Book Review: Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Sunrise on the Reaping
Author: Suzanne Collins
Publisher: Scholastic
Publication date: May 18, 2025
Length: 382 pages
Genre: Young adult
Source: Purchased
Rating:

When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?

As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.

Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.

When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.

We all know about the District uprisings that finally overthrew the Capital and freed Panem of the horrors of the Hunger Games… but 25 years earlier, a tribute named Haymitch Abernathy did his best to break the Games. He failed… but as author Suzanne Collins shows us in Sunrise on the Reaping, his story is worth telling.

I was skeptical, to be honest. Do we need another Hunger Games book? About Haymitch, of all people? When we meet Haymitch in the very first book in the series, he’s the District 12 drunkard, a pathetic former victor of the Hunger Games who’s lived alone in his Victor’s Village house all these years, failing each year to keep to keep any of the tributes he mentors alive, and doing his best to drink himself to death.

Eventually, he gets his act together enough to actually be of use to Katniss and Peeta, and later plays a role in the rebellion… but that’s all later. How did Haymitch, seemingly so pathetic when we meet him, manage to win his Hunger Games in the first place?

We never, none of us, had any choices.

In Sunrise on the Reaping, we find out. At age 16, Haymitch works hard to support his widowed mother and younger brother by doing odd jobs for the local bootlegger. He’s strong, devoted to his family, and madly in love with his Covey girlfriend, Lenore Dove. His birthday is never a happy one, as it coincides with the day of the reaping, and this year’s reaping promises to be especially bad: It’s the 50th Hunger Games, the Quarter Quell, and to mark the significant anniversary, the reaping will select not two tributes per District, but four. Haymitch knows he has a high chance of being selected, but initially he appears to have been spared — until an unpredictable event at the reaping forces him into the games anyway.

Haymitch knows he’s doomed. Only one person from District 12 has ever won the Hunger Games, although no one actually knows who this was — all records have disappeared. (We know, of course, that this was Lucy Gray Baird, victor of the 10th Hunger Games, as depicted in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes). As Haymitch leaves his family, friends, and District, Lenore Dove asks him to do whatever he can to put an end to the Games, once and for all.

“And that’s part of our trouble. Thinking things are inevitable. Not believing change is possible.”

“I guess. But I can’t really imagine the sun not rising tomorrow.”

A crease forms between her eyebrows as she puzzles out a response. “Can you imagine it rising on a world without a reaping?”

The best outcome Haymitch had envisioned was a quick death, to spare his family the agony of watching him die in some prolonged, awful way, and then a reunion with Lenore Dove in the afterlife — but now, he’s determined to fulfill the mission she’s set for him. If he can’t survive, at least he can try his best to break everything before his death. Maybe, just maybe, he can find a way to be disruptive enough to end the Hunger Games for good.

(We know he can’t, since we know the Games continue for another 25 years… )

As we follow Haymitch from District 12 to the Capital and then into the arena, we see a young man who’s very different than the bitter, ruined adult we know from the earlier books. Haymitch is determined but realistic. He knows he has no chance against the Careers, the tributes from the wealthier districts who train all their lives for a shot at Hunger Games glory. But Haymitch is not without skills of his own, and he’s caring to a fault: As he meets the weaker, more vulnerable tributes, he takes on the role of protector, and becomes desperate to find a way to shield his band of allies for as long as possible.

Alas, as we all know, the Hunger Games only ends with death for all but one of the tributes. As the Games in Sunrise on the Reaping get underway, the violence and death toll mount at a speed that’s inevitable. Here’s where the book feels a bit weak: Sure, it’s compelling and there are bursts of intensity and action — but, while the window dressing is different from the version of the Games we saw in The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, it’s still ultimately an arena full of traps, an environment designed to kill in horrific ways, and teens who can only survive by murdering one another. It’s certainly not boring… but it’s also not new.

Sunrise on the Reaping does fill in some blanks for devoted Hunger Games fans. It finally allows us to connect the dots and understand who Haymitch was before the main trilogy of books, because that’s always been a bit hard to fathom — we know he’s the only identified victor from District 12, but it’s impossible to picture him as anything but the wreck he is when we meet him. How could he possibly have won?

The Haymitch we meet here is someone to be admired and pitied. We see the cruelty to which he’s subjected as everything and everyone he loves is taken from him — but also the mission which Lenore Dove assigns to him, which he can’t fully abandon even after everything is lost.

With that, she condemns me to life.

It is fascinating to see the origins of certain elements of the later versions of the Games, as well as earlier generations of main characters’ families. On the other hand, seeing what’s become of Coriolanus Snow, now fully embodying the cruel, murderous persona of the Panem President as we first met him in the original trilogy, has its own impact. We knew, of course, how Snow would end up — but for brief glimmers in Ballad, we also got to see a hint of what else he might have been, had the world been just a bit different.

Adding to the depth of Sunrise on the Reaping is its exploration of propaganda and how authoritarianism thrives in the absence of a free press. Haymitch has several big moments of defiance that he expects to be captured for the rest of Panem to see, but of course, President Snow’s approved versions show nothing of the sort. Adding to the horror of all of Haymitch’s tragic losses is the way the televised record twists his actions and shreds his dignity and honor. When the media is under the tight control of the rulers, rebellion can be squashed simply by not showing it.

Lastly, I’ll mention the bonds among the tributes. When the weaker, non-Career districts recognize that individually, they don’t stand a chance, they form an alliance based on strength in numbers. Tactically, this is smart — and it also gives readers the opportunity to see a different way of surviving in the Games, not by murdering every single person you meet, but by protecting the people you care about and forming genuine connections. Sure, they’re still all doomed, knowing the Gamemakers will only let one person out alive, but meanwhile, they’re able to compete with some sense of purpose and dignity.

