Review: The Dark Archive

 

The Dark Archive

Rating: 5/5

Buy or Borrow: Buy! 

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

Danger is part of the day job for a Librarian spy. So Irene's hoping for a relaxing weekend at last. However, her jaunt to Guernsey proves no such thing. Instead of retrieving a rare book, she's almost assassinated, Kai's poisoned and Vale barely escapes with his life. Then the attacks continue in London - targeting those connected with the Fae-dragon peace treaty. 

Irene knows she must stop the plot before the treaty fails...or someone dies. But when Irene and friends are trapped underground, in a secret archive, things don't look so good. Then an old enemy demands vengeance, and a shocking secret is revealed. Can Irene really seize victory from chaos?

I say this every single time I review this series, but it genuinely is one of my absolute favourite series and I always look forward to each new book in the series! They've never let me down yet and The Dark Archive is another brilliant trip into the world of The Library. 

The prologue certainly sets us up for a wild ride, reminding us of Irene's new Fae apprentice and informing us that there's been several kidnap attempts already so already we're feeling the intrigue! Then it's straight in with the action and the introduction of a criminal mastermind for Vale to contend with. That's the thing about Cogman's books, we dive straight in and there's plenty to hook you and keep your attention and you know it's going to be good. I really do love how quick they are to pull me into the world and the plot, and this one has a particularly nice balance of action and sleuthing. 

Irene continues to be one of my ultimate favourite characters, and Kai...well, I'd love to be as unbothered as Kai about being poisoned. It was almost hilarious how chilled he was about the whole thing! I love that even though he's been with us for the entire series, there's still more to learn about he and his family and this book delivers with that. We briefly meet Kai's cousin, and then his older brother Shan Yuan who quite frankly, I really wanted to smack more than once. I find Kai's family so interesting and I spent the whole book side-eyeing Shan Yuan because I couldn't figure out if he's really that bad or if there's some room for redemption for him. I still haven't quite decided even after finishing the book! Of course, while meeting more of Kai's family we get to delve a bit deeper into the dragon world again and meet the technological side of it with a tech whiz elder dragon! 

I can't speak about Kai without speaking about he and Irene's relationship, which I continue to love with every fibre of my being! They work so well together and they're strong for each other and ugh...I love them. 

I'm going to be honest, when it comes to Irene's new apprentice Catherine...I wasn't entirely sure how I felt about her at first. She bugged me a bit in the beginning because she didn't listen but at the same time, perhaps I just settled into a groove with Kai and Irene and her changing things up irritated me as a result! I did come to understand Catherine more as the book went on and she definitely proved herself capable of being Irene's apprentice despite some minor hiccups as we went along. I will say that I'm looking forward to seeing more of her and see what happens after the events of the end of the book! 

There's lots of tension as Irene and co are all targets of a mysterious figure called The Professor, and an old face comes back to wreak havoc. The screeches I let out at some of the reveals in this book! While there's plenty of tension, there's also a good amount of action to go along with it, which makes it quite a hard book to put down! 

I love the multi POV's, the switches are always nicely timed and each POV brings us something different. We don't rehash the same scene over and over from a different perspective instead they're used to push the story forward and add to it. We've got Irene following one path, Kai going down another route with the dragons and then Vale doing some good old traditional detective work/Sherlocking. I'm also always here for getting a look into the minds of other characters, particularly one's like Vale that we don't always see a lot of! 

Essentially, everyone's stuck in London while an evil genius tries to kill them in many different ways, and they try to figure out who it is with a building sense of foreboding towards the end. I did get a chuckle out of how blasé they were about the attempts on their life at this point! I feel like the storyline for this book helps to keep the series fresh, it's less about retrieving a book and returning it to the Library and it's a change of pace so the series doesn't get repetitive. Not that I don't love the book hunting and all the different worlds, but I loved exploring more of the world that Irene has chosen as her home and we even get to visit an invention exhibition where things get a little...wild. 

The plot builds up wonderfully and the pieces click together one by one. I really love that old villain's aren't just brought back for the sake of it, or the shock factor, there's a very good reason for it and it usually indicates that something bigger is going on. I have to say, the last few chapters were nail biting for me and for a minute there I truly thought that we'd lost Irene. I was sitting there, staring at the page trying to figure out what was going on, what was going to happen and how the series could continue without her! Then there's the reveals...like I said, there was a lot of screeching. Particularly over one, and lets just say I've had my suspicions about Irene and her background! I'm still curious about it, the mystery isn't entirely solved but we're given a tidbit of it to tide us over! 

But as if that all wasn't enough...there's the epilogue. As if the wait for the next book isn't going to be hard enough as it is! I was reading it trying to figure out who was who and what exactly's going on at this point!  It's ramped up my anticipation for the next book to a ridiculous degree, I'm already impatient for it! 

Honestly, these books are one of the highlight's of my year ever since I read an advanced copy of the very first book! I wait with baited breath for the new one, plan specifically when to read it because I know I'm going to procrastinate a little from reading it because even though I've had an entire year to prepare myself...I'm still not quite ready, and then I binge read the whole thing in a couple of days and don't know what to do with myself after! I'm being genuine when I say these books never let me down, ever. 

The Dark Archive is another strong instalment in the series, I whizzed my way through it and found it impossible to put it down as I enjoyed every single page! There's action, tension, intrigue and more depth continuously being added to the characters and their backgrounds with more new tidbits and reveals to ramp up the intrigue for the next book! 

Review: Queen of Coin and Whispers

Queen of Coin and Whispers 

Rating: 2.5/5

Buy or Borrow: Borrow 

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

When teenage queen Lia inherits her corrupt uncle’s bankrupt kingdom, she brings a new spymaster into the fold ... Xania, who takes the job to avenge her murdered father.

Faced with dangerous plots and hidden enemies, can Lia and Xania learn to rely on each another, as they discover that all is not fair in love and treason?

In a world where the throne means both power and duty, they must decide what to sacrifice for their country – and for each other … 

I really wanted to rate this higher because I was so here for the f/f romance and all the LGBTQ+ representation the book provides but while I did enjoy myself somewhat reading this, it ultimately fell a little flat for me. 

It does jump straight in with the plot and things move forward quickly, the book is fast paced which I appreciated and there was a huge amount of political intrigue and plotting and so on. There are really smooth and seamless transitions through time throughout and as for our main character Lia, she was very determined. She has a lot to contend with and there's a lot of political treachery that she has to find a way around and she wants to be better than her Uncle and make things better but as she discovers it's not too easy to do so. 

Our other POV is Xania, she's quite the badass and she becomes more and more adept at her job as Whispers over time throughout the book. She and Lia are quite ruthless, or at least they're supposed to be which was quite refreshing I just didn't particularly feel any true danger or high stakes throughout the book. I also appreciate side character Matthias. I loved his entire attitude and I spent a good chunk of the book really hoping he wasn't going to turn out to be shady. 

Unfortunately, I can't do a review anywhere near the length that I usually would as that's really all the positives I can say about this book. It was just...okay. I read this book in two sittings although it took me a little while to work up to reading the other half, I put the book down and I didn't feel that burning need to pick it back up and finish it I'm afraid. 

On the negative side of things, I feel like while the pace is fast and we move through time quickly, it's at the cost of developing the characters. I don't feel like they were fleshed out enough and that also affects the romance as well. I personally felt the romance to be quite sudden, I was looking forward to watching it develop and having some slow burn to squeal over but it was just suddenly there. I feel like some time could have been taken to fully develop the characters and the romance, and it was a little unconvincing how adept Xania became at being Whispers with no previous training doing such things. You do see her get more adept at it over the course of the book but the time skips do allow for it to be glossed over. There were just a lot of things about Xania that didn't really make much sense, she could just suddenly do this, or she'd learned this and so on. 

The world building was okay, it could have had more depth to it and I didn't really have a true image in my mind of the setting. I found it difficult to be bothered about the characters when they weren't that fleshed out so while there's plenty of blood and action and politics I was kind of breezing through the book without feeling too invested. The writing style was also a bit bland and there wasn't really that much of a difference between Lia's narrative and Xania's. The writing didn't draw me in at all and I felt like when it came to Xania the author was trying too hard to make her seem dangerous and edgy with her inner monologue and some of the imagery used. 

Overall, Queen of Coin and Whispers is a quick, fast read and it's an okay book. It's not truly bad, but it could have been improved a little, like it could quite easily have been a duology and more time could have been taken to develop the characters, the romance and the world. There were too many things about this that were a little hard to believe, and Xania wasn't entirely convincing a lot of the time. The romance lacked chemistry and development, and the characters weren't fleshed out enough for me to truly care about them and what happened to them. The setting could have been any generic fantasy setting with one little original twist and the writing didn't work to draw you into the story. I found myself making myself finish this once I'd put it down and I was overall very disappointed because I'd been so excited for the f/f romance that's in this!

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 Court of Miracles

The Court of Miracles

Rating: 4/5

Buy or Borrow: Buy

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

In the dark days following a failed French Revolution, in the violent jungle of an alternate 1828 Paris, young cat-burglar Eponine (Nina) Thenardier goes head to head with merciless royalty, and the lords of the city's criminal underworld to save the life of her adopted sister Cosette (Ettie).

Her vow will take her from the city’s dark underbelly, through a dawning revolution, to the very heart of the glittering court of Louis XVII, where she must make an impossible choice between guild, blood, betrayal and war. 

I was sold on this from the words 'diverse fantasy reimagining of Les Miserables' and I was so eager to dive into this. I was immediately thrown into a rich world that's built up more and more over the course of the first part. Our setting is Paris in the wake of a failed revolution, and now there are Guilds that operate under their own law. Our main character Nina is in the Thieves Guild, and she's basically out to save her sister from a not as pleasant Guild. Alongside Nina and her own personal mission, there's another revolution brewing in the streets of Paris. 

