Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Action & Adventure

ECHO From A BAYOU by J. Luke Bennecke – Paranormal Thrillers, Suspense, Action & Adventure

John Bastian’s life is falling apart, but after a serious accident, he gains another one. In J. Luke Bennecke’s suspense thriller, Echo from a Bayou, John must tie up the loose ends of a man who died decades ago.

One misfortune after another beats John down. His wife divorces him, and his California business is going bust. On a ski trip to boost his mood, he fails to save a man from falling to his death out of a slopes-bound cable car. The next day, on the mountain, John slams head-first into a tree.

He’s not the only one who wakes up in his hospital bed.

An Echo from a Bayou flips the reader into a paranormal mystery. John Bastian of Southern California now shares his body and mind with one Jack Bachman, a Louisiana pilot who died 38 years ago. Living Jack’s memories, John travels to Louisiana’s bayous, hoping to find a woman Jack loved. Those murky waters also hide a fabulous treasure, worth billions of dollars.

But the hunt for these riches invites grave danger into John’s life, as Jack lost his own to it.

John struggles to understand his unique connection to this dead man. Is it reincarnation that brings them together? They have no family history bonding them together. And yet John, since he was an infant, has known details about Jack’s life. Until the skiing accident, he had no idea of his link with Jack, but as a child, John drew maps to the potential location of the treasure and even molded a tiny red-headed doll that resembles Tammy, Jack’s wife, in tantalizing detail.

While trying to track down Tammy and more information on the treasure, John encounters Adam, Jack’s identical twin. At first, Adam dismisses his claims, but when John tells him of a memory from the brothers’ early childhood, he has no choice but to believe him. John continues to sink into Jack’s life as he finds Tammy, now 20 years his senior. The two of them rekindle the old love bond Jack had shared with Tammy before he was brutally murdered.

This hardcore adventure thriller becomes all the more curious and suspenseful for its supernatural aura.

Bennecke brings both setting and characters into stark clarity with realistic and detailed descriptions. Echo from a Bayou will captivate readers with astonishing surprises and reveals as John falls down the rabbit hole of his other self.

Echo from a Bayou by J. Luke Bennecke will be available at a bookstore near you and through online retailers on August 8, 2023. Pre-order it here!

June 23, 2023
A WAR In TOO MANY WORLDS: The Time Traveler Professor, Book Three by Elizabeth Crowens – Time Travel, Science Fiction, Action & Adventure

Musician-turned-time-traveler John Patrick Scott adds spy and saboteur to his resume while undercover in Germany in the final months of World War I, in A War in Too Many Worlds, the third installment of Elizabeth Crowen’s thrilling sci-fi series, The Time Traveler Professor.

Meanwhile, Scott’s once and future collaborator in psychic experiments, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is back in Britain sharing real time-travel adventures with the inventor of the fictional time machine, H.G. Wells.

Scott, after being wounded in the trenches, has finally been given an assignment in the Intelligence services. His extensive pre-war experience as a professor at the Conservancy of Music in Stuttgart, Germany, will do him good.

His assignment is to sabotage the waning German war effort through numerous false identities, while simultaneously mixing with high society to learn who is passing secrets from the Allies to the Central Powers.

Although frustrated by his sudden inability to travel through time, Scott has not lost any of his remaining powers. He is assisted in his secret work by many of the spirits haunting wartorn Berlin.

In Britain, Doyle and Wells undertake time travels of their own, to a past that seems to be more of a literary creation than a jaunt through time. They find the Island of Doctor Morbideux, a dangerous place filled with genetic experiments merging men with beasts, just as in Wells’ novel, The Island of Doctor Moreau. Morbideux appears to be a time-traveling Harry Houdini, unaware of his present life or his adversarial but friendly relationship with Doyle. The situation becomes increasingly perilous as it becomes clear that Doyle and Wells will be Morbideux’s next experimental subjects.

As the story slips between Scott’s undercover operations in Germany, and Doyle’s and Wells’ clandestine journey, this third book in the Time Traveler Professor series proves itself more complex than either of its predecessors.

Since the first two books, the war has changed Scott, leaving him older, sadder, more experienced, and more frustrated in equal measure. He takes greater and greater risks, and slips easily between chemically induced ecstasy and all too frequent despair, as danger mounts and loss surrounds him. Doyle’s and Wells’ adventures and misadventures, at least until they plumb the full depths of the island of Doctor Morbideaux, provide a bit of leavening to set against Scott’s increasing despond.

The overall story of the series continues to gain depth with a compelling pace, and the author recommends that readers enter this sprawling saga at its beginning in Silent Meridian. This book’s opening recap serves as an excellent refresher for readers who know the previous stories, but The Time Traveler Professor is a series like Outlander, where seemingly minor past – and future! – events and chance meetings may have vast implications for the ultimate fate of the protagonists and their world.

Ultimately, the adventure of The Time Traveler Professor, even if he cannot currently travel through time himself, still jumps in time and place, racing towards what is sure to be a wild ride of an ending in the projected final book in the series, The Story Beyond Time.

A War in Too Many Worlds by Elizabeth Crowens won Grand Prize in the 2021 CIBA Cygnus Awards for Science Fiction.

June 9, 2023
ISOLATED DOMAIN by Tyler Drinkard – Sci-fi, Dystopian, Action & Adventure

Harry Hardacre, better known as Hare to his few friends, hunts for a score big enough to lift him out of poverty, in Isolated Domain by Tyler Drinkard.

Hare hopes to leave his disreputable business contacts and desperate neighbors behind in the decaying slum known as the Conurb. He yearns for the bright lights of the Central City, where the streets are paved with the possibility of high-paying jobs, and more importantly, highly skilled doctors who can replace his broken-down prosthetic leg and free him from its pain.

But every resident of the Conurb shares his hope, always just one great scheme away from exactly the same dream – and they’re always disappointed when they wake up to grind away another day in the dark and grime.

Hare’s score turns into his worst nightmare, as his partner disappears with the seed for their new “business” while setting the local law on Hare’s trail.

Fleeing from the relatively safe, if downtrodden, Conurb, Hare struggles through a hellish dystopia with no end of novel threats. From endless deserts to carnivorous plant life and cannibal bikers, Hare’s trail ends in a terrible truth that is determined to use him for its own ends – even if it ends him.

Isolated Domain begins as a pulse-pounding wild ride of a caper story, as Hare and his best friend Chunk hunt for that one big score. But their dream takes them to the brink of dissolution and destruction. The story doesn’t relent, each dark turn leading to one darker yet – over and over, in myriad visions of a dystopian future.

Hare will compel readers to follow his journey and empathize with him throughout his tribulations.

His world may be vastly different from the reader’s, but his goals and his dreams still feel familiar. He wants a better life but fears it will only get worse. His descent into pain and struggle lands with a heavy emotional impact. Hare’s quest for that big score toys with his hope and refuses to fulfill it. Anyone searching for a light at the end of the tunnel for Hare and his world may close the book feeling a bit depressed.

Readers looking for an odyssey of misfortune will find Hare an engaging and (mostly) good man as he tries to navigate the layers of chaos and despair. His story finishes with a twist that will leave those readers in a state of dark astonishment.

March 8, 2023
FUTURE’S DARK PAST: Time Forward Trilogy, Book 1 by J.L. Yarrow – Sci-Fi, Time Travel, Action & Adventure

A time travel epic, Future’s Dark Past is the creative endeavor of J.L Yarrow, husband and wife duo of John and Leanne Yarrow. The time-hopping action begins in the year 2355, in a world virtually uninhabitable outside a few city pods where food is scarce and violence a certainty.

Caught sneaking into a city pod with nowhere else to go, Kristen Winters agrees to join the Time Forward Project, a group from which no volunteers have ever returned. Kristin’s new superiors send her to fight a deadly battle for the fate of humanity. In 2025, Hunter Coburn becomes an important piece of the puzzle after he gets accidentally connected to Kristen’s time jumps. Initially on opposite sides, they must figure out how to work together as the plan to save the future becomes increasingly unstable.

John and Leanne do an excellent job of creating an immersive world from the beginning, with many characters who develop and grow with the story as it unfolds.

This book’s brief chapters make for easy binge-reading as the feeling of “just one more chapter” hits after each ending hook. This fictional world starts off strong, with well-established details, and the central characters join the story with compelling introductions. The Future’s Dark Past delivers a complex and winding time-travel plot, although sometimes the story loses focus on its main characters in that complexity, and sudden plot developments leave some other characters underdeveloped. Despite its chaotic sense of direction, Future’s Dark Past has a lot to love, and the following books in this series have many questions left to answer, and intriguing characters to pursue them.

Future’s Dark Past offers exciting action as its characters struggle to change the past, and in doing, change their future.

