Every Time I Get Out, They Keep dragging Me Back

Natasha Pulley “The Bedlam Stacks” (Bloomsbury USA, 2017)

While this is set in the same universe as “The Watchmaker of Filigree Street”, you do NOT have to have read that book to enjoy this one.  While there is a bit of overt crossover, for the most part it reads as a standalone.

Merrick Tremayne, formerly of the East Indian Company, is sent to South America to obtain some rare plants. It starts out as a simple “spy gets drug back into the game” story, but soon becomes so much weirder.

I really enjoyed this. It is a fascinating blend of spy craft, folk lore, and numinous magic. It weaves history and fantasy together in a way that feels borderless at times.

Highly recommended.

Thanks to Bloomsbury USA and NetGalley for a review copy.

 

For Those Times You Want More Young Sansa

Kim Wilkins, “Daughters of the Storm” (Del Rey, 2018)

I’ve seen people on line referring to this as a start to a YA series. Honestly, I don’t see it. Not the series part, of course, I mean the YA part.  Sure you have some young characters, but certainly no more than many fantasy series.

Five sisters have struggle to cope with the mysterious illness that has afflicted their father, the King.  It’s the sort of story where they have to keep the details a secret, and have to act in mysterious ways. Meanwhile their enemies are circling…

It’s not that there was really anything wrong with this book. But it just was not for me.  Some of the sisters were annoying, but that was intentional.

The real thing that put me off this book was a subplot that put a child in peril repeatedly.  I realize that’s more on me than on the book, but there you have it.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy.