#Review - A Murder of Crows by Steve McHugh #Urban #Fantasy

Series: Riftborn # 5
Format: Kindle, 295 pages
Release Date: January 20, 2026
Publisher: Podium Publishing
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Genre: Urban Fantasy

A dangerous game of ancient power will push the last raven to the edge of his limits in the fifth installment of this hardboiled fantasy noir series.

Lucas Rurik is used to being on the bad end of a terrible deal. He’s survived wars, seen his entire Guild murdered, and saved reality from certain doom more times than he’d care to count. But none of that has prepared him for the mess he’s currently in.

It seems his nemesis, Dr. Callie Mitchell, has tapped into the deepest magic in the Rift and destroyed one of the oldest rift-fused beings, tasked with ensuring the balance of power in the universe. No one knows what she’ll do next, and the surviving Ancients seem too distracted by their petty squabbles to take matters into their own all-powerful hands. So it’s once again up to Lucas to poke his nose where it doesn’t belong and attempt to negotiate with beings that most definitely don’t want to be reasoned with.

The clock is ticking, and Lucas will have to tap alliances and use every trick he has up his sleeve to stop a cosmically mighty madwoman on a mission. And time isn’t the only thing working against him. The secrets he uncovers could spell the undoing of everything, both on Earth and in the Rift . . .

A Murder of Crows is the Fifth and final installment in author Steve McHugh's Riftborn series. The Riftborn series follows Lucas Rurik, the last surviving member of the Raven Guild—a riftborn operative with unique abilities tied to a parallel magical realm called the Rift. The books blend hardboiled detective vibes, supernatural action, and escalating threats involving ancient powers, rift-fused beings, and dangerous human (or near-human) antagonists. 

Lucas has endured wars, the murder of his entire Guild, and multiple reality-saving crises. In A Murder of Crows, his longtime nemesis, Dr. Callie Mitchell—a brilliant but unhinged scientist obsessed with rift magic—crosses a catastrophic line. She taps into the deepest forces of the Rift and eliminates one of the Ancients: ancient, rift-fused entities meant to maintain universal balance. With the surviving Ancients distracted by their own petty conflicts, the burden falls on Lucas and his allies once again. 

He must negotiate with beings who have little interest in cooperation, forge uneasy alliances, and deploy every trick, skill, and favor at his disposal to stop a threat that could unravel both Earth and the Rift. Secrets uncovered along the way carry devastating personal and existential weight, pushing Lucas to his absolute limits. Lucas's allies aren't just convenient sidekicks; they're competent professionals who evolve into a genuine found family. 

They communicate openly, offer and accept help, show vulnerability without turning it into endless angst, and balance ruthlessness (when permanently neutralizing threats) with real care and loyalty. Compared to McHugh's Hellequin work, Riftborn starts a bit more grounded in noir/detective mode before expanding, which some may love for its growth, and others might find slower to hook them initially. 

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#Review - White Wolf by Eric Van Lustbader #Thriller #Suspense #Espionage

Series: Evan Ryder # 5
Format: 352 pages, Hardcover

Release Date: December 2, 2025
Publisher: Forge Books
Source: Library
Genre: Thriller, Suspense, Espionage

New York Times bestselling author Eric Van Lustbader pits Evan Ryder against a new and unfathomable threat in this heart-stopping new installment of this blockbuster thriller series!

In this cutting-edge installment of the acclaimed thriller series, New York Times bestselling author Eric Van Lustbader thrusts readers into a world where power is being redefined by a revolutionary communication program that renders modern encryption obsolete, one that will topple global power structures and give rise to technology-driven totalitarian states.

Evan Ryder races against time in a landscape where secrets can no longer hide behind digital walls. Ilona Shokova, the elusive, deadly assassin White Wolf, holds the key to mastering this unhackable method.

Two powerful, deadly women, one quest. Will either one of them survive?

In this pulse-pounding thriller, the future isn't just written in code - it's locked behind it.

White Wolf by Eric Van Lustbader is the Fifth installment in the author's Evan Ryder series. This book has way too many narratives for me to list, so I will get right to the story. Evan Ryder, a survivor of profound personal tragedy who has dedicated her life to covert operations, finds herself in a desperate race against time. A revolutionary new communication program threatens to render all modern encryption obsolete, potentially upending global power structures and paving the way for technology-driven totalitarian regimes. 

Secrets can no longer hide behind digital walls, and control of this unhackable technology is the ultimate prize. At the center of the chaos is Ilona Shokova, codenamed the White Wolf—an elusive, deadly Russian assassin and operative who holds the key to mastering this groundbreaking method. Described as an almost inhuman killing machine, Ilona carries on a legendary (and originally male-associated) legacy with ruthless efficiency. Evan’s mission becomes deeply personal when a young Russian boy named Timur—whom she regards as a son—is taken hostage and used as leverage.

Blackmailed after a violent attack, Evan must track down the White Wolf, navigate treacherous alliances (including with tech figures and her sometime lover), and retrieve a bizarre item tied to the conspiracy, all while racing to save Timur and prevent catastrophic global fallout. The story pits two formidable, deadly women against each other in a high-stakes quest where survival is far from guaranteed. The story has numerous locations, including Japan and Malaysia. 

The premise feels timely and relevant—exploring how unbreakable communication tech could destabilize nations and empower authoritarian control—without getting bogged down in excessive technobabble. The cat-and-mouse dynamic between Evan Ryder and the White Wolf generates strong tension, amplified by the personal stakes involving Timur. Evan remains a compelling protagonist: resilient, skilled, and driven by both duty and deep emotional wounds, while the supporting cast (including recurring figures from prior books, such as her own sister) adds layers of alliances and betrayals.

Ilona Shokova is a formidable antagonist, but her near-mythic portrayal sometimes borders on larger-than-life, which works in the thriller genre yet might feel less nuanced to readers seeking deeper psychological depth. The story serves well as a series capper or a late entry, though starting with The Nemesis Manifesto provides fuller context for character relationships and ongoing arcs.

1

SUMATRA, NORTHEAST COAST

MARCH

They had spent themselves physically. Their entwining—sometimes violent, sometimes sensual, always desperate—had taken over four hours. Now they lay, still entwined, two lizards stunned into immobility, drenched in sweat, the sour-sweet odor of sex wafting off them like incense.

Wrapped in Marsden Tribe’s strong arms, Evan Ryder allowed his warmth to sink into her. It was an altogether different heat from what she felt beneath the Sumatran sun or from any other sun, for that matter. The warmth exuded privacy and, she supposed, privilege, something in which she had no interest. But she did have interest in Tribe. He was a tech genius, a multibillionaire, the founder and owner of Parachute, the world’s most advanced, privately owned quantum tech company.

He had fascinated Evan so deeply since she had met him nearly two years before, that she not only continued to work for him but now made love to him every month, his private jet always arriving when expected at the airstrip on the landside periphery of the enormous estate he owned. Here in the main villa, built atop a small headland with steps down to the beach, she had lived for a year. And over the course of that year, Tribe had signed long-term deals with the word-salad branches of the DOD, the Pentagon, NSA, a strategic portion of the Fortune 500 companies, as well as every tech company not named Google, Meta, Amazon, or Apple, all of which depended on Parachute’s hyper-speed quantum computer clusters for everything from enhanced AI workflow to end-to-end cybersecurity. Publicly, Evan was just another member of Parachute’s security division. In reality, she was its prime field agent, continuing the clandestine work she had done for Ben Butler’s team under the DOD umbrella.

She began to roll over but Tribe’s arms caught her. He stirred, rose out of sleep, and within moments their naked bodies entwined once more. He was an insatiable lover, perhaps because they were together only the one night each month. Inventive, too. She’d never been with a man who knew his way around the art of sex like Marsden Tribe.

