Book Review – House of Blight

21 Feb 2025 1 Comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

House of Blight is the first book in The Threadmender Chronicles by author Maxym M. Martineau and will be published on April 8, 2025. I received an advance copy courtesy of NetGalley. I previously read part of this author’s earlier series – Kingdom of Exiles – and you can find my review of that book here (paid links).

I read the e-book edition.

Here is the blurb:

Edira Brillwyn is a threadmender. She holds a rare, lifesaving power that can cure disease and heal injuries in the blink of an eye. But magic always comes with a cost, and saving anyone sacrifices a sliver of her own life. She’s always kept her abilities hidden…until the powerful Fernglove family discovers her secret.

The Ferngloves are charming and beautiful, possess powerful magic, and don’t take no for an answer—especially Orin, the head of these ruling elites. When Edira’s brothers unexpectedly contract blight—an incurable virus killing people throughout the town, and an illness too strong for her to heal them both—Orin offers to help. Together at his estate they’ll research a cure while Orin slows their sickness and Edira hones her magic. His kindness and honesty surprises Edira, as does her undeniable attraction to him.

But the other Ferngloves are suspicious of her power and may be more dangerous than the ever-present disease. The longer Edira stays within the confines of the Manor, the more the family’s pristine exterior begins to crack—until Edira discovers a terrifying secret and must choose who she can save and at what cost…

I found many aspects of this book to be promising, but overall it didn’t come together for me. I loved how the author portrayed Edira’s threadmending magic, and how she had to hide herself from everyone except for her family at the opening of the story. I found the Blight to be a terrifying affliction at the outset, but as I learned more about this world, the Blight made less sense to me. It was presumably a very contagious magical infection, but it didn’t seem to behave consistently. I did love the cover design and felt like it fit the story and atmosphere of the book well.

The Evers struck me as an elf-fae hybrid, common to much of the current romantasy genre. The author gives them a unique creation mythology and I liked how each family had their own form of magic. However, as Edira adjusted to her new role among them and acknowledged that Orin seemed attracted to her, I found this reaction from the Ever to be unconvincing. Other than giving the Evers some attitude, I wasn’t sure why she was “different” to him. I don’t want to say more on this aspect to avoid spoilers.

I didn’t feel like the other characters were very well developed either. The two younger Evers act out like spoiled teenagers and bully Edira when she first arrives. But after their punishment is over, Edira seems to earn their friendship too easily. The Evers have human servants, but the one who helps Edira tries to communicate danger by giving her mysterious looks and gestures, leaving Edira in a frustrating situation which could have been easily solved with a few words.

The pacing of this novel was also uneven. I felt like Edira pondered her situation and didn’t do much for most of the book. In the last 20%, things finally started to move along.

I though this was a stand-alone, but it looks like the first book in a series. It does wrap up enough of the story in this first book that you could be satisfied with the ending without reading more. However, I don’t think I’ll be continuing with this series. I do still plan to finish reading the author’s other series.

You can find more of by book reviews here.

Book Review – Perfectly Wicked

18 Feb 2025 1 Comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , ,

I picked up Perfectly Wicked by Lindsay Lovise on a whim when I saw it on sale. This is a romance with magic-wielding characters who are not quite witches (paid link).

I read the hardcover edition.

Here is the blurb:

Holly Celeste and her sisters make the best apple cider in Maine—courtesy of a magical secret ingredient—but even that hasn’t been enough to keep their orchard afloat. To save the family business, Holly accepts a proposal to let a ghost hunting series film an episode on her farm. Connor Grimm may be the sexy and down-to-earth TV host the nation loves, but to Holly he represents her greatest fear: exposure. Holly doesn’t mind if Connor chases down a silly ghost story—it’s their other secret she’s terrified he’ll reveal.

Connor Grimm’s life goal is to normalize the paranormal, which he does on his show, Grimm Reality. Except he isn’t only looking for a ghost at Wicked Good Apples. There have been rumors of rain during droughts and other inexplicable happenings that could only be attributed to something supernatural, and Connor plans to expose it on an episode that will take his show’s success to another level.

Intent on keeping Connor in the dark, Holly joins him as he interviews eyewitnesses, hunts for old records, and unearths a story even she didn’t know existed. Despite her resolution to dislike him, she begins to fall for the only man who’s ever made her feel like strange could be normal. Too bad a relationship with Connor could only be temporary; he moves to a new state every month, and there’s no room in his life for a woman with a pet hedgehog, a houseful of nosy aunts and sisters, and a failing apple orchard.

When Connor finally pieces together Holly’s greatest secret, he’s forced to choose between revealing his biggest paranormal discovery yet and propelling his show to the top of the charts, and giving it all up for the wicked woman who’s charmed his heart.

After some dark, dense, and long fantasy books, I needed to find something like this light romance novel from Lindsay Lovise. I read this last month while I was sick with the flu, so I finished this book in just a few days. It was easy to read and at about 300 pages, made for a quick break from more complicated novels.

This book follows a traditional formula for a romance novel. We see the main male and female character’s viewpoint chapters as they both deny what they feel for each other and try to resist their mutual attraction. Circumstances keep throwing them together until they realize they can no longer resist each other. There is a good amount of spicy description in this book, and a particularly hot hayloft painting scene.

I liked how the plot skipped over details of Connor’s show and only showed brief glimpses of his filming process. The focus of the story was on the character interactions and the mystery of the apple farm’s magic and history. While this was a romance, I found enough other aspects of the plot to keep me interested in how the characters figured out those secrets.

I had assumed that Holly and her sisters were witches, but they never thought of themselves this way, and they struggled to understand their own magic. This turned out to be an important mystery in the book, but initially I had thought it was a weakness in the characterization.

Overall this was a light and fun book. I’d consider reading another novel by this author. Have you read any other books by Lindsay Lovise? Let me know in the comments.

Find more of my reviews here.

Book Review – Ancillary Justice

14 Feb 2025 2 Comments

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , ,

I have had Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie on my to-be-read list for some time. It recently came up as a selection for one of my book clubs, so that gave me the impulse to finally read it. Ancillary Justice won the Hugo and Nebula Awards and is the first book in the Imperial Radch series (paid links).

I read the paperback edition.

Here is the blurb:

On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.

Once, she was the Justice of Toren—a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.

Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance.

I was not a fan of this book at all, to the point where I’m sitting down to write this review and I can barely remember what it was about. I think part of my reaction is because I found it to be a difficult book to get into, and I never empathized with any of the characters.

The main point-of-view character is Breq, the last remaining body of an intelligent ship who formerly inhabited numerous human bodies that had been captured through imperial conquests. The story also follows two different timelines, filling in backstory while the main plot progresses.

I had heard that this book presented gender in a unique way, with the Radch language only using feminine pronouns, but I found that this distracted me from the story and didn’t really add anything to my experience of the characters. I read that this was intended to let the reader decide what gender the characters were, but the topic of gender didn’t have any true bearing on the story or any particular theme it presented.

I thought that the science fiction idea of the ships and their human bodies was nicely done. The author presented some scenarios that used this concept in interesting ways. I liked how Emperor Mianaai also had multiple bodies that could act independently, but I also wasn’t clear on where or who the real Mianaai was (but perhaps that is something to be determined in later books?).

This book contained some nice action scenes and tense situations, but I couldn’t get past the dry prose and unengaging characters. I don’t think I’m going to read the other books in the series, but I’d be open to different story by the author.

Have you read Ancillary Justice or any other books by Ann Leckie? Which would you recommend? Let me know in the comments.

You can find more of my reviews here.

Book Review – Daughter of Redwinter

11 Feb 2025 1 Comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , ,

Daughter of Redwinter by Ed McDonald is the first book in The Redwinter Chronicles, and was kindly given to me for review courtesy of NetGalley (paid links). This is the first book that I have read by this author.

I want to add that I love the cover of this book by artist Galen Dara. I have some of her artwork on my walls at home, and you can find more of her work at this link.

I read the e-book edition.

Here is the blurb:

Raine can see—and speak—to the dead, a gift that comes with a death sentence. All her life she has hidden, lied, and run to save her skin, and she’s made some spectacularly bad choices along the way.

But it is a rare act of kindness—rescuing an injured woman in the snow—that becomes the most dangerous decision Raine has ever made.

