#stephanie burgis

[wearethekat]

November Book Reviews: A Marriage of Undead Inconvenience by Stephanie Burgis

I decided to read this novella since I've enjoyed Burgis' middle-grade and I was interested to see what her works for adults would be like. Ferocious academic Margaret has been forced into marriage by her unpleasant family—to a grouchy vampire, who she finds has also been blackmailed into marriage.

This was a fun little souffle of a book, just right at the novella length. Arranged political marriage is my kryptonite trope, and it was played nicely here. Margaret is a doctoral student, and her practicality and single-minded devotion to her research—to the extent of dangerously ignoring faculty politics—is a delight. Lord Riven is less of an original personality, but he's sensible and tends more towards at being annoyed at being woken up for this nonsense vampire rather than the pushy and possessive type. The pair's eventual unravelling of the plot behind their Situation (tm) is very satisfying.

Recommended if you'd enjoy a light romance in a fantasy setting with some great characters.

[jonathanpongratz]

Book Review: The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart (Tales from the Chocolate Heart #1)

  Hello chocoholics and chocolatiers! It’s time for another book review. This time I chose to read The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart (Tales from the Chocolate Heart #1) by Stephanie Burgis. I needed some cozy fantasy for my grad school assignment, and this one definitely fit the bill. I mean, who doesn’t like chocolate? Let’s get this review started!     Blurb Aventurine is a brave young dragon…

[nzbookwyrm]

August 2024

[checkoutmybookshelf]

Lap Dragons. 'Nuff Said.

Ok, so: My immunocompromised ass got Covid in April (if you're medically able, wear masks y'all. Covid SUCKS and I only managed to avoid the hospital because I have enough experience and privilege to get what I need from the medical system relatively fast and painlessly. Don't spread Covid and try not to get it. Be safe, y'all), and when I was feeling ok-ish enough that laying in bed pretending to be a rock got way too boring, I picked up this book because I assumed it would be an easy, candy-floss read.

Which it was.

But that's not ALL it was. Let's talk Scales and Sensibility.

I was unexpectedly invested and thoroughly DELIGHTED by this book. It's essentially a standard regency romance novel but with the addition of lap dragons.

Ok, technically they're shoulder dragons, but the vibe is extremely lap kitty, and honestly in this house we STAN Sir Jessamyn.

Elinor is separated from her sisters and goes to live with her dickhead Uncle, arguably clinically depressed Aunt, and Queen Brat of a Cousin after the death of her parents, and her goal of being the "model poor relation" goes straight to hell within about the first five pages of the novel. Refusing to let poor Sir Jessamyn be abused by Cousin Penelope, Elinor basically kidnaps him, bails, and gets hit by a carriage before she makes it properly into town. This ends up being a meet cute with Mr. Benedict (seriously, regency romance novels really like having Benedicts in them) Hawkins. That's more or less all the plot you're going to get from me on this one, because I encourage you to read this delightful book.

In terms of other important things about the book, I thoroughly enjoyed the writing style. It tended toward light, fluffy, and endearing, but didn't shy away from a littled added heaviness when that was warranted, and the writing mirroring the tone so well is a skill that is rarer than you might think in genre fiction (*side eyes Brando Sando and his "invisible prose"*), but it just makes an already fun read feel stronger and more immersive.

Character-wise, Burgis created a stellar cast of clearly differentiated, personality-filled characters who I literally could not help but be deeply invested in by like, the end of chapter one. It can be easy in romance novels to let characters be more or less cardboard cutouts without much in the way of actual personality. This book DOES NOT have that problem. Elinor, Sir Jessamyn, Benedict, Penelope, and everyone else has vibrant personality that practically leaps off the page.

Finally, we have the dragons. The big dragons in this universe were, sadly, apparently hunted to extinction, leaving just the little dragons who can be trained up to sit on ladies' shoulders as a literal accessory. Sir Jessamyn is not cut out for this life, and Elinor is not a fan of turning living beings into literal fashion accessories. This is not unpacked terribly deeply in a systemic way, but as a synecdoche for assumed wider social and moral issues in the world, Sir Jessamyn serves quite well to sketch the broader picture by implication. This was such a fun idea to propose and immediately deconstruct, and I really enjoyed the draogny aspects of this novel.

If you're missing your fantasy regency romance fix this week, I cannot recommend a better solution that Stephanie Burgis's Scales and Sensibility. There is likely more to be said about this book as an homage to or gentle spoof of Austen's Sense and Sensibility, but as I have not actually read Sense and Sensibility, I'm afraid you'll have to look elsewhere on book internet for that content. I'm perfectly happy for now to enjoy Scales and Sensibilty on its own merits.

[terapsina]

Book asks: 12, 23, 26

Ask Game

12. which book will you read next?

My to-be-read list is quite extensive so I haven't settled on my next book but it's probably going to be one of these three.

It kinda depends on what my mood's going to be after I finish the middle grade audiobook I'm currently listening to.

If I feel like a light, fun adventure with a woman who was the brightest magician of her age until she lost her magic (and was the only woman accepted in the Victorian(ish)-time magic university) but now has opened a school for female magicians? Then the second book in The Harwood Spellbook series.

(also depends if I'm feeling like audiobook or not, the narrator in the first book was excellent so I'm planning to read the second book by listening too).

