I admit I don’t read many retellings of classic fairy-tales. They just don’t tend to interest me that much. But when I saw this steampunk retelling of Cinderella, I was all over that! I love me some steampunk feminism! And let’s be clear, this book is nothing like Cinder, and I do think this book suffered some from coming out close to the same time as that super popular series. These two retellings have nothing in common except their source material. Our MC in this book, Nicolette, is an inventor, she makes amazing things in the workshop her mother left behind. It’s her one source of solace in a home where her step family have diminished her to a life of servitude, bereft of love. I love the idea that Nicolette isn’t looking for anyone to rescue her. She makes plans to get out and live a life of her choosing free of her step family and follows through on it. It has a very strong message for young women on not needing a man to complete you, and the power of female friendships. The book has a delicious bitter sweetness to it for the most part that I liked, but overall the book felt incomplete with too many loose ends that were so interesting! And when those plot points didn’t actually get explored, it made the rest of the book feel boring and other subplots feel tacked on with little regard to the story as a whole.

It may seem like a bad idea to read a book about a bio-chemical weapon that exhibits like a flu and prompts mass panic during an actual pandemic, but that’s what I did and it was a kind of interesting study in how reality and fiction can blur sometimes. In Myers novel, a bio-chemical is released in a small town, which appears to be done on purpose for "research". When these strange flu-like symptoms prompt the schools to close early, it sparks our main character’s father, who works at the lab that seems to be responsible, to flee with his teenage son and their next door neighbor and his teenage niece. The rest of the novel occurs over the course of 3 to 4 days as the group races from the quarantined zone—now without cell service and a military presence—to get to the family cabin and potential safety. This is an incredibly fast paced young adult, action romance with a unique twist on the “zombie” genre.

I kind of love, and miss, the days when super heroes had to operate in the shadows. Before the big Marvel movies where everyone knows the super powered vigilante and they are this organized group that is basically just the world police. I like the idea of those super heroes like Spiderman, Batman, or hell, even the Incredibles, where the vigilantes aren’t allowed to operate openly, where they have to hide who they are, and their presence isn’t always welcomed by the police. Alter Ego has a lot of those themes, plus so, so much more! In this fast paced vigilante story, we have secret identities and organizations, generations of heroes, and a well-funded terrorist group opposite our heroes. Coupled with the powers and the gadgets, you have this struggle to balance the person along with the hero, of what it means to put on these different masks, and trying to figure out who the REAL person is, free of the secret identities, and what it means to be a hero; who exactly are the white hats when you operate outside of the law? For as awesome as the abilities were, it was those very real interpersonal struggles that this story presented that I gravitated toward the most.

I’m really excited that more and more Fae type creatures are moving beyond the traditional fantasy genre and more and more shifters are branching out from just the typical werewolf-like monsters. It’s a new era of Urban Fantasy that I am totally here for! And if that sounds like something you’d be down for, then I totally recommend “Dawn till Dusk”! It’s the story of Tarik and Reagan, two characters who are on opposite sides of the conflict between shifters and Fae. In this world, the Fae are not the ruling species, they aren’t the regal, almost snobbish, and all powerful spellcasters you usually see. In Nathra City, the shifters are in control, trapping the Fae in the city and forcing them to live in squalor. The shifters live in luxury, can have all the good jobs, and do mostly what they want, while the Fae struggle to keep their children alive. Tarik is a Fae, and Reagan is a shifter with a really awesome winged white lion form. Tarik hates all shifters with a passion, and Reagan feels for their plight, but is also the Night Enforcer, not just working for the dictator of the city—he’s also her “father”. You can see the tension, the conflict that will come from having two such characters in a world like this, and let me tell you, it’s DELICIOUS!

On the base surface, “A Heretics Guide to Homecoming” is about a young scholar who decides that he wants to experience the world first hand rather than learn about it from books in a library. He wants his difficult questions answered, and he can’t do that from his home country where words have literal weight, and some things are too dangerous to speak aloud. Ronoah embarks on a journey that takes him across the world and expands his horizons, all while he battles an all too real and crippling anxiety. But that is such a simplistic view of what this literary work of fantasy is about. It really is a work of art first and foremost, with lite fantasy elements mainly to add whimsy and wonder. The writing was raw and beautiful, and the metaphors and stories within stories was marvelous. But while it’s an absolutely beautiful read, it is not an exciting one.