Kirsten and Hunter travel back in time both to prevent events set in history and to put plans in motion to help save the future. Their mission to stop the JFK assassination in 1963 will in particular will have readers swimming in suspense. As timelines branch and change, the characters try to parse which parts of their memory are even true anymore, creating fascinating dynamics between them.

The concluding arc of Future’s Dark Past will surprise readers, with an unexpected antagonist. This intense ending leaves the characters with a complex and dangerous job ahead of them. Humanity’s survival depends on it.

Future’s Dark Past by J.L. Yarrow won Grand Prize in the 2017 CIBA Cygnus Book Awards for Science Fiction. Available now!

March 3, 2023
EUDORA SPACE KID: Do the Robot! (Book 3) by David Horn – Science Fiction, Children’s Action & Adventure, Illustrated Books

In Eudora Space Kid: Do the Robot (Book 3), David Horn’s latest middle-grade sci-fi novel, Eudora Jenkins embarks on a rollicking, action-packed story that shows the reader just how much mischief one girl can get into out in deep space.

Eudora lives on the Planetary Republic’s flagship Astro liner Athena. A smart and sassy third-grader, Eudora can’t stop finding trouble on the ship’s journey to protect the Republic from aliens and perform science experiments and exploration in deep space.

The story begins with a school play, where Eudora plays a tree. How embarrassing. Her best friend, Arnold, joins her as a shrub. To make matters worse, Eudora’s eighth-grade sister, Molly, snatches Eudora’s role as the leading lady in Snow White. Molly eagerly anticipates a first kiss from her crush, Buck Fraser, playing the leading man.

Eudora plans a little payback for her sister stealing the lead role. She reprograms Walter, whom Eudora calls ‘lootenant,’ the only robot officer on the ship.

As everyone in the Planetary Republic knows, these robots are expensive. Walter is cast as “Grumpy the Dwarf,” and Eudora’s plot goes off perfectly. During the big scene, Walter pushes Buck aside and kisses Molly, to the delight of the audience. But after the performance, Walter breaks, and Eudora must think fast. She and her best friend work furiously to fix him, but soon the whole bridge realizes that something is wrong with him.

How can Eudora avoid destroying her shot of attending the Space Academy, and save her dream of becoming a Chief Engineer?

Horn’s masterful storytelling brings the sci-fi world of outer space alive, a realm filled with aliens both good and evil. Readers will Join Eudora in this romp through The Athena, as it struggles to operate without its robot extraordinaire.

Eudora is wonderfully imaginative, and she captures our sympathies. Readers will in love with her as she tries to solve the problem of reprogramming the complicated circuitry of a one-of-a-kind robot.

Each scene of Do the Robot! is filled with suspense, excitement, science, and space exploration. The surprising ending will satisfy readers young and old alike.

March 1, 2023
EVERYTHING THAT WAS by Conon Parks, Chris Sempek, Mike MacNeil, Larry Knight – Terrorism Thriller, Satire, Political Fiction

Everything That Was echoes myriad broken emotions born of the world in turmoil after 9/11, intricate and politically bold, and as disturbing in its brutal humanity as it is satisfying with witty jests.

The 9/11 terrorist attack has shattered the psyche of the American people. A volcanic eruption of questions demands the whys and hows of the attack. From this anger, a massive war on terror begins. This historical fiction reflects the chaos of 9/11 and its ensuing global chaos – resulting in a series of violent endeavors and events. Throughout Everything That Was, one can find a swarm of fragmented ideologies, mini memoirs of war veterans, and witness accounts – all screeching reasons for the attack, the ensuing war, and its consequences: political, ideological, and theological.

The book’s very structure expresses the central ideas of its content, making for an affecting read.

The prose presents fragments of thoughts from the characters, broken grammar cutting sentences together and leaving emotions unexplained. Using a similar framework, Larry Knight’s introspective poetry gives an alternative form of expression to this story’s deep thoughts. In both forms, this structure points towards the lack of clarity in human conscience and the unsettling nature of a world riddled with war and havoc.

The characters appear to be in a trance, and several of their comments end in interrogative or rhetorical questions. Andre joins the National Guard, furious at the loss of innocent lives. But when he arrives at the camp, he has no idea what he signed up for or what the day is. There is no finality or closure to these pluralities of thought; each moment only flows until another idea or rhetorical question replaces it.

Everything That Was faces readers with the automation of war and its devastating impact on individuals.

In a variety of concepts, the book suggests that the fears of being taken over, perceived as powerless, or overrun by women regulate human societal behavior regardless of character. Instinctive and unconscious support for the war grows, as does widespread confusion and skepticism. Andre muses on the battle at hand, questioning whether it is “WWII? Korea? The Viet Cong? Sandinista? Drug War? A War on Drugs?”

Everything That Was represents both the separation and simultaneity of consciousness prevalent in the world. No single meaning can claim to be the ultimate answer in a plethora of conflicting notions. Many internal and external battles result from the interplay between religion and politics, and the diverse interpretations of those aspects by different characters.

As the book unfolds, its discourses allude to several historical events. In its desire to reach emancipation through infinite perspectives, this story proves its attention to the details of history. As a classic example of gonzo journalism, a literary form used by Hunter S. Thompson, the text is a frazzled amalgamation of first-person experiences that rouse incredulity at the brutality and defamiliarization of war and its chessmen in the religious and political spheres. All of these complex internal reactions to external horrors come wrapped in biting irony, peppered with tragicomedy.

February 27, 2023
THE CHAMELEON: A Jake Palmer Novel by Ron McManus – Global Thriller, Nuclear Weapons, Action & Adventure

The Chameleon: A Jake Palmer Novel by Ron McManus takes on one of the most terrifying issues in the modern world: nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists.

Amidst the ongoing conflict between India and Pakistan, the world’s superpowers recognize that both nations possess large nuclear arsenals, which intelligent, well-armed fanatics threaten to steal for their own nefarious purposes. If these weapons went off, they could easily lead to World War III. To prevent this, the U.S. eagerly takes on the role of supervising the security of these weapons in both countries.

In this terrorism thriller, India and Pakistan clash over the disputed Kashmir region. Pakistan’s leaders decide to secretly deploy a variety of nuclear weapons to the front, sending them along backroads in unmarked trucks. But in a carefully planned attack, terrorists kidnap one of these vehicles containing three nuclear weapons, before substituting a precise duplicate truck to take its place. The theft is not discovered until the decoy truck reaches its destination.

Jake Palmer, a decorated former SEAL, attorney, and investigative consultant, returns again in this fourth installment of the Jake Palmer series.

U.S. military Command assigns Palmer to oversee the security of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons during the conflict. He arrives in Islamabad, Pakistan, just as the terrorists pull off the truck switch. A chance satellite photo captures a mysterious road incident involving the truck, giving Palmer and U.S. Intelligence a hint that something has gone wrong.

It’s now up to Palmer and his team to follow up on this report and sift through myriad unconnected details to discover the theft, and more importantly, where and how the terrorists plan to use the weapons.

McManus offers a grounded, complicated thriller full of intrigue and intense danger.

The Chameleon tells its story with remarkable attention to detail and a clear depth of research, giving readers a full understanding of historical, armament, military, and political situations. This well-constructed narrative shows the reader a variety of perspectives and a realistic view of the world’s potential conflicts.

Palmer is a professional. He’s not given to glib conversation, patriotic speeches, or sentiment. Even a possible romance doesn’t take his laser-like focus away from identifying the crime and stopping its horrific potential. This story stands both as part of a series and on its own. Unfamiliar readers can jump right into this volume and not miss a thing, but instead find a new series to explore.

The best thrillers shine with authenticity, and The Chameleon is no exception.

You walk through the crowded streets of Pakistan, join meetings in command centers in Washington and London, and ride the cramped trucks where terrorists do their dirty work. Readers will understand the jargon, the agony that comes with making the right decision at the right time, and the sweat of fear when something goes horribly wrong.

This mystery holds some of its secrets even to the end. We never meet The Chameleon, nor see what happens from their point of view. The brilliant, evil puppet master who planned these events remains an enigma, but perhaps a subsequent volume will tell their story.

For readers who enjoy an intelligent thriller that draws much from the real world, The Chameleon is a must-read.

The Chameleon by Ron McManus won Grand Prize in the 2021 CIBA Global Thriller Awards for High Stakes Suspense.

February 24, 2023
CHASING OTHELLO: Book 2 of the Cleopatra Chronicles by Tina Sloan – International Mystery, Action & Adventure, Global Thriller

Chasing Othello by Tina Sloan has lies and spies, betrayal and espionage, love and hate, all wrapped up in a story that grabs the reader on the very first page and doesn’t let go until the last.

Forty-something Cleopatra is shattered after discovering that one of her best friends was a terrorist who had planned to blow up Pearl Harbor. When she discovered his intentions, she was forced to kill or be killed. Her Krav Maga training allows her to win that battle.

Shattered by the betrayal, Cleo retreats to her father’s estate in Dubai, only to find out she is pregnant at age forty-four.

Life on her father’s vast estate is a respite, but when her ex-lover is shot in the process of bringing down yet another terrorist, Cleopatra returns home to Honolulu with her now two-year-old daughter, only to discover that she is the target this time.

There are deceptions and red herrings aplenty in this compelling thriller.

The CIA focuses on the terrorist while the mastermind of the plot hides in plain sight. He has his sights firmly fixed on Cleopatra long before anyone knows that she is in danger. The tension ramps up high as the clues are painstakingly pulled together by a movie director who thinks that Cleopatra’s secrets might be a great hook for his next movie.

The story is told through multiple first-person points of view. The narrative focuses in turn on each of the main characters, from Cleopatra to her former lover’s wife, to his newly-fledged CIA son, to the film director, to the mastermind. Each voice is distinct, and the flip from perspective to perspective keeps the story moving at a breakneck pace, while providing a plethora of clues to fascinate along the way.

Chasing Othello is a thrill ride from beginning to blistering, bittersweet end.

Readers will laugh, cry and cheer as Cleopatra Gallier manages to save her own day – with a bit of help from the CIA – and find her own way to happiness after much danger and death.

She should enjoy her peace while she can, because there are plenty of hints at the end that storm clouds still gather on her horizon. Readers who have fallen in love with her and her world will be left eagerly anticipating what those storms might bring in her future.

This story begins where the first book in the Cleopatra Chronicles ends and is more than friendly to newbies who want to jump right into this second volume – although once someone has visited Cleopatra Gallier’s world they will be itching to return – if only to see what details they missed.

February 10, 2023
PLAGUE Of FLIES: Revolt of the Spirits, 1846 by Laurel Anne Hill – Historical Fantasy, Old West, YA Magical Realism

Sixteen-year-old Catalina Delgado’s hopes of marrying her love are troubled by strange, unnatural dangers, in Laurel Anne Hill’s novel, Plague of Flies.

Like every dutiful daughter in 1846, Catalina worries about her reputation. However, she must also gain the approval of Ángelo Ortega’s family. Unfortunately, when three strangers ride onto her family’s small ranch in Alta California, she knows that more than her dreams are at risk. Alta California has just been invaded by the men of the Bear Flag, and Catalina fears what will become of her homeland now that it has been claimed by the Yankees. The nearby ranch owned by the valiant General Vallejo has been raided, owners and their servants terrorized and held captive. Plus Bear Flaggers have murdered additional friends of Catalina’s family on a beach.

In connection with the recent killings, the three strangers are harbingers of a dire prophecy repeated to Catalina by a dying vaquero. Catalina is destined to be carried off by a spirit man riding a black Andalusian stallion. She will be tasked to do the bidding of Coyote, a trickster spirit who is trying to stop the advancement of the Bear Flaggers. Catalina grapples with her uncertainty and disbelief, but she desperately wants to save her family. When Spirit Man appears to her, she must ask herself how far she is willing to go to keep her loved ones alive.

As a teenage girl in a repressed age and society, Catalina should be fearful of everything. And though in many ways she has been sheltered, she has also learned the ways of the vaquero, roping and riding alongside her brothers.

Her strict upbringing is meant to protect her virtue and to keep her reputation spotless until she is given in marriage. Catalina’s mother takes this obligation so seriously that she locks her daughter in her room at night to protect her. Catalina is meant to obey and isn’t even allowed to speak openly with her father or grandfather. As the head of the family, these men wield complete control over Catalina’s life and destiny. But now, this strange prophecy claims her future. She is chilled by the whispers of the dying vaquero who had taught her many of her skills.

His voice seems to remain with her past his death, speaking warnings and wisdom inside of her head.

When the strangers reveal themselves as Oljon natives and close relatives of Catalina, her entire self-image is upended. Thinking of herself as a Costanoan rather than a proud Mexican of Spanish descent makes her doubt her worth and lose hope of claiming the love of Ángelo Ortega, whose father will likely not agree to the match when he hears of her heritage.

She prays for courage in her meeting with Spirit Man, not yet realizing she already possesses more courage than any of the men in her life. Again and again, she rides with the magical being who forces her to find Coyote’s gold. Though she constantly fears Spirit Man’s abilities, she faces him, even questioning his directives and, at times, refusing to do as he commands. She believes her role in the prophecy will save her land from Bear Flaggers, and even though she has difficulty reconciling her religious beliefs with the Spirit Man’s appearances, she continues with her mission.

Catalina even risks her life and Spirit Man’s anger to rescue Ángelo when he joins the army and is taken by the Bear Flaggers. Regardless of the danger and the fear, Catalina accepts the rapid changes in her fate and future.

Plague of Flies surrounds Catalina with questions of destiny, and her place in it.

Catalina’s well-laid plans are wiped out by a series of events that seems relatively unconnected to her life. Just like falling dominoes, these events collapse Catalina’s dreams and fulfill a prophecy older than Catalina herself. The question, however, is whether the future of her homeland is likewise connected. Catalina must decide whether to follow the prophecy as an inevitability, or to chase her own dream of a simple ranch life with a husband and children. If Catalina refuses the call of Spirit Man, will all of Alta California suffer? Is she willing to save the land while losing herself?

Plague of Flies by Laurel Anne Hill won Grand Prize in the 2021 CIBA OZMA Book Awards for Fantasy Fiction.

January 12, 2023
THE CLAIMING by J.A. Nielsen – Young Adult, Fantasy, Action & Adventure

The illegitimate son of a human king accidentally binds himself to a Fae princess in J.A. Nielsen’s YA adventure, The Claiming. As war bears down on the kingdom of Telridge, can the two of them break the spell in time?

Lord Ferrous, ruler of Telridge, smells conflict coming for his people. Even so, he denies a mysterious request from the king of the Winter Fae, and sets his sons to prepare their land for war. His eldest, Prince Dirk, gathers his knights and begins to evacuate the common people to the protection of Telridge castle. His younger son Spense, born out of wedlock to the castle’s head cook, uses his finicky magic to Claim a bridge over a powerful river. If he succeeds, the passing will be barred to their enemies. But he fails to realize that the powerful living force he encounters isn’t the bridge at all.

Dewy, crown princess of the Summer Fae, is Claimed instead of the bridge. Her aunt, Lady Radiant, must exile her from their lands. While Dewy’s careless spirit chafed under Radiant’s authority, she grieves for her lost home.

Spense resolves to break the Claiming, no matter what it takes.

The two of them journey on a diplomatic mission to the Fae, while Dirk and his knights begin to fight against an army of both humans, from the kingdom of Verden, and Winter Fae. Spense seeks both an alliance with Lady Radiant, and the means to free Dewy of the bonds he put on her. But this journey will ask more of him and Dewy than they know.

Nielsen brings her characters to full and vibrant life.

Dewy and Spense both feel that they’re different from those around them, unsure of their place in the world. Though they’re initially brought together by magic, they begin to form a genuine bond and bring out positive change in one another. They find confidence in their abilities and, as they come to understand each other, share their fears and sorrows.

Even antagonistic characters show their complexity. Lady Radiant, though reserved and steely in diplomatic talks, wants desperately to help her niece. Prince Dirk fights courageously and sees past the social standing of Flora, a farm girl, to realize that she could help his knights to save Telridge. The king of winter himself, Lumine, is driven by an understandable need, even if he keeps his secrets closely guarded.

The battles, both emotional and literal, keep a gripping pace.

Faerie magic, fire-tipped arrows, gunpowder, and even failed alchemy experiments clash in the battle for Telridge. Dewy wields phenomenal elemental power, Spense offers his clever inventions, and Dirk and Flora must devise creative strategies to hold back the army arrayed against them. Exciting, tense scenes play out as knights and faeries fight. All the while, the characters try to weather the mental toll of waging war.

Spense bears responsibility for all of his people as he becomes Telridge’s diplomat to the Fae courts.

Throughout Nielsen’s luminous, intricately-described Fey lands, Spense grapples with the guilt of what he’s done to Dewy, while Dewy herself contemplates what she feels for him, how much of her fondness can be true with the Claiming upon her. The two risk life, limb, and even more for each other as a curious, subtle mystery forms around their meetings with the Winter Fae.

The Claiming is a story of courage, connection, and the responsibility of a person to care for those around them. Fans of fantasy and faeries will love this fast-paced adventure.

January 9, 2023