❤️‍🔥Romance/Fantasy, 🔍Mystery, 👻Horror, and 🎨 Fiction

 

    A Fire Endless (Elements of Candence #2) by Rebecca Ross is the second of a duology. The first is A River Enchanted. Here is a link to that review: 

https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/2024/02/every-book-winner-or-came-close.html.

A Fire Endless was a satisfactory sequel/conclusion once I got into it. It was long (512 pages), and it started with adding more problems to the plot, making me regret starting it at first because the difficulties felt unsolvable. Still, Ross did bring them to a gratifying and surprising conclusion. A third of the way in, I got caught up in the story. Ross's plots are driven by relationships, and there are several passages of couples pledging undying love followed by sexy time. I read a review that felt the book was more of a romance than a fantasy novel. I agree. However, it was still diverting.

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    Tana French's The Hunter is the second in the Cal Hooper series. I read the first one before I started this blog. A retired Chicago cop moves to rural Ireland to find respite from the ugliness of broken, angry people. He meets a good woman, Lena, and gives his heart to a hurting teenager, Trey, who is hungry for a mentor. Then Trey's wandering dad returns after years of being gone, and he plans to make everyone who thought little of him rich. Trouble follows. Sides are chosen. Then someone ends up dead. French is an excellent mystery writer. She spins a good plot, but her greatest strength is her writing. Her language, descriptions, and images are lyrical. I get swept away. She doesn't write cozy mysteries where everything comes out happily ever after, but her endings are earned and authentic.

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    Have I mentioned I like T. Kingfisher? What Feast at Night is the second in her horror series. Here is a link to the review of the first one:

 https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/2024/01/i-start-year-with-memoir-horror-and.html.

    Once again, soldier Alex Easton is in an isolated location where deadly, possibly supernatural, events are taking place. Kingfisher juggles the three suspects: science, superstition, and crazy. The main characters from the first book, What Moves the Dead, are present: Alex Easton, Angus, and Ms. Potter. This book centers on the themes of PTSD and superstition. 

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    I heard about Painting the Light by Sally Cabot Gunning on vacation with my sister and her mother-in-law, Nancy. They both have strange ties to Cap Cod and have met Sally Cabot Gunning. They highly recommended her. They were right! Gunnings describes painting so accurately that I went looking for Ida Russell's work online. Gunnings has done plenty of research, and it gives her novel texture and gravitas as she describes sheep farming, food, laws surrounding inheritance, bicycling, and clothing. She had a propulsive plot with surprising revelations. It was an enjoyable read, and I felt like I painlessly learned things. Win! A criticism is the heroine behaved more like a woman in 2024 than in 1898.

🎨🖼️🌅🗳️🐑

Memoir📚📖 and More Kingfisher!🗡️🌳

 

    This is a powerful, eye-opening book. How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair is a memoir that reminded me of Educated by Tara Westover and Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance. All are stories of grinding poverty and oppression told by the adult children who survived but not without scars. I listened to the audiobook read by the author. Safiya Sinclair is a poet, which shows up in her powerful use of words and rhythm. She grew up in Jamaica and was the child of Rastafarian parents. Her dreadlocks made her the target of discrimination and bullying, but her intellect, drive, and her mother's fierce love her lifted her into hopefulness. 

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    Another week, another book--or two--by T. Kingfisher (AKA Ursula Vernon). Swordheart is in the same world as the Saint of Steel series, but not in the same series. A middle-aged widow who works as a housekeeper for her recently deceased uncle-in-law. He has left her his entire estate and his side of the family is not pleased but hopes to rectify the situation by having her marry her clammy-handed cousin. She is locked in her room for days and decides to kill herself using a decorative sword that has always hung on the wall above her bed. The magical sword contains an enchanted swordsman who, like a genie, must serve whoever holds the sword. From there, it only gets more interesting. The story and characters are unique, but the book cover--meh.

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    When it comes to the horror genre, I'm usually a hard no. T. Kingfisher is slowly changing my mind, one scary, twisty book at a time. The Hollow Places will make you think twice before going into a museum of collected oddities ever again. I know I will. The story opens with recently divorced Kara moving into her uncle's Wonder Museum to help out while she regroups. After reading many books by Kingfisher, I'm starting to recognize her plot patterns. There is a disruption--divorce, death, economic threat--and the protagonist finds themselves on a different path with new characters. They make a magical or alien discovery, usually evil or dangerous, and spend the rest of the book fighting the evil while becoming a better person. Works for me. The Hollow Places is spooky but captivating. If you don't mind being a bit petrified, I recommend it.

