Synopsis In 1992, at the dawn of the age of technology, disgraced ex-game show host Manny di Martini schemes for a comeback with a deep-sea television special in the South Pacific. He quickly finds himself in over his head, attracting the attention of a cosmic being who will lead Manny to a television broadcast event […]
Fantasy
Review: The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty
Synopsis Amina al-Sirafi should be content. After a storied and scandalous career as one of the Indian Ocean’s most notorious pirates, she’s survived backstabbing rogues, vengeful merchant princes, several husbands, and one actual demon to retire peacefully with her family to a life of piety, motherhood, and absolutely nothing that hints of the supernatural. But […]
Review: To Clutch a Razor (The Curse Bearer 2) by Veronica Roth
Synopsis: A funeral. A heist. A mission born of desperation. When someone in Dymitr’s family dies, he’s called back home for the Empty Night, a funeral rite intended to keep evil at bay. The secret Dymitr is keeping from them makes returning home downright dangerous, but if he wants to get his hands on a […]
Review: Red City (The New Alchemists #1) by Marie Lu
Synopsis Alchemy is the hidden art of transformation, an exclusive power wielded by crime syndicates who market it to the world’s elite in the form of sand – a drug that enhances those who take it into a more perfect version of more beautiful, more charismatic, simply more. Among the gleaming skyscrapers and rolling foothills of […]
Review: We Dance Upon Demons by Vaishnavi Patel
Synopsis From the New York Times bestselling author of Kaikeyi, a galvanizing stand-alone contemporary fantasy following a burnt-out reproductive health care worker as she fights back against escalating attacks on her clinic and the malevolent forces in hot pursuit of her newly acquired power. As a reproductive health care worker in Chicago, Nisha is barely staying afloat in […]
Review: The Shadow of the Gods (The Bloodsworn Saga #1) by John Gwynne
Synopsis: A century has passed since the gods fought and drove themselves to extinction. Now only their bones remain, promising great power to those brave enough to seek them out. As whispers of war echo across the land of Vigrið, fate follows in the footsteps of three warriors: a huntress on a dangerous quest, a […]
Review: Asunder by Kerstin Hall
Synopsis We choose our own gods here. Karys Eska is a Deathspeaker, locked into an irrevocable compact with an eldritch being―three-faced, hundred-winged, unforgiving―who has granted her the ability to communicate with the newly departed. She pays the rent by using her abilities to investigate suspicious deaths. When a new case goes sideways and connects her […]
SPFBO XI Review: No More Levels by Benjamin Barreth
Synopsis: Life sucks when you’re a potato farmer. That’s why Rin can’t wait to turn sixteen and conquer the nearest beginner dungeon. Only then can he acquire a powerful class in the Game of the Gods and begin the earnest grind to leveling up. With enough monster kills, he might even become someone truly strong, […]
SPFBO XI Review: Grave Covenant by Tobias Youngblood
Synopsis: Ridley faces hell when his fiancee disappears, leaving only a cryptic note. On a quest to get her back, his fate becomes intertwined with an insectile shapeshifter and an enigmatic, knife-wielding young girl with an agenda of her own. If Ridley is to have a prayer at saving his fiancée, he will need the […]
Review: The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan
Should I begin from the ambitious and chaotic theological sangria that Sullivan enriches his plot with in such a way that for all intents and purposes should not work and yet it somehow does gloriously?
Review: The Brides by Charlotte Cross
Synopsis: 1884. When Mafalda journeys to Budapest to care for her grieving aunt, her secret love, Lucy, hurries from London to comfort her, with chaperone and lady’s maid in tow. But lady’s maid Alice, blessed and cursed with the Sight, is tormented by terrifying visions. When chaperone Eliza falls prey to a disturbing wasting illness, […]
Review: The Blood Stones (Legends of the Bruhai #1) by Tori Tecken
Synopsis His name is not worthy. A traitor is executed, his name ripped away from history. Now the kingdom stands on the brink of a succession war that could bring the country to its knees. Forces stalk the darkness, moving pawns into place in a deadly game. Gehrin and his brothers were not meant to […]