Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire

Prompts Filled: N/A

Tags: Nancy Whitman, Eleanor West, Sumi Onishi, Kade Bronson, Jaqueline “Jack” Wolcott, Jillian “Jill” Wolcott, Katherine Lundy, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Murder Mystery, Novella, Young Adult, Boarding School, School, Alternate Universe, Magical Worlds, Magic, Missing Children, Runaways, Death, Murder, Dismemberment, Animal Death, Pet Death, Morbid, Macabre, Asexual, Asexuality, Asexual Character, Transgender, Trans Character, Transphobia, Trauma, Therapy, Outcasts, Misfits

Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children takes in children from the ages 10 to 19 who display a strange trauma after disappearing for various amounts of time. Miss West implores the desperate parents to leave their children in her care, and she educates them as in a normal school and offers therapy so that the children may recover and eventually return home.

Though “home” may be somewhere else entirely.

Nancy Whitman has just returned from the Halls of the Dead to her original world, to her dismay. She longs to return to the Underworld, and her parents don’t understand what happened to their daughter. So they send her to Eleanor West.

Nancy meets her new roommate, Sumi, and the other students who have also gone to different worlds and come back. Sumi went to a candy-and-rainbows world called “Confection.” Kade went to a land of fairies and goblins. Jack and Jill went to the Moors, a horror world of vampires and mad scientists. Nancy discovers that there are hidden doors to all sorts of worlds that only open to the right child, and that it is rare that a child who comes back ever finds that door again. But Nancy hopes. All the students hope.

Hope, Sumi says, is a bad word.

And then, only a few days after Nancy’s arrival, tragedy strikes: a student is found murdered. Nancy, having traveled to the Halls of the Dead, is a prime suspect, but she respects the dead, she doesn’t make them. With her new friends, Nancy must find the murderer, before their beloved school—a sanctuary from their parents, who don’t understand them, who can’t understand them—is closed for good.

Sparked Joy: 4/5 I loved the exploration of the aftermath of visiting another world. What happened to Alice after she returned from Wonderland? How did the Pevensie children cope after returning from Narnia?

Well, possibly with murder.

I think Eleanor actually does a really bad job helping the children under her care cope with coming back different and not being able to go back to the other worlds where they believe they belong. The therapy sessions that Lundy facilitates and everything that Eleanor and Lundy tell the children are… really unhelpful. Which is probably because Eleanor and Lundy also want to go back to their other worlds, but still. These people need real therapy.

I really liked this book, but Nancy’s ending made me knock it down from 5/5 to 4/5. Like I mentioned in my review of The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee, I actually find the “ideal” character arc very satisfying: a character wants something, but in the end they get what they need. I feel like Nancy and the other children need to come to terms with what happened to them and what their life will be like going forward. But perhaps that’s not the story McGuire wanted to tell, and that’s okay. I still really liked this book.

Something I Learned: I suppose I learned that not every character needs to get what they need instead of what they want to make for a good story. Maybe Nancy’s arc was a tragedy, and that’s the point.

Something I’m Inspired to Do: I definitely want to read more of the Wayward Children series. I’m fascinated.

Every Heart a Doorway was published in 2016. Here is Seanan McGuire’s website. Support your local bookstore if you can, or visit your local library!

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

Prompts Filled: (2) A bildungsroman

Tags: Ged (a.k.a. Sparrowhawk, Duny), Fantasy, Adventure, Magic, Wizards, Magic School, Coming of Age, Bildungsroman, Quests, Dragons, Seafaring, Sailing, Boats, Rivalries, Animal Death

On the isle of Gont, a boy named Duny shows a great aptitude for magic. After he uses his magic to save his village, and the larger island of Gont, from raiders, he becomes an apprentice to Gont’s resident wizard, Ogion. Ogion gives Duny his true name, Ged, and Ged moves to Ogion’s home and studies magic. But Ogion lives a quiet life and emphasizes patience and restraint, and Ged is young, impatient, and arrogant. Ogion recommends him to the School on the isle of Roke, where he can study under other wizards and learn alongside students his own age.

Ged makes friends on Roke, but he also makes rivals and enemies. On the night of a seasonal festival, his rival Jasper challenges him to raise the dead. Ged, arrogant and proud, attempts to do so, and he opens a rift into the realm of the dead and out of it comes a shadow that attacks him and flees. His teachers warn him that the evil creature will pursue him for the rest of his life and try to possess him.

And so Ged must go on a journey to defeat the shadow he unleashed upon the world and restore balance.

Sparked Joy: 3/5 I am so glad I read this at last. As a foundational fantasy text, it was about damn time I read it. Though much of it seemed cliché to me, I recognize that that’s only because it originated many of those clichés, including magic school and boy wizards. (And apparently also the idea that names hold power? I think that actually originated in faerie folklore, though.)

Something I Learned: I feel like I should have learned a lot about sailing and seafaring, because Ged does so much of it, but I can’t recall a specific piece of knowledge that would help me if I were stranded on a desert island and needed to make a boat or raft to escape.

Something I’m Inspired to Do: I know Le Guin hated it, but I kind of want to watch the Studio Ghibli film…

A Wizard of Earthsea was published in 1968. Here is Ursula K. Le Guin’s website. Support your local bookstore if you can, or visit your local library!

You Are Asexual by A.C. Evermore

Prompts Filled: (2) A bildungsroman, (13) A book originally published under a pen name, (23) A book that features dragons, (31) A book with a title that is a complete sentence

Tags: Asexuality, Asexual, Queer, LGBTQIA, Choose Your Own Adventure, Adventure, Fantasy, Mystery, Science Fiction, Dystopian Fiction, Dystopias, Utopias, Second Person Narrative, Self Discovery, Coming Out, Sexuality, Sexual Orientation, Allonormativity, Compulsory Sexuality, Hermeneutical Injustice, Injustice, Sex, Sex Scenes, Non-explicit Sex Scenes, Sex Toys, Conversion Therapy, Kidnapping, Death, Sudden Death, Murder, Assassination, Conspiracy, Fascism, Censorship, Rebellion, Revolutions, Revenge, Secrets, Secret Society, High School, Puberty, Magic, Dragons, Cake, Crack Fiction, Crack Taken Seriously

It’s Orientation Day, the day you get a beam shot at you and you receive your sexual orientation. But something seemingly goes wrong, and while other students around you are experiencing sexual attraction and lust for each other, you feel… nothing. Did the beam not work? Are you just broken?

Or are you… something else? Something outside the norm. Something unexpected, secret, and… non-sexual.

Maybe… asexual?

You Are Asexual is a choose-your-own-adventure novel in which you navigate a series of decisions that lead you to discovering that you’re asexual. Or maybe you don’t and you just channel your passions into inventing the perfect sex toy. Or maybe you turn into a dragon!

Sparked Joy: 3/5 Okay, this book is fun, and I really enjoyed discovering all the endings, but I always wanted… more. Something deeper. The worldbuilding felt shallow, and I really wanted more. Always more.

I also found the portrayal of allosexual people somewhat… problematic. Like, these teenagers get hit with the sexuality ray and are suddenly horny and crawling all over each other in an orgy. That seemed… kind of an icky way to portray sexual attraction and how it works for allosexual people. I guess I just don’t like the stereotype that allosexual people are all hypersexual. And I think that stereotype is harmful for allosexuals.

That said, again, this book was really fun to read! On my first try, I ended up at a speakeasy for asexuals! That was cool. I think it was also a really accurate exploration of hermeneutical injustice when it comes to sexuality (and gender).

So, if you’re looking for something fun and not too deep (but also scary; there is conversion therapy—mind the tags!), this is a good book to check out!

Something I Learned: I learned that wearing a black ring in your right middle finger can turn you into a dragon!

(I’m kidding, of course. For those not in the know, a black ring worn on your right middle finger signals to other asexual people that you are asexual. Polyamorous people and swingers also often wear black rings on the right hand, but there is an unofficial agreement amongst these communities that the middle finger is reserved for asexuality.)

Something I’m Inspired to Do: A little while ago, I went to a Powerpoint Party and presented on Why I Hate Funko Pops. I’m thinking maybe next time, I want to write a collaborative Choose Your Own Adventure presentation!

You Are Asexual was published in 2021. Support your local bookstore if you can, or visit your local library!

The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee

Prompts Filled: (2) A bildungsroman, (6) A book about pirates, (23) A book that features dragons

Tags: Felicity Montague, Johanna Hoffman, Simmaa, Henry “Monty” Montague, Percy Newton, Young Adult Fiction, Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Adventure, 1700s, 18th Century, Pirates, Piracy, Travel, Sailing, Ships, Science, Medicine, Doctors, Feminism, Sexism, Misogyny, Not Like Other Girls, Internalized Misogyny, The Glass Ceiling, Siblings, Sibling Relationships, Friendship, Asexuality, Asexual, Aromantic, Running Away from Home, Kidnapping, Extortion, Dragons, Sea Serpents, Maps, Dogs, Social Anxiety, Anachronisms, Historical Inaccuracy

Felicity Montague, daughter of an English earl and aspiring practitioner of medicine, has spent the last year of her life petitioning various universities and doctors to study medicine under them, and she is at her wit’s end. When Callum Doyle, a kind baker in Edinburgh who hired Felicity to work for him when she was down on her luck, makes a proposal of marriage to her, Felicity panics and says she’s leaving for London. She flees Edinburgh and arrives on her brother’s doorstep with a new plan: petition for entrance into a London hospital to study medicine. When that fails, too, she resolves next to go to Germany to petition to her hero, Dr. Alexander Platt, who is about to marry her estranged childhood friend Johanna.

A mysterious woman named Sim offers to pay Felicity’s way if Sim can come with her, so the two travel to Stuttgart and bluff their way into the house. Felicity and Johanna begin to make amends, but everything is thrown into chaos when suddenly, Sim steals a letter from Johanna and disappears.

And then, the night before the wedding, Johanna disappears, too.

Determined to solve the mystery and endear herself to Dr. Platt, Felicity leads him to Zurich in pursuit of Johanna, but when she finds her, Felicity discovers that there is more going on than it first appeared.

Johanna does not want to marry Platt. Platt is only after Johanna’s mother’s research and her uncle’s money. And both Johanna and Sim need to steal the research before Platt can get his hands on it, to protect a secret.

The three women endeavor to steal the research together, launching them on a grand adventure involving pirates, betrayal, and a mystery hiding beneath the seas. While they try to protect their own secrets and reach their own dreams, the women bond over their shared struggles as women in an unfriendly world and ultimately come to understand each other and share a final goal to make a splash, even if they themselves are never remembered for starting the ripples.

Sparked Joy: 4/5 Oh, I liked this. I haven’t read the previous book in this series, in which Felicity goes on an adventure with her brother and his lover, Percy, but I’m hooked.

This book is a perfect example of the ideal character arc, which is something I’ve been thinking about recently. A good story starts with a character striving for what they want but ending up with what they ultimately need. Felicity started out wanting to study medicine at a prestigious university, or to apprentice under a famous doctor, but what she ultimately needed was to realize that she could discover scientific truths her own way, outside of a male-dominated, patriarchal institution.

And also, she needed to learn that women could be feminine and be smart and worthy of respect.

Something I Learned: I learned what a marlinespike is!

Something I’m Inspired to Do: Well, I definitely want to read the first book in this series, The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue. I’d love to read more about Monty and Percy and their romance.

The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy was published in 2018. Here is Mackenzi Lee’s website. Support your local bookstore if you can, or visit your local library!

