To be fair, I think this is a fine, maybe even great read within the popular cozy fantasy genre. But am I that big of a fan of the genre to begin with? I'm not sure, and The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches didn't do anything to change my mind.

But let's start with the good stuff. First of all, this book isn't without its charms. In fact, as Mika embarks on her adventures at Nowhere House and meets all the loveable side characters, I thought the writing and dialogue were both snappy enough—if a bit cutesy wootsy—to give the book that necessary oomph to carry it through. But then the more I read, the more the book started to succumb to the usual things that plague a cozy read.

The issues probably all stem from the fact that everything is very low stakes, pretty much the de facto benchmark for cozy fiction. Every problem will always be neatly resolved, everyone will always get their happily ever after. So with nothing really on the line, I had a lot of trouble keeping my focus on the story, and my attention kept drifting away.

Since it's all very low stakes, the majority of conflicts that did exist felt very forced. The issues were by and large interpersonal in nature, and the characters were forced to behave in ever more melodramatic ways in order to keep them going. The initial snappy dialogue slowly but surely was replaced by ever more precious and saccharine lines, and I couldn't keep my eyes from rolling around.

The other thing that really stood out here was the book's excessive use of f-bombs. Lest you think I'm a prude, let me reassure you. I don't have a problem with swearing in books, and I myself happily partake in real life (something that has landed me in hot water with my toddler on more than one occasion). But here it was used so much—my kindle count came back at 47!—that it jarred me out of the cozy atmosphere constantly.

While we're on the topic of jarring, was the steamy scene even necessary? (Now I'm really starting to sound like a prude.) I'm all for spice, but this one didn't really gel with rest of the cutesy vibes. The characters' personalities came off as decidedly young and twee, so it was odd to all of a sudden read about them having sex. But hey, don't mind me over here. Perhaps this is a common thing in cozy fiction and I just haven't read enough of them.

Sigh. I think I speak for a lot of readers when I say it's very hard to resist the lure of cozy fantasy. After all, who wouldn't want to be cozy, unless you're mean-spirited and curmudgeonly in your soul (of which I am not). So every time a cozy pops up, I feel compelled to dive into it with the greatest of expectations (and lots of blankets and teas). And inevitably, I am disappointed.

Obviously, if you're a diehard fan of cozy fantasy and you haven't been living under a rock, chances are good you've already heard about and read and loved this book. But what about the folks who don't normally consume the genre? Should they go and pick this up? I'm sorry to say that in this case, my answer is no.

Readaroo Rating: 3.5 stars

Choo choo! Bet you won't be thinking about toy trains the same way after reading this.

When it comes to thrillers, I'm always on the lookout for a few things—a premise with a good hook, execution that really brings the story to life, characters with tons of depth, and the sort of immersiveness that'll turn hundreds of pages into a one-sit read. And this book had it all, my friends.

Annie has been through a tough year. Between losing her husband to a car accident and suffering a career tragedy, she could really use a change of pace. So when the opportunity comes up to move to a small town outside the city for the summer with her son Charlie, she jumps at it. Charlie soon finds a train set in the locked shed out back, and lo and behold, odd things start happening.

First of all, I have to mention how comforting and nostalgic the vibes in here were. The story takes place in the early 2000s, before smart phones and screens were ubiquitous, so kids and adults hung out with each other and played with their physical toys (imagine that). You add in the bikes and jigsaw puzzles and of course the eponymous train sets, and surely every reader would be transported to that time.

From the very first moment I opened this book, I was immediately and decidedly sucked into the tale. Some books, it feels like you have to work so hard for a long time just to get to the point where you can feel like you're into it, but no such hard work needed here. I slipped seamlessly into this world and was thoroughly riveted.

When you compare the style of this book to a lot of modern thrillers, the two honestly feel so different, they might as well be completely separate genres. Modern thrillers tend to favor short chapters, with characters acting as crazy as possible, and an endless parade of outlandish twists and turns, all in the hopes of bamboozling you into a dopamine daze so you won't notice the lack of good writing and a good story. Thankfully, we don't have any of that here.

The attention to character development and longer chapters means I have time to really sink my teeth into this dark and entertaining story. This is a dual point of view and timeline, but it doesn't feel we're being yanked back and forth because each portion has many pages and chapters to breathe and develop before we have to switch our focus to another.

On the whole, I'm not a huge horror reader, but when I want horror, this is exactly the type I enjoy. It's dark, but not so scary that it will keep me up at night peering into every shadow and corner. The darkness merely adds to the entertainment of the whole thing, making it feel even more delightful and unputdownable.

I totally recommend this if you're in the mood for some (dare I say) cozy and old school horror/thriller, kind of in the vibe of Stephen King from back in the day. And bonus points if you're craving some early 2000s nostalgia and you're reading this during the spooky season.

Readaroo Rating: 4 stars

You are the first delivery of human pioneers to Mars. There is no going back. . . . You must continue.

Let me first pause and take a deep breath, because what the heck did I just read? I'm always looking for that perfect Mars exploration story—you know, the one where astronauts land on the red planet and strange things start to happen—and wow, did this deliver. I feel like I've been walloped, again and again, and I loved every second of it.

I was drawn to this book initially because the blurb mentioned locked-room mystery set on Mars, and of course, I tripped all over myself trying to get my grabby hands on it. But to call this a mystery is to sell the story short. It is that, but also so much more.

We slip seamlessly into the mind of Dana Gold as she comes out of deep sleep, one of three astronauts aboard the vessel that's about to delivery them onto Mars. Bots have been sent ahead to build the habitat that will be their forever home and to welcome them onto this desolate planet. But they've lost communications with the bots, and that's only the beginning of their troubles.

This tale grabbed me immediately. The science fiction component is so interesting and unique. The worldbuilding isn't centered around technology, but rather, there's a lot of humanity woven into it. The bots are made by humans and are therefore in our likeness, even if their makers didn't intend for that to happen. And so the evolution and the interaction of the bots is a fascinating and crucial focal point of the story.

But if you're not usually a reader of science fiction, don't let the setting scare you away. The backdrop of Mars is simply the starting point from which this story can take off. It isn't about Mars or space or robots. It's about humans and what we would do when pushed to the limit.

The horror element comes on slowly. We see Gold's thoughts and emotions as things start to go wrong. The horror isn't in the physical, but rather the psychological. There is a lot of exploration about where horror comes from, if it is within us humans and we manifest it in ourselves and the things we build, or if it comes from outside sources, both the known and the unknown. It gave me the chills, and I found it to be absolutely fascinating.

Because this is a novella, there is an economy to the writing that makes every moment count. We don't get mired in unnecessary explanations, we don't get stuck in overly emotional ruminations. We go from scene to scene, each one so propulsive, so tautly suspended, it felt like I was holding my breath the whole time.

I honestly haven't been this excited about a sci-fi and horror blend in a long time. The only thing is, after reading this, I'm definitely giving up my dreams of becoming an astronaut and ever going to Mars.

Readaroo Rating: 5 stars!

What’s a girl to do when the only constant presence during the last millennium of her life has been a guy who’s contractually mandated to murder her?

What was it like before Ali Hazelwood came into my life? Well, for one thing, my cheeks didn't hurt so much from all that smiling and laughing, I'll tell you that.

As you'd expect, Hot for Slayer was pretty much a hoot from beginning to end. It was easy to fall into Aethelthryth's world, trying to carve out a life for herself by drinking sustainable scumbag blood and staying away from any vampire slayers. But when a slayer shows up with no memory of their rivalry, what's a vampire to do but invite the cutie over to do sudoku puzzles together and nurse him back to health?

In order for a novella to be successful, it all comes down to the characters. You have to plumb enough depth into them that they feel real and fleshed out, but you're obviously constrained by page count. And Ali Hazelwood totally gets it right with Aethelthryth and Lazlo. They're so sweet and kind and smart, you can't help but adore them.

In addition the characters, there were so many little touches that made this not just a fun read, but a memorable one. The writing was sharp, the dialogue snappy, and the situations authentic and hilarious. There were even little nods to vampire lore, which definitely added to the whole atmosphere.

Sometimes with a full-length romance, it can feel like the conflicts drag out unnecessarily, making it feel long and convoluted. And so to read a novella is quite refreshing. Every scene counts and there are no unnecessary misunderstandings or conflicts just to pad out the pages.

All in all, this was such a cute and delightful way to spend an hour or two. Thank you, Ali Hazelwood, for yet again delivering on the fun.

Readaroo Rating: 4 stars

I mean, if weird stuff starts happening in your house, the right thing to do isn’t to make your guests leave. It’s to get the heck out of there yourself, you know what I'm saying?

So this was an interesting read for me. It was both more and less than what I was expecting it to be, so let me try to get all my thoughts down here.

First, I honestly thought this would be more scary than it turned out to be. People were saying this was one of the most terrifying books they've ever read, it was nightmare inducing, they had the living daylights scared out of them, yada yada yada. So I psyched myself up (which honestly took more than a year because I'm a big scaredy cat when it comes to horror) and braced myself every which way. And then, nada.

I wasn't scared. I felt as cool as a cucumber throughout the entire read. I don't know, you guys. Maybe I'm not a scaredy cat and am actually a stone cold reader? Or maybe this story wasn't that scary. At most, I would say it was mildly spooky/creepy, but that's from the vibes more than anything plot related.

For me, scariness doesn't come from water dripping, mislaid furniture, and random doors opening and closing. There's nothing inherently scary about those things. I think those elements would work better for me in a movie (which I see is in this book's future) because they would engage more of my senses, but on the pages, I'm mostly just like, okaay?

I do wonder if my fear (or lack thereof) was also being trounced by my overwhelming annoyance at the main character. Eve is the epitome of people-pleasing and unable to stand up for herself, so she's constantly doing things that she doesn't want to do and shouldn't do. You add in all the hems and haws and bad decisions, and it was just really painful. I kept shouting at her in my head to be strong and smart, but no such luck. To be fair though, if she were, we probably wouldn't have a story at all.

Now, let's talk about how open-ended this book is. I think as a reader, you're probably going to fall into two camps. Either you enjoyed the whole thing so much that you don't really mind there's no sufficient explanation or even conclusion to this, or it would very much annoy the heck out of you. For me, I was quite taken aback by how little was explained.

Again, here, I think this would've worked better for me in a movie. In fact, we've seen this a lot with horror film franchises, where the unnamed malevolent force comes back again and again, terrorizing yet another set of unsuspecting characters in each new installment, with no real wrap up or clarifications given at the end. But on paper, it just feels incomplete. Books don't generally follow that style, so I can't help but want more.

Still, even with all my grousing, this managed to entertain me. The concepts in here are compelling and they're put together in clever ways. The writing style is engaging and the story certainly goes by quickly.

All in all, I think if you're a fan of the genre, this should at least scratch the itch even if it doesn't blow any socks off. I would just set expectations correctly going in about exactly how terrifying it is and how much explanation you're going to get, and that would be not too much on both fronts.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars

People say the poor love to dream, but that isn't quite right. Dreaming is the privilege of the moneyed, and the world has all kinds of ways to protect their dreams.

What a quietly fascinating read Women, Seated turned out to be, and I was riveted from the first page to the last.

I don't see a lot of contemporary Chinese novels making their way out of China. So when I heard Riverhead had hired a new Mandarin-speaking editor committed towards that goal, and this was the first such book to be translated and published under that effort, of course my interests were instantly peaked.

This story is told through the eyes of the nanny Yu Ling. She works for this wealthy and powerful family, looking after their son. But when things start to go wrong for the family, where does that leave her and the child she looks after?

This felt like such an interesting exploration of class and gender. At first, it seems like the focus is solely on wealth and privilege. Yu Ling is envious of the family and the madam that she works for. They hold all this power and all this money. If only she could get some from them, she too would be set. But then as the story unfolds, she starts to realize that maybe she (poor as can be) and the madam (wealthy as can be) both dance to the tune of the men around them.

I feel like the messages in this book are so subtle, they're not at all in your face. If you were to read the story at surface level, there doesn't seem much there. But underneath, there are so many layers, it's quite compelling.

