Tag Archives: fantasy

Audiobook Review: Kill the Beast by Serra Swift

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Title: Kill the Beast
Author: Serra Swift
Narrator: Moira Quirk
Publisher: Tor Books
Publication date: October 14, 2025
Print length: 309 pages
Audiobook length: 10 hours 40 minutes
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Library
Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

The Witcher meets Howl’s Moving Castle in this debut original faerie tale of revenge, redemption, and friendship―for fans of T. Kingfisher, Naomi Novik, and cozy fantasy with a dash of gritty adventure.

The night Lyssa Cadogan’s brother was murdered by a faerie-made monster known as the Beast, she made him a promise: she would find a way to destroy the immortal creature and avenge his death. For thirteen years, she has been hunting faeries and the abominations they created. But in all that time, the one Beast she is most desperate to find has never resurfaced.

Until she meets Alderic Casimir de Laurent, a melodramatic dandy with a coin purse bigger than his brain. Somehow, he has found the monster’s lair, and―even more surprising―retrieved one of its claws. A claw Lyssa needs in order to forge a sword that can kill the Beast.

When the witch Ragnhild decrees that Alderic and Lyssa must gather the other ingredients to forge the weapon together, or else the spell will fail, Lyssa gets more than she bargained for. Alderic is ill-equipped for the task at hand, and almost guaranteed to get himself killed.

But as the two of them search for the materials that will be the Beast’s undoing, Alderic reveals hidden depths: dark secrets that he guards as carefully as Lyssa guards hers. Before long, and against Lyssa’s better judgment, they begin to forge a blooming friendship―one that will either lead to the culmination of Lyssa’s quest for vengeance, or spell doom for them both.

Kill the Beast is a creative, often blood-soaked fairy tale retelling… and given the title, it’s really no surprise to discover exactly which fairy tale we find ourselves immersed in.

In this tale of vengeance and redemption, Lyssa has a fearsome reputation as “the Butcher”, a brutal sword for hire who specializes in killing trolls, goblins, and other magical menaces. But beyond that, Lyssa’s true purpose is killing Hounds — faerie-made creatures whose bloodthirsty rampages lead to mass deaths, and who have a reputation for being unkillable.

Thirteen years earlier, Lyssa saw her beloved older brother slaughtered by a creature known as the Beast, and vowed to avenge him. Over the years, her blood oath has led to successful quest after successful quest, but her ultimate quarry — the Beast — has remained elusive. When she receives a letter from a rich nobleman offering to hire her, she’s skeptical, until she realizes that he also wants to see the Beast dead.

Alderic is not what she’d expected. Beyond the drunken dandy who seems to only care about outrageously gaudy clothing, she finds a man who has a vengeance goal of his own. When the witch who acts as both mentor and spell-creator for Lyssa pronounces that she’ll need to work with Alderic to kill the Beast if they’re to have any chance of success, she hates the idea, but has no choice. The only thing she’s wanted all these years is to kill the Beast, and she’ll put up with Alderic’s company if she must if that’s the only way to get it done.

As they gather the ingredients they’ll need to forge a powerful enough weapon to destroy the Beast, Lyssa starts to see Alderic’s hidden depths. After near misses and dangerous encounters, their goal is within reach, but devastating secrets threaten to derail it all before the end.

The truth behind what’s going on is much (MUCH!) more shocking to Lyssa than it will be to any reader who’s ever watched a certain Disney movie (although Disney was never as bloody as Kill the Beast!). Still, despite a revelation that really isn’t much of a surprise, it’s enthralling to see how the story gets there, what the complicated explanations and origins turn out to be, and to see how the entire plot comes together.

Lyssa is a bristly, argumentative, thoroughly aggressive character who seems to have never met a problem that she couldn’t punch or stab into submission. She’s tough to love, yet we can understand how deeply wounded she is underneath the hard exterior — so even while wishing she’d stop and listen more often, or learn to control her blood lust, it’s hard not to empathize as well. Her partnership with Alderic leads to comic moments as well as surprisingly tender ones. Their friendship is strange and strained, but rings true.

In terms of pacing, the plot sags for a while as Lyssa and Alderic journey from place to place collecting the items they’ll need for the spell to forge a sword with enough magical power to kill the Beast. There are some tense set pieces, but it’s a lot of figuring out what they need, where to find it, how to get it, and then going through some sort of challenging circumstances to make it happen. The story is much more engaging when the focus is on the characters, their personal struggles, and their secrets. Collecting bits of stuff… not so much.

By the final third, Lyssa and Alderic’s quest picks up in terms of intensity and interest level. As hard truths are revealed, we learn just how much is truly at stake for each of them, which makes the entire story feel more dramatic and dire. I appreciated the climactic scenes and the realizations that come — practically too late — as Lyssa finally is forced to reconsider everything she’s held on to since her brother’s death and choose a path forward that might not be what she’d envisioned all along.

The audiobook for Kill the Beast is narrated by Moira Quirk, who’s been a favorite ever since I first listened to her narration of Gail Carriger’s Finishing School and Custard Protocol series. She’s quite wonderful here, especially when it comes to imbuing Lyssa and Alderic with distinct voices, but also at making the action sequences spring to life.

Kill the Beast is much darker in tone than I originally expected, but that’s okay. It’s a fairly grim story, but there are some nice little moments here and there to add a touch of lightness too. With storytelling flair and terrific characters, this is an enjoyable, compelling tale, and I look forward to reading more by this author in the future.

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

First Lines Friday 8/7/2026

Posted in Fun and Whimsy by

First Lines Friday is a weekly feature for book lovers created by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines? Here’s how to join in:

  • Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page.
  • Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first.
  • Finally… reveal the book!