Book 9: Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

Prompts Filled: (23) A book that features dragons

Tags: Violet Sorrengail, Xaden Riorson, Tairn, Andarna, Sgaeyl, Violet Sorrengail/Xaden Riorson, Fantasy, Romance, Dragons, Magic, Chronic Pain, Military Fiction, Military Fantasy, Military College, War, Rebellions, Revolutions, School, Boarding School, Training, Young Adults, Siblings, Sibling Relationships, Monarchy, Monarchies, Kingdoms, Sex, Sex Scenes, Explicit Sex, Secrets, Relationships, Jealousy, The Other Woman, Assassins, Assassination Attempts, Betrayal, Treason

The second book in the Empyrean series, Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros continues Violet’s story as she navigates a new enemy, a revolution, and war.

Violet explores Riorson House, where she was taken to after the fight with venin in Resson, and spends some time with her brother Brennan. She learns about the revolution that Xaden has been hiding from her and, angry and distrustful, decides to shut him out.

The revolution’s governing body, the Assembly, needs a luminary (a forge) to create the weapons needed to kill venin (evil dark magic wielders), so Violet & Co. decide they need to return to Basgiath and smuggle weapons out to their allies. Upon their return to Basgiath, they explain their absence with selective truths and rejoin the college to start the next school year—or in Xaden’s case, to start military service.

But something is different this school year. Assassins appear in various forms, targeting the dragon riders who fought in Resson, and the new Vice Commandant of the school, Varrish, is especially good at interrogation and torture. Something is Up, and Violet spends all of her free time trying to find out what’s going on at Basgiath—and how they built the magical wards that protect Navarre from venin in the first place, over six hundred years ago.

Everything comes to a head when Varrish kidnaps Violet and tortures her for information about the revolution. Dain reads her mind and saves her, killing Varrish, Xaden goes on a killing spree to find her, and when Dain and Xaden tell all the cadets the truth… Basgiath loses half of its riders as they leave to support the revolution.

Dragon riders and gryphon fliers must now battle together to save the continent from the venin while the wards are failing, and still there are secrets everywhere that Violet must uncover. Secrets that might separate Violet and Xaden forever.

Sparked Joy: God, this book took me like a month to read. It was 1) way too long at an unnecessary 623 pages (I’m going to have to ask Yarros’s editor to seriously step up), and 2) pretty bad. 2/5.

I went easy on Fourth Wing, because I figured the stuff that didn’t make sense would be explained to Violet and the reader as the series went on, but nope. Character motivations still don’t make sense, the magic system doesn’t make sense—except perhaps the system suspiciously similar to the one in The Owl House—the dragon bonds don’t make sense…

Ugh. Okay, here’s my drinking game for this book:

• Take a shot and try not to throw up whenever Xaden calls Violet by his pet name for her, “Violence.” I hate it.
• Take a shot every time Violet contradicts something she said previously
• Take a shot every time Violet uncovers a secret about Xaden that he could have told her about and even wanted to tell her about, but he waits until she gets frustrated and finds out on her own and then scolds her for not just asking him.
• Take a shot every time a new character is introduced with an endearing quality.
• Take another shot when that same endearing character dies immediately.
• Take a shot every time Violet or Xaden makes up a new rule for their relationship.
• Take a shot every time Xaden doesn’t answer Violet’s questions, despite promising to not hide anything from her anymore.
• Take a shot every time Violet storms out of a room and people call after her.
• Take a shot every time General Sorrengail’s mask cracks.
• Just, like, down the whole bottle when you get to the part where Violet finds out about Xaden’s ex and now we have to deal with two women fighting over a man.

Something I Learned: I learned that when I have a made-up word or non-standard English name in my books, I should double check to make sure I spelled it correctly everywhere in the book. “Tairn” was spelled “Tarin” at least once, so if I were editing, I would do a search for all possible combinations of those letters, lol.

Something I’m Inspired to Do: Damn, write my own dragon book so I can read the one I actually want to read.

Iron Flame was published in 2023. Here is Rebecca Yarros’s website. Support your local bookstore if you can, or visit your local library!

Percy Jackson and the Olympians 1: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Prompts Filled: (2) A bildungsroman, (29) A book with a neurodivergent main character

Tags: Percy Jackson, Grover Underwood, Annabeth Chase, Chiron, Dionysus, Medusa, Ares, Hades, Poseidon, Zeus, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Adventure, Mythology, Greek Mythology, Gods, Goddesses, Demigods, Titans, Heroes, Satyrs, Centaurs, Boarding School, Magic School, Middle Grade, New York, Dyslexia, ADHD, Neurodivergence, The Hero’s Journey, Domestic Abuse, Child Abuse

Percy Jackson is a normal twelve-year-old American boy with ADHD, dyslexia, and a penchant for attracting trouble. Or so he thinks.

When a monster attacks him during a sixth grade field trip, his world turns upside down. A pen transforms into a sword, he is expelled from his sixth school in as many years, and when he and his mother, Sally Jackson, go on their annual trip to a vacation home, another monster attacks and seemingly kills his mother. His best friend Grover turns out to be a satyr, and Percy himself?

It turns out Percy is half-god.

After slaying the monster—the actual Minotaur—Percy and Grover find refuge in Camp Half-Blood, a sanctuary for the half-blooded children of Greek gods. The children train to be heroes and long for quests that allow them to leave the camp and make a name for themselves. Percy befriends a daughter of Athena, Annabeth Chase, who hopes Percy will fulfill a prophecy and save the world from pending war.

Because a war between the gods is brewing. Someone has stolen Zeus’s lightning bolt, and Zeus thinks Percy is the thief. To prevent the war, Percy must track down the lightning bolt and return it before the summer solstice.

Which is in only ten days.

Percy, Annabeth, and Grover travel across the United States together in search of the lightning bolt, encountering monsters and gods, and must unravel the mystery of the lightning thief—before it’s too late.

Sparked Joy: 3/5 This is the first time I’ve read any Percy Jackson books. I saw one of the movies on a plane once, and it was… bad. But I heard that the books were very good, from both my brother and other adult readers. And I’ve heard the new series is good, too!

Fast-paced and action packed, The Lightning Thief was a very fun book to read. It’s a perfect Hero’s Journey, and a great middle grade book. I highly recommend it to any middle grade or teenage reader, and it’s an excellent replacement for certain other fantasy series for that age range.

The focus on and obsession with the concept of “the West,” without any criticism of the concept, was a little off putting, but I wonder if the later books tackle that a little. I also personally can’t stand any depiction of an afterlife that isn’t also critiqued, but that’s a personal problem.

Neither of these things really detracted from the story, though. I liked it! I want to read more.

Something I Learned: I learned that Poseidon created horses! I didn’t know that bit of mythology.

Something I’m Inspired to Do: I’ll most likely read more of the Percy Jackson books.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians 1: The Lightning Thief was published in 2005. Here is Rick Riordan’s website. Support your local bookstore if you can, or visit your local library!

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Prompts Filled: (23) A book that features dragons, (32) A book with an enemies-to-lovers plot, (46) A book in which a character sleeps for more than 24 hours

Tags: Violet Sorrengail, Dain Aetos, Xaden Riorson, Tairn, Andarna, Sgaeyl, Violet Sorrengail/Dain Aetos, Violet Sorrengail/Xaden Riorson, Fantasy, Romance, Love Triangle, Enemies to Lovers, Dragons, Magic, Chronic Pain, Military Fiction, Military Fantasy, Military College, War, Death Matches, Attempted Murder, Rebellions, School, Boarding School, Training, Young Adults, Siblings, Sibling Relationships, Monarchy, Monarchies, Kingdoms, Sex, Sex Scenes, Explicit Sex

Violet Sorrengail has been studying to become a scribe to follow in her father’s footsteps for her whole life. But six months before the first tests to enter Basgiath War College, Violet’s mother General Lilith Sorrengail decides that Violet must become a dragon rider. The Rider Quadrant of the college is deadly, and Violet was born frail, so it is sure to be a death sentence.

But Violet successfully passes the first test—walking across a stone balance beam over a ravine—and is determined to fight for her survival and bond with a dragon, despite the obstacles and deadly enemies in her path.

One such enemy is Xaden Riorson, the son of a rebellion leader who was executed by Violet’s mother, giving him a grudge against all Sorrengails. Violet, both attracted to and frustrated by Xaden, tries to avoid him, but this becomes a challenge when she successfully bonds to the dragon Tairn… who is mated with Xaden’s dragon Sgaeyl.

Now Violet and Xaden must work together to cheat death and fight for their lives in a school built to kill them, and Violet discovers a terrible secret that challenges everything she knows about her world.

Sparked Joy: I’m going to be judged so hard for this, but I’m rating this book 4/5. Apparently this book got a lot of hype, which I totally missed, and some reviewers are very harsh on it because it doesn’t live up to it.

But I thought this book was fun! It has magic and dragons and romance—what more could a girl ask for? It definitely had some issues—Violet’s mother’s motivation for sending her daughter to her death at a college she most likely will not survive is completely absent, and I don’t know why Violet chooses to stay despite ample opportunities to leave, and I’m a little iffy on Violet being a passive protagonist—but the dragons and intrigue make up for it, in my opinion.

I liked all the characters, even if Jack is an over the top villain. Rhiannon is a great best friend, and Andarna, Violet’s second dragon, is simply adorable. Dain, Violet’s childhood best friend, is insufferable and a good foil for Xaden.

The romance is a little saccharine, but it’s a young adult book, so that’s to be expected. People talk about how sexy this book is, and I was surprised to find that it’s really not? There are two sex scenes, and they are explicit, but they don’t come until nearly three quarters of the way in, so I’m not sure what people were talking about. I’ve read sexier books than this.

I had some reservations at first, because I got 300 pages into this 500-page book and was wondering when the hell there was going to be a conspiracy reveal. Because there had to be one. Surely this book would critique the flawed logic of this society, right? Surely Violet would come to realize that killing 50% of your cadets in training is not a sustainable way to build a military wing, right? Surely there’s a terrible secret behind all this, right?

Well, some of that came eventually. But being more than halfway through a book with no hints that Violet is going to eventually realize these things was a little frustrating. But, again, she is a passive protagonist. She makes choices, but most of the time, things just sort of happen to her and she goes along with it.

But overall, I really enjoyed this book, and I’m looking forward to the next in the series!

Something I Learned:

Artist: Lake Fama. Retrieved from Tumblr.

So this book is pretty horny. People in the Rider Quadrant live like there is no tomorrow, because training is so deadly, so they have a lot of sex. Violet drools over shirtless men on the sparring mats pretty constantly. I actually had to ask my allosexual roommate if that’s a real thing, and she assured me that it is, so I had the reaction in the comic above.

Something I’m Inspired to Do: I want to read the next book in this series!

Fourth Wing was published in 2023. Here is Rebecca Yarros’s website. Support your local bookstore if you can, or visit your local library!

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

Prompts Filled: (10) A book by a self-published author, (15) A book recommended by a librarian, (37) A book written during NaNoWriMo, (38) A cozy fantasy book, (45) An LGBTQ+ romance novel

Tags: Viv, Tandri, Calamity (a.k.a. Cal), Thimble, Fantasy, High Fantasy, Dungeons & Dragons, Romance, Queer, WLW, Sapphic, Sapphic Romance, F/F, Viv/Tandri, Coffee Shop, Coffee, Food, Pastries, Retirement, Comfort, Cozy, Magic, Found Family, Community Building, Happy Ending

Tired of adventuring, Viv, an orc, decides to take her life in a different direction. After one last quest, she leaves her adventuring party and travels alone to Thune, a cosmopolitan city, to open the city’s first coffee shop. No one there knows what coffee is, but Viv is determined to make her dream a reality. She buys a livery, takes the magical item she got from the last quest—a Scalvert’s Stone—and buries it beneath the floor stones in hopes it will bring her good luck.

