CBR17 Book 58: "The Listeners" by Maggie Stiefvater

Page count: 416 pages

Rating: 4.5 stars

CBR17 Bingo: Culture (A lot of people from a lot of different backgrounds, countries and cultures are forced together for a time during World War II)

Official plot summary:

January 1942. The Avallon Hotel & Spa has always offered elegant luxury in the wilds of West Virginia, its mountain sweetwater washing away all of high society’s troubles.

Local girl-turned-general manager June Porter Hudson has guided the Avallon skillfully through the first pangs of war. The Gilfoyles, the hotel’s aristocratic owners, have trained her well. But when the family heir makes a secret deal with the State Department to fill the hotel with captured Axis diplomats, June must persuade her staff—many of whom have sons and husbands heading to the front lines—to offer luxury to Nazis. With a smile.

Meanwhile, FBI Agent Tucker Minnick, whose coal tattoo hints at an Appalachian past, presses his ears to the hotel’s walls, listening for the diplomats’ secrets. He has one of his own, which is how he knows that June’s balancing act can have dangerous consequences: the sweetwater beneath the hotel can threaten as well as heal.

June has never met a guest she couldn’t delight, but the diplomats are different. Without firing a single shot, they have brought the war directly to her. As clashing loyalties crack the Avallon’s polished veneer, June must calculate the true cost of luxury.

I've been a fan of Maggie Stiefvater's since 2010, when I read her debut novel, Lament. So I was obviously very excited when I heard this year's release was going to be for adults. That it was going to be a historical fiction novel with elements of magical realism just made me more eager to read it. So much so that I pre-ordered the UK edition in hardback (normally, I wait until the books are in paperback before I pick them up). As an exciting bonus, I realised my book was signed when I opened the book from Blackwell's. Did the book live up to my expectations? Very much so.

In Europe, unsurprisingly, we learn a lot about the Second World War in school (especially in Norway, where we were occupied by the Germans for nearly five years). I developed an interest in history from a fairly young age, and as such, I feel like I know quite a bit about the conflict from the European side of things. For other parts of the world, I am a lot more ignorant. This novel is in part based on true events, they did in fact house diplomats from the axis countries (Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia) in luxury hotels in various places in the USA, to be able to use these esteemed guests (read: hostages) to negotiate the safe return of diplomats and American citizens of their own from the opposing countries. And the owners of said hotels had very little say in whether or not they wanted the guests there in the first place. 

One of Stiefvater's strengths as a writer, in my opinion, is her way of crafting interesting stories in worlds similar to, but not quite like, our own. In this book, the paranormal aspects (such as characters being able to manifest stuff from out of their dreams) are toned down, but there is a touch of magical realism in the strange, seemingly sentient sweetwater at the Avallon spa. Water that has an affinity for certain individuals, the Avallon manager, June, being one of them. This clearly has both its benefits and disadvantages for her. 

One might think that a woman being the general manager of a large luxury resort in the 1940s is one of the more fantastical elements of this story, but June Porter Hudson is based on real women in history who held the same position as her. A lot of people assume that because of her title and responsibilities, June is related to the Gilfoyles, who own the hotel. They are wrong, although June has been close, in different ways, to many of the family members. 

As well as June, the readers follow (among others) the secretive FBI Agent Tucker Minick, who knows that this posting may be his last, yet still struggles to toe the line of the bureau. While he refuses to talk about it, he has more knowledge of the secrets of the West Virginian sweetwater than he lets on, and his experiences are clearly not of the positive kind. 

We also meet the curious Hannelore, daughter of German diplomats, who appears to be mute, but astutely observes everything around her, with near-perfect recall. While children in novels can often end up feeling like nothing more than plot moppets, that is not the case with Hannelore, who is clearly neurodivergent (which makes it a rather risky proposition for her parents to take her with them to Nazi Germany, where diversity of any kind wasn't exactly encouraged or rewarded). 

I'm once again reviewing books I read months ago (thanks to my inability to keep up with any other reviews than for my ARCs, and only barely those), so I don't remember all the details as much as I'd like. Suffice it to say, this was a really good book, with an interesting story, engaging characters, some tricksy mysteries and, as the story progresses, a hint of romance. 

Judging a book by its cover: I much prefer the UK cover to the American one (a black and white photo looking down a long, winding staircase). In this, the reader gets a lot more elements from the story: the imposing Appalachian mountains in the background, the majestic hotel, the local apples, obviously the water, and if you look very closely at the entrance to the hotel, June's three loyal dachshunds. 

Crossposted by Cannonball Read

CBR17 Book 20: "To Steal from Thieves" by M.K. Lobb

Page count: 400 pages (DNF at 35 %)

Rating: 2.5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley and Little, Brown Books for this ARC. My opinions are my own. 

In an alternate version of Victorian London, magic exists and can be used to improve technology. It's known as alchemology, and requires the magic-user to sacrifice some blood and life force to create the magical element known as primateria. It means that alchemologists tend to have shorter lifespans, which was certainly the case with Zaria Mendoza's father. Now she's an orphan struggling to complete her father's outstanding commissions to unsavoury individuals in the London underworld. Soulsteel, the material required to create primateria is rare and expensive, and she keeps having to postpone her rent payments. If her landlord wasn't the father of her best friend, she would probably be out on the streets already.

Kane Durante has been tasked by his patron, the sinister underworld kingpin Ward, to find a particular necklace coming in on one of the boats in the port. He and his best friend, Fletcher, have been working undercover on the docks, trying to intercept the necklace before it goes on display at the Royal Exhibition at the Crystal Palace, because having to steal it from such a public place will be a nightmare. Unfortunately, neither he nor Fletcher are successful and it seems like they have no choice but to pull off a dangerous, nearly impossible heist. If Ward doesn't get his necklace, he promises to do all manner of unpleasant things to Fletcher. So a-heisting they will go.

