Let’s start with this: Don’t go into this thinking it’s a standalone novel. Neither Amazon or GoodReads list it as being part of a series, but it endsLet’s start with this: Don’t go into this thinking it’s a standalone novel. Neither Amazon or GoodReads list it as being part of a series, but it ends on what I’d call a semi-cliffhanger, with the story long from resolved, so it’s either part of a series or I’ve misread the book entirely and am very embarrassed. I’d rather not be that embarrassed, so I’m going with it being the first book in a series and the rest of the series just hasn’t been announced yet. So, are we all on the same page now? Good.
So, okay. This book really, really, isn’t original. It was pretty clear from very early on in this book that the plot (of this entry at least) is Hunger Games meets Throne of Glass meets The Selection. That’s a whole lot of YA lore to be whipping into a batter and baking a cake out of, but I just couldn’t help but inhale it greedily, my brain and soul loving the empty calories. This kind of book isn’t like reading some of the books I read where I come away full of feels and needing to take time to contemplate the experience. It’s not even like the romance novels I read on the regular, where I giggle and sigh and swoon. No. Books like “Of Cages and Crowns” are like spending the evening watching rom-coms and eating ice cream: just pure comfort and relaxation. Books like these are enjoyable because they ask nothing of you but to lay back and enjoy the fantasy fluff.
That’s not to say Brianna Joy Crump doesn’t have talent. She really does. Her characters aren’t complete cookie cutter cut-outs. They’re multi-faceted and interesting. Have I read books with a “culling” trope that did better with the characterizations of the females involved? Yes. But I enjoyed Crump’s efforts to bring depth and breadth to the sociopolitical and geopolitical situation for the people and the country in the book as well as the central plot in the book.
It’s not a perfect book, but it’s a lot of fun for us people who gobble up fantasy romances like candy.
Thanks to NetGalley and Wattpad Books for granting me access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review.
File Under: Fantasy/Dark Fantasy/YA Fantasy/Paranormal Romance/Fantasy Series/Coming of Age/Steamy Romance/YA Fantasy Romance ...more
Every time I get ready to read a book involving time travel or time heists I send up a few wishful thoughts to the literary muses that it won’t be a tEvery time I get ready to read a book involving time travel or time heists I send up a few wishful thoughts to the literary muses that it won’t be a total disaster. After all, not every time travel novel is written the same or with the same underpinning theories. Some time travel books are meant for the Sagan set and some, like this YA title from author Alyson Noel (forgive the lack of umlaut, please), are meant for those who are more familiar with ideas close to wormholes and how all moments in time coexist alongside one another because time is a construct and doesn’t truly exist. Time is really just distance, and distance can be traveled. In this book, they just use something of a mashup between Doctor Who, Inception, and Avengers: Endgame to do it. That’s really, really oversimplifying it, but without spoiling the crud out of some of the most fun and tricky parts of the book I’m just going to leave it at that.
See, but that’s what landed this book (which just started out as me saying, “Oooooh, pretty shiny cover and time heists! Wanna read it!”) a 5 star rating: this book was some of the most page-turning, charming, interesting, and absolutely fun reading I’ve had in quite some time. In the last month or so I’ve read a lot of heavy material (yeah, I know, more the fool me for preferring horror and thrillers, right?), and this was like taking a large inhale of fresh, fantastical air. In both May and June there hasn’t been a fantasy novel I’ve read that didn’t have some serious social and/or cultural commentary attached to it, but “Stealing Infinity” (even though it does have a measure of self-awareness about the world’s richest people just hoarding wealth and doing nothing with it, which a theme I think we’ll see expanded on in the next installment) decides to just let the fun flag fly, showing us what it’s like to go through the ropes of essentially join a secret society of chrononauts and learn to time travel. There are trials along the way (hey, it’s a hero’s journey, of course there’s going to be trials). There’s romance, there’s tentative friendships, there are betrayals, there’s mystery, and there’s a female protagonist with a mysterious past and a special power not many people know about.
At the time of this review, I really needed this book. This book was like drinking perfectly cool water on a really hot day (well, it’s actually over 101 outside today, so I’m not far off but you know what I mean). It’s like biting into a perfect cookie when you’re craving one. It’s not an original book. It’s not a complicated book. It’s not a perfect book. But I needed it. It dragged me in, it kept me, it swept me along, and I kept turning pages until it ended and I was disappointed there would be no more until Noel completes the sequel. I’ll be there to pick that up!
Thanks to NetGalley, Entangled, and Entangled Teen for granting me early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review. ...more
UPDATE 10/27/2023: Just re-read this because I went to go read Traitor of Redwinter and I was totally lost. That's what I get for reading over 600 booUPDATE 10/27/2023: Just re-read this because I went to go read Traitor of Redwinter and I was totally lost. That's what I get for reading over 600 books a year, right? Brain is plot and word mushy soup.
I love it when a book surprises me. When you review books you see a lot (and I do really mean A LOT) of middling to average, derivative, instantly forgettable titles under the general fantasy genre umbrella. No pointing fingers or naming authors. It’s just a hazard of the industry. We reviewers simply read the titles and review them for you to help sort the wheat from the chaff. You’re welcome.
This book is definitely wheat.
I want to warn you the blurb on Amazon is slightly misleading, so don’t rely on it for veracity as it pertains to the plot. The blurb on Amazon also only (dubiously) covers events that happen in less than the first 10% of the book. Yes, those events create the central conflict for the entire book, but if you think the blurb encompasses any of what the book is actually about or who the actual characters in play are, then BTB (Beware The Blurb).
This book is mainly about life and death. It’s also about controlling your own life, the lives of others, and the process of grieving (or the lack of it). There’s also a huge dose of how abuse and trauma can permanently affect a person’s psyche. Throw in some class warfare and criticism on class inequality and you’ve hit most of the major plot themes.
The largest attraction in this entire book is characterization. Every character in this book is multi-faceted, intriguing, and charismatic enough to leap right off the page. Raine, our protagonist, is intense, passionate, and choleric. She’s got the currency of her convictions and she sells it to the people around her with her forthright honesty and self-confidence. Raine knows who she is and what she is and she refuses to let other people call the shots for her when she knows she’s in the right. But she’s also a woman full of rage and trauma who has seen and been through too much in her young life and isn’t willing to let others be stomped down by life if she can help it either.
If the main character sings out, so do all her companions on the page. Where this book falters just slightly is in imagery, setting, and costuming, but that doesn’t bother me too much. The prose is slightly above average, but that’s fine by me as long as we get brilliant characters.
I really think a lot of you fantasy readers will like this book if you give it a try.
Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Books for granting me early access to this book in exchange for a fair and honest review....more
Oh, what a difference some more writing experience makes!
If you read the acknowledgements at the back of “Defy the Night”, BReal Rating: 4.5 / 5 Stars
Oh, what a difference some more writing experience makes!
If you read the acknowledgements at the back of “Defy the Night”, Brigid Kemmerer fully admitted she completed the first draft of that book before she even started the Cursebreakers trilogy. It was after that series was over that she then returned to DtN, then wrote the brilliant “Forging Silver Into Stars”, and then set out to write this absolutely brilliant sequel to DtN, “Defend the Dawn”.
There’s a long tradition of middle books in fantasy/fantasy romance trilogies being better than their predecessors (“A Court of Mist and Fury” or “The Kingdom of Copper”, for example), and this tradition proves true again in “Defend the Dawn”. I rated “Defy the Night” 3.5 stars due to the muddled feel of the whole book, the plot holes, and some glaringly obvious points that the characters should have been able to spot a mile away, which left me feeling insulted as a reader. “Defend the Dawn” more than makes up for those deficits while simultaneously showcasing everything I love about Brigid Kemmerer’s writing: her unique characters and how she makes us care for them, how she does character development in a realistic and holistic manner, and the way she writes compelling, realistic, and sincere dialogue for them.
This book picks up about two weeks after “Defy the Night” ended, and it seems that nothing much has changed because the wheels of bureaucracy turn slowly, especially when some people are doing their best to make sure they don’t turn much at all. At least, not unless they’re given the right kind of grease. Relationships and relations are all strained to the point of breaking, and no one exactly knows what to do to get anywhere.
But then a foreign ship pulls into port…
We get to know so many more characters this time around. The plot is more clear and more streamlined. Some issues that were alluded to in the first book are confirmed in this book (a line that could’ve been dismissed as a throwaway line early on in the first book (but I took great note of it) indeed proved to be of note near the end of this book) and some threads that were left loose at the end of the first book were tied up in this book while others were left loose and teasing to be tied up in the next book, just as it should be.