As I read this, I eagerly drank in all the world building, the atmosphere and the history along with the tension and emotional first few chapters. The setting is quickly established, as are our main characters as we smoothly and quickly set up for the main part of the story. Honestly, I was hooked from the first page, eager to know more and eager for Nina's plan to unfold. I loved being in the world of this book, and I loved the storytelling. 

I loved, loved, loved the Les Miserables threads woven in. We've got all of the characters we know and love from the book and musical and I screeched a little bit at each reveal. The more you read, the more you can see the book intertwining with it, coming together and slowly building up to the events of Les Miserables, specifically a certain heartbreaking scene! I'm going to be honest, at one point I had 'Do You Hear the People Sing' stuck in my head! 

I enjoyed the little slices of history at the beginning of each part that tells us the story of how the Guilds came to be, as I was incredibly curious about that aspect and eager to know more. There's some brilliantly smooth transitions through time as the story builds up and gets us to where we need to be. I just loved how things got a little bit more familiar towards the end and the sense of dread that started to build up! 

As for the characters, I loved Nina! She was a badass and would do anything to protect Ettie. I also lowkey ship Nina and Montparnasse, as soon as I read them together I was like...that's it. That's my ship. Shove off St. Juste and Prince! I'm going to be honest, Ettie annoyed me at points, but I did love the sisterhood between she and Nina and I feel like Ettie has some excellent character development over the course of the book until she's more than capable of holding her own. I loved to see it, and I thought it was nicely done alongside all the events of the book! 

Genuinely, The Court of Miracles builds up so wonderfully! The revolution creeping through the streets and building up with the plot and Nina's scheming until it reaches a crescendo. There are some excellent twists and I was on the edge of my seat for the last part! I was just as tense as the characters were as I waited to see what would happen. 

With vividly described settings with rich detail, The Court of Miracles was atmospheric until the end and you can get completely lost in the world of the book and the story being told. It's excellently written and more than kept my attention on the page and my mind from wandering! I was eager to know what would happen next and reluctant to have to put the book down to do anything real world related. 

I will say that The Court of Miracles wraps up really nicely, and could quite easily serve as a standalone so I'm curious to see where the sequel is going to go! 

Review: Incendiary

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

I am Renata Convida.
I have lived a hundred stolen lives.
Now I live my own.

Renata Convida was only a child when she was kidnapped by the King's Justice and brought to the luxurious palace of Andalucia. As a Robari, the rarest and most feared of the magical Moria, Renata's ability to steal memories from royal enemies enabled the King's Wrath, a siege that resulted in the deaths of thousands of her own people.

Now Renata is one of the Whispers, rebel spies working against the crown and helping the remaining Moria escape the kingdom bent on their destruction. The Whispers may have rescued Renata from the palace years ago, but she cannot escape their mistrust and hatred--or the overpowering memories of the hundreds of souls she turned "hollow" during her time in the palace.

When Dez, the commander of her unit, is taken captive by the notorious Sangrado Prince, Renata will do anything to save the boy whose love makes her place among the Whispers bearable. But a disastrous rescue attempt means Renata must return to the palace under cover and complete Dez's top secret mission. Can Renata convince her former captors that she remains loyal, even as she burns for vengeance against the brutal, enigmatic prince? Her life and the fate of the Moria depend on it.

But returning to the palace stirs childhood memories long locked away. As Renata grows more deeply embedded in the politics of the royal court, she uncovers a secret in her past that could change the entire fate of the kingdom--and end the war that has cost her everything. 

Incendiary starts us off with an intriguing opening that provides threads of the world we're embarking into and leaves you with plenty of questions. We're in the middle of a rebellion that's been brewing for a long time and the history to the world and this rebellion is woven into the opening chapters, along with the mythology and lore of the Moria's magic. 

I have to say, Ren was such an interesting MC to me, not only because she has no memory of her past but also because it's kind of refreshing to have an MC that's got this super rare power and first of all, there's consequences to using it. Her power is different to the others in that she gets scars on her hands in exchange for using it and if she takes too many memories she leaves a Hollow behind. Second, she's not viewed as the 'chosen one' which happens in quite a few books from this genre. Instead she's viewed with suspicion, called a traitor and treated quite badly because of it. I was kind of half waiting for her to go down the villain route and I genuinely would not have blamed her one bit if she had.  I just enjoyed her character, she's a badass, she's fighting against other people's image of her and coming to terms with herself and who she is. 

When it comes to the rest of Ren's group, only Dez and Sayida treated her as normal, but it made for an interesting dynamic to have Margo and Esteban be so hostile towards her. I loved the pay off towards the end of the book when Esteban had warmed up to her, though I'd expected more from Margo. I was surprised at her character and a little disappointed. I felt like her reason for disliking Ren so much wasn't particularly strong as she didn't exactly make the effort to befriend Ren either. 

I have to mention Leo as well, I really liked his character and he was quite the source of mystery and debate as I was reading and trying to figure out if he could or couldn't be trusted, or if he was a spy or not. Lady Nuria was also a pleasant surprise, and I liked her immediately. I would have just liked to see more of the two of them, particularly Nuria but I hope for that in the next book! Castian was also quite the surprise. I was torn for most of the book between disliking him but also having a strong inkling that he was going to be the love interest and trying to figure out how that would be possible. I wasn't quite sure what to make of him and my opinion on him kept changing thanks to all the pieces of memory that Ren discovered. Eventually though, I had to admit he was going to be on of my little misunderstood cinnamon rolls. 

The romance aspect is quite interesting to me, because there's very little of it. It's sprinkled in at the beginning and I'm not quite used to having a relationship already established and then of course some things happen and the romance is pretty much non-existent as we focus on the story. What does intrigue me is where it's going to go in the next book. I'm envisioning a love triangle and I'm curious as to how it's going to play out. 

I'm going to be honest, I was living for the world that was being built. It's Inquisition era Spain and I really enjoyed the world building and the magic system. I thought it was nicely crafted with the backstory to the Kingdom and the rebellion and it was very realistic that Memoria had been wiped out and their traditions and beliefs changed and twisted. The Kingdom of Puerto Leones is definitely out to conquer and colonise as much as it can and there's a long road ahead to take them down. There was so much tension and danger in the first few chapters I couldn't help but be drawn in and I was ready for things to get going...except they already were so I was curious what the story was going to do when the rebellion was already in full swing. I also had a very big sense of unease as I read certain scenes with certain characters. I shipped two characters, I thought they were cute but I had such an awful feeling and then the big twist happened and everything I thought this book was going to be was turned on its head. 

There are so many stunning plot twists to this novel. There are ones that you kind of have an inkling about from the way things are going but you're like 'oh no, the author wouldn't do tha-never mind'. Then there are the ones that are subtly crafted and creep up on you, so you start to get a creeping suspicion about something and then you get hit with the realisation as you put the pieces together right before the reveal and you have to take a minute to process everything and order your thoughts. We have all the exact same information as Ren does, and we find out bits and pieces at the same time as she does, it's just a case of which of us can put it together first. 

I have to be honest, I did find things to be a bit slow in places and the twists did seem to be timed to counter that and could be seen to be a bit overdone in that sense, though I did enjoy them. Particularly towards the end, my attention was fully engaged with the book and I found it harder and harder to put it down. Incendiary is quite trope-y in that it uses a lot of tropes we're all familiar with and have seen many times in this particular genre, I do feel like it brings something a little different with Ren and the consequence to her power as well as the way she isn't front and centre leading the rebellion. 

There are intriguing characters, some more fleshed out than others, the world was interesting and I enjoyed the world building even if I felt it could have been a little bit richer in places. For the most part, I had a really good time reading this, particularly as the story picked up pace in the latter half of the book and I'm definitely going to need to get my hands on the sequel to find out what happens next! Not to mention how Ren's power may or may not develop based on something we caught a little glimpse of in this book! 

Review: Bone Crier's Moon

Bone Crier's Moon
Rating: 3/5
Buy or Borrow: Borrow 
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review! 

Bone ​Criers have a sacred duty. They alone can keep the dead from preying on the living. But their power to ferry the spirits of the dead into goddess Elara’s Night Heavens or Tyrus’s Underworld comes from sacrifice. The gods demand a promise of dedication. And that promise comes at the cost of the Bone Criers’ one true love.

Ailesse has been prepared since birth to become the matriarch of the Bone Criers, a mysterious famille of women who use strengths drawn from animal bones to ferry dead souls. But first she must complete her rite of passage and kill the boy she’s also destined to love.

Bastien’s father was slain by a Bone Crier and he’s been seeking revenge ever since. Yet when he finally captures one, his vengeance will have to wait. Ailesse’s ritual has begun and now their fates are entwined—in life and in death.

Sabine has never had the stomach for the Bone Criers’ work. But when her best friend Ailesse is taken captive, Sabine will do whatever it takes to save her, even if it means defying their traditions—and their matriarch—to break the bond between Ailesse and Bastien. Before they all die.  

Bone Crier's Moon has been one of my anticipated reads for a while so I was eager to dive in, unfortunately it didn't quite live up to my expectations and often fell a little bit flat. While the world was intriguing and I was incredibly fascinated by the Bone Crier's and the lore surrounding them, the negatives outweigh the positives for me. 

I'll start off this review with what I did like about this book. As I said, the world is intriguing and so is the lore that surrounds the Bone Crier's, I actually thought it was quite original. I was excited to dive in and learn more about them and how everything worked. The opening of the book was misty and evocative and the atmosphere for the book was very well done throughout and was, in my opinion, one of the best parts of the book. It was atmospheric throughout and it was this atmosphere that helped pull you into the book and bring the settings to life. It just added a little extra something to the scenes and provided certain feelings depending on the scene and location. I was really able to get a strong feel for the aesthetic of the book as I was reading which I particularly enjoyed. 

There's some nicely placed ominous hints throughout the book about what's really going on with one of the characters and serves to provide a sense of intrigue to keep you reading. However, I think the biggest plus about this book is how badass all of the female characters are. They're strong, they can take care of their selves and they aren't afraid to fight back when they need to. Even Sabine who doesn't really enjoy violence all that much! Each of the Bone Crier's really had each other's backs and I loved the strong, deep female friendship depicted between Sabine and Ailesse though I would have loved to see a bit more of it! I'm a sucker for strong female friendships in books and this one certainly provided! 

However, there was quite a bit about this book that let it down for me and made me rate it three stars. While I did love the world and was intrigued by it, I felt like the world building was really lacking. There was enough detail for the magic system and so on, and the lore of the Bone Crier's, but when it came to the actual world and setting a feel like it wasn't followed through on enough. I assume it's a French inspired fantasy world judging from some of the words that were used, and there's the catacombs that are built from bones, but other than that I don't really have much of a feel or picture of the place. The Bone Crier's, the catacombs and the small area that Bastien inhabits are all expounded upon to a decent extent in most cases but other than that small corner there's not much known about the world. Some royalty are then thrown in at the end with not much detail. There's also a mention of some distant war but that's about it and we don't see much of the world. So much is poured into the mythology and magic system that I feel like the world building fell to the side a little. 

The same could be said for the characters and their backstory. They seem quite two dimensional and flat and all we really know about them are their basic motivators. Revenge, completing a ritual and rescuing a friend, there's not really that much more to them than that. In fact I wasn't even aware that Ailesse was the main character when I started reading, I thought it was Sabine and I think I might have actually preferred Sabine as the MC because I did feel like out of all of the characters, we got to know her the most and see her develop unlike the others. 

I also really wasn't feeling the romance, I have to be honest. It was straight up insta-love and I really wasn't a fan of it. All signs seemed to point towards Bastien and his female BFF who's name escapes me, but all of a sudden he's in love with Ailesse and I didn't...really...see why? All I gleaned from the book was that it was 'just because'. So I really didn't enjoy the romance, there was no chemistry between the two and it felt really lacklustre and then to make it even worse another guy is thrown in right at the end and again...it's insta-love. Hell, he hasn't even met her and he's falling all over himself because of her and I'm not entirely sure how a love triangle full of insta-love is going to pan out in the next book because I'm not particularly rooting for either couple. Honestly I was expecting a really intense/deep romance and this was...not it. 

After the initial excitement over the world and the mythology, my interest waned pretty quickly. While it does have a fast start and a fast pace, I just ended up not being that hooked? To the point I could quite easily skim read to get through it. The insta-love had my attention straying but also the very repetitive plot. Ailesse is constantly running away and getting caught and then running away again over and over, while Sabine is looking for her and there's shady goings on. There's huge time skips that I honestly didn't feel worked because the plot still went nowhere? And I would have  preferred to spend more time with Sabine as she developed and had to do the one thing she didn't really enjoy all to save her friend instead of reading the same sequence of events over and over. I ended up being pretty bored, and once I'd finished the book and was reflecting on it I realised that not a lot really happened, honestly. Which brings me to my next point.... 

For the majority of the book not a lot happens, as I said, and it's super repetitive but in what felt like the eleventh hour there was a plot twist that literally came out of nowhere. There were no hints to it or anything, at least not that I detected, and it really seemed like it was thrown in for shock value or to add something to make people keep reading and anticipate the next book. It really didn't seem to have the most solid basis to me, which wasn't helped by the lack of world building to be honest. 

Despite a promising start and premise, Bone Crier's Moon ultimately ended up falling for flat for me and being more than a little bit disappointing. Perhaps my expectations were too high as I know a lot of people actually really loved this book, but for me there were too many negatives and aspects that I wasn't too big a fan of! I haven't quite decided if I'll check out the sequel to see how it all ends or not yet! 

Review: Serpent & Dove

Serpent & Dove 
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review! 

Two years ago, Louise le Blanc fled her coven and took shelter in the city of Cesarine, forsaking all magic and living off whatever she could steal. There, witches like Lou are hunted. They are feared. And they are burned.

Sworn to the Church as a Chasseur, Reid Diggory has lived his life by one principle: thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. His path was never meant to cross with Lou's, but a wicked stunt forces them into an impossible union—holy matrimony.

The war between witches and Church is an ancient one, and Lou's most dangerous enemies bring a fate worse than fire. Unable to ignore her growing feelings, yet powerless to change what she is, a choice must be made.

