Another satisfying free offering from the Rainbow Advent Calendar (https://jaymountney.com/2022/12/02/out-of-time-a-free-story/). I'm very much looking forward to checking out the author's other fantasy stories, because I really enjoyed this one! 

My absolute favorite part was the worldbuilding. The story starts with a young man from what feels like a ~19th century Earth stumbling into a portal that takes him to a fae world. The fairyland isn't exactly magical, but there are super interesting plays on the common fae tropes, such as the power of true names and the iron intolerance. It's connected with the human world through randomly appearing portals, and time flows differently across the two realms, which is how situations like "someone went to the land of the fae and came back seven years later thinking only a couple of days had passed" take place. It is also connected with another, more sci-fi/technologically advanced type of world that allows the fae to borrow stuff like indoors plumbing, long-distance communication devices, and electricity. It's a setting I would love to explore further from all angles and to see all the intersections between worlds.

As for the romance part: it was really sweet, and I loved how the fae character, the one who has more power thanks to his hypnosis tricks and is in a more privileged position thanks to being a well-adjusted native in his worls, ends up to be the one with the chronic illness. As someone who often has dizzy spells that result in fainting episodes, I found his condition relatable, and I enjoyed that it doesn't prevent him of being a master craftsman, having friends who don't immediately think of just his chronic condition when they interact with him, and building a happy relationship while being ill.

What I didn't enjoy is how condensed the romantic storyline felt. I understand the word count constraints here, but I'd so much love to read a full novel depicting more fully the way Kit and Rianthe came together. I'd love to read about more domestic moments between the two, to have more showing instead of telling. I also spotted some inconsistencies in Kit's narration that kind of knocked me out of the story for a bit. Such as: when he first witnesses a same-sex relationship in Rianthe's friends' circle, he mentions it doesn't surprise him to see two men together because during his life on the farm he's seen same-sex animals being affectionate with each other so he gets it's a thing that can happen. Next chapter, when he contemplates the possible attraction between him and Rianthe, he starts thinking about how he's always preferred man but never felt like society and church would allow him to explore this side of himself. So like... he's a closeted gay man, and the first things he thinks of when he sees two men in a relationship is, "Oh, right, I get this, I've seen male oxen being 'affectionate,'" and not, "It's the first time I'm witnessing people like me being happy!" or "other people like me? I'm not alone!" or "oh wow, this kind of stuff is actually socially acceptable here?" This... doesn't seem very plausible. 

This detail, and other minor things like, feels like it stemmed from the same word count constraints—maybe the author didn't have room to show just *how* closeted Kit has been, and map out his journey to admitting this to himself. But, well, this stuff did disrupt the immersion for me a bit, hence only 4 stars.

OMG, this was so wholesome and nice! I swear at least every third page made me go, "Awww," sometimes multiple times. This book doesn't have much in terms of conflict or drama, but it's got PLENTY to offer in terms of sheer feel-goodness. I suspect I'll return to it again in the future, when I feel down or something, because it's just the ultimate comfort read.

It's like... just this perfect, fluffy, in-depth story about two kind and soft people coming together, surrounded by the support of their kind, soft friends, and I didn't know how much I needed this book until I read it. And the fact that it's all about kindness and comfort doesn't make the plot disappear! It's super character-driven, yeah, but Selena and June both have their arcs that hit all the right beats as they unfold.

I appreciated the sensitive handling of anxiety here, and I liked the way the characters approached searching for balance between public and private life. Also, the cats! The cats are the best.

A short and super sweet Christmas novelette I got through the 2022 Rainbow Advent Calendar (http://alexjane.info/rainbow-advent-calendar-2022/). Micah moves back to his hometown. His old crush and best friend's brother Nicholas is home for the holidays. They both get gently roped into helping with the kids meeting Santa at the local play center, and of course that draws them closer. There's a bit of a second chance romance vibe, although in the past Micah's crush was clearly one-sided, and plenty of sweet moments. I loved the earnest conversations Micah and Nicholas had, and the adorable scenes with the kids at the play center. Also, Micah's friendship with Chad and Nicholas's relationship with his mom were so sweet, too!

