Royalslinger by Graci Kim

Royalslinger (July 21, 2026) by Graci Kim.

<This is the second novel in a duology.>

<Alert: Potential spoilers ahead.>

Novice Aria Loveridge has successfully passed the Annual Royal Slinger Trials with her bloom dragon, Rio. Now in her second year in the Kingdom of Royal Hanguk, she should be concentrating on passing the Fellowship exam with fellow novices and best friends Tui Walker and Lion Lee-Hendrick to become full-fledged Fellows. They have ideas to improve the Trials and are excited to share them. Instead of preparing for that exam, all Fellows and Novices are tasked with finding a way to reclaim the Touch of Death, one of three powerful, ancient relics. It was stolen by someone Aria should’ve grown up knowing. As if that’s not stressful enough, Aria experiences a most profound loss and, in her grief and doubt, goes so far as to join the freeslingers, a rogue faction of dreamslingers. In this group, she’s reunited with a friend who was viciously booted from the Trials and gains advantageous knowledge to prevent Outbursts, but she also learns just how the freeslingers are able to reunite with their dreampanions without use of a norigae and how they’re returned from the Beyond. Can Aria get out of her grief spiral to help make a plan that helps all slingers, even if it means the end of the Royal League of Dreamslingers?

            Kim’s middle-grade, contemporary fantasy captures my mythology-loving heart in a magical area of Seoul where creatures like bloom dragons and frost turtles exist. It’s a place I’d love to be a part of, not only with my Korean ancestry, but mostly because of my fondness for magical schools. It’s an adventure story featuring friends and magic, but is also a weighted story with characters finding their true selves and dealing with family turmoil. The finale in The Slinger Series is original and captivating, awash in magic that’s omnipresent.

            Book One: Dreamslinger

Rutabaga's Reads 2026: Part 13

My commitment to the Wayward Children Series is going strong. I started reading this set of books in June. Thanks again to my coworker, Brittany, for the series recommendation!

            FYI: The write-ups are in chronological order.

In an Absent Dream (Jan. 8, 2019) by Seanan McGuire.

<This is the fourth novel in a series.>

In a house in an ordinary town is Katherine Victoria Lundy. She’s “ordinary enough to have become remarkable entirely without noticing it.” She’s a child who’s mature beyond her years. She’s complex, quiet, self-assured. She loves books as well as rules, and when she’s eight, she is “always sure” as she steps through an impossible door into a tree with leaves running the entire spectrum of green. She enters the Goblin Market, “a place where dreamers go when they don’t fit in with the dreams their homes think worth dreaming,” first meeting Moon (who’s smart but sometimes careless) and then the Archivist (as old as the Market’s time). The latter explains the rules. Katherine chooses to go by Lundy, and she must learn about fair value. If one doesn’t learn fair value, debt will follow, and one probably won’t care to experience what fully happens when too much debt is incurred. Lundy often gets meat pies and fruit pies from Vincent, a unicorn-centaur. There’s Mockery, too, but we never actually meet her. Lundy returns to her family, but that place is no longer home. She knows that she’ll become a permanent resident of the Goblin Market before curfew. Because she is sure. What she doesn’t know is that she’s going to make a bargain that was better left in the bin.

            Another standalone fantasy comes forth as the fourth title in the Wayward Children Series. The gothic portal fantasy is also a magical realism tale that is capricious and logical in equal measure. Despite its slim length, it blooms with complexity, imagination and the rustle of wings. This is a fable of youth who don’t fit a mold and prime world-building. It’s a story suffused with pragmatism to balance what’s unfair, sagacity to the tale’s fairy tale fancy.

            Books One Through Three

            1: Every Heart a Doorway

            2: Down Among the Sticks and Bones

            3: Beneath the Sugar Sky

Come Tumbling Down (Jan. 7, 2020) by Seanan McGuire.

<This is the fifth novel in a series.>

<Alert: Potential spoilers ahead.>

Always exuding cold calm and aloof logic, mad scientist-in-training Jack Wolcott is carried through a door from the Moors into Eleanor West’s School for Wayward Children by Alexis. Jack is unconscious and, in a nasty turn of events, is residing in Jill’s body. Jill stole Jack’s never-been-dead body so she can fulfill her fanatical dream of becoming Master vampire’s vampire daughter. Dr. Bleak bought them time to leave and likely paid with his life. Jack aspires to be a mad scientist herself and knows she’s a monster – the Moors makes monsters of everyone – but this is madder than Jack or Dr. Bleak would ever conceive (and Jack has a horse named Pony who’s made up of many animal skins, so, just saying). As Sumi so indelicately puts it, “...this is bonus terrible. This is the awful sprinkles on the sundae of doom.” She doesn’t want to need it, but she needs help. Kade, Christopher, Sumi and Cora (the only one Jack doesn’t know) heed her request. The Drowned Gods will call to one, another will fall heroically into the sea, and Jack, the ridiculously scientific-headed, is unraveling. If Jack doesn’t get her body back, if she fails, the Moors will be unbalanced, and that is, perhaps, the most monstrous thing of all.

