Let’s Fast Forward to the Good Stuff by GetChrissy

May 8, 2026 By Leave a Comment


Let’s Fast Forward to the Good Stuff by GetChrissy
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Young Adult (14 – 18 y.o.), Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

No more waiting around. It’s time to fast forward to the good stuff!

Ross is the most impatient person you’ll ever meet. You don’t want to keep him waiting in line too long because things will get ugly, fast! He wants to zoom through life, and tired of all the waiting that comes along with it. He wants to speed things up a bit. One day, a weird woman leaves a mysterious package for him that will change his life forever. Ross is in for a magical journey which is powered by his thoughts, but soon things begin to take a bad turn. Ross is in for the craziest ride of his life that you don’t’ want to miss!

Excitement comes in many forms.

Ross was a fascinating main character whose flaws made me want to learn more about him even though I found his quick temper and impatience irritating. He had such a short-sighted view of the world that he was often blindsided by things a more rational and thoughtful person would probably be able to predict in advance at least occasionally. While I don’t know that I’d want to hang out with him in person until he’s matured a bit, he sure did make this tale a memorable one.

There were some plot holes involving the mysterious woman and the package she left for the protagonist that made it hard for me to follow the storyline at times. I had several questions about how her present worked and how she became aware of Ross’ existence that were never satisfactorily answered, especially given that the warning about what would happen if he overused it seemed to be brushed over in later chapters. As much as I enjoyed the playfulness of this story, these issues prevented me from choosing a higher rating.

I enjoyed discovering the wild scenarios Ms. GetChrissy came up with for her characters as they continued to play around with their newfound power and figure out what it could and couldn’t do for them. She had some imaginative and sometimes wonderfully frightening ideas about what this device could do and how someone who was impulsive might push the boundaries of how to use it while attempting to skip over all of the boring parts of his own life.

Let’s Fast Forward to the Good Stuff was creative.

Filed Under: Horror, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy, YA/Middle Grade/Children's Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Bear Country by Mary Hallberg

May 6, 2026 By Leave a Comment


Bear Country by Mary Hallberg
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror, Romance, Action/Adventure, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Woman versus nature

Casey doesn’t want to go on the camping trip. She’s not a big outdoors person, and would rather stay inside with her paintings — and her air conditioning. But it’s her high school graduation trip, and her mom is making her go.

When one of Casey’s classmates disappears during the night, the teachers and park rangers assume she’s at the library and aren’t concerned. But Casey’s crush, Trevor, isn’t so sure and wants to go looking for her. A handful of others agree to join him — including Casey, despite her disdain for the woods.

But the trek turns deadly when the group encounters the reason their classmate went missing — an enormous, predatory grizzly bear, hellbent on destroying everything in its path. Now Casey and her classmates must find their way back to civilization without becoming bear food.

Never turn your back on nature.

There were some entertaining plot twists along the way as Casey and her classmates attempted to outrun and outwit their pursuer. Readers who are already familiar with this genre may be able to predict some of them ahead of time, but this wasn’t something that relied on the element of surprise in order to shock and frighten its audience. Instead, it was the journey from beginning to end that mattered with the plot twists providing the characters extra opportunities to learn from their most recent attempts at escape and try something different the next time they were attacked. I thought that was a good way to prolong what could have otherwise been a much shorter work.

The explanation for why the bear was so strong and aggressive was what held me back from giving this book a higher rating. While there were a few hints shared about its possible origins, they were not developed enough for its behavior to make sense to me. Knowing this information was critical in order to understand why a bear would suddenly begin attacking so many humans in a busy national park, especially given that none of the attacks were provoked or included usual reasons for an animal to behave this way such as a mother protecting her cubs.

With that being said, I loved the man (and woman) versus nature themes. Most of the characters knew little to nothing about camping, hiking, or coexisting with apex predators in the wild, and they did make a few mistakes early on that more seasoned campers would have avoided. The plot explored both the fear of the unknown and the anxiety some people feel when surrounded by nothing but trees and wildlife. These are themes that aren’t included in the horror genre as much as I’d prefer to see, so I was thrilled to find them here.

I should note that this was a pretty gory read, just as it should have been given the subject matter. Fans of that type of horror, take note!

Bear Country kept me perched on the edge of my seat from beginning to end.

Filed Under: Horror, Reviews, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

The Artificial Elephant by Eric J. Hull

April 28, 2026 By Leave a Comment


The Artificial Elephant – stories of loss, magic, and hope by Eric J. Hull
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, LGBTQ, Horror, Paranormal, Romance, Holiday, Contemporary, Historical
Rating: 5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Character-driven literary speculative fiction for readers who crave haunting emotional payoffs.

A boy grieves the impossible beast that healed him. A house searching for its lost family. A vampire steals back her lovers’ tears. A scavenger hunt gone hilariously awry. Two lovers dancing at the end of the world.

Ghosts. Love. Winter. Hope. These 22 stories of fantasy, science fiction, and horror cast flickering light against the crowding darkness. They embrace the transformations between grief and love, kindness and bitter fate.

Sometimes the line between facts and feelings is paper thin.

In “Christmas Lights,” a smart house searched for its missing family for many years. I loved the fact that this was written from the perspective of a building instead of a human one. It was a unique way to frame the storyline and made me wonder if the house would ever find out what happened to the parents and two children who had once lived there. The twist ending was as poignant as it was logical for this universe as well.

Katie was a three-year-old girl whose body grew so impossibly cold she couldn’t eat anymore in “Katie Dreams” because any food or liquid she tried to consume froze solid when it was moved too close to her. I was nearly as fascinated by the scientific attempts to understand and reverse her condition as I was by her mother’s response. The strong emotional bond between them made this something I couldn’t possibly stop reading until I knew how it ended. In my opinion, memorable science fiction begins with the relationships characters have with each other before anything unusual occurs, and I would have happily read a full-length novel about Katie’s family and how they coped.

A teenager’s grief for his dead sister took on a new form in “Charcoal.” As he recalled a few of their shared childhood memories during his last few days at home, strange things began happening that were as bittersweet as they were inexplicable. This was a beautiful metaphor for how gut-wrenching it is to say goodbye to someone who died far too young in life, and the plot worked just as well on that level as it did when read from a paranormal perspective.

What ultimately convinced me to give this collection a five-star rating was the breadth of characters and experiences that were included here. I wish I had the space to mention all of them in my review as there were so many other gems to discover that included genres ranging from romance to horror. It takes talent to imagine such a wide variety of characters, all of whom remained distinct in my mind.

The Artificial Elephant – stories of loss, magic, and hope was exactly the sort of diverse speculative fiction I enjoy reading, and I can’t wait to see what Mr. Hull comes up with next.

Filed Under: Horror, Reviews, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

The Clinic by Jay Andrade-Hunt

April 13, 2026 By Leave a Comment


The Clinic by Jay Andrade-Hunt
Grimhold Vol. 1
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

After the Collapse, the world wasn’t rebuilt. It was scavenged.
Grimhold is a vertical city of rust, failing magic, and borrowed time. In its lowest districts, survival is negotiated through scraps, favours, and quiet threats.

Henry runs a back-alley clinic there. He treats anyone who makes it through the door, no questions asked. In a city carved up by gangs and syndicates, the Clinic survives by staying neutral.

That neutrality is beginning to crack. As tensions rise and the systems holding Grimhold together strain under pressure, the Clinic becomes a fault line where power, loyalty, and obligation collide.

A slow-burn, character-driven post-apocalyptic fantasy about endurance, moral compromise, and the quiet work of keeping people alive when stability is already gone.

Cooperation is underrated.

The world building in this novel was utterly fantastic and quite possibly the best example of how to do this I’ve read so far this year. Grimhold was a gritty, dangerous place where one wrong move could mean the difference between life and death. It was also a community filled with people working themselves to the bone on shoestring budgets to help others, often accomplishing things no one believed was possible along the way. These juxtapositions of kindness and unrelenting workloads not only helped to explain the sometimes rough demeanors of certain characters but also expressed the many different faces of this city.

There were times when I struggled with the slow pacing, especially in the beginning when more attention was paid to describing how Grimhold worked than the people who lived there or the conflicts they dealt with. Some patience is required for those chapters while everything is getting set up, but the payoff in the end was more than worth the wait. While I can’t go into much detail about how everything ended up fitting together later on for spoiler reasons, what I can say is that getting to know this world so well meant that later scenes became incredibly meaningful as the pacing picked up.

Some of the most memorable scenes in my opinion were the ones that explored the many ways someone can express platonic love for another person without the use of words. This may not sound like a theme one would necessarily expect in an urban fantasy novel, but it was woven into the plot seamlessly from beginning to end and added yet another layer of emotion and meaning to both the story as well as to the main characters’ lives. I adored these moments and hope there will more of them to come in the sequels.

Grimhold Vol. 1 – The Clinic was overflowing with both adventure and heartfelt emotions.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , ,

The Quantum Revelations by Stuart Heinrich

April 6, 2026 By 1 Comment

The Quantum Revelations by Stuart Heinrich
Publisher: Endless Tree Books
Genre: Science Fiction, Mystery/Thriller
Rated: 4 stars
Review by Rose

The world is on the brink of an apocalyptic climate crisis and quickly spiraling out of control into a dystopian nightmare. As everything collapses around them, two scientists struggle for relevance in their quest to build the world’s first practical quantum computer. They discover so much more. A mystery of physics that goes deeper than they could have ever imagined…

Set in the relatively near future, The Quantum Revelations is not only a page turning thriller, but a very real warning about what could actually happen to us as a world if things don’t change. The very first scene grabbed my attention (I could SO see this as the beginning of a movie!), and I couldn’t wait to find out where everything was going.

The characters of Zara and Skyler were wonderfully well drawn…and I really enjoyed their interactions, as well as others’ interactions with Skyler later in the book. Skyler truly stood in for everyman in this book…. seeking the truth no matter where that truth led.

There was an interesting juxatapostion with science and religion in the book that was perhaps one of my favorite parts of the book.

I have to admit, some of the science was over my head, but it didn’t stop me from enjoying the book. I was able to grasp some of it, however, due to Mr. Heinrich’s explanations (my science teachers would be surprised, so thank you, sir, for explaining complex material in a way that a nonscientific person could gleam some understanding from it).

I believe this book could make a great movie if it was based on the active part of the book. Parts of it reminded me of the old disaster movies that were so prevalent (and that I loved so much).

Thank you for such a riveting look on where we might be headed if we don’t change things now.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , ,

Kill It with Fire by Lindsey Kinsella

March 24, 2026 By Leave a Comment


Kill It with Fire by Lindsey Kinsella
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Rating: 5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

The remote Scottish islands of St Kilda were evacuated over a century ago.

And for good reason.

Bruce hates the cold, he hates being away from the city, and, most of all, he hates spiders. But, drawn by the promise of rich gas reserves, he leads a team of corporate surveyors to these lonely shores.

The discovery of a dead body, an infestation of strange arachnids, and a seemingly abandoned military base raise worrying questions.

In this desolate isolation, a monstrous presence looms as the team uncover the dark truth behind the islands’ evacuation.

A little profit goes a long way.

This was an excellent example of how to write a rather unlikable but still fascinating character. There were times when Bruce irritated me so much that I wished he were a real person so I could give him a piece of my mind due to how greedy he was and how much he allowed his phobia to control his behavior. His flaws were deeply ingrained into his personality, and yet somehow they also made me want to learn more about him due to how memorably he displayed them.

I adored the use of foreshadowing in this book, especially when it came to Bruce’s weak spots. It struck the perfect balance between hinting at what was to come and trusting the audience to put the pieces together correctly with a little time and effort. This is not at all an easy thing to accomplish, but it’s quite satisfying when it does happen because of how exciting it is to look back at those moments and realize their true significance to both the plot and the protagonists.

The final scene was what catapulted this to a five-star read for me. There were times earlier on in the storyline when I had questions about where the author was going with his characters or why he wrote certain moments the way that he did given that this was firmly rooted in the horror genre. Experiencing the big reveal not only answered those questions but coalesced all of them into something that made me wish this tale was twice as long so I could find out what happened to the characters next. Kudos to Mr. Kinsella for writing such a captivating piece! If he ever writes a sequel, I’d sure love to review it.

Kill It with Fire was deliciously scary.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , ,

The Baby Box by Linda Palmer

March 23, 2026 By Leave a Comment


The Baby Box by Linda Palmer
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Romance, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Paranormal, Contemporary
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Camryn Jacobs, direct descendant of witches persecuted at Salem, has a problem. Fireman Declan Walsh, a lycan, is standing on her front porch at two in the morning with an infant car seat hanging off his arm. Asleep inside it is a baby witch who was surrendered in accordance with the town’s “baby box” law, which states that infants may be left in a customized vault at the fire station—no questions, no blame, no repercussions—if the parent/s cannot care for it.

Declan isn’t about to hand over the baby to human foster parents, the reason he braved a winter storm to get to Camryn. He asks if she will consult her coven tomorrow and, until then, take in the baby. He even volunteers to stay over and help. Camryn can only agree that this magical baby can’t go to foster parents who aren’t preternatural. She also agrees to let Declan stay over, a happy surprise for him. He’s been careful not to confess the reason she popped into his head the moment he saw the baby–he’s had his eye on her for a while but wasn’t sure if she’d go for a witch-wolf relationship.

