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.

Review: "She's a Doll" by Barbara Truelove

She's a Doll by Barbara Truelove
Published September 2026 via Bindery Books
★★★★★

Lucy's dead—but death isn't going to stop her. She's a little messy and a lot angry and oh, by the way, she's currently possessing a bride doll.

I don't read a ton of horror, but I was so curious about this one that I just couldn't resist. There's something just so delightfully creepy about a haunted doll, and even better that the book is told from the perspective of said haunted doll.

Lucy's refrain throughout the book is simple and heartbreaking:

Why did he do that to me?
Why couldn't I stop him?
What's going to happen now?

This isn't a one-off lament—even without the minor detail of being dead, Lucy's been through some serious trauma, and there aren't really simple answers to any of those questions. She struggles throughout the book: with anger, with physical limitations, with getting used to what she can and cannot do as a possessed doll, with loss after loss. This isn't just the loss of her life; it's the loss of her future, her family, her dog, any romantic aspirations, her freedom as she knows it, the ability to taste food and take a shower and communicate freely.

It's messy. Lucy is messy. The friendship she develops with Nicola, eventually, is messy. The beginning of the book notes that Lucy is a liar, but for most of the book it's not even that she lies; it's that she's so desperate to get vengeance for her murder that she can't see past her own nose. Or, sometimes she can see how hard things are for Nicola too, but rarely can Lucy hold on to that long enough to rein herself in. It makes for such a complicated relationship and such a complicated book, even as Lucy is storming around in a mold-infested body with cracks in her porcelain head and a stick for a makeshift arm. It's dark and it's fabulous.

I said I don't read a ton of horror, and that's true, but honestly, between this and Bethesda maybe it's time to rethink that?

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

Review: "Morfran, Dark Lord Reformed" by S.B. West

Morfran, Dark Lord Reformed by S.B. West
Published September 2026 via Ace
★★★★

Morfran is tired of beheading his subjects—tired enough that he has ended his marriage to the gleefully violent Ravana, fled his castle, and reinvented himself as Bernard, a goat farmer (and of course expert jam-maker). But when his goat farm is burned down by Ravana's soldiers, and he finds himself saving a group of rebels, he is forcefully adopted by said rebels...and they want Bernard to help bring down Morfran. As in, himself. As in, oops.

This is best read with tongue firmly in cheek and a well-developed sense of absurdité. I actually regret reading this almost as soon as I got a copy, because frankly I could use a light and irreverent read now!

"Is that my sword?" Morfran sat up as high as he could, angrily incredulous to the image. His sword had become something of an icon to his legacy as Dark Lord of Ruthven™. Black and wicked-looking, it was forged with sweat, tears, and red food dye #7, and a blood amber topped off its devilish appearance in the pommel. It was so popular kingdom-wide that his men had taken to having their swords styled in a way just like it, and Morfran was quite pleased to know he was a trendsetter among his villainous peers. (loc. 546*)

The whole book goes a bit like this—there's plot, and there's character development, and there's quite a bit of fighting (and of course a romance along the way), but it's cloaked in satire and silliness. High notes include (but are not limited to) Bronwen's curse and Morfran's constant thwarted attempts at escape...not to mention the goats.

I will note that while I loved the book, I didn't love the way Morfran was eventually asked to atone for his actions. It makes some sense in the context of the story, and certainly it's in line with the tone of the book, but it also felt a little easy (not to mention as though it could cause big other problems in the future). The flip side is that his atonement had to be very big gesture (his entire previous identity was wrapped around killing people), and not much else would likely do the job, so that that as you will.

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

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

Review: "With All My Haunted Heart" by Isabel Sterling

With All My Haunted Heart by Isabel Sterling
Published September 2026 via Berkley
★★★★

Pippa's magic business is struggling—but when her friend asks her to go against her usual instincts and bring ghosts to his new B&B rather than banishing them, well...it's a challenge. But one she's up for. Especially because her friend's business partner is just about as intriguing as the magic challenge...

This was super cute. I'm reminded a bit of The Faraway Inn in the way magic works here—there are kinks to work out, but it's mostly fairly light. For Pippa, magic is something creative; she has, for various reasons, turned away from the type of magic her family uses, and her days (when she has the clients, anyway) are spent counteracting curses and banishing ghosts. Haunting (instead of un-haunting) a B&B has its own unique set of challenges, starting with finding ghosts who will be a good fit for the place, and I thoroughly enjoyed Pippa's thought processes as she figured out what was possible and what was necessary.

