book reviews

Book Review: THIS KINGDOM WILL NOT KILL ME by Ilona Andrews

| Jessica Crawford

This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews is a 480 page first novel in a planned trilogy, published by Tor Books in 2026.

Genre

Fantasy

Description

Outlander meets Game of Thrones in this blockbuster new epic fantasy series from the #1 New York Times bestselling author duo Ilona Andrews.

When Maggie wakes up cold, filthy, and naked in a gutter, it doesn’t take her long to recognize Kair Toren, a city she knows intimately from the pages of the famously unfinished dark fantasy series she’s been obsessively reading and re-reading while waiting years for the final novel.

Her only tools for navigating this gritty world of rival warlords, magic, and mayhem? Her encyclopedic knowledge of the plot, the setting, and the characters’ ambitions and fates. But while she quickly discovers she cannot be killed (though many will try!), the same cannot be said for the living, breathing characters she’s coming to love—a motley band that includes a former lady’s maid, a deadly assassin, various outrageous magical creatures, and a dangerously appealing soldier. Soon, instead of trying to get home, she finds herself enmeshed in the schemes—and attentions—of dueling princes, dukes, and villains, all while trying to save them and the kingdom of Rellas from the way she knows their stories will end: in a cataclysmic war.

Opening Line

Rain drenched the city, cold and relentless.

My Thoughts

The premise of this book was so fun!

Imagine if a fan of the A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) series woke up one day IN the fantasy world of the books. Context makes it clear they are in the beginning of the first book, plotwise. They know the key players, they know the events that are to come, and they have the opportunity to try to alter the course of things. They could thwart the major villains and save their favorite characters from terrible fates!

This is what happens to Maggie, but in the world from her own favorite fantasy series. Throw in the fact that any time she dies in Rellas, she comes back to life. The author of her books never finished the series (another parallel to our example books…), and in fact he seems to have fallen off the face of the Earth. What in the world, real or fantasy, is going on here?!

Well, we won’t learn the answer to that question in this first installment, but this is a planned trilogy (hopefully to be completed one day!) On that note, though, be aware that this one does end in a way that will make you wish you had the next book already within your reach.

So this was a great story idea and I had a lot of fun reading it, but I also have to say that this is my first Ilona Andrews book and the writing, friends…well, it’s not great. It’s not terrible, but it’s not great.

One of my biggest gripes here is how they (wife and husband writing team) handle physical descriptions of characters. There are a lot of characters, and when each is first introduced, they are described in full detail in the following order: build, skin color, eye color, hair color, hair style, material and color of each and every visible item of clothing and accessory on their person. One scene featured three men entering a room, and the next four paragraphs are dedicated to listing these things off one by one for each of them. Since this happens ad nauseum, the descriptions themselves got a eyeroll-inducing as well. Three characters have sand colored skin (whichever sand that might be referring to), two with olive skin, one with dark tan skin, one with golden tan skin, one who was naturally pale but had acquired a permanent tan over the years (it doesn’t work that way), brown skin, dark brown skin, rich brown skin, russet skin, even and warm beige skin, beige skin with a peach undertone, and a deeper shade of beige skin with a cool undertone. Yikes.

Apparently Maggie pays very close attention to these details, because at one point she notes a person’s skin, hair, and eye color and immediately knows which character from the books it must be.

Other aspects of the story get infodumpy as well, as something crops up that Maggie already has full knowledge of from reading the story, and so the next few paragraphs will be an explanation of it all, like a character’s background and upbringing and the major events in their life that brought them to the point of their current attempts at political machinations, for example.

The details of the world itself also had me raising my eyebrows a bit, as it’s described as a pretty typical medieval fantasy setting, but has running faucets, lots of different types of paper, and Maggie mentions brushing her teeth (not rubbing them with powder). There’s also something weird about how they use the active voice that I can’t quite put my finger on.

