The Queen’s Bastard is set in an extremely thinly veiled alternate Elizabethan era Europe, where Queen Lorraine has sat on the throne of Aulun for years, keeping a firm grip throughout the machinations of her rivals, Sandalia and Irina (Lorraine’s name kept making me snigger, sounding as it does far more like the name of your nan’s bingo friend than a queen) Lorraine has never married, instead dangling her virginity and hand in marriage as prospective cards for an alliance. She has, however, had a […]
What happens when you let the monster in?
Duana Taha (Canadian writer and producer) often says variations of, “Give them what they need, not what they want”. Our Dark Duet, sequel to This Savage Song, seems like it was a case of Victoria Schwab following that advice. I wanted this book to be something else, instead it was the story that needed to be told because of the setting and characters. In my review of This Savage Song I said it, “is an urban fantasy inspired by the classic two houses divided shtick of Romeo and Juliet.” […]
Faerie court intrigue at its finest
Of course I want to be like them. They’re beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever. This book by Holly Black is the first in a new YA series, The Folk of the Air, set in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. I haven’t read anything by Ms Black previously, but I’ve been in a reading slump for a few months and this book looked promising when I saw it in the hot titles section at the library. The first […]
Courage!
Brave Enough for Two (a Hoot and Olive book) has allusions to Winnie the Pooh. It is a soft, classically toned story written and illustrated by Jonathan D. Voss. This time, instead of Christopher Robin and Pooh, we have Olive and Hoot. Olive is the type of girl who likes adventures in books and Hoot is the type of stuffed owl who likes the “go out and have” adventures. And just like Pooh Bear and Christopher Robin, they go out into the world and have […]
The magick continues
The detective/noir/occult tale continues! Volume 1 introduced the reader to Rowan Black, Portsmouth Police detective who is also a witch. She has a good relationship with her work partner Morgan and with her friend (lover?) Alexandra Grey, who is also a witch. These relationships are in peril, however, as a series of crimes shows that dark forces are at work, and they are targeting Rowan. The first installment ends with a shadowy group of technologically savvy investigators tracking down Rowan. We cannot yet guess who […]
Wild about Harry?
It feels like a very long time since the last novel was published in the Dresden Files (Skin Game) and with there still being no release date for the next one (Peace Talks) this anthology of short stories forms a much needed chance to at least read something new! I should note that some of these stories have been published in other anthologies so it’s worth checking that before buying but there is one completely new novella included. These stories are set at varying points […]
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