The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf

Mrs. Victoria Buys a Brothel Talhí Briones, 2025 Premise: It's 1865 when Victoria finally leaves. She leaves her abusive husband with no destination and hardly any plans. A friend helps her flee Salt Lake City, and she ends up in a tiny Western town with only enough local cowboys to support a few small businesses. There, she'll find friendship, purpose, and maybe actual love. Awwww.  Say it again.  Awwwww!  This romance novel was super-cute. I loved the cast of quirky, complex characters, the setting, and the story. This wears its fandom origins on its sleeve, but that just means it doesn't apologize for spending time on characters' feelings or for packing the cast with a huge array of diverse backgrounds and personalities.  I like a romance that balances the romance storyline with additional plot elements and this definitely delivers. Victoria and love interest Natane are both older women with lots to learn about each other. Victoria challenges herself to do what s...

The Pairing Casey McQuiston, 2024 Premise: Theo and Kit haven't seen each other in four years, since their epic lifelong-friendship-turned-relationship imploded. Somehow, they each separately decided to finally take the European food and wine tour they had canceled due to their breakup, and now they're stuck on a gorgeous three-week vacation together. In an effort to let bygones be bygones, they decide to try being friends again (and to compete to see who can hook up with more hot Europeans while on the tour). But maybe nothing compares to having just the right partner. I'm not sure I loved this quite as much as I loved the frothy fun of Red, White, and Royal Blue or the paranormal adventure/history lesson of One Last Stop , but I did really, really like it.  I liked both protagonists. Wine genius, pop-culture aficionado, and self-described fuckup Theo narrates the first half, and we see their insecurity and their determination. Pastry professional and art geek Kit takes o...

All the Murmuring Bones A.G. Slatter, 2021 Premise: Miren O'Malley (last true daughter of those O'Malleys, the ones who fortune used to favor) has always lived in the big house by the cliffs by the sea. That's where her grandparents raised her and where she expected to live out her days. But when her grandfather dies and her grandmother tries to arrange her marriage to restore their family fortunes, everything changes overnight.   This was a very cool book. I've seen Irish/Celtic elements in many fantasy novels, but this world was completely steeped in them. It was extensive to the point that early on I wasn't sure whether it was set in an alternate world or just Ireland with real magic. And just the feel of it - combining a generations-long story of family secrets with supernatural and dark fairy tale elements (and in-world fairy tales as well). Very cool. Much like some of the oldest tales and myths, the story does meander a bit, and ends up as a journey containin...

Death of the Author Nnedi Okorafor, 2025 Premise: Zelu is struggling. Struggling with her career, with her body's limitations, with her family and her art. She decides to write a new story, and everything changes. First, I loved this.  I loved Zelu and all her complications. She's a young woman disabled by a childhood injury, but that's only a part of who she is. She's the product of a complex, demanding Nigerian-American family, but that's only another factor. She's an author, but when we meet her, she's struggling with that. The book flips between Zelu's life in the near future/alternate present and excerpts of the sci-fi novel that makes her famous. It's impressive that I liked both sides of the narrative. I wasn't skimming through the "real world" parts to get to the more overtly sci-fi sections or vice versa.  I really, really liked the characters and the story and the themes. It explores the relationship between art and the public...

Some Desperate Glory Emily Tesh, 2023 Hugo Winner - 2024 Premise: It's not easy being the last outpost of humanity. You have to give up a lot. You have to be committed to the cause. You have to not listen to the propaganda that says that maybe you're actually in a cult... What a book! It might have first gotten on my radar for winning the Hugo, but I had forgotten that by the time I read it, so I was unexpectedly delighted with this.  At least a few SPOILERS must follow here, but before we get there, I'll say that I recommend this for anyone who likes complex/morally messed-up protagonists and some heavy topics in your sci-fi adventure.  I've seen it recommended for fans of the Locked Tomb (not just for the blurb from Tamsyn Muir on the cover), and I agree with that. It starts from a place where you don't know what the protagonist doesn't know about the world they live in, and discovering the truth behind their home is incredibly compelling. (The author's n...

Previous Bookshelf Update post The continued adventures of reading and rereading books I'm not sure I want to keep on my bookshelves. The Robots of Dawn Isaac Asimov, 1983 Whoops. This has sat on my shelf for a very long time, and I think that when I bought it (on a dollar rack, surely), I thought it was one of the collections of Robot stories (I read some of those many years back and remembered enjoying them). Instead, this is an odd novel. This is the third in a series I haven't read any other book in, written decades after the others, and serves as one of a few pieces written around this time that were clearly meant to directly connect the Robot series with the Foundation novels. The characters are fine, if nothing all that special now. The mystery plot is okay, but a bit slow. The book ends with an extremely awkward reveal/twist that's a big part of the aforementioned tie-in with Foundation and I really could have done without it. Overall an ok book, but not one I'm...