So if anyone needs a ridiculous romp of a book set in a queer-gender-fluid fantasy world that vaguely resembles Victorian England if there were magic and trolls and a skeletal mouse who says "BONG," I highly recommend "The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry" by C.M. Waggoner. I didn't realize there was an earlier book set in the same world ("Unnatural Magic," which I just started reading), but it clearly wasn't necessary for context since I zipped right along. Wonderful queer love story mixed with a bit of a detective subplot. I enjoyed the heck out of it.
'Safe'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Thanks for the rec, Pix! I decided to read Unnatural Magic first because why not and they are both a lot of fun. I hope to see more in this world, it's got a lot to explore
Thanks, Pix! I've put it on hold.
I ended up not liking "Unnatural Magic" as much. It was fine, but it wasn't the joyful romp that I loved in the other.
I can see that, they are different in tone and such, and the plot of Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry is, I would say, more satisfying. I liked them both, and what I like most is the world they take place in, it's very thoughtfully put together with a lot of different cultures and religions and languages and Waggoner is clever about having different POV characters think in pretty identifiably different voices without being precious about it. More, please.
I went from those to The Wisteria Society for Lady Scoundrels which is also pretty fun but completely different, or maybe not completely but much more different than I subconsciously supposed by the similarity in title construction and cover art so that I had to do some reminding myself that THIS IS NOT THE SAME SERIES early on but once I got that thoroughly clear I quite enjoyed it
I get a number of recommendations from the Smart Bitches (not to be confused with Spike's Bitches) - they have a daily list of three or four e-books on sale - that I use to try out authors that are new to me. It's kind of hit or miss - some I've loved and gone on to go for an author's backlist, some I haven't finished or, if I did finish, deleted the book and decided to ignore that author. (One made me so mad over a historical inaccuracy that I'm not only avoiding that author, I'm still angry.) One of the wins was "The Huntress" by Kate Quinn - I don't normally go for WWII stories, but this one .... It's about hunting down war criminals and specifically one woman. One of the people hunting her down is a Russian who was one of the Night Witches. It was hard to put down and I plan to get more of her books.
Yes, and if I don’t feel like buying things I use their recs for library book holds. Sometimes the ones on sale are backlist that are available right then at the library!
I figure if an e-book is $0.99 I can afford to give it a try.
I have found that I can think that often enough that eventually no, I really can't afford another one. But generally it's a sound policy.
The Hidden Palace just came out and I remember really looking forward to any sequel when I finished The Golem and the Jinni, so I started reading it as soon as I could. I only got maybe 3% in before I decided I'd like to reread The Golem and the Jinni, so I'm doing that now and I just got to the bit where someone comes through Ellis Island and his name is changed by an official and I had to come say something about it where Hil R might see it as it immediately made me think of her periodic reminders on that topic