An Inheritance of Magic by Benedict Jacka – a Book Review

Posted on March 26, 2024 by Amy @ A Librarian and Her Books

This positively delightful cover is the first in a new series by Benedict Jacka, who is otherwise known for his Alex Verus series. I haven’t read it, but it’s quite popular with readers of urban fantasy. As a reader, I’m not particularly dedicated to any one genre, which gives me a lot of variety, but I’m far from a fantasy aficionado. I enjoy a good fantasy title from time to time. This one I mostly chose because of the cover art. Translation: presence of cat on cover. No really, the cover is gorgeous. And … cat. Ok, in all seriousness this one is my reading challenge pick for a book about or including cats in some capacity, so score one for me.

Synopsis

Stephen Oakwood is a relatively normal young man. He lives alone in a not-so-swanky bachelor pad, struggles to make ends meet with his minimum wage job, and he has the aforementioned cat. Oh… minor detail… he also practices the ancient art of drucraft in his apartment at night, something to which he was introduced by his father who disappeared under fairly mysterious circumstances years ago. You know, the usual. When Stephen’s world collides with that of a wealthy and powerful family of fellow drucrafters, he finds himself in a fight he never wanted but will be forced to finish if he’s to make it out alive.

Review

This is a very compelling concept for an urban fantasy. It’s infused with this always timely theme of class. Even in the world of magic, the wealthy are running the show and taking the best resources for themselves and piggy-backing on the efforts of the working class to build their magical empires. This is definitely a thread I’m looking forward to exploring as the series progresses. Unsurprisingly we see a thread of nepotism and the damage that can be done when someone with immense power but no discernible skill or intelligence jumps at the chance to flex. I mean, really, the lengths the villains will go to in the name of issuing a STAY OFF MY TURF message is infuriating. You don’t mess with the cat, bro!!!

I’m sorry if that seems a bit spoiler-y, but let’s just say that Stephen’s main motivation for ass-kicking is in defense of his bestie, and he’s going to do everything in his power to hone his magical abilities so he can save and protect the one he loves.

Here’s the thing with this book. It’s a great concept, and I really liked getting to know Stephen and Hobbes. However, this book is primarily set-up. It reads more like a drucraft primer, which I guess is necessary considering we’ll need to understand the fundamentals of drucraft in order to follow Stephen and his foes and allies along their subsequent journeys. Unfortunately, that caused this book to drag in some places for me personally. It’s all part of the world-building, and I respect that immensely. There are some readers who absolutely love that part of fantasy, so in this case I believe it’s personal preference. I’m looking for the meat of the story. I like the human elements that tie this fantasy world to the real world. It’s all about the balance.

There’s a lot of potential for Jacka to knock it out of the park in the subsequent books. He’s got a great setup, and he left us with a pretty major teaser in the final words, so time will tell if he can capture that full potential in execution. He’s good at crafting action sequences that are fast-moving and suspenseful, and I anticipate there will be a major uptick in these from this point forward. Also, on Jacka’s blog he JUST announced the cover reveal for the 2nd in the series, and it’s also a beauty. It’s planned for release on October 15, 2024, so that’s something to anticipate.

Overall, I enjoyed this but mostly for it’s purpose of setting up what I hope is to come. I’ll say 3 1/2 stars for this.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Published October 5, 2023 by Ace. ISBN 9780593549841. Paperback. 384 pages.

Posted in Fantasy, magical realism, Urban fantasy | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

A Midlife Gamble (The Midlife Trilogy #3) by Cary J. Hansson – a Book Review

Posted on March 22, 2024 by Amy @ A Librarian and Her Books

I guess you could say I’m reviewing the entire Midlife Trilogy in one review, because I read the first two during my slight unplanned hiatus from blogging and their reviews wound up being really quick goodreads reviews. I didn’t do them justice, and that isn’t fair because this is a really wonderful series. All three books follow three friends: Helen, Caro and Kay. Each woman is unique to her own experiences, but they have a bond forged by almost a lifetime of shared history. The Midlife Trilogy begins with A Midlife Holiday, in which the three friends go together to Cyprus, each one simultaneously escaping the difficulties of their middle-aged existences and searching for some meaning in their monotonous but complicated lives. Some serious stuff happens, and then that brings us to the second book in the series, A Midlife Baby. That title probably perked you up, didn’t it? Things get even more complicated in this book and some serious shocks get thrown our way culminating in quite the cliff-hanger. In A Midlife Gamble, we find the quintessential final book. Suspense, raw emotion, and an explosive conclusion that’s really quite satisfying.

On the surface, these books give off the sweet “chick lit” vibe, but in all honestly they delve very deep into some intense subjects of female identity, friendship, romantic relationships, and mortality. There are resentments and deceptions, but their presence is less soap opera-y and more human and real. In fact, these women feel so real. They are the woman you see at the supermarket who looks a bit frumpy and spent and who doesn’t really smile from her eyes. They are the fashionable, perfectly coiffed woman in heels whose hard-edged business approach hides her true insecurities. And they are the one with the perfect life and the perfect family who is drowning on the inside beneath the things she never says.

Their friendship is sweet and complicated, and each book sort of serves the purpose of helping each woman find her voice, in the world and in their friendship. Boy, do things happen. Lots of things. It’s a fast paced, funny, delightful series and I never found myself getting bored. I could have hung out with these ladies forever. Even when they were selfish and cruel to one another, I still loved and rooted for them. The whole series is bursting with authenticity with just enough Stella getting her groove back fantasy to charm the hopeless romantic in us all. Pleasantly, though, that all takes a back seat and is merely the gateway to the women finding themselves and each other.

Honestly, the ending broke out of the authentic mold and drifted toward completely ludicrous and unlikely. Really, though, I can’t say that I mind. I loved the twists and surprises, no matter how unlikely they wound up being. This series just leaves me with a smile on my face, and sometimes that’s what I’m looking for. And it’s a great reminder as I get older to never give up on myself and never stop choosing my own happiness. Some days it’s really difficult for us women to advocate for ourselves, but it’s completely ok if we do. It really is.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Published May 17, 2023 by Hansson Publishing. ISBN 9798368921105. Runtime 9 hrs, 30 mins. Narrated by Lisa Armytage.

Posted in Chick Lit, General fiction, Romance, Uncategorized, Women's fiction | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang -a Book Review

Posted on March 18, 2024 by Amy @ A Librarian and Her Books

I have quite literally been stuck on this review for weeks. I decided today to just dive in and give it a go and maybe I can talk myself through the conflicting feelings. I’m sure many of you have at least heard something about this book. It was voted as the Goodreads Choice awards pick for best fiction, and it won by a lot. While I haven’t read all the other choices, I definitely wouldn’t have voted for this one. It follows the story of June Hayward, a white woman whose closest friend (loose term), Athena, dies in an almost comically freak accident right in front of June. Athena Liu was a star in the publishing world. She was adored and lauded as a literary genius. June? Not so much. June, knowing that Athena has not shared any information regarding her new novel with anyone, steals the manuscript and releases it under the racially ambiguous name Juniper Song, and as the success starts rolling in she grapples with guilt and issues of racial identity and public controversy.

I’m going to be 100% real. I did not like this book. I’m not saying it’s not good, but it was the most uncomfortable read I’ve picked up in quite some time. June Hayward, a/k/a Juniper Song, is unbelievably whiny and obtuse. She makes some excellent points about the state of the publishing industry but they are clouded by her sheer unreliability as a narrator. She’s just plain unlikable. She’s supposed to be, of course. The most uncomfortable feeling, however, is that I found myself sort of rooting for her. I didn’t really want her complete ruin, but I was frustrated with the idea that she could never really connect with her own voice and had to keep piggy-backing off Athena’s work. Had Athena been a little more likable, maybe I would have been more in the OFF WITH HER HEAD camp in regards to June. Probably not, because I generally avoid the social media rage machine. However, as more information is revealed about Athena, we see that she’s not exactly innocent of doing wrong unto other authors. She’s fake, opinionated, and severely judgmental.

The most profound theme in this book is the theme of social media and the firestorm that can be spread from one little spark. There need not be truth behind a claim (proven truth, anyway) but complete and utter character assassination can still result. This is a horrifying reality, and that’s one of the reasons this book was so uncomfortable. Is the fame and notoriety even worth it? It’s devastating to see a talented person who could be off creating who is instead pouring all their energy into nasty reviews and worthless opinions of people who simply don’t matter. Frankly, google R.F. Kuang and you’ll find plenty of opinions hurled her way. Anyone who can put on their armor and still march into the chaos that always welcomes the public figure has my respect.

As far as the racial element to this book, I don’t really feel completely comfortable addressing it. Being a white woman, I’m not exactly in the right place to speak to it and I thoroughly own that. I know there will be some people who will automatically throw my opinion out, and that’s ok. It’s only fair considering people of color and LGBTQ+ creators have always come against pushback and undue criticism simply because of who they are. I fully realize there are aspects to this subject that I could never fully understand, and I have nothing but admiration for authors who successfully navigate a more complex and unwelcoming publishing world than I would as a white writer. This is, of course, assuming I had the talent they do and actually get to the whole publishing part of it all.

