June 2021 archive

The Hellion’s Waltz (Feminine Pursuits #3) by Olivia Waite

Sophie Roseingrave’s family lost nearly everything to a swindler who managed to steal not only their fortune but also cast a pall over their good name. Branding is everything when you’re in the business of making and selling fine musical instruments, and while no one can gainsay the quality of their pianos, no one wants …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/06/15/the-hellions-waltz-feminine-pursuits-3-by-olivia-waite/

Ten Low by Stark Holborn

Welcome to one of the last planets on the outskirts of the galaxy: the low-oxygen, mostly desert, way out of the way Factus. This dusty little outpost didn’t take a side in the war between the Accord and the Free Limits, not that either power had much use for the waterless wasteland anyway. With the …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/06/14/ten-low-by-stark-holborn/

Vulnerable AF by Tarriona Ball

So you know how operas are transcendent experiences, with the music and the singing and the acting (well, sometimes the acting) coming together to create a wondrous whole that you can’t stop thinking about or humming for days? But then you get it into your head to look up the lyrics you’ve been singing and …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/06/11/vulnerable-af-by-tarriona-ball/

Trouble Girls by Julia Lynn Rubin

What if Thelma and Louise were scared teenagers in love with one another? That’s the intriguing premise of this book as best friends Trixie and Lux set out for a quick getaway from their stifling lives in Blue Bottle, West Virginia, only to find themselves on the run after Trixie stabs a guy who tries …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/06/09/trouble-girls-by-julia-lynn-rubin/

The Portrait Of A Mirror by A. Natasha Joukovsky

As someone who cherishes the idea of eventually writing fiction professionally one day, it is 100% infuriating to read books like this, books so elegant, so intelligent, so perfect and modern that it makes any effort I could possibly make feel superfluous. Having a healthy ego, I will get over my sheer envy in days, …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/06/07/the-portrait-of-a-mirror-by-a-natasha-joukovsky/

Network Effect by Martha Wells

Network Effect by Martha Wells

Since the last time I looked in on Murderbot, it has become more secure in its freedom and found something like a home among the people of the Preservation Alliance. Preservation, as it is known throughout Network Effect, is something of a post-scarcity utopia, an interstellar polity posed as a counterpoint to Murderbot’s area of …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/06/06/network-effect-by-martha-wells/

The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley

The elevator pitch is essentially Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander meets Diana Wynne Jones’ The Time Of The Ghost, with naval battles galore (any Dianas who write about those? I’d be awfully pleased to know it.) Ofc, The Kingdoms isn’t quite so rapey as Outlander (thank God) nor as suspenseful as TToTG but is a thoughtful look …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/06/04/the-kingdoms-by-natasha-pulley/

The Loud House Summer Special by The Loud House Creative Team

Gosh, there are about as many creative contributors — writers, artists and letterers — as there are characters in this slender tho thoroughly amusing collection of vignettes revolving around the thirteen human members of the Loud family and their many friends and intimates. I feel a little bad not being able to list all the …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/06/03/the-loud-house-summer-special-by-the-loud-house-creative-team/

Scorpion by Christian Cantrell

What if Christopher Nolan’s Tenet was less in love with itself and the magic of cinematography, and just decided to tell a more interesting story? That’s basically what you have here with Christian Cantrell’s Scorpion, as a CIA analyst discovers that a serial assassin she’s been pursuing might have far stranger motivations than she’d ever …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/06/02/scorpion-by-christian-cantrell/

Honeycomb by Joanne M. Harris & Charles Vess

What a sumptuous delight of a novel that greatly satisfied both the craftsman and the girl-in-search-of-the-fantastic living inside me! Joanne M Harris has turned her considerable talents to a mosaic novel crafted as a compendium of fairy tales that are both wildly original yet hearken back to the tales we already know, usually giving the …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/06/01/honeycomb-by-joanne-m-harris-charles-vess/