Review: "My Chance to Fly" by Samantha Tonge

My Chance to Fly by Samantha Tonge
Published August 2026 via Boldwood Books
★★★

Una's life is regimented, and that's just the way she likes it. She's open with her best friend and with this mother, but with really nobody else: She keeps her communication direct and to the point and avoids doing anything new. So flying to southern Germany on a whim is not exactly in character...

I picked this up because, as much as I love travel books, they don't often take the characters to Germany, and I was curious about what Una's experience would be like. I enjoyed her time in Germany—she gets to do some things that a lot of tourists don't necessarily get to experience, and Konrad, her German contact-turned-paramour, is good company. It's probably lucky that they turn out to be a good fit, because it could be awkward if he kept wanting to do things together and she really wasn't into it, but generally he comes across nicely. It's also interesting how much her interactions with Konrad bring Una out of her shell—less a matter of "he's the one who really sees her" (which is good! I'm not a fan of romance in which, you know, only he sees the beauty behind her glasses or whatever) and more a matter of...he's the catalyst for positive change in her life.

On the one hand I find the premise a little silly (fly hundreds of miles in the hopes that a specific bird will show up?), but on the other hand it's sweet. Life throws a few unexpected wrenches at Una, including one that forces some...different questions than she necessarily expected to need to answer. I didn't mind that (didn't see that particular twist coming until shortly before Una did), though I didn't love the way things with her parents resolve (felt a bit 180). There's a fair amount of German sprinkled throughout the book, and for the most part it's solid; nice that it goes beyond "ja" and "nein".

All in all, a fun romance that takes readers somewhere new, and I can't argue with that.

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

Review: "Solstice" by Carol Gilligan

Solstice by Carol Gilligan
Published August 2026 via Random House
★★★★

Two people come together, and fall apart, and come together again. It's a push-pull relationship: Eve and Gabe have a happy marriage, three children, a partnership. They've been together long enough that sometimes their attention strays. But sometimes the rules change, or maybe the consequences, and so Eve finds herself alone in Amsterdam, choreographing a ballet and wondering what comes next.

Gilligan is best known for her feminist theory, and although I haven't read In a Different Voice, I've run across it enough times to be intrigued when I saw that Gilligan has turned to fiction. (Also, not to be shallow about it, but that cover!)

The book is functionally historical fiction, though it covers some world events that are, ah, extremely timely. What interests me most is the way the scenes are set up—there's often a significant time jump between scenes, so even if Eve is having (for example) a fairly intense or upsetting conversation in one scene, by the next scene things have moved on.

In places it gets a bit...I was going to say "theoretical", but I think "abstract" is more accurate. For my tastes, anyway—there's always a sweet spot of enough bridges to keep connections clear but not so many that readers feel talked down to; I think in places a bridge or two would have been helpful to me. (Though, too: Not everything has to be related!)

3.5 stars and some food for thought.

Thanks to the author and publisher for inviting me to read a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "Alchemy of Souls" by Adriana Mather

Alchemy of Souls by Adriana Mather
Published August 2026 via Feiwel & Friends
★★★

Grayson wants to bring down his uncle. Eloise wants a better life for her family. They've been in each other's orbit for years, but kept their distance...until they have no choice but to work together to ensure their mutual survival.

I had it in my head that this would be a boarding school book, but it's more of a restrictive college with boarding school rules (curfew, very limited freedoms, sneaking out to drink, etc.) setting. This is a highly regulated society with strict class division, which plays a huge role. Think dystopia books from the early 2010s; Eloise and her family are on the poverty track with very limited options for upward trajectory, while Grayson's family is high up in the food chain and determined to keep it that way.

I loved the premise (and the cover!) but could have used a bit more by way of worldbuilding. It was late in the book before I got a sense of what the wards were, and I never did figure out why Eloise's bestie from Maine has an aggressive Irish(?) accent. (Maggie doesn't serve a whole lot of purpose in the book—she's mostly accent and Eloise feeling guilty that she doesn't have time to hang out with Maggie because she's trying to save her own life.) I'd also be curious to know more about how the wards, which seem to have quite strict and limited borders, work across continents, and what exactly they do beyond keep out the "riffraff".

This is YA, so there's a romance; it's not really my jam, but it'll be good for readers who like enemies-to-lovers and a pretty high level of knight-in-shining-armor heroics. I wondered for a while whether this might be the first in a triology (again: dystopia books from the early 2010s!), but things feel fairly wrapped up by the end, so while it's possible that it'll spin off in other directions (or with other characters?), this makes for a quick read on its own.

Thanks to the author and publisher for inviting me to read a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "Gingerbread Bones" by Lindsay Lovise

Gingerbread Bones by Lindsay Lovise
Published August 2026 via Entangled: Mayhem Books
★★★★

Georgie knows exactly why she and her brother are two of the teenagers selected to take part in a reality TV program that drops a group of "troubled" teenagers in the woods and forces them to learn some survival skills and adapt: Their parenting-influencer stepmother is the one who conceived of the show, and that same stepmother hates them. Georgie figures they can get through a week or two in the Maine woods, and they'll be eighteen and out of the house soon enough...but what she doesn't know is that "learn some survival skills" is about to get really, really literal.

Everyone thinks Ashley is so kind and wholesome, when really she's the razor blade hidden in the Halloween candy. (loc. 139*)

I picked this one up for the woods: I love me an everyone-might-die murder story set in the woods, because who doesn't? (Don't answer that.) What ended up interesting me most, though, is the fact that all of these teenagers have been labelled as "troubled". They've been cast for drama, of course; every one of them has their own backstory and their own problems. Every one of them is also likely to be, in the eyes of the show and the public, a perpetrator rather than a victim. Their voices don't count. No matter what happens.

We are disposable. And I'm afraid [the production company] knows it. (loc. 2362)

The romance didn't (surprise!) interest me much, but I loved how much the characters—well, mostly the teenagers—were allowed to grow throughout the book. Early on, especially, they're all guarded and angry and not happy to be there. And certainly they don't get any happier to be out in the woods; the woods make sure of that. But I've read too many mysteries (written for teenagers and adults alike) in which virtually every character is so perfectly awful that I'm just hoping that their death will come sooner rather than later, and Gingerbread Bones sees that and steers mindfully away from it.

There's a paranormal element, which is not generally my jam; entirely personal preference, but I like it better when the big bads are all things that can happen in real life. Paranormal stories just don't give me that visceral thrill. That said, I did know going in that there was a paranormal element, which helped, and that part of things was done well. There's a twist toward the end that I had half guessed at, but in a shape that I couldn't have known to guess at, which was great. All in all, a speedy read that will be perfect for autumn when the weather cools down a bit.

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

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

Review: "Tradwife" by Michelle Brandon

Tradwife by Michelle Brandon
Published August 2026 via Avon a
★★★

In Crystal Harbor, the men are the breadwinners and the women are the homemakers, and every woman knows better than to step foot outside without her hair done and her bloodred lipstick in place like armor. (The men—they by and large do what they want to do.) But of course things are not always as they seem.

Tradwife follows a handful of women from this community: Miranda is the mayor's wife, determined to run this town...one way or another. Ariel used to be an actress, and maybe she still is, but now her acting skills all go straight into her influencing career. And Jennifer used to have it all, but since her divorce, she's been pushed out by her former friends and is struggling to stay financially afloat. And then there's Tara...

I'm intrigued by the recent rise of the tradwife thriller, so when I saw this I knew it was a must. This is the fourth I've read so far, and somehow of those four it's the first one that doesn't involve a podcaster or journalist trying to find the truth under the tradwife façade. (Ariel is an influencer, and Jennifer starts going public on social media early on in the book, but this isn't the same as someone coming in from the outside; everything that happens in the book stays within the Crystal Harbor community.)

Winning at Crystal Harbor wasn't about playing fair. It was about playing flawlessly. (loc. 1133*)

For all that this is a tradwife book, and the town is deathly determined to be dry and saccharine sweet, the characters here are...well, they know that what is on the outside is not what is on the inside, and if 95% of the women in town do not have something hidden under the sink or in the closet, I'd be very surprised. Miranda in particular is determined to use her position as the holier-than-thou head honcho (or head honcho's wife, but...she knows better) to stir shit up...it's only the shape that that will take that is uncertain. Few of these characters are easy to root for (though some are less pleasant than others), and the ulterior motives are strong.

There's a lot of twisting near the end of the book, some of which I found more predictable than others. I would have liked a bit more of the in-between story; there's a then and a now, but not much, even at the end, to tell us how we got there. And: The tradwife lifestyle is thin, here. I'm genuinely curious to read books about the whole #tradwife thing (horrified, but also curious), but I don't actually think this shows much of it; mostly we see the characters figuring out how best to be awful to each other in a very Southern, smile-while-you're-insulting-someone way. Intriguing, but a low three stars for me.

And now on to the next tradwife thriller...

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

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

Review: Short story: "The Wizard Who Kept Himself Suspicious" by Scott Lynch

The Wizard Who Kept Himself Suspicious by Scott Lynch
Published July 2026 via Amazon Original Stories

Every thirteen years, a conclave of wizards meet on a magical beach. They catch up, they argue, they show off, and then they go away again and plan to meet up in another thirteen years. But this year, something goes wrong.

This is one of a set of short stories about magic and, often, mayhem; certainly there's some of both here. (Mostly mayhem.) The protagonist of sorts is a wizard who does no magic, at least none that his fellow wizards can see; he has his motivations, but he keeps those to himself.

I liked the quirkiness of this story. At times I did want more context—e.g., it was a surprise to find that there was one character whom a lot of the other characters couldn't stand, and even at the end of the story I didn't know much about who was who or why they were there. Offhand this doesn't look like a spinoff of something else (searching for Shiverick, anyway, didn't turn anything up), but I wonder if I would have gotten more out of it if I knew more about the characters and the world.

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

Review: Short story: "A Labyrinth of Honeybees" by Heather Fawcett

A Labyrinth of Honeybees by Heather Fawcett
Published July 2026 via Amazon Original Stories

The gods are going to do what the gods are going to do. In this short story, a priestess-come-groundskeeper is faced with an unexpected challenger—the king's inquisitioner, who wants access to the goddess's temple. And that's <i>before</i> things get complicated.

I've said this before, but I'll say it again: Short stories are a great way to try out an author I'm not familiar with. I don't read tons of fantasy, but it's fun to drop into a world like this, one with twisting hedge mazes and buzzing bees and, oh, just a little bit of danger. Our narrator knows her role, and if her nerves aren't made of steel, well, she hides it well.

The story feels about the right length, though what I'd really like is to read a full-length book from the princess's point of view (actually...will have to check the author's backlist to see if that exists already). Lots of complex characters here, and lots of competing priorities. Short and satisfying.

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

Review: Short story: "The Cairndale Orphan" by J.M. Miro

The Cairndale Orphan by J.M. Miro
Published July 2026 via Amazon Original Stories

Something is wrong in London, and Bromley knows it. A friend is missing, a school up north has burned down, and a child has turned up looking for help. Bromley just doesn't know how complicated things might get before they improve.

This is one of a collection of stories full of mysteries and magic and, in this case at least, monsters. It's been interesting to see some of the differences and similarities across the stories; they're all by different authors and with different settings (some more overtly magical than others, some more contemporary than others); this and another one both feature animal herds at crucial moments.

I like the complexity built in here, including that one character is queer. It's a time and place that is not so kind to queerness, but it stays a mostly understated part of the story (acknowledgement of potential for danger, but the focus stays elsewhere), which is nice. If I understand correctly, though, this is a standalone story set in the established world of the author's other books, and though it can comfortably be read without having read those books (I am living proof!), I think I would have enjoyed this more with that deeper history and context. A decent quick read, but one best enjoyed as part of a larger parcel.

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

Review: Short story: "Battle of the Round House" by Tananarive Due

Battle of the Round House by Tananarive Due
Published July 2026 via Amazon Original Stories

If they can just make it to Zipporah Ranch, Lucy and her family will be safe—that's what her parents are clinging on to, anyway. As free Black people in the 1870s, nowhere is entirely safe, and unscrupulous people are on their tail.

Due says in a note at the end that this is based on a true story, and frankly, how wonderful to think that there have been these pockets of resistance and resilience, of community banding together, since...well, I suppose as long as human battle for power has been around. Lucy is a fierce heroine here: She's only ten, but if her family is threatened, she wants to be part of the solution, whether as a witness or as an active participant.

It's too bad not to have more time to spend with these characters and on Zipporah Ranch (the downsides of short stories), but this story is on the longer side, leaving room for a bit of quirk and a bit of description. Lean close. Maybe you'll hear a whisper.

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

Review: Short story: "The Lion's Tusk" by Robert Jackson Bennett

The Lion's Tusk by Robert Jackson Bennett
Published July 2026 via Amazon Original Stories

It's the biggest wedding of the year—until everything goes horrible wrong.

This is one in a collection of stories about magic and, well, occasionally mayhem. Each is very different in feel (though I'm interested to note that two of the four stories I've read so far mentione Abilene, Texas, and the other two feature relics); this one is something of story within a story. We don't learn too much about the storyteller, or why this particular story interests him (or, for that matter, too much about the listener), but it's clear that it's a story that he knows well and has opinions about. His asides are probably the best part of the story, but waiting for what happens next isn't so bad either. Let's just say that there are layers of who might want to be involved, and why.

So far this collection has been full of pleasant surprises—each story taking a different angle and attitude, and each with something to show for it.

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

Review: Short story: "Miss Gentle and the Case of the Very Flat Monk" by Travis Baldree

Miss Gentle and the Case of the Very Flat Monk by Travis Baldree
Published July 2026 via Amazon Original Stories

The monks have a problem: One of them is dead, and they don't know whodunnit. Luckily Miss Gentle is on the case...but the monks might be a little more comfortable if she weren't quite so singular. That, and if she weren't demanding as payment something that they cannot replace.

This was an odd and fun little story: a touch of the absurd, a mystery, a final reveal (or two!) to keep things lively. I haven't read anything else from Baldree, but this piqued my interest. I'm not sure I have it in me to read orc romance (see: Baldree's full-length books), but a mysterious investigator dressed in a suit of armor...I don't know; I wouldn't mind reading more.

A satisfying bit of summer fluff. Definitely recommended if you have Kindle Unlimited.

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

Review: "The Ginghams" by T.C. Kemper

The Ginghams by T.C. Kemper
Published July 2026 via Henry Holt and Co.
★★★★

Joni's excited to get home from camp and see her best friend, May, again—except, when she gets home, May has changed. The town has changed. And not, Joni fears, for the better.

Now, I read this because—bear with me—I've been down a trad-wife-thriller rabbit hole lately, and something told me that this might be the middle grade version of that. And I was right, or right enough for my (very arbitrary) purposes, which made this a super fun comparison point.

As a middle grade read, this feels just right. Joni is stubborn and sometimes a bit rash, but her heart is in the right place. There's a clear villain (we'll come back to this in a moment), and a fair amount of action, including a bit of blood (the ears, oh gosh), and a librarian who is part of the resistance, as a middle school librarian should be. I'm reminded a bit of Eventown, though The Ginghams is a fair bit darker.

I spent a fair amount of time thinking, while reading this, about ways in which this book might be different if it were written for an older audience. The first thing is religion—there's no mention of religion here, though there are clear influences from certain parts of white American evangelical Christianity (and of course the Stepford wives). In that way the book feels a bit sanitized for a younger audience, but in a way that is fair. Interesting to see, though, that one of Joni's friends is queer-coded without being explicitly identified as gay, and that's something that the bad guys pick up on too (to them it's officially a problem of standing out, but we all know where their real prejudice lies...)

And the second thing is how the bad guys are structured. Again, The Ginghams has a pretty clear villain here, which feels appropriate for middle grade. It becomes obvious farily early that there's an element of force to the changes in town: the people taking on new views and new personalities do not have a choice in it. And yet again, I think this makes sense for a middle grade read. But there's an extent to which this makes it a much less alarming read for me as an adult—it's one thing to have one main bad guy who is controlling the people around him, one main bad guy who can be vanquished. In a book for older readers, I would expect much more of an element of choice to it—imagine how much more difficult it would be for characters to come out of this book knowing that their fathers and mothers and friends had chosen to go down this track. (Do I have to watch The Stepford Wives now? I've never seen it, and I don't know where it falls on this.) Women choosing to give up their rights and men choosing to exert total control on women and girls is far more terrifying than a clear bad guy who can be vanquished.

