The City of Brass

OK! New Year! I'm gonna do this blog thing!

But for real, I had good reasons for not writing over the past few months, so sorry about all the amazing books you've missed hearing about. But it's fine! I'm back! And I've already read 4 books this year!

The first one I'm going to talk about is The City of Brass BECAUSE IT WAS AWESOME, OK?! I've seen it around, but haven't heard as much chatter about it as I have other books. It could be because everything I follow is YA centric, and this is technically adult fantasy (even though really, it could totally be YA; one of the two POVs is 16 and the other is 20 so really, it's just a technicality, much like Queen of the Tearling).

So, a summary:

It's the Napoleonic era and Nahri is a con-woman/healer/thief. Nahri has been on her own a long time, so she had to get creative to survive. She's learned how to spot a mark, how to read people, and how to swindle them. And she makes a decent living from it. But what she really wants is to be a doctor. See, Nahri has a special talent: she can sense what is wrong in a body and sometimes, she can even heal it. She also has a gift for languages. She can understand/speak any language once it's spoken to her. But there is one language she knows that she's never heard anyone else speak. She assumes it must be the language from her homeand, but she has no idea where that is or who her family is.

One night, she's performing a healing, and during her chanting, calling on a warrior for healing (for effect, because you know, words have no healing powers),  someone appears. A man who swears a lot and is very angry to have been summoned by a human. The problem, as he discovers, is that Nahri is not fully human. She's half Daeva (djinn {shafit}), which is an abomination all its own.

This warrior is Darayavahoush (Dara), and ancient Daeva who was once turned into a slave and served humans for hundreds of years. He doesn't know how she summoned him, but he knows the safest place for her is the City of Brass, where the djinn live.

In the City of Brass, Ali is a second son, prince who is raised to be something similar to a head of security for the nation. He will protect his kingdom with his life, never marry or have a family. His father is the king, and is testing him. For he knows Ali has sympathies and questionable loyalties. Not everyone is treated equally in The City of Brass, and Ali wants that to change. So he's secretly been funneling money into an anarchic organization--not so they can bring the government down, but rather, so they can help the half human, half djinn (shafit) members of their society who are so mistreated.

There is so much happening in this book, and it's all so well plotted and the world building is just magnificent. It deftly tackles racism, the meaning of justice, good and evil, all while building complex relationships between the characters.  Everyone in this book is so fleshed out. They are all morally gray (Nahri preys on the gullible to make her living, Dara started a war that killed thousands of innocents, and Ali executes a good man because he was told to). And that's just the main characters. The supporting cast is similarly well thought out and it was simply delightful. I can't wait for the mext book, because it's going to delve into secrets that I know were kept in this one.

So, basically--read it. Tell me what you think when you do (even though I will likely have forgotten half the story by then bc I have THE WORST memory).

P.S. The cover of this book is beautiful, so when you see it, I don't  know how you can resist it unless you're some kind of monster.

Jane, Unlimited

I'm sorry, but I just couldn't do it. I couldn't finish it. Don't you hate when that happens? I hate when that happens. First, I feel like I'm missing something when I don't finish a book. And I am,  because obviously I don't know the resolution. Second, because I'm not getting what everyone else seems to get. I start thinking, am I reading it wrong?

But there are too many good books out there for me to spend time reading books I don't enjoy. I tried for almost 100 pages of this 443 page book. I really did. What gets me is that this book was inspired by (and pays homage to) Rebecca and Jane Eyre. I LOVE THOSE BOOKS! HOW DID I NOT LOVE THIS ONE?

I really think that was actually part of the problem--it felt like the characters were behaving as if they were in the 1800s/1900s but also as if they were contemporary, and I couldn't tell what the time period was supposed to be.

Jane's an orphan who has been living with her adventurous aunt for most of her childhood. But she's grown up now, and her aunt has died. Before she died, she extracted a promise from Jane: if she was ever invited to Tu Reviens, she was to accept. Jane doesn't understand why, but she agrees. And then her high school tutor, Kiran, invites Jane to Tu Reviens.

Well, the weird thing is that as you learn about them, you can tell they're not even friends. They barely know anything about each other. Kiran is distant and cold. So why did she even extend the invite? Then they arrive at the house and there's an odd assortment of other characters with weird relationships to each other also there, and I never could really figure out why. The relationships between characters felt very abrupt. Not in their development--most of them have known each other for a long time. It just feels hard to understand why they're there. They don't seem to like each other. It also feels like the Clue movie--a bunch of people assembled together for a reason and they all have their own agendas. I expected the butler to come out and say, "There was a murder!" Never happened, but there was a priceless piece of art stolen.

So this was originally supposed to be a choose your own adventure story. It was revised, but what you have is a kind of introduction to the characters and setting, and then 5 different choices (for Jane) that end five different ways. I didn't get that far, so I don't know what actually happened. I finished the intro, but couldn't bring nyself to read the rest. I didn't like the main character--she was rude. When I don't like a main character, I have trouble with the book as a whole. I mean, it seems silly because there are legit bad (not badly written, but bad) characters out there. I don't like them, but they're at least riveting and that makes the story better. I didn't feel the same about Jane. So this was a bust for me. It makes me sad.

But! On to bigger and better things! Well, at least better...

Wonder Woman: Warbringer

First of all, guys, Leigh Bardugo is my queen. I love everything she writes. I'm going to a signing of hers later this month and let's all hope I'm not PMSing at the time because there will be happy tears. I'm stupid excited.

Second of all, I don't even care about DC all that much because all of their movies have been trainwrecks. But Wonder Woman was amazing. AMAZING!

So to have my favorite author write such an amazing story in my favorite genre: heaven, ya'll.

In Warbringer, Diana knows that she has a powerful legacy to live up to, and she feels wholly inadequate to it. She's the only one on the island of Themyscira who hasn't earned her place there. All of the other women have died and cried out to a goddess at their death. Diana was born there. So she has a lot to prove, but few chances in which to do it. Her mother won't let her leave the island on a quest, so she tries to prove it by winning a foot race. Because you don't enter a competition to lose.

But the path she takes leads her by the sea,  where she sees a ship sinking and hears a girl cry out. It is punishable by banishment to bring someone onto the island, but Diana cannot just stand by and let someone die. Obvs.

So she brings her to the island, only to find out from the oracle that this is no ordinary human: she's the Warbringer. A being around whom tensions run high and fights break out. Helen of Troy was the first Warbringer, and she passed the gene to women in her line as generations passed. And we all know what happened with Helen...

Alia has no idea she is the Warbringer. She's just a Greek/African American girl from a wealthy family that is beset by threats. So she is protected by security continuously, especially after her parents died and her older brother took over care of her. So Alia was not supposed to be on this ship in the Mediterranean (where I assume Themyscira is). She did it to be free for once. And see how that turned out? Rebellious teenagers get into all kinds of scrapes.

Diana learns that the ony way to prevent Alia from starting World War 3 just by being alive is to find the resting place of Helen of Troy. So begins a journey to Greece, on which they are joined by Alia's brother, Jason, his best friend Theo (also Alia's lifelong crush) and Alia's best friend Nim. And the whole way, different factions are chasing them to kill Alia because no one wants World War 3 and obviously the only way to prevent it is by killing an innocent 17 year old girl. Y'know, for the greater good and all.

What's the most amazing about this book is how epically diverse Bardugo made this cast, despite this story being a primarily Western (caucasian) one. Alia and Jason are biracial, Theo is Brazilian, and Nim is Indian and unabashedly gay.

What's not to love about this?

You get to see Diana in the modern world. The island has tons of books (even modern ones) and women from all time periods, so she's not totally behind the times, but it's different seeing something than reading about it. Hilarity ensues. And Diana is, of course, inhumanly strong, so her first meeting with Jason is pretty fantastic.

There's just so much winning with this book. If you love YA, strong female heroines, clever dialogue, and/or superheroes, you will love this book.

I feel like I want to read it again...

Like, tomorrow...

Should I do it?

Mask of Shadows

I really wanted this book to be amazing, but it fell far short. One of my friends read it before I did and left a 2 star rating goodreads, so I was a little bit prepared for it being bad. But she didn't give much detail as to how it was bad, and now I know.

The reason I wanted this to be good is because it has a gender fluid main character. This is a major breakthrough for a YA Fantasy. I can think of only 2 YA books with gender fluid characters (Symptoms of Being Human [which is amazing--read it] and None of the Above [which I haven't read]), and they're both in Fiction. Fantasy barely has any LGBT representation, much less the main character, and much much less a gender fluid main character. And just FYI, the author refers to Sal as they/them in the book (not as he/she), so that is how I will reference the main character in my review.

So, synopsis: Sal is a thief. A professional thief. They come from a country that has been decimated by something called shadows, which seem to rip people apart when they kill them. Sal is a refugee, someone who escaped the shadows that basically killed an entire people when another kingdom pulled out it's troops when it was supposed to be protecting them.

The book opens with them ambushing a coach with a lady inside. This is the Lady Elise, who ends up being very important to the story. Sal is robbing her, but they are very charming about it. There is clearly instant chemistry between the two. Sal even lets her keep a sentimental gem, even though they would usually take it. But most importantly, Sal finds a flyer for auditions for a new member of the Queen's Left Hand, which is a team of four assassins. They only do auditions when one has died. Sal sees this as an opportunity to rise in the world and get revenge of the people who wronged their country.

The competition is led by the other 3 members of the Queen's Left Hand, who are all identified by a gem: Amethyst, Ruby, and Emerald. The auditioners are auditioning to be Opal. They're numbered one through twenty three and their goal is to kill each other by whatever means possible, but without it being possible to trace it back to them. Not the most original premise, but not bad. Definitely see echoes of the Throne of Glass and Hunger Games series.

So here are some of my problems with the book, in no particular order:

Confusing transitions between scenes--at the start of a scene, it would describe two characters as there, but then a third character would start talking. There were others, but this happened a lot. It made for a lot of rereading. I kept trying to figure out if I had missed something. I hadn't. It was just inattention to detail.

The love interest was rushed. There was some flirting between Sal and Elise, then some tutoring,  but we don't really know who Elise is except she's a wealthy noble. How are we supposed to care about this relationship? We see her like three times and suddenly, Sal is in L-O-V-E. It's almost lile it was thrown in because the author wanted to show a gender fluid person in love. It wasn't enough of a reason for a shoddy romance.

As a matter of fact, none of the characters were very well developed. This was probably my biggest problem with the book. Aside from the fact that we don't know who anyone is--half the cast is wearing masks and identified by number or gems--there was no sense of their personality. So Sal kept noticing things about people, like where they're from based on accent, whether they're nobles, weaknesses and strengths, and filed it away for future reference. It was kind of Sherlocky. But then they never did anything with that information. It was never used! Maybe that was how the author was trying to develop the characters, but it was pointless bits of information that were not integral to the story at all. I kept thinking it was foreshadowing, but it never was. It's too bad because there were so many things that could have been done with that information, especially for a master thief.

There was just so much more info I needed as a reader. These may be problems the author addresses in the rest of the series, but at that point, it's often too late. Who wants to keep reading a series when the first book wasn't very good? I want such diverse books to be successful, but this one didn't do it for me.

The Epic Crush of Genie Lo

I was blown away by how good Genio Lo is!

First: Chinese mythology! So fresh and welcome!

Second: Badass heroine!

Third: Spectacularly hilarious!

Genie Lo is a Chinese high school student who is preoccupied with beefing up her college apps to get into an Ivy League school. She's also freakishly tall, which makes her stand out. And to top it all off, the new transfer student walks into class and claims her in front of everyone.

At first, I was like No! We don't need an aggressive male love interest! I thought we were past that.

And we are! That was not what was happening (though Genie punched him for it anyway).

Turns out, Genie is powerful. Like, tear down the gates of heaven powerful. And Quentin (the new kid) needs her help to stop the demons that are breaking into this dimension. Obviously, Genie thinks this kid is crazy.

But then she meets a demon. And she's one of the few beings on Earth who can actually help defeat them. As Uncle Ben said, with great power comes great responsibility. And she can't just ignore the evil demons going around trying to eat people. The problem is, how is she supposed do stop them and get into an Ivy League School?

There are so many good things about this story. Genie has a strong friendship with a girl named Yunie, even though she can't tell Yunie anything about why she keeps ditching study sessions to spend time with Quentin. (And it's not to make out). The relationship between Genie and Quentin grows slowly and perfectly. Most of the time, Genie is royally pissed off at Quentin. He kind of invades her life and she resists every step of the way. Unfortunately (in her eyes, not mine) he is gorgeous and she feels alarmingly pulled toward him. Finally, the book is just stinkin hilarious! I read so many scenes out loud to Joe because I kept laughing and I wanted to share with him what was so funny. And I want to share with you what is so funny! But then you won't be pleasantly surprised as I was and I feel like it would just diminish your reading experience if you decide to read it.

So go read it so we can talk about it!

