I am 8  9 10 reviews behind again! Despite having just done 5 mini reviews to catch up again! So, I’m not gonna let that stand, nope, trying a new strategy, 8 quick-fire micro reviews to get them all done some of them done, none of this coherence and sentence thing slowing me down.

The Shadow Glass (The Bone Witch #3) by Rin Chupeco

• Genre: Fantasy
• Age group: Young Adult
• Pub. date: March 5th 2019 by Sourcebooks Fire
• Format: Audiobook
• Pages: 480
• Goodreads link

The dramatic finale to The Bone Witch series! Tea’s dark magic eats away at her, but she must save the one she loves most, even while her life—and the kingdoms—are on the brink of destruction.

In the Eight Kingdoms, none have greater strength or influence than the asha, who hold elemental magic. But only a bone witch has the power to raise the dead. Tea has used this dark magic to breathe life into those she has loved and lost…and those who would join her army against the deceitful royals. But Tea’s quest to conjure a shadowglass, to achieve immortality for the one person she loves most in the world, threatens to consume her.

Tea’s heartsglass only grows darker with each new betrayal. Her work with the monstrous azi, her thirst for retribution, her desire to unmask the Faceless—they all feed the darkrot that is gradually consuming her heartsglass. She is haunted by blackouts and strange visions, and when she wakes with blood on her hands, Tea must answer to a power greater than the elder asha or even her conscience. Tea’s life—and the fate of the kingdoms—hangs in the balance.

Great ending to the series! It kept doing the thing of showing an evil and a good Tea in different timelines, so it was great seeing that contrast.

Loved all the secrets and info we learned about history and how magic works here, and how different people use history for their own goals.

Shoutout to Lick being awesome.

The visit one country/land/people/place thing where the local people are hilarious and amazing and I love each and every one of their adventuring selves.

Despite the narration being lovely, I think there’s too much time-jumping for me to rec this on audio, by book 3 I just embraced not knowing exactly when we are and I rolled with it.

The Vor Game (Vorkosigan Saga) by Lois McMaster Bujold

• Genre: Sci Fi
• Age group: Adult
• Pub. date: January 1st 1990 by Baen Books
• Format: Audiobook
• Pages: 346
• Goodreads link

Hugo Award Winner! Miles Vorkosigan graduates from the Academy, joins a mutiny, is placed under house arrest, goes on a secret mission, reconnects with his loyal Dendarii Mercenaries, rescues his Emperor, and thwarts an interstellar war. Situation normal, if you’re Miles.

Excellent! Miles is fun and clever as always.  Chaos reigns. Wrestling even more identities this time, getting in even deeper trouble, piling on higher mountains of bullshit to get out.

Just a super fun book, always going from bad to worse, always trying to balance out what to reveal and what to hide and how to get out alive. I also loved the antigonistic characters, and what we got to see of another certain Vor lad, who shall remained unamed for now cause it’s so much chaos when he shows up.

Pet by Akwaeke Emezi

• Genre: Fantasy
• Age group: Young Adult
• Pub. date: September 10th 2019 by Make Me a World
• Format: Print Ebook Audiobook Graphic
• Pages: 208
• Goodreads link

Pet is here to hunt a monster.
Are you brave enough to look?

There are no more monsters anymore, or so the children in the city of Lucille are taught. With doting parents and a best friend named Redemption, Jam has grown up with this lesson all her life. But when she meets Pet, a creature made of horns and colours and claws, who emerges from one of her mother’s paintings and a drop of Jam’s blood, she must reconsider what she’s been told. Pet has come to hunt a monster, and the shadow of something grim lurks in Redemption’s house. Jam must fight not only to protect her best friend, but also to uncover the truth, and the answer to the question — How do you save the world from monsters if no one will admit they exist?

In their riveting and timely young adult debut, acclaimed novelist Akwaeke Emezi asks difficult questions about what choices a young person can make when the adults around them are in denial.

This was a mod book club pick and I loved it. A really quick read, but still full of heart. Imagining a world where all the monsters have been dealt with was very hopeful, even when the illusion is shown to have some cracks. The contrast between that and reality made it feel more bittersweet than comforting to me.

Pet is really interesting, he’s pretty one track mind, so it was always surprising to me when he stopped to take Jam into account. Also “visually” he’s great.

Oathbreakers (Valdemar: Vows and Honor #2) by Mercedes Lackey

• Genre: Fantasy
• Age group: Adult/Young Adult (?)
• Pub. date: January 3rd 1989 by DAW
• Format: Print
• Pages: 318
• Goodreads link

When Idra, leader of the crack mercenaries known as the Sunhawks, failed to return from a journey to her home kingdom of Rethwellan, Tarma and Kethry, warrior and mage, set out in search of their vanished leader. Sisters of sword and spell, their fates bound together by Goddess-sworn oath, they were eternally pledged to fight the forces of evil.

And evil had indeed cast its shadow over the kingdom of Rethwellan. Idra, so they were told, had left long ago on a search for a legendary magical sword which could reveal which of her two brothers was meant to become the new king. With the princess gone, her younger brother had been branded an outlaw and her older brother had claimed the throne. Both instinct and mage-lore told Kethry and Tarma that all was not as it seemed, that both Idra and her people were in terrible jeopardy. Yet would their Goddess-given powers, aided by those of a Herald of Valdemar, prove strong enough to break the dark enchantment possessing this land?

Oh yes, thank you, Valdermar is back. After I didn’t much like Oathbound I put this one off for ages, though it had a good return to the wholesomeness of Valdermar. There are still some horrible people and some people getting hurt, but it’s not the MCs enacting revenge porn for an entire book. So yes, loved it. It was great seeing Kethry and Tarma have space for an entire story, now that their relationship is pretty well established. The mercenary company they are with was also interesting, cause they’ve got such strong leadership they’re kinda lawful good-mercs. It also starts to tie in with the more core-Valdermar world. And the ending was exciting and made me feel good.

Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation
by Damian Duffy (Adapter), Octavia E. Butler, John Jennings (Illustrator)

• Genre: Sci Fi Distopian
• Age group: Adult
• Pub. date: January 28th 2020 by Harry N. Abrams
• Format: Ebook
• Pages: 266
• Goodreads link

In this graphic novel adaptation of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower by Damian Duffy and John Jennings, the award-winning team behind Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, the author portrays a searing vision of America’s future. In the year 2024, the country is marred by unattended environmental and economic crises that lead to social chaos. Lauren Olamina, a preacher’s daughter living in Los Angeles, is protected from danger by the walls of her gated community. However, in a night of fire and death, what begins as a fight for survival soon leads to something much more: a startling vision of human destiny . . . and the birth of a new faith.

I read this for the Hugo readathon, not having read the novel first. And I thought it was good (I don’t enjoy apocalyptic settings in general, order falling appart makes for interesting stories but rarely ones I personally like), but thinking on the conversation from the readalong, I think it’s not a great fit for a graphic novel adaptation. For one thing it took me forever to realize a certain graphical thing was a representation of something, so I’d been missing a lot. And there are a lot of journal entries, and the protagonist’s reflections, so it’s really a text heavy GN. I felt like the text was doing the heavy lifting rather than a more balanced ratio between the text and the images for carrying the story.

The story itself is interesting and I’m curious to continue the series, just not in this format.

Murder by Other Means by John Scalzi

• Genre: Sci Fi, Mystery
• Age group: Adult
• Pub. date: September 10th 2020
• Format: Audiobook
• Pages: 192
• Goodreads link

In the world of the Dispatchers, a natural or accidental death is an endpoint; a murder pushes the do-over button and 99.99% of the time the victim comes back to life. Tony Valdez is a Dispatcher who’s been taking shadier and shadier gigs in financial tough times, and after witnessing a crime gone wrong, he finds people around him permanently dying in a way that implicates him. He has to solve the mystery of these deaths to save the lives of others–and keep himself out of trouble with the law.

This was the second book of The Dispatcher, it was fine, the audiobook is really good, but it didn’t really do anything for me, other than being short and a sequel so I can count it towards my goals. And it’s annoying cause I can’t place anything wrong with it, the story is pretty interesting, some good twitst and turns, but even for a novella it left long. The MC is alright but I’m just not that intersted in this sort of character, some of the other people he interacted with were more compelling to me. I did like seeing more practical applications for dispatching, and I think that’s an interesting concept, but it’s not the main focus of the story.

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

• Genre: Fantasy/ Sci Fi Dystopian
• Age group: Adult
• Pub. date: February 4th 2020 by Tordotcom
• Format: Ebook
• Pages: 176
• Goodreads link

“That girl’s got more wrong notions than a barn owl’s got mean looks.”

Esther is a stowaway. She’s hidden herself away in the Librarian’s book wagon in an attempt to escape the marriage her father has arranged for her—a marriage to the man who was previously engaged to her best friend. Her best friend who she was in love with. Her best friend who was just executed for possession of resistance propaganda. The future American Southwest is full of bandits, fascists, and queer librarian spies on horseback trying to do the right thing.

This was a lot of fun! It’s got a really tight focus on the MC, so we don’t learn as much about the world or the other character’s stories as I’d have liked. I loved the concept of the book, wild-west librarians distributing books among isolated towns. I also liked how Esther’s expectations was quitly overturned and how these tough people she met turned out to be caring and accepting.

I’m tryin not to give too much away here, but enjoyed it a lot, and do recommend.

Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert

• Genre: Romance
• Age group: Adult
• Pub. date: March 9th 2021 by Avon
• Format: Print
• Pages: 400
• Goodreads link

In Act Your Age, Eve Brown the flightiest Brown sister crashes into the life of an uptight B&B owner and has him falling hard—literally.

Eve Brown is a certified hot mess. No matter how hard she strives to do right, her life always goes horribly wrong—so she’s given up trying. But when her personal brand of chaos ruins an expensive wedding (someone had to liberate those poor doves), her parents draw the line. It’s time for Eve to grow up and prove herself—even though she’s not entirely sure how…

Jacob Wayne is in control. Always. The bed and breakfast owner’s on a mission to dominate the hospitality industry—and he expects nothing less than perfection. So when a purple-haired tornado of a woman turns up out of the blue to interview for his open chef position, he tells her the brutal truth: not a chance in hell. Then she hits him with her car—supposedly by accident. Yeah, right.

Now his arm is broken, his B&B is understaffed, and the dangerously unpredictable Eve is fluttering around, trying to help. Before long, she’s infiltrated his work, his kitchen—and his spare bedroom. Jacob hates everything about it. Or rather, he should. Sunny, chaotic Eve is his natural-born nemesis, but the longer these two enemies spend in close quarters, the more their animosity turns into something else. Like Eve, the heat between them is impossible to ignore—and it’s melting Jacob’s frosty exterior.

Not SFF, just plain old contemporary romance, but this books was A DELIGHT. I just loved it from the start. There’s a sunshine grump dynamic but even the grump is truly loveable, once you get to know him. The sunshine character is so sweet, she’s working through stuff but she’s also happy with who she is and I love her. The setting is a cute English B&B. The writting is great, at times hilarious, at times truly beautiful, at times pretty steamy.