Audiobook Review: Just Kiss Already by Lily Chu

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Just Kiss Already
Author: Lily Chu
Narrators: Phillipa Soo & Simu Liu
Publisher: Audible Originals
Publication date: March 12, 2026
Print length: n/a
Audio length: 9 hours 30 minutes
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Audible download
Rating:

Enemies. Coworkers. Accidental Icons.

Dr. Ben Song likes his life orderly, predictable, and blissfully private. By day, he’s a forensic anthropologist running a controversial research project. By night, he’s the anonymous author of a bestselling cozy mystery series. What he absolutely doesn’t need? One viral moment turning him into the internet’s new favorite grumpy heartthrob.

Lauren Wei has built her career in the spotlight—and paid for it. A former teen star turned serious filmmaker, she’s determined to prove she’s more than her past persona. With her first feature film about to premiere and a press tour that could make or break her future, she can’t afford distractions. Especially not the brilliant, infuriating author whose book she adapted…and whose visibly unimpressed reaction to her movie just made him a viral meme.

When the studio forces Ben and Lauren to share the press circuit to capitalize on the moment, sparks fly. But between industry politics, public scrutiny, and a growing sense they might actually be perfectly imperfect for each other after all, their reluctant partnership soon turns into something far more complicated….

Lily Chu’s audiobooks are always a treat, and Just Kiss Already is no exception! This clever story about a film star and a scientist (who’s secretly a bestselling author) hits familiar beats of the celebrity romance and enemies-to-lovers tropes, but keeps things fresh with engaging characters and interesting dilemmas.

Lauren Wei is a former teen star, known for playing a chaotic character on a popular TV show until her reputation took a hit. Now, Lauren is reestablishing herself by directing and starring in a movie adaptation of the first book in the popular Lady Petronella mystery series. The success of the film will help her make sure the world sees her as a serious talent.

Dr. Ben Song is a forensic anthropologist who runs a lab devoted to studying the decomposition of bodies… and is also the secret author of the Lady Petronella books. When he attends the advance press screening of the movie, he’s annoyed by what he sees as some factual errors — and when his sour expression is caught on camera and turned into a meme, it could spell disaster for the movie’s success and Lauren’s future.

Desperate to capitalize on Ben’s viral moment and turn it into social media gold, the studio strong-arms Ben and Lauren into doing a press tour together leading up to the film’s premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. Ben is opposed at first, but is won over by both his lingering crush on Lauren’s TV character and by Lauren herself, who is smart, funny, and not at all the Hollywood snob Ben had expected. Naturally, they get past their initial hostilities and discover both friendship and chemistry, but challenges in their respective careers seem to put up roadblocks before their relationship can really get started.

Just Kiss Already sets up the connection between Lauren and Ben really well, quickly moving past their grumpy/sunshine, enemies-to-lovers dynamic and focusing on the deeper ways they communicate and understand one another, offering support to each other in a way that’s refreshing to see. Their careers seemingly couldn’t be more different, yet each faces professional hurdles that an outsider’s perspective helps them to overcome. Ben and Lauren work as a couple because they take the difficult steps needed to establish trust and friendship first, and even when they have the inevitable misunderstandings so typical of the romance trope, they’re able to quickly clear things up through open communication. Honestly, I wish more third-act break-ups/fights could be resolved so maturely!

The Lady Petronella books sound like they’d be so much fun to actually read (and it’s a nice little treat that each chapter opens with a line from Lady P). Likewise, I’d love to see Lauren’s movie! Just Kiss Already establishes these fictional elements so well that they seem believable, and Ben’s work sounds both fascinating and important. A side plot about a community trying to undermine his research site is also interesting, and gives Ben professional challenges to overcome that balance his parts of the story nicely against Lauren’s.

As always, Phillipa Soo is an amazing narrator (she’s narrated all of Lily Chu’s audiobooks so far), and the pairing here with actor Simu Liu for the Ben chapters offers great listening entertainment,

I really enjoyed Just Kiss Already (despite being annoyed by the title, which has nothing to do with the story). It’s currently available only through Audible. Lily Chu’s previous novels were released the same way, and then released in paperback about a year later. As I’ve said in previous reviews, I always look forward to a new Lily Chu audiobook! The Comeback and The Stand-In remain my favorites, but you can’t go wrong with any of them.

Purchase links: Amazon
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

9Apr2026

Book Review: A Deadly Inheritance by Kelley Armstrong

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: A Deadly Inheritance
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publisher: Tundra Books
Publication date: March 24, 2026
Length: 424 pages
Genre: Young adult fiction
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

After discovering she’s an heiress to a billion-dollar corporation, seventeen-year-old Liliana finds herself at a new boarding school where she must navigate secret societies and a deadly competition. Not to mention two handsome boys.

In the wake of her mother’s death, Liliana Chamberlain’s estranged (and very wealthy) grandparents swoop in. Or their lawyer does. Her grandparents aren’t ready to meet her, but they want her to have the life her mother walked away from, starting with Westdale Academy, the elite boarding school her mother attended. It should be a Cinderella dream come true, but Lili has serious misgivings. Yet she doesn’t have a choice, being under eighteen and dead broke.

Westdale Academy is a school of secrets as well as intriguing classmates, including Hollywood golden boy Theo Dubois and the mysterious Maddox Moreno. As she gets to know them all, Lili realizes there’s more to the school than elite-level networking. Something deadly.

For the new girl at school, investigating the deaths of past students — including Maddox’s own sister — is a very dangerous game. Do those deaths have something to do with why her mother fled Westdale at the cost of her inheritance?

When a fun night out turns bloody, Theo is the prime suspect, and Liliana must race against time to connect the past with the present and discover the truth behind her inheritance.

While YA thrillers are not my typical jam, I had no hesitation when it came to picking up this newest book by author Kelley Armstrong. A Deadly Inheritance provides the twisty, complicated plot and fascinating characters that are hallmarks of her writing, and delivers a thrilling drama with enough devious clues to make a reader’s head spin.

In A Deadly Inheritance, 17-year-old Liliana is desperately selling everything not nailed down in her shabby apartment in order to keep paying the rent and keep up appearances. Orphaned after her mother’s death, Liliana just has to fake it a few more months until she turns 18 and can avoid the foster system. A gifted student, she already has a free ride to college waiting for her, if she can only make it through to her high school graduation and legal adulthood.

All that seems to come crashing down when Child Protective Services comes knocking at her door — but the CPS representative is stymied by the appearance of a lawyer who claims to speak on Liliana’s behalf. In short order, a huge secret is revealed: Liliana is actually the granddaughter of the Chamberlains of Chamberlain Enterprises, and heiress to a fortune in the billions. In the blink of an eye, Liliana is whisked away from her former life and enrolled at Westdale Academy, a boarding school for the children of the ultra rich and powerful, where having the right allies and connections is the most sought-after prize.

At Westdale, Liliana is wooed by the members of the Lilith Society, whose members are the school’s top female students. She’s also drawn to two very different boys: Theo, the golden-child son of Hollywood power players, and Maddox, an emotionally complex young man descended from a tech fortune, whose family’s past contains its own share of trauma.

Liliana settles into her new environment and begins to form deep connections, but there’s immediate danger as well. Someone tries breaking into her room. a fellow student tries to push her down the basement stairs, and at an off-campus event, she’s attacked and wounded. Why is someone trying to hurt Liliana, and is this connected to mysterious events from Westdale’s secretive history?

A Deadly Inheritance is an absolute page-turner, as the clues come fast and furious, with new suspects and theories around every corner. Something very bad is going on… but the answers will keep you guessing right up until the final chapter. I know I had plenty of theories… and most of them turned out to be dead wrong!

I really enjoyed Liliana as a lead character. As someone raised with no knowledge of her mother’s true past, she has no idea that she comes from money, and therefore has none of the snobbishness or entitlement so often seen in stories about privileged teens. Liliana’s entry into the world of Westdale is shown through her eyes, so we get to experience both her wonder and confusion at the wealth around her and the casual acceptance of a world of instant, constant luxury.

There’s a romantic subplot that is not what you’d expect, and I ended up really enjoying it. I can’t say I’ve come across this particular approach in YA fiction before… and that’s about all I’ll say about it, but trust me, it’s very well-written, innovative, and fun to see unfolding.

The mystery/thriller aspects are very well constructed. There are just enough clues to keep a reader guessing, but never enough to be obvious. When the answers do come, they require full concentration — the plot is clever and intricate and full of sharp little details to throw us off course.

I did have a few minor quibbles — just certain details about Liliana’s earlier life and how her new status as an heiress unfolded that felt glossed over and fully explained. In an adult novel, these elements probably would have felt more substantial, and the lack of detail might have been less easily overlooked. Here, with a YA vibe, the missing details can be more readily pushed aside in favor of the focus on Liliana’s experiences and feelings. It works!

I’ve read quite a bit of Kelley’s Armstrong recent novels for adults, including the outstanding Rockton and Haven’s Rock series, several terrific stand-alone horror novels, and even a couple of rom-coms. A Deadly Inheritance is my first experience with her young adult writing. I’m happy to confirm that it was just as good as I’d expected!

While marketed as YA fiction, A Deadly Inheritance makes a great read for adults too. I really enjoyed this thriller, and highly recommend it.

Purchase links: Amazon – Audible audiobook – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

5Apr2026

Book Review: The Gathering by C. J. Tudor

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Gathering
Author: C. J. Tudor
Publisher: Ballantine
Publication date: April 9, 2024
Length: 336 pages
Genre: Horror
Source: Library
Rating:

A detective investigating a grisly crime in rural Alaska finds herself caught up in the dark secrets and superstitions of a small town in this riveting novel from the acclaimed author of The Chalk Man

Deadhart, Alaska. 873. Living.

In a small Alaska town, a boy is found with his throat ripped out and all the blood drained from his body. The inhabitants of Deadhart haven’t seen a killing like this in twenty-five years. But they know who’s responsible: a member of the Colony, an ostracized community of vampyrs living in an old mine settlement deep in the woods.

Detective Barbara Atkins, a specialist in vampyr killings, is called in to officially determine if this is a Colony killing—and authorize a cull. Old suspicions die hard in a town like Deadhart, but Barbara isn’t so sure. Determined to find the truth, she enlists the help of a former Deadhart sheriff, Jenson Tucker, whose investigation into the previous murder almost cost him his life. Since then, Tucker has become a recluse. But he knows the Colony better than almost anyone.

As the pair delve into the town’s history, they uncover secrets darker than they could have imagined. And then another body is found. While the snow thickens and the nights grow longer, a killer stalks Deadhart, and two disparate communities circle each other for blood. Time is running out for Atkins and Tucker to find the truth: Are they hunting a bloodthirsty monster . . . or a twisted psychopath? And which is more dangerous?

In the world of The Gathering, vampyrs are a protected species, living in small, isolated communities called Colonies, with certain rights but also many restrictions — such as being forbidden to mix with human or to hold jobs. Alaska is a natural choice for a vampyr settlement, given the long hours of darkness and the remote landscape.

When the town of Deadhart reports a vampyr killing — the first it’s experienced in 25 years — the Department of Forensic Vampyr Anthropology sends veteran detective Barbara Atkins to investigate. If her investigation confirms that vampyrs are responsible, she’ll be authorized to call for a cull — a government-sanctioned hunt to kill the vampyrs of the nearby Colony in order to remove a deadly threat to the humans in the area.

