I really enjoyed this. Usually I’m not that keen on time-travel adventures, but this book is really about the mystery, with everything else as a magicI really enjoyed this. Usually I’m not that keen on time-travel adventures, but this book is really about the mystery, with everything else as a magic-connected backdrop, be it Tudor England or ice dragons. And there is so much magic. One of my main issues with the first book was that we didn’t learn much about magic and motives until the end. Ha, not so this time. If you’re looking for a high school rehash of the first book, you wont get it. Don’t worry, though, because you’ll get something even better.
We are immediately thrown in the deep end, so if you haven’t read the first book in a while, give yourself time to settle in. The Devin we got to know there is a lot more magical now, although he’s essentially still the same guy underneath. While he can be opinionated and bossy at times, the way he loves Luca is adorable and his constant attempts to protect him meant I couldn’t dislike him, even when he was saying stupid things.
Ah Luca, poor Luca. He’s sweet and nice and just trying to do his job, but everything keeps going wrong. It’s a good thing Devin's there to try and save him, because his martyr-complex is rather troubling. Still, that’s part of why they’re such a great team. Devin is action, Luca is heart. The pair of them are lovely together.
I also really enjoyed seeing more of the mage world/universe they come from and learning more about the different types of mages, how they develop and the various politics and tensions that drive their world. All of which weaves neatly in with the mystery to make a thoroughly enjoyable read. I can’t wait to see where it all heads next.
I’m not quite sure what I expected of this book, but I didn’t get it. That’s not to say this isn’t a good read. It’s classic YA Fantasy with two royalI’m not quite sure what I expected of this book, but I didn’t get it. That’s not to say this isn’t a good read. It’s classic YA Fantasy with two royal sisters, one beloved by her father and raised pretty much as a boy, while the meeker, younger one is favoured by their mother and henpecked into being the quiet dutiful one. It unfolded exactly as anticipated, with some nice magical additions and a wolf-boy who was actually the most interesting character for me in what I hoped would be a more interesting Asian-based female-empowered book.
It’s not bad, but I had hoped for something more original. The setting isn’t anything I haven’t seen before. Same with the plot. Same with the characters. Lu is driven, naive, selfish, but mostly means good, even if she is often blinded by her privilege. Min is quiet and downtrodden, with a hidden core of rage that has interesting consequences. Their father is weak, their mother is ambitious, their cousin is a spoiled monster, Brother is sinister, there are a couple of noble mentors lingering in the shadows and some powerful ghostly people who show up at conveniently useful moments, all set in an empire close to fracturing beneath the weight of its own cruelty. All familiar enough that it hardly matters that the world is very thinly developed and the characters have little depth, while their whole journey could pretty much be summed up as “in the woods”, for all the detailed descriptions we get.
Even Nok, my favourite, isn’t particularly original, being the handsome boy who has lost everything to the empire, even if he once befriended a princess – and paid a high price for it. I liked him most because he was less of a cliché, beaten down by his losses rather than fired up by them, frightened of responsibility and not a natural leader by any means, although clearly about to be forced to become one. He’s definitely the more passive character when Lu is around, which made a nice change. There’s also the wolf, which probably had a lot to do with why I liked him.
So, eh, I don’t know. It’s a nice enough book, and if I hadn’t read a dozen others just like it I probably would have enjoyed it more. It’s okay at what it does – if light on world-building, descriptions and character depth – but in a genre already packed with this exact same story, the promising elements that made me pick it up in the first place simply didn’t materialise, leaving me feeling sadly disappointed. This is my fault (and why it gets 3 stars instead of 2). The blurb told me exactly what this book would be, I just naively believed there had to be something more to it. There wasn’t. But if the blurb is exactly the thing you like to read, go for it.
(ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley.)...more
I admit it, the cover got me. Look at it, it’s so beautiful. The plot sounded intriguing too, so I was excited to read this. I was a little less excitI admit it, the cover got me. Look at it, it’s so beautiful. The plot sounded intriguing too, so I was excited to read this. I was a little less excited when I started, because it is very slow to get going and for a long time I worried I wouldn’t like it at all.
Thankfully it picks up. However, if you’re here for action and excitement, you will probably be disappointed. If you’re more a fan of political machinations, moral ambiguity that comes in considerably more shades than fifty and repeated demonstrations that no one, NO ONE, can be trusted, then this will be catnip for you, my Machiavellian friend.
Family rifts, hints of romance, political troubles, potential revolution, the threat of war, possible coups, prejudice, murder, poison and mystery are just a few things that Hesina has to cope with throughout this book. Oh, and betrayal. Much betrayal. All the betrayals. Trust no one. Seriously, no one is to be trusted. She can’t even trust herself at times.
It’s slow-going and ruthless at times. I spent a lot of chapters wondering how much I cared, until another plot twist turned out more like a knife in the ribs and I realised I did care, deeply, about what happened to these characters, in this place, in this time. It’s subtle and compelling, and I struggle to believe it’s a standalone, because that ending left so many things undone that surely, surely there will be more. (In other words, publishers, give us more. Please. This story isn’t nearly done yet.) In all an enjoyable debut. I look forward to reading more from this author soon.
(ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley.)...more
This was fun. A tale of love and sacrifice, time travel and life lessons, with a M/M romance and a bunch of teenagers. It’s kind of complica3.5 stars.
This was fun. A tale of love and sacrifice, time travel and life lessons, with a M/M romance and a bunch of teenagers. It’s kind of complicated at times and there isn’t a lot of explaining about what exactly is going on until much later, but there’s a decent air of mystery and hidden malice to keep things interesting as our 2,000 year old teenager stumbles around dealing with modern life.
I liked it, mostly because Luca/Avi is very endearing. He may have been a gladiator in his former life, but he’s spent most of existence taking care of people and looking for his lost love. He has a lot of emotions to work through in this book, not helped by the fact he’s falling in love again, under a lot of pressure and very, very confused about what he’s doing and what he’s feeling. But he’s brave and determined and always well-intentioned, even if his methods aren’t always the best. I liked him and that was enough to get me past any confusion about what was actually going on, what the magic was all about and just who and what the Spell Tracker was, and what he ultimately wanted.
Around Luca and his difficult task plenty of modern day dramas play out, with mean people and nice people, angry ones and hurting ones. There’s plenty of gossip and Shakespeare along the way, not to mention lots of Latin and a few time-travel trips to keep things interesting. I’ll admit there were times when I was a little worried about where the romance seemed to be going, but I shouldn’t have been, because it all makes sense in the end.
Speaking of the end, it might have been nice to have had some of the information about the Spell Tracker and Luca’s main objective a little earlier, because it all crashes in mostly at once making an already complicated situation a little harder to follow. I did get it and I appreciated how things went, but it is a lot to deal with at once.
Overall, though, I enjoyed this and I look forward to seeing where this series heads next.
While I enjoyed this fourth installment of the Spellslinger series, it’s my least favourite so far. Partly because I was expecting this to be the lastWhile I enjoyed this fourth installment of the Spellslinger series, it’s my least favourite so far. Partly because I was expecting this to be the last, but it isn’t. And although I was prepared not to have Ferius in this book, the fact that Kellen is also separated from Reichis didn’t help.
I like Kellen and I know this whole series is really about him, but personally I read it for Reichis and Ferius. They always know just what to say or do to stop Kellen from getting too serious or too cocky, and are always around to help him out of the frequent messes he makes by being too naive. Being without both of them did prove how far Kellen has come, but some of those old faults are still there, and I sorely missed the extra humour Reichis brings.
