Hear ye, hear ye! I am now obsessed with Chloe Gong! I dub last month the month of Chloe Gong. One thing is that I am now on a mission to read everything that she’s ever written. If you’re not a Chloe Gong fan, there are a couple of other books that I read last month that hopefully match your taste.
This post contains affiliate links (read my disclaimer). Thanks for helping me adult!
LOOKING FOR MORE BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS? CHECK OUT MY BOOK PAGE AND FOLLOW ME ON GOODREADS!
LAST VIOLENT CALL BY CHLOE GONG
Chloe Gong put her big toe in it when she wrote this entire Secret Shanghai Universe. This is one of the best series I’ve read in a while. I picked up Foul Heart Huntsman after I finished Foul Lady Fortune to read but then started searching to see if I should read Last Violent Call before or after Foul Heart Huntsman and it was unanimous that Last Violent Call should be read first. It’s a short novella of two books in one – A Foul Thing and This Foul Murder. So don’t be like me if you pick these up from the library. Put both books on hold immediately and definitely read A Foul Thing First.
In A Foul Thing, Roma and Juliette have established themselves as the heads of an underground weapons ring in Zhouzhuang, making a living the way they do best while remaining anonymous in their peaceful, quiet life. But when they hear about several Russian girls showing up dead in nearby towns, they decide to investigate—and ultimately discover that this mystery is much closer to home than they ever imagined.
In This Foul Murder, Benedikt and Marshall have been summoned by Roma to find the elusive scientist, Lourens, and bring him to Zhouzhuang. Time is of the essence aboard the week-long Trans-Siberian Express, but when someone is murdered on board, Benedikt and Marshall convince the officer in charge not to stop the train so that they aren’t thrown off-schedule. Instead, they pretend that they are investigators and promise they can solve the murder, but as they dig deeper, they realize that the murder might have surprising ties to their own mission.
This was the perfect in-between that we needed between the heartbreak and destruction from the last three books. I loved that we got to see Roma, Juliette, Benedikt, and Marshall in love and living that love out loud without threatening violence from their families. It was great to see how happy both couples were and my heart soared with joy getting a mini series with them only.
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
FOUL HEART HUNTSMAN BY CHLOE GONG
***TRIGGER WARNINGS: blood, violence, murder, weapon use, needles, description of human experimentation, descriptions of war.***
I read this book (544 pages) in one sitting. I was so engrossed with the plot that I picked it back up every time I attempted to set it down. Anything that I say would reveal too much and provide spoilers if you are interested in what’s happening in this book. So I will only express that this was the perfect book to end the Secret Shangahi Universe. I’m so happy that it ended the way that it did.
Winter is drawing thick in 1932 Shanghai, as is the ever-nearing threat of a Japanese invasion. Rosalind Lang has suffered the worst possible fate for a national spy: she’s been exposed. With the media storm camped outside her apartment for the infamous Lady Fortune, she’s barely left her bedroom in weeks, plotting her next course of action after Orion was taken and his memories of Rosalind wiped. Though their marriage might have been a sham, his absence hurts her more than any physical wound. She won’t rest until she gets him back.
But with her identity in the open, the task is near impossible. The only way to leave the city and rescue Orion is under the guise of a national tour. It’s easy to convince her superiors that the countryside needs unity more than ever, and who better than an immortal girl to stir pride and strength into the people?
However, when the tour goes wrong, everything Rosalind once knew is thrown up in the air. Taking refuge outside Shanghai, old ghosts come into the open and adversaries turn to allies. To save Orion, they must find a cure to his mother’s traitorous invention and take this dangerous chemical weapon away from impending foreign invasion—but the clock is ticking, and if Rosalind fails, it’s not only Orion she loses, but her nation itself.
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
THE PRIEST AND THE SHEPHERD BY CHLOE GONG
This is a short story and prequel to the entire Secret Shanghai Universe. The synopsis provided on Goodreads is a spoiler, so I will say that this 50 page short story is about the relationship between the priest and the shepherd (both are codenames) before they were the priest and the shepherd. It gives us a quick glance at when they were younger and provides insight and a better understanding of their relationship then and now. It was a cute story that was an easy read for this universe.
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Read online at Simon Teen
THE READING LIST BY SARA NISHA ADAMS
***TRIGGER WARNINGS: discussions of suicide***
This was a random find on Goodreads and because it’s about books and a library – and we know how much I love those types of books – I happily added it to my list. I went into this book unsure how I felt about the synopsis and stayed for the heartwarming story about a reading list that changed the lives of many people.
Widower Mukesh lives a quiet life in the London Borough of Ealing after losing his beloved wife. He shops every Wednesday, goes to Temple, and worries about his granddaughter, Priya, who hides in her room reading while he spends his evenings watching nature documentaries.
Aleisha is a bright but anxious teenager working at the local library for the summer when she discovers a crumpled-up piece of paper in the back of To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s a list of novels that she’s never heard of before. Intrigued, and a little bored with her slow job at the checkout desk, she impulsively decides to read every book on the list, one after the other. As each story gives up its magic, the books transport Aleisha from the painful realities she’s facing at home.
When Mukesh arrives at the library, desperate to forge a connection with his bookworm granddaughter, Aleisha passes along the reading list… hoping that it will be a lifeline for him too. Slowly, the shared books create a connection between two lonely souls, as fiction helps them escape their grief and everyday troubles and find joy again.
This story was so great. While there were a few books on the reading list that was discussed that I’ve read, there were quite a few that I hadn’t. I have since decided to reread and add more books to my already full tbr list. I loved this story because it talks about the power that books can have on all of us. Books have the magical ability to transport us to different worlds, and lands. It also interesting how one story can resonate and be interpreted differently based on your experiences. I loved that the author added her own reading list at the end – books that I have also added to my list – to share the books that changed her life.
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
STARTER VILLIAN BY JOHN SCALZI
This book was a recommendation from Goodreads after I finished Hench. Because I was so enamored by that book, I decided to check it out to see what it was about. It was a really quick and entertaining read that I finished in a day.
Inheriting your uncle’s supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who’s running the place. Charlie’s life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie.
But becoming a supervillain isn’t all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they’re coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital.
It’s up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyperintelligent talking spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good.
This book reimagines what a villain is. Let’s be honest, superhero movies and comics have one overarching stereotype when it comes to defining villains and what they do. However, in the real world, villains are not as simple. I can be a villain in someone’s story based on our interactions and it didn’t include lasers of death crafted on a remote island. Villains can also be multinational companies (the focus of this story) that are actively harming folks or causing destruction to this world. It was also really easy to root for Charlie as he stumbled his way through this new business. I definitely recommend it if you’re looking for an easy read to add to your list.
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
