Fantasy

B+
Keeper of Enchanted Rooms

Part mystery, all fantasy, a little bit romance and wholly whimsical, Charlie N. Holmberg’s Keeper of Enchanted Rooms is a great read for a cozy winter day curled in front of a fireplace with a steaming cup of hot chocolate. Writer Merritt Fernsby is stunned by his good fortune when his estrang ...

A
Poison

One of the most interesting things about fairytale retellings is seeing how authors use predictable elements in unpredictable ways, and Sarah Pinborough’s Poison is one of the best in that regard. The first in the Tales of the Kingdoms trilogy, it can be read as a standalone, but a twist in the en ...

B+
Jolene

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 Mou ...

B+
The Silvered Serpents

“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 ...

B+
Race the Sands

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 come back as heirs ...

B-
Chosen Ones

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 ...

A
The House in the Cerulean Sea

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 ...

B+
Highfire

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 ...

A-
Queen of Nothing

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. Un ...

B-
The Starless Sea

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 t ...