Here’s a long-ish opening that I found really amusing… so I didn’t want to cut anything!

LYSSA HEFTED THE bloodstained burlap sack and shoved her way through the door of the Kingmaker, tracking sooty slush on the expensive carpet. She bypassed the line of patrons waiting to be seated, ignoring the ripple of protests that followed in her wake, and made her way to where a pinch-faced headwaiter stood by the entrance to the main dining room. He glanced her way with an automatic, “I’m sorry, miss, you’ll have to…” then faltered, his expression landing somewhere between disgust and horror as the sight of her sank in. The trio of ladies he had been speaking to turned—as well as they could in forty pounds of petticoats, layered skirts, steel-boned corsets, and starched collars, anyway—and glared at her. Their eyes skated right over the bloody bag in Lyssa’s arms, seeming to find her mud-spattered pants and unkempt braids far more objectionable.

It was too bad no one had ever figured out how to feed off the disdain of the rich; the downtrodden would never go hungry again.

So what’s the book?

Kill the Beast by Serra Swift
Published 2025
309 pages

Synopsis:

The night Lyssa Cadogan’s brother was murdered by a faerie-made monster known as the Beast, she made him a promise: she would find a way to destroy the immortal creature and avenge his death. For thirteen years, she has been hunting faeries and the abominations they created. But in all that time, the one Beast she is most desperate to find has never resurfaced.

Until she meets Alderic Casimir de Laurent, a melodramatic dandy with a coin purse bigger than his brain. Somehow, he has found the monster’s lair, and—even more surprising—retrieved one of its claws. A claw Lyssa needs in order to forge a sword that can kill the Beast.

Alderic is ill-equipped for a hunt and almost guaranteed to get himself killed. But as the two of them search for the rest of the materials that will be the Beast’s undoing, Alderic reveals hidden depths: dark secrets that he guards as carefully as Lyssa guards hers. Before long, and against Lyssa’s better judgment, an unlikely friendship begins to bloom—one that will either lead to the culmination of Lyssa’s quest for vengeance, or spell doom for them both.



I picked up a copy of this book earlier this year, but haven’t had a chance to start it yet. Have you read it? And if not, does it sound like something you’d enjoy?

Happy Friday! Wishing everyone a great weekend!

Book Review: Bromantasy by Máire Roche

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Title: Bromantasy
Author: Máire Roche
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Publication date: May 26, 2026
Length: 352 pages
Genre: Fantasy romance
Source: Purchased
Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Two heroes. One brain cell.

BROMANTASY is a cozy, queer fantasy about the mortifying ordeal of being known by your totally platonic best friend and the epic quest that might force you to confront the truth.

Fellas, is it gay to kiss your bff while on a quest through the forest you’re unqualified for?

Juniper O’Reilly is good at only two things: demolishing a pint of mead and finding the perfect skincare routine. Everything else—taking care of the farm, bartering for goods, any sort of manual labor—falls to Juniper’s best friend, the absurdly capable, endlessly patient Mo Elmthorn.

But when Juniper accidentally volunteers them both for a quest to kill a fearsome monster, he knows he’s finally gotten in over his head. Juniper hates camping, he hates the dark, and there’s no way all these foraged mushrooms are going to sit well in his stomach. One thing he doesn’t hate? How good Mo’s thighs look in his questing pants—he doesn’t have time to think about that, though, with a monster to hunt and their futures on the line.

But monsters come in all shapes and sizes. When Juniper and Mo realize that the terrifying beast they’ve sworn to kill is just a scared little girl torn from her family, they’re off to find not only the true villain of the story, but maybe even a happy ending.

If you’re craving sweet, silly, flirty fun… plus a quest… plus dragons… have I got a book for you!

Bromantasy is the story of two best friends, Juniper and Mo, who’ve lived and worked together on their cozy little farm for ten years. They enjoy their harvests, their sheep and cat, trading and bartering with other local farmers, spending warm evenings by the fire, eating lots of cheese, and drinking delicious mead at the local taverns. They’re also always up for a brawl — such a satisfying way to stretch their muscles and work off any lingering tension at the end of the day!

But Juniper worries that Mo is dissatisfied. Each autumn, he’s afraid that this will be the year when Mo decides he needs more adventure in his life. When an unfortunate mistake (involving drinking and brawling) lands Juniper in trouble with representatives of the king, the consequence is a choice between joining a quest or facing, as Mo puts it, “unalivement”. Mo is not about to let Juniper go off on a quest without him there to look out for him, so with little preparation, the two BFFs find themselves trekking through the land with the goal of capturing and/or eliminating dragons. This is not at all good for Juniper’s skin care routines!

Who knew quests could be so complicated? Until now, Juniper had assumed you just went out and glamped, camped, or cried in the woods, and came home after a brief, mostly uneventful, and slightly depressing vacation.

The quest — full of uncomfortable sleeping arrangements and accidents involving rivers, fires, and trousers — eventually leads Juniper and Mo into confrontation with the non-crown prince, who is both insanely attractive and also quite an arrogant jerk. And soon after meeting the prince, they discover that the fearsome dragon everyone is hunting is actually a little girl (and dragon shifter) who misses her mother and tends to burn villages when she’s feeling scared or threatened.

For the first time in his fool life, though, Juniper forced his body to stay still instead of running headlong into danger. Mo had already done that for the both of them, and they had always had an unspoken pact: When one was in their “running headlong into danger without a second thought” era, the other had to be in their “levelheaded enough not to do that” era.

While Juniper and Mo realize the little dragon girl (named Bear) needs protection, the prince and his followers want to drag her off to the capitol, get a big reward, and then use her to help them hunt down and eradicate any other remaining dragons. Soon, Juniper and Mo find themselves on a heroic quest of their own… while trying to outsmart their enemies, rescue a dragon, and finally — FINALLY — talk about the feelings they’ve spent a decade suppressing.

Prepare for utter adorableness when you pick up Bromantasy! The two lead characters are goofballs with big hearts, competent in different ways, utterly in love, and completely clueless when it comes to one another’s feelings (although the admiring looks, hand-holding, and massages really should have been major hints all along).

Mo’s hand wrapped around Juniper’s bicep. Juniper swallowed hard at the sight, as was common for two men who shared a bond of deep but friendly camaraderie.

The quest itself is entertaining, with a nefarious prince, various henchpeople, a questionably motivated princess, and Juniper’s nemesis (who maybe isn’t actually terrible?) crossing paths and swords, double-crossing one another, and mainly being pretty ridiculous when it comes to actually achieving anything.

Juniper is a total cinnamon roll character, and Mo can be too, although he also leans a bit more toward the strong and silent side of things. Together, they’re a delight, and it positively hurts (except we know it’ll all be fine, so maybe more of a little pinch than actual pain) when they are at odds or (as they do) misconstrue one another’s actions and feelings and end up feeling unloved or abandoned.

But obviously, with a cover and title and premise like this, you just know that Bromantasy promises and delivers a happy ending. This book is oodles of fun, and I’m so glad I picked it up on a whim and read it instantly. What a treat!

Via Next Chapter Booksellers on Facebook

A reader’s note: Don’t miss out on how utterly adorable the physical edition is! I love my little paperback…

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

First Lines Friday 7/31/2026

Posted in Fun and Whimsy by

First Lines Friday is a weekly feature for book lovers created by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines? Here’s how to join in:

  • Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page.
  • Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first.
  • Finally… reveal the book!

I’m going with a short opening line that says a lot with just a few words. This is from a book that’s been on my shelf (unread) for far too long:

The real story isn’t half as pretty as the one you’ve heard.

So what’s the book?

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
Published 2018
480 pages

Synopsis:

With the Nebula Award–winning Uprooted, Naomi Novik opened a brilliant new chapter in an already acclaimed career, delving into the magic of fairy tales to craft a love story that was both timeless and utterly of the now. Spinning Silver draws readers deeper into this glittering realm of fantasy, where the boundary between wonder and terror is thinner than a breath, and safety can be stolen as quickly as a kiss.

Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders, but her father’s inability to collect his debts has left his family on the edge of poverty—until Miryem takes matters into her own hands. Hardening her heart, the young woman sets out to claim what is owed and soon gains a reputation for being able to turn silver into gold. When an ill-advised boast draws the attention of the king of the Staryk—grim fey creatures who seem more ice than flesh—Miryem’s fate, and that of two kingdoms, will be forever altered. She will face an impossible challenge and, along with two unlikely allies, uncover a secret that threatens to consume the lands of humans and Staryk alike.



I keep promising myself that this will be the year when I finally read this book! Have you read it? If not, does this sound like something you think you’d enjoy?

Happy Friday! Wishing everyone a great weekend!

Book Review: Habits of the Sea by Shea Ernshaw

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Title: Habits of the Sea
Author: Shea Ernshaw
Publisher: Atria
Publication date: July 7, 2026
Length: 304 pages
Genre: Magical realism
Source: Review copy courtesy of Atria
Rating:

Rating: 5 out of 5.

The second adult novel from New York Times bestselling author Shea Ernshaw, in which a woman rediscovers the mythical island she stumbled upon as a child—and the man she once met who apparently hasn’t aged—and must choose between the life she’s built and a love that defies the laws of time and nature.

The night Clay Lockhart’s wife dies, a violent storm tears their home—and the eight hectares of land beneath it—away from the Scottish coast, sending it adrift into the Atlantic. Thirty years later, twelve-year-old Ellie Mills discovers the fabled floating island off the coast of Nova Scotia and finds Clay still living in the weatherworn farmhouse perched on its highest hill.

When the island vanishes overnight, Ellie is left questioning whether it ever existed at all. But decades later, the island resurfaces—and Ellie, now in her thirties, returns, determined to uncover the truth. What she finds is even stranger: Clay hasn’t aged a single day.

Faced with the impossible, Ellie learns that some mysteries aren’t meant to be solved—and that a life shaped by wonder may hold more promise than one bound by certainty.

With her signature atmospheric, lyrical prose, Shea Ernshaw offers us an original work of folklore with a masterful modern touch. A haunting tale, Habits of the Sea spans centuries and coastlines, journeys through time and memory, and redefines the very meaning of love itself.

Habits of the Sea is a lushly written, beautifully emotional story about a love powerful enough to cross the boundaries of time, and even more so, about what it means to choose love over and over again.

This lovely book opens with a devastating scene. On a stormy night in 1952, on an island in the
Outer Hebrides of Scotland, a grief-stricken man buries his wife and stillborn babies. By the next morning, the storm is gone — and so is the piece of land where his house and farm once stood. There’s no wreckage to be found; it’s as if the land itself has broken off and disappeared.

Over the years, the legend of Saltwell Island spreads — how Clay Lockhart’s grief was so intense that it split the ground apart. Fishermen and sailors would share the story of spotting:

… the newly formed island with its white house perched atop a stony outcropping, drifting out into the farthest reaches of the deep gray Atlantic.

