"The Year of the Witching" by Alexis Henderson

This is Alexis Henderson's debut novel, and I would say it is a pretty solid one. If you are looking for experimental writing or a mysterious setting, this is not the novel to pick up. In fact, in some ways, I thought the structure and the plot were pretty pedestrian and did not present anything new.

The setting is a remote village called Bethel, reminiscent of a pilgrim settlement in colonial America. The society is quite religious and run by the Prophet who is the head of the church and the local administration. The church's deity is called the Father, and the Prophet is the only one who can communicate with Him through visions. 

The village of Bethel is surrounded by a sprawling forest which is said to contain the dark power of the Mother (the opposite and dark side of the Father). Villagers are warned against going there lest they be attacked or seduced by powerful witches living in the woods.

Our main character Immanuelle Moore does venture into the darkwood one day and meets the witches she has heard about her entire life. Her encounter with them leads to unleashing of a curse that Immanuelle's mother placed on Bethel as revenge for killing her lover. 

I did like the main character and enjoyed the story. Even though I did think that some aspects could have been explored more. For example, the Prophet and his heir both have visions in the book. However, those visions do not provide any useful information. They are mentioned, but seemingly have no purpose. Seemingly, I could not understand why Immanuelle chose to make a deal with the Prophet in the end of the book instead of stealing the dagger she needed. Esther could have helped her. 

Overall, I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars. It is a solid fantasy novel that explores the power of dogmatic religion and blind faith. I would love to see what else the author will produce in the future.

"Agent Sonya" by Ben Macintyre

I listened to this non-fiction book (read by the author) and it was brilliant. It is a biography of one of the most successful Soviet spies of the WWII era Ursula Burton nee Kuczynski, or as she was known in Moscow: Agent Sonya. Ursula was born in a family of Jewish intellectuals in pre-war Germany. In her teens, she became interested in communist ideas and remained a staunch Marxist her entire long life. In the 1920s and 30s, even before Germany fell to the rule of fascists, Ursula considered the Soviet Union to be the country that represented her ideals of the social and economic order and was determined to help spread its ideology in the hopes of bringing the communist revolution to other countries. When her husband was sent to Shanghai for work, she became friends with foreign communists in residence there and eventually was recruited by the Soviet intelligence to spy for the USSR. 

I was very impressed to find out that she worked for and alongside with Richard Sorge, one of the most notorious and venerated Soviet secret agents. Ursula underwent training at the Soviet intelligence school in Moscow, and carried out successful intelligence work in China, Poland, Switzerland and finally Britain. She recruited, trained and oversaw a wide network of agents, and went undetected by numerous intelligence agencies throughout Europe. Her crowning achievement was helping gather scientific information that allowed the Soviet Union to build the atomic bomb. 

This book is truly fascinating and reads more like a thriller or a spy novel than a true biographical account of someone's life. I highly recommend this book. 5 out of 5 stars.  

"Kingdom of the Wicked" by Kerri Maniscalco

Kerri Maniscalco is the author of the highly popular Stalking Jack the Ripper series. I personally never read those books so Kingdom of the Wicked is my first novel by this author. This is the first book in a YA dark fantasy trilogy. I think it will definitely appeal to the fans of The Cruel Prince trilogy by Holly Black. Only in this case, we deal with Italian folklore, witches and demons, rather than Celtic myths, humans and fairies. 

Our main character Emilia is a strega (or witch). Witches in this world are not human even though they inhabit the human world. There is some secret surrounding the birth of Emilia and her twin sister Vittoria, some prophecy that their grandmother hints at but does not reveal until much later in the story. Since early childhood, the girls are warned of the Malvagi, the Wicked demon princes of the underworld. Emilia does not really believe any of her grandmother's warnings, until one day her world falls apart. She finds her twin brutally murdered and a mysterious stranger hovering over the body.

You are really better off going into this not knowing much beyond this. This novel is a mix of fantasy, mystery thriller and dark romance. As such, it is compulsively readable. This is one of very few books that I could not put down well into the night even though I had to get up for work early the following morning. Maniscalco is great at monopolizing the reader's attention. Each chapter has just enough of a cliffhanger in the end for you to want to quickly move on to the next one, and then the next one, until it is 2AM and you have to finally turn off the lights. 

