Audiobook: The Wedding Date

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by Jasmine Guillory
Read by Janina Edwards
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is some swearing, including a few f-bombs, and fade-to-black sex. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Drew doesn’t want to go to his ex-girlfriend’s wedding by himself, so when he meets Alexa (in the elevator), and there’s instant chemistry, he convinces her to go to the wedding with him. Where he accidentally calls her his “girlfriend”. But, they realize there’s something there and start a long-distance (well, LA to San Francisco) relationship of sorts. As their relationship goes on, though, they wonder if it could be something more.If only they weren’t so far away. If only one of them could say how they feel.

This was a fun romance. Nothing too deep – Alexa has a side project trying to get an arts program for troubled kids set up in Berkley – but it was fun. I didn’t like Drew – he was (especially in his internal narration) very reluctant to commit, and was so very often misunderstanding Alexa’s motivations. It was a trope, yes, but his end of it really annoyed me. The best thing, I think, was that these characters’ lives felt real. They ate. They went to the store. They had normal-sounding conversations. It was nice.

I enjoyed it enough that I think I’ll give another one of Guillory’s a try.

Offside

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by Christina Diaz Gonzalez and illustrated by Mari Costa
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher
Release date: July 7, 2026.
Content: There is some neglect by parents, and conflict between friends. It will be in the Middle Grade Graphic Novel section of the bookstore.

Jackson Middle School’s soccer team has gone co-ed. Al – the team captain – doesn’t like this, but mostly because his dad is staunchly against Al playing on a team with girls. Nicky, the girl who pushed for the team to go co-ed, is ecstatic once she makes the team, but is finding it difficult to be a team player. Palmer has been sidelined for the season due to a torn ACL, but is finding new talents writing for the school (and city) newspaper. And Fabiola and Seba are adjusting to life in America and learning how to belong here.

It’s a story of friendship and belonging, of teamwork and chasing your dreams, and I really enjoyed it. I do think there was a bit too much going on – not only did Nicky have issues with her old teammates who felt they dropped her for the boys, but she also had drama with her dad, who spent more time with his new girlfriend/wife than with her. Al’s biggest issue was his overbearing (and sexist) dad, a problem that was magically resolved when Al’s grandpa came to visit from Brazil and was suddenly okay with girls and boys playing soccer together. Fabiola and Seba’s problems were straightforward: they couldn’t speak English well and struggled to communicate. The characters were all pretty well developed, but I think I would have rather there be less going on. But maybe that wouldn’t have been realistic.

At any rate, it was a good graphic novel, and one I’d definitely recommend to soccer-loving kids.

Monthly Round-Up: January 2026

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I saw somewhere that it feels very derivative to read with all that *gestures widely*. That said, I did read some books this month. This was my favorite:

An Expanse of Blue

It was a beautiful book, and I can’t wait for it to come out.

As for the rest:

Adult fiction:

Thistlemarch
Heated Rivalry
Canon
Fever Beach (audiobook)
Annie Knows Everything
Spark of the Everflame
Red City (audiobook)
Fishbone Cinderella

Non-Fiction:

Separation of Church and Hate

There’s so much to say and yet no idea how to say it. Be kind, friends.

Fishbone Cinderella

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by Elizabeth Lim
First sentence: “Marigold Yuen used to think she had a knack for fixing things.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: July 28, 2026
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There is abuse, including physical, and some swearing, including a few f-bombs. It will be in the Fiction section.

Yut Ying was the youngest of four children – her three older brothers were obviously more important than her – in 1940s China during the occupation. She was living in a poor village until her mother sent her to live with her father and his second wife in Hong Kong. There she was treated as a servant, cooking and cleaning for the family instead of getting the education her father promised. But, after a bad relationship, she married the first man who could take her to America, eventually to Chinatown in San Francisco, where she raised her three daughters. The catch with all this: the women in Yut Ying’s family are cursed. Yut Ying herself can disappear, and her daughter Marigold can catch snatches of memory when she touches people. They end up going back to Hong Kong to try to break the curse, so they can all live without fear.

That summary doesn’t really do it justice. It’s a family drama, with the conflicts between mothers and daughters, and between siblings, mostly sisters, and it’s been a long time since I’ve read one of those. While the magic is a central plot point, it’s not really magic in the fantasy sense of the word, which is surprising since Lim is known for her sweeping YA fantasies. It’s a quiet book, one in which you care about the characters, even though not much happens in the plot. I really enjoyed it, but as I’m sitting here writing about it, I find I don’t have much to say. It’s a good book, one that I thoroughly enjoyed, but can’t seem to find anything to say about.

Separation of Church and Hate

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by John Fugelsang
First sentence: “I’m here because two people broke a promise to God.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There is some swearing, including a couple of f-bombs. It’s in the Religion/Philosophy section of the bookstore.

I picked this up because we were selling a ton of it at the bookstore back before the holidays, and I got curious. It’s basically Fugelsang’s treatise to MAGA “Christians” – he was raised Catholic by a former monk and nun who left and got married – about specific issues that conservatives like to use the Bible to back up their position. It’s not as theological as I thought it would be, but then Fugelsang is not a theologian, he’s a comedian.

That said, he has some good points on many of the topics – from birth control to LGBTQ issues to feminism to white supremacy – and even though it’s not as deep as I wanted it to be, it is a good look at the Bible, Christianity, and Jesus’s teachings.

It’s not a keeper, though.

Audiobook: Red City

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by Marie Lu
Read by André Santana, Eunice Wong, Natalie Naudus & Sid Sagar
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is a lot of violence, much of it graphic. There is also sexual assault, on-page sex, and lots of swearing, including many f-bombs. It’s in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Growing up the child of a strict single mother, Sam wanted more for her life. She is smart – she has a perfect memory – and she had a promising future. That is, until her mom was in an accidental fire at the restaurant she worked at. Then, Sam turned to the syndicates – the organizations that control the drug Sand, and the magic in this alternate reality. She learns to be an alchemist and falls deep into this dangerous world.

Ari, on the other hand, was brought to Angel City from his home in India, recruited because of the strength of his charisma, his soul, to be a part of Luminos, one of the syndicates. He’s taught and trained since he was 10 to be a bioalchemist, someone who can persuade pretty much anyone of anything.

Ari and Sam were friends growing up, unaware of their involvement in rival syndicates, until they re-meet as adults, on the opposite side of a brewing war.

I didn’t know what to expect going in, but I really enjoyed this one. I was talking to K about the book and describing how they used alchemy as the magic system, and she was like “Oh, like Full Metal Alchemist”? And yes, exactly like that. Except mashed with the Godfather, and you have a good sense of this. But I liked the characters, I appreciated the way Lu developed the world that she set the story in, and I didn’t even mind the ending – there is still an opening for another book (hopefully, only a duology) but the story of this one is wrapped up. I loved the audio version; the narrators were amazing, capturing the emotion of the book as well as the action. I probably would have liked reading this, but I really enjoyed it on audio. Perhaps I’m being overly generous to this because I was listening to it while reading Spark of the Everflame, and it was just refreshing to have good worldbuilding and a unique, fully developed magic system.

I’ll definitely be on the lookout for the sequel to this one.

An Expanse of Blue

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by Kauakanilehua Mahoe Adams 
First sentence: “Mass begins at 10:00 a.m. on the dot, but we are late because I walked out of my room this morning in leggings and a sweatshirt and Dad lost his shit.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date May 19, 2026
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There is swearing, sexual assault, and talk of sex. It will be in the YA section of the bookstore.

Aouli Smith is struggling. She’s unheard at home and school, she fights constantly with her “perfect” sister – it’s no fun being the younger, less perfect one – and she’s losing her best friend. The only safe place, her refuge is her Auntie Ehu’s house with the Native Hawai’ian community in Western Washington. But then, her life starts unraveling. She finds out a secret about her father, she is assaulted by a boy at church, she can’t hold in the secrets any more. But then, another Hawai’ian boy, Nalu, moves in, and maybe there is hope in the world again.

I’m doing the children’s buying at the bookstore again, and I stumbled on this one while going through the Harper frontlist. I was attracted by the cover and by the premise – I do love Hawai’i – so I downloaded the DRC, and started reading. But once I began, I fell in love with Adams’ storytelling and her way with words. The poems are beautiful, and I love the way Adams talks about faith, family, and tradition. It’s a gorgeous debut YA novel, and I hope I can find readers for it.

Spark of the Everflame

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by Penn Cole
First sentence: “Whether it was a blessing or a curse is, even now, the subject of considerable debate.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There are a couple of on-page sex scenes and a lot of violence. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Diem’s mother has disappeared, which puts Diem – a mortal in the world of the half-god Descended – in a quandary. Should she take over her mother’s duties serving the Descended in the castle city to save the deal that gives her younger brother an education? Should she go looking for her mother? Should she join the rebellion trying to oust/kill the Descended and take over the realms? Do we even care?

Actually, it’s that last question that kept coming up. Why should I care about Diem’s struggles? Why should I care that mortals are living in poverty while the Descended live in luxury? Is this about race? Class? Why should I care that there’s a rebellion? Why should I care that Prince Luther – one of the Descended – is attracted to Diem? Why should I care about Deim and Henri’s relationship? Why am I still reading this book?

So, I bailed. I got further than I expected – about 2/3 of the way through – and then I just skipped around until I figured out what was going on. This one was not for me.

Annie Knows Everything

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by Rachel Wood
First sentence: “Statistically, the most common days of the week to be fired are Monday or Friday.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Release date: April 7, 2026
Content: There is swearing, including a few f-bombs and some on-page sex. It will be in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Annie’s life is unraveling: her sister, Shannon, is engaged a second time to a man that Annie hates. And Annie was just laid off from her job. She can’t deal with the idea of being unemployed, so she coerces her best friend in HR to get her a job in Data Strategy – a department that Annie isn’t remotely qualified to be in. But, her new boss, Connor, is cute. So it’s all good. She manages not to implode her sister’s engagement party, and she manages to get on the good side of Connor and the boys in DatStrat. So life is back to being good. Until she falls in love with her boss (uh-oh), gets into (another) huge fight with her sister, and spills some confidential company information, which gets her fired. Will she figure her life out?

This was… cute. When I started, I was hopeful it would be more. Fun, whimsical, charming, sweep-me-as-the-reader-off-my-feet. But in the end, it was just cute. Which isn’t bad. I liked it enough to finish it.

Which isn’t a bad thing. It’s just not what I hoped.

Audiobook: Fever Beach

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by Carl Hiaasen
Read by Will Damron
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is a LOT of swearing, including many, many f-bombs. There is also talk of sex toys. It’s in the Mystery section of the bookstore.

Dale Figgo got kicked out of the Proud Boys, and so he started his own right-wing, white supremacist group. Vida Morales, off of a bad divorce, is renting a room from Dale (unfortunately) and working for the (corrupt) Mink Foundation. She bumps into environmental activist Twilly Spree and somehow they get involved in trying to stop Figgo and his (very stupid) men from doing the bidding of a (corrupt and stupid) congressman to rig an election.

I think that about sums up the plot. This wasn’t a deep book, but it was an entertaining one. We listened to it on a long drive, and it had both of us cracking up at points. Hiaasen has NO respect for the Proud Boy-type or the corrupt congressman (as he should), dragging them as often as he possibly could. Vida and Twilly were both entertaining characters, with small scenes that just had us laughing. It’s all very Florida Man, and a very silly story.

So, not deep or probably worth reading, but I had a good time with it.