Soleil Noir posted a review of Isabelle Santiago’s Zerah’s Chosen.

I’m talking about characters who believe in their causes. I’m talking about two teenagers in the throes of adulthood caught up in duty, honor and the expectations of others, but unable to deny their attraction and growing fondness for one another.

If you’d like to read the rest of the review, go here. If you’d like to read an excerpt, go here. If you’d like to buy the book, click on the cover.

Book Blogger Marjolein posted a review of Kathi Wallace’s Assiniboin Girl.

Assiniboin Girl is an amazing Native American YA Novel… A beautiful story about learning about your heritage…

To read more of the review, go here. To read an excerpt, go here. To buy the book, just click on the cover.

Some bloggers, annoyed by cover whitewashing, and by the argument that book covers with non-white characters on the front don’t sell, have created a People of Color Reading Challenge. I ‘ve read more than one or two of the books on the list, but I would like to read more of them–not just because I ought to, but because they look really good. So, I’m going to join the challenge and shoot for level 4.

If you’re interested in joining the challenge too, the list is here. How to join the challenge is here.

Drollerie Press books that might be considered appropriate to the challenge include the ones below, all of which are available in the bookstore in ebook format (see the menu to the right). Still Life with Devils and The Revenant Road are also available in Trade Paperback from any book retailer. They’re fantasy, horror, thriller, mystery, women’s fiction, and YA, so there’s something there for everyone. If you use coupon code CHALLENGE  (good through the end of February) you’ll receive 10% off of your order.

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Ocelott reviewed Tamara Sheehan’s Stormy Bamboo on Genre Reviews.

…Not only does the ancient Japanese setting stand out from the sea of pseudo-medieval worlds currently swarming the epic fantasy genre, but the world is carefully crafted and builds together in a way that makes sense.

…The prose is the type of thing to suck you in after the first sentence, regardless of where you start. It’s infinitely readable, and the language takes you even further into the world and the characters.

If you’d like to read the rest of the review (and there’s a lot there to read), go here. If you’d like to read an excerpt, go here. If you’d like to buy the book, just click on the cover.

Bethanie recently reviewed Cindy Lynn Speer’s The Chocolatier’s Wife.

OK, leaving aside the fact that anything having to do with chocolate is almost automatically certain to be a hit with me, this really was a great story. Set in a world far, far away where marriages are ‘arranged’ by magic and one’s mate is usually determined when one is very young, the story consists partly of letters written back and forth between William and his ‘intended’, Tasmin. …Their letters to each other alone are a good enough reason to read the book. They are charming and cleverly written, not only because they subtly reveal the nature of each of the main characters, but also because they evolve through the story…

…[T]ouches of magic, mystery, and romance are deftly woven together into a memorable tale that I really didn’t want to end, since it meant leaving William and Tamsin’s world.

If you’d like to read the rest of the review, go here. If you’d like to read an excerpt, go here. If you’d like to buy the book, just click on the cover.