A Trade of Blood (Ana and Din Mysteries / Shadow of the Leviathan #3) by Robert Jackson Bennett

  

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Strong Language, Plant horror, Off page sex

 

In the canton of Sapirdad, two of the Empire’s most powerful families are moments away from going to war with each other, their hundreds of retainers gathered with swords drawn. If blood is spilt, the whole of the empire may be plunged into starvation and chaos.

To de-escalate matters, someone must do the impossible: prove that one family’s eldest son is innocent of a gruesome and unforgivable murder, despite the incontrovertible evidence against him.

It is with this undertaking that the great detective Ana Dolabra is tasked, her assistant Din at her side—and the two find themselves racing with great speed and little dignity to the scene.

As ever, the impossible proves little obstacle for the deadly combination of Ana’s intellect and Din’s keen eye, and mere hours after riding into the dusty town, Ana glimpses the greater pattern behind the crime. A deeper, subtler web of death is being woven in plain sight, by a mastermind with an ancient magical technology at his disposal.

But even Ana's uncanny insight is of little use when each new suspect she uncovers ends up dead--with each new killing calculated to bring tensions between the two rival clans past the boiling point. And as Din pursues their adversary through the canton's wild ranges, sprawling ranches, and reeking slaughterhouses, he finds his loyalties divided in unexpected ways.

  

I really enjoyed book one of this series, but after reading book two I almost gave up on it. I decided to give book three a try to see if it was better, and I'm sort of glad I did. I have mixed feelings about this book. I did feel like the commentary about the beef trade in the book was trying to be a message about the real world beef industry, and nothing annoys me more than real world messaging invading a fantasy book. I'm knocking a whole star off my rating because of that. 

I was however, able to enjoy the characters of Ana and Din a lot more this time around, though not as much as in the first book. I do feel like some of the things about Din's personality that made him interesting and relatable have become lost over the last two books. What happened to his dyslexia? And the hook-ups annoy me. Is Din going to hook up with someone in every book? I'm not enjoying that aspect of the series at all.

Ana's quirks weren't as annoying as they were in the last book, although the parts with her eating always turn my stomach. Also, I often felt that in this book she pulled solutions to things out of thin air with explanations like, she just had a feeling. The revelation about Ana near the end helped with this a bit, but not enough. And it was only a partial revelation that left questions. 

What I like the most about this series is the combination of mystery and fantasy, along with the plant horror. The plant horror in this series is always intriguing, yet off-putting. I can't help but wonder who is going to sprout something from their body next, and just how it will happen. For some reason I find this aspect of the series morbidly amusing. 

I'm yet again on the fence about whether or not I'll continue with this series. If the books had stayed as good as the first one I wouldn't hesitate. If the author stays away from adding real world commentary in future books, stops having Din hook up with a new person every book, and instead builds a more complex mystery with better investigating next time, then I might continue.

Thanks to NetGalley and Del Rey for providing me with an ARC of this book.  

 

 

 

 

 

October 2026 Reading List

I'm planning to read 5 full length books in October, plus 4 short stories for book club. There are 5 short stories but one of them I've already read twice, so I probably won't reread it again.

 

Reading for NetGalley-

 

Grim Folk Tale (The Unorthodox Chronicles #4) by James J. Butcher 

 

Grimsby, a junior Auditor in the government-sanctioned, magical Department of Unorthodox Affairs, must do all he can to fight for the innocent in this riveting urban fantasy.

When a magical illness begins to afflict children in Boston, the Department of Unorthodox Affairs tasks junior Auditor Grimshaw Griswald Grimsby with uncovering the source and—together with his partner, the grizzled veteran Huntsman Mayflower—putting a stop to it by any means necessary.

But their efforts to determine the origin of the spreading malady are soon complicated by the emergence of ancient and strange beings that Grimsby and Mayflower have never encountered before. To uncover the truth, they will have to turn to old acquaintances and allies and delve deep below Boston, into the city of monsters that lies beneath, and travel to the unfathomable reality of the Elsewhere.

Burdened by his own troubles, both past and present, it will take all Grimsby’s skill, iron, and no shortage of magic to stop this apparent plague and save those who have been afflicted.

Assuming it’s not already too late.

 

  

 

Reading with The Mystery Book Club-

 

The Vanished Sister (Lady Sherlock #9) by Sherry Thomas

 

Charlotte Holmes—aka Sherlock Holmes—becomes entangled in a puzzling missing person case that hits close to home for her beloved Mrs. Watson in this Victorian-set mystery from the USA Today bestselling author of A Ruse of Shadows.

It’s been three years since Charlotte Holmes struck a decisive blow against Moriarty's operations in Britain, three years of relative calm and benign developments. In a buoyant mood, everyone gathers at Lord Ingram's seaside cottage in North Devon for what promises to be a perfect summer holiday. Until Mrs. Watson receives an invitation from Mrs. Carstairs, her long-estranged sister, to attend a house party nearby.

Mrs. Carstairs has married spectacularly well. She is the mistress of a great manor, a doyen of all domestic arts, and still an unforgettable beauty. Now she clamors for a reconciliation with her sister. Mrs. Watson does not trust Mrs. Carstairs's motives. Yet she cannot help but feel tremors of the old admiration for this once-beloved sister. 

Then Mrs. Carstairs disappears without a trace. The next day a woman is discovered floating on the waves, her build and coloring matching those of Mrs. Carstairs. But her husband insists that the corpse fished out of the Bristol Channel cannot be his wife. So where is the real Mrs. Carstairs? Would she have purposely dragged Mrs. Watson into a murder investigation? Or was it Sherlock Holmes's involvement that she needed from the very beginning? 

 

 

 

Cold Evidence (Cass Leary #10) by Robin James

 

A murder so brutal, only a monster could have committed it. The accused had no motive. But there’s a mountain of evidence against him.

A decorated war hero, Ty Chapman has built his dream life in the quiet lakeside community of Delphi, Michigan. He has a beautiful wife. A baby on the way. Everything to live for. He’s the last person anyone would suspect of beating a local handyman to death behind a seedy motel. But when two credible witnesses see him running from the crime scene, hands bloodied, the police believe they have him cold.

There has to be a reason for the killing. But the prime suspect won’t talk. Not even to his lawyer.

Cass Leary is Delphi’s top defense attorney. In Ty Chapman, she’s finally got a client who can afford her. Only Ty goes mute anytime she tries to get his side of the story. All she has is a parade of character witnesses who swear Ty isn’t capable of such a heinous act.

The more Cass delves into the mystery, the more questions she has about the victim. Only most of what she learns is inadmissible in court and Ty still won’t tell her what really happened in those woods. If that weren’t enough, Cass gets a call that her former mob boss has gone missing and the FBI thinks she’s the key to finding him. Their timing couldn’t be worse as Cass heads into the courtroom to argue for Ty Chapman’s future.

Will Cass’s fight win her client’s freedom or expose an even more shocking truth? 

 

 

 

The Murder Rule by Dervla McTiernan

 

For fans of the compulsive psychological suspense of Ruth Ware and Tana French, a mother daughter story—one running from a horrible truth, and the other fighting to reveal it—that twists and turns in shocking ways, from the internationally bestselling author of The Scholar and The Ruin.

First Rule: Make them like you.

Second Rule: Make them need you.

Third Rule: Make them pay.

They think I’m a young, idealistic law student, that I’m passionate about reforming a corrupt and brutal system.

They think I’m working hard to impress them.

They think I’m here to save an innocent man on death row.

They're wrong. I’m going to bury him. 

 

 

Pick it for me book-

 

Deadline (Blood Trails #1) by Jennifer Blackstream

As a witch with a dark past, Shade Renard knows the Otherworld isn’t always successful at policing itself. Humans don’t believe in magic anymore, and their ignorance renders them easy prey. So when an FBI contact hires her to consult on a possible haunting in a missing person case, Shade seizes the opportunity to see justice done.

The investigation takes an unexpected turn when an undead crime lord shows up on her doorstep. A bold thief stole the vampire’s little black book of secrets—and he’ll pay a lot more than an FBI consulting fee to get it back. To collect, Shade will have to confront a rogue sorceress—or two, a vengeful wizard, and a lethally seductive fey, with only her wits, her growing magic, and a sarcastic pixie familiar. Success means bringing a killer to justice and taking the first step to redemption. Failure means a war between humans and the Otherworld.

No pressure.

Magic, murder, and mayhem will excite and delight you. Expect no sleep until the last page turns…
 

 

  

Reading for Book Club-

 

The White Ship by H.P. Lovecraft

 

A lighthouse keeper named Basil Elton engages upon a peculiar fantasy in which a bearded man piloting a mystical white ship is found sailing upon a bridge of moonlight. Elton joins the bearded man on this ship, and together they explore a mystical chain of islands unlike anything that can be found on Earth. 

 

 

 

Zero Hour by Ray Bradbury 

 

Mink and the neighborhood kids are hard at work outside all day, playing a game called Invasion. Or at least that's what her mom thinks. Throughout the day, the mother continues to have strange encounters with Mink as she talks about her friend, Drill.
 

