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Keys of Heaven by Adina Senft

Feb 032015
 

Cover for Keys of Heaven by Adina Senft. A white Amish woman in the foreground holds a basket of vegetables, a picturesque farm behind her.Sarah Yoder is learning to help the people in her Amish community as a Dokterfraa, creating teas and tinctures using the herbs she grows. But her latest patient seems to have a problem that can’t be resolved with anything in Sarah’s garden-a woman who, in Sarah’s mind, would flourish anywhere but in the place she lives. Meanwhile, Sarah’s relatives have decided to do a little matchmaking between her and a visiting Amish man. He would make a wonderful husband, and she knows she should be willing for God to show her His choice of partner…and not allow her friendship with her neighbor, Henry Byler, to grow into anything more.

Henry has seen some success as a potter since a major store commissioned a line of his work for their catalog. The trouble is that they want to market him as Amish. Though he was raised in the faith and now lives in Amish country, he has never joined church-and doesn’t plan to, either. Which means that, despite the attraction between them, he must keep his distance from Sarah. But what happens when Sarah and Henry are called upon to help a runaway whose family is too worldly to see how lost their son has become? The plant Sarah calls Keys of Heaven may be able to grow in impossible places, but it’s not so easy for people to find their own place. Which means it’s quite a temptation for her to take matters into her own hands…

 February 3, 2015  Tagged with: ,

Jacaranda by Cherie Priest

Jan 312015
 

Cover for Jacaranda by Cherie Priest. A Catholic priest stands in the foreground on a surreal rug, two staircases arching behind him, along with the shadow of a tree and a wolf.The Ranger

On the island of Galveston, off the coast of southeast Texas, lies a hotel called the Jacaranda. In its single year of operation, two dozen people have died there. The locals say it’s cursed. The Rangers say that’s nonsense, but they know a man who might be willing to investigate. Horatio Korman crosses the water from the mainland, and hopes for the best.

The Nun

But the bodies pile up, and a hurricane is brewing up fast. One of the Jacaranda’s guests sees time running out, so she seeks an authority of a different sort: a priest from El Huizache who is good at solving problems and keeping secrets. Eileen Callahan has a problem to solve, and a secret to keep. She crosses her fingers, and sends a message that could save them all.

The Padre

Juan Miguel Quintero Rios broke a promise to the Virgin, and so he was punished…but his intentions were pure, so he was also blessed. Now he walks the southwest with second sight and a tattoo across his back: Deo, non Fortuna—By God, not chance. The former gunslinger crosses himself, and makes for the Jacaranda Hotel.

 January 31, 2015  Tagged with: ,

Starred Review: Vision in Silver by Anne Bishop

Jan 232015
 

Cover for Vision in Silver by Anne Bishop. A white woman with black hair streaked with red looks at the reader, wearing a jean jacket and with bright yellow light shining behind her.RT Book Reviews: 4 1/2 stars, Top Pick! Get ready to do the happy dance! It’s time to revisit Namid, Bishop’s extraordinarily gripping world with its unforgettable, haunting characters. Award-winning Bishop is fashioning a richly textured series whose reimagined Earth is so unique, it is a character itself. However, it is the distinctive protagonists who make these novels so totally addicting and completely satisfying. The hard part is waiting for the next installment!

Continue reading »

 January 23, 2015  Tagged with: ,

Review: Gideon by Alex Gordon

Jan 222015
 

Cover for Gideon by Alex Gordon. The background is a grey, bleak landscape with a leafless tree in silhouette, smoke in the foreground forming a vaguely humanoid shape.The Washington Post has included Gideon among their “Best new science fiction and fantasy.”

Washington Post: Alex Gordon’s impressive debut, Gideon (Harper/Voyager; paperback, $14.99), delivers a fast-paced plot that makes you want to finish it in a day, even if you don’t have time. The Midwest town of Gideon is full of witches who guard the living world against demons. An execution gone wrong in 1836 haunts the present-day inhabitants, who are worried about the “thinning” space between the living and the dead. After the sudden death of her father, Lauren Reardon comes to town to find out more about her family history and is troubled to learn that her father wielded great power in Gideon. She must face down the threat of a dead soul ready to rise again and bring most of hell with him. Lauren has the power to stop him, but can she also withstand the grudges and alliances of the townspeople? Gordon’s descriptions of the petty jealousies and the insular nature of a small town make this paranormal novel feel scarily realistic.

 January 22, 2015  Tagged with: ,

Review: Jacaranda by Cherie Priest

Jan 192015
 

priest-jacarandaRomantic Times: Priest continues to be an effective crafter of dread and tension, and while Jacaranda is explicitly a novella, there are a few areas where the reader might wish for more. Despite being set in her Clockwork Century universe, aside from a few background touches, this could easily take place in any version of the Old West, and the book seems to be building to something bigger than it ultimately winds up being. The characters here are vivid and interesting enough that hopefully this particular adventure isn’t the last of we hear of them, or of the survivors at least. Continue reading »

 January 19, 2015  Tagged with: ,

Review: Keys of Heaven by Adina Senft

Jan 162015
 

Cover for Keys of Heaven by Adina Senft. A white Amish woman in the foreground holds a basket of vegetables, a picturesque farm behind her.RT Book Reviews: This is a busy series with many characters, but the tension between Sarah and Henry takes center stage. Readers will look forward to more attention focused on the potential romance between the two in the next title in the series, especially after the cliffhanger ending that leaves a misunderstanding unresolved. Continue reading »

 January 16, 2015  Tagged with: ,

2014 Philip K. Dick Award Nominees

Jan 122015
 

Cover for Maplecroft by Cherie Priest. A woman's whose blond hair is in a proper Victorian updo has her back to us as she stands between two forebodingly lit marble columns. She is wearing a fancy blue Victorian dress. In her left hand, held slightly behind her, she holds a bloody ax.Congratulations to Cherie Priest on Maplecroft being nominated for the 2014 Philip K. Dick Award!

Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks; and when she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one….

The people of Fall River, Massachusetts, fear me. Perhaps rightfully so. I remain a suspect in the brutal deaths of my father and his second wife despite the verdict of innocence at my trial. With our inheritance, my sister, Emma, and I have taken up residence in Maplecroft, a mansion near the sea and far from gossip and scrutiny.

But it is not far enough from the affliction that possessed my parents. Their characters, their very souls, were consumed from within by something that left malevolent entities in their place. It originates from the ocean’s depths, plaguing the populace with tides of nightmares and madness.

This evil cannot hide from me. No matter what guise it assumes, I will be waiting for it. With an axe.

 January 12, 2015  Tagged with: ,

io9’s Best SF/F Books of 2014

Jan 092015
 

Cover for Maplecroft by Cherie Priest. A woman's whose blond hair is in a proper Victorian updo has her back to us as she stands between two forebodingly lit marble columns. She is wearing a fancy blue Victorian dress. In her left hand, held slightly behind her, she holds a bloody ax.Congratulations to Cherie Priest on Maplecroft being included on io9’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of 2014 list!

Priest takes the legend of Lizzie Borden and her axe and combines it with H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos, for a rip-roaring story about a woman who was secretly a monster-hunter. Priest does an amazing job of fusing the real-life historical details about Lizzie and combining them with monstrous imaginings. This is a page-turning thriller that will delight true-crime fans as well as lovers of weird fiction — and it will leave you craving more.

 January 9, 2015  Tagged with: ,

Review: Vision in Silver by Anne Bishop

Jan 082015
 

Cover for Vision in Silver by Anne Bishop. A white woman with black hair streaked with red looks at the reader, wearing a jean jacket and with bright yellow light shining behind her.Library Journal: This is a strong example of a midseries-building book, showing the heightening of stress without a major change in the status quo. Bishop (Murder of Crows; Daughter of the Blood) marvelously invents a rich world that is a faint echo of our own but ruled by wild inhuman creatures tied to nature and pushed to violence by the greed of humans who refuse to understand that they are not in charge. The delicate character of Meg is a fulcrum, a special human whom the Others protect, and her damaged but determined will is the key to this terrific series.

As tensions escalate between the terra indigene known as the Others and the humans who live among them, Simon Wolfgard and the Lakeside Courtyard search for a compromise that will allow peaceful coexistence. But a group called Humans First and Last are stirring up hostility toward the Others, and blood prophet Meg Corbyn is crucial to uncovering their plans before it is too late.

 January 8, 2015  Tagged with: ,

Gideon by Alex Gordon

Jan 062015
 

Cover for Gideon by Alex Gordon. The background is a grey, bleak landscape with a leafless tree in silhouette, smoke in the foreground forming a vaguely humanoid shape.Preston & Child meets Kim Harrison in this edge-of-your-seat debut thriller—a superb blend of mystery, urban fantasy, horror, romance, and the supernatural.

When Lauren’s father dies, she makes a shocking discovery. The man she knew as John Reardon was once a completely different person, with a different name. Now, she’s determined to find out who he really was, even though her only clues are an old photograph, some letters, and the name of a town—Gideon.

But someone—or something—doesn’t want her to discover the truth. A strange man is stalking her, appearing everywhere she turns, and those who try to help her end up dead. Neither a shadowy enemy nor her own fear are going to prevent her from solving the mystery of her father—and unlocking the secrets of her own life.

Making her way to Gideon, Lauren finds herself more confused than ever. Nothing in this small Midwestern town is what it seems, including time itself. Residents start going missing, and Lauren is threatened by almost every townsperson she encounters. Two hundred years ago, a witch was burned at the stake, but in Gideon, the past feels all too chillingly present.

 January 6, 2015  Tagged with: ,
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