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Book Reviews: The Blacksmith Queen AND The Princess Knight

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I received a copy of G.A. Aiken‘s The Princess Knight through Bookish First. However, I didn’t initially realize that it is book two in The Scarred Earth Saga. So, I borrowed book one (The Blacksmith Queen) from the library before reading it. Here are both of my reviews.

Description of The Blacksmith Queen:

When a prophesy brings war to the Land of the Black Hills, Keeley Smythe must join forces with a clan of mountain warriors who are really centaurs in a thrilling new fantasy romance series from New York Times bestselling author G.A. Aiken. 

The Old King Is Dead
 
With the demise of the Old King, there’s a prophesy that a queen will ascend to the throne of the Black Hills. Bad news for the king’s sons, who are prepared to defend their birthright against all comers. But for blacksmith Keeley Smythe, war is great for business. Until it looks like the chosen queen will be Beatrix, her younger sister. Now it’s all Keeley can do to protect her family from the enraged royals.

Luckily, Keeley doesn’t have to fight alone. Because thundering to her aid comes a clan of kilt-wearing mountain warriors called the Amichai. Not the most socially adept group, but soldiers have never bothered Keeley, and rough, gruff Caid, actually seems to respect her. A good thing because the fierce warrior will be by her side for a much longer ride than any prophesy ever envisioned …

Review:

To my utter and complete surprise, I loved this. I did quibble a little with the running fat joke, but I appreciated that Keeley didn’t match the beauty ideals of society and was still shown as confident and desired, worthy of love. And I laughed a lot. The book is hilarious, utterly ridiculous, but in a good way.

I did think some of the cursing felt anachronistic at times. Don’t get me wrong. Fuck is my favorite curse word and I utter WTF, probably, an average of once a day. So, I don’t have any problem with the cursing itself. It’s just that on occasion you’d be in a fantasy realm with two moon, centaurs, elves, and dwarfs, and then some thoroughly modern-world curse or phrase would drop like a clanger.

All in all, however, I have book two and I absolutely can’t wait to start it.

Description of The Princess Knight:

LONG LIVE THE QUEEN

Gemma Smythe dedicated her life to the glory of battle. With her fellow War Monks, she worshipped the war gods, rained destruction on her enemies, and raised the dead when the fancy took her. Until her sister Keeley became the prophesied Blacksmith Queen, and Gemma broke faith with her order to journey to the Amichai Mountain and fight by Keeley’s side.

The Amichai warriors are an unruly, never-to-be-tamed lot, especially their leader-in-waiting, Quinn. But when the War Monks declare support for Gemma’s ruthless younger sister Beatrix, the immaturity of her key ally is the least of Gemma’s problems. She has to get to the grand masters, dispel their grudge against her, and persuade them to fight for Keeley and justice. If her conviction can’t sway them, perhaps Quinn’s irritating, irreverent, clearly unhinged, ferocity will win the day . . .

Review:

I really enjoyed this. Admittedly, not quite as much as I did the first one. I think it sometimes took its slapstick ridiculousness a tad too far. But overall it was a real winner. I like that there wasn’t really any angst in the romantic subplot, the underlying theme of acceptance, and the humor. But mostly I just love the varieties of crazy in all of the characters and how they all come together as a whole in the end.

Death is treated awfully lightly though. Some of the main characters, ones that the reader is meant to sympathize with, slaughter others fairly indiscriminately, and one is to understand innocents are among those caught in the fray. I found that a little hard to overlook.

All in all, however, I’ll be eagerly awaiting a third book. There is going to be another, isn’t there? And maybe a fourth and fifth and sixth? A girl can hope.

 

Book Review of Haunted and Harrowed, by Irene Preston & Liv Rancourt

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Some time ago I picked up a copy of Haunted, by Irene Preston and Liv Rancourt, from Amazon as a freebie. I honestly meant to read it ages ago, but somehow it ended up buried in the TBR. But when the authors sent me a copy of Harrowed for review, I got the opportunity to read them together.

Description of Haunted:
Noel Chandler had a good reason for leaving the L.A.P.D. for New Orleans, but when he walks into a burned out Garden District mansion, he discovers there are some things he can’t outrun. The spooks can find him anywhere.

As the resident historian for the cable show Haunts and Hoaxes, Professor Adam Morales keeps an open mind about the supernatural. Or that’s what he tells himself, until he meets a man who puts that principle to the test. Noel’s smart, sexy, and has killer cop instincts. One glance from his bedroom eyes has Adam ready to believe anything.

But is Noel haunted, crazy, or just another hoax?

Review:
I enjoyed this. I liked the characters and the setting. Plus, having read the Hours of Night series, it was fun to see what was happening around the events of those books. I did think the ‘romance’ progressed a little too quickly and I didn’t feel the ending was particularly satisfying. It felt like a preamble to something else, which I suppose it is. I’m really glad to have held off and gotten to read this together with the longer book, Harrowed. But the writing is excellent and I can’t wait for more.

Description Harrowed:
There’s nothing scarier than the truth…

Noel’s got issues. Like, he doesn’t know what to call his lover. Are they boyfriends? A fling that got out of control? Something more? Even worse, he may sometimes get waylaid by a random ghost or two.

Or else he’s losing his mind.

Now Adam? He’s stable and solid and warm; the kind of guy Noel never knew he wanted. He’s also the historian on Haunts and Hoaxes, which gives him a professional interest in Noel’s “special talent”.

When the ghosthunting crew turns up something weirder than normal at a Louisiana plantation, Adam convinces Noel to check it out. Instead of finding a haunt, they uncover a mystery. Noel used to be a cop and he grabs the chance to investigate something real. DNA is evidence. No matter what Adam says, the ghosts don’t prove anything.

But the past is done hiding and the spirits are going to have their say. Noel better figure out how to listen, because Adam’s job, their relationship, and even his sanity are at risk.

Review:
As much as I liked Haunted, I liked Harrowed more. Being a full-length novel gives it the heft I appreciate. It also gave me two complicated, flawed heroes trying to make the most of a difficult situation. I’ll admit that I got frustrated with Noel’s unwillingness to face or speak about his experiences, even when he and Adam were explicitly trying to explore them. While I academically understood why he kept his secrets (emotions don’t always make sense), I felt it went on until it started to grate on my patience.

I also very much appreciated the subject matter the book works with. It’s not an easy history and it would have been very easy for the writing to fall into didacticism. Or rather, I suppose the book is an example of didacticism (there’s certainly a lesson in it), but never comes across as too heavily didactic. I actually hate when authors let their sermon overwhelm their story in a fiction book. Preston and Rancourt don’t let that happen and I appreciated it.

All in all, I’ll call it a success.

Giveaway

As an added bonus, the authors happen to be running a giveaway for a $25 Amazon or B&N gift card. It’s running through the end of the month.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

tiny and fierce

Review of Tiny and Fierce, by Margo Bond Collins & Eli Constant

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I Picked up a copy of  Tiny and Fierce, by Margo Bond Collins and Eli Constant through Booksprout.

Description from Goodreads:

In a galaxy where humans are considered the least of all races, she’ll build a crew that adores her strength and style.

When Tommelise took over her family’s deep-space salvage company, she never expected to stumble through a wormhole into a whole other galaxy full of strange alien races ruled by a cruel empress.

She learns she’s not the first human to wind up there—but all the others were captured and sold as slaves. She’ll have to fight to stay alive.

She thought all she wanted was to find a way home. But then she fell in love—three times over—and learned that together, her men would fight three times as fiercely.

Now, to keep her loves alive, she’ll have to free an entire system.

Review:

Utterly and completely bonkers, but kinda sweet too. I appreciate that, of the three men in the harem, only one is truly humanoid. The others, walk up-right (most of the time) but have alien anatomies that make for interesting reading and one eye-opening sex scene (the only one in the book and it’s mild). The plot is pretty ludicrous and things happy pretty helter-skelter. (I mean Lise manages to trip and fall through TWO uncharted wormholes in occupied space, for example!) But it’s still enjoyable all the same.

I didn’t like that the women the crew rescued were continuously referred to as the “slave women,” “slave stock,” “slaves,” etc. Emphasizing their status as former slaves over that of autonomous women. There was only one group of women. “The women” would have sufficed and made them feel like actual individuals and less like commodities, serving the theme of the book better I think.

All in all, however, I thought it a pretty piece of fluff and don’t consider the time I spent reading it wasted.