For the first second time ever, I have had to post a few reviews only on Goodreads because I have run out of time, so check that out, yeah? Anyway, these are the ones I had the most to say about, so either really good, or… less so. You know how it is.
The Seven O’Clock Club by Amelia Ireland
Nahia by Emily Jones
Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori
The Guilt Pill by Saumya Dave
Terrestrial History by Joe Mungo Reed
When the Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy
The Seven O'Clock Club by Amelia Ireland
Published by Berkley on April 15, 2025
Pages: 368
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Netgalley 
Four strangers are brought together to participate in an experimental treatment designed to heal broken hearts in this surprising and heartfelt debut novel from author Amelia Ireland.
In a perfectly ordinary building, four strangers who couldn't be more different meet for the first time. Their skepticism of this new kind of grief therapy—and the unnervingly perceptive group leader—means they're all wary, but as the weeks go by, they find themselves returning again and again, pulled to work toward healing, even if it means first facing the pain head-on.
A sharp-tongued lawyer who has no intention of letting down her walls, a fragile young woman looking for a place to belong, a musician at the top of his game who's one drink away from losing it all, and an interior designer facing the crumbling of her picture-perfect life—this unlikely group slowly opens up, not only to the possibility of a happier future but to friendship, change, and even romance.
When a shocking revelation reveals the real reason they were chosen for this group, it shakes the very foundation of what they thought they knew. What began as a journey designed to heal turns out to be a much greater test of friendship, strength, and love as they realize happiness is just outside the door...if they're brave enough to seek it.
Oh this one pulled at the heartstrings for sure! And also left my mind reeling, and was wildly entertaining. Honestly, I cannot say enough about this one! Here’s a breakdown of what I loved:
- The aforementioned feels. This story had me straight up sobbing at points, but it was also hopeful, and funny, and heartwarming at points too. So yes it packs a punch, but it has much lighter moments so that you don’t feel all the sadness at once.
- Loved the relationships! There is a romantic situation, but it isn’t just that! It is all the relationships- the ones we see on page as well as the ones we’re told about. And, it is the friends the characters make along the way, too. That is probably my favorite, though it is hard to pick a favorite!
- All kinds of things I did not see coming! I’ll say no more, just… go into this knowing as little as possible for the best effect. You’re welcome.
- The characters just feel so… real. I could not help but fall in love with all of them, flawed though they may be. There was something deeply human about each of them, and it was very endearing.
I don’t want to say any more, because I don’t want to spoil anything. Just know that you won’t regret reading this!
Bottom Line: This was beautiful while still being completely entertaining and engaging. Huge win!
Nahia by Emily Jones
Published by Holiday House on April 15, 2025
Pages: 320
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Netgalley
A sweeping romantic epic set in the wild and dangerous world of prehistoric Europe!
Spain, 8,000 years ago. As Headwoman’s daughter, eighteen-year-old Nahia was born to lead. But when she speaks aloud a forbidden truth—that her people are facing a growing threat of invasion—her expectations are shattered when she’s punished with exile and apprenticed to the enigmatic shaman Eneko instead.
With her sister Izara made the new heir and her world upended, Nahia is sent away with a young man she barely knows. Deep in the wilds, however, she uncovers a shocking talent for divining messages from the spirits and channelling their turbulent powers. But these visions come to show her that her people are in terrible danger. . . and they need her. Nahia will have to use every advantage she has to save her beloved people—and her sister.
In this powerful upper YA with crossover appeal, archaeologist Emily Jones transports us to a rugged world of pine forests, frothy beaches, and wild magic, and masterfully depicts passionate first love, conquest, green sorcery, the unbreakable bond between sisters, and untamed, unashamed female power. Utterly unique and shockingly good, this is a knockout debut, perfect for fans of Jean M. Auel, Adrienne Young, Chloe Gong, Claire M. Andrews, and Rachel Griffin.
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection!
I am always fascinated by the concept of prehistoric people. Like- obviously I know they existed, but… how did they exist? It must have been so wildly different, too hard to even fully wrap our twenty-first century heads around, right? That is all to say, I love when an author makes that attempt! First and foremost, it is clear that the author did her homework (she is, in fact, an archeologist and she knows her stuff!) so it certainly feels as accurate as one can expect. Obviously, this is a fictionalization, and we can’t fully ever know-know, but I think the authenticity of the era makes it certainly feel more likely.
Nahia is a great main character, and she definitely exhibits growth throughout the story, which I loved. I didn’t fully get into the shaman storyline, but that is probably a “me” thing. I enjoyed learning about the world, and the very clear ” major moment in history” Nahia was living through. I think I wish we’d gotten a little more insight into Nahia’s mother’s thought process too, because her motivations seemed really shaky to me, but again, minor gripe. The story was about Nahia after all, and it definitely did her justice.
Bottom Line: Very cool historical fiction about a time period we rarely get a glimpse into with a strong main character!
Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata, Ginny Tapley Takemori
Published by Grove Press on April 15, 2025
Pages: 240
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Netgalley
From the author of the bestselling literary sensations Convenience Store Woman and Earthlings comes a surprising and highly imaginative story set in a version of Japan where sex between married couples has vanished and all children are born by artificial insemination.
Sayaka Murata has proven herself to be one of the most exciting chroniclers of the strangeness of society, x-raying our contemporary world to bizarre and troubling effect. Her depictions of a happily unmarried retail worker in Convenience Store Woman and a young woman convinced she is an alien in Earthlings have endeared her to millions of readers worldwide. Vanishing World takes Murata’s universe to a bold new level, imagining an alternative Japan where attitudes to sex and procreation are wildly different to our own.
As a girl, Amane realizes with horror that her parents “copulated” in order to bring her into the world, rather than using artificial insemination, which became the norm in the mid-twentieth century. Amane strives to get away from what she considers an indoctrination in this strange “system” by her mother, but her infatuations with both anime characters and real people have a sexual force that is undeniable. As an adult in an appropriately sexless marriage—sex between married couples is now considered as taboo as incest—Amane and her husband Saku decide to go and live in a mysterious new town called Experiment City or Paradise-Eden, where all children are raised communally, and every person is considered a Mother to all children. Men are beginning to become pregnant using artificial wombs that sit outside of their bodies like balloons, and children are nameless, called only “Kodomo-chan.” Is this the new world that will purify Amane of her strangeness once and for all?
Whooo boy, buckle up friends! I have a lot to say here- some of it good, some of it not.
The Majority of the Book:
Okay, so I was…. fine with most of this book. It wasn’t blowing my mind, but I was intrigued. I will tell you my feelings on the positives and negatives for like, 90% of the book first.
THE GOOD:
Well, the concept was certainly fascinating, right? I liked the commentary, and it was certainly thought provoking with its discussions of what makes a family, society’s viewpoints on sex, reproduction, families, etc., and the bizarre obsessions with fictional characters. Really, even though Amane wasn’t the most provocative character ever, the world and the story itself were enough to keep me turning the pages. I mean, it is weird, but for most of the story, it is weird in a way that is readable and coherent. And I felt like the story picked up in the second half, and I was quite eager to see what would happen.
THE LESS GOOD:
Our main character, Amane, is just… look, she seems only focused on sex and romance. Some of it fictional, some of it real. I assume there is supposed to be a point of commentary there, that even though everyone claims to think sexuality is useless, they’re still obsessing over it. Which is fine, I get that, but girl needed a hobby or something, because she is incredibly one-dimensional. Everything about her is so stunted, and maybe that is purposeful, maybe it isn’t, but it makes it hard to really understand who she is, I guess.
I also had a hard time understanding her motivations. Without being spoilery, imagine a character spends an entire book saying “wow I hate Disney” and then just randomly decides to spend their life savings on a 2 month guided Mickey Mouse extravaganza. The motivation isn’t there, and it is confusing at best.
The Ending:
Whew, this was bad. I don’t even want to type what happened under spoiler tags, so let’s just say that unless you are a monster, this is upsetting. I have read some reviews saying that it was “making a point”, but I personally don’t see it. For me, it felt like shock value to be shocking, and there were many other less traumatic ways to convey these things. I honestly just don’t even understand how more than one person was like “yep THIS is how you end a book!”. (And friends, please recall, I am in no way a pearl-clutcher, and love me some messed up stuff. This was way over the line, even for me.) I get the intent, but there were ways to do this that wouldn’t legitimately traumatize folks.
Bottom Line: It was a 3 or 3.5 until the end sent it off the rails and into “hard nope” territory. I can’t rate it higher because it feels irresponsible to do so, frankly.
The Guilt Pill by Saumya Dave
Published by Park Row on April 15, 2025
Pages: 384
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Netgalley
The Other Black Girl meets The Push in this taut psychological drama about a CEO on maternity leave who goes missing after she becomes addicted to an experimental, guilt-erasing pill, exploring themes of motherhood, privilege, race, and how the world treats women who dare to “have it all.”
What if women could get rid of their guilt?
Maya Patel has it all—her own start-up, a sexy, doting husband, influencer status, and now, a new baby. Or does she? Because behind closed doors, Maya's drowning. Her newborn's taking a toll on her marriage, her best friend won't return her calls, and her company's hanging on by a thread. The worst part? It's all her fault. If she could just be a better boss, mother, wife, daughter, friend… Maybe she wouldn't feel so guilty all the time.
Enter: #Girlboss Liz Anderson, who introduces her to the "guilt pill," an experimental supplement that erases female guilt. At first, it’s the perfect antidote to Maya’s self-blame and imposter syndrome, and she finally becomes the unapologetic woman she’s always wanted to be. But there's a catch: for Maya to truly "have it all," she needs to be ready to risk it all. And as Maya falls deeper and deeper down the pill's guilt-free rabbit hole, her growing ruthlessness could threaten everything she's built for herself—and the family she's worked so hard to protect.
Electric, taut, and sharply observed, The Guilt Pill is a feminist exploration of motherhood, race, ambition, and how the world treats women who dare to go after everything they want.
This was a good one! More action/mystery than speculative (not a complaint, just an observation!), it follows Maya, a new mom and CEO of a rising sustainable company. She’s feeling overwhelmed, as you can imagine, by the pressure to “do it all”. There is a lot of commentary in here about the pressures of being a woman in business, or a working mom in general. How Maya is taken less seriously than her male counterparts, how she is expected to be the “face” of the company on social media as well as the brains of the operation, how her male colleagues are eager to jump in her stead anytime she needs to miss a meeting, etc. Even Liz, her new “bestie” is a performative white woman who definitely doesn’t understand the cultural, racial, or socioeconomic issues that Maya is dealing with, both from the outside world and within her own family.
Enter the “guilt pill”, which Liz describes as a supplement with no side effects (sure, Jan 🙄) that will just free Maya of all those pesky societal and familial pressures. We know from the start of the book that Maya goes missing. What has happened? Has the guilt pill made her really not care about her husband and baby, and she’s just taken off? Is something else at play? It certainly makes you want to keep reading to find out!
I think at some points, I had hoped for a little more sci-fi or speculative, but that is just a personal preference (and a character flaw where I need to know all the things), but it was still a very engaging story. Definitely thought provoking and reflective, and certainly relatable if you are or were ever a woman or mother in this patriarchal capitalist dystopia. And an excellent reminder of how much extra crap WOC have to deal with.
Bottom Line: An exciting and extremely relevant thriller about the guilt society foists upon mothers.
Terrestrial History by Joe Mungo Reed
Published by W. W. Norton & Company on April 8, 2025
Pages: 256
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Netgalley
A family saga following four generations on a time-bending journey from coastal Scotland to a colony on Mars.
