books

Murder at Gulls Nest Review

Book: Murder at Gulls Nest
Author: Jess Kidd
Publisher: Atria books
Year: 2025
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Synopsis : “I believe every one of us at Gulls Nest is concealing some kind of secret.
1954: When letters from Frieda, her dependable former novice, stop arriving, Nora Been asks to be released from her vows. Haunted by a line in one of Frieda’s letters, Nora arrives at Gulls Nest, a boarding house filled with lively characters.
A seaside town, a place of fresh air and relaxed constraints, is the perfect place for a new start. Nora hides her identity and pries into the lives of her fellow guests. But when a series of bizarre murders rattles the occupants of Gulls Nest, it’s time to ask whether a dark past can ever really be left behind.”

Review : If ever there was a book (and book cover, for that matter) for me, Murder at Gulls Nest is it. As a lifetime lover of Agatha Christie and a familiar soul in the mystery section of the bookstore, Gulls Nest called to me immediately. It’s worth noting that this book is being marketed as the first in a series – I couldn’t be happier to hear it! And now that I’ve devoured this one, sadly, the wait begins for book two. Jess Kidd has crafted a perfectly cozy, wonderfully intriguing, and marvelously enjoyable whodunit, complete with an amateur sleuth hell bent on doing her own thing, potentially because she’s simply better at this than the actual detectives on the case; a small town filled with interesting characters and all manner of crime; and the back-and-forth, will they / won’t they banter between our protagonist and the town’s slightly cinematic, slightly heroic, slightly overworked detective inspector. What isn’t there to love?

Nora Breen, formerly Sister Agnes, has left her post at the convent, released her vows, and joined the outside world as a middle aged woman with a head for solving puzzles and an interest in what life outside the habit and wimple might actually entail. Kidd has created such whit within Nora’s character, rounding her out and giving depth to someone we’ll spend an entire book alongside – it made for a truly enjoyable and unputdownable book. Nora, following in the footsteps of her friend and former novice, Frieda, is bound and determined to find out what’s going on. Similarly to Nora, Frieda has recently entered the outside world as someone other than a nun, however unlike Nora, Frieda did so for medical reasons. Being afflicted with some kind of heart and lung condition, Frieda was advised to take to the sea, for the brisk and salty air were a balm for her condition. Upon arriving at Gulls Nest, a boardinghouse complete with mysterious long-term boarders and rife with gossip, Frieda begins to fulfill the singular promise she made to Nora when she left : she wrote a letter a week to tell of her new adventure. When Frieda’s letters stop arriving, Nora knows something has gone terribly wrong. Despite her best efforts to convince her Mother Superior that Frieda would never simply break a promise and stop writing, the consensus (among nearly every person she encounters throughout the book) is that Frieda is out living her life, no need to worry. Nora disagrees, and being someone who sees connections where others might not, she knows she cannot sit back and allow her friend to be in potential danger. So she leaves.

** Spoilers Ahead **

It would be difficult to review this book without giving SOME spoilers away, but don’t fret! I promise I won’t tell you who did it, you’ll have to read it for yourself to find out.

Nora arrives at Gulls Nest, under the guise of a former nurse (which, in fact, she was), with a small stipend, a few hand-me-down dresses, and all the gumption in the world. She begins to casually insert herself into the lives of her fellow boarders at Gulls Nest, having rented the room that once belonged to her friend. She reveals her mission to the local detective inspector, one Inspector Rideout, and causes much damage to the police station by way of a thrown shoe – or two. Something I loved immediately about how Nora was written was that not only did we find her grappling with life in the outside world after several decades of life in a convent, we immediately get to know her as so much more than a former nun and nurse. From making friends with the gull who likes to hang out on her windowsill (who she affectionately names Father Patrick Conway, after the priest who saw her through her own novice), to mild harassment of the local police force, to completely ignoring Inspector Rideout’s assessment of her missing friend, to smoking cigarettes just to do it, to riding in fast cars because it was purported to be an enjoyable aspect of life, there is no shortage of facets to our lively protagonist; Nora is a force all her own.

Unlike Sherlock Holmes or even Hercule Poirot, Nora Breen is not indescribably smarter than the average reader – something I enjoy a great deal in a murder mystery. We are given the chance, as readers, to take in just as much information as our protagonist does, meaning we have every opportunity to solve this murder for ourselves. Or maybe I should say murders. Once Nora arrives at Gulls Nest, believing she’s there to solve the case of her missing friend, two more boarders end up dead, most certainly murdered. I was grateful to find that while I did, in fact, solve the murder a little more quickly than our Nora, I didn’t solve it right away or even without much reading. I made it through a good portion of the book before I came to any kind of conclusion, having jumped between several theories at different times and that feels like the making of a good, classic whodunit. We get to be the amateur detective here and that’s something I’ll always appreciate – no missing or hidden clues from the reader, no information we couldn’t possibly have known, just pure and simple, straightforward sleuthing for clues, compiling information, and attention to detail.

Kidd has done an excellent job with her first installment in the Nora Breen Investigation series and I look forward to additional mysteries to come! This is clearly not her first rodeo, having written several book prior to this. The layout flowed well, the pacing made sense, and though it was written in the present tense, which is not my favorite, though the fact that this post is written largely in the present tense is not lost on me, it read easily and without confusion. The fact that I didn’t solve the mystery right off the bat, that I became invested in the whole cast of characters, and that I was sad when it ended and I wasn’t able to order book two immediately all make this a great read in my humble opinion.

Advice : If you enjoy a good mystery, this is going to be a must read for you! This book is for anyone who enjoys Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Sherlock Holmes, or any of the classics. You’re going to love it, I just know it.

Any Human Power Review

Book: Any Human Power
Author: Manda Scott
Publisher: September Publishing
Year: 2024
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Synopsis : “As Lan lies dying, she makes a promise that binds her long into the Beyond. Fifteen years later, her teenage granddaughter, Kaitlyn, triggers an international storm of outrage that unleashes the rage of a whole betrayed generation. For one shining fragment of time, the world is with her. But then the backlash begins and soon she and those closest to her find themselves facing the wrath of the old establishment, who will use every dirty trick in the book to fight them off.
Watching over the growing chaos is Lan, who taught them all to think independently, approach power skeptically and dream with clear intent. She knows more than one generation’s hopes are on the line. Nothing less than the future of humanity stands in the balance.
Grand in scope, rich in courageous characters who breathe new life into ancient wisdom, here is a dream of a better future : a world we’d be proud to leave to our children and their children and on, generations down the line.”

Review : It all started with a tweet. Fifteen years after the death of our narrator, Lan, we find her teenage granddaughter, Kaitlin, checking in with her Uncle Niall before sending a single incendiary tweet into the world, to be seen by her many thousands of followers, a tweet that holds the power to change the entire world. It seems impossible, doesn’t it? Before I began this book, I couldn’t fathom what kind of power a single tweet might have in the landscape of our ever moving headlines : where horrifying news breaking nearly hourly is the norm, where all one needs to do is step out of the limelight for a comment that didn’t age too well to be forgotten, where we brush aside some of the most horrific statements from politicians on a regular basis. And then I read Any Human Power and I understood.

Let me back up. Before we dive into this book, before I recommend you read this book (and believe me, I will), you need to know what you’re getting yourself into. Content warnings for Any Human Power include existential themes such as climate change, a sense of impending doom, depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts and ideations, examples of characters committing suicide on page, gun violence, political extremism, stalking, doxxing, harassment, paparazzi, discussions of addiction, and death both as a tangible concept (ie, death of a loved one) as well as Death / Afterlife as a location. That sounds like a lot and frankly, it is, but my greatest hope is that this list will simply prepare you for the reality of this book and not keep you from diving in. At the end of the day Any Human Power is a mirror reflecting our current reality back to us and that can feel quite overwhelming, particularly in the form of a 500 page book, but believe me when I tell you this book is a blueprint for a better world. We need only read to understand.