            The standalone fifth installment in the Wayward Children Series is a dark portal fantasy that also suits the horror genre. Sumi’s nonsensical manner and forthright speech counterbalance Jack’s unsympathetic manner and equally blunt speech. Sumi is a rainbow of bold colors to Jack’s miasma of bleak tones. It’s all a bit deranged with Jill the shining beacon topping the cuckoo cake. The series continues to be inclusive, bittersweet and evocative. McGuire’s prose gets readers to think as she regales. In a story of Jack and Jill, who will come tumbling down?

            Noteworthy lines: “Science is my god. Lightning is my miracle, and storm clouds are my catechism.” --Jack Wolcott

Across the Green Grass Fields (Jan. 12, 2021) by Seanan McGuire.

<This is the sixth novel in a series.>

Welcome to the Hooflands, where humans are heroes and lightning rods for disaster. Regan Lewis loves horses, and in the world she was born in, horses are acceptable. When one of her best friends is shunned by the best friend she wants more, she doesn’t fully understand the scope of her mistake until it’s too late. She’s sure at 10 years old when she walks through a door in the woods near her house, not knowing she’ll be gone for six years. She expects she’s dreaming when she comes across a unicorn and is further in awe when a centaur comes to find the wandering creature. Pansy is the centaur who finds Regan, and she’s ecstatic to find a human. Humans in the Hooflands mean something big is going to happen, but Regan doesn’t want to be a hero, nor does she believe in destiny. She’s finally found where she belongs and Chicory, a centaur her age, is like the best friend she always had even when they’ve just met. She loves her time with the herd, but being the only human in the land means potential danger for her and maltreatment to other centaurs. She’ll have to be the hero she doesn’t want to be in a land that is not as equal as it seems with creatures that may eat her if given the opportunity (beware the kelpies and perytons).

            The sixth short novel in the Wayward Children Series features all-new characters, making it a good choice for anyone wanting to read a true standalone story. The portal fantasy begins with the ups and downs of girlhood. It’s easy, as an adult, to see that Laurel is a terrible friend and an entitled bully, but that’s hard for Regan to see when she’s the kid that doesn’t want to be ostracized and seen as other for any reason. (FYI: My mother would NEVER have let me get away with snubbing Heather.) I’d wondered how I’d feel about a story featuring characters I didn’t yet know in a series that I’m now six books into, but I needn’t have doubted. Life in the Hooflands is an adventure, an education and a bildungsroman. It’s another wondrous tale that has heart (and many hooves).

Rutabaga's Reads 2026: Part 12

It is a rare post that features one author. Here is one of those posts. The author is Evie Woods. The first book I picked up caught my eye when I was wandering around Barbara’s Bookstore at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport early spring of 2025.

            The books are in order by publication/US publication date.

The Lost Bookshop (Nov. 7, 2023) by Evie Woods.

<This is a standalone novel.>

Three characters in two timelines have been supporting characters in their own lives. Opaline Carlisle/Gray faces an arranged marriage to a leering man by a misogynistic brother. Martha Winter has fled a marriage filled with domestic abuse, and Henry Field is fanatically searching for a lost bookshop while avoiding his alcoholic and emotionally abusive father. Opaline’s timeline starts in the 1920s and wraps up years after World War II. She’s a progressive woman of her time, opening her own bookshop and becoming a leader in rare book dealings. She also experiences tremendous loss and years of time when life seems to stop (but no spoilers).

            In the present day, Martha has taken work as a live-in housekeeper for Madame Bowden (first name: Eileen). It’s never what Martha would’ve chosen for herself, but she needs work. Meanwhile, Henry’s obsession crosses paths with Martha’s; she originally thinks he’s a pervert trying to peer in her window. He’s merely obsessed with the location of where Martha is living on Ha’penny Lane. Unfortunately, his fanaticism is costing him, not only financially, but in his relationships with others. The characters are all lost, but not all is lost, and the lost bookshop will prove it.

            This adult fiction novel is historical and contemporary with magical realism and splashes of romance. Despite traversing themes of domestic abuse, alcoholism and misogyny, this is an enchanting story that means to transport readers to a spellbinding Dublin that highlights the wonder of books and storytelling. It’s a story meant for bibliophiles that’s delightfully written and has a captivating warmth at its heart. While not always easy to read, it’s an absorbing novel of escapism. There is joy in storytelling and delight in reading books that capture your imagination.

The Story Collector (Aug. 13, 2024/US edition) by Evie Woods.

<This is a standalone novel.>

In present-day New York, influenced by inebriation, Sarah Harper boards a plane bound for the West Coast of Ireland and not to Boston, where her sister and brother-in-law are expecting her. While staying in the modest Butler’s Cottage in Thornwood, she finds the 100-year-old diary of Anna Butler, a teenaged farm girl who’s helping Harold Griffin-Krauss, an American visitor, who’s seeking fairy stories that have been kept alive. Anna translates the stories from Gaeilge (Irish) to English. The American is handsome and well-educated, while Anna and her family are working class. She laments that she has no real hope of catching the eye of Master George Hawley, who resides at the Thornwood mansion with his twin sister, Olivia, their father and all of their finery. That is, until she does. Oh, how tickled she is to have caught the eye of such a gentleman. But is George the gentleman he comports himself as? Will Anna trust Harold enough to share the secret of her older sister? Back in 2011, Sarah is weighed down by her own grief, questioning the wisdom of her hasty choice to fly to County Clare. Fortunately, she meets good folks like Marcus O’Brien (hotel manager), an upbeat sort, and Hazel Sweeney, who appreciates stories of The Good People. Her dad, Oran, is a good man who continues to sort through his own grief. Myth and magic in the everyday are par for the course when in Ireland.

            A standalone that is part contemporary romance and part historical fiction contains elements of fantasy and magical realism with the cottage life lending a domestic fiction feel. I didn’t fancy this tale as well as Woods’ other two books in this compilation, but the magical feel of the story is tantalizing. There is mystery and darkness, yes, but also beauty and light and, of course, the folklore and otherworldliness of fairies. The story is a tale of grief, but it’s also one of new hope, brighter days and the uplifting power of friendship. If this story were set to music, it would be haunting and lyrical, crescendoing at the highest turmoil and in the deepest grief. It is bewitching.

The Mysterious Bakery on Rue de Paris (Apr. 8, 2025/US edition) by Evie Woods.

<This is a standalone novel.>

It’s been over a year since Edith (Edie) Lane’s mother passed away. She doesn’t regret helping to care for her mom, but she knows she used her caretaker role to put her own life on hold on purpose. Now life’s staring her in the face in a big, big way and so she accepts a position in a bakery on the Rue de Paris in Compiègne, France, despite lacking strong fluency in French. The proprietor, Madame (Genevieve) Moreau, is disdainful toward her at best, and Edie’s room is the lonely attic at the top of the building, which sits over La Boulangerie et Pâtisserie de Compiègne. Edie wonders if she made a mistake, but after she makes new friends in Nicole and her husband Johnny and meets Hugo Chadwick, life seems more than a sprinkle brighter. The recipe book that Edie finds with a dash of magic in the ingredients spells deliciousness, but a recipe for disaster waits around the corner, and it involves the last person she’d suspect. Going through it also helps her see that she is exactly where she needs to be, not on the bustling streets of Paris, but in a small, locally-owned bakery on Paris Street in an entirely different town. She’s in a magical place where hot cocoa can unlock a precious memory, and a residual mystery resides in the basement.

            While this standalone novel read slow out of the gate for me, it picked up the whispers of wistfulness and whimsy that I felt when reading “The Lost Bookshop,” and then I got lost in the deliciousness of homemade bread and pastries. There is magic in a fresh croissant or a perfectly made macaron. Grief is at the forefront of the story, no matter the façade one puts on. A brave face still has struggles and sorrows, and the story balances that with secrets and sweets aplenty. The novel is a delight to the senses, even when you must use your imagination, and a literary tribute to hardworking, family-owned bakeries and all who love carbs (this includes me). Go ahead and eat a profiterole for luck!

Rutabaga's Reads 2026: Part 11

The year is scooting along, isn’t it? How are we halfway through August already? What have you been reading? I always welcome recommendations, though I never promise that I’ll get them read, knowing the length of my TBR (To Be Read) list at any given moment. Here is this year’s second adult fiction compilation.

            P.S. Although other posts are technically also adult fiction, I did not nickname them under that banner, making this post still the second.

The Charmed Library (Jan. 26, 2026) by Jennifer Moorman.

<This is a standalone novel.>

The public library in [fictional] Blue Sky Valley, North Carolina, is a sanctum for readers, as libraries should be. Unlike other libraries, fictional characters can step off the page into the contemporary world. Greetings, Mr. Darcy! Hello, Ichabod Crane! Ahoy, Robinson Crusoe! Thirty-year-old assistant librarian Stella Parker is oblivious to this. She’s living in the outdated house inherited from her late father, and she’s holding onto bitterness from a breakup. So she burns one of her journals. She’s always seen actual words rising from people, places and objects, but once she “murders” the words in her journal, she experiences purple words that physically hurt as they arise. Words matter, but why these ones? The truth starts coming to light when Arnie (Arnold) Cohen, the 68-year-old head librarian, has a medical emergency, and he needs her to keep his friends in the library. Suddenly, Stella is faced with her fictional crush, a 27-year-old WWII soldier named Jack Mathis. He is her ideal man: heroic, handsome, kind. It’s too bad that there’s a time limit. Like a library checkout, characters must return to their books after two weeks, and characters can only “visit” once a year. Jack’s already been out for 11 days. With a villain on the loose (Stella’s fault) and the annual Blue Sky Valley Festival coming up this weekend, Stella must maintain control while keeping the library’s secret. She must also face the reality that all stories come to an end, no matter how good. All magic comes with a price.

            An adult fiction novel of contemporary romance and magical realism, it honors libraries, favorite stories and anyone who’s ever fallen for a fictional character. The title caught my eye, but it’s the idea of favorite characters wandering around where you can interact with them that really struck me. This story should’ve been wondrous, but Stella is a woman who’s stuck and is so fixated on romance that she’s miserable. I’ll admit that if she was my friend, I’d be struggling with her. Frustrating Stella aside, this is a novel of hope and renewal that brims with magic, the wanderlust found through reading and book boyfriends come to life. There is whimsy and heartbreak and quite a bit of charm.

Menu of Happiness (Oct. 14, 2025/US edition) by Hisashi Kashiwai.

   Jesse Kirkwood, translator.

<This is the third novel in a series.>

Anyone for thirds? The food detectives and father-daughter duo are back at the Kamogawa Diner serving up lost recipes and reviving suppressed memories. They may not realize it, but their clients aren’t just hungry for food; they’re hungry for nostalgia. A professional dancer looks for kake soba (plain noodles in hot broth with no trimmings) as an upscale lacquerware artisan wants curry and rice made by his estranged daughter who’s currently in prison. A former piano prodigy who injured her own hand for love seeks yakisoba made by the man she loves but hasn’t seen in 15 years while a man unhappy in his decades-long marriage yearns for gyoza served by the parents of the woman he once had an affair with in his student years. A businessman wants omurice (an omelet on fried rice) made by the mom of his best friend growing up and a popular romance author desires croquettes that she serially stole from a stall as a desperately hungry child. They come for the sustenance and will return for the solace.

            This is the third novel in Kashiwai’s Kamogawa Food Detectives series, and it’s the third of his I’ve read. The adult fiction, cozy mystery is one to warm you up on a chilly day and bring you the luxury of comfort food, even if one isn’t familiar with all of the food in these books. Step into the diner on Shomen-dori and sit yourself down. Might Chef Nagare serve you omi beef with miso sauce and tempura vegetables? Will you wash it down with the hojicha (a Japanese green) tea Koishi brings you? Or do you prefer sake? A nice cava? The entire book is succinct and reading it makes me feel nutrient-rich. Hungry, too!

          Book One: The Kamogawa Food Detectives

          Book Two: The Restaurant of Lost Recipes

Tales from the Cafe (Oct. 12, 2021) by Toshikazu Kawaguchi.

   Geoffrey Trousselot, translator.

<This is the second novel in a series.>

<Alert: Potential spoilers ahead.>

Clang-Dong. Return to Tokyo’s Funiculi Funicula to meet four new patrons looking to travel back in time. There are familiar faces, too, in Kazu Tokita, waitress and coffee pourer, and Nagare Tokita, Kazu’s cousin and proprietor of the cafe. There’s Miki, Nagare’s daughter, who’s eager to become the cafe’s pourer (when she’s seven). Gohtaro Chiba wanders into the shop wanting to meet Shuichi Kamiya. Gohtaro’s been raising Shuichi’s daughter all these years as a single dad, and she’s about to get married. Yukio Mita’s life isn’t going according to plan. He isn’t the successful potter he thought he’d be, and his mother (Kinuyo), his biggest champion, passed away from cancer without her or his sister (Kyoko Kijima) ever telling him she was sick. Katsuki Kurata wants to travel to the future to see Asami Mori, but he doesn’t want to meet her if either of two circumstances has come to pass. Kiyoshi Manda, a homicide detective at Kanda Police Station, wants to give his wife (Kimiko) a birthday gift, but he needs the advice of those at Funiculi Funicula. And ever present is the woman in the white dress: Kaname. Kazu’s mom. Clang-Dong.

            The follow-up to “Before the Coffee Gets Cold” is a short, adult fiction, Japanese literature novel that isn’t limited to one genre. There’s time travel in a contemporary setting with dashes of magical realism and patrons who each must face their past (or, for one, his future) in order to move on with their lives. It’s wistful and charming, deeply moving and sometimes sad. The story contains the multitudes of life and death, love and loss, the gladness of renewal and the awe of happiness. It manages to show pragmatism within the magic of the cafe.

            Book One: Before the Coffee Gets Cold