Personal Rating: 3 Stars Goodreads rating at time of review: 4.18 Stars Content Rating: Light PG-13 Trigger Warnings: Racism, misogyny, character has panic attacks Floss is most definitely NOT marrying the Goblin King, even if it saves her a trip through the labyrinth. Floss, an aspiring law student, has enough troubles to ruffle anyone’s bustle. Her school of choice won’t let her in because of her gender, her equal rights league is hopelessly ineffective, and there aren’t enough calming tonics in the world to stave off her panic attacks. Now her niece is missing, the roguish Goblin King keeps proposing, and sinister forces threaten Floss’s city. She’ll have to brave a dangerous labyrinth and question everything she believes in to save not only her family, but an entire kingdom down below. If only the Goblin King wasn’t quite so distracting, she might actually be able to do it. (goodreads.com) As always, we must take a moment to behold a pretty cover. I love the pink! It sort of makes me think of the covers of old Barbie movies, which is a spectacular vibe. Now, if you read the description and if you’ve ever seen Jim Henson’s Labyrinth, you may be noticing some similarities between this book and that movie. And I think this book was inspired by Labyrinth (though I can find no information to back that up) or perhaps started as a fanfiction, but I can assure you the vibes are fairly distinct from one another. Though, I suppose they are the same enough that it would still interest someone who might be looking for a book “like Labyrinth”. As we get into this review, I fear that I might have several negative things to say, so I want to start out by saying that I did really enjoy reading it. Easy to get into, interesting world building, cute romance, female friendships, a dashing goblin king—all very fun to read and I liked it quite a bit. However, no matter how much of a good time I had while reading it, I also felt a persistent feeling of “hmm… that doesn’t seem quite right”. As well as a few other little things that bothered me. Let’s get into it, shall we? First off, the romance. It was cute. It was fun. The male main character was the king of a magical realm and a gentleman with a penchant for mischief. What could possibly go wrong with that? Well, for the most part the king was completely fine as a love interest (I was not expecting him to turn into a giant green creature that I could only picture as the Hulk, but you know, some people are into that so whatevs). It was Floss that I took most issue with. Floss was so… law abiding. Literally that’s one of her main character traits. She wants to be a lawyer and follow the law precisely. Which is fine, but it also meant that she was sort of naïve and ignorant of problems in her world. She is part of a group that protests for equal rights for women and magical creatures, but she is woefully uneducated about the plights of those magical creatures. It’s frustrating because she wants to do what is right, but she also won’t acknowledge when she is not doing what’s right. It reminds me very much of a well meaning woman of privilege who only sees her own problems and is insensitive to the injustices against minorities even as she speaks up for them. Like, she’s fighting for her equal rights and since she’s friends with magical creatures, she’ll tag their rights on too. That was another thing that bothered me. Equating magical creatures to real life minorities who are facing injustice is always a tricky thing to write. Because much of the time it starts to feel like mockery of real people, or saying that real people who face discrimination are “not human”. I’m just not sure that it’s the best idea to say that historically people of color faced the same problems as fairies. I suppose there are instances where it can be done well, but this book’s attempt at handling “magical social justice” left me feeling uncomfortable. Another irritation I have with Floss was that her motive for being such a rule follower was because of something bad she’d done in her past. And I don’t want to invalidate anyone’s trauma, but when you find out what the horribly wicked thing is that she did… it’s not really all that bad. I don’t even really understand why she did it apart from the fact that she was a child and children do stupid things. And when this big horrible thing is revealed to her sister, who was affected by the big horrible thing, Floss is immediately forgiven and faces no consequences, making me feel that it wasn’t really necessary to the plot. It seemed like it was put in as background information about Floss, supposedly telling us why she wants to be a lawyer. But the thing is, the reader is already told at the very beginning of the book what her motivations are and they seem perfectly believable. So I don’t really know why a second reason was necessary. I don’t want to spoil too much of the book or harp on it endlessly, but I also just want to mention that the conflict is resolved astoundingly easily. Sure, there is a whole journey through a labyrinth to get through, but once that is done then everything sort of just falls into place with minimal bumps in the road. The antagonist causes a little bit of drama, but other than that, everything is worked out super easily. This would have been fine, because by the end of the book I was more interested to see the resolution to the romance. However, a redundant amount of time was spent on sorting out the main conflict instead (which, as mentioned, practically solved itself anyway). The romance is sorted out with a teeny tiny epilogue that felt somewhat unsatisfactory. I liked Floss and the goblin king as a couple, I wanted to see more of their relationship once the labyrinth business was sorted. Also, brief note: one of the goblin kingdom’s major problems was solved by the tourism industry. The problem created by imperialism was solved with tourism. And that just seems… I don’t know, maybe too close to real history for many places. Especially because the citizens of the goblin kingdom seem quite averse to outsiders (which Floss knows when she suggests the “solution” of tourism) and they don’t really want further intrusion from the oppressive empire. You probably wouldn’t believe it from all of the critiques I just mentioned, but I did genuinely enjoy reading this book. The magic was fun, the writing voice was comedic, but not overly so, the characters were, for the most part, interesting. There were just certain aspects that I felt were not as good as they could have been. It is hard to praise the features of the book that I really liked when they are so entangled with potentially problematic pieces. All of that being said, I do want to read the next book in this series when it is released as well as the novella (only available as an ebook currently) that is already out. If I do, I will try to post another review and we’ll see if things improve for the world of “Lady Primrose Presents”. Thank you for reading this review, I’m off to run the labyrinth to get my cat back. I’m sure that’s where she goes when I can’t find her. TTFN! Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60210872-how-to-train-your-goblin-king
