Synopsis: An unlikely assassin struggles to escape a legendary bounty hunter in this breakneck fantasy debut that will grab you by the throat—perfect for fans of Joe Abercrombie, R.F. Kuang, and Christopher Buehlman. She killed for a cause. Will she die for it too? Anji works as a castle servant, cleaning laundry for a king […]
Fantasy
Review: The Curse of the Mistwraith by Janny Wurts
Synopsis: Let each who reads determine the good and the evil for himselfAthera is besieged by the Mistwraith, which blights the land and dims the mysteries guarded by the last fugitives of the old bloodlines.But from a prophecy springs hope: the gifts of two brothers – one dark, one fair, raised on opposite sides of […]
Review: For a Few Days More by Z.B Steele
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 […]
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: 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 […]
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 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 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 […]
Book Review: A Clockwork’s Dreaming by Scott Oden
TL;DR Review: The cozy flavor of Beatrix Potter’s animal tales, but taken to new prosaic heights of wonder by the addition of magic and color. Synopsis: In Claude Moreau’s Garden, magic blooms between dewdrops and dreams, where scholarly mice debate proper tea service in a library housed within an ancient teapot, and frost spirits dance […]
Review: The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy (Hart and Mercy #1) by Megan Bannen
Synopsis Hart is a marshal, tasked with patrolling the strange and magical wilds of Tanria. It’s an unforgiving job, and Hart’s got nothing but time to ponder his loneliness. Mercy never has a moment to herself. She’s been single-handedly keeping Birdsall & Son Undertakers afloat in defiance of sullen jerks like Hart, who seems to […]