Today's review! Barnabas Bopwright Saves the City by J. Marshall Freeman:
"Excellent writing, believable, relatable characters, a delightful coming-of-age story... Filled with adventure and angst, and a lovely cast of characters who were relatable, believable, and very charming."
Today's release: AJ White's queer YA fantasy Shard de Voor.
Their queen missing, the allied kingdoms of Sanquous have forged an uneasy alliance with the Ilfannde as war rages across the land. Far away, in another realm, a young woman awakens to find her memory gone, along with her freedom. Who is her mysterious saviour...
I recently finished "All hell breaks loose" the prequel book about Skullduggery Pleasant. A Y/A supernatural mystery series of books.
It started a bit slow but towards the end I started to it's potential. I always prefer a series that gets better and better the deeper I get into it.
I’m #currentlyreading Fallout, the third book in the Crank series by Ellen Hopkins. This book is from the perspectives of three of Kristina Snow’s five children, Hunter, Autumn, and Summer. They all have different fathers and live with different guardians.
I’m also reading A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson. Pippa (Pip) Fitza-Amobi is working on her senior capstone project. Her topic of choice? To research the roles of print, televised, and social media in police investigations using the case of Andie Bell as a case study.
Five years ago, Andie Bell went missing and then was presumed to be dead when her body was not located. Her boyfriend, Sal Singh, is believed to be the murderer but this could not be confirmed because he was found dead in the woods, presumably from suicide. The police and practically the whole town believe he murdered Andie. Pip does not.
A wickedly comic feminist mystery about the dark side of a hopeless romantic’s seemingly perfect love story—for readers of Jessica Goodman and Kara Thomas.
The trilogy of Ferryman is now complete : Ferryman, Trespassers and Outcasts. I only read the first book for the moment, but I really loved this ya novel. The characters are very deep and touching and their backstories are explored along the way. Claire Mc Fall’s novel is extremely poetic and introspective. It is a spiritual and paranormal romance, a very unique mixture that kept me hooked.
A spellbinding romantic fantasy about a powerful witch who will do anything to escape the remote island she’s being held captive on, including blackmail a notorious, charming pirate who washes up on shore, from debut author Angela Montoya.
“You don’t even care about her!” he shouted. “All that matters is you and your precious fucking fantasy that you and Alaska had this goddamned secret love affair and she was going to leave Jake for you and you'd live happily ever after. But she kissed a lot of guys, Pudge. And if she were here, we both know that she would still be Jake's girlfriend and that there'd be nothing but drama between the two of you—not love, not sex, just you pining after her and her like, ‘You're cute, Pudge, but I love Jake.' If she loved you so much, why did she leave you that night? And if you loved her so much, why'd you help her go? I was drunk. What's your excuse?"
The Colonel let go of my sweater, and I reached down and picked up the cigarettes. Not screaming, not through clenched teeth, not with the veins pulsing in my forehead, but calmly. Calmly. I looked down at the Colonel and said, "Fuck you."
𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: Assassin's Blade
𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬: Throne of Glass (Book 6/8)
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫: Sarah J. Maas
𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Young Adult, Fantasy
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝: October 23, 2023 @ 3:35 PM
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: ★★★★☆
𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: The Assassin and the Pirate Lord
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: ★★★☆☆
This one is about 16 year old Celeana acting like the bratty teen that she is, her silly little antics come off as annoying rather than understandable because “she's young and this and that” though her actions did almost cost the lives of her and Sam. I didn't find much thrill reading this part of the book but it was still a fun short read because c'mon, assassins on a mission to find their fellow guild members in the territory of pirates? Great idea and could've been done in a very whimsical way but still better than the next one.
𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: The Assassin and the Healer
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: ★★☆☆☆
This is just filler, there was nothing about this that intrigued me or gave me any worthy information for when I read the main series again. This felt more like a one shot fic that's tagged hurt and comfort, not to say that fanfiction is in any way shape or form a lesser media, there are tons of fanfiction out there that have the potential to be their own novels and some being better written than the series that they are a fanfic of. But this was like, a fanfic without the strong feeling of a fanfic. It wanted to evoke softness and compassion, but it couldn't reach it.
𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: The Assassin and the Desert
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: ★★★★☆
Now this is the part of the book that is about Celeana's character development. She reaches the Silent Assassin's fortress and meets the Mute Master wherein her stay makes her slowly realize all the abuse that she had gone through in her life and how all of that suffering and pain was not normal nor okay. The side characters here were also more fun than the first two stories, they had a certain way of writing in them that made them sound more believable at least to me, more human than just characters. Or maybe it was because of the tone of the book, who knows? 🤪
𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: The Assassin and the Underworld
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: ★★★★☆
She's back at Rifthold and she's with Sam. Like, there is nothing more I could say that would explain the four stars. Celeana and Sam is my pre Celeana and Chaol. I don't understand why SJM chose to write her with someone like Rowan, there isn't a reason for them to be together. Also, fuck Arobynn.
𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: The Assassin and the Empire
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: ★★★★☆
The start was very dry but the moment the feel rolled in, it steamed on without mercy. Sam and Celeana plan to leave from Rifthold and perhaps start a life somewhere else but they need money to do so, luckily they are offered a job that will make them both rich. Seems like a pretty sweet and simple plot about two teens trying to make it out of their shitty lives hoping for better in the future, UNTIL THE PLOT TWIST AND THE ENDING. This part of the novella alone can go against the entire main series and win istg. 𝘐𝘛 𝘞𝘈𝘚 𝘛𝘏𝘌 𝘗𝘓𝘖𝘛 𝘛𝘞𝘐𝘚𝘛 𝘈𝘕𝘋 𝘐𝘛 𝘞𝘈𝘚 𝘛𝘏𝘌 𝘌𝘕𝘋𝘐𝘕𝘎
𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: Queen of Shadows
𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬: Throne of Glass (Book 5/8)
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫: Sarah J. Maas
𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Young Adult, Fantasy
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝: October 19, 2023 @ 11:57 PM
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: ★★☆☆☆
At first I thought that once I read this book, maybe it'll clear out what Empire of Storms was all about and maybe once I finish, it would make me less angry. It did not. The shift between this and Empire of the Storms hurts because this book was as close to the original story as it can get, there was the idea and there was character. There was a yearning for love and intimacy that was never present in the next book. There were emotions, despite being the emotions that you wouldn't understand why the character is feeling that way, you'd still go along with it because those parts are what makes them a character, the way they act and feel predictable and unpredictable at the same time makes them sound realistic and grounded with how we perceive parts of people and their own ways of feeling and living. There were parts of this book that was never present in Empire of Storms and it just cemented my anger.
Chaol is present in this book and this is the part where he and Aelin meet each other again, and oh boy, I love the way that their characters had this friction because of how Chaol is going through this arc of trying his best to find where he must stand in the conflict and Aelin heartbroken because the person that she once loved sees her as a threat and as monster. They never miss, when they're together it's always so personal and character driven and I love every bit of it. This is also the part where they break up and it kinda pisses me off on how it was only a single page long when the author can manage to write 17 pages long of unfiltered sex scenes. It's weird but okay, sure why not.
𝖳𝗋𝗂𝗀𝗀𝖾𝗋 𝗐𝖺𝗋𝗇𝗂𝗇𝗀: 𝖲𝗍𝗂𝗅𝗅𝖻𝗂𝗋𝗍𝗁, Asterin Blackbeak, Manon's cousin reveals that she fell in love with a mortal man and got pregnant. She carried the baby full-term, which is rare for witches. But the baby was stillborn. Manon’s grandmother was furious and beat her, branded her with the words “unclean,” and cast her out of Blackbeak Keep. I did not expect such a thing to happen in a book like this, it is not that shocking at least to me because it is a story about war and all that, but something like this in a YA book caught me off guard. Not to say YA mustn't include topics like these but the way that it goes:
In the middle of it all, why must you add in the description of her breast? Not to say that you can't and you shouldn't, but it made it sound so weird especially when the scene is literally about the trauma that a woman went through in giving birth that also led to her family casting her away. That it was the moment that I realized, SJM would randomly describe boobs in random. Even with the way that Aelin wears a necklace, boobs would be shoved it there for no reason. I would understand it if it was for imagery, but the way that it's phrased and handled in context sounds more like the way that men write women more than anything.
Which is absolutely hilarious to me because in the following book, she exactly becomes that foolish and stupidly unaware because they had sex in the middle of a war on a beach. It altered my brain chemistry in a way that shouldn't be. And this is the first and last time that the book acknowledges the age difference between the two, hell, it ain't even an age difference at this point, it's a whole century gap. The Twilight era never disappeared, it only evolved. Dear heavens... This is one of the main reasons why I took out a star from my rating, it could've been an easy three stars but this had to be in the story.