I originally thought this was meant to be a duology, but it seems it’s meant to be a trilogy, because “Defend the Dawn” does end on one heck of a cliffhanger. My sole complaint with this book is that there were a few sections were the pacing seemed just a little too slow, but it’s barely worth noting.
Emotions run high, the angst is real, there is danger and action throughout, and the morals come in all shades of gray. It’s a great time.
Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury YA for granting me access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review. ...more
A common complaint I have about ebooks (and even ordering physical books online) instead of going to a physical bookstore and being able to flip throuA common complaint I have about ebooks (and even ordering physical books online) instead of going to a physical bookstore and being able to flip through a book before you buy it is you are strictly relying on the blurb/synopsis when you go to buy it. In essence, you’re trusting whoever the publisher hires to write the blurb/synopsis to be honest with you about what you’re getting when you buy a book without being able to flip through it and get a feel for it on your own.
This book deeply disappointed me. What reeled me into wanting to read it was the term “rom-com”. This book is no more rom-com than any other YA fantasy romance out there. As a matter of fact, it’s less funny than every Sarah J. Maas book I’ve ever read. That I’m absolutely sure of. It’s just a plain and simple fact: this is just another YA fantasy romance duology that’s too long at even one book, so I can only imagine it’s going to be far too long for two books.
I don’t know how others will feel, but the best character in this whole book is Shen, and even he is just the Dread Pirate Westley but a witch. Even some of the dialogue feels familiar, if not outright almost word-for-word. You can call it a homage. I just called it entertaining and left it at that because there was so much filler in this book it suffered from incredibly uneven pacing.
I won’t be reading the second half of this series, but I wish the authors luck. A lot of people seem to have liked this book, but I wasn’t one of them.
Thanks to NetGalley, HarperCollins Children’s Books, and Balzer & Bray for early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review. As per personal policy, this review will not appear on social media or bookseller websites due to a 3 star or lower rating. ...more
I loved almost everything about this book: the fresh and compelling magic system(s), the lush and vibrantly-described settings, the driven and intriguI loved almost everything about this book: the fresh and compelling magic system(s), the lush and vibrantly-described settings, the driven and intriguing plot, and just a whole new world of epic fantasy to explore.
The magic systems are exposed in a show of deftly-written show and not tell. I don’t like long-winded explanations of magic systems told in narrative, and many authors choose to use telling instead of showing to make you familiar with the magic system. In this book, Huerta made the right decision to show us the magic system (or, really, it’s more like multiple systems but the Dreaming takes a central and pivotal role) as part of the plot development and in character development, and it was a nice way to keep the plot moving along.
The ancient Mesoamerica settings were so well-described I felt as if I could smell, taste, and see them. This isn’t a talent easily-cultivated, and it isn’t a talent to scoff at. A lot of authors think they can skip over setting in a lot of fantasy novels, but given this fantasy takes place in a part and time of the world most people know little to nothing about it was a great decision to try and pull readers into that time and that space using as many senses as possible without slipping into purple prose.
My only complaint, the one that caused me to rate this a 4 instead of a 5, is the overly-large cast of characters and how similar some of them were. I couldn’t fully hold onto which character was which and where they came from due to just how many of them there were. I found myself having to stop to remember who was who and what role they were playing in the whole thing from time to time, and that doesn’t make for a great reading flow.
I highly recommend this fantasy book for fans of newer worlds and looking for different magic systems to explore.
Thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan Children’s Books, and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review. ...more
I love the mythological and folkloric tales of the Middle East and Northern Africa. This book borrows heavily from “One ThouReal Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars
I love the mythological and folkloric tales of the Middle East and Northern Africa. This book borrows heavily from “One Thousand and One Nights”, especially the tale of Scheherazade and her storytelling skills, and also uses the method of embedding stories within stories as part of the plot, which “One Thousand and One Nights” also does. Predictably, what I enjoyed most about this book was the mythology, the world-building, and the story-with-a-story methodology employed by Abdullah. The rest of the book? Well, I’ve seen jinn, ifrits, cunning and clever orphaned merchant/thief women, harsh princes, and soft princes in this sort of setting done a lot better before. I also have a great deal of concerns about this overall story arc sustaining itself over a whole trilogy when I felt it was almost the right length for one book and might be stretching itself when it was done with the second book.
