* Disclaimer *

Everyone is different and likes and dislikes different things. Reading is no exception. One person’s all-time favorite might seem too bland or too high stakes for another. That being said, the opinions of our judges in this contest are just that: opinions. Just because we let a book go, doesn’t mean it isn’t good. It could be your next favorite, who knows?

However, since this is a contest, there can be only one winner. Hence it is necessary to work our way down to our favorite from our batch of thirty titles. We will be letting books go four or five at a time. These groups are being let go in no particular order. So, the books we say goodbye to today are not worse than books we let go in the next batch. They are just the first ones we read that didn’t quite click with us as a group.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, you can learn more about the contest here.

We are also announcing, our fourth semi-finalists! We will continue to announce one semi-finalist with each Four or Five to Fall! These upcoming semifinalists will be listed in no particular order.

It’s getting close to the end! Who will be our finalist? We still don’t know! But we will soon, so stay tuned for another reveal this week! And don’t forget to read to the end to meet our next semifinalist!

Mageling by J. L. Mullins

The Wilds relentlessly reclaim all things. Humanity shelters within their ever-dying cities. Mages create the only path forward.

Tala had to fight tooth and nail in the Magic Academy to forge a path to power that was her own. She knows it’s her duty to use that power to serve humanity, defending them against the creatures of the untamable wilds. However, she skipped a few steps in her education, like apprenticing to someone who actually knows what they’re doing.

Now, Tala has to balance learning as fast as she can with paying off the veritable mountain of debt the Magic Academy dropped on her shoulders for the opportunity; not to mention staying alive.

Even though she should only be a Mageling, the world considers her a Mage. Bless the stars she directed most of her magic toward survival.

While one of our judges really loved this book, sadly it didn’t manage to hit home as much with the rest of the team, which again shows just how much tastes differ.

This is a progression type fantasy, which really focuses a lot on worldbuilding and has a magic system that goes down to the detail. It’s all about learning skills and levelling up, and you either love this sort of story, or you’ll find it super slow and boring. The way this split our team shows it’s really a marmite sort of book, so we recommend this to fans of the litRPG genre, but not to those who are more into traditional types of fantasy.

Compared to other titles, it couldn’t grab the majority of our judges, so we have to let it go.

Fortress of the Lost Amulet by Michael Webb

Peter cares about three things: his family, his friends, and escaping an apprenticeship he hates. He works to appease his parents but bides his time until he can adventure on his own.

Rumors surface of a legendary treasure, the Amulet of Power, that’s been lost for centuries. When a clue to the artifact’s location falls in their laps, Peter and his friends embark on a quest to uncover the long-forgotten mysteries of the fabled prize.

Unfortunately, the group of friends aren’t the only ones seeking it. An enemy will stop at nothing to receive the limitless power the Amulet supplies. The closer Peter gets, the higher the stakes become. Not only is his city threatened, but the lives of his friends and family hang in the balance, and the only way to save them is to find the treasure first.

Our judges really enjoyed the found family and heist theme of this book a lot! A group of four friends as the main characters was a nice change of pace. The riddles and solving puzzles were a bit too easy at times, but still kept us well entertained!

Overall, it felt a bit too stereotypical and predictable to really fully convince us. There’s the girl who always screams at the most inopportune times, but still comes on dangerous missions; the villain who is just evil for the sake of it, even with a full on speech; and of course the upper class bully.

While overall this was a quick, easy, and very entertaining read, it just didn’t stand out enough from the crowd, so it’s gonna be a cut.

The Traitors We Are by Michael Roberti

In a world where writing disappears when the author dies, 22-year-old Cael Oberlan watches the last gasping breaths of his best friend. He pulls a scrap of paper out of his pocket as his friend’s signature fades. Cael only wants vengeance for his friend and to create a reality where he no longer has to bow before any man. However, the nagging suspicion that his father, who started this war, hasn’t given him the whole story about his role in this conflict threatens to unravel everything he ever thought he knew about himself and the people he is fighting to free.

As nephew of the king, 24-year-old Emil Trestinsen should be a hero. He should already hear his name echoing in celebration in the streets of the capital. In a young life already full of disappointment, a lack of recognition for ridding the kingdom of “Ruinous” Lorcen Oberlan may prove to be the final push he needs to seize his destiny. He will prove his worth to his family and his nation. He will end this rebellion and take his rightful place as the next governor of the rebels.

When 18-year-old Merily Oberlan receives letters from the frontlines, and the top one is blank, she is devastated to realize one of her loved ones has died in battle. She is determined to help bring an end to this bloody war and be strong for her people, a cultural and religious minority in the kingdom of Harfal.

What started as a simple rebellion transforms into a complicated web of lies, betrayal, and difficult decisions no one should have to make. It is a race against time and death as handwriting continues to disappear, erasing the contracts and historical records necessary for peaceful negotiations.

This is a court intrigue with a big cast, a lot of scheming and betrayal. We enjoyed the different families, cultures, factions, and personal goals clashing, which gave the story some nice depth.

