The Book that Wouldn’t Burn by Mark Lawrence

Review by Melissa B. (dragoneyes)

A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher

Review by Cyndi J. (cyndij)

Here’s a fun middle-grade/YA fantasy. This will be a very quick read for an adult, but it’s got charm and some interesting characters.

Fourteen-year-old Mona only has a little magic, and it only works on dough. So of course she works in her aunt’s bakery. Her breads and rolls are the best, because she can convince the dough to be perfect. She’s got an animated gingerbread man who can sit on her shoulder, and then there’s Bob the slightly scary sourdough starter, who lives in a bucket in the basement.

When Mona finds the dead body of a girl in the bakery, she is shocked and scared of course, but when she’s accused of the murder herself she can’t believe it. Set free by the Duchess, she thinks life will go back to normal. But minor wizards like her are disappearing all over the city, and she’s not going to be immune. Caught up in court politics and the threat of a barbarian invasion, Mona’s going to have to step up her magic or all is lost.

I liked Mona’s naivety and hesitancy to break the rules, it’s a little different from the usual heroine. Most of the other characters are typical – the thief, the aunt, the evil inquisitor. But Bob the sourdough starter is wonderfully funny, and the dead horse witch is awesome. If you’d like some light fantasy, this will fit the bill.

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

Review by Melissa B. (dragoneyes)

Strange Country by Deborah Coates

Review by Cyndi J. (cyndij)

STRANGE COUNTRY is the third of the Hallie Michaels trilogy. I reviewed WIDE OPEN and DEEP DOWN previously. Picking up only a short while after DEEP DOWN, Hallie is fretting about the request she received from Death, but it disappeared before she could give an answer.  She plans to say no as soon as she can figure out how.  The black dog Maker, who is a harbinger of death except when he’s watching Hallie,  is still hanging around. And Beth, the sister of Boyd’s late wife, shows up again with a demand Hallie really doesn’t want to listen to. With all that pending, there’s another problem.

Boyd was on patrol when he received a report of a prowler from Prue Stalking Horse. As he’s checking out the place, a sniper shoots Prue dead on her front porch.  As the police start their investigation, two state agents show up and one of them has some interesting questions.  Hallie is also determined to find out what’s happening, and she’s asking questions of Laddie Kennedy, who’s saying that the dead are now talking to him all the time instead of just occasionally.

There’s a connection between Prue, Laddie, and a couple other local people, and of course it has to do with magic. Magic that harks back to the first book.

Excellent world-building, good pacing, and really good characters. I love Hallie’s grit, stubborness, and “get the job done” mentality. Boyd is still a bit of an enigma to me, but I can believe in him, and I liked that Coates included his POV this time. Minor character Laddie gets some growth. I wasn’t sure why Agent Gerson was in the plot,  however –  she didn’t have much to do. I especially liked how Coates loosely tied together all the various happenings in the area, but left some mystery behind.  This is a nice trilogy, with a strong mystery whodunit element along with the supernatural.

Suburban Hell by Maureen Kilmer

Review by Melissa B. (dragoneyes)

The cover of this book immediately caught my eye. It was put on my wish list before it even came out. Yet, when it did, the reviews were less than stellar. The urge for the book fell flat and it wasn’t until much later that the book popped up in one of my searches. In that, I saw the reviews had gotten better so I decided to order it. It ended up being worth it.

The story surrounds best friends, Amy, Melissa, Jess and Liz. While they are very different in their own way, they have a strong bond. They get together once a month to drink and chat. This time around they are meeting a Liz’s. After hanging out for awhile they decide to go to the backyard where Liz is going to have their own She Shed built. They christen the ground and immediately weird things happen. As days go by, they notice Liz acting strange. As it gets worse they determine that she is possessed. When no one else will listen, they decide to take matters into their own hands to fight the evil lurking inside their friend.

Now, if you looking for a scary story, this one is not. It does have some creepy moments to it but that is as far as it goes. What it does have is the bonds of sisterhood and a great sense of humor. The only thing that took away from the book was it lagged in some parts but most of the time it was quite a fun fest. Ready to read this author’s next book, Hex Education.

Black Mouth by Ronald Malfi

Review by Melissa B. (dragoneyes)

A good, creepy tale about a set of childhood friends who drifted apart as they got older only to get pulled back to each other by a malevolent force. Struggling between doing the right thing and fleeing from a terror they do not wish to face again, they lean on each other for support as they relive the horror from their past.

Jamie Warren is an alcoholic who is holding onto sobriety by a string. When he gets a call that his mother has committed suicide and that his disabled brother, Dennis, is now alone, he struggles with the demons of his past. Going back to Black Mouth might be the one thing to snap that string in an instant. Yet the guilt of leaving his brother there to fend for himself overwhelms him and so he sets off to a place he never thought he’d go back to. His friends are making their way back as well. Clay is set on doing the right thing and determined to face the evil lurking at Black Mouth. Mia feels the same way as she looks to get face to face with the past. Together the are on the hunt for a man they know only as “The Magician”. A man they looked at with adoration until that one moment when a veil was lifted and they saw the evil lurking there instead. By then, it was too late. What is done is done but maybe they can make it right this time around.

I read a lot of reviews comparing this story to Stephen King‘s IT. It does have some similarities but I feel like it stands on its own. The story has its own twist and turns that are quite different from IT. I also felt there was a bit of King’s Dreamcatcher familiarity in there too, but just a bit. I quite enjoyed this tale and found The Magician and very frightening character. This is my 2nd Malfi book and like the other, it does not disappoint.