To wrap up my (most major) complaints, it seemed like only one of two authors tried to interject humor in the form of referencing things like Homer Simpson backing into the bushes. Maybe it wasn’t just one of them, maybe they both added it as a reminder that our POV character is from our own modern world, but it only happened sparingly and so really stood out as not matching the overall vibe of the rest of the story. And also, I don’t think they did a great job with the romance in this book. It was very lackluster.

BUT, all that being said, nothing was egregious enough to prevent me from thoroughly enjoying the book! I do think it would benefit from some sort of character guide to reference while reading. I understand there are spoilery reasons why they can’t provide just a list of all characters, but at least something with the Great Families, their key members, and the family’s particular brand of magic would have been very helpful. This is a pretty hefty book, and by the end we saw characters brought up again one or two hundred pages after they were first introduced, and I had not recollection of who they were supposed to be.

Despite these complaints about the writing my final rating was only knocked down to 4.5 stars because I still had a ton of fun reading this story, and likely will read on in the series when the next book becomes available. Hopefully that won’t be too long of a wait!

Note: I started with the audiobook until I got my hands on the hardcover, and felt similarly about the narration as I did the writing technicals: not terrible, but not great either.

Book Review: THE CHILDREN by Melissa Albert

| Jessica Crawford
The Children by Melissa Albert is a 416 page standalone novel with a publish date of June 2, 2026

GENRE

Fantasy, Horror

DESCRIPTION

An intoxicating, haunting new novel from New York Times bestselling author Melissa Albert, in which the estranged adult children of a legendary author, written into their dead mother’s beloved fantasy series, contend with the vine-like creep of legacy, memory, and magic.

Guinevere Sharpe has two childhoods.

In one, she lives in the wooded shadow of her family’s isolated Vermont farmhouse; in the other, the pages of her mother’s world-famous Ninth City books, where her magical adventures have made her a household name. In reality, Guinevere’s childhood isn’t the enchanted idyll her mother’s readers imagine: she and her older brother are growing up near-feral, unwashed and underfed, escaping each day to the lichen-clotted woods they’ve made their playland. As Edith Sharpe’s books explode into epic popularity, the threats of a rural childhood give way to the escalating perils of fame—until the night it all goes up in flames, leaving Edith’s series unfinished and her children the sole survivors.

Now an adult coasting on her mother’s name, Guinevere is mid-promotion for a ghostwritten memoir when her estranged brother, an artist who has until now spurned his family’s legacy, announces an upcoming installation titled Mother. As rumors swirl around a death connected to his last show, unsettling recollections from Guinevere’s childhood begin to surface. Her public facade starts to crack, forcing her to confront the questions she’s spent the last twenty years running from: What really happened the night of the fire? And what dark history lies behind their mother’s creative genius?

Wise to the mythic weight childhood memories gather over time, The Children whispers to you from the hallway outside your bedroom, lights flickering as you turn the pages of a book that didn’t seem so scary a moment ago. It’s a story for anyone who’s ever revisited an old favorite and found it cast in a darker light, the line separating magic and memory blurring as the gap widens between the authors we imagined and the people they turn out to be.

OPENING LINE

Rain lashed the windows.

MY THOUGHTS

Wow, Melissa Albert really writes the most delicious dark fairytales!

This adult novel is fantasy with horror vibes. It alternates between two timelines, one of which is in the 1990s when Guin, her brother Ennis, and their parents lived at the Farmhouse in a rural area of Vermont. Their mother, Edith Sharpe, writes five books in a bestselling children’s fantasy series, using her own children’s names and likenesses as the main characters (without their consent, mind you). The home becomes a sort of bohemian commune where other artists of all stripes and talent levels show up and stay for indefinite lengths of time. Meanwhile, the children are left to their own devices (read as: neglected). There was supposed to be a sixth and final book in the Ninth City series, but a tragedy at the Farmhouse leaves the children orphans, and Edith never writes it.

The creeping dread just beneath the surface in this part of the story is masterful. Because there is something wrong with the Farmhouse. There are all the strange carvings, the poem etched into the wall, the stifling and uneasy room their mother writes in; and while none of the adults in their lives seem to pay the children much attention, it feels like they’re always being watched by…something.

