All posts in Fantasy

Ash Princess

By Brookelorren on 2 Comments
Ash Princess cover

Ash Princess, by Laura Sebastian, is a story about a former princess (Theodosia) whose country was overtaken by another when she was much younger. Although the new kingdom has taken her in, she has become the subject of beatings and the butt of their jokes. Overall, I enjoyed it, although it didn’t have quite the addictive properties that some other books I’ve read this year had.

The book has a great character arc. Theodosia starts out as this mousy character that meekly takes beatings. Later, she becomes a heroine that is willing to take risks to help her people, which are slowly being exterminated by the ruling powers.

I really like how Theodosia grows to care for her people and has a conscience. The book has something to say about the world we live in today too:

I suppose it’s easy to be at home in a world where you are on top. It’s easy not to notice those whose backs you stand on to stay there.

p. 26

My comment after reading that quote was “Ouch.” I couldn’t help but think about people in other parts of the world making iPhones and cheap clothing at slave wages when I read that.

Ash Princess has some pretty good suspense to it. The main villain is pretty evil, but he’s not the only person Theodosia has to worry about. There are a lot of bad people in the ruling kingdom.

There’s a little bit of romance in this book and the possibility of a love triangle in the next book. I haven’t read any spoilers for Lady Smoke (the sequel), so I don’t know how that goes. I think the love interests have the opportunity for good character arcs as well. More romance would have been nice in this book; maybe the sequel will have it.

Overall, I enjoyed Ash Princess. It wasn’t quite as addicting as The Cruel Prince or some of the other books that will make my top 10 books of the year, but I recommend it nevertheless. I do plan on reading Lady Smoke at some point; I just don’t know when.

The Raven Boys

By Brookelorren on 2 Comments
The Raven Boys cover

I finally got around to reading The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater! You know those authors that every week (usually right around Tuesday) you get a reminder that you have to read one of their books? Well, Maggie Stiefvater was one of them, and The Raven Boys is the book that everybody associates with her. So when I found out that there was a Raven Cycle readalong, I had to get involved. I wasn’t disappointed.

Blue is a non-clairvoyant girl in a family of clairvoyants. She does have a gift for making it easier for the other ladies in her family to be able to see into the spirit world more strongly. Her family isn’t wealthy, and she works a couple of jobs to help out.

She’s also been told that the first boy she falls in love with and kisses will die.

Also in her town is one of those stuffy-stuck up private schools for rich boys. The one in her town is Aglionby Academy. The boys absolutely rankle her when she has to help them at the restaurant where she works. So when a boy shows up and asks if she’d go talk to a friend of his (both from the Academy) she gets really upset. They don’t really hit it off on the right foot.

Until they realize that she actually has something in common with this particular group of boys. They’re in the process of going on this supernatural treasure hunt.

They’re not the only people going on this treasure hunt. And the other person searching doesn’t want to play nice. You’ll just have to read the book to find out more.

The Raven Boys is a great friendship book. Despite being from Aglionby, these particular boys aren’t stuck up or snobby. They allow her into their group, even though she’s neither a boy nor wealthy. The four boys themselves care about each other too. Additionally, these boys aren’t just caricatures… they all have little quirks, things they like, etc. that make them seem like real people.

At the end of book one, you don’t find out who Blue is going to kiss or who’s going to die, but you’ll want to read the next book to find out anyway, so it doesn’t matter.

Conclusion: read the book. Especially if you’re into the paranormal, great friendships, and cool settings with fairly small towns set near the forest. I’m glad I finally got the chance to read it.

Crown of Coral and Pearl

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Crown of Coral and Pearl cover

I recently had the opportunity to read Mara Rutherford’s debut, Crown of Coral and Pearl. Thank you Netgalley and Inkyard Press for the opportunity! This is a book with a unique setting and an interesting premise. Although, for me, it started out a little slow, the last 2/3rds of the book kept me enthralled and I wanted to read more! I definitely want to read the sequel when it comes out.

Nor and Zadie are born at sea to a people who live their entire lives at sea: at gunpoint. The only way they’ll ever be able to set foot on land is if they are deemed to be the most beautiful girl in a generation and are sent to land to marry the prince. As a child, Nor dreamed of going, but a scar that she received on her cheek dashed those hopes.

Her identical twin sister, on the other hand… doesn’t have that scar… but she’d rather stay at sea and marry her boyfriend. We have a mess on our hands here!

Eventually, Nor actually does got (impersonating Zadie), but once she gets to the palace and meets Ceren, her husband-to-be, things aren’t exactly as she’d hope them to be. Not only is Ceren a jerk, there’s also some political intrigue going on, that we find out more about as the story progresses.

The Setting

One of the things that stand out to me the most in Crown of Coral and Pearl is the setting. I don’t know if I’ve read any book before where the main characters live at sea their whole lives, never to set foot on land. It makes a completely different culture than I’m used to. This is different than a story that takes place on a ship, because they swim or take a boat between houseboats, and frequently jump in the water to dive for oysters. The setting of the palace, once we get there, is also fairly unique, but I won’t describe it here and ruin the surprise.

The Story

I also enjoyed the story, although it started out slow for me. I’m not sure why. Maybe it was the isolation of the community itself, and the silly mindset that came with the people there, that beauty was really the only thing that mattered in a girl. The book picked up considerably when Nor, disguised as Zadie, reaches the palace. I enjoyed her interactions with the people there more than I did at sea. And the end! It was incredible. I already added the next book, Kingdom of Sea and Stone, to my Goodreads TBR.

Conclusion

With its unique setting and premise, Mara Rutherford’s debut, Crown of Coral and Pearl, is worth checking out. Even though the beginning started off a little slow, the last part of the book was exciting, and the next book should be just as good!

The Priory of the Orange Tree

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The Priory of the Orange Tree cover

Earlier this year, I read Samantha Shannon’s The Priory of the Orange Tree. In case you didn’t know, this is a brick of a book, at 846 pages. Despite its length, I don’t really think there were many wasted words. This has an intricate plot to rival Game of Thrones, although, as a stand-alone, you won’t have to wait over 20 years to find out what finally happened.

The Queendom of Berethnet needs an heir. For some magical reason, the Berethnet queens always have one child, and it is always a daughter. Queen Sabran the Ninth hasn’t married yet and doesn’t really want to. Still, she must have a child. There’s a prophecy that as long as there’s a Berethnet Queen on the throne, the queendom will be safe.

Meanwhile, evil forces are waking up, and in other places people are training to be heroes. All of the stories weave together until the final confrontation, where a different world will arise.

A Complex Story

The Priory of the Orange Tree is a long story with a lot of complexity. It’s one of those stories that might be better on a reread. There are so many characters, I wasn’t able to keep them all straight all the time. For me, it was the same with Game of Thrones. By the fourth book, I was starting to forget what plot line happened with which character, but I think a reread would be helpful with that too. For quite a while, I was getting confused between the West and the East. They both have vastly different politics. Towards the middle I was able to sort everything out.

Other Thoughts

The book had a lot of beautiful writing, and you could tell that the worldbuilding was well thought out. While I was reading it, I highlighted quite a few passages that I thought were beautiful.

The Priory of the Orange Tree uses a ton of archaic vocabulary. While it does add authenticity to the world, you might want to have a dictionary handy. Most of the archaic words deal with clothing, weapons, and other items in the universe.

Overall, I enjoyed this story. However, it did run a little long and I had a little bit of difficulty keeping all the storylines and characters straight, at least at first. Still it might be good for a reread. Someday.

A Court of Mist and Fury

By Brookelorren on 6 Comments
A Court of Mist and Fury cover

I recently read A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas. It’s the second book in the Court of Thorns and Roses series, and I think I enjoyed it better than the first book. Since this is the second book in a series, it may include a few spoilers.

Feyre has survived her ordeal under the mountain, and is now learning how to live as one of the Fey. But now that she’s an immortal, something seems… off. She gets to be with Tamlin, but he seems possessive and controlling. Maybe Feyre doesn’t want to return to the life she once had, where she has to hunt for survival, but she also doesn’t want to be shut away in manor like some fragile doll. Tamlin swears that things will get better, but will they really? She’s about to marry him, the mating bond hasn’t kicked in, and things seem wrong.

On the day of Feyre’s wedding, things seem to fall apart.

There’s a lot that happens in this book. We already knew that Feyre was a strong human, but in A Court of Mist and Fury she learns how to be strong as one of the fey. We get to see more of the world beyond the wall. There are new threats… and new friends. And Feyre’s life is turned upside down yet again.

If you read a lot of book blogs or hang out on book Twitter, it’s hard to avoid all spoilers for this series, but even though I knew of something that was going to happen in this book, I didn’t know how it was going to happen, and I really enjoyed it. I was also quite surprised at other things that occurred in A Court of Mist and Fury. Especially the end.

Even though they are marketed as YA, SJM books are definitely more adult than young. This series is not an exception. But if you are on the adult end of young adult and enjoy fantasy books with fey, I recommend this series and this book.

The Poppy War

By Brookelorren on 2 Comments
The Poppy War cover

Last year, everybody was talking about The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang. When I saw it on sale last year, I had to pick it up. I didn’t get around to reading it until this year though. It was an enjoyable, but fairly dense, book.

In a land resembling medieval China, Rin is struggling to make a tolerable life for herself. Being a poor orphan girl, she only has one shot: she needs to ace the Keju exams, or she’ll be forced into a marriage she doesn’t want. Getting a scholarship into the prestigious Sinegard academy may be her ticket out of marriage, but it won’t be the end of her struggles. Not only is the academy more difficult than anything she’s ever experienced, war is on the horizon.

What I Liked

There was a lot that I liked about this book. I liked Rin, the protagonist, and her determination. The supporting characters were interesting and unique. I also loved the Medieval China-ish setting. This is still a world we don’t see a lot of.

This is a very dense book with some heavy themes and philosophizing. I copied down several quotes into my book journal, like “the creation of empire requires conformity and uniform obedience” and “It was, simply, what happened when one race decided that the other was insignificant.” When war comes to this land, there is a race of people that wants to wipe out the other. The war is quite brutal.

Things to Note

There is magic in this book, but the magic doesn’t seem to be the central focus of The Poppy War. Rin doesn’t really start to develop her powers until later in the book, so later books in this trilogy might be different.

Like I said earlier, the war in this book is quite brutal. The Poppy War is a pretty heavy book. If you’re in the mood for a light contemporary, you might want to wait on this one. Some people might find the brutality in this book to be triggering. War is hell, especially when one of the parties doesn’t see the other side as worthy of humanity.

While I’m typically not a mood reader — I stick to my seasonal TBR pretty well, like to create monthly TBRs, and generally read my ARCs when they’re scheduled — I definitely want to read the sequel, The Dragon Republic, when I’m in the mood for something dark.

City of Brass

By Brookelorren on 4 Comments
The City of Brass cover

I recently finished reading City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty. I started reading it for a readalong last December and… then I got distracted by a shiny — ooh, a book! — and I kept forgetting to get back to it. Don’t let the fact that I got distracted while reading this book deter you. I did like it.

Nahri is a young woman just trying to survive in old-timey Cairo. This isn’t an easy task, as you can imagine. She doesn’t have a family to fall back on, and she has become skilled as a con-artist in the process. Until she accidentally summons a djinn. Whoops.

From that point, her life will never be the same. The next thing you know, Nahri and the djinn are running away from monsters. They end up taking shelter in Daevabad, which seems like a good idea at first, but happens to be ruled by a monster of a different kind.

There’s a lot to this book, which makes the book both intriguing and… perhaps a little overwhelming.

First, City of Brass has quite an array of supernatural beings. Some of them I’m familiar with, like the djinn, but then there are many other tribes and cultures with different affinities, and it’s all really hard to keep track of. Then each culture has a rich history and… I certainly can’t remember it all. Never mind that I got distracted and went off and read a bunch of other books before finishing this one, I had trouble keeping this all in my head while I was reading it.

Then, there’s the court of Daevabad itself. There are rebels and the ruling family has its history and everybody is fighting against each other. It might not have been as difficult if I hadn’t already been trying to keep track of all the supernatural beings.

There is a bit of a love triangle with Nahri and the djinn that she ends up summoning and the younger prince. It’s not resolved in this book. I have my personal favorite that I’m rooting for, but I’ll have to read the next book to see what happens.

My guess is that this book is one that would be better upon a reread. While I enjoyed the book, I’m not sure if I liked it enough to reread it. The characters were interesting enough, but I didn’t feel a connection to them like I do in some of the books that I can reread over and over and over again.

So, while City of Brass is well-written and has an amazingly complex and intricate world, it didn’t end up being one that I’ll gush over for years to come. That’s mostly on me, not the book. If I would have felt more connection to the characters or been more familiar with the culture, I probably would have liked it more.

Beasts of the Frozen Sun

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I recently had the opportunity to read Beasts of the Frozen Sun by Jill Criswell (thank you Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for the Advanced Reader Copy!). I enjoyed the book and would recommend it for older young adult readers.

Lira’s known loss, but everything seems to fall apart shortly after she finds a boy, half-dead, wash up onto the shore. He’s from another land — enemies of her clan. The boy happened to be the same boy that saved her from gods-knows-what years before. She decides to save him, and that’s when her adventure started. And you’ve all heard the ancient Chinese curse, “may you live in interesting times”.

What I Liked

There’s a lot I liked about Beasts of the Frozen Sun. Lira is a strong-willed character who is willing to do what is right, even if it could be dangerous or defies her own family and clan. She cares about her good friend and about her family. She’s also willing to see past a person’s birth circumstances and judge a person on what’s in their heard. Lira happens to have the ability to see into a person’s soul, and Reyker — the boy she saved — is not who he appears to be at first.

The culture and circumstances seem to go along with what the societies this story was based on were like historically. I like to read about girls that kick butt just as much as the next person, but realistically, girls are generally not as physically strong as trained male warriors (unless they have some sort of magical power). In most ancient cultures, girls weren’t much autonomy and were controlled by their fathers. When fighting, Lira doesn’t have a physical advantage over the invading warriors. Her father thinks that he can use her as a pawn. Of course, Lira overcomes this.

I also enjoyed the relationship she develops with Reyker. Their trust in each other develops very slowly, as you would expect with people that grow up being taught to hate each other. Although their relationship takes time to grow, it becomes strong and I found myself wanting to see everything work out for them.

This book has political maneuvering and evil characters making deals with the enemy. I liked the twists and turns it made.

What I Liked Less

The story took a little while to grow on me. By the end, I didn’t want to put it down, but it didn’t immediately grab me. That happens often with books that have prologues, but at least the prologue to Beasts of the Frozen Sun directly ties into what happens afterwards.

Other Things to Note

YA books cover a wide age range, and I wouldn’t recommend this book to younger YA readers. There are also things that could trigger some readers. This book has a male-dominated warrior culture, and the way they treat the captured women is not good (although not really elaborated on). There are executions and one attempted rape.

Beasts of the Frozen Sun ends in a cliffhanger. It’s not a massive cliffhanger where you’re just dying to find out what happens next, but I definitely was left with wanting to find out what happened next. I’ve already added the next book to my TBR.

Obsidian

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Obsidian cover

It’s summer now, which means it’s time to get started on my Summer TBR! One of the books on that list was Obsidian. I’ve been meaning to try out Jennifer L. Armentrout’s Lux books since I received an ARC of The Darkest Star last fall (just to be clear, I recieved it from a blogger after the pub date, not the publisher, so I wasn’t obligated to review it right away). I accidentally read Storm and Fury, and I really liked it, so I figured it was time to read the rest of her books.

Katy is the new girl in this fairly small town where everybody seems to know each other. Her mom wants her to get to know her neighbors, while she’d rather stay home and blog (she even mentions Waiting on Wednesday!). The boy next door, Daemon, happens to be hot… but for some reason he seems to have this immediate hatred for her. His sister seems to like her though. Over the course of this story, Katy and Daemon seem to develop this enemies to… enemies that are attracted to each other relationship. Oh, and the neighbors happen to be aliens too.

What I Liked

So what book blogger can’t identify with another book blogger? I’ve never written a Waiting on Wednesday post, but I’ve certainly read them. I thought it was a great touch that Katy actually seemed like a pretty normal blogger. I also really liked Katy’s voice. She had enough of an attitude to be interesting.

Then there was the whole relationship aspect in Obsidian. There’s a good friendship portrayed here between Katy and Dee. Once high school starts, Katy makes some other friends as well. Then there’s Daemon; their relationship is kinda hawt.

What I Didn’t Like Quite as Much

Daemon is a world-class jerk. Katy doesn’t do anything to him the day they meet, and he insults her pretty much immediately. Then they end up having to spend time with each other, and he’s kinda nice, and then he’s a jerk again…

Katy, you deserve better than this!

She’s not a stupid girl. She puts all the clues together and figures out what’s going on. Yet… she still hangs out with Daemon even after he’s been an ass, and he really doesn’t make amends and give a good apology for his behavior. Yes, the book was fun and I enjoyed reading it, but I really had to set this particular aspect of the book aside.

I guess the other thing I didn’t like quite as much about this book was Ash. She’s one of the other students in the school and was formerly in a relationship with Daemon. There’s something of an explanation to her behavior as it relates to the situation and Daemon (which I won’t mention here) but she again was a jerk to her for no reason, and Daemon was again an ass about it.

Conclusion

I know I wrote more about what I didn’t like than what I did like here, but I really did like Obsidian. I’m looking forward to clearing some room in my reading schedule to continue this series. Katy was a great character and I really liked her, and I want to find out what happens to her. But yes, there were some problems with Daemon. I’m willing to overlook it, and there are reasons to explain his behavior, but this isn’t a good example of a healthy beginning to a relationship.

So I would recommend Obsidian, but if you’ve had problems with verbally abusive boyfriends in the past, perhaps this might not be the book for you. If you didn’t like Jude and Cardan in The Cruel Prince series, this probably wouldn’t be a series you’d like either.

Kingdom of Ash

By Brookelorren on 4 Comments
Kingdom of Ash Cover

The final installment of Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass series is Kingdom of Ash. At 980 pages, this is an epic book. To be honest, it was a little bit too long. But it was a fitting end to a great series.

Because this is a review of the last book of a series, there are spoilers for the first six books.

At the beginning of the book, things look hopeless. Aelin is in an iron box trapped by Maeve (whom we now know is Valg), all of our protagonists are separated, and the forces of evil have their armies everywhere. How are they going to find Aelin and fight off all these forces? I don’t think I’m really spoiling much to say that they’re going to eventually win. An ending where Maeve and Erawan win and everyone dies would have everybody shaking their fists, vowing to never read another Sarah J. Maas book again.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. It was interesting to see the twists and turns, and find out how Ms. Maas was going to pull the characters out of all the messes they got themselves into. There were several situations where things looked really bleak. Sadly, not everybody will survive. In the end, there was no irrational “oh the gods came down and saved everyone” end either. The way the conflict was resolved was quite satisfying.

A Really Long Book

I like big books as well as the next person, but Kingdom of Ash might have been a little bit too long. There were too many long, detailed battle scenes. While I enjoy history, I don’t particularly care for reading a lot of battle scenes. They can easily become too much for me. I gave this book four stars on Goodreads – pretty much the reason it lost a star was the length. Partly due to the battle scenes.

Kingdom of Ash is very detailed. I found myself referring to the map several times while reading this book. There were characters that show up in this book that we haven’t seen since Throne of Glass. There is so much going on in this book that someday I may have to binge-read this series again just to remember everything that happened.

To give an example of how long this book is, there’s about 100 pages of this book where stuff happens after the climax of the book: coronations, wedding talk, that sort of thing. Yes, I want to find out what happens to the characters afterwards, but for 100 pages? After already reading nearly 900 pages? It was a little bit much.

Conclusion

I liked this book. There were a lot of great characters and subplots, but the length was just a bit too much, even for someone that reads a lot of long books. If you’re going to make your fiction book nearly 1000 pages, make sure they’re all necessary.