Reviews: We Came to Welcome You by Vincent Tirado & This Will Be Fun by E.B. Asher

Since it seems like I'm actually/for real back(ish), I thought I would go back and review a few books I started in 2024 but finished in January of this year. 

Neither were WOW books - but it will clear them out of my reader brain & keep up my posting momentum lol 

The Other Black Girl meets Midsommar in this spine-chilling, propulsive psychological adult debut from highly acclaimed author Vincent Tirado, in which a married couple moves into a gated “community” that slowly creeps into a pervasive dread akin to the social horror of Jordan Peele and Lovecraft County—We Came to Welcome You cleverly uses the uncanny to illuminate the cultish, shocking nature of systemic racism.

Where beauty lies, secrets are held…ugly ones. ~ Goodreads

My thoughts: Sol and her wife, Alice are accepted into a gated community called Maneless Grove - thanks to a recommendation from Alice's co-worker, who also lives in the exclusive community. 

Sol is on leave from work because of a plagiarism accusation and tensions are thick between her and Alice due to her drinking and keeping Alice at arms length, including not letting Alice join her on visits to her aging, bigoted, father at the nursing home.

We Came to Welcome You touches on a lot of subjects including racism, microaggressions, white washing, assimilation, PTSD from child abuse, alcoholism and just plain old WTF-ery from the Maneless Grove home owners association. They were told that they weren't required to join but it's clear - you need to join. Or else, lol

Without spoiling too much, the community has a Stepford Wives like grip on the residents and Sol and Alice's resistance to joining has consequences. The more they resist, the more something messes with Sol & Alice's minds and relationship.

This book is sufficiently creepy & keeps upping the stakes but ultimately falls flat with an ending that doesn't live up to the tension the author spent so long creating. Tirado wades into interesting waters but never fully immerses herself and the ending felt like, to me, and easy way out with more telling than showing.

Decent read but but the ending didn't fulfill the premise. I read a similar YA story, The Honeys by Ryan Las Sala, and that one really delivered on the ending in a way that I wish this one did. 

And oh - DO NOT sign a homeowners agreement or move into a community without looking a it FIRST lol

The Princess Bride meets People We Meet on Vacation in this cozy quest romantasy about a group of friends who once defended their magical land together but haven’t spoken since, reuniting to attend a royal wedding, and ending up on a new adventure to save the realm—and hopefully themselves. ~ Goodreads

My thoughts: Pardon my brief rant...

Marketing matters. You cannot promote a book as The Princess Bride, "cosy quest" - title it This Will Be FUN, then deliver something entirely different and then be surprised when readers, looking for those every elements, don't like it because this is a totally different book than how it's pitched.

This Will Be Fun is the story of after the heroes save the realm and their lives have gone to shit. The legend of the four lives on in Mythria but the four (minus their now deceased leader, Galdwell) haven't even spoken in a decade. 

When they are summoned by the Queen to attend her wedding, they are forced to face each other again. A new threat to the Queen has them banding together once again to save Mythria. Old wounds don't make this an easy task between their trust issues and squabbling over tactics.

Ok, there is adventure - as in they have banded together to save the realm - stuff happens. They are in a small village with "cosy" elements and magic. Silliness and light adventures surround them. But these four are so far up their own asses in self loathing, self pity and old grudges that this book is draining. I thought at some point they have to clear the air and move on right? Nope. They are stuck in this mode until almost the bitter end and that point I didn't really care what happened to them. 

So why did I keep reading? I kind of liked the concept of what happens to heroes after they save the day and have to go back to reality. The Four had such different personalities and reactions to what happened and I thought that might be interesting. But really, I stuck around for Vandra - the love interest of Elowyn (one of the Four) and a former adversary/assassin turned ally. She was a ray of light and snark in this story.  Otherwise, this was almost 400 pages of wallowing then a completely implausible (yet happy) ending.

If you are looking for a story about processing trauma with a dash of adventure, magic and romance then this might be a good book for you. Just adjust your expectations from the publisher pitch. I also don't recommend the audio version of this one. It's just hours and hours of listening to them whine and it feels so much more intense on audio lol