Jordyn
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Welp, I knew this would happen eventually. Madness of the Horde King is (so far) my least favorite of Draven's books. There's too much going on. Not enough of the horde, not enough of the couple actually doing anything OUTSIDE of their tent. Literally I think most of this book is them either bathing, having sex, or wishing they were doing one of those things. I didn't like Vienne's weird empathy power, and I STILL don't understand what Davik's power was. Everything was too vague, their relationship too shakily built. I wasn't a fan of this one, so I'll probably take a break before reading the rest of these. A shame.
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I'm not going to do deep in-depth reviews on these, because they're probably all going to be relatively similar. I liked Seerin and Nelle, but not quite as much as the couple from the first book. I found Seerin's ~issues~ to be slightly ridiculous, but whatever. It made sense in the book. Nelle is – I think – supposed to be neurodivergent, but not in any particular way. She's just different from everyone else, and it's that difference that brings her to life. I did like her quite a deal, and I hope that we maybe see a bit more of her in the future books. I guess we'll see!!
I really hope EVERY SINGLE ONE of these does not end with the wife being knocked up, bc if so that's gonna get real old real fast, and I LIKE babies in my romances.
Anyway, Draven's writing is still phenomenal. Going right onto book number three, here, so that should tell you something about how much I'm enjoying these.
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After my total enjoyment of Desire in His Blood, did you really expect me to not go back and read all of Zoey Draven's backlist? Of course not. So here I am, doing that. I AM NOT APOLOGIZING FOR MY ACTIONS. Captive of the Horde King was almost as good as Desire in His Blood. Almost, because the ‘plot' is very extremely thin on the ground here, not that it bothered me too much.
Mostly, Captive of the Horde King is about our main character, Luna, suddenly being thrust into an entirely different way of life. She struggles at first to give up her ‘humanity' so to speak, and to live as her new culture demands. It's a lot, at first, but eventually she bends and accepts this is her life now, and she might as well enjoy it. I wasn't a huge fan of Luna at first, because she was so RIGIDLY against everything that was thrown at her. Once she finally warmed up to what her life was, she became more likeable.
Her husband, said Horde King, was like a brick wall there, for a bit. He didn't stop to explain anything to her, and just expected her to do what she was told. Obviously, they butt heads very frequently because of this. Once he settles down and realizes why she's balking, they start to really get along with one another. I found myself mentally shouting at my kindle a few times – JUST TALK TO ONE ANOTHER, PEOPLE. They were both reasonable with one another, I hated the ‘miscommunication' bits, but whatever. It comes with the genre.
For a book titled Captive of the Horde King, the romance was bordering on sweet? It was adorable, in several places, but mostly it was hot, fast, and steamy. It's also extremely well-written. Zoey Draven knows her stuff – nothing felt clunky, clumsy, or overwritten. Basically, what I'm saying is I'M COMING FOR YOUR BACKLIST, DRAVEN.
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By now, you've probably seen Fourth Wing all over the internet, being praised as the next big thing in fantasy romance. If you haven't picked up the book yet, I'm willing to bet that you've either been interested, but a little apprehensive, or you've just plain rolled your eyes at the claims surrounding this book. Well, I'm here to tell you right now, that the claims are true. Fourth Wing is a fantastic fantasy romance, and one that I am going to be shouting about for awhile. Get used to it.
Fourth Wing is set in an extremely deadly war academy, where most of the students are training to become dragon riders. It sounds brutal, but that's because it absolutely is. There are two options for the cadets in this academy — you either survive training and graduate, or you die. You can't leave, you can't drop out, you can't give up. You keep going, or you die. Period. We see many many side characters die over the course of the novel. Yarros does not shy away from this, and I appreciated actually seeing the danger on page. Despite the sheer amount of death on page, Fourth Wing is so much fun. For those of you that love YA novels, this will feel familiar, but in a much more mature way. Our characters are all in their twenties, but they're going to what is essentially a magic school. Some will argue that this is just a YA book with sex, but I thoroughly disagree. The themes, and maturity level here are much higher than that of YA book.
Our main character, Violet, starts out absolutely not wanting to be in the dragon rider cadets. She wanted to be a scribe, but her mother had other ideas. Violet is forced into the riding cadets, and that's that. Unfortunately, she's got a chronic illness that is deliberately kept vague — this worked for me, but I can see why some people would be frustrated that Yarros doesn't go into more detail here. What we do know is that Violet's bones are brittle, she's smaller than everyone else, and that she's almost constantly in pain. Why this works, in my opinion, is because Yarros herself has a chronic illness. Violet is not whiny. She does what she can, and tries to push herself, but there are a few times that she is forcibly stopped from hurting herself further. I liked Violet a great deal. She was incredibly determined, and did everything she needed to in order to compete. Violet is not a mary-sue in any capacity. She was not good at everything that was thrown at her. In fact, we see her fail more than once. This grounded her as a character, and made her infinitely easier to relate to.
MILD SPOILERS GOING FORWARD REGARDING THE ROMANCE Now, as for Violet's love interests we have two, because romance triangles are so interesting. (Okay, for real though, I do not see this as a triangle, because it becomes apparent very quickly into the book that Dain does not see Violet the way that Xaden does. Don't get your undies in a twist, triangle-haters.) We have Dain, Violet's childhood best friend. He's a year ahead of her in training, and he is rigid in his rule following. He doesn't do anything to help Violet if it could be considered even as bending a rule a bit. He is constantly telling Violet she can't do something, that she's unable, that she's weak, etc. He does this in the mindset of trying to keep her safe, but it comes across as extremely condescending, and Violet catches on quick. I did not like Dain.Opposite of him we have Xaden, who is the son of the man who tried to lead a rebellion against the empire/ruling people/whatever. What does matter is that Violet's mom executed Xaden's dad. Got it? Okay. There's some angst there, obviously. Xaden is, of course, extremely powerful, extremely handsome, and extremely interesting. He's the leader of her section of cadets, so he's also a couple of years older than her. He sees Violet right away, and does rather a lot to help her, but in a sort of backhanded way. Xaden is fully okay with bending/twisting rules. He breaks them himself, after all. BUUUUT, the last thing I'll say about the romance is this — if you like the way that Rhys and Feyre fell in love, than you will adore Violet and Xaden. They have the snippy, flirty, fighting sort of conversations that end with a looot sexual tension. SPEAKING OF THAT, there are at least two steamy scenes. They are well done, not extremely explicit, but there's enough detail there that this bumps the book way out of YA range.
