Friday Face Off Freebie: Blackthorn and Grim by Juliet Marillier
28 December 2018
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Blackthorn and Grim, Books by Proxy, Friday Face off, Juliet Marillier
Here we are again with the Friday Face Off meme created by Books by Proxy . This is a great opportunity to feature some of your favourite book covers. The rules are fairly simple each week, following a predetermined theme (list below) choose a book, compare a couple of the different covers available for that particular book and choose your favourite. Future week’s themes are listed below – the list has been updated to help out those of you who like to plan ahead – if you have a cover in mind that you’re really wanting to share then feel free to leave a comment about a future suggested theme. This week’s theme:
Choose one of your favourite titles and compare the covers
Strangely enough having the freedom to choose any book at all this week actually threw me into a turmoil! No idea why, I thought the chance to use any book would be liberating but it turned out too much choice and the overall dilemma of what to pick. Basically, I was like a child in a sweetie shop and on top of that I really have used a lot of my favourite books already (sometimes more than once – eeek!) Anyway. I’ve cheated slightly – I’m not comparing a particular cover but instead going with a series of books and displaying their covers because I love them all: The Blackthorn and Grim series by Juliet Marillier – feast your eyes on these gorgeous covers and fall in love:
The covers:
My favourite this week: all of them 😀
Like last week I’ve added a Mr Linky here so that you can leave a link if you wish or please leave me a link in the comments so I can visit and check out your covers. Thanks
Next week – A cover that is ‘fresh’
Future themes: (if you’re struggling with any of these themes then use a ‘freebie’ of one of your favourite covers)
2019
4th January – A cover that is fresh – New beginnings for a New Year
11th January – ‘I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king’ – A cover that depicts a novel set in the Tudor period
18th January – A cover featuring an Amulet – either in the cover or title
25th January – ‘Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.’ – A cover featuring a monk/priest/person of the cloth
1st February – A comedy cover
8th February – ‘Hi little cub. Oh no, don’t be ssscared.’ – A cover with snakes
15th February – A heart – for Valentine’s day past
22nd February – “Woe, destruction, ruin, and decay; the worst is death and death will have his day.” – A cover with abandoned building/s
1st March – ‘who will buy this wonderful morning’ – A cover featuring a shop or market
8th March – ‘Two little fishes and a momma fishy too’ – A cover featuring a fish/fishes or other sea creatures
15th March – ‘Beware the moon, lads.’ – A cover with a shapeshifter
22nd March – ‘A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse’ – A cover featuring a king
29th March – “I thought unicorns were more . . . Fluffy.” – A cover featuring a unicorn
5th April – ‘nomad is an island’ – A cover featuring a desert landscape
12th April – ‘Odin, Odin, send the wind to turn the tide – A cover featuring a longboat
19th April – ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times – A cover featuring a school
#SPFBO Finalist Announcement
27 December 2018
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: #SPFBO 2018, Craig Schaefer, Sworn to the Night
You may have noticed that my blog has been very quiet during the month of December. I decided to focus on reading the nine books I’d rolled forward for the first stage of the Self Published Fantasy Blog Off and with all nine now complete I’ve chosen my finalist. It wasn’t an easy decision and in fact I have 3 very close runners up but without further ado my finalist for #SPFBO 2018 is :
Sworn to the Night (The Wisdom’s Grave Trilogy #1) by Craig Schaefer.
I have to say I had a great batch of books and I’d like to thank all the authors who took part in the competition.
My second, third and fourth place books are:
As promised I will be reviewing all nine books in the forthcoming weeks starting with Sworn to the Night.
My thanks again to all the authors who took part. I wish I could have chosen more books but at the end of the day there can be only one and with that in mind I would conclude by wishing all the finalists the best of luck in the second stage of the competition.
Details of the other finalists can be found here.
Friday Face Off : ‘ho, ho, ho’
Here we are again with the Friday Face Off meme created by Books by Proxy . This is a great opportunity to feature some of your favourite book covers. The rules are fairly simple each week, following a predetermined theme (list below) choose a book, compare a couple of the different covers available for that particular book and choose your favourite. Future week’s themes are listed below – the list has been updated to help out those of you who like to plan ahead – if you have a cover in mind that you’re really wanting to share then feel free to leave a comment about a future suggested theme. This week’s theme:
‘ho, ho, ho’ – A seasonal cover
I was thinking of snow predominantly when I chose this theme but seasons are very different dependent on where you are in the world so it will be interesting to see what people have come up with. I’ve gone for A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens which is a book I used to love at this time of the year. There are many covers to choose from as you might imagine but I’ve gone for those with snowy scenes and just selected a few:
And the covers:
My favourite this week:
I quite like the blue cover with the snow flakes, I think the top hat feels like a Christmas pudding but my favourite this week is the wintry scene:
Like last week I’ve added a Mr Linky here so that you can leave a link if you wish or please leave me a link in the comments so I can visit and check out your covers. Thanks
Next week – A freebie – choose one of your favourite titles and compare the covers
Future themes: (if you’re struggling with any of these themes then use a ‘freebie’ of one of your favourite covers)
28th December – A freebie – choose one of your favourite titles and compare the covers
2019
4th January – A cover that is fresh – New beginnings for a New Year
11th January – ‘I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king’ – A cover that depicts a novel set in the Tudor period
18th January – A cover featuring an Amulet – either in the cover or title
25th January – ‘Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.’ – A cover featuring a monk/priest/person of the cloth
1st February – A comedy cover
8th February – ‘Hi little cub. Oh no, don’t be ssscared.’ – A cover with snakes
15th February – A heart – for Valentine’s day past
22nd February – “Woe, destruction, ruin, and decay; the worst is death and death will have his day.” – A cover with abandoned building/s
1st March – ‘who will buy this wonderful morning’ – A cover featuring a shop or market
8th March – ‘Two little fishes and a momma fishy too’ – A cover featuring a fish/fishes or other sea creatures
15th March – ‘Beware the moon, lads.’ – A cover with a shapeshifter
22nd March – ‘A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse’ – A cover featuring a king
29th March – “I thought unicorns were more . . . Fluffy.” – A cover featuring a unicorn
5th April – ‘nomad is an island’ – A cover featuring a desert landscape
12th April – ‘Odin, Odin, send the wind to turn the tide – A cover featuring a longboat
19th April – ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times – A cover featuring a school
Friday Face Off : “Heavy is the head that wears the crown”
Here we are again with the Friday Face Off meme created by Books by Proxy . This is a great opportunity to feature some of your favourite book covers. The rules are fairly simple each week, following a predetermined theme (list below) choose a book, compare a couple of the different covers available for that particular book and choose your favourite. Future week’s themes are listed below – the list has been updated to help out those of you who like to plan ahead – if you have a cover in mind that you’re really wanting to share then feel free to leave a comment about a future suggested theme. This week’s theme:
“Heavy is the head that wears the crown” – A cover featuring a crown
Yet another week that I think there should be lots of covers to choose from. This week I’ve gone for : The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air #1) by Holly Black.
And the covers:
My favourite this week:
Like last week I’ve added a Mr Linky here so that you can leave a link if you wish or please leave me a link in the comments so I can visit and check out your covers. Thanks
Next week – A seasonal cover
Future themes: (if you’re struggling with any of these themes then use a ‘freebie’ of one of your favourite covers)
21st December – ‘ho, ho, ho’ – A seasonal cover
28th December – A freebie – choose one of your favourite titles and compare the covers
2019
4th January – A cover that is fresh – New beginnings for a New Year
11th January – ‘I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king’ – A cover that depicts a novel set in the Tudor period
18th January – A cover featuring an Amulet – either in the cover or title
25th January – ‘Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.’ – A cover featuring a monk/priest/person of the cloth
1st February – A comedy cover
8th February – ‘Hi little cub. Oh no, don’t be ssscared.’ – A cover with snakes
15th February – A heart – for Valentine’s day past
22nd February – “Woe, destruction, ruin, and decay; the worst is death and death will have his day.” – A cover with abandoned building/s
1st March – ‘who will buy this wonderful morning’ – A cover featuring a shop or market
8th March – ‘Two little fishes and a momma fishy too’ – A cover featuring a fish/fishes or other sea creatures
15th March – ‘Beware the moon, lads.’ – A cover with a shapeshifter
22nd March – ‘A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse’ – A cover featuring a king
29th March – “I thought unicorns were more . . . Fluffy.” – A cover featuring a unicorn
5th April – ‘nomad is an island’ – A cover featuring a desert landscape
12th April – ‘Odin, Odin, send the wind to turn the tide – A cover featuring a longboat
19th April – ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times – A cover featuring a school
Can’t Wait Wednesday: The Girl with No Face: The Daoshi Chronicles, Book Two (The Daoshi Chronicles #2) by M.H. Boroson
12 December 2018
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Can't wait Wednesday, MH Boroson, The Girl with no Face, Wishful Endings
“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme that was originally created by Breaking the Spine. Unfortunately Breaking the Spine are no longer hosting so I’m now linking my posts up to Wishful Endings Can’t Wait Wednesday. Don’t forget to stop over, link up and check out what books everyone else is waiting for. If you want to take part, basically, every Wednesday, we highlight a book that we’re really looking forward to. This week my book is : The Girl with No Face: The Daoshi Chronicles, Book Two (The Daoshi Chronicles #2) by M.H. Boroson:
The adventures of Li-lin, a Daoist priestess with the unique ability to see the spirit world, continue in the thrilling follow-up to the critically-acclaimed historical urban fantasy The Girl with Ghost Eyes.
It’s the end of the Nineteenth Century. San Francisco’s cobblestone streets are haunted, but Chinatown has an unlikely protector in a young Daoist priestess named Li-lin. Using only her martial arts training, spiritual magic, a sword made from peachwood, and the walking, talking spirit of a human eye, Li-lin stands alone to defend her immigrant community from supernatural threats.
Now Li-lin has gotten her hands on an amulet that makes its bearer bulletproof. But there’s a problem: the amulet is powered by a child’s soul. To save the spirit, Li-lin will have to voyage to Fengdu, the City of the Dead, but first she must protect the amulet from the gangsters who want it for themselves, her own father, a renowned Daoist exorcist who wants to destroy it, and the Ghostkeeper who created the amulet by murdering his own son.
With hard historical realism and meticulously researched depictions of Chinese monsters and magic that have never been written about in the English language, The Girl with No Facedraws from the action-packed cinema of Hong Kong to create a compelling and unforgettable tale of historical fantasy and Chinese lore.
Due for publication: October 2019
