Tag Archives: lgbtq

thirsty mermaid title

Book Review: Thirsty Mermaid, by Kat Leyh

Leave a reply

I won a hardcover copy of Kat Leyh‘s Thirsty Mermaids through Goodreads.
thirsty mermaids

Fresh out of shipwreck wine, three tipsy mermaids decide to magically masquerade as humans and sneak onto land to indulge in much more drinking and a whole lot of fun in the heart of a local seaside tourist trap. But the good times abruptly end the next morning as, through the haze of killer hangovers, the trio realizes they never actually learned how to break the spell, and are now stuck on land for the foreseeable future. Which means everything from: enlisting the aid of their I-know-we-just-met-can-we-crash-with-you bartender friend, struggling to make sense of the world around them, and even trying to get a job with no skill set…all while attempting to somehow return to the sea and making the most of their current situation with tenacity and camaraderie (especially if someone else is buying).

my review

A fun romp with loads of rep and found family, as well as a wonderful love yourself, whatever skin you’re in, moral. I wasn’t keen on the artwork in beginning, but it grew on me as the book progressed. Honestly, I could say the same for the humor. It was just too over the top in the beginning, but once it toned down a little I enjoyed it. All in all, I’m glad to have read it, but I didn’t love or hate it enough to give it much more of a review.

thirsty mermaids

Other Reviews:

REVIEW: Thirsty Mermaids by Kay Leyh

https://readerfox.com/review/thirsty-mermaids-kat-leyh-2/

The-Theurgy-of-Gods-Twitter3-01

Book Review: A Flight in the Heavens, by Gabrielle Gagne-Cyr

Leave a reply

I accepted a review copy of A Flight in the Heavens (The Theurgy of the Gods, #1) from the author, Gabrielle Gagne-Cyr. (Though I noticed it was free on Amazon at the time of posting.) It was also promoed on Sadie’s Spotlight.

the-theurgy-of-the-gods

“I see you my little moppets.”

The king is dead, long live his murderer. After fifteen years of passive torment, Farrah and her implacable group of renegades endeavour to alter their fates by attempting to assassinate the man who stole everything from them, Daemon Daromas. Alas, he who wields the theurgy of the gods has no rivals in the lands of Iscar but those foolish enough to challenge their wrath.

When confronted by this ancient and destructive force, the renegades have no choice but to flee the capital and embark on the airship of Iscar’s most notorious sky corsair Captain Feras Sadahl, daughter of the late pirate sovereign. Their meeting with the corsair, however, might not have been as welcome as they would have hoped.

As Farrah and her allies set out on a journey to find the means to challenge their oppressor, they soon discover that the price of power is steep and the road to get one’s hands on it, perilous.

my review

It took me forever and a day to finish this book. Granted, it’s a long book. But I’m a really fast, obsessive reader and generally prefer to read one book at a time. But if I’m not particularly grabbed by one, I sometimes let myself take a break and read something else between chapters. How many books I splice in while reading one can be taken as a signifier of how much I’m enjoying a book (or not). In the case of A Flight in the Heavens I read something like 16! Well, I listened to most of them (but that’s mostly because it’s the format that was available to me). There are a myriad of reason, none of which are that the book is horrible.

But before I get into the criticisms, let me drop some positives. A Flight in the Heavens is epic in scope. Both because it’s 509 pages long and because at the end of 509 pages, the over-arching plot has barely started (though it comes to a natural stopping point). It’s a big world, with some interesting characters. I truly liked Faras and Farrah and wanted them to accomplish their goal. And every once in a while Gagne-Cyr would give us some fabulously vivid imagery, like, “Essan and Thorick had been going at each other’s throats in a peculiar duel resembling the portrait of a lethal insect attempting to sting a bear.” But none of that was enough to keep me interested.

The problem is that the book is about 200 pages longer than it needs to be. It too wordy. (See the insect and bear line above. I love the analogy, but the sentence if wordier than it needs to be.) It’s too repetitive (we’re told the same information multiple times), too dependent on exposition, and too FULL of awkward word usages. For me, this last was the biggest challenge. I almost always knew what Gagne-Cyr meant, but the language is jarringly inaccurate.

Here are a few of the last ones I remember, “…trying not to make eye contact with the soaring utensil…” How do you make eye contact with a spoon that has no eyes? Or, “he snarled in a delighted tone of voice…” I mean, I suppose it’s possible, but a snarl usually accompanies anger or hatred. “…shattered the skin of his midsection.” The verb shatter infers something brittle or crystalline breaking, skin is supple. I can’t imagine it shattering. Again, I know what all of these sentences meant and they might not even be technically wrong, but every single one pulled me from the narrative. And there was one on most pages, which meant I never could just sink into the story and coast along. I was always restarting and loosing gumption.

Though I think an additional editor could have helped tighten the narrative and help Gagne-Cyr with the awkward word choices, I have to admit the book seems really clean in terms of mechanical edits. I don’t really remember any typo or missing word sort of errors. So, in the end, I think this is just going to be a matter of taste. Either you like Gagne-Cyr’s creative use of language or it distracts you from the reading (as it did me). Only one way to find out, really, give it a try.

a flight in the heavens

Other Reviews:

w.a. stanley

c.e. clayton

The Lesbian Review

sairos-claw_mclain_banner

Book Review: Sairō’s Claw, by Virginia McClain

4 Replies

I received a copy of Virginia McClain‘s Sairō’s Claw as part of Storytellers On Tour‘s book tour when it was promoed on Sadie’s Spotlight.

Sairo's Claw

Sairō’s Claw
by Virginia McClain
Series: Gensokai Kaigai (#1), Chronicles of Gensokai (#3)
Published: May 7, 2021
Genre: Fantasy, Action-Adventure, LGBTQ, Seafaring Adventure Fantasy,
Samurai-inspired Fantasy
Pages: 471
CW: Violence

POSSIBLE ULTIMATE TOUR EXPERIENCE TICKETS: An Unforgettable Sidekick, Represent, Under The Sea, It’s All About The Journey, That Ship Has Sailed, Love Actually, The More The Merrier, The Pack Is Back In Town, Blood Suckers, A Villain You Love To Hate

Blurb:

An action-adventure fantasy romp featuring sword lesbians, sea battles, and a grumpy wolf spirit.

Torako has done many things to protect the valley that she calls home, but she’s never looted a corpse before. So when the katana she steals off the still-cooling body of a bandit turns out to be possessed by a grumpy wolf kami, she can only assume it’s because she’s somehow angered the spirits. An impression that’s only reinforced when she returns home to find her wife abducted and her daughter in hiding. But angry spirits or no, Torako isn’t about to let bandits run off with the love of her life, even if it means taking their 3 year old on a rescue mission.

In all Kaiyo’s years as Captain of the Wind Serpent she has never once questioned her admiral’s orders. So when she receives the command to abduct a civilian scribe with the help of fifteen felons, she registers her objections, but does as she is bid. Yet, as the mission unfolds, Kaiyo finds herself questioning everything from her loyalties to her convictions.

As Torako and Kaiyo’s fates cross like dueling blades, their persistence is matched only by their fury, until they uncover a series of truths they may never be ready to accept.

Goodreads / Amazon /
Bookshop (Hardcover) / Bookshop (Paperback)

sairos-claw_mclain_mockup

My Review:

I generally enjoyed this and have many good things to say about it. But let me get the grumble out of the way first. This is labeled (Gensokai Kaigai #1). But what it very clearly is is book one of a spin-off of Chronicles of Gensokai. I say “clearly,” not only because I’ve looked it up and know, but because the book felt, almost start to finish, like a spin-off of something else.

I don’t actually think this was meant to be hidden knowledge (which I do sometimes think when I find myself in this position), but I mention it because I would not suggest reading this without having read the Chronicles of Gensokai first. It’s followable, but I definitely feel like I missed something because I did.

sairos clawOk, with that out of the way, lets get to all of the ways I loved this book. McClain can write. I mean really write. The text is clean and easy to read from the first page to the last. The characters are fun and there’s quite a lot of subtle humor involved. If I had any talent at drawing I would create fan art of Torako and Tanaka. Plus, the book is just fun and full of a fairly diverse cast.

I did think the child needed to be a little older than 3-years-old to be believable, five maybe. She’s too articulate and focused for a 3yo, even an exceptionally talented one. The two arcs of the story are such that the book feels like two separate stories, rather than two parts of the same one. The book basically starts with Kaiyo’s character. But Torako, who is the first person named in the blurb (who’s name is, in fact, the first word of the blurb) doesn’t show up until page 129. That’s a long time to go before meeting a main character. The book felt like Kaiyo’s book up until that point. Then it felt like Torako’s for a while, and then Kaiyos. Both plots were interesting, but they didn’t feel like part of the same work until near the very end.

I liked the book, though I was confused at times due to not having read Blade’s Edge and Traitor’s Hope. I’d be interested in going back and reading them and I think I accidentally own one other unrelated McClain book. Since I now know I like her writing style, I might just move it up the TBR.

Author Info:

Virginia McClain is an author who masqueraded as a language teacher for a decade or so. When she’s not reading or writing she can generally be found playing outside with her four legged adventure buddy and the tiny human she helped to build from scratch. She enjoys climbing to the top of tall rocks, running through deserts, mountains, and woodlands, and carrying a foldable home on her back whenever she gets a chance. She’s also fond of word games, and writing descriptions of herself that are needlessly vague.

Virginia McClain
Website / Twitter / Instagram / Facebook

sairos-claw_mclain_banner-hosts

Follow the rest of the tour.