Morwen Navarre's Blog: Charmingly Depraved and Other Personality Disorders

Collared by T.A. Moore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It's been a while since I read a book in one sitting, but I devoured this book in one session.

Jack, a damned ex-priest, is not a hero by any measure, nor is his demon, Math. They are, however, bound by a great deal more than a simple contract for jack's soul. The heat between them is incandescent. And while Jack doesn't bother often with hope, he still feels like this one time, he needs to do the right thing. There's a little girl involved, an...

Well, reading and finally managing to review as well. So, here goes!

Sword Dance by A.J. Demas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love ancient history, and I love historical fiction, so this book seemed like a perfect read. How very right I was, because I loved this book from the very first page.

AJ Demas has created a marvelous world, and Damiskos and Varazda are incredibly well written. They have an abiding humanity, with profoundly moving pasts that make their alliance both unlikely and yet inevi...

Into This River I Drown by T.J. Klune
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I don't think I can find enough superlatives for TJ Klune. This is the fourth book I've read by him, and once again, I'm absolutely in awe of his lucid prose, and his utterly human characters.

Benji Green is drowning, in grief, in regrets, in life. He mourns his late father, Big Eddie, with a ferocity I can understand. I lost my father five years ago, and I still talk to him. I keep an old phone so I can re-read his texts. I completel...

The Buried Book by D.M. Pulley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read the book because I'd read, and loved, The Dead Key. It was a wise choice on my part.

To put it simply, I could not put this book down. I needed to find out, along with Jasper, what had happened to his mom, and I needed to know with an urgency which kept me up way too late.

The author does a wonderful job capturing the prevailing opinions and mood of the period in which the story takes place. I'm sure many readers will find the overt b...

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was astonishing, and completely engrossing. Maybe because I was one of those bookish kids myself, happier in my fantasy worlds than in the real world. Maybe it was because even in the heart of a bustling city, you can still feel alone.

The nameless narrator reminded me of so many things from my own youth, not the least of which was how much I would have wanted to be like Lettie-fearless and independent. The juxtap...

Xperiment by Dan Skinner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One of the things I've come to enjoy in reading anything by Dan Skinner is his unflinching need to see the world as it really is, even in this not so dystopian novel. The setting is St Louis, and I'd be hard pressed to see much difference between his version and the city I could visit next week, right here, and now. It's an ugly place, filled with prejudice, and hatred, and fear, and populated by small minds and smaller consciences.

Geoff Markham...

So, today was DMCA day. I'm unpublishing myself, so to speak, on what I hope is a temporary basis. I'll find new homes for my books, and I'll tweak them a little, make them fresh again before I send them off to be read, and hopefully liked. They're MY books. It's the first step to moving forward again.

But in the interim, I'm really angry, and frustrated, and upset because I was taken in by stories and an inclination to think the best of folks. 

And also because, as a small busin...

When I published my debut novella back in 2013, I was elated. It wasn't so much the idea of being a new author, because I wasn't. I'd been writing for a while, and publishing online for free. I didn't think I was good enough to put myself out there, and send something to a publisher.

A dear friend talked me into it, and Torquere Press Inc. took me on. It was honestly one of the best times of my life, and despite all the rollercoaster moments of editing, and worrying about whether or not I was...

And this morning, it feels like the world has gone mad...

I understand the anger. I understand the sense of marginalization which drove people to vote for a man whose entire campaign was based on hatred, fear, and divisive language. I understand feeling like burning down the house because there's no other way to get rid of what's wrong with it.

I understand, because I'm a woman, and I have children who aren't textbook perfect, and I have friends who are black, Hispanic, Muslim, Jewish, gay, tra...

Crisped + Sere by T.J. Klune
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Crisped + Sere picks up where Withered + Sere left us, and I was immediately swept back into the bleak and terrible world Cavalo and Lucas inhabit. In twenty-one days, the leader of the Dead Rabbits, Patrick, will return for Lucas, and Cavalo has choices to make.

These characters are complex, and hurt, and yet even in their broken state, they have a powerful beauty. Their imperfections keep them human in a setting where it is all too easy to l...