The Paper Magician By Charlie N. Holmberg This is the first in a trilogy by Holmberg following new Magician’s Apprentice Ceoney Twill as she begins her tenure in paper magic under the eccentric Magician Thane. She is not exactly keen on paper magic, she had wanted to be bonded to metal and a magician can only work with one material for their entire life. Normally, the student first in the class would get to pick their discipline, but Ceoney is told by the head of […]
Blind Woman Does Surgery in a Forest
This review is for the audiobook verson of The Spymaster’s Lady, by Joanna Bourne, the first in her Spymasters series. Full disclosure: I listened to this while I was sick and not really with it (thank you cold medicine and naps), so that probably had an effect on my feelings about this book. After learning that My Lord and Spymaster was second in a series, I decided to listen to the first. It too was read by a woman with an American accent, but it […]
Sharp as a Razor
This review is for the audiobook version of Stiletto, by Daniel O’Malley, read by Moira Quirk. This book is the sequel to the popular novel The Rook, part of the Checquy series. Rook Myfanwy Thomas is hoping the merger between two secret organizations, the Checquy and the Belgian Wetenschappelijk Broederschap van Natuurkundigen (AKA The Grafters) will be seamless and easy. Unfortunately it’s a bit of a mess. A group known as The Antagonists seem to be trying to stop any kind of agreements being reached. […]
Actual Improvement or Stockholm Syndrome? Books 4-6 of Juliet Blackwell’s Witchcraft Mystery Series
After reading (and not particularly enjoying) the first three books in Juliet Blackwell’s ongoing Witchcraft Mystery series, I had decided to give them up. By the third one, I was mostly hate-reading anyway, curious to see how crummy these stories would get. But…well, I’d already put the fourth volume, In a Witch’s Wardrobe, on hold at the library, and when it was automatically delivered to my Kindle, I read it anyway. And then something surprising happened–it was actually pretty good. Some of the more annoying […]