I don’t think you’d be wasting your time with this book. It’s entertaining, the mythology is fascinating, and the world building is fantastic. It’s just that the characters aren’t in any way original and are very predictable. Just concentrate on the magic and the world around the characters and you’ll do fine.
Thanks to NetGalley and Orbit Books for granting me early access to this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. ...more
Confession time: Even though I own the Cursebreakers Trilogy in ebook format, I haven’t had a chance to read it yet (I know, I know), so I went into tConfession time: Even though I own the Cursebreakers Trilogy in ebook format, I haven’t had a chance to read it yet (I know, I know), so I went into this book knowing it was a spinoff of that universe and it would help if I read that series first. I simply didn’t have time but felt confident I could probably pick up the threads pretty quickly like I did with Bardugo’s Six of Crows duology. Thankfully, I was right. It was pretty easy to pick up the threads and I’m so glad. I’d have hated to have had to wait to sit down and read Cursebreakers (I still plan on reading it! I’m just short on time right now!) before I read this book.
It’s such a good book! Easily one of the best fantasy reads I’ve come across this year. It doesn’t come quite as close to the level of enjoyment I found in reading Laura Sebastian’s “Castles in Their Bones”, but it’s not that far behind (Don’t hit me with SJM’s latest release–I have it but haven’t had the time to touch that behemoth either!). I love the LGBTQ and disabled representation up front and center. I love the found family aspect (frankly, I’m loving this wave of found family in YA fiction overall that we’ve been seeing over the past few years, which I could probably write a whole essay on).
From the start I was really digging the none-too-subtle parallels between the set-up for this book and the events of the January 6th attempted insurrection here in the US. The notion of the “Truthbringers” taking advantage of poor and rural communities and their ignorance to plant and sow seeds of mistrust and doubt in order to grow a population ready and willing to commit treason? Taking advantage of their desperation in order to gain favor and garner a twisted form of trust and obligation in order to trap them into feeling like they needed to stay quiet and do what they’re told in order to stay in your good graces? Kemmerer pulled no punches with the allegory, and I’m glad for it. It was a slick move for a plot line. It drew me into the story with little effort and helped me to identify with the characters in a way nothing else would.
I love the way Kemmerer does her narrative prose and the way her characters recall things that are said. It’s not done in the typical narrative manner and it really stands out. I also love how a lot of the symbolism in her books is double-sided and much of the morality is gray. It’s messy, but it’s true. I like my books that way.
Thanks to NetGalley, Bloomsbury Children’s, and Bloomsbury YA for granting me early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review. ...more
Excuse me, but can I just sit here and swoon for a moment?
Okay, maybe more than a moment, because I adored this book. It was absolutely fabulous.
WasExcuse me, but can I just sit here and swoon for a moment?
Okay, maybe more than a moment, because I adored this book. It was absolutely fabulous.
Was it predictable? Yes. Was the worldbuilding robust or the magic system fascinating? Not really. But is this girl an absolute sucker for romantasy centered on political intrigues and secrets? Heck yes. Do I have a thing for competency in my main characters? Heck to the yes!
A Strange and Stubborn Endurance is definitely a character-driven romantasy, with a decent plot riding behind all of that lovely character development. Usually this would upset me, especially when a book is as long as this one is. I found, though, that I enjoyed every single page of this book and soaked it up like the first sunniest days after winter because of all the LGBTQ+ issues and the way Velasin (one of our MMCs) not only dealt with his own personal demons but also learned all about his new home and how he might fit in there.
Watching he and Caethari (our other MMC) first form a friendship out of something desperate and ineffable and letting it patiently evolve as the pair negotiate adventures (and misadventures), intrigues, sweet moments and sour, horrors, times of great pain, and so much more throughout the book is not only interesting but it’s moving. Their courtship is mostly one-sided, but it’s not an unwelcome one. They’re drawn together by circumstance but also by sheer chemistry.
It’s a romantic book first and a fantasy book second, but put it together and it’s just completely magical without even trying too hard. Foz Meadows wrote a fantastic story about love, family, and the dangers of reaching too far and too high.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Book Series/Fantasy/Romantasy/Fantasy Series/LGBTQ Fantasy/LGBTQ Romance/OwnVoices ...more
I'm not leaving a long review here, since I bought and read this in preparation to read book two in the series, "Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak".
