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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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Spectered Isle by K.J. Charles
Let’s speed past the fact that I’ve been on a 1.5 year hiatus from blogging and have fallen out of writing for fun or even reading and let’s get right to the review: This is the first in KJ Charles’ newest series Green Men; it’s a historical horror-fantasy romance set in interwar England, roughly connected to her book Simon Feximal. This first book is about a disgraced archaeologist (+1) and an upper-crust sarcastic fucker (+1), with a mysterious evil entity and malignant government forces providing much of the antagonism. I really like the fantasy setting, particularly as it incorporates the older, scarier British paranormal elements of a similar kind to…
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Spectr vol. 1 by Jordan L. Hawk
A novella series is tough to review; each book is just a little too short to write about on its own and trying to do the whole series at once is super tiring. But I really liked these books so I’m gonna give it a shot. Hunter of demons So basically all these books are short, but good. I do prefer full-length novels to almost anything else, but novellas are fun because you can finish reading them super quickly. They’re like bon-bons! Bon-bons filled with demons. SPECTR has a somewhat typical paranormal worldbuilding with demons, psychics, and special agents who solve paranormal crimes. Luckily I love all that stuff! This…
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Necropolis by Jordan L. Hawk
This was a VERY exciting book! Not only because of the body horror human-animal hybrid situation, but because Whyborne and the gang get out of the country and head over to Egypt! Where it turns out Dr. Christine has a Secret Boyfriend! And there are, like, curses or something! It’s a little predictable in that I guessed at least two important plot points before they happened, but it was also super fun to read. Honestly, it reminded me of all the best parts of The Mummy, only with more than one female protagonist. Dr. Christine is there, of course, and she is forever my favorite of the series. She’s dealing…
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Mystic, Remnant, Some Kind of Magic
I read this because of Memory! Also G. Willow Wilson is writing Ms. Marvel now (which I very much enjoyed) and I wanted to try another of her books. This one’s about two friends: one destined to be a great magician and one who, well, isn’t. It is super short– maybe too short, as the story moves along at a breakneck pace and character development suffers as a result. With only 96 pages there isn’t a whole heap of room for anything but the main plot. The beginning was so strong that I had high expectation for the rest of the book. Unfortunately, the pacing was way too fast and…
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Adrien English Mystery series by Josh Lanyon
I binge-read almost the entire series two weekends ago, and I enjoyed it immensely. Mystery! Romance! Other stuff! This is a massive review and there are spoilers throughout, though I’ve hidden the biggest ones as best I could. Tbh, not the best in the series nor is it my favorite. It’s rough, with lots of bumps. But it’s a decent intro to the characters and the world they live in. Basically, Adrien gets sucked into trouble, his friends mostly all die, he’s totally alone and there’s a weird cop[1. who, it turns out, is a self-hating in-the-closet gay s&m dude who is attracted to Adrien but also can’t stand being…
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Meatworks by Jordan Castillo Price
This showed up in my recommendations after reading a Jordan L. Hawk book, I think. They don’t really have anything in common except a first name and that they write m/m romances– also Meatworks is, if anything, a dystopian-ish[1. everything is super regulated and you basically have to sign in/out of every single building and the robots are always following you and the government is always watching.] scifi book set in an alternate universe where robotics evolved faster than anything else. So, like, people have robot limbs! But no smart phones. Meatworks reminded those really gritty late 1980s punk novels, the kind where you’re not entirely sure whether the protagonist…
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Stormhaven by Jordan L. Hawk
All the wonderful things from the first two Whyborne & Griffin books are present in this third one, plus more. Action, adventure, romance! Spooky monsters! Stormhaven has a heavy Lovecraft influence, this time in a “dweller of the deep” kind of thing. Gods being summoned from the depths of the sea, (more) secret magic cults, insanity and possession all have a big part in the story; it’s super spooky and made me think of dark stormy nights the whole time. Wonderful atmospheric writing, as always! Not only is it another terrific blend of mystery, horror and romance, it doesn’t rest on its laurels re:its characters. My favorite thing about series…