The stakes stay relatively small in the book (big for the people involved, but not always more broadly) but there are some pretty heavy themes. I avoid spoilers, but readers who have had significant loss might want to check the trigger warnings. They're in there for a reason, though, and those themes inform the way the relationship shakes out. I like the relationship quite a lot—both characters taking care to ensure that they help the other with their baggage—though I think I would have liked to learn a bit more about Elle. I'm not sure Pippa really gets the closure that she deserves (her family, man!), and I did wonder whether there might be setup for a future book, or if not setup then at least a door left intentionally open.

I'd love to see a future book that involves the ghosts more; there are some fun characters among them, and it would be super fun to see what hijinks the ghosts get up to when...well, when they're bored, or when there's a problem that can best be solved by people without corporeal bodies...I don't know if this is meant to be a series eventually, but I'd happily read more.

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

Review: "The Camino" by Anya Niewierra

The Camino by Anya Niewierra
Translated from the Dutch by Eileen Stevens
Published August 2026 via Simon & Schuster
★★★

A year ago, Lotte's husband died violently on the Camino; now, she's walking his same route in his memory, trying to understand what drove him to end it all.

I'll very happily read most things about the Camino, even more than a decade after I walked it myself (on different routes than Lotte), and it's been a delight to see a bit more fiction coming through about the experience. For a while it was mostly memoir and the occasional nonfiction treatise, and I love both of those things, but I also love variety. The Camino is billed as a thriller, although I'm not sure that's entirely accurate. The plot hinges on a complicated backstory, some of what Lotte learns as she goes and some of which we get through letters throughout the book: Her husband, whom she knew to have been a refugee following the Bosnian genocide (she's never known details), was living under a false name, and—given the awful way that he died—Lotte is desperate to know whether his past contributed to his suicide. So that's one part of the mystery, but the other part is in the...accidents...that keep happening around Lotte.

The parts about the Bosnian genocide are complicated and (I overuse this word, but it's accurate) fascinating. They're also hard to read in places; the book doesn't shy away from the horrors of neighbors turning against neighbors, of nationalism turned violent, of not knowing who you can trust or where is safe to be. There's a lot the reader (to say nothing of Lotte) doesn't fully understand until close to the end, including who held what perspectives and roles during the genocide; there's also some really interesting discussion about what all of this means for the present day, and whether it's possible to truly reinvent onself.

Lotte, though, I struggled with. I didn't really need all the attempts on her life (I lost count of how many there were, but suffice it to say that the attempts are pretty well constant); I think the historical mystery was enough mystery for me, and I could have done without the constant murder attempts (none of which Lotte understands as anything other than coincidence until very close to the end). Lotte thinks she's pretty aware of her surroundings, but it takes her quite a long time to put together the pieces, and when she starts deciding who to trust based largely on hormones, I started thinking she was a bit TSTL (too busy telling people she's a chocolatier to focus on possible consequences?). The number of men falling in love or in lust with her also stretched the bounds of my imagination, and by the end of the book I think I was just a little over Lotte.

So a mixed bag. For the Bosnia material alone, this would be four stars, but mixed with other things it ended up somewhat lower for me. Your mileage may vary, especially if you read it in the original Dutch or in a different translation—always hard to know how much that might impact the experience.

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

Review: "When I Fell from the Sky" by Juliane Koepcke

When I Fell from the Sky by Juliane Koepcke
Translated by Ross Benjamin
Published 2011 via Titletown Publishing
★★★★

In December 1971, Koepcke got on a plane with her mother in Lima to return to their home in the Peruvian rainforest. It was a trip they'd made many times before and one that should have been uneventful—except that the plane crashed, and when Koepcke regained consciousness, she found herself alone among the trees, with a broken collarbone and nobody else in sight. Eventually she heard search planes circling—but she understood almost immediately that the vastness of the forest and the density of the trees made her chance of a rescue next to impossible, and so she set about rescuing herself.

Later I will learn that at that time the entire river was uninhabited. If I had simply lain down somewhere and stayed there, I would never have been found. (98)

I've had this book on my radar for some time (Wikipedia rabbit holes and all that), but I recently read a middle grade take on Koepcke's story, and it seemed absurd to have read someone else's take but not her own. Koepcke shifts back and forth throughout the story, between her time in the rainforest and the time after she made it back to safety. What I most appreciate is that she talks about the long-term process of moving forward as well as the immediate impact. There's just no way for this to not change your life immediately and totally; in addition to being the sole survivor of a terrible accident, Koepcke lost her mother and in some ways emotionally lost her father, who was of course devastated by the loss of his wife. And yet although it turned her life upside down, it doesn't sound like it turned the trajectory of her life upside down, at least not overall.

One thing of note: The world is a terribly cruel place sometimes. I mentioned this when I reviewed Follow the Water, too, but it bears repeating in Koepcke's own words:

Later I was accused in the press of simply leaving selfishly, without worrying about the injured. In other newspapers it was even written that the survivors were wandering around in the forest, screaming and crying, and I ran off on my own. The truth is, I found no survivors. I don't know what I would have done if I had actually found injured passengers and possibly my mother. Probably I would have stayed with them and we would have perished together. (78)

Hopefully this wouldn't happen today, but man, the cruelty of making this sort of thing up about a child (Koepcke was 17), and one who had just survived something horrific and lost her mother no less, just to sell some papers.

At any rate, the book is an interesting and measured read. Koepcke was so terribly unlucky in some ways, but so terribly lucky in others—to have injuries that she could still walk with; to have her mind push her pain away until she was safe; to have grown up learning to navigate the rainforest and thus to be at home and knowledgeable in her environment when so many others would not have known what to do (and, as she notes, when in a different environment she also would not know what to do). Well worth the read.

Review: Short story: "The Spider Silk Scarf" by Ana Reyes

The Spider Silk Scarf by Ana Reyes
Published September 2026 via Amazon Original Stories

When Nora steals, it fills something of a gap within her. She steals things that make her happy, and so far she hasn't been caught. But the spider silk scarf is something else entirely—a rarity, yes, and one she knows she has to have, but one that will require breaking into an old woman's home. And, surprising perhaps no one, things do not go to plan.

What interests me most here is what is asked of the reader: Nora's not a bad person, but she is also, objectively, a criminal; some of her thefts are petty, but others are markedly more significant. And yet the story asks you to sympathize with Nora, at least partially, to hope that she doesn't get caught and (maybe) that she'll come away with her booty. And on the whole, it works: I found myself, if not entirely supporting Nora, at least hoping that she wouldn't be caught in too ugly a way; I didn't really want her to be able to steal the scarf, but...well, it's some interesting work.

Again, things do not really go to plan for Nora. I figured out well before she did what might be going on, which in this context of this story makes some sense. Nicely ambiguous ending, too, or if not ambiguous exactly then at least not all tied up with a bow.

<i>Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.</i>

Review: "Just Between Us" by Adeline Kon

Just Between Us by Adeline Kon
Published February 2026 via Dial Books
★★★

As a skater, Lydia is at the top of her game—her technical prowess is unmatched, and she's confident that she can win any competition she sets her sights on. Her attitude, though...that leaves something to be desired. Enter Elaine, against whom Lydia has competed for years; Elaine does not have quite the consistency or skills that Lydia does, but she still finds joy when she steps onto the rink.

Now, I cannot relate to either of these characters on a skating level: I can just about keep my balance on the ice, and that's where my skill starts and ends. But skating is fun to watch and fun to read about, and the illustrations here do a great job at capturing the athleticism and grace required to be competitive at skating.

The characters I didn't love. Or rather: Elaine's character felt a bit indistinct. She's pretty close to unfailingly kind, a golden girl who gets along with just about everyone and is highly respected in her sport to boot. She's also hiding a thing or two about her personal life. But...not a lot beyond that. Lydia, meanwhile, has isolated herself from just about everyone around her; her response to kindness or rudeness or praise or concern is to snap at the person in question and, if they too are a skater, to remind them that her ranking is higher than theirs (or if they aren't a skater, to tell them that they don't understand the pressures of being on top). Part of Lydia's journey throughout the book is of course to let her walls down a bit and be...a bit kinder to people...but until she gets to that point there's quite a lot of bitterness and ego, and after that point there's quite a bit of teenage angst. Had its moments, but by the end I was ready to move on to something else.

Review: "Concrete" by Stephen Parnell

Concrete by Stephen Parnell
Published September 2026 via Bloomsbury Academic
★★★★

Here we meet the first of concrete's famous paradoxes: concrete is both inherently and simultaneously precise and messy, depending on the material's state and on one's viewpoint. (loc. 99*)

Back to my favourite nonfiction series! In Concrete, Parnell dives into...you guessed it...concrete. Parnell is an architect, so concrete is something he knows well, being as it is a major player in contemporary architecture. (My architect husband, when asked, described concrete as "almost like a mythical material" but said that he's against its use now, on climate grounds...but more on that in a moment.)

Much of this book is about architecture, and the types of architecture that the development of concrete has enabled. Brutalism is the obvious style, of course, but Parnell argues that concrete has a great deal more versatility than is often ascribed to it. I highlighted some lines because they interested me, but I highlighted many more because there were so many buildings to look up later (I'm particularly charmed by Ricardo Bofill's reinvention of a disused cement factory into a living and working space).

I was concerned for a while that the book would not touch on the climate impact of concrete, but of course I worried too soon: [Concrete] is responsible for about 8 percent of global CO₂ emissons, more than aviation (2.5 percent) and not far behind agriculture (12 percent). [...] if it were a country, [the cement industry] would be the fifth largest emitter (behind China, the United States, India, and Russia. (loc. 1418) Or, well, perhaps I didn't worry too soon, because I knew concrete wasn't great for the environment, but I didn't know the numbers were so damning. Or consider this:

One recent study estimated that 14 percent of the United States' and 60 percent of China's coastlines are now made of concrete. (loc. 1431)

What a grim image! Concrete has its place...but it's time to consider other, more environmentally friendly options.

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

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

Review: "On Their Frontlines" by Marina Lisa Komiya

On Their Frontlines by Marina Lisa Komiya
Published September 2026 via Takumigraphics
★★★★

Japan in the 1940s: Haru and Yoriko are would-be lovers, kept apart by convention (the 1940s is not an easy time to be a queer woman) and circumstance (their entire lives have been torn apart by war). The war never ended for me, says one of the women, and never have truer words been spoken.

I found this line in the preface really valuable context while reading: As you read this story, you may find yourself vexed by certain elements. This is not a story of strong, independent women, but one where the female characters find themselves having to rely on the kindness of soldiers from the winning side in order to survive. Those who come into this story hoping to find a narrative about female empowerment, where all the women stand on their own two feet, may find themselves especially disappointed. However, the characters I wanted to depict were those unremarkable, vulnerable people who were forced to bear the brunt of the overwhelmingly dismal state that Japan had fallen into in the wake of losing the war – those people who never had the chance to live their lives as they pleased.

As somebody who of course always wants the women in a story to be able to stand on their own two feet, and who also wants stories to make sense for the time and place they're set in, I really appreciated having that commentary right up front. Because it's true: These are not particularly independent women, but they're also not women who have ever had the opportunity for much independence. Neither of them is looking for a prince in shining armor (or a prince at all), but at some point they both realize that they might have to settle for something they don't particularly want in order to get, or stay, out of an even worse situation.

This is volume 1, and I'm curious to see how many more volumes this story might have and whether Haru and Yoriko might eventually cross paths again. I don't need a perfect happy ending for them (see: stories that make sense for the time and place they're set in), but it'll be interesting to see where their stories go.

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

Review: "The Pomegranate Is a Grenade" by Maha Hashwi

The Pomegranate Is a Grenade by Maha Hashwi
Published September 2026 via Central Avenue Poetry
★★★★

it's not easy being told you are incomplete because you are uncovered / or being told you are dangerous because you are covered (37*)

A thoughtful collection about faith and discrimination and love, whatever love means. I am fairly specific about the poetry I read—I am no expert (there is a reason I steered clear of the poetry department during my MFA), but I know what I like, and the things that I like include solid themes (though that's not strictly necessary) and crisp imagery, and The Pomegranate Is a Grenade (hello, that title!) has both.

In another language grenada is pomegranate / The pomegranate is a grenade. / The grenade breaks a mother's hands open / Tears two hearts apart from one another / Forces the release of thick red skin (73)

This made for a decent but imperfect fit for me. Thematically, it's very on point; I like reading about religion, and a number of the things Hashwi discusses are unfortunately very topical right now (read: discrimination and just general ignorance). I do love the titular poem, and there's one that compares prayer to (sometimes!) phone calls with distant relatives that made me think quite a bit. The language is often simpler than I prefer, though; I tend to lean towards...lines that read less like sentences, I suppose, and that do more with wordplay.

3.5 stars; still worth the read, but I'm not sure how many of the poems will still be with me in a month or two.

