Fiction – Page 16 – Everything Is Better With Dragons

TBR Pile Review: August Kitko and the Mechas from Space, by Alex White

When an army of giant robot AIs threatens to devastate Earth, a virtuoso pianist becomes humanity’s last hope in this bold, lightning-paced, technicolor new space opera series from the author of A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe.

Jazz pianist Gus Kitko expected to spend his final moments on Earth playing piano at the greatest goodbye party of all time, and maybe kissing rockstar Ardent Violet, before the last of humanity is wiped out forever by the Vanguards–ultra-powerful robots from the dark heart of space, hell-bent on destroying humanity for reasons none can divine.

But when the Vanguards arrive, the unthinkable happens–the mecha that should be killing Gus instead saves him. Suddenly, Gus’s swan song becomes humanity’s encore, as he is chosen to join a small group of traitorous Vanguards and their pilots dedicated to saving humanity.

Promo Post: Does Snow Turn A Person White Inside?, by Max Lobe

Publication date: 25th August 2022
Category: Fiction
Print RRP: £11.99
Print ISBN: 978-1-913109-90-5
Paperback: 198 x 129 mm
E-book RRP: £6.99
E-book ISBN: 978-1-913109-96-7

Blurb

The narrator, Mwana, is a young man from Bantuland, living in Geneva. A
graduate from a Swiss university, we first encounter Mwana waiting for a bus in the hills of Lugano gazing at a poster calling for “black sheep” to be sent home. Mwana’s efforts to find work are fruitless until he lands an internship in an NGO campaigning against racial discrimination. The team is busy organising a demonstration against the black sheep poster.

Mwana has one foot in each culture. He sees Swiss society through African eyes, with all its contradictions: its moderation, stunning landscapes and its eccentricities, but also its intolerance and inflexibility. He also casts a critical eye on his native Africa, the weight of its traditions and beliefs. Is belonging nowhere the price Mwana has to pay for these insights?

Sad and playful Does Snow Turn a Person White Inside? is a moving
reflection on the immigrant experience.

Rosemarie’s Note: This was going to be a review, but the book didn’t arrive in time, so promo post instead. The book arrived on Monday, I’m reading it and will review it as soon as possible. I’m about 23% of the way through the book.

I’m disappointed, I was looking forward to sharing this book with you. It’s not the fault of the blog tour organiser, but probably a delay at the publisher’s end. These things happen, unfortunately.

Author Biography:

Max Lobe was born in Douala, Cameroon. At eighteen he moved to Switzerland, where he earned a BA in communication and journalism
and a master’s in public policy and administration. In 2017, his novel Confidences won the Ahmadou Kourouma Prize. Other books by the
author include 39 Rue de Berne and A Long Way From Douala published by Small Axes in 2021. Max Lobe lives in Geneva.

Book Review: Witchstorm by Tim Tilley

**Information about the Book**
**Title:** Witchstorm
**Authors:** Tim Tilley
**Publisher:** Usborne
**Release Date:** 29^th September 2022
**Genre:** MG (8 – 12 year olds)

Summary

Join a hunt for lost witch treasure, in an enchanting adventure story of storms, spells, and the magic of the natural world, from bestselling and award-winning Tim Tilley.

Will believes in witches and the stories he’s grown up with – of mythical storm-lions, disappearing villages, and secret songs. Most of all, he believes the tales of magical treasure hidden in the Fens centuries ago. Treasure that he has to find, to solve the mystery of his Ma’s disappearance.

Then, in the eye of a storm, a witch arrives. She holds the key to finding the lost treasure – a powerful magical object that can summon storms. But someone else is searching for it too. If it falls into the wrong hands, Will’s beloved home could be destroyed, and with it, his chances of ever finding his ma.
Join Will on an epic quest filled with riddles, ruined towers, cloud cities and broomstick chases, on a journey to save everything he loves before time runs out.

Extract Post: The Adventure of Ozchickychop and his White Teapot, by Jane Aistrop

**Information about the Book**
**Title:** The Adventures of Ozchickychop and his White Teapot
**Authors:** Jane Aistrop
**Publisher:** Clink Street Publishing
**Release Date:** 6^th October 2022
**Genre:** MG (5 – 8 year olds)

Summary

Children, open up this book and you will find a magical tale about two brothers who discover a magical world.

This story is about the brothers embarking on rescue missions and learning just how important words are, not just in story books but also in real life too.

Kindness, caring and love shines throughout this story to save Ozchickychop and the land of Nede.

Read on to become part of their adventures.

Review: Anisha, Accidental Detective Fright Night, by Serena Patel, Illustrated by Emma McCann

**Information about the Book**
**Title:** Anisha, Accidental Detective: Fright Night
**Authors:** Serena Patel
**Illustrator:** Emma McCann
**Publisher:** Usborne
**Release Date:** 15^th September 2022
**Genre:** MG (7-11 year olds)

Summary

There’s a spooky mystery at school, in the sixth hilarious case in the award-winning Anisha, Accidental Detective series!

It’s Halloween and everyone is excited about the school disco. It’s a bit much for me – all that dressing-up and dancing. I’d rather cosy up with a good book, but Milo, Mindy and Manny are all super excited.

Or at least, they were excited, until all these strange things started happening – messages appearing on the whiteboard, lights flickering on and off, books flying off the library shelves… Some of the other kids have been whispering that the school is haunted, but Mr Graft says that if the spooky mischief doesn’t stop, then the disco will be cancelled.

Looks like a mission for me, Anisha, accidental ghost detective!

Review: Red As Blood, by Lilja Sigurdardottir, Translated by Quentin Bates

Pub date: 13 October 2022
ISBN 13: 978-1-914585-32-6
EPUB: 978-1-914585-33-3
Price: £9.99

THE BOOK

When entrepreneur Flosi arrives home for dinner one night, he discovers that his house has been ransacked, and his wife Gudrun missing. A letter on the kitchen table confirms that she has been kidnapped. If Flosi doesn’t agree to pay an enormous ransom, Gudrun will be killed.

Forbidden from contracting the police, he gets in touch with Áróra, who
specialises in finding hidden assets, and she, alongside her detective friend
Daniel, try to get to the bottom of the case without anyone catching on.
Meanwhile, Áróra and Daniel continue the puzzling, devastating search
for Áróra’s sister Ísafold, who disappeared without trace. As fog descends, in a cold and rainy Icelandic autumn, the investigation becomes increasingly dangerous, and confusing.

Chilling, twisty and unbearably tense, Red as Blood is the second instalment in the riveting, addictive An Áróra Investigation series, and everything is at stake…

Review: Coffee and Ice Cream, by Milo McGivern

Genre: Children’s fiction 8-12
Pages: 144
Publisher: Matador
**Buy Links**

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Coffee-Ice-Cream-Milo-McGivern/dp/1803134941/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1BIEEPO4F3R9G&keywords=COFFEE+AND+ICE+CREAM+by+Milo+McGivern&qid=1660556822&sprefix=coffee+and+ice+cream+by+milo+mcgivern%2Caps%2C127&sr=8-1

**https://www.troubador.co.uk/bookshop/young-children/coffee-and-ice-cream/**

Blurb

On an ocean somewhere in the world, is a mysterious island. A place shrouded in fog, that has never been discovered by humans. A land of peace and quiet, and chaotic, funny adventures. Welcome once again to the island of Animaux, a land that continues to mysteriously change its position on the planet each day, to keep it hidden. A paradise, containing a wonderful collection of talking animals. A place we would all like to visit.

The five new tales in ‘Coffee and Ice Cream’ flow smoothly from the ones in the last book, ‘A Surprise Party’. As always, the greedy, dusty, bad-mannered Aubrey the Turkey is up to no good. Watch him open a new delicatessen in the worst place imaginable. See him ruin poor Georgina the Goat’s birthday. Be amazed as Walli Hog and Clifford Platypus take on many jobs so they can pay off the turkey’s huge debts. And then see Aubrey hold a magic show, full of rubbish tricks but ending with the most amazing spell ever cast. Once again, stories packed with fun, silliness, naughty behaviour and happy endings.

Please enjoy the stories. And don’t be afraid to laugh, particularly as Aubrey’s expense. But please, please, please – continue to remember to keep the latest position of the island top secret!

Review: The Bleeding, by Johana Gustawsson, translated by David Warriner

PUBLICATION DATE: 15 SEPTEMBER 2022
HARDBACK ORIGINAL | £16.99 | ORENDA BOOKS

Blurb

1899, Belle Époque Paris. Lucienne’s two daughters are believed dead
when her mansion burns to the ground, but she is certain that her girls
are still alive and embarks on a journey into the depths of the spiritualist
community to find them.

1949, Post-War Québec. Teenager Lina’s father has died in the French
Resistance, and as she struggles to fit in at school, her mother introduces
her to an elderly woman at the asylum where she works, changing Lina’s
life in the darkest way imaginable.

2002, Quebec. A former schoolteacher is accused of brutally stabbing her
husband – a famous university professor – to death. Detective Maxine
Grant, who has recently lost her own husband and is parenting a
teenager and a new baby single-handedly, takes on the investigation.
Under enormous personal pressure, Maxine makes a series of macabre
discoveries that link directly to historical cases involving black magic and
murder, secret societies and spiritism … and women at breaking point,
who will stop at nothing to protect the ones

TBR Pile Review: Winter’s Orbit, by Everina Maxwell

429 pages, Paperback
Published February 4, 2021 by Orbit
ISBN:9780356515885 (ISBN10: 0356515885)
Language English

Blurb

While the Iskat Empire has long dominated the system through treaties and political alliances, several planets, including Thea, have begun to chafe under Iskat’s rule. When tragedy befalls Imperial Prince Taam, his Thean widower, Jainan, is rushed into an arranged marriage with Taam’s cousin, the disreputable Kiem, in a bid to keep the rising hostilities between the two worlds under control.

But when it comes to light that Prince Taam’s death may not have been an accident, and that Jainan himself may be a suspect, the unlikely pair must overcome their misgivings and learn to trust one another as they navigate the perils of the Iskat court, try to solve a murder, and prevent an interplanetary war… all while dealing with their growing feelings for each other.

TBR Pile Review/Audiobook Review: The Oleander Sword, by Tasha Suri

Paperback, 512 pages
Published August 16th 2022 by Orbit
ISBN:0316538566 (ISBN13: 9780316538565)
Series
The Burning Kingdoms #2

Audiobook
Published August 16th 2022 by Orbit
ISBN:1668613557 (ISBN13: 9781668613559)

Blurb

“Alluring, action-packed, and gut-wrenching,” (Publishers Weekly, starred review), The Oleander Sword continues Tasha Suri’s acclaimed Burning Kingdoms trilogy, in which a powerful priestess and a vengeful princess will change the fate of an empire.

The prophecy of the nameless god—the words that declared Malini the rightful empress of Parijatdvipa—has proven a blessing and curse. She is determined to claim the throne that fate offered her. But even with rage in her heart and the army of loyal men by her side, deposing her brother is going to be a brutal and bloody fight.

The power of the deathless waters flows through Priya’s blood. Now a thrice born priestess and an Elder of Ahiranya, she dreams of seeing her country rid of the rot that plagues it: both Parijatdvipa’s poisonous rule, and the blooming sickness that is spreading through all living things. But she doesn’t yet understand the truth of the magic she carries.

Their chosen paths once pulled them apart. But Malini and Priya’s souls remain as entwined as their destinies. And saving their kingdom from those who would rather see it burn will come at a terrible price.