I think this is one of those books that I don’t really want to reveal too much of what happens because it’s about the journey. But it begins with a woman named Myfawny (pronounced Miffany) Thomas who awakens in a park in London with no recollection of who she is, what she is doing there, and why is she is surrounded by a bunch of dead guys wearing gloves. She finds a note in her pocket, written by her former self, letting her know what […]
Chess, Blades, and Now I wait
I liked Stiletto. It had a lot of the great elements from The Rook, with a few new ones. There was action, supernatural weirdness, and snark aplenty. The Checquy and The Grafters are in the middle of negotiating their merge and of course things go wrong and get complicated. Much of the story focuses on 2 new characters, one from each side: Pawn Felicity Clements, and Odette Leliefeld, descendent of the founder of the Grafters. The perspective switches back and forth between the two, which […]
I Feel Like I’m Not Liking the Things Other People are Liking
I found reading this book frustrating. I enjoyed it, and then I’d slam into a sentence or phrase that reminded me the author is a man. I have no inherent problem with male authors and I know men can write women, but this author seems to have had a hard time letting go of the male gaze. It did impact my enjoyment and lowered my star rating. Also lowering my rating were the endless letter/info dumps. I’ve read some other CBR reviews of The Rook, […]
The Rook, take two.
Second time through this book, I thought I might add a star, but nope. This one holds strong at four because (unfortunately) it’s not quite as fun on re-read, at least in my experience, because that feeling of not knowing what’s going on and being along for the ride is now gone, and that turns out to have been the main thing I liked best last time. But by no means is that a slam on this book, it’s still really good, just not an […]

