Melissa Ivanco-Murray

I posted on my Instagram a few weeks ago (wow, has it been that long??) about how I am debating making a new pen name. I decided in those intervening weeks that I am definitely making a new pen name. My reasoning behind this decision is manifold, but I haven’t actually executed it yet for another set of reasons. I thought I’d share both sets here, beginning with why I haven’t made the changeover yet. However, before I get into my reasoning, I wanted to address an ongoing conv

Alright, I’m WAY behind on blog posts (sorry) and quite frankly barely have time to knock out my reading round up. I know, I know; if I have time to read, I should have time to type up a quick breakdown...but those two activities come from wildly different energy reserves, and the writing well is running a bit low. I poured what little time I had into knocking out my billionth edit of The Night Chemist, received some devastating agent feedback (which I am taking with a grain

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)

It’s almost time for MilSpouse Stuff Your Kindle Day , where a bunch of us military-affiliated authors got together and decided to make an e-book FREE for the day! This year: it’s May 8th. So consider this your heads up so you can add that date to your calendars. For the entirely of 8May26, you can stuff your kindle (or whatever else you use to read e-books) with a bunch of fiction and nonfiction alike, all written by veterans, servicemembers, and spouses! There are more of u

April was crazy busy for me. CRAZY busy. However, I refuse to go a whole dang month without reading, and I managed to squeeze in a book. That’s right, I, your voracious-reader-host, only read one book this month. I think this marks the first time since my first summer training when I arrived at West Point, during which I was literally forbidden to have any books in my room (or any down time, for that matter), that I went a month without reading at least three. Even when I was

Beth Cato, A Feast For Starving Stone . How epic of a title is that?? First, the blurb, courtesy Goodreads: Two countries at war. A delicious taste of magic. And a fierce princess comes of age in a rousing adventure by the author of A Thousand Recipes for Revenge. Princess Solenn’s marriage into royalty should have unified the continental neighbors of Verdania and Solenn’s homeland of Braiz against a common enemy. the country of Albion. Thanks to Albion’s cunning sabotage,

Time for this month’s reading roundup! This was a finishing-up-series kind of month. But I’m doing this whole thing where I try to read newer books, rather than just binging The Sevenwaters Trilogy or The Dragonriders of Pern for the dozenth time. I’m a nostalgia reader by default (but then, I’m also still listening to the same bands I loved in high school). I made it through six books in March (although technically I started reading Heir to the Shadows at the end of Febr

I've got news! Sort of. It's small news. I have been bouncing the idea around for a while now of creating a brand new mailing list from scratch, since I never really figured out how to get the first one going with any consistency. They have a ton of new tools nowadays for organizing and scheduling email newsletters, so I'm going to try this again! I've got a lot of topics and exclusive goodies and such that I plan on covering in these emails, but I promise I won't spam your i

As promised, I’m back with a more thorough review of my favorite February read: Shelley Parker-Chan’s She Who Became the Sun . Going to try to do this without giving away too many spoilers, but we’ll see how well I succeed. I’ll start with just a copy/paste of the book blurb from Goodreads, because I don’t feel like inventing my own blurb when a) writing blurbs is HARD, yo and b) the blurb already exists. Work smarter, not harder. In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yel

In my efforts to post more consistently this year, I’ve decided to do a reading roundup at the end of each month to rate the books I’ve read that month and share a few notes about each, and then I’ll do a longer book review of my favorite read. My reading habits are all over the place and I am a chronic re-reader of my old favorites, so fair warning: not all the books I’m going to post in these roundups will be new releases (or even from the past decade). I’m drawn to older w