Classic Short Story by Ray Bradbury, the master of science fiction whose imaginative and lyrical evocations of the future reflected both the optimism and the anxieties of his own postwar America. 

 

 

 

An Infinity of Karen by Lawrence Watt-Evans

 

About a man looking for his true love across different realities.

We're reading this story from the anthology Crosstime Traffic. This is my pick and it's the second story I've picked for book club from this anthology. I really do enjoy this author's stories.

 

 

 

 

I don't have covers for the other two stories. They aren't listed on Goodreads at all. 

Here are the links to both stories. 

After the Last Ride- https://reedsy.com/short-story/l2knug/

 

Man on the Moon- 

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/escape-pod/id73329293?i=1000618813148

 

 

 

 

 

September 2026 Reading Wrap-Up

I read 7 novels in September, plus three more novellas or short stories from Tailored Realities by Brandon Sanderson, and I finished up the two books that I had started, but not finished in August.

 

 

The Spy Keeper of Marseille by Roseanna M. White

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult, Christian Fiction
Genre: Romance, Historical Romance, Historical Fiction
Content: Clean

See my review here. 

 

 

 

 

A Bitter Cut (Lady Darby #14) by Anna Lee Huber

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery, Suspense, Historical Mystery
Content: Clean

 

A good installment but not a favorite. I appreciate the way the author writes the pregnancy and motherhood aspects of their lives into the story. 

 

 

 

Guilty Acts (Cass Leary #9) by Robin James

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Legal Thriller, Mystery, Suspense
Content: Strong Language, Fade to black sex

 

I liked this one a lot better than the previous book in the series. 

 

 

 

  

Defending Elysium (Skyward # 0.5) by Brandon Sanderson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult, Young Adult
Genre: Sci-Fi, Space Opera
Content: Clean

 

Centuries before Spensa looked skyward from the planet Detritus—back on Old Earth before it was lost—Jason Write faced a crucial question: was humanity ready to join galactic society?

When faster-than-light communications were discovered by a small telephone company in 2071, alien species such as the Tenasi and Varvax overheard them and came to visit Earth. Because the Phone Company controls all communications with the aliens, their operatives like Jason operate above the law.

Now, on the space platform Evensong, one of the Phone Company’s scientists has gone missing before surfacing in a hospital with amnesia, and Jason is sent to investigate. Right as he arrives, the body of a murdered Varvax ambassador is discovered, sure to cause a galactic incident. Coln Abrams of the United Intelligence Bureau seizes the opportunity to investigate Jason as he deals with the crisis. This could be the UIB’s chance to discover the Phone Company’s secrets—how does FTL communication work, and what is Jason hiding? 

 

This was one of the stories I read in Tailored Realities. Having not read Skyward yet, I have no way of knowing how well this fits into that world, but I thought this story was just ok. 

 

 

 

 

Mitosis (Reckoners #1.5) by Brandon Sanderson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Clean

 

Steelheart may be dead, but Epics still plague Newcago and David and the Reckoners have vowed to fight back. 

 

The second story I read this month from Tailored Realities. I thought this story was also just ok. Mitosis was ridiculously easy to defeat. I feel like anyone with a brain could have figured out how, so nothing special here.

 

 

 

 

Firstborn by Brandon Sanderson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult,
Genre: Sci-Fi
Content: Clean

 

Of the son of a High Duke of the interstellar Empire, much glory is expected. And expected. And still expected, despite endless proof that young Dennison Crestmar has no talent whatsoever for war. But the life Dennison is forced to live will have its surprising lessons to impart. 

 

This was the third story I read in Tailored Realities. I liked this story a lot better than the other two. Out of all the stories in the book I think this is one of my favorites. 

 

 

 

 

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Cyberpunk, Sci-Fi
Content: Strong Language, Assassinations

 

See my review here. 

 

 

 

 

The Split by Sharon J. Bolton

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

 

The remote Antarctic island of South Georgia is about to send off its last boat of the summer--which signifies safety to resident glaciologist Felicity Lloyd. She took a job on this isolated island to hide from him, but now that he's out of prison, having served a term for murder, she knows he won’t give up until he finds her.

A doctor digging into the background of Felicity and Freddie's relationship back in Cambridge learns that she has been on the edge for a long time. Heading to South Georgia to try to get to her first is the only way he can think of to help her. 

