Isaiah Roby's Blog: MI Book Reviews, page 6

Healing Crystals & Other Breakables

“A traumatized healer shatters her crystals as her party faces a dragon. A witch seeks to break a curse she accidentally cast as a teen. Hera approaches a divorce lawyer to break her marriage to Zeus. A hero re-evaluates his options after one too many broken bones. A paladin quests to break a string of drownings.

Healing Crystals & Other Breakables is a primarily fantasy short story collection exploring the desire to break things and their consequences, intentional or not.”

I got an ARC...

“A traumatized healer shatters her crystals as her party ...

“A traumatized healer shatters her crystals as her party faces a dragon. A witch seeks to break a curse she accidentally cast as a teen. Hera approaches a divorce lawyer to break her marriage to Zeus. A hero re-evaluates his options after one too many broken bones. A paladin quests to break a string of drownings.

Healing Crystals & Other Breakables is a primarily fantasy short story collection exploring the desire to break things and their consequences, intentional or not.”

I got an ARC...

Second Coming

“In this dark fable set in Victorian England, seven-year-old heiress Melissa Hawthorne is confronted with loneliness when she is uprooted from her comfortable countryside existence to a London boarding school, where headmistress Miss Grandine flatters her while harboring jealousy and dislike. A dislike that balloons into open hostility when Melissa’s father loses his fortune and dies tragically, leaving her a penniless charity pupil completely at Miss Grandine’s mercy. Little does she know that ...

An Appreciation of Cats

“How do we know if it’s too late?

Dr. Ian Devonshire, the beloved veterinarian of Holly Grove, is sixty-eight with no plans to retire—until a skin exam ends with an unexpected biopsy. Ian tells no one, privately worrying about what a worst-case scenario would mean for his practice and, more importantly, his assistant, Dr. Alec Tarley.

Ian isn’t sure if Alec’s friendliness means what he hopes it does, though it wouldn’t matter if it did; Ian is old enough to be Alec’s father, and as his bos...

“How do we know if it’s too late?Dr. Ian Devonshire, the ...

“How do we know if it’s too late?

Dr. Ian Devonshire, the beloved veterinarian of Holly Grove, is sixty-eight with no plans to retire—until a skin exam ends with an unexpected biopsy. Ian tells no one, privately worrying about what a worst-case scenario would mean for his practice and, more importantly, his assistant, Dr. Alec Tarley.

Ian isn’t sure if Alec’s friendliness means what he hopes it does, though it wouldn’t matter if it did; Ian is old enough to be Alec’s father, and as his bos...

The Eyes are the Best Part

This was a a great, atmospheric and truly creepy read that passed by in a flash, and while I greatly enjoyed it for the majority of the time, I had some mixed feelings at the end.

Crying in H-Mart meets My Sister, the Serial Killer in this feminist psychological horror about the making of a female serial killer from a Korean-American perspective.

Ji-won’s life tumbles into disarray in the wake of her appa’s extramarital affair and subsequent departure. Her mother, distraught. Her younger sist...

Unapologetic Love Unapologetic Love: A Charity Anthology of Radical ResilienceUnapologetic Love

“Twenty-one tales of self-love, sensuality, and community come from all across the globe to stand together as a timeless reflection of the human condition.

Unapologetic Love: A Charity Anthology of Radical Resilience is a beacon of hope, proving that the boldest form of radicalism is unapologetically living your truth.

Contributing Authors include Caleb L. Ambrose, Océane Anagonye, Cheyenne Browning, Kay Claire, J.S. Crawford, Des DeVivo, Cassandra Diviak, Gabriel Hargrave, Alex La Bruyère, Adrien...

Their Blood Queen

“They’re coming.
Monsters Three.
It’s Monsters Night and they’re after me.
One has claws.
One has fangs.
The third is terror incarnate, and it’s me he’ll claim.

I said the curse.
Three names of Blood.

A dedication. A desecration.

Nemmus. Nefarus. And Nood.

I wanted my enemies dead.

I wanted revenge.

It was Monsters Night and it sounded like a fun game.

Except no one is left laughing—no one except the monsters in my head.

The question is, did I imagine them?

Or perhaps… I’m t...

A Sharp Endless Need

“Star point guard Mack Morris’s senior year of high school begins with twin cataclysms: the death of Mack’s father and the arrival of transfer student Liv Cooper. Playing side by side for their high school basketball team, Mack and Liv discover an electrifying, game-winning chemistry on the court. Off the court, they fall into an equally intoxicating more-than-friendship—one that feels out-of-bounds in their small Pennsylvania town. Mack teeters on the precipice of adulthood as desire and grief ...

I Want to Hold Your Hand

“Is one afternoon enough to find love?

Gemma Pierce, a heartbroken, adventurous septuagenarian, visits the cozy town of Juniper Creek to recover from a messy breakup, and the last thing she anticipates is holding hands with a stranger for the afternoon. But maybe connecting with a stranger is exactly what Gem needs to find her way back to herself. As long as she can figure out what she truly wants before the afternoon is over . . .

“I Want to Hold Your Hand” is a heartwarming short story s...