I don’t normally do this. And by not normally, I mean I’ve never had book reviews on my blog before. But I’m reading a lot more than I used to (did I mention how much I love my new phone, specifically for that reason? <3 to the person who pointed out to me that was an advantage). Some of the books I’ve picked up in the past few weeks…eh…not so good. I haven’t decided yet if I’ll review those or not. I’d have to finish them in order to do that, and I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to finish them or not. But I picked up a short story collection yesterday that I absolutely loved, so I figured it would be a good way to kick off this new habit.

Goodbye, Goddess
by Breanna R. Teintze

Blurb: A desperate gambler tangles with a wizard. Foul play in a Temple. A duelist with a past—and a plan. An innkeeper who is more than he seems. Romance and adventure, murder and swordplay, magecraft and mistakes. A lucky seven of short stories intertwine to draw you deep into this intriguing introduction to Teintze’s magical and emotionally-charged world.

This is a collection of seven short stories (though one is a little longer than the others), set in a fantastic high-fantasy world. But it’s better than elves and the such spending hours tramping through the forest endlessly. The gods dip their fingers into the affairs of humans, there is no cut and dried good or bad, there’s just the guy you’re rooting for at the time.

I downloaded this yesterday and was done by bedtime last night. I think my favorite story in the collection is ‘Patron Saint’. It just gave me chills. But I enjoyed them all completely. The author offers a good balance of description and action, and brings the reader into a world they’ve never seen before, making them feel like they’re coming back home.

A kind of dark, twisted, fantastic home. But home anyway.

If you’re looking for supernatural beings love-stricken with the mundane, you’ll need to look somewhere else. If you’re looking for a quick but vivid read, full of fantastic but relatable characters you feel every pain, triumph, tragedy, and victory along with, these individual stories offer exactly that.