The Goblin Emperor

Katherine Addison

This book became such a comfort read when I first read it and I still return to it when I need a pick me up. Everything about it is so careful and loving.

The youngest, half goblin son of the emperor is thrust into court politics when his father and all of his brothers die, leaving him the crown.

But it’s more than that, it’s about kindness and trauma recovery and love and overcoming the steepest obstacles, and overall being true to yourself. Cannot get enough of this book.

Murder at Pirate’s Cove

Josh Lanyon

This book is such a delightful starter to an MM cozy mystery series. I loved every bit of it, from the delightful side characters to the slow, slow, sloooooowwww burn romance.

In cozies like this, you need to like the POV character and I felt he was absolutely delightful. A failing screenwriter inherits a falling down mansion and a bookstore and has to make it work as bodies start piling up, pointing to him as the killer.

Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers

Jesse Q. Sutanto

I got this book as an audiobook for sale and about halfway through I bought the ebook so I could read faster. Vera Wong is a delightful POV character, and she collected a lot of lost people (and murder suspects) like baby ducks and then proceeds to tell them exactly how to fix their lives.

This book is a warm hug of a novel that loves everyone in it (except for the dead guy, because he sucks) and I sometimes come back to it because it was such a fun read.