My Plain Jane

I read the first of the novels by “The Lady Janies,” My Lady Jane, a few years ago on a snow day. It was a “retelling” of Lady Jane Grey, the queen for nine days of famous British historic lore, full of magic and shape-shifting and humor gave this tragic story a fun twist and…

Gideon the Ninth

Well, I think we could all agree that I knew I’d be reading this one. Tagged as lesbian necromancers in space, there was really no more I needed to know. And all the awards it’s been nominated for since then really only reinforced what I already knew. In fact, this was in the stack of…

The Book of M

I grabbed this one at a used book store last year. I’d seen it around a little bit and knew it was apocalypse-ish themed but that was about it. I know I generally love that genre though, so I figured I’d grab it for when I was in the mood later. I started it about…

Beneath the Sugar Sky

Y’all – I was feeling stressed and anxious from all this pandemic situation and I was looking for something to take me away a bit, in a nice happy way. And I can’t believe it took such a drastic situation to pick up this third installation in this series, because I LOVED the first two…

The Darkest Part of the Forest

I have had “read something by Holly Black” on my TBR for years. I have a huge soft spot for fairies in fantasy and that seems to be her sweet spot. I actually have had The Cruel Prince on my shelf since it was published, but I get weird about trilogies and have kinda been…

The Ten Thousand Doors of January

So obviously the first thing that drew me to this book was the title. It’s awesome! Plus, I was born in January and it turns out that means I have a soft spot for that name/month (who knew?). But then the cover is also gorgeous and the description sounded great too. Ever since getting really…

Ninth House

So many, many, many reasons to read this book. First, Bardugo is one of my favorite authors, so of course I was going to check out her debut foray into adult fantasy. Second, basically there is not a single bad review to be found anywhere for this book. Third, just look at it. Fourth, and…

The Deep

Just about two years ago I read Solomon’s debut novel, An Unkindness of Ghosts, and was so impressed with the world-building, the diversity of the characters, the writing…it was a fantastic debut. And it was before I really had any idea about Afrofuturism as a genre, so it felt truly groundbreaking to me. I am…

This Is How You Lose the Time War

To be honest, I originally was interested in this book because the title made me think of Doctor Who. #nerdalert But even after I realized what it was actually about (completely unrelated to Doctor Who, for the record), I was very interested in it. And then it got chosen as the January book for my…

Black Leopard, Red Wolf

I have had every book that Marlon James has ever written on my TBR (and, for most of them, on my shelves) for years. I’ve heard his writing is amazing and the stories are intense and affecting, but for some reason this mood reader has just never been in the mood. And then BLRW was…