Briana Noelle
Happy release day to A Poem Penned in Poison, the latest installment in the Tales of Wonder and Woe series! This story focuses on Naomi Weathers, who we were first introduced to in A Story Spun in Scarlet as Audra's best friend and a talented healer who had moved away from their home city to start a new life. We never knew exactly why... until now.
Naomi is blackmailed by Shadre Calten into helping the royal family in Hadrass Drui after the heir apparent is poisoned. He's survived, but there are others who weren't so lucky. Naomi, though a healer, has also had an interest in poison studies and she's been tasked with tracking down the culprit and helping to bring him to justice, lest her own dark secret be revealed. She manages to find him and slowly gain his trust, working alongside him to uncover his means and motives, but when she starts to learn the situation isn't as cut and dry as she's been led to believe, her mission becomes complicated to say the least.
This one had me legitimately tearing up at the end, but in the best way possible. The development of the relationships throughout were measured and believable, and I found myself dreading the inevitable conclusion that someone would have to pay the price. The story had twists I didn't see coming, and it's usually pretty hard for me to be surprised. This was a beautiful reminder that sometimes doing the hard thing and doing the right thing are one and the same, even if the world would tell you differently. Hats off to Renee Dugan for another fantastic addition, and thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to read it as an ARC.
Get yourself a copy of A Poem Penned in Poison, out today!
“After all you have learned, and endured, and what you know now... which life will you choose?”
Epics Etched in Echoes is the continuation of Audra Jashowin's story. When we last saw her at the end of A Story Spun in Scarlet, she has sacrificed everything that makes her who she is – her Storycraft, her memories, and all of the people she loves – to avoid having to write Jaik Grissom out of the world again. Although she doesn't remember him when he resurfaces into the new life she's established in Krylan for herself, she is presented with the opportunity to join him in the quest of regaining her memories and some parts of the life she gave up for love. Despite her uncertainty and fear of what lays ahead, she travels with him through Mithra-Sha in search of The Storymaker.
Oh, the way reading this book and being back in this world felt like coming home. I received this book as an ARC after having read ATTBT as one and was so excited to dive back in! Along their journey, Jaik and Audra team up with some familiar faces from both of the previous books in the Tales of Wonder and Woe universe, including Lio, Ryker, and the crew of The Cathan, and we're introduced to some new ones as well who have played their own parts in Jaik and Audra's past. I loved getting to meet Ovaila, Audra's former headmaster at Fablehaven, and learning more about the plans the pair had made for their escape from their duties before the events of ASSIS. While fleshing out their pasts and simultaneously building towards their new future together, this book is rife with beautiful prose, heart-wrenching angst, twisting adventures, and a love so fierce between the two MCs that I just had to keep reading to ensure they received the ending they deserved.
If you haven't already, do yourself a favor and dive into this world for your next read. You won't be disappointed!
I think I highlighted so many things in this book, so much more than any other I've read. For those who have ever felt lost on their life journey, in discovering who they are and what it is that makes them that way outside of the expectations of family or obligations, this book will make you feel seen in a way that reminds you of the power of prose.
This was recommended by one of my coworkers who is a friend of the author, and I'm so glad I gave this a shot. I'm a sucker for fairytale retellings in general, but getting to see a more nuanced version of these characters in a slightly different environment gave me the warm and fuzzy nostalgic feeling that comes with reading a really good fanfic. The secret pining for Peter that Tink found in one of John's books made me so sad though
Thank you NetGalley and Raw Dog Screaming Press for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
Deirdre, our main character, finds herself unexpectedly expecting at the age of 24. Raised by a single mother and not in a serious relationship herself, she confides in her mom and she's encouraged to see where things go with the baby's father. Then seemingly out of nowhere, Harriet insists they hold the gender reveal party with her estranged family: them and only them. What happens once they arrive at the Croft family's ancestral home is beyond what anyone could possibly imagine – aside from Sonora Taylor, of course.
Errant Roots, though only a novella, is steeped in the rich lore of the Croft family to paint a picture of what it's like when one's indoctrinated beliefs go unquestioned. If we're not careful, there's a real chance for them to be influenced by our own selfish desires and turn sinister. I almost wish we could've had more, if only for a chance to learn more about the extended family members and the paths their lives had taken being outside of the honored Daylight Branch.
Thank you NetGalley and Wave Walker Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!
A Tale Told By Traitors, the second story in the Tales of Wonder and Woe universe, is nearly everything I could have hoped for in a book. With its dynamic characters, swashbuckling adventures, political intrigue, and heart-wrenching moments between found family, I found myself picking up to read more in every spare moment I had.
We're first introduced to our protagonist in A Story Spun in Scarlet, the first in the series. Lio is owner of The Secret Ingredient, a bakery in the town of Krylan near the border of her home country. We know she immigrated, but it isn't until she's captured by city guards for her hand in a disruption in town that we discover she is someone of great importance to the regime currently ruling in Amere-Del, a responsibility she had been running from most of her life. With her past finally catching up to her, she's dragged back against her will aboard a merchant vessel, starting her off on an adventure I could hardly predict from one moment to the next.
Every character is unique, and you find a reason to love almost every single one. I had a hard time deciding who was my favorite, but I do think Gydeon won out in the end. His kindhearted countenance and his proficiency at healing compared with the ferocity and cruelty meted out within the story of how he protected Siu when they'd first met, gave him a level of complexity I loved. There were so many times I feared for the two of them because I was praying they'd get their deserved ending.
Everyone has experienced hardship of some kind, and as we learn of the trials and tribulations they've experienced, we come to understand how it is these people deal with trauma and loss in their own ways. The stark contrast between how Lio and Tristah's lives diverged after they escaped is the perfect illustration of this. Although raised under the same tactics and abuse at the hands of Lucretzia, the complexity of their stories, of how they chose to move forward with one running and the other staying to fix the country they loved, was a great reminder that there is no single way to process or respond to trauma. You felt for them both, and understood why they made the choices they did, and neither one is really painted in a bad light for doing so (at least not for long).
The world is rich with culture and every place we stop along the way is distinctly different from each other. I'm excited to see what other stories are told within this universe and fully intend to go back to read the first in the series!
I went into reading this expecting that Levana's backstory would at least make me feel some sort of understanding for how she ended up the way she was, maybe even some sympathy because of the abuse she suffered at the hands of her older sister Channary, both physical with the fire incident and emotional, and because she clearly had some kind of heart because she managed to fall in love with and marry Winter's father Evret, but the more I read, the more I realized she was always kind of terrible??? Just in a very different way than her sister and her parents.
TW: Sexual assault behind the spoiler tag: Her "love" for Evret wasn't actually love like it was painted to be in Winter, it was obsession. Evret was married and in love with Solstice, his wife, when Levana began expressing her interest in him. After Solstice died giving birth to Winter, she literally tells him that she served her purpose and basically tries hitting on him RIGHT THERE IN THE HOSPITAL???? Like c'mon girl, his wife's body isn't even cold yet
I loved getting to see these vignettes of all of our characters when they were younger in Stars Above, but especially for Cinder and Thorne. Although we get some detail on how Cinder came to live in New Beijing with the Linh family, getting to see more about her origin story and the relationship (or lack thereof) developed between her and Garan in the short time that she was living with them. It makes the situation she ends up in with the awful treatment from Adri that much more heartbreaking because you see how young she was when it all transpired. With Thorne, we got the back story of the story that Cress highlights as the reason why she believes he's a hero deep down, and while it isn't entirely favorable to him and his character, he does show those early signs of being the type to step in when he sees he can do something to help that highlights his involvement in the overall series.
This was one of the books I picked up during a queer book sale that was going on for Kindle and I was thoroughly intrigued by the premise. It seemed spoopy and it was! But I wish there was more. I'd have loved to get to know more about the lore surrounding the circus and Myra's accident, about Giselle and her mom and how they came to join. There's potential for an even greater story with some more depth with this premise, but I did enjoy the twist on what was really happening. I won't go too in depth on that part, but I'd recommend giving this novella a shot if you're looking for a quick read with some supernatural elements and a sapphic romance
Then we come to the final installment of the official series in Winter, a retelling of Snow White. While we get some explanation as to why Levana is so jealous of her stepdaughter in this book, we ultimately have to read a separate short story (which I'll be reviewing after this one) to get the full picture of it. I wish we'd gotten some more information in this book, but I understand it can be difficult juggling so many moving parts and we have a rebellion brewing that takes precedence.
I loved Winter as a character. Levana being jealous of her makes sense in that she's naturally kind and beautiful, two things that Levana is not, but this first trait is illustrated in the fact that Winter refuses to use her Lunar gift to manipulate the people around her in the way that everyone else does so casually. She has a conscience and the reason behind why she doesn't use it anymore is tragic. It was such an interesting aspect to her back story, and we've all been in situations where we believed we were doing the right then only to learn later the negative impact of our actions. As a result of refusing to use her gift, she's been going mad for years and sees/hears hallucinations, but still refuses to use her gift even though it would solve the problem. Although it's selfless on the surface, I believe it's also something she views as a just punishment for what transpired. My heart broke for her multiple times through the story.
