This is book #4 in The Weavers Circle series. This book can be read as a standalone novel.  For reader understanding, and to avoid any spoilers, I recommend reading this incredible series in order.

Calder & Lucien are not getting along.  It is interrupting their fellow weavers and may put them all in danger.  What can be done to fix this animosity?  It has been suggested there is ore to this fighting. Will they listen and learn?

Gio is a nice surprise in a very hot package.  When he meets Calder & Lucien the scales tip in their favor and they find that the suggestion to get together was all they needed.  Now they want Gio in a more permanent way.  If only changing his mind were that easy.

This story has a fast pace and the story moves along quickly.  Great addition to the series. The new characters add spice and just a bit more.  I loved reading about the men coming together and making this work.  Now I cannot wait for the next book!  I give this a 4/5 Kitty's Paws UP!

***This early copy was given by in exchange for an honest review only.

by Sarah Gruen

This was an amazing story.

I love realistic stories about the circus or carnivals and I learned from the author's note at the end that this was very well researched in a historian sense. It rang mostly true and some of the incidents were taken from events that really happened somewhere in circus history.

My only niggle is that it was written in present tense. I'm not going to dock it a star for that as I usually do because it was done well and sometimes I could forget to notice, but it still would have been better in past tense.

The depiction of the rough edges of depression era train circus life was very immersive and I actually read most of the book into the night because I didn't want to stop. That's a sign of a well written story!

Without giving anything away, I particularly liked the way it finished. I mean the story itself, before getting to the notes. The decision made by Jacob, the main protagonist, left me with a smile on my face. Characters were strong throughout the story, human or otherwise.

There were definitely some animal antics that made me laugh, especially the elephant. There were other emotions too, some not so pleasant, especially with the knowledge that animals weren't cared for as they should have been in those days, but it's far in the past now and I could enjoy the story as a nostalgic record of a time that happened long before I was born.

 John Voltaire returns to his childhood home of L along the banks of the Mississippi in order to settle his parents estate.  John thought he escaped the backwards confines of L long ago, but he is right back where he started.  Now, L is experiencing a strange plague of drownings.  More than usual, the water seems to be taking more lives than usual in an array of unusual and terrifying circumstances.  Locals are in disagreement of the cause- increases in drunken accidents, a supernatural force, a serial killer or natures revenge.  John's return coincides with the uptick and on top of the unusual circumstances, John's siblings, Cristo and Laura aren't helping much with the sale. 

So, this started off so good and then around the 30 percent mark started to flounder. Coates is a great writer, the story just drags. I started to get impatient while reading and then the story felt like it was stuck at a certain point. The ending is abrupt as well. 

"The Water Dancer" follows Hiram Walker. A son of a slave and the master of the house, Hiram dreams of being "Quality." Hiram also dreams of his father looking at him the way he looks at his half-brother Maynard. As Hiram gets older and is being groomed to take care of Maynard, a tragedy unfolds leaving Hiram realizing that he needs to get away and get freedom in the Underground. The book follows Hiram as he goes through trials and tribulations along with some magical realism thrown in. 

Hiram was an interesting character, but I started to grow bored with him towards the end of the book. The book flip flops around regarding freedom and the Underground and then weirdly sticks on a romance for the the last 40 percent of the book. I really wish we had gotten more of a glimpse into the character Sophia's mind.  

Not too much to say about other characters, they don't seem very developed. Hawkins and Corrine just talked like riddles and I got tired of reading their dialogue.

The writing at first evoked a lot of feelings in me, but once we get to Hiram's escape and then capture again the book just dragged from then on. Also the whole Underground that is described in this book made zero sense to me and I started to get irritated while reading.

Not too much to say here besides feeling disappointed. Maybe tighter editing could have helped smooth things out. 

Edited by P.J. Blakely-Novis

This is the fourth of a four book series of anthologies with stories based on the elements, Earth, Air, Fire and Water.

Although Fire is still my favourite, I think this one showed the most variety of ways in which to use the Water element in the stories. Out of the twelve stories, I would say seven of them were outstanding; Final Demand, which is about a sacrifice to a beast that lives beneath an island, High Tide, about a woman who inherits her aunt's seaside cottage but the real horror is her controlling mother, Water Goblins, about some seriously scary creatures that come out of the river when survivors of an apocalypse fish for food, Forsaken, based on an actual legend and delves into the world of madness, Home, about a ghostly girl murdered in a well, The Wreck of the Cartegena, a shipwreck story that leads to a real feeling of hopelessness and Test AIB4.1 Iteration 82345, about a scientific experiment that threatens to drown the subjects of the tests.

The series as a whole has been way above average and I'm glad I've got them in paperback because I think I'll be reading several of these stories again! Highly recommended for any Horror fan.