That being said, I’ve never been in the camp of limiting any writer in what they can and can’t address in their work, and I always hate to see those character assassinations from people who probably didn’t even read a work simply because a writer is creating outside their bubble. Obviously, own voices stories should be given greater deference, but we shouldn’t be prohibiting writers from creating characters who don’t share their own world experiences. Should a writer pretend to be someone they aren’t for the sake of creating content and seeming more credible? Absolutely not. I’m just saying they shouldn’t feel like they have to. Should we not call out stereotypes from ignorant people who didn’t do their research? I’m definitely not saying that either. I’m still going to judge a work based on the quality of care put into it by the author, regardless of their origin and identity. As for me, I wouldn’t feel comfortable writing about experiences which I haven’t deeply immersed myself in prior to creation, deeply enough that I’ve developed a full appreciation and understanding of the subject. Anything less would be disrespectful and irresponsible.

I have to give Kuang credit for pushing me toward consideration of some pretty deep and uncomfortable subjects. That was the point, and she executed it quite well. And I’ve always said I dislike characters that are too perfect. Well, these characters were far from perfect. They had the right amount of complexity and nuance, so much so I’m really glad I don’t actually know any of these people in real life. While I found this book to be a quick read, it wasn’t an easy read. As I read it through audio, I merely felt like I was getting an uncomfortable hours-long lecture from the most annoying and opinionated person in the world. That’s not enjoyable even if there are positives to the book. The action really picked up in the final act, but it really wasn’t enough. Some people relish this experience. I certainly do not and this will not be a book I will reread. I won’t, however, forget it any time soon. Due to its merit and audacity to tackle the tough stuff, I’ll settle on 3 stars, though in enjoyability I would give it a 2.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Published May 15, 2023 by HarperAudio. ISBN 9780063250864. Runtime 8 hrs. 39 mins. Narrated by Helen Laser.

Posted in General fiction, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

The Outsider by Stephen King – a Book Review

Posted on February 14, 2024 by Amy @ A Librarian and Her Books

It is Valentine’s Day, my darlings, and what better way to celebrate than with a nice horror novel? That’s right, life sucks and then you die, and some people die in horrible, awful ways. How nice that Stephen King is always here to tell us in graphic detail the myriad of ways in which those poor unfortunate souls are oofed. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Synopsis

When the bloody mutilated body of a young boy is found, it becomes immediately clear who committed the ghastly deed. Multiple people sighted the beloved town little league coach and devoted daddy to two little girls just prior to (with the boy) and just following the murder (with the boy’s blood). Add that to the buckets of forensic evidence also tying him to the murder, it appears to be an open and shut case. After a very public arrest, however, numerous pieces of evidence bubble to the surface seeming to prove the suspect was hours away and in the company of others who can also vouch for his presence. Just how on Earth can a man be two places at once? And what kind of fresh hell will Flint City, Oklahoma, detectives uncover as they try to get to the bottom of this heinous crime?

Review

Obviously, there’s a trigger warning for some seriously disturbing child murder. Then again, if you pick up a Stephen King book you should be prepared for his particular brand of shocking no-holds-barred horror. If not, that rock you’ve been living under is probably getting pretty heavy. Admittedly, I love Stephen King but he also has the capacity to annoy the hell out of me. Let me put it this way. You know how we all have that one relative who can’t really tell a story from beginning to end without going on all manner of tangents? It starts off by them telling you about that one time her Aunt Nancy got pooped on by a bird and it was all in her hair. Nancy has great hair. She took her to get ice cream once and some guy tripped and his cone fell IN NANCY’S HAIR. Oh yeah, there was a car accident that day outside the parlor involving the janitor at the elementary school who had all those corgis. Remember the corgis? Once she saw a poodle at the Quicktrip and it pooped next to the cheetos. She’s never really liked cheetos. Too messy. **deep inhale** At least we circled back to poop, am I right? That’s kind of what it’s like reading a Stephen King novel. His characters tend to wax nostalgic about all manner of things about which you couldn’t give two tablespoons of bird poop and you have to sit there and listen to it to get to the good part. If you are currently annoyed reading this insanely long paragraph, you now have a crash course in reading a King novel. A novel that could have been 350 pages lands on a whopping 650 and you’ve wasted two extra hours of your life reading about bird poop.

The rest, however, is great and exciting. In this book, we see the return of one of King’s most iconic characters, Holly Gibney. It just takes him somewhere around 300 pages to get to her. After the passing of her partner, Bill Hodges, she joins Detective Ralph Anderson for this story. Ralph, always the rational and pragmatic lawman, is annoyingly stubborn in his skepticism. Just how many clues do you need to admit something strange is afoot? If something is clearly impossible, the answer becomes… the impossible! There, that was easy. Now maybe more people don’t have to die before you pull your head out of the dark cavernous void of your ass. No?

For how long it takes King to get to the action, when the action does arrive it’s abrupt. Don’t blink or you’ll miss the death of a major character. In King’s world, there are no red shirts. No one is safe and everyone is expendable. Frankly, that’s a good thing because predictability is a bore. That being said, this book is fairly predictable in many aspects. We spend most of our time waiting for Ralph to wake up and smell the paranormal. Some of the gaps of how we have to fill in, but we’re pretty sure about the nature of the what.

Overall, this book was entertaining. It’s peppered with interesting and quirky characters. It’s not a masterpiece, but it’s another satisfying addition to the ever-expanding King canon.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Published May 22, 2018 by Scribner. ISBN 9781501180989. Hardcover. 561 pages.

Posted in General fiction, Horror, Horror, thriller, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 9 Comments

The Air Raid Book Club by Annie Lyons – a Book Review

Posted on February 13, 2024 by Amy @ A Librarian and Her Books

This novel is the first work of historical fiction written by author, Annie Lyons. Prior to this dive into history, she had released several titles in the genre of Uplit, and I think this is important to understanding the reason for some of the qualms I had with The Air Raid Book Club, which I will get into later. First of all, what is Uplit? Essentially, as suggested by the title, it’s uplifting literature that’s packed with emotion, life lessons, and has an intense focus on human relationships. There’s often a quirky every-man/woman character who starts off a bit curmudgeonly and softens a bit over the course of the story. Think A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman or Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman, two of my personal faves. There’s a major element of self discovery no matter the age of the protagonist. So, with this little intro to the genre, let’s keep that in mind as we explore this book a bit further.

Synopsis

Gertie Bingham, owner and proprietor of Bingham Books in London, finds herself at loss of how to move forward just prior to the onset of WWII in 1938. She’s recently lost the love of her life, Harry. As a result, running the bookshop no longer has the same appeal. She and Harry were once the perfect couple, fulfilling their dreams and serving a purpose for their community that just felt right. Without Harry, the bookshop feels like a part of her past rather than an integral piece of her future. Just as she settles on an idea to retire to the seaside with her dog, Hemingway, fate takes hold when the war comes crashing down around her. Gertie opens her home up to a young German girl, Hedy Fischer. Together, the two of them learn to navigate the new landscape of London and the world as a whole, and will learn so much about themselves and each other in the process.

Review

Truly, this is a lovely and uplifting book. It’s very clear that Lyons has her roots in this type of literature, because The Air Raid Book Club fits in quite well with the Uplit category. While not full-on curmudgeonly (though there are a couple of characters one could easily describe this way), Gertie starts off as quite lonely and lost, her grief and sadness having stripped her of her original zest for life. It will take the forging of a new and unlikely relationship to pull her out of her funk and give her a new and unexpected purpose in life. In this way, Lyons makes this one of the most feel-good WWII novels, an oxymoron if I’ve ever heard one. Now, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with this. For those people who may be growing weary of the bleak and hard realities of typical historical fiction surrounding this time period, this could be a pretty refreshing link in the chain to make things feel a bit less heavy.

I’m not saying there isn’t death and sadness and all that. It’s certainly there, but it’s less in your face. It’s all happening over there, and our characters are hearing about it from their vantage points far removed from the carnage and bloodshed. We mostly experience the residual grief and the unease that comes with being constantly on guard of air raids, as well as the worry and fear for loved-ones in harms way. We feel much more like a casual observer than one who is actually immersed within the drama. Personally, as far as historical fiction goes, this lessens my ability to connect fully with the characters. Learning about the death of a person who has been consistently on the periphery of the story doesn’t elicit the same range of emotion as it would have in a more immersive novel. Even Harry, whose death was the catalyst for Gertie’s current emotional predicament, we don’t really feel anything for because we only know OF him. He was a character of a past we don’t explore. We don’t see the relationships between Gertie and Hedy and the people they have lost in their lives. We hear about them, and that’s a different thing entirely.

