April

This was a pretty good read overall. Somewhere between three and four stars. There are a couple of mystery plots, and one of them was more interesting to me than the other. Oddly for me, the one I enjoyed more was a family drama, and the other was about court intrigue, etc.

There's also a friendship plot, which I enjoyed very much. Shardlake has to work with a cynical street tough. It looks like he'll continue as a sidekick, and I look forward to his appearance in future books.

It's very difficult to focus on books that are new to me right now, so I'm very glad I was able to finish this. I'll continue with this series at some point. It's a little dull, but that's a good escape for me sometimes.

This book is delightful, but not fluffy. Kenna's coming-of-age journey is pretty tumultuous. It's a little bit fairy-tale-like, in that the broad brushstrokes of the plot are obvious. But the details surprised me at every turn.

Technically, we only see Kenna's PoV, but the book isn't too tightly focused on him. There are references to things Kenna has no way of knowing and occasional glimpses into other characters' emotions. But instead of feeling like errors to me, those qualities contributed to the fairy-tale feel. This is a story about finding one's place in life and building community, not just a story about Kenna.

But I do love Kenna! And all the other characters too. What a cast. Montgomery was my favorite.

I'm so excited to have discovered a great author who is new to me, and I look forward to reading more of his work.

I enjoyed this, but not as much as I enjoyed her book Dark Matter. If you're trying to decide between the two, I would say to read that one instead. They're very similar books.

There wasn't anything in the story that really grabbed my attention, until the ghost officially appeared and things got scary. But that didn't happen until the last third or fourth of the book.

I thought the reason the main character broke off his engagement would get a more thorough explanation, but there wasn't really anything mysterious or interesting about it, I guess. Overall, I wished there was more depth to all the characters. We don't see all that much of the conflict between the main character and his brother, and it's the most important relationship in the book. I understood it, but it would've been a better book with more flashbacks showing their problems and their closeness. All of the characters are painted with pretty broad strokes.

I did like the way the narrator was written as unreliable from the start, even before the supernatural plot began. It was easy to imagine how he might annoy his brother, without either of them being bad people. I also liked the plot, both the action of the book and the secret of what happened on the last expedition.

It's a very atmospheric book, too, and I felt immersed in the main character's perception of the world. It's written in first-person present tense, which I usually dislike, but it worked really well here. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Daniel Weyman, and he did an excellent job, especially in performing the MC's fear.

I was looking for something creepy, and this book delivered on that promise. So, it's not bad, and I'm glad I read it. But it could've been somewhat better, perhaps if it were longer and delved more into the characters' personalities.

This is a very good historical mystery. I feel like I learned a lot about the time period (the English Reformation). I stress “feel like” because I really don't know. But the book seemed to present different viewpoints fairly. The characterizations are excellent, and most characters are multi-dimensional. I cared about them, and I also felt immersed in the setting.

I do have a complaint, and it's the same thing I usually mention. There are two gay characters who both die, and one of them is pretty pathetic. This book was published in 2003, and I guess I expect all of that from older books. But I don't like it. At least they weren't evil, I guess.

I did not guess the mystery's solution until the main character started to figure it out, but I found it all satisfying. I had a strong emotional reaction to something that happened near the end, and I won't spoil it.

I look forward to continuing this series sometime soon.

Fantastic! I borrowed this from KU on a whim, and I'm so glad I was adventurous. I definitely wasn't expecting to absolutely love it. But it's a really warm and sweet romance, with a good plot and unusual sex scenes.

And just not heteronormative at all! I was thinking that all along, but then Beryl turned out to be bi/pan, so it makes sense. Additionally, the aliens' gender roles don't match human ideas. There is also a nonbinary side character, a plantlike alien, who is on their own path in life.

The blurb gives a good idea of the premise. But Zylar abducts both Beryl and her small dog, Snaps, whose antics elevated this book from enjoyable to hilarious for me. They communicate through technology, and it also works on Snaps, so he can suddenly talk, which is just as great as you might imagine.

I really loved and identified with both main characters, and I totally believed in their happy ending. My only problem with the book was that the villain's true motivation was never revealed, but that was okay, really. Maybe he was just evil and entitled.

I had never read this author before and I'm excited to read more of her work. But I'm sure I'll also reread this one many times. It was a delight!

This is a really strange book, and I'm not sure what I think of it yet. I rate it 5/5 for its themes and characters, but 3/5 for my personal enjoyment.

