James Nicoll Reviews

A Simple Twist of Fate by April Asher (May 2025)

A witch and a shifter get a second chance at love in this new paranormal romantic comedy from USA Today Bestselling author April Asher.

At the bright-eyed age of eighteen, witch Harlow ​“Harry” Pierce attended her first Fates Haven Finding Ceremony certain the Blue Willow Wisp would lead her to her Fated match, her cougar shifter boyfriend, Jaxon Atwood. But Fate had other plans, guiding her best friend to him instead. With a broken heart, all her belongings, and a vow to never return, Harry did the only thing a broken-hearted witch could do. Run.

Thirteen years later, she returns to her magical hometown — with her half-human, half-shifter goddaughter in tow — hoping that not only would the town work its magic on the troubled teenager, but that the local Alpha of the Rocky Mountain Pack could help Grace identify — and control — her fiery abilities.

Jaxon Atwood was a shifter of few words and even less patience… until his mother retired as Alpha of the Rocky Mountain Pack and left the running of things to him. It’s a headache he didn’t need, and one that brought the witch who’d ripped his heart from his chest knocking on his door.

Ever since the disappearance of the town’s Fate Witch over a decade ago, Fates Haven’s magic has been slowly going haywire. There hasn’t been a Fated Match made in thirteen years, putting the town in serious jeopardy of losing its title of Most Fated Mates Per Population. But now, something is stirring in Fates Haven, Colorado, and it smells like the past, tastes like change, and looks like A SIMPLE TWIST OF FATE. 

The Vampire Tapestry by Suzy McKee Charnas (March 2024)

The Nebula Award-winning reinvention of the vampire novel, described as a ​“masterpiece” by Guillermo del Toro.

Edward Weyland is far from your average vampire: not only is he a respected anthropology professor but his condition is biological — rather than supernatural. He lives discrete lifetimes bounded by decades of hibernation and steals blood from labs rather than committing murder. Weyland is a monster who must form an uneasy empathy with his prey in order to survive, and The Vampire Tapestry is a story wholly unlike any you’ve heard before.

With a new introduction by Nicola Griffith, author of Spear.

The Enchanted Greenhouse by Sarah Beth Durst (July 2024)

Terlu Perna broke the law because she was lonely. She cast a spell and created a magically sentient spider plant. As punishment, she was turned into a wooden statue and tucked away into an alcove in the North Reading Room of the Great Library of Alyssium.

This should have been the end of her story … Yet one day, Terlu wakes in the cold of winter on a nearly-deserted island full of hundreds of magical greenhouses. She’s starving and freezing, and the only other human on the island is a grumpy gardener. To her surprise, he offers Terlu a place to sleep, clean clothes, and freshly baked honey cakes — at least until she’s ready to sail home.

But Terlu can’t return home and doesn’t want to — the greenhouses are a dream come true, each more wondrous than the next. When she learns that the magic that sustains them is failing — causing the death of everything within them — Terlu knows she must help. Even if that means breaking the law again.

This time, though, she isn’t alone. Assisted by the gardener and a sentient rose, Terlu must unravel the secrets of a long-dead sorcerer if she wants to save the island — and have a fresh chance at happiness and love.

Funny, kind, and forgiving, The Enchanted Greenhouse is a story about giving second chances — to others and to yourself. 

Eat the Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin (April 2025)

A twisted, tangled story about workplace love-affairs, and plants with a taste for human flesh

During a grocery run to her local shopping center, Shell Pine sees a ​‘HELP NEEDED’ sign in a flower shop window. She’s just left her fiancé, lost her job, and moved home to her parents’ house. She has to make a change and bring some good into her life, so she goes inside and takes a chance. Shell realizes right away that flowers are just the good thing she’s been looking for, as is Neve, the beautiful florist who wrote the sign asking for help. The thing is, Neve needs help more than Shell could possibly imagine.

An orchid growing out of sight in the heart of the mall is watching them closely. His name is Baby, and the beautiful florist belongs to him. He’s young, he’s hungry, and he’ll do just about anything to make sure he can keep growing big and strong. Nothing he eats – nobody he eats – can satisfy him, except the thing he most desires. Neve. He adores her and wants to consume her, and will stop at nothing to eat the one he loves.

This is a story about possession, and monstrosity, and working retail. It is about hunger and desire, and other terrible things that grow. 

Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones (April 2025)

Walking through his own house at night, a young boy thinks he sees another person stepping through a doorway. The figure reminds him of his long-dead father, who drowned mysteriously before his family left the reservation. When he follows, it he discovers his house is bigger and deeper than he ever knew.

The house is the kind of wrong place where you can lose yourself and find things you’d rather not have. Over the course of a few nights, the boy tries to map out his house in an effort that puts his younger brother in the worst danger, and puts him in the position to save them … at a terrible cost. 

Deliverance of Dragons by Mercedes Lackey & James Mallory (May 2025)

The epic conclusion to the first War of the Endarkened

From orphaned child to prophesied savior, Vieliessar Farcarinon is more than ready to take her rightful place as Elven Queen. While her bickering countrymen may not have crowned her yet, she has been anointed by the stars above and the dragon at her side. But the overwhelming attacks of the Endarkened have forced Elvenkind to abandon internal politics in favor of an unprecedented strategy: retreat.

Runacarendalur Caerthalien is a thorn in the Queen’s side and should be her greatest enemy. A traitor to the Elvish empire, he has become the trusted general of once-subjugated creatures — a chaotic force of centaurs, merfolk, gryphons, minotaurs, and talking bears alike.

These two strong-willed leaders have been at each other’s throats for years. Now forced into tentative co-existence due to the common threat of the Endarkened, how will they react when they finally realize they are soulmates — bound despite their will by unassailable magics that twine their lifelines into one? If either should die, the other will also fall. And without their two greatest leaders, the Children of Light are sure to drown amidst the never-ending waves of Endarkened attacks.

The collaborative fantasy world of Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory features continent-spanning high adventure and epic battle. The Dragon Prophecy illuminates a time when long-lived Elves rule the Fortunate Lands. It is a time of dire prophecy, of battle and bloodshed, of great magics unlike any the Elvenkind have seen before. Deliverance of Dragons is the story of the end of one world and the beginning of the next.

Reluctant Witch by Melissa Marr (April 2025)

The Magicians meets One Last Stop in the sequel to Remedial Magic by New York Times bestselling author Melissa Marr!

After discovering she’s a witch and being whisked away to the magical land of Crenshaw, Ellie wants nothing more than to spend time with her new wife, Prospero, who has magically altered Ellie’s memories to convince her of exactly that.

Prospero herself is guilt-wracked after erasing Ellie’s memories and being forced into a sham marriage with the woman she loves for real. But Crenshaw is dying, poisoned by Prospero’s enemies who want their community to return to the human world, and she will do anything to save it.

The most powerful witch in anyone’s memory is in Prospero’s home, in her bed, with no idea that she’s a prisoner there… yet.

As the very fabric of their world is being destroyed, Ellie and Prospero must find a way to work together and save the world, and themselves. 

The Last Voyage by Brian D. McLaren (July 2025)

It’s 2056 and international oligarchs have pushed the world to the precipice of ecological, economic, and nuclear catastrophe. But two philanthropists have teamed up to establish a long-term colony on Mars. Could this daring outpost be the next chapter in the story of the human race?

Assembling a crack team of experts including scientists, engineers and ecologists, the colony begins to establish a viable outpost on our nearest planet. But the team quickly run into problems as they bear the responsibility of creating a new humanity. Can they work out what has gone wrong before it’s too late? And will the passengers of the last voyage from earth bring what’s needed for this fledgingly community to flourish?

This first volume in a thrilling new trilogy from Brian McLaren, explores what it means to be human and what would we choose to bring with us or leave behind, if we were to start all over again. 

Stewpot: Tales from a Fantasy Tavern by Takuma Okada (November 2024)

Stewpot: Tales from a Fantasy Tavern is a collection of small games for groups of three or more players. Each game lets you, a retired adventurer, play out different parts of running a tavern and settling down in a town together with your old adventuring party. 

You’ll be scrambling to cook something edible with random ingredients, bartending for troubled souls, calming down a tavern brawl, going shopping for all the things a tavern needs, and more in a variety of slice-of-life scenes! Typical play time depends on your group and how long you spend on each game. Most likely, the shortest playthrough will be about a 3 hour session, and a longer playthrough may take multiple sessions. 

Stewpot takes design inspiration from similar mini-game collections such as The Sundered Land, Mobile Frame Zero: Firebrands, and The King is Dead by Meguey and Vincent Baker.

(Note from James: I have no idea when the actual release date is and I did spent a fair amount of time looking)

Esperance by Adam Oyebanji (May 2025)

A whip-smart thriller in the vein of Blake Crouch, Andy Weir, and Neal Stephenson, Esperance plumbs the depths of a seemingly impossible crime rooted in racism, intergenerational trauma, and an inhuman concept of justice

Detective Ethan Krol is on the twentieth floor of a Chicago apartment building. A father and son have been found dead — their lungs full of sea water hundreds of miles from the ocean.

Abidemi Eniola has arrived in Bristol, England. She claims to be Nigerian, but her accent is wrong and she can do remarkable things with technology, things that Abi’s new friend, Hollie Rogers, has never seen before. Abi is in possession of a number of heirlooms that need to be returned to their rightful owners and Hollie is more than happy to go along for the ride.

But neither Abidemi Eniola nor her heirlooms are quite what they seem. Abidemi is a target of Ethan Krol’s investigations and Hollie’s life is about to become far more uncomfortable than she bargained for. In a clash of cultures, and histories and different ideas about right and wrong, Hollie’s safety is very much at risk. Someone’s justice will have to give way, and the consequences will be deadly. 

A Far Better Thing by H. G. Parry (June 2025)

Jonathan Strange & Mr. NorrelI meets A Tale of Two Cities in H. G. Parry’s A Far Better Thing, a heart-rending fantasy of faery revenge set during the French Revolution.

I feared this was the best of times; I hoped it could not get any worse.

The fairies stole Sydney Carton as a child, and made him a mortal servant of the Faerie Realm. Now, he has a rare opportunity for revenge against the fae and Charles Darnay, the changeling left in his stead.

It will take magic and cunning — cold iron and Realm silver — to hide his intentions from humans and fae and bring his plans to fruition.

Shuttling between London and Paris during the Reign of Terror, generations of violence-begetting-violence lead him to a heartbreaking choice in the shadow of the guillotine. 

The Emilie Adventures by Martha Wells (May 2025)

Two novel-length YA steampunk adventures from the author of the wildly successful Murderbot Diaries.

Together in one volume for the first time:

Emilie and the Hollow World

Running away from home and stowing away on the wrong ship, Emilie embarks on a fantastic adventure.

Emilie learns that the crew hopes to use an experimental engine to journey to the interior of the planet, but when the ship becomes damaged on arrival and evidence points to sabotage, they encounter the treacherous Lord Ivers, along with a strange new race.

Can Emilie and her new-found friends possibly reach the surface world again?

Emilie and the Sky-World

When Emilie arrives in Silk Harbor, Professor Abindon, an old colleague of her friend Lady Marlende, warns them of something strange and potentially deadly in the sky, a disruption in an upper air aether current. On further investigation they realize it’s a ship from another aetheric plane.

How to determine if it’s a friendly explorer, or something far more sinister? Nothing less than a journey into the dangerous air currents will do.

Join Emilie and she navigates the strange landscapes of the upper air, and the deadly menace that inhabits the Sky World.