It's a story about idiots. A bridge, a bank robbery that wasn't really a robbery, and a hostage situation with the worst hostages that results in the disappearance of the criminal. And it is awesome.

I love everything that Fredrik Backman puts to paper. This book was excellent and might be a tie with Beartown for my favorite of his works. The writing in this book is nothing short of magnificent. Seriously...it's just brilliant. There is a fantastic mix of humor and realism, with a touch of sarcasm. It's blunt and to the point. I laughed throughout my read, but also rode the rollercoaster of human emotions. In true Backman fashion, he manages to capture humanity so freaking well. I just loved this so much.

The character work in this novel is the best. There is a pile of characters, but it wasn't hard at all to remember who was who because Backman makes them all so distinct, unique, and memorable. There were characters who I loved, there were ones I disliked as human beings, and there were a few who made me want to rip my hair out. The whole experience was incredibly introspective and very emotional, dissecting and evaluating the ways we interact and influence one another. Gah. It's just one of those hand to heart books.

Beautiful, sarcastic, quippy, and smart. A trainwreck of people and situation that was just the best disaster and made my reading life so much better. This is definitely reread material. It will be a permanent fixture on my shelf and I can't wait to get back to it again. Easily one of my favorite reads of 2020.

* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *

I tend to read a lot of synopses and then choose my books far ahead of reading them, resulting in my forgetting most of what they were supposed to be about before I read them. Thus, I went into my read of The Lost Queen without knowing the connection to history/myth/legend. This may have worked both to my advantage and disadvantage in this case. Pro: I had no preconceived notions of where I expected the book to go or how it should turn out. Con: I had nothing to propel me forward in moments where the pacing was slow, adding some frustration to some pieces of my reading. Spoiler: I think the pro outweighed the con this time around.

This is a good historical fiction that both felt comfortable in the familiarity of its construction and new in its endeavors. I very much enjoyed the historical setting of the novel. 6th century Scotland still has the castles and warring factions of later history, but is rare to find a book of historical fiction from the British Isles that does not encompass the Renaissance or Plantagenet/Tudor England. This was refreshing. However, I will admit that I am a frequent reader of the latter, being a fan of the Philippa Gregory novels about that time period. Because of that, I was happy to have the same sort of focus in this novel. Told from a female point of view, encompassing some true historical fact, and still managing to balance war/politics with normal life and maybe a touch of a romantic side. The addition of the magical/natural healing element also made things interesting, though I definitely wanted more of this content than was provided.

The writing style is comfortable, both presenting historical detail and keeping things lyrical. There is fantastic description of the surroundings and some good background on the political and religious state of the region at the time of the story. I don't have the ability to judge the historical accuracy in full, but there seems to be good attention to different pieces of life during the time, so I would like to assume that the majority of the detail is correct.

The characters are interesting with a mix of both dynamic and static character builds. The primary characters are well described and seem to have unique and identifiable personalities. The secondary characters are a bit more cardboard in their feel, so this could have been improved. There were a few instances where having them better developed could have enhanced the richness of the prose and the overall story, but this didn't pose a big problem for me.

Pacing was my biggest issue with this novel. Though I very much enjoyed the writing style, there were some moments that slogged along a bit. That's quite difficult to brush aside when you've got a 500+ page book staring you in the face. But, the slow start eventually built up speed and there was still enough along the way to keep me intrigued. Once things got moving consistently, I became more wrapped up in the political intrigue of the story and the characters began to gain a little more footing. At that point the pages began to fly by pretty steadily.

There was a bit of cringy instalove, but at the same time the characters involved were both teenagers...so I give it a little latitude because of the whole irrationality of the teenage heart. Don't say you weren't prone to the same type of thing when you were a teen...we all know you were. Crushes happen...this one just had a little more tenacity.

I was really finding myself wrapped up in the story and turning the pages with ferocity when the ending came upon me. Dang it! Because of this, I was a little frustrated with where the book ended. The epilogue in particular made it feel both like a quick wrap up and a cliffhanger. However, I will admit that it does set up the second novel nicely and the approach worked...because I am antsy to get to the sequel.

* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *

This was my second Riley Sager read and I'm definitely a fan.  This is a fantastically gothic novel with a well executed premise and the additional fun of being a book within a book type setup. I was hooked pretty early on with this one simply because of this premise and trope combination, but the writing absolutely did not disappoint. 

Things move at a good and comfortable pace with just enough supernatural feel to keep the reader on edge. There is excellent creation of a dark and mysterious atmosphere. It was not necessarily a freezer book for me, but there were moments that definitely sketched me out a little. There's a mild scare factor and pieces of the book will generate nightmare fodder for some readers. 

There are some bits that do (admittedly) feel a little tropey, but that didn't cause me much pause. Supporting characters are a bit flat, but the protagonist is well-written and does well as the focus of the novel. Keeping the other characters a bit in shadow worked for me and just seemed to add a little bit of that unknown factor to the plot. I had a lot of speculations along the way. Some were right, some were wrong, and some were on the right track. The "twist" wasn't overly shocking, but wasn't one that I really saw coming. I just had a good time with this read. It was one of those books I couldn't wait to get back to and I definitely recommend it.

3.5 stars.

The writing in this book is beautiful and wonderful and poetic. The premise is interesting and weird and I really like weird books. There is a merging of reality with a not quite fully explained magical realism element as the protagonist slowly becomes merged with the mythological harpy. It was an intriguing book and I did like the read, but the execution just left me a little lacking and I wasn't able to be gripped by the movement of the story. I didn't connect well enough with the characters to really care what happened in the end.

The Harpy is a short novel with a fairly well-moving plot. Written from Lucy's point of view, the narration is fairly unreliable...a tactic that can either work wonderfully or fail miserably for me depending on the way it is executed. For me, I thought this actually worked well. She's a strange bird (pun slightly intended) from the beginning and boy does it just go downhill from there. Once Jake's affair is revealed, there is a fairly rapid progression of Lucy's mental decline and the book quickly began to feel primarily like something highly psychopathic. Again, not necessarily a bad thing, but in Lucy's case...it just didn't sit right for me.

Lucy was, in fact, probably my primary obstacle to REALLY enjoying this book. Her unreliability and, really unlikability, played fine for me, but she also didn't feel fully cohesive. This was a disorienting issue that pulled me out of the book a bit. It was like having two completely separate protagonists merged into one being. And while merging the original Lucy with the character of the harpy IS done, that is not what I'm referring to here. I'm talking about two completely separate characters, as if the book was written using two different (and somewhat oppositional) identities and then, rather than selecting one, the author just combined them.

One of these personalities was a sympathetic character going through a difficult life situation, infidelity. I could identify with this part of Lucy, and these portions of the plot flew by and pulled me in. There was some promise that there could be a progression through the issues and character development (or at least an interesting journey) along the way. The other half of Lucy was just fantastically unhappy in all ways and didn't seem to have a smidge of hope. Lucy appears to be overly unfulfilled and resentful from the beginning, which made it a little harder for me to connect with her emotions and her attempt to grapple with her husband's infidelity. Basically, she just felt like an unsavable trainwreck from the start. I didn't care about this part of her character as I didn't see her going anywhere and it ultimately removed my ability to be fully immersed in the plot. Had this portion of her been removed as an additional conflict, I think she would have been much more believable and relatable.

All that being said, this STILL was a decent read with fantastic writing. I wouldn't mind checking out more of Hunter's work in the future.

* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *

I kind of kick myself for putting this book off as long as I did. It was awesome! I had totally forgotten the premise when I picked it up and I think that made it even better. I had no idea what I was in for and it was a great ride. There was more action than I expected and a good blend of tension and humor.

This was a really fun read with high energy and the BEST flippant protagonist. I freaking loved Monty. He's just a fantastic rakish character. He is snappy and full of personality. Not to mention that the narration from his point of view is just right for the story. His relationship with Percy is a great balance of adorable and agonizing, adding another layer to an already interesting plot. Monty's character does a decent amount of growth through the plot, but remains a realistic trajectory given the time frame. However...I would definitely enjoy a continuation of the progression.

The story itself has great historical content, a good amount of queer rep, and addresses racism in a way that applies to current culture, but also reflects historical fact. All in all, a great read and I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.