2022 releases

Review: Black Mouth by Ronald Malfi

~ megs14malloy

Black MouthBlack Mouth by Ronald Malfi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Jamie Warren left Sutton’s Quay, West Virginia, as soon as he was old enough, unfortunately leaving his disabled brother, Dennis, behind.

Jamie was running from a lot of things, but no matter where he goes or how much time passes, the memories of his traumatic childhood continue to haunt him.

When he receives a call that his Mother has passed, he has mixed feelings. In spite of Jamie’s complicated relationship with his Mom, he knows he has to go back.

The property will need to be dealt with. Dennis can’t do it himself, so Black Mouth here he comes.

Upon returning to the family farmhouse, Jamie is shocked by the state of it. He can’t believe that his brother and mother had been living in these conditions.

Additionally, his brother has been picked up by the police. Dennis had been walking along the highway, clearly distressed. Sadly, that’s how they’re reunited.

While all this is happening, states away, Jamie’s best friends from childhood, Mia and Clay, are also experiencing things that are drawing their attention back to Black Mouth; the name of the area on the outskirts of Sutton’s Quay where they all grew up.

The trio are pulled back into each other’s lives like moths to a flame, and like many close friends, once they’re back together it’s like no time has passed at all.

Together with Dennis, the three begin to investigate a mysterious man who had a huge impact on their lives all those years ago.

A man who lived in the woods and showed them magical and disturbing things.

Through past and present perspectives you’re drawn into an exceptionally twisted story with horrors great and small. Everything about this was mesmerizing to me. The writing is lush, the imagery is distinct and the atmosphere is intense.

Black Mouth took me for a ride and ultimately left me with tears in my eyes, wondering how long it would be before I read it again. It’s that good.

I’m so glad I preordered a copy of this because I need it gracing my shelves. The story is incredibly detailed and I’m sure there are little things that I missed as I rushed towards the conclusion. It will be an absolute joy to revisit.

There are so many aspects that I loved about this book, but first and foremost would be the phenomenal quality of the storytelling. It’s delicious.

As a King Constant Reader, I couldn’t help but notice things that reminded me of some of my favorite King works. I don’t know anything about Ronald Malfi, but just for me, I liked having all these little reminders of King’s work.

I honestly don’t know if any of it was intentional, like if it was a doffing of the cap, but I sort of hope it was. All the elements brought together was magic for my mind.

Without saying too much, it was in the details, like Dennis reminding me of Duddits, Mia’s name, the carnival vibe, a group of outcast kids fighting evil, even some of the supernatural aspects reminding me of the Bill Hodges trilogy.

Please note, I am not saying this in a negative way. I hope I am explaining myself appropriately. I don’t intend any shade toward Malfi by making these comparisons. I was beyond impressed by Come with Me, my favorite book of 2021, and over the moon excited about this one.

I highly, highly, highly recommend this story for fans of coming of age horror novels. This is absolutely exceptional.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Titan Books and Tantor Audio, for providing me with copies to read and review. This could potentially end up as my favorite book of 2022. It’s certainly in the lead for now!

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Review: Upgrade by Blake Crouch

~ megs14malloy

UpgradeUpgrade by Blake Crouch
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

**4.5-stars rounded up**

After an incident on the job where Logan Ramsey is exposed to possible contaminants, he begins to notice slightly alarming changes happening within himself.

He’s better able to concentrate, requires less sleep, his bones are becoming stronger and more dense. What is going on? It reads almost like he is becoming a superhero.

It’s the near future and the U.S. government has formed a Gene Protection Agency and Logan is one of their field agents. The agency was developed because gene editing has become a serious threat to the planet.

Logan has a lot of experience with gene editing, as his mother was one of the most influential scholars in the field. Unfortunately, not all of her projects ended well, leaving the family name tarnished.

Logan has worked hard to build his reputation back and he is known as a solid agent. That’s why the incident on the job hit him so hard.

He’s taken out of commission, but there’s so much more involved. His genome has been hacked. Was he selected for the upgrade, or was it just coincidence he ended up on that site that day?

We then follow Logan on the various stages of his upgrade, as he investigates who could be behind it and why. Ghosts from his past arise and a true cat-and-mouse game ensues with the fate of humanity at stake.

Blake Crouch is the ultimate SF-Thriller writer. He’s just so damn good. This story was a ton of fun to read. I loved contemplating the science behind it.

