CBR18 Book 21: "Black Sun" by Rebecca Roanhorse

Page count: 453 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Dark Corner selection - February 26

Defeat the Goblin - The pebble book - a book that was gifted to you

Monthly Keyword 26: Sun

Nowhere Book Bingo 26: A book with multiple POVs

Read the Rainbow: Black

This is a book with a number of different POV characters. There is Serapio, a blind young man whom we first encounter as a child, being horribly mutilated by his mother (who subsequently throws herself off a building). All this horrific violence is to make him a suitable vessel for the Crow God. He is trained by three mysterious individuals who continue his grooming to fulfil his mother's twisted goals. There is also Xiala, who is a Teek sea captain, tasked with taking Serapio via ship to Tova, the capital city of the empire. The other sailors on the ship seem sceptical about Xiala, but all Teek have a special connection to the sea, and because of this, she can get the ship through storms and other dangers, and they are forced to accept her as their captain. Our third major player is Narampa, who was the unlikely candidate to succeed the previous Sun Priest, and who now wants the priests to make a difference in society. Some of her fellow priests can only be said to be rather hostile to her ideas of reform, and plot behind her back to get rid of her. Our final protagonist is Okoa, son of the Crow clan matriarch. He's called back to Tova from his warrior training after his mother dies, and he has to take his place as his sister's chief bodyguard, basically. 

I finished this book in mid-February, so my memory of all the intricacies of the plot is now rather vague. The opening chapter was almost a deal-breaker for me (I just cannot with children in peril), but because several people I trust had assured me that this book is worth reading (I was gifted my paperback copy of it by the lovely Rochelle), I persevered. The first third or so was rather slow, and I found Narampa's chapters, especially, to be hard going. I liked Xiala from the start, and she is one of the reasons why I will probably continue with the series, even after there were bits that I wasn't wild about.

We had an interesting book club discussion about the book, and while the majority of the people who came in February liked it, I don't think any of us loved it. We appreciated the unusual setting; it's always nice to read something a bit different from the Eurocentric medieval fantasy worlds we often find in the genre. Since I am literally one of only two members in the group who has a child, none of the others was as bothered by the brutal mutilation of a young boy as I was. There was general agreement that Narampa was the dullest character, and that both Serapio and Xiala might technically be adults, but they have both had such weird lives that it's no wonder they make some truly inadvisable choices. While I liked Xiala, she seems rather self-destructive and Okoa and his giant crow (who he can ride on) may be my favourites of the lot.

I probably will continue the series (I own all three books, after all), but I'm not in a hurry to read the sequels. Some of the others in the book club continued, and seemed to think book two was a bit slower, but that the series ends well in book three. So we'll see.

Judging a book by its cover: I don't like this cover, I think it looks bad, and the UK publishers have chosen to go with exactly the same ugly image, so I don't even have the option to get an alternate one.  The Broken Binding special editions are absolutely gorgeous, but they also cost an arm and a leg, so that's not a suitable option, either. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR18 Book 20: "Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter" by Heather Fawcett

Page count: 368 pages

Rating: 4.5 stars

Nowhere Book Bingo 26: A book involving animals

Monthly Keyword Challenge 26: Cat

Official plot summary, because I finished this back in February, and my perimenopausal brain isn't exactly helping here:

Agnes Aubert leads a meticulously organized life, and she likes it that way. As the proudly type-A manager of a cat rescue charity, she has devoted her life to finding forever homes for stray cats.

Now it’s the shelter that needs a new home. And the only landlord who will rent a space to a cat rescue is a mysterious man called Havelock—who also happens to be the world’s most infamous magician, running an illegal magic shop out of his basement. Havelock is cantankerous and eccentric, but not not handsome, and no, Agnes absolutely does not feel anything but disdain for him. After all, rumors swirl about his shadowy past—including whispers that his dark magic once almost brought about the apocalypse.

Then one day a glamorous magician comes looking for Havelock, putting the magic shop—and the cat shelter—in jeopardy. To save the shelter, Agnes will have to team up with the magician who nearly ended the world . . . and may now be trying to steal her heart.

Havelock is everything Agnes thinks she doesn’t need in her chaos, mischief, and a little too much adventure. But as she gets to know him, she discovers that he’s more than the dark magician of legend, and that she may be ready for a little intrigue—and romance—in her life. After all, second chances aren’t just for rescue cats. . . .

This book takes some of the central elements of the Miyazaki adaptation of Howl's Moving Castle (the opinionated young woman determined to tidy up everything and everyone, especially the utter chaos that is the handsome, eccentric and possibly a bit socially awkward magician she shares a living space with) and adds cats! What's not to like? 

I would say that the official plot summary may mislead readers into thinking that romance is going to play more of a role in proceedings than it actually does. There is absolutely an attraction between Agnes and Havelock, but it is so slow-burning that it never really has time to become much of a blaze before the book is over. If Fawcett intends to write a sequel (which I sort of hope she doesn't, because the book works on its own, and standalones are so rare these days), I suspect the romance will be much more central. 

In my book club, we have a running joke that far too many books have exciting covers (and occasionally plot summaries) that promise the presence of cats, only for us to discover that it is all lies. Sometimes, the cover has a cat, and there isn't a single cat to be found anywhere in the story (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, to name one). Sometimes, the book summary promises us cats, and they literally only feature in two scenes in the entire book (Chilling Effect, I'm looking at you). This book, on the other hand, has so many cats. Tiny cats, shy cats, cuddly cats, eerie cats and absolutely dastardly tyrant cats. Several of them play important roles in the story, more so than some of the supporting human characters, frankly.

Agnes is wonderful. I would love to be her friend, especially because I suspect she'd come to my house and, after being gently disappointed in the absolute chaos that surrounds me and my family at any given time, she would roll up her sleeves and tidy and organise this place with military precision. I would bake her things to show my gratitude. 

Havelock (I am dying to find out if this is a clever Pratchett reference) is so incredibly Howl-coded. He is handsome, scatter-brained, antisocial, and lives for his magical experiments. He's basically a mad scientist, but with magic, who seems to have learned how to people from reading books (so not always that successfully). Both his living space and his personality are complete messes, and this is obviously irresistible to Agnes. She cannot rest until she has tidied and organised his multiple sub-levels of hoarded magical artefacts. 

There are some great supporting characters in this, as well. Both Agnes' and Havelock's sisters come to mind, and there is Yannick, Havelock's harried apprentice, and Mina, the hard-working volunteer helping Agnes get the cats relocated to good homes. This was one of my most anticipated books to come out this winter, and it didn't disappoint for a second. It is cosy and entertaining, and I highly recommend it. 

Judging a book by its cover: This cover is an utter delight. Look at all the different kitties, lounging and prowling and playing and generally being adorable and whimsical. I love that the artist has included so many of the cat characters from the book, very recognisably, on the cover. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR18 Book 19: "Marry Me by Midnight" by Felicia Grossman

Page count: 352 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Nowhere Book Bingo 26: A book that takes place outside of the US

Monthly Keyword Challenge 26: Midnight

Defeat the Goblin TBR 26: The Locket Book - a romance or a book with a lot of yearning

Reading Rainbow - Blue cover

Isabelle Lira wants to take charge of her deceased father's business, but is hindered from doing so both because she is a woman and because the Jewish community she lives in finds it unacceptable. So she must find a husband who will not object to her controlling her family's interests, and who won't be cruel, abusive or who will take advantage of her and her wealth. In order to find a suitable match, she is arranging three festival events, where all eligible Jewish men are invited. 

Aaron Ellenberg is certainly not one of these eligible suitors. He works as a custodian for the synagogue, having failed to learn anything useful in a number of apprenticeships. He is about as lowly a member of the Jewish community in London as you can get, but he's handsome, polite, and unfailingly kind to the elderly, children and animals, down to even the rats and mice. He is known to everyone, yet not really noticed much. Isabelle offers to pay him to be her spy at the festivals; she needs him to observe her various matrimonial candidates and report back to her whether they might be men she could consider as suitors. 

Of course, every time they meet to talk, sparks fly. Their chemistry is undeniable, and while he may be far too lowly for Isabelle to consider him as a possible candidate, she feels safe and comfortable around him, as well as tingly in all the right places. Aaron, meanwhile, is baffled that such a beautiful, wealthy woman is even giving him the time of day, and with the money he will make helping her, he might be able to emigrate to America to make a new life for himself.

Marry Me by Midnight is the first of Felicia Grossman's fairy tale retellings, set in the Jewish community in London's East End. This book is a Cinderella retelling, with Isabelle being the prince to be wooed at a series of balls, while Aaron is our lowly scullery boy (of sorts). This story has adorable animal friends, an unexpected fairy godmother, and various fancy outfits to allow our hero to go to the ball. 

While I have read a lot of historical novels, I am not really familiar with the Jewish enclave of London during the Victorian era, so this book gave me some new and interesting insight, while also putting a spin on a familiar tale. Isabelle and Aaron are a lovely pairing who banter and yearn for each other, and eventually decide to act on their attraction (in some cases, in locations that seem somewhat exposed). The course of true love needs some obstacles in its way, and in this case, there is someone who seems determined to stop Aaron from finding his happy ending with Isabelle, using violence if necessary. 

There are three books so far in this series, and I know that the next one features one of the men who might have ended up as one of Isabelle's suitors, had she not pretty much had eyes only for Aaron from the start. The third one appears to be about Isabelle's friend, who is medically trained and works as a midwife, and both these books also really appeal to me, so this will certainly not be the only of Ms. Grossman's books that I read. 

Judging a book by its cover: While the exact scene depicted on the cover doesn't take place (because, really, why would they be dancing on the stairs?), it captures some of the book's magical atmosphere. The many shades of blue are lovely, and the couple on the cover seem to be really besotted with one another. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

CBR18 Book 18: "Cherry Baby" by Rainbow Rowell

Page count: 416 pages

Rating: 3 stars, I think. It may be 3.5, but I'm not actually sure right now. 

Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for this ARC. My opinions are my own. This book is out on April 14th.

Cherry's husband, Tom, is in Los Angeles, working on turning his web comic-turned extremely successful graphic novel, Thursday, into a movie. His semi-autobiographical comic, which happens to have a caricatured version of Cherry in it, who is called Baby. Now that there are multiple trailers, even complete strangers recognise Cherry in all sorts of strange places. She is trying very hard not to pay any attention to all the publicity.

Very few people know that Tom has been away for the last year, and that Cherry asked him for a divorce. The rest of Cherry's family is all very religious and keeps telling her to forgive him and take him back. However, Cherry is bitter. Tom's off living the high life in Hollywood, while she's at home, in the house they bought together to possibly build a family in, taking care of the gigantic dog that Tom wanted and left Cherry with. One evening, when Cherry is out at a concert, she reconnects with an old friend from college, whom she had always had a crush on but never acted on, because he dated her best friend. Russ Sutton is still very handsome and seems utterly delighted to see Cherry again. While she was pretty solidly friend-zoned back in college, he now seems absolutely crazy about her. He also appears to never even have heard of Thursday. 

But suddenly, Tom is back from Los Angeles, ready to pack up his things and make the move permanent. Deciding how to split the contents of the house turns into a long, drawn-out process (after more than a decade together), and Cherry starts realising that she might not be ready to give up on her marriage, after all.

I was so incredibly excited when I was granted an ARC for this novel. Rainbow Rowell is one of my favourite authors. So many of her books have elements that feel like they were written for me, specifically - especially Attachments, Fangirl and Landline. I bought Slow Dance in hardback when I was in Vermont visiting my best friend last year, so I could read it on release day. So it's really difficult for me to write this review, because this is the first book of Rowell's where I'm not actually sure what I think, and how I should rate it. I read it in two days (because I thought it was coming out on April 7th, and I like to try to get my ARC reviews done around the release date of the book - turns out I was a week early) and I feel really conflicted, because while there were things I liked about it, there were also a lot of things that I disliked and/or that made me uncomfortable. 

Things I liked:

- Cherry's friendship with Stacia. 

- The way Rowell's writing always makes the characters feel complex and real. 

- Some of the family dynamics in Cherry's family. 

- Cherry's relationship with her boss.

- Most of Cherry's whimsical dress sense. 

Things I didn't like as much:

- Cherry's insistence on wearing heels, even when it was clear that it was causing her excruciating pain in her feet, legs and lower back. 

- The way Cherry acted towards Russ after one argument

- Cherry may be very good at her job, but she seems like quite an unpleasant person, overall. Most of her sisters also seem quite petty and mean. 

What I actively disliked:

- The massive focus on fatness throughout the book. The word "fat" is used 72 times in this novel, and most of it is to describe Cherry, but it's also made very clear that her mother and four of her sisters are also fat. Cherry and three of her sisters have a group chat, excluding the eldest, Hope, because she has been losing more than half of their body weight in the last year, and they're sure she's on Ozempic and just not telling them. They are REALLY mean about it, and seem to think it's some sort of personal betrayal of all of them that she has lost the weight (even though it seemed incredibly obvious to me that it was probably because of health reasons, and moreover, none of their d*mn business). The fact that it's also mentioned at one point that Cherry is a US size 18, which happens to be the size I am now (after several years of treatment with GLP-1 medication, also for health reasons), made it seem all the more pointed to me. With so many books of hers that felt like they were mirroring me and my life in some ways, this felt more like a personal attack, which is never a nice feeling, and certainly not something I was expecting from a Rowell book. 

Maybe I wasn't in the right headspace for this, maybe it's just that I was still processing my book hangover from This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews (review to come when I catch up on my backlog), but this is my least favourite Rainbow Rowell novel so far, and the only one so far I don't think I actually want to spend money on while it's full price. I may get it if I find it for less than 3 dollars in an e-book sale, but unless I re-read this and discover I was completely wrong the first time around, I will not be wanting a physical copy of this book on my shelves. And that makes me really sad. 

Judging a book by its cover: The cover is simple and cheerful, and the cream, black and red, with a little bit of green makes it eye-catching. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR18 Book 17: "While You Were Seething" by Charlotte Stein

Page count: 320 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC. My opinions are my own. This book will be out on April 14th.

Daisy Emmett is an excellent PR manager and has successfully managed a number of difficult clients, but trying to repair the image of famous romance author Caleb Miller, after he very publicly declared to the world that "happy endings are for fools", might be her most difficult job yet. Their mutual dislike of one another started when they were both in college a decade ago, and despite their many shared interests, they seemed to constantly argue and provoke one another. Now Daisy has to get Caleb to agree to go on a multi-stop book tour, to make sure he can convince his readers that his books are still worth reading, and he doesn't hate the genre he's so successfully written in for years. He also refuses to fly anywhere and insists on driving to all the various locations in his beat-up old truck, so they will be forced to spend hours and days together in a very cramped space.

One of the things that avid fans love about Caleb's books is the dedications he writes to his long-lost love, but Daisy is pretty sure this woman never existed (mainly because she cannot imagine anyone putting up with him for any amount of time, let alone loving him). Nevertheless, since it is her job to make him seem charming, romantic and attractive, she has hired an actress to appear with him on some of the stops of the tour, to fuel the rumours of a possible reunion. Unfortunately, during the first stop, a misunderstanding leads to everyone believing that Daisy is the mystery woman of Caleb's dreams, and because Daisy needs the book tour to be a success, she is forced to agree to play her nemesis's romantic interest. What is even more unnerving to her is how easy she finds it to pretend to be his long-lost love, and how every new day makes her reevaluate their time together in college, and see things both of them said and did in a new light. Maybe Caleb didn't always disapprove of everything she said and did, and maybe she no longer hates him? 

This is my first novel by Charlotte Stein, and I gather from both her author's note and previous reviews I've read of her earlier books that several of Daisy's friends who are mentioned in this book have been the protagonists of at least two of her earlier books. I know my friend Ashley/Narfna mentioned in her review of My Big Fat Fake Marriage that the insecurity of the characters was an issue for her, and I think that is my sticking point with this book, as well. The reason I can't rate this book more than 3.5 stars (and that is me generously rounding up) is that both Daisy and Caleb (or Emmett and Miller, as they refer to each other for most of the book) are both so insecure and have so much self-loathing that it goes beyond being something sympathetic, and just gets annoying.

Daisy is from the UK, but attended university in the US on a scholarship. She grew up in a small English town where she always felt like an outsider, and comments from her family about how she "must have been switched at birth" probably didn't make her feel any better. At 24, she feels desperately out of place at college, and the only one she seems to have anything in common with is Caleb Miller, who, unfortunately, is so standoffish and rude, and seems to always criticise or scoff at everything she says, that she grows to loathe him. She considers herself too loud, too enthusiastic, too peculiar, and to fit in, she becomes the ultimate people-pleaser. She uses her sharp powers of observation to assess what people around her want and need, and learns to tone down every possibly problematic aspect of her own personality so she will be seen as invaluable and indispensable. 

Her ability to assess what other people want, sometimes before they themselves know it, is what makes her so good at her job. Of course, even though she has several loyal employees and friends, she doesn't really believe that any of them really like her, because she has had so many negative experiences in the past, with both acquaintances and lovers.

Caleb Miller lives like a recluse in a house surrounded by a massive fence, and many posters about how he has vicious guard dogs. He eats his very plain and flavourless meals at the same diner every day, and has, despite his deep misanthropy, managed to write multiple extremely successful romance novels (at least two of them turned into TV adaptations starring Nicole Kidman - loved that little detail). However, after a disastrous TV appearance, his fans are now turning on him, and his publisher has begged Daisy to help. Caleb hates flying and anything that forces him out of his routine. He insists on driving his own pickup truck to the various tour locations and seems appalled that Daisy refuses to leave his side (she's convinced he'll make a run for it the first chance he gets). 

While Daisy seems to think he hates everything about her, he seems to know exactly what her food and drink preferences are every time they stop to eat, and once he discovers that some of the things he said to her back in college have stayed with her and haunted her, he is genuinely appalled. When it becomes clear that the world now believes them to have been secret lovers at some point, and improving Caleb's image demands that they keep up the charade, he decides he's going to become the best fake boyfriend there is, despite his obvious social awkwardness.

I'm not a huge fan of "enemies to lovers" where it's obvious that they are really only enemies because of some dumb misunderstanding, where one or both of them said something insensitive at some point, and a conversation or two could have cleared it all up. In this book, that trope is further complicated by the fact that both Daisy and Caleb are so full of insecurities and self-loathing that they cannot believe anyone would actually voluntarily spend time with them, let alone see past their perceived massive flaws to learn to love them. It took them both FAR too long to get over this and move towards a happy ending. I also never understood why Caleb decided that he must forego absolutely anything that could bring a smidgen of joy to his life (he literally eats the saddest food and doesn't seem to allow himself anything that could be construed as comfortable). 

I should have felt a kinship with Daisy, because thanks to decades of anxiety and a family situation that wasn't exactly ideal, I, too, have spent so much of my life people-pleasing and trying to make myself indispensable, both in my personal and professional life. Yet even at my worst, at least one tiny voice in my head told me that I was being irrational, and I never ended up being as bad as Daisy or Caleb. 

It could just be that I've read a lot of romance novels, but I also felt that a lot of the "twists" of this story were very heavily telegraphed, and I was therefore never really surprised by the plot. I know that my friend Rochelle has been very enthusiastic about some of Stein's previous novels, so this is probably more a "me" problem, than something that will apply to all romance readers. I will probably check out at least one more of her novels to see if my misgivings are confined to just this book, or if Stein's writing just isn't for me. 

Judging a book by its cover: Leni Kauffman draws excellent romance covers, where the people portrayed look the way they are described in the books. If I was going to nitpick, Caleb is described mostly wearing worn-out jeans, rather than brown trousers, and I think Daisy's hair is described as a bit darker than this, but considering how many bad romance covers there are out there, that is negligible. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR18 Book 16: "The Love Feud" by Janine Amesta

Page count: 255 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer! This was an ARC from the author. My opinions are my own. 

Hailey Moreno thought it was quite exciting to be secretly dating the son of her family's company's chief rival, but once her father died, and said rival (with the help of his son) tried to offer to buy the Moreno's air balloon business, she felt deeply betrayed and told Ryland Selene to take a hike.

Four years later, she still hasn't told her mother or any of her sisters that she used to date Ryland, and had her heart pretty thorougly broken by him. Hailey is the youngest of the Moreno sisters, and had a wild temper and a tendency to stir up drama when she was younger. She loved to make videos on her social media feed, but at 26, she's growing up and wondering about her future. As the only unmarried daughter, she is the one who still lives with their widowed mother, and does her best to make her anxious mother socialise more. It seems as if her mother expects her to just stay unmarried and living in her childhood home forever, and Hailey is beginning to feel trapped.

Having clashed a lot with her older sister Selah in the past, and now really wants to contribute to the company in a way that will earn her sister's approval. She suggests arranging a hot air balloon festival in Central Oregon, and unfortunately, since theirs is not the only hot air balloon company in the state, her sister insists that she extend an olive branch to their main competitors. Which means talking to her ex again.

Ryland "Ry" Selene has never gotten over Hailey Moreno, and felt so guilty about making her life more difficult in the weeks after her father's death, that he reevaluated his own life to the point where he quit his dad's company, got himself a business degree, and is now working for a local brewery. He tries to tell himself that he doesn't miss piloting hot air balloons, but deep down, he very much does. The fact that one of his closest co-workers at his new job is his former high school bully is not improving his life. So when he discovers that Hailey e-mailed his dad about this air balloon festival, he takes it as an opportunity to see her again.

Soon Hailey has convinced him that to drum up promotion for the event, which they only have a few months to plan, they should have a fake hating relationship on social media. They should play up the rivalry between their families and their companies, and pretend to be fighting in a series of videos, planned out by Hailey. Because Ry pretty much wants any excuse to spend more time with Hailey again, he reluctantly agrees, encouraged by his roommate, who thinks having staged fights with his ex-girlfriend might help Ry get more assertive and likely to stand up for himself against the office bully. 

Of course, making the videos bring Hailey and Ry into contact with one another a lot, and spending time bickering on camera makes it obvious that their previous chemistry isn't just still present, it may actually be even more incindiary than before. It doesn't take all that long before they may be fighting on camera, but kissing as soon as the videos are done. But Ry didn't really like the idea of their relationship being secret four years ago. He's even less thrilled about the idea now, when he finally has a chance to win Hailey back.

This is the third and final novel in Janine Amesta's Love is in the Air trilogy, about the Moreno sisters finding their happy endings and saving their family business after the sudden and unexpected death of their father. In Love at First Flight, Hailey was the bratty younger sister who got her sister's relationship in trouble by gossiping too much on social media. As the youngest sister, Hailey was still in a very emotionally unstable place when their father died, and some of her actions in the aftermath, when trying to cope with her grief, led to her making some questionable decisions. Hailey and Selah do talk it out and reach a better understanding of each other, but even several years later, Hailey still feels like the black sheep, who's not as talented and useful as her sisters.

Ryland is a rather shy and very non-confrontational guy. One of the rare occasions when he pushed himself to be brave was when he first saw Hailey and made himself go over and talk to her, even though he was convinced he'd be firmly rejected. He feels a lot of guilt about how much he hurt Hailey shortly after her father's death, to the point where he convinced himself he needed to change his whole life and future plans. Reconnecting with Hailey confirms to him that he's not over her, and even though he thinks her social media fake feud is ridiculous, he just can't help saying yes to her, because he loves her special brand of crazy.

I feel very lucky that I've gotten to read this entire series as ARCs, and once again extend my thanks to Janine Amesta for the reading copy. This book releases today, and in these depressing times, a contemporary romance that focuses on family, personal growth and a sweet second chance romance is a balm for the senses. 

Judging a book by its cover: I think this may be my favourite of all the covers in this series. I really like the lit balloon, and Hailey reaching down towards Ryland. Even though this isn't a scene that actually appears in the book, the vibes feel right, and the Romeo and Juliet reference is pretty obvious.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR18 Book 15: "The Proposal" by Jasmine Guillory

Page count: 325 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

Nowhere Book Bingo 26: BIPOC rep by a BIPOC author

Reading Rainbow - Orange cover

Nikole "Nik" Paterson is bored and uncomfortable at a baseball game with her handsome, if rather self-centred, actor boyfriend, and his bros. She is absolutely blindsided when he surprises her with a public proposal, via the scoreboard, and to add insult to injury, he didn't even spell her name correctly. Nik is mortified, her boyfriend is insulted by her rejection, and things are about to take a nasty turn when a couple of strangers come to Nik's rescue.

Carlos Ibarra and his sister witness the proposal first-hand from a few rows behind her and when Nik's scorned boyfriends storms off, and a camera crew appears to be on their way to interview Nik, his sister insists that they step in and pretend to be close friends of Nik's, so they can lead her off to safety and away from the public eye and further embarrassment. They take Nik to a bar where her supportive friends are waiting, and share some drinks to decompress after the humiliating event.

Nik is certainly not ready for anything serious again any time soon, but her friends keep encouraging her to keep in touch with the handsome and kind Carlos, and it doesn't take long before they embark on a rebound relationship. Carlos takes his responsibility to his family members extremely seriously and doesn't want to be tied down to a long-term girlfriend. Nik just wants some uncomplicated sex and fun. Surely they can keep things casual and not catch feelings, right?

Jasmine Guillory seems to be a big favourite among some romance readers online, and while her books are fine, they just never seem to be all that memorable to me, and I only read about one a year. As is so often the case with me, I'm yet again way behind on my reviews, and having finished this book in the middle of February, I'm having a lot of trouble remembering specifics of the plot.

What I do remember:

- Carlos has this idea that he needs to be free to drop everything at a moment's notice in case any member of his family, close or extended, needs anything. Since he already works as a paediatrician, a job that demands a lot of his time, he has convinced himself that he can't have a girlfriend who will also make demands on his time. 

- Nik's ex-boyfriend is a real tool, and after being rejected (in front of a huge crowd of people, in an event he orchestrated), he starts sending her threatening messages. As a result, she drags her two best friends along for a self-defence class that they all end up loving. When he finally tries to confront her towards the end of the book, the lessons prove to have been very useful.

- One of Nik's friends runs a cupcake bakery and seems to need a lot of help, which keeps putting Nik and Carlos in close proximity to one another. 

- Carlos' cousin is pregnant, and her pregnancy is a complicated one. This means that he worries even more about her than any of his other relatives. 

- Both Carlos and Nik have many justifications to themselves about why they're not ready or able to commit to anyone in a long-term relationship, which means it takes a frustratingly long time for both of them to admit that they have feelings for each other. 

I don't regret having spent money on this (chances are, I got it in an e-book sale) or spending time reading it, but I doubt it will become a comfort re-read in the future for me. 

Judging a book by its cover: I like this new cover design a lot better than the original, which had a very nice blue background, but just faces in profile, seemingly floating on the edges of the cover. Not very appealing. This sunset view is much prettier. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR18 Book 14: "A Girl Like Her (Deluxe Edition) by Talia Hibbert

Page count: 320 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebook Casablanca for this ARC. My opinions are my own. 

Evan Miller has recently moved to Ravenswood, and while he appreciates his job as a metalworker and many of his co-workers, he's less of a fan of the boss's son trying to ingratiate himself with him. Especially once said nepo-baby keeps throwing condescending hints about Evan's next-door neighbour, Ruth.

Ruth Kabbah is shunned by most people in Ravenswood because of events in her past. She barely ever leaves her house, except once weekly, to have lunch with her mother and sister. She's autistic, has very little patience for anyone else's nonsense, and is obsessed with comics. When her new neighbour, a tall, hot, bearded guy, knocks on her door, presenting her with a Shepard's Pie to boot, she is deeply suspicious. On the other hand, she's not going to turn down free food. Her stove was removed after an accidental fire, and she really only lives on cup noodles and fast food. So delicious, home-cooked meals outside of her mother's dinners are a rarity.

Despite Ruth's initial hostility, Evan finds her fascinating and keeps showing up on her doorstep with food. Ruth decides she can lend him comics in return, and is rather surprised that Evan is not only reading them, but is quite happy spending hours discussing them with her. As their friendship grows, so too does the attraction between them, but Ruth's only previous relationship was a very toxic one, so she's wary about getting involved with anyone else. She's both grateful and frustrated that Evan keeps being a gentleman who respects her boundaries and backs off the minute she has hesitations. 

Can Evan convince Ruth that she's not, in fact, a "jezebel" who should be afraid to leave her house? Can he prove to her that she is worth loving, just the way she is?

A Girl Like Her was originally self-published by Talia Hibbert in 2018. Now they have been picked up by a big publisher, and she's had a chance to revise and improve them, and they will hopefully reach a wider market than previously. I have liked, or loved, every novel of Hibbert's that I've read before, but I haven't had a chance to check out the earlier novels that she published before The Brown Sisters series. It's been quite a few years since I read it now, but I thought there were quite a few similarities between this and Get a Life, Chloe Brown. Both feature self-employed plus-size black women who barely ever leave their houses, and handsome, tattooed craftsmen who fall in love with them. Both have neurodivergent heroines (I think all of Hibbert's novels may feature at least one protagonist on the autism spectrum) and heroes who patiently wait for them to be ready to be loved. Despite the similarities, it didn't feel like Hibbert was plagiarising herself, just writing variations on a theme.

Based on the author's note at the back of the book, one of the novellas in the series is being expanded into a full novel, and she's working on improving the second book in the series (about Ruth's sister). I am most likely going to wait until the new editions are out. 

Judging a book by its cover: The new cover of this Deluxe edition feels like the publishers are trying to "rebrand" Hibbert's books to a wider market. The previous editions either had pictures of a couple embracing or just went with a buff, tattooed shirtless dude, leaving the woman out of the equation entirely. All of these previous cover designs were pretty typical of romance, and with this more demure cover, I think they're hoping to catch more of the "women's lit" market. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR18 Book 13: "Better Than a Duke" by Suzanne Enoch

Page count: 352 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Bramble for this ARC. My opinions are my own.

Beckett Raines, the Marquis of Hentrose, has been widowed for ten years, leaving him a single father to young Rebecca (who would like to be known as Lady Becks). He's been aided by a number of loyal servants, but now his meddling mother has decided that it's time for him to marry an appropriate woman who can be a good role model to the girl. Because Beckett was guided by his emotions the last time around, and his wife turned out to be very pretty, but rather vapid, and then died in childbirth, he's determined that his next marriage will be a partnership, with no romantic feelings involved. 

