Book Review Alert: Ties of Death by Constance Lopez

Reviewed: June 26th, 2025
Released: April 4th, 2025
Genre: Paranormal Fantasy

A cursed king. A stolen bride. A desperate quest.

Emana hasn’t seen her best friend Daenn since she left their gryphon rider clan for an arranged marriage eight years ago. She doesn’t believe the rumors that he’s become a ruthless tyrant since ascending the throne… not until the warm, kind boy she once knew hunts her down, kills her husband, and steals her back to the clan.

This new Daenn is cold, driven, and harder than the steel he wields with bloody efficiency, yet he claims to need her. Or at least, he needs her magic to temper his own chaotic, deadly power—through the shackles of marriage. But when Emana tampers with the new bond between them, their magic begins lashing out on its own, striking down innocents in alarming numbers.

Now, to save her clan and free herself from Daenn, Emana must journey deep into the heart of the jungle with him in search of a way to destroy his magic for good. But the more they are together, the more she sees echoes of warmth beneath his icy exterior that hint that maybe he hasn’t changed as much as she thought. Except the search to sever their bond is filled with horrors, and destroying Daenn’s magic might require a heavy cost—his very life. Read My Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: When Darkness Hunts the Dawn by M.H Woodscourt

Reviewed: June 22nd, 2025
Released: September 16th, 2024
Genre: Epic Fantasy

Rebel. Captive. Dragon.

Condemned for leading a rebellion against a petty tyrant, Mikoneh and his twin sister resign themselves to a fiery death. But when the stake is lit, the flames answer to Mikoneh—and he and his sister escape amid the ensuing chaos.

On the run, they discover they’re being chased by worse than the tyrant’s knights. From deep underground, Dark Mages hunt them for a birthright they never knew. With unexpected help from a magic box and a peculiar woodelf, the twins race for foreign lands to seek refuge from the legendary Dragon King.

But their relentless pursuers will stop at nothing to use Mikoneh’s blood to stir the embers of an ancient war against humans, elves, and dragons.

Soar into the first book of a dragon-centric adventure rife with political intrigue, fierce duels, and deep lore set in a complex fantasy world! Read My Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: Until All Curses Are Lifted by Tim Frankovich

Reviewed: June 18th, 2025
Released: August 13th, 2019
Genre: Epic Fantasy

Phenomenal power. Cursed for his father’s sins.

Marshal lives in magically-enforced silence, unable to communicate with those around him. When he discovers he’s also heir to immense magical power, he sets out on a quest to escape his curse, and maybe find a way to end the corrupt system that gave it to him.

But his half-brother, wanting the power for himself, dispatches a leper assassin to kill Marshal and those he loves.

Seri wants to use the system to become the most powerful mage in history. But her ambitions are disrupted when the earth itself begins to shake. The magic that holds the world together is failing, and the combined power of all the mages is not enough to save it. And then someone begins murdering mages.

Manipulated by outside forces, stalked by murderous foes and monsters, Marshal and Seri each must learn how to use their unique abilities before it’s too late. Dark powers from another realm are watching them. Watching and planning… Read My Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: Steering the Craft by Ursula K. Le Guin

Reviewed: June 17th, 2025
Released: October 31st, 2024
Genre: Writing craft

Revised and updated for the twenty-first century, Steering the Craft is Ursula K. Le Guin’s carrier bag of the essentials of a writer’s craft, a generous gift from one of the great thinkers about how – and why – to write.

This handbook is an accessible and profound guide to the craft of writing and editing. Le Guin lays out ten chapters that address the most fundamental components of narrative, from the sound of language to sentence construction to point of view. Drawing on the global canon, Le Guin offers her inimitably witty commentary and incisive dissection, developing into an exercise that the writer can do solo or in a group. No other writing guide offers such a comprehensive, experienced and kind approach to “steering the craft” as a writing crew.

Steering the Craft deserves a place on every writer’s shelf. Read My Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: Woods of the Raven by Mary Calmes

Reviewed: June 10th, 2025
Released: June 22nd, 2023
Genre: MM Paranormal Fantasy

Something wicked this way comes…and it might be too late to stop it.

