Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries / Heather Fawcett

3 out of 5 stars 

Halloween Bingo 2024

All work and no play makes Emily Wilde a dull girl. But Emily is an introverted academic who wants to talk to the Folk, but not to her fellow humans. She is happiest when immersed in her research or tracking faeries in the field. She is annoyed when her feckless colleague Wendell Bambleby invites himself along on her expedition to learn about the Hidden Ones who live in proximity to the village of Hrafnsvik in the far north.

Emily has suspected for some time that Wendell is himself a member of the Folk, yet he understands the villagers better than Emily does. He eases her way, which is both fortunate and infuriating to Emily. This expedition provides major life lessons to our obsessed academic. She learns to accept help, to be diplomatic, and to have friends. In short, to be less introverted. She also experiences empathy, learning to care for the villagers and even Bambleby, who is exiled from his home and misses it desperately.

I found myself impatient with the depiction of the Fae in this book. They weren't as tricky as I expected and their dealings with humans seemed very impersonal. I am used to powerful Fae who still treat people as potentially threats or allies. Fawcett's Folk seem to barely pay attention to humans or consider them to be easily controlled pets. I haven't fathomed the attachment that Bambleby feels for Emily—we are given no reasons for his fondness for her. That Emily sometimes wants to respond is more believable, as it's difficult to resist the lure of a determined suitor.

I buddy-read this with Moonlight Reader, without whose assistance I would likely have dnf'd. This qualifies it for the Wind in the Willows wild card. It will therefore fill my Home for the Horrordays square

 

Filthy Rich Fae / Geneva Lee

 

4 out of 5 stars 

Well, if I didn't already know that I'm a visual learner rather than audio, I surely would now. Once again, my library only had this title available in audiobook format. I think the only reason that I remember enough to write a review at all is because this is complete fluff and there's not a helluva lot to have to recall. This romance is also proof (once again) that paranormal trappings make romance novels enjoyable to me.

I had a good time listening to this despite a lot of repetition and the heroine, Cate, being very nearly TSTL. What a centuries old fae would see in her is beyond me, but I still enjoyed the banter and the story arc. But I swear, if she had “lifted her chin" one more time….. Plus, her foster brother, Channing, is even dumber than she is.

Channing starts the whole plot off by being a stereotypical foster care graduate and getting involved in organized crime. Cate is a nurse and is on duty when Channing arrives in hospital while she's on duty. Despite the fact that the crime boss, Lochlan Gage, pretty much owns Gage Memorial Hospital, Cate decides it would be an excellent idea to go to a sketchy area of town to confront him and settle her brother's debt. See what I mean about TSTL? For reasons of his own, Gage releases Channing and takes Cate's soul instead. The relationship starts adversarial, which is my favourite trope, so I was willing to put up with the stupidity.

Warning to cliffhanger haters: there's a dilly! If my library won't order the next book, I'm going to be forced to spend my own cash (and they've rejected my request to purchase the second book of the Filthy Rich Vampire series, so……). Being weird in my own way, when I realized how much I want to read the next book, that added a fourth star to my rating. Perhaps I'm just as contrary as Cate.

The Night Country / Melissa Albert

3.75 out of 5 stars

In The Night Country, Alice Proserpine dives back into a menacing, mesmerizing world of dark fairy tales and hidden doors. Follow her and Ellery Finch as they learn The Hazel Wood was just the beginning, and that worlds die not with a whimper, but a bang.

With Finch’s help, Alice escaped the Hinterland and her reclusive grandmother’s dark legacy. Now she and the rest of the dregs of the fairy tale world have washed up in New York City, where Alice is trying to make a new, unmagical life. But something is stalking the Hinterland’s survivors―and she suspects their deaths may have a darker purpose. Meanwhile, in the winking out world of the Hinterland, Finch seeks his own adventure, and―if he can find it―a way back home...

The follow up to The Hazel Wood. I’m still rating this one 4 stars, but it wasn’t quite as enthralling as the initial offering, in my opinion. Some of this may be due to my coming down with the flu as I was finishing up--nothing might have completely pleased me under those conditions.

While I felt like The Hazel Wood was about breaking out of the destructive patterns that hold us in bad places in our lives, The Night Country seems to be about searching for new ways to live after making that escape. It’s not easy and you continually find yourself heading back towards old, familiar patterns of behaviour instead of breaking new ground.

Alice’s mother, Ella, finds herself feeling helpless as she watches her daughter struggle with this whole situation, as generations of parents have done before her. I found myself liking Ella and Alice more than I did in the previous book and being downright fond of Ellery Finch!

