Professional book critic, amateur housewife, full-time polymath. I like a good story. My other mystery reviews can be found here: https://www.criminalelement.com/author/dvaleris/
Jun 11 2021
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 …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/06/11/vulnerable-af-by-tarriona-ball/
Jun 09 2021
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 …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/06/09/trouble-girls-by-julia-lynn-rubin/
Jun 07 2021
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, …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/06/07/the-portrait-of-a-mirror-by-a-natasha-joukovsky/
Jun 04 2021
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 …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/06/04/the-kingdoms-by-natasha-pulley/
Jun 03 2021
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 …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/06/03/the-loud-house-summer-special-by-the-loud-house-creative-team/
Jun 02 2021
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 …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/06/02/scorpion-by-christian-cantrell/
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/06/01/honeycomb-by-joanne-m-harris-charles-vess/
May 28 2021
I’d never read any books from either of these bestselling authors before I picked up Spells Trouble, but I really love the idea of a mother-daughter duo writing urban fantasies featuring teenage twin sisters who are witches descended from those persecuted at the infamous Salem witch trials. Hunter and Mercy Goode are on the cusp …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/05/28/spells-trouble-sisters-of-salem-1-by-p-c-cast-kristin-cast/
May 27 2021
I am a total sucker for mysteries set in the art world, so I was already inclined to love this book even before I was seduced by, first, the unusual-for-the-art-world LA/West Coast setting, then by Maria Hummel’s gorgeous prose. Still Lives follows Maggie Richter, one-time investigative journalist turned PR flack for the prestigious Rocque Museum. …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/05/27/still-lives-by-maria-hummel/
May 26 2021
This adorable picture book is a wonderful blend of Richard Scarry and Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, from a Korean American perspective. Yoomi is looking forward to Sunday Funday but everything seems to go wrong from the very moment she wakes up. No cartoons, no favorite breakfast, no favorite shirt …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/05/26/sunday-funday-in-koreatown-by-aram-kim/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire