Book Reviews

Death by Dumpling by Vivien Chien (A Noodle Shop Mystery #1)

December 18, 2019 Leave a Comment

328 pages | St. Martin’s Press | Cozy Mystery | 3/27/2018

I really don’t know how to review a cozy mystery. I picked this book up because I was in the mood for something different and I like seeing authors of color in spaces that have been traditionally very homogeneous.

Death by Dumpling felt very much like an origin story as we are introduced to Asia Village–a quaint Asian shopping center in Ohio—and Lana Lee, our 27- year-old half-English half-Tawainese protagonist. Lana is working at her family’s restaurant in Asia Village after quitting her corporate job and when she delivers the dumpling that kills the owner of Asia Village, she reluctantly joins the case to find the true murderer.

I found Chien’s breezy first-person writing enjoyable as we met the residents of Asia Village and Detective Trudeau–who I think plays a significant role in other books. The book fell a little flat for me but I’m curious to read the next book.

Crier’s War by Nina Vareela

December 15, 2019 Leave a Comment

320 pages | HaperTeen | Fantasy| 10/01/2019

Automae are alchemically created “Made” humans designed to serve as humanoid companions and servants. They were not supposed to rise up, they were not supposed to conquer humanity…but they did. It’s been nearly fifty years and The Age of Automae is still on the rise, but a human rebellion is on the horizon.

The world created in Nin Vareela’s Crier’s War is a twist on the uncanny valley and robot apocalypse. The highly detailed world-building and the mythology was one of the best parts of the book, but this book hinges so hard on what felt like a lukewarm forbidden romance between Crier, an Automae noble and Ayla a vengeful human girl working in secret for the resistance and motivated only by her need to kill Crier.

Crier’s War has a promising start as Ayla and Crier have an accidental run-in where Ayla witnesses Crier…cry, something Automae are not supposed to do. As Crier finds herself experiencing new emotions she decides to keep Ayla close by making her her handmaid. But the more time Crier spends with Ayla the more she begins to feel the one thing Automae aren’t supposed to have; passion.

This could have been so compelling, but in a book that is about forbidden emotions ALL of the emotions felt a little muted.

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End of The Year Mini Reviews

December 9, 2019 Leave a Comment

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Dear Haiti, Love Alaine by Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite

December 8, 2019 Leave a Comment

432 pages | Inkyard Press | Contemporary | 09/03/2019

Dear Haiti, Love Alaine is a book that defies categorization as Alaine, an aspiring journalist and daughter of one of the biggest Black women in broadcasting, (read: Joy-Ann Ried or Melissa Harris-Perry ) begins a project to follow the history of her Haitian family. Told in diary entries, e-mails, letters and text this book takes some deeply emotional turns and dives into the complications of mother-daughter relationships and unspoken family history–with a touch of magical realism.

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I Hope You Get This Message by Farah Naz Rishi

December 6, 2019 Leave a Comment

9 hours 58 min | Sci Fi YA | Harper Teen | Release Date: 10/22/2019

I Hope You Get This Message is one of those books that asks the question ‘what would happen if everyone on Earth knew they were about to die ?’ I feel like YA does this kind of book every once and a while* but this is my first time reading this trope in YA…and it just didn’t work for me.

In this iteration of the end of the world, Earth has picked up communication from a planet called Alma. They learn from intercepted transcripts that Alma has been incubating Earth for thousands of years and is currently debating whether or not to kill all of humanity in 8 days for what they have done to Earth.

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Soulless by Gail Carriger

November 19, 2019 Leave a Comment

10 hrs 48 mins | Hachette Audio | Paranormal | 10/1/2009

So, lol this book has been on my TBR shelf forever! It was in one of my early In My Mailbox’s nearly 8 years agoand I finally got around to reading it this year for book club.

Soulless is set in a steampunk Victorian London where supernaturals–werewolves, vampires and ghosts–live alongside humans. 26-year-old half-Italian spinster Alexia Tarrabotti isn’t a supernatural but she isn’t quite human either. She’s a preternatural–a rare person born with no soul and the ability to turn supernaturals human with just a touch. When supernaturals starting going missing Alexia decides to some investigation, much to the chagrin of Lord Maccon–the surly local werewolf Alpha and de facto head of the Bureau of Unnatural Registry (B.U.R).

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