Wheeler Review

Harmony Wheeler wrote a lovely, detailed review of The King’s Daughters for Static Multimedia.

Here are some excerpts: “Her characters are lovable, believable, and easy to relate to. One character named Diego proclaims himself a “dandy” and resembles the famous literary hero The Scarlet Pimpernel in both his wit and his charm.”

“A page-turner for young-adults, adults, and fans of fantasy and mystery, The King’s Daughters delivers big time. Unlike its story, the book’s success will be no mystery.” Read More.

This is a very good review, (I especially love The Scarlet Pimpernel comparison) so please check it out!

Bookgasm reviews The King’s Daughters

Here’s an excerpt of what Mark Rose at Bookgasm wrote about my book and me:

“Most of her main characters are succinctly drawn, with real motivations and realistic behaviors. She has a jeweler’s eye for scene settings and color, and her pacing is just right.She’s not the kind of author who would write a 600-page tedious doorstop of a book; her style is much more suited to the quick series installment in paperback that we all used to love about fantasy fiction back in the ’70s and ’80s...” Read more.

Nice, hey! :D

Melting

The whole of B.C. is in the midst of a scorching heat wave. Yesterday, thermometer showed 38 degrees Celsius (100.4 Fahrenheit) in the shade. It’s been like this all week with no relief in sight. The house was like a freakin’ sauna: muggy, sticky, sweltering and wholly unpleasant. Seriously, it was so hot even my eyeballs were sweating. (I have a low melting point.) Well, after several sleepless nights, exhausted and fed-up, we went and bought an air conditioning unit. Ahhhh!

Fantasy Debut Review

Tia Nevitt of Fantasy Debut really enjoyed The King’s Daughters and has given it a glowing review, so much so that I am posting two excerpts.

First excerpt: “Sometimes, when I read a book, it exceeds all my expectations. Nathalie Mallet achieved this with The King's Daughters. I enjoyed the ending so much that most of my nitpicky complaints that I had about it before that point have faded from my consciousness. Which is just the way it's supposed to be.”

Second excerpt: “As Ms. Mallet did with her first novel, she brings all the various plot threads together brilliantly. I can't think of anything left unexplained, except some new tidbits that she came up with toward the end for subsequent books. I recall in Princes that she did this almost to a fault. Here, it was just about perfect. She also brings in some Russian mythology and folklore into the story--some really strange stuff--weaves it brilliantly into the story.”

But don’t take my word for it, read the entire review here.

First UK Review

Graeme Flory of Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review has given The King’s Daughters its first UK review, and it’s a splendid one.

Here’s an excerpt: “‘The King’s Daughters’ is one of those books where you find yourself filtering out the noises and distractions of the outside world so you can pay more attention to what is happening on the page. That’s certainly what I found myself doing with an intriguing mystery interspersed with moments of intense swordplay.” MORE.

I especially like Graeme’s insight into Amir’s character. He’s right; my prince is a spoiled, whiny brat. Slowly changing him is one of the many pleasures I get from writing the series, though. :)

Also, check out Graeme’s review of The Princes of the Golden Cage—he was the first to review it in the UK. It's mighty fine!

New Review of The King’s Daughters

Chadwick Ginther of McNally Robinson wrote a very nice review of The King’s Daughters.

Here’s an excerpt: “At times it feels there is a real dearth of non-western themed fantasy out there, but Mallet has created two cultures here, one, influenced heavily by the Middle East, the other by Russian and Slavic myth and folklore and has started to build a larger and cosmopolitan world. I can't wait to read more when Prince Amir heads east in the forthcoming Death in the Traveling City.” More here.

I met Chadwick at the World Fantasy Convention last year, and we’ve kept in touch since. He’s the buyer for McNally Robinson's Sci/Fi/Fantasy department. The McNally Robinson’s bookstores are AMAZING. :)

Night Shade Books Interview

I recently had the pleasure of doing an interview with Ross E. Lockhart, senior editor at Night Shade Books. We talked about my inspiration and literary influences, as well as the challenges of worldbuilding without maps and writing across genres. I also “hint” at what’s coming next in the series. You can read the entire interview right here.