The Awakened Kingdom by N.K. Jemisin (2019) Orbit

Sieh, the Trickster god, has gone away.  A new godling is born and unsure how to be his successor.  After hurting the world, she (because they decided to present themselves as a girl) meets a much older sibling who can negate all the hurt she did so she can start over.  But he doesn’t want to babysit her, so he takes her to the Darre to have a mortal companion that can keep the destructive tendency in check.  There, she encounters wrongness and want to make it right.  But can she do that without destroying the world and herself?

Shadow Cursed by D.K. Holmberg (2016) CreateSpace

The second installment in The Shadow Accords.  Carthenne Rel, the shadow blessed girl from Ih-lash whose parents were killed has been spending the last few years being trained by the A’ras.  But that type of magic is different and burns her so much she is slow.  Inside the palace training grounds, she cannot draw on the shadows.  Until the grounds are attacked, and a part of the wall is collapsed.  Then she helps to defeat the invaders by focusing the shadows through her found A’ras knife.  But will the A’ras think her an enemy because of her shadow magic?  Can she keep her secret of will it lead to her being ejected at best, or executed as a suspected motive?

Robert Parker's Kickback by Ace Atkins (2015) G.P. Putnam's Sons

A Spenser novel – where our hero is called upon to find out why a kid was sent to an island on a misdemeanor where his mother cannot see him.  Turns out a lot of other kids are being sent to the same corporate rehabilitation island – enough to pay for the judge to get a nice mansion in Florida and a share in a fishing boat.  But Spenser can’t let a thing like that go, even if the mob is involved.

I didn't think at first that I would like the Spenser novels written by someone else, but Mr. Atkins keeps true to Spenser's voice and Parker's style.  A very satisfying read.

Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman (2013) HarperCollins

In which a man goes to the store to get milk for his children’s breakfast and is kidnapped by aliens, then space pirates, then rescued by a stegosaurus in a time-machine balloon.  He endangers and saves people ready to sacrifice to a volcano god, gets attacked again by the aliens, saves the day by opening a window and taking the bottle of milk from his own hands a few minutes ago, then threatens to end the universe (or having three little people with flowerpots on their heads dance), by touching the two bottles of milk together.  The space police come, and they’re all dinosaurs, the milk bottle touch, the three people with flowerpots on their head appear, dance, and disappear.  He reopens the window into the past and tosses a bottle of milk to himself.  Of course, his children do not believe a word.  But fortunately, the milk is on the table.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (2016)

At first glance, this book may seem off-putting in that the subject appears to be rather boring.  It is anything but boring.  We follow the life of a Russian Count after the Bolsheviks have come to power.  If not for a poem attributed to him, they would have summarily shot the aristocrat.  Instead, they exile him to the Metropol hotel for life.  Instead of going crazy in his confinement, he makes friends.  He dines with a man from the KGB.  He lets a little girl drag him all over the hotel.  She grows up and has a child, which he must raise after the mother follows her exiled husband to Siberia.  He waits tables in the hotel's restaurant.  All through the narrative, his observations, his wit, his charm is evident.  Mr. Towles has done such a superb job with characterization, that it takes but a sentence to know who is speaking or thinking.  Easily the best book I've read in the past year.

Master Magician by Charlie N Holmberg (2015) 47North

The culmination of Ceony Twill's apprenticeship in magic.  By this third installment, it became predictable that she would place her life and someone else's in deadly circumstances.  But this does present her with new abilities.  Still a reasonable read and a good conclusion to the trilogy.

An Artificial Night by Seanan McGuire

In which our heroine changeling is called upon to rescue missing children from Blind Michael's Hunt. Everyone wants her to succeed, no one thinks she'll live through the experience, not even her.  

Ms. McGuire continues to evolve as a writer with her characters.  Even the worst of the fae can be seen to have a heart.

Shadow Blessed by D.K. Holmberg (2016) CreateSpace

A girl gets separated from her parents in a foreign city while playing a game of following and being followed.  Her parents are brutally killed and she, as a stray, must learn to use her sills to steal coin purses from unsuspecting tourists.  But her skills go beyond thievery and there are those who search for her.  She does not trust people and that helps to keep her safe, mostly.

Conspiracy in Death by J. D. Robb (1999) Turtleback Books

In which Eve Dallas discovers a conspiracy to remove damaged organs from homeless people – but why, and who is involved and how high up does it go?  And how is she going to solve the case when she’s been suspended and had to turn-in her badge and gun?