ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jim Butcher is the author of the Dresden Files, the Codex Alera, and a new steampunk series, the Cinder Spires. His resume includes a laundry list of skills which were useful a couple of centuries ago, and he plays guitar quite badly. An avid gamer, he plays tabletop games in varying systems, a variety of video games on PC and console, and LARPs whenever he can make time for it. Jim currently resides mostly inside his own head, but his head can generally be found in his home town of Independence, Missouri.
Jim goes by the moniker Longshot in a number of online locales. He came by this name in the early 1990′s when he decided he would become a published author. Usually only 3 in 1000 who make such an attempt actually manage to become published; of those, only 1 in 10 make enough money to call it a living. The sale of a second series was the breakthrough that let him beat the long odds against attaining a career as a novelist.
All the same, he refuses to change his nickname.
Publisher: Ace (January 20, 2026) Page count: 463 p Formats: audiobook, ebook, hardcover
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The competition continues! This is my first year as a judge and I’m thrilled to be a part of it.
A few notes on my review process: for a semifinalist, I wanted to find a book that I'd personally rate 3.5/5 or better. To me, that rating signifies a book which has some notable flaws, but whose flaws (for whatever reason) didn't stop me from enjoying the novel. In general, a novel isn't a 3.5/5 for me unless I'm actively interested in reading a sequel. If and when I bounced off a book in the opening pages, I typically put it down for a few days before giving it another try. I didn’t set any hard rules for myself about when or if I could drop a book, except that I wanted to give every book a fair shot on its merits.
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: In days of old, the Grim Lords ruled the land, nearly destroying their world with their dark necromantic powers. Although the Grim Lords have faded into legend, remnants of their magic remain, and the Idallik Knights exist to destroy that power wherever it lingers. But when a new threat faces the kingdom, novitiate Mathaiik wakes a Grim Lord in a desperate gambit to save the fortress where he trains. But waking Kaiataris reveals even more problems. This land is trapped in a cycle of raising chaos and order - and if Mathaiik and Kaiataris can't work to find a way to balance those forces, life across the continent will be wiped out.
Green & Deadly Things is a cinematic thrill ride that lacks fully developed characters to back it up. On the plus side, I can fully see the movie version of this book. There's a creepy plant enemy, an order of knights that uses elemental magic, and a whole lot of great action scenes. The author knows how to keep the plot moving, zipping you from one end of the country to the other as our heroes try to find a way to deal with the multiple threats facing the nation.
But with the snappiness of an action film comes the flimsiness of action characters. Most people you encounter along the journey are fairly flat, reduced to one or two traits. There's no real depth or history for most people outside the two main characters, and even they are fairly thin. The main villain is just out to rule the world; even with the stakes as high as the end of all life, I found myself simply not caring by the end of the book. The stakes just weren't personal enough. Even the romance felt by the numbers at best.
Green & Deadly Things is a great book for those who want a plot driven adventure. If you want to dash about a magical world from fight scene to chase sequence to fight scene, this will fit the ticket nicely. As someone who values characters over plot, I struggled a bit with this one, even though I've enjoyed the author's past works immensely. At the end of the day, this feels like a movie script adapted to book instead of the other way around, and as much as I enjoy a popcorn flick, this just didn't quite work for me as much as I'd hoped.
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: For years, the chaotic Queen Lorelei has flirtatiously sparred across ballroom floors with General Gerard de Moireul, the hero leader of a rival kingdom's army. Lorelei believes that underneath the stiff exterior and strict rule-following is a man who wants to do good - he just needs Lorelei to give him a little shove. So when tensions between the two kingdoms reach a breaking point, Lorelei does the only logical thing: she kidnaps Gerard to finally seduce him away from his king. As the two get caught up in a deadly fae tournament, they realize that their opposite personalities make them a perfect match - and only together can they stop Gerard's kingdom from spreading its cruel ways across the continent.
General Gerard is a great foil, exceedingly polite even while adhering to his unwavering moral code. Due to some past trauma, he believes he cannot put a single toe out of line, lest he bring dishonor on his family name. It takes the whirlwind force of Lorelei to force him to confront that goodness and blindly following the rules don't go hand in hand.
Although the characters themselves are enjoyable, I thought the romance itself was simply serviceable. I find it's hard to pull an audience into a romance where the characters have already been building romantic tension before the story begins. I like watching the build-up of a relationship, but here they're already halfway in love when we meet them - they just don't realize it yet. It made the story a pleasant escape, but not a romance that swept me away.
So far the Queens of Villainy romance stories have been a delight: powerful women refusing to be "put in their place" and finding men who whole-heartedly support them on that journey. I'm definitely looking forward to the upcoming third and final installment - a sapphic story no less!
Lord Z. B. Steele (as seen in his gracious avatar above) has deemed us worthy to take part in the cover reveal for book 2 in his debut series Song Of The Damned. Checkout the amazing cover below...
