Sept 20th, 2025 - Magic, Curses, and Other Strange Phenomena

And here we go! Post number one! 

This week I finished two reads that somehow both had to do with curses and magic? I promise it wasn't intentional. 

Anyway, without further ado, here are the week's book reviews!

The Gentleman's Guild for Cursed Adventurers

Author: R. Lindsay Carter

Genres: Fantasy (Magical Realism) and Historical Fiction (Alternative History)

Star Rating: 4.5 Stars!

Review Type: BookSirens ARC review

My Tags: Booksirens-ARC, historical-fiction, region-north-america, standalone-fantasy

Synopsis*

New York, 1915
A man turning to stone.
A bloodthirsty letter opener.
And … a chicken?
Welcome to the Gentlemen’s Guild for Cursed Adventurers, a place where all manner of oddly afflicted men are members and call the grand house of Birchwald their home. Here, cursed gentlemen can retire from polite society, safe from judgement, and under the care of the Guild’s enigmatic president, Malcolm Drury.

Norah Abernathy is no stranger to curses—her family has been plagued by them for generations, and her brother is the latest victim. Norah believes the Guild to be the perfect haven for him while she seeks a cure, but not everything is as it seems within the guild. Chaos reigns, and secrets abound. And then there’s Malcolm, whom Norah finds herself reluctantly drawn to.

My Review

I picked up this book because the title caught my attention and promised a fun, strange adventure. To my great delight, the plot delivered. From the beginning, the author's imagination caught my attention. The story is set in the early stages of WWI, which is an era I'm not used to seeing in magical realism/alternative history literature. As the story progressed, I enjoyed learning more about each of the cursed gentlemen, and I was impressed by the variety and creativity of the curses in the story. I also appreciated the direction the author chose to take the romance subplots in the story as she avoided the trap of removing the characters' very human flaws the more romantically entangled they became. Instead, she told the story of imperfect people dealing with the consequences of their imperfections and learning to heal and grow together. (For those of you who are non-spice readers like myself, the book has steam but is closed-door.)

My one complaint is that at times the tone shifted into telling rather than showing, and it happened just often enough that I would get distracted by it before it shifted back to showing again. 

I'd recommend this book for: People who want a quirky magical realism/alternative-history about people learning to recover and heal together.

Find this book on GoodReads and StoryGraph

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Circe

Author: Madeline Miller

Genres: Retelling (mythology)

Star Rating: 4.75 stars!

Review Type: Recommended to me

My Tags: mythology, region-europe

Synopsis*

In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child--neither powerful like her father nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power: the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.

Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts, and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.

But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from or with the mortals she has come to love.

Review

For some reason I got the impression from random booktok content that this was a spicy book. I'm a no-spice reader, so I steered clear and went about my life like normal. Then a fellow no-spice reading friend recommended the book to me, and I figured I'd give it a try (And then found out that said friend also hadn't read the book, so it could have been spicy and he wouldn't have known). Anyway, it wasn't spicy, and it was delightful, so take that booktok misunderstandings.

If you are reading a book for adventure or exciting plot, this isn't going to be the read for you. This is a study in slow, steady character-work that carries you along through the subtle and not-so-subtle influences that shape a person's life. The writing flows right along with the plot, and I truly did feel swept away by the story and captivated by the characters. It may not be an adventure story, but something about the quiet tension and conflict was just as gripping for me.

That being said, this is a story based on Ancient Greek mythology that leans into the Ancient Greek morals and worldview, so steer clear if those are things that would make you feel uncomfortable.

I'd recommend this book for: People who enjoy the slower journey of a good character-driven story over the faster pace of a plot-driven adventure.

Find this book on GoodReads and StoryGraph

*Synopses and pictures for both books taken from their respective GoodReads profiles.