Additionally, the gripping plot, intelligent writing and non-stop action made me a very happy girl.

Honesty, I think nothing truly scares me more than certain advances in AI, technology and genetic manipulation. Thinking about how our future could be transformed by these advances, and in my mind it is always in a sinister way, is just fascinating to me.

I do feel this one would be super accessible as far as his titles go. Recursion sort of blew my mind and I can see how some Readers could be intimated by it. Also, Dark Matter got a bit trippy, although I loved it.

I think if you have never read Crouch before, this could be a great place to start to get a sense of his style. I definitely recommend it!

Thank you so much to the publisher, Ballantine Books, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I truly appreciate the opportunity to dive into a little early.

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Review: All the Dirty Secrets by Aggie Blum Thompson

~ megs14malloy

All the Dirty SecretsAll the Dirty Secrets by Aggie Blum Thompson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

**3.5-stars rounded up**

25-years ago, Liza and her best friends, Nikki, Shelby and Whitney, took part in a traditional celebration in their area known as Beach Week.

The girls attended a posh private school, Washington Prep, in D.C. and Beach Week is essentially their way of celebrating their graduation, all without adult supervision, with lots of substances and the use of their parent’s beach houses.

Things are known to get pretty wild, but even the locals seem to disregard what’s happening. These privileged kids get away with everything.

Unfortunately, this time, one of them doesn’t come out unscathed. Nikki never made it back from their midnight swim and her death has haunted Liza all these years.

Now Liza has her own daughter, Zoe, at Washington Prep and while her Mom is away on a Girls Weekend at the beach, Zoe takes advantage and slips off to the beach herself for her own Beach Week celebration.

Even though Zoe is an underclassman, she gets invited along to Beach Week as a guest of an older girl named, Emery, who graduated from Washington Prep last year.

Liza only discovers that Zoe has sneaked away to the beach when she receives a call from the local police.

Zoe is at the station extremely distressed after discovering Emery’s dead body on the beach. She says Emery had gone off to meet up with someone, but she doesn’t know who. The police assert it’s just another Beach Week drowning.

Liza is completely floored by this news. She can’t believe Zoe would lie and take off on her own like this. More disturbing though is another mysterious death of a young girl from Washington Prep. Is it just a horrific coincidence, or is there something more at play?

In All the Dirty Secrets, Aggie Blum Thompson successfully weaves together a wicked tale of privilege, lies, deception and murder.

This is one twisted tale and frankly, I love to see that. The more twisted the better. In this case, the narrative started out quite slow for me. It took me a while to become engaged.

Initially, I found some of the characters to be quite annoying, particularly how Zoe talked to her Mom and I wasn’t sure if I could push through.

Fortunately, I was listening to the audiobook and the narrators did a great job keeping me engaged enough to proceed and I’m so glad for that.

About the time that Liza heads into the police station to collect Miss Sassy-Mouth Zoe, I became truly captivated. From there, I couldn’t put it down.

I really enjoyed how Blum Thompson formatted this story. I always enjoy dual timelines and POVs. In this narrative we follow Liza’s group during their high school Beach Week and the events surround Nikki’s death, as well as Liza’s present perspective and Zoe’s present perspective.

This allowed the reveals to hit one after another, helping the story to get rolling. Just when I thought I knew it all, something would be exposed that would have my jaw on the floor. I couldn’t believe the dirt I was digging through by the end; my goodness.

There were some bad actors in this story, that’s for sure!

Overall, I had fun with this. It’s a great Summer Thriller. I would definitely recommend it and look forward to picking up more from this author in the future.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Forge Books and Macmillan Audio, for providing me with copies to read and review. I really appreciate it!

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Review: Wake the Bones by Elizabeth Kilcoyne

~ megs14malloy

Wake the BonesWake the Bones by Elizabeth Kilcoyne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

**3.5-stars**

When Laurel Early left for college, she was excited to be escaping her small farm town in rural Kentucky. It’s what everyone from there dreams of, but few succeed at.

Unfortunately, Laurel didn’t succeed either. The big city life of Cincinnati was overwhelming. She begin to fail her classes and then stopped going altogether once she realized she could just go home.

She returned home to her Uncle Jay’s farm, but hadn’t come clean with her best friends yet. They just think she’s home for the summer.

In addition to working on the tobacco farm, Laurel is also a taxidermist of sorts. She doesn’t seem like the type of taxidermists that I am aware of, but she deals in a lot of animal remains, particularly their bones.

It doesn’t take long after she returns to town that the horrors begin. Blood trails on the farm, massacred animals, dreams of her dead mother.

The whole atmosphere is frightening, but in addition to all of that, there is a lot of normal, contemporary issues happening for Laurel and her friend group, made up of Isaac, Ricky and Garrett.

There are rumors that the Early farm is haunted, but a local girl, Christine, who everyone knows is a witch, is the first person to actually say it to Laurel at the time she needs to hear it.

It definitely gets her thinking. She needs to get the mystery of their property solved. She’s always been haunted by her mother’s suicide, but is there even more to the story than anyone knows?

Wake the Bones is a character-driven YA story with dark magical realism elements and a heavy Southern Gothic vibe.

I finished this extremely quickly once I started listening to the audiobook. I couldn’t stop listening, but I couldn’t really decide whether I was enjoying it or not. This was seriously a difficult story for me to rate.

There were many interesting aspects and the horror imagery was very well written, however there were good solid chunks that I found boring. The contemporary character work, it was too in the feels and less in the dark mystery I was hoping for.

I can definitely recognize that Kilcoyne writes beautifully, I just think at the end of the day, this particular story was lacking a bit of the pizzazz I was hoping for.

If I had to compare this story to other books, I would say it reminded me quite a bit of Summer Sons, Burn Our Bodies Down and Ghost Wood Song; like the three of them meshed together.

It’s funny though, because even though I wasn’t blown away by this, I can’t stop thinking about. I’m basically trying to figure out why I ended up feeling so ambivalent about it.

With all of this being said, I would definitely be interested in picking up future works from this author.

I liked the themes explored here, the characters were well done and as mentioned before the horror imagery was great. I would love to see her go even further into the Horror lane.

Thank you to the publisher, Wednesday Books and Macmillan Audio, for providing me with copies to read and review. It’s certainly given me a lot to think about!

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Review: Bad Things Happen Here by Rebecca Barrow

~ megs14malloy

Bad Things Happen HereBad Things Happen Here by Rebecca Barrow
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Luca Laine Thomas lives on the island of Parris, a playground for the wealthy and a place with a history of unsolved deaths.

There are rumors amongst the locals that the island itself is cursed. After the tragic death of her best friend, Polly, three years before, Luca fully believes in the curse.

When her sister Whitney goes missing after a night out, Luca believes the curse may have struck again and in this case she’s sort of correct.

Whitney is dead. Another mysterious death that the town will no doubt sweep under the rug and forget in no time, but not Luca. She’s going to get to the bottom of these tragedies once and for all.

In the midst of all of this, Luca is navigating normal life things like her feelings for the new girl next door. As soon as Naomi moved into Polly’s old house, Luca was intrigued.

Initially, due to Whitney’s prodding, the two develop a tentative friendship, but after opening up to one another following a few drinks at a party, the friendship quickly escalates.

Luca can hardly believe her luck when this beautiful girl seems to be into her as well.

The two work together to try to solve the mystery surrounding Whitney’s death and of the town in general.

What I wrote above sounds interesting, right? I think so. An island town with a history of unsolved deaths, a possible curse, amateur detectives solving mysteries, teen angst; it all sounds great to me.

Unfortunately, the execution of Bad Things Happen Here failed to deliver for me.

I’m not quite sure what happened but this just was not for me. It wasn’t what I expected and I didn’t enjoy what was served up in replacement of what I was expecting.

I was relieved when it was over and that’s never a good sign.

Initially, I loved Luca. I thought it was going to be great because I felt so connected to her right away, but then the narrative just fizzled out for me.

I became so bored with it that I began to lose my focus. I didn’t get the atmosphere or sense of mystery that I was hoping for at all.

Additionally, I felt the investigation taken on by Luca was weak. It didn’t stand out to me as a prominent point to the story and I would be hard pressed to recall any of the clues, or avenues of investigation, she was following.

I wanted a dark mystery with rich island vibes. Atmosphere is so important to me and for me, this was a complete miss. This could have been anywhere U.S.A. The town was a non-factor in this story.

The tone is morose, moody and for me, a little dry. Yeah, it just wasn’t a good fit for my tastes.

