WeAreTheKat

Expect 20% bookblogging and reviews, 80% art reblogs.

THINGS I LIKE: adult SFF, fairy tales, ladies with swords, dragons. Lovingly explicit descriptions of economics. Arranged political marriages. Messed-up queer fealty dynamics. Court politics, footnotes, appallingly baroque worldbuilding. Morally grey queer women.  

TAGS:

all my book reviews are under #my book reviews. I have reviews further organized by month, so reviews from October will be under #october book reviews and so forth.

for posts collecting the links for by month for all my book reviews, #monthly book overviews

Reviews of advanced reader copies are under #netgalley

Roundups of new releases I'm looking forward to in the coming month are under #monthly new release posts

General book recommendations under  #book recommendations, things that I personally plan to read shortly under #on the tbr

Books will generally be filed both by title and by author’s name, and sometimes also the series name.

I sometimes also tag fandoms separately. Commonly tagged fandoms here include #lotr, #the locked tomb, #queen’s thief, #discworld, #wheel of time

All pictures of cats are under #KITTY

Miscellaneous tags: #on tumblr, #classics, #opera, #presented without comment, #poetry, #short stories,  #art, #ladies with swords!, #DRAGON

I was impressed by Hellisen's twisty, hallucinatory retelling of Andersen's The Tinder-Box (Thief Mage Beggar Mage), so I'm delving deeper into their backlist. In King of the Hollow Dark, Georgina has been monitored her whole life after her mother was executed for necromancy. Until the wards her mother placed on her as a child fail, and she discovers that she was created as the perfect body for an immortal goddess...

From what I've seen of Hellisen's writing, their hallmark is striking worldbuilding that never stops to hold the reader's hand. King of the Hollow Dark is in an interesting position. On paper, the plot is very classically YA. It's the coming-of-age of a twenty year old girl who's been oppressed by the government her whole life due to her mother's identity learning that she's unique and magical. On the other hand, the execution is decidedly not typical for that genre. There's no explanation of the worldbuilding for the reader, and even less for poor Georgina, who is repeatedly berated by other characters for knowing nothing. It's not even her fault! She was brought up in a regime that deliberately censored knowledge of ghosts and the land of the dead... Throughout the story, Georgina is treated like a potentially useful sack of potatoes for older, more powerful characters to haul around, not like a special sparkle princess. Which is refreshing, but also frustrating, since our theoretical protagonist has very little agency, and in fact most of the powers at work here want her literally for her body. Still, the worldbuilding was striking—the hounds of the dead, planes of reality disastrously dissolving into each other, praying mantis-like immortal guards, blood magic, gods and monsters and an immortal empress.

I've liked Kritzer's snappy SF in the past, so when I saw my library had purchased a copy of her latest, I immediately placed a hold. In Obstetrix, gynecologist Liz won the trial but lost the job after performing a legal abortion. When a job interview unexpectedly turns into a kidnapping, she's forced across the country to act as the only doctor for an isolated fundamentalist cult.

The Eye of Leviathan, MA Carrick (14 July). In an alt Spanish Golden Age, a faerie changeling teams up with his replacement to defeat conquistadors. My review.

The Intrigue, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (14 July). Historical fiction about a con artist who falls for his victim's niece—all while they in turn are scamming him.

The Dragon Has Some Complaints, John Wiswell (14 July). An argumentative wild three headed dragon infiltrates a dragon riding academy. My review.

The Witch Below the Dreaming Wood, HG Parry (21 July). King Arthur threatens to rise in WWII era England.

*The Lord of the Wood, EM Anderson (21 July). A clockmaker stumbles into an enchanted forest and its cursed master.

*The Felicity Complex, August Clarke (21 July). A young woman is created to serve paranoid billionaires in an apocalypse shelter.

The Demon Star, Jesse Aragon (28 July). Dune-esque epic space opera about a futile battle against the gods. My review.

Just thought you might enjoy knowing your recommendation of it is atp successful to at least the third degree.

Yaaayyy my evil influence spreads... It's fun to hear that it was a big hit not only with you, but also with your friends and associates. Works of Vermin is so well-executed and also deeply weird, and I'm glad it's finding its people. Lots of its people, in fact, as it recently got shortlisted for the Le Guin prize:

The Eye of the Leviathan, MA Carrick (14 July). In an alt Spanish Golden Age, a faerie changeling teams up with his replacement to defeat conquistadors.

The Intrigue, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (14 July). Historical fiction about a con artist who falls for his victim's niece—all while they in turn are scamming him.

The Dragon Has Some Complaints, John Wiswell (14 July). An argumentative wild three headed dragon infiltrates a dragon riding academy.

The Witch Below the Dreaming Wood, HG Parry (21 July). King Arthur threatens to rise in WWII era England.

*The Lord of the Wood, EM Anderson (21 July). A clockmaker stumbles into an enchanted forest and its cursed master.

*The Felicity Complex, August Clarke (21 July). A young woman is created to serve paranoid billionaires in an apocalypse shelter.

The Demon Star, Jesse Aragon (28 July). Dune-esque epic space opera about a futile battle against the gods.

A Trade of Blood, Robert Jackson Bennett (11 August). The latest Holmesian biofantasy mystery.

Daggerbound, T Kingfisher (25 August). The sequel guy trapped in sword romance, this time m/m.

Wickhills, Premee Mohamed (8 September). A rogue intelligence agent is on the run while trying to hunt down a scientist beneath the city.

A Snake Among Swans, Hannah Kaner (8 September). A young heir marries an old warlord to save her country—and destroy her new kingdom from within.

Bodies of Magic, Freya Marske (15 September). The evil magic medical school murder mystery.

Dead Beat, Leigh Bardugo (15 September). The latest Alex Stern novel, in which a door to hell opens on the campus of Yale.

Mazywood, Tananarive Due (22 September). Multigenerational thriller about a Black filmmaker discovering the story of his grandmother, an actress.

The Thief and the Traitor Bride, VL Bovalino (29 September). A spy is sent to infiltrate enemy territory to find a relic—with her estranged husband.

*The Unhaunting, Micaiah Johnson (29 September). Horror about a suspiciously unhaunted house.

The Scarlet Ball, Nghi Vo (6 October). A young Vietnamese woman assumes a debutante’s name and face to compete for a demon husband.

A Wall is Also a Road, Annalee Newitz (6 October). An alien grad student studies ancient Pompeii.

Horngard, Elizabeth Moon (6 October). Big epic fantasy over the struggle for the throne in a neglected kingdom without a ruler.

The Book of the Dead, ed. Jonathan Strahan (6 October). Anthology arranged around the theme of death with an impressive turnout of authors.

Milkteeth, Caitlin Starling (20 October). A vampire broodmother struggles to control three fledglings.

The Slantwise Histories and Other Stories, Alix Harrow (20 October). Collection of short stories by the author.

Call Me Traitor, Everina Maxwell (27 October). A woman forged into a magical weapon must ally with a rank and file soldier on her mission to track down traitors in the desert. f/f.

Code and Codex, Yoon Ha Lee (27 October). Ancient jail traitor 2!!! Space linguistics edition.

Chateau Reverie, Natasha Siegel (27 October). Attendees to the Auction of Secrets bid their deepest truths in hopes of winning a wish, set during the French Revolution.

Saved by the Spell, Tanya Huff (3 November). Magic school from the point of view of a very tired teacher dealing with a new hero.

*new to me or unvetted titles.

Part 1 is here. January and later new releases beneath the cut:

Book one of a series of mystery novels, which I have read in reverse order. In Thus Was Adonis Murdered, brilliant but scattershot tax lawyer Julia has unwisely taken a vacation abroad to Italy. When she's taken into custody as the prime suspect for a murder, it's up to her colleagues and law professor Hilary Tamar to clear her name.

I will admit that Thus Was Adonis Murdered is not a very good mystery novel. The setup is relatively simple, and does not justify the vastly overcomplicated solution (which I will not spoil). I want to see Occam's Razor in action, not a clown car's worth of cutlery... But the Hilary Tamar books have never been about the actual murder, and in fact the actual murder isn't relayed until halfway through the books. Caudwell writes with the exact cadence of PG Wodehouse, except with baby eighties lawyers, and the overall effect is charming and very funny. There's an ongoing bit on how Julia has a bitter feud with Inland Revenue because, despite it being her literal job, she thought taxes were the sort of thing that happened to other people and hasn't been paying them:

Julia's unhappy relationship with the Inland Revenue was due to her omission, during the four years of modestly successful practice at the Bar, to pay any income tax. The truth is, I think, that she did not, in her heart of hearts, really believe in income tax. It was a subject which she had studied for examinations and on which she had thereafter advised a number of clients: she naturally did not suppose, in these circumstances, that it had anything to do with real life.

I received a free copy from Titan Books via Netgalley in exchange for a fair review. Release date July 28th, 2026.

