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lady_ragnell) wrote2023-12-21 12:38 pm
lady_ragnell) wrote2023-12-21 12:38 pm
2023 Books, Post 16
If this is shorter than usual, it's because I'm writing this while charging my devices on day four of a power outage! Said power outage is also why I am writing again so soon, and I'm already 3-4 books into my next set of ten. Not having power doesn't leave me much to do but haul water and read, given most of the rest of my area is out too and there's still a pandemic so I don't want to go many places!
A Curse for Spring by Amanda Bouchet
I signed up for an indie fantasy romance advent thing, which I kept up with for about the first ten days before getting dreadfully behind, whoops. Only a few are recorded on this list, because a lot of them are really too short to count by my metrics, but it's been fun seeing what lands in my inbox! This was the one for day one, about a goddess who becomes a girl in a country that's been cursed to not have springs. I liked the concept more than the execution, I'll admit, but sometimes that's how it goes.
Paladin's Faith by T. Kingfisher
I pounced on this on release day, I'm pretty sure, or if not that day the day after. I just love Kingfisher's paladin romances so much! I liked Marguerite in this one very much, I love a ruthlessly practical spy type. But man, Kingfisher loves not resolving plot threads! I was hoping for an answer to the cliffhanger at the end of the last book, and not only did she not resolve that (which, fair, it's the main uniting thread of the series), but she put out a whole different thing to be stressed about at the end. Is it time for book five yet? (This makes it sound like I was unsatisfied. I was not! Just absolutely enthralled by the world and want more.)
A Lady of Truth by Jen Lynning
Another advent book! This one had some fun politicking, and the very interesting worldbuilding of magic needing to always be in balance (so the main character did a spell of sorts so she can never be lied to, but lost her ability to lie as a price, and there's a lot made of misleading and prevarication). Not sure if I'll pick up the other book she's written in this universe, but I'm more likely to than some of the others I've read.
In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan
I'd been saving a reread of this until I finished the Kel/Neal/Yuki Manifesto because I was worried that Elliot would leak into my Neal, so I was very glad to get to it! I think every time I read this book, I find more of the sadness and the deep anger behind the humor, and it's a better book every single time for it.
Stolen Ice Bride by Angela J. Ford
Another advent story long enough to write down! A week or so on, I don't remember much of this one, though the worldbuilding was rather messy in places, and it didn't do quite as much with a few concepts as I wished it would (but then again, it's a novella, so why would it?).
Master of One by Jaida Jones & Dani Bennett
This one was very fun! I love a good adventure to build a team, and this was fast-paced and full of interesting characters and dynamics. My only two quibbles were 1. that it felt like it should be more of a heist book but there was only one heist towards the beginning and then less fun battles and such at the end and 2. that nowhere in the marketing was it mentioned that this is the first of a series, so I went in with vastly different expectations and then the pacing felt weird because I was expecting more to resolve. I will read sequels, though, if any are ever announced! But I haven't seen signs of any so far, and it was published a few years ago, so I'm worried that this didn't sell well enough and the series got dropped.
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell
Read for my "based on a true story" square on my book bingo card. This could have been to my taste, but didn't end up being so. The narrative had a bad case of Not Like Other Girls Syndrome about our heroine (which baffled me, she's so special and her clothes feel too heavy and tight and she overidentifies with a captive tigress and she has an eidetic memory and incredible art skills, she's so doomed by the narrative ... and her sister, who it's carelessly mentioned in the epilogue was also killed by her husband, is spoiled and selfish and primps and cares about jewels and they have nothing in common. I'm so tired of it). And I could have dealt with that, it's about a doomed young woman in Renaissance Italy, she can be special, but then at the end ... sorry, spoilers, but she doesn't die? Her maid (a much more likeable character) dies in her place, and the narrative goes on a little about how our heroine's memory is and isn't honored before talking about her escape, but there's no sign the heroine regrets her maid's death, nothing about the maid's mother missing her, just nothing. And it didn't feel great. So, a miss for me, which is too bad, because I know several people who liked O'Farrell's Hamnet (which I chose not to read because I can't handle Plague Books these days).
So This Is Christmas by Jenny Holiday
Nothing more or less than a fun Christmas romcom! It rankled in a few places (oh, Hallmark movies are SO bad, when this basically is a Hallmark movie with largely better politics), but it was what I needed it to be when I needed it. Not as good as Holiday's Duke, Actually in this series, but on par with the first in the series.
When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill
The last square on my bingo card! This one was recommended by a local bookseller. My review of this one, in brief, is "not subtle, but enjoyable." And it didn't need to be subtle! It had a point to make and it largely set out and made it. It didn't focus on the parts of the story I was most interested in (my interest in alternate history isnt how things diverge, it's how those divergences impact the alternate present), and I've got a bone to pick with the dragon thing being a metaphor for a few too many things in the end and it getting a bit crowded, but it's an interesting and fantastical take on the ways women have been stifled and shunted aside, and the ways there have been conspiracies of silence around huge traumas. The last of which felt very relevant even though it didn't mean to be a covid book, I don't think.
A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid
I liked this one! It suffered for being read so close to, and after, Starling House, which has a lot of similar tropes and beats to it but which I found superior in every way. Still, this had a lot of interesting aspects and a fun and atmospheric second world. The main academic mystery was solvable VERY early on, to the point where it felt silly that the characters didn't get it, but to be fair to them, they did have some other things going on. It also became the second of three books in a row (this is the last for this post, but you'll hear about the third at the end of the year) to get a "not subtle, but enjoyable" from me. And last, on a marketing note that's not the book's fault, I know that especially in YA you have to market to the audience, but it felt silly to market this as a "dark academia" book when it's just ... a gothic. With a few things added on top. But when you have an old manor house with a mysterious owner crumbling slowly into the sea and covered in mildew, you have a gothic.
And that's all for now! This power outage is definitely helping me through my TBR shelf, at least.
A Curse for Spring by Amanda Bouchet
I signed up for an indie fantasy romance advent thing, which I kept up with for about the first ten days before getting dreadfully behind, whoops. Only a few are recorded on this list, because a lot of them are really too short to count by my metrics, but it's been fun seeing what lands in my inbox! This was the one for day one, about a goddess who becomes a girl in a country that's been cursed to not have springs. I liked the concept more than the execution, I'll admit, but sometimes that's how it goes.
Paladin's Faith by T. Kingfisher
I pounced on this on release day, I'm pretty sure, or if not that day the day after. I just love Kingfisher's paladin romances so much! I liked Marguerite in this one very much, I love a ruthlessly practical spy type. But man, Kingfisher loves not resolving plot threads! I was hoping for an answer to the cliffhanger at the end of the last book, and not only did she not resolve that (which, fair, it's the main uniting thread of the series), but she put out a whole different thing to be stressed about at the end. Is it time for book five yet? (This makes it sound like I was unsatisfied. I was not! Just absolutely enthralled by the world and want more.)
A Lady of Truth by Jen Lynning
Another advent book! This one had some fun politicking, and the very interesting worldbuilding of magic needing to always be in balance (so the main character did a spell of sorts so she can never be lied to, but lost her ability to lie as a price, and there's a lot made of misleading and prevarication). Not sure if I'll pick up the other book she's written in this universe, but I'm more likely to than some of the others I've read.
In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan
I'd been saving a reread of this until I finished the Kel/Neal/Yuki Manifesto because I was worried that Elliot would leak into my Neal, so I was very glad to get to it! I think every time I read this book, I find more of the sadness and the deep anger behind the humor, and it's a better book every single time for it.
Stolen Ice Bride by Angela J. Ford
Another advent story long enough to write down! A week or so on, I don't remember much of this one, though the worldbuilding was rather messy in places, and it didn't do quite as much with a few concepts as I wished it would (but then again, it's a novella, so why would it?).
Master of One by Jaida Jones & Dani Bennett
This one was very fun! I love a good adventure to build a team, and this was fast-paced and full of interesting characters and dynamics. My only two quibbles were 1. that it felt like it should be more of a heist book but there was only one heist towards the beginning and then less fun battles and such at the end and 2. that nowhere in the marketing was it mentioned that this is the first of a series, so I went in with vastly different expectations and then the pacing felt weird because I was expecting more to resolve. I will read sequels, though, if any are ever announced! But I haven't seen signs of any so far, and it was published a few years ago, so I'm worried that this didn't sell well enough and the series got dropped.
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell
Read for my "based on a true story" square on my book bingo card. This could have been to my taste, but didn't end up being so. The narrative had a bad case of Not Like Other Girls Syndrome about our heroine (which baffled me, she's so special and her clothes feel too heavy and tight and she overidentifies with a captive tigress and she has an eidetic memory and incredible art skills, she's so doomed by the narrative ... and her sister, who it's carelessly mentioned in the epilogue was also killed by her husband, is spoiled and selfish and primps and cares about jewels and they have nothing in common. I'm so tired of it). And I could have dealt with that, it's about a doomed young woman in Renaissance Italy, she can be special, but then at the end ... sorry, spoilers, but she doesn't die? Her maid (a much more likeable character) dies in her place, and the narrative goes on a little about how our heroine's memory is and isn't honored before talking about her escape, but there's no sign the heroine regrets her maid's death, nothing about the maid's mother missing her, just nothing. And it didn't feel great. So, a miss for me, which is too bad, because I know several people who liked O'Farrell's Hamnet (which I chose not to read because I can't handle Plague Books these days).
So This Is Christmas by Jenny Holiday
Nothing more or less than a fun Christmas romcom! It rankled in a few places (oh, Hallmark movies are SO bad, when this basically is a Hallmark movie with largely better politics), but it was what I needed it to be when I needed it. Not as good as Holiday's Duke, Actually in this series, but on par with the first in the series.
When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill
The last square on my bingo card! This one was recommended by a local bookseller. My review of this one, in brief, is "not subtle, but enjoyable." And it didn't need to be subtle! It had a point to make and it largely set out and made it. It didn't focus on the parts of the story I was most interested in (my interest in alternate history isnt how things diverge, it's how those divergences impact the alternate present), and I've got a bone to pick with the dragon thing being a metaphor for a few too many things in the end and it getting a bit crowded, but it's an interesting and fantastical take on the ways women have been stifled and shunted aside, and the ways there have been conspiracies of silence around huge traumas. The last of which felt very relevant even though it didn't mean to be a covid book, I don't think.
A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid
I liked this one! It suffered for being read so close to, and after, Starling House, which has a lot of similar tropes and beats to it but which I found superior in every way. Still, this had a lot of interesting aspects and a fun and atmospheric second world. The main academic mystery was solvable VERY early on, to the point where it felt silly that the characters didn't get it, but to be fair to them, they did have some other things going on. It also became the second of three books in a row (this is the last for this post, but you'll hear about the third at the end of the year) to get a "not subtle, but enjoyable" from me. And last, on a marketing note that's not the book's fault, I know that especially in YA you have to market to the audience, but it felt silly to market this as a "dark academia" book when it's just ... a gothic. With a few things added on top. But when you have an old manor house with a mysterious owner crumbling slowly into the sea and covered in mildew, you have a gothic.
And that's all for now! This power outage is definitely helping me through my TBR shelf, at least.
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Master of One sounds intriguing when I'm done with my current reading list...
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And I think you'd have fun with Master of One! Definitely a few times I wanted it to live more in the heist genre it makes gestures towards, but it at least does a good job of the Collecting The Crew aspect, a lot of the story is given to that.