As the hours pass, they all get to know each other. A definite spark ignites between Camry and Declan, but the coven’s head witch has a shocking personal agenda that threatens not just their budding romance, but the baby and Camryn’s ancestral home, as well.

There’s a fine line between being busy and being overwhelmed.

Turning a baby box deposit into a mystery was what originally drew me to this title, and I thought this conflict was handled nicely. It’s difficult to go into much detail about why the baby was abandoned without giving away spoilers, but I enjoyed mulling over the possibilities as Camryn and Declan received a crash course in infant care and tried to figure out where that little one came from. I certainly wouldn’t know what to do if an infant showed up in my life, especially under such mysterious circumstances. This was a unique romantic mystery that relied on new life to keep the characters guessing instead of the usual homicide that I’d expect to find.

Due to how many different genres were included in this story, there were a few times when I felt as though that worked against the cohesiveness of the plot because of how much was going on simultaneously. Focusing on the romantic elements could have been a good way to tie everything together more securely. Love, both romantic and platonic, was what kept Camryn going when she was in a tight spot, so having a few additional scenes that explored her budding romance would have felt completely appropriate to me. With that being said, this was a minor criticism of something I thought was otherwise well done.

The strong world building here was a huge draw for this reader. There was never a good stopping point which meant that I was always eager to come back when I did need to take breaks. I especially enjoyed the scenes that explored the complicated historical relationships between witches like Camryn and lycans like Declan. It was something I could have kept reading about for dozens of pages due to how complex it was and how each community reacted to members who dated out.

The Baby Box was heartwarming.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Cat Came Back by Anne Kane

March 20, 2026 By Leave a Comment


Cat Came Back by Anne Kane
Publisher: Changeling Press
Genre: Erotic Romance, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Paranormal, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Cat’s come back to town. Jacob plans to keep her here.

When Catherine’s aunt dies in a suspicious accident, she comes back to her hometown to settle the estate. She expects it to be an easy job, but she doesn’t count on being chased by a pack of wild wolves, and an unknown enemy who sprays graffiti on the house and throws bricks through her windows. When the local police force proves less than helpful, it’s up to Cat to find out what’s going on with the help of her all too human lover, Jacob.

Known as the Mad Trapper, Jacob has been in love with Cat since high school. Now that she’s back in town he intends to show her that a human-shifter relationship can be just what a were-cat needs to keep her out of trouble.

Who says you can never go home again?

The chemistry between Cat and Jacob was smoking hot. Things escalated between them quickly in the beginning, so it was useful for me as a reader to know they had a previous history together and therefore knew they could trust one another. Given everything else that was going on in that scene, it made sense that she would seek out someone who had previously helped her when shifting into her feline form had lead to unexpected consequences.

It would have been helpful to have more plot development in general. This was something that I found most noticeable when it came to the mystery storyline that never quite had as much time to grow as I would have preferred to see. There was so much more that could have been done with these scenes and the crime they explored, and I would have happily gone with a higher rating if they’d been given more attention.

I was intrigued by the shifter world building in this book as well, especially when it came to the history of romantic relationships between shifters and humans and why so many folks were hesitant to date across that social barrier. These are details that are best left for other readers to discover for themselves but just know there were good reasons for these two characters to be a little wary of getting involved with each other despite their chemistry and previous interactions.

Cat Came Back was a wild ride.

Filed Under: Erotic Romance, Mystery/Suspense, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Armored Hearts by Angela Knight

March 19, 2026 By Leave a Comment


Armored Hearts by Angela Knight
Publisher: Changeling Press
Genre: Contemporary, Erotic Romance, Paranormal, Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Fern

Captivity makes the heart grow kinkier…

When interstellar mercenary Captain Nick Rand rescues a beautiful enemy from his own men, he thinks she’s the answer to his vampire prayers. On the verge of starvation thanks to the destruction of his hemosynther, he’s in desperate need of a female blood donor.

Lieutenant Zara Tahir needs Nick Rand as badly as he needs her. Without Nick’s blood, Zara’s overactive immune system will kill her.

But Zara has no intention of embracing captivity. While she’s willing to exchange blood for blood, maybe even play a kinky game or two with the handsome vampire dominant, he’s still the enemy. She can’t allow herself to see him as anything more.

Then Rand’s enemies make things a lot more complicated…

Interstellar mercenary Captain Nick Rand rescues a woman from his own crew, and he thinks this might be the answer to his vampire prayers – broken equipment meaning he’s quite literally starving to death. The tasty female blood donor could make all the difference. Only Lieutenant Zara Tahir has a few secrets of her own, and she’s not likely to admit she needs Rand as much as he needs her. Can these two enemies find some common ground when they each need what the other can provide?

I have enjoyed a number of Angela Knight’s previous books – though I do admit it’s been a while since I’ve caught up with anything from this author. I enjoyed this story, finding it reminded me of why I have previously enjoyed this authors work. Smoking hot with a good amount of kink, I found this to be an interesting and hot read.

White the growing emotional and sexual relationship between Rand and Zara is absolutely front and center in this erotic romance story, I was pleased that this wasn’t the only plot in the story. Readers who enjoy some light sci-fi should find this an enjoyable read. I’m not a big sci-fi reader and personally I was pleased that this side of the story while present didn’t overshadow the relationship and BDSM bedroom games between our two protagonists. But I did greatly appreciate that the sex wasn’t the only aspect to the book and this helped the whole story feel a lot better rounded to me.

Readers looking for a hot and heavy book with elements of space should find this a strong and good read. I’d definitely keep a cool drink on hand and give yourself plenty of time to enjoy the shenanigans.

Filed Under: Erotic Romance, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The Hematophages – Splatterings by Stephen Kozeniewski

February 27, 2026 By Leave a Comment


The Hematophages – Splatterings by Stephen Kozeniewski
Publisher: French Press Publishing
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Paranormal, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Historical, LGBTQ
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

In a galaxy riven by paranoid greed, profane forces marshal to consume humanity…

– On an abandoned ice moon, broadcasts from a long-dead civilization warp both body and soul.

– On a bizarre medical asteroid, a deranged physician discovers a gruesome “cure” for parasitic infection.

– On a deep space derelict, time becomes utterly meaningless and suffering transcends infinity.

– And on Earth itself, a lake transforms into pure blood and becomes infested with the hate-filled, eel-like aberrations known as…

The Hematophages.

With this quartet of short stories, Splatterpunk Award winner Stephen Kozeniewski is delighted to welcome newcomers to the brutal universe Sci-Fi and Fantasy Reviewer calls “the gold standard for the Space Horror subgenre.”

Meanwhile, veteran ink surfers will find a treasure trove of new material to broaden their event horizons, including extensive background information from the author and a never-before-published tale of alien terror.

So, strap on your boom suit, ready your eye spoon, and try to prepare yourself for…

Splatterings.

They’re the same universes but with bigger problems this time.

The protagonist in “The Blood-Red Lake” was awoken from a nap by his daughter, Marina, after she noticed the lake near their home had changed in some alarming ways. I liked the nightmare-like qualities of this short story and thought it was spooky, but I also found myself wishing that there had been a stronger explanation for the strange things that were happening in and near the water.

“Derelictus” showed what happened in the distant future when some scavengers found an ancient spacecraft that was launched by the country formerly known as the United States but that didn’t appear in any of the formal records of previous space missions. The mystery elements of the plot were well done, and I would have happily dove even more deeply into them. I also liked the main character’s stubborn streak and how it influenced his decision to explore this vessel and report back on what he found there.

Anneka was desperate to get out of quarantine to see her wife and newborn twins in “Blackfish.” The reason why she was stuck in quarantine is best left for other readers to discover for themselves due to how important it was to the storyline later on, but as I slowly pieced together the clues I was intrigued by how my opinions of all of the characters had shifted. There is definitely something to be said for playing around with the reader’s expectations only to trust us to land on the best answer in the end. I would have happily read a full-length novel about Anneka if one were written.

Imagine building an old-fashioned castle in outer space. “Gerstein” explored a partially-completed version of this blueprint long after the original investors had run into problems. This was the goriest story in this collection, and I thought each plot twist that revealed another layer of horror only made the entire thing more frightening. Just like in “Blood-Red Lake,” I once again found myself wishing for a deeper explanation of what the antagonists were hoping to accomplish, although there was enough here for me to make some pretty educated guesses about their motives. These are minor criticisms of a collection I thought was otherwise well done and memorable, and I look forward to hopefully reading more of Mr. Kozeniewski’s work in the future.

The Hematophages – Splatterings was deliciously scary.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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