rainbowbrarian's Reviews (1.85k)

This was my first Brandon Sanderson book. I’ve heard a lot of people love his other books and this one sure didn’t disappoint! Our MC wakes up in the middle of a scorch marks in a field and has no idea who he is or where he is, and then people start chasing him and he just knows he needs to hide.
He meets a local skop, a kind of witch, and gets involved with a rescue. He’s able to dazzle the anglo saxon locals with special body augments that he’s had installed. As the story unfolds we learn more about his life as he does. And it starts looking like he might not be the hero that he’s hoping he’d be.
There were SO many funny lines in this book. I kept stopping to read lines to my wife because I loved them so much. If you like a time travel story anti-hero who is really a screw-up but who decides that he’s going to save the day anyway!

Big thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this DRC.

TW: domestic violence, substance use, animal abuse and murder, eating disorder, self harm, xenophobia, racism, gun violence

Eke is a humanoid AI owned by an oblivious wealthy family in Massachusetts. The absent father and substance addicted mother have raised a toxic and neglected son, Carson, who finds joy in hurting others. Eke, who is programmed to obey without question is a frequent and easy target for his misdirected rage. Things begin to change a little bit with the arrival of Kyp, a brand new luxury AI who can do all kinds of things Eke would love to do. When Carson’s rage accelerates Eke and Kyp find themselves running for their lives.
I liked the idea of this story and I found the characters of Eke and Kyp to be decent. Carson’s unchecked rage was uncomfortable and I had to put the book down for a while before I could continue. I found the relationship between Eke and Kyp to be a bit under-developed. It worked on a level of ‘we are both going through this trauma together’ but it could have used a bit more of them communicating and less doing chores and experiencing violence in the house.
One thing of interest, I keep going back and forth as to whether I think this book is queernorm/queer. Kyp and Eke both use he/him pronouns and they kiss. So on that level they could be identified as queer. But there isn’t any mention of anyone else being queer at all. There are no other queer characters and we don’t get any commentary on the state of queerness in this world.
Not my favorite, but an interesting attempt!

I'm not sure what I think of this book. I picked it up for an Indigenous queer story and I was interested in the sort of ghost story part of it as well. But the narrative was so scattered across so many points of view that I found it hard to follow at times.

Probably my lack of familiarity with the culture didn't help either. I was also disappointed by the "tragic queer love story" trope too.

I did like the writing, I hope to see more from this author, just maybe a little less scattered.

When Edwin finds his friend missing and a new government employee in his place he is more than a little put out. When the replacement, Robin, turns out to know nothing about magic or magicians, it’s even worse than he though. Robin takes the whole ‘magic exists’ thing in stride and intends to give up his seat as soon as a more appropriate replacement can be found.

Unfortunately for both of them, before anything happens to fix the situation a shadowy figure places a curse on Robin and since the curse was a result of Edwin’s friend’s investigation he feels obligated to try to help Robin find a way to lift the curse.

Cue to them spending time together at Edwin’s family estate in the English countryside with his elitist and much more magically gifted family. This delightful mystery solving romance features such tropes as grudging colleagues to lovers, found family, coming into your own power, and discovering that the patriarchy is full of shit and magic is more than the idiot cis men decided it should be.
There is an amazing magical library, facing peril together, idiots in love, ancient mysteries, semi sentient houses/estates, and some truly awesome diverse ensemble cast kicking some major ass. I really enjoyed this adventure/mystery/romance and I’m looking forward to the next book!

I was not prepared for how lyrical and epic these love letters were going to be. Just, guh, some of them gave me that weak in the knees, feel it in your chest, kind of legend making feelings.

This is How You Lose the Time War is the story of Red and Blue, rival agents on opposing sides of the war between the technology based Agency and the biologically based Garden. Blue first sees Red across a battlefield and leaves a daring letter taunt for her, Red responds in a similar fashion. They both know if they are discovered to be communicating with enemy agents they’ll be done for, but they’re both compelled by the other. Across time and space the letters become less taunts and more of a shared life in the midst of an eternal war.

This is the book that we picked for the July Meeting of Reading Rainbow Queer Book Club and I cannot wait to talk about it with our members. I found it a little bit hard to start reading since you’re just thrown into the narrative without explanation, but if you can get past that (and I promise it’s worth it) the story just delivers. I want to re-read this one, and I don’t often do that. So, like Bigolas said, just grab a copy and read it!!

Dev desperately wants to believe in “Happily Ever After”, which is surprising considering he works on a Bachelor style reality TV show. And the fact that his six year relationship collapsed. But when he meets this season’s bachelor and realizes how much help Charlie is going to need just to survive the filming, things begin to shift.
Like Dev, I’m a fan of the Happily Ever After thing too. I haven’t seen any of the Bachelor shows so I’m sure there were things I didn’t get, but I still loved this story. It was tough to watch Dev and Charlie struggle with each other as they were both working through some mental health challenges and past trauma. I appreciated the normalization and eventual acceptance of mental health conditions and therapy. And I freaking loved getting to see them falling for each other as they went on ‘pretend dates’. It was sweet. And I loved getting to see Daphne coming into her own.
I’m glad to see more open and honest discussion of mental health in these stories, but sometimes I do worry that it takes over the story and I start to feel stressed out reading them. I’m still coming down on the view that we need more representation and I think they help reduce the stigma of mental health illness. So props to telling the story well and showing that there can be happy endings for people who struggle with their mental health. <3