Freya

Freya was a fun, light read. I wouldn't put it at the top of your to read pile, but it was enjoyable. I remember how excited I was when it came in--I mean, Norse mythology, a pretty and colorful cover (which I wish I had taken a picture of!), and a thousands year old goddess as the main character! That sounds right up my alley.

Freya is living in a mental hospital, and has been for 30 years under the name Sara. She influences the staff to sort of forget how long she's been there, to not ask questions about her past and her paperwork. As the goddess of love and battle, apparently that's one of her abilitites. Since we all know gods get their power from their worshippers, Freya thinks she's found a perfect solution to living in a modern, skeptical age. Tell the other patients that she's the goddess Freya and they start believing in her. Thus, more power.

But (there's always a but) one day she has a visitor. She has not had a visitor in 30 years because no one knows she's there. It's a man named Garen, who says he works for an organization that recruits ancient gods to work for them. They go out and round up gods and goddesses to keep tabs on them and keep them from being destructive. What's in it for the gods? Why, a steady diet of worshippers--people who believe in you and increase your power.

Obviously,  Sara (Freya) says no. And that was the wrong answer. Garen tries to kidnap her. She (barely) escapes and runs off with one of the staff--she needs a driver. You probably wouldn't be able to drive if you'd stopped doing it for 30 years too. She tells Nate, the kidnapped staff member, the truth about herself, mostly because she needs help adjusting to life in the 21st century. Nate (barely) believes her, but is convinced once she gets him to fall in love with her for a moment. (She tells him she's going to do it and then lets him out of it). She makes Nate her high priest and he becomes one of her worshippers. I love the dynamic between these two for a couple of reasons. First, they don't fall in love. I think that's pretty important considering she's the goddess of love. Second, they flirt ALL THE TIME, but you can kinda tell it's just who they are--not because they're actually making moves or want to be together romantically. At least I hope that continues to he the case because I really liked their dialogue together--it was clever and funny and without romantic tension.

Together, they decide the best place for her to hide from Garen would be Disneyworld. (Oh boy did that make me happy!!) She gets a job as a princess, using her limited powers to expedite the process, and finds out that those little, dreamy, starry-eyed kids count as worshippers! They have faith in her! Thus, she gets a power boost. (I thought that was cleverly done!)

Anyway, lots of other stuff happens-Action! Kidnapping! Revenge! Lava! (No, seriously, lava!) Apparently this is going to be a trilogy. Makes sense because there were some unresolved things at the end. But guys--I don't know how to keep up with all these great books coming out. Can someone like these reviews so much that they decide they want to pay me to read full time so I can keep writing them? Can that be a thing?

Entangled

Interesting concept--badly executed. Entangled is a self-published book I got for free as an e-book. I don't download very many books because I prefer the book-in-hand experience. I find that I connect to a book more when I'm holding it and turning pages. It's more impactful (Do I sound elitist yet? 😉). But 1. The book was free and 2. The cover was stinkin' beautiful!

Entangled is about Gray, a teenage witch, and not a very good one at that. She's twin to the beautiful, talented Charlene, who is popular, dating the most popular boy, and scrupulously maintains her image. Gray, on the other hand, is a bit of an outsider, eats and wears whatever she wants, and is not the magic prodigy her early years predicted she would be. The one thing she can do is make herself invisible-essentially erase herself, and then fill herself back in when she wants to be visible again. The problem is, she's not supposed to do this in public because a non-magic human could catch her.

And then she gets caught. Raj, the bad boy witch slash love interest, sees her appear in a place she wasn't before and is suddenly fascinated with Gray, someone he's never spoken to before. He makes some creepy, aggressive, inappropriate advances toward her (ick) while trying to get her to reveal her secret. He basically falls in love with her in a few seconds.

Then Gray dies.

Whaaaaaat?!

I may not have read the synopsis before I started reading this. Her death came as a bit of a shock.

Gray wakes up one morning in her sister's bedroom and can't figure out how she got there--dressed in her sister's nighty, to say the least. The house is empty, but she gets up and goes to school, and when she sits down in class, everyone stares at her. The teacher is all like, Charlene, this isn't your class. And Gray is very confused. She gets home, finds her mother, and finds out she's been dead for two months and is now sharing a body with her sister. She's only Gray every other day.

Interesting, right?

But wow, were there some problems! The story itself was decent (except for the fact that you could figure out how Gray died IMMEDIATELY!).

