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Book Review: Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries (Emily Wilde #1) by Heather Fawcett

Without a doubt one of my favorite reads of the year. And I mean that enthusiastically as well as unapologetically.

I saw somebody else refer to Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries as a cozy fantasy, and do you know what? I agree with gusto. It's an apt descriptor because this book is quaint, it's charming, and it's warmly whimsical in ways that had me wanting to curl up in an oversized chair to lose myself in its enchanting magic whenever I had a free moment.

The light academia vibe this emanated was another big hook for me. Emily's on a research expedition in the far north, studying faerie habits and folklore so that she can comprise it all in an encyclopedia, and she's serious about her work. Singularly focused. Which of course manifests in introversion, social reclusion, oblivion, and blunt logic. Wendell, her work colleague who also happens to be not-quite-so-mortal, shows up unprompted to "aid" in her research and is her opposite in almost every way. He's affable and full of himself, he's gregarious, he's lackadaisical about academic pursuits and participation, and he's deadpan. So. So. Deadpan. And his banter with Emily is an absolute riot! I cannot tell you how many times the two of them had me giggling.

Things do get dark-ish in moments, as Emily's curiosity and field study inclinations get the better of her while she's observing faeries, but there's always light waiting on the other side of them. (And sometimes absurd and fanciful rescues to boot!) There's not a ton of romance, but where it does dust across the plot, it is sweet and adorable enough to leave you craving more...

...Which is where I'm at now, itching to get my hands on the sequel!

4/5 stars

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Book Review: Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

Forgive me for starting with a physics pun about a physicist romance, but this was Big Bang-ing cute!

While Hazelwood does serve up a couple familiar tropes from her previous STEM works, she subverts them in fresh and entertaining ways, making it so she's able to strike a delicate balance between navigating academic politics, fake dating shenanigans, and rivals falling in love. There's something about that combination - and the manner in which it's applied here - which gives the story moments of real gravity as well as moments of quirky acceleration.

Like I said, it's a good balance. Makes for a fun, tender, science-filled escape which pins a theoretical physicist against an experimental physicist in more ways than one...😏

The premise is simple yet catching: Elsie Hannaway is a woman who's living a double life. To most, she's an adjunct professor hoping to land tenure somewhere so she can finally afford health insurance, which she needs as a Type 1 diabetic. To others, thanks to her people pleasing expertise, she's a freelancing fake girlfriend who chameleons her personality into whatever a client wants or needs, a job she takes to make extra money so she can pay her bills. (Academia ain't paying much, folks!)

Things start to look up when she gets an interview at MIT for her dream job.

However, as to be expected, things don't run smoothly. Elsie faces an obstacle. A big, tall, muscle-y one named Jack Smith, who not only happens to be an experimentalist who has undermined theorists everywhere, but is also the older brother of her favorite client. Ruh-roh!

Lets just say it makes for quite the nuclear fission!

Anyway, what starts out between them as rivalry, as academic sabotage, soon devolves into something more atomic and quantum, with Jack being able to pierce through to the nucleus of who Elsie is and becoming someone who can give her a safe space to be her authentic self. In a similar vein, she helps him to take accountability for some of his past actions and behaviors, which is long overdue. It makes for a lovely give and take. Not to mention lots of dynamism in terms of growth, characterization, and plot.

As a couple, Jack and Elsie were adorable. I liked how they were a grounding influence for one another as well as an impetus for positive change at times. They kept the smiles coming and those electrons firing! My only complaint is I found some of the steamy scenes between them to be awkward. However, that may be more a matter of preference than anything because I had a similar sentiment when I read The Love Hypothesis.

On the whole, though: RADIOACTIVE WITH CUTENESS!

A big thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for the ARC in exchange for my review.

4/5 stars

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Book Review: A Most Agreeable Murder by Julia Seales

A Most Agreeable Murder is many things: a regency romp, a comedy of manners, a satire, a subtly teasing romance, and a murder mystery with a side of cozy plus an extra slice of whimsy. It's a clever and inviting debut, bursting full of the lovably absurd characters that you might find in the pages of an Austen or a Heyer novel.

In fact, if Catherine Morland of Northanger Abbey could have penned a novel herself, I think it might've come out something like this--with plenty of folly and fancifulness to spare.

The plot centers around Beatrice Steele, a resident of Swampshire, a small English town in the country, as she attempts to solve a murder that takes place during the Stabmort ball. Though it's not considered ladylike to be interested in such things, Beatrice loves true crime, dreaming about one day being able to solve cases and pursue justice for real. So when Croaksworth croaks (the pun was there, okay?) in the middle of a minuet, she is enlisted to help Vivek Drake, a surly, disgraced, eye-patching wearing detective, solve the mystery and apprehend the culprit responsible.

However, with Beatrice up against the wall with the etiquette demands of Swampshire as well as Drake's facts-first-and-foremost way of investigating, things do not proceed smoothly. Or easily, for that matter. So as the evening continues to descend into madness and mayhem, the storm outside keeping them all locked inside the manor house, will she be able to rise above it all to catch the killer? Will she be able to solve the case before anyone else dies?

I had such a marvelous time with this book!

Even though there were times the satire could be too heavy-handed, I mostly reveled in all of the ridiculous antics (like Miss Bolton and her hats, like Daniel and his rhymes) because it added to the hilarity. It poked fun at all other "dramatic" mysteries of the time period. Plus, the puns were phenomenal - STABmort Park, Edmund CROAKSworth - I couldn't help but laugh.

I also enjoyed Beatrice as a heroine because she's plucky, passionate, and intuitive. She's the type of gal (and investigator!) who follows her gut instincts, which sometimes prove to be right and other times turn out to be fifty shades of wrong...And that, of course, made for half the fun!

She and Inspector Drake were good partners. Well-balanced. A formidable team. They're like the head and the heart of crime-solvers, with a dynamic that is Darcy-Lizzie-esque in nature because it was all bad first impressions, reluctant attraction, acerbic wit, and slowly evolving trust and cooperation. It was fabulous. Truly. As such, the stage was set for their personal and professional partnership to continue in the future, and I, for one, sure hope it does!

A perfect pick for Jane Austen and Agatha Christie fans. Especially ones who don't mind some quirkiness stirred into their regency manners or murder mystery soup.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC in exchange for my review.

4/5 stars

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Book Review: This Savage Song (Monsters of Verity #1) by Victoria Schwab

One of the most interesting take on monsters that I've come across in some time. I loved the notion that flesh eaters (Corsai), blood drinkers (Malchai), and soul eaters (Sunai) are only able to come into being after some unspeakable - often violent - tragedy. Schwab has a knack for twisting familiar concepts in unforeseen ways that can't help but pull me in by the teeth.

Moreover, I thoroughly enjoyed the dystopian feel of this with the humans being sectioned off from the monsters in safe zones throughout the city...until they weren't. Readers can feel a war brewing with every turn of the page, and I liked how Kate and August were both a catalyst and a juxtaposition for that impending collision course in Verity, with each of them fighting to subdue their inner monster while also trying to safeguard their last shreds of humanity. It was a suspenseful read. Good storytelling.

3.5/5 stars

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Book Review: The Women by Kristin Hannah

The Vietnam War is still something many people don't like to talk about. There's a discomfort there, a veil of despair and shame that is never fully drawn back the way it could be. It's like witnessing a haunted hush that falls over a large clamorous crowd generation after generation, with memories trapped behind eyes in cages, with words dying on tongues and then eroding into silence to become lost stories of sacrifice, of heroism, and of suffering that never makes it into the history book pages. As a result of that, there is still so much we don't know or understand about that time. About the people who were affected. There are still so many veterans - soldiers, nurses, and doctors alike - who were or have been all but forgotten.

This book gives voice to some of them. The Forgotten.

I think partly what makes The Women such a powerful read is that Kristin Hannah does not shy away from peeling back the veil around Vietnam, or around the women who served in Vietnam. BECAUSE THEY WERE THERE, TOO. In fact, she makes it a point to thrust readers directly into the heart of turbulence right alongside her characters, especially Frankie, her protagonist. By doing that, she makes this both an intimate coming of age story about an idealistic young woman turned Army nurse turned disillusioned war veteran as well as a searing commentary on how women's service and commitment to their country has long gone unacknowledged.

I haven't been moved by something this much in a long time. The story is evocative, insightful. It's a kaleidoscope of politically divisive, culturally explosive, war-torn color, and I couldn't help but marvel at its ability to reveal the real Vietnam with all its mucky tangibility and soft, aching, hopeful pulses of humanity.

Frankie's journey is painfully realistic, not just because her youthful idealism is blighted by the atrocities of war but also because she struggles to assimilate when she returns home, battling shame from her parents, anger from her fellow Americans, and PTSD with little to no recourse. She's a courageous and resilient character, though. Understandably flawed. You feel for her, you cry with her, you find a way to survive with her.

The Women is a lyrical and emotional tour-de-force, for sure! One of my favorite reads of the year. I won't be surprised if (or when) it's one of the biggest books of 2024.

I'm incredibly grateful to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for my review.

5/5 stars

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Book Review: Happy Place by Emily Henry

I won't lie, this one bludgeoned my heart wide open. Yet there was still something about it that was therapeutic, poignant, necessary. It's probably the saddest and most emotionally loaded of Emily Henry's latest offerings, so it hurt in ways I wasn't anticipating. It was messy, and deep, blowing the dust off unhealed parts of myself so I had to look at them bare-faced and really evaluate what growth and change and self-worth mean to me, because that answer, as the characters in this book show so well, is different for everyone.

Figuring out who you are, trying to be happy, allowing yourself to love and be loved--these things are neither linear nor easy to achieve. They're often long winding journeys in our lives that are populated with errors, with miscalculations and uncertainties, and I love how Emily Henry gave these characters - her little found family - room to explore that. She never shies away from the messiness of human emotion. The confusion, the contradictions, the decisions we can't bear to make but do. She leaned into that with her little hexagonal friend group, and I appreciated the authenticity of each of their arcs because of that.

Harriet and Wyn love each other so intensely. There is no disputing that. Even as they fake date their way through a Maine vacation with friends, pretending they're still together when they're not, you can still feel the pain of their breakup as if it's a physical wound they're both trying (and failing) to close. There's something so heartwrenching about Wyn's need to feel like he matters, like he's important enough to keep around, and Harriet's terror that she will let down the people that she loves most, because it ends up being the force that comes between them. It's the emotional blockade that keeps them apart. Yet, at the same time, it's their mutual struggle to overcome these self-limiting beliefs about themselves which makes their journey back to each other all the more beautiful and moving to witness.

Harriet and Wyn's love is hard won. Not only is it chosen but it's conscious, and for that reason it feels real.

(Hence why I'll be over here crying about it for the next 100 years. 😭)

4/5 stars

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Book Review: Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands (Emily Wilde #2) by Heather Fawcett

I am delighted to say Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands was just as uniformly charming as the first book. As one of my most anticipated reads of the year, I was looking forward to more cottagercore ambiance, cozy fantasy, light academia, and humorous faerie shenanigans, and that's exactly what I received.

In this installment, Emily and Wendell go on an odyssey through the Austrian Alps in search of a back door to his realm, meeting with many different faerie faces and threats along the way. Whether it's fending off assassins sent by his stepmother, trying to detail a map of the realms of faerie, or coming into contact with long lost scholars draped in ribbons, the two encounter many obstacles. However, they also make new friends.

My favorite additions were Dr. Rose, who is an older work colleague of Emily's, someone she respects but also someone who grates because of his traditional stick-in-the-mud way of approaching field work, and Ariadne, her niece, who is a spirited young academic with a keen interest in following in her aunt's footsteps. It was lovely to see how their relationships with Emily developed over the course of the story. How they helped to open up a new side to her personality where she was less academic and more emotional, better able to express her thoughts and feelings.

There was also forward movement with regards to Emily and Wendell's romance. They are so droll together, so sweet. I could happily read a dozen books about them questing their way through all the faerie realms, with her scribbling her observations in her field journal and him magicking all her clothes and enchanting all the locals. I'm hopeful there is much more for them still to come!

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Del Rey for the ARC in exchange for my review.

