Review: Bookshops & Bonedust, by Travis Baldree

Viv's career with the notorious mercenary company Rackam's Ravens isn't going as planned. Wounded during the hunt for a powerful necromancer, she's packed off against her will to recuperate in the sleepy beach town of Murk—so far from the action that she worries she'll never be able to return to it. What's a thwarted soldier of fortune to do?
Spending her hours at a beleaguered bookshop in the company of its foul-mouthed proprietor is the last thing Viv would have predicted, but it may be both exactly what she needs and the seed of changes she couldn't possibly imagine. Still, adventure isn't all that far away. A suspicious traveler in gray, a gnome with a chip on her shoulder, a summer fling, and an improbable number of skeletons prove Murk to be more eventful than Viv could have ever expected.

"Sometimes, we aren't the right people yet."

Travis Baldree's Bookshops & Bonedust is the perfect prequel to the lovely Legends & Lattes, a prequel the author hadn't anticipated but that allowed him to flesh out more the protagonist, Viv, and expand on her backstory and her motivations. This is another low-stakes story wherein Viv learns the art of staying still in one place, finds friends, has a fling, and makes connections; she starts to read, and learns the magic of books.

This books is soft and tender and charming, and it has very poignant things to say about there being a time for everything, about missing chances and growing and finding one's place. The characters are all so vivid, we even see some old faces, and the epilogue especially was delightful. New races are explored, the worldbuilding grows, and there's more of a coherent plot regarding a magical threat, than in the first book of the series. It takes what worked so well in the first installment, and gives more, for a beautiful exploration of the ties that bind people.

Bookshops & Bonedust is a worthy prequel/sequel and a cozy marvel.

✨ 4 stars

📚📚📚 IF YOU LOVE THIS, YOU MIGHT LIKE:

* The Bookshop and the Barbarian, by Morgan Stang

for: low-stakes, bookshops

Review: A Necessary Chaos, by Brent Lambert

In a world of magical empires and the anarchists that would tear them down, two mages, Althus and Vade, are each assigned to spy on the other by opposing sides. But when they both catch feelings, what happens when they’re commanded to kill their target? They must each decide if they'll follow orders or find a way to make their romance thrive beyond the lies.

"Grief never performed a single resurrection."

Brent Lambert's A Necessary Chaos is a sci-fi novella with magical aspects, a thrilling enemies-to-lovers romance between two men tasked to spy on each other. The dual POV allows to delve into the psyche, the past, and the motives of the main characters; we begin in medias res, with the deception of their love affair having gone on for years, and follow the inevitable shattering of the illusion when both characters are tasked to get rid of each other.

On the background is the larger conflict between an Empire that meddles with demons and human experiments, and the rebels who try to stop the carnage. When the truth is finally revealed, we race towards a high-stakes ending where characters need to learn to trust each other in order to avoid untold horrors. The novella was perfectly contained, giving tantalizing glimpses of a larger worldbuilding while managing to stick the landing. The main characters are skilled operatives, competent fighters with secrets, and the explosive finale is well-earned.

Unfortunately, there were a lot of typos.

A Necessary Chaos is a solid novella debut.

✨ 4 stars

📚📚📚 IF YOU LOVE THIS, YOU MIGHT LIKE:

* This is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

for: espionage, enemies to lovers

Review: Faebound, by Saara El-Arifi

Yeeran is a warrior in the elven army and has known nothing but violence her whole life. Her sister, Lettle, is trying to make a living as a diviner, seeking prophecies of a better future. When a fatal mistake leads to Yeeran’s exile from the Elven lands, they are both forced into the terrifying wilderness beyond their borders. There they encounter the impossible: the fae court.
The fae haven’t been seen for a millennium. But now Yeeran and Lettle are thrust into their seductive world – torn between their loyalty to each other, their elven homeland, and their hearts.

"Our ignorance made victims of us."

Saara El-Arifi's Faebound is a romantasy that follows two sisters in their in their journey to discover that a species that was supposed to be extinct isn't so extinct after all. The fae are cursed to live underground, and their abode is explored fully, filled as it is with magic and mysteries. Plot twists abound; the revelations are woven into the story well. But the main characters, while being in their thirties, often act like they are much younger.

