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!

A Monster Calls

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Am I well aware that's the movie poster and not the book cover? Yes. Did I realize this after staring at the book cover, looking at the photo, staring at the book cover before I realized I read a copy of the book after it became a movie? ...maybe.

Am I also aware that I can't use the new blogger editing screen to make the book cover align with the text because I can't computer? YEP. Is all the formatting in this blog post going to be weird until I learn? Awww yaaaaaasssss. When I decided to blog, did I also decide to become a master of web pages? Aw hell nah.

An amazon summary, "The monster in Conor’s backyard is not the one he’s been expecting — the one from the nightmare he’s had every night since his mother started her treatments. This monster is ancient. And wild. And it wants something from Conor. Something terrible and dangerous. It wants the truth. From the final idea of award-winning author Siobhan Dowd — whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself — Patrick Ness has spun a haunting and darkly funny novel of mischief, loss, and monsters both real and imagined." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

Most people have probably read or seen this story, so I'll be brief. This book is about grief. This book is about the grieving process and what really happens when you lose someone to a disease who you are so close to. It's also told from a child's perspective.

Did you want your heart broken? HERE YOU GO.

So, there's a yew tree in Conor's backyard who is also a monster. The monster claims to have been called by Conor and is willing to tell him three stories until Conor tells the monster his own story. The stories the monster tells all have different takeaways then when would expect as the monster tells them in such a way that a different perspective or one or two more details reveal the whole story. There is no right answer to any of the stories either.

The book also showcases what Conor's daily life looks like, and how he's treated differently wherever he goes.

The book is powerful, I haven't seen the movie, but I hope it captures the essence of the book. I cried, several times. It was very powerfully emotional.

Happy reading!

Scavenge the Stars

Scavenge the Stars by Tara Sim

Have you read the Count of Monte Cristo but want to keep re-reading the same basic elements but with slightly different twists? Have I got a book for you!

Sidenote: The formatting in this may be messed up since the editor appearances changed and I apparently lost the ability to computer.

An amazon summary, "When Amaya rescues a mysterious stranger from drowning, she fears her rash actions have earned her a longer sentence on the debtor ship where she's been held captive for years. Instead, the man she saved offers her unimaginable riches and a new identity, setting Amaya on a perilous course through the coastal city-state of Moray, where old-world opulence and desperate gamblers collide. Amaya wants one thing: revenge against the man who ruined her family and stole the life she once had. But the more entangled she becomes in this game of deception-and as her path intertwines with the son of the man she's plotting to bring down-the more she uncovers about the truth of her past. And the more she realizes she must trust no one?" AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

Amaya is called Silverfish on the boat of horrors as she has worked off her indentured servitude for the past ten or so years. Allegedly, her mother sold her off to the boat to work off their debt, but Amaya refuses to believe it and desperately wants to be reunited with her mother. One day, Boon is fished out of the ocean and brought aboard the ship. Amaya puts her life on the line when she speaks up for him, and when Boon makes an escape, he enables Amaya to do the same.

After years of living in secret and training with Boon, Amaya has returned home to seek revenge on the owners of the boat where she served. She wants to kill the miserable captain who was insanely awful to work under, and she wants the people who would even own such a boat to pay the price for their cruelty/ignorance. Boon wants to help her, but has her own agenda. Amaya returns in the disguise of a Countess and brings a crew along to help her on her conquest for revenge.

On the other hand, Cayo, son of the man who owns Amaya's ex-ship, has fallen onto his own hard times. Cayo has always been a gambler, but now their family's money has dried up, and Cayo needs to make friends with the new Countess to be a potential investor.

That's enough summary.

Look, it's the Count of Monte Cristo with some slightly different elements. Was it kind of fun to read from a woman's perspective? Yes. Were there some different elements? Yes. Was it basically the same story? Yes.

I'd recommend reading the original before branching off into any of these.... similar stories. I ended up skimming the last part of the book as it was literally just like reading the Count of Monte Cristo and everything was laughable predictable so why read every word when a few sentences every page sufficed? Which, I hate doing, but I also hate wasting time when I have so many other things to read.

Happy reading!

Ember Queen

Ember Queen by Laura Sebastian

This is the third and final book in a trilogy. The first book, Ash Princess, I reviewed HERE, and the second book, Lady Smoke, I reviewed HERE. If you don't want anything spoiled for the previous two books, then I strongly recommend not reading this review.

An amazon summary, "Princess Theodosia was a prisoner in her own country for a decade. Renamed the Ash Princess, she endured relentless abuse and ridicule from the Kaiser and his court. But though she wore a crown of ashes, there is fire in Theo's blood. As the rightful heir to the Astrean crown, it runs in her veins. And if she learned nothing else from her mother, she learned that a Queen never cowers.

Now free, with a misfit army of rebels to back her, Theo must liberate her enslaved people and face a terrifying new enemy: the new Kaiserin. Imbued with a magic no one understands, the Kaiserin is determined to burn down anyone and everything in her way.
The Kaiserin's strange power is growing stronger, and with Prinz Søren as her hostage, there is more at stake than ever. Theo must learn to embrace her own power if she has any hope of standing against the girl she once called her heart's sister." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

This book is the third and final book, and as such, was just kind of full of a lot of emotional conflict being resolved and a lot of action. I don't think I'm going to do a summary as I have some thoughts. I also get pretty upset about themes of self sacrifice. Like, 'For the good of the (insert world, country, certain character, etc) I must die.' Or the classic, 'I'm going to die anyways, may as well be for a cause I believe in.' It just, makes me very mad when people lose the will to find anything good about their life. HOWEVER, there is the alternate self sacrifice, of say Spock in Star Trek, where he literally chooses to sacrifice himself before anyone else can make that choice. I'm more okay with that because anyone could have done what Spock did, he was just the first one to it.

Anyways.

I also feel like a lot of the magical elements of the book went largely unexplained, or explained with a one sentence throwaway line where everyone just accepted the rationale behind it. The story ultimately didn't really express anything new, just common themes from what we've seen in other books (love triangle, final battles, triumph and loss, etc). I did kind of enjoy reading the books, but I also felt like I was waiting for something more the entire time. The pacing was incredibly slow.

The final resolution also felt kind of forced and pre-concluded? Like, of course this is how the book would end, why wouldn't it have the kind of fairy tale ending where everything just kind of sorts itself out and Theo has finally managed to have some sort of confidence to take on the throne.

I know this isn't a typical review, but these are atypical times, and this is what I've got. After reading the third book, the overall series deadpans at "meh" status. The first book was interesting because of the whole Ash Princess aspect, but also because REBELLION, fighting for the people, YAH! Then book two was like..... alright..... still rebelling! Magic! And book three felt like, yep, we are definitely rebelling. It's just working out a little differently than expected! By the way, MAGIC.

[Slight spoiler] There was also an element of Theo and Cressida existing in each other's psyche? But... they didn't really do anything interesting with that either. There was no reconciling between the characters or trying to understand their motivations. It's like everyone was determined to march in their parent's footsteps rather than build something they could invest in. Cressida kind of did? But.... not really.

Happy reading!

The Absence of Sparrows

The Absence of Sparrows by Kurt Kirchmeier

This book took me forever to get through. I came down with a cold halfway through and I hate reading when I'm sick. But, this book didn't help that at all.

It's like, this crazy unexplainable thing happens, everyone freaks out... and everyone kind of just keeps freaking out. Oh, and pepper in poorly managed mental health issues.

Here's an amazon summary, "In the small town of Griever's Mill, eleven-year-old Ben Cameron is expecting to finish off his summer of relaxing and bird-watching without a hitch. But everything goes wrong when dark clouds roll in.

Old Man Crandall is the first to change--human one minute and a glass statue the next. Soon it's happening across the world. Dark clouds fill the sky and, at random, people are turned into frozen versions of themselves. There's nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, and no one knows how to stop it.
With his mom on the verge of a breakdown, and his brother intent on following the dubious plans put forth by a nameless voice on the radio, Ben must hold out hope that his town's missing sparrows will return with everyone's souls before the glass plague takes them away forever." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

There is a worldwide epidemic of people turning into black glass. Dark clouds cover the sky and a couple people turn into black glass. Ben and his mother are avid bird watchers. His brother becomes obsessed with learning what's going on in the rest of the world, and his Dad is checking on Ben's uncle (his brother).

There's just a lot going on. You still have the regular life stuff with the family, the brother's relationship, the mom having mental health issues, the dad trying to kind of keep it together to try to protect his family from this threat no one understands, and the uncle kind of comes across as bonus family member.

I'm just kind of mad at this book. So whatever, let's just go into spoiler land. 

There's not really a proper explanation of anything that happens in the supernatural sense, and there really isn't anything resolved between the characters either. It's kind of this weird book that people "died" in because they turned to glass, but like some people also shattered, and some people came back but had lost their mind. There's an implication that they were called away to fight in some kind of holy war. There's also an implication that the sparrows could have brought people back to life.... maybe???

Whatever book. Keep your secrets. I'm no longer interested nor am I entertained. The pacing of the book was also disjointed and confusing. Sometimes food was SUPER important to be worried about, but then a vague mention of weeks passing and suddenly we don't care about food at all during that stretch? huh.

.....yeah. 

So happy reading. I guess. Boo.

The Raina Telgemeir Collection (A Box Set)

The Raina Telgemeier Collection (A Box Set) by Raina Telgemeier

.....yeah, I'm just going to review a box set of graphic novels. COME AT ME BRUH.

An amazon summary, "A box set of Raina Telgemeier's bestselling, award-winning graphic novels about family, friendship, and the highs and lows of growing up!

SmileThe true story of how Raina severely injured her two front teeth when she was in the sixth grade, and the dental drama that followed!
DramaCallie is the set designer for her middle school's spring musical, and is determined to create a set worthy of Broadway. Both onstage AND offstage drama ensues!
SistersRaina can't wait to be a big sister. Amara is cute, but she's also cranky and mostly prefers to play by herself. Their relationship doesn't improve much over the years... can they figure out how to get along?
GhostsCatrina and her family move to a new town because her sister, Maya, is sick. When they learn there are ghosts there, Maya wants to meet one, and Cat must put aside her fears for Maya's sake -- and her own." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

Essentially, this is four books about different aspects of growing up. Since there are four stories, and I read them all right in a row, I'm just going to talk about my favorite, Ghosts.

Ghosts deals with Catrina and her little sister Maya who is sick. Catrina is super bummed to be moving away, but they are doing it for Maya's health. Catrina misses all of her friends and Maya was also asking after Catrina's friends as if they were her friends too. Catrina also kind of is down on her luck but laughs off a boy she runs into who claims the town has ghosts. He eventually tells her that ghosts use the breath of the living to manifest, and Catrina becomes overprotective of Maya who needs every breath she can get.

....that's enough summary.

All of these stories highlight different aspects of growing up, important aspects. So why is this story important? Because it deals with death.

Grief is such a complicated topic. I think this book kind of deals with the before; the acknowledgement that this person will not recover and you will witness them die. It also deals a bit with the after; of finding a way to make peace or come to terms with it. It doesn't have all the answers by any means, but it's leaps and bounds the steps in the right direction to begin the conversation.

....but yeah. Since these are graphic novels, and I'm only talking about one, I'm just going to end it right here before I dive too deeply into spoiler land.

Happy reading!

The Hand on the Wall

The Hand on the Wall by Maureen Johnson

This is the third book in a trilogy; I've reviewed the first book, TRULY DEVIOUS and the second book, THE VANISHING STAIR.

This is a mystery themed trilogy. If you don't want ANYTHING RUINED, DON'T READ THIS REVIEW.

Sidenote, I'm aware that I literally received this book around 4:15pm on January 21 (the day it was released), and I finished it by 7pm on January 22. I didn't stay up all night reading, I may have just waited at a dealership for some car maintenance to be done for a couple hours and, well now here we are. (...did I also furiously write up all the previous blog posts I've been neglecting just so I could blog about this book? also yes. what upppp)

An amazon summary, "Ellingham Academy must be cursed. Three people are now dead. One, a victim of either a prank gone wrong or a murder. Another, dead by misadventure. And now, an accident in Burlington has claimed another life. All three in the wrong place at the wrong time. All at the exact moment of Stevie’s greatest triumph . . .

She knows who Truly Devious is. She’s solved it. The greatest case of the century.

At least, she thinks she has. With this latest tragedy, it’s hard to concentrate on the past. Not only has someone died in town, but David disappeared of his own free will and is up to something. Stevie is sure that somehow—somehow—all these things connect. The three deaths in the present. The deaths in the past. The missing Alice Ellingham and the missing David Eastman. Somewhere in this place of riddles and puzzles there must be answers.

Then another accident occurs as a massive storm heads toward Vermont. This is too much for the parents and administrators. Ellingham Academy is evacuated. Obviously, it’s time for Stevie to do something stupid. It’s time to stay on the mountain and face the storm—and a murderer.

In the tantalizing finale to the Truly Devious trilogy, New York Times bestselling author Maureen Johnson expertly tangles her dual narrative threads and ignites an explosive end for all who’ve walked through Ellingham Academy." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

Everyone is on campus, except for David, because David noises (see last book). Hunter has also joined them on campus on account of his Aunt's house burning down in the fire (including said Aunt). Stevie thinks she's solved the greatest case of the century, but, she FEELS like there's something more to the story. All of the present day deaths don't quite add up, there's something there that involves Alice, the case, and Ellingham... but what?

Stevie is losing sleep, barely eating, and has lost herself into solving the modern day three murders and figuring out how they relate to the original three murders. Everything seems to be a bit of a mess, she's behind on schoolwork, the world seems out of sorts with David (including herself), and she's coping with her anxiety as best as possible. The tragedies seem to be over at Ellingham, until Janelle's machine that goes about doing an elaborate thing to accomplish one small task, but something goes wrong. A canister explodes, a student is hurt, and it's decided that Ellingham will be closed down for the remainder of the term and students will be evacuated before a huge storm hits.

Unless someone convinces the students of the Minerva house to stay behind...

Dun dun dunnnnn

I LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH. This is what book two was leading to, and I love book two, but I acknowledge it for what it is (another step to the real solve of the mystery), and I kind of loved all the different winding ways the characters managed to come together.

My predictions/hopes in my book two book review were wrong, and I'm pretty happy that they're wrong. This turned out way better than I anticipated. With the modern day culprit revealed, well, it just brings so many more things together.

The past stories are so good, the present stories are so good, and everything just kind of lines up neatly but in a very messy way.

I just might have to start reading more mystery novels.

Since this is the trilogy finale, and I'm among the few who have probably already finished reading it, I'm not going to say anything about the ending. Except I loved it. A whole lot. It left me with that satisfaction of reading a tale well told.

Happy reading!

The Boy in the Black Suit

The Boy in the Black Suit by Jason Reynolds

What's that? I've read another book by Jason Reynolds? ...are you surprised? Cool.

This book does deal with grief, so just a heads up.

An amazon summary, "Just when seventeen-year-old Matt thinks he can’t handle one more piece of terrible news, he meets a girl who’s dealt with a lot more—and who just might be able to clue him in on how to rise up when life keeps knocking him down—in this “vivid, satisfying, and ultimately upbeat tale of grief, redemption, and grace” (Kirkus Reviews) from the Coretta Scott King – John Steptoe Award–winning author of When I Was the Greatest.

Matt wears a black suit every day. No, not because his mom died—although she did, and it sucks. But he wears the suit for his gig at the local funeral home, which pays way better than the Cluck Bucket, and he needs the income since his dad can’t handle the bills (or anything, really) on his own. So while Dad’s snagging bottles of whiskey, Matt’s snagging fifteen bucks an hour. Not bad. But everything else? Not good. Then Matt meets Lovey. Crazy name, and she’s been through more crazy stuff than he can imagine. Yet Lovey never cries. She’s tough. Really tough. Tough in the way Matt wishes he could be. Which is maybe why he’s drawn to her, and definitely why he can’t seem to shake her. Because there’s nothing more hopeful than finding a person who understands your loneliness—and who can maybe even help take it away." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

Matt's mother had died, and he's trying to find a way to kind of get a handle on it. At school, he feels way more mature than everyone else, and is at school for only half the way. He tries to find himself a job, and attempts to work at the local fast food joint (the Cluck Bucket) that pays better than everybody else. But, Mr. Ray from the local funeral home, knows about his situation, and offers him a job. Matt starts wearing his black suit for his job, and well, pretty soon, he's wearing his black suit every day, even to school. When Matt attends funerals, there's an inner peace that comes over him as he watches other people break down about missing their loved ones. He also witnesses a variety of funerals. But, back when he was applying to Cluck Bucket, he met Renee. Whenever he visits the Cluck Bucket, he looks for Renee and basically has a crush on her. But then Renee's grandmother dies, and Matt attends her funeral, and discovers her actual name is Lovey despite the necklace she wears saying Renee. After Matt's Dad loses himself in a bottle one night and winds up in the hospital, Matt life kind of narrows down to school, working at the funeral home, and visiting his Dad with a bit of hanging out with Lovey in between.

That's enough summary.

As with all Jason Reynold books, I loved this one too. I loved the characterization of the people, the neighborhood, and that kind of different space of life. I'd like to think it gave me a better understanding, but as I'll probably never experience it, I'll never know for sure.

However, the whole book felt like a small slice of world that works to find love when grief abounds. Plus, I just loved the recipe book left by his mother. It was just such a heart touching, all around good book.

