Victoria Janssen's Blog, page 8
July 14, 2023
My June Reading Log
Fiction:
Fete For A King by Sam Starbuck is an extremely charming male/male romance between the elected king of a small imaginary European country and a celebrity chef who is also a Maxtagram influencer. Gregory is nervous about his impending coronation and determined not to rely too heavily on his father Michaelis, who is retiring from the role; he’s also worried that he’ll need to find a husband soon. Gregory’s cousin Alanna, his chief of staff, hires American Eddie Rambler to cater the corona...
July 1, 2023
June 21, 2023
#TBRChallenge – Love Is Love: The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune was a gift from a friend who is a bookseller.
I’m glad I made the time to read it; it’s a very soft, hopeful novel set in an alternate world, roughly contemporary with ours, which includes many different magical populations and a 1984-like government that requires them to be registered and controlled (“See Something, Say Something” signs are everywhere.) The Protagonist Linus Baker is a meticulous career bureaucrat whose job is to inspect magical orphana...
June 10, 2023
My May Reading Log
Fiction:
The Unraveling by Benjamin Rosenbaum is set in a far future in a semi-utopian habitat where people (I assume humans) have two genders, Vail (ve, vir) and Staid (ze, zir); they still use the terms “Mother” and “Father” but either gender can bear children after suitable body modification. Also, most people have multiple bodies, usually three, which can all operate independently but know what the other bodies are doing and sensing. Everyone is linked into The Feed, in which all people can ...
May 17, 2023
#TBRChallenge – Freebie: The Dos and Donuts of Love by Adiba Jaigirdar
This review is in advance of publication. The Dos and Donuts of Love by Adiba Jaigirdar will be out June 6, 2023. I received this ARC from Netgalley, so it fits the “freebie” theme.
This book was a lot of fun!
Teenaged Shireen Malik, daughter of Bangladeshi immigrants to Ireland, is depressed from a recent breakup and because her best friend, Fatima, is spending the summer in Bangladesh with her family. Shireen is propelled out of her doldrums when she’s chosen for a junior baking show, but less...
May 12, 2023
My April Reading Log
Fiction:
The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by KJ Charles is a male/male historical romance set in Regency England in Romney Marsh in Kent, an area known for its culture of smuggling. Gareth Inglis, raised by his distant uncle and saddled with a bullying cousin, inherits a baronetcy and a house in the small town of Dymchurch from his estranged and selfish father. Unexpectedly, after his arrival he encounters a lover from a few anonymous but intense encounters in London. Joss Doomsday, along w...
April 19, 2023
#TBRChallenge – Unusual Historical: Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark
Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark is a novella set in 1922 Georgia, mostly in Macon with a set piece at Stone Mountain. It’s a dark fantasy that includes body horror, in which white supremacists use the initial release of “Birth of a Nation” in 1915 to enact a ritual bringing demons into the world. The human racism and racist actions of these white supremacists are subsequently exacerbated by these monstrous creatures who devour both hatred and people, including some of the supremacists. As alwa...
April 14, 2023
My March Reading Log
Fiction:
The Iron Princess by Barbara Hambly is her first fantasy novel in about a decade and a half. To me, it had elements that reminded me of both the Darwath books and the Windrose Chronicles; it’s likely meant to be a world in the same universe, where magical travel between different worlds is possible through a void, mageborn people can see in the dark, and messing with things humans don’t understand can lead to disastrous invasions from outside our ken. The world where most of the st...
March 28, 2023
A Place of Refuge omnibus!
The A Place of Refuge omnibus is available for sale.
They lost the revolution. But then, they found sanctuary—and hope.
Telepathic warrior Talia Avi, genius engineer Miki Boudreaux, and augmented soldier Faigin Balfour fought the fascist Federated Colonies for ten years, following the charismatic dissenter Jon Churchill. Then Jon disappeared, Talia was thought dead, and Miki and Faigin struggled to take Jon’s place and stay alive.
When the FC is unexpectedly upended, Talia is reunited with ...
March 15, 2023
#TBRChallenge – Baggage: My Father’s Ghost by Suzy McKee Charnas
My Father’s Ghost (2002) by Suzy McKee Charnas is a memoir by one of my favorite science fiction writers and favorite people, as well. As you can guess from the title, it’s focused on her relationship with her father, Robin McKee. She passed away earlier this year at age 83, after I’d already added this book to the list, so it was a different reading experience than I’d planned, and had different resonances. I read the entire thing in one day.
Onward. This month’s book definitely, definitel...
