4 1/2 Stars - The Irresponsible Reader

DETAILS:
Publisher: Mira Books
Publication Date: January 30, 2024
Format: Hardcover
Length: 346 pg.
Read Date: February 14-17, 2024

…it’s never changed. Nothing does.” Their eyes met, a sudden weariness to his pupils. “Except me.”

“And now me.”

“Yeah. It’s…” he bit his lip “…nice to not be alone. Everyone’s living their lives, and I’m just here.” He turned, the light catching his eyes enough to show a glisten. “It’s almost like playing a video game. You can do a few things differently, but everyone just returns back to start. You can scream and yell at the world, but everything snaps back. No one is aware. They just resume their lives. And then it repeats.” He bit his lip again, eyes scrunched as he shook his head. “It just repeats. Nothing matters. Nothing changes.”

What’s The Jacket Copy Say?

I’ve spent a month tossing out my summaries of the plot/setup to the book. I give up—I either make this bland (and that’s a crime), I get too detailed in trying to describe something (another crime, I’m dull at it, and Chen’s not), or it’s so sketchy on details that it’s pointless. So, let’s turn it over to the professionals:

Grieving her best friend’s recent death, neuroscientist Mariana Pineda’s ready fo give up everything to start anew, even her career—after one last week consulting at a top secref particle accelerator.

Except the strangest thing happens: a man stops her…and claims they’ve met before. Carter Cho knows who she is, why she’s mourning, why she’s there. And he needs Mariana to remember everything he’s saying.

Because time is about to loop.

In a flash of energy, it’s Monday morning. Again. Together, Mariana and Carter enter an inevitable life, four days at a time, over and over, without permanence except for what they share. With everything resetting—even bank accounts—joy comes in the little moments: a delicious (and expensive) meal, the purr of a tiny cat, a tennis match, giving a dog his favorite treat.

In some ways, those are all that matter.

But just as they figure out this new life, everything changes. Because Carter’s memories of the time loop are slowly disappearing, And their only chance at happiness Is breaking out of the loop—forever.

The Everyday Lifeness of it All

Mariana is not good at living in the day-to-day. She’s always been goal-driven, more focused on her dreams and plans and how to achieve them than about enjoying the journey. Her friend’s death has rattled her, yes, but she’s still essentially the same.

Carter, on the other hand, is great at living in the moment. Sure, he was (and could be again) good at the goal-driven life, too—but he chose a path his parents didn’t choose for him. He’s able to get Mariana to stop and smell the metaphorical roses–as well as the literal food in front of her. He shows her how to enjoy a good meal for the sake of a good meal, to take pleasure in the little things—not just to consume enough fuel to keep her going.

In the midst of trying to figure out what caused the time loop, what the effects of that flash of energy that sends them back to Monday are on the rest of the world, and how to stop it all, a real friendship develops—Carter and Mariana bringing out the best in each other.

The Groundhog Day/Time Travel

Now, if Chen’s Here and Now and Then taught us anything, it’s that Chen can write good Time Travel fiction—he gets the strengths and weaknesses of the ideas, the pitfalls to avoid, the way to keep it compelling. Adding in a Groundhog Day-like twist doesn’t change that, it just makes it better (and keeps this from being just a variation on his first novel).

This is a different kind of Time Travel than his previous book—and (as always) Chen gives us just enough of the science to make it believable, but not so much that you could go out and test it (or pick it to death in the details). The Time Travel aspect is important, but it’s not the core of the novel—that’s the stuff I talked about before.

What I personally found fascinating is how close Chen’s science-ish Time Travel resembled Gareth Brown’s magic-ish Time Travel, both in how it works and how it’s used. Two very different novels, with very different goals—but the overlap is fascinating. (at least to me)

So, what did I think about A Quantum Love Story?

I probably grinned through most of this book—particularly after the first loop for Mariana. I absolutely loved the friendship between the two—and then when it started to become more (not a spoiler, it’s literally the title), I was fully on board.

Chen was at his best here with his character design (the whole backstory about Mariana and her dead friend was so good…the kind of thing that other writers would devote a whole novel to) and the plot of the novel was even better. The best material happens so late that I don’t even know how to tell you about it without spoilers abounding—so I’ll be vague, once Carter’s memories start going, what was a great, heart-warming yet strange story becomes a dynamite emotionally-rich story with some of crazy turns.

No surprise for anyone who’s ever heard me talk about Mike Chen novels for the past six years—I strongly recommend that you pick this up. It’ll be one of those novels you relish and think about fondly for a long time to come.

