tardis' 2021 reading record

Welcome to 2021! I have no idea what this year has in store, but I'm hoping for lots of books, because reading is better than obsessing over the news. I wish all the best for this year to all my friends in the Green Dragon!

I read 305 books in 2020, an all-time record, and I'm hoping NOT to break it in 2021.

My TBR pile is currently at 64 (not counting library books) which is not too bad. I have about 4 unread library books at the moment. Despite that, I'm going to start the year with a re-read of Lord of the Rings, because why the heck not?

>1 tardis: Best wishes for 2021!

Happy New Year!

Onward and upward! Happy New Year @tardis!

Happy new year!

Happy New Year!

Happy LoTR rereading!

A good new year of reading to you!

Happy New Year and enjoy LoTR again! Congrats on your reading record for 2020 too, that's impressive.

I am back for another year of lurking in your thread. I may not say a lot here, but I never let it get beyond three unread posts.

LOTR is an excellent choice, although (speaking personally) reading about the Nazgul during a dark winter would scare the bejeezes out of me.

Happy new year Tardis! I hope is a great one in reading and in life.

Happy New Year - starting off with something you know will be good may it be a sign for your reading for the rest of the year!

Happy New Year, >1 tardis:! Starting off with one of the best of the best is sure to set a great tone for 2021. May the rest of your reads be as satisfying.

>1 tardis: The road goes ever on and on...

Thank you all for the New Year wishes, and the same back at you! I haven't commented on all the new reading threads, but I'm following you all :)

1. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. I was supposed to be reading this slowly, in a virtual book club with a friend, but oops... In my teens I read this annually, and then maybe once in my 20s and 30s, and I think I read it to my kids before the movies came out. Anyway, then we just watched the movies (many times), so it's been a good while since my last full read and I was surprised at how much I'd forgotten, especially in the earlier parts of the book. I still love it, though.

Happy New Year!

Wow, you read all 3 of LoTR volumes already!?! Congratulations! Since the films came out, I haven't been able to read the books. :( And I dearly love the characters missing from the films, especially in the Fellowship of the Ring, like Tom Bombadil and Goldberry. I once reread LoTR regularly.

>16 tardis: Impressive speed!

>17 Storeetllr: Have you thought about trying the audiobooks? They should be available free from your library using the Libby app on any phone or tablet. Or from OverDrive to listen to using a laptop or desktop device.

>17 Storeetllr: Lord of the Rings is one of those books that, having reread several times, I now know to well too really enjoy a reread.

>18 clamairy: I got the audio version last time I tried to reread it. Just didn't work for me for some reason.

>19 -pilgrim-: Haha, there was a time I could quote long passages from the books.

>17 Storeetllr: I'm a fast reader. Also my eyes glaze over and skip past all the songs and poems :)

2. The Shadow Commission by David Mack. 3rd in his Dark Arts series. I'm not sure why I keep reading these. The magic system is fairly unpleasant, the events are violent/bloody, and I'm not very fond of most of the characters. Mack does tell a fairly gripping story, though.

3. Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher. A book bullet from someone (or several someones) on LT. A lovely story of found family, love, and friendship, without a lot of conflict in the traditional sense. Relatively predictable, but beautifully done.

4. Aunty Lee's Deadly Specials
5. Aunty Lee's Chilled Revenge
both by Ovidia Yu. Aunty Lee cooks, messes with people's lives (in a good way LOL), and solves murders. In Deadly Specials, someone dies at a party that Aunty Lee and her cohorts are catering, and the health department closes down her restaurant. In Chilled Revenge, an English woman comes back to Singapore to sue some people she thinks wrecked her marriage. Excellent mysteries, the Singapore setting is interesting, and the food sounds amazing.

Best wishes for 2021!

>24 Busifer: Thanks! You, too!

6. Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold. I figured I have read this often enough that i could participate intelligently in the group read thread without reading it again, but I took it off the shelf just to look something up and ended up reading it all again. Sometimes brain just wants comfort.

>25 tardis: And Caz is one of those fictional characters that it is just so relaxing to spend time with. No histrionics, just a decent chap.

>25 tardis:, >26 -pilgrim-: glad to hear you say that. My only reluctance in reading this is that I like him and I know that most stories have to rip a likeable character up for drama's sake even if they end up happy. I'm reluctant to go through that right now.

>27 MrsLee: Er, I did not mean to imply that he does not go through some very bad things. But he is a true hero, in the realistic sense. He makes his own decisions and handles his own problems. And he never whines about the consequences. Nor takes unhappiness out on others.

What I find emotionally wearing is the "things are looking bad so let's all relieve our feelings by sniping at each other" trope. There seems to be a modern sense that stress "entitles" one to behave badly. I don't buy into that, and neither does Caz.

>28 -pilgrim-: Hear, Hear!

And happy new year, Tardis!

>27 MrsLee: What -pilgrim- said. Caz goes through some bad stuff, but in the context of the book, someone has to. LOL - just trust us. It works.

>29 Jim53: Thanks!

7. The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix. "Authorized to kill... and sell books" says the tagline. Susan goes to London to try to find her father. She meets an extended family of booksellers who protect England from things that go bump in the night (and sometimes the day). Loved this.

>30 tardis: That one is already in my wishlist. Good to see a positive review. I'm a Garth Nix fan :)

>30 tardis: My daughter loved the Garth Nix books. I have not started them yet but am tempted to start with this book.

I hope you do not mind my putting a picture on your thread, but I thought you would like to know Garth Nix is a lovely person. He made a trip to Octocon in Ireland in 2018 and was kind enough to pose for a picture. (That is my little boy on the left.) He was charming, very pleasant and totally unpretentious. I am always delighted to hear that an author I like is a nice person. I thought you might like to hear that sort of news too.

>25 tardis:, >28 -pilgrim-:, >30 tardis: I wholeheartedly agree with all the comments on Caz. Maybe it's because he is older than many fantasy protagonists but his patience and thoughtfulness are so refreshing to read, especially at the moment. He is a more than capable fighter too, but it is a last resort for him.

A rare DNF for me, A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians by H.G. Parry. It is alt-history/fantasy: England under the prime-ministership of William Pitt (a non-practicing vampire), the French Revolution (Robespierre with mesmeric abilites), and the abolishment of slavery (with alchemical potions to make mesmeric command of slaves even more horrific than regular slavery). I am not familiar enough with that time period to get many of the nuances, but I knew it wasn't going anywhere I wanted to follow. Well-written, though.

>35 tardis: I DNFed this one, too. It felt a little bit too much like torture porn in places, and I didn't think I could handle that for 400+ pages. A disappointment, as I loved The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep.

>35 tardis:, >36 libraryperilous: Thank you both for your comments. I've looked at this book a couple of times since it was published and been intrigued, but your comments make it clear that I should leave well alone. I do have Uriah Heep on kindle so I'm glad to see praise for that one.

>36 libraryperilous: I hadn't read the Uriah Heep book, and based on this one, I'm unlikely to do so any time soon, even with recommendations like yours. I might pick it up if I run across it someplace.

8. Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold. Another re-read, brought on by having recently re-read Curse of Chalion. It's so good, still. Ista, widow of Roya Ias and mother of Royina Iselle, is out from under the curse and at loose ends since her mother's death. She conceives the idea of escaping her over-protective family by undertaking a pilgrimage, and it turns out the gods have more plans for her.

I have some library books to get through, so I'm going to try holding off on starting a re-read the next Five Gods books, helped by them not being sequels - just set in the same universe. Depending on how current events go, though, more comfort reading may be required. I hope the situation may not become so dire that I need to also resort to the Vorkosigan and Sharing Knife series, but at least I have them available.

>35 tardis: Ah, thank you for that--it's been on my radar too. I may go and read the opening on Amazon, because I am pretty familiar with that period of history...but torture porn? Nope. Nope nope nope.

And I read Uriah Heep this past year. It was a great concept, but I really didn't much care for it.

>27 MrsLee: And yes, me too. I've wanted to start reading Chalion, but I can't put down my blankie...er, I can't stop reading Angela Thirkell.

>40 Marissa_Doyle: Comfort reads for the win!

9. The Apothecary's Poison by C.J. Archer. I finished this a few days ago but forgot to add it to this list. Book 3 of the Glass and Steel series, as Matt and India continue the search for the missing watchmaker, Chronos. It's a decent read but Matt and India are starting to annoy me with their obvious feelings for each other, but trying not to give in to them. I'll give the series another book or two.

>41 tardis: Yes, I remember feeling the same when I was reading this series. Not sure if I finished all books in the series or just "forgot" about it because of the problems of which that is one. Perhaps I should check.

10. The Case of the Missing Books by Ian Sansom. Nebbishy librarian from London takes a job in Northern Ireland, arriving to find the library closed and that he's expected to run a bookmobile. Unfortunately all the library books have disappeared. Quirky characters, main character a bit annoying, but overall, I liked it. A fairly quick read.

11. The Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold. I said I was going to hold off, but I ended up reading it anyway. Set in a different part of the World of the Five Gods, more like Germany or Switzerland. Ingrey, who has a wolf spirit within, goes to investigate the murder of a prince and bring the murderess back to the capital to face justice. Gods, shamans, sorcerers, and a giant white bear. Very good.

>43 tardis: I liked The Hallowed Hunt as I recall. But really I think I like all of the titles set in the Universe of the Five Gods.

>44 jillmwo: Agree :)

12. Magic Below Stairs by Caroline Stevermer. A short, YA story in the same 'verse as Sorcery and Cecilia - in timeline between Books 2 and 3 of that series. Frederick is an orphan, plucked from the orphanage to become a footman at the home of wizard Thomas Schofield and his wife, Kate. Very enjoyable.

13. The Emperor's Wolves by Michelle Sagara. A prequel to the "Cast in..." series, featuring Severn in his time as a Wolf in the Halls of Law. I enjoyed it.

14. We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor. A book bullet from (I think) my sister :). When Bob arranges for his remains to be frozen after death, he doesn't expect to wake up as an artificial intelligence, or to be installed in a space probe. Fun.

>47 tardis: I'm surprised you hadn't already read that one!

15. Driftwood by Marie Brennan. A bunch of linked stories about a character called Lost, in a place called Driftwood, which is an amalgam of all the last bits of worlds that have been destroyed, all slowly being sucked into a central place and destroyed. This was... meh. Not bad, but I couldn't really get into it.

I have finally got to the end (for now) of my library books, so back to the TBR pile! It has grown slightly since January 1st, so I need to nibble it down again.

16. Adventures in Lockdown edited by Steve Cole. A little book of stories (and a poem) about the Doctor, with a few fairly good illustrations. Pretty sure I had read some before (online?) but enjoyed them again. Stories from Chibnall, Cornell, Davies, Gaiman, Gatiss, Moffatt, and others. Nothing deep, but always nice to be with the Doctor. Published in aid of BBC Children In Need.

17. Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire. Regan is a horse-loving girl with friend issues. After telling a secret to the wrong person, she flees in tears and comes across a door in the forest with "Be Sure" woven from branches over it. She goes through to the Hooflands, where as a human her destiny is to save the world. Lovely story.

>47 tardis: Are you going to keep going, I hope? (I have the fourth one in my audible library waiting, but I am partway into something else so I have to wait.)

>52 clamairy: Oh, yes. I just have to wait for the library to deliver #2 and order #3 and 4, which they don't have. I put in a request to purchase and they approved it but haven't actually done it yet.

18. Plant Partners : Science-Based Companion Planting Strategies for the Vegetable Garden by Jessica Walliser. I've always thought the "roses love garlic" type books a bit woo-woo, relying too much on anecdote and folklore, and not so much on actual science so I grabbed this when it came out in late 2020. I'm quite impressed. Walliser talks about plants for soil prep, trap crops, living mulches, support structures (think beans growing on corn), cover crops, etc. Good bibliography.

>53 tardis: Uh oh. Might have taken a bullet there...
(My library has it, and it was just returned so I should be able to pick it up soon!)

Enjoy the Bobs!

19. Over the Woodward Wall by A. Deborah Baker (aka Seanan McGuire). An expansion of the slivers of a children's book in McGuire's Middlegame. Portal fantasy, in which Zib (short for Hepzibah) and Avery end up in another world and have to follow the Improbable Road to get home. Talking owls, crow girls, etc. A nice book but not a complete story. I presume there is at least one more volume to come.

>55 tardis: Indeed, you can pre-order the second one now.

I loved Middlegame a lot, but couldn't manage to get into the Baker book.

>56 reconditereader: I don't see the pre-order available on amazon.ca yet but I'm sure I'll find out in plenty of time to get it :)

20. Last Stand in Lychford by Paul Cornell. Judith is gone, but Autumn and Lizzie still need to protect Lychford (and the world) against the forces of darkness. A fairy has exploded in Lizzie's kitchen, she and Autumn need an apprentice to replace Judith, and there's something bad coming. A fitting conclusion to the series.

Oh, and TBR pile is now down to 62, so I've read all the additions since Jan. 1, and made a small inroad into the rest.

21. Door into Light by Rachel Neumeier. Sequel to House of Shadows. Things seemed to be going quite well at the end of the previous book, but they quickly go to heck as a palace coup forces the prince to flee the country. The story jumps between the prince in exile and the friends left behind, and it's very good.

>58 tardis: I'm glad the sequel is up to the standard of the first book!

22. Emilie & the Hollow World
23. Emilie & the Sky World
both by Martha Wells. YA. Emilie runs away from home, having become fed up with life with her nasty aunt and uncle. Short of money, she decides to stow away on a ship to get to her cousin's school in the big city, but things don't go to plan and she ends up on a fantastic adventure to the inside of the world. In the second book, Emilie, now employed by Miss Marlende (who took her in in the first book), goes on an expedition to investigate a hole in the sky. Emilie is great - smart, fairly sensible, capable, and brave. Dirigibles, submersibles, aether currents, strange beings. Kind of steampunkish. Fun.

Oh, and that's -2 off the TBR pile.

>60 tardis: I didn't know she'd written a YA series!

Me neither! And my library doesn’t have it.☹️

And I see there is a Murderbot short story I missed - Home: habitat, range, niche, territory
Does anyone know how to access it?

>62 2wonderY:, >63 Narilka: And apparently included in the trade paperback edition of Network Effect.

>61 libraryperilous: It was a surprise to me, too. A friend who was downsizing gave them to me. It's only the two books.

24. The Hunger Games
25. Catching Fire
26. Mockingjay
All by Suzanne Collins. I read these years ago, and I've seen the movies, but at some point I bought copies and they've been on my TBR pile for a long time. They hold up reasonably well.

>64 tardis: No suck fairy flitting about?

>65 clamairy: I didn't think so :)

27. The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. A comfort re-read, because I love this book, but also there's another book coming in the same 'verse this year.

28. Premeditated Mortar by Kate Carlisle. A "Fixer-Upper Mystery". Shannon Hammer, building and renovation contractor in cozy Lighthouse Cove, is renovating part of an old insane asylum for her friend Jane, to turn it into a hotel as part of an upscale development of the property. There are protestors, corpses, and history. A fast but fun read. I was, however, annoyed that the dog on the cover is clearly a Maltese, not a Westie :)

29. The Case of the Spellbound Child by Mercedes Lackey. This turned out to be a re-read, although either my memory is worse than I thought, or Lackey's prose is less memorable. I was well into the book before I started recognizing things. It's not a bad story - I generally like all the Elemental Masters books, and this one, kind of a riff on Hansel and Gretel, is fun.

>66 tardis: I'm really looking forward to Addison's next novel in this world!

>69 Sakerfalcon: Same! I am a bit disappointed that its page length is so short. I hope Addison doesn't skimp on the political intrigues.

>69 Sakerfalcon: >70 libraryperilous: I hadn't looked at the page length, but I'm getting used to short novels and novellas - so many of them about right now!

30. How to Raise An Elephant by Alexander McCall Smith. Very like all the other No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books - a gentle story about people. In this one, Charlie (somewhat shiftless apprentice detective and part-time mechanic) acquires an unusual pet. Always pleasant.

>71 tardis: I haven't been keeping up with that series, but I did enjoy it. Glad to hear it is still good.

>71 tardis: Yes, Tor's novella line especially has lots of good stories. I love The Goblin Emperor, especially its focus on court politics, so I'm hopeful that the new novel will pack as many details as possible, even in the shorter length!

>66 tardis: Glad to hear it.

>66 tardis:, >69 Sakerfalcon: & >70 libraryperilous: Oh, I have that waiting on my Kindle. (Don't ask how long it's been there.)

31. Death on the Green by Catie Murphy. The second Dublin Driver mystery. Megan Malone, American ex-pat living in Dublin, drives a limo for a living. She also stumbles across corpses. This time, it's on a golf course as she's following her current client, a professional golfer, as he plays a round. It's a good mystery, and I really like Megan's interactions with her clients - I could read books about that with no murders at all. Looking forward to the next book!

Murphy also writes very good urban fantasy as C.E. Murphy.

And yes, Peter, you can tell her about the review if you think she'll be happy about it.

>75 tardis: I'm interested in this series for the Irish setting, but I typically find cozy mysteries too socioculturally conservative. I wonder if the Dublin setting would offset some of the things I don't like about the subgenre.

>74 clamairy: You should bump it up! It's such a kind story—to its characters and to its readers. I read it around the same time I read the first Wayfarers novel, and I found the inherent kindness similar (even though the story itself is v. different, of course).

>76 libraryperilous: I *think* you might like this. I also am picky about "cozy" mysteries; possibly best not to get me started! I can tell the author lives in Dublin and loves it. The main character, Megan is 40-ish, single, bisexual, kind. She loves her job because she's interested in people. She's nosy, but not illogically so, and not prone to haring off on her own in search of clues. She is turning into a corpse magnet, though :)

>77 tardis: Ooh, this does sound like I might like it. My local Overdrive has both of the books, so I'll read the first one this weekend. Thank you for the rec! I've never been to Ireland but would love to visit someday.

re: corpse magnetism, I just suspend my disbelief and go on with the story, lol. I did get super irritated at one series (Booktown, I think?) because the main character's friends kept getting murdered. That was a bridge a bit too far. :)

>78 libraryperilous: I went to Ireland once, but never got to Dublin. I would LOVE to go back. It was lovely and we saw such a tiny part of it.

I can suspend belief on the corpse-magnetism thing too, as long as it's not always (or even usually) the MC's friends. What gets me is how in some the MC is nosy beyond belief, goes deliberately into stupidly risky situations, and/or is smarter than local law enforcement.

I look forward to hearing if/how you like the series :)

>75 tardis: - I read the first in the series, and liked it. Tried to see if it was available through the library as an ebook, only to discover that I have lost access, as apparently my library card has expired. I'm traumatized.

>80 NorthernStar: It's a conspiracy. They are all out to get you. It's a trap.

We're all behind you. Engage the enemy.

>80 NorthernStar: Argh!

32. Forged by Benedict Jacka. Latest in the Alex Verus series. It took a while to pick up the threads, since it's been a while since I read the last book. It was good, but the body count is high and Verus doesn't make a ton of progress. Plus, cliff-hanger ending.

33. Jolene by Mercedes Lackey. An Elemental Masters book set the mining areas of the eastern US. Anna May Jones is a sickly girl, daughter of a coal miner, who is sent to live with her aunt who is a "witchy woman" to see if she can recover. Jolene (pretty sure the name was only chosen so that Lackey could ear-worm readers, although she does hat-tip the song, too) is a mysterious woman who offers to teach her. It's all very tidy, but I enjoyed it.

>83 tardis: I really like the Elemental Masters books I've read, but I'm on the fence about this one. I think it's the setting, although it sounds like there might be a labor movement element to the plot, which would intrigue.

>84 libraryperilous: Not much labour movement stuff, really.

34. Revenge in Rubies by A.M. Stuart. Singapore, 1910. Harriet Gordon, widow/police typist/school secretary, is drawn into another murder case when an acquaintance asks for her support after a murder. Police Inspector Curran investigates but runs up against the local British military community's insularity. I like this series. I especially like that Harriet can be friends with men without having to be "in love" with them.

It's bloody -29C outside right now at 9:15 am, heading for a "high" of -24. I was going to take back my library books today because they all have waiting lists, but not sure I want to venture outdoors!

35. Dead Lies Dreaming by Charles Stross. Latest in the Laundry Files but featuring none of the usual crew or, indeed, the Laundry itself. An Eldritch Horror is PM of the UK. Evelyn works for an incredibly rich and ruthless man who wants a particularly dangerous book. Imp is the leader of a gang who rob banks to raise money to make a film about Peter Pan. Wendy is an ex-cop now working for private security. The Bond (title, not name) is the very rich man's wetwork operative. Put 'em all together, shake with Stross's imagination, and get a great story.

>86 tardis: Still -31 here, forecast high of -29.

>86 tardis: & >87 NorthernStar:
It is very cold here too. We are at -3 due to the windchill. :-)

You keep warm!

>86 tardis: You are reminding me that I need to get back to that series!

>86 tardis: +25 here (this is summer!), and I did go and change library books.

In the week between Christmas and New Year we were knocked back to Level 3 lockdown, and so the libraries were, as we had seen before, lightning-quick to close. I was most surprised to see cars parked outside the Waterfall branch last Thursday, as we are still nominally under level 3. No announcement, of course.

ARgh, another DNF. This one is The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker and it combines a somewhat squicky love story between teacher and student, overblown writing, and a bunch of characters I thought were pretty stupid. I read about a quarter of it, and I have not the patience to read further to find out if it improves.

>91 tardis: Hate that particular romance trope so much.

>85 tardis: Ah, bummer.

>91 tardis: I read that and can report that it doesn't improve. You haven't missed anything.

>93 Sakerfalcon: Good to know. I remembered the other thing that irritated me - the "insta-love". I read the LT reviews - most of them were glowing, but I just don't see it.

36. Firefly: The Ghost Machine by James Lovegrove. Not my favourite of the Firefly tie-in novels, but I liked it well enough. The crew of Serenity are hired by Badger to pick up a mystery package. When Mal actually gets a look at the thing and hears the details of where it came from, he refuses to carry it, but Jayne sneaks it onto Serenity anyway, and it affects the crew.

>94 tardis: And especially when it is between a young woman and the first eligible man she has ever met *eyeroll*

37. The Velocity of Revolution by Marshall Ryan Maresca. I'm a fan of Maresca's Maradaine series, so grabbed this book, which is AFAIK a stand-alone in a different kind of world. Ziaparr is a city of divisions - mainly castes and districts. Wenthi Tunget is a City Patrol officer and member of the second-highest caste. After he apprehends an insurgent, he's asked to go undercover with the rebels to locate their mysterious leader. Motorcycle racing, magic mushrooms, polyamory, justice, revolution. Not what I expected, and I really liked it.

38. The Last Smile in Sunder City
39. Dead Man In A Ditch
both by Luke Arnold. Fetch Phillips is a man for hire in a world where magic has died, the magic races are dead or dying, and humanity is taking over. And it's Fetch's fault. I enjoyed both of these, but they have a darker edge than some of the others in this genre. Fantasy noir, maybe.

40. Ink & Sigil by Kevin Hearne. "From the World of the Iron Druid Chronicles" although Atticus makes only a throw-away appearance. Which is fine. I was tired of him :). Al MacBharrais is a sigil agent, a rare magic-worker who uses ink and paper to craft sigils that affect people in various ways and also crafts contracts between residents of the fae/god realms and Earth to make sure they don't misbehave when they visit. He also has a curse on him and really bad luck with apprentices, since #7 has just died choking on a raisin scone. The author really has it in for raisins. Turns out dead apprentice has been a bad boy, and Al has to straighten it all out - if he can. Al is also mostly referred to (even by himself) as old, which I kind of resented as he appears to be in his early 60s, which is the same age I am. I really liked Al's shop manager, Nadia, a kick-ass battle seer, and the other side-characters were also good. Overall, a cracking read.

>97 tardis: I'd wondered if they would be more on the grim side, or whether they would have a jauntier, Thin Man-like tone. I think I'll skip them.

41. Sweep With Me by Ilona Andrews. A shorter work in the Innkeeper series. A holiday doesn't go smoothly for Dina and Sean at the inn. Fun.

42. Sweep of the Blade by Ilona Andrews. Also Innkeeper, but featuring Dina's sister, Maud, who in previous books became enamoured of alpha vampire Arland of House Krahr. She and her daughter, Helen, go with him back to his world while she tries to decide if she wants to risk marrying him. Local politics and intrigue about. Fun.

43. Doctor Who: The Women Who Lived : Amazing Tales for Future Time Lords by Christel Dee and Simon Guerrier. An A-Z of women in the Who-niverse, from Ace to Zoe. Companions, friends, enemies, even relatives. And the Doctor her/his/them self. I enjoyed reading it and remembering, and the illustrations are charming.

44. Ghost of an Enchantment by J.E. McDonald. This is a paranormal romance and part of the Wickwood Chronicles series, following Ghost of a Gamble, which I have not read. That said, reading #2 before #1 wasn’t a problem since this book features a different main character and the previous protagonists only appear in minor roles. Stella is a web site designer and a witch who consults with a paranormal investigation company on the side. She’s also coping with her grandmother’s institutionalization for dementia. Lucas is a cop. The sexual tension between them is unbelievably instant. There’s a weird artifact that may open a way between dimensions, floating furniture, and other odd happenings, and Stella has to figure out what’s causing it and how it all fits together. On the whole, I enjoyed this. The insta-love was annoying, but the sex scenes weren’t the worst I’ve read. I’m unlikely to read this again, but would consider others in the series, should they come my way. Reviewed from a free e-book received through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program.

And now on to my other recent ER win!

45. Simon Grave and the Sons of Irony by Len Boswell. Simon Grave is a police detective in Crab Cove. A hoverbike gang leader has called the police to report his own murder but the body keeps getting moved around as the gangs play hot potato with it. They know where the victim died, but where was he killed? Who did it? What can a talking, intelligent seagull do to help? This book is not the first in the series and I haven’t read any of the others; if I had, perhaps the backstory would have helped but with only this book, I found the characters lacked depth, although they were likeable enough and I liked the teamwork by the police. I don’t know why the series is all “Simon Grave and…” because he was barely more important than anyone else. The solution to the mystery was his idea, but I can’t tell you why it worked because it wasn’t shown. Why the murderer did it was explained after, but not how or why their method of getting a confession worked. SF/Police Procedural. Final verdict: I enjoyed it well enough, and might read more in the series if they come my way, but likely not something I’ll seek out. Received the eBook through the LibraryThing Early Reviewer Program in return for an honest review.

46. Rivers of London : The Fey and the Furious by Ben Aaronovitch, Andrew Cartmel, and Mariano Laclaustra (illustrator). Graphic novel. A corpse in a fancy car (containing a bag of unicorn horns) is fished out of a Dutch canal, and the trail leads back to a British illegal street racing operation. Peter & co go undercover to figure out what's going on. Well-illustrated and fun.

47. A Stranger in Town by Kelley Armstrong. Latest in the Rockton series, about a hidden town in the Yukon for people who need to drop out of sight for a couple of years. An injured female tourist runs out of the forest and Casey & co. need to find her companions and figure out why she's there. Enjoyable, if a bit gory.

48. Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher. Re-read because I just bought the print. Still excellent story of a paladin whose god has died, who meets a parfumier with a past. Also contains Bishop Beartongue and Zale of the Temple of the Rat - always a plus. Funny, touching, exciting.

>105 tardis: You can just now pre-order the sequel!
https://argyllproductions.com/product/paladins-strength/

>105 tardis:, >106 reconditereader: I've pre-ordered the sequel. Should have time to reread the first before the 28th when the sequel is out.

>106 reconditereader: Yes, I know - a little gnole told me (on Ursula Vernon's Twitter feed :) ). I will be ordering print.

49. For a Few Demons More
50. The Outlaw Demon Wails
Both by Kim Harrison. Entries in the Rachel Morgan series. I can't tell if Rachel is growing as a character, or just digging herself into a bigger metaphorical hole. She's definitely a mess. At some point, I'll probably finish the series, but no rush. I had to read For a Few Demons more (from the library) so I could go on to The Outlaw Demon Wails, which was on my TBR pile, and now it can be rehomed and the rest will come from the library in due course. Or not at all if I keep getting other things to read :)

51. Dead Things by Stephen Blackmoore. Necromancer hears of his sister's murder and goes home to LA to ask her what happened. Well written, and I was dragged into the story thoroughly, but also very gory and brutal. Honestly, I don't think I want to go further in the series.

>108 tardis: I had to give up on the Rachel Morgan books after book 4. She just wasn't growing any wiser or learning from her mistakes, and I kept finding myself getting annoyed while reading. There were a lot of things I liked about the series, but Rachel is so dominant that I couldn't get past her. It sounds like I made the right decision to quit.

>108 tardis:
I love the Spaghetti Western themed titles.

>111 pgmcc: I don't feel the urge to read the books, but I do agree about the titles.

>111 pgmcc:, >112 -pilgrim-: It's a pity a clever title isn't enough :)

52. Calculated Risks by Seanan McGuire. At the end of the previous book (Imaginary Numbers), Sarah and company had saved the world but were stuck in another dimension. This book picks up right where the other one left off and takes us on a ride with giant spiders, even more giant praying mantises, math, cuckoos (the Cryptid kind, not the birds), and more. It was awesome. Bonus novella at the end where Annie, Artie, Sarah, and Verity go to Emerald City Comicon to track down a murderous siren.

53. The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry by C. M. Waggoner. Despite the rather trendy title, this turned out to be quite a fun tale of a young woman (and fire mage), Delly, who is no better than she should be. To make rent, Delly takes a body-guarding job with a bunch of other magical women, gets dragged into trying to capture a fugitive and meets the love of her life, a high-born part-troll named Winnifer. I enjoyed this quite a bit.

