J/D Ficathon

The Summer That Changed Us by Cathy Bramley was a book I grabbed either in a charity shop or from my free station book exchange, thinking it might be a light, frothy read I'd pick up one day - but definitely wasn't on my priority list.
And it is fairly light and frothy - for all that it deals with some quite heavy topics - and I absolutely loved it.
It tells the story of Katie, Robyn and Grace, three women of three different decades, who meet by chance on a beach one day and form the kind of deep, abiding female friendship I thought you only found in books - but that reminded me vividly of some of the wonderful women I now have in my own life.
I could say it's rather lacking in diversity and it's a bit reductive in some ways - but I devoured it in a couple of days, forgoing almost everything else to read it for long stretches at a time. It made me laugh, it made me cry, and it made me very happy.
Definitely a five-star reading experience for me.

The Watermark by Sam Mills sounded like exactly my kind of book - a nefarious author lures people to his cabin in the woods and traps them inside his novel-in-progress to help him inject new life (quite literally) into a failing story.
If On A Winter's Night A Traveller by Italo Calvino is one of my favourite books - but unfortunately, this is not that.
I loved the premise but the execution left a lot to be desired. The characters felt flat, the writing wasn't compelling, and there didn't seem to be anything about it over and above the endless repetition and litany of absurd events to provide any thematic depth.
The sections for each story-within-the-story were also way too long without really getting anywhere.
It's possible Mills may have pulled it all together in an interesting way, but sadly I wasn't invested enough by the 25% mark to want to find out, so I gave up.

Is This Seat Taken? is a very cute little logic puzzle game that I've really enjoyed playing over the last couple of weeks. It's set in a world of different shapes, following rhombus Nat on her journey around the world in search of fame in the film industry. Each level presents a different situation (various vehicles - cars, boats, trains; various locations - film premieres, football games, gigs; various other places - classrooms, airports, beaches) and a group of characters with different requirements about where they sit. Each location has a selection of seats in different configurations and you have to place all the characters so they all get what they want.
A couple of the levels were pretty fiendish, but it was mostly just really fun trying to figure out where to put everyone. And the throughline of the story added a welcome extra dimension of interest to proceedings. Very enjoyable.

Alibi by Sharon Shinn turned out to be rather a disappointment to me. I mean, looking at my old reviews, my history with this author has always been more hit and miss than I would have said - but I have tattoos based on some of her books, so I always look forward to a new release from her. That said, this book has been out for almost 18 months and in my possession for nearly six, so it's taken a while to get to the top of the pile.

Still, I was hopeful. I usually enjoy her worldbuilding and nearly always find her characters engaging, layered and easy to connect to. Here, though, the worldbuilding felt lacking and few of the characters seemed real to me. Also, for a sci-fi murder mystery, it's really, really boring. Almost nothing happens for nearly 250 pages, and then everything happens all at once in a very abrupt and not particularly satisfying way in the last 30 pages.

Found family is always a strong draw for me - and certain aspects of that here did get to me and prompt some warm emotions. But overall, not a winner.

Fairy Tale by Stephen King took me rather by surprise. It's my fourth King read (after the Bill Hodges trilogy last year) and I went in with some apprehension, worried that it might be too scary or too gory for me. But I needn't have worried. It does have some unpleasant aspects, but nothing that put me off too much. And the first 200 pages or so were absolutely a five-star read for me. That section follows 17-year-old Charlie as he befriends an elderly neighbour and his equally elderly dog, after the neighbour falls from a ladder and breaks his leg and Charlie offers to look after his dog and do some chores around his house for him.
Sadly, the middle 200 pages or so dipped to a three-star read - pretty much exactly when the fantastical elements in the story came into play. It was still good, but it definitely lost some of my interest and started to feel like it was dragging. The final 200 pages or so pulled it back up to a four-star read, as my emotions were fully engaged again and the climax provided some much-needed excitement, drama and satisfaction. I was particularly impressed with the masterful way King dropped multiple small details into the story that became significant much later on.
Overall, a really good read.

The Mars House by Natasha Pulley also took me by surprise because the main aspect that I absolutely loved in it was the romance - which is often something in books that doesn't really work for me. It's also a very complex, layered, political sci-fi story with fantastic worldbuilding, a great range of interesting and engaging characters, some good twists and turns, and an effective emotional throughline.
I figured out one of the main mysteries quite early on, which made subsequent clues about it a bit frustrating - but the way things played out did surprise me in multiple ways. I loved all the stuff about language (especially the mammoths) - but it was the romance that really kept me wanting to read more, and also made me cry.
Unfortunately, a couple of very extended flashbacks in the last quarter of the book made my interest dip significantly, and I'm not sure I fully understood or agreed with the eventual resolution of the seemingly impossible societal dilemma that was at the heart of the political conflict that made up most of the plot.
Still, really good overall.