Look, I like Emily Rath. I think her books have great representation for queer folks. Having read her most of her Jacksonville Rays series, all I could think about was how similar this book was to the first one, Pucking Around. Thinking about these both, I can see so many similarities, the only difference being one set in regency times and one set contemporarily. I have to say, I’m a little disappointed. I honestly believe that the FMC has WAY more chemistry with Burke than she does with the others, and I have a strong feeling that she is going to end up with only one, married, while the other two are “together” as they can be in this era, and it’s not going to be who I want it to be. Pucking Around, now that I’ve sat on it a bit more, had the same problem. I love Burke, I think he’s charismatic and has lots of development in the works. Lord James is just…there. I feel like Rath is forcing Rosalie to fee something for him but it’s so forced it’s painful. And Lieutenant Renley is great but again, I don’t see the chemistry there. Granted, he JUST figures out his feelings about another so that could be the issue. I guess I just need to get to the second book and figure out how it goes. For now, this is a solid 4 star.
Ok, so the first of my December reads is complete, and let me tell you…I hated it. I’m so sad too. Anyways, the review:
Title: Love is a War Song by Danica Nava
Rating: 2 stars
I had very high hopes for this. I wanted to like it. I had some good times in it! Really, I did. But OMG did I hate the FMC. Avery Fox is an up and coming pop star – who makes a SERIOUS faux pas with her music video, where she basically mocks Native American (or Indian, as they say in the book) culture, though she is Indian herself (Muscogee). Honestly, calling them Indians made me cringe, since many of my university colleagues have taught me to stray away from that, but the author is herself of the Chickasaw Nation and so I will defer to her own words as I go into this review. Anyways, her momager (think Kris Kardashian but like…meaner?) sends her to the reservation to be with her grandmother, Lottie…who she has NEVER met. Remember, this is a POP STAR who knows NOTHING about her heritage…being thrown into an environment where she ALREADY OFFENDED PEOPLE. Her mother made me so angry. Enter Lucas Iron Eyes, ranch hand on Lottie’s Red Fox Ranch, where they board and keep some horses. Who already has preconceived notions about Avery and is so awful to her when they meet (though, not for lack of reasons). Honestly, this whole book made me so frustrated because Avery would go from being a 20-something character to a spoiled 16 year old in like 2 sentences. I sincerely could not remember just how old she was throughout the book. Lucas, while he had some redemption in the end, was NOT someone I expected Avery to fall in love with (seriously? In one month??) but I definitely could see them as friends. I don’t think those two had a LICK of chemistry. Also, his parents suck too. For those who are like “OMG ThE CeLlAr ScEnE”-again, there was NO CHEMISTRY, it was so wooden…I was cringing the whole time. I’ve seen way better spice scenes. I dunno, this was just a whole lot of let down to me. I even didn’t really like Lottie. Like Avery was just dumped into this place where she knows absolutely nothing and Lottie does nothing to even help? What was the point of even agreeing to take her if you weren’t even going to try to make a relationship? Like I just…I didn’t like this book.
Apparently, the author also made a video for the song that Avery sings…so here is the link to the video if you care to watch it. I was just so underwhelmed by this. I wanted to like it SO BAD. Maybe I’m just jaded because of Stephen Graham Jones and Buffalo Hunter Hunter? IDK. This just wasn’t it for me.
On to the next! Probably some novellas, to kick start the holidays!
Oh man! I read like 12 novellas between Black Flame and the two I’m posting today, so that was fun! I have about 6 library books I want to get through before December starts…I think I want to be in FULL FESTIVE BOOK READING by then!
But until then, here are two books I’ve read!
First up: The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre by Philip Fricassi
Stars: 10/10, no notes!
Amazing suspense, likable characters. Ride is the ultimate Final Girl, Badass. The kind of old person I strive to be one day. She was strong, independent but aware of her own faults. The older residents of the community were just as great. Having all the friends trying to figure out what was happening then going down like flies was crazy. I was actually getting genuinely mad about how they were dying and how the cops were just completely useless!! And Tatum! He was such a sweetheart. 🥹 This was such a great book. The twists and turns and just the creepiness of it all? Amazing. There were some supernatural elements too, but I enjoyed it overall. Would absolutely recommend to folks. Like seriously. Who would have thought a retirement home would be so exciting?!?
Second book: Playing Flirty by Shameez Patel
Stars: 5/5
Oh goodness me! I was coming off a small reading slump but this was the perfect book! I adored Rose (this is the second book in a row with the FMC being Rose) and I LOVED William. I especially loved that he went by that and not Will or Bill or anything else. William. I loved it. I knew right away that he liked Rose, and I figured out that he was her Gandalf early on but their chemistry, to me, was off the charts. I also loved that we got a little more on the side characters, like Neema and Shaun, and even a little of Lincoln and Claire. This was just such a feel good book. Even with her creeper boss and Patrick. He was…annoying and I was mad at him SO MUCH in this book! I even considered that he was cheating but nope, he really was just married to his work . I also appreciated the tease of spicy, it was definitely closed door spice but it was enough to know that they liked each other and fit well with each other. Rose’s parents were HILARIOUS and I loved them haha. Typical free spirited folks, though that trope of free parents and straight laced FMC gets a little old. Either way, this was a fun, quick read.
Well ok, that’s that for now! I will try and get a couple more in before the end of November, but in case I don’t, have a bountiful Harvest Day or Thanksgiving, whichever you celebrate!
Look, I’m aware it says “October” and we are CLEARLY in November, but here we are. So. I read a CRAP TON of both books and novellas at the end of October, but I want to focus mainly on the three books I read.
First up: Immortal Pleasures by V. Castro
Stars: 1 out of 5
I hated this book. I was so disappointed too. The book summary and the book contents are not at all the same. I wanted lore about La Malinche, I wanted deep, lush lore about the Aztecs and the Spanish Conquistadores. It was so promising in the beginning: I did love the history parts of the book, when Malinalli (her current name) is talking about her past. It seemed like we were going to get the vengeance alluded to in the summary of the book. Instead, we had cringe worth sex scenes, a mopey vampire and a rushed ending. The current events part of it all was just torturous to get through. The sex scenes especially were so cringe worthy, it’s actually painful to think about. Butter. BUTTER. I can’t even. I am so mad about this book because the premise sounded so cool, very different, and then I got…nonsense. Just…ugh. I kinda wish I DNF’d it but I didn’t want to miss something good happening. I just kept thinking surely it must get better!!! But nope. It didn’t. I even relayed it to my teen son and he was like “wtf??” When even he says that, you know it’s a problem haha. I also have to say, this was such a let down because I was truly expecting lush lore, gritty vengeance and dark fantasy and instead all I got was a mopey vampire and incomplete lore. Like be so for real. There were so many times I just wanted to stop and I definitely should have. Ugh.
Second up: Bochica by Carolina Flórez-Cerchiaro
Stars: 3 out of 5
According to Wikipedia, Bochica is the mythical figure in the religion of the Muisca, who inhabited the Altiplano Cundiboyacense before the Spanish invaded what is now Columbia. There is little known about Bochica, save for some written documentation whereas “Bochica was variously described by witnesses as a building which [Melchor] Pérez de Arteaga had destroyed — as the father of a ‘tiger’ — perhaps a puma or jaguar that had recently been attacking travellers of local roads, and as an ‘idol’. When asked who Bochica was, Ubaque replied that ‘he is a wind’ — (un viento) — and that he was in the site of the building that the Spanish had destroyed.” (wikipedia).
