What I've Been Reading Lately: Series of Things

The Witch Must Burn, The Wizard Returns, Heart of Tin, The Straw King, Ruler of Beasts Danielle Paige

As I mentioned in my last post, I really like the Dorothy Must Die series, where Oz turns into a dystopian hellscape. The ending of the 3rd book changed everything and as I desperately wait for the 4th, I've been loving this prequel series that shows how Oz got to the point it got to. We see how terrible Dorothy is, but how Glinda is really the evil behind the throne, and who just gets swept up in everything. Also, as I was putting this together I discovered that a new installment, Order of the Wicked, comes out next week! Squee!




Princeless: Save Yourself, Princeless: Get Over Yourself, Princeless: The Pirate Princess, Princeless: Be Yourself, Princess: Raven the Pirate Princess: Captain Raven and the All-Girl Pirate Crew Jeremy Whitley, illustrated by M. Goodwin, Emily Martin, Rosy Higgins, Ted Brandt, Brett Grunig

OMG. This is one of those things where everyone said it was AH-MAZING and it was still better than all the hype and love for it. If you're unaware, Adrienne is a princess, the youngest one, and she's been locked in a tower, just like her sisters, because being rescued is the best way to find a husband? She is NOT HAPPY about this. So she befriends the dragon that guards her and they make a jailbreak and head off to find and save all of her sisters. Meanwhile, her father has set out a band of mercenaries to track down whomever kidnapped Adrienne out of her tower. (Awkward!) Along the way she assembles an awesome team. It's Rat Queens for the Lumberjanes set (perfectly suitable for Middle Grade!). The first volume of the Princess Raven spinoff series still makes me laugh. When Raven (a pirate princess rescued by Adrienne with her own scores to settle) tries to assemble a crew, she gets mansplained so hard and it is just so pitch perfect and hilarious that I couldn't breath I was laughing so hard. This quickly became a comic that I collect instead of waiting for it at the library.



Enchanted, Inc., Once Upon Stilettos, Damsel Under Stress, Don't Hex with Texas, Much Ado About Magic, No Quest for the Wicked, Kiss and Spell Shanna Swendson

So I read this entire series a few years ago and reread it this month and *happy sighs.* I reviewed most of it when I read it. But this was everything I remember and more and just the perfect fun, comfort reread that I needed. I enjoyed rereading so much that I just went it bought it so I can reread it whenever I want. (They're all really cheap on Kindle right now, so now's a good time to check them out.)


Books Provided by... my local library, although I then went and bought all the Princeless and Enchanted, Inc titles.

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#tbrchallenge Series Catch-Up: Roaring Twenties

It's time for February's TBR Challenge Post! (More info about the TBR Challenge here.)

So, the theme this month is Series Catch-Up, which is explained as reading a book from a series you've fallen behind on, which I didn't do. Instead, I read an entire series that had been sitting on my shelf for awhile. I picked it up because I had heard good things about the third book (possibly on an episode of the DBSA podcast?) and, when I can do anything about it, I like to start series from the beginning. (Example: I got confused as to which book was the first in this series, so I accidentally started with the second one. Maybe 40 pages in, we meet another couple and you get those few sentences of backstory in case you didn't read their book? Yeah. I PUT THE BOOK DOWN AND STARTED WITH THE FIRST ONE. That's how I roll.) ANYWAY.

I devoured all three in about a week and a half. It would have been quicker, but I had some other assigned reading to get done. And I moved. (But new house has a giant bathtub that's *perfect* for reading in.) So, this review is of the entire Roaring Twenties series by Jenn Bennett! Yay! All three take place in the 20s in San Fransisco, and follow the love lives of the Magnusson siblings. They're historical and paranormal and deal a lot with class--the Magnussons parents are Swedish immigrants (I don't have the book on me, so I can't check, but I think Winter was also born in Sweden) and started as fishermen and were very successful. When prohibition happened, their father turned most of the fleet to bootlegging and were even more successful. The Magnussons are rich, but they're new money and outlaws, so they're never fully accepted by society, even if society has a great need for their product. It's a fine line and odd balance they strike. They also have a bit of mystery/suspense to them that really make them move and unable to put down.

BUT! BUT! BUT! Yes, this is historical, but! Everyone still practices safe sex and no one's a virgin! AND! Bennett realizes that POC are not a modern invention and while most of the heroes and heroines are white, the world they live in is not! It's San Fransisco in the 1920s and it looks like it! That's not tokenism, it's REALITY. AND HISTORICAL ACCURACY.



Bitter Spirits

Aida is a spirit medium who has a gig at the Gris-Gris club, a black-and-tan (so, non-segregated) speak easy. One day she's called into work because Winter Magnusson (friend of the owner and the speakeasy's supplier) has been cursed and can not only suddenly see ghosts, but he's being stalked by them. Aida can get rid of the some of the ghosts that followed and Velma (the owner) can remove the cursed poison that's killing him, but who's after Winter, and why?

So... the person who cursed Winter is using Chinese magic. And Velma practices voodoo and immediately my head is all 'DANGER WILL ROBINSON! DANGER WILL ROBINSON!' Because Winter and Aida are white (as is the author), Velma is possibly black but maybe not (in the third book, she's described as having light brown skin of a shade that makes her race hard to determine and the characters don't really care what race she is, so it's not really dwelled on) and the Chinese magic?

BUT! It's handled really well and respectfully. (Bennett has spent a lot of time in, and studying China) I think some of the reasons it works are (1) In this world, magic exists, and just like different ethnic groups have their own languages, food, and customs, of course they also have their own types of magic. And just like language and food and customs can be shared/warped across ethnic lines, so can magic. (2) The Chinese aren't all painted as a superstitious, magic-practicing people. Throughout this world, in all ethnic groups, people know about traditional magical customs but they don't actually believe in it. Unless they can actually see ghosts and the like (such as Aida and Winter.) And when I say "people know about traditional magical customs" I mean in the same way a lot of us do today. Like I know the magical customs of my European heritage such as witches can't cross running water, iron and salt will hurt an evil faerie, vampires can be killed with a wooden stake through the heart or sunlight, werewolves wolf out at the full moon and can't handle silver bullets, etc. etc. etc. But I don't believe in those things and for the most part don't take any supernatural precautions (except painting my porch ceilings haint blue, but that's just pretty, and I can do that because I live in the South now).

Aida helps Winter as he tries to figure out who's cursed him, and why, and how to end it, and the two can't fight their mutual attraction. Standing in the way of true love is the fact they've both vowed to never be serious about someone (for various reasons) and the fact that Aida's job at the Gris-Gris is temporary and she's been booked at a club in New Orleans soon. There is some "we won't talk about our feelings and what's going on" but that's really understandable, because while they're fighting ghosts and groping each other, they're not actually close, and what's keeping them both back is deeply personal. Yes, things would be easier if they'd talk, but they'd also be weird, because they don't have that kind of relationship (yet).

Grim Shadows

Lowe wants to make his own way, independent of his brother's bootlegging empire, so he's a treasure hunter. On his most recent trip to Egypt, he lost a finger, but he found the fabled djed amulet, which he can hopefully counterfeit, and sell twice to pay off the bad guys after him (who are after him because they found out the last thing he sold them was also a fake.) Only thing is, a lot of people want the amulet and they're not afraid to kill to get it.

Hadley is a curator and scholar of Egyptian antiquities and her father wants the amulet for the museum they both work for. She's also been cursed with dark malevolent spirits that appear and wreak havoc when she gets upset. Sometimes, this can help save her life, but usually it just makes things really, really hard.

But, it turns out that Hadley's father wants the amulet for more personal reasons and Lowe and Hadley have to battle Egyptian magic, and their attraction, to secure the amulet for their individual purposes. Until, of course, Hadley finds out about Lowe's plans and everything goes wrong.

I think this one had the weakest romance, but the best (and creepiest!) mystery. (Also, some minor Jewish characters, including a deaf child!) I also like how this world is so entwined. Not just the same settings but the mystery involves Hadley's dead mom. LUCKILY WE HAVE AIDA! She can talk to dead people! That's helpful!

Grave Phantoms

FIRST OFF LOOK AT THAT COVER. That's a hot Asian guy! And an inter-racial romance!

YES! It's time for the Magnusson sister, Astrid, and Winter's right-hand man, Bo to take center stage. First off, I love how this romance has been hinted at the entire time. (Lowe notices something is up between them as soon as he gets back from Egypt in the beginning of the second book, and there are hints in the first book, too.)