Ultimately, I’m glad to have read Sunrise on the Reaping, but I still question how effective a prequel can ever really be. The book gives us insight into a chapter of Panem’s history that we hadn’t seen before, and lets us see a character’s tragic backstory, which helps make sense of his later trajectory. Still, the problem with prequels remains that the outcome is predetermined: We know Haymitch will be the victor, so any dangers are easy to discount. Others may die (and do) — but he won’t, and we know it.

I wonder whether this is it for the world of The Hunger Games, or if the author will continue to add prequels to fill in the blanks. The original trilogy’s ending wraps up the characters’ stories neatly, so I can’t see there being sequels taking place later in their lives… but who knows? I feel like the stories of Panem have been told, and told well, and don’t feel a need for more. Then again, that’s what I said prior to reading both Ballad and Sunrise, and ended up enjoying both quite a lot.

All in all, I’d say that if you’re a fan of The Hunger Games, it’s worth reading Sunrise on the Reaping. Despite my hesitation (and the problem of knowing the big-picture ending all along), it’s well worth the time to dive in and explore Haymitch’s story. And having read Sunrise, I’m tempted to go back and do a full re-read of the original books too.

The snow may fall, but the sun also rises.

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org
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2Apr2025

Audiobook Review: When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: When the Moon Hits Your Eye
Author: John Scalzi
Narrator: Wil Wheaton
Publisher: Tor
Publication date: March 25, 2025
Print length: 326 pages
Audio length: 10 hours 5 minutes
Genre: Science fiction
Source: Purchased
Rating:

From the New York Times bestselling author of Starter Villain comes an entirely serious take on a distinctly unserious subject: what would really happen if suddenly the moon were replaced by a giant wheel of cheese.

It’s a whole new moooooon.

One day soon, suddenly and without explanation, the moon as we know it is replaced with an orb of cheese with the exact same mass. Through the length of an entire lunar cycle, from new moon to a spectacular and possibly final solar eclipse, we follow multiple characters — schoolkids and scientists, billionaires and workers, preachers and politicians — as they confront the strange new world they live in, and the absurd, impossible moon that now hangs above all their lives.

If you’re shocked to see a 5-star rating for a book about the moon turning to cheese… well, join the club!

Actually, I can’t even pretend to be all that surprised. We’re talking about a John Scalzi book, after all. No matter how silly or ridiculous the plot synopsis sounds, it’s a safe bet that the execution will be delicious.

So it goes with When the Moon Hits Your Eye. As the book opens, a moon rock on display in a space museum has been replaced by… something. The display case hasn’t been tampered with, and yet, the rock is clearly no longer there. Instead, it’s something distinctly un-rocklike… and why does the sliver of crescent moon visible in the night sky seem so unusually bright?

Within 24 hours, it becomes clear: It’s not just the museum’s artifact (and every other sample of moon rock anywhere on Earth) — the entire moon is now composed of cheese. Or, the NASA scientists put it, an organic matrix. But really, it’s cheese. How? Why? What does this all mean? As the ensuing month unfolds, the effects of this cheesy mystery are felt far and wide.

The story is told day by day, with each chapter highlighting a new setting and group of characters experiencing life following the great moon-to-cheese change. It’s a terrific and bizarre mix of subject matter and people, including a small-town pastor and his flock, a team of astronauts who’d been about to launch on the first moon mission in decades, an egotistical tech billionaire who happens to own a space company (hmmmm…..), the President and his staff, a popular science writer, a cheese shop proprietor, and many, many more. Through these characters, we see how ordinary people’s lives — as well as the lives of the rich, famous, and powerful — are dramatically affected by the moon. Their stories weave together to create a rich, meaningful story of human connection, scientific inquiry, and big helping doses of WTF situations.

I listened to the audiobook, and of course, Wil Wheaton’s delivery make this a funny, fast-moving, totally engaging experience.

I’m finding myself at a loss for what else to say about this book. YES, IT’S ABOUT THE MOON TURNING TO CHEESE. And also, yes, it’s simply awesome and utterly entertaining. You’ve just got to experience it for yourself.

One final note: The author photo on the back flap of the book should win its own award:

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org
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28Mar2025

Book Review: The Martian Contingency (Lady Astronaut, #4) by Mary Robinette Kowal

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Martian Contingency
Series: Lady Astronaut, #4
Author: Mary Robinette Kowal
Publisher: Tor Books
Publication date: March 18, 2025
Length: 400 pages
Genre: Science fiction
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org
Rating:

Years after a meteorite strike obliterated Washington, D.C.—triggering an extinction-level global warming event—Earth’s survivors have started an international effort to establish homes on space stations and the Moon.

The next step – Mars.

Elma York, the Lady Astronaut, lands on the Red Planet, optimistic about preparing for the first true wave of inhabitants. The mission objective is more than just building the infrastructure of a habitat – they are trying to preserve the many cultures and nuances of life on Earth without importing the hate.

But from the moment she arrives, something is off.

Disturbing signs hint at a hidden disaster during the First Mars Expedition that never made it into the official transcript. As Elma and her crew try to investigate, they face a wall of silence and obfuscation. Their attempts to build a thriving Martian community grind to a halt.

What you don’t know CAN harm you. And if the truth doesn’t come to light, the ripple effects could leave humanity stranded on a dying Earth…

The Martian Contingency is an outstanding addition to the excellent Lady Astronaut series — and while my understanding was that this was meant to be the 4th and final book in the series, I can’t actually find anything definitive that says that this is the last book.

The first Lady Astronaut book, The Calculating Stars (published 2018), is one of my all-time favorites. To set the stage for those new to the series: This alternate history version of the space race starts with a catastrophic meteor strike in 1952, which obliterates much of the eastern seaboard of the US and plunges the world into an escalating sequence of climate disasters that will, eventually, lead to planet-wide extinction.

In response to the disaster, there’s an international focus on space exploration. Humanity’s future on Earth is doomed; to survive, people must look beyond the planet for new homes. In this version of history, as envisioned by author Mary Robinette Kowal, the space race begins about ten years ahead of real-world historical events, fueled by an urgent, desperate need find solutions to Earth’s life-threatening problems.

Our point-of-view character throughout much of the series is Dr. Elma York, a scientist, mathematician, and WWII-era pilot who becomes one of the first women astronauts — used by NASA and the IAC (International Aerospace Coalition) for publicity purposes, and gaining fame as the “Lady Astronaut”. (Which, by the way, is better than how some refer to the women in the space program — would you want to be called an “astronette”?)

Elma and her husband Nathaniel (also Dr. York — he’s a brilliant engineer) are vital to the emerging space program. Read the earlier books in the series to find out more! Here in The Martian Contingency, Elma and Nathaniel have finally made it to Mars, as part of the Second Mars Expedition. Their job is to build out the Mars base, expanding it and making it safe for future expeditions, with the ultimate goal of creating a livable, viable, long-term home for humans.

Elma is a gifted pilot, an amazing human “computer”, and an adept leader. She’s appointed to the role of deputy administrator for the Mars base, and is devoted to her colleagues and to the mission. But as she settles in on Mars, she starts noticing some oddities — a patched wall that hadn’t been reported, a mural that clearly been painted to cover up something else, hatch marks etched into an airlock. Something must have happened during the First Expedition — something that didn’t make it into the official reports — but no one is talking. As Elma tries to dig, she’s told clearly that it was nothing, that everything is fine, and that she should leave it alone. But as her time on Mars progresses, the aftereffects of whatever happened show up in shocking ways, and have ripple effects that could imperil the people Elma cares about and the entire mission.

The world of this series is brilliantly depicted, as always. The author’s attention to details is meticulous. Each chapter opens with a news article from the era (most fictitious, although she includes one or two tidbits of real news from the same time period) — and even more amazing, indicates the date. What’s so amazing about the date? She provides both the Earth date and the Mars date — read the afterward of the book to learn more about her approach (and the “massive spreadsheet” she used to figure it all out). Not only does she have to provide both sets of dates, but she also layers in the many different cultural and religious holidays observed by the multicultural crew on Mars — it’s an impressive feat.

The Martian Contingency opens in 1970. In the world of these books, the global disaster has sped up not just science, but also social reckonings that came later in our own history. Because the IAC is truly an international presence, certain social issues come to the fore in startling ways — such as the acceptance of women into male-dominated roles, expedited racial integration at a time when being a racist was more normalized (South Africa is still an apartheid state at this time, which has repercussions for the mission), and the slow recognition that humanity’s future off-planet will by necessity include people of all ethnic, racial, religious, and national identities.

One example that provides a powerful storyline in The Martian Contingency centers on abortion rights and a woman’s right to choose. In the IAC, the norm is for each astronaut to be bound by their country of origin’s laws — so if a woman seeking an abortion is from a country that bans it, it would not be available to her, and likewise, a doctor from a country that bans abortions would not legally be allowed to perform the procedure, even if it were legal for the patient to receive it. It’s complicated, and the dilemmas and political pressures involved are remarkably well portrayed.

The heart of The Martian Contingency is Elma’s marriage with Nathaniel. Theirs is a beautiful love story. They’ve gone through disasters together, and have journeyed into space together, and their love never flags, despite stress, disagreements, and the separations forced upon them by their missions. There’s heartache and despair, but overall, a wonderful, mature, mutually beneficial connection that’s lovely to see.

There are times when the plot in The Martian Contingency doesn’t quite progress as evenly as I’d like, especially as relates to uncovering what happened on the First Mars Expedition. I would have liked some of those events to have surfaced and been explained more clearly, and earlier in the story. That’s a minor quibble — it does all come together eventually, and the story works.

One other truly small quibble: There’s a scene late in the book in which Elma and Nathaniel add to quotes etched into a wall in various languages. Elma (whose Judaism is an important part of her identity) adds a Hebrew phrase — but the Hebrew in the book is printed backwards! (The words themselves are fine; the sentence order is printed left to right, rather than right to left, as it should be.) I’ll note here that I read an e-ARC of the book; I’ll provide an update once my hard copy arrives and I cross-check against the finished book.

UPDATE: I’m pleased to report that the Hebrew issue is fixed in the finished version of the book! It now reads right to left… which is right!

For fans of the series, its been a long wait for The Martian Contingency! The previous book, The Relentless Moon, was published in 2020. As I mentioned, it’s not clear whether The Martian Contingency is the final book in the series — but if it is, it’s not a bad place to stop! The story wraps up with a satisfying ending, and while there could definitely be more stories to tell in the world of the Lady Astronaut, The Martian Contingency provides us with a conclusion to the book itself that resolves the key storylines, makes sense overall, and provides hope for the future.

I highly recommend The Martian Contingency — but do start at the beginning of the series with The Calculating Stars. You won’t want to miss a moment!

Final note: This fictional world all started with the short story Lady Astronaut of Mars — a wonderful work of fiction originally published in 2012. It’s a terrific story — and basically, the entire series of novels is a prequel to this story, which is set much later, when Elma is in her 60s and facing impossible choices. You can read Lady Astronaut of Mars online via Reactor Magazine, download a PDF version via the author’s website here, or find it as an e-book standalone as well as in the story collection Word Puppets through any book retailer.

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org
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21Mar2025

Book Review: The Third Rule of Time Travel by Philip Fracassi

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Third Rule of Time Travel
Author: Philip Fracassi
Publisher: Orbit
Publication date: March 18, 2025
Length: 325 pages
Genre: Science fiction
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

Rule One: Travel can only occur to a point within your lifetime.
Rule Two: You can only travel for ninety seconds.
Rule Three: You can only observe.
The rules cannot be broken.

In this riveting science fiction novel from acclaimed author Philip Fracassi, a scientist has unlocked the mysteries of time travel. This is not the story you think you know. And the rules are only the beginning.

