Category: Book Review

Book Review: How Long ’til Black Future Month?

Erin Penn

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How Long ’til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemisin

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Three-time Hugo Award winner and NYT bestselling author N. K. Jemisin challenges and delights readers with thought-provoking narratives of destruction, rebirth, and redemption that sharply examine modern society in her first collection of short fiction, which includes never-before-seen stories.

Spirits haunt the flooded streets of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In a parallel universe, a utopian society watches our world, trying to learn from our mistakes. A black mother in the Jim Crow South must save her daughter from a fey offering impossible promises. And in the Hugo award-nominated short story “The City Born Great,” a young street kid fights to give birth to an old metropolis’s soul.

 

MY REVIEW

How Long ’till Black Future Month is a collection of short stories from the amazing N.K. Jemisin. Overall the collection provides insight into Ms. Jemisin’s growth as a writer and provides a wide variety of fantasy and science fiction short stories exploring a variety of topics. Solid writing, but the author is a solid creator. (Bonus points for all the food representation – great inspiration for snacks at my book club meeting.)

Sometimes collections are given in date order, sometimes collections are groups by genre. This collection is grouped by theme – horror, standing against the dark, etc. Sometimes the ending of the previous short story flows into the next; for example – “would it bother with anything so mundane…” flows into “the name of the first entree made me groan” (followed by something very much not mundane). The flow of the stories make it an easy read, but the part of me that likes to study an author growth would prefer things in date order. Still, overall, I think the presentation choice for the collection is perfect.

*** Individual Reviews of stories

The Ones Who Stay and Fight (no date given) – Science Fiction. This is a world-building thought experiment, not a story with character driving the plot. While it doesn’t work as a short story, it does work as a bridge between the non-fiction Introduction and the rest of the collection. (Again, not a short story and therefore the “worse” of the fiction part of the collection.)

The City Born Great (2016) – Urban Fantasy Sci-Fi. I have read “The City We Became” duology. This short story is the novel series original test of concept.

Red Dirt Witch (2016) – Historical Fantasy mixing equal parting submission and rebellion. Acknowledging gravity and encouraging the risk of flying with the same breath.

L’Alchimista (2005) – Fantasy. A man drops off a bag of ingredients for master chef locked in the equivalent of a greasy spoon. Can she still make her magic? (I adore stories with food.)

The Effluent Engine (2011) – Steampunk Spy Romance. The best romance of the collection. As well as a great spy thriller within a steampunk world.

Cloud Dragon Skies (2005) – Science Fiction. This is the first short story Jemisin sold. Those-that-learn pay the price of those that don’t.

The Trojan Girl (2011) – Cyber Punk. What will push AIs from being mere self-aware programs to actual sentience? Is it group survival? Is it the ability to cross into the real world? Or is it something else entirely?

Valedictorian (2014) – Post-Apocalypse YA. Are you willing to be true to yourself if it means isolation from others?

The Storyteller’s Replacement (no date given) – Fantasy (Horror Elements). Some days you eat the dragon … some days the dragon smiles at you.

The Brides of Heaven (2007) – Science Fiction (Horror Elements). How far is too far, how far is crazy, when there is no hope for the future?

The Evaluators (2016) – Science Fiction (Horror Elements). Reaching space means space reaches back.

Walking Awake (2014) – Science Fiction. – Some monsters respect bodies, and some are conspicuous users. How much can a human tolerate?

The Elevator Dancer (no date given) – Dystopian. I can see why this one wasn’t previously published, but it has a place in this collection.

Cuisine des Memories (no date given) – Literary Science Fiction. Adored this story for the food. The book club members each discussed what meals we would order.

Stone Hunger (2014) – Fantasy. One of the longer stories in the book. Good characters and amazing worldbuilding in this exploration of a possible novel idea.

On the Banks of the River Lex (2010) – Apocalypse Fantasy. Dreams and concepts survive the fall of man, the question is who will adopt them after we are all gone?

The Narcomancer (2008) – Fantasy. This short story explores the ideas which develops into “The Killing Moon” and “The Shadowed Sun” duology.

Henosis (2017) – Science Fiction Horror. Meh, an interesting experiment in writing out of time-sequence. As Jemisin says in the beginning, short stories gives you opportunities to explore different writing tools.

Too Many Yesterdays, Not Enough Tomorrows (2004) – Science Fiction. A quantum disaster has separated humanity into individual pocket universes. Can a species based on community survive the isolation?

The You Train (2007) – Urban Fantasy. Another experiment of writing tools – this time we see just one side of a conversation – text, phone call, messaging – over a period of time. I think the experiments work – definitely a train to ride.

Non-Zero Probabilities (2009) – Urban Fantasy. This one wins best title in the collection. I looked forward to it the entire time I was reading the collection and the story didn’t disappoint. But considering the author, a complete dud is a zero probability. I love statistical stories, so I adored this.

Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints, in the City Beneath the Still Waters (2015) – Urban Fantasy. New Orleans and Hurricanes deserve a trigger warning. What happens when a storm isn’t the only monster which blows in?

Book Review (SERIES): The Wolf and the Nun

Erin Penn

The Wolf and the Nun series by Emily Leverett

Book 1: The Wolf in the Cloister
Book 2: The Enchanted Rose
Book 3: The Song of the Black Wolf
Book 4: An Honorable Love

Full disclosure: I was on the editing team for An Honorable Love (book 4) as a copyeditor. I was not part of the team for any of the prior books. Can I tell you how cool it is to help make a book in a series you love??? VERY COOL!!!

I mean this was a series where I read the first book twice because I enjoyed it so much!

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A witch turned reluctant nun. A veteran turned werewolf. A vengeful demon out to destroy them both.

Marie de France was born to be a princess and brought up to be a witch, but when her heart is broken, she she has no choice but to take refuge as a nun at Shaftesbury Abbey and leave the world behind. Spending her days working in the scriptorium, she pines for adventure. After a run-in with a demon, she is thrown back in to the world of politics and desire with the world’s biggest libertine.

Bleiz Clavret, lord of Sarum Castle, returned from the Crusades a changed man: bitter, broken, and cursed with a magical “gift” he never asked for and barely understands. Now infamous for debauchery, he hosts notorious parties. an open secret attended by the most powerful men and women in England; his name is known by all. But his darkest secret, his curse, he hides: three days a week, he shifts into a wolf.

A stolen relic and the rising of a demon bring Marie to Sarum Castle to search Bleiz’s impressive library for clues to the source of both. Intrigued by her sharp mind as much as her seemingly innocent beauty, Bleiz begins by trying to seduce his guest. But he soon discovers this “little nun” might well be more than his match. Equals in mind as well as courage, they discover a mutual attraction that might prove too powerful to resist.

As dark forces gather around them and their secrets are exposed, can they work together before enemines know and unknown destroy them?

The Wolf in the Cloister is the first in a shifter paranormal romance series from Falstaff Crush.

MY REVIEW for THE WOLF IN THE CLOISTER

Original Read May 9th, 2020

Interesting twist by the writer, taking a medieval romance writer and Abbess Marie de France, and using her as the main character in The Wolf in the Cloister – a novella which is a love letter to all things medieval romance by Dr. Leverett as well as being a steamy modern romance. In particular, seeking inspiration from one of the Abbess’ own fictional romances to base this fictional romance.

There are a couple rough transitions, the transition to the steam scene being the harshest of the lot, but this tends to be a common issue with the novella format. Lack of space to smooth out all the rough edges. On the other hand, being able to chunk through a book in three hours is worth a few rough edges when wanting a full story and to also wake up in time for work.

Demons and Bishops, Shapeshifters and Witches, Crusades and Calligraphy. Action, romance, deception, and combat. A fun read.

(read through Kindle Unlimited)

Second Read December 4, 2024
I took a longer time to reread this wonderful novella. Still all the magic, romance, and historic goodness as before. Now to dive into the rest of this series!
(Read from book bought from the author)

 

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for THE ENCHANTED ROSE

Fairies and demons and wolves, oh my!

Sister Marie is back at Shaftbury Abbey, none the worse for her adventures and very much the better. With the magic she inherited from her Irish witch mother, she has banished the demonic Bishop Josceline back to hell where he belongs. Doing so means she’s had to return to the abbey instead of staying with her new love, the Viscount Bleiz Clavret. But since he’s a rogue as well as a scholar and changes into a wolf three days out of every seven, a cooling off period doesn’t feel like such a bad idea. For the first time since she gave up her life as a royal, she is excited to see what her future might hold.

