Jane Litte's Blog, page 44

REVIEW: How to Survive History by Cody Cassidy

A detailed guide to surviving history’s most challenging threats, from outrunning dinosaurs to making it off the Titanic alive

History is the most dangerous place on earth. From dinosaurs the size of locomotives to meteors big enough to sterilize the planet, from famines to pandemics, from tornadoes to the Chicxulub asteroid, the odds of human survival are slim but not zero—at least, not if you know where to go and what to do.

In each chapter of How to Survive History, Cody Cassidy explores ...

REVIEW: The Briar Rose by Dinah Dean

She’s a healer, but a broken church and a broken heart are beyond her skill

With the dissolution of the monastery that has been the center of her life imminent, Kate Cressy can’t help but resent Matthew Hartwell, the man sent to her father’s house to value every item of furniture, and his particular attention to her. Without the abbey, she will soon be homeless, and a visit from King Henry VIII himself makes her divided loyalty even more painful. Her one comfort is that among the courtiers wil...

Review: A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland

The Goblin Emperor meets “Magnificent Century” in Alexandra Rowland’s A Taste of Gold and Iron, where a queer central romance unfolds in a fantasy world reminiscent of the Ottoman Empire.

Kadou, the shy prince of Arasht, finds himself at odds with one of the most powerful ambassadors at court—the body-father of the queen’s new child—in an altercation which results in his humiliation.

To prove his loyalty to the queen, his sister, Kadou takes responsibility for the investigation of a break-in at ...

REVIEW: Translation State by Ann Leckie

First, a note on my review: Most of the characters in Translation State use three different pronoun types for nonbinary characters—sie/hir, e/eir, and they/their–as well as the typical gendered pronouns he/his and she/her, according to how that person prefers to be addressed. In addition, the characters from the Imperial Radch don’t recognize gender and have chosen to use she/her for every character regardless of their gender. Characters who come from Presger or Presger translator background don...

REVIEW: Charm City Rocks by Matthew Norman

Billy Perkins is happy. And why wouldn’t he be? He loves his job as an independent music teacher and his apartment in Baltimore above a record shop called Charm City Rocks. Most of all, he loves his brainy teenage son, Caleb.

Margot Hammer, on the other hand, is far from happy. The former drummer of the once-famous band Burnt Flowers, she’s now a rock-and-roll recluse living alone in New York City. When a new music documentary puts Margot back in the spotlight, she realizes how much she misses...

REVIEW: A Little Ray of Sunshine by Kristan Higgins

A kid walks into your bookstore and… Guess what? He’s your son. The one you put up for adoption eighteen years ago. The one you never told anyone about. Surprise!

And a huge surprise it is.

It’s a huge surprise to his adoptive mother, Monica, who thought she had a close relationship with Matthew, her nearly adult son. But apparently, he felt the need to secretly arrange a vacation to Cape Cod for the summer so he could meet his birth mother…without a word to either her or his dad.

It’s also a ...

REVIEW: The Recipe for Happiness by Jane Lovering

When Seren’s brother Andrew signs her up to Yorkshire Dating, only for them to recommend that she ‘gets a life’ before they find her a match, Seren has to admit that they may have a point.

She loves her job cooking at an elder day centre and her little flat, but it’s fair to say her life is a little short of hobbies and friends. Since she was young Seren has felt safer close to home, but now she’s a thirty-something divorcee, it’s time for a change.

Change arrives in the shape of alarmingly ...

Review: Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh

While we live, the enemy shall fear us.

All her life Kyr has trained for the day she can avenge the murder of planet Earth. Raised in the bowels of Gaea Station alongside the last scraps of humanity, she readies herself to face the Wisdom, the all-powerful, reality-shaping weapon that gave the Majoda their victory over humanity.

They are what’s left. They are what must survive. Kyr is one of the best warriors of her generation, the sword of a dead planet. But when Command assigns her brother to...

REVIEW: The Last Drop of Hemlock : A Mystery by Katharine Schellman

In The Last Drop of Hemlock, the dazzling follow up to Last Call at the Nightingale, even a dance can come with a price…

The rumor went through the Nightingale like a flood, quietly rising, whispers hovering on lips in pockets of silence.

Life as a working-class girl in Prohibition-era New York isn’t safe or easy. But Vivian Kelly has a new job at the Nightingale, an underground speakeasy where the jazz is hot and the employees look out for each other in a world that doesn’t care about them. T...

REVIEW: Unfortunately Yours by Tessa Bailey

Dear Tessa Bailey,

Anyone who knows me knows that enemies to lovers is a trope that’s more miss than hit for me. I don’t enjoy love interests being cruel and that seems to happen often with enemies to lovers. In this case, I was aided by your acknowledgements at the front of the book which said:

When I sat down to write this enemies-to-lovers book, I asked myself, “What is the one thing I need to feel satisfied after a book about two people feuding? What is going to make me feel better after...