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tale duology from Elizabeth Lim, main protagonist Shiori is a princess trying desperately to hide the forbidden

intensely disturbing, extended situation involving abuse, neglect, and danger and the blossoming of a forbidden

intensely disturbing, extended situation involving abuse, neglect, and danger and the blossoming of a forbidden

Jenkins Reid Taylor Jenkins Reid's novel offers a dual timeline, immersive Old Hollywood detail, a forbidden

well as introducing a heart-wrenching unrequited love of one woman for another--an attraction that was forbidden

But there is also a refreshing lack of violence beyond fistfight-level conflicts, and the forbidden love

like a mix of the detail and romance of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander books and the angst, emotions, and forbidden

They listen to forbidden music, secretly wear Western clothing, and otherwise rebel in small ways against

I love an astronaut story, and while Reid spent far more page time on relationships than on the astronaut or space aspects, there was plenty of each to go around in this novel that was the perfect book at the perfect time for me. I loved it. To look up at the nighttime sky is to become a part of a long line of people throughout human history who looked above at that same set of stars. It is to witness time unfolding. Joan has always been fascinated by the stars, and as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University, she teaches her passion to college students. On the side, she shows her beloved young niece the sky and serves as a second parent alongside her sometimes-trying single-mother sister. When she sees an ad seeking for the first women scientists to join NASA’s space shuttle program, Joan becomes obsessed with being part of the 1980s training and with becoming one of the first women in space. I love an astronaut story. Reid spends far more page time on the astronaut aspect than the space aspect (and puts far more emphasis on the relationships than on the astronaut aspect). The complicated interpersonal situations added wonderful depth to the complexities of astronauts' training, stresses, competition, and life-and-death goals of entering space. The women's fights to fully be part of a traditionally male-dominated field and the various ways in which they navigated this were particularly captivating to me. The constricting social standards of the 1980s limit Vanessa and Joan's freedom to express their feelings publicly, and this reflection of the real-life times is heartbreaking to read. I adored the love for Joan's niece Frances that draws the in-love couple even more deeply together. The carelessness that partially leads to the crisis in space felt unrealistic to me, and the high drama and gasping reveal regarding the pivotal space scene toward the end could have felt over the top, but as usual, I was putty in Taylor Jenkins Reid's hands, ready to embrace every bit of it. This was exactly the right story for me at the right time, and I hugged it to my chest when I finished, then immediately began telling everyone how much I loved it. More Love for the Author and for Astronaut Stories Taylor Jenkins Reid is also the author of Carrie Soto Is Back , The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo , Malibu Rising , and Daisy Jones & the Six . You might also want to check out these other Bossy reviews of books about astronauts  and space .

The deep bond that builds between an injured Union soldier and the Virginia woman who secretly takes him in is touching and complicated, and Bohjalian doesn't make Libby's dangerous choices feel too easy. The author was inspired by a true story. In Chris Bohjalian's newest historical fiction novel, Libby Steadman lives in Virginia on the edge of the Confederate-Union Civil War conflict.  Her  husband has been away fighting for the Confederacy since soon after they were married, and Libby is warden to her orphaned, strong-willed niece Jubilee. She's also living alongside a hired hand, Joseph, who became a freedman when Libby's husband's family reconsidered their stance on slavery, and his wife Sally. Together the family members work grueling hours milling grain for the Confederacy.  Then Libby finds a gravely injured Union officer in a neighbor’s abandoned home. Because she hopes that a Union woman would take pity on her husband in the same situation, she secretly cares for Weybridge's injuries, realizing that if Confederate soldiers were aware of his presence in her home, the family would be considered traitors. Weybridge begins to bond with each member of the household, but particularly in the case of Libby, a growing friendship adds to an i mpossibly complicated situation. He is married, she is married--although she's becoming more and more certain that her husband has been killed in battle--and Weybridge's mere presence is dangerous to a deadly degree. The decision to take in Weybridge is morally clear to Libby, but the realities of the potential harm it could bring aren't lost on her. Bohjalian never makes the decision-making too easy, and the ending was not the neatly tied-up bow of a resolution I had begun to anticipate. The story is based upon a real account of a Southern woman who helped a Union soldier during the Civil War. I received a prepublication edition of The Jackal's Mistress  courtesy of Doubleday Books and NetGalley. More Chris Bohjalian Love This is Chris Bohjalian’s 25th book. He also wrote Hour of the Witch  and Skeletons at the Feast  (a WWII-set book that I read about 15 years ago and loved). For more Bossy reviews of books set during the Civil War, check out this link .

ICYMI: In Matt Haig's How to Stop Time, main protagonist Tom Hazard lives for centuries but is not allowed to fall in love. When he rejects the rules, he must reckon with mortality, heartbreak, and the meaning and purpose of his extended existence. “That is the whole thing with the future. You don’t know. At some point you have to accept that you don’t know. You have to stop flicking ahead and just concentrate on the page you are on.” In How to Stop Time, Matt Haig explores the beauty and the horror of time as it spools on essentially without end while his characters live through many centuries. Tom Hazard is a high school English teacher. He's also a seemingly 41-year-old man, but he's actually been alive for centuries. The Albatross Society has one rule for its members, all of whom live on and on: never fall in love. So when Tom begins to fall for the French teacher at school, it may renew his faith in the world and in humanity--but it can also only mean trouble. Haig dives into Hazard's wonder at new experiences and his and other characters' perspectives on the world and history, but also the heartbreak of their loneliness and the weight of the constant loss of their beloved “mayflies” (other people, who live such relatively short existences compared to Tom and his fellow Albatross Society members). “It made me lonely. And when I say lonely, I mean the kind of loneliness that howls through you like a desert wind. It wasn't just the loss of people I had known but also the loss of myself. The loss of who I had been when I had been with them.” While I enjoyed main protagonist Tom Hazard’s point of view, which evolves by the close of the story, the shift seemed to come about a little abruptly, so it felt somewhat unsatisfying. The ending felt a little too quickly wrapped up, and I didn’t feel particularly emotionally invested in the book's Big Events. But there were many lovely, lovely moments in How to Stop Time, and I really like Haig's writing style. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Haig is also the author of The Midnight Library and his memoir-ish book that I'm reading now, Reasons to Stay Alive, as well as many others. If you like books that play with time, you might also like the books on the Greedy Reading Lists Six Fascinating Second-Chance, Do-Over, Reliving-Life Stories and Six Riveting Time-Travel Escapes.

The moments of redemption aren’t too easy, and I found the various threads building toward the amazing ending to be satisfying and delightful and messy and wonderful. Rule of Wolves is the second and final book in Bardugo's young adult fantasy King of Scars duology. In book one, King of Scars, Nikolai was a king rebuilding the kingdom of Ravka following a long civil war. Bardugo's story line offered great twists and turns, intrigue, romance, and, as always, characters I loved becoming invested in. (I mentioned the author's Shadow and Bone series in the Greedy Reading List Six Royally Magical Young Adult Series, and I adored her Six of Crows duology even more.) Nikolai, Zoya, and Nina are king, general, and spy, respectively, and when Rule of Wolves picks up with these characters for book two, they're all coping with loss, facing danger, and are bracing for destruction as Fjerda invades Ravka. Large numbers of the magical Grisha are being cruelly exploited for their powers by the ruthless Shu queen, and the horrifically evil Darkling, nebulous shadowy forces, and ruthless leaders threaten the safety, peace, and future for all involved. None of this had been fated; none of it foretold.... They were just the people who had shown up and managed to survive. Practical Zoya struggles with her inconvenient romantic feelings for Nikolai (and vice versa) and begins to come to terms with the mysterious beast taking shape within her. Nina lives out a secret identity as a meek and mild young woman in Fjerda while attempting to uncover military plans and plotting the death of Jarl Brum--while protecting his daughter Hanne, who has become precious to her. Meanwhile, Nikolai is harboring enormous, dark secrets about his bloodline and kingship as well as the dark power within him. Revealing either truth would almost certainly lead to his undoing. I read this rich, almost-600-page story on vacation, and I think my own timing was one reason I found myself getting distracted from the story in a way I didn't while I was reading King of Scars. The page time in Rule of Wolves was more evenly split between different characters--and especially as related to The Darkling, I found this really interesting. However, I have a mild obsession with Nikolai and enjoyed spending more page time in his point of view in King of Scars. Bardugo explores interesting gray areas. Each character grapples with dark monster-like aspects of themselves--and must accept others' various darknesses as well. Fjerdan warmongering and the cruel programs of the Shu are condemned. While Ravka’s retaliatory destruction causes some guilt and regret in those carrying it out, the resulting battles and death seem presented as more necessary and acceptable to a reader who is naturally sympathetic to Ravkan characters' interests. She'd been too afraid to say yes to him, to show him the truth of her longing, to admit that from the first time she'd seen him, she'd known he was the hero of all her aunt's stories, the boy with the golden spirit full of light and hope. The Zoya and Nikolai love-that-must-not-be twists and turns without being melodramatic, but it's exquisitely drawn out. Bardugo provides misogynistic, cruel male characters a reader may love to hate as well as a megalomaniacal, lying queen Makhi. Releasing the physically manipulated khergud army--such a focus of book one--is a motivator for action in Rule of Wolves, but Bardugo also delves into the complicated aftermath, lost futures, and broken spirits resulting from the ruthless program. The moments of redemption in Rule of Wolves aren’t too easy, and I found the various threads building toward the amazing ending to be satisfying and delightful and messy and wonderful. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse is made up of her Shadow and Bone trilogy, the Six of Crows duology, and the King of Crows duology discussed here, which is expected to be the end of the interconnected series. She also wrote The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic, which are twists on folklore, fairy tales, and her own imagined stories that the characters in the Grishaverse might have heard as children; and Ninth House, a book for adults whose story line is not connected to the Grishaverse. The Shadow and Bone Netflix series offers intermingled Grishaverse characters and storylines, and a second season is in the works. I need to begin again after refamiliarizing myself with how the books connect; I was overwhelmed by sorting out the intersections of the books, their characters, and their timelines when I started, but I immediately loved the cast and the visually stunning settings.