These Deadly Prophecies: teen sorcerer has to figure out the mystery of her mentor's death. Fun, well written, not scary. Recommend.
Vaster Wilds: book club book which manages to be both grim and wholly unrealistic, as if the author had never set foot in a woods. Hated every page, 0/10, definitely not for me.
Three Kinds of Lucky: new series from Kim Harrison, great premise, but has such bad Famous Author Syndrome that I started checking halfway through if it was going to be over soon. Would be amazing at half the length; I abandoned ship near the dramatic ending due to not caring about any of the main characters any more.
Dreaming Spies: I read this during the early pandemic and, like, didn't form memories due to the everything. Good, but not as good as the first ones in the series. I feel they get increasingly unlikely. Emperors and Cole Porter, really?
Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands: A delightfully strange fantasy novel with wonderful characters, second in a series. Liked it even better than the first.
The Blighted Stars: decent story which would have been better without the mild romance shoehorned in. Sci fi with alien fungus.
The Unspoken Name: weird and interesting portal fantasy, with liberally borrowed elements out of many world folklore. Recommend.
Bookshops and Bonedust: okay, but much less charming than the first one. Would borrow from library, but not buy.
Starter Villain: unserious popcorn. I enjoyed it. There are cats.
I co-sign your reviews of Dreaming Spies (just wait to see how much more unlikely the next one is!) and Bookshops and Bonedust (which I enjoyed but didn't delight in). I'll have to find The Unspoken Name and These Deadly Prophecies.
ReplyDeleteSince I drafted this I read the next two and there is a serious WTH element for sure. The pirate one was the worst imo.
DeleteGood to know about the second Emily Wilde book. I enjoyed the first one and need to look up the second. Scalzi writes some enjoyable popcorn books. Nothing earth shattering, but a fun romp.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy popcorn too! Checked Starter Villain out for my kids to read; they found it entertaining as well.
DeleteFinally got a chance to add some of these to my library list!
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