Native American Lore / Fantasy?

Reviewing as a white Australian who has no knowledge of the background lore of the Tlingit people. 

After trapping Raven who was trying to steal his fish Elán learns that the one of the mystical beings that are terrorising their community dropped a magical weapon into a distant bay. A group of warriors are assembled let by Elán who is not a warrior to retrieve the weapon. 

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

If I’m honest I found this book challenging. It’s a bit like watching a movie in another language with no subtitles. You get a feel for the story but you can’t quite grasp the deeper meaning. There is an ambiguity to the story and aspects of the story are given to you without much in the way of explanation. 

And that is what I like the most. I don’t need to understand everything, but listening is its own type of strength. 

Contemporary Romance (LGBT)

After meeting Marin on a bus in New York, a meeting that ended disastrously when Marin was hit by a car just as she got off the bus, Charlotte escaped New York and returned to her childhood home in Vermont. Working as real estate agent she is stunned when her new client is none other than Marin. 

After her accident, Marin’s life changed in big ways. She realised she was a lesbian and ended her loveless marriage. She quit her job and decided to make the change complete she would leave New York and take up a teaching position at a small university in Vermont. But with scars and chronic pain she is taking things slowly. 

As they look at houses, Marin fights her growing attraction to Charlotte who is straight. And for her part Charlotte is wondering if perhaps she is not as straight as she thought she was. 

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Margin for Error is primarily contemporary romance although with a mystery subplot in which Charlotte is trying to find out what happened to her mother who disappeared when she was a child. The sex scenes are quite steamy and honestly I flicked through those sections a little but I’m not lesbian, not even a woman so I’m not the target audience. 

It’s quite a sweet book and I enjoyed it despite the fact that it wasn’t written for me.

This book will be published February 3, 2026

Mystery

Detective Noelle Marshall is called after a young woman collecting cans discovers a body in a local teen hangout in the woods. FBI Special Agent Max Rhodes is investigating chatter about a possible terrorist attack. A car bomb explodes on the street destroying a local judge’s car and a body is discovered in the trunk. 
The cases seem unrelated but as they investigate connections start to appear. 

__________________________________________________________________________

Kendra Elliot delivers an exciting page turner, a great story with characters you love. I’ll reread most of her books over the course of a year but this one is extra special. It joins the top shelf of favourites. 5 Stars.

Young Adult / Fantasy

The Summer War Cella curses the brother she loves after he decides he can longer live the lie that has been forced on him. Regretting her curse she immediately tries to undo it and joins forces with the brother she doesn’t love to fix the mess she has created. But it will all be for nothing if the Summerlings exact their revenge on her father who defeated them in the Summer War.

The Guardians of Dreamdark Magpie is the greatest (only) devil hunter in the land. When some mannies (humans) accidentally release the Blackbringer thinking it a genie who will grant them wishes all hell breaks loose. The Blackbringer is more than just a devil it is the first and greatest devil and it took a god to imprison it the last time.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Why together? Laini Taylor and Naomi Novik brilliantly blend fairy tales into dark stories for young adults. These two books are very different but they also share some similarities. And the key similarity is they are both brilliant (in their own way).

Romantic Suspense

Bree Taggert is called to a brutal murder and all the evidence points to a socially awkward man the victim met on a dating app. The suspect calls in Morgan Dane to protect his interests. With the sheriff and Morgan Dane both investigating things start to look hokey. Then another woman who dated the suspect is murdered. 

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Another instalment in Melinda Leigh’s popular Bree Taggert series. These characters and stories are familiar and loved. Honestly book 10 is as good as book 1, it’s just not breaking new ground. I enjoyed it because it is another Bree Taggert book even if I didn’t really learn anything new about the characters.

Young Adult / Mystery

“I wrote Sisters in the Wind because the Indian Child Welfare Act, or ICWA, is under attack and –– SPOILER ALERT ––the battle has nothing to do with the best interests of the children.” (from the Author’s Note)

As a child Lucy was told she was Italian and it was only after her father died that she learned she was in fact Native American. Thrown into the foster care system she encounters a few good people and a whole lot of awful people. She does her very best to survive, to be a good person and to protect those who are weaker than she is but the system is against her at every turn.

When a Native American introduces himself at the diner where she works she finds out she has a mother who desperately wants to meet her, but others are searching for her with more malevolent intentions.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

The last page of this book left a vacuum. A silence. An emptiness. Angeline Boulley returns to the same world as Firekeeper’s Daughter and Warrior Girl Unearthed and just like those books there is a brilliant, entertaining story that hides within it profound lessons. Everyone will love this book but if I’m honest it is people like me, white men who need to read it.

Not all books are easy.
Not all books are enjoyable. 
And there are books that are difficult and not great fun that are none-the-less important. 

Bad Indians Book Club falls into that category. I didn’t read it thinking I was in for a great work of fiction. I read it to learn. Not just to hear Native American ideas but perhaps in a small way to understand how the original Americans see the world. 

As a white Australian male there are things I cannot understand but I can listen. And this book helps me to understand a little better, not just the Native American experience but also the Australian Aboriginal experience and the experience of other marginalised communities.

While reading this book I kept returning to this song by Annie Humphrey featuring the words of John Trudell.

ZomPoc

A pandemic sweeps through the world. Some lose their memory and slowly whither away. Others become violent and attack others, spreading the infection. After her fiancé abandons her with a group of murdering bandits Casey manages to escape and flees the city to her childhood home and her prepper dad. 

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

It’s actually fairly typical for the genre and if I’m honest I wasn’t really feeling it at first. But at some point (not sure when) I realised I was approaching it all wrong. Most books try to skirt around the edges of reality, keeping close enough that an average person with a little imagination could see it happening. The author puts people you would recognise in otherworldly situations. 

That’s not this book. She carries shuriken for goodness sake. 

This book is Batman. It’s Wonder Woman. It’s Tank Girl. And it’s a dozen other comics. And when I realised that I was suddenly enjoying it for what it is. An off the wall comic book bullet ballet.

Adventure / Thriller

A U.S. Marshall and a bank robber join forces to get back to family.

U.S. Marshall Cody Greer is sent to collect fugitive Caleb Frost after he is captured in a small town. On their return flight a CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) caused by a solar storm wipes out the electrical grid and causes their plane to crash.

Rather than taking his chance to escape, Caleb decides to help Cody get back to his wife and baby.

______________________________________________________________________

Brilliant. This book is a gripping page turner. It sucks you in and holds onto you to the very last page. I think it might be the best book I’ve read this year.

Paranormal Romance / LGBTQI

Nettie has led a sheltered existence on a small Island in Maine. Her future is all planned out. She will marry the werewolf her father chose for her and live her life on the island. Feeling her chances to see the world slipping away she runs away but soon discovers life isn’t easy in the human world for a naive werewolf with no money.

When she stumbles into Wisteria Grove she quickly realises it’s a witches village and werewolves and witches do not get on. She somehow manages to land a job at the town’s café but she must keep the fact that she is a werewolf secret. And she’s not the only one keeping secrets. The owner of the café, Rowena is intriguing and enigmatic and has her own secrets.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

I really loved this book. There isn’t much to it but it’s cute and entertaining and rather well written. The ending did drag on a bit but I think lovers of Howl’s Moving Castle would probably enjoy this. But not for the kids. It is lesbian romance but I wouldn’t have a problem giving this book to a mature teenager.