Bogormen

Title: Jødedoktoren (The Jewish Doctor)
Author: Mette Schmidt
Genre: Historical fiction
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 400
Date read: October 2026

The Jewish Doctor is the dramatic story of the doctor Salomon de Meza, his wife Regina and their children – a Portuguese-Jewish family from Amsterdam who immigrated to Copenhagen in the mid-1700s.

The people of Copenhagen are not keen on being treated by a Jew, but Salomon's insight into women's diseases is in demand. Salomon fights a year-long battle with the authorities for his three sons' right to become doctors, but in 18th-century Denmark, Jews are not allowed to get a university degree.

The Jewish Doctor is a great epic novel about identity, faith and the costs of assimilation.


Really interesting book about my great-great-great...(I forget how many)-grandfather, who was the first Jewish doctor in Copenhagen. This is a fictionalized account of a real person, and I am amazed by how MUCH research has gone into this book - including translating old letters and articles.

But though the topic might sound heavy, the book isn't at all. It's very easily read, and absolutely fascinating to read about the life of a Jew in Copenhagen in the late 18th century. Sure, I felt a personal interest, because these were my ancestors, but I've always been a fan of historical fiction, so would have been interested either way. It was amusing to read about them making their way around Copenhagen, and knowing exactly where this street or that building lies.

Title: Fatal Error: Confessions of a Trash Droid
Author: Michael Cheney
Genre: Sci-fi
Rating: 1.5/5
# pages: Audiobook ~4hrs
Date read: October 2026

T.E.D.D. is a trash droid with glitches, sarcasm to spare, and zero interest in dealing with our crap.

Unfortunately, quitting isn’t easy when blackouts, psychotic episodes, and a corporate death squad are on your tail. To survive, T.E.D.D. must embrace his anomaly—and maybe even team up with the humans he can’t stand. Equal parts dry wit and reluctant heroics, a darkly comic sci-fi about the little guy’s fight against the machine and what it means to be human.


I had this recommended to me in one of those "If you liked Dungeon Crawler Carl, you might also like ..." posts, so figured I'd give it a shot. Even more so when the blurb said "Recommended for people who like Douglas Adams and Andy Weir" - how could I not?!

Unfortunately the reality fell very flat. There was zero worldbuilding, zero explanation for anything that happened, the science didn't make a lick of sense and the plot (... what plot? ...) was pretty much just an excuse to get T.E.D.D into one crazy fight after another.

The novella ended on a huge cliff-hanger - but I just don't care. This was a one-and-done for me.

Title: 10 Ways to Accidentally Fall in Love
Author: Emmy Sanders
Genre: LGBTQ+
Rating: 4.5/5
# pages: Audiobook ~9hrs
Date read: September 2026

What’s a straight guy to do when he accidentally goes on a date with his brand new gym-bro? Offer to be the best wingman ever, of course! It’s foolproof.

Joey needs a man? I’ll find him one.

He wants someone who looks, well, kind of like me? No problem!

The issue is, going on all these dates with Joey makes me realize I want more of his time to be spent with me. I like the guy. And his smile. And the way he makes me feel like anything is possible.

Except… I can’t possibly be who Joey needs. He wants his forever person. His great big love.

And no matter how perfect the dude’s abs are or how skilled he is as a cuddle-bro, the two of us will never be more than friends. Because I’m straight.

Right?


If you're a fan of T.J. Klune, you will love this as well. Brad was basically a mix between Sam, Vince and Josiah, and I loved him from the very first double entendre. And just like those books, it just get rather explicit at times as well.

But I loved it. I loved the characters, I loved the friendships, I loved the humor, I loved the found-family trope. And yes - I loved seeing Brad accidentally fall in love.

Totally predictable of course - but so cute!

Title: Sorcery of Thorns
Author: Margaret Rogerson
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 3/5
# pages: 456
Date read: September 2026

ALL SORCERERS ARE EVIL . . .

Elisabeth has known that for as long as she can remember. Raised in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among magical grimoires that, if provoked, transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather.

When the library’s most dangerous grimoire is released, Elisabeth is blamed. With no one to turn to but her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn, she finds herself entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy. As her alliance with Nathaniel grows stronger, Elisabeth starts to question everything she’s been taught. For Elisabeth has a power she could never have imagined . . .


Slow to start, so it took me 3 weeks to read the first 30% and 3 days to read the rest! It really took off once Elisabeth made it to the chancellor's place.

I liked the characters - Elisabeth and Silas especially, Nathaniel and Kiera(?) to a lesser degree - but thought there was an awful lot of handwaving going on when it came to describing the magic system, how demons worked and why the libraries thought that sorcerers were so evil! And I wish more time could have been spent in the library and on the grimoires! I found those absolutely fascinating.

Title: A Warewolf's Guide to Seducing a Vampire
Author: Sarah Hawley
Genre: Paranormal
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 409
Date read: August 2026

Werewolf Ben Rosewood is happy with his life. One hundred percent. Everything is fine. His business, Ben’s Plant Emporium, is thriving, and he’s even expanding the shop. His anxiety disorder is…well, it’s been better, but that comes with the territory of running a business and having beastly urges every full moon, right? As for romance—who has the time? Though his family is desperate to see him settled, Ben is fine approaching forty as a single werewolf. But after drunkenly bidding on and winning a supposedly-possessed crystal on eBay one night, he finds himself face-to-face with a beautiful but angry vampire.

