Author: bibliobloggityboo

Fire Must Burn Allison Montclair (Historical Mystery)

Book 8 of the Sparks and Bainbridge historical mystery series, and definitely my favorite so far. London, 1947, and the co-owners of The Right Sort Marriage Bureau are being asked to do a “favor” for British Intelligence by using their matching services to determine whether one Anthony Danforth is or is not a Soviet agent. The catch is that Iris Sparks — once in British Intelligence herself — had been a good friend of Danforth’s back in their Cambridge days, though it has been over a decade since they had seen each other. The plot thickens further with an “almost” body, some clashing secrets, and ongoing doubts as to the ethics of their subterfuge.

I like the series for the snappy writing, the deep and personal historical contexts, and the two main characters — each unusual for their time, but also squarely OF their time. Both serve as exemplars of how times were changing for women, and some of the means by which women were bringing that change about. In this particular installment, I particularly enjoyed the slowly elaborated 1935 Cambridge story that set the stage for the present day mystery. This was full of details — both political and cultural — that helped me understand what life was like in that era. I also liked the various (and plentiful) ethical dilemmas that peppered the plot — presented thoughtfully and resolved (as one often must when one lives in reality) in practical, rather than wholly principled ways.

Intellectually engaging, little to no filler, and thoroughly enjoyable.

Thank you to Severn House and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on January 6th, 2026.

Bug Hollow by Michelle Huneven (Literary Fiction)

A multi-generational family story told through progressing vignettes, each told from the 3rd person perspectives of different family members during precipitating events. Throughout it all, we learn about each character in some depth. I found myself advancing through various stages of a reader’s judgmental process with respect to each of them as they did things I admired, found annoying, detested, felt sorry for, etc. I’m not always aware of how judgmental I am as a reader, but this shifting perspective and focal point made me realize it. With excellent, clear, writing, the author exposes us to the many different facets of an individual’s personality and how easily we fall into judgement as measured against an idea of perfection that few people can attain.

The prose contained beautiful description of places, feelings, and interactions — I loved the author’s use of language, and I loved her portrayal of realistic family interactions — this was not a dysfunctional family, but also not an idealized one. The story moved through tragedy, adoption and birth mothers, an assignment in Saudi Arabia, death, worries, college tours and my favorite vignette: the very different love story of Mrs. Wright (the upstanding Principal of the local school) and a Jamaican immigrant.

Highly recommended.

The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith (Mystery)

This is the eighth book in J. K. Rowling’s Cormoran Strike series, and I gobbled up all 900 pages in just a few days. I honestly don’t know what it is about her writing, but hers are some of the few books that I literally can’t put down even when my neck is hurting from holding up the giant hardcover!

A body is discovered in the vault of a silver shop, mutilated and with all identifying features removed. While the police are happy to think it is the body of a convicted felon, there are at least three other unrelated theories as to whom it could be, and off go Strike and Robin to unravel the many possibilities. As always, the plot is convoluted and can get confusing (I take notes) but the convolutions feel realistic from the perspective of being a detective in a bustling world where many, many, things are happening at once, and it’s up to you to tease them apart. Plenty of dark themes, but I was happy that none of them were as creepy as the cult in the last book (that one was particularly hard for me).

My only complaint is that there was a little too much of the will-they-or-won’t-they in the long running saga of whether the two detective agency partners will get together or not. It’s been eight books, and I’m tired of it — it’s quite realistic, people being what they are, but it’s not that fun to read about.

Still, I will keep pre-ordering these books and hope that she continues the series for a long time. They continue to be top notch.

Death at the Door by Olivia Blacke (Cozy Mystery)

The second in the Ruby and Cordelia cozy mystery series: Cordelia Graves — a recently deceased woman coming to terms with navigating the world in her new state — and her new “roommate,” 20-year old Ruby Young — an annoyingly perky young woman who is hell on (Cordelia’s beloved) houseplants.

In this episode, a favorite delivery guy — who delivered more than the delicious sandwiches Trendcelerate (Ruby’s company) orders regularly — is found dead in the company bathroom. Looking like an overdose, the police aren’t too concerned. Enter our half ghost-detection team.

These stories are fun, the characters engaging, and even the filler piques my interest. Lots more backstory on our characters with the addition of a few more (e.g. a cute guy across the hall and Cordelia’s not-dead but also definitely not honest or law-abiding little brother), and we learn some more about Cordelia’s own death.

