Another week has rolled by, but I’m moving like a lump on a log. I’ve got some holiday traveling planned, a house to clean before I leave, and some cosplay sewing to get started on…and I have nooooo motivation. Honestly, during the week I always would rather Netflix and chill (not that kind of chill, kiddos) […]

Monster of the Week (2019) Written By: F.T. Lukens Genre: Young Adult Urban Fantasy Pages: 316 pages (Kindle) Series: Book 2 of The Rules Publisher: Duet Books Why I Chose It: The first one was a fast, fun read that left the characters in an interesting spot, and I really wanted to see where the […]

One of the most common questions authors face is a deceptively difficult one to answer: “Where do you get your ideas?” Yet, the answers to that common question can be almost as interesting as the resulting story. Welcome to You’re My Inspiration, a new column dedicated to discovering what inspires a particular author and their […]

Baldur’s Gate: Descent Into Avernus (2019) Written by: Wizards of the Coast Genre: Tabletop Game Publisher: Wizards of the Coast Why I Chose It: I am always curious about the newest Dungeons & Dragons games, and this one heads straight into hell (literally). I had to check it out and see what adventures had been crafted. […]

The recent spate of live action remakes of Disney classics has been hit or miss for me, but I genuinely enjoyed 2014’s Maleficent, which reimagined the evil queen from the classic Sleeping Beauty into the true love’s kiss that wakes Aurora from the curse. I fully anticipated loving this second installment in the continuing story, and was […]

They might not be raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens, but that doesn’t mean that we love them any less. Welcome back to My Favorite Things, the weekly column where we grab someone in speculative circles to gab about the greatest in geek. This week, we sit down with Kate Heartfield, whose novel, Armed […]

This is a hard post to write. Earlier this year, Sandra Kasturi of ChiZine Publications reached out to me with a wicked cool idea: a daily post in October that would feature a horror movie paired with a cocktail. The idea was right up my alley, so she and I began making plans to pull […]

Hello, friends! Happy to see you again, and much thanks to Shara for covering for me while I was out and about chasing down the myths of Japan! I headed off to Shimane Prefecture to visit the stomping grounds of the kami: Susanoo, the trickster god of storms and sea; Amaterasu, one of Shinto’s most […]

We all love to talk about our Favorite Things, but it’s not always the latest and greatest that charms us. Sometimes it’s those foundational favorites, the works that shaped us, that we find ourselves returning to again and again. Here at Speculative Chic, we decided it was way past time to create a dedicated platform to […]

I am so excited! This year, for my resolution project, I’m rewatching the Star Wars franchise. I chose it because I love Star Wars, and I thought it would be fun to re-watch the movies in order of release date, with perhaps a bit more of a critical and appreciative eye than I have before. This […]

Magic Breaks (2012) Written by: Ilona Andrews Series: Kate Daniels #7 Genre: Urban Fantasy Pages: 381 (Paperback) Publisher: Ace Why I Chose This: My 2019 Resolution Project for Speculative Chic is to read the books in the Kate Daniels series and finish up with a first read of the final book. I first read Magic Breaks in 2015 and reviewed it […]

The live action Mulan is set to be released March 27, 2020. Growing-up, I played with Barbie dolls with blonde hair and blue eyes, and I wanted to be like Jessica Wakefield from the Sweet Valley High books. It wasn’t until I was introduced to Claudia Kishi (a Japanese-American teenager with “long, silky black hair […]

Dungeons and Dragons is an incredible hobby, game, and way to hang out with your friends. Building an entire campaign — a long-lasting game with the same characters played out over years — can be really intimidating, especially if you’ve never run a game before. While Dungeons and Dragons official content, like the new Dungeons […]

If you’ve been following along with me on this website at all, you’ve probably run across me saying that Sharon Shinn is an insta-buy for me. She’s such a favorite of mine that to date she is the only author I’ve ever sent a fan letter to, just to tell her how much her characters […]