Review - "The Gilded Wolves"

The Gilded Wolves, The Gilded Wolves #1
by Roshani Chokshi
rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
published: 15th January 2019
spoilers? none

Goodreads

Wolves were everywhere. In politics, on thrones, in beds. They cut their teeth on history and grew fat on war.

Galley provided by publisher

If you enjoyed Six of Crows, in particular the unlikely found family trope, its heist shenanigans, and general chaos, then you had better be prepared to read (and fall in love with) this book. The Gilded Wolves is a gorgeously written, historical/dystopia/futuristic heist novel (no, that's not an oxymoron), with six wonderful main characters who you can't help but love.

The novel is set in Paris, 1889, and introduces the shadowy Order of Babel, who control Forgery, a form of magic. The Order "collects" Forged items from countries across the globe. Séverin, our main character (insofar as you can identify the main), is the last surviving member of the disgraced House Vanth, consumed with the desire to exact revenge on the Order for cheating him out of his inheritance. When a routine heist reveals something unexpected, Séverin and his team (Laila, Tristan, Enrique and Zofia) are enlisted by the Patriarch of House Nyx, Hypnos, to find a hidden artefact.

What I especially loved about this book was the characters. Firstly, the main cast is really diverse - four of the main six are characters of colour and two are mlm (one is explicitly bi, and allowed to crush on both male and female characters in the book). Though, yes, I do live in hope that one of the girls is going to be wlw as well, but who knows. Secondly, for most of the book, I genuinely couldn't decide which of them was my favourite. Of course, if you know anything about my type of character, you can probably pick out which of them ended up being my favourite, but that didn't stop me loving each of them individually.

Throughout the book, I think I was in awe of how well Roshani Chokshi can develop a plot and her characters simultaneously. Every one of them is fully rounded, and even when you're not in their POV, you can just feel them coming off the page with life. I think that was most obvious for Hypnos because for most of the book he was only viewed through other characters' eyes, but you still get such a clear idea of his character it's almost as if you did get that time in his POV.

I also want to gush over the plot itself for a bit. It's so intricately woven and thought out, and so engaging you don't even think to put the book down for a moment. And then just as you think everything's sorted out now, everything's happy, suddenly Roshani Chokshi pulls the rug from under your feet, breaks your heart, and turns everything upside down, so all you're left with is a cliffhanger, a lot of soggy tissues and at least a year-long wait to find out how it all gets resolved.

If there was anything at all that I didn't like as much about this book, it was the love triangle. I wouldn't have minded so much, but I disliked one of the sides of it. In my opinion, they'd have worked better as becoming really good friends instead of having relationship potential (and then I could escape that particular romantic angst), but I guess I'll have to wait to see where it gets taken in book 2. Also, I know I was expecting more of a historical atmosphere to this book, but it's not really historical so much as a kind of futuristic past (because of Forging), if that makes sense. That it's set in Paris in 1889 is relegated to the background almost, so if you're going in expecting it to be very historical or historically accurate, then you might be disappointed.

So, if I hadn't made it clear before now, this is definitely a book you're going to want to read. Maybe multiple times over just to fully absorb every little detail about it. Just make sure you're prepared for a broken heart.

Review - "Don't You Forget About Me"

Don't You Forget About Me
by Mhairi McFarlane
rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
published: 1st January 2019
spoilers? vague ones

Goodreads

I don't know what he's thinking. I look forward to finding out.

Galley provided by publisher

TWs harassment (sexual and otherwise), past sexual assault (described)

As ever, here I am, having rated a book 5 stars, asking myself the biggest question: just how do you review a book that has just ripped your heart right out and then stitched it back into place? This, of course, may seem like an overexaggeration, but it's not. I'm sat in the kitchen of my flat having just gone through a rollercoaster of emotions and I don't even know where to start with it.

Don't You Forget About Me is a second-chance romance, with all the angst that comes with that. The romance in question happened 12 years previously, when Georgina was 18 and leaving sixth-form. Since then, she's not seen hide nor hair of Lucas, and has ultimately, compared to whatever expectations people had of her, failed in life. She perhaps hits rock bottom when she's sacked from her waitressing job and, in the same night, finds out her boyfriend is cheating on her. Then, her brother-in-law suggests her for a job in a new pub that's just opening.

Georgina is an engaging and funny, if unreliable, narrator - the book is in first person but I never felt like I had trouble getting into it because of that. Mhairi McFarlane has an easy to read and lovely style, and I got into this book from page one, around the time that I fell completely in love with Georgina. Because this book is less about romance per se, so much as about Georgina realising her own value and being kind to herself and coming to terms with what happened in her past. There is a romance going on (second-chance!), but it's more of a background thing, and one thing I loved was how, when everything comes out into the open and Georgina and Lucas finally talk about it all, they don't immediately get together afterwards. Yes, it gave me a little moment of please don't leave it like this, but it felt more right than him finding out about things and then falling into bed with her (I'm trying to be vague with this, sorry!).

I really loved how much of a slowburn this book was, both in the romance, and in Georgina's realisations. Everything felt so natural and it was done so well that it never even risked being boring for a moment. I genuinely couldn't put this book down (I spent 4 hours reading it while simultaneously telling myself this is going to be the final chapter I read, I'll go back to doing my last coursework of the term afterwards. Did I ever go back? Nope). It was absolutely wonderful and I wish I could go back and read it over again for the first time (maybe I'll just satisfy myself with a reread). I really think this might end up being one of my favourite books of 2018.

So, there's not much more to say besides: please please read this book.

Five for Friday: Romance

It's been a while (uni work is a bitch), but finally I'm back with a new Five for Friday! This week, I'm reccing romance books. Any romance - historical, contemporary, gay, straight, you name it. My top five (less well known ones of course). Just to warn you, I prefer my romances slowburn and with a little bit (I mean, quite a bit) of angst.

Unveiled by Courtney Milan

Rating: 5 stars

Synopsis: Ash Turner has waited a lifetime to seek revenge on the man who ruined his family - and now the time for justice has arrived. At Parford Manor, he intends to take his place as the rightful heir to the dukedom and settle an old score with the current duke once and for all. But instead he finds himself drawn to a tempting beauty who has the power to undo all his dreams of vengeance….

Lady Margaret knows she should despise the man who's stolen her fortune and her father's legacy - the man she's been ordered to spy on in the guise of a nurse. Yet the more she learns about the new duke, the less she can resist his smoldering appeal. Soon Margaret and Ash find themselves torn between old loyalties - and the tantalizing promise of passion….

Comments: Courtney Milan is easily one of the best romance authors at the moment, and I think Unveiled has to be pretty much my favourite of hers I've read so far. It has the perfect amount of tension and angst, and I especially loved that she doesn't use miscommunication or the identity reveal as sources of angst in this one.

Always Never Yours by Emily Wibberley & Austin Siegemund-Broka

Rating: 5 stars

Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Megan Harper is about due for her next sweeping romance. It's inevitable—each of her relationships starts with the perfect guy and ends with him falling in love . . . with someone else. But instead of feeling sorry for herself, Megan focuses on pursuing her next fling, directing theater, and fulfilling her dream college's acting requirement in the smallest role possible.

So when she’s cast as Juliet (yes, that Juliet) in her high school’s production, it’s a complete nightmare. Megan’s not an actress, and she’s used to being upstaged—both in and out of the theater. In fact, with her mom off in Texas and her dad remarried and on to baby #2 with his new wife, Megan worries that, just like her exes, her family is moving on without her.

Then she meets Owen Okita, an aspiring playwright inspired by Rosaline from Shakespeare's R+J. A character who, like Megan, knows a thing or two about short-lived relationships. Megan agrees to help Owen with his play in exchange for help catching the eye of a sexy stagehand/potential new boyfriend. Yet Megan finds herself growing closer to Owen, and wonders if he could be the Romeo she never expected.

Comments: Sometimes the slowburn in YA romances can be the most rewarding, and this is one of those times. I loved all the characters, especially Megan, and it's just a very cute book, really.

A Duke by Default by Alyssa Cole

Rating: 5 stars

Synopsis: New York City socialite and perpetual hot mess Portia Hobbs is tired of disappointing her family, friends, and—most importantly—herself. An apprenticeship with a struggling swordmaker in Scotland is a chance to use her expertise and discover what she’s capable of. Turns out she excels at aggravating her gruff silver fox boss… when she’s not having inappropriate fantasies about his sexy Scottish burr.

Tavish McKenzie doesn’t need a rich, spoiled American telling him how to run his armory…even if she is infuriatingly good at it. Tav tries to rebuff his apprentice, and his attraction to her, but when Portia accidentally discovers that he’s the secret son of a duke, rough-around-the-edges Tav becomes her newest makeover project.

Forging metal into weapons and armor is one thing, but when desire burns out of control and the media spotlight gets too hot to bear, can a commoner turned duke and his posh apprentice find lasting love?

Comments: Is Alyssa Cole in my top 10, nay top 5, romance authors? Very definitely yes. And this one is probably my favourite of hers so far.

Far From Home by Lorelie Brown

Rating: 4 stars
Content Warnings: eating disorder

Synopsis: My name is Rachel. I’m straight... I think. I also have a mountain of student loans and a smart mouth. I wasn’t serious when I told Pari Sadashiv I’d marry her. It was only party banter! Except Pari needs a green card, and she’s willing to give me a breather from drowning in debt.

My off-the-cuff idea might not be so terrible. We get along as friends. She’s really romantically cautious, which I find heartbreaking. She deserves someone to laugh with. She’s kind. And calm. And gorgeous. A couple of years with her actually sounds pretty good. If some of Pari’s kindness and calmness rubs off on me, that’d be a bonus, because I’m a mess - anorexia is not a pretty word - and my little ways of keeping control of myself, of the world, aren’t working anymore.

And, if I slip up, Pari will see my cracks. Then I’ll crack. Which means I gotta get out, quick, before I fall in love with my wife.

Comments: The likelihood of finding half-decent f/f NA romances is low. The likelihood of finding actually good ones is even lower. So this book is basically a miracle. And it's a miracle that doesn't use miscommunication to create angst.

Almost Like Being in Love by Steve Kluger

Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis: A high school jock and nerd fall in love senior year, only to part after an amazing summer of discovery to attend their respective colleges. They keep in touch at first, but then slowly drift apart.

Flash forward twenty years.

Travis and Craig both have great lives, careers, and loves. But something is missing .... Travis is the first to figure it out. He's still in love with Craig, and come what may, he's going after the boy who captured his heart, even if it means forsaking his job, making a fool of himself, and entering the great unknown.

Comments: Yeah, I've recced this before and yes, I'll rec it again. Sometimes it's just most healing to see older gay characters get their happy ending.

Review - "Do You Dream of Terra-Two?"

Do You Dream Of Terra-Two?
by Temi Oh
rating: ☆☆☆ 1/2
published: 7th March 2019
spoilers? not really

Goodreads

Do You Dream of Terra-Two? is an alternate history where a planet with life-sustaining capabilities has been discovered and, in 2012, the first expedition is sent out to try and colonise it. It's the story of the six young astronauts who go on that 23-year-long mission, and their journey into space.

This isn't an action-packed book, far from it. It's a character-driven novel, where you might start out thinking you don't really like all of the characters, but most of them grow on you slowly and sneakily. It's a long book (over 500 pages), and you get POVs from every character (though some more than others), so you really get to understand each of them, their worries and their motivations. Which is good, don't get me wrong. I did like that aspect of it. However, for three quarters of the book, there was hardly any conflict (or, what conflict there was happened quickly and ended quickly too) or action. And I was mostly fine with that (for once. You know me and action), but around two thirds through I did start getting a little bored. The last quarter of the book was amazing, because things were happening, but between two thirds through and three quarters, I felt like it drifted a little.

Linked to that, the number of POVs was a little overwhelming at times. On the one hand, it was good to see all the characters, but on the other, I wasn't all that interested in one or two of them, so I kind of skimmed their parts. The switches between the POVs sometimes felt really abrupt, almost as if there should have been more to come, which got cut out. That also contributed to the plot occasionally feeling kind of bitty, like getting snapshots of their life instead of a continuous arc. (Which, I get because it covers a whole year in a 23-year mission, but I did feel like maybe it could have been woven together a bit more seamlessly at points.)

Because it was so bitty, the conflict that did happen before 75% felt almost like neither it nor the aftermath of it were given time to develop. For the buildup that was less of a problem, because there was always some undercurrent of it running through previous parts, but I definitely thought sometimes the aftermath could have done with being dwelt on a bit longer (or even the conflict itself at points). I had a similar issue with the declaration of love, because that distinctly felt like it came out of nowhere. Although it wasn't underdeveloped, it could have done with even more development.

This may all sound somewhat negative, but I did enjoy this book, for sure. Like I said, for most of it I didn't mind the character-driven aspect, and I really loved the last quarter. And the kind of forced found family trope was done pretty well too (so much that I was really sad about the ending). It's just that one twelfth of the story where it started to drag and I got bored that's made me rate this 3.5 stars instead of 4.

Review - "Pulp"

Pulp
by Robin Talley
rating: ☆☆
published: 13th December 2018
spoilers? yeah

Goodreads

I was really looking forward to Pulp. Historical books with LGBT characters, when they don't end in tragedy, are one of my favourite genres. And I had hopes that this one would fall into that category. Unfortunately, it turned out just not for me.

The story alternates between Janet in the 1950s, finding her first lesbian pulp fiction, and Abby in 2017, who embarks on a project for school about pulp fiction. Janet is in the throes of first love, while Abby is coping with breaking up with her first girlfriend and the falling apart of her parents' marriage.

One of the things I loved about this book was that it used the word "lesbian" a lot, and that's actually fairly uncommon in YA lit. Within the first chapter alone, it was used around ten times. Unfortunately, that kind of dropped off in favour of using qu--r (a word I'm not particularly fond of, but we'll get to that). However, it was really refreshing to see a character explicitly label themselves as a lesbian.

My favourite part of this book was the parts which discussed the LGBT community in the 1950s. LGBT history is not something I know a lot about, and it's something that's pretty much never taught, so that was really interesting. I almost wished the entire book was set in the historical context.

But, while I liked those aspects of the book, a lot of it really just bored me. It was a long book, and I wasn't actually that interested in Abby's part of the story - she seemed kind of like an overdramatic brat to me and I couldn't tell if that was there being too much of an age difference between me and her, or if she was genuinely an overdramatic brat. Possibly part of why I didn't like Abby's part was because of her insistence of using the word qu--r to describe characters in the 1950s. When qu--r was a slur even more so than it is now. I don't like applying that as a blanket term to anyone, let alone people who are (a) now dead, and (b) lived in a time when it came with such horrors. So the constant use of it in this book really put me off.

One last thing: I liked the twist at the end, because I was all prepared to be set up for Yet Another Tragic Ending (about halfway through it looked like that was going to happen). The problem was, I had been so bored by the book dragging up to that point, that I just wanted it to end.

Review - "The Other Miss Bridgerton"

The Other Miss Bridgerton, Rokesbys #3
by Julia Quinn
rating: ☆☆☆☆
published: 20th November 2018
spoilers? no

Goodreads

"It won't be just a kiss, Poppy. It could never be just a kiss between us."

(Almost) no one writes slowburn historical romances like Julia Quinn does. Not to mention she does it with some of my favourite characters ever, and The Other Miss Bridgerton is no different in this respect.

The Other Miss Bridgerton is Andrew Rokesby's book. Andrew is a privateer, running messages for the Foreign Office between Spain/Portugal and England, when his crew are forced to bring aboard Poppy Bridgerton, after she stumbles across their hideaway on the coast. Thus, Poppy has no choice but to travel with the ship to Lisbon.

One of the things I really loved about this book was that, despite the short length of time that their knowing each other spans (6 days), their relationship seems to develop naturally and isn't at all instalove-y. It's a great slowburn (they only kiss once until about 80% through!), and there's the perfect amount of growing tension between Andrew and Poppy. They also conform to pretty much one of my favourite ever tropes - hate (or rather, kind of snarky dislike) to love. In this series, I think their relationship comes second only to Billie and George's in the first book. (Billie and George also showed up briefly at the end of the book, which I loved, but now I'm really feeling the urge to reread their book.)

In some historical romances, I've found that, although I like the romance, I'm not too keen on the individual characters. That is definitely not the case for this book. Despite Andrew playing a bit too much into the rake tropes for my liking, I did love him, and I also loved Poppy a lot. She reminded me a bit of Billie, who is by far my favourite character of the series, but she was also comfortably her own character. Quite honestly, I would read a hundred more books about the Bridgertons, starting with Poppy.

Besides all this, I don't really know what else to say about the book. It's one of those ones that you like so much you actually can't find the words to say how you liked it. But, in an attempt to do just that, let me tell you this: I now really just want to go on a historical romance bingeread and it's all this book's fault.

Review - "Skyward"

Skyward
by Brandon Sanderson
rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
published: 6th November 2018
spoilers? no

Goodreads

But remember, Spensa. You get to choose who you are.

Galley provided by publisher

I have always found it incredibly hard to review books I loved, and Skyward by Brandon Sanderson is hardly going to break that streak. Because it's been about six hours since I finished it and I'm no closer to working out what I want to say about the book.

Let me start with the plot. The human race has been driven almost to extinction, and the survivors are trapped on a planet, surrounded by space debris and periodically attacked by an alien race called the Krell. Spensa, the main character, is desperate to become a pilot and a hero, after her father is branded a coward and her family shunned. While investigating the caves and tunnels around the city, Spensa stumbles across a ancient ship, which seems to be the key to her dream.

One of the things I loved about this book was how, despite being a book centered around the idea of a flight school essentially, there is a lot of action still going on. Because the human forces are continually being depleted by the alien incursions, the cadets are also employed in the defense of their base and the city underneath it. Sometimes I'll get bored reading about books set in schools because they spend a lot of time on lessons and rivalries, and the action won't come until the last third of the book, but that's definitely not the case here. The plot is action-packed, but still takes the time to make you fall in love with every single character, even when you only have a few chapters with them.

As well as making you fall in love with the characters, Brandon Sanderson has this way of developing relationships so realistically, and heartbreakingly at times, and I love it so much. I mentioned briefly that, unlike a lot of books based in schools, there aren't any rivalries in this. Spensa doesn't come into class to find a rich kid who detests her on site and wants to make her life hell. There's none of that, and I really really loved it. Not only is there none of it, this book gives you such a nice found family trope, and I'm really weak for those. I loved each and every one of Skyward Flight, really really loved them, and I know I've used the words "really" and "love" way too much but I genuinely don't know how to put into words my feelings about these characters. (Also, there is an excellent slowburning enemies to friends to maybe (hopefully) lovers going on between Jorgen and Spensa, so I'm desperate to hear whether there'll be a sequel.)

In true Brandon Sanderson fashion, though, this book also broke my heart. It's a war, we're told it's a war, and that there are high casualty rates among pilots, but still I wasn't prepared for any of what happened. That's an unfortunate byproduct of loving every single character Brandon Sanderson writes when I just know that's he's five minutes away from tragedy at any given time.

If this rambling review hasn't convinced you to read this (and I wouldn't blame you), then just know this: Brandon Sanderson's sci-fi is just as good as his fantasy. A.K.A. you should read both.

(Also, found family.)

Review - "Empress Of All Seasons"

Empress of All Seasons
by Emiko Jean
rating: ☆☆
published: 8th November 2018
spoilers? yeah, fairly big

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

For the most part, I think this is just one of those "it's not you, it's me" books. There are reasons that I struggled with it that I know are subjective, which others may not find to be as off-putting as I did, but there were also a few points that I would say are less so.

Empress of All Seasons tells the story of Mari, a yōkai, who enters the competition to win the hand in marriage of Taro, the emperor's son. The competition involves overcoming the Season rooms in the palace, each designed by a priest to represent the four seasons. In this world, yōkai are all registered and collared, and treated as slaves, and Mari has been trained since a child to win the competition and steal the Emperor's treasury.

Initially, I liked a lot about this book - the writing was good, the characters seemed great, and I loved the concept, so I had high hopes. Unfortunately, things didn't quite pan out as I expected.

The writing got somewhat tedious after a while. I think it was partly because I took a lot of breaks reading this, and I read some books with really good writing, then coming back to this one made me realise that it wasn't actually all that good. So I got bored of it really quickly. Not to mention some of the scenes were really cringey, like, so cringey I had to skimread. Like the part where Mari confronts another yōkai in the Winter Room. Linked to the writing, I found the pacing a bit strange. Everything happens really quickly (after Mari reaches the palace) and, although it never felt underdeveloped because of that, I did feel like occasionally some scenes, particularly those where the contestants were in the rooms, could have stood some more time dedicated to them. The end was also incredibly rapid. The final battle itself isn't, and is possibly one of the only times I felt like a scene got the time it needed, but the entire bit after that is summed up in an epilogue chapter, when, quite honestly it was enough plot to take an entire other book.

As with the writing, I also started disliking the characters by the end (though never Mari, she was my favourite), particulary Taro and Akira. In fact, I just disliked Akira right from the start. He was in love with Mari, so he spent most of his time obsessing over her, and it was so damn tedious. His only motivation for doing anything was that he loved her. Like, I got it the first time Akira! Also, both he and Taro referred to Mari as "his" multiple times, because yes, of course, you love her, suddenly she belongs to you. I honestly wanted to tell both of them to get over themselves. The love triangle aspect (though was it really a love triangle when Mari didn't really seem to like, let alone love, either of the potential love interests?) just tired me out in the end.

Finally, there was a part I was fairly unimpressed by, which may or may not fall into the bury your gays trope, because it's more of a vague hint than anything and I could be taking things completely wrong. Asami, who joins with Mari in the competition (and don't get me started on how this would have been a much better ship than any of the heterosexual ones), is killed in the Winter Room, leaving Mari to become champion. Now, she's been a spy for the yōkai Resistance, headed by Hanako. On finding out about Mari's death, Hanako is upset, because she loved her. The reason why I'm not sure whether this is actually a case of bury your gays is that, while I took that to mean romantic love, with Asami and Hanako being a couple, that may well have not been what was intended. And it's also not clear whether Asami reciprocated that. But if that hint is right, then it's really disappointing because, in a book saturated with heterosexuality (there are two rōnin at the start who have a "brotherly bond", and I was like, hmmm), there's firstly, only a vaguely hinted gay couple, and secondly, one dies. So, I'd really like to give Emiko Jean the benefit of the doubt, but I've been burned a few too many times for that.

Ultimately, that's why I rated this book down to 2 stars, where I might have given it 3. That and the fact that, although the concept sounded amazing, I didn't really click that well with the execution.

Review - "Girls of Paper and Fire"

Girls of Paper and Fire
by Natasha Ngan
rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
published: 6th November 2018
spoilers? no

Goodreads

I know it now with a certainty that has fitted into the lost core at the heart of me, as hard and angular as my hope was soft and shimmering. The King will not have me.

Galley provided by publisher

TW for sexual assault/sex slavery, rape, violence

A good f/f fantasy novel, with a well-paced plot and good writing was starting to seem like some kind of mythical creature before I read this book. Too often, it felt like the focus was more on almost forcing a relationship rather than developing a good plot and letting the relationship build up of its own accord. That is definitely not the case here.

