Lucien Vaudry, Lord Crane, has returned to England after a twenty year exile in China because he’s inherited an earldom he never wanted. He’s not at all sorry his father and brother are dead, his brother Hector was a particularly nasty character, and their father covered up all his grievous misdeeds. There appears to be a curse on the Crane family, however, and having claimed the lives of his father and brother, it’s Lucien’s turn next. He needs magical assistance, and fast, before he commits […]
Sherry Thomas branches out into young adult fantasy
Summary from Goodreads: It all began with a ruined elixir and a bolt of lightning. Iolanthe Seabourne is the greatest elemental mage of her generation – or so she has been told. The one prophesied for years to be the saviour of the Realm. It’s her duty and destiny to face and defeat the Bane, the most powerful tyrant and mage the world has ever known. This would be a suicide task for anyone, let alone a sixteen-year-old girl with no training. Guided by his […]
Don’t go into the woods
3.5 stars This is book four in an ongoing series. It is not the place to start. This review will contain mild spoilers for things that happened in previous books. If you are interested (I think the series is very entertaining and doing something different from most paranormal fantasy, I know others who strongly disagree), you should start with book one, Written in Red. Both the human and the supernatural inhabitants in the Lakeside courtyard are concerned about the further scheming of the Humans First […]
Different, Not Less
Nalo Hopkinson is becoming one of my favorite writers. Her novels are creative and humorous, informative and provocative. Sister Mine, like Brown Girl in the Ring, is set in Toronto and revolves around a family with formidable spiritual powers. As with BGITR, celestial beings or gods are characters in the story, and these gods are rooted in Caribbean religion/spirituality. While the search for lost mojo is a big part of this novel, and that part is fascinating and fun, the dominant theme that runs through […]
Read a book they said, Travel to new worlds they said.
The Palace of Glass is book three in Django Wexler’s Forbidden Library series for middle grade readers. And I find myself, once again, with the problem of trying to introduce a series to you with the middle book. I’m going to try and review this book without spoiling the series, but just in case I want to tell you that you should absolutely read it. These are excellent middle grade novels. Django Wexler skyrocketed to my favorite authors list last year, going from totally unknown to […]
Shine on you crazy diamond
I don’t usually read books this dark with so much violence. Not that I’m against it, it’s just not my thing. Still, I ended up enjoying The Shining Girls. Lauren Beukes is certainly a talented writer and she did a great job in writing a complicated story that was still cohesive and made sense. The Shining Girls is a bit of a genre mashup. It’s a time travel tale, but it also is very much thriller/horror too. Although there are lots of characters, the story […]