Synopsis All roads lead to Underhill, where it’s always winter, and never nice. Harry Bodie has a famous grandmother, who wrote beloved children’s books set in the delightful world of Underhill. Harry himself is a failing kids’ television presenter whose every attempt to advance his career ends in self-sabotage. His family history seems to be […]
Fairy Tales
Review: Silver In The Wood (The Greenhollow Duology #1) by Emily Tesh
Synopsis There is a Wild Man who lives in the deep quiet of Greenhollow, and he listens to the wood. Tobias, tethered to the forest, does not dwell on his past life, but he lives a perfectly unremarkable existence with his cottage, his cat, and his dryads. When Greenhollow Hall acquires a handsome, intensely curious […]
Cinder House by Freya Marske
Synopsis You think you know Cinderella’s story: the ball, the magical shoes, the handsome prince. You’re halfway right, and all-the-way wrong. Ella is a haunting. Murdered at sixteen, her furious ghost is trapped in her father’s house, invisible to everyone except her stepmother and stepsisters. Even when she discovers how to untether herself from her […]
Review: Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher
Hemlock & Silver is a great retelling, unique in its approach, with stellar characters and a fun adventure narrative at its core. Anja was one of my favourite characters that I’ve been on a journey with this year!
Little Beauty (an Eve Novella) by Mark Jonathan Runte
Synopsis: Cherbourg, Normandy – 1159 Shy Jehanne always lived at the mercy of her sisters’ spite and bitterness, preferring a life with the saints in her father’s library. Cherbourg was home and for her, it was the smaller pleasures of watching the ships in the harbor, searching for her father’s vessels. She might have continued […]
Review: The Palace of Illusions by Rowenna Miller
Synopsis: The Palace of Illusions brings readers to a Paris breathless with excitement at the dawn of the twentieth century, where for a select few there is a second, secret Paris where the magic of the City of Light is very real in this enchanting and atmospheric fantasy from the author of The Fairy Bargains […]
Review: Cinder House by Freya Marske
Synopsis: Ella is a haunting. Murdered at sixteen, her ghost is furiously trapped in her father’s house, invisible to everyone except her stepmother and stepsisters. Even when she discovers how to untether herself from her prison, there are limits. She cannot be seen or heard by the living people who surround her. Her family must […]
Review: Dance With Me by Livia J Elliot
Synopsis: Dance With Me is a standalone literary fantasy themed around surviving emotional trauma, discovering one’s self-worth, overcoming depression and the toxicity of self-imposed perfectionism. It is told through the story of a ceramic ballerina enchanted to life through elven magic, and is presented as a clean fairy tale fantasy. Review: To step through the pages of […]
Review: Dreambound by Dan Frey
Summary: When Byron Kidd’s twelve-year-old daughter vanishes, the only clue is a note claiming that she’s taken off to explore the Hidden World, a magical land from a series of popular novels. She is not the only child to seek out this imaginary realm in recent years, and Byron—a cynical and hard-nosed reporter—is determined to […]
Mini Reviews by Shaggy #1
I regularly read and review short stories, novelettes, and novellas, and their reviews don’t always feel long enough to have a whole post for them. Even some novel-length books are really fun but don’t have me writing a ton about them besides proclaiming my enjoyment for them. Instead of keeping them completely from you, I […]
Review: The Fright Before Christmas by Jeff Belanger
Synopsis Step into the dark roots of Christmas past where the Krampus punishes the bad boys and girls. Christmas time is truly the darkest and creepiest time of the year filled with devilish creatures lurking in the shadows waiting to get us. Best known is the Krampus who has been the subject of films and […]
Review: Loreland Bestiary by Hope Christofferson
Synopsis An illustrated mythology of the world’s most fantastical creatures. Turn your gaze toward the skiesWhere wyvern, lung, and phoenix fly.As mermaids swim through oceans blue Under Arctic ice, past coral hues. Accounts arise from here and there, Of manticores in hidden lairs, And faeries dance ’round mushroom caps As brownies steal your fabric scraps. But beware the moon and mind […]