Book Review: Acolyte (Tempris #2)

Acolyte

Stephanie Fisher

4/5

After being separated, somewhat by choice and somewhat by circumstance, Skye and Taly are both trying to figure out how to best serve their kingdom and find their way back to each other. Taly is trapped in some temporal loop until she can master her time magic and Skye is trapped in a position which he used to be proud to hold until it decided to hold him back from saving his best friend. 

I think that the worldbuilding and writing style was just a lot stronger in this book. I talked about their being a bit of literal conversations in the last book that kind of turned me off, this one was a lot less of that. I did think some of the portions were a little heavy in the descriptions, but time travel is kind of crazy complicated and I can understand why that was necessary. I love the time magic and all the different kinds of magic in general, they're complicated but open so many doors for great plot lines. The thought that went into the time manipulations was insane, I was struggling to keep up with all the twists and turns.

The romance is also pretty good, though I'm still not sure on how much they bonded as children. I think that the addition of his brother as a possible romantic rival is something that I don't need and I hope it's not all that significant in the future books. I really like the idea of antics that span across so many different timelines to the point that they're never sure what's going to happen next, the idea of Taly being able to see a completely different world than Skye but still taking him along for the ride.

Yeah so I'll definitely be reading any other books that are released in this universe. It's somehow the perfect amount of cute and complex and I think there's so many places that the world could go. I would recommend it, even for people who don't typically like the craziness that time travel can create.

Book Review: Chain of Iron (The Last Hours #2)

Chain of Iron

Cassandra Clare

4/5

This is the sequel to Chain of Gold, which is the prequel to TMI and TDA and the sequel to TID. It's so complicated that I don't recommend them to my friends at all because I know they would just get confused. It starts up four months after the conclusion of Chain of Gold and immediately jumps into the action and drama. Will James and Cordelia actually make it to the alter? Will Belial come back? What part does Tatiana really play in all this chaos? A ton of questions and fifteen years of backstory to contemplate as you go. 

When I think about it, I don't even know if this was a 4 star read I'm just really attached to the characters. I think that she did great on the whole story line with James and Cordelia, no spoilers but they were a lot easier to get behind in this book than in the last. But I think that she took on too many characters and most of them didn't feel like they had enough time to get truly developed in this one. 

I liked Chain of Gold because I felt as though she had branched out to a different story line, a more interesting one. But I feel like a lot of things were dropped and a lot of random things were picked up. I think that it's probably easy to run into repetition when you spend so long in a singular universe and you've seen a certain idea succeed so comprehensively that you want to try to replicate it on another bracket in the family tree. I just didn't vibe with it, it all needed more exposition for it to be as significant as she really thought it was. 

Again, I don't really recommend this to my friends because it's too complicated but if you're already invested then it's not that bad of a read. Minus, and this is a spoiler so proceed with caution, the continued and somehow casual references to incest. Like Cassie, you can't keep getting away with this why would you even write that in as a plot device. Sure, it's supposed to represent the villain and evil and all that but you've really done enough with that during your literary career and I would appreciate if you dropped it. Other than that though, the third book has the potential to be a lot better if she doesn't fall into her old habits.

Book Review: Shardless (Tempris #1)

Shardless

Stephanie Fisher

4/5

In this world, fey are at the top. The more magic, the better. If you are a human, you have no magic, no power, and are scorned by society. Taly has lived her entire life under the protection of a fey lord and lady, rarely feeling this scorn. One day, Taly discovers not only does she have magic but she has outlawed time magic that could be a death sentence for herself and her entire family. 

When I first started reading, I was kind of skeptical. It felt a little too listy at first like we were being given the descriptions of every conflict directly. As the book progressed though, I really came to enjoy the characters and the worldbuilding. The complexity of the magic system is a little difficult to follow but I like it when there are multiple elements to something and the author takes the proper time to describe it. Although I'm still confused on a couple elements of it all, I'm looking forward to figuring it all out in the sequel. 

The relationship is fine as long as you don't look too closely. I don't know how much time they actually spent together when they were children, what makes it so that they're too close to being siblings in all but blood? I don't know, their pasts weren't completely described so I'm just choosing to enjoy the friends to lovers slowburn. I think the romance is pretty important to the plot line but also not the only thing that's important, it's nicely balanced. 

I would recommend this, kind of reminded me of a more technical and less cringy Cruel Prince. No one has tails, but the world does border the human dimension where I assume the world is completely modern given the description of technology. Even though the real world is mentioned, they don't journey there so I would definitely call this more of a fantasy than a paranormal read. Overall though, it's definitely interesting and I've already downloaded the sequel.

Book Review: A Little Life

A Little Life

Hanya Yanagihara

4/5

Before I start the review I have to say that this book should come with quite a few trigger warnings: suicide, sexual abuse, self-harm, domestic abuse, and child abuse at the minimum though I may have missed something. The one thing you should know about Jude is that he has a long list of ways which people have inexplicably wronged him in life, years filled with unimaginable betrayals of the most severe manner. The book follows his journey from that point onward in his life with a group of three other college friends, all of who are struggling with their own doubts and fears in life. 

I'm very conflicted on the rating here, on the one hand it did exactly what it set out to do. It made me cry and think about a lot of plot points. The tragic poetry of it all was beautifully composed, she left not a single trace of happiness of joy or just even acceptance. The book is supposed to be sad and was well-written enough to invoke a considerable response from me and other readers. In that respect, I feel like it's a great read. 

I'm going to get into some spoilers here so be warned. But it also made me feel a little sketched out upon further reflection. I don't like a protagonist who has had too many bad things happen to them, it's way too Wattpad to rely solely on your protag's suffering to push the plot on. I think she did a good job counterbalancing that with his relationship with his counselor and with Harold, but then kept layering on the suffering to the point where I had to think someone else should have helped him or forced him to take help. Maybe I'm completely unaware of the horrors of the foster system, but how was an infant left with a group of men and never checked on? The severity of his injuries should have justified some sort of intervention. Same with after he was such an integral part of a child pornography ring, he should have been forced into some kind of counseling or something? I don't know, maybe I'm blinded by SVU and just hoping for the best. 

She also tried to counteract his tragedies with his relationship to Willem but like the more I think about it the less... right it felt. It's definitely not anything that should be considered a good romantic relationship on any level. They were both way too reliant on one another and too toxic in their needs and habits. Willem physically abused Jude and really didn't comprehend his reasoning behind things, I don't like the underlying message of this being the best that Jude deserved. Also didn't like the statement when Jude said he was with men cause that's what he's always been. Just contributed to the weird implications on sexual abuse and homosexuality that I didn't really feel comfortable with throughout the novel. That's the end of the spoiler section.

I also think the author maybe relied too much on being verbose, she distracted us from the unrealistic nature of many of the plot points by piling on the more commonplace life interactions. Again, this book did what it was supposed to and is undeniably a good read. It just got away with a lot of things that felt weird to me and worthy of discussion. I would recommend it if you like to cry, like actually sob, because that's the most authentic emotion that this book inspired.

Book Review(reread): Daughter of No Worlds (The War of Lost Hearts #1)

 

Daughter of No Worlds

Carissa Broadbent

5/5 

I really read this book less than a year ago and couldn't resist doing a reread- the older I get the more I find that I'm rereading. Anyways, the book was just as amazing the second time around. Tisaanah is one of my favorite protagonists ever to be written, she's strong and sensible but still shows weakness every now and then. She's perfect without being perfect and that just makes her even more perfect. I literally cannot wait until the sequel because I'm going insane. If you haven't read this book, I can't recommend it enough!

Book Review: A Gathering of Shadows (Shades of Magic #2)

A Gathering of Shadows

V.E. Schwab

4/5

This edition in the Shades of Magic trilogy picks up four months after the conclusion of the first. It's a little difficult to jump into, but Lila has spent the time gaining credit as the primary thief on a pirate ship while Kell has been further alienated by the only parents he has ever known. When a tri-yearly tournament begins, both can't resist from competing though both under aliases. 

The only problem I really had with the book was how complicated it was at the beginning and how separate it was from the story lines which we got hooked on in the first book. All in good time of course, but it took me a while to get into it because I wasn't immediately seeing a continuation of what I wanted to see. I will say that this one did a much better job of ending on a cliffhanger, I'm a lot more likely to finish the third book now than I was to continue on to this book right away. I'm also here for the gradual introduction of Lila to magic, I think I understand where it's coming from but I'm glad it wasn't something that was just handed to us.

I'm a big fan of this series and in V.E. Schwab in general. I think she has such a great way of writing truly likeable characters with real flaws. I can't wait to see how the series ends and how the characters come full circle even though I'm super nervous about it.

Book Review: A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Trilogy #1)

A Discovery of Witches

Deborah Harkness

3/5

This book was an emotional rollercoaster like I feel like I read ten different books. Starting off in a library, Diana Bishops summons and breaks the spell on a manuscript which no one has seen in two hundred years. This sets off a chain of events where other supernatural creatures are basically out to get her and get her powers. Also puts her in the sights of Matthew Clairmont, a vampire who is also a professor at Oxford. 

I thought this book was going to be a lot more intense than it was and yet it was also so intense? I think what threw me is the Twilight-esque levels of dedication between Matthew and Diana. I liked Diana's powers but I think they got so crazily entangled with the romantic elements of the story. I thought this was going to be like a story about witches with romantic elements but it was more a romantic story with witch elements. I didn't hate that for the most part, it's just completely different from what I expected. 

I know that a lot of it was explained by supernatural vampire bonds, but I think that was a little bit of cheating on relationship building and instead choosing to get straight into the thick of it. This book was nearly six hundred pages, I think we could have spent a little more time in like platonic situations of build up. I love soulmates as much as the next person but I also think that there needs to be some kind of foundation for it to be in any way believable. The start of the book was really good about this, going out to eat and doing yoga and then they turned into completely different characters.

I don't know if I'll read on. It was a pretty enjoyable read but it was so long for what I think I actually got from it. I also don't know how I feel about time travel, it's a little too complicated for my brain. We'll see, it took me three tries before I could actually get into this book and commit to reading it and I don't really regret it.