Book 11: Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline

 A book club book! Another one of those where I managed to read the book but missed the actual book club, which is a shame because I think discussing it with others would have helped fix the story in my mind. I am writing this post about four months after I read it, and I had to read a review of it to remind myself of what the story was. But as soon as I did, I could feel the atmosphere of this story, one of loss and grief and of having something taken from a person and a people, under the guise of religion and moving on. 

Joan is First Nations in Ontario, someone who left her home and then came back with her husband Victor, the love of her life. When he disappears after an argument, he is presumed to either be dead or to have left her, but she never believes either. This is borne out when she sees her husband as part of a traveling revival, but her husband is no longer himself. The book is folklore and monsters combined with religion and colonizers, and at the heart of it is Joan's grief and her single-minded obsession with getting her husband back. It's a read that really centers you in her world and her grief, even when the POV shifts in incredibly disorienting and effective ways. Highly recommended. 

Grade: A 

Book 10: The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows by Olivia Waite

 Listen, are you in the mood for a delightful gay regency romance between a widow who now runs the family printing press with her grown son, and a woman beekeeper who is always just on the right side of polite society? Because if so, hop to it! This is a pleasure to read, a slowburn that's also a really lovely exploration of how queer people carved a space in the world for themselves long before the first stirrings of an open gay rights movement. Agatha is a classic older love interest who isn't sure what her place in the world is after the loss of her husband, and Penelope manages to both seem carefree while actually being incredibly thoughtful and clear-eyed about how her life is possible. A book that is a very nice way to spend an afternoon with something hot to drink. 

Grade: B

Book 9: The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion by Margaret Killjoy

 This is a Tor novella that is part of a LGBTQ story anthology. I...liked it? Sort of? It's got a Hannibal-esque horror feeling to me, with certain other elements of like myth and gutterpunks and a vaguely post-apocalyptic vibe, but none of the story really stuck with me, and I never felt like I had a good grasp on the protagonist. One of those "I am sure that this story is really for someone, but that someone is not me" books. 

Grade: B

Book 8: Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

 The second book in this duology! This one was also great, even if it didn't quite have the delight of Assembling the Gang in Six of Crows. But overall I really enjoyed the story, and how the relationships deepened, and hey a gay romance! Don't mind if I do. The story suffered a tiny bit from the fact that there's an action event mid-book that COULD be the final heist of the story, but because of where it falls in the book, you know it can't be. Part of that is reading a YA novel as an adult who's read stories like this before and understand the narrative formula, but I thought some of the fakeouts could have been concealed slightly more. Overall though it was a delightful conclusion to the first book and I enjoyed it immensely!

Grade: A 

Book 7: Semper Fi by Keira Andrews

Boy I didn't really like this one either! This is a romance between two marines post-WWII, which should be exactly up my Band of Brothers-loving alley. But I didn't like them as individuals or how they were together, and I found the particular brand of homophobia to just not be for me at all. Nope!

Grade: C

Book 6: A Boyfriend for Christmas by Jay Northcote

 Listen. If you're going to give me a gay romance with a title like A Boyfriend for Christmas, I'm going to expect a lot of Christmas romance, not a weird meeting of the classes romance between a rich post-college kid and a motorcycle rider who's not POOR but just isn't fancy that barely involves Christmas at all. This book did not do it for me. 

Grade: C

Book 5: The Station by Keira Andrews

 Another gay romance! This one starts in England in the mid-18th century, and involves a stable master who gets caught having sex with a man and the son of the family both being sent to Australia for buggary. The son, Colin, never actually had sex with a man but he sacrifices himself so that Patrick won't be hanged in a fairly bizarre initial setup. But of course they both have to get onto the boat to Australia together, and over the sea voyage they fall in love, sort of. They continue to be in love, sort of, while they accompany a young widow to the parcel of land her late husband had purchased for them, and they all work together and Colin and Patrick continue to be sort of in love. 

Overall I enjoyed this book, although it suffered quite a bit from conflict between the main couple that was prolonged for no particularly good reason, and "settling Australia" is a complicated story to tell. But it did what a book like it is supposed to do, by and large. 

Grade: B