This ninth novella in Seanan McGuire‘s beloved Wayward Children series is as full of fierce wisdom and whimsical quests as ever, following Antsy and friends from Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children through several Doors both familiar and strange, seeking a way to set the Shop Where the Lost Things back in order. The worlds we visit in this installment are so fun and fascinating—and I love how Antsy‘s story continues here.

This swashbuckling, Middle Eastern mythology inspired fantasy follows a middle-aged single mom & former pirate captain as she‘s coerced out of retirement for one more adventure. I loved the rep here—the older mc, Muslim, Jewish, and Christian rep, and fantastic queer rep too! The emphasis on plot over character development took this from a 5 star to a 4 star for me, but highly recommended if you‘re in the mood for an adventure on the high seas!

On one hand, I can see the influence of this unique urban fantasy in books like Twilight or Legends & Lattes even. The unlikely combination of gory, sensual vampire horror, cozy community coffeeshop baking, and wry and funny narrator is a winning one in a lot of ways if a little tonally unexpected. But it‘s also so slowly and awkwardly paced, full of info dumps that make it harder to immerse yourself in the story, and feels incomplete narratively.

This lush, unsettling horror novella may be the perfect late summer to early autumn read—and that‘s all I‘ll say! In just over 100 pages, this will linger with you much longer than it will take you to read.

This searing, gut punch of a speculative novel imagines a future America where prisoners fight to the death for entertainment. The research on our current carceral state, as well as abolition, that Adjei-Brenyah incorporated throughout the story is impressive and eye-opening. I do think the structure, cutting between multiple POVs, detracted from the emotional force of the main story of two top women gladiators in love fighting for freedom.

An isolated town is neighbored by its past to the West and its future to the East. The Conseil regulates travel between towns, giving few the chance to see lost loved ones. Odile‘s life changes forever when she glimpses a friend‘s parents, visiting from the future. While the premise is strong and the ideas about fate and free will interesting, I was disappointed that grief is utterly misunderstood here and frustrated at the lost opportunity.

A glorious, epic, feminist, fantasy masterpiece !!! This prequel to The Priory of the Orange Tree had me acting out scenes and saying lines out loud, it was that beautiful, badass, and moving.

This is my favorite way to experience poetry—in the company of a deeply kind, wise-hearted, warmly funny, poetry-loving friend like Pádraig Ó Tuama who here introduces each specially selected poem, mostly by poets writing today, allows it to blow your mind and break your heart, and then walks you through what makes it so special. This is a true gift for poetry lovers and the perfect introduction to poetry for anyone looking for a way in!

This final installment of A League of Extraordinary Women series sees Scottish suffragette Lady Catriona meeting her (check)mate in a businessman from Lebanon planning a heist to repatriate artifacts stolen from his homeland. Dunmore had a lot to do in educating her readers about the Levant and tying up four heroines‘ stories, and while Catriona and Elias‘ love story was satisfying, it wasn‘t very fun—I would have loved more chess and more heist!

From a young woman plagued by bad “moods,” a collection of strategies for self-management that ranges from sleep hygiene and meditation to the more problematic—like believing setbacks are always for your eventual gain. The author writes from a financially and racially privileged viewpoint that shows so little curiosity for why she is the way she is and little consideration for how her “moods” or behavior impact other people—only herself.

Cozy horror for little kids! This sweetly unsettling, whimsically creepy, warmly chilling picture book is inspired by an old Tyrolean fairy tale about a girl who runs away from home and befriends a skull, itself fleeing a skeleton, in an ancient castle in a deep dark wood. Like the old, old fairy tales, the narrative simplicity here leaves you with more questions than answers, inviting you to savor the spooky and make friends with mystery.

Fans of Good Omens‘ Aziraphale and Crowley will find so much to love about another angel-demon odd couple, Uriel and Little Ash! Warm-hearted, whimsical, and wise, this queer, Jewish historical fantasy follows these two unlikely partners in pursuit of performing a mitzvah for a lost girl from their tiny shtetl in the Old Country all the way to Ellis Island and a Lower East Side full of immigrants, strikers, radicals, and many newfound friends!

I agree with what seems to be the consensus that this is the worst book in the trilogy. I feel like the other two balance really well between literary, if young adult, fiction and soap opera but this one leans daytime drama and the ending felt rushed and not payoff enough for 3 books worth of material. That said, again Lola Tung elevates with her excellent audio narration!

I got 80 pages in, but I was just bored—and not because there wasn‘t enough spice or too much sports—the spice was nice and there wasn‘t nearly enough of the sports the main characters are so passionate about. It was mostly partying and college drama that I just didn‘t find engaging enough to continue with.

If Speak Now (TV) was a YA book, it would be this fantasy & its aching forbidden romance between a magical dressmaker from a former colony, hired for the royal wedding, & the king's wayward, plant-magic-wielding 2nd son, the groom. Together, Niamh, soft as velvet, & Kit, prickly as a briar patch, risk not only scandal, but war, ruin, uprising, and the loss of all the armor and thorns both have used to protect themselves from life and love til now.

"...when they aren't told, the stories of painful events turn into black holes…The traumas can't be seen, but the gravity surrounding them becomes so strong that it absorbs everything in their proximity." In this memoir, a writer returns to Ukraine in the wake of the Crimean invasion, uncovers a family mystery, faces her father‘s death, reconciles with family, and grapples with Ukraine‘s tragic history and the scars it‘s left on her family tree.

This is like the New Moon of this series—the super sad, fraught, emo part of the story and honestly, I was here for it. Again, Lola Tung‘s narration is fantastic and adds so much to the story.

A sarcastic heroine with an oddball crew and a ramshackle ship, Families vying for power and the banished on the outskirts, and a mysterious plot on a strange planet are what I enjoyed most about this sci-fi debut, recommended for fans of Firefly and Fourth Wing, but the romance didn‘t do anything for me. Spice isn‘t sexy because the love interest is just superhumanly hot—spice is sexy because of intimacy, the risk of being vulnerable, FEELINGS.

A curvy, bubbly ghostwriter finds herself in a fake dating scheme with a grumpy footballer a la Ted Lasso‘s Roy Kent in this rom-com about being yourself and embracing your softness that‘s as HOT as it is hilarious! Highly recommended for fans of grumpy/sunshine pairs, Cinderella/celebrity romances, when it‘s painfully obvious they‘re head over cleats in LOVE but they‘re total utter numpties/silly gooses about it, and absolutely FILTHY dirty talk.

My niece picked this audiobook for our annual drive bringing her home after a week visiting with us—a reread for her, and she‘s been rewatching the adaptation too, starring Lola Tung whose narration here is exceptional! I was surprised by how literary this young adult romance is—wistful, bittersweet nostalgia just permeates every page, with complex characters. It‘s pretty quiet and slow moving for YA and yet kept the whole car riveted for 6 hours.

The heroine of this ghoulish Southern gothic is street-smart and down-on-her-luck, with a heart of gold and sharp, crooked teeth, who finds herself drawn to the doors of a sentient, shape-shifting old mansion—and the bitter, battleworn boy trapped behind its gates. Starling House is an ode to found family, the monsters that save us and plague us, and the courage to exorcise the ghosts of a town with a long, dark history that doesn‘t love you back.

In a land where gods have been outlawed, godkiller for hire Kissen, whose own family was sacrificed to a fire god, is forced to help when a young noble girl fused with the god of white lies seeks her help. Together with a loyal knight turned baker they must journey to a war and god-haunted city for answers and aid. This immersive fantasy is filled with flawed, lovable, badass characters—and the audio narrator sounds like Game of Thrones‘ Ygritte!

An aspiring witch spends 366 days studying spell books, celebrating the Wheel of the Year, burning through colored candles, summoning demons to do her bidding—& having real epiphanies about grief, doubt, & love. I so appreciated Helmuth‘s hang-ups—ahistoricity, cultural appropriation, fear of doing it “wrong”—& the humor and care with which she handled them. Curious about witchcraft? You have an honest, smart, funny companion for the crooked path.

One thing about Andrew Joseph White books—they are not for the faint of heart and they turn me ABSOLUTELY FERAL. The Spirit Bares Its Teeth is White at the height of his visceral, shocking, beautiful, monstrous, tender, transgressive powers. I could not stop reading—though I did occasionally have to put the book down to audibly gasp and/or allow my stomach to resettle. One of the best books of the year, hands (scalpel-wielding and bloody) down.

A witch who can talk to ghosts, a mysterious and mischievous book, three sisters and their deliciously cozy bookshop, Magic and a Dragon as you‘ve never seen them before, a beautiful town kept secret, and much more awaits in Paige Crutcher‘s What Became of Magic—a romantic fantasy about the loneliness of childhood when you don‘t belong, the healing power of found family, and the magic that‘s been inside us all along.

