Miss Moneypenny's 2021 Book Log

Hello there and welcome to my 2021 reading log! I'm Caity, a technology director for county government in beautiful Colorado. I'm married to a lovely man who works long, intense hours as a finance manager for Toyota. Mr. M is on the road 5-6 days a week and my job is fairly fluid with workload and hours, so I've got more reading time than most. We've got a feisty French bulldog (Bibi) and a sweet kitty boy (Poptart). If I'm not with them, I've got my nose in a book! I'll read anything and everything you hand me but am most at home in the fantasy/sci-fi realm.

I originally started tracking my reading here as a way to recover from the burnout of a particularly intense graduate program. I've participated in this challenge every year since 2014, which is blowing my mind. Where does the time go? I've hit 200 books read every year since 2018 and am aiming for 175 this year with a stretch goal of 200 books read by the end of the year. Reading is my favorite hobby and a combination of a fluid schedule, low social commitments, and a fast reading speed help me hit these crazy numbers. I know that there's a group for 100 books a year, but honestly these threads get more action and the people are friendlier so here I'll stay!

I'm also determined to not spend a dime on books this year. Right now, I have 240 books in my collection that need to be read, some of them languishing on my shelves for years. I made it through all of 2017 without buying a single book, so I know I can do it. We've also got an excellent local library with a terrific interlibrary loan program, so I'm never more than a few weeks away from reading the latest and greatest books.

Thanks for stopping by! Drop a note so I can follow along with what you're reading!

Wheel of Time Challenge

I originally finished the WoT series in 2019. I spent most of last year thinking about the sheer complexity of this series and now with the Amazon show gearing up, I'd like another pass through to really immerse myself in this world.

0. New Spring
1. Eye of The World
2. The Great Hunt
3. The Dragon Reborn
4. The Shadow Rising
5. The Fires of Heaven
6. Lord of Chaos
7. A Crown of Swords
8. The Path of Daggers
9. Winter's Heart
10. Crossroads of Twilight
11. Knife of Dreams
12. The Gathering Storm
13. Towers of Midnight
14. A Memory of Light

Classics Challenge

In addition to finishing Wheel of Time again, I've got a list of classics that I'd like to buckle down and finish this year.

1. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
2. The Wreath by Sigrid Undset
3. The Wife by Sigrid Undset
4. The Cross by Sigrid Undset
5. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
6. Middlemarch by George Elliot
7. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
8. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
9. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
10. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
11. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
12. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Welcome back! I need to get back to my reread of the Wheel of Time...

Hi Caity! I don't know that we've met before. I'm Anne - also from Colorado. When I saw in the introductions thread that you were also in CO I decided to come over and say hello. Happy reading!

Welcome back, Cathy.

Hope you have a great year of reading! The Count of Monte Cristo is an all time favorite read for me. My tenth grade English teacher assigned that one and made it quite enjoyable for all of us.

>4 drneutron: In all fairness, it took me almost a decade to finish it the first time (2010 to mid-2019). But now that I've seen the payoff I'm looking forward to going back and seeing the foreshadowing and planning. I hope you can make room for it on your 2021 list!

>5 AMQS: Hi Anne! Colorado is the absolute best in my opinion!

>6 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul! Happy reading!

>7 thornton37814: That's so spooky: my husband also read it in 10th grade for an excellent English teacher. It was his urging that made me put it on my list for this year!

>3 Miss_Moneypenny: Oh, goodness, so many good books on that list! I didn't read The Count of Monte Cristo until just a few years ago (well, I read passages from it in my high school French class, but that hardly counts), but it immediately became my favorite book of all time. Plus, Rebecca! Great Expectations! Pride & Prejudice! JANE EYRE! I am actually seriously excited for you and can't wait to see what you think of them! I'd wish you a happy reading year, but you've guaranteed that for yourself already.

Best wishes for a better 2021!

Happy 2021 and happy reading!

Happy reading in 2021, Caity!

And keep up with my friends here, Cathy. Have a great 2021.

Thanks everybody! Happy New year!

January



Ah, the dawn of a new year! Hopefully 2021 will be kinder to us all than 2020 was.

1. The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tervis
When Netflix released this as a miniseries, I was intrigued enough by the trailer to grab a copy from our library. What a good decision that was because the book is terrific. Beth is a prickly heroine who's allowed to be single-minded about her chess game without coming across as undeveloped (especially as there's quite a bit of subtext about her suppressed emotional states). The chess games are terrifically engaging and suspenseful, despite my not knowing a thing about chess or the rules. Overall, this was a really well written look at the cost of genius, how the world treats genius when it comes in a female package, and the cost of addiction. Loved and highly recommended.
5 stars

2. Kiki's Delivery Service by Eiko Kadono
Despite this being one of my favorite Studio Ghibli movies, it took me until 2021 to read the book it was based on. This might be a rare instance where I prefer the movie to the book. The book's story is very slight and emotionless where the movie is full of heart and emotion. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon, but next time I'll just pop in the Blu Ray.
3 stars

3. Harleen by Stjepan Sejic
This dark and disturbing look at Harley Quinn's backstory was absolutely captivating. The art is absolutely top notch complimented Harleen's descent into madness and abuse in a really chilling way.
4 stars

4. Hey Ladies! by Michelle Markowitz
I'm a sucker for a good epistolary novel and this is one of the best I've read. I wish the illustrations had been done in a different style, but the fact that Markowitz manages to make 8 separate characters completely distinguishable through email and text makes that a minor quibble. This was a totally fun and engrossing read and a really nice palette cleanser after the darkness of Harleen.
4 stars

5. Akira volume 1 by Katsuhiro Otomo
The anime of Akira is a classic, but I was shocked to find out how much is missing from the movie after only the first volume of this classic. It's hard to overstate how much of an impact Otomo and his work had on manga; reading it in 2021 and being able to pinpoint the genesis of so many different tropes is a wild ride.
4 stars

6. Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier
This quick, depressing little novel about a pregnant, grieving 18 year old who's just drifting through life infuriated me. Pizza Girl (who isn't named until almost the last 5 pages) is depressed, grieving, and an alcoholic who forms a completely inappropriate relationship with a much older woman. She completely avoids her loving boyfriend and mother and puts her unborn infant at risk, and as a woman who's struggling to get pregnant this just completely turned me off from the book. Frazier's writing style is interesting though and I'd be willing to read her next effort.
2 stars

7. Perfume by Patrick Suskind
Yowza this was a weird and deeply disturbing little book. A man is born in 18th century Paris with no smell of his own but an uncanny sense of smell. He becomes a perfumer and a murderer obsessed with preserving the perfect scent. This was super graphic and disturbing but a heck of a wild ride. Recommended but only to non-sensitive readers.
3 stars

8. These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong
This was a delightful (get it?!) retelling of Romeo and Juliet set in glittering 1920s Shanghai plus a supernatural monster. I love when writers (particularly female writers and writers of color) take pieces of the canon and put their own unique spin on it, so this was right up my alley. There was a little too much YA angst, but at this point I don't think you're allowed to publish a YA book without it. Highly recommended!
4 stars

9. A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G Summers
This was terrific. Summers has created a female answer to American Psycho without the deeply graphic and disturbing violent excess that makes that book impossible to recommend. Dorothy is a food critic in Manhattan who is also a murdering cannibal. She's written pitch perfectly and her narrative voice is strong as heck. I really loved this and look forward to whatever Summers comes up with next.
4 stars

10. Sailor Moon Eternal 7 by Naoko Takeuchi
11. Sailor Moon Eternal 8
12. Sailor Moon Eternal 9
13. Sailor Moon Eternal 10
I can't believe I'm finally finished with Sailor Moon. I've been a fan of this series since 1996

14. Two Graves by Preston and Child
Pendergast 12 in the books! This was the conclusion to the Helen trilogy and sadly it left me a little cold. Corrie's subplot was out of left field, and Constance's subplot focuses instead on the psychiatric doctor treating her. The tension of Pendergast's plot was greatly reduced by the intrusion of these subs, and honestly I wasn't that invested in Helen's death/life. Still, a Pendergast novel is always a good time and I'm looking forward to the next one.
3 stars

>14 Miss_Moneypenny: That is an impressive start, Cathy.

February



Ah, the year just keeps getting better. February so far has brought us dental surgery for the husband, pneumonia for both my parents (who live with Mr. M and I), and a wicked streak of allergies for our poor pup. All that combined meant that I've been sitting with sick people at all hours and watching temps/symptoms. The only upside of this is I've read a bunch of books and we're only 9 days into the month.

15. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
This is definitely going on my end of year best list, although I almost didn't read past the first 100 pages. Nora is a deeply depressed woman who feels she's messed up her life beyond repair and commits suicide. She's transported to the midnight library, where she can try on all the different variations her life could have taken and learns a thing or two about the human condition and resiliency. I have a long history (family and personal) of depression and the first 100 pages were deeply triggering to my mental state. Thankfully, my husband read this first and told me to where to skip to in order to move past the trigger so I could enjoy this truly excellent novel. Highly recommended.
5 stars

16. My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due
My mother and I read this back in the 90s when it was first published. I found it when we were moving them in and rescued the whole series from the donate pile. Much to my surprise, this book really stood the test of time. Due was ahead of her time by about a decade with the vampire theme and it's appropriately scary and atmospheric. Love.
4 stars

17. Rolling in the Deep by Mira Grant
This expertly creepy and downright scary in some places novella tells the story of the original research vessel from Grant's Into the Drowning Deep. I understand why it's only a novella but I really loved this world and would have loved to see an expanded book.
4 stars

18. Akira volume 2 by Katsuhiro Otomo
Another installment in the classic manga. Love.
5 stars

19. The Firebrand by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Bradley's Mists of Avalon is one of my favorite books of all time and so I was pretty disappointed by this similarly feminist/female centered retelling of the Trojan War. Bradley was a lot more preachy here than she was in Avalon. This might be the best example of diminishing returns I've ever seen.
2 stars

20. Women Food and God by Geneen Roth
Binge eating is something I struggled with a lot in my twenties. I'm in remission now thanks to mindfulness therapy and I wish I had found this excellent look at how the way we eat is tied to our spirituality earlier.
4 stars

21. Real Food for Pregnancy by Lily Nichols
Mr. M and I are hoping to expand our family this year: my job has moved to 95% work from home indefinitely and I'm not getting any younger, so no time like the present! We already eat pretty low carb and I consider myself to be pretty well-versed in nutrition for a lay person, but this book surprised me with what I didn't know. Highly, highly recommended.
5 stars

22. The Anti-Mary Exposed by Carrie Gress
This came highly recommended by several Catholic friends and I'm taking a serious look at those friendships now. The author has some good points about looking toward Mary as the inspiration for living a Christ-centered life as a woman. But unfortunately most of the book is a hysterical rejection of everything to do with modern culture and feminism. This book is pretty narrowly written for white women who can afford to stay home with their children while their husbands earn high-paying salaries. Big yikes here. I love my faith but other Catholics make it hard.
2 stars

23. It Starts With The Egg by Rebecca Fett
Another conception book and definitely one that's staying on my shelves. Fett discusses cutting edge research on how egg development happens and what supplementation is needed to optimize that development and your chances of conceiving/carrying to term. Absolutely fascinating stuff.
5 stars

24. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Well this is definitely a classic for a reason! This was so engrossing and entertaining. I absolutely loved it and can see myself re-reading this regularly.
5 stars

25. Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots
What a terrific take on the superhero/supervillian genre! This is like a much more feminist and inclusive version of The Boys and honestly one I liked a whole lot better.
5 stars

26. Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
So far, I've read everything Alam has published and I haven't been thrilled with any of it. This is his newest and it left me absolutely cold. No more of his books for me.
2 stars

27. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by VE Schwab
Oh this book! I've been on the waitlist for it for months now and I was worried it wouldn't live up to the hype. But it did a thousand times over. This is definitely going to be in the top 10 books of 2021 for me.
5 stars

28. For Hearing People Only
I thought this was the newest edition, but to my surprise my library only has the second version published in 1992. Still some good information but I suspect a lot of it is wildly outdated.
3 stars

29. The Mirror Man by Jane Gilmartin
This was such an unfortunate waste of a premise. A man steps out of his life for a year and lets himself be replaced by his clone, then watches what his clone does to see if this replacement has been successfully undetected by those closest to him. Sounds great, but Gilmartin has created a wildly unsympathetic main character who is annoying and wimpy by equal measure. There's no real sense of urgency to the plot and overall I found myself wishing someone else would take this premise and re-do it.
2 stars

30. Always Only You by Chloe Liese
Romance is pretty hit or miss for me. This is the second in Liese's self-published Bergman Brothers series and you can definitely tell. There are multiple places where I couldn't tell what was going on due to missing transitions or weird switching between scenes and it's a little ramble in some places. But the characters and their overall love story more than made up for it. This was sweet and realistic and super touching. I've already got the first book on hold and can't wait for the third book to be published.
4 stars

31. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
I have a love hate relationship with buzzy books. On the one hand, I'm kind of a contrarian and tend to not like things that are popular. But sometimes the book is good enough that I don't care and Eleanor Oliphant is one of those books. What a touching and heartfelt read.
4 stars

32. Akira vol 3 by Katsuhiro Otomo
33. Akira vol 4 by Katsuhiro Otomo
34. Akira vol 5 by Katsuhiro Otomo
35. Akira vol 6 by Katsuhiro Otomor
What a wild, wild ride. I'm absolutely kicking myself for not reading these sooner.
5 stars

36. Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Charles Sheffield
This was an oldie but a goodie. The hard sci-fi was delightful and engaging but Drake Merlin (what a name) never felt like a fully fleshed out character to me. Regardless, it was a fun ride and the ending was pretty damn neat.
4 stars

37. Grain Brain by David Perlmutter
Managing my MS while trying to become pregnant has unearthed a voracious interest in nutrition and how it affects overall health. This was an eye opening read for both my MS and my husband's wickedly bad ADHD. Highly recommended
4 stars

38. White Fire by Preston and Child
Pendergast 13 and maybe my least favorite of all of them. By and large, I don't care for Corrie and she was the main plot driver. Additionally, I'm not a fan of Sherlock Holmes, which was half the story. Still, I've enjoyed Pendergast too much to let one mediocre book get me down.
3 stars

39. One By One by Ruth Ware
It's been a minute since I read a really good thriller and Ware's latest definitely delivered. She writes ambience really well and I absolutely sped through this. I'm looking forward to browsing through her back catalogue.
4 stars

March



Big yikes to how March wound up shaking up.

40. Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire
41. Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire
42. The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
43. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
44. Can't Even by Anne Helen Petersen
45. Blue Labyrinth by Preston and Child
46. You by Carolyn Kepnes
47. Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough
48. The Dry by Jane Harper
49. All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka
50. Burial by Neil Cross
51. Burnout by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski
52. Jade City by Fonda Lee
53. The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
54. The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware
55. The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger
56. Real Food for Gestational Diabetes by Lily Nichols

April



Well, the less said about March the better. Onward and upward to better things in April!

57. People Like Her by Ellery Lloyd
This was a pretty tightly written thriller about the perils of being an Instagram influencer who peddles family for revenue, but it all kind of fell apart with a rushed ending and a really rotten 180 for a few of the characters. Good, but I don't think I'd recommend it.
3 stars

58. Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
I wanted to really love this one but only found it mildly entertaining. My main problem with romance and chick lit in general is I can't get over the dialogue. I've yet to find a romance novel where they sound like real people and that was in full force here. I also don't think I'm a fan of "enemies to lovers" and that was the main thrust here. Not my cup of tea, sadly.
3 stars

59. Bryony and Roses by T. Kingfisher
60. The Seventh Bride by T. Kingfisher
Reimagined fairy tales are one of my favorite subgenres and it takes a lot for me to not like one. These were mostly fine. Bryony and Roses is a take on Beauty and the Beast that had a heavy gardening metaphor and the ending was a nice surprise. The Seventh Bride reimagines Bluebeard with alive but disfigured and tortured wives. The seventh comes along to save everyone. Both were fine, but not something I'd go crazy recommending.
3 stars each

61. Girls with Bright Futures by Tracy Dobmeier
This snappy but overly long book focuses on the mothers of 3 very different prep school senior girls who are all trying to get a coveted spot at Stanford. This had so much going for it: rich people behaving badly, difficult mother/daughter relationships, family secrets, and revenge served up nicely. The only downside is that it started to sag a little in the middle and never really picked up the slack. If this was 50-75 pages shorter, it would have been a 5 star read for me. As it is, this gets
4 stars

62. Crimson Shore by Preston and Child
Pendergast is back, this time with Constance in tow. They're solving a wine theft in a sleepy Massachusetts town and things take a hard left turn into the occult and macabre quickly. This was one of my favorite Pendergasts in a hot minute and I can't wait to see what happens next.
4 stars

63. The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
This is billed as one of Ware's best books, but honestly I think I'm just overdosed on twisty suspense novels. I'm also really tired of the unreliable female narrator trope Ware uses in each of her books. This was fine, but not something I'm in love with.
3 stars

64. Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes
This is the second in the Joe Goldberg series and he's off to LA to commit more stalking and murders. Kepnes dropped the second person narrative here and it mostly works. This one was less creepy than You but Joe is such a fascinating narrator that I didn't mind.
4 stars

65. Klara and the Sun by Kazo Ishiguro
I've loved everything I've read by Ishiguro and Klara was no exception. Focusing on an Artificial Friend and the human who buys her, this was a touching and meditative look at what makes a human human, friendship, and the price of technology. I didn't love it quite as much as I loved Never Let Me Go but it's close.
5 stars

66. You Love Me by Caroline Kepnes
The third Joe Goldberg book finds him in the Pacific Northwest with a new object of "affection." Kepnes brought back the second person narrative and I think it makes Joe a better character for it. His snark and frustration and personality shine a lot better in this form. This was another terrific showing and the ending had me dropping my jaw.
4 stars

67. Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire
I think it's clear by now that I love long, involved series. I've loved everything I've read by Seanan McGuire (and Mira Grant, her pseudonym) so it was high time to start her October Daye series. This was a pretty uneven start, though: Toby isn't very likable and I didn't understand a lot of her motivation. At the beginning of the book, she disappears under a magic spell for 14 years. When she comes back, she goes out of her way to avoid everyone she ever knew (including her daughter and partner) for....reasons? I never got a good grasp on her motivations. Characters don't have to be likable for me to be interested in reading about them, but they do have to make sense. However, the world that McGuire crafts is so spectacular that I'm willing to give it a few more books to see if Toby gets better.
3 stars

68. A Local Habitation by Seanan McGuire
The second in the October Daye series, this was a slight improvement in Toby herself but a large leap forward in the world building and in McGuire's assuredness in her secondary characters. I'm definitely interested to see where this goes.
3 stars

69. 16 Lighthouse Road by Debbic Macomber
70. 204 Rosewood Lane
71. 311 Pelican Court
72. 44 Cranberry Point
In You Love Me, Joe Goldberg and his object of obsession spend quite a bit of time bantering about Macomber's Cedar Cove series and so I absolutely had to see what they were about. To my surprise they were serviceable contemporary romance, if a little unwieldy. The cast of characters is much too big and they mostly wind up being cardboard cutouts. The romance is sweet if a little old fashioned, but I was bewildered by the amount of divorces this small town has. Seriously, every character but maybe 3 have been divorced and are looking for another chance at love. Macomber must know her audience, but eventually these left me cold. There are much better places to look if you're in the mood for closed-door contemporary romance.
3 stars each

73. The Obsidian Chamber by Preston and Child
The 16th Pendergast installment mostly left me cold. Pendergast is gone, Constance is kidnapped, and Diogenes is back. This was uneven and melodramatic and maybe my least favorite of these books.
2 stars

74. The Boys by Garth Ennis
I honestly wish I hadn't read this. I really enjoyed the Amazon Prime series based on these books, so I figured the original was a safe bet. I was so wrong. This is too violent (both physically and sexually) and too graphic and just too gross for me. The authors don't even have anything interesting to say with all this sex and violence. It's just typical women-hating violence wrapped in a superhero cape.
1 star

75. An Artificial Night by Seanan McGuire
Now this was excellent! McGuire finally has a good grasp on Toby and what makes her interesting and this had an incredible plot to back it up. Blind Michael and his wild hunt are snatching children and Toby has to journey to his lands to save them. There are real consequences here for all of our characters (I'm looking at you, Pendergast) and it was a total gut punch at the end. I absolutely loved this.
5 stars

