It’s a dark, fast-paced science fiction fantasy story with doses of Dark Matter, The Matrix, Crescent City (yes I said it), The Fifth Season, American Gods, Ursula LeGuin and the City We Became. It’s modern. It’s multiple timelines. It’s queer. It’s commentary on race and social justice and politics and internet conspiracy theories. Shifters, dragons, witches, mages, gods and all manner of magic are real. Multiple realities exist and we can visit them. Humans deny all signs pointing to a reality that encompasses more than they currently experience. All the while, a mysterious narrator makes known that he is present while being unseen. There are magical societies fighting an secret battle that has ripple effects all over the world.

The pacing is brutally fast. Choppy chapters and short books within the book keep you ripping through page count until the end…of this installment.

👍🏻Recommended for Jemisin fans, fans of modern fantasy, twisty-turny plots and those able to manage an unfinished series. There’s some really great LGBTQIA+ rep in this book including NB, ace, poly and trans characters. 

So instead of drunk shopping a few nights ago, I did a little buzzed borrowing from the Libby app and Julie Anne Long’s The Perils of Pleasure showed up on my Kindle.

This novel is a great mix of mystery/adventure and love story, set in Regency England.

Colin Eversea is mysteriously rescued from the gallows (where he is supposed to hang for murder) and promptly meets the heroine, Madeline Greenway. Madeline is supremely confident, funny and competent, and she quickly won me over. She is just the type of FMC I like to read about. When she is nearly killed, Colin and Madeline begin a tense yet madcap adventure during which they attempt to unveil who was behind Colin’s rescue and Madeline’s attempted murder. Since this is a romance novel, of course Colin and Madeline fall in love along the way.

This book is a very slow burn, but I enjoyed the relationship between Madeline and Colin immensely. Unlike some Hissy RoNos, they both felt like fully fleshed out people and the attraction between them is about way more than marriage prospects and creating heirs. Madeline has been purposefully alone for a long time and takes very good care of herself, so watching her soften and fall for Colin is very sweet, while watching them volley and work as a team is super fun.

👍🏻Recommended for readers who love beautiful prose as well as a huge helping of adventure with their romance novels.

It took me more than a month to finish this book, and I’m still not sure how I feel about it. On the one hand, it is ambitious and expansive and absolutely unique. On the other, reading it became a total chore. I wanted to finish it but I didn’t feel like the story gave me much reason to. The premise is so cool - what would happen if the Black Plague killed 99% of Europe instead 1/3? From there we get 700 years of alternate history where China, Dar al-Islam and India (known as Travancore) end up battling for world domination, and the dominant world religions become Buddhism and Islam.

This book is broken into 10 sub-books, each written in a different style and featuring reincarnations of the same souls, each time sharing the same first letters. The main characters are the K-, B-, and I- souls, each represented not only by their name but also a core personality. B- is a loving dreamer, an idealist who wants to bring positivity and gentleness to the world. K- is an iconoclast who is often in charge of things but never happy with the way things are. I- is an intellectual, sometimes an academic, others a scientist. 

Some of the sub-books were propulsive and interesting, while others were painfully dry. To me, although the characters showed up repeatedly, they never seemed to change or improve. And even though A LOT HAPPENED, I was often bored. This was not at all what I expected for a plague novel and I can’t say that I would recommend it.

I listened to about half of this book on audio and the narration by Bronson Pinchot was absolutely excellent. He was able to make the characters much more realistic and exciting than me reading them to myself. If you do take this one on, please check the CW in the comments as it is graphic and includes basically all manner of human violence.

Do you ever try to hire a highwayman to rob your a-hole dad and then end up falling in love with him? I know. It happens to me all the time. 

If you are looking for a low-angst, lighthearted, exciting, sweet sweet sweet sweet, queer love story set in Georgian England with deep social messages about the landed gentry and the inequalities present in every day life: this is the book for you. Basically, Cat Sebastian said “Be gay, do crimes? I gotchu.”

As far as Hissy RoNos go, this one takes some common character types and flips them in a wonderful way. The way Kit and Percy fall for each other and the way they communicate is super swoony and soft, even though both of them have more at stake than may appear at first. It’s a slow-ish burn but the payoff is oh so worth it. 🔥

⚠️Word of warning: there is a sequel to this book coming out this year called The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes. Yes, Marian is Percy’s childhood friend and his stepmother in this book. DO NOT look at the synopsis for Marian’s book if you are reading The Queer Principles of Kit Webb - it has major spoilers for Kit’s book.

👍🏻Recommended for fans of the Princess Bride, hijinks and soft love stories.