The Deal

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by Elle Kennedy
First sentence: “He doesn’t know I’m alive.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There is some on-page sex, lots of swearing including f-bombs, and mention of rape and emotional and physical abuse. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

After two years at Briar University, Hannah Wells has a crush: on a football player of all things. She hasn’t talked to him, but he’s amazing to look at, so of course she’s infatuated. He’s even in her Ethics class. Then again, so is Garrett Graham, star hockey player of Briar’s winning team. And he’s discovered that Hannah is brilliant at Ethics (she got an A when everyone else failed) and he needs her help getting his grades up. She needs someone to help her get the football player’s attention. It’s a match. And it works fine until they realize they’ve caught Feelings for one another.

I picked this up because my co-worker (who is Very Knowledgeable in all things Romance) told me I needed to read it before I read next month’s Romance Book Club Book (Love Song, by the same author). She said I need the backstory (we’ll see if I agree when I get around to reading that one!). And even though it’s so very 2015-coded, I enjoyed this. Hannah was raped when she was 15, so she’s dealing with issues surrounding trust and vulnerability, and Garrett, bless him, was super mature (for a 21-year-old). Especially since he’s dealing with his own trauma surrounding the emotional and physical abuse from his father. Either way, these two “broken” people are able to find something in each other that is healing, and I can’t fault that.

There were some humorous parts, and I think Kennedy got the whole college experience – especially at an elite private school – down. Am I going to read the others in the series (all surrounding Garrett’s best friends)? Probably not. But I did have fun with this one.

Take Me With You

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by Steven Rowley
First sentence: “Two men sit in the shade of a blue lifeguard tower staring out at the Pacific.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: May 19, 2026
Review copy provided by the author
Content: There is some swearing, including multiple f-bombs. It will be in the Fiction section of the bookstore.

Jesse and Norman have been together for 30 years, married for 10. They have recently rennovated a house out in Josua Tree and moved out there. And, on the surface, everything seems okay. Until one night, a huge light appears in the sky and Norman walks out into it and disappears, leaving Jesse behind. The ultimate question: what do you do when your spouse, someone you have tethered your life to, disappears?

Yes, the book is founded on a silly premise: are alien abuctions real? Was it aliens? Jesse does everything he can to look for Norman – who is just not there. And it’s not just Jesse; Norman’s sister, Lally, is obsessed with finding him as well, and hires a private investigator to help her search. But at its heart, the book is more about remembering why long-term partners got together in the first place, and then finding reasons to stay together even when life feels mundane. It’s about choosing – and re-choosing – the people you love. While it was often silly, and very chaotic, it was also very touching and, in the end, reaffirming that life is worth living, even with all the bad things going on.

Bonus points, too, for the use of U2 song titles as section headings. That absoutely tickled me.

A remarkably good read.

Audiobook: Yesteryear

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by Caro Claire Burke
Read by Rebecca Lowman
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is a lot of swearing, including multiple f-bombs, talk of sex (and some on-page). It’s in the fiction section of the bookstore.

Since the best way to approach this novel is to know as little as possible about this book, I’m just going to give you the pitch we’ve been using at the bookstore: a trad wife influencer wakes up one day to find herself in 1855.

I’ve had coworkers talking about this for months, since they first got a galley. I resisted – mostly – until the audiobook came out. And then, I thought, why not give it a try? A couple of things: it’s worth the hype. And you will need someone to talk about it to when you finish. The characters are all terrible people, and yet the book is utterly compelling. And the narrator? Lowman is FANTASTIC. Absolutely fantastic. It got to a point with about 3 hours left that I ended up staying up until 1:30 am to finish it, and then lay awake for a while to think about it.

Not sure it’ll make my best-of list this year, but it’s a really good book.

The Dream Thieves: The Graphic Novel

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by Maggie Stiefvater
Illustrated by Sas Milledge
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: August 4, 2026
Review copy provided by the publisher
Others in the series: The Raven Boys
Content: There is violence, drug use, and some swearing, including f-bombs. It will be in the Teen Graphic Novel section.

