Faebound by Saara El-Arifi
I was given an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. The Elven race has been split into several warring factions, based on the phases of the moon, so waxing, waning, crescent, etc. They have been warring for so long that it is known as the “Forever War”. Yeeran is a newly made colonel in the waning army. On the morning of her promotion, her lover, who is also the chieftain, gives her a precious gift – a drum, made from the […]
Treacle Walker by Alan Garner
Alan Garner is a titan of British literature, but it took two other lions of language and a slow day in the shop for me to finally crack open one of his tales. Why did I wait so long? Treacle Walker is exactly the kind of woodsy weirdness that calls to me from the gloam. It was a snowy evening and dead quiet in the bookstore. Every task was complete, everything that could be tidied was tidy beyond tidy, and I had some time to […]
The Talk of the Town by Lynne Connolly
After her two tumultuous years wed to the Duke of Whiston come to a fiery end, all Bianca wants is to lead a peaceful life and regain her reputation. But when she meets Alexander Fraser at a house party, she finds herself falling into both love and scandal once again. This is the last book in the Brazen Burrells series, which follows the three penniless but beautiful Burrell sisters as they try to find their fortune in London. I enjoyed the first book, was somewhat […]
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
Well now! Steampunk with zombies and pirates, and a certain amount of historical fact to boot? Welcome to turn of the century Seattle. IRL, Seattle suffered a devastating fire in the late 1890s which tore through the lumber constructed Pioneer Square, its original downtown. There was also the issue of frequent rain-induced flooding, due to the steep coastal shoreline. So the civic leaders swapped out timber construction for masonry, and rebuilt, streets and all, on the top of the original buildings. The lower levels acted […]
Dante and Aristotle Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
I don’t think I would have ever notice the tiny book just lying there. Not until my bookworm friend grabbed me, shoved the book in my hands and said: Read it. And so I did. Spoilers ahead! To summarize, this story is about two boys who are both kinda confused with their life. Although it appears, on the surface level, that they’re polar opposites with distinct personalities, after reading the entire book you can see they’re similar in ways. They endure hardships and eventually falls […]
Random in Death (In Death #58) by J. D. Robb
J. D. Robb is back with the 58th installment of her long-running In Death series, Random in Death. For those of you who don’t know, Robb is the nom de plume that Nora Roberts uses to write futuristic mysteries. We are getting uncomfortably close to the time when a lot of bad stuff happens in her timeline, and I sometimes wonder just how prescient she has been. But that’s a discussion for another time and place. If you are a longtime reader of the series, you will […]
