The front cover says ‘fly or die’ – to get that far you need to walk or die, win fights or die, and generally take care or die. Dragons got nothing on this…

Violet is about to enter the Riders’ Quadrant of Basgaith College, of which her mother is a leader. She’s spent all her life so far preparing to be a Scribe but her mother isn’t having it – she’s got to follow the family’s effective tradition. And so Violet enters a literal cut-throat college with no experience and a target on her back for being her mother’s daughter – the older woman had a big role in subduing the parents of a whole bunch of now-candidates, young people who are there by force as penitence for their parents’ sins. But the horror starts at the entry point: in order to become a trainee rider, each candidate must walk over a parapet high above a valley. Each year, tens of people don’t make it and the weather today is wet and windy. If she makes it, Violet must make no friends, only allies, learn to fight, and, if she makes it all the way to meeting the dragons, hope to be chosen by one of them. These dragons breathe fire more often than any other you’ve encountered in fiction before, but without them there is no hope of Violet’s country winning the generations-long war.

Fourth Wing is an absolutely tremendous novel of high fantasy, high stakes, constant character peril (and, yes, they do die), politics, and death and destruction. It’s a book I’m happy to describe as living up to the hype, a famed book for good reason, a book that combines various basic ideas from various decades gone by to nevertheless create a new premise and story. It’s also an incredibly immersive story, the writing and description providing a filmic backdrop.

It would be impossible to point to one single reason this book works; it really is the sum of its parts. The first, and potentially most notable aspect, is the horror and violence – this book gives The Hunger Games a run for its money in just how nasty and violent it is. Death is, in many ways literally, around every corner from the moment Rider candidates join, and that only lets up after graduation insofar as unless the enemy the country is at war with is on your doorstep, you get a reprieve.

I want to get to what I would say are negative aspects about the book out of the way before continuing and one relates to the horror – sex and swearing are everywhere in Fourth Wing. Presented by the author as an activity undertaken due to living in survival mode, candidates are always having sex with each other and it’s almost always casual. Violet herself (the narrative is first person) thinks about sex a great deal to the point that the book is explicit throughout rather than just during the two fully-fledged sex scenes. The swearing is just as frequent and mainly concerns the F word. I personally wonder if both the casual sex and swearing are in there in large part to simply make it obvious that this is not a Young Adult novel, rather than for storytelling purposes.

Talking of the sex scenes and romantasy, let’s do this: this is a high fantasy romance book. You have a few chapters where there’s a possible love triangle before the way ahead becomes clear – in this, the first book of the Empyrean series, Yarros isn’t about to emulate previous decades’ tropes. She wants to get to the chemistry and build-up. I will say that the sex when it happens is rather fun, the explicitness muted by character development. It’s also comical on purpose. And, given that the romance leads of this book are discussed by fans so often, it’s worth noting that they are a diverse couple. (Yes, I’ve seen the AI fan art, too – it’s not accurate.)

The characters, then – Violet is a very average person, as she does remind you often, because she has no drive or confidence in her ability to be a Rider. She was brought up by her father to be a Scribe and, throughout the book, even through her successes she dreams longingly of the archives and the peace being in them would bring her. Xaden, who it’s pretty obvious will be the male lead from chapter one, is less developed due to us being in Violet’s head (you do get to know how hot he is) but a story element leads to us being able to hear more from him later on. The dragons are grumpy and dangerous and set people on fire and… are hilarious. Yes. And Violet’s eventual role as a chosen Rider by a dragon is extremely worth the wait. In fact the book consistently sports something major to look forward to and this is a big part of the story’s success.

There are various other important characters who become part of the core circle, and Yarros keeps the threat of death ever present.

We remain in the same location for the vast majority of Fourth Wing but it never gets boring. And the politics is well-planned with shocks that, no matter whether or not you work them out early, promise much for the continuation of the series.

I think I’ve written enough; frankly, I’d be surprised if anyone’s still reading these words. I’ll end on this – go read Fourth Wing. You won’t regret it and you can thank me later.

Publisher: Piatkus (Hachette)
Pages: 516
Type: Non-Fiction
Age: Adult
ISBN: 978-0-349-44031-6
First Published: 2nd May 2023
Date Reviewed: 18th December 2024

The bonkers thing about this post is that I’m already working on the next – I got gift cards for Christmas, still had birthday money left over, and I’m interviewing again. This list is all gifts and gift cards.

Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀: Stay With Me – I have wanted this (hardback) book since the early days of its publication. I very much remember being in the formally older of my city’s two Waterstones (Waterstones Above Bar, sadly suffered an arson attack and didn’t return), looking at this book, Polly Clark’s Larchfield, and Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry Of Utmost Happiness, wanting all three, but I ended up only buying the latter two. I later regretted not buying all three but put off buying the Adébáyọ̀ because I thought there would be time still to purchase it. Reader, there wasn’t. And so I’ve made some time the past couple of years to look for one. This copy I’ve bought isn’t quite in perfect nick as described, but it was £5 so that’s fine. I made a very brief TikTok to celebrate. (It didn’t do very well – BookTok isn’t reading literary fiction from 2017 at the moment…)

Alex Hay’s Housekeepers – Yes, I have already got a copy of this book and have reviewed it and interviewed the author twice. But I have the ARC and, as much as I love it (thank you, Caitlin), I re-read it enough (AnAn enjoyed it), and the hardback is different enough, that I wanted the published copy. It’s got a Cluedo-esque blueprint of the fictional house in bright neon pink and white and it’s fantastic.

Flora Carr: The Tower – I think I first found out about Carr on Instagram and was instantly taken by her book because it’s part of my most favourite period to study. I expect much from the contents. And look at that gorgeous colour!

Hannah Kaner: Godkiller – This is a continuation of my making a firm effort to get back into fantasy because I don’t read enough of it. Also, it’s very popular and everything I’ve heard about it sounds like there’s good reason it’s popular.

Jennifer Saint: Hera – I’ve read two out of Saint’s prior three and have the third on my shelves ready. She’s an exceptional writer.

Travis Baldree: Bookshops and Bonedust – My friend introduced me to this book; she hadn’t read it, but as the person who got me into TikTok, she knows a lot about what’s hot over there (way more than me).

If it’s not obvious already, I can’t wait to read all five of these new books and am happy to have the Hay in hardback.

It’s that time of year where I post lots of things about numbers before getting back into less list-driven posts.

I finished 40 books in 2024 and I am phrasing it as finished because some books got carried over. (Actually, quite a few books are potentially being carried over; I’m still thinking on that.) It’s not the most I’ve read, but it’s not the least, either, in fact with everything considered I’m happy with the number. It’s ten more than I read in 2023 (I was so stressed when I wrote that post I didn’t include the number and in writing today’s post I had to count the images), and six more than I read in 2022.

I haven’t made a ‘best of year’ list since 2020; after finding myself wanting to create one for TikTok, I’m changing that this time. (The effective video version of that is here.) It’s ten books because I couldn’t whittle it down further and even now there are still books I wish I could have included, but having a quarter of the books you read make your best of list is plenty enough.

So here goes. Books are in alphabetical order of the author’s first name (or the first name of the first listed author in the case of more than one) and non-fiction is together with fiction.

The Best Of The Best

Alex Hay: The Queen Of Fives – Quinn, the current Queen of Fives among a group of tricksters in Spitalfields takes on what will be her masterpiece, conning the richest man in the country into marriage in order to fleece him of his money. She has a few close friends helping her, however what none of them know is that there is a Man In The Blue Waistcoat and Lady In The Cream Dress that have their own ideas of what should happen. This is Hay’s second book and if you thought his first was excellent (I sure did!) you’re going to be blown away by this one. It’s got the same over all vibe in terms of this-is-an-Alex-Hay-book but has a lot of new concepts in it. It’ll be published late January and I highly, highly, recommend it.

Amy Engel: I Did It For You – Greer comes back to ludlow, Kansas, when there is a copycat murder of a couple just like the murder of her sister and her boyfriend Travis years before. Greer felt called to return and this new murder is bringing back all the feelings she had that while the killer was caught there was someone else involved. The killer was executed and he definitely did it, but surely now the town must realise there was someone else? A brilliant thriller. Slow-paced in a nod to the slower pace of life in a small midwestern town, with a literary focus, and a great use of the red herring as a device.