I had initially passed on this book, but I gave it a shot after seeing an intriguing review. In Affairs of State, Levar Boylan is a humble supply lieutenant mired in his country's decade-long space war—until he's yanked off the front lines and ordered to act as a diplomatic attache. Boylan's college girlfriend is apparently none other than the Emperor of their enemies, and Boylan's higher-ups are eager to play him as one last card to halt their impending defeat…

Initially, I had seen this book's comps to Memory Called Empire and Winter's Orbit, both excellent novels, and then metaphorically flung it aside in disgust when I found out it was straight. Truly this is a premise that calls for a morally grey lesbian protagonist. But when I heard that the ex-girlfriend in question was a eight foot tall demon lady with fangs, I thought I'd give it a chance. I do regret that decision a bit, because Affairs of State is caught between being a romance novel and being a cool guns action-adventure, and to its detriment settles on neither. For a book that centers an eight foot tall demon lady pinning our hapless protagonist to walls, it's resolutely closed door. Also, since Boylan and Astrid's romance began a decade ago, their relationship isn't fleshed out very much on the page. It feels like James wants their romance to be steamy and titillating, but because he can barely stand to crack open the bedroom door for kissing, he whiffs it. Lots of romance novels do an excellent job without onpage sex—Boyfriend Material, Zen Cho's The Friend Zone Experiment—but they do it through solidly establishing the relationship outside of sex. Here, Boylan and Astrid almost immediately meet, establish that they're still attracted but unwilling to discard their loyalties… and then their relationship just stalls until the end of the book.

It's depressing, but not unprecedented, that the space worldbuilding is based loosely on central-eastern nineteenth century Europe, down to the gold braid and stupid warmongering. However, even as the romance is neglected, the secondary political scheming plot doesn't seem to get much air either. Astrid is technically Emperor of a complex multi-system polity, but the only thing we really see her do with that power is wear hot dresses and have people summarily executed. There's loose talk about Astrid doing paperwork but, impossibly, the forms are somehow even more offpage than the sex. Likewise, on Boylan's end there doesn't seem to be much in the way of high-level political scheming. It's outright stated that all real negotiation happens during sex, and the diplomats make it sound like a game that they take very lightly. Plausible for a bunch of disaffected aristocrats, but depressing. In the cherry on top of the whole thing, the fact that Astrid spent ten years killing her and Boylan's mutual friends is gently glossed over. Ultimately, without the sex or the politics, this SF political drama romance falls flat. All that's left is the guns and shooting, which bores me silly.

Picked this book up because I saw the author promoting it on tumblr and the linked review sounded intriguing. In Thornfruit, Alizhan is employed to steal secrets from the minds of unwitting guests. When Alizhan uncovers a shocking secret about her mistress, she flees the city with the help of Ev, the farmer's daughter she's know for years but never spoken to.

One of the things that draws me to novels is the competence of the protagonists. I don't need the characters to win at everything—in fact, it's more fun if their intelligence merely drags them into a series of even larger problems—but I like when people know what they're doing. I moved away from YA in part because it centers inexperience and coming of age arcs, which is not always my cup of tea. And Thornfruit reads very much like those coming of age YA novels. Ev has never been farther from her home village than the market. Alizhan believed implicitly in everything her mistress Iriyat told her despite being used as less than a servant for a decade. And not only are they inexperienced, they seem always have the option of handing their problems to the "adult" in the room. If Ev is pursued by the guards, she can turn to her father, who will sort them out using knowledge from his own unsavory plans. If a council member is corrupt, they can turn over all of the evidence to a good and nice council member who will sort it out for them. Making the characters feel very young is a neutral choice, and leaves the characters with more room to grow in the rest of the trilogy, but I personally don't enjoy it. This is why middle grade authors always kill off the parents...

On the worldbuilding side, the action is set on a tidally locked planet, but the style is firmly fantasy here, without even a hint of SF. The setting is not notably detailed, but a few details we're given are intriguing, like the trade in a kind of lethal jellyfish that produces a hallucinogen. And the plot revolves around that tired old chestnut, the oppressed magic-users, which isn't given much of a twist here. Instead, it's a plot tool that serves to isolate Alizhan, who is already shunned for her oddness and aversion to touch. (She spent years silently meeting Ev in the market without ever speaking). Meanwhile, Ev is sweet, gender nonconforming, and an excellent hand with a staff. The two girls' relationship is sweet, but not particularly compelling, as it stays firmly within the bounds of Baby's First Romance.

I received a free copy from Random House Worlds via Netgalley in exchange for a fair review. Release date June 30th, 2026.

I've read a few of the author's fantasy romances, and I was excited to get a copy of their latest novel. In The Feywild Job, Saeldian has traded their heart in exchange for powerful illusion magic. When a con goes wrong, Saeldian is tricked into a job to retrieve a stolen jewel—only to find that they're working with Kell, the ex-partner they dumped on bad terms years ago.

This is a light, fun heist romance centered around Saeldian and Kell slowly revealing their respective version of what happened ten years ago. The central relationship was a bit more contentious than I prefer—Kell resents Saeldian deeply and holds them responsible for ending up in jail after Saeldian left in the middle of the heist. In consequence, they spend the majority of the novel sniping at each other, which doesn't do much to convince me that they were once friends. While the plot effectively revolves around a misunderstanding, Polk plays it well. Kell's angry about ending up in jail, and Saeldian is understandably reluctant to admit to running away from an embarrassing crush while Kell is monologuing about how they're a stone-cold evil mastermind. Even if the romance wasn't a hundred percent to my taste, the jewel heist and fancy party infiltration and pulpy monster fights were entertaining.

