Ash by Malinda Lo

With the death of her parents, Ash is left to the cruel care of her stepmother, a woman only concerned with what labour Ash can provide while she tries to groom her eldest daughter to an advantageous marriage

Ash finds what comfort she can from the old ways and fairy tales of her childhood, walking the hidden pathways of the wood where the fae reside; considering possibly abduction by fairies only to be a release from her current life

Until she meets Kasia, the king’s huntress – and is given someone else to find and a reason to keep living. But is she already in too deep with the fae? And even without them, can she, a lowly servant, be with the king’s huntress?

I wanted to like this book. I actually tried really hard to like this book. I sat down and argued with myself about this book. I tried to talk myself into liking this book. I desperately tried to convince myself I liked my book. I even tried lying to myself and insisted I liked this book

But I didn’t

The problem is I have trouble putting my finger on exactly why I didn’t enjoy it.

The writing of the book is elaborate and very thematic. It feels like an old fashioned fairy tale, it has the same sense of time and place and setting, the same slight surreal elements. And previous books I have praised for a similar attempt when done well. But a voice at the back of my head does counter that it’s kind of long winded and overly ornate

The book is also a very slow burn, it takes a long time to set the theme, to let us get to know the world and Ash’s circumstances and how she got to where she was. We saw her history

It was deep and nuanced and meaningful and really built Ash as a character. And boring, yes, sorry, kinda boring. There’s comes a point when a character can poignantly visit her mother’s grave in the woods in the middle of the night when you kind of want to just stamp “mummy issues” and press the fast forward button. And, yes, again I do cringe because I can pull back and say how well it was done, how well chosen the writing, how much this did fully bring to life Ash’s grief and loss and her despair without her having to be melodramatic. Little things like the favourite stories she had being of people who got lost in the land of the fairies never to return – because to her, with nothing to live for, they felt like happy endings. It was wonderfully poignant without having to get truly melodramatically monologue-y about it all; her pain was clear and powerful without ever having to hit us over the head of with it.

Fury's Kiss (Dorina Basarab #3) by Karen Chance

While the war rages on and the American Vampire Senate looks to fill its empty seats, Dorina is still part of the squad looking to track down the smugglers using portals to arm the Dark Mages with deadly weaponry and creatures to tip the balance of the war

The investigation turns deadly when several vampire agents are destroyed leaving only Dorina as a survivor with a hole in her memory. To find out what happened, she will have to deal with vampires, fae, fallen angels – and more plots than she could ever have imagined.

But while all this is going on Dorina has another battle – with herself. Old barriers in her mind are coming down and everything she believed about her dhampire nature is being challenged – presenting new threats and new possibilities

There is a lot about this book I love

I love the development of what Dorina is, of the very nature of the dhampires and how this relates to vampire culture. The whole sense that vampires are deeply social and hierarchical and that Dorina’s vampire side feels all of that but is then isolated from the hierarchy by vampiric hatred of dhampires and her human side’s own weakness. It’s a wonderful little twist and manages to greatly expand what Dorina is without the sense of retconning or changing the established world setting at all. It also led to more excellent exploration of Dorina’s character and history as well as vampire culture. There’s also the ever-complicated relationship between Dorina and her father which is also wonderfully expanded on and explored in this book.

I also really liked Ray in this book. We had a lot more of his history as someone who is half-Portuguese and half-Indonesian and his history of being rather stuck between two cultures (including an interesting insight that previous Asian vampiric masters had used him, in centuries past, to be their guide to Europe but missing that European blood doesn’t give knowledge of language or custom). He really grew as a character in this book beyond his standard role as somewhat inept comic relief. He’s survivor and a chancer. A vampire who will never be a major power nor has any real close family ties to keep him safe - he’s always found his niche by being clever and being daring. He takes risks, he’s willing to try things no-one else would consider (sometimes for very good reason) he’s imaginative and creative and comes up with a lot of crafty answers and work arounds because of it. He becomes an asset and we can see him as an asset without having to greatly increase his power.

The plot itself is amazingly complicated (which I have some problems with which I will get to) which draws on every element of this vast world – and it is vast. I think every faction and player that has been introduced in the last two books all plays a hand in this book – the fae, the vampires, the mages and some new ones we’ve never heard of before. It all adds up to an incredibly complicated master plan which fits so well in this rich and wide world that is laid out for us

The pacing of the book is break neck (which, again, is not without its problems). Dorina runs from action to action, scene to scene at an incredible rate with no time to catch your breath before the next concept or battle or revelation lands on you. This doesn’t pause or get bogged down, though it can certainly exhaust you as you struggle to keep up with the battles or absorb yet another chunk of world building, all of it thrown at you with little chance to process.

The main problem I have with this book is that it feels long. It is somewhat long, that’s certainly true, but it’s the feeling of its length that is the problem. That sense as you’re reading that this book has already gone on for a very long time and isn’t it about time it started to get wrapped up?

Fangs for the Fantasy Book of the Week

It's Monday and time for our podcast - and yes, the sickness Moose have been banished and we are back in action!

Naturally, since it's been a few weeks we have a lot to tackle, but we're certainly up for the challenge! We will get through it all, including our past books of the week

If you have missed any of our previous podcasts, they're all available here.

The podcast starts at 7:00pm EST (12:00am GMT) You can follow us by the sidebar, this website or our youtube channel.


Our books of the week - both ones we're catching up on and our next few reads are:

9th February - 16th February: Vision in Silver by Anne Bishop
16th February - 23rd February: Dead Heat by Patricia Briggs
23rd February - 2nd March: Dark Debt by Chloe Neil
2nd March - 9th March: Fury’s Kiss by Karen Chance
9th March - 16th March: Ash by Malinda Lo
16th March - 23rd March: Grave Visions by Kalayna Price
23rd March - 30th March: Waistcoats and Weaponry by Gail Carriger

30th March - 6th April: The Antelope Wife by Louise Erdrich

6th April – 13^th April: Vengeance of the Demon by Diana Rowland

Dark Debt (Chicagoland Vampires #11) by Chloe Neill

Ethan and Merit have been on edge waiting for Balthasar, Ethan’s creator, to show himself. Finally the ancient vampire makes an appearance – and he’s as terrifying and powerful as they feared; he also feels entitled to his progeny’s achievements, including his house

But it’s not the only threat looking. The problems besetting Navarre house have finally been revealed as two of their vampires become attempted assassins in a very public attack. While Navarre has never been a friend to Cadogan, Ethan and Merit can’t stand aside while the vampire house is acting so strangely and has to investigate, even with Balthasar stalking them.

This is one of those hard reviews to write. It’s hard because I find myself with a feeling of, well, vaguely positive indifference towards the book. I didn’t dislike it, there were few things about it that I had issue with (though there are some which I’ll get to). The writing was well paced, the action seems nicely described. The two main plots were nicely interwoven, related and each got sufficient time and attention to be properly developed and come to a natural conclusion.

Merit continues to be a relatively fun character, active and in control without being overwhelming and eclipsing everyone else. There was also more presence from the other women around her, the other female guards, Helen who runs the house, Margot the cook, Mallory her best friend. They’re not present in huge amounts but this is a very Ethan and Merit focused book. I also like that Mallory is finally coming from beneath the shadow of her past misdeeds to be a less controversial and dubious presence in the book always haunted by her own guilt

I also appreciated that Merit managed to be intelligent and insightful in this book without the need for everyone else to suddenly lose half of their brain cells. It has been an unfortunate habit of the series to make Merit seem extremely intelligent by making everyone else… somewhat limited in their comprehension.

I love Merit’s adoration of all things edible and unhealthy and she almost makes me hungry reading

the book (or, in her case, hangry – her hungry anger has no caused emergency lunches to be ready at all times) though there’s a dubious element of this unhealthy eating without any side issues.

We had some touching on the Sorcerers with Catcher and Mallory’s upcoming wedding – and a lot of interest debate around it. I loved how they chewed over the idea that even with someone you love, getting married for “practical purposes” rather takes the wind out of things. But equally there’s the counter debate that people grow up, what they once dreamed of isn’t what they want and love and practicality can mean that a big romantic moment is less important – it’s a nice back and forth with the added good input from Ethan that her friends are adults who don’t need Merit to police their relationship.

Fangs for the Fantasy Book of the Week

It's another Monday and usually time for another episode of the Fangs for the Fantasy Podcast

Sadly, because we've been hit with the dreaded moose plague, we're not up to doing the podcast this week. However, we will continue our books of the week for the Monday review ans because we do intend to talk about them when we're back on the air and the mooses (meese?) have been banished

We will be covering everything when we come back!

