fantasy

Heartless Hunter: Exploring blood magic

by Stefani

Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli

Published: February 20, 2024 by Wednesday Books

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Synopsis:

On the night Rune’s life changed forever, blood ran in the streets. Now, in the aftermath of a devastating revolution, witches have been diminished from powerful rulers to outcasts ruthlessly hunted due to their waning magic, and Rune must hide what she is.

Spending her days pretending to be nothing more than a vapid young socialite, Rune spends her nights as the Crimson Moth, a witch vigilante who rescues her kind from being purged. When a rescue goes wrong, she decides to throw the witch hunters off her scent and gain the intel she desperately needs by courting the handsome Gideon Sharpe – a notorious and unforgiving witch hunter loyal to the revolution – who she can’t help but find herself falling for.

Gideon loathes the decadence and superficiality Rune represents, but when he learns the Crimson Moth has been using Rune’s merchant ships to smuggle renegade witches out of the republic, he inserts himself into her social circles by pretending to court her right back. He soon realizes that beneath her beauty and shallow façade, is someone fiercely intelligent and tender who feels like his perfect match. Except, what if she’s the very villain he’s been hunting?

Rating:

Rating:

This book was another recommendation by friends and luckily this one was much more successful than the first. I really loved this book. Rune was a fascinating character. She felt like a real person. She tried to make the right decisions and she was trying to do the right things, but she didn’t always succeed. It was really refreshing to read a young adult female heroine who isn’t absolutely amazing and perfect at literally everything. That’s a very annoying trope in the young adult space and I am ready for it to stop. But Rune was different and I appreciated that.

The magic system in this book was fantastic. I loved the idea of magic having a price. You may be a witch and be able to wield magic, but you have to pay for it with blood and scars. And the more complex the spell is, the higher the price. Some spells are outlawed because they required the unwilling sacrifice of someone else’s blood.

We learn early on in the book that this world used to be ruled by three witch queens, sisters. They were evil and abused the non-magic citizens horribly and used their magic to make the general public their slaves in every sense of the word. So, they overthrew the witch queens. Killed them. And outlawed witchcraft. Then we institute the Bloodguard. Their job is to hunt down witches and then execute them.

One thing that didn’t make a lot of sense to me was Rune’s insistence on saving all witches. She knows that some witches are evil and corrupted by their power. But she insists on saving all captured witches as the witch version of Robin Hood. She doesn’t even know these women but is convinced that she should save all of their lives. Why> How does she know that these women are innocent? Most of them likely are but not all. But this book doesn’t really delve into that moral gray area, which disappointed me. I hope that might be a bigger theme in the second book.

The big reveal at the end was also a bit predictable. I knew it was coming a long way off. The payoff of the reveal was still really good though. Overall this was a great book and I immediately jumped into book two.

Meet Me at the Crossroads: A Journey Beyond the Doors

by Stefani

Meet Me at the Crossroads by Megan Giddings

Published: June 3, 2025 by Amistad

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Synopsis:

On an ordinary summer morning, the world is changed by the appearance of seven mysterious doors that seemingly lead to another world. People are, of course, mesmerized and intrigued: A new dimension filled with beauty and resources beckons them to step into an adventure. But, perhaps inevitably, people soon learn that what looks like paradise may very well be filled with danger.

Ayanna and Olivia, two Black Midwestern teens—and twin sisters—have different ideas of what may lie in the world beyond. But will their personal bond endure such wanton exploration? And when one of them goes missing, will the other find solace of her own? And will she uncover the circumstances of what truly happened to her once constant companion and best friend?

Rating:

Review:

Based on the synopsis I wanted to love this book. It had all the makings of a book that was right up my alley. And in the first portion of the book, it seemed hopeful. I was absolutely riveted by the description of the doors and how various portions of humanity interacted with these doors.