This follows the novel pretty closely; there are some scenes that are cut, some that are collapsed, but the highlights are there (I do miss my “furiously red tie” though). I think this one lends itself to graphic novel adaptation really well – there are a couple of serious antagonists and the plot is fairly straightforward. And the art, like before, is gorgeous. (Though I’m not sure Kavinsky looks like what I thought Kavinsky should look like.) I enjoyed this one more than I liked Raven Boys; it just felt more cohesive as a graphic novel (which does leave me a bit concerned for Blue Lilly and Raven King, though).

I really enjoyed it.

Platform Decay

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by Martha Wells
First sentence: “Space was okay to look at but not super fun when you were out in it.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date May 5, 2026
Review copy provided by the publisher
Others in the series: All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, Exit Strategy, Network Effect, Fugitive Telemetry, System Collapse
Content: There is violence, swearing (including many f-bombs) and intense moments. It will be in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

One of Dr. Mensah’s marriage partners, their daughter, and her partner’s mother have been captured by some corporation executives, and Murderbot is commissioned to get them out of the torus surrounding a dead planet. It’s a quick in-and-out, with Three’s help, and it’s confident that everything will go wrong. Which it does. Starting with the request (demand?) from B-E corporation executive Leonide (whom I don’t really remember, but no matter) that Murderbot extract her family. Which, of course, sigh, it does. Tasked with keeping so many humans safe while traveling through hostile territory avoiding corporation security is exhausting. Especially when there’s media to watch.

It’s been a while since we’ve spent time with Murderbot… and I’ve missed its voice. It created an Emotion check program, which was constantly, well, checking – which was quite amusing. And it has all the elements of a good Murderbot story: humans in peril, sometimes doing stupid stuff, interesting wolrds – the travels through the sections of the torus were interesting – and Murderbot snark. What more can I ask for out of a Murderbot story?

Nothing. It was perfect.

The Universe in Verse

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by Maria Popova
First sentence: “We live our human lives in the lacuna between truth and meaning, between objective reality and subjective sensemaking laced with feeling.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy pilfered off the ARC shelves at work.
Content: It’s scientific, but not inaccessible. It’s in the Science section of the bookstore.

In this slim book, Popova provides short essays on various scientific areas – from mushrooms to alien life – and then follows each up with a poem that is somehow connected. She did not write the poetry; they range from Emily Dickinson to Edna St. Vincent Millay to more contemporary poets. The vignets are brief – no more than two or three pages, but Popova’s observations/histories/biographies are fascinating. I learned things, and it seemed appropriate to pair this book not only with Poetry month but with Artemis II’s trip around the moon.

I still don’t think I’m a poetry person – I gor more out of the vignettes than I did the poetry – but I think the vignettes helped my understanding of the poetry. In all, it was a good pairing, and one I’m considering getting the published copy of.

Midsummer Sisters

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by Niki Smith
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date June 2, 2026
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There are a couple of instances of parents fighting and children being afraid, and there is mention of crushes. It will be in the Middle Grade Graphic Novel section.

Kenzie and Quinn are stepsisters, but they have grown up together for most of their twelve years. They don’t remember a time when they weren’t sisters. But, their parents – Kenzie’s dad and Quinn’s mom – are arguing all the time now, their fights getting worse, and Quinn’s mom is looking at a divorce and moving away. Neither girl wants this, but they have no say. When the fighting gets really bad, they go out to the Outer Banks to visit Kenzie’s grandmother, where they become invested in the wild horses. They work out their own issues – anxiety about no longer being sisters – while watching the horses and enjoying the island.

I wanted to like this one a lot more than I did. One of my coworkers mentioned that horse books are popular again, and this one definitely falls into that category. I know there will be kids – step-siblings whose parents are going through a divorce – who will find this helpful, but I couldn’t connect. I appreciated the grandmother (she’s the one with the most sense), and I think if I were more of a horse girl, I would have really enjoyed Kenzie and Quinn’s interactions with the horses.

