2. The Women of Wild Hill by Kirsten Miller

listened on Libby

368 pgs.  (10:38)

2025
Adult fantasy/horror
Finished 1/12/26
Goodread*s rating:  4.16
My rating: 4
Setting: Current day Long Island, NY with many glimpses into the past

My comments: Modern-day witches, with interesting back and forths with four generations of mother/daughters, aunt/nieces.  I listened so I didn't have the family tree right in front of me, but it was pretty easy to remember each generation.  So much related to current political tensions, particularly patriarchal billionaires.  I was disappointed with the ending, though.

Goodreads synopsis:  A witty, spectacular, and timely tale of modern-day witches waging war on the patriarchy, from fan favorite Kirsten Miller, the author of The Change and Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books.

There are places on earth where nature’s powers gather. Girls raised there are bequeathed strange gifts. A few have powers so dark that they fear to use them. Such a place is Wild Hill, on the tip of Long Is land. For centuries, the ghost of a witch murdered by colonists claimed the beautiful and fertile Wild Hill…until a young Scottish woman with strange gifts arrived. Sadie Duncan was allowed to stay.

Five generations of Sadie’s descendants called Wild Hill home, each generation more powerful than the last. Then, in the aftermath of a terrible tragedy, the last of the Duncans, once prophesized to be the most powerful of their kind, abandoned their ancestral home.

One of them, Brigid Laguerre moved to California and turned her dark gift into fame and fortune. Her sister, Phoebe, settled on a ranch in Texas, where women visit in secret for her tonics and cures. Phoebe’s daughter, Sybil, has become a famous chef. Seemingly powerless, Sibyl has never been told of the Duncan bloodline.

Now Brigid, Phoebe, and Sibyl have been brought to Wild Hill to discover their family legacy. The Old One, furious at the path mankind has taken, has chosen three powerful witches to turn the tide. The Duncans will fulfill their destinies—but only if they can set aside their grievances and come together as a family.

45. The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

listened on Audible

336 pgs.

2022
Adult fantasy/magical realism
Finished 10/13
Goodreads rating: 4.03
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary England

My comments: This is a sweet, very cozy fantasy about witches and family/no family/found family.  I read it as an online read with a small group of others and found lots to discuss and lots to like.

Goodreads synopsis:  As one of the few witches in Britain, Mika Moon knows she has to hide her magic, keep her head down, and stay away from other witches so their powers don't mingle and draw attention. And as an orphan who lost her parents at a young age and was raised by strangers, she's used to being alone and she follows the rules...with one exception: an online account, where she posts videos pretending to be a witch. She thinks no one will take it seriously.

But someone does. An unexpected message arrives, begging her to travel to the remote and mysterious Nowhere House to teach three young witches how to control their magic. It breaks all of the rules, but Mika goes anyway, and is immediately tangled up in the lives and secrets of not only her three charges, but also an absent archaeologist, a retired actor, two long-suffering caretakers, and...Jamie. The handsome and prickly librarian of Nowhere House would do anything to protect the children, and as far as he's concerned, a stranger like Mika is a threat. An irritatingly appealing threat.

As Mika begins to find her place at Nowhere House, the thought of belonging somewhere begins to feel like a real possibility. But magic isn't the only danger in the world, and when a threat comes knocking at their door, Mika will need to decide whether to risk everything to protect a found family she didn't know she was looking for....

32. The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young

listened on Libby

320 pgs. (10:08)

Beautifully narrated by Brittany Pressley

2023
Adult Fantasy 
Finished 7/11/2025
Goodreads rating: 4.13
My rating: 5
Setting: Jasper, North Carolina (an author-created town in the mountains of West NC) in 2022 and 1950.

My comments: This was such a compelling book!  A beautifully written story that could have been incredibly complicated, but it was woven so well that it wasn't at all. (This sort of story usually has me confused, but not this one!)  June Farrow's life....and plight....and mysteries swallowed me up completely. I look forward to seeing if there are other books by Adrienne Young that I've missed out on.  Highly recommended.

Goodreads synopsis:  In the small mountain town of Jasper, North Carolina, June Farrow is waiting for fate to find her. The Farrow women are known for their thriving flower farm—and the mysterious curse that has plagued their family line. The whole town remembers the madness that led to Susanna Farrow’s disappearance, leaving June to be raised by her grandmother and haunted by rumors.

It’s been a year since June started seeing and hearing things that weren’t there. Faint wind chimes, a voice calling her name, and a mysterious door appearing out of nowhere—the signs of what June always knew was coming. But June is determined to end the curse once and for all, even if she must sacrifice finding love and having a family of her own.

After her grandmother’s death, June discovers a series of cryptic clues regarding her mother’s decades-old disappearance, except they only lead to more questions. But could the door she once assumed was a hallucination be the answer she’s been searching for? The next time it appears, June realizes she can touch it and walk past the threshold. And when she does, she embarks on a journey that will not only change both the past and the future, but also uncover the lingering mysteries of her small town and entangle her heart in an epic star-crossed love.  

With The Unmaking of June Farrow, Adrienne Young delivers a brilliant novel of romance, mystery, and a touch of the impossible—a story you will never forget.

13. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

#1 Empyrian

listened on Libby

498 pgs.  (21:22)

2023
Adult Dystopian Fantasy (now called Romantasy)
Finished 3/17/25
Goodreads rating: 4.58
My rating: 3

My comments: Well, I made it through hours and hours of what?  Arguments.  Hateful banter.  Battling tactics.  Young people dying.  And dying.  And dying.  Dragons.  I've never been a dragon fan and I'm still not.  And then after 2/3 or the book.....lust.  And more lust.  I'm certainly not opposed to lust, but when it's so much more of the story than the first 2/3 of the book it's a bit eye-rolling.  Major battles, exposed lying, lots of flying through the air and being attacked by creatures that cannot die.  And then, at the very end, switched points of view, from Violet to Zaren.  I refused to give up through all....what....20 hours? and I'm glad I completed it, but it seemed endless.  I'm not its biggest fan.  

Goodreads synopsis:  Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

          But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.

          With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.
          She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.
          Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.
          Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die

77. The Cliffs by J. Courtney Sullivan

listened on Libby

384 pgs.

2024
Adult Mystery
Finished 11/1/2024
Goodreads rating: 3.60
My rating: 4.25 
Setting: southern Maine coast community

My comments:   Ending seemed incomplete.  Loved all the historical facts that some readers considered "preachy." Took place in southern Maine with lots of social/feminist thinking.

Goodreads synopsis:  A novel of family, secrets, ghosts, and homecoming set on the seaside cliffs of Maine, by the New York Times best-selling author of Friends and Strangers.

On a secluded bluff overlooking the ocean sits a Victorian house, lavender with gingerbread trim, a home that contains a century’s worth of secrets. By the time Jane Flanagan discovers the house as a teenager, it has long been abandoned. The place is an irresistible mystery to Jane. There are still clothes in the closets, marbles rolling across the floors, and dishes in the cupboards, even though no one has set foot there in decades. The house becomes a hideaway for Jane, a place to escape her volatile mother.

Twenty years later, now a Harvard archivist, she returns home to Maine following a terrible mistake that threatens both her career and her marriage. Jane is horrified to find the Victorian is now barely recognizable. The new owner, Genevieve, a summer person from Beacon Hill, has gutted it, transforming the house into a glossy white monstrosity straight out of a shelter magazine. Strangely, Genevieve is convinced that the house is haunted—perhaps the product of something troubling Genevieve herself has done. She hires Jane to research the history of the place and the women who lived there. The story Jane uncovers—of lovers lost at sea, romantic longing, shattering loss, artistic awakening, historical artifacts stolen and sold, and the long shadow of colonialism—is even older than Maine itself.

Enthralling, richly imagined, filled with psychic mediums and charlatans, spirits and past lives, mothers, marriage, and the legacy of alcoholism, this is a deeply moving novel about the land we inhabit, the women who came before us, and the ways in which none of us will ever truly leave this earth.

68. The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston

listened on Libby

336 pgs.

2023
Adult Magical Realism/Fantasy
Finished 7/30/2024
Goodreads rating: 4.20
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary Upper East Side of NYC

My comments: A girl who now lives in her beloved aunt's apartment on the upper east side of NYC, one day walks into it and discovers that she's gone back in time exactly seven years...and meets the young man who lived there seven years ago.  Very interesting, keeps your attention.

Goodreads synopsis:  Nominee for Readers' Favorite Romance (2023)

An overworked book publicist with a perfectly planned future hits a snag when she falls in love with her temporary roommate…only to discover he lives seven years in the past, in this witty and wise new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Dead Romantics.

Sometimes, the worst day of your life happens, and you have to figure out how to live after it.

So Clementine forms a plan to keep her heart safe: work hard, find someone decent to love, and try to remember to chase the moon. The last one is silly and obviously metaphorical, but her aunt always told her that you needed at least one big dream to keep going. And for the last year, that plan has gone off without a hitch. Mostly. The love part is hard because she doesn’t want to get too close to anyone—she isn’t sure her heart can take it.

And then she finds a strange man standing in the kitchen of her late aunt’s apartment. A man with kind eyes and a Southern drawl and a taste for lemon pies. The kind of man that, before it all, she would’ve fallen head-over-heels for. And she might again.

Except, he exists in the past. Seven years ago, to be exact. And she, quite literally, lives seven years in his future.

Her aunt always said the apartment was a pinch in time, a place where moments blended together like watercolors. And Clementine knows that if she lets her heart fall, she’ll be doomed.

After all, love is never a matter of time—but a matter of timing.

55. The Forgotten Witch by Jessica Dodge

read on Kindle/phone
412 pgs.

2022

Adult fantasy
Finished 6/14/2024
Goodreads rating: 4.13
My rating: 2
Setting: Mostly contemporary Scotland, some flashes to the past

My comments: It took me months to plod through this story, but I persevered, refusing to give up.  It wasn't particularly well written, although it started out okay, but - for me - kept going down from there.  Long winded, so-so writing and repetitive information just didn't do it for me, although I loved the premise....

Goodreads synopsis:  Helen Kent never dares to step outside her comfort zone. She lives a lonely, mundane life in the city, grinding through her uninspiring marketing job. That is, until a spontaneous online purchase brings her to the little bay town of Oban, Scotland, where a 500-year-old cottage full of secrets and stories awaits her. After Helen unearths the local legend of a 16th century witch, she discovers a set of mysterious journals in the cottage’s library. Thrust into a world of magic she doesn’t understand, she soon realizes there are both light and dark forces at work beyond her control. With the help of a dashing Scottish neighbor and his wise grandfather, Helen discovers the link that connects her to the mysterious events unfolding at the cottage. But when the past collides with the present, she must face her fears and fight for what she believes in—that is if she hopes to unravel the mystery of Fernbeg cottage before darkness descends, again.

52. The Half-Orc's Maiden Bride by Ruby Dixon

listened on Audible, I think....
190 pgs.

2022
Adult X-rated Fantasy
Finished 6/7/24
Goodreads rating: 4.05
My rating: Fun to read

My comments: Yes, filled with Ruby Dixon's usual steaminess, this is the story of a 30-year-old clueless virgin and her more experienced husband to be.  You feel sorry for the extremely-tall unloved woman and hate her father...a good way to begin a story, hmm?  There's a pretty decent storyline and it's told in an easy manner....and it's almost a How-To sex guide if you don't mind that kind of thing,  lol!  Very likeable main characters.

Goodreads synopsis:  Lady Iolanthe of Rockmourn Keep expects to be a spinster all her days. She is very tall. She is very poor. And she is thirty. What lord could possibly want her?

But then her father returns with news that he has found a bridegroom for her - one that is impressively tall. One that is strong, and bold, and wealthy. And best of all? He wants Iolanthe. It seems too good to be true.

And when Iolanthe gets her first look at her husband-to-be, she realizes why.

No one mentioned the 'orc' part of things...

46. Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

listened on Libby
320 pgs. (10:40)

2020
Adult Fantasy Horror
Finished 5/22/2024
Goodreads rating: 3.67
My rating: 3
Setting: 1950 Mexico, rural small community a train ride away from Mexico City

My comments: I had no idea when I began this book that it was a fantasy horror story, so when weird things started happening, I was put off a bit.  Arriving in an isolated mansion, High Point, on a mountainside in Mexico in 1950, Noemi has been sent by her father after receiving a really strange, discombobulated letter from her newly married cousin.  Not only is the mansion falling apart to the point that it is moldy, but the family that her cousin has married into is terribly strange and forbidding.   Over-the-top weird and secretive.  Once very rich as silver mine magnates, they now use candles and oil lamps instead of electricity and have all sorts of bizarre rules like not speaking a word to each other while eating a meal.  As more and more rumor and gossip about past deaths and illnesses assail Noemi, you realize that she is getting herself into something dangerous and really bizarre.

Goodreads synopsis:  After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.

Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemí’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.

Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.

And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.

44. Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli

#1 The Crimson Moth

listened on Libby
416 pgs.

2024
YA Fantasy (18 & 22 year old protagonists)
Finished 5/15/24
Goodreads rating: 4.25
My rating: 4
Setting: seems British-y, author has British accent

My comments: Witches have always ruled the land of this story, until recently.  They're now looked upon as evil, and if you're found as a witch or even helping a witch in any way, it's death.  Rune is a witch - an 18-year old who has just stumbled upon her powers and is a newbie without guidance.  She lives in opulence in a mansion left to her by her beloved witch-grandmother.  Her best friend Alex is a sympathizer who helps her in any way he can - he is in love with her.  However, his brother Gideon is a witch-hunter and hates all witches.  (He does have a good reason).  This fantasy-romance is about the hide-and-seek game that Rune and Gideon have.  They're both pretty smart, but the both make mistakes, too, which makes this a much more believable story than some.  I look forward to book two.  I don't even know which side I really am on (pro-witch or anti-witch) because there's good and bad about each side!

Goodreads synopsis:  

10. The Court of Shadows by Victor Dixen

#1 Vampyria

listened on Audible

translated from French by Francoise Bui

364 pgs.
copyright 2020
Adult Fantasy/Vampires

Finished 1/29/24
Goodreads rating: 3.80
My rating: 3.5
Setting: Versailles, France, 300 years after Louis XIV was on the throne

My comments:  The minute I saw Victor Dixen's name, I decided I must read this book.  I read the Phobos series and loved it.  It always takes a bit for his books to be translated, and I'm ever so glad this was put into an audio book.  The reading was lovely, except for when the names were read - all with a very quick, totally French accent.  Couldn't understand them.  At all.  And I took French for years!

     I'm not certain I ever really liked Jeanne/Diane, the protagonist.   The beginning was a bit boring, typical Vampire stuff.  The second part of the books was much more creative and interesting, with an unexpected ending to be savored.  Looking forward to number two in the series, which should be in America around July.

Goodreads synopsis:  A fiery heroine seeks vengeance against a royal court of deadly vampires in this epic alternate history set in lavish Versailles.

Louis XIV transformed from the Sun King into the King of Shadows when he embraced immortality and became the world’s first vampire. For the last three centuries, he has been ruling the kingdom from the decadent Court of Shadows in Versailles, demanding the blood of his subjects to sate his nobles’ thirst and maintain their loyalty.

In the heart of rural France, commoner Jeanne Froidelac witnesses the king’s soldiers murder her family and learns of her parents’ role in a brewing rebellion involving the forbidden secrets of alchemy. To seek her revenge, Jeanne disguises herself as an aristocrat and enrolls in a prestigious school for aspiring courtiers. She soon finds herself at the doors of the palace of Versailles.

But Jeanne, of course, is no aristocrat.
She dreams not of court but of blood.
The blood of a king.

1. Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Torzs

listened on Libby

2023
416 pgs.
Adult Fantasy
Finished 1/2/24
Goodreads rating: 4.07
My rating: 4.5
Setting: contemporary VT, London, and Antarctica

My comments: Spells that are written in blood! Great settings (VT, London, Antarctica), mesmerizing story, cool plot, well-honed characters....what's not to like?

Goodreads synopsis:  Nominee for Best Fantasy (2023), Nominee for Best Debut Novel (2023)

In this spellbinding debut novel, two estranged half-sisters tasked with guarding their family's library of magical books must work together to unravel a deadly secret at the heart of their collection--a tale of familial loyalty and betrayal, and the pursuit of magic and power.

For generations, the Kalotay family has guarded a collection of ancient and rare books. Books that let a person walk through walls or manipulate the elements--books of magic that half-sisters Joanna and Esther have been raised to revere and protect.

All magic comes with a price, though, and for years the sisters have been separated. Esther has fled to a remote base in Antarctica to escape the fate that killed her own mother, and Joanna's isolated herself in their family home in Vermont, devoting her life to the study of these cherished volumes. But after their father dies suddenly while reading a book Joanna has never seen before, the sisters must reunite to preserve their family legacy. In the process, they'll uncover a world of magic far bigger and more dangerous than they ever imagined, and all the secrets their parents kept hidden; secrets that span centuries, continents, and even other libraries . . .