Many years later, in 2007, 12-year-old Ellie Mills is living with her grandmother in a small coastal village in Nova Scotia when she hears a strange noise during a storm. Running outside, she sees what she assumes to be a shipwreck stuck against the rocks along their harbor, and without much thought, takes their small boat out to investigate. But it’s not a shipwreck — it’s an island, drifted up on the rocks. And there, Ellie encounters Clay Lockhart, a man who appears to be in his 30s. She spends just a few hours on the island, warming up after sailing through the rainstorm, but when she returns home, a full week has passed.

Ellie’s life is forever changed. No one believes her tale of a floating island, and she’s mocked by her friends and sent for psychiatric care by the adults who believe she’s created a fantasy as an explanation for a traumatic event. And over the years that follow, Ellie manages to convince herself that her journey to Saltwell Island wasn’t real.

But almost twenty years later, having left Nova Scotia and her troubled past behind, Ellie hears that the fabled island has been spotted by a passing cruise ship way off in the Atlantic. Needing to settle her own mind once and for all, she flies off to the last known location… and once again, finds Saltwell Island — and Clay Lockhart, who hasn’t aged a day.

The heart and soul of Habits of the Sea revolves around Ellie’s connection to Clay, and to the life and love they gradually discover together. The longer Ellie finds herself on Saltwell, the more she’s able to see how so much of her adult life was an attempt to shelter herself from risk, to protect herself from the possibility that perhaps she did once experience something extraordinary. To Clay, it’s only been a year since an odd little girl first washed up on his island; clearly, Saltwell Island has become separated not only from the land it was once attached to, but from time itself.

A thread of passion and purpose runs through every moment of Ellie’s time with Clay. Even before love develops, there’s a connection between them, and Ellie feels grounded in this strange place more than she’s every been anywhere else.

I sleep now each night as if I’ve never really slept a day before this. A restfulness that feels childlike, something from a storybook: She slept so deeply that even the wolves could not wake her. And when she finally rose with the sun she was restored to who she was always meant to be. It’s the kind of sleep that I won’t be able to describe once I’m back in the real world. There are no words for it. Unless you’ve felt it, unless you’ve been pulled into your dreams like sinking below a waterline.

Life on the island is simple and wonderful. Ellie and Clay tend the gardens, chickens, and sheep. They live peacefully, relying on the bounty of the sea and the island for sustenance. The island drifts where the sea takes it; there’s no navigation or power to control its voyaging. Some seas are calm, some full of danger. There are warmer days as they drift south and pull mangos from trees along the shores, and bitterly cold days where they rely on the cellar full of preserved foods to get by, until they drift again to someplace more nurturing of growing things once again.

As time passes, Ellie is faced with unbearable choices. She knows that time passes differently on the island — how long has she been gone from the “real” world? What does this mean for her grandmother and the almost-fiancé she left behind? If she can find a way to get back to a mainland somehow, should she? But how can she leave Clay and everything he’s come to mean to her? In a deeply visceral way, Ellie is forced to reckon with understanding who she is and where she truly belongs, and must grapple with a choice about sacrifice and destiny before committing to a future — because she knows that if she leaves the island, she’ll likely never have the chance to find it — and Clay — again.

Maybe we’re not meant to know what’s right or wrong. To know which path to choose. Which life. Maybe the no-knowing is the point. Because maybe we’re meant to be a little reckless.

Habits of the Sea has a Brigadoon-ish feel at times — Saltwell Island is a mystical, fairy tale-like place that magically appears for a brief time before disappearing off into the unknown. How can someone leave the place they feel truly alive, knowing they may be leaving it forever? I was reminded in certain ways of Outlander as well, where a character displaced from her own time must decide in which world she truly belongs.

The sense of building emotional entanglement is gorgeously written. We readers can feel how complicated Ellie’s inner life has become — the conflicted sense of loyalty, the desire, the questions about belonging, obligation, and fulfillment. The pull between Ellie and Clay feels real and true; their connection leaps off the page.

He breathes and the air seems to change — subtly, like a sudden drop in barometric pressure, atoms dividing, seconds splitting. The line between before and after unspools. Right from wrong. Him from me. It all feels perilous. And unnamable.

In the latter part of the book, the storyline seems to veer from magical realism — the unworldliness, a place out of time, almost like a visit to a faerie kingdom — toward speculative fiction, as the plot moves in a direction that surprised me, yet makes complete sense in the grand scheme of the overall narrative. Without going into detail, while I didn’t expect this, I ended up feeling that the book as a whole operates on a grand scale that absolutely brings every bit of the characters’ arcs to a point of perfect resolution.

Habits of the Sea is a book that will be haunting my thoughts and dreams for a long time to come. With gorgeous writing, a plot that wraps a reader in layers of a reality that’s magical yet intensely tangible, and characters who we come to care about deeply, this is a book filled with wonder and beauty. Once I started, I never wanted to look away.

Don’t miss this incredible reading experience.

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

Book Review: The Midnight Train by Matt Haig

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Title: The Midnight Train
Author: Matt Haig
Publisher: Viking
Publication date: May 26, 2026
Length: 296 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Purchased
Rating:

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

When your life flashes before your eyes, where would you stop?

No one can change the past, but the Midnight Train can take you there. The chance to re-live the moments that meant most. To see what kind of person you really were.

For Wilbur his best days were with Maggie, the love of his life. On his honeymoon in Venice.

Before he gave it all away.

He wishes he could go back and live differently. But to do so risks everything . . .

A magical, time-travelling love story, from the world of The Midnight Library.

As The Midnight Train opens, it’s 1974, and Wilbur and Maggie are on their honeymoon in Venice. They’re young, in love, and have their whole lives in front of them. They promise to love one another forever.

