SUMMARY In an alternate steampunk 1800s London, a young surgeon-to-be Jonathon is required to find the cure to a deadly illness affecting the world’s women by competing in an parallel world’s competition of illusion creating, but there’s more to illusions and other worlds than meets the eye. WORLDBUILDING Oh my god where do I even […]
Genre: Fantasy & Magic
ARC Book Review: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas
SUMMARY A Court of Thorns and Roses is a lush, highly imaginative and somewhat original fairie story inspired by East of the Sun and West of the Moon (which is one of my favourites) and Tam-Lin. Some say it’s also inspired by Beauty and the Beast but since East of the Sun and West of […]
ARC Book Review: Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge
You’d be entirely forgiven for thinking that Crimson Bound had something to do with Hodge’s first novel, Cruel Beauty. Both books reference red on the cover. Both cover make use of the initials CB Both books use the same font for the title Both books feature a spiral on the cover With a girl wearing […]
Book Review: Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge
SUMMARY Nyx Triskelion has been raised her entire life to prepare to kill her husband, the Gentle Lord, king of demons and responsible for cursing her world. But when she arrives at his house, she finds not everything is what she’s been led to believe. A tale inspired by Beauty and the Beast. WORLDBUILDING I […]
Book Review: The Ruby Circle by Richelle Mead
SUMMARY Sydney and Adrian search for a kidnapped Jill but are sidetracked by various obstacles. Someone’s out to get revenge on Sydney while Adrian tries to limit his magic use. WORLDBUILDING What can I say about Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy world that I haven’t said before? I’m taken with it. Smitten. If a fake world […]
ARC Review: Shadow Study (Study #4/ Soulfinders #1) by Maria V Snyder
SUMMARY Yelena, Valek, Janco and the gang return in this fast-paced, action-oriented fantasy novel as Yelena struggles to find out what caused her magic to disappear and who is attempting to murder her, Valek deals with a cocky new assassin after his job, and Janco must find out who is smuggling illegal goods into and […]
Book Review: Ice Study by Maria V Snyder
Ice Study is a recently expanded re-write of the previous Ice Study and serves as a prequel of sorts to Shadow Study. In it, Yelena and Valek must overcome a powerful magician set on reclaiming an artefact known as the Ice Moon, which has the ability to destroy all magic in the world, and even […]
Review: Power Study by Maria V Snyder
A fun little look at mostly Janco’s point of view as they are recruited by a Sitian magician to help hunt down a powerful blood weapon being abused by a green Sitian rookie. I’ll be honest, Janco got on my nerves a bit. I like Ari’s calm stoicness. Janco never knows when to shut up […]
Book Review: Fire Study by Maria V Snyder
SUMMARY Everyone wants to kill Yelena, and she’s hunted some kind of fire demon from hell whilst trying to bring peace to both Sitia and Ixia and finding her true calling as a Soulfinder. WORLDBUILDING I’m not sure what more there is to say of worldbuilding that spans the entire series, but I can say […]
ARC Book Review: The Winner’s Crime by Marie Rutkoski
DNF at 25% SUMMARY Poor tragic Kestral has tied herself into a marriage with someone she doesn’t love to save someone she does. WORLDBUILDING Like, whatever. Fuck your fake version of slavery. CHARACTER Fuck Kestral, too. At 25%, which is where I put this book down once and for all nearly in tears, she casually […]