That Inevitable Victorian Thing by E.K. Johnston

That Inevitable Victorian Thing by E.K. Johnston - 330 pages

In a near-future where the British Empire never fell, the heir to the throne princess Victoria-Margaret is having one last summer before taking up her duties.  She is spending the summer in Canada as Margaret meeting new friends and being a regular person.  There she meets August and Henrietta who have known almost their whole lives that they were going to marry.  But in this world, people are genetically matched by computer to make sure they are good matches.  When Henrietta and Margaret check their genetic matches online, they discover something strange, unsettling, and wonderful . . .


It took me a while to get into this book.  The premise was interesting and the characters likable.  However, the writing just did not draw me into the story until nearly halfway through the book.  Still, I would recommend this book to those who enjoy historical or LGBT romances.

Every Other Day by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Every Other Day by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, 352 pages

16 year old Kali is not your ordinary teenage girl ... every day. Every other day she's something entirely different. She isn't sure what possesses her to hunt out the things that go bump in the night, but she's been tracking/killing monsters since she hit puberty years before. She doesn't have friends and isn't close to anyone - her single-parent father included. That all changes one day when she meets a peculiar girl during school and saves the life of another student. What follows is a story that spans no more than four days but is so action packed you are sure it's months. The story moves fast enough to where you really don't form a connection to any of the characters, but is well told enough to keep you turning pages. The plot isn't exactly original but the premise is - totally vulnerable human one day, totally not the next.

The Year of the Flood (MaddAddam #2), by Margaret Atwood

The Year of the Flood (MaddAddam #2), by Margaret Atwood, 448 pages

This story takes place in a near future, where corporations run the world, most animals we know are extinct, and science has achieved god-like power.  The story centers around a small cult-like group, called the Gardeners, who shun the system and believe that a waterless flood will soon come and wash away the evil and give the world a new start.  It is told from the point of view of Ren and Toby, two women who take different life paths but find themselves in a similar predicament, and the preachings of their one-time leader.

I listened to this on CD, so I didn't realize that it was the second book in a trilogy.  Surprisingly, though, I didn't feel like I was missing anything until the very end.  And even at that, I was okay with it.  The audio narration was very well-done, and I'm glad they went with 3 narrators since there were alternating voices.