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!
Fantasy
Review: The Penitent by Robyn Abbott
Synopsis: From #1 bestselling dark fantasy author Robyn Abbott comes The Penitent, a gritty standalone in the unflinching Forgotten Fragments series. Perfect for fans of Richard Swan and John Gwynne, this gothic tale picks up where most epic fantasies conclude: the end of a long-fought war… The Usurper is dead. As are all five of his […]
Review: Under the Dragon Moon (The Belamour Archives 1) by Mawce Hanlin
Synopsis To break the thread of weaver’s fate, those who witness must weave anew…Mael Nguyen doesn’t believe in fate, but he does believe in magic. His entire life revolves around the study of the arcane—spells and rituals, potions and illusions. As far as Mael is concerned, all he needs is a book in one hand and […]
Review: Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb #1) by Tamsyn Muir
Synopsis: The Emperor needs necromancers. The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman. Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead nonsense. Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth unveils a solar system of swordplay, cut-throat politics, and lesbian necromancers. Her characters leap off the page, as skillfully animated as arcane revenants. The result is a […]
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: Dot Slash Magic by Liz Shipton
Synopsis: What if you wrote a magic computer program? What if that magic computer program started summoning monsters? When twenty-something coder Seven Jones goes back to school at a community college in San Diego, the last thing she wants is to join some stupid club. And the last thing she expects is to walk into […]
Review: A Dragon of the Veil by Nick Snape
Synopsis: Some lies are best left buried deep… Laoch, a ranger deeply scarred by the Unbeliever Crusades, seeks salvation in the dishonoured elven warrior, Sura. Together, they are thrust into a new conflict when a powerful enemy crashes into a Meister’s alchemical experiment, setting off a wave of fear and magic that ripples throughout the […]
Review: Dragonfired (The Dark Profit Saga #3) by J. Zachary Pike
Synopsis The monarch wants him dead. A dragon’s torching the realm. Is his heroic gig about to be a critical catastrophe? Gorm Ingerson knows the king is a fink. With the land’s insidious ruler hell-bent on his destruction, the axe-wielding Dwarf berserker is desperate to beat him to the punch. But when he discovers the […]
Review: Riven Earth by Zammar Ahmer
Synopsis: The world has stopped turning. Burned by a blazing sun. Thrust into eternal winter. Life survives only in the Sunset Forest. For untold millennia, mankind lived subservient to the dryads, forced into worship of the Earth-Mother, Astea. Then one man ventured into the Scorched Desert and returned with the secret of fire. His rebellion […]
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 of Prospect Hill. In the […]
Review: The Society of Unknowable Objects by Gareth Brown
Synopsis: From the author of the internationally bestselling The Book of Doors, another fantastical, stand-alone novel in which a trio of seemingly everyday people are members of a secret society tasked with finding and protecting hidden magical objects—ordinary items with extraordinary properties. The world of unknowable objects—magical items that most people have no idea possess […]
Book Review: The Bone Raiders (The Rakada #1) by Jackson Ford
TL;DR Review: Action-packed, insanely fun, wildly imaginative, and wonderfully human. Non-stop rip-roaring adventure from start to finish. Synopsis: WE DIDN’T START THE FIRE . . . BUT OUR GIANT FIRE-BREATHING LIZARDS DID. You don’t f*ck with the Rakada. The people living in the grasslands of the Tapestry call them the Bone Raiders, from their […]