#SPFBOX Review: The Tenacious Tale of Tanna the Tendersword by Dewey Conway & Bill Adams
29 April 2025
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: #SPFBOX, Bill Adams, Book Reviews, Dewey Conway, Fantasy, Review, reviews, The Tenacious Tale of Tanna the Tendersword
Today I’m posting my seventh Finalist review for #SPFBOX (here’s a link to the Finalist table). I’ve already posted a review for The Humane Society for Creatures & Cryptids (Teraglossa #1) by Stephanie A. Gillis, The Forest at the Heart of Her Mage by Hiyodori, Oathsworn Legacy by KR Gangi, Wolf of Withervale (Noss Saga #1) by Joaquin Baldwin, Runelight (The Aenigma Lights Book 1) by JA Andrews and Gates of Hope by JE Hannaford. I have two more reviews yet to post so, without further ado let’s get to my review for The Tenacious Tale of Tanna the Tendersword by Dewey Conwy and Bill Adams :
Firstly here’s the description (courtesy of Goodreads), the cover and a link
Galdifort Quillpen has grand dreams of writing epic tales of heroic deeds, just like his famous aunt. Unfortunately, he’s been assigned to Tanna the Tendersword, an excruciatingly carefree would-be-champion who can’t seem to find a qualifying entry-level quest.
When things are at their most miserable, the young Questers meet an enigmatic old woman who offers Tanna a quest: follow a peg-legged, sword-wielding rooster to help save a crying mushroom lost within a haunted forest. Tanna heroically accepts, regardless of how incredibly unsafe the odd quest seems.
But Galdifort’s fears become reality when a sorceress sends her fog monster and lizard henchmen after them. Only a true Champion should confront a sorceress, and, in his eyes, Tanna is not up to the task. But if he wants to write his chronicle, Galdifort must learn to do something he certainly isn’t comfortable doing — trust in honest friendship with Tanna the Tendersword.
He’s just a chronicler, after all, not a hero!
My thoughts
I was pleased to see this book become a finalist because I don’t think we’ve seen a MG book before and I was excited to pick it up because it seems to have such a buzz surrounding it. This is a lovely book, well thought out and beautifully illustrated.
The plot is about two characters, a partnership if you will. Tanna and Galdifort. A champion in the making and her chronicler. The two seem very ill matched, which is perhaps the beauty of the story, and the main gist is that in order to level up the two of them have been sent out to find a quest, complete it and return successful. It seems simple enough really and all would be champions and their chroniclers are put through similar trials.
So, although Tanna is named in the title Galdifort is the one narrating the story here. The two seem ill matched in many ways. Tanna is reckless and has a devil may care attitude to danger seemingly believing herself to be invincible. Galdifort on the other hand is a bag of nerves and something of a grumpy so and so. He is wallowing around, trying not to fall into the mud and failing miserably whilst Tanna is dashing about like a maniac and usually getting them into trouble.
My feelings whilst reading this were a little bit all over the place. I started off well and was keen to meet our two characters but I confess I did start to go off the boil a little. I think the humour might not have worked for me and I did feel that the plot was a little slow and, sometimes, the characters, annoyed me a little.
Now, I will say that MG is not normally my typical type of read so whilst I was really curious to see how this would work for me I must say that given my lack of experience in this genre I’m probably not entirely sure what to expect, so take my thoughts with a huge grain of salt.
Overally, this is a lovely book, I’m not sure whether the pacing would be an issue or not to a younger audience and the tempo certainly picks up in the final chapters, but it didn’t entirely charm me the way I thought it would. That being said I recognise it’s a ‘me’ thing and I think this is a fun story, well written and well presented.
I received a copy courtesy of the author, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
My rating 6.5 of 10 stars
#SPFBOX Review: Gates of Hope (Aulirean Gates #1) by J.E. Hannaford
26 April 2025
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: #SPFBOX, Aulirean Gates #1, Book Review, Book Reviews, Fantasy, Gates of Hope, J.E. Hannaford, Review
Today I’m posting my sixth Finalist review for #SPFBOX (here’s a link to the Finalist table). I’ve already posted a review for The Humane Society for Creatures & Cryptids (Teraglossa #1) by Stephanie A. Gillis, The Forest at the Heart of Her Mage by Hiyodori, Oathsworn Legacy by KR Gangi, Wolf of Withervale (Noss Saga #1) by Joaquin Baldwin and Runelight (The Aenigma Lights Book 1) by JA Andrews:. I have three more reviews to post over the next few days. So, without further ado let’s get to my review for Gates of Hope by JE Hannaford :
Firstly here’s the description (courtesy of Goodreads), the cover and a link.
