This is the story of Circe, a minor Greek goddess, who was the daughter of Helios who was god of the sun, and Oceanus goddess of fresh water, both of whom were titans. Circe is a nymph. Oddly Circe wasn't born with any special powers and she grew up in her father's palace. Most were...
The Book of Night by Holly Black takes place in our world, but it is known that there are some people who have extra abilities. The system of magic in the story revolves around "gloamists" who can manipulate their shadows to do tasks for them. Of course the gloamists are after as much power as...
Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki is an unusual book. It is almost as if someone bet that they would pull several topics from a hat and the author would write a story combining them. The cast of characters includes, but is not limited to, a trans girl, a famous violin teacher, a starship...
This is the story of Andromeda, or Andi, who is a debtera, an exorcist hired to cleanse households of the Evil Eye. Andi grew up on the street and was raised by a famous debtera named Jember. He was very strict with her. Andi has been hired by a very wealthy young man, Magnus, whose...
Verpertine is the story of Artemisia, a troubled teen who was possessed as a child. Her parents thought she was wild and unrulily and locked her in a shed, and there she stayed until a nun, one of the Gray Sisters, found her. The spirit was exorcised and Artemisia was taken to live at a...
Spells Trouble by P.C. and Kristin Cast begins in the 1600s where we meet Sarah Goode and her daughter. They are locked in the town jail because Sarah has been accused of being a witch. The twist, however, is that unlike most who were accused of witchcraft, Sarah actually was a witch, and a pretty...
Wow. I really enjoyed A Dark and Hollow Star. A nice surprise. This is an Urban Fantasy about the Fae community in Toronto and conflicts between the Mortal and Immortal realms. One of the main characters is Nausicaä, who was one of the three Furies. "Was," because she was exiled from the Immortal realm for...
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue came to me with rave reviews, so I had high expectations. The premise of the story is that there is a young woman, Addie LaRue, who lives in a small village in France in the 1700s. Her father dotes on her and gives her special attention, but her mother,...
I Come with Knives starts without any preamble. We are thrown into a flashback or telling of something that happened in the past. At first I was a bit surprised and I was scrambling to remember the characters from the first volume. I had been nine months since I read Burn the Dark. Then as...
Spoiler warning - this review contains details about the story that are revealed hundreds of pages in. The book is that slow. Carve the Mark is the first in a two book series by Veronica Roth, the author of the Divergent series. In the book two peoples share a planet. The Shotet are a warrior...
If you have read my reviews then you know that I give credit for creativity. Dungeon Born by Dakota Krout gets lots of points for originality and creativity. The story takes place in a Dungeons and Dragons type of world and the main character is ... a dungeon named Cal. We learn how Cal came...
Follow Me to Ground by Sue Rainsford is a very unique and unusual book. The main characters, Ada and her father, are not human, though apparently they kind of look like people. The father and daughter live on the edge of town and are healers that treat the town folk, or "cures" as they refer...
Upright Women is about a young adult, Esther, who fled from home and hid in the wagon of a group of librarians. Esther's father is a high-ranking government official and he has arranged a marriage for Ester which she does not want. To make matters worse, the man her father chose was previously the betrothed...
As I was listening to the first chapter of Burn the Dark by S.A. Hunt I thought "The flow is not so great and this doesn't seem that well written." Then chapter two started and I was hooked. It wasn't that chapter one was bad. Chapter one was the version as it was narrated and...
The Providence of Fire by Brian Staveley is the second book in the Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne series. I enjoyed the first book, The Emperor’s Blades, and was looking forward to this one. It continues the stories of the three royal siblings, two princes and a princess, whose lives were thrown into chaos when...