“The Dark Ones” by Gaja Kos

A fantasy/paranormal romance featuring Slavic characters who are the good guys was an exciting find for me, and I was also drawn by the setting of Ljubljana. The author depicts the Slavic background and setting matter-of-factly, which is a welcome change from the “exoticification” of Slavdom in most Western literature, although readers who don’t speak […]

“The Goddess Denied” by Deborah L. Davitt

“The Goddess Denied” is a fabulous continuation of Davitt’s Valkyrie series. I was blown away by the first book, and this second book was equally amazing. Davitt weaves mythology, history, and science to create an alternate world where the gods are real, magic exists and obeys the laws of physics, and Rome never fell. The […]

“Melody Jackson and the House on Lafayette St” by BMB Johnson

This is a very fun story in a genre that I enjoyed a lot when I was about Melody’s age, but this particular book is geared at least as much towards adults as it is towards tweens. Melody is a somewhat nerdy and eccentric homeschooled preteen (and as a homeschooled person myself I was very […]

“Regeneration X” by Ellison Blackburn

“Regeneration X” is a unique sci-fi book. Set in the very near future–2024-2026, to be exact–it is the journal and experiences of Charley, a woman in her fifties (at the start of the novel) who feels trapped, bored, and ordinary in her comfortable middle-class existence. As an attempt to restart her life and start living […]

“The Three Deaths of Magdalene Lynton” by Katherine Hayton

Although my primary reading genres these days are fantasy and romance/erotica, detectives, especially police procedurals, have always held a special place in my heart, so when I received this book in exchange for voting for it rather casually in the Kindle Scout program, I got a pleasant surprise. Which just goes to show that you […]

The Three Deaths of Magdalene Lynton” by Katherine Hayton

“Irish Carraig” by Jo Zebedee

Wow! One of the most riveting books I’ve read in a while! In a near-future post-apocalyptic Northern Ireland (already a bit of a post-apocalyptic place in real life), teenage orphan John Dray agrees to run an errand for a local ganglord in exchange for food–only to discover after the fact that the errand was to […]

“Medusa” by Michael F. Butchin

4 1/2 stars, rounded up to 5. I was immediately intrigued when I came across this book. I have to admit I’m a sucker for those stories where we get to hear the side of the “bad guys,” and it certainly seems like classical Greek mythology is in desperate need of a retelling from the […]

“Собачьи стихи” by Radislav Lapushin

“Dog Poetry” (Собачьи стихи) is a deceptively simple collection of poems about the author’s dog. I say about the author’s dog, but really they are just as much meditations about life, perception, and happiness. They follow a somewhat chronological format, with the first poem (Prologue # 1) written from the author’s point of view, describing […]

“Dancing Backward” by Thomas Lavalle

The glut of books currently on the market about naive young ingenues being introduced to the pleasures of being stalked, controlled, tied up, and flogged is fascinating and, I argue, not without a strong feminist/pro-female element (stay tuned for more thoughts on that, or check out my reviews of Sophia Scarlet’s Absolution series), but some […]