Deadhart residents are ready to start the hunt immediately, but Barbara senses that there’s more to the story, and very quickly finds inconsistencies related to the murder that lead her to dig deeper. Through her investigation, she discovers new facts related to the previous vampyr killing in Deadhart, including highly unsavory information about the town’s sordid treatment of vampyrs decades earlier. The pressure is on — if Barbara doesn’t sanction a cull quickly, the townspeople may just take matters into their own hands. But the more she uncovers, the more Barbara believes that the culprit may not be a member of the Colony after all — and as the bodies pile up, her own safety is on the line as she makes fresh enemies among the humans of Deadheart.

The Gathering has a terrific premise — the existence of vampyrs, the protections around them, but also the laws allowing them to be hunted and destroyed if warranted. It’s a fascinating dynamic, especially once we’re introduced to members of the Colony and see inside their settlement.

The claustrophobic nature of winter in Deadhart is vividly portrayed. The town is isolated, cut off by unpredictable weather, and very insular. Its residents go back generations, and there are countless old rivalries and grudges to unpack. Barbara makes an excellent viewpoint character, arriving as an outsider into a community already on edge, seeking to carry out her work despite the mounting tensions and lack of cooperation from the townspeople.

I was intrigued by the history of the town and the Colony. Likewise, I found the descriptions of the supporting cast of characters endlessly interesting, with trouble-prone teens, a rabble-rousing preacher, old-timers who remember the bad old days, and people just trying to get by. Still, the characters themselves are perhaps my one small area of complaint — there are so many named characters that keeping them and their backstories straight can be challenging at times.

Overall, though, I loved reading The Gathering. The Alaska setting and the unique status of vampyrs combine to provide a truly fresh take on a vampire story. There’s gore, but it’s not overwhelming — I’d consider this book something of a horror/mystery mashup. Both genres are well-represented, and blend together seamlessly for an absorbing read.

The epilogue ends on a note that leaves the door open for another story set in this world. I’d love to read a sequel! Meanwhile, this was my first book by C. J. Tudor, and now I’m eager to explore more of her books. If you have recommendations, please let me know!

4Apr2026

Book Review: The Last Devil to Die (The Thursday Murder Club, #4) by Richard Osman

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Last Devil to Die
Series: The Thursday Murder Club, #4
Author: Richard Osman
Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books
Publication date: September 14, 2023
Length: 362 pages
Genre: Mystery
Source: Library
Rating:

Shocking news reaches the Thursday Murder Club.

An old friend in the antiques business has been killed, and a dangerous package he was protecting has gone missing.

As the gang springs into action they encounter art forgers, online fraudsters and drug dealers, as well as heartache close to home.

With the body count rising, the package still missing and trouble firmly on their tail, has their luck finally run out? And who will be the last devil to die?

The Thursday Murder Club books are so much fun, and book #4, The Last Devil to Die, is no exception.

The story kicks off with a (literal) bang. An antique dealer, who assisted our favorite gang of septuagenarian murder enthusiasts in the previous book, is inadvertently entangled in an international smuggling scheme that goes disastrously wrong. When his body is found, apparently the victim of a professional hit, it becomes a personal matter for the Thursday Murder Club folks. They’re outraged, they’re grieved, and they’re determined to figure it all out. Is there any doubt that they’ll succeed?

As Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim, and Ron tackle the clues, in conjunction with their police connections Chris and Donna, the web of information, suspects, and plain old baddies gets more and more complicated. Is their local cocaine dealer, now imprisoned but still running an impressively efficient empire, somehow pulling the strings? Was their friend involved in shady business practices, or just the wrong person in the wrong place and time? And why is a national crime-fighting division trying to take over the case and boot out the locals?

Meanwhile, Elizabeth faces a personal challenge more intense than anything she’s had to deal with in all her years of international spying. As her friends rally round, a dramatic moment arrives, and it’s poignant and heartbreaking.

It’s hard to describe these books without giving anything away, which would be (sorry) a crime. The investigation has just as many twists and turns as we’ve come to expect with this series, and while I managed to figure out a few elements, there’s just no predicting where the solution truly lies. Meanwhile, there are side quests, new characters, personal developments, and more, and the dialogue and character quirks remain as entertaining as ever.

This series as a whole is highly recommended! Start at the beginning — the books are fast, engaging reads, and it’s easy to whip through them without a huge time commitment. I’m eager to start the 5th book, which is the last one currently available although, based on the author’s notes, not the last in the series. Yippee! I hope there will be more Thursday Murder Club shenanigans to look forward to for many years to come.

*Up next: Book #5, The Impossible Fortune*

30Mar2026

Book Review: Butterfly Effects (InCryptid, #15) by Seanan McGuire

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Butterfly Effects
Series: Incryptid, #15
Author: Seanan McGuire
Publisher: Tor Books
Publication date: March 10, 2026
Length: 432 pages
Genre: Urban fantasy
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

Seanan McGuire’s New York Times-bestselling and Hugo Award-nominated InCryptid series continues with the fifteenth book following the Price family, cryptozoologists who study and protect the creatures living in secret all around us.

Chaos, noun:
1. The inherent unpredictability in the behavior of a complex natural system.

Chaos theory, noun:
1. A branch of mathematical and physical theory that deals with the nature and consequences of chaos and chaotic systems.
2. The study of unpredictable systems.
3. See also “impossible math.”

Sarah Zellaby is a Johrlac, a member of a species of psychic ambush predators colloquially referred to as “cuckoos.” Eight years ago, she survived the difficult, painful process of becoming a cuckoo queen…although not without costs. In the wake of her transformation, the man she loved was entirely erased from his own mind, forcing her to reconstruct him from the memories of the people who knew and loved him.

Sarah has been struggling to come to terms with her actions ever since. But there’s no one else on the planet with the power to hold her accountable―until the Johrlac authorities show up. It’s time for her to stand trial for what she’s done, something which can only happen on Johrlar, home world of her species, where the population is controlled by a system of unyielding hiveminds and crime is punishable by erasure.

