book review

Mini Review Friday

~ Amanda @ Literary Weaponry ~ 2 Comments

For the last two weeks I have had a difficult time concentrating on reading. Every time I opened a book I thought I was sure to enjoy I just ended up slamming it back down in frustration. It wasn’t the book’s fault and I knew it. This week, in an effort to combat my reading slump, I downloaded a few short, free e-books. They certainly aren’t of my usual genres but I had try to overcome my predicament. Happily, it worked, and I’m currently working my way through Golden Son with delight. In the meantime, I bring you my week of sloppy, free romance mini reviews. That’s right. I read romance this week. Not my proudest moment but it is what it is. So, please join me in chuckling at myself on this Mini Review Friday.

 

Her Mad Hatter by Marie Hall

What “romance” did I find myself chuckling at this week? Why, the Mad Hatter’s love story of course. I’ve always had a thing for that crazy fellow and his assorted collection of hat’s. Who doesn’t? What I didn’t ever expect was for him to have a love interest. Of all of the times I’ve thought of the Hatter I can’t say that I ever imagined him mooning over anyone and knocking boots.

His story begins with, of course, a fairy god mother whose job it is to find love for the more eccentric fellows in the lovely enchanted lands. Who does she find for Hatter? Why, Alice! Who else? Not the traditional Alice from the old stories, oh no. Apparently original Alice was a bit of a bitch and used him. This is original Alice’s great grand daughter and she owns a cupcakery in Hawaii. The fairy god mother informs Hatter she has found him a match then she swoops in and brings Alice back to meet the more than a little insane Hatter.

They are both resistant to what is essentially an arranged relationship that starts with a really weird three day blind date. However, if Hatter doesn’t find love he will die, it seems, and the god mother informed Alice of this so she gives it her best shot. The Hatter, who still remembers her great grandmother spurning him, doesn’t give it much of a shot at all. They do have a few heated love scenes but I have to say that reading about Hatter knocking boots was a little awkward. I kept imagining him randomly spitting out his unique laughter or wearing his flamboyant hats while doing the deed. Definitely awkward. I may have laughed but that was rather my point in reading this.

Alice returns to Hawaii after the relationship outwardly fails and falls immediately violently ill and nearly dies of very aggressive cancer. The god mother plucks Alice back to Hatter and her cancer magically disappears and the two have their happily ever after. Not the most entertaining ending but an ending all the same.

Hatter

 

Gerard’s Beauty by Marie Hall

This story is another one stemming from fairy tale characters. It took me a bit to figure out who Gerard was, though. I didn’t recall any fairy tale princes named Gerard. Low and behold it was because Gerard is really Gaston. That’s right, Gaston from Beauty in the Beast. It seems that he was only painted as a horrible character because of some vendetta with a different fairy god mother. She was agitated with him over some slight or another so when the story was written about Belle she presented him as an evil doer.

Gerard, while not being a traditionally evil character, is a womanizer and drunk and has found himself in a bit of trouble after being accused of having relations with the daughter of some angry king. In comes the good fairy god mother to rescue him. (insert snarky comment about him having to be rescued by a woman because he couldn’t keep it in his pants)

She plunks Gerard down on our own boring non magical Earth and tells him his true love who can save him works at the library and if he doesn’t win her love he will be executed upon his return to their magical kingdom. No pressure.

The lovely librarian he is to woo is named Betty and, dully, is perfectly happy to accept his advances. Betty is boring. The two have a month to do the whole happily ever after game or Gerard will be killed. Funnily, the two can’t do the horizontal tango as part of Gerard’s sentence was to be made, well, flaccid for the month.

To cut the dull dull dullness short, our boring good girl Betty does fall in love with Gerard and ends up saving him from his impending execution. I cannot begin to count the times I rolled my eyes at her. Naive, sweet, and silly. Couldn’t deal with her. Anyway, they got their happily ever after and can be boring together for all eternity.

KingdomSeries

 

I also read Silver Storm by Cynthia Wright but can’t bring myself to find anything interesting to say about that one. Girl meets pirate. Falls in love. Pirate is a womanizer. Girl’s hometown, which is oddly somewhere I have lived and loved (New London, Connecticut), is burned to the ground by the British during the Revolutionary War. Girl and pirate do the dirty, she ends up pregnant, they get married, the end. It probably wasn’t actually that bad but I am cynical and have a very non-romantic heart so I didn’t find much entertainment in the story.

Despite these books not being up my proverbial alley they did pull me out of the reading slump that had been plaguing me. Next week I’ll have a review of Golden Son by Pierce Brown for you all! Thanks for reading and have, as always, a beautiful day.

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller – DNF

~ Amanda @ Literary Weaponry ~ 9 Comments

11250317

 

This is going to be the first book I’ve taken the time to write about that I did not finish. Usually when I DNF a book I just pop onto Goodreads, leave a pithy comment, and go on my way. This one, I felt, deserved a little more attention. The Song of Achilles is currently sitting at a 4.26 rating on Goodreads and nearly every review I read was over the moon about this book. I figured it would be a slam dunk. Historical fiction? Love it. Greek? One of my favorite eras. Achilles? One of the most bad ass warriors in antiquity. Why wouldn’t I love this book? Let me explain…

This book isn’t a story about Achilles’ prowess on the battlefield. It is, in fact, not even told form his perspective. How are you going to title a book “Achilles” and then not tell the story from his POV? Instead we are introduced to the character Patroclus. Patroclus is the son of a wealthy ruler and his mentally unstable wife. His father has always been displeased with Patroclus because while other noble sons are strong, fast, and impressive Patrcolus is small, quiet, and (the father suspects) a bit slow. In my opinion he also had all the personality of a dead fish.

After Patroclus accidentally kills another boy he is forced into exile by his father. He finds himself at the palace of another ruler. I can’t remember his name and can’t be bothered to jog downstairs to grab the book to find it. This fellow collects the exiled children and trains them as warriors for his army. There, Patroclus meets Achilles who is the ruler’s son.

Achilles is admired by all the cast off children who clamor for his attention or praise. Achilles, however, gives his attention to Patroclus, the boy who is obviously terrible in combat training and doesn’t talk to anyone. Achilles chooses to make Patroclus his companion. Patroclus now instead of training with the other kids spends his time going to lessons with Achilles and accompanying him wherever he goes.

It is evident early on in their friendship that there are underlying romantic feelings. Once that point is made evident, that is all the story really focuses on for chapter after chapter. The Song of Achilles is not a story about a magnificent warrior. It is about two young people who fall in love and the trials and tribulations that can come from that. Maybe I should have read the other reviews a little more closely before picking this one up. I don’t like love stories. Had I been aware that this was a love story I would not have read it.

Now, I want to make clear that I do not give a donkey’s behind that the romantic aspect of this story is of a homosexual nature. I don’t care. I just wanted to make it perfectly clear that the reason I dislike this book was because of the story itself, not because of the nature of the romantic relationship. It is ridiculous that I have to bring this up but I will not have someone jumping down my throat about LGBT acceptance. Achilles could have fallen for a woman and the story would have been equally dull. Or he could have been into a perverted dendrophilia or have sexual thoughts about sheep. It still would have been dull. The nature of the sexual relationship of the story is not what made it bad for me. Are we absolutely clear? Good. Moving on.

Achilles spends years in training to be the best warrior that has ever lived. We don’t get to read about his training, mostly get told that he is doing it. For this to be a story with Achilles you know that Troy must become involved at some point. So, after 3/4 of the book where nothing worth noting happens, Achilles and Patroclus find themselves along the beaches outside the city of Troy. A massive army of Greeks has come to reclaim Helen and return her to her husband. Once more we are told that Achilles goes off to battle but we don’t get to see anything of it. He comes back to his tent and to Patroclus covered in blood but once more the focus of the story is their relationship, not Achilles deeds.

This is where I threw in the towel. Maybe the rest of the story is wonderful and exciting and everything I hoped it would be. I’m not going to be finding out. You know when you start watching a movie or TV series and most of it is boring and monotonous? You don’t continue watching it, do you? That is how I felt about this book. It was monotonous. The ratings for this story are mostly all positive and that is wonderful. I love that a book that features a healthy LGBT relationship is so accepted and appreciated. My problem, I think, is that I just don’t like a love story.

“I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world.”

 

 

Victoria by Daisy Goodwin

~ Amanda @ Literary Weaponry ~ 6 Comments

Victoria

 

Sometimes I sit down to write these reviews and just don’t know where to start. I’ve been staring at this screen for several minutes now wondering, “Now, where do I begin?” Always best to start at the beginning, I suppose. I didn’t intend to read this book. I hadn’t read any opinions about it on Goodreads or, to be honest, had not ever even seen it before. This book was chosen completely at random. I was walking into the library with my little girl and snagged a book haphazardly from a display near the entrance to amuse myself while she did her thing. I’m so glad that my hand landed on this one.

“I am referred to as Alexandrina Victoria. But I do not like the name Alexandrina. From now on I wish to be called Victoria.”

Our story begins with a young Alexandrina, the heir to the English throne. She is hardly more than a child and is already keenly aware that when the current king dies she shall ascend to the throne. Her mother, a rather self serving German duchess, and her co-conspirator Conroy believe that upon the king’s imminent death they will be the power behind the throne and control Alexandrina Victoria’s every move. However, the young Victoria has far too much spirit to ever allow that to happen.

I’m mildly ashamed to admit that when I started this book I knew very, very little about Queen Victoria. Other than knowing she was an English monarch, about the only other exposure I had had to her was a portrayal of her in Doctor Who that was mostly unflattering.  I know, I know, horrible of me. As a lover of history I should have had more knowledge of her. Somehow the queen had never been a blip on my radar, though. I will be amending that.

From the moment Victoria took the throne she began as she meant to go on. She dropped her first name of Alexandrina, which she disliked, for the uncommon Victoria. She also promptly created distance between herself and her mother. Victoria knew that the duchess and Conroy intended to rule her and she would not have it. She was young, only eighteen, when she took the crown and was well aware that people thought her too young and inexperienced to rule effectively. The Queen had every intention of proving them wrong.

I have to applaud the nerve Victoria displayed throughout the book. She knew her own mind and was more than willing to push her agenda. The Queen seemed fearless. During the course of this story, once the monarch had made up her mind there was no turning back. Sure, she was wrong occasionally but she had no qualm about making strong decisions.

One such decision she weighed heavily was taking a husband. The young queen had become enamored with her first Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne. Though he was years older than her she still took a liking to him. He had kindly and gently guided her at the beginning of her reign. Victoria had not been properly taught all the ways of the English court and government and Melbourne was there to help her through the worst of it. She even went as far as to propose to him though he, as politely as he could, declined.

There were no wars and battles in this book. No obvious and flashy entertainment. Instead it was a story of the Queen’s everyday life and her struggles to adjust to her role up until her betrothal to Prince Albert. We witness her coronation, her opening of poor houses for her people, and her giddy joy while playing with her dog or enjoying a ball. It is the life of the woman behind the throne.

Despite the lack of flashy entertainment this book pulled me in. It was so easy to get lost in the budding world of Victorian England. All of the characters were well written and had purpose and the story was easy to follow. There were certainly a few points where I wanted to knock a character’s head for poor decisions but even those parts were amusing. Victoria had sparkle and glint, drama and intrigue. It was a thoroughly enjoyable read and I’m very glad that it was the closest book to me on my way into the library that day.

“I know that I am young, but I am ready for the great responsibility that lies before me.”  

The Haunting of Ashburn House by Darcy Coates

~ Amanda @ Literary Weaponry ~ 3 Comments

TheHauntingOfAshburnHouse

I’ll admit it, horror is not often my genre. In the last year I’ve read three horror/thriller books including this one. Just three. Why? I like to sleep at night. Something about this book pulled at me, though. I ran across it while browsing Goodreads a few months ago and it kept popping up in the back of my mind. In the last couple of weeks I’ve tried to pick up a dozen other books and just couldn’t get into them. My mind was begging to read this one. I finally gave in and I must say that this book is different from most of the others I have read of the same genre.

The story begins with Adrienne and her fluffy, slightly overweight cat Wolfgang. An elderly relative of Adrienne’s had recently passed away and she has been left her great-aunt Edith’s property including her home, Ashburn House. Addy doesn’t remember having a great aunt or any relatives at all, for that matter. Sadly though, she is down on her luck and being left a furnished, paid off house is a windfall. Using the last of her cash, she takes a cab to the house she is determined to make into a home without ever seeing it or the town that it is a part of. Desperation and potential homelessness can make you do some silly things.

The house is everything you’d expect out of a setting for a horror story. Set back into the woods, old, spotty electricity, and no phone line.

Alright folks, moment of confession here. I’m honestly having trouble writing this. My desk is against a wall with a stairwell behind me and I keep spinning my chair around expecting something creepy and horrible to be behind me or some nightmare creature to be hanging down from the skylight. I have given myself such a bad case of the willies. It’s terrible. I’m such a wuss. Moving on…

As Addy and Wolf settle into the old Ashburn house they start to notice some strange things about the place. First, it has absolutely no mirrors anywhere on the property. Where a mirror would normally hang there are cryptic messages carved into the walls warning against them. She finds further messages carved into the dining table and door to the attic.

LIGHT THE CANDLE
YOUR FAMILY
IS STILL
 DEAD

Wanting to find out more about the mysterious Edith and the people that once lived in the house, Addy discretely asks questions to the people in town. An older fellow, whose father was once the local police chief, tells Addy the story of Edith and her family. In the early 1900s young Edith and her mother, father, aunt, and uncle all resided at Ashburn. They were a very well off family and often went into town. After the locals hadn’t seen or heard from the family in a few days some of them went out to the house to investigate. There they found a blood bath. The family, save Edith, had been horrifically slaughtered. According to the tale, their blood painted the walls and pieces of them were scattered throughout the house. Little Edith was found as the lone survivor, locked away from the mess but was cleared of the crime being only eight and physically unable to cause the carnage.

The story that follows this revelation to Addy is one of nightmares. She slowly begins to discover the reason for the cryptic messages carved around her new home as well as locating an old grave on the property. Adrienne and the fluffy Wolfgang are isolated in the woods and their horrors are just beginning.

As much as this story scared me I still very much enjoyed it. The pacing was well managed and terrible little details were dropped at just the right moment. I physically gasped a few times and nearly hurled the book across the room once or twice when a passage particularly startled me. If you at all enjoy a good horror novel I would definitely recommend this one. Also, for those of you wondering, the cat lives. I doubt I could have said anything kind about the book if he hadn’t. Never kill the cat!

IS IT FRIDAY
LIGHT THE
CANDLE

A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J Maas

~ Amanda @ Literary Weaponry ~ 7 Comments

ACourtofWingsandWuin

 

I don’t often mention it but, as this is a highly anticipated new release, beware. Spoilers and foul language to follow.  

This 700 page monster was touted as the most anticipated fantasy release of the year. Maas collected quite the following after her Throne of Glass series and the first two books in this series, A Court of Thorns and Roses and A Court of Mist and Fury. Somehow, I’d been living under some kind of reading rock for the last few years and had never heard of her. I’m so glad I came out from under that rock. While some people knock A Court of Thorns and Roses I actually enjoyed it very much but it could hardly compare to A Court of Mist and Fury. That one sucked me in and wouldn’t let me go. In hindsight it was probably all of the sexual tension and Rhysand’s cocky swagger. I pre-ordered A Court of Wings and Ruin while I was still reading the second book and dove into it as soon as it was delivered in high hopes that it would pull me in the same was Mist and Fury did. Let’s find out if it met those expectations, shall we?

“When you erupt, girl, make sure it is felt across worlds.”

We return to Feyre’s story while she is residing with Tamlin in the Spring Court with him and Lucien. After Mist and Fury we are predisposed to think of Tamlin now as an agent of evil. He continues to solidify that thought as he invites members of Hybern’s court to his home to aid them in their quest to bring down the wall between the Fae and humans.

Among the party to come to Tamlin’s court is Jurian, the human general from the last war that Hybern brought back to life using the cauldron. He comes off as a cocky bastard but I found him oddly likable. I think that is in part because of how pussy whipped Rhysand became. I loved Rhys in Mist and Fury. He was snarky and a little rude. Now he is so over the moon for Feyre that all of his bad-assery disappeared and it was nice to find some of it again in Jurian.

Moving on…

Blah blah blah, Feyre is vindictive and tosses the Spring court in a salad spinner and screws everything going on there up and then runs away. She and Lucien then both find their way back to the Court of Dreams. It was nice to see Lucien making his own choices instead of just following Tamlin blindly. However (and I feel like I’m going to have a lot of “however”s in this review) he ended up being completely pointless for the entire book. Sure, he showed up in scenes and apparently went and did things but the story would have been the same with or without him. Seriously. If every mention of him was removed from the book absolutely nothing would have changed other than perhaps being a few pages shorter. That is disappointing. I wanted him to have a moment of redemption and his own glory but he was still little more than a background player in everyone else’s games.

Let me be honest here, I could “blah blah blah” about 3/4 of this book. Most of it really felt like it had little point. The entertaining sexual tension from MAF was gone, the “men” were all pussy whipped, and the story just drug on and on and on with nothing of consequence happening. Don’t get me started on the incredibly awkward intimate scenes. At one point I’m pretty sure Feyre was having a naked chat with Rhys with her legs up over his shoulder or something. Who does that? Uncomfortable and, again, awkward. When reading or watching a movie the target audience has to have their reality suspended and become immersed in the story line and characters for the book/film/whatever to be good. The addition of these painfully awkward scenes brings the audience back to themselves and thus the story is interrupted.

I also got the distinct impression that Maas threw in an LGBT character just because that seems like the thing to do right now. Don’t jump down my throat, let me explain. I love alternative sexualities and diverse cultures having inclusion in literature. In fact, there should be more of it. However, they need to be presented in a believable and appropriate manner. If you haven’t read the book yet I won’t ruin this part for you, but,  it seemed to me that the author just tossed it in because it was “the thing” to do. It didn’t feel right for the character’s previous set up and story line. I was not on board.  Good for you for including an LGBT character but credibility and believability are also important. Don’t just hop on the band wagon. And for God’s sake, don’t make them appear ashamed of their sexuality. Ridiculous and completely out of character. Okay, rant over.

“It is a new world, and we must decide how we are to end this old one and begin it anew.”

The final battle in this book is something I think fans have all been looking forward to. The big tete-a-tete with the evil Hybern when the world of man and Fae will either be saved or doomed. I’m not going to get too far into this because it was the absolute best part of the book. However (I told you there would be a lot of howevers) this was also a bit of a let down. It goes back to the suspension of belief in your own reality in order to be immersed in the presented reality. Once more, it just didn’t work. Sure, the battle was interesting and it was quite honestly the only part of the book I truly enjoyed but it did not live up to the expectations set by TAR and MAF. Everything was too convenient, too easy. This was supposed to be the be-all-end-all fight to the death and it just didn’t have the pizzazz for that. Parts that could have been truly interesting were cut painfully short while we go back to the expected and dull “I don’t want (insert name here) to die because I love them so!” BORING.

This is legitimately the longest review I have ever written and thank you all for sticking with me through it. I wish I could say that I loved this book and it was everything I expected it to be. I wanted to adore it. I was prepared to worship this book for years and re-read it time and again. Sadly, I’ll probably never pick it up again. Maybe my opinions on this book aren’t popular, I don’t know, but there they are just the same. A Court of Wings and Ruin, you let me down.

 

 

 

A Perilous Undertaking by Deanna Raybourn

~ Amanda @ Literary Weaponry ~ 3 Comments

APerilousUndertaking

Sequels. Whether in books or movies you never quite know what to expect. Traditionally the sequel doesn’t meet the same expectations of it’s predecessor. Take the original Star Wars trilogy for example. Some of the absolute most popular films in history and yet that second one, The Empire Strikes Back, is typically considered the most lowly of the three. The curse of the sequel.

I read the first book of Raybourn’s Speedwell mysteries, A Curious Beginning, a few months back and very much enjoyed every page. When I spotted A Perilous Undertaking at the library I was excited to jump back into it’s Victorian era mystery but at the same time apprehensive. Would it live up to the first book or would I be left wanting?

I should never have doubted Raybourn. A Perilous Undertaking is every bit as good as A Curious Beginning. Shame on me.

We return to the story with Veronica Speedwell, a lepidopterist, some months after having learned that she was a bastard child of the royal family. A family that would never, and could never, claim her. She accepted this and was quite content going about her own life in pursuit of scientific inquiry of butterflies. She and her companion (not in the connubial sense) Stoker have planned a new expedition and are excited to leave London behind in search of adventure.

Their plans are thwarted when one of their party (the one with the deep pockets) falls ill and they are forced to put their expedition on hold. In the meantime, Veronica has found herself at a club in the company of one of the royal princesses. Princess Louise asks for Veronica’s help in correctly solving a murder and clearing the name of the man currently blamed for the deed.

“The hardest lesson I had learnt upon my travels was patience. There are times when every muscle, every nerve, screams for movement, when every instinct urges escape. But the instinct to fly is not always a sound one. There are occasions when only stillness can save you.”

Going through some other reviews of this book on Goodreads and Amazon and such I’ve noticed several people commenting that it takes this story a while to get going. I don’t agree. Every act, every moment in the first few chapters is important. You are reacquainted with the cast of characters, given information on their current lives as they do differ slightly from the first book, and are introduced to the mystery at hand. I didn’t think it was slow moving at all but instead necessary information to make the story complete.

Of course Veronica takes up the mystery with the aide of dear Stoker and once again they find themselves investigating a murder. I was, as I was the first time, thrilled with Veronica’s decidedness to be her own woman. She did not allow the social aspect in the Victorian era of letting the male oppress the woman rule her. I love what a strong, intelligent, willful character she is.

The investigation takes the duo to some very interesting places. A vast private home being used to house and teach budding artists, an opium den, Scotland yard, the royal palace, and a grotto on a piece of private property which was obviously used as a salacious sex den. All the while Veronica and Stoker keep up their witty banter which I quickly fell in love with in the first book. They are both highly intelligent people on a mission and their dialogue is marvelous. The dynamic between those two is so entertaining that they could be having a discussion about the common house fly and make it interesting.

If you enjoy a good mystery or have an interest in Victorian era historical fiction I highly recommend giving this series a shot. The story was thoroughly engrossing and while I suspected the eventual murderer it was still a joy to watch the duo come to the same conclusion. As a side note, while I am not particularly squeamish I know that some topics can be delicate for folks and would like point out that the murdered person was a pregnant woman. I’m sure it would be a touchy subject for some people and prefer to give readers a heads up.

I hope that if you do choose to pick up these Veronica Speedwell mysteries that you enjoy them as much as I do. The third book featuring these characters, A Treacherous Curse, is due out in January of 2018.

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas

~ Amanda @ Literary Weaponry ~ 2 Comments

ACourtofMistandFury

Folks, I do believe I have become obsessed. I cannot get enough of this series. Let me give you some perspective on that. I started this book last week, finished it in three days, and immediately returned to page one and started reading it again. All 626 pages of it. During the second read through I realized how many little details that I had overlooked the first time. When I started the first book in the series, A Court of Thorns and Roses, I was sure the popularity of the books was going to end up being all hype and end in a let down. Oh how very wrong I was. These books aren’t dry, tasteless grocery store cupcakes. Oh no. They are full on wedding cakes with many layers and fillings, worthy of being ogled and admired.

Sometimes, I love being wrong.

“Many atrocities, have been done in the name of the greater good.”

We return to the story with Feyre and Tamlin having survived the horrors Under the Mountain and gone back home to the Spring  Court of which Tamlin is High Lord. It felt like a “happily ever after” moment but no. Tamlin has changed from a kind and generous lover to a no nonsense, hardline ruler. Feyre, who once prowled the grounds and surrounding woods at her free will is now constantly escorted and under guard. She is allowed to go nowhere alone when she is permitted to leave the manor at all.

Her paradise has become a prison.

Feyre has wasted away to nothing during her hard months back at the Spring Court. She is skin and bones, can’t sleep due to her nightmares, and is mentally and emotionally stunted by the border-line abuse she suffers at the hands of the High Fae that claims to love her. She is merely a shell of her former self.

“When you spend so long trapped in darkness, Lucien, you find that the darkness begins to stare back.”

On the day of her wedding she sends out a mental plea for help, only to be rescued by Rhysand, the High Lord of the Night Court. The other High Lords seem to harbor some fear and ill will toward Rhysand and often view him as the villain. Tamlin certainly does. He appears on the grounds of the Spring Court and spirits Feyre away from the place that has been effectively killing her. Rhysand frees her from her prison.

I don’t want to spoil much of what happens after that for anyone because if you enjoy fantasy at all these books are well worth the time. I loved reading as Feyre changed from the wilted husk she was with Tamlin to the strong, determined woman of the Night Court. The characters introduced in this book are also very entertaining. They each have their own histories and strengths but they blend together so beautifully. I particularly loved Mor’s strength and perseverance. People, her own family, had tried to break her, mentally and physically. Had sold her to the highest bidder and was left for dead. She picked herself up, put herself back together, and became stronger for it without it dulling the shining personality beneath. She is a treasure as are so many of the unique characters introduced in this story.

As I mentioned, I do not want to spoil this story for anyone (and I usually don’t mind tossing the spoilers around a bit) but I can’t recommend enough that you pick it up. It reads as a testament to determination, patience, strength, love, and the desire to do more. To do better. To be better, and know your own mind. I can easily see myself picking this book up over and over in the years to come and I’m already looking forward to it.

“I was not a pet, not a doll, not an animal.
I was a survivor, and I was strong.
I would not be weak, or helpless again
I would not, could not be broken. Tamed.”

 

I will also mention again, as I did in my review of A Court of Thorns and Roses, that while this book is most often listed as YA I would be cautious in how young a person reads this. The sexual content is strong with this one.

 

The third and final book in the series, A Court of Wings and Ruin, is set for release May 2nd, 2017. According to Goodreads it is coming in at 696 pages and I can’t wait to devour each and every one of them. Happy reading, everyone!

 

 

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas

~ Amanda @ Literary Weaponry ~ 21 Comments

ACourtofThornsandRoses

 

Alright. If you are a reader, and obviously you are or you wouldn’t be here, then you have most likely heard of Sarah J Maas. Best selling author of the Throne of Glass series. On the New York Times best seller list. Everyone in my reading circles seems to have read her.

Except me.

Until last week I hadn’t picked up a single one of her books even though all I heard was praise for her writing. Most of the “highly recommended” books I pick up I end up hating so I just pushed it aside, assuming it was one of the many instead of one of the few. Well, I finally gave in. I even went even more outside of my usual reading habits and bought it instead of borrowing it from the library. Typically I only buy a book if I have already read it, loved it, and want to add it to my collection or if I’ve done a good deal of research on it and my local library doesn’t carry it. In this case I just took a leap of faith.

