Hi folks! So I’ll post these in bulk just this once, but I’ll do individual book review posts from now on. I just didn’t want to spam folks with my old posts all at once. Thanks for reading! You can also find all of them in the tab labelled Book Reviews.
Nov 24 — Bookclub review 4/5
Review for Under the Mist by Jonthon McElhaney:
A pink mist spread through the continent, sucking magic from every device and person. . . .
Nine years later, the two civilizations that relied on this magic are suffering. Rez Serator, a man with a literal ticking clock in his chest, needs to find out where the magic went before the nanite-magic battery in his chest dies.
With just 39 pages, McElhaney introduces us (I didn’t read the first book) to old steam-magic powered civilizations that have fallen into ruin, nods to our own current pandemic, crazy wizards, guards that can’t recognize their own president’s seal, and commentary on power. Under the Mist is a short but definitely memorable book. I found the magic system (and the two differing ideas about the creation of magic words) to be creative. The plot is fast-paced and reads rather like a mystery, which I enjoyed. Though, and this is why I didn’t give it five stars, I did think the plot relied too heavily on deus ex machina with Rez just pulling the solutions out of mid air. I feel like, from what I read, that the author has the ability to write those exploratory scenes out better, and I was disappointed that the author did not. I also thought descriptions were lacking, and I couldn’t quite picture the world. That being said, I really enjoyed the dialogue and how quickly the characters were fleshed out and how realistically. The author clearly has a very good grasp of characterization, and it would have been nice to have some of those characters for longer. Overall, this was a pretty decent short read, and I did enjoy it.
(I received a free copy of this book from Sandra Lopez’s Bookclub, and I gave this review voluntarily.)
Check it out here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08D8LTNFV/
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May 18 — WP review 5/5 (I think she is planing to publish, so the information will be updated then.)
Review of The Witch Woman’s Prophecy by Anni Majoram.
The Witch Woman’s Prophecy follows sixteen-year-old Thamet, whose life is torn apart suddenly when bandits attack his family. The sole surviver of the raid, he makes his way down to the city in hopes of finding some way to make ends meet. Instead, what he finds is a mystery of a forgotten people, a prophecy, which foretells the misfortune that he will cause if he makes the wrong choice, and an ability he didn’t know he had. Thrust into an epic adventure, Thamet struggles to find his own footing in a world that seems to want more and more from him. WWP is a wonderfully written, creative novel that successfully straddles the fantasy, mystery, and science fiction genres. The author pays striking attention to detail to minute things such as the scales on a crocodile to the stars that people in the southern hemisphere use to navigate, which makes for an immersive story. The characters’ and their reactions to the world feel realistic. The language use is diverse and beautiful. WWP is a binge-worthy adventure novel that any fantasy and science fiction fan would enjoy.
Check it out here: https://www.wattpad.com/story/149361679-the-witch-woman%27s-prophecy
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May 23 — WP review 4.5/5 (Points docked for aggressive cliff hanger.)
Review of The Song for Gaelphaxes by T. I. Harper.
The Song for Gaelphaxes (or formerly Nim’s Dragon) is the story of Nim, a fourteen-year-old orphan. Whilst in the foundling home, Nim is bullied and she doesn’t have much hope for adoption, until a fateful day where she learns that she has family on her mother’s side and that they are the famous dragon riders of the Forkbeard family. Once at her new home, Nim quickly finds that strange things are afoot. Girls are vanishing, there are tales of water creatures, the Blacktongue clan’s sudden aggressive behaviour, and worst of all, is the threat to her family dragon, Gaelphaxes. In all of this, Nim must find a balance between doing what is right and not upsetting her new family. SFG is an exquisitely-built world that includes everything from pterodactyls, dragons, krakens, romans, celto-norse vikings, and even mythical figures such as the morrigan. Fans of mythology, awesome creatures from history, ancient languages, adventure, and especially, dragons, will be pleased by this epic. Beautifully-written, the characters really come to life and are lovable within a short period of time. This story, however, does end on a bit of a cliff hanger (quite literally), but thankfully the second one is available as well.
Check it out here: https://www.wattpad.com/story/201517157-song-for-gaelphaxes-book-one-nim%27s-dragon-series-a
C. E. Cannery 
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