Review: Spoiler Alert

 

Spoiler Alert 

Rating: 4/5 

Buy or Borrow: Buy! 

Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review! 

Marcus Caster-Rupp has a secret. While the world knows him as Aeneas, the star of the biggest show on TV, he's known to fanfiction readers as Book!AeneasWouldNever, an anonymous and popular poster. Through his stories, Marcus is able to get out his own frustrations with his character, especially the ones that feature the internet's favourite couple to ship, Aeneas and Lavinia. But if anyone ever found out about his online persona, he'd be fired. Immediately.

April Whittier has secrets of her own. A hardcore Lavinia fan, she's hidden her fanfiction and cosplay hobby from her 'real life' for years - but not anymore. When she decides to post her latest Lavinia creation on Twitter, her photo goes viral. Trolls and supporters alike are commenting on her plus-size take, but when Marcus sees her pic and asks her out on a date to spite her critics, she realises life is really stranger than fanfiction.

Even though their first date is a disaster, Marcus quickly realises that he wants much more from April than a one-time publicity stunt. And when he discovers she's actually Unapologetic Lavinia Stan, his closest fandom friend, he has one more huge secret to hide from her.

With love and Marcus's career on the line, can the two of them stop hiding once and for all, or will a match made in fandom end up prematurely cancelled?

Ah, that opening scene had me flashing back to the days I spent filming a certain movie and all of the blood, sweat and tears that I poured into it. Vividly. It was certainly an opening that hooked my attention and pulled me in and I genuinely think I'd probably watch that show if it existed! Or at least read the books! 

I knew I was going to love this book based on the opening alone. The narrative caught my attention and had me giggling within a couple of pages, and it made my geeky self happy because I was 100% sure that Dade was having a little bit of a GoT reference. All I'm saying is...it reeked of GoT and a certain pair of showrunners that we all love to hate for a certain season finale. I couldn't help but wonder if the actors in real life felt the same way as the actors in the book. 

I lived for all the mentions of the other movies and shows that Marcus has starred in, along with their descriptions AND the script extracts. I was howling at some of them, they were so brilliantly cringey I can't believe Dade came up with them! I can't begin to imagine how much fun Dade had coming up with all of these and then writing little extracts for them, I was snickering to myself so much while I was reading them! I also loved the fan fiction extracts, complete with AO3 tags! My nerdy self was so, incredibly happy reading this and I could more than relate to the fan fiction and fix it fics and so on. It kind of reminded me why I love fan fiction so much and how much fix it fic I read for a certain show at one point when it took an annoying turn! 

Spoiler Alert is a fluffy romance, it was cute and sweet and funny...but it also had a depth to it and the characters that I hadn't entirely been expecting. April and Marcus both had things to overcome and work through, and while the romance was brilliant and I thoroughly enjoyed it, the emotional depth to the story really made it for me! Marcus puts up this false image to hide himself away so everyone thinks he's stupid but he actually has Dyslexia and his parents weren't too kind to him about it. They're super smart and they got very frustrated and lately they've been belittling his choice of roles and don't seem to realise what they're doing or that it's wrong. April has a mother that loves her dearly, and truly is just trying to look out for her...but is hurting April in the process because of her unhealthy views on weight and food that have been drilled into her. In short, they're both dealing with emotional abuse from their parents and I thought it was tackled really well. 

The way April went to  her mother and the conversation they had about it really hit me, and I thought it was a fantastically written scene. Not to mention the fact that there was no insistence that parents have to be forgiven and you have to remain in contact with family members that hurt you. I really loved how the entire situation was handled, and I loved watching April and Marcus have real conversations about this. I also liked that any misunderstanding was talked out pretty quickly and there's lots of admission of fault that I really respected from the characters. 

April I utterly loved! She's so confident and such a strong character throughout and she never doubts her self worth and never loses her self respect throughout the book. I rooted for her 100% and I completely got where Marcus was coming from too. I really enjoyed watching them come together and overcome things together, but I also loved the way they loved themselves and Marcus especially came to have and believe in his own self-worth. 

And finally...our support characters. I LOVED all the fights amongst the cast members in the group chat that they had! I had a note written to myself that I'd love a spin off book about Alex because I think he might be my favourite but then when I got to the end of the book and the note that was there...my wish was granted and I already can't wait for that! 

I had a really good time reading Spoiler Alert, I laughed, I got emotional and I looked forward to picking the book up every single time I had to put it down. I love a good dose of the nerdy and the inclusion of the fan fiction element had me feeling right at home and nodding along with certain aspects to it that were described! I also pretty much equated the show to GoT and it brought back a rush of feels along the lines of...'I dedicated how many hours of my life for THAT ending?! You've got to be kidding me'. But the thing that stays with me the most about this book are the characters and the struggles that they overcome throughout the book. 

Review: The Obsidian Tower

 

The Obsidian Tower

Rating: 4/5

Buy or Borrow: Buy

Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review! 

The mage-marked granddaughter of a ruler of Vaskandar, Ryx was destined for power and prestige at the top of Vaskandran society. But her magic is broken; all she can do is uncontrollably drain the life from everything she touches, and Vaskandar has no place for a mage with unusable powers.

Then, one night, two terrible accidents befall her: Ryx accidentally kills a visiting dignitary in self-defense, activating a mysterious magical artifact sealed in an ancient tower in the heart of her family’s castle.

Ryx flees, seeking a solution to her deadly magic. She falls in with a group of unlikely magical experts investigating the disturbance in Vaskandar—and Ryx realizes that her family is in danger and her domain is at stake. She and her new colleagues must return to the family stronghold to take control of the artifact that everyone wants to claim—before it destroys the world. 

I'm going to be honest, The Obsidian Tower has been an anticipated read of mine for a little while now! I read and completely loved Caruso's Swords and Fire trilogy and I was really excited to see what she would come up with next. As it turns out, that would be a bisexual mage with magic that doesn't work quite right and prevents her from getting close to people in case she kills them...and then there's a minor incident with a shady door that may or may not lead to ruin for their entire Kingdom. No biggie. 

There's tension from the start with peace talks about to be underway between two neighbouring Kingdoms, and that's before someone goes snooping where they shouldn't and unleashes all manner of chaos into the world. The Obsidian Tower is set in the same world as her debut trilogy, though a different area of it and one that deals with magic quite differently. I was excited to see more of the magic system that Caruso established in her previous trilogy, as well as see an interesting perspective on certain magical technology that's used! That being said, if you haven't read the previous trilogy it's not a problem! You can quite easily read this without having read it, all it adds a little bit of extra understanding when it comes to the relationship between Vaskandar and the Serene Empire! 

I actually really liked Ryxander as a main character, I thought she was interesting. Her power is dangerous and she's constantly having to keep herself under control to ensure she doesn't hurt anyone and she can't touch any living thing without consequences. I felt so much empathy for her and I was right there with her when she got to relax when it came to controlling her power and she got to hug her friends....and actually have friends! I was so happy for her, and then equally as heartbroken as she was when that was all potentially taken away. I feel like we see her very isolated and closed off, and then slowly bloom as the book goes on and she finds her people. 

As for the other characters I loved every single member of the Rookery and I can't wait to get to see more of them! Particularly Ashe....just let her stab something Foxglove, one little thing! Ashe made me laugh so many times throughout this book and I loved the banter between all of them. Whisper was an intriguing addition, he's the castle's resident chimera but there's clearly more to him than meets the eye! Ardith was a fantastic addition and so relatable, they kept saying 'I just wanted to drink your beer and eat your food' or words to that effect and I was reading like...understandable. I was waiting to see whether there was going to be more to their relationship with Ryx, and I'm quite hoping we get to see more of them in the future! They were just such a great comic addition to proceedings and kept the mood up! Then there's Severin. As soon as he was introduced I was like 'hello, you're going to be added to my collection of favourites aren't you?' and then it turned out he was the love interest. I thought he might be, but the way he was introduced and who he was had me thinking otherwise and a little sad about that fact only to be surprised again later. He also wasn't at all what I was expecting, I was expecting him to take charge more but he's very much under the control of his brother and struggles to go against him. I'm hoping he'll come in to his own more in the next book although I'm very much here for their relationship!  

The thing I loved the most about this book was all of the representation! Our main character is bisexual, we've got a non-binary side character and two other side character's are lesbian's so we get a nice f/f romance that had me cheerfully wanting to bang their oblivious heads together at one point! 

The thing I love the most about Caruso's writing is that she weaves these intricate, rich worlds with plots involving magic and politics and explains it all without dumping a lot of information on you or making the book dry in the process. Her writing is riveting and has you eager to know more and keep on reading to see what happens next. I particularly liked the inclusion of a good old murder mystery element this time around and had quite a lot of fun lining up my suspects and trying to figure out who it was! There's also some original twists on some other things too! 

The Obsidian Tower is wonderfully paced and weaves in brilliantly crafted characters some of which you love and some of which you can hate, with political intrigue, impending potential war, a murder mystery, a mysterious and definitely shady door leading to who knows what and uh...I don't think anyone really wants to find out, and a fun magic system! I quite easily binge read this in two sittings and I'm already impatient for the sequel to get back to the characters and see what fresh hell will be unleashed next! 

Review: The Ship of Shadows

The Ship of Shadows
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy! 
Source: Bought it myself as soon as my hot little hands could get hold of it! 

Aleja whiles away her days in her family's dusty tavern in Seville, dreaming of distant lands and believing in the kind of magic that she's only ever read about in books. After all, she's always being told that girls can't be explorers.

But her life is changed forever when adventure comes for her in the form of a fabled vessel called the Ship of Shadows. Crewed by a band of ruthless women, with cabin walls dripping with secrets, the ship has sailed right out of a legend. And it wants Aleja.

Once on board its shadowy deck, she begins to realize that the sea holds more secrets than she ever could have imagined. The crew are desperately seeking something, and their path will take them through treacherous waters and force them to confront nightmare creatures and pitch-dark magic. It will take all of Aleja's strength and courage to gain the trust of her fellow pirates - and discover what they are risking everything to find. 

It's a truth universally acknowledged that if a book has pirates in it...I'm going to read it. Not only does The Ship of Shadows have pirates...it has badass female pirates, what more could you want? 

I've followed Maria on Instagram for forever, so I've seen every single post she's made about writing this book and I've been so excited to get my hands on it! When I saw it on the trolley to be put out at work I snatched it so fast it's probably a world record! Unfortunately, I had to wait until I was done with first year exams to finally settle down to read this but...it was worth the wait! 

As soon as I started reading I was instantly enveloped in the world of the book, I could picture everything as clearly as if I was there. There's so much detail throw in to the world building and the characters, with slick writing so that the narrative isn't too bogged down. I instantly settled down and easily read over 100 pages in one sitting...then the next day read the entirety of the rest of the book! I just instantly fell in love with the setting, the frankly awesome kinda Tardis-esque magical ship and our strong female lead. 

I loved Aleja, she was relatable and easy to root for and every single time she mentioned going home I was sitting there like, oh no sweetie. You're not going home, you CAN'T! How could she leave not only the ship and adventure, but the crew that I came to love as much as Aleja did?! Speaking of the crew, they were such an interesting bunch who'd all come together to create their own family and there wasn't a single one of them that I didn't like. I was curious about all of them and how they'd come to be on the ship, and each of them had a different set of skills to contribute. 

I need to talk about the magic of the book quickly as well! I was intrigued as to what it would be after seeing other readers comment on it, and honestly? It was so cool! The ship has shadow magic to it so all these rooms appear randomly, or you'll be minding your own business exploring one of the ship's passages and BOOM, there's a waterfall out of nowhere! It was so inventive and imaginative and I had a lot of fun reading about it and thinking over the possibilities! 

The Ship of Shadows is fast-paced and utterly riveting. There's so much packed in to it and we smoothly sail from point to point in the story! This isn't just a pirate adventure about sailing the high seas. Yes we have krakens to face and treasure to steal, but we also have a heist and a quest into the desert in search of a treasure map with some riddles and puzzles to solve along the way! If you like your piracy with a side of puzzle-solving, questing and adventure, then this is the book for you! 

Review: Bookish and The Beast

Bookish and The Beast 
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review! 

Rosie Thorne is feeling stuck—on her college application essays, in her small town, and on that mysterious General Sond cosplayer she met at ExcelsiCon. Most of all, she’s stuck in her grief over her mother’s death. Her only solace was her late mother’s library of rare Starfield novels, but even that disappeared when they sold it to pay off hospital bills.

On the other hand, Vance Reigns has been Hollywood royalty for as long as he can remember—with all the privilege and scrutiny that entails. When a tabloid scandal catches up to him, he's forced to hide out somewhere the paparazzi would never expect to find him: Small Town USA. At least there’s a library in the house. Too bad he doesn’t read.

