Category: Blog Series Page 4 of 217

BOOK SPOTLIGHT: Lianna and the Hombit by Valinora Troy

On January 21, 2026

In Book Tour, Fantasy, Fiction, YA/MG/Children's Books

I’m very pleased today to welcome The Write Reads Blog Tour for the first volume of Valinora Troy’s Lianna and the Hombit! The Tour’s in full swing, and it’s looking pretty good–take a gander at feed for https://twitter.com/WriteReadsTours or The Write Reads on Twitter or The Write Reads on BlueSky, you’ll see bloggers who have interesting things to say about it.

Book Details:

Title: Lianna and the Hombit by Valinora Troy
Genre: Fantasy
Age Category: Middle Grade
Format: Hardcover/Paperback/Ebook/Audiobook
Length: 255 Pages
Publication Date: January 29, 2026

About the Book:

A grieving girl in need of a friend. A magical creature with a secret task. Can they end the ancient curse threatening their new home?

When 13-year old Lianna, devastated by the loss of her father, is sent to the distant land of Nivram, she finds her new home and guardian every bit as horrible as she expected. When she meets a magical birdlike creature called a hombit, they strike an alliance: Lianna will help it complete its secret mission if it helps her get home.

But her plan goes awry and she accidentally awakens a creature that threatens both her and her new home. Lianna must uncover family secrets to avoid a terrible fate…

A heart-warming story of the healing power of friendship when all seems lost.

Book Links:

Amazon US ~ Amazon UK ~ Goodreads

About the Author:

Valinora Troy is a children’s fantasy and horror writer from Ireland. She has a MA in Creative Writing, specialising in writing for children and young adults. She has acted as a panellist for the CYBILS awards in the middle grade speculative fiction category and served as a Reading Ambassador for Louth Libraries. Her short stories for adults have appeared in numerous publications. She is the author of The Lucky Diamond trilogy, a middle grade children’s fantasy adventure series. In 2023 she was short-listed for the Staróg Prize. When not writing, she loves visiting schools and libraries to talk to children about books and writing.

You can find out more about Valinora’s books, as well as resources for schools, and sign up to her newsletter on her website: Valinora Troy – Children’s Fantasy Writer

Website ~ Twitter

My thanks to The Write Reads for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials they provided (including the book).

HC Chats with Glen Gabel about Through the Corner of Circles and some other stuff

By HCNewton

On January 20, 2026

In HC Chats, Literary Locals, Miscellany, News/Misc.

HC sat down with Literary Local, author, screenwriter, and all around good guy, Glen Gabel to talk about his mother’s passion project, <b.Through the Corner of Circles

You can see HC’s written Q&A with Glen here: https://irresponsiblereader.com/2025/05/20/literary-locals-a-qa-about-writing-in-idaho-with-glen-gabel/
Glen’s website: https://glengabel.com/
and Meg Ashely’s website: https://meg-ashley.com/

Fantasy with Friends: What Do You Think of Romantasy as a Category?

By HCNewton

On January 19, 2026

In Books, Fantasy with Friends, News/Misc.

Fantasy with Friends is a weekly meme hosted by the good people over at Pages Unbound. Fantasy with Friends poses questions each Monday about fantasy, either as a genre as a whole or individual works.

This week’s prompt is:

What do you think of romantasy as a category? What makes something romantasy vs. a fantasy book with a romance?

As for the subgenre as a whole, it’s not for me. I’ve got nothing against it, but it’s not something I seek out or would. But I have friends who love it—I have family members who love it—and I’m glad they have something that entertains them.

There are individual works that I’ve read and enjoyed—some I didn’t realize fit into that category until after I’d read them, and one or two I’ve been specifically recommended. So yeah…I don’t see myself as a fan of the subgenre, but that doesn’t mean I will run away from a good one. I just won’t go looking for one.

For me—and I’m looking forward to reading more informed definitions—a Romantasy is a Romance Novel that takes place in a Fantasy world (the way that the Eddie LaCrosse novels are Detective Novels that take place in a Fantasy world, or The Midsolar Murder books are Murder Mysteries on a Space Station, etc.). These are distinguished from books that are solid Fantasy novels with a love story (The Bright Sword, for example); or a Detective Novel with a touch of the mystic (or at least possibility of it) like the Walt Longmire series; or a Science Fiction novel where someone is murdered like 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Given that understanding, my typical disinclination to reading Romance is the same as disinclination to reading Romantasy.

I’m sure some of the other posts in response to this prompt will be more thoughtful. I’m looking forward to reading them. Do you have responses to this? (either for the comment section below or from your own post)

Saturday Miscellany—1/17/26

By HCNewton

On January 17, 2026

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
bullet Best Sci-Fi First Contact Adventures—a nice little stack of goodies. I can speak for 2.4 of the 7, and agree with Peloquin’s choices–and the rest look just as good.
bullet Willow Wraith Press is starting to host a promising series of articles about Self-Publishing, they kick it off (aptly) with What is Self Publishing?
bullet Beauty With Teeth: What I Want From Fae Fantasy—this is a lot of what I wanted to say Monday, and didn’t quite manage to.

My favorite sentence/passage/phrase (or two) that I read this week :
bullet “I’m not saying pain is what defines us as human beings. But it is, in many ways, what unites us.”―Battle Ground by Jim Butcher

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago This Week?
bullet Sex & Violence in the Bible by Joseph W. Smith III
bullet The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams—to be fair, when am I NOT talking about this?
bullet In Defense of the Moth or A Meaningless Dance in Blinding Heat and Light by Johnny Newport
bullet Indexing: Reflections Episode Twelve: Never After by Seanan McGuire
bullet Hidden by Karen E. Olson
bullet The Odd Fellows Society by C. G. Barrett
bullet I mentioned the releases of: Once a Crooked Man by David McCallum; Reflections by Seanan McGuire; and Level Up Your Life by Steve Kamb

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet First Do No Harm by S. J. Rozan—Somehow this slipped by me last week. “Lydia Chin and Bill Smith face a dangerous task: they must unlock a hospital’s many secrets in order to save an innocent man.” That sentence only needs the first five words to get me interested, but the rest works, too.
bullet Forbidden Waters by Rob Parker—Cam Killick is back and this time he “has found is a murder weapon from a very recent crime – but how do you solve a murder without a body?”
bullet Godfall by Van Jensen—”In this riveting small town thriller, Sheriff David Blunt is faced with a string of murders following the arrival of an alien life form”
bullet The Luminous Fairies and Mothra by Takehiko Fukunaga, Yoshie Hotta and Shin’ichiro Nakamura, Translated by Jeffrey Angles—following up on his translation of the Godzilla novellas, Angles brings us the original Mothra story.

WWW Wednesday—January 14, 2026

By HCNewton

On January 14, 2026

In Books, Currently Reading, News/Misc., WWW Wednesday

No intro today, let’s just get to business:

This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.

The Three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Seems easy enough, right? Let’s take a peek at this week’s answers:

What are you currently reading?


Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky	Battle Ground by Jim Butcher, read by James Marsters

I’ve barely scratched the surface of Tchaikovsky’s book, but am eager to get going deeper.

Well, I remember why Butcher is officially dead to me. Which is not to suggest that I’m not casting aside eerything else that I’m doing when the Twelve Months comes out next week. But I’m not sure I’ll forgive him for one of the events of this book.

What did you recently finish reading?


The Hunted by Steven Max Russo	Peace Talks by Jim Butcher, read by James Marsters

You can always count on Russo for a rousing Thriller–great story.

Just couldn’t shake the sense of impending doom with Peace Talks (and just wished Dresden took two opportunities to just talk to people and spare himself a lot of grief).

What do you think you’ll read next?


Lit by Tim Sandlin	Everyone in the Group Chat Dies by L.M. Chilton, read by Kimberly Capero

champing at the bit to get at it since I first read about it last Fall.

I liked Chilton’s Swiped, and wonder what she does with this Thriller about a “TikTok true crime investigator, a ’90s serial killer that may not be as dead as everyone would like, a text thread from hell, and long buried secrets that just won’t stay in the grave where they belong.”

What’s on your nightstands/side tables/eReader/etc.?

Fantasy with Friends: What Are Your Favorite Depictions of Fae?

By HCNewton

On January 12, 2026

In Books, Fantasy with Friends, News/Misc.

Fantasy with Friends is a weekly meme hosted by the good people over at Pages Unbound. Fantasy with Friends poses questions each Monday about fantasy, either as a genre as a whole or individual works.

This week’s prompt is:

Fae have been popular in fantasy the past couple years. Do you have a favorite portrayal of Fae? What aspects do you think are important to Fae characterization? Do you prefer traditional representations or unique takes?

As with many things, my favorite is the one I’m reading or most recently read. I’ve read so many Dresden Files recently that that’s my answer for now. The Fae Courts that Harry has to navigate (and now represents one of) are a great setup, ripe with drama; to learn (as we do in drips and drabs) what the Courts are up to—and aren’t telling people about—and the details about their inner-workings are just delicious.

But I have a large soft-spot for Toby McGuire’s world, too. And the…oh, wait, the prompt says favorite, not favorites.

What aspects of the Fae are important in a depiction? The impossible beauty, the power (obviously), the inability to lie (and the ever-so-fun ways they devise to deceive with the truth, or carefully selected portions of it), and the danger of iron.

It’s tough to say if I prefer “traditional representations” or something unique. Because I honestly don’t know anymore what’s a “traditional” representation anymore. Everything I can think of falls into unique.* But I’d probably say something unique anyway. That’s the fun thing, isn’t it? Butcher’s take on Wizards, Fae, Vampires, Werewolves, etc. are different than Faith Hunter’s, Drew Hayes’ or Patricia Briggs’. Or, let’s focus on fae: Seanan McGuire’s, Patrick Rothfuss’, and Heather Fawcett’s couldn’t be more different—throw in George MacDonald and you might as well be talking completely different species. It’s great to see the commonalities that all of these share, and the distinctives, too. The idiosyncrasies of each depiction are where the magic lays. You take the “traditional” approach, shave off those aspects you aren’t interested in (or don’t help the story you’re trying to tell), add whatever bits of contemporary feel you want…and bang. You’ve got yourself a wonderful world for story telling.

* This means, as soon as I hit “Schedule” on this post—or, at best, within 24 hours of this posting, I’ll think of at least a half-dozen things I should’ve said here about traditional representations.

Saturday Miscellany—1/10/26

By HCNewton

On January 10, 2026

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
bullet The Lost Art of Reading an Actual Book: What happens when people stop reading books? We’re starting to see what a postliterate society looks like—and it’s very lame.—worth the read just for the metaphor about eating your kids’ Halloween candy.
bullet 9 Classic Crime Stories That Have Just Entered the Public Domain in 2026—CrimeReads talks about some BIG titles that are now Public Domain.
bullet Mort Walker, Beetle Bailey, and the decline and fall of newspaper comics
bullet 100 Years of ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd’: Adrian McKinty celebrates the centenary of Agatha Christie’s groundbreaking detective novel.
bullet Is Fantasy Still Not Taken “Seriously” in Some Circles?—this week’s Fantasy with Friends had a lot of good input, (as I predicted). Go read the participants.
bullet Let’s talk about “grimdark”—some good musings on Grimdark (which is being applied to broadly lately)
bullet Letting Stories Linger—yes.
bullet From Service to Storytelling: Local Vet Publishes Fantasy Novels—a nice little story about a local writer that I hope to make the acquaintance of soon. (at least in print)
bullet 26 Short Classics to Meet Your Goal of Reading More Classics in 2026—This could be a handy list
bullet It’s all Your Fault: Book Reviewers who Influence My Reading—The gloves come off, and Jodie calls out book reviewers who deliberately destroy TBR pile progress. Vile folks that you should check out.
bullet Speaking of destroying TBR progress, these Best of ’25 lists should set yours back a bit:
bullet Sifa Elisabeth’s Best Books of 2025
bullet Ganesh’s (Pippin Took) top reads of 2025 (his reasoning behind The Kaiju Preservation Society is very sound)
bullet Jo Linsdell’sBest Reads of 2025
bullet Celeste’s Favorite Books Published in 2025 and Favorite Backlist Books of 2025 show some great taste and burden me with some new titles
bullet My Top 5: Books Read In 2025—For Books Sake pulls of the Herculean task of limiting it to 5!
bullet TCL’s Best of the Best List for 2013-2025!—this is something I could never do…and props to Davida for pulling it off. And the madness is spreading, as Carol takes a stab at it: Best of the Best: 2015 to 2025