4 1/2 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.
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Empowered Witness: Politics, Culture, and the Spiritual Mission of the Church by Alan D. Strange: A Case Study and a Call to Act

By HCNewton

On March 24, 2024

In History, Non-Fiction, Politics/Current Affairs, Theology/Christian Living

Empowered Witness:
Politics, Culture, and the
Spiritual Mission of the Church

by Alan D. Strange

DETAILS: 
Publisher: Crossway
Publication Date: February 13, 2024
Format: Paperback
Length: 127 pg.
Read Date: February 11-18, 2024

The church is not presented in the Bible as simply another voice in the competing cacophony of shouted slogans but rather that still small voice that testifies to what God has done for us in Christ, that he so loved the world that he gave Christ to die for it, so that all who believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). This is the message of the church, and to reduce it to a mere political agenda is to sell short the glory of the gospel. The Christian faith is not, at its heart, a political message but a spiritual one. A doctrine of the spirituality of the church, properly conceived, holds fast to this thrust and permits the church to maintain fidelity to the Christian message while keeping in check any address that it might consider necessary respecting matters in the civil and political sphere.

What’s Empowered Witness About?

This is one of those books where if I’m not careful I’m going to end up restating and interacting with the entire argument of the book. So we’re going to be careful…

The Publisher’s site says:

Rediscovering the Spirituality of the Church in Our Highly Politicized Age

The goal of the church should be simple—share the gospel to the ends of the earth. But in our highly politicized age, Christians can tend to place earthly political and social agendas over God’s spiritual mission of the church.

In Empowered Witness, author Alan D. Strange examines the doctrine of the spirituality of the church, making a clear distinction between the functions of the church and other institutions. Strange argues that if the church continues to push political agendas, no institution will be focused solely on the Great Commission and the gospel will be lost entirely. This book calls readers to become aware of the church’s power and limits and shed light on moral issues in a way that doesn’t alter the deeply spiritual and gospel-centered mission of the church.

The Doctrine Under Consideration

This quotation from Charles Hodge offers a good (yet partial) definition:

It is the doctrine of the Scriptures and of the Presbyterian Church, that the kingdom of Christ is not of this world; that it is not subject as to faith, worship, or discipline, to the authority of the state; and that it has no right to interfere with the state, or give ecclesiastical judgment in matters pertaining to state policy.

The Spirituality of the Church focuses on the Church’s Spiritual Mission—to proclaim the gospel and help change the lives of believers—and calls the church to remember that’s her mission and to keep her from becoming entangled with or too immersed in the concerns of this world, with the power/goals of the State, and so on.

This doesn’t mean that the Church cannot—ought not—speak to the culture or State as it regards morality or spiritual issues, but it ought not get into the details of the political realities or functions.

The Structure of the Book

Let me just show you the Table of Contents first,

Chapter 1: The Doctrine of the Spirituality of the Church
Chapter 2: Slavery and the Spirituality of the Church
Chapter 3: The Spirituality of the Church Preceding the US Civil War
Chapter 4: The Spirituality of the Church and the General Assemblies of 1862–1865
Chapter 5: The Southern Church and the Reunion of the Northern Church
Chapter 6: The Spirituality of the Church and Politics Today

As you can see, the bulk of the book focuses on the middle of the Nineteenth Century and the Church (primarily the Presbyterian Church in the US)—and Charles Hodge was one of the leading voices and thinkers of the time. The book uses Hodge (and others to lesser extents) as a case study to see how this doctrine can be applied. Strange calls the story of the Presbyterian Church of the 1800s a “great cautionary tale”—you will not see a lot of hero-worship here. The Church didn’t live up to her calling, but we today can learn from their failings.

Strikingly, many of those who differed with and opposed Hodge (or that he differed with and opposed) held to the same doctrine. One of the strengths of Chapters 2-5 is that we see that this isn’t a “magic bullet” ensuring unity amongst believers that we can use to get the world/governments to do the things we want.

So, what did I think about Empowered Witness?

Every decision that the church as church takes needs to be justified in the light of the spirituality of the church, answering positively a question like “Does this advance the true spiritual task/calling/mission of the church?” Endorsing a political candidate and taking a position on a tax bill arguably does not pertain to or advance the cause of the gospel…

Saying this, though, does not remove the difficulty of defining what is spiritual vis-a-vis what is more purely political. One mans “purely political” may be another man’s “civil consequences of a proper spirituality.” Nothing will save us from the debate over whether a matter pertains to the proper spirituality of the church or falls under the more purely political items that should not concern the church. And there are those on both left and right, particularly hard-liners, who see everything as political, so that all political issues are moral and all moral issues are purely political.