Iris Silbern has been widowed for four years and currently has to reside with her ten-year-old son, Edmund, with her aunt and uncle, in the house neighbouring Beckett's, and their first meeting isn't exactly flattering to her. She comes storming into his house, threatening him with a shovel, with her hair like a haystack around her head and her clothes wrinkled from a long time travelling. She accuses him of having abducted Edmund (when in fact, the rascal came up with a sob story about being a starving orphan), but calms down once she sees how happy her son is playing with Rebecca. It doesn't take long before the children are pretty much inseparable, and Beckett and Iris are bonding over being widowed single parents. 

It doesn't take long for Rebecca to discover that while the lady her father is possibly going to marry may look pretty and pleasant while there are other adults around, she's clearly planning to have Beckett to herself. She strongly implies that Rebecca will be sent off to boarding school and that her father will be all the happier for it. Meanwhile, Iris is hoping to borrow money from her uncle to buy herself a house in the country, where she plans to take in lodgers. They, on the other hand, believe she should get married again, even though she has no wish to ever remarry. They introduce her to the Duke of Trent, who is over seventy, already has two sons and several grandchildren, but is nevertheless looking for Duchess number six. Marrying the lecherous old man would ensure that Iris got enough money to secure a good education and a decent future for Edmund. And while he's outlived five wives so far, surely he'll not outlive Iris as well?

Obviously, neither child is happy with their potential step-parents, especially since it would mean Rebecca and Edmund would be separated. They'd much rather be siblings and decide to get their parents to marry each other, and their plans are forced to get ever more elaborate as Beckett and Iris stubbornly refuse to acknowledge that their perfect partner is right there on the other side of the garden wall.

Last year, I got an ARC of A Duke Never Tells, Suzanne Enoch's previous novel, and it was a perfectly fine read, but I can't really remember a thing about it now, except that two different couples were romancing each other while assuming other people's identities. It certainly didn't make me smile, and even laugh, as much as this one. The previous book became a bit too messy to be a fun romp; this one succeeded better. A lot of romance novels, movies and television have done parent trap retellings, or stories with similar tropes. A few years ago, I read Don't Want You Like a Best Friend by Emma R. Alban, but here the scheming children are debutantes who try to get their parents to marry so they themselves don't have to. This one was a lot more entertaining, which isn't always an easy feat when two of the characters concerned are children of nine and ten. 

Even when they start acknowledging that they are growing to be more than just friends, neither Beckett nor Iris considers the other as a suitable future spouse. Beckett wants a lady of impeccable pedigree and breeding who can help advise and guide Rebecca and ensure that she fits into polite society. While he tries to ignore his overbearing mother, her constant criticism is starting to wear on him, and he's worried that growing up without a mother is damaging Rebecca. Because he was blinded by love and made a rather poor choice of first wife, he now wants a marriage without romantic entanglements. He wants a marriage of convenience, a platonic partnership, more to offer a maternal influence for his daughter than for himself. Iris is stubborn, has a terrible temper, is not afraid to speak her mind and has, on occasion, punched men who offended her. While he admires her spirit, he doesn't want his daughter to behave that way. 

Iris, meanwhile, married a man she thought needed her help and guidance, only to discover that he had a gambling problem even before they got married, which only got worse as their marriage continued. He fell when drunk and drowned in a ditch. Iris' father-in-law allowed them to stay in one of the houses on his estate, but as soon as he passed, her brother-in-law kicked them out, leaving them homeless and helpless. She knows what Beckett is looking for in a new wife and understands why she's not suitable. While she feels happier in his company than in years, she also wants him to have a wife who will be accepted in society, rather than constantly shocking and causing minor scandals. 

If the book had been longer, I suspect I would have been annoyed with the length of time it took for the other marital candidates to be neutralised (and while she is clearly an unpleasant person, I think the consequences for Beckett's first choice ended up being more horrible than she deserved) and for Beckett and Iris to finally get together. This is also one of the times when an epilogue would have been nice, to see how the new family was getting along. It is possible to have epilogues in romance that don't involve pregnancies, and one would have been nice here. 

Judging a book by its cover: I don't think smug-looking dude in a cravat is the way to sell a romance, but I'm not mad that it's not a cutesy cartoon cover. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR18 Book 12: "In Which Winnie Halifax is Utterly Ruined" by Alexandra Vasti

Page count: 196 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Reading Rainbow - Purple/violet cover

It's 1811. Winnifred "Winnie" Wallace just wants to settle down in a small town in Wales and raise sheep. She has a modest amount of money, given to her by her con woman mother before said woman absconded to France. However, being a single woman trying to establish herself leads to a lot of suspicion, so Winnie fibs a tiny bit and claims to be married, but estranged from her husband. She literally makes up a name and an address for her fictional spouse, and suddenly she's welcomed into the community.

Ten years later, Spencer Halifax, the Earl of Warren, is told by his solicitor, Henry Mortimer, that it has come to his attention that a woman claims to be married to Spencer, and has copies of banns that very much seem to suggest that the wedding took place. Because all the church records of the place where they supposedly got married were lost when the church burned down, legally speaking, there is no way to disprove the claim, and Spencer may in fact have a wife in Wales. 

Spencer has to rescue his fake wife from the local jail, where she's ended up after punching a rival farmer who accused her of theft. Once she cleans up all the grime, he is, of course, stunned by her beauty (they are never just plain and average in these stories). She convinces him that she in no way wanted to defraud or entrap him in any way, and is rather shocked to realise that her clever lies and external circumstances might mean they are actually legally married. She agrees to accompany him to London, but there is a chance they may have to ask for an actual annulment.

Margo's novella was the shortest of the three stories, and the one I liked the least. Matilda's is probably the longest, and the one I liked the most. That puts Spencer's novella smack bang in the middle, at four stars. It's the most farcical of the three stories, and the plot just keeps getting more and more preposterous as the story progresses. There's the fake marriage to be dealt with, and Winnie's secret plan to return the stolen necklaces her mother gave her to their rightful owners, which involves showing up at dinner parties and hiding in broom closets, and sneaking about at the opera, and what have you. It's not quite insta-love in this story, but it comes very close. Winnie and Spencer don't spend a lot of time together before it becomes clear that their fake marriage should become a real one, and that both of them are sick of being alone and terribly responsible apart, when they have so much fun together. 

I'm really glad that I have discovered Alexandra Vasti as a writer. I have an ARC of the novel she's releasing in June, and I'm really looking forward to reading it.

Judging a book by its cover: The covers of Vasti's self-published novellas are a lot less elaborate than her current romance covers. I do really like the shade of purple used for the background and the little white flowers. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

CBR18 Book 11: "The Halifax Hellions" by Alexandra Vasti

Page count: 384 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Novella 1: In Which Margo Halifax Earns Her Shocking Reputation (3.5 stars)

Novella 2: In Which Matilda Halifax Learns the Value of Restraint (4.5 stars)

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC. My opinions are my own.

This book collects two previously self-published novellas of Alexandra Vasti's, and includes an additional epilogue which has never before been available.

Margo and Matilda Halifax are identical twins, the wealthy younger sisters of an Earl and have basically been seen as outrageous scandals for the years since they made their debut. Both are fiercely loyal and protective of the other; however, neither of them knows that the other has grown rather weary of being seen as shocking and extreme, and they mostly now long to settle down and live quieter lives.

Lady Margaret "Margo" Halifax shows up, soaking wet, on the doorstep of Henry Mortimer, her brother's solicitor and best friend. She believes Matilda has eloped with a dangerous and unpleasant man, and wants to intercept her sister before she gets to Scotland to get married. Henry has been a responsible and steady presence in her life since they met seven years ago, and he's the only one she can think of to ask for help in this situation. 

