Fantasy Books

Titles by Arturo Perez-Reverte

The post Spotlight on “The Final Problem” by Arturo Perez-Reverte appeared first on LitStack.

 

A Court of Hearts and Hunger (Wicked Darlings #2)by Rebecca F. Kenney
What is it about:Just as Clara and her sister are settling into their new life, Drosselmeyer sends a desperate message to the Seelie Court. With Lir and Louisa occupied elsewhere, Clara and Finias (the Sugarplum Faerie) have no choice but to respond and forge deep into Unseelie Territory, where a cruel Queen, known as the Eater of Hearts, has taken the throne. As they infiltrate the Court of Dread, Finias and Clara are forced to keep their relationship a secret. Meanwhile, the ravenous victims of the Queen, called the Heartless, turn the Unseelie kingdom into a far more dangerous place than usual.
Brimming with drama, horror, and spice, this sequel to "A Court of Sugar and Spice" brings back Clara and Finias, while introducing new characters like the fiendishly hot Cheshire Cat, the enigmatic Rabbit, the terrifying Queen, and more.
What did Voodoo Bride think of it:I totally bought this because it had more Clara and Finias. And this book is a must have for anyone who loved them in A Court of Sugar and Spice in my opinion. They're chapters are worth it all by themselves.
I did really enjoy the chapters with Alice, Rabbit, and the Cheshire Cat as well, but more because of the Rabbit and Cheshire Cat than because of Alice. I didn't click with her at all. Her personality just felt off to me. That aside, I had a great time with this book, and treated myself to the print version as an early Christmas present after finishing it.(yes, I'm behind on my reviews and still catching up)
Overall a really enjoyable read with some darker elements, so I advice you to look into the content warnings before diving in.
Why should you read it:More Fin & Clara!

 

The Midnight King: A Cinderella Retellingby Rebecca F. Kenney
What is it about:Bound by magic, Celinda serves her step-family night and day with little hope of escaping the drudgery of her life, and even less hope of attending the upcoming series of royal parties hosted by the Crown Prince, who is seeking a bride. When a family heirloom summons a handsome Faerie, Celinda sees a possible avenue for escape. But she finds herself being seduced, not by the prince, but by his incredibly attractive father, the King. Tempted by the pleasure the King offers and drawn by the magic her Faerie godfather can access, Celinda's heart is tugged in two different directions, even as she fights to circumvent the cruel schemes of her malevolent stepmother.
This spicy romantasy retelling of the Cinderella fairytale will appeal to fans of Scarlett St. Clair, Karina Halle, and Raven Kennedy. It's a fantasy romance novella with a love triangle and frequent spicy scenes in addition to a compelling plot. 
What did Voodoo Bride think of it:After finishing A Court of Sugar and Spice I immediately grabbed my e-reader and started on The Midnight King, which I got as a freebie by signing up to Kenney's newsletter.
For some reason I assumed it was a novella, so I was surprised to find out I read until deep into the night when I finished it.
This book is just as delicious, although with a very different (triangly) back and forth between Celinda and her Faerie godfather and the King.Not that I minded: I was totally engrossed and was eager to see where the story would lead and how Celinda would escape her miserable life and find happiness.I loved seeing how Kenney bends the original fairy tale and makes it her own,
And when I finished this book and saw there was a version of it with bonus content on Amazon, I totally bought it, as well as the other books in the Wicked Darlings series.
Why should you read it:It's a yummy Cinderella reimagining.

Buy The Trident and the Pearl
FORMAT/INFO: The Trident and the Pearl will be published February 24th, 2026. It is 464 pages long and available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats.

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: With a storm threatening to wipe out her people, Queen Coralys strikes a desperate bargain: she will marry the first person to step foot on her island's pier, in return for an end to the disaster. Unfortunately, the first person to arrive is not the hoped for prince from a neighboring kingdom, but a lowly, smelly fisherman. But Queen Coralys honors her word, marries the fisherman, and sails off to her new home. What she doesn't know is that her new husband is actually the god of the sea - and he believes Queen Coralys is the key to stopping a dark threat facing mortals everywhere. Unfortunately for the sea god, Queen Coralys may have obeyed her bargain, but she secretly harbors revenge in her heart against the gods themselves.

Despite a strong start and lovely prose, The Trident and the Pearl completely flounders in creating romantic tension. That's quite a big thing to stumble over, given that this book is being marketed as a romantasy. While I could believe the sea god Okeanos had fallen for Coralys, I didn't for a second believe the reverse was true at any point in the story. Any tender moments towards the end of the story struck me as false.

I will give the book credit for having some high points that made me wish I liked it more. I was really pulled into the beginning of the story, with the initial introduction of Coralys's island nation, their culture, and the bargain she strikes with the gods. I enjoyed the turn the plot took at the midpoint, and thought it was taking the story into a genuinely interesting direction. The overall atmosphere is well done, and I loved the style of writing that felt appropriate for a story about a woman caught in the machinations of gods.

But overall, the plot just felt a bit of a mess. Characters refuse to divulge information to a frustrating degree, stalling out story momentum. Other characters seem deliberately obtuse. Even allowing for the emotions at play, the sheer refusal to consider evidence that they are being lied to or manipulated made me want to scream. The last third of the book felt scattered and meandering, and I ultimately lost interest in the plot.

I really wanted to like The Trident and the Pearl, and for the first several chapters it seemed like it would hit all the right boxes. Unfortunately, the plot completely stalled and characters behaved in a way that was frustrating to watch. I sadly cannot give this book a recommend.

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Cozy Fantasy
Length: 325 pages
Publisher: Tor Books
Release Date: November 11, 2025
ASIN: B0DQJ422QX
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in the Legends and Lattes series
Source: Borrowed ebook from from Library
Rating: 5/5 stars

“Fern has weathered the stillness and storms of a bookseller’s life for decades, but now, in the face of crippling ennui, transplants herself to the city of Thune to hang out her shingle beside a long-absent friend’s coffee shop. What could be a better pairing? Surely a charming renovation montage will cure what ails her!

If only things were so simple…

It turns out that fixing your life isn’t a one-time prospect, nor as easy as a change of scenery and a lick of paint.

A drunken and desperate night sees the rattkin waking far from home in the company of a legendary warrior, an imprisoned chaos-goblin with a fondness for silverware, and an absolutely thumping hangover.

As together they fend off a rogue’s gallery of ne’er-do-wells trying to claim the bounty the goblin represents, Fern may finally reconnect with the person she actually is when nothing seems inevitable.”

Series Info/Source: This is the second book in the Legends and Lattes series. I borrowed a copy of this on ebook from my library.

Thoughts: This was an amazing follow-up to Legends and Lattes and follows Fern, from the Prelude book. I really enjoyed that this went from more of a cozy fantasy to an adventure fantasy (with some coziness of course). I thought Fern’s struggles felt very real and was hoping for her to find her path and happiness. It was incredibly relatable.