Just like all the other books I love, I have a hard time talking about it since I'm so hesitant to give away too much. So with that...

Happy reading!

The Stars We Steal

The Stars We Steal by Alexa Donne

I read an advanced reader's copy of this book; this book will be published on February 4, 2020. Undoubtedly, there will be some differences between the version I read, and the published edition.

Whose down for a space opera?

But this space opera has a lot of scenes where minors are drinking alcohol. If you're uncomfortable with that, don't read this book.

An amazon summary, "The Bachelorette goes to space in this gripping story about a young girl caught in a world of royal intrigue and lost love in her quest to save her family from ruin. Perfect for fans of Katharine McGee, Melissa de la Cruz, and Kiera Cass.

Engagement season is in the air. Eighteen-year-old Princess Leonie “Leo” Kolburg, heir to a faded European spaceship, has only one thing on her mind: which lucky bachelor can save her family from financial ruin? 
But when Leo’s childhood friend and first love, Elliot, returns as the captain of a successful whiskey ship, everything changes. Elliot was the one who got away, the boy Leo’s family deemed to be unsuitable for marriage. Now he’s the biggest catch of the season and he seems determined to make Leo’s life miserable. But old habits die hard, and as Leo navigates the glittering balls of the Valg Season, she finds herself falling for her first love in a game of love, lies, and past regrets.
Fans of Katharine McGee and Kiera Cass will be dazzled by this world of lost love and royal intrigue." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

First, calling out this amazon summary for having almost 1/3 of it trying to relate to other things whether it's TV shows, other books, or just general nonsense. Reading at you publishers. >_>

Anyways.

This is also a space opera. I read them from time to time, but like dang whoa hold on applies to this one a lot. To be clear, I'm not a fan of Star Wars, but I do love Star Trek. ...yeah, Star Wars is a space opera. It's like keeping up with the Skywalkers. I said it. Someone else said it me a long time ago, and I'm just spreading their wisdom.

Anyways.

Earth has become frozen over, and has been for like 200 years. Before it froze, different countries were able to create spaceships and send people into space. Amongst those are people who are considered royalty. Every five years, they throw an event called the Valg. The Valg is where the royals and wealthy get together at like roughly the age of 15 to 25 to see if they can find a match at the Valg. Leo is not having any of it. Her father is desperate for her to marry wealthy so they can save their spaceship and keep their status within the wealthy, keep their lavish lifestyle in space. But Leo isn't down for that.

Leo has made a water filtration system that she hopes to patent, and to make enough money off of to keep her family in place. ...but Leo also has the problem of her old boyfriend showing up at the Valg. He's made a bit of a name for himself since the three years they'd been separated and Leo, well, Leo may have been engaged to him for a night before she broke it off. She might still have a thing for him. It's fine right?

That's enough summary.

Number one thing that bothered me about this book - Leo came up with this water filtration system that would apparently save a lot of resources and what not... but she never spoke about anything remotely relating to science, mathematics, or anything kind of mechanically inclined. When one scene came up where there was some kind of applied physics and safety mechanisms, she was immediately like, "Oh, I've done this before which is how I know how all of this works." Instead of like... explaining it herself. ....so she was like, MY WHOLE DRIVING POINT IS THAT I CAN MAKE WATER FILTRATION BETTER!!! But she never talks about school, or really explains how she learns to do that, or explains how it works. There are some passing remarks of like, "Oh you know, I've fixed up our spaceship over the year," but that's not enough to explain who you re-engineered a water filtration system. Like. Calm down Leo. Explain yourself. Explain your education.

On that note, I didn't really enjoy this book. This really felt like spoiled rich kids in space, exploring all the different ways they were spoiled and rich. Making passing remarks about what privileges they had versus what the lower class dealt with. There was also some kind of politics that really just seemed misinformed and not quite clear, but people just like spat out random tidbits about how the world works kind of.

There didn't seem to be any real character development, there seemed to be constant contrasts between the upper and lower class, but they didn't discuss class differences in a meaningful way. It's also space. They mention resource management and what not, but ...it doesn't really seemed like they dealt with the realities of space. Like, there was no cold equations or anything like that. They were just like, "Yeah okay, it's space....but look at all of our other problems with like relationships and dating". If you're going to set something in space, like make space interesting. Ooo, technology, a holodeck, oooooo. Like I haven't already encountered that in various other forms. C'mon.

....so yeah. I finished reading it, because I was waiting for something interesting to happen. And you know... I'm still waiting.

Happy reading!

A Conjuring of Light

A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab

This is book three of a completed trilogy. I reviewed the previous two books, A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC and A GATHERING OF SHADOWS. If you don't want anything spoiled about the fist two books, I recommend not reading this review. It's about to get real.

To the tune of final countdown: It's the final booooook NA NA NAAA NAAAA NA NA NUH NA NAAAAAA

An amazon summary, "As darkness sweeps the Maresh Empire, the once precarious balance of power among the four Londons has reached its breaking point.

In the wake of tragedy, Kell―once assumed to be the last surviving Antari―begins to waver under the pressure of competing loyalties. Lila Bard, once a commonplace―but never common―thief, has survived and flourished through a series of magical trials. But now she must learn to control the magic, before it bleeds her dry.

An ancient enemy returns to claim a city while a fallen hero tries to save a kingdom in decay. Meanwhile, the disgraced Captain Alucard Emery of the Night Spire collects his crew, attempting a race against time to acquire the impossible." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

Time for some fun gross over-summarization of this book, because I want to talk about how I felt about the series. So here we go.

At the end of A Gathering of Shadows, the specter from black london which escaped into white london has now entered into red london. The specter has started to take over red london. It's seeking a stronger host than Holland, namely Kell, but Kell refuses. So, the specter is like AH-HA, to Red London we go! And everyone else is like, "CRAP CRAP CRAP!" The specter goes after magicians who competed in the tournament and their bodies essentially vaporize. Then the specter is like, WHATEVS and goes into the river. And everyone is kind of like, "....is that it? Nahhh, that can't be it." Then Hastra pops up and is like YO, THE CITY HAS FALLEN. And everyone is like, "AHHHHH" and they go to the windows of the palace to see a dark cloud descend over the city. The specter is also called Osaron (hi, I just looked at the book to see where the 33%ish percent mark is). Anyways, so Osaron starts infecting the city, forcing people to die in the river, get dusted, or like become his mind slaves kind of thing. BUT, it turns out that the Antari blood repels Osaron. So Kell and Lila (surprise, she's Antari - if you didn't figure that out at this point, shame on you), run around and basically kind of blood dab people to repel Osaron's control. They go into the palace where the king essentially corrals everyone into forming some sort of a plan. The monks have raised a magical barrier around the palace to shield everyone inside. So then, Alucard is there, and he's like NOOO, MAH SISTER, ANGUISH, and he runs out into the black cloud to find her. Lila is like, bloody hell, and runs out after Alucard to find him. Also, Holland is down in the prison because.... you know, he was the carrier of Osaron. Anyways, so we also get snippets of Holand's backstory (which were really compelling) and everyone discusses how to defeat Osaron.

You know, that's just enough summary.

So first things first, the book is like, hey, you should totally care about Rhy's parents, Emira and Maxim, who didn't really serve a purpose up until this point besides to corral Kell and Rhy's wanderings. BUT NOW, OH NO, we are supposed to care about them. We get backstory about Maxim for the first time, we gets bits about Emira, and like I know why, but it makes me mad. Like, you should have made me care all series rather than just now. C'mon.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the book, but that bit still makes me mad. Unreasonably. It's fine.

So, Alucard and Lila remain great, Kell is still there doing his noble martyr thing, and then along comes Holland. Holland was just like......freaking epic. So, we like the other characters and everything, but like Holland, you just get such a better more complete understanding of everything that brought him to this point. I just ended up liking him so much more, and his ending within the story was so like GRAHHHHH, eye rolling, but fine, how else would you have wrapped things up for him.

The book did do one of those semi-terrible things where it's like, you know what, here's an epilogue. On one hand, I will always appreciate some kind of closure. On the complete other hand, I turn into this hypercritical weirdo. In my mind, a good epilogue should include an aspect of the villain of the story; it should have something where the main conflict has had lingering, echoing effects that still have to be addressed. A good epilogue gives you just enough about a character's life that hints that they are now leading a life that may satisfy them based on their previous needs/wants brought up earlier in the books/series. HOWEVER, it does not tell you too much where you know exactly how well they're doing in life. A good epilogue should also kind of tie up any lingering loose threads. ...but it also shouldn't contain anything that completely changes how you look at a character/what you know about them.

This book, it mostly succeeded at a good epilogue. I know the final section is titled Anoshe (which means farewell of sorts in Arnesian, which sidenote, I REALLY loved all the language play in these books which I think I've failed to talk about until this point), but STILL. So like, you've probably figured it out by now, the main reason I'm mad at the epilogue is because of how they dealt with Holland in the end. It's very.... grating.

Anyways.

It was a solid trilogy. I loved it. It was great to read it once it was all done. I honestly think if I had read them as they were released, I suspect I would have loved book 1, been so annoyed with book 2 that I would threaten not to read book 3 to the point where I wouldn't pick up book 3 unless it was right in front of me... and then would have stumbled across book 3 at some point and read it. It was worth the read.

Happy reading!

A Gathering of Shadows

A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab

This is the sequel to A Darker Shade of Magic, which I reviewed HERE and is book 2 of a trilogy. If you don't want book 1 spoiled, I suggest NOT reading this review.

It's been a fun kind of experience to read a completed trilogy. It's kind of great. I'm not giving up on series that just started that isn't complete, but I'm having a great time. That is all.

An amazon summary, "Four months have passed since the shadow stone fell into Kell's possession. Four months since his path crossed with Delilah Bard. Four months since Rhy was wounded and the Dane twins fell, and the stone was cast with Holland's dying body through the rift, and into Black London.

In many ways, things have almost returned to normal, though Rhy is more sober, and Kell is now plagued by his guilt. Restless, and having given up smuggling, Kell is visited by dreams of ominous magical events, waking only to think of Lila, who disappeared from the docks like she always meant to do. As Red London finalizes preparations for the Element Games-an extravagant international competition of magic, meant to entertain and keep healthy the ties between neighboring countries-a certain pirate ship draws closer, carrying old friends back into port.

But while Red London is caught up in the pageantry and thrills of the Games, another London is coming back to life, and those who were thought to be forever gone have returned. After all, a shadow that was gone in the night reappears in the morning, and so it seems Black London has risen again-and so to keep magic's balance, another London must fall...in V.E. Schwab's A Gathering of Shadows." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

It's been a bit since the end of A Darker Shade of Magic. Kell is in the kingdom, watching over Rhy and practicing a lot of combat magic to do so; he never wants to be caught off guard again. Rhy is trying to figure out what his life means now, now that his life is tied to Kell's. Lila has been a board the Night Spire under Captain Alucard. Lila has been learning the language, learning how to be a proper pirate, and learning a bit of magic.

Red London is preparing for the Essen Tasch, which is a competition amongst the top magicians in the three kingdoms to see who is the best. There are 36 contestants, and amongst the contestants are Kell and Lila (undercover and albeit a bit illegitimately), and Alucard (very legitimately) are entered.

A big part of the book is developing each character's current life leading up to the tournament (Essen Tasch). 

But, there are other narrators in this book. We see a glimpse of Grey London, but we all see glimpses of White London. It turns out that Holland is still alive. When Kell "killed" him in the last book, it turns out that Holland was pushed into Black London, where he met the only thing that remains of Black London. That specter inhabits Holland's body, and they return to White London and begin to restore White London... but the specter has it's sights set on Red London.

Dun dun dunnnn

That's enough summary.

I loved like the first third of the book, kind of got bored in the middle third since it seemed to just be more building blocks to the story rather than any action, but the last third was when it got more interesting again. I feel like a lot of the story concentrated so much on understanding the world, on understanding what was important to each of the different characters, that it was kind of underwhelming for the most part. There wasn't anything crazy action filled until the end bit, and even then it was kind of... lackluster? But the important bits resonated with enough gravitas that it was very good to read until the end.

I think Alucard is my new favorite character by leaps and bounds. Lila will always have a special place, but Alucard is so fascinating and cheeky, sarcastic, witty, and just like I LOVE IT. So good. I also love Alucard's dynamics with everyone, especially with Lila, but his love, and even his ongoing aggressive relationship with Kell is fascinating. So Alucard was a knockout, wonderful addition to the cast of characters.

The dynamic between Kell and Rhy becomes more sharply in focus, and the brothers really start to get more interesting. I'm eager to read book three, especially with the dizzying way things ended.

Happy reading!

Six Feet

Today's news title is brought to you by Patent Pending, SIX FEET, which I've been jamming out to a lot on my Spotify playlists. [implied dance motions]

Anywho. So, I have been trying a few things out this past year for blogging. I was rushing towards the end of the month for a bit to make sure I published the blog post within the same month that I finished the book, so it led to a sudden onslaught of book blog posts being published at the end of the month. ...then I would just kind of not do anything for a while, and then repeat the same process. Which was obnoxious, probably for you as well as me.

Then I started keeping track of what days I finished the books, and I would retroactively post to those days instead. I like this idea, since I mostly write this blog for myself (so I can keep track of everything I've read, like geez). But, I don't know if you, the readers, get any kind of notification if I schedule posts for the past. I don't know if you get notifications now when I actively post things instead of scheduling them. So, since I don't know, I'm just going to do what I want.

I had also toyed with the idea of using a Twitter account to post about new blog posts, but I don't really like the idea overall. Seems like a weird route to go to get news about when new blog posts are up. I also really like just saying what I want to about books in a relatively unstructured way, and leaving the comments section open if anyone has comments about my posts. I don't want commentary on blog posts to wander into Twitter. Seems messy. Maybe I'm just overthinking. I also don't want the temptation of tweeting at an author that I yelled about their book on the internet.

I've also been told I should just start a youtube channel since I'm a good storyteller.... but I don't want to. I like talking about books in this format. Plus, I suspect it's a much less time consuming method than a youtube channel (video editing, obsessing that every second lands how I want to, etc... where here I don't even spellcheck my posts. I'm just like WHOOOOOOOOOO all over my keyboard until I feel done, and then I hit publish).

So, in summary, I'm still kind of playing around with it. I also find myself with a stack of three books to blog about as I'm about to start the fourth... and that's when I sit down and blog about books.

I know I mentioned once before somewhere about back blogging some books that I read while I wasn't actively blog posting, and that's still a desire of mine. I think at this point I would like to reread books to post about them rather than just wing it from memory. Or designate somehow that I was just winging it from memory with very minimal notes on my end (because I kept a list of sorts. Several, which I still find sometimes). That would be kind of fun.

.....yeah, so here's a new year update of some variety.

Happy reading?

A Darker Shade of Magic

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

This is book 1 of a fully published trilogy. I'm kind of excited about the prospect of reading a trilogy for the first time, back to back. So spoiler alert, the next two blog posts will probably be the sequels to theses books.Unless they suddenly suck. Then we'll see what happens. They came highly recommended by a trust book confidant, so I have high hopes they all pan out.

Anyways. An amazon summary, "Kell is one of the last Antari―magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black.

Kell was raised in Arnes―Red London―and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see.

Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they'll never see. It's a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand.

After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.

Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they'll first need to stay alive." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

There are four Londons that seem to exist on different planes; Grey, Red, White, and Black. Each of these Londons have different levels of magic. Black London was sealed off from the other Londons to prevent their magic from consuming the other Londons. White London stands between Black London and Red London, and is filled with vicious magic of sorts. You must possess a certain ruthlessness to survive White London. Red London has friendlier magic; Red London stands between White London and Grey London. Grey London has relatively no magic, but just a hint here or there.

Kell, an Antari who is one of two Antaris that can still travel between the parallel Londons, serves as a messenger to the royals and as a smuggler for himself. Kell travels between the different Londons by using his Antari blood magic. 

Delilah, or Lila, is a thief who is struggling to survive life. She dreams of adventures, she dreams of owning a ship and becoming a proper pirate. But for now, she settles for thieving until she can get herself a proper boat, a proper hat, and some proper boots.

While he's delivering messages, he comes across someone with another letter for a different London who is not royalty. They ask him to please take their letter with him and gives him payment as well in advance. Kell takes the letter and payment to the agreed upon location only to realize it's a trap. He leaps to grey London, and runs into Lila.... who is happy to relieve him of his payment. Only now they're after Lila instead. Kell and Lila are now in this together, because Kell knows he needs to deliver the payment to Black London, but Lila doesn't want to let go of this taste of magic and adventure, so she insists on accompanying Kell.

That's enough summary.

I know I only talked about Kell and Lila, but there's really three narrators to this story. There's a third narrator that kind of follows the people around who are after Kell and Lila. The storytelling was very rich and well woven; I wasn't bored for a moment when I was reading it. There's also a hint that Lila is more than she appears to be, and a curiosity if Kell is not from Red London.

I also thought the different Londons were going to be confusing when I first read the book summary, but in practice, it was really easy to keep track of the different Londons since all of their settings and tones were so different. Plus, there was even different behaviors of the people because of the differences in magic. It was really easy to keep track of where they were and when throughout the story.

There's also so much more to be done or explored with our two main characters, and there's a lot of unanswered questions that I think the answers will come in the next books. Like what's reallllllllly going on with Black London. dun dun dun dunnnn

Happy reading!