fantasy Archives - Brooke's Reviews and Sweeps

Chain of Gold

By Brookelorren on February 27, 2020February 27, 2020Leave a Comment

One of my most anticipated books for the past year has been Cassandra Clare’s Chain of Gold. Funny, I was so concerned about reading all the March 3 releases and I end up getting two of them as ARCs. Once again, thank you to Bookish First and Margaret K. McElderry Books for providing me with an advanced reader copy! If you’d like to join Bookish First, you can use my referral code: 56cf541090ca608b4. We both get points if you use it!

When we first start Chain of Gold, two people are moving to London: Cordelia Carstairs, who has few London friends because her family has been living abroad for years, and Grace Blackthorn, whom James Herondale loves. Or thinks he loves. The city has seen very few demon attacks recently, but things are about to heat up in the supernatural realm.

If you’ve read “The Midnight Heir”, then you know that Grace’s adoptive mother, Tatiana Blackthorn, doesn’t approve of James. She hates the Herondales because of what happened to her parents in The Infernal Devices. Going into this story, I had seen the Shadowhunter found family tree, but if you haven’t seen it, I won’t spoil the end for you. But Tatiana’s disapproval of Herondales and Lightwoods does propel some of the storyline.

Cordelia’s dad is in trouble. After an expedition went wrong, he was put under house arrest in Idris. Cordelia wants him to be found innocent, so she feels she needs to make influential friends. The friends she makes just happen to be the children of the characters from The Infernal Devices. While she is getting adjusted in the new city, all hell breaks loose. In some ways, literally. Cordelia and her new friends have to save the Shadowhunters from this new threat.

What I Liked

Chain of Gold is another outstanding Shadowhunters novel. I loved the characters, especially James and Cordelia. Cordelia’s future parabatai and James’s sister Lucie is a budding novelist and is a sweetheart. Then there’s Matthew, who drinks a little too much and has a troubled past. If you read “Cast Long Shadows” from Ghosts of the Shadow Market then you’ll know what happened. Anna, Christopher, and Thomas are also main characters that Cordelia spends time with that all have their own personalities.

The setting of Chain of Gold is different from that of The Infernal Devices. The book is set in 1903 (with some flashbacks to previous times) and Ms. Clare did a great job making it feel like a different time than that of her previous series. Technology has advanced as well as the clothing and slang the characters use. Tessa and Will, who are now in charge of the London Institute, have updated the Institute, so the decor is correct for 1903. If you read The Dark Artifices, then you’ll probably guess they were the last people to remodel the place. Clare is a master of worldbuilding and it is one of the things I love about her books.

If you’ve seen the Shadowhunters’ found family tree, then you might wonder as you start reading the book “how does X end up with Y?” I’m trying to avoid spoilers here. You find out why these two people end up together at the end of the book, and it makes a lot of sense.

Anything I Didn’t Like?

I have to wait until March 21, 2021 to read Chain of Iron. I want to find out what happens next! It doesn’t end on a huge cliffhanger like Lord of Shadows does, but I still want more.

Conclusion

Chain of Gold is another excellent book in the Shadowhunters universe. I loved the characters and the setting, and I highly recommend it. If you’ve never read any Shadowhunter books before, you can still read this one, but the other books are worthwhile. You might like the books better if you read The Infernal Devices along with some of the companion short stories that go along with this book. However, if you want to dive into this book without reading the others, you can, but you’ll probably want to go back and read the others while waiting for Chain of Iron next year.

I pre-ordered this book with my Christmas money in 2018 and it was worth the year+ wait.

Kingdom of Ash

By Brookelorren on June 20, 2019April 19, 20194 Comments

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.

Fantasy Books (Top Ten Tuesday)

By Brookelorren on June 4, 2019June 3, 201948 Comments

Hello! Time for another Top Ten Tuesday topic (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl)! Today we’re talking about books from our favorite genre. I like all sorts of books, but I tend to read a lot of fantasy books, so we’re going to go with that (although dystopian might be making a comeback soon, so there’s that). This week, I’m picking five fantasy books (or series) that I love, and five that I’m looking forward to reading.

An Ember in the Ashes Quartet – Sabaa Tahir

I’m looking forward to reading the final book in this series next year, but for now, this series belongs up here. I read these three (long) books in three days. They were difficult to put down! I originally got the first two books from the library, but then I had to own the set (even though they don’t match, because one’s Kindle, one’s paperback, and one’s hardback).

