The Crowns Game by Evelyn Skye

"Are you afraid of her?" Pasha asked.

More than you'll ever know, Nikolai thought.

If you had seen me at the bookstore on Wednesday, as I sat waiting for my dad to come get me, you may have wondered "Why is that small little human sitting on the floor crying?"

Ha.

Here is the answer:

Warning: There is much talk of Food in this review

This book is released on May 17th, 2016

Genre:  Fantasy

Feelings: For me, yes. I mean I almost cried in a bookstore. What can I say, I'm a sucker for friendships. 

Cuteness: -quietly sings- I will go down with this sh iii i ipppp

Fast pacing: Steady pace throughout

Series: Yep

Read if you like: The Grisha Trilogy, or just Russia in general. MAGIC. It's basically what happens if you cross Shadow and Bone, The Hunger Games, and The Red Queen, and a little smidge of Throne of Glass.

Content: A bit of action, a bit of violence, but clean pretty much throughout. 

Trigger warning? Loss of parents. 

In summary...She thought she was the only enchanter. He thought he was the only enchanter. The governments known all along, and unfortunately....-dundunduuunnn- THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE!!!

Thoughts: Wooden boxes and leaves. Painted buildings. A knife,
Messages: Friendships and differences. 

Rating: 4/5 

Geez. This book. I read it in one day, on buses and before and after work, eager to finish the whole thing. It started out kind of typical YA fashion, but then went on to blow minds. All of them. All of the minds just blown to oblivious. 

-The Characters-

Here is a lesson on How To Get Into Mariesa's Heart:

Friendships. Especially good old fashion bromances
More friendships.
Just good relationships. 
Bro's 

I really like those. And so, as you might guess, my favorite parts of this book were the parts with Pasha and Nikolai. The parts with Sergei and Galina, the Self Proclaimed Siblings of Much Spite™ 

Granted there were some other weird love interests thrown in that made no sense but we'll push those aside. A+ characters.

Vika can be shelved with most of the other fantasy main characters. With Mare and Sharzhad and Amani. That being said. I still really liked her. She's not my favorite, not a character I think I'd gush about, but she was a likable little wasabi chip. 

Nikolai, however. N i k o l a i.

Confession: I may have loved him from page one because he's got the same name as one of my Absolute Favorite Characters in YA history, Nikolai Lanstov. BUT. He went on to be his own little golden nugget of melted pepper jack cheese. A sweetheart. But with a KICK. It's funny because after reading his physical descriptions it's like wow you must be super broody but then he's like flowers and strawberries. If you know what I mean.

Pasha. The little...jelly bean. Of adorableness and and AHHH I can't spoil anything but he's precious and we love him. 

Evelyn has this way of building the relationships layer by layer, that just made sense. And there was never any "oh but mAybE i Do LOVe Him" between the main romance. Vika and Nikolai were intrigued by each other, but they never fawned or gushed any more than was realistic. So when the "time" came for realizing there may be actual feelings, it went exactly as it should for these two. Out of the blue.

All the characters were just well shaped little loaves of bread and I adore them all. 

In case you were wondering, I am writing this instead of eating my breakfast. Hence the food. 

-Plot and Writing-

This was a very well structured book. The way things were arranged worked really well. There were a few minuscule things that bugged me. This book kind of did that thing where it needs to have EVERYONES point of view, but one character will only get like o n e chapter. That always has bugged me because it's seems too easy.

Tiny thing, though. 

Other then that I do really love the way this story is told. The writing's good. I think this is the biggest area for growth. While good in some areas, some of the dialogue and action felt a bit flat. BUT, Evelyn definitely has a knack for descriptions. I could see everything so clearly, which I think is what made this setting so strong.

Goodness, did she do her research. Everything made sense. Having story set in another country is hard. And this was done phenomenally. 

I honestly still can't get over descriptions. Everything was so lovely. It was like when you have a bunch of little viles of food coloring and macaron batter. So you drop a few drops in, a few different colors, then they SWIRL together and create this vibrant shade never before seen to the macaron world.

Now I really want macarons. 

Messages and Other-

I love relationships. I love friendships. I love betrayals and mistakes made and anger and discovery. I love seeing them grow. I love seeing the little loaves of bread slowly rise by the power of yeast and science, slowly grow until they're something different. A little malformed, but stronger.

It's hard to take a world that we don't live in and make you relate, but this book did that, and I appreciate that. And here I am, insanely excited to see where this series grows. 

Growth is so important. That's what I loved so much about the Grisha Trilogy. For all of its flaws, that trilogy showed growth. In Alina, the way she transformed.

And I'm so excited to see that for Vika. 


Overall, this was a solid book. It had some flaws, some writing things that irked me, but I truly think this was a solid debut. The story was sound, and I'm excited to see this series and Skye's writing grow. 

Reign of Shadows by Sophie Jordan

Presenting, the fabulous co-written review of Reign of Shadows, done with my bookish-soulsister and eternal Kazlingsppey

I was quite excited for this book. And I had quite a fun time reading it with Linnea. So, we decided to write a review together. Down below are my stats then her review. If you go to her blog, you can see her stats and stuff and then my review. Fun, right? Go visit her at R E A C H

Genre:  Fantasy

Feelings: Naw

Cuteness: KISSING

Fast pacing: Not quite, but it was small enough that I didn’t notice

Series: Evidently yes

Read if you like: Rapunzel retellings. Creepy bats that may or may not eat people

Content: Some aggressive kissy action. A bit of violence? Nothing graphic enough for me to remember.

Trigger warning? Nothing I can recall 

In summary...She’s stuck in a tower. He’s grumpy. They get stuck in the woods. Things happen. It’s intense.

Thoughts: Pine needles.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

And here's Linnea's review. Check out her blog to see mine! 

This book is quite the wild ride. There are bats that are large, but supposedly do not eat humans. There are Dwellers. There are super-hot men. There’s a completely bad ass female lead that is somehow not annoying to me, the Biggest Critiquer of Female Leads.

In short, this book kind of rocked. While I couldn’t quite take the entire thing in one sitting, it went down easy and then kind of left me with a hangover. I wasn’t expecting a cliffhanger ending and then all of a sudden–I got one.

Which was unsettling, considering I was hoping for a standalone, but useful, because a mere two-hundred and ninety-two pages wasn’t long enough for me to appreciate the full scope of these characters.

Fowler is Tall, Dark-humored, and Handsome. What’s not to like?

This book seemed a bit like that friend that, at 3 AM, is at their most delighted with the world, and will do just about anything they please. It’s fun to watch, participate in in small amounts, and also put to sleep  before too long…and then repeat the whole endeavor the next night.

Which is to say: I am so glad I read this book with a friend, and I can’t wait to do it with the sequel.

The Star Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi

"Tell me, my queen, are you ready to play with fate?"

Do you know how hard it was to pick a quote to start this out?

So many quotes. 

So many things.

I swear I'll be eloquent about this book in this review, even though my current emotion is OHMYGODMYHEARTICANNOTBYEILOVETHISBOOK. 

You know how it goes.

This review will be possibly long but. I have a lot to say about this book. SO I AM GOING TO SAY IT.

This book is released on April 26th, 2016

Genre:  Fantasy

Feelings: Not as many WOW I'M SAD feelings but there are some.

Cuteness: Yes with a capital Y.

Fast pacing: Nawww but after I got into it and got to the Things I didn't care.

Series: ?????????????????

Read if you like: Indian folklore. The sort of setting that books like "The Forbidden Wish" That like sandy feel. And the sari and silk and !!!! 

Content: Kissy kissy. Some potential aggressive cuddling but it never goes that far.

Trigger warning? Some verbal abuse type situations. Family and parents are distant and unloving. Loss of family members.

In summary...She has been cursed with a horoscope that promised death and destruction everywhere she goes. There's no escape, or so it seems. A mysterious stranger, a lot of magical power, horses, and intrigue ensue. 

Thoughts: Blood on sand. Parchment, and thread

Rating: 5/5 stars

This Review is Spoiler Free

How does one begin with this novel. I don’t even know where to begin. I started it with much excitement, which then started to fade. I’ll admit, I wasn’t as wowed as it continued. The beginning was gorgeous, the setting flawless, the story intriguing. But then, the romance started, and the excitement died down. I loved the romance. But where was the big kabams I wanted? The big bang pow? 

I’ve never been so glad that I stuck with a novel. It blew me away.

-The Characters-

Maya.  Maya is the main character I have been itching for. Strong. Bitter. Determined. Not so unrealistically strong that she turns aside the temptation of power. She makes so many mistakes but never lets those stop her. Her voice was steady, struggling. I never once got bored of her narrating. Except those times I wanted the horse to narrate.

Amar. Oh, Amar. His good and bad. And more bad and a lot of good. The little grumpy brood bean. With the hair. And the poeticness that makes me laugh. And the darkness that settles in. He was such a fascinating character. Subconsciously I kept trying to “trope” him. Label him as “Evil Bad Guy Love Interest.” Or “Brooding Bad Boy” or “Looks like Could Kill You But Is Cinnamon Roll”. But he never fit any. Because there was none.

He was Amar.

He was him.

Him was Amar.

I like Amar.

Moving on. Other character. The other’s weren’t quite as intriguing, although many of the characters we meet are quite lovable. There just wasn’t enough of them to explode off the page.

Except Kamala. Kamala guys. The horse. Who may or may not plan on eating you but you love anyway. I want one.

-Plot And Writing-

I need about 4000 of Roshani’s books asap. Like. Roshani. YOUR WORDS. THEY MAKE ME SO HAPPY. I’m not a huge writer of fantasy, given the disaster my fantasy novel was. But after reading this it’s all I want to write.

Roshani has this way of words.  They fit this aesthetic of the story so wonderfully. They feel like sand, soft and flowing from a distance, until you pick up a handful and the grit gets everywhere and sticks to you. But then you bury yourself into it and it’s quite comfortable.

Prose goals.

(Also like we’ve totally talked back and forth on twitter so we’re PRACTICALLY besties. Coolest author ever. Go follow her)

Plotwise, this one is a slowburn. It could be that I was in a slump when I picked it up, but as soon as the initial inciting incident was over, I wasn’t as excited. I even told Linnea that. “Nothing Big is happening??”

But then.

It did.

Things started getting creepy and weird and making me put down the book and whisper “what the crap” to myself.

Then The Thing happened which I won’t talk about. But The Thing happened. Then the Other Thing happened. And One More Things.

So many Things happened in the latter half of this book, that I realized just how important and good that slowburn start was.  Granted, some of the Things didn’t get discussed as much as I thought? Who knows, perhaps there is plan for a sequel. The ending was so sudden and fast there could be. (I hope there is.) But that’s my one complaint. I will obsess over these Things till the day I die.

-Messages and Other-

My favorite types of books are books that don’t take so much time to tell you Lots of Important Things and Messages and yet still just say things.

This is one of those books.

There’s never any EMBRACE YOURSELF !!!!! or UR BEUATIFUL themes flung at you. And yet this story is what it is. A story of two people who will do everything for each other even though it takes them a while to see it. A story of a girl who has been cast aside and told she was the cause of every problem her entire life who finally got up and said “No. I am my own queen. My own person. And you cannot define me like that.”

It’s a story about not being controlled or defined by labels or mistakes, but it never needs to rub it in your face and say it outright for you to see it.

And I love books like that.

Overall…

I don’t even know what to say overall.

OVERALL JUST GO PREORDER IT.

Go.

Open amazon.

Have you done it yet?

….

Did you preorder?

Yes?

Good.

The Steep and Thorny Way by Cat Winters

"I can't run off with your family." 

"Don't think of it as running off with my family." I lifted my eyelids far enough to see the concerned blue or her irises. "Think of it as running off to be with me in a land like the ones we created as children."

"There's no such place, Hanalee."

"We'll make the place ourselves."

I was a little more than excited to read this book. I loved Cat Winter’s In the Shadow of Blackbirds, and was instantly in love with the idea of 1920’s Oregon murder mystery inspired by HAMLET? Yes.

Sadly, it wasn’t quite as overwhelmingly beautiful as I wanted.

Cat really did put a lot of research into this. That's obvious simply by reading the authors note. I appreciate the topics she dealt with, but unfortunately, I simply didn't care for the actual story.

Stats:

Genre:  Historical fiction (Paranormal wannabe)

Feelings: Yep

Cuteness: FRIENDSHIP

Fast pacing: i'm so sorry to say this but this book was so boring.

Series: Nope

Read if you like: Murder. 1920's. Diverse characters.

Content: A lot of talk of sex, but always in the terms along the lines of "The taking of virtue" and a few vaguely rude comments a few boys make because Hanalee and John are found asleep in the woods together. Some disturbing topics regarding hangings and such. Also this book has a gay male character, so there are some scenes that imply a lot to deal with that, which may bother people who aren't comfortable with it.

Trigger warning? Loss of a parent. Violent racism. Violent homophobia.

In summary...Being a girl of color in a 1920's oregon small town is not easy. It's especially not easy when the boy accused of killing your father was just released from prison. But things are not always as they seem, and with the help from some sketchy ghosts...Hanalee very well might discover just that.

Thoughts: Swamp water, pine needles, rough ropes

Messages: Too much to sum up. This book never really takes like, an obvious huge stance regarding racism and homophobia, but it paints a strong picture of what it was like and makes it clear how awful it was. Which is a stance in and of itself.

Rating: 3/5 stars

Just this once, I’m going to combine the “Characters” and “Plot/Writing” part of this review, since the reason I didn’t like them go hand in hand.

-The characters+Plot/Writing-

The root problem as to why I didn’t care for this book is really because it felt half-baked. Don’t get me wrong. The writing was very lovely as to be expected with Cat Winters. But the plot felt void of life. The ghosts? They were tossed in there. In my own writing, I sadly have experienced how hard it is to write a ghost story where the ghosts don’t feel tossed in. My own novel needs to be rewritten because of this.

But these ghosts could have been nonexistent. They felt like they had been put there for plot only purposes, and that’s not how I want my ghosts.

The mystery should have been scary. But it wasn’t. All that being said, this book was scary for other reasons, that I’ll talk about in the “Messages and other” part of this post. This plot was just half-baked.

And the characters really didn’t jump out at me. Hanalee. She was…okay. I appreciated her realism. I appreciated a well shaped diverse character. But I just didn’t care. I should have, but I didn’t. And the other boy. John? I liked him, because he was also a nice diverse, interesting character. And their friendship was wonderfully platonic (For obvious reasons). But I really didn’t care about these characters enough to really care about the story and I don’t know why.

For me, characters are important. No matter how well put together a plot is, if I don’t care about the characters then I don’t care about the plot. I’ve never been one to be able to pick apart plots easily, unless I really think about it. And in this books case, the plot was lacking because the characters were lacking, but they both were lacking because they didn’t feel finished. These characters were g o o d, but they lacked that reader connection. 

The one thing I did love in this book was the setting. It felt vibrant. Real. I adore the 20’s, but I have never thought particularly about the small western town feel of it. So I loved getting that swampy, foresty feel.

-Messages and other-

As said earlier, this is a scary book. Not because ghosts, or murder. But because this book shows so clearly how scary it would actually be for a girl like Hanalee in 1920’s Oregon. It’s scary because even if this wasn’t a murder story, her life would constantly be in danger. Because stepping into a restaurant would put her at risk. And that actually happened.

It was an absolutely despicable time in the terms of racism. Often times jokes are made that the 20’s aren’t much different than now in the sense of homophobia and racism, and while cases like the ones in this book are around, they are never as saturated into the community as they are here. And so, it’s scary to read this book and wonder how people survived. How many homosexuals and colored people got lynched and killed simply because of those things.

For that, this book really is an important one. Any book that deals with these topics is important. Which is why in the end, I did like it. I simply didn’t care about anything except the things it had to say.

Overall, this wasn’t a terrible book. I do think a lot of people will love it, and a lot of people do love it. I simply wasn’t able to care enough to love it. 

Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton

And then all I could see was the sand and I forgot about everything. About fear. About bombs. About Jin. The desert reached out for us all with huge open arms. The churning mass that was chaos in the streets became order in the sand, welcoming us home.

 I started this book at my friends beach house, simply planning on getting it done for the review. I actually went into it with no expectations. I'd heard about it, but I hadn't really put it high on my anticipated list. But of course, I am so lucky to have received an ARC from my local bookstore, so I went into it with much excitement. (I'm very lucky for this bookstore)

And then I read it.

Goodness gracious.

Guys. 

Stats:

Genre:  High fantasy

Feelings: Eh? Sort of?

Cuteness: oh my go s h

Fast pacing: A bit slow in the middle, but every chapter it seemed there was a reason for me to keep reading

Series: THANK GOODNESS, YES

Read if you like: Fantasy westerns. Westerns in general. The Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo. Horses!!! Magic!!! DESERTS. And sass.

Content: I made the mistake of waiting to write this, so I don't completely remember. I know there's some shooting. Some removal of bullets. But nothing bad enough for me to remember a week later.

Trigger warning? Loss of siblings, friends. Death??

In summary...Amani, the girl with the killer shot needs to get out of Dustwalk, her dumpy little town. And if it means joining impossible shooting contests, stealing magical horses, bribing, drugging or robbing mysterious foreigners and hitching a ride on some train, she'll do it. Until everything goes south and she realizes what she's gotten herself into....all thanks to that awfully sassy foreigner guy. (At least he's cute)

Thoughts: S a n d. And gunpowder.

Messages: Bravery.

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Right of the bat, I loved this book. From the first few chapters I loved the characters, the sass...all of it. Overall a satisfying read, flaws and all.

-The characters-

Amani. Ah, Amani. As stated in previous reviews, I have the hardest time liking main characters. No matter how well done they are, I never can seem to really care enough to be worried about what happens to them. And here come Amani, and somehow I cared. A lot.

She’s realistic. She was well shaped. I mean, she’s another snarky-stubborn-impulsive female character in a fantasy series. It’s easy to expect her to kind of fade away upon finishing the book. But I liked her. She was stubborn. She was snarky, but it never once felt forced. Her sass never felt like a shoved in character trait, but an actual part of her story.

And boy was she far from perfect. She made so many mistakes in this book. Or missed things that seemed so obvious. I appreciated her not being too much of anything.

Side characters. Jin. Um, Jin. Jin! Jin was adorable. Again, another snarky male love interest, and yet I didn’t care. I didn’t even once notice anything stereotypical in these characters, even if there was some, because Alwyn Hamilton did just such a good job of making you care.

Character interactions were on point. The side characters, the characters there for only a few pages were marvelous. All in all, this was a success in the character department. I loved all the side characters that came along later. But honestly I don’t remember their names. Or who was who. But I did like them.

-Plot and Writing-

Ahh. Goodness, this story. Worldbuilding is hard. Okay, it’s so hard. And a novel under 400 pages, I can only imagine how tricky it is to make a story world fit. But Alwyn nailed it. This story world was interesting, unique, and in depth, and all in 350 pages.

In the opening chapters, I could picture the scenes and setting so well, and that’s always the best feeling. I could taste the dust and the feel the coarse sand and feel the sun. It was wonderful.

My one complaint, is there are info dumps. That I will admit to sort of skimming. I just liked the story too much. And honestly during Amani’s character arc, when she stopped shooting and sassing, it was saddening. But I got over it.

Pretty much all of the plot twists were predictable. I mean, I didn’t see them coming, but I wouldn’t have seen them coming if they were dangled in front of my face. I’m that oblivious. But, looking back, it’s pretty easy to see what’s going on.

The ending did feel a bit…rushed? And confusing? It might be that there were so many characters that I lost track of who was shooting who and who was bad and all of that. But oh my god, that ending. That…showdown. The MAGIC. AMANI KICKING ASS.

Okay this book is just very cool.

Looking at the plotline itself, there was this huge switch somewhere in the middle, in which it went into a direction I wasn’t expecting. At first I immediately missed the excitement of the first half, but once it got magicky I was okay with it.

-Messages and other-

Amani started out as a nobody. A girl, struggling to just get enough money to get out of her crappy little town. And somehow, she gets caught up in mayhem and chaos and magic.

And she doesn’t lose her head. She doesn’t cry, freak out, and fall apart. Well, she does fall apart. But internally. She’s brave. She’s incredibly brave. And I like that.

I really like underdog stories, but what I liked about this one is even though Amani could be classified as one, she never acted like one. She didn’t buy anyone’s crap, didn’t care about marriage or the sexism or the things she faced. She just wanted to get out of that town. And even when things got so intense, she didn’t give up.

And I can stand by that.

Overall, this was a great book. If you’re looking for a well done fantasy western, then this one should definitely be on your tbr list. Like now.