Once again, I would caution other readers that although there are fairy tale elements to the story, don’t be expecting handsome princes or entrancing Fae lords. However, if you like these two books of Melissa Albert’s, I would recommend trying An Enchantment of Ravens and Sorcery of Thorns, both by Margaret Rogerson.

The Guinevere Deception / Kiersten White

4.25 stars out of 5

There was nothing in the world as magical and terrifying as a girl.

Princess Guinevere has come to Camelot to wed a stranger: the charismatic King Arthur. With magic clawing at the kingdom's borders, the great wizard Merlin conjured a solution--send in Guinevere to be Arthur's wife . . . and his protector from those who want to see the young king's idyllic city fail. The catch? Guinevere's real name--and her true identity--is a secret. She is a changeling, a girl who has given up everything to protect Camelot.

To keep Arthur safe, Guinevere must navigate a court in which the old--including Arthur's own family--demand things continue as they have been, and the new--those drawn by the dream of Camelot--fight for a better way to live. And always, in the green hearts of forests and the black depths of lakes, magic lies in wait to reclaim the land. Arthur's knights believe they are strong enough to face any threat, but Guinevere knows it will take more than swords to keep Camelot free.

Deadly jousts, duplicitous knights, and forbidden romances are nothing compared to the greatest threat of all: the girl with the long black hair, riding on horseback through the dark woods toward Arthur. Because when your whole existence is a lie, how can you trust even yourself?

An excellent re-invention of the King Arthur mythos. Taking a cue from The Mists of Avalon, this version is told from the perspective of Guinevere, a changeling girl sent by Merlin to be King Arthur’s bride.

The big problem is that magic has been banished from Camelot and Guinevere is a manic pixie dream girl! She is looking at the relationship like a job and Arthur is willing to humour her, but as they spend more and more time together, both of them start to think that perhaps they would like to expand that role….now how do they let their desires be known?

White uses some interesting changes in relationships (Mordred isn’t Arthur’s illegitimate son) and some wonderful changes in gender of at least one character to make this a very up-to-date feeling version of the Arthur cycle. By doing so, she freshens up a story that most of us feel that we’re pretty familiar with.

I can hardly wait for the next installment in 2020.

The Unkindest Tide / Seanan McGuire

4 out of 5 stars 

Hundreds of years ago, the Selkies made a deal with the sea witch: they would have the sea for as long as she allowed it, and when the time came, she would call in all their debts at once. Many people assumed that day would never come. Those people were wrong.

When the Luidaeg—October "Toby" Daye's oldest and most dangerous ally—tells her the time has come for the Selkies to fulfill their side of the bargain, and that Toby must be a part of the process, Toby can't refuse. Literally. The Selkies aren't the only ones in debt to the Luidaeg, and Toby has to pay what she owes like anyone else. They will travel to the fabled Duchy of Ships and call a convocation of the Selkies, telling them to come and meet the Luidaeg's price...or face the consequences.

Of course, nothing is that simple. When Dianda Lorden's brother appears to arrest Dianda for treason against the Undersea, when a Selkie woman is stripped of her skin and then murdered, when everything is falling apart, that's when Toby will have to answer the real question of the hour.

Is she going to sink? Or is she going to swim?

I can’t tell you how much I enjoy spending time in October Daye’s world--the land of Faerie right adjacent to our own world. Where Hobs, Pixies, and Brownies (among many others) inhabit the land and Mermaids, Selkies, and octopus-headed Cephali live undersea in the Kingdom of Saltmist. I keep meaning to find some books on fairy folklore to brush up on my fae identification skills.

This book features the Luidaeg (the Sea Witch) prominently. As one of the First Born of Faerie, she has awesome powers and anyone with any sense is scared witless of her. Except for our dear Toby, who has seen through the Luidaeg’s thorny disguise to the caring person on the inside. Controlled by a geas laid on her by one of her sisters, the Luidaeg is compelled to only tell the truth and to help those who request assistance, although she is allowed to charge high prices for that help.

This is the point where shit gets real if you are a Selkie--the Sea Witch is calling in their chips and calling on Toby to seal the deal. Toby has a soft spot for the Selkies--her first fiance was Connor, a Selkie. Selkies also straddle the line between humanity and the Fae, just as Changelings do, so Toby can relate to that too. The trick is to find a way to both let the Luidaeg keep her word and to let her be merciful.

Seanan McGuire’s inventiveness never fails to please me. I am so glad that the next book is set up in the plot of this one. Forget Finding Nemo, we’re going to be Finding Simon.

If I have any frustration with this series, its the constant irritation of October’s estranged daughter, Gillian. October has been rejected by her, her father & step-mother (who, curiously is also October’s grandmother) for reasons that seem spurious to me. Toby has saved her repeatedly and gets zero credit for it. I’m not sure where McGuire is headed with this particular plot line, but I’m sure it’s not random. OMG, I’m like a soap-opera fan, I must tune in to the next installment to see what happens.

Please keep writing, Ms. McGuire! I will keep reading.

The Falconer / Elizabeth May

4 out of 5 stars

One girl's nightmare is this girl's faery tale

She's a stunner.
Edinburgh, 1844. Eighteen-year-old Lady Aileana Kameron, the only daughter of the Marquess of Douglas, has everything a girl could dream of: brains, charm, wealth, a title—and drop-dead beauty.

She's a liar.
But Aileana only looks the part of an aristocratic young lady. she's leading a double life: She has a rare ability to sense the sìthíchean—the faery race obsessed with slaughtering humans—and, with the aid of a mysterious mentor, has spent the year since her mother died learning how to kill them.

She's a murderer.
Now Aileana is dedicated to slaying the fae before they take innocent lives. With her knack for inventing ingenious tools and weapons—from flying machines to detonators to lightning pistols—ruthless Aileana has one goal: Destroy the faery who destroyed her mother.

She's a Falconer.
The last in a line of female warriors born with a gift for hunting and killing the fae, Aileana is the sole hope of preventing a powerful faery population from massacring all of humanity. Suddenly, her quest is a lot more complicated. She still longs to avenge her mother's murder—but she'll have to save the world first.

I read this book in one evening and completely enjoyed myself, hence the 4 star rating. It was really quite predictable—aristocratic girl in a steampunk Victorian timeline who is vowed to avenge the death of her mother. At a swanky event of some kind, a banshee has killed Aileana’s mother and left Aileana drenched in blood. Since then, she has acquired a pixie sidekick (Derrick) and a Fairy mentor and fight instructor (Kiaran).

Very reminiscent of Karen Marie Moning’s Fever series or Sarah J. Maas’ Court of Thorns and Roses series. I blundered into this volume, not realizing that it is first of a trilogy—if you abhor cliff-hanger endings, you either want to skip this book or have book two queued up and ready to go.

There is a very obvious paranormal romance element to this novel, telegraphed from extremely early in the book. In this respect, both Moning and Maas were better at the build up to the relationship, letting their heroines struggle with the concept longer and creating better tension in the stories. May throws in an old flame of Aileana’s—she may be a Falconer (a hunter of the Fae), but Gavin is a Seer. Aileana needs a magic flower in order to see the Fae, so she and Gavin are a natural team. This sets up a quasi-love triangle between Aileana, Gavin, and Kiaran.

The end of this first installment may have been a cliff-hanger, but it’s a very effective one. It left me wishing I had the second book already in my hands to see what is meant by those last couple of pages! I was relieved to find out that my public library has both of the remaining books, so I will eventually get to discover the outcome.

Use of Scots dialect was sparing, just enough to remind the reader of where the action takes place, a feature which I appreciated. Also the dust jacket art is gorgeous. Recommended for fans of Fae paranormal romance fiction.

The Wicked King / Holly Black

4 out of 5 stars

After the jaw-dropping revelation that Oak is the heir to Faerie, Jude must keep her younger brother safe. To do so, she has bound the wicked king, Cardan, to her, and made herself the power behind the throne. Navigating the constantly shifting political alliances of Faerie would be difficult enough if Cardan were easy to control. But he does everything in his power to humiliate and undermine her even as his fascination with her remains undiminished.

When it becomes all too clear that someone close to Jude means to betray her, threatening her own life and the lives of everyone she loves, Jude must uncover the traitor and fight her own complicated feelings for Cardan to maintain control as a mortal in a Faerie world. 

Move over, Machiavelli, now we have Jude to give you a run for your manipulating money!

For a very young woman, she has managed to make everyone dance to her tune and has out-maneuvered much more experienced politickers. Now her challenge is to control herself! When she first placed Cardan on the throne of Elfhame, he was more interested in drinking and carousing than in ruling. Will she still be able to control him if he develops an interest in governing?

After the very dirty trick that she played on Cardan to get him on the throne, the tables are turned and he proves that Jude is not the only one who can play hard-ball. When Jude shows him how to use emotional manipulation to get information, she did not expect him to learn the lesson or to practice on her.

Black has written a fascinating second stage in their relationship--one in which neither one of them is willing to admit how attracted they are to each other. They are still very much at odds. Perhaps I’m wrong, but I keep feeling like they will eventually be a couple and I can hardly wait for the third book to see how Black accomplishes this about face.

OMG, I have to wait until some time in 2020 before I get my next hit of Jude & Cardan! It is going to be an agonizing wait.

Oh, and incidentally, that is a gorgeous cover illustration!

The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic / Emily Croy Barker

3.5 stars out of 5

Nora Fischer’s dissertation is stalled and her boyfriend is about to marry another woman.  During a miserable weekend at a friend’s wedding, Nora wanders off and walks through a portal into a different world where she’s transformed from a drab grad student into a stunning beauty.  Before long, she has a set of glamorous new friends and her romance with gorgeous, masterful Raclin is heating up. It’s almost too good to be true.

Then the elegant veneer shatters. Nora’s new fantasy world turns darker, a fairy tale gone incredibly wrong. Making it here will take skills Nora never learned in graduate school. Her only real ally—and a reluctant one at that—is the magician Aruendiel, a grim, reclusive figure with a biting tongue and a shrouded past. And it will take her becoming Aruendiel’s student—and learning magic herself—to survive. When a passage home finally opens, Nora must weigh her "real life" against the dangerous power of love and magic.

Not quite what I was anticipating—which is a bit of an issue when the book is over 500 pages!

Under normal circumstances, I adore books which include the Fae, which this one does. Nora, our main character, bumps into an odd guy on campus and he rather obscurely grants her wish for a complete change of pace in life. One assumes that he is a member of this book’s Faitoren who was inhabiting our world, instead of the alternate world that Nora is transported to.

This is very much an alternate reality book—like Stephen Donaldson’s Thomas Covenant series, H. Beam Piper’s Paratime novels or Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. In this iteration, Nora gets transported into a rather medieval world which relies on magic rather than technology. Of course, she discovers some facility for magic, which saves her life from being total drudgery.

One of my main issues was the character of Aruendiel, the magician who rescues Nora from the Faitoren and assumes responsibility for her in this very, very patriarchal world. He’s no Dumbledore or Gandalf—he’s cranky, prejudiced, and arrogant. His relationship with Nora is a very reluctant one, consisting more of feeling responsible for her than any affection. Then when the balance seems to twist towards Aruendiel wanting more of their relationship, he isn’t willing to unbend enough to verbalize it, leaving Nora really to twist in the wind, wondering if she’s imagining things. Just to confuse things even more, Aruendiel seems to try fairly often to foist her on other men as a wife or he is searching for a “window” to send her home to her own reality. There’s a limited amount of speculation about the magician’s age and I gained the feeling that he was way too old to be a viable love-interest for Nora.

There is some exploration of the notion that Nora, coming from our reality, doesn’t act enough like a (subservient) woman in the magic time line. But the chances to explore the nature of the relations between men and women gets short shrift (except on the many occasions when Nora is pissed off about it). She basically works like a galley slave on Aruendiel’s estate except when he grants her special privileges to study or practice magic.

Although Nora ends up feeling attracted to Aruendiel, I just couldn’t feel the basis for it. He was too old, too arrogant, too prejudiced against women. I could understand some respect for him as a teacher (although he didn’t seem to be all that great an instructor, honestly), but beyond that was beyond my ability to suspend my disbelief.

Nevertheless, there’s a lid for every pot and I’m sure that this book will suit a lot of readers better than it did me.

Silver Borne / Patricia Briggs

4 out of 5 stars

Mercy is smart enough to realize that when it comes to the magical fae, the less you know, the better. But you can't always get what you want. When she attempts to return a powerful fae she previously borrowed in an act of desperation, she finds the bookstore locked up and closed down.

It seems the book contains secrets - and the fae will do just about anything to keep it out of the wrong hands. And if that doesn't take enough of Mercy's attention, her friend Samuel is struggling with his wolf side - leaving Mercy to cover for him lest his own father declare Samuel's life forfeit.

All in all, Mercy has had better days. And if she isn't careful, she may not have many more...

2018 Re-read:

I felt quite different this time around reading The Silver Borne.  I’m willing to give it a full 4 stars, without reservation.  I also enjoyed the Fae-ness of this installment much more this time around.  Which brings me back to a thesis of mine, that some books need to be given second chances, when I’m in a different mood.

I’m still impatient will all the books that depict women’s relationships as competitive, rather than cooperative.  Perhaps because I’ve encountered more collegial or friendly relationships with the women in my life, rather than competitiveness.  There are always a slim minority of women who aren’t supportive, but I find far, far more who are willing to work together on things.  If there’s more of this female competitiveness out there than I run into, I am most glad that I’ve got a better situation.

I am now declaring myself slump-free, this book having been the last step needed to rekindle my love of reading.

