Author: Nicky

Review – The Governess Affair

Posted January 11, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

The Governess Affair

by Courtney Milan

Genres: Historical Fiction, Romance
Pages: 101
Series: Brothers Sinister #0.5
Rating: five-stars

Synopsis:
She will not give up.

Three months ago, governess Serena Barton was let go from her position. Unable to find new work, she’s demanding compensation from the man who got her sacked: a petty, selfish, swinish duke. But it’s not the duke she fears. It’s his merciless man of business—the man known as the Wolf of Clermont. The formidable former pugilist has a black reputation for handling all the duke’s dirty business, and when the duke turns her case over to him, she doesn’t stand a chance. But she can’t stop trying—not with her entire future at stake.

He cannot give in.

Hugo Marshall is a man of ruthless ambition—a characteristic that has served him well, elevating the coal miner’s son to the right hand man of a duke. When his employer orders him to get rid of the pestering governess by fair means or foul, it’s just another day at the office. Unfortunately, fair means don’t work on Serena, and as he comes to know her, he discovers that he can’t bear to use foul ones. But everything he has worked for depends upon seeing her gone. He’ll have to choose between the life that he needs, and the woman he is coming to love…

The Governess Affair is a novella prequel to Courtney Milan’s Brothers Sinister novels, which I haven’t yet read, and I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. We quickly learn that the main character, Serena, has been gravely wronged by the Duke of Clermont, and his right hand man, Hugo Marshall, is told to do something about her and get her out of the way — before his duchess comes home and realises that he has once again been sleeping around.

What really matters in this novella, though, is Hugo’s interactions with Serena, and the tenderness he feels for her almost against his will. This is one of those times where a sex scene is absolutely necessary to the plot and characters, and reveals so much about them: it shouldn’t be skipped, because it’s a scene of healing and caretaking. I worry that it verges a little on the trope of (pardon the vulgarity) “magical healing cock”, but I think it’s less that Serena’s problems and fears are all gone than that she has found one person to trust, as a handhold to move toward fuller healing.

The interactions between Serena and her sister, Frederica, are also worthy of note — I’d have loved a little more depth there, a little more understanding of why they’ve ended up in this particular kind of dynamic, and what happens now that Serena has moved away again and started a life of her own, doing her best to fulfil her dreams.

Either way, I’m definitely eager to try the full novels of the series now, which focus on the next generation, by the look of it.

Rating: 5/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Courtney Milan, historical fiction, romance

WWW Wednesday

Posted January 10, 2024 by Nicky in General / 8 Comments

It’s Wedneday again, so here I go answering the threes Ws:

What are you currently reading?
What have you recently finished reading?
What are you reading next?

And linking up with Taking on a World of Words. I don’t know if I’ll keep participating, though, since both times so far I only got one comment back, even though I visited quite a few blogs and left a comment — I guess no one’s much interested in mine. Which is fine, but I have limited time and energy, and stuff that doesn’t catch anyone’s interest needs to be the first to go.

What are you currently reading?

I’m actually between books, sort of. I mean, I have a lot of books on the go at once, but they’re mostly a little bit stalled, or only just started — I often have a few of those around and one book that I’m really focusing on, and I haven’t picked that latter yet. I guess I’m most interested in finally finishing up Sailor’s Delight, by Rose Lerner: I really like the characters and the setting, it’s just that the yearning by a particular character was a little intense, and I was looking for something lighter at the time.

What have you recently finished reading?

I finished A City on Mars by Zach and Kelly Weinersmith last night, and I loooved it. It’s unfortunately quite pessimistic about the prospects for space settlements, but in a way that’s realistic rather than just trying to naysay or something. They have good reasons, relating to all the things we don’t know about human biology, the technology we don’t have yet, and the legal frameworks that don’t really yet have good safeguards. It’s a fun read, since it doesn’t get too bogged down in detail (it’s definitely for laypeople).

What are you reading next?

I’m not sure! I know that Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire is my #DoubleSpin book for the Litsy #BookSpin challenge, so maybe I’ll read that now and make sure I don’t leave it to the last minute. The new book in the series appears to have dinosaurs in it, so I’d love to catch up with the ones I haven’t read before and get to that!

What about you? What are you reading?

Tags: books, WWW Wednesday

Review – Clean Room vol 3: Waiting for the Stars to Fall

Posted January 9, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Clean Room: Waiting For the Stars to Fall

by Gail Simone, Walter Giovani, Sanya Anwar, Quinton Winter

Genres: Graphic Novels, Horror, Science Fiction
Pages: 144
Series: Clean Room #3
Rating: three-stars

Synopsis:
In this new installment of Gail Simone's Clean Room, go back to the beginning to learn how Astrid was first affected after her hospitalization...through the eyes of one who cannot see what she sees: her would-be assassin and brother, Peter Mueller.

Then, a young woman devastated by the violent loss of her husband finds comfort in Astrid Mueller's teachings, only to face the woman herself in the most nightmarish reaches of the Clean Room!

The third volume of Gail Simone’s Clean Room cleans everything up — more or less, though one shouldn’t get too strict about the definition of “clean up” here. The world’s definitely a mess at the end, and the book doesn’t chart the recovery, or even really the recovery of the main characters, just the very beginnings of it. Assuming that Chloe ever does recover.

There’s plenty of gore and creepiness, as you’d expect from this series, now including a creepy, creepy baby.

I would say that I didn’t quite understand Astrid’s behaviour throughout the book; part of it seemed inconsistent and left me with definite questions about what was going through her mind, which weren’t really answered. And it felt like things were resolved very quickly, as if the story had to be jammed into this final volume — it made Astrid’s solution feel a little too easy.

Still, a fun series, especially if you’re more into horror than I am!

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, comics, Gail Simone, Quinton Winter, Sanya Anwar, Walter Giovani

Top Ten Tuesday: New Releases To Look Forward To

Posted January 9, 2024 by Nicky in General / 26 Comments

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is about the most anticipated books releasing in the first half of 2024. I’m bad at keeping tabs on this kind of thing, but let’s take a look at the review copies I have (the ones I’ve read and the ones that I’m eager to get to)… I’ll link my review where I’ve already had a chance to read the book, if it’s live already!

The Tainted Cup, by Robert Jackson Bennett. I just got an eARC for this, and I’m super excited: I’ve loved Bennett’s work in the past (even if I’m not all caught up), and the summary of this one sounds like it’s designed to dig into all my interests. A fantasy detective story? Sign me right up.
The Imposition of Impossible Obstacles, by Malka Older. I really loved the first novella, so I was excited to get to read this sequel, and I think others will enjoy it too. I think it’d technically stand alone, but I wouldn’t read it that way — now’s the perfect time to grab The Mimicking of Known Successes, before the new book is out. The main characters, Pleiti and Mossa, have a really sweet relationship: it’s a little bit Holmes and Watson, if one of the things Holmes is trying to figure out is exactly how to be romantic and intimate with Watson. (And the gender difference, of course.)
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, by Bettany Hughes. Time for some non-fiction! This is the kind of topic that I really enjoy — digging (heh) through archaeological discoveries and contextualising them. Trivia: Hughes became an honorary fellow of Cardiff University in the same year and ceremony that I graduated for the first time.
The Butcher of the Forest, by Premee Mohamed. I’ve yet to read any of Mohamed’s novels, but I’ve really enjoyed the novellas. The story has a haunting sense of unease, and features a fascinatining middle-aged female protagonist.
Crypt: Life, Death and Disease in the Middle Ages and Beyond, by Alice Roberts. I really loved Ancestors and especially Buried, so I’m definitely looking forward to this. Roberts usually chooses really fascinating digs to illustrate her points.
Cascade Failure, by L.M. Sargas. I loved Firefly, so comparing a book to that show is a great way to get my attention. I’ve been contemplating asking for the ARC, but I’m not sure I’d get to it before it releases anyway, so I’ve been holding back.
A Letter to the Luminous Deep, by Sylvie Cathrall. Anything based around letters and mails in any sense catches my eye, since I write reviews about books related to post over on Postcrossing. Letters can be surprisingly intimate, and a beautiful way to build up characters, and it looks like this fantasy novel is strongly based around the exchange of letters. I’m excited for it!
The Brides of High Hill, by Nghi Vo. I’m always excited when new Singing Hills books are available. I haven’t posted my review yet, since I just read it this weekend, but I can say that it definitely matched up for me. It felt like a genuinely dangerous situation for Chih — moral and physical peril, swirling around them, with such an atmosphere.
The Fireborne Blade, by Charlotte Bond. A look at the cover was enough to convince me I should give this a shot, and I really enjoyed the book itself as well. The ending was fascinatingly ambiguous, leaving me unsure in a good way about how I felt about the characters. I’ll be posting my review soon, I’m sure. Shame the book won’t be out in time for my sister’s birthday!
Moonstorm, by Yoon Ha Lee. Honestly, this had me at the “mecha robots” bit of the blurb: I was a huge fan of Gundam Wing when I was a teenager, and that was formative. Plus, this is by Yoon Ha Lee. I can’t wait to get round to reading my review copy!

