I had a great reading month to kick off 2025, including three 5-star reads (!), one of which was a re-read of an all-time favorite, and a very fun romantasy from a new-to-me author. Let’s get into it!
Stats
Total books read: 6
BOTM: 1
Re-reads: 1
eARCs: 1
In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan (5 stars) (4th re-read) – This is, and always will be, one of my all-time favorite reads, and due to a stressful time at work I was due for another re-read. Here’s my review:
5 stars is not enough. I loved the crap out of this book.
In Other Lands fits right into that niche genre of books that satirize and also pay homage to traditional portal fantasy stories, like Lev Grossman’s Magicians series, or Rainbow Rowell’s Carry On, or Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series. If you liked any of those, you’ll also probably love this book. We follow Elliott, a young bisexual British boy, who’s given the opportunity to enter the fantasy realm of his dreams–except nothing there is as he expects it to be, and he finds himself constantly challenging society’s expectations and norms. Elliott is extremely intelligent but very difficult in social situations, and he’s constantly butting heads with everyone around him except for his crush, Serene-Heart-In-the-Chaos-of-Battle, a beautiful elf maiden who is also, like all female elves, a deadly warrior. The two of them form an at-first tension-filled friend group with Luke Sunborn, a seemingly perfect stereotypical male fantasy hero, with the three of them gradually becoming closer and learning more about accepting each other’s faults as they progress in their training to join the Border Guard, which acts as a military force policing both the fantasy realm and its border with the human ones.
I will say that if you are a stickler for structured plots, then you may have issues with this book. Personally, as long as I’m enjoying what I’m reading and I love the characters, I could care less about having drawn-out battle scenes or whatever, so it didn’t bother me at all, but I could see some readers taking issue with the fact that the story meanders without following a traditional conflict/resolution fantasy plot struture.
This book is a beautiful story about growing up and learning to challenge traditionally held beliefs, which may not be the right ones, and learning to understand and accept yourself for who you are. It’s about friendship and how people can complement each other while still being from very different backgrounds. It’s about learning your strengths and using them to make the world a better place. It made me laugh out loud continuously and also cry multiple times. It’s one that I can see myself re-reading and enjoying just as much each time. It’s honestly wonderful, and I really hope that more people read it.
Edit: Upon re-read, In Other Lands has become one of my favorite books of all time. You should all stop what you are reading and immediately read this instead, because it’s better.
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (5 stars) – I picked up this Book of the Month pick awhile back despite the fact that I wasn’t sure I would vibe with the premise of a time-travel romance, and was inspired to finally start it after seeing it on President Obama’s favorite books of the year and wondering how such a seemingly odd pick made it on there. It turns out that I had a lot of misconceptions about what this book actually is, which is a meditation on colonialism, government corruption, generational trauma, and racism. In this story, the British government has developed time travel technology, and they decide to test its safety and efficacy by bringing several people from history that they know are already about to die to the present day, so that their interference doesn’t impact the course of history. These “expats,” as they’re called, are assigned handlers to help acclimate them to modern society, and that’s where our protagonist comes in. We’re following a translator who applies to the program for its financial benefits and who is assigned to a British naval officer whose initial fate was to perish in a doomed Arctic expedition, but as we follow the relationship between these two characters, we’re also learning more about the fraught expedition itself, the insidious racism of the government, and the ways in which our narrator’s family history plays into her perception of the world. It’s an absolutely beautifully written, layered, and insightful book; I now understand why it was on Obama’s favorites list for 2024, and it will be making it onto my favorites list for 2025.
Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi (5 stars) – This was an extremely thoroughly researched and informative read tracking the history of racist ideas in America by focusing on several chief architects of racist–and later antiracist–thought over the course of the country’s history. It’s been on my TBR ever since the Black Lives Matter movement, and I’m glad I finally picked it up. It’s a challenging read, but an extremely worthwhile one.
Potions, Poisons, and Policies by Courtney Thorne (4 stars) – This was an extremely fun enemies-to-lovers romantasy set at a magical university. The romance has strong Dramione vibes, and the relationship dynamic had excellent chemistry. The plot revolves around a poison being disseminated around campus that increases romantic feelings, and from which only the protagonist seems immune. She finds herself teaming up with her mortal enemy/academic rival to come up with an antidote, while many hijinks ensue along the way. I’d definitely recommend this to romantasy and Dramione fans.
Hers For the Weekend by Helena Greer (3.5 stars) (eARC) – I’m finding this book difficult to review, since I liked some aspects a lot more than others. For example, I found Tara, a character who was introduced in the series’ first book, to be a fascinating protagonist. She’s dealing with the very conflicting desires of working to advance social justice causes in her career as a defense attorney, while still maintaining relationships with her Southern, old-money, racist family in order to facilitate career connections to better take care of her clients. She hates her family and the obligations she feels towards them, but also feels stuck and unable to truly rebel and create a life for herself, due to fear of what might happen if she did. Her character, and struggles, are complex and well-developed; I just couldn’t say the same for her love interest, Holly, whose personality and history was just not as fully drawn and realized as Tara’s. For that reason, and also for the fact that too much of this book was focused on side characters from previous books who honestly didn’t impact either protagonist’s life too much, I couldn’t feel fully invested in the romance or plot.
I received an eARC of Hers For the Weekend from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst (3 stars) – I seem to be in the minority by not loving this book. It has a very cute cozy fantasy cover and premise, but maybe cozy fantasy just isn’t quite my genre. The main issue, thought, was that the characters all felt very surface-level to me; there just wasn’t enough characterization to become invested in anyone’s story the way I wanted to. An unfortunate disappointment.
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