This is not the book I expected from the description or even the title. This is both a complaint and a reaction. However, the book’s concept is probably a better idea than what I expected.

So rather than a purely theoretical or scholarly presentation and analysis of The Spirituality of the Church, or one looking at how to address contemporary issues, controversies, and discussions from that point of view—we get a look at how historical figures dealt with it. This allows the reader to see examples of the application of the doctrine to the real world (avoiding the problems of the first strategy) or distracting readers who may differ from the author when it comes to contemporary issues (avoiding problems of the second strategy). So by focusing on historical figures approaching a topic that most readers are familiar with, and are (likely?) largely settled about the events and how things played out, we can see how the various figures applied the doctrine without getting too worked up or distracted.

This also allows Strange to be critical of every figure he talked about when necessary—historical distance can be helpful.

I’ve seen a some mild criticism of Strange’s descriptions of the positions of James Thornwell and Stuart Robinson in distinction from Hodge—but they were mild (and the person who made those criticisms was largely positive toward the book otherwise). And I imagine there are some who’d want to pick a little on his depiction of Hodge and his position, too. But no one is going to challenge Strange’s grasp on the overall discussions and positions—this is an area he’s devoted years to and it shows.

Nor does this book try to answer every question, address every angle or objection—it’s the beginning of a consideration, an invitation to a conversation—one that each reader should have with those around them.

I ended up relishing the experience of reading this book and gleaned so much from it—and I really want to read the dissertation this was based on now (a healthy TBR stack is all that’s preventing me from jumping on it now). Chapter 1, “The Doctrine of the Spirituality of the Church” (with the introduction) and Chapter 6, “The Spirituality of the Church and Politics Today” serve as good bookends, ensuring that this isn’t just a historical discussion, but one that’s vital to readers and believers today—without being so expansive or long that Strange will put off readers who differ from him.

The more I think about this book, the more I like it. I’ve spent more time talking about it with others than I do most books—and have ended up chewing on it more after those conversations—the more time you spend with Strange, Hodge, and those events/ideas under consideration, the greater your appreciation is likely to be. Empowered Witness is an easy (enough) read, but deals with thought-provoking topics in a thoughtful way, so you’re not going to race through this. You’re going to walk away from this impressed with the Nineteenth Century figures (even if you were already appreciative with them) and wondering where you can read more people like them. Strange has done us a service with this book, and hopefully, it bears good fruit.

4 1/2 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.
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PUB DAY REPOST: Strong Like You by T. L. Simpson: Love And Hate On The Edge Of A Knife

By HCNewton

On March 12, 2024

In Fiction, General Fiction/Literature, YA/MG/Children's Books

Strong Like You

by T. L. Simpson

DETAILS:
Publisher: Flux
Publication Date: March 12, 2024
Format: eARC
Length: 224
Read Date: March 1, 2024

What’s Strong Like You About?

Walker Lauderdale is a high school sophomore and a starter for his small Arkansas high school’s football team. He and his cousin/best friend/might as well be brother Sawyer are fierce players for the defense (and we see that almost instantly). This should be the best time in his young life—but there’s something wrong.

His dad has been missing for a month. He’s not there to watch his first game. He’s not there to burst with pride, to offer advice, or to cheer from the stands. He’s just…gone. Walker’s dad and Sawyer’s dad (also best friends and teammates on the same high school team before marrying sisters) took off one night and haven’t returned. The two boys are certain they’ll be back any time—they’re frequently checking the bleachers to see their fathers up there.

The book is an extended monologue—or a series of them. Technically, an apostrophe, but let’s stick with monologue. Walker is addressing his father—catching him up on the turmoil and victories he’s missing, the hurt Walker feels because of his absence, and how he’s trying to make things work until his dad comes back. The grief, loss, and anger jump off the page.

Walker’s dad isn’t a great one, either, it should be stressed. Rarely employed, his income is largely illegal and irregular. Both missing fathers are abusive to their wives and sons. But in the way that we all can recognize, the boys are just that much more devoted to them because of it—making their dads proud is a chief aim of theirs.

Walker becomes determined to go look for his dad—which involves starting with the man his dad and uncle were last seen with—a truly frightening and violent man. Sawyer tries to dissuade him, but that just makes Walker even more certain that he needs to act.

