The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter (by Theodora Goss) – ★★★★

The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter book cover

Interesting premise and framing device support a pretty fun and intriguing story. The daughters/creations of classic literary characters (scientists and “monsters”) come together, become unlikely friends, and adventure and mystery solving ensue.

Not sure how much of the characters and their personalities come directly from their sources (I’m not super familiar with the source material), but they were all pretty interesting and meshed together well as a group. The way the characters interrupted the narrator and had side conversations was something I haven’t seen before and work really well for added color especially in audiobook format.

After checking reviews, I probably won’t keep going on with the series, but I enjoyed “Alchemist’s Daughter” a good bit and recommend it to anyone who finds the basic plot summary intriguing.

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Lost in Time (by A.G. Riddle) – ★★

Book front cover for AG Riddle's Lost in Time

I’ve listened to a bunch of A.G. Riddle books and enjoyed and/or really liked them. This one I just don’t know. While being a page turner and generally entertaining, it had some real problems I just could not get over.

Spoiler filled book review continues...
Lost in Time misrepresents how death penalties, criminal deterrence, human nature, society, the justice system, and the Supreme Court work all at once. I’m not sure if this is trying to be propaganda for capital punishment or just a careless misstep in the pursuit of context for the story.

The book constantly states the prisoners the “worst of humanity” despite also being a story about the judgement of innocent man and never once mentions that others our heroes blink out of existence maybe just maybe might also have been unjustly accused.

(Also, time travel stories are hard. So many examples of “I can’t do anything different without destroying the universe” comments while constantly making a bunch of huge and small changes.)

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