If however I want something heavier and completely new then Elatsoe looks like it's a very interesting read. A queer fantasy book focusing on a main character from a Lipan Apache family who can raise the ghosts of dead animals? Sign me up.

But yeah, I feel like that one will require more mental and emotional space in me, so I'll need to be in the right frame of mind.

And finally, if I feel like checking out the newest Brandon Sanderson book (which I've heard is getting excellent reviews). I'll read Yumi and the Nightmare Painter.

23. what book to movie adaptation do you love?

The Martian by Andy Weir. Great book, great movie. Had a lot of fun with both.

-

Matilda by Roald Dahl. I've got a special place in my heart for that book because it's actually the first book I ever read. And the movie was everything that kid!me wanted it to be (including the ending, I'm still glad they changed Matilda's ending to not losing her power).

-

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. And its absolutely perfect 2005 adaptation (though this is a bit of a cheat as I watched the movie first, but as it inspired me to immediately go read the book I'm going to count it).

26. do you use libby? (or other)

No. It's unfortunately unavailable in my country.

I do subscribe to Scribd, but I know that's not the same.

[autumn2may]

Today our judges review Stephanie Burgis' Scales and Sensibility for this year's Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (SPFBO) finals! 🐉

Background image by Ivana Djudic.

[ghosthermione-reads]

i won this gorgeous arc from Stephanie Burgis and im really enjoying the first few chapters. I love a good case of misunderstood identities as the basis of romance

[bookcoversonly]

Title: Moontangled | Author: Stephanie Burgis | Publisher: Five Fathoms Press (2020)

[emiline-northeto]

I had a lovely time this week getting into an October mood rereading Good Neighbors: The Full Collection, by Stephanie Burgis. It's a charming and delightful closed-door romance (four connected stories) between a metal-working magic user and a necromancer and there's a lot of found family and found community. The main romance is f/m, and there are side queer romances. One of the things I really like about these stories is there is a lot of kindness and goodness in them, and people banding together against cruelty and evil.

Now onto a reread of "Dangerous Flames", which is another story in the same universe, with an f/f romance.

(Stephanie Burgis originally published the four stories separately, and one of the individual stories is called "Good Neighbors", so if you want to read all four, excluding "Dangerous Flames" which isn't in the full collection version as it was published later and focuses on secondary characters, make sure your get Good Neighbors: The Full Collection and not just "Good Neighbors").

[libraryleopard]

Adult historical fantasy romance novella

After losing her magic, Britain’s first female magician is forced to navigate tense elf-human politics and her relationship with her ex-fiancé while snowed in at an estate 

Cozy winter read with some charming romance and light but interesting world-building

British Indian love interest; Black British side character; lesbian side characters

[betterbooksandthings]

"Windswept hair, bone-chilling cauldrons, and more magic than you know what to do with are par for the course with delightful witchy romances. Fall is the season of the witch, and these romances will satisfy your every witchy desire.

Witch romances might as well be as old as time itself. Sundry medieval history of witchcraft books lists the many times witchy women have been accused of tempting men (and demons) with their feminine wiles. Witches have been figures of prophecy, power, and more generalized magic in poems, plays, and literature for a reason. They work as an easy shorthand for mystical danger. Witches pop up again and again in romance because of this history.

After all, women who have access to uncontrolled power falling in love is an endlessly interesting combination. With the most recent wave of paranormals coming back to haunt everyone’s bookshelves, there are more witchy romances than ever. The real trick is knowing which ones are worth your time. Because I love them, there is nothing more disappointing than reading witchy romances and not enjoying them.

I like a witch romance where their powers are relevant to the story and have an impact on both the witch’s character and their eventual romantic relationship with whomever they fall in love with. As a fan of early 2000s paranormal, I tend to like a bit of plot too. The following delightful witchy romances are a mere sampling of my favorites, but I hope you have a fun time with them nonetheless."

[wearethekat]

January Book Reviews: Snowspelled by Stephanie Burgis

This is a novella that I've been vaguely trying to get my hands on for a while (I loved Stephanie Burgis when I was a kid). So it was very fun to find it at my new library system (whee!). Cassandra Harwood was the first woman magician in Angland-- until she lost her magic three months ago. Now she's attending a houseparty infested with elves AND the fiance she just dumped for his own good. Trouble, of course, ensues.

I had mixed feelings about this one. Some of the worldbuilding wasn't well thought out. For instance, the book is set in a mostly gender-swapped England, where politics is women's work and only men can be magicians. But I don't think the implication that this would have were fully thought out. I think an England with these changes would be far, far more unfamiliar than the one Burgis depicts. I also didn't always find the protagonist Cassandra sympathetic. She flings herself into arguments with the absolute confidence of someone who's always been loved unconditionally.

Fun, but there are a fair number of books that have managed the regency-with-magic setting better.

[pendragyn]

Kobo sure knows how to grab my attention lol dragons and Seanan and Joy, oh my!

[nzbookwyrm]

February 2025

[checkoutmybookshelf]

Jane Austen's romantic leads don't have anything on a bookish scientist who is approaching his romance with the same care and verve that he approaches his research. Cornelius Aubrey really stood up and said with his whole chest, "You have everyone else's back. Let me get yours."

Please excuse me while I swoon a little.

[moonhuit]

you were like the sun—everyone orbited around you. how could i bring myself to look away? —stephanie burgis (spellcloaked)