Show Me Yours: 20th Century Historical Paranormals

Show Me Yours is a twist on the list post where we give you a few books we like and ask you to recommend a Read Alike. We created it a few years ago and decided it was time to bring it back.

Today's post was inspired by a Twitter thread from author Kristen Callihan, who was rereading the Roaring Twenties series and looking for similar books. I was trying to think of other historical fantasy or romance set in the 20th century and couldn't come up with much either. Here are the ones I know about:


The Roaring Twenties series by Jenn Bennett
The books that inspired the topic are some of our all-time fave PNRs. Set in Prohibition-era San Francisco, each book follows a different member of the Magnussen family of bootleggers. Check out our RTFB post.


The Roaring trilogy by Colleen Gleason
Also mentioned in that Twitter thread was another Prohibition-era trilogy. It's a spin-off of Gleason's Gardella Vampire Hunter series, which I haven't read but I know some reviewers who loved it. I put these books on my TBR as soon as I saw the blurbs.


The Last Magician by Lisa Maxwell
The main character in The Last Magician is a thief specializing in magical artifacts. She travels back to 1902 New York to steal a book and save magic. Book two in the series comes out in October.

These two are on my TBR list. Have you read them?


Iron Cast by Destiny Soria
Set in 1919 Boston, Iron Cast features two best friends who perform a magical stage act at a club owned by a gangster.


Odd & True by Cat Winters
Growing up, True's sister Odd told her stories of magic and monsters. In 1909, Odd arrives at her door with a suitcase full of weapons and says the monsters are coming.

Now it's your turn. Show Me Your Twentieth Century Historical Paranormals!

Show Me Your... Fairy Tale Retellings

Show Me Yours is our new discussion post where we ask for your book recommendations on a different subject each month.

Recently, I had a hankering to read a fairy tale retelling but there are so many out there now that I don't know where to start. Fairy tales have been a solid part of my reading diet since I’ve been small. A lot of it has to do with the fact that I grew up during the time when Disney was releasing some of their most popular fairy tale based animated movies. I remember going to see The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin in the theater! Not to mention, my sisters and I wore out the VHS tapes of Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty.

After growing up on Disney movies and the dark fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm, I discovered my first fairy tale retelling in Ella Enchanted and I haven’t turned back. I love reading both a story that is familiar but yet different at the same time. I’ve devoured retellings of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Donkeyskin, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, Snow White, Rapunzel, Beauty and the Beast, and many more. And if it’s a retelling of an obscure fairy tale, I'll read it just because so you can just take my money now.

I’ll admit that I’ve read some truly terrible retellings. But for every terrible one, I’ve found one that has blown my socks off! And I’ll be honest, if given the choice between a fairy tale retelling and a super popular contemporary, I’ll choose the fairy tale retelling every time. I've read a lot of the popular retellings like Spindle's End, Beauty, Uprooted, and The Lunar Chronicles. I know there's been a Fairy Tale Retelling revival recently especially in YA. Have you read any of them? I need recs badly!

Here's Gretl to get it started:

I haven't read many retellings, though I have a ton of them in my TBR pile - A Court of Thorns and Roses, Dorothy Must Die, The Lunar Chronicles, The White Rabbit Chronicles, and probably some others I'm forgetting. But I can recommend a few.

Christina Henry's Alice was one of my favorite books of 2015. It's one of the rare adult retellings, and we're talking NC-17 adult here. Alice was institutionalized after her first trip to the Old City, but when the asylum burns down she and and her fellow inmate Hatcher escape. Alice is forced to confront her fears and starts to understand the memories that terrorized her for the last ten years as they navigate a world of run by magical mobsters. The sequel, Red Queen, comes out this summer.

For more on this title, check out

My review of Alice

The Forbidden Wish by Jessica Khoury is the first retelling of Aladdin's story that I've seen. It's told from the jinni's point of view and delves into the jinn mytholgy, which I thought was really interesting. I had a few issues with the story, but the YA community is loving it. It was featured in a subscription box last month and has gotten great reactions so you might want to give it a try.

For more on this title, check out

My review of The Forbidden Wish

What are your favorite Fairy Tale Retellings? Why do you think I should give them a chance?

Now let us show you ours!
We're going to spotlight some of our favorite retellings we've reviewed on the blog throughout the week.

If you have a genre or topic you'd like to see in a Show Me Yours post, let us know in the comments or send us a Facebook message or email goldiloxandthethreeweres@gmail.com.

Superweek Show Me Yours and Giveaway

Welcome to the first ever Superweek at Goldilox and the Three Weres, an entire week devoted to superheroes, supervillains and superpowers.

We're kicking things off with a special edition of Show Me Yours and a Super Giveaway!

Normally, for Show Me Yours one of our bloggers describes a specific type of book we'd like to read and the others make recommendations. But the idea for Superweek came when I was listing all the books in my TBR pile and realized that I already own a lot of books about superheroes. So I don't exactly need book recommendations. Instead, this month we're going to tell you about some of our favorite superheroes, who may or may not be from a book, and we'd like you to share yours in the comments.

Show Me Your . . . Superheroes

A lot of people probably have Batman on their minds right now since the Batman vs. Superman movie was just released last weekend. But Batman has always been my favorite superhero. I think it's because I have a thing for gadgets. Between his utility belt and the Batmobile, Batman always has the best toys.

My favorite incarnation is the animated series from the 90's. Kevin Conroy will always Batman to me no matter how many other actors portray him. (Part of the reason I also liked the futuristic Batman Beyond was that Conroy reprized his role as the senior caped crusader.) Another thing that makes this version of Batman my favorite is that he had a great nemesis. Mark Hamill is a fabulous Joker. I loved how dark the show was, especially for an animated show, and how stylized. It felt kind of revolutionary for a cartoon at the time. 

I'm going to be weird and pick a whole team of superheroes as my favorite because there is no way I can pick just one member of the X-Men as a favorite. Although, Gambit is high up there on my list. I was an X-Men junkie when I was a kid. I watched the animated series religiously and read all of the comics I could get my hands on. I was in love! These were superheroes that were outcasts of society but they didn't let that stop them from being good or fighting the others of their kind who weren't. I spent countless hours on the playground with my friend pretending that we were the X-Men. The best part was that there were enough characters of both genders that everyone could play whichever character they wanted. One of my girlfriends could play Jubilee, while one of my guyfriends played Storm, and I could pretend to be Gambit or Rogue depending on the day to my hearts content.

When I heard they were coming out with movies, I was ecstatic! My childhood obsession was becoming a movie franchise. I went to the midnight showing of the first one and was so excited that I almost vibrated out of my seat. I will admit that I have loved each and every X-Men movie that has come out whether it's been well-received or not. Well, except for The Wolverine because I haven't seen that one yet. These movies are my crack and I will go see every single one they come out with. Although, I wish they would back off on the Jean Grey plots. I love her but they need to focus on some of the other mutants. I'm so excited for X-Men: Apocalypse because we're finally FINALLY going to get to see Jubilee in the films! When am I going to get to see more of Gambit, his brief screen time in X-Men Origins: Wolverine was not nearly enough for me. I'll just have to content myself with going back and rereading my X-Men comics.

To celebrate Superweek, we've got a superhero prize pack that includes a Batman notepad, pens and bookmarks, Supergirl socks, a Superman key chain and PEZ dispenser, Green Lantern sticky notes, and a copy of Jinx by Jennifer Estep.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Who are your favorite superheroes?

If you have a genre or topic you'd like to see in a Show Me Yours post, let us know in the comments or send us a Facebook message or email goldiloxandthethreeweres@gmail.com.

Show Me Your... Historical Paranormal Romance Recs!

Show Me Yours is our new discussion post where we ask for your book recommendations on a different subject each month.

I have recently had the desire to pick up more of the historical paranormal romance and alternate history genre of books. I've been in love with alternate history/historical paranormal romance books since I picked up my first Regency romance book that had magic. Oh! A Matter of Magic and Sorcery and Cecelia let me count the ways I love thee!

I started to branch out into other time periods like with Jenn Bennett's amazing Roaring Twenties historical paranormal romance series. I didn't even realize that was a thing I wanted to read until I picked the first book up. Funny enough, some of my favorite alternate histories have come out of the Steampunk genre. I seriously love Gail Carrigers Parasol Protectorate series, Bec McMaster's London Steampunk books, and Kristen Callihan's Darkest London series. I want a lot more of these kinds of books in my life so today I'm asking you to:

Show Me Your Favorite Historical Paranormal Romance or Alternate History Books

We'll even show you ours to get it started.

Here are some recs from Gretl:

 

The Kraken King by Meljean Brook
I highly recommend the entire Iron Seas series. (Read that post here.) But The Kraken King is truly exceptional. It's EPIC steampunk goodness, political intrigue, and a romance that rips your heart out. It's set in Asia and Australia so it has a little different feel from other books in the genre, or in the series. You could easily read it as a standalone since it's so different from the rest of the series, but some of the characters, including the heroine, are introduced in the earlier books.

Rebel Mechanics by Shanna Swendson
Rebel Mechanics is set at the same time as a lot of steampunk stories. But instead of London, it's set in New York. In this world the American Revolution failed because the British had magic. Now an underground group of American inventors are building machines to even the odds. The seventeen year old heroine gets caught in between the two groups, and in between two men. Yes, it's YA and there's a love triangle, but this was one of my favorite books of 2015!

Silver on the Road by Laura Anne Gilman
Another of my favorite books from last year, Silver on the Road is set in what would later become the American Midwest at the turn of the nineteenth century. On her sixteenth birthday, Isobel asks the Devil for a job. She doesn't expect him to send her out on the road to learn the Territory or to battle a mysterious evil force while she's there. The Devil also hires Gabriel to teach Isobel the ways of the road and while it's not a romance, I liked the relationship that developed between the two of them.

What are your favorite Historical Paranormal and Alternate History books? Why do you think I should give them a chance?

If you have a genre or topic you'd like to see in a Show Me Yours post, let us know in the comments,  send us a Facebook message, or email goldiloxandthethreeweres@gmail.com.

Show Me Your . . . Dragons

Show Me Yours is our new discussion post where we ask for your book recommendations on a different subject each month.

    

  
If you're here reading our blog, you're probably a fan of SciFi and Fantasy just like us. You probably enjoy reading about magical creatures just as much as we do. And we can probably all agree that the most awesome magical creature, the king of the cryptids, is the DRAGON.

I can name plenty of books that have a dragon in them. For example, I love the way Seanan McGuire uses them in her Incryptid series. And I loved the dragon scenes in Sorcerer to the Crown. But those are all minor characters.

I've only read two books with a dragon as the main character, Talon by Julie Kagawa and Flight From Death by Yasmine Galenorn. I know there must be more dragon stories out there. So help me out, people! I've even got some suggestions from my co-blogger to get the ball rolling.

Show Me Your Favorite Dragon Heroes

Recs from Rose Red:
One of my favorite dragon shifter series ever is the Dark Kings series by Donna Grant! Scotland and dragons and romance and Fae! What else do you need in a good paranormal romance? I love this series but I should point out that it is a spin-off series set in Grant's Dark World universe. You can read it by itself but it would make a lot more sense if you read it after you've read the Dark Sword and Dark Warriors series first. It says a lot about how much I love these series when I'm 22 books, 1 anthology, and 3 novellas in and I still look forward to each book released in this universe.

One of my favorite dragon main characters is Julius from The Heartstrikers series by Rachel Aaron! It's one of my favorite urban fantasy series! I adore Julius even though he's not your typical dragon. Actually, he's a terrible dragon. I loved this book so much that I wrote a Read This F@!%ing Book post about it. Dragons. Commercialized magic. A post-apocalyptic magical Detroit. Soul-sucking ghost cats. Pigeon-loving seers. This series has a little bit of everything! I love it so much and I can't recommend it enough!

Uprooted was one of my favorite books of last year and one of the main characters is a Dragon that the local villages sacrifice one of the 17-year old daughters to for protection. It was amazing and really reminded me of the old-school fantasy books by Robin McKinley. It was like reading a new fairy tale. My review for this book can be found here. This is a book that I wish everyone would give a chance. Naomi Novik has also written another dragon series. It's an alternate history that imagines if there were dragons during the Napoleonic Wars. I've only read the first one and I enjoyed it! You can't help but love Temeraire!

Honorable Mentions:

I love dragon books but most of the ones I've read the dragon is one of the main characters but not the main main character. And I've read several where the dragon is a villain. They're still awesome books though and I'd recommend reading them.

What are your favorite Dragon books? Why do you think I should give them a chance?

If you missed last month's Show Me Yours, we'd still like to hear about your favorite Gargoyles.

If you have a genre or topic you'd like to see in a Show Me Yours post, let us know in the comments or send us a Facebook message.

Show Me Your . . . Gargoyles

Show Me Yours is our new discussion post where we ask for your book recommendations on a different subject each month.

I recently read my first book with a gargoyle as one of the main characters and I really enjoyed it! Did I mention that I had an obsession with Disney's Gargoyles TV series when I was a kid? I totally had a crush on Goliath so the whole time I was reading that gargoyle book, I had this image in my head:

 It also got me wanting to pick up more books with gargoyles in them. And I'm pretty open to anything. I was thinking about it and the only book other than Danielle Monsch's Stone Guardian I've read with a gargoyle in it was Patricia C. Wrede's The Enchanted Forest Chronicles. And that gargoyle doesn't really count because he was a wooden one that was mounted to a wall for all that he could talk. I'm kind of wanting more romancey books because we all want more gargoyle paranormal romances in our lives, right?

Or... maybe that's just me? The thing is I don't know where to start looking for good gargoyle books. So today I'm asking you to:

Show Me Your Favorite Gargoyle Books

We'll even show you ours to get it started.

Here are some recs from Gretl:

The Negotiator Trilogy By C.E. Murphy 

When Alban, the gargoyle hero, becomes a suspect in a human murder he approaches a human attorney who gets drawn into the world of the Old Races. In Murphy's version of the gargoyle mythos Alban turns to stone during the day, leaving his human heroine unprotected. In addition to the gargoyle hero, this series has amazing supporting characters like a dragon crime boss and a pirate who's much older than she appears. This is a UF series with a strong romance plot - the same couple star in all three books.

The Gargoyles Series by Christine Warren

There are twelve stone guardians scattered throughout the world. When demons threaten humanity, the nearest one wakes to battle the evil, then returns to his sleeping stone form once the danger has passed. But their lore tells of guardians who found their true mates and lived out their lives as human. This series is more like a typical shifter PNR with fated mates, but I like the way it pits secret societies on both the light and dark sides against each other.

The Gargoyle Gets His Girl by Kristen Painter

The town of Nocturne Falls, where every day is Halloween, has a gargoyle statue in the middle of the town square. The tourists don't seem to notice that it's not always the same gargoyle. On Nick's first day as gargoyle security guard, he meets a beautiful Fae woman who accidentally binds him to her service. I thought the Fae elements were more prominent than the gargoyle ones in this book, but the history between the two races provided an interesting conflict.

I also recommend Painter's novella Queen of Hearts from the Sin City Collectors series. I really liked what she did with the gargoyle mythology in it. And I could list a few supporting gargoyles that are lots of fun and have their own novellas, like Alexandra Ivy's Levet and Beezle from the Rachel Morgan series.

What are your favorite Gargoyle books? Why do you think I should give them a chance?

If you have a genre or topic you'd like to see in a Show Me Yours post, let us know in the comments or send us a FB message.