Book Review | Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire

Across the Green Grass Fields is the sixth book in the Wayward Children fantasy series by Seanan McGuire.

A young girl discovers a portal to a land filled with centaurs and unicorns in Seanan McGuire's Across the Green Grass Fields, a standalone tale in the Hugo and Nebula Award-wining Wayward Children series.

“Welcome to the Hooflands. We’re happy to have you, even if you being here means something’s coming.”

Regan loves, and is loved, though her school-friend situation has become complicated, of late.

When she suddenly finds herself thrust through a doorway that asks her to "Be Sure" before swallowing her whole, Regan must learn to live in a world filled with centaurs, kelpies, and other magical equines―a world that expects its human visitors to step up and be heroes.

But after embracing her time with the herd, Regan discovers that not all forms of heroism are equal, and not all quests are as they seem…

I love the Wayward Children series so much. My favorite books in the series are the stand alone ones that take the reader to a completely new world. I'm so excited that Across the Green Grass Fields falls into the portal fantasy side of this series.

In Across the Green Grass Fields we meet Regan. Regan is an intersex girl who loves horses, and she manages to find herself through a doorway to the Hooflands as one does with this series.

This book broke my heart into pieces in the way that this series always breaks my heart into pieces. I can't get enough of it, and please, please, please Ms. McGuire let me see Regan again. As much as I crave these portal fantasies, I'm ready for the school timeline to come around again. I have so many wayward friends I need to check on now, OK?

That's all I have to say. I loved this book, and now I wait for more.

⭐⭐⭐⭐💫
4.5/5 stars

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Book Review | The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo

The Empress of Salt and Fortune is a fantasy novella by Nghi Vo.

With the heart of an Atwood tale and the visuals of a classic Asian period drama The Empress of Salt and Fortune is a tightly and lushly written narrative about empire, storytelling, and the anger of women.

A young royal from the far north is sent south for a political marriage. Alone and sometimes reviled, she has only her servants on her side. This evocative debut chronicles her rise to power through the eyes of her handmaiden, at once feminist high fantasy and a thrilling indictment of monarchy.

I'm finding the most success with reading novellas and short stories right now. The Empress of Salt and Fortune is the perfect book for these times of being unable to focus. Not only is The Empress of Salt and Fortune novella length, each chapter is it's own little experience.

The Empress of Salt and Fortune is not strong on plot (which will be a blessing to some right now though I do usually prefer a stronger plot), but it's a beautiful book. The prose is gorgeous, and it makes for a wonderful read.

I would love to read more books by Nghi Vo.

⭐⭐⭐⭐★

Review copy provided by publisher

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Book Review | Finna by Nino Cipri

Finna is a science fiction novella by Nino Cipri.

When an elderly customer at a big box furniture store slips through a portal to another dimension, it’s up to two minimum-wage employees to track her across the multiverse and protect their company’s bottom line. Multi-dimensional swashbuckling would be hard enough, but our two unfortunate souls broke up a week ago.

Can friendship blossom from the ashes of a relationship? In infinite dimensions, all things are possible.

Finna was such a fun story to live in. There was basically an Ikea with wormholes in it, and someone's grandma disappeared. Obviously the employees needed to go track her down.

It took me a little bit to connect to the writing in this one so I was a bit disconnected from the story at first. That said, everything did eventually fall into place, and I no longer had trouble with the writing at all.

This was my first book to read by Cipri. I loved their imagination and their characters. I would love to read more from them in the future. Being a novella, Finna is the perfect size for an afternoon (or two) of "multi-dimensional swashbuckling".

⭐⭐⭐⭐★

Review copy provided by publisher

Book Review | Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire

Come Tumbling Down is the fifth book in Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series.

The fifth installment in Seanan McGuire's award-winning, bestselling Wayward Children series, Come Tumbling Down picks up the threads left dangling by Every Heart a Doorway and Down Among the Sticks and Bones

When Jack left Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children she was carrying the body of her deliciously deranged sister--whom she had recently murdered in a fit of righteous justice--back to their home on the Moors.

But death in their adopted world isn't always as permanent as it is here, and when Jack is herself carried back into the school, it becomes clear that something has happened to her. Something terrible. Something of which only the maddest of scientists could conceive. Something only her friends are equipped to help her overcome.

Eleanor West's "No Quests" rule is about to be broken.

Again.

It's not that I didn't like Come Tumbling Down, I just didn't particularly care for it, either.

Come Tumbling Down can't stand on its own the way the other books in the series can, yet half of the book is spent explaining the characters and the worlds.

I still wholeheartedly recommend this series and I'm anxiously awaiting the next installment... I just don't feel like Come Tumbling Down really added anything new.

⭐⭐⭐★★

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Book Review | Ormeshadow by Priya Sharma

Ormeshadow is a fantasy novella by Priya Sharma.

Acclaimed author Priya Sharma transports readers back in time with Ormeshadow, a coming-of-age story as dark and rich as good soil.

Burning with resentment and intrigue, this fantastical family drama invites readers to dig up the secrets of the Belman family, and wonder whether myths and legends are real enough to answer for a history of sin.

Uprooted from Bath by his father's failures, Gideon Belman finds himself stranded on Ormeshadow farm, an ancient place of chalk and ash and shadow. The land crests the Orme, a buried, sleeping dragon that dreams resentment, jealousy, estrangement, death. Or so the folklore says. Growing up in a house that hates him, Gideon finds his only comforts in the land. Gideon will live or die by the Orme, as all his family has.

I'm so happy I took a chance on this novella. After seeing Tammy's praise for it and finding out it was a coming of age story with dragons, I had to have it.

The dragon elements are light in Ormeshadow, but they are so beautifully done. Ormeshadow is a dark, folklore kind of fantasy story, but also beautiful and heartbreaking. There was the perfect amount of darkness balanced by the perfect amount of imagination.

Priya Sharma is now an autobuy author for me. I must have more of her stories.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Book Review | In An Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire

In An Absent Dream is the fourth book in Seanan McGuire's fantasy series Wayward Children.

This fourth entry and prequel tells the story of Lundy, a very serious young girl who would rather study and dream than become a respectable housewife and live up to the expectations of the world around her. As well she should.

When she finds a doorway to a world founded on logic and reason, riddles and lies, she thinks she's found her paradise. Alas, everything costs at the goblin market, and when her time there is drawing to a close, she makes the kind of bargain that never plays out well.

I think this one is my favorite of the series!

I'm all caught up in Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series now. I'm sad because I've been able to read four of them so close together and now I will have to wait to read the next one.

I'm not a great series reader. I burn out easily so it takes a lot for me to keep coming back to a series. I think in this case it helps that each book is so different from the last. (That and the fact that they're so good.)

I felt like there was so much allegory happening in In An Absent Dream. I would love to know what it was really about in Seanan McGuire's mind. The story was like a fairy tale, and the writing was so wonderful for me.

If you haven't started reading this series yet, just do it. I waited longer than I should have to get started.

I won't lie and say she took the story in directions I wanted it to go. I'm a little bit wrecked by this one, but also anxious to see where McGuire takes me in the next one.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Book Review | Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire

Beneath the Sugar Sky is the third book in Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series.

When Rini lands with a literal splash in the pond behind Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children, the last thing she expects to find is that her mother, Sumi, died years before Rini was even conceived. But Rini can’t let Reality get in the way of her quest – not when she has an entire world to save! (Much more common than one would suppose.)

If she can't find a way to restore her mother, Rini will have more than a world to save: she will never have been born in the first place. And in a world without magic, she doesn’t have long before Reality notices her existence and washes her away. Good thing the student body is well-acquainted with quests...

A tale of friendship, baking, and derring-do.

Warning: May contain nuts.

If you've been following my reviews so far this year, you know I've been making my way through Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series. This series is about children who have gone to fantasy worlds (similar to Alice or Narnia) and returned home.

These books are so imaginative. I'm really enjoying making my way through this series. Book 1 (Every Heart a Doorway) was set at the school for kids who were having trouble coping with their return from a fantasy world. Book 2 (Down Among the Sticks and Bones) was set in one of the dark fantasy worlds. Beneath the Sugar Sky was set in a Nonsense world.

There's a quote in the book that pretty much sums it all up:

"'We're teenagers in a magical land following a dead girl and a disappearing girl into a field of organic, pesticide-free candy corn,' said Kade. 'I think weird is a totally reasonable response to the situation.'"

I think this world was my least favorite simply because it was hard for me to worry about the fate of people in a world where the ground was made of graham crackers.

That being said, I did enjoy Beneath the Sugar Sky, and I absolutely loved the ending. I'm looking forward to finding out what's in store for us in book 4.

⭐⭐⭐⭐★

Book Review | Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire

Down Among the Sticks and Bones is the second book in the Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire.

Twin sisters Jack and Jill were seventeen when they found their way home and were packed off to Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children.

This is the story of what happened first…

Jacqueline was her mother’s perfect daughter—polite and quiet, always dressed as a princess. If her mother was sometimes a little strict, it’s because crafting the perfect daughter takes discipline.

Jillian was her father’s perfect daughter—adventurous, thrill-seeking, and a bit of a tom-boy. He really would have preferred a son, but you work with what you've got.

They were five when they learned that grown-ups can’t be trusted.

They were twelve when they walked down the impossible staircase and discovered that the pretense of love can never be enough to prepare you a life filled with magic in a land filled with mad scientists and death and choices.

Yeesss. Down Among the Sticks and Bones was quite different from Every Heart a Doorway. There was no second book slump happening here.

In Every Heart a Doorway, we met several kids who had returned from various fantasy worlds. Down Among the Sticks and Bones was the story of Jacqueline and Jillian's (Jack and Jill's) time spent in the Moors. I loved it! The Moors was such a dark fantasy world.

I'm planning to head straight into book three (Beneath a Sugar Sky). I have a feeling each book will be a unique experience, and I'm looking forward to it!

⭐⭐⭐⭐★

Book Review | Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire

Every Heart a Doorway is the first book in the Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire.

Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children
No Solicitations
No Visitors
No Quests

Children have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere... else.

But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children.

Nancy tumbled once, but now she’s back. The things she’s experienced... they change a person. The children under Miss West’s care understand all too well. And each of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world.

But Nancy’s arrival marks a change at the Home. There’s a darkness just around each corner, and when tragedy strikes, it’s up to Nancy and her new-found schoolmates to get to the heart of the matter.

No matter the cost.

My number one take away reading reviews of the Wayward Children series is that it gets pretty weird. I definitely see precursors to that in Every Heart a Doorway. This book had some strange moments.

Every Heart a Doorway was also pretty amazing. It's about what happens to kids who visit fantasy worlds (think Narnia or Alice) and then come back to our world. I absolutely loved the imaginative quality of Every Heart a Doorway.

I'm glad I decided to catch up on this series this year. I know it's going to get weird, but I'm here for it.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Book Review | The Night Cyclist by Stephen Graham Jones

The Night Cyclist is a horror novelette from Stephen Graham Jones.

"The Night Cyclist" by Stephen Graham Jones is a horror novelette about a middle-aged chef whose nightly bicycle ride home is interrupted by an unexpected encounter.

I loved this story from Stephen Graham Jones. I'm a runner not a cyclist, and damn it, now I want a bike.

I've never experienced so much suspense in a bike ride before. I swear this entire tale could have just been the main character chasing after a creature of the night on a bicycle and I would have loved it. There was a bit more to The Night Cyclist than that, though.

Everything about this story felt authentic - from the restaurant field (the main character is a chef) to what it must really feel like to be a cyclist.

The Night Cyclist weighs in at 32 pages. I would only recommend it to folks who love reading short stories, but I do without a doubt recommend it. I laid down my $.99 so I could read it on my Kindle, but you can read it for free on Tor's website here: https://www.tor.com/2016/09/21/the-night-cyclist/

8/10: Great Read