Now, quite obviously, Fourth Wing features dragons. We see three really up close, but there are quite a few dotting the pages. I do wish we learned more about them in this book, but what little we got definitely has me hooked. I don't want to spoil anything that goes on here, but I really really liked the decisions that Yarros made here. There was an obvious choice that got subverted, and I am grateful for it.
In case my rambling above didn't make it obvious enough, I really really loved Fourth Wing. It was refreshing, bright and new, and just perfect. I cannot wait to get my hands on Iron Flame, which is comes out in November. If you like fantasy romance, you will adore this book. Please pick it up soon!
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Thank you to Netgalley and Ballantine for providing an ARC copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
I love the Arthurian Legend. I have since I was little and first watched the miniseries with Sam Neill as Merlin. I gobbled that show up, and then Camelot the musical, then Disney's Sword in the Stone, then Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and well, you see where I'm going with this. Any opportunity to dive into a different version of this tale, and I'm all in. Perilous Times seemed like it would be right up my alley, and yep. It totally was.
Perilous Times borrows familiar characters from the Arthurian legend, but definitely isn't a retelling or spinoff or anything like that. You see, a long, long time ago, the original Arthurian Legend happened. And then Merlin did some magicy-things, and made them all immortal. All the knights would never permanently die — instead, they would sleep under their trees, and awaken when the realm was in peril. This means, of course, that they've been woken up quite a lot over the course of their thousand plus years of existing. But this time, this time something is seriously different.
Our three main characters are Sir Kay, Sir Lancelot, and Mariam, an eco-terrorist. That sounds scary, but really what she's trying to do is save the environment. And if that means blowing up a few oil rigs, than dammit she's going to do it. Mariam was willing to do what needed to be done, and she was really tired of all the talking, organizing, and meetings. You will spend most of this book frustrated because it feels so real. It's not a bad frustration — it's one that will remind you of how the real world is. How irritated you get when you see your government actively working against moving forward, against changing for the better. Lee did a fantastic job weaving in the reality of our world with the fantastic of this world.
The Britain that the book is set in is dying. It's a wasteland, a polluted, horrible mess. People are dying, starving, sick, and tempers are now hair-trigger. It's not a nice place Lee has set his novel in, but wow does he put this to the best possible use. He does an absolutely excellent job describing how awful everything has become, and putting us in Kay's eyes as he sees how the world has changed is just perfect. Kay is tired. He's over a thousand years old at this point, and he's damn tired of having to wake up and kill people again. He doesn't want to. He wants to sleep his eternal rest, and see his wife again. Mariam gets frustrated with Kay, because he's so wishy washy about wanting to help. Understandable, but really what is a Knight of the Round Table supposed to do against global warming?
Lancelot was fascinating. Lee writes him as a gay man who would rather follow orders than question them. He's a bit smarmy, a bit egotistical, and a lot totally over his head. While I really disliked him almost the entire novel — I think you're supposed to — I enjoyed reading his chapters because they were always interesting. He was always doing something that you didn't want him to do. It felt like watching a car crash.
And then there's Arthur. Whatever preconceived notion you have of the King just gets thrown out the window. I wasn't the biggest fan of his characterization in Perilous Times, but it really worked for the book. I prefer my Arthurs Good with a capital G, but this one wasn't. He was a brute. A cruel, brute who thought he was better than everyone else. Not my preference, but again, it really worked here. We also see Morgana, Nimue, and Merlin, but I'm not spoiling when they show up.
I don't want to spoil the main plot, because it's more interesting to just sort of fall into it. But it's done well, and it's rather easy to follow. Perilous Times would have ranked a full 5 stars for me, but the ending felt a little rushed, and not in a good way. It just felt short — I would have liked a little more explanation of what exactly was going on, but instead it was extremely vague. Overall, though, Perilous Times was fantastic.
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Okay, so I went into this book half-expecting it to be poorly written garbage smut, but uh? It's not. Good golly, is it not. At all. I was soooo totally wrong about it, and I'm fully willing to admit that. I loved every 428 pages of this book, and I'm not ashamed to say that out loud. I will now be not-so-patiently waiting for the sequel, which is supposed to come out sometime this month.
ANYWAY – Desire in His Blood is a paranormal romance of sorts that involves an vampire-alien race who pretty much purchases a mail order bride intent on revenge on her father. Complicated? Sure sounds like it, but it really isn't in the context of the story. And uh, those of you who are picking this up just for the smut....? Don't be surprised when there's a whole actually-thought-out plot here! And for those of you dying to know – Desire in His Blood's got all the tropes - big/little, vampires, blood drinking while having sex, mates, revenge, meanie who's really a giant softie inside, etc, etc. It's chock full of ‘em, and they're all done pretty well!
Azur is the main male lead, and he's grumpy, mean, supposedly cruel, super powerful, and basically a king of his planet? Country? It wasn't clear. Doesn't matter. He picks his bride, Gemma, simply because her father did something AWFUL to his family. He's intent on using her for revenge, ruining her, ruining her father's life, and then dropping her back at her father's doorstep. Only...Gemma ends up being his mate. Oops. He resists that pull for a very short time, and then sort of just jumps in feet first. He is SUPER in love with Gemma, and it's adorable to watch.
Gemma is proud, intensely protective of her sisters, and doing everything she can to keep her family's life from falling apart. It's the only reason she agrees to marry Azur in the first place. She's stubborn, but willing to learn what she has to, so she can survive in her new home. She takes a bit longer to warm up to Azur. She falls much slower than he does, but once they finally come together, they're like wildfire.
The other characters are featured much less, but they were all delightful in their own ways – especially Azur's sister. I adored her. And yes, of course, the steamy scenes were very incredibly steamy. Well written, and not overdone. There's plenty of them in the novel, but it really doesn't feel like they're shoved down your throat every other scene.
Loved this so much. Five stars.
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Thank you to Netgalley and Tor for providing an ARC copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
It's no secret that I am, in fact, a ginormous fan of Ursula Vernon, aka T. Kingfisher. I've read almost everything she's put out at this point, and I'm clambering for more. PLEASE GIVE ME MORE. When I saw that her latest novella was on Netgalley, you can safely imagine me literally leaping at my mouse to request an ARC. Thankfully, Tor seems to like me, and they very generously allowed me a copy.
Needless to say, I loved Thornhedge. I would have gladly read an entire novel with these characters, in this world, but honestly? An entire novel wasn't needed! Thornhedge is very short, but Kingfisher is a master at working in the short form. You don't miss anything. There's nothing absent from the story for the sake of shortness. It is, in fact, wrapped up rather neatly by the end.
Kingfisher, as always, has sprinkled a little horror inside her fairytale retelling, and we see it in the form of Fayette. Fayette is a changeling, and she's a horror from the moment she's born. She tortures animals. She tortures the servants. She hurts everyone she comes in contact with, and very quickly people who are around her turn up dead. Toadling, our heroine, is a fairy. She's not a pretty fairy, she doesn't have wings, or sparkle. She turns into a toad. She's a sweetheart. She does what she must — she puts Fayette in an enchanted sleep.
Two hundred or something years pass, and Toadling has spent it all in the shadow of Fayette's tower, keeping watch Then, Halim comes to try and rescue ‘the fair maiden' in the tower. I loved Halim. Halim is a sweetheart knight who always apologizes when he curses, who tries his best to help Toadling, and most importantly of all, listens and believes Toadling. Halim was a welcome change from the usual hero. He is also thoroughly Muslim, and talks about his religion on page.
I loved how Kingfisher wrote this, but that's not new for me and my experience with her writing. As I said on Goodreads, I will literally read anything that Kingfisher writes. Her water bill. Her grocery list. Whatever. She's a genius, and i love her. Thornhedge is a solid five stars. I know you will love it.
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I really don't know why it took me this long to pick this book up. I've never not enjoyed something by KJ Charles. It's a standalone. What could I possibly have to lose here? Well — I'll argue with myself here. I must have saved this for when I really needed a book that I knew I was going to enjoy. The past two books I've read averaged a 3.5 stars. While The Gentle Guide to Fortune Telling didn't rate a full 5 stars for me, it still hit so much better than those previous two books. I was saving this, clearly, for the right moment.
The story is rather simple — Robin and his sister, Marianne — are fortune hunters. They are nobodies — born in the gutter with no family left to speak of. However, they are both beautiful, charming, and quick-witted enough to wiggle their way into the hearts of the ton. There, they do their best to secure fantastically rich matches, so they can have the security of never having to worry about a meal or a roof over their head again. Only thing is — the young lady that Robin's set his sights on is actually a sweetheart, with a slightly-overbearing uncle. Robin and said Uncle almost come to blows over a gamble...and an arrangement comes between them. Look — this is a gay historical romance. An arrangement is the best these two are going to get, if we're striving for realism here.
KJ Charles must have been going for a Robin Hood retelling/reworking sort of feeling here, but it really doesn't fit that story for me at all. Besides the names, there is very little in common with the original story. But, it didn't bother me. I liked the characters, and the general story enough that it didn't matter. Robin is something of a golden retriever — cheerful almost all the time, but desperately worried for his sister's future. His sister, Marianne, is a panther in a petticoat. She's calculated, charming, but ooo does she have a temper. I loved them both. Hart, the love interest of Robin, took some time to grow on me, but once we get the backstory, I was fully in. Their dalliances were hot, with a lot of extremely detailed dirty talk. If you're into that, you'll love this one.
I liked this one, but it didn't quite tip over into the love category for me. I'm not sure why it didn't quite hit the full mark for me, but whatever. I still really liked this. Four out of five stars!
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You all know me by now, I think. You all know how much I adore werewolves. I picked up Unacceptable Risk late last year when I saw that it was free on Kindle. It had semi-decent reviews on Goodreads, so I went for it. Welll....good news / bad news — good news is Goodreads was actually right on the money with this one. The reviews were all truthful, and made sense to me once I finished the book. Bad news is — I maybe wasted my time on a werewolf book that just didn't hit the buttons I needed it to press. I say maybe, because I did enjoy quite a lot of this book. There was just something missing, and I believe I know what it was.
Paul is a vet. In the very first part of the novel we see him almost run over a very injured wolf. Of course, this wolf is our main werewolf — Simon. I really, thoroughly liked Simon. He was just plain likeable. He wanted what was best for Paul, but he was more than a little pushy without meaning to be. The author waves this off by saying it's Simon's wolf who wants to take care of Paul, but it almost came across as creepy. Almost. (He has food delivered to Paul's vet office almost every day. Wants to cook him dinner, feed him, etc.) He was very protective, very caring, it was just a lot all at once.
Poor Paul was struggling with the idea of suddenly finding men attractive — he'd thought he was straight before he met Simon. Things escalate VERY quickly with them. It sort of works in the werewolf setting, but Paul struggles with everything throughout the whole novel. I thought it would maybe get better as the book went on, but really at the end of the day it felt like Paul didn't want to be where he was. It sort of ruined the whole thing for me. Paul was so wishywashy — understandably — he kept switching hot and cold on how he felt about everything. It felt odd.
Not to mention that the entire plot hedged around the fact that the majority of Simon's werewolf pack wanted to kill him because he was gay. This book was written in 2011, which explains why it felt so DATED. Seriously, this sort of plot didn't work as well for me in 2023 as it probably would have back then. It felt very...I don't know... it isn't unrealistic, it just felt overdramatic? That's not even the right word. I don't know what I'm trying to say here other than the book feels it's age.
Anyway, I liked most of the characters, I just wish they had been played with in a slightly different way. Three and a half stars.
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So one of my least favorite things about fantasy-romance books is when the main couple gets separated / fights and refuses to talk to one another. I hate the avoidance, and I usually hate the plot-driven reason behind it. There are very few times that the author manages to stick the landing, and well...I guess my star rating will give you an idea how I felt about this one. Oraya and Raihn are furious with each other for like...half of this book? And when it's supposed to be a romantasy, well...that kind of ruins the vibe. In my personal opinion, Broadbent sort of fudges the ending on this one.
There's a lot of vague handwaving at the end of The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King. There's two armies coming to clash against one another — they're fighting for the kingdom, and who wears the crown. The violence is extraordinary. It's bloody. It's gruesome. But man after a certain thing happens that I will not be spoiling... the fighting just...sort of...disappears? Yeah. Mid-huge battle...it just stops. I refuse to believe that was ‘accurate', but whatever. When it comes to the very end, I can happily provide you with answer to one question — Does it end happily? I can say that yes, yes it does. But how they get there was...rough.
I really loved The Serpent and the Wings of Night but there's a helluva lot more political crap in The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King. (Also why are the titles so LONG?!) I'm not a huge fan of political stuff unless it's court intrigue and there's none of that here. It's all who is allying with who, who hates who, who wants the other one to rule. Blah. Not my thing. It got boring very quickly — even with all the fighting going on.
As for character development — there's a lot of it. A lot of it works, but there's a bunch that just sort of happens, and it feels fake. I did like where Broadbent went with Oraya (We learn way more about her origins, parents, and who she really is), but it took too long to get there. This book is chunky, but I don't really think it needed to be. I think some things could have been avoided entirely, while others really needed to be stretched out a little. Eh personal preference, I suppose.
The romance really doesn't come back until close to 60% of the way through the book. That was way too long for me. The relationship was the reason I loved the first book, and there's so little of it here. There's at least two steamy scenes. Good ones. But really the romance kind of got shoved to the side in this one, in ways that I really wasn't a fan of.
Overall, I'm giving this one three and a half stars. It could have been so much better.
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The Serpent and the Wings of Night is everywhere you look these days, especially if you frequent romance book friendly places. Tiktok, in particular, is all but enamored with this book. That wasn't exactly a ringing endorsement, for me, as TikTok doesn't exactly have a great track record with recommending books. BUT then I saw a few friends pick this book up and enjoy it. Like, thoroughly enjoy it. That was what got my attention. I had tried Carissa Broadbent's first series and was not a fan. I was more than hesitant to give her another chance. But oh man, am I glad that I did. FORTUNATELY, Broadbent's writing has seriously improved. Like enough that I can say, without doubt, that The Serpent and the Wings of Night is absolutely worth the read, especially if you're into fantasy romance.
If you're looking for what this book feels like, I can hammer it down in THREE titles. Take The Hunger Games, plus ACOTAR, and add in a little Twlight action, throw it all in a blender, and you'll get The Serpent and the Wings of Night. Our main character, Oraya, is a human raised by a vampire king. He's raised her to be ruthless, violent, and efficient at killing. She's prey in a world of predators — there's no option here for her to be soft. Every...[mumbles I don't remember] years there's a great competition where the winner gets to ask a boon of the vampire's mother/goddess. Oraya's father wants her to enter so she can be made as powerful as he is. Only problem is — she's going to be the only human in the competition. Obviously you see the problem.
So she enters, and has to prove that she's just as competent at killing as all the vampires. Blah, blah, blah, she ends up meeting Raihn. (Sidenote — again, Carissa, why haven't you included a pronunciation guide? I was just calling him Rain and hoping that was right!!!!!) Raihn is a huge vampire, powerful, protective, and sarcastic. I loved him immediately, because I'm a sucker for all of those things separately, but when you combine them? WHOO BOY. Anyway, obviously they sort of circle each other romantically, and eventually fall in love. Ish. (You'll understand when you read.) There's one steamy sex scene, and a couple like...vaguely warm make out sessions. Not really the steam I was promised, TikTok! Like, ACOTAR is miles steamier. Oh well, still absolutely worth the read.
There's a lot of death, blood, and violence in here, but I mean...it's a book about vampires. You shouldn't really be surprised by those being included. I wouldn't really call this a dark romance, either, but I think some might call it that? (They're in a competition where death is all but certain, and they fall in love.) Either way, I really enjoyed this, and the ending knocked me on my butt it was so good. Headed right into the second book now, wish me luck!!!
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I picked this one up on a recommendation from a childhood friend – she said it was similar in feel to ACOTAR, and well, it was on KU, so it wasn't like I had to work to find a copy. Ultimately, Daughter of No Worlds felt more than a little stale. A slave girl ends up killing the man who owned her, and rescues herself in order to get revenge. There's magic – moon and sun magic – and a mysterious powerful entity that gets implanted into the main character's mind. That part, at least, was unique!
But what really ruined the book for me was the writing itself. It was so mind-numbingly repetitive, and this book clocks in at 520 pages. It's not exactly short! The sentence structure rarely varied. The main character apparently thought about two things - training and rescuing her friends. That was it. Speaking of training, that's almost what the whole novel is. I think the first three-quarters of the book is Tisaanah training. There's minimal world building, and what there is feels lackluster at best. The romance – the reason I really wanted to read this – doesn't really become a thing until like...the last couple of chapters. There's one fade-to-black sex scene that's almost entirely steamless.
Also I just want to throw this one out here – why on earth would you give the main character a name like Tisaanah and not include a pronunciation guide. I hated her name. Every time I saw it I cringed. Everyone else has relatively normal/easy-to-pronounce names.
I know other people will like this one, but it just wasn't for me.
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Thank you to Netgalley and Mobius for providing an ARC copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
I love a good wizard, but The Malevolent Seven has almost no good wizards. Instead, we're treated to mage after mage with rather horrible temperaments. No one sides on the ‘good' side here, because there is no good side. The Malevolent Seven is about as grimdark as I can take before throwing in the towel. There were no brutal murders for brutal murder's sake here — everything that happened really did happen for a good reason. And the main character, Cade, while he has some moral issues he probably needs to work out eventually, is actually a pretty decent person. He just hides under sarcasm and literally being a mage for hire. Those are probably the two reasons I kept going – you all know how much I'm not a fan of grimdark. But despite that, de Castell really made the book interesting enough that I wanted to keep reading. Plus, I really sort of loved de Castell's writing. It's quirky, sarcastic, and generally not really the tone you're used to in this sort of setting.
The Malevolent Seven is a short book, in my personal opinion. Most fantasies that I read usually clock in around 450 pages or more. The Malevolent Seven only tips the scales at 384 — and it is a rather quick read. There's no wasted action in those few pages, thankfully. The pace is lightning quick, and the plot decently easy to follow. I had a hard time with all the explanations of the different magical planes, but once I sort of...let it glide over me...I realized it didn't matter in terms of the plot all that much. There's not a ton of world building here, but that's probably because the pace of the book is just go, go, go. Either way, it didn't hurt my enjoyment of the novel. There's enough here to go on, but I do wish we had seen perhaps more of the regular people? Instead, we get mages, demons, angels, etc. And while cool, they don't really help pad out the world too much. The characters we do see, we know very little about, again, thanks to that short page count. The one we know most about is Cade's best ‘friend', and even then we really don't' know much at all.
The plot includes a couple betrayals you don't see coming, and a pretty neat twist at the end. If you like wizards, morally grey characters, and a fast pace, you'll love this one. Four stars.
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Love Lettering was so so close to being as good as Georgie, All Along, but just barely fell short of achieving that goal. Meaning, I really really really loved this book. Our main character, Meg, shines off the page. She's a delightfully sunny person with a huge huge sarcastic streak. She is a people pleaser who eventually realizes this about herself and tries so hard to change. She wants to be truthful to people without hurting them. She tries her best. She's also a hand-letter-er? I guess? Is how you'd say that? She's an artist, who specializes is handwriting, and she's damn good. I wish we could have “seen” her work, but Clayborn does a fantastic job of describing it. So on one hand, we have Meg, a sunny artist. And on the other hand, we have Reid, a stoic mathematician. Two absolute foils of one another, so of course they fall in love.
Not to compare Love Lettering to another one of Clayborn's books, Love at First, but what really worked for me this time was how over-the-top these characters were. They weren't ordinary people. They didn't blend into the background. They had strong personalities, and reasons for them. I missed that in Love at First, so that's definitely why Love Lettering ranks above that one for me. The complete contrast between Meg and Reid was so much fun to watch, too. I kept picturing Meg in all these bright colors and patterns next to Reid, in his blue/black/grey suits. Reid does warm up, and open up to Meg, and we do get to know him quite well, but the foil between them remains the whole book. I enjoyed that. Neither one of them change who they are fundamentally, they just sort of...shift enough to let the other into their life. It was perfectly done.
The plot was just interesting enough to keep me interested — Meg has a creative block and is using Reid to help boost her out of it. There's something going on with Reid, but you don't find out what until the end of the book in a rather explosive way. (No, there is no cheating, in case some of you were worried!) The side characters are all well done, too, though I think the side-plot of Meg's best friend was a little...idk. Contrived? Unneeded? I wasn't the biggest fan of Sibby. You'll understand if you read! Either way, no matter what, I really really loved Love Lettering. Four and a half stars.
For more of my reviews, check out my blog.
Thank you to Netgalley and Orbit Books for providing an ARC copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
If you've been looking for a classic take on the fantasy genre with maybe just a few tweaks, I highly recommend that you pick up The Sword Defiant. While there is a lot that's familiar here, there is just enough uniqueness to this story to make it really shine amongst all the other fantasy books out there. What I loved best, however, was the fact that our hero really wanted to do what was best for the every day people. He wanted to uphold his oath, when it felt like everyone else threw theirs away. Alf is a knight, an old, tired, worn-around-the-edges knight, who has an evil talking magic sword. He's tired of fighting, but he just does it anyway. And he will not allow anyone else to take the sword from him. The sword is his duty, and Alf doesn't want to give it up.
Anyway, the gist of the story is that a fellowship of barbarians, knights, paladins, dwarves, elves, etc, knocked down the old evil necromancer/lord. Twenty years later, one of them gets a vision that an evil is rising again. Alf is given a task to do, and while attempting to do said task, he tries to track down the old fellowship again. Unfortunately, they're all old, or jaded, or crazy, or just plain absent. It's this tweak to the classic fantasy tale that really makes this book standout. We're not fighting with young men here. Everyone's old. Everyone's frustrated and ready to be done with fighting evil. Alf tries to get them to see his side, but he's unfortunately left sort of...almost on his own.