The second timeline is current day, when adult Guin has taken on the mantle of mascot for the Ninth City series, and hasn’t spoken to her brother in years. Ennis has avoided and successfully evaded her ever since the night their parents died. But now it seems he is extending an invitation to Guin to come see his newest art instillation, titled Mother. Will it be a reunion or a reckoning? Will it reveal with any more clarity the events of the night of the fire?

Oh, this was such a fun read (as long as you appreciate talented writing giving you the heebie jeebies)! I confess I didn’t 100% understand all of the particulars revealed at the end, which was a bit unsatisfying, but the vibes were ON POINT and I am so excited to keep reading whatever Albert decides to write.

Goodreads

Book Review: AUNTIE HEROES (Raconteur Press Anthologies Book 74)

| Jessica Crawford

Auntie Heroes is a 252 page anthology published in April 2026 by Raconteur Press.

This is a fun collection of short stories featuring little old ladies as the heroes. After all, who suspects them, or bothers to give them much thought at all? Their perceived status in society allows them to get away with quite a lot, sometimes saving the day–whether that means through espionage, monster hunting, or stopping unwanted guests from crashing a wedding.

Several, but not all of the stories, feature sci-fi/fantasy elements. I found it to be a well-written bunch. Some of my favorites were Salon and Subversion by Tuvela Thomas, Walking the Beans by Rick Cutler, Calhoun Blood by D. S. Ligon, and The Squamous Among Us by Spearman Burke.

And once again, the artwork and illustrations by Cedar Sanderson added another level of delight to this anthology.

Book Review: HOMEBOUND by Portia Elan

| Jessica Crawford

Homebound by Portia Elan is a 304 page novel being published by Scribner on May 5, 2026.

Genre

Science Fiction, Cli-Fi

Blurb

Five interlocking lives. One beloved story. A dazzling adventure across centuries and continents in search of the things that hold us together.

It’s 1983 and Becks can’t wait to get the hell out of Cincinnati. She’s nineteen, blasting her Walkman, and hiding from the fact that her beloved uncle, the only person who understood her, is dead. But she has work to do: he left her a half-finished game to complete—one last collaboration to find her way out of loneliness.

Little does she know, what Becks is making will echo far into the future and shape the lives of a scientist, a sentient automaton, and a flinty sea captain in ways she cannot imagine. All are bound together by their search for connection—and by a futuristic traveler on a mysterious mission through space.

A novel about our deep interconnectedness, Homebound is a clear-eyed, hopeful adventure into humanity’s future and capacity for love.

Opening Line

I love the way a computer program doesn’t just describe something; it is the thing.

My Thoughts

A young woman grieving the death of her uncle in the 1980s takes up the mantle of completing the video game he left unfinished. 600 years in the future, their joint creation is still impacting lives.

This book felt like a cross between Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin with I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger (and maybe just a tad of Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovzky). It’s got video game development, androids, and a bleak future on Earth after climate crises. I appreciated the themes of loneliness versus connection and the power of stories. But I felt similarly about this book as I did those others: there were things I quite liked about all of them, but taken as a whole just weren’t a home run for this reader. I’m not sure if it’s because I failed to feel much of a connection with the characters, or if it was the format that didn’t work for me (two timelines, a gameplay log, and emails). But I do think there will be readers who it’s a perfect fit for, and I think especially anyone who enjoyed the other books mentioned above should consider picking this one up.

Thank you to Scribner and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my unbiased review.

Book Review: HOW TO BE OKAY WHEN NOTHING IS OKAY by Jenny Lawson

| Jessica Crawford

How to Be Okay When Nothing is Okay by Jenny Lawson is a 288 page book published by Penguin Life in March of 2026.

Genre:

Nonfiction, Self-Help, Humor

Description:

Warm, insightful, and witty, the first book of advice from New York Times bestselling author Jenny Lawson—aka the Bloggess

Jenny Lawson is full of contradictions. She’s a celebrated author but battles self-doubt, paralysis, and anxiety. She’s an award-winning humorist but struggles with treatment-resistant depression. The questions people most often ask her are, “How do you do it? How do you keep going even when it feels impossible? How do you keep creating?” This book is her answer.

In How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay, Jenny shares more than one hundred humorous, heartfelt, and genuine tools and tricks that she relies on to keep her going even when her brain isn’t working properly due to depression, anxiety, and ADHD. She also offers tips to stay passionate and focused on creative endeavors, especially when everything around you is saying to give up.

With chapters like “Wash Your Brain More Than You Wash Your Bra” (sleep, you beautiful human), “Working on Easy Mode Is Still Working” (asking for accommodations is okay!), “Celebrate Good Times, Come On!” (make it a habit to celebrate the good things), and many more, How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay is a balm and companion, reminding us all that we are not alone. It’s for anyone who struggles with self-doubt, guilt, motivation, and mental blocks and wants to rekindle their passion for creating. Funny, simple, empathetic, and full of hope, it will encourage you not to just survive but to find and curate joy in the face of difficult times.

My Thoughts:

While I have enjoyed Lawson’s other works (memoirs and coloring book) more, this collection of essays with actionable tips will be a wonderful resource to flip open during a bout of anxiety/depression/self-doubt/etc. It features her trademark humor sprinkled throughout discussions of serious topics. Oh, and her drawings, too!

I preordered my copy of this book from Nowhere Bookshop, the independent bookstore in San Antonio, Texas owned by the author herself. My version came signed with a page of silly stickers. Also a cutout of the delightfully absurd figure on the book’s cover, who is not quite the right shape to use as a bookmark, but who I employed in that way anyway since he brought me joy. I highlighted several lines and passages throughout the book—those that spoke to my own personal experiences, the ones with tips I think my children might possibly be able to make use of, and the ones that made me laugh.

If you have ever struggled with your mental wellbeing (probably everyone) and you like to laugh (hopefully most people), then you definitely need to check out Lawson’s work, even her social media pages. She is, as author John Scalzi says in his blurb for this book, an actual national treasure!

Book Review: HOW TO CHEAT YOUR OWN DEATH by Kristen Perrin

| Jessica Crawford

How to Cheat Your Own Death by Kristen Perrin is the third book in the Castle Knoll Files series of murder mysteries. It’s a 336 page novel to be published by Dutton on April 28, 2026.

Genre

Mystery

Description

From the gritty streets of 1960s Soho to the lofty galleries of present-day West London, two interlocking mysteries decades apart unfold in this latest instalment in the award-winning, New York Times bestselling Castle Knoll Murder Mystery series

Some secrets are deadlier than others

1968: Frances Adams is loving her new London life, and she’s stepped into a world of glamour thanks to her new friend, Vera Huntington–a magnetic socialite as mysterious as she is provocative. Vera dances around London like she owns it, taking Frances with her.

Present day: When Annie Adams heads to London to visit her famous artist mother, Laura, the last thing she expects to find is a dead body. Least of all for it to be Laura’s new protégée, left in an alley with her heart surgically removed from her chest.

Annie is no stranger to murder–after all, she’s solved a few already. And something about this case feels familiar. She’s read about one just like it in the journals of her late great aunt Frances, whose friend Vera was killed in the 1960s in the exact same way.

As Annie investigates, threats pile up on Laura’s doorstep, and it soon becomes clear that she’s next. With her mother’s life on the line, can Annie find the killer before it’s too late?

Opening Line

The neon lights of Soho bounced off the autumn puddles, their reflections half interrupted by the steady droplets of freezing rain.

My Thoughts

I think this was my favorite entry in the Castle Knoll Files so far!

Or, possibly, I now just have a greater appreciation for skilled writing and plots not riddled with holes when it comes to my reading of mysteries.

