K. Bird Lincoln's Blog

Once again Moreno-Garcia proves she’s the queen of atmospheric, tense, gothic stories filled with characters caught between pain, desire, love, and greed.

This time in not one, not two but THREE different time periods. And typically in stories like this I don’t get enough characterization to make me fall in love with the heroines, but Moreno-Garcia weaves a magic of her own that had me completely invested in all three.

Minerva– an international res...

Crescent City #2 House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas

So five years ago I read the first book in the Crescent City series and was hooked. I loved Bryce in the context of her discovering her powers and her friendship with Danika, etc. At the end of the review I said “I’ll definitely be going on to the next book” despite being somewhat irritated with the constant ogling of muscles on various super handsome Vanir.

Well, I just read the second book– and ended up skimming so much.

Sigh. ...

Did you finish The Queen’s Gambit and immediately missed seeing a waifish, doe-eyed woman literally mop the floor with her opponents in a game requiring nerves of steel? Wished for more quirky and problematic male sidekicks? I have your show (on Netflix): Miss King.

Enter the cut throat world of professional Shogi players, J-Drama style.

Asuka’s father abandoned them when she was small and she’s grown up as the caretaker for her emotionally devastated mother. But when the mother dies, su...

I am absolutely on the genre fiction villain as POV train. Bring on the Romantic Fantasy assistant to the villain and hench, bring on the rehabilitated superhero romance, bring on the cozy not-so-wicked witch, and the morally grey villain found-family.

The villain in question here is a Dark Wizard. His name is The Dread Lord Gavrax  and he’s just woken up in a workroom in shambles without many, many important memories. So he’s winging it. Especially when his cas...

This story felt both like fan service for readers of the first book in terms of fleshing out some of our favorite side characters (Exclee! Mr. Cheeks! Mr. Cross!) coupled with just not quite enough details/memory help to place this particular version of our characters vs the versions we learned a lot about in the first book (Cara’s home world.) In particular, Nik Nik was hard for me to pin down. Was he the abusive guy? Was t...

Well I suppose I’m a bona fide Emily Henry fan now. I’ve read a bit of her YA magical realism and a couple of her contemporary romances and I’m fairly hooked. 

This one is tried-and-true tightly laced librarian more or less left at the altar has to vacate her shared house with her ex-fiancee and ends up moving in with the ex of the woman she got dumped for. Miles. 

Miles works at a winery in the summer season (Michigan wine!) and has a little sister who immedi...

I have been reluctant recently to try male high fantasy authors. I am not the biggest fan of Grimdark or LitRPG and did not watch Game of Thrones. I go to fantasy usually out of nostalgia for JR Tolkien or romance or for works like N.K. Jemisin that use fantasy to reflect back the intricacies and fallacies of contemporary life.

But this one surprised me. Not due to the intricately built fantasy society (an empire that is ...

I chose this as a kind of potato chip read (a book like a midnight snack with no intent to derive nutrition from it) and it was perfect for that. Haruka Hirano is a pureblood vampire tasked with overseeing a bonding ritual between two other English noble vampires. The problem is that the other pureblood supposed to be doing all the work in getting the contract written, etc. etc. is even more reclusive than Haruka.

When they finally meet, Nino is intrigued enough by Haruka’s charisma to agree ...

Second time in the last couple months I am about a third of the way through a book and the plot is progressing too fast. I get that sinking feeling in my stomach and look at the percentage of book left on my Kindle and realize– yep, once again I’ve gotten what I thought was a book, but is actually a novelette or even shorter. This one was 82 pages.

A scholarly lady is plucked from her...

We meet our heroine as she is on one of her traverse “pulls” (going to an alternate world where she gets data from stations about that world so scientists back home can compare data and extrapolate useful information about differences). 

Caramenta and her watcher Dell are compelling and adversarial and barely holding back their attraction. Only Cara has lots to hide. While she’s got special status as one of the few trav...