book reviews

Jun

2026

Slowly and Steadily

Three weeks along in my recovery, and slowly and steadily, I’m getting there. Not going to lie, it can be frustrating. I cannot bend or twist, or lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk (which is about 8 pounds). I’m currently at that stage of recovery where I want to do all the things, but I’m not supposed to do any of them. However, I have a followup with my neurosurgeon this week, and I’m hoping to have some of the restrictions eased — I still can’t drive because of medication, but it would be nice to get back in the pool.

There is still no real writing happening, but I’ve started to dream in plot bunnies, and there’s the beginnings of an outline for a new thing that may or may not be a series. It hasn’t told me yet how long this is going to be, but it’s romantasy with vampires (okay, a single, solitary vampire. More may come along later, but for now, I have one.)

So what am I doing while I recover? I’ve been drawing again, and I’m liking the design I’ve come up with for what may be my first tattoo. It needs refining, but that will happen later. I’ve been knitting, and the project my husband gave me for my birthday is almost done (fastest I’ve every completed a project of this size!). I’ve been reading, and I need to update my Goodreads list. I finished Katabasis, by RF Kuang last night. I started reading the ARC for Hamlet and Juliet, and I am completely in love with this book! I’ve already preordered it in hardcover, and I’m only a third of the way into the book. There will be a full review later, but for now, let me put it this way — Shakespearean Literary Universe. And it’s the first book of a series!

And that’s the current state of the Liz.

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Time for a new look on an older book.

When Delan stumbled into the Temple, he wasn’t expecting to be welcomed as a Temple servant. He wasn’t expecting his only duty to be to serve Lyander, cloistered son of the High Priestess. He wasn’t expecting to fall in love.

And he wasn’t expecting that he was going to have to choose: save his love, or save the world.

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The Imperial Navy has been destroyed. Now Tarjiaan must save his kingdom. With his beloved Nika by his side and their consort Daanir at his back, he must gather his allies and defeat the traitor hiding beneath the waves. To save his people, Tarjiaan must master his newfound magic, defeat the traitors, and conquer his deepest fears.

The end of the war is in sight, but treachery runs as deep as the ocean.

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Work in Progress

Tales from the Arena: King of Swords
(Tales from the Arena, book 4)

81571 / 100000 (81.57%)

Six More Weeks of Witches
(Coven Tree, book 2)

13478 / 20000 (67.39%)

Appearances

Summer Creatives Market
July 18th, 2026
10:00Am – 3:00PM
Sanford, FL

***

Tanoshii Con
August 22nd – 23rd, 2026
Ocean Center Arena, Daytona Beach.

***

Enchanted Knights Medieval Magic Renaissance Faire
August 29-30, 2026
12PM – 6PM
Volusia Mall
Daytona Beach, FL

***

Florida Authors Book Fest
September 11-13, 2026
Brannon Center
New Smyrna Beach, FL

***

Smut Lovers Conference
September 16th – 20th, 2026
Orlando, FL

***

Page and Pen Festival
October 3rd, 2026
11:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Oviedo, FL

***

Deck the Mall
Saturday, December 5, 2026
11:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Oviedo Mall, Oviedo, FL

Feb

2025

Blursday

Usually, when I say it’s blursday, I mean that the days are all running together and I don’t know what day it is. Today, though, I know exactly what day it is. It’s the day I get my eyes dilated enough that I see all timelines at once. It’s not a fun experience — my appointment was at 8:15 this morning, and here it is 3:20 in the afternoon and I still can’t see clearly. But things look fine — everything is status quo, so we’re good for another year.

(Why do I do this? Because I am so VERY nearsighted that it’s possible for my retinas to self-destruct with no warning.)

Thankfully, I don’t have much on my plate today. I finished my revision pass on The Sea Prince last night and sent it back to the sensitivity reader, which brings it one step closer to publication. Once I get the all clear from the sensitivity reader, I’ll get the layout done and the cover ordered. I’m looking at a summer release, so that I don’t dilute Raven’s Fall.

The first reviews are starting to come in for Raven’s Fall, and I’ll be honest — I am reading them. I know that it’s not recommended for writers to read their own reviews, but I want to see what people think! And I’m loving that every review so far has called out the accuracy of my research. That makes EVERY bit of web crawling and cross-referencing and finding obscure references worth it! And to my reviewers? You are going to LOVE Raven’s Flight for just that reason! There’s a reference list of healing herbs used in one scene, with the proper names in Latin and Gaelic, cross-referenced from Dioscorides’ De Materia Medica (c. 64CE) and John Cameron’s Gaelic Names of Plants (1883).

Do I overdo it on my research? Possibly. Do I need to go and spend three hours to find a reference on trains from Aachen to Salzburg in February of 1899. in order to find out of there was a direct train, or if they would need to change trains? Possibly not, especially when those three hours of research translated to three lines of text. But my readers are the ones who will know exactly what trains I’m talking about, and will know that I’ve gotten it right. So I owe it to them to get it right from the start. And yes, someone did know the train I was talking about, and did appreciate that the research was correct!

In the case of Raven’s Fall? The areas of research I spent the most time on were on types of gladiators, on Roman weddings, and on Roman baths. Now, no one has yet mentioned the baths in a review, but that was, I think, the largest research topic for me — in what order were the rooms experienced, how were things heated, and what rooms were included. Part of the research was a surprise — actually experiencing a caldarium! (Really, who expects to find a reasonably accurate Roman bath experience on a Disney cruise???) For the record, the baths Lorcan experiences are a combination of the Old Baths at Pompeii and the Baths of Caracalla (with a slight hint of flavor from the caldarium in the Rainforest Room on the Disney Fantasy.)

I am history geek, see me over-research!