76. Codename Villanelle by Luke Jennings
Another entry in "the tv show is better" category. This inspired the much better Killing Eve show and honestly, just watch that and skip this. The author writes women like he's never even met a woman, which makes for an awkward as heck book.
2 stars

77. The Rose of Versailles vol 1 by Ryoko Ikeda
This retelling of Marie Antoinette's history (with some imaginings thrown in) is one of the most popular manga of all time in Japan and if I had read this when I was in my early teens, I would have been infatuated. As it stands now, this was interesting to see how much the genre has grown since the 70s. Interesting but I won't be searching out more.
3 stars

78. Brooklyn by Colm Tobin
This was a beautiful, quiet gem of a book. No villain, no melodrama, just one Irish girl slowly learning who she is and what she wants her life to be. This was phenomenal and will be on my best of list at the end of the year.

79. Supergods by Grant Morrison
Oh yikes. The subtitle is what got me here. "What masked vigilantes, miraculous mutants, and a sun god from Smallville can teach us about being human" is a great hook right? Except that this isn't what the book was about at all. It started with an absolutely exhaustive history of the big three (Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman) and I kept thinking that his analysis would eventually come in. Wrong again. About halfway through the book, Morrison starts telling his autobiography. The history of comics gets lost in his hagiography and his deeply, deeply deranged thinking. I started skimming, hoping that I'd find some analysis about what exactly superheroes can teach us, but found only drivel. What a missed opportunity.
1 star

Sounds like you’ve had a rough year. I’m really sorry. I hope things get better for you very soon. No health updates since February- hopefully your family is feeling better. Take care.

>19 AMQS: Thank you! The end of this winter was touch and go, but thankfully everyone pulled through only slightly worse for the wear.

May



And here we are in sunny, gorgeous May! April was another rough month, but I have high hopes that things will get better.

80. Late Eclipses by Seanan McGuire
81. One Salt Sea by Seanan McGuire
82. Ashes of Honor by Seanan McGuire
83. Chimes at Midnight by Seanan McGuire
McGuire hit her stride in the third October Daye book and doesn't let up in the next 4. Toby has a wild mission in each (finding an old enemy, finding missing mermaids, finding a missing changeling, finding a missing princess) and while this sounds formulaic, it really isn't. Toby is growing as a character by leaps and bounds, her world is expanding rapidly and believably, and her handle on the plot and where this is all going is masterful. I can't wait to see what happens next.

84. The Winter Long by Seanan McGuire
85. A Red-Rose Chain by Seanan McGuire
86. Once Broken Faith by Seanan McGuire
87. The Brightest Fell by Seanan McGuire
88. Night and Silence by Seanan McGuire
89. The Unkindest Tide by Seanan McGuire
Ok, this is officially a Seanan McGuire fan account. These books are absolutely blowing me away and have pole vaulted to being in my top 5 series of all time.
5 stars each

90. Gotham City Sirens vol 1 by Paul Dini
91. Gotham City Sirens vol 2 by Paul Dini
I originally read these when they were being released in the weekly comic form but had a much better time reading them as the combined graphic novels. Catwoman, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn move in together and team up as they try to walk the straight and narrow. Good artwork, tight story, and a good time was had by all.
4 stars each

92. Desperate Measures by Katee Robert
So I recently joined TikTok for the book recommendations. This might have been ill advised as my TBR is now miles long. Somehow, the TikTok algorithm started pushing "dark romance" and this was one of the ones I kept seeing over and over. It's a reimagining of Disney's villains and this first book starts with Jafar and Jasmine. I love the concept but the plot was nonsensical. It was rushed and illogical, although my standards might be a little too high after all the Seanan McGuire I've been reading. The sex scenes were pure erotica if a little too dark for my tastes. This was interesting and I'll probably wind up reading more of the series, but I just wish Roberts had spent less time on the sex and more time on the plot.
2 stars

93. A Kiss of Shadows by Laurell K Hamilton
94. A Caress of Shadows by Laurell K Hamilton
95. Seduced by Moonlight by Laurell K Hamilton
96. A Stroke of Midnight by Laurell K Hamilton
97. Mistral's Kiss by Laurell K Hamilton
98. A Lick of Frost by Laurell K Hamilton
99. Swallowing Darkness by Laurell K Hamilton
Back in the early 2000s, I absolutely loved the first 6 or so of Hamilton's Anita Blake series but couldn't ever get into the Merry Gentry series due to the explicit and repetitive sex scenes. Well, after finding the entire series in my mother's basement, I decided to give them a try. I wound up skipping all of the sex scenes and consequently flew through the first 7 of 9 books in a weekend. To my surprise the actual story here is pretty darn great. Hamilton is definitely a weaker writer than most and needs a tighter editor but this was a very entertaining way to spend the weekend.
3 stars each

100. Beast by Katee Robert
Book 5 or 6 in the Wicked Villains series and Robert has definitely benefitted from the extra experience. The plot is still weaker than I would like but her characters are much more believable by this point.
3 stars

101. Divine Misdemeanors by Laurell K Hamilton
102. A Shiver of Light by Laurell K Hamilton
Oh man. I was pleasantly surprised by the overall plot of the Merry Gentry series, but these last two absolutely wrecked it. Hamilton should have stopped at Swallowing Darkness.
1 star each

103. A Killing Frost by Seanan McGuire
And with this, I have fully caught up on the October Daye series! What a terrific book, what a terrific series. I'm so glad I stuck with it despite the "meh" first couple books.
5 stars each.

June



104. Jade War by Fonda Lee
This is the second installment in Lee's truly excellent Green Bone Saga. A mash up of steam punk, the Godfather movies, and kung fu, Lee's characters are gripping and electric and her plot is fast-paced despite taking place over several years. I really, really loved this and cannot wait to see how she wraps it all up in the final installment later this year.
5 stars

105. Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers
This should have been a home run for me: LGTBQ characters, found family, and really beautiful prose. But something about it just fell flat for me and I wound up speed reading just to get it over with.
2 stars

106. Verity by Colleen Hoover
This was another recommendation from TikTok but one I wish I hadn't read. It was self-published and you could definitely tell. Hoover needed a better editor, better transitions, and someone to help her fill out the plot a little more. Mostly, I felt this was "shocking" but only for shock's sake. Very little here felt organic within the story.
2 stars

107. Furyborn by Claire Legrand
Ooh I loved this. Two queens, centuries apart, and one is prophesied to save the world while the other breaks it. This is categorized as YA but it really didn't feel like it. Legrand has two fully fleshed out worlds and I found myself absolutely whipping through this to find out what happened next.
5 stars

108. Vicious by VE Schwab
I think if I had read this before the truly excellent Hench, I would have rated this 5 stars. As it is, it's still a terrific book but I connected a lot more with Hench. This is another look at superheroes from the villain's perspective and I really loved what Schwab did with the actual birth of superpowers (which has some really horrifying in-world implications).
4 stars

109. A Touch of Darkness by Scarlett St. Clair
TikTok recommended this modernized retelling of the Hades/Persephone myth. Unfortunately I hated this. It had a cool premise but I hated Persephone with a passion, there was too much smut and not enough plot, and this is another case of a self-published author who needed an editor.
1 star

110. Vita Nostra by Sergey and Marina Dyachenko
I honestly don't even know what to say about this book. It was billed to me as "Russian dark academia" and I guess it was that, but it was also so much more. It was bizarre and had some profound moments of body horror and was deeply philosophical. I definitely liked it and it threw me for such a loop that it took me almost a week to pick up another book. But I don't even know how to describe it or if I would recommend it to other readers.
4 stars

111. House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland
This is a YA horror/fantasy novel that absolutely hit all my spots and was the perfect follow up to Vita Nostra. As children, Iris and her sisters were abducted and then returned a month later. A life full of strangeness and unsettling abilities follows, until 10 years later the oldest sister suddenly disappears. This was super creepy and unsettling without being scary and had some of the biggest YIKES body horror moments I've ever read. Sutherland manages to make each sister distinct and absolutely jump off the page (Grey in particular is absolutely haunting). My only quibble with this is the ending for Grey's character and I think I took exception to this because as the oldest sister, I too would cross any line for my siblings. Other than that, this was a near perfect read.
5 stars

112. Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving by Pete Walker
Therapist recommendation and life changing.
5 stars

113. Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer
Eh. I wanted to really love this but wound up being ambivalent. 2 stars

114. The Body is Not An Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor
Another one that I thought would be terrific but wound up being mediocre for me.
2 stars

115. Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Another terrific but weighty beach read from this author.
4 stars

116. Adult Children of Alcoholics by Janet Woititz
Therapist recommendation and very helpful.
4 stars

117. One Door Away From Heaven by Dean Koontz
Originally read this in 2001 and I remember loving it. On this re-read, Koontz seems to take forever to get to the meat of the plot and it's kind of anti-climatic when we get there. I do like his point about trauma and how powerfully healing the love of a dog.
4 stars, mostly for the end

118. The Drama of the Gifted Child by Alice Miller
Therapist recommendation and very helpful.
4 stars

119. Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
This was one of my favorite books in the fifth grade and if anything, I loved it more as an adult. I completely missed the subplot about Sal's mother's stillbirth and reading it as a woman who's had multiple miscarriages absolutely broke my heart for both Sal and her mother. This was terrific and absolutely deserving of the Newberry.
5 stars

July



Well, July is going to be a big month for the Moneypenny house: Mr. M got a huge promotion and started in his new job on the first, I got approved funding for an enormous work project, we have 5 family birthdays to celebrate, and my oldest nephew is moving in with us tomorrow as he waits to move into his college dorm room in August! We are absolutely bursting here (between me and the mister, my parents, and now B, we are officially out of space) and I couldn't be happier. If you had told me last year or even three months ago that this summer would be so full of good things, I wouldn't have believed you. I suppose it's true that time heals all wounds. Hooray for sunshine and pool days and vaccines!

All that to say, I'm anticipating July to be easy on the reading due to overflowing real life.

120. Middlegame by Seanan McGuire
Starting off with a bang! This was a terrific read. McGuire is officially one of my favorite fantasy authors and this was a whiz-bang of a ride about the nature of the universe and sibling love. Loved and highly recommended.
5 stars

121. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
I honestly don't know how to feel about this. I almost didn't start it due to how unbearable the author biography is. It definitely felt like a Firefly rip off at times (Kizzy in particularly felt like a copy/paste version of Kaylee, to the point where I found myself absolutely rolling my eyes when she was on the page). The themes were pretty heavy handed and obvious. But despite all this, I found myself absolutely ripping through it (start to finish in three hours). So maybe 3 stars? I definitely didn't like it enough to read the next one, which means it wasn't 4 star read.
3 stars

Catching up between July and the end of September.

122. These Violent Delights
123. Moon Called
124. It Ends With Us
125. Epitaph
126. Doc
127. The Power of the Dog
128. Lifting Heavy Things
129. Discount Armageddon
130. Midnight Blue Light Special
131. The Road to Jonestown
132. The Maidens
133. Half Off Ragnarok
134. Pocket Apocalypse
135. Making Faces
136. Zoe Bakes Cakes
137. Blindsighted
138. Eternals
139. Taking Charge of Adult ADHD
140. The Soul of an Octopus
141. Six Crimson Cranes
142. The View Was Exhausting
143. Since We Fell
144. The Next Always
145. Chaos Choreography
146. Magic for Nothing
147. The Promised Neverland volume 1
148. The Promised Neverland volume 2
149. The Promised Neverland volume 3
150. Spin the Dawn
151. Unravel the Dusk
152. In the Dream House
153. The Final Girl Support Group
154. The Last Boyfriend
155. The Perfect Hope
156. Crying in H Mart
157. Tricks for Free
158. That Ain't Witchcraft
159. Imaginary Numbers
160. The Meg
161. Songs in Ursa Major
162. Daughter of the Forest
163. Dune
164. The Good Daughter
165. The Promised Neverland 4
166. The Promised Neverland 5
167. The Promised Neverland 6
168. Is It You, Me, or Adult ADD?
169. Notes on a Scandal
170. When Sorrows Come
171. Dinotopia
172. The Promised Neverland 7
173. The Promised Neverland 8

Sorry I missed your 75 in May, Caity, now congratulations on reaching 2 x 75!