Book Review: The Inheritance by Ilona Andrews

The Inheritance
Author: Ilona Andrews
Series: Breach Wars (Book 1)
Publication: NYLA (August 10, 2025)

Description: We are at war. The interdimensional invasion brought us unimaginable suffering, but it also awoke talents slumbering deep within us, a means to repel and destroy our enemy. Every day new gates open, leading to breaches filled with monsters and valuable resources. If you are a Talent, your country needs you. The world needs you. Be the hero you were born to be.

Adaline is a Talent. Ten years ago, she had a happy marriage and a job she loved. The invasion shattered both. Now she works for the government, searching the breaches for magic metals and medicine to help Earth repel an interdimensional enemy. Two kids, one cat, bills, benefits, mortgage and school tuition...Risking her life became routine.

She had gone into the dimensional gates hundreds of times. She was always well protected. This time everything goes wrong. Now Ada is trapped in the labyrinth of alien caves unlike any other. Her only companion is a scared German Shepherd named Bear. Together they must uncover the breach's secrets and escape, because Ada promised her children that she will come home.

The future of humanity depends on it.

My Thoughts: Ilona Andrews begins a new urban fantasy series with a bang. Ada Moore is a Talent. Ten years after the first breach occurred she is a divorced mother of two and an Assessor. It is her job to go into these dimensional gates and determine if there are any items of value - minerals, plants, etc. - to retrieve before the gate is collapsed. 

She's gone into hundreds of gates, but this time things go wrong. When aliens appear, chasing still another alien, she is abandoned by the man whose job it is to get her out safe. The alien who was being chased gifts her with a jewel that sinks into her head before dying. 

Ada and her only companion - a German shepherd - have to find a way to survive and get out of the breach. She promised her kids that she wouldn't die. Luckily, the alien's gift gives her knowledge and other surprises that help her make it back home, but not before she meets other aliens and learns about the purpose of these breaches. 

Meanwhile, the leader of the guild that was running this exploration is determined to bring the bodies back and seal the breach.  

This was a great story with intriguing world building. I look forward to reading more in the series. 

I bought this one August 12, 2025. You can buy your copy here.

Friday Memes: The Inheritance by Ilona Andrews

 Happy Friday!

Book Beginnings is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader. She asks that the first sentence is posted along with the author and title of the book and the reader's initial thoughts on the sentence, the book, or anything else it inspires. 

Carrie at Reading Is My Superpower.org also provides a linky for sharing first lines and connecting with others. This meme asks that the chosen books be PG or marked as Mature if they are not. 

Beginning:

We are at war.

This war isn't about wealth, resources, or territory. It's a war of biological extermination. The very essence of humanity is at stake.

Friday 56:

I quashed the scream before it left my mouth. My fingers were free. I moved my arm around, The bracer stayed as if glued.

This week I am spotlighting The Inheritance by Ilona Andrews. I'm a fan of the authors and eager to read this story set in a new world. Here is the description:

We are at war. The interdimensional invasion brought us unimaginable suffering, but it also awoke talents slumbering deep within us, a means to repel and destroy our enemy. Every day new gates open, leading to breaches filled with monsters and valuable resources. If you are a Talent, your country needs you. The world needs you. Be the hero you were born to be.

Adaline is a Talent. Ten years ago, she had a happy marriage and a job she loved. The invasion shattered both. Now she works for the government, searching the breaches for magic metals and medicine to help Earth repel an interdimensional enemy. Two kids, one cat, bills, benefits, mortgage and school tuition...Risking her life became routine.

She had gone into the dimensional gates hundreds of times. She was always well protected. This time everything goes wrong. Now Ada is trapped in the labyrinth of alien caves unlike any other. Her only companion is a scared German Shepherd named Bear. Together they must uncover the breach's secrets and escape, because Ada promised her children that she will come home.

The future of humanity depends on it.

Audiobook Review: Through the Evil Days by Julia Spencer-Fleming

Through the Evil Days
Author: Julia Spencer-Fleming
Narrator: Suzanne Toran 
Series: A Clare Ferguson and Russ Van Alstyne Mystery (Book 8)
Publication: Macmillan Audio (November 5, 2018)
Length: 14 hours and 19 minutes

Description: Now a New York Times bestselling author, Julia Spencer-Fleming rises to the accolade with a powerful, and emotionally charged novel fans have been yearning for.

