Here in Avalon is a literary fiction novel that exists in a liminal space: it’s a fantasy that’s not quite a fantasy novel, it’s a mystery that’s not Here in Avalon is a literary fiction novel that exists in a liminal space: it’s a fantasy that’s not quite a fantasy novel, it’s a mystery that’s not quite a mystery novel, it’s a thriller but not quite a thriller novel, and it’s magical but not entirely magical realism. The best way I can describe Here in Avalon is it’s a love letter: to New York, to cults, to sisters, to beauty, and to love itself.
I’ve made it no secret that I adore Tara Isabella Burton. I own both of her other novels and adore them. So maybe I’m coming from a place of bias as I read this book and as I’m writing this review, but reading a Burton book is like sinking into a dreamscape. She simply doesn’t see the world the same as I do. Maybe it’s different for other people, but to me she writes the world like it still has mystery, magic, and enchantment to it. For a very cynical person like me who tends to fear everyone and think catastrophically, books like hers are like fairy tales. Maybe that’s by virtue of her academic background. Maybe that’s just intrinsically who she is at heart. Who knows? All I care about is that she keeps writing utterly beautiful books like these for as long as it makes her happy to do so.
The story of Rose, Cecilia, and The Avalon is compelling from the start, from Rose and Cecilia’s negligent childhood and their insistence that New York City raised them to Cecilia’s adult wanderlust that carries her all over the globe to Rose’s adulty-adultiness to the events that lead Cecilia and then Rose to The Avalon…It’s what happens once they get there that starts to whip your heart into a frenzy and turn page over page. The days bleed into nights into weeks into months. It’s so beautiful and sad and lovely.
When I came to the end I was both sad and satisfied. Sad because I had finished yet another Tara Isabella Burton novel and would have to wait for the next. Satisfied because it was perfect.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Cult Fiction/Literary Fiction ...more
…And the reward for the longest novel I devoured in record time this month (that wasn’t a spicy romance) goes to The Witchwood Knot, which is my first…And the reward for the longest novel I devoured in record time this month (that wasn’t a spicy romance) goes to The Witchwood Knot, which is my first Olivia Atwater book and certainly won’t be my last because it simply hit every single one of my cozy gothic fairy tale buttons while maintaining a certain sense of style and panache that you don’t see too often when it comes to the cozier tales. That flair sets this story apart from so many cozier gothics that can often cause me to drift off in the second act. Not this book. This book kept me captivated from the start.
(Note please that there is an author’s note at the beginning of this book regarding TW/CW when it comes to sexual harassment of both woman and child. Take care of you.)
This book simply wouldn’t work without our FMC, Winifred, exactly as she is. She’s a terrific female protagonist, made just the way I like them: full of spite. Let’s just say I identify. She’s also intelligent, cunning, deceitful, and careful. I absolutely love her. She’s had to learn some hard lessons, both mundane and arcane, to get where she is today, and that makes her unique. Her unique outlook on life and on everything faerie is the framework for everything we readers see and understand of this story for a good long while, so it’s marvelous that she’s as intriguing and engaging as she is.
Likewise, the flip-side of Winifred is our MMC, Mr. Quincy, the mysterious and vexing “butler” of Witchwood Manor. He’s everything Winifred is, save he’s full of frustration and anger instead of spite. He’s trapped within Witchwood Manor, bound to an oath he can’t undo, and is almost as alone as is possible. He hides behind cruelty and illusions, but is filled with fear.
Atwater has an unmistakably lovely way with charming, lovely prose and with the elegant and polite dialogue of the Victorian period. Reading the dialogue exchanges between Winifred and Mr. Quincy are like an amped-up version of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, if Elizabeth carried a knife with her at all times and Darcy were willing to turn her own fears on her. When they aren’t exchanging witty repartee and they drop the social mores, these two melt so deliciously it’s like milk chocolate.
I love Atwater’s use of faerie lore. It’s amazing. Most of it is well known, but it’s the little stuff that means so much, you know? Like how important the number three is to faeries. How the scent of bayberry is associated with protection from evil (and that it’s easier to carry bayberry perfume while traveling than to carry candles of it). The way some believe mirrors are portals to the other side. It’s these touches that always impress me when it comes to worldbuilding. I love it when authors do their research and do it well. When it comes to historical fantasy, an author must do double duty by ensuring the historical and fantastical aspects both are accounted for and Atwater has done exactly that.
It’s a simply wonderful novel. I can’t recommend it enough.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. This review was written without compensation. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Book Series/Dark Fantasy/Fairy Tale/Fantasy/Romantasy/Fantasy Series/Gothic Fiction/Historical Fantasy ...more
Now this–this book is the hot stuff. This book was everything I’ve come to expect from Ella and Brooke and their naughty minds. Take one male supermodNow this–this book is the hot stuff. This book was everything I’ve come to expect from Ella and Brooke and their naughty minds. Take one male supermodel and one up-and-coming adult movie star, throw them together in a moment of serendipity, and you have an explosively passionate and dirty romance novel that will warm up some sheets and make you swoon at the same time.
