Alyce Caswell - Author
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Book Reviews

Time Wounds Some Books

30/4/2022

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The Good, the Bad and the Undead (The Hollows #2)
by Kim Harrison

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Rachel Morgan is struggling to make bank, to avoid a demon who's marked her, to not get eaten by her vampire roommate - and oh yeah, now she has to catch a serial killer who's going after witches who know a thing or two about ley lines. So it'd be dangerous if she, a witch, also started acting like she knew something about ley lines...

This was a MUCH stronger novel than the first one and I'm glad I gave it a chance. I was really drawn in by Rachel's struggles and she irritated me less - clearly Harrison managed to get a better grasp on her the second time around. I would have rated this more had I read it when it was published...but the rampant sexism - and oof that homophobic joke - had me cringing so hard in 2022.

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Badwitched

27/6/2021

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A Letter to Three Witches by Elizabeth Bass

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​I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Gwen and her cousins, Trudy and Milo, have been forbidden from practicing magic - all thanks to an ancestor and a spell that went awry. So far they've managed lived on the straight and narrow (no one wants the Council to punish them!). Well, as much as they can. But both magic and drama are about to upend their lives, especially after Gwen's foster sister, Tannith, sends them all a mysterious letter.

I found this exceptionally difficult to get into and I was thinking "oh this reaaaally isn't for me". But once the rough start was over and done with, I started to enjoy the shenanigans in Zenobia. Gwen, Trudy and Milo are great characters - I feel like I know them after all that craziness. But Tannith was a Passions-grade villain (not my thing) and oooh that rough start. That said, A Letter to Three Witches is a bit of witchy fun that may just brighten your afternoon.

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Which Witch

25/4/2021

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Sanctuary by V. V. James

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The most popular boy in Sanctuary falls down the stairs at a party and dies - right before the house explodes into flames. In an ordinary world, this might have been an accident. But in this world, there are witches. A witch's daughter was there that night. And she has motive - it's her ex-boyfriend that's dead. The community of Sanctuary is about to unravel.

Wow, this was unexpectedly great (it was one of those "bargain box" books I received last year!). I couldn't read it fast enough. Sanctuary feels like a mashup of Practical Magic (movie, not the book) and Broadchurch - or is Gracepoint more apt, given the American setting? The book's thin on world-building, but it's not that kind of story. What it's great at doing is letting magic just... be there. Part of the community and part of the plot. It really works.

I seriously thought I was going to give this five stars... but it was let down somewhat by parts of the ending. Still, a pretty decent read. I think Sanctuary would make a fantastic miniseries.

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A Little Bit of This and That

1/11/2020

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Warlords, Witches & Wolves by Various

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I received an ARC of this book, but only after I'd already preordered it so I'm not sure what disclaimer to put here! I'm definitely going ahead with the preorder though.

This anthology collects romantic fantasy stories involving characters that are at least one of the promised "warlords, witches and wolves". There are magical lands to discover and pockets of our own world to revisit with new eyes.

I was a little daunted by the size of this anthology (14 hours to go, or so the Kindle informed me at the start), but each novella is just the right size for someone who's about to fall into bed. Unsurprisingly, the authors I already like were behind he novellas I enjoyed the most. My favourite novellas, however, would be Daniel de Lorne's (I always enjoy an exploration of the power dynamics in a relationship) and Claire Boston's (Mongolian fantasy!).

Less enjoyable were the novellas that stopped before reaching a conclusion. I think a novella should have a fully realised story - prequels and spin-offs are fine, but cutting the story off is less preferable to me.

All in all, a fine collection that lets you dip your toes into the work of various authors. I found at least one new author that I'd like to investigate further.

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Pure Magic

22/8/2020

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Magic Lessons (prequel to ​Practical Magic)
by Alice Hoffman

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I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Maria Owens enters the world with disadvantages - she has no identity, she is a woman, and she was born a witch. But there are advantages to being what she is, such as doing as you please and being able to discern one's fate. There are some fates Maria will gladly walk out to meet and other fates she will change, for better or worse. By the end of it, there will be a family curse to haunt her descendants.

I know that Alice Hoffman's works can be called magical realism, but I think they are simply magical. And this is book really is pure magic.

Hoffman deftly weaves together historical truths and fiction until you're convinced her version of events must be the real one, that Maria really did travel across the sea in search of a man who would give her diamonds. I really liked Practical Magic, but Magic Lessons is in a class of its own and I'm suddenly overcome with the need to make a pot of tea and drink it while observing the sunshine. I absolute adore this book. Definitely my favourite release of 2020 by far.

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    About

    Alyce Caswell, when she isn't buried in a book or drinking her way through a giant pot of tea, is a keen writer of science fiction and romance. She has published two novels and four novellas in her space opera family saga, The Galactic Pantheon Series.

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  • Home
  • Books
    • The Galactic Pantheon >
      • The Tortured Wind
      • The Twisted Vine
      • The Flickering Flame
      • The Shifting Ice
      • The Whispering Grass
      • The Creeping Moss
      • The Galactic Pantheon Novellas
      • The Adventures of Grace Pendergast, Galactic Reporter
    • The Shadow of the Gods
    • Dealing with the Demon
    • Love and Lockdown
    • The Eyes of Charon
    • Sweet Delights
  • Other Works
  • Book Reviews
  • Contact