Rutabaga's Reads 2025: Part 19

A third adult fiction compilation post?! I’m surprised, too!

Dreadful (May 28, 2024) by Caitlin Rozakis.

<This is a standalone novel.>

You know it’s bad when you wake up in a partially-destroyed workshop with no memories and no eyebrows. There’s an abducted princess in a cell of the evil wizard’s castle and the goblin workforce fatalistically expects to one day be immolated on the whim of the evil wizard. Also, the evil wizard is ... him. What is his name? Others refer to him as Dread Lord Gavrax, but as he has no memories of the time before, he refers to himself as Gav. He plans to fake it until he makes it, but he might still die a horrible death at the hands of the evil wizard leader, Zarconar. Or maybe the moat squid will succeed in eating his face. Or he’ll self-immolate accidentally. He doesn’t want to die, and he also doesn’t want to be like Gavrax. He wants to be a, well, not a good wizard, but also not an evil wizard. He wants to be a wizard Orla will talk to about a hosting menu in her gamboling monster kitty apron that her granddaughter made her. And a wizard that Grrribeetle isn’t afraid of and will do more than mumble to. And a wizard that Princess Eliasha (apprentice name Wren) wants to be friends with. There is something truly evil at work. The princess is definitely only there for a nefarious purpose, which will assuredly mean her death. There’s a gathering of evil wizards, an upcoming summoning of demon evil, the arrival of hero types doing Artharno the White Wizard’s bidding and a village garlic festival. Candied garlic or garlic brittle, anyone? Gav has lots more to worry about than his flames-adorned cloak. He needs to decide who he wants to be going forward.

            I definitely judged this book by its sprayed edges, which are black and include skulls in the decorative edge-work, but I only bought it after I read the jacket copy and found myself intrigued. This adult fiction novel is a comedic fantasy with splashes of violence. There’s even a little gore, but it’s a quick scene, so it can therefore be sometimes spicy with dashes of darkness. Gav, with his missing memories, is more a bumbling fool than any threat to anyone – except the guy he turned into a chicken – so the story’s more entertaining than anything and not scary. I don’t know that I’d call it cozy, but it is genuinely funny. It contains wit, self-awareness and empathy, giving a fresh take on fantasy tropes. This book won’t bite, but if you’re not careful, something from the story might, so beware!

Gone Before Goodbye (Oct. 21, 2025) by Reese Witherspoon & Harlan Coben.

<This is a standalone novel.>

A renowned combat surgeon with a renowned combat surgeon husband and co-founder of a successful medical mission called WorldCures, Maggie McCabe was making a positive impact, and she had it all. Her reality now is a life where her medical license has been revoked, her husband is dead, her sister is going through a messy divorce, and both sisters are struggling financially. She’s thrown a mighty lifeline, and when she accepts, debts are erased, litigation against her is suddenly resolved, and she has a whole lot of money in her bank account, and that’s only half the payment. Absolute discretion is imperative, but she knows HIPAA. She arrives at a remote location in Russia. It’s a palace, and one of her clients is a reclusive oligarch. When he goes missing while he should still be under her care, Maggie becomes a fugitive herself around people who can afford Bugatti Tourbillons that cost $4.1 million (starting) and can jet-set in their own private planes with their own Michelin-star-level personal chefs. Her combat training as well as her medical expertise are going to be tested, and the truths she might uncover may cost her her life.

            There’s cutting-edge technology, state-of-the-art equipment and people who can live in gluttonously opulent luxury in this adult fiction, mystery and medical thriller by Academy Award-winning actress Reese Witherspoon and internationally bestselling thriller author Harlan Coben. The novel is action-packed, though it really didn’t pick up for me until an intense escape about 150 pages in. It’s also part globe-trotting adventure, part psychological thriller. The story contains twists and suspense, the plot is high-stakes, and the story is dynamic and pedal to the metal. It has me wondering what I’ve been missing out on since this is my first Coben novel, and I don’t know how much of the writing Witherspoon did, but this collab really works.

The Second Chance Convenience Store (June 17, 2025/US edition) by Kim Ho-Yeon.

   Janet Hong, translator.

<This is a standalone novel.>

The owner of the Second Chance Convenience Store, Mrs. Yeom, is a retired history teacher who keeps her store open in Cheongpa-dong to keep her few employees employed. She’s distraught over the loss of her purse until she receives a call from Seoul Station. Dokgo is an unhoused man who can’t remember his past or his actual name due to alcohol-related dementia. To thank him for returning her purse, she invites him to come to her store every day to receive an unexpired boxed lunch free of charge. He comes, but insists on only eating the expired boxed lunches. He even cleans up the picnic table, though it’s wintertime and very cold. When Dokgo saves the store from a robbery attempt, Mrs. Yeom offers the big, bear-like Dokgo the night shift. She requires him to stop drinking alcohol, but she buys him new clothes and a haircut. He learns fast and quickly wins over the denizens of the neighborhood, though his coworkers are slower to warm up to him. He’s grateful to his new boss, and business sees an uptick with his customer service, slow and methodical though it may be. The better business upsets Mrs. Yeom’s ne’er-do-well son, Minsik, who wants to try to convince his mom to back his latest venture (and they either tend to fail or turn out to be scams). Minsik hires a man to look into Dokgo’s past, because his mom’s convenience store is an inconvenience store to him.

            In this adult, cozy, urban fiction story, already an international bestseller from Korea, readers will find a broken man who gets his life back, a store owner with a kind soul and a wayward son, a caustic morning shift employee and a mid-shift employee who’s questioning what to do next. The fiction is realistic and sometimes unpleasant, but it’s encouraging and compassionate, too. It’s a story of community and healing. Overall, it’s a soft, heartfelt novel.

"The Otherwhere Post" by Emily J. Taylor

The Otherwhere Post (Feb. 25, 2025) by Emily J. Taylor.

<This is a standalone novel.>

It’s been seven years since Inverly was lost and the Written Doors were destroyed. Maeve Abenthy became an orphan and was sent to the Sacrifict Orphanage, where she took a different name to avoid being associated as the daughter of a murderer, the “world killer.” Now 18 years old, Maeve has received a letter that’s seven years old. She has no idea who’s sent it, but it declares that, “Your father was innocent.” To uncover the truth, she dupes her way into Leyland’s College of Scriptomantic Arts, which houses the Otherwhere Post’s headquarters in Leyland, and becomes a courier apprentice to an infuriating mentor who’s handsome under his ink-splattered wardrobe. Tristan Byrne has secrets of his own. But it’s here that Maeve – attending as Eilidh Hill – will learn scriptomancy, “the art of enchanting any piece of existing handwriting, from a penned novel to a scribbled grocery list.” Couriers are able to enchant letters and deliver them to other worlds. Finding the sender of the anonymous letter will prove tricky and not least because she’s not yet a scriptomancer. Someone is threatening her, and although arcane magic isn’t infinite, it still has the power to do irreparable harm or even kill. She’s spent these seven years moving around and never letting anyone close to her. Her roommate at the Post, Nan Ferro, is determined that they will be friends and has the outgoing nature to persevere. Nan’s mentor, Shea Widden (she hails from a rich family which owns buildings across Leyland and Barrow, another of the known worlds), also has no problem counting Maeve as a friend. Tristan could be a friend, too ... or more, but Maeve doesn’t need friends. Because then their lives will be in danger, and she’ll have to share her biggest secret.

            Having loved the author’s previous YA novel, I expected to be enthralled by this YA dark fantasy that steps into a world of dark academia and does contain a multiverse. And enthralled I am by the ingenuity of a story that’s part mystery and a little bit romance. Taylor is a builder of worlds that I feel like I could easily live in. My only needle with the story is in Maeve’s underhandedness in landing an apprenticeship. I get that her character is desperate for answers, but that doesn’t make her deceit copacetic. Fortunately, the story, much like I’d expect scribing to be, is complex in its plotting and its characters. The mystery is high-stakes with the adventure rush-hour and perilous. The magical fantasy tale dazzles, the banter delights, and Taylor’s world-building is detailed without being convoluted. It was hard to put down. I loved it.

            Also from the author: Hotel Magnifique