If I could put a theme to this book it would be, “I’m not ashamed of you, I just care that you’re mine.” This goes both ways, too. Donovan may be the uber-rich supermodel in this book, but it’s not unheard of for the character who has money to be the one who has to work hard for affection in a romance novel. Instead, Ella and Brooke worked hard in this novel to put Donovan and “Sin” mostly on the level: neither of them is ashamed of the other. “Sin” mostly doesn’t care that Donovan comes from money and Donovan couldn’t give a crap that Sin comes from none and lives in a shoebox apartment. The thing they care about most is that they belong to each other and with each other. They each feel like they were made for the other and they want to fight to find a way to stay together.
It’s really freaking sweet. They’re really freaking sweet. That is, when they’re not busy having filthy hot spicy scenes. (And believe me, they are H O T.)
The rest of the Park Avenue Princes are around providing advice, comedy, and color commentary, as per usual. It’s unclear which of the Princes are up next for a book, but keep an eye on Donovan’s little brother, because he’s a sullen brat in this book and is definitely going through some stuff.
Overall, I liked this installment more than the first book in this series, so it’s an excellent read and I highly recommend it. You’ll definitely want to start with Infamous Park Avenue Prince, but that’s not a hardship.
I was provided a copy of this title by the authors. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. This review was written without recompense. Thank you.
I’ve never been so glad to be one of those people who really only likes apples in baked goods. Really.
I’ve also never had an opportunity to flex my gI’ve never been so glad to be one of those people who really only likes apples in baked goods. Really.
I’ve also never had an opportunity to flex my geography degree in regards to Quakers, Pennsylvania, and the apple (yes, geography has a ton to do with the apple–geography has a ton to do with everything) while reading a book so much before.
This book was fabulous. Absolutely, positively, fan-flipping fantastic. Did I have moments when I thought the characters were dumb? Yes. Did I find some parts predictable? Sure. Do I care? Not one bit. This is horror on some kind of quasi-epic scale, because even though the meat of this book doesn’t take place over longer than maybe a traditional school year, the story itself is epic in scale, owing to how far back in time it truly stretches and how pervasive the horror truly is.
If you’re looking for a book that feels like autumn, this book fits the bill: Trees, rushing river, crisp air, leaves falling and gathering on the ground waiting to be blown away into large piles, apples ripe and round on their branches, flies glutting themselves on the last of the rotting summer berries, that feeling of susurration and suspension when the earth is settling down before it goes dormant for winter.
Writing about apples somehow always becomes a partially sensual and sinful endeavor. Wendig writes evocatively when people take bites out of the apples, making sure we know exactly how the juice gushes out, how it runs down their chins, their arms, sometimes further down. How it glistens and coats their skin. He writes about how exactly they take their bite, sometimes revealing their sin: an angry bite, a greedy bite, a lusty bite, etcetera. Not only are these apples cursed with the gift of a certain type of knowledge, but they are sin incarnate, revealing the hidden monsters inside all those who partake.
The characters are so explosively unique and wonderful on both sides of the story. It’s definitely never a story where you want to root for the bad guy or anything, but the antagonists in this book are more than what they seem, and the evil stretches.
I loved the ongoing themes of sin, white supremacy, misogyny, right-wing conservatism, conservation, colonialism, and fallen idols. It’s just a fantastic book and I can’t say anymore or I’ll start spoiling things. I just recommend you give it a try!
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
I’ve never rated an anthology five stars before, because they’ve all been really hit-or-miss for me. They usually end up being either three or four stI’ve never rated an anthology five stars before, because they’ve all been really hit-or-miss for me. They usually end up being either three or four stars, because you’re always going to have some stories that just don’t hit the mark or maybe just find some stories that just read like “dud” to you. Never Whistle at Night has maybe two or three stories out of 27 that I didn’t gel with completely, but it wasn’t because they weren’t well-written; it was just because they weren’t my jam. When the stories in this collection work, they really, really work. This anthology, as a whole, is worth every page. The quality of the work done and the absolutely captivating stories collected for it speak not only to the talent of the authors, but to the editors who pulled this project together as well. It should be no surprise to anyone who knows me that I love that this is an #OwnVoices anthology as well, because no one could or should be writing these stories and profiting off of them but indigenous peoples.
I don’t want to go too deep into what each story means to me because I feel like that’s wrong, since I’m white and these stories aren’t meant for me. I do, however, want to point out the stories I liked best and maybe a few words about why I liked it.
Kushtuka by Mathilda Zeller: Stolen artifacts + objectification of Native American women = Eff around and find out.
White Hills by Rebecca Roanhorse: Eugenics!
Quantum by Nick Medina: Is the worth of being Native American found entirely in DNA?
Hunger by Phoenix Boudreau: Buffy the Vampire Slayer but with a scary possession monster inside of a frat boy.
Snakes Are Born in the Dark by D. H. Trujillo: Deface sacred artifacts and see what happens.
Heart-Shaped Clock by Kelli Jo Ford: Sad story about drug addiction in indigenous communities.
