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...
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...
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,...
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...
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....
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...
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...
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...
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 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...
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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