Tremontaine: The Complete Season One
by Ellen Kushner , Alaya Dawn Johnson , Malinda Lo , Joel Derfner , Racheline Maltese , Patty Bryant, Paul Witcover

It has been forever since I read Swordspoint and I honestly don’t remember much about it and that is fine since this is a prequel to the books. The book is set up as serial but not every chapter ends on a cliffhanger and the story arc builds and completes nicely in the book. The cast of characters is certainly diverse and isn’t built off the European tropes you see so much in fantasy and that makes for a nice change of pace. Lots of growth for several characters and along with love and second chances for several. Not every story line ends well for everyone and that makes for good storytelling.

A fun read and I’ll pick up the next book when I get a chance.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss.

This is set in the same universe as Every Heart a Doorway and you will recognize the main characters but you don’t need to know anything about that book to enjoy this one. Jacqueline and Jillian are twins that have parents that expect certain things from them and don’t seem to care that those choices may not be what the girls either need or want. When they are five, the one person that loved them and wanted the best for them was sent away during the night the girls came to realize that they couldn’t trust adults. As they grew apart helped along by the different goals each parent had for them a door opened in the room they were never allowed to go into anymore, their grandmother’s room and the one person who loved them with all her heart.

The girls go in the door and live for years following two separate but entwined destinies in a small village on the moor of a land with a different moon in the sky. Choices are made by both the girls that are shaped in part by how they were raised and paths they decided to take while they live in the village.

After finishing this I really want to go back and reread Every Heart a Doorway so I can see the twins again.


Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Netgalley

Nothing brings two sides together like a common goal. Former Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr is now enjoying life working with her partners and former soldiers as Wardens for the Justice Dept. A scientific mission has been taken hostage over the possibility there may have found something about the plastic aliens. The mercenaries are a mixed group of Confederation and Primacy members. With a delicate peace hanging in the balance Torin finds herself working with Primacy soldiers but the good news is that she has worked with them before.
The book is great and builds on what has happened in the previous books. I really enjoy this series and I can’t wait to see the next book come out in the series.


Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Netgalley

Set after the main line Fables stories have ended several fables are still here and working for an agency trying to protect the world from the new magic. Connor Wolf is now grown and after a quick cameo by his parents he goes to work for the new agency. Sent out with the team on a mission on his first day with no team training he uses his initiative when things don’t go to plan. The good news is this works and they uncover the group that is stealing the objects and what they want them for.

After reading the first arc and a one-shot story added in this volume it left me cold. Yes, there was interesting stuff seeded into the plot that you know will come out later on down the story line but for the most part I don’t feel that motivated to read any more of them. Maybe I’ll change my mind if other people I know are reading it and loving it I might give it another shot.

Review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss

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This is currently an audio only short story that has Peter doing a poltergeist investigation at the British Library. This is a short story so there isn’t much development that happens but the librarian that meets with Peter knew his mother when he was a baby. This is more of a quick peek into the setting and a decent taste of what the story universe is like but it was all over way too quickly.

There is something about stories set between novels that are really nice. You know that no one is going to die since you have read further along in the series and know who is still living. This is a novella that has Peter tracking down ghost reports on the Tube with help from Jaget who now is now in charge of anything weird on the London Underground. The plus with this being a smaller story we do get more of Abigail and it really looks like in this story that as she grows up she will be working for the Folly as well.

The story is good and the nice thing is there isn’t a lot of actual magic in the story that hasn’t been seen before performed by anyone. What does seem to do the trick for this one is a nice combo of police legwork with the magic helping it out with the ghosts.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley

Take the idea that something happens in the world and if you are murdered there is 1 in a thousand chance that you would die but the rest of the time you would show back up in your own home naked and alive. Society changes in big and little ways from it. Dispatchers now sit in on surgeries and if things go bad they can “dispatch” you and send you home several hours in your past fully whole most of the time. Dueling and fight clubs are one of the gray areas that people have come up with from this. Rich people use them as a sort of insurance policy since you can die from accidents but being murdered can erase what damage an accident has caused.

The story revolves around the disappearance of a dispatcher and some of the things that people do with this new development in the future. A good interesting read and I wouldn’t mind seeing more stories poking at the problems this helpful occurrence has caused.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Netgalley

Omg! I read it one sitting and all I know is I'm keeping my fingers crossed for more.

Also review being held until two weeks prior to publication per publisher request.

Nothing really new in this one except Stephanie actually goes undercover in an ice cream plant to help Ranger out. The relationship needle points more to Ranger with this one versus Morelli. Stephanie makes her way through life bumbling along and getting in and out of scrapes. If it wasn’t for Ranger’s trackers on her I don’t think she would have survived so long.
A fun light read much like a 30 minute sitcom.

