Tag Archives: YA Fantasy

Book Review: A Court Of Thorns And Roses by Sarah J Maas

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A Court Of Thorns And Roses CoverBook Review: A Court Of Thorns And Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Published May 2015 by Bloomsbury USA|380 pages

Where I Got It: I own the e-book

Series: A Court Of Thorns And Roses #1

Genre: YA Fantasy

Blog Graphic-What It's About

A thrilling, seductive new series from New York Timesbestselling author Sarah J. Maas, blending Beauty and the Beast with faerie lore.

When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin—one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.

As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow grows over the faerie lands, and Feyre must find a way to stop it… or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.

Perfect for fans of Kristin Cashore and George R. R. Martin, this first book in a sexy and action-packed new series is impossible to put down!

Blog Graphic- What I Thought

Since I really like her Throne Of Glass series, and since I’ve heard a lot of really good things about this book, I knew I had to read it.  I’ll admit, I was a little scared to read it, because what if it didn’t live up to the hype, and I hated it or something?  That seems to happen with me quite a bit, but I actually didn’t have anything to worry about, because I really liked it!

I definitely see the parallels between Beauty And The Beast (from what I know via Disney) and this re-telling of it through faeries.  Is it set in the same world as Throne Of Glass?  Because it feels very familiar, and I’m too lazy to go double-check.  Either way, I really liked how dark it was.  I’m not sure how much it draws from the original story (I am only vaguely aware that there is one, and again, I am too lazy to go look it up), but considering the original versions of fairy tales tend to be dark, and this story has its dark moments, it wouldn’t surprise me if a lot of the original tale made its way into this book.

I really liked Feyre and Rhysand, but in all honesty, Rhysand was my favorite character.  I’m glad we’ll be seeing more of him in the next book, what with certain deals and all.  I know it’s supposed to be Tamlin and Feyre, and not Rhysand and Feyre (and that Rhysand and Feyre might not be the best choice as far as romance goes) but part of me is kind of shipping Rhysand and Feyre.  I can’t tell you why I like them together, or why it wouldn’t be a good choice (because really, I’m going off of feelings for both things), but together, they intrigue me more than Tamlin and Feyre. The only thing I am sure of is that Feyre went through too much in order to save Tamlin, so maybe that’s why I’m not completely sold, and I’m hoping that it doesn’t turn into a love triangle, because, just once, it would be nice to see two people faeries just be together without a randomly thrown in person faery.

I do like Tamlin and Feyre together- a little bit more than Feyre and Rhysand, but not much more.  But with how things went in this book, it will be interesting to see how things are developed in the next book.  Because Rhysand certainly throws a wrench in things.  But I also really like Tamlin, and by the end of the book, I definitely saw why he acted the way he did.  I also loved how Feyre pieced things together in order to help him, and also how hard the last trial was for her.  And I loved all of the stuff with her family so much.

It makes me wonder how things are going to turn out and where things are headed, because right now, I have no idea what’s going to happen.  It’s actually really refreshing, because I like not knowing what’s going to happen to next. Probably something not good, and things may work out in the end, but maybe not?  Who knows?  There’s only one way to find out, and that’s to keep reading the series.

I think ACOTAR and Cruel Beauty are really good read alikes for each other.  There’s something mysterious about Feyre staying with Tamlin that you also see in Cruel Beauty.  It has a darker, slightly older feel than Cruel Beauty (although it’s been a while since I’ve read it, so I’m a little fuzzy on Cruel Beauty).  There’s more action than I expected, and I loved how everything was described.

Blog Graphic- My Rating

4 stars.  I really liked it, and I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series!

Book Review: The Siren by Kiera Cass

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The Siren CoverBook: The Siren by Kiera Cass

Published January 2016 by HarperTeen|327 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the hardcover from the library

Series: None

Genre: YA Fantasy/Re-Telling

Blog Graphic-What It's About

Love is a risk worth taking.

Years ago, Kahlen was rescued from drowning by the Ocean. To repay her debt, she has served as a Siren ever since, using her voice to lure countless strangers to their deaths. Though a single word from Kahlen can kill, she can’t resist spending her days on land, watching ordinary people and longing for the day when she will be able to speak and laugh and live freely among them again.

Kahlen is resigned to finishing her sentence in solitude…until she meets Akinli. Handsome, caring, and kind, Akinli is everything Kahlen ever dreamed of. And though she can’t talk to him, they soon forge a connection neither of them can deny…and Kahlen doesn’t want to.

Falling in love with a human breaks all the Ocean’s rules, and if the Ocean discovers Kahlen’s feelings, she’ll be forced to leave Akinli for good. But for the first time in a lifetime of following the rules, Kahlen is determined to follow her heart.

Blog Graphic- What I Thought

After reading (and loving) The Selection series, I knew I had to read The Siren.  Partly because I wanted to read something else by Cass, but also because I love a good re-telling, and I thought it would be cool to read something about Sirens, which don’t seem to come up very often.  And I liked The Siren, but not as much as I thought I would.

I thought it was a cool idea, and I liked that it wasn’t about re-telling the tale of Greek gods/goddesses, but instead focused on re-telling the story of Sirens.  We got such a good picture of how girls became Sirens, and what life was like as a Siren.  That actually really surprised me, because The Siren is a stand-alone and fantasy and just over 300 pages…and yet you get such a clear picture of the world and the hold that the Ocean has on these girls.  For me, that more often than not, spells disaster, and it never seems to work well, but it did with this book.

Could things have been explained more?  Of course, but all things considered, Cass did a better job with it than I expected.  It has its cute moments, and it goes by fast.  And it’s an interesting idea, so I definitely wanted to keep reading to see how things turned out.

I thought the Ocean was really confusing at times- She did seem motherly at times, and yes, She did tend to go about it a little weird, but there were also times where I thought She made sense.

I’m not sure how I feel about any of the girls.  There’s certainly a bond between them, but Kahlen seems so different from Elizabeth and Miaka, and even Padma.  She did seem depressed (which I understand why), and she did seem more traditional than the other girls, but that’s probably because she’s older than the other girls. By how much we’re not sure, at least in the case of Elizabeth and Miaka, but definitely a lot older than Padma.

I don’t know how I feel about Akinli, and I really wish we saw more of him.  I get why we didn’t, but the fact that we didn’t really see him is probably why I didn’t completely love him or their relationship.  It felt a little bit too insta-love for me, and I wish we saw it develop more.  I think I might have been able to believe in the whole soulmates thing if we saw more of them together.

I was surprised by the ending- I’m not sure how I expected things to end, but it was a surprise, even though I’m not sure how I feel about it.

It was more dull than I thought, and I had a hard time getting into it.  Ultimately, I liked it, and the idea of the book was enough that I’m willing to overlook everything else.  I wanted more action, and it was definitely a slow-paced book.

Blog Graphic- My Rating

3 stars, because the idea is a pretty cool, and more developed than I thought, considering it’s a stand-alone fantasy that’s on the shorter side.  But I also thought it could have been more developed in some areas, namely the romance.

Book Review: Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

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Carry On CoverBook: Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

Published October 2015 by St. Martin’s Press|522 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the hardcover from the library

Series: None

Genre: YA Fantasy

Blog Graphic-What It's About

Simon Snow is the worst Chosen One who’s ever been chosen.

That’s what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he’s probably right.

Half the time, Simon can’t even make his wand work, and the other half, he starts something on fire. His mentor’s avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there’s a magic-eating monster running around, wearing Simon’s face. Baz would be having a field day with all this, if he were here — it’s their last year at the Watford School of Magicks, and Simon’s infuriating nemesis didn’t even bother to show up.

Carry On – The Rise and Fall of Simon Snow is a ghost story, a love story and a mystery. It has just as much kissing and talking as you’d expect from a Rainbow Rowell story – but far, far more monsters.

Blog Graphic- What I Thought

When I heard that Rowell was writing Carry On, I was so excited, because I LOVED Fangirl so, so much, and I was really curious about what a Simon Snow book would look like if we actually got one.

BUT.

Simon Snow lost the magic that it had in Fangirl.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the impact that Simon Snow had on Cath in Fangirl, and as a Harry Potter fan for life, I related a lot to the fictional phenomenon that is Simon Snow.  It’s just…I think the magic was in the little snippets we got in Fangirl and FOR ME, it didn’t work as a full, fleshed-out novel.

I definitely appreciate Carry On as an ode to the chosen-one novel that clearly has inspired Rowell, and I appreciate it as a fictional parallel to the awesomeness that is Harry Potter, but it also relied too much on the nostalgia of Harry Potter.  But as it’s own story?  Not so much.

Let’s do random bullet points, because this is probably going to be all over the place.

  • I wanted more plot!  I mean, I know Simon is trying to defeat the Insidious Humdrum and all, but everything felt random and all over the place, and it was just weird.
  • The bits with Lucy were weird and out-of-place until the end of the book when it actually made sense.  At that point, it was too late for me to care about the random chapters narrated by Lucy.
  • The multiple narrators didn’t work for me at all.  I thought they were absolutely horrible!  Of course, there’s Lucy, who didn’t make any sense until the end of the book.  Of course, there’s Simon and Penelope, who I didn’t care about at all, Bas, who was actually the most interesting character in the book, and Agatha, who…why was she there?  It seemed pointless to me to have her in there, because she didn’t add anything to the book except be part of a trio.  It seemed like an unbalanced trio to me.
  • Anyway, with the multiple narrators: it randomly switched and it was always jarring, especially when we were going back and forth between Baz and Simon every couple of sentences.  It was quite dizzying and not in a good way.
  • I was really disappointed in the Mage.  He became an evil villain sort of guy, and I wanted someone more like Dumbledore.  I guess that’s because Rowell was doing a fictional parallel to Harry Potter but still.
  • I wanted something more fun, and I felt like Carry On took itself a little too seriously.
  • I know it’s Rowell’s take on Simon Snow, and that it’s NOT Cath’s fanfic or the 8th and final book in the Simon Snow series, but I really felt like we were just thrown into this world with not enough backstory.  It has been a while since I’ve read Fangirl, but Simon’s world seemed more confusing than it should have been.  Maybe I’m not as well-versed in Chosen One stories as I thought I was, or maybe Rowell tried to explain things without actually explaining things or both or other things I’m too lazy to think of at the moment.
  • It felt like we were just supposed to know this world and how the magic works and that seemed a little unneccessary.  I needed more world-building for some of the more original elements of the book, and Rowell did not deliver on that.
  • Have I mentioned that there’s no plot?  Because there really isn’t.  I kept waiting for something to happen, and it didn’t.

Blog Graphic- My Rating

2 stars.  I wanted to love it, but instead, I am so ambivalent, I don’t care enough to actually hate or dislike it, even though I didn’t like it at all.  I just didn’t care as much as I thought I would.  I can see why people like it, but it’s not for me.

Book Review: Rebel Of The Sands by Alwyn Hamilton

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Rebel Of The Sands CoverBook Review: Rebel Of The Sands by Alwyn Hamilton

Published March 2016 by Viking Books For Young Readers|320 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the e-book from the library

Series: Rebel Of The Sands #1

Genre: YA

Blog Graphic-What It's About

She’s more gunpowder than girl—and the fate of the desert lies in her hands.

Mortals rule the desert nation of Miraji, but mystical beasts still roam the wild and barren wastes, and rumor has it that somewhere, djinni still practice their magic. But there’s nothing mystical or magical about Dustwalk, the dead-end town that Amani can’t wait to escape from.

Destined to wind up “wed or dead,” Amani’s counting on her sharpshooting skills to get her out of Dustwalk. When she meets Jin, a mysterious and devastatingly handsome foreigner, in a shooting contest, she figures he’s the perfect escape route. But in all her years spent dreaming of leaving home, she never imagined she’d gallop away on a mythical horse, fleeing the murderous Sultan’s army, with a fugitive who’s wanted for treason. And she’d never have predicted she’d fall in love with him…or that he’d help her unlock the powerful truth of who she really is.

Blog Graphic- What I Thought

I liked Rebel Of The Sands!  Not as much as I thought, but I still liked it.

I do like that it’s a fantasy that’s set in the Middle East instead of Europe.  You really get the sense that Amani is in a place that barren and dusty, and I did get a Western feel from the book.  Maybe it’s the shoot-outs and the fact that Amani feels more like a cowgirl than a girl who wants to leave Dustwalk.  It really is a mix of Middle Eastern fantasy meets Western, but decidedly more Western than anything else, and for most of the book, I tended to forget the setting.

It had the potential to be a lot more unique.  I thought there would be more magic and magical horses and dijnn, and they don’t show up until later on the book, so it’s not really the fantasy I expected.  I wish they were more obvious early on in the book, and that it was more defined, because it really wasn’t in this book.  Maybe that’s why it read more as a Western than a fantasy.  It did make me feel distanced from the characters, and I spent a good part of the book waiting for something interesting to happen, because things are pretty slow for a lot of the book.  There’s a lot of traveling once Amani leaves Dustwalk.

It seemed like the first half of the book was paced pretty well, even if it seems like things moved slowly, but after that, it feels like things were rushed and not really developed.  Which is weird, because that’s sort of when the book gets good.

I did like the ending, though!  It didn’t end on a cliffhanger, which was actually nice, because it ends with the idea that there are bigger things happening in Amani’s world than what we see.  It was open-ended in a way, and you don’t know exactly where things are headed but you know there’s something going down.

I’ll probably read the next book just to see what happens, but I won’t be rushing to read it either.

Blog Graphic- My Rating

3 stars.  I did like the magic in Rebel In The Sands, but it felt more like a Western with hints of fantasy instead of an actual fantasy.

Book Review: Heir Of Fire by Sarah J Maas

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Heir Of Fire CoverBook: Heir Of Fire by Sarah J. Maas

Published September 2014 by Bloomsbury|562 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the e-book from the library

Series: Throne Of Glass #3

Genre: YA Fantasy

Blog Graphic-What It's About

She was the heir of ash and fire, and she would bow to no one.

Celaena Sardothien has survived deadly contests and shattering heartbreak—but at an unspeakable cost. Now she must travel to a new land to confront her darkest truth…a truth about her heritage that could change her life—and her future—forever.

Meanwhile, brutal and monstrous forces are gathering on the horizon, intent on enslaving her world. To defeat them, Celaena must find the strength to not only fight her inner demons but to battle the evil that is about to be unleashed.

The king’s assassin takes on an even greater destiny and burns brighter than ever before in this follow-up to the New York Times bestselling Crown of Midnight.

Blog Graphic- What I Thought

This series is getting better and better!  Seriously, it is.  I didn’t love it, but I really liked it, and I think it might be my favorite book in the series so far.

This book is massively epic, and we learn so much about Celaena and the world she lives in, and I couldn’t believe everything that happened.  Celaena has a lot in store for her in the book, and what she learns about her family going back to basically the dawn of time or whatever…I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I did like what Maas did with that. Looking back, it was sort of predictable, but it wasn’t something I thought about until I read that part.

It does seem like there’s a possibility that Rowan is a love interest for Celaena, and I don’t know if I care for them as a couple.  Granted, it seems more like friendship than anything else, but it did seem like it might be a possibility.  I’m actually fine with Celaena not being with anyone, because she has enough going on without adding in romance, even though it would eventually help her out with being queen.

Manon and the stuff with the covens seemed a little out place in this book.  We got a little bit of it in Crown Of Midnight, and it makes me think that it was introduced because it’s going to come up in the next book.  It was a little bit interesting, but it didn’t quite fit with the rest of the story, since it has no direct impact on what we see happening in this particular book.  It was a little bit slow, which was odd considering how much actually happened in the book. And it seemed like it was too long at times.  But still, it’s pretty epic, and I’m actually really glad I don’t have to wait for the next book.

I really liked Sorscha, and I wish we saw more of her.  I know it’s because we have the stuff with Celaena, Chaol and Aedion and with Dorian, and by default, we don’t see much with her.  But I was sad to see her go, if only because I really liked the glimpses we saw of her.

I felt for Aedion, a lot, and I don’t know that I really like Rowan.  I did like that he felt bad about how he treated Celaena, but…at first, I hated him, and even though I don’t outright hate him, I am currently unsure how I feel about him as a character.

I also don’t know what else to say about Heir Of Fire.  I think I pretty much covered everything, so on with my rating!

Blog Graphic- My Rating

4 stars.  I really liked it, and we learn a lot but it was also slow and it dragged a little bit.

Book Review: Crown Of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

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Crown Of Midnight CoverBook: Crown Of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

Published August 2013 by Bloomsbury|418 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the hardcover from the library

Series: Throne Of Glass #2

Genre: YA Fantasy

Blog Graphic-What It's About

“A line that should never be crossed is about to be breached.

It puts this entire castle in jeopardy—and the life of your friend.”

From the throne of glass rules a king with a fist of iron and a soul as black as pitch. Assassin Celaena Sardothien won a brutal contest to become his Champion. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown. She hides her secret vigilantly; she knows that the man she serves is bent on evil.

Keeping up the deadly charade becomes increasingly difficult when Celaena realizes she is not the only one seeking justice. As she tries to untangle the mysteries buried deep within the glass castle, her closest relationships suffer. It seems no one is above questioning her allegiances—not the Crown Prince Dorian; not Chaol, the Captain of the Guard; not even her best friend, Nehemia, a foreign princess with a rebel heart.

Then one terrible night, the secrets they have all been keeping lead to an unspeakable tragedy. As Celaena’s world shatters, she will be forced to give up the very thing most precious to her and decide once and for all where her true loyalties lie… and whom she is ultimately willing to fight for.

Blog Graphic- What I Thought

Why on earth did it take me so long to read Crown Of Midnight?  Why??!?!?!  I really liked it, and I wish I had picked it up sooner!

We see Celaena as the Kings Champion and we actually get a glimpse of Celaena as the bad-ass assassin that was mentioned and hinted at in Throne Of Glass.  I didn’t really get why she was this feared assassin in the first book, and we don’t get a lot of it in this book, but we do get a few glimpses of it in this book.  I really liked seeing that, and part of me is hoping we’ll see more of that Celaena in the next couple of books.  And we definitely learned quite a bit about Celaena and her family in this book…I still wish we knew more about her childhood, but I have the feeling that’s something that might be coming up in the next couple of books.

I’m not sure why I was so surprised by a certain revelation about her family history- I don’t if it’s because I remember basically nothing from Throne Of Glass (I actually wish I had re-read it, because I did feel a little lost) or if I just didn’t put it together and should have.  As for feeling a little lost, there were points where I was a little confused about what was going, and that’s probably because I got a little distracted at times.  But it did come together, and I’m feeling pretty good about the idea that we’ll be learning a lot more about what’s going on.

I did feel really invested as Celaena tried to figure out the riddle and everything else.  There are quite a few things that people don’t realize/figure out until it’s too late, and it makes me wonder what that means for the books to come.  Is it good?  Is it bad?  Or is it something that falls somewhere in the middle?  We all know it’s coming to come out sooner or later, and when it does…I don’t know what that will mean for some of the characters, especially Chaol and Dorian.

I’m feeling pretty ambivalent about Chaol and Celaena, who certainly has more important things to worry about. And yet, how differently would things have gone if he and Celaena didn’t have so many issues?  He did seem to realize the error of his ways, but it was too little, too late.  And even though he tried to protect her, in the end, it may or may not be his best decision.  We will see how that works out.

Oh, Nehemia!  I feel like we haven’t seen the last of her, and even though I was not expecting things to go a certain way for her, I’m still curious if she will continue to have a role in things.

Blog Graphic- My Rating

4 stars.  I really liked it, and I can’t wait to see where certain revelations take us!

Book Review: Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard

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Glass Sword CoverBook: Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard

Published February 2016 by HarperTeen|444  pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the hardcover from library

Series: Red Queen #2

Genre: YA Fantasy

Blog Graphic- What I Thought

If there’s one thing Mare Barrow knows, it’s that she’s different.

Mare Barrow’s blood is red—the color of common folk—but her Silver ability, the power to control lightning, has turned her into a weapon that the royal court tries to control.

The crown calls her an impossibility, a fake, but as she makes her escape from Maven, the prince—the friend—who betrayed her, Mare uncovers something startling: she is not the only one of her kind.

Pursued by Maven, now a vindictive king, Mare sets out to find and recruit other Red-and-Silver fighters to join in the struggle against her oppressors.

But Mare finds herself on a deadly path, at risk of becoming exactly the kind of monster she is trying to defeat.

Will she shatter under the weight of the lives that are the cost of rebellion? Or have treachery and betrayal hardened her forever?

The electrifying next installment in the Red Queen series escalates the struggle between the growing rebel army and the blood-segregated world they’ve always known—and pits Mare against the darkness that has grown in her soul.

Blog Graphic- What I Thought

After reading The Red Queen earlier this year, I knew I had to read The Glass Sword, so when I saw it at the library, I knew I had to check it out!

I really liked it, and I feel like the more we learn, the more questions I have about what’s going on.  The ending to this book had me wondering what would happen next, and it makes me glad that I read the first two fairly close together. There’s going to be waiting for the next book, of course, but at the same time, that means plenty of time to read both Red Queen and Glass Sword again.

There is a lot going on, and we see quite a few new characters.  There were definitely times where I had trouble keeping up with who was who, and who had what ability, and what was going on, and so I found myself re-reading parts of it because I kept missing stuff.  It’s not Aveyard at all, it’s just me not paying a lot of attention. Maybe another read will help things sink in.

There’s a lot of action, and there weren’t any lulls, which kept me reading, because I wanted to know what would happen next.  I’d be really curious to see what this series would be like if it were adapted into a movie (or even a t.v. show) because there are definitely parts of it that seem made for being on screen.

I really wish Cal and Mare had more chemistry.  It’s nice to see a fantasy that’s light on romance- actually, it seems pretty rare- but at the same time, it seems like there might be something between them, and yet them together…something seemed off.  I did like Mare, who really is different than the Mare we see in the first book. She’s selfish and makes mistakes, and yet…she really has been through a lot, and became someone who wanted to protect the newbloods as much as she could.  We really see what this is doing to her, and how much it’s changing her…into a much different person, who seems less naive and a little bit more cruel.

And doing what she did at the end of the book…it’s definitely a cliff-hanger for sure, and it makes me wonder what’s in store for the books to come.  It’s sort of surprising, since this series is 4 books, and the way it ended is what you’d expect for the end of a 2nd book of a trilogy.

I didn’t mind it all that much, though, because it has me hooked.  And again, it really raises the stakes and makes you wonder what’s in store for the next 2 books.

Now that I think about it, something about Mare reminds me of Tris from the Divergent trilogy.  Going through the things that both Tris and Mare go through, it changes them.  It’s been a while since I’ve read Divergent, and I don’t really know why I was suddenly reminded of Tris, but they both had to make some tough decisions.  I don’t really know where I’m going with this, so I’ll leave it at that.

Blog Graphic- My Rating

4 stars.  There are definitely some twists and turns, and there’s quite the cliffhanger at the end!  I can’t wait to see what happens next!