This was my favorite book of recent memory. It’s my personal sweet spot of a solid external plot, a strong romance, appealing characters, and a world with enough depth to set a decent backdrop without requiring a 50 page glossary. Queen Saskia feels believable. Her character has real depth, a backstory that’s a little dark and challenging, but not to the point of miserable and depressing. She’s a caring person with interests outside the romance. Felix was a bundle of fun, breaking with some of the more typical MMCs of fantasy romances. Yes, he was an arch-duke. BUT he had no real power, had been bullied most of his life and was essentially gambling his life on a toss of the coin: would the enemy of his bullies be a friend? Or at least spare his life? Yes their meet-cute was a bit contrived, but it was good enough to suspend disbelief if you want to suspend disbelief, and more importantly, it was FUN. He felt like a genuinely good guy who maintained a compassionate streak despite being mistreated most of his life. This was a romance that had me rooting so hard for the characters both individually and together.
Wooing the Witch Queen by Stephanie Burgis is the start of a delightful, funny and seductive romantasy trilogy, set in a gaslamp-lit world where hags and ogres lurk in thick pine forests and genteel court intrigues can turn deadly . . .
'This is a warm and lovely story with a big heart' - Sangu Mandanna, bestselling author of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches
Queen Saskia is the wicked sorceress everyone fears. After successfully wrestling the throne from her evil uncle, she only wants one thing: to keep her people safe from the empire next door. For that,…
A delightful story with a YA protagonist that didn't feel like the story was talking down to said YA protagonist. I love how T. Kingfisher’s writing blends a serious plot with a lightly humorous style. The use of creative magical baking was a ton of fun, while the subtle social commentary was satisfying without being heavy-handed. Also, a nice blend of cozy elements with enough stakes and action to make things interesting. A pleasure all around.
Fourteen-year-old Mona isn't like the wizards charged with defending the city. She can't control lightning or speak to water. Her familiar is a sourdough starter and her magic only works on bread. She has a comfortable life in her aunt's bakery making gingerbread men dance.
But Mona's life is turned upside down when she finds a dead body on the bakery floor. An assassin is stalking the streets of Mona's city, preying on magic folk, and it appears that Mona is his next target. And in an embattled city suddenly bereft of wizards, the assassin may be the least of…
This was the book that really got me on the DCC bandwagon. The first book was solid, but this one built on the characters and setting of book one, adding in just enough to keep it fresh and interesting. I’m not the biggest litRPG fan, but this series to me does it right: the story isn’t about the various stats and abilities, but what the characters do with them. I especially appreciate the emphasis on using what you have in a creative way over just hacking and slashing. The wildly varied and creative class names were a ton of fun, going way beyond the typical D&D classes like paladin, mage, barbarian, etc. Princess Donut’s class is ‘former child actor’, for example. Overall, a fun and solid story that used litRPG to enhance the story, not relying on stats as a crutch.
Join Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, as they fight fantastical creatures and deadly mobs to make it to the next level and build the kind of fan following the dungeon masters can’t ignore in the second book in the smash-hit Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman—now with bonus material exclusive to this print edition.
“Greetings, Crawlers! The training levels have concluded. Now the games may truly begin.”
The aliens have come, and they’ve transformed Earth into a multilevel, video game–like dungeon. It’s the newest season of the galaxy’s most watched game show, Dungeon Crawler World. Now on…
Lady Sephimara Arazniros strode through the doomed ship with a determination that said it could have been on fire, sinking, and had kraken tentacles writhing through every porthole, and she’d tell the kraken to leave a message.
And I was an idiot for trying to help.
Just a common human man, I trained, studied, worked my ass off to be accepted to the Raloren Academy of Magic. I expected to work twice as hard as the magically gifted elves. I expected hardship, disdain, and a mountain of homework. I did not expect to encounter the mysterious, icy, elven lady aboard a sinking clipper ship on the voyage to the academy. The corpse in the hold she claimed to know nothing about? Also unexpected. Being assigned an obnoxiously flamboyant gnome roommate? Yeah, it was one of those days.
We were both strangers in a city where appearances and propriety reigned supreme. Those subtle innuendos and furtive smiles from her as we crafted magic artifacts in our after hours study sessions couldn’t possibly mean… nah! And stop gazing at her legs, Theodore!
I know nothing about noble politics, even less about conspiracies. But if we can’t find a way to trust each other, we may both get an education in murder.
