So I guess I am just perpetually behind now? I am sad about it. And trying to catch up! Anyway most of these books involve death. Apparently, dark is how I roll lately, but these aren’t all doom and gloom, promise!

The Afterlife Project by Tim Weed
The Two Lies of Faven Sythe by Megan O’Keefe
An Ethical Guide to Murder by Jenny Morris
The Beautiful Maddening by Shea Ernshaw
The Unmapping by Denise S. Robbins
Make a Killing by Kimberly G. Giarratano

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The Afterlife Project by Tim Weed
Published by Podium Publishing on June 3, 2025
Pages: 272
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Netgalley

Separated by ten thousand years, a team of scientists and their test subject must work together to save the human species―before it’s too late . . .

With humanity facing imminent extinction, the Centauri Project scientists use technology originally designed for interstellar travel to send a test subject ten millennia into Earth’s future. Marooned in an uninhabited wilderness, microbiologist Nicholas Hindman searches for evidence of remnant populations. He has a protocol to follow and is determined to do so to the bitter end―though he knows he’s probably searching in vain, stranded on an uninhabited planet silently orbiting the sun.

Meanwhile, back in 2068 AD, a devastating hyperpandemic has quelled all talk of interstellar travel and thrown the future of humanity into grave doubt. Four surviving members of the Centauri team board a vintage solar-powered sailing yacht for a harrowing and unlikely journey in search of a second test subject. Their destination is a small volcanic island north of Sicily rumored to harbor that rarest of creatures: a woman capable of getting pregnant, thereby ensuring this generation of Homo sapiens isn’t the last. But first they must make it halfway across the post-apocalyptic globe, risking heatwaves, oceanic megastorms, murderous gangs, deranged cult leaders, a volcanic eruption, and the dangerous microbes that continue to circulate through the planet’s atmosphere.

A finalist for the Prism Prize for Climate Literature, The Afterlife Project encompasses a desperate quest for the key to the future of humanity, an impossible love story, and a search for meaning across the inconceivable vastness of geological time.

This is hands down one of the most thought-provoking books that I have ever read. Which is saying something, because thought-provoking books are kind of my thing. The Afterlife Project is told in two timelines from two perspectives. The first is in the near future (the 2060s), where we read from a journal written by a doctor who is a team member on the project trying desperately to save a rapidly dwindling humanity. The second is from Nick, who finds himself waking up ten thousand years in the future, wondering what happened to not only his loved ones, but the planet as a whole.

I mean. How can you even reconcile either position in your mind? Certainly, at first glance, Nick’s seems the most mind-boggling. To be so far removed from everything you’ve ever known is too huge to fully comprehend to us. But likewise, being the group from the Centauri Project is no easier a position to imagine. How far do you go to save humanity? Is ever the cost too high? These are just some of the questions you’ll be grappling with alongside the characters as you make this journey with them.

I have so much to say about this book, but I equally want to tell you no more. Because this is the sort of story that needs to be experienced to be appreciated. The dual timeline provides a perfect balance between excitement and quieter moments, and there is so much exploration on topics of humanity, faith, science, memories, climate, and the entire lifespan of the planet. Truly, if you enjoy any of these existential topics, do yourself a favor and give this book a chance.

Bottom Line: The Afterlife Project is the sort of book that burrows into your mind and will leave you thinking about it for a long time to come.

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The Two Lies of Faven Sythe by Megan E. O'Keefe
Published by Orbit on June 3, 2025
Pages: 352
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Netgalley

A search for a missing person uncovers a galaxy-spanning conspiracy in this thrilling standalone space opera from award-winning author Megan E. O'Keefe.

The Black Celeste is a ghost story. A once-legendary spaceship collecting dust in a cosmic graveyard known as the Clutch. Only famed pirate Bitter Amandine knows better, and she’ll do anything to never go near it again. No matter the cost.

Faven Sythe is crystborn, a member of the near-human species tasked with charting starpaths from station to station. She’s trained to be a navigator her entire life. But when her mentor disappears, leaving behind a mysterious starpath terminating in the Clutch, she is determined to find the truth. And only Amandine has the answers.