But does he truly want to find the answers he’s seeking?

Learning About Guns

Walker—like so many people in the U.S.—appreciates guns. He’s quick to grab a pellet gun to (try to) chase away his uncle. But his cousin Sawyer? Sawyer is a nut for guns, he has magazines about them all over his room. At some point, Sawyer comes across a pistol (and somehow gets money for many bullets for it—or at least acquires them). There’s a big difference between a pellet gun and a Colt 1911, and it doesn’t take long for Walker to start learning about them.

Not what you learn in video games/TV, not what Sawyer’s survival mags teach, or anything like that. But about the reality of them—how they can invite violence, how holding one affects you, what destruction they can bring even without trying. There’s no pro-/anti- gun message at work here. No lessons or sermons were delivered. But the reality of what a gun can do to a person, a situation, or an attitude is presented in stark reality. I’d say it’s easily one of the best things about this book, but if I started listing the best things about this book, we’d be here for a long time.

Anger

Walker and Sawyer are angry young men—it’s simmering right below the surface, and comes out at inopportune times. Although, it does sometimes come out when it should*—and we see an example of that in the opening minutes of their first game of the year.

* Arguably, anyway. Their coach and teammates would say it’s appropriate.

There are plenty of reasons for them to be so angry—even before their fathers abandoned them. The more time you spend with them—Walker in particular—you see just how many reasons he has. It’s part of what his parents have passed down to him, part of the example they’ve set and the environment he’s been raised in.

The guy his father and uncle runs with, Lukas Fisher, has another kind of anger inside him—and he doesn’t hesitate to express it—where Walker’s parents shape him by their anger, Lukas “trains” his pit bull with his.* While we can see a little constructive use of anger, we can see some people who are angry due to circumstance and situations—but Lukas? He seems to revel in it, maybe even feeds on anger.

* This is off-point, but Simpson’s description of the dog’s barking was both wonderfully accurate and a bit of a tension breaker.

But back to Walker, it’s his anger that lands him in weekly sessions with the school counselor before the book begins. This counselor is one of the few who seem to look beyond Walker’s attitude, his anger, his disinterest in education, and his abilities on the football field. It’s unclear how Walker will respond to him—or even if he can respond to this man appropriately. But it’s a rare example of how his anger just might put him in the right place.

The Meaning of Manhood/Strength

Walker’s primary concern at the beginning of the book is to be strong—strong, as the title says, like his dad. For him, strength equals control. Control over your life, your circumstances, your choices—it’s also tied into how to fix things. How to make things better.

Yes, it absolutely is about physical strength first and foremost, but it’s about more than that, too. For a character presented as not that intelligent (Walker would say worse than that about himself), he’s really perceptive. He’s spent more time than many—probably even he—realizes thinking about the nature of strength.

Ultimately, this is what being a man is for Walker (and Sawyer, too)—maybe even Hank and Rufus, too. Walker sees Hank as strong—physically, emotionally, and mentally. This is what he aspires to—for himself, for his mother, and possibly even for Hank. If Walker gets to be strong enough—on and off the football field—he can make Hank and his mom proud. He can make their lives better, fixing those things that need fixing (that his father never gets around to fixing, despite Walker’s deep-seated conviction that he could and will).

Over the course of this book, this understanding of what manhood means and what strength means are seen in light of that anger mentioned above. One of the bigger questions of the novel surrounds Walker and Sawyer—as they navigate toward adulthood/maturity, what will win out? Strength or anger? What kind of men will they be?

The Love Story

Okay…after a few attempts, I realize that I cannot say anything about this without a spoiler. All I will say is that it’s perfectly conceived, perfectly executed, and just what this book needed it to be.

So, what did I think about Strong Like You?

I have several more things I wanted to talk about—but this is too long, and almost two days behind schedule (it’s at least 6 hours after I normally post something). What’s worse, every time I start writing “just one more thing,” I think of two more. So I’m bringing this in for a landing, and I may bounce around a little bit here.