Either way, How to Cheat Your Own Death, book three in the series, is an engaging murder mystery that once again alternates between Annie Adams investigating with Rowan Crane in current times and the journal entries of her Great Aunt Frances that are tied to the case in some way. This one takes place in London, where Annie’s famous artist mother has welcomed her absent father back into their lives and has also taken on an apprentice in an uncharacteristic move. Laura Adams begins receiving threats in the form of animal hearts left on her doorstep, and then someone turns up murdered and dumped in her trash receptacle. As Annie and Crane work to figure out what happened, they also puzzle through what it might have to do with Frances’s history with a wealthy family in the 1960s, a murdered socialite, and a local art gallery.

I was intrigued with the threads of story around the paintings and Frances’s time as a university psychology student. There are some fascinating characters here, as well as some truly awful ones. There is also some movement on the romance front in this installment.

This book kept me up late to continue plowing through its pages to learn the truth. I will happily read any more that follow in the series!

My gratitude to Dutton and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Book Series Review: THE UNSELECTED JOURNALS OF EMMA M. LION by Beth Brower

| Jessica Crawford

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion is a series written by Beth Brower. Originally self-published beginning in 2019, they have since been picked up by Bloomsbury, and brought to audio by Echo Point Books and Media. There are eight volumes currently available, with a total of somewhere around 24 total planned. The first few are novella-length, but the books become full novels as the series progresses.

Genre

Historical Fiction (with just a light sprinkling of magical realism)

Opening Line

I’ve arrived in London without incident. There are few triumphs in my recent life, but I count this as one. My existence of the last three years has been nothing but incident.

Description

“The year is 1883 and Emma M. Lion has returned to her London neighborhood of St. Crispian’s. But Emma’s plans for a charmed and studious life are sabotaged by her eccentric Cousin Archibald, her formidable Aunt Eugenia, and the slightly odd denizens of St. Crispian’s.

Emma M. Lion offers up her Unselected Journals, however self-incriminating they may be, which comprise a series of novella-length volumes. Armed with wit and a sideways amusement, Emma documents the curious realities of her life at Lapis Lazuli House.”

Each volume spans two months worth of the titular character’s journal entries, and the author plans on covering four years of her life in total. They detail Emma’s experiences upon returning to St. Crispians, visiting its locales and getting to know it inhabitants. Such friendships she makes! Such struggle to gain and maintain one’s autonomy as a young woman in Victorian England!

My Thoughts

I had noticed that this series was blowing up on the scene, becoming hugely popular seven years after its first volume was published. I saw so many people gushing about it and decided to see what all the noise was about.

The first book was nice, but I didn’t “get it” yet. But as I read on in the series, I became a convert in full – I love Emma M. Lion and her world! These books are the definition of charm.

Journal entries relate the day to day doings of a young woman in Victorian England, beginning as she approaches reaching her majority. The home her deceased parents arranged for her to inherit is Lapis Lazuli House in the London neighborhood of St. Crispian’s. Here is where that dash of magical realism comes into play – objects tend to “wander” in St. Crispian’s, and you may one day discover your neighbor’s hat in your kitchen cupboard. There is a basement at a local storefront where residents drop off the items they find, and look to reclaim their own missing belongings. And then there is The Roman, the neighborhood ghost outfitted in the armor of a Centurion.

Besides those fanciful accents, the story is solidly in historical fiction territory (with plenty of laugh out loud moments!) Emma is an exceedingly witty young woman navigating life as best she can. Her aunt demands she attend balls and various society function and assist her beautiful cousin in securing an advantageous marriage during The Season. Her ridiculous (other) cousin has done her dirty, and she must deal with the outfall. She makes some lovely new friends: a lame war photographer who spent some time in America, a duke, a vicar, a con man, a spinster painter, etc etc. Some of the traditions of St. Crispians just warm the heart, and it’s a pleasure to spend time in its streets alongside the spirited and droll Miss Lion.

An additional bit of fun is the personal library bit at the end of each installment – Emma very much wants a collection of her owns books (library lends are not an option, as she likes to scribble notes in the margins), and at the end of each volume readers are treated to the growing list all of the books Emma has managed to obtain during the course of her story. There is also always a list of previously mentioned persons of interest, which I imagine might be helpful if you’re not immediately diving into the next book as soon as you finish one, as I have been!

