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Book Review: Eastside Hedge Witch, by T.J. Deschamps

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I received a copy of T.J. Deschamps’ Eastside Hedge Witch through Netgalley. And in a completely unrelated turn of events, it was on Sadie’s Spotlight very shortly there after.
eastside hedge witch TJ Deschamps

Miriam Diaz has lived as a suburban mom on Seattle’s Eastside for the past seventeen years. She serves on the parent teacher association, bakes for her daughter’s cheer squad, and is an all-around champion stay-at-home mom. Pretty average and totally boring, and Miriam likes it that way. All the better to hide her sordid past.

When a hellhound shows up in her neighbor’s begonias, and Miriam banishes the stinky mutt back to where it came from, she let her evil ex know she’s still alive and kicking…and likely in possession of something she stole from him.

Miriam doesn’t only have trouble brewing from below. The banishment also alerts the supernatural cops. When a gorgeous alpha of the shifter pack starts sniffing around her hedges, Miriam fears the news might go all the way to the archangel that she isn’t a latent but a full-blown witch. Miriam isn’t a registered supernatural and for a good reason, she’s hiding something big from the authorities above and below.

All of the commotion threatens the veil hiding the separating the mundanes and the supes. Miriam might just have to come out of the supernatural closet to save the world. Again.

my review

I enjoyed this, even if I wasn’t totally wowed by it. I really liked Miriam, Jada, Roxy, Rhiannon, and Phry. I was OK on everyone else, including Gabriel. And since he’s the most likely romantic pairing for most of the book, that left me a little cold. But the writing rolls along at a good clip, there’s some humor, an interesting world, and the characters have moral codes I appreciate.

I did think Miriam was just a little too central, too powerful, too wanted by all the powerful men around her. And while I liked the ending, I did have to wonder if anyone (other than Lucifer) bothered to consider how it would effect the whole rest of the world.

All in all, I’ll happily read the next book in the series, when it comes out. But I’m not gnashing my teeth that I can’t have it now.

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Book Review: Stone and Steel, by Eboni Dunbar

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I bought a the Pride 2021 Story Bundle, earlier this year, and Eboni Dunbar’s Stone and Steel was included in it.
stone and steel eboni dunbar
When General Aaliyah returns triumphant to the city of Titus, she expects to find the people prospering under the rule of her Queen, the stone mage Odessa. Instead, she finds a troubling imbalance in both the citizens’ well-being and Odessa’s rule. Aaliyah must rely on all of her allies, old and new, to do right by the city that made her.

my review

I liked this a lot. It’s not perfect. For a person who grew up without legitimate connections, Aaliyah turns out to gather some surprisingly powerful allies (largely without trying), which felt too coincidental. The version I read didn’t make it clear enough when speakers were changing. So, dialogue was sometimes hard to follow. (I don’t know if this was just formatting or what.) And as a not huge fan of novellas, I, of course, wish it was longer and more developed. But, for such a short piece, it does what it sets out to do. It evokes a real sense of place and time, gives you characters you care about, is chocked full of diversity, and wraps up with a satisfying conclusion. I’ll happily read more of Dunbar’s writing.

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Review: “Stone and Steel” by Eboni Dunbar

Regular Sip – Stone and Steel by Eboni Dunbar (Neon Hemlock)

 

https://www.scifiandscary.com/stone-and-steel-review/

Book Review: Tomes, Scones & Crones, by Colleen Gleason

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I received a copy of Colleen Gleason‘s Tomes, Scones and Crones through Netgalley.
tomes scones and crones

At forty-eight, Jacqueline Finch has a nice, easy life with few responsibilities: she’s been a librarian in Chicago for twenty-five years, she doesn’t have a husband, children, or pets, and she’s just coasting along, enjoying her books and a small flower garden now that she’s over the hill.

That is, until the Universe (helped by three old crones) has other ideas.

All at once, Jacqueline’s staid (and boring) life is upended, and the next thing she knows, she’s heading off to Button Cove to start a new life as the owner of Three Tomes Bookshop.

The bookstore is a darling place, and Jacqueline is almost ready to be excited about this new opportunity…until Mrs. Hudson and Mrs. Danvers show up. Somehow, the literary characters of Sherlock Holmes’s landlady and Rebecca deWinter’s creepy and sardonic housekeeper are living persons who work at the bookshop (when they aren’t bickering with each other). Not only does Jacqueline have to contend with them—and the idea that people regularly eat pastries while reading books in her store!—but the morning after she arrives, the body of a dead man is found on her property.

Things start to get even more strange after that: Jacqueline is befriended by three old women who bear a startling resemblance to the Witches Three from Macbeth, an actual witch shows up at her bookshop and accuses Jacqueline of killing her brother, and the two women who own businesses across the street seem determined to befriend Jacqueline.

And then there’s the police detective with the very definite hot-Viking vibe who shows up to investigate the dead body…

The next thing Jacqueline knows, her staid and simple life is no longer quiet and unassuming, and she’s got crones, curses, and crocodiles to deal with.

And when a new literary character appears on the scene…things start to get even more hairy and Jacqueline is suddenly faced with a horrible life and death situation that will totally push her out of her comfort zone…if she’s brave enough to let it.

After all, isn’t forty-eight too late for an old dog to learn new tricks?

my review

Writing a review for a book that you can objectively say isn’t bad, but that you didn’t particularly enjoy is difficult. The writing and editing in Tomes, Scones and Crones is fine. The pacing seems fine. The character development seems fine, etc. I even really appreciated a 48-year-old heroine and the ‘claim the power of your later life’ moral of the story.

I just didn’t especially enjoy the book. I didn’t care for Jacqueline, found her largely unpleasant. I thought the literary device of having the crones discuss everything as a means of relaying it to the reader was annoying. Plus, their meddling would be infuriating. The romance is only hinted at. The villains were so villainous as to be caricatures, even down to evil = ugly simplicity.

And I found something vaguely ick- inducing about Danvers and Hudson being literally reduced to their jobs. It goes a long way towards undermining the theme of women (even/especially older women) are full, empowered individuals to then have two female characters pulled from literature to function as housekeepers and housekeepers only, they disappear when not keeping house. Thereby erasing any further importance or potential they, as individuals, might hold.

This was structurally sound and will probably shine for a lot of people. It was a flop for me.

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https://daysinotherworlds.com/?p=350