The center of this quietly fraught and achingly earnest story is a love affair in letters, sent between magical typewriters by two ambitious rivals for the same newspaper position. I‘ve heard it described as You‘ve Got Mail meets Dramione, and while I definitely enjoyed both aspects, Iris and Roman truly have a love of their own, and I was rather dreamily swept away by this magical realist tale set amidst a WWI-reminiscent war between two gods.

In an alternate 2020, in which Al Gore once won the presidency and Democrats have held court for 20 years…we still live in an economically and racially unjust, imperialist, carceral state (now with more greenwashing!), and teacher and punk band guitarist Maddie Ryan finds herself and her community forever changed when she stands against the building of a new hyperway through the Black 8th Ward she‘s inadvertently helped gentrify and gets 👇👇👇

I really do love the hard, challenging science in this sci-fi, the big ideas about the nature of the universe and human and alien culture and behavior, however bleak, but Liu‘s characters are sacrificed to this and are just so flat and shallow. That would be fine if it weren‘t for the ridiculously misogynistic way he writes about women. Add to that the popular opinion that it‘s a real slog to get to the pay off…I won‘t be reading the last one.

Ambitious, mysterious, challenging, and unsettling describe this landmark sci-fi soon to be adapted by Netflix. This unique take on first contact explores science & technology, the development of civilizations, and, most of all, what happens when people give up on humanity. Character is somewhat sacrificed to high concepts here, and I found myself thinking of Sophie‘s World but with video games and physics instead of postcards and philosophy.

Published nearly 40 years ago, this iconic collection of essays, interviews, and speeches by the self-described "black, lesbian, feminist, socialist, mother, warrior, poet" Audre Lorde remains as powerful, impactful, and relevant as ever. Here, in these brilliantly intersectional writings, Lorde confronts sexism, racism, & homophobia, all while inviting us to see the potential for political change in social difference and revelation in the erotic.

Listen, I don‘t want an Olympian (superhuman god or medal winner) to tell me how to run, I‘d rather learn at the heels of marathoner Martinus Evans aka Instagram‘s @ 300poundsandrunning. This guide is a gift to all “beginner, nontraditional, slow, fat” runners—warm, funny, welcoming, accessible, and easy to follow, with practical advice and hard-earned wisdom on everything from intervals to gear to race day to joining a running club and more!

This “lightly fictionalized” graphic memoir follows a modern-day Tegan and Sara of indie pop fame as middle schoolers at a new school, developing different friend groups, facing mean girls, discovering the guitar, forming a band, getting their periods, acquiring crushes, coming out, and more. At 32, I‘m not the target market and was occasionally bored tbh, but I think Raina Telgemeier fans will love this emotionally real exploration of 7th grade.

The author of this thoughtfully crafted memoir about Indigenous identity, blood quantum laws, and cultural survival grew up here in Carrollton. Through a totem pole bearing symbols of the matriarchs in her line—bear, salmon, hummingbird, raven—and evocative retellings of Native folklore, Myers sifts through the forces that have led to her being the last of her family to qualify for membership in the Jamestown S‘Klallam Tribe of Washington state.

This is a touching and, on the whole, charming memoir about a young Englishman in 1970s South America who rescues a penguin from death by oil pollution and ends up bringing him home, transforming life at the boarding school in Argentina where he teaches. Michell must be quite elderly by the time of writing, and some outdated views show quite cringily at times (including fatphobia), and there‘s some editing issues, but still a pleasant read.

This book gave me a stomachache in the most viciously brilliant way! Yellowface is an absolutely relentless send-up and take-down of racism in publishing, a razor sharp literary thriller you won‘t be able to put down, narrated by an unreliable and utterly unlikeable lead—and you won‘t be able to tear yourself away from reading every rotten word she says. If you love a train wreck AND books that push you to think more critically, pick this one up!

A spice farmer named Cinnamon with a wicked sense of humor drunkenly rescues a demon only to uncover an evil plot that sweeps her off on an adventure full of dragons, goddesses, and a helluvalot more spice than she‘s used to seeing on the family farm! This was light, fun, funny, and sexy, but I do think the pacing is just too fast and I kind of wish we had a dual POV.

After racing through Born to Run practically feeling the wind in my hair, Murakami‘s meandering ruminations on his running practice, writing practice, health, and his own personality didn‘t do too much for me. His fatphobia was painful to read as well. If you‘re a writer and an established long distance runner or just a serious Murakami fan who‘s already read everything else he‘s written, this book would be for you.

In this powerful, beautifully written, and incisive exploration of racial justice Princeton professor Ruha Benjamin merges memoir, studies of systemic racism and its effects, and the stories of people creating change on the level of the personal and individual. This is an impactful introduction to racial justice—though I felt Benjamin‘s intended emphasis on inspiring individual action was overwhelmed by the necessary survey of mass injustices.

This pasty nerd never thought she‘d be hanging on to every word about long distance running! That‘s how riveting, joyful, meaningful, & fun this book about racing, community, physiology, prehistory, &, greatest runners in the world, the indigenous Tarahumara, is. A modern classic published 15 years ago, the science here may be dated (including fatphobia), but it remains an important, beloved book sure to have you running out the door, Nikes or no!

Foul-mouthed up-and-coming comedian Farley gets her big break with one catch—she must fake date her manager, the ever frowning Meyer, former star comic and hot, older single dad, for publicity. The dating may be fake but the mutual pining is all too real in this steamy friends-to-lovers story! I loved the stand-up show biz setting, the Deaf representation, and ALLLL the feels, funny and otherwise, this smart, sexy romance puts in the spotlight.

I revisited Emily Tesh‘s deliciously atmospheric forest- and folklore-infused fantasy Silver in the Wood before embarking on its sequel, the eerie and otherworldly Drowned Country. I loved seeing how the weight of an eternal wood has altered Henry and Tobias‘s relationship, the expansion of the world, and all the character development—plus fairies, vampires, a plucky new heroine, and more folklore studies!

I didn‘t think I liked second chance romances, but after this fun and swoony romp through wedding season, I guess I‘ll have to give them a…second chance! This grumpy x sunshine romance (think Ted Lasso‘s Keeley/Roy) between a rising wedding planner and a talented, tattooed florist is told in dual perspectives across the years from their mysteriously-ended whirlwind romance and the career-defining celebrity wedding that brings them back together.

This book is so DELICIOUSLY COZY that it CURED my common cold—or at the very least it warmed me all the way up and made me feel a lot better! Wounded in her first venture as a mercenary, a young Viv washes up in a seaside town with a ramshackle bookshop and ends up finding fiction, friendship, first love, the mutually enriching relationship between small businesses and their community, and a little badass bone-busting adventure along the way!

I love T. Kingfisher‘s comically dark, oddly cozy fantasies, and this one gets the recipe just right. Mona is a young bread witch with a sourdough starter familiar—and she‘d be fine making gingerbread men dance at the bakery if she hadn‘t found a dead body and gotten mixed up in a wizard-killing plot endangering the whole city. A delightful tale about how powerful your gifts are, no matter their shape or size, especially when you break the mold!

On a mission to colonize a distant planet, funded by a billionaire who trained them from adolescence, a lethal explosion rocks not only their spaceship but the crew‘s faith in each other. This promising debut is part space thriller, part character study of a Japanese-American girl struggling with belonging and self-worth. There are some pacing issues, but I loved the world-building across timelines and would have followed this crew indefinitely!

This was probably my favorite of the trilogy! The grassroots political action and the politics and challenges of activism, an expanded view of Aeland‘s less privileged and much more interesting echelons, the non-binary and polyamory rep, renewable energy, I could go on!

What‘s more dangerous—a sinking mansion full of secrets, a vicious and enthralling Fairy King, or the forces that have historically silenced and subjugated young women in academia? Fans of Mexican Gothic and The Hazel Wood, this Welsh folklore-infused dark academia fantasy will sweep you under and leave you drowning in all its lush and eerie, mysterious and romantic, utterly immersive, gothic splendor.

I didn‘t catch all of the court intrigue—it‘s not what I come to this series for. I love the gas lamp aesthetic, the magic system, the representation, the main characters‘ sincerity, and above all, these books‘ interest in liberation. This second novel follows Dame Grace Hensley as she confronts the crimes her father committed, her own privilege, the debate between incremental vs radical change, and her attraction to the journalist Avia Jessop.

A both sweetly and bitterly enchanting spin on Sleeping Beauty, this story of a gentle toad fairy and the horror she keeps locked in a tower is not one you‘ve heard before! T. Kingfisher‘s world-building is immersive—she‘s capable of building entire castles out of just the echoes of timeworn tales. I highly recommend Thornhedge for fans of Seanan McGuire‘s Wayward Children series and Alix Harrow‘s Fractured Fables series!

This funny, honest, self-compassionate, perfectly cringy, loving, empowering graphic memoir of growing up trans in suburban England in the 90s and early 00s is just such a gift. I loved how Lewis, as an all-grown-up transman, self-inserts, visits, accepts, and tries to help his younger self, Lois, and all the humor and honesty with which he depicts his teen years and his transition. So grateful this book exists!