Fantasy – Page 5 – takes two to book review

Review: Champion of Fate by Kendare Blake

October 21, 2023October 21, 2023 Anna and AlexisLeave a comment

Alexis:

Champion of Fate follows Reed, an orphan who joins an elite group of immortal warriors called the Aristene. Now, as an initiate, just one challenge stands in her way: she must shepherd her first hero to glory on the battlefield. Succeed, and Reed will take her place beside her sisters.

What I Liked:

I really enjoyed getting to know the Aristene. I loved the worldbuilding and the lore behind them, and I especially enjoyed Reed as a main character. She’s a strong female main character but has plenty of flaws to balance her out. The comradery between this group of female warriors was great, and reminded me of the Amazonian warriors of Greek mythology. In fact, a lot of the world reminded me of Greek mythology, which I’m always down for!

What I Didn’t Like As Much:

The pacing around the middle of this book was a little too slow. It took a long time for Reed to actually start her actual quest of shaping, Hestion, into a hero. There was also a romance that felt very underdeveloped.

However, I think this is a promising start to a series. The world and the Artistene have a lot to offer and explore, and I think there’s a possibility to explore the romance even further.

VERDICT: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Thanks so much to Quill Tree Books for my review copy!

Review: To Cage a God by Elizabeth May

September 22, 2023 Anna and AlexisLeave a comment

A Kindle with To Cage A God sits on a gold book cart next to a stuffed pumpkin

Alexis:

I really enjoyed To Cage a God! I loved the wintery, brutal, Russian-inspired world.

The cast of characters were definitely my favorite part. I loved how both Galina and Sera, the two main characters, are strong, but in completely different ways. Their backstories are so interesting and sad that it made me want to read a prequel! I even enjoyed the POVs that came later in the story, including a princess who is a recluse. I’m usually a 1-2 POV kind of person, so that’s saying lot from me!

I also enjoyed the two different romances (one of them is sapphic) though they didn’t come into play until the second half of the book. That being said, the slow pace in the beginning, loose plot, and the sometimes vague imagery kept it from being a 5-star book for me.

If you’re looking for a new adult romantasy with a brewing rebellion, fire and ice powers, and caged dragon gods, I recommend it!

VERDICT: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ /5

Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for my e-ARC!

Synopsis From Goodreads:

Using ancient secrets, Galina and Sera’s mother grafted gods into their bones. Bound to brutal deities and granted forbidden power no commoner has held in a millennia, the sisters have grown up to become living weapons. Raised to overthrow an empire―no matter the cost.

With their mother gone and their country on the brink of war, it falls to the sisters to take the helm of the rebellion and end the cruel reign of a royal family possessed by destructive gods. Because when the ruling alurea invade, they conquer with fire and blood. And when they clash, common folk burn.

While Sera reunites with her estranged lover turned violent rebel leader, Galina infiltrates the palace. In this world of deception and danger, her only refuge is an isolated princess, whose whip-smart tongue and sharp gaze threaten to uncover Galina’s secret. Torn between desire and duty, Galina must make a choice: work together to expose the lies of the empire―or bring it all down.

Review: Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs

September 5, 2023September 5, 2023 Anna and AlexisLeave a comment

Alexis:

Hello, hello!

It’s been a while! I did read a lot of books in August, but I mostly read romance books, and I don’t feel inclined to review romance books as much. My reviews usually end up looking something like, “This was cute! A fun read!”

I recently finished Ink Blood Sister Scribe, which was the perfect way to start off September and the almost-start of fall (it is, unfortunately, still 92 degrees outside here).

This book has magical books and a creepy library. Powerful spells and books. Magic mirrors. Mysteries galore. I loved it!

Törzs’ prose is lovely; you can really tell she’s a short story writer, because on a line level, her writing is great. I loved the tension and the juxtaposition of the grim atmosphere with the humor. I really enjoyed the cast of characters and how they all came together in the end. Plus, there’s a dog (named Sir Kiwi) and a cat!

My only real critique is that the beginning is a little slow. However, it sets up a lot of the plot and the characters in the end, and there was enough tension and questions to keep me reading. Plus, the plot twists 😯

Overall, if you like mysteries, creepy magical books, blood magic, and family secrets, then you might like this one.

VERDICT: 🖋️🖋️🖋️🖋️🖋️/5

Review: Garden of the Cursed by Katy Rose Pool

July 25, 2023July 24, 2023 Anna and Alexis1 Comment

Garden of the Cursed lays on a laptop keyboard with sunglases next to an iced matcha latte

Alexis:

If you’re looking for a fun, mysterious YA fantasy set in a gritty world, you might like Garden of the Cursed!

Synopsis:

Garden of the Cursed follows Marlow, who works as a cursebreaker in Caraza City. When her ex-friend, Adrius, asks her to help break a curse cast on him, Marlow reluctantly takes on his case. While she works to break Adrius’ curse, she begins to uncover what happened to her mother, who mysteriously disappeared a year ago, and she is drawn into a web of deadly secrets and powerful enemies.

What I Liked:

Worldbuilding

I found the word to be really interesting. The Five Families, a group of powerful and corrupt families who control spellcraft, run Caraza, which makes the city itself feel very mysterious and dangerous. The world definitely gave me Six of Crows meets City of Nightmares vibes. There’s a lot of gangs, fighting, and talk of corruption and power.

I’m also a huge fan of curses in stories, so I enjoyed learning about the magic system, which features cards, and how Marlow breaks curses.

Plot

I found the plot to be very fast-paced, fun, and mysterious. I don’t want to give anything away, but I think the different plotlines worked well together.

What I Didn’t Like As Much:

To be honest, I liked pretty much everything about this book! Yes, at times, the dialogue is a little too on the nose. But I like Marlow’s gumption. I obviously liked the world. I like that there’s a cat named Toad and commentary on social classes and power. There’s even fake dating.

The one aspect I’m not a huge fan of is Adrius’ character. He’s supposed to be charming and flirty, but I honestly thought he was just annoying. It made the romantic subplot a little lackluster for me.

VERDICT: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

If you’re looking for a YA fantasy filled with curses, gangs, plot twists, mysteries, and a lot of parties and balls, then I recommend Garden of the Cursed!

Review: Dark Water Daughter by H.M. Long

July 11, 2023 Anna and AlexisLeave a comment

A Kindle ARC copy of Dark Water Daughter lays on a desk on 2 notebooks and next to a pair of pinkish-clear glasses and a candle

Alexis:

Happy Publication Day to Dark Water Daughter!

Synopsis

Dark Water Daughter is an adult historical pirate fantasy. It follows two main characters: Mary is a Stormsinger, a woman whose voice can still hurricanes and shatter armadas. Samuel is an ex-naval officer who now works as a pirate hunter—with a unique power of his own. Both Mary and Samuel must come face to face with pirate lord Silvanus Lirr as he hunts down Mary for reasons yet unknown while also coming to terms with their pasts.

Worldbuilding

The thing I love most about this book is the worldbuilding and magic systems. At the beginning of each chapter is a tidbit from a guidebook that details an aspect of the world. I love how this feeds us information about the world without it feeling forced and without having to info dump.

As for the worldbuilding itself, we have ghistings, or spectral creatures who inhabit the ancient forests of Mary’s homeland and the figureheads of ships. I absolutely loved how unique and ghostly ghistings feel!

On top of that, we have Stormsingers, as mentioned above, but there are also people who can see into a world called the Other, and yet other people who can influence others. The world and magic is so rich and vibrant, and I loved reading about it.

Atmosphere and Characters

The atmosphere is great: think forest/sea/winter. Think Pirates of the Caribbean but darker. I love both Mary and Sam’s backstories. There’s a whole host of side characters, but they never feel flat. And there is an amazing twist in the second half that really gets the story moving and gives it another edge.

