Fiction Archives - Page 15 of 32 - Brooke's Reviews and Sweeps

Evil Female Leaders (Fangirling on Friday)

By Brookelorren on May 24, 2019May 20, 20195 Comments

It’s Friday again, and time for another episode of Fangirling on Friday. Today we’re talking about Evil Female Leaders.

Adelina Amouteru: The Young Elites

When I saw this was the upcoming topic, the first evil female leader that came to my mind was Adelina Amouteru.

Even though she does a lot of evil things, she’s portrayed as a sympathetic character. She went through a lot in her life, and it shaped the person that she turned out to be. Even though she does have a redemption arc, she’s pretty darned evil for most of the story.

Elara: Red Queen

I had to think to find out what evil female leaders I could include in this week’s list. A lot of the evil leaders that I could come up with were male. But then I remembered Elara.

If it weren’t for Elara, Maven might not have been such a bad guy. Perhaps he would have turned out evil anyway, but he didn’t really have a chance because of his mom. Plus Elara set a lot of bad things into motion.

Redacted: Blood Heir

I’m so happy that they’re going to release Blood Heir! The release date has been pushed back to November 19th, but they’re going to put it out. There will probably be several changes made to the ARC that I read before the finished copy comes out, but it probably will include an evil female leader, which I’m redacting so I don’t give out spoilers.

No, the main character is not the evil female leader. But there is an evil force acting behind the scenes in this book — and she happens to be female. Now that this book is back in production, I’ll eventually get to see how they overthrow this evil female leader in books 2 and 3 of this trilogy!

What evil female leaders can you think of? Next week, we’re going to talk about books with covers that I love!

Sky in the Deep

By Brookelorren on May 23, 2019May 15, 20194 Comments

Sky in the Deep is a book about a young Viking warrior by Adrienne Young. It was an interesting read that kept me wanting to find out what happened next.

Eelyn is a warrior for her tribe. It’s just her and her father now; her brother died five years ago, and her mother died long before that. After getting captured during a battle, her life is upended. Unfortunately, it would give away major spoilers to say what distracted her and caused her to get captured.

Eelyn is forced to live with her enemies and serve them as a slave. Her only goal in life is to escape and run back to her father and her own tribe, but with winter approaching, that’s not possible. The tribe she’s forced to serve has been her tribe’s enemy for as long as can be remembered, and they serve a different god.

Over the course of the story, she begins to realize that her enemy tribe is not much different than the people she grew up with. And she falls in love. Eventually, an even bigger threat than her enemy tribe shows up and… her tribe has to work with her enemy tribe to neutralize the threat.

I enjoyed this story. While Sky in the Deep started off a little slow for me, it picked up fairly quickly. The characters, her relationship with the family she has to live with, and the plot where her tribe of birth is forced to join with the enemy tribe to vanquish the outside threat was all enjoyable. The book is light in the romance department, but the love story seemed realistic.

If you’re looking for a Viking story with some violence, an enemies to lovers romance, and a story with family (both found and what you’re born with) you might enjoy Sky in the Deep.

The Thirteenth Guardian

By Brookelorren on May 20, 2019May 20, 2019Leave a Comment

I had the opportunity to read an ARC of The Thirteenth Guardian by K. M. Lewis (thank you Netgalley). My feelings on this book are nearly the opposite of what I felt about Children of Blood and Bone. While Children of Blood and Bone had fantastic writing, but just wasn’t the book for me, The Thirteenth Guardian had a story that clicked with me, but the writing itself didn’t match my love for the story.

What I Liked

I loved the story. The world is in chaos. Six individuals have to make their way to Innsbruck, Austria, because they have genetic traits that for some reason make them valuable. We don’t know why these people are special, or what the big secret is, until the very end. The book synopsis doesn’t really tell you that this is a disaster book, but this book is like Revelation on steroids.

The mysterious events are pretty cool, and seem to mirror the Biblical Exodus. The book heavily draws from the Bible and even some Medieval art. I loved this aspect of the story. As someone who lived in Italy for several years, I loved how some of these scenes took place in Rome and The Vatican, which I’ve visited a few times.

What Was Lackluster

Although I enjoyed this book so much that I sped through it in two days, I had to downgrade this book an entire star because I had problems with the writing.

Dialogue

The dialogue felt a little wooden and most of the characters didn’t use any contractions in their speech. I realize that some characters (like Data on Star Trek) talk without contractions as a part of who they are, but this is prevalent throughout the story. Here is one example I highlighted where the dialogue just wasn’t good:

"Oh, no.  That is horrible news, Leo."
"Yes it is."

Do people really speak like this?

Head Hopping

This may be a stylistic issue on my part, but I prefer when we can’t see into every character’s mind. One instance of this that stuck in my mind was where the book hopped into a minor character’s head for one paragraph so we readers could see that she was attracted to the other character, and then went back to a main character. Was that necessary? Maybe the author could have shown her flirting, or left that out entirely. At the time, I thought maybe that paragraph foreshadowed a relationship between the two… but no… that character was killed off shortly afterwards.

The Ending

Most of the end of this book was fine. We find out what the secret is, the characters are ready to start the next chapter of their lives, and then… they start talking about going on this quest that would literally require a Deus ex machina to complete. Without giving away too much, the world has gone through Revelation on steroids, technology of any kind is pretty much kaputt, and they start talking about finding a large object at the bottom of the ocean thousands of miles away. The book is supposed to be part of a trilogy, so I guess they do go after it? I don’t know how they’ll manage it.

Conclusion

I enjoyed The Thirteenth Guardian. If I see the sequel on Netgalley at some point, I would read it, despite my critique about the writing. This is his debut, and it is an indie book, so I do believe that there’s a good chance that his writing will improve. Even if the criticisms remain in place for the sequel, it was a good story and I wouldn’t mind seeing how the characters would pull off this impossible task.

Spring Has Sprung Book Tag

By Brookelorren on May 19, 2019May 13, 20192 Comments

The other day, I was visiting several new blogs from a thread that I was participating on Twitter. I ran into so many book tags! One of them was the Spring Has Sprung Book Tag. I found it on Foxes and Fairy Tales, but I don’t know where it originated. I traced it as far as Bookish Paige. Either way, spring is going to give way to summer soon (even though it snowed a little over a week ago) so I better do it now before I have to wait another year to do it.

1. Flowers

Look on your bookshelves. What is the most beautiful book both inside and out?

I loved Sky Without Stars. I adored the characters and the storyline, and the world was so unique – like revolutionary France in space. And the first printing (which I pre-ordered to make sure I got) has a beautiful foil crown embossed on the cover underneath the dust jacket. Even though I read the ARC, I made sure to pre-order the book and get the special first printing. I know this is a book I will reread (perhaps when the next book comes out).

2. Grass

What is a book that you find that others like way more than you do?

I know a lot of people liked Circe, and I thought the writing style was nice enough, but I know that a lot of people like this book way more than I did. I wasn’t particularly enamored with the main character. She wasn’t particularly intelligent and I just couldn’t identify with her motives. The book also didn’t seem to have this arc where I had to know what was happening next in the book. It seemed more like a collection of short stories about the same character than a novel.

3. Rain

What’s a great book that lifts your spirits when you’re down?

So far, I’ve only read Enchantée once, but I can see this as a book that I might want to read if I wasn’t feeling so good. This book seems to give me warm, fuzzy feelings, with hot air balloons and magical dresses and falling in love with cute boys. I loved it so much while reading it I seriously considered showing up late to work so I could finish it. With less than two weeks left of work now, I would call in late if I was reading it for the first time now.

^{4. Dew}

What’s a book that made you feel alive?

I’m not exactly sure what the question is supposed to mean, but When Dimple Met Rishi was such a sweet, funny book, I couldn’t put it down. I was so glad that I read it, and I know I want to read more books by Sandhya Menon in the future.

This would probably be a good book to read during the summer (it takes place over the summer). I wonder if the sequel novella, As Kismet Would Have It, also takes place over the summer?

5. Storms

What’s a book that you found unpredictable?

There are lots of times that I find a book unpredictable. I definitely didn’t expect the ending of Storm and Fury, however. I think if I had read the series that comes before this one, I might have had some idea of what was going on, but even then, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have guessed what happened at the end. I’m looking forward to reading the next book in this series to find out what happens, whenever it happens to come out.

6. Rainbow

What was a book that you struggled with, only to be happy that you read it in the end?

Queen of Air and Darkness was a very long book. I loved the entire book, but the length started to get to me. It didn’t help that I literally read Clockwork Prince, Clockwork Princess, Lady Midnight and Lord of Shadows pretty much back-to-back before getting to this book. They’re ALL long books. I suppose that by the time I got to this book, I was ready for something shorter. I’m all ready for Ghosts of the Shadow Market in June, but I know better than to read a lot of long books beforehand (and that one is only in the 600-page range anyway).

7. Chilly Weather

What’s a book that you couldn’t finish or didn’t enjoy?

I read Far Forest Scrolls Na Cearcaill as an ARC, and even though the story was okay, I really couldn’t get into it. It seemed like it needed a little more editing. There were amateurish pictures in the story and I just couldn’t mesh too much with the characters. The conversations seemed on the Middle Grade level when it was aimed at young adults. I was glad to finish this book so I could start reading something else. Sorry.

8. Warm Weather

What’s a book that you loved and wanted more of?

The Wicked King was one of those books that I couldn’t put down. I absolutely loved it. And oh the ending! How could Ms. Black leave us like that?! I’m happy that the release date for The Queen of Nothing was moved up from January to November (especially since Chain of Gold‘s release date changed from November to March). I’m looking forward to the release of these books that I have pre-ordered!

9. Green

What’s a book that you haven’t read yet, but really want to?

The cover reveal for Marie Lu’s Rebel was released a little over a week ago, and isn’t it pretty? I can’t wait to read it, but I have to wait until October first. At least I have several other amazing books to read beforehand (and I discovered that Legend is out in German, so I’ll probably try to tackle that one auf Deutsch before this one comes out). There’s a lot of great books coming out this year, but I think I’m most impatient for this one.

10. Pink

What’s a book in which you felt a strong connection to the characters?

I don’t think I’m a lot like Tris and Four, but I did feel a strong connection to the characters in Divergent. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why I loved the book so much. It’s probably why I like to write in first person present a lot of the time now. This book was written in first person present tense, and I could really see the characters though their eyes in a way that I hadn’t seen before. And I absolutely loved it (until the end of Allegiant).

So there’s my contribution to the Spring Has Sprung book tag! I’m not big on tagging other people, but if you’d like to do it, please do so! I’d love to see what you came up with, so if you do this tag, please send me a link.

Favorite Mothers (Fangirling on Friday)

By Brookelorren on May 17, 2019May 13, 20194 Comments

It’s Friday again (yay) and it’s time for another episode of Fangirling on Friday. Today we’re going to talk about our favorite mothers? It was Mother’s Day last week, and I hope you had the chance to talk to your mom. When it comes to YA moms, they’re generally absent. Even in the book I’m writing, I kill one off with the plague, and my male MC hasn’t seen his mom in years (although she shows up later on in the book). I guess it’s hard to be tromping off on adventures when your mom is there to keep you safe.

Anyway, I did come up with a couple good moms, after thinking about it for quite a while.

Jocelyn Fray is one of the rare examples of moms in YA fantasy that actually has some influence on her daughter. Hooray! She used to be a Shadowhunter in her own right, but decided to live life as a mortal later on. She’s not an overbearing presence in her daughter Clary’s life, although she does worry about her daughter (which she probable should; life as a Shadowhunter is dangerous). I love how sometimes Clary worries about what her mom thinks, yet at the same time, sometimes she rebels against her wishes (because otherwise she’d stay home and never have adventures).

Oh, and she was conveniently taken out for a while by being put into a coma-like state, which allowed Clary to find her way as a Shadowhunter without having to deal with her mom.

Another book that actually has a mom in it is Brenna Morgan and the Iron Key. Brenna is an older teen (which is probably fairly necessary if your parents are going to allow you to traipse about and have adventures), but her mom is still there to make sure that she does the right thing. Put on a coat! Why were you out so late! Stay safe!

Perhaps an important component of a good YA mom is that she has been on adventures herself. Brenna’s mom has traveled all over the world and at least has some inclination to let her daughter go save the world.

Next week we’re going to talk about evil female leaders. I can at least think of a couple of these without racking my brain so hard. I’ll see you then!

A Court of Thorns and Roses

By Brookelorren on May 16, 2019May 13, 2019Leave a Comment

After hearing about this book for quite a while, I finally read A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. I didn’t know what to expect at first (I just knew that I liked the Throne of Glass series and this was her other series) but I found that I liked it. And I realized that this story was something of a Beauty and the Beast retelling. I enjoyed it and I plan on reading the next books in the series at some point.

Feyre is a girl living in the forest, keeping her family from starving. She was a better girl than me, because when her sisters ask for money for things, she gives them more than they deserve. If it were me out there hunting all day, and my ungrateful sisters were asking for money, I’d give them just what they needed, and then I’d tell them to go do something to earn it if they wanted anything more. Even her father is practically useless, although I at least feel bad for him since he had an injury.

One day, while hunting in the woods, she kills a wolf. It’s a ginormous wolf, and she thinks it might be magical, but in her mind, it might be either her or him. This sets off a chain of events that forces her to live in a magical estate over in fae-land. Now she worries for her family (whom she’s afraid might have died without her) but she does have a pretty sweet life otherwise. As a reader, I’m wondering “why?” but it’s explained later in the book.

Despite her rags to riches story, all is not well in the land of the fae. There is a curse that threatens to spill over into the human lands and hurt her family. Feyre must do what she can to save her family… and the fae male that she has grown to… love? You’ll have to read the book to find out more.

What I Liked

A Court of Thorns and Roses has a lot going for it. There’s magic, and I couldn’t help but root for the girl who had been slaving away for her family for so long and finally gets to live a good life. Feyre is a brave and clever girl who is willing to fight for what she wants. The writing was good, as all Sarah J. Maas books are.

What I Found to be ‘Meh’

I can’t say I disliked anything about this books, but there were things I liked less. Although Feyre was clever, strong-willed, and brave, there were some times when she would be extremely unwise. Yes, I can see how she would miss her family and worry about them, but she does some things that are incredibly unwise at the beginning, and part of me wanted to strangle her. Maybe I just couldn’t understand how someone with such a useless family would be so attached to them. She doesn’t listen to counsel at times, even when she should know better.

Conclusion

I definitely plan on reading more books in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series. I decided to get A Court of Mist and Fury on audiobook; the next books in this series are a little longer and I wasn’t sure when I’d be able to find time to read the next books in the series otherwise. While SJM might not be an author that I often feel like I have to read the next book now about, I do enjoy her stories and I want to find out what happens next.

Books I’d Like to See Made Into Movies (Top Ten Tuesday)

By Brookelorren on May 14, 2019May 13, 201938 Comments

Hello again! It’s Tuesday again, so you know what that means. Time for another edition of Top Ten Tuesday! Each week, it’s hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! Today is a “Page to Screen Freebie”. I’ve decided to do one on “Books I’d Like to See Made Into Movies”. I’ve done one other Top Ten Tuesday on movies, so if you’re interested, you can also see “Books Made Into Movies: Which Was Better?” Let’s get started!

Legend – Marie Lu

Of course I have to put my favorite book up on this list. I don’t watch a lot of movies, but I would definitely go to see this one. And you’d probably get sick of hearing me talk about this on my blog in the months leading up to its release. It’s been optioned for a movie, but that still means there’s fifty bajillion steps between that and an actual movie coming out, and at any one point, the movie could fall through.

An Ember in the Ashes – Sabaa Tahir

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir would make an amazing movie, if it was done right. You’d have to get the kind of director that could do Lord of the Rings style epic movies. The final book in this series isn’t quite done yet, and it’s supposed to release in 2020, so maybe wait to start doing this for a bit? But I’d love to see this as a movie… someday.

Carve the Mark – Veronica Roth

Carve the Mark would make a great movie, if it was done right. I loved this duology and I keep wanting to give it a reread at some point. This might actually be easier to do as a movie than Divergent, but you’d want to get someone to direct it that’s good at making space movies.

Strange the Dreamer – Laini Taylor

Laini Taylor’s Strange the Dreamer would make a good movie. Ten or twenty years ago, the moths might have been difficult to render on a movie screen, but you could completely do it with CGI now.

When Dimple Met Rishi – Sandhya Menon

Although I haven’t seen To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (like I said, I don’t watch many movies), it was really popular, at least among book lovers. When Dimple Met Rishi would be the cutest movie. Unlike all of the fantasy books listed above, this one wouldn’t need a ton of CGI or epic sets either. That’s one of the most difficult things about bringing fantasy and/or dystopian books to life… they don’t always translate well to movies.

Flame in the Mist – Renée Ahdieh

Flame in the Mist would make a great movie. The casting directors would have to make sure that they got the right actress to play Mariko, but if they did, this movie could have a lot of potential. The medieval Japanese-like setting could be gorgeous to see upon a large screen.

Enchantée – Gita Trelease

I’d love to see Enchantée as a movie. The contrast between the poor beggars on the street and the nobility lounging about in the palace would be interesting to see. Although there have been movies done that take place in revolutionary France, as far as I know, a lot of them don’t have magic to them.

The Last Year of the War – Susan Meissner

If The Last Year of the War were made into a movie, you’d definitely have to get out the tissues. A girl of German descent befriending a girl of Japanese descent in the US internment camps, losing each other, and then meeting again right before Alzheimer’s and cancer threaten to take them? Yes please!

Sky Without Stars – Jessica Brody and Joanne Rendell

I’d love to see this dystopian movie set in a French-like society on another planet turned into a movie. However, movie makers might want to hold off a bit, since the book series isn’t done yet. I’d love to see it as a movie when the books are finished though!

Spectacle – Jodie Lynn Zdrock

People love a good crime thriller. Spectacle, if done as a movie, would have visits to an old-timey morgue, visions, killings, a murder mystery, and a thrilling chase through catacombs. I could definitely see there being a market for a movie like this.

Bonus – Dragonlance!

We were on our way to go see Detective Pikachu on Sunday and my husband mentioned that they were thinking of making another Dragonlance movie? The first time they attempted to make a Dragonlance movie, it was terrible. My kids were named after Dragonlance characters and they deserve better than that. I really hope that this movie turns out well.

There’s my ten for the week, plus a bonus! What did you all come up with? I’m looking forward to seeing your ideas. Next week, we’re going to talk about books I refuse to let anyone touch. See you then!

Storm and Fury

By Brookelorren on May 13, 2019May 13, 20192 Comments

I’ve been interested in reading something by Jennifer L. Armentrout for quite a while, and I was fortunate enough to be approved for an ARC of Storm and Fury (thank you Netgalley). I later found out that it’s in a world that is already pre-established, but it’s readable anyway. This is the first book in The Harbinger series, and I really enjoyed it.

Trinity is special. How special? She has her own guardian assigned to her. She lives on a compound in modern-day West Virginia with gargoyles known as Wardens. She’s not exactly human, even though most of the wardens she lives with thinks she is. Even though she’s special, she feels like an outsider a lot of the time. While everyone around her is free to live their lives and find love, Trinity lives with people that aren’t really allowed to fraternize with her.

Except one day, she meets Zayne. He’s gorgeous, and even though he’s a warden too, there’s something different about him. Zayne arrives at her compound with a group visiting from Washington, D.C. After Trinity’s compound is attacked, she has to work with him to make things right. Will sparks end up flying? You’ll just have to read the book!

There was a lot to enjoy about this book. For one thing, I love the main character, Trinity. She’s this badass warrior, but she’s unsure of herself. She second guesses herself around Zayne. She’s nosy. And she has an eye condition that causes her to trip over things a lot (Ms. Armentrout stated in the acknowledgements that she has this eye condition). I couldn’t help but like her and want good things for her.

In this world, like the real world, things aren’t always black and white. Not everybody is 100% good, and not everybody is 100% bad. I liked that.

While reading this book, there were always questions that needed to be answered. Who was Trinity’s father? Who are behind the attacks? Plus, there’s a big twist at the end which I wasn’t expecting.

If you’ve read The Dark Elements series (which I haven’t) then you’ll probably know some of the backstory which eventually Trinity learns, and you’ll see some familiar characters. Since I haven’t read this series yet, it was all new to me.

Overall, I loved this series and plan on reading more books by this author. Obsidian is on my summer TBR, and when the second book in this series comes out, I plan to read it as well.

The Catch ‘Em All Book Tag

By Brookelorren on May 11, 2019May 12, 20194 Comments

Hello! Books in the Skye created a Catch ‘Em All Book tag based on Pokémon that looked like a lot of fun. If you’d like to do it too, all you have to do is follow these rules:

Copy and Paste these rules. Link back to this post so the originator of the tag can read your answers
Choose your starting Pokémon
Tag 3 people you would want to travel with on your adventure to catch all the Pokémon.

I’d love to see what you come up with too!

Choose Your Pokémon!

I have to choose Pikachu. I have one sitting next to my bed right now.

Ash

Most Ambitious Character

For this one, I have to choose Adelina Amouteru from The Young Elites. She starts out as this girl who’s about to be burned at the stake, and then she ends up dreaming of becoming queen and taking over the world? I’d say that that’s pretty ambitious.

Pikachu

Best Supporting Character

This one was tricky for me. Where do you draw the line between the main character and the supporting ones? For this one, I probably would say Levi from Fangirl. The story mainly is about Cath, but Levi plays a very important part in the story as well.

Brock

Character that Acts Like The Parent

I’m going to have to agree with Books In the Skye here and say that Julian from The Dark Artifices deserves this award. I couldn’t imagine having to take care of all those siblings and pretty much run the Los Angeles Institute all by myself. He deserves a huge reward for all the work he ended up having to do.

Misty

The Underdog

I’ll have to go with Free and Cole from Into the Hollow for this one. Both of them had so many obstacles to overcome. Free’s father was really irresponsible and forced her to be in a situation that she really shouldn’t have had to. Cole’s family was into drugs and trouble. Yet both of them did their best to make a better life for themselves. I couldn’t help but to root for them to find their happily ever after.

Team Rocket

Best Duo

Nothing leapt to my mind at first, but one of the duos that I really liked was Britta and Cohen from Ever the Hunted. They hated being away from each other, which happened for a lot of the book, but once they were able to be together, they worked well as a team. Also, they made a really cute couple.

Meowth

Best Animal Character

I picked Church from the Shadowhunter’s Chronicles. I actually don’t know very many animal characters, so my options were slightly limited. Church doesn’t play a big role in any of the books, but look at his picture here! He looks quite badass for a cat. This photo was taken from the inside jacket of Queen of Air and Darkness.

Gary Oak

Best Rival

I’ll have to pick The Darkling from the Grisha Verse trilogy. He was quite evil, yet a lot of people like to ship Alina with him. I’m not sure if this is a good use of the world rival, but they were both competing for the amplifiers, and ultimately, whose vision of Ravka would emerge victorious.

May

Best Adventure

When I think of epic quests and adventures, I can’t help but think of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. These adventures take you into new lands full of new terrain and new creatures.

So there you have it. The Catch ‘Em All Book Tag. I’m horrible at tagging people (sometimes if I don’t get tagged I feel left out, and if I do get tagged sometimes I don’t want to do it)… so… if you think this tag sounds like fun, do it! If you link to me (as well as Books in the Skye) I’d love to see what you came up with.

Royalty (Fangirling on Friday)

By Brookelorren on May 10, 2019May 8, 20194 Comments

It’s Friday again! That means (looks at watch) I only have three more weeks until I get to work from home and do this writing/blogging/homeschooling thing full time! Woo! I’m excited for that, but for now, we have Fangirling on Friday, hosted by Books in the Skye! Today we’re talking about royalty.

One of my favorite series involving royalty at the moment happens to be The Cruel Prince. They’re not exactly the poster child for great royal families, but if you’ve read history (and I tend to like history a lot) then you probably see that royalty in real life isn’t a whole lot like Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty. Except for the bad things that happen to them. So having a messed up royal house maybe is a prerequisite for being royalty? I absolutely love Jude and Cardan, and am looking forward to The Queen of Nothing. They postponed Chain of Gold until next March, but they moved up the final Folk of the Air book to (I think) the same week that Chain of Gold originally was supposed to come out, so at least I get to read this one this year at least!

Of course, what would a post on royalty be without talk about queens? I absolutely loved Four Dead Queens. Quadara is a unique country that has not one, but four queens… and no king.

But something is going on and someone is offing the queens. Dun dun DUN! Why? Will they catch the killer? This story was quite unique and I didn’t really guess the twist to this book. I’d love to see more books by this author.

I don’t mention Heartless by Marissa Meyer all that often, but it was one of the first books I reviewed on this blog. This is the story of The Queen of Hearts before she becomes the queen in wonderland. You just have to feel sorry for her, because all she wants to do is bake, and her parents expect her to marry the king instead. And she falls in love with someone as well (that isn’t the king).

So there you go: three books about royalty that I really liked. What are some books revolving around royalty that you like? Mother’s Day is coming up (in the US, at least) and we’ll be talking about favorite mothers next week. Eep! A lot of my favorite characters have lost their mothers! Forget favorites… maybe I’ll just write about characters whose mothers aren’t dead or evil! If I can find a few of them.