It took me nearly 2 months, but I did it! I finally got this post up! In Quarter 2 of 2024, I read 8 books, basically all fantasy or historical fiction. So if you like those genres, keep reading! I’ve included content warnings with each of these books, although they are not conclusive. Hopefully they can guide you in your reading decisions!
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Fourth Wing (#1 of The Empyrean)
“Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders. But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away…because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them. With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant. She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise. Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom’s protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret” (x).
As someone who has read a lot of Sarah J. Maas in the last year, I’ve obviously heard about Fourth Wing. Since I had finished the Crescent City series, I didn’t want to jump right into Throne of Glass, and was still in the mood for romantasy books (aka romance + fantasy), I read Fourth Wing.
I loved it! I especially loved how Violet has EDS, which the author has. (It’s never explicitly named as EDS, but since the author has it and the descriptions match what I’ve heard about EDS, I feel good calling it that.) Some of her struggles in the book were based on how people viewed her disability, as you can see from the summary, but she is an amazing rider because she wasn’t supposed to be in the Riders Quadrant. As she is described in the book, she’s a rider with the heart of a scribe.
Definitely pay attention to the content warnings below, as they are all key parts of the book, but as long as you’re okay with them, I recommend this book. It’s similar to ACOTAR and Crescent City in that it’s in the same genre, but know that unlike those, most of the fantasy elements are due to the dragons.
Content Warnings: Sexual content, Death, Violence, Death of parent, War, Injury/Injury detail
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The Priory of the Orange Tree (#1 of The Roots of Chaos)
“The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction – but assassins are getting closer to her door. Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic. Across the dark sea, Tané has trained to be a dragonrider since she was a child but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel. Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep” (x).
As I said last year, I knew that I would enjoy rereading this book, and I was correct. I still love this book! While there is romance in it, it’s definitely on the fantasy side and not the romantasy side. Also as I said last year, if reading about pregnancy, miscarriage, or infertility bothers you, don’t read it. Those are key elements of the book as, like the summary says, Sabran has to get pregnant.
One of the things I love about this book is how the different parts of the world are such different societies – like our world – so it’s like reading a historical fiction taking place in 16th century England, East Asia, Africa, and Europe. Plus dragons and some magic.
Content Warnings: Miscarriage, Death, Violence, Pregnancy, Infertility, Religious bigotry
Read my review from the last time I read this
The Art of Theft (#4 of Lady Sherlock)
“As ‘Sherlock Holmes, consulting detective,’ Charlotte Holmes has solved murders and found missing individuals. But she has never stolen a priceless artwork – or rather, made away with the secrets hidden behind a much-coveted canvas. But Mrs. Watson is desperate to help her old friend recover those secrets and Charlotte finds herself involved in a fever-paced scheme to infiltrate a glamorous Yuletide ball where the painting is one handshake away from being sold and the secrets a bare breath from exposure. Her dear friend Lord Ingram, her sister Livia, Livia’s admirer Stephen Marbleton – everyone pitches in to help and everyone has a grand time. But nothing about this adventure is what it seems and disaster is biding time on the grounds of a glittering French chateau, waiting only for Charlotte to make a single mistake…” (x).
This is the first of many Lady Sherlock reads in this post. What I love about the series is how, while the entire series is connected, each book is different. And I don’t just mean because they’re literally separate books: the book, as is obvious, is about a heist, which none of the other ones are about.
It’s also nice to have all/most of the main characters together for the book. They don’t have to spend as much time going “I wonder what Charlotte’s doing right now” or “I hope Livia is holding up okay” because they’re all together. Again, doesn’t seem like much, but it is different from most of the series.
Read my previous reviews here.
Content Warnings: Death, Murder, Gun violence, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment
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Murder on Cold Street (#5 of Lady Sherlock)
“Charlotte Holmes, Lady Sherlock, investigates a puzzling new murder case that implicates Scotland Yard inspector Robert Treadles in the USA Today best-selling series set in Victorian England. Inspector Treadles, Charlotte Holmes’ friend and collaborator, has been found locked in a room with two dead men, both of whom worked with his wife at the great manufacturing enterprise she has recently inherited. Rumors fly. Had Inspector Treadles killed the men because they had opposed his wife’s initiatives at every turn? Had he killed in a fit of jealous rage because he suspected Mrs. Treadles of harboring deeper feelings for one of the men? To make matters worse, he refuses to speak on his own behalf, despite the overwhelming evidence against him. Charlotte finds herself in a case strewn with lies and secrets. But which lies are to cover up small sins, and which secrets would flay open a past better left forgotten? Not to mention, how can she concentrate on these murders when Lord Ingram, her oldest friend and sometime lover, at last dangles before her the one thing she has always wanted?” (x)
As I mentioned, each book in the series does something different. For this one, it’s a locked room mystery in addition to the prime suspect being an ally of Charlotte’s.
As you’ve gathered if you’ve read these posts before, I love this series and reread the entire series every year. I’ve finally remembered that I like this book a lot more than I remember!
Part of it is that it takes place shortly after The Art of Theft while the other books in the series take place weeks or months after one another. Normally, the books have to spend some time updating the reader on what the characters have been up to in the time since the previous one. Not in this case!
So this book has a more personal connection to Charlotte than some other ones in the series, is a locked-room mystery, and takes place days after the previous book.
Read my previous reviews here.
