The Goddess Gets Her Guy is a romance of supreme silliness and goofiness – an alright journey with a message that love isn’t bound by class or status. But its extremely lightweight nature and total inability to stand on its own without having read…well, almost everything else the author’s produced – provide enough drawbacks to…
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…
Sweep of the Blade is the swashbuckling conclusion to the romance of Arland and Maude, which began in One Fell Sweep, book three of the Innkeeper Chronicles. It very much reads like the completion to their love story, so I would recommend starting the saga at its very beginning with Clean Sweep. There are a…
Flamebringer is the richly imagined, lushly magical conclusion to the Heartstone trilogy, in which we join Aliza and Alistair almost immediately after the events in Dragonshadow. All of the world and character building take place in the first two novels, so potential readers will definitely want to begin with Heartstone. Having been warned of a…
Set in an alternate Victorian-ish (or possibly Regency-ish) era, Sharon Lynn Fisher’s The Absinthe Earl starts out as an okay fantasy romance, although some stiff prose and awkward worldbuilding drag the entire production down. Then the novel introduces a mentally ill character doused in ‘mad queen’ tropes, whose symptoms manifest themselves through uncontrollable and sometimes…
Good, original fantasy worldbuilding is so much harder than it seems. Kingdom of Exiles is set in an interesting and unique world that I was excited to read and look forward to spending more time in. Leena is a Charmer, which means she has the ability to forge a magical connection with supernatural creatures and…
I’ve had some occasional exposure to Jeffe Kennedy’s work through fantasy anthologies, but this is the first full-length book I’ve read. Judging by how well The Orchid Throne turned out, I have a new fantasy author to add to my TBR shelf. Sixteen years earlier, a despot rose to power in the kingdom of Ackis….
Princess. Tribute. Sacrifice. Is she the one prophesied to unite two warring Fae courts? Or the one bound to destroy them? In a realm ruled by magic, the ruthless Queen of Thorns is determined to destroy her nemesis, the cursed Prince of Evernight. With war brewing between the bitter enemies, the prince forces Queen Adaia…
May Peterson’s début novel, Lord of the Last Heartbeat, is an intricately constructed gothic fantasy with an intriguing storyline, set in a world that reminded me somewhat of eighteenth century Italy where dark secrets lurk behind the scenes, political backstabbing is rife and influential families jostle for power. Adding to that particular vibe is the…
Jenn Bennett evokes classic movies and stories of derring-do in her latest novel, Lady Rogue. Set in Europe in 1937, this fun twist on the treasure hunting tales of yore is laden with romance, adventure, and just a touch of magic. The last time Theo (Theodora) Fox saw sexy Irish hunk Huck Gallagher she’d been…