Tag: Review

Review: An Enchantment of Ravens

Edition: Advance Copy

Published: September 26th, 2017 by Margaret K. McElderry Books

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult

Pages: 304

Goodreads Rating: 4.15/5 stars

My Rating: 5/5 stars

For all my reviews so far I have thrown in a quote in from the book that stood out to me in some way and stuck with me for the rest of the book. I just couldn’t do that with An Enchantment of Ravens, nothing really stuck out to me because everything was so beautifully written. Margaret’s writing in An Enchantment of Ravens is truly something magical. It made me feel as though I was right there with Isobel and Rook throughout the story.

In An Enchantment of Ravens we follow alongside Isobel, a portrait artist that lives in the village named Whimsy. Her craft is seeked by various fair folk who pay in the price of enchantments, which can grant anything your heart desires. It may sound like a blessing at first but if not careful with the wording of these enchantments they can turn sour, or even deadly. But with years of practice of working with fair folk and learning all their tricks, she knows how to use the enchantments to her benefits. She never asks for too much, always something practical and useful for herself and her family.

During one of Isobel’s regular client’s appointments he tells her she will be expecting the Autumn Prince soon. Within her time with Rook, the Autumn Prince, to create his portrait Isobel gets to know him more so than other clients. With this she makes the mistake of painting a mortal emotion of sorrow in his eyes. This weakness can cost Rook his life. Furious, he takes Isobel back to the Autumnlands to stand trial for her crime.

I feel like it may be a little too soon to say this is my favorite book of 2017.. buuut it is my favorite book of 2017. I’ve been waiting for this book ever since I saw someone recommend it to a friend many months ago (I am so thankful for Sarah (Margaret’s agent) for sending me an advance copy!) When I was finally able to read An Enchantment of Ravens I couldn’t find it in myself to put it down―and I know I say this a lot but I truly could not find myself putting it down. I kept wanting to know what happened next.

I loved how Margaret wrote the fair folk in her book. They may not lie (just because they cannot lie does not mean they are honest), disguise themselves like humans to hide their true nature, must curtsy back (at all costs), and don’t experience human emotion. For me it was quite different from most faerie novels I’ve read, which I loved. I always appreciate when an author goes a different way than the typical route that many authors use with their novels.

I may be bias because I have always had a strong love for anything autumn related but you guys, I absolutely adored Rook. I just want to protect him from the world and love him forever. I expected him to be an egoistic prince―I mean, he was a little bit about him being the Autumn Prince but it wasn’t as bad as some other male protagonists in different novels. He does not understand human emotions at all and it’s quite amusing because emotions practically terrify him. He always apologizes when he may think he upset someone, even if he really doesn’t understand why or how. If I wasn’t making this a spoiler free review I would share all my favorite interactions between Rook and Isobel because I could list them all so easily.

All the characters and scenes in An Enchantment of Ravens were all written all so beautifully I wish it was longer because I wanted it to never end. I hope we get to see more of Margaret’s writing soon, her and her writing kept me captivated from beginning to end with this book.

P.s Viktoria has already called dibs on Rook but I would like to overrule her verdict and call dibs on the Autumn Prince.

Review: Heart of Mist!

“When it feels like a wave is about to break, it probably will.”

Edition: Digital Advance Copy

Published: August 31st, 2017 by Talem Press

Genres: Dark Fantasy, Young Adult

Pages: 488

Goodreads Rating: 4.4/5 stars

My Rating: 5/5 stars

I would like to state that I received a Digital Advance Copy of Heart of Mist from the author herself, Helen Scheuerer, in exchange for a honest and thoughtful review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Heart of Mist is the first YA fantasy novel in Helen Scheuerer’s The Oremere Chronicles. In this novel we follow our protagonist, Bleak, in a realm where a toxic mist is sweeping across the lands and magic forbidden to use. Bleak is dangerously self medicating with alcohol while she grieves the loss of her guardian and searching for a cure for her magic. During this time she is summoned to the capital by the king and taken from her home by the Commander of the King’s Army.

During her journey back to the capital, her and her captures realize the king isn’t the only person interested in Bleak and the powers she has. The leader of the infamous society of warriors, the Valia Kindred, lay claim on her along with the king. With this Bleak soon finds herself in the middle of a bigger battle than she ever imagined.

I won’t lie, I didn’t know what to expect when going into Heart of Mist because as of late I’ve just been craving cute and fluffy contemporary books. So reading the first couple chapters was a drag for me, it wasn’t the book it was just me, but once the book picked up and the story started to really build I learned that I liked it alot and now I’m impatiently awaiting book two!

Helen wrote Heart of Mist beautifully, she managed to keep me intrigued throughout the whole book (I’m pretty sure I could have read it in one sitting if I didn’t need to sleep to be a functioning human being.) Once I was finished I realized there was just about little to no romance mentioned in it, at least not for our main character Bleak. Though we did see some possibly interest from a couple of the men in the book. I feel as though every fantasy novel has such a large part of the book being about romance anymore and it can sometimes overshadow the fantasy part of the book. With that being said I’m quite torn on if I want Bleak to be involved in a relationship or not in this series and if so, with who. The first book is so interesting without it but I know we’ll possibly dive into it more in the upcoming books with the hints of it brought up in Heart of Mist; I know Helen will execute it perfectly in them if romance does blossom for our MC.

The characters in this book are astounding, from what I read and interpreted there were some diverse characters (there was some lesbian rep, not much but it was there and my heart SQUEALED. I NEED MORE F/F RELATIONSHIPS IN YA NOVELS PLEASE) and they were amazing. I felt as if the characters were well developed and thought out. They all had their own major role in the story.

We also got to read from some of their own point of views like Dash (Zachary, such a sweet little boy that I want to protect at all cost), Commander Swinton, and the queen of Valia, Henri. I must say at first it was a bit confusing and quite tiring with all the changes in POVs since I just wanted to read about Bleak but in the end it really came together and will make even more sense in the end.

Another thing that I LOVED about Heart of Mist was the fact that it included a lot of social issues. Such as the Valia Kindred who are a group of female warriors who had a very strict way of living. They seem like such this perfect feminist group on the surface, but you slowly realize they have deeper issues amongst their people. (Not going to lie I did like that the men did the tasks that were usually the women’s’ role in their society)

Then there was Bleak self medicating with alcohol, alcoholism isn’t something you see often in young adult novels and I found it be a breath of fresh air to see this included. It leaves room for discussion of alcohol related issues amongst young adults and that’s something that is seriously needed.

All in all Heart of Mist is a riveting tale, while reading it I was always left wanting more. When I reached the last page and realized it was the end I immediately wanted book two. I cannot wait to see where Helen takes the story in the next book! So thank you so much to Helen for reaching out to me and letting me read her stunning book to review it. I hope her and I get to work together again in the future!

If you’d like to read Heart of Mist and support a wonderful author then you can buy it on Amazon. For a limited time it is priced at .99 for the kindle version but I absolutely recommend getting a physical copy. It’s a stunning cover and it deserves a spot on your shelf!

Also you can add Heart of Mist to your Goodreads TBR/Want to Read shelves here!

Review: Warcross by Marie Lu (Spoiler Free)

“Every locked door has a key.”

Edition: Advance Copy

Published: September 12th, 2017 by G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers

Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult

Pages: 416

Goodreads Rating: 4.4/5 stars

My Rating: 5/5 stars

Sci-Fi book written by Marie Lu that is centered around a virtual reality and taken place in Tokyo? You had me at “written by Marie Lu”.

In Warcross we follow a teenager named Emika Chen, a bounty hunter, and hacker who lives in New York City. Since her father passed Emika is struggling to pay the rent of her tiny apartment in the city, so she uses her hacking abilities to track down players who illegally bet on the game. Finally one day she decides to take a risk that could take care of all her financial problem—hack a live Warcross Opening Ceremony on the game’s neurolink. While trying to hack the game she is accidentally glitched into the game for the whole world to see, including Hideo Tanaka, the founder of the virtual reality game.

Immediately after being glitched into the game Emika is forced from the game and an unknown number calls. Repeatedly ignoring her cell, she goes to bed believing it to be the police wanting to arrest her. The next morning she wakes up to eighty-four texts all asking Emika to call the number immediately and a bunch of reporters outside her apartment complex. After seeing that she was the world’s top trending topic she looks up the number and finds out it is for Henka Games’ headquarters in Manhattan.

Emika finally decides to call the number rather and is immediately greeted by a woman instead of an automated voice. The woman then transfers her call straight to Mr. Hideo Tanaka himself and he is immediately asking Emika if she is able to come to Tokyo, Japan because he has a job for her if she was willing to hear more. With that Emika finds herself packing what little of belongings she has and is flying across the world to Japan. The next morning at 10 o’clock she is in a meeting room with several people, but most importantly Hideo. During this time he explains to Emika that basically she is important to the game world of Warcross because she isn’t the only one to breach the game’s security. Her taking part in the game will help find the hacker.

I am usually quite turned off by books that are receiving so much hype because I always expect them to be a disappointment, but Warcross was by far one of the best books I have read in 2017. Granted we still have five more months in the year, which means many books will be released within that time frame, but I’m pretty sure it’ll stay in my top three reads for 2017. This book deserves all the positive words it has been receiving from everyone in the book community.

