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REVIEW:  Orleans by Sherri L. Smith

REVIEW: Orleans by Sherri L. Smith

Dear Ms. Smith, I greatly enjoyed your YA historical novel, Flygirl, in which a young African American woman passes for white in order to join the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) during World War II. I loved Ida Mae’s story, so when I saw that you had a new book out, a YA dystopian set(…)

REVIEW:  Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin

REVIEW: Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin

Dear Ms. Griffin, I’m a big Edgar Allan Poe fan. Any book with a title referencing him is always going to get a second look from me. Combined with a striking cover, it’s almost guaranteed I will pick it up. I initially thought Masque of the Red Death was a debut, but your name sounded(…)

REVIEW: Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt

REVIEW: Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt

Dear Ms. Leavitt, Elyssa Papa recommended your YA fantasy Keturah and Lord Death to me, saying that it was dark and romantic, and it is both of these things. My husband and I have been reading to each other in the evenings, and we frequently read YA, so I put this one in our reading(…)

MANGA REVIEW: Ooku: The Inner Chambers volume 3

MANGA REVIEW: Ooku: The Inner Chambers volume 3

Story & Art: Fumi Yoshinaga Publisher: Viz Signature Rating: M for mature Retail: $12.99 Length: 3/5+ volumes Dear readers, A few months ago I reviewed the first volume in this historical josei series by Fumi Yoshinaga. In it, we were introduced to an alternate history of Tokugawa era Japan where the majority of the male(…)

REVIEW: Ooku: The Inner Chambers volume 2

REVIEW: Ooku: The Inner Chambers volume 2

Story & Art: Fumi Yoshinaga Publisher: Viz Signature Rating: M for mature Retail: $12.99 Length: 2/5+ volumes Dear readers, A few months ago, I read the first volume in this wonderful series by Fumi Yoshinaga. The premise is deceptively simple: What would happen if a plague wiped out the majority of the male population in(…)

REVIEW: Healing Heart by Thom Lane

REVIEW: Healing Heart by Thom Lane

Dear Mr. Lane: As I immediately emailed to you when you sent met his book, “Good God, the fairy godmother of cover images likes YOU, doesn’t she?!” I adore this cover, as I did the cover of the first Amaranth novel. (Anne Cain did the art. One might almost say “Of course, Anne Cain did(…)

MANGA REVIEW: Ooku: The Inner Chambers

Story & Art: Fumi Yoshinaga Publisher: Viz Signature Rating: M for mature Retail: $12.99 Length: 1/4+ volumes I first heard of ÅŒoku about a year ago from a friend.   The premise, she said, was that due to a disease that targets only men, the power hierarchy in Japan was genderflipped.   Women filled roles that had,(…)