We Burned So Bright

 

We Burned So Bright by T.J. Klune. Tor Books, 2026. 176 pages. *****

How would you react if you knew the end of the world is coming? A black hole is coming for Earth and in a month everything and everyone they’ve ever known will be gone. Don and Rodney, an older gay couple, are on a mission before they run out of time. They buy a used RV and travel the back roads from Maine to Washington State to take care of some unfinished business before it’s all over. Why did they wait so long? 

On their travels, they meet people who are dealing with the news in their own way - celebrating life, ending lives so their loved ones won't suffer, waiting in place, making new friends, acceptance, and hitting the road to beat death. 

Once started, you will want to finish it in one sitting. Klune captures the contradiction in life - worrying about the future while enjoying the present. The description of what happens when weightlessness begins and they feel lighter; aches and pains disappear is golden. He balances the uncertainty of the end with love and friendship.  A great discussion book, perfect for Book Clubs that are open to new ideas and possibilities. 

TJ KLUNE is the #1 New York Times and #1 USA Today bestselling, Lambda Literary Award–winning author of The House in the Cerulean Sea, Under the Whispering Door, In the Lives of Puppets, the Green Creek Series for adults, the Extraordinaries Series for teens, and more. Being queer himself, Klune believes it's important—now more than ever—to have accurate, positive queer representation in stories.

For more info, click here.

Additional books by Klune:

Somewhere Beneath the Sea

The House in the Cerulean Sea 

Under the Whispering Door  

 I received an ARC to review. 

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An Ordinary Sort of Evil

 

An Ordinary Sort of Evil: A Rip Through Time Novel (Rip Through Time Novels Book 5) by Kelley Armstrong. Minotaur Books, 320 pages. 2026. ****

From Amazon - "Late one night, Gray and Mallory are summoned urgently to the home of Lady Adler, a patron of Gray’s undertaking business, and they assume there's been a death in the household. But instead, they arrive in the midst of a seance with a ghost demanding Gray's presence. The ghost is Lady Adler's former maid, who had gone missing but now requests that Gray investigate her murder. Although Gray and Mallory are skeptical, they agree to look into the matter, whether she's dead or alive. But unsure if there's been a murder or not, unable to call out the medium as a fraud, and concerned for the fate of the young maid, Gray and Mallory are once again drawn into a mystery much more puzzling--and more dangerous--than it first seems."

I love this series-- mystery, time travel, romance, ghosts, it has it all! Armstrong is a master at setting the scene, Victorian Scotland. Seances and summoning the dead was popular during that time and skepticism was rampant as to how mediums were able to do so. Mallory and Gray are becoming close and how they are going to manage a romance across time remains to be seen. I am fascinated by the norms of society and the research her novels require. Thoroughly enjoyable, I look forward to the next one!

From her website - Kelley Armstrong believes experience is the best teacher, though she’s been told this shouldn’t apply to writing her murder scenes. To craft her books, she has studied aikido, archery and fencing. She sucks at all of them. She has also crawled through very shallow cave systems and climbed half a mountain before chickening out. She is however an expert coffee drinker and a true connoisseur of chocolate-chip cookies. For more info, click here. 

A Rip Through Time Novels

Death At A Highland Wedding 

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