Critiques

My only main critique is that the middle of this book lags a bit, especially when Mary and Samuel set off on separate adventures—I kept waiting for their storylines to cross again! This book is also in first person perspective, and sometimes I wanted to hear more thoughts and feelings from both Mary and Samuel. (However, this is a common critique I have of adult fantasy books, so it could totally just be me who feels this way!)

Why you should read it!

If you’re looking for an adventurous and dark pirate story with a unique magic system, a complicated plot with a great twist, and plenty of forest, sea, and winter vibes, definitely give Dark Water Daughter a shot.

Thank you to Netgalley and Titan Books for providing me with an ARC for review!

VERDICT: ☠️☠️☠️☠️.5/5

Also, Happy Publication Day to A Song of Salvation by Alechia Dow! You can check out my review of this heartfelt YA space opera here.

Review: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

June 29, 2023 Anna and Alexis1 Comment

Alexis:

Look what came in from the library! And yes, I did sit down and binge-read it in two days.

I want to start out by saying that I know that Fourth Wing has been EVERYWHERE. Like, I have seen it not only on book accounts, but just all over the internet in general. And by the time I realized this might be a book I should read (especially since it’s my genre), it was sold out of bookstores. So, thank you to my local library!

Due to this book’s hype, I’m not going to include a synopsis here, so feel free to look up what this book is about if you’ve managed to miss the frenzied discussion around it.

First off, I want to start off with my criticisms of this book.

Fourth Wing is in the same vein as A Court of Thorns and Roses and The Serpent and the Wings of Night with a dash of Eragon on top, so if those are your jam, this might be for you.

This certainly isn’t a unique book, and honestly, that in itself is my main criticism—there were a lot of moments that were just too close to those of other books. I also found the plot to be extremely predictable. I can’t go into it that much without revealing spoilers, but I found that Yarros dropped too many hints about what ended up going down in the ending. The writing also does lean more YA, which honestly doesn’t bother me (this is NA people, that’s the point—adult themes but with the voice and snapiness of YA) especially because they’re in a college.

I also wish we got to see more of Violet’s dragon bonding. And I found Xaden, the love interest, to be exactly like every other love interest in the fantasy romance space and honestly not the most interesting character.

Yet, that being said, I couldn’t put this book down. It has that thrilling, adventurous feeling that’s addicting. Yarros’ writing style is easy to devour, and I appreciated the amount of action scenes in this book. There’s never a dull moment!

The Basgiath War College, aka the dragon riding college, in itself sounded super cool. I loved the brutality of both the college and the world. And I really appreciated the Ehler-Danlos syndrome rep, and I thought Yarros did a good job of exploring how it affects Violet’s training and her confidence.

This book was wholly engrossing, and I definitely think it’s a good start to the series. I’m glad we don’t have too long of a wait until the sequel arrives this fall!

VERDICT: 5⭐ reading experience

DNF: Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

June 27, 2023July 24, 2023 Anna and Alexis3 Comments

Alexis:

Whelp, I DNFed Tress of the Emerald Sea. Given all the rave reviews, this book wasn’t what I expected.

The thing that threw me off the most was the narration style. Even though Sanderson explains this in the back of the book, it wasn’t working for me (or the story, in my opinion). The narrator is a character who appears later in the book. So even though the story is in 3rd person POV from Tress’ point of view, it’s technically actually in 1st person from the narrator’s POV.

The narrator is obnoxious. He’s constantly making side remarks and comments and cracking dumb jokes. It ended up completely taking me out of the story.

It doesn’t help, however, that I feel like I barely got to know Tress as a character. The romance is one dimensional, and the characters also feel one dimensional. The pacing felt off. The spore sea was interesting (the ocean isn’t actually water, but made of fungi spores) but everything else made me put this book down.

(Also, yes, I’m aware that the book is flipped in the photo 😂)

DISCLAIMER: I haven’t read Sanderson’s Cosmere series, which is where this book is set. I know I would understand the world more if I did! However, since this book is a standalone, I am reviewing it as a standalone book.

