The Sunday Post AKA What’s On My (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 3-2-14

For all you lovers of science fiction romance out there, the latest issue of Sci-Fi Romance Quarterly is out! We have lots of terrific stuff on tap, including interviews with Gail Carriger and Beth Ciotta and an original short story by Danielle Davis. And of course, reviews by yours truly and some of my fellow SFR lovers. Check out the latest issue here — especially Charlee Alden’s editorial about cyborg squirrels!

One of this week’s giveaways is for the second book in a series that I absolutely love, and that totally surprised me. Last year, Library Journal sent me The Garden of Stones by Mark T. Barnes to review. I really enjoy a good epic fantasy, but this was an author new to me. Also, it was published by Amazon’s 47North, and those have been hit or miss for me so far. The story completely blew me away. It has magic, and epically nasty politics, along with a pair of star-crossed lovers and a potentially deadly romantic triangle. Mark is giving away a signed copy of the second book in the series, The Obsidian Heart, and I just can’t recommend this series enough.

And this week we have dragon books. Cass practically forced me to read Never Deal with Dragons, and she should have a review of The Tropic of Serpents by Marie Brennan as well. She gave the first book in the Lady Trent series, A Natural History of Dragons, 15 stars over at Book Lovers last year. I can’t wait to see what she has to say about this one! (I think it’s a question of how many pluses Cass will add to her A. We’ll see.)