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The entire Price clan is still reeling from their battle with the Covenant of St George. Mary the family’s babysitter ghost finally returns after months thought lost in the battle, a little bit of normalcy returns but her charges are still grieving their losses.   Elsie and Arthur lost their mom and even before that Arthur lost himself from Sarah’s actions in a previous book.  Mary has them go with her to the East Coast to investigate why ghosts are disappearing in the Boston area. The anima mundi that has returned with the crossroads power that has been destroyed in a previous book has set Mary on the task and she now has to learn what her new power and limitations are. The story is good but the underpinnings of everything is the characters dealing with overwhelming grief  

 

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley

Two women standing in a field, one with long white blonde hair wearing a shirt and skirt the other with short brown hair wearing jeans and a varsity jacket.
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Ulcetha was framed for the disappearance of an artifact during his university days and now he works for a smuggler forging realistic documentation for questionable items.  When the object he was accused of stealing shows up due to clues left him by a recently deceased friend, he starts to get the facts together about what happened years ago and see if he can set everything to right. Set in the same universe as The Goblin Emperor and The Cemeteries of Amalo, this is a lovey story that shines all on its own.


Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley
A figure wearing a white hooded cloak with gold accents facing a wall with autumn leaves floating in the air.  


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A good solid ending to this trilogy with Ada and Rian on Earth to stop the nanobots launching with the software that will hold the restoration of the climate hostage to constant payments to keep it working. Rian still doesn’t believe that Ada is just doing it only so the correct software is updated. He thinks she will still manage a heist as well. Ada does pull off what she plans to do as she has for the previous two books and hopefully Rian will come after her and her heart.

 

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley
A man and woman in silhouette facing each other with a sunset in the background and water below them

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The third novella in the Nameless Restaurant series builds on the previous two but can be read by itself.  Mo decides to hire help for Kelly since even with no advertising they are constantly full of customers. We see returning customers and meet some new magical people. These stories are a perfect cozy to read in one sitting but are not to be read while hungry. Step in the door of the Nameless Restaurant and see what all the fuss is about. 

 

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley

A male chef with a goatee slicing food with a large knife while standing in a kitchen with other ingredients around him

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Almost everyone with a connection to the Folly has decided to join Dr Walid on holiday to Scotland. It seems an old friend from college sent him some samples from a dead sheep that might have been attacked by a large cat.  So a camping holiday to do some hunting for Nightingale, Abigail to see magic outside a urban setting, Peter to have a beach holiday with his entire family, his Dad to play some jazz with his band, and his Mom to ride herd on everyone. Of course there is more than a mysterious large cat that appears and disappears in the area, turns out there was some sort of man killed and Peter is roped into that investigation.  Everyone gets a turn on the page but the main focus is on Peter and Abigail each working on what appears to be different cases.  This is a great story that really takes advantage of the setting in Scotland and maybe we can get more about magic around the entire island.

 

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley

A blue and white map of the coast of Scotland near Aberdeen. There are ships, sea monsters and off shore oil rigs in the ocean part.

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Ropa Moyo is now working for England’s Royal Sorcerer and money seems to be coming her way in to be able to take care of her grandmother, but everything crashes down with Scottish magical society fighting in the Library and then her grandmother is murdered and she is blamed for it.  On the run from the police, her new boss turns away from her and even one of her best friends has turned their back, she has to survive to find her Gran’s killer and learn more about her father since what she has always been told wasn’t the truth.  The book ends on a cliffhanger, and I can’t wait to see how they solve what happened in the last chapter.

 

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Netgalley

the statue of a man wearing a a cloak in a graveyard done in shades of gray with the title in lavender superimposed on it.

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Another good collection of stories set in the Valdemar universe with many returning writers. The main theme of the collection is reflected in the title so reading it all in one setting does bang the drum of the theme a bit much. But the Lackey story is a Vanyel story that is a retelling of Romeo and Juliet so there was that payoff. Not as many Herald stories but several to deal with Bards.

 

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley

A blue-eyed horse wearing a bridle done in grey tones.

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When crazy money doesn’t get Ada to take a job but the prospect of seeing Rian does make her take the job you know sparks are going to fly. She shows up as a guest at a high society charity auction and Rian just knows she is there to steal something. But keeping constant attention on her still doesn’t stop her from getting the job done nor doing a few extra things that will show up in the next book. The chemistry between the two of them hopefully will have a great payoff in the next book.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley

A man and woman back to back in silhouette against a sunset with a while building at their feet


 
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This is an excellent stand-alone book in this series. You get the backstory for Nadya but you don’t need to know any of the other books to enjoy this. Nadya was born without part of her arm but she never missed it. She was placed in a state run orphanage and adopted by an American couple. One of the things she loved in Russia was a tortoise and her new parents thought it was turtles due to a mistranslation and show her pond in the neighborhood of her new home. She grows to love watching the turtles and one day sees one that has “Be Sure” carved on its shell. When she goes to help this turtle, she falls into the door under the water of the pond and finds herself in a water world where people and giant turtles live together.  A wonderful story but a bit bittersweet for Nadya at the end.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley

A turtle swimming in a pond surrounded by tall grass and cat tails.

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Amelia and her “cousin” Serena have arrived in England looking to wed mages like themselves. Amela is an Earth Master and channel of that power while Serena is a Fire mage and a leopard shapeshifter. When they arrive Amelia’s brother James introduces them to the family’s friends and business associates, and they settle right into the correct social circles of the well to do tradespeople. They are also meeting mages looking for magical brides that come with a nice dowery if possible.  The book is mostly a slice of life in England in 1815 so there is the year of no summer to move the plot along. There is a magical battle at the end but mostly this is a cozy of a fantasy and will be loved by people who like books in Regency settings with magic. 

