Review: "Too Cold for Comfort" by Nisha J. Tuli

Too Cold for Comfort by Nisha J. Tuli
Published November 2026 via Forever
★★★

Aadya needs a career-making polar bear photograph. Reid needs enough lodge bookings to ensure another year of operation. They get off on the wrong foot...and once they smooth that out, they have to decide what to do with the fact that one of them is a world traveler and the other has barely left Churchill, Manitoba.

Now. In 2025 I got it in my head to read all the romances I could find with "northern lights" in the title. I'm not quite done (I got distracted by other books), but it's unfortunate for my purposes that Too Cold for Comfort doesn't have a slightly different title, because it would otherwise fit perfectly. Other than the title, these books seem to have a few things in common: City-bred woman, often with a job in travel or media, travels to the remote North and meets a (hot, single) man who is in the tourism industry (like, say, a lodge owner). They have chemistry, but they live incompatibly different lives. What is a girl to do?

Characters: The characters here lean over-the-top. Once Reid calms down a bit and realizes that not every single journalist is out to get him, he's okay, but until that point I wouldn't characterize him as grumpy so much as irrational asshole. Aadya lets it go because he's hot, but...hotness is not grounds for a functional relationship, you know? (It also makes me quite sad that her sister is so eager for her to give up her career dreams to make things work with a guy she barely knows, far away from everyone she does know.) The side characters are mostly quick sketches who lean caricature—one woman is described as "an actual banshee they let out of hell for a week to torment humanity" (loc. 2819*), and in general there's quite a lot of shouting and screaming and bursting into rooms (or sometimes bursting into laughter). It'll work for those who lean Big Emotions and everything right on the surface.

Plot/setting: I love the setting of an ecolodge that does polar bear tours. The tours in this book are on foot rather than in a vehicle, which I didn't know was a thing (it is, apparently, just very expensive). I would have liked a bit of discussion of the differences between the two types of trip (I guess the benefits are safety vs. angle of photograph), and even after quite a bit of searching I don't understand why snow would end the tourist season; my post-Google understanding is that sea ice (and the polar bears going elsewhere) is more the deciding factor. Aadya is also surprisingly relaxed about having really very few opportunities to take the pictures she needs. The lodge Reid runs seems to be based on a real-life lodge, so it makes some sense that it's set up the way it is, but, although this would have made for quite a different book, I did wonder whether hiring a guide privately might have been a better option for her. (As it is, with every other thing that happens she assures Reid that she won't hold it against him and won't put it in her article, including a restaurant scene that is reminiscent of this story but set at a real-world different restaurant that the author swears she's had only good experiences at. Not a choice I loved.)

The romance: It's fast. See "Aadya lets it go because he's hot"—she's horny, they're both pretty people, and I guess that's enough for them. (I am not being fair; they also have some good conversations, especially once Reid lets his guard down a bit.) I did not enjoy the sex, which included some dialogue that make me cringe so hard that I can't bring myself to go into detail, but again, I am a specific reader with...let's say more idiosyncratic preferences than some...and I think this will work well for those who like open-door heat and heroes who occasionally pretend to be cavemen. (Not literally. Just...sometimes there's a vibe.)

So: The setting, yes; the heroine, mostly yes; the side characters, underdeveloped; the hero and the romance, not really my jam. No regrets about picking this one up...except perhaps that I do wish it had somehow worked "northern lights' into the title.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

* Quotes are from a review copy and may not be final.

Review: "Swipe Bite" by Alexandra Vasti

Swipe Bite by Alexandra Vasti
Published November 2026 via Berkley
★★★★

Stokr is tech's new biggest thing—an app designed to allow vampires and humans to hook up (bump fangs? bump teeth? Warning: I have not workshopped any wordplay that may follow) safely. Sophronia is the mastermind behind it, and she has personal reasons to want it to succeed...but when the app starts going haywire, it becomes apparent that somebody else has reasons to want it to fail.

I read the entire thing in a day while recovering from anesthesia, and I have to say...excellent decision. (Here I should note that I was fully compos mentis and under the influence of a grand total of 400 mg of ibuprofen, but dare I suggest that it would be entertaining to read this when blood-drunk? A-positive choice, we might say?) It's not entirely a light read: Sophronia has some trauma in her past, as does the software engineer who ends up helping her figure out what's going on, and their investigation into what's going on with the app has real and dangerous consequences. But the entire setup is just fun, and the author clearly put a lot of thought into how the vampires of this world work, and what their relationship with humans looks like.

The romance interested me somewhat less, but that's not terribly unusual for me. Sophronia and Casey are both pretty easy to root for, and there's a fun cast of supporting characters—enough to make me wonder whether one of them might take the reins in a second book, as it's clear from the end of this one that although the current hemorrhage has a resolution (i.e., this can be read as a standalone), the bloody good drama isn't over.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: Short story: "A Scottish Christmas" by Lorraine Brown

A Scottish Christmas by Lorraine Brown
Published November 2026 via Amazon Original Stories

In another Christmas wedding short story, Ali is the chief bridesmaid (and chief scapegoat) at her sister's wedding, and it is miserable. Meanwhile, Riley is hiding out at the same hotel, trying to recover from a lousy reception to his latest book...and unaware that Ali is wrote one of the more prominent scathing reviews.

There's a fair amount of interpersonal tension—there's the awkwardness when Ali and Riley realize who the other is, of course (it had to happen!), but Ali is also catching quite a lot of flack from the rest of the wedding party for...existing, I guess. I found the resolution of the various conflicts a little quick; Riley is quick to get over his butt-hurt, and one of the characters who has been particularly awful to Ali has a bit of a personality change at the end. I might have preferred a little more balance there, though I think it's probably just hard to get a ton of complexity into a story of this length.

Overall a quick and fun read, one for those looking for something on the lighter side.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: Short story: "Just for the Camera" by Sarah Adams

Just for the Camera by Sarah Adams
Published November 2026 via Amazon Original Stories

Fizzy is not having a good day...but when her friend asks her to step in as last-minute, desperate-times-call-for-desperate-measures on-camera talent, it gets...well, not better, not at first, but at least more interesting.

This is another short story in a collection that is largely about weddings and the holidays. I enjoyed this one for taking a much more sideways run at the theme—there's sort of a wedding theme here, but Adams is pretty sly about it, and it makes the story more fun.

There's a note at the beginning that asks readers to suspend disbelief for the sake of the story, and that feels about right; it's not the most realistic thing to read, but it's light and fun and hits a specific type of wish-fulfillment reading mood. It's a super fast romance (as in, it's not just a short story, but it takes place over a single night), but I like that although there's a bit of insta-love going on, the characters aren't falling over themselves to make commitments when they don't so much know each other's middle names. One of the stories I liked best from this collection.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "Wonderland" by Patricia Knight Meyer

Wonderland by Patricia Knight Meyer
Published November 2026 via Unsolicited Press
★★★★

Learning the truth of my black-market adoption story and writing this book has taught me that two things can be true at once: being relinquished to "a better home" saved me in a certain way, and it wounded me deeply.

My life was no picnic. Had I not been relinquished, it wouldn't have been a picnic either. [...] If you take away anything from what you are about to read, I hope it is an understanding that adoption, while it can be the only viable choice in certain circumstances, is not a promise of a better situation. (loc. 169*)

That Meyer was adopted was never a secret: Even before she understood what adoption meant, her mother would talk about "the woman who had you" and tell Meyer about waiting outside the hospital to collect her. What that adoption actually looked like, though, was a bit more complicated. In 1970, options for a couple struggling with infertility were limited; extracorporeal fertilization was brand-new, and it would be another decade before IVF as we know it now reached the US. There was adoption, of course—but healthy (and White) babies were in high demand, and an interracial couple was low on the list of prospective parents if one was going through official channels. Unofficial channels were another matter...but, as Meyer only understood later, those unofficial channels came at potentially terrible costs, for everyone involved.

Today, it amazes me that they couldn't see how skirting the system would compromise us all. I also didn't understand that it likely contributed to my mother's alcoholism and propelled Daddy's weight gain. I'd only focused on how their poor choices affected me. The fact that no adoption record existed meant no paper trail to follow. No date of birth. No place of birth. No birth parent names. No adoption. No real birth certificate. There was nowhere to begin my search, not even if I wanted to. (loc. 2043)

Meyer has had a long time to understand and come to terms with her story and with her complicated relationship with her families, both her biological family and the one she grew up with. Luckily for the book, she's able to take a nuanced view of it all—naming the ways in which her mother's struggles impacted her, for example, but also recognizing the trauma her own mother faced, and how that might have weighed on her mother. The same is true of her biological mother: What Meyer learned as an adult was at odds with what she was told growing up, and the book explores some of what it means to go into that kind of new relationship with neither person prepared and, well, nobody really on the same page.

Why I like reading books about adoption is kind of a mystery to me (I've known a handful of people who were adopted, but that's the extent of my personal involvement, and I've read enough about it by now that I would have serious reservations if it were a possibility in my own life), but I always appreciate the books that dive into just how complicated it is, with precious few actors who are entirely in the right or in the wrong.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.

Review: Short story: "White Water Wedding" by Elizabeth Stephens

White Water Wedding by Elizabeth Stephens
Published November 2026 via Amazon Original Stories

Emery loves her job as a wedding planner. She doesn't love her current clients, who are big on drama and messes, but that comes with the territory. But there's one of their guests who she could get used to having around...

This is another short story in a collection that is largely about winter and weddings, and White Water Wedding has both...although this is a Pacific Northwest wedding, so what "winter" means is relative. In general I liked the setting and setup, although it did make me very glad that my own wedding was...not a drama-fest...and didn't involve anything like a wedding planner.

The romance is very, very fast: They meet, sparks fly, and within a day or two they're deciding to give a serious relationship a go. As someone who tends to think one should wait a while before commitment in a relationship, I would have preferred that things slow down a bit—perhaps to see them interact during the planning part of things, not just during the wedding weekend when Emery is stressed and has things to do and getting involved with a guest could at the very least lead to bad reviews. Elkin is also pretty pushy, which I know is often a thing in romance novels but isn't really to my taste.

A lot of the drama is brought in by the wedding guests (who are determined to get drunk and party, occasion be damned), but what I really want to know is this: Why would the wedding planner take part in a rafting trip with the bridal party? She's there to make things go smoothly, not to take part in the festivities, and these are not a bride and groom who seem to care about doing nice things for other people.

A quick read, but out of those in the collection closer to the bottom than to the top in terms of what I'd read again.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "Bedford Street" by Ross Murray

Bedford Street by Ross Murray
Published November 2026 via Fantagraphics
★★★

A street in New Zealand: in each house, a different small drama playing out, with people coming together and (more often) falling apart.

The art is great here, not too complicated but with plenty of detail. These are messy characters, nobody unscathed: Anyone who might be a "good" character almost immediately lets their darker side show, whether they're judging someone else for their circumstances or treating women poorly or shouting at their neighbors.

I love the concept of a set of interconnected stories, but ultimately I wanted a bit more connection between them, and I also found the lack of hope in the stories kind of dispiriting. The book is described as "darkly comic", but it's not a kind of humor that resonates with me, and I struggled to find the hope in it. There are occasional moments—a man determined to take care of his brother; his brother, in turn, recognizing when the tables need turning; a father who at first seems maybe like a bit of a deadbeat ultimately understanding his son better than one might expect. But mostly things tend to go downhill, not to improve, for the characters here, and while I don't mind a bit of grit I think I just struggled with the lack of joy.

