Flamecaster by Cinda Williams Chima

Flamecaster by Cinda Williams Chima
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm always a bit hesitant to read a spinoff series in case it somehow lessens the original. I enjoyed this one thoroughly, though. It moves to the next generation after the The Demon King series, and I was sad to see the turmoil and grief that haunted the kingdoms, but I also felt like it was a totally new story.

This series is written a little differently, as companion novels with a single, overarching story. I found it really helpful to know in advance that there are different main characters in the first three books. As I was reading, I also found that the story sometimes backtracks to cover the same period of time with a different character.

So just know that the story is told in a more parallel than linear fashion, and be prepared to be introduced to new characters when you're dying to know what's going to happen to the old ones. Some of the main characters do make appearances in books where they're not the focus, and the final book does pick back up with all of them so you're not left hanging. And like I said, I enjoyed the whole thing.

Siege & Storm - Leigh Bardugo

Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have this flaw, and know I'm not alone because there are plenty of us suckers who love the bad boys. I really, really want the intriguing bad guy to turn out not so bad. To have the option to be evil, but have a noble core.

There's something wrong with me when a bad guy perpetrates unforgivable wrongs, and yet I can overlook it and continue to hope he will turn around and prove to be redeemable. And continue to wish the actual, already-noble good guy out of the way.

I don't learn... I'm still hoping for book 3...

Walk on Earth a Stranger - Rae Carson

Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Walk on Earth a Stranger is excellent YA historical fiction with a bare dusting of fantasy and a hint of potential future romance.

Carson really brought the wagon trail alive. Actually, so much alive that I am only rating it 3 stars even though it's really well done. There was too much death, too much grim and gritty detail, too much reality about the attitudes of the time as well as the physical hardships. Too much for me, anyway. I'm thankful it's YA, and there are some even darker things it didn't explore.

But I care about the characters who survived, so I'm tempted to read the next book. It might be worth suffering through more of this vivid reality to see what happens to them.

Bewitching Season - Marissa Doyle

Bewitching Season by Marissa Doyle
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Usually the London season is a backdrop, not the entire plot of a book. This may be the most boring Regency I've ever read, and that's with a kidnapping, secret magic, and a plot to take the throne. So much potential unrealized.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Harry Potter is Harry Potter, but I struggled to like this final book for several reasons. They're the same things that bothered me the first time I read it, but the final confrontation and brilliant revelations and reversals of certain characters wiped them from my memory back then. Now the second time, I find that these reasons linger.

1. So many deaths. Right from the beginning, starting with (view spoiler)[Hedwig (hide spoiler)]. Somehow that really got to me this time!
2. So much speculation about Dumbledore and his true motivations and shortcomings. I do like how this was resolved in the end, but didn't enjoy the maligning of Dumbledore, or Harry's doubts about him.
3. So much time spent with only Harry, Ron and Hermione running around the forest. I miss their interactions with other characters and the wizarding world.
4. No Hogwarts until 75%. This is kind of the same as the previous point except that Hogwarts simply deserves its own line. I've realized that the setting is a huge part of my enjoyment of this series, and I was impatient with the book until the story returned there. I missed all of the extra characters - teachers, ghosts, portrait-dwellers, fellow students - as well as the magic of the castle itself.

I still love the series. There's nothing else like it. It's darker than I would have liked, even knowing where it was going the second time around, but like I said, I just wanted to live at Hogwarts and not watch the whole world being destroyed, along with so many people that Harry could possibly consider family.

The ending is really great. It's one of those endings that is actually epic, and some of the minor characters have great moments in the battle at Hogwarts. But I found this finale bitter enough that I might avoid any future re-reads and stick to the earlier books for the nostalgia of simply hanging out at Hogwarts.

A Breath of Frost - Alyxandra Harvey

A Breath of Frost by Alyxandra Harvey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I love Fantasy of Manners, that sub-genre that blends Jane Austen-ish social settings and romance with a magical version of the 19th Century. A Breath of Frost introduces a Regency world with a magical society hidden beneath the surface of all the polite society balls and soirees. Three cousins, debutantes, discover that magic is part of their heritage, and begin to learn about this world. And it's kind of strange.

Familiars that jump out of their witch's chests, gargoyles that animate to protect (or attack), portals to the underworld, earthy magic made with rowan berries, protections of salt and iron, stags in the forest, shifters, blood magic and evil warlocks back from the dead. This is not your average magical London. Or YA novel.

It did take me a while to get used to the strange assortment of magic and to the rules of the hidden society. But once I got into it and understood how things worked, I was intrigued, and I enjoyed the next book more.

Unfortunately, the publisher decided not to publish the third book, but the author kindly wrote a novella to bring closure to the series so don't let that stop you. There aren't enough of these types of stories out there, so if you enjoy Fantasy of Manners like I do, at least give this a try.

In A House Made of Bones and Teeth - Alyxandra Harvey

In A House Made of Bones and Teeth by Alyxandra Harvey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm so thankful to the author for wrapping up the Lovegrove Legacy. Since the publisher dropped the series, this novella resolves the cliffhanger at the end of book 2 very nicely. It really reads like an extended ending for that one, the action and intensity continuing without pause. I'm mostly satisfied, but I wish there were more!

I find myself wondering what we're missing since we didn't get a full length novel. What was Penelope's story going to be? There are a couple of characters that have slightly loose ends, too, even though the main story is all there.

I do also wish there were at least one more chapter in the aftermath of the battle. I needed to see everyone dealing with what happened and finding each other. In the turn of a page, it went from intense and desperate end of the world to the distance of an epilogue showing years in the future. My emotions are still trying to find their way back down!

I'm really bummed that the publisher didn't give us a chance to get a full book 3, but since the main story is wrapped up in this novella, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the series to anyone who enjoys Regency-era novels tossed with Fantasy. This Fantasy is full of strange magic of salt, earth and metal, and is centered on three fierce cousins, debutantes who - you guessed it - defy convention, but with a unique set of talents that made it seem fresh. I wish I could read more.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is my second time reading The Goblet of Fire, and I still (mostly) loved it. The Weasleys' house, the Quidditch World Cup, being at Hogwarts, the tournament, and seeing Harry actually struggle to learn charms and curses - these were all so fun. I love this world, and loved seeing new parts of it.

BUT, it's getting dark. I found myself dreading certain parts, knowing what was coming. And with prior knowledge, events seemed even more sinister than before. (view spoiler)[I enjoyed Mad-Eye Moody the first time around, but this time I saw his actions in a completely different light. (hide spoiler)] People are betraying and cursing each other left and right, and even good wizards and witches are just generally being ugly people. Not to mention the killings. This is not a children's adventure story anymore.

Honestly, this is where I begin to miss the wonder and charm of the wizarding world that balanced the dark in the first three books. Now everything starts to become tainted by realistic meanness, adolescent angst, real violence and death. So sad. But of course, there's still so much that's wonderful and new too. I love the story, but hate some of the things that happen in it. I'm so conflicted!

Calamity - Brandon Sanderson

Calamity by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was another entertaining, fast-paced read. I enjoyed it all the way, and had a hard time putting it down. I liked the concept for the new city, and am still amazed at Sanderson's imagination.

Warning: unmarked spoilers for previous books after this point.

On finishing, I do wish there had been more character interaction. There's a lot of fighting and reacting, and not enough of the team putting their strengths together to solve it. I also wish that dealing with Prof had taken less time.

I'm also not sure about how it wrapped up. Did it fulfill its promise? Am I satisfied? I'm still mulling that one over.

Some of the cleverness was sacrificed for action scenes, the same kind that I grow bored of when superheroes throw each other around endlessly in movies. What I enjoyed so much about Firefight was the mystery of the weaknesses and how to use them strategically. There wasn't as much of that here, and not as satisfying a 'clicking together' when all was revealed. [Actually, not all was really revealed - so many questions left! (hide spoiler)]

I guess this is where the 'young adult' aspect of the series really came through. The complexity of the ending was a bit lacking. I do think I wanted something more once I turned the final page. I expect a bit more payoff from Sanderson, honestly. I probably wouldn't hold anyone else to such a high standard and am being stingy.

That said, this was still very entertaining. I loved this series much more than I expected to when I heard what it was about. I recommend it!

The Burning Sky - Sherry Thomas

The Burning Sky by Sherry Thomas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the kind of Fantasy that I can just devour in a day. It's light, adventurous, romantic, and hard to put down. Soooo not epic. It's not that I don't enjoy Epic Fantasy, too. It's just such an investment, and you have to have patience, and often the characters are just a little too remote. Usually I have to take breaks from the Epics, both during and between installments.

Sometimes I just want to jump in and enjoy. I want a couple of characters that I can like, with problems that are a bit smaller so I can just enjoy hanging out in the world and getting to know them. It doesn't have to be impeccably detailed. It can have elements of what some people might call tropes, because - let's be honest - the tropes are the core of what I love about Fantasy in the first place. So although I do appreciate the grand, epic tales, I have to admit that I like this kind of Fantasy better. This is the kind I save up for days when I have plenty of time to read because the hours are going to fly by.

So, I really enjoyed reading The Burning Sky. It has fun magic (and plenty of it), romance (but not overwhelming), 19th Century London set alongside mage realms, British boarding school experience, a girl disguised as a boy, and magical training in a virtual reality type world. Oh yes, there are also wyverns! And just to keep it from being boring, there's overarching danger and a suitably detestable villain or two. But it's the development and interaction of the two main characters that really carries the story. Pure fun. I can't wait to see what comes next.

A Lady of Resources - Shelley Adina

A Lady of Resources by Shelley Adina
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I liked A Lady of Resources, but I struggled a bit with Claire not being the main character anymore. Sure, I liked the Mopsies as side characters, but it was a lot different with them being center stage. Even though they had potential to be interesting as former thieves, they really weren't. Lizzie, the main POV in this one, was too focused on wanting to pretend to be a lady to allow time for antics. She was also kind of a brat. I think by the end I warmed up to the change, and to Lizzie, but it's a much more reluctant feeling than with the original story arc, which I simply inhaled.

Due to the passing of time and shift in POV, there was a lot of time spent on re-setting the stage. I found it a bit slow (again, unlike the original books). There was also less Steampunk engineering and less adventure, and I missed both. But since the action picked up towards the end, now I do find myself wanting to read the sequel. I'm hopeful that it will keep the pace now that we've been reintroduced to the characters.

So, I liked it well enough. It was a fast read, at least mildly entertaining most of the time. I'm just not as entranced as I was with the original series.

Rivals in the City - Y.S. Lee

Rivals in the City by Y.S. Lee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was another enjoyable installment in the series, bringing back some loose ends from the mystery in the first book, and answering some lingering questions about the fate of Mary's father. I'm sad that this is the last one in the series. Why can't we have more of Easton & Quinn? The Agency can still be there, right? I love the dynamic between James and Mary, and would love to read more about their partnership as it evolves.

Darker Still - Leanna Renee Hieber

Darker Still by Leanna Renee Hieber

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This started out kind of insta-lovish and cheesy, but the puzzle of the curse and the haunted painting were really interesting and I ended up liking it mainly because of that and the Gothic atmosphere. I was happy enough with the ending that I'm probably not going to pick up the rest of the series, though. I don't really need to see where else this goes.

I do enjoy this author's writing. Everything I've read by her has had great atmosphere. But I liked her adult series better, and I think I'll wait until she goes back to writing for adults again. This was too YA for me.

Cinder - Marissa Meyer

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Wow, Cinder might just be the most original fairytale retelling I’ve ever read. Translated into a dystopic future, with Cinder a cyborg mechanic, I am amazed at how well the tale was weaved into the story of a future world riddled with plague, prejudice against cyborgs, and earth-wide threat from a Lunar power. Getting all that to work with a Cinderella theme that includes all of the important bits - hats off to Meyer’s imagination. I’m impressed.

I do have to temper my ravings due to the bleakness that pervades the book. It’s something that often comes with a Dystopia, and it’s appropriate, but I still can’t ever bring myself to completely ‘enjoy’ something dark and hopeless feeling. So the rating is for my level of enjoyment while experiencing the book - and doesn’t match up to my brain’s appreciation of the cleverness and interest in the story that I still have in spite of the bleakness. That’s saying a lot. So is the fact that I want to move onto the sequel right away… I’m so glad I waited a while to pick this one up because of the cliffhanger ending. I only hope the sequel is as good.

Brightly Woven - Alexandra Bracken

Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Brightly Woven was an OK YA fantasy. Too light on the world-building, and unfortunately heavy on the teen attitudes and fit-throwing. There was some interesting magic, and hints at an interesting world, but it was vague in many places. There were times when I thought something exciting was going to happen (like seeing a dragon defeated!) but then it was barely referred to. Instead we got Sydelle sewing, or waiting in a cabin, or being safely placed on a hill during all the interesting action.

I could tell it was a debut novel. So many aspects could have been filled out more. Also, this is currently a standalone novel but feels somewhat unfinished. I'm not sure if it's just that gaps were left, but I could see there being a sequel someday.

I also found the character development - and thus the romance - to be kind of spotty and the shifts in opinion awkward. Sydelle was a judgmental brat for a long time. She took reluctance to leave home past the point of believability. I felt like she was angry for no good reason, and blindly hated North for taking her away when he actually rescued her. Then I missed the part where she changed, because suddenly she wasn't that person anymore.

All that said, once I managed to get into the flow of it, the story did keep my interest. Otherwise it would have been 2 stars.

Review: Secondhand Charm

Secondhand Charm by Julie Berry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Secondhand Charm is quite a unique fantasy with a fairytale sort of feel. It’s not a retelling, which I enjoyed because it was fresh and new, but still with the feeling of a fairytale. I read it all in one sitting, and was pleasantly surprised by the turns it took. There’s a bit of romance, very mild, and not the focus of the story. I found it a very enjoyable YA fantasy that stands alone and doesn’t feel teenagery. I’d recommend it to any fairytale fantasy reader. Well, unless you really hate snakes.



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Review: The Hawk and His Boy

The Hawk and His Boy by Christopher Bunn

My rating: 0 of 5 stars



About 75 pages in, I decided to call this one good. It's just not holding my attention, and jumps all over the place to all these different characters, none of whom I care about yet. I keep waiting for it to actually get back to Jute, who at least was interesting in the beginning, but he's hardly made an appearance since. I know the bad guy better than him already.

Like another reviewer said, every chapter felt like another part of the introduction. It may have been my mood, but I didn't feel like waiting around for 300 pages of introduction to get to book 2, where maybe the adventure would begin.

Anyway, I found myself skimming and decided not to waste my time on it anymore. Then I looked and realized it was one of my free books, so I don't feel so bad dropping it.



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Review: Emerald Green

Emerald Green by Kerstin Gier

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This was another fast and entertaining read, but Gwen kept crying all the time, and the ending kind of fizzled out. On top of that, the romance is hard to swallow - undying love in less than a week! And the entire trilogy takes place in only two weeks. I tried to ignore these things, but they would crop up and distract me. Not bad for YA, but it definitely feels like YA.



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Review: Ruby Red

Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Ruby Red is the first in a YA time travel trilogy that is really more of a contemporary paranormal set in London, and otherwise similar to other YA paranormals in tone (high school, parents/family, mean girl, quirky best friend, etc.).

It's also very short - only 200 pages - so it really just felt like a setup. I was frustrated at the end, realizing I'd just read an introduction and would have to read the next book to get anywhere with it. But I decided to continue on since this one was so short and fast to read, and it didn't drag even though not much has happened yet.

It is definitely YA-ish in tone and depth. It's not very sophisticated, and has a lot to do with mean family members and other stuck up people (ones I'm seriously hoping get what's coming to them), and Gwyneth trying to find out the truth about a world that has been hidden from her for her whole life. Now she's suddenly part of it but they are still not telling her anything.

The time travel parts are regrettably few and short, although the concept is interesting (they talk about it quite a bit, but don't actually do it much). I hope there will be more time spent in other time periods in the next book.

There's a bit of romance, too, but it came out of nowhere, so I wasn't that convinced. I think it probably should have waited until later in the series but they had to make something happen in the first book. Oh well. At least it was a fast read, and kept me somewhat entertained for an evening. My hopes are all on book two for some real development in all areas.



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Review: Poison Princess

 

Poison Princess by Kresley Cole
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Poison Princess is the first of a trilogy (update - the series ended up being many more books than three), with the last book coming out in January. It starts out with every YA Paranormal cliche in the book. 

Evie is a popular cheerleader with a football player boyfriend, trying to decide if she should sleep with him or lose him (the romance is definitely more on the mature end). She has a female best friend that she texts while watching their favorite tv show, and an overprotective mother. Enter mysterious bad boy on a motorbike who ends up being her reluctant partner in history, and the stage is set! 

Thankfully it doesn't continue this way. The paranormal aspect is that Evie has terrifying visions and has spent the summer in an institution being brainwashed and drugged out of them. She's trying to get back to her normal life, but now that she's home, the visions are getting worse. And, intriguingly, growing things seem to respond to her. 

 If you're about to turn away from this book based on the high school romance description, stop for a minute. The first hundred pages show this familiar scene, but this is not just a Paranormal Romance, it's a Dystopia. Everything changes in a flash. The beginning is there to show you what is lost when the apocalypse hits. The rest of the book is dark, violent, and full of confusion, desperation, and death. And yes, romance as well. 

 After the apocalypse, Evie remains soft and naive, and frustrating at times. She still fights the visions and doesn't want to learn what they show her. She can't take care of herself and doesn't really try to learn. However, she does start to change by the end. Romance is a big part of it, but although physical attraction is there from the start, it's more about the changing perceptions of two very different people, which I liked. And there is more to the story than that. Evie is trying to figure out what she is and what role she's supposed to play. It's clear from her visions that she has a role because of powers she doesn't understand, and that there are others like her out there, the Arcana. 

It's the search for answers and the dangers of the new world that drive the plot. I think if you can get through the highschool-ish start, this is a really good intro novel. It kept me reading until late at night. The idea of the Arcana is interesting, and Evie begins to grow a spine towards the end, finally exploring the strength of her powers. I'm looking forward to seeing what she becomes - hopefully a force to be reckoned with. It was just starting to really get going at the end, with enough of those answers and a nice cliffhanger to make me want to pick up the next book. My hope is that book 2 keeps ramping up the tension and action. We'll see what happens.

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