The Otherwhere Post by Emily J. Taylor

Amy       

Lynnie    

young adult, fantasy, audiobook 

 

Maeve's father died when her world was lost in a magical accident seven years ago. After receiving a mysterious letter, she decides to go looking for answers through The Otherwhere Post - a magical mail service that uses a dangerous magic known as scriptomancy to enchant letters, allowing couriers to deliver them to other worlds. Posing as an apprentice for The Otherwhere Post, Maeve gets more than she bargained for. Her handsome mentor, Tristan, knows that she is lying about who she is and her roommate, Nan, insists that they should be friends and spend time together, despite Maeve's objections. Maeve has to figure out who at the academy, if anyone, she can trust and who is sending her threats and potentially trying to kill her - all before anyone figures out her true identity.   

Lynnie's Review 

I was not expecting to love The Otherwhere Post nearly as much as I did! Emily J. Taylor created a world with fascinating characters, imaginative world-building and a plot that kept me interested throughout.

There were definitely times reading this book that I wanted to throttle Maeve. She made some very stupid decisions along the way and was generally saved from her own stupidity by those around her; what a lucky girl. I guess that's the joy (and the curse) of reading a YA book as an adult - we can see the better choices a little more clearly. That said, I generally enjoyed Maeve and the other characters in the book.

More than that though, the world-building was fantastic. Taylor created a world that I could clearly imagine, including all the magical flourishes. As a lover of all things pen and ink, I also really enjoyed the descriptions of quills and ink colors more than the average YA reader might, though I don't think Taylor went on too long with those descriptions.

I gave it 4 1/2 hearts because there were times when I felt things got a bit repetitive or predictable. Overall though, I loved it & will enthusiastically recommend this one. I read the book and listened to the audiobook and I think that Barrie Kreinik did a wonderful job! I loved her assortment of voices and accents and could clearly tell which character was speaking at any time.  

Amy's Review 

Sadly, I didn’t enjoy the Otherwhere Post like everyone else, including Lynnie. She and I normally don’t come away with such different opinions on a book! There are very few books for which our ratings different by more than 1-1/2 hearts—especially where we scored it on opposite sides of the average 3 hearts. If any of our readers decide to give The Otherwhere Post a try, I’d love to know what you thought!

First, I didn’t like the protagonist. Maeve was a selfish person. She assumed the identity of an innocent person, stealing that person’s opportunity at a prestigious school. Granted, about 2/3 of the way through the novel, the reader finally reaches a better understanding of Maeve’s issues and why she can’t seem to care about anyone besides herself. And she grows into a less selfish person gradually. However, the author never sold me on why Maeve’s roommate, Nan, and mentor, Tristan, liked her so much. She avoided them whenever possible, ran off multiple times, stole things, broke all the rules for her own purposes, and yet they always forgave her and attempted to be closer to her. The secondary characters were much better people.

Secondly, I didn’t love Emily J. Taylor’s writing. The beginning of the story was very “beginning of the story”-ish. I mean, the background wasn’t creatively, organically described and was just sort of an information dump of the situation to familiarize the reader with Maeve’s world. And, while there were moments of excitement and creativity, there were also many moments that were spelled out in mundane excess. And it was clunky—not successfully masking the filler sections that were meant to keep the story flowing from one major scene to another. The author also let situations drop without continuation or closure. For example, there was a big deal made about horses at the beginning, implying Maeve would have some work to do, and the novel just dropped that storyline. There were a lot of overly convenient situations which I often forgive in a novel I’m enjoying but just bugged me more in this one.

To make matter’s worse, the audiobook narrator, Barrie Kreinick, with whom I am normally impressed, spoke so robotically for her “narrator voice” that I thought it was an AI narrator! I think she was trying to sound like Julie Andrews but her delivery was too unemotional for this book. There was no warmth when she was speaking as the narrator. She did a great job while voicing the characters, however, showing off the skills I know she possesses. I think she just made a bad choice when voicing this narrator. Therefore, I’m giving her a B- because the narrator does most of the talking in this novel and I was disappointed. 

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab

Amy   

fantasy

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is told from multiple perspectives.  Maria is married off to a viscount in the 1500s. She is beautiful and clever and does what she can to retain some power over her own life. Charlotte lives in Britain in the 1800s and is sent to her aunt’s house to prepare to attract a husband. Alice is a Scottish college student in America in 2019 who has never felt like she fit in. All three young women are facing transitions that become even more difficult than they had intended.

I went into this novel blind, without knowing anything about it other than it was written by the fabulous V. E. Schwab and I’m so glad I hadn’t read anything about the plot! The central story theme was a surprise to me. If I’d known about it ahead of time, I fear I might not have read it because I’ve read a lot of books in this “genre” and am sort of burnt out on it. But, without giving anything away, I’ll just say that this was a fun story with Schwab’s signature creativity, humor, and darkness. It’s not my favorite novel of hers that I’ve read but I did enjoy it and its inclusive cast of characters.

My main complaint is that I felt Schwab went too much into Alice’s back story. It had so much detail which didn’t seem to be important. These sections sometimes sucked the momentum out of the novel, especially after the halfway point when I felt that I already had a pretty clear understanding of Alice’s childhood. 

The audiobook had three narrators: Julia Whelan voiced Maria and her snarky tone worked perfectly for that character. She’s always a terrific voice actor. Katie Leung voiced Alice. I do wish she’d have spoken slower with her Scottish accent. I had no trouble understanding her but I felt like she flew through the material too quickly sometimes. Otherwise, she also seemed perfectly cast for the part. Marisa Calin voiced Charlotte. She’s got that sort of panicked, on the verge of losing it, way of speaking—quickly with staccato…sort of a British high class, whiny, high-strung quality. It grated on me for some reason. While I didn’t appreciate the quality of her voice, she did a good job with the voice acting. All three narrators had to display a few different accents and did a good job with that. I’ll give them an A- as an ensemble.

The Book of Lost Hours by Haley Gelfuso

Lynnie 

science-fiction, historical fiction, fantasy 

 

I'm a sucker for a timeline hopping, multi-verse type of story so I was really hoping to love The Book of Lost Hours. I definitely enjoyed it. Hayley Gelfuso crafts a great story with interesting characters and a clever premise. What kept me from loving it, however, was that sometimes it drags along and, unfortunately, parts of it were very predictable.

Still, I loved Gelfuso's description of the "time space," the place where memories and time exist as if in a giant library, where trained individuals can access (and destroy) memories and, therefore, rewrite history. If knowledge is power, then imagine what it means to have control over memories.

Political intrigue, love, history and morality all clash in the time space and in the real world. Mostly told through two timelines - the time surrounding WWII and the 1960s - the timelines and characters weave together until the full story is revealed.

I generally found most of the characters interesting, particularly Lisavet and Amelia, just as we are supposed to and I was eager to see how the situations resolved and whether or not our heroines were going to be able to save themselves.

The Book of Lost Hours starts out slowly as Gelfuso builds the world, so be patient. The action certainly picks up in the second half of the book, but there were times in the first half that I was ready to put it down and walk away. I'm glad I didn't.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the advance ready copy. This book will be published on August 26, 2025.  

 

Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry

Lynnie   

Amy      

  

women's fiction, contemporary fiction 

Alice and Hayden are writers who are competing to write the biography of the heiress, Margaret Ives, who disappeared from public view decades ago. They both show up on Margaret’s remote Georgia island in order to impress her but their competition becomes mutual attraction.

Lynnie’s Review

I generally enjoy Emily Henry's books - some of them, quite a lot. But Great Big Beautiful Life is another book about book people and, while I enjoyed the story, this may be my least favorite. 

Finding themselves in a cute, remote beach town with a month to win her over, Alice spreads her sunshiny outlook everywhere she goes. Of course, that means Hayden has to be a stereotypical, overly-serious grump so that Alice can break through his hard shell to find love. LOVE, I tell you. 

Sadly, the love story was one of the least interesting parts of this book; I just never really believed in their instalove. It's also trying to be a mystery, and to sell us on the idea that Margaret Ives and her very rich family are fascinating and broken. I felt like Henry was going for a Seven-Husbands-of-Evelyn-Hugo vibe with Margaret but never quite made her interesting enough. 

Was Margaret's backstory interesting? Sometimes, very. Other times it was predictable and kind of dull. Did I care if Alice and Hayden ever got to embrace true love? Not really. Did I see the big mystery reveal coming a mile away? Yes. Yes I did. 

Still, it was a cute book and would be an excellent vacation read, as most of Henry's books are. I have noticed that I'm generally more entranced by her books when I read them on vacation, so... there's that.  

I also listened to part of the audiobook and Julia Whelan was, as always, wonderful.

Amy’s Review

Alice and Hayden were adorable. It did take me a while to tolerate the effervescent personality of Alice. She’s one of those practically intolerable optimists. But it took her relentless positivity to be able to puncture Hayden’s tough outer shell. They made a good yin-yang couple. Their romance was of the variety where they had to fight off their attraction through most of the novel for the sake of protecting themselves. Their futures were uncertain—Margaret’s choice about which of the two authors she’d select to write her memoir could alter their feelings for each other. 

Margaret’s quirky home island was a fun setting for Great Big Beautiful Life with all the characters who lived in her corner of the world. Her history was a storyline separate from Alice and Hayden’s love story. I was interested in both stories, especially in the second half when Margaret’s story became more personal and juicy than the previous ancestral stories. 

This was a fun summer read. It was the sixth novel I’ve read by Emily Henry so it’s no surprise that I liked it. But I agree with Lynnie…a good vacation read or palate cleanser (as was the case for me and was just what I needed) and, yes, Henry writes a lot of books about book people. 

Looking for Jane by Heather Marshall

Amy      

historical fiction, contemporary fiction

Right from the first chapter, I was hooked!  A letter is misdelivered and lost for seven years which changes the lives of three women.  The novel changes perspectives between Angela, the woman who finds the letter in her antique shop in 2017; Nancy, the intended recipient of the letter; and Evelyn, a woman who was forced into a home for unwed mothers in the 1960s and later became a doctor. It is told over the course of their lives spanning nearly 80 years. Their stories illustrate the pregnancy- and motherhood-related struggles of women in the 20th and 21st centuries and highlight the importance of reproductive choice.

While the setting of Looking for Jane was in Canada, the situations were similar to those that have been faced in the United States. Heather Marshall did a wonderful job crafting this novel with the multiple perspectives and timelines. I liked the way the characters’ stories intersected in smart and subtle ways. Eventually, certain surprises were predictable but the author’s choices about what to make obvious and what to keep under the radar were well done. And while Marshall definitely had an agenda in the points made during this novel, I agreed with them wholeheartedly. Even though I thought I fully understood the issues around women’s personal choice, I still learned a few things by being able to experience these characters’ situations in detail.

The audiobook narrator was Sarah Borges. At first, I didn’t think I’d like her since she had a very robotic tone at times and also often sounded like she had a piece of hard candy between her teeth and the inside of her cheek. But  her voice acting and broad vocal repertoire eventually won me over. I will give her an A- since her positives strongly outweigh her negatives.   

The Incredible Kindness of Paper by Evelyn Skye

 

Lynnie  

contemporary fiction, magical realism 

 

Evelyn Skye's The Incredible Kindness of Paper is a palate cleanser book – a sweet, easy read with generally lovely characters and a happily-ever-after ending. Chloe and Oliver are inseparable growing up; they have been best friends since paired for a pen pal assignment in elementary school. Just as their relationship begins to turn a corner toward romance, Oliver's family leaves town without a trace, breaking Chloe's heart (and Oliver's too, clearly). Twenty years later, Chloe is a guidance counselor in NYC facing a series of personal challenges. To cheer herself up she begins folding yellow origami roses and writing positive messages in them and dropping the roses around town. Seeing how her roses have affected the recipients, Chloe is determined to spread more kindness through her roses, finding help, community and new friends along the way. Meanwhile, Oliver is a successful financial analyst and number savant, also living and lonely in NYC. As you can predict, a series of events lead Chloe and Oliver back into each other's lives - if they will only open their eyes and hearts to their destiny.

