The Midnight Feast

 The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley (2024, 354 pages)

Sabotage at the hotel grand opening.
Birds flocking in the woods.
Missing and murdered.

I love Lucy Foley's books, even if the characters are often formulaic. This one has her classic beautiful, wealthy, stuck-up main character along with an underdog from their past. But there's also an interesting setting -- a mix of cult and supernatural that I haven't seen much of in her other books. It was less of "which of these friends committed murder?" and more of "what the hell is going on?" which I appreciated! 

⭐⭐⭐⭐
 

The Hunting Party

 The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley (2018, 406 pages)

A group of friends book a remote lodge in Scotland to ring in the new year, 2019. All mostly wealthy Oxford graduates.

This book skips between new year's eve and January 2nd, where the events of the holiday slowly converge. It wasn't even until about 75% of the way through did I narrow down who the murdered actually was, to two people,  and it wasn't until the very end that it's confirmed. This is a fun thriller with twists and turns and classic Lucy Foley characters (that is, the rich and beautiful one and the underdog).

⭐⭐⭐⭐
 

Mad Honey

 Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan (2022, 464 pages)

In a small New Hampshire town called Adams, high schoolers Asher and Lily are falling in love. They both have single mothers who escaped abusive men. Asher's mom, Olivia, is a beekeeper and Lily's mom, Ava, is a park ranger.

During a fight, Asher decides to come over to Lily's to speak in person. Instead, he finds her dead at the bottom of the stairs. Asher is then arrested for her murder, and we follow along with the two families during the arrest and trial through Olivia's and Lily's point of view. Olivia starts to wonder if Asher inherited some of his father's aggression; and Lily wonders if she can really fit in in Adams, or anywhere.

I would have liked this book a lot more had it not included detailed romance and sex scenes of two kids. I personally just don't enjoy reading it, but I understand it's an important piece to have in some books. The story itself was really interesting, and I loved almost all of the characters. It was really interesting to hear about the details of beekeeping, too!

★★★☆☆

The Vanishing Half

 The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (2020, 352 pages)

Identical twins Stella and Desiree grow up in a small, deep south town obsessed with light skin. When they run away as teenagers, they start to drift apart. One continues to live her life as white, with a white family, kids, neighborhood, life. The other continues living as Black, marrying "the darkest man she could find." As a result, the twins' respective daughter (cousins to each other) look nothing alike.

In a story that spans decades and many cultures in America through space and time, we follow the four main characters through their lives and identities.

Amazing prose, had me crying by the end!

★★★★★

Pyramids

 Pyramids by Terry Pratchett, 341 pages.

Teppic breaks his family's extremely ancient conventions when he decides to go off to Ankh-Morpork to train as an assassin instead of sticking around to learn how to run his family's ancient river valley kingdom. But when his father dies his family's divinity hits him at high speeds, and he has to go back to Djelibeybi to fulfill his role as god-emperor. Teppic's foreign upbringing brings some friction to his unchanging kingdom, and Djelibeybi may yet be dragged into the present at last.

Pratchett's discworld novels are always funny, but I did find this one a little disappointing. It's a pretty early book in the series, and the roughness of it shows. I also feel like it lacked the clarity of purpose that really makes satire shine. This is a fine book, but I don't think I would recommend it as an entry point to the series.

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter

 Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson, 474 pages. 

Yumi was chosen by the spirits to act as a liaison between them and the people of her burning world full of floating plants. Nikaro lives in a world of shadows, lit by neon, and works painting walking nightmares to render them harmless. The two lead their own lonely lives until a supernatural force links them together, unarguably and inconveniently. The two start waking up on each other's worlds, while the other has to linger like a ghost nearby. So they have to figure out why they were bound in the first place so they can figure out what they have to do to make it stop (assuming they still want to by the time this is all over) (assuming they have a choice). 

The visuals in this book are so extremely cool. Both Yumi and Painter's worlds are cool and magical in totally different ways, and it was a real pleasure inhabiting both. I also quite liked all of the characters, who were flawed, and ridiculous, and deeply sympathetic. I will say it took a little bit of work keeping up with the plot in the second act, but I definitely didn't mind. That being said, I suspect the fact that I've read all of the other Cosmere novels probably helped me make sense of what was going on, even if this one in particular is a stand-alone. This book has a lot more Japanese influence than most of his other novels, which made for something a little bit different. Overall the story is a lot of fun with some heavy emotional gut punches mixed in (standard Sanderson) and I would definitely recommend it.

Baptism of Fire

 

Baptism of Fire by Andrzej Sapkowski (1996) 349 Pages

Geralt of Rivia, witcher, continues on his daunting series of adventures. In this novel, Geralt is seriously injured during the coup of the sorcerers guild. Ciri vanishes, and Geralt spends most of this novel attempting to track down his child surprise. Linked by destiny, they share dreams and nightmares. Geralt soon finds out she is not in Nilfgaard because an impersonator is playing the part of captor with Emhyr, the white flame of Nilfgaard. Yennefer is not mentioned for most of the book until Enid, or Francesca, the elf-queen releases her from a spell that compressed her into a small jade statuette. Continuing on the journey, Geralt has become one in a horde of random comrades. Regis, a vampire who is "sober" from human blood acts as their barber-surgeon. They also are back with the dwarves, Zoltan and and the parrot, Field Marshal Windbag. Cahir, former Nilfgaardian and "black knight" who once upon a time briefly captured Ciri in the fall of Cintra, half-druid Milva and of course the bard, Dandelion. The book ends with a battle between Nilfgaard, the witcher and the comrades, and Lyrians. They defeat the Nilfgaardians and the witcher is dubbed a knight by queen Meve of Lyria. Ciri is currently pretending to be "Falka" among a band of thieves and misfits. A paragraph in the book mentions its a shame she was trained as a witcher at Kaer Morhen, because she is an excellent assassin and is beginning to enjoy killing and pillaging. 

The Refrigerator Monologues

 The Refrigerator Monologues by Catherynne M. Valente, 160 pages.

The Hell Hath club is something like a support group, and something like a group of friends. It's made up of the fridged residents of Dead Town, women who died to advance a male hero's story. The six women who tell their stories in this novella have very little in common; they all had different careers, interests, and personal arcs. Yet they all understand what it is to be treated badly by the narrative.

This was a really interesting little novella. I know just enough about comics to be familiar with the phenomenon that this book is critiquing, and I feel like I definitely have a more complete understanding having finished it. Outside of that, I also found the Valente's characters to be very compelling (which is, I suppose, the point). I also quite enjoyed how the novella alternated between the monologues and scenes of the characters together in Dead Town, which I felt gave the story a lot of cohesion. I would definitely recommend this book to comic book fans, but honestly probably to other people as well.

The Holver Alley Crew

 The Holver Alley Crew by Marshall Ryan Maresca, 352 pages.

The Rynax brothers were determined to give up their life of thievery to instead run an honest gadget shop. Then their home, their as yet unopened shop, and the whole of Holver Alley burn down in a fire overnight. And the more they look into it the more it looks like it wasn't an accident. So they gather a crew who all lost everything in the fire and plan a few heists, even as they are reminded of why they wanted out in the first place. Verci Rynax has a baby, and Asti Rynax is clinging to the scraps of his sanity after having a very traumatic time working in Druth Intelligence. 

This book had all of the components of a fun fantasy heist, but it never felt like they quite got enough momentum behind them to get off of the ground. The characters were fine, and the setting was a pretty standard city with a few fantasy elements at the periphery, but I very nearly stopped halfway through after the first heist was over because the story structure made it feel like the book should be over. A fine novel, but I don't know that I will read the sequels.

Die vols. 2-4

 Die vols. 2-4 (Split the Party/The Great Game/Bleed) by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans, 496 pages.

25 years after they escaped the five former friends have been pulled into the world of Die, and they can't go home until everyone agrees that the game is over. Everyone alive anyways. After finding out that Sol is not only alive, but has been designing the game for them the last 25 years, this becomes divisive. It becomes even more divisive as our "heroes" decide which lives count as real in a fantasy world. If the tensions can't be resolved everyone can't go home. And soon the world pushes them to cooperation for much bigger problems, as everyone must ask what Die really is, where it came from, and what it wants/

After getting readers familiar with the premise in book one, the plot and characters can really start taking of starting in volume 2. I found the characters very compelling (if not always very likable) and seeing them engage with an also very interesting world is both compelling and thought-provoking. The series also has some interesting things to say about the iterative nature of creative invention. The plot lost me a little at the end (I do not enjoy non-linear causality as a plot point), but I found the story compelling enough overall that by that point I didn't really care. The character arcs end in a place that feels both satisfying and dramatic. This is a short series that packs a whole lot of punch and I would definitely recommend it, especially for people who are interested in getting into comics but not interested in dealing with the sprawling mess that is series that have been running for decades.
 

Dawnshard

 Dawnshard by Brandon Sanderson, 171 pages.

This novella takes place between books three and four of the Stormlight Archives, and follows side characters having there own adventure. That description told me very little, so I'm just now getting to it three years later, and I definitely regret waiting this long. Rysn (the Thalen trader from an earlier book's interlude who suffered a fall and lost the use of her legs) needs to get her larkin (a mythical flying, stormlight eating creature) back to it's ancestral home to save it from a mysterious illness. Unfortunately it's ancestral home is a mythical island in hostile seas. Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately again) a formerly disappeared ship that was previously looking for that same island has reappeared (sans crew) and the queen of Urithiru wants it investigated for any relation to the war effort. So Rysn has government support and a few Windrunners (Herdazian knights Lopen and Huio). Which are absolutely necessary with all of the weird and ominous signs that keep appearing on the boat. This island holds ancient secrets, and there are forces that will do anything to protect them.

This book short little novella had way more deep lore for the Cosmere than I was expecting! There are some implications in some of the secrets we discovered that will probably be felt in plenty of books. Aside from that, the story itself was a real treat. In his acknowledgments Sanderson thanks several paraplegic people who he consulted with for Rysn, and the amount of care and interest really shines through the whole book. It is also an absolute delight to get chapters from Lopen's perspective. The character is always fun, but it was very interesting to see his fun-loving nature (which is completely genuine) interact with some more serious internal thoughts (which we rarely get to see from him from an outside perspective). The very multi-cultural nature of this cast also put a lot of emphasis on language differences on Roshar, which I thought was neat and rarely gets much time in the mainline books. I would absolutely recommend this as necessary reading for anyone who enjoys the Stormlight Archives.

All Good People Here

 All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers, 336 pages.

Margot Davies has been haunted her whole life by the murder of January Jacobs, her childhood neighbor and friend who was murdered when they were six. When she returns to her uncle's house in Wakarusa, Indiana, she finds that very little has changed. Soon after she arrives another little girl in the next town over is murdered, and the cases look similar to her reporter's eye. As she begins to investigate she finds plenty of secrets in the quiet town, and she'll need to find even more to solve a murder that's twenty years cold.

I quite liked this twisty mystery. It did a really good job having a mystery that was easy enough to follow (and to often get exactly one or two steps ahead of), but was not so obvious that it offered no surprises. It's the kind of book that makes me feel a little clever reading it. Although I will admit that by the end there are so many twists that the series of events twenty years ago begins to feel extremely improbable (I won't elaborate for spoilers reasons). I found the ending frustrating, and overall found Flowers' second book a more compelling portrayal of small town life, but I still thought this was a really interesting book, and an engaging mystery.

The Priory of the Orange Tree

 The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon, 830 pages. 

Tis' the season for all of us to be finishing the big book challenge for the summer! If you want to see a synopsis of this book, I would recommend scrolling down one post to see what Kara had to say.

As far as my own thoughts, I really enjoyed this book! The writing was engaging enough to make it seem shorter than it is (although it is already shorter than it looks). I really appreciate a fantasy novel with enough points of view to give you a good idea about what most of the world looks like, and it is definitely the case for this book that countries where people are from and spend time feel more real than ones we only talk about. A neat book overall, although I'm not sure I'm invested enough to read the other book in the setting. Although I am excited to talk about this one on Monday!

The Time of Contempt

 

The Time of Contempt by Andrzej Sapkowski (1995) 331 pages

The Time of Contempt is the second novel in the Witcher series. In this story, we are seeing the effects of a brewing war between the kingdoms and Nilfgaard. The story begins where Blood of Elves left off, with Yennefer bringing Ciri to Aretuza, the school of magic, to hone her skills and receive proper instruction. On the journey, they run into some issues in the big city outside of Aretuza. Ciri is allowed to venture around the city with an escort, and they attempt to free a wyvern who is being held captive by a man who is selling tickets to see the poor creature. Things quickly get out of hand and Ciri and Fabio, her escort narrowly escape the mess. Ciri activates an amulet which brings attention to her location by other sorceresses in the city. She soon is captured by Tissaia de Vries, a sorceress who instructed Yennefer at Aretuza. Luckily, Yennerfer finds Tissaia and her companion holding Ciri, but soonafter Ciri once  again escapes from the inn they are staying at in order to find Geralt, who is supposedly in a nearby town. A horrible storm is brewing with extremely bright lightning which is illuminating the farmland and nearby tower of Lara, which was once a portal created during the Conjunction of Spheres. While trying to find Geralt, and while Geralt is trying to find Ciri, they all witness The Wild Hunt, a spectral phenomenon of horsemen riding across the sky, similar to "the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse". 

Ciri finds Geralt, and Yennefer teleports to them both. Geralt and Yen have not spoken in about three years. They were told once that they were made for each other, but nothing would come of it because "something more" was needed. They figured out that the "something more" was Ciri. 

Continuing on, the first night of Aretuza, an attempted Coup begins with some sorcerers who have betrayed their comrades in order to gain favor with Nilfgaard. Emperor Emhyr of Nilfgaard wants the mages chapter to be dispersed due to their unfavorable massive loss at Sodden. Ciri disappears, Yennefer cannot be found, and Geralt is taken hostage by Djikstra's men. 

Geralt gets away, Ciri manages to escape but is soon chased after by Cahir, the black knight. Ciri overpowers Cahir but decides not to kill him. The story leaves off with Ciri waking up in the middle of a desert, and narrowly survives. She tries fire magic on her own to save a unicorn's life, but because of this action, her magical capabilities were revoked.

Blood of Elves

 

Blood of Elves by Adrezej Sapkowski (1994) 398 Pages

Blood of Elves is the third publication of the Witcher series, but technically the first full novel of the series. In this story, we meet the child surprise, Cirilla of Cintra, who has been Geralt's destiny. They finally find each other again and Geralt gains responsibility for all of her needs as her grandmother, Queen Calanthe, was killed (well subsequently committed suicide) in the destruction of Cintra by Nilfgaard. As Geralt assumes responsibility for Ciri, he brings her to Kaer Morhen, the compound where Witchers are trained. Ciri is taught fighting, agility and some spells in which she cannot yet perform. A sorceress, Triss Merigold arrives at Kaer Morhen and discovers that Ciri is much more powerful, and capable of magic than Geralt realized. She explains that Ciri's magic should be carefully watched and maintained so that it doesn't become uncontrollable and dangerous to herself and others. Triss mentions that Geralt should seek out Yennefer, his former lover because she is an incredibly powerful and knowledgeable sorceress, to help Ciri. Meanwhile, Dandelion the bard is captured and tortured by a man who is tracking down Ciri. The rest of the novel details Geralt delivering Ciri to the temple school in order to receive a better education than Geralt can provide. Geralt tries tracking down Rience, the sorcerer who was charged with finding and capturing Ciri. The end of the novel deals with Yennefer becoming Ciri's main mentor and teacher, and soon they become quite close. A war is brewing as Nilfgaard continues to conquer the lands, with elves and their "Squirrel" posse on the rise, attempting to avoid the pogroms of elves and non-humans.

Unbreakable

 Unbreakable by Mira Grant, 114 pages.

Magical Protectors have been protecting Earth from the forces of the Outside for as long as humanity has existed. Teams across the world are prepared to fight to the death to serve that purpose, but none of them expected they would all die at once. After one horrible night all but two are dead, and for those two life is forever changed. After the massacre the governments of the world decide that no more children should be allowed to die for the sake of others, and the world does it's best to pretend that they were never heroes. Piper and Yuina were members of Unbreakable Starlight, and now they haven't spoken in years. Piper has become an alcoholic shut-in, unwilling to deal with the pain of losing all of her friends and even more unwilling to play the role of repentant magical girl for the United States government. Yuina is playing exactly that role, helping to sell the narrative that they were all misled children so that she is still allowed to talk about it at all. But they never really understood what happened that night so many years ago, and time is running out to figure it out. 

This is a super cool novella! It was fast paced and exciting while still having a pretty solid emotional core. Mira Grant is one of Seanan McGuire's pen names, and I definitely recognize her style in this. The handling of heavy emotions that come after a classic childhood adventure remind me quite a lot of her Wayward Children books, and this novella lives up to the expectation that creates. 

Also: I would definitely recommend this book to fans of the show Puella Magi Madoka Magica in particular, it feels like one of it's major inspirations.

Kingdom of Ash

 Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas (2018) 980 pages

The 7th and final book in the Throne of Glass series, this book wraps everything up quite nicely. 

Aelin, Firebringer, Queen of Terrasen, has been captured by Maeve, Queen of the Fae. She is trapped in an iron box which stifles her immense magic and firepower. The rest of her generals and cadre are scattered about the world, attempting to assemble in order to track her down and save her and Terrasen. Erawan, the demon threatens all life and in order to stop him, Aelin or King Dorian must forge a magical lock in which to trap Erawan, and so he cannot bring his demon brothers through the portals and cause more destruction. 

Luckily Aelin's mate, her commanders and most trusted friends track her down and help her escape. Dorian brings down Morath, Erawan's lair. The Wyrdkeys are captured and the lock is able to be forged. But all of this still comes at a cost, Dorian or Aelin must sacrifice themselves for the lock. 

This book is full of battle scenes, magic, heartache, but also glorious victory, love, rekindling of friendships and new forged empires. I'm personally glad to be done with the series. I enjoyed it, but think the first 3-4 were superb. The last several books were just kind of...so-so. But overall!!!! A fantastic fantasy world. I'm glad I read them all.

The Maidens

 

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides (2021) 337 Pages

The mysterious ritualistic murder of a college woman piques the interest of Greek widow Mariana. Her surrogate daughter, who is actually her niece was good friends with the woman who died. Mariana travels to Cambridge to make sure her niece is okay, and begins take an interest in the mysterious death. As more murders of the same style begin to pile up, Mariana becomes more embroiled in finding out who is committing them. Her focal point is on Edward Fosca, an American professor at the University who specializes in Greek Tragedy. Mariana thinks he is the murderer because the women who are being murdered are in his special study group- The Maidens. Mariana keeps finding postcards of either ancient Greek or baroque style paintings with ancient Greek passages written on the back. Throughout her findings, she is running from her own tragic story, the sudden loss of her husband, who turns out to not be the man she thought he was. 

Overall I enjoyed this story, with the psychoanalysis expertise throughout in addition to the Greek classics, such as the story of Demeter and Persephone. Solid 3 out of 5 stars.

Don't Believe It

 Don't Believe It by Charlie Donlea (2018) 342 Pages

A thrilling Who Dunnit. I don't usually like true crime-esque works, but I had a hard time putting this one down. It was written thoughtfully. 

Grace Sebold has been convicted of killing her boyfriend in St. Lucia among many of their close friends from high school. Julian, the deceased was about to propose. 10 years go by and Grace remains in prison in another country. Her last ditch effort to claim innocence is a documentarian who has had experience in 3 previous exonnerations. Sidney Ryan, the documentary filmmaker takes her case. Throughout the story, she uncovers gross negligence in the St Lucian police force who most likely wanted a nice and tidy conviction and trial to save the tourism sector of the island. But that's not all Sidney uncovers. If it wasn't Grace who killed Julian, who did? Her jealous best friend who is supposedly in love with her? Another jealous brief lover, who was getting married at the same St Lucian vacation? Or was it Grace's disabled brother who has a deep attachment to her? The documentary turns out to be the most-watched true crime show in the world. Sidney's unfortunate demise for attempting to uncover the truth is a testament to "no good deed goes unpunished".

The Priory of the Orange Tree

 

 The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon (2019) 804 Pages

I won't review this as most people are probably still reading for the book challenge! 😊

I will say I loved this book and couldn't stop reading. An excellent fantasy story, I always love reading about dragons!