Content warning: the dog dies, on-page, and it's terrible. She comes back in the end as a ghost.

It was first published in the early 80s but doesn't feel dated at all. I wasn't surprised because I loved another book by this author, Tea with the Black Dragon.

The first half of the book is pretty idyllic, although there are hints that things will turn darker. Damiano, along with his talking dog, goes on a quest through the countryside of Northern Italy in order to stop bandits from occupying his city. The dog is a wonderful character; she seems like a dog, even though she can speak, and not like a furry human.

I think the blurb mentions faith-based magic and that isn't true. The magic in the book is standard elemental stuff, for the most part, although a lot of people believe it's evil, and Damiano struggles with that question himself. Where it comes from is unclear, which is a plot point. But Damiano's Christianity is a very important part of the book. It's all real, too; the angel Raphael is his best friend, and eventually, he meets with Satan.

After the idyllic opening, Damiano becomes obsessed with a female witch, and the book takes a very dark turn. Then, Damiano is saved from his own opinion of himself as damned. The plot makes sense, and I was happy with the resolution. It was a really big tonal shift, though, and I feel unsettled.

This is the start of a trilogy and I'm curious to continue it at some point. I didn't love this book, but I'm glad I read it. I think it's one I might appreciate more with a reread in the future.

I received this audiobook for free in exchange for an honest review. I didn't like it and I only made it to about 40%. I don't know what the protocol is here, but listening to it was making me feel pretty bad, so I'm going to stop.

It's probably an accurate portrayal of how people acted in Roman times (1st century AD). But really, it feels like over-the-top erotica, and it's just not my kink.

The main character, Gaius, has a lot of sex with a lot of people. He is rude and controlling at all times, especially to slaves. I understand this is a romance between him and a specific slave, and maybe when that happens, he becomes less of a bully. But I didn't make it to that point, so I don't know if that's true. I stopped listening when his love interest was literally begging the gods to die because he's so miserable.

Gaius also misgenders his rival all the time (he calls him Princess to mock him, behind his back). I really hate that kind of humor. There is also sexual violence, on page and off, and some of it is meant to be sexy (Gaius touching his love interest, who hates him).

So, I am sorry, but I can't handle this. The reviews here made it sound very plot-heavy. It might turn that way; I can't say. I kept thinking that no matter what happened to the MC or how he grew as a person, I couldn't ever like him. It's in third-person omniscient PoV, and there's often head-hopping (more than one PoV in a scene).

If you like erotica with a strong BDSM element, you may like this. I can see how it would be a fun romp for other readers.

I doubt I've ever read (or listened to) a book this long, but I enjoyed the experience a lot. It kept my attention easily at every moment. I don't know if I really recommend it, though, because I did have some problems with it. I'll say 2 or 3 stars for the themes of the book and 5 for my enjoyment level.

I would like to write a longer review but I'm just not up for typing it on my phone. And it's not like this is some obscure book. It was odd for me to spend so much time with such a mainstream work. But I was reading it for the adventure, and on that front, it delivered exactly what I wanted.

My main problem, then, was with the book's human villain, Hickey. I don't know why he was so evil. He was also gay, and a sexual predator. It felt like his only motivation was just a general rejection of authority. I couldn't see things from his perspective, which I think is a major flaw in a story.

The plot with Crozier was very strange, and I don't really know how I feel about it. It was easy for me to identify with him, and I think he's a very well-drawn character. I'll have to put more thought into that.

I was afraid this book would be in omniscient third-person, which I dislike, but it isn't. It's limited third-person, like ASoIaF, and if you like those books, you'll probably like this. It's similar in that it's often brutally gory and just brutal in general, and it has a cast of fascinating characters. Unlike in those books, there is no on-page sexual violence. It also reminded me quite a bit of the show Lost, but The Terror actually tells a coherent story.

Overall, this got me excited to read more books set mostly on ships. I don't know if I'll read this author again, but it was a very entertaining book.

This is a good paranormal romance with a lot of humor. I was in just the right mood for it, after finishing a somewhat boring read. I laughed a lot at some of the situations; Ailin, a witch, has an affinity for animals, and his human partner, Sebastian, doesn't react well to all of Ailin's little buddies. It's really funny.

The banter between Ailin and Sebastian is really the soul of this book, and there's more of it than anything else. It was slightly too much for me, eventually, because it stayed antagonistic, even after the romance officially got rolling. I wanted a little more sweetness and less of Sebastian's prickliness, after that point. Still, the romance is of the soulbonding type, and I liked it.

The crimes sound harrowing in the blurb, but this isn't a gory book or anything. But I do want to warn for non-consensual mind-reading as well as non-consensual magical bonding.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, and I'm sure I'll read the sequel.

Between three and four stars. I didn't really enjoy listening to this book, but it's an interesting first-contact story and I'm glad to have read it.

It's totally in the point-of-view of a catlike alien, Pyanfar, who is the captain of a trading ship. She takes in a human stowaway, Tully, and protects him from an evil alien species. Eventually, Pyanfar and her crew are able to communicate with him in a limited way, but not to the extent that they get to know him as an individual. So, he's more like a nexus around which most of the action revolves than he is a character. I thought this was a neat way to tell a story of this kind, but I also kept wanting the book to get back to what was happening with Tully.

Pyanfar's race, the hani, are not that dissimilar from humans, except that only females are allowed to work outside the home. They believe animal needs control men, who live on hani planets and fight amongst themselves for dominance. There's a subplot about this kind of fighting late in the book. I'm sure this all caused quite a stir in 1982, especially because the hani males and females are so similar to human gender stereotypes. It is still interesting now, without feeling like it's retreading trite ideas. But it isn't really the focus of the book, more like part of the worldbuilding.

The book's major flaw, for me, is that large parts of it are really boring. You are with Pyanfar constantly; there aren't any elisions of time. So if she takes a shower, or docks the ship, or ponders events, you experience every moment along with her. I didn't skip anything, but I didn't like this writing style. However, I did like that we only saw her perspective. Most of the older SFF I've read has lots of PoV shifts.

This is the start of a series and I may continue it at some point. I'll definitely keep thinking about the plot and the concepts it introduced.

Amazing book. I can't get over how sharp the characterizations are. It's a long book because a lot happens, but this author conveys just incredible amounts of info in a few words.

I'm sure this has been compared to Pratchett, because it's socially conscious fantasy written in non-flowery language, with a decent amount of humor, and an unlikely hero. I liked it better than anything I've read by him.

There wasn't anything I didn't like, but I didn't always sympathize with the main character. I don't think I was supposed to. That's what I found most special about the book: it's really easy to imagine all the action from other characters' perspectives, which kind of drives home the point about Chant's skills. This book has layers, and I'm sure I'll be thinking about it for a long time.

I liked the format, with stories breaking up the main narrative. It reminded me somewhat of American Gods.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by James Langton, and he was exceptionally good.

Between four and five stars.

I enjoyed this book very much, but it was slightly too angsty for me. I don't think this is a fair complaint, though, because it reminded me strongly of The Duchess War by Courtney Milan; I liked that book too, but I had the same problem with it. So, I'm probably objecting to genre conventions.

Nobody dies on-page or anything. But both characters were so miserable when they were forced to part that I honestly thought they were contemplating suicide, even though neither of them says that outright. This was too much sadness for me personally.

I am a cis reviewer but I thought the nonbinary rep was done well. Robin (Charity), who is AFAB, has lived almost full-time as a man for several years before the story begins. (She uses “she/her” pronouns throughout the book, and in her own mind.) She started doing this for reasons unrelated to gender, but it has become more comfortable to her than living as a woman. I got the impression that being fully seen as a man in everyday life wasn't really necessary for her; instead, she wanted to wear men's clothes. I don't know how she would define herself in modern terms.

Alistair accepts her gender and gender expression at every moment, which makes sense, because he is bisexual. He doesn't have a moment of thinking “thank God I'm not actually gay!” or anything like that. Despite the book's title, she tells him what's going on with her, after he has already developed feelings for her as a man. He reacts badly, but it's because she lied to him about many things, not especially because of her assigned gender. Still, I know that the framing of gender as a deception can be a sensitive topic for trans people. I advise people to seek out reviews from trans readers.

I loved both main characters so much. Robin really enjoys life, and it's easy to see why Alistair, who has been living an emotionally empty life, feels compelled to seek out her company. He's exceptionally steadfast; once he falls in love with her, which happens fairly early in the book, that's it for hin. He never doubts it and does everything possible to be with her. It's a really good romance.

I'll continue with this series, but only when I feel like I can handle a higher angst level again. But it's an excellent book and I recommend it! It's always exciting to me when one of my favorite authors does something new for them.

I liked this book, but I think the pace was a little too slow for my current mood. I'm sure I'll enjoy it more when I revisit it in the future.

