The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf

Crossposted from MainliningChristmas.com.  The Christmas Swap Talia Samuels, 2023 New Release! A copy of this book was provided by Netgalley for the purpose of review.  Margot and Ben are driving to Ben's family home for the holidays. So far, so normal. Except Margot and Ben met through work a week ago and aren't actually dating, but are planning to lie to Ben's family so his parents will stop making him feel bad for being single. The story gets even wackier once Margot starts to actually fall for Ben's sister Ellie. Meanwhile, Ellie can tell something is weird about Margot and Ben's supposed relationship, but she jumps to a lot of downright farcical conclusions.  This new holiday romance was quite good, although not exceptional. The characters do a few very dumb things that cause some painful miscommunications and misunderstandings, and those made me cringe. I've described the premise, and you need to be ready to suspend your disbelief a lot early on to get on

Nettle & Bone T. Kingfisher (aka Ursula Vernon), 2022 Hugo winner - 2023 Premise: Marra was a mediocre princess and an average nun, why does she think she can rescue her sister from a prince?  Of course I grabbed this from the library as soon as it won the Hugo (this review may be delayed). I was a little unsure when I got it. I knew the author also writes children's books, and I had the impression her other work was more YA. This isn't YA. At all. It's not inappropriate for kids, but it's a fairy tale for grownups, for people still finding themselves in their 30s, for adults struggling in a society set against them.  In short, it's spectacular, absolutely worth picking up if you have any love for fairy-tale-inspired fantasy.  I loved all the characters, I loved Marra's narrative voice, and I loved the magic. I loved how dreamy everything felt while also seeming completely grounded and tangible.  The writing is gorgeous. Lovely, creative descriptions that te

This Is How You Lose the Time War Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, 2019 Premise: Red and Blue are enemies - agents working for opposite sides of a war spanning throughout a complex timeline. Until one of them reaches out, first as a dare, but soon their correspondence changes into something more.  I understand why this was on so many people's favorites list and won so many awards, but it didn't completely work for me. It was an enjoyable read, but I found it both too long and too short.  It's part-epistolary: each chapter/section includes a mission that Red or Blue is on and how she finds a message from the other, and then the text of the message follows. The complicated, bizarre pasts and futures that Red and Blue contend with are really cool and interesting to read about, and they were probably my favorite part. I liked learning bits about the organizations they work for, although these are kept somewhat vague throughout.  The writing is poetic and emotional and lovely,

A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore Ursula K. LeGuin, 1968, 1971, 1972 Premise: The boy Ged becomes a wizard, becomes a man, then continues to shape the destiny of Earthsea.  I read A Wizard of Earthsea years and years ago but had no real memory of it. I picked up this trilogy cheap at some point, so this post is another in this year's "reading the unread books on the shelf" project.   I deeply respect LeGuin, and I knew these were beloved, but for some reason, I didn't expect the books to be awesome. But of course, they are.  From the start, this is a cool world. A complex area of islands and archipelagos bounded on all sides by the unknowable seas. Steeped in myth and mystery, but still grounded with the everyday details of farming, fishing, sailing.   All three books have cool stories. They are often marketed as YA; the first one in particular is accessible to young readers without pandering to them, and it's not limited to their concer