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Last Dance Before Dawn by Katharine Schellman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


When I requested this on Netgalley, I missed that this was book 4 of 4 and I hadn't read the first three. So I'm a little sad that I read the last book in the series as my introduction to the series. The Nightengale is a NYC speakeasy where Vivian Kelly works as a waitress (and as a seamstress in the day) This is her place, her found family and now Danny, the bartender is family, her sister Florence's husband and father of their little girl, Mei.

Viv and Florence have tracked down their father's sister (the girls growing up in an orphanage) in their bid to find family and this becomes (no spoilers) a prominent thread throughout this book. As is Vivian's growing attraction to her boss and owner of the speakeasy, Honor. Naturally there is fear there not just because of their very unequal social status but, of course, how lesbian relationships were seen in the 1920s.

But there is no place Vivian is happier to be, no place and people she would protect more ferociously than those in the Nightengale. And into this comes a handsome redheaded mob boss, O'Keefe, who believes Honor and her people know who he is looking for, a man named Hugh Brown. People die just to get Honor's attention and more will die potentially, Vivian, her sister and family, her friend Bea and Honor herself unless they turn over Brown to him.

The problem is O'Keefe is mistaken. they have no idea who Brown is nor do they want to play ball even if they did. Still, Vivian has to discover who this name is and find a way to foil O'Keefe or she'll lose everything.

It's a good mystery, the slow reveals and the red herrings good. It's an ending that should satisfy the fans. Four books seems short for a series but in a way I appreciate that better than the thing limping along for 30 books that haven't been good since book 11. It's open enough that if she ever wants to revisit these characters down the road she can. As for me, even though I know how it ends I'm going to look for the first three books.



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We Can Never Leave by H.E. Edgmon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was a hard one to rate because it leans heavy on the unreliable narrators which is a trope I don't enjoy much. Also this is super light on plot. It's purely character driven and we spend time in all of their heads. The caravan criss crosses the country made up of those not-quite-human enough to remain among humans. Their bohemian lifestyle includes a lot of dancing around the fire and stuff I won't be spoiling in the review but that takes me to the copious content warnings: domestic violence, child abuse, murder, violence, suicidal ideation, mentions of cannibalism.

We have several young people Bird, the golden child of the group, non-binary, human enough to live for a while in the human world and the novel opens with them returning to the group. They aren't exactly welcomed back by the group, especially Hugo, the young man with buck antlers and can spit fire. They were formerly a couple but now his love (a very offputting possessive sort of love) has flipped to rage. Felix, his younger brother (even more deer like) is the dreamer of the group. His powers seem to be blind optimism that becomes reality. Cal, the wolf fanged girl with the deadly venom is no more welcoming to Bird and finally there is Eamon, the mystery boy with the red eyes, new to the caravan and no one trusts him and his total amnesia.

Quickly the story kicks off with the adults of the caravan disappearing as if they never existed. Out of desperation the young teens all take off to Haven in Portland so they could meet up with others of their kind and that is the main plot. And honestly this is half forgotten for the entire book. As I said it is light on plot and there isn't much of an emotional response to their parents just disappearing (potentially dying). And oddly enough I could accept guys with horns and enbies who glow much easier than I could a bunch of older teens driving an RV cross country with enough money to gas up, pay park fees and eat when they can't earn money (how silly was that hang up)

Each character has trauma, like a lot of it. Each chapter is one of the above characters' pov and to make things harder to follow is it flip flops to the past and then back to the present and that's how we get to know them all. To make things a wee bit less enjoyable for me is Felix's point of view which is the only one not first person. No it's all fourth wall breaking narrator stuff (not felix) to tell us about how they're all liars, that it won't have a happy ending etc.

So based on plot I would have rated it lower but the characters are fascinating (even if you dislike them because trust me I did not like Hugo). The ending is what I expected but found intriguing none the less and the final paragraphs were open ended and with the promise of something could be revisited.

So if you don't like fourth wall breaking (I do if it's Deadpool, otherwise not so much), multiple povs and shifting timelines you'll want to give this one a pass. It's also quite dark (well it's horror) I found it well worth the read. Also it does have queer rep (not exactly happy rep but it's there and at the forefront)



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Snow & Ink, Vol. 1 by Miyuki Unohana

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This had such potential but I'll be honest I'm struggling to see how it went viral in Japan and I'm laying that squarely at the feet of Freya. The premise is intriguing. Neneo is a young murderer waiting punishment for slaughtering his whole village when he's purchased by Freya the heiress of an industrialist. She's on the run herself, more or less, having been forced out of her inheritance by another family member after she nearly ran the business into the ground. Half the country (apparently) is furious with her because she more or less created an economic depression and massive unemployment.