Eleanora Bettencourt-Devereux is a rare breed—a vampire succubus born from two elite European bloodlines during medieval times. But thanks to an evil witch, she’s been stuck in a crystal since she was thirty, forced to obey orders from the possessor of the rock. Eleanora’s been dreaming of breaking the spell and severing the witch’s head for centuries. But did this witch really sell her to someone new, and for only ninety-nine cents?

Eleanora would claw this werewolf’s heart out and eat it, if only the binding spell would allow her to. But Eleanora and Ben soon realize they can help each other with both vengeful and less hostile needs. And why not have a little fun along the way?


PSA: Despite this saying it's the third in the series, it can easily be read on its own. They're companion novels more than an actual series, so though this makes references to things happening in the earlier books, it's with enough context for everything to still make sense. This was my first introduction to Glimmer Falls and I don't feel like I missed out on anything.

With that out of the way, on with the actual review.

I didn't have any real idea of what to expect from this book - I bought it solely because of the title :-P ... which is kinda ironic as there was no official guide and very little seducing going on. But fortunately, that didn't matter at all. It turned out to be a funny story set in a magical community about a 600-year-old vampire assassin trying to figure out how to live in the modern world where she doesn't have to kill everybody she sees, and the poor clueless werewolf who's stuck with suddenly being her master.

A delightful read, and very much made me want to read more about Glimmer Falls. Even the 3rd act breakup didn't bother me, because it MADE SENSE, wasn't due to miscommunication and was fixed as quickly and efficiently as at all possible.

Title: Long Live Evil
Author: Sarah Rees Brennan
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 3/5
# pages: 431 pages
Date read: August 2026

When her whole life collapsed, Rae still had books. Dying, she seizes a second chance at living: a magical bargain that lets her enter the world of her favourite fantasy series.

She wakes in a castle on the edge of a hellish chasm, in a kingdom on the brink of war. Home to dangerous monsters, scheming courtiers and her favourite fictional character: the Once and Forever Emperor. He’s impossibly alluring, as only fiction can be. And in this fantasy world, she discovers she's not the heroine, but the villainess in the Emperor's tale.

So be it. The wicked are better dressed, with better one-liners, even if they're doomed to bad ends. She assembles the wildly disparate villains of the story under her evil leadership, plotting to change their fate. But as the body count rises and the Emperor's fury increases, it seems Rae and her allies may not survive to see the final page.


I had a really weird time reading this book.

I listened to the first ~40% as an audiobook, and kept losing focus. I'd get the characters mixed up, kept zoning out, and generally just considered giving up on it, as it couldn't keep my interest.

However, I was reading it for a book club, so in order to actually be able to finish on time, I switched to the ebook instead ... and finished it in two days!

It wasn't that the narrator was objectively bad - she didn't speak in a monotone, have weird inflections, use a sing-song voice or anything like that (all stuff I've DNF'ed an audiobook due to) - for some reason, she just couldn't hold my attention!

So in the end, I actually quite enjoyed the book - or at least the part of the book that I read for myself. I liked how the characters interacted, and how they slowly changed from being two-dimentional book figures, to being three-dimensional people that Rae actually cared about.

I'm not sure I got the idea of the book though. I mean ... why did Rae get send into the book in the first place? Sure, I know what was in it for her, but what was in it for the lady who visisted her?

It did end on quite the cliff-hanger, and I'm not sure that I enjoyed it enough to read the rest of the trilogy.

Title: Fake Skating
Author: Lynn Painter
Genre: YA
Rating: 4.5/5
# pages: 448
Date read: July 2026

From play dates on the playground to sneaking into movie theatres, Dani and Alec were inseparable as kids. Until Dani moved away. Years later, Dani is back in Minnesota, and excited to reconnect with the nerdy and comforting Alec. But teenage Alec is NOTHING like the boy she remembers. He's the hockey STAR in a town where hockey players are worshipped as gods—and he loves it.

When one thing leads to another and Dani and Alec find themselves thrown together and playing the role of boyfriend and girlfriend, "complicated" becomes an understatement. In this Minnesota town, hockey may rule, but romance is about to take its place.


Fake dating trope - people either love it or hate it. Personally, I love it when it's done right, which it was here. I'm less keen on enemies-to-lovers, but that too worked better than I had expected it to. This book was seriously laugh-out-loud funny in places, and SO cute. I loved reading about Dani finding a home, setting down roots, and even patching things up with her old grump of a grandfather.

I did not like ...
- Dani's father.
- Benji.
- the fact that some things were left unanswered.
- the fact that a certain someone never had to answer for what he'd done.
- the fact that since this was YA, I just KNEW there would be a third-act breakup at some point.