Shadowhunter’s Books – Cassandra Clare

I love these books! I guess this would belong in the upcoming release books too, because we have Chain of Gold to look forward to next March, but these definitely belong on this list. I’m also getting Ghosts of the Shadow Market today, which I’m excited for. They’re shipping via UPS (which typically arrives later at my house than the post office) so I guess I’ll be reading something else until it arrives.

The Young Elites Trilogy – Marie Lu

Of course this one had to make my list. I adore Magiano and Adelina! Even though Adelina is evil. I really need to finish the fanfic I started writing telling this series from Magiano’s POV (which will continue on and will have a happier ending). This is my first week as a full-time writer/homeschooler, so I should have more time to work on it now!

Flame in the Mist Duology – Renée Ahdieh

I was originally going to put the Grisha Verse books in here, but then I realized “didn’t I talk about all these books last week?” so I decided to throw in something new instead. This might be the first fantasy book I read based in a medieval Japan like place, and I loved it! I couldn’t stop thinking about it while I was at work.

I wasn’t sure about reading Ms. Ahdieh’s new book about vampires, but I got the chance to read the beginning of The Beautiful the other day, and it was really good, so I’ll probably read that one too.

The Cruel Prince Trilogy – Holly Black

This book had me hooked from the first page! I love Holly Black’s writing. I can’t wait until The Queen of Nothing comes out later this year! Yes, I know Jude and Cardan don’t really have the model relationship, but they’re not exactly model citizens themselves. I couldn’t put down the first two books in this series and think I finished them the day they came out.

New Books I’m Looking Forward To!

I’m really looking forward to Wicked Fox by Kat Cho! I got to read the first part of the book through Bookish First, and I won an ARC through them! I haven’t received it yet, but I’m going to my mailbox with expectation every day (although I have some other books I need to read first). I actually won three books (two through them, one through Goodreads) so this isn’t the only bookmail I’m anxiously awaiting.

October 1st is going to be a huge release day for me, because not only is Rebel coming out that day, but so is The End and Other Beginnings (Veronica Roth) and Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo! The cover features Matthew the famous Book Snake (who also appears on the cover of Queen of Nothing, another book I’m getting)!

Speaking of The End and Other Beginnings, here it is! It is a collection of short stories, including two stories from the Carve the Mark universe and “Inertia”, a story I adored from Summer Days and Summer Nights! I don’t own that book so I’ll be happy to read that story again.

Oh, and I just read in Entertainment Weekly while writing this article that “Inertia” is going to be turned into a movie! If you read this blog a lot, you know I don’t watch a lot of movies, but I definitely want to go see this one!

I really liked Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett (my review will be up in a couple of weeks) and when I found out that she’s coming out with a fantasy novel where a girl has to hunt down Vlad the Impaler’s cursed ring, I thought “sign me up!” Netgalley was nice enough to approve me to read The Lady Rogue, although it’s in protected PDF format and I’m having trouble downloading it, but I’m sure I’ll get that figured out before it comes out in September.

I’m excited for The Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White to come out this November! Camelot is such an interesting legend (I happened to get Once and Future on sale on Sunday) and this sounds like a great book. I’ve still only read one short story by Kiersten White (despite owning more than one of her books) but I hope to remedy that soon.

So there’s ten books from the fantasy genre – 5 I love, and 5 I’m looking forward to reading! What books are you looking forward to reading? I can’t wait to see what you all came up with today.

Shadow of the Fox

By Brookelorren on May 29, 2019May 30, 20193 Comments

There are some authors that I consistently see, week after week, and always think “I have to read something by that author” whenever I see their name mentioned. Julie Kagawa was one of those authors. So when Netgalley offered the Soul of the Sword ARC, I had to apply for it. Then I realized it was the second book in the Shadow of the Fox trilogy. Luckily for me, I just happened to have seen the book on sale earlier this month and I picked it up (sadly, it’s not on sale as I write this). I loved this book and am enjoying the second book in the series at the moment.

Yumeko is half-kitsune (kitsune are magical fox-creatures in Japanese folklore). She grew up in a temple, and is quite naïve to how the world works. Still, she has a pure heart. Suddenly, her life is thrust into chaos, when the temple is attacked and she is tasked with guarding a scroll. Should she fail, the world could descend into darkness. At the same time, she runs into Kage Tatsumi, a boy who has been tasked with finding the scroll. They end up traveling together to try to find the Steel Feather Temple. If Tatsumi finds out that Yumeko is kitsune or has the scroll, it could be curtains for her.

