Sarah Kurz

"There was a pause.  Vasya's face hurt, and her sight had begun to fracture.  The snowy countryside tugged at the edges of her vision." Vasalisa Petrovna is not like other girls.  She runs free and wild through the forests on her father's lands.  She rides bareback on great stallions.  She sees things.  Things that no one else sees.  Things that many call demons.  She is so similar to the mother she never knew, and Vasalisa's father and brothers want nothing more than to keep the girl safe.  They want Vasalisa to forget her wild ways and settle down and marry, but Vasalisa would rather soon die than give up who she truly is.  Or who she is about to become when she meets Morozko, the frost demon of death. The Bear and the Nightingale is the first book in the Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden.  Set in Russia, it's a beautifully written tale of magic, folklore, and religion.  The beginning of the book is a bit slow, fill...

"It was easily a hundred metres from the stripe to the plinth: a long way to walk.  It looked simple enough, which was how Gideon knew it was probably a huge pain in the ass." Gideon Nav, wielder of swords and reader of dirty magazines, wants nothing more than to escape from the Ninth House.  Sure, it's been her home her entire life, but it's not exactly a happy one.  So Gideon devises the perfect plan to leave, and her plan is destroyed by her nemesis, Harrowhark Nonahesimus, necromancer and heir to the House of the Ninth.  Harrowhark has her own plans.  Plans to ascend and become an all-powerful immortal, but she can't do that without a cavalier.  Gideon is less than thrilled when she is picked to be that cavalier.  Gideon and Harrow venture to the First House, along with the heirs and cavaliers from the seven houses, to have their try at ascending.  It quickly becomes clear that this is no easy task, even for someone as powerful as Harrowha...

"But last night, Aurora had realized something.  There were some things in life she did not get to choose - who she loved, how she hurt, or what she was born.  But she could not run anymore when things became too painful." Rage , the second book in the Stormheart   Series by Cora Carmack is the continuation of the story of Aurora Pavan, the princess without Stormling magic who is desperately trying to save her kingdom. This book was just as good as the first.  Possibly even better.  However, I'm not going to go into great detail (spoilers!).  I'm just going to say that there are lots of lovely twists and in book two and Cora Carmack does an excellent job of expanding the other characters.  I felt like they were a bit vague in the first book, but I can see why she left them to book two. The two books flow smoothly into each other, so I highly recommend reading them back to back over the course of three nights like I did.  My only regret is t...

"Maybe everything.  Or nothing.  Maybe none of this was real, and she was back in her bed having an herb-induced dream.  Or maybe everything she'd been taught, everything she thought she knew, was absolutely wrong." Aurora Pavan has always found it difficult to fit into her family and her kingdom.  A princess who lacks Stormling magic, she spent the majority of life hidden away playing the role of the good, quiet girl eager to please her mother.  Roar has never questioned her life.  She knows the role she is to play.  Or at least she thinks she does until her mother arranges a marriage to save the kingdom and Roar finds that life isn't as simple as she thought.  Each time she seeks the answer to a question and new one pops up and Roar suspects that a royal marriage isn't the only way to save her people. In her quest to find answers Roar meets Locke, a storm hunter with a misfit crew that can teach her a thing or two about magic.  Togeth...