What they will find is a conspiracy bigger than either of them. Their quest for the truth will uncover secrets Amandine has long fought to keep buried – secrets about how she survived her last encounter in the Clutch, and what’s really hidden out there amongst the stars...

Before we chat about this book, can we please take a moment to love on the cover? So pretty, she is! One of my favorites of the year, frankly. And the book was good too! I am going to tell you what I did not like first, because you will encounter this first: I did not understand, especially in the beginning, what the heck was going on with Faven and the whole “being made from sacred cryst” business. Didn’t get it, felt confused, tried to pretend it didn’t exist. By the end, I had decided it was sort of like those guys in The 100 (Season 7, akin to the Judge, maybe with some Bardoans mixed in, iykyk) which is to say I either understood, or imagined I did enough to make it make sense. Either way, the problem was solved.

The story itself I liked, aside from that bit of worldbuilding complaint. Faven is a very sympathetic character, and I really enjoyed her interaction with Bitter Amandine and her pirate crew. There were a ton of twists I did not see coming, and the ending was pretty satisfactory (though it did leave some room for a potential return to the world, it was still a solid finish to the story). I liked learning the backstories of both main characters, too. It made them feel quite developed, and definitely like people you’d want to root for (even though they both absolutely have their flaws and a ton of gray morality). The story also moved along at a good pace, and felt like just the right length- long enough that we were invested, but not too long that things were draggy.

Bottom Line: Overall, a really solid sci-fi with unique concepts and a lot of exciting twists! 

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An Ethical Guide to Murder by Jenny Morris
Published by MIRA on May 20, 2025
Pages: 384
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Netgalley

If you had the power to decide life or death, what would you do?

Thea has a secret. She can tell how long someone has left to live just by touching them. Not only that, but she can transfer life from one person to another—something she finds out the hard way when her best friend, Ruth, suffers a fatal head injury on a night out. Desperate to save her, Thea accidentally kills the man responsible and lets his life flow directly into Ruth.

Thea comes to understand that she has a godlike power, but how to use it quickly becomes a question of self-control.

Is it really so wrong to take a little life from a bad person—say, a very annoying boss—and gift it to someone who's truly good? Realizing she needs to harness her newfound skills, Thea creates an Ethical Guide to Murder. But as she embarks on her mission to punish the wicked and give the deserving more time, she finds good and bad aren't as simple as she first thought.

How can she really know who deserves to live and die, and can she figure out her own rules before Ruth’s borrowed time runs out?

An Ethical Guide to Murder is kind of the definition of morally gray, right? I mean- sure it’s kind of murdery by definition too, but if it’s for a good cause, is that cool? That is literally the conundrum main character Thea finds herself in. She can give someone their life back, as she finds out quite accidentally… but only by taking it from someone else. So, there’s the rub, and Thea isn’t sure how to handle it. Like, at all. And this is where the story does get a little frustrating, because Thea is not so good at listening to herself at all. There is some growth during the story, but more when her back is against the wall than anything else.

She ends up leaving a lot of the decisions up to her on-again beau, Sam, who has very specific ideas of how Thea should use her power. But his definitions of “good versus evil” don’t always align with hers, and she finds herself in even more complicated situations because she isn’t advocating for herself. And it became a little repetitive, which was grating at times. I really did enjoy her relationship with her grandfather, and her initial dynamic with her best friend Ruth. The story itself also has some definitely tense and exciting moments, which I definitely enjoyed even when I was frustrated with Thea. Add to it, I really enjoyed the thought provoking morality questions the book poses. What would you or I do if we found ourselves in Thea’s shoes? I understood why she tried to make a code of ethics surrounding her newfound power, because how exactly would you manage to live with it? So yeah, I definitely found the whole concept worth reading about! It also provided a lot of really lovely moments, and some funny ones to lighten the mood when it was needed.

Bottom Line:  What would you do with the power to decide who lives and who dies?

