The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf

Crossposted from Mainlining Christmas Humbug Amanda Radley, 2021 New Release! A copy of this book was provided by Netgalley for the purpose of review.  Premise: Ellie is in the wrong job, but she figures she can just keep her head down. But when her love of Christmas decorations gets her promoted and tasked with saving the company Christmas party, she'll have to rise to the occasion, despite a debilitating fear of heights and a growing crush on her Christmas-hating new boss.  Oh, this was lovely. It might be one of my favorite Christmas romances I've ever read, in fact.  Ellie's obsession with Christmas is important to the plot, but her heartfelt reasons for it don't step over the line into too schmaltzy. Rosalind's dislike of the holidays is grounded, not extreme or petty, so their eventual compromises seem reasonable. The romance builds steadily and sweetly. They both respect each other's competence, which I love, and work around each other's particular ne...

The Mice Before Christmas Anne L. Watson, Wendy Edelson, 2021 New Release! A copy of this book was provided by Netgalley for the purpose of review.  Summary of my review: Awwwwwww! This cute little book posits that those mice who weren't stirring the night before Christmas must have had an awfully busy day. Playful verse and charming illustrations follow a sprawling mouse clan coming together for a massive party. It's a bit reminiscent of the opening of The Nutcracker and dozens of other stories that feature a party in a grand family house.  The writing is sweet, but the art is the real star here. Big illustrations full of tiny details, down to the patterned fabric of tiny mouse frock coats.  In case it isn't already clear, this leans heavily into a prosperous European image of Christmas in which a holiday party features hundreds of participants, multiple courses for dinner, plus live music and dancing. I think the art is adorable, but I wanted to point that out. Many sto...

Crossposted from Mainlining Christmas A Christmas to Fight For Jessica Frances, 2021 New Release! A copy of this book was provided by Netgalley for the purpose of review. I was amused enough by the premise of this book to request a copy for review: a romance between a krampus and a Santa Claus (both appear to be magical races in this world).  And on reading it, I was amused by the book and overall enjoyed it, but I need to address a couple problems.  First, the author advertises the fact that the book was professionally edited, but the book needs another edit. Or better editors. The copy I read had enough typos and mistakes in the beginning that I almost stopped reading (and likely would have were I not planning to review it for this site). Missing words, incorrect verb tenses, and awkward phrases all abound early on. The errors drop off at some point, although they did appear occasionally all the way to the end. I did get this from Netgalley - maybe this copy wasn't final? Ho...

Crossposted from Mainlining Christmas In a Holidaze Christina Lauren, 2020 I saw this listed in a few places as THE holiday romance novel of 2020, so I decided to see what all the fuss was about. And ... it was pretty good. Easily as good as a surprisingly high quality made-for-tv movie, maybe a bit better.  The premise is classic: Maelyn Jones is trapped in a holiday time loop until she can fix her life. But the execution is not only charming, it's surprisingly thoughtful. For her entire life, Maelyn and her parents have been getting together for the holidays with a chosen family consisting of her parents' closest friends from college and their assorted partners and kids. Since she was a teenager, she's had a crush on Andrew, one of said kids. Unfortunately, when the book opens, she's just had an unsatisfying drunken makeout session with Andrew's brother Theo. (Maelyn and Theo/Andrew aren't related at all, but I was very confused at the beginning until I figure...

Crossposted from Mainlining Christmas A Boy Called Christmas Matt Haig, 2015 I knew the movie based on this book was coming out this year, so I decided to give it a read first. I'm writing this review before we see the film, or even watch a trailer. Hopefully, the adaptation will decide on a tone. I need to preface this review by admitting that I have never been a fan of Roald Dahl. This book often dips into a very similar style, so if that kind of violence-for-laughs from absurdly cruel or nonsensical characters is something you enjoy, you might enjoy this book, as so many apparently have.  I enjoyed parts of this book, but the tone kept swinging between absurdist children's book, outright farce, mythic/fairytale, and actually serious adventure. Every time I started to really get interested, the story took another weird turn. It's a story about a boy who "believes in magic" and grows up to be Santa, but it's vague and inconsistent in its historical setting. A...

Whiteout (Seasons of Love, Book 1) Elyse Springer, 2017 Premise: Noah wakes up in a cabin decorated for Christmas, snowbound with a man who says he's Noah's boyfriend. But he can't remember what's true, and something feels very wrong.  First I need to say that I read this book because I was hoping to feature it for Mainlining Christmas , but I think it ended up not quite being Christmassy enough, and that itself was disappointing to me.  My larger problem with this book is that it falls neatly into two halves: one is an intriguing and fascinating mystery, the other is a somewhat bland romance. Is it a coincidence that the book goes rapidly downhill after Christmas? Maybe.  The first half of the book is unique for a romance. Noah had an accident and has temporary amnesia. On the surface, Jason does all the right things for a loving partner to do, but something's off. Noah doesn't know whether it's something Jason's currently hiding or something else hidin...

Iron Widow Xiran Jay Zhao, 2021 Premise: When Wu Zetian finally allows her family to sell her into servitude and certain death, they don't know about her plan. All she wants is vengeance for her sister, but how far will she eventually go? Wow. Big, big wow. I've been following this author on YouTube for months for her funny and insightful takes on Asian representation in media, so I reserved her book at the library when I heard about it. I was unsure during the first prologue chapter - by that time I'd heard only that the book had done very well. Then I hit Zetian's narration in chapter one and there was no turning back. This book is a rocketship: holding on is terrifying, but letting go is impossible. It somehow fulfills the marketing promise of being a blend of Pacific Rim, The Handmaid's Tale, and Chinese history and mythology while being an incredibly compelling read. Like, an if-I-wasn't-a-parent-with-a-full-time-job-I-would-have-stayed-up-all-night kind of...

Seducing the Sorcerer Lee Welch, 2021 Premise: Fenn isn't just down on his luck, he's near the end of his rope. But when he suddenly becomes the owner of a horse made of cast-off fabrics and magic, it brings him into a new life, one which includes a mysterious court magician. I wanted to love this book. I pictured this review starting with a disclaimer about looking past the hokey title and cover. However, although I absolutely loved this author's previous book, this one was extremely uneven.  The world is intriguing, but there are far more ideas introduced than are explored. For how important magic is to the story, I wish I had more of a sense of the scope of it, how the different kinds act, and how people actually perform it.  I liked a lot of moments; Finn's narration is often entertaining. However, the crux of the problem was that I couldn't completely buy the romance at the center of the book.  I don't think that a romance has to feature both perspectives,...

Firebreak Nicole Kornher-Stace, 2021 Premise: Sure, Mal has a weird obsession with one of the famous SecOps, but doesn't everyone? She's just trying to keep her head down and earn enough water to survive until she learns something she can't ignore. This book starts with the protagonist playing a video game, but unlike some books, this doesn't have any time for nostalgia or wish fulfillment. In a dystopia ruled by warring factions that evolved from corporations, resources are severely rationed or for sale at exorbitant prices, and the prevalence and importance of immersive video games (before power curfew, anyway) is clearly meant as the local "bread and circuses." The people are encouraged to idolize a small group of superpowered soldiers who fight in the constant war and have doppelgangers in the game. The plot kicks off when Mal and her friend and gaming partner Jessa are given some damning information about the origins of these soldiers. They end up hip-de...

The Will Darling Adventures ( Slippery Creatures, The Sugared Game, Subtle Blood) K.J. Charles, 2020, 2020, 2021 I've sung the praises of K.J. Charles here before, but not in proportion with how many of her books I've actually read. It's a lot. It might be all of them. It's definitely so many that I'm not 100% sure whether it's all of them.  I just love the way she balances romance with well-researched history and adventure. Her romance protagonists always face dire dangers as well as emotional struggles. This series is a romance trilogy that's also a 1920s action-spy-thriller.  Will Darling is many things, an ex-soldier, a reluctant "war hero," a man with a rather large knife he knows how to use, a man who unexpectedly came into possession of a bookshop, and bisexual. Kim Secretan is a dashing, effeminate nobleman who comes into Will's life just when he needs a friend and ally. It's clear from the start that Kim is full of secrets, though,...

The Witness for the Dead Katherine Addison, 2021 Premise: Set in the world of The Goblin Emperor . As a Witness, Thara Celehar investigates murder and deception while navigating hostility from other religious and political personnel. Did...did I just read a fantasy noir? That was really good? Be still my heart!  Don't misunderstand, this book isn't overtly stylized like a hardboiled detective novel, it doesn't read like a pastiche or parody. However... The protagonist, despite being a sort of priest with a religious calling/inborn magical ability, functions as a private investigator on behalf of those who have passed away The plot concerns several interwoven cases that involve corruption and/or scandal The protagonist has a scandal in his backstory that sets him apart socially and emotionally from others The protagonist is undermined by others in authority due to their own selfish motivations The protagonist does good things because someone ought to do them, and few others ...

The Graveyard Book Neil Gaiman, 2008 Hugo Winner - 2009 Honestly, I can't blame all of my review hiatus on Red, White, and Royal Blue . That book I liked so much I found it hard to review. This book I didn't like enough.  And here's the thing - I know it's personal. More a particular quirk of timing than most of my reasons for liking this book or that book. In the first few pages of The Graveyard Book, a family is murdered and a toddler is stalked by a killer through the streets of a small town. This is presented in a dark way, but it's all just the setup. It's all the "once upon a time" for the story of a boy adopted and raised by the ghosts of a graveyard and a series of intriguing (if never truly amazing) linked stories about the adventures he has. And I couldn't handle it. I couldn't handle the fact that a child (the main character's sister, who is barely spoken of for the rest of the book) and her parents were brutally killed in the fi...

Red, White, and Royal Blue Casey McQuiston, 2019 One Last Stop Casey McQuiston, 2021 Hi! Not dead, still reading, but parenting a toddler while holding a full-time job during a pandemic has made it hard to do anything that feels nonessential like write reviews. But my inability to adequately review Red, White, and Royal Blue led into this hiatus, so I'm hoping having recently read One Last Stop will get me out. Both of these were wonderful. They have some of the characteristics I now associate with my favorite romance: a world that feels real-ish, but just a little warmer and better than real, where life isn't easy, but good things happen to people who are being their best selves. That's on top of great characters and relationships, of course. How do I review a book that was like an incredibly sweet warm hug with several hefty cups of wish fulfillment tempered with a few tablespoons of realism and just a pinch of panic attack? (That last bit isn't the book's fault, ...

The Yiddish Policemen's Union Michael Chabon, 2007 Hugo Winner - 2008 Premise: In the final days of Sitka before Reversion, a murder is committed, buried, and investigated.  So I went into this book trying to give it a fair shake, even though the only thing I remember about reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (by the same author) was that I thought it was overrated. Now the main thing I'm going to remember about this book is that it's tedious. It's an alternate-history murder mystery that wants to be in a hardboiled style, but the writing only occasionally comes within a glimpse of the cleverness of the greats in that genre. Mostly it's just too precious. One perceptive Goodreads review put it very well: "If he can come up with three ornamental ways to portray one thing, he includes all three of them in the book." And that person said they enjoyed the book.  To be fair, I can currently only read books in short bursts, and this book was no...

Pandemic life has brought me back to reading series in a big way, and I've been continuing to work through Seanan McGuire's October Daye series. I am enjoying these books, but I don't have enough to say for individual reviews. But on the other hand, I do want to remember what I thought of each later, so... time for a lightning round! Book 4: Late Eclipses - Toby races against time to find a poisoner. A lot happens, but I don't have much to say about it. Running! Reveals! A villain who last appeared in book 1 that I didn't remember! There's a lot of death in this one, and the scenes where Toby is tortured by iron poisoning are very effective.  Book 5: One Salt Sea - Toby races against time to find some kidnapped kids before a war starts.  I liked this one quite a bit. It introduced a whole civilization of sea fae, new characters, new powers, etc. Toby only doubled back on herself like a video game character replaying a level once and only passed out once. Spoile...

The Duke Who Didn't Courtney Milan, 2020 Premise: Chloe Fong is focused on one goal: making her father's sauce a successful business. She certainly doesn't have time for her old crush on Jeremy Yu. Jeremy wants to convince Chloe that he's serious about her, but what will happen when the townsfolk find out that he's technically the Duke? So, Chloe is a constant list-maker. She's stubborn and type-A and prone to over-planning and keeps grudges like they're going out of style. The first pages describe her beloved clipboard. What I'm trying to say is I feel a bit called out here. Maybe more than a bit.  Even if you don't strongly identify with the heroine, though, there's a lot to love here. I think what I most enjoy about Milan's work, and most of the romance I like, is the particular mix of reality and aspiration.  For example, many of the characters face racism and other discrimination because the book is set in England in 1891. However, it...

Over the Woodward Wall A. Deborah Baker (Seanan McGuire), 2020 Premise: Kids Zib and Avery live on the same street but lead very different lives, until one day they climb a wall that shouldn't be there and end up in a very different world.  I have mixed feelings about reviewing this book because I went into it with completely the wrong idea. I heard a few people singing its praises and placed a hold at the library without thinking much about it. But this is a new pen name for McGuire, and that's because it's pretty different than her other work. But maybe not quite different enough for me to realize it from the start? In either case, I spent the whole first section confused because I kept waiting for something in the tone or plot to change that wasn't going to change.   I've read this author's urban fantasy, and her meta-fairytale work, and her horror, but I would call this book... somewhat eerie middle-grade fantasy? It's kind of like if Stephen King with ...

Rainbows End Vernor Vinge, 2006 Hugo Winner - 2007 Premise: In the near future, advanced technology means new healthcare, new communications, new dangers, and old human problems. I was intrigued by the beginning of this book, a bit ambivalent but still curious in the overstuffed meandering middle, and thoroughly disappointed in the sloppy end. It's probably one of those that I would have abandoned if it wasn't part of my "read all the Hugo winners" project.  I had three main problems by the end. One was mostly a function of when I read the book, but the other two were a fundamental failure to engage with the moral questions it posed and a refusal to reckon with its unlikeable main character. The first problem I had with the book isn't so much a problem with the book as it is a problem with most near-future sci-fi. It was published in 2006. It's set in 2025. The advanced technology it proposes was plausible future tech in 2006, but isn't that related to the...

The Novice's Tale (Sister Frevisse, #1) Margaret Frazer, 1992 Premise: Young Thomasina is eager to take her vows at the convent of St. Frideswide despite the objections of her wealthy aunt. When tragedy strikes, suspicion falls on the one who should be most innocent.  I'll admit up front that I borrowed this book from the library on the strength of "kinda similar to Cadfael," and I was not disappointed. It's set in the 1400s instead of the 1100s, but the sub-genre of cozy-ish historical murder mysteries set in/around a Benedictine monastery/convent can't have that many entries, right? From the first page, it felt comforting, like a warm cup of tea. (A near trick for a murder mystery.) I really enjoyed all the characters. The main protagonist, Dame Frevisse, was especially delightful between her gentle intelligent snark and practical convictions. The obvious antagonists were over the top without being too extreme, while the more subtle antagonists were implied ...

Persephone Station Stina Leicht, 2021 New Release! A digital copy of this book was provided by Netgalley for the purpose of review. Premise: There's only one human settlement on the planet Persephone, but there's a secret outside the city that some would kill to possess and some would die to protect. This is one of those books that I regret to say was only fine. The cast has a great level of diversity in race, gender expression, and sexual orientation. However, the book is no more than an okay sci-fi action caper.  The first chapter is really a prologue, but because it wasn't marked as such, I was confused when we never returned to following that character. (They do show up as a minor character much later, but by that point, I'd forgotten which character that was.) The secondary protagonist is the subject of the second chapter, and we finally meet the main character in chapter 3. She's fine, but nothing really stands out about her.  That feeling was my main problem ...

Axiom's End Lindsay Ellis, 2020 Premise: Cora thought that being the daughter of the world's most notorious conspiracy theorist/whistleblower (depending on your point of view) was as weird and stressful as her life was likely to get. Then it turned out that aliens were real. If you know internet personality/film critic/media analyst Lindsay Ellis, you know that she likes genre stuff of all types, but has a special place in her heart for the Transformers. This is evident in her novel but I didn't find it distracting. In broad strokes, the plot has a lot in common with many Transformers stories. Two alien factions come into conflict on Earth; a human with the ability/opportunity to communicate with one alien gets involved, as does the United States government. Beyond that, the story plays with techno-organic lifeforms, alien methods of communication, and very human reactions to extreme situations. It took me a while to get into the story - I found the first section a bit too...