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley


A framed picture of woman at a desk in regency dress with a leopard sitting next to her. A large snake is on the rest of the cover.

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When one is given the choice of dying or going to live as their favorite character in their favorite book you might not want to pick the one that is fated to die. Rae is dying of cancer, and she shares her love of Time of Iron with her sister to distract her from it. But stepping into that world isn’t as easy as she thinks. She quickly realizes there are a few plot points that she has forgotten, and she better work out how to avoid her own execution.  Rae is snarky and she does enjoy being the bad girl of the book. As she is changing the narrative as fast as she can in order to survive and to get the emperor to marry his fated love along with doing the one thing she needs to get back to the real world. 

The snark in this book is turned up to eleven and it does subvert a lot of the current fantasy tropes of lots of bestsellers. The ending is a cliffhanger and goes to show Rae that she should have paid more attention to the clues in the book she thought she knew.

 

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley

A woman in a white dress with a red hem sprawled over a golden throne

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This is a beautiful reprint of an essay written by Octavia Butler for Essence magazine and when reading it I think it still hits true over twenty years later.  The art is great and this is a really lovely gift book.

 

 

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley

Title of the book on a stary background with swirls of color.

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A huge spaceship that cruises the planets on a set course that hasn’t varied for years attracts a lot of interesting guests and the occasional conference. The beginning focuses on introducing much of the crew and how they arrived at working on the Abeona. As the character intros continue to guests onboard the ship, we start to see the plot and the reason for the ship’s course of ports.   The ending felt a bit rushed compared to the slow unfolding of all the people working on the ship.

 

 

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley
A blue and gold spaceship in front of a planet.
 
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The PoV character in this one is Mary and we see the craziness of the Price clan through her eyes as they fight off Covenant and deal with the fallout of Alice finally finding her long lost husband, Thomas. The family has taken several hard hits from the Covenant and they are really still trying to recover from it along with everything that happened with Sarah. This is a pivot in the overall arc of stories, and it will be interesting to see what happens next.

 

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley

A white haired woman holding a dark haired child to her chest.

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Fergus Ferguson has been in hiding the last three years when he is found by one of his alien acquaintances to be used to free another alien he knows. The reason that he is the ransom instead of being turned in for all the bounties on his head is the pirate that wanted him knows about Fergus’ ability to find things that are almost impossible to be found. The impossible job is to find the Pirate’s sister that has gone missing for over a decade. The reward for this is something that Fergus can’t refuse.  The plot hinges on Fergus’ run of luck and as usual it is damn entertaining. I don’t want to say what Fergus’ reward is because it is part of a previous book’s plot.  A fun read and I really hope there will be more some day.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley


A spaceship flying towards a planet.


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Ada is quickly running out of air and is rescued at the end of her air by a ship sent to recover the ship she has already started salvage on.  Rian is on a classified mission and is very curious as how did this one-woman salvage operation find this ship and did she find what they came to get off this unstable planet.  Ada seems so helpful with her high tech suit and agrees to grab the data they came to extract from the wreck. But of course Ada isn’t what she seems even though she has won over some of the crew.  A good tight story and a great hook at the end about what is going on in this universe and you have to wonder if they will cross paths again.  Good entertaining audio book

 

 

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley

A man and woman back-to-back in silhouette against an orange sky and red foreground with a crashed spaceship at the bottom
 
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This collection of all of Kage Baker’s short stories set on Mars reads wonderfully together. Colonization with corporations and what can go wrong, new religions sprouting up in a new land and people wanting more than just work every day, they want arts and entertainment.  Stories of a what might happen if we go to Mars.   A great collection and shorter than what we deserved due to the loss of the writer way too soon. 

 

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley

A large ornate purple building on a Martian landscape.
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Reyna is a Queen’s guard that runs away from her job after being taken hostage and having the fact that the Queen doesn’t care for her even as she dedicated her life to her as has the rest of her family that has died in service to her. Kianthe is a powerful wizard and the secret lover of Reyna. With Reyna leaving the queendom in secret, Kianthe joins her for some quiet time in starting a life together hiding from the Queen and Kianthe ducking everyone that wants to use her power for things they can do themselves.  Of course, they have to deal with spies from the Queendom and set up a tea shop/ book store in peace.  Of course, this doesn’t always work out and there are some hurdles to be taken care of. A nice lower stakes fantasy story of lovers finally getting together and settling down.


Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley
Two figures sitting in comfy chairs in a bookstore by a fire.


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Cordelia is a young naive girl that lives in a house where there are no secrets and she is not encouraged to have friends. Her mother controls every aspect of her life and her body at times. Hester is the older unmarried sister of a squire that Cordelia’s mother has come to ensnare in her marriage trap and also try to use Cordelia as a trap for another rich man.  Can Hester use her wits to outwit Cordelia’s sorcerous mother? Another great story by Kingfisher that has its bones set in fairy tales but is still its own story.



Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley

A black background with gold trees and small stars.


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This is the earliest set story in the Rivers of London series and is works for both new and old fans.  Augustus has moved from London to New York and has set himself up nicely when his old school friend Thomas Nightingale comes to town on Folly business.  Jazz features in this since Augustus is a big fan of it. It was nice to see someone who knew Nightingale from before the War and the New York Jazz scene features quite a bit in this since Nightingale’s quarry is involved with this a bit. Overall, a great story and maybe we will see more of Gussie down the line.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher on Netgalley


A black and white map of NYC on a gold background with the title superimposed. There is also a matchbook with a saxophone on it.

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