Young Adult / Fantasy

The Summer War Cella curses the brother she loves after he decides he can longer live the lie that has been forced on him. Regretting her curse she immediately tries to undo it and joins forces with the brother she doesn’t love to fix the mess she has created. But it will all be for nothing if the Summerlings exact their revenge on her father who defeated them in the Summer War.

The Guardians of Dreamdark Magpie is the greatest (only) devil hunter in the land. When some mannies (humans) accidentally release the Blackbringer thinking it a genie who will grant them wishes all hell breaks loose. The Blackbringer is more than just a devil it is the first and greatest devil and it took a god to imprison it the last time.

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Why together? Laini Taylor and Naomi Novik brilliantly blend fairy tales into dark stories for young adults. These two books are very different but they also share some similarities. And the key similarity is they are both brilliant (in their own way).

Romantic Suspense

Bree Taggert is called to a brutal murder and all the evidence points to a socially awkward man the victim met on a dating app. The suspect calls in Morgan Dane to protect his interests. With the sheriff and Morgan Dane both investigating things start to look hokey. Then another woman who dated the suspect is murdered. 

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Another instalment in Melinda Leigh’s popular Bree Taggert series. These characters and stories are familiar and loved. Honestly book 10 is as good as book 1, it’s just not breaking new ground. I enjoyed it because it is another Bree Taggert book even if I didn’t really learn anything new about the characters.

Young Adult / Mystery

“I wrote Sisters in the Wind because the Indian Child Welfare Act, or ICWA, is under attack and –– SPOILER ALERT ––the battle has nothing to do with the best interests of the children.” (from the Author’s Note)

As a child Lucy was told she was Italian and it was only after her father died that she learned she was in fact Native American. Thrown into the foster care system she encounters a few good people and a whole lot of awful people. She does her very best to survive, to be a good person and to protect those who are weaker than she is but the system is against her at every turn.

When a Native American introduces himself at the diner where she works she finds out she has a mother who desperately wants to meet her, but others are searching for her with more malevolent intentions.

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The last page of this book left a vacuum. A silence. An emptiness. Angeline Boulley returns to the same world as Firekeeper’s Daughter and Warrior Girl Unearthed and just like those books there is a brilliant, entertaining story that hides within it profound lessons. Everyone will love this book but if I’m honest it is people like me, white men who need to read it.

Not all books are easy.
Not all books are enjoyable. 
And there are books that are difficult and not great fun that are none-the-less important. 

Bad Indians Book Club falls into that category. I didn’t read it thinking I was in for a great work of fiction. I read it to learn. Not just to hear Native American ideas but perhaps in a small way to understand how the original Americans see the world. 

As a white Australian male there are things I cannot understand but I can listen. And this book helps me to understand a little better, not just the Native American experience but also the Australian Aboriginal experience and the experience of other marginalised communities.

While reading this book I kept returning to this song by Annie Humphrey featuring the words of John Trudell.

ZomPoc

A pandemic sweeps through the world. Some lose their memory and slowly whither away. Others become violent and attack others, spreading the infection. After her fiancé abandons her with a group of murdering bandits Casey manages to escape and flees the city to her childhood home and her prepper dad. 

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It’s actually fairly typical for the genre and if I’m honest I wasn’t really feeling it at first. But at some point (not sure when) I realised I was approaching it all wrong. Most books try to skirt around the edges of reality, keeping close enough that an average person with a little imagination could see it happening. The author puts people you would recognise in otherworldly situations. 

That’s not this book. She carries shuriken for goodness sake. 

This book is Batman. It’s Wonder Woman. It’s Tank Girl. And it’s a dozen other comics. And when I realised that I was suddenly enjoying it for what it is. An off the wall comic book bullet ballet.

Adventure / Thriller

A U.S. Marshall and a bank robber join forces to get back to family.

U.S. Marshall Cody Greer is sent to collect fugitive Caleb Frost after he is captured in a small town. On their return flight a CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) caused by a solar storm wipes out the electrical grid and causes their plane to crash.

Rather than taking his chance to escape, Caleb decides to help Cody get back to his wife and baby.

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Brilliant. This book is a gripping page turner. It sucks you in and holds onto you to the very last page. I think it might be the best book I’ve read this year.

Paranormal Romance / LGBTQI

Nettie has led a sheltered existence on a small Island in Maine. Her future is all planned out. She will marry the werewolf her father chose for her and live her life on the island. Feeling her chances to see the world slipping away she runs away but soon discovers life isn’t easy in the human world for a naive werewolf with no money.

When she stumbles into Wisteria Grove she quickly realises it’s a witches village and werewolves and witches do not get on. She somehow manages to land a job at the town’s café but she must keep the fact that she is a werewolf secret. And she’s not the only one keeping secrets. The owner of the café, Rowena is intriguing and enigmatic and has her own secrets.

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I really loved this book. There isn’t much to it but it’s cute and entertaining and rather well written. The ending did drag on a bit but I think lovers of Howl’s Moving Castle would probably enjoy this. But not for the kids. It is lesbian romance but I wouldn’t have a problem giving this book to a mature teenager.

Romantic Suspense (Christian)

When long haul truck driver Kit, wakes up in her crashed rig all she remembers is taking an emergency job delivering equipment. She doesn’t know how she crashed though the bullet holes in her windscreen suggest foul play and she doesn’t know why there is a baby in her truck.

Together with Cullen they need to not only figure out what’s going on, they need to avoid the bad guys and with a volcano set to erupt looming over them they need to run from that too.

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I have read a little Christian Fiction and if I’m honest I avoid it just because it often wanders off into the wilderness and preaches at me. This book isn’t like that. It is obviously Christian but it doesn’t preach and manages to be both well written and entertaining. Folks who enjoy romance but don’t like descriptive sex scenes will enjoy this book.

This book will be published July1, 2025

Historical Fiction

Thirty-five years after the end of the English Civil War, the Duke of Monmouth (illegitimate son of Charles II) has decided to take the throne for himself. The incompetent and short lived rebellion led to his execution on Tower Hill.
After the capture and execution of the Duke of Monmouth King James II felt particularly angry towards the people of Dorset and set up courts to try and execute the rebels who had sided with the Duke of Monmouth.

After King James ordered the arrest and execution of all the rebels who participated in the rebellion, the Elias Harrier, Duke of Granville sets about saving as many as he can. Through bribes, deception and slight of hand, and with the help of his mother Lady Jayne Harrier and the sharp legal mind of Althea Ettrick they set about saving as many of the young men and women of Dorset who turned of the king as they can.

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The Players follows on from The Swift & the Harrier in an entertaining work of historical fiction. The Swift & the Harrierwas set within the events of the English Civil War which makes for a much bigger story. The events in 1685 which underlie The Players were more a flash in the pan than crate of dynamite and in some ways this book feels smaller for it. 

Personally I would have enjoyed it more if the author moved away from the history a little and focused on the main characters more, particularly Elias and Althea. 

It’s a good book, entertaining, engaging, well written…but it’s hard to hold a book up to The Swift & the Harrier without feeling at least a little disappointed.

Young Adult Fantasy / Romantasy

At the age of 17 Aurelia should be entering magical society and finding a match, but 150 years earlier her Mathilde Wycherley was cursed and since then the curse has travelled down through the generations…and it has landed on Aurelia. She is a pariah, not a single witch will join with her and without a “tether” her magic will fade away.

Jules Nightly is a descendent of the witch who cursed Mathilde but desperate times call for desperate measures and in an effort to hold onto her magic without a tether Aurelia enters into a forbidden bargain with him.

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Fans of Morrigan Crow (The Tales of Morrigan Crow) or Leovander Loveage (Sorcery & Small Magics) will love this book. I hesitate to say this but it’s another book for the Harry Potter refugees. If you need a little magic in your life, this is your book.