It waI'm not leaving a long review here, since I bought and read this in preparation to read book two in the series, "Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak".
It was fun, but rambled and kind of ran off the rails in places. There was too large of a cast of characters with such diverse names I kept confusing who was who. And it's not the most accessible YA space opera for people who don't normally read books involving huge spaceships and alien tech. I found my eyes glazing over more than once.
But it was fun and inventive. I loved the diversity and the almost LeGuin-like devotion Anders has towards constantly being aware of the anthropological aspects of the writing.
If the first book in this gothic fantasy duology, “Lakesedge”, leaned into the romance and tragedy side of the genre, then “Forestfall” leaned heavilyIf the first book in this gothic fantasy duology, “Lakesedge”, leaned into the romance and tragedy side of the genre, then “Forestfall” leaned heavily into the darker and more violent side of it. The true golden thread between the two books is Lyndall Clipstone’s elegant and elegiac prose that is woven throughout the narrative like a beautiful trail of words between all the action and dialogue. Those lines shine among the most desperate of scenes, even when our characters are at their lowest and their futures seem the bleakest.
What I love so much about this duology is how Clipstone never pulls the punches on the pain and grief. There’s no pretending everything is going to be okay or that these characters aren’t going to be scarred for life. Bargains have been struck for things they can never get back and sacrifices have been made that have left them forever marked. Our main characters, Violeta and Rowan, exist in a liminal state, existentially: parts of their hearts and souls live both Above and Below, and that leaves them in a gray area the other characters don’t exist in. It’s great character development from the start of the first book, and the supporting characters also experience a good deal of growth by the time the book hits the final page.
While I greatly enjoyed the plot development between the two books, with its tinges of both “Beauty and the Beast” and variants on the myth of Hades and Persephone, I do have to pick a bit on some of the rather forced plot elements in this book; namely, the sisters. I felt like this whole subplot was rather shoehorned in, and it caused a little plot hole or two to sneak in. It wasn’t so annoying as to affect my enjoyment of the book too much, but after the rather Romantic touch of “Lakesedge”, if this book wanted to hit hard on the dark fantasy instead of fantasy romance side of the gothic fantasy genre, then it would have been nice for the book to have as tight of a plot as “Lakesedge” did.
Overall, Clipstone has written an outstanding fantasy duology that feels like a dark, gothic fairy tale, and I’m honestly here for it. I’m here for the love and the pain and the grief and the dark beauty of it all.
Thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, and Henry Holt & Co for granting me access to this title. ...more
‘“You said it yourself–if Sophie and her sisters hatch a plan, the stars themselves can’t stand in their way. Where, exactly, do you think they learne‘“You said it yourself–if Sophie and her sisters hatch a plan, the stars themselves can’t stand in their way. Where, exactly, do you think they learned that from?”’ - Leopold, from Stardust in Their Veins
I’m not in the habit of highlighting many lines in my first read-throughs of books. I want to enjoy the ride, you know? But I somehow knew this line wasn’t some throwaway line, and it ended up being the only line I notated so I could put it in my review because to me, this line sums up not only what went wrong in the first book, but it’s also what forges the bridge between the first and second book and it will be the through line from the second book and into the third and final book, but with a malicious and vengeful twist.
I know a lot of people were very upset with how the first book, Castles in Their Bones, ended, but I saw it as an inevitability, consistent with Sophronia’s character, and I knew both Daphne and Beatriz would need a strong catalyst to throw the rest of the story into motion. So I’m going to leave that issue there, because I want to talk about this book and not rehash the previous book.
Since we’re missing Sophronia from this book but these books are meant to be told from three POVs, this book is told from Daphne, Beatriz, and Violie’s (Sophronia’s maid and former spy for her mother in the previous book) POVs. Exactly why Violie was chosen isn’t truly vitally important until very late in the book, but it was still a wise choice, because Violie is truly a trained spy who knows how to play every role in a castle, from a lowly scullery maid to a princess. She was trained in much the same ways the princesses were, even though she came from a totally different way of life. That makes her indispensable to both Daphne and Beatriz, along with the importance of her keeping the vow she gave to Sophronia to keep Leopold safe.
