Tag Archives: 47North

Review: Wings of Fury by Emily R. King

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , ,
Wings of Fury by Emily R King

Wings of Fury (Wings of Fury #1)
Emily R. King
47North
Published March 1, 2021

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Wings of Fury

Cronus, God of Gods, whose inheritance is the world. Among his possessions: women, imprisoned and fated to serve. The strong-minded Althea Lambros controls her own fate and lives to honor her dying mother’s plea to protect her two sisters at all costs. Althea’s journey toward crushing the tyranny has begun. It is a destiny foretold by the Fates. And she is following their visions.

On the southern isle of Crete, hidden among mortal women who have fled the Titans, is the Boy God, son of Cronus and believed dead. He shares Althea’s destiny to vanquish the Almighty—fate willing. Because Cronus has caught wind of the plot. He’s amassing his own forces against Althea’s righteous rebellion and all those who will no longer surrender or run. There will be war. If she’s to survive to write their history, the indomitable Althea must soar higher than any god.

My Review

I’m beginning to realize I consistently don’t enjoy certain writing styles. WINGS OF FURY has a lot of really cool elements to it, but it’s written in a kind of internal narrative style without a lot of dialogue. It’s harder for me to really fall in love with a book written that way– not because it’s bad, just personal preference.

Still, the book has a lot of great and interesting elements. It takes place in a fiercely oppressive world in which women have few rights and treated by men as property to be claimed. A girl like Althea, the story’s narrator, can’t help but upset the system in a world like that. She’s bold and strong and unafraid. Her fierce love for her sisters and her promise to her mother to protect them means she’ll face any threat– even the god of gods, Cronos, to keep them safe.

I liked Althea’s fierceness and her love for her sisters. I’m a huge fan of sister stories in general, so that part of the story alone probably would have landed this book high on my reading list. I’m glad I read the book– I liked the mythological retelling and the way the pieces all came together in the end.

Though Althea is a young narrator, probably seventeen or so, I’d say this is more adult fiction with some crossover appeal to teen readers. Check the section below for notes on content.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Representation
Main characters are Greek.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to sex. References to rape and torture. A man can claim a woman to belong to him by having her tattooed. She is not allowed to refuse. Two women kiss. Kissing and sexual touching between a boy and girl. Some nudity.

Spiritual Content
Gods and goddesses are characters in the story.

Violent Content
Several scenes show and reference women abused by men. Some women cut their own faces to try to make themselves less appealing to men.

Drug Content
Wine and nectar (also causes drunkenness) are consumed socially and at feasts.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support running this blog. I received a free copy of WINGS OF FURY in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Knight’s Ransom by Jeff Wheeler

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

Knight’s Ransom (The First Argentines #1)
Jeff Wheeler
47North
Published January 26, 2021

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indiebound | Goodreads

About Knight’s Ransom

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. A brutal war of succession has plunged the court of Kingfountain into a power struggle between a charitable king who took the crown unlawfully and his ambitious rival, Devon Argentine. The balance of power between the two men hinges on the fate of a young boy ensnared in this courtly intrigue. A boy befittingly nicknamed Ransom.

When the Argentine family finally rules, Ransom must make his own way in the world. Opportunities open and shut before him as he journeys along the path to knighthood, blind to a shadowy conspiracy of jealousy and revenge. Securing his place will not be easy, nor will winning the affection of Lady Claire de Murrow, a fiery young heiress from an unpredictably mad kingdom.

Ransom interrupts an abduction plot targeting the Queen of Ceredigion and earns a position in service to her son, the firstborn of the new Argentine dynasty. But conflict and treachery threaten the family, and Ransom must also come to understand and hone his burgeoning powers—abilities that involve more than his mastery with a blade and that make him as much a target as his lord.

My Review

Once again Jeff Wheeler returns to the world of the Kingfountain books, this time to tell a story of knights and lords and ladies in the vein of King Arthur tales. KNIGHT’S RANSOM follows the boy Marshall, nicknamed Ransom for his childhood spent as a captive of the king, from his boyhood into his middle twenties. Chapters are from his point-of-view, but between them are journal entries from Claire, his childhood companion and the woman he grows to love.

Other than the obligatory battle scenes, the story is pretty gently told with a lot of narrative and internal monologue keeping us pretty close to Ransom’s view of things. From early on in his life as a knight, Ransom experiences the sound of rushing waters when he fights. He begins to be more curious about the source of that experience and what it might require of him, but the story doesn’t really center around that. It’s more about the politics of the kingdom and Ransom’s role in the events unfolding, but it seems as though the series might pursue Ransom’s gift more in a follow-up book.

I think my favorite parts were the journal entries by Lady Claire. She’s feisty and frank and smart. I think she’s perfect for Ransom, who’s steady and often outwardly very calm.

Fans of Wheeler’s books will love visiting the world of Kingfountain again, and new readers who enjoy King Arthur-esque stories will find a great story landscape within KNIGHT’S RANSOM.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Takes place in a country similar to UK. Few race details given.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Ransom uses a two-handed sword called a “bastard” sword, so that word appears regularly.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief kiss between boy and girl. A woman tries to seduce a man.

Spiritual Content
Ransom’s people worship the Lady of the Fountain. Ransom himself hears rushing water in battle or feels a warning when danger is near.

Violent Content
Several scenes show graphic battles.

Drug Content
Ransom accompanies a prince and his friends to a tavern where they drink alcohol. Ransom stays sober to protect the prince.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support running this blog. I received a free copy of KNIGHT’S RANSOM in exchange for my honest review.

Review: The Killing Fog by Jeff Wheeler

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , ,

The Killing Fog
Jeff Wheeler
47North
Published March 1, 2020

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Goodreads

About The Killing Fog

The Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Kingfountain series conjures an epic, adventurous world of ancient myth and magic as a young woman’s battle with infinite evil begins.

Survivor of a combat school, the orphaned Bingmei belongs to a band of mercenaries employed by a local ruler. Now the nobleman, and collector of rare artifacts, has entrusted Bingmei and the skilled team with a treacherous assignment: brave the wilderness’s dangers to retrieve the treasures of a lost palace buried in a glacier valley. But upsetting its tombs has a price.

Echion, emperor of the Grave Kingdom, ruler of darkness, Dragon of Night, has long been entombed. Now Bingmei has unwittingly awakened him and is answerable to a legendary prophecy. Destroying the dark lord before he reclaims the kingdoms of the living is her inherited mission. Killing Bingmei before she fulfills it is Echion’s.

Thrust unprepared into the role of savior, urged on by a renegade prince, and possessing a magic that is her destiny, Bingmei knows what she must do. But what must she risk to honor her ancestors? Bingmei’s fateful choice is one that neither her friends nor her enemies can foretell, as Echion’s dark war for control unfolds.

My Review

One of the things that drew me into this story is Bingmei’s ability to smell someone’s intentions. It’s sort of like synesthesia, but with smells and emotions instead of taste and color. I liked that it gave her an edge but that it didn’t always function like a superpower– in fact it made it difficult for her to have relationships and she was still fooled or outwitted a few times, too.

On the other hand, one of the things I found interesting was that she spent so much time parsing other people’s emotions but didn’t often clue the reader in to hers. Lots of times I knew what she was thinking, but not so much what she was feeling, and sometimes that made it harder for me to connect with her as a character. Overall I enjoyed the book, though.

The plot seemed well-constructed and moved at a steady pace, constantly increasing the stakes. I really wanted to know what would happen.

Though the ending set some serious hooks for the next book, it also made so many things make sense and had its own sort of satisfying moments, too. (Sorry… trying not to give anything away!)

I’ve only read one other of Wheeler’s books – THE QUEEN’S POISONER – and I thought the writing was pretty similar in this book to that one. So I think if you’re a fan of his other books, you’ll want to check out this series, too.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Characters are Chinese (actually, I don’t know that that’s true… the story is inspired by Chinese history and mythology, but I don’t think it’s actually set in China.). Bingmei and a couple other characters have pale skin and white hair, which others refer to as the Winter Sickness.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Bingmei and others use magic artifacts and weapons. The weapons can cause a killing fog to form, which kills anyone it touches.

A ritual raises a powerful king from death. He has incredible magical power.

Violent Content
Lots of descriptions of battle and some graphic descriptions of injuries and fighting.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog. I received a free copy of THE KILLING FOG in exchange for my honest review.

Review: The Vine Witch by Luanne G. Smith

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Magical Realism, New Adult 18up, , , , , , ,

The Vine Witch
Luanne G. Smith
47North
Published October 1, 2019

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Goodreads

About The Vine Witch

A young witch emerges from a curse to find her world upended in this gripping fantasy of betrayal, vengeance, and self-discovery set in turn-of-the-century France.

For centuries, the vineyards at Château Renard have depended on the talent of their vine witches, whose spells help create the world-renowned wine of the Chanceaux Valley. Then the skill of divining harvests fell into ruin when sorcière Elena Boureanu was blindsided by a curse. Now, after breaking the spell that confined her to the shallows of a marshland and weakened her magic, Elena is struggling to return to her former life. And the vineyard she was destined to inherit is now in the possession of a handsome stranger.

Vigneron Jean-Paul Martel naively favors science over superstition, and he certainly doesn’t endorse the locals’ belief in witches. But Elena knows a hex when she sees one, and the vineyard is covered in them. To stay on and help the vines recover, she’ll have to hide her true identity, along with her plans for revenge against whoever stole seven winters of her life. And she won’t rest until she can defy the evil powers that are still a threat to herself, Jean-Paul, and the ancient vine-witch legacy in the rolling hills of the Chanceaux Valley.

My Review

It’s not often that I read a book set in turn-of-the-century France, and I feel like I’m okay with that, but if I’d read more, I think I would have enjoyed the setting of this book more. I liked it, I just felt like it was written more for readers who are already familiar with that type of setting and was kind of spare on details that unfamiliar readers might want to have.

I liked Elena immediately, and Jean-Paul, too. The story alternates back and forth in their points of view. It was fun watching them feel each other out. I thought the other characters– Elena’s grandmother, her former fiancé, and the Elena’s unlikely ally later in the book– were all great characters that added a lot to the story.

In terms of the plot, the story moves pretty quickly. The beginning was a little dense and confusing only because it introduces a lot of characters, goals, and action. Once I’d read four or five chapters, I got pretty hooked on the story and didn’t want to stop reading. I finished the rest of the book that day.

On the whole, I enjoyed THE VINE WITCH. I loved the parts about the vineyard and the tug-of-war between Elena and Jean-Paul over magic versus science. I feel like I wanted the story to be like 50 pages longer so that I could read more about some of the subplots like that.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 18 up.

Representation
All characters are European.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used very infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to sex. Kissing between man and woman.

Spiritual Content
Descriptions of rituals and spells, including using pentagrams and summoning a demon. One character encounters a jinni.

Violent Content
References to mutilated animals found near the town. Descriptions of torture and situations of peril.

Drug Content
Elena experiments with poisons. Characters (all adults) drink wine.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog. I received a free copy of THE VINE WITCH in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Magic Bitter, Magic Sweet by Charlie N. Holmberg

Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Fantasy, New Adult 18up, , , ,

Magic Bitter, Magic Sweet
Charlie N. Holmberg
47 North

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Maire arrives in Carmine without any memory of how she got there. A kind couple take her in and she spends her days baking sweets infused with love, hope, or strength. That is Maire’s gift: she can impart these things through her cakes. She has a good life, one which she may yet share with Cleric Tuck. But before she can find out what an ordinary life in Carmine might hold for her, she meets a ghostly form from her past, a winged man named Fyel, who desperately wants her to remember who she is.

