Shades of Milk and Honey is billed as “the fantasy novel you’ve always wished Jane Austen had written,” and for once, the marketing is right on the money. Jane Ellsworth is the plain sister, but also the talented one. Whereas younger sister Melody has genuine beauty, Jane has the gift of glamour, the ability to…
Let’s start with the concept behind In the Vanisher’s Palace: it’s an f/f retelling of Beauty and the Beast in a hybrid sci-fi/fantasy setting infused with Vietnamese culture and fairy tales. I was extremely excited by this, and on the whole, I wasn’t disappointed. The devastating “breaking of the world” by an alien race known…
Awesome! Fantastic! Riveting! Buy this book! That’s the review I want to write for Emerald Blaze. Since AAR requires that I write a slightly more detailed exposé, those interested in why they should make this purchase may find out more below. This is book five of the Hidden Legacy series, and my review necessarily contains…
Shannon: Phoenix Unbound, the prequel to Dragon Unleashed was my first experience with Grace Draven’s writing, and I was beyond impressed by the novel. This, the second book in the series, is set in the same world, but has little noticeable carry-over from the first book. I think readers could easily start with Dragon Unleashed without…
Thief of Dreams, book one in Bec McMasters Court of Dreams series originally appeared in the Of Thrones and Crowns anthology in 2019 and was republished separately earlier this year. It’s novella length and sets up the storyline that will (I suspect) run throughout what I believe is going to be a trilogy, so while…
I’ve been enjoying Jeffe Kennedy’s Uncharted Realms fantasy romance series since I picked up The Crown of the Queen, a bridging novel between the author’s Twelve Kingdoms series (which I’ve yet to read) and her Uncharted Realms series (which I’ve now read almost to completion). The end of that series is out now (The Fate…
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…
In Tara Quan’s magical world, there are elementals, who can harness the powers of things like ice and earth, and there are familiars, shape-shifting witches who ground and channel the gifts of elementals and keep them from going off the rails. Mina Mao is a familiar, and she’s also a frustrated and under-utilized support employee…
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…
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…