#gonna tag just the books i commented on but feel free to strike up convo abt any if u are interested!

[e-b-reads]

Library readathon 2022 update: Here’s the library books I’ve finished so far this month! Some I read and have nothing in particular to say about them; some I do have little comments on, so those titles are bolded and comments are under the cut.  (Whether I had something to say doesn’t really correlate to how much I liked the book.)

Detransition, Baby, Torrey Peters

Striding Folly, Dorothy Sayers

What Angels Fear, C.S. Harris (Sebastian St. Cyr #1)

Skinwalker, Faith Hunter (Jane Yellowrock #1)

Loot, Jude Watson

The Witness for the Dead, Katherine Addison

Death Comes to the Village, Catherine Lloyd (Kurland St. Mary #1)

When Gods Die, C.S. Harris (Sebastian St. Cyr #2)

Whisper Down the Lane, Clay McLeod Chapman

Sting, Jude Watson (sequel to Loot)

OK, and some musings:

What Angels Fear, C.S. Harris (Sebastian St. Cyr #1) - was amused by the intro of the main character as, basically, “this is my detective, he can see in the dark and hear better than anyone and has yellow eyes like a wolf. also he has trauma.” but the author’s note does list a possibly plausible genetic reason for the eyes/seeing/hearing, so there’s that!

Skinwalker, Faith Hunter (Jane Yellowrock #1) - OK the weird thing is, the author’s note on the book above said that the seeing well/yellow eyes thing is also something that crops up in mixed Cherokee/Welsh populations in the US, and the main character of this book is a Cherokee skinwalker, so has preternatural abilities and yellow eyes (!). Obviously in this book the reason is magic, and I have done no other research on this connection yet, but I found it interesting!

Loot, Jude Watson - I liked that the thieves never had a moral panic over being thieves. (As far as I can tell, the only reason they consider not doing it is to avoid being caught.)  There’s enough other conflict; doing successful jewel heists is mostly just cool. And though I picked this one up randomly, I requested the sequel, so you can tell I liked it!

The Witness for the Dead, Katherine Addison - I did adore this gentle book, and look forward to the sequel! Reminded me in some ways of a Tamora Pierce, like her Terrier, possibly because of the solid plot and intense worldbuilding behind it.

Death Comes to the Village, Catherine Lloyd (Kurland St. Mary #1) - I liked this better than the other regency-era mysteries I read this month. Some slightly annoying but plausible for the setting “oh it’s because she is female”...“men are so bad at emotions”- type binary thoughts; but the MC guy (as opposed to the MC woman) is currently an “invalid,” literally not walking, b/c of the Battle of Waterloo, so he is unable to throw himself around heroically in the way other male protags of mysteries sometimes do (incl. St. Cyr, above). A nice change.  Requested the next one, we’ll see if it holds up.

Whisper Down the Lane, Clay McLeod Chapman - not a bad thriller, I just felt like everything that was supposed to be a twist was unsurprising? I think it’s reasonable that the MC/narrator is surprised, but I also think the reader is supposed to be sometimes, and I mostly wasn’t.  Could be because of reading a lot of mysteries/mystery-adjacent things and being aware of genre conventions, but idk. I usually don’t mind being able to predict twists, but this time instead of feeling like “I knew it!” (triumphant!) I felt more like “I knew it” (duh?).