2022 Novel Reviews – Baskerville Book Reviews

Review: Dragon Age: The Last Flight

The Grey Wardens are heroes across Thedas once again: The Archdemon has been defeated with relative ease, and the scattered darkspawn are being driven back underground. The Blight is over. Or so it seems.

Valya, a young elven mage recently recruited into the Wardens, has been tasked with studying the historical record of previous Blights in order to gain insight into newly reported and disturbing darkspawn phenomena. Her research into the Fourth Blight leads her to an encoded reference scrawled in the margins of an ancient map and to the hidden diary of Issenya, one of the last of the fabled griffon riders. As the dark secrets buried in Isseyna’s story unfold, Valya begins to question everything she thought she knew about the heroic Grey Wardens.

Review: Dragon Age: Asunder

A mystical killer stalks the halls of the White Spire, the heart of templar power in the mighty Orlesian Empire. To prove his innocence, Rhys reluctantly embarks on a journey into the western wastelands that will not only reveal much more than he bargained for but change the fate of his fellow mages forever.

Review: The Alpha

FBI Agent Angel Blondeaux is the focus of a man the press has labeled the Blindfold Killer. With each victim, she receives the call informing her where the dead body is to be found. The New Orleans Police have no choice but to enlist her help in his capture.

However, phone calls are only the beginning. This man wants more from Angel than just conversation. He wants her to be a part of his world. As Angel is pushed to her limits, will she stay safe and follow the NOPD rules, or will she play right into his hands?

Review: Season of Kings

War is upon the land, and the throne sits empty. Who will claim it?

Elbert of Artanzia finds himself in a precarious position. After stealing the throne from his older brother, he finds himself newly crippled and low on friends. The nobles want to undermine him while the populace wants to depose him. In a desperate attempt to keep his power, he launches a campaign against the barbarian islanders to the north—something that no king has ever done.

In the forest to the south of the capital lives Anna and her father. While raised in isolation, Anna is taught how to hunt and kill everything that makes its home in the monster-infested forest. However, her quiet life is torn apart when a group of visitors pay her father an unexpected visit. Forced to flee to the capital city, she must find her long-lost aunt, all while fighting to protect herself and socializing with other teenagers for the first time.

Grimm White-Eyes, a legendary barbarian warrior and Shield of the Isles, is accused of murdering the Islander High King’s brother. With a price on his head, he must flee his homeland and find refuge on the continent. Yet no ship will risk carrying someone of his notoriety. Unable to leave, he is forced to ally himself with the enemy, in hopes that he can continue to live his life as the gods intended: free.

Review: Whetstones of the Will

Dunewell, seeking the path that embodies both his oaths and his conscience, is pursued by honest and just men across the wilds of Stratvs. Moving as both predator and prey, he and Jonas track the legendary vampire Lord Slythorne. Will their uneasy alliance hold long enough to destroy the monster before it’s too late?

Slythorne has enthralled many, honest and devious alike. Can Dunewell evade his pursuers without spilling innocent blood? Wearing the mark of an outlaw, what other allies will the Lord of Order be forced to trust?

Silas, meanwhile, secures his position by way of treaties and pacts under the astute tutelage of the drow and his mistress, Lady Dru. Now understanding the threat Slythorne poses, will Silas manipulate Dunewell, wielding his brother’s devotion as a shield against this master vampire? Can there be reconciliation between Dunewell and Silas, or will their pride doom their fate and perhaps the fate of the world?

The Original Betrayer, the Warlock of the Marshes, walks the shores of Tarborat. What could bring the terrible and mighty Lynneare forth from his cursed fortress? The Warlord Verkial must betray someone, but who?

Join us for another tale of high adventure in the world of Stratvs, as the Bloodlines Reforged Saga continues in Whetstones of the Will.

Review: The Fair Queen

For fans of Cassandra Clare and Holly Black comes a new story that will lure you into a world of magic and monsters, and never let you go.

The trees in Hartwood Forest are hiding an ancient secret, a door into a magical realm where fairy princes and monsters are one and the same. Seventeen-year-old Aria is bored of her small town and dreams of a life filled with excitement and adventure. She’s about to learn the meaning of “be careful what you wish for”. After a chilling encounter at the local summer fair, Aria is ripped from her normal life and dragged through the Veil into the Fair Realm by a strange, silver-eyed boy and his band of fairy soldiers. They believe she is the legendary Fair Queen, the subject of a prophecy that promises to unite the war-ravaged realm and bring an end to the centuries-long conflict between the Five Kingdoms.

But it can’t be true. Can it?

Beset by terrifying creatures at every turn and hunted by a tyrannical king who will stop at nothing to prevent the prophecy from coming true, Aria will have to rely on her wits if she’s to escape the Fair Realm with her life.

Book One in The Fair Chronicles, a new young adult fantasy series for fans of The Mortal Instruments and The Folk of the Air.

Review: Witch’s Knight

Sarai Reinhart is a witch in hiding. Having inherited rare dual gifts of healing and necromancy from her late Jewitch mother and cruel German father, she needs to be constantly on her guard to avoid those who would use her.

But even a skilled witch cannot run from everyone. After a mental breakdown, someone sees her turn a mouse into a zombie, and she is captured by an organization of witch hunters. To her great surprise, salvation arrives in the form of vampires and one vampire in particular: the beautiful and deadly Knight Commander Marcelle. Sarai is brought to the local vampire kingdom’s seat of power, a place no witch has seen and survived, and finds herself falling for her rescuer. Can she trust the vampire woman when Sarai’s blood holds secrets that could change the occult world forever?

Review: Crossroads

How far would you go to bring back someone you love?

When Chris’ son dies in a tragic car crash, her world is devastated. The walls of grief close in on Chris’ life until, one day, a small cut on her finger changes everything. A drop of blood falls from Chris’ hand onto her son’s roadside memorial, and, later that night, Chris thinks she sees his ghost outside her window. Only, is it really her son’s ghost, or is it something else – something evil? Soon Chris is playing a dangerous game with forces beyond her control in a bid to see her son, Trey, alive once again.

Review: Beauty’s Curse

The death of a tyrant king should have set her free. Instead, Sadira could be dead by dawn.

After the fall of Alaric Khan, Sadira finds herself still at his mercy, held siege in his castle by a deadly curse: Alaric’s ultimate revenge. Surrounded by chaos, rising paranoia, and disasters, Sadira discovers an unlikely ally in the barbarian warrior Bannon Sha’kurukh. Alaric’s killer…and her new master.

To escape Alaric’s power, Sadira must bring Bannon into her secret world of domination, possession, and desire. But their quest to uncover Alaric’s secrets – and their own ruthless passions – draw them closer and closer to an unspeakable conclusion.

The source of the curse…can only be Sadira herself.

Fans of The Witcher, Immortals After Dark, and Anne Rice’s Sleeping Beauty series will love this high-heat fantasy romance full of dangerous liaisons and passionate themes of power exchange.

Review: These Deadly Games

Let’s play a game.

You have 24 hours to win. If you break my rules, she dies. If you call the police, she dies. If you tell your parents or anyone else, she dies.

Are you ready?

When Crystal Donavan gets a message on a mysterious app with a picture of her little sister gagged and bound, she agrees to play the kidnapper’s game. At first, they make her complete bizarre tasks: Steal a test and stuff it in a locker, bake brownies, make a prank call.

But then Crystal realizes that each task is meant to hurt—and kill—her friends, one by one. But if she refuses to play, the kidnapper will kill her sister. Is someone trying to take her team out of the running for a gaming tournament? Or have they uncovered a secret from their past, and wanting them to pay for what they did….

Author of All Your Twisted Secrets, Diana Urban’s explosive sophomore novel, These Deadly Games, is a must-listen, propulsive YA thriller with deadly stakes, stunning twists, and a shocking ending you’ll never forget—perfect for fans of I Know What You Did Last Summer and One of Us Is Lying.