Audition For the Fox by Martin Cahill: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

Audition for the Fox by Martin Cahil

Audition for the Fox is a novella length fantasy set in a world I presumed was inspired by East-Asian mythology, but so lightly that nothing really stands out. It also leans heavily on the fairytale tradition and stories about wily fox outsmarting everyone.

Nesi, 21, is a descendant of the Bull god, one of the ninety-nine pillars of a pantheon that consists of animal gods. She’d been dumped to a temple by her parents as a child, and there she must stay unless she can find a patron for herself in one of the gods. But she’s already failed 96 auditions with them, even with her great-great-grandfather the Bull, and there are only bad options left. Despite warnings, she decides to audition for the Fox, T’sidaan, who has never taken an acolyte.

Next thing she knows, she’s been sent back in time 300 years when her country was occupied by supporters of the Wolf. The Wolf had been a pillar back when there were a hundred of them, but he’s been permanently banished. We learn why later, and the banishment was deserved. His supporters are cruel and her people are suffering.

She’s taken in chains to a labour camp fortress to work for the soldiers of the Wolf with other captives. And the Fox gives her a task: she must start a revolution. Easier said than done when everything she tries gets her beaten up and incarcerated. And she’s really back in time, so if she fails, she’ll change the future of her time too. But little by little, she learns the wily ways of the fox and with their help, manages to free everyone. But it’s only the start of the revolution.

This was a good story about good winning over evil, with morals. It’s narrated like a fairytale, complete with several stories of the Fox, and is almost solely told instead of shown. The one exception where the narrative stops and lets the reader watch the characters operate in real time stands out almost like an anomaly.  But in order to tell a massive story of a revolution in a novella form, the chosen narrative style is basically the only way to do it. And it works, keeping the reader interested.

We don’t really learn anything about Nesi, and I only presume she comes from a modern world. But she’s stubborn, strong and resilient like the Bull and she pushes through. I liked her, but because of the distancing narrative style, I didn’t really get attached to the couple of named characters there were besides her. But T’sidaan comes alive through their stories and turns out to be delightful. In the afterword, the author hints at more of their adventures with Nesi. I’d read them.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Summer War by Naomi Novik: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

The Summer War by Naomi Novik

The Summer War is a fairytale set in fantasy kingdom that shares a border with the fairy summer court. For a century, a war has raged every summer between the two countries over a fairy princess who was mistreated by a human king. But now the war is over, thanks to Celia’s father, the duke.

Celia is twelve and her beloved eldest brother Argent has just denounced his father and left home for good to be a knight in the summer court, because he wants to be free to love who he wants. Furious, Celia wishes he never finds love except in his blade, only for her powers as a sorceress to manifest at that point, making it a true curse instead.

With a sorcerer to barter with for his family’s position, Celia’s father arranges a marriage for her with the crown prince—or she suggests it, as she’s very clever for a twelve-year-old. But when the time for the wedding comes a couple of years later, she ends up married to the prince of the summer court instead. He wants revenge for the sister he lost a century ago, a mere blink in his long life. Celia has to suffer the exact fate his sister did. But she jumped off a tower and Celia has no intention of killing herself.

Luckily for her, Argent shows up to fight for her freedom. But she soon realises it’s the curse pushing him. She’s the only person who loves him and he wants to die for it to end the curse in his terms. But the prince can’t reverse his oath either, without suffering fatal consequences. So, one of the three has to die for the situation to be solved, and Celia can’t let that happen.

This was a good fairytale. It was fairly short and could be read in a couple of hours, but a lot happened. Celia befriended her neglected middle brother after Argent left and the two plotted to go to the summer court to end Argent’s curse. They even ran their father’s estate while the duke mourned the loss of his eldest son. The way out of the curse seemed impossible, but the entire family came together to solve it, and Celia was the cleverest of all in the end. The good people won and the bad people got their just deserts, although their fate wasn’t as bad as is usual in fairytales. No gruesome deaths for them.

The narrative flowed constantly, even though it was filled with a lot of information and secondary fairytales, and it was easy to read. It’s not a very memorable story, but it was a pleasant read for an evening, like a fairytale should be.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

You've Got Mail: The Perils of Pigeon Post Vol. 4 by Blackegg: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

You've Got Mail: The Perils of Pigeon Post by Blackegg

Volume 4 ends the BL story set in ancient China that follows the very uneven romance between Wu Xingzi, a middle-aged country clerk, and Guan Shanjin, the only son of Lord Protector and a decorated general in his twenties. They met in a pigeon post club for gay men that exchanged pictures of penises, but the story gained depth from a treason plot and scheming old flames.

The previous book left Guan Shanjin imprisoned, seemingly for treason. But it’s only a ruse to flush out the real mastermind. He thinks he’s being clever, keeping Wu Xingzi in the dark so he won’t be harmed, but the old clerk is cleverer and more determined than Guan Shanjin believes. Not only does Wu Xingzi persuade Bai Shaochang who framed Guan Shanjin, into confessing, he is instrumental in bringing down the mastermind Yan Wenxin, the man he was romantically involved in his youth and who betrayed him back then.

The main story takes about a third of the last volume. All the problems are solved and the bad people get their comeuppances, including Lu Zezhi, the old teacher of Guan Shanjin. It’s a satisfying ending with a happily ever after. Despite the two men being very different, Guan Shanjin genuinely worships his plain and weak middle-aged spouse, and the shy older man flourishes under his care.

The ending is also very different from how the story began. The author notes in her afterword that she set out to write porn, and the first two volumes were mostly about that. But a plot emerged at some point and it pushed the extravagant bedroom scenes to the background. The ending of the story was practically demure compared to how it began.

The rest of the longish volume is extra stories, some of them very long. The best two are the wedding of Wu Xingzi and Guan Shanjin and a story of how they adopt a son. There’s also a longish story about Yan Wenxin who isn’t executed for treason but is given to the Khan of the neighbouring kingdom as a concubine instead.

The rest of the extras are various alternate universe stories, like omega-verse and beast-man ones. These are basically pure porn and I mostly skimmed them. However, it didn’t have a conclusion to the romance of Man Yue, Guan Shanjin’s right hand man, which began in the previous volume. I would’ve liked to read that.

I don’t usually comment on illustrations, but they were constantly in wrong places in this volume, confusing the reader. I don’t know what happened with those here.

All in all, the story improved as it progressed. Wu Xingzi emerged as an interesting character and while Guan Shanjin remained brash and overpowering, he was absolved in his love for Wu Xingzi. The five star rating for this volume is more for the overall story than the conclusion, as it was fairly short in the end and the extras would’ve maybe brought the rating down a little. For porn, the bedroom scenes stretched the imagination a bit too much, but as a romance it was lovely.

To Kill a Badger by Shelly Laurenston: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

To Kill a Badger by Shelly Laurenston

This is book six in the Honey Badger Chronicles of a group of borderline insane honey badger shifter women who wreak international havoc when they’re not playing basketball. In this book, the last of the women, Nelle Zhao, the youngest daughter of a rich and influential Hong Kong honey badger family, finds her mate in Keane Malone, a Siberian tiger shifter who only cares about football, his family, and getting revenge on de Medici lion shifter coalition. Not necessarily in that order.

In the previous book, de Medicis released a drug that can kill honey badger shifters who are pretty much indestructible otherwise. In retaliation, Charlie, the oldest of the women, delivered a message, the dead body of the de Medici head of the family. In this book, de Medicis retaliate. Too bad they go after the wrong group of insane honey badgers. Now the previous generation is involved too.

Nelle, the fixer, needs to fix things before an all-out war breaks out—or before Charlie meddles again, because she’s not subtle. She heads to France to negotiate with influential honey badgers to form a coalition against de Medicis, and takes Keane with her. Things don’t go exactly smoothly, but the two end up bonding.

This was a great book, maybe the best in the series. Like always, there are several POV characters, some for only a half a chapter or less. Several things happen at once, but they were fairly easy to follow for a change. And as always, things were chaotic and bat-shit crazy, as some characters enjoy stirring shit. (Looking at you, Max.) The crones were highly annoying, but unlike in the previous book where they were just thrown at the reader who hadn’t read their series, they were properly introduced and given their separate identities.

Romance isn’t the driving force of the plot and is mostly on the background, like in the earlier books. However, the couple actually spends a lot of time together here and the reader can follow their bond forming. Nelle and Keane made a really good couple and their chemistry felt real, so that by the time they end up in bed together, it feels earned. Nelle wasn’t half as annoying as she’s appeared to be in earlier books and Keane was absolutely delightful for a grumpy, constantly angry tiger. Theirs might be a true union, unlike the other girls’ whose mates basically ended up as background characters the women barely interact with.

I think this is the last book. All the women have now found their mates and the Malones have had their revenge. If that is the case, the series ends with a high note and leaves things in a good place. However, the ending sets the stage for a new story, so there could be a spin-off in the making too. I would love to read that, or anything the author writes under her two names (I’m still waiting for more Crows), as no one does insanely violent women like Laurenston/Aiken.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Villains Are Destined to Die (novel), Vol. 1 by Gwon Gyeoeul: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads 

Villains Are Destined to Die by Gwon Gyeoeul

Villains Are Destined to Die is a Korean isekai reverse harem/dating game light novel set in a fantasy empire. A Korean college student gets hooked on a dating game where a long-lost daughter of a duke returns and wins the hearts of her five suitors despite the fake daughter, Penelope, trying her best to kill her. There’s also a hard mode of the game, where one plays as Penelope. But try as she might, she always dies on that mode.

And then she wakes up inside the game, as Penelope. Knowing that she’ll die, no matter what she does, she sets out to improve her odds of survival. It’s not easy for her though. Penelope’s circumstances are too much alike her own life as a reviled daugher by a mistress of a wealthy businessman. She’s angry even, having just fled her miserable life, only to land in a similar situation.

Step by step, she improves her life, like gaining the ability to say what she wants instead of having to rely on the game’s dialogue that always gets her killed. She needs to reach 100% affection with one of the five men for the game to end, preferably before the real daughter returns and ruins everything in a few months’ time, and some of the counts start at zero, or even below. She’s even more careful after she realises there’s no reset button in this game. If she dies, she’ll stay dead. And she’ll die if the affections of any of the five love interests drop below zero.

One by one, she meets the men. Two of them are her step brothers who hate her the most. There’s also an insane crown prince, a sorcerer, and a former slave she buys from an auction and makes her personal guard. All are difficult in their own way for her to make to like her, let alone love. On top of which, the entire household hates her and tries to make her life miserable.

This was a good start to a series. I’d read the first volume of the manhwa adaptation and liked it very much, but the book was better. It’s fairly fast-paced, well-written and engaging. The new Penelope is a very different person than the Penelope of the game, and little by little, she changes everyone’s perceptions of her.

I liked Penelope and all the love interests were interesting and potential end-games. I don’t know if she has to win over only one of them like in the game, in which case any one of them will do at this point, or if she’ll end up with all of them, which would be fine too. No one is a sure winner yet, even if her guard is in a lead, and it’ll take the whole series before 100% affection is reached. Looking forward to reading more.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.