>114 tardis: This sounds like fun! I think I may have read an extract from it on tor.com. I know I have the author's previous book, Unnatural magic, on Mount TBR so I shall try that first.

54. One of Our Own by Jane Haddam. The last Gregor Demarkian mystery, finished shortly before the author died. Illegal immigration, real estate shenanigans, murder. I've almost always enjoyed this series (there was one book where I felt the solution to the mystery was a cheat), and I'm sad that there won't be more.

>116 tardis: - I hadn't realized that there were so many in the series, or that she had died. I really enjoyed some of the earlier books, but it looks like there are lots I've never read.

55. The Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorafor. A beautiful story, but not exactly cheery.

56. Blood Heir by Ilona Andrews. Aurelia Ryder (formerly Julie Lennart-Olsen, adopted daughter of Kate Daniels), has been away from Atlanta for a few years and has changed... a lot. She comes back to try to alter a prophecy that says Kate will die if Aurelia contacts her in any way. It was good fun, as the Andrews' books always are.

57. The Raven and the Reindeer by T. Kingfisher. A retelling of The Snow Queen, except with a few very T. Kingfisher twists. Great fun.

>116 tardis: The Demarkian books were a big favorite of my mother's, and I read and enjoyed a few of them several years ago. The poisons were a nice break from guns.

58. Angel With The Sword by C.J. Cherryh. Altair Jones, canaler in the flooded city of Merovingen, fishes a man out of the canal and gets involved in politics, murder, and other fun stuff. Good, as Cherryh always is.

And that's -1 off the TBR pile, although I got a book for my birthday that I haven't finished yet, so it's really a wash.

59. The Shambling Guide to New York City by Mur Lafferty. A comfort re-read. Zoe has lost her job writing travel guides and moved home to New York. She's looking for any job in publishing, and stumbles across a REALLY niche publisher who hires her to manage their new line of travel books. Very enjoyable, and I'm sad that the publisher only bought two books.

>122 tardis: I enjoyed this one and the sequel too. There was so much potential for a really fun UF series. I didn't always like Zoe or approve of her decisions, but it was such a great world that she got to exist in.

>123 Sakerfalcon: Agree.

60. Tasting Qualities : The Past And Future of Tea by Sara Besky. An academic view, 20 years in the researching, of the economics of the tea industry. Not something I'd have picked up on my own, but it was a birthday present (Jane likes Tea! This is a Book about Tea! Jane will like this Book!) so I read it anyway. It was interesting, if a bit dry. Certainly a view of the market for and production of my favourite beverage that I never considered.

61. Scratchman by Tom Baker. A Doctor Who adventure written by the Fourth Doctor himself! What's not to like? Well... I've never read a first-person-omniscient point-of-view before, and it didn't really work for me. It was explained in the book how the Doctor could do that, but it was still awkward. The story was okay. I forgot how much I liked Sarah and Harry, although Harry is a complete dunce (more so than I remember in the series).

62. The Apple-Tree Throne by Premee Mohamed. I got this from the library as I just discovered that the author is local and I wanted to see if I liked her work. Glad I did. It's a short - a novella at best - alt-history tale of a soldier home from the war, who gets involved with his disgraced former commander's family, and is haunted by more than just memories. Rather melancholy, but still good. I have another of her books coming from the library eventually.

63. Murder Most Pemberley by Jessica Berg. Eliza Darcy Mysteries, book 1. Imagine a world where Jane Austen didn't exist but the Bennetts, Darcys, Bingleys, Wickhams, etc. did. And a couple of hundred years later, Eliza Darcy, mumble-great granddaughter of Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam Darcy, is going from the US to England for a family reunion. This is the epitome of a cozy mystery, featuring huge coincidences, a heroine who can't stop being nosy (but everyone loves her for it), family secrets, a quirky elderly great-aunt, insta-attraction and nearly insta-love, etc. I liked the characters, the dialogue was good, and it passed an afternoon. Decent brain-candy, but maybe not terribly memorable. If they come my way, I would read more in the series. Reviewed from an e-book received for free through the LibraryThing Early Reviewer Program in exchange for an honest review.

>126 tardis: That sounds charming!

64. Paladin's Strength by T. Kingfisher. Istvahn, former paladin of a dead god, is on a mission to find the source of the odd decapitations. Clara, lay sister of the order of St. Ursa, is trying to find her kidnapped sisters. They join up. A great story, with humour and romance and decapitated bodies. Possibly a tad too much unresolved sexual tension, though :)

65. Dear Miss Kopp by Amy Steward. It's WW1 and the Kopp sisters are all doing their own thing. Norma is with the army pigeon corps in France. Fleurette is touring with Miss May again. Constance is chasing spies with the precursor to the FBI. Told in letters between the various characters, and lots of fun.

66. Beneath the Rising by Premee Mohamed. The second of Premee's books that I've read, and also very good. A bit dark. Definitely Lovecraftian. Nick Prasad, ordinary, and Joanna "Johnny" Chambers, child scientific prodigy, have been pals since childhood. When Johnny invents a clean reactor it wakes up the Old Ones. Johnny shanghais Nick to help her put them back to sleep. Very twisty.

67. The Midnight Bargain by C.L. Polk. Look at me, reading (and enjoying) a book that was chosen for CBC's Canada Reads. Usually that's the kiss of death, although mainly because they usually choose the dreariest of Canadiana. This past year they actually chose TWO genre books, which is a nice change. Haven't read the other one (Hench) yet but probably will. ANYWAY, Beatrice is a marriageable young lady of financially embarrassed family who needs to marry well, but what she really wants is to be a sorceress. Problem: upon marriage, women are collared to suppress their magic during their child-bearing years, so nobody bothers to teach them much, because it's all a waste. While seeking a grimoire, she meets the Lavan siblings - Ysbeta and Ianthe. Ysbeta is on the same quest (magic, not marriage), and Ianthe is the man of her dreams - handsome, kind, rich. Now she has to choose love or magic? It's very well-told, and I enjoyed it greatly.

I've heard good things about Hench.

Witchmark was good!

68. The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson. In a community called Bethel, young Immanuelle has been raised by her mother's family, her mother having died in childbirth. Bethel is one of those "sister wife" places, where old men who are high in the church/community can have multiple wives and marry teens who have barely had their first period. Pretty gross. Immanuelle's family are close and loving, but she's drawn to the dark woods that surround the community and the "evil witches" within. And yeah, they are kind of evil, but Bethel is, too. It's a very good story, but I hated Bethel's religious hierarchy so much.

69. For We Are Many
70. All These Worlds
both by Dennis E. Taylor. Books 2 and 3 of the Bobiverse. The Bobs (artificial personalities based on a dead geek) are helping humanity evacuate a doomed Earth and establish colonies on distant worlds, but there's are threats from saboteurs and malign aliens. The intertwined stories are interesting and the whole is enjoyable.

>132 tardis: Thank you for the review. I keep getting this recommended to me by LT and Amazon, but I know now to give it a pass.

I come from a cultural background that has strong views on gender rôles, I do not need to read about fictional versions.

>134 -pilgrim-: I get that. My background is less firm on gender roles, but dystopian fiction is not my thing and I especially hate the ones that are so horribly restrictive of female rights and freedoms. One of the reasons I've never read The Handmaid's Tale, and probably never will.

71. Supernatural, the Television Series : The Roads Not Taken by Tim Waggoner. It's a freaking "choose your own adventure" book! Every few pages it made me decide what Sam and Dean should do next, and each choice leads to either further adventures or "the end of the road." I love Supernatural, and the basic storyline was okay, but this just annoyed me because I had to keep going back and reading the choice I didn't make.

>135 tardis: Ditto on The Handmaid's Tale. I made the mistake of reading VOX last February (and it was a review copy, so I was obliged to finish it), which ticked all those boxes, and was poorly done to boot.

>132 tardis: I read this last year. It was a hard read because of the way Bethel was. I’m with you, I have a hard time reading books like The Handmaid’s Tale.

>135 tardis: I can’t read “choose your own adventures.” I always have to go back to see where the other choices would lead. But I’d love to read Supernatural book!

72. Engines of Oblivion by Karen Osborne. Sequel to Architects of Memory, which I read last year. This was gripping, but dark. The viewpoint character this time is Natalie, who has achieved citizenship and is working for a corporation. She's sent on a mission to find Ash and bring her back. Nothing goes to plan. Good, but not one I'll revisit.

73. Last Strand by Jennifer Estep. The last (for now) story in the Spider series. Gin and her friends/family go up against her uncle, Mason, whose redevelopment plans for the city are a bit drastic. Action-packed, rather bloody, and fun as always.

74. The Glass Magician by Caroline Stevermer. There are three kinds of humans: Sylvestri (not well explained but something to do with trees/nature), Solitaires (regular humans), and Traders (shape changers). Thalia is a Solitaire stage magician, travelling between cities, performing, with her manager/mentor/stage assistant, David Nutall. One night during a performance, something goes wrong, and she escapes death only because something weird happens to her. A fun story with room for a sequel if the author desires.

Four comfort re-reads.

75. Sorcery and Cecilia, or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer. Letters between Kate and her friend Cecilia describe Kate's London season and the exciting pursuit of evil wizards.
76. The Grand Tour, or The Purloined Coronation Regalia by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer. Now married, Kate and Cecilia are on a joint honeymoon with their new husbands, Thomas and James. In Calais, Thomas' mother is given a mysterious flask of oil, leading to a chase across Europe.
77. Magic Below Stairs by Caroline Stevermer. Young Frederick is plucked from the orphanage to be a junior servant in the home of Marquis and wizard Thomas Schofield and his wife, Kate.
78. The Mislaid Magician, or Ten Years After by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer. Ten years after the events of The Grand Tour, Cecilia and James are called upon to investigate the disappearance of a magician-surveyor in the north of England. Meanwhile, Kate and Thomas are dealing with their own children and those of Cecilia and James, plus intruders and helping C&J.

I love all these books. With the exception of Magic Below Stairs, they're all epistolary (love that word) novels, the alternating letters between Kate and Cecilia (and in the last book Thomas and James as well) telling the story. Actually, The Grand Tour isn't letters either. One side is a diary, the other a deposition. Same effect, though.

79. Ancestral Night by Elizabeth Bear. Re-read as I bought the paperback. Space pirates, ancient alien artifacts, etc. Still excellent.

80. A Broken Darkness by Preemee Mohamed. Sequel to Beneath The Rising (see above). Nick is secretly working for the secret anti-elder beings society that he and Johnny encountered in the last book. Johnny is still inventing things. They're still estranged. Everything goes to heck. Good, but still dark and Lovecraftian. Took me a while to be in the mood for this. Also, the ending is abrupt and unsatisfying. Hoping Premee has another book coming.

81. Wild Sign by Patricia Briggs. In the Alpha and Omega series. Anna and Charles go to investigate the disappearance of a small settlement of people squatting on pack land.

82. Out Past the Stars by K.B. Wagers. Hail Bristol, ex-gun-runner, Empress, Star of Indrana, has confronted the Farian gods and (surprise!) not gods, just very powerful aliens with an agenda. Action, politics, diplomacy, things not what they seem. I loved it.

>143 tardis: When you say you loved it, makes me want to check it out. Never heard of Wagers before, but managed to snag the audio from the library. Then I noticed it’s #3. Should I start at the beginning?

>144 2wonderY: Yes! This is the last book of the second trilogy, The Farian War. You need to start at the beginning of the first trilogy, The Indranan Wars, which is is Behind the Throne. I've really enjoyed all of them, and Wagers is now on my favourite authors list.

Thanks. On the wait list for the first book now.

83. The Black God's Drums by P. Djèlí Clark. A novella with a scrappy orphan living on the streets of New Orleans, an airship captain, a renegade scientist, a deadly weapon, and two orishas. Alt-history/fantasy. Very good. Clark is another author I've discovered relatively recently who has really impressed me.

Ooh, if you haven't read The Haunting of Tram Car 015 you're in for a treat!

>148 reconditereader: I have read that! It was excellent. Also it was a freebie from TOR a while back, so I even have an ebook copy. I have two other of his books on my hold list at the library, but don't know when they'll be delivered.

>148 reconditereader: And Ring Shout arrived from the library yesterday, so I will start that soon.

84. Phantom Evil by Heather Graham. A series bullet from my sister. Even though she said they were stand-alone enough, I just have to start at the beginning - it's my version of OCD :) I'd call this paranormal romance/mystery. A team is assembled to investigate the mysterious death of a senator's wife. Basically brain candy, but it hit the spot for me. Have requested #2 from the library.

>140 tardis: The glass magician has just been released in paperback so I can read it at last! I'm very excited!

>142 tardis: And I've just started Ancestral night, which is great so far. The first chapter was a bit of a struggle as I tried to envision the technologies but now I'm further in and getting to know the characters I'm really enjoying it.

>144 2wonderY: Another recommendation for Wagers' Indranan empire series from me! This fast paced space opera was one of the best surprise finds I've made in ages. I need to get caught up on the second trilogy, having only read the first volume of it so far.

85. An Unexpected Peril by Deanna Raybourn. Speedwell and Stoker are preparing an exhibition in honour of a mountain climber who died on a climb, and suspect she was murdered. A missing princess, diplomacy and politics, etc. No depth, but fun.

86. Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark. Maryse is one of a group that hunts monsters in 1920s Georgia. The monsters are called Ku Kluxes and they seem to evolve out of Klan members. Borderline horror, this one, and really good.

87. A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine. Sequel to A Memory Called Empire, which I liked very much. I liked this one, too! It's equally twisty. Aliens that nobody can understand are attacking outposts of the Teixcalaanli empire, and Nine Hibiscus is commanding the fleet arrayed against them. She requests a translator, and gets Three Seagrass and Mahit Dzmare. Mahit went home to Lsel Station after the events of the previous book and is finding herself under threat from the ruling council, so when Three Seagrass turns up and drags her off to be a translator for Nine Hibiscus, she is glad to go. Meanwhile, back in the empire, heir to the throne Eight Antidote is learning his way around politics and intrigue. Great characters, tight story, all good. I would be glad to read more in this series if Martine is inspired to write them.

>153 tardis: I'm in the middle of this one and I really enjoy it. Her plotting is byzantine, but in the most delightful way!

>153 tardis: I need to get my hands on a copy of this! I loved A memory called Empire so much!

>153 tardis: Ahh! I didn't realize it was out yet! I must put a copy on hold... NOW!

Thanks for the heads up!

>155 Sakerfalcon: >156 clamairy: I feel secure in saying you'll like this too! I especially enjoyed the bits with Eight Antidote, but it was all good.

88. The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark. A re-read as I finished off all the library books I had on my e-reader, but wasn't tired yet. Still excellent.

89. The Faded Sun Trilogy by C.J. Cherryh. An omnibus edition of the classics Kesrith, Shon'jir, and Kutath. The last of the mri are mercenaries working for the regul, a corpulent, non-fighting species, in a war against the humans, but peace has broken out, leaving them without purpose. They ally with a human to find their ancestral homeworld. Very, very good. Cherryh is excellent at non-humans who aren't just humans with funny facial protruberances.

-1 off Mount TBR.

>159 tardis: I loved it as I read it, ages ago, and agree: Cherryh is excellent with non-humans. I have for a long time played with the thought of re-reading Faded sun.
Maybe I should bump it up!

>159 tardis: >160 Busifer: The faded sun omnibus is on my tbr pile. I must move it up!

90. Pegasus in Space by Anne McCaffrey. In the Talents series, featuring telepaths, telekinetics, etc. This is a continuation of the story begun in To Ride Pegasus (which I've always loved) and continued in Pegasus in Flight (which for some reason I don't recall having read and don't own. Must fix that :)). Anyway its mainly the story of Pete Reidinger, teenage quadriplegic who has immense telekinetic gifts, coming into his own. There are side stories of other characters, plus politics, intrigue, sabotage, mankind going into space, etc. Very enjoyable.

oh, and this is also -1 off the TBR pile, which now stands at only 52! I have to go the library today, though (hard life!).

91. Supernatural : Nevermore by Keith R.A. DeCandido. The first Supernatural novel, from way back in 2007, set during season 2 between Crossroad Blues and Croatoan. Sam and Dean go to New York to help out a friend of Ash's who has a ghost problem, and to investigate a serial killer who is enacting a ritual based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Pretty good, and nice to be back with the boys.

92. Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells. Murderbot and Preservation Station Security solve a murder mystery, which turns out to be a piece of a much more complicated situation. Lots of Murderbot snark, unavoidable talking-to-humans, and just enough derring-do. Wells really packed a lot into this novella. I loved it.

93. Heaven's River by Dennis E. Taylor. Bobiverse #4. Bob goes to search for Bender, missing lo these many years. Meanwhile, factions within the Bobs are conflicting over philosophical issues and things are getting nasty. Good, as usual.

>165 tardis: I forgot I bought this one from Audible! Going to have to bump it up the virtual stack.

>165 tardis: Gotta nudge son-in-law. He owns the Audible account. Little fear he will ignore me; he’s a Bobiverse fan as well.

94. What Abigail Did That Summer by Ben Aaronovitch. While Peter is off in the depths of the countryside having adventures with elves, his teenage cousin, Abigail, is having an adventure of her own. She meets an odd kid, Simon, other kids are disappearing, and then a talking fox tells her there's something weird going on. Abigail, logical and clever, is on the job! I enjoyed this very much :)

>168 tardis: I’ve been itching to read that! Just found it on audio.

95. Four to Score by Janet Evanovich. This has been on my TBR pile for years, because I thought I should read the 3rd book before this one. I finally read the reviews of the previous books to see if it was likely I'd miss anything important, and it didn't seem like it so I decided to go ahead with this one. Stephanie Plum is a mess. Still learning the ropes of being a bounty hunter, weird family, no love life. She gets what seem on the surface to be a fairly straightforward job, which of course is not. Fun, but basically brain candy, and although I wouldn't mind reading the rest of the series, I won't go out of my way for it.

96. Angel of the Overpass by Seanan McGuire. Rose Marshall, the girl in the green silk gown (aka the phantom prom date and the angel of the overpass) is heading for a showdown with Bobby Cross, the eternal jerk who murdered her with his car. Very good. Also? Murder Turkey *snerk*

97. The Assassins of Thasalon by Lois McMaster Bujold. A longer than usual Penric and Desdemona adventure. A sorcerous attack on General Arisaydia sends Penric, Des, a new sorceress, and a saint to Cedonia to find a blasphemous sorcerer. Loved it.

98. Edge of the Woods by Jules Kelley. Werewolf paranormal romance. The author has taken the usual tropes and put a few twists on them. Pine Grove is a small town with a population that is about 50/50 werewolves (mostly born, a few bitten) and humans, and everyone in town knows, but it’s a secret to the rest of the world. The town uses this as a tourist draw, holding "fake" werewolf tours, especially around the full moon, and selling werewolf kitsch.
The day that new deputy sheriff Leland arrives in town, he finds a naked, injured young man on the road and brings him in to the doctor. There he also meets Haley Fern, the Park Administrator, who is also the alpha werewolf. Haley, is super attracted to Leland, but also trying not to let him in on the werewolves-are-real secret, needs to deal with the injured man (bitten and turned by an unknown werewolf), figure out who bit him, not look weak to her werewolf bosses, lead the pack out on full moons, etc. Leland is super-attracted to Haley, too, but also confused by the town and the whole tourist/werewolf thing.
There are the obligatory sex scenes, mostly in the later part of the book, and they’re not terribly written, but there was (in my opinion) rather too much of it, and at inappropriate times. Sure, lets head out into the woods where we KNOW something weird/dangerous is going on and take our clothes off and not pay attention to anything happening around us.
Gender roles/choices are presented along a fairly wide spectrum and very matter-of-factly, which is nice.
First in a series. Will read later installments if they come my way, but not a top pick.
Reviewed from an electronic copy received through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program in return for an honest review.

99. Heart of Evil by Heather Graham. 2nd in the Krewe of Hunters series. I like the series, but I can see that if I read too many of these in a row, they're going to annoy me. They're brain candy, and the author definitely has a formula. This one is set on a plantation known for Civil War reenactments. The author tries to address some of the problematic elements of "celebrating" the US Civil War (which considering it was originally published in 2011 is good), but it's still iffy.

>174 tardis: I see her books on sale all the time and saw them plugged as mysteries, but I see here on LT they are also tagged paranormal. Is the whole series about ghost hunters?

>175 clamairy: Yes, and also murder mysteries. I've only read two, but in both cases the murderers were human, but ghosts helped cause/solve the crimes. Also strong romance element and sex - so far, each book a different member of the team finds love.

100. Death Before Wicket by Kerry Greenwood. Phryne Fisher is off to Sydney to watch test cricket, dine with university brass, and solve a mysterious theft from the Bursar's office. Companion Dot wants to visit her sister, but the sister is missing. There's the usual derring-do on Phryne's part, and sex, of course. Always enjoyable.

Happy Towel Day, everyone! And it's also The Glorious 25th of May (how they do rise up) - "Truth, Justice, Freedom, Reasonably-Priced Love and a Hard-Boiled Egg!" Wear Lilac and Remember.

101. Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh. I've been chipping away at this one for a while, interrupted by a few other books. I read it decades ago, and remember enjoying it, but when I started reading it again NOTHING seemed familiar. Not a problem - it was still really good. Interstellar war, politics, diplomacy, etc.

102. Merchanter's Luck by C. J. Cherryh. Comes after Downbelow Station in the Alliance-Union universe. Small fry merchanter Sandor is hanging on by a thread. After a "sleepover" with Allison Reilly, a junior member of the huge Dublin merchanter crew he takes a ridiculous chance and gets into hot water. Very good.

103. In Farleigh Field by Rhys Bowen. It's 1941, and two kids find a dead parachutist in the field at Farleigh, home of the Sutton family. A tangled web of spies, code-breaking, romance, and betrayal. Very enjoyable.

I felt like reading some brain candy, so here we are...

104. Sacred Evil by Heather Graham. #3 in the Krewe of Hunters series. More formula, more gore, more sex.

105. Naked in Death
106. Glory in Death
107. Immortal in Death
108. Rapture in Death
109. Ceremony in Death
All by Nora Roberts. Eve Dallas, police lieutenant with a mysterious past and a great arrest record, solves murders, falls for a really rich guy, has lots of sex. I think I read the first few years ago, but I don't recall much. I mean, they're popcorn. Fast reads, engaging enough. Will probably read more.

110. An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green. April and her friend, Andy, are the first people to see a giant robot that has appeared on a street in New York. Soon they find that there are giant robots all over the world. They, but especially April, become social media stars, and the story of the mystery of the giant robots and what happens to April, Andy, and friends, is absorbing. Really liked this.

>181 tardis: I just read this too and really enjoyed it. I loved the interaction between the friends and how so many people come together to try and solve the mystery. The sequel is good too.

>182 Sakerfalcon: Agree. I haven't got the sequel yet. We're allowed 50 (FIFTY!!) print book holds at the library, which seems generous, but I'm at the limit. I just got the notice to pick up a couple of them, so I can place the hold as soon as those are checked out.

>180 tardis: That post is a bit morbid. The themes appear to be Evil and Death.

The other common theme appears to be sex. Is that the silver lining to balance with the Evil and the Death?

>182 Sakerfalcon: The sequel is out? *off to the library to see if they have it*

>184 pgmcc: I forgot to mention the violence, too! I actually skipped pages of description of sex and violence (separately and together).

111. Pride and Paranormal by Adrienne Blake. Pride and Paranormal is Pride and Prejudice updated to modern times and set in the US, and the main characters are all witches and warlocks. It... really didn't work for me. The author followed the plot of P&P too closely in some places and yet also chucked in a vampire wedding and changed the outcome of Lydia's elopement. Some of that I get - a scandal when P&P was first published is really not that big a deal now. But why did all the Bennet daughters have the same names except Lizzy, who in this book is Izzy? Why is Bingley renamed Van Buren? “Fitz” Darcy's sister is only mentioned and the author made her autistic. "Billy" Collins (sleazy banker), Wickham (sleazy lawyer) and Van Buren's sisters are still assholes, though. I'm glad some things don't change! “Kate” De Bourg is a high-powered business-woman who barely appears and could have been left out without affecting the story at all since her late-novel showdown with Lizzy/Izzy doesn’t happen. On the plus side, Blake is a decent writer. Dialogue is good, the characters are well-drawn, and as much of the plot as is her own is good, even if there isn’t much of it. If I’m going to read more by Blake, I’ll go for original material, rather than this pastiche. Received from the LibraryThing Early Reviewer Program in return for an honest review.

>187 tardis: "Van Buren" to give the idea of wealth and prestige that Austen achieved by quoting Bingley's income?

I have never yet read an Austen "parody" or "update" that had not left me pining for the original.

>188 -pilgrim-: Maybe. I guess not being American, Van Buren doesn't mean much to me, and she changed so few of the other names that it really stood out, not in a good way. Anyway, it is not the WORST Austen update/pastiche/sequel I've read. I went through a phase of reading them and some were truly appalling.

>189 tardis: Did you find any good ones?

>190 -pilgrim-: I quite liked the PD James one, Death Comes To Pemberley. I'll have to dig back to see if I can find any notes on others.

>191 tardis: Ooh, I have heard of that one. In fact... *looks it up* I may have actually read it - about a decade ago!

>189 tardis: *chants* Oranje, Nassau, Buren, Leerdam, Katzenellenbogen ... Five of King William of the Netherlands's titles, and the names of the bastions of the Castle of Good Hope (Cape Town).

>193 hfglen: Good to see that you were paying attention in class, Hugh. ;-)

112. A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green. The conclusion to the story of April, Andy, Maya, Minerva, and Carl. Months after April disappeared in the destruction of a warehouse, her friends are still grieving and looking for her. Mysterious books with instructions, a possibly evil VR environment, Carl's "brother" etc. Very good, and satisfying finale.

113. Servant of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard. Going in, I wasn't sure about this one. I mean, the Aztec religion is pretty repugnant to modern sensibilities, what with all the human and animal sacrifice, and the main character is the high priest of the death god. But de Bodard manages to make it both interesting and not sensationalized, and I enjoyed the characters, the world building, and the mystery. I'm now on the hold list for the sequel.

>196 tardis: I agree about the sacrifice, but appreciate that she didn't tone it down for our modern sensibilities. It is such a great series; De Bodard has done a fantastic job with the world building and I like the afterwords where she explains what is history and what she made up. And there is a bibliography too!

>196 tardis: I enjoyed it very much a few months ago, precisely because it took a man who did things that we see as terrible, and showed how he could still be a good man, just bound by the context of a society that demanded awful things.

114. A Study in Honor by Claire O'Dell. A re-read because I bought the paperback and the sequel is coming soon from the library. A near-future Sherlock Holmes pastiche featuring Janet Watson (one armed vet of the latest civil war (mainly being fought in the Midwest US)) and Sara Holmes, genius and secret government agent (or something). I liked it the first time and it's still good.

115. Long Story Short by Jodi Taylor. 7 stories of varying lengths about the disaster magnets of St. Mary's, plus one Christmas tale from a different series, Frogmorton Farm. Historians, Time Police, Mars, Max's father, a steam pump, and a donkey. Excellent fun.

116. Harbinger of the Storm
117. Master of the House of Darts
Both by Aliette de Bodard, #2 and #3 in the Obsidian and Blood series. In Harbinger High Priest of the Dead Acatl and the other High Priests must do something drastic to accomplish the election of the new Revered Speaker. In Master they need to deal with the consequences of what they did. Murder, plague, politics, gods. I really enjoyed it for most of the same reasons as the first book in the series.

118. The Hound of Justice by Claire O'Dell. Second in the Janet Watson series. Watson is settling into her new position at Georgetown Hospital and getting used to her fancy new prosthetic arm. Patients who should survive are dying, and there's definitely something rotten at the hospital, but before she can get to grips with that, Sara Holmes, who is off on some secret mission, sends a message asking for help. Very good.

>201 tardis: I am trying to wait for the prices to go down in those books about Acatl. You are not helping me wait :)

>202 -pilgrim-: sorry! (not sorry ;) )

119. Spellbreaker
120. Spellmaker
both by Charlie N. Holmberg. Orphan Elsie Camden discovers at a young age that she's a spellbreaker, who can nullify spells set by other kinds of magicians. Recruited by a mystery person/group, she uses her ability secretly to help people. Or so she thinks... On one mission she meets Bacchus Kelsey, an elite magic user, and everything she knows is shaken. In the second book, Elsie and Bacchus (who has attained his Mastership) seek to trap the master magician who is murdering other magicians for their spells. I enjoyed these - they're lightweight, but I liked the characters and the plot was decent.

>203 tardis: Has she improved greatly from the standard of The Paper Magician etc., then? Or do those aspects that infuriated me simply not get to you in the same way?

>203 tardis: - I found both the Holmberg books as inexpensive ebooks, so they're on my list.

>204 -pilgrim-: I wasn't quite as bothered as you or some others (@Sakerfalcon, maybe?) but yes, I do think this is somewhat better. There's a class and financial difference between the two leads, but not much of an age difference, and since they both have magical abilities it evens things up socially, plus Elsie's spellbreaker abilities have the potential to be lucrative, making her more Bacchus' financial equal, too.

121. Lord of the Fire Lands : a Tale of the King's Blades by Dave Duncan. Swashbuckling fantasy with a lost prince, raiders and pirates, political intrigue, and murder. Dave's books are a might old-fashioned, but good fun.

-1 off the TBR pile.

122. The Evil Inside
123. The Unseen
124. The Unholy
All by Heather Graham, in her Krewe of Hunters series. Brain candy. Very formulaic. The villains are always human, but the paranormal helps solve the cases. There's always a fast fall into love/bed for two of the characters, with at least couple of steamy sex scenes. I'm going to have to take a break before I read any more in this series. Why am I reading more, you ask? Well, sometimes brain candy is what I need, and also something I can download from the library in the middle of the night, and this isn't the worst.

Nothing on Mt. TBR appeals at the moment, and the library hasn't delivered anything lately, so I'm going to have to find an old favourite to re-read.

Catch up post - it's hot here, so I'm spending most afternoons sitting in the shade, reading.

125. Valor's Choice
126. The Better Part of Valor
both by Tanya Huff. Staff Sergeant Torin Kerr's adventures in the Space Marines. Which does these books no kind of justice - Huff writes really good people (humans and aliens), and having spent time in the military herself, she has a real feel for it. Or so I'm told. I have no basis for comparison :) These are re-reads, and I'm going to finish the Valor series and go on to the Peace series, but the library has delivered more holds, so this re-read is on hold.

126. The Library of the Dead by T.L. Huchu. Set in Edinburgh's mean streets after some kind of (failed) rebellion, this is the story of Ropa, who is a ghost talker. She lives with her much loved Gran and little sister in a caravan - they lost their house long ago and makes ends meet by taking messages between the living and the dead. When a ghost asks her to find a missing child, she reluctantly agrees, and on the way discovers the Library of the Dead. She has good friends, and a loving family and this was an excellent beginning to what is supposed to be a series.

127. A Bachelor Establishment by Jodi Taylor (originally published under the pseudonym Isabella Barclay) is a light, charming regency romance, with a widow and a rake, neither of them in their first youth, and buried secrets, and more. Great fun.

128. A Wedding in the Country by Katie Fforde. Does it count as a historical romance if it's set in 1963? Lizzy goes to London to take a course in cooking and other "wifely" skills, and discovers she likes her independence. Of course, it's a romance, so there's a guy, but he's already practically engaged to someone else, and misunderstandings and other fun stuff. Fforde's books are always comforting.

Sitting in the shade reading sounds like a perfect way to deal with the heat!

I have Library of the dead on my kindle so I'm glad to see your praise for it.

129. The Conductors by Nicole Glover. Hetty and husband Benjy Rhodes were conductors on the underground railway, rescuing slaves and helping them to go north with daring, cunning and celestial magic. After the Civil War they settled in Philadelphia and developed a network of friends. Hetty is still searching for her sister, separated from her during their own escape from slavery. Hetty and Benjy are still helping people, investigating troubles, finding lost children, and more. When an acquaintance is found dead in an alley with a curse engraved on his chest, they're drawn into a very twisty mystery. A stand-alone that could serve as the beginning of a series, but doesn't have to. I enjoyed this greatly. It's Glover's debut novel, and I look forward to more.

It's 33 degrees here, and I thought maybe a book set in snowy central BC in December would help keep me from melting. Nope. Good book, though!

130. Lethal Lesson : A Lane Winslow Mystery by Iona Whishaw. Lane Winslow and her husband, Police Inspector Darling, are back in King's Cove after their honeymoon and settling in. When one teacher is attacked and another disappears, Lane steps in to substitute teach and the Inspector investigates both crimes, as well as a hit-and-run death. Zips back and forth in time, weaving the threads together. Very good.

>212 tardis:
Wow! 33 is outside my cmfort zone. Take care.

>213 pgmcc: Oh dear. This does rather limit the Great GD Geo-tour. 33 is quite a normal summer maximum around here; if you want to see Aughrabies Falls with reasonable flow, you will need to brace yourself to go in (southern) summer and cope with a daily maximum of 43 or more!

>212 tardis: That said, I have to ask what your night temperatures are like. Here we'd expect a minimum in the teens or low 20s.

>214 hfglen:
I have experienced 45 in France and higher in Saudi. I can survive but am not comfortable. When the lottery winnings arrive I will be able to endure those temperatures.

When the lottery winnings arrive I will be able to endure a lot of things.

Note to self: Buy a ticket.

>214 hfglen: Night temperatures are mostly high teens, although the day it's supposed to go to 39 degrees is forecast to have overnight of 24. We're just not used to it, and have no air conditioning in our house. I've been shutting all the windows and curtains once the outdoor temp gets higher than indoor. Yesterday when it was 33 outside it was 29 inside on the main floor. Hotter upstairs, cooler in the basement. We have a fan in our bedroom and can take cool showers. I don't often wish for air conditioning, but a week or more of these temps will do it :)

I know this is short term for you (at least we hope so); but consider installing a through the roof attic fan before AC. I’m back in my 107yo house that has been closed up for a month. Temps in the same range, but the fan has been running. Makes the house completely comfortable.
They are inexpensive to purchase. After 10 years, you have to replace the motor; which I did last fall, after failing to do so in the spring. Last summer was much much less comfortable.

>217 2wonderY: I'll have to look into that. We don't have much of an attic and what we do have is well insulated so I don't think a lot of heat is penetrating down. I guess we could leave the exhaust fan in the bathroom running, which would at least vent hot air out of the living space.

The other thing we can do is run the furnace fan to spread cooler air from the basement to the rest of the house. It needs a bit of work to set it up, though.

We, too, are hoping this is short term, but honestly with climate change I'm not so sure. I worry more about water conservation, too. Most of our water comes from glacier-fed rivers.

Yikes. Time to go distract myself in a book again!

>216 tardis: Almost exactly the same here: thirties during the day, twenties at night, no aircon. We have fans in the bedrooms, and DD has a portable aircon in her bedroom (which works well if she keeps the door closed). In the year or two after we moved in we planted lots of trees, that shade the house especially in the afternoon, and in two places we have wide verandahs. As a result, even the study I'm in now is only rendered uninhabitable by the sun shining into one's eyes for about an hour each day in winter -- in summer the sun is high enough in the sky not to be a nuisance until it's behind the trees. Also, I think houses here are built to keep the heat out rather than (as in UK and Europe, for example) to keep it in -- despite the well-known draughts in English houses.

ETA: "same here" In a normal summer, of course. Right now it's midwinter, and northern-hemisphere Dragoneers will no doubt think we're nuts for shivering in day-temperatures of low-mid-20s, dropping to mid teens at night.

>218 tardis: My attic is well insulated too. In this old house, it’s the interior air flow from bottom to top that makes the difference. Flushes out accumulated stuffy hot air.

131. Black Water Sister by Zen Cho. Moving back to Malaysia with her parents, being in the closet, and being jobless isn't stressful enough - now Jess Teoh is hearing a voice in her head. Turns out to be her deceased grandmother, who has unfinished business. I loved Jess and her family, and the story, which started heading one way, took SEVERAL turnabouts, and finished very well. Might make my "best of 2021" list.

>219 hfglen: It's all what you're used to. I remember being in Las Vegas in early December, enjoying walking about in my shirtsleeves, while the locals were wearing down jackets. My Iranian neighbours have a much harder time with our winters :)

132. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. A guy wakes up in a spaceship with no memory. Finding out who he is, why he's there, and how to solve the knotty science problem that he's been set is pretty good. Long periods of descriptions of science that got a bit tedious, but in the end a cracking good read.

133. Questland by Carrie Vaughn. When billionaires build their own private theme parks, something always goes wrong. No exception here, and literature prof Addie Cox is recruited to go with a team of mercenaries to a D&D/fantasy themed island to find out why the billionaire owner's employees have revolted and shut him out. Pretty good fun. I'm not into RPGs but I've been around enough people who are, plus I've read a metric tonne of fantasy, including Tough Guide to Fantasyland and Dark Lord of Derkholm. Very enjoyable :)

That was quite the barrage, ma'am. Took some heavy fire.

>225 Marissa_Doyle: You're welcome :)

Black water sister and Questland are already on my Wishlist but your praise means I will try to acquire them sooner rather than later.

>214 hfglen: I was hoping the tour would be spring (or autumn) rather than high summer. I have trouble with temperatures over 25 degrees, due to inability to temperature regulate through perspiration, and medication that requires me to avoid direct sunlight.

Temperature here is 20 degrees C today. So I am luckier than many of you.

Still having to run the heating at night.

>228 -pilgrim-: Oo-er. The southern hemisphere is one week past midwinter. Yesterday's maximum here in Durban was 31°C, 25 today, 21 tomorrow. Skukuza's (Kruger Park head-office) has been a fairly consistent 32 for most of winter (but falling sometimes as low as 5°C at night).

>229 hfglen: Ouch. I looked at some SA tourist brochures, and they seemed to imply winter was quite bearable (for me!)

134. The Heart of Valor
135. Valor's Trial
136. The Truth of Valor
All by Tanya Huff. Re-reads. Military SF. Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr kicks ass and discovers the truth behind the war that the Younger Races have been fighting for so many years. In the last book, she has retired from the Marines and is living on the salvage ship Promise with civilian salvage operator Craig Ryder. When Craig is kidnapped by pirates and Torin is left for dead, she goes on the hunt to get him back. Always good.

Having no library books available, I'm on to re-read the second Torin series, Peacekeepers.

137.An Ancient Peace
138.A Peace Divided
139.The Privilege of Peace
All by Tanya Huff. Now working for the Wardens of the Justice Department, Torin and the rest of Strike Team Alpha (Craig, Binti, Ressk, Werst, and Alamber) go after Humans First terrorists, plastic aliens, politicians, and more. The Humans First stuff was all too familiar in the current environment. Always very good.

140. The Crow Trap by Ann Cleves. The first of the Vera Stanhope mystery series. Suicide and murder with roots in the past. Very good, but I didn't love it enough to read more.

Another catch-up post.

141. The Right Sort of Man by Allison Montclair. After WW2 a former spy and a war widow start a matrimonial agency together. Iris Sparks is good at the finding out stuff. Gwendolyn Bainbridge is an excellent judge of character. When one client is accused of the murder of another, Gwen and Sparks take on the investigation. Fun.

142. Vengeance in Death
143. Holiday in Death
144. Conspiracy in Death
145. Loyalty in Death
146. Witness in Death
All by J.D. Robb (aka Nora Roberts). Eve Dallas investigates murders, conspiracies, etc. in futuristic police procedurals. Good brain candy.

147. The Unspoken by Heather Graham. More brain candy. Midnight insomnia download. Fits the Krewe of Hunters formula as previously mentioned, but enjoyable enough.

148. The Peacock by Isabel Bogdan. A book bullet from Sakerfalcon, I think. Set in Scotland, written in German, translated to English. Lord and Lady McIntosh rent out cottages on the estate to defray maintenance expenses. The McIntoshes accept a booking for a corporate retreat and things quickly get out of hand. The translator did an excellent job and it's a fun book.

I'm glad you enjoyed The peacock! It was a fun read!

149. Nevermoor : The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend. Morrigan is Cursed, the source of all bad luck in her town, and scheduled to die at midnight on her 11th birthday. Taken to safety by the mysterious Jupiter North, she's entered into the trials to join the Wundrous Society, and makes friends. A fun kids book, and I'll continue the series.

150. The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert. Alice and her mother live a nomadic life, deliberately cut off from Alice's grandmother, cult author Althea Prosperine, and running from... something. Alice isn't sure what. Mixes fairy tales and darkness. Good.

151. A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark. Back in steampunk Egypt, with Agent Fatma el-Sha'arawi, of the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities, and her new partner, Agent Hadia. Someone, or something, has murdered 24 people with magic, and the agents and their colleagues, plus Fatma's girlfriend, Siti (who is more than she seems!), must find the culprit and save Cairo and the world. Again. Very good!

Now here's a conundrum: you got me with The Hazel Wood...except it turns out I have it already. So do you get half-points for it? ;)

>239 Marissa_Doyle: I'll take what I can get :)

152. The Falcon Always Wings Twice by Donna Andrews. Re-read because I bought the paperback. Meg, Michael, and family are at Meg's grandmother's Biscuit Mountain Craft Centre for the summer, helping run weekend Ren Faires. Cast rivalries, extreme animal rights activists, and murder in a fun cozy mystery. I always enjoy this series. Good comfort reading.

153. Machine by Elizabeth Bear. A re-read because I just bought the paperback. This was one of my best books of 2020, and I think it improved on re-reading. It's a lovely homage to James White's Sector General series (which I love), with a gripping plot, great characters, old secrets, and sabotage.

>241 tardis: - I got that one from the library last year. Must look for the paperback.

154. The Way of the Gardener : Lost in the Weeds Along the Camino De Santiago by Lyndon Penner. In the fall of 2017, Lyndon and a friend walked the Camino, and this is his memoir of the trip and all the plants he saw along the way. It's botany, history, and travel, written in his typical chatty style (there's a reason his gardening books are among my favourites!) and I really enjoyed it. I've heard Lyndon speak several times, both in person and on podcasts; his enthusiasm and energy are infectious.

155. Cursed Luck by Kelley Armstrong. Kennedy Bennett, curse weaver, is asked by Aidan Connolly (luck worker) to uncurse a famous necklace. The catch is, he doesn't own it yet, and it's up for auction, and other people also want curse weavers to uncurse it and are less ethical about how they "hire" them. Fun, and the beginning of a series.

156. Wundersmith : The Calling of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend. Having passed the trials and joined the Wunder Society, Morrigan and her classmates begin their studies. Nasty teachers, disappearances, and danger. Very good.

157. The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison. An excellent novella featuring Thara Celehar, who was the witness for the dead The Goblin Emperor. He is working in the city of Amalo, and when asked to look at the corpse of a beautiful woman who was pulled out of a canal, is dropped into a tangled investigation. He has several other concurrent cases, equally interesting. I loved this.

>246 tardis: I’m ready for it! Just finishing up The Goblin Emperor; probably on your recommendation. Loved his progress through the book.

158. The Family Cross by Gabrielle Ash. Urban Fantasy. Matilda Ashby is a rich girl with a business degree, a job in the family business, a remote and demanding father, and two brothers. She's a bit of a drip, really, although good at her job. So, why is someone trying to kill her? Rescued from the first attempt by a guy, Samson, she met in a coffee shop, she hires him to find out who took the contract on her and protect her from future attempts. Pitchforked into a world of shadow assassins and werewolves, she's out of her depth, but Samson knows the score. Pretty good, overall. Will definitely keep an eye out for more in this series. Received from the LibraryThing Early Reviewer Program in exchange for an unbiased review.

>246 tardis: Oh! I didn't know this novela existed. Thank you!

Catch-up post:

159. The Uninvited
160. The Night is Watching
161. The Night is Alive
All by Heather Graham, in the Krewe of Hunters series. Late night insomnia downloads. Formulaic brain candy with a supernatural twist.

162. Hollowpox : The Hunt for Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend. Morrigan is finally learning how to be a Wundersmith but there's a terrifying disease affecting the Wunimals (intelligent animals) and turning them into ordinary animals. As good as the previous books.

New-to-me author, Celia Lake - book bullets from someone on the Lois McMaster Bujold email list. I acquired the first books in three of her series to try them out, liked all three, and have ordered the rest. I think I'd have been just as happy to get them from the library, but they are self-published and so a bit hard to get. E-book versions are as usual cheaper than paperbacks.