9th February - 16th February: Vision in Silver by Anne Bishop
16th February - 23rd February: Dead Heat by Patricia Briggs
23rd February - 2nd March: Dark Debt by Chloe Neil
2nd March - 9th March: Fury’s Kiss by Karen Chance
9th March - 16th March: Ash by Malinda Lo
16th March - 23rd March: Grave Visions by Kalayna Price
23rd March - 30th March: Waistcoats and Weaponry by Gail Carriger

30th March - 6th April: The Antelope Wife by Louise Erdrich

6th April – 13^th April: Vengeance of the Demon by Diana Rowland

If you have missed any of our previous shows, all our archives can be found here

Dead Heat (Alpha & Omega #4) by Patricia Briggs

Anna and Charles are travelling again – but this time for a nice simple holiday to see an old friend of Charles’s before he dies. It’s a painful reunion and a harsh reminder of the cost of the werewolves’ immense longevity

It’s also a chance to buy Anna a horse from his friend’s excellent ranch. But soon after arriving the quickly find something far more dangerous going on. The fae are finished playing nice with humanity and to push negotiations in their favour they’ve released some of the darkest monsters among them

One of which preys on children and his hunting in the area – including his friend’s family. While neutral in the conflict brewing between the fae and humanity, the werewolves won’t tolerate children being targeted, especially not children connected to the pack.

I think this book was an excellent follow on and contrast to Fair Game. There our sympathies are very much with the fae – it is the fae who are being attacked, cruelly abused and not supported or helped by the human government which leads to the major event in the world setting of the Fae withdrawing to their compounds. We open with this tense moment and both the werewolves and the humans bracing for the possibility of a human vs fae war or, at very least, some very tense relations.

This book shows the other side – that the fae are not nice and are rarely the victims. After most of both this series and the Mercy Thompson series in which the fae tried to play the PR game with humanity and had it fail so dramatically in Fair Game we now see the fae basically letting their monsters loose. They tried to play nice. They tried to keep their greatest monsters hidden and constrained but if humans aren’t going to work with that then it’s time to let loose the kelpies and the child snatchers.

I love this change of direction because it adds so many shades to the whole conflict. The way the fae were treated was unacceptable, but sending out monsters that target children? Equally awful – this puts both the reader and, similarly, the werewolves in the position of team nobody. Or, rather, the position of defending whoever is being unjustly abused regardless of which “side” they’re on. It promises for a lot of interesting plot lines in the future and also adds to the greater meta-feel of Alpha & Omega compared to the much more personally focused Mercy Thompson series.

So we’ve got a nifty little murder mystery with lots of horror and surreal elements from the fae all with a backdrop of big political happening which I really like.

One potential issue I can see is this book has a lot of horse talk in it. One of the hooks to get Charles and Anna on sight is that Charles is getting Anna a horse. I have a feeling the author loves horses and is very involved and knowledgeable about them. Personally I am pretty indifferent to horses and know next to nothing about them and I didn’t find the horse talk engaging – but nor did I find it particularly dull or book breaking. Since I’m not a horsey person and it didn’t bother me I can’t see it being too much of a barrier, but your mileage may vary.

Fangs for the Fantasy Book of the Week

It's another Monday and usually time for another episode of the Fangs for the Fantasy Podcast

Sadly, because we've been hit with the dreaded moose plague, we're not up to doing the podcast this week. However, we will continue our books of the week for the Monday review ans because we do intend to talk about them when we're back on the air and the mooses (meese?) have been banished

9th February - 16th February: Vision in Silver by Anne Bishop
16th February - 23rd February: Dead Heat by Patricia Briggs
23rd February - 2nd March: Dark Debt by Chloe Neil
2nd March - 9th March: Fury’s Kiss by Karen Chance
9th March - 16th March: Ash by Malinda Lo
16th March - 23rd March: Grave Visions by Kalayna Price
23rd March - 30th March: Waistcoats and Weaponry by Gail Carriger

30th March - 6th April: The Antelope Wife by Louise Erdrich

If you have missed any of our previous shows, all our archives can be found here

Vision in Silver (The Others #3) by Anne Bishop

Tensions flare over Thasia. The Human First and Last Movement is upping their attack – not against the Others, but against humans who work with them. The human pack, the friends and allies the Others have gained in Lakeside are being driven out of human society as the hatred raises to new heights and the rhetoric has become sharper and more heated.

The humans don’t know how close they come to destruction as the elder terra indigene have started paying attention and are looming over them. But the HFL has their own schemes – and they may care little for the wrath of the Others

At the same time the rescued Cassandra Sangue are trying to adapt to the outside world without the limited, sensory deprived homes they’re used to. It’s a steep learning curve and not many of them will survive.

The Meg is back – and that is always a cause for joy for us – and this book is no exception.

I just love this world so much – as we delve more and more into the Others, the terra indigene, animals and elemental forces barely mimicking a shell of humanity. They are mighty beings, incredibly powerful creatures capable of throwing the weather and land itself at the human interlopers (we also have an introduction of the elemental Ocean. Ocean. Yes). They rule the continent of Thasia and, unlike other places in the world (like the human alliance of nations, Cel-Romano), the terra indigene have decided that humans don’t belong on Thasia. They exist there on sufferance – and the humans are rapidly becoming more and more insufferable

But the human reaction also seems very real – in a very depressing fashion. Humans consider themselves persecuted and unfairly treated by the terra indigene because they can’t have everything they want. Them demanding more from the terra indigene and being told no is considered a deep injustice while the terra indigene consider it grossly entitled – and consider humanity’s constant hunger for things they don’t need to be deeply dangerous, wasteful and likely to lead to deep issues in the future.

There’s also the issue that most humans on most of the continent (especially in the main city of Tolund) don’t see the terra indigene very often and don’t have that immediate fear of them – in fact the prejudice drives them away from interacting with them. They don’t realise just how dangerous the terra indigene are and, in very typical arrogance, they assume they will win.

The way the prejudice is depicted is well done as well. No direct movements, few direct attacks against the terra indigene – but attacking humans who are friendly with the terra indigene; an excellent depiction of societal shunning of people who don’t buy into the hatred. There’s also some excellent media spin to venomously attack the terra indigene (which the terra indigene themselves are pretty unable to deal with because they don’t understand the power of these words).

And the whole underlying plot of the Humans First and Last movement is not only very crafty but it is so evocative of how politicians and people in power use prejudice and hatred. They use hatred of the terra indigene and scapegoat the terra indigene to push through their own agenda – and this is so evocative of politicians who constantly push policies through that, for example, disadvantage the poor but then distract with homophobia, racist or anti-immigrant rhetoric. The scapegoating and distraction of hate speech is a long established tactic and I think we saw that done very well in part of a very twisted and crafty scheme.

Books of the week

It's another Monday and time for another episode of the Fangs for the Fantasy Podcast!

You will be able to listen to us on our youtube channel, or by the link in the sidebar or by the post here that will be posted. We hope to see you there

Like all  the Fangs for the Fantasy podcasts (archives here) we read a book and discuss it on the show.  For those wanting to read with us, our next books of the week are

9th February - 16th February: Vision in Silver by Anne Bishop

16th February - 23rd February: Dead Heat by Patricia Briggs

23rd February - 2nd March: Dark Debt by Chloe Neil

2nd March - 9th March: Fury’s Kiss by Karen Chance

9th March - 16th March: Ash by Malinda Lo

16th March - 23rd March: Grave Visions by Kalayna Price

23rd March - 30th March: Waistcoats and Weaponry by Gail Carriger

The Diabolical Miss Hyde (Electric Empire #1) by Viola Carr

Dr. Eliza Jekyll is a doctor at Bethlem hospital – and a crime scene investigator, helping the police investigate a series of disturbing murders and mutilations that are stalking London

But Eliza has a secret – and a serum she is driven to take which lets the much wilder Lizzie Hyde out to play; a character who is much more in key with the dark underclass of London unlike the oh-so-proper Eliza Jekyll. Eliza tries to keep her repressed – but Lizzie’s knowledge and connections may be essential to the case.

This is a problem with Captain Lafayette, an enforcer for the Royal Society, police of all things mystical and unorthodox joins the investigation for reasons unknown. Her secret could end up with her burned at the stake.

This book has a whole lot of awesome concepts that I love. The world is excellent – a wonderful brass-and-electricity steampunk world with all of that aesthetics, taking a well researched Victorian London with both it’s very proper upstairs world and its gritty, grossly abused, unequal underclass who strived underneath it. We have a deeply unequal world and a deeply unjust one that explores the revolutions and responses to revolution that were so common at that time that we don’t often see in Steampunks (or, if we do, we have some nebulous “anarchists” or “insurrectionists” without much exploration of their motivations).

With all this repression it’s also built into the supernatural and super-science elements of the show itself; we have people of fae descent with strangely different bodies who are repressed and driven into the shadows by the ordered Royal Society. In this oppressive society, not only are the mystical human beings driven out, but also the science/quasi science itself is repressed. The sheer huge potential of Steampunk and Victorian Gothic with its ether and technology and strange potions is obviously a threat to the staid establishment and is heavily and viciously policed.

The protagonist is also an interesting twist: Dr. Eliza Jekyll and Miss Lizzie Hyde; with an extra twist on the whole “good and evil” dichotomy of the Jekyll/Hyde storyline. It’s not good and evil, it’s, if anything, order and chaos. Or maybe law & society vs underclass. Or even upper class vs underclass. Or, probably more accurately, they don’t really fit neatly in any of those categories. Lizzie is more ruthless but has often moral barriers and, in some ways, more compassion than Eliza does. Eliza, though, is easily subversive and rebellious in her own role as a female doctor, a police surgeon and a doctor in Bethlem Mental Hospital. There’s no simple black vs white this vs that line between the two which in turn makes their own storyline compelling as Eliza begins in repressing her “sister” but slowly opens to her more and more.

Along with all this we have an interesting murder mystery – and it’s interesting to me because it’s almost woo-woo-less. Eliza doesn’t have some arcane technology or special ability that makes her a super expert at solving crimes. What she has is her credentials, her knowledge and her skill which is interesting in and of itself though I’d quite like to have seen more of it.

Book of the Week

It's another Monday and time for another episode of the Fangs for the Fantasy Podcast!

You will be able to listen to us on our youtube channel, or by the link in the sidebar or by the post here that will be posted. We hope to see you there

Like all  the Fangs for the Fantasy podcasts (archives here) we read a book and discuss it on the show.  For those wanting to read with us, our next books of the week are

2nd February - 9th February: The Diabolical Miss Hyde by Viola Carr

9th February - 16th February: Fury’s Kiss by Karen Chance

16th February - 23rd February: Vision in Silver by Anne Bishop
23rd February - 2nd March: Dark Debt by Chloe Neil
2nd March - 9th March: Fury's Kiss by Karen Chance
9th March - 16th March: Ash by Malinda Lo

Lady of Integrity (Magnificent Devices #7) by Shelley Adina

Claire has finished the university and she is ready to begin her position at Von Zepplin’s dirigible works. And she has a wedding to plan to her fiancé, Andrew. The Mopsies are returning to school, everything is looking up

When Alice arrives who has lost everything – including her first mate Jake, and member of Claire’s extended family. He is being held prisoner by the Doge of Venice in what is little more than an extortion scheme. The politics of the situation are tricky and there are few people to intervene beyond Claire herself.

She has never abandoned her flock in danger

It’s another swashbuckling adventure for Lady Claire and her flock, the excellent Alice, Elizabeth, Maggie, Tigg and Andrew

And I think that’s the first thing I want to praise about this – I like most of the flock. Most of the characterisation has fallen on Claire, Lizzie and Maggie, of course, since they’ve been the main protagonists but every character has had some characterisation. Even though she’s the protagonist, Claire doesn’t exactly eclipse those around her.

The world setting has expanded nicely – we’ve already seen adventures in North America and some insight into France and Germany, while this book moves to Venice with some nicely original ideas and concepts. I like that even when we don’t look in great depth at the politics of all the places Claire has passed through, there is a sense that a full system has been developed (even if it is not info-dumped on us).

The adventure itself is fun, lots of action and plotting, some plans that go awry, many members of the party using their talents, their intelligence and their creativity to cobble together success as nothing quite goes to plan. It was a fun romp in which Claire and her flock got to remind us just how awesome they are on a regular basis. I won’t say the story was especially twisty or nuanced or complex – but it was fun, a nice adventure story we kind of knew how it was going to end, but it wasn’t any less fun because of that

Like the rest of the books in this series, Lady of Integrity contains a lot of challenges to sexism that is both accurate to the period and still very much in evidence today

I also really liked the direct challenge to the idea that a man wants to keep his beloved woman safe because he worries for her – throwing back the equal challenge that women worry about the safety of their beloved men as well, but everyone expects them to deal with it. If Andrew wants to keep Claire safe out of fear for her and he couldn’t bear to lose her, why shouldn’t Claire feel the same about Andrew? It’s a common excuse but it’s a weak one.

Book of the Week

It's another Monday and time for another episode of the Fangs for the Fantasy Podcast!

