Hello fellow boozie readers!

Sam’s Update:

It was Valentine’s Day weekend and my fella was in town! We had some good food, hung out with Melinda and her husband, an all around good week/weekend. Linz also hosted Galentine’s Day Tea at the Ritz, and if you think that sounds like the most awesome way to spend a Saturday you would be RIGHT.

What Sam finished this week:

• King’s Rising by C.S. Pacat: This is the third and final book in the Captive Prince series. The premise is that Damianos, heir to his throne, is taken captive and sold as a slave to Laurent, heir to the neighboring kingdom’s throne after Damianos’s step-brother organizes a coup to get the throne. Laurent and [Damen] have a tenuous relationship… they’re in LOOOOVE. So, like, definitely some Stockholm happening. I liked this book the most because they were sort of on equal footing. They were both free and kings and had family who took their thrones away. They get to work together to win back their thrones. Man I hate that I love these books. 

What Sam’s reading now:

• Grey Sister by Mark Lawrence: I have been trying to get to this, the sequel to Red Sister for a long time, but hadn’t had a chance to get around to it. Well NOW I AM. This is a magical assassin school set at a convent. I like this book better, I think, than book 1. Zole is quickly becoming my favorite, along with Kettle and Glass.
• Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee: Again, just started this but this is the companion novel to A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue. This book follows Monty’s sister Felicity and her adventures with her old best friend Joanna and a pirate named Sim. I’m really enjoying this so far.

Ginny’s Update:

Well, I’m finally slowing down a little bit where reading is concerned.  But, I’ve been really lucky with some of my recent choices.

What Ginny is Reading:

• A Local Habitation by Seanan McGuire: This is the second book in the Toby Daye series and I’m excited to finally get around to it.  I’ve talked about my love for Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children Series.  I read the first book a while back and usually urban fantasy isn’t my thing but I wanted to give the series another chance.  Toby is a great character and this book immediately gets to the plot which I enjoy.

What Ginny Finished:

• Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein. There is a review coming up for this!  
• The Burning Page by Genevieve Cogman: Probably going to write a review about this one too.  It’s the third book in the series and went back to everything I enjoyed in the first book.  
• The Last Goodnight by Howard Blum: Well, I actually DNF’d this book but wanted to keep it here for posterity.  It’s a biography about a spy during WWII except the first five chapters cover her talking with someone about writing a biography.  It just didn’t really sound like my kind of book.  

Melinda’s Update:

What Melinda Is currently reading:

• Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate – Still pretty early on in this, but it seems like we’re getting three perspectives: two in the present and one in the past. The book is historical fiction, based on this terrible adoption agency in the south that kidnapped and sold poor children to rich families, which is appalling, but promising book material. 

What Melinda finished:

• The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White – This didn’t go the way I thought it would, but I was still really happy with it. The author did a great job with the female-led retelling. Only complaint was the she could have leaned in to the dark theme a bit longer, but I’ll explain more in my pending review! 

Linz’s Update:

Aging is literally the worst. I woke up Monday and strained my neck getting out of bed, so a lot of this week was spent managing that and not really reading.

What Linz read:

• Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen McManus – Ellery and her twin brother go to live with their grandmother, in the town where their aunt disappeared in her teens, and where another teen girl was killed five years ago. Lots of secrets, lots of sleuthing. Very readable, but the twists weren’t very shocking, and there’s a REAL dark footnote to the ending.
• Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan – we were lucky enough to get an advanced copy, and I think Sam will be reviewing. A lot of people are referring to this as a better, darker version of the Grishaverse, and I agree. It has a really interesting take on religion and faith, and I think I already know what Sam and I will disagree on lol.

What Linz did not finish:

• Da Vinci’s Tiger by L. M. Elliott – historical fiction about a real Renaissance-period teen girl in Florence, during da Vinci’s very early years. For me, it was just a real slow start and I couldn’t settle into it.
• The Glass Spare by Lauren DeStefano – The fourth child and only princess of the world’s wealthiest country longs to leave the shadows her father’s hidden her in, and then she finds out by accident she can turn people into gemstone. (This is SPOILER-FREE, that detail’s in the Goodreads description.) Like, just–there was something REALLY baffling going on with the world building that was taking me out of the book. You can’t live in a world where computer-goggles and electric lamps exist, but telephones are JUST becoming a thing. And while it’s written in third person, we jump from one character’s POV to another’s within paragraphs.

What Linz is reading now:

• The Afterward by E.K. Johnston – what I like about Johnston’s writing is that she can try her hand at so many different genres and styles, and be successful (That Inevitable Victorian Thing; A Thousand Nights; Exit, Pursued by a Bear). We were again lucky to get an advanced copy so Sam could review, and I’m REALLY enjoying this fantasy tale about a group of lady knights and what happens after their quest is over.

Until next time, we remain forever drunkenly yours,

Sam, Melinda, Linz, and Ginny