Bochica monument
This book…not that AT ALL. This was a bit of a slow burn and mostly atmospheric. Lots of repetitive sentences and thoughts. I loved the idea of the journal entries, I kind of wish they had been utilized better. I also wish the folklore of the svetyba had been better used as well. The whole thing with the Madre at the school though? That whole sub-storyline was not needed, imo. I think for me, the biggest issue was that I figured out what was happening WAY too early and so the rest of the book was just me trying to see when the MC’s were going to figure it out. That was such a let down to me. I was so hopeful for this, especially since it was heavily compared to Mexican Gothic, which I loved. This ended up just being “meh” to me. Three stars though because the hallucinations and descriptions of the locations definitely helped the story, made it very visually appealing and interesting. Again, the only saving grace of this book was the vivid descriptions of the hallucinations and the atmosphere of the house. I think the haunted gothic house theme was underutilized and could have made this a much spookier and overall better book. I love myself a good Gothic Haunted House theme and this was just…not it. Like Immortal Pleasures, this one fell flat with lore usage and cultural richness.
Last up: Black Flame by Gretchen Felker-Martin
Stars: 4 out of 5…and mostly confusion…
I’m not convinced I know what I just read. Was it horror? Absolutely? Was it a narrative on heteronormativity??? Absolutely. A thought masterpiece on religion and Anti-Semitism? Yup. Was it the weirdest and most bizarre thing I’ve ever read? Also yes, though to be fair, I read Tender is the Flesh, so the jury is out on that. This was wild from start to finish. I’m gonna need 3-5 business days to process this for sure. Hopefully I don’t see The Baroness anywhere in my dreams. I think I’d cry.
This was a GREAT presentation on how imagery can produce horrific results. I was convinced for a few days that I was going to sleep and see some of this crazy, fucked up shit in my dreams. I would have had to find a therapist STAT if that had happened. Also safe to say that the idea of being a film restorer is completely off my “jobs I’d like to try” list. *shudder* I’m SO ok with never doing that.
Needless to say, I ended my espooky season with a few bangs, some bigger than others. Then I went on to read a bunch of smutty novellas and started to get into the Christmas season, so here’s to jingling all the way soon! As usual, you can find all my other reviews (I did review those novellas) here, on my Goodreads profile. You can also check out all the books I have on my shelves, and maybe even recommend me one off my own TBR to read!
So. After gathering my thoughts, and reading some other reviews, I realized I will not be as eloquent as some here. However, I enjoyed this book. SO MUCH. The folklore, the horror, the gore. How Cora was able to rise above that, make connections with friends after the horrific murder of her sister, with whom she had a complicated relationship with. Re-connecting with her Asian heritage through her one aunt after being forced into accepting Christianity by her white aunt. The racism. THE RACISM. Like holy smokes. During COVID, racism towards Chinese (and by extension, those in other asian countries like Korea, Japan, etc. since white people think they all look the same) was at an all time high. No different than after 9/11, when people (usually white) blamed ANYONE that even looked remotely like those horrible terrorists. For Cora, and by extension, her friends/co-workers, enduring that during the early days and then height of the pandemic and not do anything about it because they knew it would make it worse was heartbreaking to read.
Cora, after the death of her sister, becomes a forensic crime scene cleaner. The past few cleans, though, have shown a pattern of brutal deaths of Asian-American women, and the calling card of dead and mutilated bats. The last thing Cora remembers was someone calling her sister “bat-eater” before throwing her in front of a train and decapitating her. Remember, this story it GORY and it STARTS with that death. We then move into her and her co-workers trying to figure out just WHO could be doing this, when Cora divulges to them that she is being followed by a Hungry Ghost. Something Cora didn’t believe in because she didn’t really believe in anything from her Asian heritage. Not that I blame her, she was definitely in the category of “not Asian enough, not white enough”, since it was something she was basically told her whole life. Once they decide that they need to get rid of the ghost, who Cora believes is her sister, they think it’s over. But it’s just the beginning.
I can’t even decide just how much I loved this book. It hit all the feels, all the tropes, all the checkboxes for a great horror novel. Horror isn’t always gore and jump scares (which this had a LOT of and I’m so glad I read it during the daytime haha) but sometimes the horror is in the everyday people. Of the people you think should be protecting you (looking at you cops) who are instead, covering up crimes by those higher than them, at the cost of the people dying. It was a crazy read, but a great one. I would absolutely read this again.
Lupe's Book Nook 