Kristen
The Tangleroot Palace is a great collection containing six short stories and one novella by Marjorie Liu. This book encompasses a variety of subgenres and settings and each tale is very different from one another, but there are common elements that crop up a lot (like found family).
I'm more of a novel reader so I haven't read a huge number of collections or anthologies, but this is one of the best I've read. Though I thought some of the middles were slow and there wasn't enough page time for me to become incredibly invested (as is usually the case for me with short stories), I enjoyed every single one of these tales. Even if I had my favorites, none of these were far better or far worse than the others, and I'd love to read more of Marjorie Liu's short fiction.
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This is another fun fantasy adventure with great dialogue, although I didn't love The Quicksilver Court as much as the first book in the series (mostly because I find the members of the Rookery seem more like archetypes than characters so the focus on their history wasn't that compelling to me, even though everything with Ryx's grandmother, Whisper, and Severin was).
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Although I was able to appreciate each story in Beasts and Beauty to some degree, most of the stories were not that memorable to me. However, I did rather enjoy the reimagined versions of the following tales:
“Hansel and Gretel” (in which an exceptional baker is accused of witchcraft)
“Cinderella” (in which the titular character befriends a woman transformed into a mouse)
“Beauty and the Beast” (in which Beauty loves the idea of getting rid of that pesky Beast and having his castle and library all to herself)
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Hall of Smoke is told from the first-person perspective of Hessa, a priestess of the Goddess of War who is trying to set things right after having failed her deity by disobeying her order to kill a man. On her quest to regain her goddess' favor, Hessa becomes entangled in a war between the gods and discovers there's far more to her world and the history of its deities than she's been taught.
I really appreciated how Hessa's story managed to feel different to me in a lot of ways: the way her story unfolds and heads down some unpredictable paths, how it doesn't treat death and destruction lightly, how there is no romance. It's not a single factor but a blend of things that makes it seem fresh and unexpected, despite the cultures and gods not seeming all that original to me. (This isn't to say that's a bad thing, just that those did not feel especially different to me.)
There were a couple of stretches in the first half that were dull to me, and I didn't love it since the other characters tended to come and go and it didn't have the depth of friendships/relationships that are a big part of why I enjoy reading. But a strong beginning and second half, combined with all the ways it seemed atypical, made it a 3.5 star book for me and one that has me curious about the upcoming standalone sequel set about a decade later.
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Not rating this since I only tried the first few chapters and only read/skimmed the first 10% or so.
Great opening line and I loved the brief appearance of the giant raven, but the writing style and humor just was not for me. There was a lot of exposition, and although it wasn't the dry type with no personality, I found it difficult to get through since I didn't like the voice.
The more I got into it, the more I found myself skimming so I'm moving on to other books.
The Midnight Bargain is a fun fantasy of manners novel that kept me turning the pages wanting to know how Beatrice's attempts to make it through Bargaining Season with lots of magic and no betrothals went???especially after she fell for someone in spite of herself.
The romance was a bit closer to insta-love than the slow burn I tend to prefer, but I was rooting for them to get their HEA from the start. But my favorite relationship was the friendship Beatrice forged with her love interest's sister, who was every bit as determined as she to become a sorcerer despite the constraints on women with magic. I especially appreciated that this had both a romance and a major character who just didn't want to marry, regardless of whether or not it had any effect on her own magic.
This is the sort of book that I found fun to read one time but didn't stick with me enough that I expect to reread it, although I really appreciate C. L. Polk's skill at writing a book that distracted me from the world in 2020!
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My original rating was 3 stars after going back and forth between 2 and 3, but I changed it to 2 after writing my review. Although it did get better by the end, I also didn't find it memorable and struggled to get through it.
I was excited about The Once and Future Witches because I LOVED The Ten Thousand Doors of January and it had suffragette witches. There's a lot that's interesting about the different elements that went into this story and its handling of feminist anger, remade fairy tales, and witchcraft, but it never really kept me interested.
