Hello again dear reader or listener, I hope you are well!
Seen as I haven’t brought any reviews for your reading pleasure in a while, but I’ve also struggled to sit and write my usual long form ramblings because of reasons, I thought I’d try something a little different and present three mini reviews in one.
A Fantasy, a Gothic Romance, and a Romcom.
Witches
Review: In the Shadow Garden by Liz Parker
Enchanting magical realism set in a small town in Kentucky, perfect for fans of Practical Magic.
Review: Our Crooked Hearts by Melissa Albert
Our Crooked Hearts is a double tale of mother and daughter coming into magic and its consequences, when they were each 16-17 years old. The mother’s half of the story is told in flashbacks so as to create parallelisms with her daughter’s present storyline, cleverly woven in such a way that what happened in the past is slowly revealed to optimally fit and complement what is happening in the present.
Review: King of Battle and Blood (Adrian X Isolde #1) by Scarlett St. Clair
St. Clair’s story fits within a few great romance tropes, such as marriage of convenience and enemies to lovers, but it also employs some of my favorite tropes across any genre, for instance wrong/fake history being revealed for what it was, misconceptions being broken down, and an epic revenge story revealed gradually with great effect.
Book Tour and Review: Equinox by David Towsey
Synopsis In this world, two souls inhabit a single body, one by day, one by night. But though they live alongside one another, their ends do not always align. For Special Inspector Morden, whose hunt for a dangerous witch takes him far from home, this will be a problem… Christophor Morden lives by night. His […]
Review: Equinox by David Towsey
Towsey has created a deeply atmospheric and captivating book that brought together the aging inspector Adamat from McClellan’s Powdermage trilogy, the ambience and eerie feel of the tv series The Alienist, as well as that near constant sense of the uncanny present throughout Neil Gaiman’s the Sandman comics. Talk about a right mix huh?
The Bone Spindle (The Bone Spindle #1) by Leslie Vedder
There’s countless heart wrenching twists, turns, kisses, pledges of love and betrayals that just feels so satisfying. I hope we have a chance to go ruin-delving with Shane and Fi again very soon because I really wasn’t ready for this book to end.
Review: Priest of Lies (War for the Rose Throne #2) by Peter McLean
Synopsis Tomas Piety has been many things: soldier, priest, gangster…and spy. As Tomas’s power grows, the nobility better watch their backs, in this dark and gritty epic fantasy series. People are weak, and the poorer and more oppressed they are, the weaker they become–until they can’t take it anymore. And when they rise up…may the […]
Review & Interview – Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery by Brom
Slewfoot is an intriguing horror story that is both extremely unsettling and utterly satisfying. It is both a tale of finding oneself and pure, unadulterated vengeance. It is both exactly and not even close to what I was expecting upon completion, and I thoroughly enjoyed my gateway drug to Brom’s library.
Review: The Wood Bee Queen by Edward Cox
The Wood Bee Queen by Edward Cox is a standalone fantasy reminiscent of old folktales sprinkled with classic fantasy tropes and some Ancient Greek/Roman mythology homages (or Easter eggs if you like). It is also a portal fantasy, which I haven’t read in quite some time, and that definitely catered to some of the nostalgia from my early teens. Through it, Cox tackles timeless themes of good vs evil, blind religious faith, petty/whimsical gods, and the importance of stories, as well as making one’s own decisions without letting others sway you for their gain.
Review: The Blacktongue Thief (Blacktongue #1) by Christopher Buehlman
This book is absolutely *hilarious*, mostly in a darkly comedic sort of way mind you. Truly, I found myself chuckling right from the first pages at Kinch’s snark and commentary. Sometimes I caught myself laughing really loud too and that was definitely what I wanted as a low effort read these days.