Tag: high fantasy

Review: Furyborn and Kingsbane by Claire Legrand

Anna and AlexisLeave a comment
The spines of Furyborn and Kingsbane rest on a windowsill next to a white curtain and a candle.

Alexis:

Furyborn, and the rest of The Empirium Trilogy, has been on my tbr list for a while now, and when I found Furyborn in a used bookstore, I grabbed it!

To be honest, it took me a while to get into the worldbuilding. I had to read the first half of this book carefully in order to understand the world and the characters.

Furyborn has two timelines—1000 years apart. Two queens, the Sun Queen and the Blood Queen, are prophesied to either break or save the world. Rielle can perform all seven kinds of elemental magic, and enters a series of trials to prove that she is the Sun Queen. 1000 years later, Eliana is an assassin just trying to keep her family alive in the Undying Empire when she runs into a rebel named Simon who needs her help.

Like I said, once I got to the halfway point, I loved this book. It’s both action packed yet slow paced. The first chapter/prologue offers a glimpse of what happens in the end, and I found that it upped the tension and anticipation for me while I read. 

While I wasn’t a huge fan of Rielle’s character, I found Eliana to be interesting and flawed. And Simon was by far my favorite character; I can’t wait to learn more about him in the next book.

My one main critique is that this book was originally marketed as YA and—it’s not. It’s definitely adult, with adult themes and sex scenes. I would categorize it as New Adult, which I desperately hope will eventually be a more solidified genre. 

If you’re looking to dive into a new trilogy full of action, powerful and flawed women, angels and elemental magic, and dual timelines, then you might like this.

VERDICT: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

As for Kingsbane, where to begin!

The plot thickens. Legrand throws her characters into everything imaginable; anything bad that can happen does.

It’s hard to say anything else about this book without giving major spoilers, but I both hated and loved reading it, and the ending almost had me throwing it against the wall.

Despite feeling terrible for all of the characters, this book was just so intense and dark, and I loved it. That being said, I’m not a fan of how Legrand writes her sex scenes, and I think there were several in here that were unnecessary. 

But Kingsbane stuck with me, and I’m still waiting to read the third and final book in the trilogy to see what happens!

VERDICT: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5

Alexis’ August Wrap Up

Anna and AlexisLeave a comment
A kindle sits on top of a paperback copy of Raybearer on a desk. A lit white pumpkin candle sits behind it, next to a cup of pens and office supplies and a pink water bottle.

Alexis:

Well, I read seven books in August! This has definitely been a good reading year for me; I actually surpassed my Goodreads goal of reading 50 books this year in August, too.

I re-read two books this month: A Court of Mist and Fury and Raybearer. Both were still 5-star reads, and I’m happy that I bought copies of both of them to add to my personal library.

I read one 4-star book: The Crown of Gilded Bones. While I haven’t given star ratings to the other books in the Blood and Ash series, I enjoyed the additional worldbuilding and Poppy’s character arc, and it definitely felt like a 4-star read.

I read two 3-star books: Realm Breaker, Tweet Cute, and Last Summer at the Golden Hotel.

Realm Breaker is a high fantasy read. I found the prologue to be confusing, and I had a hard time getting into the beginning of the story. While I loved some of the characters, there were a lot of POVs, the world and worldbuilding felt kind of generic, and I just wasn’t blown away when I finished reading it.

I actually read Tweet Cute on my Kindle while traveling. It’s a YA rom-com, which definitely isn’t my usual genre. This was a fun read, with a LOT of cheese puns. It bounces back and forth between the POVs of Pepper and Jack. I enjoyed reading about Pepper’s love of baking, and I enjoyed reading about an app that Jack created called Weazel. However, the main plotline of this book is a Twitter feud, and I found that it got a little annoying and boring for me. But if you like fluffy reads and drama, then I think you might enjoy it.

I also read Last Summer at the Golden Hotel while traveling. It mentioned Dirty Dancing, one of my favorite movies, so I had to pick it up! Turns out the only similarity is the setting. This book is wholly about family drama. Two different families own the Golden Hotel, and we get to see from a ton of different POVs (which usually isn’t my thing; it keeps me from connecting to the characters, and this was no different). While this book was definitely interesting, I think it dragged on a little too long, and had some melodramatic parts. It also focused a lot on the difference between generations, which I also wasn’t a huge fan of. (Maybe I need to stick to my favorite genre from now on!)

And finally, I read one 2-star book: Ariadne. I already wrote a review on it, so you can check that out here!

Review: The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski

Anna and AlexisLeave a comment

Alexis:

I’m glad I read The Last Wish, but since it was originally published in 1993, it definitely has that old high fantasy feel to it.

This is the original series that delves into the world of the Witcher called Geralt of Rivia—before the popular video games, and before the TV show adaptation.

I’m not sure if it was just the translation or not, but this book is very heavy on the “tell” without a lot of “show.” Whenever there was imagery, I really enjoyed it, but this book is honestly 90% dialogue. I normally love dialogue, but it was a little too much, to the point that sometimes actions would only happen in dialogue. 

I also found it interesting that Geralt is much more vocal in the book than in the show. 

However, I was pleasantly surprised that the book is non-linear, just like the show. Suddenly, the show’s structure, which seemed all over the place at first, makes more sense. 

This first book only delves into Geralt’s storyline, with one main scene with the sorceress Yennefer, and several of the adventures with the troubadour Dandelion, who is named Jaskier in the show. The main difference in the worlds is, like I said earlier, that the book feels very “old” high fantasy. What I mean by that it’s a medieval world, with elves, and dwarves and monsters, and pubs with beer, but also sexism.

The first section of the book opens with a sex scene. Several of the characters (though most are monsters, but still) talk very casually about being rapists, and unnecessary comments about women were made several times throughout the book.

I think the show feels more contemporary (and it should, since it was created decades after the book was written). Many of the characters in the book hold unsavory views of women, especially Dandelion, who comes off as a rowdy, rather than the foolish but lovable Jaskier. While the TV show still has sexist characters, both Geralt and Jaskier are respectable characters.

Overall, I’m glad I was able to see where this popular fandom originated. But I’m probably going to stick to only watching the show, which is rare for me when it comes to books!

VERDICT: ⭐⭐⭐/5