Fresh coming-of-age fantasy

Pariah’s Lament by Richie Billing is a fresh coming-of-age fantasy drama rife with fast-paced battles, kings, kingdoms, and medieval style politics. The storytelling balances the plot with bits of humor and a touch of romance laced with intrigue of two potential matches for the fair heroine. This novel takes place in the the realm of the Of Metal and Magic CORE (3 books) where this fantasy unfolds with a natural sense of discovery. The reader knows where they are, has a sense of what to expect, what to dread, who to trust, and where they might turn for help. 

The protagonist is a strong, complex female character by the name of Isy. In her home town and among her family she is identified by how she looks and bullied for it. She fits in nowhere, and has no friends albeit the librarian who treats her kindly when no one is looking. Her reprieve from the reality of life is found in the pages of books, until her hopeless world is turned on its head in a heartbeat as she steps into the role of reluctant hero when she finds her fate entangled with a persecuted race facing extermination and to her dismay, they believe she can help.

Book Hookup Review: Pariahs’ Lament

One of the best fantasy books I’ve read this year. The attention to detail is outstanding. You are there! Pacing is on point. No dragging, or rushing. Just caught up in a natural ebb and flow of events like a pulse delivering life into every page. The unique characters are interesting and engaging. Gripping battle scenes deliver one compelling climax after another with a plot that keeps the pages turning. This one makes it to my top 10 list for books read in 2023. Couldn’t put it down. I give it five out of five stars and look forward to more from this new author. Recommend to fantasy, action adventure fans.

I received a copy of this book through Black Phoenix Book Tours and have not been compensated for reviewing or recommending it. Some links in this post are affiliate links. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to amazon.com and affiliate sites.

 

About the author

Richie Billing writes all kinds of stories, but mostly fantasy fiction. His tales often explore real-world issues, zooming in on the characters and their troubles. His short fiction has been widely published, with one story adapted for BBC radio. His debut novel, Pariah's Lament, was published by Of Metal and Magic Publishing in March 2021. Richie also hosts the podcast The Fantasy Writers’ Toolshed, a venture inspired by the requests of readers of his acclaimed craft book, A Fantasy Writers’ Handbook.

When not writing, Richie works as an editor and digital marketer and teaches creative writing both online and in his home city of Liverpool. Most nights you can find him up into the early hours scribbling away or watching the NBA.

Find out more at www.richiebilling.com. 

https://mailchi.mp/c8382d667538/join-richie-billings-community

https://www.instagram.com/richiebilling/

https://twitter.com/Magpie_richie

 

The Secret Garden of Yanagi Inn is a story of restoration

A pastoral ghost story set in Japan, The Secret Garden of Yanagi Inn by Amber Logan is a tale of transformation. As a fan of the classic, The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, the thought of a retelling of the story intrigued me. I was not disappointed. Subtle ties to the original such as Mari Lennox stepping into the shoes of the protagonist and replacing the child Mary Lennox of the original are cleverly deposited throughout. While it is a fully new story, it is jam-packed with elements only fans of the classic will recognize, and it delivers the same compelling sense of mystery with a theme of emotional healing. Those who haven’t read the original will thoroughly enjoy this story of restoration as well. Logan's retelling draws readers deeper with each inkling, suspicion, or clue until they are immersed into the story told from Mari's perspective. ]

 

About The Secret Garden of Yanagi Inn

Amber Logan’s protagonist is a middle-aged woman traumatized by grief, loss, and guilt. After being offered a grant to photograph Yanagi Inn for a client, her sister talks her into returning to Japan where she lived until age 10. She arrives at the sprawling Yanagi Inn to find it neglected and in need of refurbishment, much like Misselthwaite Manor of the original version, but this story sweeps the reader into Asian culture giving the tale a whole new flavor.

Una, a young Asian woman, brings meals to Mari’s room and straightens things while she is out. She becomes a friend and confidant. Much like Martha in the classic, Una’s surprising personality doesn’t fit Mari's preconceived assumptions. The younger woman brings a refreshing vitality to the declining inn, and she stands in contrast to the older, dour antagonist Okura.

When Mari takes her camera outside, she finds the gardens forsaken, run-down, and overgrown, but as she snaps pictures, she sees what was and the potential of what could be again. When a crane catches her attention, she follows it. It disappears across the pond to an island with no way to cross. When she talks to Una, she learns the island is off-limits, with no explanation.

When Mari hears weeping of a child in the night, she is compelled to find the source. She steps out of the familiarity of her room into “the inky darkness […] so complete I felt I could touch it and come away with my fingertips blackened. I kept one palm on the right wall and my bare feet shuffling along the cold wooden floor to keep from tripping over unseen objects.”

The narrative unwinds slowly like following a thread through a dark passage in search of a dropped ball of yarn. What she finds propelled me into an interactive experience as clues invited me to join in the suspense and mystery within the corridors and gardens of Yanagi Inn. Mari’s thoughts say it best. “Maybe I should just leave. I could sense two diverging paths in front of me: one in which I fled the inn and left all the mysteries behind, and one in which I stayed and saw both my duties and my curiosity through to the very end, no matter how unsettling the results.”

Book review of The Secret Garden of Yanagi Inn

I recommend The Secret Garden of Yanagi Inn to fans of the classic version of The Secret Garden, and to those who enjoy mysteries, ghost stories, and Asian themes. While some may think the pacing slow, I thought it perfect and in keeping with the tempo of the original story. It is delightfully symbolic. A story of rebirth for the inn and the woman searching for meaning within its corridors. Mari arrives filled with grief, anxiety and loss of direction following the death of her mother. It’s a tale of growth; from isolation to friendship, a renewed love of nature, and the re-emergence of curiosity as she wonders about the island that’s been off limits for decades. I give this book a strong four stars. 

As Book Hookup, I am a longtime book reviewer, and I received this book as a free review copy and have not been compensated for reviewing or recommending it. This review is posted in collaboration with Black Pheonix Book Tours. Some links in this post are affiliate links. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to amazon.com and affiliate sites.

 

About Author Amber Logan

Amber A. Logan is a university instructor, freelance editor, and author of speculative fiction living in Kansas with her husband and two children—Fox and Willow. In addition to her degrees in Psychology, Liberal Arts, and International Relations, Amber holds a PhD in Creative Writing from Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge.

When she’s not writing, Amber enjoys trips to Japan, exploring unusual vegetarian foods, and reading Haruki Murakami.

Amber’s debut novel is THE SECRET GARDEN OF YANAGI INN - out late 2022.

 

Astounding YA Dark Fantasy whodunit

Slipstream is a YA Sci-fi/Dark Fantasy thriller that opens with a gruesome murder of a young pregnant Asian heiress. When the authorities arrive, they find her sliced open and the baby gone. A necklace retrieved from the body turns out to be a high-tech amulet. The eccentric engraver who crafted it was a founding member of the defunct Pacific Rim Rapturits. It turns out the dead woman is his daughter and the half-sister of Detective Connor, who is working the case. Years pass with no breaks in the case until Connor learns that the baby lived, and her name is Raven. 

 

 

Alice Godwin uses Dark Fantasy as the canvas on which she paints this fantasy whodunit with the flare of a noir thriller. The opening chapter delivers just enough backstory to generate questions that frame the plot that unfolds in fractured pieces from varying points of view that fit together like a Japanese puzzle box. 

 

When the reader meets Raven, she is 16, lives in a post-apoplectic high-tech world where ecopods drive below the streets through a cobweb of underground freeways and some live in eco-tech housing and artificial closed ecological systems. Yet, Raven's world still suffers from inequality and injustice as power and wealth control lives and enrich the already-rich minority. 

 

Raven isn’t among the rich. She’s a gifted young lady with remote viewing skills, being reared by the carnies. Her visions fill her with dread, but she finds solace in a place called the Ghostlands where the whisperings of the web and electromagnetic humming that surround everything no longer haunt her. Here her head is silent. Here she enters a free-fall state into silver streams where things are tranquil and perfect–until Ceriful, a being from another reality crosses boundaries and brings the slipstream in his wake. Raven’s essence flows into it. He needs Raven to restore his realm. But, if she does, what does it mean for her world?

 

Book Recommendation

I recommend this book to those looking for their next fantasy mystery read. Filled with suspense, foreshadowing, and flashbacks, it delivers a surprise ending. Whether you’re interested in cozies or noir fiction, I’m sure this magical mystery will glue you to the edge of your seat. The opening chapters had a disjointed feel as scenes jumped to differing points of view and made for a slow start, but I realized those early chapters laid the foundation I needed to unlock the puzzle of this dark fantasy mystery. People who enjoy books like Beyond the Black Door by A.M. Stickland will find this book to their liking. I give it four stars and look forward to book 2.

 

As BookHookup, I am a long-time book reviewer, and I received Slipstream as a free review copy and have not been compensated for reviewing or recommending it. This review is posted in collaboration with #Black Phoenix Book Tours. Some links in this post are affiliate links. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to amazon.com and affiliate sites.

 

  

About the Author Alice Godwin

Raised in the most southern of Australian cities, Hobart (Nipaluna), capital of the heart-shaped island of Tasmania (Lutruwita), gateway to the Southern Ocean and Antarctica. Impacted by the mystical land of her childhood, Alice can recall days of climbing through Eden-like forests and around glacial waterfalls, where mystical ravens and colorful parrots flew through the Antarctic Beech forests, adding to her sense of wonder in the world around her.

 

Her family were European exiles from various countries from Turkey to Lithuania. She is the first mother in four generations to give birth to her children in the same country she was born in. Her first job was in the Editorial Library of The Mercury newspaper in Hobart before joining the chaotic, colourful world of fashion in a design studio off Chapel Street in South Yarra, Melbourne. Eventually she headed further north to Sydney and some interesting years working at the Museum of Contemporary Art situated between the iconic Harbour Bridge and the Opera House on Circular Quay.