Alexis: Last, Now, Next—June

June 20, 2023 Anna and AlexisLeave a comment

A library copy of both Yellowface and Winter's Orbit sit next to a Kindle copy of The Bone Shard War on a black bookshelf

Alexis: Last, Now, Next📚

Last: Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

If you want to read a dark satire with an unlikeable main character that delves into the craziness of both the publishing and the writing world (especially online and on Twitter), this is for you. This book was crazy, timely, and easy to fly through!

Now: Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell

I’m only about a quarter way through this one, but it’s an LBGTQ, political space opera with an arranged marriage. I’ve been getting back into space operas and sci-fi, and I like this one so far. It’s definitely a little slow-paced and heavy on the politics (as expected!), but I’m enjoying the worldbuilding and the two main characters.

Next: The Bone Shard War by Andrea Stewart

I might have already started this one! I went out of town recently for the first time in a long while, and I started reading it on my plane ride home. I loved the first two, and even though I honestly don’t remember much of what happened in the second book, I’m excited to dive back into this final installment and learn how this trilogy concludes.

Have you read any of these books, or are they on your tbr?

Review: The Last Heir to Blackwood Library by Hester Fox

May 16, 2023May 16, 2023 Anna and AlexisLeave a comment

Alexis:

The Last Heir to Blackwood Library follows Ivy, who is the last living descendant to the Blackwoods, which means she inherits an estate called Blackwood Abbey. The abbey is grand yet dusty and old, but Ivy is drawn to its mysterious library. Despite warnings from the abbey’s staff, Ivy begins to peruse the library. But with time, she learns that there is something sinister in its shelves.

The thing I most loved about this book is the atmosphere. It has all the markings of a good Gothic story: creepy house, ghosts, and a dark mystery. I also really enjoyed the setting as a whole. The story is set in the aftermath of World War I, and Fox does a great job showing how the war impacted both society and the veterans.

Of course, I love the emphasis on books, as well!

While I really enjoyed the first half, and everything it sets up, there were a couple of things I got hung up on while reading.

Ivy. While I liked her first, she was just such a naive main character that she dragged the story down with her. Despite copious amounts of warnings (and even things she sees for herself), she continues to make very bad decisions throughout the story.
The plot becomes a little convoluted in the second half of the story. The mystery also drags on a little too long.
There are some spoiler-y things that I will mention below!

Overall, I enjoyed the concept, the atmosphere, and the setting.

VERDICT: 📚📚📚/5

SPOILERS BELOW:

I’m going to elaborate a little on the plot here. The plot focuses heavily on memory and memory loss, which I like the idea of! However, as a reader, I did feel a little blindsided because we would be told that something happened, alongside Ivy, but have zero idea it happened because of her memory loss. I wish there was a way for us as the readers to have more insight as to what was happening.

This also made the romance feel lackluster to me. The hints were all there, but because we didn’t get to see Ivy fall in love, it fell a little flat to me.

Last point, and the one that bothers me the most: It was randomly thrown in at the end that Ralph just doesn’t remember who his parents are (despite him working with them everyday) because of his PTSD from the war?? This felt like a very important yet random development that was thrown in at the end just so that he could relate to Ivy’s memory loss.

Review: The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King by Carissa Broadbent

April 22, 2023April 22, 2023 Anna and AlexisLeave a comment

A paperback copy sits in a gold book cart next to the first book.

Alexis:

Yes, I did buy the sequel to The Serpent and the Wings of Night the day it came out!

Unlike the first book, The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King has dual POVs! I’m generally a fan of dual POVs, especially when it comes to romance. It follows Oraya, the main character and the adopted daughter of the vampire king, and Raihn, who she falls in love with in the first book.

I can’t say much about this book without giving anything away. However, I will say that it is a lot slower paced than the first book. I loved how action-packed the first book is. This one reminds me a lot of A Court of Mist and Fury, as it’s slower-paced in order to focus on Oraya and Raihn’s trauma and grief. It also focuses on learning to trust again, and it delves more into politics.

Overall, this one was a 4-star instead of 5-star read. It did drag in places and sometimes felt repetitive, but I still enjoyed it!

VERDICT: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5