Going in, I wasn't sure how much of this story I would find relevant only to life in modern China versus being applicable everywhere. But I was happy to see that my concerns were unfounded. Yu Ling's struggles with her place in the family and in the world are as pertinent in the East as here in the West.

I'm looking at the low rating for this book, and I'm a little bit surprised. I wonder if it's partly due to the miscategorization of this story. The blurb, with all of its references to "secrets" and "life-changing choices," seems to imply this is more suspenseful and plot-driven than it really is. In fact, I would say the plot doesn't much matter here at all. This is really all about the characters.

So if you're in the mood for a quiet, reflective, character-driven story, this is well worth a look. As for me, I can't wait to see what other Chinese literature Riverhead brings over.

Readaroo Rating: 4 stars

I have to be honest, this is a case where the story on the pages just wasn't as interesting as the premise would lead you to believe.

Dorothy wakes up in 1954 on a transport bus bound for Hanover State Psychiatric Hospital. She has no memory of who she is, but the one thing she does know is that she isn’t Dorothy. She has visions of a future where she’s someone named Bix sent back to 1954 on a mission to save the world. But the longer she's held at Hanover, the more she is forced into believing she is Dorothy. So which version in her mind is real—Dorothy or Bix?

That’s a cool premise, right? There's so much potential here, so many different ways this story could've unfolded that's both brilliant and riveting. But unfortunately, none of those things happened and what we end up with is surprisingly banal.

One of the major problems here is that we spend too long in Dorothy's head as she's subjected to endless psychiatric treatments while trying to puzzle out the question of whether she’s really from the future. Now, this would've been more interesting to us readers if we shared the same puzzle, but we don't. We know she's from the future because otherwise, what kind of pointless nonstory would this be? She'd just be a mental patient making everything up, which could be a story, but not this one because this one's billed as sci-fi. So it’s clear to us what's going on right from the beginning even if it’s not clear to Dorothy, but we still have to stick around for 200 pages while she figures it out.

But that's fine. I'm not against a long setup if it means the payoff is spectacular. But here again, it was inexplicably disappointing. Instead of choosing to flesh out the sci-fi and speculative elements of this book (the whole reason I'm reading this), we choose to focus on one action scene after another—of running, crouching, hiding, dodging—interspersed with the sort of no show all tell infodump that makes me want to abandon reading as a hobby.

Tabula Rasa, Reckoner, Reclamation, The Guest, New Covenant—it all certainly sounds impressive, I'll give you that. But just because you name some simple concepts with important sounding words doesn’t make it any more compelling, and that’s never been more true than here. While the terms might sound fancy, I can’t help but feel that they’re thinly veiled disguises for just how poorly sketched out the future really is.

Then there is Dorothy, secret agent extraordinaire, except she keeps messing things up during crucial moments. She needs to slowly walk across the field to avoid attention? Oh no, she panics and breaks into a run and everyone notices. She has the key and just needs to get to the door and escape? Oh no, she accidentally screams and alerts everyone. She has to read a secret message on a piece of paper and then destroy it? Oh no, she leaves it face up across the room for all to see. Like, come on! What kind of dumb fuckery is that.

But it wasn't that bad, if you can believe it. Even with my long list of complaints, this somehow managed to remain a three-star read until almost the very end. At that point, we are hit with the most lazy non-ending I have ever come across. One of the final lines of this book is Dorothy asking herself:

Will I be able to pull it off? . . . Don't know.

And that's the end, ladies and gentlemen. Like what the heck! Where is the payoff, the resolution, the closure? I'm having a hard time believing this isn't some sort of joke, but no, it's all written there in black and white, clear as day. So yeah, I'm going to have to deduct a star for that.

It took me a bit, but towards the end, I finally figured out what was so off about this story. It's constructed like the pilot of a tv series. Each scene is there for maximum tension, all the while not actually giving you much nor moving the plot forward. It tries to stretch the thinnest of plotlines into the most number of episodes, and it even ends on a cliffhanger just to entice you back. No, thank you.

Readaroo Rating: 2 stars