Tag: Tin Box Press

Review: Crow’s Fate: Carnival of Mysteries by Kim Fielding

Rating: 4.5🌈

The one of the best gifts I can receive when it comes to my books is a multi-author series, especially when the center focal point or theme is so fascinating. It allows a reader multiple opportunities to view the same elements in a variety of wildly varied ways, including perspectives from characters and storylines vastly different from each other.

Kim Fielding kicks off this series from Tin Box Press with her story, Crow’s Fate. It has many of the best of the Fielding narrative touch that I expect from her tales. Some spare narrative that weaves together elements of mythology, sparsely told but heart wrenching plot lines , compelling characters and an ending that intrigues the mind but still leaves the reader satisfied.

And Fielding includes two of my favorite images from various mythologies, crows and ravens and combines it with the series theme of a Carnival of Mysteries where Midwest farmer to be Crow Rapp first meets English Simeon Bell who works within the traveling Carnival.

The imagery immediately turns from a normal scene of a foursome out for some fun to Crow discovering his world shattering.

We follow a complex duo making hard decisions about their lives, their future fate, including discussing the if humanity has freedom to choose between their own path or does fate choose for them.

There’s so much to this story and these characters that it can’t possibly fit all the exposition I felt it needed to convey all the foundation details of the big picture Fielding’s drawing here. It’s on a huge scale and, honestly, they’re not the room to fill in all the historical gaps or context we need.

However, since what we do get is so dramatically charged up and so emotionally wonderful, I admit to overlooking it at the end. It wasn’t until I finished the story and was thinking back that I realized that certain portions of her explanation for Crow was never delivered here.

It certainly deserves a sequel. For them as us. They are wonderful and the elements are fascinating and could use some additional foundation.

Crow’s Fate: Carnival of Mysteries by Kim Fielding is a grand way to start the series and I definitely recommend it.

Carnival of Mysteries series:

✓ Crow’s Fate by Kim Fielding

◦ Step Right Up by L.A. Witt – July 19

◦ Magic Burning by Kaje Harper July 26

◦ Night-blooming Hearts by Megan Derr – Aug 2,

◦ Assassin by Accident by E.J.Russell-Aug16

◦ Dryad on Fire by Nicole Dennis – Sept 13

◦ Gods and Monsters by Rachel Langella – October 25

Buy Link

Crow’s Fate: Carnival of Mysteries

Description:

You can’t fly away from destiny.

Crow Rapp assumes he’ll spend his life growing corn in rural Illinois, like the grandparents who raised him. But during a visit to a traveling carnival, he encounters a handsome stranger named Simeon Bell—and receives a prophecy of a horrifying future. When that future materializes soon afterward, Crow flees… only to find that no matter how far he goes, fate pursues him.

Simeon reenters his life a decade later and causes Crow to consider whether actively fighting his fate might be better than constant attempts at escape. In a world tinged by magic, where myths are as real as the sky above them, the men try to determine Crow’s true identity. Along the way, they test the powers of friendship and love and explore the boundaries of free will—ultimately discovering whether the force of destiny can be overcome.

Crow’s Fate is part of the multi-author Carnival of Mysteries Series. Each book stands alone, but each one includes at least one visit to Errante Ame’s Carnival of Mysteries, a magical, multiverse traveling show full of unusual acts, games, and rides. The Carnival changes to suit the world it’s on, so each visit is unique and special. This book contains an Illinois farmboy, a roustabout from London, and realizations about the power of love.

CARNIVAL OF MYSTERIES Welcome, Traveler! Join us for a series of M/ M fantasies by a talented group of both new and established authors. Whether you enjoy mystery, action, danger, or just sweet romance, there is something for everyone at the Carnival of Mysteries!

Authors:

Kim Fielding * L. A. Witt * Kaje Harper Megan Derr * Ander C. Lark * E. J. Russell Morgan Brice * Sarah Ellis * Kayleigh Sky”

Nicole Dennis * Elizabeth Silver * Ro Merrill T. A. Moore * Z. A. Maxfield * Ki Brightly Rachel Langella”

Review: The Solstice Kings by Kim Fielding

Rating: 3.25🌈

I was excited to see a book by Kim Fielding published by Tin Box Press, which meant I would be able to read and review it. Unfortunately, this fantasy tale is a bit of a mixed bag.

There’s so many potentially interesting elements here, ranging from the main character’s adopted family and it’s magical “castle” ancestral home to the lore that Fielding’s narrative inhabits so well.

But the issues start immediately with the main characters. One, Miles Thorsen, adopted son of the strange Nordic Thorsens, is not particularly likable. From the beginning he’s a bit self centered, passive, and the minute he arrives home, rude and disrespectful. So, not someone I really wanted to spend time with.

The next was Remy. Fielding made such a odd choice here regarding an aspect of his character . It’s hard to tell you all what my issues are with him without major spoilers but it’s so not in keeping with the idea and mythology that Fielding is building here to mix into her climatic point at the end. Not that we hadn’t already guessed by then. It had been telegraphed heavily by so many bluntly written clues. You are left wondering how and why he fits into this exactly . Why this form? Why not something Scandinavian? From Odin’s mythology? Just doesn’t add up.

True Fielding’s mixed Paranormal beings, beliefs, and myths before to a successful storyline but here it’s just weird. Off putting.

The story winds up as a HEA but we are left asking questions, or at least I was. Just too many holes and ill fitting narrative pieces for this to fill like the Fielding story gems I look forward too and love.

Read it if you’re a fan of the author.

Amazon

Description:

Miles Thorsen’s adopted family is… unusual. But that’s not why he fled after graduating from college. Now, after ten years of restless wandering, he returns home for the winter holiday celebration. The solstice is a time of change, and perhaps it’s time for Miles to face who he is, who he loves… and who he’ll become.