Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Length: 4 hours and 25 minutes
Publisher: Sittin’ on a Goldmine Productions LLC
Release Date: November 05, 2021
ASIN: B09L55TBDK
Stand Alone or Series: 6th volume in the Mitzy Moon Mysteries series
Source: Audiobook from Audible
Rating: 4/5 stars

“Mitzy Moon struggles to put snooping on the back burner and help launch the Duncan Restorative Justice Foundation. But her good-girl routine leaves the station after a deputy crashes the Grand Opening with a search warrant. And she’s full-steam ahead on the case when she discovers her father’s railroad is the target for a heist.

Never one to play it safe, Mitzy blatantly ignores the warnings of her entitled feline and risks everything. She even cons her interfering Ghost-ma into helping her with an alarming undercover plan. And now she promises just a few more shifts at the seedy roadhouse and she’ll have the crooks stopped in their tracks.

Can Mitzy pull off the double cross of a lifetime, or will more than her investigation be derailed?”

Series Info/Source: This is the 6th volume in the Mitzy Moon Mysteries series. I got this on audiobook from Audible to read.

Thoughts: This was an entertaining and well-done installment in the Mitzy Moon series. While these books don’t really “wow” me, they are fun little diversions. I originally started this series because I wanted an audiobook to listen to during a regular 6 hr (round trip) car trip I need to do monthly. These are the perfect length to get done during that commute. I think this was my favorite book in this series yet. I really liked seeing Mitzy and Sheriff “too hot to handle” Erick starting to work together on cases.

Mitzy is trying to be a dutiful daughter and support her father during the launch of the Duncan Restorative Justice Foundation. Then Sheriff Erick shows up with a warrant! Mitzy’s father’s railroad is being targeted by a ring of thieves. Mitzy decides to go undercover at a seedy bar to help sort out the truth.

All of our favorite characters are in the story, I really enjoyed watching Mitzy continue to mature. I enjoyed even more watching her and Erick finally start to work together on cases. When poor Piwackett injures himself bringing Mitzy of piece of evidence, I was happy to see that Mitzy finally took Piwacket seriously and paid attention to his efforts!

I listened to this on audiobook and it is well done. The narrator does character voices well and consistently, and it’s fun to listen to. This book is an easy one to listen to while driving. I don’t have to pay attention too hard and there is some humor and fun.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I thought this was the best book in the Mitzy Moon series so far. I continue to enjoy the town of Pincherry Harbor and enjoy watching Mitzy find a place she can call home. I love that people are finally starting to accept Mitzy’s detective abilities and pulling her into cases. It was fun to watch her and Erick work together. If you are looking for a light-hearted novella paranormal mystery series, this is a decent one. It takes a few books to get moving, but once it does, it is a lot of fun.

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy
Length: 766 pages
Publisher: Dandy House
Release Date: May 12, 2026
ASIN: B0GJJDXG4L
Stand Alone or Series: 8th book in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series
Source: eGalley from NetGalley for Review
Rating: 4.5/5 stars

“As chaos and mass panic spread outside the dungeon in the wake of Faction Wars, Carl and Donut find themselves on the tenth floor, where they’re forced to compete in a surprisingly normal set of tasks. Well, normal for the dungeon.

Races. Get from point A to point B, and don’t come in last. After each race, they pick an upgrade for their vehicle and the track gets more challenging. It all seems a little too normal, a little too simple.

Ignore those strange glitches that are occurring with increasing frequency. Don’t listen to those whispers about what’s happening on the mysterious eleventh floor, something the system AI calls A Parade of Horribles. Nobody, not even the showrunners, knows what that means. Just that the AI has ominously dubbed it “a coming-out party for the ages.”

Everything is fine, Crawler. I repeat, everything is fine.

Carl hates that it’s business as usual. The rules of this floor have taken away his agency. That just will not do.

So Carl is planning a party of his own. It’s a plan so dangerous, so insane, he can’t even consult his friends lest the AI put a stop to it. Because if it goes wrong, it’s not just the end of Carl and Donut. No. The stakes are higher than they’ve ever been.”

Series Info/Source: This is the 8th book in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. I got this on ebook through NetGalley for review.

Thoughts: I was incredibly excited to get a review copy of this. This is fast-paced, action packed, and full of all the wonderful characters from throughout the series. However, I can’t help feeling like the story is a bit forced and contrived at points.

Carl and Donut are on the tenth floor. A strangely “normal” floor where they go through multiple heats of races. As more and more crawlers are eliminated Carl, Donut, and team desperately look for a way to help both NPCs and crawlers escape the dungeon completely. The AI has gone a bit wonky, and the Gods are free…so, things aren’t exactly going as planned. If they can make it through the races of the tenth floor they will have to face the mysterious eleventh floor, A Parade of Horribles.

I have a couple of small quibbles right from the start. First, the intro from Samantha’s point of view was confusing to say the least. Second, this series is starting to feel strangely repetitive despite the creative craziness. The formula is always the same…something crazy horrible happens, but our heroes figure out a way to survive! Then the situation gets even more crazy horrible…and yet they survive again!

I still enjoyed the characters and the ludicrous situations they are put into. A lot of the things that happen are unpredictable, weird, or just flat out gross. I also really liked that we get to learn more about the Primals and the AI. There are many previous plot points that really come to a climax in this book as well.

The chapters here are action packed and fairly short, which really pulls you through the story. It still took me over a week to read this massive book, but I did finish it, which is saying a lot. I have been struggling to stay focused on some of the books I have picked up, and I genuinely looked forward to sitting down and reading this one.

I have listened to the majority of this series on audiobook, and I definitely prefer that. I think the only books I have read in print form are the first book and then this one. While I do feel like I remember things better when I read them, I also am more prone to skimming things in print form. The audiobooks just bring a whole additional level of fun to the story because they are done so well. I already picked up a copy of the audiobook so I can listen to this as well.

My Summary (4.5/5): Overall I enjoyed this. I love the characters and the concept here; the story is fast-paced and action-packed. The story line is getting harder to follow and more convoluted, though. I am also starting to feel a tad bit irritated by how formulaic some of this is. Yes, there are surprises and crazy things that are constantly happening, but the core of the story is the same: something horrible happens, Carl comes up with a crazy plan to save the day, something more horrible happens, Carl comes up with a new, more dangerous plan to save the day…somehow these plans always work out in the end. Will I keep reading the series? Of course, I am this far in, and I am a huge fan of many of the characters in here.

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Length: 368 pages
Publisher: Hay House LLC
Release Date: June 9, 2026
ASIN: B0FQG3SPC1
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Tressport Magic series
Source: eGalley from NetGalley
Rating: 4/5 stars

“Struggling against a tide of anti-magic sentiment amidst the city’s rapid industrialization, the shop is slated to close in six short months unless Josie can save it. Luckily, she’s no stranger to impossible odd—she’s applying to study magic at the local university, something women are typically excluded from—even as the shop’s prickly apothecarist, Aufidius Reid, seems determined to dislike her.

Reid finds her unbearably insistent. She finds him infuriatingly uptight—nothing like the sensitive scholar Josie has been exchanging anonymous letters with as they study together for entrance to a graduate magic program. A scholar who just so happens to be Reid himself, unbeknownst to either of them.

Letter by letter, they fall in love. But at work, Josie and Reid clash constantly about the direction of the business. As pressure rises, they discover the threat to the shop is more dangerous than they could have ever imagined, and working together to save it might be their only chance at true purpose, and at each other.”

Series Info/Source: This is the 1st book in the Tressport Magic series. I got this on ebook for review through NetGalley.