Dead Owls by Mona Susan Power: A ghost story about how there can be layers of tragedies on the same land.
The Prepper by Morgan Talty: Horribly sad story about the mistreatment of mental illness in indigenous communities.
Collections by Amber Blaeser-Wardzala: What kind of bargain would you make for a foot in the door or a leg up in your industry?
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the editors. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Anthology/Horror/Short Stories/Own Voices ...more
Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart is a stellar collection of 13 stories (and one incredible bestiary–more on that later) from the spectacularly creativFifty Beasts to Break Your Heart is a stellar collection of 13 stories (and one incredible bestiary–more on that later) from the spectacularly creative and brilliant mind of GennaRose Nethercott, who wrote the equally spectacular novel Thistlefoot.
I don’t think I’ve read a collection by a single author where I loved so many stories to the extent I loved the stories in this one. With one exception (Fox Jaw), I ate every story in this book up with a really sharp grapefruit spoon and then licked the bowl clean.
A quick summary of my thoughts on the remaining stories:
Sundown at the Eternal Staircase - Spectacularly eerie, fascinating, and great symbolism on how some people are just heading in different directions in life.
A Diviner’s Abecedarian - Tween girls can be mean as hell when not in possession of the sight. Give them the sight and that’s just horrifying.
The Thread Boy - Poignant, emotional, and magical story about a life well-lived even though there was pain.
The War of Fog - I read in a book coming out soon that war is a place, not a time. This story reminds me of that. War is endless and eternal and you’re stuck there.
Drowning Lessons - Cynical, sad, but neat story about what it’s like to be responsible for a sibling’s well-being.
The Autumn Kill - This one is angry, visceral, and vengeful. I loved the ending.
A Lily is a Lily - This one is hard to sum up in little words. Let’s just say it’s a haunting story about what can happen when we build people up in our minds so much they take up our entire existence.
Dear Henrietta - Provocative, creepy, and downright wicked. Dude, this one is good.
Possessions - Don’t mess around with sketchy witchcraft books you find at thrift stores. This one is hard to describe but it’s beautifully written.
Homebody - Awful to read, awful to describe, awful to think about. It’s sad and tense and made me want to punch something.
A Haunted Calendar - Funny, horrific, and imaginative.
The Plums at the End of the World - This was incredible. It’s heartbreaking, evocative, and all about how people fear anything different.
My last note is on the titular “story”, Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart. It isn’t a story so much as a bestiary and it’s the crown jewel of this collection. Complete with eerie, creep-tastic sketches, each beast is named and described with short, incredible paragraphs. They’re utterly fantastic in every way. I couldn’t get enough of them. The bestiary is practically worth the price of admission.
This collection isn’t to be missed.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
It’s nice to see a new fantasy series meet what I consider the level of epic: Epic in story, epic in scale, and epic in feel. You can’t just call a faIt’s nice to see a new fantasy series meet what I consider the level of epic: Epic in story, epic in scale, and epic in feel. You can’t just call a fantasy book or series epic and call it a day. “Epic” means something: Spanning time, lands, battles, revelations, marriage, deaths, betrayals, and more. Epic means gods, monsters, humans, magic, and a greater sense of purpose are involved for everyone in the story. A Fate Inked in Blood may be a spicy (but not too spicy, and definitely not smutty) Viking romantasy, but it’s also the start of a very good epic fantasy series.
Danielle L. Jensen isn’t an unknown name for me, though I’ve never read her books before. The cover, title, and author name of this book all caught my attention when I saw it on NetGalley. Even though I’m usually not down for Viking fantasy, I was intrigued enough to request it. I’m so glad I did, because this was well worth the read (sadly, I’m still not converted on the Viking thing).
The best thing about this book is our FMC, Freya, who has a mercurial temper mixed with a compassionate nature. The second best thing about this book is Freya’s relationship with Bjorn, the son of her husband. Bjorn is Freya’s constant and the one willing to risk her ire when her compassion risks her own safety. Their chemistry is insane from the moment they meet on the page and every time they are alone together their banter is a delight to read.
Jensen has done a wondrous job writing a Viking fantasy world that’s robust with well-explored magic, rich mythology, expressive world building, and fascinating characters. The storytelling is artful and the writing is compelling. I’m definitely looking forward to the next installment!
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
Laura’s is Carmilla, even though Laura never set out to have a nemesis at all and certainly never meant it to be Carmilla“Everybody’s got a nemesis”.
Laura’s is Carmilla, even though Laura never set out to have a nemesis at all and certainly never meant it to be Carmilla, a girl who burns with incandescence and whom Laura wants with an obscene passion. Every time Carmilla sneers at her Laura only wants to pin her to a wall and see her become pliant.
Carmilla’s nemesis is definitely Laura and she’ll tell you so. Laura’s been her nemesis since the very first evening she walked into Ms. De Lafontaine’s poetry seminar and showed her up. Carmilla’s used to enemies and backstabbing, though. She doesn’t know what to do with, or about, Laura.
And Ms. De Lafontaine? Well, she’s electric, enigmatic, enthralling, and possessive.
These are the most basic facts at the heart of An Education of Malice, and if the book just stopped there I would’ve loved it. But author S. T. Gibson took this concept of power imbalance between a possessive lecturer and her talented poetry students, a needy and obsessive student with no mother and an absentee father, and a earnest but erotic freshman student with a way with words and elevated it. Ms. De Lafonatine becomes a parasite, feeding on the lifeblood and youth of her needy student who longs for a mother figure of any kind. The needy and obsessive Carmilla is pushed and pulled between her admiration and thrall for Ms. De Lafontaine and her passion and fascination for the erotic and earnest Laura. Laura is torn between her all-consuming erotic desire for Carmilla and her pursuit of becoming a member of the Episcopalian clergy. Steadily events spiral and spin out of control.
This book gripped me from page one, with its late 1960s all-women’s small liberal arts college setting (my favorite fashion era, btw), sapphic gothic novella retelling cellular structure, original poetry excerpts, quoted poetry excerpts, and the almost cultish fervor that follows elite lecturers and the most brilliant darlings of smaller college campuses. The word choices are sublime, the imagery is gorgeous, and the sentence structure is immaculate. I enjoyed every single page. Best book I’ve read so far this year.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
This was a thick baby, and I loved sinking my teeth into it.
It’s been rare over the past two years for me to get into a fantasy epic on the bottom floThis was a thick baby, and I loved sinking my teeth into it.
It’s been rare over the past two years for me to get into a fantasy epic on the bottom floor, just as its’ beginning. It seems with almost every other epic fantasy series going on I came into the ARC reviewing/book reviewing scene after the series had already started and it’s a little hard to catch up to everyone else when you’re reading around 25-30 ARCs a month (let’s not talk about my inability to turn down every yummy ARC I see on NG). So when I saw the synopsis for this book, I was so intrigued I decided to give it a try and see if I liked it. If I did, then I had just done what I wanted to and gotten in on the bottom floor of a promising epic fantasy series.
I thought this book was absolutely wonderful. At nearly 600 pages I could’ve done it in one day, but I decided to split the reading over two days: I read the first 30% on the first day and read the rest on the second day so I could be fresh as a daisy for the middle portion of the book. It turns out I may have not needed it as I usually do for longer fantasy novels, because this book was compelling and intriguing from start to finish.
I don’t read a lot of epic fantasy. I’ll admit it’s because epic fantasy tends to be a genre ruled by white, male authors and I tend to dislike most fantasy written by white, male authors. I think what captivated me about this book from the start was our protagonist, Kat: I love thieves. I love underdogs. I love rebellions. I might as well say it: I love that Kat is a lesbian, too. While I’m not usually a fan of white men writing queer female characters (unless they have a sensitivity reader), it helps that Kat is way too focused on keeping herself alive for most of this book to worry about fluttering her eyelashes at anyone.
The worldbuilding in this book is excellent. Ward shouldn’t have cause to lack in this department, seeing as his background is in RPG worldbuilding. The magic system is a little fuzzier on the details, but I think that’s because there’s more than one way of conducting magic in this world and we don’t know exactly how all of it works yet.
While I greatly enjoyed the plot, with all its court intrigue, drama, crosses and double-crosses, there was definitely some predictability here and there. It didn’t ruin my enjoyment of the book, though, so I’m not holding that against the rating.
I’d definitely recommend it if you want to dig into a new series or if you’ve been wanting to try a series and just haven’t yet. It’s a lot of fun.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. This review was written without recompense. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Book Series/Epic Fantasy/Fantasy/Fantasy Series/Sapphic Romance ...more
I love it when Lynn hits all my sweet spots…in her writing, of course. What, did you think I meant it another way? You must have as dirty of a mind asI love it when Lynn hits all my sweet spots…in her writing, of course. What, did you think I meant it another way? You must have as dirty of a mind as I do!
One Night has all the best things I love about Lynn’s writing wrapped up into a lovely gay romance with a suspense subplot that could be potentially triggering (so be on the lookout for TW/CW if they’re in the final copy or make sure you look for them online).
I mean, I absolutely adore Daddy-looking bottoms and femme tops. I mean, I swoon! I don’t know what it is about it: I think it’s the visual combined with the subversion of the traditional roles? I just find it hot, hot, hot! Then Lynn went and added one of my biggest weaknesses in the world: dirty talk. So we’ve got an older, bigger, silver fox bottom with a younger, femme top that talks dirty. The spicy scenes are smoking hot. They can’t keep their hands off one another. What’s not to love?
Mason and Jasper (our MMCs) are just so easy to love, too. I recognize Mason’s childhood trauma in a way, having been raised by a narcissistic mother myself (even though narcissistic mothers raise their daughters differently than they raise their sons), and Jasper’s childhood abuse is sadly not an uncommon tale for gay males who long to express their feminine side from a young age. Mason’s anxiety is also something that resonated with me and made me feel for him.
