Sarah Chorn's Blog, page 11

Review |The Mark of Things Unwanted – Alex Clifford

About the Book

Cinn will never die. 

It should have made him powerful. 

It didn’t. 

On the run, being hunted by a cruel princess trying to discover the secrets of his immortality, and chased by wild beasts who want to feast on him for eternity, Cinn would do anything to be safe. Including allying himself with a band of dangerous witches.

Touched by a death that lingers on his skin, a danger to the people he loves and abandoned by his community, Eaon is slowly losing himself to the dark power within. 

In the depths of a whispering forest, a family is forged and, together, they will change the world.

Published January 5, 2021
Buy the book

The Mark of Things Unwanted is the debut book by author Alex Clifford, and wow, is it one hell of a debut. I finished this book a while ago, but I felt like I needed to let it simmer a bit before I wrote a review of it. You see, there’s a lot going on here, and Clifford both weaves a fantastic tale with all of these events, and knows just how to keep readers engaged. 

The Mark of Things Unwanted took a little bit of time to really gel for me, but I will say I’m an epic fantasy reader, and taking time for books to really gel for me is something I’m pretty accustomed to. The start of the book is where the author is building their world, and setting their story up. For readers who aren’t really used to this time needed, it might feel like the book is starting slow, but I honestly do feel like, with the complexities in this story, the author genuinely needed this time to set her players on the board, and establish the parameters of the world in which they live. 

As a result, I felt the world was extremely well built, and very vivid, and the story had some strong legs to stand on as events really got rolling. The world here is sort of European-esque, with royalty and princesses and the like, but there is enough thrown in that is distinctly Clifford’s to keep any of it from feeling stale. There are witches and immortals as well, which was interesting. Steeped in magic and danger, I found the world to be both exceptionally balanced, but also crafted in such a believable way, it really made the book come alive. 

There are a lot of characters, places, and names, and in that beginning bit of the book, you might feel a bit overwhelmed by it all. There’s a map which helped a lot, and once the story reached that point where everything sort of clicked, the names and characters fell into place easily enough. My one regret with this novel is I felt like, perhaps, there was so much going on at the start, some of the events that mattered may not have been given the time and space they needed to breathe, and really solidify in my mind. 

The characters were interesting as well. The book starts with the escape of Cinn, who is a kinner, or an immortal being hunted for his immortality. On the other hand, we have the witches Eoan and Eavha, recently excommunicated from their home land, having to learn to navigate the complexities of the outside world. Then we have Aisling, a princess of a city to the south, and her second, Nora. There are numerous side characters and while there are three different major plotlines, it’s interesting to see how they all slowly entwine and impact each other as the book progresses. Nothing happens in a vacuum, and unexpected events and peoples impact the larger whole in surprising ways. 

Perhaps my one regret with the characters is, I would have enjoyed more background to understand them better. 

I loved the representation in this book, not just of LGBTQAI+ characters, but of disabilities as well, which is near and dear to my heart. The representation was done really well, and was part of the characters but did not define who they were. Furthermore, I loved how this book explored numerous kinds of relationships, from friendship, to family, kinship, and romantic. Without pigeonholing anyone, the characters all stayed unique and complex, lifelike. 

The writing was beautiful, very polished and descriptive, which I love. There was so much happening, I did feel as though the plot got a little frenzied at times, but other than that, the prose were great at bringing the world, characters, and plot to life in my mind as I read, and made this book a joy to read not just to enjoy the prose, but for the story itself. The ending was a perfect setup for the next book in the series. 

All in all, The Mark of Things Unwanted was a great start to a unique new series. Powerful storytelling, diverse characters, and a fantastically built word work together to make this an unforgettable book. 

4/5 stars

Announcement | BIG DAMN SALE & Upcoming Events

Well, I have a few things to say, dear reader, so pull up a chair and get comfortable. First off, let me tell you about this AMAZING sale I’ve got going on right now.

First off, Seraphina’s Lament is currently FREE until TOMORROW, Tuesday, April 20. FREE. And because I feel like you people have waited long enough, I also slapped up the pre-order page for An Elegy for Hope. I also (bonus) discounted pre-orders to $.99. So, you can get Seraphina’s Lament for FREE, HOLY CRAP. And then swing over to An Elegy for Hope and get the pre-order for $.99.

Pen Astridge, my cover artist, is going to do the cover art for An Elegy for Hope, and once I send Glass Rhapsody off to my editor (soon, very soon) I’ll start organizing what I’ve already got written and finish writing that book. I can’t wait.

So, free book until Tuesday, April 20 at midnight. An Elegy for Hope pre-orders for $.99.

Glass Rhapsody pre-orders are also $.99 right now. I’m really excited about this book. For about two days over the weekend, the book actually had an orange tag on Amazon (#1 New Release), which thrills the hell out of me (and blows my damn mind). Currently, it’s my most pre-ordered book.

I’ve been asked a bit about reading order on this series, so here it is:

Of Honey and Wildfires (book 1)
Oh, That Shotgun Sky (book 1.5/novella)
Glass Rhapsody (book 3, conclusion)

Oh, That Shotgun Sky isn’t necessary to read Glass Rhapsody, but the characters in it do return again in Glass Rhapsody, so…

Now, on to news.

I’m going to start up a re-read/read through on my website for Of Honey and Wildfires and Oh, That Shotgun Sky as we lead up to the release of Glass Rhapsody. Each week, I’ll drop one post covering 2-3 chapters with background information, research, insights, behind the scenes information of the book, that was instrumental to me as I wrote it. I’ll also include thoughts, favorite bits, walls I ran into and banged my head against, issues I had while editing, etc. Just basically I’ll read through these books, and give you, dear reader, background information as I go.

I’ll also be doing giveaways. So, free books.

WOO.

Stay tuned.

Indie Author Interview | Alex S. Bradshaw

Indie Author Interviews is a series of interviews featuring indie authors. These interviews will drop once a week. If you’d like to be part of this series, please contact me at Sarah (at) bookwormblues (dot) net. Please support the authors by clicking on the affiliate links in the interview, spread the word, and, of course, buy their books.

We’re all in this together, you know?

Alex grew up in Kent in the UK and spent much of his childhood hiding away and reading a book (seriously, he used to hide under the table and read when the other kids were playing).

He’s always been a fan of myths and legends, epic stories in general, and of course… dinosaurs. It came as no surprise to anyone that he went on to study Classics and Ancient History at university.

Now, Alex works in publishing and writes fantasy stories.

You can find him lurking on Twitter entirely too often at @AlexSBradshaw or you can get in touch by sending an email to alex@alexsbradshaw.com.

If you’ve not already signed up to his author newsletter to get the latest news and updates then head over to this page!

Website

Describe yourself in six words or fewer.

Dinosaur loving storyteller and baker

Tell me about your book.

Edda Gretasdottir is a raider, a fell-handed shield-maiden, feared along every coast. Hers is a life woven in battle scars.

But she never wanted to walk the warrior’s path. All she wanted was freedom, to earn enough gold to buy her family their own remote farm, and to escape their oppressive chieftain. Now, she has enough plunder so that she can finally hang up her shield and live in peace.

That peace is stolen from Edda, however, when raiders burn her home, destroy all that she loves, and toss her, wounded and bleeding, into the ravenous ocean.

But the fates are cruel and this is not the end for Edda: she rises from the bloody surf as a Windborn, a cursed warrior whose supernatural gifts are a poor exchange for everything she has lost.

Fuelled by rage and armed with strange new powers Edda will hunt for whoever sent the raiders, for whoever is responsible for taking everything from her. She will show them the sharp edge of her axe… or die trying.

Windborn is a dark, character-driven Norse fantasy packed with emotion, deadly foes, and vicious battles.

What makes you and your books unique? Shine for me, you diamond. 

With my stories, I try to look at a conflict through a personal lense. Whilst there is a larger problem that needs facing in Windborn, it is very much viewed through the lens of the narrator and it is their personal stakes that are at the forefront of the story. I also like to think that I have a knack for twisting the emotional knife and really making my characters regret being in one of my stories (not that they had much of a choice…). 

For me, I like to think that (contrary to how I treat my characters…) I’m a friendly person who’s always happy to help if someone needs anything or just generally help out the community (I did a whole blog series on publishing contracts which is up on my website). That’s not super unique though… so I’m hoping that the melding of interest in mythology, dinosaurs, baking, and storytelling in my soul makes me a pretty unique guy.

What are you working on now/any future projects you want to talk about? 

I’m deep in the planning stages of another book set in the world of Windborn, following someone completely new who has the bad luck of being one of my protagonists. The working title is Trollgrave and it’s going to take place in a big ol’ creepy forest with cults, rune magic, kidnapping. All the good stuff. I’m pretty excited about it. 

I’ve also got a fantasy setting that’s perpetually on the back-burner that I’m tentatively calling Gifts of the Endless and all I’ve got at the moment are broad strokes plans for the setting as well as a few nebulous character ideas. But what I can tell you right now is that it’s loosely inspired by the ancient world–think ancient Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt–and will have dinosaurs in it.

Let’s celebrate. What’s one of the best things that’s happened to you as an author? Don’t be shy. 

I’ve been blown away by the amazing comments and reception that I’ve received from everyone online so far with my debut, but if I had to pinpoint one particular moment it would be when I got my editorial comments back from you, Sarah. 

(Sarah’s note: Insert blush here.)

Despite having some positive feedback from trusted friends and family, I was still unsure about whether Windborn was any good and getting that honest feedback from you and the positive, lovely things you said about the book absolutely rocked me. It definitely put me on a high that lasted the whole week. 

Let’s talk CRAFT

What about self-publishing appeals to you? Why did you choose this particular path to publication? 

There are a couple of reasons, really, why I picked self-publishing. 

The first is that I like being able to understand each part of the process and have a hand in all the elements that go into making a book. It can certainly be frustrating at the beginning and you don’t know what you’re doing but I find once I’ve untangled and can understand the process then I enjoy it. One example is that I got quite vexed when I formatted the ebook, but bit by bit I got there and even when I got some errors at the last hurdle (and it took me ages to figure out why!) it was very satisfying to be able to open the ebook on my kindle and see the fruits of my labour.

The other reason is that I am lucky enough to work in the publishing industry. That has given me a broad understanding of the publishing process and has helped me to find out what goes into a book. So when I came to self-publishing I had a good idea of what stages a book needs to go through and what the costs might be. You know, all the good stuff. Given that publishers only have so many spaces available in their publishing schedules I would rather someone else—who doesn’t necessarily have the knowledge or means to self-publish—was given that slot instead of me.

Tell me about something odd you do when you write? Something about your particular process that is distinctly YOU. 

I sometimes pull the faces along with dialogue. If I wrote something like ‘“Fuck you,” he snarled.’ I might curl my lip as I’m writing it. I don’t always catch myself or realise what face I’m pulling so who knows what other weird expressions I might make when I’m writing!

What does your writing space look like (If you’d like, attach a picture of your desk, chair, tree, hammock, coffee shop, whatever…)

In the Before Times I would have told you it was a seat on a crowded train to and from work, but thankfully I don’t have to make that journey anymore. I’ll either use my little laptop on the table or reading chair, or I’ll be at my desk. 

If I’m at my desk, I’ll have my word processor on one screen and on the other I’ll pop up a video of some ambient video. For Windborn I found a video of crashing waves to put me into the right mindset and for my current WIP I’ve been putting forest walks on that screen. 

(Obviously the desk and chair are usually much messier than they are in these pictures…) 

How do you build your world/characters? What does your process of creation look like? 

For Windborn, building the world was relatively straightforward as it’s pretty analogous to our own world in the Viking age, but I like to sit and mull on the elements that make the world different: 

If we did have superheroes in the Viking age, what would be different? How would they get their powers? How would the law deal with them?

That usually sparks ideas of where conflict would arise and suggests interesting (I hope!) characters.

For the characters I try to create a few core driving forces for each one that will mix their personality and their purpose within the book (the obvious ones being the protagonist or the antagonist, but I also like to see if I can have some characters act as mirrors for what the protagonist’s life could have been if I wasn’t there to ruin it). For example, I have one character in Windbon who has ‘to befriend’ as one of her driving forces. She’s lonely and just wants somewhere to belong, to have friends, and to feel like she’s part of something. I find that by having this small list of core driving forces it helps me to keep the characters centered and consistent.

Plotter or pantser, and why? 

I’m a learned plotter. 

I have tried pansting stories a few times and I always peter out when I realise that something isn’t working, or I’ve been trying to force something to work when it shouldn’t be. A couple of times I’ve had to chuck out 30,000 to 50,000 words of a story because I was trying to force something that wasn’t working or I’d taken a wrong turn early on and it didn’t become apparent until I was deep in the story-forest.

By plotting out the story I can try and head off those problems before they happen. And as a bonus I find plotting also gives my subconscious more time to work the story in the background so when I do come to write it I might make some tweaks to it that can ratchet up the tension or make the story deeper.

Do you listen to music when you write? What kind? 

I do listen to music! It needs to either be something that I’ve listened to so many times that it fades into the background, or something instrumental so that I don’t end up singing along. If it fits those two criteria then I’ll sometimes also try to find a piece of music that fits the mood of what I’m writing as well.

Sometimes I find that music can also help with brainstorming ideas. For example, when I was trying to find new Norse-themed music for my WIP I found ‘Valhalla’ by Rok Nardin and listening to it sparked an epic scene for the WIP in my mind and now I can go back and listen to that track and it all comes back to me. 

What are some of the most interesting rabbit holes you’ve found yourself lost down?

Every so often I do some reading about dinosaurs (shock horror, I know), and there’s just so much information about dinosaurs that I would happily devour. There are such tiny details in fossils that can tell us so much about how dinosaurs lived and what their habits are like. 

For example, the T. Rex has a compressed middle metatarsal bone in its foot (called an arctometatarsal) which means that it was good at running because (if I’m remembering this right!) the compressed bone gives the foot a bit of bounce, meaning that it doesn’t use as much energy to lift the foot up and so makes running more energy efficient. It’s crazy to me that a small detail like that, which you wouldn’t really think twice about, can tell us how the T. Rex lived and what it was adapted for. 

Tell me about an unexpected thing you’ve learned, and how you’ve worked it into your book. 

I had been looking for some part of Norse folklore and mythology to work into the setting of my next book to help make the setting like a character in its own right and putting a landvættir into the story works perfectly! 

It’s not Windborn, so I hope this isn’t cheating, but I was doing some research for my next book and came across the landvættir, or land-wights. They are in essence land spirits that protect and live in a certain area, which could be a huge area or could be a small one. There’s actually four of them on the flag of Iceland: a dragon (Dreki) who protects the east of Iceland, an eagle (Gammur) who protects northern Iceland, a bull (Griðungur) who protects the west of Iceland, and a giant (Bergrisi) who protects southern Iceland. 

All Things BOOKISH

Tell me about the most recent book you’ve read.

Most recently I finished Wilding by Isabella Tree. It’s a non-fiction book about a project at Knepp which is a farming estate in West Sussex in the UK. The author and their husband have a massive 3,500 acres of land which they have farmed quite intensively due to the quality of the land and the tightening of budgets so with a little help from some EU funding they decide to give it back to nature and let it ‘re-wild’. First they let the land grow over however it wanted, then they introduced free-roaming cattle, pigs, horses, deer, and over the years they have essentially let nature do its thing and only interfered when absolutely necessary. 

It’s a wonderful, fascinating read about changes we could make to the way we farm and the effects it has on local wildlife. It also touches on the impact this kind of farming could have on the climate if we rolled it out. Honestly, it made me want to re-wild my own little patch of earth but I think I need to get a bigger garden… for the moment I’ll have to settle for plenty of wildflowers! 

Tell me about an underappreciated book, and why everyone should read it.

Queens of the Wyrd by Timandra Whitecastle. 

It’s a Norse-inspired story stuffed full of great female characters, fantasy mothers, shield-maidens, monsters (is it any wonder I’m a fan?). I loved it and think that this book deserves more love! The author’s just run a Kickstarter to get an amazing new cover so that new edition is coming soon, so what better time to get the book?!

What book would you like to see turned into a movie, and who should play the leading roles? 

I would love to see Where the Waters Turn Black by Benedict Patrick turned into a movie, especially if it was picked up by the animation studio Laika and done in the same style as Kubo and the Two Strings.

It’s inspired by Polynesian folklore and the story is chock full of strange monsters and moments that would make for amazing visuals. I think that Laika’s stop-motion animation style would be amazing. It would just fit the world and the story down to a tee. 

Let’s throw some light on diversity. What are some books you love that feature diverse characters, diverse authors, etc. 

There’s a couple that spring immediately to mind: The Winnowing Flame Trilogy by Jen Williams and Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter. 

The Winnowing Flame Trilogy is made up of The Ninth Rain, The Bitter Twins, and The Poison Song. It’s an absolutely phenomenal epic fantasy trilogy with a huge range of characters (which is really where these books shine) from fell-witches who can summon the winnow fire, to Eborans who are kind of like vampire elves, to the war-beasts who have fantastic personalities of their own. When I was reading the first book the setting reminded me of something like Dark Souls (with a crumbling, once-great civilisation now overgrown and a shadow of its former self) with a pinch of Studio Ghibli (with the wild spirits out in the mutated Wilds). It’s a wonderful series (The Ninth Rain won the British Fantasy Award for Best Fantasy) and I highly recommend it. 

For Rage of Dragons, it’s an African (Xhosa) inspired epic fantasy set in a place where there has been war for two hundred years and if you’re not Gifted, then you’re sword-fodder. The main character, Tau, is not Gifted… but he is incredibly driven and claws whatever advantage he can get. The fight scenes are brilliant and had me on the edge of my seat. It’s so gripping, it really drags you forward so that you absolutely cannot put it down. The sequel was released last year, although I’ve not gotten around to it yet it is absolutely on my list and I will be searching out other African inspired fantasy! 

Hobbies & All Things WEIRD

When you aren’t writing, what can you typically be found doing?

We recently added a new small and furry member to the family so often I can be found running around after, or trying to avoid the teeth of, our Springer Spaniel puppy, Pippin. He keeps us pretty busy, but he’s also adorable so it’s absolutely worth it. 

Other than that, I will spend some of my spare time planning and running Dungeons & Dragons. I’ve got a (mostly) weekly game that I run online with some friends so I’ll try and keep some idle time to brainstorm new plotlines or cool things for their characters to do and have. Or else I’ll be trying to figure my way out whatever crazy situation the players have forced on me (if you guys are reading this, I love you really). 

What’s something you want to learn how to do? Why? 

I would like to learn how to paint. I’ve got some oil paints and watercolours sitting in the back of a cupboard and I think it would be a lovely thing to do to wander out into the countryside for a couple of hours and paint something. I think it would also help me appreciate a different way of looking at the world and make me examine colour and texture a bit more which I would hope would help my writing and help me to write more vivid scenes. (Because you can’t have a hobby just be a hobby… it has to relate to writing somehow…)

How do your non-writerly hobbies influence your writing? 

Running Dungeons and Dragons has helped me to understand and character agency and really drive home to me how important it is. 

When you’ve got four people sat around a table (or on the other end of a webcam) and all of them want to be part of the story where they’re the protagonist, then you learn pretty quickly not to dump exposition on them or force them to do something they don’t want to do or else you’re going to lose them. 

I try to bring that into my writing by throwing up obstacles for my characters but simultaneously making sure they are always moving forward with gusto. I like to think of the journey of a protagonist as a zig-zag. Always progressing, but having to recalibrate and figure their way around a problem that I’ve thrown in their path. 

Tell me about something in your life that brings you joy. What is it, and why? 

Dinosaurs. 

This will not come as a shock to anyone, I’m sure, but I bloody love dinosaurs. I love the sheer variety of them and how removed they are from us in time. It is absolutely fascinating and absolutely amazing to me how much we know about them from their bones. Not even their bones in a lot of cases, just the holes they left behind in the world. 

We can find out about their eating habits from scratches made in the bones of their prey, the way they walked from footprints, the way they moved from how their bones are put together. These can be absolutely tiny details on fossils but they impart an amazing amount of insight into how these animals lived. And all this on top of the fact that the dinosaurs lived millions upon millions of years removed from our own time is just mind-boggling to me. And that’s not even to touch on how beautiful some fossils are, especially the ones like the archaeopteryx fossils that capture its feathers in the impressions of the rocks or the dinosaur feathers caught in amber. 

I find dinosaurs beautiful, fascinating and also strangely comforting. There was such a vibrant, dizzying array of life aeons before anything even approaching something human was around that it makes me appreciate that long after we’re gone there will be some new, beautiful form of life to wander the world.

Tell me a strange, random fact.

No matter their size, all mammals urinate—on average—for twenty-one seconds.

What’s your favorite swear word and why? 

This is a tough one, I think that the beauty of swear words is that you can make them up and the unexpectedness of the curse word adds an extra dimension of joy to it. My favourite way to do this is to smash a couple of words together, like cockwomble.

And the beauty of this is that you can shove a couple of words together that aren’t rude on their own but really sound like they should be, like waffle and mortar and suddenly you have a word that’s kind of rude but just enough to use with a creative insult. (e.g. Shove that up your waffle-mortar!). 

Any final thoughts? 

Thanks so much for this interview, and everything you do for the indie community! I’m sure you get told this all the time but thank you for all your hard work to support your fellow authors and being a generally upstanding, badass lady.

(Sarah’s note: I don’t, and thank you. I’m seriously flattered.)

Oh yeah, I suppose I should also say that Windborn is only 99c/p whilst it’s on pre-order and for a little while after release on 28th April so if anyone out there fancies trying it out, now’s the time! 

Thanks for stopping by, Alex! Remember to check out his website and buy his book!

Review | Wild Sky – Zaya Feli

About the Book

Tauran Darrica has been retired from the Valreus Sky Guard for four years following the Battle of the Broken Wings that resulted in the death of his dragon. Now, all Tauran wants to do is spend his days forgetting the past and gambling his way to an unsteady income.

So when his old general from the Sky Guard hunts Tauran down to request his help with staving off the increasingly aggressive wild dragon population, Tauran refuses. But a fire ruins his rented room and leaves him without a place to stay, and Tauran finds himself on the road to Valreus, after all. 

Tauran is determined to stay as far away from dragons as he can get, but a starry-eyed young man from Sharoani, land of the wild dragons, might just ruin his plans.

Kalai Ro-Ani has spent his life watching the stars, knowing he could never reach them.

With his wild dragon Arrow, he sets out for the city of Valreus in the hope of building himself a better future than he could have stuck at the foot of the Kel Visal dragon temples.

But nobody told Kalai that only the Sky Guard is allowed to own dragons, so when Arrow kills a guard in Kalai’s defense, it looks like his adventure might be over before it can begin. But a chance encounter at the old Valreus archive offers Kalai the future he’d been hoping for. In the span of a single day, he has a home, a job, and a purpose.

In Valreus, something much bigger falls into his lap – along with a tall and striking Valrean man with a rather strange disposition.

764 pages (kindle)
August 24, 2020
Buy the book

This is another book I randomly nabbed on Kindle. I was expecting it to be a fun story, but I didn’t expect what I ended up with, which was a truly thoughtful epic fantasy full of dragons, disability, and just enough romance.

Wild Sky tells the story of two characters. Tauran is a retired member of the Sky Guard. He and his dragon used to keep the city and the surrounding areas safe. However, tragedy struck. His dragon died, and Tauran now suffers from chronic pain, and PTSD. He spends his time drinking and gambling. Someone approaches him with a job, and reluctantly, with nowhere else to go and nothing else to do, he decided to take up the offer. 

On the other hand, we have Kalai. Kalai is from elsewhere, an obvious foreigner to Valreus. Kalai comes from a rather secretive place where humans live alongside dragons in peace and harmony, and sort of study the stars and exist in a monastic/religious-feeling community. However, that’s not really done in Valreus, so when he shows up with his own dragon, there are immediate problems. However, Kalai quickly lands himself a job as an archivist. Throughout the span of the book, Tauran and Kalai end up with their paths crossing quite a bit, and their stories entwining. Kalai is a smart, thoughtful character who brings a bit of moderation and quiet to the book as a whole, balancing out Tauran’s more forceful, brash nature.

The worldbuilding was very well done, and while the primary focus of this book is on this one place, and this particular city, there are hints of a much wider world, not only due to Kalai’s own status as a foreigner to many other details that are subtly woven in as well. There are conversations about other places, and other cultures, and there’s evidence of cultures clashing in the simple everyday background of life. More, I really appreciated how Feli wove in numerous ways of appreciating and using dragons and establishing relationships with them. It really made the conflict at the core of this book feel thoughtful, and realistically nuanced. 

Speaking of which, I really need to speak about details for a minute. I’m a sucker for details and I loved how Feli wove so many into this book. At the start of the book, Kalai has to take care of a dragon egg, and I just loved how the author had so many details about the process worked out, from temperature, to timing between blasts of temperature, to how the egg turns… the whole thing. Kalai’s own cultural tidbits he drops throughout the book really give this world a feel of a much wider scope than just this city. It’s all subtle, but extremely well done, giving readers a feel that there is so much more. 

Now, I need to really talk to you people about representation for a minute. I am a huge, huge proponent of representation in a books. I write disabled and LGBTQIA+ characters, and it is incredibly important that I see them in the books I read, and it is very, very rare that I find both in the same book, but I did here. Wild Skydeals heavily with topics of pain and PTSD, even a fainting condition. As a disabled author, and a disabled reader, it is so important to see myself in the books I read, and I did here. It was amazing, and more, I actually related to how the characters were coping with their disabilities, especially Tauran with his pain. The author put a lot of research and thought into not just portraying disabilities realistically, but doing so with empathy, compassion, and understanding. It never once turned into a flashing lights and sign that said, “Look at my disabled, queer characters!” but was just part of who they were. They were fully fleshed out characters who just happened to be disabled, and queer and I loved it. This is the kind of representation I look for when I read. 

There is a romance in this book, but it’s a slow burn and it builds naturally over the course of the novel. In fact, the two characters complimented each other so well, to not have a romance between them would have felt really weird. While romance is important, it is just as well done, thoughtfully crafted, and realistic as every other element of the book. Further, this book isn’t just about romance, it’s about all kinds of relationships between old friends, between the characters themselves, between people and dragons, and then the romance as well. Nothing is really overlooked, and while it all changes and alters throughout the course of the book, it’s all so thoughtfully done and well-crafted, 

The dragons in this book were absolutely wonderful, beasts that are so fundamental to the world Feli has crafted. They are essential for protection, and for so many other reasons, but things are going wrong, and now these big protectors are starting to turn into an unpredictable threat. As the book explores what is happening, and why, I realized how fantastic these dragons really are, and how interesting their relationships with humans were. Again, this is another aspect of relationships the author tackles and I truly loved it. I loved how the characters gained strength from their dragons, and how, despite how necessary these beasts are for this world, their wild unpredictability. They never quite lost the animal at their core. All in all, they were just beautifully done. 

As you can tell, Wild Sky was a book that really wowed me. I loved every single aspect of it. Well written with amazing characters and fantastic representation, this book put Zaya Feli on my radar as an author to watch. 

5/5 stars

Review | White Trash Warlock – David R. Slayton

About the Book

Adam Binder hasn’t spoken to his brother in years, not since Bobby had him committed to a psych ward for hearing voices. When a murderous spirit possesses Bobby’s wife and disrupts the perfect life he’s built away from Oklahoma, he’s forced to admit that maybe his little brother isn’t crazy after all. Adam is happy to escape the trailer park and get the chance to say I told you so, but he arrives in Denver to find the local witches dead.

It isn’t long before Adam is the spirit’s next target. To survive the confrontation, he’ll have to risk bargaining with powers he’d rather avoid, including his first love, the elf who broke his heart.

The Binder brothers don’t realize that they’re unwitting pawns in a game played by immortals. Death herself wants the spirit’s head, and she’s willing to destroy their family to reap it.

260 pages (kindle)
Published on October 13, 2020
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First of all, dear reader, I must apologize for being quiet this week. It has truly been a thing that has taken place in my life, and I feel like it’s finally starting to settle down. My husband ended up having to work 30 hours between two shifts on Saturday and Sunday (which was super fun). Then, he spent a night in the emergency room (he’s fine-ish now, thankfully). As a result the entire family got about three or four hours of sleep. I had my cover art reveal. It’s just been a parade of events. However, here we are, on Wednesday, and things are chilling out. 

Anyway. 

I picked up White Trash Warlock on a lark. It seemed interesting, and I was in the mood for some urban fantasy that was, perhaps, a bit different than the urban fantasy I typically see on bookshelves. What I did not anticipate, is losing two nights of sleep just plowing through this book, or having so much fun reading it, it became the focal point for all my thoughts. 

I’m not a huge urban fantasy reader. I do love the genre when I find a really good book in it, but I tend to feel like a lot of UF is very formulaic, and while that is fine, especially if the author is a good one who knows their stuff, it can get a bit… unsurprising after a while. However, White Trash Warlock instantly showed me that this is not the formulaic urban fantasy I tend to shy away from. This book is something else entirely. It’s a lot of fun, but also full of a lot of depth, and heavy themes that absolutely rocked my world. Slayton’s ability to attack these deeper themes fearlessly, quite honestly, thrilled me. 

Adam Binder is a character I loved. Equal parts ego and uncertainty, he shows angst in all the right places, and confidence (sometimes too much) when he’s on the job. One of my favorite things is when an author shows both the strengths and weaknesses of the magic with which they are working, and I loved how that presented itself here. Binder is sensitive, which means sometimes he gets overwhelmed by the thoughts and emotions of the people around him, sometimes he hears voices. 

This has driven a wedge between him and his family. While Binder is confident in his own life, and his own purposes, his family is less certain. His brother had him committed for insanity. After being estranged from that part of his family for years, recent events with his brother’s wife is forcing him to not only face his painful past, but to solve a supernatural event, which is forcing his brother to realize that Adam is not, in fact, insane, but might be the only thing standing between his brother’s wife and a very bad end. 

“People aren’t less just because they don’t live the way you do.”

“I didn’t say that,” Robert said.

“You think it,” Adam said. “You think we’re all trash because we don’t have nice cars and ugly houses. Life isn’t just about money.” 

So as you can see, a lot gets flipped on its head here, and I will readily admit, one of my favorite parts of the book was how Slyton worked with these elements, with the discomfort between family members, the haunting events of the past that very much cause ripple effects into the present, and how all parties must bend to make room for each other, and work together to solve what is going on. It was very well done, and carefully handled, and I could easily feel the pain and discomfort between Adam and his brother, and Adam’s drive and yearning to not only be understood, but accepted, and have his hardships seen by those who did him wrong. I loved it. 

The book is paced quite well. There never is a dull moment. Whether Adam is dealing with supernatural baddies, or his own family, or the various mires he finds himself in, there is always something happening. 

“Bobby gripped his fork. “I just want you to be happy, Adam, to be-“

“Normal. I know,” Adam said, trying to keep calm. “But I’m not normal, Bobby. And I don’t want to be. Stop trying to fix me.”

The supernatural elements of the book are another place I really need to give Slayton a standing ovation. Again, urban fantasy as a genre tends to be pretty formulaic, and while I did see some tropes, the way Slayton handled them, turned them all on their heads. Nothing ended up being what I thought it was, nor was it handled in the way I predicted. He has a deft way for setting up a scene, and then unmooring both Adam and the reader at the same time. There were quite a few occasions where I thought I knew what to expect from a particular scene, but left it wondering just how Slayton managed to flip the script as well as he did, and so deftly I didn’t even notice it happening until it had already happened.

My one complaint about the book as a whole is that it felt too short. I would have loved this to be longer, to really immerse myself in both Slayton, and this paranormal present day he’s crafted for his readers. I did feel, occasionally, that some events would have held more of an impact if they’d been given more time to the breathe. More, I just didn’t want the story to end. 

At the end of the day, White Trash Warlock is the kind of urban fantasy I love to read. Surprising, well-written, with deep emotional notes that really worked for me. This book was a huge (pleasant) surprise. The Adam Binder series is now an auto-buy. 

5/5 stars

Review | She Dreams in Blood – Michael R. Fletcher

About the Book

Drawn by the shards of his obsidian heart, Khraen follows the path south. The islands, largely ignored by the Wizard’s Guild, have become a refuge for the unwanted of the world. Necromancers and sorcerers rule warring tribes haunted by the ghosts of savage and primal gods.

With each fragment Khraen discovers more of the man he was.

There was an Empire.

There was a god.

And she dreamed in blood. 

358 pages (kindle)
Published on April 16, 2021
Buy the book

I edited this book. 

I’ve edited… I don’t even know how many of Fletcher’s books I’ve edited by now. I think I’m on six? Maybe seven? I haven’t looked. Anyway, the point is, I edit for this guy. I edit a lot for this guy. I’m a bit invested in his career. You should know that before you continue reading. 

The thing is, I’m pretty invested in Fletcher’s career regardless. The reason being, I don’t often come across an author who is this incredibly talented, and I always want talented authors to not only succeed, but thrive. Fletcher has this way with telling a story that just works for me. It’s like he wraps his fist around my heart and squeezes, squeezes, squeezes, and oh, it hurts, but it’s the kind of pain I love. He pushes me to understand just how far a person can push a story, and just how well unexpected elements can work together to create something completely new, and intensely captivating. 

Fletcher isn’t really an author you want to read if you want comfortable. His books are anything but comfortable. Case and point, She Dreams in Blood. This is the second book in his The Obsidian Path series. You do need to read Black Stone Heart before you read this book. You won’t understand any of it if you don’t, and that would be a real shame because this book is really worth your time. Also, if you haven’t read Black Stone Heart yet, you need to. Do yourself a favor and just read it. You’ll be glad you did. 

Honestly, I edit so many books and read so many more these days, it’s really hard to surprise me. I have a sort of gut sense about where a story will go, and the twists along the way, and 90% of the time, as I read/edit, I find my gut is right. This doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy the book I’m editing/reading, but I am much harder to surprise these days. 

She Dreams in Blood had me pretty shocked the entire time I was editing it. Reader, I was not prepared for this Lovecraftian horror-fantasy, nor was I prepared for the various twists along the way. The character I went into this book not trusting was the one I went out of it feeling extremely sorry for. The one I liked ended up being a repugnant skinbag. My entire worldview was flipped on its head. I mean that literally. In the space of one (*checks notes*) 358 page book, everything I thought I knew was wrong and I was left with an ending that had me messaging Fletcher with “OH MY GOD.” 

And you know, Fletcher is a perfectly nice man once he wipes the blood off his face. (I said this line on Twitter, and I have to retract it. I’ll leave the tweet thread here). 

Anyway, Fletcher is a great man with a fantastic sense of story but She Dreams in Blood took everything I thought I knew and mixed it up a bit, then threw in some Lovecraft for flavor and right when I thought stuff was settling I realized that absolutely nothing is what I thought it was, neither world nor people. This book just changed the game big time. 

I don’t know what to expect next, and for someone who reads and edits as much as I do, that’s really the best compliment I can give any author. I genuinely do not have a clue. Fletcher’s next book in this series will drop next year, I’m guessing, and as I write this, I cannot even hazard a guess as to what will be in it. I genuinely don’t know.

Do you know the last time I’ve been able to say that? A long, long time. And oh, what a gift it is. 

Black Stone Heart was good. As you can see from its SPFBO ratings, it’s really, really good and it is getting the praise it deserves. 

She Dreams in Blood takes all the good parts of Black Stone Heart, and builds on them by orders of magnitude. I honestly was wondering if Fletcher could top his previous book, but he did. This one is incredible. Unpredictable. Horrifying, and, more than that, human. These struggles, changes, the journey to understand both oneself and one’s past, is so incredibly human. And maybe that’s why this book works so well. It’s somehow manages to stay true to its fantasy nature with larger than life characters and gods, magic, and mystery while the people at the heart of this tale are so shockingly, painfully human despite their larger-than-life natures. 

This series is all about hearts. It is fitting that She Dreams in Blood never loses sight of what makes a heart beat. 

Fletcher is a master craftsman. It is honestly the highlight of my editing career to work with him, to see his books unfold, and to see how well received they are. He has taught me a whole lot about writing. More than that, his books are, in my estimation, some of the best fantasy out there. She Dreams in Blood is a magnificent edition to this author’s portfolio. 

I cannot wait for all of you to read it. 

5/5 stars

P.S. I had this hunch for a while now that Fletcher has been leaving Easter eggs in his books about his entire body of work as a whole. I finally confronted him about it when I was editing this one. He confirmed my suspicions, said not many people are picking up on it (I think we both decided this is pretty awesome), and I just think that’s delightful. So I guess what I’m saying here is, look for Easter eggs and have your mind blown the way mine was. I think my direct quote once I figured it all out was, “Wait. WAIT. I just read this, didn’t I? I didn’t make this up?! This is SO COOL.” 

I’m telling you people, this man is a mad scientist. He works on numerous levels. Not only is he an incredible wordsmith, but he tells stories no one else would dare to tell, and he masters them. Plus, there’s all this beneath the surface stuff too that adds layers and depth to everything. I don’t know what Fletcher’s brain must be like, but it’s got to be labyrinthian and incredible. I mean… just wow.

Review | A Sea of Pearls & Leaves – Rosalyn Briar

About the Book

Princess Ingrid of Norella Isle does not want to get married. So, her priestess girlfriend, Lilura, devises a wicked plot to deter suitors with a nearly impossible marriage contract: should Ingrid die first, her husband must be buried at sea beside her.

The plan backfires when all seven suitors agree, and the king announces a competition for Ingrid’s hand. Ingrid must keep her head above water as she deals with the suitors, a jealous girlfriend, and the news of two murdered priestesses.

As the suitors are eliminated, one man stands out: the quirky and anxious Prince Soren who charms both Ingrid and Lilura. 

When Lilura goes missing, Ingrid and Soren must piece together who has murdered the priestesses and why before it’s too late.

CW: This novel contains violence, sexual situations, and adult language.

322 pages (kindle) 
Published on December 1, 2020
Buy the book 

I recently went onto Twitter and asked for LGBTQIA+ indie fantasy recommendations (If you’ve got suggestions, hit me with them). When someone suggested A Sea of Pearls & Leaves, I knew I had to give it a try. I’m a huge sucker for fairytale retellings. While I’m not familiar with the tale this one is inspired by, I still felt the fairytale aspect of it throughout every page. 

First of all, can we all take a moment to admire that cover, because it is absolutely beautiful. I could just look at it forever. 

And honestly, the cover is a good representative of the book itself. It’s unique, gets your attention right away, and makes you want to know more. 

A Sea of Pearls & Leaves tells the story of three people. Princess Ingrid, who is being told in no uncertain terms that it is her time to get married and produce the next generation. Ingrid’s girlfriend, Lilura, who obviously does not want Ingrid to get married (neither does Ingrid, for that matter), and Prince Soren, who sweeps into the scene along with a handful of other princes and begins to win over hearts and minds. 

However, not everything is hinging on this marriage arrangement. There is plenty going on that does not focus on romance. For example, Ingrid is being stalked by some evil doppelganger, and people start dying in and around the palace. 

There’s a lot to unpack, but thankfully this is the kind of book that can handle it, and manages to balance all the different elements really well. The pacing is perfect, never a dull moment, and yet the author doesn’t shy away from quiet, intimate moments either. This made things feel well balanced, never too much focus on any one aspect of the book, always something to keep the reader engaged and moving forward. Plenty of twists along the way. 

I want to speak a bit about the relationships, because this book is, fundamentally, about relationships. I really enjoyed seeing a well-established relationship from the start between Ingrid and Lilura. It was stable and balanced, with each party offering something the other needed. The fact they were comfortable with each other, and their place in each other’s lives, was really refreshing. It isn’t often in fantasy where I read about established, comfortable relationships like this, and while they go through growing pains, and some changes in their dynamics with each other, it felt right and true to the nature of who they were, and their relationship. 

In fact, I will say this book deals with relationships in a way I didn’t expect, and I found the sex-positive aspects (sex is spoken of, hinted at, but never explicit, really. This is not an erotica, do not mistake it as such.) also incredibly refreshing, and the representation in this book was well done, and carefully, thoughtfully written. So, bonus points for established relationships, and sex-positive dynamics.

There are three perspectives in this book, and I will say this might be where I struggled a bit. Their voices, while unique, aren’t unique enough to always be able to tell them apart, so I did occasionally find myself flipping back to the chapter headings to remind myself who I was reading about in this chapter. This was especially noticeable in Ingrid and Lilura’s chapters. However, this didn’t ultimately detract overmuch from my enjoyment of the book as a whole. As time passes, each of these characters has enough going on in their own arcs to be able to distinguish from actions easily enough. 

A Sea of Pearls & Leaves is carefully written, with a flowing style that sweeps its readers away. I enjoyed how descriptive the author could be, without ever really dipping a toe into purple. She knew when to lean into things, and when to back off and leave just enough hints. She was great at dropping cues, and unraveling things in a way that kept readers engaged and constantly moving forward. 

The magic system truly shines as well. I love magic systems that have definite boundaries and parameters and that’s what I found here. Magic is used, but only so much, and only for certain reasons and in certain ways. I enjoyed how thoughtfully done it was, and how it’s strengths and limitations played into the book as a whole. 

All in all, A Sea of Pearls & Leaves was a surprise, and a welcome one. This book swept me away. Once I got started, I had a hard time putting it down. Well-written, thoughtfully crafted, with characters you can’t help but love, A Sea of Pearls & Leaves is well worth reading, especially if you’re a fan of LGBTQIA+ representation and fairytale retellings. 

4/5 stars

Review | Hench – Natalie Zina Walschots

About the Book

Anna does boring things for terrible people because even criminals need office help and she needs a job. Working for a monster lurking beneath the surface of the world isn’t glamorous. But is it really worse than working for an oil conglomerate or an insurance company? In this economy?

 As a temp, she’s just a cog in the machine. But when she finally gets a promising assignment, everything goes very wrong, and an encounter with the so-called “hero” leaves her badly injured.  And, to her horror, compared to the other bodies strewn about, she’s the lucky one.

So, of course, then she gets laid off.

With no money and no mobility, with only her anger and internet research acumen, she discovers her suffering at the hands of a hero is far from unique. When people start listening to the story that her data tells, she realizes she might not be as powerless as she thinks.

Because the key to everything is data: knowing how to collate it, how to manipulate it, and how to weaponize it. By tallying up the human cost these caped forces of nature wreak upon the world, she discovers that the line between good and evil is mostly marketing.  And with social media and viral videos, she can control that appearance.

It’s not too long before she’s employed once more, this time by one of the worst villains on earth. As she becomes an increasingly valuable lieutenant, she might just save the world.

A sharp, witty, modern debut, Hench explores the individual cost of justice through a fascinating mix of Millennial office politics, heroism measured through data science, body horror, and a profound misunderstanding of quantum mechanics. 

416 pages (kindle)
Published on September 22, 2020
Buy the book

I am not a big superhero person. I don’t actively go out and look for superhero books or watch superhero movies. They can be entertaining, but they aren’t really my bag of oats. However, when I saw Hench, I was exactly in the sort of mood to read something that isn’t my typical. I also kind of really like stories about antiheroes or “the bad guy” and this seemed to slot right into both of those categories quite nicely. 

More, I love moral ambiguity, and you really get a lot of that in Hench. 

Anna works as a hench, or think of her as technical support/office grunt for supervillains (you also learn about “meat”. Think: hired muscle.). Anna’s sort of a data genius, which ends up being the core of the book later on. Anyway, Anna works as a hench for a supervillain. Things go awry and she ends up getting seriously injured. In her recuperation process, she starts studying these streams of data, which is the pin around which the whole book turns. 

I hesitate to say more. Discovery is half the fun. 

Anna, however, works for the bad guy, which means some of the things she does are questionable and may or may not make you a bit squeamish. That being said, while you go into this book knowing from page one that Anna works for the “bad guy”, the so called “good guys” don’t look that good for long. In fact, the way the author created this equal playing field across the spectrum for all of her characters was nothing short of spectacular. 

While Anna has this dark, sarcastic sense of humor that really jived with me on a personal level (I instantly clicked with her), I spent as much time reading this book laughing at her sarcasm as I did thinking deeper thoughts about good and evil, and the so-called cost of both. I was quite amazed by how Walschots managed to provoke so many deeper thoughts and analysis from me, while making me laugh at the same time. 

When they start getting attached, it’s time to move on. Next thing you know they’re developing a savior complex and turning you in “for your own good.” I was already grocery shopping in the middle of the night after the same cashier saw me buying a single bag of Doritos one time too many and started giving me life advice. I’d been emotionally preparing myself to give up my favorite pizza joint if the delivery guy kept being friendly.

I mean, I’ve never read a more “me” bit of a book in my entire life. I just connected with Anna. She was part of my soul.

Anna, as I mentioned, is a character I loved, and while this is a book about superheroes and supervillains, this is ultimately the story of a woman who is stuck between the two and becomes a power in her own right. As a hench, she is behind the scenes, one of the people who are basically hired to make a supervillain look important. However, as the book advances, she turns out to be more than what she seems, and her personal evolution truly is something to behold.

Hench is a book that works on several levels. First, it’s a fun superhero vs. supervillain romp, and if you want to read it for that, then I advise you to go for it, because it really is good. However, I really enjoyed the deeper themes here. What is a superhero, and what is a supervillain, and who determines who fits where, and why?

… superheroes, for all their good PR, were terrible for the world. They were islands of plastic choking the oceans, a global disaster in slow motion. They weren’t worth the cost of their capes; whatever good they did was wiped out many times over by the harm.

Walschots is a fantastic author, who has a knack for really nailing a character’s voice. There is absolutely no one else but Anna who can speak, act, and think like Anna, and I loved how unique that made her. She made the entire book shine, whether she was laying on the couch recovering from surgery, or working in an office setting, or making really tough decisions and backing up her supervillain. She’s just who she is, and I love books who have characters unique enough to own the story they are set in. 

What I loved about this book was how the author managed to humanize all these characters who are, by definition, somewhat beyond humanity. Suddenly, under Walschots deft hand, they are just people doing what people do. The office workers required to back these supers up, the muscle that fights for them, the people who fill these jobs are just humans. They worry about rent, they worry about bills, they go to temp agencies to try to find jobs so they can make ends meet. The superheroes/supervillains do not look so glamorous after reading Hench. They seem, if anything, like CEOs of companies more than anything else. 

The ending of the book was fantastic, as was everything else. Unexpected and a (sort of) win for the people I was hoping would come out ahead. However, my one disappointment was that the book ended. I was having so much fun with Anna and her crew, I didn’t want to leave them.

Hench was an unexpected delight. It was funny and thought provoking, and sort of flipped the script on supers in a way I truly enjoyed. More, I loved Anna. I mean, I truly loved this character. She just made the entire book, which was already good, positively glow. 

Hench was a book I did not expect to like, but it ended up being one of the highlights of my reading year so far. I cannot recommend this one highly enough. 

This was one holy hell of a debut.

5/5 stars

March 2021 News & Wrap-Up

Well, March certainly was a busy month. I made a strong effort to review a boatload of indie books. I had a blast coming back to reviewing on a frequent basis.

My goal is to continue reviewing regularly, with a focus on indie speculative fiction. This, truthfully, is where my roots are. Reviewing is how all of my other ventures (editing, author-ing) began. In a lot of ways, reviewing again feels like I’m coming home.

More than that, it feels good. I recently did a foray into advertising for my books and it was one of the most uncomfortable things I’ve ever done. I decided that’s not something I am cut out for. I’d much rather spend the energy I’d put into advertising into building up an interactive community of authors and readers who can boost each other and support each other’s work. Basically, I want to focus on self-published speculative fiction books because I want to put into the genre world what I’d like to get out of it.

What I really want, is someone to take me seriously, and to give my books a bit of the spotlight. I have the platform where I can do that for others, so that is what I intend to do. Give other indie authors what I would like to get. Put some good into the world.

That being said, a few things will be different. I will only review books I would rank 4 or 5 stars. The reason for this is because I am so busy, I honestly just don’t have time to read books I don’t completely enjoy. I also don’t want to talk down books. I want to built books and their authors up.

Secondly, while my focus will be on self-published indie fantasy and SciFi, I will occasionally review books I pick up at the library (so trad books as well).

I’ve thought long and hard about this, and I realized I got burned out on reviewing before because the number of ARCs I was getting from publishers was overwhelming, and reading started feeling like a job I wasn’t getting paid for. I would go to the library, and I would think, “I really wish I could read these books but I can’t because I’ve got this pile of books at home…” It started to bother me that I couldn’t read whatever I wanted.

So, I’m not really going to accept ARCs. Mostly because I don’t want to get overwhelmed with them. I have a Netgalley account, and I go in there once a month and pick some stuff up that looks good. Otherwise, I’m getting all my trad review books from the library, and they’ll be whatever I want to read, whenever I want to read it.

For the Indie stuff, again, I know how hard it is to be an indie author and in my effort to put into the world what I want to get out of it, I want to support Indie authors in every way I can. I have a Kindle Unlimited subscription which I am using to read most of these books (so authors get paid for page reads) and those not on KU, I’m buying (so authors get paid).

Another goal I have is to review at least 60% self-published books, or more. I do crosspost all my reviews to Goodreads and Amazon, and I do use affiliate links on all my reviews because the extra change I make there is what keeps this website running.

I also want to start getting my Indie Author Interviews off the ground again. I want them to drop every Friday, so if you’re an indie author who would like to be interviewed, please let me know and I’ll shoot you my interview sheet.

So, now that that’s out of the way, here’s what I reviewed in March, and some books I’m looking forward to in April.

Reviews

The Lost War – Justin Lee Anderson
Kingshold – D.P. Woolliscroft
The Lion of Al-Rassan – Guy Gavriel Kay
The Poison Thread – Laura Purcell
The Forever King – Ben Galley
The Lord of Stariel – A.J. Lancaster
Subversive – Colleen Cowley
Klara and the Sun – Kazuo Ishiguro
Gunmetal Gods – Zamil Akhtar
Windborn – Alex S. Bradshaw
Liefdom – Jesse Teller
The Wolf in the Whale – Jordanna Max Brodsky
Radio – J. Rushing
The Magpie Lord – K.J. Charles

Other Content

5 Formative Female Authors
Indie Author Interview – Matt Larkin

Anticipated April Reads

The Mark of Unwanted Things – Alex Clifford
Witchmark – C.L. Polk
A Sea of Pearls & Leaves – Rosalyn Briar
Under Ordshaw – Phil Williams
Red in Tooth and Claw – Ryan Howse
Peacemaker – E.M. Hamill
Master of Sorrows – Justin T. Call
Swordheart – T. Kingfisher
Voice of War – Zack Argyle
Vultures – Luke Tarzian

I’ve also got some *amazing* books I’m editing, but I can’t tell you about those yet. I’m getting Glass Rhapsody ready for publication, which is looking to be in late June. I should be hooking up a cover art reveal soon. More info on that when I have it. If you haven’t read Of Honey and Wildfires yet, or Oh, That Shotgun Sky, and you want to, now would be a good time to start so you can be all caught up when the series conclusion drops in June.

See you next week!

Review | The Magpie Lord – K.J. Charles

About the Book

A lord in danger. A magician in turmoil. A snowball in hell.

Exiled to China for twenty years, Lucien Vaudrey never planned to return to England. But with the mysterious deaths of his father and brother, it seems the new Lord Crane has inherited an earldom. He’s also inherited his family’s enemies. He needs magical assistance, fast. He doesn’t expect it to turn up angry.

Magician Stephen Day has good reason to hate Crane’s family. Unfortunately, it’s his job to deal with supernatural threats. Besides, the earl is unlike any aristocrat he’s ever met, with the tattoos, the attitude… and the way Crane seems determined to get him into bed. That’s definitely unusual.

Soon Stephen is falling hard for the worst possible man, at the worst possible time. But Crane’s dangerous appeal isn’t the only thing rendering Stephen powerless. Evil pervades the house, a web of plots is closing round Crane, and if Stephen can’t find a way through it—they’re both going to die. 

204 pages (Kindle)
Published on November 15, 2017
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The other day I got my second COVID shot, and I was up all night with a fever and the chills. I had someone recommend this book to me, and I decided to pick it up while I was miserable and feeling sicker than a dog. I ended up reading the entire thing in a night. It was just the charming diversion I needed to see me through the worst of it. 

The Magpie Lord tells the story of one Lucien Vaudrey, who was exiled to Shanghai by his father and older brother. Upon learning that his father and older brother died, and he inherited their vast empire (they were earls), he returns to England to see to their estate. However, thoughts of suicide keep overwhelming him, which he knows are not his thoughts. Someone is putting them there. Desperate to see his way through this fog, he calls upon a magician, Stephen, to see if there is something interfering in his state of mind. They learn that Lucien, like his father and brother, are the target of ill will. Together Stephen and Lucien must work together to find out who is killing off Lucien’s family before it’s too late. 

So, it’s a lot, right? 

There’s never a dull moment. The book isn’t long, and there is a lot going on throughout the book. However, I was delighted at how well-paced the book was. While there never was a dull moment, there was also never a time when I felt overwhelmed by action. Like, I never once sat back and thought, “My god, when do these people breathe?” 

“I am in the process of nailing Mr. Humphrey Griffin to the wall so thoroughly that future generations will mistake him for a tapestry,…” 

There were two things that instantly pulled me into The Magpie Lord. One was Lucien’s voice, and his wry, self-depreciating humor. He had a horrible relationship with his family, and while that’s evident in every part of the book, and it’s why he ended up in China for so many years, it never overwhelms things, though it is a huge part of why everything is happening and why Lucien is suddenly the focus of such malice. His voice is caustic with a sharp edge, and once you understand his family you know why, but my god, I loved that man’s voice.

The other thing that really attracted me was the magic. The idea of someone murdering people by using cursed items to influence their mood and thus, play upon their darkest thoughts is really haunting. I also loved how this was completely Stephen’s thing that no one could understand quite as well as he did. The magic itself was just unique enough to catch my attention. While there is the whole waving hands in the air, incantations thing, there was a lot more to it than that, and I just really enjoyed how it was used throughout the book for good or evil.

Stephen, on the other hand, is everything that Lucien is not. He is small, and poor, and he’s got every reason to hate Lucien’s family. They come from very different backgrounds, and while Stephen is small and appears weak and ill-fed and all that, his power rests in his magic. He is a formidable magician. He’s also a quiet, if knowing presence throughout the book, and balances out Lucien’s voice perfectly. In fact, these two POVs are perfect opposites, each one adding something to the book that the other needs, making the entire book feel perfectly balanced. 

“If you’re going to be insolent, at least pour me coffee.”

“It’s brewing. Like trouble.” 

There’s a lot happening here, from magical manipulation (in numerous forms), family mysteries, ghosts, cursed objects, murder through suicide… so there are a lot of darker elements, but I never once felt like this was a dark book, and it was probably because Lucien’s humor mixed with Stephen’s calm control really kept all these darker elements in the book roped in and controlled. While things keep rolling at a nice clip, there are private moments, and the simmering romance between the two protagonists is always present, and while it is steamy (at times there is kissing, sex and the like) it also functions to keep everything hopeful. Things might be dark now, but the silver lining is in two men from opposite worlds finding each other. 

The historical elements of the book were just enough to make this feel mid 1800s without making it feel overdone. I got a good sense of time and place which added an intoxicating sense of regency to the entire romance that I really enjoyed. 

The Magpie Lord is not a complicated book. It’s simple and straightforward, and it’s predictable. This isn’t the kind of book you want to read if you’re into something serious that you need to spend a lot of time thinking about. It’s popcorn. Really, really good popcorn, full of magic, historical detail, romance, and characters you can’t help but love.

The Magpie Lord got me through a really rough night. It was exactly what I needed, and I will absolutely read more of this author’s work. 

I cannot wait to see what happens to Lucien and Stephen next. 

4.5/5 stars