Heart of Fire

This post contains affiliate links. This means when you follow a link and make a purchase, I make a small commission at no additional cost to you, the customer.

Heart of Fire is a 2020 young adult science fiction novel by Jessica Roe. It was self-published by the author and released in March 2020. The novel can be purchased from Amazon here.

The novel takes place in a post-apocalyptic world and follows a teenager named Talin. A year prior to the start of the novel, aliens, the Jhenn, invaded Earth and killed two thirds of the population. The day of the invasion Talin developed a strange power that makes her a threat to the hostile force. After she and her friend Nat are attacked, Talin is taken by the resistance and offered the chance to fight. While facing new enemies and meeting new allies, Talin begins to learn new things about herself, her heart and her powers which may change the course of the war.

Talin is the main character of the story. While I liked her character overall, because she was feisty, she asked a lot of questions and didn't let people walked all over her, sometimes, she could be a bit too much. There were a few scenes where comments she made were supposed to be funny, but they didn't really work and I found it more annoying than anything else. While she got on my nerves at times, I enjoyed her overall journey as she joined the resistance and learned how to become a warrior. Nat, Talin's best friend, can be described almost in the exact same way as Talin can. She's a little less confrontational and their strong friendship helped bring a sense of realism to the story, but there's not a lot I can really say about Nat. Upon being taken by the resistance, Talin meets both David and Makail. David is a human soldier who becomes a friend of Talin's, while Makail is a member of the Vorstoffen, an alien race from the same planet as the Jhenn who are helping the humans mount a resistance. Makail begins as Talin's trainer as she learns to use and control her powers and is rather cold and no-nonsense when first introduced. This novel doesn't have a "main" antagonist, as the Jhenn collectively are the enemy, but the closest thing to a "bad guy" seen in this book is the Jhenn Uren who attacks Talin early in the story and shows up again at the climax.

One thing that I enjoyed about this book is that it's not mainly about the war against the Jhenn. The war is an underecurrent with all of the events that are taking place, but it's not the main focus of the story. The focus is instead on Talin, her learning to control her powers and life within the resistance. Some of this is done to develop the romance in the story, but it was refreshing to read a book about an alien invasion that focused less on the battles themselves. I also appreciated this because the reader got to see Talin fail. She had to struggle, she had to learn and adapt. I don't like books where a character learns how to sword-fight in three pages or masters a power in a single chapter. The character dynamics that develop between Talin and some less-than-friendly members of the resistance are also great. The fact that there were a number of people who didn't fully trust Talin because of her powers, who didn't like her, while still being on the same side as her was unexpected and I liked it. I also enjoyed the fact that, while the Jhenn are the main antagonists, they weren't working alone. Other humans were helping them. A lot of alien invasion stories don't show humanity itself being divided about the invaders. Last, but not least, Talin's powers were unique. Some Vorstoffen characters had abilities that were a little more standard for science fiction or fantasy, but her powers and the way they were displayed  were used creatively in the story.

This novel is very character-driven, and as a result, there isn't a lot of plot taking place. I liked see characters grow closer and improve as people, but as a result, the pacing is a bit weird. Like many character-driven stories, there is a fast-paced beginning, a slow middle and a fast-paced end. While this isn't my favorite type of pacing, it worked for this story. A big part of this story is the romance, and budding love triangle between Talin, David and Makail. I don't really like love triangles, however it doesn't actually become a love triangle because one character realizes the relationship wouldn't work. If this becomes a series, I hope it stays that way. I also felt like the romance itself was kind of predictable. I'm not mad about it, but it felt worth mentioning. My final and my biggest issue with this book has to do with the climax. This novel does discuss and depict torture, but it's not unnecessarily graphic. My problem is that the physical torture turns into threats of sexual assault and I have a problem when sexual assault is made into a plot device. It makes me very uncomfortable and as a result, I lost some of the enjoyment I had while reading.

 Heart of Fire is a pretty good book. It's a quick read with a lot of good character moments and a unique story to tell. The journey that the characters go on over the course of the story is both engaging and at time exciting. It's a great character-driven science fiction story. The romance wasn't to my taste, but I'm not a romance person. I struggled with the pacing and a few tropes/plot devices used in the climax. On the whole, however, Id' recommend the book to young sci-fi fans. I hope this author continues the series, as there's clearly a lot more story to tell.

Rating: 3.3 Stars

Follow Me Elsewhere: Facebook \ Twitter \ Goodreads \ Instagram
Buy Me A Coffee?

Sea Witch

This post contains affiliate links. This means when you follow a link and make a purchase, I make a small commission at no additional cost to you, the customer.

Sea Witch is a 2018 young adult fantasy novel by Sarah Henning. It’s the first book in the Sea Witch series. The novel is a retelling of The Little Mermaid. It can be purchased here from Amazon or here from Bookshop.org

The novel follows a teenager named Evie, an outcast in her small fishing town. Since the death of her best friend Anna, she’s been overcome by guilt. After her other friend, Crown Prince Niklas, nearly drowns, she spots a girl with an uncanny resemblance to Anna appear on the shore. The girls befriend one another, but her new friend harbors secrets of her own. In order to help her new friend stay, Evie must make a sacrifice and the price is higher than she ever could’ve imagined.

The novel has four characters worth discussing: Evie, Niklas, Annamette, the girl Evie meets early on in the story who reminds her of Anna, and Iker, Niklas’s cousin. Evie is the main character and narrator. She begins the story as an outcast in her village, both because she’s seen as unworthly of Nik’s friendship, since she’s a fisherman’s daughter, and because many blame her for Anna’s death by drowning a few years before the story starts. She also hides the fact that she’s a witch from the unaccepting town. Her arc is about finding her place in the village and coming to terms with Anna’s death. Annamette is the mysterious stranger who comes to the village, looking remarkably like Anna, with a secret. Her characterization, unfortunately, wasn’t consistent throughout the novel. The way she’s written for the first half to two-thirds of the book doesn’t make sense with the way she’s written in the last third. There was potential for the two very different sides of her to work, but the character the reader is first introduced to isn’t given enough depth or nuance to make such a change work well. Niklas and Iker are the love interests for Annamette and Evie respectively. I can’t really say much about either of them, because they are pretty much the same character, with Iker being slightly more skeptical of Annamette and her story. While I did enjoy these characters, I wouldn’t say that this book has especially strong characters or character work.

I enjoyed the author’s writing style. She did an excellent job of setting a scene and keeping my attention focused on what was happening. The story itself feels very atmospheric and during the course of reading, I could see how deeply infused the sea was within the story. The inclusion of so much from Danish history was appreciated and gave the story a feeling of being more grounded in reality. I chose to read this book because I wanted to read a book about mermaids, and this book delivered. I enjoyed the mermaids, the magic and how it all fit together in the narrative. The conclusion was by far my favorite part of the novel. While I wasn’t the biggest fan of the overall pacing of this book, the ending really tied all of the elements together and fulfilled what the author set out to create with this story. As mentioned above, this novel is a retelling of The Little Mermaid, but this isn’t Ariel’s story, it’s Ursula’s. Henning did a spectacular job of creating a compelling and believable villain origin story. Also, and this one is the least important aspect of this review, the cover art is gorgeous and I want to see more by this artist.

While I enjoyed the writing itself and the ending of the novel, there are a few criticisms that I have. My biggest issue with this book is the pacing. The plot moves incredibly slowly for the first two-thirds. There’s a lot of focus on the culture and traditions of Evie’s village and discussing maritime practices, which wasn’t very interesting to me and I ended up skimming those parts to get back to the main plot. There are flashbacks to Anna’s death, spread throughout the book, focusing on a few different characters and their actions on that day. While I don’t have an issue with flashbacks, some of them felt unnecessary. The last criticism I have is in regards to foreshadowing. The novel’s antagonist isn’t shown to have ulterior motives or even that they can’t be trusted until very close to the end of the story. If there had been some suspicious behavior, or moments that stuck with me as odd, then the reveal would’ve worked better. As it stands, the antagonist’s goal, when compared to their actions before the “big reveal”, don’t fit together the way that they should. As a result, the plot overall isn’t as coherent as it could’ve been.

