Posts labeled Fantasy
Review - Prince's Gambit by C. S. Pacat
My rating: 
Kindly note: This is the second volume in a tightly linked series. If you haven’t read the first book, you may find a few spoilers in this review of the second. Damen and Laurent lead a rather rag-tag group of soldiers towards the border, where they know Laurent’s uncle the Regent has something in store to get rid of the troublesome prince. As their fate draws nearer, the two men gain a new respect for each other, and their feelings for each seem to be harder and harder to contain.
Tags: Fantasy
Review - Coins Not Accepted by Chris Quinton
My rating:
Miles lives a relatively quiet life on the east coast of England. Most of his excitement comes from dealing with his two younger siblings. That all changes when Miles receives a message from his grandfather, who he hasn’t seen since he was 15. The request contained in the message, and the revelations that follow, plunge Miles into a world he didn’t know existed. Although reunited with his first love, will Miles risk his life to stay with his boyhood friend?
Tags: Fantasy Parallel Worlds
Review - Captive Prince by C. S. Pacat
My rating:
While his father the king lays on his deathbed, Crown Prince Damen is seized by troops loyal to his half brother Kastor, who seizes the throne. Rather than simply kill Damen, Kastor packs him off to be a pleasure slave at the court of Vere, traditional enemies of Damen’s people, with whom Kastor has made peace, for now. If anyone in Vere realizes who he is, Damen will be dead. Until then, he has the humiliation of being a slave to deal with.
Tags: Fantasy
Review - Dim Sum Asylum by Rhys Ford
My rating:
In an alternate San Francisco, the human and magical worlds have collided in a big, messy way. Fairies, dragons and other magical creatures mix with humans, and it’s the job of the San Francisco Police Department’s Arcane Crimes unit to make sure nobody misuses magic for nefarious purposes. The Chinatown headquarters, known by its officers as the “Dim Sum Asylum”, is where most of the action is, and where Detective Roku calls home.
Review - Feral Dust Bunnies by Angel Martinez
My rating:
This fourth book of the Offbeat Crimes series puts the focus on Wolf, the 77th precinct’s not-werewolf. Although raised by humans, Wolf still has a hard time understanding the subtilties of the world he was thrust into, especially relationships. He is effectively pansexual. Like most canids, Wolf follows his nose, and animal control officer Jason Chen smells good enough to make Wolf forget how to human. The two are thrown together frequently on Wolf’s current case, which involves the discovery of several desiccated small animals around town.
Review - Rising Beauty by Meraki P. Lyhne
My rating:
Note: This is the third book in the Cubi series. These stories follow closely on each other, so if you haven’t read the first two books, you won’t have any idea what’s going on. As this third installment of the Cubi series opens, Daniel is still trying to wrap his head around the latest revelation to turn his life upside down. Not only is he becoming an incubus, he is destined to become the king of the North American cubi.
Review - Skim Blood & Savage Verse by Angel Martinez
My rating:
The latest installment of the Offbeat Crimes series switches the focus from Kyle and Kash to the squad’s dysfunctional vampire Carrington. ‘Carr’ has a history of rather unfortunate choices in boyfriends, which in large part is how he got to be a vampire that can’t stomach whole human blood. In his latest case, Carr learns that words can hurt you, at least when they take physical form and are hurled at you with great force by possessed books.
Review - Skythane by J. Scott Coatsworth
My rating:
Oberon is a strange half-world, a planet seemingly cut in two, with not sign of what happened to the missing half. The world is the only known source of pith, a drug with many legitimate as well as illicit uses. Only, the supply of pith seems to have dried up, so the Psych Corps sends Jameson to Oberon to investigate. His guide is Xander, a Skythane, the descendants of the original human settlers who we genetically modified to have wings.
Tags: Fantasy Science Fiction
Review - Claimed Beauty by Meraki P. Lyhne
My rating:
Kindly note: It’s impossible to review this second book in The Cubi series without revealing how the first volume, Untouchable Beauty ends. If you haven’t read the first book, and hate spoilers, I suggest you skip this review. This sequel to “Untouchable Beauty” picks up just moments after the first book ends, with Daniel accidentally dosed by his master Seldon and discovered to be a changeling, a human that has the genetic make-up to be converted to a incubus.
Review - The Love Song of Monkey by Michael S. A. Graziano
My rating:
Jonathan is dying of AIDS (as unusual as that would have been in 2008, when this book was published). In a last-ditch effort to save him, his wife takes him to undergo an unorthodox, and largely untested, procedure that might cure him, if he can stand the pain. The procedure sets the man on a journey of introspection that makes for quite and adventure. “The Love Song of Monkey” construction is a very different kind of story-telling.
Tags: Fantasy