Books 57-59
Raincheck by Sarah Madison
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a sweet romance between a weary Gargoyle, Rodney, and a young man, David, trying to find his way in the world. Rodney is having troubles as his base is starting to erode and if it crumbles, well no one knows for sure what happens to a Gargoyle who can't get back to his base come sun rise but it's assumed they die. David's father tears down old buildings and builds new, making millions but when David doesn't want to follow in his footsteps, David is cut off.
After a chance meeting on the roof of David's building (where Rodney lives), David finds himself drawn to the man hiding in the shadows that he shares so much in common with. Rodney is amazed that finally a human can hear him and he was not about to give up this interaction for anything.
It's an enjoyable novelette.
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Spell Bound by F.T. Lukens
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Rook has a plan. Even though he has no magic in a world full of it, he wants to be able to at least map out the ley lines in hopes of staying in the magic community after his grandmother's death. Antonia Hex sizes the teenager up and says it's against the rules but I don't like the rules so let's do it. She takes him on as an illegal apprentice.
Sun, a young enby works for their magical master, another non-binary, Fable, who is a sometimes work partner with Antonia. This brings them into contact with Rook who is everything Sun isn't, outgoing, extroverted people person. Sun prefers their own company but also they're very strong with magic. They're also easily overwhelmed by Rook's enthusiasm.
As the two young people get to know each other slowly, their bosses get caught up in Antonia's trouble with rocking the boat as far as the magical community is concerned. They have to work together not only to save their mentors but also their own lives.
I really liked Sun, Rook and Antonia (Fable doesn't have enough independent page-time to make an impact). I do feel like the actual threat took a little long to arrive so we have way more build up than we have actual threat but overall it was an enjoyable read.
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Suddenly a Murder by Lauren Muñoz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Thanks to Netgalley for the arc for this one. It was more of a 3.5 read for me but I rounded up because it is well written and some of what I didn't like were idiosyncrasies of my own. I do feel it is a strong debut novel. Izzy Morales and her BFF Kassidy are huge fans of 1920 era movies and Kassidy invites her and five of their 'friends' to a remote island off the coast of Maine where one of their favorite murder mystery movies was shot. And we are using the word friend loosely here, more like frenemies.
Izzy attends a very exclusive high school as her mother teaches there and Kassidy and the others are very wealthy. Blaine, Kassidy's less than faithful boyfriend, has multiple people who wish him ill. Marlowe is the young man Izzy has her eye on. We also have the gay best friend, the jock (his sport is rowing) and the brainy girl. All of them come to this party where Kassidy insists on a 1920s theme, no cell phones/computers, all their clothes returned to the main land and everyone will dress in 20s clothing and they're reliving a famous party right down to the cocktail/food menus.
Unsurprisingly one of them is killed. Everyone has a reason to kill the victim. It's a real nod to the locked room Agatha Christie novels, right down to eccentric detectives (doing barely legal investigations) with a touch of Gothic novel tossed (complete with isolating storm).
I liked Izzy and Marlowe very much. The others are rich entitled and annoying but still interesting characters. I read a lot of mysteries so the ending is exactly what I expected it to be. It's not told linearly per se. The perimorteum chapters are all Izzy's pov. The flashbacks are from all the characters slowly revealing their motives for killing. I'm not a huge fan of non linear story telling (that would be the thing I didn't include in my rating as that is a me thing and not a fault of the story). I did enjoy this a lot. Hope to see more from this author.
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