Siege & Storm - Leigh Bardugo

Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have this flaw, and know I'm not alone because there are plenty of us suckers who love the bad boys. I really, really want the intriguing bad guy to turn out not so bad. To have the option to be evil, but have a noble core.

There's something wrong with me when a bad guy perpetrates unforgivable wrongs, and yet I can overlook it and continue to hope he will turn around and prove to be redeemable. And continue to wish the actual, already-noble good guy out of the way.

I don't learn... I'm still hoping for book 3...

The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - Stuart Turton

The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is such a unique concept, and was pulled off superbly too. It's a mystery that must be solved by Aiden, who relives the day of the murder 8 times by waking up each day in the body of a different witness. If he doesn't solve the mystery in 8 days, he'll have his memory wiped and repeat the loop. He has no memory of his own life or why he's there, and he also has rivals who are trying to get the answer first, which adds another layer to the suspense.

The story isn't told in a completely linear fashion, so not only are you piecing together the clues from different perspectives of the day, but you're busy keeping track of the movements of each of Aiden's 8 hosts.

It does feel a lot like Ground Hog Day, but here the previous days are not wiped out. Aiden has to work around his other selves and avoid undoing what he's done in previous hosts or contaminating their timeline. This was so much fun, and happily the potential time travel paradoxes remained consistent.

It may sound complicated, but it was so well written that I was never bored or lost, just completely absorbed by the layers of the puzzle before me. The ending had a great payoff with some turns I didn't expect. Once all was revealed, I was satisfied by the final picture. Wonderful!

Walk on Earth a Stranger - Rae Carson

Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Walk on Earth a Stranger is excellent YA historical fiction with a bare dusting of fantasy and a hint of potential future romance.

Carson really brought the wagon trail alive. Actually, so much alive that I am only rating it 3 stars even though it's really well done. There was too much death, too much grim and gritty detail, too much reality about the attitudes of the time as well as the physical hardships. Too much for me, anyway. I'm thankful it's YA, and there are some even darker things it didn't explore.

But I care about the characters who survived, so I'm tempted to read the next book. It might be worth suffering through more of this vivid reality to see what happens to them.

Shadow Scale - Rachel Hartman

Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Before reading this, I thought maybe all the low ratings were due to high expectations, and I lowered mine, telling myself that I didn't mind if Seraphina was traveling a lot - she would meet new people and learn new things. But that didn't help. I still found myself beginning to hate this book during the second half but didn't understand why.

I was still expecting a generally positive fantasy story with worthy characters, new and old friendships, knowledge gathered and used for good, self-discovery, and triumph against the bad dragons and the bad people who don't like half dragons.

What bothered me about this book was that all the good characters and relationships were systematically poisoned or stripped away. There was so much potential, but the whole story became centered around a character who had been abused as a child and is now determined to punish the entire world with their insidious, advanced powers. They're mentally and emotionally abusive in that mind-twisty way that makes you question your own sanity.

This manipulative character takes over the entire book, derails all plot points, and steals all hope. They are so powerful that no one else can achieve anything. It's both frustrating and disturbing. I hated that I was experiencing this. It was far too close to ugly reality for me. The constant tearing down and the very personal vindictiveness really weighed on me. It left a bad taste in my mouth.

At least the right people triumph in the end. But the ending isn't nearly good enough. There's still too much loss. What was this, YA grimdark fantasy in disguise?

Lord of the Fire Lands - Dave Duncan

Lord of the Fire Lands by Dave Duncan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The way this book began didn't do it any favors. It promised a different book, one in a similar vein to the first, where the King comes and claims a Blade, and then that Blade serves through danger and adventure, etc. This is not that story.

It wasn't long before events veered off, but once that familiar beginning built my expectations, it felt to me like the story was going off-course. For a long time, I couldn't figure out what the point of this long flashback was, and I was anxious to get back to the real story in the present.

It wasn't until about half way through that I accepted that this detour was the real story. Then I began to enjoy it, and now I think it's a better story than the one I expected. I'm glad I stuck it out and I'm looking forward to seeing the fallout for the series as a whole.

Update: It had been several years since I read The Gilded Chain, but several reviews compare the two endings, so I had to go back and remind myself how that one ended. Let's just say Duncan has no problems rewriting his own history! Now I'm even more curious about where he'll take it next.

Dissolution - C.J. Sansom

Dissolution by C.J. Sansom
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've found that an essential part of mysteries for me is the characters. Can I care about them, like them, see them as having potential for growth? The mystery itself needs to be intriguing, of course, but a clever mystery feels empty to me without depth of character, especially of the main character.

So, how does Shardlake stack up? What we have here is one of the grumpier investigators I've read about. He loses his temper, snaps at people, becomes tired and overwhelmed, and makes errors of judgment. He's not a perfect man, but he's also idealistic and compassionate underneath that gruff exterior.

He has a core of insecurity because of a disability that he believes makes him less than worthy. He also has a wealth of spiritual and political turmoil to grapple with. As the representative of Oliver Cromwell during the dissolution of the monasteries, he has to wrestle with his sense of faith in a time of religious upheaval.

There's lots of room for Shardlake to grow in this series. I think it's worth continuing with the series to see if he finds his way. Oh, and the mystery held my attention too.

Shades of Milk & Honey - Mary Robinette Kowal

Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

More for the historical romance fan than the fantasy lover, the magic here largely took the place of art. The main focus is country neighborhood drama with a definite Austen feel to it.

If you enjoy fantasy of manners, you should enjoy this. I thought the magic added a nice touch to the romance.

A Great Deliverance - Elizabeth George

A Great Deliverance by Elizabeth George
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

First the superficial. I'm having a hard time getting over how annoying a couple of the characters were. The horribly caricatured American tourist was too much - I ended up skipping any passage with him. And felt he was completely unnecessary to the plot. It's difficult to enjoy a book when you have such antipathy to ridiculous characters.

I did like Lynley, but his partner... I'm sure that she will get better as the series progresses, but did she really have to shriek and shrill so much? And shouldn't a police sergeant have a bit more control over herself?

To be fair, it was written in the 1980s, and suffers some from the trends of the time. It dwells far too long on psycho-babble and torturous interpersonal relationships and family problems, and moves onto fairly explicit descriptions of sexual abuse, which didn't come across as that much worse than everyone else's psychological turmoil. Everyone's internal struggles seemed highly exaggerated, except for the actual victims of crimes.

Ok, so maybe I didn't like it all that much? But I liked Lynley. Keep Lynley and ditch the rest, and we might have something I don't cringe to read.

The Shock of Night - Patrick W. Carr

The Shock of Night by Patrick W. Carr
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

With dark books like this, it's the ending that determines whether I rate up or down. The key element I need is hope. Without it, my imagination can't expel the sense of doom and gloom when I return to real life.

This book was dark enough that I'm struggling with it today. I was upset about some of the character losses, as well as the narrowing path that Willet is being forced down. I probably won't continue the series because I'm afraid of how much worse it can get and who else will die before it gets better, assuming it ever does. Reading reviews for book two, it looks like hopelessness continues to be a key element. Grim, gritty, dark... these are all key words that don't bode well for me.

If you don't have the same issues, this is an absorbing medieval-ish fantasy with an interesting magic system, characters that are easy to know and love, and a mystery to solve. It's a good story, but the tone is much darker than in the more traditional fantasy by Carr that I enjoyed (A Cast of Stones). Too dark for me, I think.

Although marketed as Christian Fantasy, I haven't found this or any of Carr's other work to be obviously Christian. I'm sure the themes and inspirations are grounded there, but he's not hitting you over the head with it. Most obvious is the lack of gore (but not violence) and other adult content that is common in other dark fantasies, which I don't mind at all.

Murder at the Brightwell - Ashley Weaver

Murder at the Brightwell by Ashley Weaver
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I found this a wonderful historical mystery that surprised me several times. I love it when I don't guess the murderer, not from lack of clues but from not seeing how they all fit together until the end. It lets my mind stay busy with suspecting everyone, and I don't feel cheated when I'm surprised by the pieces of the puzzle clicking together.

I also very much enjoyed the drama of Amory's marriage troubles, which gave it more emotional depth than is often present in these types of mysteries. Those who prefer their mysteries without any romantic distractions may not enjoy it so much, but I tend to prefer mine with a good dose of character development outside of the mystery itself.

Another positive for me is that although there was romance, it was not about people just meeting and falling in love. Instead it dealt with the much more complex issues of an established relationship on shaky ground. I found Amory's state of mind to be realistic in the circumstances and was completely engrossed in her struggles to find the truth of her own heart. I want to know what happens to her next, and that's what will drive me to pick up the next book.

A Useful Woman - Darcie Wilde

A Useful Woman by Darcie Wilde
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A Useful Woman had a bit of a ponderous start and was in serious danger of getting bogged down in too many details of propriety and drawing room niceties. The Regency era is one of my comfort settings, but something needs to happen within that setting for me to stay interested, and that needs to happen pretty quickly. Here, it did set the stage for the tightrope that Rosalind is walking, but I wish the touch had been a bit lighter and the action had started sooner.

Thankfully, a murder did change all that. Once Rosalind focused on plumbing the depths of the currents around her, watching her try to hold together her own social position as well as that of her friends and charges was much more interesting. Who knew what could be hiding under that veneer of respectability? I found the answer satisfyingly shocking in the end.

I loved the premise of Rosalind as an unprotected woman trying to stay acceptable to the ton after her father's financial disaster years ago. I loved her cleverness at eking out a living from them, and her strength under that intense pressure. I definitely want to see more of the characters who appreciate her intelligence instead of using her while forcing her to hide it. One in particular was very intriguing...

I do have one more minor quibble. I was irritated a couple times when Rosalind realized something about the mystery and it was not shared with the reader. She suddenly knew what had happened, but I had to stay in the dark until the end. I appreciate the suspense that kept me in, but I would rather have followed her thought process more. That's one reason I like to read mysteries, so I can be working it out in my own mind. If I don't have all the same information the sleuth has, I can't do that.

Still, I felt this was a strong start to a new historical mystery series, especially as it's the first mystery by this author. I'm definitely looking forward to the next installment. I just hope we don't dwell on the correct order of paying compliments for too long before the next murder breaks.

Royal Airs - Sharon Shinn

Royal Airs by Sharon Shinn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A lot of reviewers were disappointed in this sequel to Troubled Waters, and about half way through I realized why. It was missing the magic, the elemental magic. Neither of the main characters had any, so we only saw it peripherally. This made it much less of a fantasy and more of a historical romance with some political intrigue thrown in during the second half.

As a historical romance, I enjoyed it. I liked Josetta, and I liked Rafe. I also liked how their stories ended up. I did wish there was more magic, but I think having lowered expectations rescued this book for me.

Assassin's Fate - Robin Hobb

Assassin's Fate by Robin Hobb
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I don't think I've ever been rendered such an emotional mess by a book. I am completely wrung out. I'm actually not sure how to move on with my life.

It was a perfect ending on so many levels, so many things from all the previous series tied together and brought to a rightful conclusion, but I still can't accept that it's the end. Maybe it won't be, although some things are without a doubt finished.

My initial reaction still stands. There really are no words.