About the Book A girl named Rose is riding her new bike near her home in Deadwood, South Dakota, when she falls through the earth. She wakes up at the bottom of a square hole, its walls glowing with intricate carvings. But the firemen who come to save her peer down upon something even stranger:…

Alright folks, here you have it – the final round of mini reviews for this first group of #SPFBO contestants. Wow, this was a rough on. Very, very rough. These books were all very strong. The game plan after this is to sit on these books for a day or so, and then Wednesday or…

Well, here it is… round 4 mini reviews. I apologize for taking so long, but wow, life has been crazy. If things go well and nothing unexpected happens, round 5 will be up tomorrow, and then the overall winner announced on Friday. Fingers crossed that things stay boring over here… — Elona: Patterner’s Path –…

About the Book Orphan Black meets Inception: Two formerly conjoined sisters are ensnared in a murderous plot involving psychoactive drugs, shared dreaming, organized crime, and a sinister cult. Raised in the closed cult of Mana’s Hearth and denied access to modern technology, conjoined sisters Taema and Tila dream of a life beyond the walls of…

About the Book A debut literary thriller from an incredible new voice. What do you do when the man who gave you everything turns out to be a killer?  Everything Elka knows of the world she learned from the man she calls Trapper, the solitary hunter who took her under his wing when she was…

About the Book The beginning of an epic historical fantasy that rocks the foundations of the ancient world Julius Caesar is dead, assassinated on the senate floor, and the glory that is Rome has been torn in two. Octavian, Caesar’s ambitious great-nephew and adopted son, vies with Marc Antony and Cleopatra for control of Caesar’s…

About the Book Twelve-year-old Merryn lives with her fisherman father in a little cottage by the sea. Each day, her father braves the tumultuous waves and returns home in time for dinner. One stormy evening, he doesn’t come back. Merryn has a vision that he’s been dragged underwater by a terrifying sea creature, and he…

About the Book A sweeping science-fiction saga of revenge set in a future in which the Roman Empire never fell, by actress Claudia Christian When her mother and brother are murdered, young noblewoman Accala Viridius cries out for vengeance. But the empire is being torn apart by a galactic civil war, and her demands fall…

About the Author Gregory A. Wilson is currently Professor of English at St. John’s University in New York City, where he teaches creative writing and fantasy fiction along with various other courses in literature. His first academic book was published by Clemson University Press in 2007; on the creative side, he has won an award…

I’m sorry this is so late, but you can look back at my previous few posts to see why it was late. Thank you for being patient with me. This round was really, really hard for me to judge because it had so many incredibly strong contesters and just about every book really interested me…