Book: "The Flatshare", Beth O'Leary

I heard about this book from a review by skygiants and it sounded like a surprisingly close fit to my current tastes. (Genre-guaranteed happy ending! Nice people figuring out how to be nice to each other!) My library had a physical copy on the shelf, so I checked it out. I wasn't sure when I'd actually read it -- I've been trying to poke along some of my own writing, and competing narratives often tank such efforts -- but yesterday my laptop died. So I ... read a book in a fit of pique. What is my brain.

Anyway: I really liked it! That review by skygiants does a far better job than I ever could of explaining the book, so please consider that post incorporated by reference here.

For the bits that are my own personal take: ( Details within ... )

Anyway: Slow start for me, but ultimately highly enjoyable. Recommended.

Book: "Paladin's Hope", T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon)

This review is a bit hazy because I read this book within a day of its release to Patreon but never posted about it. This is one of Vernon's paladin romances; I've enjoyed the series and I enjoyed this installment.

( Details ... )

Ultimately, the formula is starting to feel a little constraining, and I liked the prior works a bit better, but I still liked this one. Recommended.