Fantasy

The Shadow Sister by Lily Meade

This is a really good, creepy YA mystery/thriller that keeps your attention from page one. The book opens with Casey being mad that her sister Sutton is missing. She’s convinced that Sutton took off for selfish reasons and is laughing that everyone is frantically looking for her. Casey puts on a show as a worried sister for the cameras, but inside she’s fuming. There is no love lost between her and Sutton, but no way is she telling the police about their argument just before Sutton went missing.

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July 5, 2023 0

Heliotrop by Palmer Pickering

4.5 stars

Teleo is a retired soldier descended from Mages, who were cast out of power generations ago. After years of war and sorrow, he wants nothing more than to live a quiet life on his farm and work his stonemason’s craft.

His wife and daughter had been murdered during a war raid several years earlier and his young son stolen by the enemy side. He spent years unsuccessfully searching for his son and returned home broken-hearted. At the local castle, he comes upon a war orphan stolen by his side from the enemy and rescues him from abuse, adopting him as his foster son.

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April 22, 2023 0

Blind Spots by Thomas Mullen

This was a pretty good science fiction mystery/thriller set in the near future after a mysterious illness caused the entire population of the planet to go blind. A device was created that approximates vision, downloading visual data directly to people’s brains. Mark Owens, a homicide detective, investigates a murder in which the witness claims that the murderer was blacked out of her vision. He doesn’t believe her until the same thing happens to him. Mark realizes that someone is manipulating the data everyone receives from their tech. This starts Mark down a dangerous path in which more lives are in jeopardy and Mark can’t trust what he sees with his own eyes.

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April 15, 2023 0

Identifiable by Julia Tvardovskaya

3.5 stars rounded up

This is an interesting science fiction/fantasy. In this world people have a chip in their head that brings up everything about them. The first 13 years of your life are controlled by your parents, so you’re stuck with whatever they decide to upload. If you have controlling parents, you can’t control your profile until you turn 18. This happened to MC Rory. People are assigned to a brood. Each brood has defined parameters of what they do, what they believe & how they behave. People do not interact outside of their brood.

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April 8, 2023 0

The Mountain of Souls (The Chosen, #1) by Marcus Lee

Oh my gosh, you guys. This book!!! If you like dark fantasies that have mysterious sects with secret agendas, a questionable king, a brutal training process, and a strong female lead, pick this book up right now. It’s rare that a book grabs me from page 1, but this one did.

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March 12, 2023 0

The Other Merlin (Emry Merlin, #1) by Robyn Schneider

3.5 stars rounded up to 4

This is a fun YA Fantasy re-telling of Camelot. Arthur is an intelligent bookworm that isn’t much of a fighter. Lancelot is a gay castle guard that was demoted from a page (on track to becoming a knight) after a misunderstanding. Both we content bumbling along until Arthur accidentally pulls the sword from the stone, and now everyone thinks he’s some kind of hero. Emry Merlin poses as her twin brother at court to learn magic and serve Arthur. It’s supposed to be temporary, but nothing goes to plan and she’s there permanently. Princess Guinevere is betrothed to Arthur, but neither wants to marry the other.

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January 8, 2023 0

The Stranded (Stranded #1) by Sarah Daniels

This is a good YA Dystopian Sci/Fi Thriller set on the Arcadia, a luxury liner that set sail 40 years ago after being driven from Europe by an apocalyptic war. Since that time, it’s been a refugee camp anchored off the coast of the Federated States. The story centers on Esther a loyal citizen, working to have the rare chance to live a normal life as a medic on dry land, and Nik, a rebel planning something big to liberate the Arcadia once and for all. Of course, nothing goes as planned, and the oppressors of the refugees acts despicably toward them, requiring the rebels to alter their plans.

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December 29, 2022 0

Rise of a Dark Throne: The Mosa Chronicles by Ligia N. Cushman

This is a promising first book in a fantasy series. Sole is a princess that survives a tragedy in her land called the Darkness which kills her parents and new husband. Her two sisters are nowhere to be found and Sole finds herself the Queen of Mosa. As she works tirelessly to pull her country out of the tragedy, she is summoned to heal the King of Sundom, the land her people fled to avoid being killed by the evil King.

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December 9, 2022 0

The Wicked Remain (Grimrose Girls #2) by Laura Pohl

This was a satisfying conclusion to a good YA Fantasy duology. The events pick up a few months after the first book. The girls continue to search for a way to break the curse, but are waylaid by personal issues that distract them from their goal. As they make progress on finding out the origin of the curse, more girls start dying.

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November 9, 2022 0