Right before Cassandra Clare’s Queen of Air and Darkness came out, I had a marathon read of her last books, including Lord of Shadows. It’s the second book in The Dark Artifices series, and I highly recommend it.
Because this book is the second book in the series, there may be spoilers. Also, since the Shadowhunters books tend to build on one another, I also recommend that you start these books with City of Bones (although not my favorite).
There’s a lot going on in this book (which is probably why it’s a whopping 699 pages). But there are certain things that stand out.
The Clave has gone rogue again. Is that any surprise? Some of the people in charge truly remind me of Nazis. They are also quite crafty. If you oppose them, it can’t be good for you. Although a huge plot involves finding The Black Volume of the Dead, because it would be dangerous if it gets in the wrong hands, the Clave’s action keeps the plot driving in the background for the whole story.
The ships in this story are twisty and complicated. Emma and Julian are parabatai and aren’t supposed to be in love, of course, but you can’t really deny your feelings. They certainly try though. Emma decides to conjure a fake relationship with Mark that backfires, because he starts to fall for someone else. Emma and Julian know that something drastic has to be done, but there seem to be no good choices.
The platonic relationships in this story are fantastic as well. I love Kit and Ty together, and I’d love to see them become parabatai in The Wicked Powers series. Then of course Ty and Livvy are close. Dru is going through her own difficulties as being too old to feel like a child, yet not old enough to be thought of as an adult.
The characters spend a lot of time in Faerie in Lord of Shadows. The plot revolves heavily in this area. I love how, even after 10 books, there are always new places to explore in the Shadowhunter’s world.
And the ending! I don’t want to spoil it, but it ends in quite a cliffhanger. Fortunately, I finished this book the day Queen of Air and Darkness arrived, so I didn’t have to wait. After finishing Lord of Shadows, you’ll probably want to dive right into QOAAD, so get them both at the same time if you can.
Overall, this was a great book that I highly recommend. Just get QOAAD at the same time!
One of the most popular books of 2018 was Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone. I wanted to see what all the excitement was all about, so I naturally signed up to get on the waiting list at the library to read this book. And waited months. Despite it’s popularity, and despite the fact that I realize that this is a well-written book, it was just not the right book for me right now.
I don’t know if you’ve experienced it or not, but I experience it all the time: most of the time, I’m drawn to the right book at the right time. Like last fall, after I had just started studying Welsh, I start reading The Infernal Devices, and one of the main characters, Will, utters Welsh phrases every now and then. It may be a minor thing, but it helps me identify with the characters. I didn’t experience that with this book.
Which doesn’t mean that this wasn’t a good book. I can tell the writing was good. The story seemed to have good pacing. I liked the characters. In this story, Zélie, a girl whose ancestors were magical in a land where magic has disappeared and the government reviles magic, tangles herself up with a couple members of the royal family: Amari, a princess who is appalled at what she discovered her father did, and Inan, a prince who has a secret. Along with Tzain, Zélie’s brother, they go on an adventure, where they find betrayal and friendship. The stakes are high: if they fail, magic could disappear from the land for good.
This book explores several themes: what it feels like for people to unfairly target you for intimidation because of who you are, what happens when people have too much power, and where should your loyalties lie. These are good questions to explore, and this book does it well.
Children of Blood and Bone didn’t quite resonate with me, even though I know it’s objectively a good book. For me, the mythology was just okay. I would have preferred a little more romance in this book. Perhaps, at another point in my life, I may find more ways to identify with the story and enjoy it more. Just as Will’s Welsh made me appreciate The Infernal Devices better, perhaps I’ll learn more about the culture in this book and appreciate it more at a later date.
I probably won’t read the sequel this year, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t reread Children of Blood and Bone at another point in my life. Right now, it’s me, not the book, that causes me to not be enthusiastic about this series. That could change. I certainly would not want to try to persuade anybody else to not read this book, because it might be just the thing that somebody (perhaps you) might need to read to inspire them to make them better people.
Welcome to another Top Ten Tuesday! Valentine’s Day is coming up, so this week we’re talking about favorite couples in books! Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.
Fangirling on Friday’s topic is also about couples in relationships, so I’m combining topics, so consider this my Fangirling on Friday post too (a few days early)!
Dune (Day/June) – Legend
Day and June are absolutely my most favorite couple! They’re so cute together. They both go through so much, and they both are willing to sacrifice for each other. I just love them. After Champion, I was heartbroken because of what happened. I love them so much, I’ve written a lot of fanfiction about the two of them.
I loved Life After Legend and Life After Legend II. I’m eagerly anticipating Rebel, the fourth Legend book, this fall!
FourTris – Divergent
Four and Tris were probably the very first Young Adult couple that I fell in love with. I absolutely loved them together, and for me, they belong together forever.
Of course, the ending of Allegiant was heartbreaking to me. I wasn’t about to accept it. That’s what got me into fanfiction. Divergent fanfiction is fun to read, and I’ve written some Divergent fanfiction myself.
Adelina/Magiano – The Young Elites
Another couple that I’m absolutely in love with is Adelina and Magiano from The Young Elites. Even though Adelina is evil, Magiano is a good influence on her. It seems like I have a thing for cinnamon roll boys and the girls that love them… anyway, this is another story that broke my heart, but I’ve also written fanfiction to heal my heart. I haven’t published it yet, but I’m working on it.
Clace (Jace/Clary) – Mortal Instruments
Clary and Jace are a couple that I love as well. I ship them so much. Even though there’s other couples in The Mortal Instruments, they’re my favorites. Over the course of this six-book series, they go through so many trials, but they are always there for each other.
One of my favorite lines from Jace is “Break up with Clary? Are you insane?”
Akos/Cyra – Carve the Mark
I love Akos and Cyra together as well. They’re perfect for each other. Cyra causes pain to anybody that touches her because of her currentgift, and Akos disrupts the currentstream, which helps take away her pain. It’s a good thing that they end up liking each other!
I’ve written fanfiction for all five of the above couples. I guess that’s just a thing I have… if I don’t have enough of them, I write more!
Mariko/Ōkami – Flame in the Mist
Do I really need a reason to like them together? I just think they’re kinda hot as a couple. They had sparks flying even before Ōkami realized that Mariko was not a boy — which he found disturbing.
Will/Tessa – The Infernal Devices
I loved Will and Tessa together, and it was one of the reasons why I ugly-cried through the last two chapters of Clockwork Princess. Cassandra Clare masterfully dealt with the whole mess of how Tessa loved both him and Jem. I can’t wait to read more of their family’s story in Chain of Gold later this year.
Elias/Laia – An Ember in the Ashes
I feel for this couple so much. They just can’t seem to get a break. And now we have to wait until 2020 to find out what happens to them! Ms. Tahir, you have to put them together! If she doesn’t, there’s always fanfiction. Because they need each other. I need them to be together, finally.
Lazlo/Sarah – Strange the Dreamer
I love Lazlo and Sarah together. It’s so sweet how they meet in dreams and have their first kisses together and all that. And then they have to be broken apart…
But this story ends on a hopeful note. And there’s always fanfiction?
Free/Cole – Into the Hollow
There wasn’t a tenth couple that really jumped out at me when I thought of couples in books. I didn’t want to say Jude/Cardan because although I like them together, they’re a fairly toxic couple. But I really liked Free and Cole in Into the Hollow. This is a book that I didn’t think got enough love when it came out.
Free and Cole are such a wonderful couple together. They both come from dysfunctional homes that they’re embarrassed about, but they want to make a better life for themselves. And they’re good for each other as a couple. They might not be the first couple that I think about when I think of book couples on Valentine’s Day, but I loved this book, and I loved them together.
So what about you? What OTPs do you dream about or love? Yes, I’ve literally dreamed about some of these (and one dream became the basis for my book, The Brightness of Shadow). I can’t wait to see what everybody says this week.
On next week’s edition of Top Ten Tuesday, we’re going to talk about books that I loved that have less than 2000 ratings on Goodreads. Most of these books aren’t eligible for that (although I was surprised about one book). For Fangirling on Friday, we’ll be talking about slow-burn romances. A couple of these might show up again there. Be back then!
So, Saturday night while I was on my last break at work, I saw that there would be a major reveal from Marie Lu on Monday morning (that’s today). So this morning, first thing I did was look to Twitter to see what the reveal would be. I was thinking it would probably be the title, and I was right.
So here it is. We don’t have to call it Legend 4 anymore, we can now call it Rebel! She also revealed the publication date (October 1st, you can pre-order it now like I did) and a description of the novel:
Respect the Legend. Idolize the Prodigy. Celebrate the Champion. But never underestimate the Rebel.
Eden Wing is a brilliant student. He’s about to graduate a year early from Ross University of the Sciences, with honors, and already has an internship lined up back in the Republic. But most people don’t introduce Eden this way. Instead, they say, “This is Eden, Daniel Wing’s younger brother.”
Ten years ago, Eden’s brother Daniel was known as Day, the boy from the streets who led a revolution that saved the Republic of America. His name was spray-painted on walls, his profile splashed on both rebel pamphlets and wanted posters. He went from being a hunted criminal to a national hero in less than a year.
Day has spent the past decade piecing together his memory of his time in the Republic, pretending to enjoy life in Antarctica’s capital, Ross City , and quietly hiding out from the world—even if it’s meant giving up June, the great love of his life. As long as he can keep his little brother safe, that’s all that matters . . .
But Eden isn’t safe. As the two brothers struggle to accept who they’ve each become, they grow more distant from one another than they’ve ever been. Eden finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into Ross City’s dark side, until even his legendary brother can’t save him. At least not on his own.
When June suddenly steps back into Day’s life, rekindling the flames of their romance, the pair team up to do whatever it takes to rescue Eden. But like the rest of the world, they may have underestimated Eden—what he’s capable of, where his loyalties lie, and how hard he’s willing to fight for what he believes.
There’s a lot of wonderful books coming out this year, but I think I’m looking forward to this one the most.
It’s Friday, so guess what we’re doing today? We’re fangirling! Fangirling on Friday is hosted by Books in the Skye. Since it’s the first of the month, we’re going to talk about the best books I read last month.
Is The Queen of Nothing out yet? Because I’m definitely in need of an ARC of that book. Stat. The Wicked King was an amazing book. If you liked The Cruel Prince, you won’t be disappointed in it’s sequel.
Books that come out at the beginning of the year are sometimes at a disadvantage when it comes to my “Best Books I Read for the First Time in 20XX” list, because by the time the end of the year comes around, I sometimes forget how great the books I read at the beginning of the year were. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if The Wicked King ends up making my “best of” lists this year.
What is it that makes books set in historical France so good (and so popular) this winter? Spectacle was another great book that I read in January. Other books set in historical France you might be interested in are Enchantée and The Gilded Wolves.
Spectacle was one of those books that was hard to put down (but I had to, because I had to go to bed). Will it make my end of year list? Maybe. Again, this book is at a disadvantage because I read it in January, but whether it makes my end-of-year lists or not, I’m pretty sure it’s going to get a lot of mentions on Top Ten Tuesdays this year.
Well, that’s enough fangirling for now! Next week, we’re going to talk about favorite diverse reads. I might have to list several because some of my absolute favorites I already fangirl over all the time, So maybe I’ll fangirl over those AND some others just for there to be a little more variety.
I read Cassandra Clare’s Clockwork Princess a little over a week before Queen of Air and Darkness came out. When I originally pre-ordered QOAAD, I figured that it would take me forever to read all of the books in front of it, but as I just happened to obtain copies of the rest of the series a week before it came out, I had a Shadowhunter’s reading marathon. Clockwork Princess was the first book in that reading marathon, and I’m really glad that I didn’t finish it at work. I don’t know if I’ve ugly cried so much while reading a book — ever.
As this review is for the third book in The Infernal Devices, there are spoilers for the first two books in this series.
Tessa is now engaged to Jem… and now she knows that Will loves her too. Her heart is breaking because she loves them both, although she tells Will she doesn’t love him, and Will won’t mention his feelings for Tessa to Jem either. Jem is also dying. The supply of yin fen is drying up, and he cannot live without it. It’s a mess, and my heart was breaking for them, even though I googled the ending and knew what was going to happen.
Mortmain is still on the loose too. He still wants Tessa for some reason, and he’s not about to let a little setback stop him. Unfortunately, Mortmain kidnaps Tessa, and Will has to make the choice of whether to go rescue her, or stay with his dying parabatai.
If that wasn’t bad enough, members of the council are still plotting against Charlotte Branwell. Will they deem her competent enough to keep the Institute? Or will her career end up in disaster?
All these tangled plots make Clockwork Princess a masterpiece. Yes, I wanted to read these four very long books before the even longer Queen of Air and Darkness came out, but I could not put this one down. In this book, we finally find out the truth about Tessa’s heritage (which is complicated in itself). There are things that happen in this book that affect events in The Mortal Instruments series. If I hadn’t already decided to reread the series at some point, then I definitely wanted to reread the series after this. This book gave me writing goals: write in little inconspicuous lines in one book that are explained in a later series.
The last chapter and epilogue to Clockwork Princess made me ugly cry. Hard. Snotting up and everything. It was so beautiful. I warn you, don’t read it at work. This was one of the most beautiful but heartbreaking ends to a book ever. But it was the best possible resolution to this story that I could think of. And after reading this story, you’ll want to make sure you read Chain of Gold just as I will.
This was a gorgeous final book to an amazing series, and if you liked The Mortal Instruments, then I highly recommend you read this book.
It’s Tuesday again, which means another edition of Top Ten Tuesday! Today’s Topic is “The Ten Most Recent Additions to my TBR”. I am writing this slightly in advance, so it might change a bit, but these are what was added to my TBR when I wrote this.
I stayed up to finish The Wicked King on the day that I got it. I didn’t want to put it down. While the ending wasn’t a huge cliffhanger (I mean, nobody got stabbed right before the end or anything), I certainly want to find out what happens next. ASAP. I’ll be looking for ARCs of this when it comes out.
This description from the author: “I’m the author of THE TIGER AT MIDNIGHT, which is LEGEND x AN EMBER IN THE ASHES set in a fantastical ancient India.” completely got me. She must be a mind reader or something, because I fangirl over both those books. All the time. I need to read this book! Can I get an ARC? I’ll be stalking Netgalley for this one.
I’m a polyglot, so I’m always learning languages. If you learned twenty languages, you could speak to half of the population. This book sounded pretty interesting.
I still haven’t read Isle of Blood and Stone yet, but it’s in my TBR Jar. The second book is Song of the Abyss, which I added to my TBR because I was trying to win it. It looks good. Hopefully I’ll get to read it soon.
I love how this story is Russian-inspired. I see it on Twitter all the time, and the author seems nice too. I’m looking forward to reading it! I requested an ARC on Netgalley; I hope I get approved.
I saw this book last summer and it looked interesting, but then I forgot about it. Another person’s Top Ten Tuesday post reminded me about it, so it ended up on my TBR.
The cover to this book is gorgeous! It looks like such a cute book. It’s a middle grade book that I plan to read and have my boy read too. My library doesn’t have it (gasp) but I ordered it through inter-library loan.
I’ve pre-ordered this book already, so guess what I’ll be reading on June 4th? This book tells a bunch of short stories involving different shadowhunters throughout history, as seen from the eyes of Brother Zechariah (Jem Carstairs). Looking forward to reading it!
So there’s your Top Ten Tuesday for this week. Next week is supposed to be “Upcoming Releases I’m on the Fence About” but after writing it I realized I didn’t want to be so negative, so I changed it to a post on the books that have been on my TBR the longest.
What books did you recently add to your TBR? Are you inspired by other people’s TTTs like I am?
2019 is already turning out to be an amazing year for books. I recently read Spectacle by Jodie Lynn Zdrock. It was a wonderful book and I highly recommend it. I was fortunate enough to be provided with an Advanced Review Copy from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
Nathalie is a normal girl living in 19th century France. Or so she thinks. She recently got a summer job at Le Petit Journal writing the daily morgue report. In Paris back in these days evidently, unidentified bodies would be put on display at the public morgue for people to identify (and gawk at). Nathalie’s job is to visit the morgue every day and report on what she finds there.
Recently, there has been a murder. When Nathalie goes to the morgue to report on it, she touches the glass separating the body from the viewing public, and has a vision of what happened. She’s freaked out by this, of course. Evidently, she says something while she’s having the vision, but she doesn’t know what she says. She also ends up with memory loss after she has the vision. The book is written from third person limited perspective, so as a reader, we know what her lost memories are, even though she doesn’t.
As the summer progresses, there are more murders. Her ability to view the murders was not just a one time thing. She is torn by wanting to help, and accepting the accompanying memory loss, and wanting to avoid these visions. She’s also afraid that she might inadvertently attract the killer’s attention herself.
Nathalie eventually discovers where this ability came from, but I’ll leave that as something for you to discover when you read this book. Her ability is connected to the murders, which become more personal as the story progresses.
I didn’t want to put down this book, because I wanted to find out who the killer was and see him come to justice. I wanted Nathalie to find out more about her gift. While reading the book, I tweeted “If only I didn’t have to sleep! Spectacle by @jlzdrok is amazing! I’m 69% of the way through it and darn it… if I could get by on less sleep to finish it I would! You have to read it.” I think that’s a good recommendation for the book.
Spectacle won’t be released until February 12th, but you can pre-order it today.
Last year, I started reading all the main Shadowhunter’s books, by Cassandra Clare. After reading Clockwork Angel, I had to read Clockwork Prince. This was a lovely book that you won’t want to put down. It’s also heartbreaking, but in a good way. You’re definitely going to want to read the next book in the series, Clockwork Princess, right after this one.
Because this is the second book in a series, there may be spoilers for Clockwork Angel in this book. You have been warned.
I normally don’t care for prologues, but in the prologue to this book, you’ll discover something that you probably already suspect: Will is in love with Tessa. Why is he trying to push her away though? We find out in this book, but Tessa is growing close to Jem while this happens. This leads to one of the most heartbreaking situations that I could imagine (one of the reasons why you’ll want to have Clockwork Princess ready when you finish this book). Never fear, this whole situation will resolve itself in one of the best ways possible. Just not now.
While Tessa and Will and Jem are in the middle of their confusing situation, Clave members are trying to undermine Charlotte. Even though Charlotte and Henry run the London Institute together, everybody knows that Charlotte is the one that’s really running things. The Clave can be a little… old-fashioned. Benedict Lightwood is itching for her position. Meanwhile, Mortmain is still on the loose. If Charlotte doesn’t find him soon, she could be out of a job. Tessa might even have to leave the Institute.
The search for Mortmain is on, and in the process, we find out things that the characters would rather not know, as well as have a great battle. People will die. It all adds up to one amazing book.
Clockwork Prince is full of secrets, spies, and heartbreak. There is also more amazing worldbuilding. I had to find out what happened next. There were lines that seemed insignificant from the first book that were very important in this book. It makes me want to reread it (I will, at some point).
I highly recommend Clockwork Prince, The Infernal Devices in general, and the Shadowhunter’s Chronicles as a whole. I love them.
Welcome to another edition of Top Ten Tuesday! It’s hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Today’s topic is “Books I Meant to Read in 2018 But Didn’t Get To”. I have way more than 10, but I’ll keep it at that.
The last three Throne of Glass Books: Empire of Storms/Tower of Dawn/Kingdom of Ash. These books are super long and even though I wanted to read them, I just didn’t get around to it. I finished reading all of Cassandra Clare’s Shadowhunter’s books, and that was 12 really long books, and that was all I could handle last year. I’m reading these now. I have finished Empire of Storms now, but I still have the other two to get to.
I really wanted to read The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang. I got the Kindle version of the book when it was on sale; I even scheduled the review in my blog schedule. Alas, a slew of library books showed up and I have to read those first. So, I never read it. It’s in my TBR jar for this month, but it hasn’t been picked yet.
A Thousand Perfect Notes is another book I bought on sale and haven’t read yet. Along with the remainder of the Throne of Glass series, this is another book that was on my Fall 2018 TBR that didn’t get read. It’s now on my Winter 2018/19 TBR and it’s the next book I’m supposed to read from my TBR jar, so I should get to it soon?
I still haven’t read Starfish by Akemi Dawn Bowman yet. This is another book that I bought on sale and wanted to read (I think there’s a trend here) but didn’t.
I pre-ordered The Light Between Worlds because Laura E. Weymouth is such a nice lady, and I wanted to read her book. Plus, this book is supposed to be about Susan from Narnia. I was in the middle of reading something else on the day it was uploaded to my Kindle, and I didn’t read it last year. I just finished reading this book last week because it was in my TBR jar and got picked.
Rora has been on my TBR for so long, it’s not even in print anymore. I did buy the book last year though. It was even on my TBR Wipeout Challenge. Still, never got around to it. This is another book in my TBR jar.
Isle of Blood and Stone is another book that I bought on sale that I didn’t get around to reading last year (again, in the TBR jar).
I got And I Darken and Now I Rise on sale at Amazon.com too. This is kinda like a retelling of the real story of Dracula? It sounds really interesting. Every time I see this I want to read it. I guess when the time is right, I will.
Every time I see a VE Schwab book on Top Ten Tuesday, I think “I have to read her books!” Yet I own two of her books (both purchased on sale) and haven’t read either. This Savage Song is one of the two I need to read. I will read some of her books this year.
Yes, I bought Three Dark Crowns on sale too. Maybe I’ll read it in time for the fourth book to come out? And maybe the other two will go on sale before it does? I read one of he short stories last year and it was good.
You would think that maybe I should stop buying books on sale? But I actually do eventually read many of these, and I’d rather get it on sale for $2 or $3 than wait for it at the library, or pay full price for it. I can get five books on sale for the price of one at full price, plus I’m supporting more authors. It’s kind of nice to have all of these books on my Kindle… like having a bookstore at my fingertips. So I’ll keep getting these books when they’re on sale, I’m sure.
Next week, we’ll talk about the ten most recent additions to my Want-To-Read list. Let’s see if I do any better with those than I did reading these in 2018.
