Synopsis The Hinterlands are a lawless place of broken dreams and broken people. Roth is a bodyguard trying to leave his dark past behind, but history has a way of turning back up. Cynthia is a bandit who’s trying to make a future by wading through blood. They travel separately, trying to live by their […]
Fantasy
Review: The Baby Dragon Cafe by A.T. Qureshi
Synopsis When Saphira opened up her café for baby dragons and their humans, she wasn’t expecting it to be so difficult to keep the fires burning. It turns out, young dragons are not the best magical animals to keep in a café, and replacing all that burnt furniture is costing Saphira more than she can afford from […]
Review: A Spell for Change by Nicole Jarvis
A Spell for Change is everything you want in a leisurely weekend read: it is a heartfelt, intriguing, and at times eerie tale of defiant people trying to carve out space for themselves to peacefully exist true to themselves, in a world that tries to tell them they have no right to. It presents us with food for thought while also granting escapism, wonder, and supernatural phenomena that I will not spoil the exact nature of.
Review: Relentless Blades (Vol.1 of The Prophecies of Zarune) by Russell Carroll
Synopsis: Cross the wrong men and meet their blades! In a rugged frontier town, two broken men wander aimlessly–Grimlock, a tormented soul despised by the townspeople he protects, searches for a brother he may never find, while Vigilanton, a disgraced knight bound by shame, serves a vicious crime lord. The Vragoths’ arrival–brutal conquerors seeking an […]
GUEST REVIEW: The Pawns of Havoc (The Envoys of Chaos) by Dave Lawson
Synopsis No Mercy, No Questions Asked. Cork has quickly made a name for himself among the Kosellan mercenaries, but now his boss has come to him with an unusual job. Cork’s erstwhile countrymen, the Winn, have hired to him to travel into the barren Frozen Lands and destroy a convoy, leaving only one survivor. Cork […]
Review: Sea of Souls (Sea of Souls saga #1) by N.C. Scrimgeour
Synopsis Isla Blackwood has never accepted the shackles of her family’s nobility. Instead, she sails the open waters, searching for belonging on the waves. But when tragedy forces Isla home, she realises she can no longer escape the duty she’s been running from. Selkie raiders plague the island’s coasts, and when they strike at Blackwood […]
Review: The Hand That Casts the Bone (The Vanguard Chronicles #2) by HL Tinsley
Synopsis Alone in a city on the cusp of revolution, separated from his allies and with nothing to his name, former mercenary John Vanguard finds vigilante life can be a poorly paid gig. When an influential aristocrat’s death causes a sudden shift in the balance of power, Vanguard finds himself once more caught in the […]
Review: The Naming Song by Jedediah Berry
Synopsis In a world where words are power, there is nothing more dangerous than an unnamed thing. When something fell from the something tree, all the words went away. And the world changed. Monsters slipped from dreams. The land began to shift and ghosts wandered the world in trances. Only with the rise of the […]
Review: A Pack of Wolves (The Drowned Kingdom Saga #5) by P.L. Stuart
Synopsis: Othrun of Eastrealm’s victories in battle have made him a warlord to be feared throughout the continent of Acremia. His formidable knights have wreaked havoc on his foes. Now, the ultimate test awaits him and his warriors, as the great existential threat of invasion from the north has finally come to pass. A confederacy […]
Review: A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck
Synopsis An ordinary family man, geologist, and Mormon, Soren Johansson has always believed he’ll be reunited with his loved ones after death in an eternal hereafter. Then, he dies. Soren wakes to find himself cast by a God he has never heard of into a Hell whose dimensions he can barely grasp: a vast library […]
Review: Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson
Synopsis The spirits of the dead do not rest. Artemisia is training to be a Gray Sister, a nun who cleanses the bodies of the deceased so that their souls can pass on; otherwise, they will rise as ravenous, hungry spirits. She would rather deal with the dead than the living, who whisper about her […]
Review: The Floating World (The Floating World #1) by Axie Oh
Synopsis From Axie Oh, the New York Times-bestselling author of The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea, Final Fantasy meets Shadow and Bone in this romantic fantasy reimagining the Korean legend of Celestial Maidens. Sunho lives in the Under World, a land of perpetual darkness. An ex-soldier, he can remember little of his life from […]