With this being said, I know a lot of Readers are loving this one though, so just because it didn’t work for me, doesn’t mean it won’t work for you.

If the synopsis sounds intriguing to you, absolutely give it a go. What do you have to lose?!

Thank you to the publisher, Margaret K. McElderry Books, for providing me with a copy to read and review.

While it wasn’t quite the book for me, I know it is going to be a big hit with many Readers!

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Review: By the Book (Meant to Be #2) by Jasmine Guillory

~ megs14malloy

By the Book (Meant to Be, #2)By the Book by Jasmine Guillory
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

By the Book is the second novel in the Meant to Be series. This is a series of Adult Romance companion novels that are modern re-imaginings of well-loved fairy tales.

Each book is written by a different author and features its own cast of unique characters. These books do not need to be read in order.

With that minor bit of business out of the way, let’s get into this story, shall we?

By the Book is Jasmine Guillory’s modern-take on the classic Beauty and the Beast; think the Disney version. We follow 25-year old, Isabelle, who is just starting her career in the publishing industry.

Her first job out of college is as an editorial assistant at Tale as Old as Time publishing house. Isabelle, Izzy to her friends, is a charmingly-enthusiastic young woman who cannot wait to prove herself and move up the corporate ladder.

Unfortunately, achieving the success she dreams of is slow going; very slow going. Meanwhile, she’s still living with her parents, commuting into the city and struggling to get her boss, Marta, to notice her.

When Izzy overhears Marta complaining about a young male celebrity, Beau Towers, who has failed to turn in a manuscript for his long-awaited memoir, Izzy sees it as an opportunity to get within Marta’s good graces.

As luck would have it, she will soon be attending a work convention in California and the author in question happens to live in that state, in Santa Barbara. She hatches a plan and volunteers her services to Marta.

All she has to do is go to Beau’s house, figure out what the deal is with his memoir and aide him in any way possible in order to get him to turn it in.

Due to some very personal issues, Beau has been locked away in his Santa Barbara mansion for the last year, seeing no one but a few personal staff members.

Izzy has a tough nut to crack, but she’s determined. This could be sink or swim for her career. She makes her way into his home and eventually into his head and his heart.

By the Book was so cute. I really enjoyed this and am very happy that I made time for it right now.

This was exactly the ray of sunshine I needed as a palate cleanser between all my super dark recent reads. Thank you, Ms. Guillory! You have filled my heart.

I really enjoyed both Izzy and Beau as characters. I especially enjoyed the scenes where Izzy was coaching him through his writing. I thought that was so well done and a great, realistic way for them to form a bond quickly.

I also loved the set-up of her getting to stay at his Santa Barbara mansion while she is helping him. It was so fun. Izzy, an East Coast girl, was a little out of her element, but she adapted easily and actually was happy for the escape.

As always I appreciated how well-fleshed out these characters were. I always love how Guillory includes real-life struggles for her characters to work through. Even the characters who seem to have it all also have personal challenges.

Both Izzy and Beau were working through issues and watching them move through that and grow together was immensely satisfying. Even though this wasn’t as steamy as some of her prior works, in my opinion the level of romance fit this story perfectly.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Hyperion Avenue, for providing me with a copy to read and review. This was such a delight.

I’m such a Jasmine Guillory fangirl and look forward to her future works!

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Review: What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

~ megs14malloy

What Moves the DeadWhat Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In What Moves the Dead T. Kingfisher expertly reimagines Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher.

That fact alone sold me on this book, well that and the fact that T. Kingfisher is one of my favorite authors, but then this cover dropped.

A masterpiece shall grace our shelves. Mine for sure because I’ve already preordered a copy and you should too!

The year is 1890 and Alex Easton has just received word that their childhood friend, Madeline Usher, is on the brink of death. Thus, Easton heads off to the countryside to the Usher family estate to be with Madeline and perhaps provide some support to Madeline’s brother, Roderick.

Arriving at the once lavish estate, Easton is shocked that the manor home has fallen into such a horrible state of disrepair. It’s unnerving to say the least.

Equally unnerving is the state in which Easton finds Madeline. They knew Madeline was quite ill, but her behavior belies any illness that Easton is aware of. Madeline’s behavior, speech and appearance are bizarre. She’s frightening to be around.

Denton, an American doctor and friend of Roderick Usher, is staying at the home as well while tending to Madeline. It’s clear that Denton has no explanation for Madeline’s mysterious illness.