The relationship between the sisters is at the center, exploring the bounds of sisterhood, grief, resentment, and love. Prophecies are a thing that isn't taken seriously in the elven realms, and Yeeran doesn't always believe in her younger sister. Constrained by duty and love, Yeeran wasn't always there for Lettle, and that puts a burden on their relationship. The sisters' romantic relationships, while being a focus of the narration, feel unearned and a bit tropey, but at least the sapphic relationship of the older sister is executed well in contrast to the fated F/M romance of the younger.

The magical system is interesting, intricate and layered, with many possibilities explored. The fae can bind themselves to animals, becoming two halves of a whole, sharing a beautiful connection. The world isn't explored much, past what we know of the feud between various tribes of Elves, but one gets the sense that will change in the following books of the series. I would have liked the religion, and the three gods, to be explored more, but again that seems like it will be better developed in the coming books.

Faebound is a nice romantasy with little focus on plot.

✨ 3.5 stars

📚📚📚 IF YOU LOVE THIS, YOU MIGHT LIKE:

* Walk Between Worlds, by Samara Breger

for: fae world, forest

Review: The Lost Future of Pepperharrow, by Natasha Pulley

1888. Five years after they met in The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, Thaniel Steepleton, an unassuming translator, and Keita Mori, the watchmaker who remembers the future, are traveling to Japan. Thaniel has received an unexpected posting to the British legation in Tokyo, and Mori has business that is taking him to Yokohama. Thaniel's brief is odd: the legation staff have been seeing ghosts, and Thaniel's first task is to find out what's really going on. But while staying with Mori, he starts to experience ghostly happenings himself. For reasons Mori won't--or can't--share, he is frightened. Then he vanishes.
Meanwhile, something strange is happening in a frozen labor camp in Northern Japan. Takiko Pepperharrow, an old friend of Mori's, must investigate. As the weather turns bizarrely electrical and ghosts haunt the country from Tokyo to Aokigahara forest, Thaniel grows convinced that it all has something to do with Mori's disappearance--and that Mori may be in serious danger.

"Grace is not a thing you performed, but a weight you carried".

Natasha Pulley's The Lost Future of Pepperharrow is the stunning conclusion to the duology that began with The Watchmaker of Filigree Street. The journey of Thaniel and Mori, together with their adoptive daughter, reaches new highs and lows as we learn more about Mori, his morality and the lengths he's willing to go to to protect who he loves.

Mori is such an intriguing character because in another book, he could easily be a villain (in fact, some characters think he is). But we see him through Thaniel's loving eyes, we see his vulnerabilities and strengths, and we can't help but be completely enamored with him, with his quiet strength and his resolve. His are the lines that make us dissolve into a sobbing mess, his the trials and tribulations, in the pursuit of something he eventually can't even remember.

Thaniel gets a much needed depth too, and it's fascinating to see how he navigates his relationship with Mori, with the orphan Six, and with the new character Pepperharrow, a tragic and compelling figure. All the new characters felt alive and believable, with complex motivations of their own, and I was delighted to even find some old faces from the first book.

This sequel was so much better, both in composition and pacing. The prose was of course lovely already in the first book, but the author has such graceful writing, like a warm hug even in the direst circumstances. I loved that we got some more information about how Mori's clairvoyance works, and the ether, and glimpses of this alternate history. I especially loved the change in setting, with the author taking us to Japan and demonstrating a deft hand in painting the country through the eyes of a stranger. I enjoyed her choices in terms of dialogue and her note about it at the end.

The Lost Future of Pepperharrow is a masterful conclusion to a lovely duology.

✨ 5 stars

📚📚📚 IF YOU LOVE THIS, YOU MIGHT LIKE:

* The Kingdoms, by Natasha Pulley

for: memory, time

Review: An Education in Malice, by S.T. Gibson

Deep in the forgotten hills of Massachusetts stands Saint Perpetua's College. Isolated and ancient, it is not a place for timid girls. Here, secrets are currency, ambition is lifeblood, and strange ceremonies welcome students into the fold. On her first day of class, Laura Sheridan is thrust into an intense academic rivalry with the beautiful and enigmatic Carmilla. Together, they are drawn into the confidence of their demanding poetry professor, De Lafontaine, who holds her own dark obsession with Carmilla.
But as their rivalry blossoms into something far more delicious, Laura must confront her own strange hungers. Tangled in a sinister game of politics, bloodthirsty professors and dark magic, Laura and Carmilla must decide how much they are willing to sacrifice in their ruthless pursuit of knowledge.