The other main character is Alf's sister. Her son has run away/been kidnapped and she's doing everything in her power to get him back. As a mother should. She didn't back down once when someone told her to go home. She wasn't going home without her son, thank you. She wasn't a warrior, or a paladin, or anything. She was just a mom. I loved her. (Though I really would have loved to find out what she thought about something that happens at the very tail end of the book. We don't really get a reaction from her. Maybe in the next book?)
The world building here is insane. I don't want to give too much away because it's really neat to see it all unfold in the novel. There's the city that the Nine overthrew, and are now occupying — Necrad. It's seemingly evil, but everyone who lives there is just trying to get on with their lives. The magic is interesting, but it's pretty vague on how it works. There's sigils and spells, wands and staffs. Nothing's hammered out, but for this world it works. The villains are stand out, and pretty phenomenally powerful.
All in all, this is a fantastic fantasy, one that really feels like a grittier Lord of the Rings. Not necessarily darker, just grittier. Four and a half stars.
For more of my reviews, check out my blog.
You all know how much I love stories involving the Fae. You've seen me shout about it enough that it should be obvious at this point. But regardless — The Thorns Remain wasn't exactly what I was expecting. At this point, almost all the Fae stories I've read leaves the main character thoroughly in love with a member of the Fae. To be honest, those stories have been getting a little stale. Thankfully, The Thorns Remain takes a new approach — one that I haven't personally seen yet in a book like this — the Fae are actually the villains. Now, not all of the fae we see are evil, but...most of them aren't exactly friendly. If we take it way back to old school stories like these, the Fae are usually not something to mess with. It is so refreshing to actually have that be the case here.
Our main character is Moira Jean. She's sassy, stubborn, and soooo sad. Mourning her lost fiancee is just soaked in her bones, and throughout the whole book she never really turns away from him. She doesn't forget him and move on, she mourns, and mourns, and mourns and I was happy, honestly, that she doesn't just suddenly get over him. It wouldn't have made sense for her character, and I'm really happy that Harwood didn't shoe-horn in some half-done romance here. (That's right, there's no romance in this book, IDC what the promotional material says. Moira Jean never really comes close to falling in love.) Moira Jean's friends get taken by the Fae, and it is up to her to bargain for them back. She does everything in her power to get her friends back, but in doing so, she messes with The Dreamer.
The Dreamer is the big bad Fae at the heart of this story. Everything that happens to Moira Jean is ultimately his fault. The nice Fae that she meets end up being either sent to her by The Dreamer, or are acting on his orders. The Dreamer wants to know more about Moira Jean, and about humanity in general. He bargains with Moira Jean, but twists and turns those bargains around to mess with her. He's cruel, but he's trying to be kind. He does not really succeed. He's terrifying because you really don't know what he's going to do next, or how he's going to mess with everyone back in the village. You really feel for Moira Jean, because she is truly stuck between a rock and a hard place. She has no help. Everything is really up to her, and it was so hard watching her try everything she could while literally everyone and everything worked against her.
I do have a few complaints, unfortunately. There are no chapters in this book — it is simply broken up into four parts. It made it hard to find a good place to stop reading, and I hate that. Next, the villagers turn against Moira Jean like...on a switch. They've known her literally her entire life, and they turn on her at the drop of a hat. It felt maybe unrealistic? Maybe? IDK, it bothered me more than a little. Unfortunately, the confrontation towards the end of the book felt a little rushed. It could have really been stretched out a bit longer, so we could have learned more about The Queen. Instead, she's a shadowy, vague figure and that's it. Still, I really did enjoy this. It was a nice refreshing take on a Fae story. Four stars.
For more of my reviews, check out my blog.
Gah, these books are just so much fun. I really, really enjoyed this entire series, but this isn't a review for the whole series, is it? Subtle Blood is set a few months after The Sugared Game, and the time skip here was really actually nice. We get to see Will and Kim as they are in their lives, and get to see what Kim is doing after being fired from his super-secret-spy job. Mostly, they're living normal lives, both working in Will's bookshop, but it is very easy to see that they're getting bored. How lucky for them that Kim's older brother gets himself into a nasty situation, and only they can set things straight. Maybe. Sort of. They do their best, anyway.
It goes without saying that said situation involves Zodiac, not that it's immediately apparent that it does so. But that was a fun mystery to unpick with the characters.
Kim's brother Chingford is exceptionally irritating and frustrating. I think I can safely assume that everyone on the planet has met someone like this man. You immediately dislike him, and very quickly that dislike turns into outright hate and loathing. For good reason, too. We eventually see all of Kim's surviving family in this book, and wow. What a bunch of assholes. Seriously, it's a marvel that Kim came out anything remotely likeable. Both Kim's father, and his brother hate Kim for almost no reason — and apparently have for his entire life. What an upbringing. Bah.
We see Will fall even more in love with Kim, which I truly appreciated. We don't really get a whole lot of that in the other books, so it was nice to see here. Both of them actually use their words and spill out what they've been feeling about each other, and it was needed. It really was. It was also extremely heart-warming, and done in a way that made perfect sense for them as a couple. The relationship seems truly solidified here, and I loved it.
The ending to this book was pretty much perfect, and it left the possibility for more entries into this series, which I am thrilled by. Not that KJ Charles has hinted at any coming soon, but I will remain hopeful. I loved this, so I hope that you'll pick up this series next time you have no idea what you want to read next!
For more of my reviews, check out my blog.
Everything that I adored about the first book in this series, Slippery Creatures, is alive and present here in The Sugared Game. As it usually is, all the tension and danger is ramped up in the second entry into the trilogy, and I have to say, the level up here was extraordinarily well done. I thoroughly enjoyed being on this ride, and I cannot wait to continue onto the last book in this series as soon as possible. But as it is, you all deserve a slightly more lengthy review, so I will continue onward.