Sea Witch was not quite the book I was expecting it to be. I enjoyed the magic and the writing itself, but the pacing and some of the characterization didn’t quite work for me. As a villain origin story, this is good one, not great, but not terrible. The conclusion is by far the strongest part of the novel overall, and I wish the author had taken more risks earlier on to match the excitement of the climax. I haven’t decided if I will read the second book in the series yet. If anyone is thinking of reading this novel, I would recommend it, but caution that it’s not quite the story they think it is.

Rating: 3.4 Stars

Follow Me Elsewhere: Facebook \ Twitter \ Goodreads \ Instagram
Buy Me A Coffee?

Before The Broken Star

Before the Broken Star is a 2019 young adult science fiction novel by Emily R. King. The novel was published by Skyscape and is the first book in The Evermore Chronicles. The novel is a fusion of steampunk and fantasy.

Before the Broken Star follows Everley Donovan, the sole survivor of her family's slaughter. She's been living on borrowed time due to a clockwork heart and seeks to avenge her family by killing Killian Markham, her family's murderer, before her time runs out. Her quest for vengeance leads her to a penal colony on the far side of the world. On the island, family secrets are buried and Everley finds her destiny is entangled with Markham's redemption, as the man may not be who he seems.

This book was somewhat of a mixed bag for me. I love a good revenge story and the ideas mentioned in the blurb were intriguing. This book references folk lore and in-universe myths frequently, and I enjoyed reading those myths and stories. There's an idea of there being seven distinct worlds and reading the snippets about each world was interesting to me. The science enthusiast in me enjoyed the steampunk parts of the story, mainly focused on Everley's artificial heart. I enjoyed piecing together the truth about what happened to Everley's family.  Descriptions of the environment really captured my imagination and I liked reading about the land and wonder of the island Everley wound up on. The action scenes were also somewhat enjoyable. King created a very interesting "hook" for the second novel in the series.

While I enjoyed the aspects mentioned above, if I were to make a pro-con list about this novel, there would be more cons than pros. The characterization is fairly inconsistent. This applies to everyone from Everley herself, to Jamison, the man she's forced to marry, to Markham, the villain of the story. People's behaviors and motives seemed to change at the drop of a hat.  None of the characters are relatable or easy for the reader to connect with. Very little in the story surprised me, because it's hard for someone to act "out of character" when they don't have consistent characterization. The plot of the novel is rather weak. Characters move from one plot point to another solely as the result of someone saying they need to do a certain thing or go to a certain place. Aside from Markham, none of the characters seem to have any agency. The revenge story itself gets sidelined for quite a bit in place of a generic quest.

The two biggest flaws with Before the Broken Star are pacing and the inability to build tension. The pacing for this novel is kind of all over the place. Everley sailing to the island seems to take up just as much of the book as the quest she's forced to go on with Markham. The journey itself doesn't seem to have any kind of urgency involved in it and it feels like it takes ages for anything exciting or important to the plot to happen. Some key revelations in the story take place too early to be satisfying. Later in the story, those same revelations could've been okay plot twists, but they happened too early and didn't really add anything to the story at that point. The ending also felt weird and contrived, with a last minute "gotcha" moment to set up the second book. As for stakes, there was a chance to make the ending of this novel very high-stakes. The reader is told very early on that Everley's heart will give out eventually and could give out at any moment. Unfortunately, the author didn't use this set-up as an opportunity to raise the stakes within the story, so the fact that Everley's heart could give out seemed like a missed opportunity and bringing so much attention to it felt odd. This book felt a lot like a novel that wasn't sure what it was supposed to be.

Before the Broken Star didn't really impress me. The ideas were there and the author had plenty of opportunity to create an interesting story, but failed to deliver. The novel suffered from poor pacing and not really knowing what it wanted to be about. The author has a very unique style and knows how to create a scene, but struggles to weave together a compelling plot. I don't think I'll be reading the second novel in the series.

Rating: 1.5 Stars

Follow Me Elsewhere: Facebook \ Twitter \ Goodreads \ Instagram
Buy Me A Coffee?

God Emperor of Dune

God Emperor of Dune is a 1981 science fiction novel by Frank Herbert. It was published by Putnam. It’s the fourth book in the Dune saga following Dune, Dune Messiah and Children of Dune. My reviews on the previous books can be found here.

God Emperor of Dune takes place 3,500 years after the conclusion of Children of Dune. Leto II Atreides has reigned as emperor of the known universe for millennia. In an effort to preserve humanity’s future, Leto sacrificed his own by becoming inhuman. Under his rule, the desert planet of Arrakis has become a lush paradise, the all-important spice mélange has become scarce and humanity as a whole has been prevented from exploration. A rebellion led by Siona Atreides, a distant descendant of Leto’s, has arisen to oppose the god emperor, but unknown to Siona, Leto’s Golden Path for humanity requires her to fulfill a destiny she never could’ve conceived.

By far, this was the book I enjoyed the least in the series. It’s mentioned in the introduction, written by the author’s son, that Dune, Dune Messiah and Children of Dune formed their own quasi-trilogy and God Emperor of Dune was the start of a new trilogy and that’s evident by the overall tone of this novel. Dune was never the most optimistic story, and it has a recurring theme of “you can’t change what’s meant to happen” but this novel was far darker and far more cynical than its predecessors. While I applaud Herbert for making Leto a tyrant and not trying to shy away from the fact that he’s a tyrant, this series has reached a point where those elements got tiring for me.

My biggest issue with this novel is the pacing. The copy I read was nearly 600 pages, but there’s a large section of the book where nothing of importance seems to happen. The beginning has a lot of things happen, the end has a lot of activity, but the middle is nothing. Siona plans her rebellion. Leto talks a lot about the future and his Golden Path but says very little of substance. There’s a lot of talking and plotting that never seems to go anywhere. This book basically had a lot of filler, and from the writing, I think the filler was meant to make the reader consider the overall themes of the book, but the middle of the book is so dry and boing, that I just found myself getting irritated. This series has also veered away from its science fiction roots. It’s technically still sci-fi, due to cloning, space travel and advanced technology, but most of the plot fits better into the fantasy category than science fiction. I wish the narrative had stuck closer to science fiction.

This novel has a cast of characters, but there’s not a lot I can really say about them. Leto II is the main character, but as a result of his extended life and no longer being human, he doesn’t really have much of a personality or character growth. Most of the scenes he’s in involve him either plotting to achieve his Golden Path, finding it funny that no one else realizes what he’s doing or  waxing poetic about humans unwittingly continuing the same cycle of violence and oppression even as they work to break the cycle. There is Moneo, a descendant, servant and close confidant of Leto’s. He’s torn between being scared of Leto’s non-human side and doing everything in his power to keep the emperor happy and making the Golden Path come to fruition. Hwi Noree, the Ixian ambassador, is sent to serve in Leto’s court and he falls in love with her, as she was designed to ensnare him. While I didn’t have anything against her, Herbert didn’t really give the reader a reason to like her or care about her relationship with Leto. We’re not really shown how she’s irresistible to Leto, or the other characters who fall under her spell. The reader is told that she was designed to make Leto fall for her, but nothing is really shown to enforce that idea. Lastly, we have Siona, who was my favorite character because she had a real personality. She had agency and a goal, which no other character aside from Leto is shown to have, and she read like an actual person. While she wasn’t necessarily a “good” person, she was the best character in the novel because aside from Leto, she was the only one who had real conviction behind her actions, not just blind devotion.