The story is short and simple, but it does exactly what it sets out to do: provides a pleasant helping of good mood, fluff, and holiday spirit. Just what I needed today.

This is a simply delightful comic anthology, filled with the sweetest werewolf-themed stories, most of them just slice of life. My favorites here include:

Aloha Moon by Rhiannon R-S & Cat Farris: a short YA snippet set in Hawaii where werewolves are suddenly real, and the awkward new girl turns out to be one, and talking some stuff out early just may create lasting changes for the better.

Wolfing Lessons by Molly Muldoon & Kel McDonald: in which a guy isn't too happy about being turned into a werewolf, while his werewolf boyfriend sees this as a Great Thing and Really Wants to Help him adjust. Things get rocky before they get sweet.

Moon Time by Alina Pete: sisterhood, growing up, and Native American werewolves.  I loved the bond and the subtle rivalry between the twins here, and how they could be simultaneously at odds and super close.

Animal Lovers Only by Seanan McGuire & Caitlin Like: it's all about finding love in your 30s when you already have a lot of baggage, kids from your previous marriage, and allergies. Allergies are the biggest problem. 

Really though, pretty much every story was engaging in some way and made me smile. I also loved how diverse the anthology is. There are characters of different races, there are lots of queer characters, there are different body types. And a lot of the stories focus on family, friendship, and mutual support in a way that I found super heartwarming.

This was a quick read that gave me a lot of mixed feelings. On one hand, I really liked the dark, action-inspiring settings with latents (magic users cnstantly on the cusp of becoming unstable) and artifacts (psychic energy-infused items that come into being when something awful happens, addictive to latent). The author wastes zero words on exposition, jumping straight into the plot, but all the important setting details are injected into the narrative at precisely the right times. So save for the first couple of chapters, I never felt lost—at least not on the things the MC didn't feel lost on.

I also loved the heavy atmosphere of secrets and lies. No one in this book knows how to be straightforward, everyone is either using others as pawns or including others into pushing their own agenda, and there are so many twists, including a big bombshell at the end that will probably make me pick up book 2, after all. 

My problem, however, were the characters. I'm very character-oriented as a reader; I can overlook a lot of flaws if the characters hook me and keep me invested in their stories and the workings of their minds. This just didn't happen here. Dom, the MC, seemed like someone who had all the traits and circumstances to get me interested, but something was continuously off. Maybe the focus shifted to the action or yet another intrigue every time I thought I was getting to know him as a person? Something like that.

Kempthorne and Kage were both intriguing, but less as personalities and more as... plot devices? I wanted to know what they know, and where they come from, and what hidden agendas they're concealing, but not really *why* they were acting the way they were. I only wondered why when I consciously remembered to. The questions didn't tug on my emotions, if that makes sense. I wouldn't say the characters are badly written, but it seems that *how* they're written isn't my cup of tea? Which is a bit frustrating, because much like Dom, many other characters do have all the details to make them my favorites. The details just don't fit together into an intriguing whole. I guess that's the difference between plot-centric and character-centric writing? :)

I must admit I was also frustrated by the love triangle—I'm only ever a fan of those if all three characters have chemistry and if the situation at least *looks* like it might be fixed with a poly solution. This wasn't the case here, and both relationship options looked equally problematic. I wouldn't be *so* frustrated if I picked this book up expecting pure UF but with a queer lead, which it's closest to, but it was recommended to me as an UF romance, and it's just not that.

Anyway, the plot and the woldbuilding have me intrigued enough to try and continue the series at some point. Maybe the characters will grow on me, too! The book 2 snippet at the back of the book actually made me feel for Dom more than the entire first novel, so here's hoping.

This story was super thoughtful and entertaining! I'm a sucker for rivals-to-lovers, and both characters here, as well as the dynamic they had throughout the short audio read, were awesome to follow.

The story's about two rivaling true crime podcasters who practice rather different approaches to their craft: one sets out to entertain and systematically draw more listeners, the other to educate and to draw attention to important topics. They have a lot of not-quite-true perceptions of each other, fueled by a studiously ignored mutual attraction, and they'd rather not be in the same room... until the mother of a recently deceased fan approaches them and asks if they'd consider doing a collaboration as that fan used to dream they would, and neither of them can say no. When they actually start working together, they discover they have a lot of fun with each other. But certainly, the rivalry and the misconceptions they both have about each other aren't just gone with a snap of fingers, and the way they tackle those problems as they actually grow closer is delightful to follow. I'm honestly amazed at how much character and relationship development the author included in such a short book. I do still wish it was longer, but don't I always, when I encounter short stories or novellas? :D 

I should also note that the audio production was absolutely flawless. This was actually my first Audible Original. It won't be the last!

This was a pretty sweet, wish fulfillment type of story with Cinderella vibes. The kind where everything works out in the end, or even before the end, most of the problems exist in characters' heads and can be overcome with some thinking, soul-searching, and conversation, and the biggest external obstacle the characters have to overcome is a locked door and a discharged phone. Also, it has the best, sweetest, most terrible cat. I spent a couple of pleasant evenings with the book, and it did lift my spirits, so yay for that. 

It's hard to ignore the flaws, though. The book manages to be simultaneously too shallow and too big on what the characters are feeling/thinking. When I say shallow, I mean stuff like... well, Leo has identified as straight his whole life, but then he falls for a guy and he barely gives it a second thought. And the clearly was the sort of person who has a lot of brief flings, enjoys both flirting and sex, but never gets attached, and now suddenly he wants a commited monogamous relationship, and again, he's just like, "Oh, well, this is my goal now, I'm gonna pursue it." He just discards all the things he knew about himself and his romantic/sexual preferences, instead of reconciling his new wishes and desires with what he's been into his whole life.

And there's basically no discussion of the class difference, or how Eddie's going to get integrated into the royal society and diplomatic circles, etc, beyond Eddie sometimes thinking he should have looked up royal protocols and never actually doing it, and Leo mentioning that he likes how Eddie is so genuine and so real and doesn't know how to behave at the royal ball. There's a brief subplot with a nosy reporter, but no discussion of how Eddie and his family are going to adjust to being in a public's eye. It's all, "Oh, cool, we're moving to the royal palace! Yay! This will surely entail nothing but comfort and joy!"

I guess it kind of works for a total wish fulfillment fantasy, which this book is, but I'd still prefer it if there was some attention given to these big questions. The lack of that attention made the book feel somewhat... YA-ish? I found it hard to believe Leo was 30. 

And when I say it's "too big on what the characters are feeling," I mean the overwhelming quantity of inner monologues. I've lost the plot thread more than one time, because a scene would begin, someone would say something, and then the POV character would retreat into their own head, think about stuff for paragraphs and paragraphs on end, go off tangent, think about five different things, have three different feelings... And then the initial dialogue would continue, but like, wait, what are they discussing? Who's saying what? Where are we? :D

Despite all that, it was sweet and somehow comforting and there were many moments that made me smile. It's not the kind of book I'll want to re-read or rec to others, but I don't regret reading it at all. I enjoyed Leo's revelations about responsibility being good actually and Eddie's journey from extreme shyness and low self-esteem to confidence. And while I still have no idea why the characters fell for each other in the first place, once they were together, their pairing worked great—they clearly brought out the best in each other, and that's what I love to see in romance: people in love lifting each other up and helping each other become the best versions of themselves.

There's a specific type of stories I can never get enough of: the ones that happen after The End. The big battle has been won, the ultimate villain lies defeated, the victory celebrations are over, but life still goes on, and I'm always interested in *those* fictional lives. What happens to the veteran heroes? What do they do with their baggage? Give me more books about that!

