Reviewed: May 29th, 2025 Released: December 2nd, 2022 Genre: Epic Fantasy
BETRAYED. HUNTED. LEFT FOR DEAD. BUT NOT EVEN DEATH ITSELF CAN KEEP THE LAST RANGER FROM VENGEANCE…
Leiyn “Firebrand” is no stranger to a fight. A brash ranger of the Titan Wilds, she takes up her bow to ward against the colossal spirit creatures known as titans, ever a threat to the colonies she has sworn to protect.
But no amount of skill can guard against treachery.
When tragedy strikes the rangers’ lodge, Leiyn vows to avenge the fallen. But if she is to succeed, she must embrace a power within her she has long denied.
Power to move mountains and rivers.
Power over life and death.
She did not choose this path, but Leiyn knows her duty. For if she fails, the legacy of the rangers dies with her—and all the Titan Wilds will fall into shadow. Read My Thoughts…
Reviewed: May 23rd, 2025 Released: August 2nd, 2022 Genre: Cozy Fantasy
“There will always be work for those who know how to listen.”
When the fourth princess of Istalam is due to dedicate herself to a path serving the crown, she makes a choice that shocks everyone, herself most of all: She leaves.
In hiding and exiled from power, Miyara finds her place running a tea shop in a struggling community that sits on the edge of a magical disaster zone. But there’s more brewing under the surface of this city—hidden magic, and hidden machinations—that threaten all the people who’ve helped her make her own way.
Miyara may not be a princess anymore, but with a teapot in hand she’ll risk her newfound freedom to discover a more meaningful kind of power. Read My Thoughts…
Reviewed: March 10th, 2024 Released: February 16th, 2014 Genre: Magical Cosy Mystery
Regency widow shouldn’t be hunting spectres all night.
Lady Judith Avely’s magical gift for divining the truth makes her prodigiously good at lying. To absolve a guilty secret, she travels to the exiled Duke of Sargen’s estate, but the last thing she expects is to run into the duke himself, who is lamentably now even more attractive than in his volatile youth.
The duke has his own concerns: he has returned home to a haunted house, with skulls floating about and a footman apparently bashed by a book. Such vulgar circumstances are best avoided, but the duke needs Judith’s unique talents to help uncover the culprit – even if it might put her in the sights of a killer.
With the help of a tiny vampiric acquaintance and a continuous supply of drinking chocolate, Judith should be able to solve the uncanny mystery…if only the duke will stop making improper remarks about her mobcaps.
A lady who can discern lies, the duke who lied to her, and a gothic cosy mystery full of bats, skulls, and cocoa.
Lady Avely’s Guide to Truth and Magic features a mid-life heroine, a slow-burn second-chance romance, and a magical version of Regency England. Read My Thoughts…
Reviewed: February 8th, 2024 Released: February 7th, 2024 Genre: Cosy Mystery
A talented spell-weaving witch on the run is forced to find magical refuge in a mystery novel, playing the role of Emily Crookshanks, amateur sleuth and professional flirt.
Waking up with no idea who or where she is, Emily finds herself in the quaint 1920s English countryside village of Little Pucklewick, uncomfortably sharing tea and cakes with the not so Reverend Wilson-Smallsey, the village’s rather pompous womanising vicar.
After a series of shocking murders, Emily hooks up with the village doctor, a rather dashing ex-RAF fighter pilot known to his chums as ‘Ceddars’. Working together, they uncover clues and interrogate suspects.
Add an inept inspector, various pompous ladies from the regular vicarage get-togethers, a dashing explorer recently returned from the Orient, his very attractive career-minded secretary, and a whole host of motives and clues, including a series of nasty accusatory posters, and Emily finds herself in the middle of a most confusing and frustrating mystery.
But more than the murders, Emily suffers from terrifying visions of attack and desperate escape. And just what are wands and spell-weavery, and the smartphones and hi-def televisions she occasionally glimpses in her mind?
Despite everything, Emily knows that to survive, she must solve the mystery and, to do that, she must keep going to The End. Read My Thoughts…
Reviewed: January 1st, 2024 Released: December 31st, 2023 Genre: MM Paranormal Fantasy
Inspector Danny Hayes has something very important to ask his boyfriend Tristan Everett. Over the past six months they’ve survived reapers, chaos monsters, and biblical storms, not to mention averting an apocalypse. So, what’s left to do but pop the big question?
Tristan is ready for a break from world-saving, spectral crises, and most definitely from ghosts. He wants some one-on-one time with his boyfriend, preferably horizontally. So when their Boxing Day celebrations result in a drunken booking of a romantic New Year’s getaway at a quiet little hotel near the wilds of the north Yorkshire moors, Tristan can’t wait.
But as usual nothing ever goes according to plan. Snowed in during an unexpected murder mystery weekend at what turns out to be one of the most haunted hotels in Northern England is not what they had in mind, but when one of the actors turns up really dead not just fake dead, they once again find themselves caught up in another investigation.
With only one night to figure out who the killer is while wrangling a multitude of overly helpful ghosts, Tristan begins to wonder if romance really is dead… Read My Thoughts …
Today I am chatting with Elle Hartford who is celebrating the release of her cozy mystery/fairytale retelling Beauty and the Alchemist which releases today, August 12th, 2022.
Helen: Welcome Elle. Congratulations on the relase of your new book Beauty & the Alchemist. It seems like it’s a mixture of multiple genres, tell us a little about it.
Elle: Hi! I’m really excited for this book. It’s called Beauty and the Alchemist, and it’s a cozy mystery retelling of Beauty and the Beast. My main character is an alchemist named Red, who’s really just trying to live her life making potions in fairy tale Belville. But when a criminal is found murdered in a nearby haunted castle, and Red’s best friend takes the blame, she has to jump in and find the truth. There’s ancient curses, supportive friends, and–of course!–a huge library.
Helen: Oh, and you’re playing with fairytales as well. You are mixing up the bag! How did you come up with idea to mix genres?
Elle: My friends on social media have accused me of making up my own genre, and I guess they’re right! But that’s not what I set out to do. I’ve been a long time reader of cozy mysteries (mysteries where the focus is on the puzzle and the community, not so much on grim crimes or police procedure). A lot of cozies have a witchy or “paranormal” theme, so to me, it seemed natural to extend that just a little bit, to include fairy tales and magic creatures. So, often I’ll describe my subgenre as “fairy tale-inspired cozy” or even cozy fantasy. I just love it, because it takes the warm feelings and brain teasers of cozy mystery and adds magic–what could be better?
Helen: Sounds like an excellent new genre to me! I always think covers are the most difficult to create, how about you? How did you decide what the cover should be?
Elle: I really wanted my cover to have a classic cozy mystery look–a picturesque scene with a hint of danger, and the cozy companion front and center, naturally. So William, the black dog, is sitting on the path watching as Red’s cloak disappears into the woods below the ghostly castle. Normally, William would refuse to sit still while Red runs toward the unknown, but I liked how this scene combines both the lost castle of Beauty and the Beast with the dark forest of Little Red Riding Hood (Red’s namesake).
Helen: I think it’s so interesting that you’re mashing up fairytales as well. Tell us about your protagonist, Red.
Elle: My protagonist is the alchemist, Red, who recently gave up a life of being a traveling potion-maker to settle down in rural Belville. She’s smart, resourceful, and a little bit mysterious. She also cares a lot about her friends, even if she won’t always admit it outright–often, she feels like an outsider, even though many people in Belville welcome her immediately. I myself can relate to Red’s shyness when it comes to trusting relationships, so that’s probably part of why I wrote her. But also, more practically, who better to solve mysteries than a natural scientist with botanical knowledge, an alchemical lab, and an arsenal of special tools?
Helen: If Red could answer this question, why would she say we should read your book?
Elle: Red would say that we should read the book for Luca, her best friend in Belville, or for Gloria, her irascible neighbor. Both Gloria and Luca have their own personal struggles that they have to overcome in the course of the book. Red helps them both, in her way, but she would definitely give them most of the credit.
Helen: Who is your favourite character in your book?
Elle: What a tough question! I love so many of my characters, each for a different reason. But one of the characters who made me smile the most while I was writing is Trent, a young witch who gets roped into the investigation. He reminds me very much of my little brother (though both Trent and my brother are too big now to really be thought of as “little”!).
Helen: When writing cozy fantasy novels, with a touch of fairytale magic, do you still find yourself doing research?
Elle: Tons. If you could see my office, you might think I was an alchemist fresh from the twelfth century–or a scholar of some kind! This series has been a very good excuse to collect books. 🙂 The alchemy that Red practices is based on historical science and mysticism–think things like the Elixir of Life and proto-chemistry. And then, of course, I also research a lot of folklore for each story too, since many of them are based on fairy tales or legends. I love breathing new life into old things!
Helen: Thank you so much for joining me today Elle, and congratulations on the release of your cozy fantasy novel. A final question for you. What advice would give aspiring writers?
Elle: My opinion on this has changed a lot during my journey to publication. I think my advice would be twofold: first, find a critique partner or editor or writing group whose opinion you trust, and who you feel safe sharing your work with. Having someone with a completely different perspective from me point out the highs and lows of my manuscripts has been invaluable–it may feel hard to accept feedback in the moment, but it makes you so much more confident in the end, because you know you’ve covered your bases. So that’s part one: value an outside perspective. But part two is definitely to believe in yourself. If you can do that, truly–and it is very hard!–then you’re golden. A lot of my books boil down to just that.
And catching murderers, of course. 😉
Thank you so, so much for having me on, and giving me a chance to ramble about things I love!
About the Author:
Elle Hartford
Elle adores cozy mysteries, fairy tales, and above all, learning new things. As a historian and educator, she believes in the value of stories as a mirror for complicated realities. She currently lives in New Jersey with a grumpy tortoise and a three-legged cat.
Find more stories of Red and her friends at ellehartford.com. And while you’re there, sign up for Elle’s newsletter to get bonus material, behind-the-scenes sneak peeks, and terrible jokes!
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If you enjoy fantasy books then you will love my epic fantasy Sentinal series. As a new threat against Remargaren is discovered, only one man can wake the ancient guards who can protect them, only he doesn’t know how. Start the adventure and stay for the journey. Sign up to my newsletter and download a free novella called Sentinals Stirring and keep up with progress on my next books are published.
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Reviewed: August 14th, 2021 Released: January 31st, 2020 Genre: Cozy Mystery
Lucas Rathbone talks to ghosts.
Well, ghosts talk to Lucas. He’d rather they didn’t.
But it’s solve murders or be haunted forever, and he has enough of that as it is.
In the first five Lucas Rathbone Mysteries, Lucas must solve crime to rid himself of ghosts, avoid a ruthless gang he accidentally crossed, and stop people meeting a untimely death, all while battling for a love with the odds stacked against it.
What could go wrong?
I love cozy mysteries and this boxset of Lucas Rathbone mysteries set in the 1920’s is perfect for a nice evening of gentle reading. Read More…
Helen Garraway 