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Any Old Diamonds by K.J. Charles
K.J. Charles is one of my favorite authors, and I love basically every single one of her books– and this one is no exception. It’s very difficult to write a coherent review for a favorite author because all my positive feelings overwhelm my analytical thoughts until my brain is just a big ball of “yay, this book was good!” Well, it IS good and I DID love it, and if you haven’t read K.J. Charles yet, you desperately need to. Any Old Diamonds is about Alec, a son of a duke with a grudge against his father and step-mother. He’s desperately in need of money and revenge, and so he…
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Think of England by K.J. Charles
Easing back into reviewing with a book that has been on my TBR since June of last year! At first I wasn’t sure of Archie’s hero-ness, as he has some historically-accurate feelings about Jewish people, effeminate men, and “queers” that didn’t mesh well with the romantic element and furthermore made me very uncomfortable. It also isn’t that usual for a romantic lead to feel disgust for his romantic interest, either. But over the course of the book things changed! His thinking was forced open by his interactions with his queer effeminate Jewish love interest, in a way which I found realistic-ish as Archie wasn’t a horrible person, just prejudiced and…
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REVIEW: Clockwork Heart by Heidi Cullinan
Alt history, yay! Airships! Steampunk that’s more than just fashion! Austrian princesses who need their own books ASAP! This was pretty different from her other books, actually. Which is great, because authors should try new things. For instance: the sexytimes vocabulary was way different than her usual, possibly because she was going for a dated/historical feel? I liked this book, on the whole, though I’m not into exhibitionism/gang-bangs/etc. and the two leads here totally are into it which made it a little awkward. They were very sweet, though, and I liked how it had action/espionage mixed with a romantic plot. Read: January 15, 2016
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The Philosopher Kings by Jo Walton
The Philosopher Kings gets off to a bad start, tbh. The Just City has separated into multiple cities, all with differing ideas about what Plato Really Meant, Aristotle-the-fly disappeared, Pallas Athene never came back, and worst of all Simmea, my favorite character from The Just City, dies. She’s murdered during an art raid. She’s dead! And that really hurt. Apollo didn’t much like it either, and he spends the majority of the book trying to come back from his overwhelming grief. Maia is also dealing with things, including her rapist from The Just City wanting to apologize and be friends again. Everybody’s depressed from the raids and people dying and…
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Jackdaw by K.J. Charles
This is set in the same world as The Magpie Lord, but stars two different characters! And it’s so great, because Jonah and Ben could not be further from Stephen and Crane, both personality and relationship-wise. Which is great! It’s nice seeing the different kinds of people who populate a favorite series. Plus, I really enjoyed seeing how KJC dealt with Jonah and Ben’s tragic history and its repercussions within the larger Magpie Lord context. Turns out she’s super good at constructing characters who make me both want to cry from empathy and also bash their heads together because they just need to KISS already sheesh. Jonah is a criminal,…
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Hotblood! vol. 1 & 2 by Toril Orlesky (2014)
I think I found this series through Tumblr? Maybe? It’s a historical fantasy crime Western with centaurs, and it’s available free online. All things I enjoy! I ended up accidentally reading the equivalent of two volumes (plus a bit more) over the course of one evening. The art is so lovely. The limited color palette makes it kinda dreamy-looking, in a stark kind of way It’s a nice mix, and the pages are very pretty to look at.
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False Colors by Alex Beecroft
I had a nice chat on Twitter with the author after September’s #WizardBBC book chat[1. about power issues in fictional couples, actually.], and I went looking for her books on Scribd afterwards because another club member recommended them to me. I adore historical romance[1. It’s the only kind of romance I go looking for deliberately.] and I especially adore anything set in the Age of Sail. False Colors had a picture of two sailors and a historical ship on the cover; I was in, even before I read the summary.
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A Case of Possession by K.J. Charles
So remember how much I loved The Magpie Lord? Take that love and apply it to A Case of Possession, because it was just as good a read! All the great stuff from the first book is in here– great characters[1. including Stephen’s magic partner, who I was very excited to meet. She is snarky and hard as steel, but with a marshmallow center. Love her!], and interesting setting/worldbuilding, fun (yet scary) magic stuff, tricksy mystery, etc. etc. It’s not just a copy-cat of The Magpie Lord, though. For one thing, there are Chinese vampires instead of evil wizards. Also, things are complicated from being in the city rather than…