A Fellowship of Bakers & Magic

A Fellowship of Bakers & Magic by J. Penner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

4.5 stars rounded up.

The Great British Baking Show set in a world with dwarves, elves, and orcs as well as humans! As a human, Arleta Starstone has a distinct disadvantage in the world of baking: no magic. Her natural talents, stubborn nature, amazing herb garden, and a whole lot of hard work have turned her into a world-class baker nonetheless, but anti-human prejudice is a steep hurdle to overcome. Arleta's honorary dads (the orc couple next door) are her biggest fans and secretly enter her into a big-deal bake-off, and when a handsome elf arrives to escort her to the competition, she battles her fears and insecurities to take her place among the realm's elite bakers--the first human to do so.

For readers' advisors: character doorway is primary, setting secondary, with story and language also strong. I can't recall any violence, swearing, or sex scenes, but I read it a few months ago and may have just forgotten something minor. Warning: it'll make you hungry!

Many thanks to Netgalley & the publishers for providing the free eBook copy I devoured.

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The Murder of Mr. Wickham

The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hooray for an absolutely delightful historical mystery where the characters are all from Jane Austen's novels (or the children thereof), gathered at the Knightleys' estate for a house party crashed by the infamous Mr. Wickham of Pride & Prejudice fame! The second night he is there, young Juliet Tilney stumbles over his body on her way back from the privvy. He has caused most of the guests personal and financial losses, so absolutely no one mourns his death, but magistrate Frank Churchill still has to determine who killed him and why. Since Jonathan Darcy, eldest son of Elizabeth & Fitzwilliam Darcy, and Juliet are not under suspicion, they begin investigating, lest an innocent servant be falsely accused. Since seemingly no one was abed that fateful night, there are plenty of twists and turns in what is essentially a locked-room mystery. Everyone has secrets and is in need of courage and honesty if they are to heal their cracked relationships.

Claudia Gray has done an outstanding job of remaining true to Austen's characters even as she ages them forward in time according to the loose chronology of when the books were published. Jonathan's neurodivergence at a time before such traits were understood is sympathetically handled, making his growing relationship with Juliet both believable and endearing. Likewise, Fanny's conflict with Edmund over her brother's confession of love for his fellow sailor rings true for the era and indicates a possible path toward compassion and kindness for those today who still cling to the belief that homosexuality is a sin and not simply the way someone was born to be.

For readers' advisors: story and character doorways are primary, setting secondary. No on-screen violence, no sex, and I cannot recall any profanity, though there may have been one or two mild historical epithets uttered in the heat of the moment. I forgot to check before my copy returned itself.

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Bewitched

Bewitched by Darynda Jones
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

After a 6-month suspended animation nap, Defiance Dayne is once again awake and getting into and out of trouble. While she was sleeping, her dads and her best friend moved across the county to join her in Salem, MA, in her magical house, Percival, haunted by the ghost of her grandfather. Defiance tries at first to lie and say her magical powers have vanished, but that doesn't work, and soon she is tracking down all sorts of missing objects and people, trying desperately to figure out how to keep everyone alive, or at least keep them from dying again.

This volume in the series could have used some heavy editing, particularly the endless repetitions of how sexy Roan was and what his inked existence did to Defiance's "nether" or "girl" parts. That got old REALLY fast, and the book would have been much improved if we could have just skipped over most of that. Roan's backstory was a key subplot, so I wish Defiance had acted her age (45) and dialed back the lust in favor of really getting to know Roan for who he was and not just fixated on the heavily tattooed, kilted outer package. If readers are supposed to go for the pair as a serious couple by the end of the series, there has GOT to be more to the relationship than electricity. In both directions, though mercifully we are spared the recitation of Roan's lustful thoughts.

I LOVE Darynda Jones' books, but this is my least favorite. Some excellent parts, though! And I do still want to listen to the next book to see how the loose ends get tied up.

For readers' advisors: story doorway is primary. Tons of sexual content, though really only one actual sex scene. Plenty of profanity, some violence and threats of violence, but not overly graphic. Trigger warnings for spousal and child abuse. LGBTQIA-adjacent, as Defiance was raised by her two dads, one of whom is Latinx. Her grandmother's love interest, the police chief, is African-American. Other characters are either white or not memorably specified.

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Kill the Farm Boy

Kill the Farm Boy by Delilah S. Dawson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars 

This is a fantasy novel that takes many of the usual tropes and turns them upside down: the Chosen One is not a innocent farm boy (saying who it *is* would be a spoiler); Fia, the warrior, hates the bikini chain mail she begins the story wearing; the Dark Lord isn't very dark; the rogue is both female and not very good at sneaking or questing; the witch isn't really wicked; the quest goes sideways constantly and for unusual reasons (both helpful and not); there are allusions to pop culture (Nardstromp's department store at the Goblin Market, artisan cheese and crackers), and so on. The authors were clearly having a great deal of fun writing the story, and it's very entertaining but not as riotously funny as I was expecting (which is not the authors' fault, just a fact of how other readers/reviewers had hyped the book). I am looking forward to the next books in the series, though!

For readers' advisors: story doorway is primary, character and setting are secondary. Characters have various skin tones/colors, although the fictional world of Pell and its surrounds doesn't map culturally to our own. There is some creative language throughout, especially from Argabella the bard, who likes to say words like "Shoutful," "Songful," and "Deadful." Argabella and Fia have a very sweet romance. There is quite a lot of violence, but it's not graphic--often more absurd than anything. A few main characters don't survive the quest.

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Record of a Spaceborn Few

Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The third book in the series is once again set in the same universe but featuring different characters. Only one character, Tessa, connects to book #1–she is Ashby’s sister. The books are essentially stand-alone.

This volume focuses on the mostly humans who live in the Fleet: the generation ships which brought humans into contact with other species after Earth suffered too much environmental damage and had to be abandoned. Hundreds of years after leaving the Sol system, these giant ships are still home to many thousands of people, the ones who chose to live their lives in space rather than seek out other places and planets. The ships orbit a sun given to the Fleet by the Galactic Commons, who admitted humans for membership not all that long ago.

Record of a Spaceborn Few follows a handful of distinct characters as they live, work, and grow aboard one of these ships. We get to witness their personal struggles as we follow their different journeys and stages in life, all the while learning the culture of Exodan spacers. Becky Chambers is a brilliant world-builder.

It’s a completely character-driven story. To say the pace is leisurely is putting it mildly. The characters barely cross paths, yet by the end, I felt like I was ready to sign up for Eyas’ new workshop and live in a hex. An absolutely fascinating exploration of how human culture might evolve to thrive in space. I especially loved how the ships were designed to eliminate hunger and homelessness, caste, and the illusion of rank. Everyone contributes, and NOTHING is wasted.

For readers’ advisors: character doorway is primary, setting secondary. Intermittent swearing. No onscreen violence, although there are some deadly accidents. LGBTQIA people are normal and unremarkable, and nonbinary gender pronouns are routinely used for some characters—xe & xyr, which I wish we’d adopt in real life, as it’s WAY more clear than using plural pronouns.

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A Closed and Common Orbit

A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love this book SO much! I had a hard time getting into it because I started reading it quite soon after finishing book #1 in the series (The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet), and book #2, although it begins right where #1 leaves off, only tangentially mentions the characters from the first book. I wasn't ready to say goodbye to the original characters at all, but once I got past that and started learning more about Jane 23, Pepper, Sidra, Blue, and eventually Tak, I became completely absorbed in their story.

For readers' advisors: character and setting doorways are primary. The world-building is incredible, and I spent much of the book wishing fervently that I could reach in and hug the characters. A fair amount of swearing, especially when Jane is a rebellious teenager. Some references to sex but no sex scenes. Not really any violence except for when Jane kills her first feral dog as it attacked. A Closed and Common Orbit has a non-linear structure, alternating between Jane's story in the past and Sidra's in the present. ("Present" being hundreds of years in the future somewhere else in the galaxy.) Many completely different species, and humans are far from dominant. There is really no such thing as a "white" person any more. One of the characters comes from a 4-gendered species, and xe is of the gender that regularly switches between male and female. (Can I just add how much I love the creation of neutral gender pronouns in this series?! Xe and xyr are SO much more useful and specific than using the plural "they" to refer to a singular person. I wish this would transfer to real life!)

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Jeweled Fire

Jeweled Fire by Sharon Shinn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Corene grew up as a princess in the royal court of Welce, believing she had a decent chance of becoming the next queen. When that changes, she is left without direction or purpose and decides to make a big change to demonstrate her independence. Stowing away aboard a ship headed for Malinqua and a chance to become a queen there by marrying one of the empress's three nephews seems like a grand adventure...until she realizes the current ruler is playing a mysterious game of her own, and the visiting princesses competing for the throne are more like pampered hostages than guests. Still, the chance to reinvent herself gives Corene the opportunity to make close friends--something she's never really had before. Along with Foley, her steadfast bodyguard, Corene and her new friends must uncover the secrets hidden by members of Malinqua's court if they are to survive the struggle for succession.

Corene wasn't my favorite character in the first two books, although she definitely grew on me as Ms Shinn developed her character and gave glimpses of the hurting girl beneath the spoiled behavior. She really gets her chance to grow up and shine in this volume of the series, though! Her impulsive behavior at the beginning definitely fit with the developmental stage of an older teenager, but by the end of the story, I kept thinking she was older than her chronological age.

Interestingly, none of the primary characters in this book has magical abilities, unlike in the two previous volumes. This makes for a different feel to the story. Not better, not worse--just different.

For readers' advisors: character and setting doorways are primary, story and language strong secondary doorways. Sharon Shinn is a master of world-building! The 3 mild swear words--2 in the same sentence--are the reason I hesitate to mark this book as "clean reads." There are strong elements of romance and murder mystery, although not enough to label them as either of those genres, especially romance since the story would remain even if the romance between Corene and Foley were removed. Book #3 in this series starts off at a leisurely pace that intensifies as it progresses toward the suspenseful climax. Despite the entire book taking place outside Welce, it still should be read in series order so as to fully understand and appreciate the history and context.

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Shadow Scale

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

Dragons loyal to the Comonot are battling those of the Old Ard who want to depose him and return to the days where humans were food. They claim exposure to humans taints dragons, making them impure and in need of having their memories excised. Seraphina, Queen Glisselda, and Prince Kiggins know they must gather allies to help them battle the dragons of the Old Ard in order to save the humans of Goredd, so the Queen sends Seraphina as her emissary to nearby kingdoms to persuade them to provide assistance. The journey has another purpose, however: Seraphina has read of a sort of mind-net that was once created to defend against dragons in a former time, and she resolves to seek out her fellow ityasaari (half dragons) to learn whether such a thing is possible today.

Things do not quite go as planned, of course, and Seraphina learns that another half-dragon, Jannoula, who has the ability to invade and take over the minds of other ityasaari, is searching for the same people Seraphina hopes to find. Jannoula plans to use the mind-net for her own purposes, although uncovering all the twists and turns in her devious plot will be a long, frustrating challenge for Seraphina. One by one, she watches her friends fall under the spell of Jannoula, unable to save them until she learns the secret of unlocking her own mind-fire.

There are so many things to adore about this book, but I think the saving grace for me was that it was so easy to immerse myself instantly in the world Hartman has created, no matter how little time I had to read--including sometimes just the couple of minutes it took to heat my lunch in the microwave. I had to be creative in order to carve out a few minutes (or a whole half an hour!) here and there when I could read, and with Shadow Scale, I could pick up right where I left off and be transported immediately into the world of the story. Rachel Hartman's world-building skills are outstanding.

My second favorite thing was the character development, particularly of Jannoula. You really got to see and feel sympathy for how she came to be so twisted, and you understood the guilt Seraphina felt for her inadvertent role in that. I also loved the variety of characters and relationships, including that they were so seamlessly woven into the fabric of the story.

I also appreciated that not everything was tied up with pretty little bows at the end. Don't get me wrong--I LOVE happy endings. In this case, though, it felt so much more real for some things to be left a little more open-ended. In a war, people are injured and die, and not just "the bad guys." This story takes place during wartime, with some battles occurring far from a traditional battlefield.

Many thanks to NetGalley for the free Advanced Reader's Copy of the ebook for this fantastic sequel to Seraphina!

For readers' advisors: setting, character, and story doorways are strong. Language, too, given the many words Hartman has invented. There is no sex, and if I recall correctly, any swearing uses made-up words or phrases. The violence is not at all graphic and mostly happens "off-screen." It's LGBT-friendly.

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