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Review: The Backwards Knight

The Backwards Knight cover.The Backwards Knight (TBK) is the first entry in the Eldritch Remnants series that has been a passion project of Matthew’s for many years. This dark fantasy novel, as the series name suggests, has horror elements. It concerns the struggle Orn, Laela, and Gaulf face regarding the return of some pretty twisted magic to their world. Orn is the knight who tasks himself with determining why, while Laela is an elf (perhaps the last of her kind) who hunts those marked by magic, and Gaulf is the poor soul who ends up on the run from her.

I’m in a Discord server with the author, so I’ve heard a lot about TBK. I also attended some of Matthew’s streams on Twitch where he worked on the book live. Even though horror is not a genre I read, this early exposure whetted my appetite for the book. I looked forward to its release a lot. So, I leapt at the chance to read the ARC.

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Review: The Mark of Dreams and Darkness

The Mark of Dreams and Darkness cover.

Beware: Mild spoilers lie ahead.

The Mark of Dreams and Darkness is the second book of the Mark of Creation Chronicles. I reviewed the first book, The Mark of Chaos and Creation, back in August of 2024.

I enjoyed Dreams and Darkness, and gave it a four-star rating on Goodreads, but I wish I had enjoyed it even more than I did. In truth, I think my rating is more like three-and-a-half stars that I rounded up to four because Goodreads doesn’t allow half-stars.

The book continues the story of Kara as she fights to rescue a friend from the dark prince Malakyte. She decides to enter the Titan Games, which is something similar to the Hunger Games, but not quite.

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Review: Clean Install

Clean Install cover.I think the premise of this book is pretty interesting, but its execution leaves a little something to be desired. The prose was a bit difficult to get into and the story itself felt pretty rushed. Some details that could have been fleshed out as subplots were instead presented as “oh and this was happening all along” tidbits that took me by surprise. Still, I enjoyed the story, but I wish the author had taken more time with it.

Three stars.

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Review: The Mark of Chaos and Creation

I really enjoyed this book. The Sailor Moon vibes were definitely my thing and it was nice to revisit them through new eyes.

There are a few quirks in this book that did detract from the reading experience, unfortunately. The author made certain color names proper nouns, but not others, and every time I came across one it kicked me out of being immersed because it just seemed so odd and unnecessary. The book could also have used a more thorough proofread, especially as there are repeated sentences in several places (obvious copy/paste errors), some missing words, and several places where the wrong word was used (“vile” instead of vial, or “allusively” instead of elusively, for instance).

But other than these things, the story is quite intriguing, and I was drawn in after the first few chapters. The characters are all written well, but I especially liked the banter between Kara and Ardelle, and I think Ardelle (and Malakyte) have to be my favorite characters of the bunch.

The worldbuilding is great as well. The author has imagined Earth to be under alien occupation, and over the course of the book this occupation comes to feel quite real and oppressive.

I’m looking forward to reading book two!

Four stars.

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Review: Metanoia

While I enjoyed Metanoia, there just didn’t seem to be much actually happening in it. Most of the time was spent traveling back and forth and sitting around talking. It’s definitely a slow burn as far as action goes.

It’s a weird feeling… I think one of the only reasons I kept turning pages was to see if any of the build up would actually pay off in this book, but it never really did. And then it just kinda…ended.

The characterizations were done quite well, especially for Loba. I enjoyed the banter between Loba and Ohkai, especially toward the end when it started getting awkward for Loba.

I’ll eventually give book two a try to see how the story advances but I think book two will need to do a better job of enticing me if I’m going to stick it out for book three.

Three stars.

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Review: Imbued

Imbued cover.I was privileged to receive an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Imbued, despite its sometimes dark content, is a lovely story. But don’t get me wrong: the dark content is not a drawback by any means. It’s hard for me to describe how I felt while reading this book (for the second time; I beta read it as well) but imagine, if you will, that satisfying sensation you get from inhaling fresh air full of the scent of spring and new blossoms while a thunderstorm broils on the horizon. It was kind of like that. Continue reading Review: Imbued

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Review: Threads of Fate

Threads of Fate cover.Threads of Fate is a fantastic addition to the Unwritten Runes duology. A collection of short stories, it delves a little deeper into the lives of the characters readers came to know and love from The Goddess of Nothing At All and Epilogues for Lost Gods. The stories are, at times, heart wrenching, but also fun and spicy. I enjoyed them all, and it is too difficult to pick just one as my favorite. I definitely recommend this book!

Four stars.

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Review: A Court of Sugar and Spice

A Court of Sugar and Spice cover.This book, by Rebecca F Kenney, is a spicy fae Nutcracker retelling. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I went into it, as I’ve never read or seen the original Nutcracker story. Nutcrackers themselves give me the willies (I don’t know why) so it’s not content I’ve ever been fond of consuming.

Two young women, Clara and Louisa, are drawn into fantastic circumstances when they go to live with their guardian, Drosselmeyer. They end up in the fae realm of Faerie with the Nutcracker and the Sugarplum Faerie, and get into all kinds of mischief while in pursuit of their goal: to lift the curse that was placed on the Nutcracker by Drosselmeyer. Continue reading Review: A Court of Sugar and Spice

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Review: The Maleficent Faerie

Maleficent Fairy cover.It was over too soon.

Sleeping Beauty is one of my favorite fairy tales. (Not THE favorite; that spot goes to Beauty and the Beast.) But when I saw this spicy fae retelling (and its gorgeous cover) by Rebecca F Kenney, I couldn’t resist picking it up. This was my first Kenney novel.

And, I’ll admit, I had an ulterior motive in wanting to read it: I wanted to see how another author writes spicy content, because I have spice in my own work but little basis for comparison. Continue reading Review: The Maleficent Faerie