James Nicoll Reviews

The Bloody and the Damned by Becca Coffindaffer (April 2026)

An assassin with outlawed, magical abilities will do anything to get their kidnapped sisters back in this dystopic-fantasy standalone, perfect for fans of Iron Widow and Hell Followed With Us. 

Mercy has no place here. 

On Trinity, a metal world where the privileged live in the skies and the rest fight for water below, you do what you can to survive.18-year-old Val knows this better than anyone. They’ve sacrificed everything to provide for their younger sisters. Using their outlawed teleportation powers, they’ve become the most infamous assassin-for-hire on Trinity, known as the Butcher. 

No one should be able to trace the Butcher to Val. But when a gang retaliates against The Butcher by killing Dani, their only friend, and kidnapping Val’s sisters, it means that someone has to know the truth. 

Desperate and completely alone, Val has no one to turn to but their ex-childhood best friend turned vigilante thief. He broke their heart, but he owes them. 

But as Val fights for the return of their sisters, they start to realize there might be something much bigger at play… something that could upend everything they’ve ever known about Trinity. 

Val’s journey will take them from a maximum security prison transport to the headquarters of the most powerful gang on Trinity, and all the way to the Gate of Heaven. Each more heavily guarded than the last. 

Good thing the Butcher has never blinked at an extra casualty. 

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Secrets, Spells, and Chocolate by Marisa Churchill (December 2025)

Outcast Sylvie must survive her first year at her magical culinary school in this fast-paced, whimsical fantasy.

The culinary world is full of secrets. For one, recipes can become powerful spells. Of course, fourteen-year-old Sylvie Jones knows this. Sylvie has been dreaming of attending her mom’s alma mater, Brindille School of Culinary Arts and Magic, since she was old enough to reach the stove. Unfortunately, the last name Jones has a horrible stain on it — something that could destroy her dream. So, when Sylvie is given the opportunity to prove that she’s got the skills to be a great chef and put an end to the rumors that her famous chef mother cheated her way to victory at the world’s greatest magical cooking competition, The Golden Whisk, she takes it.

But the opportunity she’s been given may not be all that it’s cracked up to be. If Sylvie truly wants to make her own mark and earn a place at Brindille, she needs to uncover the truth about what happened all those years ago. But some will go to great lengths to ensure Sylvie fails, and she soon finds herself tangled in a web of deceit.

With the unlikely help of frenemy Georgia Shaw and rising-star-student Flora Jackson, Sylvie must find a way to get to The Golden Whisk All-Star competition and uncover the past before time runs out. Will she be able to redeem her family’s name and save her future, or will it all end in burned butter and broken dreams? 

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FIYAH No. 35: Black Isekai published by FIYAH Literary Magazine (July 2025)

Issue #35 of FIYAH Literary Magazine 

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Jealous of all the people who support Aurora-finalist James Nicoll Reviews? Want to join them? Here are your options:

Join my Patreon here. Rewards include your choice of which books I review.

Commission a review and get immediate gratification¹.

Spontaneous donations may be delivered via gold-ingot-filled airship, transport truck hauling cash, and trucks full of bearer-bond. That said, Paypal is probably the most practical option.

1: On a geological scale.

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I survived another dance season. Go me.

June 2025

21 works reviewed. 11 by women (52%), 9 by men (43%),1 by non-binary authors (5%), 0 by authors whose gender is unknown (0%), and 8 by POC (38%).

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Until the Clock Strikes Midnight by Alechia Dow (February 2026)

The Good Place meets the Brandy version of Cinderella in Until the Clock Strikes Midnight, a cozy, romantic fantasy from award-winning author Alechia Dow. 

Darling is the most talented — and unusual — Guardian to get a chance at winning the coveted once-in-a-generation Mortal Outcome Council mentorship. Getting the spot would mean having the opportunity to shape the future happiness of all mortal realms — if she succeeds at her first assignment, Lucy Addlesberg. Darling thinks it’ll be an easy razzle-dazzle job… until she actually meets Lucy. Her life is a complete mess, from her failing bookshop in her downtrodden village to her doomed flirtation with the princess of Lumina. But if there’s one thing Darling’s good at, it’s a makeover. 

Calamity is the most talented — and arrogant — Misfortune of his class. It’s his job to save mortals from their own terrible decisions made in the pursuit of the mythical ​“Happily Ever After. 

” When Calam is granted a shot at the Mortal Outcome Council mentorship, he thinks his dreams are finally coming true. But first, he must pass the test. It should be easy — Lucy Addlesberg has been unfortunate for years. All he has to do is continue her string of bad luck so she can finally come to terms with reality and settle for a safer, more logical path in life. Yet when he arrives, he finds that Lucy has a Guardian assigned to her too — a chipper overachiever who is as colorful as the magic pouring from her glittery wand. 

To thwart each other, Darling and Calam insert themselves into Lucy’s life posing as a betrothed couple. As they try to guide her down what they each see as the best path for her, they start questioning their roles and ultimately what they truly want for themselves… and if those feelings of loathing they have for each other might actually be something more like love. 

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99 Ways to Die: And How to Avoid Them by A. M. Alker, M. D. & Ashely Alker (January 2026)

An illuminating, hilarious, and practical guide to 99 of the most terrifying ways to die and how to avoid them from an emergency medicine doctor.

Dr. Ashely Alker is a self-described death-escapologist – or, in more familiar terms, an emergency medicine doctor. She has seen it all, from flesh-eating bacteria to the work of a serial killer to the more mundane but no less deadly, and her work keeping people from dying (or being unable to) has uniquely prepared her to write this book.

99 Ways to Die: And How to Avoid Them is an illuminating, darkly funny, and practical guide to 99 of the most terrifying ways to die and how to avoid them. Dr. Alker manages to scare readers while making them laugh, preparing them for a wide range of deadly situations and conditions. Each chapter includes stories of her patients pertaining to the chapter’s subject, as well as her related experiences in life and medicine. Sections include categories on sex, poison, drugs, biological warfare, disease, animals, crime, the elements and much more.

An Anthony Bourdain-style greatest hits tour of death, 99 Ways is entertaining while it informs. Quirky yet commercial, it will appeal to readers of everything from The Vagina Bible to Stiff to What If?, as well as the large audience of readers of bestselling medical books like How Not to Die. 

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This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews (March 2026)

When Maggie wakes up cold, filthy, and naked in a gutter, it doesn’t take her long to recognize Kair Toren, a city she knows intimately from the pages of the famously unfinished dark fantasy series she’s been obsessively reading and re-reading while waiting years for the final novel.

Her only tools for navigating this gritty world of rival warlords, magic, and mayhem? Her encyclopedic knowledge of the plot, the setting, and the characters’ ambitions and fates. But while she quickly discovers she cannot be killed (though many will try!), the same cannot be said for the living, breathing characters she’s coming to love — a motley band that includes a former lady’s maid, a deadly assassin, various outrageous magical creatures, and a dangerously appealing soldier. Soon, instead of trying to get home, she finds herself enmeshed in the schemes — and attentions — of dueling princes, dukes, and villains, all while trying to save them and the kingdom of Rellas from the way she knows their stories will end: in a cataclysmic war. 

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Would you like to support Aurora-finalist James Nicoll Reviews? Here are your options:

Do you want ongoing say in what I review? Join my Patreon here.

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Do you languish under the burden of excess wealth? Spontaneous donations may be delivered via my Paypal. Trailer-trucks filled with precious metals are also acceptable².

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May 2025

22 works reviewed. 12 by women (55%), 9 by men (41%), 0 by non-binary authors (0%), 1 by authors whose gender is unknown (5%), and 9 by POC (41%).

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