When Rosie and Vance’s paths collide and a rare book is accidentally destroyed, Rosie finds herself working to repay the debt. And while most Starfield superfans would jump at the chance to work in close proximity to the Vance Reigns, Rosie has discovered something about Vance: he’s a jerk, and she can’t stand him. The feeling is mutual.

But as Vance and Rosie begrudgingly get to know each other, their careful masks come off—and they may just find that there’s more risk in shutting each other out than in opening their hearts. 

"Who's going to tell her this is Stockholm Syndrome?" 

If you've followed my blog for a while, you'll know that I absolutely adore this series! Geekerella was such a fun read and I instantly fell in love with it, and while I had an issue or two with the sequel it was still just as nerdy and fun to read! I've been eagerly awaiting this third book, but after meeting Vance during the previous book I thought it was going to take a lot for Poston to make me like him. 

As it turns out, I'm a weak, weak woman because during the first chapter from Vance's POV I was kind of just like....oh. Okay Vance, okay. I get you, I see where you're coming from and it was hard not to chuckle at some of the things he came out with. It was so easy to see things from his point of view once you become familiar with his background and what he's been going through and it really wasn't long before I had a little bit of a soft spot for him. I just settled in to wait for him to open up a little and relax. 

As for our other POV Rosie, I knew I was going to instantly gel with her as a character because hello fellow book nerd! I related to her on so many levels and I really enjoyed her character. She wasn't afraid to stand up for herself no matter who it was to, whether it was Vance or Garrett, aka the Gaston of this book, who just could not take no for an answer. Damn. She also brought with her some really fun supporting characters in the form of her hilarious Dad, and her awesome BFF's Annie and Quinn! I particularly loved the rep for Quinn and I really commend this series for all the rep that it gives us whether it's LGBTQ+ or POC. 

Of course we have some cameo's from some of our favourite characters from the previous books. I was ridiculously pleased to see that Vance had kept a connection with Imogen and I liked their friendship, it was also nice to see Ethan again too! Darien pops up as well, as does Elle in a manner but...EXCUSE ME ASHLEY!? I was SHOOK to my core at the news about them. I kinda, sorta want a little novella to see what that was all about! I was just minding my own business and then BOOM, the OG ship of the series left me a little bit stunned! 

As you would expect with this being called Bookish and the Beast, there are some excellent, modern nods to Beauty and the Beast in here. Rosie and her birthmark, the library, a couple of scenes that are a little bit reminiscent of the Disney movie, Garrett as Gaston and then instead of an angry baying mob we had...reporters and paparazzi. OH and the castle house, I think Poston described my dream house and I'm kinda sad it doesn't actually exist! I just really enjoyed that it wasn't too excessive and in your face and was the odd nod here or there, much like with Geekerella and The Princess and the Fangirl! 

I'm going to be really honest here, as excited for the book as I was I was also a little bit wary of reading it. I thought that with everything going on and conventions being cancelled that this book would be a little bit bittersweet for me and that it might make me a little sad. While I did get that kind of sad longing for a convention at the beginning of the book, this one isn't actually set entirely at a convention like the previous books. I think this was a great move, because it kept the series fresh and stopped it from becoming too repetitive. Don't worry though, this book is still brimming with glorious nerdy-ness. 

We've got the story told through a brilliant use of book extracts, texts, articles and so on as usual to keep things fun and interesting, and to deliver information without bogging down the narrative too much with information. There's plenty of nerdy references that had me squealing every single time I spotted them and I just love that about this series. It's so unashamedly nerdy and not even limited to one fandom, there's a tonne of them in there to spot! 

Bookish and the Beast is nicely paced, I breezed through this in a couple of sittings and basically binge read it because I had no self control. Well, that and I found this book so...comforting? It's been a hard year so far for a lot of us that have left us feeling kind of low and in need of a pick me up and the relatable characters, fun story and the doses of nerdiness just gave me such a sense of comfort as I was reading. I'm sure that makes no sense, but it's kinda like Ashley brought the con to us? In a sense? I was just reading like 'ah, these are my people' and it all felt so familiar and ugh. I'm bad at describing it but this is definitely a comfort book to me and it really recharged my mood a little and picked me right up when I needed it! 

My only teeny, tiny issue with this book is that little bit with Darien and Elle like...I'm sorry Ashley, please elaborate!? I need the tea! 

Much as I loved Geekerella, I think this book just might slightly surpass it and is now my favourite book in the entire series! Plus it swiftly made its way on to my favourites list! I'm already planning a big series re-read, and I feel like this is one series that you can just read again and again and never get tired of the fun and the mayhem. 

Oh, and if the nerdy references don't get you smiling and all cheered up, then the humour definitely will. Poston's humour is my kind of brand of humour and the way I howled laughing at the line, "who's going to tell her this is Stockholm Syndrome?" it was such a beautifully placed line! 

I'm not sure if this is the final book in the series, I think it is although part of me is really hoping that it's not because I'm going to miss having a new book in this series to look forward to each year, but I feel like this is a timeless series that's going to be great to come back and revisit as many times as you need! 

Review: House of Earth and Blood

House of Earth and Blood 
Rating: 3/5
Buy or Borrow: Borrow 
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

Bryce Quinlan had the perfect life—working hard all day and partying all night—until a demon murdered her closest friends, leaving her bereft, wounded, and alone. When the accused is behind bars but the crimes start up again, Bryce finds herself at the heart of the investigation. She’ll do whatever it takes to avenge their deaths.

Hunt Athalar is a notorious Fallen angel, now enslaved to the Archangels he once attempted to overthrow. His brutal skills and incredible strength have been set to one purpose—to assassinate his boss’s enemies, no questions asked. But with a demon wreaking havoc in the city, he’s offered an irresistible deal: help Bryce find the murderer, and his freedom will be within reach.

As Bryce and Hunt dig deep into Crescent City’s underbelly, they discover a dark power that threatens everything and everyone they hold dear, and they find, in each other, a blazing passion—one that could set them both free, if they’d only let it.

With unforgettable characters, sizzling romance, and page-turning suspense, this richly inventive new fantasy series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas delves into the heartache of loss, the price of freedom—and the power of love.

I debated whether or not to write and publish this review, but I was encouraged to do so and now that I have the time...here we are. I'm going to start with the positives before heading into negative territory...

I was actually very excited for House of Earth and Blood, I felt like Maas was more than ready to jump in to the world of adult fiction as sometimes reading the ACOTAR trilogy in particular I felt it would have been better as an adult series. I was most excited for a fresh new world and characters and to see what Maas would do. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect as I didn't read the synopsis before jumping in to this and had only heard tidbits about it here and there. 

As such, the urban fantasy setting and the gallery immediately caught my attention. I'm not going to lie, I had been expecting a fantasy setting like her other two series. I was immediately intrigued by multiple different aspects to the world, the Houses, the magical creatures and angels occupying the world and so on, and I was more than ready to dive in to the book and get to grips with it all. Helped by the fact that along with an interesting world, we're also immediately introduced to a host of interesting characters. 

Our main character Bryce was brilliantly snarky though she was very similar to both Aelin and Feyre in regards to that and a few other aspects. Bryce has been through quite a lot and I liked that she was portrayed in that way. There's no attempts to cover up the emotional scars that she has, or sugar coat anything. Bryce's ways of coping with her trauma aren't sugar coated either and I appreciated that honesty and genuineness in her character and she has some wonderful character development throughout the book. Danika I particularly loved as a character, I was so intrigued by her role and the Pack of Devils and I really liked her and her entire attitude. Not to mention her bond with Bryce! I loved the way Maas depicted the female friendship between the two of them, it's always brilliant to see a nicely written, strong female friendship. Jesiba was intriguing but still somewhat of a mystery as was Fury our possible assassin, Juniper the ballet faun and Lehabah the fire sprite! They were an intriguing bunch though some remain more of a mystery than others so I'm excited to get to know them better in the future and tease out more of their pasts. 

Hunt is our main male character and when he was first introduced I did toy with the idea of him being the love interest but shrugged it off because I thought it was someone else until the plot twist threw that out of the window! Just call me Boo Boo the Fool. Hunt reminded me a lot of Rhys with the whole darkness and skulls thing that he had going on. I did enjoy the romance between the two, Hunt's secretly soft side was cute and I liked the route their relationship took and watching it develop over the course of the book. 

I also have to mention Ruhn, Bryce's brother and the leader of the fae Aux division. Bryce might dislike him but I loved him completely! He's like an emo/rocker Legolas but with black hair and tattoos! He also has a very strong similarity to King Arthur with his sword and I can kind of sense a novella coming with that tale. I particularly loved his friends Declan and Flynn and I think the three of them made the book for me! 

As we start the book, we immediately get to grips with the world, with tidbits being thrown out from the beginning. Humans are ruled over by the Vanir and above them is the Asteri and they aren't exactly happy about it so there's some tensions. There's also a missing fae relic which obviously plays a part throughout the book. The thing is, as much as I enjoyed all of this, not much really happens within the first 50 pages but Maas's writing is so easy to read that you can breeze through it all getting acclimated to the world and the characters and the host of different supernatural creatures present in this world. 

There's then a pretty big plot twist within the first 100 pages of the book that left me shook. I should have seen it coming, and perhaps if I'd read the synopsis I wouldn't have been quite so blindsided by it. While I initially hadn't been quite sure what to expect from the book, as I'd started to read I had started to form a few expectations as well as some theories...that plot twist completely threw it all out of the window and I once again had no clue what to expect from this book. It has to be said that there are quite a few excellent plot twists and bomb drops throughout the book that are all very well timed! In fact the surprising time skip helps to keep the story moving forward and allowed for a better place for the story to truly begin. 

House of Earth and Blood is mostly told from Bryce's POV, but the changes to Ruhn, Isaiah and Hunt are smoothly handled. I loved the murder mystery aspect (though it reached a point when it was so slow and meandering that it got a little bit boring and seemed to be forgotten at some points) and the tension between Bryce and Hunt. There are plenty of interesting hints of the past dropped throughout the book so you can try and piece everything together while providing plenty of intrigue. As I mentioned, there are some impressive plot twists to keep you on your toes and the ending was quite spectacular and not entirely how I figured things would go! I also have to say I'm heavily intrigued by Aidas. 

However, there were also quite a few negatives to this book for me as well. I did enjoy certain parts of it like I mentioned, but there was a lot I didn't enjoy quite so much and that me rolling my eyes. The repeated use of descriptions like 'caramel eyes' which was used at least 3 times in the first 6 pages alone, for instance. I also got pretty tired of hearing about Bryce's skin tight dresses and perfect ass over and over, I really didn't see the need for such repeated descriptions throughout and of course pretty much all of the male characters fancied her. Let's also talk about her use of the word 'alpha-hole' which reached a point when it had me physically cringing every time I had to read it or the different variations of it. I'm still baffled as to how she's going to throw around the word 'alpha-hole' when her love interest is the definition of an alpha male, albeit it one with a tragic past and let's be honest she's pretty much known for her alpha male characters. 

As I mentioned, Bryce largely reminds me of Aelin and Feyre while Hunt, Isaiah and the rest of his crew were very reminiscent of Rhys's gang. The incident with Connor and Danika lowkey reminded me of Throne of Glass and then there was Hunt. He reminded me of Rhys so badly. Black hair? Check. All dark and shadows? Check. Misunderstood? Check probably. Has a power that no-one else does? Check. He's even referred to as 'the shadow of death' at one point and I'm fairly sure Rhys has been called that. His backstory is very, very much like a combination of Rhys and Rowan's as well. Similarities between characters like personalities and looks I could overlook, but so much seemed to be pulled from the other two series. 

While I enjoyed the world and was intrigued by it (it's got a few Norse Mythology references going on), I took issue with the fact that everything was laid out for us. There's a war and tension between the humans and the Vanir but...we don't really see that. It's mentioned and Bryce is treated badly a few times because of what she is, but we don't really see any of this war that's going on. I can only assume we might venture out of Crescent City and see more of the world...and this war, in the next book. I had also expected to see more of the whole 'humans being oppressed' thing but it was mostly just Bryce getting crap from people. My point is, it was very hard to see the Vanir as the bad guys when they're either a love interest or described as being ridiculously good looking...and we see none of what they do that's so bad other than Sandriel, I guess. 

ALSO the book is called HOUSE of Earth and Blood and the Houses are mentioned so very briefly at the beginning but that's it? They're just there and considering the books title I figured the Houses would have a bigger part to play than they actually did but apparently not? Unless it comes into play more later. I was just quite excited about them when they were first mentioned and was expecting there to be lots to do with them and for them to play a way bigger role than they actually did but it was like they got forgotten about and were just another thing thrown in there. 

Can we also talk about the swearing? I'm in no position to say anything because I use the f-word as an adjective at this stage in my life but half the time the swearing just seemed like a kid cursing because they can to try and be edgy. The use of violence seemed much the same way considering a character I LOVED was killed off before I could really get to know or care about them. Granted it created an interesting plot twist but I can only assume there's going to be a prequel novella or series. 

My biggest issue with this book is this is an entirely new series with an entirely new, urban fantasy setting and new characters but it's impossible to ignore how similar it is to Maas's other series. Hunt's backstory is an amalgamation of Rhys and Rowan and Bryce is made up of Aelin and Feyre though I think I liked her a lot better than both in the end. There's once again wings and Legions and so on and it's hard to shake the feeling that Maas took the things most popular and that she perceived as the most well done in both ToG and ACOTAR and mixed them together to create this book. It got to the point when buddy reading with my coworker that I had to say to her, 'look, is it me or is this reaaaaaaaally similar to the other series?'. 

There were also some parts that I found just plain ridiculous, like the My Little Pony horse thing (though to be fair it did make me laugh with its ridiculousness so points I guess?), and the long, drawn out villain speech. Her trying to run away also vividly reminded me of that scene in Jurassic Park when the injured woman is trying to run away from the Velociraptors. Let alone the whole thing when Bryce shot the guy, cut him half and then burned him....right before she hoovered him up. I'm sorry but I seriously lost it at that part and could no longer take the scene seriously at all. There's a few other things that I won't get into, some things that were overdone or excessive though to be expected now that Maas has free reign. 

My final criticism of this though? While initially nothing happened for those first 50 pages I assumed once we'd gotten past that point things would improve. However, this could definitely have been a couple of hundred pages shorter than it was and I reached a point when I had to sit and go back over just what exactly had happened in the book so far...and it was surprisingly little. While the final part of the book was brilliant...it took hundreds of pages of mediocrity to get there. When I say this could have been a couple hundred pages shorted I'm talking 300-400 at least, it was far too drawn out by useless scenes that had no bearing on the story. While I enjoyed learning about the world and the tidbits, at points it seemed like we'd been dropped in midway through a series. There's so much randomly thrown in here, and so much that should have been told as we went along rather than dropped in chunks. 

House of Earth and Blood is a bit of a mixed bag for me. I had been looking forward to it and I did enjoy the history and lore of the world as well as a few of the characters and the emphasis on friendship. Bryce's pain and trauma and how it was handled and her character growth were also excellently done as was the development of the romance and the intrigue throughout. The final part of the book really pulled it back for me but I also can't ignore the negatives. There were plenty of them and it was hard to take this book seriously in a couple of places. The most glaring issue being that this could have been much shorter and much of it appeared to be made up of her other two series. I am intrigued and will most likely pick up the second book to see just what happens next because I am curious and quite intrigued by Aidas and Maas's sequels are usually on point. However, I think my expectations for this series have been seriously lowered. I had been expecting this series to be better than both of her previous series but found myself faced with a fair few disappointments when it came to the quality. 

House of Earth and Blood is an adult fantasy but it's not one to be taken too seriously. Aside from Bryce's trauma I found it to be quite light and the writing quite simple. 

Review: The Guinevere Deception

The Guinevere Deception 

Rating: 3/5 

Buy or Borrow: Buy 

Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review! 

There was nothing in the world as magical and terrifying as a girl.

Princess Guinevere has come to Camelot to wed a stranger: the charismatic King Arthur. With magic clawing at the kingdom's borders, the great wizard Merlin conjured a solution--send in Guinevere to be Arthur's wife . . . and his protector from those who want to see the young king's idyllic city fail. The catch? Guinevere's real name--and her true identity--is a secret. She is a changeling, a girl who has given up everything to protect Camelot. 

To keep Arthur safe, Guinevere must navigate a court in which the old--including Arthur's own family--demand things continue as they have been, and the new--those drawn by the dream of Camelot--fight for a better way to live. And always, in the green hearts of forests and the black depths of lakes, magic lies in wait to reclaim the land. Arthur's knights believe they are strong enough to face any threat, but Guinevere knows it will take more than swords to keep Camelot free.

Deadly jousts, duplicitous knights, and forbidden romances are nothing compared to the greatest threat of all: the girl with the long black hair, riding on horseback through the dark woods toward Arthur. Because when your whole existence is a lie, how can you trust even yourself? 

It genuinely pains me to give this book only three stars as I was expecting this to be a five star read for me. It's been one of my most anticipated books ever since I spotted it on GoodReads and it didn't even have a proper synopsis. Kiersten White is the queen of retellings for me, I loved And I Darken as well as Slayer, though I haven't gotten around to her Frankenstein retelling just yet but I've heard incredibly good things. So considering how much I love all things King Arthur I was so, so excited for this book and for her to give us a retelling that I expected to be wonderfully twisted to her style. In all honesty, White has never let me down with her offerings post-Paranormalcy which is the only book of hers that I didn't really like and didn't finish the trilogy. 

As soon as I started to read this book I got Merlin vibes. Merlin is one of my favourite TV shows in the world and I rewatch it frequently, and as I was reading this book...hardcore Merlin vibes. I thought of Merlin more than once as I was reading this, and at times I thought I could see echoes of the show, or nods to it. At one point I even had the thought that this was like a twisted version of the show a little. I could picture some of the scenes as scenes in the show, just changed slightly. 

I'll start with the things that I did enjoy about this book. I found the magic interesting, I've not encountered knot magic in a book before and I liked the consequences to using it as it meant Guinevere had to be careful how much she used magic and what she used it for. Being familiar with the mythology, some plot points were predictable but there were some great twists thrown in there to keep me on my toes...Lancelot, Tristan and Isolde and so on. There was some brilliant LGBTQ+ rep and some feminist undertones to it. I liked Guinevere well enough, I admired her determination to succeed at protecting Arthur and wanting to prove herself and find a place for herself. However, in all honesty my favourite character was Mordred. The thing is, I was sympathising with Mordred, I liked him and his humour, he made me chuckle but I know Mordred so I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop when it came to him and then boom. There it was. Of course. I still love him though, I can't lie. 

My problem is, I eagerly started to read this having been so incredibly excited for it...and I wasn't grabbed. Alarm bells started ringing because this couldn't possibly be right, this is supposed to be one of my favourite books because Arthur and Kiersten White...it should be the perfect combination. I started to wonder if it was because I was tired and just not in the mood to read so I put it to one side for a little bit. Then I struggled through to around 60 pages and I was seriously considering DNF-ing this because I just don't have the time anymore to read books that I'm not enjoying. But I decided to persevere even if I did resort to skim reading at one point and I couldn't believe this book drove me to that. The majority of this book is so slow and I had no urge to keep reading, I was reading because I felt I had to and because I wanted to get it finished. 

Guinevere doesn't do anything for most of this book. She faffs about with her knot magic, chatting to her new friends and the other Knights wives, chatting to Mordred and Brangien and so on. Towards the end it does pick up and there's a lot more action but..that's right towards the end after you've struggled through a couple hundred pages of not much at all and I found my attention wandering. I was bored and I didn't think that would happen with this book. 

I also feel like the reader is kept in the dark for too long, to the point it becomes frustrating and then it's all a bit of a cop out. There's so many mentions in the narrative of her 'not being Guinevere' and her alluding to her real name and so on, I was expecting her real name to be revealed at the end of the book and I had a few theories as to who it was...she forgot. She forgot her real name so I didn't even get that at the end although I'm fairly sure I do know who she is. Or where she's from anyway. 

The romance was...eh. Arthur was bland to me. He doesn't stand out at all, he's just very kind, very brave and he puts the good of Camelot and its people before anything and anyone else. The romance is barely there and there's an attempt made at a love triangle that might have been more interesting if Arthur wasn't so...eh. He was forgettable and he didn't stand out at all. Then again, none of the characters really did for me. I liked them well enough, but Mordred's the only one that even remotely stands out to me when I think back on the book. 

I had no solid sense of setting either, this is supposed to be set during whatever century it's set during but I had no clear image of that time period. In fact I was picturing the costumes and settings of Merlin more than anything else because aside from the odd mentions of a goblet here, or similar such things, there was no slid sense of time period for this book, which is a surprise and a disappointment considering how rich And I Darken is. 

The last 50 pages or so are good, there's action, it's engaging and it was what I'd been expecting from the entire book but I don't know if it was worth struggling through the rest of the book to reach it. There's some interesting set up for the sequel but I'm quite wary of it now, and unsure whether to read it. I'd like to think the sequel won't start out like this one did, slow and uninteresting for the most part, but then again I didn't expect to be so disappointed with this book either. 

Review: Song of the Crimson Flower

Song of the Crimson Flower 
Rating: 3/5
Buy or Borrow: Borrow 
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

Will love break the spell? After cruelly rejecting Bao, the poor physician's apprentice who loves her, Lan, a wealthy nobleman's daughter, regrets her actions. So when she finds Bao's prized flute floating in his boat near her house, she takes it into her care, not knowing that his soul has been trapped inside it by an evil witch, who cursed Bao, telling him that only love will set him free. Though Bao now despises her, Lan vows to make amends and help break the spell.

Together, the two travel across the continent, finding themselves in the presence of greatness in the forms of the Great Forest's Empress Jade and Commander Wei. They journey with Wei, getting tangled in the webs of war, blood magic, and romance along the way. Will Lan and Bao begin to break the spell that's been placed upon them? Or will they be doomed to live out their lives with black magic running through their veins? 

I was a little bit wary of this book, as I'd read Forest of a Thousand Lanterns and I really didn't get on well with it. It had aspects that I did like, but for the most part I wasn't a fan of it and didn't bother to read the sequel. However, I was intrigued by the synopsis for Song of the Crimson Flower and was willing to give Dao's writing a chance one more time. 

There are some references to the duology and events that happened in it that you may or may not consider a spoiler. I for one, knew what direction the duology was going to take so I didn't consider anything in Song of the Crimson Flower to be a spoiler, it was more confirmation of what I'd thought was going to happen. There's enough information about what happened in the duology scattered throughout that you can understand what happened and you can see the connections between the books, especially when we meet characters from the duology. 

It was quite easy to sink in to the world of the book thanks to the descriptions but I'd have liked more from the world building. A bit more richness and depth, I know it's technically part of the series but seeing as we were visiting what I believe to be different places to the other two books, some more world building would have been great. The mysterious blood pox and its cause were easy to figure out from early on as well, it was fairly obvious what was behind it and which direction the story was going to go. 

There is a really great fairy tale-like quality to the writing and the story which I did enjoy throughout the book and the writing is quite simple which makes it an easy to read book. I whizzed through this in a couple of sittings though I wasn't particularly compelled to keep reading initially and it's not got all that much depth to it. It's a bit slow to start, and considering the book is around 300 pages or so, and Bao has two weeks to fix the curse, you'd think there'd be a bit more of a sense of urgency to things....but nope. I think it's around halfway through the book that they finally set off on the journey, and even then there's no sense of urgency. They're stopping here and there, getting involved with the goings on in a village and staying with other people and so on. The journey is rushed through by the time it starts, and I think it would have been better to start the journey sooner in the book than wait until halfway. 

Lan is quite sheltered and I wasn't sure I liked her at first after her outburst at Bao. But the fact that she showed genuine regret and wanted to make amends made me like her a little bit as that does take a lot of guts, however, she's quite a forgettable female lead and I found myself feeling quite neutral towards her throughout the book,  I didn't overly like her and I didn't overly dislike her. She did irritate me though, when she started going on about how Bao had 'sulked' long enough, or however she worded it, and said various other things. The thing is, Bao might have been upset and his feelings might have been hurt but he never outright hated her. The synopsis says that Bao now 'despises' her but he doesn't because the book is too short for that. The journey doesn't start until halfway through the book, what remains of the book isn't enough time for Bao to genuinely despise her and then rekindle his feelings for her without it being rushed, so he just simply decides to stop fawning over her quite so much. Honestly, Bao's not been treated the best by people, including Lan, and I did really feel for him. I understood his reaction to Lan and what she said to him, and he did the right thing and was honest so I did actually like him even if he didn't hold out against Lan all that much. 

The ending isn't a particularly strong one, it was obvious as to what was going to happen and you could see it coming because everything about this book is simple. The language, the world building, the characters and so on. I did like it more than I liked Forest of a Thousand Lanterns, I did enjoy myself reading it once things finally got going, but it's just an easy, quick read and it didn't leave much of an impression on me. I just wish Dao would go all in with her writing, and really bring in more of the world building and build up the characters some more. I think this will be the last book I read by the author because they just aren't quite enough for me. 