Thoughts: This is the first book in the Tressport Magic series. I really love how much detail and thought the author puts into developing the magic system here. However, this is incredibly slow for the first 50% of the book, to the point where I almost set it aside. Luckily, the pace really picks up mid-book, and I ended up being very happy I stuck with the story and finished it.

The story switches POV between Josie and Reid. Our main heroine, Josie, practices the more structured form of magic (which is frowned on for women) and is determined to go to the magical university to advance her studies. However, she needs a job over the summer while she waits to find out if she’s been admitted. She ends up with a job at an apothecary to make ends meet. Reid is also trying to get into the same magical university but is stuck helping to run a nearly bankrupt apothecary shop while he waits for his admission response. Josie is a disruption to Reid’s summer that he was neither prepared for nor wanted.

This is set in a sort of generic Victorian city, but a city where magic is real. There are a couple types of magic, a more intuitive magic and a more structured magic.

Between each chapter, there are letters between Josie and a man that she met via correspondence. These alternate with intervals between chapters in which we read letters between Reid and a woman he met via correspondence. This was a unique way to format the book and enables us to get to know Josie’s and Reid’s internal thoughts much more quickly. Unfortunately, this is part of why the book was so slow. Some of these letters feel very drawn out, and it slows the story down. As you might guess, this gives the story a similar feel to Rebecca Ross’s “Letters of Enchantment” series. This book would have felt a lot more unique if I hadn’t already read “Letters of Enchantment,” which uses a similar mechanic of secret letters.

After the first half, I ended up enjoying this book and finished it very quickly. It took me four days to read the first 50% and one day to finish the rest. There are a lot of themes here I like; a woman pursuing research studies in the face of adversity, a tight family, and a sort of enemies to lovers relationship that grows from daily work and understanding. I liked the magic in here and found this to be an interesting world as well.

My Summary (4/5): Overall the first half of this book was painfully slow, but the second half made up for that. I enjoyed the magic system and world-building here. I also liked the idea of getting to know our characters’ inner thoughts through letters, but the way this was done was so similar to Ross’s “Letter of Enchantment” series that it felt copied. Reid and Josie were fun characters to read about and I look forward to spending more time with both them and this intriguing magical world in the next book in this series. I would recommend this to readers who enjoy a sort of magical alternate history Victorian setting, like a scholarly theme to their stories, and enjoy a good enemies to lovers sort of romance.

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Paranormal Mystery
Length: 5 hours and 10 minutes
Publisher: Sittin’ on a Goldmine Productions LLC
Release Date: October 26, 2021
ASIN: B09KDGTDDS
Stand Alone or Series: 5th book in the Mitzy Moon Mysteries series
Source: Bought on Audiobook
Rating: 4/5 stars

“Mitzy Moon plans to take a break from snooping and learns to ski. And after receiving a mysterious gift from her travel companion, she feels light as a feather, but her heart goes stiff as a board when she faceplants into a corpse.

Racing back to the bookshop to consult her otherworldly helpers, Mitzy is horrified to discover her meddling Ghost-ma is missing. Her spoiled feline seems to ignore her pleas, and her alchemist attorney isn’t answering either. She can’t decide if she’s lost her powers or her mind….

Can Mitzy solve a murder without her extrasensory perceptions, or will one misstep put her in the killer’s crosshairs?”

Series Info/Source: This is the 5th book in the Mitzy Moon Mysteries series. I bought this for audiobook.

Thoughts: This was an entertaining and well-done installment in the Mitzy Moon series. While these books don’t really “wow” me, they are fun little diversions. I originally started this series because I wanted an audiobook to listen to during a regular 6 hr (round trip) car trip I need to do monthly. These are the perfect length to get done during that commute.

In this book Rory wins a vacation at a nearby ski resort and asks Mitzy to accompany him. Of course the first thing Mitzy does on her virgin ski run is to face plant into a corpse. Oddly Mitzy is struggling to use the very powers she thought she was finally gaining control of. Now Mitzy is on the case and is uncovering things both about this ski resort and about Rory she wish she never knew.

All of our favorite characters are in the story along with a few new ones. I enjoyed the mystery here and enjoyed watching Mitzy mature a bit more and open her eyes to some of the manipulations happening around her. I have complained in previous books that Mitzy seems a bit naive for her upbringing, and she makes progress in being a bit more savvy in this book. I hope at some point she will learn that when her cat, Piwackett, brings her clues she needs to listen!

I listened to this on audiobook and it is well done. The narrator does character voices well and consistently, and it’s fun to listen to.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I thought this was a very solid addition to the Mitzy Moon series. I enjoy the town of Pincherry Harbor and really enjoy the quirky characters here too. It was fun to see Mitzy grow more as a character and become a bit more savvy. I am excited to see what happens in book 6. If you are looking for a novella paranormal mystery series, this is a decent one. It takes a few books to get moving, but once it does, it is a lot of fun.

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 139 pages
Publisher: Tordotcom
Release Date: May 5, 2026
ASIN: B0FMSCH3V2
Stand Alone or Series: 7th book in The Singing Hills Cycle
Source: eGalley from NetGalley
Rating: 5/5 stars

“On the banks of the Ya-lé River, the town of Luntien gathers to celebrate the start of the rainy season, but the celebration is marred by the arrival of refugees from the sea. Everyone has a story about the foreigners newly in their midst―lazy, violent, unwanted―while the refugees themselves grieve the loss of the home they loved.

Cleric Chih, very recently still Novice Chih, is a stranger in Luntien. A moment of carelessness and bad luck leaves them waiting tables as they struggle to establish themself as a real cleric. A cleric’s job is to listen and record, but the stories emerging in Luntien are ugly and violent, as hard to predict as the river itself. With their hoopoe companion Almost Brilliant by their side, Chih must help the refugees while also unraveling a mystery that may have roots in their own faraway home in the abbey of Singing Hills.”

Series Info/Source: This is the 7th book in The Singing Hills Cycle. I got a copy of this on ebook for review from NetGalley.

Thoughts: I enjoyed this volume in The Singing Hills Cycle a lot more than the sixth book in this series. I continue to love the theme of the value of stories and a clerical order that makes it their mission to make sure stories are told and recorded.

In this volume, Cleric Chih (no longer a novice but out on their own) journeys to the town of Luntien where they find themselves waiting tables while they await their next disbursement of money (after they were unfortunately robbed). While this is in progress, they stumble upon a mystery that may link back to their own history and also try to help with an influx of refugees. Of course, the whole time they are determined to record the stories of, not only the village, but of the refugees who seek shelter there.

I really continue to enjoy this book series about the importance of story. Chih has grown throughout their travels, and it was fun to see them on their first solo mission as a full cleric. I think everyone can relate to Chih’s internal struggles. As they take on this new responsibility, Chih wonders if they are good enough to be a full cleric and if they are helping things or just making them worse.

We meet some entertaining new characters in this town. Of course, I continue to enjoy Almost Brilliant and her cutting humor and remarks. Almost Brilliant and Chih work together beautifully.

This book was very engaging, well done, and a breath of fresh air after the last couple of mediocre books I have read.

My Summary (5/5): Overall I really enjoyed this next volume in The Singing Hills Cycle. The stories behind the town are intriguing. I enjoyed watching Chih strike out on their own as a cleric and watching them work through the types of feelings and concerns you have when you strike out on your own in your field. I also enjoyed learning more about both Chih’s history and about the history behind The Singing Hills clerics. The discussion around refugees and their struggles was thoughtfully done as well. If you are a fan of this series, I think you will love this book. If you enjoy stories about the importance of stories, I think you will enjoy this whole series.

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Length: 417 pages
Publisher: S&S/Saga Press
Release Date: June 20, 2017
ASIN: B01LYPZUI5
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club
Source: Borrowed ebook from library
Rating: 2/5 stars

“Mary Jekyll, alone and penniless following her parents’ death, is curious about the secrets of her father’s mysterious past. One clue in particular hints that Edward Hyde, her father’s former friend and a murderer, may be nearby, and there is a reward for information leading to his capture…a reward that would solve all of her immediate financial woes.

But her hunt leads her to Hyde’s daughter, Diana, a feral child left to be raised by nuns. With the assistance of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Mary continues her search for the elusive Hyde, and soon befriends more women, all of whom have been created through terrifying experimentation: Beatrice Rappaccini, Catherin Moreau, and Justine Frankenstein.

When their investigations lead them to the discovery of a secret society of immoral and power-crazed scientists, the horrors of their past return. Now it is up to the monsters to finally triumph over the monstrous.”

Series Info/Source: This is 1st book in The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club. I borrowed this on ebook through my library.

Thoughts: I got about 70% of the way into this and finally set it aside. I am a fan of Theodora Goss; I have read “In the Forest of Forgetting” (loved it), “The Thorn and the Blossom” (liked it), “Red as Blood, White as Bone” (liked it), and “Come See the Living Dryad” (liked it). So I was really looking forward to a series by Goss, and the theme of this series (a mash-up of a bunch of Victorian horror/monster stories) is right up my alley. Unfortunately, this ended up feeling protracted and boring with jarring interruptions that are initially confusing and later just annoying. It was taking me forever to read this, and I realized I was dreading sitting down to continue it, so I set it aside.

The series follows numerous female characters. We start primarily by reading about Mary, who is left destitute after the death of her mother. Through various circumstances, she finds out she has a half-sister and gets entangled in helping Sherlock Holmes with a series of murders that are very Jack the Ripper like. Along the way, she starts to acquire other young women who are bound together by their strangeness and their fathers’ link to a secret society.

Throughout the book, there are strange “current” conversations between the girls interjected in the middle of the story. These are very confusing at first because we haven’t met any of the girls yet. As a result, reading about them talking to each other without any context doesn’t make much sense. As you continue and you start to understand who these girls are, the conversational interjections switch from confusing to jarring and a bit annoying. I think they are meant to be funny and cute, but to me, they were just repetitive and annoying.

I love the idea of a mash-up between a whole bunch of Victorian monster horror fictions. This story touches on Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde, Frankenstein, The Island of Dr. Moreou, as well as Sherlock Holmes. It is very Penny Dreadful-esque and I love the idea behind it. I enjoyed the idea behind a lot of the characters as well. We are mainly dealing with the daughters of these infamous men, as they try to recover from the monstrous transformations performed on them by their fathers. Unfortunately, the girls are introduced fairly quickly and don’t have a lot of depth to their personalities. I found it hard to engage with them and really get drawn into their stories.

Where things really started to fall apart for me were around the wordiness and the pacing. Things are over described, often repeated, and very drawn out. The huge issue of Mary’s finances is somewhat brushed to the side. Where initially she was worried about making it a week financially, suddenly she has a number of other girls living with her, and they are going to be okay for the near future. Strangely, the matter of how Mary was going to pay to support this collection of monstrous girls was more compelling to me than the main murder mystery…and that right there was part of what was wrong with this story.

At about 70% of the way in, I realized I just didn’t care anymore. I know Mary and Sherlock will solve the murders. Given all the foreshadowing and jarring conversational interjections by the girls, I know that they find a way to make it financially. We know all this very early in the story. I realized I was skimming the pages and just reading the main story dialogue between characters (skipping the annoying interjections and all the lengthy drawn out descriptions) and decided it was time to put this down. According to my kindle, I had another nearly two hours of reading to get through the rest and I just didn’t have it in me.