It all came to a halt once Ayanna and Olivia went through the door. Initially it got very confusing. I read a few chapters several times in a row because I couldn’t figure out what had happened and where I missed it, I never found the missing piece. And then the plot just stopped. No more mention of the doors. The only thing that happened after that point was Ayanna navel gazing about her all consuming grief.

In the end I gave up about halfway through. Nothing was happened and I have other things to do and other books to read.

Exploring Magic and Mystery: The Otherwhere Post Reviewed

by Stefani

The Otherwhere Post by Emily J. Taylor

Published: February 25, 2025 by G.P. Putnam’s Sons

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Synopsis: Seven years ago, Maeve Abenthy lost her world, her father, even her name. Desperate to escape the stain of her father’s crimes, she lives under a fake name, never staying in one place long enough to put down roots.

Then she receives a mysterious letter with four impossible words Your father was innocent.

To uncover the truth, she poses as an apprentice for the Otherwhere Post, where she’ll be trained in the art of scriptomancy—the dangerous magic that allows couriers to enchant letters and deliver them to other worlds. But looking into her father’s past draws more attention than she’d planned.

Her secretive, infuriatingly handsome mentor knows she’s lying about her identity, and time is running out to convince him to trust her. Worse, she begins to receive threatening letters, warning her to drop her investigation—or else. For Maeve to unravel the mystery of what happened seven years ago, she may have to forfeit her life.

Rating:

Review:

This book was an interesting journey. The world building and magic system was a 10 out of 10. It was fantastic and magical. I loved learning about these worlds and how the magic worked. And I loved that we had a mystery wrapped up in this beautiful fantasy world. When this book was good it was spectacular, when it wasn’t then I honestly wanted to stop reading. In total, a bit of a mixed bag.

Maeve was pretty boring if I’m going to be honest. I wanted to be able to root for her so badly. But she just didn’t interest me at all. I understand that she separated herself from other people because she was treated badly nd the stigma that her name carries but she just didn’t do anything particularly interesting. Even when she was searching for the truth about her father I just couldn’t get invested in her.

I also was really confused about exactly what her father did?? It must have been something pretty terrible for people to verbally, emotionally and physically torture his daughter for it….right? The actual incident of what happened is only ever discussed in vague detail and euphemism. They’ve given the event a name and we get vague references to roots and trees and people dying. But that’s about it. We learn almost nothing else about it. I found that frustrating. Everyone else might already know what happened but I don’t! I need someone to tell me and I didn’t get that. Every time they vaguely mentioned the “crime” I just found myself screaming in my head, “BUT WHAT DID HE DO??!!!”

Tristan as a young adult love interest was so refreshing. He is kind, quiet, patient and melancholy. He’s very gifted but he prefers not to draw attention to himself and he identifies with Maeve in all the right ways. More importantly, he listens to her and lets her decide what the best decision is for her. And he’s there to comfort her and help her if it doesn’t work out. That is such a nice change from the usual male love interest in young adult books.

In the end it was a beautiful book that won’t be the most memorable for me.

Progress Updates: May 30, 2025

by Stefani

Pride’s Children: Netherworld by Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt

Progress: 338 of 540 pages

Check this book out at: Goodreads

How it’s going:

This book has such a different feeling and tension in it than the first one did. I am starting to see a vicious plot start to come to fruition and I am on the edge of my seat to see how it ends up. I did get a lagging feeling a bit in the middle of this one, it was a transition moment in the plot that just slowed everything way down. It picked back up though and I’m breezing along now.

The Otherwhere Post by Emily J Taylor

Progress: 6 hours, 11 minutes of 11 hours, 22 minutes

Check this book out at: Goodreads

Synopsis:

Seven years ago, Maeve Abenthy lost her world, her father, even her name. Desperate to escape the stain of her father’s crimes, she lives under a fake name, never staying in one place long enough to put down roots.

Then she receives a mysterious letter with four impossible words Your father was innocent.

