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