Once again Kellen is in the midst of a bunch of people who should be on his side, but mostly want to kill him. Once again he makes some questionable decisions, because he’s desperate to be loved. Once again his family remind everyone of how awful they, and the Jan’Tep in general, are. It is entertaining, especially when Kellen comes across all Ferius, but with his own special (mouthy) twist, and the Ebony Abbey was another excellent addition to this fascinating world.
And yet, somehow, somewhere, it didn’t quite work for me. I’m always paranoid when reading these books, because I think everyone (except Ferius) is going to betray and/or attempt to kill Kellen (including Reichis, although he’s mostly after the eyeballs). The fact that I’m usually right doesn’t help. It makes it all a bit predictable, as does the way Kellen continues to make the same mistakes over and over, a bit too blindly in one instance here, which was exceedingly convenient for the plot. And the Abbot disappointed me. He could have been amazing, but instead he just wasn’t. I also feel like the new characters weren’t given as much space to grow and be interesting as some of them deserved. Maybe if there were fewer of them, but then Kellen’s woes were too wide to leave much room for any one else.
So overall it was okay, if not quite as good as the previous books. I still like the series, and this was an important part of it. However, despite some amazing potential, it didn’t quite live up to it for me. Here’s hoping things’ll work out better in the next one.
(ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley.)...more
This was an interesting take on the classic Beauty and the Beast fairytale, with Harper being snatched from the modern day streets of Washin3.5 stars.
This was an interesting take on the classic Beauty and the Beast fairytale, with Harper being snatched from the modern day streets of Washington D.C. and taken to another world full of monsters and curses and magically enchanted castles.
There’s much to enjoy here, particularly if like me you’ve always wondered about the “prince” bit of the story. Usually the Beast’s curse is confined to the castle and his suffering is all internal and dramatic. This book opens that up to the kingdom Rhen should have been governing and the consequences of his neglect thanks to the curse, which I really appreciated.
I also really liked how difficult it was for both Rhen and Harper to fall in love. This is not an easy-breezy fairytale where a magic wand is waved and a HEA is automatically assured. There are doubts, there are difficulties and a touch of reality is injected into the fantasy that I liked. Of course this is a BatB retelling, so if you can’t get over the kidnapping aspect, you will struggle with this.
And then there’s Grey. I loved Grey. Harper can have Rhen, I’m keeping Grey.
Although, I was disappointed with how Grey’s story panned out and a few twists towards the end in general. Up until that point the book had done a really good job of avoiding the obvious clichés, but sadly they all popped up towards the end. I also felt a little let down by Harper. As someone who neither has nor knows anyone who does have cerebal palsy, I’m not going to comment on that aspect of Harper’s character, but she does slightly suffer from the Fairy Tale Princess gloss in that everyone she encounters (apart from the baddie, obviously) loves her and thinks she’s wonderful. She’s okay, I guess, but really, everyone? Meh. Rhen is a little underwhelming too. He’s nice enough and has clearly suffered, but I don’t know. Harper and he seemed well suited in their meh-ness.
The baddie, Lilith, could have been better too. She’s just bad and petty, and has no further depth than that. I felt like her name summed up the amount of effort put into her.
So it’s not perfect, but it’s still a good read. It was quick and easy and enjoyable, and most of the disappointment I felt was more about me and my personal expectations than the book itself. In all if you like YA fairy tale retellings, especially those with a darker (but not completely grim and joyless, thankfully) twist, then you will probably enjoy this. The romance is muted, but the magic remains. It also stands very well alone. I’ll have to see what the follow up is about before I decide whether or not I’ll want to read it.
(ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley.)...more
The Spellslinger series is back for the third time, and Kellen just cannot catch a break. He’s had his magic stolen from him, been infected by a demonThe Spellslinger series is back for the third time, and Kellen just cannot catch a break. He’s had his magic stolen from him, been infected by a demon-like power (both courtesy of his “loving” family), has an elemental living in his eye, was forced to flee from his homeland – the rulers of which are busy hunting him down to wipe him out of existence – and his mentor spends more time talking in riddles than actually teaching him – when she isn’t gambling in roadside inns. All while travelling about and meeting a bunch of people who only ever want to kill him. Surely someone cursed him to live in interesting times.
Luckily for Kellen, he also has Reichas his squirrel cat “business partner”, who is brave and murderous and amazing, and the absolute best thing about these books (look, he’s on the cover!). He’s also pretty lucky to have Ferius too, even if she never gives a straight answer to any question. I really enjoyed seeing Ferius and Kellen’s relationship progress throughout this book, as Kellen finally begins to understand more about the Argosi, the things Ferius has been teaching him, and the role he might possibly play in future of the world. He has a lot of hard decisions to make this time around, both helped and hindered by the various Argosi wandering about, and more woes brought about by his longing for home and the life he once might have led.
The world too continues to open up its wonders, this time with the incredible capital city of Gitabria, full of gifted artisans and the perils of their glorious creations. There’s plenty of darkness in this tale, with murder and politics and betrayals all helping to muddy the waters as Kellen tries to do his best to sort everything out. But there’s a lot of humour too, mostly coming from Reichas as he makes – and corrupts – a new friend. These books would be so much poorer without that squirrel cat.
In short, if you’ve been enjoying the series so far, this latest book will not disappoint. I continue to love this world, these characters and the way the story is unfolding, and cannot wait to see how everything turns out in the final book.
(ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley)...more
This sounded so good – a dark Little Mermaid, if the mermaid had been raised by the Sea Witch and was more interested in ripping out princely hDNF@50%
This sounded so good – a dark Little Mermaid, if the mermaid had been raised by the Sea Witch and was more interested in ripping out princely hearts than capturing them for romantic purposes. And it started off pretty well, with Lira proving herself to be just as dark and dangerous as promised.
Sadly, this didn’t last. Lira is vicious, but in a rather dim way, and has hints of a heart underneath it all in the way she cares for her cousin. I didn’t like her. It wasn’t because she was vicious, it was because she was boring. She has no sense of subterfuge or self-preservation and the fact she might have ever believed her mother would just hand over the crown, when clearly she’s addicted to her power, just made me like her even less. I can put up with vicious and murderous, but she needs to be smart and interesting with it.
Alas, our prince, Elian was even worse. He doesn’t want to be king so he spends his days sailing around with a crew of misfits, hunting Sirens and calling himself a pirate. He’s not, he’s an exotic fisherman who pouts about how unfair having a really privileged life is. He’s also pretty dim, because he fishes a young woman out of the sea, miles from anywhere, with no ship in sight, one who speaks the forbidden language of Sirens… and doesn’t think this is at all strange? No, he doesn’t trust her at first, but come on, not even a passing thought that she might be connected to the red-haired monster he’s been hunting for so long?
As for that whole Princes’ Bane thing… they know she only hunts princes during one month of the year, so here’s an idea: STAY OFF THE OCEAN, YOU IDIOTS! Or, you know, have more faith in your daughters and stop being misogynistic asshats.
Meh. The world building was nice, but the characters were flimsy and the plot simply didn’t have enough drive to get me through to the end. I dragged myself to the halfway point, but it was a real struggle and after I put it down for a break, I had no interest in going back for more. But clearly, I am in the minority about this, because loads of people seem to love it. Good for them. I honestly tried, but sadly, it wasn’t for me.
(ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley.)...more
I think this book works best if you’ve read and enjoyed the whole Legacy of Androva series, mostly because Galen isn’t very good at explaining things I think this book works best if you’ve read and enjoyed the whole Legacy of Androva series, mostly because Galen isn’t very good at explaining things so the reader is thrown into the magical world of Androva with no lead in or introduction. Galen is not an observant narrator, he doesn’t tell you how things work or what things look like. It just is. Which is fine if you know this series quite well, but if you’re new or – like me – haven’t read all of the books, you might feel a little confused about what’s going on at the beginning.
It also doesn’t help that Galen is something of a magical genius. He never has to work things out – they just work for him. It’s kind of annoying at times, actually, because he just gets stuff. Useful when things start to go wrong, but mostly a little too convenient the rest of the time.
When he’s not being annoyingly brilliant, Galen’s quite nice. He doesn’t really have much time for anything except magic, but he’s not arrogant and is always willing to help his friend Nico deal with his problems. He’s a bit oblivious to what’s going on, but as long as magic’s involved, he’s a good guy to have around.
The plot is interesting, especially in the first half, although there are a lot of time jumps. Galen’s magic education is fast, and mostly glossed over, but once we reach Pompeii it gets pretty interesting. For once in his life things don’t come easily to Galen, and it was good to see him having to work stuff out. This is also where the other books come in as there’s a bit of character crossover.
After Pompeii there’s a lot more time jumping and then a lot of stuff happens very quickly with no explanation, neatly tying up a few earlier threads and making everything a little too neat. For me, anyway. There’s so much going on, a lot of it really interesting and dangerous, but we don’t see any of it. Mostly we’re there at the start of the bad stuff, then right at the end, and we have no idea how everything reached that point. Which is a real shame, because the potential is pretty huge but it reads more like an afterthought.
So, while I liked parts of this book, overall it didn’t quite work for me. Galen was a nice character, but his narration had problems and it would have been great to have had more detail about what was going on. I also wish the ending had been given more attention instead of being rushed through. If you’re a fan of this series you’ll probably still find plenty to enjoy, especially as various threads are woven together, but personally, I was left feeling as if it didn’t quite reach its full potential.
Born into a life of slavery and raised without parents, Cal’s story does not start from an easy place. Throw in the fact that everyone he knows – inclBorn into a life of slavery and raised without parents, Cal’s story does not start from an easy place. Throw in the fact that everyone he knows – including himself – will die at eighteen, killed by their magic-wielding Opta rulers, and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of hope for Cal to cling onto.
Except not everything is as it seems in this messed up world, and despite being placed in the lowest ranking Exta workforce and unable to read or write, there’s clearly more to Cal than meets the eye. More to everything, in fact. When Cal starts to ask questions about the way things are run, more questions arise, and a wider mystery begins to unravel.
I really enjoyed this book. I’ve only read the first of this series, but that didn’t stop me from falling deep into Cal’s world and willing him and his friends to find a way out of their situation. The mystery is cleverly unwound throughout the story, giving plenty of hints here and there about what’s going on, but still managing to throw up a few surprises. Cal’s a great hero too, brave and determined as well as angry and selfless, he’s not perfect but that just made him more likeable. There’s also a solid cast of secondary characters backing him up, bringing depth to the world and keeping everything ticking along.
With more mystery than action, it does move a little slowly at times, but that gave the story plenty of time to explore the way Cal’s life works. The pace also picks up a lot towards the end, answering all the important questions and putting Cal and his friends fully to the test. Fans of the Legacy of Androva series will enjoy seeing old faces popping in to play their own part, but equally, newcomers won’t feel left behind. In all an absorbing, intriguing read that left me wanting to explore more from the series.
This book was slow to get going as it builds up to it’s inverted-Hunger Games moment (not so much “I volunteer!” as “You will sacrifice yourself for yThis book was slow to get going as it builds up to it’s inverted-Hunger Games moment (not so much “I volunteer!” as “You will sacrifice yourself for your sister”). With a vaguely Scandinavian/Northern European setting, it pits the dark Empire against ordinary folk with cruel, child-stealing rituals and banned magic for mysterious and often nefarious reasons. It’s quite dark (literally with all that soot and being underground most of the time) and grim in its outlook, with very little hope, but there’s also friendship to be found and of course at the heart of it Steiner is doing it all to save his sister. Whether he starts out willing or not, he soon gets into the protective swing of things.
There are good bits to the tale. I liked Steiner, in his stoic, enduring way, and I loved the cinderwraiths. But, for me, there was too much that wasn’t explored. Such as why the goddess worship was outlawed and what, if anything, that had to do with the dragons. I wanted to know more about Steiner’s boots and his axe too, as well as Kjell’s brooch, and I felt like the school was underused because Steiner is so swiftly ushered off into the dark forges beneath.
Also, at some point, I stopped worrying about him and his friends. So much kept happening to him that I lost all sense of threat, because x, y or z would save him or get him out of trouble. There was a lot of convenient coincidences that took away almost all the peril for me. There were also a few moments of complete stupidity that left Steiner in the sort of trouble he didn’t need to be in, but was useful for plot reasons. I hate those.
Then there was Kjell. I tried to like her, but I couldn’t. She’s so bitter. I know she has her reasons, but I found her a little tedious and her concern for Steiner felt false to me. And like Steiner, I wasn’t worried about her, because of those convenient powers that could save her from anything.
Which is a shame, because overall this is an okay read with some really good bits. The action towards the end was gripping, even if certain solutions were almost eye-rollingly convenient. The larger plot is interesting and the wider world-building is detailed and intriguing, but it’s also kind of grim and dark and depressing without much hope or light or anything but punishment and dour predictions. There’s also a brewing possible love-triangle, which is a massive pet hate of mine.
But if you like your fantasy with a grim-dark setting, a hero who starts off naive and innocent and sort of toughens up through the book without losing his hopeful outlook, and relish the possibility of rebellion against the overbearing evil empire, then this is probably right up your street.
(ARC provided by the publisher via Amazon Vine.)...more
Holly Black has always excelled at writing about the denizens of Faerie. There’s nothing cute or misunderstood about her fey, they are the creatures oHolly Black has always excelled at writing about the denizens of Faerie. There’s nothing cute or misunderstood about her fey, they are the creatures of folklore, the vicious, violent, amoral and downright nasty beasties that hunt humans for sport and murder each other for fun. And this book is no exception. These fey aren’t nice, they are never going to be nice, and surviving amongst them is an achievement.
So I knew what I was heading into when I picked up this book. I knew Cardan would be awful and that Jude would experience terrible things – and he is and she does – but I was relying on some sort of connection to the characters to carry me through the dark bits.
I didn’t get it. I didn’t like any of them. In fact I hated most of them, except perhaps Vivi, while Jude completely underwhelmed me. I understood her wish to be safe, but to be honest, I struggled with the ways she went about it and her complete lack of foresight or planning. I felt no connection to her. The only time I came close was when her twin let her down, again and again and again. But usually that left me wanting to shake her, because she kept making excuses for her otherwise weak and disloyal behaviour.
The plot also takes a long time to get going. I struggled through the first half, to be honest, and came close to not finishing. But I lost count of the times I read Tithe and Valiant as a teen, so I wanted to believe Holly Black could pull it back. And she did, sort of, mostly. The first half is perhaps a little too full of angst for the sake of angst, but the second half definitely raises the stakes. I might not ever like Jude, but it was interesting to see her plunge into the depths of Faerie politics and wade through the mess of it all. The events building towards the end are high stakes and gripping and I loved how precariously everything is balanced at the end.
Which leaves me in something of a quandary, because although the plot is great by the end, it takes a long time to get there and the characters weren’t quite enough to hold my interest. If I didn’t already like this author and wasn’t intending to review this book, I would have given up quite early and missed out on all the good stuff. So it’s not perfect, and I’m still not sure whether I want to read the next one, but if you like amoral faeries, don’t mind characters you can’t particularly like, and have the patience to wade through angst, incredibly unpleasant bullying and hot-headed behaviour, then you might like this more than I did.
(Review copy provided by the publisher via Amazon Vine.)...more
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