What I Loved

This was a really cute adventure story. Yumeko is such a sweet, innocent character who always seems to see the best in people. As she travels with Tatsumi, they are attacked by someone who wants to stop them from getting the scroll. Still, her kind, optimistic nature attracts other characters that join her, vowing to protect her (despite the fact that Tatsumi would rather be traveling by himself in the first place). Tatsumi and Yumeko start to develop feelings for each other in this book, but don’t expect any kisses any time soon.

The setting to Shadow of the Fox is gorgeous. It is full of Japanese mythological creatures, and I kept highlighting words for me to add to my book journal later on. The world itself has a vibrant history of its own. Since I’m reading the second book at the moment, I’m seeing more of the world, and I absolutely adore it.

There are also complex villains and relationships in this book. In the very beginning, we are introduced to Suki, a young maid who is killed by her mistress. How does this all fit in? You actually don’t really begin to see much of how she fits into the whole story in this book, but there is more in Soul of the Sword. Who is attacking Yumeko and Tatsumi? I’m just beginning to see the bigger picture in the second book, but there’s a lot here.

Conclusion

Should you read Shadow of the Fox? Yes, if you enjoy Japanese inspired fantasy and fun, sweet characters. I’m definitely a fan of the series, plan to read the third book at some point after it becomes available, and am likely to read more Julie Kagawa books in the future.

Siege and Storm

By Brookelorren on April 18, 2019April 12, 2019Leave a Comment

Siege and Storm is the second book in the Grisha Verse trilogy by Leigh Bardugo. As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve been thinking about reading these books for months, and I finally got around to it.

Since this is the second book in a trilogy, there may be spoilers for the first book in this review.

Alina and Mal are on the run from the Darkling. Even though this isn’t exactly the perfect life, they seem to be content. But this temporary respite is not to last. Because they get caught.

The Darkling’s forces now want another amplifier for Alina: Rusalye, a sea creature that inhabits the north. It’s a good thing that Mal happens to be the best tracker out there, because it keeps The Darkling from killing him (that, and the fact that he can use him against Alina). They end up tracking down the sea creature, but then things take an unexpected turn.

Siege and Storm forces Alina to think about who she is and what she wants. She’s the most powerful Grisha ever, and perhaps she is the only person that can stop the Darkling. Unfortunately, as she gains power, Alina wants more of it. Will this thirst for power push her away from Mal? The ambitious prince of Ravka, who is a new character in this book, thinks that because she is so powerful, Alina should be with him. Neither Alina nor Mal want that, do they? It feels as if forces are pushing him away and they are destined to be apart. It made me so sad.

“I have loved you all my life, Mal,” I whispered through my tears. “There is no end to our story.”
p. 416

I did not know the ending to this trilogy prior to reading this book. Quotes like this made me so sad, because I wanted these lifelong friends to end up together and… it didn’t seem like they were meant to be.

I loved this book and read it in two days. I loved these characters, I loved the setting. Funny, there is a minor character named Privyet in the book. Privyet (привет) means “hello” in Russian, so when they called the character that for the first time, I thought they were saying hello instead of saying the character’s name. The plot kept me wanting more, and the book ended with a bang.

Siege and Storm was a great book, and I absolutely love Leigh Bardugo’s writing. I recommend this series to people that like to read fantasy books, especially if you enjoy the whole Russian vibe like I do. I’ve already finished the rest of this series, listened to Six of Crows on audiobook, plan to read the rest of her books, and have pre-ordered her new book (out on October 1st like Rebel and The End and Other Beginnings), Ninth House. Even though I waited far too long to start reading her books, I’m definitely going to keep on reading them as long as she keeps writing.

Twisted Roots

By Brookelorren on March 6, 2019February 27, 2019Leave a Comment

I recently read Twisted Roots by Shelly Goodman Wright. For full discosure, I know the author and was given a copy of this book.

Jessica is living a nightmare. Her mother is evil and wants her to marry this creep, and her father is in a coma. In order to keep her mother from ending her father’s life, Jessica feels that she has to do everything that her mother wants her to. When her father dies, she figures that she’s had enough and decides to escape. After she leaves, she finds a group of people in the Okefenokee swamp that treat her more like family than her own family.

The book was interesting enough. The characters are likeable, and I thought the family-type dynamic was pretty cool. The villains can be pretty creepy and I definitely hate some of them.

This is Christian fiction, so there is a good vs. evil storyline in here, and it’s also a clean book, so you don’t have to worry about a curse word or sex scene that you’re not interested in seeing. Since it is Christian fiction, there may be elements that bother people if it’s not their thing. Jessica meets a guy that she’s interested in, and their relationship develops slowly, with a few bumps in the road to make it interesting.

While I liked the story overall, it’s not without it’s problem areas. The book could have used another run-through by an editor. I found quite a few mistakes while reading the book (granted, I find mistakes in lots of books, but it’s usually one or two per book). There were also some places where I was unclear how a few of the characters found out some of the things that they did.

It wasn’t my favorite story, but it was a pretty good read nevertheless. I would consider reading the next book in the series, but I’m not going to rush out and put it at the top of my TBR.

The Wicked King was Diabolically Good

By Brookelorren on January 9, 2019January 9, 2019Leave a Comment

The Wicked King, by Holly Black, was sitting in my mailbox yesterday, and after reading The Cruel Prince, I had to read it right away. It was an un-putdownable book. After finishing it, my first question was “How long until the next Folk of the Air book again?” The next book, The Queen of Nothing, can’t come soon enough, if you ask me.

Because The Wicked King is the second book in a trilogy, there may be spoilers for The Cruel Prince in this review.

When we last left Jude and Cardan, Jude had managed to place Cardan on the throne as High King of Faerie. It was a scheme to eventually put her brother Oak on the throne while keeping her foster father, Madoc, from having control of the realm. Instead, she was actually the one in control, with Cardan as her puppet king. When we join them at the beginning of this book, Jude is acting as Cardan’s seneschal, and he has to do anything that she commands.

The two are no longer enemies in school. They spend their days running a kingdom where its inhabitants have to be truthful, even if they are scheming and deceptive. They still see themselves as enemies, but they have to work together nonetheless.

And they still just happen to have this weird attraction to each other. Which I love from a reader’s perspective.

It’s been five months since Cardan pledged to be obedient to Jude, and she can feel the months trickling away. Sooner than she’d like, he will be released from his promise, and he can do what he’d like again. Oak still won’t be old enough to rule. What then? Jude is concerned about all of this, when threats come to her, Cardan, and Oak from the Queen of the Undersea. She wants him to marry her daughter, Nicasia. And that’s all I’m going to say, because you’ll want to find out what happens for yourself.

The book was well-written. The prose slides through your mind like you’re watching a movie, and you forget it’s even there. Ms. Black brings the characters and the setting to life, and even though it was getting late as I read this, I just could not put it down. It’s almost as if I was in Faerie dancing: once you start, you can’t stop until it’s over.

At the same time, the ending! It was a little unexpected, but I absolutely loved it. It didn’t exactly end in a cliffhanger, but I wanted more. Immediately. I must have the next book!

Needless to say, I highly recommend The Wicked King. It’s the best book that I’ve finished all year (so far). Never mind that it’s January 9th and I’ve only finished three books. I have a good feeling that The Wicked King will end up on the list of my favorite books of 2019 anyway.

So when does The Queen of Nothing come out? Because we needs it! I will definitely try to get an ARC of the next book, because I need to find out what happens as soon as I can!

War Storm was Electrifying

By Brookelorren on October 18, 2018September 17, 2018Leave a Comment

I recently finished reading War Storm by Victoria Aveyard. It was an amazing end to this series. This is a huge book (672 pages), but I read it in three days because I couldn’t put it down. Although the ending was quite fitting, I was sad to see the series end.

Because this is the fourth book in a series, this review may contain spoilers for the previous three books.

As the book begins, Mare and Cal have decided to part ways. Despite the fact that they obviously love each other, there are things that they can’t agree upon. Mare is dedicated to her cause of equality for reds and silvers, while Cal feels that becoming king is the best for both him and his country — even if it requires that he marry Evangeline.

Almost nobody wants Cal and Evangeline to get married. They don’t want to marry each other. Mare doesn’t want them to get married. Although Mare and Cal’s friends tend to be indifferent about the subject, they’re still a little annoyed with having to watch Mare and Cal moon over each other all the time. The only people that really want them to get married are Cal’s grandmother and Evangeline’s father, as a way to strengthen their alliance. That seems to be a recurring theme in real history as well though.

War Storm‘s extension of the world of the Red Queen series is outstanding. As the whole continent is at war now, we’re now dealing with characters from all over the place. We get to see more of Montfort in this book (whose allowance for same-sex marriage is tempting to Evangeline) as well as characters from the Lakelands.

This book seems to have a theme of what our destiny is, and whether we can make the choice to change things. Evangeline and Cal don’t seem to think that they have a choice in their futures, or even in the future of their nations. As the series comes to a close, they begin to realize that maybe they do have a choice after all.

The book’s ending was fitting. I thought it rang true to how the characters were behaving, especially in this last book. I finally didn’t mentally yell at the characters about how foolish their choices were. It may not be the ending that I would have chosen, but I thought it was the right ending. And I didn’t end up crying or throwing the book in frustration (yes, I’m still talking about Allegiant chapter 50).

I definitely recommend War Storm and the entire Red Queen series if you like fantasy, stories about equality, or just really good books in general. I was happy to find out how this series ended, yet sad to see it end at the same time.

Everless was Endearing

By Brookelorren on October 4, 2018September 10, 20186 Comments

I recently read Everless by Sara Holland. Driving my daughter to school takes quite a lot of time, which I can use to listen to audiobooks. This one came available at my library recently.

Jules lives in a humble village with her papa. They barely are able to make ends meet — then again, that’s true of most people in the village. Once again, the rent is due, and they don’t have the money to pay for it.

Everyone in Sempera uses time as a currency. If you can’t pay the rent, then you can take it out of the time you have remaining in your life. Most of the poorer people have shortened lives as a result. In a place like Everless, where the wealthy people live, some people can live for hundreds of years.

Jules used to live in Everless, as a child. A tragedy forced them to flee years ago, however. Now that Jules is 17, she can help Papa pay the rent by using her own time. Papa forbids it, but if he uses some of his time, he might die. In an attempt to save Papa’s life, Jules decides to go back to Everless, where well-paid jobs as servants await, preparing for the wedding of Roan Gerling and the queen’s adopted daughter.

Roan and Jules used to be friends as children. Going back to Everless means that she will see Roan again, although he will be marrying someone else. It also means that she will see his nasty brother, Liam. Everless is not a very safe place to be, and Jules believes that part of that reason is Liam.

As the story progresses, we find out why Everless is such a dangerous place, and we find that there are long-buried secrets held there. We find out that things aren’t exactly as they seem, and the past may come back to haunt everybody.

I enjoyed this book. The imagery was wonderful. I started getting my suspicions about some of the plot points partway through the story, although there were still some surprises, even at the very end. When I was getting towards the end of the story, I would want to sit in my car a little longer, just to find out what was going to happen next.

I’m looking forward to finding out what happens in Evermore, which should be coming out on December 31st. Which is weird, because most book releases come out on Tuesdays and December 31st is a Monday, but who knows? More than likely I’ll read it sometime next year.

The Red Queen Should Be Read!

By Brookelorren on September 27, 2018August 2, 20182 Comments

A few months ago, I was trying to figure out what book to read next. I had read all of my favorite authors’ books, as well as mammoth series like The Song of Ice and Fire, and needed to find something. Then I ran across Goodreads’ YA Novels of 2018 List… where have you been all my life? It was like this neverending supply of book ideas. War Storm, by Victoria Aveyard, was #1 on the list for this year. I can’t read the last book in the series, of course (I made that mistake with Joel C. Rosenberg’s Dead Heat years ago), but in just a few clicks, I found the first book in the series, Red Queen, and put it on hold at my local library. Several months later, I was able to read it.

Red Queen is based in a land where there are two types of people: Silvers, who have silver blood and magical powers, and Reds, who have red blood and no power. Our heroine, Mare Barrow, is a Red who has no prospects in life except to get drafted into the neverending war and die. In the meantime, she steals for a living. A few random events change her life. She discovers that, despite her red blood, she also has powers. These powers push her into a posh prison, faking that she’s a silver in the royal court.

Mare has to figure out how to survive in her new life. In addition, she’s not the kind of person to lie still and let the corruption around her corrupt her. She wants to fight for a better life for her people. But how will she do that? She begins to play a dangerous game where you’re never really quite certain who to trust… and you’re not quite certain who to love either.

The Red Queen series is popular for a reason: it’s good. Although I think that Mare is foolish sometimes, I still like her, and think that she was portrayed well. I enjoy reading about her love interest (or not) with Cal and Maven. I enjoyed this unique world with electricity and cars and motorcycles… but not too much of it, if you’re not rich. It’s not a medieval world, but it’s also nothing like ours. All of these elements add up to an interesting universe.

The book has twists and turns, and you’re not exactly sure who to trust. There are the “I didn’t see that one coming” moments. Even though I read the blurb about what the book was about before I read the book, I didn’t know exactly how this book was going to play out, and was kept excited until the end.

Fortunately, even though I had to wait a couple of months to read Red Queen (I read this book and am writing this review at the end of July), the next two books will be available at the library soon, as I signed up to read them at the same time. I might not get to read War Storm until 2019, but that’s okay. Although I am excited to read the next installment of this series, I have a stack of books waiting to be read, and I’ll just have to have patience to read the rest of this series.