Fantasy – Page 3 – Baskerville Book Reviews

Review: Heliotrope

Teleo is a retired soldier descended from Mages, who were cast out of power generations ago. After years of war and sorrow, he wants nothing more than to live a quiet life on his farm and work his stonemason’s craft.

His wife and daughter had been murdered during a war raid several years earlier and his young son stolen by the enemy side. He spent years unsuccessfully searching for his son and returned home broken-hearted. At the local castle, he comes upon a war orphan stolen by his side from the enemy and rescues him from abuse, adopting him as his foster son.

Teleo is working as a mason at the castle when he finds himself in the middle of a coup. This launches a journey to protect his new family, uncover the secrets of the ancient ways, and reclaim the magic of the Mages.

Review: A Contract In Sol Forne

A contained fantasy adventure featuring djinns, dangerous wishes, political factions, and militias.

A djinn.
A boy.
A terrible contract.

“I wouldn’t have asked for that if I knew I could ask for anything.”

Vaelin is an ancient djinn on a quest to seek the artifact to which she is enslaved. Her centuries-long journey lands her in the southern port city-state of Sol Forne, where she is certain the artifact is held.

There, she meets Dorovan, a disaffected youth from a dissolved noble house. Though their initial connection is cursory, their bond becomes one that may endanger the entire Cycle of Nature.

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: Lesser Known Monsters

Being the chosen one isn’t always a good thing.

Oscar Tundale is not a hero. Anxious, indecisive, and awkward, he can barely get through a normal day. Now he’s about to find out monsters are real. Oscar’s friends—brave, stubborn Zara and hyperactive, paranoid Marcus—might help discover what hunts him and unravel the truth about the handsome doctor he pines for. But only heroes can save the world, so maybe the best Oscar can hope for is to not end it by accident.

The Lesser Known Monsters series is a dark queer fantasy featuring diverse characters on a found-family adventure. Perfect for fans of horror and paranormal romance who seek LGBTQ+ heroes.

Written by Rory Michaelson, narrated by Rhys Jennings.

Introduction music by ikoliks.

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: 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: 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: Even Tree Nymphs Get the Blues

A hilarious new standalone novella brimming with otherworldly charm from the reigning queen of paranormal romantic comedy Molly Harper!

Ingrid Asher is the newest resident of Mystic Bayou, a tiny town hidden in the swamp where shapeshifters, vampires, witches and dragons live alongside humans.

Ingrid doesn’t ask for much. The solitary tree nymph just wants to live a quiet life running her ice-cream shop in peace. Unfortunately, she can’t seem to shake her new neighbor, Rob Aspern, head of the League’s data science department and so good looking it just isn’t fair.

If there’s one thing Ingrid doesn’t need, it’s someone poking around in her business. But the more she gets to know the hunky mathematician, the more she finds herself letting her guard down. Can she trust him with her secrets, or will her past destroy everything?

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: Halloween Party 3

Celebrate with three short Halloween stories that each have a different twist. Each of these Halloween tales is self contained, is professionally narrated, and lasts for about one hour.

Occasionally Mischievous

Neve longs for the past, where Halloween meant hanging out with friends. So when she finds a store filled with Halloween nostalgia, she is absolutely thrilled. She completes impulse buy after impulse buy, until she accidentally gets something that wasn’t for sale: a magical witch’s hat with untold powers. But magic, even if accidentally given, comes with a price.

Subcontracted Death

When a doctor tells you that you are ripe for the scythe, you begin to wonder about the harvest. And so began my contract with death itself. A contract that has led to a legendary healing artifact. An artifact that can give immortality. But immortality is a prize that destroys the winner.

Decay’s Destruction

Everyone knows not to go out at night unless you want to deal with monsters. That was until a magical item allowed its user to ‘smell’ when a monster was near. Now there are ambitions to build a monster alarm system throughout town. But some creatures, such as the necromancer, have plans of their own.