TL;DR Review: Batman meets Moon Knight, but much grittier and darker. A loyal assassins learns truths that will make him question everything. Synopsis: He was the king’s silent justice. Now he’s the throne’s greatest threat. Risens is the King’s Rightmaker, the silent justice of Halthome, whose word is law and whose blade ensures absolute obedience. […]
Dark Fantasy
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 […]
Review: King Sorrow by Joe Hill
Synopsis Bookish dreamer Arthur Oakes is a student at Rackham College, Maine, renowned for its frosty winters and beautiful buildings. But his idyll – and burgeoning romance with Gwen Underfoot – is shattered when local drug dealers force him into a terrible stealing rare and valuable books from the exceptional college library. Trapped and desperate, […]
The Heresy Within, The Ties that Bind, book 1 by Rob J Hayes
Synopsis: For generations the Inquisition has stood between humanity and the forces of darkness. It has failed. Thanquil Darkheart is a witch hunter for the Inquisition, on a holy crusade to rid the world of heresy. He’s also something else… expendable. When the God Emperor gives Thanquil an impossible task, he knows he has no […]
Review: An Inkling of Flame (The Song of the Damned #1.5) by Z.B. Steele
Synopsis: Tell me how it happened… Layne was a soldier, conscripted to fight under the Fox in a vengeance fueled march. He, and his friends, were due for a fated confrontation, one that has ended in blood and loss. Now, the inquisitors want to hear every detail of his conscription, his training, and the duel […]
Review: The Builders by Daniel Polansky
Synopsis A missing eye.A broken wing.A stolen country. The last job didn’t end well. Years go by, and scars fade, but memories only fester. For the animals of the Captain’s company, survival has meant keeping a low profile, building a new life, and trying to forget the war they lost. But now the Captain’s whiskers […]
Review: Six of Crows (Six of Crows #1) by Leigh Bardugo
Synopsis Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price―and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone. . . . […]
SPFBO XI Review: The Way We Were Hunters by Brien Feathers
Synopsis The trouble with the Fallen is they look human. The Fallen are the children born affected by the Drakon, otherworldly beasts that arrived on a meteor and devastated Rosya in a decades-long war. Now, as the nation heals and moves forward, a second conflict looms. This time the enemy is not the Drakon, but […]
Review: Queen of Thieves Box Set: Defenders of Legend by Andy Peloquin
THAT’S RIGHT! I loved this trilogy so much that I’m not done boosting it to the masses! Child-, Thief-, and Queen of the Night Guild are some of the best in indie. Grimdark sword and sorcery that packs a band of thieves into so much action, grief, struggle, and perseverance. I wanted to check these […]
SPFBO XI Review: A Sea of Blood and Tears by J.K Divia
Synopsis Ionna is a selkie torn between sea and shore. She has waited years for the chance to find the son stolen by the mysterious woods on her island. When Viking raiders threaten her village, she must choose between returning to the sea, saving one of her children, or risking everything to protect them all. […]
Review: Queen of Faces by Petra Lord
Synopsis: A desperate girl at a cutthroat magical academy faces a choice between life and death: become an assassin for the enchanted elite or watch her decaying body draw its last breath. Anabelle Gage is trapped in a male body, and it’s rotting from the inside out. In Caimor, where the magical elite buy and […]