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Given that I LOVE Uprooted and enjoy magic school settings, I had been eagerly anticipating A Deadly Education, but I was disappointed. Although I actually did like the overall story and the dynamic between the two main characters (and the main character herself, once I got to better know and understand her), there was SO MUCH exposition. It seemed there was more explanation than actual story, and the attempts at injecting some humor into the long-winded, rambling narrative fell flat for me.
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It took me forever to write, but I finally have a more detailed review on my website.
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RTC, but for now, that was phenomenal.
The characters are so rich and complex that I had complicated feelings about most of them and kept going back and forth on whether or not I despised or actually maybe kind of liked some of them. (But never Khine or Tali, both of whom I loved...even during the times I internally screamed “TALI, WHY?” but knew the answer is she's just, well, being Tali.)Which is to say she is very well characterized even when I find her most frustrating.
I felt much the same way about The Archer at Dawn as I did The Tiger at Midnight: it's a fun book that shows the strength tropes can have in the hands of an author who really understands what makes them work. It has more plots and drama, and I had a great time reading it???but also like the first book, it didn't have the type of prose or characterization that made it a book I loved, even though I really appreciated that it managed to hold my attention in 2020.
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The Year of the Witching drew me in immediately, and I really enjoyed determined Immanuelle, her story, and that she developed as a character but still felt like the same person by the end???just one whose experiences had drawn a deeper part of herself to the surface. Although I did have some issues with the ending, it's no small feat that this book kept me turning the pages in the year 2020, and I look forward to reading more of Alexis Henderson's future work (including the sequel scheduled for next year!).
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Mexican Gothic combines Mexican history with the supernatural to create an increasingly unnerving tale???and the more I read, the harder it was to put down.
The story is about Noem??, a socialite and university student, visiting her fairly recently married cousin after her father received a rambling, out of character letter from her claiming that her husband was poisoning her. From the very start, there's an aura of wrongness emanating from the old mansion her cousin now lives in, as well as most of the family who lives there. As Noem?? spends more time there, she unearths more questions and more secrets and it goes from quietly disconcerting to more and more disturbing.
It's not a subtle book yet the backstory is creative and haunting, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading Mexican Gothic with its determined heroine, secrets, and creepiness???so much that it's one of my favorite books of 2020!
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The Bone Shard Daughter is set in an archipelago ruled by a mad-scientist-like Emperor who sews together animal parts and animates his creations with bone shards powered by his subjects' life forces. This novel explores this world from the perspective of 5 different characters, who were my favorite part of this story even if I did find some of their viewpoints more engaging than others.
I most enjoyed reading about Jovis, a wanted smuggler, and Mephi, the adorable intelligent animal who chose to be his companion and brought out the best in him, but I also especially enjoyed the story of Lin, the Emperor's daughter. Lin has been trying to recover her memory for the last 5 years so she can win her father's love and approval and officially become his heir???but since that's not working, she starts stealing his keys to various rooms in the palace and learning his secrets herself.
The Bone Shard Daughter is a really fun book and a highlight of this year's reading with its compelling characters and fascinating magic, although I think I would have loved it more if it had slowed down a bit to deepen the character relationships and worldbuilding.
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The Tiger at Midnight, the first book in a YA fantasy trilogy inspired by Indian history and Hindu mythology, follows two characters who become entangled in a game of cat and mouse. Esha, who is secretly a vigilante known as the Viper, is trying to discover who framed her for an assassination, and Kunal, a soldier, is trying to capture the Viper, believing the rebel to be responsible for the murder of his general/uncle???but their lives and missions are made more difficult by their growing fondness for each other.
Although the characters do not have the kind of dimension that tends to make a book memorable to me, I had a great time reading this book and found it to be just the type of diverting read I've needed many times this year. It's especially fun because the author seems to really understand what makes the tropes she incorporates work and adds some suspense by letting the reader in on secrets the characters do not yet realize.
3 1/2 Stars
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The Obsidian Tower is the first book in a new epic fantasy series set in the same world as Swords and Fire but about 150 years later???and once again, Melissa Caruso has written a book I found nearly impossible to put down!
It did take me a little longer to become completely absorbed in this one than any of the author's other books, but it ended up being the most riveting book I've read in quite some time with stakes that just keep getting higher and higher. Best of all, I found myself continuing to think about it after I did manage to put it down???there are a lot of mysteries and questions to ponder, and I can hardly wait to learn more in the next book.
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I was able to get into Crown of Coral and Pearl, Mara Rutherford's first novel, when I first started struggling to concentrate on reading a few months ago because, well, 2020. Though I never found the worldbuilding convincing, I did like the idea of the ocean village with its stilt-legged houses above the water, and I enjoyed the bond between Nor and her twin sister (even though I never really found it to be one of those books that I must keep reading).
However, it's a book that I found less and less engaging, and I didn't end up finding it all that memorable overall.
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Bonds of Brass sounded like a lot of fun: space opera with a prince in disguise whose best friend/crush had no idea about his identity until others try to assassinate him. And it is fun and generally fast-paced with all that going down in the first 20 pages, but I didn't find the characters compelling enough for it to be a book that really stuck with me. (Plus the further I got into the book, the more I felt that Ettian could do so much better than the friend he's in love with, whose charisma and good qualities seemed stronger in Ettian's memories than in the present.)
But I did like Wen, Ettian, and their friendship and it did keep me interested enough to finish reading it, although I doubt I'll be reading the sequel.
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Moontangled is a short novella dealing with the aftereffects of events in Thornbound for magician-in-training Juliana Banks and politician Caroline Fennell. During a ball at the college of magic, the two head off into the woods together, where Caroline breaks off their engagement for Juliana's own good. But when the fey of the woods interfere with them that night, each of them are determined to protect the one she loves...
This is one of those stories that hinges on miscommunication, and although part of me feels like two people this close might have communicated better/sooner, I did end up deciding it worked with the circumstances and their reactions. I did think it resolved too quickly and easily for the scope of the misunderstanding and thought the fey's “mysterious” intent was obvious from the beginning, but it is an entertaining tale.
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The Wolf of Oren-Yaro is narrated by Queen Talyien (Tali), a warlord's daughter who was betrothed shortly after her birth in order to end a civil war. But on the night she and her husband were to be officially crowned, he fled, leaving her and their young son behind. Five years after Tali was crowned queen and left to rule without him, Tali travels to a land across the sea to meet with him. Everything seems to go wrong before their meeting, and things just get worse when assassins attack during their reunion. Tali escapes but is separated from her people, all alone without money in a country with very different unspoken rules from her own.
I absolutely loved this book, largely because of Tali's amazing voice???hers is one of the best voices I've ever encountered in my reading. It hooked me from the very first line, and kept me invested in her and her endless cycle of disasters. The details of the world are vivid as seen through her eyes, and although it has tantalizing secrets, the most compelling parts were those that delved into what shaped her???and the way I wondered just how reliable a narrator she actually was, not because I thought she was intentionally being unreliable, but because I wondered how much she was trying to convince herself.
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A Beginning at the End is a post-apocalyptic novel primarily set in San Francisco in 2025, approximately six years after about five billion people died in a worldwide pandemic. It's a story of found family that follows three characters: Rob, a widowed single father who fears the Family Stability Board may take away his daughter; Moira, a former teenage pop star who ran from that life and the father who forced her to live it the first chance she got; and Krista, a wedding/event planner who firmly believes in getting over things and moving forward. There are also occasional brief chapters focusing on Sunny, Rob's seven-year-old daughter.
Though I was mildly curious about where it was going at first, I probably would have ended up leaving it unfinished if it wasn't a fairly short, quick read. I found it to be too plainly written with too little world and character depth for my personal taste, but it may appeal more to those looking for an effortlessly readable, hopeful book revolving around found family.
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