What we do see is the progression of Gertie and Hedy’s relationship, and that’s the heart of the story. Essentially, this is not really a war novel. It’s a friendship novel. It’s a novel of love and acceptance and of forging family in the unlikeliest of places with what you are given in the face of adversity. Viewing the book from that angle, it’s very adept and serves its purpose quite well. As a piece of war fiction, the emotional heft you would expect is not present. That’s totally ok, because every reader has their own preferences. Some people don’t like to have nightmares about being forced to make Sophie’s choice, and I get that. My heart still aches when I think about that damn book. Thanks, Mr. Styron.

Overall, this is a long-winded way of saying this is an enjoyable read that is surprisingly light. It’s a lovely story and it’s well-written. You can read it on the beach and not wind up bathing in your own puddle of tears. For that, I settle on 3 stars. Liked it but wasn’t absolutely blown away.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Published July 11, 2023 by HarperAudio. ISBN 9780063296220. Runtime 9 hrs, 29 mins. Narrated by Jilly Bond.

Posted in General fiction, Historical Fiction, Uplit, Women's fiction | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips – a Book Review

Posted on February 8, 2024 by Amy @ A Librarian and Her Books

I had absolutely no expectations when I picked up this novel. The cover was quite intriguing, but I’d never read any books by Phillips despite her having quite a few titles under her belt. This book was, in fact, a National Book Award Nominee for fiction in 2023. The concept of a book set at a late-1800’s asylum led me to believe it would be insanely dark and ridiculously disturbing in a very fascinating way. That was not, actually, what I found upon reading this novel.

Synopsis

In 1874, the United States is still reeling from the horrors of the Civil War. ConaLee and her mother, Eliza, alone on their family property when ConaLee’s father didn’t return from the war, have long been victim to one of the roving veterans who survives merely by taking from those he encounters. This period during and after the war was especially dangerous for women and children left alone on their homesteads where even vigilance wasn’t enough to prevent an attack. When this stranger inserts himself into their lives, insisting they call him Papa, Eliza withdraws into herself and becomes little more than a ghost in her own home, wordless and numb. ConaLee does her best to care for her mother and the children that have come from the forced union between her mother and “Papa.” When the cruel man has finally had enough, he sends the babies away and loads ConaLee and Eliza on a wagon and delivers them to the steps of the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in West Virginia. There, using false identities, they make a home for themselves and Eliza slowly begins to return to her former self under the care and protection of the people they meet. Unfortunately, peace and security rarely ever last.

Review

I had a bit of difficulty getting into this book. The writing style is sort of vague and dreamy, requiring quite a bit of concentration to absorb the details. Additionally, I absolutely hate it when writers refuse to use quotation marks to delineate conversations. Frankly, I think it’s quite pretentious to think you can get away with breaking the rules just because you are otherwise a fabulous writer. It serves no purpose but to confuse and make the reader work harder to try to follow conversations. However, once I got used to Phillips’ writing style, I found myself quite engrossed. Mind you, the beginning of this novel has some amazingly disturbing scenes of violence and rape, so trigger warnings abound. She holds nothing back on the horrors experienced by people following the Civil War, a time of lawlessness and desperation for many. I expected the disturbing stuff to be at the asylum, but it was the exact opposite.

These characters have somewhat of a Dickensian quality, especially the Night Watch. This stoic and enigmatic man who greeted them at the gates of the asylum is a positive but mystifying presence, not unkind but keeping to himself. His face terribly scarred from his experiences in the war and being in possession of no family, he wants little more than to have his little corner of comfort within the secure walls of the asylum. There’s also the kindly doctor who takes a liking to Eliza, proving to her there are still good men in the world who don’t view her as a commodity to be used and discarded.

This novel is peppered with fascinating and original characters, including Dearbhla, a kindly old woman who was a mother figure to ConaLee’s father. In a touch of magical realism, Dearbhla has the ability to sense her loved ones, and for this reason she doesn’t believe him to be dead and sets off to find him to return him to his family. The story bounces back and forth between different perspectives, those already mentioned and a young orphan living at the asylum who is somewhat of a companion to the night watch. Even the characters on the periphery of this story play an important role, even if it’s just to illustrate the effects of the war on the psyche. Of particular note was a woman who befriends Eliza and seems to believe herself to be Mary Todd Lincoln, constantly recounting her expressions of grief over the loss of her husband and children, a clear projection of her own trauma surrounding the war.

