Sky in the Deep

Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young

I was hooked by the book seeming to be about a viking kind of setting, back in the day, based on the book description/title. Battles, war, traditions, lots of shouted things, I don't know, it looked liked a good time.

An amazon summary, where, I removed all the praise at the end because the length of the summary was out of control otherwise. Feel free to check out the full deal on the amazon website, "A 2018 Most Anticipated Young Adult book that is part Wonder Woman, part Vikings―and all heart.

OND ELDR. BREATHE FIRE.

Raised to be a warrior, seventeen-year-old Eelyn fights alongside her Aska clansmen in an ancient, rivalry against the Riki clan. Her life is brutal but simple: fight and survive. Until the day she sees the impossible on the battlefield―her brother, fighting with the enemy―the brother she watched die five years ago.

Faced with her brother's betrayal, she must survive the winter in the mountains with the Riki, in a village where every neighbor is an enemy, every battle scar possibly one she delivered. But when the Riki village is raided by a ruthless clan thought to be a legend, Eelyn is even more desperate to get back to her beloved family.

She is given no choice but to trust Fiske, her brother’s friend, who sees her as a threat. They must do the impossible: unite the clans to fight together, or risk being slaughtered one by one. Driven by a love for her clan and her growing love for Fiske, Eelyn must confront her own definition of loyalty and family while daring to put her faith in the people she’s spent her life hating." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE 

The amazon summary does a really good job of laying out the summary. A few things I have to add; honor is a BIG DEAL, there is a lot of emphasis on tradition, there is also a lot of emphasis on the gods of their world, and the fight scenes in this book have an intense realism about them.

I enjoyed how the reason of why the clans fight was slowly revealed after we already saw them engage in a battle.

I really liked the world building and how they established the tone of the book. There seemed to be a really good balance between the action of the book and the regular life stuff, like chores.

I know this book just released, but I want to dive into spoiler land just a little bit. Like stick my toe in it.

So don't read any further if you don't want any spoilers. Cool, cool.

...the story went a little Beauty & the Beast. Eelyn is captured and taken away from her people, but Fiske manages to save her by shooting an arrow in her shoulder (so she can't escape or be shot in a more damaging place). He also buys her to be his dyr (which is basically a slave) in order to save her from another member of the Riska clan. This also serves to reunite her with her brother Iri. Really, Fiske seems to be doing it all for Iri... but the story kind of spins into, Fiske did it because he loves her. It was kind of, I don't know, too played out? Kind of like a Carly Rae Jepson song, "Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy, but I totally captured you in battle, so love me maybe". ...I have no regrets.

I also don't think there's a sequel, I suspect this is just a stand alone book. I'm super cool with that.

Overall, I did really like the book. Despite my reservations about the romance, I liked this enough to make it a recommended book due to all of it's other fantastic features.

Plus, I really just want more viking like books in the young adult world. Never forget THE LOST SUN, which is more Norse mythology but has beserkers, and I don't care! Shameless plug for books I still love! WHOO!

Happy reading!

Ash Princess

Ash Princess by Laura Sebastian

I kind of agree with the amazon summary. If you like Victoria Aveyard's series beginning with Glass Sword, you'll probably liked this book. Heck, that's why I originally picked up the book. I was looking for my crazy kingdom strife oppressed people some magical elements kind of storyline fix. ...I'm not going to apologize for that sentence. HEH HEH HEHHHHHHH

Anywho, an amazon summary, ""Made for fans of Victoria Aveyard and Sabaa Tahir" (Bustle), Ash Princess is an epic new fantasy about a throne cruelly stolen and a girl who must fight to take it back for her people.

Theodosia was six when her country was invaded and her mother, the Fire Queen, was murdered before her eyes. On that day, the Kaiser took Theodosia's family, her land, and her name. Theo was crowned Ash Princess--a title of shame to bear in her new life as a prisoner.
For ten years Theo has been a captive in her own palace. She's endured the relentless abuse and ridicule of the Kaiser and his court. She is powerless, surviving in her new world only by burying the girl she was deep inside.
Then, one night, the Kaiser forces her to do the unthinkable. With blood on her hands and all hope of reclaiming her throne lost, she realizes that surviving is no longer enough. But she does have a weapon: her mind is sharper than any sword. And power isn't always won on the battlefield.
For ten years, the Ash Princess has seen her land pillaged and her people enslaved. That all ends here.
"Sure to be one of the summer's most talked about YAs. . . . A darkly enchanting page-turner you won't be able to put down." -Bustle" AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

The Kaiser overthrew the country, murdered her mother, imprisoned her people, and has now trapped her inside the castle she was born to be cruelly abused day in and day out. She is the example to her people of the Kaiser's unyielding will. Theodosia (from now on, I will refer to as Theo because what is that full first name) still maintains hope that someone from her mother's personal guard will save her someday, and clings to that hope. The Kaiser holds her accountable for any moves of the rebels, and makes an example of her by whipping her, or, well lots of humiliation in front of the court.

There's a pivotal moment in the beginning of the book, that I'm going to agree with the amazon summary and not go into detail about. It's a very emotional, kind of call to arms moment. It basically inspires Theo to take down the Kaiser once and for all, from the inside.

...that's enough summary.

At first I was reluctant to like Theo, but the more I read, the more I could see her resolve, the more I could see how she kept her wits about her (for the most part), and I ended up liking her a lot more in the end.

There was a lot to like about this book from the world building, character development, and kind of unfolding of the plot.

There was also a few things I hope get some more page time for the sequel; like more about how the magic functions. It's very fascinating, and I suspect the author withheld sharing all the mechanics of the magic to give some sort of surprise in the sequel.

But I also hope the (surprise, not surprise) love triangle gets less page time in the next book. I think these romances felt a little more realistic within the scope and environment of the book, but I would be SUPER OKAY with her just being like SCREW ROMANCE, I HAVE A KINGDOM TO SAVE. That's the kind of heroine I really want to see in books as much as possible. But I'll settle for everything else about the book being pretty stellar.

It was definitely a "can't stop until you finish reading" kind of book, which led to a late night...but it was worth it. I'm excited for the sequel.

I will admit, it's definitely the kind of story I've read before, it's just a different setting/environment, kind of. But I don't have any shame, still liked it, still going to read the sequel, no shame in my book game. :P

Happy reading!

The Traitor's Game

The Traitor's Game by Jennifer A. Nielsen

I've previously read and reviewed books by Jennifer A. Nielsen. I'll only link one to put you on the right track: THE SHADOW THRONE. It's the third one in the series, but ...as per usual, I link everything. You'll be fine to choose your own adventure.

Even though this is now a published book, I read an advanced reader's copy of this book. Undoubtedly there will be differences between the version I read and the published version.

ANYWAYS, the amazon summary, "Jennifer A. Nielsen's New York Times bestseller The Traitor's Game, which Entertainment Weekly called "the next big YA fantasy," is perfect for fans of the Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard and the Throne Of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas.

Kestra Dallisor has spent three years in exile in the Lava Fields, but that won't stop her from being drawn back into her father's palace politics. He's second-in-command to the cruel king, Lord Endrick, which makes Kestra a valuable bargaining chip. A group of rebels knows this -- and they snatch Kestra from her carriage as she reluctantly travels home.
The kidnappers want her to retrieve the lost Olden Blade, the only object that can destroy the king, but Kestra is not the obedient captive they expected. Simon, one of her rebels has his hands full as Kestra tries to foil their plot, by any means necessary. As motives shift and secrets emerge, both have to decide what -- and who -- it is they're fighting for." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

I've read other books by Jennifer A. Nielsen, so I was kind of excited to pick up another book by her! It also seems to be the start of the series too, bonus!

...except maybe not so much. This story is told from two narrators, alternating chapters, the usual in these situations. Not the issue. Kind of.

So Kestra is the daughter to the second-in-command of the cruel king who holds the kingdom in his very evil, yet magical, grasp. She's been ostracized to the Lava Fields (which are a little misleading of a name I felt), where she's supposed to work on her behavior and be less of a strong willed embarrassment to her father.

The rebels have other ideas.

In swoops Simon with rebels & co to kidnap Kestra and force her to help them find the Olden Blade. They take two of her servants captive and basically tell her to help us or we kill your servants. Kestra is pretty pissed, because if she helps the rebels and her father or the cruel king finds out, she's essentially toast. Kestra agrees to help them because she's strong-willed, not heartless.

So they start their journey of traveling through the country to her father's home, Kestra starts getting all aware of what the kingdom is really like, etc. Simon learns things, character growth. Riveting stuff.

Why am I being so bland and boring about this summary? Well, my book reading friends, the dual narrators talk about each other, wondering if the other person likes them, EVERY CHAPTER.

So here you are in the middle of this black mail, treason, magical story, and you're basically interrupted all the time by thoughts of, "His gaze lingered on me, do they like me? Do I like them?" (Not an actual quote from the book.) Which, should be endearing. It should feel like a reasonable romance is developing. It feels so force fed though. Like, DID YOU KNOW THEY'RE THINKING ABOUT EACH OTHER AGAIN. LOOK THEY ARE. CAN YOU FEEEEEEL THE MAYBE LOVE TONIGHTTTTTTTTT

....

Not quite the writing I was expecting from this author.

However, the overall book was mostly okay. ...if my 'to read' stack gets low, I might pick up the sequel. But there's currently like 40 books in it, so I doubt that'll happen in the next year and a half.

Don't get me wrong, all the other stuff that didn't involve the romance was pretty on point, great even.

...yep.

Happy reading!

The Heart Forger

The Heart Forger by Rin Chupeco

This is the sequel to THE BONE WITCH. If you don't want anything spoiled for The Bone Witch, don't read this review.

An amazon summary so you can consider your choices in life, "In The Bone Witch, Tea mastered resurrection―now she's after revenge...

No one knows death like Tea. A bone witch who can resurrect the dead, she has the power to take life...and return it. And she is done with her self-imposed exile. Her heart is set on vengeance, and she now possesses all she needs to command the mighty daeva. With the help of these terrifying beasts, she can finally enact revenge against the royals who wronged her―and took the life of her one true love.

But there are those who plot against her, those who would use Tea's dark power for their own nefarious ends. Because you can't kill someone who can never die...

War is brewing among the kingdoms, and when dark magic is at play, no one is safe." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

I love it when novels pick up where the last book left off. The oracle delivered a kind of creepy message to Tea in the present, and in the future, Kalen is brought back from the dead, even though he has a silver heartsglass, and is also Tea's love. Not the Prince. DUN DUN DUNNNNN

The book actually begins with the future. Tea has started a march with her daeva army on Daanoris's capital, Santiang to rescue the heart forger. So something I kind of failed to mention in the last reveal... because we get to see the future coincide with the past, we already know that Tea is a dark anti-hero. What's super cool, is in this book, we get to see more of the slow slide of compromising choices start to push her towards the dark even more and more. We already got a sense for it in the previous book, and one of the things wielders of the dark have to worry about is literally going insane. Too much dark magic, and you go a little cray cray. Soooo, all the summoning of the daeva we saw in the last book, and being in control of them, is kind of a huge deal since Tea really "shouldn't" be able to do that without going crazy. But she did. So like, OH DAMN. ...anyways.

In the present, Tea is still trying to find Lady Mykaela's heartsglass. Her visits to Aenah, who in the last book was revealed to be part of the Faceless (this book's Team Rocket), reveal there are dark runes being withheld from Tea. This kind of becomes a mystery as Tea balances her trying to find out more about the dark runes, starting to wonder if there's corruption within the asha society, and also manage her communication/relationship with the azi (three headed flying daeva; basically a giant, Cerebrus dragon). Her relationship with her brother is getting a little more complex as uh, his own life starts to get more complex.