Eliza Chan: Fathomfolk – In a land where (to us, mythical) sea creatures/people can change into human form and face discrimination as immigrants, water dragon Nami comes to the semi-submerged city of Tiankawi to find the dragon pearl. Meanwhile, half-siren Mira is determined to be an excellent border guard and transform life for her people in the token role she has been given. And sea-witch Cordelia is looking to make bargains always, and to keep her unknowing human husband in her control. A fantastic high fantasy with lots to say about immigration and racism.

Gill Paul: Scandalous Women – A somewhat fictionalised story of Jacqueline Susann and Jackie Collins, this tale looks at the literary journey of both women as well as the life of a editing-hopeful purely fictional character, Nancy. This is an excellently written story, where reality and fiction has been balanced beautifully (you’ll be surprised what is fact!) The research is evident and the look at the literary industry, particularly for women, in the decades (1970s mostly) is awesome – certainly it was my favourite aspect of the book, though learning about two women you could then look up on YouTube was thrilling.

Kaliane Bradley: The Ministry Of Time – A secret government ministry in near-future London has managed to develop time travel and is experimenting with the safety aspects by pulling historical people who were due to die in their own time forward. We follow our unnamed narrator, a guardian-type figure for one of the historical figures which, in her case, is Commander Graham Gore of an ultimately failed Arctic exploratory mission (Gore is, I believe, the sole real character in the book). The two must learn to live with each other, Gore must learn to live in the 21st century, and our narrator must work with the mysterious ministry she’s a part of and yet kept distant from. This is a stunning, stunning, book, often hilarious, and has a great use of narrative.

Maggie Brookes: The Prisoner’s Wife – Having fallen in love, Czech farm girl Izzy and British prisoner of war Bill make a run for it; they hope to avoid trouble but with Izzy having to pose as a male soldier there’s a lot more at stake. One of the best books I’ve read all year, this is an often brutal story but a very well told one.

Nikki Marmery: Lilith – Thrown out of Eden for eating from the Tree of Knowledge, Lilith leaves Adam to his feelings of superiority and beings her search for the goddess she knows was taken from them both. This is a story stretching from Genesis to the present day and beyond and Marmery leaves you with an absolute wealth of information about early religion. It’s beautifully written to boot.

Rebecca Yarros: Fourth Wing – Violet’s one of the new first years hoping to become a dragon rider for their country to fight in the ongoing war… except Violet didn’t want to be a rider, she wanted to be a scribe but her Commander mother said no to that. To be a rider is to be in continuous peril with the first step being literal steps over a thin parapet a great many metres above the valley. I absolutely loved this, wasn’t prepared for how much I’d enjoy it.

Susan Stokes-Chapman: The Shadow Key – In the mid-1700s, Dr Henry Talbot from London is given the position of doctor to a wealthy family in Wales. When he gets there he finds a community hostile to his arrival, a house full of secrets, his charge is a woman seemingly mentally ill but with off symptoms for it, and his employer is mysterious and at odds with his niece who favours the working people on their land. And Henry’s home, the gatehouse, has been destroyed. The Doctor needs to work out what’s going on and find out why the local people are trying to kill him. This is a wonderfully immersive and Gothic book with a strong sense of place and a steady use of pace and secret reveals.

Tasneem Abdur-Rashid: The Thirty Before Thirty List – Maya meets Noah on the Tube, he leaves, forgets his notebook, and they both forget to exchange numbers. Maya’s left with his ‘thirty things to do before turning thirty list’ and, together with the encouragement of her co-workers, she sets out to do the items on the list, too. Who knows, she might be able to find Noah again. Worth the fully-understandable-because-the-author-has-to-write-it-first wait.

The Rest Of The List

Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone: This Is How You Lose The Time War – In the far-flung future, two people meet each other across a battlefield and begin sending each other letters hidden in various technological ways. Over time – literally – they fall in love and try to work out how to have a life together when they both belong to different factions that are trying to mould the future to fit their desires. This book is fantastically done but it definitely requires a lot of attention; the description is sparse and much is left to the imagination.

C J Wray: The Excitements – Two nonagenarians are invited to Paris to receive the Legion d’Honneur award and, with one of them a jewel thief with a reason, the other with secrets, and a loyal great-nephew in tow, many ‘excitements’ may occur. Fabulously funny and full of heart; this book contains a lot of world war history, too, in an interesting, well-planned, structure.

