protean depravity

Spring and summer time are also awards time and it is exciting to watch the ballots of all major horror and SFF awards slowly trickling in. A couple of weeks ago the first Bram Stoker preliminary ballots and later the final lineup were announced and that lineup is, together with the Shirley Jackson lineup as well as recommendations from my network of fellow horror fans and friends, one of the major sources from which I make my tbr-list. So naturally I wanted to take a closer look at the nominees and the books who got "so close": the books that will be competing for the titles of superior achievement in bold and below them the other shortlisted books that haven't made it into the top five. In my experience these titles are almost always just as good and if you ever wonder what to read next you can without hesitation grab one of them. There are quite a few titles I have already read and reviewed here, so I'll just link those to the corresponding Protean Depravity review...

Photo courtesy of Kate Heartfield Kate Heartfield is the author of the award winning historical novel Armed in Her Fashion and the exciting Alice Payne time travel novellas. A couple of weeks ago she celebrated the publication day of her latest book, The Embroidered Book , a historical fantasy set in the time before the French Revolution. I'm very glad to have a chance to talk with her about her writing, The Embroidered Book and her forthcoming work which is set in the universe of the Assassin’s Creed videogames. 

It's time for my latest reads again, yay! I felt a little weary of horror in the abiding February darkness and have been reading lots of world literature, books on nature and even one self-help book instead. I was feeling a little guilty that I neglected horror in this time but while writing these reviews I just realized that's not the case at all - luckily I have enough material for my wrap-up. That being said, here they are, I hope you enjoy the short reviews!