Warcross is filled with so much detail, it makes it feel as if you’re right there in the world with Emika Chen, and it makes it really easy to understand the advanced technology in this futuristic world (even if you’re like me and you are far from tech savvy.) It also presents such an interesting plot with all the secrets and lies that are slowly revealed throughout the story.

Warcross also has a lot of diversity and some representation amongst the characters. Emika is a Chinese American, Hideo is Japanese, there is also a character that wears a hijab, another that’s in a wheelchair, and mention of characters who are gay. There’s just so much more diversity since the game is played by people from around the globe.

And while we’re talking about the characters for a second I want to talk about how amazing, and a breath of fresh air, Emika’s character was. She was a hard-headed and an extremely determined protagonist, also her character development was incredible. We got to see her go from a girl who trusted just about no one to someone who willingly opened up to her team and relied on people other than herself in the end.

While there are a few plot twists in the book, most of them I detected quite easily but even when I was proven correct I wasn’t left. . . unsatisfied? I guess that’s what you can call it. Marie Lu still made the scenes enjoyable and managed to keep me intrigued and wanting to continue reading even though I managed to foresee what would happen. I also managed to piece together who I thought could possibly be the hacker breaching the game’s security during a certain chapter but I was still quite surprised (and at the same time I wasn’t? I had mixed emotions throughout this book okay, it left me with a book hangover) when it was revealed to us at the end. BUT there is a major plot twist that I was not expecting and I will say it gave me so many emotions (mostly me hating Marie Lu for ripping my heart out and stomping on it.) Quite honestly no one will be safe from the “feels” it will bring upon everyone.

All in all, I truly cannot wait for the second book in the series and Warcross hasn’t even been released yet. Even though I personally managed to predict a lot of what happened in the book, I was still left surprised and on my toes because of how she managed to perfectly execute the scenes with her writing. So @ Marie Lu please release both Warcross and the second book now, I’m dying out here, you really outdid yourself and I can’t wait another year or so for the second book.

I highly recommend adding Warcross to your TBR lists and checking out this wonderful book when it’s released on September 12th because you will not be disappointed in this read. Once again Marie Lu really outdid herself with this one.

P.s. I’m pretty sure this was Marie Lu after she unleashed Warcross ARCs into the world, knowing the pain and suffering she would cause

Image result for evil elmo gif

P.p.s. And this was me throughout the entire book that Marie Lu purposefully wrote to hurt my heart

Review: A Court of Wings and Ruin + Giveaway! (Ended)

“You do not fear. You do not falter. You do not yield.

Remember that you are a wolf. And you cannot be caged.”

Edition: Hardcover

Published: May 2nd, 2017 by Bloomsbury Childrens Books

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult

Pages: 699

Goodreads Rating: 4.64/5 stars

My Rating: 4/5 stars

This review DOES contain spoilers

Out of The Throne of Glass and A Court of Thorns and Roses series, ACOTAR was my favorite; so after A Court of Mist and Fury, I did not want to wait a single day for the third book. In other words, saying I was impatient was an understatement. But honestly, it took me longer than I anticipated to finish A Court of Wings and Ruin. I thought I would have it done within two, three days max, but it took me just over a week. There were many times I did not want to put it down, but there were also several parts that made me question if they were even necessary to leave in the book. . .  

To be quite honest I was a little let down with this book, or maybe I was just expecting too much after A Court of Mist and Fury? Who knows, but this definitely wasn’t my favorite book in the series. I did love it at first but halfway through the book, I realized it was more of a love-hate relationship more often than not. With A Court of Wings and Ruin, I wanted more than just a “they lived happily ever after” ending with some (in my opinion) loose ends; or least not end it so abruptly after the war ended. I would’ve enjoyed at least another hundred pages of everyone’s lives after the war in Velaris. Hopefully that within the books and novellas we were promised, we will get some of the loose ends put into place.

As someone who is part of the LGBT+ community, I do appreciate that Sarah did her homework and brought in some representation. Yet, I feel like the sexuality of some of the High Lords were just thrown in to say that the representation was there. There were not backstories for Helion’s and Thesan’s sexualities, it was basically “Helion likes male and females, and to sleep around” and “Thesan’s male captain is his lover.” I just wish we got to hear more about it, but again, maybe it will be in one of the future books.

In this book, I was not a fan of Mor’s character. In A Court of Mist and Fury, she was this strong and badass female; she seemed to not let anything bother her and she was the character that uplifted everyone else. In Wings and Ruin, she acted in more of an aggressive manner, especially towards Nesta, and it just did not fall into line with her character in the previous book. She only shows kindness to Cassian and Azriel, and at this point, they’re just a cover for her not being able to come out with her sexuality yet. Which I do not enjoy at all, Azriel has loved this girl for so long and she has led him on for centuries. Mor needed to put on her big girl panties and tell Azriel that there was almost no possibility of something becoming of them; she could have easily done it without revealing that she was bisexual.

While I don’t agree with some of Mor’s vileness to some of the characters I also side with her in a few cases. Especially when Rhysand and Azriel had put her in the uncomfortable position of having to negotiate with her abusers to get their alliance in the war against Hybern. At that point I didn’t know if I wanted to continue reading, I felt uncomfortable myself when I took in what was happening. Doing something THAT dumb just seemed out of character, even for Rhysand. I forced myself to keep reading in hopes Feyre would step in to put an end to it before it could continue any further and leave Mor in such a bad position. When she didn’t I was left a little speechless. Allowing Keir and his people into Velaris, Mor’s home, the only place she felt safe just blew my mind.

Now that I got that out, I just want to mention Lucien. I never disliked his character but my liking for him was not large at the beginning of the series but it grew more and more. His development was definitely better than most characters; he finally realized that Tamlin was a toxic friend and that he needed to leave the Spring Court. He fled the Court with Feyre, after an ugly encounter with Brannagh and Dagdan. They then headed towards the Night Court, where he volunteered to go to the continent to find Queen Vassa and form an alliance for the war. During the meeting with the High Lords, when Lucien is gone to find the queen, we learn that Beron isn’t his true father but Helion. This information, to me, filled in the blanks for why his father and brothers have a strong hatred for him. This is why I hope one of the books or novellas is for Lucien so we can see Helion and Lucien discover what they are to each other since it was not mentioned in this book.

While I have hated Tamlin since the Thorns and Roses, after reading Mists and Fury I almost sympathize with him. He truly was given the short end of the stick in this book, I believe had a lot of potentials. He could have been given an amazing character development. He did redeem himself in my eyes when he helped Feyre save Rhys when he died after helping her with the Cauldron. Feyre begged Tamlin to save him, that she would do anything, give anything just as long as he did something. “Be happy Feyre, be happy,” he said quietly, Also he helped Azriel and Feyre get away when they infiltrated Hybern’s camp to save Elain. Basically, he redeemed himself in my eyes, but I wish he was given a proper chance to grow as a character.

Feyre and Rhysand’s bond, it is just my favorite thing ever. It’s what made ACOTAR my favorite series out Sarah’s works. It shows a healthy relationship. Just like in a Mist and Fury, Rhys continues to treat Feyre like a queen (as she treats him like a king) and he also continues with allowing her to make her own decisions.  He never belittles her for anything she decides to do and comforts her when she doubts herself. When she asks him if he’d be ashamed of her is she didn’t take part in the war because she couldn’t handle that type of slaughter yet. Rhysand comforted Feyre and let her know that he would never be ashamed of her, and if she ever did decide to fight by his side it would be his honor. I hope to see their story continue in some of the books or novellas, especially since Feyre saw the Bone Carver as their son.

As I said before, I wish this series ending wasn’t just a “they live happily ever after” with loose ends left in the book; because who knows if the questions I have will be answered in these future books? But while I do have some things I dislike about this books, I also thoroughly enjoyed it. I enjoyed the diversity for people of color, especially within the courts. She listened to what people said, and I appreciate that because we need more diversity in books. As for the LGBT+ representation… It could use some work. I don’t like that she made out Helion, a bisexual male, to be someone that just likes to sleep around. It may have been to hide his suffering for what happened between him and Lucien’s mother but I feel as though him sleeping around wasn’t necessary.

Overall I’m sad to say the series is over because I have grown attached to it, and its characters. I found myself being able to relate to the characters many times so it’s upsetting to know it has come to an end. I can’t wait for the other books so some of the questions I have will be answered.

✦

Random parts (aka spoilers) I loved:

-Feyre and Lucien killing the twins together, um yes please

-Cassian being there for Nesta because he just can’t leave

-Azriel almost killing Eris and Feyre being the one to stop him then serve him a drink??

-HELION WANTING A THREESOME WITH MOR AND CASSIAN, PLOT TWIST FOR ME.

-Rhysand’s speech. I cried for a year okay.

-THE SURIEL BEING KILLED. I CRIED FOR TEN MINUTES????

-Nesta screaming for Cassian so he doesn’t get killed

-Their dad coming to battle in the war and naming the ships after them.

-ELAIN STABBING THE KING.

✦

Giveaway:

I am giving away a copy of A Court of Mists and Fury on my twitter account! All you have to do is follow me and retweet the giveaway tweet here!