ginasbookreport

The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre:  Mystery / Science Fiction Read This If You Love: Upgrade  by Blake Crouch / The Ferryman  by Justin Cronin / any Ben H. Winters book “I’ve spend ninety years trying to rid humanity of its selfishness, greed, and impulse toward violence.” The Last Murder at the End of the World  by Stuart Turton is a mystery wrapped in a science fiction novel. The world as we know it is no more. It was engulfed in a mysterious black fog that ended life. Well, except for the inhabitants of the village on a questionable isolated island. How did these souls survive and, when an unheard of murder takes place on this place free from violence, what will change? Written by the author of The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle , Turton certainly knows how to spin a story. There are tons of little mysteries for readers to solve and each one is layered and builds...

Even Though I Knew the End by C. L. Polk Publisher: Tordotcom Book Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Mystery / Noir / LGBTQ Read This If You Love: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue “I called out to the devil, and the devil came to me.” Even Though I Knew the End  by C. L. Polk is a supernatural noir mystery novella that tells the story of the mystic detective. Tasked with uncovering the White City Vampire in 1941 Chicago, this atmospheric sapphic novel is brilliantly crafted. The writing is so well developed and is matched by the superior character development. A new take on the gumshoe detective novel, I hope Polk delivers more stories with these characters!

Wool by Hugh Howey Publisher: William Morrow an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Science Fiction Read This If You Love: The Ferryman by Justin Cronin “Each life might wear away a single layer, even as the silo wore away that life.” Wool by Hugh Howey is a post apocalyptic look at an alternative future world. Where once humans lived outside, now they live inside the world of the silo. The only view to the outside is a dreary landscape speckled with dead bodies…the cleaners. To be a resident of the silo, you must follow the rules of the Pact. Fail to do so, and you will become one of those bodies on the hill. When the current sheriff decides to go out, a mechanic named Juliette is asked to step into his spot. She has no interest in the job, but she does have an unending dedication to keeping the silo running. Shortly after accepting the job, crimes start to become a regular event and Juliette is questioning everything. Who built the silo? ...

Ruthless Vows by Rebecca Ross Publisher:  St. Martin’s Press Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Fantasy / Romantasy / Young Adult Read This If You Love: Divine Rivals / Iron Flame “The magic still gathers, and the past is gilded; I see the beauty in what has been but only because I have tasted both sorrow and joy in equal measures.” Ruthless Vows picks up immediately after the events in Divine Rivals. Kitt and Winnow managed to survive Avalon Bluff, but the actions of the gods continue to rip fractures in their world and love. Will Roman be able to overcome what has happened to him and the position in which he finds himself? Will Iris be able to help save her home through her dedication to reporting? How will these lovers find one another when everything is built against them? How will they turn the tides? “In war, there are always debts.” ***While I often will read series books as a standalone or out of order, I would highly recommend that you read Divine Rivals  b...

My Murder by Katie Williams Publisher: Riverhead Books Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 Genre:  Domestic Suspense / Mystery / Fantasy Read This If You Love: Dark Matter by Blake Crouch “What did it feel like to meet my murderer? It’s a perfectly reasonable question to ask. Somehow, it felt like nothing at all.” My Murder  by Katie Williams is an unusual mix of murder mystery and science fiction. Louise was murdered by a serial killer, but she is alive now. Isn’t she? Is she really herself? How did she become a victim of Edward Early and a line in the poem about his killings? She sets off to find out the truth behind her murder and who she is. This book brought to mind Dark Matter , for me. That is a book that I loooove.  My Murder didn’t hit as successfully for me. While I was very intrigued at the beginning of the book, by the end I was conflicted and found the ending to be unsettling and somewhat predictable. I do appreciate the efforts to tell a unique story and ...