Because the woman is fleeing from Redwinter, the fortress-monastery of the Draoihn, warrior magicians who answer to no king, and who will stop at nothing to reclaim what she’s stolen. A battle, a betrayal, and a horrific revelation force Raine to enter the citadel and live among the Draoihn. She soon finds that her secret ability could be the key to saving an entire nation.

Though she might have to die to make it happen . . .

I found this book to be a gripping dark fantasy read where the blurb description above only hinted at the scope of this story. The protagonist, Raine, was a fascinatingly believable character to me, finding bravery in certain situations while at the same time being too naive and fearful to leave her abusive partner. She doesn’t always make good decisions, and she is conflicted about who to trust and what to do, but she remained consistent in being herself. She does undergo an odd change in the aftermath of a trauma, but it does have a concrete explanation that adds to her struggles.

There isn’t a clear distinction between good and evil and the other characters feel human and flawed. I’m not sure who to cheer for because they all seem to be doing what they believe is the right thing. As a side effect of this set up, I found myself expecting a betrayal later in the book, but had no idea which direction it would come from.

This was another series where I am enjoying the worldbuilding a lot. The author has created a unique magic system, where a set of relic-like nearly mythical Crowns hold power which the Draoihn revere over friends, family, and country (although these are somewhat linked, I think). At the same time, Raine’s ability to see the dead is a taboo power, and if anyone knew she could do this, she’d be put to death. She isn’t the only one with this ability and her secret isn’t solely hers, adding to the tension in the story.

Much is left unexplained in this first book in the series, but I’m willing to read on and wait for more specifics to emerge later. For example, a magical storm sweeps through the city and suddenly drains the color from the world. While this effect fades, it hints at a more sinister deep plot that I expect to emerge, but for now remains as an isolated oddity.

I’m planning to read the next book, Traitor of Redwinter, in March. The final book, Witch Queen of Redwinter was recently released (November 2024), so this is a completed series (paid links).

I know that Ed McDonald has written a couple of other series of books. Have you read any of those? Which would you recommend? Let me know in the comments!

You can find more of my book reviews here.

Book Review – The Black Bird Oracle

07 Feb 2025 Leave a comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , ,

I have been a fan of Deborah Harkness’ All Souls series, and recently finished watching the TV show based on her work. So of course I had to pick up her newest installment in the series, The Black Bird Oracle (paid links).

You can find links to each book as well as my reviews here:

  • A Discovery of Witches (book here; I didn’t write a review for this one)
  • Shadow of Night (book here; review here)
  • The Book of Life (book here; review here)
  • Time’s Convert (book here; review here)
I listened to the audiobook edition.

Here is the blurb:

Deborah Harkness first introduced the world to Diana Bishop, an Oxford scholar and witch, and vampire geneticist Matthew de Clermont in A Discovery of Witches. Drawn to each other despite long-standing taboos, these two otherworldly beings found themselves at the center of a battle for a lost, enchanted manuscript known as Ashmole 782. Since then, they have fallen in love, traveled to Elizabethan England, dissolved the Covenant between the three species, and awoken the dark powers within Diana’s family line.

Now, Diana and Matthew receive a formal demand from the Congregation: They must test the magic of their seven-year-old twins, Pip and Rebecca. Concerned with their safety and desperate to avoid the same fate that led her parents to spellbind her, Diana decides to forge a different path for her family’s future and answers a message from a great-aunt she never knew existed, Gwyneth Proctor, whose invitation simply reads: It’s time you came home, Diana.

On the hallowed ground of Ravenswood, the Proctor family home, and under the tutelage of Gwyneth, a talented witch grounded in higher magic, a new era begins for Diana: a confrontation with her family’s dark past and a reckoning for her own desire for even greater power—if she can let go, finally, of her fear of wielding it.

In this stunning new novel, grand in scope, Deborah Harkness deepens the beloved world of All Souls with powerful new magic and long-hidden secrets, and the path Diana finds at Ravenswood leads to the most consequential moments yet in this cherished series.

This book picks up in the aftermath of the previous books, so it would not make sense for someone unfamiliar with the series to start with this one. The opening scenes were promising when Diana receives a mysterious message from a previously unknown great-aunt. However, this book unfortunately failed to deliver on this strange message and other threats against Diana and Matthew’s family.

This novel suffered from a constant lack of conflict and danger. Diana’s relatives turn out to welcome her and her family as they invite her to learn the new power of higher magic. When Diana is challenged by a witch in the local coven, I hoped that something interesting would result. Yet the challenge ends when the other witch just gives up and walks away – WTH?

The Congregation has announced that they intend to test Diana and Matthew’s children for an affinity for higher magic. This threat looms over the entire story, but in the end I found myself wondering why they were even that worried. This is apparently a standard test that the Congregation does for all children suspected to be so gifted. When it actually happens, it turns out to be a non-event.

I felt like the purpose of this entire book was to set up another larger story arc. However, this made The Black Bird Oracle drag to the point where I found myself not caring about what happened in this novel. I’m sad that this book was such a disappointment and I don’t think I’ll be as eager to read more in this series.

This was the first book in this series where I listened to the audiobook edition. Jennifer Ikeda was the narrator and did a good job echoing Diana from the TV series. It took me a little time to adjust to how she voiced Matthew.

Have you read The Black Bird Oracle? Do you agree with my review or disagree? Let’s chat in the comments!

You can find more of my reviews here.

Book Review – The Book That Wouldn’t Burn

04 Feb 2025 1 Comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

The Book That Wouldn’t Burn by Mark Lawrence was an impulse buy for me earlier in 2024. I had read one of this author’s earlier novels (Prince of Thorns) and hated it so much that I declined to review it (this was for another site). But Mark Lawrence has since built himself a reputation as a leading author in the grimdark genre so I thought I’d give him another try with this novel, the first in The Library Trilogy (paid links).

I read the hardcover edition.

Here is the blurb:

The boy has lived his whole life trapped within a book-choked chamber older than empires and larger than cities.

The girl has been plucked from the outskirts of civilization to be trained as a librarian, studying the mysteries of the great library at the heart of her kingdom.

They were never supposed to meet. But in the library, they did.

Their stories spiral around each other, across worlds and time. This is a tale of truth and lies and hearts, and the blurring of one into another. A journey on which knowledge erodes certainty and on which, though the pen may be mightier than the sword, blood will be spilled and cities burned.

I loved this book so much, so Mark Lawrence has hereby redeemed himself as an author for me. This novel follows two point-of-view characters – Livira and Evar. Each suffers tragedy and earns instant sympathy from the reader. Livira’s plight is more immediate when she is kidnapped from her settlement by sabbers, then rescued by a patrol and taken to the nearby city where she bluffs her way into a position as a trainee librarian.

Evar is trapped in an eternal library with his small family of others who share a similar fate. The circumstances that brought him to this situation are mysterious, but he is determined to escape.

The library in this book is nearly a character itself and is ancient, inscrutable, and possibly infinite. No one knows who created it or how it has continued to exist through cycles of war and devastation. Only a fraction of the rooms have been catalogued, some are completely inaccessible, and guides are rare and only appear to those specially chosen. This story is partly a love letter to reading, books, and libraries, and here is one quote that I particularly liked from this book:

“That’s all anyone ever is–the story they tell, and the stories told about them. Fiction captures more than facts do. That’s why the library keeps it. It’s the most important part of our memories.”

I loved the worldbuilding in this story. The mythology of the library and the religion behind it echoed our own world and then diverged into its own fascinating struggle between good and evil. Outside the library, we have a sense that there is a cycle of war between the humans and the sabbers, but also hints of other dangers driving this central conflict.

This story also hints at a multiverse of sorts. Both Evar and Livira find their way to The Exchange, a place that reminded me of The Wood Between the Worlds from C.S. Lewis’ Narnia book, The Magician’s Nephew (paid link). This wood is filled with pools that function as gates to other timelines and parallel worlds. This place becomes central to the story as it is the only way that Evar and Livira can meet.

About three quarters of the way through the book, a massive twist is revealed. It made me question everything I had already read! From there, chaos and action drove the last quarter of the book to an ending that was both heartbreaking and satisfying. I can’t wait to read the next book in the series, The Book That Broke the World. I have already pre-ordered the final book in the series, The Book That Held Her Heart, that will be released April 8, 2025 (paid links).

Have you read any books by Mark Lawrence? Which ones did you enjoy? Let me know in the comments!

You can find more of my book reviews here.

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