Scientist Beth Darlow has discovered the unimaginable. She’s built a machine that allows human consciousness to travel through time—to any point in the traveler’s lifetime—and relive moments of their life. An impossible breakthrough, but it’s not perfect: the traveler has no way to interact with the past. They can only observe.

After Beth’s husband, Colson, the co-creator of the machine, dies in a tragic car accident, Beth is left to raise Isabella—their only daughter—and continue the work they started. Mired in grief and threatened by her ruthless CEO, Beth pushes herself to the limit to prove the value of her technology.

Then the impossible happens. Simply viewing personal history should not alter the present, but with each new observation she makes, her own timeline begins to warp.

As her reality constantly shifts, Beth must solve the puzzles of her past, even if it means forsaking her future.

The Third Rule of Time Travel is a fast-paced, compelling story about (obviously) time travel, altered realities, consequences, and corporate greed. You won’t want to stop once you start… but when you do take the inevitable pause, there’s room enough for some doubts and quibbles to slide in.

Beth Darlow and her late husband Colson have done the seemingly impossible. They’ve created a time travel machine, but it’s not like something out of H. G. Wells or Doctor Who. The “traveler” doesn’t actually — physically — go anywhere at all. Instead, using negative energy, the traveler’s consciousness is sent through a wormhole into their own past. The destination can’t be set in advance; the machine targets a random point in the traveler’s life, where they relive the event they’ve already experienced. It’s like they become a visitor to themselves — they see what’s going on from behind their own eyes, but they’re a second consciousness present in the moment.

The traveling has absolute rules — the traveler is powerless to actually change anything or interact with the moment they’re visiting, and they can only visit for 90 seconds, which is all the machine can sustain. What would happen if they’re not pulled back within 90 seconds? Beth’s not really sure… but the guess is, it would be disastrous for the traveler, and could result in their consciousness never returning to their body.

Years earlier, Beth and Colson sold their machine to the Langan Corporation in order to get the funding investment needed to continue their work. Jim Langan, the CEO, treats them like his prize pet scientists and keeps the money flowing — but something seems to be going wrong at Langan. Fewer and fewer cars are in the employee parking lot, security is even tighter than ever, and long-time colleagues seem to be disappearing as projects are cancelled and departments close. When Jim starts pressuring Beth to move faster and to show the machine to a hand-picked reporter, Beth balks at the idea, but she really has no choice. Forced to travel more often than is safe, Beth’s experiences leave her emotionally battered… and worse, seem to have had consequences that no one expected.

The action in The Third Rule of Time Travel is nonstop, making for a propulsive reading experience. The story is fascinating, and the author does a great job of weaving together Beth’s professional and personal lives. She’s a hard-charging, brilliant scientist, but she’s also devoted to her young daughter and is a loving mother, although getting home from the lab in time for dinner and bedtime with Isabella is a challenge.

As the continued traveling starts to unravel Beth’s life, causing her emotional distress, physical exhaustion, and questions about pieces that seem to have gone missing, the stakes get higher and higher. Traveling via the machine is supposed to be purely observational… but after each round of travel, Beth feels as though something isn’t right. Could the machine have done something unimaginable — could visiting the past have changed Beth’s present?

I mostly enjoyed this book, and really couldn’t stand having to put it down and take breaks for, you know, life and stuff. Still, I had some quibbles, especially later in the book, that make me drop my star rating a bit:

The purpose of the machine doesn’t really make sense. Maybe as a first step toward achieving actual time travel, but I fail to see the point of witnessing random past moments for 90 seconds. Call me a skeptic — I didn’t buy how the machine is treated as the most significant scientific achievement of all time.
When I read books like this, at some point the science-y bits go over my head and I just have to accept that things like negative energy and quantum entanglement and wormholes make sense as depicted. Even so, the book’s approach to altered realities, with a hint of higher powers and cosmic woo-woo, rang a bit false. Some elements just don’t quite fit together.
Certain characters play a role and are never mentioned again; some scenes aren’t quite explained.
The CEO, the clear villain of the piece, is so mustache-twirlingly evil by the end that it’s a bit comical. He even gets to do some villain monologuing, and it feels quite over the top.
I didn’t buy the ending. Can’t say why, without getting into spoilers, but it all felt a bit neat and convenient..

Okay, that’s a whole bunch of quibbles; hence my 3.5 stars. I enjoyed myself while reading The Third Rule of Time Travel, but my doubts about some of the plot elements kept me at a distance, and the final third or so of the book felt less credible the further along it went.

Still, as someone who’s read a lot of variations on the time travel theme, I was interested in this different approach, and felt invested in the characters’ lives and dilemmas — and couldn’t peel my eyes away once the unintended consequences started to pile up. Readers who enjoy speculative sci-fi — and the brain twistiness of thinking about alternate realities — will likely find plenty to puzzle over and savor with The Third Rule of Time Travel.

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org
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16Mar2025

Book Review: The Tomb of Dragons by Katherine Addison

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Tomb of Dragons
Author: Katherine Addison
Publisher: Tor Books
Publication date: March 11, 2025
Length: 352 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Purchased (hardcover); ARC via NetGalley
Rating:

Thara Celehar has lost his ability to speak with the dead. When that title of Witness for the Dead is gone, what defines him?

While his title may be gone, his duties are not. Celehar contends with a municipal cemetery with fifty years of secrets, the damage of a revethavar he’s terrified to remember, and a group of miners who are more than willing to trade Celehar’s life for a chance at what they feel they’re owed.

Celehar does not have to face these impossible tasks alone. Joining him are his mentee Velhiro Tomasaran, still finding her footing with the investigative nature of their job; Iäna Pel-Thenhior, his beloved opera director friend and avid supporter; and the valiant guard captain Hanu Olgarezh.

Amidst the backdrop of a murder and a brewing political uprising, Celehar must seek justice for those who cannot find it themselves under a tense political system. The repercussions of his quest are never as simple they seem, and Celehar’s own life and happiness hang in the balance.