With Sarah’s life on the line, her family will need to find a way to cross dimensional borders and survive a hostile, telepathic world in order to get her back―before the Sarah they know ceases to exist.

But no matter what happens, actions have consequences… and Sarah Zellaby is about to learn that lesson the hard way.

Fifteen books in, the Incryptid series remains wildly inventive, with a stunningly huge array of characters and nonhuman species to keep track of. The Price-Healy family remains at the center of it all, but the details and mythology at this point are so complex that it feels next to impossible to talk about this book specifically in any sort of way that makes sense.

But I’ll try.

Butterfly Effects is the 3rd book in the series to focus on Sarah Zellaby as the main character, which is tricky. Despite appearances, Sarah is not human — she’s what’s known as a “cuckoo”, a descendent of a group of Johrlacs exiled generations earlier from their home dimension Johrlar. Johrlacs are telepathic, and cuckoos are considered ambush predators here on Earth. Through the power of their minds, they can take over anyone else’s thoughts and rewrite them — so a cuckoo child, for example, can convince a new family that they’re loved, that they belong, and that they’ve always belonged. And that’s among the least harmful examples. When a cuckoo wants to influence someone, the person being influenced has no defenses and won’t even know it’s happening.

The Price family has been studying and interacting with cryptids — non-humans — for generations, and is uniquely suited to providing Sarah with a home. Sarah is the adopted daughter of one of the family matriarchs, and has been raised to use her abilities responsibly. What’s more, Sarah was raised with love — she’s part of the family. But eight years before the events in Butterfly Effects, she evolved into a cuckoo “queen”, and her powers essentially exploded beyond her control, causing damage that she never intended. Now, years later, Sarah has been forcibly extracted back to Johrlar, supposedly to be held accountable for her actions… but more sinister motivations are at play.

When Sarah is taken, her family springs into action — including her cousin Antimony, Antimony’s boyfriend Sam, and her grandparents Alice and Thomas who — for… reasons — appear to be no older than their grandchildren. This team of fighters and sorcerers heads off on a rescue mission, but once on Johrlar, finds themselves in grave danger as well.

Like I said, it’s complicated. Fortunately, this book has Sarah share the narration, so while she’s the main POV character, there are sections where Antimony takes the lead. Honestly, it’s a relief. Not to be all speciesist… but Antimony’s human mind is a much less headache-inducing place to be than Sarah’s. Sarah thinks in math and equations, and her telepathy and worldview can be insanely twisty and hard to relate to.

I do love this series as a whole, but it’s so wide-ranging that it can be hard to keep track of. With books focusing on so many different characters, I constantly need a refresher on where we left off, where the major players are, and whose lives are dealing with which crises. (Books #13 and #14 were told from the perspective of the family’s ghost babysitter… to give you an idea of just how strange a series this is!)

Maybe it’s just because they were introduced first, but the core Price family siblings and their immediate families remain my favorites, and when they’re off-page for too long (or for entire books, except for brief drop-bys) I miss them. Butterfly Effects seems to provide a definitive wrap-up to most of Sarah’s ongoing issues (at least, for now), so I’m hoping the next books in the series will move back to focusing elsewhere within the family.

Butterfly Effects took a while to draw me in. Eventually, I was hooked on the latest adventure and started feeling like I was reading a page-turner… but there were definitely moments where I felt like I was reading this one more out of obligation than enjoyment. Still, Seanan McGuire is a terrific storyteller, and overall, I’m sticking with the series, even though I didn’t connect with this particular book quite as much as with some of the earlier installments.

Once again, I’ll point out the obvious: This is not a book to start with! The Incryptid series is so complicated by now that it can only be appreciated by starting at the beginning — which I recommend! It’s a truly creative series with lots of entertainment value, interesting plot twists, and deeper emotional beats. And for those devoted to this world, there are countless spin-off/prequel stories available via the author’s Patreon and elsewhere, so you’ll never run out of Price-Healy family history to explore.

So, while book #15 wasn’t actually my favorite… I’ll certainly be back for #16, and can’t wait to find out whose story we’ll be getting next!

As with other books in the Incryptid series, this one includes a novella at the end, We Sing It Anyway. This story is really more of an epilogue to the main book, although with a different character in the lead role, who deals with the immediate aftermath of the events of Butterfly Effects. It’s a sweet conclusion, and provides both closure and healing to Sarah’s story’s impact on other family members.

Purchase links: Amazon – Audible – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

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29Mar2026

Audiobook Review: And Then There Was You by Sophie Cousens

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: And Then There Was You
Author: Sophie Cousens
Narrator: Kerry Gilbert
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Publication date: November 18, 2025
Print length: 352 pages
Audio length: 9 hours 10 minutes
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Library
Rating:

She’s found the perfect man . . . There’s just one big twist.

Stuck in a Production Assistant job and living at home with her parents after a painful breakup, thirty-one-year-old Chloe Fairway isn’t where she wants to be in life. The last thing she needs is to face the people who once voted her “most likely to succeed” at her upcoming ten-year college reunion. And she definitely doesn’t want to see her former best friend, Sean Adler, who is now a hotshot film director living the life Chloe dreamed of. Desperate to make a splash—and to save face in front of the man who might be the one that got away—she turns to a mysterious dating service.

Enter Rob, her handsome, well-read, and charming match, the perfect plus-one to take to her reunion. The more she gets to know him, the more perfect he appears to be. Could it be that this dating service knows her better than she knows herself? And can she overlook the one big catch? As Chloe reconnects with old friends, she begins to question everything she thought she wanted. Maybe, just maybe, revisiting the past is exactly what she needs to move forward.

After really enjoying my last audiobook by Sophie Cousens (Is She Really Going Out With Him?), I grabbed her newest when I saw it was available through the library. And while I enjoy her upbeat storytelling and the terrific narration by Kerry Gilbert, this romance had certain elements that just didn’t work for me.

Ten years after graduating from Oxford, Chloe feels like a failure. Once considered most likely to succeed, sure of a brilliant career ahead of her as an actress and playwright, Chloe now lives with her parents and works as the personal assistant to a highly unpleasant man at a mediocre production company. All of her old schoolmates have gone on to do amazing things, especially Sean, once her best friend and writing partner, now practically a stranger, who’s a big-time Hollywood director. With the reunion looming, Chloe’s instinct is to hide and avoid it all. A chance encounter with a friend who seems to be radiantly happy leads Chloe to an exclusive matchmaking company that promises to find her the man of her dreams, someone who’ll be perfect for her. And when Chloe meets Rob, they just click. He’s gorgeous, smart, and sweet… so maybe attending the reunion with this impressive guy on her arm will be just the confidence boost that Chloe needs?

There’s a catch, of course… and here’s where I’m going to insert a big, fat…

SPOILER ALERT!

I’m guessing Goodreads reviews will already have spilled the beans, but in case you don’t want to know, here’s where to look away.

Seriously!

I’m going to get into the details of what I really did not like about this book.

SPOILERS COMING RIGHT NOW!

Okay, you’ve been warned.

The reason that Rob seems perfect for Chloe is that… he is. Rob is an AI robot created to Chloe’s exact specifications, based on an exhaustive questionnaire that she’s required to complete as part of her intake at the matchmaking company. She (and we) have no idea what she’s signing up for until after she’s signed an NDA and is introduced to Rob, who instantly impresses her with his good lucks, excellent manners, and sensitivity. He’s everything she thinks she wants in a man… because he’s been built and programmed that way.

Taking Rob to her reunion seems like a crazy idea. And it is. Convincing herself that she could have a future with Rob also seems ridiculous. And it is. Chloe spends a lot of mental energy trying to figure out whether a robot boyfriend might be her best bet for a happy life. Meanwhile, the entire reunion weekend is rife with moments when Rob’s perfection or stilted manners or weird affect threatens to reveal Chloe’s secret and undermine everything she’s trying to achieve.

From the moment of the reveal about what Rob really is (somewhere around the 15% mark), I was kind of over this book. I stuck with it because I liked certain elements of the story — but this was very nearly a DNF. The sad thing is that I don’t think this story needed the robot storyline at all. Rob could have simply been a date-for-hire, and the plot could have played out practically the same way. The AI/robot piece is a distracting novelty that just doesn’t work at all.

It’s a shame, because there are other elements that are very good. Who can’t relate to the feeling that everyone else is doing better at life than you are? Or the anxiety of reuniting with people who were once the center of your world? It’s not exactly surprising that at the reunion, Chloe discovers romantic feelings for an old friend and learns secrets that change what she thought she knew about their past. This part was very good! I liked Chloe’s process of understanding her past, admitting where she’d made mistakes, and getting past the roadblocks that had her feeling stuck professionally and emotionally.

END SPOILERS

All in all, And Then There Was You has some very engaging bits and pieces that unfortunately get swamped by a ridiculous overarching storyline. Sticking with this book all the way to the end tried my patience, despite the great audiobook narration and the generally interesting, quirky characters. The clever and entertaining bits just can’t save an unconvincing storyline. My eyes hurt from too much rolling.

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28Mar2026

Novella review: Nobody’s Baby (Dorothy Gentleman, #2) by Olivia Waite

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Nobody’s Baby
Series: Dorothy Gentleman, #2
Author: Olivia Waite
Publisher: Tor Books
Publication date: March 10, 2026
Length: 144 pages
Genre: Science fiction
Source: Library
Rating:

Becky Chambers meets Miss Marple in the second entry of this cozy sci-fi mystery series, helmed by a formidable no-nonsense 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.

A wild baby appears! Dorothy Gentleman, ship detective, is put to the test once again when an infant is mysteriously left on her nephew’s doorstep. Fertility is supposed to be on pause during the Fairweather’s journey across the stars—but humans have a way of breaking any rule you set them. Who produced this child, and why did they then abandon him? And as her nephew and his partner get more and more attached, how can Dorothy prevent her colleague and rival detective, Leloup, a stickler for law and order, from classifying the baby as a stowaway or a piece of luggage?

Told through Dorothy’s delightfully shrewd POV, this novella series is an ode to the cozy mystery taken to the stars with a fresh new sci-fi take. Perfect for fans of the plot-twisty narratives of Dorothy Sayers and Ann Leckie, this well-paced story will leave readers captivated and hungry for the next installment.

Dorothy Gentleman is back! In the second installment in this delightful sci-fi/mystery novella series, our favorite spacefaring detective has another doozy of a case to solve.

The HMS Fairweather is a generation ship, currently 300 years into a millennium-long journey to a new planet. Passengers essentially live forever by preserving their minds in the ship library’s memory books, then downloading themselves back into new bodies when their current bodies wear out. Carrying 10,000 people, the ship is comfortable and well-provisioned, but can’t accommodate population growth, so reproductive abilities are put on hold for the duration of the journey.

Imagine everyone’s surprise when a baby — a real, human baby! — is left on Dorothy’s nephew’s doorstep. He and his husband are instantly smitten, but Dorothy knows there’s something serious afoot. How is a baby even possible? Who abandoned it and why? And who’s been taking care of it so far?

Her sleuthing leads her to the biological parents, who are just as confused as everyone else and have no memories of where this baby came from. Meanwhile, after a thwarted kidnapping attempt, Dorothy’s nephew wants custody — but there’s the legal conundrum of whether the baby is to be considered a legitimate passenger on the ship, entitled to memory preservation and bodily renewal, or if (because he’s not on the official passenger manifest) he’s a stowaway, with no rights beyond the length of a normal mortal life.

