Review: The Last Life of Prince Alastor

Title: The Last Life of Prince Alastor
Author: Alexandra Bracken
Series: Prosper Redding #2
Genre: MG Fantasy
Length: Novel
Available: Now

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Every family has secrets – but not every family has a secret pact with a demon.

The thrilling second book in the darkly comic PROSPER REDDING series – with enough twists and turns to make every reader dizzy. Perfect for fans of Lemony Snicket, Jonathan Stroud and Skulduggery Pleasant.

Prosper is the only unexceptional Redding in his remarkable family. So, when he discovers that an 800-year-old demon called Alastor is responsible for their luck – and that this demon is currently living inside him – he’s more than a little surprised.

Worse luck, now Prosper needs a favour from him.

Prosper’s sister Prue has fallen into the clutches of evil queen Pyra, and only Prince Alastor can help him get her back. His demonic malefactor agrees to be Prosper’s guide through the demon realm under one condition – Prosper must enter into a contract of eternal servitude in the afterlife.

With Prue in mortal danger, Prosper has no choice but to agree.

Will Prosper ever make it out again, and if he does, will his afterlife be damned for all eternity?

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Review: The Orphans of Raspay

Title: The Orphans of Raspay
Author: Lois McMaster Bujold
Series: Penric and Desdemona #7
Genre: Fantasy
Length: Novella
Available: Now

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When the ship in which they are traveling is captured by Carpagamon island raiders, Temple sorcerer Penric and his resident demon Desdemona find their life complicated by two young orphans, Lencia and Seuka Corva, far from home and searching for their missing father. Pen and Des will need all their combined talents of mind and magic to unravel the mysteries of the sisters and escape from the pirate stronghold.

This novella follows about a year after the events of “The Prisoner of Limnos”.

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Review: The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding

Title: The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding
Author: Alexandra Bracken
Series: Prosper Redding #1
Genre: MG Fantasy
Length: Novel
Available: Now

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I would say it’s a pleasure to meet thee, Prosperity Oceanus Redding, but truly, I only anticipate the delights of destroying thy happiness.

Prosper is the only unexceptional Redding in his old and storied family history — that is, until he discovers the demon living inside him. Turns out Prosper’s great-great-great-great-great-something grandfather made — and then broke — a contract with a malefactor, a demon who exchanges fortune for eternal servitude. And, weirdly enough, four-thousand-year-old Alastor isn’t exactly the forgiving type. 

The fiend has reawakened with one purpose — to destroy the family whose success he ensured and who then betrayed him. With only days to break the curse and banish Alastor back to the demon realm, Prosper is playing unwilling host to the fiend, who delights in tormenting him with nasty insults and constant attempts trick him into a contract. Yeah, Prosper will take his future without a side of eternal servitude, thanks.

Little does Prosper know, the malefactor’s control over his body grows stronger with each passing night, and there’s a lot Alastor isn’t telling his dim-witted (but admittedly strong-willed) human host.

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Review: The Prisoner of Limnos

Title: The Prisoner of Limnos
Author: Lois McMaster Bujold
Series: Penric and Desdemona #6
Genre: Fantasy
Length: Novella
Available: Now

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In this sequel novella to “Mira’s Last Dance”, Temple sorcerer Penric and the widow Nikys have reached safety in the duchy of Orbas when a secret letter from a friend brings frightening news: Nikys’s mother has been taken hostage by her brother’s enemies at the Cedonian imperial court, and confined in a precarious island sanctuary.

Their own romance still unresolved, Nikys, Penric, and of course Desdemona must infiltrate the hostile country once more, finding along the way that family relationships can be as unexpectedly challenging as any rescue scheme.

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Review: Penric’s Fox

Title: Penric’s Fox
Author: Lois McMaster Bujold
Series: Penric and Desdemona #3
Genre: Fantasy
Length: Novella
Available: Now

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Some eight months after the events of Penric and the Shaman, Learned Penric, sorcerer and scholar, travels to Easthome, the capital of the Weald. There he again meets his friends Shaman Inglis and Locator Oswyl. When the body of a sorceress is found in the woods, Oswyl draws him into another investigation; they must all work together to uncover a mystery mixing magic, murder and the strange realities of Temple demons.

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Review: Mira’s Last Dance

Title: Mira’s Last Dance
Author: Lois McMaster Bujold
Series: Penric and Desdemona #5
Genre: Fantasy
Length: Novella
Available: Now

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In this sequel to the novella “Penric’s Mission”, the injured Penric, a Temple sorcerer and learned divine, tries to guide the betrayed General Arisaydia and his widowed sister Nikys across the last hundred miles of hostile Cedonia to safety in the Duchy of Orbas. In the town of Sosie the fugitive party encounters unexpected delays, and even more unexpected opportunities and hazards, as the courtesan Mira of Adria, one of the ten dead women whose imprints make up the personality of the chaos demon Desdemona, comes to the fore with her own special expertise.

Fourth novella in the “Penric and Desdemona” series.

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Review: Souljacker

Title: Souljacker
Author: Yasmine Galenorn
Series: Lily Bound #1
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Length: Novel
Available: 7th March

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Lily O’Connell, a succubus, has put her unique talents to work. She owns Lily Bound, an elite sex salon in the Blood Night District of Seattle. When a client turns up dead in her club, and she hears the news that the Souljacker–an old tattoo-artist friend-turned-vampire, who was institutionalized years before–has escaped to reclaim his “artwork,” Lily knows she’s next on his list. With one of his tattoos on her thigh and nowhere else to turn, Lily hires Archer Desmond, a chaos demon and PI, to track the vampire down before he tracks her. But she didn’t expect to fall for Archer-and they say a succubus who falls in love will destroy the heart of the one she seeks to claim…

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Review: Penric’s Mission

Title: Penric’s Mission
Author: Lois McMaster Bujold
Series: Penric and Des #4
Genre: Fantasy
Length: Novella
Available: Now

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In his thirtieth year, Penric fell in love with light…

Learned Penric, a sorcerer and divine of the Bastard’s Order, travels across the sea to sunlit Cedonia on his first covert diplomatic mission, to attempt to secure the services of a disaffected Cedonian general for the Duke of Adria.

However, nothing is as it seems: Penric is betrayed and thrown into a dungeon, and worse follows for the general and his kin. Penric’s narrow escapes and adventures — including his interest in a young widow — are told with Bujold’s remarkable energy, wit and humor. Once again, Bujold has created unforgettable characters and a wondrous, often dangerous world of intrigue and sorcery.

Third novella in the Penric and Desdemona series.

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DNF: Errant Spark

Title: Errant Spark
Author: Ronelle Antoinette
Series: Elemental Trials #1
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Length: Novel
Available: Now

DNF@30%

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In Egalion’s Imperial court, there is splendor and luxury, but it’s also a realm of treachery. Cloak-and-dagger political maneuvering threatens to destroy the peace of two thousand years.

Battlemage Jex Xander has a mouth that gets him into trouble; while in contrast, Enari Namelum speaks not at all. Amidst the mounting chaos, passion and romance should be the last thing on their minds, but life and the Goddess seem to have other ideas.

They say to keep your friends close and your enemies closer, but at court you can’t tell one from the other…and they change at the flip of a coin.

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Review: Penric and the Shaman

Title: Penric and the Shaman
Author: Lois McMaster Bujold
Series: Penric and Des #2 (World of the Five Gods #1.6)
Genre: Fantasy
Length: Novella
Available: Now

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In this NOVELLA set in The World of the Five Gods and four years after the events in “Penric’s Demon”, Penric is a divine of the Bastard’s Order as well as a sorcerer and scholar, living in the palace where the Princess-Archdivine holds court. His scholarly work is interrupted when the Archdivine agrees to send Penric, in his role as sorcerer, to accompany a “Locator” of the Father’s Order, assigned to capture Inglis, a runaway shaman charged with the murder of his best friend. However, the situation they discover in the mountains is far more complex than expected. Penric’s roles as sorcerer, strategist, and counselor are all called upon before the end.

Bujold delivers an astonishing tale that is not soon forgotten.

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