The Tomb of Dragons is the 3rd book in author Katherine Addison’s Cemeteries of Amalo series (or the 4th book in the Chronicles of Osreth series, depending on how you look at all these inter-related books). The start of it all is the superb book The Goblin Emperor — but the three Cemeteries of Amalo books are set in the same world, which is always a great place to visit.

We first met Thara Celehar in The Goblin Emperor, and have followed him as the main character in The Witness for the Dead and The Grief of Stones. Celehar serves the god Ulis and is a witness for the dead — someone gifted with the ability to speak with the deceased and gain final words, requests, or information from them. His charge then becomes acting on behalf of the deceased, whether to bring peace to their family, settle a dispute, or seek justice for the wrongs committed against them. Celehar is an honest man who’s devoted to his work: As he reminds those who thank him, he follows his calling.

But the end of The Grief of Stones showed Celehar suffering a terrible blow, by which he loses the ability to speak with the dead. Without his calling, he lacks purpose or official status. Still, he has the favor of the top cleric in the empire, who assigns him tasks to carry out on his behalf, and manages to do good for others even when not able to pursue his calling.

The plot becomes complicated when Celehar is kidnapped and forced into a dangerous situation, which soon embroils him in a pursuit of justice that threatens to shake the foundations of the empire. We follow him on his day-to-day tasks and errands, but also on the greater mission that he takes on. The book as a whole is a mix of the mundane with more tension-filled dramatic moments. After a somewhat slow start, the pace picks up quite a bit.

Let’s be clear: You absolutely cannot start with The Tomb of Dragons and hope to get anywhere at all. This series is dense and detailed. The world-building is pretty awe-inspiring, but even the very language is a barrier to getting situated within the books’ world. I don’t think a reader coming to these books without starting with The Goblin Emperor would have the slightest chance of making it past the first page or two.

Don’t believe me?

“We are Thara Celehar, a prelate of Ulis. We have come about the revethmerai of Ulnemenee.”

Got that?

How about…

But that was nonsense. There couldn’t be such a thing as a revethvezvaishor’avar. Could there?

I could go one. From forms of address to official titles to place and ethnicity names, not to mention names of building, families, locations, and religious sects, there is just an overwhelming amount to keep track of. Because it’s been three years since the last book in the series was released, I had a very difficult time readjusting to the language of this world. Fortunately, the addenda to The Goblin Emperor (an explanation of language plus a glossary/guide to people) and a wiki page all helped me through it.

After struggling a bit with the first third or so of The Tomb of Dragons, I found myself pulled back into Celehar’s life and pursuits, and ended up very absorbed by the story. It’s a worthy addition to the series, and for those who’ve read the earlier books, I think it’ll be a hit.

The Tomb of Dragons is apparently the final book in the Cemeteries of Amalo series, and it makes me a bit sad to think that Katherine Addison may be signing off for good from this incredible fantasy world that she’s created. I do hope we’ll see more in the future, perhaps focusing on another character or location within the empire.

Meanwhile, we’ll always have The Goblin Emperor… and although I’ve read it twice already, reading The Tomb of Dragons makes me want to go back to it (at least!) once again.

14Mar2025

Book Review: The Jackal’s Mistress by Chris Bohjalian

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Jackal’s Mistress
Author: Chris Bohjalian
Publisher: Doubleday Books
Publication date: March 11, 2025
Length: 336 pages
Genre: Historical fiction
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

In this Civil War love story, inspired by a real-life friendship across enemy lines, the wife of a missing Confederate soldier discovers a wounded Yankee officer and must decide what she’s willing to risk for the life of a stranger, from the New York Times bestselling author of such acclaimed historical fiction as Hour of the Witch and The Sandcastle Girls.

Virginia, 1864—Libby Steadman’s husband has been away for so long that she can barely conjure his voice in her dreams. While she longs for him in the night, fearing him dead in a Union prison camp, her days are spent running a gristmill with her teenage niece, a hired hand, and his wife, all the grain they can produce requisitioned by the Confederate Army. It’s an uneasy life in the Shenandoah Valley, the territory frequently changing hands, control swinging back and forth like a pendulum between North and South, and Libby awakens every morning expecting to see her land a battlefield.

And then she finds a gravely injured Union officer left for dead in a neighbor’s house, the bones of his hand and leg shattered. Captain Jonathan Weybridge of the Vermont Brigade is her enemy—but he’s also a human being, and Libby must make a terrible decision: Does she leave him to die alone? Or does she risk treason and try to nurse him back to health? And if she succeeds, does she try to secretly bring him across Union lines, where she might negotiate a trade for news of her own husband?

A vivid and sweeping story of two people navigating the boundaries of love and humanity in a landscape of brutal violence, The Jackal’s Mistress is a heart-stopping new novel, based on a largely unknown piece of American history, from one of our greatest storytellers.

Chris Bohjalian is a prolific author — The Jackal’s Mistress is his 25th novel!! — and while he’s such a great writer that every single book is engrossing, it’s his historical fiction novels that truly draw me in and leave me in awe. Fortunately for me, his 2025 new release is historical fiction, set in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia during the final year of the Civil War. Put simply: It’s excellent.

And the writing is gorgeous — every description brings the scene to life:

Jonathan Weybridge sat on a camp stool atop the crest of a small hill and watched the elegant tendrils of fog in the ravine, the steepled tips of the fir trees piercing the misty clouds like the finials of a wrought-iron fence.

Libby Steadman, at age 25, works tirelessly at her farm’s gristmill, able to keep herself, her 12-year-old niece Jubilee, and freed married couple Joseph and Sally fed by selling grain to the Confederate army. Libby’s husband Peter freed his family’s slaves immediately after he inherited the farm from this father, but he’s still enough of a Southerner to have joined the rebel army. Now, in the fall of 1864, all Libby knows is that Peter was wounded and taken to a Union prison, but it’s been month since she’s had word of him. The household is in constant peril from marauders, rangers, and deserters, not to mention the battles they can hear from not too far away, and Libby is barely holding on most days.

