Review of Thornbound by Stephanie Burgis
Stephanie Burgis’ The Harwood Spellbook books are stories about breaking old traditions—and making new traditions—set in an alternate version of nineteenth-century England with magic, elves, and fey. In this Angland, Celtic Queen Boudicca successfully defeated the Romans with some aid from her spell-casting husband, and the country has been ruled by a powerful group of women, known as the Boudiccate, wed to magicians ever since. After all, it is known that women are most suited to politics given their practicality, […]
Review of Mirage by Somaiya Daud
Mirage, Somaiya Daud’s debut novel and the first book in a young adult science fiction/fantasy trilogy, intrigued me long before it had a cover or a full description. Basically, I knew it was inspired by the author’s Moroccan background and featured the body double trope (one of my favorites!), and that was all it took for me to want to read this book. Months later, I visited a bookstore and found a display of recent releases, including Mirage. The final […]
Mini Reviews: Circe, Foundryside, and The Heart Forger
Book Description: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER–NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR, The Washington Post, People, Time, Amazon, Entertainment Weekly, Bustle, Newsweek, the A.V. Club, Christian Science Monitor and Refinery 29, Buzzfeed, Paste, Audible, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Thrillist, NYPL, Self Real Simple, Goodreads, Boston Globe, Electric Literature, BookPage, the Guardian, Book Riot, Seattle Times, and Business Insider “A bold and subversive retelling of the goddess’s story,” this #1 New York Times bestseller is “both epic and intimate in its scope, recasting the most infamous female figure […]
Review of Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee
Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee is the latest book from Disney-Hyperion’s Rick Riordan Presents imprint, whose goal is “to publish great middle grade authors from underrepresented cultures and backgrounds, to let them tell their own stories inspired by the mythology and folklore of their own heritage.” I was especially intrigued by Dragon Pearl with its fusion of space opera and Korean mythology (which Yoon Ha Lee wrote about here), and I’ve been wanting to read more by this book’s […]
Review of Star of the Morning by Lynn Kurland
Book Description: Darkness covers the north, since the black mage has begun his assault on the kingdom of Neroche. Legend has it that only the two magical swords held by Neroche’s king can defeat the mage. Now the fate of the Nine Kingdoms rests in the hands of a woman destined to wield one of those blades… In this land of dragons and mages, warrior maids and magical swords, nothing is as it seems. And Morgan will find that the […]
Review of The Mortal Word by Genevieve Cogman
Book Description: In the latest novel in Genevieve Cogman’s historical fantasy series, the fate of worlds lies in the balance. When a dragon is murdered at a peace conference, time-travelling Librarian spy Irene must solve the case to keep the balance between order, chaos…and the Library. When Irene returns to London after a relatively straightforward book theft in Germany, Bradamant informs her that there is a top secret dragon-Fae peace conference in progress that the Library is mediating, and that […]
