Set in 2022 Ukraine as war begins to break out, this oddball, zigzagging story explores broad themes of interconnectedness as well as revenge fantasies made real and renegade ecology preservation. With dark humor and sobering truths, Reva presents it all through the lens of the scruffy Ukrainian marriage industry. It's 2022, and roving, passionate scientist Yeva is only dating in the Ukrainian marriage industry to earn money to rescue and preserve her precious snails. After a

Book two of the series sees our septuagenarian characters each trekking their own paths while working cooperatively to solve a new mystery. They show vulnerability and strength, use their instincts and smarts to outsmart criminals, and grow. I laughed while listening to this one; Osman's series has me hooked. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim are septuagenarians feeling let down after the thrills, danger, and success of their first solved mystery (related in The Thursday Murd

Elston's first adult novel ticked all of my mystery-reading boxes: a con artist, fake identity, dangerous boss, complicated mark, trusty sidekick, clever maneuvering, and non-manipulative twists. I can't wait to read her next mystery. Evie Porter is embracing her current fake identity and getting closer to her mark Ryan--who she's lured into being her boyfriend. Now she awaits her mysterious boss Mr. Smith's instructions about the information he needs her to obtain to take do

Seth Haddon's slim science fiction debut offers action and a risky space quest, revenge, and love, but it's also a poignant, lovely story about being seen for your true self, being vulnerable, and thinking beyond traditional standards. Wylla's ship has seen better days, and she's desperate for a break. When she catches wind of a valuable, mysterious piece of technology on another planet, she banks on her wiliness and speed to beat other treasure hunters to it. Wylla's own mas

Bunny begins with an outcast main protagonist in a MFA program who's infuriated by her twee fellow seminar students. It builds into an increasingly unhinged, intriguing phantasmagoria, equal parts dark nightmare and outrageously silly absurdity. I was intrigued by the sound of We Love You, Bunny , the sequel to Mona Awad's novel Bunny , so I went back to first read this book. Samantha is a scholarship MFA student at the progressive Warren University in New England. An outside

Saunders's strange, fascinating novel involves griping, sniping characters in limbo between life and death near the start of the Civil War, often in denial about their circumstances, with Abraham Lincoln's young son Willie at the center of a struggle for control of his soul. “Only then (nearly out the door, so to speak) did I realize how unspeakably beautiful all of this was, how precisely engineered for our pleasure, and saw that I was on the brink of squandering a wondrous