The mystery is a fun, not terribly serious tangle of people, technology, and motives which Dorothy unravels with style. Meanwhile, life on the Fairweather is a strange mix of advanced tech — memory books and journeying through the stars — and low tech even by our standards: There don’t appear to be computers, much less smart phones — everyone is always shuffling paperwork… as in, literally piles of paper!

I love the noir vibes that the writing gives off — basically, a noir detective story in space! The writing captures the tone perfectly:

I […] opened the door — only to find Violet St. Owen there on the threshold, looking like all my weaknesses made flesh.

I mean, doesn’t that just practically scream “and then this dame walked into my office…”?

I really enjoy the world of these novellas and the details of life aboard ship. As the 2nd in a series, Nobody’s Baby doesn’t offer quite the same level of delightful discovery as the first novella, Murder by Memory, but it’s still fun to revisit the characters and setting. I did feel a bit let down by the solution to the baby’s origin, which seemed not all that consequential in the end after quite a big build-up, but otherwise found the clues and legal wrangling to be highly amusing.

Overall, Nobody’s Baby is a nice, short treat. At novella length, it’s a quick, all-in-one-sitting sort of read, and offers great entertainment throughout. I enjoyed this newest adventure with Dorothy, and hope there are plenty more to come!

25Mar2026

Audiobook Review: Grace & Henry’s Holiday Movie Marathon by Matthew Norman

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Grace & Henry’s Holiday Movie Marathon
Author: Matthew Norman
Narrators: Alex Finke, Jay Myers
Publisher: Random House
Publication date: October 14, 2025
Print length: 337 pages
Audio length: 8 hours 43 minutes
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Library
Rating:

A sentimental advertising creative and a blunt, no-nonsense bar owner find a second chance at love while binge-watching iconic holiday movies in this poignant and heartwarming romance, from the author of Charm City Rocks and All Together Now.

“Norman weaves nostalgic references to modern holiday classics . . . throughout this comforting romance.”—The Washington Post (Noteworthy Books of the Month)

The new year had barely begun when Grace White and Henry Adler both lost their spouses. Now, nearly a year later, the first holiday season since their “Great and Terrible Sadnesses” approaches. Although their mothers scheme to matchmake the two surviving spouses, it’s clear that neither is ready to date again. Yet no one understands what they are going through better than each other, and a delicate friendship is born.

When Henry sees an ad for a Christmas movie marathon—once an annual tradition for him and his wife—Grace offers to watch some films with him, despite her aversion to a few of his picks. Her two young kids, Ian and Bella, also join in whenever possible—bedtimes permitting, of course.

With each movie, Grace and Henry’s shared grief eases as they start to see a life beyond the sadness. But as they draw closer, other romantic possibilities leave them uncertain about their future together. Is their bond merely the result of loneliness and shared circumstances, or have they found something that’s worth taking a shot at . . . again?

Grace & Henry’s Holiday Movie Marathon was an unusual pick for me — I don’t tend to read a lot of holiday-themed fiction, especially when it’s not even the holiday season! And yet… the charming title caught my eye, and then the story drew me in.

Grace and Henry both suffered terrible losses at the beginning of the year: Grace’s husband Tim died after a fast-moving cancer diagnosis, and Henry’s wife Bryn died in a shocking plane crash. Now, as the holidays approach, neither is doing particularly well. Grace is busy with her two children Ian and Bella (and their hilariously-named dog Harry Styles), but she spends most of her down time in her Costco sweats talking with the version of her dead husband who lives in her head. Henry can’t bring himself to return to the home he shared with his wife, so he’s rented a mostly empty apartment but mainly hangs out in his parents’ basement playing Mario Kart.

When Henry’s mom asks him to pop over to Grace’s mom’s house to “fix the internet” (which isn’t working due to a sneakily unplugged modem), Henry and Grace are helpless in the face of motherly matchmaking. Neither are interested in being fixed up or even considering dating again, but they do recognize that they might actually fit together as friends. As they talk about holiday movies, they find common ground, and soon, Henry is popping by for family movie nights, and then hanging out with Grace and the kids to help with Ian’s art projects, free captive mice (don’t ask), and discovering a mutual friendship that helps them all start finding a little joy in their lives.

I suppose most people would shelve this as a romance — and yes, of course there’s an underlying romance brewing slowly between Henry and Grace. But that, to me, isn’t the main point. The story overall is much more about loss and grieving, about the process of remembering and letting go, about finding ways to move on when everything you expected for your life is taken away.

The narrative is organized by the movies Henry and Grace watch, together and separately, as the holiday season advances. There are plenty of fun little references to a wide range of holiday (and holiday-adjacent) movies, from Die Hard and Edward Scissorhands to Love Actually, The Holiday, The Family Stone, and more. Point-of-view chapters shift between Henry and Grace; the audiobook has a narrator for each, and both are terrific at voicing the lead and supporting characters and adding humor (and sadness) as the story progresses.

I found both characters’ stories to be quite moving, each loss awful in its own way. Grace is forced to carry on for the sake of her children and does a wonderful job, but there’s a sadness in their home that they can’t quite overcome. Henry’s loneliness is different yet also deep and real. It’s easy to see why these two need one another, first as “grief buddies”, then as friends, to get through the worst of times — or even just normal days when a sudden memory or association can knock them out of orbit. Their ability to understand one another’s pain forms the backbone of what becomes a beautiful support system.

I also appreciated how well both Grace and Henry are supported by their families and friends. While their well-meaning mothers may be pushing a bit too hard for them to get back into the dating world, it’s clear that the people who love them want to help — somehow — and are often stuck on how to do it.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Baltimore, the book’s setting, feels like a living, breathing character in this charming story. Grace and Henry have rich, deep connections to the city and the community, and it comes to sparkling life on every page.

