Book Review: Snake-Eater by T. Kingfisher

My thanks to Netgalley, 47North and T. Kingfisher for the eARC of this book in exchange for a review. 

I want to live in T. Kingfisher's brain.

Within reason, course. Preferably where the fairytales live, where I can see where all the magic takes shape and forms into these worlds that Kingfisher let's readers live in for a short time in each of her books.

I've been slowly making my way through Kingfisher's books because each and every time I finish one, I wish there was more to it. I bought several for my Dad and he just started reading What Moves the Dead. I want to give copies to every reader in my family and tell them there are so many more awesome books by Kingfisher, they'll thank me later. I have every book set for release this year already pre-ordered and the one for next March. I'm going to start collecting her children's books so I can have something that I want to read for my kids at bedtime. If that doesn't show how much I admire and enjoy her books, well, then, I'll work on it. There's always room for improvement. 

Snake-Eater follows Selena, who has moved to Quartz Creek in search of a place to stay for a while, hoping to live with her Aunt Amelia. When she arrives with her dog Copper, she discovers that her aunt passed away a year earlier but she's encouraged to check the house over and stay for as long as she needs. Selena feels out of place, certain she can't remain for long but surely it couldn't hurt to make some money and then move on? While Selena and Copper start to settle in, Selena sees something in the garden helping her new plants grow and is suddenly having to accept that Quartz Creek has more than just the usual people she'd expect to live in a small town. There are spirits and gods around the town too, and one has ties to Selena's aunt. Now that she has moved in, it thinks Selena will take over for Ameliabecause they were kin. Selena has to figure out what the spirit wants with the help of the new friends she's made and hope that she can stay in the new home she has found.

Selena felt familiar the moment her inner monologues started. Selena works through conversations in her head, trying to come up with practiced answers for any and every variation of how talking will go in every encounter she has. She worries about if her answers will offend, if she's made her points clear enough, if she's sounding stupid, if she needs to try harder or how she can get out of conversations faster. I've never felt such a kinship to a character before because I do the EXACT SAME THING. I practice what I'll say to cashiers at the stores so I can seem friendly but hopefully not annoying because they've been on their feet for who knows how long. I work out stories in my head to tell for family gatherings so relatives will think I'm well-adjusted and so they won't make comments about my being too "shy" to talk to people when I just want to sit to the side and read a book or watch others while being on my own. When Selena used the word "shy" to describe herself and then went into all the facets of what "shy" was supposed to encompass I thought yes, that's exactly it. "Shy" isn't the right word, but it's the best people can come up with. Don't get me started on the over-analyzing I do when talking is done.

Selena felt like a version of myself in book form and because of that, she was immediately endeared to me. I would take up arms for Selena and for Copper, which is why Grandma Billy and I would get along so well. Grandma Billy is Selena's closest new neighbor, who goes above and beyond to help Selena get settled in her new home, setting up the garden, bringing supplies, introducing her to neighbors and even staying with Selena when spirits start to heckle her. Grandma Billy was tough, sassy, quick to give a helping hand and I LOVED her. Then there was Father Aguirre, the local Catholic priest who helps Selena understand the ins and outs of the town. I thought it'd be difficult to like a priest for a character, but Father Aguirre is no ordinary priest and the fact that he was another character with knowledge of the spirit world around Quartz Creek was surprising and yet, it just worked so well in the long run. Father Aguirre provided the last stable presence needed for the quartet of characters and I wanted to follow them anywhere. They showed Selena that she could be herself, no second guessing her words necessary, and when she needs help figuring out what to do about Snake-Eater, they picked up everything they needed in order to help her.

The world is so interesting. The ideas of how spirits are formed and how they interact with our world was intriguing. The details about the desert and the animals that lived there made everything feel real (the house search for black widows in hidden places when Selena first moved in gave me chills and then made me think, yeah, I've been there). Quartz Creek felt like somewhere I've been, somewhere I've heard of, and somewhere I want to go in the future. If it's at all possible, I hope Kingfisher tries setting up another book in this town. I'd love to learn more about these characters in another adventure. The spirits that are seen, Snake-Eater in particular and others readers eventually find, were detailed and yet vague enough to allow for their existence to seem like something that could have been true once upon a time. Like I said, I want to know more about this world. A sign of a great book in every respect, I assure you.

Rating on my scale: 10 Stars, obviously. I don't think it's possible for me to give anything less to a T. Kingfisher book. I've loved all the ones I've read so much and I look forward to every book to come. Thankfully, I have some of her horror novels to get to. Considering her talent as a writer, I fully expect to end up with some kind of nightmares before I'm finished reading. I'll make sure to have excuses ready for just why I needed to leave a light on at night. And keep my baseball bat by my pillow. And....you get the picture.

Book Review: The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

My thanks to Del Ray/Random House Worlds/Inklore and Silvia Moreno-Garcia for an eARC of this book in exchange for a review.

There's a thing we do in my family. For some reason, my parents insist on going out instead of staying in for the evening when we are all together. So we all pile into the car and where do we go? A bookstore. Doesn't matter that we all scatter to the four corners of the world inside that bookstore, we are together in a store, and that is apparently enough. Sometimes we go to 3 or 4 bookstores in an afternoon, if they're visiting me, and 2 if I'm visiting my hometown. It was one such visit to a bookstore when I found the jeweled red cover of a book, Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. I'd heard of this author, so when I found that book I thought, sure, why not? I've bought every Silvia Moreno-Garcia book since.

I've been looking forward to The Bewitching and this book did not disappoint me. The book follows three separate storylines, Minerva in the 1990s, Betty in the 1930s, and Alba, Minerva's great-grandmother, in the 1900s. Minerva is a graduate student working on a thesis with a focus on the works of Beatrice Tremblay, Betty, who attended the same college that Minerva is enrolled in. Betty is a woman who wrote a novel based on the disappearance of her college roomate, and her storyline recounts the events leading up to that tragic event. Alba's story follows her experience of encountering a witch when she was a young woman and living to tell the tale to Minerva, who sees similarities between her Nana Alba's story and Betty's as she delves into her thesis research at the start of the book. As Minerva works to uncover as much personal information as she can on Beatrice Tremblay, she starts to realize that whatever force went after Tremblay is still at the school and now it is following Minerva. Turns out, the stories her Nana told her might be just what Minerva needs to fight back and figure out what happened to the missing girl before something happens to her.

There is so much in this book. The atmosphere is a bit eerie, the different settings serve to highlight the difference in timelines and the struggles each woman has to deal with, each story has a distinct voice, enough so that they stand apart but meld together. I wouldn't say this is a scary story but while I was reading this book on my phone it started to ring, which was enough to make me jolt and gasp, but the word engrossing is better, I think, to describe the effect this book had on me. I wanted to take my time reading but at the same time I wanted to rush to the ending.

Things felt familiar with the stories about the little spells that Minerva learned from her Nana, and for the things that Alba did as well. My family has roots in Mexico and things like praying over someone with an egg, putting red thread on a baby's forehead to cure hiccups and wearing safety pins during a solar eclipse are just a few of the things that were a part of my childhood. So when Moreno-Garcia put similar ideas in her book, it felt like a story that could be something told in my family. It's connections like these that keep me coming back to read books by Moreno-Garcia. I want to give copies of this to my mom, my sister and my Tía, for that sake alone.

I will say I've read a LOT of mysteries, so I knew the who of the story from nearly the beginning. It was the how and the why that kept me turning pages. I wanted comeuppance and I got that, so the little vindictive bone in my body does not want to hiss and spit at a lack of punishment for the villains of the book. I'm sitting here almost pleased as punch because HA, not laughing now, are they? I especially enjoyed the Afterword by the author at the end, because again, the stories felt familiar and I see a lot of my family in the pages of this book. Also, I have several bracelets and necklaces to ward off the evil eye. It's just what we do in my family and I'll most likely pass it on when the time comes. 

Honestly, every year when it comes time to preorder books, I search to see if Silvia Moreno-Garcia has a new release for the year and then immediately add it to my shelves when it's released. Every book I've read has yet to disappoint me as a reader. I don't see that changing anytime soon. I'm planning to hound my sister into reading this book as soon as I'm finished writing this review. She loved Mexican Gothic and had been trying to get more books by Moreno-Garcia once upon a time. Need her to read this one ASAP. It'll give us something to talk about at night when we both can't sleep.

Rating on my scale: 10 Stars. This book reminds me of Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix, The Haunting of Payne's Hollow by Kelley Armstrong and A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher. If these books appeal to you as a reader, grab The Bewitching and enjoy.

Book Review: Tea & Alchemy by Sharon Lynn Fisher

My thanks to Netgalley, 47North and Sharon Lynn Fisher for the eARC in exchange for a review of this book.

When I was in college, I had the opportunity to take a class focused on studying vampires in different short stories and books. This book opens with a quote from Polidori's The Vampyre. For those that don't know the background, Polidori was there the night of the contest, the one that gave readers Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. It's that background, a dark and dreary estate out in what feels like the middle of nowhere, that helps set the mood and location of this book. This book reminded me of those stories I studied, showing that Fisher did her research and absorbed their influences, using the familiar from those works and creating a new vampire story. Because let's face it, vampires are something that has been around in books, shows and films for ages. This book fits in with other gothic romances but at the same time stands apart, because while I found familiar vampire ideas while reading, I did not expect the changes that Fisher created that made this different from other vampire works.

This book follows Mina Penrose (yes, Mina, Fisher did that and made her vampire a man named Harker. On the nose? Obviously. But I look at it as a nod to those characters, a show of respect for the characters that have come before). The other lead is, as I said before, Harker Tregarrick, a recluse living in a chapel that overlooks the village, whose family land and history has kept rumors swirling about what kind of man would keep himself locked away from the rest of the village. After the death of her parents a few years earlier, Mina has found something for herself to do, work in a tea room while her twin brother, Jack, works in the mines like their father did. At the start of the book, Mina is starting to realize that she can see shapes in the tea leaves left behind in the cups of customers coming throughout the day. Mina can see things in the shapes, recognizing enough that when things happen to those customers of the leaves she's "read", she realizes that she can see things coming for those people before they happen. Mina reads the leaves of one patron, hinting at something bad to come, and then finds a man murdered on her way home. The body is at the edge of the Tregarrick property, which leads Harker to come down from his tower to meet Mina, and the two slowly come to work together to find out how the stories about the Tregarrick family relate to what is now happening in the village.

I really liked Mina. I liked the idea of a young woman taking steps to change her life, getting a job, learning to read, creating more for her life so that she has something to look forward to. Mina's job puts her at odds with her brother, who has been trying to get Mina to give up her job for reasons of his own. I liked the dynamic between the siblings, which made sense in terms of the period and just the way siblings quarrel over many things. Mina has a solid head on her shoulders, logical and curious, which helps her when she meets Harker and starts to work on unraveling the mystery of the story. Harker is given his own chapters to narrate, which help to build up the tragic backstory of a man forced to become a vampire and then choosing to cut himself off from society rather than risk harming anyone he meets. Fisher manages to create two distinct voices in these chapters, separating the points of view perfectly, with each working to elaborate the nuances of Mina and Harker and revealing their histories in an natural way. Nothing felt shoehorned in, nothing was forced. The reveals worked to build sympathy for the characters and created an eerie atmosphere that worked for the mystery at the center of the story.

All the secondary characters were given their chance to shine with Fisher easily making them as detailed as the leads even with the little page time they had. I wanted to wring Jack's neck and I loved the support that Mrs. Moyle gave Mina. I enjoyed their interactions and the build of the story. I liked the familiar gothic setting of the moors and an old village filled with the usual small-minded people and the people who are able to come together to help those that need it. The focus of the novel worked, building the tension needed for the mysterious assailant that Mina and Harker are trying to find. And the reveal about what exactly is working against the characters and how it relates to Harker and Mina was just so interesting. I was not expecting the reveals that Fisher gave and I appreciated how Fisher was able to hold some of the smaller threads of the story I was still wanting to understand and then provided the answers readers needed. Everything flows in the book, the slow burn between Mina and Harker adding to the easy pace of the story. The book flows, think more trickling stream versus rushing river, and it adds to the vibe of cozy murder mystery that allows readers to enjoy the reveals as they come without being rushed. It's obviously well-researched as well, always a plus in my opinion.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book. I read Fisher's debut, Ghost Planet, back when it was first published and managed to find my copy in my library a few nights ago. I also have The Ophelia Prophecy right next to it on the shelf, so obviously will be starting that book this weekend. I also have Salt & Broom on my tablet, so suffice to say, I have a good number of Fisher novels to get back to reading, and a bunch more that I'll soon discover for the first time. Thanks to this book, I've found another author that I'll be following closely from now on, and I always like it when I can find an author with enough books to add to my towering TBR stacks.

Rating on my scale: 9 Stars. I'm a selfish reader, I wish there was a little more to the story. More to delve into, more to witness with how it ends or even what is to come. Still, like I said, there are more Fisher books for me to read, so at least there's that for me.

Book Review: Wild and Wrangled by Lyla Sage

I still have 1 more book in this series to read. This one feels unfinished somehow, though. I think my issue is the way things still stand with Cam's parents. I feel like we should have seen some mention of them in passing and then have Cam actively saying or thinking something about how she's cut off communication with them until things change. As it is in the book, sure, it was great she walked away from them but after years of how they were, I wanted something with a bit more of a swift kick to the ribs kind of feel to it.

Also, that last tiff between Cam and Dusty was just meh. I was glad that Wes was quick to point out how Cam was being stupid and looking for something to keep her and Dusty apart. I know people make these kind of decisions all the time but ugh, it just irks me. At least it doesn't get dragged out, Sage is quick to resolve these issues in this series. Forever grateful for that.

I liked this one more than the first two books. If that pattern holds, I might really like Gus and Teddy's story. Fingers crossed.

P.s. I thought the reason they stayed apart for so long was going to be something more? Instead, she left and then just what? They texted occasionally? Seemed a little weird to me.

Book Review: Terror at the Gates by Scarlett St. Clair

My thanks to Netgalley, Bloom Books and Scarlett St. Clair for an eARC in exchange for a review of this book.

I just finished reading this. My eyes are burning from a lack of sleep, my stomach is growling and I think, wait, yes, I do actually have a headache twisting around in my left temple. But good grief, I am sitting here just impressed with this book. I have no other way to describe how I feel sitting here, having just finished the novel AND the Author's Note at the back. I would clap but that seems weird, right?

There are references in the back of the book. Yes, I am making notes on all of them and adding them to my list of things to read soon. This book reminded me of an article I studied in high school, about the various ways people lie and there was a section on lying by omission that mentioned Lilith. Back then I only had so many resources to read up on this idea of Lilith and how mentions of her had been excised from texts deliberately. The fact that St. Clair has research and placed it in the book for others to read for themselves makes that impressed statement I made in the last paragraph turn into RESPECT because St. Clair is giving readers the opportunity to form their own opinions using the sources she had at her disposal and that is just BRAVO. Now moving on to a review of the book itself.

I have quite the number of books by St. Clair and I have always felt that St. Clair books are written in such a concise yet accesible way. There's an attention to detail, a clear and well-developed world/setting, and rounded main characters that make it easy to get swept up in the writing of these books. Terror at the Gates is no different. I wanted to read faster but at the same time I knew I wanted to take my time to appreciate all the nuance that St. Clair has worked into this story. I have no idea where the story will go or how many books it will take to get there but I will be reading each book as they are released.

Terror at the Gates follows Lilith, a young woman living estranged from her family, who comes into the possession of a blade with strange origins. In an attempt to pawn it, Lilith learns there is more in play with what the dagger can do and who it belonged to, making Lilith and those she loves and trusts new players in a plot that will change all they know about their existence, both physically and spiritually. I remember reading in St. Clair's newsletter about this book last year and I was drawn in by the description of a "fantasy mafia" but was particularly intrigued by the name Lilith and all the connotations from there. The writing is vague on the specifics of what religion is in the book but uses enough ideas to make it both familiar and yet wholly unique, with how their church was developed and how the world uses the writings of the church to control the congregation. There are trigger warnings at the start of the book that definitely need to be taken into consideration and the Author's Note at the back deserves a read as well. Concerning the trauma in this book, I feel St. Clair gave it the respect it needed without going over the top. 

I don't want to say I loved Lilith as a character but I rooted for her every step of the way. She was selfish, impulsive, and yet loyal to a fault for those that deserved it and I respected her for that. Zahariev was an interesting man, in the sense that he seemed the only one capable of going toe to toe with Lilith, but I'm hoping for more on his motivations in the next book. Readers know he is devoted to Lilith and commands his territory in a ruthless kind of way but outside of that I have no idea how else to describe him. I guess he's the classic brooding love interest? There are short asides from his point of view interspersed throughout the book but they only reinforce his thoughts and feelings for Lilith and not much else. It's not enough to make me like this book any less but it does bear some mentioning when talking about the character development. Some of the secondary characters could use some more fleshing out as well, like Coco and Gabriel, some of Lilith's closest friends. I know that Lilith would do anything for them because she said so but readers aren't shown much of the why behind it. Considering the scope given of the world and where it's headed, no doubt their specifics will be given at a later time. There's just so much to get into place to begin with, it'll take time to give the rest of the characters their time to stand apart from the crowd.

I don't know how to put into words the points made about authority figures in religious settings. Suffice to say, I think if anything at all, what is seen in this book will allow readers to have the grounds to openly discuss trauma and abuse seen in religion, as St. Clair made a point to discuss in the note at the back of the book. The point is that some institutes of religion, any or maybe every religion, have things they try to hide about their inner workings and some even knowingly hide the wrongdoings of their workers for the sake of keeping their image unblemished. This book shows a little of what could happen when someone decides to fight back.

Rating on my scale: 10 Stars. My head and my heart hurt for different reasons after reading this book. I hope the wait for the next installment isn't too far into the future. 

Book Review: Witch Lore by Emma Hinds

My thanks to Netgalley, Wednesday Books and Emma Hinds for the eARC in exchange for a review of this book.

It's hard to put into words what I felt at the end of this book. I definitely liked it but at the same time, I'm not gushing over it. It's more a quiet feeling of introspection, sitting with the struggles of the book and understanding the ending that it had.

The book focuses on the grief of Lando, a shapeshifter attending college with a bunch of witches, who is unable to control their magic and who is mourning the loss of their girlfriend, who died at the beginning of summer. When Bastian starts attending the college with Lando, Bastian tells Lando that a spell exists that would bring their girlfriend back to life. They just need to get everything the spell needs and they can cast the spell and get her back. Lando wants that more than anything and is willing to put their life on the line to make it happen.

First of all, I am in no way, shape or form able to make any comment on the overall character of Lando. I want to start with that because I respect the representation, I believe that a character like Lando should exist. I just feel like I can't put words to make any kind of assessment on the existence of the character. I respect their feelings, their thoughts, the struggles portrayed in the book, but I can't say if it will resonate for the readers who identify with Lando's identity. I'll leave that in the expert hands of my peers, who can delve into exactly how Lando's everything worked for them as readers. I liked Lando overall, and their story kept me reading to the end of the book, a sign of a well written character.

Next, talking about the world of the book, I'll admit I was left wanting more detail. It's an interesting concept, the idea of witches and shapeshifters existing in the world today, out in the open. I would have wanted to see more of the ins and outs of their existence and how the non-magic people of the world interact with witches and shapeshifters. There were a few encounters in the beginning of the book, interactions that made it seem like witches and shapeshifters are scorned, but I can't tell if this is an all the time type of thing or if it just happened to be what Lando witnessed.

It is all a bit vague in the sense that the book only focuses on Lando's storyline, finding what they need for the resurrection spell, and it stays focused on that. There is some mention of Lando having a normal job at a store, but we don't see Lando at work, only going to and coming back from their job. Lando is seen at their halfway home and in school settings, only interacting with witches. When Lando and Bastian travel, again, the story focuses on the two characters, and we know there are people around them but they have no bearings on the story.

Even when Lando is at school, there is very little detail given about the courses or the purpose of the school. The only time a little detail is given about the particulars of a school course, it was to give detail for the resurrection plot. Almost made it feel like a school setting was not completely necessary. I feel like seeing more of Lando's struggle with exams and spell casting would have helped with rounding out Lando and filling in details of the story. 

I had my suspicions of how things would play out in the book and wanting to find out if I was right is what kept me going with this book. In the end, I liked the reveals and the strength that Lando earned by the last page. I would have wanted more but it still works very well with what readers are given.

Rating on my scale: 7.5 Stars. I'll be keeping Emma Hinds on my list of authors to pay attention to and I look forward to reading more books from them in the future. This release shows they have the chops to create books I'll be interested in reading.

Book Review: A Curious Kind of Magic by Mara Rutherford

My thanks to Netgalley, Wednesday Books and Mara Rutherford for the eARC in exchange for a review.

My first thought when I finished reading this around 4 in the morning was this: Aww, that was so sweet!

Charming. Poignant, even. I have not had the chance to read many books by Rutherford yet, (by my count, I have at least 4 of them, unread), so I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. When I saw Howl mentioned in the synopsis, I thought, okay, I'll bite, and I was not disappointed by the comparison at all.

The book follows Willow Stokes, a seventeen-year-old determined to keep her father's shop going, despite the fact that the entire town knows that her father was a fraud and she is following in his footsteps. Willow is desperate to make a sale, so when Brianna Hargrave shows up in her shop, Willow thinks Brianna is the answer she's been looking for. With a touch from Brianna, the items in the shop become magic again, and Willow sees so many possibilities ahead of them, all of it dependent on if she can just get Brianna to stay and help her. Except Brianna does not want to help, she wants to find a book of spells tied to her "curse", and get rid of it once and for all. The two make a bargain, Brianna will help with the shop while Willow helps to find the spell Brianna needs to get rid of her curse so she can go back home. As the girls work together and learn more about each other, they start to discover that the things they knew to be true aren't what they thought, and that what they saw in their futures is different than what any them would have believed could be possible.

The writing is concise, the pace a little more of a walk than a sprint, with quiet moments to sit and reflect which helped develop the cozy feeling needed for the narrative. The point of the story is the growth of the characters, which does not mean racing through character interactions, or quick banter. The development takes its time, allowing room to expand in a way that feels natural to the storytelling. Everything feels earned with the story and characters, even that what-just-happened moment near the end where I thought, okay, just go with it, and I laughed right along with Willow and Brianna when all was said and done.

With talking about the characters, yes, Willow bugged me at the start. She was selfish and stubborn, and kept putting her wants first instead of considering what was best for other people, Brianna and Finlay mainly, her new friend and the young man who has been her best friend since her father passed away two years before the start of the book. I wanted to shake her every time she did something without thinking first, so when Willow finally starts to consider her actions and their consequences, I thought FINALLY, she's getting her head on straight. I understood how she'd become that way and I appreciated how her journey was able to make her into a better version of herself and that Willow knew that as well. I liked her dynamic with Brianna, and how the two of them made each other think of things differently. Brianna was stubborn as well, and the two of them were two halves of the same whole. They challenged each other and supported each other and I thought they were wonderful together. Finlay was a sweet addition to their group, helping Willow to understand that having more friends to care about only made her stronger.

I loved how the book turned into a story about acceptance. Each character, Willow, Brianna and Finlay, had to accept each other and themselves, flaws and all, and once the ending hits, I wanted to gather them all into a hug and squeeze so tight. That's why I thought this book was so sweet. Some books can come off too strong with driving home a theme like that, but this book shows how Rutherford put in the work that makes the ending feel like the payoff readers need. I'll be reading the other Rutherford books I currently own, and be looking forward to future releases as well. Job well done indeed and I tip my hat to this book and to Mara Rutherford. 

Rating on my scale: After sitting with this overnight, I've decided 10 stars. It gave all the right feelings, reminded me of all the best cozy fantasy books of my youth, and has made me determined to read more of Mara Rutherford's books. If a book manages to do ALL of that, doesn't it deserve all the stars?