Chịkọdịlị Emelụmadụ: Dazzling – In two dual timeline narratives we follow Treasure and Ozoemena – one girl whose father was killed, the other whose father has disappeared. We find out about their lives in the Nigerian Civil War and their lives beyond that. Ozoemena has been joined to the secretive leopard society and Treasure is being pressured by spirits; both are somewhat struggling at school. I’ll have to leave it there or risk spoiling the entirety – this is a great magical realism/fantasy/mythological story of two girls coming into their own and being more than what their society has created for them to be.

Chloe C Peñaranda: The Stars Are Dying – Astraea can only remember the last five years and those have been spent at Hektor’s mansion, hiding from everyone under his command and staying faithful while he sleeps with any woman he wants. When she decides to slip away from the manor to visit her friend who is going to a (we might call it) Hunger Games-esque trial, Astraea starts a cascade of events that begin with her meeting an incredibly handsome man who may be a vampire who has the ability to converse in her head. This is the first in a dark romantasy series and has some basis in the Greek mythology. The only thing I’d bring up here is the pacing – it won’t work for everyone. Some will find it too slow but, certainly, others will adore it.

Diana Gabaldon: Voyager – With Brianna and Roger now second and third voices to help Claire decide what to do, she chooses to go back to Jamie. A lot has changed since she’s been away, for both Scotland and the Fraser family, and with Jamie hiding in plain sight from the authorities, it’s not going to be the same life she had before. So much going on that’s difficult not to spoil. I loved this book for the going-back-in-time-again aspect, and it was nice to get away from the book-length flashback of the previous, but there was one big issue I had with this book concerning a second marriage that did mean I had to pause for a week or so. Unfortunately I found the TV show version of the plot thread made it worse, but I did battle on and finish both. I am still generally happily reading the series and am looking forward to book four, I just could’ve done without the unbelievable plot thread which was less believable, to me, than the time travel…

Edward Carey: Edith Holler – Twelve year old Edith, permanent resident of the only remaining theatre in Norwich (because she may not leave) finds out many things about her city including the many cases of disappeared children. As she continues amongst the theatre folk she comes to understand that a monster of a woman has played a role. This is a completely fantastical novel where you’re never really sure what’s going on but can make some guesses – Edith is the ultimate unreliable narrator.

Elaine Chiew: The Light Between Us – Tian Wei lives in 1920s China; he finds a letter from a woman from the next century. In 2019 in Singapore, archiver Charlie finds a letter from a 1920s man, written to someone else. By placing their subsequent letters in the way they found their firsts, both Tian Wei and Charlie are able to begin a correspondence across time, and over time it may develop into something more as the pair share their worries and successes. Fans of The Lake House/Il Mare, and The Time Traveller’s Wife will enjoy this in particular, but the subject matter, especially in terms of Tian Wei’s time and life, will interest many others. Chiew’s writing style is focused on details but not at all in a way that becomes overly much – it’s difficult to describe, but her prose is singular and her focuses appealing.

Emma Cowell: The Island Love Song – Ella, Georgia, and Georgia’s daughter, Phoenix, have travelled to the Greek island of Hydra to spread their mother’s/grandmother’s ashes. For Ella, the trip is very difficult – she was last on the island as a teenager, one beautiful holiday with the love of her life before he suddenly and intentionally disappeared; he was a musician and years later she still has to bear listening to his hit song that was written about her. For Georgia it all needs to go strictly to plan but at the same time she probably needs this time away from her husband. And Phoenix is along for the ride. Ella’s turmoil comes to a head when she makes a surprise discovery, and the trip for her mother morphs into something else entirely. There’s a lot to appreciate here – setting, characterisation, and Cowell’s deft decisions when it comes to letting the reader know more; I shan’t be more specific than that to avoid spoilers, but suffice to say it’s a page turner and enjoyable.

Éric Chacour: What I Know About You – Writing to Dr Tarek, our second-person narrator tells us Tarek’s history and over time we learn who our narrator is and why he is so into Tarek’s story. (I should note the plot is of an Egyptian man born in the 1960s who becomes a doctor like his father, later gets married, and then one day falls for his male assistant.) Stunning – the plot is well done and everything about the structure and writing is superb. This is the English translation; the author is from Quebec and the original title is Ce que je sais de toi.

