Death at Morning House

 Death at Morning House by Maureen Johnson                                     YA Mystery

(from Amazon)  The fire wasn’t Marlowe Wexler’s fault. Dates should be hot, but not hot enough to warrant literal firefighters. Akilah, the girl Marlowe has been in love with for years, will never go out with her again. No one dates an accidental arsonist.  With her house-sitting career up in flames, it seems the universe owes Marlowe a new summer job, and that’s how she ends up at Morning House, a mansion built on an island in the 1920s and abandoned shortly thereafter. It’s easy enough, giving tours. Low risk of fire. High chance of getting bored talking about stained glass and nut cutlets and Prohibition.  Oh, and the deaths. Did anyone mention the deaths?  Maybe this job isn’t such a gift after all. Morning House has a horrific secret that’s been buried for decades, and now the person who brought her here is missing.  All it takes is one clue to set off a catastrophic chain of events. One small detail, just like a spark, could burn it all down—if someone doesn’t bury Marlowe first.

(My Review)  Morning House has a history...of murder.  

Marlowe, seeking to escape an incident she was responsible for, becomes a tour guide at a historic house with a past of it's own.  She soon discovers it secrets (both recent and past), and tries to discover the answers before it's too late.  This was such a great read.  I loved the parallel timeline mysteries, that reminded me of Johnson's Truly Devious series.

How Can I Help You?

How Can I Help You?  by Laura Sims                             Mystery/Psychological Thriller

(from Amazon)  No one knows Margo’s real name. Her colleagues and patrons at a small-town public library know only her middle-aged normalcy, congeniality, and charm. They have no reason to suspect that she is, in fact, a former nurse with a trail of premature deaths in her wake. She has turned a new page, so to speak, and the library is her sanctuary, a place to quell old urges.  That is, at least, until Patricia, a recent graduate and failed novelist, joins the library staff. Patricia quickly notices Margo’s subtly sinister edge, and watches her carefully. When a tragic incident in the library bathroom gives her a hint of Margo’s mysterious past, Patricia can’t resist digging deeper—even as her new fixation becomes all-consuming and sends both women hurtling toward disaster.  Chilling, incisive, and darkly humorous, How Can I Help You is a propulsive work of psychological suspense that asks how far we might go to justify our most monstrous desires.

(My Review) This book was wild!  The story was told from two point of views.  Margo has been working at the library for two years, when they hire Patricia as the new Reference Librarian.  Both have secrets.  This book was deliciously evil. 

Such Charming Liars

Such Charming Liars by Karen M. McManus                               YA Mystery

(from Amazon)  For all of Kat’s life, it’s just been her and her mother, Jamie—except for the forty-eight hours when Jamie was married and Kat had a stepbrother, Liam. That all ended in an epic divorce, and Kat and Liam haven’t spoken since.  Now Jamie is a jewel thief trying to go straight, but she has one last job—at billionaire Ross Sutherland’s birthday party. And Kat has figured out a way to tag along. What Kat doesn’t know, though, is that there are two surprise guests at the dazzling Sutherland compound that weekend. The last two people she wants to run into. Liam and his father—a serial scammer who has his sights set on Ross Sutherland’s youngest daughter.  Kat and Liam are on a collision course to disaster, and when a Sutherland dies, they realize they might actually be in the killer’s crosshairs themselves. Somehow Kat and Liam are the new targets, and they can’t trust anyone—except each other.  Or can they? Because if there’s one thing both Kat and Liam know, it’s how to lie. They learned from the best.

(My Review)  Another solid mystery from Karen M. McManus.  Kat accompanies her mom (who is a jewelry thief), on a weekend heist.  When her mom becomes sick, Kat has to take over and get caught up in a web of chaos, that they might not escape from.   

Wilder Girls

 Wilder Girls by Rory Power                                                   Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction

(from Amazon)  It's been eighteen months since the Raxter School for Girls was put under quarantine. Since the Tox hit and pulled Hetty's life out from under her.It started slow. First the teachers died one by one. Then it began to infect the students, turning their bodies strange and foreign. Now, cut off from the rest of the world and left to fend for themselves on their island   home, the girls don't dare wander outside the school's fence, where the Tox has made the woods wild and dangerous. They wait for the cure they were promised as the Tox seeps into everything.  But when Byatt goes missing, Hetty will do anything to find her, even if it means breaking quarantine and braving the horrors that lie beyond the fence. And when she does, Hetty learns that there's more to their story, to their life at Raxter, than she could have ever thought true.

(My Review)  Students at a secluded private school are quarantined because they are starting to suffer horrific physical changes.  Being isolated on an island, the government sends them supplies to keep alive, but they are sending them barely enough to keep alive.  When her friend goes missing, Hetty goes searching for her and learns things are not quite as they seem.  I thought this story was creative and interesting.

Bright Young Women

 Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll                               Mystery Thriller/Historical Fiction

(from Amazon)  January 1978. A serial killer has terrorized women across the Pacific Northwest, but his existence couldn’t be further from the minds of the vibrant young women at the top sorority on Florida State University’s campus in Tallahassee. Tonight is a night of promise, excitement, and desire, but Pamela Schumacher, president of the sorority, makes the unpopular decision to stay home—a decision that unwittingly saves her life. Startled awake at 3 a.m. by a strange sound, she makes the fateful decision to investigate. What she finds behind the door is a scene of implausible violence—two of her sisters dead; two others, maimed. Over the next few days, Pamela is thrust into a terrifying mystery inspired by the crime that’s captivated public interest for more than four decades.  On the other side of the country, Tina Cannon has found peace in Seattle after years of hardship. A chance encounter brings twenty-five-year-old Ruth Wachowsky into her life, a young woman with painful secrets of her own, and the two form an instant connection. When Ruth goes missing from Lake Sammamish State Park in broad daylight, surrounded by thousands of beachgoers on a beautiful summer day, Tina devotes herself to finding out what happened to her. When she hears about the tragedy in Tallahassee, she knows it’s the man the papers refer to as the All-American Sex Killer. Determined to make him answer for what he did to Ruth, she travels to Florida on a collision course with Pamela—and one last impending tragedy.  Bright Young Women is the story about two women from opposite sides of the country who become sisters in their fervent pursuit of the truth. It proposes a new narrative inspired by evidence that’s been glossed over for decades in favor of more salable headlines—that the so-called brilliant and charismatic serial killer from Seattle was far more average than the countless books, movies, and primetime specials have led us to believe, and that it was the women whose lives he cut short who were the exceptional ones.

(My Review)  Wow!  This book at times, hard to read, but so good.  There is such a interest in true crime, and a fascination with serial killers.  I know that I am guilty of watching/reading my share of true crime books/documentaries.  However, it was after watching a Netflix series on Jeffrey Dahmer, that I started to feel uncomfortable with my fascination - it was focused on the victims.  After watching, I felt very different about viewing this genre as "entertainment".  It is hard to focus on them without thinking about how the survivors and victim's families feel.  I think that is what I found so intriguing about this book.  It follows the survivors of the target of a serial killer.  In the book, it was interesting how the author points out how the language around the suspect is so positive, as opposed to how the victims are treated.  

Before She Was Found

 Before She Was Found by Heather Gudenkauf                                 Psychological Thriller

(from Amazon) For twelve-year-old Cora Landry and her friends Violet and Jordyn, it was supposed to be an ordinary sleepover--movies and Ouija and talking about boys. But when they decide to sneak out to go to the abandoned rail yard on the outskirts of town, little do they know that their innocent games will have dangerous consequences.  Later that night, Cora Landry is discovered on the tracks, bloody and clinging to life, her friends nowhere to be found. Soon their small rural town is thrust into a maelstrom. Who would want to hurt a young girl like Cora--and why? In an investigation that leaves no stone unturned, everyone is a suspect and no one can be trusted--not even those closest to Cora.  Before She Was Found is a timely and gripping thriller about friendship and betrayal, about the power of social pressure and the price of needing to fit in. It is about the great lengths a parent will go to protect their child and keep them safe--even if that means burying the truth, no matter the cost.

(My Review)  This is a story of friendship, bullying, and catfishing.  Three 12-year-old girls meet late at night, one gets beaten, almost to death.  Was it one of the girls?  Was it someone else?  What happened that night?  This was a very engaging read.