Henry Mortimer has been in lust with Margo since the first moment he saw her, tying a cherry stem into a knot with her mouth, while fending off suitors in her family's drawing room. He's been in love with her almost as long, because as her brother's best friend, he has seen other sides to Margo than most people in the ton have. The thought of being alone in a carriage with Margo for days on end is pure torture, because he's not sure he'll be able to keep his feelings hidden, but he can't let her endanger herself by running off alone to rescue Matilda.

I'm sure it will be no surprise to anyone that Henry's absolutely right, and that after days in close confinement, they are ready to jump each other's bones. Margo is less in tune with her feelings than Henry, so it takes her a bit longer to realise that she doesn't just want a quick fling with Henry, she'd like to spend the rest of her life with him (whether they manage to stop Matilda or not). 

My notes show me that I read this novella in August 2024, and despite this, I only barely remembered any details. It felt like I was reading it for the first time, not re-reading an old favourite. I can only imagine I was in a very strange headspace when I first read it, which made the details of the story slip from my mind. 

Margo and Henry's novella is the shorter of the two, taking up the first third of the book. Towards the end of the story, our bumbling pursuers actually manage to catch up to Matilda and her potential groom, and it's clear that the sisters should have been a lot more honest and forthcoming with one another. 

Matilda has not been entirely truthful about her true relationship to Christian de Bord, the Marquess of Ashford, who has a very fearsome reputation and possibly murdered his wife. Ashford normally resides alone with his sister in Northumberland, but travels to London because very erotic images of him have been printed in a lewd pamphlet, and he has identified the artist as none other than the infamous Matilda Halifax. She's rather shocked when he confronts her, and while she proves to him that the original drawings have been tampered with, probably to sell more pamphlets, she also feels compelled to confess that he was the inspiration for a lot of her drawings (she's been illustrating erotica in secret for years). Our Matilda has heard rumours about Ashford that he may share certain sexual proclivities of hers, and has apparently been nursing some pretty spicy fantasies about the reclusive nobleman.

Because of the drawings and his already rather dark reputation, Ashford hasn't been able to find an art tutor for his younger sister. Matilda, who is an accomplished artist (she doesn't only draw erotic images) and feels guitly about her part in his difficulties. So she offers to go with him to his estate in Northumberland to tutor his sister, and hopefully persuade her that she might want to travel to London in the near future. Instead of explaining this to her sister, however, Matilda concocts a lie about eloping, and the situation is further complicated because Margo disguised herself as her sister and tried to confront Ashford. Feeling rather irritated because of his inconvenient attraction to the young lady, Ashford said some very shocking things, only to realise shortly afterwards that he'd made suggestive and rather threatening remarks to the wrong twin. So Margo believe her sister to be running off to marry a deranged, perverted wife-murderer. 

While Margo's novella takes place in quite a short space of time, Matilda's story is spread out over a longer time period. There is delighful bantery letters exchanged between her and Ashford, and there's all sorts of mutual pining, Matilda adopting a cat she plans to give to Christian's sister (and him allowing the cat to stay, despite being violently allergic). There's also winning over the Mrs. Danvers-esque housekeeper and trying to befriend Ashford's painfully shy younger sister. I liked the second novella a lot more, mainly because I felt the relationship between Christian and Matilda had time and space to develop properly.

I enjoyed both novellas, though, and am glad I also have the third one Ms. Vasti self-published, where we find out how the elder brother of the twins meets and falls for his wife. 

Judging a book by its cover: I like the bright colours and whimsical details on this cover. The dark and forboding castle in one corner, with the implication that Matilda has been carried off by the brooding Christian, while Margo and Henry pursue them in a carriage. The cherries and the cat are also nice touches (although the cat decribed in the story seems a lot closer to a Persian than the cat on this cover). 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR18 Book 10: "The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook" by Matt Dinniman

Page count: 534 pages

Audio book length: 16 hrs 54 mins

Rating: 4 stars

Carl, Donut and Mongo have made it to the fourth level of the dungeon. This time, there are trains. So many trains. The game appears to have constructed a labyrinthine tangle of all of the world's underground railway systems, and there are new and strange rules to get used to. There are bounties awarded to anyone who kills any of the players in the top ten, which now include both Carl and Donut. 

There are all manner of strange monsters on the various trains and platforms, and while the stairways are apparently on clearly announced stations, most of the crawlers are on trains going to much higher stations, and no one seems to know how to get to the end stations and back to the start of the loop. Carl gets an unexpected advantage from a seemingly useless reward box, The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook, where countless previous crawlers have noted down their tips and tricks and useful modifications about the dungeons. He just can't let anyone know where he's suddenly getting all of his new and clever ideas.

Just as determined that he won't allow the system to break him as before, Carl manages to get more of the crawlers to cooperate and work together on this level. Of course, it also means pulling off some truly insane plans in an attempt to help as many crawlers as possible make it out alive and down to the next level. 

This book was long and dragged in places, but I still very much enjoyed it because by now I adore Carl, Donut, Mongo and poor Katia, who is really put through the wringer in this one. Let's just say her character ended up developing in all sorts of ways I was not expecting. I think she should put her foot down and refuse to wear a Mohawk, no matter what Donut suggests. 

I keep being amazed at the narration, and while I am still happy I have all the audios, I will probably be able to re-read the books on paper, since I now have the voices from the audio so completely internalised. With some books, that might be a problem. Here, it is not. 

Judging a book by its cover: I love the new cover design, and will quite possibly buy the whole series in hardback if it keeps being as good as it is now, partially because I like the design so much. However, it was also fun to see a depiction of the Mantaur that Carl and the others had to fight on the old cover, as well. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR18 Book 9: "How to Train Your Dragon" by Cressida Cowell

Page count: 241 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Read the Rainbow - Red

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III may be the least intimidating Viking in several generations, which is a bit of a problem, since he's the son of the Chief, and therefore meant to lead the Hairy Hooligans when he gets older. He's skinny, puny, bookish and not even slightly intimidating, and when he has to compete in the traditional manhood trial of the tribe, and sneak into a cave to capture himself a dragon, he ends up with the smallest, least impressive dragon of the lot. Hiccup should have an advantage over the other youths when it comes to taming and getting a dragon to do his bidding - he can speak Dragonese. He can't really tell anyone about that, of course, since Dragonese has been forbidden in the Hairy Hooligans for over a hundred years. Also, Hiccup's dragon, Toothless, is stubborn and selfish and couldn't care less about listening to Hiccup.

When the day of the dragon trials finally arrives, a massive fight breaks out among all the recently tamed dragons, and in an unprecedented event, all the youths of the tribe (and their rivals) are supposed to be banished to the wilderness. However, before that can happen, the tribes are faced with a new, much bigger challenge - a very large, very hungry sea dragon has awoken and now wants to eat all the humans. How are they going to defeat something so enormous and dangerous?

I was already at university when these books came out, and I have only watched the first two movies, which are clearly VERY loosely based on this source material. So loosely that pretty much the only thing they've kept is the names of Hiccup and his dragon Toothless (who is not black, super rare and very playful), and maybe some of the vikings in the tribe. So, at least I didn't have anything spoiled for me when I picked this up to read it for a bonus book club meeting we had about dragon riders. Of course, while Hiccup discovers that it's possible to ride dragons in the first movie, nothing like that happens in the book. They mostly use the dragons to intimidate each other and to catch fish. 

Nevertheless, it was a fun book, and I think my eight-year-old son would probably enjoy it. I will probably read it to him at some point in the next year, after the husband and I are done reading him children's classics from our own childhoods. I don't see myself continuing the series for my own sake, but if the kid enjoys them, I will probably read more of them. They are short, action-packed and feature dragons? What's not to love?