Will continues to be Will — thoroughly stubborn, violent, and good at it. He stands his ground phenomenally in this book, which I appreciated. I also appreciated him realizing that he was wrong about certain things, and that he was willing to admit to being incorrect out loud. It did wonders for Will and Kim's relationship. Kim is also very much himself in this book, but perhaps less sure of things, with good reason. He comes to realize something important close to the end of book, and that realization causes everything to tumble around him, not for the better. As it is, these two continue to be so much fun to read about. I can't wait for them to get their heads on straight and realize how much they mean to one another. We got close in The Sugared Game, I won't lie, but I still think we could get these two closer together. Emotionally, I mean.
The plot in this one is slightly more twisty-turny, as I didn't pick up what was happening until it was quite literally under my nose. I missed all the hints that KJ Charles dropped, and I feel slightly like an idiot having realized that. Oh well, it was massively entertaining, especially the last few chapters. What action! You really felt the danger there, and the absolute horror of the characters when they realize what's happening. So well done. I can't wait to see what's going to happen in the last book. I'm sure it'll be fantastic.
For more of my reviews, check out my blog.
I read this in a matter of hours, so that should tell you how much I enjoyed it. KJ Charles's work is always a great deal of fun, and it's so easy to just zip right through one of her books. They're usually on the shorter side, and she really doesn't waste time in any of her novels. Slippery Creatures is set in the 1920's, and is written to be similar to the pulp fiction of the era. I know for a fact that Charles spends a long time researching her books, so I have faith that everything is as accurate to the time period as it could possibly be. Anyway, I really loved Slippery Creatures.
The main characters are Will Darling, a young man who has returned from WWI without a job and without any prospects. He was good at war, but now that he's home he basically has nothing going for him. He finds a long lost uncle, who reconnects with him and leaves him his book shop as inheritance once he passes away. Will is a decidedly stubborn creature, intent on doing everything his way, and hating it when he does have to rely on someone else for something. He's easy to like, but he's also very easy to get frustrated with. We meet the second main character fairly quickly into the book — we have to, there's no room for it to happen anywhere else — and his name is Kim Secretan. He is...as the title of the book says, a rather slippery creature. You want to like him, god do you, but you don't quite trust him all the way either. He's exceedingly nice, and seems quite capable of just about anything. I liked him so much. Kim is clever, charming, and so so sneaky.
The romance is fairly insta-lust as Dini said in her review, but it didn't bother me as it made sense in the context of the story. They had just been through a rather trying ordeal, and well, blood is hot after a near-death experience. The romance is also done in a way that makes sense for the time period. It's hidden away, and very secret except for those who absolutely need to know. (I really also loved Phoebe, who is in a engagement-of-convenience to Kim.) Together, Will and Kim send sparks flying, and they aren't always romantic sparks, either. That's all I'll say there.
The plot was convincing, and easy to follow with a nice amount of peril involved. There was no point where I thought there was no way out for our characters, and while I loved following what they were doing, I had a good feeling things would end happily. Before I wrap this up, I do want to mention that this first book felt less like a romance novel, and more like a historical mystery. There's very little wooing or romance involved. It's mostly lust, and fast-paced sex scenes, which is fine! There was little time for anything else. But, I hope there's more romance in the next books. Onto the next!
For more of my reviews, check out my blog.
Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Books for providing an ARC copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
I truly was not sure if I should request this book when I saw it pop up on Netgalley. I absolutely adore Klune's The House in the Cerulean Sea, and his Green Creek series, but the last book I read by him — Under the Whispering Door — just did not click with me. I was worried that I had outgrown Klune's work, and that I would never like another book by him. But I decided to chance it, and clicked REQUEST TITLE. Tor has always been nice to me, so they accepted my request, and here I am to tell you that (drum roll please) I absolutely loved In the Lives of Puppets. Klune has an absolutely dreamy way of talking about life, death, love, and grief that just really resonates (most of the time). Thankfully, all of the characters in In the Lives of Puppets were easy to like. There were no Wallaces here. (He was my main problem with Under the Whispering Door, but that's neither here nor there.) Klune's character work really shines here, and I am so happy to say that I just really loved this book.
In fact, the characters were really what brought this book to life. Our main character is Vic, a young man — a human in a world taken over by robots/machines. He is seemingly the only human left on earth, and his humanity really wears off on the machines around him. Said machines were all hilarious, heart-warming, and ah. I just adored them. Especially Nurse Ratched — she was laugh out loud funny a lot of the time. Same with Rambo, who I pictured as a roomba. What a little cinnamon roll. Victor's father, Gio, was a human-shaped machine, and he had a heart of gold, despite his past. And lastly, but not leastly, there's Hap. I won't spoil what he is, but oh. He ends up breaking your heart, and putting it back together. Klune once again wins at the found-family game with this cast. Like, he just knocks it out of the park.
The plot was interesting enough to keep my attention, and I loved all the side characters, but I had one glaring issue with this book. Exactly how old was Victor supposed to be? He comes across as being very young, but I think that comes from being raised by literal machines, and being very naive. Throughout the whole book, I was thinking he was somewhere from like....16-19ish. Which would have been fine, if there hadn't been a tiny little romance plot sprinkled in. As a whole, the romance didn't bother me, but honestly? The book really didn't need it. It would have been a fantastic example of a book strictly about familial love without it. But saying that, it didn't hurt the book, either.
Either way, I really, really liked In the Lives of Puppets, and I am so so glad that I can go back to saying I like Klune's work again! Four and a half glowing stars.
For more of my reviews, check out my blog.
Hm.
I'm not sure where to start with this one, because while I really loved the general gist of the story, there were some glaring missing pieces of it for me. I love the first book in this duology — An Unkindness of Magicians. I love love love that one. It felt new, original, and fresh when I read it for the first time. When it comes to A Sleight of Shadows, however, it feels like it's missing something. It's almost but not quite a whole story, unfortunately.
So what's it missing? Emotion. There is very little emotional connection in this book. Hardly any of the characters show any other emotion other than rage or fear. Several characters die — I won't say who — and no one...seems to care? We don't see anyone really mourning them, we don't see the loss truly felt on page. It's just something that happens and suddenly everyone is okay with it and moves on. Now, this might be because The Unseen World is built on death and everyone is used to people just dying, but c'mon. That feels ridiculous. A cop-out answer if there ever was one. Now, how on earth do you write a book where the main character has major, extreme, PTSD about something in her past and never include emotion? How does that even happen?
The meat of the story, the action-y bits were just as good as the first book in this series. The magic used isn't as spectacular or mind-blowing, but it's there and it is at the very least interesting. But just like in An Unkindness of Magicians, I'm missing the connection. You want Sydney to succeed in what she's set out to do, you want her to win, but my god couldn't we see her feel something? The only loss we see her mourn over is the loss of her magic. How on earth could that be it? There's a lot of telling going on, and not a lot of showing, unfortunately.
The other characters — especially the villain — are great. The rage and entitlement felt there was nausea inducing. The ending, once again, comes too quick and without much build up. I only knew I was getting close to the book ending by the percentage complete climbing higher towards 100% on my Kindle. Without that, I would have thought I had a lot more book coming. I'm slightly disappointed by this one. It could have been great, it could have been something really unique, but instead we have a half-complete story. Three-and-a-half stars.
For more of my reviews, check out my blog.
It's no secret that I fell completely head-over-heels in love with Clayborn's Georgie, All Along. So it really should be no surprise that I've committed to trying to read her entire backlist. Georgie was so good, that surely it wasn't a one off, right? Some of her other books have to reach the same level of absolute perfection. At least, I hope so. I started off my journey through Clayborn's backlist with Love at First, and while I did like it, it definitely was no Georgie, All Along.
I think the biggest issue I had was that the main characters weren't enough. Nora and Will were interesting, but they were very ordinary. Nothing really pushed them forward into that romance character sphere, if anyone understands what I mean. They just seemed like people, which I'm sure some people out there will appreciate. A romance book about normal people! Normal, but with a dash of mental health issues, and parental abandonment. (Which woof did I want to grab both of their sets of parents and just shake them. How dare you??) Anyway, I really did like Will — he was trying his hardest not to repeat his parent's issues, to the point of almost pushing everyone else away. I understood his trauma, and I'm pleased with how Clayborn helps him overcome it. Nora didn't seem to realize she had a problem until it pretty much smacked her in the face, and then she sort of forced herself to get over it.
Nora and Will fit together, but it took a while for them both to be on board with each other. I loved their scheme of coming up with excuses to be around one another — that made me laugh. The steamy scenes were average, nothing particularly stood out as extremely hot or anything. They were cute together, but again, the relationship was just...there?
When it comes to the other characters, they were all interesting, and mostly stood out. (Will's boss/best friend stood out the most to me? He reminded me a lot of a doctor I used to go to!) I did love the idea of an entire apartment building being a found family, which is sort of the basis of the entire story. It was semi-unbelievable, but we're in a romance novel, and Clayborn made it work!
I was a little disappointed by Love at First, but I'm not giving up on Clayborn! Not at all. I think I'll read Love Lettering next, and see where that gets me. Three and a half stars for this one, as much as it hurts to say!
For more of my reviews, check out my blog.
Reader, I am sad. You all know how much I flat out adored The Foxglove King. I went into Hannah Whitten's debut novel with high hopes after reading her third book. It did not live up to the hype or my hopes. Ultimately, your opinions my differ from mine, but I thought For the Wolf was kind of a mess. Upon first glance at the book, you might think that it's a Little Red Riding Hood retelling, but you'd be completely wrong. There is absolutely nothing of that story here, which makes the cover choice almost baffling. Instead, For the Wolf is almost a Beauty and the Beast retelling, but not really. Sure, the main romantic lead has a sort-of curse on him, but that's about where that comparison ends. There are no roses, no enchanted castles, nothing else familiar from that tale. For the Wolf wants to be a fairy tale quite badly, but there was just too much going on for that feel to really sink in.
I will give you this, though, I really enjoyed the parts of the novel where we were focused on Red and Eammon. They were so much fun to watch together. Red was stubborn, protective, and wanted to be helpful so badly. Eammon was more stubborn, and determined to do everything by himself. Of course, they clash because of this, but ultimately end up falling in love. I mean, what's not to love about that story? It's great. When it came to literally everything else I lost focus, and interest. There was too much happening. The forest was weakening, magic was becoming harder to use, Red and Eammon were falling in love, the priestesses were maybe evil maybe not, the queen was dying, the gods might be real, and Neve wanted her sister back. Too much. I think if some of this had been pared down, if we had had the bare basics of this plot, perhaps things would have been able to breathe more. As it is, things feel rushed and confusing. (My biggest questions that I'm not sure we got answers for — where did the wildwood come from? Why is it there? Where does magic come from?)
I am so disappointed that For the Wolf did not work for me. I don't think I'll be picking up For the Throne, because I don't see the point if it's going to continue to be like this book. Despite everything about For the Wolf, I still really love Whitten's writing. I'll still be eagerly awaiting The Foxglove King‘s sequel. Overall, I'd give this one barely three stars.
For more of my reviews, check out my blog.
I can see why people would like this, and I liked parts of it, but there was too much darkness for me. I like my romances much happier. I thought I'd give it a shot just to see, and ultimately I'm not a fan. Won't be continuing the series. Very well written, though.