 

I liked this but didn't love it. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting when I read the description. I was thinking more of a cat and mouse thing in a remote area. And while it does sort of have that aspect to it, it's a very small part of the story, and ends up being something different. I enjoyed the other book I read by this author (Dead Woman Walking) more. I figured out pretty early on what was happening with the main character, and I think it should have been more obvious to the therapist.

 

 

 

 

The Secrets of Hartwood Hall by Katie Lumsden 

My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Gothic, Mystery, Suspense, Historical Mystery
Content: Off page sex, Domestic abuse is recalled by a couple of characters

 

I was looking forward to reading this, but it ended up not being as good as I had hoped. I liked the mystery aspect of the story but did not like the romance at all. It felt too modern for the story with the main female character making all the first moves, which were very forward and brazen for the time period. The ending left me feeling a little sad and unsatisfied, even though the main character is supposedly happy. My hardcover is going on the unhaul pile.

 

 

 

 

Brothers in Arms (Dragonlance: The Raistlin Chronicles #2) by Margaret Weis and Don Perrin

My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Off page sex

 

I didn't like this as much as most of the other Dragonlance books I've read. It just didn't hold my interest the way the others did. Most of the characters from the other stories were missing, like Tas and Tanis. Plus Kitiara featured heavily in this one and I really dislike her, so I wasn't interested in reading her parts. I definitely think the first book in this duology about Raistlin is worth reading. It was a lot better than this one and things wrapped up really well at the end of it, so this book really didn't feel necessary.

 

 

 

 

The Bravest Hour (Verity Kent #9) by Anna Lee Huber 

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery, Historical Mystery
Content: Off page sex, Mild torture and interrogation scenes, Mild cursing

 

This was a good wrap-up to the series. I feel like this series started out really good but I lost some interest in it with the last three books, simply because I didn't care for the plot with the phosphine gas and the IRA. I enjoyed the books that were set in England more. I think the author made a good choice to wrap things up at this point. 

 

 

 

 

A Trade of Blood (Ana & Din Mysteries / Shadow of the Leviathan #3) by Robert Jackson Bennett

I'm almost finished with this one so I'm going to go ahead and give it a rating.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Review to come.

 

 

 

 

 

It's time for another book haul

 This time around my book haul is significantly smaller. Thank goodness! I'm running out of shelf space.

 

In my last book haul post, I mentioned I wanted the Frankenstein MinaLima pop-up special edition. Well, I was able to find it on sale at Book Outlet along with the Snow White and Other Grimms' Fairy Tales one. I really like the art in both of these.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I ended up buying this special edition of Moon Called on a whim. I like it but probably should have passed on it since I'm starting to run low on shelf space, and I doubt there will be special editions of the whole series. Even if there are, I don't think I would buy all of them. Anyway, I do like the artwork in this edition a lot.                                                                                                                                                                 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also got these special Illumicrate editions of A River Enchanted and A Fire Endless. I probably should have passed on these too, since as I said in my last book haul, I have this duology in paperback already, which I like, and also another special edition copy of A River Enchanted. But these are very pretty. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I haven't read this series yet, but when the author announced these and showed the sprayed edges that have a dragon scale pattern on them that also shimmers, I couldn't resist. Apparently the shimmer effect with the pattern was so hard to get right, the publisher said they wouldn't do it again, so the next time she does special editions of these they won't have both.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got this deluxe edition of Scion from Barnes and Noble. This is their edition of the book with different sprayed edges and bonus material, which is an author note not included in the other versions. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I still have yet to even read Skyward but I bought this deluxe edition of the first book in what I believe is a spin-off series. Anyway, it's related to Skyward somehow. Fun note- My best friend has known Janci since back in their college days and still keeps in touch with her occasionally.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Some romances I bought. I've read all these and enjoyed them, just wanted copies for my shelves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My husband and I went to a local con where he set up a booth to sell some of his 3D printed stuff and I went around meeting all the authors that were there. I was thrilled to get to meet Drew Hayes! I bought two of his books I had been wanting for my shelves and he signed them. I also met Joseph Brassey, an author who I had read as well, and bought three of his books. I met a lot of other authors that I had never heard of that were very nice, and bought some of their books too.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some mysteries and thrillers that I bought. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More Drew Hayes that I bought. I needed the whole Super Powereds series after I bought the signed one at the con. I still need book four but it's a big pricey book so it had to wait. Also, some other fantasy and sci-fi books I bought from Book Outlet, most of which I've read. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

War Wizard was a preorder. I'm hoping I like it as much as most of the other Dragonlance books I've read.

I enjoyed most of the stories in this anthology and wanted a copy for my Sanderson collection.