Sadly, we also had some niggles, one of those being the dialogue and especially dialect not always working as intended. Instead of making the story feel more alive, it threw us out of the story.

Another judge found the intriguing main idea of writing vanishing once the writer dies just not well enough handled. While they liked the general idea, the way it was written just completely suspended their belief and threw them out of the story.

Overall, this was a good start to a series, and a really promising debut. Especially with an epic story like this. Debuts often don’t manage to pull off all the politics and plots satisfyingly. But The Traitors We Are decidedly managed to hit those nails right on the head!

The Camelot Shadow by Sean Gibson

“A chance to save her. Improbably, impossibly, inconceivably.”

Lord Alfred Fitzwilliam spends each day in much the same way: caring for his terminally ill wife and trying to lose himself in the dusty tomes that fill his library. Everything changes when he receives a visit from a man representing a clandestine organization operating with the backing of Queen Victoria herself. The group seeks his aid in finding an Arthurian artifact that, legend holds, can cure its bearer of any wound or disease.

Skeptical but desperate to help his wife, Alfred is convinced the fabled item might actually exist after witnessing a seemingly impossible display of power by the organization’s leader, James Nigel. He decides to pursue the treasure, accompanied by an eccentric scholar, a deadly druid, and his best friend, a sardonic bookseller who is far more than he seems.

As he follows an arcane trail of clues from the gas-lit streets of London to the wilds of Scotland and deep into ancient catacombs in Italy, Alfred becomes enmeshed in a web of hidden agendas, secret societies, and ancient enchantments. Along the way, he learns a dark secret about Nigel’s past—and the true power of the artifact he seeks.

Lots of promise, a great dose of mysteries, a fascinating new take of Arthur and Merlin, smooth prose and good friendships!

We enjoyed the time frame of Queen Victoria’s reign, and how well the historical bits were researched. It all felt plausible and smooth, which made it all the easier to focus on the actual story. This is important because this isn’t the easiest plot to follow. There’s quite a big cast for this type of mystery, and lots of clues.

Some judges did not like how instead of diving into the promised mystery of the opening, we instead jumped back and read about the characters backstory, which took the wind right out of our sails. At times the actions felt a bit out of character, and it wasn’t always very clear what was happening. Not as in the intentional writing of mysteries, but as in the scene needing a bit more clarification.

If you enjoy a historic fantasy with plenty of mysteries and secrets, this might be the perfect book for you, but for SPFBO we had to let it go.

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This Week’s Semifinalist

The Crew by Sadir S. Samir

Varcade fled to the deserts of Harrah to escape his past as an Educator, a member of an order of zealot warrior-monks that aims to shape the world according to their sacred Teachings by force. Varcade makes his living as a reckless sword-for-hire, caring only about himself, until his self-centered lifestyle is turned on its head when he is contracted to recruit a misfit team of unruly assassins and take out the mighty Bone Lord of Akrab.

But the Bone Lord is aware of the plot and sends her band of Dusters to stop them; individuals who have gained bizarre and lethal magical powers by snorting the pulverised bones of dead gods. Hunted by Educators and Dusters in a city-state where an escalating conflict between the human and demon population threatens to boil over in a civil war, will Varcade and his ragtag crew save Akrab from the cruel Bone Lord, or will they make things even worse?

Quote Lana:

“Wow this one was a trip! In the best way possible. I had so much fun with it. A scorned spy master putting together an unruly ‘team’ of unlikely heroes to overthrow a tyrannical leader they used to love? I am so here for it. I love the unlikely friends trope and this was done well here. Even though they were pretty bad people from a morality/ethical perspective I was rooting for them to win from the get go.”

We were super excited to start this one, as there simply aren’t enough epic fantasy comedies out there, at least for us!

For most of us the humour worked out well and had us smiling and grinning our way through the whole story. As always humour is especially individual, so we also had judges who didn’t fully click with the comedy and slang and found it a bit over the top at times. The same goes for some pop culture references, which made some of us actually laugh out loud, while it made others sigh.

It’s a very character driven story, and the banter and quirks are definitely the major hook. The plot and even pacing are definitely secondary in this story, which was no problem for some of us, who constantly wondered “What’s gonna happen next? Who is this person? Are they friend or foe? Are they gonna make it? Oh, they’re screwed!”. Others found it a bit uneven at times and would have liked it a bit less rough around the edges.

It is zany chaos, quirky anarchy, and just good fun. An easy read that’s not trying to take anything too seriously or be what it’s not.

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Congrats to Sadir S. Samir for making our Top Five! Keep checking back to see who will move onto the finals!

We would like to thank all the authors for letting us read their work! We congratulate you on having the courage to enter the contest and wish you all much success in the future!

Our judges this year are Adawia Asad, Agatha Lopez, Blake Skelton, G. R. Matthews, Lana Taylor, Julia Kitvaria Sarene, Kerry Smith, Robert Max Freeman, Yaniv Rosenfeld Cohen, and Jennie Ivins (me). If you’d like to learn more about us, including our likes and dislikes, you can read about them here.

Any queries should be directed Jennie Ivins, via DM (Facebook/Twitter).

Title image by anotherxlife.

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