Princess Alethea’s Magical Elixir

There was a snafu last month with the February reviews — everything is fixed now, and they have been posted simultaneously with the March reviews. The IGMS book reviews for February are:

Title: Witchlanders
Author: Lena Oakley
EAN: 9781442420045

Take all the classic elements of fantasy and swirl them around (stirred, not shaken), and you have Witchlanders. There’s nothing particularly unique about the world that Lena Oakley has created in this novel, but she does not trivialize those tropes we love so dearly, ultimately making Witchlanders a thoroughly pleasurable read. (Read more)

 

Title: Shadow Ops: Control Point
Author: Myke Cole
EAN: 9781937007249

The day that John Green’s The Fault In Our Stars hit the stands, I dropped everything and read it straight through (thus putting my novel-in-progress and the fate of this column in jeopardy for a few days). Unfortunately TFIOS is not remotely science fiction or fantasy, and as I’ve already slipped a biography in here at the end, I won’t expound on it at the moment. Suffice it to say that I do not recommend it if you are not already a John Green fan (start with Looking for Alaska). I also suggest that you have some seriously adventurous Max Mayhem-style mass market fiction on hand to dive straight into when you finish drying your tears. (Read more)

 

Title: Happy Accidents
Author: Jane Lynch
EAN: 9781401341763

I had no idea what to expect of Jane Lynch’s memoir when it showed up, but I liked the title: Happy Accidents. I didn’t understand the fascination with Sue Sylvester until I became a fan of Glee, but I had been a fan of Jane Lynch in general, from her work in Christopher Guest’s projects Best in Show and A Mighty Wind to her surprise (for me, anyway) cameo appearance as Meryl Streep’s sister in Julie & Julia. I cracked the spine of Happy Accidents mostly wondering whether the tone would be more “Sue Sylvester” or “Dry Biography Written by Someone Else.”  To my surprise, Happy Accidents was neither. (Read more)

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I’ll post the March reviews tomorrow. xox