Meet Faline. Bounty-Hunter. Huldra. Wild Woman. Well behaved women seldom make history, but they still end up as the monsters of folklore. Faline Frey is a bounty-hunter, more comfortable relying on perp files and handcuffs than using her huldra powers to take down a suspect. No sense in catching the unwanted attention of her local Hunter authority, a group of holy soldiers born to police the supernatural and keep Wild Women—huldras, mermaids, succubae, rusalki and harpies—in check. All that changes the night she heads out for a date, hoping to get lucky. Instead, she gets screwed. Now her sister is missing, along with Wild Women from all over the country. The Hunters are on her tail and the one person offering to help is her ex-lover, Officer David Garcia, who has just enough ties to the supernatural world. To unite her enemies against their common foe, Faline will need to convince the Wild Women to do the one thing she fears most—exhume their power buried deep beneath centuries of oppression. That is, if she can keep them from killing each other. Freedom is out of the question for practitioners of the Institute, and any supporters otherwise are dealt with violently. A system Sylvie Sirx neither refutes, nor endorses--born from an enviable family, talented in her skills, and entirely too content with her position, her path has always been a straight one... until now. Her qualifications backfire when an elder from the north descends upon her home for a Choosing. He calls upon the Drowned Tower's most sought after practitioners for a simple job that ends in blood, and then Sylvie's blissful world erupts. She finds herself in the company of the Elementalist, Jacques Dace, an insufferable but deadly enthusiast of personal reform. Together, they're swept into a spiral of powerful magic and ancient grudges. Where truth bends, stones whisper secrets of the past, and their home lies at the heart of what could very well be Ferus Terria's next recorded war. And for once, she is forced to choose a side, learning for herself what it means to master fate. In the deep heart of the forest, there are places where no light ever shines, where darkness is folded by pale hands and jewel-bright eyes, where the world is ruled by the wicked and kept by the wraiths. This is where the Sprites of the Sihl live. But Sprites are not born, they are made. On the path to Spritehood, spritelings must first become shades. They do so by binding a shadow: a woodland creature, who guides them through their training. Together, they keep from the light and learn to enchant living things, to bind them, and, eventually, to kill them. Yet, not all spritelings are born with malice—they must earn it or they are condemned. What happens then to the spriteling who finds a shadow where she shouldn’t? What happens if that particular spriteling wasn’t born with malice at all? Ahraia was that spriteling. She ran too close to the light and bound herself to a wolf, a more powerful shadow than any that came before it. Now a shade, her shadow marks her for greatness. But a test is coming, and the further they wander out of the darkness, the deeper they wander into danger. Ahraia’s time is coming and what awaits her at the end of her test will either make her or kill her . . . | Anne has led a privileged life: she is a weaver, a magic user, in a world ruled by the extraordinary. Yet one day it all changes. She is deemed too powerful by the aristocracy and is sent to a monastery for life. To avoid this fate she embarks on a journey, driven by a prophecy she doesn’t want to fulfill. But will she have any choice in the end? The Book of Songs is the first stand-alone novel in The Weaver Trilogy. Written by Louice Svedin, it's a story about friendship and sacrifice, and how who we are often is shaped by those we meet. Lostport is a backwater kingdom that is suddenly thrust into the spotlight when wealth is discovered on its shores. High-spirited and irresponsible Laina, the king's only remaining heir, may not be allowed to inherit the throne--but she alone can keep her beloved homeland out of the High King's grasp. When the High King decides to use a construction project in one of the remote fjords of Lostport as a training ground for his armies, tensions mount, until the straightforward project begins to look like an excuse for a military takeover of Lostport. Will Laina consent to marrying a stranger to keep her kingdom out of the hands of the grasping Whitish Empire? Or is she desperate enough to push her own land to the brink of ruin to sever ties with Whitland? Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zelie’s Reaper mother summoned forth souls. But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were targeted and killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope. Now, Zélie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good. Danger lurks in Orïsha, where snow leoponaires prowl and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zélie herself as she struggles to control her powers—and her growing feelings for the enemy. When fifteen-year-old Edna Mather tears an expensive and unfamiliar pocket watch off her little brother's neck, he crumbles into a pile of cogs right before her eyes. Horrified, Edna flees for help, but encounters Ike, a thief who attempts to steal the watch before he realizes what it is: a device to power Coglings—clockwork changelings left in place of stolen children who have been forced to work in factories. Desperate to rescue her brother, Edna sets off across the kingdom to the hags' swamp, with Ike in tow. There, they learn Coglings are also replacing nobility so the hags can stage a rebellion and rule over humanity. Edna and Ike must stop the revolt, but the populace believes hags are helpful godmothers and healers. No one wants to believe a lowly servant and a thief, especially when Ike has secrets that label them both as traitors. Together, Edna and Ike must make the kingdom trust them or stop the hags themselves, even if Ike is forced to embrace his dark heritage and Edna must surrender her family. |
This is literally just a collection of books with gorgeous covers that I've encountered in the past months. Cover images link to the book's Goodreads Page. Enjoy!
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First option: Run away. Change your name and disappear around 2 in the morning—far better timing than the middle of the night when people are still likely to be awake. Stay on the run for at least five years before settling down in a small town and becoming a farmer. I’ve recently discovered that spring onions grow like weeds so keep that in mind when you’re deciding what crops you plan to farm. If you’re too lazy for option one then make a list. Prioritise books that have review deadlines first, then list the books you’ve agreed to read and review for authors or as part of a book club, readalong, etc. Now you can fill in the gaps with all the books you want to read. Don’t make your schedule too tight. I allow myself 3 or 4 days to read a book and if I finish earlier then I pat myself on the back for staying ahead. Consider doubling up. I dislike reading more than one book at a time but I make exceptions when I feel like it. This is particularly useful when you’re reading both digital and physical books as you can catch up on the paper book when your device is charging. Don’t be tempted to try a book-buying ban; they only work for people with a specific combination of genes and the favour of Thoth, Egyptian god regarded as the inventor of writing and all-round intelligent Ibis-man. Be sensible with new purchases and offers to review books. Practicing a little restraint is easier than denying yourself outright. If you haven’t already created a TBR shelf then try it now. This is your new bookshop, right in the comfort of your home. Don’t fuss over it too much. Let these books be strangers to you so you’ll feel excited when you approach this shelf to find something to read.
Sometimes people in books have no interest in staying alive. They do the most idiotic things for the sake of minor heroism or because they’re simply too stupid to recognise imminent danger. It annoys the hell out of me. For the longest time I thought this was some First World phenomena where people simply have no concept of the dangers posed by dark alleys and rooms, walking alone at night, or strangers. I’ve since realised that authors just let their characters be muck-for-brains twerps as a means of moving the plot forward. I’m not talking about instances where the character realises a situation is potentially dangerous but moves forward anyway because the stakes are too high not to. I mean the person who goes downstairs in their underwear calling ‘who’s there’ in a horror movie. A book I read recently featured a sporting event during which one of the opposition players literally shanks a member of the MC’s team during the match. Although they’re given an unfavourable out from the match, the MC volunteers to face the happy stabber player to finish the game. It’s a game, dude! Who the heck fights to play a game against someone who’s likely to shove something sharp and pointy between your ribs? And the other members of the team are like ‘yeah, you show him, man!’. Show him how to die a pointless death? Last year there was a book where a train suddenly stops, people swarm off it, and start charging off along the tracks. The viewpoint character then meanders around beside the train and asks a guard what’s going on. This guard tells her to run and overtakes her. That’s a fair sign that there’s shit going down you don’t want to get involved in, don’t you think?
Nope. This lady strolls off after everyone else, stops to help a person who’s been mauled by the protesting mob (they’re zombies, but nobody knows that yet). Mobs so savage that they actually bite chunks out of people are a glowing neon sign that you don’t want to be in this situation, right? Hahahanope! Moron lady camps out on the train station platform with the person she rescued, watching his bites ooze weird shit until the person tries to eat her. I really hope she died for her stupidity but that was the point where I said ‘nope’ and stopped reading. |
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AuthorCaitlin has loved fantasy from a young age. She started writing in earnest because she couldn’t find the book she needed to read. |