Girl in the Creek by Wendy M. Wagner

Erin Harper's brother Brian has been missing for five years. He vanished during a solo hiking trip in the Pacific Northwest. Erin lands an assignment to do a puff piece on the town where he vanished from so she takes the opportunity to do a little sleuthing. But why are women going missing? And who is the girl in the creek?

I wanted to love “Girl in the Creek”, I really did. It wasn't unsettling enough to be creepy, and it definitely wasn't scary enough for me to read only in daytime. There's elements of body horror, alien invasion, and societal horror but none of it really scared me. The story never really seemed to get cohesive enough for me to care about any of the characters and it kind of felt that it needed to be about a third longer to really work. (Look, I almost never say that a book should be longer, but here we are.)

I received an ARC copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz

In the near future, California has officially fought a civil war with America and won. When a group of deactivated robots come back online and discover their situation, they band together and open a hand-pulled noodle shop to make money to pay their bills. When their shop is review bombed by anti-robot spam, they decide to fight back. And make delicious food.

This is a charming novella that somehow doesn't feel quite as future as it sounds. (Except for the robots) Found family and good food resonate through this. I'd love to see future adventures of the Automatic Noodle gang.

Recommended for all.

I received an ARC copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Hemlock and Silver by T. Kingfisher

Healer Anja is a 'poison doctor' -- she works to find antidotes to poisons and hopefully save the victims. It's a fairly quiet life, until her King shows up in her workroom with a request. His daughter Snow is ill and he fears that someone is poisoning her. Will Anja travel to the isolated estate where he has sequestered Snow and work to save her? Of course she will (he is the King) but when she arrives, things are....off.

This reframing of Snow White is an utter delight. T. Kingfisher has absolutely mastered the art of retelling fairy tales, giving them a twist and usually casting a mature (middle-aged? Not an ingenue, anyways) heroine who is down to earth and usually perplexed by what's going on around her but willing to get things done. There's a slow-burn romance in the background (and Kingfisher does the thing that I particularly like in romances, whereby the characters actually TALK to each other and figure things out), a talking cat who is just as one might fear a talking cat to be and many fun facts about venomous animals.

Absolutely recommended! (I'd say for everyone, but high teen readers might be put off a bit by the ages of the protagonists. Still, I'd say it would be worth a shot there.)

I received an ARC copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Enchanted Greenhouse by Sarah Beth Durst

Terlu Perna wakes up in a cold, snowy forest clearing. She's absolutely thrilled to do so, as she was turned into a statue for using sorcery to create Caz, a sentient plant we met in “The Spellshop”.

But now she has no idea where she is, what her life may be now and why the handsome, grumpy gardener who turned her back into a person is so grumpy and insistent that he needs a sorcerer to fix the greenhouses on Belde.

I loved this so much! A companion novel to “The Spellshop”, it opens up more of the world that Durst has created. Hopeful, romantic and quietly resistant to abuse of power, this is going on my “read when things are bad” list.

I received an ARC copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Homemade God by Rachel Joyce

Being an only child, sibling relationships will always and forever be an undiscovered country for me. (not my favourite Star Trek movie, but I'll go with it.) Even watching my kids' relationship as they grow into their adult roles doesn't have the same affect.

Rachel Joyce has written a big, sprawling (yet intimate at the same time) novel about sibling relationships. How they develop from birth, how parents affect them, how they grow and how they can fracture. Joyce also touches on “do 'great' (or at least commercially successful) artists get a pass on being jerks because Artist”. (I do not think so, for the record.)

I was sort of expecting a Big Twist and was somewhat surprised when it never came. I do think that the novel is stronger for that.

Recommended!

I received an ARC copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Never the Roses by Jennifer K. Lambert

Oniera is perhaps the most powerful sorcerer in her world and after decades of being used to wage war for whatever ruler has purchased her services, she manages to buy out her contract and 'retire' to a home she builds herself. The peace and quiet, and the companionship of avatar-esque animals slowly starts to heal her until on a whim, she dreamwalks into a rival sorceror's library and finds a book on growing extremely rare roses. He does not exactly approve of this and the flirtation grows from there.

There are so many tropes that could apply to this novel, but I think I'm going to stick with 'fairy tale for adults'. Lambert touches on many topics here but this lush romance takes centre stage. Gorgeously written and absolutely heartbreaking, this will stay with you for a long time.

Highly recommended.

I received an ARC copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Spectacular Things by Beck Dorey-Stein

Okay, I am not a sports person. (Except for gold medal hockey games, then I have to cheer Canada on.) Beck Dorey-Stein made me care deeply about soccer.

This novel is absolutely engrossing and I could not put it down. My heart broke for Mia, parentified and yet supportive of Cricket. It asks the questions “how far should we go for those we love” and “how much do we owe the ones who raised us”. There are no easy answers to those questions and Dorey-Stein writes a realistic scenario around them.

Definitely recommended!

I received an ARC copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.