First of all, the story opens with Gray standing at the bottom of the school with Charlene on the roof threatening to jump off because her boyfriend broke up with her. And Gray was making fun of her for it.  That's not an ok way to treat suicidal behavior in your novel, unless you're going to turn it around and show that it wasn't ok. Plus, Charlene was faking her behavior for the attention it would get her. Also not an ok portrayal of suicide.

Second, Charlene threatened (multiple times!) to hurt/kill the girl her boyfriend made out with. AND HER MOM AND SISTER JUST WAVE IT OFF! "Oh, she wouldn't do that, but let me put a magical protection spell on her anyway." *Not actual quotes.* In fact, their mother borders on neglectful given the sociopathic things coming out of her daughter's mouth. She doesn't take any of it seriously, and Charlene is clearly deranged. At one point in the story, Charlene destroys all of Gray's clothes because she doesn't want Gray wearing them on the days Gray has Charlene's body. The entire wardrobe. Destroyed.  Zero consequences from Mom.

Third, the Raj-Gray relationship makes little to no sense. He starts out as a really huge jerk, a side of his personality that completely disappears later in the book as he grows to care for Gray, but that jerk part of him is what attracts her? He gets angry at Gray in school one day, gets called out by the teacher for not paying attention AND THEN POPS OPEN THE TEACHER'S SHIRT WITH HIS MAGIC POWERS AND JOKES TO GRAY ABOUT IT LIKE IT'S SEXY. Oh, she also wraps a shoelace around his throat and threatens to choke him after he uses his magic to freeze her and pull her hair hard enough to bring tears to her eyes.

Match made in heaven, right?

So. Many. Problems. With this book. Don't waste your time.

The Novice

Not gonna lie, this was super lukewarm for me. The Novice is about Fletcher, an orphan adopted by a blacksmith. They live in a small medieval type town on the edges of the kingdom. In this world, humans are warring with orcs, and not really getting along with dwarfs or elves either.

So, you know, Lord of the Rings.

To help fight the orcs, there are soldiers called Battlemages. Battlemages have been tested for an affinity for summoning and can summon demons from another world. They capture them and use them to help them fight.

So, you know, Pokemon.

Fletcher has never been tested-he lives too far away and they don't test orphans for reasons having to do with bloodlines and the implications of people not from certain noble families having Battlemage blood. But Fletcher is given a summoning scroll out of gratitude for a kindness, and he accidentally summons a demon--something he's not supposed to be able to do.

He leaves home and travels to the main city, where there's a school for training Battlemages. There, he is able to reach out and make friends with a dwarf, an elf, and other humans, which was incredibly uncommon given the bad history between the races. But Fletcher is just generally a good guy. I mean, a really good guy. He sticks up for people, he's not racist or prejudiced, he tries to include everyone. Except maybe the nobles at the school, who are, in all fairness, absolute douches. Because, you know, entitlement.

The book wasn't bad. I just didn't get into it. You could definitely see the author was heavily inspired by other fantasy worlds. There were also strong elements of the Eragon series at work (I didn't enjoy that either). I think it's a great story for someone who is new to fantasy (or even new to reading) and hasn't seen many of these elements before, but I read A LOT of fantasy. For me, it felt like I'd read the same story before.

I will comment on a couple of things I think it handled well.

First, Fletcher wasn't the most talented Battlemage at school. I think it was cool that the author didn't write Fletcher to be more powerful than everyone else. When they were determining levels, my expectations were conpletely turned on their heels when he turned out to be just average. He gets better using technology because it's the only way he can win the competition they have to be in at the end of their year. Plus, this new tech only comes about as a result of his friendly collaboration with dwarfs. 👍

Second, I think the racism aspect was handled very well throughout this book. It's definitely iffy (but necessary!) to handle social issues in books, and if they're not done well, there's a lot of blowback. Go look at some reviews of The Black Witch by Laurie Forest. I couldn'teven finish it because it was so problematic. I think Matharu was sensitice, had an open main character, and showed the benefits of cooperation between different races (in addition to the reality of many people being against it).

Again, I can see the appeal this story had for a lot readers, and clearly tons of people love it. It just didn't thrill me 🤷‍♀️

The Forbidden Wish

I don't know if you guys noticed, but retellings are HUGE in YA. Here, let's make a list:

The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer
Hunted by Megan Spooner
A Twisted Tale series by Liz Braswell
A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston
Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge
The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh
The Splintered series by A.G. Howard
The Dorothy Must Die series by Danielle Paige

And the list goes on...

The Forbidden Wish is an Aladdin retelling, and there aren't very many of those. There are a few Thousand and One Nights retellings, but not many that focus on just Aladdin.

