This month I read two books from two sub-genres that were new to me – cozy fantasy romance and vampire romance – as well as two non-fiction books (very unusual for me in a single month!) and two wonderful and very different speculative novels. My favorite was Melissa Albert’s new novel The Children. When my own children were middle readers, I often wished there were books for adults like the gothic fairy tales and fantasy novels they were reading, and The Children was exactly that for me.

My Recommendations

The Children

Melissa Albert

Guinevere and Ennis Sharpe grow up half-feral in the woods around their Vermont farmhouse, largely left to raise themselves while their mother Edith finds massive success writing fantasy novels starring fictional versions of her children. Their strange childhood comes to an abrupt end when the farmhouse burns down, orphaning and estranging the siblings. Years later, Guin is promoting a memoir while Ennis prepares a disturbing new art exhibit called Mother, forcing both of them to confront what really happened the night of the fire. The Children is a gorgeously written, immersive, haunting story, perfect for fans of dark fairytales and gothic literary fantasy. Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Read my full review of The Children.

Rocket Men

Robert Kurson

Most Americans know of Apollo 11, the NASA mission that put men on the Moon, and Apollo 13, the one with an onboard explosion that was dramatized in the Tom Hanks film. Apollo 8, planned in just four months, was the mission that made these journeys possible by sending men to orbit the Moon for the first time in human history, as detailed in Rocket Men. I wouldn’t typically pick up a nonfiction book about the Space Race but my book club selected it around the time of the Artemis launch and I was pleasantly surprised to find how much I enjoyed it. Rocket Men powerfully and emotionally tells the human side of the Apollo 8 mission and what it meant to the country, the world, and the people who were a part of it, especially the astronauts’ wives and families. It gives just enough of the science to put you in awe of the computations that had to be done on the dinky computers they had back then to make this so well planned and executed. It’s incredibly well researched but doesn’t cross the line into tedium like many books of this nature do.

The Radiant Dark

Alexandra Oliva

The Radiant Dark is a speculative literary novel exploring the generational impact of communication from intelligent life on another planet. The night that first contact is made in 1980, Carol Girard is an overwhelmed new mother. The discovery of another intelligent life form rocks her world, leading her to expand and ultimately upend her family, impacting each of them in different ways over the next five decades. The book is more of a character story than a sci fi novel and we see how her decision influences her son and daughter’s life paths, relationships with her, and ultimately her descendants generations later. The complex challenges of motherhood play a big role in the story, as do big questions of our place in the universe. Choose this one if you want a character driven family drama set against the sci-fi backdrop of space exploration and communication with other beings. Read my full review of The Radiant Dark.

More from this Month

Violet Thistlewaite Is Not a Villain Anymore

Emily Krempholtz

Violet Thistlewaite, the terrifying Thornwitch with a dark history, has resolved to become good after escaping the influence of the dark sorcerer Guy Shadowfade. She opens a flower shop in the quaint town of Dragon’s Rest and wins the hearts of the local community, including her grumpy and handsome landlord Nathaniel, an alchemist with his own painful past. This is a cute, cozy fantasy romance novel. It was sweet to see how Violet and Nathanial slowly break down each other’s walls. The book could have had more depth all around but overall I found it to be a light and entertaining read.

Half His Age

Jennette McCurdy

High school senior Waldo has a hunger for connection that no amount of online shopping, junk food, or sex will satisfy. She finds herself desperately attracted to her married English teacher and enters into a highly inappropriate relationship with him. The book explores themes of power dynamics, loneliness, consumerism, and validation. McCurdy’s writing is sharp but Waldo’s observations seem far too mature for a seventeen year old. I often felt like I was reading the author’s point of view rather than that of her character. It’s a smart and thought-provoking book but relies a bit too much on vulgar shock value to create discomfort for the reader.

Coming Later This Year

Swipe Bite

Alexandra Vasti

In this modern day vampire romance novel, Sophronia Vega, the icy vampire leader of human/vampire dating app Stokr, teams up with Casey Amato, a very human engineer on her team, to troubleshoot an app issue that’s causing humans to bleed out. Something about Casey’s scent makes Soph awfully thirsty, creating all sorts of distractions as they try to unravel the corporate espionage that threatens to take down her app. I wasn’t that interested in the mystery, but the romance is cute and funny. Their attraction seems to be more fueled by lust and scent than love, but it’s still an entertaining and fresh romance. Swipe Bite will be published in November 2026. Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

The Glass Box

Calum Marsh

I knew very little about CrossFit before reading this book, only that the workouts sound really hard and not something I would like to put myself through. I picked this up because I enjoy reading books about the paths that successful businesses have taken – where the idea came from, what the early days were like, how they knew they were on to something, and how they scaled. The Glass Box covers all that, with a focus on the founder Greg Glassman, who seems like quite a character. I can’t say that I found the story particularly shocking, but it was definitely interesting to read about how he got the idea for CrossFit and turned it into a phenomenon. There are a lot of people in this book. I had a hard time keeping track of them all and their relevance to the story. Overall this would be an interesting read for someone who’s into CrossFit or likes reading about how businesses start up and develop.

The Glass Box will be published in October 2026. Thanks to NetGalley and HarperOne for the ARC. All opinions are my own.