Tag: orbit books

Book Review: Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales (Emily Wilde #3) by Heather Fawcett

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Rating: ★★★
Audience: Cozy Fantasy
Length: 368 pages
Author: Heather Fawcett
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: February 11th, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Emily Wilde has spent her life studying faeries. A renowned dryadologist, she has documented hundreds of species of Folk in her Encyclopaedia of Faeries. Now she is about to embark on her most dangerous academic project studying the inner workings of a faerie realm-as its queen.

Along with her former academic rival-now fiancé-the dashing and mercurial Wendell Bambleby, Emily is immediately thrust into the deadly intrigues of Faerie as the two of them seize the throne of Wendell’s long-lost kingdom, which Emily finds a beautiful nightmare, filled with scholarly treasures.

Emily has been obsessed with faerie stories her entire life, but at first she feels as ill-suited to Faerie as she did to the mortal world-how could an unassuming scholar like herself pass for a queen? Yet there is little time to settle in-Wendell’s murderous stepmother has placed a deadly curse upon the land before vanishing without a trace. It will take all of Wendell’s magic-and Emily’s knowledge of stories-to unravel the mystery before they lose everything they hold dear.

DON’T COME AT ME.

I wanted to love this conclusion so much, but I don’t know if it was a right book, wrong time scenario or if this book wasn’t going to click for me regardless. I think it’s a great little cozy series and if you are a cozy person, absolutely try them. This sub-genre can go sideways for me sometimes and it did here.

This felt a lot like “how many times can I separate the couple rather than have them work together.” Rinse and repeat. I missed out on so much banter with these *forced* separations that I thought the plot ran dry.

So while not a hit, I still had a good time overall and look forward to whatever is next.

Overall audience notes:

  • Cozy fantasy
  • Language: low
  • Romance: closed door
  • Violence: mild

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Book Review: A Crown So Silver (Fair Folk #2) by Lyra Selene

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Fantasy Romance
Length: 496 pages
Author: Lyra Selene
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: January 21st, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

On a mysterious snowy island ruled by a trickster king where magic comes at a price, a deadly trial commences. The prize: a chance for vengeance.

After her sacrifice on the Ember Moon, Fia is flush with powerful magic and eager to rush into battle against her murderous sister, Eala. However, Fia’s new husband Irian suggests they bide their time and retreat to the Silver Isle, a snowy island at the edge of the fae world.

Ruled by the cunning smith-king, the Silver Isle proves far from a safe haven. Fia and Irian become embroiled in the Tournament of Kings competing for a magical forging of immense power. Their relationship will be put to the test as they navigate their conflicting motivations, shifting allegiances, and ancient magic.

With the end of the tournament looming and Eala’s threat growing, Fia must decide just how much she’s willing to sacrifice to defeat her sister.

I LIKED IT MORE THAN THE FIRST.

Which kind of surprises me but we’re going to roll with it. I thought it picked up great in the beginning and I immediately felt immersed in the audiobook and story and characters. I love when I don’t feel lost from the first book and the execution here helped that a lot.

Now the rest of the first half was a bit meh. I did like seeing Fia and Irian work together but the cracks started to show and I found myself bored with the plot. The second half was much better in this regard. The pacing found a steadier rhythm and I liked Fia’s character arc more by the end. And y’all know I love a good cliffhanger and this definitely had on that makes me want book three as soon as I can get my hands on it.

Highly recommend the audiobook because the narrator does an amazing job with the accents.

Overall audience notes:

  • Fantasy Romance
  • Language: strong
  • Romance: multiple open door
  • Violence: moderate – high

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ARC/ALC Book Review: The Trident and the Pearl (The Fisher King #1) by Sarah K.L. Wilson

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Rating: ★★★.5
Audience: Fantasy Romance
Length: 464 pages
Author: Sarah K.L. Wilson
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: February 24th, 2026
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

A desperate queen makes a deal with the gods to save her land in this spellbinding romantasy debut from Sarah K. L. Wilson.

Queen Coralys rules the Kingdom of the Five Isles, but when disaster strikes, killing her husband and destroying half her nation, she pleads with the gods for salvation. And they do save her, turning back the terrible winds and tide and snatching her islands from the brink of destruction.

But the gods have a wicked sense of justice and they demand an exchange for their help: Coralys must marry the first man to set foot on her pier. Coralys expects the fleet of a neighboring country to come to rescue her people, led by its prince, a loyal ally. What she gets instead is a fisherman so sunburnt and stinking that her court can barely keep their breakfast down.

Coralys marries the fisherman just as she promised the gods, and sets out with him in his unkempt dinghy, with nothing but hopes of revenge against the gods to keep her from despair. But what she does not know is that the fisherman is actually the god of the sea. And he stepped on her dock for a reason.

His own kingdom besieged, his body terribly wounded, and his place as a god threatened, the fisherman has plans to turn the tides set against him and finally offer a place of refuge for his people. But working the magic he needs will require the help of the one woman bent on his destruction.

Thank you Orbit Books for the gifted ARC.

EH, I DON’T KNOW Y’ALL.

I will say that I’m still obsessed with this cover.

Alright, now about the inside of the book. Initially I was fine with it, I was leaning into the vibes and I love marriage of convenience so I wanted to give it a chance. I loved the ocean based setting and that there seems to be a lot of meddling gods.

Then somewhere in the middle it kind of lost me? I was getting frustrated with the FMC and how she was choosing to make her decisions and listening to parties that were pretty dang obvious not anyone Coralys should be considering which caused more things to fall a part. And then the romance was missing something. It felt like certain pieces were forced and since this is a series I think it would have benefited from a different type of slow burn.

This book isn’t spice forward, which is super nice because I feel that’s all I see lately, which does lean me towards wanting to try book two. I thought the conclusion was a decent cliff hanger and made me curious to see how this will continue.

I listened to the audiobook as well and I did like the narration.

Overall audience notes:

  • Fantasy Romance
  • Language: low
  • Romance: heated kisses
  • Violence: moderate+
  • Content warnings: loss of a spouse, loss of life, battle themes, weapons altercations

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Book Review: The Shadow of the Gods (Bloodsworn Saga #1) by John Gwynne

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Rating: ★★★
Audience: Fantasy
Length: 480 pages
Author: John Gwynne
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: May 6th, 2021
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Set in a brand-new, Norse-inspired world, and packed with myth, magic and bloody vengeance, The Shadow of the Gods begins an epic new fantasy saga from bestselling author John Gwynne.

After the gods warred and drove themselves to extinction, the cataclysm of their fall shattered the land of Vigrið.

Now a new world is rising, where power-hungry jarls feud and monsters stalk the woods and mountains. A world where the bones of the dead gods still hold great power for those brave – or desperate – enough to seek them out.

Now, as whispers of war echo across the mountains and fjords, fate follows in the footsteps of three people: a huntress on a dangerous quest, a noblewoman who has rejected privilege in pursuit of battle fame, and a thrall who seeks vengeance among the famed mercenaries known as the Bloodsworn.

All three will shape the fate of the world as it once more falls under the shadow of the gods . . .

NOT WHAT I WAS EXPECTING.

I fully went into this book thinking I would love it and I am now sitting here wondering if I read a different book than all of the great reviews I read of this one. It wasn’t BAD, truly wasn’t, but there were a few things that didn’t work for me.

And maybe this was an audio issue? All of the names sounded very similar and it took me a bit to recognized who was who and what was going on with each POV. I loved that it had multiple POV’s but with so many side characters within each POV I started to get a bit lost. Frankly, I feel like I still don’t have a good grasp on the world building or everything that’s happening.

I did like Orka and Elvar’s POV’s the most. I was the most interested and engaged in their quests and journeys. I think the cover gave me vibes for something more intense and while there are action scenes and battles and such, with the lack of character driven-ness, I wasn’t feeling any sort of way about anyone who died.

Right now I can’t say I want to continue the series. It would take some major convincing to do so.

Overall audience notes:

  • Fantasy
  • Language: low
  • Romance: closed door
  • Violence: high

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