harper collins – MANDY'S READING LIST

Psyche and Eros is a stunning retelling of the classic Greek Myth about Cupid and his wife, originally a 2nd century story from Apuleius’ Metamorphoses.

Till We Have Faces by CS Lewis was one of the first mythology retellings that I had ever read, so the story of Psyche and Eros holds a special place in my heart. This new story by Luna McNamara gave me everything that I love about myths — beautiful worldbuilding, strong character development, and a love story for the ages.

In this book, Psyche is not the delicate princess of myth. She is a strong huntress and a warrior, trained by Atalanta herself. This gives her character so much more depth than before, and makes her a true SFL. Eros’ character is also given great depth through his backstory and inner struggles, which made me feel really invested in his journey. I loved the way these characters came together, and how their story represents true love.

A joyous and subversive tale of gods, monsters, and the human heart and soul, Psyche and Eros dazzles the senses while exploring notions of trust, sacrifice, and what it truly means to be a hero.

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Thank you to William Morrow and Harper Collins for sending me a copy of this highly anticipated new release! I absolutely loved it and can’t wait to see more from this author!!

For the first time in 45 years, Agatha Christie’s beloved character Miss Marple returns to the page for a globe-trotting tour of crime and detection. This wonderful collection is written by all of the newest greats: Naomi Alderman, Leigh Bardugo, Alyssa Cole, Lucy Foley, Elly Griffiths, Natalie Haynes, Jean Kwok, Val McDermid, Karen M. McManus, Dreda Say Mitchell, Kate Mosse, and Ruth Ware join Agatha Christie to create a new compendium of Miss Marple’s adventures.

Agatha Christie is quite literally the best-selling novelist of all time (outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare). She is best known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, 19 of which feature Miss Jane Marple as the MC. She is one of Christie’s best-known characters. Because she has such a strong personality and style, it is difficult to replicate her character in a way that stays true to Agatha Christie.

Unfortunately for me, I did not love it as a collection. I really wanted to like it. I tried for a few weeks to read this and set it aside each time, hoping it would get better, and it never did. I really wanted to DNF it, but because I like some of the authors I decided to push through, and luckily libro.fm came through with a September ALC, so I was able to finish it on audio. I think that the authors had a hard time duplicating her character at best, and disrespectfully bungled her character at worst. Though there were a couple of standout stories that I did enjoy: Jean Kwok’s The Jade Emperess, Naomi Alderman’s The Open Mind, and Natalie Haynes’ The Unravelling were among my favorites.

Because each author has their own idea of Miss Marple, IMO, they did not align with the real Miss Marple, or with Agatha Christies writing. There was too much variety for me to believe it was the same character, and each author’s creative liberties clashed too much to be a cohesive collection. The essence of Miss Marple herself became muddled, as if there were too many cooks in the kitchen. This is the limitation with short story collections, and sadly it just wasn’t for me.

While some of the stories may have been “fine”, all this collection of stories did was prove that Miss Marple could only be written by Agatha Christie.