Avalon Tower - Arthurian retelling with modern spikes

 If Arthurian legends, the enmeshing of modern technology and magic appeals to your innate sense of being, if miscommunications and crossed wires sizzle your inner romantic, if falling through a rabbit hole to a new world and rules bask your sense of wonder, if trials and tests and exposure to new powers capitulate your visceral sense of magic, if political gambits, cycling through legends and the proverbial lost childhood trope adds angst to your sense of a well developed character arc, then do pick up this series.

The author group does a phenomenal job of melding in the nautical and geographical aspects of the magical war into tangible physical proponents. Where I thought the plot fell flat was when we actually got to Avalon tower, I felt lost from the mappable quality that permeated ventures into the real world - it was underwhelming, despite the newfound friends and their quirky powers, the bully and the myriad challenges that ensued, the trials, the missions. What may have helped was a background into why the demi fae and the fae were actually estranged, and perhaps the next novel will lean further into that rift. To the extent that my favorite part of the book was the bonus chapter with Mordred - wish more of that literary magic seeped through the rest of the tale.

This was an enjoyable tale, best befitted with the trappings of high tea and a spray of flowers, for luck, and of course, lavender cake!

Thank you to Scarlett Press and Netgalley for furnishing the ARC!

#Septemberreads #Arthurianlegend #AvalonTower #Mythicalmagewar

Tempest - Slow, seductive swim into the Lyrian Sea

 Does a ingénue heroine who comes into her power, masterfully, regally and ruthlessly, appeal to your sense of self? Would tensions brimming between a tempestuous pirate captain, whose moods and freedom are vast and engrossing and a straightlaced, captain of navy with scruples and loyalty tested by their attraction to said femme fatale, beguile your senses? Would a teeming adventure of Kingdom versus rebels held on the high seas, where a tyrannical kingdom wishes to colonize all the islands and behead the criminalist piracy sing to your sense of wonder? Could a tale walking a tightrope between the protagonists in a past versus present flow mellifluously to the aforementioned spin of fatalism pervading the Meridian empire?

If the answers to all the above is yes, welcome to the Lyrian Sea duology by the impeccable Victoria Aveyard! 

Tempest was a study of tensions - from the get go - the palpable string was drawn tight around the Widow Rose and her interactions with all and sundry twist into a neat web - with want waging war with loyalty and lust wreaking havoc against strategy. I loved Cat - her moods and ownership and guilt over her past and her unapologetic row to safer havens, belying the destruction it would warrant.

This one is a keeper! An adult romantasy where the the slow burn simmers, sizzles and caresses you like the salt water and sand at your feet - never quite coming together but teasing all the same in the powerful undercurrents!

My humble thank yous to Avon and Harper Voyager and Netgalley for providing me with the arc! This one is best enjoyed with hearty rum or better yet tequila (taquil) in a not quite clean glass!

#sepetmberreads #tempest #piratesxmagic #slowburntensions

The Girl with Seven Lives

Vikas Swarup brings back the storytelling, mystique and masquerade that defined Slumdog Millionaire. 

A swift passage, navigating through the dregs of society, the grey areas that you never want to acknowledge and the banality of scams in the Indian subculture are all woven through this tale in a crossover between the 1001 nights with a moral compass a la Jeffrey Archer's earlier tomes.

Devi is our spirited FMC, who matter-of-factly meanders through India, life and ruminates on the potholes she encountered at various points to a kidnapper who holds her for ransom in a bidding war amongst those thirsting for revenge - a bidding war based on the worst mistakes of your life! Truly a fascinating premise which has translated into a thrill a minute ride, across mores, cultures and the indignities suffered on the softer gender in each avatar that Devi keeps reinventing herself, as she seamlessly shifts and sheds names, charting a course through the length of India, enabled by her quick mastery of language and study of customs, she reads like a modern catch me if you can sans a dedicated policy inspector on her trail.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Indian twang Rea Malhotra Mukhtyar added to the narrative, her matter of fact recounting of Devi's escapades really was juxtaposed against how numbing life can be when you lose ground in life. My namastes to RBmedia and Netgalley for providing me with the ALC.

#Thegirlwithsevenlives #grittyanecdotalread #archerreminiscenttales

Tracking Snow - A guttural twist with a slasher Snow

Holy freaking fairytale retelling!!!

Forget the apple, forget the white skinned princess, Holly Roberds gives this beloved fairytale a brutal proverbial twist, with Snow, as the cheery do-gooder, fighting the streets of Boston to keep all magical beings safe! With her quick learning skills and her appletini serves, Snow slays and sashays her way into our heart, throwing swift daggers and deadly smiles. All she craves is belonging - enamored by magic and being the only human in the wild and wonderful Lost Girls collection - she is sooo darned adorable!

The Seven, I mean, what in the world!!! a split personality, magical infused mutant of a hero - who suffers from delusions of being infected with magic - bringing us full circle to where Red stood at the opposite end...The multiple change overs and personalities was like a why choose? So much bluster, insecurity and them claws came out to slash and hurt and then the remorseful puppy love that ensues - one of the BEST from the Lost Girls IMHO

And oh my, the teasing with Rap and Ryder - hold you horses folks - this could get plenty spicy!

I polished this off in a 3 hour binge fest and am going back in for sloppy seconds! read at your own peril! My heartfelt thank yous to Holly for providing me with the ARC to one of my absolute favorite series!!! this was such a fantastic, seductive and sensational retelling!!!

Styx - the River : Solitude, solace and synonymous with oaths

 A nymph who dared, the firstborn of the titans, she who was singular - this book follows the story of Styx, in Nikta Gill's prequel series of Greek retellings. Having read Hekate, I was able to appreciate the tale and the links to the characters from Hekate's perspective - Styx and Pallas and the relationship with her mother, Asteria.

Styx, is the firstborn of Oceanus, and helps her father build oceans and seas and waterways around the world, which are handed off to her brothers in the male dominated household. Her craving for solace and silence leads her to Asteria's cave, where they both discover their abilities. What follows is an aggrieved tale of a nymph and a goddess of fallen stars, who strive to build something of themselves, despite the rigid impositions of Gods and their tempestuous moods.

Bonded through friendship, nurtured through marriage, and tested through motherhood, these brave women, overcome and survive, in a society that leave them marginally handicapped and not acknowledging their true power. The depiction of modern Greek Gods was very different in this tale and really brought to fore the doom that change brings with each age.

She walks alone, the eldest, lonely until,

she found a fallen star, a cozy haven built,

through marriage she found a creator, a meeting of minds

through her choices, her legacy, she defined

My humble thank yous to Little Brown Books for young readers and Netgalley for providing the arc!

#refreshinggreekretelling #Styx #Netgalley #Septemberreads

A Snake among Swans - Courtly power ballad to the new Queen

 Bold, brutal and brilliant!

This book by Hannah Kaner, truly brought it - if you loved the maniacal power struggle from She who became the Sun, the political maneuvering that defined Game of Thrones,, then this one is an absolute MUST READ! A reverse swan fairytelling tale, where the swans rule the world, in sheer display of authority.

Tilde, the last heir of the Kithwood dynasty, is sold to their captors, to be bride to their aging KIng Liran. With six sons and a daughter besides, Liran rules his court with an iron fist and has his sons competing for power. Elise, his sole-surviving daughter, has learnt her lesson and is forced to be meek and submissive. Tilde enters the treacherous court, armed with her intellect, and her unwavering pursuit in bringing those who wrought her siblings death to account - as long or as painful an ordeal that comes to be. For Tilde has a secret, but then, so does the preen of swans that abound the court...

From grand machinations to the little powerplays to influencing the 'perception' of power by the common folk. Hannah plays piper to the tale, dragging us along skipping, wincing or dancing to her tune, as the song turns melancholy, the pursuit of revenge is bloody and you often lose yourself in its headwinds. Tilde forms an entendre with Elise, who also comes to her own, but the tale galivants across the kingdom, pitting princes, dukes, and princesses to bring their worst in this massive powerfest!

I scrummaged through the tale in 2 days and my effusive thank yous to Netgalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for allowing me the opportunity to participate in the Hunt!

She came, a viper to a swan's nest,

In green and brown, she came blessed,

Siegebreaker, the one to whom rebels knelt,

The Wing, to her, the kith woods bent,

Blessed be she of raven hair, the black swan queen, just and fair!

#AvonandHarperVoyager #Septemberreads #Asnakeamongswans #Powerplays #Courtlyintrigues

The Pumpkin Bride - Novel Shrek retelling

 If you enjoy the sunshine of fairytales and the reflection of what it is to truly live in one, with magic and curses and creatures, locked in an autumnal wonderland, then you will absolutely cherish this rendering by Fiona Buttercup!

Will Watt and Moira Quirk alternate their reading of chapters, in this honest to goodness, delightful retelling of a princess breaking a curse with true love. First off, the story is soo STINKIN CUTE! Absolutely loved the intrepid and intelligent princess Marigold and her grief over Bram. And Jask, as her cursed true love, forced to hide himself from her - such agonizing and torturous attraction - LOVED IT! Add in the mysterious neighours, the cider, the pumpkin patch and building a community - you have a beautiful, whimsical tale to cocoon yourself in for the fall season!

Usually narrators alternate characters, but in this one they read alternate chapters, if I was more partial to Will Watt's Jask and Moira's Mare - that may just be my short-hearing-ness. they pulled the magic into the air with this fairytale retelling of sorts.

The wide eyed princess, lost her knight,

Who found himself cursed, to cruel Crispin's delight,

Stuck on a farm, in the aspect of an ogre,

He mulled his lost love, over and over,

Until she, one day, escaping a sinister plot,

Turned up at his door, he could believe it not,

They muddled together, each trying to hide,

Their true love beckoning them to each other's side...

My jack-o-lantern thankyous to Harlequin Audio and Netgalley for proving me with an ALC! I listened to it in a day! it was soooo GOOOD!

#Shrekthrowback #Pumpkinbride #Fairytalerespin #Septemberreads