Here we are again! I read seven books in the month of March – starting off with a (pretty mediocre) romantasy, two thrillers (an exquisite climate thriller and an expose about the publishing industry), the LitRPG sci-fi that’s taking the internet by storm, and last but certainly not least… a new all-time favourite fantasy featuring all my favourite things (master con artists, fantasy crime syndicates found family and loveable antiheroes).

• In the Veins of the Drowning by Kalie Cassidy

Romantasy / Gothic fantasy

‘The monster is always slain…’

Review: Imogen Nel has spent her whole life in hiding in the court of King Nemea, the cruel and tyrannous reader whose court hunts sirens for pleasure. If she keeps herself from the sea and salt water, she can conceal the black wings burrowed inside her. When her secret is at long last discovered, she throws herself on the mercy of a visiting king, King Theodore. In order to get her out of Nemea’s court, Theodore and Imogen must bind themselves together in a treacherous blood bond. For the first time in her life, Imogen is forced to confront the monster that lurks within…

The explosive setup and the blurb of this one really drew me in! The first hundred pages were so strong and brimming with potential. The initial meeting of Imogen and Theo already had me giggling and kicking my feet. Unfortunately, I felt the romance fizzled out a bit from the forging of the blood bond – which could definitely be personal preference, as this isn’t something I enjoy.

The atmosphere in this book was sumptuous, perfectly gothic and bloody. I’ve been yearning for a siren story that depicts them in a more vengeful and bloodlust light. I really feel like it could’ve benefitted from an extra hundred pages, just to give the story more time to develop. I did really like both Theo and Imogen individually, but I wasn’t completely buying their chemistry. It all felt too insta-lovey, and the trope of a mate bond did come into play, which I personally dislike. It seems to me to always acts as a tool to bring the characters together, rather than letting that happen organically.

The ending was very abrupt, and when I turned to the last page, I had that moment of ‘is that it? Where’s the rest?’ This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I do wish the second book were already out for me to binge! These critiques aside, I will still be reading the sequel, In the Wake of the Ruined, which comes out 7th July, simply out of curiosity. I’m still very intrigued to see where the story goes, especially with the siren lore, which we didn’t get a whole ton of in book one, and I’m really interested to see where Theodore and Imogen’s relationship goes beyond here.

Does anyone else yearn for a siren fantasies? We’ve had dragons, we’ve had lady knights, now let’s make sirens happen. (Stop trying to make sirens happen, Gretchen). If you have any recommendations, please drop them in the comments!

• Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

Lit RPG / Post-apocalytic science fiction

‘Did we really just start a meth war between the goblins and the llamas?’

Review: I was so sceptical going into this. On the tin, it really didn’t sound like my cup of tea – for one, I know nothing about video games or Lit RPG. But I decided to give it a go, because there is no genre I will not try and also because I’m incapable of not succumbing to the hype.

When Carl’s ex-girlfriend’s annoying cat wakes him up in the middle of the night by fleeing out the window, Carl is reluctantly forced to follow her in only his boxers and a hastily-shoved on leather jacket. Little does he know that said cat (Princess Donut) has just saved both their lives; in the next few seconds, the entire world and all its buildings and infrastructure will be crushed like a soda can. A staircase opens up, seemingly into the earth’s crust, into which all of the planets surviving people are instructed by a weird disembodied voice to descend. Seeing no other choice, Carl (Princess Donut in hand) does so, only to find himself in a reality TV / video game. There are 18 levels in total – or 18 dungeons – which Carl and Donut must fight their way down in order to stay alive.

If you’re expecting a science-fiction, you’re going to be disappointed (and I think this is why I enjoyed it so much). It’s quite light on the world-building and gets straight into the action. It’s lot more approachable and readable than a traditional sci-fi with all the technical jargon. It’s more a series of increasingly unlikely and hilarious escapades that Carl and Donut find themselves in (such as when they really do start a meth war between the goblins and the llamas).

I definitely got a few giggles out of them. Overall, it hasn’t become a favourite but it was something fresh and really unique to break up my reading month! Additionally, I highly recommend the audiobooks though – everyone says they’re fantastic and they really are. Even if you’re not usually an audiobook person, I think you should still give these a go. Kudos to Jeff Hays, the narrator.

• The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn Clarke

Locked door mystery / Thriller

‘Secrets don’t stay secret for long in publishing…’

Review: When Arthur Fletch, one of the world’s most famous and bestselling author, invites six floundering writers to his private island in the Scottish highlands, they jump at the chance to be mentored by him. Except, when they arrive, they’re in for a nasty shock – Arthur is dead. Instead, his editor and his agent have invited six struggling writers of different genres to complete his final manuscript, the fifth and final novel in his crime thriller series. The reward? They’ll ghostwrite the last chapter and receive a healthy share of the royalties. If that wasn’t enough, Fletch’s publishing team will personally take on the winning writer and ensure that their next book is a bestseller.

It’s such an explosive premise, especially when executed by such titans of the industry – bestselling fantasy author V.E. Schwab and screenwriter and middle-grade writer Cat Clarke. It gets off to a flying start, engrossing from the very beginning. The tension is masterfully maintained throughout. It definitely reminded me of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Was None. An old-fashioned locked door mystery, with a modern twist with the expose on the publishing industry. The comparisons to Yellowface meets And Then There Were None really capture the vibes of The Ending Writes Itself.

The only reason this wasn’t a five star thriller was that I was ever so slightly let down by the ending. It felt a little too underwhelming and predictable for the stakes that the authors had been building. Overall, such a compulsive thriller that I can guarantee you’ll want to read in one sitting – I devoured it in 24 hours. Thank you so much to HQ Stories for the proof and the gorgeous PR package! The Ending Writes Itself is out 7th April.

• Sight Unseen by Alexis Marie

Contemporary fantasy / Romance

‘To be seen is to be known, to have your problems laid out and weighed. You set yourself up for judgement, acknowledge your imperfections, and expose them.’

Review: Sight Unseen is a reworking of a popular dramione fanfic, originally titled Measure of a Man. I could definitely see some of the similarities but I do think it’s different enough to stand on its own two feet.

We follow Veda Thorne, who, after being fatally cursed years ago, is living on borrowed time. She’s searched long and hard for any cure, chasing leads, and come up empty every time. Finally accepting her fate, she burrows herself in her work at a school where she works as a groundskeeper. But when she’s asked to tutor a child whose mother was recently murdered in a case that seems eerily similar to her own, she’s drawn back into the hunt.

Hiram Ellis, meanwhile, has just found out he’s a father to this mute child traumatised by his mother’s death. He moves back to his estranged parents, who also happen to be warring with Veda’s close-knit community over magical rights. Veda and Hiram are drawn closer through their mutual care of his child, and are forced to work together to find justice for his mother and in one last fight for Veda’s life.

I didn’t love this as much as I expected to. I thought the world-building could have done with far more explanation. We seem to be in modern day, in Washington state area, and yet there is magic. Is this an alternate reality in which our world has magic? Or is it a secret, hidden magic situation? I wonder if this lack of world-building comes from its fanfic origins, where the author could rely on existing world-building.

Measure of a Man is roughly 600K, which is loooong. This seemed like the author had tried to cram everything that happened in that fanfic into a 400 page book (roughly 100K) and it just didn’t work. Nothing was given the proper attention it needed to make it work. There were too many characters, so their betrayals and arcs didn’t hit the way they were intended to. I did, however, really love reading about Antaris’s journey. I will always have a soft spot for kids in books, and how they draw characters together. I am also a sucker for a serial killer plot line (it’s the true crime gal in me) (also see my review The Fox and the Devil last month).

Overall, this was so sadly a miss for me. I will definitely still read whatever Alexis Marie writes in the future, as I know she’s a talented writer, but this was just too rushed for my liking. Thank you to Amazon Publishing for the proof in exchange for an honest review! Sight Unseen is out now everywhere.