So, these are characters readers already know fairly well from the previous books, especially Bo, who is Winter's right-hand man. Astrid's been away at college and has returned for Christmas break. Both Bo and Astrid thought the time apart would help them move on, but nope. So, are they going to do this thing, or not?

The big complications of course are: They both have romantic pasts (some more recent than others) and there are some major jealousies on both sides. Winter took Bo under his wing when Bo was really young. Bo was supposed to be protecting Astrid, not falling in love with her and not doing the other things he dreams about at night. He doesn't want to betray Winter. He'd lose his job and security and nothing would pay as well as bootlegging. But, even bigger, Astrid is white and Bo is Chinese. Not only is that not societally acceptable, it's illegal. They could never get married. Their children wouldn't be accepted in either community.

But, of course, there's also a supernatural mystery going on! This one involving Aztec magic and some French pirates. And Astrid accidentally gets someone else's magic and has two auras now and is getting freaky visions of what happened on a ghost ship that crashed onto the Magnusson's pier. Luckily, the object that zapped Astrid looks like an artifact and Astrid just happens to know some experts in the area. Lowe and Hadley specialize in Egypt, and the idol is Aztec, but they know people who can help (and are a white/Latina lesbian couple!).

I loved this one, because with most romances, you know how the couple can work out their issues, if they just get around to doing it. While I was sure Bo and Astrid would work it out (I mean, it's a romance! HEA is a requirement!) I had no idea how they could make it work. I also loved the friendship that Aida, Hadley, and Astrid had formed, and how they help each other out behind the backs of Winter, Lowe, and Bo. I also really liked Bo's ex-girlfriend, Sylvia. (YAY! For a great ex-girlfriend who isn't automatically the bad guy! She and Bo didn't work, but I love that they're still friends and while it causes some conflict because Astrid misunderstands their relationship, when Bo won't tell her, Astrid just asks Sylvia point blank, gets the story, and it's no longer an issue. I hope they later become BFFs)

Plus there are some fun jabs at the fact this story takes place between the bulk of Grim Shadows and its epilogue.

Overall, a FANTASTIC series. I'm sad there's not more!



Books Provided by... my wallet

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This summer, I read comics

I've been reading a lot of comics this summer, and it's the greatest.

I just finished Ms. Marvel Vol. 3: Crushed and the series continues to be fun, as was Rat Queens Volume 2: The Far Reaching Tentacles of N'Rygoth. I love to read about girls kicking ass! (See also, Nimona) One thing I really appreciate about Rat Queens and Nimona is that it's fantasy kick-ass fun, but there's underlying basis of pain. It's not always there or the focus of the narrative, but it bubbles up to color the story in a way that's really compelling. (Plus, now I have an excuse to yell I'M A SHARK! and see who laughs--new bestie test)

Oh, and I also read Lumberjanes which I loved for it's kick-ass girls and silliness, but also its friendship and their long-suffering camp counselor. I love these girls as an ensemble and their relationships. FRIENDSHIP TO THE MAX for reals.


Also in ongoing series... Fables Vol. 22: Farewell happened. The final Fairest, Fairest Vol. 5: The Clamour for Glamour comes out on Tuesday, but Fables is done. This is the series that turned me onto comics and my feelings about it ending are so bittersweet. I'm going to miss these characters and their stories and their lives and how Willingham played with meta-fiction and what happens when you put fictional characters in the real world. At the same time, the final volume was wonderful. I think it was a fitting tribute and end to the series and, in many ways, it was a farewell. It wrapped up the narrative arc nicely, left some loose ends, but not ones that will drive me batty, and let the characters say goodbye (sometimes very literally). I have been nervous lately because the last few volumes have been a bit of a blood bath, and there is some of that here, too, but... it's good. It's really, really good. My only complaint is that it's done and I very selfishly want more, more, more, more. (Also, I asked my friends at Secret Stacks what I should read to fill the Fables void, and they got Bill Willingham himself to answer and zomg.)

But also, I've been reading some new series!

I read the entirety of Y: The Last Man because Bellwether Friends did an episode about it. I am in love with Saga (which was also a Bellwether recommendation) which is also by Brian K Vaughn, so I thought I'd pick up all the Y before listening to their episode, so I'd be able to better understand. Y is the story of what happens when suddenly, all males (human and animal) drop dead. Except for Yorick and his monkey Ampersand. Science and governments want Yorick, but he just wants to get from New York to Australia where his girlfriend-maybe-fiance was when the gender-cide hit, but it also explores what happens when a gender dies. You get radical feminist movement burning sperm banks, countries that had higher gender equality do better than those who had more men in charge, and also a lot of people in deep morning. Plus little things-- it hit at rush hour so a lot of the highways are clogged with cars and what do you do with that many dead bodies? It was really interesting and good. I like the way it explored the different aspects of this new world as well as all the different theories people had for what caused it. (People have feelings about the ending. It wasn't the ending I necessarily wanted, but I think it was good for the story, if that makes sense. Fangirl Jennie was "eh" but literary critic Jennie was "oh, yes.") Also, let's talk Saga. I've read the four volumes that are out now and so good. It's about love and family and survival against the backdrop of intergalactic war! And their nanny is a ghost. (Basically, star-crossed lovers from opposite sides of this inter-galactic war have a kid and everyone wants them dead because there can't be proof that the two sides can get along and all they want to do is live and survive as a family, but always running puts strain on a relationship!) Also, let's just talk about how the romance novels are also political tracts wrapped in love story, because a romance reader, YES. There is meaning and metaphor and all the other trappings of HIGH LITERATURE in romance (and really, all genre) but it gets written off so often, but not here. That warms my heart.

I've also picked up the first four volumes of East of West. It's this story of a futuristic alternate history US where the country's fractured into several other countries and there's a religious cult and Four Horseman of the Apocalypse are reborn, except for Death, because he's left them for love and it all ties back to this religious cult and a prophesy and it's weird and not quite my usual thing, but really good at the same time.

Also for something amazing, but a little different than my usual fare, Secret Stacks also recommended I check out Pretty Deadly which is also about Death falling in love with a person. But this time it's Death's Daughter who's riding for revenge. And there's a girl in a feather cape and old man who travel from town to town to tell her story. It's hauntingly surreal and I cannot wait for more. (Please tell me there's more!)

What comics are you reading?


Books Provided by... my local library, except for Fables, which I bought.

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Library Wars: Love and War

Library Wars: Love & War Kiiro Yumi, original concept Hiro Arikawa, translated from the Japanese by John Werry

This is a mega-review of vol. 1-13 (aka, the ones that are currently available in English)


The Library Freedom Act

Libraries have the freedom to acquire their collections.

Libraries have the freedom to circulate materials in their collections.

Libraries guarantee the privacy of their patrons.

Libraries oppose any type of censorship.

When libraries are imperiled, librarians will join together to secure their freedom.

In the not-too-distant future, Japan passes the "Media Betterment Act" which censors objectionable material. Librarians are against censorship and will fight to keep their collections free and available. Literally fight. Like, they made an army. To fight against the federal censors(and their army).

AND YOU WONDER WHY I LOVE THIS?!

I devoured this series. Like, read all of them in a week, often staying up way past bedtime because I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN. I love the overall concept. Plus, not only is about people fighting to protect access to materials (with their literal lives!), but it's a shoju manga, so SO MUCH SEXUAL TENSION.

Our main character, Iku Kasahara wants to join the Library Defense Force to be like her "prince"-- a member who saved a book she wanted to buy from censorship. She has passion, but not a lot of skill and is driven hard by her Sargent Dojo (who, um, OBVIOUSLY is her "prince.") She eventually becomes the first woman on a super elite squad that has to both be an army fighter, but also an actual librarian. But, over the run of the series, this is far from the only relationship we see (I won't say my favorite, because it develops pretty late and is a bit of a spoiler.)

I love the politics and maneuvering the library forces do. I like the plotline where Kasahara's parents don't know what she does because she knows they won't approve. I love love love Kasahara's roommate, Asako Shibazaki. She's very beautiful and a bit aloof and a lot of people read her as shallow, but she has a lot going on beneath the surface. She's a librarian with some serious hidden talents. I love the way her character develops. (In fact, she might be my favorite character.)

I like that there are cultural end notes to explain things, and several bonus mangas at the end of most volumes to fill in some quiet moments.

The over-the-top melodrama of some of the relationship stuff gets old, but I'm starting to recognize that it's standard for a lot of shoju manga.