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The Beautiful Maddening by Shea Ernshaw
Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers on June 3, 2025
Pages: 304
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Netgalley

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Shea Ernshaw comes a haunting romantic contemporary fantasy about a teen navigating her family’s love curse that blooms with their enchanted tulips every year.

Seventeen year-old Lark Goode wants only one to escape her small town of Cutwater and the history of her family name. It’s a history that began during the Dutch tulip mania of 1636, when Lark’s ancestor stole the last remaining tulip bulbs and fled to America. But when the tulips bloomed on American soil, madness sprouted from their snowy white petals.

The madness was love.

Now, generations later, the Goodes remain cursed—the unnatural flowers outside their home causing locals to fall helplessly in love with anyone carrying Goode blood in their veins. While her brother embraces the strange power, Lark wants nothing more than to be free from it.

But when she meets a boy who seems unaffected by the family curse, Lark finds herself falling headlong into a feeling she’s spent her whole life trying to avoid. Yet, all curses and magic come with a price, and the town of Cutwater soon sinks into a dangerous sickness tied to Lark and the ill-fated tulips.

To save the town, Lark will need to sacrifice everything—even true love—to break the spell. Because in the Goode family, love has a way of destroying everything.

Ah, cursed tulips. Never thought I’d read (and enjoy!) a book whose premise was literally “cursed tulips”, but here we are. First, I enjoyed the deep dive into the real, historical event that the book bases its premise on, the Dutch Tulip Mania of the 1600s. And honestly, I am high key mad at my Dutch tour guide for taking us through fields up tulips and not giving us all the tea on this little slice of historical weirdness!

Lark and her brother basically attract people to them via tulip insanity, I guess. So everyone at school, when the tulips bloom, are drawn to these folks like moths to a flame, and they cannot trust that anyone’s feelings are ever genuine. Which sure, that sounds like a bummer, but Lark is next-level over it. Their mother has conveniently left town, their father is hardly in the picture, so these two teens live alone in the tulip house. What? Where’s CPS at? I needed to really suspend disbelief because that just isn’t how that works. But I’ll put that aside for the sake of the story. I liked that Lark tried to distance herself from her classmates because she didn’t want them to fall in fake-love with her, that earned her some points with me.

But when she meets Oak, she really wishes she could trust feelings, because she’s starting to feel some for him. She also is bound and determined to leave Tulip Town as soon as graduation is over, which complicates her budding feelings even more. Here’s the thing: I understand all of that, but Lark spends the whole book saying “I cannot trust my feelings!” then “I’mma go ahead and do it anyway” and then “Oh noes, I shouldn’t have trusted my feelings!” over and over. I get that she’s young, but isn’t that the definition of insanity? Regardless, I was still mostly enjoying the story, especially the complicated relationship she has with her twin Archer. The atmosphere was also definitely on point. But the ending, I really did not like the ending. It felt like… View Spoiler »the whole thing was pointless, and it negated any character development that had happened. « Hide Spoiler

Bottom Line: An atmospheric romance, I liked it more than I didn’t, despite the flaws.

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The Unmapping by Denise S. Robbins
Published by Bindery Books on June 3, 2025
Pages: 408
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Netgalley

Intimate and spellbinding, The Unmapping is a character-driven, literary speculative exploration of a city’s descent into chaos and confusion, perfect for fans of Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel and Exit West by Mohsin Hamid.

4 a.m., New York City. A silent disaster.
There is no flash of light, no crumbling, no quaking. Each person in New York wakes up on an unfamiliar block when the buildings all switch locations overnight. The power grid has snapped, thousands of residents are missing, and the Empire State Building is on Coney Island—for now. The next night, it happens again.

Esme Green and Arjun Varma work for the City of New York’s Emergency Management team and are tasked with disaster response for the Unmapping. As Esme tries to wade through the bureaucratic nightmare of an endlessly shuffling city, she’s distracted by the ongoing search for her missing fiancé. Meanwhile, Arjun focuses on the ground-level rescue of disoriented New Yorkers, hoping to become the hero the city needs.