Ondrey and Liam are an established pair now, and there's no conflict between them, which is very nice. The book has a good plot, focused on linguistics, diplomacy, and political intrigue. I think fans of Megan Derr's novel The High King's Golden Tongue would probably enjoy this series, although the romance is not front & center in this second volume.

While there is some humor, this is sci-fi that takes itself seriously, which I wouldn't have guessed from the covers and titles. I plan to continue listening to this series soon, but maybe not right away. I recommend checking it out if you enjoy intricate worldbuilding.

Between 4 and 5 stars. I think I let this book languish on my TBR list for so long because I thought it was straight-up erotica, and huge alien guy + smaller human guy is not especially my kink. But I was wrong; it's a good romance with a few unusual sex scenes. The kink is BDSM, and a pretty extreme total power exchange version, if you like or dislike reading about that.

The kink aspect is woven into the detailed worldbuilding in a really interesting way. The alien culture has an official social role for submissives, which is not necessarily sexual. In fact, the aliens don't experience sexual pleasure.

It's a believable alien world overall, and I was really into that aspect of the story. I'm excited that there are more books in this series. Also, the audiobooks recently came out and are available on Hoopla.

Very good book! It didn't go in the direction I thought it would. I was expecting the Star Trek TNG plot with Data's “mother” - that Li Wei was a robot copy of Trinity's dead human boyfriend. But that isn't what's going on. I was surprised at the truth, in a good way, so I won't spoil it!

This is only available as a multi-cast audiobook right now, but the author has said that print & ebook editions are planned. All of the performers are excellent, but I don't understand why it wasn't done as an audio play. It's mainly two narrators, with some actors sometimes doing specific characters, but not always. Very strange.

This has been marketed as a romcom and I think that's a little misleading. The romance is very good, and it has some light humor. But the sci-fi elements are very relevant, and done well, rather than being just a backdrop for a cute story, which is what I expected based on the cover and blurb. Instead, this is a seriously dystopian setting, and it really feels like a possible near future, unfortunately.

I like AI protagonists in general, and I enjoyed Li Wei's PoV here. We see him slowly learning to be a person through his interactions with Trinity; it's an appealing character arc for a hero in a romance. Trinity is also a great character, and I really felt her emotions, at every moment.

Overall, this is a clever story. My only real complaint is that I was left a little confused at the end, but it seems like there's a sequel planned (with different main characters).

This was published in 2013 and although I apparently bought the ebook before the company that originally published it went out of business, I just now listened to the audiobook. It's a long book, and I left it in my TBR pile because it intimidated me. I loved it, though, and wish I'd read it sooner.

The audiobook narrator, Hamish Long, is especially good. He did unique voices for all the characters, and the voice he performed for Caius really kept in my mind that Caius was very young, only about 25. Because he takes on a lot of responsibility over the course of the story, his age was easy for me to forget.

The book has many of the elements I expect from Harper Fox, such as religion and spirituality, a strong sense of place, unexplained supernatural events, mysterious old people, a truly swoony romance, and emotional sex scenes. I really like the way she writes all of those things. I was also impressed at how relatable these ancient people were to a modern reader, without seeming like modern people. This is a hard balance to strike in historical fiction but I think she did it perfectly.

Five enthusiastic stars. I fell in love with both main characters early on and I had a hard time tearing myself away from their adventures. The side characters, both friends and enemies, are all interesting too.

The plot is also gripping. I was really impressed with the story's good pacing and clever structure. Almost every detail ended up being important.

I found the romance really enchanting, as well as realistic. There's a significant age and experience gap, which isn't my favorite trope, but I felt the author handled it well. Neither Rory nor Arthur really know what to do with the strength of their feelings for each other, which kind of made their different experience levels seem less important to me.

I really liked the tone of the book; it's kind of light, for the most part, with a decent amount of humor, despite serious events in both the action of the story and the characters' backstories. I think if you like Jordan L. Hawk's writing style, you'll probably enjoy this too.

Overall, this is an excellent book, and I'm sure I'll be rereading it many times. I look forward to the author's next release.

I won a copy of this audiobook in a giveaway held by the narrator, Gary Furlong, but his generosity did not influence my review.

This book is difficult to review, because I really liked some elements and really disliked others. Three stars feels right. This was my first time reading this author, but I've listened to many of Gary Furlong's narrations before. His performance here is excellent!

