No. 18: A book everyone is talking about
People we meet on vacation / Emily Henry

I’ve got my party hat and my glitter shoes on in celebration. It just happens to be that those are acceptable wear on New Year’s Eve, but it’s purely to celebrate that the last item of Reading Challenge 2024 has been checked!
I made it just in time by finishing this one last night. Cutting it close is how I roll; I’m terrible with deadlines because I get distracted, in this case by all the other books I’ve got lying around, Christmas songs that required singing along to, and sappy Christmas movies that needed to be watched.
Onto the last item of the challenge!

Books by this author are hard to ignore and the online world is filled with fans. I’ve also heard people talk in the real world about Beach Read especially, but because that one wasn’t available in the library and had a waiting list, I picked up People We Meet on Vacation instead.

This book features total opposites Poppy and Alex. They met during introduction week in college, then never again until the summer break when Poppy needed a ride home and a friend set up a rideshare for her with Alex, who lives one tiny town over in Ohio. Alex doesn’t like to listen to the radio, Poppy has special travel playlists. Alex is a nervous driver but Poppy does her best to distract him.
The long drive sees them bond for life and the book chapters jump through time, going from the now, to twelve years ago, to eight years ago, back to the now, then back in time again.
Ever since that first road trip together, they have spent one week during summer together. During the twelve years their destinations have gotten more luxurious with thanks to Poppy’s job at a travel lifestyle publisher. Poppy lives a glam high-flying life in New York, travelling all over the world for work. Alex lives in his old home town where he works as a teacher at a public school.
He craves comfort and routine. She craves excitement and adventure. He brings a book to a bar (heck yes) and while he reads, she flirts with bartenders. He is the grounded one while she is all over the place. Then two years ago Something Happened (guess what?) that made things Super Awkward between them and they’ve not spoken since.
But now Poppy is feeling stuck in a rut at work and after accidentally sending a text message to Alex, they are back to texting. Not just that, but within a day they have set up a new trip together.
This felt so weird and sudden. Things were so bad between them that they didn’t talk things out and left it untouched for two years and now they’re going on a trip again without discussing anything beforehand? How did they think it would go? And it’s not just any trip: Poppy basically invited herself on Alex’ trip to Palm Springs where he is attending his brother’s wedding. I wish I could say things got heated for other reasons but it’s mostly just because they’re travelling to the desert in the middle of summer.
At no point in the story did I feel the tension that would make the friends-to-lovers trope believable; I only believed Poppy and Alex as friends. I think the ending would have been so much better with them deciding to stay friends. And why would that not be the perfect ending? Friends are so valuable to have in your life, and it would have made the book stand out way more than it does now. Now, it’s a typical fluffy comfort read that I won’t remember having read a year from now, and it could have been something that carried a little bit more weight. It might not be fair to judge an author by one book, but this one didn’t do anything to make me understand the hype. It was okay, but not a standout.

And so comes an end to the Reading Challenge and the Year 2024.
It’s been a wild and wonderful ride and I can’t wait to start all over again in 2025.
Wishing you all a sparkling start of the New Year and many, many, books to look forward to!

No. 4: a graphic novel
De smokkelaar [the smuggler] / Milan Hulsing

I know little about the genre of graphic novels aside from the two I read before. I don’t know why I don’t read them more because the ones I read (Maus and Giant) were amazing and great respectively. Another reason to be glad about the reading challenge, pushing me to this genre.
This time I picked up a book that turned out to be only published in Dutch, but the story is amazing and I truly hope it gets the translation it deserves to spread the word.

The title translates into The Smuggler and the smuggler from the title is Laszlo, a Hungarian who fled his his country. The story takes place in the 1950s and 60s which has Hungary invaded by Russia and under a strict communist regime. Laszlo had to flee his country for the role he played in smuggling Z.O.L.T.A.N. comics produced in the Eastern Bloc, to the West.
On the run, he travels the world and at one point ends up in the Caribbean where he lands a job as a diver. Here, he also meets an eccentric Hungarian millionaire, who shares his hatred for the communism that is keeping their country in its grip. When Cuba becomes a communist country as well, the fear for the spread of communism to the other islands in the Caribbean intensifies and Laszlo and his friend are convinced they need to help nip it in the bud as they’ve seen up close what it can do to a country.
They do this, by launching the Z.O.L.T.A.N. comics in the United States, its extreme and political message something unheard of in America at the time. While the Cold War intensifies, the pop-art scene explodes, and the Z.O.L.T.A.N. comics become one of the leading items of this scene, with Laszlo hailed as its developer even though he only was the one smuggling them out from behind the Iron Curtain.
His millionaire friend buys Laszlo time in the media, with tv interviews and a spread in Life magazine. The media attention is used to drive home the warning message against communism.
However, the attention that they draw also reaches Hungary and the authorities start to track down the people behind Z.O.L.T.AN.. Instead of arresting the true genius, Laszlo’s former mentor Kalman, they use the witch hunt to arrest anyone in the Eastern Bloc they suspect to be involved with anti-socialism: academics, journalists, and artists alike.

The story is told by Naomi, the daughter of the owner of the ship Laszlo works on as a diver. Naomi is an independent storyteller but one with a lot of fantasy, making the story unbelievable in parts. This is fitting with the topic of fake news which was one of the main drivers of the Cold War.

I really liked this graphic novel and enjoyed both the story and its drawings.

No. 6 – A book that is set in the future
This is How You Lose the Time War / Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Confession: I really, really, want to read The Ministry of Time which would have fitted this category perfectly. However, I also really, really want to finish the reading challenge and with three books to go and three weeks left, size of the book and ease to get it became the higher priorities.
This is How You Lose the Time War is an intriguing title though and I was still eager enough to get my hands on it.

The story is about Blue and Red. They are agents sent to secure the future for their worlds. They travel through time and space to execute the orders they receive. Because their worlds are at war, they are each other’s enemies.
The story starts in the middle of all of this, in the aftermath of a battle that was fought on a dying planet. Red wades through the mass of dead bodies she left behind to pick up a note. The instructions are to burn before reading which is a fun play on normal secret agent talk and it sets the tone. The note is from Blue, her competitor, her enemy.
Red replies to the note by leaving something hidden for Blue to find in the next location she is sent to. And this is how the book continues. Blue or Red arriving somewhere sometime to manipulate the future, and finding a message from the other who had already been there. It leads to messages implanted in the strangest locations which is kind of fun but also confusing at times, such as the ones with words written in a cloud, boiling water, or inside an animal for example. I decided there was no way to understand it, I just had to accept it for what it was and read on.
There never is much of an explanation to anything. How are they travelling? Who is giving their orders and why? The chapters jump from Red to Blue in the same way they jump through time and space: Blue on yet another sinking Atlantis. Red inside a volcano that she’s triggering to erupt at some time.
They don’t care about the worlds and times they arrive at: they’re there to execute an order and that’s it. They are not anthropologists, explorers, or historians; they are ruthless agents.
We do learn that one of them is from an elfish like wood-world, the other is a bot created in a lab but both come with the specific purpose to chase and kill.
Trained and tough as they might be, their jobs are difficult and lonely, and although it is dangerous, they start to look forward to a note left by the other. The notes are sometimes taunting, sometimes honest. Over time the notes become more personal, revealing dreams and fears and love.

This is a kind of high-concept book and very different kind of book, although maybe that’s because I’m not used to reading science fiction. The feel of the story reminded me a lot of the Loki series.
There is so much left unexplained that it makes the book readable because if the time travelling and the worlds, and the reasons for war would have been explained, the story would have become too much to work through. And it probably wouldn’t have made any sense. With all this left out, you can imagine the backstory any way you like; it’s open for interpretation while the story can focus on Blue and Red because despite the war and destruction this is in its core a love story.
This book was a roller coaster ride for me. It started off a bit difficult to get into, then I was fully on board, but the ending was too much for me. It was difficult to keep track of what timeline the story was in and I felt it made things unnecessarily complicated. I would have been okay with the story ending two or even three chapters earlier than it did.
All in all, still glad I read this.

No. 20 – A book with a body part in the title
Once upon a broken heart / Stephanie Garber

This book is YA fantasy and that’s a combination of two genres I don’t typically gravitate towards. And after the disappointment of my previous read, I was a bit hesitant to start this but I was pleasantly surprised by what a palate cleanser this turned out to be!

The book is the first in a trilogy and sets the scene really well. The story contains all the elements of a classic fairy tale: orphaned pretty girl, wicked step-family, curses, love, and a morale.
Evangeline Fox is the heroine. She believes in happily ever afters, is a tad naïve, and only dreams about marrying her one true love.
When Evangeline finds out that the guy she loves is about to marry her step-sister, she is utterly heartbroken. She’s so desperate to stop the wedding that she goes to a church and begs the Prince of Hearts to intervene.
The Prince of Hearts is called Jacks and he is an immortal, a Fate. Once upon a time there was an incident and all the Fates were captured in a deck of cards. Jacks has escapted the deck.
Jacks is charismatic and eager to answer Evangeline’s request, in return for only three kisses, to be given at a time and place of his choice (the kisses don’t even have to be for him). This deal seems too good to be true but Evangeline is eager and gives her word. Evangeline quickly learns that striking a deal with a Fate requires reading the fine print, because Jacks’ solution to stop the wedding, nearly causes her demise. The event makes Evangeline realise that Jacks must have an agenda of his own but she is stuck to him due to their deal.
The adventures that follow see Evangeline travel to The North, where she meets a prince, and more Fates that escaped the deck of cards. There are vampires, potions and spells, and there is murder.
Evangeline’s naïveté borders on annoying: she makes some silly mistakes causing unnecessary drama. In the beginning she is also very much apathetic and has stuff happening to her (she has people decide on her outfits, is practically married off to someone she doesn’t like), rather than be involved in any way herself.
But, she does show growth and three-quarters into the story, finally starts to show a bit of an edge.
On the opposite end of the spectrum Jacks is nothing but edge. He’s very broody and mysterious and doesn’t let anyone get close. He holds his cards close to his chest (ha) and doesn’t want anyone involved in his personal business (whatever that might be).
The book ends with Evangeline finally realizing that and making a decision purely for herself. The door that she opens is connected to another door in the castle and that’s where the story ends. What’s the door of Evangelines chosing? What’s the deal with that other door? How is Jacks going to react to Evangeline’s action? It’s a to be continued!
I liked this book enough to borrow the other titles if ever bumped into them, but I’m not that eager that I’ll bother with a reservation or a run to the library.

The other titles in this series:
Book 2: The Ballad of Never After
Book 3: A Curse for True Love

Note: I’ve seen different versions of cover art for this title (series) so be aware when you purchase! (so annoying when one of the books of a series you have is in a different edition than the others)

No. 17 – A book with an antonym in the title
Big little spells / Hazel Beck
(book two of the Witchlore series)

This wasn’t an easy category to fill and I admit: I settled for this book.
Like in real life, one shouldn’t settle because it’ll only end in disappointment. Yup, this one became a DNF: Did Not Finish.

Books about witches are generally not on my radar but they’re hard to ignore this time of year, and because it’s a genre that seems to be particularly into pun-fun titles, I put my doubts aside and went for it.
And it might be on me for picking the second book in a series, but I never got into swing of things: it felt like jumping onto a moving merry-go-round. This book picks up right where the first one ended and I never truly found my balance and kept stumbling through it. And because that’s no fun either on a merry-go-round nor in a book, I eventually gave up and jumped off. I’m still counting it for the reading challenge though, because I did give it my all and didn’t quit until page 212 out of 374.

The story is about Rebekah and Emerson Wilde, sisters and witches. After Emerson has re-discovered her witch-being, and Rebekah helped her and her friends save their hometown (book one), the book starts with the sisters and their friends facing the local coven to face the consequences of their actions. Something had happened ten years ago that had Emerson forget that she’s a witch and Rebekah was exiled, and because they have broken those punishments the coven decides that the sisters have to take an exam on their witch skills. I guess you can’t have witches with half-skills running around. Along with their friends they also have to attend their local high school’s prom. This is not just a prom, but more of a coming out like they do in high society with involvement from the parents.
A lot of the drama is high school related and not in the healthy grown-up way where time and distance make you look back and reflect, but in a way that felt petty and silly. This made the story feel more YA than the witchy rom-com it says it is.

The first twenty pages contain a lot of introductions with names, and titles attached to them (there are diviners, immortals, healers), and it felt more like an information dump than actual story. And although the story is not that complicated to get into, there was something about the style that didn’t work for me. There was a lot of inner-thought narrating (that just never seemed to stop), and especially in combination with the information dumping it didn’t feel natural. (Nor super-natural).
Then I started noticing that there was a lot of cursive to emphasize words. On top of that, the cursive is also used for internalized conversations with cats, text message conversations, spells, and text that is being read, and it was so much that it overshot its intention and reached a point that it became distracting and annoying. It got so bad that I started to keep track of it for a chapter, and out of twenty pages there was one (one!) that didn’t have this tool used.
I don’t consider myself a nit-picker but when a story isn’t pulling you in, you notice these things.

Because it’s (sort-of) a rom-com, Rebekah has a love interest. This is local immortal Nicholas. Nicholas and Rebekah have history, and not in the good way: ten years ago, he set her up to fail and now she needs him to teach her and her sister and friends what they need to know for their exams. Needless to say, Rebekah isn’t happy about the situation and doesn’t trust him as far as she can hit him with lightening. Everybody that witnesses them arguing and battling in magical fights, comments that they have so much tension together but I didn’t feel that. I also didn’t really feel the connection between any of the other characters; there was a lot of description but not enough showing for me.
Rebekah complains that she’s being treated like a teenager, but she’s also acting like one. When I started the book, I kept going back to the part where her age is mentioned to remind myself of it because she reads young and immature. She’s considered edgy and cool (mostly by herself) because of her tattoos and piercings and choice of clothes. I guess this was all meant as a way to indicate her status as the local rebel but again, the actions to cement that were lacking. Rebekah came across more like someone who really wants to be something, rather than is something. And for a main character in a very specific state of being, that’s problematic.

When I was ready to call it quits, I checked the last chapter to see how this book ends, hoping that would intrigue me into continuing. Unfortunately, it didn’t and realized I just didn’t care enough about these characters to put in more effort. While I really wanted to like this book, I admitted defeat and gave up: it and I just didn’t click.

If you do want to dig in and give it a go, I strongly suggest starting with the first book in the series (Small Town, Big Magic). And if you really can’t get enough, it might be good to know that there is a third book as well (Truly Madly Magically).