My favorite sentence/passage/phrase (or two) that I read this week :
bullet “The Governor was obviously the kind of person who received as much spiritual contentment from berating others as a cold man does from a bowl of soup.”—She Who Became the Sun by SHelley Parker-Chan (so, so much is said in that one sentence)

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago This Week?
Somehow, these posts didn’t make the transfer to the new domain, so they look a little strange.
bullet The Witch with No Name by Kim Harrison
bullet The Absconded Ambassador by Michael R. Underwood
bullet And I mentioned the releases of: The Last Dream Keeper by Amber Benson and Steal the Sky by Megan E. O’Keefe

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet Through Gates of Garnet and Gold by Seanan McGuire—Nancy returns to Eleanor West’s school on a mission–the world behind her Door is in peril, and her friends may be their last hope. Like just about every book in this series, this one blew me away, as I noted recently.
bullet Fairest Hunter by M.K. Felix—a retelling of Snow White and Robin Hood. Should be a fun mashup.
bullet The Charmed Library by Jennifer Moorman—”A cozy, Hallmark-esque rom-com, The Charmed Library invites readers to escape to a world where words come alive and book boyfriends leap off the page.” Go read what the Witty & Sarcastic Book Club had to say about it.
bullet Ms. Marvel: Remnants of the Past by Saadia Faruqi—Kamala Khan is off to Pakistan on a hunt for a magical artifact. ‘Nuff said.

Opening Lines: All the Best Dogs by Emily Jenkins

By HCNewton

On January 8, 2026

In Blog Series, Currently Reading, News/Misc., Opening Lines, Quotations

Head & Shoulders used to tell us that, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” That’s true for wearing dark shirts, and it’s especially true for books. Sometimes the characters will hook the reader, sometimes the premise, sometimes it’s just knowing the author—but nothing beats a great opening for getting a reader to commit.

Ask anyone who has a dog and they’ll tell you that their dog is the best. Really, truly, the best dog in the world. Theirs is the best dog that ever lived, ever, ever, in the history of the known universe.

“But what if the person has two dogs, three dogs, eight dogs?” you ask.

Well, each one is still the best.

That’s how it feels. They are all the best dogs. You need to say “best” to be expressing what you feel about your dog.

Yeah, it’s not logical.

from All the Best Dogs by Emily Jenkins

Opening Lines Logo

WWW Wednesday—January 7, 2026

By HCNewton

On January 7, 2026

In Books, Currently Reading, News/Misc., WWW Wednesday

Welcome to another year of WWW Wednesdays, where I can assemble a mid-week post in 20 minutes or less and at least have fresh content if I’m not capable of finishing anything else.

Functionally, that’s true–but I actually do enjoy these and the comments, too. We’re starting off on a high-point this week:

This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.

The Three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Seems easy enough, right? Let’s take a peek at this week’s answers:

What are you currently reading?


Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Ace Atkins	Skin Game by Jim Butcher, read by James Marsters

80s Cold War Spy Thriller with a twisted sense of humor. Sort of FX’s The Americans as if told by Elmore Leonard. It’s just delicously good.

If Skin Game isn’t my favorite Dresden File, it’s close. I’m having a blast with this.

What did you recently finish reading?


All the Best Dogs Emily Jenkins, illustrated by Manuel Preitano	Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher, read by Robertson Dean

Okay, see how cute the cover for All the Best Dogs is? That’s how adorable and sweet the content is. Was a fantastic palate-cleanser.

