the editors of BookPage

STARRED REVIEW
March 23, 2025

20 gripping reads to celebrate Trans Day of Visibility

These excellent books by transgender or nonbinary writers are perfect picks for March 31—or any day of the year.
Share this Article:

Based on Jewish mythology concerning the dybbuk, a disembodied spirit that inhabits the body of a living person, The Forbidden Book is a fantastic coming-of-age tale with resonant political themes.

Based on Jewish mythology concerning the dybbuk, a disembodied spirit that inhabits the body of a living person, The Forbidden Book is a fantastic coming-of-age tale with resonant political themes.

We would kill for another novel from Torrey Peters, author of the simultaneously heart-wrenching and deeply entertaining Detransition, Baby—but we’ll settle for a novella and three stories. Each of these pulls Peters’ style in a new direction, with the titular novella featuring a “stag dance” among isolated overwintering lumberjacks.

We would kill for another novel from Torrey Peters, author of the simultaneously heart-wrenching and deeply entertaining Detransition, Baby—but we’ll settle for a novella and three stories. Each of these pulls Peters’ style in a new direction, with the titular novella featuring a “stag…

Akwaeke Emezi’s sixth novel for adults, Little Rot, hurtles toward devastation, but even as you anticipate the horrors ahead, the escapist thriller-style pacing will keep you pushing on.

Akwaeke Emezi’s sixth novel for adults, Little Rot, hurtles toward devastation, but even as you anticipate the horrors ahead, the escapist thriller-style pacing will keep you pushing on.

Katherine Packert Burke’s debut, Still Life, is an ode to both the sweet and thorny parts of friendship, full of biting musings on queer and trans culture, literature, art and, quite poignantly, Sondheim musicals.

Katherine Packert Burke’s debut, Still Life, is an ode to both the sweet and thorny parts of friendship, full of biting musings on queer and trans culture, literature, art and, quite poignantly, Sondheim musicals.

Rivers Solomon’s Model Home is a powerful and gut-wrenching addition to the haunted house pantheon.

Rivers Solomon’s Model Home is a powerful and gut-wrenching addition to the haunted house pantheon.

The campy humor, biting observations and poetic musings of Bad Habit’s heroine will leave a lasting impression on readers. This is queer fiction at its painful, honest, celebratory best.

The campy humor, biting observations and poetic musings of Bad Habit’s heroine will leave a lasting impression on readers. This is queer fiction at its painful, honest, celebratory best.

Provocative, disruptive and very funny, Authority collects the work of Pulitzer Prize winning-critic Andrea Long Chu.

Provocative, disruptive and very funny, Authority collects the work of Pulitzer Prize winning-critic Andrea Long Chu.

Joanna Lowell’s A Shore Thing has one of the most delightful premises in recent memory: a seaside Victorian bike trip.

Joanna Lowell’s A Shore Thing has one of the most delightful premises in recent memory: a seaside Victorian bike trip.

Oliver Radclyffe’s Frighten the Horses is a powerful standout among the burgeoning subgenre of gender transition memoirs.

Oliver Radclyffe’s Frighten the Horses is a powerful standout among the burgeoning subgenre of gender transition memoirs.

Through sentences of remarkable elegance, humor and complexity of phrase, former Slate advice columnist and cofounder of The Toast Daniel M. Lavery vividly imagines a 1960s women’s hotel in his debut novel.

Through sentences of remarkable elegance, humor and complexity of phrase, former Slate advice columnist and cofounder of The Toast Daniel M. Lavery vividly imagines a 1960s women’s hotel in his debut novel.

P.H. Low’s intriguing debut fantasy, These Deathless Shores, is a haunting modern spin on Peter Pan.

P.H. Low’s intriguing debut fantasy, These Deathless Shores, is a haunting modern spin on Peter Pan.

Nico Lang’s powerful American Teenager closely follows seven transgender young adults, rendering complex, searing and sensitive portraits of their lives.

Nico Lang’s powerful American Teenager closely follows seven transgender young adults, rendering complex, searing and sensitive portraits of their lives.

KT Hoffman’s The Prospects is a perfect baseball romance that overflows with love for the sport and its main characters.

KT Hoffman’s The Prospects is a perfect baseball romance that overflows with love for the sport and its main characters.

Beautiful, complex and affirming, Ash’s Cabin will prompt deep conversations about how best to support one another and our environment, at a time when the future is uncertain and peace can be hard to find.

Beautiful, complex and affirming, Ash’s Cabin will prompt deep conversations about how best to support one another and our environment, at a time when the future is uncertain and peace can be hard to find.

The Deep Dark is a moving and eerie graphic novel exploring identity, generational trauma and queer love.

The Deep Dark is a moving and eerie graphic novel exploring identity, generational trauma and queer love.

A bacchanalian romp from Monaco to Pisa to Paris, The Pairing is a testament to Casey McQuiston’s talent.

A bacchanalian romp from Monaco to Pisa to Paris, The Pairing is a testament to Casey McQuiston’s talent.

As Texas threatens LGBTQ+ people with draconian laws, KB Brookins’ memoir, Pretty, is an act of resistance against those who would silence trans writers.

As Texas threatens LGBTQ+ people with draconian laws, KB Brookins’ memoir, Pretty, is an act of resistance against those who would silence trans writers.

Homebody is a delightful, beautiful graphic memoir celebrating the journey Theo Parish took to discover their gender identity.

Homebody is a delightful, beautiful graphic memoir celebrating the journey Theo Parish took to discover their gender identity.

In Flamboyants, George M. Johnson tells the story of a Harlem Renaissance in which queerness is as integral and influential to the culture as Blackness.

In Flamboyants, George M. Johnson tells the story of a Harlem Renaissance in which queerness is as integral and influential to the culture as Blackness.

Jennifer Finney Boylan’s latest memoir-in-essays, Cleavage, is a sometimes funny, sometimes elegiac, meditation on gender, parenthood and coming to terms with herself.

Jennifer Finney Boylan’s latest memoir-in-essays, Cleavage, is a sometimes funny, sometimes elegiac, meditation on gender, parenthood and coming to terms with herself.

Get BookPage in your inbox

Sign up to receive reading recommendations in your favorite genres every Tuesday. 

Recent Features

These excellent books by transgender or nonbinary writers are perfect picks for March 31—or any day of the year.

If you want an intense enemies-to-lovers romantasy

How’s this for a meet-cute? In Milla Vane’s A Heart of Blood and Ashes, barbarian warrior Maddek fully intends to kill Princess Yvenne to avenge his parents’ death. But he changes his mind after she kills her own brother in front of Maddek and proposes marriage to him so that they can team up to kill her father and win back her kingdom.

If you want a story with an epic scale 

If what you love about the Empyrean series is having a whole lot to dig in to—lots of pages, lots of characters, lots of drama and a vast world—pick up Samantha Shannon’s A Day of Fallen Night. It’s not only 880 pages, but also the prequel to Shannon’s The Priory of the Orange Tree. You’ll find exquisite dragons and angsty enemies-to-lovers subplots, too.

If you want to read one of the OG dragon fantasy series

Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonflight kicks off her iconic Dragonriders of Pern series. Be warned: Some of the aspects of this series, particularly in regard to sexuality, have not aged well, but there’s no denying that modern science fiction and fantasy takes on dragons owe a huge debt to McCaffrey.

If you want even more dragons

Naomi Novik‘s  is the start of a nine-book series that boasts one of the most lovable and complex dragons in fantasy. A polymath with a heart of gold and an increasingly radical social consciousness, Temeraire completely upends the life of stalwart naval captain William Lawrence when he chooses him as his rider.

If you want to be a dragon

If reading Fourth Wing and Onyx Storm left you wanting to be a dragon yourself, pick up Kelly Barnhill’s fiery and subversive adult debut, When Women Were Dragons. Part Lessons in Chemistry, part Left Behind, the novel stars a young heroine who’s trying (along with the rest of the world) to understand the Mass Dragoning of 1955, during which thousands of ordinary women grew scales, talons and wings and launched into the sky, never to be seen again.

 

Hot for Rebecca Yarros’ smash hit Empyrean series? These 5 read-alikes will keep the fire burning.
Book jacket images for Poetry Month 2025.
STARRED REVIEW
April 1, 2025

Celebrate Poetry Month with 4 new books for spring 2025

New books by acclaimed poets Maggie Nelson, Martín Espada, Tiana Clark and Didi Jackson speak to the moment.
Share this Article:

National Book Award winner Martín Espada’s Jailbreak of Sparrows is a stirring call to recognize the unseen and unheard within our communities.

National Book Award winner Martín Espada’s Jailbreak of Sparrows is a stirring call to recognize the unseen and unheard within our communities.

Didi Jackson’s second collection, My Infinity, is a book full of noticing, which spends time with the natural landscape of Vermont and with the paintings of Hilma af Klint.

Didi Jackson’s second collection, My Infinity, is a book full of noticing, which spends time with the natural landscape of Vermont and with the paintings of Hilma af Klint.

Maggie Nelson’s Pathemata is a fascinating study in what suffering can teach us about the necessity of fully inhabiting each moment of our lives.

Maggie Nelson’s Pathemata is a fascinating study in what suffering can teach us about the necessity of fully inhabiting each moment of our lives.

Tiana Clark’s searching second poetry collection, Scorched Earth, embraces “too muchness” as a pure expression of the politicized body, history and art.

Tiana Clark’s searching second poetry collection, Scorched Earth, embraces “too muchness” as a pure expression of the politicized body, history and art.

Get BookPage in your inbox

Sign up to receive reading recommendations in your favorite genres every Tuesday. 

Recent Features

New books by acclaimed poets Maggie Nelson, Martín Espada, Tiana Clark and Didi Jackson speak to the moment.
Science Fiction feature header image
STARRED REVIEW
April 3, 2025

Three sci-fi visions of alternate worlds

Our world but stranger, better or worse.
Share this Article:

An engrossing exploration of consciousness, autocracy and global politics, Where the Axe Is Buried is a cybernetically enhanced thriller with the pacing of a literary novel.

An engrossing exploration of consciousness, autocracy and global politics, Where the Axe Is Buried is a cybernetically enhanced thriller with the pacing of a literary novel.

It’s become something of a universal bit to declare “we live in a computer simulation” when faced with the latest nonsense of our age, but trust Daryl Gregory (Revelator, Spoonbenders) to take that idea and spin it into something more profound than pithy. Best friends JP and Dulin are heading out on a road trip—to see all the weird anomalies that popped up in our world after a mysterious announcement that our reality is merely a digital construction.

It’s become something of a universal bit to declare “we live in a computer simulation” when faced with the latest nonsense of our age, but trust Daryl Gregory (Revelator, Spoonbenders) to take that idea and spin it into something more profound than pithy.…

Get BookPage in your inbox

Sign up to receive reading recommendations in your favorite genres every Tuesday. 

Recent Features

Our world but stranger, better or worse.
Fake Dating feature header image
STARRED REVIEW
March 25, 2025

2 adorable and hilarious fake-dating rom-coms

In these romances, the PDA is paramount and the subterfuge is swoony.
Share this Article:

Optimist Sybil Sweet lives up to her name. Her hankering for donuts lands her in Joe’s Donut shop, where she has an impetuous encounter with Kieran Anderson that leaves them wanting more of their mutual sizzle. Devoted grandson Kieran has interrupted medical school and his dreams of becoming a doctor to try and keep his grandfather’s shop afloat. Yet, when he discovers that Sybil dropped a winning lottery ticket before she disappeared into the night, he decides to return it. Kieran’s public plea for Sybil to claim her ticket sparks a viral media response, which leads to them deciding to fake a romance for three months. But will this windfall enrich their lives by fixing the issues within their respective families and stoking their attraction to one another? Or will the fabricated appearances dampen their fire?

Denise Williams’ Just Our Luck is a heartfelt and charming story of love, laughter and lucky chances. A satisfying balance of sweetness and spice, Just Our Luck delivers flirtation, drama and tender moments alike. Sybil is impulsive yet thoughtful, an endearing heroine with realistic flaws and relatable struggles like her strained relationship with her mother, while Kieran’s commitment to his grandfather’s legacy and his increasing affection for Sybil make him a perfect catch. As Kieran and Sybil navigate the reality of their public relationship, moments of miscommunication and misunderstanding add tension and chemistry to their relationship. While the narrative occasionally feels overburdened by Williams’ attempts to address multiple social messages, the plot remains engaging and the characters compelling. 

The engaging Just Our Luck will leave readers craving more and will be especially tempting to fans of Sadie on a Plate by Amanda Elliot and Chef’s Kiss by TJ Alexander.

Denise Williams’ fake-dating romance Just Our Luck delivers flirtation, drama and tender moments alike.
Review by

Love at First Flight is a delightful romance between a charming pilot and an air traffic controller that will have any newcomers to Jo Watson’s work running to add her entire backlist to their TBRs. 

An air traffic controller on the autism spectrum, Pippa Edwards is good at her job. But while she thrives at guiding planes through the takeoff and landing processes, the thought of going to her impending high school reunion and answering questions about why she’s still single fills her with dread. 

When Pippa finally meets one of her favorite pilots face-to-face, she discovers that handsome Andrew Boyce-Jones is also in desperate need of a date. They make a pact to fake a relationship so that Pippa has a date for her reunion and Andrew’s moms hopefully stop pestering him to settle down. Perfect, right? But as these two co-workers become friends, the lines blur even further, and their mutual attraction is hard to ignore. Pippa can’t help but wonder if there really is someone out there who can love her exactly as she is—and if that someone is Andrew. 

I adored this book. Synonyms include: smitten, loved, crazy about and obsessed with. (Pippa would cringe a little since those aren’t perfect synonyms, but you get the point.) Love at First Flight soars and its two leads are charming, lovable and imperfect. Watson used her own autism diagnosis to help craft the character of Pippa; she’s both highly competent and incredibly awkward, with some delightfully nerdy hyperfixations (cue the Pokémon battles). While Andrew does work to smooth things out socially for Pippa, he also allows her to be herself, even if that self finds multiple ways to bring up human and animal anatomy at the absolute wrong moment. Andrew never laughs at Pippa when she fumbles a social interaction, but finds a way to help her find the humor in the moment and laugh together. And there are many laugh-out-loud moments in Love at First Flight: You will be utterly delighted, and also find yourself wondering along with the characters where merpeople’s sex organs disappear to. 

Love at First Flight will have readers clamoring for a good seat to watch this relationship take off, and will especially delight fans of Helen Hoang and Rachel Lynn Solomon.

Jo Watson’s Love at First Flight is a laugh-out-loud funny, fake dating romance.

Get BookPage in your inbox

Sign up to receive reading recommendations in your favorite genres every Tuesday. 

Recent Features

In these romances, the PDA is paramount and the subterfuge is swoony.

If We Were Villains

When my book club recently selected M. L. Rio’s If We Were Villains, I was initially hesitant. I hadn’t read any Shakespeare since college, and wasn’t sure if I’d enjoy a novel so heavily influenced by his work. I was pleasantly surprised when I was drawn in right away by the characters, seven actors in their final year at an elite performing arts college. As they immerse themselves in Shakespeare’s tragedies, the lines between reality and performance begin to blur. When one of the students dies mysteriously after a Halloween-night production of Macbeth, the rest, now suspects, must confront the roles they play both on and off the stage. Oliver, often typecast as the “sidekick,” narrates the story 10 years later. The plot deftly mirrors the thematic elements of the plays the group is performing, including Romeo and Juliet and King Lear—exploring ambition, betrayal and revenge. Even if you’re not a Shakespeare buff, the connections between the characters’ lives and the plays they perform are easy to grasp. If you do love the Bard, the parallels will be icing on the cake.

—Katherine Klockenkemper, Subscriptions

I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home

In Lorrie Moore’s beguiling 2023 novel, I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home, a man and his dead ex-girlfriend take a road trip, he desperate to understand her suicide, she slowly decomposing (while telling stories and singing) in the passenger seat. Nested in this story are letters from Elizabeth—a Civil War-era mistress of a boardinghouse that has “lost its spank”—to her sister, long dead at the time of her writing. Elizabeth is a crackerjack writer: formal yet irreverent, self-effacing and self-aware. She is sympathetic to abolition, the poor and weary soldiers, and not opposed to mischief. She writes of a “handsome lodger” who is “dapper as a finch” and “keen to relieve me of my spinsterhood.” But after she hears of the assassination of President Lincoln, she starts to see her lodger in a different light. Moore suspends Elizabeth’s story for much of the novel, and readers may yearn to get back to the boardinghouse. It’s no surprise that Moore, a master of pacing and timing, delivers on Elizabeth’s story with an unexpected, delightful convergence of the two narratives.

—Erica Ciccarone, Associate Editor

The Blind Assassin

The Blind Assassin opens with Iris Griffen recounting the death of her 25-year-old sister, Laura, who drove her car off a bridge while, as Iris makes sure to note, wearing white gloves, as if “washing her hands of me. Of all of us.” Through prose interspersed with newspaper clippings and excerpts from The Blind Assassin—the posthumous novel that launches Laura into notoriety—Margaret Atwood’s puzzle of a book reels us in to an enigmatic life that is dotted by tragedy and death. However, it’s a true testament to Atwood’s genre-spanning talent that perhaps the most enthralling element is the pulp science fiction story told within the eponymous novel-within-a-novel. This third layer of the story explores Sakiel-Norn, a grand city on the planet Zycron that is famous for producing carpets woven by child slaves who inevitably go blind from the work. This loss of sight makes them highly prized assassins. Atwood is the rare jack-of-all-trades, master of everything: She dances effortlessly between the realistic and the speculative, while fashioning a narrative that is not only suspenseful and exciting, but also contemplative—an ability that elevated other works such as The Handmaid’s Tale and Oryx and Crake to cultural phenomenon status, and is on full display here in The Blind Assassin.

—Yi Jiang, Associate Editor

A Tale for the Time Being

If you keep a journal, you may be familiar with an occasional prickling feeling —a feeling that makes you wonder, what would someone think if they read this? The act of writing seems to suppose a connection with an audience, even writing that you never intend to share. In Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being, novelist Ruth feels a powerful connection to a stranger when she discovers a diary washed up on the shore of her home on an island in British Columbia. In alternating chapters, we read from the diary, which belonged to Nao, a high schooler from Tokyo, and hear about Ruth’s life with her husband, Oliver. As she reads, Ruth becomes increasingly, desperately concerned for Nao. The teenager’s father is deeply depressed, and her classmates grotesquely bully her. She’s clearly suffering. Was the diary carried to Ruth by the 2011 tsunami in Japan? Or was it abandoned before that, and if so, what happened to Nao? Ozeki incorporates Buddhist spirituality in layers both explicit and subtle, meaning there’s always more to uncover in this complicated book.

—Phoebe Farrell-Sherman, Associate Editor

We love when authors get meta by placing a second text—a novel, play or diary—within the first. Here are our four picks for books featuring nested stories.
    
Bibliophobia by Sarah Chihaya

Read the review:

Sarah Chihaya always thought books could save her from suicide. Her perceptive debut memoir examines why.

Read our Q&A with Sarah Chihaya:

‘All of a sudden, it was like a dam had burst’

 


 

Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton

Read the review:

Chloe Dalton’s magical, endearing account of bonding with a wild hare is an enchanting meditation on what we gain when we allow the natural world to teach us.

Read our Q&A with Chloe Dalton: 

‘It’s freed me up to be gentler, more patient and more attentive to my surroundings’

 


 

Love, Rita by Bridgett M. Davis

Read the review:

Bridgett M. Davis’ riveting and heartbreaking memoir is a homage to her sister and a sober reflection on the devastating impact that medical racism has on Black women.

Read our Q&A with Bridgett M. Davis:

‘I feel proud of myself for facing my fears and writing the hard parts’

 


 

The Trouble of Color by Martha S. Jones

Read the review:

Martha S. Jones’ moving memoir traces her family’s history back five generations and will change the way readers understand race.

Read our Q&A with Martha S. Jones:

‘It has allowed me to discover how it feels to know that past and also live its inheritance’

 


 

Saving Five by Amanda Nguyen

Read the review:

Amanda Nguyen’s tenacious debut memoir recounts her experience navigating the criminal justice system as a rape survivor—and demanding better of our government.

Read our Q&A with Amanda Nguyen:

‘We all have lessons we can learn from our younger selves’

 


 

Connecting Dots by Joshua A. Miele

Read the review:

Joshua A. Miele survived an acid attack at age 4, but that’s not what he wants you to know about him.

Read our Q&A with Joshua A. Miele:

‘I consider myself a world expert on my own blind life’

 


 

Care and Feeding by Laurie Woolever

Read the review:

Laurie Woolever details her decades hustling in NYC’s food world, including her work for Anthony Bourdain and Mario Batali.

Read our Q&A with Laurie Woolever:

‘I know now that every part of the process is a reward’

7 memoirists describe the power and pleasure of getting their stories on the page.
STEM Romances feature image
STARRED REVIEW
March 4, 2025

2 STEM romances with chemistry to spare

Think a Mars simulation and a video game company wouldn’t be romantic? Think again!
Share this Article:

Etta Easton’s got her head back in the clouds in her new rom-com, The Love Simulation, her fun follow-up to 2024’s acclaimed astronaut romance, The Kiss Countdown

A headstrong vice principal at Juanita Craft Middle School, Brianna Rogers rarely looks before she leaps. Like her astronaut brother, Vincent (hero of The Kiss Countdown), Brianna likes a challenge. Most recently, she’s been putting all her energy into the school’s effort to upgrade the library. It seemed like a done deal . . . until her infuriating principal earmarks the funds for a new football field. Desperation and indignation spur Brianna to do something drastic, but adventurous, which is how she winds up being part of a six-week Mars simulation competition, which will award $500,000 to any team of teachers that makes it through the full term. That money could fund the library upgrade and Brianna’s a shoo-in to win—with a brother for an astronaut, what could go wrong, right?

Roman Major. That’s what could go wrong. The dreamy science teacher is Brianna’s nightmare: He may be handsome and good with his students, but he’s also their mutual principal’s son. Roman is determined to prove himself a strong member of Brianna’s team, and while he doesn’t have the benefit of an astronaut for a brother, he’s got the STEM chops to help the simulation’s experiments succeed.

Easton has written a tight romance with great pacing, a fun premise and relatable characters who are easy to cheer on. Roman’s father’s animosity towards Brianna provides some built-in tension, but the heart wants what the heart wants, and our nerdy science teacher dips into his hero reserves when it counts. Brianna is a hero in her own right, setting a strong example for the students and faculty, and standing true to her beliefs. As in most rom-coms, there’s a lot of introspection, miscommunication and external forces working to ruin a good thing, but there’s also Roman and Brianna, proving their chemistry is a force to be reckoned with—on Earth or on Mars.

A love story between two people in a Mars simulation, Etta Easton’s sophomore rom-com has great pacing and two ultra-lovable characters
Review by

Girl gets hired for her dream job only to discover her boss is a nightmare—and unfairly hot. Sound familiar? But what if I told you that the dream job was working for a video game company, and that both the girl and the superhot boss in question are queer people of color? Non-white, non-straight, non-cisgendered protagonists are still the exception rather than the rule, both in romances and in the gaming industry, which is exactly why Tara Tai’s Single Player is a breath of fresh air. Because everyone deserves the chance to have a goofy, tumultuous, accident-prone rom-com of their very own.

It starts with Cat Li, who gave up a profitable but soul-sucking career and her family’s approval to chase her dream of working in the gaming industry. She’s beyond thrilled when she’s hired to write romance arcs for a hot new game overseen by her idol, Andi Zhang, a wunderkind writer and creative director who uses both she and they pronouns. But when Cat and Andi actually meet, sparks fly in the worst possible way. Their interactions are full of misunderstandings, insecurities and a surprising mutual ex-girlfriend, and some readers may become frustrated by their inability to communicate. But then Cat and Andi finally, truly start to connect.

While Single Player waves its nerd flag proudly—there were probably about a million references that sailed directly over my head—there’s a lot here for even the least gamer-savvy reader to enjoy. Cat and Andi face hurdles aplenty to reach success, both romantically and otherwise, but that just means that by the time they reach the end of their gameplay, they’ve more than earned their happy ending.

Single Player, Tara Tai’s extremely nerdy romance set at a video game company, is a much-needed breath of fresh air.

Get BookPage in your inbox

Sign up to receive reading recommendations in your favorite genres every Tuesday. 

Recent Features

Think a Mars simulation and a video game company wouldn’t be romantic? Think again!
SFF Romances feature image
STARRED REVIEW
March 11, 2025

The 3 best SFF romances of spring 2025

Sorcerer, super soldier or boy next door? Whoever you choose, you’ll be swept away by these science fiction and fantasy romances.
Share this Article:
Review by

Caro Ogunyemi, the often-overlooked engineer on the spaceship Calamity, knows that any job offered by her former captain is bound to be bad news. But when he asks her to find Victor and Victory, missing twin mercenaries whom she’s come to see as friends, Caro can’t say no. Especially after she learns that their mission involved infiltrating the very project she tried to sabotage years before: brain-implant chips that strip people of their autonomy and personality to create sleeper super soldiers. If Caro can break into a prison, extract Levi, an improbably handsome and incredibly dangerous test subject, and save the twins, she just might be able to forgive herself and feel like she deserves her place aboard Calamity.

Chaos, the third book in Constance Fay’s Uncharted Hearts series, is part romance, part Shawshank Redemption. Caro narrates her tale with self-effacing humor and sarcasm that belie her own deep insecurities. Plagued by questions of her own inadequacy—as a lover, as a member of her crew and as a reformed almost-evil scientist—she repeatedly puts herself in danger that threatens to sabotage any chance of finding happiness. Her path to redemption is also her path to love. While the meet-cute is anything but ordinary (he’s a mindless shell, she’s pretending to be an evil scientist), Levi and Caro’s story is one of redemption. They force each other to see themselves as others see them: Caro is a brilliant engineer who has more than made up for her missteps, and Levi’s humanity isn’t determined by what others have done to him. 

Fans of the found family that was built aboard Calamity in Fay’s previous books may be a little disappointed that the rest of the crew have relatively little screen time. However, all signs within Chaos point to an explosive conclusion yet to come for the crew of Calamity and fans of Fay’s series.

Constance Fay’s Chaos is a sci-fi romance featuring a prison break, super soldiers and a reformed almost-evil scientist.
Review by

A plain and practical butcher’s daughter, Foss is aware that nobody would ever want to win her heart—which keeps her safe from the magic-workers, who steal them to fuel their magic. But when a visiting sorcerer comes to her village, he Snags her heart and vanishes without a word, leaving Foss riddled with painful heartsickness.

