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Took me forever to sit down and make some progress, but I am getting into it.

Not a lot of action, but the premise is interesting enough.

HUGE stuff keeps happening in the plot, shockingly early.

I have a bit of a conundrum. On the one hand, I mostly enjoy these stories. I think the "cat lady" date was poorly written and rushed. I think it was queer-baiting to call the first date with a gay guy a "date," when it really wasn't. But, overall, I enjoy this. But, the author said something really offensive on her FAQ section of her website. When I brought it up with the moderators of her FB page, angry retorts.

Pleasant surprise came early in the novel. I must say, I am paying surprisingly close attention to this "cozy" series. The characters are engaging enough that I am following along with the audiobook without difficulty.

Done with the first date. While the story is pretty good, I am disappointed that the "gay" date was between a gay guy and a straight guy, so no real romance was possible. Do I like the idea of a straight guy being comfortable having a platonic night out with a gay guy? Yes. Do I find this a satisfying "date"? No.

Like so many memoirs, the author describes their drug use proudly. Matter of factly. As usual, I don't understand WHY the drug problem started. They just treat it as a matter of course that people would do acid, ecstasy, marijuana, etc., even starting at a very young age.

I know that this is meant to be more of an elementary school book, or at least middle grade. But, it's grating on me. The protagonist is somewhat willing to consider the possibility she is seeing a ghost, is totally unwilling to talk about there being a demon, and all the demon has done so far is taunt her. It's a child's problem ("How do I steal/keep/give an amulet?"), with attention to a child's bedroom.

This feels like the work of a really talented middle schooler. The dialogue and pacing are all cliche and juvenile. It is urgently important to go to a dee-jaying show, and this precludes the protagonist from taking time to get answers about her parents' murder. But, the person with the answers is going with her to the show, and there is time to stop and talk about other things along the way.

The protagonist just gave an explanation for why witches are better than wizards that came across as transphobic. He called wizards "unnatural," and that they're lying by trying to be like witches. He used an analogy about a dog pretending to be a cat. ... Where are you going with this? Because it sounds like transphobia in every way except explicitly.

Let the hate read begin.

So far, I have concluded that most of Rachel's problems could be solved if she started carrying a regular gun. A council of witches tries to trick her and steal from her? Bam. Problem solved. Setting aside Rachel's ongoing stupidity...

Okay, it's starting to hit the fan. I thought that would take longer.

Newest Dannika Dark book is out. Let the hate-read begin.

This is oddly engaging. Or maybe it's just like crack for us reader/writer types.

I don't understand this world. Are all the characters openly bisexual in the 1800s, and for some reason there is no homophobia? What is happening?

Took me a while to get started, but now I am into it.

At 12% through the audiobook, still not very much has happened. But, I feel such relief to be back in a universe that makes sense, where Peter and MJ are married. This book came out shortly after I started reading comics, and I miss the status quo of my childhood. So. Damn. Much.

I am fully expecting this to be a hate-read. I despised the previous books in this series, and am seriously concerned that the author is a Nazi.

God, I love this author. So comforting, even while describing magical ex-convicts forming a Suicide Squad under the duress of man-eating tattoos.

This dystopian Hellscape has the premise that armed, drug-addicted gangs are always out in the streets, robbing and raping and killing. Police still exist, but are dismissed as a nuisance who would only arrest good people.

... In 1993, this Black author clearly did not appreciate how thrilled our over-militarized police would be to patrol the streets with assault rifles to wipe out drug-addicted people of color.

The author's notations about how she's unsure when these vignettes appear in the timeline, as well as comments about how she changed the endings of some stories, really drives home that these are works of fiction. You're getting a glimpse of the author's process, and her decisions are seeming so arbitrary.

They were smart by putting short stories in this collection in order of which authors were most famous. Dresden Files is one of my all-time favorite series, so in theory it's nice that they led with this. However, a Toot-Toot story only really has value as a humor piece. I'm annoyed that The Others universe by Anne Bishop is so popular and it's my mission in life to destroy this series. But, it's the second story.

I keep forgetting whether this book is by Max Gladstone or Adrian Tchaikovsky. Very similar tone and themes. Although, since I believe both are heterosexual cismen, I am not caring for the offhand inclusion of so many queer characters without explanation. Ramon is introduced and described as "mostly brown and mostly queer." I'm gathering in context he is Latino, and he dates men at least part of the time.

This is a bit of blessed relief for a 90s comic book fan. I've been meaning to read this book series for more than 12 years, and now that an audiobook version has been recorded, I'm finally going to finish it. Now it's like balm on my wounds to hear about classic 90s X-Men and Peter Parker back when he was married to Mary Jane. The way comics SHOULD be.

This book is turning into the best season of Dexter. (The Julia Stiles season.)

At least this audiobook is going by quickly? I can kinda sorta enjoy this, but it's written practically at a middle-grade level. Simplistic characters without much depth. Straight-forward mysteries that are more easily solved by the reader than by the protagonist.

Just to be clear, I am only hate-reading this book. I despise this series with a visceral passion, and I just needed to study the most recent installment before I refresh my scathing review.

I appear to be having a theme night. This is the second nonfiction book I've picked up today, and it's the second book featuring black female authors talking about their lives growing up in Nebraska. But for both unrelated books, their point was that there aren't a whole lot of black people in Nebraska.

I was fine hearing about the author's surrogacy journey and sexual assault. Those were probably the selling points for this book. ... But, hearing about Gabrielle Union praising regular use of strip clubs feels like a bridge too far.