4/5 stars

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Book Review: Catching Fire (The Hunger Games #2) by Suzanne Collins

Who would've thought that a handful of berries and a girl from District 12 could spark unrest throughout Panem? Forever my favorite of the series, Catching Fire dials the intensity, the stakes, up to an eleven and has readers seated front and center as the flames of rebellion begin to lick through the districts. Part of what is so engrossing about this novel is the hopeless desperation of all the characters, the bloody struggle that ensues to parse friend from foe, enemy from ally, and the chess match taking place behind the scenes that turns Katniss and Peeta into political pawns. It's unputdownable from the first mention of the Victor's Tour all the way through to the Quarter Quell.

Unsurprisingly, emotion and intrigue catch me in all the same spots no matter how many times I reread: when Katniss learns she'll be reaped into the Games for a second time, when Gale is whipped in the square, when Finnick appears all charm and flirtation with his sugar cubes, when the victors all link hands onstage, when Peeta crashes into the force field, almost losing his life, when Mags sacrifices herself to the fog, when Katniss and Peeta share a moment on the beach, full of pearls and soft lips and borrowed time, and, of course, when the pain of their separation, with her being rescued by the rebels, and him being captured by the Capitol, comes down with the force of a hammer. I want to cry at the injustice of it all every time!

There's a part of me that always stops to savor certain moments in the plot, clinging to the few shreds of warmth and light that peek through like one would a blanket, knowing that, before long, they're bound to be ripped away. They're bound to be gone in a moment. I love that there's this constant pervasive sense of me holding my breath, waiting for the next shoe to drop, while I'm also chasing that flicker of something in the distance. Still believing, like Peeta, that there's something worth fighting for, and like Katniss, still knowing there's someone worth sacrificing everything for.

Let's just say my soul is in this book's clutches. Forever.

5/5 stars

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Book Review: The Hurricane Wars (The Hurricane Wars #1) by Thea Guanzon

The Hurricane Wars is a heady, political, action-packed fantasy with two characters who are forced into an alliance (aka: an arranged marriage) even though they're heirs poised on opposite sides of a decades-long war, and despite having started out intent on destroying one another. Talaysn is a wily solider who can access light magic. Alaric is an inscrutable prince of the Night Empire who can summon shadows. Similar to The Bridge Kingdom, the two of them are brought together by circumstance and necessity, forcing them to band together for the peaceful survival of The Continent.

However, things are never as simple or as smooth as they seem. Not only are there secrets to unravel, political schemes to dodge, and rustling feelings to subdue, but there is a magical storm brewing in this world that Talaysn and Alaric must learn how fight. Not to mention win. And soon...or else they'll all be doomed.

I found this to be engrossing for the most part. I particularly liked the Filipino history that was infused into the setting and climate. There was also some satisfying commentary on the sacrifices of war, the degradation of colonization, the drive to protect and preserve culture. I liked the enemies to reluctant allies to lovers of it all too, of course. That's my literary catnip!

I did struggle to fully settle into the world building, though. It felt a little helter-skelter at times, with there being too much information dispensed at once sometimes and then at other times not enough. The bare bones of the magic system were there, rife with names, with functions, with potential, but it never took off or developed to the extent that I was hoping it would. That made it hard to fully immerse myself in this world.

That said, this was an enjoyable read overall and it had a lot of tropes that will resonate with folks. And that cliffhanger! Oof! You'll be clamoring to know what happens to Talaysn and Alaric next!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for the ARC in exchange for my review.

3.5/5 stars

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Book Review: The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young

The Unmaking of June Farrow is precisely the type of book I look for to usher in the cozy-spooky-quiet of fall time. Not only is there a quaintness to the setting, which nestles itself comfortably amid the farms and the flower fields of a small town in North Carolina where everyone knows each other, but there's also a magical realism element that frays timelines, blurs ancestral ties, and unravels family secrets and curses.

As the story opens, June Farrow is waiting to be claimed. For madness to take her like it has taken all Farrow women before her. She is determined to be the last of her name, to never fall in love, to never pass the family curse onto another generation. However, after her grandmother's death, a flurry of clues arrive that are connected to her mother's disappearance, leading her to step through a mysterious red door in search of answers. What she finds on the other side is both unbelievable and uncanny, but it also reveals something she's secretly always wanted.

The journey June embarks upon challenges every belief she has about herself, her family, and the history of her beloved town, Jasper, that she thought she knew. It's an intricately plotted and suspenseful tale with a slow unraveling that'll keep readers hunting for answers right alongside June.

The story itself is a bend of different genres and tropes - from murder mystery to fantasy, from time travel to thriller to unconventional second chance romance - which gives it an unorthodox pulse, making it both offbeat and comfy all at once.

If I had to categorize the book as a whole, I'd say its themes and cadence lie somewhere between Practical Magic, The Time Traveler's Wife, Dark Matter, and The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue. Reading it is like stepping through a door and into a portal world where an unsolved mystery shadows the town and love can cross any boundary of time. Perfect for anybody who likes atmospheric reads in the autumn!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine for the ARC in exchange for my review.

4/5 stars

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Book Review: Practice Makes Perfect (When in Rome #2) by Sarah Adams

One of my good friends, a fellow introvert like myself, bought me this book for Christmas. She knows how much I enjoy a fluffy romance, particularly when there's pretend dating involved, and thought I'd resonate with Annie, the shy flowershop owner with social anxiety who struggles with what to say on dates, and boy, was she right! Like Annie, I also tend toward shyness, keep to myself, and prefer books to people. So needless to say I giggled and kicked my feet all the way through this.

After she overhears a date call her "unbelievably boring," Annie begins to think the problem is with her and decides that she needs someone to help her practice. Someone to help her improve her dating skills. This is where Will, executive protection agent for Amelia Rose, her soon-to-be sister-in-law, steps in. He is a man without romantic attachments of any kind and, at first, doesn't want to help. However, with an underlying attraction to Annie, and a desire to show her that she's perfect just as she is, he can't say no. Only...what he isn't bargaining for is how she makes him feel. Or how all he wants to do is be around her all the time. It's adorable!

I had a lot of fun with this book. I loved the small town setting, with Rome's family and neighbors sticking their noses in everywhere, the subversive take on fake dating, which was less "pretend" and more "practice," Annie and Will's chemistry and communication skills, as well as the way in which their conception of love and commitment evolved over time. So sweet!

4/5 stars

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Book Review: A Fragile Enchantment by Allison Saft

I love a good historical fantasy novel every once and a while. I relish the way it can weave magic, whimsy, romance, and manners into the fabric of a storyline yet still sprinkle in pangs of relatable human conflict. This is something that Allison Saft manages to do well in A Fragile Enchantment. She accomplishes this by giving readers an air of Bridgerton meets The Bridge Kingdom while also rooting her characters in familiar archetypes and tropes like grumpy x sunshine, forbidden love, and tense political and emotional drama so that they're engaged.

When the story begins, Niamh, the protagonist, is sent to Avaland from a poor and desolate rival nation to design the wardrobe for the members of an upcoming royal wedding. A gifted seamstress, the magic in her blood allows her to stitch feelings and memories into every scrap of clothing she sews. However, it is also the thing that, one day soon, will take her life. Knowing that time is limited, she is determined to do her duty to the prince and give her family a chance at having a better life back home.

The prince himself doesn't make this task easy, though. Because of course he doesn't. Not only is Kit Carmine haughty, insolent, and temperamental, but he is being dragged across the board of Avaland like a political chess piece.

To make matters worse, as he and Niamh slowly bury the hatchet and grow closer, an anonymous gossip columnist named Lovelace threatens to expose them, information which, in the wrong hands, could throw the kingdom into even more turmoil. Especially since unrest is already brewing amid the working class and a few neighboring countries.

All in all, this was a refreshing escape into a regency era kingdom where magic abounded. I liked the forbidden element to Niamh and Kit's love story as well as the themes of sacrifice, duty, and pursuit of justice that ran in undercurrent. It had a good balance of fantasy and real world challenges, and I particularly appreciated how it highlighted the obstacles encountered by more marginalized communities.

A warmly enchanting read!

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for my review.

3.5/5 stars

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Book Review: Mistletoe and Mr. Right by Sarah Morgenthaler

The cheery, snowy, and heartwarming read I needed to finish out 2023.

Lana is the Boss Ass Bitch socialite who has bought the town of Moose Springs in hopes of changing it for the better and bringing in more revenue with condominiums a'plenty, and Rick is the divorced small town business owner who can't help but fall in love with her despite being "accidentally" shot with a tranquilizer dart when she mistakes him for the town menace: a decorations-destroying Santa Moose.

I suppose you can say it was love at first shot. And what's not fun about that?

3/5 stars

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Book Review: Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

A sad, quiet family portrait. Gorgeously written.

Celeste Ng is a master at encapsulating what makes people people - the mismatch between what is thought vs. what is spoken, the way our closest relationships can enrich our lives or deteriorate in ways we could never imagine, how the everyday can be rife with profound little moments, with misunderstandings that can taint everything we thought we knew about someone we loved - and I appreciate how her stories force readers to slow down and gaze at the mundane. To really pierce its layers. I love how she manages to unravel a tapestry of human emotion and psychology that is so rich, so complex, it can only be achieved with the utmost subtlety.

Ng's books, especially her characters, are onion-like as a result. Pieces fall away slowly, peel back in increments. Like layers of tissue paper, they crinkle, they bunch, sometimes they even tear, with the turn of every new page. The result of that is a journey that is less about what happens and more about how the characters processes emotionally - alone, together - in secret, in public - what does happen.

This book starts in such a simple way, with the simplest seed: Lydia Lee is dead. From there, it flourishes into a tale of loss and grief, of struggles with race and gender identity and belonging, and of expectations that can burden anyone to the point of suffocation.

I'm still marveling at how much this story made me feel, the way it left me with a pervasive sense of sadness for the entire Lee family, walking me through their tragedy with excruciating slowness and focus. It was that focus, I believe, that intricate hovering bullseye which made it impossible for any of the characters to escape their thoughts, their regrets, all of those conflicting human emotions one can't help but feel, which made this such a profound and moving read. Just beautiful.

4/5 stars

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Book Review: Immortal Longings (Flesh and False Gods #1) by Chloe Gong

In her adult debut, Chloe Gong gives readers a sprawling dystopian fantasy that is part body jumping, part spilled blood, and part doomed romance that's set up - like a chessboard - inside a murderous game. It's The Hunger Games meets Ready Player One. It's Mistborn meets Shakespeare, with Antony and Cleopatra's passion-betrayal-passion vibe being the wheel the whole story turns around, giving everything and everyone in it a Machiavellian edge that's difficult to parse let alone look away from. As a result of that, the plot is fast-moving and full of high stakes moments.

As a reader, I thought the setting was rich and immersive. The author made the twin cities of San-Er feel real, with its denizens doing what they could to survive, with the streets being flooded by competitors who are trying to win the cash prize to lift themselves out of poverty and the like, possibly slaying innocents in the crosshairs. Calla and Anton both had their own convoluted reasons for wanting to win the games, which was fun. Especially with their enemies to reluctant allies to lovers dynamic. I liked the urbanity of the atmosphere, too. It added a certain claustrophobic grit to the game. Made it feel more savage and desperate somehow.

Where I think the story lost me a little was in the POV. There was too much narrative input from tertiary characters who weren't all that important to the plot, and I would've preferred it had the story been told exclusively from Calla, Anton, and August's POV since they were main trio, and since things revolved around their conflicts and decisions.

Besides that, I thought the twist at the end was superb! So good! I will carry a hoard of questions around with me until I have book two in my hands.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books for the ARC in exchange for my review!

3/5 stars

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[a-skirmish-of-wit-and-lit]

Book Review: One in a Millennial by Kate Kennedy

This was a unique blend of memoir and narrative reflection on the millennial zeitgeist. As a millennial myself, I found myself straddling the line between nostalgia, relatability, and divergence as I read about or remembered my own experiences as a 90's kid who was caught between the traditional values of old and the rapid changes ushered in by advances in technology. Kennedy does a good job of illustrating the uncomfortable in-betweeness that we feel or have felt as a collective generation.

It was nice to be seen in this nuanced way. Understood. It was enjoyable to reconnect over memories of boy band obsession, AIM away messages, and pop culture mania, and also to dig deeper into the muck of things like body dysmorphia, feelings of inadequacy, and economic instability that have followed us into adulthood.

A pun-filled and thought-provoking read, through and through!

Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for my review!

3/5 stars

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