That's enough summary.

So I liked this book a lot better than the first one. I think it accomplished a lot more than the first book, and it also really started building the world even more. The character development felt a lot more authentic too, and it was kind of fascinating to see how Tea worked through some situations. I'm more eager to read the third book than I was to read the second book. There were just less hiccups in this book, and it's interesting to see the present starting to catch up with the future. I am NERVOUS that the present and future are going to meet or something weird is going to happen in the third book to have the timelines meet, but I could easily see a fourth book and all of that lining up. I'm just NERVOUS about when they finally meet. NERVOUS.

Happy reading!

Salmon Rice

Those blurry photos. Someday I'll get better. Someday.

Salmon Rice

Turns out, I like fish. I've been trying to find more fishy recipes, and this is kind of a hodge podge of other recipes into one.

If you don't like broccoli, you can substitute in pretty much any other vegetable, I would just stay away from bell peppers. Bell peppers and the sauce don't go all that well together in my experience. Or live dangerously, get that bell pepper fix.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs salmon
• 8 oz shredded carrots
• 2-3 cups of broccoli
• 1 cup of uncooked basmati rice
• 9 Tbsp rice vinegar
• 6 Tbsp hoisin sauce
• 3 tsp ground ginger

Directions:

1. Cook basmati rice per package instructions.
2. Salmon: I prefer to bake salmon in the oven. I usually let it marinade overnight, then bake it in the oven for an hour at 375. Sometimes I forget to thaw the salmon (9 times out of 10 I buy it frozen), so I shove it in the crock pot on high for three hours with some additional hoisin sauce on top. At the two hour mark, I mix the fish so it's starts falling apart and is blended, before I let it cook for the remaining hour. Whatever you do, just make sure the salmon is cooked.
3. Chop up broccoli. How much broccoli you use entirely depends on how much you like broccoli.
4. Combine broccoli and carrots into a large skillet. Cook on medium high heat for 10 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.
5. Make sauce: Combine rice vinegar, hoisin sauce, and ground ginger in a small bowl. Mix well. Add sauce to skillet with vegetables. Bring sauce to a slow boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes.
6. Combine salmon, rice, and vegetables (plus sauce). Stir well.
7. Serve warm.

Rocking another easy recipe.

Happy cooking!

Whisper of the Tide

Whisper of the Tide by Sarah Tolcser

I read an advanced reader's copy of Whisper of the Tide. The published version will be available June 5, 2018.

This is the second book in a series. I reviewed the first book, Song of the Current, HERE. If you don't want any spoilers for Song of the Current, I would highly recommend NOT reading this review.

An amazon summary, "Caro and Markos have settled into a routine: Wake up, eat breakfast, and try to figure out who might attempt to assassinate Markos today . . . so the currents aren't exactly calm. Markos is in constant danger, and his claim to the throne is shaky without the support of an army. But then a powerful Archon offers Markos the military might he needs in exchange for marrying his daughter. Markos and Caro must decide which is more important: their love for each other or the fate of Akhaia.

With shipwrecks, lost treasure, old and new enemies, dark magic, and breathtaking romance, Sarah Tolcser weaves another epic story about chasing your fate and charting your own course." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

To recap. At the end of Song of the Current, Caro was claimed by the ocean god (not the river god like the rest of her father's family), she fell in love with Markos who is trying to take back his throne, and she got a boat through...uh questionable means. There was also a lot of magic & mischief running amok towards the end of the book (as with any good climatic ending).

The second book doesn't disappoint.

Caro & Markos are off, trying to rally support for his claim to the throne without a whole lot of success. They're also fending off multiple attempts on his life, and trying to figure out their next best move without putting more people in harm's way. When the powerful Archon offers Markos his daughter in marriage in exchange for military, it's a hard offer not to consider.