And it does! It brings her: Cal, a hob carpenter who helps design and build the livery into a café; Tandri, a succubus who works the counter with Viv; Thimble, a rattkin and genius baker; Amity, a loyal stray dire-cat; and Pendry, an anxious bard who has a new type of music to share. The six of them create a cozy atmosphere in Viv’s coffee shop, drawing in regulars and new customers every day.

Viv’s success draws some hungry foes to the fore, eager to help themselves to her prosperity. With the help of some old friends, she negotiates a truce with one party, but a more dangerous foe arises in an old party member and threatens to destroy what she’s built.

All the while, Viv is blissfully unaware of the romance growing between her and Tandri, though Tandri is determined to get her to notice.

In the end, Viv will learn what makes a home and a family, and she won’t have to travel alone in this world anymore.

Sparked Joy: 5/5 This book lived up to its subtitle—”A Novel of High Fantasy and Low Stakes”—and to what most people describe it as: “a cozy D&D fantasy.” I play Dungeons & Dragons, and it was lovely to be immersed in a tale of post-adventuring retirement, something I always imagine my characters being able to do. And Viv is able to fully retire! Once she puts her sword Blackblood down, she never has to take it back up again. With the help of her friends, she is able to nonviolently negotiate with the local gangsters and even befriends them. She solves all of her problems with honest communication, and people are drawn to her because of it. I daresay the Scalvert’s Stone didn’t have anything to do with her success at all. Instead, her willingness to approach people for their skill set in their craft and to be non-judgemental toward people who are a little bit different creates a community around her that values her for her. This community aids her when she loses nearly everything. It’s beautiful.

Something I Learned: I learned what the word “redolent” means. It was the only word in the book I didn’t recognize.

Something I’m Inspired to Do: Damn, open a coffee shop, lol, and I don’t even drink coffee. For a little bit, I had an idea for a bookstore/café, and I found it in The Octopus Literary Salon in Oakland, CA, which unfortunately closed in 2019. Until it closed, Nanowrimo held events there. It was a great space, and I miss it a lot. I think I’ll reach out to the friend who used to run the Nanowrimo events.

Legends & Lattes was published in 2022. Here is Travis Baldree’s website. Support your local bookstore if you can, or visit your local library!

Out of the Blue by Jason June

Out of the Blue by Jason June is the story of a merperson named Crest and a human boy named Sean and their respective Journeys.

When a merperson turns 16, they go on a Journey to land, where they must help a human with a problem in order to return to the Blue. Their scaled tails turn into legs, and they choose a human name to try to blend in. Crest’s human name is Ross, and they are not excited about that or any other part of the Journey. They want to help a human and then hurry back home, and they don’t anticipate choosing to stay on land forever.

Enter Sean, a high school junior, a swimmer, and a lifeguard, who just got dumped by his boyfriend Dominic. He is heartbroken and lost, and Crest/Ross immediately determines that they will help Sean win Dominic back—which should complete the Journey and allow Crest/Ross to return home.

Crest/Ross and Sean eagerly plan a series of dates that Dominic will witness, to make him jealous and want Sean back. But as they enact their plan and spend time together, they find themselves falling for each other instead. And Crest must consider whether they want to return to the Blue or stay on land after all.

Out of the Blue is a fun coming-of-age novel and romantic comedy that follows the two teenagers as they get to know each other and themselves and learn what they really want out of life.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman opens with a loss. The narrator has just been to a funeral and is on his way to the reception when he decides to stop by his childhood home. It’s nothing like he remembers; it has been demolished and replaced with new homes. But he begins to remember something that happened in his childhood, and he heads toward the farm at the end of the road, Hempstock Farm. He remembers the little pond that Lettie Hempstock had convinced him was an ocean.

And he begins to remember what happened that spring when he was seven years old.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a book about trauma and memory and how it changes over time as we grow older and farther away from our childhoods. It is a story about the magic and terror of childhood. And it begs us not to forget.