Daniel M. Ford Rating: 2.5 out of 5. published: 23rd April 2024 spoilers? no Goodreads Aelis de Lenti, Lone Pine’s newly assigned Warden, is in deep trouble. She has just opened the crypts of Mahlgren, releasing an army of the undead into the unprotected backwoods of Ystain. To protect her village, she must unearth a source of immense Necromantic power at the heart of Mahlgren. The journey will wind through waves of undead, untamed wilderness, and curses far older than anything Aelis has ever encountered. But as strong as Aelis is, this is one quest she cannot face alone. Along with t ..read more

Liu Hong Rating: 1 out of 5. published: 2nd May 2024 spoilers? yes Goodreads Imperial China meets Edwardian England in this epic story of loves lost and gained, set during the aftermath of the Opium Wars. Best friends Jiali and Wu Fang know that no man is a match for them. In their small harbour town of Fudi, they practise sword fighting, write couplets to one another, and strut around dressed as men. Jiali is a renowned poet and Wu Fang is going to be China’s first female surgeon. But when Wu Fang returns from medical training in Japan, she is horrified to hear of Jiali’s marriage to ..read more

Maggie Horne Rating: 4 out of 5. published: 28th May 2024 spoilers? no Goodreads Noah Frye just had the Best Summer Ever. Not only did she have an epic time at science camp, but her new camp friend Jessa is going to Noah’s school in the fall. Noah can’t wait to introduce Jessa to her best friends Zoey and Luna when classes start. But when the friend group is reunited after their summer apart, something seems to have Zoey and Luna have discovered boys, and now it’s all they want to obsess over. Suddenly, it feels like Noah is the odd one out in their friend group, especially since Noah ..read more

Julia Golding Rating: 1.5 out of 5. published: 5th April 2024 spoilers? no Goodreads You don’t dabble in satanism. You sell your soul to the devil or not at all. 1812 Deep below the hills of the Buckinghamshire countryside, the infamous Hellfire Caves house a pleasure palace for the idle rich – a secret society steeped in satanism, opium and debauchery of the highest order. When the club’s warden, Antony Pennington, is brutally murdered, his bastard sister, Dora, must follow the clues to decode who the killer is, aided by an unexpected ally – ex-Army officer, former opium addict and s ..read more

Charlotte Bond Rating: 1 out of 5. published: 28th May 2024 spoilers? no Goodreads Kill the dragon. Find the blade. Reclaim your honor. It’s that, or end up like countless knights before her, as a puddle of gore and molten armor. Maddileh is a knight. There aren’t many women in her line of work, and it often feels like the sneering and contempt from her peers is harder to stomach than the actual dragon slaying. But she’s a knight, and made of sterner stuff. A minor infraction forces her to redeem her honor in the most dramatic way possible, she must retrieve the fabled Fireborne Blade ..read more

Elizabeth May Rating: 1 out of 5. published: 20th February 2024 spoilers? yeah, but small Goodreads To cage a god is divine. To be divine is to rule. To rule is to destroy. Using ancient secrets, Galina and Sera’s mother grafted gods into their bones. Bound to brutal deities and granted forbidden power no commoner has held in a millennia, the sisters have grown up to become living weapons. Raised to overthrow an empire―no matter the cost. With their mother gone and their country on the brink of war, it falls to the sisters to take the helm of the rebellion and end the cruel reign of a ..read more

Kaveh Akbar Rating: 3 out of 5. published: 18th January 2024 spoilers? no Goodreads Cyrus Shams is a young man grappling with an inheritance of violence and loss: his mother’s plane was shot down over the skies of Tehran in a senseless accident; and his father’s life in America was circumscribed by his work killing chickens at a factory farm in the Midwest. Cyrus is a drunk, an addict, and a poet, whose obsession with martyrs leads him to examine the mysteries of his past—toward an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields dressed as the Angel of death to inspire and comfort the dyi ..read more

Once again, I come to you bearing excuses: let’s blame work this time for my inability to get a wrap up post out for, you guessed it, another 3 months! So, here it is, all at once for the new year. What I did manage to do though, it must be noted!, was finish my challenge set at the start of the year: namely, read every book that was on my tbr as of 31st December 2022. The only book I ended up not reading was a Pierce Brown one, because who needs his Zionist bullshit! Anyway, this may be the final iteration of a wrap up post I do, depending on whether I can get my act together. We’ll see. The ..read more

Emma R. Alban Rating: 1 out of 5. published: 9th January 2024 spoilers? minor Goodreads Love is more than just a game for two. It’s 1857, and anxious debutante Beth has just one season to snag a wealthy husband, or she and her mother will be out on the street. Gwen, on the other hand, is on her fourth season and counting, with absolutely no intention of finding a husband, possibly ever. She has plenty of security as the only daughter of a rakish earl, from whom she’s inherited her penchant for drinking too much and dancing ‘til dawn. Beth and Gwen are enchanted with each other on sigh ..read more

Frances White Rating: 1.5 out of 5. published: 18th January 2024 spoilers? no Goodreads A mind-blowing murder mystery on a ship full of magical passengers. If Agatha Christie wrote fantasy, this would be it! For a thousand years, Concordia has been able to maintain peace between its provinces, protected by a wall known as the Bandage. To mark this incredible feat, the emperor’s ship embarks upon a twelve-day voyage to the Goddess’s mountain. Aboard are the heirs of the twelve provinces of Concordia, each graced with a unique and secret magical ability known as a Blessing. Except Ganym ..read more