The journey of a girl who only had a mere spark, but soon let it engulf in flames.
Beatrice Prior lives in a dystopian world where people are categorized by personality and lifestyle preferences. There are five sections: Dauntless, Amity, Erudite, Abnegation, and Candor. Beatrice lives in the abnegation faction, with nothing to her name but her father's presence in the council.
That becomes an issue when Beatrice discovers that she is different from everyone else. Something inside of her has been trying to tell her that, but she left it to simmer. When she makes a life-altering decision to change her faction, she fears that she has disappointed her family. Beatrice soon learns to let go of what once held her back and fight for what she truly wants. In, "Divergent," the reader sees first-hand how grueling life can be and how becoming completely and utterly obsessed with the things you want only sets you up for success. In a dystopian world of chaos and mayhem, Beatrice not only sets out to find herself but is desperate to find the truth. Who is really behind all of this destruction? And how brave do you need to be to figure it out?
(Reviewer Grade: 9)
Up until now, I had only read one other book by Naomi Novik. I had loved Spinning Silver and the unique take on a classic fairy tale it presented. While I understand Tongues of Serpents is the sixth book in the Temeraire series, I found it to be inferior to Spinning Silver in many ways. I will also grant that I’m not necessarily the target audience for this genre of historical fantasy when it takes a more nautical tilt (like Far Side of the World does). Still, there was enough of a standalone element to Tongues of Serpents that I was able to pull a story out of it and write a review of it.
Some things I had trouble getting used to in this book were the fact that the dragons all spoke in the same English as the human characters. I had a tough time identifying which characters were dragons and which were humans, and I didn’t know why they sounded so similar (I’m sure a previous book explains this). Additionally, I eventually gained a slight sense of the overarching goal of the series (I think it’s to get to China), but I didn’t feel like the characters’ motives were very clear in this book.
I almost gave up reading this book until the end of part one when something interesting happened, but even that sub-plot felt like it never went anywhere and was only an excuse to use a lot more words to describe very few actions. In the end, there was a lot of fluff in this book, and I’ll chalk it up to the way authors write these historical nautical books. Perhaps if it were slanted more toward fantasy or more tied to history (like in the Alvin Maker series), I would have enjoyed it more. As it was, I just kind of skimmed through it and donated it to the next person who might like to read about dragons in Australia.
A historical fantasy that was too light in both history and fantasy, I give Tongues of Serpents 2.5 stars out of 5.
While this prequel to the original Shannara trilogy was written well after completing the first three books, First King of Shannara failed to re-capture the magic that made me adore Wishsong of Shannara . If anything, this book seemed unnecessary. It told a story that already had a fixed ending as described in the exposition of The Sword of Shannara (which itself had a pretty un-climactic ending if I remember correctly). Sure, there’s a lot more world-building in this book, but only avid fans of the series will find any of it interesting.
Perhaps my main gripe with this book is how I failed to care for any of the characters. Most of their interactions felt cliché and trite, and there was a smidge too many of them for me to want to take the time to know who they were. If anything, the characters were flat stereotypes with no personality. This was also not helped by the plot, which most of the time sounded like a condensed and bulletized list of events instead of an actual story. Sure, the writing may have been more polished since The Sword of Shannara , but this book merely highlighted elements of the series I never really liked to begin with.
I think some of the navel-gazing that occurs in these high fantasy series is what turns me off from exploring the huge tomes filled with so many words but signifying little. Some of the action (including the war at the end) was exciting, and some of the descriptions of certain events (like the forging of the sword) was creative and flowery, but these few bright points do little to distract from the fact that a lot of the book was bloated word count for inflated word count’s sake.
An unnecessary prequel, I give First King of Shannara 2.5 stars out of 5.
A hidden kingdom lies deep within a snow-covered wilderness, a kingdom filled with beautiful Kanin people who have dark hair and dark eyes. Bryn Aven is an outsider a half-blood, she stands out with her blond hair and blue eyes. Her only dream in life is to prove her allegiance to the Kanin kingdom and become a royal guard. As she struggles to prove she can be a guard, Bryn falls in love with her ruggedly handsome boss Ridley Dresden. Although both of them share feelings for one another their relationship is strictly forbidden.
Bryns journey continues as she must fight for the kingdom in a terrifying battle and the love of her life.
Reviewer Grade: 12
The thrilling Gone series continues with this fourth book, and Grant does not disappoint. This series has been one of my favorites and Plague is no exception. As a highly contagious, fatal illness spreads at an alarming rate and predatory insects terrorize Perdido Beach, morale continues to drop.
However, Sam, Astrid, and even Caine are determined to find a way to survive.
