Whenever a new King Arthur retelling releases, I trip over myself to read it. In the case of The Witch Below the Dreaming Wood, I was even more excited to read this one because it was written by H.G. Parry, the author of The Scholar and The Last Faerie Door, and The Magician’s Daughter. Parry always manages to create such uniquely magical experiences in her novels, so I was anxious […]
What a title, am I right? I knew I had to read Hopeless Necromantic. From the very first page, the novel kept surprising me. I had never considered the exact pitfalls of raising someone from the dead before, which in retrospect, seems remarkably shortsighted of me. Main character Sikras “Catseye” Nikabod, who is no stranger to horrified—er, unsatisfied—customers, has it all figured out, down to the fine print. No refunds […]
When I read the blurb for The Dragon Has Some Complaints, I immediately pictured the classic three-headed dragon meme, where each head has a wildly different personality. Whether or not that is where the inspiration for this novel comes from, this three-headed dragon—named Garrodigh—does have very distinct personalities. Each head is referred to by their position on the body of the dragon—Centerhead, Upperhead, and Bottomhead, and formerly, Lefty. Centerhead is […]
The Last Contract of Isako is a difficult novel for me to rate. It has so many things I love—a strong heroine in her later years, a male character who wields cunning more effectively than his triggersheath, and incredibly interesting world building. Unfortunately, that same world building that I found so fascinating was also, well, depressing. “To Serve is to Live. To live is to die.” It’s hard […]
The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam tries very hard to make its demi-god main character, Rosie, likeable and relatable, but it falls woefully short with its six foot five beauty. Though Rosie is supposed to be every bit as fiery as her red hair and eyes, I just found her to be rather flat. I wanted to like her, I really did, but the biggest conflict in her life can […]