Bargain Fantasy Book Reviews and Recommendations
Moon & Shadow is the first book in The Channeler Trilogy. A finalist in the 2021 Best Book Awards and a second place winner in the 2021 Purple Dragonfly Book Awards, J. Steven Lamperti’s Moon & Shadow is an enchanting fantasy with sweet romance, quirky characters, and engaging humor.
On one of the many planes of the Pentagonal Dominion, priestess Calinthe trades in information, collecting valuable secrets for her demonic employer. Calinthe has a secret of her own: she's intersex, making her a target for the matriarchal slavers of the Ophidian Plane whose territory she must cross in her search for hidden knowledge. But thanks to her friend Zakuro's illusions, Calinthe presents as a woman—a comfortable, if furtive, existence in a world determined to bring her to heel. But when, instead of a mere secret, the priestess uncovers an incalculably powerful artifact, Calinthe finds herself in a high-stakes negotiation with the same matriarchs who sought to enslave her. On the table: Calinthe's discovery, a charm powerful enough to transform a mortal into a god… against a secret so deadly it could quell all life on every plane of the dominion. If Calinthe plays her cards perfectly, she and Zakuro could escape Ophidia wealthier than either of them ever dreamed possible. But if she plays them wrong… she'll learn slavery in her pursuers' hands is a fate far worse than death.
You may think you know how the fairytale goes: a mermaid comes to shore and weds the prince. But what the fables forget is that mermaids have teeth. And now, her daughters have devoured the kingdom and burned it to ashes. On the run, the mermaid is joined by a mysterious plague doctor with a darkness of their own. Deep in the eerie, snow-crusted forest, the pair stumble upon a village of ageless children who thirst for blood, and the three “saints” who control them. The mermaid and her doctor must embrace the cruelest parts of their true nature if they hope to survive.
A girl full of heart
A thief touched by darkness
A hot-tempered golden boy
An unwitting servant of evil
The era of magic was once thought to be a myth, but after the Reemergence ushered forces both dark and light into the mundane world, it has since become a harsh reality. Now those affected by this strange power—a specialized group of Empowered called Jokers, known collectively as Cardplay—must protect their world from the darkness that threatens to consume it, all the while fighting for equality in a society clinging to normalcy.
But the Reemergence was only the beginning.
When another influx occurs on the seventh anniversary of that fateful event, an unfortunate encounter at ground zero lands Iori Ryone, a teenage boy in possession of a corrupt and legendary magic, in the care of recent Joker graduate Ellen Amelia Jane. From him, she learns the Reemergence may not have been the inevitable natural disaster it first seemed.
Someone is trying to tear down the barrier that separates the magical realms from the mundane. The question is why, and can Cardplay stop them before it’s too late?
THE WITCHER MEETS TRUE GRIT
Evaline Cartwright, a world-weary bounty hunter, and runaway Trivan Esterhazy are newly-met on a riverboat while fleeing the violence of the gold fields, eager for a return to civilization. But the frontier isn't done with them yet.
Beset by the foul magicks of a rogue mage and the schemes of mutinous passengers, the women will have to navigate hostile country together, using wits and weaponry both, to have any chance of reaching their destination alive.
What happens if you try to retire a god who is not ready to leave? An official from the Ministry of Divinity arrives at a university to decommission a local god. She is expecting an easy decommissioning of a waning god of mischief but finds instead an active god not interested in retiring and university administrators who have not told her the full story about the god. Can the Decommisioner discover the true story of this god in time to prevent his most destructive round of mischief yet?
The past can be a difficult thing to escape... Decommissioner Thirty-Seven is not the most conventional decommissioner at the Ministry of Divinities, but she takes her role of helping fading gods to retire seriously-and feels bad when things go wrong. Take the decommissioning of Laloran-morna, former god of warm ocean waves: she botched that, somehow, and now he spurts saltwater when upset. When seawater invades a development project in Laloran-morna's old haunts, suspicion naturally falls on him. But is the retired god the source of the problem? Or is it the work of a mortal saboteur? Searching for the answer to these questions brings Thirty-Seven face-to-face with a past she'd rather forget.
How far would you go to learn the truth?
Witches have been all but wiped out. The remnants of the once great covens are hidden, clinging to the last dregs of magic in a poisoned world.
In the sanctuary of Umeå, a fledgling witch named Kanruo searches for the truth behind his family as his crush on the local governor's son becomes harder to ignore.
But as secrets unveil themselves and dark forces converge on the horizon, will he be strong enough to change his fate?
The notorious Juniper Thimble is destined for execution. Caught stealing the king’s crown - in addition to her long list of crimes - she has only one way out. Juniper must survive the biggest, most deadly con of her life, commissioned by the king himself. Disguised as the crown prince’s lover, she is forced to protect him with her life...literally. Guarded by a surly squire, relentlessly attacked by demons, and surrounded by mysteriously disappearing servants, Juniper must dispatch the threat to the prince’s life before they find out who she really is.
Forbidden magic compelled Katira to live a lie, but learning the truth is far more dangerous than she ever dreamed.
When an innocent hunting trip turns into an attack, Katira’s world fractures. Her humble parents are actually legendary Stonebearers – immortal, powerful beings tasked with protecting the human world from creatures of the mirror realm.
Those cracks widen and shatter apart when the Archdemoness, Wrothe, escapes from her timeless prison and snatches Katira away, intending to use her as bait to destroy not only her family line, but the entire Stonebearer Society.
If Katira is to be made whole again, she must learn to trust the young stranger who’s trying to save her while finding the strength to accept not only her parents' power, but her own.
The Book Dragon 
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