Girls of Paper and Fire tells the story of Lei, who is taken from her village to become a Paper Girl, a pleasure slave to the Demon King. Paper Girls are not allowed to take lovers, let alone fall in love, but it's in the Women's Court that Lei starts to fall for one of the girls alongside her.

One of the things I loved most about this book was the writing. I read Natasha Ngan's debut novel a while back, around the time it first got released I think, and I wasn't the biggest fan of the writing, I'll admit, (as well as the fact that the main character wouldn't stop crying) but the improvement between then and now feels astronomical (although bearing in mind I don't have that good a memory of the writing and it's probably coloured by my frustration with the main character). It's the perfect mix of description and action, setting the scene well, but also keeping everything moving when need be.

Tied into this is the plot. Sometimes, with fantasy books, particularly first books in series, it feels like the plot can drag a little in the middle. Either because there's overly elaborate worldbuilding or because a lot of time is spent getting to know the characters before the Big Moment happens at the end. Especially when there's some kind of lessons going on, it seems like those can make a book drag a lot. Not so in this one. I was never bored by the book, through a combination of great writing, likeable characters, and enough action happening that all I felt was increasing tension as Natasha Ngan ratcheted up the stakes.

Finally, the characters. They're all such good characters, even though not all of them are the good guys - they're still all complex. I particularly loved Lei and Wren, but also the more side characters of the other Paper Girls like Aoki and even Blue for a little bit. Heck, Natasha Ngan also had me feeling sorry for the goddamn Demon King for a hot minute (before I returned to my senses). I loved them, and I loved their relationships. Especially the one between Lei and Wren. It just felt so natural and normalised, even though in this fantasy world, there's a lot of misogyny and women aren't thought of as sexual beings outside of their relationship with men (although m/m relationships are mentioned as being not rare). That was probably my favourite thing about the book, that it makes the whole act of women loving women so natural. (Not to say that other f/f books make it feel unnatural, but there are just some that get it more than others.)

A brief point to end: this is a very heavy book at points. The whole concept is based on sex slavery, but there are scenes of gendered violence (including a non-graphic rape scene and a scene where someone is branded), and also general implications of sexual assault throughout. So that is something to be aware of.

But, overall, I think this is one of the best books I've read this year (and I've read over 300 at this point, so). And it's definitely one everyone should be preordering or preparing to read on 6th November.

Five for Friday: Short Story Collections

You know how sometimes, you don't have the energy to read a full length book, and you just want something shorter? Well, this rec list is for those times when you just want to dip into a collection of short stories, whether it's by the same author or a collection from different authors.

Guardian Angels and Other Monsters by Daniel H. Wilson

Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis: In "All Kinds of Proof," a down-and-out drunk makes the unlikeliest of friends when he is hired to train a mail-carrying robot; in "Blood Memory," a mother confronts the dangerous reality that her daughter will never assimilate in this world after she was the first child born through a teleportation device; in "The Blue Afternoon That Lasted Forever," a physicist rushes home to be with his daughter after he hears reports of an atmospheric anomaly which he knows to be a sign of the end of the earth; in "Miss Gloria," a robot comes back to life in many different forms in a quest to save a young girl. Guardian Angels and Other Monsters displays the depth and breadth of Daniel H. Wilson's vision and examines how artificial intelligence both saves and destroys humanity.

Comments: Daniel H. Wilson writes the best kind of robot dystopia fiction, so I knew I would like this collection even before I started reading it. I was not disappointed at all.

Invisible Planets by Hannu Rajaniemi

Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis: Inside the firewall, the city is alive. Buildings breathe, cars attack, angels patrol, hyperintelligent pets rebel.

This much-anticipated first collection from one of the world's hottest SF authors contains seventeen stories, a neurofiction experiment, and a selection of his Twitter microfiction.

How will human nature evolve when the only limit to desire is creativity? What happens when the distinction between humans and gods is as small as nanomachines or as large as the universe? Journeying deep into inner and outer space the stories collected here explore the future in all its complexity.

Comments: Some of these stories are just plain weird, but somehow they all work really well. If you like kind of strange science fiction and dystopia, then this collection will be for you.

Star-Touched Stories by Roshani Chokshi

Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis: Death and Night

He was Lord of Death, cursed never to love. She was Night incarnate, destined to stay alone. After a chance meeting, they wonder if, perhaps, they could be meant for more. But danger crouches in their paths, and the choices they make will set them on a journey that will span lifetimes.

Poison and Gold

Now that her wish for a choice has come true, Aasha struggles to control her powers. But when an opportunity to help Queen Gauri and King Vikram's new reign presents itself, she is thrown into the path of the fearsome yet enchanting Spy Mistress. To help her friends, Aasha will have to battle her insecurities and perhaps, along the way, find love.

Rose and Sword

There is a tale whispered in the dark of the Empire of Bharat-Jain. A tale of a bride who loses her bridegroom on the eve of her wedding. But is it a tale or a truth?

Comments: OK, so maybe you kind of need to have read the whole duology first, to know who the characters are at the very least, so this is a bit of a cheat, but it was still a really good collection of short stories. And you should definitely read the duology.

Just Between Us edited by Maya Linden

Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis:Empathetic, supportive and respectful...
Or competitive, manipulative and downright bitchy?
Or somewhere in between?

In Just Between Us , a host of Australia's best-loved female writers bare all on this age-old quandary: Are female friendships all-natural and nurturing? Or are some more damaging than delightful? And most of all, what happens when female relationships go off the rails? And who is to blame? While falling in and out of romantic love is a well-documented experience, losing a friend rarely gets discussed. Which doesn't mean the pain is less – quite the opposite, as we discover in this extraordinary collection of heartfelt fiction and non-fiction works that put female friendship in the spotlight.

Nikki Gemmell looks at the hardwiring that keeps us bonded in tightly knit packs, but makes us feel oh-so-claustrophic in mothers' groups and at the school gate. Melina Marchetta reveals the peculiar shame of being overlooked for the high-status netball positions of Centre and Goal Attack. Liz Byrski conducts a forensic examination of her own friendship history, and finds some uncomfortable patterns. And Merridy Eastman pens a letter from Helena to Hermia from A Midsummer Night's Dream , which shines the light on one of literature's most famously dysfunctional female friendships.

Comments: I might be a bit biased, because this collection contains a short story by Melina Marchetta, and I would read Marchetta's goddamn shopping list, but it's still an excellent collection - not only of fiction, but also essays. And it's all about female friendships too.

Invisible Planets edited by Ken Liu

Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis: Award-winning translator and author Ken Liu presents a collection of short speculative fiction from China. Some stories have won awards; some have been included in various 'Year's Best' anthologies; some have been well reviewed by critics and readers; and some are simply Ken's personal favorites. Many of the authors collected here (with the obvious exception of Liu Cixin) belong to the younger generation of 'rising stars'.

In addition, three essays at the end of the book explore Chinese science fiction. Liu Cixin's essay, The Worst of All Possible Universes and The Best of All Possible Earths, gives a historical overview of SF in China and situates his own rise to prominence as the premier Chinese author within that context. Chen Qiufan's The Torn Generation gives the view of a younger generation of authors trying to come to terms with the tumultuous transformations around them. Finally, Xia Jia, who holds the first Ph.D. issued for the study of Chinese SF, asks What Makes Chinese Science Fiction Chinese?.

Comments: This is probably the most consistently good anthology by various authors that I've ever read. And there's also going to be a second one published next year, that'll hopefully be just as good.

Review - "In The Vanishers' Palace"

In The Vanishers' Palace
by Aliette de Bodard
rating: ☆☆☆☆
published: 16th October 2018
spoilers? no

Goodreads

And then she'd wake up, gasping, trying to breathe, raising her hands to her face, remembering Vu Côn's touch on her skin, as wet and as cold as the oily river.