Because The Ginghams is a middle grade novel, this is all fine, of course; I'm pushing the boundaries of what is on topic because I have tangential interests! Given the recent rise of trad wife thrillers (and everything that is the contemporary mashup of politics and contemporary religion), I would not be surprised to see more along these lines in the near future.

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

Review: "Crime in the Gym" by Catherine Moloney

Crime in the Gym by Catherine Moloney
Published July 2026 via Joffe Books
★★

The gym's poster boy is dead...and there's less a list of suspects than a muddle of possible candidates. But with Markham and his crew on the job, surely this one is solvable.

Now: I freely admit that I hamstringed myself on this one. This is book 24 in a series that, I presume, follows the same characters; I dove in at book 24 because 1) I am still in my Gym Rat Era 2.0 and willing to be waylaid by a book that might take place in a gym, and 2) it seemed reasonable that there would be some catch-up on who the recurring characters were.

The second point turned out to be true; the recurring characters are reintroduced early on (for series readers who need a reminder or for those of us who fell into the series late in the game). There are also regular reminders throughout the book of what the status is of various relationships, character quirks, etc. Despite this, I had some trouble keeping everyone straight—I suppose if I'd read the previous 23 books I'd be clear about who the detectives were and only need to keep those associated with the murder straight, but as it was they were all new to me, and a lot of the characterization relied on personalities built over many books. (The first point was not so much true; once the detectives have tromped through the gym to interview people, they show no real interest in returning, though they do make an inexplicable visit to a gym where criminals and fuzz rub shoulders before going back to their daily crime-ridden or crime-investigating lives.)

As detectives, I didn't love these characters. They couldn't really decide whether they wanted to be hard-boiled old-school detectives or modern and sensitive ones; they largely split the difference by calling each other (or themselves) out for un-PC thoughts but then sniggering over the thought of older women doing ballet. They do spend a lot of time investigating, but much of that is told through dialogue after the fact—we'll see two characters go to interview someone, have part of the interview...and then cut to the two characters in the car later, discussing the second half of the conversation. Also many instances where they pawn off the dirty (and dangerous) work to civilians, then leap in at the end to clean things up. Maybe intentional choices, but to me odd ones.

Readers who have followed this series throughout will likely be satisfied, though. Relationships set up in other books continue apace. I did not guess whodunnit ahead of time, and whether the detectives are looking at connected crimes or simply coincidental timing is kept up in the air until late in the book.

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

Review (Deutsch): "Eine Wichtige Entscheidung" von Irene Margil und Andreas Schlüter

Eine Wichtige Entscheidung von Irene Margil und Andreas Schlüter, gelesen von Henning Nöhren
Herausgegeben 2026 von Silberfisch
★★★

Yao liebt Fußball—und wenn er die Chance, in einem Fußball-Internat zu studieren, hat, kann er nicht "nein" sagen. (Seine Eltern denken anders...aber was für eine Aktionsgeschichte würden wir haben, wenn sie "nein" gesagt hätten?)

Dies war lebhaft und voller Energie, mit vielen Soundeffekten. Yao und seine neue Freunde sind grundsätzlich gute Kinder, aber sie sind Kinder, und ihre Energie braucht manchmal...Grenzen. (Lust auf eine Kissenschlacht?)

Es gibt nicht so viel Fußball in diesem Buch, aber das Buch ist kurz, und andere Bücher mit denselben Figuren folgen. (Ich hätte lieber zwei Erzähler:innen, wenn es mehr Mädchen in der Geschichte gibt—ein Mann und eine Frau—aber mit den verschiedenen Jungenfiguren kommt Nöhren gut zurecht.) Für sportliche Kinder wäre diese Buchreihe perfekt; es gibt Abenteuer und Action und ein bisschen Chaos.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley. Deutsch ist nicht meine Muttersprache, und alle Fehler sind meine eigenen.

Review: Short story: "The Wednesday Witches Book Club" by Sarah Beth Durst

The Wednesday Witches Book Club by Sarah Beth Durst
Published July 2026 via Amazon Original Stories

The worst part of Ashley's divorce was losing her book club, but now she's found a new one...maybe. Hopefully. If they can just figure out the problem with the cats...

I don't want to say too much here, as this short story is over almost as soon as it starts (so, limits to how much plot can be discussed without spoilers), but this makes for such a cozy, bookwormish world. Is all well in this book club...? No. That's clear from early on. But this world is great: magic directly linked to books, cats perhaps a little cannier than humans might think, and hey, a library with a rolling staircase. Yes please.

