Review: The Demon World

The Demon World 
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review! 

After narrowly escaping the fall of Rossarb, Princess Catherine leads a rag-tag group of survivors into the barren wasteland of the Northern Plateau.

With the Brigantine army snapping at their heels, Edyon and Ambrose become separated from the group, while demon hunter Tash leads Catherine and March to an unlikely refuge - the hidden tunnels of the demon world itself. They soon find that the tunnels hold their own dangers and, while Tash travels deeper, hoping to learn more about their mysterious inhabitants, Catherine and March must return to the surface to resume the war.

But the world above is in turmoil. King Aloysius's army has captured the Pitorian prince, Tzsayn, and is poised to overrun the whole country. To have any hope of challenging her father's tyranny, Catherine needs to form her own army, but when danger lurks at every turn, how can she tell an ally from an enemy? What Tash discovers in the demon tunnels could change everything, but if the message doesn't reach Catherine in time, the war might already be lost . . . 

When I read The Smoke Thieves last year I completely loved it, and The Demon World has been one of my most anticipated sequels of the year so I can finally see what happens next! While I did enjoy this every bit as much as the first book, I couldn't help but be a little bit disappointed simply because we spent the last book watching everyone come together so I was excited to see them all teaming up again in this book...but it's not long before they all end up separated again and I couldn't help but be disappointed by that. Especially as they were all in the same groups/pairs as before. Then there's the fact I was looking forward to seeing more of Tzsayn and getting to know him better but we barely catch a glimpse of him in this book. 

I also have to say, that while I liked Catherine in the previous book, in this one she went down a little in my opinion. The thing is, she's being looked down upon for being a woman and trying to do 'men things' like leading an army and I appreciated seeing her fighting against that prejudice, and having to battle against the snakey Farrow who'd I'd love to punch, but she was getting a bit too friendly with that demon smoke. She's intelligent and she's focused and the demon smoke ruins that but she does overcome it and come back to herself and I liked seeing her take control of her life. However I think my biggest problem is Ambrose. I don't....like him? I don't like his attitude, and I don't like him with Catherine because I think he's a negative influence on her as this book showed me. Whenever she was with him she seemed to just...not be quite herself, her judgement was off and yeah. 

Aside from those few gripes, we did pick up immediately where we left off, so we're back in the midst of the battle for Rossarb, leading in to a tense chase..and it's from there that things take an even more interesting turn than I had expected. We get to spend some time in the demon world, an interesting move to make and it led to some interesting discoveries and twists! I found Tash's POV particularly interesting as we got to explore the demon world a little more with her, than with all of the others, and discover how it works and how the demons work...as it were. Just when I thought the demon lore couldn't get any more interesting...I was proven wrong and I really do live for it! 

I really do love Edyon, this book hammered that home for me, he provides so much humour, although he does make things politically tricky for Catherine. She did kind of have me on edge when it came to things with Edyon because of the demon smoke issue, I didn't entirely trust that she'd sort it all out.  March continues to hit me in the feels with the secret he's keeping and how he's unused to the love and affection...and general caring that Edyon shows him and there's some angst at the end of the book courtesy of them! Their relationship, and romance is my favourite of this series, I have to say. 

The writing and world building continue to be rich, painting vivid scenes with the world continuing to be built up and expanded upon. The POV switches are smooth although I did partially wonder if Ambrose's was really necessary at one point. I feel like Tash remains as a strong character along with Edyon and March, although while I understand Catherine and Ambrose are both going through a lot...I find Ambrose to be quite annoying, whereas with Catherine...I still like her but I don't necessarily like everything about her and that she does. 

We've got action, tension, and the plot continues to move forward with our characters moving about and winding up in various different places. One allowing us to have a lot of huge reveals, another finally ending up in the place they're supposed to be, and we have a nice angsty, cliffhanger ending after a book filled with some excellent twists and reveals to keep us on our toes! 

Review: The Smoke Thieves

The Smoke Thieves
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

A princess, a traitor, a hunter and a thief. Four teenagers with the fate of the world in their hands. Four nations destined for conflict. 

In Brigant, Princess Catherine prepares for a loveless political marriage arranged by her brutal and ambitious father. In Calidor, downtrodden servant March seeks revenge on the prince who betrayed his people. In Pitoria, feckless Edyon steals cheap baubles for cheaper thrills as he drifts from town to town. And in the barren northern territories, thirteen-year-old Tash is running for her life as she plays bait for the gruff demon hunter Gravell.

As alliances shift and shatter, and old certainties are overturned, our four heroes find their past lives transformed and their futures inextricably linked by the unpredictable tides of magic and war. Who will rise and who will fall? And who will claim the ultimate prize?

I have to admit, I still haven't read the Half Bad series, the first book has been sitting on my TBR for ages, and I keep meaning to get to it but time! So when I was asked if I'd like an ARC of her latest book, I had to say yes, especially as it sounded right up my street and I've been so eager to get to it! I actually took it to set with me and started reading it in between takes, before finally binge reading the entire last 3/4 of it at the weekend and I basically really need book two now! 

The opening is intriguing and introduces you to what promises to be an interesting world. We meet Tash first, who's a little badass in her own way, considering she acts as bait. Her POV's are action packed and intense for the most part. I will admit though, she did kind of annoy me at parts but only because of my love for the characters she ends up interacting with the most. It also reached a point where I felt like she was only there for the information on the demons, but towards the end of the book I started to really like her and there's so much opportunity for her character in the next book! 

Catherine.... I'd been curious about her because I got her card with my ARC and I was curious about what kind of character she'd be. Man...I empathised with her so much. Her brothers where kind of crappy and she's backed in to a really crappy corner. Her POV's are tense for a different reason, she's a nice character. She's witty and snarky at points and I was rooting for her because she's intelligent, and once she got away from her family you saw a different side of her as she got to have some freedom. I feel like this book was quite character building for her, by the end of the book she has a vision and I'm backing her to get it to come true. I'm hoping we get to see her become a bigger, more confident character in the next book with some bite! 

Ambrose....I really ship him with Catherine! His POV provides a murder mystery kind of aspect as he tries to work out why his sister was killed and what's going on in Fielding. By the end of the book he's changed quite a bit, and I'm not sure if it's going to be a good or bad change in the long run but it's going to be interesting to see where his character goes. However, when we met Tzsayn...I'm now torn on who I ship Catherine with. She has a choice for once. I actually really liked what we saw of Tzsayn, he's kind of awesome and I'd like to see more of him but things don't look too great for him by the end of the book! 

March...I wasn't sure I liked him at first because I did quite like Edyon as useless as he may seem. I shipped he and Edyon so badly and March's thoughts and opinions change over the course of the book, I was rooting for him to do the right thing but he's still got some things to wrestle with and overcome. As for Edyon, like I said, I did actually really like him despite the fact he's a bit of an idiot at points! He was trying his hardest, and I'm hoping to see his character grow and develop some more in the next book! 

I have to say, Noyes and Boris where such a-holes. They made me quite ragey as I was reading. Not to mention lang. Man I'd love to stick his head on a pike and see how he likes it. I don't usually ask authors to kill characters but come on Sally....please? Or at least just maim them a little bit....and a bit more in Lang's case. I don't think he learned his lesson. 

Anyway, aside from those three nasty characters, those are our POV characters, and the different POV's or rather the volume of them, put me in mind of Game of Thrones as it's the only other fantasy book I've read with quite so many different POV's! Unlike Game of Thrones however, I feel like the different POV's in this book are a lot more cohesive and work together much better. Sorry!  

The plot steadily builds up over the course of the book as our characters meet up bit by bit and come together, and their stories twine together brilliantly. There's mystery in what happened to Ann and what's going on with the boys, suspense in Edyon's escape with March and his friend, tension in Catherine and the situation she's heading in to, as well as triumph in seeing her get to become herself and become who she wants, while Tash provides us with plenty of action. 

While the beginning may be slow, it was certainly intriguing. The world is interesting, I found it to be very original, with the demon smoke, it's a historical fantasy and the demon smoke provides what serves as magic in this world. I was fascinated by it and the different options for it. The world actually has lots of fun points to it! Not to mention it's created so vividly and Sally's writing painted a vivid picture, which is what hooked me in from the start. I honestly got chills during Catherine's first POV chapter. 

The characters too are intriguing, each is very different from the other, and I was curious to see how they and their individual plot lines would connect and come together, something that steadily and seamlessly came about. I really loved how they where all joined together, and how they came together at the end because the end of the book sees all of our POV characters brought together, and each one brings a different piece of the puzzle that slots the over arcing plot in to place and fills in what we don't know, so that by the end of the book everything suddenly becomes clear. 

I'm excited to see where the next book is going to go and how the characters can grow and change and I'm excited to see all the characters working together and interacting, they've been such an interesting bunch individually I'm excited to see how they are collectively! They're quite the rag tag team! There's so many little plot threads to play out too! 

I really enjoyed the book, the writing was brilliant, the characters where fun and vastly different from each other. Little hints and puzzle pieces where dropped for you to figure out, and there was plenty of action, blood, tension and suspense. Catherine's Kingdom is brutal and bloody and Tzsayn's Kingdom is an interesting contrast and I really liked how Catherine came to discover that and how it was portrayed through her view point. I should also mention that there's romance too and a few different ships to ship! My one disappointment is that we didn't get to see more of Tzsayn because I kept feeling like there's a secret to him and what happened to him but I could be wrong! 

Either way, this is a brilliant start to an exciting and unique new series, and I need book two in my hot little hands as soon as possible please! This is going to be my new series to obsess over! 

Wishing For Wednesday #31

Huuullooo! Don't worry, I'm not going to relay all the details of my birthday for you guys haha!
I'm going to get straight in there with the WFW picks....SO!
First up, the much anticipated second instalment in a series, I'm very excited!
And then a read that I'm incredibly intrigued about, I'll be ordering it in from the library asap!
You all know the drill!


Half Wild

In a modern-day England where two warring factions of witches live amongst humans, seventeen-year-old Nathan is an abomination, the illegitimate son of the world's most powerful and violent witch. Nathan is hunted from all sides: nowhere is safe and no one can be trusted. Now, Nathan has come into his own unique magical Gift, and he's on the run--but the Hunters are close behind, and they will stop at nothing until they have captured Nathan and destroyed his father.

Half Wild is out March 26th, pre-order your copy...here!
Add it to your TBR....here! 

The Walls Around Us

“Ori’s dead because of what happened out behind the theater, in the tunnel made out of trees. She’s dead because she got sent to that place upstate, locked up with those monsters. And she got sent there because of me.”

The Walls Around Us is a ghostly story of suspense told in two voices—one still living and one long dead. On the outside, there’s Violet, an eighteen-year-old dancer days away from the life of her dreams when something threatens to expose the shocking truth of her achievement. On the inside, within the walls of a girls’ juvenile detention center, there’s Amber, locked up for so long she can’t imagine freedom. Tying these two worlds together is Orianna, who holds the key to unlocking all the girls’ darkest mysteries.

We hear Amber’s story and Violet’s, and through them Orianna’s, first from one angle, then from another, until gradually we begin to get the whole picture—which is not necessarily the one that either Amber or Violet wants us to see.

The Walls Around Us is out March 24th, pre-order your copy...here!

Add it to your TBR....here!