Tag Archives: fantasy

Book Review: Of Blades and Shadows, by Belle Manuel

I won a paperback copy of Of Blades and Shadows, by Belle Manuel, in a giveaway over on Instagram.

After sixteen years of living under the thumb of a brutal slaver, Arayna Gamon is given the chance to be a part of an elite group of assassins—Soul Stealers. Serving only the Dark Throne, Arayna must learn how to use her burgeoning magic to ferry souls to the Underworld. But when an ancient being demands she pay a price, Arayna must decide where to place her loyalties.

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, I thought it had interesting characters doing interesting things in an interesting world. On the other, nothing even resembling an over-arching plot emergence until about page 350, and then everyone decides to deal with the issue later, and it was basically dropped again. So, in essence, this is a book of interesting people in an interesting world, running around doing and reacting to random things that don’t seem to really tie into anything or tie together in any meaningful manner.

Further, as much as I liked a lot of things about the book, not least of which is the way Manuel challenged a lot of fated mates tropes and accepted behaviors. I often couldn’t quite follow what was happening or the leaps that characters took. Plus, Arayna basically emerged from slavery and challenged everyone and everything that crossed her path, even when they were significantly stronger and more experienced. While I was probably supposed to read this as strong and independent, it came off as brutish and all but suicidal—more like she couldn’t control herself than that she had a point to make.

Having said that, I’d read another. I didn’t not enjoy it and I’d be interested in seeing how things turn out for the crew.

Other Reviews:

Book Review: The Witch Collector, by Charissa Weaks

Leave a reply

Charissa Weaks‘ The Witch Collector was featured over on Sadie’s Spotlight. You can hop over there for an author interview, excerpt, and a chance to win a copy of the book, if you’d like. I was lucky enough to receive a copy of the book as part of the tour material. So, I decided to give it a read here on See Sadie Read.

Every harvest moon, the Witch Collector rides into our valley and leads one of us to the home of the immortal Frost King, to remain forever.

Today is that day—Collecting Day.

But he will not come for me. I, Raina Bloodgood, have lived in this village for twenty-four years, and for all that time he has passed me by.

His mistake.

Raina Bloodgood has one desire: kill the Frost King and the Witch Collector who stole her sister. On Collecting Day, she means to exact murderous revenge, but a more sinister threat sets fire to her world. Rising from the ashes is the Collector, Alexus Thibault, the man she vowed to slay and the only person who can help save her sister.

Thrust into an age-old story of ice, fire, and ancient gods, Raina must abandon vengeance and aid the Witch Collector or let their empire—and her sister—fall into enemy hands. But the lines between good and evil blur, and Raina has more to lose than she imagined. What is she to do when the Witch Collector is no longer the villain who stole her sister, but the hero who’s stealing her heart?

In some ways, I really enjoyed this book. In others, I was disappointed. I enjoyed the story and the writing style. The overarching plot looks like it will be a really interesting one. I adored Alexus. He had all the makings and potential to be an alpha a-hole, but he just wasn’t. He was very sweet and marvelously willing to let Raina take the lead. I liked Raina too. She was strong and determined to succeed on her own, and I loved the use of sign language. I liked the side characters too. (Though there’s a bit of an age gap, I’m hoping for a pairing there.)

However, I also thought the book felt a little bit like this was an extended prologue (all 400+ pages of it). So much of the book is spent traveling to the place where the reader expects things to happen, and I felt like the middle lagged because of it. And then once they finally reach it, the book ends. I was also aghast at how willing Raina was to trust and divulge super secret information to people who had a very high likelihood of being untrustworthy with that information.

All in all, I think the book just wasn’t what I expected, but I enjoyed what it turned out to be instead, and I’ll be looking for book two when it comes out.

Other Reviews:

Review – The Witch Collector (Witch Walker, Book 1) by Charissa Weaks (3/5 stars)

Review: The Witch Collector by Charissa Weaks

Book Review: Consort to a Dark Fey, by S.K. Kilburn

Leave a reply

I accepted a review copy of Consort to a Dark Fey, by S.K. Kilburn through Reedsy.

Aiden Moray is raising a son and a daughter with a fierce and powerful fairy, whose forest home is the secret doorway between the fey world and modern Earth.

When a fey monster crosses to Earth, kills one teenager, and injures two more Aiden must convince his incensed fairy wife to allow the human police and the FBI into her woods to investigate the attack.

As more people go missing, Aiden discovers that another vicious fairy wants the doorway between worlds and will not stop killing people until he wrests control from Aiden’s partner.

However, the antagonistic fairies are not the only ones interested in the newly discovered doorway. While Aiden’s suburban neighbors, the police, and the National Guard on the Earth side prepare for action against the forest, on the fairy side an entire fey kingdom is planning to invade Earth via the doorway.

When the two armies clash, Aiden must figure out how to save his family trapped in the middle.

This was not a big winner for me, and there are two main reasons for this. As far as I can tell, this is Kilburn’s first book, and it feels like it. The writing and plot/plot progression feel untried and underdeveloped. Names/titles/endearments are used far too often in dialogue to feel natural, and the plot jots and judders along at an uneven, uncomfortable pace.

The writing is mechanically fine, as is the editing. But it was not such that you could ever sink seamlessly into the narrative. It also feels very much like there should be a previous book somewhere. Events are referenced and characters know each other from a previous encounter. So, I felt I was missing something. That’s the first reason.

The second is a little more amorphous. Even before I looked it up to verify the S. in S.K. Kilburn is for Scott, I’d have bet my left tit that this author is a man. While Kilburn isn’t too bad about the male gaze (despite the cover), it is 100% apparent that the only individuals with an ounce of emotional maturity are the males. I say males instead of men because one is 17 and still given the agency, understanding, and narrative authority that the women are denied. The males spend the entire book smoothing female, out-of-control emotions and keeping other men from pissing them off to disastrous effect. (That’s basically the plot of the book.) None of the female characters feel fully-fledged.

I appreciate that the hero is a little older, not an alpha-male sort, and that Kilburn brought back the fae of old—powerful and inhuman, but morally bound to a morality incomprehensible to humans. This is my favorite kind of fae. But that wasn’t enough to save this novel that I was forced to skim to finish (because I wasn’t enjoying it and just wanted to be done).

Other Reviews: