Book Review: Chain of Thorns (The Last Hours #3)

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 3/5

Attention Grabbing: 2/5 

Chain of Thorns is the third and final book in the Last Hours, covering too many characters to list out succinctly. It's the children of the characters in the Infernal Devices, and as their children they're just obligated to get into twice as much trouble. We have demons, we have necromancy, and we have a lot of unlawfulness in a society where the law is hard but it's the law. 

Unfortunately, I was pretty disappointed with this book as a finale. At this point in her career, Cassandra Clare isn't just ending a trilogy summarizing 3-4 years of work, she's ending a trilogy that closes a chapter for our favorite characters from TID and leads into the drama that is TMI, TDA, and ultimately TWP. But it was a major let down. If we put all the continuity issues aside- because I will cut her some slack that it's been like 15+ years since TMI and we're living in a very different world than how it was then- the pacing of the series beyond book one has just been way off. I loved book one, I thought it was one of her best ever because it balanced the sort of plot-heavy vibes of TDA with the sedate yet action-packed rhythm of TDA. But she couldn't hold it together, she started threading in all sorts of things that just felt like they weren't really as relevant to the plot as they should have been. She couldn't mess with the TID parents because she had already written the Clockwork Princess epilogue and guaranteed their survival so she couldn't figure out how to write well-rounded characters where their parents were loving and supporting - since she also couldn't traumatize them by making their parents mean because it would destroy the integrity of TMI. And it felt like she realized with 50 pages left that she had about a million loose plot threads and so she decided to slam them all shut as quickly as she could with just about zero exposition or closure. I liked how we dealt with some of the characters trauma, but I think she committed to so many separate plots that she wasn't really able to do any of them justice. 

To get to the spoilers: she should not have killed Kit. It was cheap and it was lazy. She paired off all the other characters (aside from Matthew, Charles, and Grace) and decided Kit was the one who could die. And the fact that there was absolutely no reaction, that everyone was more upset about Matthew and James being in Edom, was pretty cruel. And we didn't get to see the reactions of his parents, she could have easily banked a few points by giving us some heartfelt mourning especially since most people reading have already bonded with the parents and the aunts and uncles. But no, she used him as a throwaway character. And she let James and Lucie get away with everything way too easily. James in the treating Cordelia poorly for the past two books and Lucie in the committing literal crimes but not even having to testify. Cassandra Clare just decided you know what, I'm going to make him Jesse again and the notoriously brutally lawful shadowhunter society will just deal with it. It honestly was inconsiderate to us as readers who spent years trying to figure out how this series would end (and I mean literal years my friend and I have been tossing theories back and forth since we were in middle school ten years ago) to try and just sweep everything under the rug at the last second. And the absolute cherry on top was James and Lucie losing their powers, which makes no sense to me and is also another cheap tactic. Like, we know that Tessa retains her powers through TDA so how do her kids lose that of which is threaded into their genetic composition when Tessa doesn't? Her father should've just stayed a faceless eidolon demon. 

This isn't really a review anymore more of just a rant, but I felt a little wronged as a reader. There were still good parts, I don't regret reading the series or staying up-to-date with it, but I think that Cassandra Clare should put in a bit more if she wants people to stick with something that has gotten as lengthy as the shadowhunter universe has. Sad that we're closing the story but happy to have seen more into their lives and into the lives of the TID characters (barely). 

Book Review: Dance of a Burning Sea (Mousai #2)

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 4/5

Attention Grabbing: 3/5

Dance of a Burning Sea is the second book in Mousai trilogy and follows fairly soon after the conclusion of the first. This book shifts to the middle sister, Niya, and her relationship with a pirate captain. They first met four years ago, their encounters ultimately leaving Niya heartbroken and filled with rage towards the man. When he kidnaps her as a bargaining chip, she can't resist trying to get the upperhand on him which does not work in her favor.

Mixed feelings on this one. I hate it when men trick women in books and I hate it when characters are described as all powerful and clever and yet they are constantly humiliated. It felt like we were being forced to watch Niya fail at points and I nearly DNFed cause I was tired of it. I don't feel like she ever got her moment of triumph, even when she was one step ahead he caught up much faster than she did. It also didn't rub me right that their initial confrontation occurred when she was 17 and he was 20,  made it feel like he had an unfair amount of power from the start. I loved the pirates part of it and I love the Mousai, but I don't think it matched up to the first novel. It might have been due to the overwhelming number of quests and side plots, I couldn't get comfortable with the characters cause there was just too much happening.

I do think it gave me a much better understanding of Niya's powers. When I read the first, it seemed obvious who the most powerful sister was, but I can better understand the balance of it all now. The writing all together was very well done, it just could have been a hundred pages shorter and dragged less with a bit more empowerment for Niya threaded in. 

Book Review: In Darkness Forged (Night Elves of Abreia #1)

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 3/5

Attention Grabbing: 2/5

In Darkness Forged is the start of a new series by Kenley Davidson. I thought it was a series of standalones but it might be interrelated quests? I'm not quite sure, but this book feels pretty self-contained. Aislin needs to save her family from a cruel lord unwilling to accept their continued deferral on rent. To do so, she risks her life to collect a rare ingredient for a night elf lord on the brink of death. She is paired with another night elf to do so, one who wants little to do with her and is completely focused on his own revenge. 

I was disappointed by this one. I loved The Faceless Mage, even did a reread of it last year. This didn't feel like it spent enough time working on the lore. Though it's in the same universe and maybe we were just supposed to build off preexisting knowledge, it felt like way too much was just happening with sort of the expectation that we would just follow it. Not the worst, but definitely not as good as The Faceless Mage.

I liked Aislin well enough, she seems a bit forgettable but she wasn't overwhelmingly annoying or anything. Not much to say beyond that, I'll continue to read Kenley Davidson but this one just wasn't exciting enough for me.

Book Review: A Dawn of Onyx

Overall: 2/5

Plots and Themes: 2/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 3/5

Attention Grabbing: 2/5

This book follows Arwen, a village healer who has been waiting for word from her brother at war for over a year. Her family has accepted the fact that he's probably dead but she's not giving up. When he does show up, it's with stolen money and a poorly planned desire to get out of the country. Her family escapes, but she's captured by the ones he stole from. 

The whole captured plotline is boring. The stakes don't seem as high as the synopsis makes it seem. Her powers had the potential to be developed into something interesting but I feel like they kind of just existed without any real fanfare. They made it seem like it was unique and rare but they never even really showcased it. 

The romance was predictable. I didn't hate it, but it was definitely not something I'll remember. It was just so cliche and at times felt like we were being forcefed their chemistry cause I really just did not feel it. Like a lot of the plot points in the book, they made sense sure they just all felt too easy. 

I probably won't read the sequel because I won't remember enough from this one to go on. Too much was happening in the last fifty pages to even follow where the next will go. I didn't hate it, I just had expected more from the synopsis. 

Book Review: Untainted (The Crystal Island Series #1)

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 4/5

Attention Grabbing: 4/5

This book was interesting for the same reasons that it felt boring at times - because it followed all the desired tropes pretty much exactly. I enjoyed it and I think it was an enjoyable read, but I think it also could benefit from a really good plot twist. The prologue gave away more than necessary and after that I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop. 

Book Review: Promised in Fire (Of Dragons and Fae #1)

 

Promised in Fire

Jasmine Walt

Overall: 4/5

Plots and Themes: 4/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 4/5

Attention Grabbing: 4/5

Promised in Fire is a new series by Jasmine Walt about dragons and fae and everything you ever want in a fantasy romance. Adara was raised as a water fae in an earth fae kingdom and she has been bullied her whole life for it. She's never fit in and never known the father who had granted her those powers. She's never even had much capability with water to even call herself much of a water fae. She wants to be a soldier, but in the trials she accidentally unleashes fire powers she had no idea that she possessed and puts herself and her mother in danger.

Enter Einar, the last of the dragons who had been wiped out of the dimension by a violent war twenty years earlier. He's the last barrier between the rest of his kind in the other dimension and the violence of the fae. When he meets Adara, he is determined to hate her simply for being fae. He has slumbered for two decades and her presence forced him to accept the progression of time and the changes in the world. He agrees to help her master the fire powers if she can find someone to help him go back to sleep. It's a tenuous agreement, complicated by the fact that they are fated to be together and she has no idea. 