Fern relocates her bookstore to Thune and gets set up with the help of Viv, Tandri, and Cal. However, she isn’t happy. Fern finds herself panicking when she realizes this move to Thune didn’t fill the empty spot in her. For a solution, she has a night of hard drinking and then wanders around town, inadvertently falling asleep in the back of a wagon. Unfortunately, she wakes up on the road with a famous warrior elf, the elf’s odd captive goblin, and no money whatsoever. Now Fern is on an adventure that will test her courage and make her question what she really wants out of life.

I really enjoyed all of the adventuring in this book. It is different from previous books in this series, but I enjoyed the change. The adventure is exciting and life-threatening at times, but still stays cozy feeling too.

I also really enjoyed all of the characters here. Fern is a foul-speaking Ratkin in a tough spot but she tries to be as helpful as possible and really is struggling to find her happiness. The elf warrior she joins up with is a creature of habit, she’s been a merc for centuries and can’t imagine doing things any other way. The captive goblin is pure chaos, and it’s tough to figure out if she’s actually a captive. In the end, they all end up being what the other party members need. They all end up pushing each other out of their comfort zones. The antics here were humorous, fun, and thought-provoking.

This was very easy to read and I enjoyed it. It is quite different from the last two books in this series in format and tone, but I thought that was a good thing. It was still a cozy and thought-provoking read. This was incredibly well written, and I breezed right through it and enjoyed every minute of it.

My Summary (5/5): Overall I really enjoyed this new installment in the Legends and Lattes series. The format is different this time around with a lot more adventure, but I liked the format even better than the previous books. We do see a bit of Viv and Tandri, but the story really focuses on Fern and a cast of new amazing characters. If you enjoy thoughtful adventure fantasy with some coziness, I think you will enjoy this. If you enjoyed the other two Legends and Lattes books, I think you will enjoy this as well, just keep an open mind and go along with the adventure.

I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.

My Husband’s Wife by Alice Feeney

Mogsy’s Rating (Overall): 3 of 5 stars

Genre: Thriller, Mystery

Series: Stand Alone

Publisher: Macmillan Audio (January 20, 2026)

Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins

Author Information: Website

Narrators: Bel Powley, Henry Rowley, Richard Armitage

Alice Feeney is an author I can usually depend on to deliver an edge-of-your-seat thriller, and on its surface, My Husband’s Wife sounded like it would be exactly that. So, imagine my disappointment when it did not work for me the way it clearly has for so many others. Now, I’m aware I’m in the minority with this one, but somewhere along the way I felt the story just went so far off the rails that I stopped enjoying myself.

The book opens with Eden Fox, an artist about to have her career breakout moment, deciding on an evening run to blow off some steam before her first gallery exhibition. As always, she leaves all her valuables including her phone, wallet, and wedding ring at home before she heads out. When she returns, however, she discovers something very wrong. The key to her house no longer works. Someone answers the door to see what’s going on, and it’s a stranger who looks remarkably like Eden—similar build, hair, facial features—and she claims that there must be a mistake, because she lives there, not Eden. Then, a man come downstairs to investigate the commotion, and Eden is relieved because it’s her husband, Harrison. He’ll sort out this mess and kick this crazy lady out of their house! Except to Eden’s shock, Harrison stares back at her with no recognition in his eyes. He insists the strange woman beside him is his wife, and that he has no idea who Eden is but if she doesn’t leave the property, they will have no choice but to call the police. Carrying no proof of her identity, Eden is forced to flee into the night, feeling frightened, hurt, and confused.

Running alongside Eden’s story is a second one following Birdy, a reclusive woman living in London who has just received a devastating diagnosis and may only have months to live. That same night, however, she is visited by a representative of her estranged grandmother’s estate and learns she has unexpectedly inherited a house in the seaside village of Hope Falls, where her family once lived. When Birdie arrives at the property, affectionately known to all the locals as Spyglass, she discovers a letter among her late grandmother’s belongings from a mysterious corporation claiming it can predict the exact date of a person’s death. Given the timing of her diagnosis, Birdy’s curiosity is understandable, and she decides to look more closely into the company’s mission and history. As her investigation unfolds, the novel gradually stitches together these two seemingly separate narratives, linking half-truths and coincidences that may not be coincidences at all.

For the most part, this works. I’ll say this about all Alice Feeney’s books: her prose is snappy, the atmosphere is intense, and the pace is so brisk that the thought of taking a pause is nearly impossible. I was genuinely curious and looking forward to the reveals for at least the first half of My Husband’s Wife, even when I wasn’t entirely sure what the hell was going on. After all, confusion is part of the deal here, completely by design, and the plot is structured in a way to make the reader feel disoriented.

Where the story started to lose me was in the second half, with its handling of twists. Not because there were too few, but because there were too many! At a certain point, the story completely gives up on building upon its own foundations and begins pulling the rug from under itself, over, and over, and over again. Shocking revelations became less about providing answers and more about being completely unpredictable, even if it doesn’t really make sense or throws everything that we know about the characters out the window. When you realize that anything can change at any second and none of the truths that were previously established matter, it all starts to feel rather pointless.

To be clear, I have nothing against twists. It’s one of the best reasons to read thrillers and why I enjoy the genre so much. But at the same time, My Husband’s Wife was a bit much even by Feeney standards. Thing is, I don’t want to remove all thinking from the equation. I’d like to be given the chance to form coherent theories and emotional attachments to characters that could hold out to the next chapter. Without that expectation, I’m afraid it undercuts tension rather than heightens it for me.

That said, the audiobook narration is fantastic. Read by Bel Powley, Henry Rowley, and Richard Armitage, all three delivered strong and engaging performances. I’m especially a big fan of Armitage, who does incredible voice work on anything he does, not just Alice Feeney audiobooks. To be honest, even when the story frustrated me, the narration kept me listening.

In the end, I think My Husband’s Wife will be very much a “your mileage may vary” thriller. For me, the book started strong but ultimately collapsed under the weight of its need to induce whiplash, leaving me entertained but mentally exhausted and emotionally detached. But like I said, I suspect I am the outlier here, and fans who love Alice Feeney’s books despite or perhaps because of her bold, major-suspension-of-disbelief twists will probably have a great time.

 

Several people asked my opinion "as a military man." They were wrong about the man part, but the thought of explaining Gallacia's sworn soldiers to a boatload of Americans was so exhausting that I needed a gin and tonic just to contemplate it, and a second one to decide that explaining would be a bad idea.

 (page 1, What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher)

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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, previously hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following: - Grab your current read - Open to a random page - Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) - Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their  TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

 

Book links: Amazon, Goodreads
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Publisher: Page count: Formats: audiobook, ebook, paperback

I loved Ling Ling Huang’s Natural Beauty and couldn’t wait to read this one too. Sadly, Immaculate Conception didn’t fully live up to my expectations.
There’s a lot here that I admired. The ideas are strong and timely; we get cloning, AI replacing artists, art as commodity, art as theft. The obsessive dynamic between the narrator, Enka, and Mathilde is fascinating. That slow burn of jealousy and the way admiration curdles into resentment, guilt, and self-loathing is incredibly well written. Huang nails that emotional ugliness. 
Enka isn't likable, nor is she relatable. She makes selfish, cruel choices and justifies them badly. But she’s believable in her pettiness and envy. She want what others have instead of building something of her own and I know people like this.
Despite my appreciation for the ideas, the book felt very detached and emotionally distant to me. I finished it, but I never truly connected to Enka, to Mathilde, or to the story as a whole. I wanted deeper character development early on, especially for Enka and Mathilde, before everything spiraled. Their bond is supposed to be intense, but I struggled to feel it.
Huang is an excellent writer, though. The art discussions are fantastic. I actually went and looked up the artworks mentioned, and that genuinely improved my experience. The performance art sections, in particular, are powerful. 
To sum it up, where Natural Beauty pulled me in immediately, this one took effort. I was also, admittedly, hoping for a bit more weirdness and a little more unhinged energy. And while I appreciated what the book was saying, I think it could’ve been shorter.
In the end, I liked it more in theory than in practice. It's smart, thoughtful novel about awe, jealousy, and artistic obsession, but it kept me at arm’s length. Despite my reservations, I’ll absolutely pick up whatever Huang writes next.

Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files is one of the best selling and most beloved fantasy sagas on the shelves. How can a series that is now 25 years old with 17 books on the selves stay fresh? Well, one way is to change up* how the story is told. Jim Butcher has said that a Dresden…

Once again, I have scoured the internet for information on speculative fiction books coming out this year and compiled a list of works I wanted to highlight. After looking through book descriptions, early reviews, and any available excerpts, I’ve put together a list of 18 fantasy and science fiction books coming out in 2026 that sound particularly compelling to me. (Of course, some of these did not require research since I had already enjoyed previous books in the series or […]

The post Anticipated 2026 Speculative Fiction Book Releases first appeared on Fantasy Cafe.

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Fantasy/Steampunk
Length: 378 pages
Publisher: ‎ Self-Published
Release Date:July 11, 2024
ASIN: B0D54FPW8Z
Stand Alone or Series: 3rd book in The Lamplight Murder Mysteries
Source: Borrowed ebook from Kindle Unlimited
Rating: 5/5 stars

“It’s the week of Hunter’s Eve, a yearly celebration of monsters, ghosts, and things that go bump in the night. But for Huntress Isabeau Agarwal, the event is a stark reminder that in her line of work, there is never a day’s rest.

Murders rock the city, and Isabeau is charged with solving them before the killer strikes again. One, a macabre accident during a dangerous magician’s trick gone awry. The other, a slain politician, his disfigured body displayed atop Lamplight’s most memorable landmark.

The deaths are seemingly unrelated, until Isabeau learns both magician and politician belong to the same mysterious social club filled with powerful paragons of the city, each with their own hidden agendas—each with a reason to kill.

And during it all, a werewolf stalks the streets, bounding from rooftop to rooftop and claiming the lives of innocent citizens. As Isabeau uncovers the city’s secrets, complications arise: the monster and the murders may be connected.

The magician. The police chief. The Ethereal Maiden. The professor. The criminal kingpin. The industrialist.

One may be a killer. One may be a werewolf. All are hiding something.”

Series Info/Source: This is third book in The Lamplight Murder Mysteries. I borrowed this on ebook from Kindle Unlimited.

Thoughts: I really enjoyed this third installment in The Lamplight Murder Mysteries. This book was a bit different than previous books in that we are let loose in the city of Lamplight rather than in an enclosed environment. I actually loved this format even more than the previous two books. I have been wanting to learn more about the mysterious city of Lamplight and this book didn’t disappoint.

There is a werewolf loose in Lamplight…and even worse a murderer loose. Isabeau and Evie are trying to enjoy a night at the theater, watching a magician, when his show goes very wrong and his assistant is killed. They quickly find out that this isn’t the only killing of the night, and Evie is called in on the case. Isabeau and Evie find out that both murders are linked to a mysterious social club, and the werewolf may somehow be linked into this all as well.

This book had a lot more action than the last couple books. I actually enjoyed this open format a lot more and really enjoyed exploring Lamplight. The things I like best about this series are the amazing world and the intriguing characters, and we get to see a lot more of both in this story. I actually am not a huge fan of murder mysteries or who-dun-it types of stories. However, I love this setting and these characters.

I also love that we learn a lot more about monsters and about Isabeau’s past in this book. Both Evie and Isabeau are growing and changing as characters which is fun to watch. There was a bit more about politics and we are exposed to more of the ghostly aspects of this world as well.

This was a very fun and easy read that I enjoyed immensely.

My Summary (5/5): Overall I really loved this book and thought that this was the best book in this series so far. I loved the more open format and venturing into the city of Lamplight. I loved how the murder mystery intertwined with other aspects like werewolves, ghostly apparitions, and politics. I really love the characters here and enjoyed learning more about their history and watching them grow. I would recommend to anyone who enjoys a creative dark steampunk-esque fantasy world with intriguing characters and a well done murder mystery.

 

A Court of Sugar and Spice (Wicked Darlings #1)by Rebecca F. Kenney
What is it about:With their inheritance restricted until their marriage, sisters Clara and Louisa, both in their twenties, must live with their godfather Drosselmeyer. One night, an accident brings to life one of the strange wooden dolls in Drosselmeyer's mansion. The Nutcracker doll is a cursed Fae prince, and he pleads for the sisters' help. During the ensuing journey into the Fae realm, Clara encounters the handsome Sugarplum Faerie, and he promises her the chance to enact all her forbidden fantasies. Meanwhile Louisa and the Nutcracker Prince battle and bicker over everything, despite the growing attraction between them. And to make matters worse, the entire Seelie kingdom is under threat of conquest by the Rat King, ruler of the Dread Court.
This is a spicy, adult, fantasy romance retelling of "The Nutcracker" fairytale.
What did Voodoo Bride think of it:I will confess I've had a couple of ebooks of this author linger on my e-reader, but I tend to skip over my digital library in favor of print books, so it took me seeing this mass market paperback and buying it to actually read something by Kenney.
And I've been missing out!
This is such a delicious read.I connected with Clara from the start. Louisa and the Nutcracker/Fae prince were less interesting to me, but the story was enjoyable enough to keep reading and to see what would happen next. 
And then the Sugarplum Faerie entered the stage!I absolutely adored him and Clara together. From there on out I was hooked and was cheering Clara and Sugarplum/Fin on and enjoying their super delicious romance.
For those more familiar with The Nutcracker there will probably be a lot of overlap with the original tale, but as someone who only knows the music and not the story I can tell you, you can read this without having seen The Nutcracker.
And you bet I grabbed my e-reader after finishing this book to see what books by Kenney I had lingering there.
Why should you read it:It's absolutely delicious!

 

Buy The Red Winter
FORMAT/INFO: The Red Winter was published by Tor Books on February 24th, 2026. It is 544 pages long and available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook formats.
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: Twenty years ago, Professor Sebastian Grave killed the Beast. At least, that's what he hoped. But when word arrives that the Beast is stalking the French countryside once more, Sebastian resigns himself to returning to Gevaudan to finish the Beast once and for all. Returning to Gevaudan means facing the ghosts of his past, but also the chance to reconnect with an estranged lover Sebastian hasn't seen in two decades. But as Sebastian draws near to his destination, he realizes the situation is far more complicated than he realizes. As Frances teeters on the brink of revolution, can he slay the Beast without plunging the country into war?

The Red Winter is a fantastic reimagining of the story of the Beast of Gevaudan, one sure to appeal to fans of European-style monster-slaying adventures. It is fantastically atmospheric and does a great job of envisioning a supernatural layer to the world, creating a version of Europe closer to The Witcher in feel than standard history. There are ghosts and small monsters alongside powerful forest spirits who can grant boons - or curses. There are immortal beings who play power games from the shadows, using humans as pawns. And at the center of it all is Sebastian Grave, a man caught up in these power games by a quirk of fate.

And it is Sebastian Grave that I wrestle with the most as I wrap my head around how I feel about this book as a whole. On the one hand, Sebastian is your classic grizzled monster hunter character, one who is exceedingly good at his job and does it all with the wry weariness of someone who has seen humans be idiots far too many times in his life. But he is also morally gray, someone who proves that just because you hunt monsters, you aren't automatically a good person.

Sebastian is driven by a quest for power and by complicated feelings for a man he, despite everything, still loves. But as the book came to a close, I struggled with whether this was enough to make me interested in the character's fate. Sebastian wants power...and then what? Does anything else drive this man? There are moments in the book that raise this very question and suggest the purposelessness is part of the struggle of the character...but towards the end I found myself not quite caring.

I will also admit that I occasionally found it easy to get muddled over what events happened in which timeline. Large parts of the book take place in the same area with some of the same characters, just twenty years apart. Unlike a visual medium like film, I didn't have a constant reminder that a character has visibly aged and therefore we're in 1785, not 1765, or vice versa. It's a small note, one that is admittedly more of a personal problem, but it happened often enough I wanted to mention it.

The Red Winter is a well-crafted dark fantasy tale. Although I'm not sure how I feel about lead character Sebastian Grave, the fact that I'm still thinking about him weeks after finishing the book is a testament to how much this story got inside my head.

 

I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.

Tailored Realities by Brandon Sanderson

Mogsy’s Rating (Overall): 4 of 5 stars

Genre: Science Fiction, Young Adult

Series: Anthology

Publisher: Tor Books (December 9, 2025)

Length: 448 pages

Author Information: Website

I’ve always found myself somewhat on the fence when it comes to Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the books themselves, but following the ever-expanding web of connections has never been a big part of my interest. I just care that the stories stand well on their own, which is why Tailored Realities, a collection of Sanderson’s non-Cosmere short fiction, felt especially appealing. As I’ve always said, he’s also one of the rare authors whose storytelling and world-building generally leave a lasting impression, whether he’s writing ten pages or a thousand.

There are a few exceptions to that, of course. The following are my thoughts on each story, though a couple have already been previously reviewed on their own, and you can search for these earlier reviews for more detail. In addition, Tailored Realities includes three brand-new stories appearing for the first time.

Snapshot (4.5 stars)

Reviewed previously, and even better the second time around.

Brain Dump (4 stars)

A very quick and clever sci-fi vignette that wastes no time getting to the point. Imagine a near future where prospective parents can literally shop for a designer child, browsing through genetic models in a showroom. While the concept isn’t especially groundbreaking, it’s the execution that makes this story work. For one thing, it embraces brevity, and though Brain Dump reads almost like a thought exercise, sometimes that’s exactly what sci-fi needs: a simple setup, a clear social question, and the restraint to step away before it becomes overly trite and pretentious. Sanderson’s trademark humor also helps make his point without bogging things down, and despite its short length, this was one of my favorites.

I Hate Dragons (3 stars)

Speaking of experimental, this story about a boy’s magical talent for smelling good to dragons as well as his ability to hear spelling and punctuation makes for a fun little tale, and not surprisingly, it was born out of a writing exercise. Not much else to say about this one, but I did find it useful as a way to show my middle schooler what effective dialogue looks like.

Dreamer (2.5 stars)

Dreamer is a horror story about body snatchers, but it’s handled in a subtle way that’s less about what’s happening on the page and more concerned with making readers uncomfortable through ideas. In a way, this conceptual approach is very typical Sanderson, messing with your mind instead of relying on shock value. That said, this story didn’t do much for me. It’s simply much too short to leave a lasting impression, and while the ideas are interesting in theory, they aren’t explored deeply enough to make them particularly memorable.

Perfect State (3.5 stars)

Perfect State explores perceived realities and asks, what if nothing is real and our brains are simply living in fully simulated worlds tailored to our wants and needs? This is the case with the protagonist of this tale, who rules a fantasy kingdom in a simulation created just for him. He can be the hero he wants to be, even if it’s only in his own virtual existence. But does it really matter? This story examines consciousness and ambition, as well as the ways one measures satisfaction and achievement. Compared to the previous entries, this one is thematically heavier and denser in its world-building, which made it a bit harder to get into. While the concept itself is fascinating, the execution didn’t quite hold my interest and ultimately felt a little too slow to fully engage me.

Probability Zero (1.5 of 5 stars)

Ugh, I hate flash fiction, so take my rating with a grain of salt, but this story exemplifies why. Again, this one is told entirely in dialogue but has none of the charm of I Hate Dragons. At under 500 words, I barely see a point in reviewing this one, but it follows a human selected by aliens to be uplifted, and aside from a clever little twist at the end, it passed by with barely a blip on my radar. I have to say, I got far more insight from Sanderson’s author’s note for this story, which ended up being more enjoyable than the story itself.

Defending Elysium (3 stars)

I love the Skyward series, so I was giddy with a fair bit of anticipation by the time I got to Defending Elysium which apparently lays the groundwork for the Cytoverse. That said, the age of it shows, and as this is early Sanderson still developing his craft, the writing can feel a bit rough around the edges, as in heavier on description and telling rather than showing. While I’m fascinated by what feels like the origin seeds for the Skyward books, the mystery plot itself was fairly underwhelming, and the storytelling occasionally drags under too much detail. Still a neat little read though, especially if you are a Cytoverse completionist.