Additionally, Roderick Usher isn’t quite himself either. He’s not sleeping and claims to be hearing things in the walls of the home. Could he be succumbing to whatever has infected Madeline?

In addition to our main cast we also get some great side characters. Hob, Easton’s trusty horse, was of course my favorite. No one writes animal companions quite like Kingfisher. She gives them such strong personalities, which for anyone who has an animal companion of their own will seem quite relatable.

Another favorite was the intelligent and plucky Miss Potter, a local woman who spends her time researching and painting specimens of fungi. Easton and Potter meet and develop a quick rapport. Easton ends up learning a lot about the local area, lore, flora and fauna from Miss Potter.

The classic gothic vibe of What Moves the Dead meshed so well with Kingfisher’s fresh and witty humor.

Picking up a new Kingfisher story is so comforting for me. It’s like settling in for story time with a horror-loving friend. That’s exactly the feeling I got from this one. It’s eerie and sinister the entire way through, while also somehow managing to keep me laughing.

I loved going along with Easton on their investigation into the mystery surrounding the House of Usher. There is some truly horrifying imagery included that was so well done.

I could picture, smell and taste the decay of this property. It definitely got under my skin.

Thank you so, so much to the publisher, Tor and Macmillan Audio, for providing me with a copies to read and review.

As I mentioned earlier, this was absolutely one of my MOST ANTICIPATED releases of the year and it did not disappoint. Kingfisher is knocking them out of the park in 2022!!!

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Review: Little Sister (DCI Jonah Sheens #4) by Gytha Lodge

~ megs14malloy

Little Sister (Jonah Sheens #4)Little Sister by Gytha Lodge
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

**3.5-stars rounded up**

Little Sister is the 4th-book in Gytha Lodge’s DCI Jonah Sheens series, which is a Crime Thriller series with strong police procedural aspects.

This installment kicks off with a bang. While Jonah is relaxing, having a rare moment of free time at a local pub, a disheveled teenage girl wanders out of the woods.

She is a vision, with striking red hair and fair skin. She also happens to be covered in blood. Jonah approaches the young lady in order to help and that’s when the games begin.

The girl, Keely, assures him she is fine. It’s not her blood. It’s her younger sister Nina he needs to be concerned about.

After bringing Keely to the station house, Jonah begins the tedious work of unraveling her twisted story. He learns quickly that they do in fact need to be worried about Nina.

Their story is horribly sad. The two girls became wards of the state after the tragic death of their mother. Since that time, they’ve been bouncing around within the system. Recently the two girls went missing from their care home.

The story is built out in a very compelling way. As the Reader you get entire chapters of Keely telling their story from the beginning.

Jonah and team try to push her for answers more quickly, they have a missing and possibly injured girl to find, but Keely has a plan and she is going to tell this story her way. As frustrating as that is, it could be their only chance of finding Nina in time.

We get Keely’s recollections, we get the present perspective investigation, as well as a bit into Jonah and his team’s personal lives.

One thing I have always loved about this series is the detective team. They work so well together and each of them is interesting, bringing something unique to the table. I love the dynamic among them. It works so well.

In all honesty though, out of the four books in the series, I actually enjoyed this one the least. Initially, I was not going to round up to 4-stars, but after having time to reflect on it, this book really made me think and I appreciate that.

From the start I was loving this, but then there was one big twist that completely turned me off from it. I was so unhappy it went the way it did. It was like someone I really liked and enjoyed and was meshing with was stripped of their identity; was stripped of what drew me to them.

I know this won’t make much sense if you haven’t read this, but it is the best way I can think to explain why the narrative took such a nose dive for me.

With this being said, it’s clear I still really enjoyed this story. The aspects that disappointed me were more to do with my personal taste than with anything else.

I did enjoy getting more background progression on our regular characters, Jonah and Hanson in particular. I’m really looking forward to seeing where their personal stories go from here.

Thank you to the publisher, Random House, for providing me with a copy to read and review.

This was certainly one of my most anticipated series continuations and it was a lot of fun. I am looking forward to many more investigations with Jonah and the team!

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Review: The Agathas by Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson

~ megs14malloy

The AgathasThe Agathas by Kathleen Glasgow
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

**4.5-stars rounded up**

A year ago, high school it-girl Alice Ogilve disappeared in the wake of a nasty break-up with her boyfriend, Steve.

