Reading in 2024 - April Edition!

 1. Ghost Talkers, Mary Robinette Kowal - This has been in my queue forever, and I finally picked it up to give it a try.  I give Kowal props for originality, and I always love her female leads.  It's not her best book, though.  (And I do love her books.)  I think if I hadn't so recently read Katherine Arden's The Warm Hands of Ghosts I would have liked it a lot better.  It paled in comparison.  Sigh.  I both did and didn't enjoy it, and I can't quite put my finger on why I'm having such mixed feelings.  

2. The Husbands, Holly Gramazio - Another book selected for me by my amazing indy bookstore heart sister!  I love walking in and asking her to tell me what I should read next, and I always love her recommendations.  She was worried this would not fit in with my usual type of reads, but I thought it was perfect!  Magically appearing husbands and an attic that swaps them out - right up my alley as a type of urban/modern fantasy.  I devoured it in a couple of days, and promptly loaned it to one of my daughters.

3.  The Last Available, Sean R. Frazier - I'm biased.  I've been married to the author for 25 years.  Having said that, this is my absolute favorite of his books because it's just so very him.  I didn't know fantasy humor was a thing, but now that I do I want more of it!  It's a silly, ridiculous sort of book - a Dungeons and Dragons style adventure with the absolute worst group of "heros" ever - and I loved every minute!  Also, the author loved it when he would walk by me laughing on the couch over something he wrote.  

4. The Book of Doors, Gareth Brown - Easily in the running for my top five books of the year!  In fact, I need to get a hardback copy.  I was shocked when I discovered it's a debut.  A few things I loved about it:  magical books, the emotional impact of friendship, the fact that the two main characters do not fall in love (but maybe someday....), an interesting take on a certain trope that I won't mention because I don't want to ruin the surprise, libraries and bookstores, and on and on and on.  I can't wait to read this again - perhaps in audio - someday soon.  

5.  The Fox Wife, Yangsze Choo (audio and print) - Curiously enough, even though the narration is top notch I had trouble getting into this as an audiobook.  When I switched over to print I fell in love.  It's a bit of a slow build, but when you start to put the pieces together and make connections it's totally worth it.  I enjoyed it so much that I immediately added all of Choo's other works to my queue.  The ending was extremely satisfying.  

6.  The House of Earth and Blood, Sara J. Maas - My eldest daughter has been pushing me to read The Crescent City series, and I finally gave in.  I read ACOTAR a while back, and while I enjoyed it I was distracted by how obvious the inspiration points were.  Was a little bit nervous to carry on with any other works by Maas.  To my surprise, I ended up absolutely loving this book.  It's urban fantasy/film noir, and it's a big juicy book with excellent world building and fun characters.  600 pages in digital format, and I blasted through it in three days and promptly started the next book.  I've been craving a series I could dive deeply into, and this satisfies the craving nicely.  

7.  Once Upon a Broken Heart, Stephanie Garber (audio) - I'm really, really glad I didn't buy this book.  Checked out the audiobook from the library after seeing it in a billion BookTok videos. (I've trained my socials to only show me BookTok reels....it's fun!)  I'm kind of at a loss as to how this book has gotten so many reviews because, well, it's fine, and basic, and not that well-written.