Synopsis John Carver has three rules: Don’t drink in the daytime, don’t gamble when the luck has gone, and don’t talk to the dead people who come to visit. It has been almost five years since the incident in Kabul. Since the magic stirred within him and the stories began. Fleeing the army, running from […]
Book Review
Charlies Top Reads of 2023
Seriously we can only choose 10? Given the unfeasibly difficult task of narrowing down my ten best books from this year was no easy task. 2023 really was the year of indie books for me, that’s not intended as a slight to traditional published books. Just that I have been spoilt for choice with the […]
Review: Death’s Beating Heart (The War Eternal Series #5) by Rob J. Hayes
Synopsis The final book in The War Eternal series. Break Eternity. Sirileth has broken the world. The ground bleeds, the seas rage, the skies are torn asunder. Eska will not let her daughter face the consequences alone, but can she help without donning the mantle of the Corpse Queen once more? And will the people […]
Review: Cold As Hell (Black Badge Series #1) by Rhett C. Bruno and Jaime Castle
Synopsis In the West, there are worse things to fear than bandits and outlaws. Demons. Monsters. Witches. James Crowley’s sacred duty as a Black Badge is to hunt them down and send them packing, banish them from the mortal realm for good. He didn’t choose this life. No. He didn’t choose life at all. Shot […]
Review: Elder Epoch (Gunmetal Gods Series #3) by Zamil Akhtar
Synopsis The protector of the land is dead. A blood plague infests the soil and sea, eldritch angels vie for dominion over hearts and souls, and holy war boils between four gunpowder empires. The line between truth and falsehood, the righteous and the wicked, hope and annihilation is buried deep beneath blood-soaked sand. Review By […]
Review: The Darkness in the Pines (A Hell in Haven Prequel Novella) by David Green
Synopsis Before ‘The Devil Walks In Blood’ and ‘One Life Left’, Nick Holleran, Haven’s one and only Paranormal Detective, finds himself drawn into a dangerous game destined to change his second life completely. Treading water after being brought back from the brink of death, and finding his perception of reality altered forever, Nick is simultaneously […]
Review: Kraken Rider Z ( Kraken Rider Z Series #1) by David Estes and Dyrk Ashton
Synopsis If there’s one thing dragons fear, it’s a kraken. Even lowly hull-scrubber Zee Tarrow knows that. Like everyone on the island kingdom of Tosh, he grew up frightened by fables and horrible tales of the great beasts of the deep. It seems an odd thing to impress upon the children of the realm, because–luckily […]
Review: The Reformatory by Tananarive Due
Synopsis Twelve-year-old Robbie Stephens, Jr., is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, a reformatory, for kicking the son of the largest landowner in town in defence of his older sister, Gloria. So begins Robbie’s journey further into the terrors of the Jim Crow South and the very real horror of the […]
Review: Cage of Souls by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Cage of Souls is a captivating work of speculative fiction of the highest order. A standalone that felt like an entire series in scope and imagination. Adrian Tchaikovsky’s world building and storytelling is off the charts in this outrageously entertaining story.
Review: Voyage of the Damned by Frances White
All aboard for an early contender for 2024’s best fantasy Synopsis For a thousand years, Concordia has maintained peace between its provinces. To mark this incredible feat, the emperor’s ship embarks upon a twelve-day voyage to the sacred Goddess’s Mountain. Aboard are the heirs of the twelve provinces of Concordia, each graced with a unique […]
REVIEW: Buzzard’s Bowl (Tragedy of Cedain #2) by John Palladino
SYNOPSIS Cedain continues to collapse. Ashmount’s destruction shatters the Magicai while the culprits responsible continue sabotaging the world. All the while, the next season of Buzzard’s Bowl begins and Edelbrock, in his constant fight for survival, desires a vengeance he can only find in the arena. Seradal and Villic find themselves in the middle of […]
Review: And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman
Synopsis: A little book with a big heart—from the New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove and Anxious People. From the New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, Britt-Marie Was Here, and Anxious People comes an exquisitely moving portrait of an elderly man’s struggle to hold on to his most […]