Roger's Reads

Author & Book Reviewer

Review of Lava Red Feather Blue by Molly Ringle

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Lava Red Feather Blue is a fun fairytale-esque gay-themed fantasy that takes place in Eidolonia. In this world, the fae realm and the human realm are separated by a border, though many of the inhabitants intermingle. In this world, magic and faeries are commonplace, and peace between the two domains is maintained because of prince Larkin and the evil and powerful fae queen Ula Kana, both of whom were placed under an enchanted slumber in the year 1799. As long as they’re both asleep, the human realm is safe.

The story follows our main character, Merrick Highvalley, a modern-day-witch who is half-fae and a descendant of the original witch who cast the spell placing prince Larkin and Ula Kana into their slumber. When Merrick inadvertently awakens the sleeping prince, chaos ensues because when Larkin awoke, so did Ula Kana, and she is determined to destroy the human realm.

Larkin and Merrick then embark together on a potentially deadly plan to stop the evil queen, and as the story moves forward, their connection to each other deepens. I really loved the chemistry between these two very different characters, and it was fun watching them fall for each other while they both attempted to fight their attraction. I also enjoyed watching Larkin try to adjust to the new century, given that he’d been asleep for 200 years. It gave me a chuckle several times, watching him trying to differentiate between magic and technology. The banter and flirting between the two of them were also lighthearted and comical.

Another thing I enjoyed about the story was how there was no homophobia by either society or anyone’s family — being gay was just automatically accepted by everyone. Additionally, one of Merrick’s siblings was non-binary, which was also universally accepted, so I really enjoyed the representation.

Additionally, I thought the world-building and the magic system in this story were phenomenal. The author really brought the story to life because of the atmospheric and lush descriptions. The tale was moody and immersive, giving me the feeling that I was right there along with the characters.

Ringle has created here a cleverly crafted new world that I wanted to lose myself in. It’s a story featuring a great cast of believable characters, a compelling world, an intriguing political and magical system, and a satisfying conclusion. It’s a dark and fascinating tale — a beautifully woven magical adventure of two desperate souls who enter into a strange new world.

As an extra treat, the author included a section at the end of the book explaining the mythologies behind the names of the characters — both human and fae — as well
as the names for the various places in the story.

A huge thank you to Netgalley for providing a review copy of this book. The book goes on sale on January 5th, 2021 but it available for preorder now.

Purchase Lava Red Feather Blue from Amazon.

Review of Better Have Heart by Anyta Sunday and Andy Gallo

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Blurb:

They hate everything about each other, so why do they harmonize so well?

Isaiah Nettles wants a chance. A chance to help his family.

The prestigious Gage Scholarship will secure his future. He needs this. The competition might be hot, but Darren Gage is a golden child. No way will Isaiah let an entitled rich kid be handed the award.

But what if Darren is more than an entitled rich kid?

Darren Gage wants to be seen. Seen as more than just his name.

The Gage Scholarship will let him shine. He needs this. Sure, Isaiah is insanely sexy—and right to stand up for himself—but he is the competition.

No way will Darren let just anyone take his legacy.

But what if Isaiah isn’t just anyone?

Review

This is the second book in the Harrison Campus series by this duo. I’ve already read the third book in this series (which I loved!) but have yet to read the first. The story is a slow-burn opposites attract/enemies to lovers tale that follows two college boys, Darren and Isaiah, who find themselves competing for the same scholarship program.

These two men couldn’t be more different. Darren comes from a wealthy family – a VERY WEALTHY family — and has never had to worry about money. He has also recently come out to his parent, and since then, his father has barely spoken two words to him. Darren is hurt by his father’s reaction and is desperately trying to win his approval. He’s hoping that landing this scholarship will put him back in his father’s good graces.

On the other hand, Isiah is out and proud and has a fantastic relationship with his mother. He grew up with very little money, and his mother works extra hard to support the family. He also works as a yoga instructor to earn extra money to help ease his mother’s burden.

Now it’s worth mentioning that the scholarship program for which they’re competing was initially set up by Darren’s great-grandfather specifically for the Gage men (though that’s not explicitly stated in the rules). Thus, Darren is expected to automatically receive it without having to compete for it. When Isaiah learns of this, he files a complaint with the university. The university decides that the only solution is for the two men to compete for the scholarship, which involves them working on special projects together. The scholarship is extremely important to both of them for different reasons, and each is determined to win.

Initially, it’s pretty rough going for our cut-throat competitors, and most of their early interactions are unfriendly and uncomfortable. What our guys didn’t count on was the intense attraction they felt for their “enemy” and soon begin to form, in spite of themselves, a deep personal relationship. Though it first appears that these two couldn’t be more different, they soon discover they have a lot more in common than they initially thought.

