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The Garden of Promises and Lies by Paula Brackston (Book Review)

by Barbara the Bibliophage | Dec 31, 2020 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi

The Garden of Promises and Lies by Paula Brackston is book three in her Found Things series. It’s a little bit romance, a solid dash of historical fiction, and a lot of time traveling hijinks. Our heroine Xanthe Westlake partners with her mother Flora in an antique...

Alma Katsu Dives into Chilling Waters with The Deep (Book Review)

by Barbara the Bibliophage | Aug 2, 2020 | RELAX: Historical Fiction

The Deep from author Alma Katsu is the perfect example of a genre I like to call Historical Fiction with a Twist. To qualify, that twist needs an element of fantasy or supernatural. In this case, Katsu imagines the lives of Titanic passengers and crew. With the hint...

Book Review: Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jun 21, 2020 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi

Justina Ireland combines zombies with post-Civil War era uncertainties in her alternate history romp, Dread Nation. So now you know, I’ve read two zombie books by Black authors in as many months. Thankfully, this one is more action-packed and features a high-energy,...

Book Review: Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho (Sorcerer Royal #1)

by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jun 10, 2020 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi, RELAX: Historical Fiction

The publisher summary of Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho focuses on Zacharias Wythe, who is England’s young Sorcerer Royal of the Unnatural Philosophers. But for me, this imaginative fantasy is as much about the female lead Prunella, as it is about Zacharias. And Cho...

Book Review: Secrets of the Chocolate House (Found Things #2) by Paula Brackston

by Barbara the Bibliophage | Mar 22, 2020 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi

After I read the first book in Paula Brackston’s recent series, Found Things, I was super excited to read the next book. Called Secrets of the Chocolate House, I finished it in the midst of our current global pandemic crisis. Naturally, I wished for escapist reading....

Book Review: The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

by Barbara the Bibliophage | Dec 30, 2019 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi

Marion Zimmer Bradley creates King Arthur’s story from a female-centric viewpoint in The Mists of Avalon. Instead of focusing on the men—Arthur, Lancelet, the various Knights—she uses the perspectives of the women in their lives. Her main characters are Arthur’s wife...

Book Review: The Solstice Bride by Jacqueline Simonds (The Heirs of Camelot #2)

by Barbara the Bibliophage | Dec 6, 2019 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi

The Solstice Bride, the second in the Heirs to Camelot series from Jacqueline Simonds, picks up twenty years after the end of The Midsummer Wife. Twenty years! Imagine my disappointment when she didn’t immediately jump in and explain her cliffhanger. But in the end I...

Book Review: The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

by Barbara the Bibliophage | Oct 8, 2019 | RESIST: Social Justice

We know Ta-Nehisi Coates for his nonfiction, but his fictional debut, The Water Dancer, is just as stupendous as his previous books. He builds the details of his world drop by drop, layer by layer. By the end, I felt fully immersed, although in some ways I was...

Book Review: The Little Shop of Found Things by Paula Brackston (Found Things #1)

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...

Book Review: The Firebird by Susanna Kearsley

by Barbara the Bibliophage | Mar 29, 2019 | RELAX: Historical Fiction

I’ve been a big fan of Susanna Kearsley for several years. I discovered her not long after I powered my way through the Outlander books. And I felt like her writing had a similar vibe—what I call historical fiction with a twist. In the case of The Firebird, the twist...

Book Review: Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore

by Barbara the Bibliophage | Feb 3, 2019 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi

Christopher Moore is a master of the humor-filled, historical fiction with a fantasy twist novel. How’s that for a sub-genre? Sacré Bleu was my favorite read this January. BTW, you should know that the French expression “sacrebleu” is used to convey surprise,...

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