"Face death bravely, and greet her as a lover."

S.T. Gibson's An Education in Malice is a sapphic dark academia with vampires, loosely connected to the author's A Dowry Of Blood and inspired by the classic Carmilla, although the inspiration ends at the names. The titular character enters a heated academic rivalry with the seemingly innocent Laura, while the two work under the tutelage of their poetry professor, a mysterious figure with her own agenda.

Their two POVs entwine as they navigate their attraction and their battle for their teacher's attention; Laura struggles with her own desires, which she can only safely explore with the help of erotic fiction, while Carmilla is trapped in an inappropriate relationship with her mentor. Gradually, the two will come together and overcome their hurdles, while also coming into their own.

The prose is exquisite, with lovely turns of phrase, and the obsessive nature of their fascination is mirrored by the lush descriptions and the carnality of the world they come into. The attraction between Carmilla and Laura culminates when they are invited to a vampiric bacchanalia, with voyeuristic plays and public sex. We also meet a few older vampires, expanding the world and giving it depth.

The book seems to be a standalone, but I would love something else with the same characters. Perhaps I would have preferred a singular POV, to add to the intrigue, but this worked as well.

An Education in Malice is a deliciously debauched retelling.

✨ 4 stars

📚📚📚 IF YOU LOVE THIS, YOU MIGHT LIKE:

* In the Roses of Pieria, by Anna Burke

for: academia, deeper history

Review: A Market of Dreams and Destiny, by Trip Galey

Below Covent Garden lies the Untermarkt, where anything and everything has a price: a lover’s first blush, a month of honesty, a wisp of fortune. As a child, Deri was sold to one of the Market’s most powerful merchants. Now, after years of watchful servitude, Deri finally spots a chance to buy not only his freedom but also his place amongst the Market’s elite when he stumbles into the path of a runaway princess desperate to sell her royal destiny.
But news of the missing princess and her wayward destiny spreads. Royal enforcers and Master Merchants alike are after it. Outmanoeuvring them all would all be hard enough had Deri not just also met the love of his life, a young man called Owain, whose employers are using the Market for their own nefarious schemes. Deri soon finds that the price of selling the royal destiny, making a name for himself, and saving the man he loves is dear. The cost of it all might just change the destiny of London forever.

"True Love? That’s worth far more".

Trip Galey's A Market of Dreams and Destiny is a fun adventure set in an alternative England where Henry VIII turned to druidry to achieve his divorce, and Elizabeth I made a pact with Titania; where magic permeates every dealing, and the goblin market is the place where one can find anything, ruled by its own fay rules, but also a place where great injustice abounds.

The setting is intriguing, and yet the execution feels a little lacking; much more could have been explored. We follow the lives of two indentured servants as they navigate the market and face new threats, attempt to buy back their contracts, fight against the system, and fall in insta-love. Their relationship isn't fully explored, and this takes away from the shock that the big resolution should provoke.

Deri is a great protagonist, mischievous and very smart, able to male do with less than nothing and find new ways out of trouble. A thorough planner, it's a joy to watch him outmaneuver almost everyone in his quest to find the best solution with the least loss, even though his more altruistic plans are almost an afterthought. His ability to hear words when the London bells ring makes for an interesting power that could have been explored further.

The prose is phenomenal, lyrical and vivid and filled with great imagery, clever turns of phrase, and memorable characters populating the goblin market, from Deri's master who can speak with gold, to the cat that decides to take an interest in Deri's affairs, and many others. The goblin and fae, being genderless, are referred to exclusively with a neutral pronoun of the author's design.

A Market of Dreams and Destiny is a book that's filled with wonder.

✨ 3.5 stars

📚📚📚 IF YOU LOVE THIS, YOU MIGHT LIKE:

* Lava Red Feather Blue, by Molly Ringle

for: faerie, mischief

Review: Bitterthorn, by Kat Dunn

Blumwald is a town overshadowed by an ancient curse: in a sinister castle in the depths of the wild wood lives a monstrous Witch. Once a generation, she comes to claim a companion to return with her – never to be seen again. Now that time is drawing near once more.
Mina, daughter of the duke, is grieving and lonely. She has lost all hope of any future for herself in Blumwald. So when the Witch demands her next companion, Mina offers herself up – though she has no idea what fate awaits her. Stranded with her darkly alluring captor, the mystery of what happened to the previous companions draws Mina into the heart of a terrifying secret that could save her life, or end it.