As far as the asylum, itself, this is a very unique dive into history that most people don’t realize existed. We think of early asylums as a kind of Cuckoo’s Nest-esque horror, more akin to torture chambers than hospitals. But Phillips presents to us a very important historical figure, Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride. Dr. Kirkbride was a physician who advocated for compassion in treatment of the mentally ill. His asylum in West Virginia was in operation from 1864 all the way until 1994, after which it became a tourist attraction and historical landmark. Sadly, after the turn of the century it did fall into disarray and became more of the horror factory we know of today, shackling patients in overcrowded wards and passing out lobotomies left and right, but it’s good to know part of its history was positive. It’s a beautiful building, a mix of Gothic revival and Tudor revival styles, still standing in the town of Weston, West Virginia. I do love how historical fiction can often introduce me to something new. I mean old… but new to me.

The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum as it still stands in Weston, WV. Image from:WVtourism.com

I did find myself a bit disappointed by the end of the novel. The conclusion felt a bit rushed, which lessened the impact I feel it should have had. The tone of the novel sort of shifted from a lyrically profound exploration of the effects of human suffering to an explosion of action all within a matter of pages. Overall, however, Phillips is a master story-teller who deftly uses language to illustrate the most important effects of historical events in a way few other authors are capable. The story and the characters will stick with me, which is a plus.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Published September 19, 2023 by Knopf. ISBN 9780451493330. Hardcover. 304 pages.

Posted in General fiction, Historical Fiction, Uncategorized, Women's fiction | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

WWW Wednesday – February 7, 2024

Posted on February 7, 2024 by Amy @ A Librarian and Her Books

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam at Taking On a World of Words. In it, each blogger answers three questions:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What have you recently finished?
  • What will you read next?

What am I currently reading?

Having literally just finished both my other reads, I haven’t actually started either of my “current” reads, which puts me in a bit of a gray area. I will be starting the audiobook, A Midlife Gamble, the conclusion to Cary J. Hansson’s Midlife series I have so far enjoyed very much. For some reason, upon finishing A Midlife Baby, I didn’t think the conclusion had been released yet! Little did I know it came out last May!!! And I’m starting An Inheritance of Magic by Benedict Jacka. Both look like pretty quick reads. And I’m absolutely loving the cover of the Jacka book.

What have I just finished reading?

This has been a pretty exciting week for me in regards to productivity in reading. Of course, that means I now find myself about four book reviews behind but I’m going to do my best to remedy that in the next few days. I was able to finish two reads in the past 24 hours. The first is The Outsider by Stephen King. This was a monster book, more than 500 pages, but it was a pretty quick read. The second one was Yellowface by R.F. Kuang. I would like to ruminate on this one for a few days. It’s definitely a profound and timely read and I find myself quite conflicted about how I feel at this moment. I literally finished it about a half hour ago.

What will I read next?

I still have two books out from my latest library run. The first is Mary and the Birth of Frankenstein by Anne Eekhout. The second one is The Prospectors by Ariel Djanikian. Both of these are historical fiction titles. I’m most looking forward to the Eekhout book, though I’m a bit nervous to tackle it, because Shelley is very near and dear to my heart and I hope the book does her story justice! That’s it for me for this week. Until we meet again, happy reading!

Posted in Fantasy, General fiction, Gothic, Historical Fiction, Horror, Literary Fiction, thriller, Uncategorized, Women's fiction | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

A Good House For Children by Kate Collins – a Book Review

Posted on February 5, 2024 by Amy @ A Librarian and Her Books

There’s always room for another creepy old house story. I don’t particularly want to live in one, but I sure love reading about them. There’s another Kate Collins out there writing cozy mysteries with delightful titles such as “Dearly Depotted” and “Sleeping With Anenome” and, note to self, I need to check out this Flower Shop Mystery series. However, this is not THAT Kate Collins, as there’s nothing fluffy about A Good House for Children. This is the debut novel of Ms. Collins, an Irish-born writer now living and working in England.

Synopsis

The novel alternates between two women in two different timelines. In 2017, Orla is a wife and mother whose artistic aspirations have taken a backseat since she succumbed to the obligations of motherhood. Always buckling under the pretentious gaslighting of her jackass husband, Nick, Orla agrees to move their growing family out to “The Reeve,” a spooky crumbling mansion in Dorset. Once there, he proceeds to scamper out to God knows where for the entire week only to return long enough on the weekend to judge his wife mercilessly from his cushy spot as a family spectator. (Can you tell I didn’t like Nick?) In 1976, we get the second thread from the perspective of Lydia, a live-in nanny for a wealthy family trying to overcome the devastating loss of the father by moving out to the seclusion of The Reeve. The loss of her husband has caused the mother, Sara, to become little more than a ghost flickering through her children’s lives as she buckles under the depression that’s overtaken. Sara’s voluntary isolation becomes Lydia’s forced isolation. Both women, Orla and Lydia, begin to experience unsettling and potentially dangerous events that lead them to believe the house is more than just a house. The problem? No one else believes them.

