Saturday, November 5, 2022

Blog Tour: Silver in the Mist by Emily Victoria

   

Hiya, Booknerds! I was lucky enough to be selected for the Blog Tour of SILVER IN THE MIST. As such, I will give you some details about the interesting book as well as its lovely author. 

And you also get a BOOKISH BONUS: 

*A delightful morsel of an excerpt can be found below*

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Publisher: Inkyard Press
Release Date: November 1st, 2022
GenreTeen & Young Adult Fantasy
Pages
368
Source: E-ARC

THE STORY:
Silver in the Mist by Emily Victoria is a YA fantasy featuring asexual representation that follows a palace spy sent to infiltrate a neighboring kingdom in hopes of returning magic to her dying land.
Eight years ago, everything changed for Devlin: Her country was attacked. Her father was killed. And her mother became the Whisperer of Aris, the head of the spies, retreating into her position away from everyone… even her daughter.
 Joining the spy ranks herself, Dev sees her mother only when receiving assignments. She wants more, but she understands the peril their country, Aris, is in. The malevolent magic force of The Mists is swallowing Aris’s edges, their country is vulnerable to another attack from their wealthier neighbor, and the magic casters who protect them from both are burning out.
Dev has known strength and survival her whole life, but with a dangerous new assignment of infiltrating the royal court of their neighbor country Cerena to steal the magic they need, she learns that not all that glitters is weak. And not all stories are true.
BUY LINKS:

Barnes & Noble
Amazon
Bookshop.org
IndieBound


EXCERPT:

Chapter One
The camp around me is shadowy and asleep—vulnerable—just the way I like it. At my back, metal poles hold lanterns that let out an erratic flicker of a glow. But it doesn’t reach as far in as I am, and even the patrolling soldiers barely stray from their circles of firelight. It’s sloppy, this whole camp. I feel, rather than see, someone slip into the shadow of the tent behind me. “Devlin.” Lochlan’s jesting voice is that low tone that barely carries as far as my ears. I shift closer to the canvas of the tent so they can crouch beside me. “Fancy seeing you here,” they say. Even though this is serious, my own lips twitch in response. Like me, Lochlan is dressed in tight-fitting clothes with their hood up, dark and practical and perfect for getting up to no good. They tug the strip of cloth covering their face down as they let out a huff. “This thing gets so itchy.” I raise a brow. “That’s not regulation.” They give me a look, but it’s edged with that sharp excitement neither of us can hide in the field. It tingles in my own fingertips. I want to get on with it, but as always, the Whisperer’s voice echoes in my head, tempering the impulse. Take the time to observe. Know the lay of the land. No matter how many missions I do, how much experience I think I’ve gained, it’s always my mother’s voice that sounds in my head out here in the field. I scan the tents in front of us. There are three of them in the inner circle, five in the outer. If this camp has the usual layout, then the barracks, the mess, and the supplies will be in the outer tents. The scribes and those in command—in other words, everyone important—will be in this inner ring. The tent on the far left is larger than the two beside it. All are in that deep navy color that is dyed even darker by the night, which only serves to offset the fabric’s silver lining. The canvas is thick enough that even if there was light inside the tents, we wouldn’t be able to see any silhouettes. It doesn’t give us much to go on, but at least it means once we’re inside, no one will be able to see us either. “What did you find out?” I ask. “Captain’s quarters are in the middle. The large one on the left is for the scribes. The last one houses the captain’s two pages.” “So are the captain’s office and his sleeping quarters the same?” “Guess.” I stifle my sigh. That will be a pain to deal with, but it’s not like we haven’t done it before. Multiple times. “The scribes?” “They sleep with the soldiers as far as I can tell.” That’s promising. I scan the area. The captain’s tent is the only one with a guard. The man is bored, idly fiddling with his sword’s sheath. He wears a tunic of soft blue lined with white, so neat it looks as if it’d get dirty if the guard glanced at the ground wrong. “We can take him,” Lochlan says. I elbow them. “No evidence outside of the theft, remember?” The scribes’ tent isn’t guarded, and there’s barely a foot of space between it and the captain’s tent beside it. That’s our best chance. “This way.” We track down the row we’re sheltered by, moving from shadow to shadow, aware of the guards and the torchlight hovering just around the corners. At the end of the lane, I wait for the guard’s attention to shift and then we’re just two shadows slipping over the grassy gap. The canvas of the scribes’ tent is secured with thick ties, and I undo the row to let us in. The space is shadowy in the dark and I take a moment to let my eyes adjust. Rows of portable desks fill the tent so tightly I have to step carefully as I ghost between them, Lochlan behind me. The desks are littered with papers and worn writing implements, and among them lie pieces of filigree. The delicate swirls of the silvery patterns shine in the darkness, like fallen pieces of moonglow. My fingers hover over them. We aren’t supposed to leave any evidence, but I can’t resist swiping a couple of the shards into my pocket. This is a Cerenian camp. They won’t notice one or two missing pieces of filigree, while we need all the stolen magic we can get. Behind me, Lochlan pauses as they look at the filigree. Even though I can’t make out the expression on their face from this angle, I know what will be there. Loss. I nudge them. “Bet you a week’s worth of chores I can find what we need first.” Lochlan’s eyes glint in the dark as they grin. “You’re going to regret that.” “You wish.” A couple more ties get us out the far wall, and I give a quick glance to make sure the guard can’t see us before slipping into the captain’s tent. He’s a snorer. That much is obvious as we step in and a grinding noise like rocks being smashed together echoes over to us. Lochlan’s face contorts in laughter and I grab their face cloth and yank it back over their mouth. There’s not much in here. Besides the bed, the only things are a camp desk and a chest. Well, that and the clothes scattered all over the place. There’s even a discarded sword not a foot away from where I stand. He’s not a strict captain then. I’m betting he’s the type to leave his papers lying out rather than filing them away at the end of the day. I take the desk and sure enough, it’s cluttered with writing instruments and parchment. The Whisperer ordered us to bring back the original orders from the Cerenian monarch that sent these soldiers here. I don’t know exactly what they will say, but I can guess. There are a number of patrolling camps that work their way up and down the Cerenian border, making sure it’s secure. Normally they follow the exact same route. This camp, though, is well into the neutral territory of the Peaks. The last true attack from Cerena was decades ago, long before I was born, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t planning another. I can’t see why else they would have strayed so far into the Peaks, when it’s such difficult territory to cover. We can’t face the Mists and an army. My fingers shift through the papers, careful to disturb them as little as possible. Then in the dark, I catch the image of a songbird sitting on a branch: Cerena’s royal seal. The orders themselves are written in code but that seal means this is what we’ve come for. I lift the paper high, so Lochlan can see it. I win. The snoring cuts off. I drop to a crouch behind the desk. As I peer around its edge I see the captain blinking sleepy eyes open. I look at where Lochlan is hiding behind the chest. They’re closer to where we entered than I am. They should be able to get out if they move right now, before the captain is fully awake. I wave my hand at them. They hesitate, but I give them a glare. Moving as silent as a shadow, they’re gone. There’s a creak from the bed as the captain gets up, muttering beneath his breath. His footsteps come closer, padding over the canvas floor. My hand finds the knife at my hip. As soon as he’s close enough, I’ll jab the knife in his leg. Then I’ll run. Fast. His feet come into view and I’m tensing to move when there’s a panicked shout from outside. It’s taken up, the sound multiplying. What did Lochlan do? The captain grabs his boots and races outside. As soon as he’s gone, I slip out the side of the tent. I smell the smoke the moment I’m free, the ring of light at the eastern outskirts of the camp now shining decidedly angrier. “A lantern has fallen!” someone shouts. “Bring water!” The camp is a flurry of activity. All of the soldiers, most only half-dressed and with mussed hair, are heading one way. I catch a clear moment and dash in the opposite direction. I dart between the tents, breaking out of the last line and plunging into the forest at the base of the mountain. It’s darker beneath the trees, the branches scratching at my clothes, and even though I’m risking a broken ankle, I don’t slow. Better a broken ankle than an arrow in my back. The ground beneath my feet turns from moss to dirt to stone, and the forest fades as I track up the path. I turn the corner, and there it is. A wall of white clings to the mountain like a shroud. It’s so thick I can’t even make out the rocks in it. All I can see are the flashes of lightning deep in its depths, bright and fierce. The Mists. Lochlan sits on a rock just outside the border of white, idly swinging one of their legs. Their hood is already down, showing their auburn hair with the single streak of gray, currently tied back into a ponytail. The filigree lantern we’d hidden on our way down shines at their feet, sparking off their bright green eyes. I tug the cloth away from my face. “What did you set on fire?” They grin at me. “You’re welcome.” There’s a shout behind us from the direction of the camp and we plunge into the Mists.
Excerpted from Silver in the Mist. Copyright © 2022 by Emily Victoria. Published by Inkyard Press.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:



Emily Victoria is a Canadian prairie girl who writes young adult science fiction and fantasy. When not wordsmithing, she likes walking her overexcitable dog, drinking far too much tea, and crocheting things she no longer has the space to store. Her librarian degree has allowed her to work at a library and take home far too many books. SOCIAL LINKS: Author Website: https://www.avictoriantale.com/ Twitter: @avictoriantale Instagram: @avictoriantale



Happy Reading!

Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Review: Blood Orange by Karina Halle

*Warning: This review may contain spoilers. Read at your own risk.





PublisherSelf-published
Release Date: October 16, 2022
GenreAdult Dark Fantasy Romance
Pages: 372

THE STORY:
Once there was a man who fell deeply in love with a woman he could never have. When their affair was uncovered she was brutally murdered in front of him, and he discovered he was cursed, doomed to live forever as a vampire.
Over the centuries, he found his love again, and lost her again, until he was so broken he gave up on love entirely, sinking into the depths of depravity, losing his humanity.
Then one day, she came back into his life. A student of music studying under him at the conservatory in Venice, Italy where he was a professor. But even though he found her beautiful and intriguing, he didn’t recognize his fated mate at all.
Because this time she had to hide her true self.
This time she came back as a witch, whose destiny wasn’t to love him…but to kill him.
Blood Orange is a modern-day Dracula retelling about the “real-life” Dracula that inspired Bram Stoker. This is a dark vampire romance with plenty of content warnings and while it is a spinoff of The Dark Eyes Duet, it is a complete standalone novel. It was previously titled "King of Darkness"
LINKS: Goodreads   |   Amazon


RATING

ONE-WORD REVIEW: TANTALIZING

OPENING LINE:

I write this down because I don't trust Bram to write his novel without twisting my story around.



REVIEW:

BLOOD ORANGE is a dark romance retelling of Dracula. It mostly takes place in modern day with flashbacks of Valtu's "Dracula" time with his reincarnated Mina. For the time being, he has settled for a bit in Venice as a music professor who moonlights as the dom daddy owner of the vampire-human sex/feeding club. Little does Valtu know Dahlia is a witch vampire slayer with a vendetta and a mission to destroy him. That is until their hate and lust is overpowered by their undying love . . .

𝐼 𝒶𝓂 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝒶 𝒹𝑒𝓁𝒾𝒸𝒶𝓉𝑒 𝓂𝒶𝓃. 𝐼 𝒸𝒶𝓃 𝒷𝑒 𝓇𝑜𝓊𝑔𝒽. 𝐼 𝒸𝒶𝓃 𝒸𝒶𝓊𝓈𝑒 𝓅𝒶𝒾𝓃. 𝐼 𝓂𝒶𝓎 𝓂𝒶𝓀𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒽𝒶𝓉𝑒 𝓂𝑒 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓉𝒾𝓂𝑒𝓈. 𝐵𝓊𝓉 𝐼 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝒶𝓁𝓌𝒶𝓎𝓈 𝒷𝑒 𝑜𝓃 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓈𝒾𝒹𝑒. 𝐼 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝒶𝓁𝓌𝒶𝓎𝓈 𝓂𝒶𝓀𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒻𝑒𝑒𝓁 𝒸𝒽𝑜𝓈𝑒𝓃.

Honestly, when I first started reading BLOOD ORANGE I was a little thrown off. The man who plays Dracula is not at all what I expected him to be. Every time Valtu's character came on page it felt like he was two different people and I guess that makes sense in a way since he is a vampire trying to maintain some of his humanity . . . Still it was so odd because I constantly heard how terrible and awful monstrous he is and why the Bram Stoker's "Dracula" is based on him but then again he had a day job as a music professor who genuinely enjoyed teachingit was so strange. Then you saw Valtu in the vampire sex/feed club he owned and all of a sudden he was like this Dom Daddy who had a degradation kink, not for himself but to use it on his partners. And in those times he seemed like the badass vampire kingyou know, the one we all imagine Dracula to beI expected to be. All hot and brooding and nasty in the best possible way. But then that image got slashed down when his character interacted with the two vampire baddiesnot in a good wayand all of a sudden Valtu was knocked down the food chain and I honestly don’t know how I felt about that. I'm lying, yes I did, I didn’t like it at all. Daddy Dracula was supposed to be the baddest vampire aroundpower, fearless, and sex on a stick. Period.

For the writing, it was decentnot Karina‘s best workbut still engaging. For example, the chapter flashback of Mina and Valtu at the beginning just really threw me for a loop because it didn’t seem to make sense with the way the story started and it was like a lot of things were thrown at me so fast without any kind of foundation for emotional attachment. Nevertheless, it was interesting and for the first half of the story, the flashbacks were my favorite part of the book. Moreover, the pacing of BLOOD ORANGE was slow for the first half of the book but once you hit Midpoint it's all uphill from there.

As for the romance between Dahlia and Valtu, it was definitely a slow-burn but not really enemies-to-lovers although while she really desired him she did hate himbut it was only on her side and for an exceptionally short time. Having said that, I do wish there was more spicy tension coming from him I wish he put more pressure on her. Talking about spice and smut based off of reading the trigger warning note from the author I was definitely expecting more sex on page so that was a little disappointing. For example, I was about 30% in, and the furthest that Dahlia and Valtu got was like him touching her lower back and her elbow during a walk which was at 30% through BLOOD ORANGE and I was very disappointed.

Howeverrr, Valtu’s flashbacks with Mina and Mina incarnate were hot as fuck. Rest assured I highlighted those scenes in my Kindle so I can go back to them and enjoy them again. And once you hit the Midpoint, MY GOD! The spice was DELICIOUS! Then and thereafter. . . Music lesson, blindfolded good morning *wink, wink* And that's all I'll say about that.

𝒲𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒾𝓈 𝒾𝓉 𝒶𝒷𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓌𝑜𝓂𝒶𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝐼 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝒹𝓇𝒶𝑔 𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝒹𝑜𝓌𝓃 𝓉𝑜 𝒽𝑒𝓁𝓁 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝓂𝑒?

All in all  BLOOD ORANGE was a fast, enjoyable read. If you’re interested in undying love, student/teacher romance, and human/witches and vampires f*cking then this book is for you.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Karina Halle is a former travel writer and music journalist and The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling author of The Pact, Love, in English, The Artists Trilogy, Dirty Angels and over 20 other wild and romantic reads. She lives on an island off the coast of British Columbia with her husband and her rescue pup, where she drinks a lot of wine, hikes a lot of trails and devours a lot of books. Halle is represented by the Root Literary and is both self-published and published by Simon & Schuster and Hachette in North America and in the UK.


Connect with Karina

Facebook: https://bit.ly/3LCSTIw
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Stay up to date with Karina by signing up for her newsletter here: 
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Website: http://authorkarinahalle.com


Happy Reading!

Saturday, October 8, 2022

Blog Tour: The Empress Of Time by Kylie Lee Baker

 

Hiya, Booknerds! I was lucky enough to be selected for the Blog Tour of THE EMPRESS OF TIMEAs such, I will give you some details about the interesting book as well as its lovely author. 

And you also get a BOOKISH BONUS: 

*A delightful morsel of an excerpt can be found below*

ABOUT THE BOOK:

PublisherINKYARD PRESS
Release Date: October 4, 2022
GenreTeen & Young Adult Fantasy
Pages
416
Source: E-ARC

THE STORY:
In this riveting sequel to The Keeper of Night, a half Reaper, half Shinigami soul collector must defend her title as Japan’s Death Goddess from those who would see her—and all of Japan—destroyed.
Death is her dynasty.
Ren Scarborough is no longer the girl who was chased out of England—she is the Goddess of Death ruling Japan’s underworld. But Reapers have recently been spotted in Japan, and it’s only a matter of time before Ivy, now Britain’s Death Goddess, comes to claim her revenge.
Ren’s last hope is to appeal to the god of storms and seas, who can turn the tides to send Ivy’s ship away from Japan’s shores. But he’ll only help Ren if she finds a sword lost thousands of years ago—an impossible demand.
Together with the moon god Tsukuyomi, Ren ventures across the country in a race against time. As her journey thrusts her in the middle of scheming gods and dangerous Yokai demons, Ren will have to learn who she can truly trust—and the fate of Japan hangs in the balance.
BUY LINKS:

Barnes & Noble
Amazon
Bookshop.org
IndieBound


EXCERPT:

Deep down below the land of the living, in a place where light could not reach, I lived in a castle of shadows. It sat on a high platform of stone, its towers spiraling into Yomi’s endless sky with rooftops sloped like claws and edges that blurred away in the night, as if a black fog had wrapped its arms around the castle and choked its breath away. Most people would never have the displeasure of seeing the monstrosity of my home in the total darkness of Yomi, but Shinigami, like me, could sense it clearly. I knelt in an empty courtyard marked by smooth tiles just beyond the lotus lake, every breath echoing forever into the darkness. At times, the night was so still and vacant that I felt like it was listening to me, waiting for me, and if I only said the right words, the whole world would unfold and light would break in from above. One of my shadow guards hovered beside me, his shape ebbing and flowing, pulsing like a heart as he waited for my instructions. My guards were people of the shadows—inhuman creatures born from the lost dreams of the dead, spirits with no body to call home, formless and ephemeral. My palace was filled with too many of them and an absurd number of handmaids—women bound forever to the palace from deals they’d made with Izanami. Most of them had bargained for more time with the living, either for themselves or their families. I didn’t know if their quiet subservience was out of fear, or if Izanami had bound them with some sort of curse. “Have Chiyo send someone to clean the courtyard,” I said, glancing at the muddy marks I’d left on the stones. The mess didn’t bother me, but it would surely bother Chiyo, and I wanted the guard to leave me alone. “Yes, Your Highness,” the guard said, evaporating into the darkness. Before going inside, I turned to the west wing of the courtyard, where the darkness grew thick like treacle, clinging to my sandals as I walked. After a few steps, I could no longer see my hands in front of me, even with my Shinigami vision. The world was nothing but my own slow heartbeat and the cold sweat on my skin, the weight of a thousand worlds crushing down on my shoulders as the darkness grew heavier and heavier. I fell to my knees at the border of deep darkness and reached a hand out in front of me. My palm pressed into a cold wall, unyielding but invisible. Beyond it, the darkness was so dense that it seemed like the world had simply ceased to exist. I pressed harder against the wall, feeling my bones creak and joints protest. Even before I’d become a goddess, I’d been strong enough to crush bricks to dust and bend steel like dough. As a goddess, my anger could make mountains tremble and my touch could shatter diamonds. Yet the wall that barred me from the deep darkness would not yield. It had grown weaker over the years—I could hear the tinkle of hairline cracks forming on the other side—but still, it remained standing. At first, I would sit outside for hours pushing against the wall until my fingers broke and my wrists snapped, but now I knew that if I wasn’t strong enough, no amount of time spent pushing would change that. Only more souls in my stomach could weaken the barrier. So instead of trying anymore, I fell forward onto my hands and glared across the darkness, whispering a secret prayer and hoping that somewhere in that dark infinity, Neven could hear me. When humans grew desperate, they offered me anything at all to spare them and their loved ones from suffering. But there were no gods left for me to pray to. I had become my own god, and now I knew the cruel truth: gods were just as helpless as humans when it came to things that mattered. I rose to my feet and trudged back to the palace doors, where two more shadow guards stood at attention. They bowed as I approached, then raised the great metal bars that sealed the palace and let me inside. Chiyo stood waiting just beyond the door, her arms crossed. Out of all the handmaids Izanami had left behind, I’d chosen her to attend and advise me. Despite the way Death often blurred one’s features, Chiyo’s eyes had a sharpness to them, like she was ready for a sudden attack. She was the only servant who seemed like she’d retained even a piece of her soul after having her heart eaten by Shinigami. The others had vacant stares and cowered in fear, but Chiyo always had a sour look on her face when I frequently displeased her, which I much preferred. My guess was she’d died somewhere in her thirties, though the sternness in her face made her look older. “That took longer than scheduled,” Chiyo said, frowning at the trail of mud behind me. “The Goddess of Death can’t even kill efficiently?” “I felt like making you wait,” I said, stepping through the doorway. Chiyo did little to conceal her disapproval for my extra soul collections, but she helped me because I was her goddess and I’d asked her to, and she had to trust that a goddess knew what was best, even if we both knew that was a lie. I lit the ceremonial candles in the hallway with a wave of my hand, casting the palace in dim light. Chiyo flinched like I’d set off fireworks, but I ignored her and trailed muddy footprints down the hallway. One of the many changes I’d made from Izanami’s reign of total darkness was that I required at least dim light in the palace at all times. Even though my Shinigami senses could make out the furniture and wall paintings in the darkness, I’d also started to see faces that shouldn’t have been there. In the formless swirl of darkness, they came together piece by piece, hazy nightmares that dispersed whenever I blinked and then reappeared when I turned around. Chiyo bowed and opened the door to the bathroom. She tried, as she did every day, to help me undress, but I shooed her away with a wave of my hand while other servants filled a tub with scalding hot water. I cast off my soiled human clothes and dropped them in a wet pile on the floor. “Burn them,” I said to Chiyo, stepping into the tub. My clothes reeked of blood and wouldn’t have been salvageable even if I’d wanted them. “Most deities don’t waste quite so many kimonos,” she said, gathering the dirty fabric. “Most deities don’t do anything,” I said, scrubbing the blood from under my fingernails. “They just bask in humans’ prayers and have their underlings do their chores. But I have tasks that only I can do correctly.” Chiyo made a noncommittal humming sound that she always made when her thoughts weren’t polite enough to say to a goddess, but she didn’t deny my words. The Shinto gods all had great adventures and conquests and tragedies when the world was first beginning, but since the modern era, none of them seemed particularly active. While I hadn’t expected any of them to welcome me with open arms, none had deigned to even speak to me. Chiyo mentioned their doings in passing—when typhoons tore through Japan, that was likely the doing of Fūjin, the god of wind. And when the population increased, that was the doing of Inari, goddess of fertility. But none of them ever drained the seas or turned the sky purple or performed any sort of godlike miracle, anything that couldn’t be explained by nature or luck. I imagined that they merely sat in their palaces and watched the changing winds. “Has anything of importance happened in my absence?” I asked. Chiyo knew well that important meant any situation I had to deal with immediately or risk total chaos and peril. Anything else, she could handle on her own. “Yomi is quiet, Your Highness,” she said. “It is Obon, so the dead are on Earth.” Just like every year, I had forgotten about the Obon festival until it was upon us, marking the waning days of summer, one more year of nothing changing at all. It was now a Buddhist holiday, but I observed it even as a Shinto goddess, for the two religions had long ago become intertwined in the lives of humans in Japan. Every year, the souls of the dead traveled back to their hometowns on Earth, summoned by fire. After three days of festivals and dancing, fire bid the spirits goodbye, and they returned to Yomi. Usually, that meant that no one bothered me for three days. “However, there are Shinigami waiting upstairs,” Chiyo said. “Why?” I frowned, combing my fingers through my wet hair. The water clouded with blood. “I believe they are hoping for a transfer.” I sighed, nodding as I scrubbed the blood from my forehead. It was my fault for daring to hope that Obon would mean a few days of peace and quiet in Yomi. What right did I have to peace? “I don’t suppose you could tell them to come back tomorrow?” Chiyo’s thin smile twitched, her eyes glinting like sharpened knives as she turned toward the light as if considering my request. Chiyo had to be patient with me, but I knew her patience was not infinite. “Fine,” I said, sinking deeper into the water, “but I’m not going to meet them sopping wet, so they’ll just have to wait a bit longer.” “Of course,” Chiyo said, bowing in a way that somehow felt sarcastic, even if I couldn’t prove it. “I will take care of your clothes and have the floors cleaned,” she said, turning to leave. “Chiyo.” She stopped in the doorway. “Yes, Your Highness?” I could not look at her face when I asked my next question because I would know the answer from her eyes alone. Instead, I stared at my reflection in the muddy water, dirty and distorted like me. “Have the guards found anything in the deep darkness?” I asked. Every day, right before she answered, there was a moment of breathless silence when I allowed myself to hope. Sometimes I would stop time and cling to the moment just a bit longer, allowing myself to think that maybe today was the day. “No, Your Highness,” Chiyo said. The only time her voice was gentle was when she answered this question. “Perhaps tomorrow.” “Yes,” I said, shifting in the tub so that my reflection rippled and broke, “perhaps.” She bowed again, then hurried out of the room. I glanced at my ring on the counter, then sank under the water. I closed my eyes as a wave of fresh souls rushed over me, a warmth spinning through my blood, burning from my heart to my fingertips. I could always feel when my Shinigami brought me fresh souls. A thousand names flashed behind my closed eyes, streaks of bloodred kanji burned into my vision. The ache in my bones abated slightly, heat returning to my core. With every soul, I felt a little less like I’d been dragged through wet earth with a sick stomach full of hearts and more like someone who might be a goddess one day. I stepped out of the tub and into my room, where servants were already waiting with clothing. When I’d first taken the throne, they’d tried to dress me in twelve layers of fabric, so heavy that I could hardly stand up. “The royal junihitoe is the proper clothing for a goddess,” Chiyo had said. But I hadn’t felt like a goddess then, and I still didn’t now. I was just a pathetic girl whose anger had killed her brother and then her betrothed, and my prize was an eternity of lonely darkness. I didn’t deserve the throne, nor did I want it. But this was the only way to stay in Yomi and wait at the edge of the deep darkness, either until my guards brought Neven back or I finally grew strong enough to break through the wall and find him myself. So, for the time being, I would have to play the part. “I want a simple black kimono,” I’d said to Chiyo. “I don’t want to look pretty. I want to be able to move.” “Your Highness,” Chiyo had said, the first traces of impatience starting to curdle her expression, “for a goddess, black clothing looks rather mournful.” “Yes, and?” I said, casting the last of the purple fabric to the ground and standing only in my slip. “My brother is gone, my mother is dead, and I stabbed a ceremonial knife into my fiancé’s heart. I will mourn if I want to.” To that, Chiyo said nothing, bowing deeply to hide her expression. The next day, she’d brought me a closet full of kimonos as dark as Yomi’s endless sky, and that was what I’d worn ever since. The servants dressed me, tying my kimono tightly behind me. Even now, it reminded me of the first time someone had helped me into a kimono with hands that glowed like moonbeams and skin that smelled like brine. A servant bowed and offered me my clock, which I clipped to my clothes and tucked into my obi. Finding a new clock of pure silver and gold had been difficult in Yomi, but it turned out that Death Goddesses got almost anything they wanted. I had never found Neven’s clock that I’d dropped on the floor of the throne room all those years ago, despite having my servants turn over every mat and empty every drawer in the entire palace. I suspected Hiro had destroyed it. Chiyo tried to tie my hair up, but I stepped away from her and brushed it myself. I’d spent too long hiding the color of my hair from Reapers to simply tie it up and hide it again for the sake of proper styling. Nothing about me was traditional or proper, so what difference did a hairstyle make? I slipped my ring necklace over my head and rose to my feet, pushing the doors to my room open before the servants could do it for me. They threw themselves to the ground in apology, but I ignored them, charging down the hallways past the murals of Japan’s history—Izanagi and Izanami stirring the sky with a spear, the birth of their first child, Hiro, and their final children, the gods of the sun, moon and storms. At first, I’d thought someone had painted the murals so the history wouldn’t be lost. But the palace had a mind of its own—mere days after my ascension, I’d walked past a new painting. It showed an angry girl cast in shadows, holding a candle in one hand and a clock in the other, standing at an outdoor shrine that dripped with blood, the body of a man at her feet. I’d ordered the servants to paint over it and watched unblinking until it was done, but the next day, the picture appeared again. It seemed no matter what I did, I couldn’t erase it. I no longer visited that wing of the palace. The guards at the entrance to the throne room bowed and opened the doors as I strode past them. Inside, two Shinigami knelt on cushions on the floor, one man and one woman. They wore crimson red robes embroidered with gold dragons that captured the pale candlelight. How unfair it was that they could wear the uniform of Shinigami when I never had the chance, their lives so simple and whole. I stepped up onto the platform and sat on my throne. The ceremonial candles lit the platform around me like a stage, Izanami’s katana mounted on the wall above me. This was the room where I’d first met Izanami, back when I’d truly believed that she could help me. Once, the distance between the sliding doors and the great platform of Izanami’s throne had felt like a thousand miles, the pale reed mats an endless desert that pulled nervous sweat from my palms as I crawled across them. Now it was just a room of echoes and darkness, a chair that was expensive and uncomfortable, and a murder weapon mounted above my head because I didn’t know where else to put it. What had made the room magnificent was the fear that Izanami inspired, and now she was gone. I sat down on the throne and crossed my arms as they bowed to me, then closed my eyes. The names of the Shinigami appeared in the darkness of my mind. “Yoshitsune and Kanako of Naoshima,” I said, opening my eyes. “Speak.” “Your Highness,” the man, Yoshitsune, said, “we’ve come to ask for your permission to transfer to Tottori.” I sighed. What a waste of time. This had hardly been worth getting dressed for. “No,” I said. “Was that all?” “But…” Kanako frowned, rising up from her reverent bow, “why not?” “‘Your Highness,’” I reminded her, scowling. In truth, I hated the title, but letting them speak informally to me was a quick path to being called Ren and then Reaper. “Why not, Your Highness?” Kanako said, though the title sounded more like an insult than any sign of respect. “You know why,” I said. “Do not waste my time with this.” “Her father lives in Tottori, and he’s growing old,” Yoshitsune said, frowning as if I was singularly responsible for this. How quickly they had gone from pressing their noses to the floor to glaring at me. This was how it always went—they were willing to pretend I was their goddess until I didn’t give them what they wanted. Most Shinigami didn’t even keep in touch with their parents enough to justify such a request. Just like Reapers, Shinigami families were only useful for alliances and protection. Once children married, there was no practical need for them to see their parents anymore. One of the many reasons my father had renounced me was probably that he’d never expected me to marry, so he wouldn’t have had a convenient excuse to disappear from my life. I doubted that the Shinigami before me truly wanted to relocate for noble reasons. “I don’t need more Shinigami in Tottori,” I said. “The population there is hardly growing. You may transfer to Tokyo or Osaka, but Tottori is already bursting with Shinigami who are bored to death. My answer is no.” “Izanami allowed us to stay with our families,” Yoshitsune said, glaring at me through the darkness. Lies, a voice whispered, the words scratching down my ear like my head was full of spiders. I had figured as much, but comparing myself to Izanami rarely ended well. As much as I wanted to grant their wish and shut them up, the only thing worse than angry Shinigami was uncollected souls floating in the ether because there weren’t enough Shinigami to reap them. Then, instead of thinking me heartless, the other Shinigami would think me incompetent, which was much worse. They had no innate respect for me, a foreign girl who had abruptly replaced the creator of their world. Reapers had impeccable hearing, so I knew all the things they whispered about me before I summoned them to my meetings—that I had seduced Hiro just to steal his throne, that I had taken Japan as an English colony to enslave, that I had no right to sit on Izanami’s throne and give orders. I couldn’t bring myself to disagree with the last one. So, if they wouldn’t respect me, they had to fear me. My shadows reached out and wrapped around their arms and legs, tearing the couple to opposite sides of the room. They screamed as the shadows pinned them to the walls, long tendrils of darkness crawling around their throats, lifting up their eyelids to examine the soft flesh below, tickling up their noses to peer at their brains. Tears pooled in Yoshitsune’s eyes as the shadows dived down his throat, but Kanako bit down on the dark coils before they could choke her, spitting inky blackness back at me. “Which one of you would like to die first?” I said in Death. The language was useful for intimidation, for even if my words were inelegant, Death curled them into a sinister lilt that made the Shinigami break out in goose bumps. “You can’t kill us and you know it!” Kanako said. “The population is growing too quickly and you need all the Shinigami you can get.” Unfortunately, she was right. Though the death of any Shinigami would result in the birth of another, I couldn’t exactly wait the hundred years it would take for them to grow up and complete their training. More Shinigami were already being born to meet the needs of the growing population, but all of them were still too young to reap. “There are things worse than Death,” I said. This, I knew all too well. I snapped both of their legs and dropped them to the floor. They groaned as they fell limp against the mats, my shadows retreating back to me. They would heal in a few hours. “Chiyo,” I said. The door slid open instantly, as if she’d been waiting with an ear pressed against it. Her eyes were wide and alarmed, and for a moment I hesitated—she was used to my outbursts when dealing with Shinigami, so surely a few broken shins wouldn’t have unsettled her. Something else must have happened. But whatever it was, she could find a way to resolve it herself. I didn’t have the patience for another catastrophe right now. “Have them taken outside,” I said. “They can crawl home.” “Yes, Your Highness,” Chiyo said. “If I may—” I strode past the Shinigami, but one of them grabbed my ankle, stopping me in my tracks. I turned to Kanako, her face twisted in pain but her grip iron strong around my leg. “Have you no respect?” I said, my jaw tense. “I could have killed you. I can spare one Shinigami, I promise you that.” Kanako shook her head, nails biting into my skin. “I don’t worship foreign gods,” she said. I sighed, then yanked my ankle away and stomped firmly on her hand. It crackled with a sound like stale bread. “Take them out now,” I said to Chiyo, storming past her. Foreign gods, I thought, stomping toward my study. That was always the problem. Years ago, I’d given up fighting the word foreigner, knowing it was futile. Gods weren’t supposed to care what lower beings thought of them. All my power was supposed to extinguish that sort of weak, mortal doubt. Because if it didn’t, then why had I sacrificed everything for it? Somehow, despite all my power, I was still trapped. It didn’t matter if foreigner stung less now than it had ten years ago, because the result was the same—no one respected me. No amount of introspection or confidence could change the fact that I had no say in who I was. Even as the most powerful being in all of Yomi, I felt like none of it truly belonged to me—my palace was a dollhouse, my riches trinkets, and all of it was a sham, because someone like me was not allowed to be a goddess. “Your Highness!” Chiyo called, hurrying behind me. “I’m going to my study,” I said. “But Your Highness, there’s someone here in the lobby—” “I don’t care if Izanami herself has risen from the grave and come over for tea. I am not seeing any other guests today.” Chiyo clamped her mouth shut, but at the mention of Izanami, her eyes went wide. “Chiyo,” I said, slowing to a stop. “Is Izanami—” “No, no, Your Highness,” Chiyo said, shaking her head. “But there is someone I think you’ll want to speak to.” I sighed, my jaw locked with annoyance. “Who is it?” Chiyo looked at her feet. “He didn’t exactly say, but his face…” She trailed off, but it was enough to make me hesitate. Chiyo knew better than to waste my time, so if she was stopping me for this visitor, he must have been of some importance. I turned back down the hallway and headed toward the main entrance, Chiyo following close behind. I entered the main lobby, bristling past the shadow guards into the golden entranceway, its ceiling painted with a thousand flowers and its walls mapped with more of the castle’s murals cast in a backdrop of gold. A man stood by the door, arms crossed as he examined the painted walls. He wore a kimono in ethereal white that glowed so brightly it seemed to emanate a pale mist of light. He turned around, as beautiful and terrifying as an endless sea, skin of moonbeams and eyes of exquisite coal. Someone I never thought I’d see again. “Hiro?”

Excerpted from The Empress of Time by Kylie Lee Baker, Copyright © 2022 by Kylie Lee Baker. Published by Inkyard Press.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Kylie Lee Baker is the author of The Keeper of Night. She grew up in Boston and has since lived in Atlanta, Salamanca, and Seoul. Her writing is informed by her heritage (Japanese, Chinese, and Irish), as well as her experiences living abroad as both a student and teacher. She has a B.A. in Creative Writing and Spanish from Emory University and is currently pursuing a Master of Library and Information Science degree at Simmons University. In her free time, she watches horror movies, plays the cello, and bakes too many cookies. SOCIAL LINKS: Author website: https://www.kylieleebaker.com/ Twitter: @KylieYamashiro Instagram: @kylieleebaker

***Check out Kylie Lee Baker 's website for more information about her and THE EMPRESS OF TIME: https://www.kylieleebaker.com/

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Monday, October 3, 2022

Review: Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

*Warning: This review may contain spoilers. Read at your own risk.

PublisherDel Rey
Release Date: June 30th 2020 
Pages: 301
Source: Audiobook 

THE STORY:

After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.

Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemí’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.

Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.

And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind. 
BUY LINKS: Goodreads


RATING

ONE-WORD REVIEWCREEPY

OPENING LINE:

The parties at the Tuñóns' house always ended unquestionably late, and since the hosts enjoyed costume parties in particular, it was not unusual to see Chinas Poblanas with their folkloric skirts and ribbons in their hair arrive in the company of a harlequin or a cowboy.



REVIEW:

Warning: This is more of a rant than a review . . .

MEXICAN GOTHICwas one of my most anticipated reads of 2020 but didn't get around to it in January 2021. And I have to say, I was greatly disappointed. Especially since this book won a literary award and was so hyped up by other readers.

Where do I even start?

First off, I love Gothic literature. New Gothic literature has a dark sensual romantic theme going on which is among the top three favorite types of books. MEXICAN GOTHIC does 1950 Spanish affluent debutante really well as well as having that dark foreboding Gothic vibe. So all that to say the author did really well with illustrating vibes that make you feel like you’re in the world living out the story.

“...𝓈𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝒶𝓈 𝓉𝓇𝒶𝓅𝓅𝑒𝒹 𝒷𝑒𝓉𝓌𝑒𝑒𝓃 𝒸𝑜𝓂𝓅𝑒𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒹𝑒𝓈𝒾𝓇𝑒𝓈, 𝒶 𝒹𝑒𝓈𝒾𝓇𝑒 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝒶 𝓂𝑜𝓇𝑒 𝓂𝑒𝒶𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑔𝒻𝓊𝓁 𝒸𝑜𝓃𝓃𝑒𝒸𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒹𝑒𝓈𝒾𝓇𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝓃𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝒸𝒽𝒶𝓃𝑔𝑒. 𝒮𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝒾𝓈𝒽𝑒𝒹 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝑒𝓉𝑒𝓇𝓃𝒶𝓁 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓉𝒽 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝑒𝓃𝒹𝓁𝑒𝓈𝓈 𝓂𝑒𝓇𝓇𝒾𝓂𝑒𝓃𝓉.”

The beginning of the novel was centered on a 1950s Retro gothic socialite just living her life. Noemí Taboada was a young single woman, carefree and flirtatious, with rich parents who just wanted her to find a husband even though she was not so convinced that was what she needed in her life. Her only desire was to be young and have fun forever. Until her father offered her a proposition. The Noemí was offered to chance to attend a university that was not exactly proper for young affluent women if she traveled two the home of her newly married cousin who sent a frantic, ominous letter to check on her.

“𝒩𝑜𝑒𝓂í’𝓈 𝒻𝒶𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝓈𝒶𝒾𝒹 𝓈𝒽𝑒 𝒸𝒶𝓇𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝑜𝑜 𝓂𝓊𝒸𝒽 𝒶𝒷𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝓁𝑜𝑜𝓀𝓈 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓅𝒶𝓇𝓉𝒾𝑒𝓈 𝓉𝑜 𝓉𝒶𝓀𝑒 𝓈𝒸𝒽𝑜𝑜𝓁 𝓈𝑒𝓇𝒾𝑜𝓊𝓈𝓁𝓎, 𝒶𝓈 𝒾𝒻 𝒶 𝓌𝑜𝓂𝒶𝓃 𝒸𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝒹𝑜 𝓉𝓌𝑜 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓈 𝒶𝓉 𝑜𝓃𝒸𝑒.”

From the moment Noemí said foot in the large forbidding mansion that sat lonely and on a hard-to-reach cliff (hill?) she was met with hostility from her cousin's entire family of in-laws. Even the staff.

Not to mention none of the Boyd family seemed to want her to spend much time with her cousin.

Having said that, Noemí claimed her sickly cousin was once vibrant and gentle and kind and most importantly obedient whereas she was the fury, outspoken one so it was ironic how Noemí never stuck up for herself. No matter how rude--even racist--the manners and comments the Boyd family made toward her. There came a point that the insufferable Florence told her straight to her face "I should just smack that smug look off your face". In front of others. And you know what the Noemí did? Not a damn thing. She clutched the back of the satee she sat on and said absolutely nothing.

“𝒮𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝒶𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝓃𝒶𝓀𝑒 𝒷𝒾𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒾𝓉𝓈 𝓉𝒶𝒾𝓁. 𝒮𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝒶𝓈 𝒶 𝒹𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓂𝑒𝓇, 𝑒𝓉𝑒𝓇𝓃𝒶𝓁𝓁𝓎 𝒷𝑜𝓊𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝒶 𝓃𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉𝓂𝒶𝓇𝑒, 𝑒𝓎𝑒𝓈 𝒸𝓁𝑜𝓈𝑒𝒹 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓃 𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝑒𝓎𝑒𝓈 𝒽𝒶𝒹 𝓉𝓊𝓇𝓃𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝒹𝓊𝓈𝓉.”

By the time I was halfway through the Audiobook of MEXICAN GOTHIC, I was filled to bursting with anger and suppressed wrath. Not only was the Boyd family racist asshole bullies but I was also pissed at Noemí for not standing up to for herself--or her cousin. Moreover, not much was happening for the first 50% of the story but strategically placed, well-mannered rudeness and disrespect. I couldn’t take it anymore and had to stop listening to the audiobook. I felt legitimate rage. It was obvious from all the backstory and I was the mysterious history of this family that there was something more sinister going on. It was clear that Noemí has an inkling that this family had dark souls and even darker secrets. But she didn't do much of anything about it. Not even to save her so-called beloved cousin.

Sad to say, I will not be recommending MEXICAN GOTHIC to others. 


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:






Silvia Moreno-Garcia is the author of the novels The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, Velvet Was the Night, Mexican Gothic, and many other books. She has also edited several anthologies, including the World Fantasy Award-winning She Walks in Shadows (a.k.a. Cthulhu's Daughters).




Happy Reading!

 
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