fter the Dragons is quiet, thoughtful, and, above all, kind. It’s not easy to do right by one another, especially when we’re put in hard places without clear answers. Death, and how we face it, matters. … More After the Dragons by Cynthia Zhang
I went into The Witness for the Dead with a full heart and high hopes. I reread The Goblin Emperor before diving in, and I was primed for the continuation of those warm, optimistic feelings. Sadly, it did not capture that same spirit. … More The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison
Melancholy and compelling, Caroline Hardaker has captured the narrow wistfulness of self-inflicted isolation. As we draw ourselves away from the world, tuck ourselves into the warmth of our four encroaching walls, it becomes harder and harder to connect with anything and anyone that exists outside ourselves. We chain our doors, check the locks, and keep ourselves in as much as we keep others out. While this is not a book about pandemics, or plagues, or even about quarantines, it nevertheless manages to invoke a sense of catharsis in relation to current events. … More Composite Creatures by Caroline Hardaker
I know the question you’re all going to be asking: is it derivative? Is it like Eragon? Will I be drowning in tropes and predictable plots? The short answer is… sometimes. The longer answer, of course, has a bit more nuance to it. … More To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini
When Rosa (aka Red Riding Hood) and Hou Yi the Archer join forces to stop the deadly sunbirds from ravaging the countryside, their quest will take the two women, now blessed and burdened with the hindsight of middle age, into a reckoning of sacrifices made and mistakes mourned, of choices and family and the quest … More Burning Roses by S.L. Huang
Welcome to Book Bites! This is a series focused on highlighting multiple titles in a more concise format. Rather than looking at a book in depth, I’ll be focusing on the most important thing: why you should read it! Today, we have three miniature reviews – On Fragile Waves by E. Lily Yu, Drowned Country by Emily Tesh, and The Seventh Perfection by Daniel Polanksy! I enjoyed all three of these, and The Seventh Perfect was particularly interesting and experimental. … More On Fragile Waves by E. Lily Yu, Drowned Country by Emily Tesh, and The Seventh Perfection by Daniel Polanksy
Dragon Tamer is irreverent, light-hearted, and a joy to read. It’s everything I want from a cute fantasy romance. It even has puns in it! Really dumb ones! The BEST ones. It doesn’t take itself seriously at all, and the whole book is better for it. The main pairing is a bookish dragon prince devoted to pacifism and an extremely fighty Viking-esque himbo lady who’s got some really impressive muscles. AND THEY ADOPT A MAGIC PUPPY TOGETHER. … More Dragon Tamer by Ophelia Silk
Chaos Vector was an excellent follow up to Velocity Weapon! O’Keefe has dramatically improved as a writer; the pacing was much, much better in this sequel. The twists are just as punchy as you could hope, though I’m not sure ANYTHING can top the one in Velocity Weapon. I was on the edge of my seat the whole way through. Plotlines connect, merge, and shift when you least expect. … More Chaos Vector by Megan O’Keefe – Punchy & Character-Driven in the Best Ways
This is a fast-paced novella chock full of intrigue, murder, and the fantastic. De Bodard thrusts the reader into her Dominion of the Fallen universe head-first and expects them to sink or swim to keep up. Personally, I found it to be an energetic experience; as this was my first introduction to her world, there was something new on each page to keep me eagerly flipping the page for more. An underwater Vietnamese dragon city below Paris? Crab shifters? Possible poisonings? I was here for it at every turn. … More Of Dragons, Feasts, and Murders by Aliette de Bodard
The stakes have been raised, and the winds are changing. Joron will find himself flensed to the bone, losing everything he holds dear. He will be hammered and tempered into steel before he can live out his destiny… or reject it entirely and shape a different future from what has been foretold. … More Call of the Bone Ships by RJ Barker – A Lush, Nautical Epic Fantasy
Black Forest Basilisks 