book-reviews
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Tris’s Book by Tamora Pierce
Summary Earthquake damage leaves Winding Circle vulnerable to pirate attack, so everyone – including the young mages-in-training Tris, Briar, Daja, and Sandry – is working to strengthen the community’s defenses. When Tris’s cousin Aymery comes to visit, he advises the “weather witch” to return to the family that exiled her, but she doesn’t wish to Continue reading
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Asunder by Kerstin Hall
Summary Karys Eska is a deathspeaker, locked into an irrevocable compact with Sabaster, a terrifying eldritch entity—three-faced, hundred-winged, unforgiving—who has granted her the ability to communicate with the newly departed. She pays the rent by using her abilities to investigate suspicious deaths around the troubled city she calls home. When a job goes sideways and Continue reading
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A Far Better Thing by H.G. Parry
SummaryI feared this was the best of times; I hoped it could not get any worse. The fairies stole Sydney Carton as a child, and made him a mortal servant of the Faerie Realm. Now, he has a rare opportunity for revenge against the fae and Charles Darnay, the changeling left in his stead. It Continue reading
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Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder (Poison Study #1)
Summary About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She’ll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace—and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia. And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Continue reading
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Our Gifted Hearts by Jennifer Kennedy
Summary Fortune Blyth suffered the loss of a secret child when she was sixteen and vowed never to let another man touch her. Ten years later she is content with Ma and her beloved birds. But when witch hunters come to town it isn’t long before fingers are pointed at the spinster and she is Continue reading
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The Broken Crown by Michelle Sagara (The Sun Sword #1)
Summary The Dominion, once divided by savage clan wars, has kept an uneasy peace within its border since that long-ago time when the clan Leonne was gifted with the magic of the Sun Sword and was raised up to reign over the five noble clans. But now treachery strikes at the very heart of the Continue reading
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The Sacred Space Between by Kalie Reed
Summary The Abbey has controlled the minds of its patrons for a millennium through memory magic, stolen from exiled saints. At fifteen, Jude was exiled from the Abbey to the bleak moors in the countryside, to maintain their control over his bourgeoning magic. Almost a decade later, he wants to live a normal life free Continue reading
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The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (The Stormlight Archives #1)
The Stormlight Archives has probably been the number one thing that people have consistently recommended for me to read for this Trauma in SFF project, but I’ve hesitated for a while because epic fantasy is not my typically preferred subgenre and the books are just! So! Long! I’ve nevertheless been fascinated by the passionate Sanderson Continue reading
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Foul Days by Genoveva Dimova (The Witch’s Compendium of Monsters #1)
As a witch in the walled city of Chernograd, Kosara has plenty of practice taming rusalkas, fighting kikimoras, and brewing lycanthrope repellent. There’s only one monster Kosara can’t defeat: her ex the Zmey, known as the Tsar of Monsters. She’s defied him one too many times, and now he’s hunting her. Betrayed to him by Continue reading
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For Girls Who Walk Through Fire by Kim DeRose
Those who would suppress and destroy you stand not a chance when confronted with the power that lies within these pages . . . Elliott D’Angelo-Brandt is sick and tired of putting up with it all. Every week, she attends a support group for teen victims of sexual assault, but all they do is talk. Continue reading
Charlotte Kersten 