We were introduced to Jacin in the last book when he was revealed as the pilot who transported thaumaturge Sybil Mira to and from Cress's satellite, and later when he is swapped in place of Scarlet who gets kidnapped during the confrontation on the Rampion. I wanted to like him, but I think his character fell a little too flat for me. I wanted a little more depth from him, and we got some of that when he was around Winter, but ultimately he's just kind of... there. All we know about him is really in relation to his relationship with Winter and not him as a separate person. I'm usually a sucker for the bodyguard/princess dynamic and a childhood best friends to lovers, but I was left wanting more. Again, you can only do so much with the level of detail involved in the whole intergalactic war situation, so I'm willing to give it a pass overall because the story felt like a satisfying conclusion to the series for me.
If it hasn't already been made known by now to anyone who knows me, I'm a sucker for a good fairytale retelling, so I finally gave in to reading the Lunar Chronicles and I'm very glad I did. I'd go back to review the first two but that requires effort so I'm just picking up here.
In this book, we're introduced to the titular character, Cress. She's a Lunar (citizen of Luna/the moon kingdom for those who haven't read this series) who was born without the powers most of the society has, and she's been essentially used to further the goals of the queen and thaumaturges in their quest to take over earth, at first by being used for her blood in the production of the letumosis bioweapon and then as a sentry stationed in a satellite orbiting earth to surveil the world leaders and search for the lost princess. She's good with technology and a hopeless romantic, so I found myself identifying with her in many ways and with Thorne in others.
I'm also easily swayed by a rogueish character who's gregarious in nature and uses humor and sarcasm as a defense mechanism, but they have to have some sort of depth to them for me to fall head over heels. In Cress, we finally get to see that depth in Carswell Thorne and I became so much more endeared to him than I thought was possible. When he loses his vision in the fall of the satellite and is forced to trek through the Sahara with literal blind faith in someone who's basically a complete stranger, his whole world is rocked and we finally get to see a vulnerability that we hadn't seen in the two previous books. Consider me hooked.
I wanted to love this book. It had all of the elements of what I love in a fantasy, but for some reason, I couldn't get into it. I think if the chapters had been longer/we'd stayed in one POV for longer stretches of time, I might have been able to breeze through it. Unfortunately, since the two storylines of our FMCs don't really converge until you're nearly finished with book one, it felt like I was constantly having to switch which pile of information I needed to recall too frequently since the storylines were so separated.
It took me nearly a year to finish and I'm not sure if I'll be continuing with the series, but I am curious about some of the side character's arcs so if I do, it will be a while before I pick up book two.
3.75/5 stars.
I enjoyed the book in the same way I enjoyed the first one; it gives historical fiction vibes while still being a fantasy story, so it checks a lot of boxes for me. This one had the added dynamic of getting to know Roman a little more than we did in the previous book as he went through the process of relearning how he fit into the grand scheme of things. Unfortunately, I feel like his character was still way too defined by/contingent upon his relationship with Iris and not necessarily who he is on his own, so he doesn't really feel like a fully fleshed out character. I guess that's to be expected with romantasy, though.
I loved seeing the hints of Attie and Tobias early on, but I really do wish we'd gotten to see more of it if only because I have no idea when they would have had time with the events on the front to really flirt with each other. Then again I, too, would fall head over heels for Attie at the drop of a hat, so I can't blame Tobias for it.
The ending for this wasn't really satisfying to me and it's hard to really pinpoint why. I like
a happy ending, but this one didn't really feel earned. There was so much build up to the final confrontation between Iris, Attie, and Dacre that I expected more from it than what we got. It felt like it was over too quickly considering how dangerous and brutal we're told Dacre is supposed to be. It essentially was a quick chase and then Enva shows up and he gets put to sleep. I assumed he'd put up more of a fight. I also find it incredibly hard to believe Iris could easily wield a sword of all things when she has no experience with them (to our knowledge, anyway) and she had such a difficult time with the morning runs with Roman in Avalon Bluff, which we're told was only a few weeks before the events of this book. I guess technically Val ran into the sword and then she basically just dropped it onto Dacre's neck, it just felt like a weird choice of weapon for the final battle.
That being said, I enjoyed it overall. I would've loved some more worldbuilding to better understand the magic of Oath and the dynamics between the divines, but I'm also glad it's only a duology and wasn't dragged on further into a trilogy.
A lighthearted read
This book was adorable. I wasn't sure what to expect with the plot, but it reminded me (in a good way) of the fan fics I enjoyed reading when I was younger. Really loved seeing the development of Madison's relationship with Violet, too. Knowing not all of her family was terrible helped to flesh things out more instead of all of them being two dimensional.