 Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own. Just a little bit of chaos in this shot as my daughter runs nearly out of frame with her raincoat fluttering on her back & I hold a tablet like it’s a stinky bit of laundry 😆. Only another day around here 🤪. 📖 Q: if you had to get rid of one of these three FOREVER—historical romance, contemporary romance, or fantasy romance / fantasy with romantic elements—which would it be? I was really excited to get my hands on Hannah Whitten’s For the Throne, a daring follow-up book to For the Wolf that focuses on Red’s sister, Neve. Neve, a former queen & now kinda villain who took herself to the Shadowlands (ie The Bad Place) & now finds herself in the company of a once-king & god named Solmir who is even more villainous. But don’t worry: Solmir has a plan to take out the group of evil kings also inhabiting the Shadowlands & he must have Neve for the plan to work. If she can trust him that is. If this sounds appealing to you: 🖤 Complicated characters (these two leads have made some mistakes! but I love it) 🖤 Steam & a big sense of the forbidden 🖤 Fantastic chemistry—he basically snarls a romantic declaration & my heart went pitter patter 🖤 Books that say over & over again how important sisters are 🖤 Solid worldbuilding with high stakes 🖤 Chunky books You might really like this duology! Each book focuses on a different sister though we see the same characters populating each one. For the Throne is just as cinematic at book 1 but on the romance front I wanted more (mostly because book 1 set such a precedent). But this is another great fantasy & you can count me as a fan of Hannah Whitten’s work. 4.5 ⭐️. Out 06/07.
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 Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own. Books with lots of magic or just a hint of it are things I seek out & I’ve long been a fan of Sarah Addison Allen’s swoony & magic-tinged fiction with romantic elements. So I’m sad to say that Allen’s upcoming release Other Birds unfortunately doesn’t work for me. This book takes place on Mallow Island, a beloved place immortalized in a famous piece of literature authored by a now-semi-reclusive writer. There’s a set of condos on the island where various people & ghosts—the narrators of the book—come together to live & grow & eventually solve a mystery or two. Featuring a couple of twists, a unique Southern setting, & found family, Other Birds also has Allen’s distinctive voice. I love how she renders the world full of possibility. But the stories never fully come together for me in a way that’s moving. The characters feel somewhat flat for me & I was never fully invested in the story. I’ll look forward to more books by the author in the hopes that I’ll love them more but this one isn’t a fave. 2.5 ⭐️. Release date: 09/13.
 Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own. Francesca May’s Wild and Wicked Things is a dark, engrossing story where magic is both something that’s craved & feared…if you’re smart. It’s set in the years immediately after magic helped ravage soldiers in war & opens with protagonist Annie going to Crow Island, where the father who left her & her mother lived & died. As the blurb mentions Annie’s soon fascinated by her neighbor Emmeline, a rumored witch who seems to know Annie’s estranged best friend Bea—also on the island & newly married. Basically this is a twisting, twisted book that’s quite dark but also has hope, found family, & love too. I’ll be honest—some of the discussions of magic confused me (like it’s premise within the book 🥴) but the setting & the plot-points are compelling & entertaining to watch unfold. As is the complex characterization (though I didn’t really find a lot to grab onto with Bea). This book isn’t for the faint of heart, really. It is scary & gory in spots 😆. But the Sapphic representation, the sense of danger & recklessness, of throwing off weight & enjoying oneself, are all winning. 4 ⭐️. Release date: 03/29
 Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.I’ve read some powerful fantasy this year & Ava Reid’s The Wolf & the Woodsman is one of them, telling a story that hits like a bag of bricks. This book wrestles with questions of magic & faith & left me with a hopeful feeling, even if it is slightly tempered by what this romance reader would call a somewhat precarious HFN. Unlike others in her village Évike can’t do magic. Every year her community must sacrifice one of their own to the Woodsmen on Woodsman Day & this year, it’s Évike, who’s sent in someone else’s place & against her will. Despite the fact that she doesn’t quite fit in with the people in her community, like them she’s considered pagan & referred to as wolf-girl by the woodsmen. But on their journey Évike wonders if there’s more to the enemy Captain who’s taken her & who leads their group than the sternness & eyepatch that first drew her attention. He blushes; he’s not a warrior despite his position as leader; he shows his feelings of guilt when his actions conflict with his religious beliefs. But that’s the thing—no matter how drawn Évike & the Captain are to the other, he & his people believe that “faith”—in actuality, magic—is accessed most through bodily sacrifice. Thus his missing eye. & he holds himself to a set of impossible faith-based standards, which he himself struggles with because they don’t always match what seems morally best. & she’s trying to determine her own path forward, as someone who doesn’t share his beliefs or his preoccupation with “perfection” & as someone who’s both tied to her village & ostracized within it. As someone who, as she says earlier in the book, wasn’t gifted with what everyone else around her was. As the blurb says, TWATW is “inspired by Hungarian history and Jewish mythology” & it’s full of stunning similes that make me see the world in a fresh way; it’s gory & often dark; it’s emotional; it’s colorful. Not to mention, it walks that line between hopeful & unsettling that makes books memorable. 4.5 ⭐️. Out today! Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.Q: what percentage of your reading would you characterize as fantasy? I knew from the first pages of Tasha Suri’s The Jasmine Throne, as a pyre was lit for women to be sacrificed on & one woman refused it, that I had stepped into an engrossing & also unsettling book. Featuring complicated women walking the line between personal survival & wants & what will be best for their people, who are looking to the future even as they feel the weight of their fiery pasts, The Jasmine Throne has a lot to offer readers of fantasy. In Ahiranyi, an imperial city state of the Parijatdvipa empire, many of the Ahiranyi suffer from poverty & a rot that affects the body. Tensions remain high between Ahiranyi & Parijatdvipa & as the characters are aware, the fact that the Emperor sends his sister, the princess, to be imprisoned there likely won’t help matters. A maidservant, Priya, is assigned to help the princess Malini. But what Priya doesn’t know is that while the princess is at the mercy of her brother & his whims to some degree, to his fanatic obsession with female purity, Malini is also a master of emotional manipulation. It’s how she’s survived. & what Malini doesn’t know about her new maidservant is the details of Priya’s past in their prison, where she once lived with Elders & brothers & sisters. What she’s capable of & will be capable of in the future. Told from many different perspectives, TJT shows how people can be motivated by different reasons for the same things or even just be comfortable working together for different ends. The political machinations are fascinating, & it’s captivating & disturbing to see how far Malini in particular is willing to go. The portrayal of women is hard-hitting & what it says about women & purpose & desires is particularly moving. Weighty in page numbers & tone, this read will stay with me for a while & defies my attempt to succinctly describe it in a book review. 4.5 ⭐️. Release date: 06/08. Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.An intoxicating slow burn fantasy w/ romantic elements set in a forest that’s grasping & hungry, Hannah Whitten’s For the Wolf, book 1 in a trilogy, put stars in my eyes. Redarys, or Red, is the second daughter of the Valleydan queen. As such, soon after turning 19 a mark will appear on her skin & she’ll be dispensed to the Wilderwood—a place where the monsters & five kings are held—as a human sacrifice. Maybe the sacrifice will free the kings, maybe not. Either way, this long established custom of sending second daughters of the queen has held Valleydan and its neighboring countries together & fulfilled the initial terms set by the Wilderwood forest & a couple—the Wolf & the first Second Daughter—long ago. Red will be delivered to the Wolf because of who she is. But what her beloved twin sister & others don’t know is that Red is ultimately okay with going. That she possesses a violent power she lives in fear of, given to her by the Wilderwood. What does that mean for the Wolf? Watching the relationships change in this book—seeing the characters change—is captivating. The fierceness of them, the uncertainty, the hope. The terrifying slide of one major secondary character into her worst nature—a slide that initially starts out of love. The rapturous tension between the two leads as they fall, despite the forest’s waiting eyes & limbs. & speaking of the forest. The imagery in For the Wolf has a power, a punch that propelled me through the pages. A sinister quality that’s complicated by Red’s growing awareness of what the forest is & what it wants. A beauty & the beast retelling that entrances, For the Wolf is a 5 ⭐️ read for me. 5⭐️. Release date: 06/01. Q: what’s a much hyped book that’s been on your TBR for a long time?
I’ve seen so many people describe TJ Klune’s The House in the Cerulean Sea as a warm hug (or an equivalent) & tell me I should read it. Well I finished it yesterday & YOU WERE RIGHT, this book is so special & it made me feel HAPPY & HOPEFUL. It’s a gentle fantasy with a light, slow burn (kissing only!) that also manages to tackle weighty topics like discrimination & how it’s codified & perpetuated in bureaucratic Rules & Regulations. THitCS is also about the power of “soft” people who get things done & it was so funny that I giggled out loud at least twice. Linus Baker is a caseworker for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. He’s sent to investigate living conditions at the Marsyas Orphanage for magical youth—a case designated at level 4, the highest—& to assess the leadership of Arthur Parnassus, who runs it. The children there form an intimidating, vicious-sounding group & they include amongst their numbers Lucifer “Lucy,” the Antichrist. But they’re hilarious & loyal & sometimes kind & sometimes mischievous & Linus finds himself starting to ignore his department dictates & fall under their spell. & Arthur isn’t what Linus expects either: he’s a splendid man who makes Linus feel things & who guides his charges wisely & w/ a sense of humor. But Linus is supposed to return home, back to the day to day work of achieving his Department’s objectives...which don’t happen to be entirely compatible with Arthur’s views. This book is luminous & sparkling & irreverent & bold & it’s no exaggeration to say that I loved every chapter. Both leads won me over & I adore the idea that anyone has the potential to do the right thing, to, as the book says, help re-make the world into a place that’s safe for everyone. To find a home & keep it. 5 ⭐️ from me. What a read!  ️Q: what’s the most unusual shifter romance you’ve read? Mine is this series--it has centaurs! G. A. Aiken/aka Shelly Laurenston is all too willing to go there. The books I’ve read of hers are bananas, w/ ferocious “unlikable” likable heroines, crass language, & bold storylines, & it’s an altogether entertaining free for all. The Princess Knight is the second book in The Scarred Earth Saga, this one focusing on Gemma Smythe, a necromancer war monk & sister of the blacksmith queen Keeley. Gemma’s a brave & sometimes reckless warrior who frequently gets into shouting (& physical) matches with her sister/queen & kinda hates Amachi warrior Quinn, a centaur whom everyone else is alternately charmed & irritated by. I did want more physical chemistry between Gemma & Quinn *throughout* the novel but this is another thrilling/fun to read/visceral explosion of a fantasy with romantic elements that I recommend to anyone wanting something unforgettable. 4 ⭐️. If this enemies to lovers sounds good to you definitely start with the first in the series: The Blacksmith Queen. The Princess Knight is out 11/24. Thanks to Kensington Press & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own. Q: what’s been one of your fave non-house places to read? I love reading in cars, planes, & trains. Book 1 in the Tales of the Blackbone Witches, A Curse of Ash & Embers is the story of a young woman’s entree into a world far away from her former constrictive family life & into one of magic & monsters. 16 year old Elodie “Dee” is unexpectedly sent away from her home to be a servant for someone she’s never met. Her mother offers no explanation & before she reaches her new home Dee learns how poorly the villagers regard her new employer, a witch named Aleida Blackbone. Aleida has replaced Gyssha, a very cruel witch who was her “mother” & teacher, & whose legacy continues to haunt the landscape through the monsters she fashioned. & then a warlock comes to their door, & Dee & Aleida must do what they can to get rid of the threat. If they can. A Curse of Ash & Embers feels very much like a coming of age story, as Dee travels to the cottage on her own & must decide who she trusts & if she can trust in herself. The world is inventive & the magic descriptions are visceral (sometimes disturbing) & engrossing. Add to this a writing style that feels personable & ACoA&E offers a story that I think many fantasy-lovers could enjoy. There’s promise in this series but I did miss some depth, both emotionally & in characterization. I want to know more about the characters & this, coupled with the fact that the action takes place only over a matter of a few days, gives the book a slight superficial air. But I really enjoyed what Jo Spurrier does here, & she’s a writer that I’d like to read more from. 3.5 ⭐️. A Curse of Ash & Embers is available now. Thanks to Harper Voyager for the complimentary finished copy. All opinions provided are my own. A feminist sorceress fantasy with romantic elements, C. L. Polk’s The Midnight Bargain offers a compelling, timely tale of women who are forced to choose between their ability & family/social obligations, & two young women who forge a friendship & resolve to beat the aforementioned system that seeks to imprison them. In the world of TMB, sorceresses go through a Bargaining Season wherein they are courted. On their wedding day, these women are adorned with a warding collar that suppresses their magic until after they’re done bearing children. If women aren’t given the collar, male mages argue, spirits will be able to take over any babies they carry in the womb & be born into the material world they crave so much. Beatrice Clayborn, a merchant’s daughter, wants to keep her magic more than anything. She learns that she isn’t alone with this hope when she meets Ysbeta, a wealthy woman visiting Chasland with her handsome brother, Ianthe Lavan, a nearly inconceivable catch. Ianthe comes to want Beatrice for his wife & there’s part of her that wants him too. But both of them know that accepting him, accepting him as her husband, would mean losing her magic & having it under someone else’s control. While the romance is a nice touch & is even inspiring in some big ways, it also feels superficial in others. It’s not really the highlight of this book for me. Instead, it’s the world-building & the premise, which feels both creative & original *&* also based on some real-world gender dynamics. After all, the tension set up for women in this book—that of pursuing self or family—doesn’t feel entirely imaginary for most women IRL, & neither does the patriarchal notion that men are entitled to have control over women’s bodies. (Haven’t we seen & heard that before?? ). Overall, while I didn’t get entirely lost in this story, I did love its trenchant critique of patriarchy & how Polk crafts two young women—& a young man—who are willing to do what it takes to bring it all down. 4 ⭐️. The Midnight Bargain is out today. Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own. |
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