Alright, that was easier than I feared, though it did take me a while to get organised. Any of these pique your interest? Anything you’re looking forward to that you think I’d pounce on, based on these?

Tags: books, Top Ten Tuesday

Review – Twilight Falls

Posted January 8, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Twilight Falls

by Juneau Black

Genres: Crime, Fantasy, Mystery
Pages: 240
Series: Shady Hollow #4
Rating: four-stars

Synopsis:
It’s spring in Shady Hollow, and romance is in the air. Even reporter Vera Vixen is caught up in the season as her relationship with new police chief Orville Braun blossoms. But true love is not always smooth sailing, as two of the hollow’s young residents come to find. Jonah Atwater and Stasia von Beaverpelt find themselves battling their families in order to be together. And when Jonah’s father, Shelby, goes over the top of Twilight Falls, all signs point to Stasia being the murderer.

The evidence against Stasia appears overwhelming, and Orville arrests her. It looks like the case is closed, but Vera isn’t so sure. There are almost too many clues indicating Stasia is the killer, leading her to suspect someone is setting Stasia up. Besides, what about the mysterious ghostly creature skulking around town at night? Maybe he or she was involved? As Vera investigates further, her sleuthing puts her in direct opposition to Orville, and soon she’s stirred up a hornet’s nest of trouble.

Twilight Falls is the last of the Shady Hollow books by Juneau Black — for now. I’m sad, because it turned out to be exactly what I needed right now: quick reads that are light and sweet at heart, with characters that come alive just enough to carry the stories. Sometimes the characters or their relationships feel a little shallow, but sometimes it’s just a relief that the differences between Orville and Vera don’t lead to big schisms, and that there’s something gently forming between them, something that might last.

Once more, I found the resolution of the mystery really obvious: the hints come thick and fast, and it’s really the only thing that makes good sense of the evidence. There’s an attempt at a red herring, but it doesn’t work out too well (at least for my tastes).

It’s been nice to follow these books and realise that the characters are slowly changing, rather than it being a cosy little snowglobe where everything settles down a while after being shaken up. Esme and Stasia von Beaverpelt both grow and change in their own time, and even Orville’s learning that the Big Book of Policing may not contain all the answers (even if sometimes he finds it hard to accept Vera’s input).

As with the others, highly enjoyable — and I’ll get the new one when it comes out, like a shot.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, crime, Juneau Black, mystery, SF/F

Review – Tickets for the Ark

Posted January 7, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Tickets for the Ark: From Wasps to Whales - How Do We Choose What to Save?

by Rebecca Nesbit

Genres: Non-fiction, Science
Pages: 256
Rating: three-stars

Synopsis:
Our planet hasn't seen the current rate of extinction since the demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, and global conservation efforts are failing to halt this. As a society, we face choices which will determine the fate of Earth's estimated 8.7 million species, including humans. As wildlife declines, conservation needs to make trade-offs. But what should we conserve and why?

Are we wrong to love bees and hate wasps? Are native species more valuable than newcomers (aka invasives)? Should some animals be culled to protect others, and what do we want the 'natural world' to look like? There are many surprising answers in Rebecca Nesbit's lively, stimulating book, which sows the seeds of a debate we urgently need to have.

Rebecca Nesbit’s Tickets for the Ark attempts to be somewhat nuanced about the topic of conservation, and to dig into why we want to save the creatures we want to save — and why we might want to save other animals instead. It’s not always obvious that we might want to save parasites, but we know little about some parasites, and little about what advantages they might offer taken as part of a whole ecosystem. Nesbit also talks about what we define as “wild” vs “domesticated”, how our responsibilities differ between the two, and how much responsibility we might want to or need to take for animals in rewilding projects.

That’s just a taster of the various dilemmas she serves up, but hopefully it gives an idea of the gist of the book. I appreciate that she recognises the potential role of animals that people don’t like — wasps, including parasitic wasps, and other ectoparasites like lice — and the issue that it’s very difficult to decide what counts as a “native” plant. All cut-offs are artificial, and do we really want to roll back time? Maybe we need a new normal?