Iron Kissed / Patricia Briggs

4 out of 5 stars

Mechanic Mercy Thompson can shift her shape - but not her loyalty. When her former boss and mentor is arrested for murder and left to rot behind bars by his own kind, it's up to Mercy to clear his name, whether he wants her to or not.

Mercy's loyalty is under pressure from other directions, too. Werewolves are not known for their patience, and if Mercy can't decide between the two she cares for, Sam and Adam may make the choice for her...

2018 Re-Read

Several things struck me as a re-read the third book of the Mercy Thompson series.  Number one, I’m still disappointed that there were no vampires anywhere in this one!  Number two, I’m somewhat disappointed that Briggs resorted to rape as a plot device—I think authors go there entirely too often.  But Briggs did it for a reason: it actually moved the plot along (i.e. brought Mercy & Adam together), and it gave Ben a chance to redeem himself. We learn why he’s such a jerk and we can forgive him to some extent.  Number three, the reader learns far more about Briggs’ version of the Fae, who are dark and tricksy just as I likes ‘em.

And I still wish that Mercy had some women friends to talk things over with.  All of us gals need our women friends!

Blood Bound / Patricia Briggs

4 out of 5 stars

Mechanic Mercy Thompson has friends in low places-and in dark ones. And now she owes one of them a favor. Since she can shapeshift at will, she agrees to act as some extra muscle when her vampire friend Stefan goes to deliver a message to another of his kind.

But this new vampire is hardly ordinary-and neither is the demon inside of him.

As I continue my reading journey down memory lane, I realize that right here in book two is where Patricia Briggs and I go separate ways regarding who we want to see Mercy shacked up with. This was the book that to me said, “Go vampires! Stefan all the way!”

You see, I’m just not into being bossed around. Eldest child, bossy in my own right, don’t need to butt heads with some stubborn werewolf every damn day. In fact, every now and then, my gentleman friend will ask me, “Not a vampire yet?” Now I think he mostly asks just to get me to nibble his neck, but he has obviously been studying my bookshelves and has recognized a significant theme.

I’m not sure what the lure of the vampire dark side is for me. But it’s there and I plan to indulge it again in 2019.

Moon Called / Patricia Briggs

4 out of 5 stars

Mercedes Thompson, aka Mercy, is a talented Volkswagen mechanic living in the Tri-Cities area of Washington. She also happens to be a walker, a magical being with the power to shift into a coyote at will. Mercy's next-door neighbor is a werewolf. Her former boss is a gremlin. And she's fixing a bus for a vampire. This is the world of Mercy Thompson, one that looks a lot like ours but is populated by those things that go bump in the night. And Mercy's connection to those things is about to get her into some serious hot water...

I’m not sure why this is a more difficult Christmas season than usual, but it is.  I’m having a hard time motivating myself to do anything besides the basics:  go to work, cook enough to survive, clean when I have to.  I didn’t even set up a Christmas tree this year—and I’ve done that continuously since 1996.  Plus I’ve found myself reluctant to read new books and I’ve gone on quite a binge of re-reading old favourites.

This one I am justifying to myself as a re-read in anticipation of the 11^th book of the series coming out next May.  I’m just having a wander down memory lane, since this is one of the books that got me hooked on the urban fantasy genre.

I’d forgotten how quickly Briggs developed the plot in this first novel—the reader plummets into convoluted politics of various species, equally twisty personal relationships, plus lots & lots of details that set up the Mercy universe.  I was enthralled during that first encounter and have been happily sharing Briggs’ world since 2015.

I was somewhat startled to realize that Mercy was already crushing on Adam, right from the beginning!  Somehow, in my mind, the triangle between her, Adam, and Samuel started with the two men on more or less equal footing.  This is changing my view of Mercy—I like her better for knowing her own desires and not letting Samuel interfere (too much).

I really like Briggs’ depiction of the Fae and her version of vampires.  I’m still very glad I started reading this genre and I look forward to many more urban fantasy adventures in 2019.

Night and Silence / Seanan McGuire

4 out of 5 stars

In the aftermath of Amandine's latest betrayal, October "Toby" Daye's fragile self-made family is on the verge of coming apart at the seams. Jazz can't sleep, Sylvester doesn't want to see her, and worst of all, Tybalt has withdrawn from her entirely, retreating into the Court of Cats as he tries to recover from his abduction. Toby is floundering, unable to help the people she loves most heal. She needs a distraction. She needs a quest.

What she doesn't need is the abduction of her estranged human daughter, Gillian. What she doesn't need is to be accused of kidnapping her own child by her ex-boyfriend and his new wife, who seems to be harboring secrets of her own. There's no question of whether she'll take the case. The only question is whether she's emotionally prepared to survive it.

