Weekend Reads: The Last Days of Lady Cordelia: A Beaumont and Beasley Story by Kyle Robert Shultz (Gretchen)

 Last weekend I went from football mom to soccer mom. My son traded his pads for a keeper jersey and filled in on a local travel team. I was so excited. Not only would we get to watch him play soccer again, we got to cheer with fellow soccer parents, who happen to be some of our closest friends. Oh, the tournament was in Tucson, so 70F in February. Sorry, not sorry for those of you in the Groundhog's shadow. I live in the mountainous, cold part of Arizona, so it was a treat for our family.

What is the best way to pass a car ride that includes hairpin curves through a canyon?

Listing to an audiobook of course!

The Last Days of Lady Cordelia by Kyle Robert Shultz is a great choice for a quick listen. The novella is a sequel to The Beast of Talesend and occurs between Book 2, The Tomb of the Sea Witch, and Book 3 The Stroke of Eleven.

What did I like about The Last Days of Lady Cordelia?
1. It's a gaslamp story set in the Roaring '20s
2. There's a good dose of humor
3. It's nice and twisty

Lady Cordelia has magic ability that accidentally turned private detective and magic skeptic, Nick Beaseley into a beast in The Beast of Talesend. Since then, the two along have been looking for a cure for Nick's "condition."
Cordelia finds herself dying in a hospital. But there's something not quite right about this world. Some things are better, and other things are worse, much worse. Like there is no magic in this world. It means that her father isn't a diabolical magician. It also means she and the fully human Nick have never met until they encounter each other in the hospital. The worst part is that in a world without magic, Cordelia doesn't have any powers, and she strongly suspects magic is what she needs to escape.
The story twists and turns with the reader not sure if her memories of a world with magic are the reality or if this unmagical world, that is suspiciously like our world with places named America and London is reality.
While the reader knows what "reality" is, the story is not predictable.
If you've read The Beast of Talesend and The Tomb of the Sea Witch, I recommend giving The Last Days of Lady Cordelia a read (or listen). And if you haven't, check out Lizzie's  January 3 Weekend Reads for reviews of Books 1 and 2 to get started on this magically humorous series.

Weekend Reads: The Beast of Talesend (Beaumont and Beasley series) by Kyle Robert Shultz (Lizzie)

Happy New Year! I'm excited to start off Lands Uncharted 2020 posts with a review of a fabulous series. (I am also excited to publish this post on time--on Friday--since I'm used to our old Saturday posts.) When Laurie mentioned I had a similar sense of humor to fellow author Kyle Robert Shultz, I naturally decided to check out his books. As a writer and reader of fairytale retellings, I chose The Beast of Tales End (Beaumont and Beasley Book #1). The verdict: Laurie was right, of course.

These are definitely not your typical fairy tale retellings but are a delightful mix of 1920s detective story, Britishness, adventure, screwball comedy, and fairytales and mythologies turned inside out. You get a feel for the humor and strong character voice simply by reading the book blurbs, and, happily, the books don't disappoint. There are several stories in the Beaumont and Beasley series, and I've read the first two and a short story and am looking forward to reading more.

The Beast of Tales End: After Beauty and the Beast (Beaumont and Beasley Book #1)

Detective Nick Beasley makes his living (or tries to make his living, anyway) by cleverly explaining away all episodes of "magic and monsters." Until the day he gets turned into a monster himself, a beast to be exact. Not The Beast, of course, since that individual, Nick quickly discovers, lived a long time ago and wouldn't be recognizable as Beast from the beloved but utterly wrong fairy tale. But Nick is still a beast, at least until Lady Cordelia Beaumont can un-curse him. And that is where things get really complicated.

Where Nick Beasley used to be a pretty impressive detective, he's now a pretty impressive beast. He's had to put his impressive detective persona on hold since he's currently running for his life with the beautiful and dangerous enchantress who cursed him and his younger brother. Since hiding in a magic school for villains is obviously the best  place to hide from villains, the three go to the Warrengate Academy of Advanced Magic, which happens to be quite close to the sea where the Little Mermaid episode occurred. And since The Little Mermaid story was just as distorted as the Beauty and the Beast tale, things get dangerous pretty fast.

But what's dangerous for Nick, Cordelia, and Crispin happen to be fun for readers, so I highly recommend the Beaumont and Beasley series.

Have you read any of Kyle Robert Shultz books? Do you like your fairy tale retellings close to the original version or the Disney version, or turned on their heads?