 

Around this time she began writing and her first short story was shortlisted in the Northern Territory awards and printed in their anthology ‘Extra-Territorial’ and so she continued, stopping briefly for a few years when her two sons took her on other adventures. She has had forty short stories published in magazines, anthologies, and literary journals in Australia, USA and UK. She won the Australian Horror Writers Assoc short story of the year (2008), Wyvern Publications UK YA short story competition and has been shortlisted for the Irish Aeon Award.

 

Alice Godwin’s Social Media

http://www.alicegodwin.com/

https://www.instagram.com/mermaiddreams88/

https://www.facebook.com/AliceGodwinAuthor/

Hague Publishing’s Social Media

https://haguepublishing.com/blog/

https://www.facebook.com/HaguePublishing

Gritty intergalactic PI whodunit

Hot Ash by Russ Colchamiro is an intergalactic sci-fi mystery that melds urban grit, futuristic technology, and crime into fast-paced pulp fiction you can’t put down. The story is told through the classic first-person narration of the protagonist, intergalactic private spy for hire, Angela Hardwicke.

 

Hardwicke and her partner-in-training, Eric Whistler, are hired by Camile Engquist following the mysterious death of her wealthy, elderly husband, Iggy, who built a real estate development company from the ground up. The widow had worked by his side for years and was set to step in and run the company but somehow the will was changed without her knowledge just before he passed. The stepkids get it all and pushed her out without a cent. Camile claims her stepkids stole her inheritance and Hardwicke thinks there may be some merit to the woman’s claims and takes the case.

 

Hardwicke works the case with her young protégé, Eric Whistler. Their relationship provides another layer of interest to the story. He’s like a dog that wants to be let off the leash to prove himself and she says he isn’t ready. As the story progresses there’s much more to it than that.

 

Russ Colchamiro does a masterful job of creating a dystopian Sci-fi backdrop in this fast-paced mystery that dives into the real estate development taken over by the wealthy Engquist kids. The case takes Hardwicke and Whistler down the path of corporate succession where they find themselves deep in the world of the haves and have-nots. Clues raise questions that take the case in a whole new direction pointing to synthetic concrete and a drug known as Hot Ash. What does one have to do with the other, if anything? And what do they have to do with Iggy Engquist’s death, if anything? The answer to those questions takes Hardwicke and Whistler off-world to an imposing domed city with clean air and a sinister underbelly. What they find is more dangerous and runs deeper than they could have imagined.

 

This story is superbly written with an authentic gritty PI who-dun-it feel. It’s unpredictable, action-packed, and fast-paced with well-developed characters, including a strong female protagonist in Hardwicke. She’s an engaging hard-boiled but vulnerable sleuth. Clever but second-guesses herself at times, and Whistler makes a perfect complementary sidekick. Another big positive in my mind is that the Sci-fi techno-babble makes sense. It delivers a futuristic setting filled with out-of-this world technology, shady characters, fistfights, shootouts, double-crosses, and backstabbing. The thing I enjoyed most about Hot Ash is that I couldn’t figure it out until the author tied things up in a tidy package at the end and delivered them to my lap. 

 

I give Hot Ash a solid five stars and recommend this book to Sci-fi enthusiasts who enjoy a good murder mystery with a PI who fights to stay alive while prowling the shady parts of town and the dark minds that govern them. I think those who enjoy crime thrillers, in general, will be happy with this story. As a word of caution, this book does contain plenty of strong language and violence. It’s not excessive and befits the story.

 

While Hot Ash is a stand-alone mystery, it is number three in a series that can be read in any order, and now that I’ve read it, I’ll be checking out Crackle and Fire (Book 1) and Fractured Lives (Book 2).

 

As BookHookup, I am a long-time book reviewer and I received Hot Ash as a free review copy and have not been compensated for reviewing or recommending it. This review is posted in collaboration with #Black Phoenix Book Tours. Some links in this post are affiliate links. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to amazon.com and affiliate sites.

 

 About the Author

 

Russ Colchamiro is the author of the sci-fi mystery novels Crackle and Fire and Fractured Lives, featuring his hardboiled intergalactic private eye Angela Hardwicke. He is also the author of the rollicking time travel/space adventure, Crossline, the SFF backpacking comedy series Finders Keepers, Genius de Milo, and Astropalooza, editor of the sci-fi mystery anthology Love, Murder & Mayhem, and co-author of the noir anthology Murder in Montague Falls.

 

A member of the Mystery Writers Association, Hot Ash is Russ’s third book in his Angela Hardwicke series and has written more than a dozen short stories for various anthologies. He is also the host of the long-running podcast Russ’s Rockin’ Rollercoaster, interviewing a who’s who of science fiction, crime, and mystery authors. Russ lives in New Jersey with his wife, two ninjas, and his black lab Jinx.

 

Russ Colchamiro's Social Media

https://russcolchamiro.com/ 

https://twitter.com/authorduderuss 

https://www.instagram.com/authorduderuss/