I do not even like football—why do I keep reading books featuring it? Okay, I live in the USA and it’s pretty hard to escape, that’s a large part of it, but still… There’s a large part of me that doesn’t care as long as it’s a book like this one. And sure, he’s talking about a different game entirely, but Walker would agree with Dani Rojas—”Football is life!” He thinks in football terms and metaphors, he can’t explain to someone why he loves football—he can’t even understand why that person doesn’t like football, it’s like telling him that they don’t like to breathe. Most of the time, Simpson doesn’t have Walker or Sawyer tell us this, they just live this. The way he does this alone tells me that Simpson is someone to watch (or, I suppose, he thinks the same way as Walker does and it’s coming out organically—but I don’t think so)

I really should spend a lot of time talking about Walker’s guidance counselor and the arc of their relationship, there’s so much about Simpson’s work here that should be commended. There’s also this strange little tangent featuring a recent graduate of Walker’s high school and his little sisters that tells us more about Walker than anything except his attitude toward football—who he really is, not who he thinks he needs to be.

You don’t have to read very far before you know a couple of things—1. despite his conviction—or at least the conviction he voices—things are not going to go the way he anticipates, and that rough times are ahead for Walker; and 2. you are not going to want to put this book down until you reach the last page. I glanced at the first couple of pages to make sure it downloaded correctly and had to walk away from my Kindle, because I had multiple other deadlines and I knew if I didn’t do that, I’d finish the book before I did anything else. I can’t describe it, but there’s something about Walker’s voice, the way he’s talking to that father that isn’t there that just grabs you.

I’m not entirely satisfied with the way the novel ended. I liked the resolution to the various stories, let me be clear. But I feel like I could see Simpson’s not-so-Invisible Hand working to get some of the resolutions to work out the way they did. I like the way the storylines ended up, so I’m not going to complain too much. And since it was only in the closing pages that I thought about maybe criticizing something in the book, Simpson earned a little authorial heavy-handedness.

This is a real winner—Strong Like You shares so much DNA with Eli Cranor’s Don’t Know Tough (but is not a copy in any way) and even hearkens back to Early Autumn by Robert B. Parker. And anytime a book can make me compare it favorably with those two knockouts, I’m going to put it down as pure joy.

If you’re someone who gets hung up on the YA tag, push “Pause” on that for 224 pages. This is a book that deserves a fair shake and many, many readers—Simpson’s debut is as strong as Walker hopes to be.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from North Star Editions via NetGalley—thanks to both for this.

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.

Rift in the Soul by Faith Hunter: Everything Changes

By HCNewton

On March 8, 2024

In Book Tour, Faith Hunter, Fiction, Jane Yellowrock/Soulwood, Urban Fantasy

Sorry this is so late in the day…it’s been, well, a day. But now it’s time to wrap up this Tour Stop for Hunter’s Rift in the Soul.

Rift in the Soul

by Faith Hunter

DETAILS:
Series: Soulwood, #6
Publisher: Ace Books
Publication Date: March 5, 2024
Format: eARC
Length: 382 pg.
Read Date: February 26-29, 2024

What’s Rift in the Soul About?

As is so often the case with books in this series, there’s a lot going on–issues with Nell and her powers, Nell and her sisters/pets/family, and some sort of supernatural-based crime for starters. So this isn’t going to be exhaustive (I hopefully never am, but I felt like I should say that here).

Nell is summoned to appear before Ming of Glass, the vampire Master of the City. They’ve had an interesting relationship in the past, and from the moment the two encounter each other in these pages you know things are going to be much more so. Because this book happens after the events of Final Heir and Ming and her vampires aren’t quite like they were last time Nell crossed paths with them.

There’s a body on Ming’s land that she wants Nell to take away and investigate. Her people aren’t responsible for the death–and none of them understand it. As it’s on Ming’s property, it’s a PsyLED problem.

Before PsyLED can do anything about it, Nell catches the attention of vampires that aren’t associated with Ming. And…I don’t know what else to say about that beyond, drama, violence, and other tense nouns ensue.

Oh, and in the middle of all this, Nell has to prepare for Christmas with her expanding family and a wedding. Because even for a PsyLED Special Agent, there’s more to life than just ancient vampires on the hunt.

The Jane Yellowrock Ripples

I may spill a bit more from the end of the Yellowrock books than people who haven’t finished might like. If that’s you, read this next paragraph and then skip to the next heading, okay?

As I’ve said frequently when it comes to this series–if you haven’t read the Jane Yellowrock books that it spun off from, you’re going to be okay. You have all the information you need in the Soulwood books. However, if you have read both, you’re going to get a lot more from the series.

Boy howdy, is that true here. Yes, it seemed like almost everything got resolved and wrapped up in a pretty little bow at the end of the Yellowrock series. Buuuut…there were enough things dangling to make it seem realistic and maybe allow for short stories from those characters and so on–or, for Soulwood to pick them up and do something with them.

For example–is everything peachy keen in the vampire world now? Is everyone getting along? (I think we know the answer to that) What does it mean for vampires to have their souls back? That’s a bigger question than this book can really answer, but we get a peek into the answers.

There are some other things, too–but you should find those out for yourself.

I found this aspect of the novel very satisfying and it scratched an itch I didn’t realize I had. We don’t see Jane or hear from her directly. But we get to hear a vague update on her and a couple of familiar names pop up to help out here.

The Vampire Tree/The Green Knight/Soulwood

Every time we readers–or Nell–seem to think we all have reached some solid conclusions about Nell’s abilities and her land, Hunter comes along, shakes her head at our naiveté, and shows us how little we actually get.

This is all the clearer when it comes to The Vampire Tree and The Green Knight persona. As both seem to be developing and evolving, it’s understandable that we (readers andNell) keep being surprised. It’s also kind of nice that we can’t get complacent. Nell was rocked by some of what she experiences in this book–and, reader, you will be, too. You will almost certainly want more details–like 4+ bonus chapters just about these things (you’ll know them when you see them), and will likely have a couple of dozen questions to ask Nell and/or Hunter.

But wait, there’s more. We get to see the way that Mud and Esther connect to all this–and it is not precisely the same way that Nell does.

Fans are going to sink their teeth and/or claws into this aspect of the book–and might not care that much about the plot in contrast to this. Well, that might be overstating it–but many fans would be content to hit “pause” on the action for a bit to focus on it.

Speaking of things that we readers think we understand…

As one would expect, things (outside of Nell’s personal life) bring us back to God’s Cloud of Glory Church/cult/compound. We end up circling back to events of Blood of the Earth and Curse on the Land in troubling ways. This leads Nell to rethink some of the theories and conclusions she reached back then, and to ask uncomfortable questions.

It’s only when you get a series to this kind of length that it becomes this rewarding to come back and take a second look at things like this (sorry for the vagueness). But in the light of these new circumstances, it’s good that we readers and Nell get that second look. It really pays off.

I wouldn’t mind a little less from this group in the future, but I don’t know if that’s possible given the way this series has been build. (at the same time, I don’t mind seeing them, I’m just worried that it’s becoming a rut)

So, what did I think about Rift in the Soul?

I don’t want to overstate this, but I’m not sure how I could. Nor am I going to explain this. No future Soulwood book is going to be like the ones that came before this one. Yes, yes, yes–the crimes, the monsters, the magic in each is a different kind of problem. But beyond all that, there’s a lot to each of these books that take on similar shapes, and patterns–just in the characters, but outside that, too. That all changes here.

And it’s a good thing–as comfortable as it is to watch the same set of investigators run down leads, do some magic, shift into wereforms/other shifts, and so on. A good, healthy series grows and develops–like, a garden or a forest (golly, why would someone think in botanical terms when it comes to this series?).

Rift in the Soul acts as a pivot point, or maybe a stepping stone between versions of these two (let’s go with a stepping stone, so I don’t have to keep hearing Ross Geller yell “PIVOT!” in the back of my mind). There are some hellos, some goodbyes, some…”huh, that’s new.” (some of which I alluded to above, a lot I haven’t). This novel acts as a cap and a launching pad at the same time for the series.

It’s tough to consider this book without reference to that, honestly, because so much of the warp and woof of the novel is that. But let’s try: you’ve got some solid vampire action, you’ve got strange vampire action, too. Some great action scenes. Good, strong character development. Solid emotional beats that are well-executed and earned. Things might not be the same soon, but for now, this is a good time with your group of friends.

Obviously, I don’t recommend this as a jumping-on point for the series, but it would be okay if you decided to. (but don’t, go back to the beginning). I think you’ll like the time in this world. But for people who’ve been with Nell and her team/work family/blood family since the beginning? You’re going to walk away very pleased.

Oh, one last note before I go: Faith Hunter/Publishers: Mud deserves at least a solo-novella. You’ve got something great here, use it. (unless you wanted to team her up with Jane Yellowrock’s Angie)

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.

My thanks to Psst…Promotions for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials (including the book via NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group) they provided.

Strong Like You by T. L. Simpson: Love And Hate On The Edge Of A Knife

By HCNewton

On March 5, 2024

In Fiction, General Fiction/Literature, YA/MG/Children's Books

Strong Like You

by T. L. Simpson

DETAILS:
Publisher: Flux
Publication Date: March 12, 2024
Format: eARC
Length: 224
Read Date: March 1, 2024