April 2026 Reading Roundup (Part 2)
Apr. 30th, 2026 11:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
metallic_sweetBooks I Finished
Year of the Mer by L.D. Lewis
A dark sapphic retelling of The Little Mermaid in a high fantasy setting, this book had so much potential and unfortunately could not execute in just as many ways. Our protagonist and granddaughter of Queen Arielle, Yemi, heir to the throne of Ixia, is strong-willed and opinionated to a fault. Her good qualities, which are love and tenderness for those closest to her, are rapidly eclipsed by her pig-headedness and her own prejudices, and I started wondering very early on why her fiancée and bodyguard, Nova, could put up with her. Nova, who is the other POV character, is much more grounded and has a greater understanding of the world, but her loyalty to Yemi is blind and, towards the end of the book, actively eclipses her character’s core values.
This is a seemingly lush world that is hampered by very little world building and haphazard pacing driven less by action but by an overabundance of dialogue that somehow fails to facilitate anything useful because characters are chronically unable to listen to each other. Aside from Yemi, Nova, and Ursla, every other character is one dimensional, and the two major big reveals felt too obvious and deliberately manufactured. I didn’t buy that anyone in a position of authority knew what they were doing nor that the governments and rebels were playing chess with each other; rather, this felt like they were doing children’s fingerpainting but instead of paints it’s blood and gore.
I thought about DNF’ing this book about 20% in as nothing seemed to be happening, and I didn’t feel drawn to any of the characters. Despite a lot of characters and a lot of action, the plot itself doesn’t get going until halfway through and the pacing gets worse from there as characters are introduced rapidly, off-screened just as rapidly, and then brought back briefly to either meet their ends or serve as morality pets. I kept reading only because I felt oddly captivated to know where this trainwreck was going, and even with that mentality, I found myself disappointed with the ending, which was abrupt and felt a bit like a petulant “fuck you” by the author to the notion that love should conquer all.
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young
This is a surprisingly grounded take on the time travel/portal fantasy genre that reads pleasantly although often without deep passion. June Farrow is the last living descendant of a line of women known for their oddities and, often, tragic endings. The book opens during the memorial service for Margaret Farrow, June’s grandmother and the woman who raised her as Susanna, June’s mother, vanished when June was seven months old. All June has of her mother is the mysteries she left behind and a locket watch that was tucked into the blanket she was found in. June herself has begun to experience some odd visions and sensations but has kept it secret aside from her family doctor.
Adrienne’s journey into the past takes a while to get going; half the book is set in her present, where she picks up clues regarding what’s behind the red door that has been appearing. This section of the novel is somewhat fluffy and drags, but, once she goes through the door to the early 1900s, details come fast and furious, and action picks up. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel like the relationships that June only begins to remember in the past had much weight to them, since we didn’t get to see them develop. This becomes particularly noticeable in the climax and the sole “spicy” scene; it was difficult for me to feel like what was happening had weight because we didn’t get time to grow attached to any of the characters aside from June.
Tonally, I was strongly and positively reminded of Caroline B. Cooney’s young adult series, Time Travels Quartet, which I hadn’t thought about in years. That series suffered at the end as Cooney couldn’t secure publishing interest in a final fifth book, and I feel like The Unmaking of June Farrow would have benefited from being longer or truncating the first half in favour of more detail and discovery in the second. Overall, I did enjoy this read because the prose is really pleasant, and I liked June, who is both open-minded and pragmatic, but I was left wishing I felt more connected to other characters and like their choices mattered.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
The Thorn Queen by Sasha Peyton Smith
This sequel to The Rose Bargain was a huge disappointment for me. I found The Rose Bargain to be charming with a plucky protagonist in Ivy Benton and the relationships between side characters elevating the fairly cookie cutter experience of deadly marriage games in a fae-ruled England. I was excited to see how Ivy would deal with being married to Bram, who had exiled her true love, Emmett, and her sister, Lydia, to the faerie Otherworld. Unfortunately, The Thorn Queen committed character assassinations of all four of these main characters, and completely sidelined the side characters who had been such a delight in the first book.
There’s just a lot of Big No’s that make up this sequel that weren’t present in the first. Tonally, this is substantially darker than the first book with the addition of drug use/addiction, animal cruelty/death, grooming, and sexual coercion along with psychological torture and starvation. This isn’t something I usually complain about, but it felt excessive and out of nowhere in comparison to sometimes dark but distinctly tamer first book. The reading experience quickly becomes distinctly unfun and, with a new marriage game pitting Lydia and Ivy against each other to be Bram’s true wife (because he is apparently married to both and has been stalking them since early childhood), repetitive.
I didn’t like how any of the characters were treated, and I really disliked how Queen Mor, who was a bombastic, excellent villain who loved her son, was reduced to a simpering Boy Mom. The three new side characters really just act as minor plot devices and don't add much to the story outside of their function. In the very few moments where faerie nature magic is present, this book reminded me of what could have been, but the rising action, climax, and ending fell so solidly flat that it became cringeworthy. I’m honestly sad and disappointed with this book.
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook, The Gate of the Feral Gods, and The Butcher’s Masquerade by Matt Dinniman
Carl and Donut continue to be an excellent duo to follow through the deadly games of Dungeon Crawler World in this bombastic LitRPG series. Dinniman keeps things fresh with new settings and challenges to each level of the dungeon, introducing new and unique characters and building upon relationships that Carl and Donut cultivate with both fellow former Earthling Human crawlers and other individuals involved in the game. As the series progresses, Carl and Donut become more and more involved in the intergalactic politics and corporate machinations, which provides often scathing social commentary about capitalism, individual agency, and the concept of the other. Fundamentally this series asks the readers to think about what does it mean to be human, and what are our duties to our fellow human beings?
A new major secondary character, Katia, is introduced and plays a large role first as a member of Donut and Carl’s party and later as the leader of her own party. I was initially apprehensive about her addition, worried that she would become a new love interest for Carl, but Dinniman thankfully takes a much better route with this with Katia becoming a much needed foil to both Carl and Donut. I also appreciated the growth of other side characters, especially how they’re often voices of dissent and reason in our main characters’ oft hairbrained and luck-based plans. I like that they have their own dramas, and it’s so refreshing to see Carl and Donut grow as individuals as they interact and grow close to other people.
The writing sometimes suffers from how these were posted in installments on Dinniman’s Patreon. There is some information repetition and, more noticeably, Dinniman’s habit of skipping on-page communication of attack plans to build reader suspense. I don’t find this detracts from my enjoyment of the series as I’m well familiar with this as a fanfic writer and reader, but folks looking for a polished finished product will find this annoying. If these books were ever to be edited, they would probably reduce in size by about fifty pages. I continue to be very excited to be on what has very solidly become the "Carl and Donut Take On the Universe" show.
The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook rating: ★★★½☆
The Gate of the Feral Gods rating: ★★★★☆
The Butcher’s Masquerade rating: ★★★½☆
Books I Didn’t Finish
You Did Nothing Wrong by C.G. Drews
It’s been quite some time since I’ve had to DNF a book because of the content, and I do think this horror book is effective. Elodie is an obsessive, possessive, and deeply unhinged mother of Jude, a six-year-old boy who has clear developmental and behavioral issues that are certainly exacerbated by his mother and isolation from children his age. Elodie’s new husband is a seemingly affable manchild, who lovebombs Elodie and view her as a babymaker. I had to let this go about a quarter of a way in because the treatment of Jude was just excruciating to read. I would recommend folks looking for domestic horror built upon unreasonable expectations of girls and women to check this out.
Year of the Mer by L.D. Lewis
A dark sapphic retelling of The Little Mermaid in a high fantasy setting, this book had so much potential and unfortunately could not execute in just as many ways. Our protagonist and granddaughter of Queen Arielle, Yemi, heir to the throne of Ixia, is strong-willed and opinionated to a fault. Her good qualities, which are love and tenderness for those closest to her, are rapidly eclipsed by her pig-headedness and her own prejudices, and I started wondering very early on why her fiancée and bodyguard, Nova, could put up with her. Nova, who is the other POV character, is much more grounded and has a greater understanding of the world, but her loyalty to Yemi is blind and, towards the end of the book, actively eclipses her character’s core values.
This is a seemingly lush world that is hampered by very little world building and haphazard pacing driven less by action but by an overabundance of dialogue that somehow fails to facilitate anything useful because characters are chronically unable to listen to each other. Aside from Yemi, Nova, and Ursla, every other character is one dimensional, and the two major big reveals felt too obvious and deliberately manufactured. I didn’t buy that anyone in a position of authority knew what they were doing nor that the governments and rebels were playing chess with each other; rather, this felt like they were doing children’s fingerpainting but instead of paints it’s blood and gore.
I thought about DNF’ing this book about 20% in as nothing seemed to be happening, and I didn’t feel drawn to any of the characters. Despite a lot of characters and a lot of action, the plot itself doesn’t get going until halfway through and the pacing gets worse from there as characters are introduced rapidly, off-screened just as rapidly, and then brought back briefly to either meet their ends or serve as morality pets. I kept reading only because I felt oddly captivated to know where this trainwreck was going, and even with that mentality, I found myself disappointed with the ending, which was abrupt and felt a bit like a petulant “fuck you” by the author to the notion that love should conquer all.
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young
This is a surprisingly grounded take on the time travel/portal fantasy genre that reads pleasantly although often without deep passion. June Farrow is the last living descendant of a line of women known for their oddities and, often, tragic endings. The book opens during the memorial service for Margaret Farrow, June’s grandmother and the woman who raised her as Susanna, June’s mother, vanished when June was seven months old. All June has of her mother is the mysteries she left behind and a locket watch that was tucked into the blanket she was found in. June herself has begun to experience some odd visions and sensations but has kept it secret aside from her family doctor.
Adrienne’s journey into the past takes a while to get going; half the book is set in her present, where she picks up clues regarding what’s behind the red door that has been appearing. This section of the novel is somewhat fluffy and drags, but, once she goes through the door to the early 1900s, details come fast and furious, and action picks up. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel like the relationships that June only begins to remember in the past had much weight to them, since we didn’t get to see them develop. This becomes particularly noticeable in the climax and the sole “spicy” scene; it was difficult for me to feel like what was happening had weight because we didn’t get time to grow attached to any of the characters aside from June.
Tonally, I was strongly and positively reminded of Caroline B. Cooney’s young adult series, Time Travels Quartet, which I hadn’t thought about in years. That series suffered at the end as Cooney couldn’t secure publishing interest in a final fifth book, and I feel like The Unmaking of June Farrow would have benefited from being longer or truncating the first half in favour of more detail and discovery in the second. Overall, I did enjoy this read because the prose is really pleasant, and I liked June, who is both open-minded and pragmatic, but I was left wishing I felt more connected to other characters and like their choices mattered.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
The Thorn Queen by Sasha Peyton Smith
Second book in The Rose Bargain duology
This sequel to The Rose Bargain was a huge disappointment for me. I found The Rose Bargain to be charming with a plucky protagonist in Ivy Benton and the relationships between side characters elevating the fairly cookie cutter experience of deadly marriage games in a fae-ruled England. I was excited to see how Ivy would deal with being married to Bram, who had exiled her true love, Emmett, and her sister, Lydia, to the faerie Otherworld. Unfortunately, The Thorn Queen committed character assassinations of all four of these main characters, and completely sidelined the side characters who had been such a delight in the first book.
There’s just a lot of Big No’s that make up this sequel that weren’t present in the first. Tonally, this is substantially darker than the first book with the addition of drug use/addiction, animal cruelty/death, grooming, and sexual coercion along with psychological torture and starvation. This isn’t something I usually complain about, but it felt excessive and out of nowhere in comparison to sometimes dark but distinctly tamer first book. The reading experience quickly becomes distinctly unfun and, with a new marriage game pitting Lydia and Ivy against each other to be Bram’s true wife (because he is apparently married to both and has been stalking them since early childhood), repetitive.
I didn’t like how any of the characters were treated, and I really disliked how Queen Mor, who was a bombastic, excellent villain who loved her son, was reduced to a simpering Boy Mom. The three new side characters really just act as minor plot devices and don't add much to the story outside of their function. In the very few moments where faerie nature magic is present, this book reminded me of what could have been, but the rising action, climax, and ending fell so solidly flat that it became cringeworthy. I’m honestly sad and disappointed with this book.
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook, The Gate of the Feral Gods, and The Butcher’s Masquerade by Matt Dinniman
Books 3-5 in a 10 part series
Carl and Donut continue to be an excellent duo to follow through the deadly games of Dungeon Crawler World in this bombastic LitRPG series. Dinniman keeps things fresh with new settings and challenges to each level of the dungeon, introducing new and unique characters and building upon relationships that Carl and Donut cultivate with both fellow former Earthling Human crawlers and other individuals involved in the game. As the series progresses, Carl and Donut become more and more involved in the intergalactic politics and corporate machinations, which provides often scathing social commentary about capitalism, individual agency, and the concept of the other. Fundamentally this series asks the readers to think about what does it mean to be human, and what are our duties to our fellow human beings?
A new major secondary character, Katia, is introduced and plays a large role first as a member of Donut and Carl’s party and later as the leader of her own party. I was initially apprehensive about her addition, worried that she would become a new love interest for Carl, but Dinniman thankfully takes a much better route with this with Katia becoming a much needed foil to both Carl and Donut. I also appreciated the growth of other side characters, especially how they’re often voices of dissent and reason in our main characters’ oft hairbrained and luck-based plans. I like that they have their own dramas, and it’s so refreshing to see Carl and Donut grow as individuals as they interact and grow close to other people.
The writing sometimes suffers from how these were posted in installments on Dinniman’s Patreon. There is some information repetition and, more noticeably, Dinniman’s habit of skipping on-page communication of attack plans to build reader suspense. I don’t find this detracts from my enjoyment of the series as I’m well familiar with this as a fanfic writer and reader, but folks looking for a polished finished product will find this annoying. If these books were ever to be edited, they would probably reduce in size by about fifty pages. I continue to be very excited to be on what has very solidly become the "Carl and Donut Take On the Universe" show.
The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook rating: ★★★½☆
The Gate of the Feral Gods rating: ★★★★☆
The Butcher’s Masquerade rating: ★★★½☆
Books I Didn’t Finish
You Did Nothing Wrong by C.G. Drews
It’s been quite some time since I’ve had to DNF a book because of the content, and I do think this horror book is effective. Elodie is an obsessive, possessive, and deeply unhinged mother of Jude, a six-year-old boy who has clear developmental and behavioral issues that are certainly exacerbated by his mother and isolation from children his age. Elodie’s new husband is a seemingly affable manchild, who lovebombs Elodie and view her as a babymaker. I had to let this go about a quarter of a way in because the treatment of Jude was just excruciating to read. I would recommend folks looking for domestic horror built upon unreasonable expectations of girls and women to check this out.
