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Books

Bite-Sized Book Reviews #4

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It’s fall, which means I’m in the mood for fairy tale and folk lore retellings, along with an entry from my favorite fantasy romance series, and a contemporary urban fantasy for a change.  Let’s get into it!

A Touch of Gold by Annie Sullivan

This story instantly grabbed me with its synopses, as it’s a King Midas…I don’t want to say retelling, because it isn’t really.  It’s about the aftermath of King Midas’ tale, and his daughter Kora who has been curse because the King didn’t follow the proper instructions to end the curse fully, so while he no longer has the golden touch, the curse still affects him and his kingdom.  I thought that was a super interesting take inspired by the tale, and decided to give this story a go.  I liked it way more than I figured I would, because along with Kora’s story is an introspective look into our perception of ourselves, finding your own self-worth and identity, and to boot, an awesome pirate adventure that also ties in to those themes, and finding a place to belong.  The romance in this is a slow burn, and while there are some fairy tale retelling tropes in here, they’re used optimally to further the narrative of the story and are really well done.  There’s tons of action, story and character beats, and a satisfying standalone ending for this story that is also open ended for more stories in this world – and there will be, as Curse of Gold is now released.  The world building and magic is great too, just a solid read if you like both fairy tale retelling/reimagining’s, good romance, and solid young adult novels.  I’d highly recommend this one, it’s one of my new favorites in the genre.

The Phoenix Princess by Lichelle Slater

And on the other side of the retelling spectrum, we have The Phoenix Princess.  This is number 4 in the Forgotten Kingdom series, a set of standalone-ish fairy tale retellings that also have a through line story arc with a central character that appears in each of the books.  While this series took a while for me to enjoy, I found this entry to be rather lack luster.  It didn’t tie in well enough to the fairy tale it was based on – Snow White – and the main character and her love interest were just so meh to me.  It’s a shame, because I liked Tavia in the previous entries of the series.  But in this, having her as the first person view just made me really dislike her, and while her being a Phoenix was cool, the entire time I was trying to find any sort of parallel  to Snow White to make this interesting.  But other than randomly mentioning dwarves and having a huntsman stand in, there really was nothing.  It felt like this book was just filler before the final book comes out in December, because there was way more interesting stuff about another character and his backstory then was interesting about Tavia.  It’s fine to read if you’re into the series, but if you picked this up thinking it would be a good standalone it really isn’t.  It wouldn’t make sense just on its own, so if you want to read this series start at The Dragon Princess.  Disappointing  entry in the series and in the fairy tale retelling genre if I’m being honest though, pretty meh.

A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow

My first venture into modern urban fantasy, A Song Below Water is a really great look at the racism  and inequality issues taking place right now, but through the allegory of supernatural creatures.  Tavia is a siren, which instantly got me because I adore mermaids and sirens, but in this world only sirens are black.  So not only does she deal with those duel issues, but she has to navigate going through high school, figuring out who she is, and helping her best friend Effie do the same.  This story is a duel point of view story, as we switch between both Tavia and Effie’s perspectives and I just really enjoyed all of the story beats, and commentary this book made on race issues.  As an African American myself, it really hit a lot of great notes for me and I’m glad I read it.  I will say that it’s rather predictable if you know about mythologies and supernatural creatures, but that didn’t take away from the story for me personally.  I’ve heard some people say it was written a little young for them, but that also didn’t bother me because we’re looking at life through teenage eyes in this book, and the themes and message the book was going for really hit its mark for me.  If you’re into supernatural stuff, or really want an approachable way to see and understand the racial issues going on right now pick up this book.  A fast and enjoyable read, as it’s just below 300 pages. 

Death Wind by Tara Grace

I saved my personal favorite for last.  I love the Elvan Alliance series, and the last book left us on a cliffhanger that this one thankfully concludes.  I really enjoyed this book, as we got to see Farrendal away from Essie, and reading his point of view was such a treat.  Seeing how he’s grown because of her, and his inner workings was fantastic, and we also get to read from his sister Melantha’s perspective which was great as well.  Melantha was a break away character for me in this book, as we got to see her fleshed out in this after seeing her actions in War Bound.  I can’t get enough about this series, and can’t really say any more about this entry without spoilers, but if you like fantasy romance and familial bonds in your stories, read this series.  It also delivers on action when it needs to as well, just a fantastic book series.

And that does it for this entry of Bite-Sized book reviews.  Let me know if you give any of these books a read, I’d love to discuss them in the comments!

Books

Shadow of the Fox Trilogy by Julie Kagawa Review [Spoiler Free]

Crystal1 Comment

Fair warning, this is going to be me gushing more than anything else.  Technically I should just throw it into a Bite-Sized Book reviews post, but I loved this series so much I wanted to give it its own post.

If you like anime, you’ll enjoy this book series.  It 100% reminded me of Inuyasha the entire time I was reading it.  The way this series is set up we go in this episodic fashion until the end ramps up to this fantastic, well deserved climax.  All the characters are lovable, but the leads were just so perfect that I was so happy to read from both of their points of view.  The supporting cast was very well fleshed out as well, and I thoroughly enjoyed the found family themes that were a part of this series.

Themes of duality, balance, finding yourself and where you belong also are very prevalent in this series and are all well fleshed out.  Every book in the trilogy has a clear plot that is well paced, and none of them feel like filler.  If something in the series isn’t furthering the plot, it furthers the characters, and it’s such a well-balanced read.  Usually, I say things need to focus on plot, or focus on characters because stories can’t do both well.  But the Shadow of the Fox trilogy masterfully balances both in a very well written manner, and it’s one of the rare occurrences  where this story is both plot, and character centric, but both are done superbly.

There are characters doing things in the background unbeknownst to the main characters, and in the end I thought the motivations for them were a bit weak.  I liked seeing the reveal in the end, and it was enjoyable having those characters interwoven into the narrative for all three books, but I just thought that the reveal was a bit generic and wasn’t as big a fan as I would have been if there was something a little more less tropey used for the big reveal.  I think that’s because of how well thought out the character was, their final motivations just felt a little off to me considering what they had done throughout the entire story.  That would be my biggest hrmm about the series, but not worth knocking my enjoyment of the series down a peg because of it.


The romance too, oh the romance!  Tatsumi and Yumeko are both wonderful characters on their own, but together it’s just perfection.  I think their romance was such a great slow burn, and it was super satisfying and sweet when it ended the way it did.  I’ve legit read the last few pages of the epilogue a few times, the resolution of their relationship just makes me so happy and it’s my new favorite YA fantasy couple. 

