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story about outlaws, finding identity, eschewing societal fears and superstition, and belonging; a mystery

Lu layers a fantastical alternate fairy world over a framework of the imagined point of view of Wolfgang Lu layers a fantastical alternate fairy world over a framework of the imagined point of view of Wolfgang

was a twentysomething writer in New York City when she began having odd symptoms, terrible pain, and mysterious

There are mysterious elements at play.

classmates realize, which is just how El wants it--fears she might accidentally take him out before she can master dark humor and unexpected details, and the exchanges between El and Orion (and El and everyone) were fantastic Novik also wrote the fantastic Spinning Silver and Uprooted, both of which appear on the Greedy Reading

And if not, does he have self-mastery to take a loss, stay cool in defeat, and try again undaunted?

Addie wants to see more of the world, to be more in the world, and she is eager to allow for some mystery

extended family--including a stolid patriarch and matriarch, a free-spirited daughter, a spunky and fantastic Cosby This is a fantastic blend of realistic complications, mistakes, adjustments, and spunk.

Maud Dixon offers clever twists and turns and presents interesting gray areas about the roles of hero and villain. A twisty and turny, compelling read. "By its nature, every secret contains the power to destroy something." Florence Darrow is from small-town Florida, and her aspirations for her life are ambitious yet vague. She feels destined for greatness but not necessarily special enough to make the splash she'd like to in the world--at least not yet. When she implodes her publishing career on a destructive whim, then lucks into a position as a personal assistant to the reclusive, anonymous, bestselling author with the pen name of Maud Dixon, Florence can't believe it--everything is starting to fall into place. "Maud" strikes Florence as an oddball genius, and Florence is just trying to soak up all the culture and knowledge she can as she plans to finally write her own bestseller. That is, until it becomes clear that things with Maud--and with Maud's professional and private situation--aren't at all what they seem. During a research trip to Morocco, weighty questions about identity, reality, motives, and events of the past threaten the lives of both women. This book reminded me a little bit of my recent read The Plot, but Maud Dixon had clever twists and turns that I didn't see coming and offers interesting gray areas regarding the roles of hero and villain. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? I need to talk Maud Dixon with someone who's read it! Did you see things going in the direction they did? Did you suspect certain characters of duplicity--and did you believe they would be able to go through with their plans?

Looking for Jane is a story of women living in three timelines who are linked through decades by a mysterious

In this gothic Victorian tale, Waters offers a slow build to heartbreak, twists and double twists, hesitant attempts at love, and, finally, clarity and satisfying revenge. Sue Trinder is a teenage orphan, the daughter of a hanged murderess who tries to live up to her fearless mother's bravery and strength. She's being raised in a household of cheats, thieves, and generally crooked characters. Yet she's been largely sheltered from the evils of the underbelly of Victorian London by her unofficial, doting adoptive mother, Mrs. Sucksby. But when one of their group, Gentleman, comes up with a large-scale con, suddenly the makeshift family's potential fortune depends heavily on Sue. She's asked to play the role of maid to an unassuming, wealthy young woman in a dastardly plot to take the woman's inheritance and leave her to rot in an insane asylum. When Sue meets Maud and begins dressing her, caring for her, and trying to manipulate her into the con, what seemed like a simple plan becomes more complicated and fraught. Meanwhile, Maud's bristly uncle, a strict man of books who has raised his niece primarily to assist him in his research and work, is at the center of a widespread web of debauchery. Maud's unusual upbringing--an emotionally cold life, steeped in lascivious writings--has left her both innocent to the workings of the outside world and also closely acquainted with the details of intimacies with which most young ladies of the time would likely be unfamiliar. Fingersmith is a delightfully dark, often menacing Victorian-era gothic tale. I listened to this as an audiobook, and it was such a slow build, I was both eager for it to ramp up in pacing and very hesitant about finding out where things were going. There's a descent-into-madness aspect that's made more powerful by Waters's measured, sometimes sluggish tempo. I was on the verge of becoming impatient, but Waters masterfully draws out the sinister threads of the story until they're taut and ready to snap, and ultimately I was in for it. I wasn't certain how Waters would resolve the layers of deceit, secrets, and desires for revenge at play here. The story offers heartbreak, twists and double twists, hesitant attempts at unorthodox love (I recall one reader referring to this as "lesbian Dickens," but it wasn't quite that to me), and, finally, clarity and satisfying revenge. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Waters is also the author of Tipping the Velvet, Affinity, and The Night Watch. I'm eager to read these as well. I wasn't as big a fan of Waters's The Paying Guests as I was of Fingersmith.

McLain had me hooked on the vivid Northern California setting, imperfect Anna's rich and rocky history--and her messy road toward a version of personal redemption. Anna is a San Francisco missing persons detective in denial about the fact that her job has overtaken her personal life for years. When she experiences a personal tragedy, she flees to the Northern California of her childhood--a place she's avoided since her teens. She arrives hoping for anonymity and an escape to the woods to grieve and be alone, but she quickly finds out that a young local woman has gone missing. Old friends resurface, pulling Anna out of herself, and when other young girls go missing, the pull of finding the girls is irresistible to her. Minor nitpicks: I wasn't sure Anna would provide parenting advice and hindsight-based tips to Emily at such a fraught time, and I felt like Anna would have been periodically more crushed and paralyzed by her own recent trauma. I love the trope of a reluctant, imperfect hero, and Anna is both. McLain had me completely hooked on the vivid setting, Anna's rich and rocky history, her search for answers--and a messy road toward a version of personal redemption. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? McLain is also the author of Circling the Sun (a captivating account of the real-life Beryl Markham's adventures as an aviator in 1920s Kenya) and The Paris Wife (which somehow I still haven't read). I received a prepublication edition of this book (published today) courtesy of Random House and NetGalley.

The women's lifelong friendship felt like the heart of the story and was a fantastic element. The women's lifelong friendship felt like the heart of the story and was a fantastic element.

For my full review, see Utopia Avenue. 04 Long Bright River by Liz Moore Long Bright River is a mystery disappears and a string of murders rock the community, everyone is suspect and Mickey's desire to solve the mystery The family's vast amount of genetic material--from both those affected by and those free from mental Nonfiction Books I've Read This Year Six Lighter Fiction Stories for Great Escapism Six Historical Fiction Mysteries to Intrigue You Six Illuminating Memoirs I've Read This Year The Six Best Mysteries I Read Last Year

Heard's young adult thriller was a lightning-fast read, and there's a yearning for connection between the two main protagonists that feels real and true. Heard's young adult thriller follows the twists and turns at the intersection of three volatile young people--bored photographer Veronica; her best friend, mischievous performance art rebel Nico; and their new friend, Mick, who hasn't quite found her place in the world outside of being a competitive swimmer. Mick, whose mother is emotionally unavailable (and barely physically present), has a lot to figure out and responsibilities weighing her down, meanwhile Veronica is pushing Mick past her comfort level into vulnerability. The girls fall hard for each other--but they've built their early relationship on lies that could destroy their possibility of true intimacy. With Nico's troublemaking and incessant challenges to the status quo serving as a catalyst for fast-paced changes, everything begins to spiral out of control, threatening the girls' safety and the community around them. Veronica and Mick will have to figure out if they can trust each other with their lives. I loved the girls' young love, but I was haunted by the fact that their relationship seemed doomed because of its basis in lies. Heard allows the teens to make realistically messy mistakes and experience devastating betrayals, but to also bravely try to trust each other again. The stakes quickly ratchet up up up in She's Too Pretty to Burn so that the characters find themselves making life-and-death decisions, and their missteps aren't without serious consequences. This was a lightning-fast read for me, and while the young people's circumstances build to be almost outlandishly complicated and disastrous, Heard presents what feels like a true yearning for connection between the two main protagonists, and that kept me hooked for anything else she threw at me. I was haunted by how Mick's desperate situation and lack of options pushed her to say yes to uncomfortable compromises and take part in things she would likely otherwise have avoided. I received a prepublication edition of this book (published March 30) courtesy of Henry Holt & Company and NetGalley. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? She's Too Pretty to Burn is a fast read and I was in for all of it. Heard is also the author of adult thrillers The Kill Club and Hunting Annabelle, and she co-hosts the Unlikeable Female Characters podcast.

But the books in the series also offer fantastically bratty episodes on the parts of various characters

It features the fantastic characters from book one, and the plot picks up with a new version of the fight

Miranda uses the framework of a famous fictional rescue story to imagine the characters' turmoil and desperate coping mechanisms, crafting a fascinating look at the depths beneath their surfaces. When they say: The girl from Widow Hills, remember? What they were reaching back for weren’t your memories—they were their own. That girl is frozen in time, with her beginning, middle, and end: victim, endurance, triumph. It was a good story. A good feeling. A good ending. Fade to black. As if, when the daily news moved on, and the articles ended, and the conversations turned, it was all over. As if it weren’t just beginning. Arden Maynor was a small child when she sleepwalked into a storm and was washed away. Three days later, she was recovered in a miraculous series of events that ended up with her rescue and removal from a storm drain. "The girl from Widow Hills" was instantly famous and would be forever. Anniversaries of the event, her mother's book about the experience, and a community that wouldn't allow her to forget--all of these drove Arden to move and then move again, eventually changing her name to Olivia, leaving behind her mother--who was slowly destroyed by the fame and relentless attention--and led Olivia to speak of the experience to no one in an attempt to become someone without the yoke of that sensational story. Now Olivia is sleepwalking again, and she can't be entirely sure what she does in the night. Someone from her past has resurfaced, and he could reveal her carefully hidden secrets and ruin everything. When evidence of brutal violence emerges close to home, Olivia wonders if someone is protecting her or possibly seeking some kind of revenge--and if that someone might even be Olivia herself. I found the ending of the book gloriously terrifying. The last few pages felt a little disjointed from the story and odd. But the familiar echoes of a story like "baby Jessica in the well," the media frenzy, and the public's emotional investment were a intriguing framework for Miranda's story. She takes a famous fictional rescue story and imagines the characters' turmoil and desperately cobbled-together coping mechanisms, crafting a fascinating look at the depths beneath. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? My book club heard Miranda talk about this book at a virtual library foundation event in the fall, and she hooked us on the story. She's also the author of All the Missing Girls, which I thought was interesting in its structure (it begins in the present day after a series of disturbing events and works backward in time chapter by chapter), as well as The Perfect Stranger and The Last House Guest. I mentioned this book (along with The Fate of the Tearling and I Was Told It Would Get Easier) in the Greedy Reading List Three Books I'm Reading Now, 2/17/21 Edition.

This was funny, sweet, steamy, and poignant--a fantastic summer light-fiction read that I loved. That book introduced the fantastic best-friend character of Felicity "Fizzy" Chen.

your life, in case you find yourself in the middle of an English Murder Village straight from a quaint mystery

In the nine essays and short stories that make up Festival Days, the fantastic Jo Ann Beard explores

The banter is fantastic, and I laughed many times while reading this one. I listened to Funny Story  as an audiobook (narrated by the fantastic Julia Whelan).

French offers a gloriously unlikely friendship, traces the dangers ricocheting through a sometimes claustrophobic small community, and finally offers answers and a path forward, if not clean and clear resolutions. What do I love more than a Tana French book, a retired detective story, or an Irish setting? Nothing. There is nothing I love more than any of these setups, except all three in one. I saved French's newest book to savor it over the holidays. When The Searcher begins, retired cop Cal Hooper has moved from Chicago, the site of his complicated career, his terrible divorce, and everything he knows, to the peace and quiet of rural Ireland. He's trying to keep his head down, work on his dilapidated house, get an occasional beer at the pub, not get forced into a romantic setup by a busybody neighbor, and adopt a good little mutt. He's got no jurisdiction and isn't interested in carrying any responsibility for police work anymore anyway. But when a skittish young boy with nowhere else to turn asks him for help, Cal finds that he can't refuse. French offers a gloriously unlikely friendship, traces the dangers ricocheting through a sometimes claustrophobic small community, and finally offers answers and a path forward, if not clean and clear resolutions. Any Bossy thoughts on this book? French is the author of six books in the Dublin Murder Squad series: In the Woods, The Likeness (my absolute favorite of hers), Faithful Place, The Trespasser, Broken Harbor, and The Secret Place, plus the stand-alone Witch Elm. I mentioned this book in the Greedy Reading List Three Books I'm Reading Now, 12/22/20.

