Marshal Apostle Richardson faces off against bloodthirsty outlaws, flesh witches, ruthless vigilantes, and more in this gritty, magical re-imagining of the Old West.Almena Guillory, better known as the Grizzly Queen of the West, has done plenty to warrant the noose, but US Marshal Apostle Richardson enforces the law, he doesn’t decide it. When a posse tries to lynch Almena ahead of her trial, … Almena ahead of her trial, Apostle refuses their form of expedited justice – and receives a bullet for his trouble. Almena spares him through the use of dangerous flesh magic but escapes soon after saving him.
Weeks later, Apostle fears the outlaw queen has returned to her old ways when she’s spotted terrorizing Kansas with a new gang in tow. When cornered, however, Almena makes a convincing case for her innocence and proposes a plan to take the real bandits down. Working with a known killer opens Apostle up to all sorts of trouble, not the least being his own growing attraction toward the roguish woman. Turning Almena away from vengeance may be out of the question, but if he doesn’t try, she’ll wind up right where the law wants her: at the end of a rope.
And if Apostle isn’t careful, he’ll end up joining her.
If you like Red Dead Redemption and Lila Bowen’s Wake of Vultures, you’ll love this gun-blazing weird western.
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Surprised I bought this since it’s not what I typically pick but I loved it. I didn’t want the story of Apostle and Almena to end. Such interesting characters.
crappy ending.
The description said it was weird, and it was. But it was also realistic as far as the interactions between the people.
Probably not my cup of tea, but worth a try.
This has been a great reading experience. I found it difficult to put it down. Very imaginative, written with a great deal of character build up.
At a time when Western books/stories are few and far between, this book delivered a delightful story. It was a clean, hard to put down story!
Reminiscent of Steven King’s Dark Tower series.
Combines the best elements of western and fantasy for a thrilling ride that won’t let you go.
Stone has woven together the things we love about the old American west — frontier justice, gunslinging, and robberies on horseback — with pagan magic and morally ambiguous characters. Take this wild ride. You won’t regret it.
With relatable characters and delightful prose, this magic-laced gunslinger tale will transport you instantly into the Old West.
Stone writes with grit, passion, and indomitable energy. A helluva ride.
I was surprised and delighted by Hayley’s previous hard SF novels. I jumped at a chance to get my hands on a review copy of Make Me No Grave. To be honest, I haven’t read that many true Westerns in my life–the only one I can recall was in middle school, for English class. But I enjoy a good fantasy and a good trip through Westworld, so why NOT enjoy a fantasy set in the Wild West?
Deep, well-written characters are the beating heart of this novel, as they are in all the best stories. This is an adventure tale about the strongest idealist in the West, and a hard-riding criminal who knows that everything isn’t always as ideal as it seems. The biggest outlaw in the West has a heart and the best of reasons for what she does, they don’t always align neatly with black and white definitions of good and evil defined by law and religion. Add in some bank robbers, steam engines, and frontier-style justice, and you’re going to be in for a really good adventure.
Well-paced and well-written, with an original magic system, this is the fresh fantasy novel you don’t know you’ve been waiting for.
Western? fantasy? romance? – A MARVELOUS BOOK!
Let me start by saying I don’t read Westerns. Period. I do -rarely- read fantasy. I was offered an ARC of Make Me No Grave by the publisher, Aethon (Thanks, RCB) and agreed to read it with the full expectation that I wouldn’t much care for it. Hours later, after staying up to finish it, I still am not a fan of westerns, and most fantasy leaves me lukewarm, but Make Me No Grave is a stunning, fascinating, and mind-bending exception. Writer Hayley Stone makes you feel the grit and the dust, hear the whine of bullets, and smell the whiskey and the gunpowder. She makes you feel even more the undercurrents of attraction, the clash of perspectives, and the puzzling miracles wrought by magic, as two complicated souls fight each other, and then unite to fight for the good. I couldn’t get Almena and Apostle out of my head – not their initial hardline isolation, nor the surprising ability to empathize and respect each other, and definitely not the poetic justice of their influence on each other. And as entertaining as the frontier dialogue and the wild west action scenes are, the real meat of this novel is the author’s depth of understanding and her ability to frame issues of morality, guilt, atonement, and redemption within the context of a magnificently evolving human relationship.
This book is a great mix of your typical Western with a touch of magic. As I was listening to the book, the author did a great job in the descriptions and I could definitely see the whole story in my mind as a Western movie or TV show.
Marshall Apostle Richardson has captured the notorious outlaw Allmena Guillory, also know as the Grizzly Queen. However, this time the Marshall may have taken on more than he can handle without having his life changed forever. When a vigilante group grabs Allmena and tries to hang her, the Marshall has to decide whether to uphold the law or go along with the lynching.
The characters are well-developed and their histories are revealed as the story unfolds. Even though Allmena is a criminal, she is a very sympathetic character. Apostle is also a very deep character and deals with his fate as well as the demons from his past.
The addition of the magical elements to this story make it very unique and add a lot to the story. But, this magic does nothing to detract from the Old West feeling of the book.
The narrator does a great job and added a lot to my enjoyment of this book. I hope that the author chooses to continue this series because there is so much more that I want to know about Allmena and Apostle’s histories. And, the potential romance that is only hinted at in this book has me intrigued as well.
I was given the chance to listen to this book by the author/narrator/publisher and chose to review it.
“To me belongeth vengeance, and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.”I didn’t wonder long who she was referring to.…The woman who couldn’t be killed still hunting a man who should be dead. It was almost poetic.”
I’m a reader who will read just about any genre once, and for this one, it was the cover that spoke first. The subtitle sealed the deal:”A Weird West Novel”. Gunslingers and Witches?… why not! But this is not your grandparents Zane Gray Novel, not even your own Robert Vaughn (the other Vaughn, not the actor) western. It’s a new genre from a new imprint that proves wholeheartedly that you can teach a reader/a writer a new trick.
It’s hard not to give spoilers, but I guarantee this will be a reread soon.Thank you Ms. Stone. Highly Recommended 5/5
[disclaimer: I received this book from the author and voluntarily reviewed it]