Now, all told, I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the first book, but that’s not unusual with me and second books in trilogies. It’s a thing with me. There was a lot of ground to cover in this book. There were a lot of new characters to introduce and some characters who needed to exit stage left. There were plot lines to wrap up, plot lines to hustle along, and plot lines to introduce. There were matters that needed to be cleared up, matters that needed to be muddied, and matters that needed to be eliminated. It’s not easy to write a second book in a trilogy, because you’re in the middle of a chess game. And that’s especially true with this trilogy, where the Queen and the Princesses are all expert players. It doesn’t leave a lot of time for anything but plot, plot, and more plot, so worldbuilding, charm, magic, and any sort of romance seems to take a huge step back. In the first book, Sophronia and Beatriz got any and all of those things. In this book, Daphne has finally let her shell crack enough to let some people in to find a little friendship and romance in, and she’s starting to come to love and respect Friv and its people. Granted, she’s still a prickly pear, but once she lets the loss of Sophronia finally hit her and she has some important conversations she comes to realize that her mother may be wrong, and it kind of spins her world around.
The thing I love about Laura Sebastian–and have always loved about her–is her ability to write redemptive characters of all shapes and sizes. Yeah, your maid may have been a spy for your mother, but once she realizes your mom is wrong and explains herself, they aren’t stuck in purgatory. They can work for forgiveness. They may have planned to once kill you, but they decided not to, and they’re sorry and that’s what’s important. Are there people unworthy or redemption in Sebastian’s books? Yes, but there are also completely innocent people who are proud to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. Sebastian’s books are all about balance. 256 shades of grey, and Laura Sebastian has a shade for every single character.
It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world, and Laura Sebastian wrote it. And I gladly read it. And you should read it too.
I was provided a copy of this book by NetGalley and the author. All views and opinions expressed in this review are my own. Thank you.
File Under: YA Fantasy/YA Fantasy Romance/Fantasy Series/Coming of Age/Young Adult/Fantasy/Fantasy Romance ...more
What a book! Wow. I was wary at first to read this, because I’ve gotten so tired of anything related to Beauty and the Beast retellings, but I am almoWhat a book! Wow. I was wary at first to read this, because I’ve gotten so tired of anything related to Beauty and the Beast retellings, but I am almost always drawn to anything that even slightly sounds related to Hades and Persephone (yeah, I know, it’s a fine line between the two sometimes, but whatever). But I really loved this book overall.
The thing is, I loved Warwick’s writing style more than anything. It’s very atmospheric and descriptive, without ever crossing over into the dreaded realm of purple prose. It’s enough for me to know what color a dress is and that it’s embroidered–I don’t need to know what the collar style is, exactly how the sleeves are designed, what kind of waistline it has, what the embroidery is on it… you get the idea. I don’t need to know every single detail of the room, but Warwick manages to give you just enough of an outline that the reader can easily sketch the rest out for themselves without issue, and that’s such a breath of fresh air from being told step-by-step what the heroine’s dress looks like!
The supporting characters were a joy, too. Forgetful Thyamine, steady Orla, the loyal soldiers… They are all given just enough time on the page and just enough voice I can’t imagine this book without them (although Thyamine is my favorite).
The spice is higher than ACOTAR. I don’t know if it’s higher than FBAA because I haven’t read that series. As for the vibe? It’s definitely along the lines of ACOTAR (with more angst) or even “These Hollow Vows” (with less spice).
I’ll be looking forward to the rest of this series! ...more
You know, for about the first 40% or so of this book I was fully prepared to rate this book 4-5 stars. I was really digging Real Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars
You know, for about the first 40% or so of this book I was fully prepared to rate this book 4-5 stars. I was really digging the premise, the magic system, and the characters (even though there are so many). I was even digging the way Rory Power decided to just arbitrarily mish-mash all sorts of classical civilizations, cultures, and languages together to create a nice, melodious melange patchwork of countries (even if the political science, international relations, and economic systems were not explained as well as I’d like). I was just so impressed with the magic system! It was something I hadn’t read about in a book before and I was deeply intrigued. I only wish I had gotten to see a little more of that at work, too. But… this book isn’t about the powers as much as it is the politics.
Explaining too much about the plot of this book would end up turning everything into one huge spoiler, but I can say this: the first 40% or so of this book had me absolutely intrigued, but then it just started to drag. It was like the book knew what directions it needed to go in but was kind of treading water trying to figure out exactly how to get there. Meanwhile, depending on what kind of reader you are, you’re putting puzzle pieces into place faster than the characters are, but not necessarily in a bad way.
