Book Reviews

Book Review: A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas

 in Adult / Book Reviews / Books / Fantasy / Hot Off The Press / Older Readers / Young Adult by

Contain affiliated links.

book review: a court of frost and starlight by sarah j. maas

From Instagram

Purchase from B&N or Amazon!

Summary

“A companion tale to the #1 New York Times bestselling A Court of Thorns and Roses series that takes place several months after the explosive events of A Court of Wings and Ruin

Narrated by Feyre and Rhysand, this story bridges the events in A Court of Wings and Ruin and the upcoming novels in the series.
Feyre, Rhys and their companions are still busy rebuilding the Night Court and the vastly changed world beyond. But Winter Solstice is finally near, and with it a hard-earned reprieve. Yet even the festive atmosphere can’t keep the shadows of the past from looming. As Feyre navigates her first Winter Solstice as High Lady, she finds that those dearest to her have more wounds than she anticipated – scars that will have a far-reaching impact on the future of their court.”

-From sarahjmaas.com

 

Review

book review: a court of frost and starlight by sarah j. maas

From Instagram

Once again, I am happily surprised with this series. I was a little disappointed as it was so short. It is smaller than ACOTAR, so I was kind of curious how the story was going to continue. But as I started to read, I realized that this book wasn’t actually a continuation of the story, but more of a light filler to show what they were doing in their off time. It was a deviation from the story, which isn’t bad, but not exactly what I was expecting. That being said, I did really enjoy it.

I’m always a little confused what age range this book falls into, because it is YA, but I would say mature YA. The story itself is perfectly fine, but some of the love scenes are a lot for younger YA, so I classify it as mature YA. In that area, it fits perfectly!

POWERCOUPLE GOALS!
First off, I just have to say how much I love these two. They’re honestly so strong and powerful. Feyre is such a fantastic character. A strong woman and doesn’t take prisoners. Then you have Rhysand who is protective and wants the best for Feyre, but knows when to step back and let her do her thing. The two of them together could rule the universe. They also have the best Court of friends who support them. I mean these characters are all completely unique and Feyre and Rhys are the best….I can’t stop with how much I love the two of them. You get to really see their dynamic in this book and the struggles that each of them are facing, alone, but together.

The Court of Dreams by Charlie-Bowater Deviant Art

Side stories give you another perspective.
I do love side stories though, where it’s more of a novella, because you get to see another side of the characters and you’re just reading about the characters being themselves. It just expands the characters to let you see another side of them that the main story line might not be able to cover. I do like when that is done because I feel that a single chapter within a book doesn’t do the characters justice. Sure, it can give you a glimpse, but having a side book that is completely different is refreshing.

Chapters changed between characters.
I am personally not a fan of when authors do this. I like to immerse myself in the book, so when a chapter is suddenly in someone else’s POV, I really do struggle to figure out what is going on and where they are, and then I have to remember who exactly is being covered within this chapter. I know that some readers really enjoy that, as it gives you more perspectives, but when every chapter is a different characters POV, I feel like I’m being jostled around a little bit and spending the entire time figuring out where and who, I am.

Overall really happy and going to re-read soon!
I loved this book. I’m really excited for the next one (there is another one right?) and I’ll be re-reading again soon. I read it so fast the first time as I was excited and now I can actually sit down and read it and digest it properly.


book review: a court of frost and starlight by sarah j. maas

This book gets 4.5/5 teacups. It only doesn’t get 5 teacups as it’s a side story and I wasn’t expecting that, also the jumping around, but still, it’s one of my favorites!
rating four tea cups mlcwo

HAPPY READING!

Book Review: Gunslinger Girl by Lyndsay Ely

 in Book Reviews / Books / Hot Off The Press / Young Adult by
This post contains affiliated links for your convenience.

Summary

“James Patterson presents a bold new heroine—a cross between Katniss Everdeen and Annie Oakley: Serendipity Jones, the fastest sharpshooter in tomorrow’s West.

Seventeen-year-old Serendipity “Pity” Jones inherited two things from her mother: a pair of six shooters and perfect aim. She’s been offered a life of fame and fortune in Cessation, a glittering city where lawlessness is a way of life. But the price she pays for her freedom may be too great….

In this extraordinary debut from Lyndsay Ely, the West is once again wild after a Second Civil War fractures the U.S. into a broken, dangerous land. Pity’s struggle against the dark and twisted underbelly of a corrupt city will haunt you long after the final bullet is shot.”

-From BN.com

Review

This book was absolutely fantastic and not what I thought it was going to be like at all.

Absolutely gorgeous cover!
First off, just look at that cover! It’s so beautiful! What caught me were the colors and the combination chosen (photo above slightly muted as color corrected for Instagram) but that’s what initially drew me in. Then the female on the cover. Clearly there was going to be a badass lead and I just had to pick it up then. I don’t think I read the summary before I borrowed the book, and even before I read it, I only skimmed it. So honestly I didn’t really know what the book was about going into it. Just that it was about a girl and she had some guns.

Strong female lead.
As I said before, it clearly had a strong female lead and boy did it ever! Pity was such a fantastic character. She was realistic, in that she didn’t do something that was ‘superhero’ like like some characters do. She was completely human, just with the ability of being a good shot, and even then she wasn’t always perfect. That was one thing I really liked. She was strong, but wasn’t perfect! I like when you have flaws in your main character as it just makes them so much more relate-able. She felt things, she got injured like everyone else, she got confused and fell in love.

She developed through the book as well, which was fantastic. Sometimes you come across stagnant characters who just kind of have a personality and don’t grow or shift through the book. Sometimes that is okay, but when they develop with the story and as they interact with others, the story line is just so much better. So seeing her develop was definitely a highlight.

Fast paced ending but didn’t see it coming.
The ending of the book moved fast, like the final action sequence. But it didn’t move too fast that it was like ‘here is the book and oh, quickly, here’s the closing’ like some books do. The build up to the end was slow and I really didn’t know where the book was actually going at some points, but not in a bad way. I was just so caught up in the life of Pity and what was happening within the world she was in, it didn’t really bother me that I wasn’t sure where the story was eventually going because it kept me invested in her and seeing what happened. Then the ending came and you were like ‘ohhhh!’

Ambiguous time period.
I was a little unclear as to the time period of the book. I know that it happens some time in the future but I was just kind of unclear as to what kind of world I was looking at. I got this kind of Mad Max/The Gunslinger vibe from the entire book and I was able to visualize everything on my own, but if you struggle coming up with visualizations of worlds and such, it might have been a little challenging. It was after a New Civil War and the world had been supposedly destroyed with kind of a New World Order going on and such, but I sometimes had a feeling it could be a modern day kind of thing just based in the middle of nowhere. It’s not a complaint about the book, as it didn’t detract from my reading experience, but just something I noticed.

Highly recommend!
Overall I really did enjoy this book. If I had the money I would buy it and will add it to my list, but borrowing it will have to suffice for now. However if you want this book, get it from either Amazon or Barnes & Noble. It definitely is a book you might want to re-read because there was just so much and you could re-read it and find something new in the story. I loved the strong characters and the story line kept the pages turning. I mean I read it in one sitting in 3 hours.

Happy Reading!

 

Book Review: Forest of a Thousand Lanterns (Rise of an Empress) by Julie C. Dao

 in Book Reviews / Books / Fantasy / Older Readers by

From Goodreads.com

Summary

“Eighteen-year-old Xifeng is beautiful. The stars say she is destined for greatness, that she is meant to be Empress of Feng Lu. But only if she embraces the darkness within her.

Growing up as a peasant in a forgotten village on the edge of the map, Xifeng longs to fulfill the destiny promised to her by her cruel aunt, the witch Guma, who has read the cards and seen glimmers of Xifeng’s majestic future. But is the price of the throne too high? Because in order to achieve greatness, she must spurn the young man who loves her and  exploit the callous magic that runs through her veins–sorcery fueled by eating the hearts of the recently killed. For the god who has sent her on this journey will not be satisfied until his power is absolute.

Set in an East Asian-inspired fantasy world filled with both breathtaking pain and beauty, Forest of a Thousand Lanterns possesses all the hallmarks of masterful fantasy: dazzling magic, heartbreaking romance, and a world that hangs in the balance. Fans of Heartless, Stealing Snow, and Red Queen will devour this stunning debut.”

-From Amazon.com

Review

I’ve been seeing this book everywhere and everyone is raving about it, so naturally, I had to see what they were talking about. This was an absolutely fantastic read and so unlike anything I’ve read in a long time.

First off, we had a strong female character. She was ambitious and not afraid to do what she needed to. She wasn’t a demure lady, what was expected of the time, but was willing to fight and claw her way to the top to become an Empress, or to at least try to get there. She was even willing to turn down love from one of her oldest friends. I kind of liked this because she didn’t fit the regular mold of a female protagonist. Even when they’re badasses they’re generally controlled, though Xifeng was almost evil in her own way!

It did have this kind of Snow White kind of feel about the entire thing, except that it was set in Asia.

It was also interesting where it was set. It felt like China most of the time, and most of the names were Chinese, but you could feel like you were in Japan due to some of the names as well.  But it didn’t really matter. The way that it was set made you just feel like it was a big mush of Asia.

Overall this book was absolutely fantastic. Everyone was raving about it so I had to check it out and I wasn’t disappointed. I highly recommend this one!

Happy Reading!

Book Review: Jackaby by William Ritter 2

 in Book Reviews / Books / Young Adult by

Book Review: Jackaby by William RitterSummary

“Newly arrived in New Fiddleham, New England, 1892, and in need of a job, Abigail Rook meets R. F. Jackaby, an investigator of the unexplained with a keen eye for the extraordinary–including the ability to see supernatural beings. Abigail has a gift for noticing ordinary but important details, which makes her perfect for the position of Jackaby’s assistant. On her first day, Abigail finds herself in the midst of a thrilling case: A serial killer is on the loose. The police are convinced it’s an ordinary villain, but Jackaby is certain the foul deeds are the work of the kind of creature whose very existence the local authorities–with the exception of a handsome young detective named Charlie Cane–seem adamant to deny.”

-From Amazon.com

 

Review

So I kept seeing this book all over and I’m pretty sure I borrowed it from the library a while back, but never got to it. So at the library I grabbed it again and decided to read it first (as it was the shortest out of all the books I borrowed).

I finished it in about 4 hours. It was so catchy!

Honestly it was like Supernatural mixed with Sherlock…like two of my favorite things! So naturally I had to love it!

It kept the pages turning just because you were naturally curious as to what was going to happen, with the mystery but also about the relationship between Abigail and Jackaby. So I just kept reading and reading, and then we got to solving the mystery and I had to keep reading. So I read it in a few hours.

It wasn’t a long story so it wasn’t exactly difficult to read it quickly (only about 300 pages) but it was also gripping.

There wasn’t a lot of character development in this book but this is a series, so I’m going to have to pick up the other books later to find out what happens, but I have a lot of lists that I really want to read first, so this will have to wait.

Honestly though, with a lot of people talking about this book and seeming to really love it, I didn’t understand the hype so much. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed reading it but it wasn’t a book I would tell everyone that they have to read first. But of course, this is my personal opinion. It was different, and also not exactly the kind of book I generally read, genre wise.

Never the less, it was a decent read and if you have time, I would suggest checking it out.

For that, I will give it a 4/5 teacups!

rating four tea cups mlcwo

Happy Reading!

Book Review: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

 in Book Reviews / Books / Fantasy by

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. MaasSummary

“In a land without magic, where the king rules with an iron hand, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She comes not to kill the king, but to win her freedom. If she defeats twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition, she is released from prison to serve as the king’s champion. Her name is Celaena Sardothien.

The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. But something evil dwells in the castle of glass–and it’s there to kill. When her competitors start dying one by one, Celaena’s fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival, and a desperate quest to root out the evil before it destroys her world.”

-From Amazon.com

Review

I’ve been seeing this book all over since ACOTAR and the newest release of ACOWAR (both of which were amazing) and so I wanted to check this series out. A lot of people seemed to like it and I was lucky enough that my library seemed to have it in so of course I had to give it a read.

It was honestly really good! It was written by Maas when she was younger, and you could definitely tell that the writing style has changed since her newer books, but the story itself was fantastic!

It had a really strong female lead, who was an assassin, and if you know anything about me,  I love a good strong female. She wasn’t simpering, was able to hold her own, and still had all of these men coming after her. Like how can she get so many! *cries*.

While the language definitely wasn’t as descriptive as it was in some of Maas’ other books, but I kept turning the pages, never the less, because I wanted to know what was going to happen. Of course, since there is a series of books in this one, I knew it was going to be a happy ending, but it kept me wondering what may happen next and to whom! It did have me guessing about bits and pieces along the way though.

Honestly, since this is such an old book, relative to her other ones, a really deep review is useless but I just had to say that it was a great read! I do hope to check out her other books later on, but with so many books on my to read list, it will have to wait just a little while!

Have you read this book? A fan of Maas??

Happy Reading!