The Incredible Kindness of Paper is feel-good writing at its best. I just found myself smiling as I read this book and enjoying the simplicity of it all. Wouldn't it be wonderful if it were as easy as a found paper rose to remind people to be kind to one another? I loved watching the connections form between characters and seeing how simple acts of grace and kindness helped them all form a community. Chloe and Oliver were lovely, if sometimes frustrating characters. There wasn't a lot of gray to either of their personalities and it took way too long for them to get out of their own way.

This is a great book to read at a time when life is feeling pretty heavy. When you need a reminder that people are good, pick up this title.

Thanks to Atria/Emily Bestler Books and NetGalley for the advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. The Incredible Kindness of Paper will be published on August 12, 2025. 

The Society of Unknowable Objects by Gareth Brown

Amy    
Lynnie 

contemporary fantasy, magical realism 

 

In London, there is a society of individuals who have taken on the responsibility of safekeeping magical objects. When the Society of Unknowable Objects determines that someone has started collecting these objects with the intent to cause harm, they decide they must take action to protect the world.

 

Lynnie's Review

I loved Gareth Brown’s previous novel The Book of Doors - it was one of my favorites of 2024.

This follow up, the Society of Unknowable Objects, is in the same world as The Book of Doors, but focuses on a slightly different subject matter- objects, such as a necklace or a chess piece, are imbued with magic and enable the person who has possession of them to perform a variety of magical tasks. The society wants to protect the world from these magical artifacts.

Once this book got going, I really enjoyed it. I have to admit though, it has a very slow start and doesn’t initially sell you on why you should care about the Society of Unknowable Objects or its members’ lives - they are all kind of quiet, dull people initially. Eventually that changes as mysteries are solved, action ensues, and the magic is unveiled.

I really liked the characters and I found that even the story's villains were intriguing. I’m so glad Brown is continuing to spend time in this universe as it’s clearly full of opportunity. Unfortunately it’s the slow start that makes this book compare negatively to The Book of Doors. Still, if you like magical realism, you’re likely to enjoy this adventure. 

Amy's Review

While The Society of Unknowable Objects had its own storyline, its premise was identical to The Book of Doors—there are magical objects (instead of books) and, among the people who know of their existence, there are those who are interested in protecting them from being misused and others who have ill intent.

While I generally liked the characters, I never felt invested in them. The one exception about whom I was curious—a character who was introduced at the very beginning and then ignored til much later in the novel—turned out to be a minor character. 

It took me a long time to read this novel. It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy my time while reading it, but it wasn’t calling me. I wasn’t thinking about the characters or their situations except while actively reading. There was no real hook for me. The one character into whom we gained the most insight, Magda, frequently disappointed me. She was supposedly smart. But she was so slow and hesitant to actually do anything most of the time. She would hem and haw and take too long to rise to the occasion. But then the few times she did take decisive action, it was without thoughtful consideration of the situation and her rushed knee-jerk reaction was unfortunate! Therefore, I really had trouble with her as a protagonist. I kept mentally screaming at her, depending on the situation, to either do something or to realize that she was making a mistake. I got tired of her internal turmoil. 

The last third of the novel was filled with action, much like Gareth Brown’s first novel, and was the most entertaining portion. Despite my problems with the characters, Brown’s creativity was certainly on display. I loved the magical items. And I loved the eventual link to his first novel. It just took me a while to appreciate it.

Thank you to NetGalley, William Morrow, and Gareth Brown for giving us access to early galleys for our unbiased reviews. The Society of Unknowable Objects will be published on August 12, 2025.