The conflict here is limited and the whole vibe, again, cozy. A short form makes a lot of sense here, but frankly I wouldn't mind something longer-form either. I'm still marvelling at how different the two of Durst's books I've read (The Lake House and The Faraway Inn) were; this is definitely in the latter camp. Is it time to read Durst's Spellshop books...?

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

Review (Deutsch): "Seaside Sisters: Lenes Inselcommerglück" von Mia Andersen

Seaside Sisters: Lenes Inselsommerglück von Mia Andersen, gelesen von Chantal Busse
Herausgegeben 2026 von Silberfisch
★★★★

Sommer ist hier, und Lene freut sich. Sie hat ihren Zwilling, ihre beste Freundin...und vielleicht ist es die Zeit, dass Max sie bemerken wird.

Seaside Sisters: Lenes Inselsommerglück war für mich ein fast perfektes Hörbuch—klare Stimme, nicht zu schnell, eine Geschichte, der ich ohne Probleme auf Deutsch folgen konnte. Lene und ihre Schwester und Freundinnen sind normale (junge) Teenager mit normalen Minidramen, und ich fand es echt super, dass die Dramen nicht zum Thema "schlechte Freundinnen" gehörten. Es gibt Missverständnisse, aber am Ende sind diese Mädchen gute Leute und versuchen, gute Freundinnen zu bleiben.

Es gibt natürlich "side plots" und Themen—Journalismus, Tourismus, Respekt vor Wildtieren, und so weiter. Eine gute Option für junge Leser und Leserinnen diesen Sommer. Ich würde das zweite Buch gern lesen.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley. Deutsch ist nicht meine Muttersprache, und alle Fehler sind meine eigenen.

Review: "Spindlewood" by Freddie Kölsch

 

Spindlewood by Freddie Kölsch
Published July 2026 via Balzer + Bray
★★★★

Lilac is the newest student at a secret boarding school for Seers—but there's just one problem. She isn't a Seer. She's never Seen a ghost in her life...and if she wants to stay in this new adventure, she'll have to keep everyone around her convinced that she can, in fact, See.

This makes for such a lively and compelling middle grade read. Lilac is great fun—she's book-smart but not always people-smart; she wants to be honest, but she also wants to stay at Spindlewood, and she's perfectly willing to engage in deception to do so; if she could See, she'd probably be near the top of her class, but...well, she can't. (There's a wry nod or two to the fact that Lilac, despite being the main character of this book, is not in fact the Chosen One...although I think we'll be learning more about Lilac's power, or lack thereof, in future books.)

I'd love to see more of the school and school grounds, but the cast is nicely diverse—a mix of ethnicities and body shapes and disabilities and genders and sexualities. I'm afraid Lilac does do one of my pet-peeve things in that she immediately identifies everyone by their correct gender, including the one character who is nonbinary (or at least uses they/them pronouns); as always, I am compelled to note that this isn't how it works, and I'd have been happier if she'd gotten it wrong and the character had said "Actually, these are my pronouns," and Lilac had had to course-correct. But it's a relatively minor thing in a book that is making a point to show a broad range of diversity.

There's also a rather arch narrator, and I am very curious to see what else might come out about the narrator as the series continues. It's very break-the-fourth-wall in places, and I kind of loved it because I don't read as much middle grade as I do books for a YA or adult audience, and it reminded me of the way that books for younger readers sometimes get away with more interesting structures than books for older readers—just like plays, I think, though I'm getting very off-topic here. Generally speaking I liked the characters, though. Lilac and her friend Emmanuelle have the most depth, but I really enjoyed the way they're good people but not too good and smart but not too smart. I hope the other characters get rounded out a bit in the next book, just because that'll complicate things even more.

So: engaging, smart, and inclusive; with any luck book two is already in the works, because I'd pick it up promptly.

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

Review: "Lost Secrets of the Scottish Castle" by Jane Lovering

Lost Secrets of the Scottish Castle by Jane Lovering
Published July 2026 via Boldwood Books
★★★★

Pax knows she and her brother have bitten off more than they can chew when she sees their ancestral castle—the castle that is little more than a ruin and that they have just bought. But the ruin holds far more secrets than she could have bargained for...

