Fantasy

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black [Book Review]

 in Book Reviews / Books / Fantasy / Otherworldly / Young Adult by

This post contains affiliate links. Please see my full disclosure here.

Summary

“Of course I want to be like them. They’re beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever.

 
And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe.
 
Jude was seven years old when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King.
To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences.
In doing so, she becomes embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, discovering her own capacity for bloodshed. But as civil war threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.”
Review
I had really high hopes for this book because literally everyone is talking about it all over Bookstagram  and I kept getting emails from book blogs that I followed reviewing the book and raving about it. Now, don’t get me wrong, it was a really well done book and really enjoyable but for me I felt like it was…kind of like a lot of other YA fantasy books out there.
Strong female character who was powerful too!
You know me. I love me a good strong female character who takes charge and kicks butt. Jude definitely hit that on the mark. She was badass, she was powerful and she kicked butt. I would have liked to see her develop more as a Spy though. I felt it was kind of glossed over…like she was a spy and got a little training but her missions were pretty lackluster. But as for her throughout the story, she went from being cool and strong to being a Kingmaker! How cool!
Traditional power struggle story.
The story itself, not looking at the fact that it had fae people, was a pretty common frame of someone being in charge and there being the evil brother and then overthrowing people and stuff. I don’t know, maybe I’ve just read too many of these kinds of books that I sometimes want something new or a new angle or something. The only reason I didn’t give it up was because it had these interesting fae creatures in it as well as it mixing between the fae world and the human world which was an interesting aspect – mixing these two worlds into one.
Quick read – writing was simple.
I know this is a YA book, so this is part of it, but the writing was really simple. The book was like…nearly 400 pages long I think and I got through it in about 6 hours which I was shocked about. It definitely caught my attention, so that helped, but also the writing was simple to read so this definitely was a middle YA book. Even with the ‘violence’, it is perfectly suited for mid to up YA (although most people reading it are adults I’ve seen LOL!)
Overall, I did definitely enjoy it and will read the second one.
Even though I had moments of being like ‘what is the hype all about’, I did ultimately enjoy the book. I want to read the newest one, The Wicked King, soon because everyone is loving that one as well and after the ending of this one, I do want to see what happens!
I do give it a 4 out of 5 teacups because it’s an enjoyable book and I think that it’s something to check out!
4 Teacups
Happy Reading!

Harry Potter: A History of Magic

 in Creative / Fantasy / Fun by

SO APPARENTLY I HAVE MISSED THIS KIND OF. LIKE I DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT THIS!

If you live on the East Cost of the U.S., or may be visiting before the end of January, you may want to check out the New York Historical Society and one of their awesome things going on currently!

Harry Potter: A History of Magic

Read all out about the exhibition, but I mean, it’s kind of a no-brainer to try and go, right?!

Don’t forget to book your tickets though, if you want to go. You have to choose a time that you want to go and schedule it. So make sure to plan in advance.

Maybe if I’m lucky, I’ll be able to go next weekend, if all works out well!

This same exhibition was in London some time last year, so have you seen it or heard anything about it? I’ve heard it’s pretty MAGICAL!

A Pocketful of Crows by Joanne M. Harris [Book Review]

 in Adult / Books / Fantasy / Fiction / Hot Off The Press / Young Adult by

Illustrations by Bonnie Helen Hawkins

This post contains affiliate links. Please see my full disclosure here.

Summary

I am as brown as brown can be,
And my eyes as black as sloe;
I am as brisk as brisk can be,
And wild as forest doe.
(The Child Ballads, 295)

So begins a beautiful tale of love, loss and revenge. Following the seasons, A Pocketful of Crowsbalances youth and age, wisdom and passion and draws on nature and folklore to weave a stunning modern mythology around a nameless wild girl.

Only love could draw her into the world of named, tamed things. And it seems only revenge will be powerful enough to let her escape.

Beautifully illustrated by Bonnie Helen Hawkins, this is a stunning and original modern fairytale.

From Amazon.com

Review

I was immediately drawn in by the cover of this book, because yes, I am one of those! The black with the gold in contrast, especially since the gold is so shiny, really caught my attention. Also, the design on the cover is just so gorgeous.

Simple writing style- even though its for adults.

While this is classified as an adult book, because of maybe one or two of the themes, the writing style is very simple. To me this didn’t bother me because since it was a fairytale, it was like re-reading some of your favorite classics from when you were a child. It was written in first person which was a little different as not many books are written in first person now, or so I see.

A classic fairytale with a new twist.

This was the traditional kind of story of love and revenge when a lover turns against you. But instead of it being a wicked witch who does all the work, it was the hurt lover, who happens to be some kind of witch or woodland creature. So it was interesting to see how the townspeople viewed her and why they disliked her but as a reader you really understood what she was going through. I really did enjoy that being able to see it from a few sides.

Gorgeous illustrations – so rare!

Once you get to a certain age, people stop putting illustrations into books and this one had so many gorgeous illustrations! Each chapter started with an illustration with sometimes images being placed throughout. It was so refreshing and really added to the story in my opinion. Since it’s so rare to get a book with pictures, to me, it just took me back to my childhood more!

One of the gorgeous illustrations from the book!

Overall this book was incredibly simple to read, with it really only taking a day to get through. It’s not challenging but just so beautiful overall. It had an interesting ending, which I didn’t see coming, and was just such a joy to read. I’m very happy that I picked it up and this would be a wonderful book to add to your collection, or give as a gift!

For that, I give this book 4/5 teacups!

4 Teacups

Happy Reading!

Top 5 Spooky TV Shows on Netflix 10

 in Fantasy / Holiday / TV by

Looking for something spooky for this Halloween season?

These 5 shows are sure to satiate your need!

I know for me, I already finished one and am currently working through Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and absolutely loving it! What are you watching during Spooky Season?

1. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

“As her 16th birthday nears, Sabrina must choose between the witch world of her family and the human world of her friends. Based on the Archie comic.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybKUX6thF8Q

2. The Haunting of Hill House

“Flashing between past and present, a fractured family confronts haunting memories of their old home and the terrifying events that drove them from it.”

Check my review out of it here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9OzG53VwIk

3. Haunted

“A chilling glimpse into the first-person accounts from people who have witnessed horrifying, peculiar, extraordinary supernatural events and other unexplained phenomenons that continue to haunt them.”

4. The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell

“Part cooking show, part sitcom in the vein of the Addams Family and the Muppet Show set inside the enchanted home of Christine McConnell, who has attracted hundreds of thousands of social media followers with her creepy edible creations.”

5. Apostle

“In 1905, a drifter on a dangerous mission to rescue his kidnapped sister tangles with a sinister religious cult on an isolated island.”

 

Smut and Wingspan – How We Got #SoapGate and Illegal Fanfiction 25

 in Books / Fantasy by

This post contains affiliate links. Please see my full disclosure here.

(Mature language and theme involved in the post – 18+ audiences only)

I don’t know if you are massively part of the Book Twittersphere, but in the last few days, we’re had a massive explosion in #soapgate. If you don’t know exactly what it is, I’m going to summarize it for you, but if you want pictures, you’ll need to look to Twitter (it’s all there!).

So essentially, a book subscription box decided to do a book boyfriend box themed around ACOTAR. Now, in the original listing of this product of Instagram, it did not say 18+ anywhere. It didn’t say this until 3 posts later and orders had been made. On the online listing, the word ‘mature’ is only at the very bottom, and I don’t know many who read the entire listing.

Cutting a long story short, when people got the box, they were shocked to find two things unexpected inside (besides the other stuff). We had a bound fanfiction (which is a BIG NO-NO) and a soap in the shape of a phallic body part….with a suction cup on the end. Now, when I saw the pictures, I thought that it was some kind of adult toy and nearly had a heart attack (I didn’t buy the box but I saw my friends opening it on Instagram).

So there’s two problems with the box. I’ll start with the legal one.

Selling FanFiction for money is illegal!

You are allowed to write FanFiction until you’re blue in the face, and you can share it all over and give it as gifts to friends. But the moment you make any money from that writing, you are breaking the law. People say, ‘Well 50 Shades of Grey was a FanFiction of Twilight’, and while that is true, the premise of the story, like deep down, is similar, but the story itself has no clear connections such as character names, et ceterea.

FanFiction generally keeps the same world, same characters, same personalities – it’s the same thing as the story except they change what the characters do or who they pair with.

If you sell FanFiction, true FanFiction, you are stealing an authors writing. In this case, that was Sarah J. Maas’ writing. So that was the first big no-no.

Next, why are you putting dick soap into a box for kids?

I first do need to mention that this book, while it is YA, I don’t classify it as that – it’s more NA and even borderlines on adult. When I initially got the book a year ago to start the series, I thought it was Fantasy with romance. But once I got to the first sex scene I thought I was reading an adult erotic romance novel. To say I was shocked would be an understatement. For an adult, it’s fine. But for a YA reader (who could be 13), it was unacceptable.


Now, I don’t mind romance in books. Romance is healthy. Kids need to read about romance. But sex? I don’t think that a 13 year old should be reading it to completely normalize sex for them. We have kids who believe that condoms aren’t needed because of pornographic videos and stories they read online, they think that relationships aren’t messy because of the beautiful romance stories that they read..the last thing you need is your young kid reading a hot and steamy sex scene before they even truly know what sex is. It is going to alter their perceptions on things.

Some parents don’t mind what their kids read, or don’t have the time to be involved, and if they aren’t…then they could be reading some really questionable things. Hands on parents, or parents that give any attention, whatsoever, to the kids, will not want their young ones reading something this graphic. We got some questionable themes going on here people! Wake up!

It can be hard being a YA author to write romance scenes for older YA because if you’re 17 or 18, reading that kind of scene may be less shocking and more what you’re looking for. So that’s why I think NA (new adult) is perfect. It’s in between YA and adult…as we have no distinction between younger YA and older YA. So I’m not really blaming the author here. Maybe a potential warning system in books would be better (kind of like trigger warnings) that authors can put to warn parents what the book could contain to stop people from being so shocked. But, that is besides the point and a whole other blog post.

I want to know why the person who made the box thought it was okay to put a male genitalia object in a book designed for kids without the proper warning until they had sold copies. It’s funny, they claim they put the warning on the first post and all the screen shots clearly show that there was absolutely no warning. To me, that’s kind of lying and if I paid $50 for a box like this, I’d be furious…especially if I had purchased it for my kid. Even adult videos have to put clear warnings on their videos by law.

What has the world come to that book boxes include smutty fanfiction and genitalia shaped soaps?!

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE BOOK COMMUNITY?

What are you thoughts?

[etsy-shop shop_name=”MyLibraryCardWoreOut” section_id=”23995553″]