A fast-paced installment of a seriously fun series. I must admit, I don‘t really like the protagonist. I think if I knew her in real life, she‘d drive me nuts. But the series is a lot of fun. Never a dull moment. And being a time-travel based series, those not-dull moments can happen any time from the Cretaceous period on into the murky future.

“My mother‘s main aim in life was to get from the cradle to the grave with the minimum of fuss and bother and the maximum of tea and Battenberg.”

For fans of historical fiction, and of art... This one isn‘t dry, boring, or overwrought. It‘s fun and engaging, with “characters” that bring the story to vibrant life. It has me planning a trip to Florence!

I read the first in the series, The Bear and the Nightingale, and loved it. So meaty for a fairy tale. I didn‘t realize it was a series until I bought the third one, the newly released The Witch of the Winter. So I had to go back and read this one. Glad I did. It‘s even meatier than the first one. A rollicking good read with a lot to say on gender roles, on growing up, and on growing into yourself.

Not bad, per se... but it was the single weirdest book I‘ve ever read, and I‘m counting William Burroughs‘ Naked Lunch in that. To me it felt like the stories were slices of longer tales, like you were only reading the middle. How to make sense of a story when you missed the beginning and the end?

I missed this one when it was new. I missed it when it was adapted for film — with Meryl Streep, no less. Then I put up that Julia Child quote while I was cooking dinner one night and a friend of mine said “Say, did you ever happen to read/see Julie and Julia...”. I‘m glad she did, because I had a lot of fun with this. It‘s funny and irreverent and disgusting and relatable. Hooray random book recs!

“She‘d always known that a strong capacity for self-deception and ignoring unpleasant realities has to be useful somewhere.” — Man, I feel this. 😀❤️

“We all have our sorrows, and although the exact delineaments, weight and dimensions of grief are different for everyone, the color of grief is common to us all.”

Stylistically too sparse to be interesting. It seems like it was a more important book to write than it was to read. It said nothing new, and what it said, it didn‘t say particularly well.

Positively saturated with magic. It‘s a fairly standard love story with adequately, though not expertly, rendered characters. The real charm here is in the details — the lush, dream-like, magical details that are far more enchanting than the story itself. Tell me you wouldn‘t want to wander this circus given the chance?

Interesting fictional account of the real-life Collyer brothers. You watch a swath of American history unfold through the unique perspective of Homer and his brother. I knew nothing of their story before I read this book. Even so, I saw the ending coming quite early on. That didn‘t make it any less horrifying.

A little light reading as the year winds down... this was a cute little book. As always Robin McKinley weaves a rich story, with engaging characters. She even manages to make an old tale we all know seem fresh. Well done.

Not a book to read, but rather a book to gaze at. Nonetheless, recommended. Such a gorgeous book, from A to Z!

In an atmosphere of suspicion, resentment and hostility, many poems are interrogated until they confess, and what they confess is usually worthless, as the results of torture always are: broken little scraps of information, platitudes, banalities. Never mind! The work has been done according to the instructions, and the result...is measured and recorded and tabulated in line with government targets; and this is the process we call education.

I enjoyed this. It wasn‘t as good as The Essex Serpent, but it was intriguing, and a bit creepy. Perry isn‘t everyone‘s cup of tea... give it a try if you enjoy a nice, moody, languid Victorian novel.

“If haunting is anything, perhaps that‘s what it is; time in the wrong place.”

A short, spooky, old-school ghost story. Good Halloween reading! Reads very much like a Victorian tale, so some would undoubtedly find it a bit slow, but I thought it was well done. Happy Haunting! 👻💀🎃🙀

The stillness is back. The dead cold windless dark. That‘s the truth. The dark. We‘re the anomaly. Little flickering sparks on the crust of this spinning planet — and around it the dark.

Creepy little ghost story for All Hallows‘ Read. I‘m glad I read this on a bright autumn day and not a cold, dark winter‘s night! Cold and dark are like characters in this book. It‘s set in the Arctic, during the long lightless winter, one man alone, struggling to hold onto his sanity, haunted by the ghost of human cruelty. Recommended.

I enjoyed the other books in the series, but this one was all back story and no plot. Disappointed. 😔 I need a cup of tea to make myself feel better.

This was okay. I think it was the style that made it seem lackluster to me. Perhaps it was trying to echo the simplistic style of old world fairy tales. It certainly got its level of brutality and gore from old world fairy tales. But in the end, it‘s simplistic style fell flat for me.

A quirky little genre-defying tale. Is it historical fiction? Mystery? Fantasy? A love story? Yes. A bit of all of those, but not entirely any one of them. The characters are well-developed and interesting, although I didn‘t find any of them particularly likable. The plot is as intricate as clockwork.

Like a long, strange dream except that instead of dreaming it, you‘re reading it. Like a dream, it made its own sort of sense while I was in it, but afterward I was like “What???” Worth a read if you enjoy the unconventional.

I enjoyed Novak‘s League of Dragons series, and this seemed such a huge departure from it that I was a bit nervous to read it. I need not have worried. Novik is a masterful storyteller. This is like a fairy tale but fleshed out and textured richly. It draws you in. Well done.

Quirky little tale about time travel with enjoyable characters. Not jaw-dropping, or thought-provoking, but a fun little read.

Engaging story, set in a solidly built fantasy world. Definitely worth a read, although I refuse to believe I am the only reader who will be utterly appalled by the frequent use of “Ugh!” and “Agh!” as serious dialogue. 😕

Excellent, relevant read. Recommended.