It was terrific to see old friends from both Due Process and Unholy Yearning in this book, especially since I loved both of those books so much.
This was a great book to start off this spin-off series with. I’m looking forward to the next!
I was provided a copy of this title by the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Age Gap Romance/Book Series/Book Universe/Contemporary Romance/Gay Romance/LGBTQ Romance/MM Romance/Romance Series/Sex Worker/Spice Level 3/Suspense ...more
Magical realism takes fantastical events and portrays them in a realistic tone. So you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t agree with categorizing The PaMagical realism takes fantastical events and portrays them in a realistic tone. So you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t agree with categorizing The Parliament as a fantasy novel like it’s being marketed. Because this isn’t a fantasy novel, dark or otherwise. This is a magical realism novel, first and foremost, with philosophically dark themes and horror tropes.
It was everything I hoped for from Aimee Potwatka’s second novel: The prose soared, I sobbed, I felt all the feelings, and I was completely swept away by this incredibly immersive story.
Calling this book “The Birds meets The Princess Bride” (as it states in the marketing material) is a gross oversimplification and absolutely does this book no justice. In mythology, owls symbolize everything from evil omens to talismans of wisdom. In fantasy, a parliament of owls has been used more than once as an unbiased council of judgment. In real life, they are beautiful and peaceful by day but chaotic and bloodthirsty by night.
“In the night, when the owl is less than exquisitely swift and perfect, the scream of the rabbit is terrible. But the scream of the owl, which is not of pain and hopelessness and the fear of being plucked out of the world, but of the sheer rollicking glory of the death-bringer, is more terrible still. When I hear it resounding through the woods, and then the five black pellets of its song dropping like stones into the air, I know I am standing at the edge of the mystery, in which terror is naturally and abundantly part of life, part of even the most becalmed, intelligent, sunny life—as, for example, my own. The world where the owl is endlessly hungry and endlessly on the hunt is the world in which I live too. There is only one world.” - Mary Oliver
I chose to view the titular parliament as a combination of that fantastical body of judgment and symbols of the underworld. It seems to best fit the themes of this book: grief, regret, anger, violence, abandonment, desolation, loneliness, helplessness, and trauma. Of losing your voice, not having a voice, fighting to have a voice, regaining your voice, and what comes after regaining your voice. Of flight, fight, and freeze. Of responsibility, fault, and blame. About sacrifice.
Aimee Potwatka delivers an amazingly complicated novel containing hugely emotional themes with a deft hand and sweeping prose that carries you away. You’ll feel drawn in and ensconced with these characters as they contemplate how to escape their judgment and survive the parliament of owls.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Body Horror/Disability Rep/Horror/Literary Fiction/Magical Realism ...more
I don’t know if it’s because I’m an oldest child or because I’m the self-sacrificing type or because I somehow was born with a mutation that makes me I don’t know if it’s because I’m an oldest child or because I’m the self-sacrificing type or because I somehow was born with a mutation that makes me say, “I’m sorry,” for things that aren’t even my fault, but it’s been a long time since I’ve identified with a protagonist in a fantasy series as much as I found myself identifying with Hellevir Andottir in The Gilded Crown.
Did that make loving this book easier? Of course it did. Consider this, however: I truly dislike the love interest in this book and I still loved this book enough to give it five stars. That’s how much I liked this book.
The Gilded Crown has one thing I really dislike (slow burn) and a bunch of stuff I love. The slow burn in this book is tolerable only because it’s completely keeping in tone with the characters and the world of the book. There are a great many personal, physical, and cultural barriers that get in the way of any kind of intimacy (physical or emotional) between the love interests in this book, and so the slow burn is absolutely understandable. I can be reasonable when it comes to steam and spice, I’ll have you know.
Beyond that. Marianne Gordon has written a book absolutely stuffed with stuff I adore: Political intrigue, pagan religion versus organized religion, death personified, a female protagonist who has had to grow up too fast, a whole bunch of morally grey characters, a good amount of queer characters in the main cast, and animal companions (nature talks!).
This is a dark and emotional story that made me angry and made me cry more than once. I’m really looking forward to the next book.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alo\ne. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Book Series/Dark Fantasy/Fantasy/Romantasy/Fantasy Series/Folk Fantasy/LGBTQ Fantasy ...more
Mary and the Birth of Frankenstein is a dual timeline reimagining of Mary Shelley’s life before she completed her novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern PMary and the Birth of Frankenstein is a dual timeline reimagining of Mary Shelley’s life before she completed her novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. In one timeline, we are with Mary in Dundee, Scotland, in 1812 as she fostered long-term with the radical Baxter family. In the other, we are with Mary in 1816, “the year without a summer”, on Lake Geneva in Switzerland with her husband Percy, their son William, and her stepsister, Claire. They’re splitting their time between their smaller cottage where they stay with William and his nanny and Villa Diodati, where Lord Byron and John Polidori are staying.
