Book Review: The Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman

 

I always think I've read all the books by my favorite authors but every once in a while a book by Alice Hoffman or Anne Tyler or Mary Balogh shows up from their back catalog that I've never seen before. The Ice Queen is one of those books, and a lovely story it is.

The protagonist loves books, especially fairy tales (Grimm, not Andersen), so when her mother leaves for a party, this eight-year-old girl makes a wish and her mother dies in an accident. Later, the girl's grandmother is the recipient of another wish. As a young woman, our unnamed heroine makes a third wish and is struck by lightning.

These circumstances cause her to believe she is unworthy of love:

“At night I told myself a story, wordless, inside my head, one I liked far better than those in my books. The girl in my story was treated cruelly, by fate, by her family, even by the weather. Her feet bled from the stony paths; her hair was plucked from her head by blackbirds. She went from house to house, looking for refuge. Not a single neighbor answered his door, and so one day the girl gave up speaking. She lived on the side of a mountain where every day was snowy. She stood outside without a roof, without shelter; before long she was made of ice—her flesh, her bones, her blood. She looked like a diamond; it was possible to spy her from miles away. She was so beautiful now that everyone wanted her: people came to talk to her, but she wouldn’t answer. Birds lit on her shoulder; she didn’t bother to chase them away. She didn’t have to. If they took a single peck, their beaks would break in two. Nothing could hurt her anymore. After a while, she became invisible, queen of the ice. Silence was her language, and her heart had turned a perfect pale silver color. It was so hard nothing could shatter it. Not even stones.”

This is a dark story just like the Grimm fairy tales our heroine loves. It is also a story of opposites: life and death, ice and fire, dark and light, fairy tales and chaos theory. There's a lot of symbolism and touches of magic. But it's also a story of redemption and sibling love. I loved this book. It's definitely one to reread.

Preorder Blitz: Salted Caramel Bliss with a Wedding Kiss by Cherie Colyer

 

One Scoop or Two Series - Standalone

Paranormal Romance

Date Published:  August 24, 2022

Publisher:  The Wild Rose Press

Roman Briggs built a life for himself in Siren’s Cove. He restored the Sugar Cones Ice Cream Parlor and turned it into a popular stop along the boardwalk. He has everything he needs until a certain blue-eyed woman wanders back into his life.

Seer and witch Peyton Woods isn’t sure why her latest visions feature a man and boy she’s never met. Determined to find out, she casts a spell that leads her to a small beach town in Maine and, to her utter surprise, the man who broke her heart eight years earlier.

Peyton's left with one question. Why didn't her magic show her him?

About the Author

Professional network technician by day, novelist by night, Cherie lives a quiet life in the Chicago suburbs with her charming husband. She has four amazing sons who she loves dearly. Cherie magically weaves together stories with a paranormal twist. She’s the author of the Embrace series, Challenging Destiny, Damned When I Didn’t, and Friends to the End. She waltzed into the adult novel world with Merry Little Wishing Spritz. She’s delighted to be back with Salted Caramel Bliss with a Wedding Kiss.

 

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Book Review: I love this series!

The Poison Song by Jen Williams

Well. I am very rarely reduced to this kind of overwhelming emotional state by a book or series, but Jen Williams has done it with this very excellent series. Over the course of the three books, the stakes have risen like a tidal wave that has finally crashed down in the last few chapters of The Poison Song. I simply love these characters; good and bad, their redemption arcs or character growth have had me engrossed all along the way. Noon, Tor, Vintage, those wonderful war-beasts, and all the others fighting for Sarn and Ebora, I'm going to miss you a lot. The story has been superb, unlike anything else I've read. This is dark fantasy at its best, with a ray of hope shining for the reader. The bittersweet ending was correct though it made me sad. I can't say much because of spoilers, but I do urge anyone who loves a good story with great characters to pick up this trilogy. I give it all the stars. P.S. I love the book covers too

Book Review: Harry's Trees by Jon Cohen

"What else is a library, but a temple of truth? What other function do books have, the great ones, but to change the reader? Books to comfort. But most of all, books to disturb you forward." I'm a lover of books of magical realism (Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin may be one of my most favorite books), so Harry's Trees is perfect for me. I will venture that it might also be a perfect story for most readers. It begins very sadly for both Harry and Amanda, our protagonists, who've both lost their spouses. Oriana, Amanda's daughter, seeks solace for the loss of her father in fairy tales, aided by the "witchy" local librarian. Their lives collide a year later as each of the three tries to find a solution for their grief. This is a beautiful story, set against the backdrop of the Endless Mountains in Pennsylvania. I was surprised to find it an actual place and perfect for Harry who has loved trees most of his life. Every character has an important place in the book and multiple stories weave their way through the story. Even the minor characters have satisfying endings, which one doesn't always find and I enjoy. And of course, there's a lot of symbolism and magic - not overt, no wands or mystical spells - but the best and worst part of fairy tales: red coats, portentous feathers, heroes and villains, and significant coincidences. This is one of those books I'll reread. It's a wonderful story about hope and love. “Because it’s worth it. Worth the risk and the pain. Of all the glorious enchantments of this world—spring, snow, laughter, red roses, dogs, books—love is by far the best.”

Book Review: The Bitter Twins by Jen Williams

This is one of the most amazing fantasy (with a bit of sci-fi thrown in) series I've read in quite a long while. Fantasy authors and publishers tend to write trilogies a la Tolkein, but too often the middle work is stuffed with padding and needless wandering around for my tastes. This is one of those rare exceptions where the author kept the pacing, built the world and the character arcs, and kept the reader on the edge of their seat for the duration of the book. This book splits into several different POVs. Noon, our fell-witch, and Tor are off to find a lost recording that may help their war beasts learn their powers and coordinate with each other better. Bern and Aldasair go to fight a Jure'lia threat to Bern's homeland. Vintage is trying to manage things in Ebora with the help of an Eboran boy Eri but it's not easy with betrayals and political infighting. And Hestillion, Tor's sister, was taken by the Jure'lia queen though she seems a willing prisoner. This was an especially interesting POV as we got to see from the Jure'lia side of things a little. These are such unique characters and their interactions draw the reader in which adds to the tension. The worldbuilding is amazing and unusual but fits so well into the history we discover. There are themes being explored and developed here: connections between groups, origin myths, and exploitation of people. The writing is excellent but also very dark, and I was crying by the end of the book. But it's a fascinating series and I can't wait to dive into The Poison Song.

The Continuing Adventures of Laurel Palmer by Pamela McCord

 

Paranormal Romance/Fiction

Date Published: October 20, 2022

Publisher: Acorn Publishing

 

Is there love after death? Laurel Palmer is about to find out. Thanks to a little shove by her husband, Laurel wakes up dead. And there’s no sign of that white light people are supposed to go into. Now a ghost stuck on earth, Laurel is determined to find out how she can get into heaven. On her search for the light, Laurel meets Teddy Rule, a hunk of a ghost who coincidentally was also murdered by her husband. Turns out, he didn’t get that light either. As they work together to figure out what's keeping them on this earthly plane, feelings develop. Not knowing if heaven will separate them, they must decide whether or not to cross over.

About the Author

Pam got a late start in writing but has made up for it with several published novels and a few more on the way. A serendipitous conversation with a writer friend launched her literary career, and the fact that she might never have had that particular conversation is enough to make her believe that fate played a hand in sending her down the path to becoming an author. All four of her published books have won the Mom’s Choice Award Gold Seal, and the first book in her Pekin Dewlap Mystery series was the winner of the American Book Fest Children’s Fiction Award. She’s lived in Southern California most of her life and is thankful to have a loving family and supportive friends. Spending time at home during the COVID pandemic advanced both Pam's writing and her relationship with her My Cat From Hell TV star, Allie, who manages to exude just enough affection to make her scary feral ways tolerable.

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The Ninth Rain by Jen Williams

 

No hyperbole - this is one of the best fantasy/science fiction books I've read. I say both genres because this book has a unique blending of the two that works really well here. The book is the well-deserved winner of the British Fantasy Award for Best Fantasy Novel. There's a fine mix of distinctive characters and races. At the core are the Eborans, a warrior race who have fought in eight previous wars against alien invaders, the Jure'lia. They are also feared by humans because in the last war, the Eighth Rain, their tree-god died. They were sustained by the sap of the tree but turned to human blood. Then they've been stricken with the scarlet flux, a deadly disease that is slowly aging and wiping out the Eboran race. Tormalin the Oathless left Ebora and ended up working for archeologist Vintage De Grazon as she explores the wreckage left by the Jure'lia. She needs a bodyguard as these wrecks are invested with parasite spirits (RAFO). Meanwhile, fell-witches are born to humans, women who manifest winnow fire. These women are imprisoned in the Winnowry and Fell Noon has been there for ten years, taken as a child, and longs to escape. These are the three primary characters but they all have fascinating backgrounds and I loved how they grew as the book goes on. I can't wait to see what happens to them in the next book in the series. The secondary characters are interesting also. There are some very unique and complex people in the book. Tor's sister is definitely morally gray and will bear watching. What we learn about the Jure'lia world is also fascinating. As I said earlier in this review, I can't think of a fantasy book (maybe some of Mark Lawrence's books set in Abeth) that so successfully combines fantasy and science fiction. There are also some horror elements incorporated into the story. It's a melange of genres that work together to create an excellent world and people. I'm diving right into the next book in the series. These are books that should be recommended more, so read them now. https://www.amazon.com/Ninth-Rain-Winnowing-Flame-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B09X5CBYYD/