As it was, I recognized that it was good, but I didn’t love it.

The Rally

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by Carla Voss
First sentence: “It’s not the betrayal that stuns me.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: September 29, 2026
Review copy provided by the publisher. The cover image is not final.
Content: There is some on-screen sex, lots of drug use, and swearing, including multiple f-bombs. It will be in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Charlotte (call her Charlie please, unless you’re an old rich man, and then you can get away with calling her Char-Har) was a co-founder of a start-up dating app. She was the face of the app, she was a lot of the brains behind the app, so when her partner – and college friend – decides to work with a venture capitalist firm and force Charlotte out, she felt betrayed. Luckily, her best friend Lina is off for a two-week adventure, driving classic cars (nothing newer than 1992, thank you very much) across Europe with a group of wealthy people. It’s the perfect break while Charlie tries to figure out her next steps. It doesn’t hurt that the son of the man who organized the Rally is incredibly hot. And attracted to her.

I won’t go into the reasons why I read this one, but let’s just say that I walked away thinking this is a white Crazy Rich Asians. The thing is, Kevin Kwan does the outsider looking in on the decadant world of the ultra-wealthy SO much better. I’m not sure if it’s because I actually care about the not-quite-as-wealthy reader stand-in when I’m reading Kwan’s books (and I have read quite a few), or if he makes his wealthy characters more sympathetic. Either way, I found myself just not caring about Charlie, Lina, the betrayal, the app, the cars, the scenery, or the food. I did finish it, on the hope that maybe it would get better, and it just didn’t. I was disappointed, because I like European scenery, classic cars, and a good romance. The problem was that this didn’t give me any of it.

Which is too bad. It had potential.

Daggerbound

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by T. Kingfisher
First sentence: “‘You must, at all costs, avoid women,’ said the old man.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: August 25, 2026
The others in the series: Swordheart
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There is some swearing, including a couple of well-placed f-bombs, and some fade-to-black sex. It will be in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Edmond is a disillusioned scholar, and his last job before he leaves the order of the Many-Armed God is to transport this ancient sword to a scholar who has requested it. But bandits jump him on the road, and he unsheaths the sword, and he has become the wielder of the Dervish, the spirit in the sword. This is all highly embarrassing for Edmond – he didn’t want to create a fuss. But then they get kidnapped and pick up a gnole named Dog Violet and a 12-foot-tall pillbug ambassador named Large Francis. Somehow, they made it to the city (there’s an incident with a dragon), where the Dervish is kidnapped… and somewhere along the way Edmond has caught feelings.

Okay, if I’m honest: not much happens in this book. It’s basically a road trip, with little adventures along the way, and there’s not much in the way of plot. That said, I adored it. I loved the little bits – it felt very Terry Pratchett-esque at times – like the conversations between the Dervish and Edmund, and the side characters are absolutely endearing. There is nothing not to love about this book. And Halla and Sarkis both show up as an Easter egg from the first book.

I absolutely loved it!

Audiobook: The Secret History of Wonder Woman

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by Jill Lepore
Read by the Author
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is some swearing (no f-bombs, I think), and talk of unusual partering situations. It’s in the Sociology section of the bookstore.

In this book, which is essentially a biography of William Moulton Marston, Lepore details the social situations and history that led Marston to create Wonder Woman and become her first writer. It’s a bit of a sweeping history – ranging from his childhood through his education and his marriage (and unusual parterning relationships; we’re not calling him a polygamist, but he kind of was) to the creation and impact of Wonder Woman as a comic character.

I’ve been meaning to read this for years, ever since it came out, and while in between audiobooks, I remembered this one. Lepore was an excellent narrator, thoroughly entertaining and doing all the voices. I was fascinated by the story – Marston was a wild, weird person – and it helped that I had just finished Mrs America, which had a bit of an intersection with the early feminism of the 1920s, which is what Wonder Woman was born out of. It was a fascinating social history, and one that I thoroughly enjoyed.