Time for another round of Yvonne’s Shorties! This time around a YA urban fantasy sequel that was pretty good and a contemporary that wasn’t quite as uplifting and funny as I hoped it would be.

Title: Mislaid In Parts Half-Known
(Wayward Children #9)
Author: Seanan McGuire
Genre: YA, Urban Fantasy
First published: January 9th 2024
Publisher: Tordotcom
Finished reading: May 17th 2024
Pages: 149

“People who can’t change aren’t really perfect, and no matter how much we love it somewhere, that doesn’t mean it’s good for us.”

REVIEW

I’ve been catching up with this series and I decided to read the most recently published sequel as well so that I’m finally up to date. Mislaid In Parts Half-Known is already book number nine of this YA urban fantasy/magical realism series, and it’s a direct sequel of book eight with plenty of spoilers for the other books as well. This means it’s definitely important to read the books in order! That said, I really liked that we got to see how Antsy’s story ends in this sequel. Mislaid In Parts Half-Known is partly set at Eleanor West’s School and partly a quest set in multiple worlds. As always, I prefer the quest parts, and while it was great catching up with some of the characters, it also kind of distracted from the plot itself. There were actually too many references to past quests and things the characters did, and it kind of made my head spin. Also, when did Sumi get so mean? I would have loved more focus on just Antsy and maybe Kade, as the story didn’t really feel all that cohesive as some of the previous sequels. The quest itself also wasn’t quite as challenging as I thought it would be… Although I still enjoyed following the characters and I liked how things were wrapped up. All in all it wasn’t my favorite Wayward Children book, but still a pretty good read.

Title: The Golden Oldies’ Book Club
Author: Judy Leigh
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
First published: December 6th 2022
Publisher: Boldwood Books
Finished reading: May 19th 2024
Pages: 347

REVIEW

I was looking for a book with humor for the Beat The Backlist Bingo challenge when I remembered I had a copy of The Golden Oldies’ Book Club on my kindle. I’ve enjoyed this author in the past and I always like a story with older main characters, a bookish angle and a travel element. It sounded like such a fun read and I decided to read it as a little break from my usual thrillers. In the end, I did have mixed thoughts though… It’s not a bad read, but it wasn’t nearly as uplifting and humorous as I thought it would be either. The premise is great with the cider farm setting, the small town and the community vibe with the group of mixed age women in the spotlight. The trip to France was also a lot of fun to read about, which was probably my favorite part of the story… That and Violet’s corny jokes of course. BUT. There was simply SO much drama going on! Seriously, every single character had something negative going on, up until the point that it just wasn’t credible anymore. I mean, I get that it’s not all roses and sunshine, but the story was a lot more depressing than I thought it would be. I would have loved more focus on the positive, or at least have things improving sooner… As it is, the characters are basically all dealing with their own issues for most of the book, only to have everything miraculously resolved at the last minute. And then I mean a complete 180 change within a couple pages… Not a credible way to resolve conflicts/issues at all. I did like the bookish references though, and the descriptions of the workings of a cider farm were intriguing.

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