From Greta Kelly, the author of the Warrior Witch duology, comes The Queen of Days, an epic adventure that weaves together a flawed-but-lovable family of thieves, a battle between fallen gods, and stakes high enough to cause vertigo—perfect for fans of The Lies of Locke Lamora and Six of Crows.
I'm still looking for authors who have completed NaNoWriMo to come on my #WriteTalkWednesday show and discuss their writing (promo a book or two) and how they made it through #NaNoWriMo
Will need to be avail 6pm CST (central time) on Wedesdays in November.
I’ve #read the #anthology Adventures in Bodily Autonomy, edited by Raven Belasco. This collection of short stories “exploring reproductive rights in fantasy, science fiction & horror” supports NARAL, which has since been renamed Reproductive Freedom For All. My favorites were Pod Rendezvous by K Ibura and Bullet Point by Elizabeth Bear. #fantasy#sciencefiction#books#reading@bookstodon
Who would like reviewer copies of my new short story collection POWER TO YIELD AND OTHER STORIES; and/or the latest anthology I edited, ROSALIND'S SIBLINGS?
I made a request form! (Pls don't self-reject from requesting, you don't need to have a huge platform!)
Readers will uncover a spellbinding fantasy world through a strong, accessible narrative voice. Throughout the novel, Wrede tackles universal themes of identity, family ties, and self-assurance with humor and heart, grounding the magical journey with contemporary struggles like what on earth there is to do without technology that are sure to resonate with young readers.
Today's new release: K.L. Noone's queer fantasy romance short In the Pass of Ghosts:
Ghosts are real. And now they’re Aric’s problem. Even legendary swordsmen need time off, and Aric and his half-fairy partner Emrys are traveling south to visit Aric’s brother. But, on a stormy night at a roadside inn, an old friend stumbles...
Today's release: Mell Eight's MM fantasy book Twin Elements. And there's a giveaway:
When Rhory’s identical twin, King Tycen, is poisoned, Rhory is forced to take his place to cover up the disaster. With the help of their healer, he desperately searches for a cure while keeping the...
𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: Queen of Shadows
𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬: Throne of Glass (Book 5/8)
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫: Sarah J. Maas
𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Young Adult, Fantasy
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝: October 19, 2023 @ 11:57 PM
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: ★★☆☆☆
At first I thought that once I read this book, maybe it'll clear out what Empire of Storms was all about and maybe once I finish, it would make me less angry. It did not. The shift between this and Empire of the Storms hurts because this book was as close to the original story as it can get, there was the idea and there was character. There was a yearning for love and intimacy that was never present in the next book. There were emotions, despite being the emotions that you wouldn't understand why the character is feeling that way, you'd still go along with it because those parts are what makes them a character, the way they act and feel predictable and unpredictable at the same time makes them sound realistic and grounded with how we perceive parts of people and their own ways of feeling and living. There were parts of this book that was never present in Empire of Storms and it just cemented my anger.
Chaol is present in this book and this is the part where he and Aelin meet each other again, and oh boy, I love the way that their characters had this friction because of how Chaol is going through this arc of trying his best to find where he must stand in the conflict and Aelin heartbroken because the person that she once loved sees her as a threat and as monster. They never miss, when they're together it's always so personal and character driven and I love every bit of it. This is also the part where they break up and it kinda pisses me off on how it was only a single page long when the author can manage to write 17 pages long of unfiltered sex scenes. It's weird but okay, sure why not.
𝖳𝗋𝗂𝗀𝗀𝖾𝗋 𝗐𝖺𝗋𝗇𝗂𝗇𝗀: 𝖲𝗍𝗂𝗅𝗅𝖻𝗂𝗋𝗍𝗁, Asterin Blackbeak, Manon's cousin reveals that she fell in love with a mortal man and got pregnant. She carried the baby full-term, which is rare for witches. But the baby was stillborn. Manon’s grandmother was furious and beat her, branded her with the words “unclean,” and cast her out of Blackbeak Keep. I did not expect such a thing to happen in a book like this, it is not that shocking at least to me because it is a story about war and all that, but something like this in a YA book caught me off guard. Not to say YA mustn't include topics like these but the way that it goes:
In the middle of it all, why must you add in the description of her breast? Not to say that you can't and you shouldn't, but it made it sound so weird especially when the scene is literally about the trauma that a woman went through in giving birth that also led to her family casting her away. That it was the moment that I realized, SJM would randomly describe boobs in random. Even with the way that Aelin wears a necklace, boobs would be shoved it there for no reason. I would understand it if it was for imagery, but the way that it's phrased and handled in context sounds more like the way that men write women more than anything.
Which is absolutely hilarious to me because in the following book, she exactly becomes that foolish and stupidly unaware because they had sex in the middle of a war on a beach. It altered my brain chemistry in a way that shouldn't be. And this is the first and last time that the book acknowledges the age difference between the two, hell, it ain't even an age difference at this point, it's a whole century gap. The Twilight era never disappeared, it only evolved. Dear heavens... This is one of the main reasons why I took out a star from my rating, it could've been an easy three stars but this had to be in the story.
One of the things that I adored about this book though was about Chaol and Dorian, their bond was solidified in this part. I don't want to get too detailed in case someone wishes to read the series P̶l̶e̶a̶s̶e̶ d̶o̶n̶'t̶ h̶a̶v̶e̶ m̶e̶r̶c̶y̶ o̶n̶ y̶o̶u̶r̶s̶e̶l̶f̶ but when one of them was severely hurt to the point of death, but they weren't actually dead, one of them thought that they were and they lose absolutely every bit of patience and sense of honor in their soul and they go absolute apeshit. Like YES! THE TROPE OF ALL TIME. I love them your honor, they deserve the world. 𝗜 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗱𝘆𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗰 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸.
Today's release: Cameron Montague Taylor's queer gaslamp fantasy book Silverweaver:
When the hunter…
…becomes the haunted.
Second-rate ghosthunter Anya Iteri is the black sheep of a family of metalweavers—powerful mages who can forge iron, shape steel, and even bend blood. Down on her luck and struggling to pay rent...
What if you could avenge your own murder? A brilliant young woman gets a second chance at life in this debut YA tale of vengeance, court intrigue, and romance, inspired by classic Chinese tropes.
As I sat by my bed spooning the hot milk soup with cinnamon that this beautiful Drow prepared for me and introduced herself to me as Naldela when I woke up, I watched her as she seemed to be arguing with another Drow, a very muscular one, and wondered what was going on. I wished I had learned the Drow language. Then I could listen and understand them. Only a ‘No, I will not leave him’ from Naldela was possible for me to translate, but otherwise I could only tell by the wild gesticulation that they were in disagreement. I…
Finished Legends and Lattes this morning. The last 20-30 pages really picked up the pace and boosted the book's overall rating from 3.5 to 4. A very fun and relaxing read, without too much depth or plot. But that can be allright too!
Maybe I'll pick up the new book by the same author too. Anyone started with that already?
Today's indie author review! Flotsam by R.J. Theodore:
"An amazing ride through a world full of wonders... a frothy (sometimes blood-frothy) blend of fantasy and sci-fi, an exhilarating voyage through a strange new world in the company of a fascinating collection of character,."
A young flower hunter gets embroiled in the succession politics of the Sultanate when she must retrieve the rarest and most powerful magical flower after giving it to the wrong hands, in Rati Mehrotra’s Flower and Thorn.
Enter if you’re daring and feel these tales raise goosebumps along your arms as they take you from modern New Jersey to fairytale lands and back again. From witches to werecats and spirits to surgeries, this collection puts queer women...
Today's indie author review! Repairing Destiny" by Geneva Vand:
"A delightful story set in a fantasy kingdom. ... For adult readers the plot might seem flimsy, but I found myself wanting to read on and thoroughly enjoyed the experience."
Today's indie release: M.D. Grimm's MMF fantasy Song of Flames:
She tried to steal treasure from the dragons’ hoard… and stole their hearts instead.
To save her sister from a lascivious lord, Venya must steal a piece of treasure from a legendary dragon’s hoard. Dragons haven’t been seen in several generations, so imagine her surprise when she wakes...