Carol Berg, The Soul Mirror

Four years ago, Anne de Vernase lost everything when her father was convicted of evil sorcery and treason. Her mother is mad, her brother is in prison, and her younger sister has just died in a magical “accident” that might not be so accidental. Now Anne has been summoned to the royal court, where she is immediately plunged into various intrigues, including the murder of a noblewoman. She ultimately learns some shocking truths about both her own gifts and the magical conspiracy threatening the kingdom. This book really builds on the events of The Spirit Lens and sheds new light on its mysteries. I particularly enjoyed seeing the main characters from the first book through Anne’s eyes—understandably, she neither likes nor trusts Portier at first! This book thankfully doesn’t suffer from the “second-book slump” that is common with trilogies; rather, it moves the plot along nicely and actually resolves a lot of loose ends from book 1. I’m excited to read book 3 and see how things develop from here.

Lia Louis, Better Left Unsent

Millie enjoys her peaceful, low-drama, conflict-avoidant life. But when she’s feeling angry or frustrated, she vents by writing emails; she’ll never send them, of course, just consign them to the purgatory of her drafts folder. That is, until a server glitch sends out all her emails—the angry rants to rude coworkers, the hurt feelings about a friend’s behavior, the heartbreak over the ex who dumped her and is now engaged to someone else. Horrified, Millie just wants to apologize and pretend like it never happened, but eventually she learns that sometimes it’s OK to speak up about her needs and feelings. I’ll be honest, it took me a while to get past the fact that she was drafting all these emails from her work account! It’s such a monumentally stupid move! But once I got beyond that, I did enjoy the book. I could relate to Millie’s people-pleasing tendencies, and I was glad when she started to see herself and others in a new light. There’s also a nice, low-conflict romance, although the love interest is a bit too bland and perfect. Overall, this is enjoyable women’s fiction, but it’s not destined to be a favorite.

Benjamin Stevenson, Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect

After the success of his “memoir,” Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, Ernest Cunningham has been invited to an Australian mystery writers’ festival, which is taking place on a luxury train called the Ghan. Ernest is struggling to find inspiration for his second book, but fortunately, there are plentiful tensions among the train passengers that soon result in a murder. Ernest is excited to have another mystery to solve, but he soon realizes that with several other mystery writers on board, he’s not the only would-be detective on the case. This book has a very similar flavor to its predecessor but is even more metatextual, as Ernest talks about the aftermath of his first book, how it’s been received by the public, Goodreads reviews, and so on. I liked the twists and turns of the plot, and I liked that Ernest is still devoted to the Golden Age “rules” for mysteries – even as he learns that the rules don’t always cover every situation. All in all, this is a good sequel that should appeal to fans of the first book, though the series should definitely be read in order.