I also didn’t know this was the first book of a series. I thought this was a standalone, so I was frustrated when I got into the last quarter of the book and was only seeing escalation in plot happening. It would’ve been nice to know, starting out, that this wasn’t a standalone.
A lot of the plot structure, language, and morally grey characterizations reminded me of Leigh Bardugo (Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom era), after a fashion; but only just in that manner Bardugo has of trying to keep you guessing and that particular flair for straightforward and frank dialogue she can have from time to time.
All in all, I am interested enough to read the next one, but unless you want to invest yourself in another series right now, I’d hold off.
Thanks to NetGalley, Random House - Ballantine, and Del Rey for early access to this copy in exchange for a fair and honest review. ...more
It’s not easy to write a book, and it’s even harder to write a series of them and sell them. For that alone, this book deserves two stars, because it It’s not easy to write a book, and it’s even harder to write a series of them and sell them. For that alone, this book deserves two stars, because it must have a fanbase and an audience waiting out there for it to be released so they can read it.
That being said: Two stars is all this book will receive from me, because I otherwise found a great many flaws in the book that made it wholly unenjoyable for me to read.
I congratulate Richard Roberts on the publication of this latest book in his series....more
I’m sorry, but can I be frank? This book is a mess. It’s a melange of great ideas and quality ingredients but it’s like the chef had no idea how to coI’m sorry, but can I be frank? This book is a mess. It’s a melange of great ideas and quality ingredients but it’s like the chef had no idea how to cook whatever dish they set out to cook.
All sorts of LGBTQIA+ representation? Check. Knowing exactly how to add it in, how to handle it, and when to stop beating your readers over the head with the metaphors and allegories? Not so much.
Gentrification, class divide, and socioeconomic commentary? Got it! Only… we’re gonna add in a whole bunch of nebulous conspiracy theory stuff to it! Just so it doesn’t feel the same as every other book with the same beats.
Corrupt police forces and police violence targeting members of marginalized communities… but add “monsters” into the equation? Sure. Let’s drive that metaphor into the ground too.
Most of all… let’s just use this whole book to rely on coincidence and the notion of fate to keep two of the most important characters in the book from meeting until just about the very end, leaving a reader like me wondering why I even started this book and why I didn’t just stop reading at 55% when I first contemplated DNFing it. Frankly, I’m proud of me for finishing it.
I don’t recommend it, and I don’t think I’ll touch the second half of the duology. I’m sorry, but Szabo can and has done better.
Thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan Children’s, and FSG for granting me early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review, Per personal policy this review will not appear on any social media or bookseller website so as not to affect book sales in any negative manner. ...more
I’m not going to deny the beauty of this book, because it is a beautiful, magical book. It’s a fairy tale in the truest sense of the word (not surprisI’m not going to deny the beauty of this book, because it is a beautiful, magical book. It’s a fairy tale in the truest sense of the word (not surprising, since the Chinese were the first to put what would become the story we know as “Cinderella” into the written record before any other civilization). But beauty alone can’t save what is, in all other ways, a pretty straightforward and lackluster book.
This book had uneven pacing that left me very engaged at times, and then so bored I dozed off at others. At times I was invested in the outcome and at others I just wished it was over. These are signs of what I know to be uneven pacing, likely brought on by my genuine opinion that this book really could’ve been about 50-75 pages shorter and still told the same story.
I’m not saying that other people can’t enjoy this book. I know a great many people have read this book and loved it. I just couldn’t lock it in and fully engage. I’ll be looking forward to the other half of this duology now, just because I’ll want to complete the mission, but once I do I don’t think I’ll look back. ...more
First line: “Let me state one thing up front: I wasn’t trying to start a cult.”
Right there and then, I remember exactly why Little Thieves captivated First line: “Let me state one thing up front: I wasn’t trying to start a cult.”
Right there and then, I remember exactly why Little Thieves captivated me so much last year and how brilliant of a writer Margaret Owen is. You can almost see Vanja, our protagonist, cringing with slight embarrassment and shrugging in a way that can only convey a feeling of, “Oops?”