They're going to the far north to get away from it all...and that's more or less where the plot stops. It now needs the characters to carry it as it fast forwards into romance so awkward it's literally painful to watch. Freya has very little personality and zero background as she whips from simpering virgin to jealous twit to incompetent at most things.

Neneo fares much better especially when we learn why he killed everyone in his village. There is also the ethics behind this place's punishment system because even if he was rehabilitated and released they have him visibly tattooed over his arms and hands showing his crimes. How could anyone ever reintegrate with society after that (I'm assuming he's not meant to).

Even Halvard, Freya's former incredibly wealthy fiancé has more personality than she does as he joins their ranks because as a doctor he wants to understand what happened in Neneo's village. There is a tiny threat of subplot as it seems someone is pursuing Freya.

I've been known to stick with a series even though I don't much like the main character (Fruits Basket for instance) but there needs to be enough for me to dig into that I can ignore the MC. I don't think that's going to be possible here sadly. Too bad because Neneo was interesting and the art is lovely.



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Bodies and Battlements by Elizabeth Penney

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


There is a good bit of wish fulfillment in this setting but since I could see myself wishing for this too I didn't mind. Case in point, Nora Asquith's family has been in this Yorkshire seaside castle for centuries, as the guardians of the town. Her family and Ravensea castle are chocked full of history and ghosts (yes, there are interactive ghosts in this) but of course now they have to find new ways of making money to keep this big pile of historic homestead going.

To that end, Nora and her father have turned parts of it into a B&B with just a few rooms at this point, mostly supplementing the renovations and start up with Nora's herbalist career using the castle gardens (see what I mean about wish fulfillment. Who wouldn't want to be able to live in a haunted castle and putter in the herb garden and somehow make enough to survive). It's now opening week and Nora has a few guests filling up all three rooms, Brian the birdwatcher, a wine merchant richie rich couple (installed for free by Nora's mead-making brother trying to get a wine contract) and Finlay Cole, new to town and waiting for his apartment to be ready for him.

At the first social, Hilda, a woman relatively new to town and huge in trying to prevent the B&B from opening, runs from the castle only to turn up dead in Nora's garden with her head stoved in. Naturally fearing being accused of murder (or her father being the same) Nora sets out to solve the case with the help of her tv star sister, Tamsyn.

And her guest Finlay who turns out to be a DI (no spoilers there, it's in the blurb). It does contain some nice twists and I did like that it didn't strain the suspension of disbelief you have to have to read cozy mysteries. I liked the characters and as I've said in many a cozy mystery review, these only work for me if the actual detective isn't hardcore anti-amateur sleuth or too stupid to be a detective. Finlay is neither of these things. He's naturally telling Nora to stay out of it but he's also sweet on her (cue romantic subplot) so it worked for me.

I had fun with this one and I'd gladly read more.

I received the arc for this from publisher which in no way influenced my review.



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The Strange Tales of Oscar Zahn, Vol. 1: A Graphic Novel by Trí Vương

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is exactly as the title suggests: strange. Oscar is just animated clothing and a floating skull and his companion (for parts of the story ) is an old woman versed in the supernatural. That is what Oscar does now, helping spirits find rest as he himself is somewhere between life and death, filled with an entity he calls ectopus (a paranormal ectoplasmic octopus in appearance)

As Oscar solves cases and helps people (Oscar is a sweet guy) we slowly see the backstory of his relationships with others and how he ended up the way he is. The stories include a haunted house (heartbreaking), spirits from a world war, the spirits of the drowned and most interesting, a woman he had (in her eyes) wronged. She's also a very interesting character once we get into her backstory.

The art is appropriately eerie and I would definitely like to see more of this.



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Earthdivers, Vol. 1: Kill Columbus by Stephen Graham Jones

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I wanted to love this because I love Jones' work and the art was great but there were some world building issues for me that were hard to get past not to mention the convoluted time traveling story line (CW, lots of violence including child murder) So it's 2112 and the world is all but dead and much of humanity has taken off for the stars. Later its stated white people left but I see no African, Latinx, Asian etc people in this. It's a hundred percent indigenous people of varying groups, which okay Jones is Indigenous and he's dedicated to telling the stories of those peoples.

Somehow they know that this cave somewhere (we're not sure where) can time travel back to a certain destination if you bring something to represent that time period but otherwise have to go Terminator-style, i.e. naked. Their plan is to break up Sosha and Tad's marriage so they can send Tad back to do the titular action, kill Columbus so that America is never created and the world is saved. Sosha would have a much harder time being a woman given the restrains of women then and Tad has the cool bonus of being a polyglot. I very much liked that touch.

And this where I stumble hard. How do they know how this cave works? It seems like its a one way trip because the group left behind keep checking the ever changing history books to see if Tad manages it so I'm assuming he can't go back once he kills Columbus. Let's say they did the math or experiments or something and know what the cave does, the idea of killing one man to change the world seems naive. It's the whole 'Let's Kill Hitler' trope of alternative history stories (though I suppose killing him might have saved a whole lot of lives)

I don't buy into the idea that in killing Columbus, no one will ever interfere with the Indigenous people and America (or whatever it would be called) will be this happy egalitarian country and all of humanity won't be destroying the world with pollution and greed. For one the industrial revolution didn't start here but America sure embraced it and made it worse. Two, there are countries that pollute far worse than America (not many but they're out there) And three, for pete's sake Europeans were sailing all over the world. You kill Columbus and another European will take his place with most likely the results and I suppose you could argue they learned from Columbus (provided he got to America and was killed there) and killed any new foreigners, let's remember Columbus wasn't the first, just one of the worst. And the world isn't that small. Eventually America would be brought into the world stage no matter if we kill Columbus or not.

That is a big hurdle to get over so that's why I rated it three stars. That said, Tad and company are interesting. Tad's infiltration of Columbus' crew does not go as well as he'd like. People die. Lots of them. (same with what's going on in 2112) Tad is earnest. His descent into violence is interesting to watch. I did get a laugh when they were sure he was demonic because he didn't grow facial hair in the two weeks they had him locked up. Really? What about the fact that he went back to the past with one side of his head shaved and that never grows in....

I wanted more of the people in the past which I swore were all female at first (Emily being a transwoman) but might be wrong about the Blackfeet character, Yellow Kidney (we get some cringy are you Indigenous enough stuff with them) How did they meet? How did they learn about the cave? Why didn't they leave on the space ships (I think that might have made more sense if we changed one word about who left, the rich left, the poor were left behind)



I got this at the library. Would I read more? From the library yes.



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City of Clowns by Daniel Alarcón

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I'll be honest I picked this up because of the setting. I like to read books about other cultures and countries done by authors from those places. The contemporary setting did less for me. It reads a little like a memoir and opens with Chino, a Peruvian journalist, avoiding his father's funeral. Chino is a young man filled with rage. Starting life in the poor mountain mining communities, Chino came to Lima as a child and at one point admired his father.

Now, he's rightfully angry. Much of the time he was 'away working' his father was actually at his other wife's home with the multiple half siblings Chino didn't realize he had. He's angry that his father eventually left him and his mother for that family. He's angry at how his mother handled it (especially after his father's death) to the point of coming across very judgmental of Mom.

Much of the work his father and mother did was handyman and maid work for wealthy families. Much later we learn the reason for this is his father (mom didn't know) was casing the joints and he was capable of brutality.

Along with this personal tale is the story Chino is meant to be writing about clowns. I felt the story fell down a bit here. Were the clowns merely buskers? They also seemed to be part of the political unrest which is the backdrop for the whole story. Are they so poverty stricken this is all the clowns have? At one point Chino joins them, seems to like it.

Overall, I didn't connect with Chino much. I did think the dark heavy inked art served the dark story.



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Les Normaux: A Graphic Novel by Janine Janssen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


For me this was a 3.5 read rounded up. Why am I being a little hard on this popular webtoon? I'll get to that. I like the idea that all the magical beings live in an alternative world and apparently you can cross over to it and live if you're a human with magic. Sébastien, a gay demisexual Filipino young man, goes to alt-Paris to go to magic school with the support of his magical aunt (and zero support from his parents who are anti-magic and relatively homophobic too). He takes with him his bunny, Pierre (who has an active imaginary world)

At a club, Sébastien shares a drunken kiss with the hot Italian-Indian blue-skinned bisexual vampire Elia, only to find out they live in the same apartment. Clue up the embarrassment and slow-burn romance. Elia is a super model with a highly involved in his life (as in mapping out every second) family, wealthy, involved in the fashion world.

I will say Sébastien's friends and Elia's are fun. They're giving this story multiple side quests especially with Elia's one het friend and her Frankenstein new love interest. Elia is also well fleshed out. That just leaves Sébastien....

I'm not saying he's not fleshed out. It's just I find him not all that engaging as a character. Don't ask me why. I didn't hate him but I also didn't find myself caring all that much if he manages to fall in love with Elia. And that's sort of why it was a 3.5 read. Maybe if the story line goes on and he gains some confidence I'd like him more.

The art and the color scheme are stellar. It's certainly worth the read.



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Silent Evidence by Clea Koff

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I liked this series opener. A bit about the author, she is a forensic anthropologist like the main characters and like Jayne was part of the UN team investigating the mass graves in Rwanda so there is that professional air to this. That said, this book touches on some gruesome stuff so CW serial killers, female victims, dismembered body parts, stalking and PTSD

Jayne and Steelie are friends and partners at the Agency 32/1. Both women specialize in finding missing persons mostly by culling through coroner reports etc. They are contacted by FBI special agent Scott Houston and his partner Eric who are potentially in trouble with their bosses because their former boss thought Scott was getting too close to the victim pool back in Georgia (sex workers) and is raising conduct issues with his new boss.

Scott and Eric are now in the Los Angeles area because a van got rear ended and drove off, leaving a pile of body parts on the highway. They know Jayne and Steelie and engage the ladies to help them prove these body parts are part of their case back in Georgia which they do willingly.

The clues laid out in this were very well done (again Koff's profession is a huge help in this as she knows from direct experience) There is a good deal of empathy for the lost and forgotten especially on Jayne's part. Into this we have another former coworker, Gene, who shows up briefly and vaguely insults their work. We have Jayne and her PTSD and paranoia (which in this case is justified as someone is watching her) and we have the hints of romance between Jayne and Scott (if I have a quibble with the book it was how heavy handed that was sometimes)

Overall the mystery was very good. I liked the characters a lot. I was a bit more iffy on the ending but it wasn't a deal breaker. It just felt a bit too Hollywood in my opinion. I'm looking forward to more in this series.



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The Tomb of Zeus by Barbara Cleverly

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


A 3.5 read that I didn't round up mostly because of some personal issues with the main character and the imbalance between solving a mystery and the other plot line. Letty is one of the 'modern women' in the 1920s and is off to make her mark in the world of archaeology. To that end, she's in Crete, taken on by Theodore Russell on the advice of Letty's mentor. He is rushing to out do Arthur Evans and discover the titular tomb and isn't going to turn down help. That said he's also not really happy to have a woman so he plants her somewhere she might find some small artifacts and gives her diggers he's irritated with.

On her first day, Letty meets Phoebe, Theo's much younger wife, George his kind hearted son and Gunning, a man she already knows who had been set as a babysitter earlier on in a different setting by her father. There is so much past history referenced that I thought there were previous books. And that's where I get annoyed with Letty. She's constantly blowing hot and cold with Gunning (an ex soldier from WWI with war wounds) and she's also either gung-ho or quailing so it got annoying fast.

Phoebe meets an untimely end but is it suicide as she has reasons? Letty doesn't believe it and neither does Marianni the detective. So there is some imbalance that happens as Letty works on the mystery and the whole archeology thing falls into the background for far too long.

The mystery however is nicely done. Phoebe's past, George's too set up the clues and red herrings well and the past has everything to do with this, right down to the history of Crete itself (though this book also started out on a sour note for me because it had an author's note, condemning the colonialism/ take over of Crete by other people which is good but then goes on to say how gentle England tread on the Island which really isn't that true. The museum took far more than its fair share of artifacts from Crete. I think she was trying to reference the Ottoman empire and a real world slaughter that happened but it came off badly, though that slaughter plays a role in this)

Would I read another one? I probably would. Letty wasn't awful, just a bit annoying. I love that we had an archaeologist detective that isn't in Egypt for a change.



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