163. Pastiche by Celia Lake. #1 in her Charms of Albion series. Fantasy/romance about a couple in an arranged marriage who find love with each other and solve a mystery. Set in the early 1900s. Richard is a member of the Guard (basically magical police force). Alysoun is his wife, who becomes fascinated by an anomaly in an exhibit of stained glass pieces. I really enjoyed this.

164. Carry On by Celia Lake. Mysterious Powers, Book 1. WW1 era, fantasy/romance. Richard wakens in the Temple of Healing after a war injury, but he isn't recovering the way he should. Elen is a nurse, also sent home from the Front after a head injury that caused her to develop migraines. Trying to get back into nursing, she is assigned as Richard's private nurse. Why can't she see his file? What's in the medication that is making him so muzzy-headed? Why isn't he recovering? Again, really liked this.

165. Outcrossing by Celia Lake. Mysterious Charm, book 1. Fantasy/romance. Set in the New Forest right after WW1. Ferry doesn't want to marry the old man that her family has selected for her, so she's working as a governess. Rufus is the only member of his family to survive the war and the influenza, but he can't get steady work and he's on the verge of losing everything. Smugglers, magic, bogs, ponies.

166. The Fossil Door by Celia Lake. Set in 1922. Romance/fantasy. Rathna is a Portal Keeper, one of the rare people who maintain the portals that allow instantaneous transport in Albion. Gabe is a "Penelope", one of the scientific analysts of the Guard. He's also the son of the protagonists of Pastiche, above. A portal in the remote Scottish highlands has stopped working and Rathna and Gabe are sent to investigate and fix it. Enjoyable.

167. Eclipse by Celia Lake. Fantasy/romance in a school for magic. Two professors move from friendship to love while protecting their students and dealing with an Umbridge-type new teacher. No huge conflict, but a very nice story.

168. Death in Daylesford by Kerry Greenwood. The inimitable Phryne Fisher and her companion, Dot, go on holiday to Daylesford and find mysteries and murder aplenty. Meanwhile, at home, Phryne's adopted children help investigate the death of a schoolfriend.

>250 tardis:, >251 tardis: - direct hit, I have acquired several titles by Celia Lake.

>253 NorthernStar: I think you'll like them :)

Another catch-up post:

169. Goblin Fruit by Celia Lake. Mysterious Charm #2. Lord Geoffrey Carillon (a very clear homage to Lord Peter Wimsey) is investigating rumours of a new addictive and sometimes fatal drink. Lizzie Penhallow is trying to protect her younger sister. They end up working together.

170. Magician's Hoard by Celia Lake. Mysterious Charm #3. Bookseller Pross (Prosperina) and historian/archaeologist Ibis investigate a possible hidden treasure on an estate in Norfolk.

171. Wards of the Roses by Celia Lake. Mysterious Charm #4. Giles Lefton, a brilliant mathematician blinded in WW1, and Guard Kate Davies are assigned to investigate a manor house that has reappeared after a thousand or so years of absence.

172. In the Cards by Celia Lake. Mysterious Charm #5. Laura Penhallow, having survived TB, a family scandal, and a dangerous magical drink, visits one of the Scilly Isles to see if she and the son of the house would suit as marriage partners. When one of the other guests is found dead, Laura, Galen and Galen's journalist pal, Martin, investigate.

173. On the Bias by Celia Lake. Mysterious Charm #6. Dressmaker/tailor Mistress Castalia (Cassie) Jones has built her business from the ground up. One of her best clients is Lord Geoffrey Carillon and his fiancée, Lizzie Penhallow. Her usual contact with the two of them, aside from fittings, is Benton, Carillon's valet. She moves from scorn of people in service to respect as they solve a mystery of who is out to get Benton's employer.

174. Seven Sisters by Celia Lake. Mysterious Charm #7. Vivian Porter, owner of an inquiry agency, takes a pro bono case investigating eerie happenings at a boarding house near Oxford. The inhabitants of the house include one she's distantly related to and the mystery is deeper into the past than she expected.

>245 tardis: I love the hotel. Also, I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly the series turned a bit more serious.

>246 tardis: I may have to break down and buy this.

>255 libraryperilous: You really should buy Witness. I plan to, although probably when it's out in paperback. I borrowed it from the library.

175. Yellowthread Street by William Marshall. Late 1970s police procedural set in Hong Kong, first in a series. I enjoyed the characters and for an older book it really wasn't that dated, aside from the technology, of course. Not as sexist as I expected :)

176. Sci Fi by William Marshall. An early 1980s Yellowthread Street police procedural. A huge SF Congress is being held in Hong Kong, with cosplay and movie premieres and all the bells and whistles. The police are run ragged keeping a lid on things. Also there's a guy in a space suit, incinerating people. Quite fun.

177. The Venice Sketchbook by Rhys Bowen. Two connected stories. Juliet Brown visits Venice twice in the 1920s and 30s and meets a guy. In 1938 she goes back for a year of art school and gets stuck as WW2 begins. Caroline is struggling with the end of her marriage, custody of her son, and the death of her great-aunt. But Aunt Lettie has left her a box with mysterious keys and instructions to go to Venice. A satisfying mystery.

178. The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers. I finally got tired of waiting for the library to deliver this book and bought a copy. I probably would have eventually, anyway, since I have all Chambers' other books. Well worth it! Three travelers are stuck at a rest stop when a freak accident stops all traffic and communication on and off Gora. Two of them are in a hurry to get elsewhere, one has a twin sister still in orbit and doesn't know if the sister is okay. The host and her child do all they can to make their customers comfortable, and as their stories unfold the reader is brought in. I loved it.

>258 tardis: My favorite one of hers! I love slice of life stories set in outer space. I especially liked the tourist stop setting and the question, "What if people got stuck somewhere they only had planned on staying for an hour?"

The host and her son

I think the child hasn't decided their gender identity yet, or at least that's how I read it. The kid was adorable, especially the scene where xe race into xyr museum to give a tour.

>259 libraryperilous: Arg, you're right! I will edit that to change son to child. I don't know why I defaulted to "son" but it was wrong of me! And xe was so charming, too :)

179. Hard Time by Jodi Taylor. #2 in her Time Police series, the other side of the St. Mary's coin. Team Weird (Matthew, Jane and Luke) are almost done their training with the Time Police and are sent to retrieve an ex-girlfriend of Luke's. She's been marooned in the past by an illegal time-travel operation. That's just the beginning, though! Lots of action and humour, as always. Loved it.

>260 tardis: Just such a cozy book, and xe were the coziest of all. :)

>261 tardis: I've heard good things about Taylor's books. Do you recommend starting at the beginning or with a specific title?

>262 libraryperilous: Definitely start at the beginning with Taylor's books! Things need to happen in order. Also read the St. Mary's books before the Time Police ones.

>263 tardis: Argh. I had been hoping to start at the second series. Thanks for the warning.

>264 -pilgrim-: To get the most out of Time Police, you really need Matthew's backstory, which is in St. Mary's along with a lot of the worldbuilding. You get a bit in Time Police, but not the full details. The latest St. Mary's books overlap with Time Police and characters from each appear in the other series. Also it's fun to see St. Mary's and the Time Police from each other's viewpoints.

180. Guards, Guards by Terry Pratchett. A comfort re-read.

181. This Side of Murder by Anna Lee Huber. War widow (WW1) and former intelligence agent Verity Kent goes to a house party on an island with some of her late husband's comrades. Murder ensues. I quite enjoyed this and will probably look for others in the series.

182. The City We Became by N. K. Jemison. This was So Good. 6 people become avatars of New York city - one each for Manhattan, Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island, plus one "primary" for the whole thing. Their job is to work together to "birth" New York. There is, of course, opposition to this from a mysterious entity from another dimension. Loved it.

>267 tardis: I'm glad to hear it's so good, since it's sitting on my Kindle.

183. Plan for the Worst by Jodi Taylor. The latest in the Chronicles of St. Mary's. Ancient Crete, The Tower of London, Clive Ronan, and who can Max trust? The usual litany of disasters and friendship. Loved it.

184. The Physicians of Vilnoc by Lois McMaster Bujold. Re-read as I recently received the paper copy. Penric and Desdemona are called to help solve a plague afflicting the garrison headed by Pen's brother-in-law, General Arysadia. Very good, as always.

185. Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett. Comfort re-read. Terry's take on equal opportunity hiring in the police force. I've been reading other recent reviews and agree with some of the criticisms, but I still love it.

186. Treacherous is the Night by Anna Lee Huber. Verity Kent and not-dead-after-all husband Sidney try to repair their damaged marriage while travelling post-WW1 Belgium to find one of her former secret service contacts. Very good.

>186 tardis: the Anna Lee Huber series sounds interesting. I checked my library, and of course they have most of the series - except the first one - available as ebooks. Frustrating!

187. Magic Lost, Trouble Found by Lisa Shearin. Raine Benares is keeping an eye on a thief friend when it all goes pear-shaped and she ends up with an amulet she can't get rid of, but that a bunch of nasty people want. On the run from her enemies, she's in hot water. Fun brain candy. Would read more in the series if I come across them.

188. Penny for Your Secrets by Anna Lee Huber. Verity and Sidney Kent investigate two murders - a lord shot, possibly by his wife, Verity's friend Ada, and another friend's sister, bashed on the head in the course of a robbery. Good but needed better copy editing. Several nasty malapropisms (precursory instead of cursory, for example).

189. Home From The Sea by Mercedes Lackey. Re-read as I picked up the paperback. One of the Elemental Masters series, featuring Nan and Sarah, and also Selch - kind of like selkies. Enjoyable but like all this series, forgettable.

>273 tardis: I read and loved Steadfast. I adore the Steadfast Tin Soldier fairy tale and would read any retelling of it. The others I've tried have not really held my attention, not even the one with the talking cat, although I did finish and enjoy The Serpent's Shadow.

>274 libraryperilous: I loved The Serpent's Shadow, and I've enjoyed the rest. I just find them deeply unmemorable. Which is fine because they're decent comfort reading and I can re-read without too much memory of the last time :)

190. Judgement in Death
191. Betrayal in Death
192. Seduction in Death
193. Reunion in Death
194. Purity in Death

All by J.D. Robb (aka Nora Roberts), featuring police detective Eve Dallas and her team, her rich husband, her quirky friends, etc. Ultimate brain candy.

After a drought of library books and rain the library has delivered about 6 ebooks and the weather has provided a rainy day. I do have a few household chores to do, but I'll be sure to fit in some reading, too :)

195. Manna from Hades by Carola Dunn. Cozy mystery set in the 1960s in Cornwall, featuring a retired woman who collects donations for a charity shop. One day she finds a briefcase in her carload of donations that she doesn't remember being given. Quite fun.

196. A Fiancée's guide to First Wives and Murder by Dianne Freeman. A Countess of Harleigh mystery. Victorian/Edwardian era cozy. Good brain candy.

197. For The Killing of Kings by Howard Andrew Jones. Sword and sorcery, reminiscent of Dave Duncan's King's Blades series. Order of knights, betrayal, heroism, etc. I liked it and have already got the second in the trilogy on my e-reader.

198. A Few Right Thinking Men by Sulari Gentill. Depression-era Sydney, Australia. Rowland Sinclair is an artist, although he comes from money, sharing his home with three other arty and VERY lefty types, rather to the horror of his straight-laced, right-wing brother. When Rowland's uncle (also called Rowland Sinclair) dies, he wants to know who did it. Communists, fascists, murder, painting. Very good!

>277 tardis: Oooh, shiny!

Edited to correct numbering.

199. Capture the Crown by Jennifer Estep. Gemma Ripley is a princess, and a spy. Tracking down theft of tearstone from her country's mines brings her back into contact with Prince Leonidas of Morta. Sparks fly, also mistrust and betrayal. Not a bad story, but (as with Estep's previous series set in this world) the worldbuilding is lazy. If Italy doesn't exist in this world, why is there parmesan, ricotta, and ravioli? If no France, why baguettes? I find it annoying.

200. Cast in Conflict by Michelle Sagara. Latest in the Chronicles of Elantra. Lots of conflict between differing groups, but also some signs of progress in Kaylin's knowledge of the magical marks on her body. Hard to sum it all up. Very good, anyway.

201. Scandal in Babylon by Barbara Hambly. Using all the same research and very similar characters as in Bride of the Rat God (one of my favourite books!), but none of the supernatural elements, Hambly has produced a fun mystery of silent film-era Hollywood. Englishwoman Emma Blackstone was married and widowed during WW1, and then lost her parents and home. Rescued from paid companionship to a dreadful woman by her ditzy actress sister-in-law, Camille de la Rose, she comes to Hollywood as said sister-in-law's assistant and dog-minder. There, she begins to find her feet again, taking on script-doctoring and making friends. When Camille's first ex-husband is murdered and Camille framed for it, Emma and friends step up to solve the mystery. Really enjoyed this.

>281 tardis: sounds good, but the price is prohibitive at the moment. I checked Amazon and Kobo, and the cheapest ebook price was $18.04.

>282 NorthernStar: I bought the hardcover at considerably higher expense :) I'm sure the ebook price will come down eventually, or maybe your library will get it. Worth it.

202. Bride of the Rat God by Barbara Hambly. After reading Scandal in Babylon I had to go back to Bride to compare. It was a tough job (not :) ). Anyway, Norah's backstory in Bride is almost word-for-word the same as Emma's in Scandal. The Pekes have the same names but a much more important role in Bride, the house is in the same location, some of the movie cast and crew are the same. The important bit, the plot, is very different, of course. There are several murders, but by supernatural entity. Still love it.

>281 tardis: Nice to hear about some new Barbara Hambly! That sounds good, I'll have to put that and >283 tardis: on my list.

>283 tardis: I loved Bride of the Rat God...so I've definitely taken a bullet on Scandal in Babylon.

203. Murder Most Fowl by Donna Andrews. Latest in the Meg Langslow series. Meg's husband is directing MacBeth and rehearsing the cast and crew in Caerphilly over the summer. A deal with the History Department of Caerphilly College has landed them with a camp of reenactors (Medieval Scotland) and a documentary filmmaker as well as a houseful of actors and crew. It's the usual fun. I love this series.

204. Jade War by Fonda Lee. I read the first book in this series, Jade City, a year or two ago, and although very impressed, I wasn't sure I wanted to read more. The story is more violent and bloody than I'm usually comfortable with. It's like a cross between the Sopranos and Game of Thrones, only set in an alternate world's equivalent to Japan. I can't quite remember why I decided to pick up the second book, which starts where the previous one left off, but again I was impressed. It's a very well-written and absorbing book. I'll definitely read the third book when it comes out, although this is not a series I will re-read, so it will come from the library.

205. A Pretty Deceit by Anna Lee Huber. Verity Kent mystery #4. Verity and Sydney are still looking for evidence against Lord Ardmore, but in the meantime Verity's aunt asks for help because of the damage done to her home by officers billeted there during the war. Thefts, a missing maid, murder. Good.

206. Finder by Suzanne Palmer. Fergus Ferguson is a repo man, finding and retrieving stuff for his clients. In this case, it's a spaceship stolen by a crime lord in a group of space habitats called Cernekan. Of course, it's not straightforward. Fast paced and fun.

207. Night Fall by Joan Aiken. Slightly gothic "contemporary" (i.e. 1969) about a girl who has nightmares and what happens when she tries to track down the source. Peril, mystery, romance, excellent Abyssinian cat.

-1 off the TBR pile, which now stands at 48, the lowest it's been in decades :)

>289 tardis: How excellent? Are we talking Tamsin levels of excellent cats?

Congrats on the decades-in-the-making TBR milestone!

>290 libraryperilous: I don't know Tamsin so can't say, but he is important to the story and still a believable cat.

208. Portrait In Death
209. Imitation In Death
210. Divided In Death
211. Visions In Death
212. Survivor In Death
All by J.D. Robb (aka Nora Roberts). More Eve Dallas futusristic police procedural fun. I like the characters and the plot are a bit formulaic but okay. However, I'm starting to page past the long, repetitive descriptions of the abuse Eve suffered in childhood as well as the sex scenes.

213. A Decline in Prophets by Sulari Gentill. Second Rowland Sinclair mystery, set in the Depression. For much of the book, Rowland and friends are on a luxury steamship, travelling first to New York and then on to Australia. There's unrest and murder along the way. They meet historical figures like Annie Besant and other Theosophists, and an aspiring actor named Archie Leach. Enjoyable.

214. On Skein of Death by Allie Pleiter. Cozy mystery set in a knitting shop. Midnight insomnia download. Hits all the tropes, and is no doubt the start of a series wherein a town that has never had a murder before becomes a slash-fest. Fine for what it was, but not very original.

215. The Magician's Diary by C.J. Archer. #4 in the Glass and Steele series. Having found Chronos, who turns out to be India's long lost grandfather, they still haven't found all they need to save Matt's life. Bit tired of the "I'm just a lowly tradesperson, not worthy to marry him even though we have feelings that we're not articulating (much)" vibe. Otherwise, decent installment in the series arc.

216. Driving the Deep by Suzanne Palmer. Fergus Ferguson goes back to Earth to take care of some family business, runs afoul of a retired cop looking for the thieves who shot his daughter, gets an emergency call that there's trouble at the Shipyard near Pluto, and has to go looking for his missing friends from Shipyard. Action packed, fun, and I enjoyed it a lot.

217. The Trouble With Demons by Lisa Shearin. Raine Benares series #3. Demons are popping up all over the isle of Mid. Action, lightweight fun.

218. A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers. Gentle little novella about a monk trying to find their purpose in life, and a robot trying to find out what people want. Very good.

>295 tardis: Great! Can’t get enough of Becky Chambers. Ordered it.

>295 tardis: I liked Chambers' novella, but I do hope the next entry has a bit more adventure. It seems like she's setting up trips to some of the locations mentioned in this one, perhaps as a chance to explore how each place reacts to the robot.

219. Bewitched & Betrayed by Lisa Shearin. Raine Benares #4. Still with the demons, but also a demon queen, and an evil sorcerer. Pretty much like all the others, not so much in plot but in quality and themes. I liked it.

220. Miles Off Course by Sulari Gentill. Rowland Sinclair #3. Rowly and pals go off to a cattle station to track down an aboriginal employee who has disappeared and figure out what's "off" about the rest of the crew. Also very good.

And my 16th Thingaversary is in 7 days!

221. Million Dollar Demon by Kim Harrison. #15 in the Rachel Morgan series. The new master vampire of Cincinnati is a sadistic, insane monster, and Rachel ends up with a houseful of refugees while trying to slap down the vampire, balance feuding demons, etc. I got fed up with this series after the first three or four books, so I haven't read the ten or so intervening between those and this one, but I don't seem to have missed much. In fact, it probably contributed to my enjoyment of this one. I will probably keep going with the series, since I won't be reading them back-to-back, which always highlights the annoying bits.

Catch-up post:

222. Wild Card by Lisa Shearin. Raine Benares novella, set before the events of the first book in the series. On par with the rest of the series.

223. All Spell Breaks Loose by Lisa Shearin. Raine & co. still trying to defeat the evil wizard and destroy the evil magic stone. Getting a bit tired of the shoddy worldbuilding - referring to a character as "Mommy Dearest" and a lot of other things that really only make sense in our world.

224. Wedding Bells, Magic Spells by Lisa Shearin. Peace summit between the seven kingdoms plus wedding for Raine and Mychael. See above re: worldbuilding, but otherwise fun enough.

225. The Autopilot Garden by Luke Marion. A good basic gardening book, combining techniques from traditional gardening, permaculture, hugelkulture, etc. to save time. As usual "autopilot" is a misnomer - no garden runs on its own - but there are some handy tips here.

Yesterday was my 16th Thingaversary, but I spent most of it working in the garden and committing a crime against horticulture by pruning my lilac badly.

>300 tardis: Congratulations! How is your book acquiring going?

>301 -pilgrim-: 6 new (or new to me) on hand, 5 more on order, 5 just picked up from the library. Plus 3 library e-books on my Kobo. If that isn't sufficient for the enforcers, I can distract them with cheese and nice cups of really hot tea.

>300 tardis: I’m always looking for tips to simplify the gardening work.

226. Treasure and Treason
227. Ruins and Revenge
Both by Lisa Shearin. One book in two volumes, set in Raine Benares' world, although she makes no appearance. There's another scary rock that needs to be kept out of the hands of evildoers, so Tamnais Nathratch and his goblin pals, plus Phaelen Benares and his crew sail off to a distant continent to try to find it before the baddies do. Decent time-waster.

228. Death of an Irish Mummy by Catie Murphy. 3rd Dublin Driver mystery. Megan is assigned to drive a brassy American woman who thinks she's the heir to an earldom. Caught up in murder AGAIN, Megan's job and home are threatened. This was a lot of fun. Megan is awesome, and the other characters are great, too. I had a pretty good idea of who the murderer was before the end, but that doesn't make it less fun to get to the end to see if I was right.

229. Curate : Inspiration for an individual home by Lynda Gardener and Ali Heath. Homes belonging to Australian designer Gardener and a few others are featured. Very nice but the love of monochrome palettes doesn't appeal to me. At least not minimalist, though.

230. This is Your Mind on Plants by Michael Pollan. Pollan profiles three plants that have a grip on our minds: Opium, Caffiene, and Mescaline. A mix of science, history, folklore, and personal experimentation written in Pollan's usual accessible and interesting style. I have to hurry to get this back to the library - there are 93 people behind me in line to read this :)

>305 tardis: I have been keeping an eye on that Pollan book. I might opt for the audio, as I still have quite a few credits to use up. Did you enjoy it?

>306 clamairy: I did enjoy it. Maybe not as much as Botany of Desire, but I am a caffeine addict, so that section was particularly interesting :)

231. When the Goddess Wakes by Howard Andrew Jones. #3 in the Ring-Sworn Trilogy. Now allied with their former enemies, the Naor, the Altenerai go to war against the former queen and her goddess. A good conclusion.

232. Paper & Blood by Kevin Hearne. Second in his Ink & Sigil series. Two of the Sigil agents disappear in Australia, and Al, Buck, and co. go to find them. Atticus, Oberon, and Starbuck turn up to help out. Atticus (now using the name Connor) was less annoying than in the Iron Druid series.

>307 tardis: Caffeine addict here as well. I listened to his short audio on caffeine last month, and thought it was rather eye-opening. (That one is an Audible freebie.) I figured this one probably covers much of the same ground, but I'm still interested.

233. The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik. The Scholomance, #2. El, spiky as ever, is a senior at Scholomance. She and what's left of her year are due to graduate in 12 months, and as per the previous book, it's going to be pretty traumatic getting through the malifices to the exit. It's going to be a heck of a year. I enjoyed this a lot, but the ending is... abrupt. Not wrong or bad, but it makes me feel (hope!) that Novik isn't done with the Scholomance series.

234. Miss Kopp Investigates by Amy Stewart. The youngest Miss Kopp, sidelined from her music career because of her bad throat infection, is looking for work. A stint as a professional co-respondent in divorce cases leads her to a mystery, and she steps up to solve it. Very enjoyable.

235. Buried Memories by Simon R. Green. Ishmael Jones series. Decent plot, which digs into Ishmael's past, but Green can't seem to make unique characters. There's not much to differentiate Jones from Eddie Drood or several others.

236. Paving the New Road by Sulari Gentill. Rowland Sinclair mystery #4. Rowly and his friends go to Germany to spy on an Australian Hitler fan who wants to bring fascism home. Twisty.

237. Gentlemen Formerly Dressed
238. A Murder Unmentioned
239. Give the Devil His Due
240. A Dangerous Language
All by Sulari Gentill, all in her Rowland Sinclair series. Rowly and his pals fight fascism in 1930s Australia, solve murders, and offend the powerful. Very good. I quite enjoy how real people turn up in these books. In one of these, a pre-stardom Errol Flynn is a side character :)

241. Witch Please By Ann Aguirre. A cutesy urban fantasy about a witch who repairs appliances, her witch roommate/business partner/cousin, the rest of their coven, her hunky mundane insta-love interest, and her overbearing witch grandmother. Lots of sex, very inclusive cast of characters. It was a decent time-waster, but not worth continuing the series.

242. Murder Most Fair by Anna Lee Huber. Verity Kent mystery. Verity and husband go back to her family home in Yorkshire for Christmas along with her elderly German aunt and the aunt's German maid. Family drama, murder, prejudice. Very good.

243. Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart. "A Novel of An Ancient China That Never Was." A re-read in honour of a friend who died recently. It was one of her (and my) favourite books and I got my hardcover copy from her. Still wonderful to follow Li Kao and Number Ten Ox as they try to find the Root of Power to save the poisoned children of Ox's village. The last word of the book is "Farewell" which seemed appropriate for my friend.

244. Knot of Shadows by Lois McMaster Bujold. Latest in the Penric and Desdemona series. A weird medical case turns out to be actually worse than a demon. So good. Want more Pen and Des!

>312 tardis: I hope rereading the novel brought you some comfort, especially since you were able to hold a physical copy she'd given you. It sounds like a lovely way to honor your friendship with her.

It's such a beautiful story. "The birds must fly."

>313 libraryperilous: Thank you. It did, a bit.

245. Murder in Chianti by Camilla Trinchieri. A former homicide detective (American) has moved to his late wife's home village in Italy, where he lives simply, helping her relatives in their restaurant. When a man is murdered in the forest behind his home, he becomes involved with the police investigation. Long-buried secrets, fab-sounding food, great characters. Very good.

246. Jekyll & Hyde Inc. by Simon R. Green. Hey, a main character who isn't an Eddie Drood clone... at least at the beginning. A former police officer, crippled in the line of duty by something horrible, is recruited by Edward Hyde to destroy monsters. I can suspend disbelief pretty far, but this pushed it to breaking point. Also, super violent and gory. Not recommended unless you really love Green's work.

I tried Jekyll & Hyde Inc. but I couldn't get through the writing. The characters were all really underdeveloped.

>315 reconditereader: Agree. I plowed through to the end, but everything was underdeveloped, not just the characters.

247. The Kinsmen Universe by Ilona Andrews. Three light-weight romance/sf stories. Enjoyable, but not earthshaking. Brain candy.

248. Winterlight by Kristen Britain. New in the Green Rider series! Karigan battles through, dealing with PTSD, unhealed injuries, new injuries, forbidden love, etc. It's good, and it moves the series along, but there's a lot more to come.

249. Death in Castle Dark by Veronica Bond. A pretty decent mystery about a castle in Illinois that is run as a mystery dinner theatre venue where the guests are the "inspectors" and actors portray the suspects. A new addition to the cast, Nora, finds a corpse during one performance. I quite enjoyed this.

250. A Sprinkling of Murder by Daryl Wood Gerber. Sigh. Fairies. Also recipes. I should have known better. Cutesy.

251. The Complete Gardener by Monty Don. An update of Don's previous book of the same title, more than 20 years later. Full of wonderful pictures of his enormous property, plus lots of gardening knowledge, but very English. General concepts transfer, but a lot of the details simply don't in my climate. Still, a very enjoyable book by one of the iconic modern gardeners.

>318 tardis: I’m not sure “cutesy” is an adequate indicator. Please expand.

>319 2wonderY: The protagonist runs a shop selling fairy stuff. She takes her cat to work. There's an actual fairy that lives in the shop. She reconnects with a cute guy who runs a cafe. It's all much too sweet for me.

252. Origin in Death
253. Memory in Death
254. Born in Death
255. Innocent in Death
256. Creation in Death
All by J.D. Robb (aka Nora Roberts). More Eve Dallas futuristic police procedurals. Good brain candy.

257. The Scavenger Door by Susanne Palmer. #3 of the Finder Chronicles. Fergus is on Earth, visiting his relatives and the sister he didn't know he had when he finds a weird fragment of an artifact. This sets him on a quest to find the rest of the fragments, because they have to be destroyed to prevent Earth and its solar system from being destroyed. His sister, Isla, is great, but I really loved the alien, Ignacio. All in all a very fun book.

>320 tardis: Thank you!

258. The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed. A post-apocalyptic novella of survival and potential. Reid and her mother live in a community occupying what was the campus of the University of Alberta, scraping survival. Reid gets a letter inviting her to Howse University, and has to decide if she's going to go or not. Very good.

>323 tardis: Did I hear someone say "post-apocalyptic?" Going to see if this is available from Libby.

>324 clamairy: It should be - my library has it via Libby/Overdrive.

>325 tardis: It was not, but I requested it. They had three others by the same author, so it's not like it was a stretch. They have been pretty quick to get everything I have asked for so far, so I have my fingers crossed.

259. Growing Good Food : A Citizen's Guide to Backyard Carbon Farming by Acadia Tucker. A compact but info-dense book. Most of the stuff on soil building I already knew, but there were definitely nuggets that I can apply in my garden next year. Would be particularly useful for beginning gardeners with an interest in permaculture and regenerative growing.

260. The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton. This was a very silly book. Cecilia Bassingthwaite is a junior member of the Wisteria Society, a group of very genteel Victorian ladies who specialize in good manners, piracy, and assassination. First, Cecilia becomes the target of her first assassin (a real advancement in her piratical career!), then her dastardly father hatches an evil plot against Queen and country, and she and the society ladies must save the day, with the help of the assassin who seems to have very mixed motives. Very silly, quite funny in spots, and generally enjoyable.

>328 tardis: I just put that on my library list last week, after hearing about it on (I think) the Fated Mates podcast.

>329 reconditereader: Hope you like it :)

261. No Words by Meg Cabot. Jo Wright, children's novelist, accepts an invitation to a book festival for a hefty fee and on the assumption that her nemesis, adult mush writer Will Price, (who lives near the festival) won't be there. Yeah, right! This is fun, light, romance fluff. A fast read.

