I’ve read thousands of books, so I really appreciate genre-bending books that break away from the tried and true plots. I like mixing werewolves and elves in my own work, and world-building is great fun, yet difficult to do, so it’s a treat when it’s done well. Writing an engaging character is a talent, and making a reader care about their story is a skill. It’s a gift to readers when we find that rare book that will keep us coming back, knowing that this is the medicine we need to escape a stressful day.
I love Larry’s cheeky sense of humor. Sometimes you just need a book with irredeemable bad guys that you can kill with no moral dilemma. Also, he has strong, sensible women, as opposed to the “spunky” type who do stupid things like pick berries in werewolf-infested woods to prove they’re tough. I admire a woman who can handle a sniper rifle, a family, and run a company. Plus, trailer park elves and gangster gnomes. Makes me smile every time.
Sometimes I’m in the mood for complex world building. The hero has been given a raw deal. He manages to go from rags to riches and not lose his head...literally. He navigates entrenched politics with grace and overcomes his lack of skills with self education. He also builds relationships with all classes of people that earn him the name of bridge maker. He’s an excellent example of blooming where you’re planted.
The youngest half-goblin son of the Emperor lived his life in exile, distant from the Imperial Court. But when his father and the three sons in line for the throne die in an "accident," he must take his place as the only surviving heir. Entirely unschooled in the art of court politics, he has no friends, no advisors, and the knowledge that whoever assassinated his father and brothers could make an attempt on his life at any time. Surrounded by sycophants eager to curry favor with the naive new emperor, he can trust nobody. Amid the swirl of plots to…
Light-hearted, yet unique, I want to clean the grungy castle with Sophie, smash the Witch of the Waste over the head and walk on the flower fields. The moving castle is so much fun, and it was great solving the riddle of the curse. Watching Sophie grow into her gifts was satisfying, and it made the outspokenness of old age look appealing.
Now an animated movie from Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki, the oscar-winning director of Spirited Away
In this beloved modern classic, young Sophie Hatter from the land of Ingary catches the unwelcome attention of the Witch of the Waste and is put under a spell...
Deciding she has nothing more to lose, Sophie makes her way to the moving castle that hovers on the hills above her town, Market Chipping. But the castle belongs to the dreaded Wizard Howl, whose appetite, they say, is satisfied only by the souls of young girls...
There Sophie meets Michael, Howl's apprentice, and Calcifer…
I like the grit, humor, and slow build of romance. The characters feel real, the world-building is stellar, and I enjoy the genre-bending. It’s definitively not cookie cutter. Shapeshifters and vampires liven things up, but it’s the slow ascension of the main character that drives the plot. Her relationships can be complicated, but the reader is satisfied that the bad guys need a good killing.
Kate Daniels is about to enter a world of gritty magic and dangerous mystery! Vampires, necromancers and mages abound on the city streets, with one kickass heroine in the middle
Future Atlanta is an interesting place to live: one moment magic dominates, and cars stall and guns fail. The next, technology takes over and the defensive spells no longer protect your house from monsters.
Here skyscrapers topple under the onslaught of magic; the Pack, a paramilitary clan of shapechangers, prowl through the ruined streets; and the Masters of the Dead, necromancers driven by their thirst for knowledge and wealth, pilot…
This is a Regency romance novel published in 1950. She amuses me because her relatives are expecting to host this shy little miss. Instead, she turns out to be confident, brave, and magnificent. She’s traveled extensively with her father and knows generals, grand dames, and is popular with the officers. An excellent horsewoman and a keen wit, Sophie colors inside the lines of her time, but she’s so very vibrant, one can’t help but smile and enjoy the good times.
If you love Bridgerton, you'll love Georgette Heyer!
'The greatest writer who ever lived' ANTONIA FRASER 'One of my perennial comfort authors. Heyer's books are as incisively witty and quietly subversive as any of Jane Austen's' JOANNE HARRIS 'Absolutely delicious tales of Regency heroes. . . Utter, immersive escapism' SOPHIE KINSELLA __________________
The charming Sophia Stanton-Lacy is a force to be reckoned with.
When Sophy is sent to stay with her London relatives, she finds her cousins in quite the tangle.
Cecilia is besotted with an attractive but feather-brained poet, Hubert has fallen foul of a money-lender, and the ruthlessly…
It had been thirty years since the Convergence, when the dimensions aligned and combined Earth and the world of Gwyllon, known in human mythology as “Underhill”. Elven castles and ancient ruins sprouted in vacant lots, on major highways, sometimes merging with existing buildings, twisting into completely new structures. Roads and rail systems reformed, and after the rioting, starvation, and death, agriculture finally sorted itself and food began to flow. A new government formed of elves and men had arisen, a society of human tech and elven magic. Cell phones and frost giants, race cars and elven steeds, dungeons and dragons…
My book is fantastical historical fiction about two characters who're wrestling with the monstrosity of their grief.
It takes you into London high society, where Ambrose tries to forget about how much he misses Bennett and how much he dreads becoming as cold as their Grandfather. It takes you to the family's country manor house, where Mattie isolates and old ghosts start to come out of the woodwork.
It's a story about loss and depression; it's a story about friends who don't let you walk through the valley of death alone.
Ambrose Bancroft returns to London society with his younger sister, hoping they'll leave ghosts of memory behind. They have only each other left. While Ambrose attempts to draw Mattie out, dragging her to balls and threatening to seek suitors for her, his sister recoils from his meddling. Finally, when Ambrose compels her to attend art class before she's ready, Mattie paints something horrific enough to banish them from society in public disgrace.
At Linwood Manor, Mattie and Ambrose aren't as alone as they think. Taking advantage of Mattie's desperate need to find freedom, a vanishing room lures Ambrose's sister into…