That's Not My Name

 That's Not My Name by Megan Lally                                    Teen & YA Mystery/Thriller

(from Amazon) She thought she had her life back. She was wrong. It was a mistake to trust him.  Shivering and bruised, a teen wakes up on the side of a dirt road with no memory of how she got there―or who she is. A passing officer takes her to the police station, and not long after, a frantic man arrives. He's been searching for her for hours. He has her school ID, her birth certificate, and even family photos. He is her father. Her name is Mary. Or so he says.  When Lola slammed the car door and stormed off into the night, Drew thought they just needed some time to cool off. Except Lola disappeared, and the sheriff, his friends, and the whole town are convinced Drew murdered his girlfriend. Forget proving his innocence, he needs to find her before it's too late. The longer Lola is missing, the fewer leads there are to follow…and the more danger they both are in.

(My Review)  This was a fast-paced thriller.  This story keeps you on the edge of your seat from the very beginning all the way until the end.

Wildflower

 Wildflower by Drew Barrymore                                          Memoir

(from Amazon) Wildflower is a portrait of Drew's life in stories as she looks back on the adventures, challenges, and incredible experiences she’s had throughout her life. It includes tales of living in her first apartment as a teenager (and how laundry may have saved her life), getting stuck under a gas station overhang on a cross-country road trip, saying good-bye to her father in a way only he could have understood, and many more journeys and lessons that have led her to the successful, happy, and healthy place she is today.

(My Review)  

I listened to the audiobook of this (narrated by Drew Barrymore), and found it delightful.  It is not a straight biography, but little excerpts from her life.  

The September House

 The September House by Carissa Orlando                              Horror/Thriller/Paranormal/Mystery

(from Goodreads)  A woman is determined to stay in her dream home even after it becomes a haunted nightmare in this compulsively readable, twisty, and layered debut novel.  When Margaret and her husband Hal bought the large Victorian house on Hawthorn Street—for sale at a surprisingly reasonable price—they couldn’t believe they finally had a home of their own. Then they discovered the hauntings. Every September, the walls drip blood. The ghosts of former inhabitants appear, and all of them are terrified of something that lurks in the basement. Most people would flee.  Margaret is not most people.  Margaret is staying. It’s her house. But after four years Hal can’t take it anymore, and he leaves abruptly. Now, he’s not returning calls, and their daughter Katherine—who knows nothing about the hauntings—arrives, intent on looking for her missing father. To make things worse, September has just begun, and with every attempt Margaret and Katherine make at finding Hal, the hauntings grow more harrowing, because there are some secrets the house needs to keep.

(My Review)  Hal and Margaret move into their dream house for their retirement, but things are not as they seem.  They soon learn the house is haunted, especially in the month of September.  Their daughter, Katherine, comes to visit (in September) to find her father missing.  As she tries to figure out where is he is, she tries to unravel the mystery of the house.  Is the house haunted, or is her mother suffering from a mental illness?  I found this book interesting.  It was part spooky, part Haunted Mansion, part family drama.  I would definitely recommend it.

Starling House

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow                            Fantasy/Horror/Gothic/Fiction

(from Goodreads) Eden, Kentucky, is just another dying, bad-luck town, known only for the legend of E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth-century author and illustrator who wrote The Underland--and disappeared. Before she vanished, Starling House appeared. But everyone agrees that it’s best to let the uncanny house―and its last lonely heir, Arthur Starling―go to rot.  Opal knows better than to mess with haunted houses or brooding men, but an unexpected job offer might be a chance to get her brother out of Eden. Too quickly, though, Starling House starts to feel dangerously like something she’s never had: a home.  As sinister forces converge on Starling House, Opal and Arthur are going to have to make a dire choice to dig up the buried secrets of the past and confront their own fears, or let Eden be taken over by literal nightmares. If Opal wants a home, she’ll have to fight for it.

 (My Review)

This was so atmospheric.  If you want dark academia, this is the book for you.  Opal goes to work in the haunted mansion of the author of her favorite book, which is now inhabited by Arthur Starling.  Together, they fight supernatural forces threatening the house.  I really enjoyed the relationship between Opal and Author - it gave me Beauty and the Beast vibes.  It also kinda reminded me of Ninth House.  

Shark Heart: A Love Story

 Shark Heart:  A Love Story by Emily Habeck                Literary Fiction/Magical Realism/Fantasy

(from Goodreads)  Newlyweds face the unimaginable in this epic tale about marriage, motherhood, and enduring love.  For Lewis and Wren, their first year of marriage is also their last. A few weeks after their wedding, Lewis receives a rare diagnosis. He will retain most of his consciousness, memories, and intellect, but his physical body will gradually turn into a great white shark. As Lewis develops the features and impulses of one of the most predatory creatures in the ocean, his complicated artist’s heart struggles to make peace with his unfulfilled dreams.  At first, Wren internally resists her husband’s fate. Is there a way for them to be together after Lewis changes? Then, a glimpse of Lewis’s developing carnivorous nature activates long-repressed memories for Wren, whose story vacillates between her childhood living on a houseboat in Oklahoma, her time with a college ex-girlfriend, and her unusual friendship with a woman pregnant with twin birds. Woven throughout this bold novel is the story of Wren’s mother, Angela, who becomes pregnant with Wren at fifteen in an abusive relationship amidst her parents’ crumbling marriage. In the present, all of Wren’s grief eventually collides, and she is forced to make an impossible choice.  A sweeping love story that is at once lyrical and funny, airy and visceral, Shark Heart is an unforgettable, gorgeous novel about life’s perennial questions, the fragility of memories, finding joy amidst grief, and creating a meaningful life. This daring debut marks the arrival of a wildly talented new writer abounding with originality, humor, and heart.

(My Review)

I've never read a book like this before.  Falling in love and getting married is hard enough, but what if you find out that he is going to turn into a great white shark?  This is a beautiful story of the dramatic journey this couple takes during their first year of marriage.

In the Lives of Puppets

In the Lives of Puppets by T.J. Klune                                      Fantasy/SciFi/Fiction/LGBTQ+

(from Goodreads)  In a strange little home built into the branches of a grove of trees live three robots – fatherly inventor android Giovanni Lawson, a pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, and a small vacuum desperate for love and attention. Victor Lawson, a human, lives there too. They’re a family, hidden and safe.  The day Vic salvages and repairs an unfamiliar android labelled ‘HAP’, he learns of a shared dark past between Hap and Gio – a past spent hunting humans.  When Hap unwittingly alerts robots from Gio’s former life to their whereabouts, the family is no longer hidden and safe. Gio is captured and taken back to his old laboratory in the City of Electric Dreams. So together, the rest of Vic’s assembled family must journey across an unforgiving and otherworldly country to rescue Gio from decommission, or worse, reprogramming.  Along the way to save Gio, amid conflicted feelings of betrayal and affection for Hap, Vic must decide for can he accept love with strings attached?

(My Review)

This book was so delightful!  Vic, a human, lives with in a family of robots, including an inventor who collects broken robots.  Vic secretly repairs an android, Hap, and to learn more of his past (or to escape from it) they set off on an adventure.  This was a beautiful little retelling of Pinocchio, with hints of Frankenstein and Wall-E.  The characters was so lovely, and at times I found myself laughing out loud.  I loved the found-family aspect of this story. This was by the same author as The House in the Cerulean Sea which I also recommend.

The Invited

 The Invited by Jennifer McMahon                                       Ghost Mystery/Suspense

(from Amazon)  In a quest for a simpler life, Helen and Nate have abandoned the comforts of suburbia to take up residence on forty-four acres of rural land where they will begin the ultimate, aspirational do-it-yourself project: building the house of their dreams. When they discover that this beautiful property has a dark and violent past, Helen, a former history teacher, becomes consumed by the local legend of Hattie Breckenridge, a woman who lived and died there a century ago. With her passion for artifacts, Helen finds special materials to incorporate into the house--a beam from an old schoolroom, bricks from a mill, a mantel from a farmhouse--objects that draw her deeper into the story of Hattie and her descendants, three generations of Breckenridge women, each of whom died suspiciously. As the building project progresses, the house will become a place of menace and unfinished business: a new home, now haunted, that beckons its owners and their neighbors toward unimaginable danger.

