Absolutely bonkers world-building (in the best possible way) brings the Hart & Mercy trilogy to a wonderful end. Rosie Fox is world-weary and stuck in a rut as a Tanrian Marshal. No surprise there, as she's a a 6 1/2 ft tall immortal demigod with garnet colored eyes who's tired of seeing everyone she loves die. So when she electrocutes herself touching a live-wire (after unsuccessfully thumping a transit portal to get it working), it's just another painful and fatal day at work.
Then Dr. Adam Lee, inventor of the portal used by travelers in the world of the New Gods, arrives to fix his invention and Rosie's world is upended. The "pocket-sized" humorless man with his bespoke suits and polished manner was just made to be messed with. Marshal Fox is here for it, until Adam and Rosie find themselves stranded with an unworkable portal, a landscape shaped by gods with strange imaginations, two ex-lovers who aren't talking to one another, and limited options to return home.
All of the characters we fell in love with from the first two books are back, older (because everyone grows older except Rosie), and the wonderful creatures of Tanria and Bushong are there too--the dragons, the equimarises and one very stoned nimkilim.
As Rosie and Adam search for a solution to the portal breakdowns Rosie fears the worst--that she'll once again watch someone she loves age and die while her life slogs on.
I highly recommend this entire trilogy for something truly different in the world of Romantasy, and while I'm sorry to see the trilogy conclude, it was so satisfying that I have zero regrets. Well done, Ms. Bannen. I look forward to more quality reading down the road.
From the author of The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy comes a new heartwarming fantasy rom-com with an opposites-attract twist set in the delightful, donut- and dragon-filled world of Tanria.
Immortal demigod Rosie Fox has been patrolling Tanria for decades, but lately, the job has been losing its luster. When Rosie dies (again) by electrocution (again) after poking around inside a portal choked with shadowy thorns, she feels stuck in the rut that is her unending life.
The portal's uptight creator, Adam Lee, must come in person to repair the damage. But when all the portals break down at once,…
I’ve enjoyed all of Erin Langston’s books that are heavy on characterization, and this one’s no exception. Plus, it’s a nextgen novel featuring the offspring of earlier characters and I always love to see that done well.
American Ethan Fletcher arrives in London expecting a modest inheritance but instead finds he’s inherited a debt on his late uncle’s print shop. Ethan’s dreams of having his own newspaper will have to wait, stifled by both the debt and England’s onerous taxes on publishing. But when he bumps into Belle Sinclair in a garden near London’s Old Bailey, he’s quick to realize not everything in this smoky town is gray and gloomy.
Belle has dreams of becoming a published author but when she broke her engagement to a cad she learned society judges women harshly, especially when they make poor choices. But Ethan and Belle quickly realize they’re each in a position to help one another, strictly a business arrangement, of course, but one that will grow into something more.
What charmed me about the book was the attention to detail in lives that were not full of balls and picnics in the park, but were focused on hard work, determination to get ahead, and a willingness to stand up for oneself and gamble everything. It was rich in a slice of history that’s seldom featured in romance novels, and ultimately it’s also a paean to literacy, one of my favorite causes. I highly recommend all of Langston’s books for readers who want a story about good people doing good things.
American journalist Ethan Fletcher traversed the globe to claim his late uncle's Fleet Street print shop, only to find his unexpected inheritance is shackled by ruinous debt. To save his business and finally direct his own course, he needs to raise capital, and quickly. Good fortune comes in the form of Belinda Sinclair, the eccentric daughter of a respected London judge—and she just so happens to be a beautiful failure of a novelist.
Bruised by scandal, Belle has spent years writing a gruesome courtroom mystery no respectable publisher will touch. Until she meets Ethan—barely respectable, barely…
This is a novel that I wish had been available when I was a teen, when YA books for Jewish teens were mostly sad Holocaust tales. Important books, but not always what a teen wants to read. Night Owls instead is a wonderful, romantic vampire story that draws heavily on Jewish folklore, both Ashkenazi (Eastern European) and Middle Eastern (Syrian). At its core it's a love letter to Yiddish theater on New York's 2nd Avenue, an art that peaked in the early 20th century and produced stars who went on to mainstream theater and film.
Clara and Molly (once herself a star of the Yiddish theater), were turned into estries, vampire owls, at the moment of their deaths at the hands of men. They created a found family and Clara's the big sister, constantly on-guard against discovery, while Molly is the risk taker. When Molly's girlfriend Anat comes back into her life, Molly will do anything to be reunited with her.
Boaz Harari is a former yeshiva student working for Clara in the Grand Dame Theatre in the East Village, and hiding a secret of his own. He inherited a family legacy of speaking to the dead and putting ghosts to rest, a burden he doesn't want. But when the Jewish spirit underworld of demons and dybbuks comes after the estries, Boaz's attraction to Clara brings him and his powers to their aid.
I loved the representation of Jewish life and lore, the inclusion of Non-European Jewish communities, and just enjoying a whopping good story. I'm going to recommend Night Owls to all the teens I know who love fantasy but long to see people like themselves and their families in the story.
* National Jewish Book Award Winner * Green Mountain Book Award Nominee * Sydney Taylor Book Award Winner *
In this thrilling paranormal YA romance debut steeped in folklore, two estries-owl-shifting female vampires from Jewish tradition-face New York's monstrous underworld to save the girl one of them loves with help from the boy one of them fears before they are, all of them, lost forever.
Clara loves rules. Rules are what have kept her and her sister, Molly, alive-or, rather, undead-for over a century. Work their historic movie theater by day. Shift into an owl under the cover of night.…
David Fletcher needs a surgeon, stat! But when he captures a British merchantman in the Caribbean what he gets is Charley Alcott, an apprentice physician barely old enough to shave. Needs must, and Captain Fletcher takes the prisoner back aboard his ship with orders to do his best, or he'll be walking the plank.
Charley Alcott's medical skills are being put to the test in a life-or-death situation, Charley's life as well as the patient's. Even if she can save the pirate's brother there will still be hell to pay--and maybe a plank to walk--when Captain Fletcher learns Charley is really Charlotte Alcott.
A war is raging on the world's oceans, and two enemies will fight their own battles and their attraction to each other as they undergo a sea change neither of them is expecting, but cannot deny.
