Jul 08 2025
Hello, readers! I have a treat for you today especially if you, like me, could use a little more romance in your lives. I’m so pleased to be able to offer you an excerpt from Ellie K Wilde’s latest novel Only Between Us, a highly-anticipated, steamy and whip-smart romance set in the world of Oakwood …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/07/08/only-between-us-by-ellie-k-wilde-excerpt/
Jul 07 2025
The midpoint of the year has come and gone, and here we are, looking forward and back on a specially scheduled day to showcase what’s just come out and what we’re looking forward to next! Top of the pile is Martha Grimes’ latest Richard Jury novel, The Red Queen. This twenty-sixth novel in a series …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/07/07/tantalizing-tales-july-2025-part-one/
Jul 02 2025
Hello, dear readers! We have an excerpt from a retelling of a tale out of legend for you today, a surefire treat for fans of Ancient Briton. As the third book of Giles Kristian’s Arthurian Tales begins, the Saxons are now the lords of Britain. Yet the bards still sing of Arthur: In our darkest …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/07/02/arthur-by-giles-kristian-excerpt/
Jul 01 2025
This manga adaptation of a classic Japanese horror story is shockingly nuanced, as writer and illustrator Mihiro reworks the tale for a modern audience, translated then into English by Itoh Makiko. A bit about the original author himself before we continue. Akutagawa Ryunosuke is widely considered the father of the Japanese short story, with Japan’s …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/07/01/ryunosuke-akutagawas-hell-screen-by-mihiro/
Jun 30 2025
Which parent hasn’t had the frustrating experience of being manipulated and possibly even outsmarted by their young children? It is, after all, to be expected as your kids get older and smarter, but being outwitted by an actual child, especially when you’re trying to get them to do things for their own good, is a …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/06/30/lila-said-no-by-kiki-frayard-aileen-bennett/
Jun 27 2025
Wow, this has been my first month with four Tantalizing Tales columns, which should give you a good idea of all the very cool books that get pitched to me, dear readers! Leading the pack is Mike Bockoven’s Come Knocking, a book that I desperately want to find time to fit into my bursting-at-the-seams schedule. …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/06/27/tantalizing-tales-june-2025-part-four/
Jun 26 2025
subtitled Visual Poems For Living In Climate Crisis. It’s always a refreshing surprise to me whenever someone professes belief in both Christianity and climate change. Of all the major faiths, mainstream (and especially Evangelical) Christianity has always struck me as the one least interested in responsible custodianship of the planet, as it focuses more on …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/06/26/you-are-a-sacred-place-by-madeleine-jubilee-saito/
Jun 25 2025
Translated from the original German by Michael Hofmann. It’s weird: this book smells to high heaven of being very firmly Literary Fiction, one of my least favored genres, yet I really enjoyed it. There were definitely parts where the narrator has a thought process so decidedly masculine that I scoffed at the idea of her …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/06/25/in-a-deep-blue-hour-by-peter-stamm/
Jun 24 2025
I’m becoming a curmudgeon as I age, but I really do wish this book had explicitly stated at the outset that it’s set in New Orleans. I no longer have time to read blurbs or back matter, so when I realized partway through that this was set in historical America and not fantasy Europe, all …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/06/24/the-confessional-by-paige-hender/
Jun 23 2025
Oh, huh, I didn’t realize that this second book in The Web Of The Spider series would have a different protagonist than the first one, but it makes sense! In Rise Of The Spider, our narrator was young Rolf, who watched with growing horror as the Nazi Party’s hatefulness infiltrated not only his beloved hometown …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/06/23/threat-of-the-spider-by-michael-p-spradlin/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
Emily Lauer
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire