Categories
Historical Fiction Romance

The Hollow Queen

By Sherry D. Ficklin, Pub date 9/23/2019. Stolen Empire #5

3 Stars. Best enjoyed with a…um, prior knowledge…of how noble relationships worked back in the day.

Let me start this off by saying that Sherry Ficklin is a very talented author for three very good reasons. One, this is my first book by her and it wasn’t exactly clear that I had jumped into the second half of the series a book too late until I was well into it. She provides enough backstory to catch the reader up on what is going on, though. Two, She is able to tackle what some might find to be very dry material in a way that makes it still pretty interesting. Then again, I love reading about political intrigue in historical fiction. Lastly, she is able to take some usually unpalatable material slightly less palatable.

The Hollow Queen is the second book in the story of Princess Elizabeth, one of the last remaining Romanovs of the royal line. After the murder of her mother, Elizabeth wants to find out who is responsible. However, she is brutally stripped of her title and all its trappings when the throne is passed down to Elizabeth’s half nephew, Peter II. She is then sent to serve him at court, currently hosted by the brutal tyrant, Prince Meshikov. Expecting the worst of the new king, Elizabeth is pleasantly surprised by Peter’s disposition and character. Despite this revelation, her vengeance has yet to be satisfied, and as Peter and Elizabeth grow closer, it becomes clear the person behind her mother’s murder is closer than either of them think. As their feelings become stronger, so does the threat to their lives.

Although the story kept my attention, my interest was not exactly in the romance. Actually, the romance made me uncomfortable so I had to take a couple of stars off. I get it, though, this kind of thing happened pretty frequently back then. Everyone was pretty laissez-faire about it, which probably checks. However, for a modern reader who recognizes that this story is supposed to be a romantic historical retelling, I’m was not here for it and it literally made me squirm a few times. It just felt wrong.

Even if the romance was a little off putting, the overall story was still one that I wanted to finish and figure out. I probably will read the next one just to see Ficklin’s take on Elizabeth’s journey to the regency. I’m a fan of historic fiction, after all!

Thank you to Netgalley and Clean Teen Publishing for an advanced copy of The Hollow Queen in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Categories
Fantasy Romance

The Girl the Sea Gave Back

By Adrienne Young, Pub date September 3, 2019.

3 Stars. Best Enjoyed at Night by Firelight

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced reader copy in exchange for a fair and honest review–I had seriously been looking forward to this one and I could not wait. I absolutely loved Adrienne Young’s Sky in the Deep, so when I found out she was writing another in the same universe, I was stoked (to put it mildly).

The Girl the Sea Gave Back takes place 10 years after Sky in the Deep and focuses mainly on two people. The first is Halvard, the next chief in line to rule the Nādhir, the new tribe formed after the events in the previous book. The second is Tova, a young woman and Truthtongue (a type of seer) who washed up on the shores of a rival tribe, the Svell, to live in hostility and isolation outside of the chief’s village and protected only thinly by Jorrund, the Svell’s Tala (priest) and the brusque warrior, Gunther.

When the Svell chief’s brother decides to take it upon himself to enact war against the Nadhir against the wishes of the chief, they decide to ask the gods how to proceed. Hated by the Svell and seen only as a tool of inquiry into the future, Tova is brought in to cast her stones to and help determine what waging this war against the Nādhir would mean for them. Her cast reveals a dark future for the Svell if they decide to continue down this path…and the stones never lie. But will this prophecy be enough to stop the Svell from marching into Nadhir territory?

The book bounces not only jarringly between Halvard and Tova, but also back and forth in time. For roughly half the book, each alternating perspective rehashes what was shown in the last perspective, only from a different angle. Unfortunately, this drag was a huge downfall for the book. Eventually, it gets better and there is a ton of great information, but the best parts come far too late for this reader. There is also a massive cliffhanger that very clearly establishes this book as the first in a series. Given that, it does set a pretty strong precedence for the series itself. Unfortunately, for me, it wasn’t great as a standalone given all of the good stuff was concentrated near the end and although we get the story on Tova’s origins, we are left with massive and overarching questions.

Honestly, I had really been looking forward to this after reading Young’s debut. Although it was a bit of a let-down for me, that does not in any way mean that I will not be strongly anticipating the next book, nor that I do not recommend reading ALL OF HER WORK. Young is a very talented author and has definitely left me with some burning questions and has set us up for what I can only conclude will be a fantastic sequel.

Categories
Non Fiction

Morbid Magic

By Tómas Prower. Pub Date September 8, 2019.

4.5 Stars. Best Enjoyed Anytime Your Morbid Curiosity Taps on the Glass

Tómas Prower takes us on an amazing journey into the one of the most important, yet seemingly taboo, parts of life: Death. I have been enjoying this one for a month now. This is the reference book I didn’t know I needed in my life and I have learned so much so far and will probably need to buy copies for my close friends and relatives. It has seriously opened my eyes to various religious practices, deities associated with it across cultures, and how people around the world grieve. It has also broadened how I, myself, see the subject matter. As a professional in the funerary arts (after reading this I feel like that’s kind of what it is: an art), Prower has first-hand experience handling the complicated relationship most westerners have with dying, death, and the grief that we experience when our loved ones pass on to the next plane of existence.

Each chapter and section covers a different culture, starting with the ancient and moving into the modern, extrapolating out the belief systems surrounding death, the gods and goddesses involved, practices related to both the preparation of the body of the deceased, and the rituals that are undertaken by the living to ensure a good afterlife for the person whom has passed, providing some first and second-hand stories on how others have used the rituals and knowledge related to their own cultures to help them with their own experiences. He also gives tips regarding things we can do now to strengthen our own relationship to the inevitable and also to help plan fot it so that our families and friends can focus on grieving so they can live their own lives again. Not only does this book feed your morbid curiosity, but it also silently builds coping mechanisms.

For those of us who live in this giant melting pot of western culture, this guide to the world of death and varying religions is super important. Most of us do not talk about death enough and do not have a healthy relationship with it, but it is something we will periodically be exposed to it as both those who experience the loss of another and our own inevitably. Death doesn’t always have to be seen as morbid and taboo, it can also be seen as the end of a marvelous journey that we have all had the privilege of undertaking. By building a healthier relationship with the end, we can learn to celebrate and relish the adventure leading up to it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd. for the advanced reader copy in exchange for a fair and honest review!

Categories
Fantasy

The Blacksmith Queen

By G.A. Aiken. Pub Date August 27, 2019.

4 Stars. Best enjoyed when you need an adventure.

The Blacksmith Queen begins with a battle between brothers bent on slaying one another over the throne of their father. It’s a rather confusing, bloody scene with people getting slaughtered left and right. In the confusion, we find out that the kingdom’s witches, who are usually the ones to name the next king, have handed down an unlikely prophecy that states that the land will not be ruled by a king, but a queen. Not just any queen, but a peasant queen. Naturally, the brothers find it necessary to suss out the identity of this queen so that they can eliminate this threat to the throne that they are so willing to kill so many others for.

Of course, they think just because she’s a peasant it’s going to be easy. Spoiler Alert: it’s not. Especially not with Keeley, a talented, strong blacksmith and her scrappy family acting as a blockade to their success.

Without giving too much away–because there are plenty of unexpected twists and it would be SO EASY to spoil the heck out of this for you–there is a fantastic journey through Amichai lands (the mountainous area and home of dwarves, elves, centaurs, and barbarians which shares a border with the Hill Lands of the violent Old King), a bunch of fun characters and hilarity, as well as some visceral betrayal.

At first, I found it kind of hard to get into. I’m not usually into changing POVs, especially not ones that rapidly change like they did in this one which is why I gave it 3 stars initially, but I had to change that because the more I think about how much fun I had reading it, the less I felt confident that 3 was enough. The story gets so good that it starts to flow. Although I didn’t feel that happening until about 30% into it, it was worth sticking with it even with the few times when it seemed like editing was the last thought on the author’s mind. After that point I honestly could have read it in one sitting had I been given the chance. I literally laughed out loud a couple of times at some of the characters, like Keeley’s professional fighter cousin Keran, who was all about a good time and would have been 100% exasperating to actually travel with on this momentous adventure, but was definitely a point of comic relief for the reader. Plus, Kelley is so strong, good natured, and optimistic that I just wanted her to succeed in all of the things she did, which included the flirtations with the broody Caid. Also, the part with the dwarves? So great.

If you enjoy high fantasy, I strongly suggest you pick this one up. I can’t wait for the next book!

Thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Books for providing an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review!

Categories
Non Fiction

Chase Darkness With Me

By Billy Jensen. Pub Date August 13, 2019

5 Stars. Best enjoyed in the dark.

I’d like to preface this review by saying I’m a Murderino, a term adopted by “My Favorite Murder” listeners and fans as a calling card of the subset of people in our society who are fascinated by true crime, mostly by the heinous act of murder, what leads to it, what makes a murderer tick, and finding justice for victims. As I sit here typing my thoughts–days after finishing Jensen’s book–I am watching season 2 of Mindhunter, with BAU agents Ford and Tensch (Jonathan Groff and Hold McCallany) questioning a rather convincing David Berkowitz, the “Son of Sam”, played by a prosthetics-clad Oliver Cooper (whom– oddly enough–you won’t find credited in IMDB, even though he does a fantastic job).

That said, as a Murderino, I’m naturally inclined toward a morbid curiosity, one which so often draws me to stories of true crime. I’m also a fan of supporting the interests of our niche community, of which Billy Jensen is a part. However, that does not in any way mean that this book does not fully earn the 5 stars that I have given it, nor that I let that influence me–matter of fact, it made me extra critical. What it does mean is that my interests in it are driven by my own aforementioned inclinations and, quite frankly, whenever I had the chance to pick this up it was often difficult to set it back down.

Chase Darkness With Me is one part memoir, one part true crime anthology, one heaping scoop of how-to manual, and a dash of in memoriam for a fallen friend. It covers pieces of Jensen’s young life, including how he became interested in true crime and his beginnings as a journalist, eventually moving into the convergence of the two halves. As he progresses, it becomes clear how entwined these two pieces became as he tells us bits of his personal life in between descriptions of the murder and missing persons cases he worked on. Some of these cases were rather high-profile. Not just the GSK, but also the Allentown Murders investigation (known by some as the Bear Creek case) and the Pulse Nightclub mass shooting (which happened while he was on vacation in Orlando), among others. However, he mostly wanted to help with the less high-profile cases, the ones that weren’t getting media exposure and were, therefore, less likely to be solved without some help. He described the way in which he was involved and the techniques he used to bring attention and much-needed tips for finding the identity of perpetrators and information on where missing persons were last seen.

It also talks about his relationship with his friend and professional partner, the late Michelle McNamara, the brilliant mind whose interest and in-depth investigation into the East Area Rapist/Original Night Stalker–whom she coined the “Golden State Killer”–eventually helped to catch the serial offender behind these crimes. Although her partial victory was posthumous, through Jensen we get some insight into who McNamara was to her friends and family and how massively important her legacy was. We get the chance to witness the excitement on the night GSK was captured and justice could finally be served for so many victims and their families.

There is a lot of information within these pages and Jensen does not hide his reasoning behind writing it. As a front-lines champion of crowd source criminal investigation and a forefather of social media tip campaigns, his main interest is the recruitment of the right kind of people to help along investigations in the same way that he has done. It’s too much for one man to take on and too many people are getting away with literal murder every year. The homicide detectives charged with investigating these murders are often so buried that they don’t always have the time or manpower required to do so, especially as crime doesn’t take a day off. However, the victims and their families need justice, and there are things that civilians can do to help, even if it feels like something small. Jensen provides a step by step guide to those who wish to contribute in the same way he has, which has proven successful on more than one occasion, but definitely isn’t for the undedicated or faint of heart.

Chase Darkness With Me is a not necessarily a window into Jensen’s life and passion, it is more like a sliding glass door. He beckons us towards it, allowing us to see not only the things he has experienced and been involved in, but also the details into his methodology–the ways in which he has accomplished the things he’s done. He then asks those who are brave enough to come out of their comfort zone–to grip the handle of this door, slide it open, and follow his lead–and help him chase the darkness.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for providing an advanced copy in exchange for a fair and honest review!

Categories
Adventure Fantasy Romance

Song of the Abyss

By Makiia Lucier, Pub Date August 27, 2019.

3.5 Stars. Best enjoyed on a beach or on a boat and with a sense of adventure.

I’d like to preface this review by stating that although this book is a sequel t0 the Tower of Winds, it is not necessary to read the first book prior to this one. Although the del Marians often elude to events that happened in the first book, the storytelling in this one is not dependent on that and the story does truly stand on its own. Reyna is a mapmaker for the kingdom of St. John del Mar. During one of her adventures, her ship is overtaken by a mysterious group led by a distinctive leader with an interesting sword topped by a chrysanthemum. The men aboard her ship, seemingly in a trance, transfer themselves to the ships of the ruffians that had overtaken them and Reyna escapes into the unforgiving sea. She finds her way to the kingdom of Lunes where she meets a handsome stranger, Levi. This young man invariably turns out to be a Lunesian prince, and he at first distrusts this strange girl who washed up in his harbor and tries to hold her for questioning. After a small coup, she escapes her hospitable captors and returns to St. John del Mar where she puzzles out who could have possibly taken her crew. While home, Lord Elias and her childhood friend, Jaime–two very important people in Reyna’s life–take a ship of their own to investigate the maritime kidnappers…and fail to return. It is up to Reyna to band together with Prince Levi, whose own brother, Asher, also disappears while on his way back to Lunes. They must search for their lost loved ones in the distant, isolated, and lush kingdom that was once thought to be legend, and figure out what this leader did with the people they care about before they are lost forever.

Overall, Song of the Abyss was pretty good. The first half of it is where most of my issues stem from, and it’s mostly just because it’s super slow up until Levi and Reyna travel. I admittedly struggled to get into it because it seemed like there was a lot of people judging Reyna as only being ‘pretty’ and not recognizing her value as a scholar. Although this is kind of how the world worked in any other time setting, it was nonetheless a bit of a distraction from the adventure itself. There was also a little bit of insta-love, will they/won’t they, which I can take or leave that could have been written better. Maybe that’s a little nitpick-y, but I just wasn’t into it.

However, the last half of the book really started to amp up and the totality of the story was completely redeemed for me, starting with the maelstrom, which caught my attention and made me snap to attention and took my imagination for a ride. The remainder of the book took place in a once-mythical kingdom and their culture, which seemed to be a mix of Egyptian, Ancient Chinese, and Ancient Central American cultures. This is where palace intrigue, and world building sunk its teeth into me and I couldn’t put the book down until I was done.

The world, the characters, and the various locations are all described in detail and the main characters are fleshed out nicely. If you need to top off your summer reading list, I recommend this satisfying fantasy that will take you on an interesting adventure.

Thank you to Netgalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for providing an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review!

Categories
Children's Books Fantasy Historical Fiction

Fledgling: Sorcery and Society Book 2

By Molly Harper

4 Stars, best with a cup of tea and a sense of wonder.

Fledgling is the second book in the Changeling series by Molly Harper and tackles Sarah Smith Cassandra Reed’s second year at Miss Castwell’s Institute for the Magical Instruction of Young Ladies in an alternative Victorian England where the magical ruling class, or the Guardians, rule the non-magical servant class, or the Snipes. Although I did not have the chance to read and review the first book in the series, I was nonetheless sucked into this book and it gave me enough background to feel like I could understand the world that Harper built within the confines of the previous story.

Cassandra Reed, known by only her closest confidants for who she really is, Sarah Smith, is back at Miss Castwell’s navigating the society in which she has been thrust. Between her duties as a student, the Translator (the chosen keeper of the Mother Book, a tome that contains all of the history of the magical world), a new member of Guardian society, and what looks like the start of a courtship between her and Gavin McCray, her plate is overflowing and her secret mission to find more Changelings like herself has to take the shelf for the time being–something that the Mother Book itself resents. However, when the girls decide to try a divination spell during their study group, Cassandra is hit with a horrible vision of things to come if she isn’t able to find the other Changelings she is supposed to be looking for. Cassandra and her best friends Ivy and Alicia take it upon themselves to search out the rumored changeling school situated in Scotland where Alicia’s family summers. It’s a secret and dangerous mission, but the girls are running out of time, and if the visions are correct, the very world they know depends on them.

I really enjoyed this book a ton. It reminded me of Harry Potter meets A Great and Terrible Beauty. I love stories that are set in Victorian England and I also love stories involving magic. Although this is for a younger group of readers, it really was a fantastic read for any age and I have every intention of going back and reading the first. It had me from get-go. There is also a classist political element to it that I thought was an interesting take, namely the Snipes vs Guardians and the balance on their relationship, and also how Cassandra wanted to find a way to blur the lines and make life better for both sides.

Fledgling was a great book and I highly recommend you pick up a copy for that preteen in your life.

Thank you Netgalley & NYLA for an advanced copy in exchange for a fair & honest review!

Categories
Historical Fiction Romance

Highland Captive

By Alyson McLayne

4 Stars. Best enjoyed with a glass of wine behind a locked door. 

This book is #4 in The Sons of Gregor MacLeod series, although it can be read as a standalone, which is exactly how I read it. 

Laird Gavin MacLeod is looking for his son who has been lost the last two years after being taken away from the site of a clan gathering following the death of his distant and cold wife from the plague. His single minded search for Ewan MacLeod has turned him into a bitter and angry man, blind to anything other than finding his heir and holding him in his arms again. Little does he know that his young son has been given to the care of Lady Deidre MacIntyre under the guise of him being a bastard son of her own husband. Lady MacIntyre has grown to deeply love the young boy who so lovingly calls her ‘mother’ and the child is the only thing in the MacIntyre estate—in her very life—that she cares about. When Laird MacLeod storms the estate for the boy, Deidre refuses to let the child go without her, and Gavin MacLeod is forced to take his son’s adoptive mother with him, albeit reluctantly. 

As Gavin gets to know Deidre and sees the love she has for his son, feelings begin to stir deeply within his heart—and lower—feelings he hasn’t had for anyone in quite a few years. Feelings that Deidre’s own body echoes back in secret. However, the kidnapping of Deidre begins the stirrings of a war between the patriarch of the MacIntyre clan and that of her family, while there are also parties in the shadows who have been scheming against Gregor MacLeod and his foster sons, including Gavin. Will Deidre and Gavin’s feelings remain unrequited or will the growing feelings of love and physical attraction give them the strength to conquer all?

I really did love this story and I’ll tell you what—Alyson McLayne knows how to write a steamy love scene! Good Glory! The characterizations were deep and meaningful and the growing feelings between Deidre and Gavin weren’t instant, which I always appreciate. Both of the main characters had a lot of their own demons to overcome, both inner and outer. I also love stories where the heroine is well read and the Highland Captive delivered this, along with a fierce and protective hero who could seriously rev some engines! 

The plot was fast paced and many of the characters were both relatable and likeable when they needed to be, and repulsive and unlikeable when it called for it. I had a ton of sympathy for Deidre’s life—she had it rough—but she also more than overcame it with a little encouragement from Gavin and grew to be less timid as the story went on, which is believable and often happens when someone who is pushed into the shadows is brought back into the sun. 

Although I have not read McLayne’s other works, you can bet that I’ll be picking up the others in short order!

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Categories
Horror

Small Spaces

By Katherine Arden.

4 Stars. Best enjoyed with a handful of trail mix on a chilly fall evening

Olivia—who prefers Ollie–was different a year ago before she lost her mom. Since then, she quit chess club and most social activities and has retreated into books. On her way home one day after an incident at school involving another girl being teased and a rock thrown well and true at one of the purported instigators by Ollie herself, she stumbles upon a distressed woman in the woods. As the woman holds a small black book over Lethe Creek, Ollie snatches the endangered tome from her and brings the mysterious book home. The story it tells is a strange one involving someone known as the Smiling Man, an entity that makes deals with those who are desperate in exchange for service. The fantastical tale seems to follow her on a class trip the next day, and when the bus breaks down on their way home and the world starts to turn sideways, Ollie, accompanied by her classmates Coco and Brian, needs to use all of her knowledge, wits, and cleverness to get her and the rest of her classmates back to their own world and out of the grip of an entity that seems to have jumped right from the pages of the book she rescued from a watery grave.

I truly loved Arden’s first foray into children’s fiction. I found the team of young preteens to have some serious moxie and I loved how they got to know one another and use their hidden strengths and talents to survive in a mysterious world where they were hunted by scarecrows that turned out to be more than that. It was a story of love and acceptance and moving forward through grief. The characters had depth and Ollie was my spirit animal and is exactly the kind of kid I hope for someday. Ollie’s dad was also such a cool character with his love of crafts, baking, color, and amazing and corny dad jokes.  I really grew to love Ollie’s companions, Coco and Brian, as well. Their adventures take them from being three very different acquaintances to three members of a survival team who grow to care for one another as friends. The alternate world that they slide into is interesting and well built, and the ending is very surprising. 

I truly recommend this book to all young girls as a reminder that being smart and brave can make all the difference and to never let anything take their spark or make them go against their moral compass.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and Penguin Group in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Categories
Horror

The Toll

By Cherie Priest

2 Stars. Best enjoyed on a hot, humid day with a cool glass of iced tea and a sense of mystery and a lot of patience.

Titus and Melanie Bell are on their way to their honeymoon in the Okefenokee swamp when they reach a strange bridge that is entirely out of place. In trying to cross the bride, something strange occurs and Titus wakes up in the middle of the road and there is no sign of his new bride.  With no recollection of what happened beyond the strange trip over the bridge, Titus must stay in the nearby and strange town of Staywater while the local police try to piece together what might have happened to his wife. However, Titus wants to figure out the strange occurrences that have taken his wife from him as well, and the residents of Staywater know more than what they are telling him.

Although the story was alright, there were some spots that were so slow that I really considered DNFing it, but I was determined to know the answer to all the mysteries. The town of Staywater itself was a neatly situated intersection of the supernatural, paranormal, and forgotten, dying backwater town. The characters were interesting and had depth, especially the witchy cousins. There were so many main characters and stories going on at once, though, that at times it was enticing and others it was way too much and it felt like the wrong stories were being focused on. Although I was glad I stuck around to the end and the ‘final showdown,’ it still felt sort of lackluster and unsatisfying to me. 

Not everything about it was unreadable, though. The best part of the book were the parts with the cousins. I really wanted more of them. Their banter was great, their history was pretty cool, and they reminded me of the mythological Fates from Greece. The town was also very cool, especially the abandoned places and the part of the story regarding the ‘dollhouse’. I felt more could have been done with it. The majority of the other main characters  weren’t very likeable and with the exception of Dave, whom I grew to like a lot more as the story progressed. Cameron was mostly a whiney teenager, though I did enjoy his evolution near the end. Titus kind of sucked and I definitely didn’t get the feeling he liked his new wife, let alone cared if she showed back up. It seemed like it was more of an obligation than anything else. I was really hoping he would show more depth and feeling, but by the end I just kind of hoped he would get taken by whatever was controlling the bridge. 

Ultimately, the real stars of this book are Staywater, Daisy, and Claire. The rest is just background noise. 

I received an advanced copy from Netgalley and Macmillan TOR/Forge in exchange for a fair and honest review.