During 2024 I worked on trying to write at least a sentence or two on Goodreads for each book that I finished. I definitely want to continue that into this year, and hopefully try to expand to slightly longer reviews again! In the meantime, what I have now is perfect for sharing for these Monday Minis! So for today’s Monday Mini I wanted share some thoughts on a few of my underrated reads from 2024.

Thank you to Orbit Books for sending me a finished copy of this for review! This does not affect my review, all thoughts here are my own honest opinions.

Okay the fact that this book only has 1014 ratings and 248 reviews on Goodreads is a CRIME!!! A crime I tell you! Because this book whips ass. It’s an incredible start to a sci-fi trilogy that has elements of horror (in a creepy, survival way, not a scary way) and dystopian fiction (in a corporations controlling society way). It starts off with a bang and doesn’t let up the whole time. Also, the casual queerness is a wonderful thing to see!

As soon as I heard the announcement for this book, I knew I needed it more than anything. Necromancy!! Fighting to prove yourself after betrayal!! Hints of enemies/rivals to lovers!! By an author I love!! I mean come on, it sounds incredible just from that right? AND THEN!! The cover reveal happened and omggg it’s epic and beautiful, and by my favorite cover artist (Tommy Arnold). And the fact that he also did the covers for the Locked Tomb series? Yes. I’m 10000% in.

A friend was kind enough to send me an ARC of it, and the publisher actually sent me one as well! So thank you friend, and thank you Simon & Schuster! Now let’s get into the actual review part haha. Just so you know, this will be a lot of me gushing about all the different things I loved. This book really hit the spot for me, and it is definitely a new favorite.

This was an absolute gem of a book.

After 5 years of living in China with her grandmother, 10 year old Lina is finally able to move to the US to join her parents and her younger sister. As soon as she steps off of the plane in Los Angeles, she soon learns that her family’s life is not as wonderful as they had made it sound in their letters.

I was 13 when my family moved to Canada and I related so much to Lina’s experiences of immigrating. School was so different and while I understood English, I didn’t understand a lot of the slang and I was afraid of mispronouncing words so I opted to talk as little as possible. Reading about Lina’s struggles brought me to that time in my childhood and while I never had a book like this growing up where I could see my experiences in a book, I’m glad it exists now and more kids (and adults!) like me can read it.

POV: you’re the emperor’s justice (a detective, judge, and executioner all in one) accompanied by your clerk and protégé Helena who’s writing a book about you and your travels together (you don’t know this).

One of the things I love about fantasy is the way it can seamlessly work with other genres. The Justice of Kings is a murder mystery thriller and character memoir rolled into one with a dollop of necromancy.