Xander Corey lives simply, sustainably, on the outskirts of Osprey, a small, quaint town in Upstate New York. He’s a librarian when the town’s budget can afford him, a good friend, kind neighbor, and also, a witch. And while that’s of no concern to anyone around him, there are others, non-humans, who have a vested interest in Xander’s family land. Xander knows something dark and dangerous is brewing. He’s just not quite sure what.

And that’s not the only mystery he’s dealing with. The new chief of police is, by turns, giving him heart palpitations and homicidal thoughts. Xander can’t decide if the gorgeous yet infuriating Lorne MacBain is on his side, or trying to drive him insane. Added to that, the man doesn’t believe in magic, and since that’s who Xander is, their future looks anything but bright.

But Lorne is not the unimaginative, stick-in-the-mud Xander thinks he is. And a rock to anchor him as his life is turning upside down is just the thing Xander needs. Now if only the two of them can stay alive…. Read My Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: Dream of the Sphere by Jay S. Willis

Reviewed: June 8th, 2025
Released: October 25th, 2021
Genre: Epic Fantasy

Three thousand years of tradition torn asunder. When the truth comes out, will a hero emerge to pick up the pieces?

Dashira Eisenheart takes ultimate comfort in her community. So she’s thrilled when her brother ascends to the coveted order chosen to protect the world from safely sealed-away, millennia-old, dangerous magic. But her faith in her beloved parents’ loyalty cracks after she spies her mother sneaking about town to meet with the enemy.

Striving to stay focused on her own academic studies, Dashira becomes caught in family tensions that soon reach a boiling point. And as her father’s Brotherhood and her mother’s rebel group head toward a cataclysmic clash, the young seeker finds herself trapped by conflicting choices.

Will she face her fears and accept her role in a grand destiny? Read My Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: The Last Dragon Knight by Tim Akers

Reviewed: June 4th, 2025
Released: February 25th, 2025
Genre: Epic Fantasy

Betrayed by his friends. Driven from the land he swore to protect. Hunted by the legions of Hell. Cursed to carry the Dragon’s fury in his soul. Determined to survive.

Corem Holt was once an assassin, before he was a warrior. Before he was a cataclysm in the shape of a man. Blessed by the Crow and cursed by the Dragon, he fled the destruction of his homeland. It was a destruction for which he was responsible.

To his friends, he is a traitor. To his enemies, he is the last real threat in their endless war. Both will hunt him to the ends of the earth. And so he hides. He tries to live a simple life, to survive, to be happy. But mostly, he tries to forget what he has done.

All that comes undone when his past catches up to him. What starts as a chance encounter with an old enemy rapidly devolves into a battle for life and death, not just for Corem, but for the people he’s come to love while in hiding. To save them, he must make one last stand far from home, far from the throne he was sworn to protect, far from the memories that brand him a traitor. For anyone else, it would be impossible. For Corem, it’s inevitable.

Because he’s not just a hero.

He’s the last Dragon Knight. Read My Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: Sunflowers in the Snow by Dawn Bonanno

Reviewed: June 2nd, 2025
Released: August 26th, 2024
Genre: Fantasy Short Stories

Do you believe in magic?

Can you imagine how it might exist all around us in everyday life? Perhaps hidden in trees and sunflowers, slipping into view when needed, and leaving gifts when all hope has abandoned us. Why does a young woman caring for her elderly grandfather find a secret sunflower patch in the snowy hills of Wisconsin? What happens when a demon woken from sleep happens upon a grieving cat dad? How will a sentient house end its long loneliness? Can the smallest water fairy find her missing sister? What does a bride even do with an enchanted wedding veil? Who will save a city cat from a haunted country bridge?

A collection of fourteen fantasy stories about magic in the real world, Sunflowers in the Snow explores friendship and family bonds through sentient houses, magical taverns, secret gardens, and people from other realms who are more like us than we could ever dream. Featured stories include: Sunflowers in the Snow, Cara’s Heartsong, Voices Heard Within Heartbreak House, Never Say Never, The Legacy of Kalila Arquette, Sarah’s Little Monster Hunter, and more. Read My Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: The Last Ranger by JDL Rosell

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…

Book Review Alert: A Coup of Tea by Casey Blair

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…