One of the things that I adored about this book though was about Chaol and Dorian, their bond was solidified in this part. I don't want to get too detailed in case someone wishes to read the series P̶l̶e̶a̶s̶e̶ d̶o̶n̶'t̶ h̶a̶v̶e̶ m̶e̶r̶c̶y̶ o̶n̶ y̶o̶u̶r̶s̶e̶l̶f̶ but when one of them was severely hurt to the point of death, but they weren't actually dead, one of them thought that they were and they lose absolutely every bit of patience and sense of honor in their soul and they go absolute apeshit. Like YES! THE TROPE OF ALL TIME. I love them your honor, they deserve the world. 𝗜 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗱𝘆𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗰 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸.
What if you could avenge your own murder? A brilliant young woman gets a second chance at life in this debut YA tale of vengeance, court intrigue, and romance, inspired by classic Chinese tropes.
A young flower hunter gets embroiled in the succession politics of the Sultanate when she must retrieve the rarest and most powerful magical flower after giving it to the wrong hands, in Rati Mehrotra’s Flower and Thorn.
For fans of Kara Thomas and Courtney Summers comes a supernatural horror that reminds us family can be our saving grace or our biggest curse. Set one-hundred years after the Borden murders, this propulsive thriller imagines what a similar trial might look like today.
𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: Heir of Fire
𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬: Throne of Glass (Book 3/8)
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫: Sarah J. Maas
𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Young Adult, Fantasy
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝: October 3, 2023 @ 8:00 PM
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: ★★☆☆☆
Let's start of by saying that this book didn't have to be 500 pages long. The amount of pages added to this compared to the first two book is absolutely wild and one of the main reasons as to why, in my opinion, is the constant repetition. It was present in the former books but it went nuts in this one, almost in every scene there'd be one. I understand that it's supposed to be an author's way to add emphasis but it only made the story such a slog. It even sounded weird at times, there was one part where the book is trying to describe the temperature of the water that Celeana was in and it goes “It was warm. Not boiling, but warm.” I could say it might have been funny if it weren't for the fact that it made the book unnecessarily lengthy. “The darkness was this and that, and that and this with like those and these.” “The hurt was this and that, and that and this with like those and these.” 😭
This would most likely come off as a personal thing but first part of this book did not need to exist. Celeana meeting Rowan, a fae with ice magic and training with him while they try to make the most out of their toxicity that they throw to each other back and forth could have easily saved this book a good 300 pages or so. Also there are a bunch of new characters which, I never really cared about because I never saw their appeal besides Manon Blackbeak, the last remaining witch. They even added in Sorscha a healer and Dorian's lover only to have her killed in the very end of the book because we got to give the men character development. Fridging of all time.
Chaol was thrown to the side by Celeana because even after their last scene from the second book, even after she told him that she would still choose him no matter what happens, the story keeps on giving these weird implications between her and Rowan. Like, I understand that the feelings we have for people change overtime but the way that Celeana suddenly thought about what she might actually feel about Chaol sounded more like the story will force her to be with Rowan; a man who did everything to break her. We can all have our asshole characters, that I agree with, but he never apologized for his actions. Never once did he try to talk to Celeana about their past b̶l̶o̶o̶d̶y̶ indifferences. Him taking care of her as she was healing doesn't immediately sweep his wrongdoings under a rug. I hope that the series never continues down the path where I fear it's taking, because Heaven forbid another white man releasing all his anger on a woman and then have those atrocities immediately redeemed because he has a sad backstory.
Meanwhile Chaol had one of the best developments so far b̶e̶h̶i̶n̶d̶ C̶e̶l̶e̶a̶n̶a̶ o̶f̶ c̶o̶u̶r̶s̶e̶ he started to question all of what surrounds him, the throne and the kingdom when everything that he had ever done was for it. He pretty much gives off golden retriever vibes, I will absolutely lose it if Celeana ends up with Rowan than Chaol. I also like the way that Celeana is written to have hardships regarding her emotional and mental baggage, it doesn't just go away or gets resolved in an instant where most of the time in Y/A fiction books, the trauma inflicted to a character never seems to have this effort to understand and confront it. At worst, they're just forgotten. So I appreciate Celeana having to deal with the struggles of hurt that she kept locked inside her and having to deal with them in a more natural way, in a way that shows process.
Hopefully, the fourth book won't hurt that much. 🙏🏼 See you then.
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