ARC Mini Reviews: Creatures of Want and Ruin by Molly Tanzer & The Spectral City by Leanna Renee Hieber

Happy Tuesday everyone!  Today I'm sharing two ARC mini reviews with you: Creatures of Want and Ruin by Molly Tanzer (to be released on November 13th) and The Spectral City (Spectral City #1) by Leanna Renee Hieber (to be released on November 27th).  Both of these ARCs were provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  Read on to see my thoughts on these two stories.

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My first introduction to Molly Tanzer was with last year's Creatures of Will and Temper and I was really impressed by her Dorian Gray inspired tale. Of course as soon as I caught wind of her newest release I knew I had to try it as well and luckily for me I managed to get approved for it via NetGalley. This new companion story (you don't need to be familiar with her previous release, but it will certainly make things much more interesting if you already are) is also a historical horror fantasy set during the Roaring Twenties in New York which has to be one of my favorite genres and time periods to read about. I couldn't help but think of The Diviners series by Libba Bray while I was reading this novel. Anyway, my favorite aspects of this slow burn novel are Tanzer's eerily lush world-building and visual descriptions. She does a magnificent job of making the era and the characters come to life. The only issues were with the characters themselves, while they were all intriguing to follow none of them exactly grew on me. I wasn't particularly interested in any of them. Overall, if you're looking for a new fantasy novel with set in the 1920s during Prohibition with just the right amount of atmospheric horror, you'll absolutely need to try Molly Tanzer's Creatures of Want and Ruin.

I read this ARC from October 28 - 30, 2018 and my review is also on Goodreads.

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The Spectral City is a promising series opener. Leanna Renee Hieber does a brilliant job of bringing the historical fantasy paranormal world of early 1900s NYC to life. I love the level of real life historical detail that she's inserted into the story. I also particularly enjoyed the paranormal elements with the ghosts, mediums, physics, and of course the mystery element of The Ghost Precinct. Basically, Eve and her team solve crimes with the help of the dead. The cast of characters, though, is what really makes the story in the long run - the main cast and supporting characters. Eve is brilliant - I love her dedication, willingness to do whatever it takes, and her abilities of course - and it doesn't hurt that she's ahead of her time. Detective Horowitz, though, is a real scene stealer and I wish we got to see a little more of him throughout. Hopefully, we'll get to see more of all of these great characters in the upcoming sequel. Finally, there's so much to love about this historical fantasy series opener and I'm really looking forward to seeing what's next for these characters. Until then I'll need to look into more of Hieber's works starting with The Eterna Files.

I read this ARC from October 30 - 31, 2018 and my review is also on Goodreads.


Do you plan on trying either of these upcoming releases?  What are you reading this week? As always, thanks very much for visiting my blog and perhaps even commenting down below!