Given

 

Given by Nandi Taylor

I have always been a sucker for books about dragons. This book promises dragons, magic, POC, and some romance. ...but the delivery is a little.... mixed.

An amazon summary, "As a princess of the Moonrise Isles and one of its fiercest warriors, Yenni has always put duty before her own desires. When her father falls gravely ill, she knows she must find the cure and sets out on an arduous journey that takes her to a magical academy in the far reaches of the Empire of Cresh.

There is no room for failure, but Yenni struggles to learn the strange magic of Cresh as a cure continues to evade her. And complicating matters is Weysh, a dragon shifter who says Yenni is his Given―his one true partner ordained by destiny. As a dragon, Weysh is an ally, both in matters of magic and friendship. As a man, he is a beautiful and infuriating distraction.

With her father’s life hanging in the balance and her feelings for Weysh deepening, Yenni realizes her greatest challenge has just begun―save her people, while also following her heart." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

Yenni is a princess of the Moonrise Isles and needs to go to the Empire of Cresh to find a cure for her father's ailment. She asks to go on a Orire N'jem; a tradition where princes or princesses may make journeys to faraway lands in search of creatures, plants, or a sacred place with a dedication to the Sha (the Sha being their deities). If they can win the favor of the Sha, they may ask for a boon. An Orire N'jem is a year long. (As a complete sidenote, I want to say the Orire N'jem is also probably a sacrifice in some way to just leave their lands since there are a TON of implications throughout the rest of the book about the importance of royalty to the Isles. It's just never pointed out directly.) Yenni travels to the Empire of Cresh where she hopes to study a different form of magic to gain understanding to heal her father. Yenni is nearly a master of the runes; the runes are drawn with a paint/dye mixture and songs are sung as they are painted onto the body. The tune and concentration of the rune masters thoughts make it more powerful and effective at what it's supposed to do (I think).

Once Yenni is in the Empire of Cresh, no one knows she's a princess. She keeps her identity secret to reduce the political battles, but to also keep the other tribes of the isles at bay. Weysh, on the other hand, is a dragon. A dragon who sniffs out Yenni and immediately determines he is her Given; a true partner ordained by his own god. Yenni is not having anything to do with Weysh. There is a clash of cultures and what respect looks like for the both of them, but there is also so much more in the sense of clashing personalities as well. They both have a lot of growing to do in their own right.

That's enough summary.

So something that drove me nuts about this book, is that there is a side character, Diedre, who is in the empire of cresh, whose parents don't approve of rune magic, and who also speaks in a more familiar dialect to Yenni.Which, would be all fine and good, if this character was also part of an LGBTQIA+ representation. Yenni never has dialogue that is similar in nuances to Diedre even though in theory, the would have very similar dialects. I look for consistency in representation, and honestly, Diedre came across as an almost characterture of Yenni in a lot of ways. It was also confusing to basically have everyone refer to Yenni as a women of the Moonrise Isles... but it wasn't clear if that was based on she dressed (there was very limited descriptions of what clothing people were wearing) or her general biological features. Sometimes it seemed like only the runes drawn on her skin gave her away? But rune magic seemed to be common even if it wasn't well studied? I am confusion.

The story also suffered from introducing too many characters with very varied backgrounds, as none of them were really given the space or time to breathe. They just kind of felt like here is a name, here is a description, and here are some bullet point facts to remember about them. Ready? Go.

The world building was also pretty lacking. There was never any time spent on making sure the difference between the Moonrise Isles and the Empire of Cresh was really understood. Like, the Moonrise Isles relied entirely on their name for you to know they are islands. I assume the Empire of Cresh is on some sort of mainland thing? But again, I don't know.

I thought the styles of magic were cool, but, there were also a lot of weirdly specific details about the differences between the two with almost no time spent on the practice of magic. I learned more about dragon fighting and techniques than anything else.

The dragons. The dragons didn't make a lot of sense to me. It seemed to be a neat feature rather than a fully integrated concept. Like yes, dragons can shape shift into people. Each dragon can only sire one dragon. A dragons clothes go into some other space when they transform. Some dragons are from different places so they may be a water dragon instead of a fire dragon. ....and that's about it.

There's going to be a sequel to this book, based on how it ended, but I don't think I'll be reading it.

Happy reading!

Wilder Girls

 

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

This kept popping up on my amazon suggested reads all the time, regardless of what I was searching or looking for. So I went, FINE AMAZON, I'LL BUY IT. I'LL READ IT. GEEZ.

And I did. And now here we are.

An amazon summary, "It's been eighteen months since the Raxter School for Girls was put under quarantine. Since the Tox hit and pulled Hetty's life out from under her.

It started slow. First the teachers died one by one. Then it began to infect the students, turning their bodies strange and foreign. Now, cut off from the rest of the world and left to fend for themselves on their island home, the girls don't dare wander outside the school's fence, where the Tox has made the woods wild and dangerous. They wait for the cure they were promised as the Tox seeps into everything.

But when Byatt goes missing, Hetty will do anything to find her, even if it means breaking quarantine and braving the horrors that lie beyond the fence. And when she does, Hetty learns that there's more to their story, to their life at Raxter, than she could have ever thought true." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

This is just a really weird book to talk about. The setup is that Raxter School for Girls is a boarding school on an island, and basically the only thing on the island. Over the years, the island has gone through some minor climate changes, and it's noticeable in some of the creatures and fauna. But, eighteen months ago, the school was put into quarantine as the children and teachers started to change. Teachers have started to die off, the students become more disfigured with each unnatural change to their body. They manage to break up their life into teams and to fortify the school against the wildlife of the island.

They're waiting for a cure. ...but is a cure coming?

I thought the pacing of this book was pretty excellent as things were revealed in non-overwhelming ways, and scenarios played out in ways that even the absolute chaos of a body transformation was going on, it was done in a way that it could be understood.

The relationship building was kind of all over the place, as the dynamics between the characters had almost gone a little feral. It was kind of a hard book to read as each page lent itself to another gloomy and kind of dismal happenstance. It's also hard to talk about the imagery of the book, since a lot of it was like each aspect of regular stuff was being warped or twisted by nature.

It was such a creepy read with all of these twists and turns and motivation shenanigans. The depressive atmosphere too made sense, but also put the icing on the cake so to speak.

I want to say it also tried to put forth this debate of if the needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few. But it wasn't really successful. The book kind of does this fade off into the tide (sunset, no one is drowning, yet) so there isn't a conclusive ending.

I'm kind of at odds with how I feel about this. On one hand, it is an isolated part of the world that goes through devastation and kind of paints out that experience with some LGBTQIA+ spice thrown in. On the other hand, it's not asking any questions or giving a resolution to situations; kind of like a long drawn out, what if? situation. Not usually my cup of tea either.

Spooky, no resolution, what if, story. Hmm.

Happy reading!

Illusive

 

Illusive by Emily Lloyd-Jones

I impulse bought this book and it's sequel, Deceptive, because I really enjoyed Emily Lloyd-Jones' book THE HEARTS WE SOLD. But, if you read the labels, I marked this book as unreadable.

I even did the thing that I never do, which is to skip ahead a few pages to see if that helped.... and then I opened the book to random spot further along the line... and I just couldn't read it. I don't know. Random moment of defective reading in this pandemic? You betcha.

Anyways, here's the amazon summary so you can understand why I was intrigued, "When the deadly MK virus swept across the planet, a vaccine was created to stop the epidemic, but it came with some unexpected side effects. A small percentage of the population developed superhero-like powers, and Americans suffering from these so-called adverse effects were given an ultimatum: Serve the country or be declared a traitor.

Some people chose a third option: live a life of crime.

Seventeen-year-old Ciere Giba has the handy ability to change her appearance at will. She's what's known as an illusionist. She's also a thief. After crossing a gang of mobsters, Ciere must team up with a group of fellow super powered criminals on a job that most would have considered impossible: a hunt for the formula that gave them their abilities. It was supposedly destroyed years ago--but what if it wasn't?

Government agents are hot on their trail, and the lines between good and bad, us and them, and freedom and entrapment are blurred as Ciere and the rest of her crew become embroiled in a deadly race that could cost them their lives." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

 So, since I didn't read the whole book, I will just talk about to the point where I remember and why I was frustrated. So Ciere is a criminal who works with other criminals to pull off larger heists so they can survive the world. She has the ability to disguise herself. Ciere is accosted by essentially a mob, in a very crowded area who has noticed she used her ability. Ciere and her companion Daniel, are roped in by the mobsters to essentially do a job for them.

And I'm just going to stop because I'm already annoyed.

The premise of the book is that a deadly virus swept across the planet, and an epidemic has come and gone.... but there are still people just being in super crowded areas with each other? I know we, unfortunately have gone through a pandemic now in our lifetime, and are currently still in the process, and the book was written back in 2015.... but it just feels eerily wrong.

The dialogue of this book comes across as long really terrible old mobster movie dialogue. Like, how you would think people would talk versus how they actually talk. There's just a lot of exposition or unnecessary elements discussed by the characters.

It's also written from a third person perspective, so you get to jump around into the different characters heads... and their abilities, but the downfall is that no one sounds unique enough to really do that. Everyone has the same tone and nearly same thought process for the situations they're presented with.

So I gave up. This will be going back to the bookstore. Still going to try to read more by Emily Lloyd-Jones though, love some of their other work.

Happy reading!

