connorjdaley's reviews
1100 reviews

Received this one from NetGalley, so thanks to them and Tordotcom! The narration done by Helen McAlpine was awesome. Good accents, differing tones and variations. Nice and quick. 

This has all the feel of an old school classic fantasy, without any of the additional background world building or lore. As a novella, it gets to the point awfully quick, while some of the additional bits that the author dropped did make the world feel whole to me, like maybe they knew it much deeper than they wrote it out. For me, that works quite well. There’s certainly a line where a lack of information can feel like it’s genuinely missing, but this toed that line just enough with its epitaph-esque interlude chapters, bringing a historical background to why they are on the hunt. IE., a complete and somewhat linear story that doesn’t stray from the plot, while appearing to take place in a whole, fleshed out world/universe. 

This novella feels like it spawned from the single line of, “I am no man” and went on from there to become its own thing. A feminist, sapphic dragon hunting novella that packs a punch against toxic masculinity and gender roles. And Knight Maddileh is knocking down those barriers and putting mouthy squires in their places. 

This was quick, enjoyable, and features quite a twist that I was not ready for. I do wish the actual situation with the dragon was longer, as it appeared like it would be the focal point, and with such a beautiful cover, I was imagining Smaug or GoT level battles in my mind, but there is certainly room for more…and an already announced sequel. 

I received an audible code from the author for review, John Pirhalla does a good job with the narration, offering up a nice southern drawl and differing, distinct voices for each character. 

I was interesting in this one and it was on my radar for the cover alone. I actually only read the blurb after starting it! This is an alt history novel that mixes fantasy, action, and humor into its gunslinging antics. Elias Faust is the marshal of Blackpeak, and while he may only believe in shooting people that deserve it, he does seem to do so an awful lot. A fist fight here, some disagreements there, larceny. The first couple of parts of the book start off with typical, mostly time period correct, tomfoolery. The fantasy element is quite toned down, and I found that it worked well with its slower buildup (the fantasy buildup is slow, the novel is not). And within this groove I found myself really enjoying it. 

The later part of the book, when things started heating up, the fantasy element is heightened as well, and within that I struggled a bit. The magnate is out for revenge, trying his hardest to wrangle up Faust and stop him from turning his entire plot topsy-turvy. There are celestial beings(?), as well as semi-conscious reanimated corpses, and then a strange somewhat Trueblood-esque coyote situation that confused me a bit. A bunch of which kind of felt like possible eldritch town-lore, but lacked a bit of the horror and darkness to solidify it for me. Faust’s ability to survive and be guided felt kind of fantasy dream sequence-y to me, which is something I always struggle with. 

Regardless, for a unique blend of western and fantasy, this gunslinging marshal does have a lot of fun to offer. And with the audio, it was an effortlessly fun thing to listen to. The dream sequence part, which I avoided details because [spoilers] is a known personal issue for me, and I’m sure others will not feel the same whatsoever. So grab your colts, load em, and saddle up. 

Wow. Dumbrell offers up his best novel yet, taking everything he learned while crafting the Pillars of Peace trilogy, and improving on every level. 

The novel begins with the author crafting up another signature world that feels both fantasy, and historical. The Cadraelian Kingdom has been expanding its borders for years, the men are weary, and some call for an end to the war. However, that has left the unconquered lands at the kingdom’s borders that much more uneasy. This new world is filled with more than names, there are hints of backstory, battle name drops, historical references, and old wounds. The author’s ability to create more than one world that feels full and lush and real is immensely impressive to me. And his ability to name things that just sound right is uncanny. 

Inside this world, the author has crafted another unbelievable cast of characters, and this time, there’s an awful lot of them. A royal family, the king’s ministry of six, love interests, bordering leaders, and so much more. They’re dynamic, multilayered with heart, pride, fear, anger, and corruption. This is a very dialogue forward novel, as you will find with many mystery elements, and the author handles it all with a deft hand that will keep you turning pages long after you were supposed to go to sleep. 

The character of Prince Leander, while certainly less than faultless, is crafted in such a way as to rival even that of Cyrus from the Pillars of Peace. While Cyrus is memorable in his purity and goodness, Leander is built from the ground up with the thought of an overbearing, quick-to-anger, and quick to drink, King of a father in mind. Therefore his imperfections ring as real, fleshed out character traits. Heavy is the head that’ll wear the crown, and this heir just might meet his fair share of pitfalls. 

As readers will see from the acknowledgments, the author sought to create a fantasy world and then mesh it with the murder mystery genre most commonly dominated by the queen of mystery herself, Agatha Christie. And while I’m no expert, I certainly have quite a bit of experience with both fantasy worlds, and the works of Christie. Having just finished now, one of the most impressive things to me is that while the book was starting out, I thought the author was spending time to grow his vision for his world. And while it’s true he was, he was also already sowing the seeds for what was to come, dropping hints and clues along the way, from the very beginning. It takes a particular set of skills to know where you’re heading while still building the basis for your characters’ existence, and Dumbrell smashed it. 

One thing that tends to worry me about the fantasy/mystery blend is that when it includes certain types of action, the deaths can kind of just feel like an addition to the body count, whereas in a mystery, death is not a common occurrence, and therefore it’s jarring and startles the reader. While the author references war and violence, it does not actually take place within this story, therefore subverting the typical issue, and making the murder mystery gruesome and out of place even in a royal palace. 

And while there are hints of a more graphic nature, the deaths that follow certainly earn a stamp of approval in the arena of Christie mystery writing. And without spoiling, the author also does a fantastic job of injecting Christie into a powerful twist with a very surprising turnaround. And much like a Christie ending, no one leaves the novel unscathed. 

…There is also a man with a mustache and cane…how could there not be???

Another smash hit release to tell your moms, dads, daddies, and even unborn nephews about. Really feels like a natural evolution for the author, almost as if the small snippet of the King’s poisoning from The Look of a King was expanded into its own story. Very well done. 

I won the special edition hardcover during a Twitter giveaway and decided to bump it up my TBR to add another read in for May. The hardcover has this great cover art, and the chapter pages had a nice fox image to match the story. 

This is a grief horror that mixes backwoods magic with a story of revenge. Our main character is seeking vengeance for wrongs done to her family, but she doesn’t want to do so alone. Therefore she uses her herbal magic and an undead fox to bring back part of the soul of her father. I enjoyed as the story unpeeled how the magic was done, using water from behind the family home, and herbs from where he was buried to link the ceremony together. 

But how much he remembers, and how well he will take this resurrection into the body of an animal, are up in the air. And will he be an accessory to the vengeance, or the unwanted voice of reason? 

In a short number of pages, the author does a great job of creating such a bleak world and atmosphere. In that way, it reminded me of one of my favorite zombie reads, Worse Than Dying by Brett Van Valkenburg. While Undead Folk is post apocalyptic, there hasn’t been an entire eradication of the human race, though humanity can be awfully dark. Our main has to face this darkness, while trying to manage her own grief, and certainly some darkness of her own, all in the name of survival. 

While this does take the reader through different phases of the main’s grief, I was surprised that it was a bit less sad than I was expecting, but then again, it did have a big focus on revenge. Either way, it certainly sits on the shelf of grief horror with the likes of Clay McLeod Chapman’s latest, Stay on the Line. 

Another of her Amazon original short stories, I honestly love seeing these pop up randomly. 

Years ago, one of the friends made an enemy of an up and coming writer by not including him in their anthology. The scorned writer then launched a campaign of hate that spanned an entire friend group and multiple years. 

Now, much older, and some of them even grandmothers, they tend to reminisce over drinks and cheeses…oh and discuss murder. The short story that follows is one of revenge, nostalgia, and grudges held. Atwood continues her craft with lightning quick prose and witty writing. 

They might never get all the way up to murder, but laxative filled hash brownies is awfully funny. 

Thank you to the author for the audio code for my enjoyment! 

If the cover art and title haven’t signified enough for you yet, this is cozy fantasy. A newly popular genre, with releases like Legends and Lattes and Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea, however I had yet to dip my toes into it. So Quaint Creatures was a first, and I went in knowing next to nothing other than what the word ‘cozy’ meant. I was pleasantly surprised, and I greatly enjoyed it. 

Norrik Softstep is a magical animal veterinarian, oh and a giant…but he’s awfully gentle! With visits from the likes of drakes, chimeras, and gryphons, and a slew of creatures I can only imagine came from the mind of the author, this felt like a much better managed concept of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. And yet I loved how it differentiated itself with a world full of different creatures and beings too. Like Minotaurs, frost fairies, orcs and elves, to even the unlikely with skeletons, zombies and ghosts. It was refreshing and unique, and the author is one hell of a narrator. 

I also really liked that the novel features an undertone of a mystery as well. It opens up with the main character being asked to inspect a mysterious and magical crate that was confiscated. Norrik and his wife are also still investigating their home, as the halls and tunnels seem never ending. It’s not without tension, nor is it lacking action, it just has this laidback, friendly approach to its writing that makes it as smooth sailing as it is page turning. 

I would highly recommend bumping this up your TBR regardless of if you are new like me, or already a fan of the sub genre. 

So this is a reread for me. I recall listening to it and reviewing it, and as I just finished season two the other day I remembered this and looked for it and it was entirely gone. No review on audible, Goodreads, or my instagram. So maybe I dreamed it. Oddly fitting. 

Tangle in the Dark is a prequel to the Amazon Original show. It features Tourmaline Larou (whose actor, Karla Crome, does the narration for this...quite well too) as the main character, her time as a student at university, and the beginnings of her relationship with Vignette. It serves to further deepen the characters, especially as this deals with some of the world's classism between even the same races, before the show itself starts to show the darker side of the world's feelings between the races. As a student, budding poet, and nighttime partygoer, Tourmaline has to learn to overcome some of her preconceived notions about those that maybe are outside of her own social class. It makes their relationship seem more real, as their attraction to each other also teaches them about themselves. It's also interesting to see simply because the world they are in, and the lives they are living, in the show are so drastically different from what we read here. It gives off possible ideas for what the show could have looked like during peace times (if we can even believe those are possible). 

Enjoyable, a bit refreshing in how different it is, and quick.

Thanks again to the authors for the audible code! The narration by Jennifer Pratt, who took over with book 2, really sells the story and her voice work is great. 

This is the third and final book in The Prophecies of Ragnarok trilogy. The first, Hotel Fen, is almost like a fantasy/romance mixed with hotel horror. The second, Monster Ridge, amps up the fantasy content, really bringing out the Norse Mythology, and getting more into the characters’ pasts. And this third one, really takes off from there. The consequences of book two have started The Great Winter, bringing all of earth to survival basics, and Ragnarok has begun. 

Our star-crossed and forever-(ill)fated lovers, Victor and Silje, are still just trying to make it work. Why does that always seem to involve someone chasing them, attacking or kidnapping them, or them having to try to save the world/universe? 

There is character growth in this one even though it’s pretty all-out action. Their past-selves bleed more and more into their present-selves, bringing with it strengths and abilities long forgotten. Angers too. 

I was pleasantly surprised by the action in this one. While molded by Norse Mythology, the authors clearly weren’t afraid to write this as their own. I think it’s probably because of the recent Thor movies (naturally) but this feels like almost ‘superhero level’ action—and I mean that in a good way. And with that, there is of course sacrifice…to save everything, something or someone is gonna have to give. It felt worth it, it felt earned, and yes it hurt like hell (Hel). And I’m still so happy that it wrapped up with just a dash of hope. 

These two authors have cooked up a well done trilogy, and I would love to see more people talking about it! 

Thanks to Shortwave Media for the physical arc! 

Read this in a single sitting, which as a novelette might not be that crazy, but I’ve been having trouble focusing for periods of time. So this one really grasped me and I ran with it. 

A hurricane hits a small coastal town, taking the lives of multiple loved ones, and yet not damaging the long-dead payphone. When folks start looking for a way to grieve, to move on, to speak to them one more time, they may just find what they need in the phone booth, but will it be enough…Or even too much?

As much as this is a drama and a story of loss, this really fits into what I’ve come to think of as grief horror (which I may or may not have picked up from author Katherine Silva?). Beats of the unthinkable, perhaps supernatural, tinged with people dealing with horrible loss. It could all be taken as in the heads of those grieving, but what if it’s not? Not to mention the crazy black and white illustrations throughout by Trevor Henderson definitely add an additional layer of darkness to the story. 

And big shout out to Shortwave for the quality of this one. For the art it has these nice thick pages and the book itself felt solid. Just like an old school Scholastic Goosebumps book.