Galley provided by publisher

In The Vanishers' Palace is the first book by Aliette de Bodard that I've read, and boy is it a good one. It's an f/f, dark fantasy inspired by Beauty and the Beast and Vietnamese mythology, with dragons. If the whole premise doesn't get you, I don't know what will. (Perhaps an AO3 tags style description of the book by the author herself?)

The thing I most loved about this book was the relationship between Yên and Vu Côn. It starts off cold and unfriendly, given that Vu Côn effectively kidnaps Yên in "payment" for healing a member of the village. But there is still attraction there, and Aliette de Bodard develops it really well into something more romantic. And manages to have both Yên and Vu Côn develop as characters individually as well. (As do Liên and Thông, which was good to see, as they were more side characters.)

The writing and worldbuilding was also really good. The reader is somewhat thrown straight into the world with not that much explanation at times (especially with regard to the Vanishers), so I found that a bit difficult from time to time. Not so much that my enjoyment of the book was impacted at all, but still noticeably.

So, in summary, you should definitely mark this book to read. Because who doesn't love fairytale reimaginings, especially when they're sapphic. Aliette de Bodard is definitely an author I'll be coming back to.

Five for Friday: Mystery (I)

I can't believe it's taken me this long to get to my favourite goddamn genre, but here we are. Once again, I'm splitting my recs into adult and young adult mysteries. Because otherwise I won't be able to keep to only five. These are mostly historical mysteries, but only because that's clearly the best sort.

The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye

Rating: 5 stars
Content Warnings: child deaths, violence

Synopsis: 1845. New York City forms its first police force. The great potato famine hits Ireland. These two seemingly disparate events will change New York City. Forever.

Timothy Wilde tends bar near the Exchange, fantasizing about the day he has enough money to win the girl of his dreams. But when his dreams literally incinerate in a fire devastating downtown Manhattan, he finds himself disfigured, unemployed, and homeless. His older brother obtains Timothy a job in the newly minted NYPD, but he is highly skeptical of this new "police force." And he is less than thrilled that his new beat is the notoriously down-and-out Sixth Ward - at the border of Five Points, the world's most notorious slum.

One night while making his rounds, Wilde literally runs into a little slip of a girl - a girl not more than ten years old - dashing through the dark in her nightshirt... covered head to toe in blood.

Timothy knows he should take the girl to the House of Refuge, yet he can't bring himself to abandon her. Instead, he takes her home, where she spins wild stories, claiming that dozens of bodies are buried in the forest north of 23rd Street. Timothy isn't sure whether to believe her or not, but, as the truth unfolds, the reluctant copper star finds himself engaged in a battle for justice that nearly costs him his brother, his romantic obsession, and his own life.

Comments: This has to be one of my favourite books ever, favourite series ever too, because it's so well-written and the characters are so good. And the relationship between the Wilde brothers will absolutely wreck you.

A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee

Rating: 4 stars
Content Warnings: period typical racism, violence, drug abuse

Synopsis: India, 1919. Desperate for a fresh start, Captain Sam Wyndham arrives to take up an important post in Calcutta's police force.

He is soon called to the scene of a horrifying murder. The victim was a senior official, and a note in his mouth warns the British to leave India – or else.

With the stability of the Empire under threat, Wyndham and Sergeant 'Surrender-not' Banerjee must solve the case quickly. But there are some who will do anything to stop them...

Comments: Maybe I have a weakness for the Sam Wyndham type of character, because honestly he was my favourite aspect of this book. Sure the mystery was good, but Sam! I even wasn't too bothered by the wishy-washy ending.

My Name is N by Robert Karjel

Rating: 5 stars
Content Warnings: torture, racism, violence

Synopsis: A Swedish security agent is summoned to interrogate a terror suspect held by the FBI — but the prisoner isn't the only one with something to hide.

At a remote military base in the Indian Ocean, the FBI is trying to get a prisoner to confess. But the detainee, a suspect in an Islamist-inspired terror attack in the United States, refuses to talk.

Ernst Grip, a Swedish security officer, has no idea why he's been dispatched to New York City. The FBI agent he meets on arrival, Shauna Friedman, seems to know a little too much about him. And when he arrives at his real destination, the American authorities have just one question: Is their terror suspect a Swedish citizen?

In the process of uncovering the prisoner's true identity, Grip discovers the man's ties to a group of other suspects — a ruthless American arms dealer, a Czech hit man, a mysterious nurse from Kansas, and a heartbreakingly naive Pakistani. The closer Grip gets to the truth, the more complicated the deception becomes. Who is real and who is leading a double life?

Comments: If I tell you that this one pissed off a whole lotta men when it came out, just because the main character is bi, and the author wrote a whole "fuck you" article in The Guardian, will that convince you to read it?

The Wicked Cometh by Laura Carlin

Rating: 4 stars
Content Warnings: period typical homophobia, violence, gore

Synopsis: The year is 1831.

Down the murky alleyways of London, acts of unspeakable wickedness are taking place and no one is willing to speak out on behalf of the city's vulnerable poor as they disappear from the streets.

Out of these shadows comes Hester White, a bright young woman who is desperate to escape the slums by any means possible.

When Hester is thrust into the world of the aristocratic Brock family, she leaps at the chance to improve her station in life under the tutelage of the fiercely intelligent and mysterious Rebekah Brock. But whispers from her past slowly begin to poison her new life and both she and Rebekah are lured into the most sinister of investigations.

Hester and Rebekah find themselves crossing every boundary they've ever known in pursuit of truth, redemption and passion. But their trust in each other will be tested as a web of deceit begins to unspool, dragging them into the blackest heart of a city where something more depraved than either of them could ever imagine is lurking...

Comments: Black Sails invented unbury your gays, and this book continued in that tradition. Sorry, my expectations for historical gay characters are now too high - nothing can ever beat this.

Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin

Rating: 4 stars
Content Warnings: child deaths, anti-Semitism

Synopsis: In medieval Cambridge, England, four children have been murdered. The crimes are immediately blamed on the town's Jewish community, taken as evidence that Jews sacrifice Christian children in blasphemous ceremonies. To save them from the rioting mob, the king places the Cambridge Jews under his protection and hides them in a castle fortress. King Henry II is no friend of the Jews - or anyone, really - but he is invested in their fate. Without the taxes received from Jewish merchants, his treasuries would go bankrupt. Hoping scientific investigation will exonerate the Jews, Henry calls on his cousin the King of Sicily - whose subjects include the best medical experts in Europe - and asks for his finest "master of the art of death," an early version of the medical examiner. The Italian doctor chosen for the task is a young prodigy from the University of Salerno. But her name is Adelia - the king has been sent a "mistress" of the art of death. Adelia and her companions - Simon, a Jew, and Mansur, a Moor - travel to England to unravel the mystery of the Cambridge murders, which turn out to be the work of a serial killer, most likely one who has been on Crusade with the king. In a backward and superstitious country like England, Adelia must conceal her true identity as a doctor in order to avoid accusations of witchcraft. Along the way, she is assisted by Sir Rowley Picot, one of the king's tax collectors, a man with a personal stake in the investigation. Rowley may be a needed friend, or the fiend for whom they are searching. As Adelia's investigation takes her into Cambridge's shadowy river paths and behind the closed doors of its churches and nunneries, the hunt intensifies and the killer prepares to strike again...

Comments: I really love this series, mostly because of its period in history, but also because it's about a female doctor and anatomist in a time when that was pretty much unheard of (in England, at least). And it's set near where I live so.

Review - "Jack of Hearts (And Other Parts)"

Jack of Hearts (And Other Parts)
by Lev A. C. Rosen
rating: ☆☆☆
published: 30th October 2018
spoilers? no

Goodreads

My first time getting it in the butt was kind of weird. I think it's going to be weird for everyone's first time, though.

