The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch follows the Gentlemen Bastards, a group of trained thieves, as they plan their biggest scheme yet. Rather than steal from the poor, why not take a some thousand gold crowns from the highest echelons of Camorr? It’s not like they’d miss it. Yet despite fooling even the highest crime boss in their land, things suddenly start to go awry. A coup in the crime world and sudden suspicion from those in power complicate their plans. Will Locke and his gang be able to keep their game up while surviving the bloodshed?

Back in March, when I was traveling to the Fungal Genetics Conference, my PI finished a book he was reading and immediately handed it to me– mid-flight– to read. Unfortunately for him, I was in the middle of a book (El Oro de Los Sueños) and had another (Remarkably Bright Creatures) all queued up. But as airplanes are somehow the best place for me to read as of late, I finally embarked on the book he made me read suggested on my latest trip to Boston.

For 70-year old Tova Sullivan, working as a night cleaner at the local Sowell Bay Aquarium helps keep her busy. Between the monotony of polishing glass and sweeping floors as well as the gentle presence of sea life, she can escape the grief of losing her loved ones. Five years prior her husband died of cancer, and thirty years ago her teenage son died via suicide, or so the police say… Tova has never believed this, though. Each night, she talks to Marcellus the Giant Pacific Octopus, and each night he listens.

One night, she finds him out of his tank, tangled in cords after raiding the trash bin for a snack. After saving his life, he vows to help her in some way. Giant Pacific Octopus are, as the sign in the aquarium says, remarkably bright creatures. Although they can’t speak with humans, they have a high understanding of patterns, information, and the world around them. Throughout the book, we are given snippets of Marcellus’s internal monologue as he tries to help Tova. Will he be able to before she retires and he, being extremely old for a Giant Pacific Octopus, dies?

A year ago on a trip to Ireland with his grandmother, Texas cowboy Maverick Callahan finds himself in a one night stand with Irish bartender Bridget O’Malley. With only a picture to remember her by, he is certain he’ll never see her again. That is, until he returns to his grandmother’s ranch to help her after a hip surgery and finds Bridget there, in tow with a child, no less!

For Bridget, life has been nothing kind to her. After the deaths of her best friend and her husband, Bridget is given responsibility over their baby daughter, Laela. With the support of her grandmother, she makes it work, but when her grandmother dies she is left with nowhere to go. Thankfully, her grandmother’s friend in America offered her a short term job to get her back on her feet. What are the odds that Bridget’s grandmother and Maverick’s knew each other?

A number of years ago, I was volunteering at my local library for the summer. As I normally do, I get hooked on a certain genre at a time, and in this case, I was enjoying all things graphic novel. During the downtime in helping kids register for the summer reading program, I’d read through them like water. Graphic novels had started getting quite popular and my library was very good about getting new books in regularly. I went through ones like Sweet Tooth and Saga, “covers” of books like Percy Jackson and Frankenstein, even children’s books like Roller Girl and Smile. When I picked up Beautiful Darkness, I figured it was another cutesy kids’ book. The art colorful and sweet, the title making me think it’ll be a fairy tale with the darkest things being the woods at night. Oh boy, was I wrong.