Book #2 of 2022: Tristan Strong Keeps Punching by Kwame Mbalia (Tristan Strong #3) Certain scenes in this final Tristan Strong novel are terrific, but overall I would say that the middle-grade #ownvoices fantasy trilogy has never managed to recapture the magic of its first volume for me. As engaging as it remains to see …
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Book #1 of 2022: The Nobleman’s Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks by Mackenzi Lee (Montague Siblings #3) Although it maintains the feel-good / hopepunk ethos and the commitment to marginalized historical voices of its predecessors, this final Montague Siblings novel never quite gets its hooks into me to the same extent. We’ve jumped forward a …
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Book #375 of 2021: Reave the Just and Other Tales by Stephen R. Donaldson This reread is the final book I’ll finish in 2021, and since that’s a bit of an occasion and author Stephen R. Donaldson is one of my favorites, I decided to review each of the stories in the collection individually. As …
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Book #369 of 2021: Within These Wicked Walls by Lauren Blackwood The publisher is pitching this novel as an “Ethiopian-inspired… fantasy retelling of Jane Eyre,” which doesn’t quite seem to hit the mark, as the two books really only share a wealthy man named Mr. Rochester whose manor holds dark secrets (and a few isolated …
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Book #366 of 2021: The Excalibur Curse by Kiersten White (Camelot Rising #3) The beginning of this YA fantasy trilogy held a frisson of excitement in the way it reinterpreted the familiar Arthurian mythos that its sequels have unfortunately never matched. This final volume furthermore takes a few odd detours, like keeping its protagonist a …
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Book #360 of 2021: This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron (This Poison Heart #1) This YA fantasy novel is a breath of fresh air, especially after I wasn’t entirely sold on author Kalynn Bayron’s previous offering Cinderella Is Dead. The plot is a little slow, but in that hopepunk, Maggie Stiefvater way that focuses on …
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Book #359 of 2021: Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim (Six Crimson Cranes #1) This is an #ownvoices East Asian retelling of the Wild Swans fairy tale, wherein a princess’s brothers are transformed into birds by their wicked stepmother while the girl herself is cursed to be unrecognizable and warned that each new word from …
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Book #357 of 2021: Dark Rise by C. S. Pacat (Dark Rise #1) I’m quite torn on how to rate this historical fantasy novel, but ultimately I think three-out-of-five stars is a fair reflection of my overall reaction to it. Although I really love the ending and the broader shape of the story that’s revealed …
Book #354 of 2021: Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson (Vespertine #1) I’ve described author Margaret Rogerson’s fantasy fiction as an Old Kingdom readalike in the past, and she proves it again in this latest novel, in which a trainee nun fights undead spirits with the help of one bound to her that only she can hear …
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Book #351 of 2021: A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher I enjoy the protagonist’s magic here, which is limited to spells about baking and eventually gets put to creative use in defending the city from an invading army. I also approve of the dark and creepily realistic portrayal of a growing extremist …
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