Bokerah Brumley

Only 83 pages so more a novella than a novel and as the title says : a Demo.

We follow Zee Traine a mother of two and avid gamer. She is sucked into a game together with her 13 year old daughter and then has to rescue the daughter and some space dragons.

It is really a demo. when she is sucked into the game nearly half the book is gone already. The descriptions of life with young kids is nice. The sarcastic approach of the parents is fun and totally realistic.

In the game everything is very streamlined. The MC really has not much to do beside running and her choices are minimal. Most brought on a silver tablet by the supporting Harrison Ford character.
Well - what to expect of a game demo. Nevertheless there have to be a lot of improvement in the next book. This one is too obvious and has not enough tension to thrill the reader.
Give her more spine in the game world, dimish the role of the helping character and let her solve some stuff in unusual ways and then i think it could be a lot of fun to read.

I like sarcastic characters. A young mother is something unique and the chemistry between mother and daughter could make a great mood for the fantasy setting.
Hope the author sees where she can improve and works on it.… (mehr)

This is about DISGRACED FAE by Margo Ryerkerk

A fun revisit to some characters from the CRUEL ELITES series. In this book we find Peony working her job with plants. The ex queen B of the academy, the one who made Onyx/Thorsten's lives miserable is about to learn a bit about karma. After something happens at work she winds up in a reprogramming center under the academy. If she thought the academy was tough, that was mere child's play. Will her eyes finally be opened? Can she finds the strength within? All kinds of reveals and action happen in this gem!… (mehr)

After Cindi moves to small-town Paris, Texas to help out at her aging grandmother's dress shop, a stunning pair of crystal shoes in the clothier shop next door grabs Cindi's interest—and won't let go. Principe, who serves his cruel uncle in the next-door shop, is determined to keep Cindi away from the deadly shoes in Cindi/Ella: When Shoes Speak by author Bokerah Brumley.

Yeah, it was the (Victorian steampunk-inspired?) book cover that drew me to this contemporary retelling of a classic fairy tale. The look is striking, appearing outside of my normal fantasy fiction preferences, but as I've enjoyed this author before, I went for it.

The tale was slow-going for me for a while, but given its short novella length, I stuck with it. Good thing I did, because I came to rather like Ainsworth, the talking mouse, and I was drawn in more as the story darkened, becoming more twisted, but not in a way that was too dark for me.

Some typos had me rereading sentences to catch their meaning, but it wasn't a big or frequent deal. And the story's climax? Fantastic!

No, this retelling isn't a steampunk story, but I'm glad the cover got my attention anyway.… (mehr)