Month: September 2016

Fantasy review: ‘For The Wildings’ by Kyra Halland

This is the sixth and final part of the Daughter of the Wildings series. I’ve been trying to think how many series I’ve managed to keep up with for six books, and it’s not many. A couple of murder mystery series, perhaps. But in fantasy? Nope. I rarely even get beyond the first book, and only a few stand-out series keep me hooked for a trilogy. So it’s a testament to the strength of the author’s writing that I’ve read and enjoyed every word of all six books. It was the premise that first caught my eye. Wizards and magic combined with old west cattle ranching and guns? Count me in! And the stories were just as good as I’d hoped. Leading man Silas is a true western hero, tough and determined, but a real gentleman too. His lady, Lainie, is his equal in every respect, and maybe, just maybe, […]

Posted September 29, 2016 by PaulineMRoss in Review / 0 Comments

Now out! ‘The Second God’

Yes, folks, the story that started in The Fire Mages and continued a generation later in The Fire Mages’ Daughter now reaches its dramatic conclusion, as Drina and the two men in her life, Ly-haam and Arran, are forced to make difficult and dangerous choices to defend their country from new threats. The Second God is currently just $2.99 for a short time, and The Fire Mages’ Daughter is just $0.99. If you’d like to pick up a copy of The Fire Mages too, hold off until 3rd October, when it will be FREE. All these discounts are available worldwide for the Kindle. If you have a subscription to Kindle Unlimited or Amazon Prime, you can borrow all three books free. You can also buy the books in paperback, and download the ebook free of charge. Click the cover image to be taken to your local Amazon. Here’s the blurb […]

Posted September 24, 2016 by PaulineMRoss in Publishing/marketing, The Fire Mages, The Fire Mages' Daughter, The Second God / 0 Comments

Mystery review: ‘A Case of Blackmail in Belgravia’ by Clara Benson

For anyone who read all ten of the Angela Marchmont series of murder mysteries set in the 1920s, this spin-off series is an absolute must. Featuring the gloriously insouciant Freddy Pilkington-Soames, this first book in the new series has all the author’s trademark elegant phrasing and delightful humour, combined with twenties glamour and a gentle murder mystery to be solved. I was a little concerned that Freddy, a comedic bit part in the Angela series, might be too lightweight to carry an entire series on his own, but I needn’t have worried. Freddy turns out to have a very deft hand in managing affairs so that the murderer is brought to justice without his society cronies missing the cocktail hour. Here’s the plot: the magnificently named Ticky Maltravers is the toast of London high society, adored by everyone—or so it seems, until somebody poisons him over dinner. Now it turns […]

Posted September 11, 2016 by PaulineMRoss in Review / 0 Comments

New release round-up: books I’m looking forward to reading

Once again, my backlog of books to be read is growing and, with two new releases of my own this month, the time for reading has shrunk alarmingly. I hope to catch up a bit next month when I’ll be off to Australia for three weeks, with my trusty Kindle fully charged. Until then, here are some recently released books that I’m really excited about reading. Finally, finally a sequel to the amazing The Healers’ Road by S E Robertson, which was a five star read for me back in 2014. I described it as literary fantasy, a beautifully written story of two very different people thrown together and gradually inching towards an accommodation as they travelled about offering their opposing styles of healing skills as needed. In The Healers’ Home, the two have a settled place to live for the first time. I can’t wait to find out how […]

Posted September 10, 2016 by PaulineMRoss in Books that caught my eye / 0 Comments

Urban fantasy review: ‘Gathering Black’ by Jen Rasmussen

Oh, that difficult second book of the series. The first is always full of surprises, every quirk of the author’s created world new and fresh. The final part is the big battle where evil is defeated, all the wrongs are set right and everything ends on a happy note. And then there are those middle books (this is the second in a planned five-book series). It’s very easy to drop the ball at this point, but here the author distracts with plenty of action and a whole heap of mysteries. Where are these precious sapwood seeds that both sides want so badly? Who is the traitor in the clan that’s supposed to be protecting them? And most of all, who can be trusted and who’s following their own agenda? The most delightful aspect of this series, for me, is the concept of place magic, something that our heroine, Verity, has […]

Posted September 7, 2016 by PaulineMRoss in Review / 0 Comments

The Brightmoon world has a map!

In less than three weeks, on 23rd September, The Second God will be released, my seventh epic fantasy, yet up to now there’s never been a map of any part of the Brightmoon world. But this book is a little different, it covers a wide area of the southern Plains of Kallanash, and with multiple plot strands taking place simultaneously at different locations, it was time to bite the bullet and become a proper, grown-up fantasy author. I have a map! It was drawn for me by Write.Dream.Repeat Book Design, using map elements by Ignacio Portilla M. And here it is: Most of the Brightmoon books so far take place within this map. Here’s how they fit in: The Plains of Kallanash: in the Karningplain. The Fire Mages: in Bennamore. The Mages of Bennamore: in the Port Holdings. The Magic Mines of Asharim: at the top of the Sky Mountains […]

Posted September 4, 2016 by PaulineMRoss in The Second God / 2 Comments