None of it came as a surprise to me, since it’s a topic I’ve thought about a fair bit, but it’s an attempt at nuance in a world that sometimes lacks it, and I appreciated that. It was a slower read than I expected, but full of helpful context that can get a layperson properly interested and involved in the hypotheticals.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, non-fiction, Rebecca Nesbit, science

Review – Dragons’ Teeth and Thunderstones

Posted January 6, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Dragons' Teeth and Thunderstones: The Quest for the Meaning of Fossils

by Ken McNamara

Genres: History, Non-fiction, Science
Pages: 288
Rating: two-stars

Synopsis:
For at least half a million years, people have been doing some very strange things with fossils. Long before a few seventeenth-century minds started to decipher their true, organic nature, fossils had been eaten, dropped in goblets of wine, buried with the dead, and adorned bodies. What triggered such curious behavior was the belief that some fossils could cure illness, protect against being poisoned, ease the passage into the afterlife, ward off evil spirits, and even kill those who were just plain annoying. But above all, to our early prehistoric ancestors, fossils were the very stuff of artistic inspiration.

Drawing on archaeology, mythology, and folklore, Ken McNamara takes us on a journey through prehistory with these curious stones, and he explores humankind's unending quest for the meaning of fossils.

Ken McNamara’s Dragons’ Teeth and Thunderstones is basically a history of how people have related to and understood fossils, how they’ve used them and appreciated them, and the things we’ve believed about them. He discusses a lot of different superstitions, and bits of evidence about how ancient peoples thought about fossils; I’m not always convinced, particularly about the one where the dead five-armed starfish-like creature looks like a human, especially with a hole between its legs. Seems like wishful thinking to me.

In the end it’s an interesting survey, best when McNamara keeps his theories out of it (I’m not sure how wide the agreement is about things like “obviously that was viewed as a human”, but it doesn’t convince me anyway). It has some illustrations so you can see what he’s referring to, though they’re in black and white, so can be a little muddy.

Adrienne Mayor’s books might also be interesting to people who are tantalised by these ideas, particularly The First Fossil Hunters. McNamara spends a lot of time looking a bit further back in the past, beyond the point where we can refer to literature with our questions.

Rating: 2/5

Tags: book reviews, books, history, Ken McNamara, non-fiction, science

Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted January 6, 2024 by Nicky in General / 40 Comments

Welcome to 2024! Has it started out well for you?

As usual, I’m linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, and the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz.

New books acquired:

Last week I showed off my nerdy FFXIV books and the fiction books I got for Christmas. Now for the non-fiction!

It’s a bit of a mix of topics, as ever — just as I like it!

And in addition, I have some new books to review from authors I’ve loved in the past:

Which I’m obviously excited for! Thanks so much to Rebellion, Hodder & Stoughton and Tordotcom for these. I’ll probably dive into The Brides of High Hill first, because I really love this series and the books are quite short. I’m really trying to stay on top of Netgalley copies and read them quickly, this year…

Posts from this week:

It’s been a busy week again on the blog, so here’s a little recap of the reviews posted:

Silent Nights, edited by Martin Edwards (3/5 stars)
A Trace of Copper, by Anne Renwick (2/5 stars)
Who Killed the Curate? by Joan Coggin (1/5 stars)
A Surprise for Christmas, edited by Martin Edwards (3/5 stars)
Final Fantasy XIV Heavensward: The Art of Ishgard – Stone and Steel (5/5 stars)
An Unnatural Life, by Erin K. Wagner (3/5 stars)
Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots, by Cat Sebastian (4/5 stars)

And a couple of non-review posts:

As a quick update on the latter post, I’ve now removed all my posts from the schedule so they’re all being manually published, which means emails should work. If you have any idea what might be going wrong/how to fix it, my friend Adam’s got a post up on the Jetpack forum asking about it.

What I’m reading:

First off, here’s what I’ve been reading that’s coming up in reviews in the next few weeks…

As for the weekend, I’ve started reading Kelly and Zack Weinersmith’s A City on Mars, which pours cold water on the idea that we’re pretty much ready to have colonies on Mars (though it’s not that they want to be killjoys). I’m enjoying that so far, but I’ll probably mix in a little fiction, and maybe read something that checks off a square on my bingo card for the BookSpin challenge over on Litsy.

