From now until I decide I want to stop doing this, I will be giving out a monthly “Jennifer Award” for the best new-to-me thing I read that month. This can be fiction or non-fiction. It can be an essay/article, a short story, a novelette, a novella, or a novel. It doesn’t matter when it came out. It only matters that this is the first time I read it and I thought it was the best thing I read all month. Yes, it is completely subjective and biased towards what I like to read.

The winner will receive a shiny digital badge and a $5 gift card.

April’s winner is Deep Roots by Ruthanna Emrys. This book is due out on July 10, 2018. I have it pre-ordered on the kindle, but Seanan was sweet enough to loan the ARC of it to me to read because I wanted it NOW. I look forward to rereading this one again on the kindle.

Like Winter Tide, Deep Roots has the same evocative, lush language that drew me into the “Innsmouth Legacy” story. It took a long time for me to read this novel—on purpose. This was a mental meal that I enjoyed one chapter at a time, putting it down so I could savor the story and the prose. And savor it I did. While Deep Roots didn’t have the newness of Emrys’ unique take on the Lovecraft Mythos, it expanded it in all the right ways. Deep Roots is a worthy successor to Winter Tide.

2018
Jan: Godfall and Other Stories by Sandra M. Odell
Feb: “When We Fall” by Kameron Hurley
Mar: The Alastair Stone Chronicles by R.L. King
Apr: Deep Roots by Ruthanna Emrys