Anyway, *The Bone Maker* sounded like it was written for me. I did enjoy it a great deal. I did, however, feel like it was... two separate books slapped together? The first half had a big *Kings of the Wyld* vibe: getting the band back together for one last impossible mission/unfinished job, that kind of thing. I got really invested in it, and then the second half switched quite abruptly to more, "When we were young, we just stabbed bad things until they bled, but now the villain's armor is made of political corruption and we've gotta delve into politics" with a dash of "Maybe we should all just let the past go... or should we?" and a heavily present theme of second chances and who deserves them. I kind of liked both stories, for different reasons. What I didn't like was how separate they felt.

My opinion on the characters is similarly halved. I really loved all the women in the cast: Kreya's struggle to stay on the line that separates her from the villain she's been pitted against since teenagehood, Zera's combination of flamboyance and loyal courage, Amurra's kindness and quiet courage. But all the males were like... "tortured prophet who's somewhat out of his mind," "valiant warrior turned family man," "resurrected husband/plot device who sometimes remembers he used to be a dashing youth." That's it, those are their personalities. I mean, in a way it's kind of refreshing to see the male characters get the short end of the sticks when it comes to unequal development between genders, but these guys are characters, too, and it's kind of hard to root for cardboard cutouts.

Oh, and one thing that confused me to no end: why did everyone act like the war against Eglor was a thing of the past, something shrouded in history, when plenty of people who witnessed it, fought in it, and lost loved ones to it still live? It was only 25 years ago. I was born more than 40 years after World War II ended, and I still grew up in the shadow of it. My grandfathers were war vets, my grandmothers survived the Nazi occupation. Victory Day was always a day of celebration and grief in my household, and the households of my friends of the same age. We grew up to our grandparents' tales of their experiences. For our parents, the shadow of the war had been even thicker: they'd been born in cities that still bore scars from the war, raised by people for whom the trauma was still fresh. 25 years is nothing when it comes to these things. So that made it kind of hard to get fully invested in the story, when the numbers just... didn't compute.

What I did unequivocally enjoy was the magic system with its three branches and the heavy prices baked in. I would have loved for the story to dig even more into the amulet-making Zera did—I love supportive casting, it needs more love. But I do see how the focus needed to be kept on the more plot-relevant spells and divination, and it was just all so interesting. 

I did, as usual, enjoy Sarah Beth Durst's writing and dialogue, and as a whole, the book was more of a good experience. Just... a flawed one.

This book goes straight to the top of the list of my favorite new adult romances of all times. I didn't expect to love it as much as I did, because it's hockey-centric and when it comes to winter sports, I'm way more of a figure skating person. I've watched a bit of hockey here and there, but I don't know all the terms all the details. It's just not a thing I'm into. After reading this book, though, I find myself vaguely interested in watching a few games!

What made this such a stellar read for me, though, wasn't the hockey part. It was everything else around it. This is one of the best cases of representation of anxiety and depression I've encountered. So many experiences the MC went through were viscerally relatable. That combo of anxiety driving you to keep doing something and depression preventing you from doing anything at the same time. The spacing out. The insomnia. Those situations when, with just a bit of effort, you suddenly have a really good day, and it feels like hey, maybe you've got a grasp on this thing called life, maybe you can do it! Except you wake up the next morning, and everything is now way worse than before. Those instances of being able to recite things from memory, yet completely overlooking them when it comes to applying them in practice. The sudden bursts of anger. The initial effect of antidepressants, when you suddenly start feeling things instead of just being empty and indifferent, but at first, they're all sad, hurtful things. How genuinely, wholly difficult it is to accept help or even just validation. How you keep feeling that you're probably faking it, because you don't get to be depressed when there are so many people who have it way worse than you do. I just kept wanting to give Mickey a hug and tell him, "Yeah, this, so much this, I get it." I also dearly appreciated that the MC wasn't the only depressed character in the book, that he got to commiserate with someone on shared experiences.

The romance part was simply amazing. It hits all the beats of what I look for when I'm in the mood for rivals/enemies-to-lovers. The gradual progression from mutual loathing to uneasy understanding and passion that didn't immediately crowd out the loathing to closeness was just 10/10. I appreciated that the reasons for the initial enmity were very real and thoughtful. It wasn't just, "We want the same thing, we're fighting for this number one spot, but we would totally be friends otherwise." Jaysen's reasons for initially detesting Mickey aren't completely fair, but he can't know that—he bases his judgment on what he can see from the outside, and the issues he has with the parts of Mickey's situation that he sees are 100% valid. Mickey also isn't being completely fair to Jaysen, because he interprets a lot of things through the lens of his depression, but his depression is there and real and yes, that's exactly what it can do to relationships. These characters have amazing chemistry, and I loved watching them pile obstacles onto their own path to happiness and then work at disassembling and overcoming them.

There are also so many other great plot threads and important themes laced throughout the narrative. The sibling dynamics, the relationship with estranged parents, lots of queerness including a poly relationship in the background, the heavy load of legacy and expectations, the questions of race, class, misogyny, and homophobia in relation to sports and beyond, the weight of fame and the impact all the attention from the press, the Youtube analytics, and the fanfic writers can have on a young athlete, and so much more. Oh, and the wonderful found family dynamic on the hockey team? Chef's kiss.

Why, then, am I giving this book only 4.5 stars? Sadly, it's the epilogue, especially the very end. While the author has wrapped up Mickey's personal arc, his family arc, and the relationship arc quite nicely, that one external plot question *also* deserved to be answered. I get what the author was aiming at with that decision in the last lines. It didn't work for me at all.

But whatever, this is still very firmly a favorite, and I'd die for a sequel. I want to see Mickey and Jaysen's relationship develop under the new circumstances, I want to see what setbacks they encounter and how they deal with them, and I want to meet all the wonderful characters again. Oh, and the answer to *that* question? Naturally, I want to know it, too, and to see the impact it has on the characters.

Wow. This was an amazing wild ride, and I'm so happy to learn there's a sequel—I need to get it ASAP, because while the story doesn't feel unfinished, there's a definite set-up for powerful things to come.

The characters here are simply brilliant. All the humans are wonderfully human. All the angels... well, let's say I loved to hate every single one of them, for different reasons. My favorite part, though, was the worldbuilding. The book is as lovecraftian as the cover promises, and all the eldritch horrors are as beautifully weird and terrifying as they should be. However, they're far from the most terrifying thing in this book. Compared to what some of the characters get up to while combating them, the eldritch horrors are downright comforting, and that's probably the most impactful part of the story for me. I'll refrain from elaborating on it, because that would mean sharing way too many spoilers. I'll just go back to talking about the setting. The entire thing with humanity creating its own gods by experimenting with AI and then making their continued existence and nearly unlimited power possible by simply agreeing with it? There's so much here that resonates deeply with my currently frequent thoughts of power structures and shared responsibility and how blurry the lines get sometimes between victims and accomplices—perhaps even victims, accomplices, and culprits. I also find it so important that in this world of gods and monsters, it's the most human choices that make the biggest difference.

The book was structured neatly, too, with epigraphs from in-universe books, journals, and documents before each chapter embedding some important details with little explanations first, and then the narrative itself picked up those threads and spun them into a wider picture. The genre-appropriate tension held up nicely throughout the whole story, although I'll admit there were a few hiccups near the middle, pacing-wise. I also suspect that some parts of the setting and plot may have gone over my head a bit because I'm very much not an expert on quantum physics. However,  none of that retracted from the enjoyment I got from this novel. I guess my overall rating for it lies somewhere between 4.75 and 5 stars. I'll round it up.

Oh, and I finish with the obligatory mention of this being a totally queernorm world, which I'm always here for. I also enjoyed the representation of neurodiversity and following a queer autistic heroine whose arc isn't about being queer or autistic, although those parts of her character definitely inform a lot of her journey.