I finally managed to provide you with some Monday Mini fodder again. All slightly whimsical, legend/folk tale inspired fantasy, but with very different approaches and styles today. I hope you find something that intrigues you among this selection. Many thanks to the respective publishers for providing me with eARCs via NetGalley, all opinions are entirely my own.

A Mirror Mended is the second novella in Alix E. Harrow’s Fractured Fairytales series. It follows on from A Spindle Splintered, though is set a few years in the future from that first book. Unfortunately, the things that didn’t click for me with the first novella seemed to be coming out in even stronger force in this second installment. Zinnia is now spending most of her time helping fairy tale characters trapped in their stories to escape tropes, to the detriment of her relationships with the people close to her. This felt far too short for the content that Harrow tried to discuss within the confines of the novella, leaving topics addressed but not properly discussed to their conclusion, with unsatisfying resolutions, relationships that read very superficial even if that clearly wasn’t the intention. I kept longing for more space, for more depth. While I adore Harrow’s full-length work and her short fiction, these novellas are her weakest writing to date and left me wanting more.

The Drowned Woods by Emily Lloyd-Jones is a Welsh-inspired, mythology-based YA fantasy. It tells a heist story as a framing device to retell a part of Welsh mythology that gives an origin story to the landscape – which is absolute catnip to me, having studied similar narratives in my past life as an academic. I devoured this fantasy, and found much to love. Mer, the main character, is openly bisexual – there is a femme ex love interest and a masc current love interest on page – and it is simply accepted in this medieval-ish society. Such heart-eyes, such love from my side. It isn’t the type of highly researched fantasy like Spear, this is more on the lighthearted and entertaining side, but it is exactly what I needed this weekend. The characters were great – Mer, Ifanna, the thief who betrayed her in the past, Mer’s mentor who she was never quite sure how she felt towards him and Fane, the love interest with fae connections. A great YA.

Monsters Born and Made by Tanvi Berwah is another YA fantasy. This one inspired by the author’s South Asian background, featuring a large-scale race in which the elite compete for glory. Koral, the main character, is very much not part of this elite, but circumstances have her sneak her way into the competition and stand against those who have been training their entire lives for this. In some ways, this is reminiscent of a better, more timely version of The Hunger Games – in a good way. I found this an enjoyable read, though I thought that perhaps the ending was a bit too convenient in the last couple of pages. I don’t think this is a standout read of 2022 for me, but it is a solid YA fantasy debut I recommend picking up if you like the sound of it.

Welcome back to another round of Monday Minis – I’m sorry these have become a bit more sporadic as life has been increasingly manic these last few weeks! But here’s a solid selection of books for the week – something for every sort of reader, really. Many thanks to the respective publicists for giving me access to eARCs via NetGalley, all opinions are my own as always.

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy is the follow-up to Becky Chambers’ Hugo- (and Subjective Chaos) nominated A Psalm for the Wild-Built. And this one may be even better than the first book. It keeps following Sibling Dex and Mosscap on their journey, and it gets more personal this time. A major plot element is Mosscap getting “injured” and having a part that needs replacing – along with all of the philosophical considerations that come with it. In A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, Dex and Mosscap interact more with others, and it really feels like the series is coming into its own. I loved how Mosscap’s personality as a curious observer dominated his interactions with the people they met on their travels, and Dex got to see their family again. It is a wonderful quick comfort read, and I desperately want more.

I can’t quite believe that The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner was first published in 1996. It has only now come over to this side of the Atlantic thanks to the good work of the lovely folk over at Hodderscape – and reads like a newly published book. A timeless YA classic, really. The Thief is a compelling, fast read centred around a thief, Eugenides, called Gen and a massive heist, politics and a misfit gang. In short, lots of things still on trend in YA and with good reason. I had the pleasure to listen to Megan chat about the book and her journey as a writer last week, and I have been assured that the second book in the series is even better than this first one by my lovely flatmate who has read them all growing up. Definitely a wonderful series to get your teeth into and read as they’re now published in the UK in quick succession with stunning covers!

Peter V. Brett’s The Desert Prince is an epic fantasy set in a somewhat Middle Eastern/North African feeling setting. It is the first book in a new series, though set in the same world as his earlier books – fifteen years on. This was my first Brett book, and I did notice a lack of context at times, though it largely stands on its own merit and knowledge of the earlier books is not necessary to follow the story. It just gives an added dimension to it, and I imagine makes it easier for readers to pick up on cultural references between characters that I likely missed. What makes The Desert Prince stand out from other epic fantasy is that Olive, the main character, is intersex. Always aware of the unique body they were born with, Olive was socialised as a girl and over the course of the story struggles with the confines of that identity. But it did feel like this was often simplified, and I would have loved to see Olive really find a non-binary identity and communicate that, rather than letting themselves be boxed into places that don’t entirely fit by others. All in all, The Desert Prince was an entertaining book – in many ways traditional epic fantasy battling demons, betrayal and politics with chosen ones at its centre, but a fun twist on it. I may well pick up the sequel.

Happy Monday everyone! This week is catching up with some of my NetGalley backlog time – I’ve been trying to read already published books to reduce my TBR, and sadly, none of these really clicked all that much with me. They’re all decent books, but I’m not the ideal reader for them. But in any case, huge thank yous to the publicists for sending me eARCs of these titles, all opinions are my own as always.

The City of Dusk by Tara Sim is one of those books where I’m really not sure how to feel about them. I was super excited for it, and then it took me forever to read it (literally, I kept reading a few chapters, putting it down, and then coming back to it, I think it took me a couple of months!). This is the first in an adult epic fantasy from an author who previously wrote YA – and a lot of people have been saying that they think it reads as YA still. I don’t agree with this. The main characters are adults. They’re not teens. They may be young, but they’re not literal kids, and it doesn’t read like YA in terms of pacing either – which, to me, was a good thing. It is a story that works better for adults, and the crossover audience aging out of YA (aka those of us who still love YA even though we’ve technically outgrown it years ago). However, it is too long. Tension isn’t consistent, and so the book feels very meandering, which I think contributed to me putting it aside again and again. It seemed like the author was still trying to find her stride in this new series and world, and while I’m intrigued enough to want to read the next book, I think this one may have needed another round or two of polishing to truly shine.

Wilder Than Midnight by Cerrie Burnell is a middle grade fairy-tale inspired fantasy. It is the story of a princess and a girl raised in the woods, of greedy royals and determined girls. It is a fast read, and an entertaining one, but I found that neither the plot nor the characters were allowed much nuance. I know it is a middle grade book, and there is certainly allowance for simplification with that age group, but there are so many wonderful middle grade books out there that do have that nuanced approach and are much more satisfying reads. I found the black-and-white morality, the predictability of the tropes and the lack of depth in the main characters didn’t let me get emotionally invested in their fates and thus did not make Wilder Than Midnight stand out for me.

The Symmetry of Stars by Alex Myers unfortunately has been one of the more disappointing books I’ve read recently. I simultaneously feel like I only finished it because I loved his last book, The Story of Silence, so much, but also was far harsher on this one than I may otherwise have been for the same reason. I also have to admit that I picked up The Symmetry of Stars without knowing much about it because I thought I’d like it as much as the author’s previous book – but I think I liked that one for its story and themes more than Myers’ own work now that I have read another one of his books. In some ways, The Symmetry of Stars addresses some similar motifs concerning nature and nurture as The Story of Silence did, showing parallels between the books, and letting them function almost as companion pieces of a sort. However, the tone in which they are written differs enormously, as does the manner in which the motif is addressed. While The Story of Silence did so almost whimsically through medieval romance, The Symmetry of Stars is a very philosophical book. It is wordy, and it seems to go in circles at times as it argues with itself. It features a larger cast, but all of the characters stay fairly non-descript and bland. And at the moment, that is just not something I’m vibing with. I was expecting to love this, but, to be entirely honest, I was bored. I kept hoping that I’d change my mind, I’d find the magic of The Story of Silence, but I didn’t. If this is one you’ve been ogling up for yourself, I’d encourage you to check out a sample first to see if you mesh with the writing style.

More Monday Minis! It’s a true Monday today, Mondaying hard for me. But have some minis to cheer you up and get you in the reading mood – and hopefully improve your Monday… Many thanks to the publicists for eARCs of all of these via NetGalley, opinions are my own as always.

Wild and Wicked Things by Francesca May has been very high on my most anticipated list for a very long time – just look at that cover. Absolute Fab-bait right there. Sapphic historical fantasy with witches? Doesn’t really get more me than that. But unfortunately, the book got swept up in my struggles to read digitally – I only managed to get an eARC as the promised physical copy got lost on the way somewhere, and struggled to get into it, mostly because I don’t like reading on kindle and forget about books that aren’t visibly in front of me. So when I finally picked up my final copy (yay gilded edges from Goldsboro, they look amazing and fit the book so well) I ended up racing through it in a day because it gripped me and I connected much better to the story in that format. I loved Emmeline, Annie and Bea, the three women driving the story. It is a slower book, but an immersive one. One that grabbed me just right and hit the stop perfectly. It is a story of self-determination, of finding your own path outside of the conventions that are given to you by society, and especially one where women realise that they don’t need men to live a fulfilling life in a period where they very much still determine how the world works. It is a lovely story, and one that I know I’ll come back to again.

Violet Made of Thorns by Gina Chen is a fun YA fantasy about witches, seers and princes. I really enjoyed how it did not have a pleasant main character, how Violet was allowed to be prickly and quite literally be made of thorns. It is a fast read, and an entertaining one. Prophecies are usually considered to be a good thing, a driving force in YA and I loved how this took that trope and turned it on its head by having Violet, the resident seer also be a liar and actively speak a false prophecy that affects the elite of the kingdom. In that, Violet Made of Thorns plays with fairy tale tropes throughout, and is a refreshing voice in YA. I’m definitely looking forward to reading more of Gina Chen’s writing in the future, even if ultimately this one wasn’t 100% my cup of tea in execution.

Seven Devils by Elizabeth May and Laura Lam is one that I read ages ago and somehow just forgot to review – I read it before release! It is a delightful space opera with a ton of references to Greek mythology which made me love it even more. Combining queer found family elements (pretty much all of the main characters are queer, and female or non-binary, which is awesome) with hints at pre-determined story elements through the references and generally a fun space opera story, Seven Devils is pure entertainment. It is fast-paced and not scientifically accurate. This is one of those science fiction books where the rule of cool supersedes everything, rather than being meticulously researched in terms of technology and science. And it makes it compulsively readable. I need to catch up with Seven Mercies, the second book in the duology which has been released in the meantime (shame on me, this is how long this took me…) and dive back in the world of Eris, Ariadne and co. I loved all of the characters, who became more like friends over the course of the story, which I found wonderful. Definite recommendation for a relaxing and quick read.