Hannah is a fusion scientist working in a cottage off the coast of Scotland when she’s approached by a visitor from the future, a young man from a human settlement on Mars, traveling backward through time to intervene in the fate of a warming planet.
Roban lives in the Colony, a sterile outpost of civilization, where he longs for the wonders of a home planet he never knew. Between Hannah and Roban, two generations, a father and a daughter, face down an uncertain future. Andrew believes there is still time for the human spirit to triumph. For his rationalist daughter Kenzie, such idealism is not enough to keep the rising floods at bay, so she signs on to work for a company that would abandon Earth for the promise of a world beyond.
In exploring the question “What if you could come back to the past and somehow change it with technology?” Joe Mungo Reed has written an immersive story of hope, hubris, and sacrifice in the face of a frighteningly precarious present.
I really enjoyed this one! I loved the span of four generations, and seeing how their lives played out interconnected to each other. There is an element of time travel, but it’s very secondary to the characters’ stories, most of which we see through various slices of life at different (but vital) points in their lives. I loved how they all connected, but how each character was still their own person outside of the greater scope of the family. It was heartbreaking and heartwarming, and certainly emotive beyond the concept of trying to save the world. My minor gripe is that I personally prefer a neater ending, and we did not get that, but it does fit the tone of the book well. I also found it impressive that such a well-developed world and cast of characters was accomplished in such a short amount of pages! Also, as you can imagine, there is certainly an underlying commentary about climate change, and how maybe waiting until Earth is unlivable isn’t the best plan. It doesn’t feel preachy or pushy, it just feels… honest.
Bottom Line: Absolutely recommend this lovely and insightful take on family and the perils of climate change.
When the Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy
Published by Tor Nightfire on April 22, 2025
Pages: 304
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Netgalley
One night, Jess, a struggling actress, finds a five-year-old runaway hiding in the bushes outside her apartment. After a violent, bloody encounter with the boy's father, she and the boy find themselves running for their lives.
As they attempt to evade the boy's increasingly desperate father, horrifying incidents of butchery follow them. At first, Jess thinks she understands what they're up against, but she's about to learn there's more to these surreal and grisly events than she could've ever imagined.
And that when the wolf finally comes home, none will be spared.
Oh man this was wild! I thought things were going to go a certain way, but was pleasantly surprised at how it all started to shake out. Without giving too much away, I love when a book doesn’t just rely on “because I said so” to explain bizarre things. When there is a legit reason for things, it makes me a million times more invested. Add to it, Jess is a very sympathetic main character, especially because she is just an average person, living her mundane life when everything goes off the rails. She could be any of us, which makes it that much easier to put ourselves in her shoes. And then when there is a kid involved, it creates all kinds of mixed feelings!
I also love how the author delved into other issues like trauma and loss and grief, even in the middle of all the chaos. It really helped to make the story feel well-rounded, and like the reader could connect with all the characters- even those you kind of didn’t want to feel sympathetic toward. And the ending was absolute perfection, there were absolutely mind-blowing twists and turns, and whew. I agree with Tammy when she said “Nat Cassidy’s best book yet”. Extra especially when you take the author’s note into consideration, how can an author make me love the author’s note almost as much as the book itself?! Anyway, you do not want to miss out on this one, that is for certain!
Bottom Line: Blending horror and emotion and amazing characters, this is one of my favorite books of 2025!
I LOVED When the Wolf Comes Home! I thought the twist was a good one. That’s the only one of these I’ve read, but I feel like I might also love The Seven O’clock Club. Seems like a very good bunch this time around😁
I am so mad I didn’t put in a request for The Seven O’Clock club because I have yet to read a bad review. This is so my jam too. Happy to see it was a hit for you. I need to get a copy. I want to feel the feels!
Ooooooo Well I’ll definitely be checking out When the Wolf Comes Home and The Seven O’Clock Club. I’m sorry to hear that Vanishing World decided to go hardcore bad at the end (on top of having a one-dimensional paper cutout of an MC)- I hope the trauma didn’t scar too badly. It sounds like you may need a palate cleanser after it, though!