The Real Valkyrie

 The Real Valkyrie: The Hidden History of Viking Warrior Women- Nancy Marie Brown

St. Martin's Press

Release Date: August 31, 2021

Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: In 2017, DNA tests revealed to the collective shock of many scholars that a Viking warrior in a high-status grave in Birka, Sweden was actually a woman. The Real Valkyrie weaves together archaeology, history, and literature to imagine her life and times, showing that Viking women had more power and agency than historians have imagined.

Nancy Marie Brown uses science to link the Birka warrior, whom she names Hervor, to Viking trading towns and to their great trade route east to Byzantium and beyond. She imagines her life intersecting with larger-than-life but real women, including Queen Gunnhild Mother-of-Kings, the Viking leader known as The Red Girl, and Queen Olga of Kyiv. Hervor’s short, dramatic life shows that much of what we have taken as truth about women in the Viking Age is based not on data, but on nineteenth-century Victorian biases. Rather than holding the household keys, Viking women in history, law, saga, poetry, and myth carry weapons. These women brag, “As heroes we were widely known—with keen spears we cut blood from bone.” In this compelling narrative Brown brings the world of those valkyries and shield-maids to vivid life.

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"The Real Valkyrie" studies the history of the Vikings as we know it through a new lens: modern archaeology, free of the Victorian limitations we have allowed to color our thoughts of their world for so long. Others will call it feminist. How about both- as well as extremely interesting and well-written. 

Modern technology has been used to go over bones buried in Birka Bj581, a warrior's grave in Birka, Sweden.  Because of the weapons and others items traditional archaeology has associated with men, this grave was identified as a war leader, a brilliant warrior, and a man.  Today we know the bones are of a woman. Does that make the rest of the story the burial told, that of a well respected warrior, less true? Brown uses modern archaeology to analyze myths, legends, and history to search for the "real valkyrie"- who she argues was not a mythical being but in fact a warrior woman. Brown argues that women in the Viking age had a much larger role than has previously been assigned to them- that they were capable leaders, rulers, merchants, and warriors just like men. I found her arguments very interesting and certainly found myself agreeing that we cannot look at history through the filter of those who wrote about other people. In the case of the Vikings, this would mean men, Christian men, telling about a world that was already hundreds of years in the past when they were writing, and whose world view they could no longer understand. 

The multiethnic society of the Viking world, Brown argues, was a world where power did not come from one person (the pope) and filter down, it was not a world organized by kings as we would come to understand it later. It was a world where talent, need, and opportunity should focus your path and your gender did not limit you.  The idea of the Viking woman as the key-holder and mistress of the house is, according to Brown, the Victorian interpretation of the Vikings because that was how the Victorians viewed the world. And we haven't updated them since.  Here, Brown argues successfully that we should look at what archaeological sites tell us without preconceived notions, and we should not ignore the evidence that goes against what we think we already know.  Because Birka Bj581 is not the only grave of a warrior who has been reexamined and found to be a woman.  

Brown's The Real Valkyrie: The Hidden History of Viking Warrior Women turns traditional images of the Viking world on its head and presents a vivid, well-researched, and fascinating exploration of life in the Viking Age through  a new lens. From the everyday to the afterlife, this is the world as archaeological finds show it might have been.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review 

Imperfect Union

 

Imperfect Union: How Jessie and John Frémont Mapped the West, Invented Celebrity, and Helped Cause the Civil War- Steve Inskeep

Penguin Group

Release Date: January 14, 2020

Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: John C. Frémont, one of the United States’s leading explorers of the nineteenth century, was relatively unknown in 1842, when he commanded the first of his expeditions to the uncharted West. But in only a few years, he was one of the most acclaimed people of the age – known as a wilderness explorer, bestselling writer, gallant army officer, and latter-day conquistador, who in 1846 began the United States’s takeover of California from Mexico. He was not even 40 years old when Americans began naming mountains and towns after him. He had perfect timing, exploring the West just as it captured the nation’s attention. But the most important factor in his fame may have been the person who made it all possible: his wife, Jessie Benton Frémont. 

Jessie, the daughter of a United States senator who was deeply involved in the West, provided her husband with entrée to the highest levels of government and media, and his career reached new heights only a few months after their elopement. During a time when women were allowed to make few choices for themselves, Jessie – who herself aspired to roles in exploration and politics – threw her skill and passion into promoting her husband. She worked to carefully edit and publicize his accounts of his travels, attracted talented young men to his circle, and lashed out at his enemies. She became her husband’s political adviser, as well as a power player in her own right. In 1856, the famous couple strategized as John became the first-ever presidential nominee of the newly established Republican Party. 

With rare detail and in consummate style, Steve Inskeep tells the story of a couple whose joint ambitions and talents intertwined with those of the nascent United States itself. Taking advantage of expanding news media, aided by an increasingly literate public, the two linked their names to the three great national movements of the time—westward settlement, women’s rights, and opposition to slavery. Together, John and Jessie Frémont took parts in events that defined the country and gave rise to a new, more global America. Theirs is a surprisingly modern tale of ambition and fame; they lived in a time of social and technological disruption and divisive politics that foreshadowed our own. In Imperfect Union, as Inskeep navigates these deeply transformative years through Jessie and John’s own union, he reveals how the Frémonts’ adventures amount to nothing less than a tour of the early American soul.

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Imperfect Union: How Jessie and John Frémont Mapped the West, Invented Celebrity, and Helped Cause the Civil War is a fascinating, well-researched, and brilliantly written exploration of mid-nineteenth century America: its triumphs and failings, challenges and inventions, through the lens of John C. Frémont and his wife Jessie Benton Frémont. They lived during a time of great change and innovation and Jessie was quick to capitalize on all of it to, quite arguably, invent celebrity and public relations in ways that we would all recognize today.

By marrying Jessie, a powerful senator's daughter, John went from being a new and inexperienced Army officer to part of a powerful family with visions of manifest destiny and American Empire. Jessie's connections landed John the role of leader of an exploration party into the West. Her genius spun that exploration into John's becoming a national hero and celebrity; a bestselling author whose travel accounts often almost resembled reality; and the go-to explorer for several other westward mapmaking expeditions. Author Steve Inskeep unwinds Jessie's spin and uses the journals and letters of other members of Frémont's teams to get closer to the truth: that John was often inept, entirely self-focused, and frequently took unnecessary, potentially fatal, risks seemingly for the sake of it.  He seems to have considered orders from commanding officers to be mere suggestions, and the amount of time dumb luck seems to have saved his life (and his team) is mind-boggling. 

Through John's explorations, his forays into politics, his court martial for refusing to follow orders, and more, it was Jessie who stood between John and the world. Jessie who rallied support and gave advise, Jessie who deflected criticism and attacked critics. She was more than the power behind the throne: she was the brains behind the throne. She became as recognizable a celebrity as her husband at a time when women were starting movements towards fighting for the right to vote and have a voice in politics. 

Inskeep explores the changing politics and mindset of the time, the political and moral dilemmas America was facing regarding slavery and the "Indian question", arguments against immigrants and Catholics, with sharp clarity. He doesn't shy away from acknowledging when people like John were willing to compromise where today we would condemn; or where John was willing to perform or accept actions we would today find unacceptable.  Inskeep fully shows the negative to Frémont as well as the progressive.  But Imperfect Union is more than a biography of John and Jessie: it is an exploration of how America and American lives were changing. Through railroads and telegraphs people were being brought closer together, stories and ideas were traveling faster. This is the story of the politics of slavery in the North and the South decades before the first shot was fired to begin the Civil War.  Thanks to Jessie's political connections and John's celebrity status the two knew an incredible number of people who would become key players during the Civil War. 

For history lovers looking for a well-researched, well-written, highly accessible, and completely absorbing account of behind the scenes movements that would shape America and the American people to this very day, look no further than Imperfect Union.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

The Godstone

 The Godstone- Violette Malan

DAW/Penguin Group

Release Date: August 3, 2021

Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Fenra Lowens has been a working Practitioner, using the magic of healing ever since she graduated from the White Court and left the City to live in the Outer Modes. When one of her patients, Arlyn Albainil, is summoned to the City to execute the final testament of a distant cousin, she agrees to help him. Arlyn suspects the White Court wants to access his cousin's Practitioner's vault. Arlyn can't ignore the summons: he knows the vault holds an artifact so dangerous he can't allow it to be freed.

Fenra quickly figures out that there is no cousin, that Arlyn himself is the missing Practitioner, the legendary Xandra Albainil, rumored to have made a Godstone with which he once almost destroyed the world. Sealing away the Godstone left Arlyn powerless and ill, and he needs Fenra to help him deal with the possibly sentient artifact before someone else finds and uses it.

Along the way they encounter Elvanyn Karamisk, an old friend whom Arlyn once betrayed. Convinced that Arlyn has not changed, and intends to use Fenra to recover the Godstone and with it all his power, Elvanyn joins them to keep Fenra safe and help her destroy the artifact.

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In this world of magical Practitioners and mundanes, Fenra Lowens is a Practitioner with a gift for healing who prefers living in a small village far from the politics of court in the City. When her patient Arlyn must go to the City to deal with a false will naming him heir to a distant, ancient, cousin Fenra agrees to go with him to help. But it doesn't take long before she understands the truth: the man she knows as Arlyn, a man with no magic, was once the "cousin" Xandra Albainil- known as one of the most powerful Practitioners ever before he disappeared. Turns out, when he made a Godstone and discovered what most sensible people would have guessed (namely that using or creating anything with enough power to be called a Godstone is a BAD idea), he did have the sense to know he couldn't control it. Xandra sealed the Godstone away in his vault, but it took all of his power to do it.  Now people are looking for it to finish what he started and he needs Fenra's help to stop it. 

Malan's characters are multilayered and nuanced, we discover them slowly even though they are the ones telling us the story. The facet they show the world is never more than the first layer to a person full of strengths and flaws, untapped bravery and stubbornness. Fenra in particular wants her quiet life, but by the end is willing to do whatever it takes to deal with the Godstone. Arlyn is a brilliant character-or characters. He is the mild-mannered, quiet, brilliant woodworker the village children like; the stubborn man Fenra helps as a patient and slowly befriends. But there is also Xandra- the brilliant, stubborn Practitioner who believes he can never be wrong and knows better than anyone else, and who Fenra is pretty sure she's glad she never met. How did Xandra become friends with the levelheaded and loyal Elva? Elva is a case of someone who seems a completely open book, what you see is what you get. But watching the other characters develop makes you wonder what more of Elva's layers are.  We don't get to see them all here, but maybe in the future? Along with maybe more than the hint of romance we get here? Then there's the Godstone itself- a sentient being on some levels, Xandra on other levels, and something else in between. 

The Godstone doesn't end as a cliff hanger, but there are enough hints of future books that we can hope for a nice long series in this new world of Malan's. So many aspects still to explore, the reader will want to dip back into this world(s) again and again to see what they missed the first time.  

If you haven't read Violette Malan's books yet (Gift of Griffins, Halls of Law, The Sleeping God series), you are missing a master's class in brilliant world building and nuanced characters. The Godstone is another perfect example of Malan's talents.  Fantasy lovers will be thrilled and addicted.

Last Guard

 Last Guard (Psy-Changeling Trinity #5)- Nalini Singh

Penguin Random House

Release Date: July 20, 2021

Rating:📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Termed merciless by some, and a robotic sociopath by others, Payal Rao is the perfect Psy: cardinal telekinetic, CEO of a major conglomerate, beautiful—and emotionless.

For Canto Mercant, family and loyalty are everything. A cardinal telepath deemed “imperfect” by his race due to a spinal injury, Canto cares for the opinions of very few—and ruthlessly protects those he claims as his own. Head of intel for the influential Mercant family, he prefers to remain a shadow in the Net, unknown and unseen. But Canto is also an anchor, part of a secretive designation whose task it is to stabilize the PsyNet. Now that critical psychic network is dying, threatening to collapse and kill the entire Psy race with it.

To save those he loves, Canto needs the help of a woman bound to him by a dark past neither has been able to forget. A woman who is the most powerful anchor of them all: Payal Rao. Neither is ready for the violent inferno about to ignite in the PsyNet . . . or the passionate madness that threatens to destroy them both.

