Thumbs up for Shanghai Immortal by A. Y. Chao. Historical fantasy.
A juvenile half-vampire, half-fox-spirit with lots of feelings and low impulse control is sent from Immortal Shanghai to 1930’s Mortal Shanghai on a mission, the reasons for which already escape me. I’m not sure I ever understood them, to be honest: this book is not strong on plot, but it does succeed as a fun character-driven coming-of-age story.… >> Read more
Thumbs down for The Curse of Saints by Kate Dramis. Romantic fantasy.
Well, I’ll start with the good part: Dramis can put words together pretty well. Unfortunately, there are too many of them and they aren’t doing the right things. The main character is one-dimensional (being angry and grief-ridden does not a character make), and her love interest is supposed to be dark and brooding, I guess?… >> Read more
Thumbs up for Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett. Historical fantasy.
Emily Wilde, a not particularly charming professor of Dryadology, is in “Ljosland” to research the final section of her Encyclopedia of Faeries. Her attempt at pure research is instantly thwarted by her inability to make friends with the locals, and then by the arrival of her academic rival, the dashing Wendall Bambleby.… >> Read more
Neither thumbs up nor thumbs down for Spells for Forgetting by Adrienne Young. Romantic contemporary fantasy.
A woman who owns an herb shop on a magical island outside Seattle has to unravel the true story of what happened when she was a teen–did the man she was in love with (who’s now returned to the island) really kill her friend? Although it’s not quite my usual thing, I did enjoy this book.… >> Read more
Two thumbs up for The Cruel Prince, The Wicked King, The Queen of Nothing, and How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories by Holly Black. Young adult fantasy.
Whether you like these books are not will be wholly dependent on your feelings about Holly Black’s writing style (vivid and kind of slithery-feeling) and whether you enjoy violent, ambitious female leads who take absolutely no shit, even when rationality suggests they should chill.… >> Read more