One thing I love about Jessica Khoury is that her books are stand alones. That is very rare in YA. I read Origin years ago and I loved it, too. That was before I was quite the YA buff I am now. I don't know how I'd feel about it now if I read it again. But I will say The Forbidden wish did not disappoint me. Jessica Khoury is vastly underrated, I think. We don't get a lot of requests for her books in the bookstore, and it's a shame. She's a fantastic storyteller.

It's a story about Zahra, a thousands year  old (female!) genie, and Aladdin, a thief. But it's also about fixing past mistakes, finding redemption, saving a kingdom and, oh yeah, love. Aladdin is hired to steal a ring from the palace, but instead of taking it to the party that hired him, he keeps it. As soon as he steals it, it starts speaking to him, pulling him toward something. That's how he finds Zahra's lamp, which has been hidden for 500 years. Zahra expects Aladdin to be just like any other master: to make his three petty wishes and move on while she gets passed from greedy hand to greedy hand. Instead, he uses his wishes to take revenge on the man who killed his parents: the  Grand Vizier character who is the Sultan's brother. To do this, he has to become--you guessed it--a prince. He has to try to win the princess's hand in marriage. Aladdin and Zahra have to spend a lot of time together to make this happen and their forbidden attraction grows.

There is so much depth and subplot to this story that it's difficult to fully summarize it, especially without giving anything away. Ultimately, the book was amazing. I think Khoury found a great balance between action, character development, and the backstories, which must habe been incredibly difficult. The rimance between Aladdin and Zahra is not even the most important part of the story, which was nice. There was definitely growing romantic tension, but it wasn't over-emphasized. She didn't sacrifice the story to the romance.

All of the secondary characters are very well-developed. You get glimpses of their backstories that help you inderstand their motivations, who they're trying to impress, what their goals are, and so on. The setting is so vivid: it's a city with a rune-like shield around it to keep out magical creatures. A war between humans and jinn has been waging for centuries, and genies are an object of hatred (which makes Aladdin having a genie pretty dangerous). There are secrets and loyalties are tested. It has all the best, natural type of drama you want in a good story. Also, the cover is really pretty!  Trust me 😉

Caraval

Caraval got a ton of attention when it came out. It was Stephanie Garber's debut novel, and everyone in the YA world was talking about it. First of all, the cover is BEAUTIFUL. And everyone judges books by the cover. Don't lie-you do it. Second of all, it was widely compared to the Night Circus, which is an amazing adult novel full of magic and elegance and mystery. I think Caraval didn't quite hit the elgance mark, but two thumbs up to the other comparisons!

Caraval is about Scarlett, a character whose roles define her. She is a big sister, an abused daughter, and just generally afraid of life. She is most definitely NOT a strong female heroine. Scarlett is cautious and always thinking of consequences. She is engaged to marry a man she's never met, but with whom she corresponds regularly. Judging by his letters, she believes her betrothed to be a kind and and decent man. Scarlett's sister, Donatella is rash and reckless, and Scarlett strives to protect her, but it's hard when Tella is always doing things that will infuriate their father if she gets caught. Their father is one of those quiet, hidden evil kind of people. He's manipulative, abusive, and controlling. When one sister gets caught doing something that angers him, he abuses the other sister to use their close relationship against them. It's not something you see much in the book, but it definitely defines Scarlett's character.

As a child, Scarlett heard stories about the Caraval, a type of magical show where the audience goes on a scavenger hunt and follows clues to win the game, whereupon they earn a prize. She writes to Legend, the leader of Caraval, every year, asking him to put on a show near them so her sister can attend. Finally, she gets an invitation. But why would she accept? She's engaged and on the cusp of escaping her father and taking her sister with her. Her whole life is about to get better.

But then Donatella, with her reckless and roaming nature, leaves without her. And as a good big sister, Scarlett has to go after her, of course. So she gets a ride from a young (attractive!) sailor who agrees to take her in exchange for her extra ticket. So Scarlett goes to Caraval!

This book wasn't everything (for me) that the hype claimed it was, but it was still really good. I most liked the growing relationship between Julian (the sailor) and Scarlett. You could tell he had his own agenda going into Caraval and that Scarlett couldn't completely trust him, but even when he tried to be mean or leave her on her own, he couldn't do it. Like when Scarlett has to pay for something with two days of her life (you don't use money in Caraval), and it's not what she's expecting, he helps her. He was definitely one of my favorite characters in the book. Tella, on the other hand, I did not like very much. In all fairness, she wasn't in much of the book because she gets kidnapped during Caraval, but during her limited screen time, she annoyed me. Maybe we get a more accurate assessment of her character in book two.