And love makes fools of us all. 

It's taken me far too long to write this review up, but it's also taken me time to organise my thoughts in to a semblance of sense otherwise I'd just be screaming about it continuously! The synopsis for this hooked me straight away, but it's one of those books that sounds so unbelievably good, like something you didn't know you've been desperate for until you come across it and you kind of procrastinate reading it because you're worried it won't live up to the hype or you know...you'll read it and then it'll be over far too soon! 

While I had quite high expectations for this book from what everyone had been saying about it, I also wasn't entirely sure exactly what to expect from it, however I was blown away and not at all disappointed upon finishing it. It had so many things that I love in a book and it's one of my favourite books of the year...and of all time. 

There's intrigue from the start as we're thrown in to a vividly brought to life French inspired fantasy world. We're quickly getting to grips with the way the world of this book works and I was so in love with the world and the world building. I was constantly intrigued by the way the world of the book worked, the politics of it and the history of it. Not to mention the magic system with the witches which was fascinating to me and something a little bit different to anything I've read recently. There's two different kinds we're presented with, blood magic and then Lou's kind which asks for something in return for whatever spell you cast, which was interesting to see. Plus there's the whole 'smell of magic' aspect which was quite different! On top of that we've got Morgane le Blanc, and the Chasseurs and I constantly wanted to know more about everything and everyone. The world building was just so rich, it was a world and setting that you could easily fall in to and get lost wandering with the characters. 

The characters were equally as fascinating as the world and the magic system. I was so intrigued by Lou and her past, and eager to know more about her. But I loved her instantly and had no trouble connecting with her, or any of the other characters for that matter. Lou was my favourite, however, and she had me cackling when she was being her wonderfully snarky self with Reid and the other Chasseurs. I just fell in love with her, she's one of my all time favourite characters now, I can't lie! She was just so much fun, and I was right there with her throughout the entire book. 

I also took an instant liking to Coco and I'd love to get to see even more of her in the next book! Her friendship with Lou was another highlight of the book for me, but I'm also incredibly curious about Coco and her magic...and her family. 

When it comes to our other main character, Reid, I wanted to love him but he made it so hard in the beginning. However, that also gave me such a sense of anticipation for when the romance started. We get both Reid and Lou's point of views and when you see their initial chance meetings and interactions I was so ready for the romance to start because I knew sparks were going to fly and I was giddy with anticipation. I did come to see how Reid became the way he was and obviously I ended up loving him too! There were some fantastic plot twists when it came to his character, but I most loved watching him grow closer to Lou and open up to her a little. 

The pace for Serpent & Dove, as well as the romance alongside the plot, was excellent. Everything was built up wonderfully, and all the different elements came together fantastically. There was so much intrigue and mystery woven in to the plot, along with plenty of tension. The plot twists were fantastically timed, and completely mind blowing. The twists would build up and you'd have an epiphany like "oh my God no way, it can't be"...and then be proved instantly right. As for the romance...it was slow burn and I was living for it. I loved watching it build up, watching the feelings start to develop and I was in heaven reading this book okay! 

The writing is rich, it draws you in and the world darkens around you as you read and find yourself in the pages of the book. There's strong world building, wonderful characters that you have no issues connecting with and that really bring the story to life. The romance is slow burn and wonderfully done, the pace for the overall book is perfect and I had no trouble binge reading 200 page chunks of this book even though I was supposed to be working on an assignment at the time...oops. The characters are kind of morally grey and there's so many inner struggles and battles of right and wrong that the characters face. They all develop wonderfully, and there's an enemies to lovers romance...what more do you need? 

For the first time in a long time, I had such a book hangover upon finishing this and I'm still sad that it was over. The ending was wonderful, the book was strong right up until the end, and I've been left so eager for more, I can't wait for the sequel! 

Review: Angel Mage

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

More than a century has passed since Liliath crept into the empty sarcophagus of Saint Marguerite, fleeing the Fall of Ystara. But she emerges from her magical sleep still beautiful, looking no more than nineteen, and once again renews her single-minded quest to be united with her lover, Palleniel, the archangel of Ystara.

A seemingly impossible quest, but Liliath is one of the greatest practitioners of angelic magic to have ever lived, summoning angels and forcing them to do her bidding.

Liliath knew that most of the inhabitants of Ystara died from the Ash Blood plague or were transformed into beastlings, and she herself led the survivors who fled into neighboring Sarance. Now she learns that angels shun the Ystaran’s descendants. If they are touched by angelic magic, their blood will turn to ash. They are known as Refusers, and can only live the most lowly lives.

But Liliath cares nothing for the descendants of her people, save how they can serve her. It is four young Sarancians who hold her interest: Simeon, a studious doctor-in-training; Henri, a dedicated fortune hunter; Agnez, an adventurous musketeer cadet; and Dorotea, an icon-maker and scholar of angelic magic. They are the key to her quest.