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As the Trinity series has grown, readers have gotten to discover more about the Psy race. But it hasn't just been their development after the fall of Silence that we've seen, it has been the disintegration of the PsyNet, the psychic network that keeps them alive. In Last Guard the secluded, nearly forgotten designation of Anchor Psy must step into the forefront to help save the dying PsyNet and give their people a chance to live. Canto and Payal were abused and terrified children when they first met but they forged a bond that, decades later, has proven unbreakable by time, Silence, and family cruelty. 

Over the arc of Nalini Singh's Psy-Changeling series, we've seen the Psy race go from being the big bad robots with a few dissenters to a people who got a lot of things wrong in their search for peace and safety and are now trying something new. Canto and Payal are perfect examples of the 'new' Psy as a whole: people trying to be brave enough to not only embrace change, but to try to learn new ways of living after a lifetime of abuse. Payal in particular is a person learning that there is no need to be 'perfect' and that it is our flaws and quirks that make us truly unique. Her lessons are ones we should all try to learn from.

The connections between Canto and Payal are wonderfully written, even before words like "love" became involved you could see the bonds between them and cheer them on as they discover how to support each other. By the time emotions develop to admitting they love each other, the reader feels that love as a tangible thing, wrapping around them the way Canto wraps Payal in his arms. It's a feeling that, like the hope for the Psy by the end of the book, stays with you long after the final page. 

Readers familiar with the series will enjoy cameos by characters they've met in previous books, including Arwen and Pasha and Silver and Valentine (Silver Silence). They get to further play the 'what's going on between Nikita and Anthony' game and spend more time with Ena Mercant. For readers just joining the world, while more of the backstories will make sense if you've read other books in the series, newbies won't really be lost by jumping in mid-stream. But they will become addicted and instantly need to read the entire series before ever sleeping again. So take a few days off work and make some strong coffee before diving in.

The brilliant world-building and sparkling, tangible emotions readers have come to expect from Nalini Singh are in full force here. Last Guard is a wonderful new addition to an unbeatable series. 

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Incense and Sensibility

Incense and Sensibility (The Rajes #3)- Sonali Dev

HarperCollins

Release Date: July 6, 2021

Rating:📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Yash Raje, California’s first Indian-American gubernatorial candidate, has always known exactly what he wants—and how to use his privileged background to get it. He attributes his success to a simple mantra: control your feelings and you can control the world. But when a hate crime at a rally critically injures his friend, Yash’s easy life suddenly feels like a lie, his control an illusion. When he tries to get back on the campaign trail, he blacks out with panic.

Desperate to keep Yash’s condition from leaking to the media, his family turns to the one person they trust—his sister’s best friend, India Dashwood, California’s foremost stress management coach. Raised by a family of yoga teachers, India has helped San Francisco’s high strung overachievers for a decade without so much as altering her breath. But this man—with his boundless ambition, simmering intensity, and absolute faith in his political beliefs—is like no other. 

Yash has spent a lifetime repressing everything to succeed, including their one magical night ten years ago—a too brief, too bright passion that if rekindled threatens to destroy the dream he’s willingly shouldered for his family and community . . . until now.

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Sonali Dev has been introducing readers to the powerful Raje family of California through her Jane Austen-inspired series (Pride, Prejudice and Other Flavors and Recipe for Persuasion) and in Incense and Sensibility we meet golden son Yash, California's first Indian-American gubernatorial candidate. The election is coming up and the entire Raje family is pulling out all the stops to support Yash's run.  But a hate crime at a rally hurts Yash and critically injures his friend and bodyguard Abdul, and suddenly Yash feels more out of control and helpless than he ever has before. Family friend India Dashwood is asked to help him deal with his stress, but there's a lot more going on than their families know. One magical night ten years ago, Yash and India met and instantly clicked. But Yash put aside what he wanted to form an alliance with family friend Naina, and now he's keeping secrets for others that are eating away at him- not good for helping reduce stress.  India doesn't know if she can help Yash without losing her heart again, but she's determined to try.