I thought the character development was outstanding, and I really loved both of these guys. They’re both quite complex once we get to know them. Darren is not at all the typical spoiled rich kid that Isaiah had him pegged for and rather is kind, compassionate, principled, and selfless. Isaiah, though he initially came across as super judgmental and a tad hot-tempered, ended up being quite an honorable character: empathetic, also kind and determined. I loved watching them bond over their mutual love of music and, subsequently, fall in love with each other before they even knew it was happening. I loved watching them fight their attraction and, ultimately, losing.

As typical in Ms. Sunday’s book, this was a super slow-burn, so you’ll have to be patient before we get to the steamy parts. What we do have is a lovely, heartfelt college romance between two endearing and admirable characters who both utterly enthralled me and stole my heart. This adorable book brought tears of joy to my eyes a couple of times and also had plenty of laugh-out-loud moments.

I look forward to reading more in this series.

Purchase Better Have Heart from Amazon

Review of Route of Ice and Salt by José Luis Zárate

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Book cover for Route of Ice and Salt by José Luis Zárate

Those of us familiar with Bram Stoker’s Dracula know that the ship which transported Count Dracula arrived utterly empty except for the dead captain chained to the helm, with nobody knowing that happened to the rest of the crew….that is, until now.

Initially published in 1998, The Route of Ice and Salt is a reimagining of Dracula’s voyage from Transylvania to England on The Demeter. It is narrated by the captain (we never do learn his name), who is assigned to transport fifty crates filled with Transylvanian soil from Varna to Whitby.

We learn right off the bat that the captain isn’t what one pictures as a typical captain of this time period. For one thing, he is gay, and the first part of the novel centers heavily on the captain’s sexuality. We enter into his head as he fantasizes and dreams about having sex with his crew — hungering and yearning for the touch of another man. It was heartbreaking to see how the captain yearned for connection with others but dared not get close to anyone lest they discover his horrible secret.

But our captain also suffers from internalized guilt and internalized homophobia, as it’s slowly revealed that his lover was murdered in a homophobic act of violence by a mob. Because of this, the Captain experiences shame at what he is but, surprisingly, comes to accept himself more and more as the novel progresses. It becomes clear to him that he is not the monster here, but instead, it is that which is causing the disappearance of his men. So what we have here, then, is a story consisting of multiple layers; there is so much more to it than merely a gay captain transporting 50 crates of soil to England.

Now I will say that there’s not much of a plot to this story, and anyone familiar with Bram Stoker’s classic knows how it turns out. There is also minimal dialog and not a whole lot of action. What we do have, however, is a character-driven novel told mostly through internal monologue that’s ultimately about hunger and desire, about inner monsters vs. real-life monsters, about heroes and villains, about suppressing your true self, about how dangerous homophobia can be (both internalized and external) and about redemption.

I enjoyed how the vampire stalking the crew paralleled the captain’s predatory (according to him) desires and thoughts. But through the captain’s revelations, the reader is reminded that being gay and loving others is not what is monstrous, but rather it is that which preys upon innocents where we find the true villains/monsters. I did enjoy the captain’s character arc as he came to some amazing realizations about himself, his lover’s horrific murder, and society in general.

This novel is also quite dense, though it is beautifully written. The prose is lyrical, flowery, and poetic with phenomenal descriptions and meticulously crafted sentences, and I found it a joy to read. I loved the gothic feel and atmosphere to this story, which the author really pulled off swimmingly. That being said, there are some genuinely creepy scenes in the book, especially those involving rats, distressing dreams, the crew’s unexplainable fear, and, of course, a vampire slowly taking over the ship.

Though indeed disturbing, dark, and unsettling, this tension-filled book was also incredibly rewarding to read with its compelling main character, beautiful prose, and fascinating storyline. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

A huge thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this book for review purposes.

Purchase The Route of Ice and Salt on Amazon

Review of Everything I Thought I Knew by Shannon Takaoka

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Blurb:

Seventeen-year-old Chloe had a plan: work hard, get good grades, and attend a top-tier college. But after she collapses during cross-country practice and is told she needs a new heart, all her careful preparations are laid to waste. Six months after her transplant, everything is different. Stuck in summer school with the underachievers, the “new Chloe” takes heedless risks, like skipping her anti-rejection meds while running wild with the class party girl and nearly crashing a motorcycle she’s not even licensed to ride. Even more unsettling: her recurring nightmares of dying and the strange, vivid memories she doesn’t recognize as her own.

The only place Chloe feels at home is in the ocean, where she’s learning to surf the Pacific’s wild waves and slowly falling for her instructor, Kai. But as her strange symptoms continue, she becomes more and more convinced that something is wrong with her new heart—or even worse, her mind. As Chloe searches for answers, what she learns will lead her to question everything she thought she knew about life, death, love and the true nature of reality.

Review:

This follows our main character Chloe whose life is derailed after she collapses while running. She learns that she has a serious heart condition and is a very sick young lady.  Her doctor tells her that her only chance of survival is to obtain a heart transplant sooner rather than later.  Luckily for her, a heart becomes available, and the operation is a success.

So after that, C begins to have disturbing nightmares about dying in a motorcycle crash and dreams about a woman she’d never met, all of which start seeping into her everyday life. She’s also begun recognizing people she’d never seen before, experiencing unfamiliar feelings, and is developing a desire for doing things that have never even crossed her mind in the past, such as surfing and getting tattoos.  She ends up exploring her “rebellious” side, something quite out of character for the “old” Chloe.

To satisfy her urge for surfing, she even begins taking lessons from a super attractive surfer dude named Kai, and he ends up playing quite an essential role in her life.

The book got especially interesting once she starts researching cellular memory, in which an organ donation recipient can experience thoughts, feelings, and even memories of the original organ owner.  I was mesmerized when the story took off in this direction, and Chloe begins asking some big questions, providing a lot for the reader to think about as well.  It was fun journeying and guessing along with Chloe as she moved closer and closer to a place of understanding.

So what we have here, then, is kind of a speculative mystery as Chloe searching for answers about what is happening to her — about the strange visions and memories that seem to be taking over her life. She even tracks down her heart donor’s family to prove to herself she’s not going crazy. 

This is such a sensitive subject, and Takaoka delves into with a lot of thought and consideration to all parties who might be involved. This is one of those books that was about a serious issue and one that you probably don’t think about unless it touches your life; about how in order for one person to live, someone else had to die. I’d never considered many of the issues that this book brought up, and I am definitely glad that I read it.  

And the unusual paranormal/quantum physics direction that the book went in as well as the compelling mystery added to the richness of the reading experience. There’s also a HUGE twist near the end which I did not see coming, but which made me love this story all the more. I was surprised in the best of ways, and the new knowledge even brought a tear to my eye. 

In truth, Everything I Thought I Knew is a super-rich story: it deals with very loaded issues like grief, regret, loss, survival, and trauma, but also with the opportunity to start anew, with the vital importance of second chances, and the difficult journey of personal growth. It’s Chloe’s steely determination to figure out what was happening to her that makes Everything I Thought I Knew compelling, fierce, and ultimately human.

A huge thank you to Shannon Takaoka and Netgalley for providing me with a review copy of this novel.

Purchase Everything I Thought I Knew from Amazon

Review of The Player by Joe Consentino

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The Player by Joe Consentino

Blurb:

When young music teacher Andre Beaufort discovers an antique player piano in the basement of his apartment building, he is visited by the ghost of the original owner: a dapper and charismatic playboy from the Roaring Twenties, Freddy Birtwistle.

Andre has never seen a ghost and Freddy has never been one, so they get off to a rocky start. But when Andre finds his neighbor murdered on his doorstep, he and Freddy join forces to narrow the pool of suspects.

Soon Andre and Freddy discover that opposites attract, even if one’s alive and the other dead. Together these amateur detectives make an enticing team, and it’s a good thing too, because the first murder they solve together won’t be their last. But the real mystery isn’t just whodunit—it’s how a romance between a man and a ghost can have a happily ever after ending.

The Player contains two stand-alone cozy murder mysteries, The City House and The Country House.

Review:

I love stories featuring ghosts — especially romances — so I couldn’t wait to delve into this novel. The Player is actually two gay cozy mystery stories in one book. The first novella is entitled “The Country House,” which opens with Andre discovering an old player piano in his apartment building’s basement. His Aunt, who is the landlord, agrees to let Andre haul up the piano to his apartment. What Andre doesn’t know is that there’s a handsome ghost named Freddy Birtwistle attached to the piano whom Andre inadvertently releases when he begins to play the pianola.

As we soon learn, Freddy, a wealthy meticulously-dressed socialite from the roaring 20s, was shot at the age of 30 by a jealous husband in 1935. Freddy was quite the gay “player” in his day, and if any of his numerous stories about his exploits can be believed, he left a trail of broken hearts in his wake. According to Freddy, he broke the heart of every eligible male Hollywood celebrity, and even his presence would often send spouses/partners into a jealous rage. This part of the book was a lot of fun, though I did find that Freddy’s rambling anecdotes got to be a tad repetitive by the second book.

The novel then takes a compelling turn when one of the tenants in Andre’s building is murdered, and once Andre becomes a suspect, the duo takes it upon themselves to investigate the crime in the style of Holmes and Watson. Through their investigation, we meet all the other quirky tenants of the building as we try to guess whodunit.

Given that Freddy was bound to the piano and couldn’t physically leave the apartment, Andre did all the legwork and then reported his findings back to Freddy. The two men then put their heads together to try to figure out the case. And of course, while working together, they fall deeply in love.

This story was a lot of fun and incorporated several surprising plot twists that I didn’t see coming. I also loved Freddy’s continuous stream of 1920s lingo and expressions, many causing me to laugh out loud.

The second book, The Country House, takes place at Freddy’s former country house, now converted into a B & B. At first, we think that Andre is on his own, but another of Freddy’s original player piano’s is in Andre’s rented room, and a couple of pumps of the pedal bring Andre’s ghostly lover to him.

Once again, a murder occurs, and this time, it’s the surly proprietor of the B & B. Like The City House, this second book is also populated with a plethora of compelling and outlandish characters. I found the second book to be as delightful as the first one. It was fast-paced, delightfully twisty (more so even than the first) with a shocking ending.

Now it’s worth mentioning that given that these two novellas are cozy mysteries, meaning there is no on-page sex, swearing, or violence. What we do get, however, is a sweet romance between a young man and a saucy charismatic ghost from the 1920s, as well as a couple of captivating murder mysteries to solve. I hope the author writes more in this world as I’d love to revisit these two enchanting characters.

Purchase The Player on Amazon

Review of Dracula’s Child by J.S. Barnes

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Blurb:

It has been some years since Jonathan and Mina Harker survived their ordeal in Transylvania and, vanquishing Count Dracula, returned to England to try and live ordinary lives. But shadows linger long in this world of blood feud and superstition – and, the older their son Quincy gets, the deeper the shadows that lengthen at the heart of the Harkers’ marriage. Jonathan has turned back to drink; Mina finds herself isolated inside the confines of her own family; Quincy himself struggles to live up to a family of such high renown. And when a gathering of old friends leads to unexpected tragedy, the very particular wounds in the heart of the Harkers’ marriage are about to be exposed…

There is darkness both within the marriage and without – for, while Jonathan and Mina wrestle with the right way to raise a child while still recovering from the trauma of their past lives, new evil is arising on the Continent. A naturalist is bringing a new species of bat back to London; two English gentlemen, on their separate tours of the continent, find a strange quixotic love for each other, and stumble into a calamity far worse than either has imagined; and the vestiges of something thought long-ago forgotten is, finally, beginning to stir…

Review

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” ~ Edmund Burke

I’ve always been a massive fan of Bram Stoker’s novel ‘Dracula’ so I was incredibly excited when I had to opportunity to read Dracula’s Child. The story takes place ten years after the original novel’s events after Abraham Van Helsing destroyed the evil Count Dracula. In this novel, we follow Jonathan and Mina Harker, who are still dealing with the trauma and aftermath of those horrific events. Then, something happens on the eve of their son Quincy’s 13th birthday leading to a descent into darkness for everyone involved as it quickly becomes clear that the evil may not be gone after all. Thus begins a fight not only for Quincy’s soul but for the lives of everyone around him.

What I loved about this captivating book is how it’s in the same epistolary format as the first and written in the form of letters, found documents, newspaper clippings, and diary entries. Like the original, the story is also told through multiple points of view, allowing us to experience the story from several different angles, viewpoints, and voices.

It was so true to the original and so atmospheric that I felt as though I were reading a sequel penned by Stoker himself. It even had that same suspenseful slow burn aspect to it as what was really going on was slowly revealed by the author.

Additionally, the characterization was spot on and utterly faithful to the original. It was so compelling to watch the new terror unfold as many of our favorite characters from the original story are forced to face an unspeakable horror and make some impossible decisions. There are also plenty of new characters as well as a new and original plotline to add to the intrigue of the story.

I thought this book really stood up well to the original and what we end up with here is a gothic story as timeless as the original Dracula. The story’s ever-darkening atmosphere had an increasing feeling of foreboding and menace to it as the events slowly unraveled, revealing quite a twisty, multi-layered heart-in-your-throat tale.

Though this book does stand on its own, I’d recommend reading the original first as there were plenty of references to that book’s events. It will also help the reader better understand the characters and their motivations.

All in all, I thought this was a phenomenal and unputdownable novel. Barnes has succeeded in creating here an intense, troubling, and complex story just as dark and creepy as the original, and I thought that the blend of human horror and the human heart is expertly achieved. Dracula’s Child is an outstanding balancing act that walks a thin line between being an ode to classic horror and a nightmarish and original modern-day suspense story all its own.

Purchase Dracula’s Child from Amazon