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Review: SHORT FUSE by Brent D. Seth
Disclaimer: I acquired this novel at a convention through a book trade with the author, whom I consider a friend. What an incredibly refreshing science fiction novel to find in a market that sometimes feels saturated with overly complex space opera and violence-infused military epics. Though this novel includes complex world-building and plenty of (sometimes…
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Review: “Roman Holiday” (Chronicles of St. Mary’s short story) by Jodi Taylor
One of the best things about these extra short stories that fit into the overall Chronicles of St. Mary’s world is that you can enjoy them without worrying about where they fit into the larger context of the story. They’re a short peek into the many, many other time travel trips that the historians have…
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Review: “When A Child is Born” (Chronicles of St. Mary’s #2.5) by Jodi Taylor
This short story set in the Chronicles of St. Mary’s universe is a great way for a new reader to dip their toe into the series without committing to a full novel. It highlights my favorite trio of time travelers (Max, Peterson, and Markham — with bonus Maj. Guthrie) on a relatively simple mission that…
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Review: LIES, DAMNED LIES, AND HISTORY (Chronicles of St. Mary’s #7) by Jodi Taylor
This novel was another strong installment in the Chronicles of St. Mary’s time travel series, full of both laugh-out-loud and gasp-out-loud moments. I continue to love Max, Leon, Peterson, and the rest of the gang, and Taylor’s glimpses into the past are realistic and tantalizing. I think we’ve established by this point that I adore…
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Review: UNDER THE EMPYREAN SKY (Heartland Trilogy #1) by Chuck Wendig
I picked up this book on Kindle purely because of a blog post by the author completely owning the fact that he had written about a character who was gay without homosexuality being used as a plot device or some sort of moral lesson. As someone who strives for the same diversity in her own…
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Review: WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG? (Chronicles of St. Mary’s #6) by Jodi Taylor
I find the title to this latest installment of my favorite time travel hijinks series highly amusing because I thought I already knew all the ways in which things would go wrong in this world. It turns out that I was tragically wrong, and I’m so thrilled that this author can keep surprising me.
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Review: HOME BIRTH (Kaiju Revisited #2) by Jessica McHugh
Disclaimer: The author and I share a publisher and I consider her a friend. I received an ebook version of this novella in exchange for an honest review. Despite this being the second in a shared-world series by many authors, this story works well as a stand-alone tale. It included just enough science-fiction world-building to…
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Review: FAIREST, WINTER, and STARS ABOVE by Marissa Meyer
This post includes reviews of the final three installments of the Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer.
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Review: “No One On Earth” by Jennifer Loring
Disclaimer: This review is of a novella that is part of the Starstruck Holidays anthology; due to time constraints, I am only able to review one installment of the anthology at this time. The author and I attended the same graduate program and have assisted each other with promotional work in the past. She provided me…
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Review: CLOAK OF WAR (Empress Game #2) by Rhonda Mason
Disclaimer: I attended the same graduate school program as the author and consider her a friend; however, I purchased my hardcopy version of this novel for full price. Often, middle books in a trilogy act as placeholders. Things happen, but mostly just to get the characters from point A (the exciting first installment) to point…
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Review: NO TIME LIKE THE PAST (Chronicles of St. Mary’s #5) by Jodi Taylor
After devouring five books in this series, two things are fairly obvious to me at this point: Jodi Taylor is a hell of a researcher/historian. She has also embraced a major facet of writing time travel and run with it rather than fight against it — Once again, this novel had two major climaxes. One…
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Review: ARTICLES OF THE FEDERATION by Keith R. A. DeCandido
Reasons why you should read this book: You are a fan of political dramas that involve multiple main characters dealing with crises and scandals. The television show The West Wing is your favorite of all of those. You are curious about the inner workings of the Federation, a major government in the Star Trek universe,…
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Review: A TRAIL THROUGH TIME (Chronicles of St. Mary’s #4) by Jodi Taylor
It’s hard to be a fan of time travel stories without also acquiring some familiarity of the alternate universe trope along the way. Jodi Taylor switches up her world a bit as Max receives the full effect of her second chance. But there are still enough similarities to our original St. Mary’s Institute of Historical…
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Review: A SECOND CHANCE (Chronicles of St. Mary’s #3) by Jodi Taylor
You could read this as another installment of a series that only brings you time travel adventure (and misadventure). And if you read the book that way, or if that was all you were looking for, you’d still be in for a great ride. On the surface, this book doesn’t bring anything to the fuller…
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Review: A SYMPHONY OF ECHOES (Chronicles of St. Mary’s #2) by Jodi Taylor
There’s always a vague worry when picking up the second book in a series that it won’t quite measure up. That the first amazing novel was a flash-in-the-pan fluke, sucking up all of the author’s creativity and leaving only the dregs of inspiration for future installments. Luckily, I loved A Symphony of Echoes at least…
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Review: A WIZARD’S FORGE (Woern Saga #1) by A.M. Justice
Disclaimer: I received a free ebook of this novel from the author in exchange for an honest review. It’s no surprise that I was drawn to this book immediately, considering it’s fusion of fantasy and science-fiction elements, it’s excellent world-building, and its awesome protagonist named Vic (short for Victoria). But I’ve been burned by free…
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Review: JUST ONE DAMNED THING AFTER ANOTHER (The Chronicles of St. Mary’s #1) by Jodi Taylor
I stumbled across this book and picked it up on a whim, and I’m ever so glad that I did. While the concept of “secret organization that uses time travel for historical research purposes” isn’t new, Taylor manages to make this version her own with a number of subtle changes to the trope.
