This week I’m over at Nerds of a Feather with a review of Dark Rise by C.S. Pacat. It’s a story that brings some shades of grey to the traditional battle between light and dark, walking a fine line between paying homage to classic works of fantasy and generic predictability.
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As usual, Earl Grey Editing will be shutting down over the Christmas break. I’ll be on holiday from today until 3 January. Since this is my last post of the year, I thought I’d share with you some of my favourite reads of 2021. This comes with the usual caveat that these are not books […]
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An incomplete list of things that I love: historical fantasy romance; sunshine/stormcloud pairings; competent ladies (even as side characters); land magic; sentient (or semi-sentient) manor houses; stolen kisses in a private library. I’m pretty sure A Marvellous Light was written just for me. An administrative error sees Sir Robert Blyth (Robin to his friends) become […]
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Juliet Marillier has long been a favourite of mine, mostly thanks to her deft blending of magic, fairytale and history. Of all her books, the Blackthorn and Grim trilogy have been my favourite, so I was delighted when she released a new series about the children of the eponymous couple. Liobhan and Brocc are students […]
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Today has not gone to plan. A weather change is coming through, leaving me in a significant amount of pain. I need to start making dinner in an hour and the kitchen is still a disaster from yesterday. The dog is whining to be taken for a walk (again). And I’ve been trying to write […]
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2021 is apparently my year for New Zealand authors. Queen of Swords Press has happily enabled me by releasing Foxhunt by Rem Wigmore this month. This solarpunk novel shows a world in which humanity managed to halt its headlong rush into ecological oblivion. A greener, more sustainable path is enforced in part by the Order […]
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As I have mentioned previously, there has been some delightful fantasy romance coming out of New Zealand recently. One group of authors have banded together to produce Witchy Fiction, a range of light romance novellas about witches set in New Zealand. Of the titles I’ve read so far, my favourite has been Succulents and Spells […]
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April 2020 was a bit of a rough time. Australia reeled from devastating bushfires straight into pandemic. Understandably, many books released around then missed my radar entirely. One of those was Monstrous Heart. Fortunately, the recent release of the sequel caught my attention and drew me into this deliciously Gothic series. Arden Beacon comes from […]
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There has been some delightful fantasy romance coming out of New Zealand recently. Last year’s WorldCon brought The Lord of Stariel to my attention and I’m very glad it did. Hetta Valstar is not a respectable woman in the strictest sense. After all, she has magic: both illusion and pyromancy, the former of which she […]
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The Course of Honour has been on my TBR pile for so long that it has been turned from fanfic into the published novel Winter’s Orbit. But despite the long wait and all the hype, it turned out to be not the story for me. Count Jainan’s home planet of Thea is barely able to […]
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