Jacquie Bloese: The Golden Hour/The Secret Photographs – In Victorian Brighton, Ellen and her brother take erotic photographs of women to sell abroad. Ellen comes across Lily who is struggling in an abusive household, and offers her money to pose – Lily takes her up on it so long as the photos do indeed go abroad. Meanwhile, Clementine, from America, is stuck in a disagreeable marriage to a man who won’t let her to anything she wants to do. This is an incredibly immersive book – great sense of location – about a fictional photography business and the music hall theatres that are fairly related, alongside a backdrop of the experiences of women of different classes, all looking to gain agency in their own lives. It’s very well done.

Jessica Bull: Miss Austen Investigates – Jane Austen comes back from a rendezvous with Tom Lefroy to a silent gathering – a woman has been murdered. Unhappy with the seeming lack of seriousness with which the magistrate starts dealing with the situation, Jane decides to do her own investigations much to the surprise and relative shock of the locals. This is a brilliant book, Bull’s homage to Northanger Abbey, Catherine Morland, and, in the way that it looks at a book that was already a parody, a homage somewhat to Gothic fiction, too.

Kate Weston: You May Now Kill The Bride – Five close friends go to a hen party (one of their own). The bride is killed. They then decide to go to another hen party anyway and now ‘inevitable’ happens. This is a very good whodunnit where the group of suspects are rarely apart from each other. It’s also rather funny.

Kristy Woodson Harvey: A Happier Life – When Keaton’s relationship and career are upended she decides to take on the job of getting her family’s heritage home ready for sale. But travelling from New York to Beaufort in North Carolina becomes a journey she didn’t expect – she likes the house, she loves the town’s people, and the man living next door is very attractive. As she goes about preparing the house she starts to uncover the semi-mystery of her grandparents’ death and starts to feel she might want to stay in Beaufort. As well as this we have a narrative from 1976, the last months of Rebecca Saint James’ life. A nice feel-good story, for all of its mystery and ending – it was difficult to read in parts but overall good. Certainly, as I did Woodson Harvey’s The Wedding Veil, I enjoyed reading about the present day characters more than the past.

Lee Seong-bok: Indeterminate Inflorescence – A book of aphorisms from university lectures by the famed South Korean poet, collected by his students. Strange comparisons made at times but over all a lovely book. I would recommend reading up to a couple of sayings a day as opposed to the all-at-once method I used given it was for review.

Liz Fenwick: The Cornish House – Maddie and Hannah are grieving their husband and father respectively. And now Maddie has inherited a house all the way down in Cornwall; they go there – it’s a large old house and needs a lot of work but they could both do with a fresh start. There is also a rather attractive man around Maddie’s age who helps them out when they can’t find the house. This book, Fenwick’s debut, looks at the grieving process and how people move through it. It also sports some romance and there is a mystery element to the house that turns into a whole theme when it drags up stuff from the past that Maddie had thought she’d buried. A really nice, somewhat cosy, read with a great use of dialogue. I’d been wanting to read it for a few years, and I loved it.

Liz Fenwick: The Secret Shore – With all hands on deck for the war, Merry has become a map-maker for the war effort; she uses her abilities and local knowledge of Cornwall to assist with the plans for what would become the Normandy landings. And now, like many women, she suddenly has more agency over her life, but there is a choice to be made in regards to whether she stays single and able to have a career or gets married and loses it all, and there is a handsome American in the ranks who is starting to steal her heart. This is an almost epic tale of resilience in war and person with an excellent thread of female agency running throughout and a great use of Dorothy Sayers’ gentleman detective, too.

Manda Scott: Any Human Power – When Lan dies, she promises her grandson, Finn, that she will communicate with him after death. She soon finds the ability to do so – infiltrate the MMORPG they enjoyed with their online guild. But the promise she made in life means that Lan must linger and not move on. Years later, Lan’s granddaughter, who she never met, posts a controversial opinion on social media and suddenly the whole thing spirals out of control. The family must secure their property, but they also decide to further the politics and create their own manifesto, and Lan is there for it all, helping Finn as much as she can. This book hit me hard – I was grieving and Scott’s writing of death and grief is incredibly powerful. It’s a very up-to-the-minute book with a lot of discussion on how we can change the world for the better and why we must do so. There is also, in Lan’s presence, a constant thread of Shamanistic belief that runs throughout. Worth reading!

Mark Stay: The Crow Folk – Wartime Britain. Faye Bright has grown up in Woodville, Kent (fictional village, real county). She helps her dad with his pub, she’s a local volunteer for the war effort, and she’s a bell ringer at St Irene’s. She’s also started to have some strange experiences and has found a spell book of her late mother’s which has left her, unsurprisingly, with a heck load of questions. One day animated scarecrows approach a group of villagers but none of the villagers believe what they’ve seen. Except Faye… and perhaps Miss Charlotte, the woman commonly thought to be a witch… and maybe also Mrs Teach, there’s always been something about her. So now not only is there a war on, but Faye’s got this book she wants to learn from (which also includes a recipe for jam roly-poly for some reason), and she’s got to work with the bonkers situation of scarecrows coming to life, led by a demon – who’s a scarecrow, too – while the fair number of villagers who saw these scarecrows don’t believe it happened. But they better do at some point – that demon’s not joking. This is a wonderfully comedic low fantasy fairly similar in tone to Terry Pratchett and Claire North’s The End Of The Day.

Mark Stay: Babes In The Wood – Pretty much straight after the episodes with the crowfolk, and getting towards the Battle of Britain, Faye and co have situation on their hands involving Kindertransport children, creepy artwork, and secret meetings. Brilliant again, this time with a little more darkness and specific WW2 theme work.

Mark Stay: The Ghost Of Ivy Barn – We reach the Battle Of Britain. It’s coming soon to a witches’ circle near you (well, they hope). Also, there’s the ghost of a pilot in one of the villager’s barns that Faye needs to help. This book has the best dialogue in the series, I’d say, wherein the plan to get the Nazis not to bomb Britain is to communicate to them, in chant, ‘you cannot cross the sea’. In English.

Mark Stay: The Holly King – Book four sees the season of Christmas and the attempt by an ancient god to take over the village. Less travelling this time, if you count Kent to the coast as ‘travelling’, but as always, lots of fun.

Matt Ottley: The Tree Of Ecstasy And Unbearable Sadness – A boy deals with bipolar disorder, his mind taking him to fantastical places. This is a wonderful graphic novel (or multi-model narrative as I believe Ottley calls it). The artwork is superb, the prose lovely, and the author/artist is also a composer; there’s a musical work to accompany the book; the whole experience is awesome.

Natalie Jenner: The Jane Austen Society – When American Mary-Anne visits Chawton to try and see Jane Austen’s house (she can’t – the Knight family own it and aren’t into the whole idea) she inspires Adam to start reading Austen. Various others in the village like Austen, too, and sometime later the idea of turning the cottage into a museum comes up. There are some wonderful little studies on various aspects of Austen here and the character-driven and often Austen-esque story is fun and frankly gratifying – it’s a fictionalised take on the creation of Jane Austen’s House Museum, fully accounted for in the acknowledgements.

Natalie Jenner: Every Time We Say Goodbye – Vivian leaves Bloomsbury Books and moves to Italy to work in the film industry; the affects of WW2 are still there at Cinecitta, but for Vivian, her time is about being a success and also looking to find out what happened to her fiancé, who fought in the war. An interesting follow-up to Bloomsbury Girls that takes a well-loved character and moves her elsewhere for her very own storyline, this book features Jenner’s now-signature careful use of celebrities passed and steady focus on character development.

Noelle Adams: Married For Christmas – Jessica proposes a marriage of convenience between her and her friend so that she can have a family and he can become pastor to their childhood church. I’ve actually read this three times now; it could’ve done with another draft but it’s a nice predictable read.

Nydia Hetherington: Sycorax – Sycorax’s parents met in what we’d call a magical or spiritual manner and the family lives away from their homeland. When Sycorax is an adult and on her own she tries to strike the right balance between being alone and being part of the community but it never gets easier – she is the daughter of a witch, after all. This is a prequel/reimagining/adaptation of the life of Sycorax, the witch Shakespeare’s Prospero hates and does a great job at being physically contained in one location whilst being incredibly interesting. The themes of women and chronic condition are done very well.

