The Deep & Dark Blue by Niki Smith

• Genre: Fantasy
• Age group: Middle Grade
• Pub. date: January 7th 2020 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
• Format: Print
• Pages: 256
• Goodreads link

After a terrible political coup usurps their noble house, Hawke and Grayson flee to stay alive and assume new identities, Hanna and Grayce. Desperation and chance lead them to the Communion of Blue, an order of magical women who spin the threads of reality to their will.

As the twins learn more about the Communion, and themselves, they begin to hatch a plan to avenge their family and retake their royal home.While Hawke wants to return to his old life, Grayce struggles to keep the threads of her new life from unraveling, and realizes she wants to stay in the one place that will allow her to finally live as a girl.

This graphic novel was a joy. The story is sweet and wholesome, the art is beautiful and the colors so vibrant, I love mixing pink and blue. It was a really quick read, I do with it were longer, but the pacing felt good.

I really enjoyed the magic system/religion in the story, weaving always works well for me and it was cool learning about that.

My favorite part for sure was the inclusivity and the acceptance. When the main character comes out as trans everyone is supportive of her and it just made me so happy.

r/fantasy Bingo squares: Trans character, Comfort read,

The Cat Who Saved Books by Sōsuke Natsukawa, translated by Louise Heal Kawai

• Genre: Fantasy
• Age group: Adult
• Pub. date: December 7th 2021 by HarperVia
• Format: Ebook
• Pages: 208
• Goodreads link

The #1 Japanese bestseller—a celebration of books, cats, and the people who love them, infused with the heartwarming spirit of The Guest Cat and The Travelling Cat Chronicles.

Bookish high school student Rintaro Natsuki is about to close the secondhand bookstore he inherited from his beloved bookworm grandfather. Then, a talking cat named Tiger appears with an unusual request. The feline asks for—or rather, demands—the teenager’s help in saving books with him. The world is full of lonely books left unread and unloved, and Tiger and Rintaro must liberate them from their neglectful owners.

Their mission sends this odd couple on an amazing journey, where they enter different mazes to set books free. Through their travels, Tiger and Rintaro meet a man who leaves his books to perish on a bookshelf, an unwitting book torturer who cuts the pages of books into snippets to help people speed read, and a publishing drone who only wants to create bestsellers. Their adventures culminate in one final, unforgettable challenge—the last maze that awaits leads Rintaro down a realm only the bravest dare enter . . .

An enthralling tale of books,first love, fantasy, and an unusual friendship with a talking cat, The Cat Who Saved Books is a story for those for whom books are so much more than words on paper.

This was a strange book, in the sense that I enjoyed it but not as much as I thought I would. On the one hand it’s a cute story about a kid who’s helped by a talking cat to sort of come out of his shell after his grandad’s death. It is about loving books and the power of books to help. The story with Rintaro and how he loved his grandad and slowly finds his way back after his death is touching. The part about travelling through labyrinths and talking about books was very interesting.

It’s also a critique of ways modern people treat books, that sometimes hit home and sometimes I’m not sure I agree with it. There are definitely valid points about focusing too much on volume of books read/owned, consumerism and only chasing easy reads. It’s just that, maybe it’s the timing and the global parallelogram, but I’m not in the mood to criticise anyone for choosing to focus on easy comfort reads if that brings joy and peace right now. The book did a good job of showing nuance and questioning whether the saving was saving after all, but I still felt like it framed things as a right and a wrong way to read and I’m not a fan of that idea. So overall it didn’t feel as warm and fuzzy to me as maybe it was meant to. I suspect a good chunk of this is on my current mood, a lot of people love the book and say it’s feel good and everything.

We rate cats: I always love a good talking cat and this was no exception. He is a bit of an ass, but all the cats I know are a lot of an ass so I kinda dig that aspect, and I think it was maybe his most cat-like aspect.

r/fantasy Bingo squares: set in Asia

The Winter King (Weathermages of Mystral #1) by C.L. Wilson

• Genre: Fantasy Romance
• Age group: Adult
• Pub. date: July 29th 2014 by Avon
• Format: Audiobook
• Pages: 594
• Goodreads link

After three long years of war, starkly handsome Wynter Atrialan will have his vengeance on Summerlea’s king by taking one of the man’s beautiful, beloved daughters as his bride. But though peace is finally at hand, Wynter’s battle with the Ice Heart, the dread power he embraced to avenge his brother’s death, rages on.

Khamsin Coruscate, Princess of Summerlea and summoner of Storms, has spent her life exiled to the shadows of her father’s palace. Reviled by her father, marriage to Wintercraig’s icy king was supposed to be a terrible punishment, but instead offers Kham her first taste of freedom—and her first taste of overwhelming passion.

As fierce, indomitable Wynter weathers even Khamsin’s wildest storms, surprising her with a tenderness she never expected, Kham wants more than Wynter’s passion—she yearns for his love. But the power of the Ice Heart is growing, dangerous forces are gathering, and a devastating betrayal puts Khamsin and Wynter to the ultimate test.

Another mixed feelings read this month. This book starts ok, meanders in the middle and picks up in the last part. It also turns out to be much more of a chonk than the begining would suggest. The pacing is very uneven and I was contemplating dropping this about midway when it was stalling, but I’m glad I stuck to it because the second half of the book veers into epic fantasy that’s intense and fun. The audiobook is also very fairytale-y, and in the slow parts I ended up speeding it up the narration a fair bit.

Ok, I had to get that out of my system.

The vibes of the book are pretty fairytale-like, two kingdoms at war, a bunch of young princess that are beautiful, have magic powers and very on the nose names. Some old myths, some threats of monsters. But dark fairytale, not sanitized disney fairytale. There are a few infuriating characters that keep showing up and made want to do murder. The main romance is passionate and fragile, with trust very slowly earned and easily lost. I liked the pairing a lot. By the end I was completely glued to my audiobook and invested in this story.

I also noticed now that the cover is white washed. There’s a whole lot in the book about how she’s got darker skin because she’s from summerplace and he’s got lighter skin cause he’s from winterplace, on the cover if anything she looks ever paler than him. It’s definitely something that is immediately obvious to the people of Winterly. I gotta say, for a book published in 2014, really Avon?

r/fantasy Bingo squares: cat squasher, genre mashup

A Dash of Trouble (Love Sugar Magic #1) by Anna Meriano

• Genre: Fantasy
• Age group: Middle Grade
• Pub. date: January 2nd 2018 by Walden Pond Press
• Format: Ebook
• Pages: 336
• Goodreads link

Leonora Logroño’s family owns the most beloved bakery in Rose Hill, Texas, spending their days conjuring delicious cookies and cakes for any occasion. And no occasion is more important than the annual Dia de los Muertos festival.

Leo hopes that this might be the year that she gets to help prepare for the big celebration—but, once again, she is told she’s too young. Sneaking out of school and down to the bakery, she discovers that her mother, aunt, and four older sisters have in fact been keeping a big secret: they’re brujas—witches of Mexican ancestry—who pour a little bit of sweet magic into everything that they bake.

Leo knows that she has magical ability as well and is more determined than ever to join the family business—even if she can’t let her mama and hermanas know about it yet.

And when her best friend, Caroline, has a problem that needs solving, Leo has the perfect opportunity to try out her craft. It’s just one little spell, after all…what could possibly go wrong?

This is a very sweet middle-grade contemporary fantasy, set around Dia de los Muertos, so good timing to read it in autumn. I like the pretty low and personal stakes throughout. The family owns the best bakery in town, so there’s a lot of talk of cookies and such that made me go and make gingersnaps, never had them before, they’re lovely.

A common theme is secrets, the parents not telling Leo stuff and Leo hiding stuff from them. I usually dislike this trope but I thought it worked ok here, cause the main conflict was just trying to get some kids at school get along, not some world-ending trouble. And because everyone’s good people and most of the secrets come from misguidedly trying to protect.

The MC is the youngest of a big family, she has 4 older sisters, and I liked reading about that. The mix of magic and baking was fun, and how the spells worked, or didn’t work out.

r/fantasy Bingo squares: Latinx or Latin American author, Witches,

The Philosopher’s Flight by Tom Miller

• Genre: Fantasy
• Age group: Adult
• Pub. date: February 13th 2018 by Simon & Schuster
• Format: Print
• Pages: 422
• Goodreads link

A thrilling debut from ER doctor turned novelist Tom Miller, The Philosopher’s Flight is an epic historical fantasy set in a World-War-I-era America where magic and science have blended into a single extraordinary art.

Eighteen-year-old Robert Weekes is a practitioner of empirical philosophy—an arcane, female-dominated branch of science used to summon the wind, shape clouds of smoke, heal the injured, and even fly. Though he dreams of fighting in the Great War as the first male in the elite US Sigilry Corps Rescue and Evacuation Service—a team of flying medics—Robert is resigned to mixing batches of philosophical chemicals and keeping the books for the family business in rural Montana, where his mother, a former soldier and vigilante, aids the locals.

When a deadly accident puts his philosophical abilities to the test, Robert rises to the occasion and wins a scholarship to study at Radcliffe College, an all-women’s school. At Radcliffe, Robert hones his skills and strives to win the respect of his classmates, a host of formidable, unruly women.

Robert falls hard for Danielle Hardin, a disillusioned young war hero turned political radical. However, Danielle’s activism and Robert’s recklessness attract the attention of the same fanatical anti-philosophical group that Robert’s mother fought years before. With their lives in mounting danger, Robert and Danielle band together with a team of unlikely heroes to fight for Robert’s place among the next generation of empirical philosophers—and for philosophy’s very survival against the men who would destroy it.

In the tradition of Lev Grossman and Deborah Harkness, Tom Miller writes with unrivaled imagination, ambition, and humor. The Philosopher’s Flight is both a fantastical reimagining of American history and a beautifully composed coming-of-age tale for anyone who has ever felt like an outsider.

This was a good book that I read at the wrong time. It gender flips a lot of discrimation, looks at a lot of issues in a way that felt relevant so made my just sad and angry while reading. It also has really cool fun parts, the main thing is flying, how awesome is that, so I was always at a weird place where I didn’t feel like reading it, but I enjoyed reading it  whenever I picked it up.

I don’t really know what to say about it, it’s a solid book, it has a good story, interesting characters and relationships between them. Cool magic and good and tense world situation, just didn’t connect to my current mood at all.

r/fantasy Bingo squares: Book club