. But, you know, that feeling?" When you wake up in the morning and you have somebody to think about? Somewhere for hope to go? It's good. Even when it's bad, it's good."

Ah, yes, this is how I feel as well in my own life with my own pointless crush who said no. So I was very eager and hopeful to see how the tide would turn for Wes, as it were. However, that's about the one thing that I felt got a little short shrift--I guess Wes just saw Annie looking hot and being helpful (more or less) and is all "I love you," and there we go? It's that easy to get over his shit?! God, I wish! 

Anyway...four and a half stars from me. Good read, y'all!

Spelunking Through Hell: A Visitor's Guide to the Underworld

By Seanan McGuire.

Previous book here. 

"Spelunking Through Hell was literally the book I used to pitch this series in the first place, and everything since then has been one long con to convince you all to care about this vaguely disturbed, definitely damaged woman and her wild, possibly futile search for the man she lost fifty years before." -Seanan McGuire, in the acknowledgements.

This is THE book in this series. While the October Daye series has a ton of mysteries, the InCryptid series has had one main huge one: WHERE'S THOMAS PRICE? We know he made a deal with the crossroads after several years of happy marriage with Alice, we know he was taken by the crossroads, and we know that Alice has been literally hellbent on finding him ever since, extending her life/somehow continuing to be young even though she's been hunting for him through other dimensions/worlds/whatever for over fifty years. We know most of the family thinks this is pointless, and the last few books featuring Antimony have finally answered some questions regarding the crosssroads.

Well, here's Alice's book, FINALLY, on how she's going to find her husband and know what happened to him, once and for all. I think I'm gonna take the rest of the review below the spoiler cut...but I'll say it's 4.5 stars. This is an excellent review to read as well.

I note that there are some Alice/Thomas prequel short stories on the author's website, but I've been reading most of their entire backstory via what she's done on Patreon. You may want to do the same and sign up, because daaaaaaaaaang, the backstory!

The Book of Magic

By Alice Hoffman.

I read Practical Magic so many years ago I don't think I could even find the original review, if I ever wrote one. Ditto the movie. I know the author has been writing prequels to the book and I haven't particularly felt like reading more about the Owens Love Curse during a period of time where you know it's going to be sad. But this book takes place after Practical Magic, so then I was interested.

Since then, Sally's lost another husband to death (bummed me out) and is closed off to love again. Gillian is still with her dude, but hiding that they're married to duck the curse. Antonia, a lesbian, is having a baby with her best gay guy friend, and Kylie's still secretly in love with her best guy friend Gideon. Unfortunately, Sally being all anti-magic about things has led to Sally NOT warning the girls that the family is cursed about love, and poor Kylie finds this out when her boyfriend is hit by a car and is in a coma.

Aunt Jet dies at the beginning of this book, but has about a week of warning before she does so, so she ties up loose ends and digs up a magical book that could help someone get rid of the curse. She left it for her sister Franny, but Kylie finds it and flies off to England, where the curse began. Unfortunately, the magical ally she finds there is Tom, whose line is also cursed and he's looking to do bad things. So most of the rest of the family, including Grandpa Vincent (gay, faked his own death to be with his true love), also fly to England, where they meet some new magical allies. Antonia is stuck at home, but falls in insta-love with the lawyer handling Jet's will. Most notable in this is Sally falling in instalove with Ian, an ex-con turned professor who investigates the dark side of magic. Honestly, I don't know if I lurve that particular relationship or not, but that's the one that gets the most development here. Antonia and Vincent also find true love again, but it's not covered much. Anyway, somebody needs to sacrifice, guess who, and it's time to end this whole thing.

Overall this was a pleasant enough book. I wasn't madly in love but was entertained enough. I think I felt the romances were all pretty shsallowly established. Kylie and Gideon only get a few pages, but it seemed like the healthiest relationship of the bunch. I wasn't too into Ian as a love interest--like, I get that he's not super evil at heart, but he's dubious enough that I was all "I really don't know about this dude as a match for Sally." But it has a happy ending, so I'm good with that. Three and a half stars. 

Aurora's End

By Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff.

Previous book here.

I haven't been quite as in love with this trilogy as I was with Illuminae, but this book is the best of the trilogy. It somehow levels up to me in a way the other two books did not. Review below the spoiler cut, but five stars.