For those who don’t know about SPFBO (the Self Published Fantasy Blog Off) – this is a competition created and run by Mark Lawrence.  The competition is now in its tenth year and you can find more about all the other entrants and judges over on Mark Lawrence’s blog.

I have now completed my reading for Stage 1 of the competition.  I had five books that I read and reviewed and I chose two books to pass to my co-judges (The Critiquing Chemist.).  Likewise the Critiquing Chemist chose three books to pass to me to check out.  These five books are our chosen Semi Finalists and are posted below

Without further ado here are our five finalists.

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I will soon be reviewing the three books selected by the Critiquing Chemist but for now here are the titles linked to their Goodreads page.

Commiserations to the authors whose books have fallen. We had a lot of great books and some difficult decisions, with one final tough decision still yet to come.

By A Silver Thread by Rachel Aaron

Through Blood and Dragons by RM Schultz

The Enchanter’s Counsel by Thalib Razi

Smile and Be A Villain by Yves Donlon

Touched by Magic by Celine Jeanjean