They talked and talked, as though a relationship was really just a conversation that never wants to end.

And then we readers turn the page. Wilbur is 81 years old, and it’s the day he dies. And we learn that he and Maggie have been divorced for years, although he still has their wedding photo on display in his house. He clearly still loves her. What went wrong?

Upon dying, Wilbur is summoned to board a train — the Midnight Train — that takes him back through scenes from his life. To reach eternity, where he’ll exist forever and be reunited with everyone he’s ever cared about, he first has to revisit his life, getting off the train to witness significant moments, then reboarding as the train carries him onward. He can only observe, not change things — this is an opportunity to see all the places in his life where his decisions and actions set him on certain paths, and to understand where and how he might have chosen differently.

The incredibly annoying thing about being dead was that you got all your priorities in order, just when it was too late to do anything about them.

The journey is difficult. While Wilbur has the joy of seeing his first meetings with Maggie and how they fell in love, he also must revisit the most painful moments as well, when he lost important people in his life, responded from a place of fear, and made some crucially bad decisions. The further Wilbur travels, the more he wonders: Could he actually interact with his younger self? Knowing all the ways in which he failed, can he try to course-correct? And should he, if it means that he’ll be giving up eternity?

He had lived long enough to know that time and meaning were not shared out equally. Some personal eras were relatively empty. The temporal equivalent of air. And then you would come across a day—or even a minute—and it would have a whole decade’s worth of weight. It would be everything. It would have the power to change an entire life.

The Midnight Train is a moving look at what it means to live fully, and how working toward some unknowable future can mean not fully inhabiting the present. Wilbur is a well-meaning person who loves his wife devotedly, and yet lets the pain of past losses drive him in a way that brings financial success while losing what really matters along the way. Wilbur and Maggie start off so clearly meant for one another, with such brightness ahead of them. It’s painful to see them losing their connection, not through ill intent, but through distraction and ambition and a misdirected focus.

The magical elements of The Midnight Train work well as a conduit for Wilbur’s journey back through his own life. It doesn’t have to make perfect sense, and indeed, we’re told that each person experiences their journey in a way that’s personal to them. Traveling alongside Wilbur, we see the heartbreaking losses of his younger years and can understand the fear and guilt that stays with him, even as we wish for things to turn out differently.

The Midnight Train is a companion of sorts to the author’s 2020 novel, The Midnight Library. You don’t have to have read the first book to appreciate this one, although an important character from The Midnight Library plays a role here. Both books deal with themes related to finding meaning in life, but come at this theme from different angles. Each approach is fascinating — as the author states in his acknowledgments, the two books can be seen as being in conversation with one another.

I found The Midnight Train to be a fast, engaging read with an emotional core that feels true. Wilbur’s journey conveys profound messages about appreciating the life in front of us, but these messages never feel preachy or overly sentimental. There’s a beauty to Wilbur’s experiences and the wisdom that he finally finds at the end of his life. We’re left with a lovely sort of hope as we reach the final pages and see how his story turns out.

I highly recommend The Midnight Train. A lively writing style with humor mixed in alongside the sadness and seriousness make this a thoroughly enjoyable reading experience, and there are plenty of life lessons to be absorbed along the way — not to mention a love story that’s sweet and powerful.

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

Book Review: The Children by Melissa Albert

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Title: The Children
Author: Melissa Albert
Publisher: Bramble
Publication date: June 2, 2026
Length: 416 pages
Genre: Fantasy/Horror
Source: Library
Rating:

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

An intoxicating, haunting new novel from New York Times bestselling author Melissa Albert, in which the estranged adult children of a legendary author, written into their dead mother’s beloved fantasy series, contend with the vine-like creep of legacy, memory, and magic.

Guinevere Sharpe has two childhoods.

In one, she lives in the wooded shadow of her family’s isolated Vermont farmhouse; in the other, the pages of her mother’s world-famous Ninth City books, where her magical adventures have made her a household name. In reality, Guinevere’s childhood isn’t the enchanted idyll her mother’s readers imagine: she and her older brother are growing up near-feral, unwashed and underfed, escaping each day to the lichen-clotted woods they’ve made their playland. As Edith Sharpe’s books explode into epic popularity, the threats of a rural childhood give way to the escalating perils of fame—until the night it all goes up in flames, leaving Edith’s series unfinished and her children the sole survivors.

Now an adult coasting on her mother’s name, Guinevere is mid-promotion for a ghostwritten memoir when her estranged brother, an artist who has until now spurned his family’s legacy, announces an upcoming installation titled Mother. As rumors swirl around a death connected to his last show, unsettling recollections from Guinevere’s childhood begin to surface. Her public facade starts to crack, forcing her to confront the questions she’s spent the last twenty years running from: What really happened the night of the fire? And what dark history lies behind their mother’s creative genius?

Wise to the mythic weight childhood memories gather over time, The Children whispers to you from the hallway outside your bedroom, lights flickering as you turn the pages of a book that didn’t seem so scary a moment ago. It’s a story for anyone who’s ever revisited an old favorite and found it cast in a darker light, the line separating magic and memory blurring as the gap widens between the authors we imagined and the people they turn out to be.

The Children is a creepy, haunting tale that drew me in practically from page 1 and never let me go. I found myself immersed in this story about the children of a bestselling author — whose childhood was anything but the ideal dream portrayed to the public.

Edith Sharpe writes the children’s fantasy series, The Ninth City, at the family’s rural Vermont home, an isolated place known as the Farmhouse, surrounded by forests and orchards, miles from anywhere. As Edith’s fame grows, so too does the never-ending streams of stars and artists and wannabes who gravitate into Edith’s orbit. Edith’s children, however, never asked for or agreed to the fame that they’re forced into by their mother, who gives her main characters her children’s names. The world thinks they know Ennis and Guinevere Sharpe, the brave, clever brother and sister who star in the series. Only Ennis and Guin know the truth about their childhood — one in which they essentially grew up wild and untended, cared for only by one another while their parents indulged in a life of creative frenzies, dissipated parties, and a general lack of interest about their children’s wellbeing.

As adults, Guin and Ennis have been estranged for twenty years, ever since the horrific night of a fire that destroyed their world and thrust them into very different lives. Now in her early 30s, Guin has been living off her mother’s legacy, in terms of both her inheritance and being part of the publicity machine that keeps Edith Sharpe on the bestseller list year after year. While promoting her own memoir — a whitewashed, ghost-written, surface-level and sunny depiction that bears little resemblance to the truth — Guin learns that Ennis will be opening a new art installation entitled “Mother”, and is immediately consumed by the need to reconnect with him… and to find out whether he’s finally decided to break his silence on Edith Sharpe after all these years.

As Guin goes off the rails, ruining her carefully constructed publicity tour through unpredictable and ill-advised interviews, she’s thrust back into childhood memories she’s worked so hard to ignore or deny.

The story unfolds through modern-day chapters, in which adult Guin spins out of control in her search for meaning and for Ennis, woven among chapters going back to the siblings’ childhood, from arriving at the Farmhouse when Guin was five years old to the final disaster when she was eleven. There’s a certain beauty to some elements of their early years, as they run wild, unhindered in their exploration of the forests, with no rules and little to no guidance about their daily lives. They’re supposedly home-schooled, but they’re not. They’re fed… when someone remembers, or when they fend for themselves. Their father, a gifted actor who was forced out of the spotlight due to scandal, is a shining, glorious creature… until he’s not; until something, somehow causes him to lose bits and pieces of himself and fade into a failed has-been.

And then there’s Edith, a woman who’s never been predictable, married young to an older man, and an uninvolved mother even at the best of times. But something happens at the Farmhouse. Guin loves the house, except for the sinister 3rd floor room where Edith writes. And Edith writes in frenzied bursts, clacking away on her typewriter with no interruptions allowed.

The sense of menace is pervasive throughout The Children. We may not know exactly why, but we know from the start that very bad things have happened. At the same time, we know that the Ninth City books were life-changing for their millions of fans, and that Guin and Ennis are seen as heroes, standing in for Edith and the world she created even as they attempt to live their own lives. The neglect that Guin and Ennis live through is disturbing in and of itself, but add to that the sense that something other is going on, something very much not right, and the chills ratchet up higher and higher.

While I had guesses about the mysteries of The Children, I never did quite manage to figure it all out, and I’d guess that most readers end up in the same boat. The revelations near the end of the book are mind-blowing, yet tie the entire story together in a way that makes a frightening sort of sense. I simply couldn’t put the book down; each chapter is stunning in its own way. I cringed quite a bit over adult Guin’s choices and actions, but there’s no denying that she follows a path that seem practically foreordained. The childhood chapters are more deeply disturbing and impactful, but the entire book works so well together that it’s impossible to point out any moments where the story lags or loses focus.

I’d say that my only complaint about The Children has more to do with my reading experience than with the book itself. I tore through the final third or so in such a mad dash to get to the end that I’m afraid that I may not have absorbed it all as deeply as I might have if I’d taken my time. I can definitely see going back for a reread to savor it more slowly and pick up the themes and hints I might have missed along the way the first time through.

The Children is one of this summer’s biggest, buzziest books… and it’s well worth giving in to the hype and giving it a chance! Creepy, scary, disturbing, and compelling, this story will stick with you long after the final pages.

Want to know more? Check out these great reviews:
Tammy at Books, Bones & Buffy
Krysta at Pages Unbound

Purchase links: Amazon – Audible – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

Book Review: Swordheart by T. Kingfisher

Posted in Book Reviews by

Title: Swordheart
Author: T. Kingfisher
Publisher: Bramble
Publication date: Originally published November 27, 2018; new hardcover edition released 2025
Length: 448 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Purchased
Rating:

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Halla has unexpectedly inherited the estate of a wealthy uncle. Unfortunately, she is also saddled with money-hungry relatives full of devious plans for how to wrest the inheritance away from her.

While locked in her bedroom, Halla inspects the ancient sword that’s been collecting dust on the wall since before she moved in. Out of desperation, she unsheathes it—and suddenly a man appears. His name is Sarkis, he tells her, and he is an immortal warrior trapped in a prison of enchanted steel.

Sarkis is sworn to protect whoever wields the sword, and for Halla—a most unusual wielder—he finds himself fending off not grand armies and deadly assassins but instead everything from kindly-seeming bandits to roving inquisitors to her own in-laws. But as Halla and Sarkis grow closer, they overlook the biggest threat of all—the sword itself.

I adore T. Kingfisher’s fantasy novels, so it’s not a surprise that Swordheart seems written just for me! Originally published in 2018, Swordheart was reissued in 2025 with a gorgeous new cover… and call me shallow, but I just cannot resist a pretty book. Although I gifted myself the hardcover edition last year, I hadn’t found the right moment to pick it up and read it… until on a whim, I borrowed the audiobook from the library last week. What a treat! My main complaint… is against myself. Why did I wait so long to indulge in this delicious story?

The main character of Swordheart is Halla, a “respectable widow” (as she defines herself) in her thirties who lost her inept, less-than-charming husband years earlier, and has spent the years since as his kindly great-uncle’s housekeeper. With no other family and no means of support, Halla has been grateful for her place in his home. When Great-uncle Silas dies of old age, Halla is startled to learn that he’s left her his entire estate… but not as startled as his scheming niece and her son, who are positively irate.

Aunt Malva decides that the best solution is for Halla to marry her pathetic son Alver, so that the inheritance will legally belong to Alver. And if Halla meets with an accident soon after, well, who would really mind? This assumes that Halla will agree to the plan, and she most emphatically does not. Halla’s unwillingness doesn’t seem to faze Malva, who locks Halla in her bedroom and plans to leave her there until she complies. Malva doesn’t count on Halla finding an antique sword hanging on the wall. Intending to put herself out of her own misery, Halla unsheaths the sword to see if she can find a way to use it on herself, and instead ends up face to face with the tough, scowling, ancient warrior who appears in a burst of blue light.

Sarkis is the servant of the sword, a man who centuries earlier was magically bound to the weapon, condemned to live forever and serve the sword’s wielder, whoever that might be. Sarkis has served kings and warlords and all sorts of unsavory types, but never a stubborn “respectable widow” with a tendency to stop and chat when she should be running away.

An unlikely pair, Halla and Sarkis are bound together nonetheless, and after making a daring escape from Silas’s house, they set off on the road to seek help in reclaiming Halla’s inheritance. At first, they find one another maddening: Sarkis has a tendency to manhandle Halla into ditches whenever trouble approaches, and Halla asks questions about absolutely everything. But as their spur-of-the-moment road trip progresses, they find a sense of camaraderie they hadn’t expected. Later, joined by Zale, a priest of the order of the White Rat, it’s practically a buddy movie! The travelers get into a crazy amount of adventures and trouble, but somehow manage to keep their quest moving forward… even if it’s at the excruciatingly slow pace of the ox pulling their wagon.

Swordheart is pure delight, there’s just no other way to put it. From the start, Halla is an incredibly entertaining main character. She’s kind, but unwilling to just take orders, especially when it comes to Aunt Malva and Cousin Alver, whose clammy hands are but one of his unpleasant defining features. Halla’s superpower seems to be driving people batty: She’s learned that people in power just can’t deal with women they underestimate, and has perfected the fine art of playing stupid in order to get others to see her as not a threat and therefore not worth questioning too closely.

Sarkis’s tortured past leaves him dour and scowly. He’s utterly fierce, but finds himself continually flabbergasted by Halla’s chatter and tendency to march right into trouble. And yet, he can’t help but soften toward her… and the feelings quickly become mutual.

The adventure aspects of the story zip along quickly, as Halla and Sarkis meet an eclectic assortment of rogues, priests, bandits, and more along the road, not to mention the otherworldly dangers they stumble into when they end up traveling through magical lands. Still, the most menacing people they encounter are the family members and close associates of Silas’s, who pose more of a threat than all the various others who wave weapons at them from time to time.

The dialogue throughout Swordheart is incredibly entertaining, and made me laugh out loud throughout the book. The humor leavens even the tensest of situations, and I adored the chemistry between Halla and Sarkis, as well as their friendship with Zale. The world of Swordheart is fascinating, with a whole host of gods and religions complicating the group’s journey, and Sarkis’s backstory, including the lingering questions about the magic of his sword, adds a magical element with its own rules and complications.

The ending implies that there’s more to come, if not for Halla and Sarkis personally, then certainly within the world of their story… and so it’s wonderful to know that book #2, Daggerbound, will be released in August 2026. I’ve already placed my preorder!

Swordheart is easily one of my favorite reads for 2026. I’m beyond thrilled that I finally experienced this terrific tale. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys fantasy books with a touch of humor and light romance… and of course, a must-read for fans of T. Kingfisher.

A note on the audiobook edition:

Narrator: Jesse Vilinsky
Released: 2021
Audio length: 14 hours 32 minutes

While I own a beautiful hardcover edition of Swordheart, I ended up listening to the audio version when a long-time library hold came in — and I’m so glad I did! Jesse Vilinsky’s narration is perfection! Halla’s personality shines through, and Sarkis’s growly voice (with a bizarrely Scottish-sounding accent — which totally works!) is exactly how I’d want him to sound. The action scenes ring with vibrancy, and the entire delivery is well worth the 14-hour listening time. If you’re thinking of checking out Swordheart and enjoy audiobooks, this is the way to go!

Question for readers: I understand that Swordheart connects to the same world as the author’s Clockwork duology and Paladin series. Has anyone read either or both of these? Any recommendations on which to pick up first?

Purchase links: Amazon – Audible – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

First Lines Friday 5/29/2026

Posted in Fun and Whimsy by

First Lines Friday is a weekly feature for book lovers created by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines? Here’s how to join in:

  • Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page.
  • Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first.
  • Finally… reveal the book!

This week’s lines are from a favorite fantasy novel:

Once, in a kingdom called Delain, there was a King with two sons. Delain was a very old kingdom and it had had hundreds of Kings, perhaps even thousands; when time goes on long enough, not even historians can remember everything. Roland the Good was neither the best nor the worst King ever to rule the land. He tried very hard not to do anyone great evil and mostly succeeded. He also tried very hard to do great works, but, unfortunately, he didn’t succeed so well at that. The result was a very mediocre King; he doubted if he would be remembered long after he was dead.

So what’s the book?

The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King
Published: 1984
384 pages

Synopsis:

A tale of archetypal heroes and sweeping adventures, of dragons and princes and evil wizards!

Once, in a kingdom called Delain, there was a king with two sons…

​Thus begins one of the most unique tales that master storyteller Stephen King has ever written—a sprawling fantasy of dark magic and the struggle for absolute power that utterly transforms the destinies of two brothers born into royalty. Through this enthralling masterpiece of mythical adventure, intrigue, and terror, you will thrill to this unforgettable narrative filled with relentless, wicked enchantment, and the most terrible of secrets…




This book has been on my mind since earlier in the week, when I included it on a Top Ten Tuesday list of favorite books by favorite authors. I first read The Eyes of the Dragon many, many years ago, and have revisited it at least twice since then… and I hope to reread it again soon!

Does this sound like something you’d enjoy?

Happy Friday! Wishing everyone a great weekend!

Book Review: The Book Witch by Meg Shaffer

Posted in Book Reviews by

Title: The Book Witch
Author: Meg Shaffer
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Publication date: April 7, 2026
Length: 320 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

Rating: 5 out of 5.

She can hop into any novel, she just can’t stay there. Come along with the book witch in this magical and inspiring love letter to reading from the USA Today bestselling author of The Wishing Game.

Rainy March is a proud, third-generation Book Witch, sworn to defend works of fiction from all foes real and imaginary. With her magical umbrella and feline familiar, she jumps in and out of novels to fix malicious alterations and rogue heroes like a modern-day magical Nancy Drew.

Book Witches live by a strict code: Real people belong in the real world; fictional characters belong in works of fiction. Do not eat, drink, or sleep inside a fictional world, lest you become part of the story. Falling in love with a fictional character? Don’t even think about it.

Which is why Rainy has been forbidden from seeing the Duke of Chicago, the dashing British detective who stars in her favorite mystery series. If she’s ever caught with him again, she’ll be expelled from her book coven—and forced to give up the magical gifts that are as much a part of her as her own name.

But when her beloved grandfather disappears and a priceless book is stolen, there’s only one person she trusts to help her solve the case: the Duke. Their quest takes them through the worlds of Alice in Wonderland, The Great Gatsby, and other classics that will reveal hidden enemies and long-buried family secrets.

We all know that books are magic, right? In the world of The Book Witch, it’s the job of the local coven to make sure that fictional characters stay where they’re supposed to and to fight the malicious intentions of Burners, the book witches’ arch-enemies who seek to destroy stories from within. What’s at stake? Why, only the very existence of books that we know and love. A real-world book burner might burn copies of a book, but the book itself still exists. When a Burner destroys a book from the inside, it’s as if it’s wiped from existence: all copies, everywhere, are erased, and all memory or knowledge of the book is gone too.

Shudder.

That may make The Book Witch sound like a grim tale, and it’s anything but. In this quirky, whimsical novel, Rainy March is a lovely, bubbly book witch who has swooped to the rescue over and over again, landing inside a story thanks to her magical umbrella, accompanied by her cat familiar Koshka, and making sure the story and characters remain true to themselves.

All stories are love stories if you love stories. And I do love stories. As a Book Witch, you kind of have to love them. It’s on our recruitment posters, after all.

Rainy knows the rules — the eight Black and Whites — as well as anyone… but when she enters the noir fiction world of the Duke of Chicago in order to save him and his book series, she can’t help wobbling from the straight and narrow. Duke is a dashing, suave, sexy detective who always solves his cases, and Rainy has had a crush on him since she read the very first book in his series. When she meets him inside his story, things go a bit sideways, and before she can prevent it, he’s became self- aware — meaning, he knows he’s fictional — and they’ve fallen into a secret relationship that isn’t allowed to have a happily ever after.

Duke said that once he learned he was a fictional character, he became subtly aware of his readers. He felt their watchful eyes and sensed their quiet, gentle presence. He knew his stories were being read when the light had a certain warmer quality to it. And when the lights dimmed, he longed to be read again.

When Rainy’s prize edition of a special book — all she has left of her late mother — goes missing, she’s faced with a confusing array of clues. Who better to assist than her favorite fictional detective? Once on the trail, Rainy and Duke jump in and out of various storylands, desperately seeking elusive answers that seem always just out of reach.

There’s so much to love about The Book Witch. First and foremost, this is a book for booklovers. It speaks to the heart of anyone who’s fallen in love with fictional characters, anyone whose life has been changed because of the right book at the right time, anyone who’s ever found themselves inspired or empowered by a book, or even just gotten a reason to smile during dark times thanks to stories on a page.

An unread book is a caged animal, trapped between paper walls. They want reading, need it. To open a book is to set a story free.

The writing here is clever and funny, with banter that fits the various fictional characters who cross Rainy’s path — and yet, it’s not a silly book. Rainy’s feelings are deep and genuine, and the connections she forges are quite special. I won’t give anything away, but there’s a section toward the end that had me wiping away a few awkward tears. The Book Witch beautifully shows the delicate threads binding readers, writers, books, and characters.

I’ve been a fan of Meg Shaffer’s since picking up The Lost Story on a whim (and then immediately feeling the need to dive into her previous novel, The Wishing Game). Her stories are full of heart, and explore all the various and intricate ways that fiction changes lives.

The Book Witch is another stellar example of Meg Shaffer’s creativity. While the plot gets so meta by the end that it made my head spin, I love it in all its (occasionally) baffling glory. Rainy is a fabulous character, and The Book Witch made me really wish that the two key book series so central to the plot were in fact real books I could pick up and read. Even without being able to read those, I loved how The Book Witch shows how real lives are changed by books. Just lovely.

For more by this author:
The Wishing Game
The Lost Story

Purchase links: Amazon – Audible audiobook – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.