Summary: Road-weary soldier Lindel thought all he needed to do to return home was finish his current escort mission. Then he discovers one of his charges murdered with a wailing newborn in her limp arms and his ally Aemun holding the accused murderer at knifepoint. His new mission? Take the murderer, Tylle, to face judgment and execution. But then Lin is ambushed by monsters and gravely wounded. While unconscious, Tylle magically stitches Lin's wounds closed. An act forbidden by the Binding Tenets, laws that Lin's military faction aggressively enforces. Lin wakes to find himself marked by Tylle's magic, making him...
Sister of the Dead by E.C. Greaves
Summary: "Call it ritual or cult, if you will. But it is just business... And the dead have long been our commodity." The Vulkari do not belong within the walls of a city, and Zyntael Fairwinter is no different. So when a perilous quest into the heart of the Old-Reach is planned, Zyntael jumps at the chance to join it. Together with her closest allies, she embarks on a journey to travel beyond the mysterious “Mortuary-City” of Quaresh—to cut off the source of the Merchant Combine’s Necromancy. But there is a reason they call it the Mortuary-City. Between dangerous arcane...
Disenchanted by Brianna Sugalski
Summary: Lilac Trécesson is a prisoner in her parents' castle after a most wicked secret was revealed on the eve of her fifteenth birthday. Years later, her Accession looms upon her father's decision to abdicate, and between the riotous townsfolk and scheming noble bent on snatching her throne, she prepares for the worst… Until a letter arrives from The Witch of Lupine Grotto, containing a curious offer to banish her curse forever. She begrudgingly trades her coronet for a cloak and ventures into the forest Brocéliande, only to find herself cornered by a bloodthirsty barkeep who demands her help in...
The Traitors We Are by Michael Roberti
Summary: In a world where writing disappears when the author dies, 22-year-old Cael Oberlan watches the last gasping breaths of his best friend. He pulls a scrap of paper out of his pocket as his friend’s signature fades. Cael only wants vengeance for his friend and to create a reality where he no longer has to bow before any man. However, the nagging suspicion that his father, who started this war, hasn't given him the whole story about his role in this conflict threatens to unravel everything he ever thought he knew about himself and the people he is fighting...
Bastards of Liberty by Matthew Zorich
Summary: In the heart of the Holy Imperium, a family's lives are shattered. Runt Ashburn, the youngest of three siblings, journeys to seek his father needing answers. His sister Alsyha, now an indentured servant to blacksmiths, plots her escape and revenge. At the same time, the oldest, Ashburn Benjamin, juggles the life of a soldier and the pressure of a father who's the General of an army. Political forces twist around the three siblings. Could one of their deaths lead to a revolution? Review: *Review note, I read/reviewed Matthew's book months before I joined the Silverstones Blog team, this is...
Empire of the Damned by Jay Kristoff
Summary: From holy cup comes holy light; The faithful hands sets world aright. And in the Seven Martyrs’ sight, Mere man shall end this endless night. Gabriel de León has saved the Holy Grail from death, but his chance to end the endless night is lost. Drawn into an uneasy alliance with the mysterious vampire Liathe, Gabriel must now deliver the Grail to ancients of the Blood Esani, and learn the truth of how Daysdeath might be finally undone. But the Last Silversaint faces peril, within and without. Pursued by terrors of the Blood Voss, drawn into warfare between the...
To Steal the Sun
Summary: When Raik, the most cunning smuggler this side of the desert, finds where the Ivory King vaults his magical runes—he builds a crew to execute an elaborate heist. Among them is Kahli Mahanta, a religious assassin with blind ambition. A young rogue, Kirin, with wit sharper than his arrows ought to be. And Amara, the so-called Nightspirit, whose raven-hair conceals even darker secrets. It won't be easy. They’re opposed by the curved blades of the magic-deranged, watched by a paranoid king, and hunted by gaunt beasts that click in the cold desert night... All the while discovering that trusting...
Partial Function by JCM Berne
Summary: If Taken starred Michelle Yeoh and was set on a Jurassic Park - inspired Cradle. Monster hunter Akina Azure inherited the most powerful weapon in the martial world before retiring to a peaceful life raising her twin girls. The Reaver has them kidnapped, thinking Akina will trade that weapon for their safe return. Will she? Or will she use it to wreak a terrible retribution on the men who took her girls? You get one guess. Review: Partial Function by JCM Berne is dog revenge martial arts extravaganza, and not the John Wick type of dog revenge, moreso in...
Troupe of Shadows by Jennings Zabrinsky
Summary: Once the heir to an empire. Now just a shadow. Throne stolen by her traitorous brother, chased to the edge of the world, Sellane has only her beloved sword, a penchant for ruthlessness, and four elite ‘blade dancer’ bodyguards to her name. Where once she lived a life of courtly duels, decadent feasts, and palace intrigue, she now finds herself weathering the dust of a wild frontier populated by pioneers and warlords. The food has run out, shelter is scarce, her followers are on the verge of mutiny, and she can’t even communicate with the inhabitants of this alien...
This is How Immortals Die by Nicole Hidalgo
Summary: Love kills. Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, unleashed a life-changing apocalypse that reshaped the world and cursed humankind with immortality. Now injury, old age, and death mean nothing. Until the Soul connects with its Twin. Once true Love is found, immortality is lost. The Priestesses of Aphrodite exist to hunt down and send those blessed souls to Aphrodite’s Golden Palace in the afterlife. They are devout and efficient… if only a little blinded by the lustre of gold and the taste of blood. Carys Epistro’phia, an infamous Priestess, will go to great lengths to put her hands on a chest...