Judging a book by its cover: This is a children's book, so I would have thought you'd want something more colourful and exciting to catch the eye of the potential reader. Red, red, maroon and gold is certainly a choice, but I'm not sure I would have grabbed this off a library shelf if I hadn't already known what the book was about. Hiccup also looks nothing like he's described in the book. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read 

CBR 18 Book 8: "Beast Business" by Ilona Andrews

Page count: 205 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Augustine Montgomery is the head of a very successful investigative agency and a deeply private man. He is an illusion Prime, who can alter his appearance at will, and there are very few people alive who know what he actually looks like. Augustine presents himself to the world as calculated, efficient, ruthless and detached. He is never swayed by emotion and has very few friends as a result. 

Diana Harrison is the Head of House Harrison and a very powerful animal mage. Like Augustine, she is seen as cold, detached and seems to care more for animals than people. Her brothers and niece are the only exceptions. She comes to Augustine because she needs help with an urgent personal matter, and she can't hire anyone from the Baylor Agency, since then her niece Matilda might discover what House Harrison has lost. 

Diana and Augustine are both deeply private and secretive, but when working together, it will be impossible for them to keep their abilities hidden. Nevertheless, a helpless baby animal has been stolen and needs to be reunited with its mother soon, or the unique tiger cub might die, and its loss would hurt both its supernatural mother and Diana, who is bonded to the mother tiger. 

Even when busy writing the second book in their new traditionally published fantasy series, Ilona Andrews (the husband and wife writing team) are generous to their devoted fans and wrote this bonus novella, set in their Hidden Legacy paranormal fantasy universe. Augustine and Diana have both appeared as supporting characters in the previous books, with some speculating that there was a romantic connection between the two. This novella confirms that the speculation was right, but it also ends on a cliffhanger of sorts, which I know left some readers frustrated and feeling cheated that they didn't get more of Augustine and Diana as an actual couple. (Yes, Des, I'm talking about you, among others). 

This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me comes out at the end of March, and for those of us not lucky enough to have been granted an ARC, it's very good to have something to distract us from the long wait. As I have said many times before, I would pay for anything Ilona Andrews publishes (frequently in more than one format) and more from the Hidden Legacy universe, especially since this also contains a bonus short story about Arabella Baylor making a new friend, which was very entertaining. 

Judging a book by its cover: Once again, proof that Ilona Andrews only gets good covers when they commission the art themselves. While I think Diana is looking a bit too much like a helpless damsel here, rather than a deadly force to be reckoned with, I really like the cover, and who doesn't love a blue baby tiger?

Crossposted on Cannonball Read 

CBR18 Book 7: "The Galaxy, and the Ground Within" by Becky Chambers

Page count: 325 pages

Rating: 5 stars

Monthly Keyword Challenge 26: Ground

Nowhere Book Bingo 26: A book that came out more than 4 years ago

Defeating the Goblin TBR 26: The Gizmo Book (A Sci-fi or Dystopian book)

Reading Rainbow - Indigo cover

The planet of Gora doesn't have much to recommend itself to anyone, except as a stopover for travellers to other, more interesting parts of space. Travellers can rest, refuel, eat, restock their supplies and update any permits that might be required. It's like an interstellar truck stop between big wormholes. 

The Five-Hop One-Stop is run by Ouloo, a Laru (from the description of what the Laru looked like, I imagined a Golden Retriever with longer limbs and a long, bendable neck), and her child, Tupo. Ouloo clearly takes immense pride in catering to her guests, and has made an effort to make the Five-Hop One-Stop as comfortable for as many species who travel the galaxy as possible. She's courteous, but also curious about the various lives of the visitors who come and go. 

While Ouloo is hosting three very different guests, all there mainly to refuel and restock for a brief while, there is some sort of catastrophic event that leads a lot of the satellites around the planet to crash down, meaning all travel in and out of the planet is halted, and all communications are shut down. So for five days, Ouloo, Tupo and the three guests are stranded together at the Five-Hop One-Stop. There is Speaker, an Akarak, separated from her sickly twin sister for the first time ever. The Akarak can't breathe oxygen, so they wear space suits whenever they leave their ship. Based on the description of her species, I pictured the Akarak basically like big sloths. The second traveller, who is very distressed by not being able to travel further, is Roveg, a Quelin (seemed a bit like an armoured centipede), who has a very important appointment he needs to get to, and the delays on Gora could mean he misses his chance. The final guest is Pei, an Aeluon (they communicate in colours), who readers who have read the first book in the Wayfarers series will recognise as Captain Ashby's romantic partner. 

This book has very little plot to speak of, although there are some dramatic things that happen over the course of the five days. What the reader gets is five character studies, but that's not nothing, because Becky Chambers writes so beautifully that even five people stuck in the same place and trying their best to get along (and in the case of Speaker and Roveg, not panic about the delays) is fascinating to read, and I wouldn't have minded another hundred pages or so, especially since this is the final book in the series. While this is the fourth and final book, all the books can be read independently of each other, and work perfectly well as stand-alones.

It's difficult to pinpoint exactly what made me love this book so much. The only character who has appeared in any of Chambers' books before is Pei, and there she was a secondary character, whose point of view we were never able to share her point of view, like we do here. Yet Chambers makes you care for all of them, and become invested in their lives and futures. As is pretty much always the case, this book made me smile, and it made me cry, and I didn't really want it to end. 

Chambers doesn't appear to have published anything since the Monk & Robot novellas, which came out in 2021 and 2022. I do hope she hasn't stopped writing entirely, but whatever she is doing, I hope she is enjoying it. 

Judging a book by its cover: The UK covers for these books, with the vast views of starlit skies, are all so beautiful, and the US covers for these are so very clunky and (to me) ugly. The font, the way the images are positioned, I do not care for them. Which is why I've made sure I buy the UK editions when I have the chance. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

CBR18 Book 6: "The Empress of Salt and Fortune" by Nghi Vo

Page count: 121 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Nowhere Bingo 26: Novella

Dark Corner Selection: January 2026

Chih is a young cleric from the Singing Hills monastery who travels around the country searching for stories and history. At the shores of Lake Scarlet, Chih finds the abandoned dwelling where the former Empress In-Yo (the titular Empress of Salt and Fortune) spent her many years in exile. Chih encounters the elderly Rabbit, one of the Empress's former handmaidens, who tells Chih stories of her own past and how it intertwined with that of the Empress. 

Rabbit came to court, sold by her parents to cover up a shortfall of five baskets of dye, and while she was there, she met and became loyal to In-Yo, who came to the court from the North, uncultured and savage by the measures of the capital. Once she performed her wifely duties and had birthed the Emperor a son, she was forcefully sterilised and exiled to Lake Scarlet, where it was hoped she would die in obscurity. Rabbit accompanied her mistress, and while Chih is cataloguing the various items left behind in the house, Rabbit tells them how In-Yo slowly and meticulously, despite very few resources or allies to her name, plots her revenge and patiently, over the course of many years, plots her way back to power.

This was our January selection for the Dark Corner, my IRL book club. We usually meet on the last Wednesday of every month, but since that means that our December meeting would fall right between Christmas and New Year's, when most people are busy with family and holidays, we always do the meeting for that book in early January. As a consequence, we try to read a short book, or a novella as our January book, so everyone has time to read it before the second meeting, at the end of January. Nghi Vo has so far published six novellas about the cleric Chih from the Singing Hills, (with a seventh coming out later in 2026), many of which have won awards. The Empress of Salt and Fortune won the Hugo and Locus Awards for Best Novella in 2021, so it felt like a good choice. I keep picking them up in e-book sales, but this is my first time reading one, or anything from the author (despite owning six different things she's written). 

It feels as if the reader is deliberately kept at a remove from the story, since we read about Chih, being told the story by Rabbit, about several other people, of whom In-Yo is clearly the most important. It made it a bit difficult for me to engage with the story at first, because it's always a bit stange being two steps away from the main action, so to speak. The Empire that Chih, Rabbit and In-Yo inhabit is clearly modelled on ancient China, and there are clearly folklore and cultural references that I'm not sure I entirely grasped, but once I stuck with the story, I became very invested in the lives of Rabbit and In-Yo and hoped they would succeed in their rebellion against the Emperor. 

I liked this story enough that I will absolutely be reading more, although probably not in the next few months. I also own two of Vo's novels, that are supposed to be good, but one is a Great Gatsby retelling, so that one might not be entirely to my tastes. 

Judging a book by its cover: All the novellas in the series have this style of cover art, with rather rough drawings of animals and mythological beasts on the top, seemingly charging towards the bottom of the image, where the background is dark. I find this image rather sinister, and would worry more about the Rabbit, if it too didn't look rather unsavoury. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR18 Book 5: "Kraft & Mod (Courage)" by Trine J. Cederlöf

Page count: 163 pages

Rating: 4.5 stars

Nowhere Book Bingo 26: A Middle Grade Book

Defeat the Goblin TBR: The Shiny book (added in December 2024)

Reading Rainbow - Green cover

Disclaimer! The author is a friend of mine, but my opinions are my own, and I bought the book with my own money (because friends make sure friends get royalties). 

As part of the peace agreement between the Green Shores and the Blue Mountains, Prince Mirounga (called Miro), nephew and heir to the king of the Green Shores, is sent into fosterage to the Blue Mountains. He is still grieving his father, an admiral who died in the war between the countries, but understands that spending a year working as a squire at the court will foster new diplomatic ties between the countries, as well as teach him important skills he will need when he becomes king in the future. 

The Red Sands was another country defeated by the Blue Mountains in the war, and it has also sent a young man to train with the royal guard. Tarek is the younger brother of the sultan, and he's clearly not intending to befriend any of the other recruits. He mostly keeps to the stables, more comfortable around the horses than people his own age. 

The two young men are pretty much exact opposites. Miro is almost as tall, wide and strong as an adult, but painfully shy, while Tarek is slender, agile and very flexible. During the second part of their training, the recruits are all supposed to be stationed in the snowy borderlands near the Black Mountains. There are multiple complications, which mean that all the recruits, even Miro and Tarek, need to learn to work together, or lives could be lost. 

In 2014, my friend Trine wrote a book, Crippled, retelling an old Danish fairy tale. Now she has written a sequel, set in the same fantasy universe, but focused on different characters. The boys who grew up over the course of Crippled are now the King and the General of The Blue Mountains, having fought and won a difficult war. King Vincent has a wife, a daughter and another child on the way. After the war, it is time for diplomacy, and the countries that lost both have to send a young man to apprentice in the Royal Guard for a year. 

This book doesn't retell any particular folk tale, but is a coming-of-age tale for the very different young men and how they find the friendship, belonging and well, the courage, to be who they were always meant to be. The story is in parts funny, adventurous, thrilling and moving. At more than one point in the story, especially towards the end of the book, I teared up and sniffled a little, because the writing hit me straight in my feels. I liked the first book, but I liked this one even better, probably because of the emotional beats. I just wish the stories were longer. 

Because I am lucky enough to have insider knowledge, I know for a fact that my friend is working on the third book in series, set in The Red Sands, involving the eldest princess of The Blue Mountains (who, it is hinted at having some unusual abilities) and the only princess of The Red Sands. So after two books where boys are the protagonists, we get to see the story of some young ladies, who build a friendship while solving mysteries together. I'm very excited. 

Judging a book by its cover: The first book in the series involved princes from the Blue Mountains, and the book cover was a lovely sky blue. One of the protagonists from this book is from the Green Coasts, and as a result, the cover is green. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR18 Book 4: "I've Got My Duke to Keep Me Warm" by Kelly Bowen

Page count: 352

Rating: 4 stars

Buzzword Reading Challenge 26: Me/My

Buzzword Cover Challenge 26: Wearable accessories (the cape!)

Defeating the Goblin TBR: The Dusty Book (has been on my TBR since 2016)

Monthly Keyword Challenge: Keep

Reading Rainbow - White Cover

Everyone believes that Giselle Whitby, is dead. Four years ago, she had to fake her death to escape her sadistic, controlling and abusive husband, the Marquess of Valence. To make sure there was no doubt of her demise, Giselle made sure the boat she and her stepdaughter were on exploded, in sight of half of London society. Conveniently, Giselle was wearing a very expensive diamond necklace at the time, meaning she escaped with a large share of her husband's fortune. Since her disappearance, Giselle has been in hiding, establishing a network of associates, helping other women in abusive relationships escape their husbands. Now she has discovered that Lord Valence plans to marry another young lady, and she has less than a week to stop him. 

Because one of her usual co-conspirators is off to Scotland to get married (to the stepdaughter who also escaped four years ago), Giselle needs to find another man who can help her foil her erstwhile abuser's marriage plans. She finds James "Jamie" Moncrieff drunk in a tavern and decides he will serve their purposes well enough. Once he sobers up and has a bath, Giselle and her partner (her husband's former valet) discover that he is a former war hero, still struggling with PTSD and guilt from the Napoleonic War. He is also the illegitimate son of a duke (because his father, the duke, married his mother a few hours after he was born. So he's the eldest son, but has no claims to the title. He is tall, muscular, handsome, charming, intelligent, deeply honourable, excellent at cards, great with horses and looks spectacular in evening wear. Does this man have any flaws at all?

Aiding Giselle in her plans is the Dowager Duchess of Worth, who is tremendously wealthy and appears mad as a box of cats every time she appears in public. To support her eccentric reputation, she collects chicken memorabilia (everything from carved birds, porcelin and even jewelled chickens) and even has a pet chicken with her every time she leaves the house. Her son, the current Duke of Worth, is concerned for his mother and keeps trying to get her to move in with him, without any luck. 

Giselle is described as a beautiful and accomplished woman, a bit of an ice queen, but thanks to her sadistic ex, is covered with scars on parts of the body fancy gowns would normally cover. With the impressive collar of diamonds she escaped with, she could have fled far away from England and made sure there was no chance her husband could ever find her. Instead, she has the Dowager Duchess sneakily selling off the diamonds to fund her rescue operations, and has gathered a network of concerned helpers from all layers of society to give these battered women safe havens when they've been successfully disappeared.

As far as I can tell, this is Kelly Bowen's debut romance novel, the first in her Dukes of Worth trilogy. Goodreads tells me that I read the third book in the series back in 2017, but didn't find it too impressive. In her later romances, Bowen basically has all her heroines be impressively competent in a number of fields, and all the men who fall for them are happy to play a supportive role in these women's lives, while clearly also adoring them. There are traces of that here as well, but since the entire plot takes place over the course of about a week, I think Giselle and Jamie fall for each other implausibly quickly, especially considering Giselle's previous abusive relationship. I was entertained enough that I'm going to want to read the second book in the series as well, featuring the Duke of Worth and his mother's mysterious ladies' companion. Also, I wish Bowen still wrote traditional historical romance; she was really good at it. 

Judging a book by its cover: I literally have NO idea what this cover has to do with the book, except for the cover model being a blonde. This is a fairly dark novel, with protagonists who have gone through a lot. Absolutely nowhere in the book does Giselle put on a big red fur-lined cloak and dance about in the snow. She mostly stays hidden and wears plain clothing so as not to attract attention. I also don't think the book is set in the winter. What were the design team thinking here? With all the red and white, it also makes it seem like a Christmas book. It is not. 

 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.