Book Reviews

A war college where students ride dragons — and surviving the first year means outwitting the system, trusting your dragon, and not falling for the enemy's son.

Book 2 of the Empyrean. The truth about the Venin is out. Xaden has been keeping secrets. And the war outside Basgiath can no longer be ignored.

After Iron Flame's devastating finale, Violet has to figure out how to love someone who isn't quite the person she fell for — and whether saving the world means losing them.

A mortal girl kills a wolf in the forest and is dragged to a land of dangerous, beautiful faeries. The start of one of the most beloved fantasy romance series ever written.

A broken soldier, a surgeon turned slave, and a young thief on her first mission. Book 1 of the Stormlight Archive — the most ambitious fantasy series being written today.

The greatest hero and villain who ever lived tells his own story. A legend's origin, told in three days. One of the most beautifully written fantasy novels of the century so far.

Aliens have destroyed Earth and turned it into a dungeon-crawler reality show. One guy and his ex-girlfriend's cat are going to make it to the end or die trying.

Huckleberry Finn retold from Jim's point of view. The 2024 Pulitzer Prize winner — a formally inventive, devastating novel that changes how you read the American classic it's in conversation with.

Two game designers, a thirty-year creative partnership, and a love story that refuses to be a love story. One of the most beloved literary novels of the decade.

Two brothers lose their father and handle it in completely different ways. Sally Rooney's most emotionally generous novel — warmer than Normal People, just as precise.

A young woman joins the Army Nurse Corps in Vietnam and returns to a country that doesn't want to hear her story. Kristin Hannah's most powerful novel.

A female chemist in the 1960s becomes an accidental cooking-show host. Smart, funny, and surprisingly moving — one of the most satisfying debut novels of recent years.

A romance that becomes something harder and more honest than a romance. Content-note heavy but important — one of the most discussed books of the decade.

Two people whose exes left them for each other become accidental roommates. Emily Henry at her funniest and most romantically satisfying.

Two people who secretly broke up have to spend a week pretending to still be together at their friends' annual vacation house. Slow-burn at its best.

A struggling writer finds an unpublished manuscript in a bestselling author's home. The manuscript confesses to things that should never have been written down.

Four retirees in a quiet English village meet weekly to solve cold cases — until a real murder lands on their doorstep. Witty, warm, and genuinely clever.

An astronaut wakes up alone in a spacecraft with no memory of how he got there. He's humanity's last hope. One of the most purely joyful science fiction novels ever written.

In a brutal future America, two teenagers are forced to fight to the death on national television. The dystopian YA that started a generation of readers.

Between life and death there is a library. Between each book is a life you could have lived. Nora Seed gets to try them all.