I was given this book as a review copy after it’s publication, not as an advanced copy, and I was told it was a thrutopian novel. Now, this was a new word for me and I had to go googling to figure out what thrutopian might mean, so if you’re in the same boat I found myself in, let me help : “It’s not dystopian. It’s not utopian. It’s a thrutopia where people fight through the obstacles to get to the future that we want…[books that] inspire you that hope and optimism are not only possible, but critical to changing the ending of our story as human beings.” (Aya de León) Trutopian, indeed. Any Human Power, as stated above, offers a blueprint for how our world might genuinely change, we need only find those with the drive, the resources, and the determination to see real and lasting change for the greater good rather than the individual or individual groups as part rather than the whole.

So, like I said, it all started with a tweet. Or rather, it all started with the death of a matriarch, Lan. On her deathbed, mere moments before departing our world for Beyond, Lan makes a single promise to her young grandson, Finn : if he ever needs her, if it’s possible, if it’s within her power, she will come. As she steps into the Beyond and meets her guide, a Crow she met previously within the world of Dreams, she realizes she cannot pass beyond this intermediary space; the power of her promise has tethered her to Finn until he releases her or dies. Little does she know her promise will be a beacon of light and a powerful thread of hope in the darkness of her family’s collective lives over the next two decades as her promise grows and her power to hold her family together intensifies.

Through Any Human Power we experience not only hyper-realistic depictions of our current reality (though, it’s worth noting that if you’re in the US and not in the UK, not every aspect of this book will be quite as easily relatable) from Gen Z very real worry that they are not guaranteed a career and a mortgage or even a habitable planet if things do not dramatically change with immediacy, to the political extremism that infiltrates social platforms, radicalizing those who are most vulnerable, leaving a trail of bodies in its wake. To be completely honest, this book required a solid break about midway through for me. I was unable to read it through in one go, I had to pick up a few lighter books before I was able to finish it – gun violence will do that to you. Some things are truly too real, simultaneously, some things should not be looked away from. The two are true within this book. Any Human Power holds a mirror up to our lives and asks us to take an unflinching look at how tremendously wrong life has gone, all in service of the almighty Capitalism. It asks us not to shy away, because we’ve shied away for far too long. Now is the time for witnessing, for collective action, and for liberation through community care.

Scott has truly created a timely, powerful, and wildly important masterpiece. I would go so far as to call this a work of genius. Not only does she shine a light on the intensity and immeasurable suffering our world experiences at the hands of corruption and out of control consumerism, they also pave a way forward step by step with meticulously detailed instructions. There are somewhere around 200 pages of this book that are dedicated to answering the question what now? Scott tackles governmental reform and from this space a domino effect takes place – once we reform how our governments operate and where their priorities lie, then we begin to reframe and reshape our corporations, our communities, and our globe. My only note about this book is that Scott resides in the UK and their characters reside within the UK, so govermental reform is dedicated to Parliament which I have only the most rudimentary understanding of. There were many aspects of this plan that would not translate to government within the United States, and even priorities which are not quite as high on the list of things that might need to be adjusted here as there, but beyond these technicalities, in the right hands…my god. This book could serves as the catalyst for true global change. Any Human Power asks that we put people first, that we consider communities as more important than money, and insists on full financial transparency within the government and corporations. It has completely challenged me and changed me – I cannot express the gratitude I feel enough. The relief to know what life could be is profound.

While so much of Any Human Power exists within a deeply grounded reality, equally we spend time in the Beyond, Between life and after-life with Lan, with those beings who are beyond gods, beyond time and space and all human concept. We exist in a world that layers itself on top of ours, we enter into the void and parse timelines with intense precision while sweat drips down our brow, and we come to understand that the truest, greatest human power is love.

Advice : Any Human Power quotes both Ursula K. LeGuinn and Angela Y. Davis to remind us that capitalism is not the be-all, end-all and to encourage us to live each day as if a better world was possible – because it is. If you have climate anxiety, if you work in the realm of grassroots organization, if you want to see things change and change for good and change with speed, if you have resources available or know people who do, if you’re on the cutting edge of technology, or if you work in tech at all, if you love people, if you want to see community care prevail in the face of an ever-widening political canyon, if you believe in cooperative living, if you refuse to take your eyes off the suffering of the world, if you can’t see a future for yourself, your age group, or those younger than you…read this book. Don’t look away when it gets hard. Keep reading. Keep going. Run. Don’t walk. Pick this one up immediately.

Wooing the Witch Queen Review

Book: Wooing the Witch Queen
Author: Stephanie Burgis
Publisher: Bramble
Year: 2024
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Synopsis : “Queen Saskia is the wicked sorceress everyone fears. After successfully wrestling the throne from her evil uncle, she only wants one thing : to keep her people safe from the empire next door. For that, she needs to spend more time in her laboratory experimenting with her spells. She definitely doesn’t have time to bring order to her chaotic library of magic.
When a mysterious dark wizard arrives at her castle, Saskia hires him as her new librarian on the spot. “Fabian” is sweet and a little nerdy, and his requests seem a bit strange – what in the name of Divine Elva is a fountain pen? – but he’s getting the job done. And if he writes her flirtatious poetry and his innocent touch makes her skin burn, well…
Little does Saskia know that the “wizard” she’s falling for is actually an Imperial archduke in disguise, with no magical training whatsoever. On the run, with perilous secrets on his trail and a fast-growing yearning for the wicked sorceress, he’s in danger from her enemies and her newfound allies, too. When his identity is finally revealed, will their love save or doom each other?”

Review : Wooing the Witch Queen was a cute, quick romantasy-ish book about two people who are ultimately misunderstood by those around them. I call it romatasy-ish because while it is a fantasy and it’s being published under Bramble, a romance novel imprint of Tor Books, the actual romance aspect of this book was…light. I think if this were a movie it might be rated PG-13 for implied nudity; the romance aspect of the book was mild, took the entire book to develop, and was about as closed-door as it gets without actually being a closed-door romance, take that how you will!

Outside the actual romance of the novel, which the synopsis seems to more than imply is the majority of the book, the actual plot of Wooing the Witch Queen centers around Saskia’s immediate threat to the throne she stole from her uncle – largely from her neighbors, seemingly under the order of the Archduke Felix.

** Warning, spoilers ahead! **

Being as quick as this read was, there’s very little I could say here that wouldn’t be a fairly immediate spoiler, so let’s just dive into it. What Saskia, or the rest of the surrounding kingdoms for that matter, doesn’t know is that Felix is simply a figure-head, someone who has been held prisoner, who has no formal diplomatic training, and who has no say in what his kingdom does or doesn’t do. On the night his traitorous family is poised to murder him and turn him into a martyr, Felix makes an escape to the only Imperial who has been able to hold off his in-laws : Saskia. Wearing what he doesn’t realize is the cloak of a dark wizard, Felix escapes while donning a swooping hooded cape. When he arrives at Saskia’s court, she assumes he’s a dark wizard answering her call for a temporary laborer to arrange her magical library. Without allowing Felix to get a word in edgewise, Saskia hires him and permits him to wear a mask – something that is, apparently, typical for dark wizards.

The remainder of the book follows this path : Felix bumbles his way through his task, only capable of organizing a magical library because he’s only ever been allowed to participate in the arts, Saskia falls for his gentle personality, and no one seems to be any wiser until he finally reveals himself to her at the end of the book. Ultimately, I found this story to be mildly cute but of no great importance or need to be told, the romance was more actually romantic than what you might expect out of a romance novel, and Felix’s character is written like the reversal of every female protagonist written by a man – deeply hard to believe, full of strange character traits that sound more like a woman who didn’t have any diversity in her beta readers, and not all that interesting when it’s all said and done.

Finally, I found the plot to be thin and weak, Felix’s background was never fleshed out, and I found myself with questions I didn’t ultimately find answers to. I think the trouble with writing a fantasy novel is you have to create a story that’s compelling enough that the reader finds themselves willingly reading about the politics of a world that is wholly made up – if you create a world the reader isn’t invested in, there’s then no incentive for them to involve themselves with the minutiae. Sadly, Burgis did not succeed in compelling me to care about the politics of the world she crafted and so during moments of political discourse (which comprised a good deal of the book), I found myself bored and uninterested. I was never given the chance to become invested in the world when the book moved so quickly and never fully explained the main characters backgrounds in a way that felt satisfactory. Overall, this book was fine.

Advice : If you pick up any romantasy you can get your hands on, maybe this will be for you! If you prefer more romance, more fantasy, more everything…well, maybe this isn’t going to be the one. It might be worth checking out from your local library.