Content Warnings: Death, Murder, Gun violence, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment
Miss Moriarty, I Presume? (#6 of Lady Sherlock)
“A most unexpected client shows up at Charlotte Holmes’ doorstep: Moriarty himself. Moriarty fears that tragedy has befallen his daughter and wants Charlotte to find out the truth. Charlotte and Mrs. Watson travel to a remote community of occult practitioners where Moriarty’s daughter was last seen, a place full of lies and liars. Meanwhile, Charlotte’s sister, Livia, tries to make sense of a mysterious message from her beau, Mr. Marbleton. And Charlotte’s longtime friend and ally, Lord Ingram, at last turns his seductive prowess on Charlotte – or is it the other way around? But the more secrets Charlotte unravels about Miss Moriarty’s disappearance, the more she wonders why Moriarty has entrusted this delicate matter to her of all people. Is it merely to test Charlotte’s skills as an investigator, or has the man of shadows trapped her in a nest of vipers?” (x)
As you can see from the book description, what makes this book different is a) we have the most direct connection and interaction with Moriarty yet and b) Moriarty is the client.
Read my previous reviews here.
Content Warnings: Death, Murder, Pregnancy, Gun violence, Sexual content, Kidnapping
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A Tempest at Sea (#7 of Lady Sherlock)
“After feigning her own death in Cornwall to escape from Moriarty’s perilous attention, Charlotte Holmes goes into hiding. But then she receives a tempting offer: Find a dossier the crown is desperately seeking, and she might be able to go back to a normal life. Her search leads her aboard the RMS Provence. But on the night Charlotte makes her move to retrieve the dossier, in the midst of a terrifying storm in the Bay of Biscay, a brutal murder takes place on the ship. Instead of solving the crime, as she is accustomed to doing, Charlotte must take care not to be embroiled in this investigation, lest it become known to those who harbor ill intentions that Sherlock Holmes is abroad and still very much alive” (x).
The mystery in this book is, you know, solving a murder on a ship before all suspects deboard.
Unsurprisingly, I enjoyed this book on my third read of it! I wanted to reread parts of the series because the 8th book of the series came out in June. (You’ll see my review of it in the next edition of 2024 Recent Reads.)
Read my review from the last time I read this here.
Content Warnings: Murder, Blood, Classism, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Gun violence
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Go Tell the Bees That I Have Gone (#9 of Outlander)
“Jamie Fraser and Claire Randall were torn apart by the Jacobite Rising in 1746, and it took them 20 years to find each other again. Now the American Revolution threatens to do the same. It is 1779, and Claire and Jamie are at last reunited with their daughter, Brianna, her husband, Roger, and their children on Fraser’s Ridge. Having the family together is a dream the Frasers had thought impossible. Yet, even in the North Carolina backcountry, the effects of war are being felt. Tensions in the Colonies are great, and local feelings run hot enough to boil Hell’s teakettle. Jamie knows loyalties among his tenants are split, and it won’t be long until the war is on his doorstep. Brianna and Roger have their own worry: that the dangers that provoked their escape from the 20th century might catch up to them. Sometimes, they question whether risking the perils of the 1700s – among them disease, starvation, and an impending war – was indeed the safer choice for their family. Not so far away, young William Ransom is still coming to terms with the discovery of his true father’s identity – and thus his own – and Lord John Grey has reconciliations to make, and dangers to meet…on his son’s behalf and his own. Meanwhile, the Revolutionary War creeps ever closer to Fraser’s Ridge. And with the family finally together, Jamie and Claire have more at stake than ever before” (x).
I hadn’t reread this before! I read it when it came out a few years ago, but it’s so long that I hadn’t reread it yet. Honestly, I needed to kill some time before my next Audible credit became available and I wasn’t feeling drawn to any of the books on my TBR (that were available to borrow without a wait).
I don’t know what order in the series are my favorites, but this is definitely higher than I would have thought after the first time I read it.
There are a few things that make me love this: the whole family is in the same time period together, the big family secrets (namely Willie’s existence) are open to all of them, and they’re back on the Ridge.
Content Warnings: Death, War, Violence, Pregnancy, Slavery, Medical content
Read my review from the last time I read this.
Iron Flame (#2 of The Empyrean)
“Everyone expected Violet Sorrengail to die during her first year at Basgiath War College―Violet included. But Threshing was only the first impossible test meant to weed out the weak-willed, the unworthy, and the unlucky. Now the real training begins, and Violet’s already wondering how she’ll get through. It’s not just that it’s grueling and maliciously brutal, or even that it’s designed to stretch the riders’ capacity for pain beyond endurance. It’s the new vice commandant, who’s made it his personal mission to teach Violet exactly how powerless she is–unless she betrays the man she loves. Although Violet’s body might be weaker and frailer than everyone else’s, she still has her wits―and a will of iron. And leadership is forgetting the most important lesson Basgiath has taught her: Dragon riders make their own rules. But a determination to survive won’t be enough this year. Because Violet knows the real secret hidden for centuries at Basgiath War College―and nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end” (x).
I definitely enjoyed this book. Initially, I would have said that I liked this one better than the first, but I don’t know if that’s true. The first book in any fantasy series requires a lot of world-building, so the second can get right into it. I think my initial reaction is due to that.
Like I said earlier, if you like ACOTAR, you’ll like this series. But I will also say that if you wished there was better representation – disability, race, and sexuality – then you’ll definitely like this. I can only comment with expertise on the disability aspect of it, but after hearing some of the comments about representation in Maas’s books, I paid better attention to this series.
Content Warnings: Sexual content, Violence, Torture, Death of parent, War, Death
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Kate Mitchell is a blogger, chronic illness patient, and advocate who helps people understand chronic illness and helps chronic illness patients live their best lives.
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