Ricky Pine's Blog

The Jasad Crown by Sara Hashem
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I can see now why it took Sara Hashem so long to bring us the sequel to The Jasad Heir, because she caught the duology train like so many other writers and concluded her series with a great big doorstopper, almost 700 pages long. This one book could’ve easily been two for a total of a trilogy, but the duology trend, it really does have its own gravity. But for one of my favorite romantasy series (though Thea Guanzo...

Bones at the Crossroads by LaDarrion Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Back we go to Caiman U for more magic, mayhem, and murder…and thankfully this, unlike way too many second books in YA fantasy, is NOT a duology conclusion, because that ending demands resolution expeditiously. This book picks up in the new fall semester at Caiman, with Malik reeling from a metric ton of betrayals, quickly figuring out that those in authority don’t have his best interests at heart (or ...

JanIus: Enter the King by D L Hannah
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

D.L. Hannah continues the JanIus trilogy with a second book that ramps up the medical, family, and political drama to new and truly diabolical levels. As much as Justin, Fawn, and all the doctors at the clinic which Fawn now runs are all on a mission for much needed equity in these worlds, malevolent forces have their way of sneaking in when people’s guards are down, and that evil is taking on its most manipul...

Fateless by Julie Kagawa
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Julie Kagawa returns with an action-packed start to her latest original YA fantasy series, set in a desert world perpetually baking under two suns, where a young thief must team up with a mysterious elfin assassin (iylvahn, his race is called) to stop a zealot or two from raising the very evil that doomed the world in centuries past. In that respect, this book is syncretic of the likes of Six of Crows, Nevernight, Dune, a...

The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’d been meaning to read this one for a while, but it somehow slipped my notice until I happened to find it on a library shelf in Portland. If I’d read it in 2024 when it was first published, it would’ve absolutely topped my list of best books of the year. This beautiful and powerful historical novel spans decades in Iran and America, first in the time of the Shah, then the Ayatollah. I’ve long been fasci...

Terror at the Gates by Scarlett St. Clair
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another damn fine entry in the romantasy canon, this one heavily bastardizes the Old Testament with its setting in a modern neon Nineveh. It’s kind of a mashup of Crescent City and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, with a touch of Guardians of the Galaxy and also Dungeons & Dragons in its DNA, the latter stemming from the consistent presence of a strange gelatinous substance which becomes associated with the ...

JanIus: Pawns by D L Hannah
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

D.L. Hannah returns to her interplanetary saga with the long awaited third arc that picks up roughly where the original trilogy left off. Dr. Justin Ascensio leaves an increasingly fascist-polluted America (where analogues of Trump and Musk try to force their gaudy and technocratic brands of evil on the country, and the world) to take a position on the world of JanIus. Here, he proves a very popular new doctor, in part...

Tusk Love by Thea Guanzon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don’t really know jack about D&D. As much of a geek as I am, I never played it, so there goes a lot of my nerd cred I guess. lol. I also don’t know jack about Critical Role, but I guess this book is part of that universe? But what’s most important to me is that it proves once again why, of all the romantasy writers in the biz, Thea Guanzon is the one I keep returning to with every new book. She’s the true queen. Not Sa...

Among Ghosts by Rachel Hartman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Rachel Hartman returns to the world of Seraphina with a new and very unusual kind of story in this universe: a ghost story. It’s very different from Hartman’s previous books in that it features a male protagonist, one who’s younger than either Seraphina or Tess - which might help explain why the cover looks a little more MG than YA, but it’s still a pretty dark tale at its core. Perhaps it bites off more than it can...

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As with Addie LaRue, this latest standalone dark fantasy from V.E. Schwab, spanning the centuries, is one that's a classic for the ages, but I'll never want to read it again. Just like Addie LaRue, this book focuses on a set of three women throughout history who fall for a dreadful curse - and in this case, they're all linked by one vampire that started it all. Schwab marketed this book as being ...