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claireylou's review
4.0
This review is for The Watcher only , by H.B Lyne. I received a copy from the author.
This next installment was equally fast paced and exciting continuation from part 1. More facets to this world emerge and we get a closer look at the different characters and their abilities as the mystery deepens!
This next installment was equally fast paced and exciting continuation from part 1. More facets to this world emerge and we get a closer look at the different characters and their abilities as the mystery deepens!
lin00's review
3.0
Wayward Magic is the 2nd book of the Magic Underground Anthologies and is necessary to read the first book.
Wayward Magic is equally short to the first book, however, I think is long enough to tell the story, and for the reader to understand it a bit more.
I found this book fun and engaging. It was lovely to see how the characters grew fond of each other and to see the plot progress.
I want to thank Anela Deen for kindly give me a complimentary copy of this book for an honest review.
Wayward Magic is equally short to the first book, however, I think is long enough to tell the story, and for the reader to understand it a bit more.
I found this book fun and engaging. It was lovely to see how the characters grew fond of each other and to see the plot progress.
I want to thank Anela Deen for kindly give me a complimentary copy of this book for an honest review.
aworldshapedbybooks's review
4.0
I hate cliffhangers but like I love them at the same time- heads up, this one is another cliffhanger but luckily they're released so frequently that we don't have to wait long. I received an arc of Anela Deen's segment of Wayward Magic in exchange for an honest review- this is my honest review.
Since this is a book of novellas, I'm reviewing only When Day Fades into Night, the story of Simith and Jessa. Simith is a pixie, not the cute small kind or the kind from Fairly Odd Parents, but an intense soldier pixie enslaved in a war that he has no real reason to be in. Jessa is a normal human who is struggling with an unexpected pregnancy and now the consequences of the battle of the last novella.
The shortness of it is great since you can easily read this in one sitting, but it's so frustrating because this world could go so much further. It kind of has A Court of Thorns and Roses vibes for me, a human journeys into the realm of magic in order to save someone she has an inexplicable bond with, though it's by no means a replica. I would recommend it for fans of that subset of books though. Another problem with the shortness is that I'm afraid to review any more elements of it without spoiling the intricacies of the plot. So I'll just say go and read this one and the first one for yourself, it'll be fast and you won't regret getting involved in the universe!
This review and all my others can be found at: https://aworldshapedbybooks.blogspot.com/
errantdreams's review
3.0
This is an unusual trilogy of anthologies. The idea is, each author involved wrote a trilogy of interconnected or continuing stories, with the first found in Hidden Magic [review], the second found in Wayward Magic (Magic Underground Anthologies Book 2), and the third found in Forgotten Magic. Back when trilogies of novels were more common, it wasn’t unusual for their to be a second-act slump in the middle book. Unfortunately, a lot of these short story trilogies also suffer from a second-act slump, so I’m giving this book a 3/5 instead of the 4/5 of its predecessor.
Don’t worry though; there are still some excellent stories in here. Raven Oak’s “Pretty Poison” picks up with Shendra and her brother ten years after the first installment. They’ve been sent by their order to kill a man, only things get complicated. In Majanka Verstraete’s “The Lair of the Red God,” Saleyna, a mage who has the ability of Empathy, tries to settle into her new role pretending to be a follower of the Red God. I love this story and setting just as much as I did in the first book; it’s tense and intriguing. “The Mail-Order Witch: Episode II,” by Joynell Schultz, is an adorable story of a witch and a warlock who are trying their best to fit in amongst the non-magical while being “out of the closet.” This time someone seems to have set an awful lot of hamsters loose in Ettie’s magic shop to wreak havoc!
In H.B. Lyne’s “The Watcher,” former military man Felix Jones is one of a very few people who seem to realize that part of the city has gone missing, and he’s determined to find his sister Julie, who disappeared with it. Anela Deen’s “When Day Fades Into Night” continues the story of pixie knight Simith and human Jessa, who now share a single life-force. Simith is being forced to enable the continuation of a war between faeries and trolls, while both he and Jessa suffer from being separated. Finally, Lee French and Erik Kort bring us “The Greatest Sin: A Sacrifice of Body,” in which Algernon and his parents and grandmother have fled to a sanctuary. Their enemy Miru is already there, but he can’t attack them while they’re within the sanctuary. There seem to be other secrets afoot, however, and poor traumatized Algernon can’t figure out how to tell his parents that he had to kill people in order to save himself and his grandmother.
Some of the stories involve too much navel-gazing. Others really don’t stand on their own at all; the stories I mentioned above have their own story to tell, while some of the rest are just interludes in the middle. At least one story is very overwrought, and contains no less than six characters whose names start with the same letter–some of which are very similar to each other–so good luck keeping the characters straight (Braxton and Baxter in particular are both boyfriends of teenage girls, so it’s very easy to confuse them). One story is quite short and confusing.
In general S. Wallace’s “Better the Devil You Know,” with its main characters being the married centaur and minotaur warriors, was good except that the Baron of Wings seemed to behave inexplicably oddly at points. Also there was so much blow-by-blow action that it actually got a little boring. One story was so out-of-touch with its first part from the first anthology that I had to go back and read the other story to figure out which one it was, and even then they had only the most tenuous of connections. Another tale is pretty much just a repeat of its first installment–a princess is whisked away to the fae realm for safety, spends time seeing the wonders and wishing she could go home. Not much actually happens.
My least-favorite story is based on the work of a philosopher, and boy does it show it. Towns have names like “Here” “There” and “Near,” and we’re told straight out what trait each town embodies. I prefer to read my genre fiction, not be hit over the head by it.
“Aamira: Healer,” by Barbara Letson, is somewhat interesting; a girl who can heal people encounters a mysterious dark figure who may be Death. In C.S. Johnson’s “The Ones Who Fight,” a settlement remains happy and healthy by shifting all of their pain and damage and unhappiness onto a mysterious boy, and in this installment the main characters who found out about him decide to free him. (Not as heavy-handed as the other story with a philosophical bent, and the surrounding story is more interesting and better-written.)
A story about a ghostly Viking takes an intriguing turn. Another story about two young men on the run from their family and town is good, but I still find myself wondering how so many people in the first installment could have turned on the boys so rabidly. Melinda Kucsera’s “Spell of Bone & Ash” involves dark magic, weird owl-monkey-cats, and a comatose mage fighting off evil. The critters are weird, but this is an interesting story and I look forward to seeing what happens.
This isn’t the high point of the trilogy, but I’m still going to read volume three because there are stories in here that I really care about.
Original review posted on my blog: http://www.errantdreams.com/2020/06/review-wayward-magic-various-authors/
Don’t worry though; there are still some excellent stories in here. Raven Oak’s “Pretty Poison” picks up with Shendra and her brother ten years after the first installment. They’ve been sent by their order to kill a man, only things get complicated. In Majanka Verstraete’s “The Lair of the Red God,” Saleyna, a mage who has the ability of Empathy, tries to settle into her new role pretending to be a follower of the Red God. I love this story and setting just as much as I did in the first book; it’s tense and intriguing. “The Mail-Order Witch: Episode II,” by Joynell Schultz, is an adorable story of a witch and a warlock who are trying their best to fit in amongst the non-magical while being “out of the closet.” This time someone seems to have set an awful lot of hamsters loose in Ettie’s magic shop to wreak havoc!
In H.B. Lyne’s “The Watcher,” former military man Felix Jones is one of a very few people who seem to realize that part of the city has gone missing, and he’s determined to find his sister Julie, who disappeared with it. Anela Deen’s “When Day Fades Into Night” continues the story of pixie knight Simith and human Jessa, who now share a single life-force. Simith is being forced to enable the continuation of a war between faeries and trolls, while both he and Jessa suffer from being separated. Finally, Lee French and Erik Kort bring us “The Greatest Sin: A Sacrifice of Body,” in which Algernon and his parents and grandmother have fled to a sanctuary. Their enemy Miru is already there, but he can’t attack them while they’re within the sanctuary. There seem to be other secrets afoot, however, and poor traumatized Algernon can’t figure out how to tell his parents that he had to kill people in order to save himself and his grandmother.
Some of the stories involve too much navel-gazing. Others really don’t stand on their own at all; the stories I mentioned above have their own story to tell, while some of the rest are just interludes in the middle. At least one story is very overwrought, and contains no less than six characters whose names start with the same letter–some of which are very similar to each other–so good luck keeping the characters straight (Braxton and Baxter in particular are both boyfriends of teenage girls, so it’s very easy to confuse them). One story is quite short and confusing.
In general S. Wallace’s “Better the Devil You Know,” with its main characters being the married centaur and minotaur warriors, was good except that the Baron of Wings seemed to behave inexplicably oddly at points. Also there was so much blow-by-blow action that it actually got a little boring. One story was so out-of-touch with its first part from the first anthology that I had to go back and read the other story to figure out which one it was, and even then they had only the most tenuous of connections. Another tale is pretty much just a repeat of its first installment–a princess is whisked away to the fae realm for safety, spends time seeing the wonders and wishing she could go home. Not much actually happens.
My least-favorite story is based on the work of a philosopher, and boy does it show it. Towns have names like “Here” “There” and “Near,” and we’re told straight out what trait each town embodies. I prefer to read my genre fiction, not be hit over the head by it.
“Aamira: Healer,” by Barbara Letson, is somewhat interesting; a girl who can heal people encounters a mysterious dark figure who may be Death. In C.S. Johnson’s “The Ones Who Fight,” a settlement remains happy and healthy by shifting all of their pain and damage and unhappiness onto a mysterious boy, and in this installment the main characters who found out about him decide to free him. (Not as heavy-handed as the other story with a philosophical bent, and the surrounding story is more interesting and better-written.)
A story about a ghostly Viking takes an intriguing turn. Another story about two young men on the run from their family and town is good, but I still find myself wondering how so many people in the first installment could have turned on the boys so rabidly. Melinda Kucsera’s “Spell of Bone & Ash” involves dark magic, weird owl-monkey-cats, and a comatose mage fighting off evil. The critters are weird, but this is an interesting story and I look forward to seeing what happens.
This isn’t the high point of the trilogy, but I’m still going to read volume three because there are stories in here that I really care about.
Original review posted on my blog: http://www.errantdreams.com/2020/06/review-wayward-magic-various-authors/
trinah's review
4.0
This is a review of one of the books in this collection Mail-order Witch episode 2.
Found this book better than the first in the series, although I enjoyed that one too. Love the continuing relationship between Ettie & Roman. There are more difficulties for Ettie’s shop, but the community seems to be coming around to accepting her. Hope we find the saboteur’s identity in the next book.
Found this book better than the first in the series, although I enjoyed that one too. Love the continuing relationship between Ettie & Roman. There are more difficulties for Ettie’s shop, but the community seems to be coming around to accepting her. Hope we find the saboteur’s identity in the next book.
llamareads's review
4.0
This is a review for Anela Deen's "When Day Fades Into Night."
After the cliffhanger ending of “A Veil is Parted,” I was absolutely chomping at the bit for the next story! This is a continuation of the story in Hidden Magic, so there will be major spoilers if you haven’t read it.
In the last book, Simith came through the portal into the mortal world, but in this one, it’s Jessa who must follow him back. When Simith healed Jessa, he inadvertently linked their life forces – but of course, no one realizes this until they’re separated in different realms and both start falling ill. While Jessa has Relle’s grandmother to explain what that means – that as long as they’re separated, they’ll continue to weaken and eventually die – Simith has no idea what’s going on. Betrayed by the fairies and accused of betrayal by the trolls, alone without allies, Simith fears that any chance of peace will die with him.
Part of the link between Simith and Jessa lets them dream each other’s memories. Jessa sees Simith’s life from when his hamlet was burned down by trolls, most of his family killed, and how, in his grief, he joined the fairy legion in order to get revenge. In return, Simith sees Jessa spending time with her family and writing poems. However, neither of them have seen the catalyst that led directly to their current events, though they are closer than can be explained by the small amount of time physically spent in each other’s company.
Continuing their parallel journeys from before, the main thread of the story is Jessa and Simith relearning how to trust and accept help from others. After the attack, Simith throws himself into vengeance against the trolls, even though the person he becomes is the polar opposite of who he once was. The only check on his ruthlessness is his dead brother’s fiancée, Rimthea, who is worried about the change in him and starts advocating for a treaty between the trolls and faeries, but Simith isn’t willing to listen until it’s too late. While Jessa doesn’t go as far as joining a fairy legion after her own personal tragedy, in her grief, she does her best to push away everyone around her. Only her friend Katie continues to make an effort to reach out to her and of course it’s Katie who got mixed up and hurt in the last novella. But even Jessa has to admit that entering a strange land in the middle of a war is best done with friends, especially if one of those friends is half-fae and can do magic. I really appreciated the emphasis in this novel on their friendship.
Overall, I very much enjoyed this part of the story, though it did end on a ridiculous cliffhanger. I’m very much looking forward to the final installment!
I received this novella from the author. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
After the cliffhanger ending of “A Veil is Parted,” I was absolutely chomping at the bit for the next story! This is a continuation of the story in Hidden Magic, so there will be major spoilers if you haven’t read it.
“This was a fate of his own making, and he would bear it alone.”
In the last book, Simith came through the portal into the mortal world, but in this one, it’s Jessa who must follow him back. When Simith healed Jessa, he inadvertently linked their life forces – but of course, no one realizes this until they’re separated in different realms and both start falling ill. While Jessa has Relle’s grandmother to explain what that means – that as long as they’re separated, they’ll continue to weaken and eventually die – Simith has no idea what’s going on. Betrayed by the fairies and accused of betrayal by the trolls, alone without allies, Simith fears that any chance of peace will die with him.
Part of the link between Simith and Jessa lets them dream each other’s memories. Jessa sees Simith’s life from when his hamlet was burned down by trolls, most of his family killed, and how, in his grief, he joined the fairy legion in order to get revenge. In return, Simith sees Jessa spending time with her family and writing poems. However, neither of them have seen the catalyst that led directly to their current events, though they are closer than can be explained by the small amount of time physically spent in each other’s company.
“Trust was more than sharing confidences. It was allowing others to be there in times of need.”
Continuing their parallel journeys from before, the main thread of the story is Jessa and Simith relearning how to trust and accept help from others. After the attack, Simith throws himself into vengeance against the trolls, even though the person he becomes is the polar opposite of who he once was. The only check on his ruthlessness is his dead brother’s fiancée, Rimthea, who is worried about the change in him and starts advocating for a treaty between the trolls and faeries, but Simith isn’t willing to listen until it’s too late. While Jessa doesn’t go as far as joining a fairy legion after her own personal tragedy, in her grief, she does her best to push away everyone around her. Only her friend Katie continues to make an effort to reach out to her and of course it’s Katie who got mixed up and hurt in the last novella. But even Jessa has to admit that entering a strange land in the middle of a war is best done with friends, especially if one of those friends is half-fae and can do magic. I really appreciated the emphasis in this novel on their friendship.
Overall, I very much enjoyed this part of the story, though it did end on a ridiculous cliffhanger. I’m very much looking forward to the final installment!
I received this novella from the author. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
onebookmore's review
5.0
This review is for Anela Deen's "When Day Fades Into Night."
In “A Veil is Parted,” Simith goes through a portal to the human world, but in “When Day Fades Into Night,” Jessa travels to Simith’s world. Here we are introduced to a fantastical place of pixies. pookas, trolls, fairies, and more.
As the truth behind the wars between trolls and pixies emerges, Simith must reevaluate all he knows about the conflict and history of his world. He also must come to terms with his past.
This story delves more into the depth of loss that both Simith and Jessa feel. One consequence of their life forces being tied is that their dreams reveal the other person’s memories. Jessa sees the murder that led to Simith’s ruthlessness. She sees the war and death that Simith mercilessly inflicted upon the trolls as he fell into blood lust. She witnesses the loss of Simith’s best friend, the rejection of his family, and more.
Simith, in turn, sees Jessa’s lovely yet lonely childhood, and her grief-imbued world after tragically losing her entire family. He also sees how Jessa, a once gifted poet, has lost her ability to write and how she closed herself off from the world after tragedy fell.
Both characters have suffered and continue to suffer. I like that they are on a physical and emotional journey, and that they help each other with both. They are stronger together, and they seem to offer the wisdom, strength, and support that the other so desperately needs.
In “A Veil is Parted,” Simith goes through a portal to the human world, but in “When Day Fades Into Night,” Jessa travels to Simith’s world. Here we are introduced to a fantastical place of pixies. pookas, trolls, fairies, and more.
As the truth behind the wars between trolls and pixies emerges, Simith must reevaluate all he knows about the conflict and history of his world. He also must come to terms with his past.
This story delves more into the depth of loss that both Simith and Jessa feel. One consequence of their life forces being tied is that their dreams reveal the other person’s memories. Jessa sees the murder that led to Simith’s ruthlessness. She sees the war and death that Simith mercilessly inflicted upon the trolls as he fell into blood lust. She witnesses the loss of Simith’s best friend, the rejection of his family, and more.
Simith, in turn, sees Jessa’s lovely yet lonely childhood, and her grief-imbued world after tragically losing her entire family. He also sees how Jessa, a once gifted poet, has lost her ability to write and how she closed herself off from the world after tragedy fell.
Both characters have suffered and continue to suffer. I like that they are on a physical and emotional journey, and that they help each other with both. They are stronger together, and they seem to offer the wisdom, strength, and support that the other so desperately needs.
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