It’s the beginning of the Indie Fantasy Addicts summer challenge! Though I work with a publisher, it’s a tiny one, and I am trying to make more of an effort to be involved with the indie publishing community. I’ve reviewed indie books on this blog before, but there will be tons of them this summer (I aim to win this challenge).
And boy, have I started off with a winner! Disrupting Destiny is one of my favorite reads of 2022 so far. It’s a fae fantasy set in Tudor England. I’m not a big fae person, but I do have a love for Renaissance history, so I was eager to give this a try. And Foster delivered in spades.
The book is action-packed, with a prologue that introduces us to the world from the first words. Right away, I couldn’t wait to read more. Foster’s writing is elegant and clear, well-edited and a pleasure to read.
The best part of this book was the worldbuilding. I have a degree in the literature of this period so I know it pretty well, and I can tell you Foster got every single detail right, from daily life on a smith’s shop to the herbs used in cooking. It really helped the story come alive for me, and even if you’re not a nerd about Tudor history like I am, I think you’ll appreciate it. And so interesting to get the perspective of an immortal being on this world. Particularly well-handled was the intersection of religion and magic. It’s hard for a lot of modern scholars, let alone fantasy authors, to understand or communicate the role that religion played in early modern life. This book gets it. But the invented world of the fae court was just as well done.
I’m not much of a romance reader, but I loved the relationship between Joshua and Annabella. It felt comfortable and lived-in, and the care that these two people had for one another was so genuine.
Turning to book 2 now, and I can’t wait.
Anya Josephs 