About the Book

The definitive story of the seven Cleopatras, the powerful goddess-queens of ancient Egypt  

One of history’s most iconic figures, Cleopatra is rightly remembered as a clever and charismatic ruler. But few today realize that she was the last in a long line of Egyptian queens who bore that name.   
   
In The Cleopatras , historian Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones tells the dramatic story of these seven incomparable women, vividly recapturing the lost world of Hellenistic Egypt and tracing the kingdom’s final centuries before its fall to Rome. The Cleopatras were Greek-speaking descendants of Ptolemy, the general who conquered Egypt alongside Alexander the Great. They were closely related as mothers, daughters, sisters, half-sisters, and nieces. Each wielded absolute power, easily overshadowing their husbands or sons, and all proved to be shrewd and capable leaders. Styling themselves as goddess-queens, the Cleopatras ruled through the canny deployment of arcane rituals, opulent spectacles, and unparalleled wealth. They navigated political turmoil and court intrigues, led armies into battle and commanded fleets of ships, and ruthlessly dispatched their dynastic rivals.    
   
The Cleopatras is a fascinating and richly textured biography of seven extraordinary women, restoring these queens to their deserved place among history’s greatest rulers.    

384 pages (hardcover)

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I’ve debated a bit about how to approach reviewing this book, because I’m in two minds about it. On the one hand, I was captivated from page one. Completely absorbed, I flew through this book and I learned a lot from it. 

On the other hand, it might be a bit too introductory if you’re well-versed in this specific period of history. 

That being said, I have a few nonfiction reading niches and none of the include Ancient Egypt, so this book was entirely new information to me, and it opened up an area of history that I’m currently excited to learn more about. 

That’s the mark of a successful nonfiction book, in my estimation: does it make people want to learn more? 

Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones has an almost conversational way with his prose. I felt like I was sitting in a college class with my favorite professor. He has the ability to break down complex topics in a way that is easy to understand and relatable to the average reader.

I should clarify: I did not feel lectured to, but rather like I was sitting front-row for an epic story. 

I learned a lot from this book, not only about the Cleopatras but also about the world they lived in. Llewellyn-Jones puts the events that transpire and the women involved in them in context with the world they inhabit. This was particularly interesting in a few points, where some of the Cleopatras were portrayed historically as being particularly brutal or determined to attain power (arguably, they were), and the author took time to address how the very fact that she was a woman impacted how her actions were portrayed by those who recorded the history. 

To be clear, some of the Cleopatras truly were brutal and strived for power and glory, but the author worked hard to humanize even their most outrageous actions and put them in context in the time in which they lived, which was a magisterial feat, considering some of the events covered in this book. 

It’s difficult to keep the family lines in order, and I was grateful that there were family trees in each section of the book. That, along with the author’s careful writing, kept everyone clear in my head as I read. I learned as well that the Cleopatras were not numbered in their lifetime. The numbers came later, as a way to make it easier to keep them apart (there were seven in total, and I greatly appreciated having them numbered as I read).

Some of the Cleopatras get more attention than others, but some lived longer than others and some had their lives recorded a bit better as a result. The few who came before Cleopatra VII (the Cleopatra) had scarce information on them, but that was also when the dynasty was starting to crumble and there was just generally less information about them and their lives. I also was interested in the reasoning behind all the familial marriage, and he goes into a bit of the logic behind that (which was fascinating), but it’s not the focus of the story here aside from making the family lines difficult to track.

On a personal level, I found the later Cleopatras to be less interesting than the first three. The earlier women lived when the empire was building and growing and the Cleopatras retained the most power and impact on the political landscape around them (There were also some wild things that happened in their lives.). I found the later ones to be less compelling for a few reasons: there was less information about a few of them, and I’ve already read enough about Cleopatra VII to not really glean more new information about her here (which is going to harken back to my first point about the book: your interest level will wax or wane depending on how much you already know when you start reading). I think what I’m saying is that I realized that I know nearly nothing about this part of the world during the earlier time period, and I realized I wanted to learn more. 

Which, as I said earlier in this review, is the mark of a successful nonfiction book: it makes the reader want to learn more. 

None of this takes away from the fact that these women lived at the heart of an empire that was rising and falling during a fascinating period of human history. They (sometimes) grabbed power and (sometimes) retained it. They made distinct impacts on the world they inhabited. Some of them are still talked about reverently today. One of them might be one of the most famous female figures in history.

This is history in its most epic form, a true example of reality being stranger than fiction.

The Cleopatras was a fascinating book. While it very much is an overview about the lives of these seven historical figures, it is packed full of interesting information and written in a highly accessible way. If you’re already well-versed in this period of history, you might discover you already know a lot of what’s written here. However, if you’re like me and you know very little about any of this, give the book a try. 

I am glad I did. 

About the book

The Bennett family has a secret: They’re not just a family, they’re a pack. Wolfsong is Ox Matheson’s story.

Oxnard Matheson was twelve when his father taught him that Ox wasn’t worth anything and people would never understand him. Then his father left.

Ox was sixteen when the energetic Bennett family moved in next door, harboring a secret that would change him forever. The Bennetts are shapeshifters. They can transform into wolves at will. Drawn to their magic, loyalty, and enduring friendships, Ox feels a gulf between this extraordinary new world and the quiet life he’s known, but he finds an ally in Joe, the youngest Bennett boy.

Ox was twenty-three when murder came to town and tore a hole in his heart. Violence flared, tragedy split the pack, and Joe left town, leaving Ox behind. Three years later, the boy is back. Except now he’s a man – charming, handsome, but haunted – and Ox can no longer ignore the song that howls between them.

The beloved fantasy romance sensation by New York Times bestselling author TJ Klune, about love, loyalty, betrayal, and family.

511 pages
Published on June 20, 2016
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I’ve been wanting to try a TJ Klune book for a while, but I’ve been so extremely busy with my editing schedule since (Looks at last review posted and realizes it was in October of 2023) that I really haven’t had a lot of time to read and I certainly haven’t had time to write reviews. 

After working my unholy butt off to get ahead of myself a bit, I finally discovered that I had time to read again, and that I wanted to read something lighter. Something that is, perhaps, a bit cozier and that doesn’t take any huge amount of effort to get into. Wolfsong by TJ Klune was sitting on the shelf at my library, and I decided to pick it up. I’ve seen Klune’s name a lot, though mostly in reference to his other series (which I have on my kindle but I’m currently not allowing myself to read on my kindle because it makes editor brain too excited. Therefore, my “for fun” reading until editor brain calms down is good, old fashioned paper in my hand.). 

I went into this book not knowing what to expect or what it was even about—something that has become a habit for me as an editor. The less I know, the better my edit tends to be (insert reasons here). And I like to carry that into reading as well. If I go into it without any preconceived notions, then I’m more likely to have an honest opinion rather than have an opinion tainted by what other people say, what I think based on the back cover text, etc. 

So, I went into this one knowing that a popular author wrote it and that it’s about werewolves. I also knew that I wasn’t a terribly big fan of werewolves. 

However, as soon as I read that first chapter I knew I had something special in my hands. You see, Klune’s writing is so purposeful. He has a knack for saying so much with so little. Every word has its place and the reason for being there. Carefully considered, his sentences each carry the surface-level meaning and then add to the deeper layers that he works with as well. 

The first chapter is a masterclass on how to effectively set up a character, saying so much with so little. We’re dropped into the book in a heartbreaking scene, and it’s defining for our protagonist, Ox. With careful vignettes of conversation, we’re given the full weight and scope of this moment, and we’re given a careful setup for how it defines the rest of his years. Heartbreak opens the story, and through this, Klune sets the stage for the emotional impact(s) to come. I defy you to read this chapter and not feel, profoundly.

Let me be clear, this story is an emotional one, but it’s written with such empathy that the emotions never feel gratuitous or unfounded. His characters are deep and nuanced and full of layers and texture and as a result, the emotions they feel, the emotions that infuse these pages seem more real than real. You cannot help but feel them along with the characters. We are not given the “emotion words” as much as the sensations of the emotions the characters feel (It’s the difference between being told that someone else is feeling something, vs. being invited so deep into the character’s experience, we can feel their emotions along with them without the author ever needing to use those informative emotion words). And here is the doorway for connection that Klune opens. Here is how Klune invites his readers into his story. We aren’t just reading about interesting characters and interesting events. We’re experiencing moments along with them. Their emotions infuse the pages, and so they infuse us. We experience their heartbreak and healing right along with them.

Wolfsong is an interesting mix of quiet and loud. There are very real struggles of the kind that happen within a character’s life changes and forces their soul to change as a result, as well as the external kind that result in battles and blood and death. And both are written with equal care and attention to detail. This gives the book a layered, textured feel. There’s surface-level action and enough of it to keep readers engaged, but the true meat of the story, the weight that gives all that surface-level stuff engaging is deeper. It rests in those human moments where the character is wrestling against their own soul. When emotions and experience transcend words and the character just feels. 

This is where Klune shines. The balancing act between the two: the empathy with which he explores experience, both internal and external. The way he infuses his stories with it. The careful, careful way he works his prose for maximum impact. 

I was, quite honestly, blown away with the artistry. 

So much of this book happens in that soft, introspective place people dwell in when they are experiencing and internalizing change. Ox is a character who has a hard time finding the right words to say and the right time to say them. His dad thought that people would make fun of him due to that. But Klune takes this and turns it into one of Ox’s strengths, though there is pain in getting from one point to the other. And throughout this book, you find moments like this: where weakness becomes strength. When a character is forced to both find and lose themselves all at once, and in the process, they discover who they truly are. 

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the love and all the different kinds of it, from family and friends to romantic, because it is the sweetest thread that pulls both Ox and the reader through the book, serving as the guiding light that balances some of the darker themes. Hopeful and yet full of pain, how the love was handled quite honestly blew me away. It’s complex and layered, and so very, very real. More, it illuminates the book, like a lighthouse in the dark, and shines on the plot, keeping everything moving forward: even Ox. Even the reader.

Klune’s characters are painfully human, and their humanity lives and breathes on and off the page. He peels away the layers of his characters until he discovers their beating hearts, and through an honest and empathic exploration of self, and change, and the emotions that come with that (both bright and dark), he opens a doorway and lets his readers in. We experience along with Ox and in this way, he’s not just telling the story of Ox but he’s telling a most relatable story of homegoing and homecoming that we have all experienced.

Yes, we are reading about werewolves, but we are also reading about ourselves. 

And this is where Klune thrives: by plucking that thread of humanity and making it sing, with the kindness and empathy that infuses this work, the almost poetic attention to prose, the layers. Wolfsong is a complex book, and far more nuanced and textured than I expected.

The editor in me had a fantastic time analyzing Klune’s craft choices: from character development, to worldbuilding, to plot and pacing. The execution was masterful. I learned a lot by reading this book. 

The writer in me was captivated by the emotional depth, the characters’ voices, the purposeful prose. 

The reader in me was swept away by how connected I felt to these characters, how he managed to thread the needle of the surreal to tell such a humane story.

Absolutely. Brilliant.

Wolfsong swept me away. Written with empathy and attention toward detail, this is a book I learned a lot from on a craft level but managed to engage me as a reader as well. Deep, layered, and written with stunning empathy, this might be one of the most intensely humane books I’ve read in a while. 

About the Book

When Princess Anja fails to appear at her betrothal banquet, the tiny, peaceful kingdom of Sessalie is plunged into intrigue. Two warriors are charged with recovering the distraught king’s beloved daughter. Taskin, Commander of the Royal Guard, whose icy competence and impressive life-term as the Crown’s right-hand man command the kingdom’s deep-seated respect; and Mykkael, the rough-hewn newcomer who has won the post of Captain of the Garrison – a scarred veteran with a deadly record of field warfare, whose ‘interesting’ background and foreign breeding are held in contempt by court society.

As the princess’s trail vanishes outside the citadel’s gates, anxiety and tension escalate. Mykkael’s investigations lead him to a radical explanation for the mystery, but he finds himself under suspicion from the court factions. Will Commander Taskin’s famous fair-mindedness be enough to unravel the truth behind the garrison captain’s dramatic theory: that the resourceful, high-spirited princess was not taken by force, but fled the palace to escape a demonic evil?

704 pages (paperback)
Published January 1, 2002
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This book was provided by the author. It does not impact this review.

Janny Wurts is a hugely inspirational author for me. Not only is she a strong, female voice in the genre, but her books are so intricately crafted, every word perfectly placed for maximum impact, every element of character and plot precisely developed. Reading her books isn’t just entertaining, it’s also educational and something I recommend everyone experience. 

There is absolutely nothing like sitting at the feet of a master and studying their art. 

To Ride Hell’s Chasm was a book I was very excited to read, and I was even more excited to receive a signed copy of it, which I have put next to my Tad Williams signed books. 

This is a standalone, which is something I’ve discovered I tend to enjoy in fantasy, and something we don’t see a whole lot of in this genre. Fantasy is full of series, duologies and trilogies, and Wurts herself has penned a massive epic fantasy series (It is absolutely amazing, by the way. One of the best series out there, full stop, and if you have not read it yet WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?). So this standalone felt like a true switch of gears for this author. I was excited to see what a writer of this caliber could do with less space to work with.  

Wurts is a writer who puts herself on the page. Her books are layered and passionate, with deep explorations of characters and cultures, of the way people work both together and against each other. Here, in To Ride Hell’s Chasm, she pushed herself to a whole new level. Her passion and care for the story she’s telling positively shines. A book has a certain magic when you can tell the author loved the story they were telling, and I felt that here, in every word and on every page. Wurts is such a passionate, visionary, artistic person and that’s felt, profoundly, in this book. 

And perhaps that is one reason why this book felt a bit personal. I could feel Wurts throughout the story, her hand carefully moving characters, pushing events, exploring ever deeper layers and themes, delicately touching the nuances of human nature. With raw honesty she crafts her characters and with a precise, goal-focused eye she writes her story. Like the finest dark chocolate, this is a book I advise you savor. Trust Wurts to take you where you need to go. She is a master of her craft and you are in good hands. 

The plot of To Ride Hell’s Chasm is deceptively simple (pay attention to the word “deceptively”).

Princess Anja of Sessalie has disappeared on the night of her betrothal feast. The king assigns his guard commander, Taskin, to find her. Then also adds the new gate captain, a foreigner named Mykkael to find her as well. The story looks simple enough on the surface, but Wurts quickly subverts any idea that this will be simple or straightforward. The mystery went in a direction I didn’t expect almost instantly. There were numerous times when I could not fathom how characters would get out of certain situations and plenty of plot twists that had me reeling.

Yes, this book is fantasy but it is also shockingly human, driven by characters who live and love, who laugh and are betrayed, making this book feel both fantastic and relatable all at once.

To Ride Hell’s Chasm is an incredibly dense book. It’s not one you can sit back and let happen, but will require some focus and you’ll likely need to be in the right mood (Or maybe that’s just me? I’m a mood reader.). However, in my estimation, the effort it took to fully grasp all the layers and depth, the nuances and detail of this story made the experience (and that fantastic ending) even richer. In truth, Wurts’s best traits as an author are her dense prose and plots. She does nothing in half measures. I love that she’s not afraid to reach for the heart of every part of her story, and then carefully examine what makes it beat. 

There is a painting technique called Pointillism. (Read more about it here.)

If Janny Wurts’s books were paintings, I’d think of them as a perhaps more fluid pointillism. The stories are meant to be viewed both from a distance and up close. There is both forest and trees and all of it is important. 

I say this because it’s an important factor in this story. To Ride Hell’s Chasm was a book that required me to carefully examine all of its parts to fully grasp the whole. The story covers only five days, but it’s spread out across over 600 pages. The first day takes almost 200 pages, because every element, every emotional nuance is explored. Now, this might seem overwhelming, but it never felt so. This level of detail made the story so much more rich and vivid, so much more intricate.

Do not mistake this to mean the book is slow, because it’s anything but. There is so much relentless forward motion throughout, it was hard to find a place to pause my reading. And the action is both frequent and gripping, written with just as much detail as everything else, making me feel as though I was immersed in it. I will say, however, that the density of this book is something to consider before diving in. It’s a unique style which I love, but it’s not going to appeal to everyone (but nothing ever does).

I am frankly surprised by how much Wurts managed to pour into this one volume, and it’s all because of that depth, those layers, the incredible prose. All elements of her execution work together to create a nuanced tale, from mystery to action to raw moments of humanity, I was constantly engaged. There was something happening at every moment. The plot was tight and paced with precision. The book felt like a well-oiled machine: storytelling at its finest. No word wasted.

The world is stunningly well built. Every element has been crafted with care and an eye toward how it impacts the whole. Every detail is described with rich words and richer colors and contrasts. It feels lived in, with all social strata and cultural pressure points you’d expect in something that well-realized. Readers who love details will find a haven here: Wurts spares none and her world is so textured because of it. Everything from boiling laundry to dressing wounds and strategy and horses are intricately covered, and all written with such precision it makes me wonder how much research she did while drafting this book. It’s these details that I love though, because it makes the world blaze with such glorious realism.

And these strengths in her worldbuilding bleed into the characters, each of them exploring and experiencing the world in different ways, each of them just as vivid, messy, textured, and nuanced as the world they inhabit. Here, you will find the book grounded by the happiness, joy, grief, sorrow, worry, loss, and mystery. Moments that pull us into the story, make it relatable, help us see a bit of ourselves in what we’re reading.

I realize I am saying a lot here without saying much. I tend to try to avoid specifics in a book review, but I am trying doubly hard in this one, because I think half the joy of reading a Janny Wurts book is the experience of diving in and realizing you’re getting so much more than you expected.

What you need to know is that this was an incredible book, written by a master of her craft.

Standalone fantasy at its finest.

5/5 stars

About the Book

Isyr. Stronger, brighter, more beautiful than other metals. Once the most desirable thing in Ellasia, now it is priceless, the pure Isyrium needed to produce it mined to exhaustion. What’s left is controlled by the powerful mining syndicates, and such is the demand for their Isyrium that even kings do their bidding. Yet just as the beauty of Isyr hides a deadly secret, so too do the syndicates. 

A terrifying enemy is spreading a plague across the land, a sickness that kills or transforms everything it touches. Unable to contain the outbreaks, the King of Lankara begs the aid of the disgraced former Duke of Agrathon, Alyas-Raine Sera, a man who has spent years fighting syndicate expansion and whose resentment over his exile makes him an unpredictable, dangerous ally in the power struggle between the rulers of Ellasia and the mining companies.

Attached to the envoy to recall the duke, the apprentice surgeon Brivar finds his skills and loyalty tested as his service to his new patron uncovers secrets about Isyr and the plague that link it to the mining of Isyrium – and threaten the life of the man it is his duty to safeguard.

In their own separate ways, Alyas and Brivar must take on the might of the syndicates and confront the greed, murder, betrayal and impossible choices of a crisis that has been decades in the making – and the price of their failure could be everyone and everything.

352 pages (paperback)
Published on February 1, 2023
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Note: I edited this book. 

I generally don’t take on books (to edit) that I don’t completely believe in. Sometimes, even with that in mind, a book will come along that will press all the right buttons and somehow manage to thrill both Reader Sarah and Editor Sarah at the same time. Those books are the truly special ones. The ones that I know I’ll be thinking about for a long, long time. 

When Debell contacted me about editing, I did a sample edit of this book and I think I wrote her back something like, “I love this so much I’d just about pay you for the opportunity to work on it.” I just knew from that sample that this was something truly special, a book that would echo through the corridors of my soul for a while. Something I fundamentally needed to read.

The Many Shades of Midnight is unlike any other fantasy I’ve really ever read, which is one reason why it worked so well. Set in a well-realized, stunningly developed secondary world, Debell decided to keep everything intimate, so here you get this really interesting marriage of an tight plot meshed with the sense of sprawling worldbuilding that fantasy is so known for. Rather than bogging down her book with the vastness of her creation, she makes the things that matter sit center stage, unavoidable, and leaves other things hinted at, or just present enough to give readers a sense of more without overwhelming them with it. 

The decision to do this was wise, because it allows readers to focus on the story more than anything else, and since there’s some intense character work in this book, that focus will pay off as events unfold. 

The characters are amazing. I will flat-out say that I don’t think I’ve read a book with such carefully considered characters, character development, and character relationships before. The friendships between the main characters are so deep, so real, I feel like they should stand as an example to other authors who are looking to create realistic platonic character friendships. The emotional notes each of the characters hit is fantastic, their voices are unique throughout, as are how they approach and deal with things. 

Quite frankly, these are some of the best characters I’ve ever read, full-stop. There’s so much about them to love. Not only does Debell manage to emotionally invest me in every aspect of her characters, but she also manages to balance that with a plot that is just as gripping. It’s really quite something to watch her operate on these two different levels (internal and external) and weave them both together so effortlessly. This makes the plot an extension of the characters and watching how one impacts the other is… it’s nothing short of pure mastery. 

Honestly, this book has some of the best character work I have ever read. 

Now, the plot is… stunning, really. One of my favorite things is to read a fantasy book that has themes that resonate profoundly with our real-world struggles and it’s been a while since I’ve seen that done quite so well, or so pointedly, as in this book. Here Debell marries fantasy and environmental issues, climate change and the like, and she does it so very well. 

Isyr is a strong metal that Ellasia has built its economy on, but it’s drying up at the mines and a new, strange plague is spreading across the land. An investigation is launched to discover what is causing this strange illness, pitting our protagonists against the government, powerful mining syndicates, and the populous itself. (I really don’t want to go too much into plot details because reading, and figuring it out as you go, is part of the joy.)

Alyas and Brivar come at this from two different perspectives. Alyas has a dark, haunted past and plenty of history that pits him against the forces that be. An exile, and a man who has spent plenty of years fighting mining expansion, he has a certain no nonsense, businesslike manner that seems to always cut to the core of situations. 

And there is Brivar, a surgeon’s apprentice who has been tasked with investigating the cause of this plague. Once Alyas and Brivar join forces, nothing will be the same: neither them nor the world they inhabit. Since each of them come at this problem in very different ways, it helps readers get a more nuanced perspective of what’s going on. More, however, it’s incredible to watch their friendship develop. Brivar is a character who instantly stole my heart, showing that gentle does not always mean weak, and Alyas’s emotional depth was truly something to behold. 

Brivar, quite honestly, is everything. I’ve never seen such a gentle character in fantasy with such a core of strength he draws from to stay that soft. And his hope balances out Alyas’s brooding perfectly, but it also bonds them in some unexpected ways as well.

As the plot unwinds, Debell keeps things going at a quick pace, somehow knowing when readers will need a moment to collect their thoughts, and when they’ll need action and forward momentum. It was impossible to put this book down, through all its wild twists and turns, through themes that resonate so profoundly with our modern day, through friendships the likes of which fantasy needs more of. Through the quiet moments of (sometimes painful) introspection. This book aches, but it’s a glorious kind of ache. It’s like looking at a master painter at his craft. It’s something you just… let happen to you and once it does, you’ll be so glad it did.

This isn’t a light book by any stretch of the imagination. Dark things happen here, and yet Debell writes with such grace, such empathy. Her prose is fluid, verging on poetic. Her characters are so real they live and breathe off the page, and the environmental themes are something that resonates profoundly with us in this day and age. More, all of this charges straight for an ending that is… to put it frankly, as unexpected as it is gripping. 

As you can tell, I loved every part of this book. It’s one of my favorite recent discoveries. It has some of the best character work I’ve ever seen, and themes that profoundly resonate with our own day and age (Also, after I edited this book, I told the author to go watch Glass Onion on Netflix. If you read this book, watch that movie after and I’ll let you guess why I suggested that.)

The Many Shades of Midnight is precisely executed with every aspect of it carefully considered. It’s unlike any fantasy I’ve read yet, and perhaps that’s part of the draw. It’s hard to write a book that stands out so well for its unique qualities in a world where so many books are being released all the time, but Debell managed it. From the flawless writing to the stunning character work and the gripping plot, every part of this book shines. 

It’s the kind of story that breathes both on and off the page.

5/5 stars

First, let me give you a bit of history regarding me and adult coloring.

I really didn’t start doing this hobby until 2020. Before then, my hobby was reading. But in 2020, due to the pandemic (I’m extremely high risk due to a ten year cancer battle. My immune system is basically just a vague idea at this point.) I had to quit my day job. Luckily for me, my day job was extremely part-time and I was already mostly full-time with editing. It was really easy for me to just quit and slide right into my editing, full-time.

But editing for 8 hours a day, minimum (I’ve pulled 16 hour days. I’m not proud of that. I do it far too often.) really changes my relationship with reading. By the end of my workday, I’m “worded” out and I’ve never been a big TV watcher. Everyone needs something to help them decompress after a long day.

I can’t really remember what brought adult coloring to my mind as something I wanted to try after a day of editing, but something did. I bought my first two books, tried them out, realized I was terrible at it but I actually really enjoyed the process of coloring. It was exactly what I needed after long workday.

However, I have zero training. I have never taken an art class in my life. I saw all these coloring pages people did that looked amazing but I had no idea how they were doing it. I ended up watching a lot of Youtube videos and just trying, trying, trying. I try to push myself in different ways with each piece, explore what I’m really capable of, test my limits and then figure out how to push them even further.

So, in this post I’ll show you some of my favorite artists. If people care enough, I’ll make another post later about things like the pencils, sharpeners, YouTubers I follow, Instagram accounts that are good to keep track of, as well as some artists I haven’t tried yet but I’m eyeballing with interest. Maybe I’ll make this a series.

For today, though, I’ll just show you my favorite artists. The ones I gravitate toward when I sit down to do the thing.

Please keep in mind, I’m not a classically trained artist. I’m an editor who needed to do this to unwind after a day of working. I generally have no idea what the hell I’m doing. Don’t judge me too harshly. That being said, I’ve been doing this just about daily (about 30 minutes, minimum, each day), and time and continued practice absolutely changes things. As an example:

Now, I’m just grabbing all these pictures I’m going to use from my instagram account, as screenshots. To be honest, I hurt and I’m feeling particularly lazy, so doing it this way is just easier right now. If you want to see the actual images without any of the “this is obviously a screenshot” markings, you can check out my Instagram account, where I post all this stuff along with WIPs and whatever other weird genre/readerly things I see fit. You can find my instagram here.

Two years of continual effort has, I think, made a difference in the quality of my art and I look forward to seeing what I can figure out in two more years. So even if you are starting out and get frustrated because things don’t end up the way you want them to, please know, it’s less about the finished product and more about what you feel as you get there. This is something where the value, at least to me, is how it helps me unwind, de-stress, and generally decompress after a hard day at work and far less emphasis is put on how it looks when the piece is done. As long as you sit down and feel that part of you sigh with relief when you do this, then who cares what it looks like? The moment your soul goes, “Yeah, okay, I did life and now I can relax” you know you’re doing it right, regardless of what it looks like.

So keep on keeping on.

Anyway, in no specific order, here are some of my favorite artists and books and whatever finished pictures I have to go with them.

If you click on the artist’s name, it’ll take you to Amazon where you can view their books.

Coloring Books & Artists

Johanna Basford

Johanna Basford is one of the most well-known coloring book artists. She’s got a certain whimsy and flare to her art that just works for me. I own most of her books, and I flip between them quite often. I really enjoy the amount of detail she generally has in her line art.

If you go to her website, you can sign up on her mailing list and she sends you a mini-book for free. You can take a look at those images, print them up, see if you like them. I absolutely adore her stuff.

Kerby Rosanes

Kerby Rosanes is one of my favorite artists. He’s also one of the most detailed. One of his double-spreads can take me… weeks. (I am also an extremely slow colorist and I spend a ton of time fiddling with details, so that’s my own fault.)

He is an auto-buy artist for me and I absolutely devour all his stuff. The themes tend to be mythological, or fantasy bent and yes, all the details. There’s an extremely vibrant Kerby Rosanes coloring community, especially on Instagram where you can see some absolutely mind-blowing art if you just search the titles of his books as a hashtag (#mythomorphia, for example, is one of the most active).

Absolutely recommend if you enjoy fantasy/scifi-themed coloring.

Tomislav Tomić

This is a fairly new-to-me artist. His books don’t print in the United States. In fact, he’s Croatian, and I believe the only place currently publishing his books is out of the Netherlands. They do cost more to get due to that, but he’s my favorite artist right now. I mean, hands down, no holds barred, zero things standing in the way of me saying that. His art just does it for me on every possible level.

Like Kerby Rosanes, his pages are extremely detailed and they always take me at least two times longer than I think they will, but they are so easy to get lost in. The subject matter is all fantasy, dragons, castles, knights on horses, magic, the whole thing. I have both Dromenvanger and Sprookjesbos and I will absolutely be ordering a second set of them probably sometime this year just to have on hand so I can do some of these images over again.

Millie Marotta

Millie Marotta is a prolific coloring book artist who I actually was introduced to years ago through a friend of mine who worked at the publisher who puts out her books. She sent me some in the mail, and honestly at the time they kind of stumped me. She uses a lot of lines, and almost no background, so the images act more like portraits of these animals. I don’t think I really had the skill/knowhow/understanding of what to do with them at the time.

As I’ve grown into this, her art has become more appealing. I still have to really be in the mood for her books (backgrounds challenge me and for some reason coloring eyes really freaks me out) but when I do sit down and really do her work I get absolutely lost in the images. I do typically need reference photos to work on hers, but I’m at the point now where I’m starting to look at her art and see a lot of possibilities in it that I didn’t before, and I love that. I also sometimes really enjoy taking a break from fantasy, and her realistic, natural world art is extremely captivating and easy to get lost in.

Even if I do think there’s a little learning curve involved in her work, it’s extremely worth it. She’s one of my favorite artists.

Ken Matsuda

Ken Matsuda is a fine artist in Japan. I ran across his art online and was absolutely captivated by it, so on a complete lark I searched, “Ken Matsuda coloring book” and discovered he actually had one. Now, I had to send away to Japan to get it, but it’s an absolutely gorgeous book, with some caveats.

First, the line art can be really small and sometimes hard to kind of figure out what is what. Secondly, it’s expensive because it’s from Japan. I do have to be in a certain mood to want to do this kind of art, but it also stretches me creatively and I do really love it.

At the start of the book are each of the coloring pictures with finished examples of Ken Matsuda’s work on the same painting, and there are little QR codes which takes you to their counterpart on Instagram. This is a really, really cool features I wish more coloring books have, because it makes it so much easier to just find the image to use as inspiration.

Eriy

I am really late hopping on this particular artist’s train. Eriy is a Japanese artist who creates her line art by dipping a pin in ink and then drawing that way. It’s really fascinating, and you can see the uniqueness in the lines. Some are thick and some are thin. It’s a really cool human touch I love.

What I love about Eriy, though, is the storybook feel to the art. Each book tells the story of a different area, so you get castles and witches cottages and people and bakeries and the whole thing. Eriy is one of those artists I pull out when I really, really need something that is just… comforting. The storybook quality to the art is a bonus.

This is another artist with an incredible community on Instagram, and so many colorists have found her and love her. I’ve learned a lot by following this artist’s hashtags over there. I have Romantic Country 1 & 2, and I think she’s releasing another book sometime this year and plan to scoop that up as well.

Kanoko Egusa

Kanoko Egusa is a coloring book artist who specializes in quaint, storybook-like animals and scenes. Her books are published in the US as well as abroad so, like Eriy’s books, they’ll be easier to find. Her art is so fun though, and always painfully cute.

I put off buying these books for a while because coloring fur is intimidating, but I also just love the images so much I decided I to take the plunge. I have both Rhapsody in the Forest and Minuet de Bonheur. I will say I like Minuet de Bonheur a lot more than Rhapsody on the Forest, but both books really are great, especially if you want to work on some art that involves cute animals with a storybook vibe.

Yes, the images are detailed, but again it’s really easy to forget that when I’m lost in a piece.

Melpomeni Chatzipangiotou

I don’t honestly do this artist’s books too terribly often and I’m not really sure why because I do love her art a lot. I kind of take issue with how thick the lines are sometimes, I think, but otherwise I love her themes. Circle of Life is a fantastic book with images that are nicely sized so they don’t take forever. There’s just enough detail and enough places you can go with each picture to keep it interesting.

She’s an artist who seems to theme her books around the natural world, the seasons, the rhythm of the planet, the beauty of nature. Working on her books always makes me want to garden.

Hanna Karlzon

Hanna Karlzon is an artist whose work I love but I’m always too chicken to finish any of them. I have no idea what intimidates me so much about her line art, but it’s something. I absolutely love it though. I have a few of her books, and they are all amazing. Really good stuff if you like coloring people, or quaint fantasy scenes. She also has quite a storybook feel to her line art. Each book is so well done.

Last year I bought a few of her books because she’s been fighting cancer and you know, solidarity and all that. She’s an absolutely amazing artist, though, with a vibrant following. Some truly stunning colorists have worked on her books and post their work on Instagram. It’s well worth doing a search for her over there to see some of the possibilities with her art.

Rita Berman

Another new-to-me artist. Rita Berman is from Germany. Her books are smaller than the usual coloring book size. I thought that would put me off at first but now it’s one of the things that draws me to her. Her art reminds me a bit of Johanna Basford, maybe with a bit more whimsy. She has a ton out and seems to always have more in the works. I’d say her online community of followers and fans rivals that of Johanna Basford, easily. I own two of her books now, and I love both of them and am looking forward to buying more.

She does a lot of nature, cityscapes, flowers, plants and the like. Smaller books are easier to get through, and sometimes you just need something to work on that won’t be as big an investment as something like a Kerby Rosanes piece would require. I find it’s kind of fun to switch gears and work on her books. They allow me to really focus on things that sometimes I get too tired to focus too much on with the larger pieces I do. Plus, the whimsy to her art keeps it fun.

Jeff Haynie

I absolutely love this guy’s art, which is weird because it’s mostly cat-focused and I’m not a cat person. I just have so freaking much fun with each of his pieces. They are so whimsical and just an absolute delight to work on.

I’ve done two or three pieces from him. I own Whimsical Cats, which you can buy as PDFs to print up from his Etsy store. He always churns out new art, and I always look for his new pieces because they are just that much fun. So, cat person or not, his art is a different take on portraits.

Denyse Klette

This is my newest discovery. I found Gnomes in the Neighborhood online and was absolutely enchanted by the art. Klette’s art hits that “fun/interesting” zone that Jeff Haynie’s art hits. I don’t have to think too hard when I color these pictures. They are all seriously fun. I mean, just fun and that makes the art just flow. There’s not a ton of detail but just enough, and it’s really hard to take yourself too seriously with a lot of this, so it kind of relieves some of the pressure I feel to improve on my skill. This is a book I can sit back and enjoy.

I have a feeling it’ll probably turn into one of my favorites, just because I feel so good when I work on it.

And that’s about all I’ve got for now. If you color, what are your favorite books? Who are your favorite artists? Leave a comment and let me know.

About the Book

The Goblin Emperor meets “Magnificent Century” in Alexandra Rowland’s A Taste of Gold and Iron, where a queer central romance unfolds in a fantasy world reminiscent of the Ottoman Empire.

Kadou, the shy prince of Arasht, finds himself at odds with one of the most powerful ambassadors at court—the body-father of the queen’s new child—in an altercation which results in his humiliation.

To prove his loyalty to the queen, his sister, Kadou takes responsibility for the investigation of a break-in at one of their guilds, with the help of his newly appointed bodyguard, the coldly handsome Evemer, who seems to tolerate him at best. In Arasht, where princes can touch-taste precious metals with their fingers and myth runs side by side with history, counterfeiting is heresy, and the conspiracy they discover could cripple the kingdom’s financial standing and bring about its ruin.

512 page (hardcover)
Published on August 30, 2022
Published by Tor
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This was a library loan. Support your local library.

I kind of picked up this book on a lark at the library a few weeks ago and absolutely devoured it. 

Set in a beautifully wrought fantasy world, A Taste of Gold and Iron tells the story of Prince Kadou, who is disgraced after an incident. Assigned a new bodyguard who does not approve of Kadou’s conduct, the book starts out with a lot of emotional turmoil, which is where I really have fun. Give me all the emotional turmoil. 

Kadou stood out to me instantly. As someone who has a panic disorder, his moments of anxiety and panic attacks were some of the most real, visceral, relatable moments I came across in the book. More, Rowland put such obvious care and empathy into writing that part of Kadou. In fact, as soon as I realized that was part of his character, I got really into the book. I don’t think I’ve seen anxiety/panic portrayed so realistically in fantasy, and I didn’t realize how much I wanted to see that part of me portrayed until I read it. 

More, Rowland has a knack for easy acceptance and normalization of the representation you’ll find in these pages. This has a one/two punch effect that profoundly works for me as a reader. What I mean is, first, we need to see more of ourselves in the books we read. Reading about a character who has panic attacks, and then having those panic attacks as portrayed as just part of who he is, is really validating to see. And that is across the book, from the LGBTQIA+ characters, to the panic attacks, to… everything. Normalization, and the quiet acceptance due to said normalization is powerful.

We need more of that in the books we read.

The worldbuilding was absolutely sublime. In fact, I’d suggest reading this book if you want a crash course on how to introduce a nuanced secondary world without infodumps. Rowland presents readers with a stunningly realized world with no detail overlooked. So much so, I had to sit back and admire it more than a few times. In my editing, I run across the issue of authors really struggling with how to introduce complex, strange ideas to their readers without overwhelming them with information or making them feel like they are in a classroom taking a history class or something. Rowland never stepped over that line in this book. The information and world is crafted and presented so well, so easily, it sort of slid naturally into the dialogue or into the setting. There was never any point when I had to stop and make sure I understood something correctly. The world absolutely flowed, and due to that, felt so much more real than many other secondary worlds. Honestly, it was probably one of most well-crafted aspects of A Taste of Gold and Iron.

Kadou’s sister is the Sultan of Arasht, a nation that thrives on commerce and trade. She assigns Kadou to hunt down a counterfeit smuggling ring which has the potential to rock the foundations of not only their nation, but the royal family as well. His new bodyguard, Evemer makes it hard. Hindered by his prejudice of Kadou, for a while their relationship is extremely prickly until slowly, Rowland chips away at the wall between them. Evemer starts seeing that Kadou is more than what he appears, and Kadou starts trusting Evemer with more of his secrets and himself.

Their relationship unfolds at a pretty steady pace, though I would consider it a slow burn, once they start clicking, it’s clear that the different way they think and operate complement each other, and by the end of the book, they are each other’s strengths. I loved their evolution and how natural Rowland made it seem. Perhaps my one pitfall here would be that some of the scenes are extremely cliché. I also felt the Rowland’s joy in these moments, and I knew they must have been a blast to write, so I didn’t fault them too much. 

The relationship dynamics here are often laced over palace and family intrigue, politics, and mystery. This is, perhaps, where I felt the book was the most unbalanced, because while all of that was interesting, it never quite managed to captivate me the way Kadou did. Perhaps that’s because I was so invested in Kadou and the portrayal of his anxiety that the rest of the book lacked a little luster in comparison. That is all me, however, and no fault of the author. Though I do think it’s worth mentioning. In some ways it felt like more attention was put on character dynamics than mystery. However, this is a character-driven book so honestly I think this is me wanting more Kadou than anything else. Take it as a complement, I suppose, because she wrote a character I loved so much that every time I wasn’t solely focused on him, I wanted to be. 

The magic is subtle but just as well done as every other part of the book and fits into the world as effortlessly as everything else. From people who can “taste” metal with their fingers (and thus judge its purity), to others who can tell if someone is lying by looking into their eyes, the magic is just as nuanced as the world and is so smoothly woven in, it felt as real and natural as the world around me.

Perhaps that is where Rowland shines as an author. This book is about a lot of things, but what really impressed me are the relationships, and the different kinds of them. Not only between characters, but between elements of the world, the magic, and even the relationship forged between the book and its reader. Rowland has a knack for knowing just how to pull threads and when. The tension and setting are used to their maximum potential, making every scene sing and each character moment have an impact. Plus, the lyrical prose worked for me on a fundamental level. 

It’s not a perfect story, it did feel a little unbalanced to me (though honestly, that just might be me, as I said above). Regardless, I absolutely blasted through this book. I could not put it down. Highly recommend for readers who enjoy fantasy romance, character-driven plots, and detailed worldbuilding. 

4/5 stars

About the Book

In a land where three suns almost never set, a fledgling killer joins a school of assassins, seeking vengeance against the powers who destroyed her family.

Daughter of an executed traitor, Mia Corvere is barely able to escape her father’s failed rebellion with her life. Alone and friendless, she hides in a city built from the bones of a dead god, hunted by the Senate and her father’s former comrades. But her gift for speaking with the shadows leads her to the door of a retired killer, and a future she never imagined.

Now, Mia is apprenticed to the deadliest flock of assassins in the entire Republic—the Red Church. If she bests her fellow students in contests of steel, poison and the subtle arts, she’ll be inducted among the Blades of the Lady of Blessed Murder, and one step closer to the vengeance she desires. But a killer is loose within the Church’s halls, the bloody secrets of Mia’s past return to haunt her, and a plot to bring down the entire congregation is unfolding in the shadows she so loves.

Will she even survive to initiation, let alone have her revenge?

429 pages (hardcover)
Published on August 9, 2016
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This was a library loan. Support your local library. 

Reader, it’s taken a long time for me to get to the point where I could write this review. My website has basically been unusable since at least October. I’ve been too busy to really deal with it. Last night, my husband and one of his tech friends sat down for quite a few hours and went through my website’s code line by line to figure out what was wrong. Anyway, long story short, they ended up figuring it out and rebuilding a bunch of back-end stuff and here I am, with a website I can USE AGAIN. 

So it feels right to launch off Reviewing v. 2.0 with a book I loved so much it hurts. 

Nevernight by Jay Kristoff 

Nevernight tells the story one Mia Corvere, daughter of a failed revolutionary who was put to death along with his followers, leaving Mia almost alone in the world. The operative word in that last sentence is “almost”. She isn’t quite alone. After Mia escapes the imprisonment her mother and brother face, she loses herself in the city and takes to hiding in shadows, which is something Mia is very, very good at doing. With a special ability she doesn’t quite understand, Mia has an intense and unique relationship with the dark. She can manipulate it, use shadows to hide and travel. And she has a familiar (I think?) named Mister Kindly, a not-cat with not-eyes who eats her fear and helps her survive. 

I’m not going to lie, Mister Kindly was one of my favorite parts of the book. Some of his dialogue with Mia just did it for me. Snappy and subtle, their banter often served to lighten the moment, but at times, it functioned like a knife in the ribs. Some of the cat’s lines made me stop in my tracks to just admire them. He had a way of cutting through everything to get right to the heart of things, and since one of his primary roles is devouring Mia’s fear, he often senses things about her that she might not be willing to admit to herself.

“… mia …?” 

“Yes?”

“… there is no need to be afraid…”

“I’m not.” 

A pause, filled by the whispering wind. 

“… no need to lie, either…”

Mia, however, is truly the star of the show. She spends her life after her numerous tragic losses living on the streets, surviving, often with the help of Mister Kindly. Taken under the wing of one rather questionable soul named Mercurio, Mia learns the art of ruthlessness. Though, much like Arya Stark, she’s got a list of names in her head, people who need to be dealt with on her quest for vengeance, and she cannot and will not be satisfied with street life and petty thievery. Following Mercurio’s instructions, she decides to go on a bit of a journey to find the Red Church, where the Republic’s fiercest killers and assassins are trained. This is really where the book gets going. 

Now, before you continue reading, please know something about me. There are three things I really, really struggle with when reading. I mean, if I come across books that are largely filled with any one of these three things, I usually do not finish them. One of the things on this list is schools or training academies. I almost never finish books where most of the plot takes place in a school or training academy. Now, there’s a reason for this, and I think it’s an alright one: authors really tend to struggle with infodumps in settings like this. It allows them too easily. When I start feeling like I’m sitting in class with the protagonist, I’m out. 

However, on the rare occasion that I find a book that doesn’t use such settings in that way, it really, really works for me. This is one of the latter. Someone on Twitter called this “Murder Hogwarts” and that fits perfectly, but you don’t really get any of those scenes I truly despise, wherein I’m sitting in the chair with the protagonist while they are being lectured about the nuances of magic or history or whatever. Kristoff deftly sidesteps all those pitfalls that really makes me struggle with these settings and by doing, he makes the entire thing sing. 

In fact, despite my strong feelings about schools/training academies I do not think this book could have worked nearly so well in a different setting, and Kristoff really displays his writerly prowess by how easily he sidesteps all the pitfalls that make these settings such a slog for me (usually). In fact, he turned something I generally avoid into one of the greatest strengths of the book. Here, Mia not only gets to be young and fallible but (especially toward the end) you get to see a hint of what she’s truly capable of. Here Kristoff gets to work in a fairly closed environment which allows him more time to build up characters and use them against each other in some extremely clever ways. 

Here, Kristoff really shines. 

Iron or glass? they’d ask.
She was neither.
She was steel.

Perhaps one of the greatest delights of this book was how easily Kristoff worked on so many different levels. Mia is an extremely complex character. At the end of the book, I was stunned by how much I both knew about her, and all the stuff I still don’t know. Usually, I have a pretty good idea of who/what a person is by the end of a book, but by the end of Nevernight, I really felt like I was just starting to crack the envelope on Mia. Now I’m almost a hundred pages into book two, and I’m still trying to figure out the riddle of who exactly this protagonist is. It’s so rare to find a character who is this nuanced, that her mystery is part of what draws me to her. Who is she? No, more than that, what is she? She’s something. I don’t know what yet, but she’s something and I’m dying to find out more. 

Mia is also dying to find out more. I’m excited to find out with her. 

But you see, this really is where Kristoff shines. On her surface, Mia is a very screwed-up, angry teenager who often lashes out before she thinks. But in this school setting that I shockingly did not hate, you get to see more teenaged bits of her. There’s some sex. She kind of has a crush on someone for most of it. She has friends, falls into a clique, etc. All that teenage stuff. Underscoring all that, however, is the darkness, the death, the murder, the Mister Kindly and his not-eyes seeing too much. And Kristoff works effortlessly on both planes. At times there’s a rather discordant note with it all because Mia is so young to be doing all this stuff, but that’s part of the draw, and that discordant note makes Mia and her various surface/deeper struggles that much more compelling. It gives her an extremely subtle vulnerability that made the entire package that is Mia truly sing.

The ending hit me like a freight train. There was a moment around the 75% mark where I was so surprised I had to put the book down, go into my beta reader group, and ask if anyone has read this book because I had to talk to someone about it. I just had to let out the “HOLY CRAP THIS IS AMAZING OMG” feels, you know? The thing is, around the 75-80% mark, stuff starts happening. The ending is intense and incredible and it goes off like a bomb, but what really got me is how Kristoff set all this up so subtly, I didn’t even realize stuff was being set up until the Big Thing starts to happen. That’s what had me so amazed. That’s why I had to run to my beta group and go “I NEED TO TALK TO SOMEONE ABOUT THIS RIGHT NOW BECAUSE IT’S SO FREAKING INCREDIBLE.” Here we have an ending, and it’s a powerful one, and it was so subtly set up I didn’t even realize a setup was taking place until it was too late. 

I edit so many books each year. I read even more than that. Do any of you have any idea how hard it is to surprise me these days? I appreciate books, I love books (my full-time career is working with books, so I better) but sometimes I feel like it’s almost impossible to surprise me anymore and the fact this book managed it says… a lot. 

The wolf does not pity the lamb. The storm begs no forgiveness of the drowned.

In fact, the ending was so masterful, I immediately went to the library to pick up the rest of the series. As someone who prefers to let a book sink into me for at least a few weeks before I move on to the next book in the series, the fact that I immediately went into book two without hesitation also says a lot. 

Now, as for Kristoff’s prose, I devour things written with heavy metaphor, and some of the lyrical twists of phrase really got my blood pumping. It won’t be for everyone, but if anyone reading this review has read my books, they’ll know I dig a good, meaty metaphor and I love books that work on numerous layers with poetic turns of phrase that are pretty on the surface but hide truckloads of deeper meaning beneath. This book was that exactly. I know some people don’t like that kind of thing, so be aware before you go in, but for me, it ticked off all my boxes. The prose was sublime, and like so much of the book, there is a lot of development that happens beneath the surface. However, in these pages, Kristoff used his prose like the tool it is and often married beauty and pain in a way that zapped me all the way to my marrow. This book is extremely quotable, extremely beautiful, and full of pain. 

Be still, my heart. 

So, where does that leave us? 

If I can leave you, dear reader, with two summary phrases, they’d be: Nevernight is dark fantasy done the way dark fantasy should be done. It’s one of my best discoveries in years. 

5/5 stars 

Ancillary Justice meets Red, White & Royal Blue in Everina Maxwell’s exciting debut.

While the Iskat Empire has long dominated the system through treaties and political alliances, several planets, including Thea, have begun to chafe under Iskat’s rule. When tragedy befalls Imperial Prince Taam, his Thean widower, Jainan, is rushed into an arranged marriage with Taam’s cousin, the disreputable Kiem, in a bid to keep the rising hostilities between the two worlds under control.

But when it comes to light that Prince Taam’s death may not have been an accident, and that Jainan himself may be a suspect, the unlikely pair must overcome their misgivings and learn to trust one another as they navigate the perils of the Iskat court, try to solve a murder, and prevent an interplanetary war… all while dealing with their growing feelings for each other.

432 pages (paperback)
Published on February 2, 2021
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I’ve been meaning to read this book but life happens and I forgot. Anyway, I was at the library the other day and it was on the “Reader’s Choice” table so I grabbed it and read it in short order. This book is a SciFi, which some might find daunting, but it is one of the most accessible SciFi books I’ve run across in a while.

Winter’s Orbit is easy to slide into. It’s warm and comfortable, like buttery popcorn while watching a Friday night movie. Sometimes that’s exactly what you need. It was extremely easy for me to get into the story being told, and feel engrossed in the characters and their trials. With some lighter world building, readers who might find SciFi daunting will probably enjoy the ease with which world-specific terms and political machinations are presented to readers. You don’t need fact sheets or diagrams in your head to grok this one.

Instead of focusing so much on the world and all the details of it, Maxwell focuses on her characters, their relationship with each other, and their relationship with the world around them. Prince Kiem, a playboy and in and out of trouble, gets thrust into a marriage with newly-widowed Jainan. However, we soon learn that not everything in that previous relationship was what it was presented to be, nor was the death of his previous partner, Prince Taam. With a peace treaty between two powers on the horizon, and this marriage essential to solidifying the deal, a lot rides on the union.

So of course it’s going to have problems.

There were a few things that pleased me about the romance and the mystery at the center of this book. First, I need to talk about representation. There are a lot of LGBTQIA+ characters and themes in Winter’s Orbit, which delighted me. More, I enjoyed seeing these parts of the book as a natural aspect of the world rather than something that needed fanfare. Normalization like this can be a powerful thing indeed, and I think the author went about it very well.

The romance itself didn’t overwhelm the plot, rather they both advanced hand in hand at a natural pace without feeling forced or overly dramatic, and maybe this is both the book’s greatest strength as well as its greatest downfall. Presented to us is a universe perched on the edge of a galactic war, and I never really felt that intensity. It was painfully easy for me to forget how dire the situation actually was. While things are happening and intrigue is present, it never really resonated with me because that aspect of the plot just wasn’t present enough to come through as much as I would have preferred. That being said, the situation was constantly changing and evolving, and the fact that Maxwell managed to keep the Big Danger both personal and ever-present without overwhelming everything else needs to be lauded. Part of what will attract people to this book is the fact that the conflict is so easy to absorb.

Romance, I think, is likely why readers will pick this one up. SciFi romance is always a plus. Maxwell hits all the sweet spots on the romance (though romance readers will find the beats a bit off, which is to be expected as this is not strictly a romance book). This is a slow-burn and an arranged marriage, two tropes I tend to have a very hard time with on the get-go. Knowing that I went into this one pretty skeptical, and I was surprised by how easy it was for me to keep reading.

However.

So many of the issues between the protagonists could have been sorted with ten minutes of conversation. They spent so long being awkward and assuming things about each other, that by the time the relationship actually did strike off, I was filled with this really weird mix of “finally” and “seriously?”. I have a real issue with miscommunication tropes because they are just so easy to avoid if people sit down and speak directly. A lot of that aspect of the book came off as “for the sake of the plot” rather than a natural evolution of the relationship, and that was unfortunate. Due to how much of the book they spend not talking or only surface-level talking, by the time they do hook up I was almost stunned by the fact that they were, in fact, attracted to each other. What I wanted were fireworks and I just didn’t quite get that.

The ultimate result of these two points did dramatically impact my overall enjoyment of the book as a whole. Did I like it? Yes. Will I read it again? Maybe. If there’s a time when I want to turn my brain off and just enjoy a relatively comforting, predictable read, then this is absolutely a book I will go to. However, at the end of the day, it just fell a little short of its target. Entertaining, yes, but about a half-note off on some aspects which left me feeling, overall, like this was a bit discordant.

That being said, I love science fiction and I think it can be quite intimidating to new readers. This book would serve as a great entry point for those looking to explore the genre. It’s comfortable and a bit softer. The author keeps her world just built enough to really highlight the characters in it, and her direct, no-nonsense prose works in her favor to keep this from ever getting too bogged down in the minutiae.

Is it worth reading? Yes, but know what you’re getting into first. This isn’t going to break the genre, but if you need something comfortable and warm, a soft blanket during a snowstorm, then pick Winter’s Orbit up.

3.5/5 stars

About the Book

Set in an alternative Edwardian England, this is a comedy of manners, manor houses, and hedge mazes: including a magic-infused murder mystery and a delightful queer romance.

For fans of Georgette Heyer or Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton, who’d like to welcome magic into their lives . . .

Young baronet Robin Blyth thought he was taking up a minor governmental post. However, he’s actually been appointed parliamentary liaison to a secret magical society. If it weren’t for this administrative error, he’d never have discovered the incredible magic underlying his world.

Cursed by mysterious attackers and plagued by visions, Robin becomes determined to drag answers from his missing predecessor – but he’ll need the help of Edwin Courcey, his hostile magical-society counterpart. Unwillingly thrown together, Robin and Edwin will discover a plot that threatens every magician in the British Isles.

377 pages (Kindle)
Published on October 26, 2021
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Note: Any US spellings of “Marvelous” in here is due to my computer autocorrecting the word and me being too lazy to fix it. (At least I’m honest.)

I really loved Witchmark by CL Polk, and when I saw A Marvellous Light, which very much gave me the same vibe, I was on it. 

Set in Edwardian England, this book follows the story of Robin Blyth and Edwin Courcey. Despite having recently inherited a title, Robin is in desperate need for immediate income. Due to a clerical mishap, he ends up landing a job in the office of Special Domestic Affairs and Complaints, after the person (Reginald Gatling) who had previously held that position suddenly went missing. Soon, Robin meets Edwin Courcey, who was the special liaison to the Chief Minister of the Magical Assembly.

The two men start out the at odds, and there are plenty of reasons for this, which the book explores. However, Robin wants to find out what happened to his missing predecessor, Reginald Gatling, and to do this he must join forces with his magical counterpart, Edwin. Slowly, peace develops between them, and then friendship, and then something more. Fans of enemies-to-lovers tropes will probably love this. 

While the drama the book circles around is large and has potential to alter the course of history, the narrative scope is actually quite narrow and focused, switching between both Robin and Edwin. This choice has some benefits and drawbacks, and I really think it’s just going to depend on what kind of reader you are as to whether this actually works for you or not. On the one hand, this book knows exactly what it is. It’s a romance set in the midst of a life-altering mystery. The narrow scope allows the author to keep the story intimate while giving readers a doorway to walk through so they can get to know more about the world through the perspectives of the characters. On the other hand, readers who might want a book with a larger scope and a broader plot may find that there might not be enough here for them to chew on. 

The dynamic between Edwin and Robin is truly charming. Edwin is a fantastic scholar, but he has very little magic in a family where magic is extremely important. His family treats him, often, with contempt, and as a result, he has a hard time opening himself up and trusting. His emotions are buried deep, and at the start of the book I had an extremely hard time warming up to him as a result. However, once I got settled enough in his perspective, I realized that still waters do indeed run deep, and there is far more to Edwin than first meets the eye. On the other hand, Robin is far more open and carefree, easy to feel than Edwin, balancing the other’s brooding nature quite well. 

The romance is well done, though there are some graphic sex scenes in the second part of the book that readers should be aware of. The author knew when to lean into the sweet notes of their budding relationship, and when to lean into the sex. Whether or not you enjoy sex scenes is up to you, just know you’re getting them if you read this book. 

The worldbuilding is another aspect of the book that I think will be hit or miss with readers, depending on what proclivities you enter the book with. A lot is left implied, and there are things aren’t explored fully. If you’re looking for a well-developed world that you get to fully experience through the characters, you won’t really get that here. You’ll learn about the world, yes, and you’ll experience the magic, but a lot of things, like the Magical Assembly or the history of magic in England aren’t explored as deeply or as hands-on as I might have preferred. That being said, this is a story about two men thrust together due to circumstances beyond their control, more than anything else, so it is logical that the author would keep the scope narrow and leave so much of the world implied rather than explored. 

That being said, I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of infodumps and the author’s ability to avoid unnecessarily complicated explanations for things. I left the book feeling like I understood exactly what I needed to understand about the world in order to truly enjoy the story, and not much more. There are doorways open, however, for the author to return to this world and add layers and texture to it as the series proceeds. As a foundational book for whatever comes next, this one is solid. 

If I was going to quibble about aspects of the book here, I would say that unfortunately, I found most of this one predictable. The plot wasn’t terribly surprising. The villains were easy to spot, and the secondary characters were two-dimensional to the point I got them confused quite often as I read. 

Despite those points, however, I truly did enjoy this book. I loved the exploration of power dynamics, and the slow revelations of both self and secrets. The world, while our own, is also strange enough to really captivate me, and I am eager to explore more. This is sure to be a raging hit for readers who enjoyed Witchmark by CL Polk, or who like their fantasy mixed with a bit of history. 

Is this a perfect book? No, but perfect is boring. 

4/5 stars

About the Book

“All magic is beautiful,” she said, “and terrible. Do you not see the beauty in yours, or the terror in mine? You can stop a heart, and I can stop your breath.” 

She is heir to a Sultanate that once ruled the world. He is an unwanted prince with the power to destroy.

She is order and intellect, a woman fit to rule in a man’s place. He is chaos and violence and will stop at nothing to protect his people.

His magic answers hers with shadow for light. They need each other, but the cost of balance may be too high a price. Magic is dying and the only way to save it is to enlist mages who wield the forbidden power of death, mages cast out centuries ago in a brutal and bloody war.

Now, a new war is coming. Science and machines to replace magic and old religion.

They must find a way to save their people from annihilation and balance the sacred Wheel—but first, they will have to balance their own forbidden passion. His peace for her tempest, his restlessness for her calm… 

Night and day, dusk and dawn, the end, and the beginning.

420 pages (paperback)
Published on January 18, 2020
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It seems like everyone who talks about this book says something like, “I don’t read/enjoy romance but…” And look, I get it, we all have tastes and flavors and preferences and the like, but this book is a whole lot more than just romance, so sit back and let me tell you all the ways this one delighted me. 

Reign & Ruin was a pretty unexpected book. I honestly didn’t realize it won the SPFBO until like… the day I checked it out on Kindle Unlimited. I’m just so busy, I’m not really tapped into that kind of thing anymore. I saw the cover art floating around a lot, and I knew a lot of readers I respect have read and enjoyed it but I basically knew nothing else before I started reading.

I like to go into books as ignorant about them as I possibly can be, and so I didn’t know what the book was about or really anything about it until I started reading. I think in a lot of ways, this was a benefit. I had no preconceived notions. (Well, I had one, but we’ll get into that shortly.) I thought the cover art was interesting and I’ve followed the author on social media and that’s about all I knew. This left the book a lot of room to captivate and surprise me, to enchant me with the story itself. 

Here we follow two characters. One is Naime, who is the heir to the throne of Tamar. We find her on the cusp of change. Her father, the sultan, is slowly sliding into dementia and Naime knows her future and the future of her land hangs in the balance. However, as a woman, whoever she ends up marrying will rule rather than her, and so we get a front row seat to what many women throughout history have faced: the bartering of her life for the happiness and security of others. 

On the opposite side is Makram, the younger brother of Sarkam’s ruler and leader of the military. Buttoned-up and somewhat aloof (at first), Makram is a character that I quickly loved. His surface is so controlled, but there’s a seething storm beneath that façade and emotional depths to him that really rounded him out nicely. Torn between family loyalty and personal obligation, Makram secretly travels to Tamar to meet with Naime. Insert political machinations here. 

The characterization truly shines in Reign & Ruin, which is necessary, especially when you are dealing with romantic elements. Readers need to fundamentally care about the characters involved to care about the relationship that forms. One of the first things I noticed about Evans was how well she balanced their internal and external journeys. The emotional landscape is just as vivid and carefully crafted as the external one. Weighed down by family, loyalty, and obligation, both of these characters struggle with the face they must show the world, and the people they are beneath their facades. This personal touch, the care put toward exploring all of the layers that makes someone who they are, had me instantly invested. 

Naime and Makram are different people at the end of the book than they were at the start. Not literally, of course, but figuratively as Evans does a magnificent job of pushing them to points where they are forced to grow and evolve past who they thought they were, straining the limits of self as they rise to the challenges they face, neither saving the other but rather complementing each other well. The ending, due to this felt extremely satisfying because I was so invested not just in their external arcs, but the emotional ones as well.

I mentioned a few paragraphs up that I went into this book with one preconceived notion, and that sort of held out and sort of didn’t at the same time. Due to the cover art, I knew I was getting a court-style fantasy. I expected it to be a typical European court-style fantasy but I was quickly surprised (and delighted) to find myself in a world with realistic Middle Eastern notes. Evans fleshed out all the aspects of her creation perfectly, making sure elements worked together when necessary and added just enough friction at other points to keep things interesting. 

Due to situations in the book, this isn’t really a light read. It’s not something you need to brace yourself for either, but there are deeper themes at work here and these deeper themes are my playground. This is where I was happiest. One such theme is balance, and it reverberates throughout the book, impacting everything from the magic to the politics, to the characters themselves (as well as giving the book a really interesting yet subtle play between past and present). Along with that, Evans touches on dementia, PTSD, bigotry, misogyny, and more. Don’t misunderstand me: this book is not what I’d consider to be dark, but it was unexpectedly heavy in some regards and I loved the caring, poignant way Evans fearlessly explored some of these deeper, more difficult themes.  

Naime is not a woman who needs to be rescued, and Makram knows that, which is part of what made their romance so delightful. By the time the book gets to that point, it felt more like a natural evolution of two people rather than anything else. I absolutely adored how Evans stayed true to both characters and their strong personalities. While romance was had, it wasn’t always easy. The author knew how to build atmosphere with carefully chosen words and descriptions, and while that impacted the book throughout, I really felt it keenly in what develops between our two protagonists.

Focusing primarily on the romance really isn’t being fair to all the other aspects of the book. Yes, this is a romance, but it’s so much more than that as well. This is a tale about lives becoming entwined as people desperately try to do the right thing for them and those they care about, about risks and rewards, and yes, balance. It’s a story with a whole lot of soul, and high stakes. The action happens mostly with intrigue and relationships, whether romantic, familial, or otherwise. The world is vividly crafted with meticulous attention to detail and the characters are so real, they breathe on and off the page. 

Yes, here be romance. But here also is transformation, the evolution of individuals as they break the ties that bind them and become who they are meant to be, and it ended in such a way that left me eager to read more.

Reign & Ruin ultimately is a human story with a vivid emotional landscape matched only by the politics and turmoil the characters navigate. Evans holds nothing back, but neither does she glorify in pain and darkness. As in all things, this book is an exploration of balance, and it is in the careful execution of this amazing tale where Evans truly shines. 

5/5 stars