"Loneliness isn't a fixed state".

Kat Dunn's Bitterthorn is a sapphic gothic tale set in the Nineteenth Century, its atmosphere reminiscent of The Beauty and the Beast while not being a complete retelling. Told in the first person, it narrates a tale of profound loneliness and duty, of cruelty born of isolation, of love and infinite kindness. The story gravitates around Mina and her relationship with the Witch, the monster haunting the region with her curse.

The Witch is seen through Mina's eyes; through Mina we are first scared, then fascinated, as the inquisitive narrator does her best to understand her captor and what is to be asked of her. Her ignorance of her fate makes for a compelling read as the reader puts the pieces together and divines what the climax of the novel may be, only to be surprised by the outcome. I don't deny I would have loved a more tragic ending - it seemed to be inevitable - but this book is softer than what one might glimpse at first.

The historical backdrop, with its use of Bismark's unification, serves the novel well, giving it an edge; the ignorance of the more modern Germans, who treat the Witch's existence as mere superstition, contrasts with the terrified knowledge of the country folk, who have to live with the seeping inevitability of the coming reaping. The few named characters are well-rounded, especially the schloss' all-present servant and Mina's father, but others seem to be paper-thin, like Mina's stepmother; of her step-sisters, only one seems to be a character.

This book would have maybe benefitted from more pages to truly appreciate the slow development of the relationship between Mina and her Witch, and to better explore the slow horror of the schloss, haunted with strange happenings and trapped in time. The writing was exquisite, lyrical and evocative and perfect in creating a haunting atmosphere.

Bitterthorn is a beautiful tale of love and duty.

✨ 3.5 stars

📚📚📚 IF YOU LOVE THIS, YOU MIGHT LIKE:

* Thorn, by Anna Burke

for: Beauty and the Beast, gothic

Review: The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, by Natasha Pulley

1883. Thaniel Steepleton returns home to his tiny London apartment to find a gold pocket watch on his pillow. Six months later, the mysterious timepiece saves his life, drawing him away from a blast that destroys Scotland Yard. At last, he goes in search of its maker, Keita Mori, a kind, lonely immigrant from Japan. Although Mori seems harmless, a chain of unexplainable events soon suggests he must be hiding something. When Grace Carrow, an Oxford physicist, unwittingly interferes, Thaniel is torn between opposing loyalties.

"Being solitary isn't a disease that needs a cure".

Natasha Pulley's The Watchmaker of Filigree Street is a delightful debut. I'm slowly but surely reading every book by this author and bemoaning the fact that she slipped under my radar for so long. This book is a breath of fresh air, a whimsical historical novel with touches of magical realism and a fantastic cast. The author isn't afraid to write complex characters, people of dubious morality, even unlikable.

The main narrator, Thaniel, is thrown into a mystery; in the course of trying to solve it, he finds the elusive watchmaker who could be more sinister than one sees at first glance. Thaniel is fascinated, and strikes up a deep friendship that might evolve into something more, with striking moments of tenderness and references to the homophobic laws of the time. Thaniel is fiercely loyal, and his synesthesia makes for a lovely excuse to really delve into some gorgeous prose, while also being a plot point that helps him.

The watchmaker Mori, as we get to know him, especially thanks to a few flashbacks to his past (never through his eyes, always through someone else's POV) is an intriguing figure that slowly reveals itself, and still at the end of the novel we're left with so many questions about him.His gift is terrifying, not only for those around him (and I had to understand the female character's fears, Grace with her scientific mind, trapped in the role the times force her to take if she wants to still follow her studies), but also for himself, as it makes him remember and forget to a frightening degree.

The glimpses of history, the focus on Japan, and the mechanical wonders created by Mori, made for a gorgeous story. The resolution was a bit rushed, especially a chapter that explained things going on behind the scenes, and the aether seems more of a gimmick than a plot point, but the mystery was solved like clockwork.

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street is a quiet marvel.