The four feel a strange kinship from the moment they meet, but do not know why, or suspect their importance. All become pawns in Liliath’s grand scheme to fulfill her destiny and be united with the love of her life. No matter the cost to everyone else. . . 

I'm a huge fan of Garth Nix, though I haven't managed to work my way through all of his books yet, and I've been so excited for this ever since I first heard about it at Gollancz's blogger evening. Inspired by the Three Musketeers was enough to draw me in, let alone the angelic magic system! Unfortunately, me reading this coincided with my rather stressful, messy start at university so it took me longer to get through this than it normally would have! 

I loved the sound of the magic system when I first heard it described, and it certainly delivered on my expectations in the book. It was so original to me, and very cleverly done. I was utterly fascinated by it and eager to read as much about it as I could, and we do get a lot thrown at us from the start to do with it. It did take me a minute to process everything, but it was all I'd been hoping for and more. I loved delving further and further in to the magic and the angels and what they could do, not to mention the consequences to the magic, plus we had the mystery of what exactly Liliath was up to as well. 

I was hooked from the first chapter by the action, though this does have some slower parts. When I had the time, I binged through chunks of the book with no problem. The world building was excellent as is to be expected from Nix, and it so easily pulls you in. The settings really take shape around you as you read, and there are lots of maps at the front of the book to help you with placement. The language used by Nix too, also helps to visualise the world our characters live in. He picks his words very precisely to help evoke the setting and aesthetic. Another thing I particularly enjoyed about this world was we had a lot of swashbuckling female characters as the world is gender equal. We've got lots of ladies in positions of power, getting to be complete badasses and I was living for it. Especially as there are no stereotypical gender types to be seen.

I will also say that I did screech when I recognised names like Rochefort or Dartagnan and so on. Speaking of Rochefort, I wasn't too sure about her at first. I did quite like her, but I wasn't sure if I was supposed to and I only ended up loving her more and more as the book went on. I was rooting for her to side with Dorotea, and shipping it too, I can't lie! 

When it comes to Liliath, the way she's described as 'having a madness in her eyes' and 'corrupting Palleniel' had me unsure of whether she was the hero, the villain or just very morally grey. I was unsure whether I was rooting for her or rooting against her, but as a character she fascinated me. She gets more sinister, I think, as the book goes on, until she's truly revealed but I still couldn't dislike her.  She was determined in her goal, she was ruthless, so very, very cunning and she made no apologies for any of it and I loved that. She was an excellent character, and a fantastic villain. 

As for our four, I really, really loved them. They were each different, but they fit together and came together so well, and I loved the dynamic between them as they bonded more and more throughout the book. Simeon I will admit I didn't immediately take to, he seemed a bit superior or like he thought he was but he ended up being strangely humorous in his own way and he worked his way in to my affections. Henri, again, I wasn't quite sure about him, though I liked him well enough. He does love gold, and I did end up rolling my eyes at him a few times though in a fond way. After all, we'd all like to get our hands on some treasure I'm sure! Dorotea...I loved how chill she was, she was like 'oh, I'm going to the tower? Cool, I'm gonna have a nap'. She always remains calm and level headed, she's smart and I did end up genuinely shipping her with Rochefort! Last but not least we have my absolute favourite character, Agnez. I loved her from the start, we got a hilarious introduction to her and that scene will forever be imprinted in my brain to pull out when I need a chuckle. She's our Musketeer and she's very...rowdy. She's always up for a fight and very in to the Musketeers and her duties. I so fond of her throughout the entire book, even when she was doing crazy things like trying to duel with Rochefort! I need more Agnez! 

I enjoyed meeting each of the characters and watching them come together as they happened to bump in to each other, or at least seemingly so. I wouldn't put it past the lurking Refusers to have orchestrated it all but I liked how it was done and I got excited as each of them came in to contact with the others. I loved how they teamed up to go on this adventure together and worked through everything as a group, and like I said, each brings something different to the table. 

There's a nice blend of action, intrigue and world building, each of our characters has different personalities so you can never be bored by their interactions and their actions in general...especially Agnez. The writing was such that while there were slower parts as things built up, you didn't have to slog through pages and pages of description and so on. As I said before, Nix picks his words precisely, a single well chosen word going a long way to describe a character's clothing or a setting without using multiple ones and helping to evoke the setting and the world he was aiming for, pulling you in that little bit more. The writing is so very vivid and atmospheric, the world and the magic system able to be easily understood without making it too wordy and everything comes to a fantastic conclusion though I am sad that this is a standalone! I was ready to sink my teeth in to a full series of this, but everything is wrapped up wonderfully. I'd like it to be known I wouldn't be against to another book though...

Blog Tour: Angel Mage

Hello, and welcome to my stop on the Angel Mage blog tour! I'm so excited to be included in this blog tour, and I've got something a little special for you today...an extract from the book introducing one of the characters, Agnez! 

I'm nearly finished with reading the book and it is....stunning. I could so easily binge read this, it's not at all hard to read or heavy and if I could binge read the whole thing..I would have. I love Garth Nix's world building and the characters he creates and he never fails to draw me in to his worlds and have me getting lost for hours, Angel Mage is certainly no exception to that! I am so close to finishing the book and my review will be coming ASAP so keep an eye on my Twitter! 

Angel Mage is Garth Nix's first adult fantasy novel, and it's inspired by Dumas and The Three Musketeers in a gender equal world...but with Angelic magic and I can't begin to describe to you all how in love with the magic system I am! 

So what is Angel Mage about? Well...

More than a century has passed since Liliath crept into the empty sarcophagus of Saint Marguerite, fleeing the Fall of her country, Ystara. But she emerges from her magical sleep still beautiful, looking no more than nineteen, and once again renews her single-minded quest to be united with her lover, Palleniel, the archangel of Ystara.

Liliath’s quest centres round four young Sarancians, all seemingly different but who share something very important. There is Simeon, a studious doctor-in-training; Henri, a dedicated fortune hunter; Agnez, an adventurous musketeer; and Dorotea, an icon-maker and scholar of angelic magic.

The four feel a strange, immediate kinship for each other from the moment they meet, but they do not know why, or suspect their importance. Only Liliath knows their secret, and she aims to draw them in to her complex plot, just as she manipulates the Queen and her musketeers and everyone else around here.

The four friends must learn to rely on each other and each of their unique skills if they’re going to stand a chance to outwit Liliath and the angels she commands.

Intrigued? Of course you are, how could you not be!? So if you're ready to delve in to this world...continue on for the extract...

Ugh, I love Agnez okay, I hope you guys will love her too when you read this! I can promise you that the writing and world building for this book are so rich, and it really does pull you in as you read! I had high expectations for this book, and I have not been let down thus far! 

Don't forget to check out the other stops on the tour... 

 

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: Gods of Jade and Shadow

Gods of Jade and Shadow
Rating: DNF 
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review! 

The Jazz Age is in full swing, but Casiopea Tun is too busy cleaning the floors of her wealthy grandfather’s house to listen to any fast tunes. Nevertheless, she dreams of a life far from her dusty small town in southern Mexico. A life she can call her own. 

Yet this new life seems as distant as the stars, until the day she finds a curious wooden box in her grandfather’s room. She opens it—and accidentally frees the spirit of the Mayan god of death, who requests her help in recovering his throne from his treacherous brother. Failure will mean Casiopea’s demise, but success could make her dreams come true.

In the company of the strangely alluring god and armed with her wits, Casiopea begins an adventure that will take her on a cross-country odyssey from the jungles of Yucatán to the bright lights of Mexico City—and deep into the darkness of the Mayan underworld. 

Okay, so you guys may or may not know that I really struggle with DNF-ing books but last month I decided that enough is enough and if I'm not enjoying a book...I'm going to have to DNF it because I don't have the time to force myself to finish books that I'm not loving anymore. Especially as the other month I forced myself through quite a few reads that I ended up giving less than 3 stars. So here we are. I don't think you guys understand just how much I wanted to love this book. It's set in the Jazz Age, it's got Mexican Folklore and a Mayan God of Death...I wanted to love this book, and binge read it and just scream about it. 

Unfortunately, while intrigued, I found my attention wandering as I was reading and ultimately put the book down...and never really picked it back up. I tried, I'd pick it up...read a sentence and then end up putting it back down again. Much like I did with King of Ruin, I wanted to finish this and I tried to make myself but it just wasn't for me, it seems. 

What I did like, from the first 100 pages that I read, was the way the writing painted a vivid picture of Mexico right from the start. There's a lot of historical detail that was quite interesting and of course...we've got the mythology and the tales of the Gods which I can't get enough of. I admired the spark Cassiopeia had despite how she was treated by her family, I thought she was quite brave and refused to let them break her and that's all I really have to say, I'm afraid. 

This book is very simple in its storytelling, there wasn't as much depth as I'd have liked when it came to certain things, particularly the mythology, and sometimes the descriptions were a little sparse. Which is strange, considering the authors tendency to info dump quite easily at the beginning of the chapters when it came to each new city, which was what made it quite hard for me to pick this back up once I'd put it down. I happened to put it down when they'd just arrived in a new city and every time I picked it up and tried to carry on...I just couldn't get interested or invested because of the info dumping. I feel like there was a lot of telling when it came to this book, and not so much showing and I found it quite hard to get attached or invested in the characters which didn't help me when it came to reading this. 

While the premise was fantastic, the execution didn't quite live up to it, at least for me. This wasn't my style of book, and once I'd put it down I just couldn't get back in to it and I have to admit...I did start skimming after about 50 pages because of a lot of unnecessary writing.