Author: Kristen
In the Watchful City by S. Qiouyi Lu - Book Cover The Leaning Pile of Books

The Leaning Pile of Books is a feature in which I highlight books I got over the last week that sound like they may be interesting—old or new, bought or received in the mail for review consideration (the latter of which are mainly unsolicited books from publishers). Since I hope you will find new books you’re interested in reading in these posts, I try to be as informative as possible. If I can find them, links to excerpts, author’s websites, […]

The Midnight Bargain by C. L. Polk - Cover Image Mini-Reviews: The Midnight Bargain and The Once and Future Witches

Since I’ve fallen rather far behind on reviews given 2020, I’ll probably be writing some shorter reviews. Usually when I write posts covering more than one book, the titles have little in common other than being speculative fiction that I’ve read, but this time I’m covering two fantasy books about magical women pushing back against patriarchies: The Midnight Bargain by C. L. Polk and The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow. As an Amazon Associate I earn from […]

Review of The Ikessar Falcon by K. S. Villoso

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Although the bulk of my reading is speculative fiction because of its myriad worlds and endless possibilities, I primarily read for characters. In particular, I appreciate stories with characters so vividly multifaceted that I have complicated, difficult-to-articulate feelings about them—when I don’t simply love or hate them, when the way I think about them changes from moment to moment, when I’m left uncertain precisely what to think of them because they […]

The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna - Book Cover Guest Post by The Gilded Ones Author Namina Forna

Happy book release day to Namina Forna! I’ve been excited about her debut novel, The Gilded Ones, ever since I read an excellent interview with her on Refinery29 discussing why she wrote a YA epic fantasy book in which women literally bleed gold, among other subjects—and I’m thrilled to have a guest post by her to share today!   Read an Excerpt About THE GILDED ONES: The most anticipated fantasy of 2021. In this world, girls are outcasts by blood […]

The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri - Cover Image 30 Anticipated 2021 Speculative Fiction Book Releases

It seems like it becomes harder to limit my anticipated speculative fiction book releases post to a semi-reasonable number of works every year, and it was incredibly difficult to narrow down my initial long list of titles coming out in 2021. But after scouring the web for early reviews, excerpts, and more information from the author and/or publisher, I managed to cut it down to 30 books that I think look especially promising. (Of course, a few of these books […]