The Seasonal Reading Challenge discussion

Here is the Review Raffle thread for Spring 2026.

We will draw a random name from anyone who posts a review in this thread and they will be given the opportunity to create a task in the Summer 2026 season - the more reviews that you post, the more chance of being drawn!

Reviews must be for books read within the current challenge period. You may link to your review on Goodreads, or type the review in the thread. (Please do not link to a review on a site outside of Goodreads).

Your review does not have to be positive but it should be at least a couple of sentences long - "loved it" or "not for me" is not helpful to other readers!

Please remember to include your Readerboard name when posting your review.

XBM

4.0/5 stars - Delightful little book about a time traveling couple, Leon and Max(well) who go back to 1924, Devon, England for a short rest while Max recovers from an injury incurred on a previous adventure, and of course, wind up in the heart of a new murder mystery. (view spoiler)[Leon is suspected of the murder, which it sounds like is a common occurrence, and Max saves the day, pointing the police to the correct villain, while they escape, in the nick of time. They have to leave many things in their hotel room, including Agatha Christie's book, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, which hasn't been published as yet. That, and their mysterious disappearance right in front of the inspector's eyes make for some interesting questions when they reappear a few years later (actually the next day, in their time), to check and see if they were right. (hide spoiler)]
I would definitely read more of this series, if I came across it again.
This was an Amazon original, free on Kindle. While I read books through the Libby app, quite often, I rarely download anything to Kindle.

2026 ATY: 39. A book connected in some way to the "Queen of Crime", Agatha Christie
2026 Pop: 41. A book in a different format than your usual: physical, audio, eBook

Kelly L

I had high hopes for Kin, Tayari Jones's first new novel in about 8 years, and she delivered. I found it fascinating to listen to interviews with her, where she shared that this was not the story she set out to write: it was so clearly a story that she specifically was meant to write.

I loved both Niecy and Annie in their own ways, and the supporting characters jumped off the page. Niecy's story of going to school at Spelman in the 1960s felt in conversation with Kiley Reid's 2024 novel Come and Get It, which also followed a girl to college in the deep South, but was set in 2017, at a large public university. On the other hand, Annie's struggle to figure out who she was and her path in life felt reminiscent of the titular character in Demon Copperhead - untethered by the loss of their mothers, raised up in community but always seeking beyond their hometown, both sought a different self than they knew how to be.

I initially rated this 3.5 stars but after sitting with it, it's a full 4 stars for me.

**Apr. 6: I posted this and went to claim this book for a task; it didn't fit the requirements. Rather than delete this post, I will come back to confirm when I've used the book for a task this season!**

Readerboard Name: Michelle in Alaska

Review of The Atlas Complex by Olivie Blake
4.5 stars (reread)

** This review contains spoilers (hidden) **

Oh…
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4.5 stars, rounded up for Nico, mi amor
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A week later, I finally have the heart to try to say more than a single word about this book.

Philosophically meandering, structurally bewildering, The Atlas Complex's title is a promise. See, you either *get* it or you don't. Olivie Blake herself knew this story would have a unique audience, and how niche it appears now that we're on this side of the trilogy reading rainbow. What do you get when you underpin the first book with themes of despair, chaos, futility, entropy, and corruption?

You. Get. This.

And fuck, if this doesn't read like art to me.

Look, did I enjoy reading this book? Actually, it split my heart right down the middle and didn't even offer a bandaid or a conciliatory high five. It isn't trying to offer any happy endings. If you examine TA6 closely, you will see why: the whole premise has been about the inevitability of human nature, chaos, entropy. Fateful vice, useless virtue.

(view spoiler)[Consider two primary thematic lines here, and consider their consummation.

Corruption. End result: Libby kills Nico, her soulmate. The ultimate departure from self.
Futility. End result: Callum dies* without preamble right in front of Tristan, latter of whom is powerless to stop it. (hide spoiler)]

I really just...
Have no words.
I want to start the trilogy all over again. If only to (view spoiler)[hear Nico's voice one more time. Something something about not just being a river in Africa? (hide spoiler)]

Readerboard Name: Michelle in Alaska

Review of Strange Houses by Uketsu
3.5 stars

The more time I sit with the ending, the more I don’t trust anyone in this book. 🤔

==

I think the excitement of this book's hype is the most delicious thing about it. It starts out strong and intriguing, but by the end, I was a little unimpressed with the culty bit of ending we got. There is, however, a certain degree of genius in this book in that, the longer you sit with the ending, the more questions you have. Implications, hypotheses, a bit of narrator unreliability, a meta closing. The mini rabbit hole the ending eventually led me down excited me enough to raise my rating from 3 to 4. If you're not reading closely, I think the precision of the mystery will fly right over your head, as it did mine initially.

Readerboard Name: Michelle in Alaska

Review of The Ballad of Falling Dragons by Sarah A. Parker

Oh, hello, beautiful, luminous dragon moon sky. We meet again. <3

I have waited a certified Unfairly Long Time™️ for this book to release, but she was well worth the wait. If you primarily loved When the Moon Hatched for the rich world building, the unique magic system, and the heartbreaking backstory of our heroine, Raeve, you'll love this sequel. If you, like me, loved WTMH perhaps in spite of the main character, GOOD NEWS. She's still stabby and dodgy, but now she has channeled it into a purpose, and she's all the more badass for it. Here you'll be gifted with a genuinely COOL heroine. You still get the ethereal love story, plus lots of adventure, many fun side characters to root for, and a sense that things are slowly inching toward a stunning conclusion in book 3.

If, like me, one of your biggest gripes with WTMH (officially subtitled "One of My Favorite Stories of All Time") was the excessively flowery and gratuitous language, I can happily share that this book got a much heavier edit. The readability surpassed my expectations.

While I found the emotional impact of WTMH utterly unsurpassable, Ballad is a solid, tight sequel, and I am so excited to rant and rave about it. I will continue to stand on business that this is some of the best fantasy I know. It’s not soft and delicate. It’s muddy, violent, and oh so divine. If you want to enjoy a woman author writing vicious fantasy, here ya go. There is some INSANE SHIT©️ coming in the last book. I am sat and ready, patiently not screaming (externally, at least, for the benefit of other people, or whatever).

🐉🌒✨

Thank you to Sarah A. Parker, NetGalley, and Harper Collins, for the digital ARC. 🙏🏼 My most anticipated ARC ever, and I feel truly blessed to have been offered one.

Readerboard Name: Michelle in Alaska

Review of The Midnight Train by Matt Haig

Midnight strikes again. 🖤

I adored The Midnight Library for the possibilities. The what-ifs. The gratitude for the life I have and the fuel to make it even greater.

The Midnight Train follows along in its bigger sibling's footsteps, except this time, you will meet an old man, recently deceased, who is given the bittersweet task of watching the sequence of his life's events from the train, forced to watch his portrait on the wall inch ever closer toward his last day (hello, Dorian Gray!) before he enters eternity.

Time play is a bit in the zeitgeist (I think I'm funny) these days, and you'll find it here, too: a narrative woven around the concept that time is not linear, not constant, not sequential. Sure, modern physics tells us this is true, but fortunately we, as mere mortals prone to existential crises, don't have to grapple with the consequences of this in practice. But, what happens if you WERE forced to grapple with exactly that? Told that you mustn't interfere like the good little time traveler you are because of the risk of Irreversible Change™️, the potential sacrifice to your entire eternity? Can you think of That One Thing that you would change if you could, no matter the risk, the cost? Would it be crazy to risk it? Would it be crazy not to? These are the questions Wilbur must face in this introspective novel.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I'm tempted to become a Matt Haig completionist. Here is someone who can write a story that feels sweet without quite crossing the line of being saccharine. Haig is a master of nostalgia, of real and believable characters, and of yummy, thought-provoking fantasies.

Feed me more Matt Haig please. <3

Thank you to Matt Haig, NetGalley, and Viking Penguin for this lovely ARC. 🙏🏼

Readerboard name: Michelle in Alaska

Review of Recursion by Blake Crouch

They say drugs are bad, but then how do you explain this? I'm a junkie for this brand of crack, and I want more. Recursion is an astoundingly tight novel, hooking you from the first page and refusing to let go. I am in awe of what Crouch was able to accomplish here in 329 pages. Recursion is trippy and mind-bendy, visceral and terrible. It dances along the line of what's plausible, making it all the more terrifying. It will make your brain hurt (in the way that builds character. The nerdy way. The hot way.) Go into it without reading the blurb and just let it ragdoll you along. Shh, it's okay -- it'll be fine. Michelle says so.

Readerboard name: Michelle in Alaska

Review of The Bookshop Woman by Nanako Hanada

The Bookshop Woman was offered to me as an ARC. A book about books is always a promising thing, and so I accepted. Nanako is a woman in the process of ending her marriage and rerouting her life, blindly but with that persistent little gem called hope -- something that very much mirrors my own life. I too have found myself in Nanako's position, knowing that things need to change and yet -- failing at basic life cartography -- being unable to decipher the map. So, much like I did, Nanako challenges herself to grow. Whereas I picked up hobbies, learned new skills, and traveled, Nanako decided to strengthen both her book recommendation skills as well as her social courage, meeting strangers from a random website and, using what she has learned about them, suggesting a fitting book title to them.

I do think part of my reception to this is the inherent difficulty of capturing cultural nuance and mood when translating from Japanese to English, but the story starts out a little odd in plot and tone. However, I found myself quickly sucking down pages, intrigued by the various people Nanako meets and curious about where she will find herself at the end of this strange journey. Ultimately, The Bookshop Woman felt entirely readable, often relatable. Warm and cozy in a way. It's a fun memoir, and while, to me, it failed to really propel itself at any point, I'm glad that it exists in the world.

Thank you to Nanako Hanada, Isabel DaSilva, Tiny Reparations Books, and NetGalley for pressing this ARC into my hands. 🙏🏼