Galley provided by publisher

I had kind of mixed feelings about this book. On the whole, I liked it, but there were distinct parts of it I was less keen on. Jack of Hearts (And Other Parts) is a story about Jack, a gay teen at high school, who is roped into writing a sex advice column for his friend's blog. But, in the process, someone makes it known that they have been stalking him. (P.S. the stalking storyline does get pretty damn creepy, so like. Just a warning.)

THE GOOD

- All the talk about sex positivity and safe sex. The whole premise of the book, that Jack gives sex advice, is somewhat leery for me, given the ages of the characters, but the actual advice given is (on the whole) really good, and focuses well on sex positivity and having safe sex and consent, which I really liked. As the main character is gay, there is more focus on sex in that context, though also some more general things that apply to straight couples too (less on lesbian sex, but that's kind of understandable in this case...). There were occasional things that I thought veered a little too close to some particular tumblr discourse for comfort, but, for the most part, it was really refreshing to see a YA book that's so open and frank and positive about it all (especially with gay sex because that's still seen as pretty dirty). One thing to note, while there are discussions of sex, the sex scenes in this are all fade-to-black.

- It's ownvoices, and there's huge value in books by mlm about mlm and things like sex that might otherwise be hard to find anything on. Basically, it's really important.

- In one article, Jack calls out these straight girls who are busy fetishising him, and it is truly glorious. I can think of a few books that might benefit from just reading that one chapter.

- The characters are funny and well-rounded (even though I did get irritated by them a few times), and actually it's a pretty compulsively readable book.

THE BAD (OR LESS GOOD)

- In a way, this links in with my first point in the good column. Yes, it was good having all this sex positivity, but I did feel just a bit skeevy reading about this all from a 16/17 year old. You: "Sixteen and seventeen year olds can be sexually active." Me: "Yes, but that doesn't stop me feeling fairly skeevy about it all." Maybe this is all because I'm not actually the target audience, true, but still. A point to bear in mind if you're reading this at somewhat older than sixteen.

- Also, he said he started "three years earlier", which would make him 13 or 14. Like. I'd say that's too early but. You do you, Jack. So long as it's safe and consensual.

- So, the characters are supposed to be about 16-17, but they read a whole lot older than that. I have genuinely never met a 16-17 year old who doesn't treat sex as something pretty funny, and is as mature about it as Jack was in this. It reads a little more like they're all college-aged.

- The fact that both Jack and Jenna hook up with college guys. I really don't understand why authors can't see that this is borderline creepy. They're sixteen. People in college are at least two years older than that and, eighteen year-olds hooking up with sixteen year-olds? Creepy. (Also, his mum? Weirdly okay with it?)

- While Jack's all "sex positivity!" and "not having a sex drive isn't a problem!" in his articles, he does make one comment in his narrative that I wasn't a particular fan of. It comes when he's discussing his best friend, Ben, who's "saving himself" for the right guy. And he references the fact that, in doing this, Ben is not having sex, not kissing boys, and just masturbating alone in his room. Which "must be miserable". So, he's all sex positivity, wait til the right time, in his articles, but in this? I don't know what's going on. It also never gets confronted, which was a bit sucky.

- Personal dislike: this book did use the q-slur as a blanket term, but like I say. Personal.

- When he uses femme to describe himself. As a cis gay guy.

- "The idea of having to think, 'Wait, is this okay with my boyfriend?' before kissing some cute boy I just met at a party." Jack, that's called cheating.

So, overall, I liked this book, though I definitely was not the target audience for it. But it's one of those ones that shows the importance of having ownvoices books about topics like this. It was a whole lot more engaging than yet another straight woman trying to tell me how gay boys/men feel.

Review - "What If It's Us"

What If It's Us
by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera
rating: ☆
published: 9th October 2018
spoilers? minor

Goodreads

I don’t know if we’re in a love story or a story about love.

Review also posted on Reads Rainbow

Galley provided by publisher

I did think that perhaps this was just one of those where I've grown out of the authors, but I actually reread Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda earlier this year and still liked it just as much as the first time round, so it can't just be that. And this book did seem a whole lot more cringeworthy than any other books I've read by either author.

To summarise the plot: Arthur meets Ben as he's getting rid of his ex-boyfriend's things at the post office. Unfortunately, before he can get a number, their meeting is interrupted by a lederhosen-clad flash mob (yeah, this was the first part where I went, really?). Anyway, that's the first 30 to 40 pages or so. The next 120 pages is dedicated to them... not meeting again. And then they do meet again. And follow that classic romance pattern.

So, number one on my list of things I didn't really like about this book was the pacing. I don't need 120 pages of their day to day life before they meet again. And then I don't need another 150 pages of them dating (though seemingly, on Ben's part at least, while not actually wanting to date), before the inevitable and tedious (and overdramatic) breakup because of miscommunication. I feel like all this could have been condensed into a lot less than 450 pages. And so, because I have like, no patience, I got bored. Overall, though, I could have dealt with that, rated this book 2 stars maybe, but then came the kicker.

It's overwhelmingly cringeworthy. Every other paragraph feels like it includes a pop culture reference (Hamilton and Harry Potter being common ones - and don't even get me started on that part where Arthur gets Ben to listen to the Hamilton soundtrack and then Ben makes a comment about writing Hamilton/Harry Potter crossover fanfiction. I physically recoiled from the computer). One or two I could deal with, but the sheer number of them in this? I was cringing at least once a chapter and that's really not fun. Not to mention the part where Arthur mistakes someone for Ansel Elgort and I had to feel the horror of a real life person being inserted into the narrative and subsequent secondhand embarrassment. It was not nice.

A brief list of some other things that made me cringe along the way:

> "some kind of Kinsey scale Sorting Hat"

> when they talked about Pokemon fanfiction in real life

> when Arthur talks about the green M&M being sexy along with some Looney Tunes characters on their first date

> and Harry Potter porn

> mentioning Draco/Hermione fanfiction

But one particularly major cringe came from two points, both in Becky Albertalli's chapters. In one, Arthur and Ben are kissing when Arthur or Ben comments that maybe that's something Barack and Michelle (Obama) do on his birthday (why this comment? Because Barack Obama is Arthur's "forever president"?), and the other says more likely it's Obama and Justin Trudeau, while Joe Biden watches. Literally everything about this part is so creepy, starting with the fact that these are real people. But it does not stop here. Later on, a second joke is made along similar lines, but this time about porn between Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan. Members of a party that wants to get rid of gay rights. Which, again these are real people, but this time it also just feeds back into the "all homophobes are secretly gay" line of argument. In the end, it was the cringeworthiness of the book that made me give it 1 star.

One last point: I didn't actually much like Ben as a character either. He's honestly a bit of a dickhead, and spends his time when he's starting to date Arthur comparing him to his ex-boyfriend. And he writes a self-insert fantasy story, which is honestly, just another cringeworthy thing to add to the list. (Someone also pointed out to me that he's a bit like an Adam Silvera self-insert, and I am really scarred.)

Maybe it'll be different for other readers, who don't find the pop culture references as cringey, and who are bigger fans of these authors, but in the end, it was just too much for me.

Review - "Love Like This"

Love Like This, Seven Shores #4
by Melissa Brayden
rating: ☆☆
published: 16th October 2018
spoilers? no

Goodreads

Her soul soared, her heart sang, and her life could go in so many different directions.

Galley provided by publisher

I knew before going into this that Melissa Brayden's writing style is not my favourite. But, since I was able to get past it in Eyes Like Those, I thought the same would be the case here. Unfortunately, there was a lot less in this book to actually engage me and keep me interested, so the writing became painfully... well, painful.

Love Like This is the fourth and final book in the Seven Shores series, which follows a group of young to middle-aged women living in an apartment complex in L.A. In this book, the focus is on Hadley, the assistant manager at a boutique on Rodeo Drive. The plot starts with her meeting Spencer, a designer, whose collection she hopes will revitalise the store and improve profits. And, of course, they fall in love. Cue some seemingly major, but in fact minor, obstacles such as: Spencer's fear of commitment (stemming, supposedly, from the fact her parents divorced, even though they remain good friends), Spencer's new job offer, Hadley's complete stupidity regarding this job offer... I could go on, but I'll leave it there. But, to summarise briefly, all problems that could be solved with a good sitdown and some communication! (I mean, for crying out loud, when they come to realise they are In Love, Spencer flies from Paris to L.A. and Hadley from L.A. to Paris. At the same time, so they completely miss each other. When they could have, I don't know, just sent a text?)

So, yes, I had some issues with the fact that all the conflict was created by miscommunication. But, beyond that, I just didn't really get invested in either of the main characters or their relationship. There was just no tension between them. Ultimately, they bored me. The only thing I was really interested in was Hadley's relationship with the other women in her apartment complex. And there wasn't nearly enough of it. (Now, if someone could just point me to an apartment complex of wlw, please?)

There was also the slight awkwardness I felt with having Spencer written by a white author, because, on that front, she seemed condensed down to comments about white people (awkward when it's effectively a white person saying it through a character of colour), and one mention of her having brown skin. Nothing else. Maybe she's Latina (that's probably the best guess I got from the book)? Maybe she's not? It's never explicitly mentioned and she honestly does just feel like someone's taken a generic white character and then changed her skintone for diversity points.

This all being said, there were some cute moments in this book, particularly Isabel's proposal to Taylor and their subsequent marriage. But honestly, that was probably my favourite part in the book. Which really says a lot about the book.

Monthly Wrap Up

BOOKS READ: 35

DID I COMPLETE MY TBR? yes

Surprise, surprise! I completed my TBR for the second month in a row. Yes, it only had six books on it, again, but this time I even finished it with two days to go in the month. Maybe it's a sign I should add more. The count for this month is well down on last month, and that's because I only read about two comics, rather than the 40-or-so from last month.

Some favourites from the month: I bingeread the entire Queen's Thief series (my review for that can be found here), I finally got round to reading Warcross and it's probably now my second favourite Marie Lu series (second only to Legend), and I read another classic I actually ended up liking (North and South).

BREAKDOWN

FIVE STARS: 9
FOUR POINT FIVE STARS: 2
FOUR STARS: 10
THREE POINT FIVE STARS: 1
THREE STARS: 5
TWO STARS: 6
ONE STAR: 2

BY WOMEN: 21
BY MEN: 13
BY NB AUTHORS: 1

BY AUTHORS OF COLOUR: 9
BY WHITE AUTHORS: 26

*BY LGBT AUTHORS: 6
BY STRAIGHT AUTHORS: 29

*Note: this may not be accurate, as it relies on an author being out.

RESOLUTIONS FOR NEXT MONTH

Pretty much the same as last month. I need to get my act together. (But, I started up a new blog with Anna specifically dedicated to reading, reviewing and recommending LGBT media (CHECK IT OUT), so, hopefully that will boost my numbers on that front.)

Review - "The Queen's Thief" series

The Queen's Thief
by Megan Whalen Turner
overall rating (so far): ☆☆☆☆☆
published: 1996 - 2019
spoilers? hopefully no, I tried my best to avoid them

Goodreads

The king lifted a hand to her cheek and kissed her. It was not a kiss between strangers, not even a kiss between a bride and groom. It was a kiss between a man and his wife, and when it was over, the king closed his eyes and rested his forehead in the hollow of the queen's shoulder, like a man seeking respite, like a man reaching home at the end of the day.

If you've followed my reviews at all on Goodreads, you will know that books that don't contain a lot of action and me do not really get along. So, on the face of it, maybe you'd have thought that me and this series wouldn't get along either. Well, in this case, you would be wrong. Because although there is not huge amounts of action in the series, Megan Whalen Turner just does character-driven fantasy novels so well that I was consistently overwhelmed by how much I loved these books and characters. I wrote a brief review of The Thief when I first read it about two years ago, but now I've finally got myself together and read the rest of the series, I'm going to write a review for all of them at once. (As well as I can, without any spoilers, because you want to go into this series without any idea of what's going to happen. Trust me.)

I'm going to break this up into chunks in an attempt to actually produce something coherent, so, let's begin.

THE CHARACTERS

Having said that the series is character-driven, I figure I might as well start with the characters themselves. And specifically the fact that I love each and every one of them. In The Thief, we are introduced to Gen, a thief, who is languishing in the cells in Sounis, when the magus of Sounis picks him up out of them in order to steal something for him and the king. Gen is a compelling and funny narrator, and also [spoilers redacted]. And I don't think I've loved a character so quickly in a long while. And it's not just Gen I loved immediately. There was Sophos and Pol and Eddis too, and in later books, Costis and Kamet. Even the characters that you don't like straightaway have a tendency to grow on you: see the magus and Attolia. (No, but seriously, if you want an example of how to make an initially unlikeable character likeable, look no further than The Queen of Attolia. Melina Marchetta says she took inspiration for something Evanjalin does in Finnikin of the Rock from Megan Whalen Turner. Just so you know the level of pain we're operating on here.)

One of the reasons the characters are so wonderfully compelling, is that they all are realistic and flawed characters. Gen is stubborn and incalcitrant, even if his heart's in the right place, and he never tells anyone anything about his plans. Attolia is cold and also pretty stubborn, but when it comes down to it, just afraid of being vulnerable. I could go on and on about all these characters, but I won't subject you to that. Instead, just take my word for it that these are some of the most complex and appealing characters I've ever read.

(And they absolutely break my heart but that's a whole other thing.)

THE RELATIONSHIPS

You know what the best thing about having such great characters is? The relationships between them. I would tell you my favourites but, uh, that means spoiler so I'll hold off on that for now. So, given that I can't tell you specific relationships I liked and therefore why I liked them, I'm just going to ramble on a bit about them in a hopefully non-specific manner.

Firstly, because the characters are so complex, so are their relationships (case in point, this one I cannot mention because spoilers, but which everyone who's read the books will know I'm talking about). But I don't just love the complexity of their relationships, I also love just how detailed Megan Whalen Turner is in developing them, and how carefully she does it, until you're at the point where you think, okay, I can see why X just forgave Y that. (Yes, it's that specific example again.)

And beyond that, the development just feels so natural - slow and incremental and, above all, subtle. You're never explicitly told how characters feel about each other, but it's just there in the writing and GOD! I love it so much.

THE PLOT

Finally, let's talk plot. Like I said earlier, I generally have an aversion to books that don't have a lot of plot and rely on character-driven arcs. This was a definite exception to the rule. There's something about Megan Whalen Turner's way of writing character-driven arcs that has me captivated despite the lack of significant action for most of the book. It reminds me a lot of Melina Marchetta's ability to do so (not surprising given Marchetta said she took inspiration from this series. Perhaps that should have been a sign that I was undoubtedly going to love it).

Unsurprisingly, given how the rest of this review has gone, there's actually very little I can say about plot that doesn't spoil anything. (Like, seriously, it's one of those series where you absolutely cannot read the blurb of the next book until you've read the current one. Just don't do it. Do not.) But, as with the characters and relationships, everything about the plot is so detailed and well thought out and subtle, so that something will become significant long after Megan Whalen Turner first mentions it and you're just like OH, because it's so goddamn clever.

In conclusion, this review is a mess and I've really only managed to ramble all over the place, but I hope you can still see why I loved this series and maybe you'll be tempted to pick them up for yourselves.

Five for Friday: M/M Romance

Given that I made a post of f/f romance recs, it's only right that I also rec some m/m romances. I've made a point of only including ownvoices books here, because I don't really trust straight women to write LGBT characters, as much as I might enjoy some of them. Ownvoices m/m romances will always be somewhat better than non-ownvoices for that reason only. And it means I'm not always on edge expecting something iffy. So here are five of my favourite ownvoices m/m romances.

Release by Patrick Ness

Rating: 5 stars
Content Warnings: homophobia, sexual harrassment

Synopsis: Inspired by Mrs Dalloway and Judy Blume's Forever, Release is one day in the life of Adam Thorn, 17. It's a big day. Things go wrong. It's intense, and all the while, weirdness approaches...

Adam Thorn is having what will turn out to be the most unsettling, difficult day of his life, with relationships fracturing, a harrowing incident at work, and a showdown between this gay teen and his preacher father that changes everything. It's a day of confrontation, running, sex, love, heartbreak, and maybe, just maybe, hope. He won't come out of it unchanged. And all the while, lurking at the edges of the story, something extraordinary and unsettling is on a collision course.

Comments: OK, so this is a little bit of a cheat, because it's not really a romance. But I really loved it, and you know how there are some books which really make you appreciate how different ownvoices is from non-ownvoices? This is one of those ones for me.

Almost Like Being in Love by Steve Kluger

Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis: A high school jock and nerd fall in love senior year, only to part after an amazing summer of discovery to attend their respective colleges. They keep in touch at first, but then slowly drift apart.

Flash forward twenty years.

Travis and Craig both have great lives, careers, and loves. But something is missing .... Travis is the first to figure it out. He's still in love with Craig, and come what may, he's going after the boy who captured his heart, even if it means forsaking his job, making a fool of himself, and entering the great unknown.

Told in narrative, letters, checklists, and more, this is the must-read novel for anyone who's wondered what ever happened to that first great love.

Comments: Don't you just love second chance romances? This one is about two boys who fall in love aged 18 and then slowly drift apart, before one realises that the only person he's ever loved is his childhood best friend. It's also really cute, and I did love how, at the end, the awful thing that could have happened didn't (I have low standards for these things, okay).

Coffee Boy by Austin Chant

Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis: After graduation, Kieran expected to go straight into a career of flipping burgers — only to be offered the internship of his dreams at a political campaign. But the pressure of being an out trans man in the workplace quickly sucks the joy out of things, as does Seth, the humorless campaign strategist who watches his every move.

Soon, the only upside to the job is that Seth has a painful crush on their painfully straight boss, and Kieran has a front row seat to the drama. But when Seth proves to be as respectful and supportive as he is prickly, Kieran develops an awkward crush of his own — one which Seth is far too prim and proper to ever reciprocate.

Comments: A cute NA romance, with a trans mc (also ownvoices rep), between an intern and his not-quite boss who has a crush on their real (straight) boss. It's one of those I keep going back to read over and over.

Avi Cantor has Six Months to Live by Sacha Lamb

Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis: Avi Cantor Has Six Months To Live

Avi comes across these foreboding words scrawled on the bathroom mirror, but what do they mean? Is this a curse, a prediction, or a threat from Avi's emboldened bullies? And how to they know his real name when he hasn't even told his mother yet?

Then there is Ian — the cool new guy at school, who is suddenly paying attention to Avi. Ian is just like Avi, but he is also all sunshine, optimism, and magic. All the things that Avi doesn't know how to deal with... yet.

Comments: Another short story, with a cute relationship, and also a bit of witchcraft thrown in there.

Running With Lions by Julian Winters

Rating: 3.5 stars
Content Warnings: body image issues

Synopsis: Bloomington High School Lions' star goalie, Sebastian Hughes, should be excited about his senior year: His teammates are amazing and he's got a coach who doesn't ask anyone to hide their sexuality. But when his estranged childhood best friend Emir Shah shows up to summer training camp, Sebastian realizes the team's success may end up in the hands of the one guy who hates him. Determined to reconnect with Emir for the sake of the Lions, he sets out to regain Emir's trust. But to Sebastian's surprise, sweaty days on the pitch, wandering the town's streets, and bonding on the weekends sparks more than just friendship between them.

Comments: The softest found family and childhood best friends to enemies (ish) to lovers I have ever read. I loved every single one of the characters, and especially the romance.

Five for Friday: Poetry

I'm taking a brief break from reccing fiction this week and instead I'm going to do poetry collections. I really did try hard to keep to five actual recs here, but there are so so many other poetry collections I could have included (and, in fact, I cheated again, right at the end). So, in trying to keep to only five, these recs are five of the less popular (by Goodreads ratings) choices (about 150-200 ratings or less).

Thief in the Interior by Phillip B. Williams

Rating: 5 stars
Content Warnings: discussions of racism, homophobia, addiction

Synopsis: Phillip B. Williams investigates the dangers of desire, balancing narratives of addiction, murders, and hate crimes with passionate, uncompromising depth. Formal poems entrenched in urban landscapes crack open dialogues of racism and homophobia rampant in our culture. Multitudinous voices explore one's ability to harm and be harmed, which uniquely juxtaposes the capacity to revel in both experiences.

Comments: I don't know how to comment on poetry, especially when it's so subjective, so I'm just going to suggest a few of my favourite ones to give you a taste. Like Witness and Epithalamium.

Over the Anvil We Stretch by Anis Mojgani

Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis: Over The Anvil We Stretch contains swampy, powerful poems that are as exciting as the pocket knife you got for your birthday, the three legged frog on the lawn and the jar of marbles your mother kept in the kitchen. Mojgani's poems are the sound of the river and the stars burning above. He manages to capture the axe in the stump with blood still on the handle. Anis Mojgani has drawn a map of the country in the shape of his wild dreams. These are memories of a life, captured through the blue green filter of the bayou. Mojgani's latest poems are tinged with the sound of crickets spying on us in the darkness. They move forward honestly, brutally and sweetly. The reader will be led into briar patches as well as the moonlight just on the other side.

Comments: Four Stars and Sharpen Your Lances.

Kumakanda by Kayombo Chingonyi

Rating: 5 stars
Content Warnings: discussions of racism

Synopsis: Translating as ‘initiation’, kumukanda is the name given to the rites a young boy from the Luvale tribe must pass through before he is considered a man. The poems of Kayo Chingonyi’s remarkable debut explore this passage: between two worlds, ancestral and contemporary; between the living and the dead; between the gulf of who he is and how he is perceived.

Underpinned by a love of music, language and literature, here is a powerful exploration of race, identity and masculinity, celebrating what it means to be British and not British, all at once.

Comments: Alternate Take.

Wanting in Arabic by Trish Salah

Rating: 4 stars
Content Warnings: discussions of homophobia, transphobia, racism

Synopsis: "Wanting in Arabic" is a refusal of convenient silences, convenient stories. The author dwells on the contradictions of a transsexual poetics, in its attendant disfigurations of lyric, ghazal, l'ecriture feminine, and, in particular, her own sexed voice. Without a memory of her father's language, the questions her poems ask are those for a home known through photographs, for a language lost with childhood.

Braiding theoretical concerns with the ambivalences of sexed and raced identity, with profound romanticism, "Wanting in Arabic" attempts to traverse the fantasies of foundational loss and aggressive nostalgia in order to further a poetics of a conscious partiality of being, of generous struggle and comic rather than tragic misrecognition.

Comments: Land Day (March 30, 1976).

This Way to the Sugar by Hieu Minh Nguyen

Rating: 5 stars
Content Warnings: discussions of racism, homophobia

Synopsis: A Midwest Asian-American poet beautifully captures the queer American experience. This bruising collection of poems puts a blade and a microscope to nostalgia, tradition, race, apology, and sexuality, in order to find beauty in a flawed world. His work has been described as an astounding testament to the power and necessity of confession.

Comments: I've only ever found one of my favourites by Hieu Minh Nguyen online, which is 2006. But there's also Outbound and Type II.

And, finally, because I can't resist, and I did have to leave out some faves in this list, special mention goes to: Live for a Living by Buddy Wakefield, Night Sky With Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong, Counting Descent by Clint Smith, Don't Call Us Dead by Danez Smith, Calling a Wolf a Wolf by Kaveh Akbar, and Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns by Andrea Gibson.