My Summary (2/5): Overall I love the premise here and find some of the characters intriguing. However, the jarring interjections throughout and the incredibly long repetitive descriptions made this a horrible slog to get through. I struggled on for quite awhile because I really, really love the idea of a Victorian horror mash-up like this; especially since it features the daughters of the infamous men from these stories. I just couldn’t get through it, and finally decided that I had struggled enough and set it aside 70% of the way in. I won’t be reading anymore of this series (obviously) and will be more careful about which Goss stories I pick up in the future. Maybe Goss is a better short story writer than a full length novelist.

In April I read 6 books. You can see the reviews for all of them, which ones were my favorite, etc. below.

Hope you all had a great month of reading!

I started the following series:

• None

I finished the following series:

• None

My Favorite Books of the Month Were:

• Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki (5/5 stars)
• God’s Junk Drawer by Peter Clines (4.5/5 stars)
• Under Fortunate Stars by Ren Hutchings (5/5 stars)

– Goodreads Reading Challenge (Progress: 39/150)

The full list of books that I read this month are shown below:
1. Platform Decay (The Murderbot Diaries, Book 8) by Martha Wells (4/5 stars)
2. Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki (5/5 stars)
3. Dating After the End of the World by Jeneva Rose (2/5 stars)
4. Sparks and Landmarks (Mitzy Moon Mysteries, Book 4) by Trixie Silvertale, Narrated by Coleen Marlo (4/5 stars)
5. God’s Junk Drawer by Peter Clines (4.5/5 stars)
6. Under Fortunate Stars by Ren Hutchings (5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Steampunk/Historical Fantasy
Length: 3 hours and 59 minutes
Publisher: AIBHS
Release Date: June 06, 2022
ASIN: June 06, 2022
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Inspector Davidson Steampunk Mysteries
Source: Audiobook from Audible
Rating: 3/5 stars

“Alternate France, 1871. Art historian Veronica Devine dreams of putting her husband’s betrayal behind her. So she’s grateful for the somewhat distracting mission to transport a valuable collection from a French chateau across the Atlantic. But before her voyage even begins, she’s attacked by thieves and saved by a mysterious stranger.

Luc, the Marquis de Monceau’s, fate is bound to an enchanted ancestral painting. After fleeing the Prussian invasion, his survival hinges on protecting an alias that preserves the rumor of his death. So when the beautiful woman he saves insists she has permission to remove his portraits, he has no choice but to escort her aboard a luxury airship.

Within the confines of the majestic vessel, Veronica and Luc soon discover they have more in common than a love of art. But cryptic messages, a clockwork automaton, and conniving passengers threaten to ground their romantic aspirations.

Will Veronica and Luc unravel the mystery of the masterpiece before dark forces from his past send their ship into the depths?”

Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the Inspector Davidson Steampunk Mysteries. I listened to this on audiobook.

Thoughts: This book had a lot of elements I thought I would like. I did like them, but everything felt underdeveloped and not a lot actually happened.

Veronica is an art historian that gets attacked by pirates while “acquiring” some art. Her team is saved by a mysterious man. Luc is the Marquis of Monceau and is searching for an enchanted ancestral painting and he needs to take a look at some of Veronica “acquired” paintings. When Veronica ends up on an airship to America with the artwork in question, Luc follows her. While on the airship, they encounter others who are after the same powerful piece of art.

This is supposed to be an adventurous steampunk romance. However, I found all the elements of the story to be a bit lacking. There are mentions of intriguing things in this world; gods, enchanted artifacts, automatons, etc. Nothing is really explained or built out; it leaves reader with a glimpse of a world that could be intriguing, if only we got a chance to learn something about it. This is something many novellas struggle with and few do well. Unfortunately, this book really struggles with this.

The characters are very stereotypical and lack depth. Veronica is the strong-willed widow who was suppressed by men her whole life and intends to take the reins of her life and make the best of it. Luc is a long-lived Marquis who lost an eye and is scarred from the loss. Luc doubts his worth because of his marred features, but Veronica sees beyond his surface to his bravery and honesty. The bad guys are just as cookie cutter. The “relationship” that develops between Veronica and Luc seems like it’s supposed to be slow burn, but then feels very abrupt by the end of the book. Again, there was potential here but it just wasn’t executed well.

Additionally, the pacing is not great. The beginning is exciting, the middle is horribly boring, and then the ending gets exciting again. There are so many ways this story could have been amazing; the bones of a cool world are here, and these characters could be interesting with a bit more. Everything just feels sketched out and unfinished.

I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was not very well done. The narrator slipped between character’s voices a lot (accidentally using the wrong voice for the wrong character). In general, the narrator’s voice didn’t seem well suited for this story. I would recommend reading this book and not listening to it.

Based on other reviews it looks like the full length novel in this series is more well received. Unfortunately, I was looking for a quick audiobook to listen to on a shortish road trip and I just didn’t enjoy this. My husband was in the car as well and actually flat out stopped listening to it about an hour in because he was bored.

My Summary (3/5): Overall this was okay, I think the world has potential and a lot of the themes are ones I like. Everything about this is underdeveloped, though. The characters are stereotypical, and we get faint glimpses of a potentially fascinating world that is never well developed. The audiobook narration was just plain old bad. I don’t plan on reading any more books in this series, which is a shame because I am always on the look out for a new fascinating steampunk world.

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Length: 476 pages
Publisher: Entangled: Rebellion Publishing Ltd
Release Date: May 10, 2022
ASIN: B09SVVVXKR
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Borrowed ebook from library
Rating: 5/5 stars

“Fleeing the final days of the generations-long war with the alien Felen, smuggler Jereth Keeven’s freighter the Jonah breaks down in a strange rift in deep space, with little chance of rescue—until they encounter the research vessel Gallion, which claims to be from 152 years in the future.

The Gallion’s chief engineer Uma Ozakka has always been fascinated with the past, especially the tale of the Fortunate Five, who ended the war with the Felen. When the Gallion rescues a run-down junk freighter, Ozakka is shocked to recognize the Five’s legendary ship—and the Five’s famed leader, Eldric Leesongronski, among the crew.

But nothing else about Leesongronski and his crewmates seems to match up with the historical record. With their ships running out of power in the rift, more than the lives of both crews may be at stake…”

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I borrowed this on ebook through my library.

Thoughts: I ended up thoroughly enjoying this sci-fi story about time travel and its inevitability. The characters are very well done, and the story is cleverly woven together. The mystery really pulls the reader along, and there are fun twists throughout the story, even up until the very end. This is action packed and hard to put down.

Jereth Keevan’s freighter breaks down in a strange rift in deep space during the final days of a war with the Felen. The Gallion (a research ship) finds themselves trapped in the same strange rift. When the two ships discover each other in the rift, they find out that their timelines seem to be 152 years apart. Keevan’s crew should be from the past, and the Gallion crew should know that past well, however nothing is matching up. Both crews are forced to put aside this mystery to escape this rift alive.

This book jumps back and forth between current time (in the rift) and each of the characters’ pasts. This was very well done and really allows us to get to know the individual characters and the reasons behind their actions better. The jumps back in time relate to something happening in present time, so the switches in POV and time worked really well together and didn’t seem jarring or hard to follow.

I found this book incredibly engaging, fast-paced, and surprising. I enjoyed every second of reading this and looked forward to picking it up to read. Between this book, “God’s Junk Drawer”, and “Light from Uncommon Stars”, I have been on a bit of a sci-fi kick, I guess. I have read some excellent sci-fi reads this month.

My Summary (5/5): Overall I really loved this. I loved the unique way the story was put together, the characters, the fast-pace, and the constant surprises. This book kept me very engaged and was hard to put down. I loved the way everything came together in the end and enjoyed the twists and turns that were thrown at the reader. I definitely plan on checking out Hutchings’ other novels.