But the Bishop refuses to stay banished. And when she writes Clavret to warn him, his only reply is to thank her for her concern and tell her he’s off to France to reconcile with his ex-wife. Furious and heartbroken, she flees the demon on her own, following the trail left for her in her mother’s journal. Near the monastery at Kells, she finds a gateway to the kingdom of Tryamour, a fairy queen, and a whole new world of magic and possibility. But in her nightmares, she’s not the queen’s beloved but a wolf in a deadly trap.

The Enchanted Rose is the second chapter of The Wolf and the Nun, a fairy tale for grown-ups based on the work of the medieval poet Marie de France.

MY REVIEW for THE ENCHANTED ROSE

A nun who is the daughter of a witch and a king. A solider-lord stolen away by his first love to France. A fairy queen tempting and teaching. The Kells monastery, yes, the one where the Book of Kells was made, missing a holy object. A bishop possessed by evil beyond reckoning.

The second in this well-researched historical romance isn’t as engrossing as the first one from a romantic end, but the political maneuverings of the chess board between a nun, knight, queen, rook (monastery), and bishop make up the difference. The ending isn’t a cliffhanger, but the reader closes this part of the series knowing the next book has all the pieces on the board.

Book bought at a convention from author’s table.

 

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for THE SONG OF THE BLACK WOLF

“You two are connected—love him or hate him—and what you dreamed is not a dream.”

Witch, nun, and loyal half-sister to England’s king, Marie de France has left the mortal world behind. Heartbroken by her betrayal by the roguish shapeshifter Lord Bleiz Clavret, she chooses an endless life of tranquility and more quiet passion with Tryamour, the immortal fairy queen. Her fiery connection with Bleiz feels like a wistful dream.

But a terrible vision shatters her peace—Bleiz trapped in his wolf form, pursued by hunters led by Marie’s own brother, King Henry II. She knows the vision is real, that without her help, Bleiz will die. Confused and fearful but determined as always to be brave, Marie leaves the safety of Tryamour’s palace to find her Black Wolf.

But Henry is only one of many enemies looking to destroy this “little nun” and her big, bad wolf. And they’re all controlled by an ancient evil Marie knows only too well.

MY REVIEW for THE SONG OF THE BLACK WOLF

Beginning when book 2 leaves off, and ending when book 4 will start, The Song of the Black Wolf is very much NOT a stand-alone in The Wolf & the Nun series. It serves a purpose: gather together the loose ends of books 1 and 2 into bundles, weaving the plot points together so everything is on the edge and ready to go in … I am guessing here … the final book of the series.

The ongoing series is still rich with historical roots and magical loam. The perfect blend for a medieval historical fantasy romance. Start at book one, The Wolf in the Cloister, and work your way through the series.

 

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for AN HONORABLE LOVE

With a mysterious coin and a dearth of allies, Marie must stop Henry and the demon Hardoiun who possesses him from getting the Apostles’ relics. When Henry gets his hands on the crozier, the most powerful of relics, Marie knows she must act. She makes a bargain with Bette, Bleiz’s ex-wife, to try to steal back the relics.

When Bleiz, still trapped in wolf form, discovers that Henry has Marie, he wants to go save her, but Oberon, the King of the Fairies, refuses to allow him to break his knightly vow of loyalty. With the Fairy King, the knight Orfeo, Thomas Becket, and the monks of Ireland, Bleiz will fight Henry and his demonic army. However, when the option comes to save Marie, he takes it.

Bleiz and Marie must face Henry and Hardouin for the fate of Europe, and possible the world.

MY REVIEW for AN HONORABLE LOVE

The final book in this Historical Romance Fantasy, An Honorable Love starts with Marie captive by her brother (and that which possesses him). Her werewolf friend Bleiz and the fairy queen Tryamour are beyond castle walls and cannot be reached by song or letter. But nothing is ever lost so long as Marie has her wits about her.

I love the strength of the main character as she battles politically, emotionally, magically, and physically. The historical world is strong, the characters each have their own motivations and history, and the plot weaves between different points-of-views and locations like a fairy weaving with spider silk. Each reveal is a burst of color woven deep into the tapestry, the final battle a fringe of gold perfecting the cloth.

Sometimes, when I get invested in a book, I get worried about the ending. I was verry pleased at how well Dr. Leverett sticks the landing. … The Epilogue intrigues me. Are we going to get a spin-off series?

Full disclosure: I was part of the editing team on this book (only). (and no, I don’t know the answer to my last question … dang it!)

Book Review: The Hands We’re Given (Aces High, Jokers Wild #1)

Erin Penn

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The Hands We’re Given (Aces High, Jokers Wild Book 1) by O.E. Tearmann

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Aidan Headly never wanted to be the man giving orders.

That’s fine with the Democratic State Force base he’s been assigned to command: they don’t like to take orders. Nicknamed the Wildcards, they used to be the most effective base against the seven Corporations owning the former United States in a war that has lasted over half a century. Now the Wildcards are known for creative insubordination, chaos, and commanders begging to be reassigned.

Aidan is their last chance. If he can pull off his assignment as Commander and yank his ragtag crew of dreamers and fighters together, maybe they can get back to doing what they came to do: fighting for a country worth living in.

Life’s a bitch. She deals off the bottom of the deck. But you play the hands you’re given.

 

MY REVIEW

An excellent first book for a dystopian series. Lots of characters introduced, and they are easy to keep track of. Everyone is broken and hurting (Dystopian leaves its mark).

This book explores secrets, why people hold their hands close to the vest, the danger of showing the cards if you want to survive the game, but part of the game of life is knowing when to show your hand to others. It is the only way to win – friends, family.

For the first novel of a series by the new (team) author of O.E. Tearmann, Hands We’re Given is well crafted. Dialog and characters are real.

If you like themes of diversity and found family (the military elements are more about building a family than a unit), you will enjoy this book.

Special note: I bought this book directly from the author team at Ret-Con 2023.

Book Review (SERIES): The Boar King’s Honor

Erin Penn

A wonderful historic fantasy romance series, following a cursed family line through time, skip-stone hopping from the early modern period of the 1700s, touching on the Regency period, and finally landing in the 1940s. Written by the very talented Nancy Northcott.

The Boar King’s Honor by Nancy Northcott

  1. The Herald of Day
  2. The Steel Rose
  3. The King’s Champion

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A wizard’s fatal mistake
A king wrongly blamed for murder
A bloodline cursed until they clear the king’s name

In 17th-century England, witchcraft is a hanging offense. Tavern maid Miranda Willoughby hides her magical gifts until terrifying visions compel her to seek the aid of a stranger, Richard Mainwaring, to interpret them. A powerful wizard, he sees her summons as a chance for redemption. He bears a curse because an ancestor unwittingly helped murder the two royal children known as the Princes in the Tower, and her message uses symbols related to those murders.

Miranda’s visions reveal that someone has altered history, spreading famine, plague, and tyranny across the land. The quest to restore the timeline takes her and Richard from the glittering court of Charles II to a shadowy realm between life and death, where they must battle the most powerful wizard in generations with the fate of all England at stake.

MY REVIEW for THE HERALD OF DAY

Paranormal romance. Historical Urban Fantasy. Illuminati level behind the scenes magic. Political intrigue. Class discussion. Courtly love. Ghosts. Curses. Illusions.

Nancy Northcott has created a magical world in England about a cursed noble family summoned by a scullery maid to defeat a time-traveling wizard who hides in the death world on one hand and the class-divide overcome-by-love slow-burn between the head of the noble house and the magic-wielding servant on the other.

Come for the magic, stay for the love. Come for the historical romance, stay for the vivid wizard duel in the ghost realm. The Herald of Day is the best of both worlds. (Fully – I got chocolate with my peanut butter, and maybe a bit of hazelnut too – type of vibe.)

 

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for THE STEEL ROSE

A wizard’s misplaced trust
A king wrongly blamed for murder
A bloodline cursed until they clear the king’s name

Amelia Mainwaring, a magically Gifted seer, is desperate to rescue the souls of her dead father and brother, who are trapped in a shadowy, wraith-filled land between life and death as the latest victims of their family curse. Lifting the curse requires clearing the name of King Richard III, who was wrongly accused of his nephews’ murder because of a mistake made by Amelia’s ancestor.

MY REVIEW for THE STEEL ROSE

I’m merrily reading historical magical fantasy, with Seers and Dragons (so far illusions in the Boar’s King Honor series) and Villains and Elves (different series – the Wolf and the Nun by Emily Leverett), against the backdrop of real history -and then hit this gem. Yes, it is historical fantasy, but it is also a full-blown Regency Romance too!

