That cover! and the swoon-worthy premise behind the title drew me right into this one. Plus, I'm on one of my books-about-books and books-featuring-bookstores kicks. This is a lyrical, slightly melancholy, character-driven time-slip tale tinged with mystery and peril. I had a few issues with the story and the resolution (both of which were just satisfying enough to bump my 3.5 stars up to a Goodreads 4), but the writing is beautiful (the dual timeline is handled well) and the setting and characters feel real. If you're reading it as a romance, you'll get your HEA (or happily-for-now at least), but it reads more like general fiction, leaning toward literary fiction to me. You'll find themes of second-chance romance, but also coming of age, learning to trust, friendship, the long-lasting effects of trauma, the corrupting influence of power, and the power of story and connection and forgiveness and the mysterious spark of life.

Content notes: drinking in excess, car crash, teen relationship age disparity (15yo girl, 18yo guy), brief perceived threat of partner violence, discussion of suicidal ideology in a secondary off-scene character, violence against elderly woman, loss of parent

Yeah, this is a good time.

[Full review to come.] A modern romance in which a guy (a sports guy nonetheless) cares enough about his relationship to be vulnerable and honest with himself, his friends, his wife — AND a group of bros reading steamy Regency romance as a way to improve their relationships? Good lordy, yes. Start a bromance book club branch in every city and village in the land!

A moving and mostly fun and funny book about sisterhood, individuality, family, feminism, and, yes, style and grammar. As a copyeditor, I'm squarely in the target audience — the wordplay and the portrayal of descriptivist/prescriptivist views are part of the appeal throughout. If I started to get just a little glassy-eyed in the back half of the book where the driest grammar analysis lies, the humor and pathos of the relationships are what brought me back around again.

3.5 out of 5 stars
It's hard to describe Upright Women Wanted without making it sound far more frothy and absurdist than it is. It's a dystopian pulp Western. Featuring queer librarians. Who traverse the Wild West on horseback. Facing down bandits and smuggling persecuted people to safe zones within a fascist America. Each layer invites another nod and "oh, this should be fun!" But then you start reading it and, well, when a book opens with a hanging, you get the sense that it's not fooling around. Which isn't to say that it isn't also a fun read, but it's more than guns-blazing action. There's a quieter story of courage and identity and trust and truth at it's core.

I've never read Sarah Gailey before, but apparently they have a whole backlist of weirdly wonderful work that I may want to check out. Including Magic for Liars, which looks to be right up my alley.

Note: If you have a hard time with singular "they" as a gender-neutral pronoun, this quick read will be great practice for you.