The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson
Fantasy/Horror
July 21, 2020 by Ace
ARC
I’ve never hidden the fact that I make a lot of my book buying decisions based first off the cover and then by reading the blurb. The Year of the Witching caught my eye in a Twitter thread about up and coming, new authors of color and as soon as I clicked on the link I knew I had to get my hands on a copy.
This is kind of a mash up of all the dystopian, religious cult like horror stories you’ve read… yet it feels fresh and is so very gripping. Readers are introduced to Immanuelle Moore who lives in a deeply religious, puritanical community where the words of the prophet are law and suspicions run deep towards outsiders and those who look different. She and her disgraced family live on the outskirts of town, just getting by, but remain loyal to the church and the prophet. Yet, Immanuelle is different, not only because of her mother and the circumstances of her birth, but because she is soon caught up in the battle between good and evil, the Mother and the Father, for the lives and souls of the town.
Once I opened my Kindle and started reading, I just couldn’t stop. This author has such a compelling voice and she weaves this tale of feminist resistance so effortlessly. I HAD to know what was coming next. I HAD to know if the prophet would get his comeuppance. I HAD to know how Immanuelle would overcome the ignorance and hypocrisy of Bethel to save them from themselves.
The Year of the Witching is not a light read. It is dark, intense, and deeply disturbing at times, but a very well written and easy to fall into for a day of reading. This author just jumped to the top of my auto-buy list and I can’t wait to read whatever she releases next.
CW– rape, sexual assault, violence
Final grade- B+
Mr. Malcolm’s List by Suzanne Allain
Historical Romance
July 28, 2020 by Berkley (First published 2009)
ARC
Mr. Malcolm’s List was originally published in 2009, but is now being rereleased after the author (who is also a screenwriter) got a film deal. I had no idea about any of this going in, but I kept seeing old reviews and finally decided to do my research and figure out what was going on.
Meh. That’s how I felt while reading. Just meh. I wasn’t engaged and I didn’t really care a whole lot about any of the main protagonists. Or secondary characters for that matter. The storytelling is kind of basic and surface level, lots of telling and not showing. Not a whole lot of character development or deep, engrossing emotional feelings between the hero and heroine. I wasn’t particularly excited by the dialogue or setting either. So just meh for me.
I started reading, then moved to skimming, then jumped to the end to see how it ended.
Final grade- D
Telling-not-showing is the worst sin for me when it comes to romance (or any fiction really) and will have me DNF-ing a book before almost anything else. I can’t calculate how many books will of a character, “He was a good-hearted, generous guy with a great sense of humor” and there’s absolutely no evidence of those traits anywhere on the page. Authors: Don’t tell us, show us!
100% agree!