Now, here's what I expected from the cover and the description: a present-day castle that has some issues but also a lot of potential, probably a romance, and oh, did I mention the present day? But it turns out that there is very little of the present day here: In very little time at all, Pax finds herself whisked off to another dimension...or at least another time.

Time-slip books are not something I've ever gravitated towards (though castle books are), and I'm honestly not sure this is one I'd have gone for if I'd realized that that was the direction it would go. Pax tumbles into something weird at the beginning of the book, and there was a while where I still thought that she'd get back to the present day sooner rather than later, but as it turned out...that was not to be. As it also turned out, I didn't really mind; it was a week when I desperately needed something light to read, and this fit the bill quite well. Pax isn't alone in the past—there's a group of archeological misfits with her, plus a whole bunch of people from the long-dead past who can't see the present-day group.

It makes for something quirky and a bit absurdist. I liked the characters—not all of them are fully fleshed out, but they do a remarkable job of being adults about the situation in which they've found themselves. There's a romance, but it's pretty low-key; much more of the book is really just figuring out what on earth is going on and of course how they get themselves out of their predicament. Go into it for the whimsy (and also to be grateful that you live in the present day) and with an open mind.

Somewhere between 3 and 4 stars; rounding up because it was a right-time, right-place kind of read for me.

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

Review: "Conflict of Interest" by Zarah Detand

Conflict of Interest by Zarah Detand
Published July 2026 via Storm Publishing
★★★★

Finn is days away from the next chapter of his life when he does something out of character—he plays along when a hot guy mistakes him for a prostitute. It's harmless fun...until he gets to his new role at the hospital and realizes that that hot guy is one of his supervisors. And also, neither of them really wants to leave the past in the past.

I had a bit of trepidation about this one, because "guy mistakes another for a prostitute" has so many possible ways to go wrong. The others of Detand's books that I've read have been delights, though, so I took the jump—and really, I should not have doubted. I'm very much enjoying the way Detand takes a look at the obvious route and says, in effect, "hmm, maybe not". The characters don't get it right all the time; they have minor misunderstandings and make decisions that don't always have a whole lot of common sense and take risks that they probably shouldn't. And at the same time...they have conversations as mature adults, and they take ownership of their actions, and they're good at (and passionate about) what they do without being unrealistic Wunderkinder. In short, they're people I would genuinely want to spend time with, which is both my favourite starting place for a romance novel and (let's be honest) though a depressingly low bar, one that many romance novels simply don't clear.

(Brief tangent: "Travis" is absolutely an evil-ex name in romance novels. Note that I'm talking specifically about romance novels—if your name is Travis, or your partner's name is Travis, or you named your kid Travis, that's great; I'm sure you or they are absolutely lovely. But in a romance novel? Absolutely a sign that they're not the end game.)

Altogether a satisfying read. I did note that the conflict had some similarities to that in Operation Boyfriend, but happily both the characters and the way the plot plays out are quite distinct. I'd happily read more in this series, and from Detand.

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

Review: Short story: "Heat Trap" by Ellery Lloyd

Heat Trap by Ellery Lloyd
Published July 2026 via Amazon Original Stories

It's time for the annual girls' trip, this time to France. Lizzie's done the legwork, as usual, and if she isn't sharing all the details...well, there are reasons for that. But this is the first year she's brought a romantic partner with her. Mal is a dream boyfriend...except he isn't sharing all the details either.

This is relatively long for a short story, and it's satisfying. Too often stories with this general premise (group of friends off for a weekend) go off on a predictable route of "everyone is horrible to the point that the reader is happy when they start dying", but these friends are actually friends—maybe they take each other (or at least Lizzie) a bit for granted sometimes, but they genuinely want to spend this time together. This shouldn't be a surprise in this kind of story, and yet it was...and a pleasant surprise at that.

Another nice thing: There's a villain, but honestly a fairly run-of-the-mill one rather than an Evil Villain Who Is Evil. There's villainy, but it's an appropriate amount for this length of a story; I enjoyed that the story briefly got my pulse up without tipping over into caricature.

Honestly, my only complaint? I would have liked to read a version of this as a full-length book. And that's not much of a complaint at all.

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