I really liked the plot and the pacing. But I did have a few problems with the characters. First of all Emilia herself with her bouts of anger and irrational behavior, seemed a little too unhinged. The book does depict grief and depression in a very realistic way, but I always have trouble connecting to the characters who can blindly fly into rage, or believe the words of an unreliable character while distrusting others who have built up a record of credibility. That seems to me as poor judgement at the very least or plain foolishness at the worst. 

Now, the demons. They were truly glorious, except... too human and vulnerable, especially Wraith. Since the book is written from Emilia's point of view, we spend a lot of time in her head and thus, get only her jumbled view of his motives and actions. I do wish we could learn more of what he was doing while not with Emilia - that part of the story was never revealed. I hope we will learn more in the sequels. 

Another aspect that bothered me was the family dynamic. In the beginning of the story, we have a very overprotective grandmother and a seemingly close-knit family circle. About a third into the book, everyone inexplicably allows Emilia roam the city on her own even as the witches begin to die. Her parents even though mentioned in the book, have no role in the story whatsoever other than being held as hostages by an evil demon who is trying to bargain with Emilia. Disappointing. 

The romance was  probably the best part of the story, although with the cliffhanger ending, it is really hard to say where it is going. And yes, this is another thing to be aware of: the book ends on a cliffhanger. Not my favorite type of ending, especially since we'll now have to wait for at least a year to see what happens next. But, at this point, I think we might have a Hades and Persephone type story set up for book 2. 

4 out of 5 stars. Very enjoyable with a few minor flaws.

An e-ARC was provided by NetGalley.com

"Black Sun" by Rebecca Roanhorse

I must admit, it took me a couple of days to get into this newest fantasy novel inspired by civilizations of pre-Columbian Americas. But once I got pulled into the story, there was no turning back. I just finished the book a few minutes ago and boy, do I wish I had the sequel to dive into! Luckily for me, this is the first book in a series but I'll have to wait a while, since book 1 is only just coming out tomorrow.

But let's look at the story. Our main hero Serapio from the early age was groomed to become a vessel for the Crow God. Powerful rituals, mutilation, blood sacrifice and grueling training were all part of his upbringing and path towards fulfillment of his destiny - vengeance for his clan and destruction of the Sun Priest. If you like anti-hero origin stories, this might be the one for you. 

Overall, the story has an expansive and fascinating world with complex religious and political structures, occultism, magical creatures, witches and powerful beings. I am by no means an expert on the fantasy genre, but as someone who reads voraciously across genres, I can confidently say I have never read anything like this book before. Not only is the world unique, the author also took special pains to avoid familiar tropes often used in fantasy. The reader might think where the story is going or might expect a particular twist in the plot, just to have their expectations shatter and be swept by the story anew.

5 out of 5 stars. A truly epic tale, unforgettable cast of characters and a unique and amazing world.

An e-ARC was provided by NetGalley.com

"In a Holidaze" by Christina Lauren

This is the fifth book that I've read by the author duo who go by Christina Lauren, and hands down, this one is my favorite of the ones I've read so far. I do think that they are slowly moving away from purely romance-centered plots to the ones that are focused on universal themes of finding one's purpose in life and the meaning of happiness. In this particular novel they also explore the possibility of life being a lot bigger and more mysterious than we know. 

Every year for as long as she can remember herself, and even before then, Mae spends Christmas holidays with close family and friends in a remote cabin in Utah. The group is always the same: her favorite people in the entire world, including a man she's had a crush on since she was 13. This year, however, the holiday ends on a soul-crushing note: her parents' life-long friends who own the cabin decide to sell it. In addition, Mae had made an awful mistake of making out with the wrong brother. Theo is the same age as her and they've been friends since they were babies, but Mae has always been in love with his older brother Andrew. The night before the entire party was scheduled to leave, she and Theo had too much eggnog and ended up kissing in the mudroom. Both regretted it, and in fact, Theo refused to even talk to her about it the following morning. Unbeknown to both of them, Andrew saw them together and assumed that they were now an item. 

On December 26th, on the way to the airport, Mae is so overcome with grief and disappointment that she sends a silent plea to the universe to show her what would make her happy. What happens next sounds a lot like the plot of the Groundhog Day. Mae wakes up on the airplane on December 20th, on the way to their annual Christmas retreat which she had just lived through. For the rest of the novel, we follow Mae as she desperately tries to figure out what makes her happy and wrap her head around this second chance the universe has handed her.

5 out of 5 stars. I absolutely loved it. It made me laugh and cry. Definitely a new favorite and a great holiday read.

An e-ARC was provided by NetGalley.com