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett Publisher: Del Ray, Penguin Random House Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 Genre: Mystery / Fantasy / Urban Fantasy / Science Fiction Read This If You Love: The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow “You’re saying someone weaponized a contagion?” The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett is an excellent urban fantasy mystery novel. Set in the Empire of Khanum, Din (an apprentice investigator and engraver) is assigned to the quirky and mysterious Ana Dolabra. An Imperial officer is dead and the investigation into his possible murder threatens to unravel a plot that could bring down the Empire. While everyone else is focused on the dangers of approaching leviathans, Ana and Din must solve the mystery before the entire security of realm is in jeopardy. Ana and Din are a fantastical version of Holmes and Watson with hints of Nero Wolfe. From Ana’s brilliance and eccentric investigation techniques to Din’s clever ways to manage situa...

The Quiet Boy by Ben H. Winters Publisher: Mulholland Books Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75 Genre: Science Fiction Read This If You Love: The Policeman trilogy by Ben H. Winters / Fans of Blake Crouch This was a buddy read book that I read and so did my husband, Patrick. You will find our individual takes on the book here. Gina’s Review of the The Quiet Boy “He’s got the future inside of him. It’s got to come out.” Wes suffers an injury that locks him into his 16-year-old body. He doesn’t change, sleep, eat…just walks continuously, but how can that be? Does he really have the mysterious Syndrome J? Was it a result of malpractice? Is there a way to reach Wes? Jay Shenk takes on the case to try and get a legal and financial verdict for Wes’s family and swears to always be their lawyer. Decades later, Jay’s son Ruben is an investigator who picks up the case when Wes’s dad is in need. But while The Quiet Boy  still is locked in his own mind, a mysterious man and his follow...

Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross Publisher:  Wednesday Books Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Fantasy / Romance Read This If You Love:  Fourth Wing / Iron Flame "No God--No Creature--NoWar--Can Come Between Them" Divine Rivals  by Rebecca Ross tells the story of two young journalists determined to tell the truth about the war among the gods that is tearing apart their world. Roman Kitt comes from an influential family. Iris Winnow has a brother fighting in the war and she is determined to hold together what little her family has left. These two are rivals in the newsroom, but soon find common ground…some in very unexpected and magical ways. Can they survive the war and find love? Will the dark forces at work tear them apart? This is a young adult novel that has taken over a lot of best of lists and I know many an adult woman who has read and enjoyed this book. It is a touching story of young love, life during a war, and the power of family and truth. Divine Riva...

Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros Publisher: Red Tower Books Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Fantasy / Romantasy Read This If You Love: Fourth Wing / Game of Thrones “I lace my fingers on top of my head and look away, waging war with the grief, the pain, the never-ending guilt, and as usual, I lose.”   Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros and The Empyrean series is the book craze of 2023, for sure. This series is EVERYWHERE. While I typically don’t get drawn into a crowd when it comes to books, I’m fully in for this series. Divided into two parts, Part One of Iron Flame  could have been a complete novel. I loved that section. Part Two faltered a bit for me until the last 100 pages or so. Why? I just don’t enjoy the drippy romance scenes. I’m here for the world-building, the complex relationships, the ‘who will win’ scenes. I found Iron Flame  to have a bit more romance in it (or spicy scenes, as some call them) than Fourth Wing , so I give the edge to Fourth Wing  a...

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros Publisher: Red Tower Books, an imprint of Entangled Publishing, LLC Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 Genre: Fantasy  Read This If You Love: Harry Potter series / Game of Thrones series “A dragon without its rider is a tragedy. A rider without their dragon is dead.” Fourth Wing  has taken the fantasy and general reading worlds by storm. The first book in the Empyrean series crafts a world where dragons rule the sky. At Basgiath War College, Violet Sorrengail is reluctantly training to be a dragon rider. As the daughter of a ruthless general who helped to violently squash a rebellion, Violet is immediately a target for many of her mother’s enemies. She must navigate the training, which results in daily death tolls and navigate all those who want her to fail. Who are her friends and who are enemies? Those lines might not be as clear as she first thought. She has a lot to learn about herself, her family, and her world. The world-building that ...

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch Publisher: Ballantine Books Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Science Fiction Read This If You Love: Sea of Tranquility  / TV show Fringe “As long as I’m with you, I know exactly who I am.” Gina’s Review Jason Dresden is happily going along with his life when he is abducted. He wakes up surrounded by people in hazmat suits. They seem to know him, but he has no idea what is happening. He soon discovers that his wife is not his wife and his son was never born. How is this possible? The only thing Jason knows is that he will do anything to get back to his old life.  I read this book as a buddy read with my husband, so you will see his take on Dark Matter below. Blake Crouch has quickly become a favorite author of mine and I was so happy to share his work with Patrick because sci-fi is his reading preference. Dark Matter  is my favorite of Crouch’s novels, but I’ve yet to find one that I didn’t enjoy. This novel is suuuuuch a fast rea...

Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott Publisher: Anchor Books Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 Genre: Fantasy / Science Fiction Read This If You Love: Neil Gaiman books / American Gods “Kill the lantern, raise the ghost.” My husband and I read Thistlefoot  as a buddy read, so you will see here our individual reviews.  Gina’s Take on Thistlefoot Bellatine and Isaac Yaga live in a mirror world of our own that possesses mystical happenings and powers. Estranged from one another, Bellatine is more comfortable with her carpentry and quiet life and Isaac is a shapeshifting nomad. All that is until they receive an inheritance from a distant ancestor. An inheritance that also comes with being pursued by the Longshadow Man. What does he want and just how dangerous is he?  Thistlefoot  is a dark fairy tale combined with folklore and mixed with modern fantasy. Nethercott masterfully crafts a fantasy world against which she paints the picture of our generational connection...

The Ferryman by Justin Cronin Publisher:  Ballantine Books Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.75 Genre: Sci-fi/Fantasy Read This If You Love: Blake Crouch The Ferryman is a dystopian novel of speculative fiction. Prospera is an island created by the Designer where people can live long and fulfilling lives. When their embedded monitors fall below 10%, they are ferried to the Nursery where they are renewed and their memories are cleared away. They restart a fresh life back in Prospera. Proctor Bennett is a ferryman who guides citizens through the retirement process. He has dutifully done his job with gentleness. But, something is off for Proctor. He has dreams…an unheard of thing in Prospera. His own monitor is starting to unexplainably alter. Then, he is called out to retire a man and it doesn’t go according to protocol. Something is amiss in Proctor Bennett’s world. What is happening around him? What is happening to him?  This novel is layer after layer of crafted storytel...

In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune Publisher:  Tor Books Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Fantasy / LGBT Read This If You Love:  The House in the Cerulean Sea ,  Under the Whispering Door , Once Upon a Time (tv show), Alix E. Harrow books “It is as Gio said. Searching for a connection. Making something out of nothing so the spaces between us do not seem so far.”—Nurse Ratched Another stunning fantastical novel from TJ Klune—master of wit and emotional writing! I absolutely love Klune’s writing style and the larger messages of found families, love, and connection that all of his books convey. This time around, In the Lives of Puppets  takes us on a fairy tale retelling to tackle themes of loneliness, fitting in, and family and friendship.  Victor is an inventor who lives in the forest with his father Gio and his two rebuilt robot friends, Nurse Ratched and Rambo (the Roomba). As Victor sets about building his latest piece of work, he stumbles upon...

American Mermaid by Julia Langbein Publisher:  Doubleday New York / Penguin Random House Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 Genre: Fantasy Read This If You Love: A WILD ride of a book Decisions happen sometimes without being made precisely. This book is wiiiiillllldddd . One minute it is a humor novel, the next it’s a feminist story, then a statement on the environment. The characters are colorful…some you love and some you love to hate. I feel certain that American Mermaid will be memorable for many years to come. Definitely a unique novel. I literally had moments where I said out loud, “What am I reading!?!” Then, I was like…but I REALLY like it? It was so out there and I can’t wait to see what a wider audience thinks. (Side note: I was drawn to American Mermaid  based on an endorsement quote from Madeline Miller. Miller authored two of my all-time favorite books, Circe and The Song of Achilles . If you haven’t read those, add them to your tbrpile.) Penelope is a tea...

The Drift by C.J. Tudor Publisher:  Ballantine Books an imprint of Random House Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Horror / Sci-Fi Read This If You Love: Stephen King or Blake Crouch Hope was like sand. The tighter you hold on, the more it trickled through your fingers. Society. Order. Infrastructure. All have broken down… The Drift , a semi-apocalyptic mystery, is a terrifying edge-of-your-seat horror novel. A virus has been unleashed on the world and two groups of people are trapped in separate transportation accidents. Mystery surrounds both of these groups as the story puzzles its way together. In the meantime, another group of people is awaiting the arrival of volunteers at a mysterious and secluded mountain-side retreat. Who will survive? Who are these people? And what exactly are they fighting? This book left my skin crawling! A horror story about catastrophe and survival that will leave you enthralled. It’s jam-packed full of action (if I’m being critical…maybe o...

The 22 Murders of Madison May by Max Barry Publisher:  G.P. Putnam’s Sons an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Time Travel / Sci-fi / Mystery / Thriller Read This If You Love: Fringe / The Vaults  by Toby Ball Looking for a mysterious time traveling twist of a read? Then The 22 Murders of Madison May  is for you. Madison May finds herself on the receiving end of unwelcome affection and obsession…over and over and over again. Felicity is the tenacious reporter covering Madison’s murder, but she gets pulled further into the story than she ever thought possible.  This book is equal parts thriller and sci-fi and reminded me so much of how I felt watching the first season of the TV show Fringe . At times, you aren’t sure what is happening, but there is ALWAYS something happening. It’s an edge-of-your-seat plot-driven read. It doesn’t require much effort on the reader’s part to be swept up in the story, and it is a very fast ...

A Mirror Mended (Fractured Fable series) by Alix E. Harrow Publisher:  Tor.com Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre:  Sci-fi/Fantasy Read This If You Love:  Wicked  / The Ten Thousand Doors of January Live as happily for as long as you have. - Zinnia Another piece of writing from the amazing writer, Alix E. Harrow. If you have been reading the blog, you will know that I absolutely fell in love with this author’s writing style and storytelling when I read The Ten Thousand Doors of January . (If you haven’t read it yet, get a copy now!) After finishing that book, I decided to read as much of her work as possible and read A Spindle Splintered , which is the first in the Fractured Fable series. A Mirror Mended  is the second in this series. Since we last saw her, Zinnia Gray has continued eluding death from her rare terminal illness. She has bought herself time by traveling through all the realms of Sleeping Beauty fairy tales. Her latest jump through the s...

Do you enjoy reading books with a buddy and then discussing it? I do! My husband is an avid reader of sci-fi and fantasy novels and I’ve become obsessed with them, too. It’s not uncommon for us to go out to dinner and tell one another about the book we are currently reading. During one of these meals, we decided to pick a list of sci-fi and fantasy books and read them together in 2023 so we could discuss them in depth. We had all but one of the books already on our shelves so it’s a bonus that it decreases that TBR pile.  Here are the nine books and the descriptions from their Goodreads marketing copy… House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski: A young family moves into a small town on Ash Tree Lane where they discover something is terribly wrong; their house is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. Of course, neither Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Will Navidson nor his companion Karen Green was prepared to face the consequences of that impossibility, until the day...

A Spindle Splintered (Fractured Fable series) by Alix E. Harrow Publisher:  Tordotcom Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Fantasy Read This If You Love: Wicked  or The Ten Thousand Doors of January My own will might matter. — Zinnia Gray Zinnia Gray is terminally ill from an industrial accident. Her rare condition has never been survived past the age of 21. Charm, Zinnia’s best friend, throws her a fairy tale-themed birthday bash. Suddenly, Zinnia is transported into Perceforest, which is a far cry from Ohio. Perceforest is a realm in which she must do more than try not to die, but actually strive to live.  At its core, A Spindle Splintered , is a fairy-tale re-imagining of the classic Sleeping Beauty . However, this short novel is so much more than the classic damsel in distress with no autonomy of her own. This is a modern feminist fairy tale where curses are actually cussing and women get a voice. This series from Harrow is what happens when women get to writ...