TW: discussion of rape within the plot and within the book. Double-Souls is an odd little book that I liked very much despite some factors that bothered me. It’s a fantasy romance with paranormal and steampunk elements about a person who is “double souled.” One soul falls in love with a woman and one with a man. This means that the book has elements of a m/f romance, elements of an m/m romance, and elements … Continue reading Double-Souls by Devin Harnois →
Sometimes a book has all my catnip but it doesn’t gel into a cohesive, engaging story. Breath of Earth is one of those books. The language is descriptive, the setting intriguing, and the characters are diverse. Even the cover art is lovely. But I never got a feel for what was happening or why I should care. Here’s the publisher’s description of the plot, which I am including because my description of the plot is, … Continue reading Breath of Earth by Beth Cato →
Now that was fun! The Invisible Library is not a book with a large amount of heavy emotion or thought or character development, but it’s a solidly crafted adventure story with appealing characters, in which book lovers run amok in an alternate universe where they have to deal with skin-stealing villains, cranky zeppelin pilots, and swarms of silverfish (eww). The Library is a massive library that exists in its own time and space and which … Continue reading The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman →
London 1885 : A young woman stands apart watching her bleeding body on the ground and the thugs who cut her throat being beaten away by two lovely, properly dressed young women who appeared armed with sword and baton. Eliza had just docked in London hours ago from Boston, fleeing the ugly things she had done there to survive after her family had died, and with the fervent hope of finding her distant relatives in … Continue reading Soulbound by Kristen Callihan →
SW: This review is from Lara, who so loved The Diabolical Miss Hyde, she couldn’t wait to read the sequel. Because she discovered the series here (yay!) she asked to guest review The Devious Dr. Jekyll for us. Welcome, Lara! After reading Elyse’s review of the first book in Viola Carr’s Electric Empire series, I broke my no-impulse-buying rule and bought The Diabolical Miss Hyde. I loved it. LOVED IT! I soon began a countdown to the … Continue reading The Devious Dr. Jekyll by Viola Carr →
Steampunk fans, nerds, comic book fans, and history fans rejoice, for all these things come gloriously together in The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage. Author Sidney Padua combines a non-fiction comic, a fiction comic, and non-fiction prose for your delight and edification. Here’s the deal: The first section of the book tells the real-life story of Victorian Mad Scientists Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace (commonly referred to as history’s first computer designer and computer … Continue reading The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage by Sidney Padua →
Evernight is book 5 of the Darkest London historical paranormal romantic suspense series (Yes, all of those things), so let’s answer the obvious first question first. Can you read it without having read the previous books? Yes. The events from Shadowdance (swoon) that shape the relationship in this book have a brief, but no less horrifying recap at the start of the book. The world, while very well built, is fairly easy to follow. You … Continue reading Evernight by Kristen Callihan →
I liked this book, but I wanted to adore it. Victorian setting? Love it. Vampires? I’m in. Smart heroine rebelling against the gender restrictions of her time? SIGN ME UP. Evernight has all of these elements, in addition to a sexy hero, a so-crazy-but-it-works method of forcing the two leads together, and lots of cool steampunk gadgetry. However, it also suffers from an overabundance of plot and some unfortunate writing issues that I just could … Continue reading Evernight by Kristen Callihan →
I loooove the London Steampunk series by Bec McMaster. Okay, to be completely honest, until incredibly recently, I had only “read” the first two books, Kiss of Steel and Heart of Iron, as audiobooks. Now, due to some weird quirk of my nature, if I start a series in a particular format, I like to stick to that format for the rest of the series. So, since I had started in audiobooks, I was going … Continue reading Forged By Desire by Bec McMaster →
Garrett Reed and Perry Lowell were partners in the elite Nighthawks for years until the night an undercover assignment coupled with a challenge changed everything. Perry had spent years ruthlessly cutting her hair and every feminine thing from her life to create a new identity as a “blue blood” amongst the all-male companions of her league while silently yearning for her charming partner Garrett. After a joking challenge from him, Perry gives into temptation and … Continue reading Forged By Desire by Bec McMaster →
Sometimes you need to laugh so hard you pee a little. I’ve been evangelizing about the Johannes Cabal series by Jonathan L. Howard to all my friends for awhile now. Howard does for Gothic romance and steampunk what Pratchett did for epic fantasy. I’m just finishing up the fourth book, The Brothers Cabal, now and I’ve been pee-laughing while I read (I might need to do some kegels). Johannes Cabal is a necromancer of some … Continue reading Johannes Cabal the Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard →
