Book Review Alert: The Blade Mage by Phillip Drayer Duncan

Reviewed: December 12th, 2025
Released: June 5th, 2020
Genre: Urban Fantasy

The sword chooses its wielder.

I never asked to be Blade Mage. My fellow wizards weren’t thrilled, either. Unfortunately, those weird old druids have a strict no returns policy.

So I left, and for the past few years, I’ve hidden from my responsibilities. But I always knew one day the Cabal would come looking for its precious sword.

And so they have, but only because a heinous crime has occurred…

A sorcerer has used forbidden magic to slay a fellow wizard. It’s an open and shut case. The killer admitted it. He also stands accused of kidnapping a child, who is still missing, but they say that isn’t my problem. No, as Blade Mage, I’m not supposed to play paranormal detective. The Cabal only expects one thing of me—they want me to play executioner.

Problem is…

The accused is my best friend.

And before I chop off his head, I want to know the truth. But the path is filled with shifty wizards, fearsome witches, insidious demons, and supernatural conspirators at every turn.

It ain’t easy being the Blade Mage.

Read My Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: The Butterfly Witch by E.L. Williams

Reviewed: November 27th, 2025
Released: September 4th, 2025
Genre: Fantasy

She survived witch hunts and world wars, but can love save her from time itself?

1612 – Born into a powerful line of witches, Gwen has always been a disappointment, a girl without magic in a community that reveres it. When news of the Pendle witch trials reaches Gwen’s coven, they cast a desperate spell to shelter orphaned magic. But a cruel twist of fate leaves Gwen to bear the burden alone, cursed to carry magic she cannot wield and hunted by those who would claim it.

1939 – For centuries, Gwen has been running. Always alone. Always afraid. Until she meets Walt, a world-weary spy who asks for nothing but her friendship. As war looms and shadows deepen, Gwen wonders if Walt’s secrets run even deeper than her own.

1976 – Haunted by his service in Vietnam, private investigator Dan is barely scraping by. When a wealthy client hires him to find a missing woman, he almost refuses – until he witnesses a murder that changes everything.

The deeper he digs, the more he realises that Gwen is the woman time forgot. And if his client finds her first, the magic she has guarded for centuries, and Gwen herself, may be lost forever.

A sweeping tale of love, friendship and the fragile threads that bind us across lifetimes.

Read My Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: The Crane Maiden by MH Woodscourt

Reviewed: Novemebr 23rd, 2025
Released: January 26th, 2026
Genre: Fantasy
ARC

War has reached her doorstep.
She will answer with a sword.

When her little sister dies during an enemy raid, Jenai prays to Holy Afallon seeking protection for her village. What she doesn’t expect is to hear a Voice telling her that she must personally lead the armies of Fraelin against the growing threat.

Joined by a gentle unicorn and a few brave allies, Jenai sets out to liberate Fraelin—even at the risk of her own freedom.

However, the road to war isn’t straightforward. Jenai must first gain the trust of the Crane Prince by convincing him she’s not a fraud. Will the Church of Afallon accept her calling or will they condemn her as a heretic?

Read My Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: The Shattered King by Charlie N. Holmberg

Reviewed: November 15th, 2025
Released: September 2nd, 2025
Genre: Dark Fantasy

A captive healer and a mysterious prince are drawn to each other in the midst of war and magic in a beguiling dark fantasy by Wall Street Journal bestselling author Charlie N. Holmberg.

The kingdom of Cansere is on the brink of war. Young men are conscripted from their homes, and a royal decree from the queen has made healing the only legal form of craftlock. Nym, a healer and beekeeper, is the sole provider for her family of seven now that her younger brother has been sent to the war front. But when a letter comes from the queen, summoning Nym to the palace to heal Prince Renn, the kingdom’s ailing shut-in, Nym finds herself making the tumultuous journey from her family’s apiary to the capital city. Nym is determined to fail the queen’s mission and return to her younger siblings as soon as she can.

But escaping the castle’s hold isn’t as easy as failing a simple test. Prince Renn is cold and distant, and his illness is like nothing Nym has ever seen before, nothing she could ever imagine treating. In a moment of connection with Prince Renn, Nym manages to remedy the faintest symptom of his ailment—only to discover that no healer before has made such progress. Forced to become the prince’s official healer and a ward of the castle, and with her only hope of returning to her family hinging on the prince’s recovery, Nym must navigate the castle’s cruel and twisted court and uncover the haunting truth behind Prince Renn’s illness—even as she finds herself irrevocably drawn to him. Read My Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: Glimmer of the Other by Heather G. Harris

Reviewed: November 9th, 2025
Released: September 1st, 2021
Genre: Urban Fantasy

I can tell when you’re lying. Every. Single. Time.

I’m Jinx. As a private investigator, being a walking, talking lie detector is a useful skill – but let’s face it, it’s not normal. You’d think it would make my job way too easy, but even with my weird skills, I still haven’t been able to track down my parent’s killers.

When I’m hired to find a missing university student, I hope to find her propped up at a bar – yet my gut tells me there’s more to this case than a party girl gone wild. Firstly, she’s a bookish soul who’s as likely to go off the rails as Mother Theresa. Secondly, I’m not the only one on her trail; she’s also being tracked by the implacable and oh-so-sexy Inspector Stone.

Stone and I team up, and he shoves me into a realm where magic is real – a place where there are vampyrs and werewolves, dragons and trolls. And where my skills are more than just detecting lies…

Oh, and my dog? He’s a freaking hellhound who can manipulate the magical realms themselves.

I need to find the girl. I need to discover who killed my parents. And I need to find out more about the attractive but mysterious Zachary Stone… Read My Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: Of Spindles and Nightfall by J. Ann Curtis

Reviewed: November 7th, 2025
Released: October 1st, 2025
Genre: Fairy Tale retelling

book cover, browns and olive tones. Sooden spindle in the foreground

Rumpelstiltskin meets The Serpent and the Wings of Night in this spicy, fairy tale retelling.

Never make a deal with a demon—especially the demon arch king.

Aryana, the vampire princess, has spent her life as a weapon in her uncle’s cruel kingdom. But when the demon arch king, Zarathos, steals her away, she is thrust into a world more treacherous than anything she could have imagined.

Zarathos’s presence is suffocating, his dark power intoxicating. He claims she has the ability to turn straw into gold—a lie. But the real truth is far more terrifying. He needs her for the deadly demon trials, and he’ll stop at nothing to bend her to his will.

Bound together by a bargain neither can escape, Aryana must fight for Zarathos in the trials, even while the magnetic pull between them grows with each passing moment. The more time they spend together, the deeper she’s pulled into a world of lust, power, and ruthless peril.

Zarathos will never let her survive the trials. She’s nothing more than a pawn in his plans. But as the fire between them burns hotter, Aryana wonders if the demon king has claimed more than her life—has he taken her heart as well? Read My Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: Storms and Schemes by Sky Sommers

Reviewed: October 27th, 2025
Released: October 26th, 2025
Genre: Fantasy

What if you had to give up your divine powers—and no worthy goddess candidate to take them?

Tartie, the Goddess of Small Things, is stuck. To help a friend in need, she has to pawn off her Storms ability – the one that shorts out every electronic gadget in range. With no qualified candidates in sight, Tartie resorts to a temporary fix.

It backfires. Badly.

Now there’s a new God of Storms—unhappy, destructive, and definitely not Zeus material—running around London. One of Piccadilly Circus Tube entrances has already tasted his accidental wrath. Tartie’s left holding the thundercloud, wondering if this disaster was exactly what the ever-meddling Ancient Goddess of Fate planned all along. Read My Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: Wooing the Wiccan by Lousie Masters

Reviewed: October 19th, 2025
Released: August 7th, 2025
Genre: MM Fantasy

I’m surrounded by two hundred thousand elves, yet somehow, I’m still lonely.

After a rough few millennia, the past decade has finally brought us peace and security—and justified my choices as our leader. But as chaos gives way to calm, I have more time for myself… yet it’s not what I want it to be. I’ve been alone for a long time, but before my people and work needed me more. Now the lonely hours stretch into eternity.

Until I meet Jared.

He’s my perfect match in every way; a teacher, a gardener, a cat dad. He loves books, nature, and interacting with others. He’s sweet, funny, kind, and we’re fire in the bedroom. The only hiccup? He’s human, and he doesn’t know other species exist.

Legally, we haven’t been together long enough for me to tell him I’m not human, and it’s getting harder and harder to keep this secret. To keep part of myself from him… to lie. But what if he learns the truth—a truth that will shatter the core of his beliefs—and can’t handle it?

What if he can’t forgive the lies?

Read My Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: A Force of Nature by Janna Ruth

Reviewed: October 16th, 2025
Released: August 20th, 2021
Genre: Urban Fantasy

I’ve trusted nature spirits with my life, until the storm king decided I had to die.

Did you ever wonder what living on the streets of Berlin is like? My name is Rika and I’ve been homeless for eight years. It’s not too bad, since I’ve got salamanders to warm me in winter and dryads to protect me from stragglers. People say I’m crazy, because to everyone else, those nature spirits are invisible. But they’re real. Real and dangerous, as I learn when I accidentally cross the plans of the Erlking, an ancient and hate-filled spirit. Now he and his deadly storm are after me.
My only chance are the Spirit Seekers, an elite group of soldiers trained to battle nature’s wrath. Since their precious commander is missing in action, they need me to be their eyes. Signing up with the Spirit Seekers is the opposite of run and hide, but they offer me protection and the tools to fight for my survival. All I have to do is betray my old spirit friends and try not to die. Read My Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: At The Door by M.J.Glenn

Reviewed: October 6th, 2025
Released: October 28th, 2025
Genre: YA Fantasy

The Mother. The Sister. The Daughter of the Forest.

When Ebony wakes in the realm of the Fae, she learns she’s the final link in a bloodline bound by prophecy. But with the Shadow’s mark burned into her skin, darkness creeps into her mind and threatens everything she loves.

With the help of her long-lost aunt, Ebony must confront a haunting legacy and face the fears she’s spent a lifetime running from – because the fight is no longer about her own survival. It’s about saving a world on the brink of falling into shadow.

Read My Thoughts…