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Drinking game: take a shot every time I say "vibes" in this video. Actually don't. It is probably dangerous to your health. And I don't condone excessive drinking in this here corner of the internet. I still have almost three months until the Renaissance Festival in my area, but I am already exceedingly pumped for it. I get giddy just thinking about it and always love to have books to read that give me the same warm fuzzy feeling that the Ren Faire does. So, I thought I would share some great books to read if you would also liked to be excited for Renaissance Faire season with me! Feast thine eyes on my latest YouTube video and let the merriment begin! (Yes that's me in the thumbnail... no I did not hit the target.) Personal Rating: 4 Stars Goodreads rating at time of review: 3.96 Content Rating: Light PG-13 (some violence) What if you had one year to save everything you loved? ONE PRINCESS. Merida of DunBroch needs a change. She loves her family—jovial King Fergus, proper Queen Elinor, the mischievous triplets— and her peaceful kingdom. But she’s frustrated by its sluggishness; each day, the same. Merida longs for adventure, purpose, challenge – maybe even, someday, love. TWO GODS. But the fiery Princess never expects her disquiet to manifest by way of Feradach, an uncanny supernatural being tasked with rooting out rot and stagnation, who appears in DunBroch on Christmas Eve with the intent to demolish the realm – and everyone within. Only the intervention of the Cailleach, an ancient entity of creation, gives Merida a shred of hope: convince her family to change within the year – or suffer the eternal consequences. THREE VOYAGES. Under the watchful eyes of the gods, Merida leads a series of epic journeys to kingdoms near and far in an attempt to inspire revolution within her family. But in her efforts to save those she loves from ruin, has Merida lost sight of the Clan member grown most stagnant of all – herself? FOUR SEASONS TO SAVE DUNBROCH – OR SEE IT DESTROYED, FOREVER. (goodreads.com) Beware, I'm about to get kind of personal in this review. I just have a lot of feelings, okay? Full disclosure, Brave is one of my all time favorite movies. Not just Pixar, not just Disney—one of my favorite movies out of all the movies I’ve seen in my life. So I went into this book feeling rather nervous. I have read and watched sequels to movies before where all of the character development from the original movie is undone. Sometimes there are massive continuity errors or character deaths that are completely unnecessary. I was so worried that something like that would happen in this book and that I would hate it. And guess what… some of those things I mentioned did happen (to a much lesser extent than I was expecting, thankfully) but I absolutely loved the majority of this book. Without any further ado, let’s get right into this, shall we? I have many thoughts and I don’t want this review to turn into a full blown book in its own right. First off, the bad. (My least favorite part of this book I will create a spoiler section for. I have severely mixed feelings about it and need to rant to someone, but it is from the very end of the book and I don’t want to spoil things for anyone who doesn’t want to be spoiled. But if you don’t care or have read the book already, go right ahead and jump to that spoiler section.) One thing that is very minor, but irritated me about this book is how they treated Merida’s animal companion. She is technically a Disney Princess and in being such, obviously has an animal companion. Hers is Angus, a massive draft horse who is, for all intents and purposes, a good boy. He’s also not very old. I mean, they never say how old he is in the movie, but he doesn’t seem that old. My sister who works with horses regularly, also agrees that he doesn’t seem that old. However, in the book they keep referring to him as ancient and said that he had to come out of retirement for a road trip they were taking. They acted like he was fragile and decrepit. And this book, as far as I can tell, takes place about four or five years after the movie, but horses can live up to thirty years so he shouldn’t be ancient just yet. Angus is such a minor part of this story that it’s really not important, but it bothered me and I’m in charge of this blog so I get to talk about whatever I want. Another thing I didn’t like about this book was the relationship between Merida and her mother, Queen Elinor. Now, if you’ve seen the movie, you know that they have had a rocky relationship in the past and that the movie was about mending that relationship. And sure, not everything is going to be perfect after one magical adventure where the queen gets turned into a bear, but I feel like the lessons they learned when the queen gets turned into a bear would be pretty memorable and that they would keep trying to fix their relationship. And it is better in this book than it was at the start of the movie, but it also feels like Elinor isn’t actually trying to make it better, she’s just not arguing with Merida. It almost feels like she’s afraid of her daughter turning her into a bear again. Which was an accident (sort of) in the first place! By the end of the book I felt things were a bit better, but I still wasn’t satisfied with Merida and Elinor’s behavior toward one another. I will say that Elinor was in the book little enough that this relationship did not truly affect how I felt about the rest of the story. So, again, not a major problem, just a little irritation. One more nitpick-y thing and then I’ll get to the parts of the book that I enjoyed (which were most of them). Merida, you may recall, has three much younger brothers: Hubert, Hamish, and Harris. In the movie, they are indistinguishable from each other and they don’t speak. Mostly because they aren’t hugely important to the film apart from causing shenanigans and sometimes helping Merida. In this book, however, they play a much more important role, which is great. I will say that I was anxious about what their