Sally Bend's Blog, page 5

Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Stacking The Shelves (Reading Reality) and The Sunday Post (Caffeinated Reviewer) are both blog memes about sharing the books we’re adding to the shelves and sharing news of the week ahead.

New Purchases

Once a year, the community hosts a massive used book sale to raise funds to support victims of violence against women and children, and I always make a point of going on the first day, paying the early bird fee because it’s for a good cause.

I picked up The Lost Labyrinth by Will Adams because I can’t pass up an archaeological adventure; The Covenant Rising by Stan Nicholls because it’s rare to find an epic fantasy saga I haven’t come across before; and Black Order by James Rollins because I love his Sigma Force thrillers with their brand of Indiana Jones meets Mission Impossible by way of Michael Crichton.

For Review

One new review title this week – Secret Lives of the Dead by Tim Lebbon, “A dark folk horror tale of a deadly family curse, crime and murder that is sure to turn your blood cold,” coming August 26, 2025 from Titan Books.

Currently Reading

The review titles have been more miss than hit lately with two DNFs and two grudging 2-stars, so I’ve been dipping into the TBR shelves. I expect to finish The Taking by Dean Koontz (an apocalyptic alien-invasion thriller) this weekend; I’m dipping my toes back into The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer (a weird, creepy, fascinating thriller ); and I’ve been going a lot to my ongoing comfort read, Raptor by Gary Jennings (a big, bold, sprawling, gender-bending fifth century historical drama).

Weekend Freebies – Rainbow Kink Edition

Well, if it’s another weekend, then it must be time to bend our hearts and minds around preparing for the week ahead, and how better to do that than with some Weekend Freebies!

Every weekend I search through the free titles on Amazon, looking for those that might interest visitors to the ruins. Even if you don’t have a Kindle, you can still download the titles through one of Amazon’s free reading applications.

Please do be sure to check the price before downloading anything, as most freebies are limited time offers, and some are specific to certain regions.

Enjoy!

Can’t-Wait Wednesday – July Reads

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted here to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they’re books that have yet to be released. Find out more here.

With the first of the month having come and gone, it’s time to look ahead to the books I’m most excited about seeing on shelves next month.

Human Rites by Juno Dawson

Fantasy
July 1, 2025 by Penguin Books

With Her Majesty’s Royal Coven in shambles and the fate of the world hanging in the balance, the sisterhood of friends and witches must find a new way of putting together the pieces if (wo)mankind is to stand a chance, in this final chapter to Juno’s  “irresistible” series (Lana Harper)

Thrill of the Chase by Kathryn Nolan

Romance
July 1, 2025 by Entangled: Amara

When rivals Harper and Eve are forced to team up on a high-stakes treasure hunt, sparks fly, secrets unravel, and the biggest prize might just be their hearts

The Enchanted Greenhouse by Sarah Beth Durst

Romantasy
July 15, 2025 by Bramble

New York Times bestselling author Sarah Beth Durst invites you to her new standalone novel set in the world of The Spellshop! Follow her to The Enchanted Greenhouse, a cozy fantasy nestled on a far-away island brimming with singing flowers, honey cakes, and honeyed love. The hardcover edition features beautiful sprayed edges.

A Shift of Time by Julie E. Czerneda

Fantasy
July 22, 2025 by DAW

The 4th book in the Aurora Award–winning Night’s Edge series returns readers to a rich and atmospheric fantasy world

Perfect for readers of Charles de Lint, Naomi Novik, and Katherine Arden, A Shift of Time is a charming, heartwarming, hopeful fable

Blood and Treasure by Ryan Pote

Fantasy
July 22, 2025 by Berkley

The destruction of the International Space Station and the discovery of an ancient scroll are inextricably intertwined in this debut crossover thriller from a former Navy helicopter pilot.

Daughters of Flood and Fury by Gabriella Buba

Fantasy
July 22, 2025 by Titan Books

This powerful sequel to Saints of Storm and Sorrow brims with unruly magic and pirates, moon-eating dragons and sizzling Sapphic romance. 

Enthralling Filipino-inspired fantasy for fans of The Hurricane Wars, R.F. Kuang and Tasha Suri.

Bury Our Bones (and my interest) in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab

Title: Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
Author: V.E. Schwab
Publication Date: June 10, 2025
Genres: Fiction
Representation: Lesbian/Bisexual

As someone who has yet to encounter the works of V.E. Schwab, I’d have told you there’s no better way to make an introduction than with a paranormal historical fantasy about lesbian vampires… but the fact that she made something boring of what should have been exciting makes me honestly wonder what all the fuss is about.

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is a character-driven saga that examines themes of power and femininity through a lens of vampire mythology, but the problem is that’s all it is. All character and themes, and no plot. It’s an uneven, disjointed novel that suffers from pacing that drags and narrative POVs that are just long enough to incite curiosity but too short to create connections. To make matters worse, there’s no real depth to the characters and none of the development needed to move a story forward.

This. Just. Dragged.

There’s no sense of urgency, no momentum to the story. I prefer a book that has me turning pages, wondering what’s next, how something is going to be resolved, when someone is getting what’s coming to them, or when romance will bloom. Here, the only question I found myself asking was whether it was ever going to go somewhere. Admittedly, I started skimming after the 200 page mark, but I still feel confident saying this felt like 450 pages of exposition, 100 or so of rising action (most of which happens off the page), and then 10 pages of resolution.

I. Just. Didn’t. Care.

Stylistically, I think I get what Schwab was going after here. I suspect she was after the feel of a Gothic melodrama, one where style matters more than substance, but my issue is that the story gets lost in the prose. I can appreciate that prose on a technical level, but I found it made for a very slow read when the story itself was already poorly paced. Maybe this is Schwab’s style, and maybe her fans know what they’re in for – I do seem to be in the minority – but as a newbie, this feels like a missed opportunity on so many fronts. I’d really hoped for more.

Rating: 1/2

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Stacking The Shelves (Reading Reality) and The Sunday Post (Caffeinated Reviewer) are both blog memes about sharing the books we’re adding to the shelves and sharing news of the week ahead.

New Purchases

No new purchases this week… it happens to the best of us. LOL

For Review

A pair of review titles this week. First up is an advance copy of Father Is Pleased, a queer extreme horror/splatterpunk novella by L. Andrew Cooper, followed by an advance copy of Thrill of the Chase, a queer rivals-to-lovers high-stakes treasure hunt novel by Kathryn Nolan

Currently Reading

I’m not sure how I feel about it yet, but I’m sticking with Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by Victoria Schwab, and having caught up with season 2, I’m onto season 3 of The Dominion and the Sugilite by B.J. Frazier.

Getting Reacquainted with Ravenloft and Heir of Strahd by Delilah S. Dawson

Title: Ravenloft: Heir of Strahd
Author: Delilah S. Dawson
Publication Date: May 13, 2025
Genres: Fantasy
Representation: Bisexual

As someone who cut their fantasy teeth on the original Dragonlance novels, and who fell in love with the whole Ravenloft setting back in the 80s, I was excited about Delilah S. Dawson drawing us through the mists again for another encounter with the legendary Darklord, Strahd von Zarovich.

The first half of Ravenloft: Heir of Strahd was everything I could have hoped for. Dawson does a fantastic job of setting the scene, creating the atmosphere, and grounding us in Barovia. The characters are a fun group of adventurers, a mad assortment of strangers from other D&D realms who must band together against zombies, wolves, and more. There’s action, violence, banter, and even some moments of genuine heroism. I was interested in this party, excited to get to know them and learn their backstories, and curious about how their encounter with Strahd would challenge and change them.

As for Strahd, he was played a bit too thin for my tastes, evil and cruel from the get-go, with none of the seduction into darkness that I remember from the original stories. For all that, I did like his brand of evil, and enjoyed the way he played on the fears and dreams of the party, but then he disappears for half the book and my interest waned without him.

The second half of the book, I’m afraid to say, was a bitter disappointment. The party is split up, with a side quest outside of Barovia that really added nothing to the story, and what little we do see of Strahd is tied to character changes that don’t ring true. To make matters worse, when the story finally brings us back to where it all started, we’re dropped into the middle of the climax, with most of the epic-final-battle-against-the-villain already over. Seriously? How was that a creative decision that slipped past editorial?

Ravenloft: Heir of Strahd had potential, but then it abandons what’s working to pad the page count, only to come back and abbreviate the battle where additional page count was needed.

Rating:

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

The Dominion and the Sugilite: Episodes 18-20 by B.J. Frazier (erotica)

Title: The Dominion and the Sugilite
Episode 18 | Episode 19 | Episode 20
Author: B.J. Frazier
Publication Date: Feb 3 to Mar 3, 2025
Genres: Erotica | Sci-fi
Protagonist Gender: Various

If you’re new to The Dominion and the Sugilite, it’s a serialized erotic science-fantasy soap opera by B.J. Frazier, set on a female-ruled planet where the power exchange is the foundation of a fantasy-themed society fueled by the magic of gems known as sugilite.

As always, I will do my best to avoid spoilers, but there’s only so much I can not say when we’re deep into the 2nd season.

Episode 18 starts the build-up to the end of season 2 with growth, anxiety, happiness, and frustration. Starting with the latter, we see Geo getting closer to the truth of what’s bothering his Mistress… but we also see him getting closer to a dangerous outpouring of anger and frustration. As for the happiness, there’s a wonderfully erotic scene of futa-on-male seduction (with a size difference), but it’s somewhat tainted by whatever Bay has planned.

On the anxiety front, there are a pair of interesting scenes between Cozima and her miners, all part of a plan I very much fear will not achieve what she hopes. To wrap it all up with the growth I mentioned, there’s an aftercare scene with Pebbles that I loved, showing how thoughtful and diverse her BDSM learnings have been. She’s very much becoming a favorite character.

Episode 19 is one of those episodes that’s exciting and infuriating at the same time, demonstrating just how carefully B.J. Frazier balances topics and emotions. That dangerous outpouring of anger and frustration I mentioned in the last episode? Geo achieves it (and then some) as he goes hard, perhaps too hard, on Nug’s punishment. It’s a dark scene, emotionally charged, and deliberately uncomfortable. As for Bay’s futa encounter, he goes far beyond the emotional damage that was threatening in the last episode, crossing the line into rudeness and approaching borderline abusive.

While all this is going on, Gemma gets put in her place in a scene-chewing confrontation worthy of the best night-time soap opera catfight. The fact that she’s caught out due to one small detail is just perfect. That being said, this episode isn’t all darkness and cruelty. After many episodes of teasing and waiting, we finally see the Nymphs bring Gaius back to himself, and it’s a happy, erotic, sexually charged sequence restores his delightfully witty banter.

With Episode 20, we come to the end of the season, an episode where a lot of things come to a head, forcing various confrontations, but we’re still teased along on some big questions that will remain for next season to explore. I want to be very careful about spoilers here, because there’s a lot we’ve been building up to, but I think my favorite aspect of this episode is its exploration of same-sex relationships, contrasting taboo attraction with the denial of those very same desires.

As always, beneath the soap opera drama and kinky erotica, Frazier infuses the story with power exchange philosophy within the Dominion and social commentary through those from outside the Dominion. With Attis Day looming even closer, the story only promises to get bigger and wilder.

Rating:   

My sincere thanks to the author for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Stacking The Shelves (Reading Reality) and The Sunday Post (Caffeinated Reviewer) are both blog memes about sharing the books we’re adding to the shelves and sharing news of the week ahead.

New Purchases

A trio of purchases this week, including:

The new edition of The Innkeeper’s Song by Peter S. Beagle – the tale of three women of legendary skill on a quest to save the world’s most powerful wizard, and the innkeeper’s assistant whose heartbreak will bear witness.The Dark Legend by Phoebe Ravencraft – A fallen comrade. Sinister sorcery. Can a sapphic secret agent team up with a beautiful elf to save the realm?Boundless by Miranda Sapphire – an arranged marriage between the only son of an Elf King and a huge, monstrous barbarian princess.For Review

A handful of review titles this week, including:

A Rare Find by Joanna Lowell

When an aspiring archaeologist teams up with her childhood enemy for a treasure hunt, they find it impossible to bury their growing feelings, in a charming queer historical romance from the author of A Shore Thing.

The Bone Raiders by Jackson Ford

The start of a no-holds-barred, action-packed fantasy series from the always irreverent Jackson Ford where a group of charmingly-named Bone Raiders harness the power of gigantic, fire-breathing lizards to defend their homeland from an invading enemy.

Blood and Embers by Jordan Michelle

A nonbinary butch/femme relationship with tropes such as fake fiancée, enemies-to-lovers, and found friends along the way

Among the Burning Flowers by Samantha Shannon

With the awakening of fire-breathing dragons, Among the Burning Flowers sees the first sparks of danger that threaten to consume the world in The Priory of the Orange Tree.

Currently Reading

This week is hard, because I really want to dive into Shannon’s new book, but I have ARCs with release dates looming, so I’m just starting Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by Victoria Schwab; I have a series to catch up with, so I’m reading the next 4 episodes of The Dominion and the Sugilite by B.J. Frazier; and because I’ve been craving a chonky epic fantasy mass market paperback, I’m reading Acacia by David Anthony Durham.

Weekend Freebies – Women in Love & Women in Control

Well, if it’s another weekend, then it must be time to bend our hearts and minds around preparing for the week ahead, and how better to do that than with some Weekend Freebies!

Every weekend I search through the free titles on Amazon, looking for those that might interest visitors to the ruins. Even if you don’t have a Kindle, you can still download the titles through one of Amazon’s free reading applications.

Please do be sure to check the price before downloading anything, as most freebies are limited time offers, and some are specific to certain regions.

Enjoy!

Exploring Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity with Lee Mandelo

Title: Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity
Author: Lee Mandelo (editor)
Publication Date: May 27, 2025 by Erewhon Books
Genres: Sci-fi, Fantasy
Representation: LGBTQIA+

Before I get into my review, I’d like you to take a look at the two covers for this book. The first (on the left) is the one that accompanied the advance review copy. The second (on the right) is the one that seems destined to accompany the final published book.

Can you see what’s missing? Joy and Survival. In a book described as revolutionary and visionary, one that promises to explore the vast potentialities of our queer and trans futures, one that celebrates itself as moving and hopeful, that omission of joy and survival is significant. Had I gone into it without that expectation, been prepared to stoke my anger and my sorrow in light of current affairs, I may have appreciated Amplitudes more on an intellectual level… but when I went into it fixated on joy and hope, the emotional letdown was hard to overcome.

Of the 22 stories chosen by Lee Mandelo, there are only 7 that stood out for me, and they are all lacking in joy and hope.

The Orgasm Doula by Colin Dean does have a romantic twist that gives it a sliver of hope, but it’s about a world where the number of orgasms allotted to you may (or may not) be limited, and the final twist slams the door on what could have been hope. Well-written and interesting, yes, but it suggested this was not going to be the collection I was hoping for.MoonWife by Sarah Gailey is another well-written, interesting story by an author I’ve enjoyed before, dealing with digital seances, identity theft, death, and grieving… and well, still no joy.There Used to Be Peace by Margaret Killjoy is where it became impossible to deny the thematic direction of the collection, with a story of a civil war between knights and fascists that felt underwhelming, like too small a slice of the narrative. Fettle & Sunder by Ramez Yoakeim takes that theme one step further, one step darker, doubling down on the themes of fascism and violence that only space station billionaires can escape. Yeah, hits way too close to home. They Whom We Remember by Sunny Moraine presents a future I would describe as joyous and hopeful, one where gender is completely fluid, able to be altered and expressed on a whim, but the author turns it into something cynical and tragic by exploring it through the eyes of one person with a desire to permanently fix themselves to a single gender.  When The Devil Comes From Babylon by Mars Deane is another of those stories that I would have loved in a dystopian collection… a weird, almost magical (post) apocalyptic story of belief and transformation… but it suffers under the bludgeoning weight of religious cult-like intolerance that demands suicide over transition.  pocket futures in the present past by Katharine Duckett  is a weird, trippy story about time, parallel times, time travel, and paradoxes, one that was fun to read and follow the back-and-forth of cause-and-effect, but it’s almost afraid to commit to making a positive impact.

Thinking of the stories again, reflecting on how they impacted me, that same anger and sorrow I was looking to escape when I picked this collection up washes over me anew. I’ve really had quite enough of stories about trans people suffering, being the targets of hatred and violence, and having to fight just to survive.

Perhaps I’m just on a different wavelength, but if you’ll forgive me mixing metaphors, Amplitudes left me feeling drained when I was hoping for a joyous shock to the system.

Rating: 1/2

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.