A really fun, different teen fantasy/paranormal romance story. It starts off going down one plotline, and then there is a HUGE plot twist, which obviously I can’t reveal. So I’ll just say that the main character is very sympathetic and there’s a lot here that’s fun and different, with not just one fantasy world but […]

Read more "“Kind of Like Life” by Christina McMullen"

What can I say about this book? It continues the ridiculously zany story begun in “Breakers of the Code.” Having won in the previous book, Anders and his companions are rewarded by being allowed into a new gamescape before any other players. Only, well, things don’t quite go as planned, and before they know it, […]

Read more "“Fighters of the Code” by CB Archer"

This book is…what can I say about this book? It’s set in a video game world, where all the characters are avatars. Our hero, Anders, starts off as separate from his avatar, but gradually merges with his game character as the story progresses and he becomes more and more sucked into the alternate reality, something […]

Read more "“Breakers of the Code” by CB Archer"

“Settling Up” was a very fun, sweet (as opposed to saucy) romance with a difference. Our heroine is a recently tenured statistics professor who has developed stress-induced alopecia (as an early-career academic, oh, how I empathize!). She also doesn’t have a man, or a family, and is starting to think that maybe she needs that. […]

Read more "“Settling Up” by Eryn Scott"

I was introduced to the Shannara books as a teenager, and I can honestly say it was a transformative experience, maybe even more so than “The Lord of the Rings,” which I had to become an adult to appreciate properly. I have about, oh, 9 of Brooks’s books sitting on my shelves, all looking very […]

Read more "“Wards of Faerie” by Terry Brooks"

A really fun, spirited romance novel with a twist!  After a night of unwise drinking, Mickey wakes up to find herself in a stranger’s bed–only things haven’t happened as she expected, and they don’t go as she (or we) expects either.  For a start, her new boyfriend is permanently confined to a wheelchair.  Mickey also […]

Read more "“Hart Broken” by Annie Arcane"

This sparkling novel combines elements of “chick lit” with more “serious” themes (although I would argue that the much-maligned genre of “chick lit” is chock full of serious themes), as our heroine, aspiring author Zoe, or Z Z, faces down relationship troubles, cancer, and being framed for murder. That’s a lot to fit into such […]

Read more "“From A to Zoe” by Marie-Jo Fortis"

“Chosen” is an intriguing twist on the “chosen one” storyline in fantasy and paranormal romance. Crystal is the chosen one–for the other side. She’s supposed to help demons get earth back from humans, who’ve stolen it. Only she’s not very good at being a chosen one, and when she gets sent to the human world […]

Read more "“Chosen: Humanity” by Soosie E. Nova"

4.5 stars, rounded up to 5. “Heroes or Thieves” is the second book in the “Steps of Power” series, and it starts off from the CRAZY cliffhanger that book 1 ended with. King Hairem has been murdered and those who know about it are on the run, only not very successfully. Will they succeed in […]

Read more "“Heroes or Thieves” by JJ Sherwood"

“If There Be Giants” is a fascinating addition to the speculative fiction genre. Set in the very near future–it actually begins in the present, and then carries on to about 2020–it follows an archeologist who has made a startling discovery on a dig in Britain. Buried next to a henge stone is giant humanoid skeleton […]

Read more "“If There Be Giants” by Ellison Blackburn"