I absolutely fell in love with India and Yash, and Sonali Dev does a brilliant job here, bringing them to life and pulling the reader into the emotional turmoil of their journey. India is calm, centered, and self-assured, she believes in herself and is determined to handle every problem life throws at her family. She's strong and carries the burdens of being the responsible one in the family without coming across as a martyr. From the outside, Yash seems the same- strong, focused, confident, and ready to use his power and influence to fix the wrongs he sees in the world. But Yash has been physically and emotionally traumatized even before the rally shooting, and has finally hit the point of not being able to push it down and ignore his feelings anymore. The contrast between who Yash presents to the world and what he feels inside as he tries to deal with everything was written with empathy and sympathy, and complete believability. But what really caught me was the emotional pull between Yash and India, the magnetic and fantastic connection between them, the yearning to be together and all of the sensible and real-world reasons why it couldn't happen.  This wasn't the class disconnect or family obligations or "I'm not good enough" made up reasons that so many books use as the angst to separate lovers until the very end, but literally Yash as a person vs Yash as a politician. Which makes way more sense when you read the book and I won't spoil it by explaining further here. 

One of the problems a lot of adaptations of Austen novels have is trying to stay too closely to the original, making the contemporary story feel forced into a mold it can't work with. Incense and Sensibility is its own story and never makes the mistake of forcing in a plot point from Sense and Sensibility that doesn't work. But Austen fans will occasionally find themselves seeing a shadow of the original story or a character in ways that will make them smile without taking away from the originality of the characters and plot they are immersed in.

Some Jane Austen books are harder to adapt than others and Sense and Sensibility always seems to be particularly difficult. Even though it isn't my favorite of Austen's books, I keep reading modern adaptations, looking for a good one and being left disliking what I read. Until now. Incense and Sensibility blew away my expectations, captured my emotions and held me in thrall until long past the final page. A wonderful, colorful, and original story full of emotion and empathy, this book is a real winner.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Bargain of Blood & Gold

 A Bargain of Blood & Gold- Kristin Jacques

City Owl Press

Release Date: June 15, 2021

Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: When Johnathan Newman arrives in Cress Haven, the last thing he expects is for his life to be irrevocably changed. Sent by a clandestine league of vampire hunters to investigate a string of murders, signs point to a vampire lurking amid the townsfolk. Johnathan’s attempt to enlist the locals leads him to an unlikely partnership with Vic, the town's most eligible, enigmatic bachelor.

As the pair work to solve the mystery, Vic’s secrets come back to bite him. Revealed, the vampire fights his attraction to a man trained to destroy him, while Johnathan’s emotions land him in the middle of forbidden desires. Even if Vic isn’t the murderer, how can Johnathan yearn for his natural enemy?

As Vic leads Johnathan into encounters with terrifying beings straight from children’s nightmares, Johnathan learns that not only is the world stranger than he knew, but that those he once trusted have far darker intentions that will place hunter and vampire at the center of a conflict between realms.

Cress Haven holds more sinister secrets than its resident vampire, a secret so great, it could unleash Hell itself.

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A Bargain of Blood and Gold introduces readers to a world where the supernatural is just out of sight, and the Society has taken on the job of protecting humanity from things that go bump in the night.  For Jonathan Newman's graduation exercise into the Society he is left at Cress Haven to handle a series of reported vampire attacks in the small Maine village. But the mauled body of a young woman on his first night there proves to Jonathan that whatever is haunting Cress Haven, it is far more than a mere vampire. Johnathan teams up with slick country gentleman Vic and fiery parson's daughter Alyse to discover what is attacking the girls and learns that what he thinks he knows about the supernatural is just the tip of the iceberg.

This is a hard book to review without giving away too many spoilers, which I'll try not to do. Bargain is a fast-paced book full of danger and the reader is right there with Johnathan trying to figure out what is happening.  His attraction to Vic becomes even more disturbing to him when he realizes Vic is a vampire and brings up a lot of dark memories of his tragic past. Jacques handles the romance well, with light touches and teasing/flirting as Vic and Jonathan figure out how they should handle the whole "natural enemies" thing.  Also the whole "possibly we're all going to die" thing, because while trying to understand what is happening in Cress Haven they are in non-stop danger, getting attacked from strange creatures, or healing from said danger and attacks pretty much constantly. They can be forgiven for occasionally putting the slow-burn romance on hold to see if they can survive the situation. I liked how, even before Jonathan was really sure what he thought of Vic or Alyse, he knew he could trust them and they developed into a pretty good team.

Alyse is definitely not your typical country parson's daughter. She has no qualms about ignoring convention,  matter-of-factly solving the supernatural mystery in her home town, and joining in the fight when she has to. She knows what Vic is and loves him for who he is. She refuses to stay at home and be 'safe' while the men go out to battle.  Whether it is the possibility of vampires, fairies (the Patricia Briggs kind, not the Disney kind), vampires, or humans, Alyse accepts the evil as well as the good and keeps the men in line. Jonathan takes a little warming up to, but his unbelievable stubbornness and sheer dumb luck grew on me, as did his mental flexibility when ignoring the Society's idea of 'right' and 'wrong' long before he learns to seriously question their actions. Bargain is full of excellent light sarcasm and humor-and Vic gets all the best lines. Questions about Vic and his past still linger by the end, but it becomes obvious in the last few pages we will have more adventures of Vic, Jonathan, and Alyse to look forward to in the future. The only real question by the end for me was, how will Kristin Jacques top this in her next book?

I received a free copy of this book from BookSirens in exchange for an honest review

The King's Seal

 

The King's Seal (Magicians of Venice Book 3)- Amy Kuivalainen

BHC Press

Release Date: June 24, 2021

Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: The search for the legendary ring of King Solomon has begun, and Penelope must sift through its long and convoluted history of lost emperors, crusaders, and other famous historical figures—including one with whom the magicians share their own complicated past— if she hopes to find it in time.

As Penelope's magic continues to grow stronger with the coming high tide, she and Alexis will have to depend upon each other more than ever to keep everyone they care about safe from the continuing attacks by Thevetat’s priests.

When the magical high tide finally peaks, the long-awaited battle against Thevetat will begin, and Penelope, Alexis, and the magicians will have to rely on both powers of old and new if they hope to defeat their enemy once and for all.

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The King's Seal is the third and final book in the Magicians of Venice trilogy- here Penelope and the magicians must find the Ring of Solomon to help them defeat Thevatat and his plan to not only provide a body for himself but also unleash more demons on the world. Penelope learns more about the complicated histories of her friends, meets an emperor, and begins to try and understand her place in this magical world- which includes understanding powers of her own.

The Magicians of Venice is definitely a trilogy that should be read in order. Each book builds on the other as pasts are unveiled, alliances formed, and the danger Thevatat and his followers presents build to the ultimate climax. But it isn't all terror at the coming fight. Like in The Immortal City and The Sea of the Dead, Amy Kuivalainen takes time to develop her cast of characters and provide bits of the joy, awe, and sorrow that must come from being immortal. Meeting the emperor Constantine brings up emotions from all of the magician's pasts and when the Sforzas and Medicis are brought into the mix we get to see Phaidros and Aelia at some of their most emotional states (both for better and worse). Thankfully in a house of magicians there's always someone able to put the thrown china and other breakables back together. 

I enjoyed the continued thread of Phaidros and Aelia in their will-they-won't-they relationship, especially since we finally get to see Aelia at her most vulnerable and hear why they haven't gotten together when the two of them seem to be the only ones who don't realize they are in love with each other. With the continuing threats Alexis is at some of his fiercest Defender moments, but there are also delightfully sweet and tender scenes with Penelope as she helps him remember the good that was Atlantis and not just the wars. Penelope continues to be her strong and stubborn self, refusing to be overawed by ancient magicians or murdering demons.  She and Marco take things in admirable stride, no matter what weirdness gets thrown at them. Constantine helps shake things up but also helps bring together the final battle and fits well into the mix.

At first reading I thought the final battle was a little anticlimactic, but after thinking about it for a few minutes I changed my mind. No spoilers here but I think it ended exactly the way it should have.  In the end, life goes on and learning to celebrate the joys as well as the sorrows is something even immortal magicians need to learn.  Kuivalainen wrapped things up beautifully, but maybe we can still hope for more in this world of hers. Constantine may be a jerk at times but would be an interesting spin off, as would focusing on some of the magicians we get less of like Zo or Galenos and Lyca  Even more interesting would be going back to Atlantis and the first wars that ended the island. But even if this is the last book Kuivalainen writes in this world, it is certainly a world we can be grateful we can return to any time, just by picking up the books. It is certainly one I plan on returning to frequently.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review