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 […]
Fantasy
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 […]
Book Review: The Trident and the Pearl (The Fisher King #1) by Sarah KL Wilson
TL;DR Review: Fans of Circe and A Song for Achilles will be instantly enchanted by the beautiful prose and Greek-coded flavor of this myth retelling. Synopsis: A desperate queen makes a deal with the gods to save her land in this spellbinding romantasy debut from Sarah K. L. Wilson. Queen Coralys rules the Kingdom of […]
Review: The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan
Synopsis: A devastating love story. A bewitching twist on history. A blood-drenched hunt for purpose, power, and redemption. In 1785, Professor Sebastian Grave receives the news he fears most: the terrible Beast of Gévaudan has returned, and the French countryside runs red in its wake. Sebastian knows the Beast. A monster-slayer with centuries of experience, […]
SPFBO Review: Flint in the Bones (Norwich Map Runners #1) by Eva St. John
Synopsis In a city where history bites back, murder is just the beginning. Detective Eliza “Bish” Barnaby thought she’d left her home behind—along with its plague outbreaks, random time-shifts, and tendency to accidentally host people from the 1600s during breakfast. But when a dangerous practitioner escapes custody in London, Bish is forced back to Norwich, […]
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. . . . […]
Review: Darkness Unleashed (Eileerean Saga #2) by Bella Dunn
We’re going to need a bigger torch Synopsis What would you sacrifice for duty?The war between the Eileerean sisters left a legacy far worse than the corpses of the fallen soldiers. The peace forged by Daelyn’s grandmother is crumbling.Callandra was left under the rule of a tyrant, and while Gaelyr and Lyhtana brace for another […]
Review: A Black Dragon on Red (The Drowned Kingdom Saga #6) by P.L. Stuart
Synopsis: Nightsoul. A name striking terror into the hearts of Eltnia’s people for decades. A mysterious, sinister ruler, buoyed by the foreboding magic of the malevolent sorceress Barbis. A haunting spectre, appearing out of mist, razing kingdoms to the ground, then vanishing like a ghost, leaving behind destruction, ruined corpses, and paralyzing despair. And Nightsoul […]
Review: To Touch a Silent Fury by R.A. Sandpiper
Synopsis: She rides to claim her fate, he flies to burn it down. As the only woman in the Moontouched Brotherhood, Tani studies on the haughty island of Eavenfold surrounded by men who see her as an ill omen at best. Her Fate Ceremony is only days away, offering five possible escapes from the storm-locked […]
Review: Doomed to Die: An A–Z of Death in Tolkien by Tom Racine
Synopsis J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings meets Edward Gorey’s The Gashlycrumb Tinies in this darkly satirical illustrated parody of the Tolkien universe: ‘A is for Arwen broken by sorrows; B is for Boromir punctured by arrows. C is for Celebrimbor hung out to dry; D is for Denethor…’ ‘Stories – frankly, human stories are always about one thing […]
SPFBO XI Review: The Golden Princess (Chronicles of Fu Xi) by Brian Braden
Synopsis Raised in splendid isolation.Betrothed to a man she despises.Destined to rule over the greatest city on earth.She is the Golden Princess. Sarah dreams of love and adventure beyond her gilded prison, but tonight her dreams come true in the most terrifying way imaginable. A bloody power struggle erupts for the throne, and dawn finds […]
SPFBO XI Review: Shadows of the Sundered Lands by Corbin Rook
Synopsis: The walls that kept the darkness out are beginning to fall. One hundred and fifty years ago, the Sundering drowned Avoni in darkness, twisting every living thing into a nightmare. The only survivors live under the Aurora Shrouds, mystical barriers shielding isolated towns from the horrors outside. When a Vanguard Courier, uncovers evidence that […]