To reiterate, if I had to sum this series up in one word it would be CHARMING. I am bereft at having caught up to the author in her writing, and am waiting rather impatiently for the next volume to come! And will be again for the next, and the next, and the next…

A note on the audiobooks: I am personally not a big audiobook reader, as I find my mind wanders easily and I don’t absorb as much. Nonfiction is usually the easiest for me to listen to. Action-packed stories leave me wishing I could flip back a page or two to review and make sure I hadn’t missed any important details. But not only do I find I am able to listen to these books without much trouble, the talented narrator Genevieve Gaunt makes it an absolutely pleasurable experience. Three cheers all around!

Book Review: THE RED WINTER by Cameron Sullivan

| Jessica Crawford

The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan is a 535 page novel published by Tor Books in 2025.

Genre

Historical Fantasy

My Thoughts

What do I think? Let’s see. In less than a minute on the job, you’ve fallen foul of the bishop, got involved with some fancy twit and attracted the attention of a man with the biggest gun I’ve ever seen…Even for you, this is remarkable! That’s what I think.

I loved a lot about this historical fantasy imagining of the real story behind the Beast of Gévaudan, the man-eating animal that terrorized a region of France over a period of years in the late eighteenth century (there are several other works of fiction based off of this part of history, and the one that comes to mind foremost for me is the movie Brotherhood of the Wolf). It’s dark and bloody, it’s got elements of mythology and the paranormal, and it features a doomed queer romance.

The main character, Professor Sebastian Grave, has lived for centuries hosting a Spirit (it’s considered uncouth to use the phrase “possessed by”) called Sarmodel. This book is Sebastian relaying the story of the time a young nobleman called him back to Gévaudan for a contract unfulfilled. As the two travel there together, Sebastian in turn tells him the story of when he first signed the contract some twenty years before. He, among many others, had answered the call of the king of France to hunt down the Beast that had been slaughtering livestock and citizens alike. During this time, Sebastian had carried on a love affair with the nobleman’s father, and shared some of the secrets of his true nature with the man. A couple of decades later, the slaughter has begun anew; it seems the Beast may be back, and the professor practiced in the Arcane arts may be their best hope.

If you’re on board so far for the grisly werewolf origin story, know that this is the kind of novel that involves footnotes – I understand this is a big turn off for some readers, but it tends to really work for me. Here the footnotes are not overused, are often employed to explain some Arcane aspect of the book’s universe, and are occasionally laugh out loud funny. Some of the inner-dialogue between Sebastian and Sarmodel also provide moments of humor, as do the interspersed addendums written by Livia, the succubus bound to Sebastian’s service. (These portions of story reflect back on a period in fifteenth century France, when our protagonist first finds himself up against the figure behind the Beast – and so another thing to know before deciding if this book is right for you is that it does alternate among multiple timelines.)

I do think this story crammed in an awful lot: demons, Archangels, Greek mythology, sorcery, werewolves, Joan of Arc, romance, the French Revolution. I personally enjoyed each of these aspects, but I do feel that the book failed to fully manage to pull it all together into a cohesive whole that 100% satisfied me. Between that and the fact that it felt a bit overly long, I would rate this 4.5 stars in a system that allows for half stars (or even 4.75 if we were going with quarter stars). That’s still fabulous, of course!

In the Acknowledgments section, the author implies that this might in fact be only one book in a potential series of adventures had by Sebastian, Sarmodel and Livia. Considering they’ve had centuries of them, I am curious to see what the next story will be about!

Book Review: THE BOOK WITCH by Meg Shaffer

| Jessica Crawford

The Book Witch by Meg Shaffer is a 320 standalone novel from Ballantine Books with a publish date of April 7, 2026.

Genre:

Contemporary Fantasy, Mystery, Romance

The Blurb:

She can hop into any novel, she just can’t stay there. Come along with the book witch in this magical and inspiring love letter to reading from the USA Today bestselling author of The Wishing Game.