I know this review has been negative so far, however I don’t want to make it seem like this is a terrible book. It’s just a very boring one that I struggled to get through. There are three things about this book that saved it from being a 0 Star book. The first is its message about the nature of humanity. All of Leto’s actions, every act of oppression he’s caused, he’s done because he knows something needs to change within humanity. He spent years keeping humanity as a whole safe, but not allowing people true freedom, in preparation for what will happen when he’s no longer around. He spent three thousand years controlling humanity so that when he’s gone, they’ll become something better than it once was. The second is its discussion about messiahs and godhood. In Dune Messiah, Paul Atreides struggles with being a messiah to the Fremen and dealing with the blood their holy war, in his name, has spilt. In this novel, that idea was taken a step further to explore the idea of godhood and the affect that has on the person being worshipped. And it’s not a nice image, but the acknowledgement of the problems with worshipping a person as a god makes the progression of events and resolution of the plot really work. The last element I enjoyed was the subversion of a particular trope. Early in the novel, it’s mentioned that Siona, as an Atreides, is going to be tested soon. Her “test” is mentioned dozens of times before it happens. The expectation, even in-universe, is that this test will cause Siona to abandon her rebellion and hatred of Leto. If anything, Siona being tested results in her becoming even more convinced of the need for a rebellion. As a result, the conclusion came as a pleasant surprise to me.

God Emperor of Dune was a disappointment for me. Herbert clearly had a lot of very big ideas, but didn’t quite manage to explore on those ideas in an interesting and entertaining way. I liked elements of the plot, but not the plot overall. I can see how this novel sets up the events of the last two novels in the Dune saga written by Frank Herbert, but given how much I disliked this novel, I don’t think I’ll be reading them. Right now, I’m no longer invested in the rest of this story, as its moved so far away from what was seen in the original Dune. Instead, I might read one of the prequel books, particularly the ones focused on the war against the Thinking Machines. A war against robots seems more entertaining to me than god emperors playing 5-dimensional chess with themselves.

Rating: 1.6 Stars

Follow Me Elsewhere: Facebook \ Twitter \ Goodreads \ Instagram

Buy Me A Coffee?

Empress of All Seasons

This post contains affiliate links. This means when you follow a link and make a purchase, I make a small commission at no additional cost to you, the customer.

Empress of All Seasons is a 2018 young adult fantasy novel by Emiko Jean. It was released in Novemeber 2018 and published by Gollancz. The novel is heavily influenced by Japanese mythology and folklore. The novel can be purchased here from Bookshop.org or here from Amazon.

The novel centers around a once-in-a-generation tournament which is held to find the next empress of Honoku. The participants must conquer the palace’s enchanted rooms, each designed after a season, to win the competition and marry the prince. All women are eligible to enter except yokai, supernatural monsters and spirits who are being oppressed by the emperor. Mari, a yokai girl, has spent her life training for the competition. If her status as a yokai is revealed, her life will be forfeit. While struggling to keep her own secret, her fate becomes entwined with that of Taro, the crown prince, and Akira, a half-human, half-yokai boy she’s known for years. The choices of Mari, Taro and Akira, as they navigate the competition, will decide the fate of Honoku.

First, let’s discuss characters. As mentioned above, this novel has three main characters, Mari, Taro and Akira, who serve as the narrators for the story.  Mari was by far my favorite character of the three. She’s an Animal Wife, a yokai who seduces men into marriage and then runs off with their fortune. When others in her village conclude that she’s not pretty enough to woo men outright, they begin training her for the contest with the goal of her winning, marrying the prince and escaping with the imperial fortune. Mari is by far the most complex and interesting character. She’s a skilled fighter, but has moments where she shows a great deal of humanity. She wants to win the competition, and fulfill the task she’s spent her life training for, but at the same time, she also seeks to find a way to help the oppressed and enslaved yokai in the capital. Taro is the prince who is also Mari’s love interest. I didn’t really know how to feel about his character. He wasn’t very committed to what he wanted, seeming to decide he wants something very impulsively, which contrasted well with Mari. At the same time, he was rather entitled, which was annoying. Lastly, we have Akira, a halfblooded yokai. He was one of the most straightforward characters in the story and by far the most noble. He follows Mari to the capital to watch out for her during the competition, and gets swept up into the yokai resistance. Unlike Mari and Taro, he’s fully committed to his goal, but along his journey comes to realize that saving one person means nothing if the yokai are allowed to remain oppressed and enslaved. The conflict within Akira is the most relatable, as he finds himself torn between his self-assigned mission to help Mari and his mission for the resistance. I also enjoyed the dynamic Asami, another competitor, developed with Mari and her character in general, but I can’t really explain why without spoiling some important moments of the story.

I thoroughly enjoyed the magic and mythological elements in this story. A number of different types of yokai are introduced in the story, from Animal Wives to oni to yuki-onna. I don’t know much about Japanese mythology and folklore, so it was nice to be introduced to characters and creatures I hadn’t encountered before. Fantasy could always benefit from more diversity and authors pulling inspiration from different sources and cultures. Interspersed throughout the story are scenes explaining the world and how the competition for the Empress of All Seasons originated. My favorite aspect, however, was the magic of the four seasonal rooms. Each room contained its own world, based on the season it was named after, but with different elements and threats.  The danger of this competition becomes apparent in the first room, and the magic built into each room only adds to the tension and danger. I enjoyed Emiko Jean’s writing style, especially her depictions of events within the seasonal rooms.

While I liked the characters and the magic in the story, I’m torn about whether I enjoyed the plot or not. The competition itself was a fascinating idea and I liked reading about the events of Mari competing. There were some parts that I felt were very predictable, such as what happened with the emperor after the competition ended and the truth behind it. For a story this unique, I was hoping for a plot twist that was a little more surprising. The beginning of the story was a bit slower than I would’ve liked. It took about 100 pages for the competition to even begin. At the same time, the ending felt a bit rushed. The big, climactic conclusion was over almost as soon as it started. The behavior of certain characters also changed at the drop of a hat to fit the narrative, which didn’t make sense to me. I found the romance in this story to be bland as well. Taro seems to instantly fall in love with Mari the moment he sees her and I’m not a fan of insta-love. I wasn’t sold on Taro’s character and his romance with Mari didn’t interest me in any way.

Empress of All Seasons is a book with one of the most interesting worlds I’ve read so far this year. The premise behind the story felt unique and I liked the overall writing. While I enjoyed aspects of the book, it failed to deliver on others, such as the romantic subplot, and I felt that the pacing needed some improvement. I think this novel is a good book and I’d recommend it to fantasy readers, especially those looking to branch out some and try new authors. I’m excited to read other works by this author.

Rating: 3.4 Stars

Follow Me Elsewhere: Facebook \ Twitter \ Goodreads \ Instagram

Buy Me A Coffee?

Warrior of the Wild

This post contains affiliate links. This means when you follow a link and make a purchase, I make a small commission at no additional cost to you, the customer.

Warrior of the Wild is a 2019 young adult fantasy novel by Tricia Levenseller. It was published by Square Fish. The book was immediately met with praise upon its release. The novel can be purchased here from Bookshop.org

The novel is set in the Viking era and follows Rasmira, the daughter of her village's chieftain. Trained as a warrior her whole life, Rasmira is exiled from her village after her coming-of-age trial is sabotaged. In order to win back her honor and return home, she's tasked with killing the oppressive god who claims tribute from her village or die trying.

My favorite thing about this novel were the characters. The three main characters are Rasmira, Iric and Soren, who are exiled teens from another village. As the main character and the point-of-view character, I enjoyed Rasmira the most. An eighteen-year-old who has been trained as a warrior her whole life, she could've easily been written to be a token "strong female character" with no real personality or depth, but Levenseller avoided that pitfall. Rasmira is a fierce warrior, but there is a sensitive side to her. When she's betrayed during her coming-of-age trial, she doesn't only feel angry, she also feels hurt. Several times in the narrative, she references the fact that yes, she's a fighter, but that doesn't mean she's not allowed to be a normal teenage girl. She makes mistakes, but doesn't let those mistakes keep her from moving forward. The duality between her being a warrior, and also a teenager gives her character a great deal of nuance and made me invested in her story. Soren and Iric are friends and quasi-brothers from another village who have been banished for failing their own coming-of-age trials and given equally difficult tasks to complete in order to return home. They're both incredibly witty, which brings some levity to the story and have a fierce loyalty to one another, and later Rasmira. I love the dynamic of found families, which is what develops between these three young adults. They look out for one another and, thanks to Rasmira's determination to complete her task, gives each of them hope that they can complete their own. There is not much I can say about other characters without spoiling things. The majority of the plot follows Rasmira, Iric and Soren. The main villain is the god Peruxolo who isn't a terribly compelling character given that he's not given much backstory or examination. He's an evil, oppressive deity and Rasmira's quest to defeat him matters more than anything specific about him.

I enjoyed the tasks each character was given and the quest that results in each character trying to fulfill their tasks. Rasmira has to kill a god. Iric is tasked with killing a a sea monster and Soren must climb a mountain and steal the feather of a mythical bird. Since the tasks themselves are so simple, the author has room to write plenty of dynamic and surprising action scenes. It also allows a good deal of world-building and describing the creatures and atmosphere of the story. The wild is immersive and the world is fascinating. I love historical fantasy quests, and this novel gave me three quests in one. The pacing of this book was pretty good. It was a little slow in parts, but overall it kept a consistent and exciting pace. While I enjoyed the conclusion, I liked how the conclusion came about slightly more, which I know is confusing. I liked the final confrontation, but the scenes of Rasmira learning what she needed to and putting all of the pieces together in order to face Peruxolo were much more interesting to me. The explanation of everything was surprising in the best way possible.

While I enjoyed Warrior of the Wild overall, I do have a few criticisms. I felt like the romantic subplot in this book was a little boring and predictable. It wasn't terrible and I'm glad there wasn't some kind of love triangle happening, but I wasn't very invested in it. It just felt a bit unneeded in my opinion. I also felt like the way Rasmira's coming-of-age trial was sabotaged was very predictable and not the plot-twist it was meant to feel like. She's shown to be a very intelligent person who can read people pretty well, but she didn't even have slightest inkling that someone who she's only really known for a short time might be hiding something. If she'd been betrayed by someone she'd been friends with for years, the shock would've been more surprising. There were also some random plot contrivances that I rolled my eyes at, such as Iric just happening to be a master blacksmith when they need weapons and armor, which were clearly meant to move the plot along, but made things feel a bit too easy.

Warrior of the Wild is a great book. It's the first book by Tricia Levenseller that I've read, but it makes me want to read more of her work. I found myself really liking her writing style and the way the story unfolded. I'd recommend it to fans of young adult fantasy, especially anyone who enjoys Viking or Viking-inspired stories.

Rating: 4.2 Stars

Follow Me Elsewhere: Facebook \ Twitter \ Goodreads \ Instagram

Buy Me A Coffee?

Galactic Mandate: The Scream

Galactic Mandate: The Scream is a 2019 science fiction novel by M. R. Richardson. It was released in early 2019 and published by Room 10 Publishing. I received an advanced copy of the book in order to write this review.

The novel follows a clone named Mato. After being taken from the planet he calls home, he’s taken on a journey across the galaxy. During the course of his journey, he’s forced to decide between what’s best of his oppressed clone brethren and the greater good. When his journey leads him to encountering the sinister Scream, Mato and his allies must figure out what they want and what lengths they will go to to get it.

The first thing I want to say about this book is that the author clearly has a very expansive universe. This story doesn’t take place on just one planet, or even two. Mato seems to go from one end of the galaxy to the other over this rather short novel. There are a lot of big ideas that the author wanted to put on display. There are strong plot elements and a unique story to be found. Richardson’s ideas are very creative and even if plot elements are sci-fi staples, such as clones, he’s found a new way to tell a story about them. The action scenes were interesting and fast-paced and there were a few moments where the outcomes of battle scenes truly surprised me. The story had a lot of potential and a lot of great ideas it was working with.

The biggest problem with the novel, however, is its length. The e-book is under 175 pages, and there aren’t enough pages to fully do the story justice. Events seemed to rush by far too quickly. Mato goes from his home planet, to being in a sticky situation on a space station and there isn’t enough time for the author to elaborate on the context of certain scenes or the motivation of characters. Jay, one of the people traveling with Mato, has a history with a number of people they encounter over the length of the journey, but there’s barely information given explaining his history with them. Events don’t feel like they have any kind of weight because the reader isn’t given a chance to absorb them before the scene changes. I feel like I would’ve enjoyed this novel far more if it was a longer, giving the author time to do some important world-building and let the story breathe a little more. As it currently is now, I don’t know how I felt about the characters, because I barely got to know them. I can’t really say that I enjoyed the plot because it felt incredibly rushed. There were scenes that were important to the overall story that I didn’t realize were significant until the very end because they were treated the same as scenes meant to move the characters from A to B.

I finished the book with a lot of questions still unanswered. Questions that I thought I’d get at least a partial answer to, within the story. I wanted to know at least a little more about the clones and how they were created. I wanted a little more context regarding the past conflicts between the clones and the Acolytes. Names were being thrown around in the story, such as God-Wrath and Dark Reign, without an explanation of who or what they are and the reader is supposed to fill in the blanks with very little information. The author probably wanted the reader to have questions after the novel ended, but in my opinion, I had too many questions when I was done.  The story felt a bit incomplete as a result.

Galactic Mandate: The Scream was underwhelming to me. There was a lot of potential in the story and the author’s ideas, but there weren’t enough pages to do it justice. Scenes felt rushed, some felt like they were thrown in. Important moments weren’t given enough attention. I do feel like, if given a longer page count to work with, the author could’ve written an amazing novel. I hope M. R. Richardson’s next novel is given the length it deserves.

Rating: 1.9 Stars

Follow Me Elsewhere: Facebook \ Twitter \ Goodreads \ Instagram

Buy Me A Coffee? 

White Elephant

White Elephant is a 2019 historical fantasy novel by V. E. Ulett. It is the second novel in the Code Black series. While it’s a part of a series, the story itself is a stand-alone novel. I was provided with a free copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review.

The novel follows Miriam, a crew member on the airship Nonesuch. In order to keep her place on board, she must complete a mission for Lord Q and persuade the first white rajah of Sarawak to become loyal to the British Crown once more. When Nonesuch crash lands on the coast of Borneo, Miriam’s mission changes to one of survival. In order to rescue the crew of the Nonesuch, she must trek through the jungle guided by a team of elephants to the would-be empire builder’s capital. The jungle has it’s own laws, however, and Miriam may not emerge with her mission and loyalties unchanged.

Before I get into my review, I wanted to point out a few topics/themes this book deals with. There are multiple mentions of rape and allusions to it. There are scenes involving animal cruelty. There are a few scenes where medical discussions happen, and the description of some of the injuries and conditions might make the reader squeamish.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this novel, especially since it is the second book in a series and I hadn’t read the first Code Black book Golden Dragon. Thankfully, the novel works as a stand-alone book and I was easily able to follow the story without getting confused by the dynamics between characters. I suspect Golden Dragon provides a little more detail about Miriam’s backstory and fleshes out the character of Lord Q a bit, but doesn’t impact this novel beyond that.

I enjoyed the characters in this story a lot. Miriam, the main character, was smart, while also having an edge to her that I liked. She’s a Muslim woman from Tehran and her education and resourcefulness is why Lord Q recruited her. Her behavior and attitude were very realistic for the setting of the story and I enjoyed the journey she went on as a character. My second favorite character was Maximus Thorpe, Miriam’s lover and the captain of the Nonesuch. While most of the story is told through Miriam’s eyes, there are chapters told from Maximus’s as the story begins to come together and the truth about the white rajah starts to become clear. Maximus is very intelligent, and I appreciated the fact that he was skeptical of information he was being told and went with his instincts, on more than one occasion, rather than simply believe what others told him.  This novel has a very diverse cast of characters, including some transgender characters, which was surprising read as historical novels tend to focus on white characters with very few non-white characters included in the background or they’re written as one-dimensional. This is the first historical novel I’ve read to include a trans character.

While the novel is not intended to be an action or adventure story, the actions scenes are well-written and the author maintains the tension through all of the fast-paced action scenes throughout the book without making things seem repetitive. Each scene is unique and each fight feels just as intense, if not more intense, than earlier ones. The novel as a whole is very well-written. The story kept me engaged and the author clearly did a great deal of research in writing it. I was especially impressed when it came to how much information about elephants and their behavior patterns was included. While the elephants start as being just a mode of transportation, they soon become characters in and of themselves. One of the book’s subplot involves the plight of the wild elephants and their treatment at the hands of both the native population and the British hoping to colonize Borneo.  

While I enjoyed the novel overall, I do have a few criticisms. The dialogue can be a bit hard to follow, given that it’s written in vernacular English. For characters who either don’t speak English well or have a strong accent, their dialogue is written to imitate how they’d actually sound. For example, “Miriam” and “England” are spelled like “Maryam” and “Inglang” respectively on several occasions. It’s hard to follow at the beginning, but the more you read of the book, the easier it is to follow. This style also applies to Maximus, who’s Scottish and his dialogue is written to emulate a Scottish accent. I wasn’t a big fan of the climax of the story, due to the way it unfolds. I don’t want to spoil anything, but the reader isn’t able to witness as much of it as I’d hoped. Similarly, the antagonist is described as having gone mad, but the reader isn’t shown enough evidence of this. The reader is shown evidence of him being a terrible person, but the madness, the urgency of Miriam’s mission, really isn’t delivered on. Lastly, there are a few in-universe things that Miriam does that don’t completely make sense. Perhaps I wasn’t pay close enough attention, but for some events, I felt like a little more insight on Miriam’s thought process or feelings would’ve gone a long way.

Overall, I enjoyed White Elephant. It was an engaging read, which I ended up liking a lot more than I expected to. While there are some kinks that need to be worked out and things the author can improve upon, it’s a good novel. I might go back and read the first novel in the series now that I’ve read this one.

Rating: 3.4 Stars

Follow Me Elsewhere: Facebook \ Twitter \ Goodreads \ Instagram

Buy Me A Coffee? 

The First Girl Child

The First Girl Child is a 2019 historical fantasy-romance by Amy Harmon. It was published in August 2019 by 47North. The story is set during the Viking era. I discovered the book while browsing Kindle Unlimited one day.

The novel takes place in the kingdom of Saylok. The story follows Bayr of Saylok, the bastard son of a powerful chieftain who is haunted by the curse his dying mother cast upon the land. With her dying breath, she cursed Saylok to not have any daughters. Raised among the Keepers at Temple Hill, Bayr is gifted with inhuman strength. But he’s also blessed with an all-too-human heart that beats with one purpose: to protect Alba, the first girl child born in nearly two decades and the salvation for a country at risk. Now the fate of Saylok lies with Alba and Bayr, whose bond grows deeper with every whisper of coming chaos. Charged with battling the enemies of their people, both within and without, Bayr is fueled further by the love of a girl who has defied the scourge of Saylok.

Overall, I think this book was a miss for me. Judging by the blurb, I was expecting a novel that was a mix of fantasy and historical romance, but the book doesn't quite deliver. It is a historical romance with just a dash of fantasy elements thrown in. The magic system of curses and blood runes was under utilized in my opinion. The magic system itself had potential, but it wasn't expanded upon enough or taken proper advantage of. The system was unique and could've made the story interesting, but seemed to mostly serve the purpose of setting the plot in motion and being referenced occasionally later on. The curse itself created an interesting conflict, there are no girls being born and no one knows why, but it too is shunted to the side to focus on the romantic plot. I was also expecting something a little more action-oriented, since this is a Viking romance. There's nothing inherently wrong with the way the story is told and what plot elements received the most emphasis, but this novel simply wasn't for me.

Another issue I had with The First Girl Child was the overall pacing. The novel takes place over the span of about twenty years. It's a slow burn romance with not much action. There are parts of the book that move very slowly and I feel could have been consolidated down or explored in a different, less meandering way. It felt to me, upon finishing, that there were a lot of scenes that didn't really serve a purpose. If the author had chosen to skip over some of those moments, the book would flow a lot more naturally. The issue with pacing also applies to one of the later plot twists. The twist is introduced too late in the plot to be effective and by the time it happens, I was already expecting it. Due to the amount of filler, and amount of discussion happening in the story about Saylok's daughter problem and its consequences, it was almost a given how the king of Saylok would try to resolve the conflict. It also felt ineffective because it didn't conflict with the plotline I was the most invested in. I was curious about when and how the truths about Bayr and Alba were going to be revealed, not what the king was scheming about. So, I didn't really find the twist to be very groundbreaking.

I found it somewhat difficult to connect with any of the characters. The reader is meant to connect with Bayr and Alba, being the main characters, but they don't have much substance. It was hard to feel invested in their relationship as a result as well. The king of Saylok is the villain of the story, and it's very clear from his first appearance that he's meant to be the villain. Every subsequent scene is meant to show how evil he is, but the reader already knows that and those scenes instead put emphasis on the other, secondary characters around him, which doesn't feel intentional. I found myself liking the secondary characters, such as Ghost and Dagmar, more than the main ones, because they had much more nuance and complexity to them.

This review has been negative so far, but I don't want it to seem like I completely hated the book or the author. Harmon is a very skilled writer. The prose was captivating and made it difficult for me to put the book down, despite the aspects I mentioned above. She creates a vivid picture of the world of Saylok and, despite my disappointment in this novel, I want to read more of her work. I found the core idea of this story intriguing, but not the execution.

The First Girl Child was a book that didn't quite work for me. I expected a different story than I ended up reading. I don't want to discourage others from reading this book simply because it didn't fit my tastes. Romance isn't a genre I tend to enjoy, but I wanted to give the story a try. If romance is a genre you enjoy, and this story interests you, I hope my opinion doesn't sway you from deciding to read it. It's objectively a good book, just not the one for me.

Rating: 2.7 Stars

Follow Me Elsewhere: Facebook \ Twitter \ Goodreads \ Instagram

Buy Me A Coffee?

The Vine Witch

The Vine Witch is a 2019 historical fantasy by Luanne G. Smith. It was published by 47North. The stroy takes place in turn-of-the-century France. I discovered the novel while browsing Kindle Unlimited one day.

The novel tells the story of a woman named Elena who is a vine witch, witches whose spells have created world-renowned wines for centuries. After breaking a spell that she'd been under for years, Elena returns to the vineyards at Château Renard, the only home she's ever known, only to find that it has fallen upon hard time in her absence. While Elena struggles to regain her former life, she plans her revenge on the witch who cursed her and the lover who wronged her.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of this novel is the magic system. I initially decided to read this book because I was curious about how the author would entwine magic and wine-making in the narrative. Smith not only explained how magic can be used to improve wine-making, but also how it can be used for sabotaged. One of the reasons Elena's beloved vineyard has fallen upon hard times while she was cursed is because another witch has placed a hex on the vineyard, resulting in a series of bad vintages by the winemakers. Vine witches aren't the only type of witches in this story, either. There are witches who specialize in poisons, witches who are experts in healing arts, and plenty of other magical disciplines. I enjoyed the variety of magical abilities on display in the story.

Smith's writing is very vivid, which works in this story's favor. As I was reading, I could practically see the rural landscape. I could taste the wine being described by the narrative. I also enjoyed the pacing of this novel. It is a little slow in the beginning, but the plot escalates in a way that makes sense but also doesn't feel rushed. The story builds up tension appropriately, and while the conclusion felt a little cliche, I didn't have any major complaints about how the story was resolved. One thing that I was surprised by was the revelation of who cursed Elena and turned her into a toad, the curse she breaks at the beginning of the novel. That revelation was one of the few plot elements that genuinely surprised me.

While I liked Smith's overall writing style, and the magic system she created, there were a few things I didn't enjoy about The Vine Witch. The biggest complaint I have is the lack of characterization. Most of the characters fell flat with me, including some of the main characters. They didn't really have much depth to them. The reader wasn't given enough of a reason to hate Bastien, Elena's former fiance who she believes cursed her, other than the fact that she does. He's a shrewd businessman who wants to grow his business, and that fact, combined with her suspicions of him, is supposed to be enough for the reader to want him to fail and suffer. This book also has quite a bit of filler, which I normally wouldn't have a problem with, but this isn't a long book and having as much filler as it does works against its favor. Lastly, there is the romance, which I wasn't a fan of. There isn't enough shown of the developing relationship between Elena and Jean-Paul, so it felt a bit rushed. I also didn't think they had much chemistry. Overall, the romance felt like it existed to tick off a box on a list and not because it was necessary to the story. 

The Vine Witch is a book that I would call average. I don't think it's a groundbreaking, amazing novel, but it isn't terrible either. It lags in places, and is a little boring, but the story overall is sound and well-crafted. It fits into a category that I call "beach reads", which are books that are quick, easy reads that keeps the reader engaged without being overly deep or memorable. The book is enjoyable, but it wasn't a favorite of mine.

Rating: 3.7 Stars

Follow Me Elsewhere: Facebook \ Twitter \ Goodreads \ Instagram

Buy Me A Coffee?

After Alice

After Alice is a 2015 fantasy novel by Gregory Maguire. It was published by William Morrow in October 2015. The novel is a retelling of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

The novel follows Ada, Alice's friend, who arrives a moment too late to prevent Alice from going down the rabbit hole and ends up taking a trip to Wonderland herself. Ada traverses Wonderland to try and bring her friend home. Meanwhile, Ada's governess Miss and Alice's sister Lydia search for the missing girls.

While I wanted to enjoy this story, I feel like Maguire chose to put the wrong amount of emphasis on certain parts of this novel. I can't speak for anyone else, but when I read the blurb on the back of this book, I was expecting a story about a new character traveling through Wonderland and getting to experience it for the first time. Perhaps the reader would get to see new parts of Wonderland that weren't mention, or were barely touched upon, in Carroll's original story. Unfortunately, that isn't what happens in this novel. Over half of the novel focuses on events happening in Victorian England as opposed to Wonderland itself. Ada's governess Miss Armstrong searches for Ada while Lydia is more concerned with learning about the visitor, Mr. Winter, than her missing sister. There is also a section of Lydia's story where discussions about slavery and evolution occur. While slavery was still happening in America when Alice in Wonderland is set, and Charles Darwin is a character in this story, around the time he released The Origin of Species, these topics felt out of place with the rest of the story. The commentary on those topics were almost completely unnecessary and distracted from the story Maguire set out to tell. While some may have wondered what happened in England while Alice was in Wonderland, the chapters taking place in Victorian England really slowed the story down and distracted from the parts of the story I wanted to read most.

The chapters of the story that did not focus on life in Victorian London took place in Wonderland. Sadly, Ada's adventure through Wonderland was far less entertaining and exciting as Alice's. For the majority of Ada's adventure in Wonderland, she's simply trying to find Alice and has no adventures for herself. She often arrives just after an iconic scene from Alice in Wonderland has ended, missing all of the excitement and most of the wonder. For example, she arrives at the Mad Hatter's tea party after Alice has already left. Ada could've had her own adventure, but instead spends page after page chasing after Alice and not being able to truly experience Wonderland. Due to a combination of too much emphasis on Victorian England, and no excitement in the Wonderland chapters, I found After Alice to be rather boring.

I chose to read this book because I loved Maguire's more famous work, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. I was amazed by the character work and character development he created in that story.He turned a character who was seen as pure evil, the Wicked Witch, and gave her personality and complex motivations. I was expecting the same to happen in After Alice, but sadly we don't get that. While there are a plethora of characters, none are fully-fleshed out. Lydia is a stereotypical self-involved teenager and Ada's most notable character trait is a dislike for her governess and the fact that she's awkward. The characters aren't really characters, and thus there's no character growth or real character arcs that take place. It's difficult for me to read a novel where I don't connect, or even like, a single character, and that's what happened here.

While I wasn't a fan of this book overall, there were some things that I enjoyed. Maguire's writing style has always enraptured me. He excels at writing his descriptions and creating a clear, vivid picture of the world for the reader. In the case of After Alice, he took great pains to try and replicate Lewis Carroll's clever writing, and in places, he achieves that goal. He gets closer than most Alice-inspired works do at capturing Carroll's voice, and while I didn't enjoy the plot overall, his ability to imitate the original work kept me closing the book and giving up.

Overall, I have to say that After Alice simply wasn't the novel for me. The writing is amazing, but the plot and character-work left me feeling unfulfilled. My main issues with the novel stem from one factor: the story is incredibly boring. There's no wonder in Wonderland and while the blurb promises a new story, the promise goes unfulfilled.

Rating: 1.7 Stars

Follow Me Elsewhere: Facebook \ Twitter \ Goodreads \ Instagram

Buy Me A Coffee?

Ubiety

Ubiety is a 2019 adult fiction novel by Grzegorz Kunowski. The novel has elements of mystery and magical realism as well as some aspects of psychological thriller. I was provided with a free copy of the novel, by the author, in exchange for an honest review.

The description of the novel is as follows: If you were to find yourself at the edge of a dying world with a lingering sense of reality, would you simply fade into the nothingness or would you fight for everything you hold dear? This assertive question is at the heart of the thought-provoking book Ubiety, for this book was designed to help people emerge into reality and find the truth whilst questioning both what could and should be. Join Adam’s journey through the gruelling world of the unforgiving future, diving into the many mysteries which will uncover bittersweet secrets to see if he can save the fate of his daughter along with that of the world, using nothing but his boldness of character, the brilliance of one’s mind and a hint of madness.

One of the strengths of this story comes from how well-written and descriptive the setting is. As Adam moves from one scene to another, one section of the book to another, the author goes to considerable length to make sure the reader isn’t only able to envision a given location, but feel as if they are really there. Some may feel the writing is too vivid at times, but it makes the novel very immersive. There was also a great deal of creativity used in forming the dream sequences that occur in each part of the story. The dream sequences are used to pose philosophical questions about life, the world, the nature of free will and death itself. Make no mistake, Ubiety is a book meant to make the reader think.

There’s not very much I can say about characters, as the only named character in the book is Adam himself. Given that he’s an unreliable narrator, and it’s never made sure how much of what occurs is real and how much isn’t, he doesn’t have a character arc and there’s not a lot that can be said about his personality. He’s a man in a very dark place. Additionally, I can’t say anything about the plot of this book, since there isn’t one. Each section has it’s own plot, in one way or another, but the story lacks a central conflict and resolution, instead being a series of vignettes that are loosely connected.

When I was first contacted by the author, he described the book as being similar to James Joyce’s Ulysses, which I feel is a fair description. Ubiety is written in a way that is intentionally confusing, including run-on sentences that last most of a page and making sure many details of what’s going on aren’t clear. This isn’t an easy, quick read, despite the fact that it’s less than 125 pages. I found myself having to read at a very slow pace to be able to follow what was happening and needing to reread in parts. I do feel like the author went a little overboard with what some call “10 cent words”. Using complex language and words is not something I take issue with, but the amount used here makes this work very frustrating to read. It’s difficult to like a story and become immersed in it if the reader needs a thesaurus to understand every single page. Having said all of that, this book is a success in the sense that the author seems to have achieved what he meant to with his writing style. I didn’t like the writing style, though.

Overall, I can’t really say that I enjoyed Ubiety. It was a struggle to get through, and since its story is all over the place and has no real resolution, I was a bit annoyed when I reached the end. I will commend the author for writing this work at the age of 16 and I feel like, given some time and with some editorial feedback, he could have a very successful career as an author. Fans of dark and intense literature might enjoy this book, as well as anyone who wants to ponder over the meaning of life for a few days. This book simply wasn’t for me.

Rating: 2.3 Stars  

Follow Me Elsewhere: Facebook \ Twitter \ Goodreads \ Instagram

Buy Me A Coffee?

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is a 2019 literary fiction novel by Gail Honeyman. It was published by Penguin Randomhouse in 2019 and became a New York Times bestseller. Reese Witherspoon selected it as one of her book club picks and it’s going to become a motion picture in the near future.

The novel follows the titular character Eleanor Oliphant, an accounting clerk in her late twenties living a very lonely and strictly scheduled life. Everything changes when she meets her new coworker Raymond who is determined to find a way to bring Eleanor out of her shell. Along the way, his big heart helps her repair her own heavily damaged one.

To start off, I’d like to point out that this book is not a romance. I know the blurb written above, which I paraphrased from the back of the book, makes it sound like one, but its not. The novel isn’t the story of a man and a woman meeting unexpectedly and falling in love. Instead, it’s a story about an unlikely friendship and said friendship being that catalyst in Eleanor realizing some difficult truths about herself and her past.

This book was recommended to me by a coworker. She’d begun reading it and thought it was an amusing story, which it is at first. At the beginning, Eleanor’s inner monologue is funny. She doesn’t have great social skills, she doesn’t know how to relate to people and doesn’t have a filter. She’s, for lack of a better term, a weirdo and spends a lot of time judging people for perfectly normal behavior that she finds strange. At first, Eleanor’s eccentricities were funny. I was reading about a story about an incredibly strange woman who was wondering why everyone else seemed so strange to her. Before long, however, it stopped being funny. Because Eleanor’s whole life, a boring job, no real connections to anyone, adhering to a strict schedule, is the result of a very troubled upbringing. She strives to be normal, but her childhood makes any idea of “normal” completely impossible. There are small moments of humor, but mostly the book is rather sad.

I don’t want to make it seem like I didn’t enjoy this book, because I did. It was a thorough deep-dive into self-discovery and self-improvement. It also delves into discussion trauma and how it can affect people. The author went out of her way to show Eleanor going through a major change in her life without it changing her personality completely. Eleanor still has her quirks at the end of the book, and she wouldn’t be described as “normal” but she’s in a healthier place. She’s stopped ignoring her problems and confronted some of the issues she’s been burying for so long.

Eleanor is an interesting character, although a tad bit annoying at times. Scenes where she’s being overly judgmental towards people for doing things like not knowing how to respond to something she said, or trying to have a conversation with her are hard to read. Her inability to relate to people makes sense in the context of the story, but until it becomes clear that there’s more to her than just that, she’s difficult to like. Raymond is one of the first people Eleanor really lets in because he seems to accept her exactly as she is. Sure, sometimes if she says something that’s inappropriate he’ll tell her, but he’s not trying to change her. He realizes that she’s not doing well, and wants to help her, but not in a way that’s self-serving. She’s his friend and he wants his friend to get better. Even in moments when Eleanor doesn’t want his help, but needs it. Another character that changes Eleanor’s life is an elderly man Sammy. Shortly after Eleanor and Raymond meet, they save Sammy when he falls and injures himself. Raymond continues to check in on Sammy after he’s taken to the hospital and talks Eleanor into joining him. During these visits, Eleanor starts to open up a bit more to both men and for the first time in a long time, develops a real connection with other people. The last character I want to discuss, and the one who had the biggest impact on Eleanor by far, is Mummy, her mother. Eleanor doesn’t see Mummy but at the beginning of the novel, they talk over the phone every Wednesday night. Mummy is a piece of work to say the least. Several of their calls are depicted in the story, but you only need one to understand their relationship dynamic. Mummy is a terrible mother, abusive in more than one way, and yet everything Eleanor does is in an attempt to please her mother. Mummy is the antagonist of this story, and her connection to Eleanor’s trauma is what propels the story forward.

I liked Eleanor’s character journey. I like the realizations she came to along the way as she let more people in and realized that she wasn't “fine” regardless of how often she claimed to be. What I liked most, however, was that the ending didn’t wrap everything up neatly. Eleanor doesn’t end the book by being completely recovered from her trauma. There isn’t a happy ending, just a realistic one. She’s getting better, her life has improved, but she still has a long way to go.

I didn’t love this book. I also didn’t hate it. I wish that the blurb adhered a little closer to the actual story than it did. Still, it’s an entertaining slice-of-life story while also discussing heavier themes. I’m not eagerly awaiting the motion picture, unlike some other readers I've talked to, but it’s a good book overall.

Rating: 2.9 stars

Follow Me Elsewhere: Facebook \ Twitter \ Goodreads \ Instagram

Buy Me A Coffee?

Tying the Leaves

Tying the Leaves is a 2019 young adult novel by June Toher. It was published by Toher’s Tales in October of 2019. The novel is concerned with the subjects of climate change and environmentalism with elements of magical realism. I was provided with a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Tying the Leaves follows a timid Virginia boy named Jamie and his three friends, Tony, Raj and Keisha. After they travel seventy years into the future, they are horrified to find the Earth devastated by climate change and dirty energy pollution. They return to the present, determined to make sure that the future they saw doesn’t come to pass. They launch an international online kids organization to save the planet, team up with a U.S. senator on a controversial environmental bill, and fight the fossil fuel industry. All the while, the same industries the kids are fighting are contributing to air pollution that threatens the life of Jamie’s little sister.

Overall, I liked the novel. I found Jamie and his friends to be very well-written. Jamie begins the book as a shy twelve-year-old who lacks self-esteem, is struggling with grief and is terrified about his asthmatic sister’s health. In the process of trying to get others to pay attention to climate change, and trying to get others to listen and care about what’s happening, he becomes a much more confident person. The other three kids, Keisha, Tony and Raj have their own character arcs which center around other coming-of-age issues such as parental acceptance. Additionally, this story has an antagonist that’s incredibly realistic, in the form of a lobbyist for the fossil fuel industry.

While I liked the characters, I enjoyed the plot more. The story is told in a very up close and personal way. The kids journey from learning about climate change in school, to traveling to the future and upon their return, founding CAPE, Children Against Polluting Earth. The story depicts the trials and tribulations of starting an organization like that and trying to affect change. The kids don’t go from one high point to the next high point, there’s struggle and conflict, which adds an element of realism to this novel that not all young adult novels have. The conclusion of the story doesn’t show every problem being fixed, but instead focuses on things being on track for a better, brighter future. The struggles they face, and the main ideas about climate change and environmentalism are very topical right now and I feel like those issues and the arguments surrounding them were dealt with rather well in this story.

Tying the Leaves is a book with a very clear message, and that is what sets this novel apart more than characters or plot. Toher clearly did an extensive amount of research about climate change, renewal energy and other environmental issues in the process of writing this novel. It shows in the writing how knowledgeable she became about these topics, given that she’s able to display how the issue of climate change will affect the world as a whole, as well as its impact on individuals, as seen with Katie’s asthma and other lung problems. The issue of climate change is something she feels passionately about, which is reflected in her writing. She did a wonderful job of giving vivid detail to both the future Earth, ravaged by climate change, and the present Earth, in order to contrast the two. I enjoyed the imagery and the atmosphere of this story.

While I liked the plot and the characters as a whole, there are a few things about Tying the Leaves that didn’t quite work for me. None of them are major problems, but in order for this to be a balanced and honest review, I do need to address them. There are some stereotypes that are used that I wasn’t the biggest fan of, but those stereotypes were mostly to make characters have dimension and personality, so they didn’t take away from the story, but I did feel a little weird about them. Sometimes, the dialogue was a bit clunky or didn’t seem realistic. This mostly happened in regards to slang people were using, but there were other situations where the dialogue drew me out of the story. Some elements of the plot, especially around the climax, felt a bit unrealistic for an otherwise very realistic story. The antagonist does a few things in an attempt to stop the kids that don’t make sense with the rest of the story.

Typing the Leaves is a novel with a very important message. June Toher delivered that message perfectly. While it’s not perfect, the novel is good. This is a book that I think most young adults should read, mostly because it provides information about climate change that might be inaccessible to younger readers. It explains aspects about environmentalism in an easy to digest way. To any reader who is interested in fictional stories about the environment, I’d say to give this book a shot.

Rating: 3.6 Stars

Follow Me Elsewhere: Facebook \ Twitter \ Goodreads \ Instagram

Buy Me A Coffee?

Children of Blood and Bone

This post contains affiliate links. This means when you follow a link and make a purchase, I make a small commission at no additional cost to you, the customer.

Children of Blood and Bone is a 2018 young adult fantasy novel by Tomi Adeyemi. It was published by Henry Holt Books for Young Readers and was the author’s debut novel. It is the first book in the Legacy of Orisha series. The novel debuted at number one on The New York Times best-seller list. The film rights were sold to Fox 2000 prior to the book's publication. Children of Blood and Bone can be purchased here from Bookshop.org 

The novel takes place in the land of Orisha, which is home to two distinct groups of people: diviners, who have the potential to become the magical maji, and the non-magical kosidan. Eleven years prior to the start of the story, Orisha’s king, Saran, discovered a way to render the maji powerless and ordered the slaughter of many defenseless diviners, including the mother of Zelie Adebola. Since that time, diviners have been severely oppressed and without hope. While in the capital, Zelie, a diviner, and her brother Tzain encounter a rogue princess, Amari, who has discovered a way to give magic back to the maji. They are pursued on their journey by the crown prince Inan, who is determined to eradicate magic for good.

As with any novel, there are many memorable characters, but I don't have time to talk about all of them, otherwise this review would be two or three times the length it currently is. Instead, I will focus on the five characters most crucial to the plot. Zelie is the heroine of the story, a maji with the ability to call forth the spirits of the dead, referred to in-universe as a Reaper. Having been ostracized and oppressed for most of her life because she's different from most of those around her, she welcomes the chance to resort magic to Orisha and give her people a way to protect themselves and fight back against their oppressors. I liked Zelie and her arc as a character. She's uncertain of herself, she struggles with her abilities and several times, wonders if she's able to fulfill the task that others say she's desperate for. Tzain is Zelie’s brother, who is one of the kosidan. He comes with her on her journey at their father’s request and serves as a voice of reason. Zelie can be brash and impulsive and he is usually the one who convinces her to find better solutions to a given problem. Amari is the princess of Orisha, who's escape from the palace with a magical artifact sets the story into motion. While she has been raised her whole life to be scared and wary of the diviners, she clearly doesn't believe that they're the monsters others say that they are.  She's a compassionate person, which many others see as a weakness, but her compassion is what drives her to join Zelie on her quest and try to make things better for the diviners. Amari begins the novel appearing to be very weak-willed and underestimated, but through the journey she takes with the Adebola siblings, she comes into her own and learns how to be comfortable with who she is. Inan is Zelie’s older brother and the heir to the throne. He's a very difficult character to talk about without spoiling a few things in the book, but let's just say he's an antagonist mostly just by circumstance. He's pursuing Zelie, Tzain and Amari on his father's orders. He wants to eradicate all magic because he's been told his whole life that if magic is allowed to exist, it will be the end of the kingdom and his family. It isn't until very late in the story that he is given a reason to want the things that he wants. I'll be honest, I spent a decent amount of the book annoyed at Inan because he was acting against his own self interests and, had he gotten what he wanted, he would suffer as a result. Lastly, there is the main antagonist of the story, King Saran. He makes very few appearances in the story, at the very beginning and in the climax. Other than his few appearances, most of his char activation comes from what's said about him by other characters. There isn't really much depth to Saran, no nuance to his goals. He hates the diviners, he hated the maji and wants to completely eradicate them altogether. He's a very simple villain and there's no attempt made to lessen how evil he comes off as. These five characters drive most of the plot and the dynamics between them created an engaging story. 

One of the aspects of this novel that I liked the most was the sources of inspiration the author drew from. While some of the sources she used are standard in fantasy, such as Harry Potter and An Ember in the Ashes, it was the inspiration derived from West African mythology and Yoruba culture that made this story and this world unique. It made the story refreshing. This was the first fantasy novel I read that had taken inspiration from West African mythology, or really any mythology that wasn't European. Adeyemi’s novel brings a new perspective and new ideas to the fantasy genre, which is never a bad thing. Fantasy, as with any genre, needs a wider diversity of storytellers.

This book delves into a number of complex themes, some of which I haven't read in fantasy before. One of the most obvious ones is its exploration of race. The maji are darker skinned than the kosidan. Given that the kosidan have enslaved parts of the maji population, it would be difficult to miss the message regarding how race and class can be used to divide a nation. Another theme regards the connection between power and brutality. By virtue of simply being the king, Saran already has power, but that's not enough for him. He feels the need to oppress and enslave the maji because he fears if they aren't oppressed, he and the other kosidan will lose control of the nation. Another recurring theme is characters’ responses to oppression. Zelie, as a result of watching her mother die and living every day in fear for her own life, is determined to resist and overthrow the current order that oppresses her. Another maji character doesn't want to overthrow the system, but use the eventual return of magic to unite the two groups and create a more peaceful country. Lesser themes include identity and the struggles with transitioning from adolescence to adulthood.

I don't have very much to say about the plot itself or the pacing of the story. I normally only talk about those things when I feel there's an issue with how the story unfolds or the speed at which it unfolds. The plot is solid, the elements that invoke foreshadowing do it deftly and it was easy to follow. The pacing was perfect, with scenes that needed to feel a little longer doing exactly that, while other, shorter scenes were given enough length without feeling rushed. The conclusion was amazing. I loved Adeyemi’s writing style itself and she's clearly a talented storyteller.

While I was a fan of the book as a whole, there is one aspect I didn't like. I wasn't a big fan of the romance between Zelie and Inan. The romance was the one aspect of the story that felt a little rushed. It felt a lot like “insta-love” in my opinion. I could see where it can be seen as following the “enemies to lovers” trope, but I don't think it really works here. Zelie develops feelings for someone who, at the beginning of the book, tries to kill her  and does a number of horrible things to people she cares about. It felt weird and contrived to me, so I find myself skimming through their romantic scenes in an effort to return to the parts of the story I did like. I might be the only one who didn't like this romance, but it really just didn't sit right with me.

Children of Blood and Bone is an exceptional story. Tomi Adeyemi is a wonderful writer and she deserves all of the praise this book has gotten. I haven't read the second book in this series, Children of Virtue and Vengeance, but it is definitely on my TBR now. I'd recommend Children of Blood and Bone to any young adult fantasy fans.

Rating: 4.8 stars

Follow Me Elsewhere: Facebook \ Twitter \ Goodreads \ Instagram

Buy Me A Coffee?