Having fetched a magical firearm from Zaria while undercover, he decides she is essential to the success of their endeavour, and manages to persuade her to cooperate through a combination of threats and promises. Zaria desperately needs enough money to get her and her best friend Julian out of London, and if she can help Kane rob the Crystal Palace, her share of the loot will be enough for them to live comfortably and get away from the squalor that is their current lives. 

Of course, Kane and Zaria are both cynical, distrustful individuals used to relying on no one but themselves. They both plan to betray the other before the end of the heist, with no misgivings about how this could affect the other. 

Does the heist succeed? Do Kane and Zaria turn from reluctant allies who snipe flirtatiously at each other to potential lovers? Does Kane discover that his patron and boss, Ward, clearly had more to do with his parents' death than has previously been revealed?

I don't know, because I just couldn't with this book. While I thought the magic system introduced was really interesting, I really didn't care about Kane or Zaria at all. It's nice that they both have a platonic best friend they're willing to risk everything for, to the point of stupidity (it's obvious that both Jules and Fletcher would be deeply unhappy knowing how many dangerous things their friends are willing to risk for their sakes), but having spent three days forcing myself through only the first third of the book, I decided to peak ahead to see if things got more exciting further on in the book - and I still wasn't convinced. 

From what I can see, the book ends in a way that suggests at least one sequel (or the ending will be very unsatisfying), but I have absolutely no wish to read more books about these characters. Both the characters and setting felt like they were strongly inspired by Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo, but unlike those books, where I pretty much gave up on food and sleep to get through the books faster, there was nothing here to hold my attention. I haven't read anything else by M.K. Lobb, so I can't say if the writing style is similar to their previous works, or something new they're trying. I'm sure this will make for an exciting heist narrative for another reader, but for me, this was a DNF. 

Judging a book by its cover: I'm guessing the necklace that dominates the centre of the cover is the item they're planning to steal. I'm not entirely sure why the cover artist chose to portray him looking like a spoiled prep school boarder, but that's just not at all how he's described in the book. The girl, who I'm guessing must be Zaria, appears to have her own wind machine since her curls are so out of control. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR17 Book 10: "Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales" by Heather Fawcett

Page count: 368 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Nowhere Books Bingo 2025: A fantasy book by a female author

Buzzword Cover Challenge 2025: Contains books

Spoiler warning! This is book 3 in the series and not the best place to start reading. This book will contain spoilers for the previous books in the series. Start at the beginning, with Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries. 

Intrepid professor of dryadology (faerie scholar) Emily Wilde is facing her most challenging adventure yet - reclaiming the rather terrifying faerie kingdom of Silva Lupi, where her former academic rival, now impending husband, Wendell Bambleby (not his faerie name) is the rightful king. Emily loves Wendell, and doesn't regret her decision to marry him, but isn't entirely sure about becoming queen of a merciless and dangerous faerie realm. Nevertheless, the project offers up unique opportunities to further her research and writing, and Wendell has worked for so long to get back to his home. 

His wicked stepmother, who killed most of Wendell's family and stole the throne, has vanished. Emily successfully poisoned her towards the end of the previous book, but the lady isn't entirely dead yet, and has in addition managed to use her magical connection to the land to place a deadly curse on Silva Lupi, which keeps poisoning larger and larger areas. Emily's research suggests that the only way to break the curse is either to find and kill the former queen or for Wendell to sacrifice his life for the realm. Obviously, the latter option isn't very appealing to either of them. 

I'm not going to lie, I have been waiting for this book pretty much since I closed the covers to Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands, the previous book in the series. Our Emily has come such a long way since she was trying (and failing) to communicate with the sceptical villagers in Ljosland. Now she has a number of friends, family members and allies to assist her in her quest to free Wendell and his kingdom from the quest left by his stepmother. While she loves Wendell, seeing him fully embrace his faerie powers and the changes that brings takes some adjustments. She also struggles with the idea of herself as queen, a role she feels wholly unfit for. 

Did this book live up to my expectations? Not entirely, but after finishing the book, I see that my expectations of the story were unlikely to ever be satisfied. I had been hoping for more romance between Wendell and Emily, but the romantic subplot of these books has always been light, and I'm not sure why I didn't expect Wendell to be sidelined in the plot for much of the book, while Emily did what she's best at, researching and investigating folklore and faerie stories, and then of course, throwing herself into ridiculously dangerous situations to save the people she cares about. This was a very fitting and adventurous chapter in Emily's story, I shouldn't have suddenly expected the series to go down paths with more romance. Not to say there isn't romance here - some of Wendell's romantic gestures towards Emily are absolutely lovely (and show how very well he knows his grumpy intended). Emily, on her side, literally challenges death for his sake. 

As far as I'm aware, this is the third and final book in the Emily Wilde trilogy, and it's a very fitting end for Emily and Wendell. Fawcett nevertheless leaves the ending open-ended enough that she will be able to return to this imaginative world at some point in the future, should she choose to do so. 

Judging a book by its cover: Yet again, I think the UK cover is much prettier than the US one, although I wish it wasn't quite so pink. It also looks deceptively cute and quirky, considering how dark some of the themes explored in the book are. I'm not sure this cover entirely sells the story. Then again, I also hope people don't start a series with book 3, so even with the pastel pink cover, most readers know that Emily's adventures can go dark places. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read