A second-chance romance where Amelia (a Seer) and Julian (the leader of the Merlin Club) don’t trust love after losing their first spouses to disease and infidelity. A political thriller when Napoleon’s return from exile brings another war to loom over Britain. A magical mystery investigating an ancient blood curse. All in the goodness of a Regency setting.

Each book of the series works as a stand-alone, but they also build in time-order as one expects of history. On to book 3!

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for THE KING’S CHAMPION

American reporter Kate Shaw and English Major Sebastian Mainwaring clash from the moment they meet on the beach at Dover. Kate has just escaped the hellscape of Dunkirk with a troop of English soldiers when Sebastian turns up, seizes her camera, and refuses to give it back. Kate needs the photos inside to prove to her boss back home that England’s fight against Hitler is a story worth covering and that she, woman or not, is the reporter to write it. Sebastian sympathizes, but controlling information about the war is his job.

Then Sebastian discovers that he and this infuriating American have a deeper connection and a mutual strength that could turn the tide of the war. Like Sebastian, Kate is a descendant of the Mainwaring line of powerful English wizards. Adopted at birth, she is Sebastian’s distant cousin. But unlike Sebastian, she has never known her miraculous flashes of “intuition” are something much more. She’s a practical farm girl who thinks magic is a fairy tale. Somehow Sebastian has to convince her to acknowledge and develop her gifts so together they can save the world.

The King’s Champion concludes Nancy’s Northcott’s exciting Boar King Trilogy.

MY REVIEW for THE KING’S CHAMPION

Each book of the series became progressively harder to read, not because of the Fantasy (wonderful magic world-building) or Romance (each of the couples are wonderful combinations of duty and devotion), but because the History keeps moving forward to our present times and mirrors today’s problems and battles closer and closer.

Early modern history in the 1700s – lovely. Regency romance dealing with the Napoleonic wars, with a charismatic despot gathering a following, much harder. And finishing book three on April 15, 2025, a story set in World War Two, rising against Hitler, the fall of France, watching rationing cutting into day-to-day life, and London being bombed – well, that was devastating. How are we letting the trains run again? History tells us where all this leads.

This wonderful historic fantasy romance didn’t provide an escape from reality for me, though it might for some. And, hopefully, it will easily provide enjoyment in the future. Well researched, a good ending for the series and also works as a stand-alone. Published in 2023 (and likely written in 2022), the author did a wonderful job for the time she was living in.

The strong female character, Kate, is an American war correspondent, or trying to be. Her bosses are extremely worried about a “girl” in the war zone. The male lead served in the military but has become disabled from a war injury. Together they must solve overcome pain and family expectations, support Britain in a time of war, resolve an ancient family curse, and, maybe, fall in love.

Book Review: Paradisa

Erin Penn

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Paradisa by Michelle Iannantuono

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Gods may be real, but the true heroes are human.

That includes ex-Navy SEAL Connor Bishara, whose life fell apart when a colleague outed him as gay. In the ten years since his discharge, he’s lived each day listlessly as a fry cook, supporting his sister Clara’s dreams instead of his own.

But as the political tensions of Paradisa – realm of the gods – start to bleed into Earth, a new door opens for saving the world. Taking the fight to them, Connor binds his soul to the enigmatic archangel Raphael—and struggles to cope with the sudden intimacy after years of shutting people out.

With the help of his sister and the varied pantheons of world mythology, Connor must open himself to love and defend men and gods from the encroaching war…or watch an army of evil destroy heaven from within.

 

MY REVIEW

Paradisa has the gorgeous scenery of a fantasy, the tech of a science fiction (clockwork style), and the pounding character action of an urban fantasy. For those who want a great fiction ride through mythology (and not just the Ancient Greek/Roman gods, though the focus is there since that is where the story starts), Paradisa is it.

The two point-of-view characters are brother and sister. The brother is ex-military and gay; the sister is an ace. They get caught up in saving some gods and dragged into a world beyond their imagining, but they journey together, providing support to each other. Mortals in an immortal world. Will they be able to survive – or will they end up in the Underworld, drowned in the waters of the Lethe?

A quick and enjoyable read.