OPINION: A six-month book club recap

For the last year-ish, I’ve been running the fantasy book club at The Latest Edition Bookstore in Creston with Erin Henze.

In 2025, we’ve been keeping track of each month’s book club pick, and they are on a display in the store.

It’s fun to see the physical reminder of the choices we made and the books we’ve read in 2025.

As someone who has been in multiple book clubs, I know one of the quickest ways to get someone disinterested is to have several bad books in a row.

It’s not always the fault of the person leading the book club. They may put forward several options which members vote upon. They may even take member suggestions and then vote.

The problem is some publishers are much better at advertising than they are at publishing a well-liked book.

This happened in one book club where we kept voting on books that sounded amazing, but they fell flat.

When launching this book club, I really wanted to ensure that didn’t happen.

To do so, we try to ensure either Erin or I, or a member of the book club, has already read the book options and greatly enjoyed it.

With fantasy books, the greatest challenge is finding books that are either standalones or duologies so there isn’t a huge time committment to finishing a long series.

Our first book this year was “Bloodguard,” by Cece Robson. I absolutely loved this book. It is one of my all-time favorite standalone fantasy reads.

The book contains creatures of all kinds and features a gladiator-style arena. It’s a brutal adult fantasy that ripped my heart out.

Overall, the book was well-liked, but there were a couple who said it just wasn’t for them. That happens pretty much every month! The goal is that it’s not happening to the same people every month.

In February, we pulled a 180 and read “The Spellshop,” by Sarah Beth Durst, a cozy standalone fantasy featuring an anti-social librarian and her sentient spider plant, Kaz.

For many of our members, this was their first dive into cozy fantasy. While most of the readers really enjoyed the book, the consensus was cozy fantasy is a nice once-in-awhile read.

In March, we read a book I had high recommendations for — “Heartless Hunter” by Kristen Ciccarelli, the first book in an adult fantasy duology about a witch and a witch hunter who fall in love.

This one I was sad to see several of them weren’t a big fan of. No one outright hated it, but there were some who didn’t vibe with the book. I loved it, but I found the sequel, “Rebel Witch,” to be not quite up to par.

The April book was one that trended a few years ago -—”The Serpent and the Wings of Night” by Carissa Broadbent. This adult fantasy duology is like vampires meets “The Hunger Games.”

When I originally read the book, I rated it five stars; however, on my reread as a more seasoned reader, I bumped it down to four. One of our older readers was shocked to see how much she loved the series. She thought she would never be into vampires, but then she ended up reading the additional series set in the same world.

May’s book was “A Fate Inked in Blood,” by Danielle Jensen. I was really excited for this one as I personally loved it, and the members all loved the previous series we read by this author in 2024.

This one was also well-received, with most rating it around four stars. While I’m still in the middle of the sequel, “A Curse Carved in Bone,” Erin has already finished it, and rated it higher than book one. She loved the feminine rage of the sequel.

This month we are reading “Blood Over Bright Haven,” a dark academia standalone by ML Wang. This is the first book to break our cardinal rule as no one in the book club has read it. But I’ve seen so many positive reviews, we decided to give it a try. Once I finish my current read, I’m excited to pick up this book.

We have already selected our July read, and it’s one of my favorites of all time — “The House in the Cerulean Sea,” by TJ Klune. This cozy fantasy is like a big hug and a comfort read I pick up almost every year. I was shocked to find out most of our members had never read it.

I’m sad that I will probably be stuck at home with baby during the July meeting, but I might just have to find a way to sneak away for an hour or two to see what everyone thinks.

If you’d like to join our group, our Facebook page is TLE Fantasy Book Club, and we are open to all! We meet on the third Thursday of every month at the bookstore, 210 N. Maple St., at 6 p.m.