Firstborn (2.5 stars)

This is one I wish I had enjoyed more, and maybe I would have had I been more of a short fiction fan. However, I tend to struggle with novelettes, especially when they try to cram so much into such a small space. Firstborn is about a young man who follows in the footsteps of his legendary older brother, a brilliant and admired military strategist he knows he will never live up to. With so much potential for human conflict alone, the story barely has room to explore the characters once the epic battles are factored in. Any messages about inherited talent versus personal circumstance are completely overshadowed along the way.

Mitosis (4 stars)

Previously reviewed, this mini-story takes place in the Reckoners universe after the events of Steelheart. A quick, fun read that stands alone from the rest of the novels but worth reading for the supervillain and his cool powers alone.

Moment Zero (4.5 stars)

Moment Zero is the longest story and likely the collection’s selling point as it is also a brand-new, never-published-elsewhere-before novella. Part detective story, part time travel adventure, and part zombie apocalypse, it follows two police investigators and former lovers as they try to stop the same catastrophic event from happening, but from opposite directions in time after one is transported a few days into the past while the other is thrown forwards into the future. The dual-timeline structure here is clever, but like all time travel stories, it’s probably best not to think too hard about the mechanics behind them. Still, what’s lovely about Moment Zero is its longer page length, which gives readers more time to know the two main characters. The relationship between them carries a surprising amount of emotional depth, hitting harder than I expected for a novella. This one is hands down the best story in Tailored Realities—not only the most memorable, but the most satisfying as well.

 

Paladin's Strength (The Saint of Steel #2)by T. Kingfisher
What is it about:He’s a paladin of a dead god, tracking a supernatural killer across a continent. She’s a nun from a secretive order, on the trail of the raiders who burned her convent and kidnapped her sisters.
When their paths cross at the point of a sword, Istvhan and Clara will be pitched headlong into each other’s quests, facing off against enemies both living and dead. But Clara has a secret that could jeopardize the growing trust between them, a secret that will lead them to the gladiatorial pits of a corrupt city, and beyond...
What did I think of it:This is a wonderful Fantasy Romance read!
It took me some time to warm up to Istvhan and Clara, but even if I never did I'd have enjoyed the heck out of this book. I love the writing, the humor, the world, and the cozy suspense.Once again there were things I could easily figure out, but once again I think Kingfisher meant for readers to figure stuff out before the characters, so you can focus on the character's reaction when they find out.
I loved seeing Brindle in this book, by the way. He's one of my favorite characters in this world!
So yet another super enjoyable read. It's a good thing I already got hold of the other two books in this series.
Why should you read it:It's very enjoyable Fantasy Romance.

 

Official Author WebsitePreorder This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me over HERE
AUTHOR INFORMATION: Ilona Andrews is the pseudonym for the husband-and-wife writing team of Ilona & Gordon. Together, they are the co-authors of the New York Times bestselling Kate Daniels urban fantasy series, Hidden Legacy series, The Innkeeper Chronicles and a few other series. They live in Texas and enjoy plotting more adventures for the BDH to gorge on.

OFFICIAL BOOK BLURB: When Maggie wakes up cold, filthy, and naked in a gutter, it doesn’t take her long to recognize Kair Toren, a city she knows intimately from the pages of the famously unfinished dark fantasy series she’s been obsessively reading and re-reading while waiting years for the final novel.

Her only tools for navigating this gritty world of rival warlords, magic, and mayhem? Her encyclopedic knowledge of the plot, the setting, and the characters’ ambitions and fates. But while she quickly discovers she cannot be killed (though many will try!), the same cannot be said for the living, breathing characters she’s coming to love—a motley band that includes a former lady’s maid, a deadly assassin, various outrageous magical creatures, and a dangerously appealing soldier. Soon, instead of trying to get home, she finds herself enmeshed in the schemes—and attentions—of dueling princes, dukes, and villains, all while trying to save them and the kingdom of Rellas from the way she knows their stories will end: in a cataclysmic war.

FORMAT/INFO: This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me is 480 pages long divided over four named parts with forty-three chapters, and an epilogue. In this book, narration is in the first-person, exclusively via Maggie Haley. This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me is the first volume of in the Maggie The Undying epic fantasy trilogy.

March 31, 2026 will mark the North American hardback, e-book & audiobook publication of This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me via Tor Books. Cover illustration is done by Andrew Davis.

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: There are authors and then there are storytellers, there are fantasy stories and then there are epic fantasy sagas. There are books which readers read and stories that become embedded in the readers’ minds & hearts. This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews introduces us to Maggie the Undying and easily is one of the (if not THE) top read of 2026 for me (I’ve read it five times already as I write this review). This book is dedicated to readers who dreamed about getting lost in a book. I must congratulate house Andrews for the thrilling & immersive read which I experienced as I want the sequels & moar….

The story begins with our main character Maggie Haley walking up wet and naked in the city of Kair Torren, capital city of Rellas. The weird thing is until today, this was a secondary fantasy world featured in an unfinished fantasy series titled The Rise Of Kair Torren (with two published books called THE THIEVES OF THE NORTH, & THE LORDS OF THE EAST) that Maggie has been besotted with since her teenage years. Now she finds herself in that very same world and has to figure out:

-          Is this real or is she hallucinating?
-          How did she get here, and will she ever get back to our own world? -          how to stop a brutal & harrowing catastrophe from occurring as foretold within the books.

However Maggie has a few, aces up her (currently non-existent) sleeves, she has an encyclopedic knowledge of the events that have occurred and are yet to occur within this land. Plus she knows a lot about the characters’ motivations, & thoughts: both regal & commoner, and POV & non-POV ones.  This cerebral Rellaspedia will be one of her main strengths as she tries to assist certain folks to avert a huge & bloody crisis.  There’s also her other magical ability to come back from death wholly no matter the manner of her passing. She doesn’t quite know the “how and the why” of her strange ability, but she will use it to her advantage whenever she can. Maggie wants to stop the tragedy that’s set to unfold within Rellas. As she realizes that she cares deeply about the people & characters who have inhabited within her mind for the last decade or so. With everything knowledge wise at her disposal, Maggie decides to tamper with the flow of events and change the fates of hundreds (if not thousands) of people.

There are many things that I could tell you as to why I’m in love with this book (and fantasy series “I say series because while the deal is for three books but I think this story can go beyond 3 books”). Primarily it’s the authorial writing style, from their Kate Daniels saga to the Hidden Legacy series to the Innkeeper volumes. Every series of theirs has given the readers fantastic characters that they can root for or rail against. The dialogue is snappy, the prose is tight and lastly their stories are the type that entertain and become epic along the way.

