Once more onto the breech, my friends! A mix of modern queer witchery and ancient Celtic legend, Witches of Ash and Ruin by E. Latimer hits the pulse of the time perfectly. I love that elements that rank among my favourites are such a trend at the moment – this book is perfect for fans of Toil and Trouble, Sanctuary, Amy Rose Capetta, Sarah Gailey, and the many other recent sapphic witch books!

This post is part of the Fantastic Flying Bookclub Blog Tour, and I encourage you to check out the full schedule here, and read some of my co-blogger’s opinions as well! As usual with the FFBC, there is also a giveaway for a beautiful finished copy of the book for a reader in the US – click on this link here to enter. Thank you to the FFBC for having me, and NetGalley and Freeform for the eARC to review. (I bought the finished copy in the picture myself)

RELEASE DATE: 03/03/20

STAR RATING: 4/5 ✶

SYNOPSIS: Seventeen-year-old Dayna Walsh is struggling to cope with her somatic OCD; the aftermath of being outed as bisexual in her conservative Irish town; and the return of her long-absent mother, who barely seems like a parent. But all that really matters to her is ascending and finally, finally becoming a full witch-plans that are complicated when another coven, rumored to have a sordid history with black magic, arrives in town with premonitions of death. Dayna immediately finds herself at odds with the bewitchingly frustrating Meiner King, the granddaughter of their coven leader.

And then a witch turns up murdered at a local sacred site, along with the blood symbol of the Butcher of Manchester-an infamous serial killer whose trail has long gone cold. The killer’s motives are enmeshed in a complex web of witches and gods, and Dayna and Meiner soon find themselves at the center of it all. If they don’t stop the Butcher, one of them will be next.

OPINIONS: Murrrrderrrr. Murder most foul in quaint Ireland. I love myself a good murder mystery, and especially one that involves magic and rituals. The premise of a serial killer reappearing after years intrigued me from the start, and was well executed into its details – E. Latimer went into a lot of nuance to craft things quite right and avoid potential loopholes! This is interwoven with Celtic legend, which made my medievalist heart very happy. It is not so mythology heavy to weigh down the book for those not familiar with Irish and the Irish tradition (which, from my experience teaching undergraduates is quite hard to get into at first), but just enough so to enhance the world-building and give it another dimension. As a nerd, I went and looked up the stories referenced, which made me enjoy Witches of Ash and Ruin even more – but that is absolutely not necessary.

The magic system used by the witches in the book themselves is relatively separate from these legends, apart from referencing deities that individual witches pledge themselves to. And oh the witches. Traumatised Dayna, needing protection, after having been outed as bisexual in her conservative, religious community. Tall, mysterious and distant Meiner, too soft in her grandmother’s opinion, trying to figure out who she wants to become. I think I too fell a little in love with her. Ambitious Cora, and free-spirited Reagan. Well-crafted, though not always as nuanced as I would have liked, the young generation of witches have their distinct personalities and roles to play in the story. In general, many of the characters were not necessary likeable, but interesting – but then, I don’t read books because I’m looking to find fluffy, nice people I want to be friends with.

I really enjoyed reading Witches of Ash and Ruin, and raced through the story to find out how it ended. While elements of the story were predictable at times, it did not detract from the pacing and the book as a whole. It worked well as a standalone novel, and I am very curious to read what E. Latimer comes up with next! Witches of Ash and Ruin is out now, order it from Book Depository now, or contact your indie of choice to get your hands on a copy!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: E. Latimer is a fantasy writer from Victoria, BC. Her middle grade novel, The Strange and Deadly Portraits of Bryony Gray was published by Tundra Books, and was recently nominated for the Red Maple Fiction Award. In her spare time, she writes books, makes silly vlogs with the Word Nerds about writing, and reads excessively. Her latest novel, Witches of Ash and Ruin, will be released Spring/Summer 2020 from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. You can find her online here:

• Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3422739.E_Latimer
• Website: http://www.elatimer.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ELatimerWrites
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/erin.latimer2
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elatimerwrites/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/YAWordNerds

I told you there would be a few blog tours this month! This one is for The June Boys by Court Stevens, a bit of a departure from the usual fare here on Libri Draconis. Rather than fantasy or science fiction, The June Boys is a YA murder mystery, and although I read them far to rarely, I do still have a soft spot for a good crime novel. There has been a recent resurgence of great YA mysteries and thrillers, and I’m all here for it – if you’re intrigued by The June Boys, check out the Truly Devious series by Maureen Johnson, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson and Not Even Bones by Rebecca Schaeffer, and vice-versa!