Signs of Faerie's involvement are everywhere, and it's going to take all Toby's nerve and all her allies to get her through this web of old secrets, older hatreds, and new deceits. If she can't find Gillian before time runs out, her own child will pay the price. One question remains:

Who in Faerie remembered Gillian existed? And what do they stand to gain? No matter how this ends, Toby's life will never be the same.

I guess the fact that I’ve read to book 12 in this series would be an indication that it’s a hit for me. I don’t know how much longer McGuire can continue to spin the faerie tales, but I am a willing victim.

This installment takes us back right to the beginning, as it once again involves Toby’s human daughter, Gillian. In an earlier book, Gillian had made the choice to become fully human (the changeling’s choice) and Toby honoured that wish, despite her own heartache. But thinking that the Fae would leave Gillian alone seems to have been wishful thinking and once again some difficult decisions need to be dealt with.

At least Toby has her beloved Tybalt back at her side, although I didn’t find his sudden switch back to be the most believable plot point that McGuire has written! She’s going to need his support as her life becomes even more intertwined with The Luidaeg and she tries to re-establish family bonds with her genetic family, not just her chosen family.

There are certainly plenty of loose threads, where McGuire can pick up the narrative and spin us more of the adventures of Toby. I, for one, will be waiting impatiently for the next volume.

Daughter of the Forest / Juliet Mariller

4.5 stars out of 5

Lovely Sorcha is the seventh child and only daughter of Lord Colum of Sevenwaters. Bereft of a mother, she is comforted by her six brothers who love and protect her. Sorcha is the light in their lives, they are determined that she know only contentment.

But Sorcha's joy is shattered when her father is bewitched by his new wife, an evil enchantress who binds her brothers with a terrible spell, a spell which only Sorcha can lift-by staying silent. If she speaks before she completes the quest set to her by the Fair Folk and their queen, the Lady of the Forest, she will lose her brothers forever.

When Sorcha is kidnapped by the enemies of Sevenwaters and taken to a foreign land, she is torn between the desire to save her beloved brothers, and a love that comes only once. Sorcha despairs at ever being able to complete her task, but the magic of the Fair Folk knows no boundaries, and love is the strongest magic of them all...

I read this book to fill the Grimm Tale square of my 2018 Halloween Bingo card.

To understand how much I love this novel, I must tell you how much I loved a Classics Illustrated version of The Wild Swans that I had as a child. It was one of the first things that I ever read all by myself and I read that comic book until it was tattered. This book is a retelling of that Hans Christian Andersen tale, which he probably heard as The Six Swans through the Brothers Grimm.

This version sets the story back into a pagan Irish setting, another thing that I absolutely adore. I’m a firm lover of the Fae, who seem to be behind most of the action in this version. I’m also enthusiastic about the details that Ms. Marillier has added to the tale. In the Andersen version, the brother left with a swan’s wing at the end is eventually fully restored to humanity, but Finbar in this version is left longing for his swan mate, since swans mate for life. I think the poignancy of the story is also improved by the modern realization that a person couldn’t spend years as a swan without having significant emotional issues.

I’m not sure how many New Zealand authors that I’ve actually read, but if Juliet Marillier is any indication of the talent available in that country, I will be seeking out more. It’s hard to divide the charm of the story from the quality of the writing—both are top notch in this book. This is yet another example of young adult literature providing excellence that I can fully appreciate.

Staked / Kevin Hearne

4 out of 5 stars

When a druid has lived for two thousand years like Atticus, he's bound to run afoul of a few vampires. Make that legions of them. Even his former friend and legal counsel turned out to be a bloodsucking backstabber. Now the toothy troublemakers—led by power-mad pain-in-the-neck Theophilus—have become a huge problem requiring a solution. It's time to make a stand.

As always, Atticus wouldn't mind a little backup. But his allies have problems of their own. Ornery archdruid Owen Kennedy is having a wee bit of troll trouble: Turns out when you stiff a troll, it's not water under the bridge. Meanwhile, Granuaile is desperate to free herself of the Norse god Loki's mark and elude his powers of divination—a quest that will bring her face-to-face with several Slavic nightmares.

As Atticus globetrots to stop his nemesis Theophilus, the journey leads to Rome. What better place to end an immortal than the Eternal City? But poetic justice won't come without a price: In order to defeat Theophilus, Atticus may have to lose an old friend.

I read this to fill the Dead Lands square of my 2018 Halloween Bingo card.

There’s plenty of vampire action in this installment of the Iron Druid chronicles to qualify it for my Dead Lands entry for Bingo. Plus it was a great choice for a Friday evening after a long week’s work!

I think this is one of the best books in this series—for once, I was perfectly content with the ending, even though at least one of my favourite characters was lost along the way. Granuaile and Archdruid Owen both get their own chapters and concerns. Owen’s troll troubles were highly amusing and his new Druid school was encouraging. I’m not sure exactly how I feel about Granuaile’s campaign against her step-father, beyond finding it quite realistic that it would take up more time and energy that she had anticipated.

Atticus seems to have finally have got things settled down, at least until the opening of the next (and last) book. A good choice on the author’s part, I think, to finish up before the ideas get feeling to repetitive. There’s only so much fleeing & smiting that he can do before he’s fought & fled from everything and everybody.

I think it’s a toss-up between the first book and this one for my favourite Atticus tale.

The Brightest Fell / Seanan McGuire

4 out of 5 stars

Things are slow, and October "Toby" Daye couldn't be happier about that. The elf-shot cure has been approved, Arden Windermere is settling into her position as Queen in the Mists, and Toby doesn't have anything demanding her attention except for wedding planning and spending time with her family.

Maybe she should have realized that it was too good to last.

When Toby's mother, Amandine, appears on her doorstep with a demand for help, refusing her seems like the right thing to do...until Amandine starts taking hostages, and everything changes. Now Toby doesn't have a choice about whether or not she does as her mother asks. Not with Jazz and Tybalt's lives hanging in the balance. But who could possibly help her find a pureblood she's never met, one who's been missing for over a hundred years?


Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.

Here I am, eleven books into the October Daye series, still enjoying it immensely. This is one of the books which is tough on Toby—she learns that hard, hard lesson that we sometimes have to learn. Your family doesn’t always have your best interests at heart. Sometimes you have to lean on your friends, lean on them hard, and trust your own instincts and abilities.

People can surprise you—Simon Torquill certainly plays that role in this book. Simon was put to sleep for a century in the last book and Toby is forced to bargain to have him awoken before the elf-shot has worn off. He’s not her choice of confederate, but her mother Amandine has left her no choices. McGuire makes a pretty good case for not judging our competition until we have spent some time with them.

It seems that everyone gets hurt in some way in this installment—May & Jazz are ripped apart, Tybalt is imprisoned, Raj has to assume the responsibility of the Kingdom of Dreaming Cats, Sylvester must allow something that will enrage his wife, Simon must save his daughter, The Luidaeg must put up with a constant parade of intense fae folk through her formerly isolated home. Toby gets pulled back towards humanity and must find a hope chest to return herself to her new Fae normal.

These books which contain the difficult choices and make Toby work with people she would normally avoid often end up being the most powerful in the series and this book is no exception. At the end, there is no question that she still has far to go, but we pause to let everyone rest & regroup. I’m next in line at the library for book number 12, Night and Silence, but it will probably be a couple of weeks, giving me time to rest and consider too.

Cold Days / Jim Butcher

4 out of 5 stars

For years, Harry Dresden has been Chicago's only professional wizard, but a bargain made in desperation with the Queen of Air and Darkness has forced him into a new job: professional killer.

Mab, the mother of wicked faeries, has restored the mostly-dead wizard to health, and dispatches him upon his first mission - to bring death to an immortal. Even as he grapples with the impossible task, Dresden learns of a looming danger to Demonreach, the living island hidden upon Lake Michigan, a place whose true purpose and dark potential have the potential to destroy billions and to land Dresden in the deepest trouble he has ever known - even deeper than being dead. How messed up is that?

Beset by his new enemies and hounded by the old, Dresden has only twenty four hours to reconnect with his old allies, prevent a cataclysm and do the impossible - all while the power he bargained to get - but never meant to keep - lays siege to his very soul.

I read this book to fill the Supernatural square of my 2018 Halloween Bingo card.

The difficult we do right away—the impossible takes a little longer.

But only a little, because Harry Dresden’s impossible tasks always seem to come with a deadline. Truly, if he doesn’t come through, lots of people will be dead.

Harry is now Mab’s Winter Knight and he’s learning why the last guy to hold the role was the jerk that he was. But like all good urban fantasy heroes, Harry has a whole gang of good folks (with various abilities and powers) who will walk into hell with him and he’s also pretty good at forging alliances across the aisle with some on the opposing side (or do they just think they’re on the opposing side?)

How appropriate to be reading a book called Cold Days when the sky was trying it’s best to snow on us! Cuddling up in a fuzzy blanket and reading the further adventures of Harry Dresden just seemed like the best thing to do!

Valiant / Holly Black

4 out of 5 stars

When seventeen-year-old Valerie runs away to New York City, she's trying to escape a life that has utterly betrayed her. Sporting a new identity, she takes up with a gang of squatters who live in the city's labyrinthine subway system.

But there's something eerily beguiling about Val's new friends. And when one talks Val into tracking down the lair of a mysterious creature with whom they are all involved, Val finds herself torn between her newfound affection for an honorable monster and her fear of what her new friends are becoming.

Holly Black writes really good Faerie tales! Right now, for me, she can do no wrong. When I read the blurb for Valiant I wondered if perhaps I had found one that wouldn’t appeal to me quite so strongly—but I might have known that I would end up enjoying it anyway.

I enjoy Black’s conception of what the Faerie world would be like—I like the darkness, the slipperiness, the duplicity. Once again, we have a very young woman thrown into this world to sink or swim. Our heroine, Val by name, is the subject of the title, as her friends start calling her “Valiant.” This reminded me strongly of the Prince Valiant comic strip that we used to get in a weekly paper. The story was set in Arthurian Britain and the Prince of the title was learning how to be a proper knight and joining the Round Table. I think I clipped the weekly comics from the paper and made a scrapbook of the tale. I have no idea whether Black is at all familiar with the comic strip, but I found strong Arthurian influence in this novel, regardless. It was just a young woman, not a young man, who was earning the title “Valiant.”

If I had one disappointment (and it was only very slight), it was that things wrapped up a little too neatly and happily at the end. I prefer messy, uncertain endings, but that’s just my personal taste. Valiant was a very fast, fun reading experience. 

A sample of the Prince Valiant comic

Ghost Story / Jim Butcher

4 out of 5 stars

When we last left the mighty wizard detective Harry Dresden, he wasn't doing well. In fact, he had been murdered by an unknown assassin.

But being dead doesn't stop him when his friends are in danger. Except now he has no body, and no magic to help him. And there are also several dark spirits roaming the Chicago shadows who owe Harry some payback of their own.

To save his friends—and his own soul—Harry will have to pull off the ultimate trick without any magic...


“You’re dead, son,” Jack said. “Cheer is contraindicated.”

Mr. Butcher, you are a manipulative man. Your writing made me cry, unnecessarily I might add, over a fictional character that I will never meet. And I think you took a lesson from the old TV show Dallas on how to kill a character without really committing yourself to what seems like the logical outcome.

In some ways, this also reminded me of the movie It’s a Wonderful Life in that Harry Dresden gets to find out how many people he mattered to and how much. It turns out he was more important to the whole city, including people who didn’t know him personally, that he would every have imagined. His powerful presence scared off a lot of bad guys who might otherwise have made Chicago their place of business.

Harry gets to view his life, his city, and his friends from an entirely new angle in this volume of the Dresden files. Remember the sleazy ectomancer, Mort, from an earlier volume? An almost throw-away character who served his purpose and hasn’t been seen since? Mortimer has come up in the world and I’m thinking he may continue to feature in future volumes. He make a good addition to the cast.

I read this book much closer in time to the last one than usual because of the cliff-hanger nature of the 12th story. I had to know what happened. Butcher took so much away from Harry during the last book. Next book, we’ll see what Mr. Dresden decides to do with this new lease on life that his author has granted him.

Changes / Jim Butcher

4 out of 5 stars

Long ago, Susan Rodriguez was Harry Dresden's lover-until she was attacked by his enemies, leaving her torn between her own humanity and the bloodlust of the vampiric Red Court. Susan then disappeared to South America, where she could fight both her savage gift and those who cursed her with it.

Now Arianna Ortega, Duchess of the Red Court, has discovered a secret Susan has long kept, and she plans to use it-against Harry. To prevail this time, he may have no choice but to embrace the raging fury of his own untapped dark power. Because Harry's not fighting to save the world...

He's fighting to save his child.

Jim Butcher must sit up nights thinking up ways to make Harry Dresden’s life miserable! Just when you think that his life can’t get any more complicated, Butcher dreams up worse things for him to deal with.

Susan Rodriguez returns to mess with Harry’s reality—and inform him that he’s a father and his little girl is in tremendous danger from the Red Court vampires. Harry has spent the last 11 books gathering friends, allies, and frenemies. He has to call on all of them, all his talents, all his anger & power, and all of his cunning to get through this tangle.

So Butcher throws everything into the blender and gives it a good whirl. There is a lot of action, a lot of blood, a lot of characters. I was happy to see the return of Butters and Toot-Toot. Also, it was great to have Mouse get to show off his powers. Harry makes a questionable deal in order to cope with the situation and gets assistance from unexpected quarters. The book ends on a cliff-hanger, so if you object to that sort of thing, consider having the next book queued up and ready to roll. Because, let’s face it, if you’ve read this far, you’re not going to quit now, are you?