Afterward, sweat-slicked, sated, he closed his eyes, asleep in seconds. She waited for her heart rate to return to normal, then unwound herself from him. Slipping out of bed, she shivered. Tribe insisted on keeping the air-conditioning on while he was in residence, whereas Evan preferred to be lulled to sleep by the night concerto of tree frogs, crickets, cicadas, moths. She crossed to the sliders, unlocked them, stepped out onto the expansive terrace. There were any number of exotic species of birds indigenous to the island but her favorite by far was the regal black-crowned night heron. Lucky for her the stream just yards away from where she stood was home to one. The water, reflecting the moon, wound from the interior, spilling into the sea. She saw the night heron by the light of the moon and the thick river of stars, tall, majestic, moving slowly or not at all, its head directed at the water through which it high-stepped. It saw her as she saw it—she was sure of it; sure, too, that it ducked its head in acknowledgment of being in the same place at the same time.

She leaned against the railing, watching the bird hunt in its singular fashion. She breathed the hot, humid air, heavily laden with night-blooming jasmine, frangipani, Melati. She still felt Tribe’s sweat on her, his musk, and she grew wet between her thighs. As if her body became aware of him an instant before her mind, she felt his arm snake around her waist. She took his hand, ran a finger over the wide silver band circling his right wrist. He never took it off, at least not in her presence.

“Do you want to know how Timur is progressing?” she asked huskily.

For just a moment a cauldron of bats defaced the moon, then were swallowed up by the blackness.

“Are you happy here, Evan?”

“Why should I be happy here?”

“You’ve been here in my villa for over a year.”

“And yet it feels like Lyudmila died yesterday.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t condescend, Marsden. You never cared a fig about her.”

“But I care about you.”

She took a breath, let it out slowly. She was not about to pull on that string. She tilted her head forward. “You see that bird in the stream?”

“The night heron, you mean.”

She nodded, trying not to be surprised that he knew; but then he knew most everything. That was the scariest thing about him; it was also why she was drawn to him.

“The black-crowned night heron, yes. It took months, but we’ve developed a relationship, he and I.”

“Should I be jealous?” He was half mocking.

“Seriously, we have a connection. Time and again, we’re out here together, we recognize each other in the shadows and we communicate.”

“And how do you communicate with a bird?”

“It’s a secret,” she whispered.

She could feel him moving beside her, a restlessness she had come to recognize as one of his trademarks. It was also a tell, if you knew him well enough. Very few did. To them it seemed like he was drifting, when really he was flowing, like mercury.

“Tonight this island, this sea, this night,” he whispered into the shell of her ear, “was made for love.”

She gave no response, stayed quite still as he stepped behind her, spread her legs. Soon enough all thoughts flew away like the night heron, having sated itself. Before dawn they too, were, at last, sated.

* * *

A week after Tribe’s departure, the afternoon idled, glazed with a heavy light, heat and humidity combining to turn skin sweat-slicked, nut-brown. The intense blue, the white sand, green trees at their backs, here and there shadow-shot beneath the clattering canopies of palm trees.

Evan Ryder and Timur Shokov had just finished their daily ten-mile run. They had started months ago, running in the morning, just before sunrise, when the air was still cool, the humidity tolerable. But as Timur’s stamina grew, multiplying swiftly, she had amped up their workout under the blazing tropical sun. Wordlessly, plunging into the surf, they cooled their bodies, then ran back up onto the beach.

Rehydrating with bottles of ice-cold water fetched from an insulated case, they stared at each other, their shared past scrolling through their minds, tremorous chords connecting them.

“Today,” Timur said, “is my mother’s birthday.”

Evan dipped her head. “I’ve been feeling her.”

“I know.”

She looked up. “Really.”

“I do.” He drank more water. “I can always tell.”

Evan frowned. She had thought she kept her sorrow separate from him, just as she kept Tribe’s nighttime visits separate. “How?”

“You get this expression.” He broke off, shook his head. “No, that’s not right. Your eyes … they get, I don’t know, dark, I guess you could say.”

“I apologize. I didn’t mean—”

“Don’t,” he said. “Apologize, I mean.”

“Timur, I—”

“There’s no need.” He put the empty bottle neck down back in the ice. “I mean it. Really.”

She smiled, knew it was a sad smile. “She’s so close, sometimes, I swear I can hear her voice.” Her voice telling me to take care of you while she bled out in my arms. Now she looked away so he wouldn’t see the tears glittering, making her eyes huge, glossy.

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#Review - Fallen City by Adrienne Young #Historical #Fantasy

Series: Fallen City Duology # 1
Format: 416 pages, Hardcover

Release Date: November 4, 2025
Publisher: Saturday Books
Source: Publisher
Genre: Historical, Fantasy

Luca Matius has one purpose—to carry on the family name and maintain its presence in the Forum once his powerful and cruel uncle dies. But his noviceship with the city's Philosopher places him in the middle of a catastrophe that will alter the destiny of his people.

Maris Casperia was raised amidst the strategic maneuvers of the Citadel's inner workings, and she knows what her future holds—a lifetime of service to a corrupt city. But her years of serving as a novice to the last Priestess who possesses the stolen magic of the Old War have made her envision a different kind of future for the city. When she meets Luca, a fated chain of events is set into motion that will divinely entangle their lives.

As a secret comes to light and throws the city into chaos, Luca and Maris hatch a plot to create a calculated alliance that could tip the scales of power. But when an execution forces Luca to become the symbol of rebellion, he and Maris are thrown onto opposite sides of a holy war. As their fates diverge, they learn they are at the center of a story the gods are writing. And even if they can find their way back to each other, there may be nothing left.

Fallen City by Adrienne Young is the first installment in the Fallen City Duology, a Greco-Roman-inspired historical fantasy romance that blends political intrigue, forbidden love, rebellion, and divine intervention. Set in the opulent yet decaying walled city of Isara—divided by the Sophanes River into the elite Citadel District and the struggling lower quarters—the story unfolds across dual timelines labeled "NOW" and "BEFORE." These timelines gradually converge to reveal the full picture of a rebellion simmering for a century. The book also alternates between two protagonists (Luca Marius and Maris Casperia). 

Luca Matius, a disciplined legionnaire and centurion from a powerful family tied to the Forum, burdened with carrying on his cruel uncle's legacy while apprenticing under the city's Philosopher. On the other side is Maris Casperia (or Casoeria in some descriptions), the sharp and strategic daughter of a Magistrate, raised in the corrupt inner circles of power and trained as a novice to the last Priestess who holds remnants of stolen magic from an ancient war. Their fated meeting ignites a chain of events that entangles their lives with the gods themselves. 

When a dangerous secret surfaces amid growing unrest, Luca and Maris form a calculated alliance in a bid to shift the balance of power. But an execution catapults Luca into the role of reluctant rebel symbol, thrusting the lovers onto opposite sides of a holy war. Themes of loyalty, sacrifice, corruption, and divine will drive the plot, as the city teeters on the brink of collapse. The story incorporates elements like a deceptive lottery system, meddling gods, political scheming, and the weight of legacy in a society ripe for revolution. 

Young's Greco-Roman-inspired world is complete with chitons, forums, legions, philosophers, and priestesses. The setting feels gritty yet glittering—opulent marble halls contrasting with the desperation of the lower districts—creating a palpable sense of a civilization on the edge of implosion. Political intrigue, class warfare, and the interplay between religion/magic and state power add layers of depth, making Isara feel alive and consequential. Dual POV enhances intimacy with each character's inner conflicts, while the divine elements—gods writing the city's story—add a mythic, almost tragic grandeur reminiscent of classical epics. 

Complaints? Yes. While ambitious and effective at building mystery, the story can feel distancing or confusing for some, keeping readers at arm's length and preventing them from fully emotionally investing in Luca and Maris early on. Pacing occasionally suffers as timelines unfold, with certain revelations or emotional beats landing less impactfully due to the fragmented presentation. 

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