Reviews :: Book Rating :: Books We Like

Review

Warriorborn

Posted: January 10, 2024 by Writer Dan in Books We Like Meta: Jim Butcher, Epic Fantasy, Fantasy, Short Fiction
Warriorborn

There are relatively few authors for whom I’ll buy physical copies of novellas. By and large, they end up being too short for the money they cost. Falls into the same category as Audible books that are only 3 or 4 hours long but still cost me a full credit. Not that length, necessarily, lines up with goodness, but it absolutely lines up with potential *amount* of goodness, yeah? When it came to this one, I found myself smack dab on the top of fence. After all, it was being released at essentially the same time as the next novel in the main series, and it had been forever since the last (first) book in the main series came out. What if the novella ended up being super important to the story? What if it was a connector? Gah! I just couldn’t do it. So, I bought the thing, and here we are.
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Review

The Dragon’s Promise

Posted: December 27, 2023 by Vanessa in Books We Like Meta: Elizabeth Lim, Fantasy, Young Adult
The Dragon’s Promise

Shiori’s continuing story from SIX CRIMSON CRANES, begins in book 2, THE DRAGON’S PROMISE, as she travels with Seryu, her dragon friend, to the bottom of the sea, to meet the king of the dragons.

If you haven’t read SIX CRIMSON CRANES, then this book will not make much sense to you; it doesn’t make very a good standalone because you get a lot of important backstory, setting explanation, and magic development that will only make sense if you’ve read book 1. Otherwise what follows will be horrible spoilers. (You’ve been warned.)
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Review

Six Crimson Cranes

Posted: December 20, 2023 by Vanessa in Books We Like Meta: Elizabeth Lim, Fantasy, Young Adult
Six Crimson Cranes

A friend recommended SIX CRIMSON CRANES, explaining that it’s a sweet story for young adults with romance and a creative re-telling of the traditional six swans fairytale.

And fortunately, that’s what it turned out to be.
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Review

Legionnaire

Legionnaire

I’m always on the lookout for a great, quick read, and when I came across this one, I decided pretty quickly that it fit the bill.
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Review

The Heirs of Babylon

The Heirs of Babylon

I haven’t read near enough Glen Cook.

I keep telling myself this, and yet my penchant for continuing to push his books down my TBR pile is, quite frankly, fairly embarrassing. I actually received this book quite some time ago, and only recently took the chance to read it. Mainly because it was short and I needed to get to something short. One of these days I’m going to figure out how to get ahead of the review game again, and have these things scheduled out. Until then, one foot in front of the other.
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Review

A Woman of the Sword

Posted: May 11, 2023 by Writer Dan in Books We Like Meta: Anna Smith Spark, Fantasy
A Woman of the Sword

Occasionally, I’ll come across a book that just resonates with my inner core. At who I am, way down deep. This was one of those. The first time I saw the announcement–the author, the title, the cover–there just wasn’t any question. I was going to buy this book and it would be fabulous. I mean, look at that cover! How can that visual *not* just call to you? Maybe I’m biased by the fact that I’m a father and husband, by how hard I know life can be sometimes. So for me, pre-ordering this one was near instant, unknown publisher or not. Didn’t matter. I wanted to get this book into my greedy hands and devour it as soon as humanly possible.
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Review

The Book That Wouldn’t Burn

Posted: April 26, 2023 by Writer Dan in Books We Like Meta: Mark Lawrence, Science Fantasy
The Book That Wouldn’t Burn

This book has an interesting title. Don’t you think? I must admit, it threw me for a bit of a loop the first time I saw it. Same for the series name. Didn’t quite know what to think after the initial announcement. Excitement for a new Mark Lawrence book? Well, yeah, of course. But what kind of book was this going to be? Any idea as to whether or not it would be connected to the rest of his books, as they all seem to be so far? It sure didn’t sound like it. But there was always the chance. And so, alas, not a book that I pre-ordered, but when I got the chance to get an eArc, I was in. Of course, I was. What kind of question is that?
THE BOOK THAT WOULDN’T BURN is the first of a new projected trilogy from Mr. Mark Lawrence, one of our favorite authors here at EBR. Although, given this guy’s throughput, it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest to find out that he’d already penned (at the very least) the first draft of the last line of the series. Guy produces.
Evar and Livira are two […]Read the rest of this review »

Review

Tress of the Emerald Sea

Posted: April 19, 2023 by Vanessa in Books We Like Meta: Brandon Sanderson, Fantasy, Fairy Tales
Tress of the Emerald Sea

TRESS OF THE EMERALD SEAS might well have started with “Once Upon a Time” because it has much the same tone as any fairytale–original or modern. Tress is our main character, a teenage girl with simple wants, who also happens to be in love with the duke’s son, Charlie. But when his father discovers their budding romance, he takes the boy to court and attempts to marry him off to a young woman with more status. However, the duke underestimates the strength of Tress and Charlie’s friendship, and Charlie successfully bores the noble girls away (I know this sounds weird, but this is Sanderson and he loves his goofy camp). Unfortunately, his punishment is to be sent to fight the infamous sorceress of the Midnight Sea, which results in his capture.
And this is where Tress’ adventure begins.
Set in the world of the Cosmere, this standalone novel still has much of the same flavor as MISTBORN (with a little Terry Pratchett thrown in), but on a more […]Read the rest of this review »

Review

Dead Country

Posted: March 1, 2023 by Vanessa in Books We Like Meta: Max Gladstone, Fantasy
Dead Country

Tara Abernathy grew up in a village desert away from the big city. Now that small-town girl is one of the strongest users of the Craft, the law and rights-based magic which can transform bodies, compel gods, and shape the world. But today she is returning home to attend her father’s funeral. Knowing magic doesn’t make her popular with the local villagers, she’s concerned about her reception. But the village and Tara soon discover that her arrival is the only thing that will help the villagers survive.
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Review

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

Posted: February 15, 2023 by Vanessa in Books We Like Meta: Stuart Turton, Mystery
The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

From the very first chapter, you realize that any notions you may have about this being a standard mystery story are going to be turned on their heads. Our main character wakes up in the middle of the woods with amnesia, and believes that he hears a murder being committed. From that point on, we are plunged into a story that unfolds piece by piece from the POV of seven characters–who are actually one character. His name is Aiden Bishop and he wakes up in the body of seven different guests at Blackheath Manor each morning, and he has one day to solve the mystery of the death of Evelyn Hardcastle.
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