Angeline Boulley’s debut novel Firekeeper’s Daughter is dense, beautifully written, and methodically structured. Boulley takes her time building the world of the story, plotting through all the complicated nuances of Daunis’ back story with her white and Native families and communities.
Sophie Irwin’s A Lady’s Guide to Fortune-Hunting is a fresh, light, charming read. There is nothing ground-breaking in the story itself; it follows the pattern laid out before it for a typical Regency-era romance. It’s the execution that makes the book so thoroughly enjoyable.
Leigh Bardugo’s The Familiar is a dreamy, complex, well-structured story of miracles and magic, ambition and love, set in 16th-century Madrid during the Spanish Inquisition. Equal parts fantasy, romance, and historical fiction, this book was a delight to the senses and one to truly savor.
Describing Kaliane Bradley’s debut novel The Ministry of Time is like throwing together a word salad of mixed genres, tropes, and social issues. Sci-fi time travel. Political intrigue. Romance (forced proximity, slow burn, two worlds collide – they all apply). Fish out of water. Racial identity. Climate change. War. Generational trauma. Then toss all that with a dressing of pitch-perfect wit and incredible writing, and you have what I know will be one of my favorite books of 2024.
With a unique premise and plucky, likable main character, How To Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin is a strong start to what is sure to be a popular new cozy mystery series for many.
BOOK:30 