This review was first published in and is reposted with permission from Shelf Awareness.
​A return to her family's isolated cabin in the woods of Wisconsin leaves a woman unmoored and profoundly altered in Hemlock, a queer rural gothic exploration of addiction and heritage by Melissa Faliveno (Tomboyland).
Sam plans to fix up the cabin, named Hemlock by her father, and make a quick sale of it. She has a cat and a long-term boyfriend in Brooklyn, and she told them both she'd be gone only a couple of weeks. But a dusty six-pack she discovers in the cabin's basement puts an end to 10 months of sobriety, and while she sits on the porch one evening, a doe speaks to her in the voice of her vanished mother.
Using the remote landscape to its full potential and embracing the equally threatening and comforting possibilities of country life, Faliveno creates an air of menace and instability as Sam seems to simultaneously find and lose herself. Far from her straight-passing life, her body begins to change, becoming something more androgynous or possibly feral. Her sense of time begins to slip, and maybe her sense of reality does too, filling the novel with a dreamlike quality that leaves open the questions of what is real and what is hallucination. By returning to her roots, Sam may discover who she is meant to be or find herself doomed to repeat her mother's fate. Her battles with sinister forces, internal and external, are a powerful depiction of the struggle to escape the generational cycles of addiction that ground Hemlock's eerie sense of the uncanny. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library

This review was first published in and is reposted with permission from Shelf Awareness. 
​In Ace Atkins's rollicking adventure, Everybody Wants to Rule the World, a scheme by Russian spies brings together a once-famous crime writer, a teenager who suspects his mother's new boyfriend is a KGB agent, and an FBI agent investigating the murder of an employee at Scientific Atlanta who had access to top-secret information.
In 1985 Atlanta, Ga., Peter knows there's something funny about Gary, his mother's boyfriend. He has a hard-to-place accent and both a gun and a cassette of Russian music in his car. Peter's mother works for a company with Department of Defense contracts, and Peter thinks Gary is a spy. He approaches Dennis X. Hotchner, who recently wrote a magazine piece about KGB spies, to ask him for help. Dennis initially refuses to buy it, but after prodding from his former-defensive-end-turned-drag-queen friend, Jackie, and events that suggest Peter is in genuine danger, the author and the Tina Turner impersonator join in, becoming embroiled in an FBI investigation that leads to a nest of Soviet agents and double agents.
Atkins (The Sinners; The Innocents) weaves a splendidly intricate web of intersecting plots that is as successful for its comedy as for its nonstop action. Nearly every chapter contains the sort of well-played surprise that feels inevitable as soon as it is revealed, and delightfully funny dialogue ensures that nobody thinks the over-the-top antics are meant to be taken too seriously. Fans of Carl Hiaasen's and Dave Barry's thrillers should look a little further north from Florida to experience Everybody Wants to Rule the World. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library

This review was first published in and is reposted with permission from Shelf Awareness.
​Valkesh army sergeant Nix Marr reluctantly accompanies the woman she once loved to look into a crime in an isolated outpost and discovers the danger to her heart is the least of her worries in This Gilded Abyss, the first volume in the Titan's Wrath steampunk horror trilogy by Rebecca Thorne (Can't Spell Treason Without Tea; Alchemy and a Cup of Tea).
Subarch Kessandra is beloved, the only member of the royal family to serve in the army. Nix wants to leave their affair buried in the past, but Kess wants Nix to accompany her to the underwater city of Fall to investigate a massacre, and Nix's parents could use the benefits of royal gratitude. On board the submersible to Fall, Kess explains that the massacre appears to have been the result of a disease characterized by uncontrollable, violent impulses--and it rapidly becomes clear that the disease is present on the submersible.
Thorne has crafted a taut, atmospheric fantasy full of both romance and peril. Nix and Kess have few people they can trust on their claustrophobia-inducing ship, and it's by no means clear if they can trust each other. The gradual pace at which readers learn what brought about the end of their romance mirrors their cautious reconciliation. Scenes of cinematically described violence combine with the latent disease's lingering menace to generate an inescapable sense of suspense. Fans will be eager to see what awaits in the next installment. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library
Discover: A horrific threat emerges on a submersible on its way to an underwater city in the taut, atmospheric first volume of Rebecca Thorne's sapphic steampunk trilogy.

This review was first published in and is reposted with permission from Shelf Awareness.
​Rattkin bookseller Fern discovers that what seems like the perfect life isn't necessarily what she needs in Brigands & Breadknives, the third in the heartwarming Legends & Lattes fantasy series by Travis Baldree.
Years ago, a young orc adventurer named Viv spent a summer recuperating and working in Fern's bookshop. Readers of the series will remember the details from Bookshops & Bonedust. Viv recently settled down and opened a coffee shop, and now she has convinced Fern to move her bookshop next door in the city of Thune. But even though the renovations and grand opening of the new shop go beautifully, Fern can't shake the feelings of dissatisfaction and hopelessness that have plagued her for years. One sad and drunken night, Fern crawls into the back of a cart owned by Astryx, a legendary elven blademistress, and passes out. She wakes too far down the road to turn back, since Astryx must deliver a captive goblin, Zyll, for a bounty. Nobody's sure why Zyll has a bounty on her head, but it's big enough that it will take all Astryx's fighting skills and a bit of help from Fern to keep rival adventurers from stealing her away.
Although this entry deals with more traditional epic fantasy adventures than the previous ones, it maintains the familiar warm and fuzzy tone. Fern faces the weighty reality of disappointing people who care about her, but Baldree's clever narration and the antics of Zyll and others keep the tone from getting too heavy. Series fans and newcomers alike will delight in Fern and her friends. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library
Discover: In this cozy fantasy adventure, the heroine bookseller learns that discovering where she truly belongs requires leaving her comfortable life.

Voices of Thunder: Radical Religious Women of the Seventeenth Century by Naomi Baker (Reaktion Books, $24 hardcover, 320p, 9781836391197, December 5, 2025)

Women who defied the patriarchy and the Church of England to declare their truths to the world come to vivid life in Voices of Thunder: Radical Religious Women of the Seventeenth Century by Naomi Baker (Plain Ugly: The Unattractive Body in Early Modern Culture).

Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, Protestant reformers in England moved further away from traditional institutions and towards a sense of belief as individual conviction. Encouraged by an increasingly widespread belief that gifts of prophecy and preaching may be bestowed on men and women alike, almost three hundred women have been identified as writing or prophesizing in England in the 1600s. Naomi Baker’s overview of these visionary women and the manifold routes by which they found their voices is engaging and accessible to any history-curious reader. In a straightforward style she conveys the vastly different life experiences of these writers and preachers, including Hester Biddle, a Quaker who visited Louis XIV to call for him to end the Nine Years’ War, and Anne Wentworth, who wrote of how the Bible’s call for justice for the persecuted inspired her to leave and publicly condemn her abusive husband. Baker chooses her examples well, illustrating that her subjects had in common the belief that they were called to share a message but differed on many theological points. Readers will enjoy being enlightened in her matter-of-fact style as to the many different ways that inspired and inspiring women left their mark on a century of rapid social change.

--Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library
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Women from all walks of life played a part in the religious revolutions of 17th century England, as illustrated in this accessible and enjoyable overview.

This review was first published in and is reposted with permission from Shelf Awareness.
​In The Everlasting, a provocative, heartrending fantasy by Alix E. Harrow (The Once and Future Witches; A Mirror Mended), a historian learns to question the purpose of legends after being sent to the past to record the story of one inspiring knight.
Owen Mallory first fell in love with Sir Una Everlasting in a children's book adaptation of her legend, which he read when he was nine. Around a thousand years after Una's tragic death in service to the country of Dominion, her picture on a recruiting poster inspired Owen to join the military, and when he returned to academia, he specialized in her legend. When a book--the original account of Una's story, thought no longer to exist--is delivered to his hands, he discovers the shocking truth: his task is not to translate it but to go into the past and write it, and to make sure that Una dies as she should.
Starting with the trappings of Arthurian-style legend, Harrow tells a powerful tale of sacrifice, love, and defiance. As Owen is sent back in time repeatedly, he at first reshapes Una's story to make her death fulfill a purpose for the nation she served. But after lifetimes of love and loss accumulate and begin to coalesce in Una's memory, the two of them must fight for the chance to not sacrifice her life for Dominion and instead learn what is worth risking their lives for. Harrow demonstrates the impressive breadth of her powers for this romantic saga and brutal critique of the misuses of patriotism. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library
Discover: In this provocative, heartrending fantasy novel, a time-traveling scholar and the knight to whom he devoted his life's work learn to question how nations create history to justify the present.

This review was first published in and is reposted with permission from Shelf Awareness.
​A young hacker is pulled from the quiet life she has built for herself to solve the mystery of a missing dream artist in All That We See or Seem, the first in a gripping science-fiction thriller series from Ken Liu (The Hidden Girl; The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories).
Julia Z gained notoriety in her past as the "orphan hacker." Now, she maintains a minimal digital footprint and struggles to pay the bills. But when lawyer Piers Neri comes to her for help to determine whether a ransom video for his missing wife is legitimate and, if so, where she might be, Julia winds up in the alleged kidnapper's crosshairs.
Piers's wife, Elli Krantz, is an oneirofex, an artist who weaves together the dreams of an audience for a "vivid dreaming" experience. The video came from someone she had been dreaming with one-on-one, and to free her, he demands that Piers send him something he claims Elli took.
Liu has created an inventive vision of an AI future, full of thrilling near escapes by engaging and clever characters. Julia's inclination toward anonymity means she has never participated in vivid dreaming; discovering what the ransomer wants will require her to find new ways to use her hacking skills, manipulating the remnants of files from vivid dreams that were never intended to be recoverable. All That We See or Seem does not contain much moral ambiguity, but Liu's thoroughly despicable villains here are nonetheless fun foils for Julia's heroism. Readers will be eager for the next installment of Julia's adventures. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library
Discover: A hacker searches for clues to a real disappearance in virtual dreams in this gripping science-fiction thriller.

This review was first published in and is reposted with permission from Shelf Awareness. 
​Even in Tartarus, the great labyrinth builder reckons with the death of his son and confronts his failures as a father and a man in Seamus Sullivan's debut novella, Daedalus Is Dead.
Daedalus's son, Icarus, famously flew too close to the sun with the wings his father built for the two of them to escape from King Minos. The wax melted, and Icarus crashed into the sea and died. Years after escaping, building a monument to his son, and trying and failing to find any trace of Minos's daughter Ariadne, Daedalus dies of an infection. But King Minos, now also dead, judges the souls in the underworld, and even though Persephone herself takes Daedalus into her service, Minos will not allow him to see his son again. What's more, the Minotaur runs loose in Tartarus, devouring the spirits of heroes. But as Daedalus encounters people from his life, he realizes the stories he told himself about his actions don't always match the perceptions of others.
This nonchronological telling of events flits between Daedalus's time in the underworld and his memories of Icarus's childhood and their eventual flight from Crete. Sullivan heart-wrenchingly conveys a father's grief at the loss of his child. By giving the Minotaur a preferred diet of heroes, he also explores what exactly made a hero of Greek myth, and whether heroism and virtue have anything in common. The result is a devastating examination of fatherhood and masculinity. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library
Discover: In this devastating examination of fatherhood and masculinity, Daedalus spends his time in the underworld reckoning with his son's death and confronting his own failures.

This review was first published in and is reposted with permission from Shelf Awareness.
An adolescent sorceress must find a way to lift the curse she accidentally cast on her heroic brother in The Summer War, a touching fantasy novella by Naomi Novik (The Last Graduate; Spinning Silver).
Celia's father was made a grand duke after winning the century-long Summer War for the kingdom of Prosper. He chose two of his wives strategically and raised his older son, Argent, with the plan to marry him to a royal princess and make himself the power behind the throne. But that plan comes apart the day that Argent returns from his first summer games as a knight just long enough to declare he is leaving the kingdom. In her outrage at being abandoned, Celia shouts at her brother that she hopes no one else ever loves him again, only to realize too late that her ancestral sorceress powers have awakened, dooming him to her unintended prophecy. When Celia's marriage opens a new conflict with the faerie-like summerlings, she, Argent, and their neglected middle brother, Roric, will need to find a way to save one another.
In only a brief novella, Novik skillfully presents a fully imagined world, shaped by discord and the heart-wrenchingly rendered grief of nearly immortal beings. As is appropriate for a faerie story, curses and oaths in this world are binding; even the siblings' enemies are caught in a trap they don't entirely deserve. The light, fairy tale-like language enchants from the first page, and will be sure to delight fans of Alix E. Harrow. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library
Discover: A young sorceress's curse on her brother sets off a touching tale of intrigue and family bonds that can't be broken in Naomi Novik's novella, The Summer War.

This review was first published in and is reposted with permission from Shelf Awareness.
During the 75th-anniversary year of what Billy Wilder called "the swimming pool story" during its development, Ready for My Closeup: The Making of Sunset Boulevard and the Dark Side of the Hollywood Dream by David M. Lubin offers a lovingly detailed look at the production of the classic film.
Lubin, professor of art at Wake Forest University and former writer for Rolling Stone, begins with writer-director Billy Wilder's youth and coming-of-age in Vienna during the heyday of silent movies. He presents a thorough yet chattily accessible history of the people involved in Sunset Boulevard and how they came together in a film that dances on the line between reality and fiction. Recounting how Gloria Swanson had gone from silent-film "it" girl to low-budget talk-show host, how William Holden's failure to break out of handsome but bland secondary roles fostered in him a sense of desperation, and how Erich von Stroheim's directing career abruptly ended after his sole collaboration with Swanson, Lubin sets forth a clear case for how these actors portrayed funhouse-mirror versions of themselves to create an incisive Hollywood satire. Lubin's examinations of film conventions found in crime thrillers and screwball comedies also illustrate how Wilder played with genres and maintained suspense in a movie that depicted its narrator as dead in its first scene.
Aficionados of movie classics and those intrigued by storytelling will enjoy peeling back the layers of one of the great films of its era. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library
Discover: This loving look at Sunset Boulevard shows film fans how one of the great cross-genre classics was produced.