Greythorne

 

Greythorne by Crystal Smith

This is the sequel to BLOODLEAF which I previously reviewed (just click the word).

So, it's been quite a process to read this book and finish it. It's currently the 2020 pandemic of COVID-19, and life it just rough. It took me a couple months to finish this after I received it in September. I also thought this was the final book in the series, but like, that was entirely silly of me. I just looked it up on Amazon, book 2 of 3. Sun of a onion!

I was also reminded by an email not too long ago that I even have a book blog, which I haven't updated since February. Again, it's a pandemic. Just remaining functional throughout the ordeal has been an achievement in itself. Remember that: The world has been CRAZY lately, so just take extra time to give yourself the moments to read books over months instead of days. It's all good. A lot of rules are arbitrary and self-imposed/maintained because someone said something one time and it went everywhere. Run the dishwasher twice.

....anyways.

So, admittedly, it has been roughly two years and many books/moments inbetween the last book and this book. If I hadn't been randomly staring at book 1, Bloodleaf, on my bookshelf randomly one day, we wouldn't be here.

A fun brief recap of what I recall from book one (this is after reading book 2, without looking anything up, including my previous review): There's a lady who is a blood mage, which is a very bad thing according to some people who have power within the world, the throne is up for grabs but should go to her baby brother, she needs to protect her baby brother. There's a soldier dude and some kind of monk who bonded their lives to hers (and maybe her mom's?) for extra protection since she needs to live... for plot reasons probably. Lady sets off to another place to find protection from the organization that hates blood mages, while also not really knowing how to blood mage, sometimes there's a different language involved for spells. They get there, she dabbles about the area to see what is what, tries to help/persuade area to do better??? Save her kingdom??? Help her brother??? Falls in love with man who is important. He also loves her (?). Someone important dies?????? Book ends.

.....so based on that, I still wanted to read book 2 because there was something about the lady character that stuck with me. Obligatory amazon summary, "Princess Aurelia’s life is upended when the kingdom she thought she saved falls to ruin, a loved one is tragically killed in a shipwreck, and her home country turns against her. With no place left to call her own, Aurelia returns to Greythorne Manor—her best friend’s family mansion—only to find that Greythorne has sinister secrets of its own. With enemies closing in on all sides, Aurelia is caught in a mad fight to protect the only people she has left—her family. In her darkest moments, when all seems grim, will Aurelia find a spark of hope from a love she thought long lost? " AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

 Alright, so here's what shakes out in the first third of the book.

Turns out the lady's name is Aurelia, and she is currently staying at a pub/inn swindling people. She has a tiny broom closet of a room (which is pointed out a LOT), she plays a game of cards (which has a funny name, betwixt and between or something), and gets along famously with the staff at the pub/inn which is known as the Quiet Canary. Aurelia is trying to save up money to get on someone's boat, drinking something called Sombersweet wine (which induces visions of something that looks like her talking to her in mirrors). She ends up sneaking in to her brother's coronation at Greythorne manor (even though she didn't want to go). People find out she's there after lots of historical details are given about Greythorne manor. BUT, who should be in attendance at her brother's coronation? WHY THE PEOPLE WHO WANT TO KILL THE BLOOD MAGES OF COURSE! They're called the Tribunal(? - I am refusing to look things up for my amusement now) and man, do they ever want the princess Aurelia dead. So then she runs away to the Quiet Canary, but somewhere in there she picked up Zan, who was her love interest last book, and he allegedly died I guess, but surprise, he's still alive and relevant! But also, they engage in some bedsheet antics, and he accidentally kills her! Whoops! But, remember there's a blood pact from book one, so actually the monk man (Simon) dies instead! Dun dun dunnnnnn It turns out that if she touches him, his very being starts just stealing her soul.... for plot reasons. They're off to figure out some kind of magic thing in the woods because plot!

That's about a third of the way through the book. The rest of this is spoilers because I want to leave something here for my future self to find.

Aurelia goes to the woods with Kellan (soldier man who also is blood pact with her). They have Onal with them (who is like the maid/caretaker to Aurelia when she was growing up). It turns out, Onal is the sister of some guardian who lives in the woods who has lost their bell. They are a guardian between the other world, the Gray, and this world. However, somehow Aurelia has been dreaming in the gray, and the protector is like WHATTT and she can also turn into a fox and do any number of neat spells which we don't get to see much of. So anyways, Onal and foxladyprotectorthing argue in a sisterly manner, but it turns out they had an older sister who DIED under mysterious circumstances, maybe with a man they rescued one day. Backstory about them, things, but to be a TRUE protector, you need to wield THE BELL. The Bell has been lost since the older sister was murdered though and her lover/rescued man thing disappeared. So they got to find the bell. Aurelia goes on a spirit vision quest in the gray. yay.

They go on quest for Bell which is full of random hijinks because the people who hate blood mages have been using different forms of magic to make vessels. They kill people/animals, and then take the soul stuff of dead people and put it in the body to reanimate it with the new soul. ....so yeah. They're inconsistently problematic.

There's also another conqueror dude, who through various things, was left to die? And Aurelia left him to die after blowing a ship in a way we've never seen her use magic before? And this is also what kills Onal?

At some point we lost Kellan and Zan, but like, yeah whatever.

At the end, Aurelia marches on Greythorne, which is where she believes the BELL to be. The people who hate Blood Mages have a bunch of reanimated dead things and she basically like EXTINGUISHES THEM all at once with very powerful magic... that seems to have very little impact on her? Where before she's like, ugh, I cast a spell, I'm very aware of how much power I've used -woe is meeee-.

Aurelia proceeds to go into Greythorne, has expositional conversation with person who hates Blood Mages, figures out that particular person is actually Onal's daughter because of a piece of clothing she's wearing with four buttons shaped like LILLIES. Oh, Zan is also there because he's been tormented or something in order to make a portal to get a goddess that Onal's daughter wants to be the vessel for. Kellan is there at some point with fox lady? But his hand gets chopped off by Aurelia to release him from blood pact in order to save his life. She makes a point to think about how she's ending his current lifestyle of being a brilliant guard, etc, but still is like chop chop saving your life.... which, I want to know why she didn't just chop her own hand off instead....whatever. So she runs around to find the bell, and ends up finding it in the bell tower with onal's daughter who has given her mortal wound. BUT YOU KNOW, TIME FOR BELL MAGIC. So the Bell lets the wielder travel into the Gray with their body and soul. Aurelia goes on another vision quest, but this time, she goes to Simon (monk blood pact man) before he died in time and had him sever her soul from her body and keep it safe. Then she prances around through time with Bell powers to see other people and give them key items (like a vial of her blood to her brother Conrad, the King, and calls in some favor with the conqueror on the sinking ship) before letting actual time continue to play out her fight with onal's daughter. EXCEPT, she uses the BELL and her own bloodline (since spoilers, turns out she's actually the granddaughter of Onal through her father), and makes Onal's daughter the next guardian of the forest spirit realm or something. Which, kicks the bad goddess out of Onal's daughter and makes her magical (this is unclear). With her last strength or something, Aurelia goes to Zan and is like KISSY KISS and gives him what's left of her life as she dies.... but she whispers to him, "Come Find ME!"

Book ends. But, there's an epilogue which implies that Zan had people help him find her soul where Simon hid it? Which is why I thought this was the end. BUT NO, there is a BOOK THREE.

....so anyways. If you have managed to stick around at this point, I'm upset with the book, but I still finished it, and I will read book three but probably out of anger more than anything. I guess there is still some aspect of kingdom saving to be done on some level.

Happy reading!

Bloom

 

Bloom by Kenneth Oppel

I normally don't tend to go for spooky books, but this had science fiction mystery and terraforming and general weirdness going on that I was like FINE. LETS DO IT.

An amazon summary, "The invasion begins--but not as you'd expect. It begins with rain. Rain that carries seeds. Seeds that sprout--overnight, everywhere. These new plants take over crop fields, twine up houses, and burrow below streets. They bloom--and release toxic pollens. They bloom--and form Venus flytrap-like pods that swallow animals and people. They bloom--everywhere, unstoppable.

Or are they? Three kids on a remote island seem immune to the toxic plants. Anaya, Petra, Seth. They each have strange allergies--and yet not to these plants. What's their secret? Can they somehow be the key to beating back this invasion? They'd better figure it out fast, because it's starting to rain again...." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

Anaya, Petra, and Seth all have strange allergies; like being allergic to every pollen ever, water, and stuff of that nature. There is a strange rainfall one day and they all react pretty well to it despite their allergies. ...until the strange plants start showing up... and eating people. Pretty soon it's a race for survival as all the teenagers start developing strange things on their bodies... like fur, scales, or feathers. Dun dun dunnnnn

Honestly, that's enough summary.

This book was a very fast read because the characters were so boring and flat. They all had strong symptoms of, "I'm a teenager! Puberty is hard! Where are my parents who I begrudgingly love?" Seth was the only one who happened to be in foster care, but even that wasn't used to paint his situation, it was used as a plot device. Poo poo, I say, poo poo.

The most interesting part was to read about the Earth slowly being invaded by these plants, and everyone dying from the pollen they were releasing, and the world just going to crap. It was kind of hilarious to read about the military being a mess, as well as the scientists being a mess. It kind of wound up into this big like Scooby Doo sense of like, "Zoinks! I hope people stop dying so we can solve this mystery!"

It was fun? It just wasn't anything more than that.

Happy reading!