Roshani Chokshi has been an autobuy author for me since I reviewed her very first book, The Star Touched Queen, in 2016. So when she made her adult debut, I knew I had to read it. Last Tale of the Flower Bride knocked my socks off in the best way. Once upon a time, a man who believed in fairy tales married a beautiful, mysterious woman named Indigo Maxwell-Casteñada. He was a scholar of myths. She was heiress to a fortune. They exchanged gifts and stories and believed they would live happily ever after—and in exchange for her love, Indigo extracted a promise: that her bridegroom would never pry into…
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Top Reads of 2024: Letters to Half Moon Street by Sarah Wallace
This book was recommended to me by two of my author friends – Skye Kilaen and Felicia Davin. They did not steer me wrong, as usual! I must have been drunker than I realized because all I remember is how well he tied his cravat and how perfectly his coat fit him… London, 1815: where magic can be purchased at convenience, and the fashionable and wealthy descend for the start of the social Season. But 25-year-old Gavin Hartford finds the city intimidating when he arrives, alone, to his family’s townhouse. The only company he seeks is in his beloved books and weekly letters to his sister, Gerry. Then dashing man-about-town…
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Top Reads of 2024: Awakenings by Claudie Arseneault
Claudie Arseneault is not only one of my autobuy authors, but also someone I’m glad to count as a friend! Even if she weren’t my friend, I would have fallen head over heels for this fantastical platonic cozy road trip series. If you don’t trust me, it’s also recommended by Rosiee Thor. Just saying. Your story is my story… As the city’s eternal apprentice, Horace has never found a clan to belong to. E has joined Trenaze’s guards with hopes to finally earn eir place during eir trial day at the Great Market—that is, until the glowing shards haunting the world break through the city’s protective dome. Armed with a…
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Top Reads of 2024: Golemcrafters – Emi Watanabe Cohen
This book was recommended by a reader friend I trust dearly. Yet again, they did not steer me wrong with Golemcrafters by Emi Watanabe Cohen. Emi Watanabe Cohen’s sophomore novel travels from the most awkward surface tensions to the beautiful depths of Jewish culture and lore for a tale of magical and emotional discovery. On the same day Faye’s brother comes home with a black eye, a package arrives from a relative they have never met. It’s a slab of clay: some weird kind of bar mitzvah present? The strange gift turns out to be an invitation to learn a craft that has been in their family for centuries. And…
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Top Reads of 2024: Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis
This book was one I picked up on a rec from my autobuy author, Rosiee Thor. It’s one that they blurbed and it was excellent. I will absolutely be reading whatever comes next from Caitlin Rozakis. The Dread Lord Gavrax has had better weeks… It’s bad enough waking up in a half-destroyed evil wizard’s workshop with no eyebrows, no memories, and no idea how long you have before the Dread Lord Whomever shows up to murder you horribly and then turn your skull into a goblet or something. It’s a lot worse when you realize that Dread Lord Whomever is… you. Gav isn’t really sure how he ended up with a…
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Top Reads of 2024: A Rival Most Vial by R.K. Ashwick
I grabbed A Rival Most Vial by R.K. Ashwick on a whim on Kobo Plus. It was available as an audiobook, it was queer, and it looked fun! Sometimes that doesn’t work out for me. This time, it really really did. Two potion shops, one heated rivalry…until hate bubbles over into something else. Any adventurer worth their sword knows about Ambrose Beake. The proud, quiet half-elf sells the best—and only—potions in the city. Until a handsome new shopkeeper named Eli opens another potion shop across the street, throwing Ambrose’s peace and ledgers far off balance. Within weeks, they’re locked in a war of price tags and products—Ambrose’s expertise against Eli’s…
