I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to beta read HEIR TO THE AUTUMN COURT and I have never encountered a book that was catered more specificallI was lucky enough to have the opportunity to beta read HEIR TO THE AUTUMN COURT and I have never encountered a book that was catered more specifically to my tastes and everything that I have been looking for in romantic/erotic fantasy than this book right here.
To all the achillean polyam nbys and tboys… this one is for US!
Also, needless to say, Elle Porter writes a damn good erotic fantasy....more
A.M. Strickland is back with another gripping stand-alone fantasy, and Court of the Undying Seasons delivered everything it promised it would!
I absolA.M. Strickland is back with another gripping stand-alone fantasy, and Court of the Undying Seasons delivered everything it promised it would!
I absolutely loved In the Ravenous Dark when I initially read it, so I was thrilled when I saw that A.M. Strickland was writing a deliciously queer vampire book! This story delivers the reader an MC who is vicious and driven by her desire for revenge, and I absolutely loved seeing the way her character developed over the course of the story as her motivations changed and her abilities blossomed. Court of the Undying Seasons is filled with unpredictable twists and turns, making it a real page turner as I kept trying to figure out how each element would be approached and resolved.
As always, I loved the approach to queerness in this story! As it's a fantasy setting, there's not really labels on page, but it never felt like anything was lacking or superficial. Fin's journey with gender is subtle, but it resonated with me so much in so many different ways. I also loved the casual queerness of the other vampires and the way that certain relationship dynamics were approached! Without spoiling anything too detailed, there were some minor characters that had a dynamic that I really enjoyed, and it was cool to see the way sexuality and gender interacted for said characters!
As far as the plot itself goes, I was pulled into this story from the start! It was great to read a fantasy-vampire-school story that was as loudly queer as this one was, and it was enjoyable and fast paced. I do wish that the book was perhaps a little longer. My only criticism of this book is the way that some of the big reveals were approached, and I think it would have worked better if there was more space. There were a few scenes that ended up being pages of dialogue of characters explaining every detail of their plans and what they had been planning, and I definitely found my eyes glazing over a bit during those sections. Overall, that's more of a personal preference and nitpick, but that is the main reason I didn't give this a whole 5.
I liked seeing how everything was resolved, and I liked that the ending was open ended enough that it could be built upon, without leaving anything unsatisfying if it stayed a stand-alone. I know some people aren't huge fans of more open-ended stories, but I personally enjoy it a lot more!
Anyways, I loved this story and I look forward to reading more by A.M. Strickland! Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!...more
First of all thank u to my Monster Manor bffs for recommending this to me, but second of all, this was everything? I loved so much about it, but the aFirst of all thank u to my Monster Manor bffs for recommending this to me, but second of all, this was everything? I loved so much about it, but the autistic rep hit very hard and I loved the casual use of neopronouns and the casual monster polyamory ...more
The Winter Knight is an engaging and upbeat urban fantasy that I couldn’t help but get sucked into!
Tying familiar Arthurian legends into urban fantasyThe Winter Knight is an engaging and upbeat urban fantasy that I couldn’t help but get sucked into!
Tying familiar Arthurian legends into urban fantasy, this book was a very fresh and different read for me! The worldbuilding and relationship with legends was very interesting to me and I enjoyed seeing how the characters fit into an urban setting! At its core, it’s a story about characters caught in a cycle, and how they respond when things go awry! Some of the more mystery/detective bits went over my head a little bit, but it didn’t impact my enjoyment of the story at all!! I can’t speak for other readers, but every turn this story took was a surprise to me, and I was fairly satisfied with the overall execution and ending!
I absolutely adored how unapologetically queer this story was, and it was so amazing to see so many meaningful discussions and reflections on sexuality (or lack of) on page! I think the thing that resonated with me the most, however, was the portrayal of autism! I saw myself so much in Wayne and all of his little habits and likes and dislikes and fears, and seeing some of my own thoughts put into words was really special! I will definitely be thinking about this story for a long time because of that!
I will just tack on a note here that this story is a bit heavy on pop culture references. For the most part, it didn’t bother me (save for the one HP reference, which is usually an auto-DNF for me), but I do know that there are a lot of readers who aren’t fans of pop culture-heavy stories, so I’m just adding that here!
Overall, I loved this book a lot, and I would definitely recommend it to fans of urban fantasy and Arthurian legends!
ARC provided in exchange for an honest review through Netgalley!...more
This was so much fun and I absolutely loved the voice and style!! Seph and Hades now own my entire heart. I never knew I neeTHE ONLY RETELLING EVERRRR
This was so much fun and I absolutely loved the voice and style!! Seph and Hades now own my entire heart. I never knew I needed a Hades/Persephone retelling with trans man Seph until now, but this was lovely and also very immersive!...more
I am going to preface this review by saying that this was one of my most anticipated releases this year, so I was really excited to have the opportuniI am going to preface this review by saying that this was one of my most anticipated releases this year, so I was really excited to have the opportunity to read it early! That being said this book was, personally, a huge letdown.
The overall premise of Silk Fire held a lot of promise to me. The blend of scifi and fantasy elements was exciting, and I personally tend to enjoy heavy worldbuilding, and the promise of queer leads and a polyamorous relationship just pulled me in even more. However, this book fell short for me in all of the places it had initially excited me.
For starters, I couldn’t tell you what the setting of the book was even supposed to be. It takes place in a planet-sized city, which is a very cool concept, but what does that actually mean? Very little is offered in terms of description of places to set them apart from each other. All I know is that this city is filled with larger-than-life sculptures and that dinosaurs and dire wolves(?) apparently coexist. I’m sure that the author had a very thought-out mental image of what the setting was supposed to look like, but ultimately, I could not get on the same page.
Listen, I love fantasy. I enjoy heavy worldbuilding, and I generally don’t mind a little bit of info dumping. Sometimes, with intricate fantasy, you need some amount in order to get the reader on the same page as you, but for as much info dumping as this book had, very little of it actually served to help me understand what I was reading. I’m still very confused about the majority of the book, and I’m no stranger to reading books that are hard to follow or have different narrative structures from what I’m used to. Fantasy is the primary genre I read, and even that couldn’t help me make sense of the convoluted plot and confusing worldbuilding.
That’s not even getting started on the overall matriarchal society that this story took place in. The main plot centered around a bid for power, with the main character trying to use this political struggle as a means to get revenge against his father. When I read the synopsis and saw that the society was matriarchal, I didn’t realize that that would translate to straight up sexism. Now I’m not the prime person to speak on all the reasons why simply flipping the roles between men and women didn’t and doesn’t work, as I’m a transmasc guy. It felt wrong and it felt like the entire story was just an extended narrative of women being Evil. That’s not to say that nobody can ever write a story in which women are the ones holding power over men, but the way this story went about executing that was poorly done at best.
The last topic I’ll touch on is the romance, seeing as it was one of the main reasons I (as a polyam person) was initially so excited about this story.
I knew going into this that it very strictly was Not a romance or centered around the relationship between the characters, which was fine! I usually prefer fantasy books with romance over romance books with fantasy, anyways. I didn’t go into this expecting pages of yearning or for a huge romantic focus, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t still feel let down by what we got. I didn’t find either of the love interests (or any character in the book, for that matter) to be very convincing. Most of the characters read as pretty flat, and I had a hard time caring about anything that was happening to them. The romance was barely developed and the pacing and the ways the characters interacted with each other was honestly all over the place. While it was exciting to see polyamorous characters and seeing them be able to navigate a relationship in the midst of everything else happening around them, the relationship itself seemed to hold very little substance.
Overall, this book is going to be 2 stars from me. I wish I'd liked it more, I really do. However, this just goes to show that intricate worldbuilding and a lot of words don't necessarily add up to good fantasy.
Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an eARC of this title in exchange for an honest review!...more
**spoiler alert** I wish I could give this more stars because holy shit it might have been one of my favorite reads this year??
Everything about it wa**spoiler alert** I wish I could give this more stars because holy shit it might have been one of my favorite reads this year??
Everything about it was wonderful, and the cast of characters were all so incredibly messy, but they all had fucked up situations and they had every reason to be messy? I need more books with messy queer characters because this was amazing and so well thought out?
I loved how Andrew's character developed and how we slowly got glimpses and learned about the other characters through his (vert skeptical) perspective.
Another thing I loved was how Riley's transness was portrayed, same with his relationships with Luca and Ethan. I almost never see polyam representation so that made me super happy and it was super well done, and I also rarely see trans characters portrayed so (?) casually, so it was really nice to see with Riley.
this was incredible but also I need to lay down for approximately 12 years to process everything that happened and maybe also eat a pint of ice cream this was incredible but also I need to lay down for approximately 12 years to process everything that happened and maybe also eat a pint of ice cream and cry...more
this is probs more of like a 4.5 for me but anyways I would fend off an entire army of queensguard for tal, my beloved and also I adored all of the mathis is probs more of like a 4.5 for me but anyways I would fend off an entire army of queensguard for tal, my beloved and also I adored all of the main characters ...more
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