Amber Chen’s Of Jade and Dragons is the sort of novel I would have loved back when I was fourteen. At its best, it’s a YA Mulan with delightful worldbuilding and a compelling mystery to be solved, but at its worst… well, we’ll get into that. Eighteen-year-old Aihui Ying is the oldest daughter of an…
I knew by page two that I would struggle to get through Anacostia Miller’s The Last Leviathan, what appears to be the unfortunate first entry into a series I can only hope is short. Because holy cow, the writing is… rough. So rough. And sadly, nothing else about the book comes close to making up…
NOTE: This review will contain spoilers from books one and two of the Vicious Lost Boys series and profane material quoted from the book. You’ve been warned. Imagine, if you will, that you’ve ordered the most luscious banana split sundae. The server brings it to you and you pick up your spoon, so excited to…
I gave The Never King, book one in this series a very ambivalent B- because 1) I was entertained and 2) I was compelled to read the next title to see what happened next. Alas, I am 1) no longer entertained and 2) so appalled by the rampant misogyny in The Dark One that I…
What was Maria Vale, she of the incredible shifter series The Legend of All Wolves, thinking? Who decides to make Azrael, the angel of death, an awkward and surprisingly, given his immortality, clueless romance hero? And to have him fall for his second (since the beginning of time) mistake, a mouthy, part-time stripper who struggles…
Now this is some good writing! Beastly Beauty is fantastically crafted, with some sharp prose and an enrapturing tale. While it definitely leans toward the younger side of the YA scale, it’s a creative and absorbing story fit for all ages. Arabella labors under a curse placed upon her as a youth by a furious…
Prior to reading the ridiculously entertaining The Deer and the Dragon, the last time I’d thought about the Phoenicians was in ninth grade in our study of the world’s early civilizations. Nor had I given much thought to Jainism or Ba’al and his consort Astarte. Not so Piper CJ–thank the gods. Fluent in myriad ancient…
This book may quite possibly be the hardest one to grade in my career as a reviewer. Given the level of pure misogyny, the sex acts that I (me, myself and I) found very distasteful, and a screaming plot hole that kind of renders the whole book moot, The Never King should receive a flat…
I fell under the spell of this book! I enjoyed Kiss and Spell so much, and got really interested in the world and the spellcraft of this series. I love a protagonist you can root for, and down-on-her-luck Ursula is certainly one of those. Jilted by her fiancé and with her life in pieces around…
I’ve enjoyed a number of Rachel Ember’s contemporary romances – her Wild Ones series was my introduction to her work – and I’ve been wondering for a while if she had anything new planned. Then Undertow popped up for review. It’s a fantasy romance set in a world of endless seas inhabited by terrifying monsters,…
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