68. Amari and the Night Brothers by B. B. Alston

listened on Audible

2021
416 pgs.
Genre/Level
Finished 9/24/23
Goodreads rating: 4.40
My rating: 4
Setting: A contemporary-ish US city

My comments:  My second go at this....got partway through when it first came out and stopped for some reason. Glad I tried it again, it was a fun story. Of any kids' fantasies I've read in recent years, it's the most Harry Potter-ish without being too much like Harry Potter. Characters you hate to love and love to hate...yup, I'll read the second in the series.

Goodreads synopsis:  Quinton Peters was the golden boy of the Rosewood low-income housing projects, receiving full scholarship offers to two different Ivy League schools. When he mysteriously goes missing, his little sister, 13-year-old Amari Peters, can’t understand why it’s not a bigger deal. Why isn’t his story all over the news? And why do the police automatically assume he was into something illegal?

Then Amari discovers a ticking briefcase in her brother’s old closet. A briefcase meant for her eyes only. There was far more to Quinton, it seems, than she ever knew. He’s left her a nomination for a summer tryout at the secretive Bureau of Supernatural Affairs. Amari is certain the answer to finding out what happened to him lies somewhere inside, if only she can get her head around the idea of mermaids, dwarves, yetis and magicians all being real things, something she has to instantly confront when she is given a weredragon as a roommate.

Amari must compete against some of the nation’s wealthiest kids—who’ve known about the supernatural world their whole lives and are able to easily answer questions like which two Great Beasts reside in the Atlantic Ocean and how old is Merlin? Just getting around the Bureau is a lesson alone for Amari with signs like ‘Department of Hidden Places this way, or is it?’ If that all wasn’t enough, every Bureau trainee has a talent enhanced to supernatural levels to help them do their jobs – but Amari is given an illegal ability. As if she needed something else to make her stand out.

With an evil magican threatening the whole supernatural world, and her own classmates thinking she is an enemy, Amari has never felt more alone. But if she doesn’t pass the three tryouts, she may never find out what happened to Quinton.

16. Keeper of Enchanted Rooms by Charlie N. Holmberg

#1 Whimbrel House

both read on Kindle and listened on Audible

2022
347 pgs.
Fantasy & Historical Fiction
Finished 2/14/2023
Goodreads rating: 4.28
My rating: 3.5
Setting: 1846 secluded island off RI & Boston

My comments: 1846, a world where magic has survived through the centuries but is getting diluted with each generation so there's not much magic left.  A house on an island near Boston is haunted by a ghost - well, actually, the actual house itself is the ghost.  An interesting premise.  A 31-year old writer and a prim, similarly aged housekeeper with slightly magical abilities work together to make the house "livable" at the same time they're being stalked by a powerful foe.  I took a great deal of time reading this, since most of it was off and on while eathing out.  So it went slowly, both literally and physically.

Goodreads synopsis:  Rhode Island, 1846. Estranged from his family, writer Merritt Fernsby is surprised when he inherits a remote estate in the Narragansett Bay. Though the property has been uninhabited for more than a century, Merritt is ready to call it home—until he realizes he has no choice. With its doors slamming shut and locking behind him, Whimbrel House is not about to let Merritt leave. Ever.

Hulda Larkin of the Boston Institute for the Keeping of Enchanted Rooms has been trained in taming such structures in order to preserve their historical and magical significance. She understands the dangers of bespelled homes given to tantrums. She advises that it’s in Merritt’s best interest to make Whimbrel House their ally. To do that, she’ll need to move in, too.

Prepared as she is with augury, a set of magic tools, and a new staff trained in the uncanny, Hulda’s work still proves unexpectedly difficult. She and Merritt grow closer as the investigation progresses, but the house’s secrets run deeper than they anticipated. And the sentient walls aren’t their only concern—something outside is coming for the enchantments of Whimbrel House, and it could be more dangerous than what rattles within.

33. Sea of Tranquility - Emily St. John Mandel

listened on Libby, borrowed from library.

2022
225 pgs.
Genre/Level
Finished 4/20/22
Goodreads rating: 
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Although it keeps going back to Vancouver Island, it takes place all over the world

My comments: What a fascinating story.  I bet I'll be thinking about this one for awhile.  Time travel, interesting characters, and pondering about what "anomaly" means.  Excellent science fiction.  The only thing I would've changed were some of the readers, although they read excellently, for some of them their voices were disconcertingly older that I felt they should be.