✨ 4 stars

📚📚📚 IF YOU LOVE THIS, YOU MIGHT LIKE:

* A Marvellous Light, by Freya Marske

for: visions, magical England

Review: The Knowing, by Emma Hinds

Whilst working as a living canvas for an abusive tattoo artist, Flora meets Minnie, an enigmatic circus performer who offers her love and refuge in an opulent townhouse, home to the menacing Mr Chester Merton. Flora earns her keep reading tarot cards for his guests whilst struggling to harness her gift, the Knowing - an ability to summon the dead. Caught in a dark love triangle between Minnie and Chester, Flora begins to unravel the secrets inside their house. Then at her first public séance, Flora hears the spirit of a murdered boy prostitute and exposes his killer, setting off a train of events which put her life at risk.

"We are all ghosts".

Emma Hinds' The Knowing is a dark atmospheric piece about abuse and recovery, with a number of chilling scenes. The true horror, as in the best books, comes not from the supernatural elements (Flora has the ability to see and be possessed by ghosts) but from the abuse and harsh threatment of women during the Nineteenth Century.

This book doesn't hold its punches, tackling dark themes like incest, rape, forced abortion, and pedophilia. Flora was taken in by an abusive man when she was very young, and so was Minnie, a past circus performer with dwarfism. The two of them are quickly drawn to each other, but their own relationship isn't devoid of red flags. The so-called "love triangle" in the blurb is less that and more of an "abuse triangle", with Flora and Minnie seeking comfort in each other. The complex tangled web of their intersecting lives makes for a poignant reflection on abuse and the lies we tell ourselves in order to survive.

The supernatural part is handled well and it's appropriately harrowing, with ghosts that are victims of violent crimes and bent on revenge. I appreciated the focus on the card reading, another facet of Flora's Knowing, one she can teach others as well; her healing seems to settle in one such scene.

With this kind of setting I wasn't certainly expecting an HEA ending, but while a sudden tragedy strikes in the second half of the book, things end up looking up, in a way.

The Knowing is a gritty debut.

✨ 3.5 stars

📚📚📚 IF YOU LOVE THIS, YOU MIGHT LIKE:

* Wild and Wicked Things, by Francesca May

for: flawed characters, abuse

Review: The Unbalancing, by R.B. Lemberg

Beneath the waters by the islands of Gelle-Geu, a star sleeps restlessly. The celebrated new starkeeper Ranra Kekeri, who is preoccupied by the increasing tremors, confronts the problems left behind by her predecessor. Meanwhile, the poet Erígra Lilún, who merely wants to be left alone, is repeatedly asked by their ancestor Semberí to take over the starkeeping helm. Semberí insists upon telling Lilún mysterious tales of the deliverance of the stars by the goddess Bird.
When Ranra and Lilún meet, sparks begin to fly. An unforeseen configuration of their magical deepnames illuminates the trouble under the tides. For Ranra and Lilún, their story is just beginning; for the people of Gelle-Geu, it may well be too late to save their home.

"To heal, you must first become trusted".

R.B. Lemberg's The Unbalancing is a quiet story of salvation, an Atlantis-like story set in a world governed by a Bird goddess, where stars are kept by starkeepers and people do magic with their names. The main characters, a nonbinary demisexual poet and a loud starkeeper with much hurt in her past, come together to save their island from destruction, and they find love with each other.

The poet is a quiet character, unwilling to take on the role that others are sure should be hers; the contrast with the starkeeper, who took what she could to emancipate herself, makes for an interesting dynamic. The starkeeper is an extrovert, taking on many lovers, but behind the exuberant veneer is someone who is deeply hurt. The poet is still questioning, attempting to find their place and the precise iteration of their nonbinary identity, for this is a world where nonbinary people can be of five different types, and they signal it through hair tokens and complex hairstyles. This is a story of acceptance, too, and finding one's worth, and overcoming one's past.

The worldbuilding is immaculate, painting with deft strokes a world that is complex and different and deeply accepting, where consent matters to acts of magic and the stars come from afar. It is a slow unraveling, when the mystery of the stars' origin is revealed, and it is deeply touching. The ending feels just right in its inexorability, with pages of exquisite prose.

The Unbalancing is a quiet treasure of a novel.

✨ 4 stars

📚📚📚 IF YOU LOVE THIS, YOU MIGHT LIKE:

* Keeper of the Dawn, by Dianna Gunn

for: community, consent