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. 

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. 

The Dark Days Club by Allison Goodman

She remembered other whispers too, echoes of Lord Carlstons words: souls and darkness And one that she had heard over and over again: loss.

Another ARC I received! Of course it comes out in like 6 days but I was really busy okay.

Reading the reviews is a bit of a ? experience? Everyone seems to adore this book? I certainly didn't hate it. This book is a Good Story, a Good Historical, but a Meh Horror.

~this book will be released on Jan 25th~

the coveeerrrr, guys. ThE COvErR

Stats:

Genre:  Historical fiction paranormal

Feelings: Naw

Happiness: Fun?

Cuteness: Not really, for me at least. VErrrryrYYyyY vague romance. Like it's romance but not in your face insta-love

Fast pacing: Slow, but it fit given the time period for some reason 

Series: Yup

Read if you like: Paranormal regency? Quirky plots?

Content: Some sex talk. Like. The monsters and stuff. It's complicated. But there's sex stuff. Kissing very c l o s e l y. And that's about it?

Trigger warning? Vague rape-like situations. 

In one sentence... Helen is supposed to focus on finishing her Season and getting married....but paranormal abilities and monsters are definitely things that can get in the way of that

Thoughts: Parasols. Dripping in blood. 

Messages: I guess you could call in feministic but it's not really. it's what you'd expect from Regency-Girl-Can-Do-The-Thing but I found it far from annoyingly feministic 

Overall

Rating: 3.5/5

Vague Spoilers regarding the paranormal aspects of story

-The characters-

Helen was kinda just a lot fantastic. Like. She was a well put together heroine. She was realistically curious, not overly annoying, but also not overly Merida-istic. You know, the whole "I CAN CHOSE WHAT I WANT TO DO WITH MY LIFE FIGHT ME" Don't get me wrong I love Merida but this trope can be overdone, especially when books are set in decades when the way people treated woman was crap, even to anti-feminists.

And like. I love how Goodman didn't force the femisim. Helen didn't complain about stitching or cooking or parties because that's a part of her life. Helen didn't complain that she was being smothered in womanly duties because she was raised for that.

Anyway. Helen. I'm glad that she was noble, ready to do the right thing, without being arrogant about it. She genuinely wants the best for everyone including herself, and that's shown well. She's not too mary-sue, but she's not too I Am ~Special~. 

Normally I don't care much about "Special" characters, but after reading so much of this genre, I have started to grow more accustumed to what is used a lot. 

Which brings me to why I am the few not raving about this book. 

-Writing and structure-

I feel like I would have asbolutely adored this book if I was fourteen. Back when I first started writing. Back when I wanted an epic histroical girl kicking ass and gifted with COOL POWERS. That was the type of story I loved. 

Okay, I still do. Who doesn't want historical settings with cool powers and weird creatures?

But something about this story didn't feel quite as dark, gothic and unsettling as I like historical paranormals to be. This book felt like the type of story younger-me would write. A story that tries to be scary and Big but doesn't quite get there. A story that uses different fonts for when characters write letters and all that. If it weren't for the sex stuff, it'd feel more vaguely middle-grade-y, at least for me.

Please don't get me wrong. A lot of people will love this. A lot of people do love this. But I love gothic atmospheres, and so I went into this expecting a Regency Creepy Atmosphere, with fluid writing and scariness. And I didn't get it. Allison is definitely a good storyteller, and I think her voice fits well with this decade. But it wasn't quite there for me.

Fourteen year old Mariesa is dying of the Awesome inside of me right now, that's for sure. But as for my horror loving side....meh. It's fully my fault for expecting horror, since it wasn't advertised as such but what can I say. I really like horror. And I like my paranormal stories to scare.

-Other-

Okay, Goodman, you did your research.

I've read a lot of speculative historical, given that's what I write. And you can tell when an author cares about historical accuracy not just cool monsters. And I appreciate that.The setting was so vibrant, and I adored it.

Basically, this book has a lot going for it. The atmosphere is good in everything except the fact that it's trying to be scary.

Also like. The sex stuff. Really weirded me out. The monster legit sucks the energy from someone while fornicating with them. 

What.

What.

Yeah I was weirded out. 

I was glad that Goodman didn't fling too much at you. She actually invented her own demon thing. And it was weird and uncomfortable. But she didn't just have this regency setting and suddenly go "OH YEAH SO VAMPIRESWEARWOLVESWITCHESZOMBIES EXIST"

Because all those would be so freaking awesome but all at once is hard to pull off

Overall, this book did a good job of telling a story with some well done characters. The paranormal atmospehre was lacking for me, but overall I think Goodman has a great start to a series on her hands, and the more I think about it, the more ready I am to give book two a shot. 

Go you

These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly

"Trudy smiled ruefully. 'What can I say? I merely wish to smoke...You, on the other hand, wish to know things. And no one can forgive a girl for that.'"

Firstly: the cover. The cover. Can we....

Just look at that cover. While I was expecting some sort of scary, possibly horror book when I bought it, I still ended up loving this. I need all of Jennifer Donnelly's books and I need them now. Every part of this book, from the writing to that 1890's-vague-girl-power-feel, really somehow worked so well together. 

Stats:

Genre:  Historical fiction

Feelings: While not necessarily heart-wrenching, this book definitely had fun messing with me

Happiness: The writing. Guys. THE WRITING

Cuteness: I thought that certainly I wouldn't ship it. After all. INSTALOVE. But then I /did/ ship it.

Fast pacing: Well paced, but not fast

Series: Nope

Read if you like: 1890's, murder mysteries, and plucky female characters

Content: Some violence, some talk of sex but all in conversations of marriage and courtship, never graphic. A brothel is mentioned, discussed, and visited for investigation purposes. Some slight violence

In one sentence... Jo wants to write, and she wants to write not the airy things her all-girls prep school is teaching her to write, but she wants to write like Nelly Bly--and when her father is found dead, and she has a run in with a reporter who believes it was something other than an accidental death.....she might just get her chance to do just that.

Thoughts: Cobblestones wet with rain in the middle of the night

Messages: Some really cool insights into the gender-roles of that day and age

Overall

Rating: 4.5/5

This is a spoiler free review

The Lovely Bits

This was just such a fun book. I ended up doing a read along with Emma from Of Starry Knights and Lullabies, and it pretty much consisted of the two of us over skype freaking out. 

-Characters-

Ah, Jo. See, Jo is the type of character who in a modern day setting I'd probably hate. She wants big things. She wants success and importance. She wants to have a role in life. She wants to be dangerous. 

But Jo, dear thing, is so painfully naive. She's clueless, knowing nothing about the dangers of life. And so she does a lot of dumb things.

But here's the thing. She's a 1890's high-class girl, brought up to be docile and naive and well-bred. And that's why I love her. Because Jo, despite the fact that she knows so little about life, won't take anyone's crap. Forget the fact that she's so absolutely clueless, she's still going to do whatever it takes to figure out what she wants to know. She wants to figure out the truth, and she doesn't let her limitations stop her. 

It's such a hard character type to pull off, but in this setting I loved it. 

What I really loved about this book, is that every character had a personality. While some were more vibrant than others, not character she introduced, even if just for a few pages, felt cardboard. They all had some trait that stood out. Names would be thrown around like they needed no explanation and that really enhanced the feel of the book.

Eddie was kind of just a lot of adorable. Like, I don't love him as much as some others, but he was a fun character. His interactions with Jo....a+

-Writing and Structure-

Murder mysteries are hard. Historical novels are hard.

Historical murders mysteries? HA. Hats off to you, Donelly. She nailed it. Everything was well paced, confusing without being frustrating, and always interesting. 

And her writing. I just finished a historical mystery of my own, so reading this right after writin a crappy-first draft was a bad idea. Because her prose is so lovely. It fits the feel of historical fiction so well, making you easily slip into the cold streets of New York City, decades ago. It's obvious by reading her books. Jennifer Donelly is made for historical fiction.

-Messages and other-

Some books can come across too feminist, and for someone like me who's rather against many of the stuff feminists are saying nowadays, that can be tricky. But the thing is, in this historical decade, it fit. 

The gender roles were so screwed up in the late 1800's, and seeing that written so well was outstanding. I adore history, but even I didn't really quite see how messed up some of it was, because I've spend so much time in the 20th century, or the suffrage movements early 1900's. 

While many of the feminist messages aren't relevant in today's day and age, I really loved every message that was in this book, simply because of how much I learned without even realizing I was learning. 

Less Lovely Bits

There wasn't one particular thing that I can say I didn't like, there was just something that didn't seem quite right. Maybe what it was, is that I loved it but not enough for it to become THAT book. I finished it satisfied, but not blown away. 

The only things I can thing of is some cases of telling, especially when wrapping up stuff in the end. That got a little boring to read. Eddie and Jo were a bit insta-lovey, and while I don't want to look passed that with a "Historical Context" excuse, it didn't bother me as much, maybe because I liked them both. 

Also: The title. This whole book, from the page one peek at grave digging, I was waiting. When were they gonna start digging up graves??? I waited through hundreds of pages until it finally came, and while it wasn't bad I just was kinda hoping for more of that sooner.

Other than that, I have nothing else to say. These Shallow Graves is a solid story, and 


Overall, this book was so insanely fun to read. The writing was on point, the characters interesting, and the plot engaging. I would seriously recommend this to teens and adults a like, anyone looking to get a peek into the 19th century lifestyle....with a touch of murder.

In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters

Millions of healthy young adults and children dropped dead from the flu, boys got transported out of the country to be blown to bits, and the government arrested citizens for speaking the wrong words. Such a place couldn’t be real. And it couldn’t be the United States of America, “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
But it was.
I was on a train in my own country, in a year the devil designed.
1918.

I've got a lot of emotions about this book. I have picked up this book so many times. Spaniish influenza and ghosts?? But every time it never gets read. Well. I read it.

Stats:

Genre: Paranormal-ish Historical

Feelings: YesSs

Happiness: Ah yes.

Cuteness: Not really?

Fast pacing: Debatable. But very engaging.

Series: No.

Read if you like: Ghosts, historical settings, sicknesses, creepy things, photography.

Content: Some "intense" kissing. And that's basically it.

In one sentence... He's dead, right? 

Thoughts: An old photograph, a compass, and a pair of aviator goggles.
*NEW*Messages: Life is hard. You lose people. But you lose a little bit of yourself if you hang on too tight.

Overall:

Rating: 3.5/5

This review is SPOILER FREE

The Lovely Bits

The writing. This story swept me up right away. The writing was gorgeous and simplistic, with some amazing images of life in this hard time. You get a lot of emotions from characters you don't even know the name of. 

Every character introduced was well shaped and had an instant personality, which was refreshing. I really liked getting this new picture of this way of life. I feel like, often times, we hear about these awful times and sometimes pass them off. But in this book...you see how it really was and it was awful and interesting.

This book just had a lot more ghosts and death than I thought. And while a lot of it was weird, it was great. It just gets crazy, man. With Stephen? When Stephen starts speaking from her body, or when Mary starts getting his dreams...it gets crazy, guys, but well done.

The plot was really well structured. The story web was so complicated and crazy, so if Mary hadn't mapped out on a regular basis what was happening I would have been lost. Honestly I never had a single idea what was going on. At all. And I liked that.

This book stood out to me 

I really liked the female characters in this book. Aunt Eva was strong, and when she realized she made mistakes, quickly fell back. She focused on her love and dedication to her niece, even when awful things happened. She was a great character. She cut off all her curls and went to work at a shipyard. Mary was the type of girl who would take apart everything to figure out how it worked. She'd leave the house and work at a hospital to help and research. She was likable...but not.

The Less Lovely Bits:

I honestly don't know how I feel about Mary? I can't imagine being in her situation so I can't tell if its realistic or immature. But she kinda of...annoyed me. She was fun to read, but sometimes I couldn't quite figure out how I felt. 

Same with Stephen. He was okay? I am having trouble really putting together my opinions. Other than that, there was very little I disliked. Some things really didn't sit well, and that's it.

Overall, it was great. It was emotional and lovely. So so lovely. So so so lovely. Read it. Go. Now. I really want to read her latest book.