Happy Sunday everyone! Today I'm sharing two ARC mini reviews with you: Westside Saints (Westside #2) by W.M. Akers (available May 5, 2020) and Tomb of the Gods by Brian Moreland (available May 21, 2020). Thank you very much to NetGalley for providing me with these ARCs in exchange for honest reviews. Read on to see my thoughts on these two books:
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Westside Saints by W.M. Akers is a fantastic follow up to last year's Westside. It's great being back in Gilda's world of alternate 1920s New York City. Historical fantasy is one of my favorite genres and a magical Jazz Age is one of my personal favorites, especially when they're set in an atmospheric metropolis such as NYC. Just like the last time around there's so much to love about this story, its characters, and its setting. This time around Gilda is determined to stick to solve her tiny mysteries - the concept as those is still just as fascinating - but she unexpectedly finds herself in the middle of something bigger and closer to home than she could have expected involving saints, miracles, resurrections, and her long deceased mother. I particularly enjoyed getting to meet Mary, Gilda's newly restored to life mother. You can really see where Gilda gets her pushiness, inquisitiveness, determination, and cynicism, that's for sure. And, dealing with her mother is just about driving Gilda insane, even though Mary doesn't realize exactly who Gilda is to her. Honestly, though, that just makes their scenes together all the more priceless. It was fun getting to explore a little more of the world Aker's has created. His writing is so visually descriptive and the city just pops off the page. While I enjoyed seeing Gilda again, there are moments where slow pacing drags down the action and a few scenes nearer to the end that I needed to reread to clear up some initial confusion. Overall, though, I can't recommend the Westside series by W.M. Akers enough and I have a feeling that you'll want to try it if you also enjoy the styles of Neil Gaiman and Caleb Carr. I hope we'll get to see more of Gilda in the future. I'm looking forward to more of this author's future projects.
My review is also available on Goodreads.
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Tomb of Gods is my first novel by Brian Moreland, but I guarantee that it will not be my last. I was totally sold on the Egyptian mythology, mummies, archaeologists, and Egyptologist in a pre-WWII setting. Everything else was just the icing on the cake. I can officially say that I greatly appreciated Moreland's brand of horror. He definitely gets the job done of scaring the heck out of his readers with his incredibly atmospheric and claustrophobic writing style. I also enjoyed getting to know his characters, especially Imogen, an Egyptologist, who undergoes quite a journey over the course of her story. If you're a fan of The Mummy (1999) and The Mummy Returns (2001) which are a couple of my all time favorites, I have a feeling you'll get a kick out of this action-packed horror novel. I'm looking forward to trying more from Brian Moreland in the future after my first outing here.
My review is also available on Goodreads.
What are you reading this weekend? Are you planning on reading either of these books? As always, thanks for visiting my blog and perhaps even commenting down below!
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