Despite the fact that I didn't fall in love with Caraval like I expected to, I am still really excited about book two. It will be the author's second book and I feel like the writing can only get better!

The Young Elites

I read the Legend series by Marie Lu not long ago. I can't say I loved it, but it was a well-crafted and well-developed story. Marie Lu is a fantastic writer. Something about the story just didn't resonate with me. The same thing happened with The Young Elites.

The Young Elites takes place in a fantasy world where a virus tore through the country. In addition to killing a great percentage of the population, it also turned some of the survivors into malfettos: scarred individuals with special powers.

Adelina survived the virus, but she has not developed any special powers. According to her father, she is useless. Who would want a scarred, silver haired, one-eyed bride? Her father tried for years to provoke a gifted response from her, through both physical and verbal abuse. Finally, her power shows itself, and she kills him with it.

Oh, the irony!

He totally deserved it.

So she gets arrested, and then rescued during her execution. Who rescues her, you ask? Why, the young elites! They're led by Enzo, the former heir to the throne. You know, before it turned out he was a malfetto and his older sister ran him out of the city. The young elites are hoping that Adelina can help Enzo take back the throne, and ultimately make gifted individuals an accepted-rather than shunned-part of society.

Adelina was definitely an interesting main character. She had a terrible childhood, was always told she was worth nothing, had only a naive sister for company, and then suddenly finds out she has this powerful gift. So, to sum it up, she has issues.

Adelina's thoughts are dark. Not only does she hear whispers, but she also sees her dead father. He speaks to her after death and continues to tell her how unloveable she is. On the surface, she seems fairly stable, though some of the characters have their doubts. As a result of a third person omniscient narrator, so does the reader. Sometimes, when Adelina was thinking, I just wanted to scream at her! The way she thinks is not okay. She is desperately at risk of becoming the bad guy. Even though the reader can totally sympathise with why she thinks the way she does, we know it's wrong.

Ultimately, I'm absolutely going to read the next two books. And, more importantly, I'm absolutely going to read Warcross when it comes out later this year. EVERYONE is talking about it. There is so much good YA coming out this Fall!

I hope my kids can feed themselves by then... 🤔

Daughter of the Pirate King

Guys, this book was fabulous! Pirates! What is more romantic than pirates? Obviously, I don't mean the unbathed, missing teeth, greasy hair, one legged cut-your-throat-for-a-shilling type pirates. I mean the tough-on-the-surface-but-with-a-heart-of-gold type pirates. And also, dreamy. Can't forget dreamy.

Except in this story, it wasn't just the love interest who was a pirate! It was the main female character. And I loved her. She was brilliant.

The book is told from the point of view of seventeen year old pirate captain, Alosa. She's the daughter of Kalligan, the man who created the rules for pirates and basically rules the seas. Being the daughter of a pirate--the king of pirates--she had a pretty rough upbringing. Her father had very high expectations for her intelligence, cleverness, stamina, fighting skills, manipulation, etc.

When the book opens, her ship is being boarded by other pirates, and she is being taken prisoner. Not very promising, right? Her captors are Captain Draxen and his first mate and brother, Riden. They think they have quite the prize and plan to ransom her off. But Alosa is more than they bargained for: she's on a mission. There are three pieces of a treasure map that were divided between three pirate lords, and she plans to retrieve them all. And to do that? She has to get on Draxen and Riden's ship.

First of all, there is so much chemistry between Riden and Alosa.

“And what about me? I was on a very important mission for my father when you captured me. You've ruined my entire week. I should take an ear for that.

“You wouldn't take my  ear. It would make it difficult to hear your whining. And I know how much you love that.”

Pirates, amIright? Even though you could definitely tell Riden was going to be the love interest, it didn't move too fast. You watch them get to know each other and try to repress their growing attraction. They bickered constantly and it was hilarious.

Also, there's actual death and killing in this book. It wasn't tamped down just because one of the pirate captains is a girl. She totes kills people, and feels no remorse about it.

Why aren't there more pirate fantasy books? I'm not going to reveal the fantasy part of the story because I feel like it's kind of fun and would spoil part of it for you. But let's have more pirates, yeah?

Also, I forget to mention, I accidentally sprayed my copy of the book with a hose when I took it outside to read one day. Fitting for a book that takes place on the water, right?

Court of Fives

Aside from reading a lot of books, I also listen to a lot of audio books. Listening to books can be tricky for two reasons:

1. If the narrator is terrible, the book is terrible. Sometimes, I know the book is probably fantastic,  but I end up disliking it because I couldn't listen to the narrator. I've gotten to the point where I know when this is happening, so I just stop listening and just wait until I get the chance to read a book.

2. If the book isn't fast paced enough, I find myself zoning out and losing track of the story. I'll miss whole parts without even realizing it. So I make sure to pick books that are fairly easy to listen to. Fortunately, that is the case for most YA (my favorite!).

I love listening to books because I can do it while I'm driving, cooking, cleaning--almost anything. I can get an extra book read (and YES, it does count as reading) that I normally wouldn't be able to.

So I listened to Court of Fives by Kate Elliot. She usually writes adult Sci-fi/ Fantasy, and I've never read her adult work. I needed to read Court of Fives because I received a free ARC for book two forever ago.

So Court of Fives was...ok. It was a good idea, but I feel like nothing about it was well-developed.

The setting was a class divided fantasy world of Patrons and Commoners-no elaboration necessary. Jessamyn's father is a Patron soldier and her mother is a commoner. The two could never marry because of their country's laws, but they were completely devoted to each other. You know, until a story needed to have a conflict, at which time that devotion was conveniently forgotten. Jessamyn, our main character, behaves in public and rebels in private. She wants to run the fives, a challenging obstacle course where the winners receive fame and fortune.  The problem is, she's not supposed to be doing it. So even though she knows she can win, she has to pretend not to so that no one can find out who she is.

Ultimately, I had a few problems with this book. First, the characterization just wasn't very strong. I would think I had a handle on who a character was, and then they would act outside their character. This happened regularly throughout the book and not in a good way. It wasn't like the characters were suddenly bad and became good. They did things that didn't make sense to advance the story. It just wasn't well constructed. I don't know how to really put it into words, but the characters changed for the story's sake rather than advancing the story on their own. It felt fake. Does that make sense?

Another thing that bothered me was the sudden romance that developed between Jess and Cal, a high born Patron who also runs the fives. For much of the book, they were just helpful to each other, and then BAM, they're lovers! Not a big fan of that...

Overall, I gave it a 3 on goodreads. I'm going to read book two, The Poisoned Blade, because I have it and book one wasn't the worst thing ever. But I'm hoping Elliot was able to work out some of the kinks of the first book.

A Darker Shade of Magic

I mostly read YA, and I have 4 favorite authors (please don't ask me to rank them!): Leigh Bardugo, Laini Taylor, Victoria Aveyard and V. E. Schwab. I'm hoping that I'll have an opportunity to meet at least one of them over the course of the next year.

I just finished reading A Darker Shade of Magic, and it was intoxicating! Three Londons, each with varying levels of magic, and a fourth that had to be cut off due to its toxicity.  I don't know how anyone else feels about her books, but I savor them. Mostly, I devour good books, but not V.E. Schwab. There's so much to them that I have to take my time. And she really knows her characters. If you've ever watched her Youtube videos or follow her on Twitter,  you know she does not write until she knows everything about the story. It's a fascinating process, and must require a lot of discipline. But it makes me slow down and really absorb what she's written. So far I've read This Savage Song, Vicious, and ADSOM. I can't wait to read everything else she's written.

ADSOM follows Kell, one of only two known people who can travel between the different Londons: Red, White, and Gray. There used to be a Black London, but the doors to that one had to be closed because their magic got out of control and threatened to take over every London. Red London, where Kell is an adopted son of the monarchs, has a healthy amount of magic that found it's source in the Thames, which casts a red glow over the city. Kell is used as a messenger between the three Londons,  and when he's asked to deliver something a bit more powerful than a message, he finds himself running for his life. He gets unwittingly robbed by Delilah Bard, aspiring pirate and current thief. Delilah is looking for adventure and wants to see the world. She ends up seeing more than she bargained for when she teams up with Kell to help save the world.

I loved this story. It has a full cast of well-thought out supporting characters, a sympathetic villain, and multiple near death experiences. What more could a reader ask for? Oh right, magic! I would recommend this to anyone who loves epic fantasy. Readers of Robin Hobb and Robert Jordan would also love V.E. Schwab. Now I need to go buy book 2...A Gathering of Shadows...