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As William Marshal lays on his death bed at the age of 72, his mind wanders back to a turbulent time in his youth when he was Marshal for the young prince 'King' Harry (Henry II's eldest son who was given too much, too soon and rebelled against his father before dying of dysentery). Commanded by Harry he does something he deeply regrets. As a penance he undertakes a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to absolve not only himself and his knights, but also the (now dead) young king of all their crimes against God. Little is known about William's adventures in Outremer so Ms Chadwick has a free hand with the story.After the Mahelt story in To Defy a King, this is Ms Chadwick back on form with a three year slice of William the Marshal's life story examined in detail. It's a novel, of course, not a history, so it's a 'what-if' wrapped around actual events. I still prefer The Greatest Knight and The Scarlet Lion, but this is for the completists and well worth reading.
This year's standout books for me get a special mention. I loved Swordheart by T. Kingfisher (the pen name of Ursula Vernon. I loved all the Sebastien de Castell books, particularly the four Greatcoats volumes. On the strength of those I finished his Spellslinger series as well, which I liked, but not as much as Greatcoats. As always I grabbed all Jodi Taylor's new St Mary's stories (novels and shorts) as they came out, and there's another due on Christmas Day. These are about a bunch of disaster-prone historians travelling in time to verify historical facts. There was Fallen, a new Alex Verus book out by Benedict Jacka. These are also buy-on-sight for me. I was looking forward to the new Leigh Bardugo's first adult novel, Ninth House, but I didn't find it any more 'adult' than Six of Crows, which I adore. I think the American college campus setting didn't sit as well with me as her second-world fantasies. Kaz Brekker in Six of Crows is complex and fascinating. That book deserves to be 'adult' if anything does. Juliet McKenna followed up her excellent Green Man's Heir with Green Man's Foe, which was an engaging read. Jamie Lee Moyer's Brightfall was a gripping Robin Hood story with a difference, told from the point of view of Marion. I got suckered into 
This is a spin-off from Ms Vaughn's popular Kitty Norville werewolf books which basically recounts the origin story of vampire, Ricardo de Avila. Told in flashbacks we learn that though Rick was turned, he never lost his religion or his moral code. For over 500 years he's defied the definition of what it is to be a vampire. This story finished way too soon, just when I was getting into it and wondering where the backstory was leading. It reads like the set-up for a much bigger storyline in which Rick will have his own adventures..
I love the Mercy Thompson (coyote shapechanger, raised by werewolves) series, so when I say this is not one of the best, it's relative, and still gets four stars from me. Several books ago, Mercy rashly accepted responsibility for the safety of the citizens living in the werewolf pack's territory. Adam, the pack alpha and Mercy's mate, who also runs a security firm, is tied up with negotiations between the government and the Fae, and has also taken a contract to protect one of the senators involved. The Fae are very dangerous, but so, too, are black witches and it looks like a coven of black witches is trying to move into pack territory by attacking Elizaveta, the local grey witch Adam calls on when he needs a magical solution to something. There are very few white witches, grey is about the best Adam can hope for, but he and Mercy get a shock when they discover Elizaveta's secret. 
This is the fourth of Paul Cornell's Lychford novellas featuring Lizzie, the Anglican vicar, Judith Mawson, elderly hedge witch and wise-woman and Autumn, her apprentice wise woman and magic-shop owner. The three of them keep Lychford free of magical threats. The not-so-sleepy village lies on a confluence between magical worlds, and threats seem to come out of nowere. Judith, always a little 'odd' has Alzheimers. She has moments of clarity but also moments of confusion. Her son, Shaun, who knows about his mum's magic, is contemplating putting her in a home, but for the moment is waiting to see how things develop. When Autumn figures out that there's a magical threat and she and Lizzie track it down to a woman named Mailtalnd Picton who is offering 'wishes' with all the potential damage they can do if carried out literally.. With Judith only intermittently helpful, they think they've discovered what Picton is and neutralised her, but the threat much more than they thought, and might even change reality itself. In the end it's Judith who is the key. I love these novellas. There's a delightful interplay between the three main characters. I admit I had to brush away a tear or two at the end, but there's every indication that there will be more Lychford books. Good!
Rhea, a miller's daughter, is less than pleased when Lord Crevan, a wealthy minor noble, makes an offer for her hand in marriage. She's only fifteen, and even if she did want to get married, miller's daughters don't marry lords, especially ones they've never met. He family aren't happy either, but they don't see that they have any choice in giving up their daughter if they want to keep their mill (and probably their lives) so Rhea goes tramping off through a magic wood to the sorceror-Lord's house, which can't possibly exist because surely someone must have noticed it. On the way she acquires a hedgehog, communicative, but not in a talking sort of way. In reaching Crevan's lodge she finds that she's niot actually Crevan's first bride, she's his seventh, and at least three of the previous ones are alive and well and already living in the lodge. Maria, the cook, Sylvie a blind woman, and the silently disapproving Ingeth, are obvious, but then there's also the clock wife and the golem wife, plus Lady Elegans, the only one who's dead and buried. Crevan's home is enchanted. There's no escape. With the help of Maria and Sylvie, Rhea and the hedgehog have to figure out how to beat Crevan before Rhea's wedding. This is a creepy fairytale-type story which draws you into the mystery of what Crevan wants from Rhea, and how she can avoid her fate.
Set in Wales, this is a fairly run of the mill Regency style romance, all the better for not being set in the London season. Nikki, half Rom, inherits an Earldom when his Romani mother 'abandons' him to the not-so-tender care of his grandfather. He's the only heir and one his grandfather resents. He's demonised in the eyes of the locals when his wife and grandfather die on the same day. There are rumours but no real answers. Despite Nicholas' reputation, Clare Morgan, the village schoolteacher (daughter of the late and much beloved Methodist minister) approaches him to ask for his help in improving conditions in the local coal mine (which belongs to Nicholas' friend). Taking a fancy to Clare Nicholas strikes a bargain. He has a bad reputation, she has an impeccable one, but if she wants his help she must sacrifice her reputation by living under his roof for three months as his guest. He intends to seduce her and destroy her reputation for real, but not against her will. She is determined to keep it platonic. Yes, you can see where this is going, and you aren't wrong, but there are a few twists that keep it interesting once you get over the initial premise. We meet Nicholas' friends who are probably the other 'fallen angels' who will have their own books in the series.
I thought I was going to love this fantasy without magic. I read the first three chapters before committing to buying it from Amazon as an e-book and it was fascinating. Three protagonists, three viewpoints. Two dukedoms, only recently reconciled after a long and bitter war. Duke Orsea of Eremia, and Duke Valens of the Vadani are uneasy neighbours even though they knew each other as boys. An engineer, Vaatzes, condembed to death in the Perpetual Mezentine Republic for daring to make an unsanctioned mechanical improvement to a mechanism, escapes with more technical knowledge than the Republic is willing to lose.
Yet another short companion tale to the Grisha novels. This one is a Ravkan folk tale about a magical river (the Little Knife of the title) and a poor Grisha with power over water, who wants to marry Yeva, a rich Duke's daughter so beautiful that she captivates anyone who sees her, usually to their detriment. It doesn't work out the way you might expect. It has a moral and a twist. A slight tale, well told, but don't expect anything like Leigh Bardugo's Grisha novels.
This is a shared world book, but you don't need to have ready any of the others. Karen always has her own particular style. She has oceans of respect for soldiers and she really lets it show, but she also gets under the skin of her characters, building compete characters from military types, much as she did in her Star Wars Imperial Commando books, and her Going Grey soon-to-be-trilogy (both highly recommended). Earth is partly wasteland. Biological warfare has cause die-back, a virulent engineered disease which has turned large parts of America and Europe into a wasteland and made Britain into and island sanctuary and Asia into a superpower determined to wipe out die-back at all costs, even if it means nuking infected land. There's no more United States and no more government, just a few isolated places trying to get by. The little farming town of Kill Line is an isolated enclave, growing enough to feed itself and Ainatio, the research station on its border, supposedly looking for a cure for die back. Recently arrived is a small camp of military types and the refugees they've saved from a city, led by Chris Montello, determined not to leave anyone behind. The co-exist peacefully with Kill Line and trade services for food. In these precarious times, it' about as good as it gets. But Ainatio isn't only researching die-back. They are reaching the culmination of a long term project to colonise a distant planet. Though the project is run by humans, it's masterminded by Solomon, an ethical AI, whose mission is to save the best of humanity and take them to the stars. The main problem is that, apart form a dozen department heads, the 1500 or so staff, don't know about the secret project. The ship taking 100 servicemen and women (in cryo) to Nomad base – which was reported lost 40 years ago – is almost there and Ainatio's current director intends to take all her staff there as well. The only problem is that she hasn't told them yet. Well, that's not the only problem. Solomon has his own ideas as to who the 'best' folks to save are. And those Pacific types have noticed a nasty case of die back in the area which means nukes. This is the first in the Nomad sequence. What's happening on Earth is interspersed with what's happening on Nomad Base. It looks as though there's going to be plenty to keep us interested in future books. Some great characters in here, including Solomon himself. Highly recommended.
The final book about spellslinger Kellen and his snarky, eyeball-eating squirrel-cat, Reichis. Kellen has settled down as the Daroman Queen's tutor of cards (and her protector), but there are rumours of war. Everything comes together for Kellen who finally has to confront his family, his people and his own innate talent, which is certainly no match for his father's – so that's going to be a problem when it comes to the crunch. This draws together strands from the whole six book series. There's the return of all our favourite characters from previous books, including Ferius. I highly recommend this series and also de Castell's Greatcoats Quartet.
Classy urban fantasy set in (mostly) London with central character Alex Verus, a diviner with a very specific magical talent. He's not as powerful as a war mage, so he has to be clever. He's embroiled in politics now, a member of the Light Council, though most light mages think he's batting for the other side since he was trained by a powerful Dark Mage, Richard Drakh, who is currently waging war on the council. Trapped between the Council, who want to investigate him, and Richard, Alex will need a new strategy if he's to stay alive and protect his friends and his lover, Anne. Alex has to make some hard decisions. The trouble is, he doesn't really like either side. I grab these books as soon as they are published. Excellent stuff.
Elizabeth Barnabus, also sometimes known as Edwin in her manly disguise, is wanted for capital crimes back in England. Leaving her lover, an agent of the dreaded Patent Office, far behind, She travels across America into the wilds of the Oregon Territory in search of the brother, the real Edwin, she barely remembers. Politics and prophesy mesh as Elizabeth finds Edwin embroiled in court intreague with a king who believes he's destined to conquer the world – and he has the weapons to do it. The fate of the Gas Lit empire, and Elizabeth and Edwin, could hand on one daring conjuring trick. This looks like the end of the second Elizabeth Barnabus trilogy. I recommend you start at the beginning with the Bullet Catcher's Daughter. Well worth reading.
This is Ms Bardugo's first adult novel – though to be honest I don't know that it reads any older than her Grisha novels, because they are very complex (and dark, especially the ones with Kaz Brekker). There's a lot of violence, trauma, and sex (not all of it consensual), but that's not necessarily what marks a book as adult for me. Set in New Haven, this is Yale University with magic. There are eight 'Houses of the Veil' (secret societies), each performing rituals with a different kind of magic. The ninth house, Lethe, is the one which oversees the other eight to prevent misuse of power. Alex, after a dropout start and surviving a horrific multiple-murder, is given a 'free-ride' at Yale, because she has a special talent. She can see ghosts. She's recruited to Lethe, and is still learning when her mentor, Darlington, goes missing, and there's an unconnected murder which seems to be clear-cut, but is it? Are the magical houses involved? Alex is determined to find out. I love Leigh Bardugo's Grisha novels, in particular her Six of Crows duo. I wasn't as taken with this. I think part of it is the American University system always seems a bit weird to a Brit (I felt the same way about Pamela Dean's Tam Lin). The setting didn't resonate with me, and though I found Alex interesting I wasn't as invested in her at the beginning as I felt I should have been. Your mileage may vary as I've seen nothing but great reviews so far. I admit she grew on me as I progressed through the book. The magical systems are well thought out and Ms Bardugo's characters are deeply layered. There's a satisfying double twist at the end, and it finished with an opening to the next book in the series.
Another short companion folk take to Leigh Bardugo's Grisha books. In Ravka,must because you escape one trap doesn't mean to say that the next one won't get you. I love Ms Bardugo's Grisha books, but don't expect any of the characters from those books to appear here, these are early background tales.
This is a short companion folk tale to Leigh Bardugo's Grisha novels with a twist ending. There was a time when the woods near Duva ate girls...or so the story goes…
A Robin Hood story with a difference, set after all the usual shenanigans with the Sheriff of Nottingham. This is narrated by Marian, a witch, living in the forest with her (and Robin's) two children, while Robin has retreated to Tuck's monastery and for the last 12 years thrown himself wholeheartedly into the arms of god. When someone starts killing Merry Men. Tuck persuades a grieving Marian to use her magic to discover the culprit, so Marian finds herself in the company of a clever fox, an ex-soldier, a tricky Fae lord, and a resentful Robin, angry at being drawn back into the world. Marian, a competent hedge-witch, holds the team together. This is a magical medieval murder mystery. Highly recommended.
The Hundred Isles have built their ships from the bones of ancient dragons to fight an endless war with their neighbours, but the dragons are gone now, and the bones are no longer plentiful. Now a Keyshan (dragon) has been spotted. Whichever nation captures it and kills it for its bones will gain supremacy. 
I generally like Heyer, but I confess I found this boring. The heroine of the piece, Miss Wychwood (Annis) is on her way to her home in Bath when she comes across a young couple whose gig has broken a wheel. On a whim Annis takes the young lady (Lucilla) into her carriage and discovers that she's running away because her parents are trying to pressure her into marrying a childhood friend. (To complicate matters the man she doesn't want to marry (Ninian) is the one who's helping her run away because he doesn't want to marry her either.) It gets complicated even more in a typically Heyer kind of way when Annis, a twenty nine year old spinster who considers herself on the shelf, meets Lucilla's grumpy guardian. You can probably guess the ending. But, oh, it seemed interminably slow. Not one of my favourite Heyers.
Siryn is a creature of the sea, a unique being who can dive deeper than any human, but who can shed her mechanical tail and walk on land. Is she an adapted human or is she something totally unique? She's happy in her own environment until she rescues a man 'broad in shoulder and strong in leg.' It's love at first sight, and she takes to the land, but the seas are rising and something must be done – one way or another. This is a 'little mermaid' tale crossed with the selkie, or would be if the mermaid and selkie were proactive, as ruthless as the terminator, and bloody angry! This is a quick read, a novella, a fairy tale for a modern age.
A Tam-Lin story, though not entirely. When Jan's boyfriend Tyler disappears, she's upset (thinking it's his way of ending their relationship) and then she's angry and finally she decides to confront him, only to discover that he's well and truly missing. AJ and Martin spin her a tale about Tyler having been 'taken' which Jan finds hard to believe until the bus she's on is attacked by goblins. Things spiral into weirdness from there. AJ and Martin aren't exactly human, they're supernaturals, but the fae (who have taken Tyler) are preternaturals, looking for a way to infiltrate our the world, and if they find it, they won't be kind. Though based on Tam Lin this is a modern day story with computers and tech. It's nicely written, but I confess I'm not rushing to get the sequel. So many books, so little time. However this is complete in itself. No cliffhanger ending.
A St Mary's short story which tells the tale of when Max's husband meets Max's father. Andit's payback time. Leon knows Max's upbringing wasn't kind but Max has been free of her father for many years now—until he suddenly gets the idea that Max isn't a fit person to look after a baby, so he's about to use all his considerable influence to take Matthew into his care. The only problem is that due to Max's arch enemy Ronan, Matthew was 'lost' in the timeline and by the time Max got him back he was ten years older than his birth certificate says he should be. Oops! Can't risk Grandad finding out about that. Usually proactive on her own behalf, this time Max has to sit back and let Leon sort it out, with the help of Markham and a computer whizz. What could possibly go wrong? Jodi Taylor is a buy on sight author for me. Obviously I like to get my teeth into a full length novel, but the short stories are a great stopgap between longer offerings.
This is The First Law trilogy TNG. Our favourite characters from the First law have offspring who are the prime movers in this, the first in a new trilogy. King Jezal's son, Orso, heir to the throne of the Union, is a notorious wastrel, mainly because he's never been allowed responsibility. He's trying to prove himself, with limited success. Arch Lector Glokta, the most feared man in the Union, has a daughter. Savine, a socialite, inventor and celebrated beauty – and also completely ruthless in the pursuit of wealth. The Union is racing headlong into an industrial revolution, with predictable effects for the common people, hence the Breakers and the Burners pitted against the industrialists. And in the north Scale Ironhand and Black Calder are moving to reclaim The Protectorate, now part of the Union and ruled by the Dogman. Stour Nightfall, Black Calder's son and Scale Ironhand's heir rides at the head of the northern armies, while Rikke, the Dogman's fit-prone daughter has the long-eye. Leo dan Brock, son of deceased war hero and Fintree dan Brock, a canny general in her own right, is a prodigious but sometimes reckless warrior. If this all sounds complex, it is. It's one of Abercrombie's multi-character, multi-viewpoint sprawling stories. If you enjoyed First Law, which I did, you'll love this
Oliver is a very minor mage, in more ways than one. He barely has any magic, and he's a twelve year old child, but he's all the village has got, so when there's a drought he and his familiar, an armadillo, are sent off by a mob (formerly his friends and neighbours) to the Rainblade Mountains to bring back rain. Oliver muses on the transformation of a crowd into a mob, but his mother isn't at home to say no, so off he trudges. He would have gone anyway, but he rather resents being sent. A twelve year old and an armadillo encounter bandits and monster and even though he can only manage three spells (and one of them is to cure his allergy to armadillo dander) he manages to think his way out of some dangerous corners. T Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon) is one of my writer discoveries this year. She's well worth reading. I'm puzzled as to why this has been published under Ms Vernon's T. Kingfisher pseudonym which I understood was the name she kept for her adult books. She writes as Ursula Vernon for children. Granted not all books with a child protagonist are intended to be read by children, but this one is perfectly suitable for the older end of Middle Grade.
These are the characters from HTV/Goldcrest's Robin of Sherwood, created by Richard Carpenter. This story slots into the later seasons with the Jason Connery Robin, an ties in with one of the Spiteful Puppet audio adventures. Robin is given a warning by Herne the Hunter, the magical green-man type figure, sometimes a god and sometimes a man. A new enemy is about to make himself known, and Robin must face him, but only after he's lost something he holds dear. Herne's cryptic message, doesn't help much, but sure enough a being comes to the forest, able to turn men's minds to his own purpose. He's been invited by the Sheriff of Nottingham to eliminate Robin and his men, but it soon appears that the Sheriff can't control his own man. This is definitely a nostalgia read. It's just like watching an episode of Robin of Sherwood, which, for those of us of a certain age, is fondly remembered as one of the best iterations of the Robin Hood legend.
The good luck girls are anything but lucky. Sold into prostitution as children they grow up in a brothel, first servants (daybreak girls) and then when they cross their fateful sixteenth birthday they become sundown girls. It's Clementine's 'lucky night', her virginity sold to the highest bidder. Aster, her sister has already undergone the transformation from skivvy to prostitute and she fears for Clem. So when it all goes wrong and Clem defends herself, killing her customer, the girls decide to escape, and end up taking some of the other girls with them. Chased by raveners and aided by one lone sympathetic tracker, who, as it turns out, is looking for his sister, sold to another lucky house by their parents. There's plenty of peril as the girls make their way across hostile country, trying any way they can to stay ahead of their pursuers.
A heist novella with a clever premise. In a city heavy with magic, Amarelle Parathis and her crew of supposedly retired thieves get into financial hot water and end up with a seemingly impossible task. They have a year and a day to perform the ultimate heist. They have to steal… a street. An enjoyable short read.
Any and all Bujold books are buy on sight, but I almost missed this one as it seemed to come out without much fanfare, which is a pity because it's an excellent addition to the list of Penric novellas, set in Bujold's world of the Five Gods, though before Curse of Chalion (still my favourite book!). Following the events in The Prisoner of Limnos, Penric and his resident demon, Desdemona, are now married to Nickys, but in this outing are on their own. They've been sent on some mission (it's not important) but they never get there because the ship they are on is captured by pirates. Pen is thrown into the pirate ship's hold where he meets two more captives, young sisters, Lencia and Seuka Corva, who are trying to find their father. Being the thoroughly honourable chap that he is, he immediately takes responsibility for them and we follow their trials and tribulations as pirate hostages and Pen's ill-fated attempts to escape the pirate island. This is one time when being a temple divine with a demon at his beck and call isn't going to help him because sailors are superstitious. He needs a ship to escape, but they would rather throw him overboard than take him to safety. Unfortunately his plan to pose as a mild-mannered scribe quickly falls apart when he has to use Desdemona's talents to survive and protect the children.
This is an Arthurian story which hardly mentions Arthur himself, but concentrates on the four-and-a-half sons of King Lot of Orkney and his queen, Morgause. The sons are Gawain (Gavin), Agravain (Agrin), Gaheris (Heris), Gareth (Gari), and their half-brother Medraut. The teller and lynchpin of the tale is Gaheris, who believes himself to be the least of his father's sons. So he finds it strange (though maybe a little flattering) when the young knight-in-training, Lamorak, seems to hero worship him. He thinks things might cool off when Lamorak is knighted and goes off for a year to be a knight errant, but trouble is on its way when Lamorak catches the eye of Morgause. Gaheris knows what his mother is like and what his hot tempered brothers will do if they find out what's going on, and desperately tries to avert tragedy. What we have here is the story within the story. The Arthurian legend tells it one way, but we see a different story leading to the same ending. Kari Sperring's prose is elegant, her storytelling impeccable, Gaheris is a sympathetic character. I would have been happy to spend more time with him.
This is a follow up to Ms McKenna's fabulous 'The Green Man's Heir' which came out last year. Daniel Mackmain works with wood, which isn't surprising since his mother is a dryad. His half dryad blood lets him see into a world that most people don't know is there, a world of British folklore, myth and legend. He's lived the life of a loner for years, moving on from one building site to another, but in the first book he found somewhere he could call home, for a while at least, and a friend who knows about his world. But once again he's on his own as he's asked to take a temporary contract overseeing a refurbishment project, an old hall with an occult problem. Separated from his friends and family by a lousy phone reception and a hundred miles, Dan has to figure it out on his own and learn to rely on locals who don't seem particularly friendly at first.
Set in a grim future where cities in the American Southwest--California, Arizona and Nevada--fight for a share of dwindling water supplies from the Colorado River. Angel Velasquez is a Las Vegas 'water knife' who cuts the water supplies to other cities on behalf of his ruthless boss, Catherine Case, He's a thug, assassin, spy, and fixer who operates in a world where the rich live in luxurious, verdant arcologies while the poor eat dust, recycle their pee, and buy precious water by the jug. Girls barely out of puberty sell their bodies for a meal and a chance to take a shower under real running water. When he's sent to drought-ravaged Phoenix Angel comes across Lucy Monroe, a journalist who may not be quite as hard as she thinks she is, and Maria Villarosa, a refugee from the (now) unviable Texas. There are twists and betrayals, injuries and deaths. No one escapes without hurting, but Angel knows that someone will have to bleed if anyone hopes to drink. This is essentially a near-future climate change thriller. There are no real good guys, but there are bad guys and worse guys. Grimdark cli-fi, this is a horribly realistic and believable future. Though no one is entirely good, the three main characters have some redeeming features, but there's no easy solution.
I've had this lined up on my kindle for a couple of years and not managed to read it, which is simply too bad. I've been missing out because it's brilliant. Anyone who's ever seen Star Trek (or Galaxy Quest) will be familiar with the concept of the crewman who's on an away mission for the express purpose of being killed off, but Scalzi takes that concept and turns it on its head. Written from the point of view of the redshirts assigned to the Universal Union flagship, Intrepid we start with Ensign Andrew Dahl, newly assigned to the Xenobiology laboratory. He's delighted until he works out why his fellow crewmembers avoid going on away missions at all costs. A) Every away mission involves some kind of confrontation with aliens in which at least one low-ranking crewmember is killed. B) The ship's captain, the chief science officer and the handsome Lieutenant Kerensky always survive. C) Kerensky always gets hurt, sometimes with the kind of injuries that should kill him, but the following week he's recovered enough to go on the next away mission. Dahl and his fellow redshirts (with a bit of help) finally figure out that they're suffering from narrativium and work out a high risk way to fix it, but it involves kidnapping Lieutenant Kerensky and time travelling. And just when you think the story is over there are three delicious vignettes from the viewpoint of… well… you'll see. If you haven't read this already READ IT NOW! This really deserved its Hugo win!
First off, I'm reading this despite the cover. I hate covers with bare chested, kilted Scotsmen with a six pack and such overdeveloped muscles that they look like they have man-boobs. And don't get me started about the kilt he's wearing in the 1400s, several hundred years before it was developed. (In fairness to the author she never mentions kilts.)
Regency Romance. Jean Saunders takes it upon herself to evaluate Benjamin Romilly's fitness to look after his son because she's heard that he's still mired in depression after his wife's death some five years ago. (She's a distant cousin of his late wife.) She's not entirely wrong. The boy is growing up wild, and, if not entirely neglected, barely knows his father. Jean shakes up the situation satisfactorily with predictable results
Ignoring the furore over accusations and counter accusations about this author (which I knew nothing about until I spotted questions on Goodreads), this is a review of… y'know… the actual book.
A Georgian (1750) whodunit featuring Lizzie Hardwicke, once an educated lady, now earning he living on her back as one on Mrs Farley's girls (not the worst establishment of its kind). When one of her wealthy customers is brutally murdered, Lizzie comes under suspicion, so to prove her innocence to Constable William Davenport she begins a little amateur sleuthing. As the secrets and corpses mount up, Lizzie becomes deeply embroiled in the case, and works ever more closely with Davenport.
Madis is a thief. He brother is also a thief, but considers himself, as a gang leader, to be above Madis. He offers her a challenge: steal a magical belt from around the waist of a bride, on her wedding night, in an island fortress. If she succeeds she gets to keep 50% of the profit, and qualifies to join his (superior) gang. She accepts and recruits a team, each with their own special skills. Of course the job doesn't go as planned. Madis copes with a lack of information, a development she didn't expect, and a twist, which she did expect.
Science versus magic, and political shenanigans in a Gothic/Victorianesque setting. Roger Weathersby, a man of science, is the son of a palace servant who grew up with Princess Sibylla, magical granddaughter of the current queen. (The royals all have magic of one sort or another.) He wants to be a doctor, but has never been able to afford the tuition fees, so he learns what he can, when he can, and in the meantime ekes out a poor living as a bodysnatcher in the city of Caligo, digging up corpses to sell to medical schools, and also doing the occasional dissection. There's a murderer (a strangler) on the loose in the city and when Roger digs up a disturbing corpse, he realises that not all is as it seems with the victims. Strangulation is not the primary cause of death. Determined to find the killer, he's soon in over his head. 
This is set in a Portland (Oregon) beset by magic. The city is recovering from the witch war, but there's still a lot of suspicion and witchkin are not counted as people, even when they turn up murdered. Kayla was a cop and a damned good one, until Magicfall happened and she turned into something else entirely. Ray was her cop partner and he's spent the last four years unable to come to terms with the fact that she walked out on her job, and him. He doesn't know that she's a shapechanger, but then he's never told her what happened to him at Magicfall either. So they're both hiding secrets, and secret feelings. But this isn't one of those books where all problems could be solved if two people simply sat down and levelled with each other. When Kayla finds three witchkin bodies, she figures that the rutial murder might have consequences for the humans in the city, too, and so, after four silent years, she calls Ray. There's something magical and deeply dangerous going on, if only Ray and Kayla can join the dots between ritual murder of witchkind ands the kidnapping of two woimen from an extremely powerful and wealthy family. 
If you can get over the premise that the well brought up heroine (in Regency England) devotes her secret life to ensuring that merchants give full measure (before standardised weights and measures were brought in by law), then this is a fun light read. Cole (Duke of Colehaven) makes a bet that he can get a friend's wallflower sister married off before the end of the season, however Diana Middleton has no intention of marrying and losing her freedom to run around London in disguise, threatening to 'shop' shopkeepers who don't deal fairly with their customers. While she may not like the idea of getting shackled in marriage, she is open to the idea of a little seduction, especially since the Duke of Colehaven seems to be intent on turning up and spoiling her wallflower act. Cole begins to despair of ever winning his bet since he's suddenly realised he doesn't want to see Miss Middleton married off to anyone else but him. It's a short and sweet novel with the expected ending, but still worth reading.
Oh my goodness, I enjoyed this. It was a random read from Netgalley, a debut from Breanna Teintze, published by Quercus. I didn't intend to read it until closer to the publication date (8th August) but I glanced at it out of curiosity and got sucked right in.
