Jane Litte's Blog, page 85

DUELING REVIEW: How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

Content warnings:

Spoiler: Show

child in jeopardy, child deaths, child euthanizing, animal killing, illness

Jennie: When Janine suggested we review this book together, I hadn’t heard of it. But the blurb told me it was dystopian, and I have a weakness for dystopian novels even though they don’t always end up working for me. Though it’s billed as a novel, How High We Go in the Dark is more accurately a collection of stories, each with at least one small thread relating it to the other stories....

REVIEW: The Impossible Us by Sarah Lotz

Bee thinks she has everything: a successful business repurposing wedding dresses, and friends who love and support her. She’s given up on finding love, but that’s fine. There’s always Tinder. Nick thinks he has nothing: his writing career has stalled after early promise and his marriage is on the rocks, but that’s fine. There’s always gin. So when one of Nick’s emails, a viciously funny screed intended for a non-paying client, accidentally pings into Bee’s inbox, they decide to keep the conver...

Review: The Maid by Nita Prose

Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and misreads the intentions of others. Her gran used to interpret the world for her, codifying it into simple rules that Molly could live by.

Since Gran died a few months ago, twenty-five-year-old Molly has been navigating life’s complexities all by herself. No matter—she throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid. Her unique character, along with her obsessive love of cleaning and proper etiquette, make her an ...

REVIEW: Comeuppance Served Cold by Marion Deeds

Seattle, 1929—a bitterly divided city overflowing with wealth, violence, and magic.

A respected magus and city leader intent on criminalizing Seattle’s most vulnerable magickers hires a young woman as a lady’s companion to curb his rebellious daughter’s outrageous behavior.

The widowed owner of a speakeasy encounters an opportunity to make her husband’s murderer pay while she tries to keep her shapeshifter brother safe.

A notorious thief slips into the city to complete a delicate and dangerous...

JOINT REVIEW: Red Blossom in Snow by Jeannie Lin

Murder and forbidden love in the Tang Dynasty. The latest in the bestselling Lotus Palace Mystery series.

Magistrate Li Chen harbors a secret. One that could destroy his hard-earned reputation, as well as his growing passion for the talented courtesan, Song Yi.

Li Chen’s duty to his family and the Emperor must come before the desires of his heart, but when a stranger to the city is found dead near the House of Heavenly Peaches, where Song Yi is indentured, the complicated nature of their relatio...

Review: The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman

It’s the following Thursday.

Elizabeth has received a letter from an old colleague, a man with whom she has a long history. He’s made a big mistake, and he needs her help. His story involves stolen diamonds, a violent mobster, and a very real threat to his life.

As bodies start piling up, Elizabeth enlists Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron in the hunt for a ruthless murderer. And if they find the diamonds too? Well, wouldn’t that be a bonus?

But this time they are up against an enemy who wouldn’t bat an e...

REVIEW: The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

The Kaiju Preservation Society is John Scalzi’s first standalone adventure since the conclusion of his New York Times bestselling Interdependency trilogy.

When COVID-19 sweeps through New York City, Jamie Gray is stuck as a dead-end driver for food delivery apps. That is, until Jamie makes a delivery to an old acquaintance, Tom, who works at what he calls “an animal rights organization.” Tom’s team needs a last-minute grunt to handle things on their next field visit. Jamie, eager to do anythin...

REVIEW: A Slender Thread by John Rhodes

1942: At the Siege of Malta, one of the most crucial battles in modern history, only extraordinary courage and willpower can turn looming defeat into victory.

The war in the Mediterranean, 1942: The outcome of World War II hangs, as Churchill says, by “a slender thread.” Erwin Rommel, Hitler’s “Desert Fox,” is poised to defeat the reeling British army in Egypt and thwart America’s first operation in Europe. Only the tiny, embattled, half-starved Mediterranean island of Malta stands in Rommel’s...

REVIEW: The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James

A true crime blogger gets more than she bargained for while interviewing the woman acquitted of two cold case slayings in this chilling new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Sun Down Motel.

In 1977, Claire Lake, Oregon, was shaken by the Lady Killer Murders: Two men, seemingly randomly, were murdered with the same gun, with strange notes left behind. Beth Greer was the perfect suspect—a rich, eccentric twenty-three-year-old woman, seen fleeing one of the crimes. But she w...

CONVERSATION: Where Do You Stand on Anachronisms?

Jayne: Our next topic for discussion is “anachronisms.”

Do anachronisms bother you? Or not?

Are any types worse than others? Language, culture, legal stuff, character actions, titles, anything else?

Can you tolerate a certain amount or is there a point beyond which you throw up your hands and say “No more!”

If a book is hitting all your sweet spots otherwise, can you forgive things that you know are incorrect?
 

Do Anachronisms Bother You?
 
Jennie: Anachronisms bother me…sometimes. I don’t ...