I liked it for a starting point, though there were definitely problems at the end that made me cringe. I also don't know how I feel about the age difference between them, is it made okay by the fact that he slept for twenty years? I don't know it's kind of a gray sketchy area. But all in all, it was pretty entertaining and I'd definitely stick around for the second book.

 

Book Review: Pathfinder's Way (The Broken Lands #1)

 

Pathfinder's Way

T.A. White

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 3/5

Attention Grabbing: 3/5

Pathfinder's Way starts with introducing us to Shea, a pathfinder who is one of the few individuals with the knowledge in how to navigate the treacherous post-apocalypse environment they reside in as highlanders. When attempting to rescue some of her charges from a trade deal gone wrong, she meets Fallon. He's the leader of the Trateri and he quickly decides that she's going to be a part of their efforts to conquer the lowlands. 

So immediate pros, Shea is really good at what she does and she's well-respected by the Trateri for this ability. We've got a lot of gaps in her backstory and how she came to be the way she is, but I respected her talents and thought she was pretty well-rounded. The cons are thus especially glaring. I didn't know that this was this kind of book, a kind of Warprize-ish conquering dude thing, but it was balanced with Shea's skills. Honestly the book was a lot better until they got to the point where they're actually together. Then, the pacing was all off and I got the ick from it. 

I don't know if I'll be continuing on to the next book in the series, if only because there are a lot of factors that just don't feel right here. But again, Shea's character and abilities were well categorized at the start and really got me respecting her as a protagonist.

 

Book Review: The Masked Fae (The Royal Fae of Rose Briar Woods #1)

 

The Masked Fae

Shari L. Tapscott

Overall: 2/5

Plots and Themes: 2/5

Characters: 2/5

Writing Style: 2/5

Attention Grabbing: 2/5

The Masked Fae starts with a girl attempting to win her brother back from debtors prison after he gambled their whole fortune away. She's willing to brave the terrors of the fae world in order to restore some aspect of her family. When she meets the man who is his supposed captor, she can't really understand how someone so nice could have such a horrible reputation.

It's boring and lengthy really. Every time I thought it was over I looked down at the percentage and had huge portions of the book to go. I don't know why the progression of it all was so hard to get behind, but it really dragged. I think it's because we got resolution to what felt like the main plot line like 40 percent in, then the boss battle at the end just totally lacked the suspense which was necessary. The I love yous came way too soon and I wasn't all that supportive of the main relationship, it just felt like they were both super lonely and immediately fell in love. 

It wasn't all that entertaining for me, though I did manage to finish it so it definitely could have been worse. I don't think it speaks anything about the author cause the writing was alright, it just dragged so much. 

Book Review: Flame in the Mist (Flame in the Mist #1)

 

Flame in the Mist 

Renée Ahdieh

Overall: 3/5

Plot and themes: 3/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing style: 4/5

Attention-grabbing: 3/5

Flame in the Mist is the first book in a YA fantasy romance series. I've been holding off on reading it because I wasn't a big fan of The Wrath and the Dawn, the first book I read by Ahdieh. But I definitely think this one was a lot more fun and creative. It's about a girl, Mariko, who survives an assassination attempt on the way to her wedding. She wants revenge, so she dresses up like a boy to infiltrate the group that tried to kill her. 

It's very basic and predictable in many ways and ultimately leaves the impression of enjoyable but forgettable. I didn't mind anything about it but I don't think it's super distinguishable from any of the recent enemies-to-lover style fantasy romances. The different perspectives should have added depth but they maybe just confused the narrative. I was completely checked out during Kenshin's chapters and had gotten a little bored by the big reveal. It's not the worst ever, it definitely had its moments, but it was a little repetitive. 

I'm not sure if I'll read the sequel, but I had a good time with what was here and it's not super long or anything. Would probably be better for someone more into YA.

 

Book Review: Six Crimson Cranes (Six Crimson Cranes #1)

 

Six Crimson Cranes

Elizabeth Lim

Overall: 5/5

Plot and themes: 5/5

Characters: 5/5

Writing style: 5/5

Attention-grabbing: 5/5

Six Crimson Cranes is the latest and greatest by Elizabeth Lim, author of Spin the Dawn. And just like I loved that duology, this one quickly shaped itself into one of my favorite reads of 2021. It has everything you could possibly want: evil stepmothers, forbidden magic, confusing romances, and character growth. 

Shiori thinks life can't get much worse than her imminent forced marriage to a "barbarian of the third rank" which will force her to move far from the family she adores. But then, she discovers that her stepmother is in possession of powerful and illegal magic and her stepmother curses her and her brothers as penance. Now, she is forced into silence without even her own hidden magic to console herself. She is unidentifiable, and people say that the bowl on her head is a sign of demons. Her brothers don't have it much better, forced to turn into cranes at night and forbidden from returning to the castle. With the assistance of the betrothed whom she thought she would hate and a recently befriended dragon, it's up to Shiori to break the curse and save her family. 

It made me cry. Books that make me cry always hold a special place in my heart and this one is no different. It had the right balance of adventure, romance, magic, and plot twists that kept me hooked basically from beginning to end. The end which was a cliffhanger that will probably keep me up at night and anxiously waiting for the sequel. I also liked the consistency that it had with Spin the Dawn, obviously not the same book at all but some of the same sorcerer-esque elements in a completely different setting. I can't recommend this book enough and I literally can't wait to read the next.

 

Book Review: Dance with the Sword (Bluebeard's Secret #2)

Dance with the Sword

Sarah K.L. Wilson

Overall: 3/5

Plot and themes: 2/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing style: 3/5

Attention-grabbing: 2/5

Dance with the Sword is the second book in the Bluebeard's Secret series, books that revolve around Bluebeard and his wife Izolda. It's a combination of the tale of Bluebeard and maybe Howl's Moving Castle? Along with a bunch of other really random and quirky references throughout the story. 

I unfortunately liked the first book in this series a lot more than I liked this one. Where it was interesting in book one, it was overdone in book two. I was really pushing myself to get to the end and it felt a lot lengthier than the 300 pages that it was. It might have had to do with the pacing, we were building up so much the whole time with so much happening that even the significance of the ending just felt like another dramatic event in a long series of them. I did appreciate the romantic progression but I also feel like we haven't seen much development on that front. I hate betrayal plot lines because it's like they're turning their back on something that's important but it kind of feels justified here? There's not a lot of teamwork and while a lot of things are being said, I'm not really seeing them in action. 

So it was decent, I might read another book but honestly I'm more bored at this point than anything else. It's not great pacing and it's not holding my interest to the point that I think 300 more pages would be interesting.

Book Review: Entranced (Prince of the Doomed City #1)

Entranced

Sylvia Mercedes

Overall: 3/5

Plot and themes: 3/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing style: 3/5

Attention-grabbing: 3/5

Entranced is another book by Sylvia Mercedes, a bit of a slow start to a brand new series featuring a previous character. Clara is an Obligate to the fae, she has been assigned 15 years of indentured servitude as penance for a crime she does not remember. The rest of the human world ages on but she is trapped, far away from her friends and her childhood sweetheart and forced to serve in a mystical library. After an attack by a powerful creature, her Obligation changes hands and she is once again thrown into an unknown world. 

I wasn't a big fan of the romance in this book. There wasn't a lot of chemistry and I don't really see how it can build up in a realistic way. I was also just disappointed to see the outcome of two characters I really liked from another novella. Maybe it will be better in the next book and I'll get more closure but it's like we got a great little love story only to end like this? I really wasn't satisfied. 

Not much else to say, I think it was interesting but really not super invested and it was hard for me to get through to the end. Her crime was pretty freaking obvious to me but I guess it'll be explained away as unintentional or something in the next book. I think that it was a lot of drama without a lot of back up and I don't know if I'm a big fan.  

Book Review: The Storm of Echoes (The Mirror Visitor #4)

 

The Storm of Echoes

Christelle Dabos

Overall: 4/5

Plot and themes: 4/5

Characters: 5/5

Writing style: 4/5

Attention-grabbing: 4/5

The Storm of Echoes is the fourth and final book in the Mirror Visitor series. It's been a long wait for the translated works to be released, and a big shout out to NetGalley for getting me an ARC so that I could enjoy it prior to its release date. Ophelia and Thorn have been through a lot during the course of their tumultuous relationship, their ultimate challenge being to basically decode the meaning and fundamental creation of the world as they know it. This book is a series of convoluted twists and turns, and if you're anything like me it'll take you twice as long to read because you'll constantly have to flip back to reread section that have transcended your level of comprehension. 

When I went to write this review, I noticed that the average score is somewhat low. I understand that from a non-biased perspective there are a lot of things happening and the paragraphs are dense and hard to follow. I think that the plot kind of got away from me at points and I had to go back and make sure I was following. If I hadn't done nearly a complete reread in the past couple of months, I don't know if I would have been able to follow the characters that kept popping up from all over the chronology of the series. 

But I think that it's supposed to feel like a fever dream. Ophelia and Thorn want to understand the basis of their universe but they really have no idea. It's like if you tried to jump down a rabbit hole of theoretical psychology and philosophy. I don't completely understand it and I'll definitely need a reread to have a more solid grasp on it, but I think that the ultimate message of the whole series was definitely closed out nicely. 

I'm still recommending this series despite the lack of fulfillment which I derived from the ending. I'm not saying it was disappointing to the integrity of the universe, but disappointing to what I'm always looking for and striving to get as a reader. I won't spoil anything with that, I still appreciate the way it ended, but I really hope that someday down the line we see more of them. Ophelia holds up as one of my all-time favorite protagonists and it's really bittersweet to think that this is the end of her story. 

Thank you again to NetGalley and Europa Editions for giving me the ARC, hoping to see more great things by Christelle Dabos in the future!

 

Book Review: The Bridge Kingdom (The Bridge Kingdom #1)

 

The Bridge Kingdom

Daniel L. Jensen

Overall: 3/5

Plot and themes: 3/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing style: 3/5

Attention-grabbing: 4/5

The Bridge Kingdom is the first in an enemies-to-lovers series covering a forced marriage scenario between a king and a princess. Lara has prepared her entire life for the potential eventuality of being the bride of a king. Along with a whole huge group of her other sisters who have consistently been her allies and enemies. After staging a masterful plan to guarantee this marriage, she knows that without bringing the kingdom to its knees she will never have her freedom. But Aren is different from anyone she's ever met, and she can't help but start to consider the possibility that her father may have been preparing them for a scenario that doesn't quite exist. 

This book isn't bad by any measure, it's just incredibly basic. It relies completely on what people want to see from a book of this vein. Probably pulled up a list of enemies to lovers tropes and just figured out how to integrate them in the most cohesive manner. While that can work for some books, I would  have liked to see some actually growth and development in the plot of the novel. Things were picked up and dropped left and right, and the main characters were very obviously invested in one another from the start to finish. It was obvious and it wasn't even all that cinematic.

I didn't hate it, I might read the second one but I feel as though I know exactly how it would end. If you want an enemies to lovers with a betrayal I think that Winner's Curse is much better and this is more a cheap amalgamation of everything that came before it. That might just be my disappointment cause it was hyped up for years and when I finally got it it was weak, but it really could've done so much more.

 

Book Review: Poison Study (Study #1)

 

Poison Study

Maria V. Snyder

Overall: 3/5

Plot and themes: 2/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing style: 2/5

Attention-grabbing: 4/5

Poison Study is the first book in the Study series/Chronicles of Ixia. Yelena is on death row, awaiting the noose for a murder which she feels completely justified for. Right at her final hour she's offered a different solution; become the poison tester for the Commander. This would give her an extended lifespan and leave her survival up to the perfection of her own skills. This works well for her until her past catches up to her and she rallies herself to save others from a similar violence.

I read it about eight or ten years ago and was really invested in the series, while I still enjoyed this read and think that anyone who's doing a reread who liked it originally would still like it but would see quite a few problems with the story. For one thing, it's obviously written as more of a YA story but deals with sexual assault in a way that kind of minimizes the trauma and significance of that. It definitely feels like a debut novel with the weak developed of a kingdom supposedly based on the equality of all individuals but allowing its most susceptible members to be consistently abused and then punished for standing up for themselves. 

I'm a fan of Valek and Yelena out of pure loyalty from my 13 year old self at this point. I had somehow blotted the fact that she's 19 and a victim of severe traumas and he's 33 in a position of ultimate power out of my head. It's not the worst example of this kind of thing that I've ever seen in YA, but it's a little questionable especially considering how he trains her through the first seventy percent of the book. Again, I'm still a fan and I recognize that this isn't the best but also you know it is what it is. 

I did appreciate the conclusion to an extent because I think there was a lot of consistency with the separate characterizations. The Commander remains a genocidal maniac, Valek remains loyal to that, and Yelena continues to defend herself and those around her. There were some flaws with it but I still think it was nicely tied up. I don't know if I'm recommending this series at this point but I'm definitely loving it for the nostalgia.

Book Review: Sky in the Deep (Sky in the Deep #1)

 

Sky in the Deep

Adrienne Young

Overall: 3/5

Plot and themes: 2/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing style: 3/5

Attention-grabbing: 3/5

After spending the last five years thinking her brother died a horrible death on the battlefield, it's pretty shocking for Eelyn to see Iri on the opposite side of the battlefield. She risked everything thinking she was saving him, but she really ends up a prisoner of the opposition with a traitor for a brother. Now, she has to figure out how to gain her freedom without losing her honor and deal with losing a brother all over again. 

I thought this book was pretty good but pretty insubstantial. If we had focused on her dealing with her brother, her enemies to lovers romance, or the impending war as individual events or plot elements that had separate substantial value it would've been better. Instead, everything felt insta and poorly developed. I guess the way she developed the relationship with her brother was okay, but I didn't really feel any chemistry between her and Fiske and then it was like bam they're in love and willing to give their lives for one another. 

I'm kind of a fan of the ultimate evil in a lot of ways because books make it so much easier. In the reality of a war, no side is completely evil because even if you're supporting an evil cause you couldn't pick the geography you were born in and it stands to reason that there are good people fighting only because they have no other choice. In a book, you can kind of ignore that in favor of being like oops these guys are Evil with a capital E. I don't even remember what the opposition was called in this book cause they were mentioned maybe three times before oh my god they're the worst thing to ever besiege the world we have to band together to stop them. And even though fighting is like their whole goal and they have a scheduled war every five years just for fun, they kind of suck at fighting. It was pretty difficult to get behind especially when the slaughter came without a single hint of consideration for their motives. 

So yeah, it was okay. I was pretty interested as I read it but I was always looking for more in everything that happened. I wouldn't say don't read it because it's easy to get through and has it's perks, but it's definitely not a book you want to overthink.

 

Book Review: Flame and Starlight (The Esteria #1)

 

Flame and Starlight

Dana Isaly

Overall: 2/5

Plot and themes: 1/5

Characters: 1/5

Writing style: 2/5

Attention-grabbing: 2/5

I've been seeing this book recommended because people are saying it's like "reminiscent of ACOTAR" or even that it's a better ACOTAR.  Uhm bro this is literally just ACOTAR like it's literally ACOTAR rewritten with different character names and a slightly different plot. I'm not really a huge ACOTAR fan either and don't remember everything that happened but I think it's summarized pretty easily by the fact that the pick-me girl got swooped up by the tatted up High Lord of the Night Court. By swooped up I mean literally swooped up as he also coincidentally and conveniently has those wings with the same... properties as the bat boys. 

It's just stale. I read a lot of fae books and a lot that are obviously trying to emulate ACOTAR. That's fine with me cause that's the trend and I think it's fun to see the different spins while staying in a familiar territory. This isn't a spin and it's not even something that had me attached to the randos that were introduced. The characters only personalities were being as close to their ACOTAR OGs as possible. The romance was laughable because we had the fated mate thing that was disguised as a choice? I don't even know. 

I'd give it a single star but it was decent enough to get to the end of. I'm not going to recommend it unless you really love ACOTAR and you're hungover or something. Even though this one would probably just make you feel hollow.

