Dec 21 2025
I like seeing authors trying new things, and seeing Travis Baldree, who writes in a corner of fantasy that sometimes strikes me as authors and readers trying to connect over a menu of tags — “I’ll have a found-family, sapphic, friends-to-lovers tale with a side order of hidden magic, hold the prophecies and the Chosen One, …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/12/21/two-short-reviews-for-december/
Dec 19 2025
Another round-up column for you, dear readers, catching up with books I still haven’t yet had the time to read this year but really want to! First up is a book co-authored by four amazing thriller writers. In Desperate Deadly Widows, Kimberly Belle, Layne Fargo, Cate Holahan and Vanessa Lillie join forces once more to …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/12/19/tantalizing-tales-december-2025-part-two/
Dec 18 2025
I don’t ever remember being this overwhelmed in previous holiday seasons but y’all, this year has been a doozy. Between work, holiday events, shopping and unexpected medical emergencies, this has already been A Month. I’ve had to let so many non-essential things fall to the wayside this December, including my weekly art sessions, while I …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/12/18/the-heartwarming-love-coloring-book-by-gaynor-carradice/
Dec 17 2025
Sometimes I feel like if people truly knew the reality of war (and pain and loss,) they’d be far less happy to embrace it. You’ve got all these weird macho cosplayers acting like war isn’t a big deal when they’ve never seen any action themselves. Then, ofc, you have the sociopaths happy to risk, if …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/12/17/true-war-stories-vol-1-edited-by-alex-de-campi-and-khai-krumbhaar/
Dec 16 2025
Hello, readers! We have a treat for you today with an excerpt from the second installment of Michael G Colburn’s twisty historical Lady Black mystery series. Asylum Murders finds our heroine, London thief turned Australian high society widow Lady Edith “Edie” Black, in the midst of establishing her mostly secret career as a private investigator. …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/12/16/asylum-murders-by-michael-g-colburn-excerpt/
Dec 15 2025
with incredibly charming illustrations by Reggie Brown. Ooof, I should have known from the introductory note itself, with the line “Sometimes it can feel like winter because there is snow inside”, that this book would wring me out. Gosh, when was the last time I had an ugly cry like this, over something that didn’t …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/12/15/the-snowman-code-by-simon-stephenson/
Dec 14 2025
Hemlock & Silver is T. Kingfisher’s latest novel, and the sixth of her works that I have read this year. I’ve already bought six more, and I have a list of which of works are being published or re-published in 2026, so I have a lot of Kingfisher to look forward to. I’m looking forward …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/12/14/hemlock-silver-by-t-kingfisher/
Dec 13 2025
The thing about The Incandescent by Emily Tesh as a novel about a magic boarding school in England is that it’s told from the adults’ point of view, adults who take their responsibilities seriously, and who have real lives that are separate from what is happening to the students. Boarding-school stories often assign the teachers …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/12/13/an-unrelated-pair-of-books-by-emily-tesh-and-lois-mcmaster-bujold/
Dec 12 2025
Very excited to have gotten away with not publishing my first round-up post of the month till today, the twelfth of December! We have three books that have only recently published for you this week, as well as three books from earlier in the year that I’ve been meaning very much to get to but …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/12/12/tantalizing-tales-december-2025-part-one/
Dec 11 2025
It’s so unusual, and yet so sweet, to find a book where the title character may or may not actually be the main character, despite absolutely being the hero of the piece. I suppose one could argue semantics — Rabbit is the main active participant in the story, after all — but I’m really not …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/12/11/rabbits-feat-by-barney-saltzberg/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
Emily Lauer
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire