Category: Book Reviews

Before I begin, I need to give a few disclaimers. I received an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for honest feedback, and I went into the book with a negative perception because the book was labelled as being perfect for readers who loved Fourth Wing.

I did not like Fourth Wing, to the extent that I couldn’t finish the Amazon ebook sample. Meaning, I literally could not get through the first chapter.

So, you can see why that comparison would not make a good first impression. Probably a good reason to ask why I would have read it and agreed to give feedback. I’ve been toying with the idea of a fantasy/magic university setting, based on actual medieval universities and scholastic guilds, so I always try to keep tabs on what other fantasy writers are doing with the idea.

And, in the interest of transparency, I struggled with the beginning of The Ellyrian Code. There was too much jumping between point-of-view characters (and too many of them to jump between) without spending enough time establishing their identity. It took me until close to halfway through the book to realize who was who. Now, apparently this books is either a sequel or companion to B.F. Peterson’s earlier book, The Land Beyond the Waste, and I hadn’t realized there were connected books. I found an interview where she mentions that The Land Beyond the Waste developed from a book she wrote earlier (which seems to be The Ellyrian Code) regarding the founding of an order of dragon riders. So I guess the other book is sort of a prequel that got published first?

So, probably up to you to decide which one you want to read first.

Anyway, I did end up really liking the plot of this book, once the novel began to focus in on it. There are tropes that are pretty standard in magic academy books— different houses that are highly competitive rivals, an end of the year competitive tournament, and a secret group of rule breakers responding to incredibly rigid rules. Despite all of that, I felt like they were included because people expected them to be there, rather than because the story necessarily needed them?

The description doesn’t really capture what I felt was the main story— Christina (mentioned in the summary) is alternately attacked and then protected by a former member of the Eshtem (the order that the university trains potential prospects for), who was expelled and declared an outlaw, only for him to face a summary execution by the order’s military general, despite his claims of innocence and shock that he had been tried in absentia. Christina feels guilty and uncomfortable about this, so she begins a clandestine quest to find out the truth. Who really was he? What was his crime? Could he have actually been innocent? Was this part of a cover-up by the Eshtem to hide something they had done wrong?

That was what felt like the main story line to me. And I really enjoyed it! It was fascinating and I loved trying to piece the evidence together to unravel it along with her. Unfortunately, only two of the point of view characters were even aware of this story line, and one only partially, so their respective chapters felt a little extraneous. The same with the other elements- like the tournament, secret society, and conflict between social classes felt a little unnecessary, especially since this university is essentially a paramilitary peacekeeping organization. Sort of like the Jedi, if they rode dragons, or a fantasy version of Starfleet.

Unfortunately, this primary story line only began to pick up about halfway through the book, hence my struggles at the beginning, since there wasn’t really a lot of momentum in the beginning. Stick with it though! I did and really enjoyed the second half of the book.

There was just enough intrigue and subterfuge to keep the tension ratcheting up, along with the mysterious events going on behind the scenes at the university, especially seeing the professors and faculty’s machinations to protect their secrets. Growing up, I heard lots of people criticize Harry Potter for being a bad role model, because he constantly breaks the rules and defies authority, even though there wasn’t really a reason for him to do that? In this one, it makes much sense, as the protagonists don’t know which professors can be trusted or not. I really appreciated that addition to the dynamic between student and staff.

Granted, some of the rules didn’t make a lot of sense, like curfew and uniforms. Granted, this is a pseudo military organization, which might account for it? And I think that was part of my confusion. Sometimes it felt like the students were adults in university, but other times, it felt like they were viewed as teenagers in high school. I don’t remember if any of their ages were explicitly listed, but I’m thinking probably around 20ish? The pettiness and cliques felt younger than that on occasion and a lot of the rivalries felt more like they belonged in high school.

I suspect that’s part of my problem with the worldbuilding and characterization— a lot of it ended up feeling like it doesn’t quite fit together all the way. Now, based on the interview that I found, this was probably the author’s first book. For a first book, I expect things to be a little rougher, so I won’t deduct anything for that. Despite all this, it’s a very strong first-written book. I especially appreciated how the dragons are thought out and appear into the story. I won’t give away too much, but this one really leans into the idea of dragons as being majestic and terrible.

Overall, I would recommend it for fantasy fans. It’s definitely not a fantasy/romance like Fourth Wing, if that’s what you’re looking for. The romance is a subplot at most, and nothing really happens there.

4/5 stars.

The Ellyrian Code releases June 24, 2025 and can be purchased here. (Bookshop.org affiliate link)

For someone with a master’s degree in fantasy, a blog themed around fantasy, and a major writing project focused on fantasy, I really haven’t talked about fantasy at all here, have I? Well, we can change that here. I received a free ARC in exchange for honest feedback, and I’m excited about this one. It’s been a while since I read a fantasy that I really enjoyed and stayed up to finish.

For this one, imagine if Miss Marple had Sherlock’s skills and was also a wizard in a world where gods and demons can show up, assisted by a maverick detective who’s the black sheep of the police force. This is kind of what we’re looking at here. Children are going missing and nobody has really cared. The child of a neighboring general, in the kingdom as a political hostage, disappears, and now suddenly everyone cares.

Holt Hawley is a sergeant in the high companies, the elite royal soldiers, except he’s not from any of the military families, meaning his comrades hate him, his officers want to get rid of him, and he was blamed for a massacre. Sent off in disgrace on an impossible mission, he leads a small team of failures and washouts to try and find the last True Vigilant, famous for their powers and insight, as opposed to a current Royal Vigilant, known mostly for religious fanaticism and sadism. The true Vigilant order was disbanded decades prior, hence the impossibility, except for a ring that had shown up unexpectedly.

Expecting a hero, he instead finds an old woman who really doesn’t want to get involved with the messiness of politics and intrigue again. Fortunately, she relents.

We find ourselves with a traditional locked-room mystery: the child disappeared from his bedroom, right next to the duke’s daughter’s room and the nurse’s room. Nobody heard anything suspicious, nobody saw anything suspicious. He was there that night and the next morning he was gone. We have plenty of suspects though— the nurse, the duke, the older cousin, raiders from across the border, rebels, witches. It’s layer after layer of deceit and mystery.

And it’s a really good mystery, too. I never managed to guess the outcome, even though all the clues were present through most of the story. There was a story going on behind the mystery as well, dealing with ancient legends, rumors of saints, and conspiracies.

Take away the mystery and it’s a very traditional fantasy, but it felt very fresh. Part of it definitely comes from the mystery elements. The other part of it definitely comes from the fact it’s genuinely heartfelt. There’s no tongue-in-cheek, fourth-wall-breaking, winking-at-the-audience that pokes fun at the story. No cheesy one liners or Marvel-esque pauses to give time for a joke to land. Not very many jokes at all, if we’re being honest. It’s story is taken completely seriously. And rightfully so, considering how things all end up.

Like any good mystery, Latham keeps the focus on the core characters and the suspects. It’s still a fairly large cast, all things considered, and I struggled to keep some of them apart, especially on the duke’s council. As the book went on, the number of suspects decreased, which helped. Plus, as the story went on, the individual personalities started becoming stronger and easier to distinguish.

Unlike the last few books I’ve reviewed, grief is not a big theme here for our protagonist. Regret certainly is, and despair, and hopelessness. Holt is a black sheep among black sheep. His fellow soldiers hate him, the nobles despise him, the common people blame him for a massacre, and he feels all he’s good for is fighting and killing. The mystery, for him, is a chance to do something that matters. Something that will make the world a better place. It’s why he joined the army in the first place, before becoming disillusioned.

It’s not quite a redemption story, all things considered, but it’s something deeper. A resurrection story, metaphorically speaking? Perhaps, rather, it’s the story of finding purpose and direction not as a youth, but as an adult. And, glancing at the job market and economy, that seems pretty relevant.

The worldbuilding was familiar, but not derivative. Compared to lots of fantasy novels, this one had a relatively small geographic scope, which kept the focus on the mystery, even while hinting at events beyond the border as part of a broader story. The most unique elements were in its religion and cosmology— demonic and angelic both, as well as the true nature of saints. I’ve read very few fantasy novels that deal so explicitly with demons, saints, and angels, but I certainly appreciate them. The only one I can think of off the top of my mind is Elizabeth Moon’s Paksworld books. Lois McMaster Bujold’s Chalion books may also involve them, but it’s been a very long time since I read them, so I can’t say for certain. And it’s unfortunate that more people don’t include saints, because they were a huge part of medieval Catholicism.

I’m hoping there are lots more books in this series, because the end of the book certainly feels more like a beginning than an end.

Overall, 5/5 stars. Recommended for every fantasy fan.

The Last Vigilant releases June 23, 2025 and can be ordered here (my Bookshop.org affiliate link).

(I received a free copy in exchange for honest feedback to the publisher)

Kitemaster is, pardon the pun, a breath of fresh air in plot, worldbuilding, and style. It starts out with our protagonist-narrator, Niall, trying to finish the spirit kite for her deceased husband after the traditional year of mourning. That alone creates a very unique start to a story. While I’m not a huge fan of first person novels, I think it worked well for this one because so much of the narrative drives happens inside Niall’s mind and feelings.

To start off, I want to look at the worldbuilding first, because that (and the cover) were what sold me on giving the book a try. The back cover blurb describes the world as one in which the wind never stops blowing and people can travel on kite-ships which, as you can see on the cover of the book, are very similar to sailing ships in the air. They use kites (or giant sails, I suppose?) to gain lift and maneuver. The idea is fascinating and I really appreciated the in-depth look at how the ships worked. Additionally, in terms of magic, there are Wisps, which are more common and help direct the wind, and Kitemasters, who are much more rare, and can connect to the wind and to kites on a deep enough level that they can actually feel what the kites are feeling. And in this case, a kite covers anything that flies— living or non-living. I thought this was a fascinating concept that really tied together the plot, setting, and characters, which is something I’ve struggled to find in the past.

Additionally, a big part of the story-line is something the people in the book call the river of stars. At first, I thought this was just an artistic description of the night sky, perhaps like the Milky Way. Turns out I was wrong and there is something truly river-like about the stars in this world. I found all of the imagery touching on this to be remarkably elegant and haunting, in just the right way to make the concept very poignant.

In terms of the plot, this is definitely more character driven. There are external events happening that characters are responding to, but I’d say the heart of the story is in Nial’s inner journey. Part of the journey is her progress as a Kitemaster, which she discovers unexpectedly, but I think the big journey is in how this discovery affects her relationship and reaction to the grief of losing her husband at age twenty one. That is the anchor that keeps the story grounded (not because of the airships, but you know what I mean). A lot of books have tried to capture the experience of grieving. I’ve found very few novels, genre novels anyway, that do a good job. This one does. Jim Hines does a powerful job of working with grief, in a multitude of characters, and loss, and it feels real for everyone, as well as their responses.

That brings us to the characters as well. There’s a lot of them, make no mistake, but even while writing this close to a week after I finished the book, I can still remember and picture them. There’s no blending together here. Each of them have their own arcs, even if we only see portions of it, and very distinctive presences on the page. There’s a good amount of diversity too, regarding orientations, which I appreciated, as well as more extended familial relationships than we often see. Perhaps one of my favorite is how Nial’s family is present and involved with the story through the entire course of the book rather than being left behind.

In many ways, the novel is structured along the lines of the traditional hero’s journey— the protagonist discovers a call, rejects the call, reluctantly accepts the call, must learn a new powerful magic, and so on. However, I really appreciate how Jim deviated from the traditional portrayal by having community involved in the entire story line. The “official” Campbellian hero’s journey is about how a man must embrace isolation from community in order to conquer the foe. That isn’t the case here. Part of it is the nature of magic— kitemasters are at their most powerful when they can work together. What differentiates Kitemasters from Wisps (their less powerful cousins) is that Kitemasters can better feel the wind, the people around them, spirits, and anything that flies. That creates a sense of connectedness that we don’t normally see compared to more solitary wizards like Ged or Gandalf. Additionally, the cultures that we see presented have a much stronger communal element as well.

Overall, five stars out of five. I highly recommend this to anyone who likes fantasy, especially smaller-scale (and maybe cozy?) fantasy stories.

Kitemaster releases on May 27, 2025 and can be pre-ordered or purchased here. (My Bookshop.org affiliate link for this book)

If you liked Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series but wanted more magic, this is the book for you. That pretty much sums up the entire review, honestly, although this is very much a work of nautical fiction. While the details and jargon are not as complex as Patrick O’Brian’s work, there’s still to get lost in. Fortunately, there was a glossary at the end of the book, and the other characters are usually helpful enough to work out what’s happening, as the main protagonist, the Marquese Enid d’Tancrevilleis, is neither a sailor nor a captain. In this way, she is very much along the lines of Dr. Stephen Maturin in the Aubrey/Maturin books. It makes her the perfect complement for the secondary protagonist, Commander Rue Nath. They very much share that same dynamic, although Nath seems to be more straightforwardly heroic, and more self-aware, than Captain Jack Aubrey ever seemed to be in the first few books.

Enid d’Tancrevilleis is a magister- a sorceress or magician. The magic was quite interesting, as it felt very much like a combination of post-Renaissance alchemy and magic, which is a style I haven’t seen very often. Fortunately, other than the magic, most of the rest of the setting was instantly recognizable. As she is very out of place aboard a warship, being an aristocrat and intellectual, her perspective eases the reading into the world, and the naval aspects.

The protagonist is clearly a noblewoman fleeing this world’s version of the French Revolution, the nation of Albion is Britain, Gisbon is a combination of Lisbon and Gibraltar, and the naval functions (outside of ship’s magister) are identical to the British Royal Navy at the time. While I would have liked some more original worldbuilding, I think the overall familiarity of the setting serves as an easier bridge for readers who are less versed in the era’s history or nautical literature. This becomes particularly notable in the finale of the book, which is very clearly modeled directly after a real-life historical event (which I won’t spoil).

But I’d say the hallmark of the book is the dynamic between Enid and Nath. They have very different perspectives, while also both having very strong personalities. Enid is no Maturin, of course, not a spy, nor a romantic rebel, nor anything like that. She is, however, an aristocrat and a very powerful magister, while Nath is less well-born, but his captaincy gives him ultimate authority, and he’s a natural leader of others. That gives him a charisma and presence that Enid, with all of her magical power, does not have. She, however, knows nothing of the Navy and very little of Albion, which gives her a very unique perspective that Nath appreciates. There’s a bit of a will they/won’t they dynamic as there’s hints of burgeoning attraction between them, but it is very much a slow burn.

Overall, I’d certainly recommend it! I enjoyed every bit of it and appreciated the fantasy spin on a familiar genre. You can buy it here (affiliate link to Bookshop.org, as I try very hard to never support Amazon) or ask your local library if they can get one for you somehow.