I've never read any Ben Bova books before. I know, I know, where have I been all my life? Obviously I know his name and reputation well, so I settled back to enjoy this. Unfortunately I'm really sorry to say that I didn't. 
I bought this precisely because I read a bad review of it and I figured it couldn't that bad as it's about a girl and a horse. What's not to like? I was right. It's not a bad book, but maybe the reviewer was expecting something a little more adult. This is a book for kids in the younger end of the 8 – 12 age group (depending on their reading age and level of maturity). It's a time-travel story in which the young heroine befriends a horse and together they go back in time and help America in the War of Independence. It's simple and simplistic, not necessarily a bad thing in a book for this age group. It delivers a dollop of easily digestible history, and may be a little didactic at times. It's set up for more stories to follow, but it was published posthumously as sadly the author died in 2013.
The fifth Spellslinger book featuring Kellen and his business partner, squirrel-cat Reichis, who are in Darome, and still separated from Kellen's Argosi mentor. Kellen has inadvertently committed treason by smearing (his) blood on the Daroman flag and he's about to be executed when the eleven year old Queen Genevra demands he become her tutor of cards. This is his get-out-of-jail-free card, but Kellen is immediately embroiled in court machinations The political twists are… twisty. His sister Shalla turns up as an ambassador from Jan'Tep and as usual it's difficult to fathom out whether she's on Kellen's side or not. In this instance she's bringing cryptic instructions from their father who is now mage-leader of the Jan'Tep and is the one who has put a price on Kellen's head. Kellen's magic is weaker than any other mage likely to be trying to kill him, so he has to be sneaky, but sneaky may not be enough to get him out of this one. He's trying to come to terms with his shadowblack infection, despite the fact that he believes it could lead to him being taken over by a demon.
The title is a bit misleading. This isn't about a lady or a highwayman, but about a pair of Victorian writers. Fletcher Walker is reasonably affluent, but he's dragged himself up from the gutter by his bootstraps. His mission now (along with friends in the Dread Penny Society) is to support a 'ragged' school for the poorest children, and also to rescue some of the badly treated ones and send them to that school. He finances this from the proceeds of writing 'penny dreadfuls' but just lately a new author, a Mr King, has become popular enough to threaten Fletcher's sales. What he doesn't know is that respectable Elizabeth Black, headmistress of Thurloe School and renowned author of silver fork novels, also writes pulp fiction under the name of Mr. King. Interspersed with the main story are the penny dreadfuls the two authors are writing. The Lady and the Highwayman is one of those novels.
Hmmm, perhaps I wasn't in the mood for this book. I'd just finished an engaging Sebasten de Castell, so thought I'd try something completely different. This is a Georgian novel set on the high seas and the Barbary Coast, so yes, pirates, a menagerie, two beautiful English women in danger of being sold into sex slavery via a harem. 
Kellen is a spellslinger, an outlaw estranged from his family, and he's also infected with shadowblack, a magical disease which imprints tattoo-like shadow designs on the body (in Kellen's case, around one eye) and will eventually lead to being taken over by a rampaging demon. No wonder Kellen's mage-loving people are trying to kill him. In the first three books of the series, Kellen has been learning from Ferius, an Argosi cardsharp and gambler, but now he's left her (and his one-time girlfriend Nephenia) behind because he thinks he's putting them in danger. He's travelling with only Reichis, a ferocious kleptomaniac squirrel-cat, for company. Kellen and Reichis are searching for the semi-mythical Ebony Abbey where they hope to find a cure for shadow black. Early in the book, Kellen and Reichis are separated, which leaves Kellen on his own for the first time in his life. When he finds the Abbey it's not what he's expecting, and neither are the people there. Unfortunately, as Kellen discovers more about shadowblack, he's swamped with more questions than answers, and all the while his own father and a posse of mages are getting closer with the intent of destroying the Abbey and all it stands for. Kellen is caught between a rock and a hard place. All he really wants to do is rescue Reichis, but that might not be possible. Has Kellen learned enough of the Argosi ways to walk the path? If so it just might be his salvation. This is another gripping instalment in Kellen's story. Sebasien de Castell's writing is gripping an imaginative. Highly recommended. I'm looking forward to the next book, Queenslayer, due in the UK on 16th May 2019.