To uncover the truth, she poses as an apprentice for the Otherwhere Post, where she’ll be trained in the art of scriptomancy—the dangerous magic that allows couriers to enchant letters and deliver them to other worlds. But looking into her father’s past draws more attention than she’d planned.

Her secretive, infuriatingly handsome mentor knows she’s lying about her identity, and time is running out to convince him to trust her. Worse, she begins to receive threatening letters, warning her to drop her investigation—or else. For Maeve to unravel the mystery of what happened seven years ago, she may have to forfeit her life.

How it’s going:

I am torn on this one so far. Loving the magic system and the other dimensions. Love the scriptomancy university. Maeve is incredibly boring so far and hasn’t really done much of anything except worry. And why have they might told me what her father’s crime is? We talk about it in very vague, euphemistic ways that don’t actually tell me anything. Whatever he did was bad enough for a young girl to abandon her name and live in hiding but….what was it? It’s getting annoying.

What if Happiness Was Contagious? All Better Now Reviewed

by Stefani

All Better Now by Neal Shusterman

Published: February 5, 2025 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Synopsis:

An unprecedented condition is on the rise. It behaves like a virus, with the first symptom being a fever, but those who contract it experience long-term effects no one has ever seen; utter contentment. Soon after infection, people find the stress, depression, greed, and other negative feelings that used to weigh them down are gone.

Almost everyone revels in this mass unburdening. But people in power—who depend on malcontents tuning into their broadcasts, prey on the insecure to sell their products, and convince people they need more, new, faster, better everything—know this new state of being is bad for business. Soon, campaigns start up convincing people that being happy all the time is dangerous. There’s even a vaccine developed to rid people of their inner peace and get them back to normal because, surely, without anger or jealousy as motivators, productivity will grind to a halt and the world will be thrown into chaos.

It’s nearly impossible to determine the truth when everyone with a platform is pushing their own agendas, and two teens from very different backgrounds who’ve had their lives upended in different ways by the virus find themselves enmeshed in the center of a dangerous power play. Can they reveal the truth?

Rating:

Review:

When I read the synopsis for this book I was interested, but wary. Given the fact that it was published in 2025, it had the capacity to be very preachy about any and all things COVID19. But, Neal Shusterman is an author that has earned by trust in taking topics that could be preachy but are not while in his capable hands. So I dove in and I loved this book.

It was such a unique concept. What would society do with a virus that seems to make your life better? Sure, you still might die from the virus. But if you don’t, you’ll just be blissfully content and at ease with the world. What does society do with something like that? How would different categories of humans react?

In this book, Shusterman explores all of these possible reactions. You have a kid who is desperately depressed and figures that even if he dies from the virus, he’s still better off than he is now so, why not get it? There are people who are desperate to avoid infection because they can’t imagine a world where their emotions are limited in such a way against their will. There are people who have made their fortunes by being ruthless and uncaring about their fellow humans, and now need to make provisions about what will happen to their assets if they get this virus and suddenly feel altruistic. You have people who are so blissfully happy that they feel everyone in the world should get the virus.

Now take all of these stories and focus on 3-4 of the best ones and you end up with this book. I really enjoyed every single storyline and could easily imagine that these are real reactions of real people. I loved it. My only complaint on the character side was that a few of them were desperately annoying, even though their story was interesting. I didn’t really connect with any of the characters either, they were more of a vehicle for the plot than anything else.

It ends on a cliffhanger…of sorts, and there is a 2nd book due to be published at some point in the future. I look forward to seeing where else this story can go because this was a fun ride. I really enjoy how Neal Shusterman’s brain works, he is an automatic read for me these days.

Review of The Bright Sword: Camelot’s New Heroes

by Stefani

The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman

Published: July 16, 2024 by Viking

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Synopsis:

A gifted young knight named Collum arrives at Camelot to compete for a spot on the Round Table, only to find he’s too late. The king died two weeks ago at the Battle of Camlann, leaving no heir, and only a handful of the knights of the Round Table survive.

They aren’t the heroes of legend, like Lancelot or Gawain. They’re the oddballs of the Round Tables, from the edges of the stories, like Sir Palomides, the Saracen Knight and Sir Dagonet, Arthur’s fool, who was knighted as a joke. They’re joined by Nimue, who was Merlin’s apprentice until she turned on him and buried him under a hill. Together this ragtag fellowship will set out to rebuild Camelot in a world that has lost its balance.

But Arthur’s death has revealed Britain’s fault lines. God has abandoned it, and the fairies and monsters and old gods are returning, led by Arthur’s half-sister Morgan le Fay. Kingdoms are turning on each other, warlords are laying siege to Camelot, and rival factions are forming around the disgraced Lancelot and the fallen Queen Guinevere. It is up to Collum and his companions to reclaim Excalibur, solve the mysteries of this ruined world and make it whole again. But before they can restore Camelot they’ll have to learn the truth of why the lonely, brilliant King Arthur fell and lay to rest the ghosts of his troubled family and of Britain’s dark past.

Rating:

Review:

I listened to this one on audiobook and I was highly anticipating it. I love Camelot and King Arthur, so I was really excited to see this kind of a book. One that had a Camelot in distress and in need of a new hero. It’s a very long book too, the audiobook is about 24 hours or so, the hardcover is 673 pages. I wanted a good adventure! And I didn’t get it.

The first three hours of this audiobook were great! We follow Callum’s journey to Camelot, his discovery that Arthur is gone and so are most of his knights. The only knights left are the ones who weren’t very good anyway. That was all great, I loved it. And we get a little bit of the history of Arthur in there too. I was completely invested.

Then it started to get a little dull. We were going on a quest to find out if any of the other knights are still alive and find Excalibur. But, most of what actually happens is drinking, joking around and moping about how badly everything sucks. It was the longest journey to nowhere ever. It reminded me of Tolkien, and if you know my opinion on Tolkien….well….it’s not a compliment. By the time we introduced Morgan le Fay I was so bored that nothing could bring me back. I listened to roughly 10 hours of this book and then called it a day. I just couldn’t stand the thought of spending another 14 hours on it. I have many better ways to use my time.

Why Fourth Wing’s Dragons Steal the Show

by Stefani

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Published: May 3, 2023 by Entangled: Red Tower Books

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Synopsis:

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away…because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom’s protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.

Rating:

Review:

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or out in the vast wilderness you’ll know that the 3rd book of this series came out recently. You can’t get away from it. Onyx Storm is everywhere. And everyone seems to love it. Maybe if I was still a doe-eyed 20 something then I would have liked it more too. I decided to give this series a shot and while it is entertaining, it has problems.

I listened to this on audiobook and thought the narrators did a fabulous job. They told this story and the characters to the best of their ability.

**Spoiler alert** Read no further if you wish to remain unspoiled

I love dragons. Adding dragons to a fantasy is a really big winner for me, especially intelligent dragons. The dragon that pairs with Violet is very witty and intelligent, and frankly he was my favorite character. But, it also made me wonder, what does it say about a book when the most logical character is a dragon? The dragon politics in this book was interesting but it also made me ask a lot of questions. Mainly, what do dragons need humans for? They have power, intellect and magic all on their own. They have their own laws, their own politics and their own functioning world. Why do they want to bond with humans? Share their magic with humans? Weaken themselves to empower the humans? Most importantly, why do they want to assist the humans in their wars? Even if the dragons had the same enemy, they seem perfectly capable of fighting on their own. And unfortunately we never get the answers to those questions.

Xaden was a great character, very complex and morally grey. But as soon as I heard his name I knew we were getting a cheesy romance starring Xaden Riorson. And it’s the stuff of every YA book’s dreams. Unreasonably jealousy, trying to make jealousy sexy. On a side note, can we please stop trying to make jealous outbursts sexy? They aren’t. But most importantly, we get Violet and Xaden angsting at each other until they finally find their way into each other’s pants. I probably would have enjoyed this more if I was still a naive 20-something. Instead, fully adult me, rolled my eyes and moved along.

I also found the timeline really confusing. So, there’s a war that seems to have been going on for centuries. The enemy wants to break into their kingdom, but they don’t know why. Everyone seems to just suggest that they obviously want something really badly but…it’s been 600 years? You haven’t had a single peace negotiation to find out? And there was also an internal rebellion that seemed to have happened a lot more recently. A lot of the characters talk about it like it was a long time ago, but since Xaden is involved with the ending of that rebellion it can’t have been any more than maybe 5 years earlier? Xaden is only around 23, so it can’t have been too long ago. But as it turns out the people they’re fighting against (the people in the war or the rebellion, can’t really tell) want magic from the kingdom, because they’re being attacked by magical creatures that no one thinks actually exist. So…instead of just explaining the situation you’re in, you start a war and sacrifice more fighters trying to steal the thing you need? Someone was missing battle sense.

This book was full of tropes. Violet is “so frail”, so tiny, so boring, so unremarkable. Who then ends up doing so many amazing things that no one has ever done before! Eye roll. Sexy jealousy. Eye roll. Childhood friend who has all the feelings. Eye roll. Heroine having an “addiction” to the bad boy. Eye roll. So many tropes.

The things that pulled me into this were the dragons, who were pretty badass. The magic system was very well done and interesting. And the enemies we finally get introduced to right at the very end. Those things have kept me invested enough to probably read the 2nd book. But if the worldbuilding doesn’t get a lot tighter than I’m bowing out of the series for good.

Progress Update Fridays – March 14, 2025

by Stefani

Pride’s Children: Netherworld by Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt

Progress: 52 of 540 pages

Check this book out at: Goodreads

How it’s going: I am thoroughly enjoying my journey back into this world so far. I will have to put this one down briefly as I have another one on my Nook that is about to expire, so have to jump other there for a minute and will be right back on this one.

The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman

Progress: 8 hours, 37 minutes of of 23 hours, 10 minutes

Check this book out at: Goodreads

How it’s going: This one started off really well. I liked Callum a lot and I was really interested in his journey. A young man who desperately wants to be a knight of the Round Table and arrives to find King Arthur dead and the Round Table in shambles. The first 3 hours were great. The last 8 have been utterly boring. I am contemplating giving up.

Sociopath: A Memoir by Patric Gagne

Progress: 32 of 368 pages

Check this book out at: Goodreads

How it’s going: The opening chapter of this book was so intensely chilling. On one hand I felt so sorry for this little girl, but on the other hand she can’t feel sorry for anyone so it’s little bit of an odd experience. I only have a few more days with this one so needed to jump in this week.

Dragons and Destiny: Exploring Ragar Or’s Mysteries

by Stefani

The Prophecy of the Yubriy Tree by Ben Spencer

Published: October 19, 2024 by Knock Knee Books

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble

Synopsis:

Every year, prophecy leaves fall from the Yubriy Tree. And every year, the Dayborn king sends his most trusted servants to collect the leaves and return them to the capital.

Only this year, one of the leaves drifted into the forest unseen.

Three lives will be forever changed by the undetected prophecy leaf.

The strong-willed daughter of a powerful family. The mysterious and reviled half brother of the king. And a talented but unlucky musician, desperate to write the song that will bring him good fortune.

Looming in the background are reports of the first dragon to appear in Ragar Or in over sixty-five years. And, as anyone familiar with Ragar Or’s history knows, when dragons appear, royalty dies.

Rating:

Review:

**Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest feedback. Thank you Net Galley and Knock Knee Books!**

I really loved this book. The very first chapter captured my attention and the book didn’t let go until the last page. The first chapter details the process of collecting the Yubriy leaves and it follows the journey of the three leaves that get carried away. Then we jump straight into meeting our main three characters, around whom I presumed that the lost prophecies would revolve. It was a perfect introduction into the story.

