My recommendation for February is a Victorian Faerie Tale with a strong romantic element and an unusual heroine. Cruel Magic (2022) by American author E.B.Wheeler is the first in the Iron and Thorns trilogy. The second volume, Wild Magic was published in 2023 and the third, Fierce Magic, in 2024. All three volumes are easily available in… Continue reading
Is Elizabeth Bennet the new Sherlock Holmes? I ask because she has escaped from her original home (in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice) to star in numerous recent novels. Many of these Jane Austen Variations include Mystery and/or Fantasy elements. The contrast between the polite and prosaic settings and the wild magic woven into the… Continue reading
For this coronation month I’m recommending Miss Sharp’s Monsters, a trilogy by Australian author Suzannah Rowntree which has an unusual take on Europe’s royal families. The series begins with The Werewolf of Whitechapel, continues with Anarchist on the Orient Express and comes to a dramatic conclusion in A Vampire in Bavaria. All three volumes were… Continue reading