This is a coming-of-age fantasy romance set in a secondary world that feels like pre-industrial Europe. Winter Aeling, a nobleman, is alone and destitute, when he meets a farm boy, Adam. They have an instant connection, and the book is all about their adventures together.

My main problem, which colors the rest of my opinions, is with the writing style. The author avoids the word “said,” using other speech tags, some of which felt awkward and possibly incorrect (like “informed,” with no object for the verb). When using “said,” she almost always adds an adverb. I found this style distracting, and I doubt I could've continued, if I hadn't been listening to the audiobook instead of reading.

The author also frequently misplaces participles and prepositional phrases, and sometimes these mistakes confused me. Overall, I really feel she needs a better copy editor. There's a decent amount of info that feels unnecessary, too. For example, I didn't need a long and detailed physical description of every member of the council. A lot of scenes could've been streamlined.

I feel like this book would've benefited a lot from Adam's point of view. He is not a very well-drawn character and I don't really know why he fell in love with Winter, apart from destiny. I also felt more than once that Winter and the narrative were both neglecting Adam's needs. He feels like an accessory to Winter's story, which makes me uncomfortable.

The actual plot is very good. It isn't really unusual, but I thought it was interesting. This book does end in the middle of the story, but not on a cliffhanger. I thought everything revealed in the last few chapters could've been foreshadowed slightly more. But I'm sure it will be developed more in the next book. I didn't feel unsatisfied with the ending, but the book as a whole is very much part one of a longer story.

The romance is a fated mates with soulbonding kind of deal, in case anyone seeks out or avoids that plot. It isn't really fluffy; they both get irritated with each other sometimes. But there's no major conflict between them in this book.

I didn't like that (NSFW) the bond between Winter and Adam wasn't permanent or real or whatever until they had anal sex. They had already had oral sex, but not while touching the magical stone. But the chapter was called "Consummation," which makes me roll my eyes. This is really just a quirk of m/m, though. I know this, but it still annoys me.

Overall, this book is pretty good, and I will continue reading the series. Maybe some of my problems with it won't be as prominent in the next book. I think it might be a story from the world's past, with different characters.

Oh wow, I don't like this dynamic at all. It feels like dubcon. I only got to chapter 3.

That was fantastic. Maybe I'll be able to write a coherent review of it the next time I read it.

I read the first of these and had mixed feelings about it, but because I really liked the main characters, Mycroft and Cyrus, I decided to give the second one a try. I'm glad I did, because I enjoyed this book much more than the first. I would rate my enjoyment level at 5/5, but I do see some flaws in the plot's structure, so it's 4/5.

Sherlock joins Mycroft and Cyrus as a major character. He's only 18, and quite an angsty teenager, but I found him mostly endearing and very in-character for canon Sherlock. I liked this interpretation of him at a different age. He's vulnerable and makes mistakes, and he's not really any smarter than Mycroft; he's just amoral and reckless, which gives him more opportunities for heroism. But it feels like the narrative is aware of this fact, and this is really Mycroft's story.

Mycroft here is a guy trying to do his best in life, for his country and for his difficult younger brother, while struggling with some serious personal problems. In a sense, the book is the story of Mycroft giving up on finding happiness for himself, so it has a melancholy feel. There's one prominent female character and Mycroft develops a crush on her. She's a pretty interesting side character, and I was glad she didn't have a larger role, since I strongly disliked the romance plot in the first book.

My problem with the book (big spoiler): I felt the plot with the patriarch's past needed more development. It turned out to be extremely important but I didn't feel it was built up enough. The dead child was the main mystery at first, not the ritualized murders, but the kid felt like an afterthought in the end. I don't think the revenge plot was given enough attention for me to really care about it.

Minor problem (small spoiler): I was hoping the secret about the twins would be much more interesting than it turned out to be.

I love both Cyrus and Mycroft, as well as their friendship, and I also love the fact that Sherlock didn't take over this book. I'm not a big fan of fight scenes, but these were all very good and not too long or frequent. In fact, this book is written like popular crime thrillers, in that it has short chapters and lots of PoV changes, although it's a fairly long book. There is still a lot of flavor of 1870s London, which is what draws me to historical mysteries.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Damian Lynch, and he was fantastic.

Fantastic! An intense and emotional read. The plot is also very good. As in the first two books, a lot of the content is topical, but it's all woven into the story in a reasonable way. The conflict between the MCs also seemed realistic to me. In fact, I liked everything about this book.

I found the danger the characters faced here pretty scary, but there's no on-page violence in any of the books in this series, which is great. These aren't fluffy books, but they're also not lurid in any way, except for the sex scenes (the heat level is high).

I am so happy that Ari and Yin got together (sorry if I spelled that wrong; I don't have a copy of the text). They're the most important side characters here, and I thought they got just the right amount of attention, although I would definitely not say no to reading more about the two of them. My heart was aching for Ari's situation, and I loved how everyone came together to help him.

I thought this would be the end of the series, but it looks like there will be at least one more book, which is m/f. Probably Juan Pablo and Priscilla's story, should be great. I am so glad I listened to these. They were something different for me (contemporary romance), and I fell in love with the characters. I can't wait to see what's next from this author.

Very good book! I didn't like it quite as much as the first one, but I did enjoy all the domestic moments, as well as the development of the relationship between Tom and Milo. They had a magnetic attraction and that came through very well. I liked the nods to fairy tales, such as Tom telling Milo, “te quiero comer,” and I'm sure I'll pick up more of those the next time I read or listen to it (which I'll definitely do).

Overall, it's kind of a reluctant Cinderella plot, but it addresses some of the problems inherent in that setup. Milo, in the Cinderella role, does not want Tom to sweep him off his feet, and that was an interesting conflict. Of course they do find a very fairy-tale-ish happy ending together. I've read a lot of versions of Cinderella since I started reading romance, and I've enjoyed them all.

The main thing I disliked: most of the important side characters in this book are female, and they all have to do a lot of emotional work for the main characters. After Tom and Milo have their big argument near the end, Tom's friend Priya gives him a very long lecture on how he had messed up his relationship with Milo. Tom has two other close friends who are men, but the burden to help Tom straighten out his life was on a woman. This is an extremely common trope in m/m, though, so it isn't really fair for me to complain about this book specifically. Still, that scene did annoy me.

This one seems a little preachier than the first book, in terms of social-justice issues, but that didn't bother me. These plots are about how real-world issues affect people's lives, and that seems reasonable to me. In fact, I like it, because I find it really easy to imagine the main characters as real people with believable problems.

I'm very excited to listen to book 3 now. This is the second romance series I've read of this kind, about a group of friends all finding love (Society of Gentlemen was the first), and I like the format a lot.

Amazing! I can't believe how much emotion, character development, sensuality, and history is packed into this relatively short book.

Bertha is such a great heroine. She's in charge of her own life and not willing to bend about anything, and she falls in love with a man who respects her for exactly who she is, even though he's also stubborn and prickly. I fell half in love with both of them myself.

I also loved the writing style. Their romance gets moving because Amir offers to give Bertha dance lessons, and they long for each other while trying to hold themselves back. It's very erotic, way before they actually get together.

The plot is also very good. I had no idea how Amir and Bertha would find happiness together, or how the other plot threads would resolve. But the ending is very satisfying.

I think this is only the third book I've read by Alyssa Cole, and I'm eager to read more.

Between four and five stars. This is a very good book, and I also found it an enjoyable read, even though it deals with a lot of serious topics. It's constructed very well, the characters are sympathetic but flawed, and the journey of the MCs' relationship makes sense. I rarely read contemporary romance, but this one felt pretty realistic to me. I also liked most of the humor. Overall, I was charmed.

I just saw a review complaining that this book is heavy-handed in its social justice themes, and I was really surprised. There is a lot of stuff along those lines, but it's all woven very naturally into the story. There's nothing didactic. But I can understand that you may not appreciate this kind of material if you have hateful conservative political beliefs. I don't think it's a book that would bother people who avoid the news in general, though, because it isn't necessarily topical stuff. But I don't know.

The characterizations of the two MCs are excellent and beautifully consistent. I can't believe this is the first book this author has published; if you're reading this review and this specific book doesn't appeal to you, you still might want to keep an eye out for her future releases anyway. I definitely will!

I struggle a bit when villains feel like real people I've known, and this one, Misty, a racist and self-important meddler, really fit in that category for me. I liked that she did face bad consequences for her actions, but her comeuppance was not a particularly important plot point. People like her are not all that important in reality when they no longer hold any power over others. I guess that's why they hurt so many people trying to hold onto it.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Sean Crisden. He really did an amazing job, with such different voices & accents for all the major characters that it honestly felt like a multi-actor recording. I'm so glad I gave this book a try, and I'm grateful to everyone who has enthusiastically recommended it. I plan to listen to the second book very soon.