Leaving behind a note to her beloved Da, Foss sets off to the city to make the sorcerer give her back her heart. But the sorcerer doesn’t recognize her and, in a panic, Foss lies and offers to become his housekeeper. It gives her a chance to look around the magical House for the heart she knows the sorcerer stole. The sorcerer, however, isn’t what she expected. Sylvester may be superhumanly beautiful, but he’s also sullen, lonely and unable to control his magic. He’s not like his sisters, who intentionally and continually steal human hearts, leaving their previous owners hollow. Can Foss undo the spell, help the other heart-Snagged humans and sort out her feelings for Sylvester—or will a poor, ordinary butcher’s daughter succumb to a pain she never thought she’d experience?

Poet and novelist Andrea Eames pays homage to modern fantasy classics like Naomi Novik’s Uprooted and the Studio Ghibli adaptation of Howl’s Moving Castle with A Harvest of Hearts. Eames doesn’t always hit the same peaks as those inspirations: Characters act exactly as expected from the moment they are introduced, and the world building is unique but inconsistent, with Foss’ questions about how magic works never being adequately answered. The finale is more focused on the emotional stakes of the romance than the actions of its characters, leaving the Big Bad to be quickly defeated by a Macguffin in order to devote more space to a cozy post-credits scene.

Foss struggles with body image issues, even though she knows that she likely isn’t the ugliest woman in the world—just normal compared to the supernaturally gorgeous magic-workers around her. Thankfully, her complicated romance with Sylvester doesn’t magically solve these issues. However, Sylvester, who doesn’t interact much with Foss through the first half of the book, doesn’t get as much page time as readers might like. Eames’ writing shines best with her side characters: Sylvester’s beautiful, villainous sister Clarissa will please a certain subset of readers that love a hot, evil woman. The magical shape-shifting House (and its strong opinions on sexy dresses) and talking cat Cornelius steal the show, endearing themselves to the readers with strong personalities and deep desire to help our heroes.

While imperfect, there is much to enjoy in A Harvest of Hearts, and this fantasy romance will satisfy fans of Alexandra Rowland and Rebecca Thorne.

Poet and novelist Andrea Eames pays homage to Uprooted and the Studio Ghibli adaptation of Howl’s Moving Castle with A Harvest of Hearts.
Review by

Tess is an engineer. A good swimmer. A young woman with a life in California, sunshine and Silicon Valley. When she’s asked to return to her home island of Stenland, a “small rock between Scotland and the Arctic,” for her childhood best friend Linnea’s wedding, she assumes it will be no more than a blip in her schedule. A couple of days of PTO. 

But as A Curse for the Homesick unspools, it’s obvious Tess has unresolved history with Stenland. Years ago, she left behind her great love, Soren, among the Stennish caves and sheep pastures. Soren, with whom she’d felt the most like herself, to whom she’d devoted her most formative years. Soren, who before everything else, was a reminder of why she needed to leave. In a swish of magic reminiscent of Maggie Stiefvater’s The Scorpio Races, the island of Stenland is cursed. Every so often, and without warning, a few Stennish women are marked with three black lines across their foreheads, becoming “skelds.” For the month the lines remain, anyone who makes eye contact with a skeld will turn to stone. Soren and Tess have been inextricably bound since their elementary school days, when Tess’ mother turned Soren’s parents to stone during her skeld season. Growing up in the dark shadow of the curse, of how it killed, Tess was adamant to never be a skeld, to never stay. When she fell for Soren, who loves Stenland, she knew it was star-crossed. 

But once she’s back on the island for Linnea’s wedding, Tess and Soren meet again. A Curse for the Homesick is above all a second-chance romance, and author Laura Brooke Robson does a phenomenal job mixing flashbacks with scenes in the present, following Tess’ journey from a young girl into adulthood. We see her with Soren, but also with her dear friends Linnea and Kitty. We watch her navigate what it means to grow up, to grow into or out of a place, to choose between escaping and accepting a complicated past. Robson writes with simple elegance, and her book is not only a devoted character study, it is a love letter to her gorgeous fictional setting of Stenland: the wind, the cairns, the old towers; the ice cream spot and Hedda’s, the only coffee shop; the concrete swimming pool and the claustrophobia of a small town. This grounded, moving novel is a perfect rainy day read and an ode to what it is to be human—to desire and gain, to desire and lose, to find again.

Laura Brooke Robson’s debut fantasy romance is both second-chance love story and devoted character study, all written with simple elegance.

Get BookPage in your inbox

Sign up to receive reading recommendations in your favorite genres every Tuesday. 

Recent Features

Sorcerer, super soldier or boy next door? Whoever you choose, you’ll be swept away by these science fiction and fantasy romances.
Motherhood thrillers featured image
STARRED REVIEW
March 11, 2025

A mother’s intuition plays a central role in two new thrillers

Clever Little Thing and All the Other Mothers Hate Me examine the triumphs and trials of motherhood.
Share this Article:
Review by

It’s no easy feat to write an equally comical and compelling novel about a missing child, but Sarah Harman accomplishes just that in her wild romp of a debut, All the Other Mothers Hate Me

Florence Grimes was once the lead singer in a successful girl band, although those days are long behind this young American single mom. She and her son barely squeak by in London, although 10-year-old Dylan goes to a posh school paid for by her ex-husband. Florence never envisioned a life of “watching reality TV by myself all day, delivering balloon arches and dreaming of a musical comeback.” Everything changes, however, when Dylan’s bully—wealthy Alfie Risby—goes missing on a field trip, and some suspect Dylan is to blame. “If I’d had to choose a boy in Dylan’s class to vanish in broad daylight, Alfie would have been at the top of my list,” Florence confesses.

She soon teams up with another “outsider” mom at Dylan’s school, newly arrived Jenny Choi, a high-powered attorney and single mom to twin boys. Her sons “were a thirty-sixth birthday present to myself,” Jenny tells Flo. “Right after I made partner.” These two characters could hardly be more different, and their determined efforts have something of a Thelma and Louise vibe as they find themselves in increasingly unlikely—and dangerous—situations. 

The success of Harman’s debut derives squarely from her narrative and plotting skills, which propel readers through the many twists and turns of Florence’s sleuthing attempts to figure out what’s happened to Alfie and prove Dylan innocent. Florence can be a hilariously maddening, certainly not always admirable character, but she will keep readers entertained and intrigued. Seasoned mystery readers may pick up on some hints to the case’s solution along the way, but even so, plenty of surprises remain. 

All the Other Mothers Hate Me introduces an unforgettable bumbling detective, and hopefully Florence will find other mysteries to solve. Whatever the case, Sarah Harman is a writer to be watched.

Debut author Sarah Harman proves she’s a writer to watch with her hilarious mystery debut, All the Other Mothers Hate Me.
Review by

There are so many plot twists in Hannah Echlin’s Clever Little Thing that it’s impossible for a synopsis to truly do the story justice—this book will genuinely keep readers guessing, wondering what is a mother’s intuition and what could be perinatal psychosis.

Charlotte knows that her 8-year-old daughter Stella isn’t like other children. Stella can’t stand certain sounds, has sensory issues with tight-fitting or scratchy clothes, and goes into an apocalyptic tantrum Charlotte calls “freak-out mode” when she’s overstimulated. But Stella is also reading vastly above her grade level, and is curious about the world in a way that makes her precocious and unique.

But after Stella’s babysitter, Blanka, quits her job with a vague text message, things begin to change. Charlotte notices her daughter accepts change more readily and even begins to change physically, gaining weight rapidly. Alarmingly, Stella also seems to be regressing in her reading skills and her once avid curiosity is gone.

Teachers, counselors and even Charlotte’s husband, Pete, assure her that Stella is merely changing as she grows, and that she should be happy her daughter is turning into a more typical child. Charlotte isn’t so sure: To her, Stella is an entirely different child, almost like a changeling. As Stella continues to evolve, Charlotte begins to feel like she’s the only one who can see the truth about her daughter. However, she’s also in the midst of a high-risk pregnancy, a situation that others seem to think may be the true source of her anxiety.

The book is entirely narrated from Charlotte’s point of view, and her rising sense of panic and the “wrongness” about her daughter is acutely palpable. Still, Echlin keeps the reader removed enough that they’ll begin to wonder if the pressures of motherhood to a challenging child (Pete is a rather absent father) and a difficult pregnancy are clouding Charlotte’s judgment.

Clever Little Thing is an impressively twisty thriller, but it’s also a testament to a mother’s intuition and her love for her child exactly as she is, not as society wants her to be. Sometimes spooky, sometimes rage-inducing, Clever Little Thing concludes with a truly unexpected, impossible to predict ending.

Clever Little Thing is an impressively twisty thriller, but it’s also a testament to a mother’s intuition and love for her child.

Get BookPage in your inbox

Sign up to receive reading recommendations in your favorite genres every Tuesday. 

Recent Features

Clever Little Thing and All the Other Mothers Hate Me examine the triumphs and trials of motherhood.

Seize the Fire

An idealistic young woman puts her trust in a cynical rake. You probably think you know where a story with this opening might go. But Seize the Fire, the 1989 historical romance from the incomparable Laura Kinsale, is a unique and memorable twist on the trope. Sheltered and somewhat silly Princess Olympia St. Leger hires British naval hero Sheridan Drake to help her reclaim the throne of her home country. But Sheridan, a smooth-talking charmer, knows firsthand how concepts like liberty can be warped into violence for political gain. He’d be annoyed by Olympia’s lofty principles and permanently rose-colored glasses—if they didn’t make it so easy for him to take advantage of her. Yet Kinsale doesn’t set one of her leads above the other, instead taking a more realistic tack of highlighting the pitfalls of both viewpoints and setting up two very flawed characters. Olympia’s naivete is as dangerous, if not more, than Sheridan’s cynicism, and as necessary to change. As they wend their way through an absolutely unpredictable sequence of dramatic adventures—including pirates, a sultan’s harem, a shipwreck and a revolution—these total opposites are hewn into shapes that can only fit with each other.

—Trisha Ping, Publisher

Illuminae

Illuminae by Aime Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, the first installment of the Illuminae Files trilogy, is a recounting of an intergalactic invasion on the planet Kerenza in 2575 through a series of files including news reports and video footage analysis. Kady Grant and Ezra Mason break up just hours before the invasion. In the ensuing chaos, they both end up on different refugee ships attempting to outrun the invaders. The remainder of this sci-fi second-chance romance follows tech genius Kady aboard Hypatia and Ezra on the Alexander dealing with its mostly uncooperative AI system, AIDAN (Artificial Intelligence Defense Analytics Network). Amid coordinating a cross-galaxy journey for the three refugee ships, battling a plague and a rogue AIDAN, Kady and Ezra realize how miniscule the issues in their relationship were compared to the fight for survival—and that they are the only person the other can count on. The audiobook version is immaculate due to its full cast and sound effects, making the story utterly immersive. 

—Jena Groshek, Sales Coordinator

Any Old Diamonds

Morally grey hero this, morally grey hero that. Get you a guy that more than one character describes as “Mephistophelean.” KJ Charles loves an “upstanding gentleman meets an absolute reprobate”-type pairing, but Jerry Crozier of Any Old Diamonds is the king of reprobates—the reprobate all the other reprobates cross the street to avoid. A proudly amoral, single-minded jewel thief, Jerry arrives like an absolute wrecking ball into Alec Pyne’s life when the latter hires him to steal a set of diamonds from his father, a powerful duke. Charles has always been interested in how morality functions within immoral systems, and this theme finds its most extreme (and entertaining) expression in Jerry. Because he lives in 1895 Britain, Jerry’s talents for blackmail, theft, fraud and general intimidation are able to find a truly righteous outlet—robbing cruel, selfish aristocrats blind. His world is characterized by extreme wealth inequality and infuriating hypocrisy, which means that plenty of people deserve Jerry Crozier to “happen to them,” as he puts it. Actually, upon further reflection, I think Jerry would get along just fine in 2024.

—Savanna Walker, Managing Editor

Whitney, My Love

Tropes are the best part of the romance genre: You know what to expect, but skilled authors like Judith McNaught still find ways to reinvent them and make them exciting. Whitney, My Love, my favorite romance novel of all time, does just that, with McNaught employing a bevy of tropes at once: Fake relationship, check. Forced proximity, check. Arranged marriage, check. Hidden identity, check. This book’s many twists and turns make it a delightful read. Whitney Stone was sent to live with her aunt and uncle in Paris after being deemed an unruly child. When she returns home to Regency-era England after a triumphant launch in Paris society, she unknowingly catches the eye of the arrogant and mysterious Duke of Claymore, Clayton. Hoping to impress her father and finally be deemed good enough to marry her childhood love, Whitney tries to be the picture of a demure, refined woman. Clayton, her handsome but bothersome neighbor, pledges to help her appeal to her childhood love, but Whitney soon discovers that not only has her father promised her in marriage to Clayton, but he’s also a duke. McNaught cleverly twists together beloved romance tropes to create a complex story around intriguing characters that is impossible to put down. The best part is that finding passion and love isn’t the end of Whitney and Clayton’s story: There is so much more to discover about these two in this 577-page tome.

—Meagan Vanderhill, Brand & Production Designer

Because as we all know, execution is everything.
Book jacket image for Dream Girl Drama by Tessa Bailey
STARRED REVIEW
February 4, 2025

These 3 rom-coms may be zany, but they still have a lot of heart—and heat

Hallmark movies, stepsiblings and green card marriages, oh my!
Share this Article:

Falon Ballard’s sweet, endearing Change of Heart follows a career-driven lawyer who is magically transported into a Hallmark movie-esque world.

Falon Ballard’s sweet, endearing Change of Heart follows a career-driven lawyer who is magically transported into a Hallmark movie-esque world.

In their adult debut, Sonora Reyes infuses a rom-com with real and terrifying stakes.

In their adult debut, Sonora Reyes infuses a rom-com with real and terrifying stakes.

Tessa Bailey’s ultra-steamy rom-coms don’t shy away from kink or complicated relationship dynamics, but Dream Girl Drama is a first for her: a love story between two step-siblings. And since Sig Gauthie and Chloe Clifford are 1) full-blown adults and 2) very aware of the other’s feelings before they even learn their parents are dating, it sure sounds like Bailey is going to offer readers all of the taboo fun with none of the guilt.

Tessa Bailey’s ultra-steamy rom-coms don’t shy away from kink or complicated relationship dynamics, but Dream Girl Drama is a first for her: a love story between two step-siblings. And since Sig Gauthie and Chloe Clifford are 1) full-blown adults and 2) very aware of the…

Get BookPage in your inbox

Sign up to receive reading recommendations in your favorite genres every Tuesday. 

Recent Features

Hallmark movies, stepsiblings and green card marriages, oh my!
STARRED REVIEW
February 4, 2025

3 horror novels about the perils of guardianship

Giving or receiving care can be wonderful—but it can also be terrifying.
Share this Article:

Camilla Bruce’s cathartic At the Bottom of the Garden uses the trappings of gothic horror to wrestle with the meaning of death.

Camilla Bruce’s cathartic At the Bottom of the Garden uses the trappings of gothic horror to wrestle with the meaning of death.

With a sharp sense of dark humor and a stunning voice, Neena Viel uses well-worn horror tropes in deliciously terrifying ways in her debut, Listen to Your Sister.

With a sharp sense of dark humor and a stunning voice, Neena Viel uses well-worn horror tropes in deliciously terrifying ways in her debut, Listen to Your Sister.

Sleek, deadly and paced like a runaway train, Victorian Psycho is an absolutely delectable mashup of horror sensibilities.

Sleek, deadly and paced like a runaway train, Victorian Psycho is an absolutely delectable mashup of horror sensibilities.

Get BookPage in your inbox

Sign up to receive reading recommendations in your favorite genres every Tuesday. 

Recent Features

Giving or receiving care can be wonderful—but it can also be terrifying.

Sign Up

Stay on top of new releases: Sign up for our newsletter to receive reading recommendations in your favorite genres.

Trending Features