Review: Into The Crooked Place

Into The Crooked Place 
Rating: 3/5 
Buy or Borrow: Borrow 
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review! 

Magic rules the city of Creije Capital and Tavia Syn knows just how many tricks she needs up her sleeve to survive. Selling dark magic on the streets for her kingpin, she keeps clear of other crooks, counting the days until her debt is paid and she can flee her criminal life.

But then, one day, with her freedom in sight, Tavia uncovers a sinister plot that threatens to destroy the realm she calls home. Desperate to put an end to her kingpin's plan, Tavia forms an unlikely alliance with three crooks even more deadly than her: 

Wesley, the kingpin's prodigy and most renewed criminal in the realm

Karam, an underground fighter with a penchant for killing first and forgetting to ask questions

And Saxony, a Crafter in hiding who will stop at nothing to avenge her family 

With the reluctant saviours assembled, they embark on a quest to put an end to the dark magic before it's too late. But even if they can take down the kingpin and save the realm, the one thing they can't do is trust each other. 

I was very, very excited for this book. I read and loved Christo's To Kill a Kingdom, it's one of my favourite books and so I expected big things from this. A gang of misfits, a heist...but with Christo's storytelling and her originality from To Kill a Kingdom? Sign me up! However, as I was reading this, I just wasn't as grabbed and invested as I'd expected to be. If I'm being completely honest, as I was reading all I could think was 'this is essentially Six of Crows just with a different magic system'. 

The magic system we were presented with was intriguing, and I was curious about it, there was a nice  amount of initial world building that was enough to pique your interest but not overwhelm you and I always love morally grey characters like Tavia. I was also loving the whole magic black market, gangsters thing we had going on. Karam I particularly enjoyed out of all the characters, she was badass and I liked the humour and banter there was between not just she and Tavia but all of the characters in the book. The cast of characters was diverse, there's some intrigue and there's a lot of magic sprinkled with some action. 

However, there's not much else that I really have to say about this book. It was an okay book, it wasn't anything that really stands out to me among the multitude of other similar books. Wesley really reminded me of Kaz Brekker and I thought it more than once as I was reading. The characters are interesting, but I don't feel like they had enough depth to them. I wasn't overly attached to or invested in any of them, though they were likeable enough. I enjoyed the f/f romance, but after a certain point it became a little bit repetitive and as much as I liked the initial world building, I'd have liked to delve deeper because unless I missed something....I still have no idea why magic was outlawed. Much like the characters, there just wasn't enough depth to it for me. 

The writing was good, as was the world building and there were some great twists to it. I just struggled to make it to the end of the book and if it hadn't been an arc I probably would have DNF'd it. I never found it hard to put down, I found it hard to pick up because I wasn't that enthused with it although it did pick up towards the end, I'm still not sure I'll pick up the sequel. It's a lot of struggle to get to the really good stuff, and it was a little too predictable at points. 

My main problem with the book is that it felt quite bland to me. I found that it didn't stand out from Six of Crows and Gilded Wolves and so on, which is disappointing to me because I was expecting Christo to put her own brand of originality on this and take what's becoming a YA trope and make it something new and exciting and different to everything else. But the entire time I was reading I could just pick up echoes of other books and it felt very same-y to me as I was reading which was the biggest disappointment for me when it came to this book. 

Review: The Beautiful

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

In 1872, New Orleans is a city ruled by the dead. But to seventeen-year-old Celine Rousseau, New Orleans provides her a refuge after she's forced to flee her life as a dressmaker in Paris. Taken in by the sisters of the Ursuline convent along with six other girls, Celine quickly becomes enamored with the vibrant city from the music to the food to the soirées and—especially—to the danger. She soon becomes embroiled in the city's glitzy underworld, known as Le Cour des Lions, after catching the eye of the group's leader, the enigmatic Sèbastien Saint Germain. When the body of one of the girls from the convent is found in the lair of Le Cour des Lions, Celine battles her attraction to him and suspicions about Sèbastien's guilt along with the shame of her own horrible secret.

When more bodies are discovered, each crime more gruesome than the last, Celine and New Orleans become gripped by the terror of a serial killer on the loose—one Celine is sure has set her in his sights . . . and who may even be the young man who has stolen her heart. As the murders continue to go unsolved, Celine takes matters into her own hands and soon uncovers something even more shocking: an age-old feud from the darkest creatures of the underworld reveals a truth about Celine she always suspected simmered just beneath the surface. 

This review is way overdue, I read it near to when it came out but I struggled to figure out how to put in to words what I wanted to say about this book other than just screaming. That and uni work was kicking my a**. 

The Beautiful immediately drew me in with the intrigue scattered throughout the first couple of chapters. There's a mysterious prologue narrator, Celine and the hints to her past and what happened...and what exactly she did. By the time I got to the chilling third chapter with the ominous sense of something wrong, I was hooked in to this and more than willing to see where this was going to go and to get some answers to the questions that I already had building up. 

Ahdieh's writing is incredibly rich, she creates a palpable atmosphere as you read and you can feel the danger and the tension...and the overall creepiness in some scenes. She brings the streets of New Orleans to life and her descriptions are so vivid, whether it's for the settings, the food or the clothing. As you read you have a clear image of everything along with an aesthetic and a vibe to each scene that you can feel which makes it incredibly easy to slip in to the world of the book as you read. 

We quickly meet a colourful cast of characters. We of course have Celine who's our main character and I loved her. She's intelligent, she's brave and strong and she isn't here to fit in to the societal norms. She doesn't give a damn about society and what a woman should and shouldn't do and I loved that about her. She's feisty and such a brilliant main character. I loved her narrative and her internal monologue as she struggles with herself and the darkness within her. She also is of Asian heritage, and with the time period the story is set in it made for an interesting struggle she had as she's always been told by her father to ignore it, to not acknowledge it or admit it. I liked seeing her becoming more accepting of herself as she worked through it. We also have Pippa and the other girls at the convent, though I have a soft spot for Pippa. I loved that she stuck by Celine through everything and was such a good friend to her, even when Celine tried to keep her at a distance. Odette was another favourite character of mine, initially she's a mysterious, wealthy girl who commissions Celine but we quickly discover she's so much more than that. She's strolling around in pants instead of skirts, and I was intrigued by her from the start as well as her power. Speaking of powers, I was also intrigued by Arjun's and he was a fun character that I can't wait to see more of and get to know better too! 

Our male lead for this book is Sebastien, or Bastien, and boy did I love he and Celine's first meeting/interaction. I was living for the banter and the dynamic between them, and I couldn't wait to see more of them together and dive in to the romance. He also has some mysterious past with Michael which provides yet more intrigue as you try to figure out what their issue with each other is! 

I particularly enjoyed the chilling interludes we had with the killer as I was trying to figure out who it was. Their perspective as they choose their victims and the insight in to their motivations was interesting alone, but it also provides us with some key information about New Orleans and how things work, or more specifically how the world of this book works, with the mentalists and La Cour Des Lions. It also provides some nuggets of information on some of the characters which was especially fun as characters like Bastien and Arjun are quite mysterious in the beginning, so some light is shed on them...but you still want to know more. I feel like these little nuggets prepare you before you dive further in to the details, they lay the groundwork and build some excitement! 

For the most part, our point of view is Celine along with the killer, but we do get Bastien's POV eventually, it just takes a while to come about. It was perfectly timed if not a little odd to suddenly have it sprung on us. Thanks to that we do get to delve in to Bastien a bit more, who's been rather mysterious and elusive up until that point. It's a good chance to get to know him better as well as his crew, I just would have expected to get his POV close to the start although it does allow an element of mystery to be kept up. 

The thing I liked about reading this, is that there's no initial sense that it's a vampire book. The vampire aspect is as slow burn as the romance is, which I was loving by the way! I went in to it knowing that it was supposed to be vampires, but as Celine is our main narrator we're as in the dark as she is. We know what she knows, although we do end up a little bit more enlightened after a point thanks to the killer's POV. However, there's still plenty of questions to ask as the information was enough to tantalise but not satisfy your curiosity. As you're reading, it initially seems like a murder mystery with some potential magic going on, but the more information we got, the more curious I was about the vampire lore. We get more and more nuggets of it, and I was excited to find out all the details because it's certainly different to the usual. The vampires had been portrayed to us initially as magic users of a sort, or that's how they were portrayed to Celine, but as we head towards the end of the book we finally get a glimpse of their vampire sides and get to revel in the vampire-ness. 

The Beautiful is an atmospheric rollercoaster ride, and there's a few nice twists to it. One of the best ones being the reveal of the killer. There was an interesting piece of information dropped about the killer in one of the POVs that had me gasping and gave us someone else to keep an eye out for and when the reveal actually came, so many little pieces clicked in to place. The odd sentence or comment earlier on in the book turned out to be hints that I'd missed entirely, but could see clearly upon the reveal! So when you're reading...keep an eye out! 

The end is full of more twists than just the reveal of who the killer is, those twists keep on coming and there's so many fantastic reveals packed in to the last couple of chapters. One reveal in particular had me putting the book down and staring into space for a solid minute or two, thinking back over the entire book. I even went back to certain parts and everything just clicked that had been hinted at but that I'd once again missed, and it all fell into place and left me reeling. Even more so than Celine's actions that had me stifling the urge to shriek because I can taste the angst for book two already...and the impending love triangle although it's been spiced up a bit from the usual by the knowledge provided in the penultimate chapter. 

I'd expected good things from this book, it sounded right up my street from the start and it didn't disappoint me at all. It's in fact left me screaming and impatient for the next book because we go on quite a journey in this one, and some brilliant things have been set up for the sequel! 

Review: The Secret Chapter

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

A Librarian’s work is never done, and once Irene has a quick rest after their latest adventure, she is summoned to the Library. The world where she grew up is in danger of veering deep into chaos, and she needs to obtain a particular book to stop this from happening. No copies of the book are available in the Library, so her only choice is to contact a mysterious Fae information broker and trader of rare objects: Mr. Nemo.

Irene and Kai make their way to Mr. Nemo’s remote Caribbean island and are invited to dinner, which includes unlikely company. Mr. Nemo has an offer for everyone there: he wants them to steal a specific painting from a specific world. He swears that he will give each of them an item from his collection if they bring him the painting within the week.

Everyone takes the deal. But to get their reward, they will have to form a team, including a dragon techie, a Fae thief, a gambler, a driver, and the muscle. Their goal? The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, in a early twenty-first century world, where their toughest challenge might be each other. 

I. Love. This. Series. I say this every single time I review a book from this series, but there's never a bad book. Each book brings something new to the series, has a different vibe to it, and is a strong addition to the series, and The Secret Chapter is no exception. 

The attention grabbing first line had me happily sinking back in to the world of the Invisible Library and this time our adventure had some James Bond vibes to it, along with an Ocean's Eleven kind of vibe and I was living for it. 

The world that we visit in this  one is an interesting one, we've got a law enforcement branch called CENSOR that's in charge of dealing with supernaturals to contend with. Plus we have an interesting bunch of new characters and I found myself quite liking a few of them. We've got the fae, Ernst, Felix, Jerome and Tina, then we have a new dragon with ties to Kai in the form of Indigo who has a very interesting backstory. 

I actually ended up really liking all of the new fae and I became quite attached to them so I was sad to see one of them go, and sad that we might not get to see anymore of the others. I'm quite hoping they'll pop up and we'll get to see them again in future books! They were all a lot of fun, and had very different personalities to them dependent on their fae arch-type so they made for a great bunch of characters to assist in this heist! 

There's plenty of action, plenty of plotting and intrigue as we get to grips with the new world...and the shadiness of the mission. The romance between Irene and Kai never once overshadows the story. It's there, but it's in the background and subtle. I appreciate the fact that just because they're involved with each other, they don't merge in to one unit and go along with whatever the other wants. They both get involved in this mission for different reasons, and they stick to their own agendas even if that means keeping secrets. 

Obviously we have a lot of information on the library and how it works and so on, as well as a fair bit on the fae, this book takes us in the direction of the dragons which I was incredibly excited to discover. We get a lot of interesting information about the dragons, how they think and operate and a little about their history too. There's even some questions raised about them and their politics, and as I said...I was interested to meet Indigo! 

The ending leaves us with a couple of revelations that are going to be exciting and possibly dangerous to see play out in upcoming books, and I can't wait to see how they play out. My mind was completely blown and now I have even more questions than I did before, but I wouldn't have it any other way! I'm also intrigued to meet Silver's niece in the next book and see what she adds to our little group. The Secret Chapter is another exciting and rich instalment in the series, and each book builds brilliantly upon the others and brings more to the table.