Review: "Someone to Daydream About" by Sydney Langford

 

Someone to Daydream About by Sydney Langford
Published March 2026 via Farrar, Straus and Giroux
★★★

Natalie just wants to make enough money to save the Deaf Center her family runs—and Felix, pop star extraordinaire, needs an ASL tutor and is willing to spend $$$ to have Natalie on call 24/7. It's a match made in heaven...if they can just get their dang teenage hormones in line.

I have a habit of reading a book description once, putting the book on my TBR, and then completely forgetting what it's about by the time I read the book. Why reread the description when you already know it's something you want to read? By the time I picked this one up, I'd forgotten that deafness (which I suspect was why I shelved it in the first place) was a feature of the book, so I had the unexpected/unplanned experience of reading a bunch of books involving deafness in a row—The Queen's Granddaughter, which has a significant side character with hearing loss; Someone to Daydream About; Mother Tongue, which is a memoir about deafness and deaf culture; and (at the time of writing, one of my current reads) The Hearing Test, which is about a woman who experiences sudden hearing loss.

I like getting the different takes, and I love that Natalie is so passionate about making sure sign is accessible to her community. There's some quiet conflict about money and accessibility, which makes sense—if Mother Tongue reinforced anything, it's that the deaf (and Deaf, for people who prefer the capital letter) community is continually and systematically pushed to the margins.

I did wish that a bit less of this book had been so...awash in teenage hormones. I thought for a while that I would have liked the book better if it had been coded more adult romance (with older characters, etc.) and less YA romance, but I think the author might be quite young, which makes the target audience make a little more sense here. That is...maybe I'm just over the hump of my YA reading days (and so this book is for many people, just not so much for me), but I'd still have preferred a little less teenage dramatics. I enjoyed this a bit more in theory than in practice.

Review: "Half Light" by Mahesh Rao

Half Light by Mahesh Rao
Published September 2026 via Pushkin Press
★★★★

2014: Two men meet in a hotel in Darjeeling. Neville, a hotel guest, sees promise of a hookup; Pavan, a hotel employee, sees mostly the likelihood of ruin.

2018: Pavan and Neville meet again, by chance, in Mumbai. The country is changing, and the Supreme Court is on the verge of handing down a decision that will (in effect) determine whether homosexuality is decriminalized.

In a few weeks they would be told by the court whether this time they would be allowed their freedom. The news pieces said it would be the last such opportunity in their lifetimes. It was written down for anyone to read and so Pavan supposed it was true. But it felt like a distant matter, which would have no bearing on his life, whatever was decided. (152*)

This makes for a fascinating read. I like stories about experiences and cultures that are not my own (I always learn something), but more than that, what interests me is the ways in which Neville and Pavan are so deliberately different. Neville isn't wealthy, but his family is comfortably middle-class; he has education and opportunities and, perhaps more than anything, the cosmopolitan and (when he wants it) anonymous background of Mumbai. Pavan, meanwhile, is from a rural place with far fewer options and far more opportunities to fall through quicksand; materially, he has less to lose, but he also has a whole lot less of a safety net than Neville does. Experience has taught Neville that he can push the boundaries with impunity; experience has taught Pavan that the closer he stays to the straight (no pun intended) and narrow, the safer he will be.

For much of the book I wasn't sure whether this was a pairing I was meant to be rooting for. It's not a pairing Pavan wants, necessarily; his risk–reward calculations are different than Neville's. It is a pairing Neville wants, but that's less because of Pavan himself and more because...well, initially because Neville is bored, perhaps, and later because he's not used to being told no. But if Neville doesn't come off terribly well, it's intentional and what makes him and interesting character, and I'd rather have interesting characters than bland perfection. (Though they way my heart leapt into my throat at the climax!) They're from different classes and possibly different castes (my partner, who is from India, asked if Pavan's last name was mentioned, which would tell him something about caste dynamics between the two men; I could not find a last name, so who knows, but in any case let's assume layers upon layers of complicated dynamics), and their actions cannot help but be informed by their individual backgrounds and circumstances. No tidy endings here, but a lot of food for thought.

Recommended as a snapshot of a time and a place and perhaps of human fallibility.

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

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

Review: "Becoming the Ocean" by Erin Russ

Becoming the Ocean by Erin Russ
Published September 2026 via Twenty Fourteen Press
★★★★

Upending their lives and taking to the seas was supposed to solidify their marriage. Instead, what became clear was that something had to give.

We had never sailed alone together on the ocean, and never overnight. [...] Neither of us had ever stepped foot onto a sailboat until we owned our own, so we had to learn everything: from how to raise and lower the sails, to how to avoid hitting rocks and capsizing. (loc. 304*)

Despite an irrational dislike of boats (I am an excellent swimmer, but there's just something about the idea of being out beyond the sight of land and knowing that you're too far out to swim to safety if need be), I have a thing for "packed up my life and sailed away" sorts of books. Russ went into the sailing adventure with limited (though, for their purposes, adequate) boating experience and even more limited confidence.

Brian oozed competence—it's what had drawn me to him all those years ago. He had all the qualities I desired and wanted to attain for myself: he was confident, capable, and knew who he was[...]. Initially, I'd hoped some of his confidence might rub off on me. But over the years, I'd ended up hiding behind it at the expense of my own. It was easier to let him take the lead than to risk making a mistake. Now, I couldn't see past him. Everything I knew about myself—from my likes and dislikes, to my sense of who I was—had taken shape within the confines of our relationship. And I only knew how to be the person Brian wanted me to be. (loc. 332)

So it's a sailing story and a relationship story and a self-discovery story. It's evident early on that the status quo of the relationship suits Russ's husband well, but Russ less well; the question becomes what to do with that, and what their relationship will look like when all is said and done. The events of the book took place some number of years ago, which for book purposes is great; it means that Russ has had the time to think it over and process and figure out how the pieces fit together. The emotions are still there but not the same kind of raw that can come across when the story is still new. I'm curious about more of the what came after, but I also understand why it's out of the scope of this book.

Readers looking for more along these lines might like Love with a Chance of Drowning.

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

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

Review: "We're All Going to Die Tonight!" by Veronica Bane

We're All Going to Die Tonight! by Veronica Bane
Published September 2026 via Delacorte Press
★★★

It's bad enough that the Coastal Canyon debate team didn't do well at their competition—first a flat tire forces them to trek through the woods to their Airbnb, and then there's no Internet. And then comes the blood...and the body.

This made for a fast-paced, quick read. Not quite a locked-room thriller (the teens aren't sure whether there's someone outside or whether one of their own is responsible for the blood and the body and so on), but they're in over their heads pretty much before they even know there's something to worry about.

We get the story from all of the teenagers' perspectives, with each chapter moving from one character to another. All seven of them have their POV moments, though the chapters aren't evenly split (i.e., we're in some characters' heads significantly more than others). I had mixed feelings about so much changing between characters. The voices are distinct, which is helpful, but I still found myself flipping back to check whose perspective I was reading (harder with seven voices than with, e.g., two!). On the other hand, multiple POVs makes it harder to predict who will and won't survive (since only one POV suggests that that character, at least, will). There's some effort to make at least some of the characters possible to root for, which also helps; we have some seriously toxic characters and some people I wouldn't want to be stuck in an elevator with, but we also have characters who are imperfect but doing their best.

The actual mystery ends up being a bit convoluted. I guessed some of the pieces before the end, but not most of them, and while I am fond of mysteries where I don't figure it all out, I do think that any semicompetent investigator would have a field day unpicking the real story. (To say nothing of what they would have made of the scene if the original plan had gone exactly as planned!)

Would be good as a beach read, or for travel—keeps the attention and doesn't require too much thinking.

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

Review: "The Secret to Belonging" by Megan E. Freeman

The Secret to Belonging by Megan E. Freeman
Published September 2026 via Atheneum Books for Young Readers
★★★★

It's the 80s, and our narrator dreams of a fresh start in college—somewhere far away from California, far away from her brother's addiction, far away from the parents who have poured so much of their love and energy and focus into helping (or enabling) her brother that it often feels like there is none left for her. And when they use her college fund to pay for yet another round of rehab, well, there is her college dream gone to dust too. And so she finds herself, on little more than a desperate whim, applying to study abroad and accepting an opening in Norway, a place she can barely locate on a map.

Because I am predictable, I read this for the setting—I always want more fiction, and more YA fiction specifically, that takes place in far-flung but less-travelled places. (I love a good book set in Paris or Rome, sure, but those are also easy to find; give me travel fiction set in Finland or Botswana or Kazakhstan, please.) And when our narrator goes in, she goes all in: Again, it's the 80s (though this is only mentioned in passing, well into the book), and she cannot spend her time in rural Norway on the Internet; she can write letters to friends, yes (and home on occasion), but mostly she learns to study and socialize in Norwegian, and she learns what it is like to live in a family that does not have her family's demons.

the post arrives / a letter from Alison / a postcard from Maura / you feel giddy / you feel rich (loc. 763*)

(Every family has its demons, or at least its skeletons in the closet. But for our narrator, it's still refreshing to think that there is something out there beyond what her own family has been able to offer her.)

It's a complex book with a lot going on. I enjoyed the use of verse here—it made for a fast read without feeling as though it was just short sentences with extra line breaks. The characters, too, are allowed complexity. Perhaps my favorite thing is the quarter the narrator is given, relatively early on in the book, and what happens with the quarter; I don't want to say too much about it, but it's such a small moment that speaks volumes about the narrator and the way she views her family situation.

Really glad I picked this one up. I hope it makes it into lots of high school libraries and encourages kids to think beyond the confines of their towns.

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

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

Review: "Game On" by Zarah Detand

Game On by Zarah Detand
Published September 2026 via Storm Publishing
★★★★

Stellan's job is straightforward, and also not: He engineers opportunities for people to stray...and if they do, someone is in place to get photo proof. He does it because he's good at it, but also because it's one of few opportunities he could get as someone with an underprivileged background and limited education and resources. And that's fine...until he realizes that his current job doesn't involve catching someone cheating, but outing someone who isn't ready to be out.

Detand has yet to disappoint. This is a premise that would make me nervous in the hands of a lot of romance authors—actually, I've read a book with a very similar premise before (minus the queer outing), and it drove me batty, not in a good way, that the "hero" of that book spent most of the book hiding the fact that his job involved making public other people's indiscretions of various shapes and sizes...and once the heroine found out, it of course all still worked out fine, even though he'd been plotting to bring her down (not because there was anything wrong with what she was doing, but because $$$) for most of the book. And that's what interests me so much here: In so many books, Stellan would be hiding his role in things for a huge chunk of the book, at which point Matt would find out and there'd be a huge conflict. Instead, here, Matt knows more or less from the beginning who Stellan is and what role he played in those pictures of Matt...and that's something they have to find a way to work through (or not, as the case may be).

As ever with Detand's books, the dialogue and pace are tight and the characters ones you'd like to spend more time with. I'm going to have to go through her full backlist at some point (so much to read, so little time), but in the meantime I'm thoroughly enjoying reading what comes my way.

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

Review: Short story: "Love Antidote" by Brynne Weaver

Love Antidote by Brynne Weaver
Published September 2026 via Amazon Original Stories

Isla has a target, a deadline, and a problem—the problem being the maybe-a-restaurant-critic who has eaten the poisoned dessert meant for her mark.

This makes for a fast, fun short story with just a bit of Mr. and Mrs. Smith coding—I mean, different plot and setup, and maybe (almost certainly) my references are dated, but something about "competing spies" is always going to read Mr. and Mrs. Smith to me. Here, the characters have to figure out who they can trust and just how far that trust should extend...and then whether or not they can get the job done. One way or another.

There's actually a little less poison in here than I expected, but then, it's a short story. Is it weird that I think it would be fun to have a whole set of short stories about assassins, each of whom has a different specialty of ways to kill?

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

Review (Deutsch): "Die Schwestern vom Buchladen" von Alice Hoffman

Die Schwestern vom Buchladen von Alice Hoffman (übersetzt von Marina Ignatjuk)
Herausgegeben von Amazon Original Stories

Eine Geschichte von Schwestern. Interessant, diese Geschichte auf Deutsch zu lesen—ich habe schon ein paar von Hoffmans kurzen Geschichten über diese Familie gelesen, aber nur auf Englisch.

Hier haben wir zwei Schwestern, die jetzt nicht wirklich...eng...sind. Die jetzt nicht wirklich Freundinnen sind. Sie sind aber immer noch Schwestern, und, na ja, man tut, was man für die Familie tun muss.

Ich mag Schwestergeschichten (und Freundinnengeschichten); Liebesgeschichte, nicht so viel, aber meistens geht es hier um die Geschichte zwischen Isabel und Sophie. (Es gibt eine Romanze, aber sie ist relativ klein.) Insgesamt ein bisschen zu süß für mich, aber das war schnell gelesen.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley. Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final. Deutsch ist nicht meine Muttersprache, und alle Fehler sind meine eigenen.

Review: "Pining for You" by Stef Ferrari

Pining for You by Stef Ferrari
Published September 2026 via Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
★★★

Bennie just wants two things: To get into film school so she can make queer holiday movies, and to get her first kiss. A chance encounter with a cute girl at the Christmas tree farm where Bennie works increases the chance of the latter...if she can just find the girl again. And what's Christmas if not a chance to take a road trip to NYC, attempt her first-ever documentary while she's at it, and get the girl?

I like a cute Christmas book, I like queer romance, and (if we're being honest here) I really like punny titles. And this was good fun—Bennie has a solid friend group, all with well-developed senses of adventure, and they get up to some good-natured minor chaos in NYC. (I also appreciated that this wasn't their first time in the city; they're still functionally tourists, but slightly less wide-eyed than they might be.)

Bennie's "documentary" plot felt a bit thin; she puts down her camera every time someone does or says something that doesn't fit with her view of Christmas magic, even if it's an objectively interesting moment (or if there's something more interesting to say than "look! magic!"). I did like the way her film school arc plays out—not unrealistic—but I was waiting and waiting for a moment when it would get through to her that she was going to have a hard time making her documentary if all she was filming was a montage of context-free happy moments, and that moment really never comes. (And...I know I'm old, but 27 uses of "ya know" is at least 25 uses too many.)

The romance is fine; I see what Bennie likes in Eve, though their romance is really based on vibes and fumes (could turn out great! Just, the entire book is kind of an extended meet-cute, so who knows how things would go once they actually got to spend real time with each other). In the end it's a cute, fast, fun holiday read, albeit probably one that won't stick with me.

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

Review: "The Queen's Granddaughter" by Diane Zahler

The Queen's Granddaughter by Diane Zahler
Published March 2026 via Roaring Brook Press
★★★

Blanca of Castile loves her life just as it is—but when her grandmother comes calling, Blanca finds that she must embark on her first true adventure, a move to France for a politically advantageous marriage.

Now, I read this almost entirely for the grandmother. Eleanor of Aquitaine is my historical heroine, which has nothing to do with her politics (which were horrific and Isamophobic and often extremely violent—it was not an accident that she went on the Crusades) and everything to do with the fact that she had an astonishing amount of power for a woman in the Middle Ages, and while power itself does not make a person interesting (and a great deal of privilege went into that power), she didn't end up with that kind of power by being wet behind the ears. More on her politics in a moment, but I'm always delighted to find a new take on Eleanor of Aquitaine, and this comes at it from a perspective that I haven't seen before: Eleanor in her later years, as seen by one of her granddaughters.

The late 1100s were of course a very different time. Travel was an Ordeal. In The Queen's Granddaughter, Blanca's mother (Eleanor, Queen of Castile, named for her own mother) says that she hasn't seen her mother (aka Eleanor herself) since she was twelve, presumably not long after she married. And of course this sort of thing is not unheard of now—some children are still pushed into marriage, and some children are still separated from their parents for years or decades because of conflicts or borders. But in the late 1100s this was, you know, normal. (Or at least normal for those for whom marriage was heavily political.) I will note that Zahler says in the history section at the end of the book that Eleanor (the OG, not the queen of Castile) was born in 1122 and married at the age of fifteen, but to the best of my knowledge the year of her birth isn't actually known (at the time she was born, she was "just a girl", and nobody had reason to think that she'd end up being the powerhouse that she was, so a record of her birthday wasn't important...or if there was a record, it's long since been lost), and while she might have been born in 1122 a lot of scholars think she was born in 1124, which would have had her married at thirteen, not fifteen. On one level it doesn't matter, but I'm not a fan of the choice to present one of those years as fact, without any acknowledgement of the unknowns.

But I digress. This isn't Eleanor's story: It's Blanca's. Blanca's best friend and confidante is a girl named Suna, who has a level head to Blanca's rasher nature. Suna is hard of hearing following childhood illness, and her family is Muslim, which in Castile (at least according to this book; I do not know any history of the area) is a nonissue but in Eleanor's France is...more of an issue. (See: Crusades.) I appreciate that the book makes an effort to address this—both Eleanor's prejudices and the difficulty of being in a minority religion, anywhere and anytime. There is some element of glossing-over (I find Eleanor fascinating but, again, wildly problematic; even in her old age I'm not convinced she'd have come around in the way she does here), but one that makes sense in a middle grade book.

Blanca I didn't love. She's twelve in the book, but I didn't know that going in (I know—it's the first line in the description—but I shelved the book months before I read it, and I don't usually go back and read the description in between), and when Blanca was first introduced I genuinely thought she was about seven: listening at doors and stomping her foot when she didn't get her way. It's not that I think that twelve-year-olds, then and now, don't do that, but twelve in the Middle Ages was a different thing. Twelve was old enough to get married, old enough to be doing a lot of household work and preparation for the future. It's not that I think that twelve-year-olds were more mature in the 1100s than they are now, but I think they were maybe expected to be more mature anyway, and that doesn't really jive with stomping around like an elementary-school student having a fit. I suppose she's written for the modern twelve-year-olds, but I didn't love it.

Still, it's a lively adventure story and an interesting look at a different part of Eleanor's life than we usually get. This one was a priority for me from the moment I saw it was coming out, and even if I've aged out of it somewhat I'm glad it's out there for the actual twelve-year-olds to enjoy.