Fortunately, though I was right in that last bullet, it wasn't for the reason I had feared, and was resolved a lot faster - and in a much less cringy way - than I had feared. So despite there being ~20 pages I just skimmed past, ultimately I really enjoyed the book, and found it cute enough that I'd recommend it regardless.

Title: The Faraway Inn
Author: Sarah Beth Durst
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 5/5
# pages: 370
Date read: June 2026

When sixteen-year-old Calisa arrives at her great-aunt’s bed-and-breakfast for the summer, she’s shocked to find it run down rather than cosy. Grumpy and eccentric, Auntie Zee is determined to keep anyone from messing with her beloved inn . . . even though she clearly needs the help.

To convince her great-aunt to keep her around, Calisa sets to work fixing up the inn, enlisting extra help from the groundkeeper’s (handsome) son. But the longer she stays, the surer she is that there’s something strange about the B and B―and its residents. Something almost . . . otherworldly.

The inn is hiding a magical secret―but secrets are like doors. Once Calisa opens this one, she won’t be able to go back . . .


I was already a fan of Sarah Beth Durst thanks to "The Spellshop" and "The Enchanted Greenhouse", but this is by far her best work. Cozy fantasy of the absolutely best kind. I couldn't put it down, but never wanted to story to end.

It is just the right combination of domestic coziness, magical whimsey and fanciful characters mixed with enough of a plot to keep the story going, while still being (relatively) low stakes.

I loved every single minute of it.

Title: Dungeon Crawler Carl
Author: Matt Dinniman
Genre: Dystopian
Rating: 5/5
# pages: Audiobook ~14hrs
Date read: May 2026

The apocalypse will be televised!

A man. His ex-girlfriend's cat. A sadistic game show unlike anything in the a dungeon crawl where survival depends on killing your prey in the most entertaining way possible.

In a flash, every human-erected construction on Earth - from Buckingham Palace to the tiniest of sheds - collapses in a heap, sinking into the ground.

The buildings and all the people inside have all been atomized and transformed into the an 18-level labyrinth filled with traps, monsters, and loot. A dungeon so enormous, it circles the entire globe.

Only a few dare venture inside. But once you're in, you can't get out. And what's worse, each level has a time limit. You have but days to find a staircase to the next level down, or it's game over. In this game, it's not about your strength or your dexterity. It's about your followers, your views. Your clout. It's about building an audience and killing those goblins with style.

You can't just survive here. You gotta survive big.

You gotta fight with vigor, with excitement. You gotta make them stand up and cheer. And if you do have that "it" factor, you may just find yourself with a following. That's the only way to truly survive in this game - with the help of the loot boxes dropped upon you by the generous benefactors watching from across the galaxy.

They call it Dungeon Crawler World. But for Carl, it's anything but a game.


Best read of 2026 so far. I listened to 14 hours in just under 3 days - could NOT put it down.

Those my age and above might remember the ancient DOS game Nethack ... or the slightly newer Windows version, Castle of the Winds. Imagine that game as a book - complete with monsters to kill, loot boxes and maps that only populate once you get to that part of the dungeon. Now add just a tad of hunger games ...

That's the plot of Dungeon Crawler Carl in a nutshell.

I can't fully explain just what it was about this book that made it so appealing to me. Part of it was definitely the narration. Jeff Hays did an amazing job, which definitely added to the experience. Part of it was the absurdity of the plot and the nostalgia of how beautifully it tied into some of the most-played games of my childhood. Whatever the case, it ended up being a clear 5-star book, despite the fact that it's the first in a series and the end was left wide open. It didn't feel like it ended on a cliffhanger - just an obvious progression as we descend through the dungeon.

I'll definitely be continuing on with the series once I get my next audible credit!

Title: Too Hot to Handle
Author: Portia MacIntosh
Genre: Chick-lit
Rating: 2.5/5
# pages: 290
Date read: May 2026

Workaholic Molly is buzzing when her best friend tells her she’s getting married. As maid of honour Molly can’t wait for the perfect bachelorette party in Spain. What could be better than a week in a stunning villa? Sun, sea, cocktails and gossiping – and best of all, no boys allowed. But when the hens arrive they discover that they are not alone. The villa has been accidentally double booked by a group of stags who make it very clear they’re not leaving!

It’s a disaster, and no one wants to give up their place in paradise. Attempts at compromising fail instantly, so their only option is to have a winner takes all competition. Battle lines are drawn and it is girls v boys - but will the competition be too hot to handle?

As their rivalry heats up, and Molly finds herself gravitating towards stag Travis, it’s clear that he’s enjoying the attention - but Molly can’t let herself get distracted, and under no circumstances can she fall for the enemy.


I usually like Portia MacIntosh's books, but this was the first one I've read as a physical book rather than listened to as an audiobook, and I don't know ... perhaps they just work better as audiobooks? At least I don't seem to recall there being so many cringe-worthy moments in the books usually, but perhaps they just don't register as much when being listened to?

In any case, this book was almost too silly in places. Fortunately, it never went overboard with second-hand embarrassment, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I had expected to. I do think Portia MacIntosh mismanaged the plot - it could have been such a fun story, if the characters had been less unreasonable about it.