Raven Leilani: Luster – A young working class woman, Edie, looses her job after her team’s put up with ‘issues’ with her and she ends up moving into the house of the older man she had been seeing after meeting his wife and adopted child who, like Edie, is black. Said older man is in an open marriage (at least that’s what he says) and the wife seems to get on with Edie but Edie knows she needs to move back out but the occasional sex continues. This is quite a unique book, a bit like Megan Nolan’s Acts Of Desperation but more relatable and with more going on. I feel I may have ‘missed’ some of it, so to speak, which I put mostly down to not being American, but the vast majority of it was accessible. There’s a lot of good stuff here about the experience of Black Americans, subtle and overt racism, poverty and the difficulties of getting a job, and manipulation. There’s also fun to be had in video gaming and Comic Cons.

Samantha Shannon: The Priory Of The Orange Tree – The Nameless One is awakening and must be stopped. The kingdom of Berethnet is at odds with others but needs an heir; women inherit the throne. Meanwhile Ead is far from home protecting the Berethnet queen, Tani is preparing for her exams to become a dragon rider, and Niclays is trying to remain on the down-low. This was not a book for me; I didn’t find there to be much story, never got on with the characters, too many characters died to serve the plot, and so on.

Susan Muaddi Darraj: Behind You Is The Sea – A book of connected short stories about which I’ve been using the term ‘fractured narrative’, Muaddi Darraj’s story in stories focuses on American Christian Palestinians as they find their identities, as they work with horrible truths they discover, as they work with wonderful truths they discover, and as they work with the different generations. Focusing mostly on the same family and featuring a good few extremely poignant stories, this is a stunning book told in lovely prose that necessarily differs per point of view.

Zachary Levi: Radical Love – Reading this was a massive journey. I hope he finds real healing one day.

I will be reinstating my usual yearly goal of reading as much as I comfortably for 2025 but I do have some other ideas in mind, so I’ll have a goals post up soon.

How many books did you read this past year and how do you feel about the whole trying-to-read-more/not worrying about numbers thing?

Happy New Year!

I didn’t read much in December but I did read somewhat. I suppose more to the point, I enjoyed what I read and ended up with one book unfinished but nearly finished so it meant January’s blank slate filled quite quickly. I’m still working on getting some stability back to my days since my fluffy one died but I’m getting there. And on a semi-related note, I got back into TikTok.

Amy Engel: I Did It For You – Greer comes back to ludlow, Kansas, when there is a copycat murder of a couple just like the murder of her sister and her boyfriend Travis years before. Greer felt called to return and this new murder is bringing back all the feelings she had that while the killer was caught there was someone else involved. The killer was executed and he definitely did it, but surely now the town must realise there was someone else? A brilliant thriller. Slow-paced in a nod to the slower pace of life in a small midwestern town, with a literary focus, and a great use of the red herring as a device.

Noelle Adams: Married For Christmas – Jessica proposes a marriage of convenience between her and her friend so that she can have a family and he can become pastor to their childhood church. I’ve actually read this three times now; it could’ve done with another draft but it’s a nice predictable read .

Nydia Hetherington: Sycorax – Sycorax’s parents met in what we’d call a magical or spiritual manner and the family lives away from their homeland. When Sycorax is an adult and on her own she tries to strike the right balance between being alone and being part of the community but it never gets easier – she is the daughter of a witch, after all. This is a prequel/reimagining/adaptation of the life of Sycorax, the witch Shakespeare’s Prospero hates and does a great job at being physically contained in one location whilst being incredibly interesting. The themes of women and chronic condition are done very well.

So the book I carried over into January, and have finished, is Gill Paul’s Another Woman’s Husband, and that’s book 8 or 10 from my non-podcast reading list. The other ‘main’ book carried over is Diana Gabaldon’s Drums Of Autumn which I’m only a couple of chapters into. I had quite a few unfinished books on my 2024 list from earlier in the year; I’m still to decide what to do with them!

Author’s Afterword Episode 113: Chloe C Peñaranda (The Stars Are Dying)

Charlie and Chloe C Peñaranda discuss the incident wherein her heroine stabs the hero, getting around her hero’s ability to run amok via deus ex machina, and becoming a hybrid author after success as a self-published writer.

If you’re unable to use the media player above, this page has various other options for listening as well as the transcript.

I will be taking a longer Christmas break this year as after my rabbit died I’ve had a severe burnout in writing; I think I need time to recharge and to get used to this new, less stressful, living I have. I plan to be back on Monday January 13th.

On Monday my podcast with Eliza Chan, the author of Fathomfolk, will be released. It’ll be the last episode under the name of The Worm Hole Podcast. Eliza’s episode will be found here.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all!