Everyone must make difficult decisions when it comes to saving themselves and those they love. Grant has written another phenomenal dystopian horror with suspense around every corner. I highly recommend this book to all high school aged readers.
This book is about a girl who goes to her grandma's house after not being there for five years. She finds a small goblin named Bob awaiting her arrival. The two set off on an adventure to find Bob's family before they forget each other forever. This is a great story about the power of friendship. Rebecca Stead writes many amazing books and this is one of the best. This is a book that will leave you wanting more unable to put it down.
Reviewer's Grade: 8
Two twins Alex and Conner were at their school in their Language Arts class.
Today's lesson was on fairy tales. Alex was more kind of that girl who was a total geek and paid attention to everything in class, while Conner was more of the guy who sat in the back and snoozed off. That day after school they went to their grandmother’s house where their grandmother read them a book.
And it was not any book its was a book called the Land of Stories. One day Alex takes the book because she wanted to read it and then gets accidently sucked in! Alex and Conner have to make a Wishing spell to get out of the book. The rest of the book is the amazing adventure that awaits! People who like the show Once Upon a Time or people who just like fairy tales and have great knowledge in them will like this book and the series. This book is very unpredictable and will have you wanting to read more. This is one of the best books I have read this year!
Reviewer Grade: Grade 8
Premise: Guinevere died in the convent where she'd been sent by an her father. An imposter, Merlin's daughter and Arthur's new protector, is her replacement, and all have been fooled into thinking she's the "real" Guinevere, save Arthur, who she immediately marries and starts to protect.
I found the beginning of the book, with its delicious hints of a larger story of evil and darkness, to be captivating. Unfortunately, those hints, for the most part, stay hints, and the book ended up being a pretty predictable retelling of sorts that was paradoxically too faithful and not faithful enough to its predecessors. It had glimpses of the humor from Mallory, T. H. White and Steinbeck. It had the promise of the adventure that lies in those tales. It just never fully delivered. And the end, when it finally came, was predictable enough to be a bit disappointing.
That said, I do love Arthurian legend, and this version of Guinevere is not without promise. If the next entry gets great reviews, I'll give it a go as my familiarity with the characters and story would render a re-read unnecessary. 3 stars. I...liked it? I'll recommend it to younger readers new to the legend.
Thanks to Netgalley and Delacorte for the advance copy which I received in exchange for an unbiased review. The Guinevere Deception will be on sale on 05 November, but you can put your copy on hold today!
Eva's nameday is coming up. And on that day, she'll become a Rival Heir. From then on, she'll be expected to try to kill her sister (or die in the process), so that one of them could take the throne. Eva's always been her father's favorite, but in this matriarchal society, her mother, the Queen, who, of course favores Eva's sister Isadore, would do anything to make sure that Eva doesn't get the throne. Including helping Isa with her magic while trying to keep Eva from accessing hers. But the throne is Eva's destiny. It's that, or death.
This was another instance of the plot being hard to describe, though that's mostly due to the fact that there are so many things happening in this book. It's pretty complicated. Not in a bad way - I really enjoyed it. The worldbuilding was very cool, I loved the khimaer. A lot of it was new to me, or a fun twist on a familiar concept. I loved the book's mythology. Something about it felt fresh. I also bizarrely really liked the middle part of the book - its full of layered mysteries, court intrigue, training montages and the right amount and type of romance. It's built on mutual and earned respect (and yes, hotness). There's a lot to like in this book, and it won't be the last by this author that I read.
That said, the beginning and ending were rote and felt a bit weak. The end, in particular, felt like it existed only to get you to read the next installment. There was no resolution, and it felt very rushed, especially after a story that was otherwise taking its time unfolding. I don't want to spend a lot of time criticizing what was otherwise a fun read - give it a go!
TLDR: This was so close to being really good, but it just missed the mark (rote beginning and ending, super strong middle and worldbuilding). I quite enjoyed it, nonetheless. 3.5 stars - I almost really liked it. :)
Thanks for the eARC Netgalley and Putnam for the advance copy! A River of Royal Blood will be available for purchase on 29 October, but you can put your copy on hold today.
After my slight disappointment with Mecha Samurai Empire , I was pleased to find that a book that actually knows how to do "mecha" right already existed years before Mecha Samurai Empire was released. Taking a somewhat unique approach in its narrative structure, Sleeping Giants uses a series of interview transcripts to tell the story of discovering the parts of an ancient, giant robot and learning how to pilot this unique piece of equipment. There aren't any dialogue tags. There aren't any direct action sequences. There are just words describing the events as they happened. Somehow, it totally works.
