This is always an ongoing read for me. I bought the special edition from b&n years ago and read it with my teen and tween

Mary Kenney is a video game developer writing to encourage girls and women to bring their talents to her industry. She addresses Gamergate and her own experience with misogyny in gaming early on. The women included go back to Mabel Addis Mergardt who designed a game for an IBM educational program in 1963. Kenney’s message is clear: women have been integral to the video game industry from day 1. The only thing I dislike about this book is the order. The short bios seem arranged in whatever order Kenney thought of the women to include. Maybe chronologically would have made more sense.

The Marlow Murder Club unites 3 women of different ages and backgrounds who all know at least one victim and suspect in a string of murders. DS Malik discourages their involvement, of course, but she has to admit that Judith, Suzie, and Becks make more breakthroughs than her understaffed team. If you like the idea of The Thursday Murder Club but not the writing, see if The Marlow Murder Club is more your cup of tea (or tumbler of whiskey).

What’s true? Dorothy Sayers founded the Detection Club for the best of the best mystery fiction writers of the time. May Daniels, a young English nurse, disappeared while on a day trip to France. Sayers and her reporter husband, Mac, investigated May’s disappearance and probable murder. Marie Benedict takes these facts and creates a locked room mystery solved by the all-star Queens of Crime: Sayers, Agatha Christie, Emma Orczy, Ngaio Marsh, and Margery Allingham. At first the investigation is a bit of a lark, a way to prove their worth by solving a mystery the police and their fellow (male) mystery writers can’t. But the queens bond as they learn about the sweet, naive person May was. The press describe a very different woman, turning public opinion against the victim. She had it coming. The police jump at any excuse to unofficially stop investigating (since they aren’t getting anywhere). Only the Queens care about justice for May, and all of the expendable young women like her.

Romeo and Juliet (one of my least favorite plays) set in the forest community of Shady Hollow. He’s a hardworking otter, she’s a (former) beaver heiress. Their parents can’t agree on much, but do believe the couple need to split up. The otter patriarch dies during a very dramatic, very public fight at the top of Twilight Falls. Vera Vixen, reporter, is as horrified as everyone else, but she’s the only one who feels the whole scene was . . . wrong. All clues and an anonymous note point to the young beaver lass. But her beau insists they were together in the woods and surely he wouldn’t lie to protect his father’s killer.

I loved the movie and didn’t realize there was a book. I loved all the added detail in the book!!!!!

I loved the movie and didn’t realize there was a book. I loved all the added detail in the book!!!!!

Dowager Queen Ravenna has ruled through subtle and not-so-subtle manipulation of her late husband and now her son. King Roland hated his father and fears his mother. Queen Falaise, alternately bullied and ignored by men, might be a lot than more than anyone realizes. Denzel is Roland’s cousin and closest friend, but where do his loyalties really lie? Kade Carrion, Queen of Air and Darkness and Roland’s illegitimate older sister, returns to court. Is she part of the plot to kill the royals and use the fae to start a war with the neighboring kingdom? Years of distrust separates the family. They might survive if they work together.

If I could read this over again for a first time I would. Riveting and keeps you sucked in the whole time. Absolutely love this authors writing. I will be looking for more from her.

Absolutely loved it!! Did not disappoint and I’ve now found a new favorite authors. This book kept me guessing and had me gasping out loud. Pulled on the heart strings so hard but just enough to be pleasant.