An art forger with a magical gift stages the biggest heist of her career

The Frame-Up — Gwenda Bond

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Housekeeping Update

Thank you to everyone who has supported my transition from a weekly newsletter to a semi-weekly venture. From here forward, this newsletter will be free to all readers, all posts. I will be turning paid subscriptions back on next week, July 2, in case you would like to choose to financially support. I would definitely appreciate the support — in all honesty, it will likely go toward medical bills as I continue to navigate life with chronic illness and the many, many, many appointments and procedures that come with it. Thank you all for your endless support. <3 Now back to the books!

The Frame-Up by Gwenda Bond

I received an advance readers’ copy of this book, which in no way sways my choice to feature or opinions on it. Thank you to the publisher for the ARC, and you can buy your own copy via Bookshop.org.

Content warnings included in the footnote of this newsletter.¹

What It’s About

It’s been a while since we’ve had a fun read around here! I am notoriously bad about this, always telling people, “You have to read this — it’s devastating!” I promise I’ll try to recommend more fun books. (But don’t worry; the sad and weird and dark books will always have a place here.)

Dani is an expert forger, creating masterpieces even the best professionals can’t tell aren’t the real works of art. She learned from the best — her mother is an infamous art thief, who Dani sold out to the FBI as a teenager. She’s always regretted it, and her family and friends all exiled her because of it. But the real reason the rest of the crew never got caught? Magic.

Dani’s mother’s former partner, Archer, reaches out to her with a request: steal a painting for him, and he’ll reunite her with her mother and smooth things over so she can get back into the group of magic-laden con artists. But it’s a near-impossible job, one no one has succeeded at before, and she’ll need all the help she can get to pull this off. The more she learns about this strange and complicated task, the more she question’s Archer’s true motives and her own history with her mother from all those years ago.

Why You Should Read It

Does anyone else get nervous to recommend books? I am nervous about this one specifically because the majority of its reviews from readers are . . . not great. BUT! I have read them, and they all mention one thing: lack of romance and chemistry. And this is where I will say: this book is not a romance! While the fun, illustrated romance covers have made the genre more popular than ever and easier to read in public (but I fully support the old-school clinch covers in public, too!), it has also made it challenging to distinguish fun comedic fiction from true romance and rom-coms. This book fell into that trap.

It looks like, from its cover, to be in the same genre as other rom-coms like Well Met (which I loved). In fact, it’s a comedic (mostly) family novel about coming back home, running into hometown ex-friends, and, of course, stealing art — with a cute little crush on the side. There’s a complicated mother/daughter relationship, and the twist of magical abilities makes this story different (but it’s not a complicated magic system and it’s not supposed to be—you’re not going to get 75 pages of explanation). Are Dani’s and her friends’ powers fully explained? No, but they don’t need to be. It’s one of those things you just roll with, because at the end of the day, the how isn’t the point of the book.

If you need your books to have well-explained magic systems and complete backstories for every character, this may not be the book for you. But if you’re looking for a silly and fun book that will also keep you engaged enough to read it at the beach or pool, you should try this one!

My current reading stack has been a bit more serious lately (Anyone have lighthearted recommendations? Shout them out in the comments!), and this is what those books are starting to look like on the inside. This is a page from What Doesn’t Kill You: A Life with Chronic Illness—Lessons from a Body in Revolt. I’m finding reading about others with chronic illness to be helpful and comforting, so in case you, too, are struggling, here are some other books on my list related to this topic:

• A Body Made of Glass: A Cultural History of Hypochondria by Caroline Crampton

• The Lady’s Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness by Sarah Ramey

• Ask Me About My Uterus: A Quest to Make Doctors Believe in Women’s Pain by Abby Norman

• The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness by Meghan O’Rourke

• Sick: A Memoir by Porochista Khakpour

• The Tiger and the Cage: A Memoir of a Body in Crisis by Emma Bolden
  

Can’t get enough, or looking for a different recommendation? Browse the archives, or check out some popular past recommendations: 

A woman falls in love with a ghost stuck on earth — can the relationship last?

Read an enchanting mystery full of magic, murder, and misdirection

I also love hearing from readers! Let me know what kinds of books you’re looking for that you’d like to see featured, or send in your most recent five-star read (or two) and get a recommendation just for you. You might be featured in an upcoming newsletter! Reply to this email to get in touch!

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1. Content warnings include implied rape (not named, historical event in magic community off page); strained mother/daughter relationship. The dog is fine and does not get hurt.