A Most Puzzling Murder is a murder mystery novel with puzzles that the reader solves alongside the protagonist for clues to figure out whodunnit. Now, I love mystery novels and puzzles, so I was expecting to love this novel as well, but this novel is not it.
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The Poppy War is a popular fantasy novel and one of Time Magazine’s 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time. I am not a huge fan of the fantasy genre, especially fantasy stories about war, but I really enjoyed reading Kuang’s Babel, so I thought it was time to give The Poppy War, her first novel, a chance. I do not like The Poppy War as much as I like Babel, but I think it is an interesting story with a compelling protagonist.
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You know I like stories about witches, and Cherie Dimaline’s VenCo is a fun story about witches working together to take down the patriarchy. This novel is a real treat to read.
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I wanted to read The Shadow Key for a few reasons: 1) It is historical fiction 2) It is a gothic story 3) It is also a mystery 4) It is set in Wales. I ended up really enjoying it. It is predictable, but it still managed to surprise me. It straddles the line between realism and the supernatural without tipping over definitively into either side. I think readers who typically avoid reading supernatural stories may enjoy this one.
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Emilia Hart’s Weyward is an interesting story about witches, and despite the bad reputation that witches have, I think it would be cool to be a witch with actual magical powers. Weyward is also a predictable story, but then again, the trauma that men inflict upon women is predictable. The novel shows how three generations of women from the same family overcome this trauma and thrive.
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The Familiar is the latest adult novel by Leigh Bardugo. Like Ninth House, The Familiar is magical realism, but it is also historical fiction as it is set in 16th century Spain. I enjoyed The Familiar and at this point I think that Bardugo cannot fail to write a novel that I find interesting.
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I came across The Book of Doors while browsing my local Indigo bookstore. The inside book flap says that this novel is for readers of The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, which almost made me pass it over, but then it said that this novel is also for readers of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab, which is a book that I really enjoyed reading, so I decided to give The Book of Doors a chance. I like it better than The Midnight Library, but it does not hold a candle to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. The Book of Doors is an interesting idea, but I really do not care much for certain aspects of the novel.
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The Witch and the Tsar has all the makings of a novel that I would like: historical fiction, magical realism, an interesting back story featuring a mythology I am not familiar with, and a strong female protagonist; however, I just was not that into it. I did not think about not finishing The Witch and the Tsar, but I was not excited to get back to reading it every night before bedtime.
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I came across Zoraida Córdova’s The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina on the Book Outlet website. I had never heard of it before, but the synopsis sounded interesting enough to give it a chance. I had no expectations when I started reading this novel, but I found it to be an entertaining and engrossing read.
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Gods of Jade and Shadow is Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s second novel following her debut novel, Signal to Noise, and itself followed by Mexican Gothic, Velvet was the Night and The Daughter of Doctor Moreau. I find that I prefer Moreno-Garcia’s earlier works more than her more recent novels, because I enjoyed Gods of Jade and Shadow, a fairy tale based on Mayan folklore, as much as I enjoyed Signal to Noise.
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