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

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

Review: "Toe to Toe" by Falon Ballard

Toe to Toe by Falon Ballard
Published March 2026 via G.P. Putnam's Sons
★★

You know the story: ballerina is excellent at ballerina-ing, but she's told that she's not sexy enough for a sexpot role, so she hires a stripper to teach her to bring more sensuality to her performance. Sparks fly, yadda yadda.

And...I'm underwhelmed. I picked this up for the ballet element, and honestly, I didn't realize from the description that this was a ballet-dancer-meets-stripper story—Cord is described instead as the lead dancer of an all-male revue, Cord Donovan, a classically trained dancer who is also the sexiest man she’s ever met. All of that's true! And there's nothing wrong with stripping, and I'm aware that in addition to stripping, Cord is doing a bunch of other things (successful business owner, etc.). But...if I had a cliche-o-meter, this book might have broken it.

The book is genuinely trying to do some interesting things, but a lot of them...left me wanting more, I guess. Let's go through a few.

Diversity: There's an effort at having a varied cast (mostly by way of race, gender, and sexuality), which is great. The book does lose points there by doing one of my pet peeves and having Allegra immediately and accurately identify women as women, men as men, and nonbinary people as "people".

Disordered eating: The author's note at the beginning says that while [Allegra] does not suffer from any diagnosed eating disorder, she is very aware of her eating habits and those behaviors are present on the page (loc. 224). The forewarning is appreciated, and the book is careful not to get into weight or body-checking or calories. At the same time...I find the language of the note strange; not having a diagnosed eating disorder is not the same as not having an eating disorder. If Allegra were in a slightly different context, her approach to eating (terrified of everything but salads, basically) and exercise (must do class + additional workout daily without fail) would raise big red eating disorder flags to those around her. Cole sees it all, and he vacillates between presenting Allegra with food he knows she won't eat and telling her that it's fine, athletes gonna athlete and part of that is engaging in restrictive food habits. And...eesh. Obviously it's true that ballet is a very visual form, and many if not most ballerinas performing at a high level are thin in a way that is unlikely to be something they never think about, but...I'd have preferred this side plot to be either 1) deleted or 2) explored in a great deal more depth.

Sexual harassment: One thread that runs through the book has to do with, well, sexual harassment in the ballet world. Allegra has previously rejected the advances of her ballet director, but among other things, he continues to insinuate that she'll have a higher chance of promotion to principal if she sleeps with him. While Allegra is careful to keep her distance, she is also very, very clear that this is a level of harassment she expects and is willing to tolerate for the sake of continuing in her career. And...what do we do with that? On the one hand, it makes Allegra look like a bit of a doormat, and one who isn't thinking beyond herself—she never stops to consider that if the director is harassing her, there's a good chance he's also harassing other dancers, ones who are more afraid to say no. Never. Not once. And on the other hand, she's in a position that many, many, many woman, in all sorts of careers and jobs, find themselves. Allegra is milquetoast as all get-out, but her decision to tolerate a certain level of sexual harassment is not a surprising one.

What I did want from her, though, was consideration of other options. Allegra is afraid that if she speaks up, she'll be blacklisted and never dance for a reputable company again, and I don't know—maybe that's still true. She's also, as a soloist, still more replaceable than, e.g., a principal dancer who regularly headlines roles. But even if making a formal complaint would torpedo her life, she has other options. She could make an anonymous complaint. She could audition with other dance companies—e.g., ones with directors who aren't withholding promotion because she's refused to sleep with them. She could get a sense of other dancers' experiences with the director and see how much of a pattern this is, see if this is something they could report en masse or if someone less replaceable would back her. She could consider...oh, gosh, I don't even know what else she could consider. But neither does she, because she never tries to consider alternatives.

I can't fault her for not wanting to torpedo her life. I can't. It's not her fault that the director is a slimy slimy sleazeball, and it's not actually her job to fix that. But I still wish she'd do...something.

The ballet: Ballet in this ballet-centric book is nearly nonexistent, unfortunately. Allegra goes to class occasionally (or rather, she goes to class once and sometimes twice daily, but we see it occasionally), and she performs occasionally (ditto), but we see almost none of the details. The ballet she enlists Cord to help her audition for is one choreographed by the slimy skeevy director, and when he describes it at the beginning all of the dancers basically roll their eyes and say "this sounds like a derivative mess that is actually just "Moulin Rouge"", but then their objections fade away into nothing and Allegra treats it as the thing that will put her on the map (or at least lead to her promotion). I suspect this is because "Allegra gets her moment to shine" was a bigger plot priority than "skeevy director isn't even good at his job", but, I dunno. It ended up feeling a little "evil villain is evil". There can be ballets that require sensuality without them being "Moulin Rouge" knock-offs, you know? (But then, maybe it's not even a knock-off, because we see nothing of the audition and next to nothing of the rehearsals and nothing of the performance itself, so.)

Existing in the age of the Internet: As "payment" for her lessons with Cord, Allegra agrees to help him choreograph a duet for his strip club, and then to perform it. I'm not here to take issue with that! Not with his job, and not with her trying out a different kind of stage. What I am here to take issue with is the idea that at no point does either of them consider that they're living in an age of smartphones and social media, that she has a job that makes her more visible than some, and that there is an excellent chance that her experimentation with stripping might become very public. I could get her assessing the risk and deciding it manageable; I could get her saying "no, this is not a risk that I am willing to take". But it being a risk that neither of them ever considers is just...I'm trying to be polite here. It's not smart.

In sum: I wanted to like this, because I like ballet books and I appreciated that the author was trying to bring some shades of grey into situations that can be quite complicated. But the execution just didn't do it for me.

Review: "Swiped Left" by Ruth Madison

Swiped Left by Ruth Madison
Published March 2026
★★★

She swiped left on him because he was in a wheelchair—and then they met in person, and she had second thoughts.

I picked this up because I've seen precious little romance featuring a character who has a significant physical disability, and I wanted to see where this one would go. What I liked: Callie's left-swipe is honest in a way that I suspect a lot of people aren't. She acknowledges that she's afraid someone in a wheelchair would cramp her style, and she's not interested enough to find out if that's true. I'm not encouraging her early-book perspective, but I expect it's more common than not. Better, this isn't a huge dramatic point down the line; it's something that comes up in conversation with Mark fairly early on after they meet. It's a very short book, but they manage to do a fair amount of getting to know each other and solving dramatic stuck-in-a-lodge problems.

What I wasn't so convinced by: Mark is low-key superhuman. He's in a wheelchair, yes, and he's also a doctor and clearly spends many hours in the gym and is 99% of the time hyper-independent and is great with kids and a natural leader and can solve any mechanical problem you throw at him. (And don't forget great in bed!) And on the one hand: With the exception of the wheelchair, that's most romance novels. But on the other hand: I don't like the implication that Mark kind of has to be superhuman for Callie to see beyond the wheels. I'm sure that's not the intention, not least because the author has a bunch of books with heroes who have more extensive disabilities than Mark's. I'd be curious to hear what folks with physical disabilities think about this representation, but it left me feeling a bit off.

The other thing: My gosh the ending is abrupt. A couple of days stuck together in a lodge isn't enough to make a brand-new relationship stick, you know? When the book ends, the relationship is barely beginning. And again, this isn't specific to this book: A huge number of romance novels (I won't hazard a guess about proportion!), especially ones from earlier days of romance, are basically conflict-conflict-conflict-conflict-together-the-end. Given that Callie wasn't even sure she wanted to give this relationship a go, it would have been nice to see some actual relationship rather than just the run-up to the relationship.

So...good intentions, don't love the execution. Do with that what you will.

Sample-chapter showdown: Romance V

A Lady Would Know Better by Emma Theriault (Entangled: Amara)
Crash Course by Piper Lawson (Berkley XO)
Necessary Roughness by Danielle Allen (Bramble)

It's time for a sample-chapter showdown! Three romance samples enter...only one exits. Or maybe two. Or three. Who can say?

In A Lady Would Know Better, Jasper is the second son—he was supposed to have a life of idle pleasure, followed by some sort of career of his choosing. Instead he's the latest Earl of Belhaven, struggling to keep it together for his remaining family and for his peasants (erm, my word, not the book's) on his land. He's not prepared for a bloodied and unconscious stranger to land on his proverbial doorstep in the middle of winter...

...but now that she's here, she just might be the best thing that has happened to Jasper and his family in more than a year.

If, that is, she can remember who she is. Or what she was running from. Or whom...

I only read a sampler, but this is clearly going to be an entertaining and fast-paced romp. Jasper is a wee bit of a tool at times, but he's a gallant tool, and...well, he does have some reasons to be stressed. The characters display what I suspect is an unrealistic level of feminism and ideas about science for the time, but the sampler does an annoyingly good job of making me wonder about "Jane's" background", and I'm looking forward to seeing where the plot goes. I'm also quite enjoying the aunt

This looks like it will be a great deal of fun—pointed but not taking itself too seriously.