• Carl’s Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman

Lit RPG / Post-apocalyptic science fiction

‘”Cats don’t drink cocktails,” I said. “Cats don’t shoot lasers from their eyes, either, but here we are, Carl. Mama needs a night off.”’

Review: This is the second instalment of Dungeon Crawler Carl – after enjoying the first book so much, I dived straight into the sequel. Right off the bat, I thought this was much weaker than the first book. When I was reading the first book, the thought did cross my mind that the concept could quickly get quite samey, and I was right.

Carl and Donut have survived two levels, but now they find out those were just the ‘training levels’, designed to ease the players in. It’s on the third floor where the game really begins. We’re also introduced to a baby velociraptor and crawlers are invited to pick their classes – effectively giving them superpowers. All this to say, the stakes have never been higher.

It was still just as funny as the first, but where I felt a bit let down was the plot. It felt a bit all over the place and difficult to understand (maybe this was a consequence of listening on audio) but there were definitely times where I could confidently say I didn’t have a clue what was going on. Where the first book felt really concise and expertly plotted, this felt a bit meandering. The vibe felt very different to the first – where the first took place in a maze of never-ending corridors, the third-floor is a city.

I’m also currently listening to the third book, The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook. If anyone has read the full series, please comment and let me know if I should preserve. I think, as of right now, I’m soft DNFing the third book unless I see something that reaaaally incentivises me to pick it up again. For now, I think I’m satisfied that I know what the hype’s about and I had a really great time reading the first book. I think that would probably be my recommendations to anyone intrigued by the hype – 100% read the first book, but if you’re not super impressed or engaged, don’t bother with the sequels. Alternately, if you loved the first, by all means continue.

• Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

Climate thriller / literary fiction

‘Maybe we will drown or burn or starve one day, but until then we get to choose if we’ll add to that destruction or if we will care for each other.’

Review: When a mysterious woman washes ashore to a tiny island not far from Antarctica, she is rescued and nursed back to health by the island’s sole caretaker and his three children. For the island is home to the world’s largest seed vault, but because of rising sea levels swallowing the island into the ocean, Shearwater has been deserted and left to ruin. In two month’s time, a ship will come for the Salts to leave their unconventional life behind.

I really loved all the nature writing in this. We have POVs from each of the five central characters – Rowan, Dominic and his three children, Fen, Raff and youngest Orly. Orly’s was my favourite by far – each POV contains an anecdote, a story, about the miracles of nature. Dandelions finding ingenious ways to fly on the wind. The rich travels of the unassuming buzzy burr. The regenerative abilities of the banksia seeds.

There were lots of reflections about parenthood, especially in this modern world and how to do right by our children. Is Dominic right to raise his children on a remote island, away from their peers with the penguins and seals as their playmates? Is Rowan selfish or selfless for her decision to not bring children into this overpopulated world?

All of this being said, it wasn’t without its issues, some of which other people might find harder to overlook than I did. But personally, I was so enthralled by the bits I loved that the things that struck me as unrealistic or infuriating weren’t a huge deal. For example, there is a romance subplot between Dominic and Rowan that only really comes into play in the latter half, and I think the book would’ve been so much stronger without this. I thought the plot twists near the end were fantastic, but it all wrapped up too quickly for my liking – I would’ve appreciated fifty more pages dwelling on the implications of everything we’d learned.

I also found the seed vault so interesting. I’ve always been strangely fascinated by the Svalbard seed vault, which this is modelled on. The prospect of rising sea levels making it so that scientists (or in this case, nine-year-old children) have to choose which species deserve to live and which to die is a horrible one to contemplate and one that Wild Dark Shore forces you to confront.

It took me a while to get into this, but boy, once you’re in, you’re fully in. I picked it up at halfway, intending to read a few pages before bed and before I knew it, I’d finished it. With some really poignant reflections on climate change and the very human impact it has, varying from increasingly damaging bush fires to dangerously rising sea levels, McConaghy really pulled off a wonderful blend of emotionally devastating and intensely intriguing and mysterious.

• The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

High fantasy / Heist / Grimdark

‘We’re a different sort of thief here, Lamora. Deception and misdirection are our tools. We don’t believe in hard work when a false face and a good line of bullshit can do so much more.’

Review: The Thiefmaker runs an underground network of petty pickpockets and cutpurses out of the many orphans of Camorr. When a little boy comes into his care, his schemes so audacious that even the Thiefmaker begins to fear the consequences if he’s caught, he sells him off to the highest bidder – an eyeless priest named Father Chains who is really an elaborate conman. Father Chains instructs Locke and his other recruits in the art of the con and moulding Locke Lamora into the legend that will become the Thorn of Camorr.

The Thorn of Camorr: the most wanted man in the city, cheating nobility out of their fortunes all while cosying up to the Capa Barsavi, the gangster who asserted control of Camorr twenty years and has ruled ever since. But when a deadly coup from an outsider threatens the Capa’s control, Locke and his gang of thieves – affectionally nicknamed the Gentlemen Bastards – finds themselves in the middle of a battle for Camorr’s criminal underworld.

I’ve really saved the best for last here, because I ADORED this book. Six stars! Ten stars! New all-time favourite. One of my favourite books is Six of Crows, and this is commonly compared to that – in fact, that’s how it was first pitched to me and I immediately added it to my TBR. It’s like an older, grittier version of Six of Crows (and SoC is already quite gritty for a YA). This definitely has a lot more violence and swearing (which I loved, I can’t lie). The author really doesn’t hold back and the dark humour running throughout is perfection.

It felt like it really took its time, but because it’s SO funny and entertaining I enjoyed every minute of it, even the slower bits where Locke was putting everything in place for a con. I really think this is something we’ve lost in the modern era of fantasy – nowadays everything seems slightly rushed and every scene is there for a specific reason. I loved the way it was told – alternating between the Gentlemen Bastards time with Father Chains and the present day. I could read another thousand pages of the Gentlemen Bastards pulling off cons and never get bored. Have I mentioned how FUNNY it is? I’ve never laughed so hard reading a fantasy (or cried, but that’s another conversation).

Locke isn’t just a caricature of a brilliant conman. Yes, he’s a genius, but he’s also laconic and never fails to pull out a hilarious one-liner in every sticky situation he gets himself in. He’s also by no means invincible – he gets taken in and fooled as much as the next person (okay, probably not me if I were in this cutthroat world). He lacks the control he craves for the majority of the book and often has his strings pulled by other characters. The book may be titled the Lies of Locke Lamora, but the side characters were given their time to shine. Mischievous twins Calo and Galdo, the newest and youngest recruit to the Gentlemen Bastards Bug and the doggedly dependable Jean Tannen were stars as much as Locke himself. I think one of the reasons that found family is my favourite trope to read is because of the loyalty that it implies and, boy, were these characters loyal to a fault! I guess there is honour among thieves.

When writing this review, I just keep thinking about elements of a story – character, plot, structure – and every single one of them were executed to the highest degree. As for plot, it’s no different. What a masterfully woven story this was; Lynch never took the easy way out – he put Locke and his crew through the wringer and the reader too! And the plot twists!? When I tell you I sat bolt upright and started talking to the wall like it could hear my shock? There were the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, and often they were mere pages apart. There’s heartbreak and there’s moments of joy and triumph. It breaks your heart and puts it back together and the cycle repeats. It was never easy – genuinely when something seemed straightforward, it was the opposite. If you’re a fan of political intrigue and gang machinations, this takes both of them to new heights.

I’m already reading the sequel, Red Seas Under Red Skies, and loving every single minute. No doubt that and the Republic of Thieves will be in my April wrap-up so keep your eyes peeled. I will also do a full review of how damn much I love this series. Seriously, if you’re a fantasy lover, I beseech you! Do yourself a favour and pick up this banger!

That’s all I read in March! This month’s favourites were The Ending Writes Itself (albeit slightly let-down by the ending), Wild Dark Shore and of course, the wonderful, magnificent masterpiece that is Lies of Locke Lamora. I’m hoping to pick my spring TBR soon, so I’ll have some ideas what to read in April and May, so watch out for that.