At the time it was considered a very suspicious disappearance. The whole town of Castle Cove was put on alert. A massive search began for her as it was feared that Alice may have been a victim of something terrible.

Like one of her idols, Dame Agatha Christie, Alice ultimately returned home, but she wasn’t talking. She never told anyone where she had been, what had happened to her, or really why she had left in the first place.

Now once popular Alice is a social outcast, watching from the sidelines as her ex-best friend, Brooke Donovan, dates her ex-boyfriend Steve. Ugh, what a mess.

After a party, Brooke and Steve are seen arguing and Brooke storms off into the night. None of her friends go after her.

The next day it is reported that Brooke never made it home. She’s disappeared. Has she pulled an Alice Oglive, or is something more sinister at work?

Once again the town of Castle Cove is in an uproar. Another young girl missing. Everyone has opinions. Unfortunately, Brooke doesn’t remain missing for long. She’s been killed.

After being notified, Brooke’s wealthy grandmother swoops in, offering a hefty reward to anyone able to determine what happened to Brooke.

Alice pairs up with her teen tutor, Iris Adams, along with a small group of her misfit friends, to try to get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding Brooke’s tragic death. Alice isn’t in it for the money, but Iris certainly wouldn’t turn it away.

Steve is taken into custody, the police feel he’s the guy, but Alice knows that isn’t true. She knows Steve couldn’t kill someone. In order to prove his innocence and secure the reward money, they need to find the real killer, thus an investigation begins.

The Agathas is such a solid and fun YA Mystery. I love when teens turn into full-fledged amateur investigators and this fit that bill perfectly.

The friend group that ultimately assembles itself around Alice was so sweet. She went from being the super popular girl, to an outcast, to finally finding a new place.

As far as the mystery portion goes, I thought it was really well done. The investigation was great. The girls were huge fans of mystery and true crime novels and television shows, so they incorporated a lot of what they had learned from those into their investigation.

The vibe of this reminded me a bit of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder and I was loving every minute of it. If you enjoyed that one, you should absolutely check this one out.

Also, I loved how this one ended. I am hoping, as determined from the closing paragraphs, that Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson aren’t finished with this set of characters yet.

There are more mysteries to solve in Castle Cove.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Delacorte, for providing me with a copy to read and review.

I loved this and can’t wait for more from this author duo!

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Review: Fevered Star (Between Earth & Sky #2) by Rebecca Roanhorse

~ megs14malloy

Fevered Star (Between Earth and Sky, #2)Fevered Star by Rebecca Roanhorse
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

**4.5-stars**

Fevered Star is the second book in Rebecca Roanhorse’s epic Adult Fantasy series, Between Earth and Sky. I believe this is slated to be a trilogy, but holy smokes, would I take more.

As this is the second book of the series, I really don’t want to delve into the finer points of the plot in too much detail.

I definitely wouldn’t want to spoil anything about this wonderful story for anyone; so I will stick mainly to what you can discover via the publisher’s synopsis.

We do continue to follow our four mains from the first book, who are all scrambling to figure out the directions their lives are to take after the fall of the great city of Tova.

Serepio and Naranpa have both risen to a higher state of being, now the living embodiments of Gods at odds with one another. Even though they realize this is their fate, they both struggle to hold onto their humanity.

Xiala, my favorite character, has been swept up in the tide of change as well. True to her nature, she’s on the move, but everything in her being is still tied to the strange and enchanting boy she befriended on her last journey, Serepio. Is he lost to her forever?

You know the opening credits of Game of Thrones, where you are flying over a map of all the different areas in the world and watching cities rise, gears turning, an evolution of an empire happening before your eyes?

That’s what this book is like. The game pieces are moving and I can’t wait to see what’s next for the characters I have come to know and love.

This is such an impressive work of fiction. I love how Roanhorse has incorporated indigenous myths and Pre-Columbian culture into this story. It’s like nothing I have ever read before.

The world is beautifully displayed within these pages and continues to be built out in epic proportions. I definitely recommend the audibooks. I have listen to both and have been completely swept up in the narrative both times; absolutely transported.

I’m really looking forward to the third book in this series and may actually reread the first two just prior to its release. I love them both that much. It would be a piece of cake.

If you love Epic Fantasy stories with intricate world-building and tons of political maneuverings, I would definitely recommend picking this series up!

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