No, the title isn’t fooling you. Jolene is indeed – at least in part – a fantasy retelling of Dolly Parton’s seminal country tale about a woman begging a mysterious, gorgeous woman not to take her man – though the tale also takes inspiration from the Russian folk tale Queen of the Copper Mountain. In…
“If there were stairs to hell, would you venture down those?” one character asks another in The Silvered Serpents. “It would depend on what was inside hell and if I needed it” the other answers. This is the perfect descriptor of the issue at the heart of this novel. Our team needs The Divine Lyrics,…
Race the Sands is a sweet, mythical tale of friendship and family which celebrates the joy of finding your place – and your people – in the world. In the kingdom of Becar how you conduct yourself in this life determines who – or what – you come back as in your next. The worthy…
If you’re a fan of young adult dystopian novels, you’re probably very familiar with some of Veronica Roth’s work. Her latest offering, Chosen Ones, is pretty different from her previous books, most notably, because it’s aimed at an adult audience – although there’s nothing I’d consider inappropriate for younger readers. It also uses a trope…
The House in the Cerulean Sea is just lovely! My heart is so full and happy after reading this enchanting story by TJ Klune. I can’t wait to read it again! Linus Baker, forty-year-old bachelor and cat-owner, is a caseworker for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth (DICOMY), and his job is to visit…
Artemis Fowl creator Eoin Colfer turns his hand to adult fantasy in this amusing piece of work that’s a southern fried Howard the Duck, a shade Dragonheart, and all original. Vodka-loving, pop-culture immersed Vern – Formerly Wyvern, Lord Highfire of the Highfire Eyrie – is a dragon who’s been hidden away from human eyes for…
This review contains spoilers for the first two books in The Folk of Air series. At the end of The Wicked King, the second book in Black’s marvelous The Folk of the Air series, Cardan, the King of Faerie, banishes Jude to the mortal world decreeing: “I exile Jude Duarte to the mortal world. Until…
Any novel by Erin Morgenstern is going to be a puzzle box of emotions, humor, slippery and sweet storytelling; an illusory tale through a dreamscape. The Starless Sea continues in the vein of the atmosphere begun by The Night Circus, though I must report it is – tragically – a step down from that book’s…
The Cruel Prince and The Wicked King are the first two books in a fantasy series by Holly Black. I advise you to quit reading this review and, instead, find a way to get your hands on both books. Still here? OK. That’s on you. Prior to reading these cracktastic books, I’d read one other Black…
The novels of Garth Nix have provided me with a successful blend of fantasy and romance in the past, so I was excited to try his new series set in an entirely new fantasy world. After unleashing an angelic plague that turned the entire population of Ystara into either ravening beastlings or piles of dead gray…