Fun ideas, good execution, an engaging read.

Thank you to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on November 4th, 2026.

Love by the Book by Jessica George (Literary Fiction)

Writing: 5+/5 Characters: 5+/5 Story: 5

Remy is a writer struggling to produce a second book at the same time as her ten-year, very close, friendship circle is dispersing leaving her jonesing for a new friend. For her, the love she has for her close female friends is far more important than the promise of sexual relationships with men. Simone is an introvert who loves her job as a Year 1 teacher, but also loves the lifestyle provided by her second, and rather secret, job. When the two meet in a kind of platonic “meet cute,” it’s not at all clear that a friendship could be the result, but it does in fact pave the way for an incredibly rich book about female friendship. The best descriptions come straight from the book itself: “Great food, the complexities of female friendship, and the romantic nature of platonic love” and “adult friendship, and the beauty, intimacy, and unappreciated joy of platonic love are explored through the lens of the moral ethics of storytelling.”

I love that the book fully delves into so many issues of importance to women. Real issues such as whether or not have to children; how to tease apart your own moral compass from the judgment of your community; how to define selfishness and is it necessarily a bad thing; and how to manage (which is actually required) a tight friendship group. The idea of platonic love applied to friendship without attraction was a real eye-opener for me. Something I think I’ve always longer for, but honestly could never have even described. These characters are beyond rich — they are so much more interesting and complicated than the typical stereotypes and behavior groupings we get daily from fiction and the beastly news. I found the discussions of life philosophies to be penetratingly insightful (as did the characters themselves). I was able to dive into so many topics that I simply hadn’t spent much time exploring. One of my favorite lines is when one character is exposed to another’s viewpoint and says: “I’ve never really seen life that way. The idea of taking from it as opposed to merely accepting what you receive.” Think about that from the perspective of typical expectations of women!

Jessica George is a startlingly beautiful writer. A large vocabulary precisely placed into perfectly crafted phrases depicting the intricacies of human interaction and self-reflection. I enjoyed the meta-fiction circularity detailing the intricacies of Remy’s writing process while struggling to write the very book that I believe we end up reading. Masterfully done, engaging, and surprisingly unconfusing! I loved her first book — Maame — just as much (see my review here).

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on April 7th, 2026.

The Experiment by Rebecca Stead (Middle Grade Fiction)

Nathan has known from an early age that he and his parents are from another planet and that they are part of a secret experiment whose parameters are unclear. But things are starting to go wrong — some of the other alien families are disappearing, his family is being called back to the mothership, and his parents are looking pretty worried. What happens next is one twist after another in this absolutely satisfying middle grade science fiction story.

I love Rebecca Stead. She has that rare ability to write about topics with depth and make them equally accessible and appealing to both children and adults. Her books are all well-written (Newberry Award winner), weird in the best possible way, and never even close to trite or formulaic. The blurb likens it to A Wrinkle in Time and — as a long time and HUGE Wrinkle fan — I can lend my expert agreement! It’s a coming-of-age book about a young boy who is put into a very difficult situation and manages to be a hero because he can’t bear to not do the right thing regardless of the possible cost. There are no insipid moral messages (I’m sorry but “being kind” will not solve most real problems!), but there is plenty of (young boy) reflection, confusion, and eventual understanding to help grow a child into the adult they want to be. This is the kind of book that will both entertain and educate a young audience. And it was fun for this (much older) audience, too.

Thank you to Feiwel & Friends and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on September 16th, 2025.

Five Found Dead by Sulari Gentill (Mystery)

Crime Fiction writer Joe Penvale and his sister Meredith board the famed Orient Express as both a celebration of Joe’s (barely) surviving cancer and a hope that the luxury train would stimulate his writing follicles. A whole host of diverting characters board with them — a retired French policeman, a Jamaica born Detective Inspector, a Duchess, a travel writer, a pair of octogenarian bounty hunters, a Welshman with a background in international terrorism, and a member of Scotland Yard. A pair of young podcasters — focused on the mystery genre with a strong dose of social indignance thrown in — complete the dramatis personae. Things are off to a great start but then … a mysterious illness leads to a partial quarantine and the stranger in the next cabin disappears, leaving a great quantity of blood behind. Now things get exciting.

Very good writing with lots of sentences to highlight while laughing or having my thoughts provoked. Unpredictable plot twists, including plenty of clever metafictional commentary and provocative ruminations on ones own mortality. I liked the multi-layer literary references to the Golden Age of Detective fiction, including to the notable Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express.” Very entertaining, difficult to put down, and brilliantly executed in every respect.

Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on August 19th, 2025.

The Hired Man by Sandra Dallas (Historical Literary Fiction)

A coming-of-age story for Martha Helen, a young woman growing up in Colorado in the 1930s amid the drought, dust bowl, and an ever increasing supply of vagrants. One day, in the middle of a huge dust storm, a vagrant (Otis Hobbs) stumbles to her family’s door with a half conscious boy he found buried in the dust. He becomes a room and board only “hired man” for the family, despite the ill will of many in the town. When a young girl is found murdered much later, the town is sure Otis is the perpetrator while Martha Helen’s family staunchly defends him.

Things don’t go the way you might expect — I won’t give anything away but I was happy that there was more to this story than the obvious. It’s a true coming-of-age, so we watch Martha Helen grow as more and more of the (not always pleasant or ethical) real world makes it into her awareness and eventually the composition of her adult self. In the process she reflects on loyalties, biases, good and evil, and understanding people as individuals. The town people really fell into “good” and “bad” categories, which normally feels shallow and manipulative to me. But in this case, you could see that those in the “good” category adhered to strongly held principles, while those in the “bad” category did not, either not having principles or literally not understanding when the crossed the line. It was particularly interesting to me to watch Martha Helen shift her understanding of individuals by watching what they actually did. Martha Helen put it well:

“For better or for worse, the drought and ill winds showed what we were made of. Some folks stole and cheated and hoarded. Others rose above the hardships and displayed strength and courage, even though it threatened to destroy them. The dust bowl changed us. Mr. Hobbs did too . During the time he lived with us, I grew up. I was barely more than a girl when he joined our family. By the time everything was over I was a woman.”

Good story, great characters, a real sense of place and time, all supported by writing that is so good and unobtrusive, you forget that you’re reading at all.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on March 31st, 2026.

The Unsinkable Greta James by Jennifer E Smith (Literary Fiction / Audio Book)

A rock star (Greta James) reluctantly takes her recently deceased (and greatly beloved) mother’s place on an Alaskan Cruise — accompanying her father and two other senior couples. On board she meets nerdy author and Jack London fanatic Ben, who recently published a surprise best seller. You might expect a cute love story or even humorous rom-com wit hin a scenic setting, but I was happily surprised to find myself engrossed in a simultaneously moving and humorous story full of evolving insight. I found it beautiful and — I never thought I would say this — it actually put me in the mood to take an Alaskan Cruise.

All aspects of the story had the kind of depth that makes me pay attention — the story a mixture of processing unexpected depths of grief, healing relationships, and evolving self-knowledge including all the messy bits of life — hopes, dreams, doubts, longings, contentment, curiosity, and confusion. I loved the dialog — both the external and the internal kind. I liked all of the individual characters — each of whom played a role — and how badly they adhered to the traditional tropes of fiction. I found the ending (just before the epilog) to be one of the most perfect I have read, and while it did not tie everything off in a happily-ever-after bow, I found it uplifting in a more genuine way. Also, none of the characters was adorably stupid and / or airheady, nor were they mean spirited or down right bad guys. This is the kind of fiction I enjoy — people who feel real to me making their way through the joys and vicissitudes of life.

The Shattering Peace by John Scalzi (Sci Fi)

Another fun Scalzi book — they don’t come any other way! Starts off fast and keeps up the pace. Plenty of humorous snark coupled with characters of strong principles who don’t shy away from getting into the tangle and making (good) things happen. Some pretty cool aliens with thought-provoking characteristics and some explorations of the kind of physics that might be uncovered when a superior race has had millenia to develop really advanced technology. I liked the fact that a lot of the story focussed on getting different species with wildly different characteristics and values to get along with each other. Humans were not the easiest. This is book seven in the Old Man’s War universe and I had to look up a few character and plot points that I didn’t remember (it’s been over a decade and how many brain cells can I keep devoted to the plot of every book I’ve read??). However, you can easily enjoy this book without having read the others.

Thank you to Tor Books and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on September 16th, 2025.