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?

Empress of a Thousand Skies

YES. READ THIS BOOK. I absolutely loved it. As I was reading this futuristic Sci-Fi space opera, I thought it seemed short and I was afraid--what if it wasn't fully developed? What if the author didn't think through the world fully and it was something that just didn't come together well? (As a fan of Leigh Bardugo and Laini Taylor, the QUEENS of world-building, this was a legitimate concern for me). And I really wanted to love this book. Turns out, my fears were unfounded! 🙆‍♀️💃👏❤

The Empress of a Thousand skies follows two characters and is told from alternating points of view. The first is Rhiannon (Rhee), the only surviving member of the Ta'an ruling line. Her family was killed, and by a fortunate accident, Rhee was not on the ship when it blew up. She has grown up away from the public eye, practically exiled from her kingdom to keep her safe. Now, the time has come for her coronation, and she plans to take revenge on the person who killed her family.

The second character is Alyosha (Aly). He's a Wraetan refugee who joined the military and is now a reality TV star. His homeland was bombed after years of war and prejudice against his people. Aly works hard to show that not all Wraetans fit the stereotype: he's not loud or aggressive.

"People already thought Wraetans were loud and picked fights. He wasn't going to add fuel to that fire."

So aside from the fact that this book is amazing just because of the story, it also tackles social issues. Race is obviously a huge one it addresses, but it also addresses issues of privacy and personal rights.

In this world, everyone is fitted with a cube. Cubes record memories. Everything that happens in a person's life is recorded so they can look back on it whenever they want. The cube puts the memories into files, and those files that are accessed most often are kept near the surface of the cube. If you like remembering that time you and your sister braided each other's hair, you can pull it up immediately. On the other side, if you hate that memory of your grandmother dying, you never have to access it.

You can porbably already see some problems with this...what about those who have suffered trauma? If they never think about it, can they heal? There are even conspiracy theories that people can be tracked by their cube! *Gasp!* What if someone could get into another person's cube and change, or even erase, memories.  How dangerous would something like that be?

On her way to the coronation, someone tries to assassinate Rhee. She escapes, but the media is claiming she's dead, and they're blaming Aly, who found an (almost) empty escape pod from Rhee's ship. He's the perfect scapegoat: he's Wraetan, so people are already suspicious of him. Better yet, blaming him heightens suspicionof and prejudice toward other Wraetans, which could spark a war. Rhee has to find a safe place and a way to make it to the throne. Aly has to find a way to prove he didn't kill the princess.

This book was fantastic. I loved the characters. I loved the action. I loved the story. I hate that it was short, but I love that it was packed so full. I can't wait to read book two!

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... 🤔

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...