The first line of the description of Dear Committee Members encapsulates it the Dog cover did, “Finally a novel that puts the ‘pissed’ back into ‘epistolary.'” Academic satire, told from the arrogant, garrulous, pedantic point of view of an older English Professor. I don’t know that I have it in me to plunge into the sequel right away, but it was pretty delicious.

What do you think you’ll read next?


She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan	Peace Talks by Jim Butcher, read by James Marsters

Like I said last week, She Who Became the Sun is the selection for my Fantasy Book club, I know nothing about it, but it looks promising. Celeste saying that it’s “quite good” is a real help.

Strange work schedules and sick leave messed up my schedule for the Dresden-relisten. So I’ve got to marathon these so I can be finished by the 20th. Yeah, it’s overkill, but I think I’ll survive.

How’s 2026’s reading starting out for you?

A Few Scattered Thoughts on My Latest Reading of The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis

By HCNewton

On January 7, 2026

In C.S. Lewis, Fantasy, Fiction, Further Up and Further In

Further Up and Further In A Year with C.S.Lewis

The Last Battle

by C. S. Lewis , illustrated by Pauline Baynes

DETAILS:
Series: The Chronicles of Narnia, #7
Publication Date: June 25, 1994
Format: Paperback
Length: 211 pg.
Read Date: December 24, 2025

If you need to know what this book is about, or anything about this series…seriously, just stop what you’re doing and pick up this book. I don’t mean to be a snob, or maybe I do, but something was missing from your childhood, and now is your time to fix it. I realize that there are many legitimate reasons for people not to have read this (more than some of the earlier), and I’m not questioning the choices you or your parents made (actually, I guess I am). But I’m not going to try to talk about this book like I do most others.

If only because everything worth saying has been said by other, better, writers. Probably several times.

I’ve also read this too many times to count as a child—even through my college years, and at least once a decade since. I’ll probably pick up the pace of re-reading them so I can talk to the grandcritters about them, too.

But I feel the need to say something now, so here are a few things that jumped out at me during this read:

bullet Shift is the first Narnian primate we’ve seen, right? There’s probably a lot of meaning to be mined from that. hmmm….
bullet A couple of pages of watching Shift in action is enough to make a guy want to go hang out with pre-Dragon Island Eustace just for the company.
bullet I just want to yell at Tirian to pay attention to the Centaur and his reading of the stars. I mean sure the astrology is nonsense (or is it in Narnia?), but the rest of it…
bullet Then just a few pages later, we get word that “Aslan” is ordering tress to be cut down and sold. Sorry, just how clueless are Tirian, Jewel, and anyone else who thinks, “yeah, this could maybe be the guy.”
bullet

The King was so dizzy from being knocked down that he hardly knew what was happening until the Calormenes untied his wrists and put his arms straight down by his sides and set him with his back against an ash tree. Then they bound ropes round his ankles and his knees and his waist and his chest and left him there. What worried him worst at the moment—for it is often little things that are hardest to stand—was that his lip was bleeding where they had hit him and he couldn’t wipe the little trickle of blood away although it tickled him.

That is just a great little detail there at the end. Hard to resist the impulse to wipe your mouth/chin there.
bullet Even in the midst of the end of the world, Lewis can find time to bring a smile with something like this:

…in Narnia your good clothes were never your uncomfortable ones. They knew how to make things that felt beautiful as well as looking beautiful in Narnia: and there was no such thing as starch or flannel or elastic to be found from one end of the country to the other.

bullet I thought about talking about Susan’s absence at the end, but it seems even less controversial to me on this read than on others. Also, I just got my hands on Gaiman’s “The Problem with Susan,” and should keep my powder dry until I can read/interact with it.
bullet I didn’t take that many notes while reading this one–I think I just caught up in the reading. Oops. I really liked Jill here (nothing against Eustace, but Jill really got to shine).
bullet This isn’t a wholly satisfying ending to the series, but it’s such a good one. I wonder a bit if Lewis could’ve done more–but I really can’t complain. It’d have been really easy for him to bungle this–I’ll take a pretty good conclusion over a mess.

And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can: most truly say that they all lived happily ever after, But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.
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