dialogue would be like, since they don’t talk in the movie and they don’t have distinct personalities either, but it was well done. It started off with them not speaking, or making gestures like in the movie, then they would all speak as one for a while, and slowly we are eased into the triplets being independent of one another and getting to know their personalities and how their personalities and Merida’s view of them evolve over the course of the story. That’s not the part I have complaints with. The part I have complaints with is, again, super minor and not hugely important, but irritated me. At one point, Merida questions whether her brothers know about the secret passages all throughout Castle DunBroch. And, thankfully, later, two of the three triplets assure her that they’ve already seen the passages. But it bothers me that Merida doesn’t know that because it is one of the triplet’s biggest roles in the movie. They are constantly crawling through secret tunnels and popping up at other ends of the castle. It’s a whole thing during a scene where they have to lead King Fergus on a wild goose bear hunt through the castle. And it’s ALL THREE OF THEM. Not just Hubert and Harris. Hamish knows the secret passages too! In the book he says the secret tunnels sound scary, like he’s never been there or something. And though Merida doesn’t really see the boys use the passages in the movie, I just feel like she would know that they do. Because it’s their whole thing. And maybe in the book, it’s supposed to show us that Merida doesn’t always think of others, or how she has a set view of the people around her that needs to be updated and changed, which fits with the themes of the book. But still. I’m just a bit salty about it. Okay, enough ranting about tiny details. Let’s get to what I actually liked. Maggie Stiefvater is a wizard with words and plots. She wrote The Raven Boys series (which I did review on this blog, but I can’t find where I put it so I can’t link it) which didn’t end up being a good series for me personally, but let me give you a quote about how I felt about the writing: “THE GOSH DARNED WRITING WAS JUST SO GOSH DARNED GOOD AND THE CHARACTERS WERE WELL WRITTEN AND WELL DEVELOPED AND THE PLOT WAS INSANE AND INCREDIBLE.” So even when I don’t like the themes of Maggie Stiefvater’s books, I still am shocked and astounded by her writing. It’s unbelievably phenomenal and I was pleased to find that this was also the case with Bravely. I mean, the first chapter starts with a lengthy description of bread. I freaking love bread. The descriptions of food in general were just the epitome of “chef’s kiss”, actually. It sort of reminded me of the Redwall series by Brian Jacques. Descriptions of everything were grand. The descriptions of the settings were vivid, the descriptions of people were spot on and helpful, and the descriptions of daily castle life were realistic without being too gross (because we all know medieval times were nasty and it’s nice to no have to focus on that). The prose of this book wrapped me in a big hug every time I picked it up.
This book made me feel so comfortable reading it, but it also made me uncomfortable--in a good way! This book is all about change, but not change for the sake of doing something different. It’s about avoiding stagnation. Breaking out of your bubble of safety. Learning more about the world and people around you. It does a great job of actually changing the characters too, because rather than taking the easy route and saying “let’s just make this character experience the opposite of what their normal personality is like and call that change” it introduced them to aspects of their life that they needed to improve and their development felt organic. Lately, in my own life, I have been feeling a bit afraid of change. I’ve gotten comfortable in my house, with my cat, reading, writing, watching videos in the embrace of my blankets and big changes are scary. Part of this is probably because it is winter and winter makes it so difficult to do anything. (You can’t just leave the house, you have to bundle up, check road conditions, be prepared for it to get dark early, and experience the biting cold when you actually do get outside. It’s hard to be moving when all the sensible creatures are hibernating.) But big changes are scary for me right now too because there are tangible momentous things upcoming in the near future. Career adjustments, friends getting married, siblings graduating college or heading out on their own, the possibility of going back to school myself--all big exciting and terrifying things that spook me into inactivity. So, with the whole plot of this book being that Merida needs to find a way to help her family, friends, and home get out of their stagnant state within a year, it made me dwell on some of the ways my own life is moving ever onward and how I’ve been resistant to that lately. And even though that’s not exactly comfortable or easy, it is important. I think I read this book at the exact right time and I am grateful for it. Good books always help me process the world. Okay, enough goopy sentimentality. Another thing I like about this book is that it can stand on its own even if you haven’t read the movie. In fact, I might have almost liked it better if it weren’t connected to Brave, but I can’t quite say that with complete honesty. I think, because I have always felt a bit of connection with Merida, it made me feel more at home and invested in the happenings of this story. If it had been some other princess that is new to me, I probably wouldn’t have cared about what was going on. However, I still think others who haven’t seen the movie would really enjoy this book. The stakes are high in this book, but the edge-of-your-seat-action is at a minimum (there is one really intense scene with a fire and another with some battle, but that’s about it), so it reads like a cozy fantasy (the multiple feasts help with that). There isn’t a ton of magic in it either, so if you like more historical fiction type stories, this nearly falls under that category too. As I said before, I have a least favorite part of this book that is very much a spoiler. So I have included a spoiler section down below if you would like to see the reason why I knocked off one star from what would have been a five star read for me otherwise. This part of the review, however, we shall leave on a happy note. I wish there were more to this book so that I could keep reading it. I love the theme of change and the way this book handled it with its characters. And, as I’ve said before, Maggie Stiefvater’s writing style is incredible and even though I wasn’t a fan of The Raven Boys, I seriously need to check out some of her other work. Thanks for reading, I’m off to turn my mom into a bear (jk, jk, I would never do that… on purpose). I’ll see you in the next review! Click on “Read More” in the bottom right corner to see the spoiler section! Personal Rating: 3.5 Stars Goodreads rating at time of review: 4.71 Stars Content Rating: PG-13 (violence, romance, death) Trigger warnings: Death of parents, murder, sick baby (who is healed) In the woods where human lands meet fae, an ancient king born before the history of men finds a dying baby. Iohmar will take in the child and care for him until a suitable home in the human realm is found. But best laid plans often go awry in the lands of Látwill, where winds carry fae across the star-strewn sky, the woods ensnare the weak-minded with their sinister song, and even Iohmar, King Beneath the Earth, is susceptible to the will of the immortal mountains. Magic long tethered to Iohmar’s soul will crumble. Unknown shadows and monsters of mirrored glass will encroach upon the borders of their land. And memories thousands of years lost will unravel as Iohmar struggles not only to properly rule his fair folk, but protect the fragile human son he never should have saved in the first place. (goodreads.com) As usual, we must start with a round of applause for the gorgeous cover art. And before you finish your ooohs and aaaahs about that jacket, allow me to show you a picture of what the hardcover version looks like under the jacket: Stunning, right? I believe the author designed the artwork herself! And, to sell you further on the beauty of this book, let me tell you that it also features: a map, chapter heading illustrations, and a table of contents (wooo table of contents!).
I heard about this book from the author on TikTok. Her username is @emilymccosh if you want to check her out! The concept of an ancient fae king finding and adopting a human baby sounded so wonderful and adorable to me that I had to buy it as soon as it was released. Of course, as is the case with all books I’m excited for, it was released in November, which is the one month out of the year when I try not to read any books because I’m doing NaNoWriMo. So then I waited all the way until the start of this month to begin reading. Right off the bat, I’m going to tell you that this book was not exactly what I was expecting, which is always a bit disappointing, but if I had gone into it knowing what it was actually going to be like then I still would have enjoyed it. See, I was expecting it to be more of a cozy, sort of slice-of-life-y father/son bonding book about the trials of raising a baby. However, this book is actually an intricate, lyrical, description of nature and love and magic. So, if you are looking for a cutesy, raising a baby story, this is not what you are looking for. But if you are looking to be swept away in magical descriptions with unique fae creatures and cradled in flowery language, then this is exactly what you need. This story is very much a fairy tale in its telling; it gave off similar vibes as the writings of the Brothers Grimm, but with more attachment to the characters and less bloody violence. As far as the characters go, I really liked the main character, Iohmar, and the other fae ruler, Queen Rúnda. They had interesting magical abilities, such as being able to summon the winds to ride or teleport using rays of sunlight. In fact, every one of the magical folk had interesting abilities, though they weren’t always shown as much as I would have liked. There is a mystery element to this book that I wasn’t expecting, but quite liked. There are spooky shadows that keep appearing to Iohmar, seeming to want something from him, but not communicating what that is. And then there the ripplings, shimmering creatures that were long ago enemies and are now popping up again, much to Iohmar’s horror. The actual raising of the human baby might have been, sadly, my least favorite part of the story. It was sweet, sure, but I think it would have been better if the baby had behaved a bit more like an actual baby. At first, he did cry and seemed more like a real child, but became remarkably well behaved after Iohmar decided to keep him forever. I won’t say too much as to why, because that’s a bit of a spoiler, but personally, I would have liked it if Iohmar had to struggle a bit with raising a kid. Instead, it was just the perfect parts of parenting, which made me feel like the adorable parts between Iohmar and his baby weren’t really earned. Which sounds weird, but that’s the only way I can think of to phrase it. Though there was a mystery element to the story, the stakes did not feel very high. This really contributed to its fairy tale-ness, because when you read a fairy tale or fable, you usually know that good people have a good ending. So, it was kind of relaxing in that way. You don’t have to constantly be worrying about the whole world crashing and burning around them really and I liked that. As I said before, the wording of this book is just absolutely stellar. Everything is described so beautifully and if you close your eyes, you can picture yourself in the magical forest, you can almost smell the earth in the underground scenes, or feel the heat of the sand in the desert. I’ve never read Tolkien (yes, I know, I'm the worst), but from what I’ve heard, this story and his writings share lengthy nature descriptions. So if you are in the mood for that, then this would be a great read for you. The living forest aspect of it also reminded me somewhat of Narnia (which I have read... some of). Honestly, this is the perfect book to curl up outside or by a fire. When you want to be engaged in the act of reading and soaking in words, but also soaking in the environment around you. So glad that I came across this book, and while it wasn’t exactly what I hoped it would be, I still enjoyed reading it before bed and feeling extra cozy with it. Well, I’m off to catch a ride on the wind! Thanks for reading, until next time! Cover image source: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/61419513 Personal Rating: 5 stars Goodreads rating at time of review: 3.9 stars Content Rating: PG-13 (for violence) TW: Violence, racism Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs. Knowledge comes at a cost, one that Binti is willing to pay, but her journey will not be easy. The world she seeks to enter has long warred with the Meduse, an alien race that has become the stuff of nightmares. Oomza University has wronged the Meduse, and Binti's stellar travel will bring her within their deadly reach. If Binti hopes to survive the legacy of a war not of her making, she will need both the gifts of her people and the wisdom enshrined within the University, itself -- but first she has to make it there, alive. (goodreads.com) Why is it that books in the Science Fiction genre always either have totally boring covers or completely gorgeous covers? There is no in between and this book falls solidly on the completely gorgeous end of the scale. The colors! The stars! The details! The intense look on Binti’s face! Amazing. Okay, with my swooning over the cover out of the way, let’s get on to talking about the actual book, shall we? This is a Sci-Fi novella (less than 100 pages) about a girl from a future Earth. She lives in a desert that she has never left and she is an amazing mathematician. Out of the Himba people, she is the only one to ever be accepted to a prestigious space college and even though her family does not want her to go, she sneaks away to get on the spaceship that will take her off of Earth and to the school. I generally have trouble getting into “heavy-duty” Sci-Fi/space travel books, but if more of them were in novella format like this book and All Systems Red then I might enjoy more of them. Since shorter novels need to make more use of their words and their plot and can’t spend too long on pages-long descriptions of how things work, they tend to pack more of a punch and they definitely hold my focus better. It also doesn’t hurt to have more female Sci-Fi characters and, of course, more characters of color in Sci-Fi as well. Make it more relatable for more people and more people will enjoy it. Anyway, I’m not here to climb on any sorts of soap boxes today, I’m here to talk about a book. I did not research this book very much before reading it, so I was definitely surprised by some of the things that happened in the plot. It kept me on my toes and kept me worried for the safety of the main character. Sometimes it’s nice to go into a book blind and not have any idea of what conflicts might pop up. Binti was a stellar (pun most definitely intended) character who I enjoyed reading about. I was invested in the outcome of her situation immediately and I can’t wait to read the sequels to learn more about her. I do wish there had been a few more important characters who Binti could interact with, as there was really only one who she connected with much. Perhaps more connections and characters will show up in the sequels. It’s hard to review a book that I enjoyed so much because, while I can think of plenty of positive things to say, without getting into spoilers all of the positive things sound pretty generic. So, I apologize that this is a short review, but I don’t want to ruin this book for you if you intend to read it. Which you should. Especially if you love Science Fiction but you don’t always have the patience to read Science Fiction. Also, if you like exploring African culture in a futuristic setting with aliens and mysterious rocks and excitement. It’s a good time. Thank you for reading this short review, hopefully next time I’ll have more to say. They can’t all be comically sarcastic scathing reviews of terrible pirate books *cough* The Dust of 100 Dogs *cough, hack, wheeze*. Until next time! I’m off to apply for space college and see if it goes better than my bout with real college… Image source: https://goodreads.com/book/show/25819514-binti Personal Rating: 2 stars Goodreads rating at time of review: 3.62 stars Content Rating: R (for violence, sex, abuse, and language) TW: Domestic abuse, animal abuse, rape, addiction, mental health, violence, stalking, and probably some other things I’m forgetting. In the late seventeenth century, famed teenage pirate Emer Morrisey was on the cusp of escaping the pirate life with her one true love and unfathomable riches when she was slain and cursed with "the dust of one hundred dogs," dooming her to one hundred lives as a dog before returning to a human body-with her memories intact. Now she's a contemporary American teenager and all she needs to escape her no-good family and establish a luxurious life of her own is a shovel and a ride to Jamaica… (goodreads.com) Believe it or not, this is actually a book my cat selected for me to read. I saw a person on TikTok do a video where they put some books they wanted to read in a circle and then put their pet snake in the middle of the circle to see which book the snake wanted them to read next. I decided to copy this with my cat Elinor in the TikTok you can find here. Now you’re probably looking at this video and then looking at my rating of this book and thinking “sheesh, your cat is terrible at picking out books”. And… well, you may be right, but how can we know for sure unless she picks more? This was only her first try. Besides, I think Elinor picked out this book because it’s been on my TBR for quite some time and she sensed it was not good, but knew I wouldn’t ever get rid of it without reading it. So she prompted me to read it so I could see that it was bad and then pass it on to someone else out in the world. At least, that’s the theory I’m going with. Anyway! Moving on. I thought this book was going to be great or at least decent because the premise sounded so interesting and I love a good pirate story. I also thought it was going to be a book for teens, and while it is tagged as being YA/Teen on Goodreads, I definitely felt that it was more for adults. Putting this book in YA feels similar to putting the A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas in YA. Like yeah, okay, I guess it could technically be for “young adults” but young adults and teens are lumped together and you have to remember that “teen” starts at 13. And younger kids than that browse the teen section. I’m just saying. I feel like that’s my biggest bone to pick with this book. If it had been presented as an adult book then I would have been less shocked at the mature content. Well, probably not because you know at heart I’m secretly an old, eternally scandalized church lady clutching her pearls. But I at least would have had an inkling! Apart from all of the dark and troublesome themes in this book, the plot was actually pretty interesting. (If it hadn’t been, I wouldn’t have finished it and this review wouldn’t exist.) The story is broken down into chapters of Saffron Adams in the 1980s and 90s, backstory for Emer Morrisey from the late 1600s, and sections that are one part dog training advice and one part more back story. Saffron Adams is the human reincarnation of Emer Morrisey, a pirate who was cursed to live many lives as dogs before turning back into a human. She also retains all of Emer’s memories, including the memory of where she buried her treasure and of all the time she spent as dogs. As far as characters go: they were okay. Most of them were horrible people, but the only one we get much development for is Emer/Saffron. She was a decent main character. She went through a lot of terrible stuff and changed a lot from the beginning of the book to the end. One thing I couldn’t stand about her was how she was such a I’m-not-like-other-girls-girl and how little she cared for other women when she was a pirate and when she was a highschooler. Like, I get the book was published in 2009 when that was the thing, but it really is so irksome. I did wish there were more piratical adventures. The chapters that took place in the 1600s were really just backstory for how Emer became a pirate until the book gets to chapter 20 or so, which is pretty late in the book. And after that, there were plenty of pirate shenanigans from Emer, but they were told in broad strokes, just giving the reader an overview of the things she did. I had hoped that Saffron would also get up to pirate business, but her chapters were mainly about her time spent with her struggling family. She mainly dealt with her mother’s high expectations for her and her brother’s drug addiction until she graduated high school and was free to go look for treasure, which was, again, late in the book. Still, there was enough going on and enough intrigue that it kept me interested. I feel like the pace really began to pick up after the halfway point and from there on out it was pretty exciting. However, despite the attention keeping writing and the plot, if I had known about all of the rape, addiction, and abuse that were going to be in this book, I probably would have never read it and I do not recommend it. I’m going to do a spoiler section/rant below, so feel free to keep reading if you don’t care about spoilers. Otherwise, thanks for stopping by, best of luck in all of your treasure hunting adventures. Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33931132-the-dust-of-100-dogs Personal Rating: 5 Stars Goodreads Rating: 4.02 Content Rating: PG-13 Trigger Warnings: Depictions of war (WWII) and some violence. Joshua Pearl comes from a world that we no longer believe in — a world of fairy tale. He knows that his great love waits for him there, but he is stuck in an unfamiliar time and place — an old-world marshmallow shop in Paris on the eve of World War II. As his memories begin to fade, Joshua seeks out strange objects: tiny fragments of tales that have already been told, trinkets that might possibly help him prove his own story before his love is lost forever. (goodreads.com) This, like Raybearer, was a book for the book club I do with some of my coworkers. We are reading a book from a different country every month and for May we did France. This book was originally written in French and I was a little apprehensive to read it at first as some reviews said that they thought it didn’t make as much sense in English. However, though it was a bit confusing at first due to the alternating points of view and scrambled timeline, it didn’t take long for me to sort things out and get wrapped up in the story. I actually liked this story so much when I finished it that I shelved it next to Inkheart and The Thief Lord (if you know me then you know how high of an honor that is). The Book of Pearl is a wonderful mixture of fairy tale, historical fiction, and contemporary fantasy. There are three different stories going on in this book. The story of a fairy tale inspired land, the story of a young man in World War II, and the story of a different young man with a camera (in more modern times). It takes a little while to sort out who is who, especially if you go into the book fairly blind as I did, but I’d say by the end of Part One everything is pretty clear. If you are looking for a book that delves deep into the characters emotions, this is not that. It is told more like a fairytale than a novel, but I still feel like you get to know all of the important players in it, just not necessarily through their thoughts on the events. Because of the unique way that it is told, I feel that it would make for an excellent movie. For real. If anyone reading this is in the movie industry (ha) and the author agrees, can we, uh, can we get on that, please? I don’t know if it would make a lot of money or not, but I just want it. But not Disney. They’d ruin it (like they did with a certain other book-to-movie adaptation). Thanks. Good talk. If you are someone who likes beautiful writing, fairies, fiction set during World War II, a freaking marshmallow shop, or adventure, then I recommend you give this book a shot. I may or may not have stayed up until 1:30am to finish it because I was so enchanted by it. And I may have hugged it when I was done with it. You know, just normal stuff. Well, I’m off to eat a bag full of marshmallows and pretend they are as fancy as the ones in this book. Thanks for reading! I’ll see you next time! Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34877733-the-book-of-pearl Personal Rating: 3.5 stars Goodreads Rating: 3.6 stars Content Rating: Strong PG-13 (for violence and a bit of language) Trigger Warnings: There is a little bit of self-harm. For a hundred years, the once-prosperous kingdom of Perin Faye has suffered under the rule of the greedy and power-hungry Thungrave kings. Maralyth Graylaern, a vintner's daughter, has no idea her hidden magical power is proof of a secret bloodline and claim to the throne. Alac Thungrave, the king’s second son, has always been uncomfortable with his position as the spare heir—and the dark, stolen magic that comes with ruling. When Maralyth becomes embroiled in a plot to murder the royal family and seize the throne, a cat-and-mouse chase ensues in an adventure of dark magic, court intrigue, and forbidden love. (goodreads.com) These days, it is rare that I pick up a book on a whim. When I was a kid I would take home a huge stack of books from the library or bookstore and then devour them within the week. However, in recent years, what with working two jobs and trying to keep up with friends and family in the midst of a global pandemic as well as read all of the books on my TBR, write stories and blog posts, and watch the TV shows or movies that have been recommended to me… I don’t really find myself adding random books from the library shelves to my list of priorities. Not to say that I don’t read anymore, I obviously do, but I find that most of the books I read I have done research on, read other reviews for, or at least had a friend tell me about. This book was a rare flashback to my past. I saw it at work, I thought the cover was pretty, I briefly read over the summary, and I decided I wanted to read it. And I actually read it. Shocking, I know. This book is told through alternating perspectives, which can be hit or miss. Usually, what I find happening with books like this is that I enjoy one character’s perspective more than the others and only want to read what is going on with that character. With this book, however, there were only two perspectives to switch between and they both kept me entertained and on the edge of my seat, so I didn’t feel like I needed to rush through one perspective or the other. Both main characters were fun to keep up with and I did enjoy the romance that begins to bloom between them (though I wish there had been a little bit more development to that romance). Alac—though his name sounds like a Shakespearean exclamation of distress—was a nice change from the typical male protagonists we get in this kind of book. For one thing, he was blond, which is nearly unheard of for a dark, somewhat brooding prince. For another, he was obsessed with wine making, which was awfully convenient considering Maralyth was born and raised in a vineyard. It was also refreshing that he was not at all interested in becoming king… at least at the start. He kind of did one-eighty at one point, at which point he really wanted to be king, but we won’t get into that. He seemed like a nice dude with good intentions and sometimes that’s the kind of guy I like to see in books, instead of the sinister types with a fleck of decency in them. Maralyth was a little boring, I’m not going to lie, but I still enjoyed her chapters. She had magical plant/life powers that she used differently than I might have, but it was still fun. I do wish there had been some sort of rule set for how her magic worked because at first I thought it was just plant-based, but then she also made people and animals fall asleep so I think it must just be life-form based. I would have liked a little clarification though. As much as I liked that this is not part of a series, I do wish that it had been a little longer. I wanted more of the epilogue type stuff, with smiles and happily ever afters. I typically want that from books though. I like to see characters happy because, I don’t know, sentiment or something. But, it was nice to have everything wrapped up in one book rather than an extensive series (not that I don’t love a good series, it’s just hard to keep track of them all). I feel like this book was very similar to The Shadows Between Us by Tricia Levenseller, but with less steamy-ness and a less annoying, less stabby female protagonist. So, if you are interested in magic, political drama, coups, and a dash of romance, then this may be the book for you! Thanks for reading! Until next time! Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53205978-the-stolen-kingdom?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=qU4kd8LMao&rank=1 Personal Rating: 4 Stars Goodreads Rating: 4.44 Stars Content Rating: Strong PG-13 Trigger Warnings: Abuse, rape (nothing graphic), gaslighting Tarisai has always longed for the warmth of a family. She was raised in isolation by a mysterious, often absent mother known only as The Lady. The Lady sends her to the capital of the global empire of Aritsar to compete with other children to be chosen as one of the Crown Prince’s Council of 11. If she’s picked, she’ll be joined with the other Council members through the Ray, a bond deeper than blood. That closeness is irresistible to Tarisai, who has always wanted to belong somewhere. But The Lady has other ideas, including a magical wish that Tarisai is compelled to obey: Kill the Crown Prince once she gains his trust. Tarisai won’t stand by and become someone’s pawn—but is she strong enough to choose a different path for herself? (goodreads.com) This is a book that I read for the book club I’m doing with some of my coworkers, which I hadn’t heard of before this. I’m really glad that my coworker suggested it for our April book because I really enjoyed it and it’s vast world. Plus, look at that cover! You know I’m a sucker for a cover with gold on it. And this one has lots of pretty colors to boot! It is inspired by West-Africa (according to Google) and takes place in a made up world in the empire of Aritsar, which is made up of many different, exciting countries based on real world places. Aritsar is really quite the diverse, and probably humongous, place with countries in it that resemble places in Africa, Europe, and Asia all in one continent. I really liked this idea because it allowed for there to be a diverse cast of characters with different beliefs and appearances. With books like this I always have fun trying to puzzle out which real world countries the made up ones represent as well. With all of these detailed countries with characters and traditions, it was difficult to keep track of the names of everything. After I read the book I realised there was a glossary of terms and a pronunciation guide for the names at the back. If I had known it was back there to start off with I think I would have struggled much less trying to remember everything. So, learn from my mistakes and reference the glossary if you choose to read this! There is a lot to keep track of. There were so many characters in this story, so if you read it check the glossary to help keep track of everyone. Or make a list like my very smart grandmother does when she reads books with tons of characters. Or you could be dumb like me and just keep plowing on and being confused for a few moments until you remember who is who. I really liked Tarisai, the MC, and sympathised with the struggles that she faced. I love to have a protagonist who I can root for and that was definitely the case here. I dearly wanted to see her succeed and I can’t wait to read the sequel (it’s a duology) to see if that happens. With this huge cast of characters I know we couldn’t take time to get to know all of them, but since Tarisai and Prince Dayo are supposed to be as close as siblings with these ten other teenagers, I do kind of wish that we had gotten to get to know at least those ten better. There are two members of their little family who are best friends with Tarisai and so I felt like their backstories were well woven into the story, but not so much the others. Perhaps in book two we’ll get to see more of them. I want to learn what all of their Hallows (super powers) are! One thing I really, really liked about this book is something that probably seems small, but it seriously made this book stand out to me. The characters are honest with each other. At least for the most part. And when they do lie or withhold information from the other characters, it is usually for an excellent reason and not to create unnecessary drama. I absolutely hate it in books when the main character has something huge and terrifying going on, but refuses to tell anyone because “oh, it’s not their burden to bear” or “I couldn’t possibly say anything to them because even though they are the person I trust most in the whole world, they’ll probably hate me if I tell them” (to be fair, that does happen in books quite a lot), or “it might put them in danger”, or “nah bro, I just like keeping secrets because it creates tension and drama when people eventually figure it out because of a bad guy telling them or because I slip up”. It was SO REFRESHING to have Tarisai tell people the truth and ask for their help. I am so excited to read the sequel to this book and I am fuming that I have to wait until August before it is available. Do you know how short my memory is?! I won’t forget the main points of the plot by then, but I will inevitably be confused. Fingers crossed that the second book also has a glossary. Also! How can you expect me to wait four months with the first book ending the way it did?! Unacceptable. As you have probably inferred, I really liked Raybearer and I definitely recommend it to anyone who likes to get lost in a new fantasy world. Now if you’ll excuse me, I am off to wander in the wilderness and see if I can find some hopefully friendly tutsu. Until next time! Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50158128-raybearer Personal Rating: 3.5 Stars Goodreads Rating: 3.61 Stars Content Rating: Strong PG-13 (for violence) King Midas once had the ability to turn all he touched into gold. But after his gift—or curse—almost killed his daughter, Midas relinquished The Touch forever. Ten years later, Princess Kora still bears the consequences of her father’s wish: her skin shines golden, rumors follow her everywhere she goes, and she harbors secret powers that are getting harder to hide. Kora spends her days locked in the palace, concealed behind gloves and veils, trying to ignore the stares and gossip of courtiers. It isn’t until a charming young duke arrives that Kora realizes there may be someone out there who doesn’t fear her or her curse. But their courtship is disrupted when a thief steals precious items from the kingdom, leaving the treasury depleted and King Midas vulnerable. Thanks to her unique ability to sense gold, Kora is the only one who can track the thief down. As she sails off on her quest, Kora learns that not everything is what it seems—not thieves, not pirates, and not even curses. She quickly discovers that gold—and the power it brings—is more dangerous than she’d ever believed. (goodreads.com) Now, I know that the description of this book mentions pirates. It was probably one of the things that first caught my eye. But the point when I discovered this book was quite a long time ago, compared to when I finished it two days ago. So I was honestly shocked by the amount of pirates in this book. Not that I’m complaining. I love a good pirate story even when I’m not expecting it! I was thinking more of the story would be about Kora in the palace before she sets out on adventure to find the missing gold, but that was not the case at all. She was in the palace for a little while, but a couple of chapters in the gold is stolen and the quest is on. Kora and a charming duke are off on a ship with a crew full of superstitious sailors, trying to track down magical gold stolen by pirates. Now, you may have guessed this from some of my other reviews, but as a reader I prefer to read for the characters. I can endure a boring plot as long as I like the characters acting it out. Usually, in books, I am not as worried about plot as I am about the characters. When I watch movies it can go either way, but with books I prefer character driven. So it is always disappointing to me when the characters feel flat and unrelatable, even if they are going on exciting adventures. Unfortunately, I wasn’t too attached to any of the characters in A Touch of Gold. Part of the problem may have been that it was first person, present tense narration which is always a little difficult for me to connect with and it definitely makes it more difficult for me to get a picture of the MC in my head since we are seeing everything from their perspective. Plus, Kora was sort of annoying and rather “woe is me” for the majority of the book, even as she is doing kick-patooty things. She and the other characters bored me. However, this was actually not a problem as it might have been with other books. I think the difference this time was that A Touch of Gold had a very cinematic quality to it. It felt like a fun adventure movie with crazy scenarios and daring dos. There were different challenges that they had to overcome and special objects that they had to find. I saw another review that said this book kind of reminded the reader of the Indiana Jones movies and I’d have to agree. It also somewhat reminded me of The Princess Bride. Unlike The Princess Bride, however, the romance in this story is kind of horrendous. I can’t say too much without spoilers, but the romance is just… not worth the words spent on it. I think I might have even liked the book better if there hadn’t been romance. Or at least, if when the first part of the romance ends, the second part doesn’t fully start up until the second book. It was just sort of unrealistic how Kora jumps from one romance to the next without a second thought. But, back on topic: I was still invested in the plot. This book felt like such an easy read to get into. It doesn’t take long for it to drop you into the action and because it feels like a quick read, it makes it easy to gobble up one chapter after another until you reach the end. Speaking of the ending, I felt like there was so much left unresolved! Which, in this case, might actually be good because there is a sequel. I’m hoping for less self-pity from Kora and more development for her, Hettie, and the others. More sword fighting would also be fun. If I do get a chance to read the second book, A Curse of Gold, I will do my best to let you know what I think of it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to rob some mermaids! Thanks for reading! Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36575823-a-touch-of-gold |
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