I absolutely loved this book. Adored it, even. Percy Bysshe Shelley is one of my favorite poets, and the mythology of the events surrounding what happened during the “year without a summer” at Villa Diodati is a fascinating subject to me. Mention Villa Diodati within my hearing range and I immediately will swivel my head in fascination. Not to mention the fact Mary Shelley is one of my heroes.
This book was originally written in Dutch, but as far as I can tell, the translation was exceptional. The prose was smooth as silk and never felt awkward to read. I don’t know if this is what translators want to hear, but it didn’t feel like a translation–it felt natural.
The book itself does take some liberties with history when it comes to Mary’s time with the Baxters, but since the book’s most fanciful, whimsical, and even mystical moments take place during this timeline it would make sense for Eekhout to shuffle some things around to make room for her narrative. Mary is only 14 when she arrives in Dundee, happy to be away from crowded London, her indifferent father, the stepmother she doesn’t get along with, and her overdramatic stepsister. She is immediately transfixed by Isabella Baxter, who is a year older than her, and they form an incredibly close bond. It’s here that Mary hears the most stories and begins telling her own. It’s here that Mary discovers the first villain in her life that takes something from her.
No one knows quite for sure what all happened in 1816 at Villa Diodati. We know this is where Claire Claremont fell pregnant with the child that Lord Byron would own up to fathering. This is where Mary Shelley started to pen her infamous novel. Some say this is where Percy Bysshe Shelley became convinced he saw his doppelganger one night. In Eekout’s book, however, this is the place where Mary Shelley remembers the villain she met in Dundee and the stories she heard there. This is where her anger at men and marriage grows. This is where her grief simmers and her depression deepens. This is where she takes up the effort to write a ghost story and decides to write about a monster, instead.
I will tell you that this book is all vibes, imagery, and emotion. While Eekhout is careful not to neglect her supporting characters, you can be sure the focus of her energy is definitely on the complexity that is Mary. You can tell she’s studied Mary Shelley extensively and has her vision of Mary down to a science because her characterization is utterly consistent.
The worldbuilding is lush and atmospheric and the prose is languid, even dreamy in places. It’s a well-crafted and beautiful novel and a lovely fall read.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
The Haunting of Velkwood is a stunningly beautiful and truly eerie novel not only about confronting the ghosts of your past (quite literally, in this The Haunting of Velkwood is a stunningly beautiful and truly eerie novel not only about confronting the ghosts of your past (quite literally, in this case), but also about the isolation and empty promises of America’s suburban neighborhoods and the manner in which such a way of living encourages neighbors to pay no attention to what happens behind other’s closed doors lest your closed door be the one that comes under scrutiny.
I haven’t enjoyed a horror novel this much in months, and I truly think it’s because I really got to sink my analytical claws into it. In university I studied human geography and urban planning, and one of my great areas of interest was the dangers and perils of suburban living to the human psyche and familial relationships (especially between parent and child). The Haunting of Velkwood really allowed me to stretch the parts of my brain that are absolutely fascinated with how dangerous it is for humans to live in isolated and homogenous groups like the titular one in this book.
People fear what they don’t understand, and that is true of Velkwood Street both before the main narrative of this book and during the main events. What happened? Why? Who was involved? Who’s still in there? Are they alive? Dead? Something else? Can it be fixed? What will happen if they just let it be? Should they poke the bear?
The story and Kiste’s lovely writing are as haunting as the shadows in the depths of the main character’s eyes. A evocative and sad tale of how you can never truly go home again, especially if home was never truly safe to begin with.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
Well, this was simply marvelous! Droll, witty, clever, creative, and entertaining, The Tainted Cup is a traditional detective mystery set in a fantastWell, this was simply marvelous! Droll, witty, clever, creative, and entertaining, The Tainted Cup is a traditional detective mystery set in a fantastical world that’s constantly under threat from leviathans from the sea and where the people are augmented and suffused to enhance their bodies, senses, and/or minds.
Our main characters are the earnest and endearingly dry Dionios “Din” Kol, an apprentice training to be an assistant detective who’s been suffused to become an “engraver” (think a superhuman kind of eidetic memory) and the foul-mouthed and easily-bored Ana Dolabra, a whip-smart head detective who hand-picked Din to be her assistant and has given him nothing but grief since. These two cracked me up: Between Ana’s color commentary and Din’s naivety they’re precious together. Comparison has been made to Holmes and Watson, but that’s not quite true. This is just experienced, eccentric detective and newbie detective, but the camaraderie the two show and how much their association with one another evolves and grows throughout this book is one of my favorite parts of the story.
The world building is fabulous. This takes place in a world where all building and clothing materials are organic. Houses are made from tough vines. Screens are made from paper. It’s the people and animals that have the unnatural augmentations. They can be made unnaturally large and strong, but it makes their age span shorter. They can be given very strong memories, senses of smell, touch sensitivity, and more. The more money you have and the more important you are the more grafts and suffusions you are likely to have access to and need.
The story is fantastic, full of adventure, action, political intrigue, espionage, and conspiracy. Robert Jackson Bennett left an ending that’s not a cliffhanger but leaves plenty of room for another book for sure. I’ll definitely want to read it!
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Book Series/Epic Fantasy/Fantasy/Fantasy Series/Mystery ...more
I thank the universe for sending the romance world Cora Rose. I honestly don’t remember what reading romances was like before her and I don’t think I I thank the universe for sending the romance world Cora Rose. I honestly don’t remember what reading romances was like before her and I don’t think I want to remember. What I do remember is that I wasn’t a huge rom com fan before her, but with one book she made me fall into instalove with her style, her characters, her charm, and the hilarious situations her characters somehow seem to end up in without it seeming completely cheesy. Let’s not forget her impeccable ability to embed her characters with dimension, depth, and a wealth of personality.
Exception is shorter than most Cora Rose novels simply because it’s part of a series in which all the novels are on the shorter side. They’re meant to be fast-burn and low-angst. But Cora wouldn’t be Cora if she didn’t do the book her way. It turned out magnificent.
Exception is hot, hot, hot! The spice is nice and plentiful, but not so plentiful that we don’t get plenty of plot and character development. The book is hilarious, full of marijuana-induced hijinks and a perverted kleptomaniac of a monkey. It’s also emotionally touching, with our opposites-attract main characters maybe not being as opposite as they think and coming together in the most auspicious of places.
It’s an excellent entry into the Unlucky 13 series and just a stellar rom com all on its own. I’m here for it.
I was provided a copy of this title by the author. All thoughts, opinions, ideas, and views expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
If Rebecca Ross and Erin Morgenstern had a child and they wrote a debut portal romantasy with a dark edge, I think The City of Stardust would be the rIf Rebecca Ross and Erin Morgenstern had a child and they wrote a debut portal romantasy with a dark edge, I think The City of Stardust would be the result.
I had coffee with a lit professor (who was also an author) once and he said, in his opinion, every story told was essentially just The Odyssey retold in an infinite number of ways. The City of Stardust definitely has that flavor: From character names to a protagonist that sets off on a long journey from home only to return and find it changed from what she once knew, this novel had me captivated from the start.
Georgia Summers has a lovely way with prose. The sentence structure is very reminiscent of Morgenstern, while the imagery feels closer to Ross. While the book definitely lacks the experience of both of those writers it doesn’t suffer overmuch for it. I loved the world building for how it felt both Gaiman-esque and for how it reminded me of my favorite novel, The Starless Sea. The plotting felt impeccable and the pacing was steady.
The whole cast of characters was great. An antagonist worth despising and understanding, protagonists you can both identify with and love, and a large supporting cast that feels distinct and contributes considerably to the entire story without feeling extraneous.
The underlying themes of parental neglect, abandonment, family, secrets, cages, debts, adventure, stories, and the pursuit of knowledge are all well-explored and layered in myriad ways throughout the book and it makes for an excellent tapestry when all is said and done. I loved how the book wrapped up too. Not too neat, not too messy. It was wonderful.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Dark Fantasy/Fantasy/Romantasy/LGBTQ Fantasy/Standalone/Urban Fantasy...more
This book is in no way your next great fall read, because it’s simply too full of blooming life and arid heat to be a fall book, but I’ll tell you whaThis book is in no way your next great fall read, because it’s simply too full of blooming life and arid heat to be a fall book, but I’ll tell you what–I promise you it’s a fantastic YA romantasy. I absolutely adored every page of this epic historical fantasy that takes place in India during the 16th century (when the Portuguese came to colonize India).
Magical flowers grow on the Rann of India, which is located in West India just south of the border of Pakistan. In real life the Rann is full of salt flats during the arid part of the year and that salt is mined by nomadic tribes moving through the area. During monsoon season most of the area fills up with water and some of it becomes swamp. The nomadic tribes remain at their ancestral home during the monsoon season and then move back out when monsoon season passes so their livestock can graze. In Flower and Thorn, our protagonist, Irinyah, belongs to a tribe that not only deals in livestock but also in the hunting and selling of the Rann’s magical flowers. Each flower has a different power to it, along with a scarcity level. As it goes with all magic, they each also have a price. It’s too bad most people looking for easy fixes and power don’t really care about what it’s going to cost them.
Irinya is a rare female flower hunter. It’s usually a job reserved for males (like most jobs outside the home), but her mother was a flower hunter and ever since her mother disappeared when she was a child Irinyah has taken up her mantle. She inoculates herself against the poison in the thorns by pricking herself a little bit repetitively, like one would build tolerance against venom. She also shapes the poisonous flower thorns into little darts for the blow pipe that once belonged to her mother.
This whole book is about broken promises, broken families, pride, the importance of home, oppression, misogyny, and colonization. These themes are all things I love reading about and will almost always love reading about. There’s also a little bit about conservation and sustainability, but that theme isn’t explored as fully as the others (likely because it would’ve taken the plot off onto a tangent that couldn’t have been threaded back in smoothly).
The book has some points to make about war and women leaders and whether or not they’re fit to rule or be taken seriously as a ruler. While I appreciate a great feminist narrative, this book does take this book to some extremes with men and women: the women in this book all seem to lack genuine duplicity or violence and the men in power are all portrayed as lecherous and violent in nature. I don’t buy this as an entirely realistic portrayal, but seeing as this is a tried-and-true YA romantasy that has a serious point to make I think it’s probably for the best the waters here didn’t get very muddied with grey morality. It’s pure escapism here, us getting whisked away to the Indian subcontinent to a time when war is on the doorstep and it’s an opportunity for the colonization of India to be stopped. I think it’s okay to just let it be that.
It’s a lovely fantasy read with a cool magic system and great world building. The romantic dynamic is complicated and sweet. I highly recommend it.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
What’s the worst thing about this book? That it had to end. What’s the best thing about this book? That it knew exactly how and when to end.
That’s thWhat’s the worst thing about this book? That it had to end. What’s the best thing about this book? That it knew exactly how and when to end.
That’s the power of a well-written novella: Knowing what to say, how to say it, when to end it, and how to end it well.
I have made no secret of the fact The Woods All Black was one of my most-anticipated titles of 2024. Lee Mandelo’s Summer Sons has lived in my head rent-free since I read the ARC and I was beyond excited when this title was announced. Historical horror? Trans romance? Revenge? 1920s? There was absolutely nothing about this book I’m not 100% here for and now that I’ve read it I can confirm it was absolutely everything I hoped it would be and more.
Leslie Bruin, a WWI war nurse, joined up with the Frontier Nursing Service after coming home to America to help keep women and children healthy even if he doesn’t quite agree with the Service’s eugenics-based mission. He means to work around the margins as he travels from posting to posting. His latest posting is taking him to a very rural town in the hills of Appalachia. Unbeknownst to him, things in that town have happened between when his services were requested and when he arrived that have triggered feelings of ill will between him and the town’s inhabitants before he even arrives.
Yes, the messaging writ large in this book surrounds transphobia, hate crimes, religious zealotry, queer love, and traditional gender roles and conformity. What’s also of great interest is the guilt-shame-fear culture of insulated communities like you’d find in isolated areas of Appalachia, where you’ve known everyone that lives there your whole life. It’s that tumult of feelings in your stomach where you can’t tell if you feel guilty for your actions or ashamed, but you’ll never admit you might have been scared.
The writing is haunting, erotic, bloody, and vengeful. It’s not a southern gothic ballad but a southern gothic folk song, full of revenge and blood-soaked honor.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
This book made me so happy in my bookworm pants! It gave me yummy cottagecore vibes, magical realism, speculative fiction, swoony romance, a creepy myThis book made me so happy in my bookworm pants! It gave me yummy cottagecore vibes, magical realism, speculative fiction, swoony romance, a creepy mystery, the coziest of vibes, and all of the feels. I haven’t felt so spoiled by a book in a long while. I may have taken a few breaks during the day because I kept getting pulled away by other stuff, but I still devoured this book in less than five hours. I just couldn’t read it fast enough. I was truly and utterly transfixed.
The blurb doesn’t uncover enough of the plot for me to go over a lot of stuff because SPOILERS. That puts me in a bind because the one tiny bone I have to pick with this book would be under said spoiler banner. But that’s okay. We’ll go somewhere else.
Cottagecore: I usually prefer dark cottagecore because regular cottagecore can get old or overdone quickly, but Young really nailed the vibe and didn’t let it get out of control in this book. June’s family owns a large (some would say it’s almost magical) flower farm, so we’ve got all of those lovely flowers, coveralls, and soil-covered clothes. They live next to the Adeline River so there’s plenty of riparian river valley habitat: trees, bushes, fruits, vegetables, and tall grasses. It’s all very Appalachia, very verdant, and very cozy.
Magical Realism: Are the Farrow women witches or are they just extremely good with plants and pass this ability down the line by passing on the knowledge? Could be both. Could be either. People are literally drawn to have their weddings in the small town of Jasper specifically so they can use the Farrow Flower Farm flowers as fresh as possible. They grow flowers prettier and larger than the best flower markets in New York. This is tied to those cozy cottagecore vibes and lead into my next point…
Speculative Fiction: Okay, so I confess, magical realism and speculative fiction are my top two genres. Pairing them together is like hitting my literary g-spot. The curse that affects the Farrow women (spoilers) is fascinating, and I’ve come to think it must be the cost for their spectacular green thumbs. Everything comes with a price. Telling you more than that is ruining the fun.
I can’t tell you about the swoony romance because it involves spoilers. I can’t tell you about the creepy mystery (which gives me the yucks), but I can tell you I cried several times while reading this book. Not great, big, sobbing tears; but the gentle tears. The kind of tears that track down your face one at a time that you can wipe away before they reach your pillow. The tears of someone who was emotionally moved but not broken-hearted.
It’s a magical read and I can’t recommend it enough.
I was provided a copy of this book by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Magical Realism/Romantasy/Mystery/Speculative Fiction/Suspense Mystery/Women’s Fiction ...more
Loading...