(TKWNKM UK Cover)

Maggie The Undying is in many ways a quintessential Ilona Andrews story but it is also a different story than they have ever written before. It is EPIC, it is magical and if I had to do an elevator pitch for it, it would be ASOIAF meets Alice in Wonderland but without the grimdark edges. It’s a testament to the authors’ skills who can flesh out multiple characters within a singular POV story. Speaking of characterization, almost all the characters who get introduced within this first volume, are fully fledged and three dimensional. Coming from a singular POV story and especially from a first-person narrative, this facet of the story is exceptional. Books such as Assassin’s Apprentice, Kushiel’s Dart, Prince of Thorns, Name of The Wind, Blood Song, Kings of the Wyld, etc. are few and far in between. All these aforementioned titles have narrators who are charismatic and fall on all shades of the moral spectrum. Herein the authors do something akin to these stories while also providing a side character cast that is as fleshed out as the main character and have their own motivations to play out.

While Maggie has such a fascinating narrative voice, she’s still human and has her blind spots. To cover these blind spots, she has new allies and found family beside her.  I could talk more about Raymond Karis or Solentine Dagarra or Clover or even the main antagonist but I suspect the authors have plans for almost all characters. I can’t wait to see who takes bigger roles in the future sequels. I suspect quite a few of these characters will become fan favourites and I hope akin to the Kate Daniels, Innkeeper & Hidden Legacy books, the authors provide more stories from their viewpoints.

“When the Eight Families went to war, the world burned.  The Great Families had been playing musical chairs with the throne of Rellas for the last eight hundred years, and how long each dynasty lasted depended on how good they were at pitting the other seven families against each other…. the current king, had been teetering on the edge of a full psychotic break for a decade, and the tensions among the Great Families were at an all-time high.”

Another beguiling aspect of this book was the worldbuilding. In this regards, this reminded me a lot of ASOIAF & Codex Alera with its varied geographical details, the royal houses that govern the various regions & the powers they possess. The authors brilliantly provide a medieval world that’s as complex as ours and then there’s the fascinating small touches with toilet paper, clothing details, LGBT/non-binary folks inclusion and naming nomenclature. I recall when I first read A Game Of Thrones, how immersive the story was due to its worldbuilding (heraldry descriptions, world history, and geographical tenets) & similarly with Codex Alera with its Romanic culture infused lands.

With This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me, I felt a similar deep immersion and while the world is a dark, medieval one. The authors have managed to brilliant thread the needle in making it realistic but not grimdark or unnecessary violent. I must also highlight Stephanie Stein’s crucial role in the expansion of the plot from a more intimate & less political story (as envisioned by the authors originally) into this genre-bending & fun story. I had read a small excerpt of the story a few years ago & this finished version is more complex, politically intriguing and something that I didn’t know I needed. So my eternal thanks to Stephanie for her editorial hand in elevating the story alongside the authors into its current amazing form.

“It would all end in blood and fire….who wanted nothing to do with the swamp that was the powerful underbelly of Kair Torren and the narrative had crushed her in the worst way possible…”

The main plot of the story is about averting a political takeover which includes an event called “the night of thousand fires”, the event being as brutal and destructive as it sounds. The authors have shaped this story very much akin to a thriller, wherein the MC has certain knowledge of pre-ordained events and tries to carefully avert certain situations to change the eventual bloody outcome. This was fun to read as Maggie narrates what she knows and the readers get to know about it in real time as well. The joy is in finding out how she accomplishes with her cerebral Rellaspedia and what new consequences her actions unleash.

This story really flowed so smoothly because Maggie is very much a fan and so that resonated with me on such a deep level. Her love for the story and characters is something that all of us can keenly feel. Be it the six duchies or Westeros or Roshar or the Westlands or even post apocalyptic Atlanta, we the readers are transported in those worlds and care for it as deeply as our own. The world of Rellas is a brilliantly written one and as a reader, one can’t help but be drawn in via Maggie’s love and enthusiasm. The authors have meant this as a complement and given how re-readable their books are, I can only thank them for their venture into epic fantasy as I’ve been clamouring for them to do since the last decade.

Herein the book follows a semi-traditional epic fantasy plot structure but has enough twists within to differentiate it and make it fresh. I’m purposefully being vague because of spoilers but there’s a murder plot, a serial killer plot , soap-making as well as a missing person(s) mystery. Plus not to mention all the various story set-up for events that will happen in the sequels. All in all, there’s so much happening and none of it feels extraneous or excessive.

I would describe this as an epic fantasy with dark undertones as funnily the story within the Rise Of Kair Torren books is a gritty & grimdark one. But herein the authors smartly blunt those edges while still maintaining the dark feel. What I mean is that authors have provided a story that's about a dark world but the reading experience is a comfortable one. I also have to highlight that the authors are fans of David Gemmell’s heroic fantasy stories and there’s some wonderful character similarities to be found within. From the grizzled veteran to the mercenary family to the head of the assassin guild, these grey characters are so fascinatingly written that one can’t help but care for them and watch out for what they do next. There’s going to be a lot of fan favourite characters for every type of reader to root for.  The action sequences are more of the personal kind except for the climax which is a mass affair. There’s no big battles as such but the climax will provide succor to the most ardent action fantasy fan.

The prose is very solid throughout and while nobody will be calling it purple. I found it to be solid and very geared to make the readers’ experience a fascinating one. The authors’ have a knack for writing comedy and there’s just the right amount interspersed within. Another thing I wish to highlight for IA fans who have read their various series is about the epic fantasy genre. While this book is very much paced properly, readers who are more accustomed to the urban fantasy genre will have to understand the more laid-back nature of epic fantasy and the worldbuilding involved. In most (if not all) epic fantasy books, the author must worldbuild alongside laying out the story and character arcs. This leads to a seemingly slower pace as compared to urban fantasy stories wherein the worldbuilding exercise is far less intensive as the world is usually our own.

Many readers might disregard this as a romantasy book and they would be very, very wrong. This book has a tendril of romance but it’s ensconced within the story in a neat fashion. For those readers who are wanting a spicy romantic read, they won’t find this book to be that either. The authors have tried really hard to make this story into its own thing and I applaud them for it.

(Stelka picture courtesy of the authors' website)

One thing I must note is that this book & story is very, very cinematic. I could very easily visualize this as a TV series akin to Game Of Thrones with a Maggie voiceover ala Dexter. The same, charming narrative voice that Michael C. Hall so smoothly provided can be done herein. Albeit with an actor who can bring Maggie’s brilliance and spunk alive. I was thinking a young Willa Fitzgerald would have been terrific with this. I seriously hope that someone from Hollywood does consider this book series as it would make a for a thrilling, fun & addictive show.