 

Book Review: The Savage and the Swan

 

The Savage and the Swan

Elle Fields

Overall: 2/5

Plot and themes: 2/5

Characters: 1/5

Writing style: 2/5

Attention-grabbing: 2/5

So the baseline of this book is that there's a savage king and a princess who has lived under lock and key out of fear that this savage dude is going to murder her. When they meet cause she casually decides to peruse the lands one day, he (shockingly!) doesn't kill her and they have to figure out how to balance their separate kingdoms and separate tendencies with their feelings for each other. 

Full disclosure, I'm rather behind on writing reviews and I read this about a week ago and have mostly forgotten about what happened in it. That's not really a shining recommendation for it but gives you a good idea of how interesting it is. Everything is extremely straightforward and predictable and yet still poorly explained and fleshed out. Like I got to the end and I'm still confused why they started the war. I understand there was a prophecy and everything that made them try to kill a baby but like it just seemed like poor tactical approaches on both side. 

And him, as the wolf king, somehow also has wings? How is that aerodynamic in any way I really just cannot picture it. It was kind of just dropped out of nowhere on us too. I hate when books are like "oh the most powerful can do such and such" yeah okay so obviously that's going to be you or the other protagonist and why did you drop it on me like that. The romance felt just angry and without any kind of real chemistry. If anything it was domineering in a very bad way. 

So I'm definitely not recommending it unless you're interested in just occupying the time. Sometimes I like reading just to look at words and this one did it for me.

 

 

 

Book Review: A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses #1)

 

A Court of Thorns and Roses

Sarah J. Maas

Overall: 2/5

Plot and themes: 2/5

Characters: 2/5

Writing style: 2/5

Attention-grabbing: 3/5

Me doing a reread of ACOTAR in the year 2021 is pretty wild but book club is book club. ACOTAR is something completely separate from the ACOTAR series because really it's just a whole other arc. Is it boring? Sometimes. Is it basic? Most of the time. I'm not a huge ACOTAR fan but I can respect that it has it's moments, and this one has probably the fewest of those moments?

I think that the biggest issue that I had with this book in discussion was the amount of times she had to use the phrase her bowels turned watery. Three. Three times in the course of the 400-some pages of this book. That was just the tip of the iceberg though, SJM uses way too many random phrases that are just not good for the situation or the universe. It's not even a problem with just this book, I had that same issues in ACOSF. It's really just a SJM thing. 

Not much to say, it's just a kind of basic Beauty and the Beast retelling and there's not a ton of chemistry between the main characters. I guess it's a nice commentary on the difficulties with romances across different classes. I don't know really because it just seems kind of bland and I guess I'm most offended by the fact that it's so popular.

 

Book Review: Song of the Forever Rains (Mousai #1)

 

Song of the Forever Rains

E.J. Mellow

Overall: 5/5

Plot and themes: 4/5

Characters: 5/5

Writing style: 5/5

Attention-grabbing: 5/5

Larkyra has just reached her majority, the youngest of the trio of Mousai that inspires fear and respect for the Thief King. Her voice gives her magic that most could not comprehend, the ability to rip people apart or put them back together. She's ready for taking on more responsibilities, she wants to succeed at her first solo mission. It involves her posing as a fake fiancee for a corrupt duke, using an addictive form of diluted magic and taking out the subsequent aggression on his stepson. 

I liked this book a lot. I thought it had a pretty decent plot that kept me engaged through the very end. What really made it so notable and unique among all the other books with similar plots would probably be the family dynamics. The banter between the sisters was hilarious and fun and just felt so authentic. And the fact that they have such an open and mutually respectful relationship with their father? Basically unheard of in this kind of fantasy and I was living for it. 

Larkyra's powers were also a fun part of the narrative. I love a good plot line all about balance, balancing the strength that a power like that provides you with the responsibility which you have to keep it under control. I just love a protagonist who is so aware of themselves, it's just really refreshing. 

So while it was a tad predictable and a little weak on the romantic front, I really appreciated this read. I don't know if I'll read the next when it comes out because I'm obsessed with Larkyra but like this is a definite recommend.