Jonathan Weybridge is a captain with the Vermont Brigade; he’s a former professor who’d prefer to be home with his wife and sons, his books and students, but ends up fighting on the side of what he knows to be right and just. After a fierce battle, he’s severely wounded, and as the Union army leaves the territory, he’s left behind — abandoned to what will surely be a slow, painful death.

By chance, Sally stumbles across Jonathan, and Libby makes a risky choice. She does what she can only hope a Northern woman might do for Peter: She decides to bring Jonathan back to her own home and see if his life can be saved.

It’s highly doubtful at the start. He’s lost a leg and several fingers on one hand. After days of suffering, with no food or medicine, he’s emaciated, in pain, and has untended, bloody injuries that may never heal. Libby is stubborn, though, and she’s determined to keep him alive.

The story of The Jackal’s Mistress is built around thoughtful character development, and rooted in a firm sense of the time and place in which it’s set. Readers can feel the danger from moment to moment. Hearing hoofbeats is enough to set one’s heart racing — any visitor can mean potential disaster, whether by outright violence or the threat of unintended discovery of the household’s secret. The risk Libby takes is profound, and endangers every one under her roof: Sally and Joseph, although free, are subject to much harsher laws, and would likely be hanged on the spot; Libby would be considered a traitor; and of course, Joseph, at best, would be taken prisoner, although given the state of his health, death is the likely outcome.

[He] has met men like Morgan before. On the surface, they were civilized. And, perhaps, without war they would have remained that way. But war gave them permission to be who they really were, men who were comfortable killing all the kindness and magic and beauty in the world, men whose souls were bleak and, therefore, dangerous.

We’re never asked to sympathize with the Southern cause, and yet, we can feel pity for Libby, caught up in a war she doesn’t believe in, trying to save her home and maintain the far-fetched hope of seeing her husband again someday, and not being able to count on the goodwill of neighbors or the army supposedly fighting for her own side to keep her safe. Her bravery is off the charts, yet believable: She’s an ordinary woman who chooses to do extraordinary things because it’s what she feels she must do.

Jonathan is a wonderful character as well. We feel his pain as well as his helplessness. He’s a man of peace, devoted to literature and education, caught up in terrible violence. He cares about the men under his command, misses his family, and yearns for the end of war. The descriptions of his suffering and helplessness are terrible to read, which is a sign of just how powerfully written this book is. As Jonathan begins to recover, he’s able to interact with Libby and the other members of the household, and each interaction has a spark of life and engagement that bring new facets of the characters’ balancing acts into focus.

The Jackal’s Mistress provides a finely woven blend of introspection, character development, and action sequences. It works remarkably well, and brings to life a handful of people caught up in a terrible time, making choices of conscience that could doom them all at any moment. The book is fascinating, moving, and thought-provoking. It’s impossible to put down

The author’s notes explain the real-life people whose story inspired The Jackal’s Mistress, and provides an interesting look at his research and some recommended resources for further reading. Don’t skip the notes when you finish the novel!

I’d rank The Jackal’s Mistress as one of Chris Bohjalian’s best. While his contemporary thrillers are always compelling, twisty reads, it’s his historical novels that truly capture my imagination and my heart. I highly recommend The Jackal’s Mistress — but you really can’t go wrong with any of his books!

For more historical fiction by this author, check out a few of my favorites:

13Mar2025

Book Review: The Love Lyric (The Greene Sisters, #3) by Kristina Forest

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Love Lyric
Series: The Greene Sisters, #3
Author: Kristina Forest
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: February 4, 2025
Length: 400 pages
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Library
Rating:

An R&B singer and a corporate executive find love that hits the right notes in this romance by Kristina Forest, USA Today bestselling author of The Partner Plot.

Iris Greene used to be a woman with a plan. But all of that changed after she met the love of her life at twenty-four, got pregnant and married…and then became a widow and a single mother all within the span of a year and a half. Now, after years of hustling, Iris is the director of partnerships at a beauty company and raising spunky six-year-old Calla by herself. Despite her busy life, she still can’t help but feel lonely. She just needs to catch her breath—and one night, at her sister’s wedding, when she steps outside to do just that, she sees a certain singer who takes her breath away. . . .

By all accounts, pop R&B singer Angel Hughes has it made. He’s a successful musician and has just scored a brand ambassador deal with an emerging beauty company. But he’s still not fulfilled; he’s not producing songs he’s passionate about, and there’s a gaping hole in his love life. When he visits the Save Face Beauty office to kickstart his campaign, he’s delighted to see Iris, his stylist’s sister—the beautiful woman he’s secretly had a crush on for years.

Despite their obvious attraction to each other, they must stay professional throughout the campaign tour—which doesn’t quite pan out. But when it becomes clear their lives aren’t in sync, can they fall back in step to the same rhythm and beat?

The Love Lyric is the 3rd book in author Kristina Forest’s Greene Sisters trilogy, following The Neighbor Favor and The Partner Plot. The first two books focus on sisters Lily and Violet; here in The Love Lyric, their older sister Iris takes center stage.

Iris is an ambitious career woman, who juggles a successful corporate role with raising a six-year-old on her own, having been widowed when her daughter was still a baby. While still grieving for her beloved husband Terry, Iris has reached a point in her life where maybe, just maybe, she might consider trying to date again. If only the idea of getting on the apps wasn’t so awful.

A few years earlier, she’d crossed paths with Angel, who then was just starting on his rise to pop stardom. He’d made an impression, but Iris hasn’t seen him again until her sister Violet’s wedding. After sharing a moonlit dance with Angel, Iris pulls away, not wanting to risk taking things any further — because Angel is the brand ambassador for her company, and she needs to maintain professional boundaries… but also because he’s a huge celebrity with women practically throwing themselves at his feet. Why would someone like that ever be interested in someone like her?