My Amazon Prime Day book haul. That should get through the summer!

This would have been the perfect book to curl up with on a cold winter night. But what I had was a hot summer day. Oh well. It was a good read nonetheless. It has all the elements of a good, classic, gothic ghost/haunted house story. It‘s creepy good fun. There‘s nothing new or surprising, really, but it‘s all so deftly woven that it feels fresh. Worth your time.

Holy hell, that was a brutal read. Heart-wrenching, but so beautiful. The stream of consciousness style adds a inescapable immediacy to Grace‘s harrowing story. Equal parts gutting and gorgeous.

“He reaches the top of the hill but there is no crow, only the company of a ruined old tree and he asks the tree which way did the crow go but the tree points in every direction.”

I really liked this one. Lots of fun. The past and present intertwine beautifully, and Hoffman‘s writing style lends the story a dream-like quality from start to finish. 🧙🏻‍♀️🧙🏻‍♀️

Egan. The whole first half of this book bored me witless. More than I ever needed to know about the judicial and political systems of 18th century England. The second half was better, but not good enough to convince me to go on with the series. 3 books in and I find myself consistently underwhelmed by Graham‘s writing.

I was torn between a 3 and a 4 star review of this one on Goodreads. How I long for a 3 and a half! 3 is my standard. 3 means this book was good; it didn‘t wow me, but I didn‘t resent the time it took to read it. 4 stars means it wowed me. It had something above and beyond the usual fare. This one almost wowed me.

“There are so many books in the world — how do you tell them apart? How do you know which one will match your tastes and interests? That‘s why I just pick the first book I see. There‘s no point in trying to choose. The covers are of very little help, because they always say only good things, and I‘ve found out to my cost that they‘re rarely accurate. “Exhilarating” “Dazzling” “Hilarious.” No.” Or in this case, yes! Excellent book! A must-read.

Wow, here‘s an author who really loves their Tolkien. I can respect that. But my advice is to skip this one and go read actual Tolkien instead. Better tales, more masterfully told. The plot of The Necromancer is ambitious, and its cast of characters is vast, and the author just didn‘t have the chops to pull it all together. 🙁

Ugh. First person narration is a tricky thing. It can add wonderful immediacy to a story, or it can send me running. I ran from this narrator. He was making me feel claustrophobic. I suppose it‘s a pitfall of books that are, at root, character studies, that you might find the characters completely unappealing.

I forgot to snap a pic of this book, so here‘s a violet from my garden instead. 🌸 I was underwhelmed by this book. The story itself was such an original idea, and the writing wasn‘t too bad. Such a shame that it devolved into tired old cliches by the end. Seriously, the “Big Finish” is such a tired old spy novel/movie trope that it‘s almost laughable!

Meh. I was underwhelmed. The story was good enough, but I was increasingly annoyed by the awkward and unpolished writing. At times I felt I was reading mediocre fan fiction, rather than a published work. Disappointed.

Quirky and compelling tale set in 16th century Amsterdam. An amazing eye for detail and well- crafted characters make this one a great read.

Well-written, but a tad slow. This book is stories within stories and saved most of the action for the end. My favorite character was Barcelona, the city itself, lovingly and carefully depicted.

I think John Connolly sat down with a list pad and asked himself “What scares people?” And then wrote a short story for each item. It‘s all here. From the stand horror stock, vampires, witches, haunted houses, to nightmare fodder giant spiders and evil clowns, to real life horrors, child abduction and cancer. It‘s all just creepy enough to be satisfying. A thoroughly spooky good read.

“It is a little-remarked fact that many a retired gentleman has unwittingly avoided a messy death at the hands of his wife by the simple expedient of picking up a pair of pruning shears and departing for greener pastures.”

I put off reading this, because even though I lived through the 80‘s, I was not a gamer. It didn‘t interest me then, and it interests me even less now. As such I was surprised that I found this book quite fun. The constant barrage of pop culture references was a bit wearying, and the style was overly simple, but it was engaging nonetheless. Not earth-shatteringly good, but cute.

Robin McKinley hasn‘t let me down yet. I can always count on her for quality world-building that never feels forced, and for strong, complex female protagonists. That said, this book‘s plot centers around the protagonist being brutally raped by her own father, and if I had known that going in, I may not have begun it. My issue, not the book‘s. Quality story, well-told, although the ending is a bit too happily-ever-after to suit the tale.

Thoroughly enjoyable story and characters. It meandered without much of a plot until nearly the end, and while McKay did succeed in tying all the little strings together eventually, I felt there was a deftness lacking there. Still, a great story, with a wealth of interesting characters. Worth a read.

“Of course the act of drinking tea was, in and of itself, quite troublesome, as it had been known to lead to all sorts of sins: idleness, gossip, political activity, subversive thinking.” 🤣🤣🤣

Enjoyable story with the true flavor of an old-world fairy tale. And just like an old world fairy tale, it is dark and cruel and a bit gruesome. Great to curl up with on a chilly winter night.

I‘m giving this a “pick” because I did find it enjoyable, but I had a few problems with it. First of all Nora is supposed to be the “thinking woman” to which the title alludes, yes? So why does she so often come across as a bit thick? And I didn‘t buy the burgeoning love between her and Aruendiel at all. Barker never succeeded in making him a remotely sympathetic character, or even presenting a credible reason why Nora did. Still enjoyable, but..