Ashley Poston: Bookish and the Beast

Bookish and the Beast (Once Upon a Con #3)by Ashley Postoncover art by Peter Greenwood (YA contemporary rom-com) Rating: 5 starsRepresentation: variety of LGBTQ+ characters I really enjoy the Once Upon a Con series, and this installment was no exception. I love the nods to all things geeky, I love the quotes from movies, I...

Diane Duane: Owl Be Home for Christmas

Owl Be Home for Christmas (Young Wizards universe)by Diane Duane (fantasy) Rating: 4½ stars This is a really cute holiday story, and is the only story set in 2020 that I have been able to bring myself to read this year. (It does reference the pandemic; no story this definitively about this year could avoid...

Connie Willis: Take a Look at the Five and Ten

Book Title (Series)by Connie Williscover art by Jon Foster (contemporary science fiction + romance) Rating: 5 stars This is a very cozy Christmas story that I think will appeal to fans of cozy contemporary romance as well as to fans of contemporary science fiction. While I am sure Willis' science in this book is sound...

Sharon Shinn: Quatrain

Quatrainby Sharon Shinn (fantasy) Rating: 5 stars This book is a set of four novellas which are set in four separate, but already existing, worlds. The first one is set in Samaria (book series starts with Archangel), the second is in the same universe as her stand-along novel Heart of Gold, the third is a...

Vivian Conroy: Last Pen Standing

Last Pen Standing (A Stationary Shop Mystery #1)by Vivian Conroy (cozy mystery) Rating: 3 stars This is a fun cozy mystery that follows Delta, the new part-owner of a stationary shop, as she tries to solve a murder to clear her friend and co-owner's name of the crime. It's enjoyable for a fluff read, though...