(My Review)

This was a seriously spooky book. It was a great story, but it dragged a bit, but it was really worth it at the end.

Holly

Holly by Stephen King                                        Psychological Thriller/Horror

(from Amazon)  Stephen King’s Holly marks the triumphant return of beloved King character Holly Gibney. Audiences have witnessed Holly’s gradual transformation from a shy (but also brave and ethical) recluse in Mr. Mercedes to Bill Hodges’s partner in Finders Keepers to a full-fledged, smart, and occasionally tough private detective in The Outsider. In King’s new novel, Holly is on her own, and up against a pair of unimaginably depraved and brilliantly disguised adversaries.  When Penny Dahl calls the Finders Keepers detective agency hoping for help locating her missing daughter, Holly is reluctant to accept the case. Her partner, Pete, has Covid. Her (very complicated) mother has just died. And Holly is meant to be on leave. But something in Penny Dahl’s desperate voice makes it impossible for Holly to turn her down.  Mere blocks from where Bonnie Dahl disappeared live Professors Rodney and Emily Harris. They are the picture of bourgeois respectability: married octogenarians, devoted to each other, and semi-retired lifelong academics. But they are harboring an unholy secret in the basement of their well-kept, book-lined home, one that may be related to Bonnie’s disappearance. And it will prove nearly impossible to discover what they are up to: they are savvy, they are patient, and they are ruthless.  Holly must summon all her formidable talents to outthink and outmaneuver the shockingly twisted professors in this chilling new masterwork from Stephen King.

(My Review)  

First of all, I did not know this was a part of a series - although I did read "The Outsider" (they had completely different feels).  However, it did not affect my reading of this book.  I loved this!  This was probably one of the best Stephen King I have ever read, and I definitely want to go back and read the other Holly Gibney book.  I felt it was a bit different from other King books I've read, in that it was more thriller and less supernatural (even from the first Holly Gibney book).  It was a solid thriller, and even though you know who the evil-doers are, the suspense is held all the way to end.

You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight

 You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron                          YA Horror

(from Amazon)  Charity has the summer job of her dreams, playing the “final girl” at Camp Mirror Lake. Guests pay to be scared in this full-contact terror game, as Charity and her summer crew recreate scenes from a classic slasher film, The Curse of Camp Mirror Lake. The more realistic the fear, the better for business.    But the last weekend of the season, Charity’s co-workers begin disappearing. And when one ends up dead, Charity’s role as the final girl suddenly becomes all too real. If Charity and her girlfriend Bezi hope to survive the night, they’ll need figure out what this killer is after. As they unravel the bloody history of the real Mirror Lake, Charity discovers that there may be more to the story than she ever suspected . . .

(My Review)  This was a fun, campy but scary read.  It had many of the classic horror movie/book themes (teens at a summer camp), that kept me reading.

Fourth Wing

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros                                            Fantasy, Action, Dragons

(from Amazon)  Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.  But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.  With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.  She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.  Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.  Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.    

(My Review)

This book has been wildly popular - and hard to get a copy of.  I felt it lived up to the hype.  Young Violet is well-suited for a life among scholars, but her life is turned upside down when she is summoned to join the "dragon riders".  As a "dragon rider" cadet, she faces many dangers, not just trying to bond and ride a dragon, but also from other cadets (due to who her mother is).  What Violet lacks in physicality, she excels in intelligence and quick thinking.  She even finds romance.  

Yellowface

Yellowface by R. F. Kuang                                                  Asian American Literary Fiction

(from Amazon)  Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars. But Athena’s a literary darling. June Hayward is literally nobody. Who wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks.

So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I.

So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.

But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

(My Review)

June is a struggling author, who makes a life-changing decision when her successful-author friend, Athena Liu, dies in her presence, along with a manuscript she has just completed.  June decides to re-edit it, and claim it as her own.  This satire is such an interesting discussion of authorship, plagiarism, and representation. Interesting read.

 

Warrior Girl Unearthed

Warrior Girl Unearthed (The Firekeeper's Daughter, Book 2) by Angeline Boulley     

                                                                                     Multicultural Thriller and Suspense for Teens

(from Amazon)  Perry Firekeeper-Birch was ready for her Summer of Slack but instead, after a fender bender that was entirely not her fault, she’s stuck working to pay back her Auntie Daunis for repairs to the Jeep.  Thankfully she has the other outcasts of the summer program, Team Misfit Toys, and even her twin sister Pauline. Together they ace obstacle courses, plan vigils for missing women in the community, and make sure summer doesn’t feel so lost after all.  But when she attends a meeting at a local university, Perry learns about the “Warrior Girl”, an ancestor whose bones and knife are stored in the museum archives, and everything changes. Perry has to return Warrior Girl to her tribe. Determined to help, she learns all she can about NAGPRA, the federal law that allows tribes to request the return of ancestral remains and sacred items. The university has been using legal loopholes to hold onto Warrior Girl and twelve other Anishinaabe ancestors’ remains, and Perry and the Misfits won’t let it go on any longer.  Using all of their skills and resources, the Misfits realize a heist is the only way to bring back the stolen artifacts and remains for good. But there is more to this repatriation than meets the eye as more women disappear and Pauline’s perfectionism takes a turn for the worse. As secrets and mysteries unfurl, Perry and the Misfits must fight to find a way to make things right–for the ancestors and for their community.                                   

(My Review)

Perry stumbles into an internship working in her tribe's museum, and begins to learn more about stolen artifacts and the struggles to repatriate tribal artifacts that have been stolen by private, and even by scholarly collectors for hundreds of years.  The author is excellent at introducing and even educating readers to important multicultural information, without feeling you are being lectured.  The story also covers the very real topic of the high rates of disappearance among indigenous women. The characters are real and engaging.  There is a suspenseful mystery and even romance.  This was an excellent sequel, but could definitely be read as a stand-alone.  

 

How to Survive Your Murder

 

How to Survive Your Murder by Danielle Valentine       YA Horror/Thriller/Mystery

(from Amazon)  Alice Lawrence is the sole witness in her sister’s murder trial.  And in the year since Claire’s death, Alice’s life has completely fallen apart. Her parents have gotten divorced, she’s moved into an apartment that smells like bologna, and she is being forced to face her sister’s killer and a courtroom full of people who doubt what she saw in the corn maze a year prior.  Claire was an all-American girl, beautiful and bubbly, and a theater star. Alice was a nerd who dreamed of becoming a forensic pathologist and would rather stay at home to watch her favorite horror movies than party. Despite their differences, they were bonded by sisterhood and were each other’s best friends.  Until Claire was taken away from her.  On the first day of the murder trial, as Alice prepares to give her testimony, she is knocked out by a Sidney Prescott look-alike in the courthouse bathroom. When she wakes up, it is Halloween night a year earlier, the same day Claire was murdered. Alice has until midnight to save her sister and find the real killer before he claims another victim.

(My Review)

This book was a big slasher mess.  It had elements from so many other stories I've read.  There were bits I found interesting and felt could really work, but I felt it just got lost in the....craziness of the story.  I wanted to like it.

Legends and Lattes

 

Legends and Lattes  by Travis Baldree                     Fantasy/LGTBQ+

(from Amazon)  Worn out after decades of packing steel and raising hell, Viv, the orc barbarian, cashes out of the warrior’s life with one final score. A forgotten legend, a fabled artifact, and an unreasonable amount of hope lead her to the streets of Thune, where she plans to open the first coffee shop the city has ever seen.  However, her dreams of a fresh start filling mugs instead of swinging swords are hardly a sure bet. Old frenemies and Thune’s shady underbelly may just upset her plans. To finally build something that will last, Viv will need some new partners, and a different kind of resolve.

(My Review)

This book was delightful!  It totally gave me Gilmore Girls vibes - if Stars Hollows was set in a world full of orcs, succubi and goblins.  It was just so cozy, with Viv, an orc, moving to a small town, wanting to open a coffee shop - no one has ever heard of coffee.  You are introduced to such a sweet cast of characters, the kind that make a small town so unique and quirky.  Of course, not all of the towns people are sweet.  I loved the sense of community, and relationships.