Melody Writes

The Seventh Sister by Millie Abecassis Published by Anuci Press WELCOME TO SANCTUARY Seer Éliane is destined to a brilliant future as a servant of Aurië, the Sun-God. Everything changes when the High Seer, her superior, becomes jealous of Éliane’s abilities and chases her from the temple. Having no family, Éliane has no choice but to find refuge in Sanctuary, the mysterious mansion of Lady of Clairemont, alongside six women living there as sisters and refugees. When the sisters begin to disappear, Éliane must find the truth about Sanctuary and its secretive owner before she disappears, too. A horrific retelling of Bluebeard and Snow White, The Seventh Sister is a tale about sisterhood and overcoming adversity. My Review: Anyone who has been reading my reviews knows that I love a good fairy tale retelling. Lately, I've been finding more and more fairy tale retelling mashups and really enjoying the extra layer of another story. Often with a straight retelling, the story can be predic...

Hello! Just wanted to post a quick update on me and my life and a couple minor announcements about where this blog is heading. 2025 and 2026 thus far has been quite a struggle for me. I've been dealing with some health problems in both me and my husband that have had a big impact on my life. Everything has fallen behind, and my mental health has been affected. On a positive note, these issues are temporary. My husband is almost fully recovered, and I will be having a surgery in May, which should fix my issues as well. Recently, I am on a break from my day job, which has given me the time to rest and get things done at my own pace. I am working on catching up on overdue book reviews and plans for the future of my blog. For Reviews: I am going to temporarily close myself to new ARCs until I get caught back up and recover from surgery. I have also developed a comprehensive new template for reviews and some official ARC reviewing policies . I'll also be slowly going through my bac...

Cinderella has always been one of my favourite fairy tales. It’s classic and comforting. A beautiful girl in a difficult situation endures hardship and eventually, escapes to a better life. People often reduce it to being “rescued by a man”, but it is Cinderella’s kindness, strength, and endurance that make this story timeless. One consequence of being such a popular tale is that the adaptations and retellings are infinite, which is why I get excited when I find a retelling with a fresh, new take on this age-old story, like Freya Marske’s Cinder House. Cinder House opens with tragedy. Ella’s father is dead, murdered by his new wife, Patrice. Moments later, Ella follows in his footsteps, but instead of fading into oblivion, Ella becomes a ghost, bound to the house in which she was murdered. In the classic tale, Cinderella is abused by her stepmother and stepsisters; she is forced to complete all their chores and is treated like a slave in her own home. Ella’s plight is similar, but with...

For my final post featuring the 2025 SSBA Artists, I present Evan J. Peterson, the winner of the Fantasy category. Spoiler alert for the upcoming review - I am halfway through this book and loving it! As usual, more information on the SSBA can be found here , and links to all of my other SSBA posts can be found here . Side note, nominations are open for the 2026 awards - so send them in ! On to the author spotlight!    Evan J. Peterson - Author Biography Evan J. Peterson is a game writer, novelist, and poet. His first novel, Better Living Through Alchemy, won the Small Spec Book Award for fantasy fiction, and other works include METAFLESH: Poems In the Voices of the Monster; Drag Star!, the world’s first drag performer RPG; and The Road to Innsmouth: Arkham Horror. His writing has appeared in Weird Tales, PseudoPod, Queers Destroy Horror, and Nightmare Magazine. POSTHUMAN, his next RPG, is coming in 2026 from Choice of Games. Evanjpeterson.com can tell you more. Where ...

Today's feature is the second last one for the SSBA Finalists of 2025! I bought this book, forgetting it was an SSBA Finalist book based on the awesome title,  The Years Shall Run Like Rabbits , and I cannot wait to dive in! As usual, more information on the SSBA can be found here , and links to all of my other SSBA posts can be found here . Side note, nominations are open for the 2026 awards - so send them in ! On to the author spotlight!   Ben Berman Ghan - Author Biography Ben Berman Ghan is the author of The Years Shall Run Like Rabbits (Buckrider Books, 2024), as well as Behold the Dead (Anstruther Press, 2025), Visitation Seeds (845 Press, 2020) and What We See in the Smoke (Crowsnest Books, 2019). His prose, poetry and criticism have previously been published in Clarkesworld Magazine, Strange Horizons, The Ex-Puritan and Ancillary Review of Books, and have been reprinted in such anthologies as Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction and Year’s Best ...

Good afternoon! If you're like me, you've been mainlining the Olympics for the last two weeks. I love all Olympics and will watch any event enthusiastically. But... I suppose... there are other things in life, like wrapping up my SSBA Finalist posts. Today, it's Michael J. DeLuca's turn, finalist in the Fantasy category. As usual, more information on the SSBA can be found here , and links to all of my other SSBA posts can be found here . Side note, nominations are open for the 2026 awards - so send them in ! On to the author spotlight!    Michael J. DeLuca - Author Biography Where you can find Michael J. DeLuca:  I'm most active on BlueSky as @michaeljdeluca.bsky.social ; I'm also on Mastodon at @michaeljdeluca.climatejustice.social . If you look back on my website The Mossy Skull , there's some travel writing I did about Guatemala and the Maya. And I also publish a literary magazine which deals with a lot of the same themes as THE JAGUAR MASK:...

Good evening! I hope you are keeping well and staying warm. It's unusually cold here for my region, lately, although, I grew up in colder, so I'm used to it, just a bit out of practice. That just means a lot of staying inside, reading, cross-stitching, and watching Olympics. It also means it's time for another SSBA 2025 Finalist Featured Author. (nice segue!) Today's author is Alvar Theo and their book, Benothinged, a finalist in the horror category. As usual, more information on the SSBA can be found here , and links to all of my other SSBA posts can be found here . Side note, nominations are open for the 2026 awards - so send them in ! On to the author spotlight!    Alvar Theo - Author Biography Alvar Theo lives in Wolverhampton with one old cat and two young dogs, all of whom are colossal pains. They have been writing their entire life, a mixture of screenwriting and prose. Their work has been featured in podcast sketch shows and acting showcases. They have a d...

Good evening! Tonight, my SSBA Author Feature is for the winner of the Horror Category - R. A. Busby author of the book with a title I can't stop thinking about -  You Will Speak for the Dead.  I will be eventually reviewing this book, too (it'll be a bit, I have a bit of a queue right now). But, for now, you can still learn all about R. A. Busby and check out the book yourself. As usual, more information on the SSBA can be found here , and links to all of my other SSBA posts can be found here . Side note, nominations are open for the 2026 awards - so send them in ! On to the author spotlight!    R. A Busby - Author Biography Biography R. A. Busby is the 2020 Shirley Jackson Award recipient for short fiction, and the author of the horror novella Corporate Body (Cemetery Gates, 2023). She is a member of the Horror Writers Association. In her spare time, R.A. Busby watches cheesy gothic movies and goes running in the desert with her dog.  Where you can fi...

Hello again! Slight schedule change on the SSBA posts. Last time, I promised 1 every Sunday, but instead I got sick and missed one. The current plan is to post twice a week (Wednesdays and Sundays) until the posts are complete! Anyway, today's featured author is one of our returning semi-finalist interviewees , Carson Winter, author of A Spectre is Haunting Greentree . As usual, more information on the SSBA can be found here , and links to all of my other SSBA posts can be found here . Side note, nominations are open for the 2026 awards - so send them in ! On to the author spotlight!    Carson Winter - Author Biography Carson Winter is an award-winning author, punker, and raw nerve. His short fiction has appeared in over 20 publications, including Apex , Vastarien , and Chthonic Matter Quarterly. He is the author of Soft Targets , The Psychographist , and A Spectre is Haunting Greentree .  Where you can find Carson Winter:  You can find Carson Winter at carso...

Happy New Year - Hope you enjoyed your holidays! I had a hectic holiday season and am now back full swing at work, life, and writing! And as part of that writing, I'm kicking off with another SSBA featured finalist. This series will continue for the next five Sundays, after which, I'll start reviewing the winning books.   More information on the SSBA can be found here , and links to all of my other SSBA posts can be found here . Today, the author I am spotlighting is Michael Merriam, author of Terror at Tierra de Cobre, and previously included in my semi-finalist series.  Michael Merriam - Author Biography Michael Merriam is the award-winning author of the Weird West and Steampunk series Sixguns & Sorcery . Michael’s work has appeared with Carina Press , Queen of Swords Press , and Uncanny Magazine , among others. He has published fourteen novels, novellas, and collections, as well as over 100 short stories and poems. He is an award-winning playwright and screenw...