I seriously couldn't get enough of this book and basically devoured every word. I was a little disappointed with the semi-cliffhanger ending, though. Just as everything was starting to finally come together, it just kind of ends. Sure, many of the large plot movements reached a momentary conclusion but now I really want to know what happens next. My only other qualm was the "exposition character" who was dropped into the narrative about half-way through to explain all the unexplainable bits of the story. It seemed like a cheap way to give information that wouldn't have been naturally revealed. What's perhaps the most interesting with the minimalist way the story is written in Sleeping Giants is how strong the characters come across. Even if it's only interview transcripts, the pauses, snark, and other personality traits are just as obvious as if I could see them talking across the table from me. Judging by the acknowledgments section of this book, I certainly can't wait for this to be made into a movie. I'm sure it will be just as exciting to see everything on the big screen as it was to read about it line-by-line.
A unique narrative method that had me ravenously reading, I give Sleeping Giants 4.5 stars out of 5.
You’d think a book with (what I assume is) Renna Bales (nee Tanner) on the cover would follow her and the group of people she’s traveling with. You’d think a book titled “The Skull Throne” would spend a lot of time addressing the now-empty Skull Throne. Instead, we only got brief mentions of these two sub-plots. While I’m happy that the latter didn’t have many pages dedicated to it, I’m disappointed that the former was addressed for only a few scant sections at the beginning and end. Instead, the majority of this book spent time in places that didn’t advance the overall story at all.
Having read all the books (and the “3.5” novella) up until now, my concerns that arose during Messenger’s Legacy seem to have materialized. Sure, I do enjoy following the three main characters from The Warded Man , but there were certainly moments where I thought I was reading something from the Song of Ice and Fire series than The Demon Cycle series. This might be high praise for some, but I felt George R.R. Martin’s series was a little bloated and too concerned with relationship drama than actual dragons.
Additionally, I’m still having trouble caring about the Krasians. The fact that there are so many terms and titles for everyday things and people makes it confusing to follow at times. I understand its origins in Middle-eastern culture, but at some point, it goes too far (xkcd had a comic about the number of made-up words in a fantasy book reducing its quality). The culture clash between the Krasians and everyone else has persisted for three books now, and it’s quite tiring to keep highlighting how different and backward their thinking it sometimes. I can only hope we get to see some demon battles in The Core since this book left me unsatisfied.
A weak link that could have spent more time on more exciting subplots, I give The Skull Throne 3.0 stars out of 5.
In yet another case of watching a movie first before reading the books, I finally got around to reading Mortal Engines after absolutely loving the 2018 movie. While I understand middle-grade or Young Adult readers are the intended audiences, it left me wanting in its presentation. Sure, most of the elements that made it into the film were there (with some less-than-necessary parts being cut from the screenplay for obvious reasons), but the way it was written felt a bit too flowery for my tastes. In fact, the engineer in me would have loved a lot more world-building than I got in this short volume. I did still appreciate the post apocalyptic steampunk world of Mortal Engines—if for no other reason than its ridiculous premise. The idea that whole cities would transform into moving monstrosities that devour lesser towns in a “predator and prey” relationship is such an intriguing notion that I had to give it a chance. Even if I don’t expect there to be movies to finish out the adaptation of the quartet of books, I can definitely look forward to exploring the rest of this series to have my world-building needs satiated in the next volume.
While the young protagonists were flat and singularly minded, some of the adults had enough meat on them to make their actions reasonable and realistic. Sure, there are always going to be clichés in stories meant for younger audiences. However, I don’t usually tolerate character-based clichés as much as I do plot-based ones. And while the writing certainly had a creative bent to its vocabulary, it became tiresome having to sit through it for a whole book. Purple prose is good in short bursts, but too much of a good thing can ruin the immersion of the reader.
A fantastic idea with semi-flat characters and far too flowery language, I give Mortal Engines 3.5 stars out of 5.
With this fourth book in the Alvin Maker series, I’m starting to see why a
lot of writers like to stick to trilogies. If anything, I think most readers
can probably skip this volume and move on to the next one because there
wasn’t anything too new or interesting that happened in it. If anything, it
was a re-hash of events in the previous book with a few new characters added
to it. I will concede that Alvin Journeyman did finally develop a fitting
antagonist for Alvin. Still, so few pages were dedicated to this sub-plot
that I’m wondering if it should have just been pulled out and made into its
own novella that would span the gap between book three and book five.
Once again, the strength of the series as a whole carries through here, and
some loose character arcs are tied up before moving on to more important
things. However, spending the majority of the book hashing over what astute
readers (or even readers who were moderately paying attention in the last few
books) already knew as truth just to confirm to the rest of the characters
around Alvin that he wasn’t lying seemed like a waste of words.
If anything, using the delay in Alvin’s journey to develop Calvin’s
“making” abilities did provide a bit of contrast between the two and will
likely pay off when the forces of good and evil clash in future volumes. I
still appreciate the way Orson Scott Card integrates actual history with a
fantasy explanation, though. Despite the missed step here, I’ll continue
with the series to see how it resolves. At the very least, volumes like this
show me why it’s not as notable as the Ender Saga, which was a solid four
book set (that’s really just three books with the third split into two
parts).
A weak link in the Alvin Maker series, I give Alvin Journeyman 3.0 stars out
of 5.
Onyii and Ify live as sisters in an all-girls refugee/war camp on the edge of the Redlands, an area riddled with radiation from a long-ago nuclear disaster. Nigeria, their home, is in the midst of a civil war. Children are conscripted as soldiers and pilots for mechanized warrior robots. Onyii and Ify are separated, and as truths are revealed to each of them, they must decide where, and with whom, their loyalties lie all while trying not to die a terrible death in a bloody civil war.
Going into this, I knew nothing about the Nigeria - Biafran civil war of the 1960s, which is at the heart of this novel. Personally, I enjoy learning about parts of history that I know nothing about (I typically don’t gravitate to one of the 1,983,784,767 WWII novels, for example), and I really enjoyed the unique setting. The book is set in the future, and the futuristic elements really added a lot to the plot and were well employed by the author. Onyii, for example, is an Augment, meaning that she’s a little bit of a bionic woman. While I didn’t really relate to the main characters, I did really like them. They didn’t always make the best decisions, but their decisions made sense to their characters and their respective arcs. They were easy to root for. Really, my only complaint was that it felt overlong, and I skimmed through some of the battle scenes, but that’s more a matter of personal preference.
TLDR: Looking for something to read after Children of Blood and Bone? You’ve found your next great Nigerian inspired read! (And, honestly, if you haven’t read Children of Blood and Bone but it’s on your TBR, I’d suggest replacing it with War Girls, which is a much more original, engaging book). For readers who like apocalyptic novels and futuristic sci-fi battles. 4 stars.
Thanks to Netgalley and Razorbill for the eARC which I received in exchange for an honest review. War Girls will be available for purchase on 15 October, but you can put your copy on hold today!
"Mirage", an immersive and captivating book, tells the story of a girl stolen from her home to become identical stand-in for an intergalactic princess with a target on her back. The main character Amani is a simple and traditional girl who is kidnapped and tortured for the soul fact that she looks exactly like the hated princess of the galaxy. An incredibly intriguing story about self, love, and revolution, "Mirage" captures the conflict of learning to love someone you shouldn't and coming to love the person who enslaved you. "Mirage" incorporates South-East Asian culture along with subtly hinting at the tensions between Europeans and South-East Asians. A beautiful book, "Mirage" is certainly a great read if you want a beautiful and empowering story.
The third book in the Keeper of the Lost Cities series, Everblaze, is awesome! This is one of my favorite books in the series, with all the action.
If you like Fitzphie, this will be one of your favorite books too! Through this book, we have to make BIG decisions, escape danger, help the city, and have tons of action packed moments! No inappropriate language or content.
The second book in the Keeper of the Lost Cities series, Exile, is hands down AMAZING! This is probably my favorite book in the series, starring my top 2 favorite characters, Sophie and Keefe. Even if you don't like Team Foster-Keefe, this book is still awesome! We get to see new places, take a look into the past, find new creatures, discover new abilities, and have lots of action and humor! No inappropriate language or content.
Starting off another series by Shannon Messenger called Keeper of the Lost Cities, the first book, Keeper of the Lost Cities, was amazing! It is adventurous, cliff-hanging, action-packed, and great for ages 8-teens! While reading this book, I can guarantee you will meet some of your favorite, funny, awesome fictional characters! This book series has a VERY good chance of becoming your favorite. No inappropriate content or language.
Reading through the 7th book of the Keeper of the Lost Cities series was amazing!!! The Mysterious Miss F and her friends are on another adventure! While going through this adventure, we meet new characters, face dangers, train, and fight! This book is super exciting and if you have read any of the Keeper of the Lost Cities series, you won't want to miss reading this book! Also, no inappropriate content or language!
I can honestly say that this book is my favorite book that I have ever read.
The selection is a book about a class system that divides society into groups within a monarchy. However, the extremely handsome Prince Maxon is holding a selection process to find his next princess. Thirty-five girls from all classes are selected to stay in the palace with Maxon for a chance and being his wife. America Singer is from one of the lowest classes, but by staying true to herself and never conforming to the Prince’s wishes she catches his eye. After a spark ignites in and Maxon falls in love with America, he struggles to decide if she will be suitable for the kingdom and fit to rule by his side.
Reviewer Grade:12