Before she can pursue her lost memories, marauders tear through her home, capturing her. Maire finds herself enslaved by the cruel Allemas, who demands that she make magical cakes for him. Fyel promises to help Maire, but she must recover her memories before Allemas destroys her.

This story has a really fresh, unique feel to it. I think one of my favorite elements was that when Allemas asks Maire to make cakes for him, the orders and customers come from familiar fairytale stories. For example, she’s asked to make a gingerbread house covered with candy. A lonely woman begs her to make a living gingerbread boy. It definitely added this feeling that the author and readers were sharing an inside joke that the characters were unaware of. I liked that a lot and thought it was pretty clever.

I loved Fyel. At first, I wasn’t sure I’d like him. But as the story progresses he shows such devotion to Maire, yet he allows her a lot of independence and respect. I liked that he didn’t just bulldoze over her and push her around, but he’s no weakling either.

Fans of Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone or Melissa Grey’s The Girl at Midnight should definitely give this book a read. This is the first novel by Charlie N. Holmberg that I’ve read, but I now I’m eager to read others. I’ve heard great things about The Paper Magician, so I hope to give that one a read soon.

Also, special thanks to author Jeff Wheeler, Jolien at The Fictional Reader and Carrie at Reading is My Super Power for recommending Magic Bitter, Magic Sweet to me!

Cultural Elements
The fantasy landscape is vast and drives by the identities of various cultures as Maire wonders where she’s from. As she recovers her memory, her skin turns a deep red. She learns that others from her home come in different colors.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Maire remembers making love to her husband in a brief scene. She shares kisses with him and with another man.

Spiritual Content
The characters believe in many gods and in the existence of assistants who craft the landscapes of worlds. The gods breathe life into creation but crafters create the world before they arrive. At one point, Maire interacts with a silvery substance like a soul.

Violent Content
Raiders capture Maire and others and sell them as slaves. Maire’s new master treats her with some cruelty, locking her in a cellar and forgetting to feed her. He’s a bit creepy.

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Review: The Queen’s Poisoner by Jeff Wheeler

Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Fantasy, Middle Grade 8-12, , , ,

The Queen’s Poisoner
Jeff Wheeler
47North

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

When his father betrays a dangerous king, Owen is forced to leave his family and live in the castle as a hostage to ensure his family’s loyalty. If his father’s loyalty falters again, Owen will be cast into the river to die, as his eldest brother was. As the youngest son of the Duke of Kiskaddon, Owen is alone in a castle full of spies. To survive, he must discover allies and prove himself valuable to the king.

The storyworld in The Queen’s Poisoner was simple yet vivid and believable. I loved the way water factored into the lore and traditions of the kingdom. Someone with a special ability is said to be Fountain-blessed. Traitors are sent over the waterfall to their deaths. Even the simple addition of the game of Wizr (a chess-like game) and how it factored into the story as a framework for Owen learning strategy added deeper layers to the story.

Owen is immediately likeable and fascinating. I definitely wanted him to survive. I loved his friends, from the cook Liona to the poisoner Ankarrette to the loquacious Elysabeth Victoria Mortimer. Wheeler describes The Queen’s Poisoner as the first book he’s written from a boy’s perspective. Though the adult characters played very strong roles (as the title indicates, in many ways Ankarrette is the heroine of the tale,) the story still centered around Owen’s point-of-view and his growing understanding of the world around him.

I’m often nervous reading books by authors as prolific as Jeff Wheeler. Sometimes books being published so closely together means the writing feels rushed or the story underdeveloped. I didn’t sense that at all in this story. I felt like the voice was developed and the writing was very clean and enjoyable. I would definitely recommend this story and would love to read other books in the Kingfountain series.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
The king executes traitors by tying them up in a boat and sending it over a waterfall. About one in one hundred people survive. Executions are often public, and Owen attends one.

Drug Content
The queen’s poisoner is educated in how to use medicines and poisons to help or hurt people. She gives Owen a tea to help strengthen his lungs, but she has used poisons in the past to kill at the command of the king.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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