Monthly Archives: June 2022

Provided for Review: The Living Waters (The Weirdwater Confluence Book 1) by Dan Fitzgerald

Wonder swirls beneath murky water.

When two painted-faced nobles take a guided raft trip on a muddy river, they expect to rough it for a few weeks before returning to their life of sheltered ease. But when mysterious swirls start appearing in the water, even their seasoned guides get rattled.

The mystery of the swirls lures them on to the mythical wetlands known as the Living Waters. They discover a world beyond their imagining, but stranger still are the worlds they find inside their own minds as they are drawn deep into the troubles of this hidden place.

This book was provided for review by the author. Thank you!

When Dan Fitzgerald originally reached out to me to review the first book in his Weirdwater Confluence series, I admit I was intrigued. At the mention of “fantasy” as a genre, one’s thoughts often tend towards swords and monsters and epic action scenes. The Living Waters does have some action and there can be arguments made for monsters but as for swords, there isn’t one to be found. One would have to look hard to find weaponry of any kind and then one might find an oar or a fishing pole.

As someone who enjoys a good fantasy but doesn’t always want epic fight scenes, The Living Waters was a wonderfully refreshing read.

Much like the river our characters travel on, The Living Waters is a meandering story. It starts and stops never settling in one place for long and when it does actually pause we the reader are treated to lush landscapes and fresh faces. Fitzgerald’s writing captures the lands around the river superbly, evoking thoughts of Mark Twain and his writings on the Mississippi River.

The one and only quibble I have with The Living Waters was the lack of backstory. We are told members of the upper classes paint their faces and exposed skin to protect them from the sun. Why did this practice start and when? The same goes for the rough about Temi and Silvan take. Why exactly is this done? It’s never fully explained and I personally think it would have added to my enjoyment if it had been.

Like I said above, The Living Waters is a wonderfully refreshing read and I enjoyed it very much. It is my understanding there is a second book in the works and I am personally looking forward to it. I recommend this book to all my readers and hope they enjoy it as much as I did.

A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic #1) by V.E. Schwab

Here is Grey London, a dirty and boring city with no magic and a mad king. Then there is Red London, a city of excitement where life and magic are revered. There is also White London, a city slowly dying from being drained through magical war. Once, there was a Black London, but no one speaks of that land now.

Kell is from Red London. He is one of the last magicians that is able to travel between worlds. Officially he acts as ambassador and messenger, moving between the different Londons in service of the Maresh empire. Unofficially, he is a smuggler; a dangerous hobby that becomes even more so when he comes across a forbidden token from Black London.

Fleeing into Grey London, Kell runs into Delilah Bard; a thief with aspirations of her own. First, she robs him, then she saves him, and finally, she forces him to take her to another world for what she believes will be a proper adventure.

A Darker Shade of Magic is one of those books that several people, both online and offline, had recommended to me. With my love of fantasy-type stories, I knew it would simply be a matter of time before I eventually read it.

Oh, dear reader, I do not know why I waited so long.

From the first page where we are introduced to Kell and the multiple Londons to the last page when we are forced to part ways with him, I was enraptured.

Schwab does a most admirable job in creating a world that is both familiar and new. Those who have been to London will recognize some of the places she describes; because even though they are from an earlier time, many of these places stand today. The Grey London she describes is the London of the early 1800s, it is messy and dark and it isn’t always pleasant. But it is real.

The same can be said of Red London and White London as well. There is the air of familiarity but there is also the foreign. The people who inhabit these places are a result of the realms they live in and it is evident when Kell and Lila interact with them.

At times the background characters can come across as a little one-dimensional, but this is often the case. Because they are often deemed as not important, the author often gives only the most basic of information to us, the reader. I am not terribly affronted or concerned with this as it happens quite often.

A Darker Shade of Magic is one of those rare books that I eagerly recommend to all of my followers. I am quite sure everyone will find something in this book to love. Personally, I am looking forward to getting the next book in the series to read and review.

Provided for Review: Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw

A Heian-era mansion stands abandoned, its foundations resting on the bones of a bride and its walls packed with the remains of the girls sacrificed to keep her company.

It’s the perfect wedding venue for a group of thrill-seeking friends.

But a night of food, drinks, and games quickly spirals into a nightmare. For lurking in the shadows is the ghost bride with a black smile and a hungry heart.

And she gets lonely down there in the dirt. 

This book was provided for review by Netgalley. Thank you!

When I saw Cassandra Khaw’s Nothing But Blackened Teeth available to read on Netgalley, I jumped on the chance to get a copy. Books set in Japan (whether modern-day or historical) are appealing to me. And if there happens to be a mystery and/or a horror element added in? Bonus!

I was so looking forward to reading this book and when I was finally able to I was so disappointed! So much about this book is simply awful!

I know horror can be difficult to write; good horror that keeps you on the edge of your seat doubly so. The juggling of characters, setting, and plot can be quite demanding. Even the most prolific of writers can have trouble. And while Khaw certainly tried with Nothing But Blackened Teeth, it was in my opinion an ultimate failure.

The cast of characters is an unlikeable group of twenty-somethings. Throughout the story, we are told they are friends and have been for some time – hard to believe considering the way they almost constantly bicker. Almost the entire book is like this with them fighting about past grudges and who might still have feelings for who. It added nothing to the story and only made it difficult for me to actually care when something happened to someone.

Because the story is set in Japan and because it is supposed to be a ghost story, Khaw apparently felt it necessary to throw in terms like ohaguro-bettari and shiromoku but without giving any translation or context. Readers who are familiar with Japanese ghost stories will likely recognize the terms – a female demon with no face and a mouth of black teeth and a pure white wedding kimono respectively – but the average readers will not. And without that context or translation, the words mean nothing and add nothing.

The writing for Nothing But Blackened Teeth is just as bad. Khaw’s prose is so purple at times it comes across as ridiculous. In some passages it isn’t purple, it’s ultraviolet. It is excessive and so over the top that I have no words to really describe it. And like in so many novels that have that overly flowery type of writing, it doesn’t add to the story but detracts from it.

I will be honest my dear reader, I did not enjoy reading Nothing But Blackened Teeth. The stilted writing and horrid characters made it difficult to even finish the story. I know there are reviewers who absolutely loved this book and there are readers who like me did not. My only advice is to read it and judge for yourself.

The Paper Magician (Paper Magician #1) by Charlie N. Holmberg

Ceony Twill arrives at the cottage of Magician Emery Thane with a broken heart. Having graduated at the top of her class from the Tagis Praff School for the Magically Inclined, Ceony is assigned an apprenticeship in paper magic despite her dreams of bespelling metal. And once she’s bonded to paper, that will be her only magic…forever.

Yet the spells Ceony learns under the strange yet kind Thane turn out to be more marvelous than she could have ever imagined—animating paper creatures, bringing stories to life via ghostly images, even reading fortunes. But as she discovers these wonders, Ceony also learns of the extraordinary dangers of forbidden magic.

An Excisioner—a practitioner of dark, flesh magic—invades the cottage and rips Thane’s heart from his chest. To save her teacher’s life, Ceony must face the evil magician and embark on an unbelievable adventure that will take her into the chambers of Thane’s still-beating heart—and reveal the very soul of the man.

Trigger Warning: Blood, Fantasy violence, Toxic relationship, Death of a child (occurs off-page), Death of an adult (occurs off-page), Death of an animal (paper animal)

The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg is one of those books that’s been sitting on my To Be Read list for a while. I remember downloading it to my e-reader ages ago but I never got around to reading it. Finally, I decided it was time to start whittling down my TBR list and this was one of the first books I picked up to do it with.

Like so many who have read and reviewed it, it’s a bit difficult to pin down the exact genre this book would fit into. The main heroine is 19 so does that make it Young Adult? No, not quite. The setting is a pseudo-Victorian era England so does that make it Historical Fiction? Again, no not quite. Over the course of the book, Ceony develops a kind of crush on Emery and it’s hinted that he might like her back. So does that mean it’s a Romance? Yet again, I have to say no.

For everything that The Paper Magician is not, there is one thing I can definitely say. And that is it is an enjoyable read. As with so many books, there are of course flaws. The overall plotline and story can be a bit slow and maudlin at times. The characters can be wishy-washy and sometimes one-dimensional. Some of the violence was a bit over the top as was the overall final “battle”.

Does that mean I won’t recommend it to my readers? Not at all. Like some whose reviews I read in order to write this one – while reading The Paper Magician, I was reminded of Howl’s Moving Castle (both book and movie). It too is a not quite perfect book that gets mixed reviews but there are people who love it deeply. Myself included.