Angieville

I feel a bit giddy finally talking to you all about this series. If you'll remember, I fell madly in love with The Q  when it came out a few years ago. Now, Beth Brower is writing The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion — a series of novellas set in London in 1883. Each volume is an excerpt from the incorrigible Emma's journals, and the first two volumes are already available with the third on the way soon. I think they'd make rather perfect pandemic reading. Humorous and charming down to their bones, they're just what the doctor ordered to lift your spirits in this uncertain time that just proves to be too much some days. If you're experiencing one of those days, I suggest giving Volume 1   a go (it's only 99 cents on Kindle, $4.99 for a trade paperback copy). It will surprise exactly none of you that I own print and digital editions of both volumes.  Miss Emma M. Lion has waited long enough. Come hell or high water (and really, given her track record,  both a...

The moral of this story is that it has been far too long since I read a Gail Carriger book. I discovered her back when her debut novel Soulless first came out and thought it was perfectly delightful. I read the next couple of Parasol Protectorate novels and then sort of lost my way a bit. I've always rather wanted to return and, my word, has she been prolific in the intervening years. When I began hearing happy rumblings about this first installment in a new series of novellas set in the same familiar world, it felt like the perfect time to jump back in and test the waters. Faith Wigglesworth (I know) has been exiled to London and ordered to find herself a werewolf husband posthaste. Her family appears to view such a fate as merely her just desserts for the scandal she caused them back home in Boston. Faith remembers the story a trifle differently. But she is nothing if not relieved to be an ocean away from her less-than-loving family and not at all opposed to a werewolf spou...

You guys. I've been waiting to fall this year. I've been waiting for that first review (embarrassingly late, I know) to need to be written. I've been reading and reading. And I've really liked a number of things (reviews on those to come, promise). But the night before last I fell into a book that filled me up in just the way I needed to kick me into gear to talk about it. Which is good, because you'll want to pick this one up.  His Road Home by Anna Richland is a contemporary novella that I wished was twice as long as it was because I didn't want to be separated from the characters and their compelling situation by its ending. Happily, according to Richland's acknowledgments at the end, we may have a sequel to look forward to in the near future. This is my first outing with Ms. Richlands writing, and I picked it up based on my trusty Chachic 's rating over on GoodReads. Grace Kim's fairly straightforward (very quiet) life is thrown into rather...

So we'll just agree to go into this review knowing that I really enjoyed   Rosamund Hodge 's debut novel Cruel Beauty , shall we? In general, fairy tale/Greek mythology mash-ups complete with lovely words are welcome in these parts. And so I confess I was excited but just a little bit sad when I found out the next entry in the world would be a novella. Give me all the pages, please. But. It was to be a Cinderella retelling set in the same world and, as that was clearly awesome, I resolved to take what I could get and be grateful for it. I like this cover, although it's a bit bland for my taste and doesn't inspire quite the same swirling dread as the cover of Cruel Beauty.  I do like what they're doing with the stairs. I think I might have liked a hint of Maia somewhere in there to humanize things. And, as it happens, there is a whole heaping helping of dread in this little book, so something more sinister would have worked splendidly. But, as I said, take what I ...

Last year I read my very first ever Christmas novellas and shocked myself at how much I enjoyed them. I mean I read a few duds, sure, but I read some real gems as well. And so a couple of weeks ago I found myself eagerly looking forward to rereading a couple of my favorites this holiday season as well as hopefully discovering a few new ones. Happily, the very first new one I read proved to be a home run. I kind of knew it would be, given how much I loved Mary Ann Rivers ' debut novella The Story Guy  earlier this year. When I heard her next book was a Christmas novella in the Heating up the Holidays anthology, I snatched it up the day it released and snuggled up with my Nook for a little pre-holiday reading. I hadn't read any works by the other two authors in the collection (I actually still haven't read their contributions, though I plan on it at some point), but I can tell you the ebook bundle is utterly worth it for Rivers' story alone. Jenny Wright was diagnos...

Those of you who follow me on Twitter know that my latest obsession is Ruthie Knox 's serial novel Truly . For those of you who haven't heard, Truly is a contemporary romance available in serialized form for free right now via Wattpad . A handful of new chapters are uploaded every Monday, between September 3rd and November 4th. The whole thing is very wonderful and agonizing what with the story being mesmerizing and involving (among other things) one cantankerous rooftop beekeeper, one gal who stabs her fiancé  in the hand with a fork, and one surprisingly sensuous taco dinner . The first 16 chapters are already up and waiting for you to devour them. In the meantime, please welcome one of my favorite discoveries of the year — R uthie Knox! First things first: I am accustomed  to being able to devour your latest book in a single night if I so choose. This having to wait a week in between installments of Truly is killing me by inches. What sadistic urge made you opt to relea...

I can thank the ever-reliable Carolyn Crane for inspiring me to track down an advanced copy of this one. I read her mini-review on Goodreads and was seriously sold. She said it was romantic, smart, and full of "character mysteries," a term I had never even really thought of before but that I instantly got and loved. So it was Carolyn's review and the following little teaser line from the novella that piqued my interest: I will meet you on Wednesdays at noon in Celebration Park. Kissing only. Um, yes. Yes, please. Shades of Ruthie Knox 's Big Boy began to drift over me (Knox actually blurbed this one). And we all know how I felt about that little bit of perfection . So basically at that point nothing--but nothing--was keeping me from giving Mary Ann Rivers ' debut novella a shot. Carrie had a minor existential meltdown at work. Just a minor one. It involved her supervisor (and friend) at the library offhandedly remarking that an Alaskan cruise with Carrie...

I . . . I am just not going to be able to pull off being at all dignified about this book. I couldn't possibly manage it and, what's more, I am not the least bit interested in trying. Because this book is so good it makes my teeth hurt. And I just wasn't expecting teeth-hurting goodness, you know? I was expecting a bit of fun, an engaging evening. It's a novella , for crying out loud! How much awesome can Ruthie Knox pack into 66 pages? Honestly. I should just stop asking myself that question. It doesn't even signify anymore in a world of Courtney Milan and Ruthie Knox novellas. I read Knox's How to Misbehave novella not long back and thought it was extremely cute. And so when I heard about this Strangers on a Train compilation, I knew I'd be reading Knox's contribution for sure. If you're interested in the story behind the anthology, I highly recommend Knox's take on it here . I love reading about how authors come together behind a single...

This is the part where I tell you I have secretly become a Courtney Milan fangirl. That's right. I've been rather callously reading up a storm of Milan behind your backs. But it's okay. Because now I'm coming clean. The thing is, they're just so readily available for download to my Nook. And I had heard such positive feedback--kind of across the board. But more importantly, I love Milan's blog. I love it. She writes about things. About the industry and about her experience self-publishing after already establishing herself as a traditionally published author. Her take on writing and publishing is always incisive and insightful. So I was a regular reader of her blog long before I ever thought of picking up one of her books. That's actually not the first time I've found myself in such a situation. But in this case, it took quite awhile before I decided to go ahead and see if her fiction was as good as her non. So far I've only torn a path through he...