Rust in the Root does not take place in the same universe as Justina Ireland’s paranormal historical duology Dread Nation/Deathless Divide, which both earned DIKs here. This book can’t possibly be as good as those, right? Surprise! It’s even better. In a magic-infused alternate history, the U.S. of the 1930s was blighted by the Great…
What a charming, imaginative book! The League of Gentlewoman Witches continues the Dangerous Damsels series with fun and aplomb. Want a romance about a witch and a pirate? Then look no further. Miss Charlotte Pettifer is the future leader of the titular league, and prophesized heiress of Black Beryl, and thus she has the awesome…
Elisabeth Hobbes dips her toes into the historical fiction side of the writing pool with Daughter of the Sea, the tale of a foundling and the woman who takes her in. This pretty, lyrical tale is honest and lovely, with some perfect prose imagery. Effie Cropton has a sailor husband and an infant son named…
Transporting Shakespeare’s The Tempest into a 1920s setting and retrofitting the story into one of an established blood family versus a found one is not an easy feat – and its one Samantha Cohoe attempts with limited success in Bright Ruined Things. The tension in the mystery plot is palpable and the hero is interesting,…
Women’s fiction hides under the guise of fantasy and romance in The Midnight Bargain, a sometimes clever but disappointingly never wise, novel. Beatrice Clayborn is in town for bargaining season in Chasland, aka The Season in Regency England + Magic. She wants books not a husband, because a husband will put a literal collar on…
Daughters of Jubilation is a powerful read. Imbued with a beautiful, graceful sense of strength, it comes out swinging with a heroine who has a wonderfully memorable voice. Sixteen-year-old Evalene – Evvie – Deschamps is growing up in a Jim Crow Era mid-south, helping to care for her younger twin half-sisters, crushing on cool older…
I knew going in that Romanov would be an emotional read. A fantasy novel about the Russian royal family’s incarceration told from the view point of Grand Duchess Anastasia, it could hardly be a cheery book; after all, the horrifying historical ending to that imprisonment is common knowledge. However, in the first half of this…
Well. It’s unusual, at least. Belinda Primrose is a spy and assassin for Lorraine, the queen of a country on a map that looks suspiciously like 1588 Europe. Belinda is also a magician (called witchlords in this alternate historical fantasy), and happens to be Lorraine’s bastard daughter, the progeny of the Virgin Queen and her…
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