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Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan

by Jamey 1 Comment
Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan

Wicked Saints was a buddy read with my wife, Shannon. Somehow, she ended up with two copies of this book, so we both read them at pretty much the same time. Shannon has since received an e-arc from Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the sequel, Ruthless Gods, which she posted a review for earlier today.

This was Emily A. Duncan’s first book, and to be brutally honest, it started off reading like one. I absolutely couldn’t stand the foreign names that we difficult to pronounce even in my head (like why could Tranavia have not simply been Travania? — which would have made much more sense from a reader’s perspective). It took me a long time to get into this book (nearly halfway-through), but once it started getting good, it got good quick. The magic started flowing, and it turned out to be a really solid read.

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The Toll by Neal Shusterman

by Jamey 0 Comments
The Toll by Neal Shusterman

Personally, I feel like Neal Shusterman really created a masterpiece with The Toll. I really enjoyed Scythe and its follow up, Thunderhead, but The Toll was the grand finale that tied up all of the loose ends and ultimately brought the series to its full and glorious completion.


There appear to be two distinctly separate camps when it comes to readers of this book. There are those who loved Scythe and Thunderhead who happened to be very bored and underwhelmed by The Toll, and this camp seems to actually hold the majority. On the other hand, there are readers who believe The Toll completely stands apart from the first two books in the series and truly deserves more credit than people are giving it. I happen to be a member of this second camp, as this book “resonated” with me pretty deeply.

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John Dee and the Empire of Angels: Enochian Magick and the Occult Roots of The Modern World by Jason Louv

by Jamey
John Dee and the Empire of Angels: Enochian Magick and the Occult Roots of The Modern World by Jason Louv

Just to be clear from the start — John Dee and the Empire of Angels is not a book for everyone. It provides an excellent and remarkably granular history of John Dee and Edward Kelly, and for that reason alone I would recommend it. However, this book (unlike any other historical record of John Dee), goes balls deep into Dee’s angelic scrying sessions with Kelly, and then goes even further to relate how those scrying sessions went on to influence the realms of science, as well as the Western Esoteric Tradition in its entirety. If you are interested in occult studies, it is extremely interesting to follow the thread of Dr. John Dee and see how his impact inspired countless esoteric teachings and philosophies of the modern era.

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Ages of Entanglement by R.L. Jackson

by Jamey 0 Comments
Ages of Entanglement by R.L. Jackson

This was an ARC that was offered to Shannon, which she offered to me to read since it seemed to appeal more to my general interests than to hers. I can honestly say that this book is one of a kind, and unlike any other book that I have read. It will be very hard to describe this book to give a sense of its true essence, therefore I do urge the reader to read it for themselves if any of this piques your interest. That being said, I will do my best to offer my thoughts on this work.

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The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

by Jamey 0 Comments
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

I’m not going to lie, I was skeptical about starting The Folk of the Air series. Shannon had made a really big deal about it and was adamant that I read it. I know she loves faeries, and I love magic, and we both really enjoyed Holly Black’s previous book, The Darkest Part of the Forest, so I decided to give it a go.

I was not disappointed. This book was full of very detailed descriptions of magic and how things worked, which is something that I appreciate in a magical book — how they don’t just say something magic happened and then don’t describe how it happened. This book gives all of the hows in epic detail, which I really loved. This is one of those books that has the ability to really transport the reader to an altogether different place from mortal reality, and you really get sucked in.

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