Four stars!  I adored this book.  It just might be the perfect writing of a modern day fairy tale.  The main characters are delightful! The mystery, the love story, and the quest are woven together so wonderfully.   Honestly, even though I adored the banter of the characters throughout the chapters,  my favorite parts were the pauses in between for ‘Storyteller Corner.’  I could have read the whole book from this point of view.   Meg Shaffer has written a gem!  I hope she decides this world needs another book and I will be first in line to read it! 

Thank you to Meg Shaffer, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, and Net Galley for the digital ARC. 

I really enjoyed this book because the premise is so intriguing.  Penny, a young woman, has landed her ‘dream’ job at Dallergut Dream Department Store.  The store where the sleeping masses, including animals, come to buy their dreams.  The story focuses on some of the sleeping patrons and also on the dream creators.  It is a story built on the different dreams that most humans have, like repetitive, nightmares, aspirational, or totally random.   It was fascinating to read how Miye Lee wove them all together along with inspirational quotes and common dream theory.

Where I think the story fell down for me is possibly in the translation aspect from Korean to English. 
The sentence structure at times was juvenile and hard to follow.  Some of that may indeed be because of translation, but it became frustrating to read.  

All in all a pretty good book.  I think it would make a really good television show.

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing | Hanover Square Press, and NetGalley for the digital ARC.

Crystal Bell has written a humdinger of a gothic novel. The stage is set in the whaling village of Warbler that happens to have a seemingly malicious fog. But is the problem really the fog?   It has a lamplighting heroine who is ready to fight the patriarchy and give the devil his due, so to speak, but things aren’t always as they seem nor do plans turn out the way she plans them.

The pacing of the book is slow at times. It doesn’t reveal too much too soon, but does a fine job of putting one on the edge of their seat at the end. I do believe that the author could have developed the characters a bit more and given a bit of background to the ‘why’ of the creature, but all in all it is a very satisfying read.

I think it will sit well with any fan of the gothic genre and linger in one’s mind a bit after reading it. Now, where is my lamp and my chisel?

Many thanks to North Star Editions | Flux and NetGalley for the digital ARC!

Sarah Brooks’ book had me interested as soon as I saw the title. Then a little dive into the synopsis and it became clear I was destined to like this novel. I cannot pass up anything with a turn of the century style setting and then being placed on a train through a wasteland. Yes, please! 

I will say I was happily invested in the stories of Weiwei, the child of the train, and Marya, the determined daughter looking for justice. The rest of the characters seem to be a bit shallow and took a backseat during the story, even though some of them had very important parts to play as the story moved along. 

The way the author depicted the train and the wasteland was well written. I do believe you could feel yourself immersed in the movement of the train and the wild happenings inside the train and outside in the wasteland. My only complaint is that the book tended to travel slowly through most chapters. For some reason I expected a faster tempo, but all in all not a disappointing read. 

I recommend this book highly if you liked the adventures of Snowpiercer, meshed with What Moves the Dead. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron for the opportunity to read this book in digital form.