Speaking about drawbacks, for me there were none. But to be objective, one can comment that the world is a medieval one based on European trappings and we have seen such before. The magic system is a bit unexplained and while this is book 1 so perhaps that’s understandable. There’s quite a few magical shenanigans (mage tower and its inhabitants, a mage satisfying his hunger, etc.) which happen but are conveniently left unexplained. This makes sense from Maggie’s POV as the book covers them similarly to what GRRM does in ASOIAF in keeping magic uncertain and mysterious. With this being the first book, there’s only so much the authors could include, while having to excise certain story parts to streamline the plot and this is understandable. Infact I’ve heard that the special editions of this book will have 1-2 new chapters/story sections to them which will deepen the happenings of TKWNKM.

CONCLUSION: Filled with mesmerizing characters, a medieval fantasy world that defies genre trappings and a hope-filled story that evokes joy. This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me is the exact type of exceptional fantasy that I’ve been dying to read. This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me is easily my top read of 2026 & it will be nigh impossible to top it IMHO. Get ready to meet Maggie The Undying as that’s a name you won’t be forgetting soon after March 31st 2026.

 

The Apple-Tree Throneby Premee Mohamed
What is it about:It is the turn of the century in an England that never was. Bright new aqua-plants are generating electricity for the streetlights; news can be easily had on the radio-viz; and in Gundisalvus' Land, the war is over and the soldiers are beginning to trickle home. Amongst these is Lt. Benjamin Braddock, survivor of the massacre that ended the war, and begrudgingly ready to return to a world that, well, doesn't seem to need him any more than it did in peacetime. His friends have homes and families to return to, while he's got nothing but his discharge papers and a couple of unwanted medals. Oh, and one new the furious ghost of his commanding officer.
Fortunately, since the officer's family is so vehemently adamant that Braddock join their rich and carefree fold, he doesn't have much time to fret about being haunted. But the secrets of the war are about to catch up to them all.
"A steaming heap of self-indulgent drivel" - the author
What did I think of it:I've loved everything I've read by Mohamed, but even if I had not I would have snapped tis up just for Mohamed calling it "A steaming heap of self-indulgent drivel".
And it turned out to be melancholic, atmospheric, and utterly beautiful!
I was hooked by both the writing and the atmosphere and finished it way too soon.This will be reread for sure!
Why should you read it:It's beautiful "self-indulgent drivel".

 

From the BLURB: 
Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine and Mary-Jane are famous for the same thing, though they never met.
They came from Fleet Street, Knightsbridge, Wolverhampton, Sweden and Wales. They wrote ballads, ran coffee houses, lived on country estates, they breathed ink-dust from printing presses and escaped people-traffickers. 
What they had in common was the year of their murders: 1888. 
Their murderer was never identified, but the name created for him by the press has become far more famous than any of these five women. 
Now, in this devastating narrative of five lives, historian Hallie Rubenhold finally sets the record straight, and gives these women back their stories. 
⦾
The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold, read on audiobook by Louise Brealey. 
“Poor women were expendable …”
I listened to the audiobook of this, via my library's BorrowBox app - even though I've also owned the B-format paperback since about 2020, I could just never bring myself (or my heart) to pick it  up and read it of my own volition, but on audiobook I tore through it. And under the talent of Brealey's narration, who could bring out various regional accents to really help things along - it was superb. 
This was such a tough listen but I’m really really glad that I finished this book and I found it to be an extraordinary non-fiction work and by far one of the best non-fiction books I’ve read in a long time. 
I was completely upended, however to discover that this book has pissed off so many people and specifically “Ripperologists” to the point that Hallie Rubenhold has been horribly abused and harassed because she did to research into the canonical five victims of Jack the Ripper - and put fourth credible evidence that not all of them were prostitutes as the sick lore of this madman murdering spree dictated for so long. 
Her book is a gracious and human examination of what it meant to be a woman in the 1880s and the impossible position that they were put in to either be Madonna or whore. She digs into the Victorian mindset of the time that insisted that their murders had to somehow be prescriptive to the wider public and so they were painted as Scarlet women. Their stories absolutely broke my heart and patterns did emerge in all of them — domestic violence, alcoholism (if only to have some alleviation from the drudgery of being a woman at the time) …  the way people were kept impoverished and women in particular who had to bear the burden of childbirth and child rearing. Lack of education being the lightning rod overarching issue for so many people of this time. Just an incredible historical examination of everything never said about these women that I found to be so touching and crucial.
As I was reading, I was repeatedly struck by the realisation of how true it is now - just as it was in 1888 - that all it takes is a bad bout of luck, illness or injury for any one of us to experience houselessness and our fate to be completely undone. I thought that about each of these women at so many points in their life as Hallie unpicked them for us ... and my god, did my heart go out to them - across space and time. 
The very final chapter in the book is the Author listing all of the items found on four of the victims upon their death; in one of their pockets was one red mitten — and that visual is just touching and heartbreaking, as was the entire book.
5/5

 

From the BLURB: 

A BOY MEETS A GIRL. THE PAST MEETS THE FUTURE. A FINGER MEETS A TRIGGER. THE BEGINNING MEETS THE END. ENGLAND IS FOREVER. ENGLAND MUST FALL. 

In the near future, a disaffected civil servant is offered a lucrative job in a mysterious new government ministry gathering 'expats' from across history to test the limits of time-travel. 

Her role is to work as a 'bridge': living with, assisting and monitoring the expat known as '1847' - Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin's doomed expedition to the Arctic, so he's a little disoriented to find himself alive and surrounded by outlandish concepts such as 'washing machine', 'Spotify' and 'the collapse of the British Empire'. With an appetite for discovery and a seven-a-day cigarette habit, he soon adjusts; and during a long, sultry summer he and his bridge move from awkwardness to genuine friendship, to something more. 

But as the true shape of the project that brought them together begins to emerge, Gore and the bridge are forced to confront their past choices and imagined futures. Can love triumph over the structures and histories that have shaped them? And how do you defy history when history is living in your house?

'The Ministry of Time' is the debut novel from British-Cambodian writer and editor based in London, Kaliane Bradley. 

So, this may well be my favourite book of 2024. WOW-ee. What an enjoyable read, especially for a low-science fiction girly whose particular proclivity is time-travel tales (those are always my fave 'Doctor Who' episodes, the back-in-time ones). So, some random observations; 

⦿ I am very fond of 2005 YA novel 'The White Darkness' by Geraldine McCaughrean, which is about a teenage girl who is genuinely in love with (the long-dead) Captain Lawrence 'Titus' Oates from the doomed Terra Nova Expedition. So when I read the blurb for 'The Ministry of Time' about Britain having harnessed time-travel and successfully bought six travellers from various eras to the modern-day, including Commander Graham Gore from the doomed Franklin expedition - I was all in. *Especially* when the blurb hinted that Gore's present-day "bridge" - the protagonist of the novel who is tasked with helping him acclimatise and who maybe starts to develop feelings - I was *ALL IN*. 

