Jane Litte's Blog, page 24

REVIEW: The Shortest History of Sex: Two Billion Years of Procreation and Recreation by David Baker

A wild – and satisfying!- ride through two billion years of sexual evolution. The Shortest History books deliver thousands of years of history in one riveting, fast-paced read.

From the first microbial exchanges of DNA to Tinder and sexbots, how did sex begin, and how did it evolve to be so varied and complex in humans? What influence do our genetic ancestors have on our current love lives? And what might sex look like in the future?

With acuity, humor, and respect for human diversity, The Sho...

REVIEW: While the City Sleeps (The Women of Midtown): (Gilded Age Christian Historical Romance Fiction Set in New York City) by Elizabeth Camden

Amid the hushed city, two hearts must navigate danger and deception, bound by a love that outshines the stars.

Katherine Schneider’s life as a dentist in 1913 New York is upended when a patient reveals details of a deadly plot while under the influence of laughing gas. As she is plunged into danger, she seeks help from the dashing Lieutenant Jonathan Birch, a police officer she has long admired from afar.

Jonathan has harbored powerful feelings toward Katherine for years but never acted on t...

REVIEW: When Grumpy Met Sunshine by Charlotte Stein

Note: Charlotte Stein have followed each other and have been friendly online for many years. This review is my unvarnished opinion regardless.

Content notes: parental abuse, childhood poverty, and alcoholism, fatphobia

Dear Charlotte Stein,

I admit I had some hesitation about reading When Grumpy Met Sunshine. Generally, I’m less excited to read about characters inspired by either real life people (this is harder for me) or fictional characters. I tend to find it difficult to separate the “origi...

REVIEW: The Oxygen Farmer by Colin Holmes

Sabotage, murder, cover-ups. Just another day on the Moon.

After 35 years of living on the Moon, cranky old oxygen farmer Millennium Harrison has stumbled onto a hidden facility in the shadows of the Slayton Ridge Exclusion Zone with a radiation leak and a deadly secret. Mil’s discovery leads to the death of a young astronaut, sabotage, murder, and cover-ups that may go all the way to the Chief Administrator of the space agency. Unfortunately, she happens to be Mil’s estranged daughter, busy t...

REVIEW: The Lie (Washington Wolves: Next Gen) by Karla Sorensen

Rule number 1 for the team owner’s daughter? Don’t date the players.

Especially not hotheaded tight ends with tattoos and impulse control problems.

That’s why Dominic Walker is completely off my radar. Sort of.

Babysitting the team troublemaker when he’s forced to volunteer for the foundation where I work means I can’t exactly avoid him.

I wish I had though. Because once I get to know Dominic, it’s almost impossible to ignore the feelings he brings out in me.

Pretty soon, I’m breaking all my r...

Review : The Streaming Staircase and The Whispering Skull (Lockwood and Co #1 and #2) by Jonathan Stroud

*NOW A NETFLIX SERIES*

Dive into the first book of this frightfully fun series and join the ghost-hunting gang as they defend our world from the most fearsome phantoms!

A sinister Problem has occurred in London: all nature of ghosts, haunts, spirits, and specters are appearing throughout the city, and they aren’t exactly friendly. Only young people have the psychic abilities required to see and eradicate these supernatural foes. Many different Psychic Detection Agencies have cropped up to handle...

REVIEW: Love, Naturally by Sophie Sullivan

Dear Sophie Sullivan,

Presley Ayers has been dating Emmett for months but things are not going well. In order to try and get things back on track and prove she can encourage him to do things he likes even if she doesn’t, she books a 10 day holiday to Get Lost Lodge on a small island in Lake Michigan. It’s all nature, hiking, fishing; things Emmett apparently likes (although Presley’s best friend Rylee notes she’s never see Emmett doing any of them) and which are not really in Presley’s wheelhou...

REVIEW: Queens of London by Heather Webb

Maybe women can have it all, as long as they’re willing to steal it.

1925. London. When Alice Diamond, AKA “Diamond Annie,” is elected the Queen of the Forty Elephants, she’s determined to take the all-girl gang to new heights. She’s ambitious, tough as nails, and a brilliant mastermind, with a plan to create a dynasty the likes of which no one has ever seen. Alice demands absolute loyalty from her “family”—it’s how she’s always kept the cops in line. Too bad she’s now the target for one of Br...

REVIEW: The Seamstress on Cider Lane by Jillianne Hamilton

The Germans pause their bombing raids on London but life on the homefront is certainly far from ordinary. The Seamstress on Cider Lane is a lighthearted and hopeful romance, perfect for fans of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and The Last Bookshop in London.

Gifted seamstress Nora Archer opens a sewing shop just as clothing becomes rationed and scarce in Britain. London’s fashionable elites soon discover her remarkable talent for giving garments new life and her skills are so...

Open Thread for Readers for February 2024

Got a book you want to talk about? Frustrated with a book or series? In love with a new one? Found a buried treasure? An issue that keeps popping up in the books you are reading? Just want to chat about stuff in general? Post about it here!