There’s more to the story, of course. Angel is still adjusting to his own stardom, and while he achieves top of the chart success with each new track, his label pushes back when he tries to make the kind of music — true R&B — that he really cares about. Plus, having come from a strict, religious home, he faces constant criticism and insults from his mother, who sees his public persona as a disgrace, much too far from his gospel roots.

For Iris, there’s a combination of professional frustration, fear of making changes or taking big risks, and most especially, the fear of letting herself care for someone and risk getting hurt.

Still, Angel and Iris so clearly care about one another and have great physical chemistry too — so it’s inevitable that their resistance can only hold out so long. Factor in the intensity of a week-long business trip and the proximity that comes with it, and it’s only a matter of time before they give in to temptation.

Complications ensue — with a celebrity like Angel, things can’t remain a secret forever. Iris is fearful for her job and also very protective of her and her daughter’s privacy. When their secret relationship is exposed, Iris has some very hard choices to make, and must decide what kind of life and future she wants.

The Love Lyric is a very enjoyable wrap-up to the trilogy. We get time with the rest of the Greene family, and it’s lovely to see Lily and Violet both happy with their relationships and their careers. I appreciated seeing the turmoil Iris faces as a single working mother, trying to do the classic balancing act of being everything to everyone, without letting her daughter down or letting her work commitments slip. Iris’s loss and grief are handled respectfully, showing her love for her late husband and how she navigates the possibility of loving again.

Angel and Iris make a great couple, and despite their ups and downs, they’re able to communicate in a way that’s refreshing and honest. When the typical 3rd act breakup that seems standard in so many romance novels occurs here, it’s for reasons that make sense and that are actually discussed — it’s nice to see healthy conversations in a romance, when so many books rely on miscommunication as a plot device!

The Love Lyric is a great read all on its own, as well as a satisfying conclusion to a very good trilogy. What I especially appreciate about these books is the strong family dynamic and the close bond between the sisters, as well as the individual women themselves and how well-drawn their characters are. I just wish they had another sister so the series could continue!

As far as I understand, the Greene Sisters trilogy is author Kristina Forest’s first foray into adult books, after publishing several YA novels. I’ll look forward to reading whatever she writes next!

9Mar2025

Novella review: Murder by Memory by Oliva Waite

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Murder by Memory
Series: Dorothy Gentleman, #1
Author: Olivia Waite
Publisher: Tor Books
Publication date: March 11, 2025
Length: 112 pages
Genre: Science fiction
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

A Memory Called Empire meets Miss Marple in this cozy, spaceborne mystery, helmed by a no-nonsense formidable auntie of a detective.

Welcome to the HMS Fairweather, Her Majesty’s most luxurious interstellar passenger liner! Room and board are included, new bodies are graciously provided upon request, and should you desire a rest between lifetimes, your mind shall be most carefully preserved in glass in the Library, shielded from every danger.

Near the topmost deck of an interstellar generation ship, Dorothy Gentleman wakes up in a body that isn’t hers—just as someone else is found murdered. As one of the ship’s detectives, Dorothy usually delights in unraveling the schemes on board the Fairweather, but when she finds that someone is not only killing bodies but purposefully deleting minds from the Library, she realizes something even more sinister is afoot.

Dorothy suspects her misfortune is partly the fault of her feckless nephew Ruthie who, despite his brilliance as a programmer, leaves chaos in his cheerful wake. Or perhaps the sultry yarn store proprietor—and ex-girlfriend of the body Dorothy is currently inhabiting—knows more than she’s letting on. Whatever it is, Dorothy intends to solve this case. Because someone has done the impossible and found a way to make murder on the Fairweather a very permanent state indeed. A mastermind may be at work—and if so, they’ve had three hundred years to perfect their schemes…

This short, sharp novella presents a murder mystery on board a generation ship — a spaceship a few centuries into a millenium-long journey to a new planet. In the world of the Fairweather (referred to as Ferry), passengers can more or less live forever, by recycling their minds through a series of new bodies once their current body reaches its natural end. Minds are uploaded into the ship’s vast library, and when a new body is needed, the saved memories from a person’s memory book are downloaded and installed into their newest living vessel.

It’s all pretty perfect, except for the day when Dorothy Gentleman, ship’s detective, wakes up in a body that’s not her own. She’d placed herself into a years-long sleep after her last body’s death, but hadn’t intended to come back to life so soon. Now, though, she’s in someone else’s body, with no idea why.

It turns out that her memories have been transferred into the body of a woman named Gloria Vowell, and that Dorothy’s own memory book had been erased, something that shouldn’t have been possible to do. Luckily, there was a backup, but still… something doesn’t add up, and in her role as detective, Dorothy is determined to figure it out.

What follows is a tightly woven tale of a murder investigation, made distinctly odd by the fact that murder isn’t actually permanent on board the Fairweather. Since memories are saved in the library, even a murder victim gets a chance to return to life. Meanwhile, as Dorothy digs, she discovers an intricate pattern of crime going back centuries, along with flaws in the system that Ferry will need to fix if the ship’s way of life is to be maintained.

At just over 100 pages, Murder by Memory is a quick read. It’s written with a nimble touch, immediately immersing the reader into the strange new world of the ship and its way of life (and death). The concept of the memory books and the library is terrific, and the mystery as a whole provides entertainment and food for thought. It did lose me a bit when the focus shifts to unraveling financial records, but fortunately the story moves on quickly and the exact details don’t matter a great deal in the overall scheme of things.

Murder by Memory is apparently the first story in an expected series about Dorothy, and this may explain why it feels like there are several loose threads left dangling at the end of the story — people, concepts, groups that factor into the plot, but seem like they have secrets yet to be revealed. But since there’s more to come, I’m guessing these hints of open questions are intentional, and I already know I’ll want to continue.

Dorothy is a great character, and the fluid concept of age is a piece of what makes her so fascinating. I can’t wait to see what future adventures await her!

8Mar2025

Book Review: Jane and Dan at the End of the World by Colleen Oakley

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Jane and Dan at the End of the World
Author: Colleen Oakley
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: March 11, 2025
Length: 368 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

Date night goes off the rails in this hilariously insightful take on midlife and marriage when one unhappy couple find themselves at the heart of a crime in progress, from the USA Today bestselling author of The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise.

Jane and Dan have been married for nineteen years, but Jane isn’t sure they’re going to make it to twenty. The mother of two feels unneeded by her teenagers, and her writing career has screeched to an unsuccessful halt. Her one published novel sold under five hundred copies. Worse? She’s pretty sure Dan is cheating on her. When the couple goes to the renowned upscale restaurant La Fin du Monde to celebrate their anniversary, Jane thinks it’s as good a place as any to tell Dan she wants a divorce.

But before they even get to the second course, an underground climate activist group bursts into the dining room. Jane is shocked—and not just because she’s in a hostage situation the likes of which she’s only seen in the movies. Nearly everything the disorganized and bumbling activists say and do is right out of the pages of her failed book. Even Dan (who Jane wasn’t sure even read her book) admits it’s eerily familiar.

Which means Dan and Jane are the only ones who know what’s going to happen next. And they’re the only ones who can stop it. This wasn’t what Jane was thinking of when she said “’til death do us part” all those years ago, but if they can survive this, maybe they can survive anything—even marriage.

Author Colleen Oakley has quickly become a go-to author for me, and it’s engaging stories like Jane and Dan at the End of the World that keep me coming back.

When Jane and Dan head out to dinner for their 19th anniversary (which he seems to think is their 20th), rather than go to their stand-by date night restaurant, they instead go to the ultra-exclusive, ultra-expensive La Fin du Monde — a chic place located at the top of an isolated cliff along the Pacific coast. (Dan got a gift card… although he’s shocked to learn that the card only covers the cost of the reservation itself, not the thousand-something-dollar meal.)

The couple seems bored and jaded. Jane has heard every joke already. Dan has grown used to Jane’s need to double-check whether she’s unplugged her curling iron every single time they leave the house. But to Dan, it’s all fine. Jane, however, has had enough. She’s discovered texts between Dan and some unknown woman, and this proof of cheating is the final straw. In between their fancy courses, she informs Dan that she wants a divorce.

They don’t get to continue the conversation; a group of masked people with guns bursts in and zipties the guests and restaurant staff. The apparent leader is quickly infuriated to learn that the billionaire he’s been targeting isn’t actually present — instead, his wife and daughter are having dinner alone. What follow is a tense (but also very funny) countdown to a major confrontation, as the disorganized terrorists, frightened and frustrated restaurant guests, and local law enforcement interact, make generally bad decisions, and deal with circumstances none of them could have seen coming.

Well, maybe Jane could. As events unfold, she realizes that they’re strangely similar to the events of her heist novel — which practically no one read, not even Dan (or so she thinks). But as the evening progresses and more and more details line up with her book, Jane has a feeling she knows what’s coming… and knows she needs to get herself and Dan out of there before the big finale.

“For the love of God, [spoiler]’s never read your book,” Dan hisses, confirming Jane’s own thoughts. “No one’s read your book, Jane! This can’t be like your book because no one has read it.”

Meanwhile, right alongside the heist/adventure elements, this is really a story about marriage and family and parenthood. As Jane and Dan think back over their years together, certain truths and observations become clear. I don’t want to go into spoiler territory, so without revealing how these details connect, I’ll just say that Jane’s thoughts about motherhood, raising children and seeing them become their own people, and devoting oneself to family feel absolutely true and honest and real.

Jane often thinks all of the difficulty with parenting can be summed up by one sentence: Am I overreacting? And how 99 percent of the time, the answer is yes, but how is one to know when it’s the 1 percent of the time worrying is warranted?

Plus, the writing is funny! You might not think a hostage situation in a fancy restaurant would provide moments of humor, but in Colleen Oakley’s talented hands, unexpected bursts of laughter creep in when least expected.

Watching someone get shot was nothing like Jane thought it would be. Or nothing like the movies, which were Jane’s only point of reference. (Then again, having sex for the first time was disappointingly nothing like Dirty Dancing had led her to believed it would be, so she’s not sure why she’s surprised.)

Jane and Dan at the End of the World is fast-paced and engaging, and I raced through each chapter, unable to put the book down. Ultimately, while the heist elements are entertaining and really well-done, it’s the characters and their personal stories that drew me in.

Putting it simply: I love this book. With unexpected twists, down-to-earth truths, and a terrific main character to cheer for, it’s joyful and fun and full of life. Don’t miss it!

For more books by this author, check out my reviews of:

7Mar2025

Exciting new books for March!

Posted in Books & Authors by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

I don’t typically do a new releases post — mainly because it doesn’t usually occur to me! But when I look at my list of this month’s new releases — ARCs and books to purchase and books to add to my TBR — it’s hard not to want to share the excitement.

Here are my top picks:

Already read:

Installment Immortality by Seanan McGuire (review)
Kills Well with Others by Deanna Raybourn (review)

Reading now:

Jane and Dan at the End of the World by Colleen Oakley

Upcoming reads (ARCs + library holds + preorders):

The King’s Messenger by Susanna Kearsley
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite
The Third Rule of Time Travel by Philip Fracassi
When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi
Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone
The Jackal’s Mistress by Chris Bohjalian
The Martian Contingency by Mary Robinette Kowal
The Tomb of Dragons by Katherine Addison

Whew. That’s a lot! I’d like to say that I’ll get to all of these before the end of the month, but somehow, I think life may have other plans for me. Plus, I do also need to squeeze in my book group book and Classics Club spin book. (I think I need to go hibernate in a cozy cabin somewhere, just me and a stack of books to read!)

Are any of my March books on your reading list too? What other new releases are you most excited for this month?