You will be able to listen to us on our youtube channel, or by the link in the sidebar or by the post here that will be posted. We hope to see you there

Like all  the Fangs for the Fantasy podcasts (archives here) we read a book and discuss it on the show.  For those wanting to read with us, our next books of the week are

26th January - 2nd February: A Lady Integrity by Shelly Adina

2nd February - 9th February: The Diabolical Miss Hyde by Viola Carr

9th February - 16th February: Fury’s Kiss by Karen Chance

16th February - 23rd February: Vision in Silver by Anne Bishop
23rd February - 2nd March: Dark Debt by Chloe Neil
2nd March - 9th March: Fury's Kiss by Karen Chance

Unbound (Magic Ex Libris #3) by Jim C Hines

Isaac is in a difficult place – his magic bound by Gutenberg, he has suffered a terrible loss. Without his magic he is helpless but he is determined to try and find Jeneta, especially as the Porters are far more distracted by the Followers of Bi Sheng who have exposed them – and magic – to the world.

Meridiana, an ancient threat that has been long imprisoned, is using Jeneta to her own ends – the conquest and domination of the whole world with the aid of her Ghost Army. It’s a terrible threat to face with not even a scrap of power left to him

I have always loved this world on many levels. Of course, there’s the sheer imagination of it – the concept of magic drawn from books, the many creatures of mythology that both exist in the world and have also been drawn from books to create a near infinite pantheon from which to draw. I love the concept. I also really love the geeky shout outs – this series is a great big revel in genre fiction, full of references to books that so many readers will know and love. It’s an homage, it’s a celebration and in the middle of it is Isaac who is every bit as geeky and adoring of literature as we are. I love it.

I also like how the world has developed. In part we have the Ghost Army as antagonists – but their depiction is also woven into the world in general, suggesting old magical practices have had to alter and die because of the effect of the ghosts. It’s a personal taste thing but I love it when elements of a story have clearly shaped the world and we don’t have a plot that sits clumsily on top of the world.

There’s also a major change in this book – magic is being exposed, step by step. It’s not done in a major way and the main characters are definitely more distracted by other things happening – but its growling and we get blog posts, articles and news reports covering so many different ramifications of magic being revealed. We have laws being pushed to try and limit and restrict magic. We have author’s organisations suddenly realising they are responsible for producing devastating weapons and monsters with their works of fiction – what onus rests on an author who creates a weapon that can be pulled out of that book and used? And then there’s the realisation among many people that magic can perform miracles, cure devastating illnesses – which is definitely something to celebrate but also turns into the horrible question “well, why haven’t they?” If magicians could cure cancer but instead kept their magic secret, well that’s a terrible thing to absorb. Especially when magicians may be your closest family who let your loved ones suffer rather than use their magic to help. I think this is going to be a major element of the next book.

The nature of the big bad was also an interesting twist I liked.

On top of the world we have Isaac who I really like – and not just because of him being an avatar of all things geeky. He spends a large amount of the book completely powerless and spending most of it in the presence of Gutenberg and Juan De Ponce de Leon and even Lena who are all immensely powerful people. But Isaac’s true strength shows through – he’s intelligent, very imaginative and has a brilliant but easily distracted mind and he is very very well read. He is a librarian and that is his power. Towards the end of the book, that imagination is what powers him back to magic – and throws in a nice level of epic in the final confrontations which I always appreciate.

We also have a lot of diversity in the book – and most of them are interestingly written to bring out some nuance to the characters. I loved the constant presence of Nidhi, a South Asian bisexual or lesbian woman in the book. As a non-magical human she seems to be the one with the least impact in the story – but as a therapist the other characters are constantly turning to her for both support but also advice. They rely on her a lot to hear about the condition of those around them – because all of them have been through such extreme stress and loss and are facing such a huge threat that many of them are hurting and close to breaking. Nidhi is an expert and everyone treats her as such. There’s none of the fictional trope of contempt for the therapist or disregarding the psychiatrist’s opinions – her input is welcome, needed and valued. I also like the growing dynamic between her and Isaac.

Book of the Week

It's another Monday and time for another episode of the Fangs for the Fantasy Podcast!

You will be able to listen to us on our youtube channel, or by the link in the sidebar or by the post here that will be posted. We hope to see you there

Like all  the Fangs for the Fantasy podcasts (archives here) we read a book and discuss it on the show.  For those wanting to read with us, our next books of the week are

19th January - 26th January: Unbound by Jim C Hines

26th January - 2nd February: A Lady Integrity by Shelly Adina

2nd February - 9th February: The Diabolical Miss Hyde by Viola Carr

9th February - 16th February: Fury’s Kiss by Karen Chance

16th February - 23rd February: Vision in Silver by Anne Bishop
23rd February - 2nd March: Dark Debt by Chloe Neil