Check out the tour schedule on the Fantastic Flying Book Club’s site to see all of the other amazing bloggers and bookstagrammers participating and read what they think of The June Boys. There is also a giveaway for a finished copy of the book for one lucky US participant, which you can enter by clicking on this Rafflecopter link!

As always, thank you so much for having me, FFBC, and thank you to Netgalley and Thomas Nelson for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

RELEASE DATE: 03/03/2020

STAR RATING: 3/5 ✶

SYNOPSIS: The Gemini Thief could be anyone. Your father, your mother, your best friend’s crazy uncle. Some country music star’s deranged sister. Anyone.

The Gemini Thief is a serial kidnapper, who takes three boys and holds them captive from June 1st to June 30th of the following year. The June Boys endure thirteen months of being stolen, hidden, observed, and fed before they are released, unharmed, by their masked captor. The Thief is a pro, having eluded authorities for nearly a decade and taken at least twelve boys.

Now Thea Delacroix has reason to believe the Gemini Thief took a thirteenth victim: her cousin, Aulus McClaghen.

But the game changes when one of the kidnapped boys turns up dead. Together with her boyfriend Nick and her best friends, Thea is determined to find the Gemini Thief and the remaining boys before it’s too late. Only she’s beginning to wonder something sinister, something repulsive, something unbelievable, and yet, not impossible:

What if her father is the Gemini Thief?

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Death, suicidal ideation

OPINIONS: Oh, YA, you wonderful genre where teenagers bumbling along using scraps are always the ones that find the culprit before the trained professionals in possession of the full evidence and data, please never change. As it is often the case with these kinds of books, The June Boys requires a certain amount of suspension of disbelief to make the story work. It is interesting that for me, mysteries are much harder to just take at face value than fantasies, where I don’t have this issue at all.

However, The June Boys turned too much into a locked-house mystery once it became clear that Aulus’s disappearance was connected to the Gemini Thief. Blame was thrown around from character to character, as they were suspected and accused one after the other. Thea, as a main character, frustrated me to no end, as she had a tendency to trust or not trust others on a whim, sometimes changing her mind halfway through a conversation. At times, she would trust a complete stranger with her full life story and theories about the Gemini Thief, only to refuse to share a theory with someone who has proven trustworthy before.

What stuck with me was Aulus’s storyline. His harrowing experiences locked away were hauntingly told through letters written to a figure only named as ‘Elizabeth’. Days passing without food or water led to losing touch with reality and suicidal ideation, descending into desperation.

My main issue with the story was the feeling of ‘Deus ex machina’ that permeated the book. There were plot holes gaping open (why is the FBI spearheading the investigation in Thea’s town, when all the June Boys except Aulus, who might not even be one, have gone missing in a different state, and why is everyone in Thea’s town panicking that their sons might go missing?), incredible coincidences of timing and entirely too much trust put in God. I also had the weird feeling that I had read this book before, but I don’t know why – if you know of a similar book published a few years ago, please let me know!

Overall, I did enjoy reading The June Boys, although I had some issues with the suspension of disbelief. If you’re slightly less knit-picky about your YA mysteries, I do recommend you give it a shot and see for yourself. Just because a book doesn’t work perfectly for me, doesn’t mean it won’t for someone else. You can add The June Boys on Goodreads here, and order a copy from Book Depository here.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Courtney “Court” Stevens grew up among rivers, cornfields, churches, and gossip in the small town south. She is a former adjunct professor, youth minister, Olympic torchbearer and bookseller at Parnassus Books. These days she writes coming-of-truth fiction and is the Community Outreach Manager for Warren County Public Library. She has a pet whale named Herman, a bandsaw named Rex, and several novels with her name on the spine. You can find her at the following places:

• Goodreads
• Twitter
• Website
• Instagram

March is not only the month of many fabulous releases, it is also the month of blog tours at Libri Draconis! As of now, I’ll be taking part in FOUR blog tours organised by the wonderful people over at the Fantastic Flying Book Club this month – it’ll be another busy one here on the blog. And because I’ve always wanted to be cool enough to have secret publishing (well, reviewing) news: there is something I’m very very excited about that I’ll hopefully be able to tell you all about this or next week!

But back to business: Today’s book is The Winter Duke by Claire Eliza Bartlett, which I’m reviewing as part of the FFBC’s blog tour – check out the full schedule here for the other bloggers and their no doubt great contributions as well! I absolutely loved The Winter Duke, part fairy tale, part political fantasy and part wlw romance and am very happy to give you the chance to win your very own copy by following this link here to the Rafflecopter (two copies available, open until the 18th, sadly this is US only and out of my hands).

Thank you to the Fantastic Flying Book Club for having me, and Claire Eliza Bartlett and Little Brown / the NOVL for providing me with an advance copy of The Winter Duke!

RELEASE DATE: 03/03/2020

STAR RATING: 5/5 ✶

SYNOPSIS: An enchanted tale of intrigue where a duke’s daughter is the only survivor of a magical curse.

When Ekata’s brother is finally named heir, there will be nothing to keep her at home in Kylma Above with her murderous family. Not her books or science experiments, not her family’s icy castle atop a frozen lake, not even the tantalizingly close Kylma Below, a mesmerizing underwater kingdom that provides her family with magic. But just as escape is within reach, her parents and twelve siblings fall under a strange sleeping sickness.

In the space of a single night, Ekata inherits the title of duke, her brother’s warrior bride, and ever-encroaching challengers from without—and within—her own ministry. Nothing has prepared Ekata for diplomacy, for war, for love…or for a crown she has never wanted. If Kylma Above is to survive, Ekata must seize her family’s power. And if Ekata is to survive, she must quickly decide how she will wield it.

Part Sleeping Beauty, part Anastasia, with a thrilling political mystery, The Winter Duke is a spellbinding story about choosing what’s right in the face of danger.

OPINIONS: Last year, Claire Eliza Bartlett broke out with a unique feminist fantasy about a ragtag group of women pilots fighting for their role in the war, We Rule the Night. Now she is back with an utterly different, but no less charming and special book: The Winter Duke. Weaving together strands of political intrigue, personal growth, family drama, magic and love, Claire creates an immensely readable tale that sucks the reader into its lands of Kylma Above and Kylma Below, and spits them back out wanting more.

The story is excellently written and crafted – if you would like to see for yourself, check out this sample chapter on the NOVL’s site to get a taste of the book. But its true strength lies in its characters. Ekata, a princess who wants nothing more than escaping her family and the constraints of her role, is suddenly forced to confront the challenges of rulership. Inkar, daughter of an enemy ruler, suddenly finds herself married, in a land utterly different from her own. Sigis, the obvious villain, ex-foster brother to Ekata, now desperate for power, tries to marry her despite her best efforts. The rulers and citizens of Kylma Below, whose behaviour is truly a mystery… They, and the remaining cast of The Winter Duke, are portrayed multi-dimensionally, and all come with their set of aims and motivations behind their actions. Especially Ekata and Inkar undergo immense character growth over the course of the story’s progression, and it is beautiful to see how they grow into their own as independent young women.

One of my favourite parts of the book was that sexuality was a topic that was never discussed – when Ekata chose her bride, that was accepted as fact, and while the process and her motivations were questioned, the gender was never a topic of discussion. Despite queer relationships being more and more accepted these days, it is refreshing to read books where they are a matter of fact rather than discussion, where the narrative has moved so far past the need for discussion that things can just be.

Another thing I loved, and which reminded me of another of my favourite YA fantasies (which is far too underhyped!), State of Sorrow by Melinda Salisbury, is the inclusion of an election in the book. While its not a proper democratic process in this case, the fact that this is something YA novels are addressing is very important to me, and I am glad that it is becoming a thing. Politics and democracy are so crucial to our society and future, and, for someone who learns best through reading about issues, what better way to subtly encourage young people to engage with the matters!

If this sounds like a book that’s right up your alley, click here to add The Winter Duke on Goodreads, and here to order it from Book Depository. Naturally, all good book dealers should be able to provide you with copies as well.

ABOUT CLAIRE ELIZA BARTLETT:

She is writer and tour guide in Copenhagen, Denmark. Though she originally comes from Colorado, she left the US when she was eighteen and hasn’t lived there since. More permanent stops on her travels have included Switzerland, Wales and Denmark. The arrival of a Danish husband has somewhat cemented her living situation, but she gets her travel in smaller doses these days.

She like to write fantasy, mostly, though I dabble in soft sci-fi. Her short stories are more adult, my novels more YA. She has studied history, archaeology, and writing. She likes to take my inspiration from historical events, and the more unknown and inspiring the event, the better.

She is represented by Kurestin Armada of P.S. Literary. To keep up with what strange things she’s researching and writing, you can sign up for her newsletter here. She sends out a short newsletter once a month.

You can also find her at the following places:

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17293691.Claire_Eliza_Bartlett

Website: https://authorclaire.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/bartlebett

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bartlebett/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bartlebett/