Short reviews

Working It by Christine d’Abo

Noah is ready for a new start after a serious traffic accident left him with severe anxiety and PTSD. He takes a job as personal assistant to the head of IT for a major company.

Zack has burned through his last four admin assistants, and doesn’t see why Noah would be any different. Noah, however, gets under Zack’s skin very quickly and the pair find they have more in common than first thought. Zack is trying to get his passion project - a battered old boxing gym - off the ground, and Noah - Noah is just trying to get through.

This is actually a pretty sweet M/M romance. Zack is kind of a butt at first, but he’s patient with Noah when Noah’s anxiety surfaces, and Noah. Listen. I will fight bears for Noah.

A Plague on Both Your Houses by Susannah Gregory

It’s 1348. At Cambridge University, Matthew Bartholomew is a doctor with revolutionary ideas about medicine and treatment. He’s also a teacher of medicine at the university.

When the Master of Michaelhouse dies unexpectedly in an apparent suicide, Matthew finds himself drawn in to intrigues and conspiracies. And all the while, the Black Death stalks the streets.

I love a good medieval mystery and A Plague on Both Your Houses doesn’t disappoint, although it gets a bit wavery in the middle, story-wise. It’s also the first book in the series, however, and I have high hopes about the rest.

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

Alice has a bad fall at the gym, hits her head, and somehow loses 10 years of her life. Instead of the 39-year-old divorcee with two children, Alice believes she’s 29 years old, blissfully happy with her husband and about to have her first baby.

Alice has to navigate some very choppy waters, including the fact that her ex-husband seems to hate her, she’s an obsessive gym bunny and she has no idea where to start.

What Alice Forgot takes a bit to get going, and I found myself getting oddly impatient with Alice at certain parts of the book.

Overall a good read, though.

Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire.

I LOVED THIS SO MUCH. I mean. Um. Jack and Jill (twins) are characters in Every Heart a Doorway, the first book in the series, and Down Among the Sticks and Bones - a standalone novel in the series - tells their story; of the Moors that they ended up in when they took the stairs that suddenly appeared in their house.

It’s a short book at less than 200 pages, but the punch is a whack around the head. It’s just. It’s so good. Jack is great, and Jill … knowing what happens with the twins in Every Heart a Doorway gives Sticks and Bones more emotional impact, and let me tell you, it’s pretty impactful on its own.

Book three - another standalone, I believe, is coming out in January and I cannot WAIT.