Overall though, I LOVE THIS SERIES and am trying to force all my coworkers to read it. (LIBRARIES BUILT AN ARMY TO PROTECT FREEDOM OF ACCESS FROM GOVERNMENT CENSORS. DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDE.)

If I understand Wikipedia correctly, there are 15 total volumes in this series. 13 are out in English now, and the 14th comes out in October. Based on past publication schedules, I'm guessing the 15th will be out next April. My one regret? This is based on a novel series and the source material doesn't seem to be available in English.

Books Provided by... my local library

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Fairest: Return of the Maharaja

Fairest Vol. 3: The Return of the Maharaja Sean E. Williams, Bill Willingham, Stephen Sadowski, Phil Jimenez

Check it out! Prince Charming is alive! And back!

And that’s the best thing I can say about this volume.

After dying in the battle against the adversary, Prince Charming comes back (which we all knew he would eventually, right? He’s much too powerful) but doesn’t want to go back to the mundy and instead becomes a ruler in an Indus fable world. There he meets a woman, Nalayani, who’s come to ask for help. Her village lost all its men to the adversary and is now constantly being attacked by roaming bands and they’re about to be wiped out. Charming is also facing issues as there are those who aren’t fond of having a white foreigner ruling them.*

I do like Nalayani because she’s awesome, but she’s also a new character and not having lived with her for years, I just didn’t care as much about her as I did about Charming or some of the other Fables characters.

Charming… has lost a lot of character growth. When we first met him, he was an arrogant ass, but over the series he had mellowed and matured, but he’s reverted back to all jack-ass charm and lost what made him a deeper, more likeable character.

But here’s my real problem-- the great romances of Fables have all been a slow burn building up through multiple story arcs. If Charming is *finally* going to meet someone for him, someone “better” than Snow or Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty, we need the slow burn. We need to get to know Nalayani, we need to see them get to know each other and fall in love. The whole execution seemed rush and I never bought that Charming liked her more than he likes most awesome women, and Nalayani’s affections seem to turn on a dime. Overall, its was just really disappointing.


*this is problematic, as Charming is set up as the good guy, and those who aren’t into colonization are the bad guys. It's kinda worked out in the end, but ergh. But this whole issue is ergh, so...


Book Provided by... my wallet

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Fairest: Hidden Kingdom

Fairest Vol. 2: Hidden Kingdom Lauren Beukes, Bill Willingham, Inaki Miranda

This is a bit of a jump-back in time from where the main series is. With the “present day” happening in 2002, so the action is pretty firmly at the beginning of the series, with lots of flashback to Rapunzel’s back story.

So, like most fairy tales, Rapunzel has a dark edge that we tend not to retell. In the original, the witch discovers the prince because Rapunzel is pregnant. She casts Rapunzel into the desert where she gives birth to twins. The prince gets tangled in brambles trying to climb the tower, is blinded by the thorns and is also cast into the desert. They all wander around for like 20 years before they find each other, Rapunzel’s tears of joy cure his eyesight and only then do they all live happily-ever-after.

In the Fables world, Frau Tottenkinder is the witch that imprisoned Rapunzel. She casts her out, Rapunzel gives birth, and she’s told her children die during childbirth. She’s always known that they survived and has spent centuries searching for them. At one point, she tries to drown herself but washes up on the shores of a Japanese fable kingdom (named the Hidden Kingdom).

In the present day, she gets a message via attacking crane origami that there is news of her children. She meets up with friends and enemies from her old adopted homeland, and Tokyo’s version of Fabletown where the present is tied with the fall of the Hidden Kingdom to the adversary's forces.

I loved this one. I loved the look at Japanese mythology and fables, how they played in their homeland and how they survive in the modern Mundy world. I liked the old school “present day” with Jack running his schemes, Snow and Bigby in the business office and Frau Tottenkinder doing her thing on the 13th floor of the original building. It was a nice return to the beginning. But more than that, I loved Rapunzel’s story and her strength. We don’t see a lot of her, as she’s not allowed to leave Fabletown because of her hair and she’s been kinda shoved to the side in this series.

There’s also a tantalizing clue about the truth about her daughters, that I don’t believe we’ve seen the answer to yet. (I’m trying to rack my brain, as this happens so far in the past to see if we’ve seen them and not known it, or if they have yet to come up.)

This is my favorite volume in the Fairest spin-off series.

Book Provided by... my wallet

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 9

Volume 1: Freefall Joss Whedon, Georges Jeanty, Karl Moline, Dexter Vines
Volume 2: On Your Own Andrew Chambliss, Georges Jeanty, Cliff Richards, Karl Story
Volume 3: Guarded Andrew Chambliss, Jane Espenson, Drew Z. Greenberg, Georges Jeanty, Karl Moline
Volume 4: Welcome to the Team Andrew Chambliss, Georges Jeanty, Karl Moline
Volume 5: The Core Andrew Chambliss, Georges Jeanty

Ok, I’m just going to review all of Season 9 at once. It makes more sense that way. First off, there are only 5 volumes in Season 9, and that makes me sad.

Buffy’s living in San Francisco, trying to make rent and killing vamps in her spare time. She and Willow have some friction because remember how well Willow reacted to losing her magic in Tibet last season? Yeah, now that all the magic is gone from the world, it’s not easy. There are also major divisions in the slayer army--many were killed at the end of last season, but the ones that weren’t aren’t happy with Buffy for destroying the seed.

CONSEQUENCES. They’re even a bigger deal this season than they were last season. First, off World Without Magic is some seriously bad stuff that they have to learn to live with. I love the fact that Xander can’t uncoil--after years of fighting for his life, he can’t relax into normal life. I mean, I don’t love it, because Xander’s in a bad place and I like Xander, but I think it’s a very real consequence. Willow is having a hard time without magic, but one major character’s very existence is threatened by a world without magic. It’s amazing when it happens, because you don’t see it coming, and when it does, you’re just like “DUH OF COURSE”

A few big bads to deal with--ZOMBIE VAMPIRES (who Xander dubs “zompires”), who are basically feral--not the almost-human vamps we’re used to, and the Siphon, who sucks all special power out of you.

Buffy becomes friends with a cop, and they sometimes work together. An interesting character from the end of Angel shows up at the end. Spike’s around and occasionally we see him in his spaceship IN SPACE, because you know, WHY THE HELL NOT. But mostly importantly SPIKE IS AROUND. I love Spike. Kennedy has a side business of slayer bodyguards and there’s a very cool new slayer and watcher on the scene. A BOY SLAYER. He may not have actual slayer powers, but that’s not going to stop him.

I loved this, and I really loved the new complications they set up, and the new big bad we see coming for Season 10. Which comes out in November (UGH WHY SO FAR AWAY?!) I think with Season 8, sometimes Whedon was like “it’s a comic, I can do ANYTHING” and sometimes he did in ways that were fun, but weren’t necessary and sometimes took away from what makes Buffy work. He reigns that in a lot in Season 9. It’s much more about the characters, and we’re back to really just battling vampires. A new breed of vampires, but it’s back to basics (except for Spike’s spaceship, because… well of course you keep the spaceship?)

Books Provided by... my local library

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Dead is Just a Dream

Dead Is Just a Dream Marlene Perez

Jessica and the other viragos are having a hard time figuring out Nightshade’s most recent run of murders. People are dying with looks of terror on their faces. They can’t figure out a pattern, and there are too many suspects. Is it the new art teacher who specializes in creepy marionettes? What about the landscape artist whose work has suddenly taken a morbid and disturbing tone? Or is it the ghostly horse that runs through town at night? And why does Jessica keep seeing a clown with a mouth of dripping blood outside her window in the middle of the night? To make matters worse, Dominic’s ex-girlfriend is in town and is making no secret of the fact she wants him back.

I love this series. This is a fun installment because it features the return of Daisy. Where she’s been in the periphery of the last few books, she and Jessica team up to solve this mystery, which is hitting really close to home when Sam ends up in an nightmare coma. Also, unlike some of the other mysteries, this one was hard to figure out because there were a lot of likely suspects and no clear pattern.

I like how this series balances paranormal mystery drama and regular high school drama. In addition to Dominic’s ex-girlfriend hanging around, graduation is looming, and Side Effects May Vary is going on tour, all of which make Jessica insecure about their relationship’s future. It manages to balance the different sides of the story with a light town that really works and why this entire series is consistently a delight.

The first printings also have a bonus short-story that works as an epilogue to the whole series (so I think this may sadly be the last one.)


Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.