Not only is that first sentence one hell of a hook, but later on in the book, Owen manages to sneak in a well-known Backstreet Boys lyric as the start of a poem, and I laughed even as my heart grew three sizes bigger in soppy adoration. Owen knows her audience and knows that even though not all of them may get the joke, the ones who would get the joke would be overjoyed by it.
The second novel in a trilogy is notoriously difficult to get right. There are so many that fail and fail spectacularly (not naming any because that’s just plain rude). Owen knocked this one out of the park, though, and she made it look easy as pie. In some ways, it was better than Little Thieves, and I didn’t even know that was possible. Painted Devils is more cathartic, for sure, and definitely more character-driven. There’s humor a-plenty, and a great deal of expanding on the excellent worldbuilding started in Little Thieves.
Not only does this book deal in false prophets and revealing truths, but it also deals with confronting your inner demons and the negative voices inside you, whispering their nasty filth in your ear and holding you back from being all that you can and should be. It also has a lot to say about the arbitrary scales of justice and sacrifice: How much good do you have to do to outweigh the bad? Is there enough? Is the order of the land so rigid that too many cases of gray injustice fall through the cracks? What do you do about those cases and those people? Just let them suffer? Can two lovers on two sides of the law be together or is that love doomed? Can you ever truly wash away the many ways you feel tainted by time and crime?
Where Margaret Owen shines the brightest is in her dialogue. It’s truly the brightest part of her novels. The witty banter, the heartfelt and intimate conversations, the high voltage arguments, the sly negotiations and scams, the genuine humor, the squirm of shame, the discomfort in navigating romance, the deep scars of fear, the high that comes with triumph, and the deep chill of horror. None of Owen’s dialogue feels contrived or disingenuous. Every conversation feels appropriate and real, relevant and well-written.
Speaking of relevant and well-written: This book is a fierce page-turner. If you pick this up, be prepared to settle down and ignore everything else for however long it takes to read it. It took me around eight hours to finish this, and I could hardly bear to set it down in all that time. I skipped my afternoon nap to keep reading, people, and I love naps. I just wanted to keep reading, because I needed to see how Vanja was going to get out of accidentally starting a cult. Because of course Vanja accidentally started a cult.
Just pick it up and you’ll see. If you haven’t read Little Thieves yet, pick that up first, and then pick this up. And then we’ll all collectively wait with baited breath for the third book and act like patience is our strong suit when we all know it’s not.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Read/Fantasy Series/Book Series/Coming of Age/Dark Fantasy/Epic Fantasy/Fantasy Romance/YA Book Series/YA Fantasy/YA Fantasy Romance/YA Fiction ...more
Belladonna made it into my top 10 books of 2022, so of course I had Foxglove preordered as soon as it was posted. Sadly, I didn’t get a chance to readBelladonna made it into my top 10 books of 2022, so of course I had Foxglove preordered as soon as it was posted. Sadly, I didn’t get a chance to read it until now. Even though I enjoyed it a great deal, I didn’t find myself loving it quite as much as I did Belladonna.
Reading Belladonna felt like being swept away by a lush, gothic tide of shadow and velvet into a story of death and romance that could’ve been blessed by Emily Dickinson herself. Reading Foxglove felt like trying to read two separate books that kept interrupting one another. It’s not that either book was disinteresting or displeasing–it’s just that I would’ve rather read one story first and not been interrupted and then continued with the next than have switched between one and the other.
This seems to be a complaint shared by others, that the Blythe POV chapters keep getting in the way of the story of Signa and Death and that’s what we all signed up to read. Trust me, that’s what I signed up to read too. That’s what’s so frustrating: There seems to have been no other way to have told this story than the way Grace wrote it, but at the same time I just wanted to read the other part of Signa and Death’s story. It almost feels like there needn’t be chapters told from Blythe’s POV at all if there weren’t going to be a book about Blythe coming up in 2024. In my mind, it makes me wonder if somewhere there exists a draft of this story where the Blythe POV doesn’t exist at all and Foxglove ends differently.
These questions made enjoying the book as a whole a difficult proposition. What saves the book from falling further is Adalyn Grace’s impeccable prose, magnificent dialogue, incredible characters, and sublime imagery. The lady knows her craft, and we’re the privileged ones who get to read it.
All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: Book Series/Fantasy/Romantasy/Fantasy Series/Gothic Fiction/YA Fantasy/YA Romantasy ...more
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