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The Warm Machine by Aimee Cozza

When a robot built for construction work first sees an angular, sleek prototype military robot slink onto the base he's working outside of, he immediately falls in love. The problem is, only anomalous bots understand the concept of love, and the lowly laborbot has not deviated from his default programming once. So he thinks, anyway. When the laborbot is scheduled for decommission, the military bot cannot possibly live without him, and the two bots set out on a path to find the fabled anomalous robot utopia Root. COVER ARTIST: Aimee Cozza PUBLISHER: 9mm Press YEAR: 2024 LENGTH: 196 pages  AGE: Adult GENRE: Science Fiction RECOMMENDED: Highly Queer Rep Summary: The main characters are robots, likely closest to aro/ace but those terms aren't quite applicable. Gender is also not an important factor. THE WARM MACHINE plays with ideas of friendship, connection, and searching for utopia, all through the lens of a construction robot who falls in love at first sight with a military bot....

Wicked Fox by Kat Cho (Gumiho, #1)

Family is fraught and friendships are complicated, especially when you're a gumiho. Wicked Fox is a romance with bite; negotiating with the past for the possibility of a future. A bit of mystery just might hurt someone after all.

It feels very high stakes but also languid at the same time. There's a time limit, a ticking clock for them to figure out a solution and work together, but also the time is long enough that a lot happens while they wait for it to run out. The romance is awkward and endearing, Jihoon’s earnestness is a great counterpoint to Miyoung’s standoffishness. There's a lot of negotiation of boundaries, both in healthy and not-so-healthy ways. It felt very earnest and messy, but good. I like that Jihoon has important people in his life, there's a lot of value placed on friends and family in a way that's positive and supportive. It makes for a great contrast with Miyoung, but without making it so stark that one of them has everything and the other has nothing. 

I appreciate a good interstitial narration between chapters, and this example was very satisfying. I enjoyed these as an alternative to getting infodumps of the mythology from either of the gumiho. As for the pacing of the book as a whole, I was thinking of this book as kind of languid after a very dramatic opening, and I thought I knew where it was going. I successfully guessed one twist and then was almost immediately surprised by several additional layers that made a bunch of slightly confusing things from earlier click into place all at once. I like the twists and I love the ending. It was a really sweet conclusion as the first book in a series and I'm intrigued by the prospect of where it might go next.

CW for bullying, parental neglect, major character death.

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A girl in a school uniform and long flowing hair stands back to back with a boy in front of a full moon.

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