The second book in the Arcadia Project series pulls no punches with the characters. Set several months after the previous book, Mille is working at Valiant studios and helping the Arcadia Project hide the fact that there is fey gate in one of the sound stages thanks to the ending of the previous book. While asking for help in possibly cleaning up the sound stage and getting it usable for a producer that wants it very badly instead there is a ghost there and it draws Millie back into working for Arcadia even though she really doesn’t want to give that type of control of her life. Things get complicated rather quickly and Mille is trying very hard to clear a friend of murder charges placed on them by Arcadia and clean up a time bomb of a problem from the last book.

Everything moves fast and yet almost everything in this plot has tendrils that go back way in the past that Millie and the reader know nothing about. I’m very interested to see what happens in the next book with the solution the Arcadia Project in LA came up with to solve the problems.


Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss

The latest in The Others series has the Courtyard secretly hosting the Elders as they observe the humans that live there. A known troublemaker moves in and is being allowed to stay only because he is related to Lt. Montgomery. His family knows he causes strife and is always looking for the easy way to slide through life. But the Elders want to see what happens. There is progression with Sam and Meg. For the most part this felt more like a book of smaller stories and things happening to lots of people to set up future stories set in this universe. Over all I enjoyed it but I certainly wouldn’t recommend starting here at all in the series.

The latest novella from Mira Grant is in a new setting. Thanks to advances with VR, a doctor has come up with a new use for it in helping people heal mental wounds. With any new advances, there are skeptics and people who want the technology. As Doctor Webb conducts a doubting Thomas journalist through one of the healing scenarios an industrial spy is downloading the info and sabotaging the demonstration with a bonus on the line to also kill the Webb.
The story uses the idea that scaring yourself can be healing and that is the scenario they use along with drugs during the highly scripted and controlled VR environment but when someone takes over the control and changes everything in order to kill you what will be the outcome.
A great story by Mira Grant as usual.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley

The second book continues quickly from the previous book and plows right ahead with the scheming of the houses to come on top. This one also has the dragons dealing with schemes and plots and they are working on an alliance with the House Hawthorn.  No matter what happens in the books past events always shape both people and future plans.  Overall I enjoyed the book and the worldbuilding but for the most part no one ends up with a completely happy ending. I think it brings home the fact that the Houses provide safety in the world but not much happiness.

Digital review copy provded by the publisher through NetGalley

This book is a great starting point for the new reader. The setting is new to the returning reader and deals with the bears of Moscow and minor character from the ongoing series.  Silver has been poisoned and the only people with access to have done it looks like family. To keep her alive and maintain the charade that everything is fine it is passed off as building bridges with the new alliance.  Tthis doesn’t always go to plan and there are attacks in Moscow from the new set of villains hoping to destroy the Psy and anything like an alliance between the three races.

There are some new people brought into the story and I’m sure we will see more of them and I really hope we see more of both Silver’s grandmother and brother.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley

This one starts with the case finding Eve instead of being dispatched to the scene. She and Roarke rescue a woman wandering on the road covered in blood and find out her husband has been murdered. The minor twist to this one is no one liked the murder victim but there is no obvious suspect.  Turns out this is an escalation from someone who has broken into a few homes with robbery and rape on their mind along with terrorizing the victims.  A nice solid story and an enjoyable read.

An urban fantasy that has vampires, werewolves and the Fay all living out in the open.  When a talented tattoo artist is turned into a vampire and escapes out of the asylum he has been locked in his former clients become his new prey. The Souljacker is hunting his clients down to remove his art from them since he is no longer inspired to create art since he was turned.  Lily is a succubus and one of his former clients. When her Fey Queen commands her to track down the killer she has to obey.

This is the start of a new series and the start of a new chapter in Lily’s life. She has friends and in this book picks up a new job for her Queen and a steady love interest as well.

A fun light read and I’ll be looking for more of these.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Netgalley

This volume in the ongoing Liaden series focuses only on Theo, her crew, and the ship Bechimo.  Surprisingly enough this can work as a first-time dip in the series for someone since it only concerns so few people in the series and some background is given to reader as the story unfolds.  Longtime fans of the series might want to brush up on events that happened in Crystal Soldier and Crystal Dragon for things that happen in this story.  Another fun story in this universe and I’ll be reading more of them as they come out and rereading some of my favorites while I wait.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss

This is more of a collection of shorts than one long arc of stories.  The zombie story was cute but felt more like an alt universe instead of going to part of the new cannon.  The call center attack was fun and almost everyone dreams of doing it at some point.  By the end of the issue Harley get a new villain to spar with that I’m sure we will be seeing more of in the future.

A decent start to this latest reboot in the DC universe. I’ll pick up the next one to see where it is going from here.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss

This novella can be read by itself or before or after books 1 and 2.  The story is cute and sweet and the only hurdle between them is Thea doesn’t date clients but David works hard to woo her heart in a way that appeals to her and has her overcome her previous heartbreak and trust issues.