Meanwhile, in Crash Course, Shay is working to get to the top—studying at the top Formula One preparatory college so that she can become a mechanic and give herself and her father a more stable life. She didn't expect to attract the attention of the academy's local gods on her first day...

This one is for fans of:

- Normcore heroines
- Rich (and dare I say arrogant?) love interests
- Possible love triangles
- Possible Twilight vibes (minus the sparkly vampires)
- Formula One, of course

And here's why it didn't work for me:

I am extremely biased right now: I recently lost someone I love because of a reckless driver. I tried to set this aside when writing this, because that's not the author's fault, but frankly I couldn't make it through the sample. The book opens with one of the potential love interests hitting the heroine with his car, blaming her for it, and threatening her against telling anyone; later in the sample he threatens to run her over again. I had to stop reading.

Your mileage might vary—again, I am absolutely, 100% biased right now, and if I'd thought about the part where Formula One is all about fast cars and dangerous speeds, I probably would have had the sense to stay away. There's a whole wave of Formula One books these days, and I'm sure this will have popular appeal. But to me right now, drivers who speed without care for who gets hurt belong in prison, not masquerading as heroes.

And finally, in Necessary Roughness, she's a top athletic trainer. He's a top athlete...who really, really doesn't want her to know what's going on with his leg.

I read a short excerpt, just enough to breeze through and get a sense of who the characters are. I suspect I'd like Nova in the full version: She's fat and Black and very good at what she does and has had to work like hell to overcome people's assumptions about her. She's not taking prisoners, but she's also not taking her skills for granted. Channing I had a bit of a harder time with ("heroes" who threaten heroines with unemployment go straight to my shitlist and have to earn their way off it), but we can see right away that he's up against a lot: He has a multimillion-dollar contract, yes, but that contract is only as good as his success on the field...and an injury, especially depending on the circumstances of the injury, could change all that in an instant. His wife (soon, I assume, to be ex-wife) is a bit one-note in a way I don't love (romance has a tendency to make the exes real evil so that the reader can't possibly sympathize with them), but I'm intrigued by Channing's mention that his money has to cover not just him but other people; I'd be curious, going forward, to know whether there's more there than just his wife.

For all the brevity of the preview, it gave a solid idea of what to expect—this is definitely a good one for the sports romance fans.

The verdict: A Lady Would Know Better has a bit of an unfair advantage here: It was published earlier than the other two in this showdown...and so I've read it by now. I'll also keep an eye out at my library for Necessary Roughness (not least to see what the eventual cover will be!), because for whatever reason I do enjoy a heroine-as-athletic-trainer setup.

Thanks to the authors and publishers for providing these samples through NetGalley.

Review: "Natural Selection" by Clare Edge

Natural Selection by Clare Edge
Published August 2026 via Delacorte Press
★★★★★

There are predators in Riverside. It's why everyone knows to carry bear spray, to watch out for grizzlies. But those are only the predators that people talk about. The girls of Riverside know: The predators aren't only in the woods.

Power is intoxicating. It's safety. It's certainty you will be okay because you can tear the safety away from those who might threaten it. (loc. 3352*)

This was gripping, and I think my favorite YA novel of the past two years. Make no mistake: It's a dark book, with multiple types of violence and a fair amount of blood and gore and boys carrying shotguns around the school with impunity. The plot is not entirely unexpected, though it gets intense far faster than I would have anticipated—let's just say that revenge is the beginning of the story, not the end.

But what I'm really here for is the intensity of the friendships. Megan and Outlaw (can you guess which one of these is a nickname?) have been friends forever, and Bee is relatively new in town. They don't click immediately: Megan doesn't want to hear the hard truths, and Outlaw holds a barrier between herself and the world, and Bee is (rightly) afraid of her role as newcomer and outsider. Megan is the school's alpha girl, and Outlaw does her own thing but is—largely—untouchable, and Bee knows full well that her brand of different is not really welcome here. But: I love how hard Megan has to interrogate her own reactions and instincts. I love that the three of them have to work to make it work. I love that they wrestle, over and over again throughout the course of the book, with the implications and consequences of their actions.

And yet: There are predators in Riverside. And it's time someone did something about it.

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

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