Magic has its cost
In Gillig's fantasy debut a young woman has to hide the magic she wields, and the monster that gives it to her, or else find her life forfeit.
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Posts by Jane J
In Gillig's fantasy debut a young woman has to hide the magic she wields, and the monster that gives it to her, or else find her life forfeit.
Based on a real events, Toews' slim, powerful novel is true to its name. One evening eight Mennonite women living in an isolated community in Bolivia meet to discuss and make a choice that will change their lives irrevocably - whatever they decide. These eight women, along with more than a hundred other girls and women in their community have been suffering repeated sexual violations for years. And while that is devastating, and it has been devastating to them, the fact that it's members of their own community who have perpetrated these horrors makes their situation that much worse.
Portia Hobbs was introduced in Alyssa Cole's A Princess in Theory (the first in her Reluctant Royals series) as a friend of that heroine. Portia was a bit of a mess; partying too much, drinking too much, and definitely too many men. As Duke opens she's just arriving in Scotland to take on an apprenticeship with a struggling swordmaker. If that sounds odd, Portia would agree.
I flew for the first time since the pandemic last week and I'd forgotten how much reading I can get done when I'm trapped in my seat on a crowded plane. Almost one book on the way out and another on the way home. In the first of them, a blurb describes The Housekeepers as a cross between Downton Abbey and Ocean's 8 - a description that appealed to me on all fronts.
“You are an adventure I’ve always wanted to take—and I’m so glad I have. But adventures have consequences…. You know, I’m not sure they would be adventures if they didn’t.”
In his debut novel Nick Medina blends mystery, suspense and a touch of supernatural horror in a story that focuses on the disappearance of indigenous women. At the heart of the story is Anna Horn who is finishing high school and trying to figure out her place on the rez and in her tribe. While grappling with her own struggles, and feeling haunted by a entity of ancient myth, Anna is forced to reckon with a larger battle. Women on the reservation are going missing and no one seems to care. It becomes personal, and more immediate, when two women in Anna's life are lost.
I wasn't sure what to expect when I started Mirrorland for a recent Lakeview Mystery Book Group discussion other than it would likely be a dark suspenser - and it is that.** But it's also a twisty puzzler of a book that keeps the reader off balance from first to last page.
I know you're out there. All those readers who helped make Travis Baldree's Legends & Lattes the biggest thing to hit fantasy fiction last year. If you're one of the many (like me) who ended that book with a sigh of delight and immediately began searching for other cozy fantasy to sustain you? Then look no further than Rebecca Thorne's entry into the sub genre, which has much (a lot, actually) in common with Baldree's novel.
Though Ann Leckie's new novel involves larger issues of political intrigue and is set in her Imperial Radch universe, the story is a more intimate one of self-determination and how identity is formed.
I'll say up front that this Mary Balogh isn't going to work for everyone. It's a slow-build, slow-burn romance between a pair of guarded, reserved adults who come to their HEA in small, careful steps. Doesn't sound like a barn burner does it? But for this reader it was a nearly perfect read that let me settle in and savor each moment.