Like I said really nothing bad to say about this series.  I just wanted to gush about it.  If you like anime and manga, you’d definitely like this series.  If you like well done characters and an epic action adventure, you’ll like this series.  If you like Japanese Folk Lore, you’ll like this series.  And finally, if you just like well done stories, you’ll like this series.  It’s in my top list of favorite YA series now, I just adore it so much!

Have you read the Shadow of the Fox trilogy?  Let me know how you like it in the comments!

Books

Bite-Sized Book Reviews #3

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Time for another Bite-sized book reviews!  This one is going to be a little different, since one is for a book series, and one for a book I DNFed.  I chose to not post a review on Good Reads for the DNF, because I think it’s unfair to do so when I haven’t finished the book, but since this is my blog I’d like to post my thoughts on said book and why I didn’t read it all the way through.  With that out of the way, let’s get on to the reviews!

 

Gods of Blood and Powder Series by Brian McClellan

 

This series is in the Powder Mage universe, so if you haven’t read the series, you may be a bit lost.  You wouldn’t be entirely lost, but if you ever plan to read the prior series there are major spoilers in the books, so read at your own risk.  The things it addresses in this series that you need knowledge of the Powder Mage trilogy for it explains though, which is nice.

 

This series takes place ten years after the Powder mage trilogy, and stars Vlora and two other characters not from the original trilogy.  Vlora was an interesting side character for me, so I really liked reading from her point of view…in book 1.  In book 2, she got a little too one note and didn’t develop much, but her plot was interesting and drove the overall plot forward.

 

Michele, the Adamat style character in this series, I loved.  My favorite plots and characters were in his storylines and in every book I super enjoyed getting back to his.  Ben Stike was the typical manly man Tamas character, but I overall liked him better along with his story arcs.

 

This world felt super fleshed out.  Like, the ten year gap truly felt like ten years of time had progressed in real time in their world.  Characters were different, but still the same, the stakes were higher, and a lot of characters got stories for them when they didn’t because of being supporting characters in the previous series.  I will say the 2nd book had middle book syndrome, and didn’t really feel like it added much to the overall trilogy, but there were some good moments in it.  My favorite one was the first book, I thought that one and book three were both really well paced and dynamic.

 

The end of the third book felt a little lack luster with the final conflict, but it also fit the series at the same time.  These books have always been about the characters and action more than anything, so it didn’t bother me too much how it ended.  Overall, a good series with a lot of lovable characters, good plot beats, and good pacing other than in book 2.  Give it a read if you’re into McClellans works.

 

Forest of Firelight by Shari L. Tapscott

 

Aaaand here’s the book I didn’t finish.  Such an awful slog of cliché insta love romance, a bland main character who we’re supposed to like, and a tortured love interest we’re supposed to empathize with.  The premise sounded so interesting too, and I read reviews saying the end was good but like…ugh.  It’s a short book, only 300 pages, but it just dragged on so long and the first 183 pages were nothing but naïve Princess getting into trouble, and brooding love interest saving her, internally saying he hated how stupid she was but at the same time falling for her.  No subversion of tropes what-so-ever, and for me the author didn’t seem like they were planning to do anything more than follow the same generic plot beats in a YA romance, so I just stopped reading it midway.  The world wasn’t interesting enough either, just generic epic fantasy with a somewhat interesting magic system, but not interesting enough to carry the story considering how frustrating the main character was.  If you’ve finished it, let me know if it gets better in the comments, but for me this was just a series I wasn’t willing to continue regardless so stopped in the middle of  book 1.

 

Of Sea and Song by Chanda Hahn

 

Another entry in the Daughters of Eville series, and the book I started reading this series for.  A Little Mermaid retelling that stars an epic sorceress who sings as her magic ability, and uses ocean magic?  Sign me up!  This story started pretty fun and interesting, but midway eventually fell into the trap this series usually does with the main love interest being irritating and them just falling in love with out any relationship growth what-so-ever.  I did like that the secondary love interest subverted the generic “He’s evil” trope in this one, and it was a fun ride regardless of leaning on tropes, so I can’t complain.  What this series thrives on is the familial relationships between the sisters and Lady Eville, and each daughter coming into her own through her story and this totally delivered on that regard, which is why the okish romance didn’t bother me so much.  Mary was my favorite lead so far which was also a bonus.

 

This was a really interesting take on The Little Mermaid that I super enjoyed, and this author gets better with every entry in this series:  this one was the best paced, with the least amount of leaning on fairy tale retelling tropes, and was really dynamic and interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed this read.

 

Conclusion

 

And that’s the end of my Bite-Sized Book Reviews!  If you want some more in depth reviews for any of these books, head on over to my Good Reads profile.  I hope these reviews help you with finding reads, and happy reading!

Books

Night Shift Dragons [DFZ, Book 3] Review

CrystalLeave a comment

DFZ book 3 released a while ago and I finished the audio book.  I have to say, hands down this was one of my favorite series.  I liked it more than The Heartstrikers books, if I’m being completely honest.  This is going to be one of my shorter reviews, because I really don’t have anything bad to say about it.  Loved it from start to finish.  But as I am prone to do, let’s get into some gushing about the book!

 

Night Shift Dragons takes place 2 months after Part-Time Gods.  Opal and her Father are dealing with a lot of their issues, and Opal is also dealing with being a Priestess to the DFZ.  I thought it was really interesting seeing the DFZ and how her personality has developed over the 25 year span since the Heartstriker series.  It isn’t something you need to have read the first series to get, but if you have it’s just a nice touch seeing her develop  into  who she is in the story.  There were some really entertaining cameos in this book as well, which once again you don’t have to have read the first series to get, but it makes them all the better if you have and if you plan to read the Heartstrikers series, major spoilers from things in that series by these cameos.
But what I love about this series, is how grounded it is.  Sure, we’re dealing with demi-gods and magic, and dragons.  But at its core, it’s the story of Opal and Yong trying to figure out how to have a relationship with one another where they aren’t just shouting at each other all the time, and Opal realizing that her actions have major consequences, and she’s just as much at fault for the bad things going on in her life as dealing with her Dad is.  It was really refreshing seeing Opal own up to her mistakes, while at the same time acknowledging that Yong was also in the wrong.  Yong also has to realize Opal isn’t a kid anymore, and what he’s been trying to do to keep her close has only driven her away was huge character growth for him as well.  I thoroughly enjoyed the first few chapters, where they just talked things out and figured out how to be a Father and daughter again.  After that, the scenes with them having more tender moments, and their action scenes together, were just so amazing and I loved seeing them lean on each other for strength, and support.  Of course their mannerisms don’t entirely go away, but they’re both working on building this relationship, and it’s beautiful start to finish.

 

I was a bit worried after reading the blurb for the book that Opal and Nick’s relationship would suffer.  Especially after what happened at the end of book 2, I was seriously stressing that there would be an obnoxious will they, won’t they lovers on opposite sides of a battle thing going on.  Lucky for me, that didn’t happen at all.  Once again, Rachel Aaron demonstrates her depth in understanding of how her characters work, and uses a realistic dialogue between the characters to set up plot points for the book.  Never did I feel like either side didn’t trust each other, never did I feel that their relationship wasn’t strong enough to weather any storm.  It was just really well done, seeing the depth of care they had for each other, and super refreshing for a genre plagued with irritating romance tropes.

 

The overarching plot of the story was interesting enough, but honestly it was mainly the backdrop for the characters growth and development.  I pretty easily predicted what was going to happen, though there were certain curveballs In the last few chapters that genuinely had me surprised.  The final battle was epic, and the true culmination of Opal and Yong’s relationship.  And the ending after that was super satisfying, and open-ended enough  to have some novellas featuring Opal and Nick.  Which, I hope is what happens, because if I’m being honest, I like them waaaay more than Marcy and Julius.  There’s just something about Opal that’s so much more engaging, and makes me like her far more as a character.

 

I read this in audio book format, because that’s how I started the book, and I tend to stick with how I started reading a book.  Emily Woo Zeller is fantastic, her voice for Opal especially is super well done.  Opal, Yong, and Nick were very well defined as characters in her narration.  There is a certain point, where the voices don’t get super distinguished, but the characters personalities still shine through so well that it doesn’t bother me so much.  My main gripe is with the characters from Heartstrikers, but that’s mainly because I’m so used to the voices from the Heartstrikers books that the ones in this book throw me off a bit.  I just put those voices in my head and imagine the other narrators deliveries with them, and it doesn’t bother me too much.

 

But yeah, this was a fantastic finale to the series.  Like I said, this story has always been grounded in the simple struggle of a young woman wanting to live her life, but not wanting to strain her familial relationships to do so.  Both sides having to adapt to one another’s wishes, while still loving and respecting each other was perfectly portrayed in this 3rd book. I always thought Yong was a great character, but seeing him fleshed out in this book was great, and his character arc along with Opal’s was fantastic.  Like I said, I really hope to see more of all of these characters, because I prefer them to the cast of the Heartstrikers series.
I recommend this story to anyone who’s an urban fantasy fan that has a strong like of character based stories, and quirky humor.  These books are well rounded with drama, action, character and plot, and I thoroughly enjoyed this being a one on one character story, instead of evolving into the end of the world scenario Heartstrikers did.  Both are great series’ but I prefer this one to that one, no contest.

 

Have you read Night Shift Dragons?  Let me know what you thought in the comments!

Books

Bite Sized book Reviews #1

CrystalLeave a comment

If you haven’t noticed, this blog has kinda been taken over by a lot of bookish content.  It’s not going to completely convert to being a book blog, but I go through phases where I want to write about one thing, and do one thing more than other things.  Right now, that’s reading, so sorry to anyone who sticks around for the anime and television reviews.  I want to work on doing a bit more opinion pieces and editorials also, just have to get some scheduling and organizing out of the way for that.

 

But I figured I’d like to get some reviews out of the way for some books that I didn’t feel like I wanted to write a full blown review for.  I honestly don’t have enough comments about these books to say more than a paragraph or two’s worth of things about them, so in enters my first edition of Bite Sized Book Reviews!

 

 

Uprooted By Naomi Novik

 

I was so excited about the premise of this book, and when I read the free preview of it on Amazon, it got me hooked enough to buy it and read it the same night.  The beginning of the book I really enjoyed, and the mystery set up about The Wood I found super fascinating and gripping.  However, as the story progressed, we stepped further and further away from this mystery and only returned to resolving it at stories end, and that left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.  The main character wasn’t very…intelligent, rather naïve, and her failure to use common sense in a lot of the sections in the middle of the book really started to get on my nerves and detracted  from the story for me.  When we got back to the actual interesting plot about The Wood, the reveals for said plot just felt really out of left field, and wasn’t the payoff I expected overall for the story.  I enjoyed aspects of this book, the beginning and the end I think make up for the slog in the middle.  But at the same time, you can just feel the potential of what the story could have been if we stuck with the story set up in the beginning, which was what is up with this haunted wood?  It didn’t make me dislike the author at all:  her writing style is gripping, and there’s only so much you can expect from a fairy tale retelling.  It just didn’t quite hit the mark I was hoping it would, but overall was enjoyable, and I do plan to check out the author’s other books because of the really captivating writing style.

 

The Tahaerin Chronicles Series By J. Ellen Ross

 

 

This is for a trilogy of books:  An Oathbreaker’s Vow, The Heretic’s War, and Fear and Bitter Thorns.  I’m not gonna lie, while I don’t classify things as “guilty pleasure reads” this would totally go into that sort of a category for me.  It’s fantasy romance at its finest, full of drama, fluffy lovey-dovey romance, straight up good vs evil conflicts, and interesting enough plots to keep you reading.  There’s a certain charm to this series that while I was rolling my eyes at how tropey and predictable it was, at the same time it was an easy to read page turner where I wanted to continue reading.  Each book is episodic in nature, and while you’ll get something more out of reading them in order, you also don’t have to to get what goes on in each story. It’s more of a trilogy because all 3 books are set in the same universe with the same characters, not because it’s a story arc carried over 3 books.

 

The characters are engaging enough, the relationships both romantic and platonic are really well done, and you root for every one of the good guys to wind up with their happy endings.  Just don’t expect this series to subvert any tropes or be some super enriching experience, because it’s nothing more than light hearted fantasy fun.  If you can predict it, it’ll happen, and the good guys always win the day no matter how tough the situations may become:  But I super enjoy reads like that, and used these books to lighten the mood after a more somber read I had previously.  As much as I shook my head at how all 3 of these panned out, I still was rooting for the characters, and was happy when things turned out right for them.  But these I feel are a highly acquired taste, so I’d suggest only reading if romance novels and soap opera style stories are your thing – which, I’m totally into so enjoyed these immensely.

 

The Queens of Innis Lear By Tessa Gratton

 

And this is the read that I love to pieces to the point where it can do no wrong and I would throw it at people to read.  A fantasy retelling of King Lear, it crafts this beautiful world, engaging characters, and the writing is just so lyrical and beautiful and heart-wrenching, that I couldn’t tell if dialogue was lifted from Shakespeare or not half the time.  It’s a beautiful tale of 3 sisters and their Father, and not letting “destiny” rule you.  Not letting peoples expectations for you define who you are, making sure your self and identity are sound enough in your mind so you can live a life satisfactory to how you want to live it.  It’s just so perfect, I felt for every character in this book and honestly, I want this to be the new cannon version of King Lear.  A great standalone fantasy I’d highly recommend reading for one of those life altering sort of experiences, just can’t sing the praises about this book enough.

 

And that’s my first round of bite sized reviews!  If you have read any of these books, or decide to, let me know how you feel about them in the comments!

 

Books

The Autumn Republic Book Review [Powder Mage Trilogy, Book 3]

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The Autumn Republic is the best book in the Powder Mage trilogy for me, hands down.  All pacing issues are gone, every character feels like they matter, and there’s a satisfying ending to every characters story arc.  Not all of them get the ending you’d expect either, but it’s a fitting ending for them and it was nice to see the author take risks and actually go there with a lot of the stuff in this entry of the series.  Of course, you’ll need to have read the first two books for this one to make any sense:  it once again takes place directly after events in The Crimson Campaign, but man is this one a roller coaster I couldn’t get off of, start to finish.

 

This book cements the Powder Mage universe as one of the best fantasy universes out there for me.  I have to admit, I wasn’t feeling it the first book.  Second one, it still grabbed me enough to read on, but not there yet.  Third?  I can’t wait to read the next series of books and all of the novellas, just such a fantastic job with this book and a worthy conclusion to the saga for these characters.

 

Read it if you’d read the first two books, you won’t regret it!

 

I usually put the book synopses after my brief review, but the one for this book holds spoilers to things in The Crimson Campaign, so I’m just going to launch into the review from this point on.  Here we go!

 

PLOT

 

The plot is really good in this  installment, doesn’t have nearly as much pacing issues as I found in the last two books.  I think that’s because we’re in the end game here, and every character’s plots get interwoven into the final stretch of the narrative.  Nila, Adamat, and Bo are my favorite set of characters overall in the series, but their plots in this range from empowering to heartbreaking and it’s all just such good writing.  Tamas’ plot, and story arc finish in this book, and while it wasn’t what I was expecting for the character, it makes total sense for it to have happened and for me it was the most satisfying out of all of the story arcs.

 

The least satisfying for me was Taniel’s sadly.  He branches off from the main group early on, and it just seems like there wasn’t enough time to give him a better plot than he had in this book.  I like his scenes with Vlora, and she got fleshed out way more in this book, but what they did to Ka-Poel really made Taniel’s plot less enjoyable, and I’ll leave it at that to not avoid spoilers.

 

Another part of the plot that came to a conclusion, was having to do with the gods of the world.  It didn’t feel rushed to me for the most part, but one character that was in the series throughout is revealed to be something they weren’t before and it just felt off to me.  Throughout the series, McClellan has done a really good job of leaving clues for us for other plot threads, so we could figure it out so the lack of such for this specific character just seemed a bit off to me.  If we had seen more of them, or if it had made more sense why the reveal wound up to be them it would have worked far better than it did.  It didn’t really hinder the reading experience for me, but I could see it being an issue for someone else so figured I’d bring it up.
Other than that, flawless execution of the story.  The first two books led up to the third so well, and this series shines because of it.  You do have to read all of the books to get the full effect of the plotting though, since this is more a continued story over three books than it is episodic books with self-contained plots that have overarching story in it.  Since all 3 books are out, I’d highly recommend reading all 3 consecutively instead of reading something in-between any of the trilogy to get the full effect of the narrative.

 

CHARACTERS

 

Every character that was introduced in Promise of Blood has a satisfying conclusion to their story, as stated above.  Not much development is given to them per say, but they’re put in situations where they have to act differently than they would, and their morals are pushed to the brink because of it.  You really feel for all of them honestly, but still stand outs for me are Nila, Adamat, and Bo.  They all were always my favorites since book 1, and that never changed.  I’d love to read a spin off book about Nila and Bo, and see where their stories further lead, but I also like where they left us with their plots  at the same time.

 

Tamas’ full story comes to fruition here, and in this book I realized that if you don’t like him, it’s fine.  We as the reader, were never supposed to like him.  If we did, that’s fine, but this story was always meant to tell us about a man driven by grief and revenge, and the destructive path being led by those emotions ultimately leads us.  It was really well executed, and as stated above, although I wasn’t expecting Tamas’ story to end the way it did, when it happened I was like “Yes,  this totally makes sense” and I’m so happy McClellan didn’t shy away from the darker stuff in this series, because it really shines because of the darker subject brought up here.

 

Taniel doesn’t super change throughout the series.  I enjoy his character, but other than circumstances pushing him forward, he doesn’t feel like he grows at all.  He gets what he wants in the end, but I just wish he would have gotten a tad more growth than he did, and we got to see his and Tamas’ relationship develop more because of his growth.  What we got was serviceable, just wish we got a bit more.

 

Adamat, poor Adamat!  His story along with Nila’s shows what happens when people are thrown into something because of someone else’s  desires.  Adamat never wanted to be any part of this, but Tamas dragged him into it and that anger towards the man really shines through in this book.  He’s my favorite main point of view character for sure, really enjoyed his investigations, his scenes with Ricard, and his family.  The investigations in this book are the most gripping to me, and I think The autumn republic is the best use of his character for sure.

 

WORLD BUILDING

 

We’re back in familiar territory here, where the story began.  No real ground broken here, nothing really expanded on.  Just back to the French Revolution setting of the book.  But I like that where a series starts, it ends sort of thing so being in familiar settings the entire book totally worked for me.  It may not for others, but for me seeing the inner workings of the city after everything that had happened was a lot of fun and added to what this book series ultimately was about:  One man, and how his choices effected a world, for better or for worse.

 

WRITING

 

The pacing is way better in this book.  The writing is still raw and gritty, but more polished so it just feels more raw, if that makes sense.  I think McClellan’s dialogue writing has definitely gotten better in this book, felt way more realistic than in the past two.  Other than that, pretty much the same as the prior two books.

 

CONCLUSION

 

This review is shorter because honestly, I can’t say much more about this series than I already have in the prior two reviews.  If you’d read Promise of Blood and The Crimson Campaign and enjoyed them both enough to get to The autumn republic, you’ll want to read this book.  How much you like it depends on how much you liked the other two since this series is purely linear in its story telling, and the full story spans all three books.  For me, I enjoyed this book especially and it fixed most of the problems I had with the series as a whole.  Just was a really good ride start to finish and the slow burn of the first two books was worth it.

 

I’d highly recommend The Powder Mage trilogy.  Only reason I’m not starting the next series in the Powder Mage universe is because the third one isn’t out yet  (by the posting of this review, the third book will be released).  But as soon as it is I plan to buy all 3 and read.

 

Pick up this series if you like a lot of action, interesting plots and world building, and really good political intrigue.  You won’t regret it!

Books

The Crimson Campaign Book Review [Powder Mage Trilogy, Book 2]

CrystalLeave a comment

The Crimson Campaign is a vast improvement over Promise of Blood.  It also has its set of issues, but I found myself caring a lot more about the characters in this one than the first book.  That may be because we focus far more on the supporting cast, which as I said in my first review was far more interesting than our lead, but I just found myself caring way more about this book than Promise of Blood.  We get to see the bigger world out of Tamas’ sphere of influence, and that was a welcome surprise to me, who really doesn’t care for Tamas and the people who are loyal to him, therefore they justify his less than noble actions.

 

This book is also a slow burn, but just…more interesting than the last time.  This series, as I stated in Promise of Blood, definitely plays the long game and wants to use all 3 books in the trilogy to fully realize it’s world and characters.  I usually prefer self-contained stories per book that also pave way for the overall plot in a series, but it works in the Powder Mage trilogy far more than in other series I’ve read because this is a crazy war, and the long game is what a war is all about.  So it makes sense to have these two books be the calm before the storm that the third book is going to inevitably be.  Er Pr taks place a few month afomise of Blood, so you definitely can’t jump into this one without reading the first.  If I were waiting a year for the 2nd book in the series, I’d find that pacing to be a bit of a problem, but since I’m reading these all together with no lulls between books, it’s perfectly fine to me.  Just as a note, you’ll want to read each book right after the other, and not read another book in-between these if you’d like to get the full impact of the overall story because of the flow of the trilogy and how little time passes between each of the books.

 

With my overall, spoiler-free review out of the way, into the nitty gritty!

 

BOOK SYNOPSES

 

When invasion looms…

Tamas’ invasion of Kez ends in disaster when a Kez counteroffensive leaves him cut off behind enemy lines with only a fraction of his army, no supplies, and no hope of reinforcements. Drastically outnumbered and pursued by the enemy’s best, he must lead his men on a reckless march through northern Kez to safety, and back over the mountains so that he can defend his country from an angry god, Kresimir.

But the threats are closer to home…

In Adro, Inspector Adamat only wants to rescue his wife. To do so he must track down and confront the evil Lord Vetas. He has questions for Vetas concerning his enigmatic master, but the answers will lead Adamat on a darker journey.

Who will lead the charge?

Tamas’ generals bicker among themselves, the brigades lose ground every day beneath the Kez onslaught, and Kresimir wants the head of the man who shot him in the eye. With Tamas and his powder cabal presumed dead, Taniel Two-shot finds himself as the last line of defense against Kresimir’s advancing army.

In a rich, distinctive world that mixes magic with technology, who could stand against mages that control gunpowder and bullets? The Crimson Campaign is the epic sequel to Brian McClellan’s Promise of Blood.  – From Audible

 

PLOT

 

The plot is once again split into the three main points of view of Tamas, Taniel, and Adamat.  Once again, I find Tamas’ plot the least interesting, as it just feels like semi-filler that while interesting character beats happen to him in it, doesn’t super feel like was necessary.  I’m already reading the third book, and it doesn’t seem like it really impacted the story much other than his troops thought he was dead for a few months.  This rumor caused infighting, betrayal, and a shift in the military that was foreshadowed in the first book, so that aspect of him being split from the cast was interesting.  His actual story however, didn’t add much to the story for me and I found myself getting bored of the military battles getting done over and over again in his story.  The ending of it was interesting, and I liked that we saw that when Tamas wasn’t with people who were loyal to him, that they saw him for the terrible person he was and didn’t condone his actions.  This book doesn’t shy away from the fact that he’s just an awful person doing what he thinks is right for revenge, and since that wasn’t made clear in the first book, it made me feel justified in my feelings for his character.  Still don’t like him, but I can live with a book that calls its lead out on their garbage actions.

 

The most interesting plot for me was Adamat’s.  I really liked seeing his relationship with Ricard, and seeing all of his sleuthing finally pay off.  Getting to see him interact with Bo, and other key characters in the story was really cool, and he’s one of my favorite characters.  I don’t want to spoil anything in his plot, but it’s action packed and shows how much he’s willing to do for his family and I just found myself continuing to wanting to read his plot the most out of all 3 main points of view.

 

Taniel’s plot is…middle of the road?  I liked it when I got to read it, more because I like Taniel as a character than the actual plot.  The plot wasn’t bad, mind you:  he had to deal with trying to keep the army together when everyone was pushing against him, and trying to change the way the army was ran, and I love a good man against all odds story – but what was happening to taniel, his relationship with Ka-Pole, was really what sold his story for me.  Like I said it was enjoyable to read, and I think impacted the overall story the most, but it wasn’t the one I was most excited to read.

 

The pacing of these three stories is well done in this book.  The first book had to setup the world, and character motivations, so the plots where unevenly distributed I feel, but this one every character’s plot had it’s time to shine.  Although it was slow paced, and the last fifteen chapter or so were where the action picked up, once again like in the first book, I didn’t find it boring to read in the middle like I did in Promise of Blood.  Like I said only thing I wasn’t a fan of was Tamas’ plot, but to be expected since I don’t like him as a character.

 

The end of the book brings all of the characters together to set up for what so far is an epic third book, so fingers crossed The Autumn Republic stays as such ‘til the end.  I’m 20 chapters in and can’t put it down, so I’d say that’s a good sign that The first two books in the series, while slow at times, did their job properly.

 

CHARACTERS

 

The characters get a lot of development in this book, and side characters that seem like they weren’t going to matter totally prove you wrong, and matter a great deal.  Stand outs for me are Bo and Nila, I can’t get enough of them and I totally ship it so hope they wind up together by series’ end.  We get to see Adamat grow, Ka-Poel and Taniel grow, even Vlora gets her plot, that was introduced in the first book, resolved and becomes a pretty decent character.  Not as fleshed out as the others, but enough to be a good supporting character.

 

Tamas, we get to see more of his motivations and inner workings.  As I said it doesn’t make me like him any more, but it shows us his headspace, and I can respect an author for doing that.  I don’t think Tamas was ever meant to be this grand war hero, and The Crimson Campaign makes that abundantly clear.

 

A lot of other cool side characters introduced here, which once again if I listed we’d be here all day.  All good additions to the cast, and they only serve to make the world more interesting as a result.

 

WORLD BUILDING

 

The world gets expanded a tad in this book, as we see Tamas go through Northern Kez.  Nothing super interesting if I’m being honest:  We don’t see their culture, or any of the people other than their army and royals, so it doesn’t really serve to flesh out the world more than say, using it as a set piece.  The magic system is expanded on a bit which is interesting, but nothing groundbreaking that makes the system different enough to mention.  Just more of the same, which isn’t bad, but nothing majorly expanded on.

 

WRITING

 

The writing definitely is improved upon in this book.  It wasn’t bad in Promise of Blood, but a lot of the sparceness is gone for a more realized writing style.  It’s still got that raw and gritty style I really enjoy for this sort of genre, but it seems a lot more polished than in the author’s dayview novel.  The pacing is vastly improved as well, and that also lends to a more seasoned author.  The third book only gets better, so the author is totally coming into his own as a writer and I can’t wait to see where his writing career progresses.

 

CONCLUSION

 

If you’re invested in the Powder Mage trilogy, you’ll want to read this book.  I’m happy to say it gets better with each book in the series.  If you decided to DNF Promise of Blood because of lack of interested, then obviously you’re not going to want to read this book.  It’s good though, made me invested in the series far more than Promise of Blood did.

 

Have you read The crimson Campaign?  Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

Books

Minimum Wage Magic [DFZ, Book 1] Review

CrystalLeave a comment

I have this on again off again relationship with reading.  It’s not that I don’t like it, I love it in fact.  It’s just so hard to sift through good series and books for me, and only using Audible for books can get expensive.  Luckily, I found out the Kindle Reader PC app was accessible, so here’s to hoping I read more, but still when I find an author I like I’m super loyal and read all of their books.

 

That author lately is Rachel Aaron for me.  I read her Heartstrikers series and fell in love with it:  the world, characters, and writing are all so great.  I’m not normally into urban fantasy, but this one just clicks with my tastes so much that I read the entire thing and am a big fan of the universe it takes place in.  So when I heard that a new series of books was going to take place in the world of the DFZ, I was all in.
Recently, I decided to cancel my Audible subscription just for lack of using it, so with my two remaining credits, I picked up the first 2 books in the DFZ series.  How do they compare to the Heartstrikers series?

 

That’s kind of hard to say.  They’re two completely different styles of books, and I think that was a smart move on Aaron’s part.  I like both, for different reasons, but as far as my personal preference, I like Minimum Wage Magic more.  As much as I like the Heartstrikers series, it eventually evolved into this end of the world scenario.  I like it when stories are more personal, and Minimum Wage Magic is just that.  We follow Opal, a Cleaner in the DFZ – aka, someone who buys storage units, and takes what she gets out of the units and sells them.  We find out early on that she has a big debt to pay to someone by the end of the week, and the plot only thickens when the unit she buys has a dead body inside of it.  Said unit has notes that lead her on a crazy adventure with fellow cleaner Nick, and I don’t want to say anything else because the fun of this book is not knowing what will happen next.
It has a very heist setup to it – beat another party to the prize at the end of the adventure.  There’s plenty of action, lot of flare, and most importantly, the characters we follow are really fun and interesting.  Unlike Heartstrikers, we aren’t following someone who doesn’t want to fight.  That also lends itself to making this series stand on its own, and not making it feel like a rehashed story – and, there are plenty of cameos from characters from the first series of books.  If you haven’t read the Heartstrikers series, it won’t throw you off at all, but for those of us who have it’s a really nice nod to the series and there are really fun references in here.

 

 

But as I was saying, the characters are really interesting.  Both Opal and Nick are super dynamic, both together and apart and I’m seriously hoping they’ll get together at the end of all of this because they just complement each other so well.  The book is told in first person, from Opal’s POV and it just…works.  Like it doesn’t feel like we’re getting too much into her headspace because she’s a closed off character, but we learn just enough about her and her personality to like her, and she tells us enough about the world around her to know how the world works.  Her interactions with other characters don’t feel like first person, and the dialogue has Aaron’s typical mix of humor and grounded logic that I’ve come to really enjoy.

 

And that’s the biggest thing I have to say about this book:  It’s a lot more grounded than the Heartstrikers series.  Instead of world threatening odds, we’re dealing with one woman and her life.  It’s far more personal, and throughout the story that totally gets across.  It’s a super fun heist story with a grounded sense of self, while still having magic and technology that totally makes sense in the continuity of the world.  All the characters feel real, and I’m rooting for Nick and Opal to make it in the crazy world of the DFZ together throughout the rest of this series.

 

I’m super interested after this first entry in the series, to see how Opal and Nick’s stories will end.  Aaron once again, knocked it out of the park with this one.

 

If you’ve read the Heartstrikers series, or if you haven’t, Minimum Wage Magic is worth the read.  I’m going to be starting the 2nd book in the series asap, and can’t wait to see what happens next in Opal’s story.
Have you read Minimum Wage Magic?  Let me know how you liked it in the comments!

Books

Caraval by Stephanie Garber Book Review

Crystal1 Comment

This book is good.  If you want the short and sweet version of this review, I’d say read it.  It has flaws, sure, but it’s pros outweigh its cons for me and the mysteries, characters and world are worth getting through them because there’s major payoff at the plots conclusion.  Plus, the sequel book sounds like it’ll be great after the epilogue!  I just wanted to get that out of the way:  This is a good book, if you like fantasy, romance, and mystery, check it out.  But for those of you who want a more in depth review, keep reading!

 

Plot summary

 

Welcome, welcome to Caraval – Stephanie Garber’s sweeping tale of two sisters who escape their ruthless father when they enter the dangerous intrigue of a legendary game.

Scarlett has never left the tiny island where she and her beloved sister, Tella, live with their powerful – and cruel – father. Now Scarlett’s father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval, the faraway once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show, are over.

But this year Scarlett’s long dreamt of invitation finally arrives. With the help of a mysterious sailor, Tella whisks Scarlett away to the show. Only as soon as they arrive, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval’s mastermind organizer, Legend. It turns out that this season’s Caraval revolves around Tella, and whoever finds her first is the winner.

Scarlett has been told that everything that happens during Caraval is only an elaborate performance. But she nevertheless becomes enmeshed in a game of love, heartbreak, and magic with the other players in the game. And whether Caraval is real or not, she must find Tella before the five nights of the game are over, a dangerous domino effect of consequences is set off, and her sister disappears forever. – From Audible

 

World Building

 

The world building is done interestingly, though I won’t say it’s perfect.  We see the world through the main characters eyes, and due to her upbringing, she has a very narrow world view.  We get a description of how the world works, and the way finding out the basics of the world is done in a well rounded way that isn’t just an exposition dump.  There are a lot of vague descriptions when we get to Caraval that I felt tried to lend to the mystery – but at the same time, parts of the book were really frustrating to read because of how vague the author kept descriptions.  The magic system in Caraval alssso…doesn’t really make sense, in all honesty.  But if you ignore that and just come along for the ride, the book is enjoyable.

 

Plot Progression/Pacing

 

The pacing is the biggest issue for me with the book, along with Scarlet in the first half of the story (we’ll get to that in the characters section).  I was so frustrated with how the book was progressing, and where it was trying to go in the first half, that I had to go read some reviews with minor spoilers in it.  They really just mentioned what characters would be popping up, and when I saw that my interest in the book was re-engaged.  But, the book doesn’t get interesting for me until around chapter 17 to chapter 20 – that’s when the book starts to get really good, and super engaging.  I marathoned the 2nd half of the book in 2 days, it just was really great.  The stakes were raised properly, it got really intense, and the characters all had mysteries I wanted to see solved.  Scarlet is amazing in the 2nd half of the book as well, and her character development had me rooting for her the entire book.

 

The plot was…well, the plot threads aren’t all answered, but the plot threads for the first book are.  I don’t think the multitude of plot twists at the end were all good, some of them felt like they were just thinly vailed reasons to keep characters in the game for a sequel novel.  Although all the plot twists weren’t welcome for me, the overall progression of the plot was slow in the first half, fast paced in the second.  When Scarlet couldn’t figure out obvious clues though, I was banging my head against the wall!  It’s a major irritant of mine when a character can’t figure out something that is so freaking obvious!
There were a lot of predictable plot threads, and a lot of convoluted plot twists, but if you suspend your disbelief and just enjoy this book for what it is, it’s tons of fun.

 

Characters

 

This is where the book shines.  The characters are great!  All well fleshed out, very realistic characters you feel for.  Scarlet, as I said, really annoyed me in the beginning:  but, the reasons she acted the way she did in the first half of the book were well explained, and her character arc was masterfully done.  I’m always annoyed with characters who are indecisive, but knowing what Scarlet has gone through her entire life, I felt awful for being annoyed with her because I know why she was acting the way she did.  And, that frustration had major payoff, because when Scarlet comes into her own, wow is she fierce!  Like I said in the above section by books end I was rooting for her, and absolutely adored her.  I really hope she appears in the sequel books, she’s so great.
Julian is another example of how well Garber writes characters.  He has secrets to hide, but the person we see is the person he is, and he’s a great foil for Scarlet.  Their relationships progression is one of the gems in this book.  No cases of insta love:  Their relationship grows from distrust, to trust, to friendship, to love and it’s throughout the entirety of the book, so once again, really realistic.  When he finally spills the beans about his true identity, I wasn’t really surprised to be honest.  The two things he wound up being, were two of my theories very early on in the book, but I thought what the final reveal was was a great way to subvert the readers expectations of what the reveal was going to be.
Scarlet and Julian are the perfect couple, and that’s not to say they’re both perfect.  They know how to push each other to be the best people they can be, accept each other for all of their flaws, know how to make each other brave and strong and it’s such a breath of fresh air to see a grounded relationship in a YA novel.  10/10, OTP!

 

 

Donnatella, much like Caraval, is a bundle of magic and mystery.  She does something that you’d originally think was horrible and selfish, but when you see the consequences of her actions, you see her in a whole new light.  Tella is selfless, brave, and just as strong, if not more so, than Scarlet and we see this both in the beginning, and end of the book.  But to say any more about Tella would be a spoiler, so I’ll stop there XD
Governor Dragna is the worst you can get.  The perfect villain, because you hate him from the start and want to see him get his (luckily, we do).  You see the effect his abuse has had on both Scarlet and Tella, and it makes you hate him even more.  That’s part of why Scarlet’s development is so amazing:  She escapes her Father’s control, by openly defying him, and it’s soooo amazing!
The supporting cast is all great.  I’m especially fond of Dante and Iko, but Legend is the perfect anti-hero, who by books end you still don’t really know anything about.  I hope the next book in the series explores the mystery of Legend a lot more, because seeing him in this book was interesting but made you want to see more.  No matter how big, or how small the cast member is in Caraval, they’re all wonderful to watch.

 

Writing

 

This is the one hit I’ll give the book. The writing tries to be whimsical with flowery pros, but all it does is frustrate the reader at points.  Scarlet feels her emotions attached to colors, which I thought was interesting in the beginning because I thought that would somehow link to the magic of Caraval.  But nope:  It’s just how she feels emotions, so throughout the entire book we get to read things like “The gray ash of disappointment” “the violet danger” “the emerald greed” and to me, it just felt like a lazy way to not have to actually explain to the reader what was going on in any detail.  Along with that, descriptions are made into vague pros like “Our kiss felt like the beginning of something and the start of something new”, “It tasted like midnight”, “her dress was periwinkle, the color of happy endings” and none of those things equate to anything in my mind other than vague, non-descript descriptors that are just there to try and make the book sound a lot more introspective than it actually is.  Would it be so hard just to say Scarlet tasted something, and it was spicy?  I don’t think so!  I know Garber was trying to have “The magic of Caraval” apparent through her pros, but really it just got annoying after reading through the 100th metaphor.  I really hope in her next book, she uses these in moderation and gives us a bit more of a grounded sounding narrative because there were so many times I just went “There’s no way I would even know what midnight would taste like because it’s not a sensation attached to taste”.  Using a completely opposite word to describe another sensory detail isn’t good writing, it’s just overly involved writing that’s distracting.

 

Julian had a “nickname” for Scarlet the entire book that was super annoying too.  Crimson.  Crimson?  That isn’t a nickname, it’s a synonym!  Once again, another thing thrown in that makes absolutely no sense and adds nothing but irritation to the narrative.
But I will say:  I freaking adore how every one of Scarlet’s dresses were described.  That was perfectly done.  I could totally picture each gown, and ugh it just made the fashionista in me squeal:  all so pretty!

 

Overall/Final Thoughts

 

In the end, I loooooved this book.  It’s a great tale of two sisters who love each other so much, that they fight to keep the other safe in their own way.  It’s also a tale of two abused young women fighting to come into their own, and be free of their Father, both in very different ways.  The backdrop is the magical game that is Caraval, full of magic and secrets, and secrets and magic!  But in all seriousness, this is a really great first book in a series.  If you’re ok with a good magical mystery, wrapped in romance, and fantasy, pick up this book.  As long as you’re willing to turn your brain off for a while and just enjoy the ride.

 

The epilogue is pretty clear in the character who we’ll be following in the next book, and I really can’t wait to read it!

 

To me the mark of a good book is a book that has you thinking about it days after you’ve read it.  Thinking about what parts in the book now make sense after getting to the end, how the characters will be in the next book, things like that.  I’m still thinking about Caraval days after I read it, and finishing it left a really good feeling for me.  So despite any flaws I see in this book, or any discrepancies’ I have with the writing, I think Caraval is an amazing story that deserves to have been told.

 

Have you read Caraval?  Would love to hear your thoughts in the comment’s!

Books · Uncategorized

The Siren by Kiera Cass Book Review

Crystal5 Comments

Sometimes you just pick up a book because it has a good concept, or has a mythology in it that you like.  I picked up The Siren because I love mermaids, and Sirens.  After reading the plot synopses, I knew it would be a generic romance, that part of it didn’t bother me.  What wound up bothering me however, was the drawn out premise, the directions this plot went, and how predictably cliché it wound up being.  If it wasn’t for the fact it had sirens in it, I probably would have stopped reading.  Overall, it was a good enough read because of its length:  the audio book was 7 hours, and I finished it in 2 days (could be one day if you felt like binging the book).  It’s definitely what I like to call, a popcorn read.  It’s nothing ground breaking, but enjoyable enough and engaging enough to finish.

 

I’m not going to review this in my normal long form format with all the categories and stuff, because honestly the book was short like I said and really not much to fill in each section.  So I’ll just touch on the things I liked, and didn’t liked, and then give my final thoughts.  Going to be major spoilers in this post, you have been warned!

 

I’ll start with the things I liked:  I loved the core cast of characters.  All of the Sirens had really distinct personalities and quirks, and it truly felt like we were looking in at pre-established relationships.  The one character that started to bother me sadly, was the main POV character Kahlen.  She just kept on whining about everything!!  I don’t mind a character complaining in a book, but the entire time she wasn’t even trying to change her situation and just was whining the entire time.  They establish early on that “her talent is obeying” but she kept on fighting against it and rebelling, but only halfway. And then going back to the way she was.  Everyone but her moved the plot forward, and although the overall themes of the story were good, Kahlen was infuriating to read about.  Half of the book is her being depressed or pining or angsting over something and it’s just so irritating to read.

 

Interestingly enough, I thought the best character in the story, was The Ocean.  In this, The Ocean speaks to the sirens, and is their maternal figure for them.  Her story is way more interesting than Kahlen’s, and she kept the story going when at times it was hard to get through entire chapters of Kahlen moping, or being depressed.  Making The Ocean a talking character that interacted with her daughters was a really nice touch.

 

 

Coming off of that, I really loved how the siren lore was used in this!  Kiera Cass did her research, while still adding her own lore to it to make the narrative cohesive.  Like I said, I love sirens, and getting an explanation of their lives and powers, and why The Ocean picked certain women to be sirens was really cool.  Honestly, if it weren’t for this section of the book, them going out and singing, and coping with killing to feed The Ocean, not allowed to speak to humans because their voice literally would make them want to kill themselves, using sign language because of this, therefore having a really good depiction of disability in the book was great to read.  It added great depth to the story that wasn’t there for me when it was strictly a romance.

 

But with all of this cleverly crafted lore, there was one thing that was a HUGE missed opportunity, and it had everything to do with the predictable turn the second half of the book took.  Eventually, Kahlen gets sick.  Which is odd, because sirens can’t get sick, don’t need to eat, etc etc.  So, I instantly thought, “Oh, really cool!  She’s going to make it like Kahlen is becoming human because she fell in love, and a siren can only be set free early from her sentence if she finds true love”.
But nope!  Instead of going with that, which would probably be just as predictable, but fit more with the story, we get some soulmate mumbo jumbo that is so convoluted and half baked that I literally was like what are you serious.  It would have made so much more sense to make the conclusion to Kahlen’s sickness be a siren based problem, and not a random soulmate’s via insta-love problem.  Dropped the ball there, Cass.

 

The “romance” between Kahlen and Akinli erked me too, because it wasn’t a romance.  They met once, and then she ran from him for a year, then met him again one more time.  So it was twice before he offered her the world, and then she had to run again because she thought she’d hurt him but oh she loves him so much and can’t stop thinking of them because they’re total soulmates!  I don’t mind insta-love, but initially the book made it like we’d be following their actual romance, and the hurdles Kahlen would face dating Akinli while being a siren.  Instead, we got two meetings, and her pining for him all through the book.  If you count the final chapter, and the epilogue, they were together a total of four times in the book and the rest of it was Kahlen moping about how she couldn’t be with Akinly because of her duty to The Ocean, and daydreaming about being in love with this boy she had only hung out with probably a total of like 30 hours.

 

And still, with all that said, there was something engaging about this book that made me want to keep reading.  Maybe it was the half good seen amongst the half flaws, the other more likeable characters that weren’t the leads, the fact that they were sirens (I can’t stress how very in love I am with mermaids and sirens) or the fact that it was just so short it wasn’t worth not finishing.  I’d honestly probably read it again if I were bored, because it’s a quick, enjoyable read like most romance novels are.

 

I usually wind up liking paranormal romances, but an aspect of them frustrate me.  I think this is a good example of that:  They always have so much potential, but at the end of the day they’re made to sell for a light read on a trip or something, so not much weight is put behind the interesting, dynamic concepts initially put forth.  The Siren is a shining example of that, but still something I’d suggest reading if you just want an easy read, and want to see a good take on siren mythology in modern culture.

 

Did this book make me want to read any more of Kiera Cass’ novels?  Not at all.  If your stand-alone novel can’t do that, I feel like there maaay be a problem with your writing.  But hey, I may be wrong, and The Selection series is an amazing piece of literature I’d enjoy.
Have you read The Siren?  Or any of Kiera Cass’ other works?  Would love to read your thoughts in the comments!