Goodreads synopsis:  The award-winning, best-selling author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel returns with a novel of art, time, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon three hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space.

Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal--an experience that shocks him to his core.

Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She's traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive's bestselling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him.

When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: The exiled son of an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe.

A virtuoso performance that is as human and tender as it is intellectually playful, Sea of Tranquility is a novel of time travel and metaphysics that precisely captures the reality of our current moment.

28. Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin

#1 Serpent & Dove

started on Kindle, ended on Audible

2019
513 pgs.
Ya Fantasy series
Finished 4/3/2022
Goodreads rating: 4.02
My rating: 5

My comments:  A witch and a witch hunter.  Never a dull moment, with a huge cliffhanger ending.  The love story between Reid and Lou is a clever one, laced with humor, magic, "the church", and machismo.  I did love this story.  Not even a hint of boring!

Goodreads synopsis:  Bound as one to love, honor, or burn.

          Two years ago, Louise le Blanc fled her coven and took shelter in the city of Cesarine, forsaking all magic and living off whatever she could steal. There, witches like Lou are hunted. They are feared. And they are burned.

          Sworn to the Church as a Chasseur, Reid Diggory has lived his life by one principle: thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. His path was never meant to cross with Lou's, but a wicked stunt forces them into an impossible union—holy matrimony.

          The war between witches and Church is an ancient one, and Lou's most dangerous enemies bring a fate worse than fire. Unable to ignore her growing feelings, yet powerless to change what she is, a choice must be made.
          And love makes fools of us all.

66. The Mysterious Disappearance of Aidan S. (as told to his brother) by David Levithan

listened on Libby, borrowed from library

narrated by Everette Plen

Unabridged audio (3:54)
2021
224 pgs.
Middle Grade Fantasy
Finished 6/22/2021
Goodreads rating: 3.28 - 3713 ratings
My rating: 4

First line/s: "They looked everywhere."

My comments: Great listen!  Not too long, a little over four hours, I think.  And I'm really curious to discover what people categorize this genre-wise.  CRF with a touch of fantasy?  Fantasy?  Well told and believable and lots and lots of fun. Apparently, many readers disagree...

Goodreads synopsis:   New York Times bestselling author David Levithan takes young readers on a twisting journey through truth, reality, and fantasy and belief.

        Aidan disappeared for six days. Six agonizing days of searches and police and questions and constant vigils. Then, just as suddenly as he vanished, Aidan reappears. Where has he been? The story he tells is simply. . . impossible. But it's the story Aidan is sticking to.
        His brother, Lucas, wants to believe him. But Lucas is aware of what other people, including their parents, are saying: that Aidan is making it all up to disguise the fact that he ran away.
        When the kids in school hear Aidan's story, they taunt him. But still Aidan clings to his story. And as he becomes more of an outcast, Lucas becomes more and more concerned. Being on Aidan's side would mean believing in the impossible. But how can you believe in the impossible when everything and everybody is telling you not to?

57. House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland

listened on Libby, borrowed from Library

narrated by Eleanor Bennett

Unabridged audio (9:10)
2021
304 pgs.
YA Mystery/Fantasy/Horror
Finished 5/30/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.18 - 6517 ratings
My rating: 2 and 4 = 3

Setting:  Contemporary Edinburgh, London....

First line/s: "I was ten years old the first time I realized I was strange."

My comments: What a very odd story - creepy and disturbing.  Lots of horrible odors and ghastly sites described so that you almost gag yourself as you listen.  It was fascinating as well as unenjoyable.  I'd love to find out what happens in book two, but I don't think I can take it!  Very, very difficult to rate this book, as I liked it and I hated it....

Goodreads synopsis:  Seventeen-year-old Iris Hollow has always been strange. Something happened to her and her two older sisters when they were children, something they can’t quite remember but that left each of them with an identical half-moon scar at the base of their throats.

          Iris has spent most of her teenage years trying to avoid the weirdness that sticks to her like tar. But when her eldest sister, Grey, goes missing under suspicious circumstances, Iris learns just how weird her life can get: horned men start shadowing her, a corpse falls out of her sister’s ceiling, and ugly, impossible memories start to twist their way to the forefront of her mind.
          As Iris retraces Grey’s last known footsteps and follows the increasingly bizarre trail of breadcrumbs she left behind, it becomes apparent that the only way to save her sister is to decipher the mystery of what happened to them as children.
          The closer Iris gets to the truth, the closer she comes to understanding that the answer is dark and dangerous – and that Grey has been keeping a terrible secret from her for years.

56. The Diamond Bearer's Destiny by Lorena Angell

#4 Unaltered

read on Kindle

2013

286 pgs.
YA Paranormal Fantasy
Finished 5/25/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.15 - 207 ratings
My rating: 3.5

First line/s: "I don't know if I want to be a Diamond Bearer anymore."

My comments: This installment wraps up many of the problems seen in the first three books.  A lot of time is spent revealing Chris's past and his relationship with his father to Calli.  Calli takes on new responsibilities as she switches places with Meitha, adding invisibility and light control to her powers.  Chris defeats his father, and that ends the government's interference with the powers under control of General Harding.  A new generation of diamond bearers is born.  The series could definitely end right here, there don't seem to be any unanswered questions, only possibilities and directions where things might possibly go.

Goodreads synopsis:  The Diamond Bearers' Destiny, book four of The Unaltered. Calli learns about Chris's motives and tries to understand his dilemmas. Given no choice, the two of them travel with a mysterious companion back to General Harding's facility in an effort to dismantle the programs that are exterminating people with powers and wiping Diamond Bearers from the face of the earth.

          General Harding figures out what lies at the heart of Agent Alpha's research project. Harding is determined to complete the studies and become an all-powerful Diamond Bearer--once Chris deceives Calli and delivers her to him so he can destroy her and take the diamond from her heart.
          What General Harding fails to understand is this: Calli's diamond will not make him the most powerful individual on the face of the earth. Most powerful of all are the agents of nature who work for Crimson--the creator of the Sanguine Diamond. Upsetting the balance of nature is the last thing General Harding should do.
          Follow Calli, Chris, Brand, and Crimson as they battle Deus Ex, undead Healers, and the notorious General Harding, in an effort to balance nature and save lives.

55. The Diamond of Freedom by Lorena Angell

#3 Unaltered

Read on Kindle

2013

264 pgs.
YA Paranormal Fantasy
Finished 5/24/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.08 - 554 ratings
My rating: 3.5/4

First line/s: "He stands by the river, his black leather duster setting him apart."

My comments: Lots happens in this one, and although it's left at a cliffhanger, it's a different kind of cliffhanger than in book two.  In that one, Chris and Calli are off to Miami and we know it.  In this book, there is a definite ending with uncertainty of what will happen next.  Is Chris a traitor?  What's going on between him and Deus Ex?  You had to think harder to follow everything  that happened in this book, what the obsidian was doing and how it changed the powers.  Also, following the "repeating" and trying to understand how it worked was a bit confusing.  It's fascinating to consider how minds can think up this stuff.  So here's the ultimate spoiler:  the books ends with Calli in Maine with her parents, Chris has taken of with Deus Ex as her supposed hostage, Jonas and Cali have joined the ranks of the diamond bearers although Calli still has a fragment of Jonas's diamond in her own heart.  Crazy

Goodreads synopsis:  The Diamond of Freedom, book three in The Unaltered, melds together history, geology, metaphysics, science, and fantasy in this non-stop nail biter. Calli and Chris race against the clock to identify the power-neutralizing stone that prevents Calli from healing her life-threatening injuries. She must also learn how to counter its effects before she can fight against the rogue Diamond Bearer named Freedom to save the boy she loves and the world of her friends.

          In the epic battle between extreme cosmic-power holders, weaknesses are exploited and lifetime relationships shattered to gain the upper-hand. Sometimes having no special abilities is what makes someone the most powerful. General Harding, Chris's father, has made it his life's mission to eradicate all people with powers. Believing the lies fed to him, and misusing his status with the U.S. government, General Harding nears completion of a weapon designed to destroy cosmic-energy individuals.
          Calli meets Brand Safferson's half-sister, self-named Deus Ex, and proclaimed mercenary. Her repeating abilities are necessary to rescue Brand from General Harding's compound, but the risks of recruiting her to abandon Freedom's side and join Maetha's may be deadly.
          Maetha provides proof that she's figured out how to heal the DNA of an altered human, creating an Unaltered individual.