Fiction Archives - Page 11 of 32 - Brooke's Reviews and Sweeps

A Court of Mist and Fury

By Brookelorren on August 1, 2019August 1, 20196 Comments

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.

Of Curses and Kisses Cover Reveal!

By Brookelorren on July 31, 2019July 31, 20194 Comments

Last week I was chosen to be one of Sandhya Menon’s Street Team members! I’m excited because her books are great and she’s such a nice person. Anyway, one of her new books (coming out February 18, 2020) is Of Curses and Kisses, which is a Beauty and the Beast retelling set at a private school in Colorado!

She revealed the cover today and I’m allowed to share it with you!

It looks adorable! The release date is still months away, but you can read an excerpt over at Bustle! You can also pre-order it already.

The American Dream?

By Brookelorren on July 29, 2019July 29, 2019Leave a Comment

I recently read The American Dream?: A Journey on Route 66 by Shing Yin Khor (thank you to Netgalley and Zest Books for providing me with an advanced reader copy!). It’s an adorable graphic novel detailing the journey of an American Immigrant and her dog along the historic Route 66, from Santa Monica to Chicago. In today’s world, where there seems to be such animosity between people in the United States, a book like this is good for everybody to read.

In The American Dream?, Shing details her travels along Route 66 with her dog Bug, where she camps out in her car for most of the trip. She tells about the sites she encounters along the way and her feelings about them. The book has a way of immersing you in her journey, which I just loved.

The Sights. I enjoyed reading about all the sights she saw along her journey. I’ve driven parts of Route 66 without knowing it before, as I’ve lived in Los Angeles and have traveled through the Southwestern United States quite a bit, but I don’t always stop to see all the little places along the way. There are many historic and touristy places off the side of the road, and Shing visits many of them. She talks to some of the people she meets along the way or explains some of the history. It was quite interesting (and not all of the history is happy, either).

The Illustrations. The illustrations in The American Dream? are adorable. One of the main things I like about this book is how it draws you into the journey with her. A written description of the places she visits wouldn’t be the same as her visuals. They’re not photographs (we could always google those) but they’re detailed enough to make you feel like you’re there on the journey with Shing (and her dog).

The Immigrant Perspective. Shing’s perspective as an immigrant separates this book from other travel memoirs or guides. She sees things that I would never have thought of while making her journey. As an example, she saw a sign that said “American Owned” and it seemed like code for racism to her. My initial thoughts to reading the sign was “What? Is there a problem with foreign corporations buying up tourist stops along Route 66 or something?” From her perspective, she was seeing that as code for the shop owners to say “we’re not immigrants.” Without being able to stop and talk to the owners, we can’t tell whether their intention was racist or not, but I can see how someone might take it that way.

I enjoyed reading The American Dream?, and thought it was an adorable, easy to read graphic novel. It’s appropriate for both Upper Middle Grade readers and Young Adults. I’d recommend this book for several different reasons. Not only is it an interesting travel book, but it also allows you to see the United States from an immigrant’s perspective. We can always use more books that can help us see the world through someone else’s eyes.

The Thousandth Floor

By Brookelorren on July 25, 2019July 24, 2019Leave a Comment

I recently read The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee, and I liked it quite a lot. This book is not without its controversy, however. In interest of fairness, I’m going to talk about what I liked about the book, as well as the more controversial elements of this book. That way you can make a more informed decision about whether this book is for you or not.

The Thousandth Floor takes place in 2118, in a giant tower that soars 1000 stories in the air. It deals with the über-wealthy, the poor, and the places where their lives intersect. Not one of the characters in this book is a saint. I feel a sympathy for most of these people, but at the same time… wow, they really mess up. It makes for an interesting story that climaxes at a party that ends in tragedy.

What I Liked

This story was fun. The characters on the upper floors live lives where money isn’t a concern and morality is quite loosely defined. Most of the parents aren’t very involved in their children’s lives, sometimes even drinking alcohol with them. On the lower floors, the characters are just trying to survive, and their descent into illegality has more to do with survival than just trying to have a good time.

Still, they all have their secrets. Some of these secrets are deadlier than others. As I read this book, sometimes I’d be afraid to read on, afraid that one of them would get caught. Of course, if you read the prologue, you know something bad is going to happen. You just don’t know who. I didn’t know until the end.

In many ways, this seems to be an escapist read. These aren’t really problems that I have to deal with, and there can be something satisfying about wealthy people with problems.

The Controversy

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding this book, which may make you decide not to read it.

The “incest” storyline – from nearly the first chapter, you find out that Avery, a girl that was genetically designed to be as “perfect” as possible, is in love with her adoptive brother. They’re not genetically related, but if you find this sort of thing creepy, then you’re probably better off not reading this series.

Skip this paragraph if you don’t want spoilers – there is one character who is bi. None of the characters seem to think that it’s a big deal or anything. However, the character does die. I can see how this might be troublesome.

Other Social Issues – The Thousandth Floor seems to have some social difficulties. The white girl is perfect. The brown girl seems to be the villain. The Indian guy is the computer genius. Drugs are used to take advantage of a boy. There’s some sexual harassment. This seems to be a pattern.

Conclusion

The Thousandth Floor is fun to read. It drew me in from the prologue (and I don’t care for most prologues). However, this book isn’t without its controversy, and there are issues you should be aware of before you should decide to read this book or not.

Nottingham

By Brookelorren on July 22, 2019July 21, 2019Leave a Comment

How well do you know the story of Robin Hood? To be honest, I really didn’t know the story well before reading Nottingham by Nathan Makaryk. Of course, this is just one interpretation of the tale (and I’m pretty sure the legend’s traditional ending is a little different) but after reading the story, I feel like I know Robin Hood a little better.

I recently read this book after receiving an Advanced Reader Copy (thank you Bookish first and Tor Books). Overall, I enjoyed the book, although the ending wasn’t really my thing.

In Nottingham, Robin is the son of a nobleman who went off to fight the crusades. They’re having difficulty arming the soldiers, and when a shipment of weapons doesn’t show up, King Richard sends them back to England to investigate. They find out what happened to the weapons, but in the process, are drawn into the really ugly (and bloody) feud between the nobility and peasants, both of whom are suffering from the burdensome taxes.

The Rent is Too Damn High!

It seems that Jimmy McMillan (the guy pictured above and founder of the Rent is Too Damn High party) brought up a timeless truth: the rent is too damn high! People feel that today (I recently saw an article about people paying $1200 a month to rent a bunk bed), and they felt that way in the 12th century. The legend of Robin Hood came from a time when historically, the ordinary people were having a really difficult time making ends meet. Nottingham captures that feeling quite well, and really doesn’t put the blame on anyone. Everybody is the hero of their own story, and this book gives even the “villains” reasons for their actions.

That doesn’t mean I liked all the characters. I despised some of them (as people, they weren’t supposed to be likeable). Even the unlikeable characters here had good motivations for doing what they did.

This story has a lot of parallels to our own time (beyond the rent being too damn high). As someone who has friends whose political opinions range from very conservative to very liberal, I know that most people want to do the right thing. Most people aren’t the bad people the other side makes them out to be. They just have fundamental differences in worldviews that make it hard to agree on the solution. This happens all throughout this story as well. There are good people and villains on both the Robin Hood side of the story, as well as the Sheriff’s side of the story.

Writing

The descriptions in Nottingham were well-done. Sometimes authors have difficulty with fight scenes, but I think Mr. Makaryk did a good job with those. I ended up writing a page and a half of quotes from this book into my book journal.

While I enjoyed the writing, this book may or may not be a little on the long side, depending on your mood. There are a lot of different points of view in this book. Each character had their own unique voice, but with so many different characters, there’s a lot of story here. Don’t let the fact that this book is only shortly over 490 pages fool you: the type is fairly small, so the word count is a lot higher than most books of this length. Read this book when you’re looking more for a Game of Thrones style read than something you can quickly devour during a day or two at the beach.

The End and Last Thoughts

The end was really the one thing I can say I didn’t like about this book. I don’t really want to give away spoilers, but this not a book that ends well (that is, happily). There were good guys and bad guys on both sides of the struggle here, and there could have been multiple ways for Nottingham to come to a satisfying conclusion, but it didn’t really do that. Throughout the book, it seemed like some of the problems were insurmountable, and evidently, they were (at least for the immediate future).

Although I wouldn’t recommend this story if you’re in the mood for a happily-ever-after, if you’re looking for a story with complex characters, a lot of struggle, and an intricate world, you might want to check out Nottingham. It doesn’t go on sale until August 6th, but you can pre-order it now.

The Poppy War

By Brookelorren on July 18, 2019July 16, 20192 Comments

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.

This Is How You Lose the Time War

By Brookelorren on July 15, 2019July 10, 2019Leave a Comment

It’s books like This Is How You Lose the Time War that make me glad that I don’t give books a star rating on my blog. This is a book that is unique and kinda defies a rating. It may be a book that you either love or hate. Or, you could be in the middle and appreciate it’s brilliance, but the story didn’t have you at the edge of your seat. That is where I am on this book.

I have to thank Bookish First and Saga Press for providing me with an ARC!

Red and Blue are time travelers, fighting on two different sides of the same time war. They start to write letters to each other. First, the letters are taunting. Then, they start to develop a mutual respect for each other. That respect grows into love. Of course, since they are on opposite sides of the war, so their bosses cannot find out. If they do, that would be a mess. I can’t say much more of the plot without giving away spoilers.

Its Brilliance

First, the good: This Is How You Lose the Time War is a brilliant book. As Red and Blue travel through time, you get to see snippets of history which the time travelers sometimes change, sometimes keep the same. We see the Mongols, Atlantis, ancient Rome… as someone who loves history, I really enjoyed this aspect of the story. I think my favorite line in this whole book is the tongue-twister about the Mongols found on page 35 of the ARC.

This book is smart in several other ways. Red and Blue are constantly trying to find new things to call each other, such as “My careful Cardinal” for Red, and “Dearest 0000FF” for Blue. It was fun to see the new words they’d call each other. There were several words I ended up looking up in the dictionary. Also, the way the plot resolves itself was lovely. I think there would be a lot of things you’d catch if you reread this book.

The Downsides to this Book

Yes, this book is brilliant. That in itself is a pro and a con. The book can be confusing, especially in the beginning. It took me a while to really start to understand what was going on. Even then, the book didn’t have me hanging at the edge of my seat, needing to know what was going to happen next, until close to the very end.

Conclusion

This Is How You Lose the Time War may be a book that you love, or it could be a book that you hate. I’m sorry I can’t be more specific, but it really is that type of book. While it is brilliantly executed, it’s also a book that won’t be for everyone, or for every mood. If you’re looking for a beach read that you can just enjoy and wash over you, this won’t be it; however, if you’re looking for an intelligent book that will get you thinking, you might enjoy this one.

City of Brass

By Brookelorren on July 11, 2019July 11, 20194 Comments

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.

Characters that Travel (Top Ten Tuesday)

By Brookelorren on July 9, 2019July 8, 201930 Comments

Hello! As you know, it’s Tuesday again, so it’s time for another Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl). Today’s topic is “Character Freebie”. Am I the only person that has trouble coming up with topics for the freebie days? I found a topic that I wanted to do for the freebie at the end of this month, but what to do about characters? I searched around and discovered that today was the Call of the Horizon Day. So I decided to celebrate this (very) minor holiday by highlighting characters who have traveled or who have gone on journeys, answering to that call of the horizon (or perhaps being forced on that journey).

The first character that came to mind when I decided on this topic was Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings. I once did part of one of those “virtual walks” which was supposed to cover the distance walked on this epic journey. I didn’t get very far though.

A real person that traveled a lot was Laura Ingalls in The Little House on the Prairie series. She was born in Wisconsin, made the trek to “Indian territory,” then moved to Minnesota, and then finally settled in Dakota territory for the remainder of the books.

A lot of things can make you decide to travel. Perhaps you’re running away from something. Maybe you have to move due to poverty. Or perhaps you’re traveling across the country because you think your little brother needs to be rescued, as Free did when she took a road trip across the country with Cole in Into the Hollow.

Perhaps a lot of people like to hang out in their comfortable homes and avoid the call of the horizon unless they are forced to make it. Maia in Spin the Dawn probably wouldn’t have chosen to leave her family and travel as far a she did if she hadn’t felt compelled to do so as a way to protect her family. It’s this beautiful story’s book birthday today, by the way.

I thought this topic would be a lot more difficult than it seems to be. Maybe because traveling and avoiding enemies can make for an exciting book. One of the books that I’ve read recently that involves an epic journey is Julie Kagawa’s Shadow of the Fox.

I don’t talk about The Iliad much because Gareth Hinds’s graphic novel representation was just okay for me, but you can’t deny that the journey taken by these warriors certainly was noteworthy. Even more so would be the journey taken in The Odyssey, which I might have enjoyed more, but I haven’t read that one.

The characters in An Ember in the Ashes and the following books take quite a long journey. Like many of the characters here, I’m sure they would have preferred to stay at home. Nevertheless, struggle strengthens a person and also makes for a more interesting book.

The Throne of Glass series certainly takes you on an epic journey. Over the course of these books, Aelin and her allies travel the world in order to defeat their enemies and save the world.

A Song of Ice and Fire covers the lives of many characters across a vast world. Like most of the characters answering the call of the horizon today, most of them aren’t embarking on their journeys for the fun of it. Their survival is at stake.

While they don’t travel particularly far in the first book of The Mortal Instruments, the characters in this series do quite a bit of traveling. These books take you from New York City to Idris to Paris… and even to an alternate world. Life as a shadowhunter evidently involves quite a lot of travel.

Well, there you have it: characters who have answered the call of the horizon. Next week, we’re going to talk about my auto-buy authors. I actually only have two actual auto-buy authors, but there are several that I will read most of what they write, so we’ll talk about them.

Beasts of the Frozen Sun

By Brookelorren on July 8, 2019July 6, 2019Leave a Comment

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.