I don't think I realized when I first saw the premise that The Feywild Job is a Dungeons and Dragons tie-in novel, but it very much is a branded title with heavy Franchise References. Maybe I'm a snob, but I judge books that feel too much like "DnD" as a sign of sloppy worldbuilding. Polk is doing a tie-in novel, exactly as advertised, but I still winced a bit at the formulaic, game-based aspects of the plot. Long rests and spell slots look a bit odd wedged into a fantasy book. Not to mention the choice of treating a fey bargain as a "warlock patron pact." Still, artificiality aside, The Feywild Job is a breath of fresh air compared to the beloved but fatally hackneyed Hickman and Weiss era of tie-in novels. Clark has an excellent touch with characterization—the characters may have classes, but they're never reduced to to caricature. Honestly, I think that Polk writing fantasy novels in a predetermined franchise setting rather than in worldbuilding of their own invention is a bit of a waste.

I was recommending Heather Rose Jones for her sapphic alt-historical fiction a bit ago, and I realized that I had never gotten around to reading her backlist. So here I am, amending that omission. In Mother of Souls, Serafina Talarico has an unusual gift for sight, but not the power to enact rituals herself. Leaving her empty marriage behind, Serafina travels to the tiny European country of Alpennia and the circle of Margerit Sovitre to learn more, but instead becomes entangled in a curse plaguing Alpennia—and her landlady, an aspiring composer.

Mother of Souls is nominally third in the series, but each book features a different set of main characters, romance book style. However, this installment features six point of view characters—our new protagonists Luzie and Serafina and both couples from the prior novels, and I think the book suffers from it. Serafina is a seer, her parents immigrated from Ethiopia, and she's just wrenched herself out of years trapped in a loveless marriage where her husband uses her for her sight. Luzie is an aspiring composer, has turned her home into a boarding house, and teaches music after the unexpected early death of her husband. They're both fascinating characters in their own right, and I would prefer to focus on them rather than spending half the novel dashing off to check in on Barbara inheriting a title or Antuniet's new alchemy experiment. As much as it's nice to catch up, I want the new characters to get the attention they deserve.

The structure of the book is firmly not a romance. Although Luzie and Serafina do eventually enter a relationship, the framing is not very romantic and the sex is all closed door. Instead, the focus is on the community of queer women in Alpennia, as Serafina connects with royal sorcerer Margerit and socialite Jeanne helps Luzie make the connections she needs to launch her career. Not to mention their friends, and their friends of friends... It's all very connected, and the sense of community is the nicest part of the book. On the plot side, the story feels almost slice of life, partially due to the inherent demands of pingponging between six characters and their disparate interests. Although there's an overarching plot about a curse affecting the river and the mountains, most of the focus is on the characters' day to day life.

I received a free copy from William Morrow via Netgalley in exchange for a fair review. Release date October 27th, 2026.

I loved Siegel's historical fiction about a romance with a Jewish doctor set during the Great Fire of London (The Phoenix Bride), and I've been keeping up with her writing since then. In Chateau Reverie, Genevieve is desperate to forget her past after fleeing France during the Revolution. When she impulsively accepts a mysterious invitation, she's swept away to Chateau Reverie, where competitors gamble secrets—and their lives.

The plot and style of Chateau Reverie reminded me strongly of Morgenstern's Night Circus or Melissa Caruso's Last Hour between Worlds. It's a romance-forward story about descending into a dazzlingly fatal world filtered through lush imagery. But Chateau Reverie focused much of the plot on a romance between Genevieve and another contestant, Leander, rather than on the chateau's cruel games. Unfortunately, that romance felt paper-thin, as it leaned heavily on instant attraction. It was like watching someone whack two exquisite porcelain dolls together—very pretty, but not emotionally convincing. Meanwhile, the rest of the plot is very slight. The Chateau theoretically hosts three days of entertainments leading up to the climactic auction of secrets, but the two games on page are hardly mentioned, and there's not a sense of any real competition between the guests.

The novel leans heavily on the lovely, haunting imagery of the Chateau: the uncanny horror of food that isn't quite right, the clothes that fit too well, the roses in the garden that look a little too much like gemstones rather than a living thing. The Chateau feels like a creature that has evolved an appealing but not quite convincing lure to trap its prey. But with almost all of the book set into the magical, out of time air of the Chateau, the historical details fall to the wayside. I think the book could have been set in almost any pretty dress era without changing the plot. And the crumbs we do get about the French Revolution setting had me squinting. I wouldn't call myself an expert, but surely a teenage girl shouldn't be fleeing the guillotine in seventeen ninety unless she's been very naughty. It was a particular disappointment since the reason I enjoyed Phoenix Bride so much was its specific evocation of place.