Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book in a Goodreads Giveaway.

A witch with a struggling business is hired to haunt a hotel by developing novel spells to transport carefully selected friendly ghosts to the property and make them visible to mundane guests. A charming blend of fantasy and romance with some real heartstring-tugging moments, where the primary conflict is Pippa overcoming the ingrained feelings of inferiority from her unsupportive family. Overall, I found it to be strongly enjoyable and moving. Recommended.

(Disclosure: I received my copy of this book for free in a Goodreads giveaway)

No Dogs in Philly is a mostly solid story mixing detective noir, cyberpunk, and lovecraftian horror. Private investigator Saru is hired to track down Ria, a young woman haunted by visions of a phantasmal dog, who is being pursued by the servants of a malign god. The plot was compelling, but I felt it had some significant issues at certain points: not enough exposition about certain aspects of the world at the beginning, and not enough interaction between Saru and Ria before the end. Still, despite these flaws, I enjoyed the book for the most part, and would be interested in reading a sequel.

I wrote a full-length spoiler review for my blog; you can read it at Prof Morbius Book Reviews.

I found the setting interesting, but the plot was a bit of a let-down. In particular, it contained one of my personal pet peeves: absolute, immutable prophecy which robs the hero of their agency.

Full review (with spoilers) on my blog.

A very weak introduction to the series. It does not show a proper first meeting between the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, they work on separate cases rather than truly teaming up, and the cases are imbalanced in stakes and urgency.

Full review (with spoilers) on my blog.

A boring and cliche conclusion to the House Immortal trilogy.

Full review (with spoilers) on my blog.

Presents an interesting mystery; but the ultimate solution is something of a cheat, and thus unsatisfying.

Full review (with spoilers) on my blog.

While aspects of this book interested me, I found myself frustrated by flaws in its presentation: an erratically anachronic order, dual storylines that never end up tying together, and an anticlimactic ending.

Full review (with spoilers) on my blog.

The protagonist's passivity in this book makes it a far weaker story than its predecessor in the series, where he was always actively driving the plot.

Full review (with spoilers) on my blog.

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book through a Goodreads giveaway.

This book didn't really capture my interest. It was very slow paced, and the characters felt flat. Overall, not to my taste.

A comprehensive collection of pre-Excalibur Captain Britain comics. Consisting of a variety of runs from different creative times in different magazines, the quality is wildly inconsistent. The "Crooked World" storyline begun by Dave Thorpe and concluded by Alan Moore is definitely the highlight; unfortunately, the other included runs can't live up to its standard.

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway.

I found this story to be an excellent fantasy/mystery featuring a well-developed cast of characters inhabiting an interesting world. I'm extremely glad to have won the giveaway, as it resulted in me picking up the first book of the series and being introduced to it, and I hope that more sequels follow so that I can continue to see more of the characters' adventures.

Disclosure: I won a free advanced reading copy of this book in a Goodreads Giveaway.

Ghost Station is solid space horror. It starts off slowly, but builds strongly in intensity towards the climax. I found the ending very satisfactory. Ultimately, I enjoyed it.

As my copy is an uncorrected advanced reading copy, I will point out that I noticed what I believe to be a typo on page 337: "out of" should be "into". Hopefully that is corrected in the final version.

A short but effective story about a medium hired to exorcise a haunted spaceship. The mechanics of the setting are interesting and the characters are compelling. A decent read.

The second Sluggy Freelance book sees its first serious storyline in the "Vampires" arc, and as a result it is stronger than its predecessor in the narrative department. It is also here that the comic starts seriously laying the groundwork for major future stories like "Holiday Wars" and "That Which Redeems".

With this volume, the ride has truly begun.

Some comics are born great, and some achieve greatness.

Early Sluggy Freelance is undoubtably the weakest, with the roughest art and more emphasis on random gag-a-day humor than serious plotlines; but from these humble beginnings, greatness will eventually emerge.

It is indeed nifty; and in time, it will become truly awesome.

Pluses of book format: no Internet connection required, exclusive bonus story
Minuses of book format: no chapter/sub-chapter headings (useful for referring to specific stories), no handy reference links (not yet significant, but will become more so as the story becomes increasingly continuity-heavy)

Well-developed characters and strong emotional beats make this a highly enjoyable superhero novel.

Presents a nice, fair mystery - though I found the story surrounding it a bit lacking compared to other Dr. Fell novels.

Full review (with spoilers) on my blog.

A truly excellent Magic novel, which tells a story of epic scope while developing complex and interesting characters.

Full review (with spoilers) on my blog.

Interesting characters and good atmosphere make for a decent book, even if the monsters are slightly disappointing once revealed.

Full review (with spoilers) on my blog.

A stage magician as detective is an interesting gimmick, and the puzzle presented is interesting. My only problem with it is that part of the solution seems like a bit of a stretch.

Full review (with spoilers) on my blog.

This entry in the Diving Universe is somewhat weaker than the others due to abandoning the usual cast of characters for a new group who seem more interested in being jerks to one another than advancing the plot.

Full review (with spoilers) on my blog.

A fairly basic adaptation which accurately captures the events of the film, but doesn't really have the artistry or inspiration of better novelizations.

Full review (with spoilers) on my blog.

This collection of 33 detective stories contains some great classics, including “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, “The Footprint in the Sky”, “Rear Window”, and “From Another World”. Not all of the inclusions are up to that level of quality, but enough are for me to recommend it.

Full review (with spoilers) on my blog.

A well-written novelization which sticks closely to the film and preserves its quality.

Full review (with spoilers) on my blog.

The narrative surrounding the mystery is quite good, but I thought the mystery itself had some questionable points.

Full review (with spoilers) on my blog.

An adequate ending to a series which unfortunately never managed to live up to the potential hinted at in its first book.

Full review (with spoilers) at my blog.

A great fair-play mystery with a healthy helping of humor.

Full review (with spoilers) on my blog.

Much darker and grimmer than its predecessor, making it less enjoyable to read.

Full review (with spoilers) on my blog.

A very good story featuring strong, well-developed characters on an interesting journey.

Full review (with spoilers) on my blog.

The interactions between a cast of extremely well-developed characters make this an exceptionally good read.

Full review (with spoilers) on my blog.