Review

Kate Collins has a gift for building upon the dark and foreboding atmosphere in a way that fully sucks us in and keeps us reading. But she also does something a bit deeper with her characters. There’s an undercutting feminist narrative surrounding these two women and the power they lack in their human relationships. More often than not, their wants and desires are stripped from them, they are left isolated and ignored, and they are made to feel silly for their fanciful delusions. Almost immediately, my impression was that this novel is very much a mashup of Henry James’ Turn of the Screw and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper. Frankly, it works very well and is completely infuriating. Collins was definitely successful in eliciting the emotions she was mining for in this creation. The house is fascinating and lovely in a grotesque and frightening way. Someone who can’t make the house a character shouldn’t be writing stories about haunted houses. Thankfully, Collins understood the assignment and crafted a brilliantly terrifying presence, a presence that grows increasingly closer and larger throughout the novel, and the walls close in more and more, little by little, until there’s nowhere else to go.

Was everything perfect? Not at all. I would have liked a little more follow-up into surviving characters, perhaps even a convergence of the two timelines at some point. There were some loose ends left opened, but this is merely a personal preference. Collins said what she needed to say, and some things are left up to us to decide. While it’s necessary to the story for both Orla and Lydia to be lacking in a bit of conviction, this becomes a very frustrating aspect of the story. It’s difficult to see them both not stand up for themselves when it feels so necessary for them to muster some inner strength. What Collins presents is realistic, sadly. It’s just really, really depressing.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and I’m really looking forward to the material Collins will put out in the future. She’s definitely a welcome new voice in the realm of modern Gothic horror.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Published July 4, 2023 by HarperCollins B and Blackstone Publishing. ISBN 9798212691642. Runtime 11hrs, 31mins. Narrated by Kristin Atherton.

Posted in General fiction, Gothic, Horror, Literary Fiction, Psychological thriller, thriller, Uncategorized, Women's fiction | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Fragile Designs by Colleen Coble – a Book Review

Posted on February 2, 2024 by Amy @ A Librarian and Her Books

Ok, I’m going to start off by saying that I now know I am absolutely not the target audience for this book. When I choose a book, I automatically look at genre tags. This one was NOT tagged as Christian fiction on the Hoopla app. It is on goodreads, so I wish I had checked there first. I guess that’s why I’d never heard of Colleen Coble. She’s obviously not in my wheelhouse. Rather, this was called “romantic suspense,” which I guess is the Christian equivalent of thriller. Translation: there will be lots of schmaltz (BUT ABSOLUTELY NO SEX) and you’ll do a bit of nail biting but, otherwise, your delicate sensibilities will be intact upon completion. Are you starting to see why I’m not the target audience? I’m not going to make this review a critique of Christianity at all, so please don’t think I’m judging an entire religion, but I will be judging the hell out of this book on literary merits, and some of that is rooted in the fact that this genre gleefully does a crap job at story building in the guise of “keeping it clean.”

Carly Harris is quite literally the perfect woman. She’s insanely beautiful, completely devout, and a devoted wife who defers to her husband in all instances. Her husband is manly-man cop, Eric Harris (seriously, how big of a rock has Coble been living under that she doesn’t know the name Eric Harris is synonymous with evil???) When Eric is killed in a burglary attempt on their house, Carly uncovers some items in storage that allude to a decades-old mystery that Eric was apparently aware of, and it’s possibly his tracking down of the clues that got him killed. Carly, armed with only her meek and mild demeanor as the perfect damsel in distress exuding kindness and vulnerability, obviously needs the help of the handsome cop next door. Muscular, stoic, and in possession of a miraculous gift with babies despite never having been around one, Lucas is a dreamboat. He’s a Godly man, and he encourages this in others. Obviously, the whole department stops to pray when one of their own has been shot and the perp is, as we speak, running for the hills. He’ll get a head start, but Jesus took the wheel, anyway. Why hurry?

If I had to be positive for a second, the story surrounding the adoption and valuable artifacts was compelling. I kept going just to see if they found all the missing people and pieces, but damn was I frustrated for about 75% of the novel. Also, Coble can string sentences together in a coherent way. Otherwise, this was completely devoid of complexity. The good Christian people were all wonderful. They made the right choices which were always selfless. Those lacking in morals pay the price. If Carly has one flaw it’s that she’s too nice. She’s a total doormat, in fact. At one point, handsome cop Lucas says he likes going on a road trip with Carly because she lets him control the radio and doesn’t talk too much. Might as well pat her on the head and say with a wink, “just sit there and look pretty, sweetheart.”

Here’s another thing that irked me. If you know that the Russian mob is on your tail, (I mean, we all know what that’s like, right?) and you KNOW that they will turn over every stone you try to turn over in searching for something valuable, don’t you think you should WARN people who might become a target? Multiple times Carly decided she wanted something to be a surprise, so she held off on pertinent information and Lucas, who is supposed to be good at his job, just goes along with this. You can’t admit the mob is 5 steps ahead of you at all times and then just wait before telling some poor old lady she may have an artifact in her attic that’s worth about $20 million. I hate to break it to you, but Jesus ain’t guarding the door because he’s busy helping with that bullet wound for which you let the assailant get away because you needed to chit-chat with the man upstairs. Plus, you didn’t pray about it this time so how does he know?

Also, you’re leaving the little ladies and the babies alone for a while, but they have one construction worker with a gun, so it’s obviously going to work out spiffy spoofy, don’t-cha know? It’s just the Russian mob, after all. Who’s worried about them when you have Jesus and the NRA on your side?

I have now released full nuclear snark. I was worried it might come to this.

Look, I know some people, due to their religion, want some good clean “romantic suspense.” And I’m sorry if I just peed in your cheerios. But if I’m being truly honest, I don’t agree with the idea that someone can get a free pass at poor writing and poor character development simply because it’s “Christian fiction.” Honestly, the character description for one minor character was that he looked like Denzel Washington. Not only is it just bad writing it screams of a desperate attempt to include just one black person in the book. This book has plenty of 5 star reviews on goodreads, so I know there’s a market for it. If that’s you and you want predictable fluff that presents no challenge to your preconceived world view, then this is the book for you. You’ll have more sweet little Southern belles and flawlessly masculine policemen than your heart can handle. As for me, I wish it had been categorized appropriately so I could have avoided it. I’ve decided to use this one for my reading challenge for the read that’s outside my comfort zone, and I’ll add Coble to my list of authors whose works don’t interest me in the least.

I save 1 stars for works that are so poorly written they aren’t even coherent or are patently offensive, so in this case I’ll give it a 2. Really didn’t like it but it was at least readable.

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Published January 1, 2024 by Thomas Nelson. ISBN 9780785253853. Hardcover. 352 pages.

Posted in Christian Fiction, mystery, romantic suspense, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

WWW Wednesday – January 31, 2024

Posted on January 31, 2024 by Amy @ A Librarian and Her Books

I can’t believe a whole week has gone by since the last time I wrote one of these! Welcome to WWW Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words. In this series, each blogger answers three questions:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What have you recently finished reading?
  • What will you read next?

What am I currently reading?

I’m currently listening to Colleen Coble’s, Fragile Designs, a romantic thriller about a recently widowed single mom who discovers her husband’s random shooting death may not be as random as previously thought. This one is my alliterative author pick for my 2024 reading challenge, and I chose it on my Hoopla app on a whim because of this fact.

In hardback, I’m tackling Stephen King’s The Outsider, a murder mystery/thriller from America’s aficionado of creep and gore. I’m about halfway through this monster, and it takes its place in my Reading challenge category of a book in excess of 500 pages. I will say, for a book of more than 500 pages I’ve been tearing through it quite quickly.

What have I just finished reading?

I have blazed through them this week, and I’ve finished three books since my last WWW post. On audio, I finished both A Good House for Children by Kate Collins and The Air Raid Book Club by Annie Lyons. In hardback, I finally finished Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips. Despite it being fairly short, I found myself having some difficulties getting into this one at first. I hope to get these three reviews up by the end of this week.

What Will I Read Next?

I’m still a little up in the air on what I will start after I finish The Outsider. More than likely it will be An Inheritance of Magic by Benedict Jacka. I also didn’t even realize this book featured a cat when I picked it up at the library, so I have inadvertently scored another read for my reading challenge. For my daughter, Willa, this year, I’m reading a book featuring her favorite animal! Now if anyone stumbles across a good turtle-featuring book for my Henry, let me know!

On audio, I have absolutely no idea what I will choose next. I figure I’ll peruse my apps and see what grabs my attention, especially if it can fit into a slot into my reading challenge. Until I see you next time, Happy Reading!

Posted in General fiction, Historical Fiction, Horror, mystery, thriller, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment