Gypsy Madden's Blog, page 11
July 6, 2021
Book Review: A Duke for Midwinter
A Duke for Midwinter by Anthea Lawson
5 stars
Category: Adult
Note: Novella-length
Summary: On her way to London for Christmas holiday with her family, Selene’s carriage overturns. She manages to pull herself out in time for a rescuer to give her a hand. He’s quite impressed by her capableness and helps her to a nearby inn where they are forced to stay when a storm rolls in and their carriage can’t be fixed until the next day. Usually she is overlooked when she’s in the vicinity of her golden, bubbly debutante younger sister Eliana, so she basks in the attention of Sir Jared Kendrick, Baronet to a local estate (among other things).
Comments: This is such a sweet romance. I loved every moment of their tentative romance blossoming in the Christmas atmosphere. This is not a novel that waits until the final couple of pages with the couple just wondering in their heads about each other, but don’t actually act. No, these two have many moments, over meals, and over chess games, and even a dance to get to know each other slowly, and romantically. And the story is clean. None of that taking liberties in a time period where it just wasn’t done. I am such a sucker for stories where someone is finally taking notice in the spinster. I honestly wish there were more out there rather than most of the books on the market being about the young debutantes. Selene feels overlooked against her golden sister, and she had come from breaking an engagement where the man had called her cold and ugly, while Jared is tired of debutantes being practically thrown at him just because of his title. It’s so lovely seeing him fall for someone who likes him and not his title and for him loving her capableness and her intellect. Granted, we could see what direction the ending was going to go, but it was still lovely and heart-warming to see the reveal.
5 stars
Category: Adult
Note: Novella-length
Summary: On her way to London for Christmas holiday with her family, Selene’s carriage overturns. She manages to pull herself out in time for a rescuer to give her a hand. He’s quite impressed by her capableness and helps her to a nearby inn where they are forced to stay when a storm rolls in and their carriage can’t be fixed until the next day. Usually she is overlooked when she’s in the vicinity of her golden, bubbly debutante younger sister Eliana, so she basks in the attention of Sir Jared Kendrick, Baronet to a local estate (among other things).
Comments: This is such a sweet romance. I loved every moment of their tentative romance blossoming in the Christmas atmosphere. This is not a novel that waits until the final couple of pages with the couple just wondering in their heads about each other, but don’t actually act. No, these two have many moments, over meals, and over chess games, and even a dance to get to know each other slowly, and romantically. And the story is clean. None of that taking liberties in a time period where it just wasn’t done. I am such a sucker for stories where someone is finally taking notice in the spinster. I honestly wish there were more out there rather than most of the books on the market being about the young debutantes. Selene feels overlooked against her golden sister, and she had come from breaking an engagement where the man had called her cold and ugly, while Jared is tired of debutantes being practically thrown at him just because of his title. It’s so lovely seeing him fall for someone who likes him and not his title and for him loving her capableness and her intellect. Granted, we could see what direction the ending was going to go, but it was still lovely and heart-warming to see the reveal.
July 3, 2021
Book Review: Vanished (The Frosted Realm - prequel)
Vanish (The Frosted Realm – prequel) by Stephanie Kline
4 stars
Category: Teen
Note: Novella-size
Summary: Clara is the typical outcast teen. She spends her time sitting on the couch playing video games with her best friend Ethan. She’s bullied at school, and goes to prom. Her parents go to meet with investors once a month at a hotel banquet, suddenly never return from the banquet. They just vanish, their car found abandoned outside of the city, and even stranger is the hotel they had supposedly gone to is under construction.
Comments: There’s really not much to this novella-sized story. It felt long for nothing to actually happen. I mean, most of the book is about Clara’s typical teenage life. She’s an outcast (as are most at that age), she stands up for her friend who gets bullied by the jocks (so cliched), she spends her time playing video games (so typical), and there’s the life with her parents, who are rather odd. They don’t really act atypical, they just speak and ask odd questions every once in a while. And then they vanish. There’s an investigation and Clara keeps going on with her teenage life. The whispers don’t really amount to much either. Just a whisper or two of her name on the air. And that’s it aside from the introduction of a moustache twirling dark cloak wearing overly obvious cartoony villain at the end. I was looking for fantasy in this story and there really wasn’t any. Clara’s life is rather boring and nothing really stood out about her, other than liking her friendship with Ethan. I did like the banter between the two of them. In all, it doesn’t sell me on wanting to read the rest of the books.
4 stars
Category: Teen
Note: Novella-size
Summary: Clara is the typical outcast teen. She spends her time sitting on the couch playing video games with her best friend Ethan. She’s bullied at school, and goes to prom. Her parents go to meet with investors once a month at a hotel banquet, suddenly never return from the banquet. They just vanish, their car found abandoned outside of the city, and even stranger is the hotel they had supposedly gone to is under construction.
Comments: There’s really not much to this novella-sized story. It felt long for nothing to actually happen. I mean, most of the book is about Clara’s typical teenage life. She’s an outcast (as are most at that age), she stands up for her friend who gets bullied by the jocks (so cliched), she spends her time playing video games (so typical), and there’s the life with her parents, who are rather odd. They don’t really act atypical, they just speak and ask odd questions every once in a while. And then they vanish. There’s an investigation and Clara keeps going on with her teenage life. The whispers don’t really amount to much either. Just a whisper or two of her name on the air. And that’s it aside from the introduction of a moustache twirling dark cloak wearing overly obvious cartoony villain at the end. I was looking for fantasy in this story and there really wasn’t any. Clara’s life is rather boring and nothing really stood out about her, other than liking her friendship with Ethan. I did like the banter between the two of them. In all, it doesn’t sell me on wanting to read the rest of the books.
July 2, 2021
Book Review: The Korinniad
The Korinniad by A.K. Caggiano
5 stars
Category: New Adult
Note: Only $0.99 cents on Amazon! I obtained a free copy via the author’s newsletter.
Summary: After spilling a glass of wine on the general overseeing her small island village, Korinna finds herself at the top of the list to be the next virgin sacrifice to ensure the harvest. So, to get out of being a virgin sacrifice, she’ll have to lose her virginity and with no suitable single men in the village, her best friend, the priestess of the village, prays to the gods for help. The gods decide to use her prayer as a contest, and the god who helps her find true love will win the prize. Aphrodite sends Korinna a winged Erote named Nikeros to guide her on a quest to meet with three suitors selected by Athena, Hera, and Apollo, and to shoot them with love arrows making them amorously follow Korinna around (like Pepe le Pew and the cat). This is an epic adventure facing three-headed beasts, visiting the depths of Hades, facing Cerberus, and meeting plenty of gods and goddesses along the way.
Comments: I’ve always been a sucker for Greek Mythology. While, I didn’t agree with everything in this book, it was an often silly, exaggerated, fantastic journey. It did meander and felt overly long, but then the ancient Greek epics did too. Like the ancient Greek epics, it journeyed from place to place, like the Odyssey, like an epic road trip, finding adventures along the way. There were two main points I didn’t care for. I didn’t care for the use of swear words. I have in fact made a vow to knock off a star if the author uses swear words in a story. Yeah…I liked the book too much. But still, it really didn’t need the swear words, so I don’t know why the author stoops to using them. The other thing I didn’t care for was the author and muse breaking the flow of the story every so often to give their two cents into things. In my imagination, I can imagine the heroine as being real, and then the author suddenly butts in, reminding me that the heroine is really just a written character ruining my suspension of disbelief. I did like Korinna, who looked at things with a grain of salt, trying to see through the pompous exteriors of the gods, and see the suitors realistically instead of ideally as the gods thought of them. And I loved her plan to lose her virginity got derailed and suddenly found herself having to trudge through an epic quest instead, and she actually went with it with little complaint. I did like the romance, and even though the whole quest was about finding love, she tried to deny it and think of herself as being above it. And, yes, I loved Nikos, who loved his job. I also loved that we got to meet his family (though he didn’t seem all that attached to his brother) and we got to understand his background. I loved all of the mythological references. I did think the underworld was rather cheesy with trying to add in a modern world within it. And though the gods and goddesses all felt very chick-lit socialite personalities, over-dramatic, and overly cartooned (think like the gods and goddesses in Disney’s Hercules), and the suitors and most of the other characters felt that way as well. And I never really understood who Theodotus was or why he was so important as a prize. But there was plenty of action and adventure in this as Korinna fights against monsters, and fends off amorous suitors, and learns what she’s really looking for in a relationship, and actually deals advice to the gods along the way.
5 stars
Category: New Adult
Note: Only $0.99 cents on Amazon! I obtained a free copy via the author’s newsletter.
Summary: After spilling a glass of wine on the general overseeing her small island village, Korinna finds herself at the top of the list to be the next virgin sacrifice to ensure the harvest. So, to get out of being a virgin sacrifice, she’ll have to lose her virginity and with no suitable single men in the village, her best friend, the priestess of the village, prays to the gods for help. The gods decide to use her prayer as a contest, and the god who helps her find true love will win the prize. Aphrodite sends Korinna a winged Erote named Nikeros to guide her on a quest to meet with three suitors selected by Athena, Hera, and Apollo, and to shoot them with love arrows making them amorously follow Korinna around (like Pepe le Pew and the cat). This is an epic adventure facing three-headed beasts, visiting the depths of Hades, facing Cerberus, and meeting plenty of gods and goddesses along the way.
Comments: I’ve always been a sucker for Greek Mythology. While, I didn’t agree with everything in this book, it was an often silly, exaggerated, fantastic journey. It did meander and felt overly long, but then the ancient Greek epics did too. Like the ancient Greek epics, it journeyed from place to place, like the Odyssey, like an epic road trip, finding adventures along the way. There were two main points I didn’t care for. I didn’t care for the use of swear words. I have in fact made a vow to knock off a star if the author uses swear words in a story. Yeah…I liked the book too much. But still, it really didn’t need the swear words, so I don’t know why the author stoops to using them. The other thing I didn’t care for was the author and muse breaking the flow of the story every so often to give their two cents into things. In my imagination, I can imagine the heroine as being real, and then the author suddenly butts in, reminding me that the heroine is really just a written character ruining my suspension of disbelief. I did like Korinna, who looked at things with a grain of salt, trying to see through the pompous exteriors of the gods, and see the suitors realistically instead of ideally as the gods thought of them. And I loved her plan to lose her virginity got derailed and suddenly found herself having to trudge through an epic quest instead, and she actually went with it with little complaint. I did like the romance, and even though the whole quest was about finding love, she tried to deny it and think of herself as being above it. And, yes, I loved Nikos, who loved his job. I also loved that we got to meet his family (though he didn’t seem all that attached to his brother) and we got to understand his background. I loved all of the mythological references. I did think the underworld was rather cheesy with trying to add in a modern world within it. And though the gods and goddesses all felt very chick-lit socialite personalities, over-dramatic, and overly cartooned (think like the gods and goddesses in Disney’s Hercules), and the suitors and most of the other characters felt that way as well. And I never really understood who Theodotus was or why he was so important as a prize. But there was plenty of action and adventure in this as Korinna fights against monsters, and fends off amorous suitors, and learns what she’s really looking for in a relationship, and actually deals advice to the gods along the way.
June 26, 2021
Book Review: Flicker (Crown of Fae - prequel)
Flicker (Crown of Fae - Prequel) by Sharon Ashwood
4 stars
Category: Young Adult
Note: Novella-length. Only $0.99 cents on Kindle
Summary: Dragon Princess Flissitania (Fliss) is sent to a prestigious Fae boarding school in the South in the hopes that it will be far away from the war against the Shades. But on the way, their travel party is attacked and Fliss takes shelter with a peasant woman named Anna, who leaves the cabin shelter to protect them from something outside. Fliss yearns to be treated as an adult and help defend her homeland along side her older brothers. She hates being treated like a child, and especially hates the school where she doesn’t fit in and is bullied by the other students. One student, Laren, the son of an ambassador, decides that Fliss is interesting and tags along with her as she hunts for Anna who seemed to vanish into thin air. The hunt for Anna, uncovers the Shades lurking nearby who start taking over the town, and attack the school to kill off all of the young magical students there.
Comments: This is a basic epic fantasy read. Dragon shifter, check, princess, check, epic medieval world, check, random magical elemental powers, check, and enemy forces to fight, check. Wasn’t really anything interesting to the school. It was your basic magical academy, without much thought put into classes, except to use the history class as a means to infodump the background history of this world (boring class. I would have slept through it). I wasn’t getting much of a mental image of the shades, so I didn’t really see them as much of a threat through most of the book, just as a generic enemy fighting them (though I did love the Firebird in that one scene). I think the most interesting thing about the shades was that they were using portals to go to the modern world and bits of modern technology was making its way back over. Like a random wristwatch. And I figured out why the shades didn’t make much of an impression on me. Through the book they had just been cloaked men. Nothing special to them. Just the usual evil army trying to stomp out all of the good forces. At just past the middle mark, one is killed and they see what was underneath the cloak. They look rotted underneath. Now where have I heard of a group of cloaked villains that look rotted underneath? *cough* Ringwraiths *cough* Wasn’t really anything interesting to the dragon shifters either. They’re just the same as the dragon shifters that are in all of the other books on the market these days. It didn’t even really explore them as dragon except as a mode of travel and as a physical weapon for fighting. Why was Fliss white as a dragon? Are all female dragons white? And stereotypically it’s got werewolves in it too (can’t seem to have one without the other). I did like that Fliss does have character growth in this. From wanting to not be treated as a child and fight against the evil, and showing off her battle skills and making her family proud of her. To learning that war and battle is to worry about your friends getting hurt or killed, to seeing death and realizing her own mortality and how far the enemy reach really is, realizing she could cause the death of others around her, and realizing that she is still young with a lot to still learn. In all, nothing really sparked my interest in this world (except maybe Laren and the head mistress).
4 stars
Category: Young Adult
Note: Novella-length. Only $0.99 cents on Kindle
Summary: Dragon Princess Flissitania (Fliss) is sent to a prestigious Fae boarding school in the South in the hopes that it will be far away from the war against the Shades. But on the way, their travel party is attacked and Fliss takes shelter with a peasant woman named Anna, who leaves the cabin shelter to protect them from something outside. Fliss yearns to be treated as an adult and help defend her homeland along side her older brothers. She hates being treated like a child, and especially hates the school where she doesn’t fit in and is bullied by the other students. One student, Laren, the son of an ambassador, decides that Fliss is interesting and tags along with her as she hunts for Anna who seemed to vanish into thin air. The hunt for Anna, uncovers the Shades lurking nearby who start taking over the town, and attack the school to kill off all of the young magical students there.
Comments: This is a basic epic fantasy read. Dragon shifter, check, princess, check, epic medieval world, check, random magical elemental powers, check, and enemy forces to fight, check. Wasn’t really anything interesting to the school. It was your basic magical academy, without much thought put into classes, except to use the history class as a means to infodump the background history of this world (boring class. I would have slept through it). I wasn’t getting much of a mental image of the shades, so I didn’t really see them as much of a threat through most of the book, just as a generic enemy fighting them (though I did love the Firebird in that one scene). I think the most interesting thing about the shades was that they were using portals to go to the modern world and bits of modern technology was making its way back over. Like a random wristwatch. And I figured out why the shades didn’t make much of an impression on me. Through the book they had just been cloaked men. Nothing special to them. Just the usual evil army trying to stomp out all of the good forces. At just past the middle mark, one is killed and they see what was underneath the cloak. They look rotted underneath. Now where have I heard of a group of cloaked villains that look rotted underneath? *cough* Ringwraiths *cough* Wasn’t really anything interesting to the dragon shifters either. They’re just the same as the dragon shifters that are in all of the other books on the market these days. It didn’t even really explore them as dragon except as a mode of travel and as a physical weapon for fighting. Why was Fliss white as a dragon? Are all female dragons white? And stereotypically it’s got werewolves in it too (can’t seem to have one without the other). I did like that Fliss does have character growth in this. From wanting to not be treated as a child and fight against the evil, and showing off her battle skills and making her family proud of her. To learning that war and battle is to worry about your friends getting hurt or killed, to seeing death and realizing her own mortality and how far the enemy reach really is, realizing she could cause the death of others around her, and realizing that she is still young with a lot to still learn. In all, nothing really sparked my interest in this world (except maybe Laren and the head mistress).
June 25, 2021
Book Review: Permission to Breathe: Denied
Permission to Breathe: Denied by Laura Greenwood
4 stars
Category: New Adult
Note: Novella-length. I obtained a free copy via the author’s newsletter.
Summary: Zel has been told all her life that she can’t breathe the air outside, so she spends her life locked away in her apartment with just her mother and her online friend Asher to keep her company. Zel decides to build herself a breathing apparatus just to experience a couple of minutes outside. And when she does, she’s joined by Asher who tells her that people have been keeping secrets from her.
Comments: Fascinating retelling of the Rapunzel story. If I hadn’t been told that it was a retelling, I would have never seen the parallels between the two stories. I did like that it had a steampunk twist with Zel loving “tinkering”. And I loved that she was determined to see outside of her apartment, even if it was just for a few minutes. I loved that she wanted to see stars and feel wind and mundane things like that. And I loved her friendship with her online friend. I also loved the futuristic setting with its poor air quality and high technology at their fingertips, and the story kept me interested even though it was almost all just set in the single apartment unit. On the flip side, there were things that needed work. Namely Zel’s mother. We really don’t see much of her during the story. We really only see her in the one confrontation scene toward the end, so that scene felt rushed since their relationship really wasn’t built earlier during the book except for the couple of mentions Zel made about her. And the extra guys just felt added in to market it as a reverse harem, without really having an actual reason for having three guys together. It felt more like it had been written as one guy and then decided to split the dialogue to three guys just to jump on the reverse harem bandwagon.
4 stars
Category: New Adult
Note: Novella-length. I obtained a free copy via the author’s newsletter.
Summary: Zel has been told all her life that she can’t breathe the air outside, so she spends her life locked away in her apartment with just her mother and her online friend Asher to keep her company. Zel decides to build herself a breathing apparatus just to experience a couple of minutes outside. And when she does, she’s joined by Asher who tells her that people have been keeping secrets from her.
Comments: Fascinating retelling of the Rapunzel story. If I hadn’t been told that it was a retelling, I would have never seen the parallels between the two stories. I did like that it had a steampunk twist with Zel loving “tinkering”. And I loved that she was determined to see outside of her apartment, even if it was just for a few minutes. I loved that she wanted to see stars and feel wind and mundane things like that. And I loved her friendship with her online friend. I also loved the futuristic setting with its poor air quality and high technology at their fingertips, and the story kept me interested even though it was almost all just set in the single apartment unit. On the flip side, there were things that needed work. Namely Zel’s mother. We really don’t see much of her during the story. We really only see her in the one confrontation scene toward the end, so that scene felt rushed since their relationship really wasn’t built earlier during the book except for the couple of mentions Zel made about her. And the extra guys just felt added in to market it as a reverse harem, without really having an actual reason for having three guys together. It felt more like it had been written as one guy and then decided to split the dialogue to three guys just to jump on the reverse harem bandwagon.
June 24, 2021
Book Review: The Girl with Seven Wishes (Desert Nights novella 1)
The Girl with the Seven Wishes (Desert Nights – Novella 1) by Helena Rookwood and Elm Vince
4 stars
Category: New Adult
Note: Serial-length
Summary: Princess Scheherazade is being sent to wed the Sultan of Astaran after her elder sister the renown beauty Lalana eloped with her lover. As the second daughter, Zadie was used to having her freedom to be a tomboy, with a love of riding horses, not having to be followed by a team of handmaidens, and read about politics and trading. She has plenty of ideas to improve relations between her kingdom of Khiridesh and Astaran, but it seems that the Sultan has an idea fixed in his head of what his Sultanah ought to look and act like, like his younger sister and Lalana, but definitely not like Zadie. Zadie is still convinced that she’ll be able to change his mind since he has a female vizer, she just has to find a way. And that way might involve a handsome trickster djinni.
Comments: This is part one of a serial, so the novella-size story fragment cuts off without resolving anything (which is to be expected of a serial). I love the idea of an Arabian set tale starring a headstrong princess with the promise of adventure, romance and a djinni. I have yet to find a romance in this. I know, it’s a serial, so I should be patient, but honestly, I can’t stand the sultan. I keep thinking Zadie really ought to cut her losses since she really shouldn’t be trying to change a person. If she can’t be happy with him as he is, there isn’t a point since a man shouldn’t be treated as a fixer-upper. That way of thinking disrespects him (and it disrespects herself, too since it suggests she can’t find someone to fit her ideals). He hasn’t shown one ounce of liking her other than as a statue to stand around and be admired. He keeps belittling her, berating her, and treating her as if she’s not worth his time. On the other hand, she keeps acting like their getting married is a done-deal and that everything that is his, is hers instead of considering herself as his guest, when with how much attention he has shown her, he could easily send her back home. I do love Zadie’s tomboy nature, and how she rebels at having to be girly, and yearns to rule alongside the Sultan as an equal and advise on trade deals. Though for all of her brains, you’d think she’d know that sneaking around the palace is a bad idea and just asking to be caught, but yet she does it repeatedly in the night as well as in the day (and following the thieves was an especially dumb move. I was face palming during that entire scene). I love that it brings to life the ancient Arabian world with its rolling deserts and sprawling lush palaces and transportation by elephant. One problem I had was that if you read the prequel which follows Zadie and Lalana as their kingdom prepares for Lalana to be married off and her elopement, Zadie runs across an ifrit, a minor djinn who wreaks magical havoc in the palace. But yet in this story, she acts like she’s never seen a magical being before as she finds herself in an Aladdin-like predicament facing down a being made of purple smoke (complete with a cameo appearance by a flying carpet). As I read this, I compared it to Throne of Sand, the newly republished version of this story. This is a third of Throne of Sand and it does have different details, though most of it is word for word the same. Throne of Sand adds in more emphasis on the Sultan’s search for magical objects, while this version focuses more on the on-coming war with a neighboring kingdom where Lalana had eloped to, and Zadie’s worries for her sister’s safety (which tugs on the heart strings far more than having to find some magical objects). This would appeal to fans of Aladdin, with a bit of a gender swap and a strong main heroine, who is definitely not a thief.
4 stars
Category: New Adult
Note: Serial-length
Summary: Princess Scheherazade is being sent to wed the Sultan of Astaran after her elder sister the renown beauty Lalana eloped with her lover. As the second daughter, Zadie was used to having her freedom to be a tomboy, with a love of riding horses, not having to be followed by a team of handmaidens, and read about politics and trading. She has plenty of ideas to improve relations between her kingdom of Khiridesh and Astaran, but it seems that the Sultan has an idea fixed in his head of what his Sultanah ought to look and act like, like his younger sister and Lalana, but definitely not like Zadie. Zadie is still convinced that she’ll be able to change his mind since he has a female vizer, she just has to find a way. And that way might involve a handsome trickster djinni.
Comments: This is part one of a serial, so the novella-size story fragment cuts off without resolving anything (which is to be expected of a serial). I love the idea of an Arabian set tale starring a headstrong princess with the promise of adventure, romance and a djinni. I have yet to find a romance in this. I know, it’s a serial, so I should be patient, but honestly, I can’t stand the sultan. I keep thinking Zadie really ought to cut her losses since she really shouldn’t be trying to change a person. If she can’t be happy with him as he is, there isn’t a point since a man shouldn’t be treated as a fixer-upper. That way of thinking disrespects him (and it disrespects herself, too since it suggests she can’t find someone to fit her ideals). He hasn’t shown one ounce of liking her other than as a statue to stand around and be admired. He keeps belittling her, berating her, and treating her as if she’s not worth his time. On the other hand, she keeps acting like their getting married is a done-deal and that everything that is his, is hers instead of considering herself as his guest, when with how much attention he has shown her, he could easily send her back home. I do love Zadie’s tomboy nature, and how she rebels at having to be girly, and yearns to rule alongside the Sultan as an equal and advise on trade deals. Though for all of her brains, you’d think she’d know that sneaking around the palace is a bad idea and just asking to be caught, but yet she does it repeatedly in the night as well as in the day (and following the thieves was an especially dumb move. I was face palming during that entire scene). I love that it brings to life the ancient Arabian world with its rolling deserts and sprawling lush palaces and transportation by elephant. One problem I had was that if you read the prequel which follows Zadie and Lalana as their kingdom prepares for Lalana to be married off and her elopement, Zadie runs across an ifrit, a minor djinn who wreaks magical havoc in the palace. But yet in this story, she acts like she’s never seen a magical being before as she finds herself in an Aladdin-like predicament facing down a being made of purple smoke (complete with a cameo appearance by a flying carpet). As I read this, I compared it to Throne of Sand, the newly republished version of this story. This is a third of Throne of Sand and it does have different details, though most of it is word for word the same. Throne of Sand adds in more emphasis on the Sultan’s search for magical objects, while this version focuses more on the on-coming war with a neighboring kingdom where Lalana had eloped to, and Zadie’s worries for her sister’s safety (which tugs on the heart strings far more than having to find some magical objects). This would appeal to fans of Aladdin, with a bit of a gender swap and a strong main heroine, who is definitely not a thief.
June 23, 2021
Book Review: The Clearing
The Clearing by A.M. Rycroft
4 stars
Category: New Adult
Note: very short story. I obtained a free copy via the author’s newsletter.
Summary: College student Anthony talks his girlfriend into doing a midnight picnic with him in a clearing he had spotted during his morning jog. He tells her that it’s perfectly safe as they walk past warning signs with fairies marked on them.
Comments: Delightful horror short. Eerie atmosphere as they walk through the forest at night to the empty clearing by the light of the full moon. And I loved Suzanne jumping at the slightest sound, convinced they were being watched. But because it was so short, Anthony and Suzanne were never really fleshed out, so I wasn’t all that attached to them when the horror actually cranked up. And I had a lot of questions about that guy at the end since he seemed to pop out of nowhere, and a lot of questions about the clearing itself.
4 stars
Category: New Adult
Note: very short story. I obtained a free copy via the author’s newsletter.
Summary: College student Anthony talks his girlfriend into doing a midnight picnic with him in a clearing he had spotted during his morning jog. He tells her that it’s perfectly safe as they walk past warning signs with fairies marked on them.
Comments: Delightful horror short. Eerie atmosphere as they walk through the forest at night to the empty clearing by the light of the full moon. And I loved Suzanne jumping at the slightest sound, convinced they were being watched. But because it was so short, Anthony and Suzanne were never really fleshed out, so I wasn’t all that attached to them when the horror actually cranked up. And I had a lot of questions about that guy at the end since he seemed to pop out of nowhere, and a lot of questions about the clearing itself.
June 22, 2021
Book Review: October Cove (The Last Warlock - Book 1)
October Cove (The Last Warlock – Book 1) by M.H. Woodscourt
4 stars
Category: YA
Note: Novella-length. I obtained a free copy via the author’s newsletter.
Summary: Liv lives in the quaint town of October Cove with her father who seems to have Alzheimer’s. But this Halloween odd people have been rolling into town, and there are more crows about, and there’s two odd teen boys, one of which claims to be Liv’s childhood best friend Matt, while the other goes by the name of Matt’s dog Weyland. Stranger still is that Matt died 9 years ago. The new Matt, claims to be a warlock and he’s back in October Cove to destroy all the evil witches in his family coven, especially his mother, and he needs Liv’s help to do it, to infiltrate the coven and destroy their sources of power.
Comments: I loved the spooky Halloween atmosphere in this story. There was much walking through the old historical graveyard, and along the deserted street with the dilapidated Frogley mansion. I loved the crows gathering, like out of the Hitchcock movie and I loved the gathering of the witches. The story, and especially the witches reminded me of Roald Dahl’s The Witches. Like the witches in that book, these witches are all warty underneath and make themselves up to look gorgeous. And the more powerful a witch is, the more fabulous she would look.
Now, I did have problems with the story. It had a lot of info dumping in dialogue. The larger issue is that the characters who were doing that info dumping lied about the info on quite a few occasions (I kid you not, they straight up lie to the heroine’s face about important facts). Info is a foundation of a story, and if the info isn’t correct and can’t be trusted, it means the foundation of the story crumbles. Wey tells Liv repeatedly that he hates her. But then at the end, he says that he doesn’t hate her. And he never really said why he hated her, he kept pushing off telling her why. So, does he or doesn’t he? It annoyed me each time the main heroine asked for an explanation and they refused to tell her. I’m a cards on the table person. Each time they push off telling the heroine something, it suggests they don’t have faith in the heroine understanding things like she’s an idiot, or they can’t be bothered to explain, making them look really callous. It’s bad writing whenever it’s done in books. Overall, the characters were one-dimensional. They were either good or bad, without really any middle ground, and no one was all that complex (which was sad since Silence was really a missed opportunity to be more than just a basic cliched mean girl and Cat in the Cradle had potential, too, beyond me just liking her stripes). No one had any character growth). I think what I was miffed about the most was that I never really got the sense of them being childhood friends. It felt more like a barely remembered acquaintance. As in, Matt never seemed to care all that much about Liv, except as a pawn. To the extent that I started to wonder if Matt and Wey were gay, which would have explained off his jealousy over Liv (though that never came out). And I hated the ending. Specifically, I hated Liv’s fate.
This is still a nice diversion if you’re a fan of Roald Dahl’s The Witches. I probably wouldn’t continue on more of the series (if there eventually are more). With Matt being as emotionless and ruthless as he was, I was never able to warm to him, even with his mother keeping him like a slave. Like Liv, it did disturb me that he really didn’t think anything of killing witches, regardless of them being bad.
4 stars
Category: YA
Note: Novella-length. I obtained a free copy via the author’s newsletter.
Summary: Liv lives in the quaint town of October Cove with her father who seems to have Alzheimer’s. But this Halloween odd people have been rolling into town, and there are more crows about, and there’s two odd teen boys, one of which claims to be Liv’s childhood best friend Matt, while the other goes by the name of Matt’s dog Weyland. Stranger still is that Matt died 9 years ago. The new Matt, claims to be a warlock and he’s back in October Cove to destroy all the evil witches in his family coven, especially his mother, and he needs Liv’s help to do it, to infiltrate the coven and destroy their sources of power.
Comments: I loved the spooky Halloween atmosphere in this story. There was much walking through the old historical graveyard, and along the deserted street with the dilapidated Frogley mansion. I loved the crows gathering, like out of the Hitchcock movie and I loved the gathering of the witches. The story, and especially the witches reminded me of Roald Dahl’s The Witches. Like the witches in that book, these witches are all warty underneath and make themselves up to look gorgeous. And the more powerful a witch is, the more fabulous she would look.
Now, I did have problems with the story. It had a lot of info dumping in dialogue. The larger issue is that the characters who were doing that info dumping lied about the info on quite a few occasions (I kid you not, they straight up lie to the heroine’s face about important facts). Info is a foundation of a story, and if the info isn’t correct and can’t be trusted, it means the foundation of the story crumbles. Wey tells Liv repeatedly that he hates her. But then at the end, he says that he doesn’t hate her. And he never really said why he hated her, he kept pushing off telling her why. So, does he or doesn’t he? It annoyed me each time the main heroine asked for an explanation and they refused to tell her. I’m a cards on the table person. Each time they push off telling the heroine something, it suggests they don’t have faith in the heroine understanding things like she’s an idiot, or they can’t be bothered to explain, making them look really callous. It’s bad writing whenever it’s done in books. Overall, the characters were one-dimensional. They were either good or bad, without really any middle ground, and no one was all that complex (which was sad since Silence was really a missed opportunity to be more than just a basic cliched mean girl and Cat in the Cradle had potential, too, beyond me just liking her stripes). No one had any character growth). I think what I was miffed about the most was that I never really got the sense of them being childhood friends. It felt more like a barely remembered acquaintance. As in, Matt never seemed to care all that much about Liv, except as a pawn. To the extent that I started to wonder if Matt and Wey were gay, which would have explained off his jealousy over Liv (though that never came out). And I hated the ending. Specifically, I hated Liv’s fate.
This is still a nice diversion if you’re a fan of Roald Dahl’s The Witches. I probably wouldn’t continue on more of the series (if there eventually are more). With Matt being as emotionless and ruthless as he was, I was never able to warm to him, even with his mother keeping him like a slave. Like Liv, it did disturb me that he really didn’t think anything of killing witches, regardless of them being bad.
Book Review: Snow White and the Eighth Dwarf
Snow White and the Eighth Dwarf by Suzie Quint
4 stars
Category: Adult
Note: Novella-length. I obtained a free copy via Prolific Works.
Summary: Deep in the woods lived seven male dwarves and one female dwarf who was queen of their house with all of the male dwarves eager to please her. And then Snow White happened upon their doorstep. All of the dwarves fall madly in love with her being royalty with a tragic tale. To the female eighth dwarf Bitchy, Snow White was the unwanted guest who just wouldn’t leave. Not only did she steal time with Grouchy and Bashful, Bitchy’s favorites, but she was hopeless at chores, and kept working on their heartstrings even more each time her evil witch of a step mother made an attempt on her life. Bitchy finally takes matters into her own hands and enlists the huntsman to bring back a rather dim-witted but charming prince to whisk Snow White away.
Comments: Raunchy, foul-mouthed (yes, lots of four-letter words in this), irreverent, and with a dark humor, but ultimately a hilarious different take on a classic. I loved the idea of seeing these fairytale princesses from the point of view of a regular woman. While Snow White is the typical Disney version, Bitchy is a take-charge (with limited patience) lady since she has to manage the household of seven men. I loved how she was convinced that Snow White wasn’t as pure as she seemed. I liked that she didn’t want Snow White actually dead, just out of her hair, so she did come to the princess’s rescue each time, and that the male dwarves were rather useless in figuring out what they needed to do to save her. I was surprised this didn’t go into being a reverse harem. I expected it straight through to the end of the story, but it never went down that direction (she was sleeping with them individually), and nothing was actually graphic. I did love the huntsman’s adventures of trying to bring back a rather dim-witted prince charming, which they weren’t even sure that he was the right prince charming. And I loved Bitchy complaining about how they couldn’t get Snow White to do even the most basic of chores without things going horribly wrong. I recommend this fun short read, if you don’t mind the swear words, and love raunchy dark humor spins to your Grimm tales.
4 stars
Category: Adult
Note: Novella-length. I obtained a free copy via Prolific Works.
Summary: Deep in the woods lived seven male dwarves and one female dwarf who was queen of their house with all of the male dwarves eager to please her. And then Snow White happened upon their doorstep. All of the dwarves fall madly in love with her being royalty with a tragic tale. To the female eighth dwarf Bitchy, Snow White was the unwanted guest who just wouldn’t leave. Not only did she steal time with Grouchy and Bashful, Bitchy’s favorites, but she was hopeless at chores, and kept working on their heartstrings even more each time her evil witch of a step mother made an attempt on her life. Bitchy finally takes matters into her own hands and enlists the huntsman to bring back a rather dim-witted but charming prince to whisk Snow White away.
Comments: Raunchy, foul-mouthed (yes, lots of four-letter words in this), irreverent, and with a dark humor, but ultimately a hilarious different take on a classic. I loved the idea of seeing these fairytale princesses from the point of view of a regular woman. While Snow White is the typical Disney version, Bitchy is a take-charge (with limited patience) lady since she has to manage the household of seven men. I loved how she was convinced that Snow White wasn’t as pure as she seemed. I liked that she didn’t want Snow White actually dead, just out of her hair, so she did come to the princess’s rescue each time, and that the male dwarves were rather useless in figuring out what they needed to do to save her. I was surprised this didn’t go into being a reverse harem. I expected it straight through to the end of the story, but it never went down that direction (she was sleeping with them individually), and nothing was actually graphic. I did love the huntsman’s adventures of trying to bring back a rather dim-witted prince charming, which they weren’t even sure that he was the right prince charming. And I loved Bitchy complaining about how they couldn’t get Snow White to do even the most basic of chores without things going horribly wrong. I recommend this fun short read, if you don’t mind the swear words, and love raunchy dark humor spins to your Grimm tales.
June 21, 2021
Book Review: Queen of the Two Lands: A Forgotten Gods Origin Story
Queen of the Two Lands: A Forgotten Gods Origin Story by Laura Greenwood
3 stars
Category: Adult
Note: short story
Summary & Comments: This is a quick short story starring Isis, the queen of the Egyptian gods. It basically follows her just after getting crowned with her husband, as she re-evaluates her married life, which feels more of a formality, and a rather stiff relationship and suggests to her husband that she would like a more loving relationship between the two of them. He’s in agreement, and there really isn’t anything standing in their way, aside from apparently having rather busy lives ruling (which we really don’t see), so there’s really no conflict in this. (As opposed to the abusive relationship between her sister Nephthys and Set). This is marketed as a fantasy romance, but honestly, I didn’t spot anything fantasy in this aside from the character names. I expected to see more of their life in Egypt and have the setting really brought to life around them, but it might as well not have been set there since the only things that are really mentioned are the robes and crowns, and the game of senet. The gods didn’t exhibit any powers, so aside from ruling, they really didn’t do anything else as gods. There is a lot of time spent on Nephthys and Set having an abusive relationship, but nothing is ever said concretely about why their relationship is so bad. I was more than a little bored that there really wasn’t more to the story beyond just trying to turn a frigid relationship into one with potentially love in it. And we don’t even really see them getting to know each other outside of one game. The largest issue I had with this was when we get to the epilogue, it skips right over a really big event and picks up just on the other side of it, leaving the audience scratching their head going, wait, what??? I paged back just to see if I accidentally skipped over a scene. In all, it didn’t sell me on continuing the series if it’s just going to focus on relationships, not add in fantasy elements, and skip over large events, like they’re not as important to the boring tepid relationship. (And for the short story length that it is, it’s over-priced at three dollars).
3 stars
Category: Adult
Note: short story
Summary & Comments: This is a quick short story starring Isis, the queen of the Egyptian gods. It basically follows her just after getting crowned with her husband, as she re-evaluates her married life, which feels more of a formality, and a rather stiff relationship and suggests to her husband that she would like a more loving relationship between the two of them. He’s in agreement, and there really isn’t anything standing in their way, aside from apparently having rather busy lives ruling (which we really don’t see), so there’s really no conflict in this. (As opposed to the abusive relationship between her sister Nephthys and Set). This is marketed as a fantasy romance, but honestly, I didn’t spot anything fantasy in this aside from the character names. I expected to see more of their life in Egypt and have the setting really brought to life around them, but it might as well not have been set there since the only things that are really mentioned are the robes and crowns, and the game of senet. The gods didn’t exhibit any powers, so aside from ruling, they really didn’t do anything else as gods. There is a lot of time spent on Nephthys and Set having an abusive relationship, but nothing is ever said concretely about why their relationship is so bad. I was more than a little bored that there really wasn’t more to the story beyond just trying to turn a frigid relationship into one with potentially love in it. And we don’t even really see them getting to know each other outside of one game. The largest issue I had with this was when we get to the epilogue, it skips right over a really big event and picks up just on the other side of it, leaving the audience scratching their head going, wait, what??? I paged back just to see if I accidentally skipped over a scene. In all, it didn’t sell me on continuing the series if it’s just going to focus on relationships, not add in fantasy elements, and skip over large events, like they’re not as important to the boring tepid relationship. (And for the short story length that it is, it’s over-priced at three dollars).
