Review: Iron and Magic

Iron and Magic by Ilona Andrews
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thank you, Ilona. Thank you for writing this, for making it not a April Fools Day joke but a real thing. Humanizing and almost redeeming Hugh, making him complex instead of just another mindless Roland-drone. Creating a women definitely his equal if not his superior who is just as intriguing as any character in the main Kate series. Showing us more of the Kate Daniels world, from different perspectives and in different places and new and different magics and creatures.

And damn. I don't want to wait for the next Iron Covenant. Damn, damn, damn.

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Review: The Girl in the Green Silk Gown

The Girl in the Green Silk Gown by Seanan McGuire
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and Berkley for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Holy cow, was that book a ride! I love Seanan McGuire (she's one of my favorite authors, if you hadn't noticed), and her Incryptid series is fantastic. I love that she's melded this ghost world into the Incryptid world, and chose to expand on Sparrow Hill Road's storylines. Sparrow Hill Road was originally a bunch of different short stories that got tied into a package deal, so while it is still really good, the overarching narrative was a little disjointed. This one, however, continues the story with aplomb.

Fair warning: the events of Sparrow Hill Road are vital to understanding what's going on in Girl in the Green Silk Gown, so make sure you read that first.

Rose Marshall is trying to move on with her afterlife following the misadventures of Sparrow Hill Road, but that danged Bobby Cross just won't leave her alone. He creates an intricate plan and acts on it, and Rose has to live out the dangers (literally) and try to find her way back to what she calls home.

Because this one was planned as a full book, it was plotted and planned and developed. And boy, did Seanan do a great job! It took everything I loved about the first book - Rose, routewitches and phantom diners, interesting ghost and afterlife lore - and not only pulled all of that back into a new story, but expanded on it, kept it interesting, and kicked it up multiple notches.

I won't say more because I'd gush over it like a fanboy and spoil something, but I hope you'll pick up this one and follow Rose's shenanigans as she takes on the last thing she'd ever expect to have to face after dying at 16 and being a ghost for so long -- life.

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Review: The House with a Clock in Its Walls

The House with a Clock in Its Walls by John Bellairs
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was okay. I read it since the movie is coming out soon, but I should have saved the story for the movie, which I'm hoping has a tighter plot and that the clock plays more of a role than a side tale for 95% and then a last minute "big deal" in the last 5%.

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Review: Smoke and Iron

Smoke and Iron by Rachel Caine
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and Berkley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review!





This might be the best yet in the series, and I think it was definitely my favorite of the series so far. We come off of the cliffhanger of the next book with everyone in limbo, and the author uses her mighty pen to move and shift all of our players like pieces on a chess board, forcing them towards the huge clash that is destined to happen soon.

We get to read POVs from multiple characters in this one. Usually when that kind of a change happens in a series, I am a little thrown by the change, but in this one, it flows and works perfectly with the story. We get to see all the little cogs of the story turning and moving and pushing the story forward.

I just wish I had waited to catch up on this series until the last one was coming out much sooner, because the wait is going to kill me!

Pick this series up. It's a lot of fun, really well-written, full of great characters and mystery and action and romance, and you won't regret it. 


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