Fantasy – Ring Reads

Cozy Adventures Continue in ‘Brigands,’ Albeit With a Different Face

The cover of Brigands and Breadknives, which features an illustration of a strong brown horse, an elf warrior with short white hair, a mouse-like creature writing on parchment and looking very worried, and a goblin with orange hair and a hideous multicolored coat, all gathered around a cooking fire.

I confess I was reluctant to pick up Legends and Lattes, Travis Baldree’s breakout 2022 novel, thinking it was over-hyped only to find it just as cozy and delightful as people said it was. Its prequel, Bookshops and Bonedust, expanded the fictional world by introducing readers to Fern, a bookseller who first convinced our hero,Continue reading “Cozy Adventures Continue in ‘Brigands,’ Albeit With a Different Face”

‘Home’ More Heart than Haunted, In a Good Way

There’s just as much heart in Haunt as in any of Pinsker’s steady stream of excellent short fiction. I’d watch Haunt Sweet Home, but I liked reading about it even better.

‘Thornhedge’ Twists Fairy Tale Cozily

At just 128 pages long, Thornhedge is a sweet little fairy-tale snack with some substance to boot.

Wishes get Colonized and Corporatized in Shubeik Lubeik

The repercussions from wishes are negligible for the haves and devastating for the have-nots. Following the rules is detrimental for some, and far outside the sphere of concern for others. As with many things designed to “make life better”—technology, say, or medicine—the artificial scaffolding around wishes exacerbate, rather than reduce, inequality in the society they occupy.

‘Butcher’ a Fairy Tale of Trauma

The trauma at the heart of The Butcher is something wound as tightly around every detail as tightly as ivy on a tree. There’s a difference between surviving something and coming back whole, Veris notes early in the book, and it becomes increasingly clear that she’s the one who hasn’t been the same since.

‘Hollow’ a ‘Bittersweet’ and Magical YA Mystery

Bittersweet was fun, and sad, and mysterious. Juniper’s world is full of love, and a whole lot of unanswered questions, and magic aside, that’s what it feels like to be a teenager a lot of the time. Pearsall’s worldbuilding, and the obvious love she has for all her characters, is what really brings this story home. Sometimes, I could almost feel the sticky heat of summer or taste the family’s famous lemon bars.

‘Legends’ Warm Enough to Melt Any Heart

Nothing about Legends & Lattes is going to change the world, but it’s comforting and uplifting. It made me smile. Apparently, it makes a lot of people smile, and that’s plenty valuable all by itself. Then again, maybe it can change the world, just a little.

‘How to Be Eaten’ A Fairy-Tale Feast

Although most of the stories don’t involve talking furniture or little, burger-scented men falling from air vents, seeing stories about strangers warping and reshaping around us in ways that may or may not be true is a fact of daily life.

‘Spear’ Hits Its Mark

If you have the least bit of interest in swords or knights or daring deeds, you can’t miss with Spear.

Banter in ‘Rivals’ Brings Sparks and Magic

The back-cover copy of a book is supposed to give a reader an idea of what’s in store. To set a few expectations early on. To whet the appetite. In the case of Rebecca Ross’s latest novel, Divine Rivals, the blurb on the cover does nothing to set expectations. If anything, it obscures just howContinue reading “Banter in ‘Rivals’ Brings Sparks and Magic”