262. Paladin's Hope by T. Kingfisher. Galen is one of the Paladins of the dead Saint of Steel. Piper is a lich doctor (basically coroner). They bond over corpses. There are gnoles, of course, too. Not much of the Bishop and the rest of the Temple of the White Rat functionaries (too bad!), and maybe a bit more repressed longing than I prefer, but still a fun ride.

>331 tardis: tardis, I’m really enjoying this series but I agree this one was a bit more longing than romance and the cliffhanger!

263. What's the Matter With Mary Jane? by Candas Jane Dorsey. An old friend comes back into our nameless narrator's life, bringing with her mystery, murder, and danger. I enjoyed this as much as Candas' previous book (The Adventures of Isabel) although it's a bit darker. My favourite indie bookstore features prominently, as do many other local landmarks. Recommended.

264. An Unintended Voyage by Marshall Ryan Maresca. At the end of A Parliament of Bodies, Sergeant Corrie Welling of the Maradaine Constabulary, was in the hold of a slave ship with a bunch of kids. The next two books in the series never mentioned what happened to her, so I was thrilled to get this, Corrie's book. She ends up stuck in an unfamiliar city where she doesn't speak the language, and with a huge debt that has to be repaid before she can leave. How she copes in her inimitable, foul-mouthed way, is a fun ride. Recommended.

265. The Last Chance Library by Freya Sampson. June Jones is a shy woman who has been working as a library assistant at her village public library since her mother died. When the Council votes to close the library, June is caught up in the attempt to save it. Lots of quirky characters, cute story. Didn't end quite the way I expected, but it was good.

266. Trader's Leap by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. Master Trader Shan yos'Galan is recuperating from injuries received in an attack on his life and develop new trade routes. His daughter, Padi, is learning to use her own burgeoning psychic talents and to be a trader. Intrigue, danger, and exploration. Always nice to be in the Liaden-verse.

267. True Dead by Faith Hunter. Jane Yellowrock is Dark Queen and head of the Mithraian (can't be bothered to check if I've spelled that correctly) vampires of New Orleans and area, and coping with the usual challenges, betrayals, and losses. A good entry in the series.

>333 tardis: The adventures of Isabel was a book bullet from you and @NorthernStar - I loved it! I'm looking forward to getting the next book.

268. Shanghai Secrets by Sulari Gentill. Also known as All the Tears in China. Rowly and his artsy pals go to Shanghai so Rowly can stand in for his brother in discussion of wool sales, with strict instructions not to commit to any deals. When a woman is murdered in his suite they go into investigation mode. Good.

269. The Mask of Mirrors by M.A. Carrick. Ren and Tess escaped a Fagin-type years ago, when Ren poisoned her after the woman murdered their brother. Now they're back, planning a long con on the rich family of an estranged woman. Things aren't what they seem, and there's a lot of politics and intrigue. It took me a bit to get into this, but I ended up enjoying it quite a bit, and I plan to read the next in the series when the library finally gets it.

270. Ghost of a Summoning by J.E. McDonald. An ER book. 3rd in the Wickwood Chronicles. Aubrey Karle (roommate of Stella, heroine of the previous book in the series) runs an antique store. Since she has been haunted since childhood by the ghost of a 12 year old boy and her roomie is a witch, she's well aware of the paranormal. Roman Milone is a demon hunter trying to prevent a prophecy from coming true. Insta-attraction, pretty close to insta-love, a mystery, and stopping the apocalypse make for a decent story. I personally found the sex scenes overwrought and over-long, but others might enjoy them more. I will think twice before requesting any more of this series through Early Reviewers.

>340 tardis: I really enjoyed The mask of mirrors too. I found it very rich and immersive.

271. The Twelve Jays of Christmas by Donna Andrews. The 30th (!) Meg Langslow mystery. Meg is at home with a sprained ankle while Michael and the kids are off skiing. Not that she's alone - aside from a passel of assorted relatives visiting for Christmas, there's an obnoxious painter working on bird paintings for Dr. Blake's upcoming bird book. Murder, assault, kidnapping, and the usual mayhem. I always enjoy this series, even though it stretches credulity a bit. Fun, plus a bunch of nerdy easter eggs.

272. State of Terror by Hilary Clinton and Louise Penny. New US Secretary of State Ellen Adams has just somehow botched a meeting with the Koreans, she's at odds with the President, and terrorists are exploding bombs on buses in major cities. Adams and best friend/aide Betsy go on the hunt for the culprits, going from Washington to Moscow (with stops in between). Many characters are are lightly camouflaged real people. There's a cameo by Penny's regular sleuth, Gamache, towards the end. There are layers and red herrings and a hell of a lot of coincidences. Some of the character development is light. It somehow left me vaguely unsatisfied, but it was a fast read and gripping enough to keep me reading late into the night.

I'm not going to count them, but I re-read the Murderbot series last week, being in need of a comfort read. Still great :)

273. The Apollo Murders by Chris Hadfield. Kaz Zemeckis, having washed out of the astronaut program due to the loss of an eye in a test flight, is brought in as flight controller for the Apollo 18 moon landing. The military has a hand in this flight and there are changes in the plans due to its desire to check out Russian stuff on the way. Lots of chewy 1973s NASA science, plus Russian space program science, mixed with spies, murder and politics. I enjoyed it, although it's not likely something I'll go back to.

274. Thames Mudlarking : Searching For London's Lost Treasures by Jason Sandy and Nick Stevens. A small book highlighting some of the interesting and historical finds on the Thames foreshore. Not exactly in-depth, but interesting anyway. Good thing to get from the library.

275. Your Guide To Not Getting Murdered In a Quaint English Village by Maureen Johnson and Jay Cooper. Cute and amusing, if a bit twee. Very short. Lots of Gorey-esque illustrations. Glad I got it from the library as it isn't a keeper.

>345 tardis: I follow some of the mudlarkers on Instagram. Lovely treasures.

>346 2wonderY: Me too. Always interesting to see what they find.

276. The Book of Accidents by Chuck Wendig. Horror is not my thing... but... this was really good. Oliver is a too-sensitive kid. He and his parents, Nate and Maddie, move to his dad's childhood home (lots of bad memories, but hopefully better for Oliver. Nate sees the ghost (?) of his own father. Maddie blacks out while creating art. Oliver makes a weird new friend. Twisted and creepy.

277. The Bitter Taste of Murder by Camilla Trinchieri. Second in her Tuscan mystery series. An unpleasant wine critic dies untimely, although not undeservedly. Was it the soon-to-be ex-wife? The beautiful girlfriend? The vineyard owner he was threatening to ruin? Ex-NYPD homicide detective Nico Doyle helps the local carabinieri in his adopted village find the truth. Very enjoyable, and the food described is mouthwaterinhg.

>347 tardis: I have this on kindle. I don't like gory horror or slasher type stuff but spooky, psychological and ghostly horror is growing on me. I'm glad this one worked for you. I'm currently reading Wanderers by Wendig and that is really good so far.

>349 Sakerfalcon: Yeah, this one isn't very gory at all - just a couple of spots. Mostly it's just creepy as heck.

278. The Undertakers by Nicole Glover. Hetty and Benjy (first met in The Conductors) are running a not-very-successful (yet) funeral home and conducting investigations. Most recently into the mysterious fires breaking out in the black neighbourhoods of Philadelphia and also several murders. Underground tunnels, old enemies, murder.

279. Haunted Heroine by Sarah Kuhn. Evie Tanaka is pregnant and suffering a bit from her husband's over-care of her. When she's invited to a college reunion, fellow super-heroine, Aveda Juniper, decides they need to go, and when it spirals into an investigation into hauntings and mysterious disappearances the two of them jump in to save the day. Enjoyable and fun.

280. Hollywood Heroine by Sarah Kuhn. A TV series is being made of Aveda Juniper and Evie Tanaka's lives as super heroines, and they go down to LA to visit the set and see what's going on. Old frenemy Marvelous Mercedes is superheroine-ing down there and trying to stick her claws into Aveda's husband, Scott. And there are... vampires? Also a fun story.

281. The Strings of Murder by Oscar de Muriel. In the Victorian era a London detective runs afoul of Scotland Yard politics and is sent to Edinburgh to join a "weird stuff" unit. The Scots detective he's teamed with has a tragic past and a high-handed manner. The murders seem to relate to an old and valuable violin. Pretty good.

282. The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix. The girls who survive those slasher flicks almost all end up with damage, and the support group is where they go. When someone starts knocking them off, they have to figure out who and survive. Really good, but not something I'll read again.

283. Firefly : Life Signs by James Lovegrove. Inara is very sick and Mal and crew go on a last-ditch crazy mission to find a doctor who can save her. Nice to be back in the 'Verse.

Wow! It's been awhile since I visited so had a lot of posts to go through, and now I'm riddled with BBs. (Yes, thank you!) I started marking individual posts as favorites to keep track of the titles/authors I need to read, but decided I'm just going to mark this whole thread instead. Anyway, I don't know how I managed to lose your thread because we have similar taste in reading (For starters, I did a reread of the Eve Dallas series earlier this year, I started the Krewe of Hunters series this year, and I have the Murderbot series on an endless reread loop.) Since I'm favoriting the thread, I won't lose it again.

>354 Storeetllr: You're welcome :)

284. The Mimosa Tree Mystery by Ovidia Yu. A historical mystery, set in Japanese-occupied Singapore (1942ish). Su Lin is drawn into investigating the death of a neighbour on behalf of the Japanese in order to save her uncle's life. Family secrets emerge all around. Enjoyed this.

285. The Comic Book Guide to Growing Food by Joseph Tychonievich and Liz Anna Kozik. Charming but very basic illustrated guide to growing veg.

>354 Storeetllr: @tardis' thread is a very dangerous place!

>357 Sakerfalcon: Fact!

>357 Sakerfalcon: >358 Storeetllr: Turnabout is fair play :)

286. Hemlock by Susan Wittig Albert. The latest in her China Bayles series, which I generally enjoy, but I kind of felt that Albert was phoning it in with this one. A truly ridiculous amount of "had I but known" foreshadowing and a thin plot. Characters were okay, but overall not memorable. I did envy the library in the house that China was visiting, though :)

>355 tardis: I knew someone who grew up in the circumstances very similar to those ascribed to the heroine of the book. From what I learned of her past, this seems an unsuitable setting for a "cozy mystery". How sensitively was it handled?

>360 -pilgrim-: I wouldn't characterize it as a cozy, although it's also not noir. The author does not sugar-coat what the Chinese residents have to do to survive under the Japanese occupation. The main character doesn't have any choice about helping the Japanese - they're holding her uncle prisoner, and they'd do the same to her if she displeased them. She bows her head, says what they want to hear, and does what she can to help her family.

287. Grave Reservations by Cherie Priest. A psychic travel agent has a bad feeling about a client's trip and re-books his flight without asking him first. The original flight crashes. Turns out, he's a police detective with a cold case that's still bothering him, and he taps her to consult (unofficially) to try to get a break on it. I enjoyed this. Leda (the psychic) has a circle of cool friends, she doesn't fall for the detective (nor he for her), and the mystery is just complicated enough. Improbable? Yes. But fun.

>287 tardis: she doesn't fall for the detective (nor he for her)

That's refreshing! I like it. I put a hold on it at the library. (I'm 31st for 5 copies, so it may be awhile.)

288. You Sexy Thing by Cat Rambo. Described as "Farscape meets the Great British Bake-off." A diverse group of ex-soldiers led by their former Captain, Niko Larsen, are running a restaurant on a space station, trying to acquire the all-important Nikkelin Orb from a famous critic and also to make enough money for a ship of their own. Of course, the day the critic arrives everything goes to hell and they find themselves on the run in a bio ship called You Sexy Thing. This was a lot of fun.

>364 tardis: I just added this to my TBR a few days ago. I like food-in-space stories.

289. Strangers in Death
290. Salvation in Death
291. Promises in Death
292. Kindred in Death
All by J.D. Robb (aka Nora Roberts). More murders, some very unpleasant, to be solved by Eve Dallas and her team. I still like these, although reading a bunch in a row like this is a bit much. However, I'm almost at the end of the omnibus editions so will probably have to switch to ordering them one at a time.

For me, the Eve Dallas books are a stress relief mechanism, like Sanctuary Moon is for Murderbot. They're also good to jump-start my reading when I'm in a book slump. I've only reread the series once, last year when I was doing a lot of rereading due to circumstances (the pandemic, me recovering from surgery, the political mess).

Hope you're enjoying a lovely holiday season!

ETA Thanks! I just put a hold on You Sexy Thing at the library.

>367 Storeetllr: I quite enjoy the Eve Dallas books - I've never read them before and they're not as formulaic as I expected. A little bit, but not bad. I can't see doing a whole-series re-read in future, but I would probably pick up the odd one.

293. China Trade by S. J. Rozan. This is the first in the Lydia Chin/Bill Smith series, which was recommended by a good friend, who furthermore loaned me all the books since the earliest date back to the mid 1990s and the library doesn't have them anymore. Lydia is a Chinese-American PI in New York, and Bill is an older white PI that she sometimes works with. When a case of valuable porcelain items is stolen from a museum, Lydia is hired to find it and brings Bill in to help. Really liked this, and am looking forward to the rest of the series.

294. Unsung Heroine by Sarah Kuhn. A novella in the Heroine-verse. Lucy, friend and martial arts trainer for Aveda Jupiter and Evie Tanaka, is pining over Rose, police detective for SFPD's Demon Unit (or something like that :) ). She's also singing in a karaoke contest. When a new and fab contestant enters, demon stuff starts to happen. It takes the whole team to sort it all out.

295. Concourse by S.J. Rozan. 2nd in the Lydia Chin/Bill Smith series. This one is from Bill's POV (I gather the books alternate) and he's helping an old friend figure out why one of his security staff was murdered. Gangs, Bronx politics, old-folks homes. Good stuff!

296. Mandarin Plaid by S. J. Rozan. Lydia Chin/Bill Smith series. Back to Lydia as POV character. Lydia is hired to do a ransom drop for a fashion designer trying to get back some stolen designs, and it all goes pear-shaped. She and Bill keep on the case, though, which turns out to be quite twisty. Very good.

297. No Colder Place by S. J. Rozan. Bill Smith goes under cover at a construction site to track job site thefts, but soon there's murder, too. Very good.

And that's probably my last finished book of 2021.

Happy New Year, all!

Happy New Year! Congrats on the 297 books read count! That's pretty awesome!

Well, see ya next year! (I get a kick out of saying that every December 31. I'm such a goofball.)

>372 Storeetllr: LOL - like I "took the rest of the year off" after I finished vacuuming the living room today :)

Happy new year!

Happy New Year, Jane.
That is an amazing book count. You have set the bar high for 2022.

>373 tardis: Hahaha. Good one!

>375 pgmcc: That's actually less than 2020, and I'm hoping to read even less in 2022, because if I read the same or more it means stupid COVID is still keeping me shut in too much.

Happy New Year!!!