The Watcher shattered the gates. Now hope must arise from the shards.
Five hundred cycles ago, the Watcher closed the gates between the world of Lieus and its moons to end a war. Since then magic has been hidden, relegated to childhood tales. On the outer moon of Tebein, any human showing magically aligned traits would sentence their entire community to death at the hands of the native awldrin overlords.
For awldrin are immortal and their memories long.
Even peace is transient, and on Lieus, invasive monsters are encroaching on Caldera, leaving Darin and his bonded moonhound to face nightmares made real. As the creatures spread their wings, Suriin’s father is injured, and she must delve deep into the secrets of the Black Palace to try and save him.
Elissa’s magic could not have bloomed a a worse time on Tebein, as the awldrin are roused, and now she must run to save everyone she loves.
Far more than the fate of their loved ones is at stake, but will any of them see it in time?
Gates of Hope is epic fantasy but with a slice of life feel to it.
I’m not going to go into great depth about the world (or worlds) as I think there are other reviews out there that make a better go of it. Just briefly, the planet Lieus has two moons (Mythos and Tebein). The three used to be connected via gates which were destroyed by the Watcher during a period of war (the Watcher is a dragon now revered as a God). After the split the planet of Lieus has become an almost uninhabitable world, the people there live in the craters and rarely venture to the surface. On Tebein there is a mix of human and Awldrin. The Awldrin are a very long lived race of warriors, they keep the humans on the moon subdued and magic is forbidden.
So, the story is told in three POVs. Elissa, Darin and Suriin. Surin and Elissa have similar coloured hair (marking them out as wielders of magic). Their stories otherwise are very different. Surin lives on Lieus and is desperate to leave the family home and have adventure. Her story takes her to Redpike where she will learn more about her magic. Darin also lives on Lieus and also has travelled to Redpick hoping to find work as a soldier to help his struggling family. His plans change when he forms a bond with a Moonhound (these dogs rarely bond with a male) and in fact Darin struggles at first to perform the simplest magical tasks (the magic uses crystals and music). However, his story changes quite dramatically, and quite secretly with a couple of discoveries that I won’t post here and spoil for other readers.
Elissa lives on Tebein. She is one of the untouched – her hair is purple, singling her out as a magic wielder so she must hide her hair colour and keep a low profile. Elissa actually bonds with a magical crystal which sets her story onto a different course of action.
I enjoyed Gates of Hope. It’s very well written and once again the author’s love for the world and characters really shines out.
I think the magical system is very well imagined and there is a good deal of promise yet to be realised in future editions.
That being said, I don’t think this book was for me – although I have no doubt it will find plenty of readers who love it. I found this a little meandering, there’s too much focus on everyday matters that keep the pace quite slow, and apart from Darin and his moonhound I didn’t really connect to the characters. To be fair to the book and the author I will say that I think this is down to me and not the book. I do love epic fantasy, I do love detailed books, but, I find myself wanting something more – that element that raises the stakes somehow or just gives it something new.
I received a copy courtesy of the author, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
My rating 6.5 of 10
Booking Ahead/Weekly Wrap Up
9 March 2025
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Book Review, Booking Ahead, Books, Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Fantasy, fiction, reading, Sunday Post, Weekly wrap up
Books read this week:
This week has been busy. I’m well over the cold fortunately and out and about quite a bit so not too much reading unfortunately. Since my last update I’ve read and enjoyed Clockwork Boys by T Kingfisher. I started a few of my other reads but wasn’t getting on very well with anything. Obviously a mood thing. I’ve started The Vipers by Katy Hays which is so far quite good.
Next Week’s Reads:
Complete The Vipers by Katy Hays and also, hopefully, A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall.
Reviews Posted:
- Clockwork Boys by T Kingfisher.
Outstanding Reviews
- Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
- The House of Frost and Feathers by Lauren Wiesebron
- SPFBO x 1
- SPFBO x 2
- SPFBO x 3
- SPFBO x 4
That’s it for me this week, what have you been up to, any good books to shout out about. Let me know.
Review: Clockwork Boys (Clocktaur War No.1) by T Kingfisher
6 March 2025
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Clockwork Boys, Fantasy, reading, Review, T Kingfisher
My FIve Word TL:DR Review:The RIght Book/Right Time
I was really happy to pick up Clockwork Boys, I’m really enjoying Kingfisher’s books, she has such a lovely style and she writes such great characters. There’s always a bit of humour injected and more often than not a low stake style romance in the offing that never threatens to become all encompassing.
The story gets off to a quick start. We meet Slate as she peruses the inmates of a jail looking for a likely character to join an impossible mission. Slate has a mission, to travel across hostile land and infiltrate the neighbouring city that her country is currently at war with – and in dire need of help. The enemy have a robotic sort of army and Slate and her companions need to cross the country, secretly enter Anuket City, and find out the secrets of the Clockwork Boys.
This is quite a short story but there’s no shortage of action or likable characters.
Slate, and two of her companions, are criminals. Should they succeed on their mission pardons will be forthcoming and to keep them in line and prevent any wild ideas about absconding they’re tattooed with a magical image – a tattoo that will literally attack them should they veer from the mission.
So, Slate is a forger. Brenner is an assassin and Calliban (the newest recruit) is a disgraced paladin who seems to harbour a dead demon. To complicate matters further Slate and Brenner previously shared an intimate relationship which has now ended although Brenner still hopes for things to be rekindled. Calliban also fairly quickly forms an attraction to the prickly leader of the group and this adds an extra layer in the form of Brenner and Calliban constantly having a go at each other. The three are joined by a scholar with some very sheltered opinions when it comes to female leadership. Anyway, off they set, they have little hope and Slate is definitely harboring some sort of secret that will come to light in book 2.
What I really liked about this. The writing is lovely, which wasn’t a surprise given the author. The characters are actually really good fun. Kingfisher is adept at inserting humour into salty situations and I just love that about her work.
The characters are really put through the mill with all sorts of weird encounters – not least of which being attacked by vegetables, kidnapped by scary ‘deer’ beasts and traversing an unusual landscape that can change on a whim.
I would mention that this book is not a standalone and indeed finishes at what I would say is probably the halfway point. I didn’t find this a problem although I have a deep hankering for the next book already.
I had a very good time with this, it’s entertaining, the characters are easy to get along with, there’s enough adventure to make the pages practically turn themselves and, put bluntly, I had a lot of fun.
I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
My rating 4 of 5 stars
Can’t Wait Wednesday: The Enchanted Greenhouse by Sarah Beth Durst
26 February 2025
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Book Review, Books, Can't Wait Wedesday, Fantasy, Romance, Sarah Beth Durst, The Enchanted Greenhouse, The Spellshop, 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 Enchanted Greenhouse by Sarah Beth Durst. I’m so excited for this book as I adored The Spellshop and this has that lovely cosy feel and similarly beautifully captivating cover. Here’s the cover and description:
New York Times bestselling author Sarah Beth Durst invites you to her new standalone novel nestled on a far-away island brimming with singing flowers, honey cakes, and honeyed love. The hardcover edition features beautiful sprayed edges.
Terlu Perna broke the law because she was lonely. She cast a spell and created a magically sentient spider plant. As punishment, she was turned into a wooden statue and tucked away into an alcove in the North Reading Room of the Great Library of Alyssium.
This should have been the end of her story . . . Yet one day, Terlu wakes in the cold of winter on a nearly-deserted island full of hundreds of magical greenhouses. She’s starving and freezing, and the only other human on the island is a grumpy gardener. To her surprise, he offers Terlu a place to sleep, clean clothes, and freshly baked honey cakes—at least until she’s ready to sail home.
But Terlu can’t return home and doesn’t want to—the greenhouses are a dream come true, each more wondrous than the next. When she learns that the magic that sustains them is failing—causing the death of everything within them—Terlu knows she must help. Even if that means breaking the law again.
This time, though, she isn’t alone. Assisted by the gardener and a sentient rose, Terlu must unravel the secrets of a long-dead sorcerer if she wants to save the island—and have a fresh chance at happiness and love.
Funny, kind, and forgiving, The Enchanted Greenhouse is a story about giving second chances—to others and to yourself.
Expected publication: July 2025
Books and travelling with Lynn 