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🚆🛤️ Train Travel, More T. Kingfisher, and Lifting the Mental Load

 

    It's time for March's travel book for book club, and it's Around the World in 80 Trains by Monisha Rajesh. Rajesh is a British travel journalist who has an affinity for train travel--the pace, the people, the scenery. She convinces her fiancee to travel by eighty different trains for seven months. The experience was diverse. Some trains were luxurious, and some were rolling port-a-potties. She shares her research in the regions she travels through in a natural, exciting way. I enjoyed hearing how train experiences differ between Russia, Europe, North Korea, and North America. Taking a train across Canada sounds delightful. Her book is well-researched and balanced.

Here is a link to a map and list of her route and the trains she took: https://unselfishtravel.blog/around-the-world-in-80-trains-by-monisha-rajesh/ 

🚊🚞🚄🚆🚝🚇🚃🚞💺

    Have I mentioned lately how much I enjoy T. Kingfisher?

Here is a link to my many blog posts about her: https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=T.+Kingfisher

    After being on a waitlist for several weeks, I finally read  A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher. The protagonist is 14-year-old Mona, a baker's apprentice for her aunt. Mona has a unique magical affinity for dough, creating an unstoppable sourdough starter and a fierce gingerbread companion. Her city is reasonably tolerant of magical folks, but then they start disappearing. One early morning, Mona finds a dead girl on the floor of her bakery and is arrested for her murder. I enjoyed this rollercoaster of a story. She assembles a diverse, imaginative cast and several evil villains. Kingfisher's books are well-written and humorous, but she also addresses valuable themes, like being different, a minority, or outside of the mainstream, with understanding and kindness. Not to be trite, but she calls me to be empathetic and generous.

🍪🍞🥖🥐🧙‍♀️

    Paladin's Hope is the third in the Saint of Steel series. This one features Paladin Galen and his attraction to the Lich doctor (coroner) Piper. It is an LGTQ love story. Every book in this series is wrapped around the formula of a mystery and a reluctant romance. Galen and Piper, with help from Earstripe the Gnole, an intelligent badger creature, who brings comic relief between two earnestly avoidant but still attracted men. Of the three books I've read in the series, this one referred back to previously written books I haven't read. At times, I was lost in a history that informed the current story, but still mostly understood everything. 

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    I saw The Wife App by Carolyn Mackler, recommended at Park Books (https://www.parkbooksmd.com/), and I borrowed it from Libby. Three women find themselves divorced single moms in NYC and, one tipsy night, decide to create an app that charges for the mental load women usually shoulder. Think insurance forms, shopping, appointments for everyone, etc. This book is an empowering romantic comedy. 

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A Big Week: Theology🌧️, Fantasy 🌹🌿🐻and Sci-Fi 🐙

 

A look at the need for lament in the Church and our hearts

    Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy: Discovering the Grace of Lament by Mark Vroegop was gifted to me by my good friend. We share an affinity to understand God better than we do, especially how we walk through challenging, sad events in our present and past, plus be prepared for the ones to come in our future. Pastor Vroegop speaks from his own life and many years of shepherding the members of his congregation through pain and suffering. He turns to the Psalms, where sixty-five of them--over half--are lament. Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy is more than comforting; it also encourages the rightness of mourning.

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    If you read this blog regularly, you will notice I've been on a T. Kingfisher reading binge. Bryony and Roses is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast with surprises.

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I started a new series this week. To write a good series, you need strong characters, demanding situations, and good peaks and valleys in the plot. Kingfisher has been writing many books (30+), and she knows what she's doing. It's by T. Kingfisher. It is a well-crafted fantasy series that examines, in turn, the surviving knights who served and lost their god. It has left them broken in mind and spirit. The first book, Paladin's Grace (The Saint of Steel #1), focuses on the knight, Stephen, and a perfumer, Grace. Paladin's Grace has lots of lovely tropes: broken hearts, dangerous enemies, menacing zombies, and afraid yet brave heroes. Kingfisher seeks to balance the woman who needs to be rescued because she's helpless and a woman who needs to be rescued because she's overwhelmed by schemers and events. Even though this book is the start of a series, there is a solid ending.

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    I also just finished the second book in The Saint of Steel series, Paladin's Strength. The main characters are another knight, Istvan, and a reticent nun on the run, Clara. They both carry secret burdens that put them and each other in danger, but they both have people to save and mysteries to solve. I like this book even better than the first one because of the road trip romance trope. It works well. 

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    The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler is hardcore science fiction in the same vein as Neil Stephenson and Andy Wier. Nayler follows three antagonist in this near future story. It balances plot and action with speculation on what defines a human: consciousness, culture, collaboration? Naylor has well developed ideas that integrate well into the storyline and didn't veer into pontification. Also, octopus are a major feature, so win!

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