I am so glad I did.

“I threw myself into that fire, threw myself into it, into him, and let myself burn.”

If I were prone to such things I would be fan-girl squealing right now.  Okay, even though it is completely out of character for me I may have fan-girl squealed anyway. I loved this darn book. Loved. If I was in high school I would be drawing little hearts by the chapter titles and making up fan-fic to hide away in a notebook in the bottom of my locker. I’d take this book to prom and make out with it behind the bleachers. Maybe that is taking it a bit far…maybe not. You decide.

“I love you,” I said, and stabbed him.”

Our story begins with the hungry, cold, starving Feyre who is out hunting to try to feed her family. They had once been a part of the merchant class and were fairly well to do but have since fallen from grace. If it wasn’t for Feyre, her two older sisters and father would quickly starve to death. She isn’t going to let that happen.

Lucky for her, that day she spots a deer in the forest and takes aim with her bow to bring it down. Then, an enormous wolf emerges from the trees and she feels she has become pray instead of predator. She, miraculously, manages to take down both the wolf and the deer. Little did she know that the wolf was actually a faerie in disguise.

Alright, the book nearly lost me at this point. Faeries? Really? Really? You’re going to make me read about faeries? I’m not sure I’m on board with this but okay, I’ll bite.

So, shenanigans shenanigans and Feyre ends up in the land of the faeries with a High Fae as payment/punishment for killing one of their kind. Feyre and most humans have been told that the fae are horrible and cruel and will kill all mankind. They are to be feared. Feyre slowly starts to learn that , despite their differences, humans and fae really aren’t so different. Both have feelings, concerns, family, and the troubles that plague all beings.

We can draw parallels between this and the horrible prejudices that plague our modern world in the form of religious, cultural, and ethnic differences but I digress.

Feyre begins to respect and then to love one of the High Fae, the one that “holds her captive.” But, he and his household have a secret that they are unable to tell her. She unknowingly holds all of their lives in her hands.

Once Feyre realizes her importance she goes to the ends of the earth in an attempt to help them. This is the part that really pulled me in. Her struggles and desire to do the right thing. Her regret of not having done it in the first place. Her desire to fight.

In a nutshell, I loved this book. Some people have criticized the amount of violence and sexual themes but I can’t say that they rubbed me the wrong way. However, I surely wouldn’t recommend this book to, say, my cousin who is in her early teens. If you are sensitive to those kinds of topics I would say that this book may not be for you. There is also violence against both animals and humans which can be touchy to some. I will say though that the violence and intimacy had a purpose and it wasn’t superfluous. Those themes were used to further the story and weren’t merely filler.

So, if you haven’t read this book (although I feel like everyone but me has) I highly suggest picking it up.

“Don’t feel bad for one moment about doing what brings you joy.”

 

The Masked City by Genevieve Cogman

~ Amanda @ Literary Weaponry ~ 4 Comments

TheMaskedCity

 

When my local library added this book to their collection in March I was pretty excited. I had read another book by this author and the first of the series, The Invisible Library, a few months ago and adored it. It was one of those rare books for me that I picked up and genuinely couldn’t put down. I read it while making dinner, while folding laundry, and even while sitting at stop lights. So, maybe you can understand that I was excited for it’s followup, The Masked City. Expectations were high and I had opened it to read the first few pages before even leaving the library.

Perhaps my expectations were too high.

The story begins with the same cast of characters that we were familiarized with in The Invisible Library. Irene, our logical and straightforward agent from the Library, and her partner Kai, a dragon masquerading as human (no joke), are in their alternate version of Earth trying to procure a rare book at an underground auction. Afterwards, Kai is kidnapped by parties unknown and Irene embarks on the task of rescuing him from another alternate world.

Sounds fun, right? I like the idea of the heroine doing the rescuing instead of being rescued.

Let me be honest here, I’m having a difficult time coming up with a way to make this review sound interesting. The book took me more than a week to read which is incredibly rare for me. It just didn’t hold my attention and even now the details in my head are a bit fuzzy. The story just didn’t grab me like it did in the first book so pardon if I plod on a bit.

Alright…

In a daring attempt to rescue Kai, Irene, with the help of one of her enemies, boards a magical train that is embarking for the alternate world where her partner has been taken. The train is full of a species called Fai which are enemies of her and the Library and she must blend in to gain information in the hopes of rescuing her dragon friend. The Fai are an odd bunch as they can manipulate the people and world around them to suit whatever story they wish to find themselves in. Perhaps they want to be a damsel in distress. The damsel Fai would use their power to change the reality around them to conform to that story line. Irene must be cautious to not get caught up in one of their stories.

Irene learns that Kai is being auctioned off in this alternate world to the highest bidder in an attempt to start a war between the Fai and the Dragons. She cannot depend on any help from the Library on her mission and must navigate this strange world and succeed in rescuing her dragon partner not only to stop a war but because it could cost her her position within the Library.

She of course has many mishaps and adventures while trying to accomplish her task but, sadly, none of them drew me in the way they did in the first book of this series. I can’t even quite place why I was so ambivalent to this book. It had adventure, intrigue, danger, and many of the other things I usually love in a good story. There was just something missing that didn’t pull it all together. Irene didn’t feel as in control in this story and that was part of the reason I liked her in the first book. She was unrufflable. In this one, not so much. The location also felt hollow. It is portrayed as Venice in it’s prime but the people and Fai there did not behave or dress indicative of that time period so it broke the spell that Venice would normally weave.

Maybe I’m being too picky. Perhaps it was the beautiful spring weather that was distracting me. How could I resist the sun shine and warm breeze after months of freezing temperatures and high winds? Either way I’m fairly confident I’ll still pick up the next book in this series at some point. I enjoy Cogman’s writing style and the characters, for the most part, are well done. The story in this one just wasn’t there for me.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

~ Amanda @ Literary Weaponry ~ 7 Comments

Cinder

Where to begin, where to begin…

I had no plans to read this book. It wasn’t on my TBR and I really knew nothing about it. Sure, I’d noticed people talking about it here and there and my younger cousin had mentioned once that she enjoyed it but it just didn’t ping on my radar. But, meandering through the library one day while waiting for my daughter to decide between a book about Christmas (it is March) and another about a trash truck (this was apparently a taxing book choice for a toddler) I stumbled across Cinder. I’d read Heartless before by the same author and loved it so into my bag it went without much thought.

When I sat down and opened this book up the next morning I can’t say I really knew what to expect. So, with the vague understanding that I’d be getting myself into a Cinderella retelling, in I dove.

What I didn’t expect was to be entertained.

“Even in the future the story begins with Once Upon a Time.”

We begin with Cinder, a teenage girl who is part machinery which makes her a cyborg. The year is…well, sometime in the future. I’m sure the date was mentioned but I couldn’t be bothered to jot it down. Cinder runs a mechanic’s repair booth in the market in New Beijing where people bring her datapads, androids, and other electronic odds and ends to fix. Her life gets turned upside down one day when Kai, the crown prince, brings her his android incognito for repair. He hints to Cinder that he just has a sentimental attachment to the machine but she can tell he is lying and there is something more important to the android beneath the surface. Cinder, despite being a cyborg, is still a teenage girl and gets all awkward with the handsome prince but does promise to fix his android.

In recent years, New Beijing and other parts of the world had been having trouble with a plague. Scientists couldn’t figure out where the plague was coming from and there appeared to be no cure. The disease is highly contagious and had been decimating populations and has found it’s way into Cinder’s home.

Of course, being a Cinderella retelling, Cinder lives with a guardian aka wicked stepmother and her two daughters. Most cyborgs were treated as property but one of her “stepsisters” had become friends with Cinder and treated her as just another person. A friend. This stepsister contracts the plague and Cinder is devastated. Her stepmother/guardian blames Cinder for her daughter catching this incurable disease and “volunteers” Cinder to be taken by the government for testing as they try to find a cure.

“My only mistake was in waiting too long to be rid of you”, Adri said, running the washcloth between her fingers. “Believe me, Cinder. You are a sacrifice I will never regret.”

From there Cinder’s life changes irreparably. Moon people are involved. Okay, they aren’t called “moon people” but that is what they are. Also with any Cinderella story, even a futurist retelling, we have our pumpkin coach, glass slipper, and ball gown. I did enjoy seeing how those themes were worked into Cinder.

The story turns out to be fairly interesting and being YA it was an easy read. Admittedly I had reservations about a story with a cyborg Cinderella from the future. It just didn’t tickle me the way so many other people seemed to enjoy it. The story was quick and caught my attention but I probably won’t be handing it more than 3 stars on Goodreads. For me it just didn’t have any meat. Everything was expected and that just makes things dull. Not to mention the whole awkward teenage girl thing. Why is that necessary? I’d love a YA novel with a strong, intelligent, not silly young protagonist. One that doesn’t get the flutters around visually appealing Y chromosomes. Sigh…

In a nut shell, entertaining book but it could have been better.