Fantasy

Imagine a fantasy world with an affinity for plants. Now in a pot, throw in the essence of a monster-filled world, Sherlock Holmes and Watson, dark academia alchemy, and an Agatha Christie complete collection. What you get is Robert Jackson Bennett’s impeccably crafted and compelling The Tainted Cup, the first novel in what has since become the Shadow of the Leviathan series. While considered a high fantasy novel to be expected from RJB, at its core The Tainted Cup is a brilliantly written serial murder mystery thriller embellished with a distinctly unique and creative fantasy wrapping. Featuring a complex and twisty murder investigation, a lavishly developed fantasy world, not to mention a charming pair of off-beat main characters, The Tainted Cup is an incredibly cool genre bender that I loved every minute of. “Projecting motives is a fool’s game. But how they do it- that’s a matter of matter, moving real things about in real space.” In the world of the Tainted Cup, the Imperial Empire maintains a series of hulking walls that are designed to keep giant leviathan monsters in the bordering seas from invading and destroying everything in their path (think of Attack on Titan but in the…

In 1902 at 7/7 Marchmont Crescent in Edinburgh, there is a sophisticated, yet elderly tabby cat named Grimalkin who spends his days observing the estate’s owner Mr. Calvert and his devoted maid Eilidah. Full of aches, pains and an itchy patch caused by fleas, one morning Grimalkin takes his last breath and is greeted by the mythical Cat-sith who informs him that as a cat, he has nine lives. Of those nine lives, cats have three lives when they stay, three when they stray, and three when they play. Having spent his first life “staying” and being cared for by Eilidah, Alex Howard’s The Ghost Cat takes the reader along on Grimalkin’s next eight ghostly lives and observational visits at 7/7 Marchmont Crescent and its various occupants over the course of the next one hundred and twenty years. Quietly curious and casually unhurried, The Ghost Cat is a unique historical fiction novel written from the perspective of a senior inquisitive cat that is simultaneously light-hearted while also being thought-provoking. While the title The Ghost Cat and its premise gives the book a fantasy sound at a first glance, the novel is instead almost entirely a historical fiction book with very…

The following review is based on a complimentary ARC provided by Sourcebooks Fire via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. What if Mary, Queen of the Scots’ tumultuous reign and the surrounding scheming were influenced by the presence fae magic and other Scottish folklore? Sara Raasch and Beth Revis’s collaboration novel The Crimson Throne is an entertaining and straightforward YA romantasy novel as well as a liberally interpreted historical fiction story. Magical fae powers, cursed objects and weapons, historic grand castles and sweeping scenic landscapes, The Crimson Throne has all the right elements for a great fantasy story. Presented from dual perspectives, one a Scottish half-fae guardian of the crown and one an English spy sent to infiltrate said crown’s inner circle, the scene is set for a forbidden romance between two opponents meant to outplay each other with both the Scottish/England Kingdoms and the Fae Kingdom’s future at stake. An important note that is not clearly mentioned on early previews and listing at the time of this review for The Crimson Throne is that this is the first book in a brand new fantasy duology (the ARC received as well as Amazon’s presale store states it’s part of…

Book #2 in Sara Raasch’s Royals and Romance series, Go Luck Yourself is a fun and highly entertaining romance novel continuing Raasch’s unique blend of royalty woes mixed with holiday shenanigans. Contrary to what I thought was an anthology series due the main character being Coal’s younger brother Kris this time around, Go Luck Yourself is a direct sequel that picks up immediately after the events of The Nightmare Before Kissmas which is a required read in order to understand this book’s plot (I made the mistake of trying to read this book without context and it simply doesn’t work). Although more or less following the same formula as the first book, this one felt more refined, cohesive, and thematically strong paired with outstanding character work (not to mention steamy scenes). Tweaking and addressing many of my previous nitpicks, I thoroughly loved Go Luck Yourself and found it to be an ambitiously crafted and all-around perfect romance novel that can be read at any time of the year. Set a few months after The Nightmare Before Kissmas’s conclusion and shifting the main character to Coal’s younger brother Kris, Go Luck Yourself revolves around his struggle to figure out his place…

Frances White’s debut novel Voyage of the Damned is an ambitiously plotted story that smoothly crosses over across a variety of different genres outside of its main fantasy classification. While definitively a fantasy novel due to its fantastical scale, magical powers and traditional fantasy-realm setting, the story is just as much a whodunit mystery thriller investigation tale (debatably even more than its fantasy-wrapping) as well as a lightly inspired queer romantasy (with asterisks around the romance). Comments summarizing Voyage of the Damned as an Agatha Christie novel dressed up in fantasy outfit is a decent comparison as it definitely gave me faint Murder on the Orient Express vibes, if the Orient Express was a grand and luxurious sailing vessel ala Death on the Nile. However, Voyage of the Damned’s ill-fated events also have compelling political ramifications to the growing body count and a wild last minute plot twist that can either make or break the reading experience depending on the reader’s suspension of disbelief. For me personally, it worked very well, and its ending managed to course-correct and explain nearly every potential plot hole or point of criticism I had while reading the novel. While White’s flavor of character narration…