Melissa Ivanco-Murray

First off, sorry I missed my last two scheduled posts. Alas, moving has proven a much more complicated process than anticipated. Between fighting with the moving company to get my stuff in the first place—they missed TWO scheduled deliveries, claiming their “truck was broken” (they only have one??) without giving me any notice; I had to call multiple times to find out WHY my stuff wasn’t there yet—and then, once they finally brought my stuff, they dropped my upright piano on

Link to full dissertation, Amazons, Shieldmaidens, and Daring Polianitsy : Slavic Warrior Women in Medieval Literature and Folklore : https://libraetd.lib.virginia.edu/public_view/r207tq787 Time for Slavic Warrior women, part 8! Today we’ll discuss Tomyris, the queen of the Massagetae (one of the nomadic steppe tribes that fell under the Scythian umbrella). One of these days—whenever I finish writing the current series I’ve got going on—I’d love to turn her biography into

First, the blurb: Born with a scarlet mote in her left eye, Phédre nó Delaunay is sold into indentured servitude as a child. When her bond is purchased by an enigmatic nobleman, she is trained in history, theology, politics, foreign languages, the arts of pleasure. And above all, the ability to observe, remember, and analyze. Exquisite courtesan, talented spy...and unlikely heroine. But when Phédre stumbles upon a plot that threatens her homeland, Terre d'Ange, she has no cho

Despite how busy I was getting ready to move to another state (ah, how I shall miss Virginia), I devoured seven books this month. Well, technically I devoured six while another was a hard DNF, but I’ll get into that shortly. Of the books I read, every single one was a 5-star read for me. That hasn’t happened in a long time, but I desperately hope it is a trend that continues. In chronological order in which I read them, a few notes about each book I read (or started to read)