Make Lemon Cake

If you’re in need of a super quick read to pass the time on a train commute, or even something to keep you occupied for an hour in the afternoon, I can now recommend A Thief in the Night by KJ Charles as perfect for this purpose. This queer Regency era romance is, tragically, not even 100 pages long, but Charles manages the task of compressing a quality storyline admirably. -- The novella follows Toby, permanently down on his luck and getting on by hopping from job to job and stealing to make ends meet, and Miles, a decorated Napoleonic wars veteran returning home to take up his title as Earl of Avron following the death of his estranged and deteriorated father. After an initial meeting in a tavern where Toby seduces Miles in order to steal his watch, through chance Toby ends up in service in Avron. Charles genuinely could have left the plot there, and proceeded to fill the rest of the novella with the slow development of a romance in the halls of Avron, and that would have made this a...

This year, as I barrel headlong into the 52 book challenge (and rapidly fall behind), I’m pushing myself to explore outside the bounds of my typical reading material. That, I’ve decided, includes further exploring the realm of horror, a genre I’ve only lightly dabbled in to date. In conjunction with my mission to read more indie books, I decided the perfect book to top my TBR would be Metaxysm by RE Holding. The work is Holding’s debut novel, with her second full-length work coming later this year. I received an advanced reader copy of this novel through BookSirens, but of course I am leaving this review voluntarily and honestly. -- For my fellow non-horror readers: it’s not too gruesome and it’s not too freaky for you. It is, however…..gross. That is the best adjective. It is detailed and textural and left me feeling very squeamish if not necessarily frightened. I would say the level of discomfort was about what I expected for someone who doesn’t read much horror. I do wish the book w...