01 The Searcher by Tana French What do I love more than a Tana French book, a retired detective story, or an Irish setting? Nothing. There is nothing I love more than any of these setups, except all three in one. I've been saving French's newest book because I've had such high hopes that it would be stellar, so my fingers are crossed. Retired cop Cal Hooper moves from Chicago, the site of his complicated career, his terrible divorce, and everything he knows, to the peace and quiet of rural Ireland. He's trying to keep his head down, work on his dilapidated house, get an occasional beer at the pub, not get forced into a romantic setup by a busybody neighbor, and adopt a good little mutt. He's got no jurisdiction and isn't interested in carrying any responsibility for police work anymore anyway. But when a skittish young boy with nowhere else to turn asks him for help, Cal finds that he can't refuse. French is the author of six books in the Dublin Murder Squad series: In the Woods, The Likeness (my absolute favorite of hers), Faithful Place, The Trespasser, Broken Harbor, and The Secret Place, plus the stand-alone Witch Elm. 02 One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus Five loosely linked Bayview High students walk into detention on Monday afternoon, all busted for having phones in class. The phones in question didn't belong to them, so none of them should even be there. But before they can put together the pieces and determine who might have wanted to get them all together in that room, one of them is dead. The gossip site run by the deceased student made him detested and feared. And he was about to publish some juicy, devastating tidbits about each of his detention partners. Did one of them want so desperately to stop him that they would kill to keep him quiet? In this first book in the One of Us Is Lying series, McManus takes us through each of the suspects in their own points of view. I love an unreliable narrator setup like this, and I'm listening to this as an audiobook so I like that I hear each character's voice. I can't wait to find out the big reveal. Also, my teenager already read this and is peppering me with questions about what's happening and what I think is happening, so I need to finish it quickly so we can discuss it. 03 In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren Twentysomething Mae is spending the holidays yet again with her parents' college friends and their families. She's not satisfied in her job, she's unhappily single, she still lives with her parents--and she just kissed the wrong boy, the younger brother of her true obsession. In despair about having had a rotten holiday and about the mistakes she feels she's made, Mae makes a plea to the universe to show her what would truly make her happy. Suddenly she's plunged back in time to begin the holiday anew and try to get things right, Groundhog Day-style. In a Holidaze feels like a romantic holiday read that might be perfect for this pre-Christmas week. I reviewed Lauren's The Unhoneymooners a couple of weeks ago. The author duo also wrote the fun and romantic Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating as well as Love and Other Words and the lovely, lovely Autoboyography. What are you reading now? I'm so excited about each of these books. French's book is starting off really strong, and One of Us Is Lying has me hooked. I'm fighting a little irritation at the moment with some implausible early details in Holidaze, which I sometimes struggle with in lighter fiction. I don't anticipate having any trouble with Mae's being whisked through time, but I do want the early interpersonal setups to feel real and not contrived. I'll report back on all three of these holiday-week reads once I've finished! I hope you're managing some peaceful downtime and time to read something you love.

But Harrow the Ninth also offers fantastically bratty episodes on the parts of various characters; frenzies

Have you read the fantastic Temeraire series by Naomi Novik?

The fantastic blend of feminist sass and clever problem-solving is as evident in this book as it is in

Macintyre also wrote the fantastic Spy and the Traitor, which was one of my Six Favorite Nonfiction Books Fisher is candid, funny, charmingly offbeat, and she's mastered the art of honest self-examination. I love listening to her fantastically raspy voice as she reads her memoir in audiobook form, and I'd

This was funny, sweet, steamy, and poignant--a fantastic summer light-fiction read that I loved. That book introduced the fantastic best-friend character of Felicity "Fizzy" Chen.

Looking for Jane is a story of women living in three timelines who are linked through decades by a mysterious

This memoir is fantastic. I ate it up in a single day.

This book is on my Greedy Reading List Six Fantastic Dystopian and Postapocalyptic Novels.

Return of the Thief is the sixth and final book in Turner's fantastic Queen's Thief series.

Kate Quinn is a master of historical fiction and is the author of the fantastic titles The Huntress,

You're all fantastic enablers for my terrifically greedy reading habits and for the sharing of my various

a black student from Washington, DC, finds herself involved in unraveling a complicated historical mystery

Lee's detail is just fantastic in terms of Green's emotions, hopes, dreams, everyday life at the time

Fisher is candid, funny, charmingly offbeat, and she's mastered the art of honest self-examination. I loved listening to her fantastically raspy voice as she read her memoir in audiobook form, and I'd

societal expectations for women, great adventure, strong female loyalty and friendship, love, and lots of fantastic

extended family--including a stolid patriarch and matriarch, a free-spirited daughter, a spunky and fantastic Cosby This is a fantastic blend of realistic complications, mistakes, adjustments, and spunk.

01 Our Woman in Moscow by Beatriz Williams Williams's historical fiction mystery--based on real-life

Professor Lyall is one of my favorite characters, as is Lord Akeldama, a fantastic, over-the-top, preternaturally

For other great young adult books, you might try the titles on the Greedy Reading List Six Fantastic

Both of these books are listed in my Greedy Reading List of Six Fantastic Dystopian and Postapocalyptic

In this science fiction novel, Mandel plays with time and time travel as well as mysteries surrounding

The dark humor was fantastic.

extended family--including a stolid patriarch and matriarch, a free-spirited daughter, a spunky and fantastic

Keefe Patrick Radden Keefe, a journalist with an Irish name but without a dog in this particular fight, fantastically Listening to Stevenson narrate the audiobook was fantastic. Significant scientific advancements regarding mental illness were made possible because of the genetic material

Notice, Browder traces his path from Wall Street to the Soviet Union after its breakup--and the crimes, mysteries

(Actually, I listened to this as an audiobook, and the narrator Blair Brown was fantastic.)