While scientists scramble to find a solution—or at least a means to cope—and mysterious “red cloak” cults crop up in the disaster’s wake, New York begins to reckon with a new reality no one recognizes. For Esme and Arjun, the fight to hold the city together will mean tackling questions about themselves that they were too afraid to ask—and facing answers they never expected. With themes of climate change, political unrest, and life in a state of emergency, The Unmapping is a timely and captivating debut.

I was very excited about the premise of The Unmapping. How exactly would this work!? In truth, I have no idea still. The concept is still interesting, and the characters had to deal with a lot of ramifications of what happened after places changed, but that is about the extent of my enjoyment. Here’s the truth: I was bored. So bored. We mainly follow Esme and Arjun, two characters whose personalities are akin to watching paint dry. We’re treated to their inner monologue as they navigate the aftermath of all the places moving, but it just reads like one giant, rambling, obsessive thought. And look, I get it, as someone who deals with anxiety on the regular, I am sure my inner monologue is annoying too! But I think because of that, I certainly didn’t enjoy reading someone else’s incoherent ramblings.

The thing is, both Esme and Arjun are not only kind of dull as characters, they are frustrating characters. Esme has no self esteem or self worth outside her shitty fiancé, and there is really not much growth either (and definitely not any on-page). Arjun is equally unsure, but his kind of makes sense because he’s sort of a fuckup in general. That, and his whole personality is “looking longingly at Esme while popping klonopin”.  But I think the biggest bummer for me was that I didn’t get any real answers on the Unmapping in general! Like… give me some details! The end was decent, comparatively, so it did have that going for it. Still not really answering my questions, but I liked it more than the rest of the book, so that’s something.

Bottom Line: Cool concept, but hampered by dull characters and a lack of answers.

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Make a Killing by Kimberly G. Giarratano
Series: Billie Levine #3
Published by Datura Books on June 10, 2025
Pages: 368
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by author for review

Billie Levine is back with a new corporate adventure in this sharp and witty take on the classic P.I. novel, a must-read for fans of Veronica Mars and Sugar.

Private Investigator Billie Levine should be ecstatic. She’s finally getting the cheating spouse cases she’s always wanted. Nothing to do but sit back, snap incriminating photos, and get paid. Except Jeremy Yang is competing for work with his own P.I. firm. Advertising himself as “the man to get the job done” (insert eyeroll), he keeps swooping in and stealing prospective clients. Not to be outmaneuvered, Billie has offered her services to scorned women everywhere.

Their rivalry escalates when Billie and Jeremy are hired by an ultra wealthy couple on opposite sides of a corporate takeover. When the bodies start dropping, Billie and Jeremy will have to join forces if they are to come out unscathed; they can kill each other later.

Ah, being back in the world of Billie Levine and her family, friends, frenemies, and enemies makes me so happy! It is legit like catching up with your quirkiest group of friends, and frankly, this is the best installment yet! I straight up have not a single complaint about this book. And I tried to think of one, because that’s who I am as a person, but nope. I flew through it, because I simply could not put it down. The mystery was very well crafted and kept me guessing throughout. There’s enough bread crumbs to keep the amateur sleuth in me thinking I might know, but truly having no idea, which is my favorite kind of mystery.

And while the plot and mystery kept me turning the pages, Billie and the gang had me turning them even faster! I have said before that I adore Billie’s entire character, and that hasn’t changed a bit. But wow did I fall in love with basically every single side character here, too! Gramps has a bigger role than ever, and I loved getting more of the story from his perspective. Diego was an equally entertaining character, and I love the foil he provides to Gramps. Without giving anything away, I loved Billie’s ever-changing interactions with some of the other characters too, but I will keep that to myself because spoilers for the past two books.

What else can I even say? Crime mysteries aren’t even my normal genre, but I will read any and every Billie Levine book that comes along. They’re great mysteries to be sure, but they are also filled with incredible characters, complex relationships, humor, and are frankly just wildly entertaining!

Bottom Line: Best. Billie. Yet! Bring on Book 4!

Have you read any of these books? Plan to? Let us chat about them!