But: I do seem to be something of an outlier here, and if you're already familiar with Murray's work I suspect this one won't disappoint. I'd read more, but I'd do so with a bit more mental preparation for how grim things might feel by the end of the book.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: Short story: "The Plus-One Pact" by Lana Ferguson

The Plus-One Pact by Lana Ferguson
Published November 2026 via Amazon Original Stories

It's as classic a setup as it gets: He's been in love with her since they met. She needs a date for her sister's wedding. And there's only one bed...

This is part of a Christmassy short-story collection, with some of the short stories admittedly a bit more Christmassy than others—actually, as much as anything I'd say it's something of a winter wedding collection. But in any case, here, Emma finds herself needing a fake date (the tropes are strong in this one), not least to show her ex she's moved on; what she doesn't realize is that Cole (her best friend and fake date) would prefer that the date be real.

It's cute and fluffy, a bread-and-butter romance if ever there was one. I wasn't wildly in love with either character (Cole's acting skills are abjectly terrible—it's a mystery how he's hidden his crush for so long—and Emma just feels a bit frothier and substanceless than typically keeps my attention), but it didn't matter so much for such a short story. Might have been nice to have Emma a bit more...aware?...earlier on, though, as in Cole's place I'd worry that there was a bit of a zero-to-sixty element about her interest.

If there's a lesson here, in any case: Shoot your shot. Why spend years waiting and wondering?

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "Papa Drew a Thousand Birds" by Maren Amini and Ahmadjan Amini

Papa Drew a Thousand Birds by Maren Amini and Ahmadjan Amini
Translated to English by Marianne Martens
Published November 2026 via Levine Querido
★★★★

What a lovely and complex look at Afghanistan of the past. Papa Drew a Thousand Birds takes us through Ahmadjan Amini's childhood and upbringing in Afghanistan—a very different Afghanistan than the one in the news today. This is an Afghanistan that finds its way onto the hippie trail; one in which dreams of being an artist are, if not encouraged or even really tolerated, not really much more than an oddity that the family is embarrassed by.

Maren Amini, Ahmadjan's daughter and the first author listed here, shows up minimally in the book itself—the story is really about Ahmadjan's life up to a point before Maren is grown up—but the combination of what is in the book and the fact that the two wrote this together speaks volumes, more than an extended plotline could. There's a really wonderful, almost wordless call-back to Ahmadjan's childhood at one point when his own children are small, and it's such a perfect illustration of...where he was and how he understands it now.

The art is quite simple. It has a style that makes me think "European graphic novel", though unfortunately my language for graphic novels is limited and I can't really elaborate on why that's the case. I suppose I'd hoped for a bit more color (that cover!), but it's evocative despite the simplicity. Readers who are familiar with the epic poem "The Conference of the Birds" (I am not) will likely get even more out of this, but it's not necessary to have read the poem first. Would absolutely recommend.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "The Immortal" by Christopher Pike

The Immortal by Christopher Pike
Published 1993
★★★

I got it in my head recently to read a few old Christopher Pike books that I read in childhood. As with many of the books I read as a kid, I really don't know how this one ended up in our house; it isn't and wasn't in my family's usual genres. (Maybe my sister; she definitely went through a Greek mythology stage.)

I'd forgotten some significant things here, like how present the Greek gods storyline is; Pike made up his own additional mythology for the sake of this story, and it works well. It's been long enough since I read this that I'd forgotten some key details, which is always nice, and honestly? This was fun. I remember Pike's books being treated as sort of...trashy fiction...or very pulpy, anyway, and although it's not that this isn't pulpy, in many ways it could comfortably hold its own against more recent YA. Josie and Helen aren't squeaky-clean, and neither do they particularly want to be; for their trip to Greece they want nudist beaches and R-rated summer flings and just maybe to beat the other in a game of boys.

With all that said: This is absolutely a book written for horny teenaged boys. I suspect this is a theme in Pike's older books; as I write this, I'm reading (rereading) Master of Murder, and, well...we'll come back to that theme. I don't know that I can really recommend this as a first-time read—but it was a nice bit of nostalgia.