All in all, I truly enjoyed Grace & Henry’s Holiday Movie Marathon. The holiday spirit, the sense of fun, and the straightforward treatment of loss and grieving all contribute to making this sweet book feel like something special. The audiobook delivery is terrific — but in whatever format, I think this is a book well worth picking up and experiencing.

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22Mar2026

Book Review: Once and Again by Rebecca Serle

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Once and Again
Author: Rebecca Serle
Publisher: Atria Books
Publication date: March 10, 2026
Length: 256 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Serle, the author behind “heartbreaking, redemptive, and authentic” (Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author) modern classic In Five Years, returns with an unforgettable tale of a family of women with an astonishing gift: the ability to redo one moment in their lives.

The women of the Novak family were each born with a gift: they can, just once, turn back time.

Lauren has known since she was fifteen that her mother Marcella saved Lauren’s father from a deadly car accident. Dave is alive and happy, and out on the Malibu waves. But ever since, Marcella, her power spent, has lived in fear of what she won’t be able to reverse. Her own mother, Sylvia, is her polar opposite: a free-spirited iconoclast with a glamorous past she only hints at. Lauren has spent her life between these two role models—and waiting for her own catastrophe to strike.

Then one summer, Lauren’s husband takes a job in New York and she moves back to Broad Beach Road, back into her childhood home on the shores of Malibu. Lauren looks forward to surfing with her dad again and perhaps repairing an unspoken fracture in her relationship with her mother. What she doesn’t expect is for the boy next to door to return home as well: Stone, Lauren’s first love, who broke her heart nearly a decade before.

As Lauren falls into familiar patterns, with her family and, more dangerously, Stone, she finds herself thinking about all the choices, large and small, that have brought her to this moment. And wondering, finally, if one of them should be undone.

In Once and Again, main character Lauren’s family has a secret — a superpower, of sorts. Each woman in the family is gifted with the ability to undo one event that’s already happened, but it’s a gift that’s a one-time deal. Use it, and it’s gone forever. While we might think of this as an amazing opportunity, in these women’s lives, it’s also a burden. How do you know when is the right time to use it? What if you use it, and then end up needing it even more later on?

Lauren is 37 years old, married for three years at this point to her wonderful husband Leo — but things have become fraught between them as they struggle with infertility. After multiple attempts at IVF and IUI, Leo is ready to stop trying, but Lauren is not, and the stress of the financial, physical, and psychological burdens is straining their marriage almost to the breaking point.

When Leo heads to New York for a short-term work opportunity, Lauren decides to rent out their West Hollywood home and spend the summer at the shambling Malibu bungalow where her parents and grandmother live. Back home in Malibu, Lauren reintroduces herself to the surfing and slower beach rhythms that she grew up with, while also spending time with her cool surfer dad, uptight mother, and loving, super-hip grandmother. But being there also brings up memories for Lauren of the intensity of her teen years, especially her mother’s obsessive worry over her father’s health.

Meanwhile, Lauren encounters Stone while out surfing — the man she loved and was involved with for a solid ten years, only ending the relationship when he moved away from Malibu and left her behind. Seeing Stone again brings up old feelings, even as Lauren juggles her love for Leo and how much she misses him with the pain of their current marital problems.

Lauren has an opportunity to fix something using her gift — but is this the right moment? If she uses it, will she regret it later? And what will her choice mean for the rest of the family?

Once and Again presents a unique take on the subjects of regret and second chances. There’s no explanation offered for the family’s gift, and there doesn’t need to be. It’s a magical element that just is — and if you have a hard time with this sort of magical plotline, this may not be the book for you. To be clear, there’s nothing else that’s fantasy or magic-based in the story. This is a family that’s ordinary in every way… but one.

I appreciated the insights we get from the intermittent chapters that provide Lauren’s mother’s and grandmother’s backstories, as well as the story of the first woman to have the gift. The family’s Jewish heritage features in both the gift and their ongoing lives as a lovely background element. It’s fascinating to learn more about how each woman chose to use the gift and what the ramifications were — and there’s a major twist later in the book that made me look at it in an entirely new way.

The ability to turn back time isn’t trivial and has consequences. The characters experience joy with their second chances, but also carry a unique pain: The woman who uses the gift still remembers what they’ve changed, even if no one else does, which means they may be grieving for something that no one else understands. Another fascinating element is the choice to undo everything that’s come since the event that they’re changing. How far back can or should they go? And if they change something terrible that happened, can they live with losing all the good things that happened too?

I’ve had hit or miss experiences with Rebecca Serle’s books in the past — I’ve loved two of her books, and felt less connected with two others. Once and Again belongs firmly in the “hit” category. I found it emotional, thought-provoking, and engaging, with characters to care about and a plot strongly rooted in reality even with a magical gift in the mix. Highly recommended.

For more by this author:
The Dinner List
In Five Years
One Italian Summer
Expiration Dates

19Mar2026

Book Review: Mania by Lionel Shriver

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Mania
Author: Lionel Shriver
Publisher: Harper Collins
Publication date: April 9, 2024
Length: 388 pages
Genre: Dystopian / alternative reality
Source: Library
Rating:

What if calling someone stupid was illegal? In a reality not too distant from our own, where the so-called Mental Parity Movement has taken hold, the worst thing you can call someone is ‘stupid’.

Everyone is equally clever, and discrimination based on intelligence is ‘the last great civil rights fight’.

Exams and grades are all discarded, and smart phones are rebranded. Children are expelled for saying the S-word and encouraged to report parents for using it. You don’t need a qualification to be a doctor.

Best friends since adolescence, Pearson and Emory find themselves on opposing sides of this new culture war. Radio personality Emory – who has built her career riding the tide of popular thought – makes increasingly hard-line statements while, for her part, Pearson believes the whole thing is ludicrous.

As their friendship fractures, Pearson’s determination to cling onto the ‘old, bigoted way of thinking’ begins to endanger her job, her safety and even her family.