So because we have these three main characters that means we have three ongoing narratives that revolve around different aspects of this world. Johanna is the daughter of a high lord whom the king is asking for assistance in squashing a rebellion. She was amazing. I loved her character, her story and her spunk. The first time we’re introduced to her was unforgettable and I loved her for every page after. Silas is a musician who desperately wants to get a patronage somewhere, but he gets caught up with an unexpected ally while running from soldiers who are trying to murder them. He was a little harder to enjoy, he’s a sullen musician after all. But eventually he warmed my heart too, and his story turned out to be incredibly important to events that happen later in the book. And Gregor, the bastard half brother of the king who acts as his counsel and his sage. Gregor’s story was probably the most compelling of the bunch. He introduces us to so many beautiful and important parts of the story.

I couldn’t get enough of this book. I dreamed about it a few times, trying to work out how it would end and what the missing prophecies were. The world was wonderfully crafted. The characters were realistic and likeable. The magic of this world was fascinating and unique. I just loved it. This is definitely a series I will be following.

Progress Update Friday – 2/14/2025

by Stefani

It’s been a minute since I did a progress update post. I am working my way through a few things, so let’s jump right in.

Kree by Manuela Draeger

Published: October 22, 2024 by Univerity of Minnesota Press

Progress: 156 out of 280 pages

Check this book out at: Goodreads

Synopsis:

A warrior struggles through an apocalyptic landscape and the world after death

Kree Toronto has been raised as a warrior in a ravaged post apocalyptic, post human world, the population decimated by wars and civilization long since collapsed. After her attempt to avenge the death of her dog, Loka, goes horribly wrong, Kree finds herself lost in a world after death and wanders into the city of the terrible mendicants.

Under the Brothers’ totalitarian rule, Kree can lead a quiet life and forget her violent past, even if needles grow in her skull and hallucinatory blood rains pour down now and then to remind her. She can make friends: a shamanic healer with a shaking tent, a mysterious stranger hatched from an egg, and a gruff Tibetan electrician in a world without electricity. And she can have her Loka, as long as she toes the Party line and does as she’s told. When she can’t—when her friends start to disappear and the Brothers turn against her—Kree sets out on a quest, searching for a new way forward.

How it’s going:

This book is very odd but I have to admit that I’m enjoying it. Before I got it I didn’t realize that this is a side novel that takes places in an established world that have had other books written in it. The author’s name is a pseudonym and is a character in one of the other novels. Which is an interesting idea. The translation also seems to replace the word “that” with “what” almost all the time. But translations can be tricky and once I realized what the intended word likely was I stopped noticing it. It’s an interesting book. It’s beautifully written, but it’s incredibly difficult to follow.

Pride’s Children: Netherworld by Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt

Published: September 19, 2022 by Trllka Press

Progress: 20 out of 540 pages

Check this book out at: Goodreads

Synopsis:

Every decision he makes from here on will hurt someone .

Is his happiness even in the equation any more?

In Book 1, Pride’s PURGATORY , rising Irish megastar Andrew O’Connell embarked on a beautiful friendship with reclusive author Dr. Kary Ashe , and committed to his stunning costar Bianca Doyle ’s directorial debut film Dodgson , a Lewis Carroll biopic.

He never imagined either would shatter the impenetrable wall he built between his professional and personal lives. His future as a leading man depends on being an bankable obsession in the lives of the women he seduces, on and off screen. But a past regret makes his gorge rise when offspring are on the way and he’s suddenly responsible for their very existence.

How it’s going:

Clearly I have a long way to go on this one, but I am excited to be back in Andrew and Kary’s world. So far this one has the same tone as the first, a narrative that carries you on a winding river journey, looking at all the passing scenery. It’s a fun ride and I am happy to be back on this boat.