BUT, I'm going to stop right there. Since this book isn't published yet, I don't want to spend a lot of time on the summary.

I do want to talk about some book elements.

Caro's character growth felt so real in this book. Her struggles, her strength, her flaws; she just felt like much more of a real person to me than in the last book. It's like the last book was just winding up for the second book to really complete the pitch and sell it. Fantastic.

The shadow magic was present in the last book, but it was MORE prevalent in this book, well kind of, things happened that I won't speak of because spoilers, but IT'S COOL. Can you tell by that super run on sentence? It's cool. If it had a like button, I would like it.

The world building between ocean versus river was a little rocky for me (ha!). The descriptions of the rivers, and how they functioned, etc were VERY vivid in the last book. It makes sense because Caro was raised on the river. However, Caro is chosen by the ocean god. She hasn't really sailed on the ocean before, and it just seems to be some of the mesmerizing language/world descriptions are lost because of it. The ocean just feels a lot less interesting than the river did. There was just a different sense about the two settings. There are other things in the book that are REALLY well described, but no spoilers. However, the places they visited were SO WELL described, it felt like I was there, trying to dodge out of the way of a thrown bottle or two. 

There's also a slew of secondary characters introduced that I would love, love loveeeee to see more of. I'm super hoping there's going to be third book, because, I'm still 'hooked'. 

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA........Ha.

Happy reading!

These Vengeful Souls

These Vengeful Souls by Tarun Shanker, Kelly Zekas

This is the third book in the series. I reviewed the first two books, THESE VICIOUS MASKS and THESE RUTHLESS DEEDS.

If you don't want any spoilers for the first two books, do not read this review.

An amazon summary so you can think about your decisions, or something, "Evelyn and her friends face ever greater dangers as they navigate tense battles, stunning revelations, and the limits of their own powers in this epic final novel in the These Vicious Masks trilogy.

England, 1883. On the run with the grieving Sebastian Braddock, Evelyn wants two things: to be reunited with her friends, and to get revenge on the evil Captain Goode. Not only has he misused his and Sebastian’s powers to rack up a terrible death toll, but he's also completely destroyed any hope of Evelyn or her friends regaining the life they once knew.

Evelyn is determined to make Captain Goode pay for what he's done, but is her revenge worth risking the lives of Sebastian and her friends? Or is it better to flee the city and focus on staying alive? And with the Captain spreading lies about Sebastian in an attempt to flush them out of hiding and turn the populace against them, does she even have a choice at all?

You won’t want to miss These Vengeful Souls, the thrilling conclusion to the These Vicious Masks trilogy by Tarun Shanker and Kelly Zekas from Macmillan’s young adult imprint Swoon Reads." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

Sooooo, at the end of These Ruthless Deeds, Evelyn had to make a tough choice between saving her sister, or pretty much everyone else at the ball. Evelyn chose her sister. Sebastian's powers were amplified, causing the death of everyone at the ball. The survivors (so Evelyn & co) are under suspicion that they were the ones that killed everyone, when really it's mostly Captain Goode's doing.

Evelyn starts planning out ways to get revenge on Captain Goode...but the rest of the group would rather regroup and rest. Sort things out a bit before jumping into the next scheme. Evelyn is also staying close to Sebastian and trying to pull him out of his stupor. Sebastian is terribly beating himself over what Captain Goode made him do, and it's taken it's toll on him.

...that's enough summary.

So I really loved how this book wrapped up the trilogy. I loved how Mr. Tuffins came into play for this story, and I loved a lot of the character growth from Evelyn, Rose, Mr. Kent, Sebastian...and well just everyone. There was even more plucky sass prevalent and it almost took on a Scoody Doo esque quality at one point of like, "I hope we catch this bad guy!" ...and they just kind of kept running with it.

I pretty much loved everything about this series. It still took risks, made the characters authentic to their nature we've seen through all the books, and the action scenes felt even more intense.

Madly in love with this series. A must read.

Happy reading!!!