Lionel Shriver turns her piercing gaze on the policing of opinion and intellect, and imagines a world in which intellectual meritocracy is heresy. Hilarious, deadpan, scathing and at times frighteningly plausible, MANIA will delight the many fans of her fiction and journalism alike.

Mania has got to be one of the strangest books I’ve ever read. This depiction of an alternate reality where Mental Parity is the new normal imagines a society where variation in intelligence is considered a myth. All are equally capable. All are equally intelligent. Some people may just process differently.

As narrated by main character Pearson Converse, what starts as a ridiculous idea — the idea that mental parity is the “last great civil rights fight” — takes over the country and much of the world. From a fringe cultural phenomenon, mental parity (MP) becomes a strident, powerful force for overturning everything from school (grades are eliminated, because all children are equally intelligent) to university admissions (strictly lottery based, because all are equally qualified) to employment opportunities, parenting, and all manner of social discourse.

Pearson, an English instructor at what was once considered a high-prestige liberal arts college, finds her hands increasingly tied as her surly students practically dare her to step out of line so they can report her to an MPC (Mental Parity Champion).

Even language becomes strictly policed. Words used to denote levels of intelligence are grossly offensive — stupid and dumb being prime examples — but over time, even words used in other contexts are stricken because they could possibly denote judgment that defies the concepts of mental parity. Can’t talk about the deep end of a swimming pool, because “deep” has a nasty association with the myth that some people are “deeper” than others — so let’s just refer to the end of the pool with more water. Also ruled out are words like dull or sharp, even in the context of kitchen knives, or brilliant as in the stars in the sky, or profound… as in deep… as in… oops, never mind.

As time passes and adherence to MP becomes absolute, Pearson finds herself increasingly on the outs with her former best friend Emory, someone with whom she was once aligned on just about everything. Now, Emory seems to have traded in her personal belief system in order to bolster her broadcast career, becoming a star commentator on CNN by offering high profile opinion pieces on the evils of those who oppose MP. Meanwhile, Pearson’s family life is increasingly at risk, as stepping a toe out of line brings down the wrath of Child Protective Services and puts her job (and financial survival) in danger.

Mania is clearly satirical, but what exactly is the author satirizing? At times, the MP world seems to be aligned with MAGA viewpoints denigrating academics and intellectuals as out-of-touch elitists, and the total undermining of scientific rigor mirrors some views of the MAHA movement. And yet, the hyperfocus on policing word choice and sanding away the edges of anything that ever might possibly offend anyone can also speak to what some see as the excesses of “wokeness”. The point, I think, is to show the damage of any sort of extremism taking over rational society — and as we see in Mania, bouncing from one extreme to another as the pendulum of societal norms swings to correct itself poses fresh set of dangers too.

I puzzled over the language in Mania. Pearson’s narration of her life is full of overstuffed sentences and pretentious, convoluted wording. I often had to stop to parse out what a particular sentence might mean. Not having read anything by this author previously, I was left to wonder: Is this delivery typical of this author, or is this meant to show how Pearson holds herself apart and embraces her intellectual superiority even while trying to survive in a world where the use of big words is derided as “brain-vain” or “smartist”? Yet Pearson repeats throughout the book that even while she’s adamantly opposed to MP and its concepts, she herself isn’t all that smart. And so, I remain a bit baffled by the character’s delivery of her life story.

A few examples:

To my embarrassment, here I am relating picayune points of philological fascism—the death of the “dumbbell”—while, out in the rest of the world, events of more considerable moment were afoot.

Emory’s ducking-below-the-parapet strategy had much to recommend it. We could keep our heads down, shuffling the world in camouflage like soldiers wearing dun in the desert, duly observing every new linguistic prohibition and suppressing perceptions of our species once prevailing, now retrograde, the better not to stand out.

Needless to say, heroin users were no longer “dope fiends,” although if you were an opioid addict, surely having your perspicacity traduced was the least of your problems.

The author weaves our own world into the story, warping people and events to suit this strange alternate reality. Obama is president… but only for one term. His brand of intellectualism is a huge turn-off — prime example of being brain-vain! — but his VP, Biden — with his lost trains of thought and awkward public speeches — is a perfect MP president. He’s just as intelligent as everyone else! Because everyone is just as intelligent as everyone else!

Even later, political standards become yet more entrenched in MP:

It’s now taken as a given that for any candidate to be seriously considered for either major party’s presidential nomination next year, he or she will necessarily be badly educated, uninformed, poorly spoken, crass, oblivious to the rest of the world, unattractive and preferably fat, unsolicitous of advice from the more experienced, suspicious of expertise, inclined to violate constitutional due process if only from perfect ignorance of the Constitution, self-regarding without justification, and boastful about what once would have been perceived as his or her shortcomings. We blithely assume that whoever is elected president will surround him- or herself with mediocrities or worse and purposefully appoint a cabinet whose leading credentials are having no credentials.

Hmm. Does that ring any bells?

My ratings graphic only allows full and half stars; otherwise, I would have rated Mania at 3.25. It’s better than a 3-star read, which to me is a “meh”, but I can’t bring myself to go all the way to 3.5, which would imply that it succeeds much more than I feel is accurate. Despite the weirdness of so much of the story, Mania still pulled me in. Once I started, I didn’t want to put it down. I just can’t say that I loved it.

I recommend Mania as a thought experiment and as a very different sort of reading experience. There’s a lot to chew on, despite being so totally outside the scope of believability. Mania is commentary on all sorts of societal woes, dressed up as the story of a woman’s struggle to hold onto the truth even if it costs her everything.

Mania was my book group’s pick for March, and I’m looking forward to hearing what everyone else thought of it. Despite its strangeness, this book is probably a great one for kicking off a lively discussion!

Interested in learning more? Here’s a round-up of reviews:
New York Times
The Guardian
NPR
Kirkus
The Times (UK)