by Barbara the Bibliophage | Nov 24, 2019 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi
Jacqueline Simonds offers an urban fantasy with a side helping of Arthurian legend in The Midsummer Wife. It’s a tantalizing reading combination, especially in a time when we know our leaders by their tweets rather than by their ancestry. Set in the near future, the...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Aug 14, 2019 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi
Year One by Nora Roberts is an interesting choice to follow my recent reads by Tosca Lee and J. D. Horn. It combines elements of each book into a satisfying post-pandemic adventure with a magical twist. It’s more about escaping the big city than Lee’s focus on the...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Aug 12, 2019 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi
The Final Days of Magic is my last shot at the New Orleans Witches series. And I’ve discovered that none of the characters matter very much to me. Even if author J.D. Horn writes another book in the series, I won’t be following along. I’m disappointed to be leaving...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jun 24, 2019 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi
Sonia Faruqi writes her debut novel as a mash-up of mermaid fantasy and oceanic conservation information. Unfortunately, it’s more mashed than up. I abandoned it after 100 pages.The parallel story lines of a human and a mermaid are a trope that goes back to old-school...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Apr 22, 2019 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi
Madeline Miller tells a story replete with Greek gods, kings, warriors, battles, and death. And yet what it’s really about is the love between Achilles and Patroclus. Both young men are high born princes. Achilles is also half god, with a human father and goddess...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Apr 20, 2019 | RELAX: Historical Fiction
In the first of a new series from Paula Brackston, Xanthe Westlake and her mother Flora move to small town Marlborough to rebuild their lives. Flora bought the property and stock from a now-deceased fellow antiques dealer and retailer. He left the place in a pretty...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Mar 25, 2019 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi
Ghost Gifts from author Laura Spinella was a good balance for my recent more serious reads. But it wasn’t much more than a fluff piece. Main character Aubrey Ellis is a journalist, working on real estate features at a small town paper. She’s also a medium, willingly...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Feb 5, 2019 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi
In Angel Time, Anne Rice tells the story of a present-day hit man, a former parochial school student. The narrator is his guardian angel. After learning about his depressing descent from down on his luck school boy to a life of crime, we meet said angel. And together...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Nov 25, 2018 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi
Scott Lynch creates a fantastical world with intriguing characters in The Lies of Locke Lamora. As the first in a series, he must do plenty of world-building in his island city of Camorr. But that never overshadows the action and excitement of the story line. And his...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Nov 2, 2018 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi
The Graveyard Book from Neil Gaiman is a charming, middle-grade, coming-of-age story. I listened to the full-cast audiobook, and followed along via ebook.Nobody Owens (called Bod by his friends) is a human, orphaned boy who just happens to live in a graveyard. His...
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