Synopsis: When a librarian discovers she’s descended from a long line of powerful witches, she’ll need all of her bookish knowledge to harness her family’s magic, in this enchanting cozy fantasy from New York Times bestselling author Jenn McKinlay. Zoe Ziakas enjoys a quiet life, working as a librarian in her quaint New England town. […]
About Will Swardstrom
Review: The White Octopus Hotel by Alexandra Bell
Synopsis: Journey to a magical hotel in the Swiss Alps, where two lost souls living in different centuries meet and discover that behind its many doors, they may just find a second chance. ‘Have you travelled a long way?’ she asked carefully. A smile twitched at the corner of his mouth. ‘Well, yes,” he said […]
Review: The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow
Synopsis: Sir Una Everlasting was Dominion’s greatest hero: the orphaned girl who became a knight, who died for queen and country. Her legend lives on in songs and stories, in children’s books and recruiting posters―but her life as it truly happened has been forgotten. Centuries later, Owen Mallory―failed soldier, struggling scholar―falls in love with the […]
Review: The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2025 edited by Nnedi Okorafor
Synopsis: A collection of the year’s best science fiction and fantasy short fiction selected by award-winning author of Death of the Author and the Binti Trilogy, Nnedi Okorafor, and series editor John Joseph Adams. The Best American series, launched in 1915, is the premier annual showcase for the country’s finest short fiction and nonfiction, and […]
Review: Slayers of Old by Jim C. Hines
Synopsis: Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Golden Girls in this humorous contemporary standalone fantasy about a group of former Chosen Ones coming out of retirement to save the world one last time. Three former Chosen Ones have joined together to spend their retirement in peace and quiet, running Second Life Books and Gifts in Salem, […]
Review: Recipes for an Unexpected Afterlife by Deston J. Munden
Synopsis: An undead orc knight leaves battle behind for a new kind of afterlife—one with good food, good friends, and maybe even fatherhood. Rottgor is worn out. Literally. Barely held together by dark magic, he has protected the Necropolis for centuries. When he’s forced into retirement, he’s faced with a new challenge: to forge a […]
Review: All That We See or Seem by Ken Liu
Synopsis: Julia Z, a young woman who gained notoriety at fourteen as the “orphan hacker,” is trying to live a life of digital obscurity in a Boston suburb. But when a lawyer named Piers—whose famous artist wife, Elli, has been kidnapped by dangerous criminals—barges into her life, Julia decides to put the solitary life she […]
Review: The Door on the Sea by Caskey Russell
Synopsis: An epic quest fantasy debut that is the Tlingit indigenous response to The Lord of the Rings. When Elān trapped a salmon-stealing raven in his cupboard, he never expected it would hold the key to saving his people from the shapeshifting Koosh invaders plaguing their shores. In exchange for its freedom, the raven offers […]
Review: Children of the Gods (Age of Fire #1) by S.A. Klopfenstein
Synopsis: May the world be brighter for our burning. At the edge of a war-torn world ruled by the Attican Empire and their fearsome Dragonmounts, the fate of nations falls upon a few individual destinies. A shaman. A huntress. A soldier. And a rebel spy. The Faltari people are special, gifted by the gods with […]
Review: Cage of Stars by Frasier Armitage
Synopsis: HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO TO BE FREE? Inside the paradise of a Dyson Sphere, artificial intelligence has been outlawed and hunted. When a robot is dug up at the equator, it will have to flee if it wants to survive. Told from the different perspectives of the humans and creatures who encounter the […]
Review: Sunward by William Alexander
Synopsis: A cozy debut science fiction novel by National Book Award–winning writer William Alexander, this story of found family follows a planetary courier training adolescent androids in a solar system grappling with interplanetary conflict after a devastating explosion on Earth’s moon. Captain Tova Lir chose a life as a courier rather than get involved in […]
Review: Making History by K.J. Parker
Synopsis: KJ Parker’s new novella is a darkly witty historical fantasy. A group of scholars are asked to do the impossible by a ruthless king. The cost of refusal being death, of course. History isn’t truth…it’s propaganda. Academics can be cocky. Atop their perches of authority high above the thrumming masses of the unquestioning world […]