Good All-in North; Last Steel Ruby

Once Upon a Time in the North, by Philip Pullman
The whimsy and brave characters that made me love the first book in the main trilogy, bound up in a delightfully made tiny package.
(149)

All-In, by Pete Hautman
Engaging protagonist in a relatively slight story. I really like how Hautman writes, even when the story doesn't have much meat on its ribs.
(150)

The Good Neighbors, vol. 1: The Kin, by Holly Black and Ted Naifeh
Full of mystery and adventure and faeries. My appetite is well-whetted for the next volume.
(151)

Last Call, by Tim Powers
I think I'd been looking forward to this book for too many years - more than a decade - because it wasn't AS wonderful as I'd hoped. But still it was very good, lovely and dreadful and human.
(152)

Ruby Tuesday, by Jennifer Anne Kogler
This was an exceptionally quirky YA novel with an exceptionally appealing protagonist. Bookies and mobsters and iguanas, oh my.
(153)

Sworn in Steel, by Douglas Hulick
I didn't enjoy this urban-but-second-world fantasy quite as much as its predecessor. The previous one was very buddy-renegades-who-happen-to-get-mixed-up-in-larger-events and this one had more of an Epic Fantasy(TM) feel. Still it was quite engaging and I'll be reading the next one when it comes out.
(154)