The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf

The Angel of the Crows Katherine Addison, 2020 Premise: You've probably heard this story. An injured doctor returns from the war and meets an eccentric detective in need of a roommate. You've never heard it like this.  I honestly forgot this was a Holmes pastiche in the time between putting it on my to read list and starting to read it. So it was rather delightful to realize that I was reading a most unconventional reinterpretation of one of my favorite things, by one of my favorite authors.  Dr. J. H. Doyle (Watson) is our narrator, as usual. The plot is strung together from variations on multiple Holmes tales, adding in a throughline about Jack the Ripper and some other original elements. For me, the repetition of familiar scenarios felt cozy, not like I was cheated at all, plus the old stories are all new again as we hear from characters who had little or no time to tell their stories in the original or find unexpected solutions to the mysteries. Plus, it's set in a del...

Cold Magic (Spiritwalker, Book 1) Kate Elliott, 2010 Premise: Catherine Barahal was brought up by her aunt and uncle after her parents’ death. She plans to go to school. She plans to help in the family business. She would never plan to get swept up in the politics of nations, revolution and magic, but once events are set in motion, she’ll do whatever she must to survive and discover the truth of her past. After I loved Jaran , I decided to pick up one of the author's more recent books. Despite being different in almost every other way, the books share a cross genre appeal and a compelling heroine. Cold magic is... fantasy steam punk adventure alternate history with a thread of romance. The magic is fascinating. The characters are complicated and varied. I was completely thrown by a sharp left turn in the plot, but was eager to discover where it was headed. I loved how historical figures were different, but recognizable. The story swings from the concerns of young girls...

A Clockwork Christmas Carina Press, 2011 Contributors: Stacy Gail, P.G. Forte, Jenny Schwartz, J.K. Coi New Release! Copy for review provided by NetGalley. Premise: A collection of 4 novellas each set at the holidays, each set in a steampunk world. I didn't actually realize when I requested this that they were all also romance, but maybe I should have assumed. Okay, I know steampunk is big right now, but maybe it should stay in visual mediums. I hated the first story: Crime Wave in a Corset , by Stacy Gail. I mean, I hated it a lot. I hated the characters, I hated the plot, I hated the fact that the steampunk bits were completely irrelevant. Something about the uber-melodramatic romance completely rubbed me the wrong way. With a different set-up, a different couple, maybe I could get into this, but I didn't buy this pair. The narration says the woman is brilliant, but we never get to see her be brilliant. The guy is presented as an absolute nightmare at first, and ...

Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris, 2011 New Release! E-Galley provided by the publisher though NetGalley I had forgotten the premise of this book between the time I requested the galley and the time I read it. This did not improve the experience, as I was not mentally prepared for steampunk. Bear that in mind. Premise: Archivist Wellington Books and Agent Eliza Braun are thrown together by their jobs at the Ministry, but must learn to work together and trust each other in order to track down and foil the secret society endangering steampunk Victorian England. Is it me? I would think steampunk should be a good fit for me, but I just found this book tedious. The characters began unlikable, and despite glimmers of interest now and then, never graduated to anything higher than fine. The plot feels haphazard in my opinion. It meanders for a long time without a clear direction, and then once the main set piece picks up, ...