REBECCA LANGHAM
  • Home
  • Rebecca Langham
    • Bio
    • BOOKS: The Outsider Project
    • BOOKS: Fairy Tales
    • Interviews
    • Contact & Newsletter
  • KARA RIPLEY
    • About Kara
    • Romance Stories
  • BLOGS & REVIEWS
    • ceLEStial book reviews
    • ceLEStial books - Writing & Publishing

REVIEW: Into the Mystic, Volume I

20/12/2017

1 Comment

 
Picture
REVIEWED BY REBECCA

Rating: 4 Stars

Eleven lesbian/bisexual paranormal short stories…

Reborn by Brooklyn Ray – Dark magic, mystical bloodlines, a living forest, and two women fighting to reclaim a love they lost.

Zero Hour by J.C. Long – She can’t outrun the full moon.

Dove in the Window by Kara Race-Moore – As if the Great Depression wasn’t bad enough, Cissy’s first love is back from the dead.

Bottom of the River by Samantha Kate – The demon isn’t always the monster.

If You Want to Walk by Nicole Field – Follow Chess into the Underneath and meet the strange creatures she finds there.

A Tended Garden by J.P. Jackson – Immortality or humanity—which one will win out in the end?

Romancing the Healer by Caitlin Ricci – In a deadly snowstorm a werewolf needs all the help she can get, and the werebear coming to her aid is more than she appears to be.

Midnight Kisses by L.J. Hamlin – A local witch, a new-to-town werewolf, and a mystery to be solved.

Like a Bell through the Night by Kayla Bashe – Guarding a faerie princess? All in a day’s work for a werewolf bodyguard. Avoiding falling in love with said princess? The hardest mission of Jaffa’s life.

The Imp in the Rock by Charli Coty – The cure for a bad breakup might be magic.

Smile Like You Mean It by Tay LaRoi – Ingrid meets a terrifying Japanese legend, but the stories are all wrong.


________________________________________________________


I must admit, I wasn't entirely sure how to go about reviewing an anthology, so this may be a little different from my usual reviews. 

Like any anthology, this collection has a lot to do with personal taste. A story that one person loves won't quite hit the spot for someone else. There were a couple of stories that were a firm 3 stars for me, but I can see on Goodreads that other people really connected with those stories. I think it's safe to say that Into the Mystic will have something for everyone. And geez it's good to see more genre fiction out there!

While all stories are F/F, you'll find a range of representation, with gender neutral characters, bisexual, lesbian, and pansexual characters as well. It was great to see one story that included a F/F story featuring a trans character who is 100% accepted as a woman by her lesbian love interest. Our community is diverse, as are our experiences of identity and self. Diverse stories, as such, are wonderful.

My personal favourites in the collection were 'Dove in the Window' by Kara Race-Moore, and 'A Tended Garden' by J.P. Jackson.

Race-Moore's story is a peculiar combination of realism and fantasy, set during the Depression but with the protagonist exploring magical elements of the world around her as though they're completely normal. Loss is one of the key themes and ultimately hope is what helps our protagonist find a way to move forward despite the trauma she's experienced. It's a story with a tinge of sweetness about it, mixed in with lovely 1930s ambience. 


Jackson's story lives up the wonderful fantasy descriptions I've come to expect from him after reading his novel, Daimonion. This story centres on a well-established witches coven harbouring a dark secret. At first I thought this tale might get into "stereotypical evil witches" territory, but that wasn't the case. As with any group of people in society, it only takes one twisted heart to taint what ought to be a loving community. I especially loved the creativity of the magic in the story. My heart ached for the wood nymphs in this story and I thoroughly enjoyed their overall representation.

You get great return for your investment with an anthology like this. The stories are long enough to be interesting and complex, yet short enough to be devoured at whatever pace you prefer. 

1 Comment
Laura Grenier link
23/12/2020 11:03:35 pm

Good readding your post

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    ABOUT C.B.

    Book reviews, Author Q&As and more as shared by an Australian lesbian. My core interests lie in genre fiction: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror etc.
    ​
    My aim is to help provide more exposure to those books that  may not fit neatly into the usual "lesfic" boxes (EG: pansexual women who engage with different aspects of their sexuality, non-binary characters, books with very little romance etc.) or books that don't conform to the most popular tropes that tend to dominate the LGBTIQ+ publishing world.

    That said, I'll put up pretty much any review that I'd like to share. Most will have some sort of rainbow content, but not all. I am a reader who likes to talk about books -- that's really what this little corner of the web is for, to talk about books.

    ​Email: celestialbooks [AT] rebeccalangham.com.au

    Twitter: @ceLEStialsff

    Archives

    August 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    January 2017
    July 2016

    Categories

    All
    1. # Submit A Book
    Ace Rep
    Action/Adventure
    Anime & Manga
    Anthologies
    Australian Author
    Author Q&A
    BDSM
    Beneath The Surface
    Bisexual
    Bisexual F/F
    Bisexual M/F
    Bisexual M/M
    Blog Post
    Book Review
    Book Trailer
    Book Updates
    Comic Books/Graphic Novels
    Contemporary Fiction
    Cops
    Crime Fiction
    Dystopian
    Fade To Black
    Fairy Tales
    Fantasy
    F/F/F
    Five Stars
    Gender Neutral
    Give Away
    Guest Blog
    Historical Fiction
    Horror Novels
    Intersex Characters
    Journalists
    Kara Ripley
    Lesbian Sci Fi
    Literary Fiction
    Love Triangle
    M/M/F
    M/M Fiction
    MPREG
    Mystery
    Mythology
    New Release
    NineStar Press
    Non Binary
    No Pairing
    Pansexual
    Paranormal
    Pirates
    Polyamorous
    Post-Apocalyptic
    Release Day Blitz
    Religious Themes
    Reviews By Kaelan
    Reviews By L.A.
    Reviews By Rebecca
    Romance Novels
    Science Fiction
    Self-Published
    Space Opera
    Speculative Fiction
    Spy Stories
    Superheroes
    Third Gender
    Thriller
    Time Travel
    Trans Rep
    Urban Fantasy
    Vampires
    Western
    Wolves
    Writing
    Young Adult
    Zombies

    RSS Feed

    Picture
Contact us
Assisted by Web IT Easy & Blue Mountains Computers