⦿ Time-travel has always been my bag. Modern-day women falling for out-of-time men is my particular favourite sub-genre ... I know exactly when this started; 'Playing Beatie Bow' by Ruth Park, and the time-travelling Abigail falling for Judah in the 1800's. This was particularly cemented when I read 'Outlander' by Diana Gabaldon as an 18-year-old; WWII army-nurse Claire passing through the stones to Jamie Fraser in the 18th century. No doubt there's some Marty McFly 'Back to the Future' Michael J. Fox appreciation thrown in there too. But this sub-genre of sci-fi and time-travel is my jamboree. And 'The Ministry of Time' gave it to me in HEAPINGS of timey-wimey goodness. The romance is slow-burn but makes up for it because our protagonist (whose name we don't know, but we get an intimate first-person account from) crushes HARD on Gore and that amps up the burn. But I was also very sucked into the mechanics and politics of the time-travel itself, so it wasn't like I was ever cooling my heels and checking my watch for the low sci-fi to get good ... it was ALL good. 

⦿ The politics of time-travel in this book reminded me of the Norwegian sci-fi series 'Beforeigners', about people from different time-periods suddenly randomly appearing in Oslo, becoming refugees of time that the Norwegian government has to deal with. It's also a little bit like the (brilliant) Aussie TV series 'Glitch' set in a small outback town where; 'Seven people from different time-periods return from the dead with no memory and attempt to unveil what brought them to the grave in the first place.' I like this connection in particular because there's a shady organisation linked to the raising of the dead, a big-pharma laboratory called "Noregard" (best in-universe name for a corporation, ever.) It's also a wee bit like the 2001 rom-com starring Hugh Jackman and Meg Ryan, 'Kate & Leopold' about an English Duke from 1876 falling for a modern-day New Yorker when he's unceremoniously dragged into the future. If any/all of those recs are your picnic; this book is for you. 

⦿ He filled the room like a horizon ... the writing was sumptuous, and gorgeous at times. Sometimes Bradley had a turn-of-phrase of description that made me go "ohhhhh." When something changes you constitutionally, you say: ‘the earth moved,’ but the earth stays the same. It’s your relationship with the ground that shifts. 

⦿ I actually first heard about this book, in a Guardian round-up of British debuts to look out for, and the description of Kaliane Bradley's idea made my spine sizzle and then I Googled her even more and found that she partly wrote the idea for 'The Ministry of Time' during Covid and lockdowns and because she kinda fell in love with the only photograph of Graham Gore. No, really. 'Kaliane Bradley Fell in Love With a Dead Man. The Result Is The Ministry of Time' ... if that's not an *amazing* sales-pitch I don't know what is. 

⦿ I just loved this. It's extremely cinematic and I wouldn't be surprised to find it is being developed into a movie or limited-TV series. It both feels appropriately head-nodding to plenty of other fabulous low-sci-fi time-travel that will make aficionados happy, but also sparkly-unique enough to keep adding to the conversation about the space-time continuum. Even if I guessed the small twist that comes, I did so because I know this sub-genre so well and expected certain markers along the way and Bradley did not disappoint. I loved this so much, I was only one-chapter in when I knew it'd give me the best bookish hangover and be hard book to follow-up, probably throwing me into a reading-rut.

5/5

 

From the BLURB: 

Nova Weetman’s unforgettable memoir reflects on experiences of love and loss from throughout her life, including: losing her beloved partner, playwright Aidan Fennessy, during the 2020 Covid lockdown; the death of her mother ten years earlier; her daughter turning eighteen and finishing school; and her own physical ageing. Using these events as a lens, Nova considers how various kinds of losses – and the complicated love they represent – change us and can become the catalysts for letting go.

This is a moving, honest account of farewelling a partner of twenty-five years, parenting teenagers through grief, buying property for the first time at the age of fifty, watching Aidan live on through his plays, and learning to appreciate spending hours alone with only the household cat for company. Warm and wise – and often joyful – Love, Death & Other Scenes ultimately focuses on the living we do after losses and what we learn from them.

At one point while reading Nova Weetman's memoir, I said out loud to the empty room; "Geez, you're good Nova."

Such was the power and force of certain sentences, ideas, inflections and offerings throughout. "As writers, we are stealers of other peoples memories, bowerbirds of story," she writes at one point - and then puts that ability to collect on full display throughout as she recounts the life she built with her partner, playwright Aidan Fennessy, who battled and then died from prostate cancer in 2020 during Melbourne's numerous lockdowns and waves of Covid.

I know Nova as a colleague, a fellow middle-grade author and someone I greatly admire, and whose books I truly - hand on heart - believe helped me in tapping into my own voice for this age group. I think it's a little odd that I feel like I know-her, *know* her now after reading 'Love, Death & Other Scenes,' though. And especially because I have a tangential understanding of the loss she and her two children experienced in 2020. My uncle died after his third bout of cancer - having beat the other two, it was pancreatic in the end, third time unlucky - and unlike Nova's partner who had the option but didn't use it; my uncle chose Voluntary Assisted Dying and went out on his own terms, at home, December 2020. We were all there. I'm both surprised and not at all by how much reading Nova's perspective of a death like that during Covid - which I watched my aunt and cousin go through, one of the helpers minding children and looking for ways to ease their pain - I needed to reexamine and feel.

But I'm also surprised at how beautifully romantic this book was too, as Nova writes about how she and Aidan first met - how she fell first, and pursued ... how so much of their relationship felt like it needed balancing, especially in their creative exchange; ‘He introduced me to albums I’d never heard, to singers dead before my time, and the way that songs stain your memories giving them meaning they don’t have in silence.'

In this too, I feel weirdly intimate to the story because Nova writes about Aidan's final play he ever wrote - 'The Heartbreak Choir' - finally being staged, but only after his death. His final work he never got to see fully-realised. It's because I know Nova and am a fan of hers, that I was aware through social media what she was going through - and when tickets became available for 'The Heartbreak Choir' debut performance in Melbourne, I snapped them up for both myself, my mum, and my aunt - also knowing that she in particular may find some comfort in both the story, and its background. And she did - we all did. I saw 'The Heartbreak Choir' in May 2022 and loved it! A play my Aunt still talks about, has triggered her love of theatre to the point that she and my mum will now spontaneously ask me to check out what's on and what's coming up, book something for us all.

'Love, Death & Other Scenes' feels like another chapter to that play, in a way. How apt, that Nova muses towards the end of her memoir; ‘And it is in words that I can find him,' and it's in both her words and his that I feel something being unlocked, and another story I want to share with my family. That I want to press this book into their hands and say; 'It's us, a little bit.' We're not so alone, I think.

5/5