August seems to be a month for exciting new book releases! I love spotting an upcoming release, months in advance, and eagerly waiting with anticipation until it is in my hot little hands. Below are my picks for August. Some you are probably aware of, others you may not be. All links go to their Goodreads page if you want to learn more! Continue reading
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Top Ten Tuesday – May 30
Welcome to this week’s installment of Top Ten Tuesday! This week’s the theme is to discuss your most anticipated releases for the second half of 2017. I admit, most of the books I had been anticipating for this year have already been released but there are still a few on the horizon that warrant some attention. (The books below are listed in no particular order)
– Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie McLemore (October 3)
Love grows such strange things.
For nearly a century, the Nomeolvides women have tended the grounds of La Pradera, the lush estate gardens that enchant guests from around the world. They’ve also hidden a tragic legacy: if they fall in love too deeply, their lovers vanish. But then, after generations of vanishings, a strange boy appears in the gardens.
The boy is a mystery to Estrella, the Nomeolvides girl who finds him, and to her family, but he’s even more a mystery to himself; he knows nothing more about who he is or where he came from than his first name. As Estrella tries to help Fel piece together his unknown past, La Pradera leads them to secrets as dangerous as they are magical in this stunning exploration of love, loss, and family.
– Now I Rise (The Conqueror’s Saga #2) by Kiersten White (July 27)
Lada Dracul has no allies. No throne. All she has is what she’s always had: herself. After failing to secure the Wallachian throne, Lada is out to punish anyone who dares to cross her blood-strewn path. Filled with a white-hot rage, she storms the countryside with her men, accompanied by her childhood friend Bogdan, terrorizing the land. But brute force isn’t getting Lada what she wants. And thinking of Mehmed brings little comfort to her thorny heart. There’s no time to wonder whether he still thinks about her, even loves her. She left him before he could leave her.
What Lada needs is her younger brother Radu’s subtlety and skill. But Mehmed has sent him to Constantinople—and it’s no diplomatic mission. Mehmed wants control of the city, and Radu has earned an unwanted place as a double-crossing spy behind enemy lines. Radu longs for his sister’s fierce confidence—but for the first time in his life, he rejects her unexpected plea for help. Torn between loyalties to faith, to the Ottomans, and to Mehmed, he knows he owes Lada nothing. If she dies, he could never forgive himself—but if he fails in Constantinople, will Mehmed ever forgive him?
As nations fall around them, the Dracul siblings must decide: what will they sacrifice to fulfill their destinies? Empires will topple, thrones will be won . . . and souls will be lost.
– Mightier than the Sword by K.J. Parker (June)
World Fantasy Award winner K.J. Parker’s newest novella Mightier than the Sword presents itself as a translated oddity of a document called “Concerning the Monasteries”. But in true Parker style, this novella is instead a sprightly, riveting tale that reveals secret upon secret, building to an ending at once perfect and perfectly unpredictable.
An Imperial legate is called into see his aunt, who just happens to be the empress running the civilized world while her husband’s in his sick bed. After some chastisement, she dispatches her nephew to take care of the dreaded Land and Sea Raiders, pirates who’ve been attacking the realm’s monasteries.
So begins a possibly doomed tour of banished relatives and uppity royals put in charge of monasteries like Cort Doce and Cort Maleston, to name a few. While attempting to discover the truth of what the pirates might be after, the legate visits great libraries and halls in each varied locale and conducts a romance of which he knows – but doesn’t care – his aunt will not approve. With enough wit and derring-do (and luck), the narrator might just make it through his mission alive… or will he?
– Renegades by Marissa Meyer (November 7)
Secret Identities.
Extraordinary Powers.
She wants vengeance. He wants justice.
The Renegades are a syndicate of prodigies—humans with extraordinary abilities—who emerged from the ruins of a crumbled society and established peace and order where chaos reigned. As champions of justice, they remain a symbol of hope and courage to everyone…except the villains they once overthrew.
Nova has a reason to hate the Renegades, and she is on a mission for vengeance. As she gets closer to her target, she meets Adrian, a Renegade boy who believes in justice—and in Nova. But Nova’s allegiance is to a villain who has the power to end them both.
I know that this is a top ten list but I think I am going to stop here. Why? I love being surprised by new releases! I absolutely love stumbling across a new book propped up in all it’s glory on some display in a store. I love to log into Amazon and it give me a list of fabulous looking new releases in my recommendations. I like to be pleasantly surprised. Sure, there are some books (mostly ones as part of a series) that I know about in advance because I’m invested in the characters and story but for the most part I love just stumbling across a book. That is how I’ve found many of my favorite authors. I’ve just walked into a store and been pulled in by their cover or an artful display. The surprise makes it exciting!
What books are you looking forward to in the later half of 2017 or are you like me and like the surprise?
A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J Maas
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.
The Song Rising by Samantha Shannon
The Song Rising is the third book in Samantha Shannon’s The Bone Season series. When the first book came out Shannon was compared to JK Rowling and many press releases said that her books would be more popular and influential than The Hunger Games. She was 21. I don’t know about you but at 21 I was hardly mature enough to be allowed into public, no less sign a six figure book deal. When I discovered this series in 2015 I was hooked and have waited for two years for the third installment to be released. Folks, I was not disappointed.
The Song Rising picks up precisely where The Mime Order, the second installment, left off. Paige Mahoney is the newly appointed head of an underground faction of clairvoyants in Scion London. Many among them feel that she unfairly took the title from her previous mentor, Jaxon Hall, and that she doesn’t deserve the crown. Despite the unrest among them, Paige is determined to unite all the clairvoyants of London against Scion and bring the corrupt government to it’s knees. This would free Paige and those like her from their years of being viewed as lesser beings, not worthy of respect, and help lead them to the path to freedom instead of suffocating oppression.
Scion is introducing a new level of that oppression in the form of a portable scanning device that easily allows their foot soldiers to reliably identify four types of clairvoyants. This device could bring Paige and her followers to it’s knees if it is not somehow stopped. Despite the unrest within her Mime Order, Paige and a group of trusted voyants set off out of London in an attempt to stop the scanners from being put into use. No leader within their order has ever left London before and more voyants seem to be losing their trust and patience with Paige’s reign. She has urged them underground, literally into the sewers, in an effort to keep them shielded from the scanners that would quickly end their lives. Despite the fact that she is trying to help them she has become immensely unpopular.
She and her small group depart London with a seemingly impossible task. Their dangerous quest will lead them from London and into Manchester then on to what was formerly Scotland. In true Paige form, nothing goes quite as planned but she never gives up despite the immense weight of what she has to do. As a female lead she is everything I look for. Strong but not without fault. She thinks forward to what the future could be instead of just accepting her circumstances. Paige has a defined goal and set of principles that she isn’t willing to give up. She truly is one of the best leading female characters I have ever read.
Alright, in a nutshell I adored this book. I think it is easily the best of the series out so far. Yes, it is the shortest of the three but there is so much going on, so much action that it is impossible to care about the length. I have never rooted so hard for a group of fictional characters in my life. The end was both painful and optimistic. While the story is obviously ongoing most of the story lines within the book were wrapped up nicely before moving on. I appreciate that. I hate when I get to the end of a book that I know will have a sequel and there are too many plot lines in the wind. Some sense of closure is needed even though the story itself is nowhere at an end. I can’t wait to see what Shannon comes up with next for these characters.
The other books in The Bone Season series include:
The Bone Season
The Mime Order
Literary Weaponry 