Rainy March is a proud third-generation book witch, sworn to defend works of fiction from all foes real and imaginary. With her magical umbrella and feline familiar, she jumps into and out of novels to fix malicious alterations and rogue heroes. 

Book witches live by a strict Real people belong in the real word; fictional characters belong in works of fiction…. Do not eat, drink, or sleep inside a fictional world, lest you become part of the story. Falling in love with a fictional character? Don’t even think about it.

Which is why Rainy has been forbidden from seeing the Duke of Chicago, the dashing British detective who stars in her favorite mystery series. If she’s ever caught with him again, she’ll be expelled from her book coven—and forced to give up the magical gifts that are as much a part of her as her own name.

But when her beloved grandfather disappears and a priceless book is stolen, there’s only one person she trusts to help her solve the case: the Duke. Their quest takes them through the worlds of Alice in Wonderland, The Great Gatsby, and other classics that will reveal hidden enemies and long-buried family secrets.

Opening Line:

All stories are love stories if you love stories.

My Thoughts

If you love books (and if you’re here, I’ll assume you do) and contemporary fantasy isn’t an automatic nonstarter for your reading, then you will be DELIGHTED with The Book Witch by Meg Shaffer!

An unread book is a caged animal, trapped between paper walls. They want reading, need it. To open a book is to set a story free.

So much of this book is about books we love, why we love them, and why they are worth defending (from book bans and challenges all the way up to literal book burnings). The vehicle for delivering this message is an enchanting fantastical mystery story filled with adventure and a healthy dash of romance (and in fact, the book is divided into parts cleverly titled after various genres). The droll writing had me giggling out loud in many places. My favorite books may often be on the darker and grittier side, but this story was indisputably good for this reader’s heart and soul!

“Sorry, this is weirder than when Ebeneezer Scrooge sent me a fruitcake for Christmas.”

Rainy March is a book witch of the Ink and Paper Coven, as was her mother who died when Rainy was a baby, and the grandfather who raised her. When fictional characters manage to slip the confines of their books and enter the real world, threatening to unwrite and rob the world of their beloved stories, those in the storycraft trade escort them back where they belong and erase their memories of the experience. When Burners enter books they do not consider serious or deserving literature and try to light them on fire from within, the witches hunt them down within the pages of the story to stop them before any permanent damage can be done.

“I’m starting to thing you don’t actually read the books you claim to love or hate. No, you wave them like flags in a war no one’s fighting but you.”

Rainy and her familiar, the Russian Blue cat named Koshka, are doing well for themselves in this role, until the day they enter one of the installments of the Duke of Chicago series. Rainy can’t help but be charmed by the debonair Private Investigator. The two wind up falling in love and meeting clandestinely, in his world or hers. But the coven abides by a set of strict rules, one of which is that fictional characters belong in their books, and real people belong in the real world, and fraternizing outside the bounds of ones duties is prohibited. When their secret is discovered, Rainy is forbidden from seeing Duke again.

But when there is a mystery afoot that may mean danger for Rainy’s loved ones (and may answer decades-old questions about the mother she never knew), the 1920s gangland Chicago detective might be the only person able to help her untangle the truth. Risking her livelihood and her very identity as a book witch in order to save the people she loves, Rainy teams up with the man she isn’t allowed to be with to solve the case. If only he would stop making bedroom eyes at her…

“Stop being gorgeous,” I ordered him, pointing at his face.

“You first.”

This story featuring charming characters and humorous writing (and a cameo appearance from LeVar Burton!) is a fun and clever homage to books everywhere, and I am so glad to have read it. Many thanks to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my unbiased review.

One last gem of a quote:

“Stories thrive on conflict. You do realize that the fairy tale ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ without the Big Bad Wolf is nothing but a brief paragraph about an uneventful food delivery.”

Okay, fine, that was the second to last one. Now this:

“Reminds me that when the going gets tough, it’s probably time to escape into a book.”

This entire story could be the booklover’s creed!

Goodreads

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