On a frigid January night, Chief of Police Russ Van Alstyne and Reverend Clare Fergusson are called to the scene of a raging fire, that quickly becomes a double homicide and kidnapping. Which is the very last thing Russ needs...Currently he's struggling with the prospect of impending fatherhood. And his new wife is not at all happy with his proposal for their long-delayed honeymoon: a week in an unelectrified ice-fishing cabin. The vestry of St. Alban's Church has called for the bishop to investigate Clare's "unpriestly" pregnancy. She has one week to find out if she will be scolded, censured, or suspended from her duties. Officer Hadley Knox is having a miserable January as well. Her on-again-off-again lover, Kevin Flynn, has seven days to weigh an offer from the Syracuse Police Department that might take him half a state away.

As the days and hours tick by, Russ and Clare fight personal and professional battles they've never encountered. In the course of this one tumultuous week the lives of the Millers-Kill residents listeners have come to love and cherish change forever. Listeners have waited years for Through The Evil Days and Julia Spencer-Fleming delivers with the exquisite skill and craftsmanship that have made her such a success.

My Thoughts: Russ and Clare are set to go on their honeymoon - in January, at a remote rural cabin with no electricity or running water - to go ice fishing. They are also carting along a lot of "baggage." Russ has just learned that the town council will be making a decision in a week about whether or not to disband the police department and contract services from the State Highway Patrol. Clare has been given an ultimatum by her bishop. He wants her to resign for "unpriestly" behavior. She is also dealing with the fact that she was still using drugs and alcohol when she became pregnant and the baby could be facing significant issues. Even worse, she and Russ had agreed to not have children before she found herself pregnant and Russ isn't dealing at all well with it.

Throw in arson, two executed people in the house before it was burnt, and a missing eight-year-old girl who has just had a kidney transplant and needs her immuno-suppressant drugs or she will die and the story gets filled with drama and tension. Mikayla's mother has lost custody of her because of her drug use. When the police go to search for her, they find that she is gathering pharmaceuticals used in making crystal meth. She flees before they can find out if she has Mikayla.

Meanwhile, the storm of the century bringing snow, ice, falling trees, downed power lines, and collapsed cell towers is bearing down on the region. And Russ and Clare attract the attention of bad guys who send them fleeing from their shelter in the height of the storm. 

While Clare and Russ are dealing with their issues, Kevin Flynn and Hadley Knox are also dealing with theirs. Hadley's ex-husband has shown up demanding money, threatening to take her children back to California, and threatening to expose her secrets. And Flynn is still dealing with his love for Hadley and also a job offer in Syracuse.

This was a fast-paced and tension-filled story. Many characters are faced with difficult decisions and police work has to go on while they are troubled. The ending leaves a number of plot threads dangling and I can't wait for the next book to tie them off. 

I bought this one August 29, 2025. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: At Death's Dough by Mindy Quigley

At Death's Dough
Author: Mindy Quigley
Series: Deep Dish Mysteries (Book 5)
Publication: Minotaur Books (October 28, 2025)

Description: The next book in the delectable Deep Dish Mystery series by Mindy Quigley, set in a Wisconsin pizzeria.

It’s February in the ritzy lakeside resort town of Geneva Bay, Wisconsin, and love is in the air. Pizza chef Delilah O’Leary is gearing up to celebrate her first Valentine’s Day with hunky police detective Calvin Capone, great-grandson of the infamous Chicago mobster. But their romance is put on ice when a shocking discovery plunges them into a century-old crime with ties to Capone’s notorious forefather.

As old secrets surface, Delilah realizes that nearly everyone in town―from Capone’s cagey cousin to her own quirky customers―has something to hide. With the pressure mounting and the past closing in, Delilah must help Capone follow a trail of clues that could lead them to a priceless treasure... or into a deadly trap. Can Delilah serve up justice before history repeats itself? Or will she and Capone end up sleeping with the anchovies?

My Thoughts: February is a quiet time in Geneva Bay, Wisconsin. Delilah is worried about her restaurant's bottom line and banking on a great Valentine's Day for her bottom line. She very reluctantly ice fishes with her great-aunt Biz and business partner Son. They are looking for fish and are surprised when the ice auger brings up human body parts.

With her police detective boyfriend Calvin Capone away investigating, it is left to his boss to investigate when a body is found under the ice. Delilah knows the man. She met Dominic Capone when he and Calvin's mother stopped in at Delilah & Son. Dominic was as eager to play up his relationship with gangster Al Capone as Calvin is to downplay it. But what made him decide to scuba dive in a frozen over lake?

With the chief eager to declare it a tragic accident, it is up to Delilah and her crew to really investigate the death. Old secrets from the heyday of gangster activity in Geneva Bay resurface in this engaging cozy culinary mystery. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

Book Review: The Boy by Tami Hoag

The Boy
Author: Tami Hoag
Publication: Dutton (December 31, 2018)

Description: An unfathomable loss or an unthinkable crime? #1 New York Times bestselling author Tami Hoag keeps you guessing in her most harrowing thriller yet.

When Detective Nick Fourcade enters the home of Genevieve Gauthier outside the sleepy town of Bayou Breaux, Louisiana, the bloody crime scene that awaits him is both the most brutal and the most confusing he's ever seen. Genevieve's seven-year-old son, KJ, has been murdered by an alleged intruder, yet Genevieve is alive and well. Meanwhile, Nick's wife, Detective Annie Broussard, sits with the grieving Genevieve. A mother herself, Annie understands the devastation this woman is going through, but as a detective she's troubled: Who would murder a child and leave the only witness behind?

When KJ's sometimes babysitter, twelve-year-old Nora Florette, is reported missing the very next day, the town fears a maniac is preying on their children. With pressure mounting from a tough, no-nonsense new sheriff, the media, and the parents of Bayou Breaux, Nick and Annie dig deep into the dual mysteries. Is someone from Genevieve's past or present responsible for the death of her son? Is Nora a victim, or something worse? Then everything changes when Genevieve’s past as a convicted criminal comes to light. Could she have killed her own child to free herself from the burden of motherhood, or is the loss of her beloved boy pushing her to the edge of insanity? Could she have something to do with the disappearance of Nora, or is the troubled teen the key to the murder? How far will Nick and Annie have to go to uncover the dark truth of the boy?

My Thoughts: This thriller is the second book in the Broussard/Fourcade series. Both are police detectives in a small Sheriff's office in Cajun Louisiana. They are a married couple with a five-year-old son. 

Nick Fourcade is called to a crime scene where he discovers a brutally murdered seven-year-old boy. His mother is injured but managed to run to a neighbor's home to get help. Fourcade is also still investigating the sexual assault of an autistic teenage girl which has stirred lots of public sentiment. 

Annie Broussard is also investigating the murder. Since she's good with children, she's assigned to interview the young boy's twelve-year-old babysitter. She finds a chaotic home situation and a missing babysitter. The girl's mother hadn't even noticed that she had been missing for a couple of days.

Meanwhile, the new sheriff who happens to be a flaming narcissist, is resenting every moment of publicity that Fourcade is getting and resents that he has no control over Fourcade or Broussard. He has a fiancée and potential stepson who are being psychologically abused by him when they fail to behave perfectly.

This twisty thriller had me changing my opinion about the killer numerous times as different things were discovered in the investigation. I enjoyed the setting. I also really liked both Nick and Annie.

I bought this one August 14, 2025, as a BookBub deal. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: The Bone Thief by Vanessa Lillie

The Bone Thief
Author: Vanessa Lillie
Series: Syd Walker (Book 2)
Publication: Berkley (October 28, 2025)

Description: When a Native teenager vanishes from her small town—a place with dark ties to an elite historical society—archaeologist Syd Walker is called to investigate...from bestselling author Vanessa Lillie.

In the hours before dawn at a local summer camp, Bureau of Indian Affairs archaeologist Syd Walker receives an alarming call: newly discovered skeletal remains have been stolen. Not only have bones gone missing, but a Native teen girl has disappeared near the camp, and law enforcement dismisses her family's fears.

As Syd investigates both crimes, she's drawn into a world of privileged campers and their wealthy parents—most of them members of the Founders Society, an exclusive club whose members trace their lineage to the first colonists and claim ancestral rights to the land, despite fierce objections from the local tribal community. And it's not the first time something—or someone—has gone missing from the camp.

The deeper Syd digs, the more she realizes these aren't isolated incidents. A pattern of disappearances stretches back generations, all leading to the Founders Society's doorstep. But exposing the truth means confronting not just the town's most powerful families, but also a legacy of violence that refuses to stay buried.

From the national bestselling author of Blood Sisters (a Washington Post Best Mystery of the Year and Target Book Club pick) comes a new Syd Walker novel that proves the sins of the past are destined to repeat until the truth is finally unearthed.

My Thoughts: Archaeologist Syd Walker finds herself involved with an elite historical society when a young Native girl goes missing and soon after the newly excavated bones of another young Native woman and her baby is discovered on the grounds of the Founders Society. Overnight, those bones disappear leaving Syd to find both the living girl and the bones. 

Syd has inherited the job of her newly retired boss with the society. She finds herself dealing with members who want to turn the area into an historical theme park centering around their very extensive dig and featuring artifacts that her former boss has found over many years. 

Syd, being Cherokee, is appalled at the notion that bones of Natives and other artifacts will be on display, but she takes her cues from the Native trickster Coyote to pretend to go along with those plans while trying to find the missing girl and the missing bones.

The book, set in 2008, shows the conflict between the traditional White society and the Natives who are trying to reclaim their birthright and land. 

I enjoyed this story which also includes characters from Syd's previous adventures who are trying to get over the events of that book. Syd is also married to Mal who is soon to have their baby which makes things even more complicated for her. 

I liked the way history was woven into the story.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

Audiobook Review: The Enchanted Greenhouse by Sarah Beth Durst

The Enchanted Greenhouse
Author: Sarah Beth Durst

Narrator: Caitlin Davies
Series: The Spellshop (Book 2)
Publication: Bramble (July 15, 2025), Macmillan Audio (July 15, 2025)

Length: 13 hours and 32 minutes

Description: New York Times bestselling author Sarah Beth Durst invites you to her new standalone novel set in the world of The Spellshop! Follow her to The Enchanted Greenhouse, a cozy fantasy nestled on a far-away island brimming with singing flowers, honey cakes, and honeyed love.

Terlu Perna broke the law because she was lonely. She cast a spell and created a magically sentient spider plant. As punishment, she was turned into a wooden statue and tucked away into an alcove in the North Reading Room of the Great Library of Alyssium.

This should have been the end of her story . . . Yet one day, Terlu wakes in the cold of winter on a nearly-deserted island full of hundreds of magical greenhouses. She’s starving and freezing, and the only other human on the island is a grumpy gardener. To her surprise, he offers Terlu a place to sleep, clean clothes, and freshly baked honey cakes—at least until she’s ready to sail home.

But Terlu can’t return home and doesn’t want to—the greenhouses are a dream come true, each more wondrous than the next. When she learns that the magic that sustains them is failing—causing the death of everything within them—Terlu knows she must help. Even if that means breaking the law again.

This time, though, she isn’t alone. Assisted by the gardener and a sentient rose, Terlu must unravel the secrets of a long-dead sorcerer if she wants to save the island—and have a fresh chance at happiness and love.

Funny, kind, and forgiving, The Enchanted Greenhouse is a story about giving second chances—to others and to yourself.

My Thoughts: This is Terlu Perna's story. After creating a sentient spider plant out of loneliness, she was sentenced to be turned into a wooden statue. She was to stand in the North Reading Room of the Great Library of Alyssium for some indeterminate time. 

Terlu wakes up later on an island covered with massive magical greenhouses. At first, she doesn't know how she came to be there and alive again. She needs to find the gardener which she does after a search of many lushly described greenhouses. 

Terlu finds the gardener who isn't at all happy to see her when he learns that she was a librarian and not a sorcerer. He needs to sorcerer to keep the greenhouses from failing. He's already lost more than 100 of the 365. 

Terlu would like to help him, but she greatly fears doing magic again. She doesn't think she could survive being re-statuefied. She almost inadvertently revives a sentient and chatty Ressurection Rose and from their other sentient plants. She spends time trying to learn the secrets of the sorcerer who created the greenhouses and the sentient plants. He died many years previously after sending all of his gardeners but one away and putting all his sentient plants to sleep. 

The sorcerer had grown more and more paranoid as the years passed and his spells were not only in a language Terlu, who has a gift for languages, doesn't know but they are also in code and include mirror writing and backwards writing to add to the difficulty of discovering his spells. 

As Terlu tries to learn the spells, she is falling in love with Yarrow, the last gardener. His faith in her helps her learn the sorcerer's secrets. The story was lush, descriptive and romantic. I loved the slow-build romance between Terlu and Yarrow. I loved the way each of them completed the other. 

I bought this one August 14, 2025. You can buy your copy here.