So that’s my updates! How’s everyone doing? Has 2024 started well for you? Read anything amazing yet?

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup

Review – Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots

Posted January 5, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots

by Cat Sebastian

Genres: Romance
Pages: 244
Rating: four-stars

Synopsis:
Daniel Cabot doesn’t really know what he’s doing with his life. He’s lost faith in himself, his future, and maybe the world. The only things he knows that he cares about are the garden in the empty lot next to his crumbling East Village apartment building and his best friend.

Alex Savchenko has always known that he’s…difficult. Prickly, maybe, if you’re feeling generous. But maybe that’s the kind of personality it takes to start a low-income pediatrics clinic in one of Manhattan’s most troubled neighborhoods. When Daniel stumbles into his life, Alex doesn’t expect him to stay—most people don’t. And when Alex develops useless, inconvenient feelings for his new friend, he does what he’s always done, and tells himself that he isn’t feeling anything at all.

Daniel, though, has always worn his heart on his sleeve, and he isn’t stopping now.
Sometimes when things seem to be falling apart, it means there’s room for something incredible to grow.

Cat Sebastian’s Cabot books have proved a favourite lately, but I think Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots might be my favourite of the bunch.

Daniel and Alex are both far from perfect humans, and their friendship might not always make sense to outsiders — Daniel spends a lot of time handling Alex, reading his mood and figuring out what he needs, whether it’s space for himself or a steady routine or a little extra companionship. That’s part of why their friendship works: Alex isn’t neurotypical, and a lot of things don’t make sense to him, and he finds most people impossible, but Daniel’s found a way to work with that, and the love between them is always there, even before they start moving toward a romantic relationship. Everyone takes them for a couple, and they more or less are.

The book follows their step-by-step evolution toward being the kind of couple who have sex, the kind of couple who plan based on knowing the other is there and is always going to be there, and that’s a huge deal for both of them. There’s lots of communication and an acknowledgement that their relationship doesn’t have to look like that of other people in order to be valid and important and absolutely central to them.

If I have one criticism, it’s that we spend an awful lot of the book on Alex’s needs. Here and there we see acknowledgements of Daniel’s needs, but it’s not so explicitly stated, and that can leave it feeling a touch imbalanced. It’s plain that Daniel doesn’t mind and he considers his needs to be met, but it still left me wondering a little.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Cat Sebastian, queer fiction, romance

Review – An Unnatural Life

Posted January 4, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

An Unnatural Life

by Erin K. Wagner

Genres: Science Fiction
Pages: 192
Rating: three-stars

Synopsis:
The cybernetic organism known as 812-3 is in prison, convicted of murdering a human worker but he claims that he did not do it. With the evidence stacked against him, his lawyer, Aiya Ritsehrer, must determine grounds for an appeal and uncover the true facts of the case.

But with artificial life-forms having only recently been awarded legal rights on Earth, the military complex on Europa is resistant to the implementation of these same rights on the Jovian moon.

Aiya must battle against her own prejudices and that of her new paymasters, to secure a fair trial for her charge, while navigating her own interpersonal drama, before it's too late.

I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

It’d be easy to dismiss Erin K. Wagner’s An Unnatural Life as being a simple allegory for racism, and there are definitely elements there drawn a bit too straightforwardly from that (invented slurs such as “robot-lover” are a bit obvious, as is the mob that gathers outside Aiya’s home when she chooses to be 812-3’s legal representative). But I think it’s a little more than that, because we also have the issues of free will and responsibility, of whether 812-3 was in love with a human or whether he was compelled/manipulated to believe he was, of whether his actions were his own or compelled, and where the difference comes in.

The author talks on her website about being interested in “how the human responds to the nonhuman, artificial, supernatural, or otherwise”, and this book comes directly out of that. It’s hardly a mere retelling of To Kill a Mockingbird set in space, because Aiya’s far from being Atticus for quite a few reasons — and there is no wide-eyed innocent Scout being disillusioned here.

It ends unsettlingly, unresolved, in a way that’s sticking with me. It does feel like the journal inserts weren’t quite tied in with the rest — thematically they made sense, but it feels like a whole story going on there that didn’t quite join up. The mood is melancholy, in the midst of what could’ve been a triumph. I definitely found it an interesting read.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Erin K. Wagner, SF/F