Tag: fantasy book

Book Review, Fantasy, Fiction

Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas ~ Book Review

Morgan

Genre: Fantasy
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

It’s rare that I dive right into a sequel after reading the first book, but I was so excited to get back to this world. In Crown of Midnight, I feel like I got to know Calaena better and appreciated her character development, especially her actions in the face of becoming the king’s assassin.

I also really enjoyed Dorian’s plotline in this book and the changes in himself he’s grappling with. I didn’t see it coming based on his character in the first book and it made me excited to see how his story unfolds and how it changes his relationship with Calaena.

It seems like a lot of people found the ending to be a huge sudden twist, but I..didn’t think it was that big of a deal. Maybe I’m not fully understanding the implications. It’s definitely enough for me to want to keep reading though! I’m excited to see how the mysteries surrounding magic continue to be uncovered and how it changes their world.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy Crown of Midnight at an indie bookstore near you
Crown of Midnight on Goodreads

Book Review, Fantasy, Fiction

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Mass ~ Book Review

Morgan

Genre: Fantasy
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

I have heard sooo many good things about the Throne of Glass series and despite my difficulty getting into fantasy, I’m so glad I picked it up. I think part of what was helpful for me is that there wasn’t an overwhelming amount of worldbuilding at the beginning. It was integrated really naturally throughout the story. 

Celaena is an assassin fighting for her freedom. She has been chosen to compete against twenty-three other people and if she wins, she will leave prison and become the king’s champion. Before too many of her competitors are disqualified, however, they begin to show up dead.

There were so many pieces to this book that made it really bingeable: a love triangle, the competition itself, the mystery of what was killing people, the glamor of the castle and royalty within it, and hints of magic. I found the competition maybe slightly less compelling than the rest of it, but I loved Celaena’s solo adventures through the castle she was staying in and seeing her relationships grow and change.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy Throne of Glass at an indie bookstore near you
Throne of Glass on Goodreads

Book Review, Fantasy

Bride by Ali Hazelwood ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Romantasy

I had fun with this book. I’m not a huge fantasy reader, but a vampire/werewolf romance seemed pretty palatable (despite the choice to spell both creatures in a random different way). Misery Lark, a Vampyre, agrees to a marriage of convenience to the Alpha Were, Lowe. Misery, however, has an ulterior motive to her agreement and is really on a quest to discover what happened to her best friend.

The intricacies behind how the Were/Vampyre worlds and politics came to be did not particularly interest me, but I liked that there was a mystery that was central to the plot. This made the story feel like a little more than a fluffy romance. I found that I wanted to know what was going on that had led to the disappearance and I was looking for clues along the way.

The romance between Lowe and Misery was a slow burn and I enjoyed watching it unfold. The somewhat forbidden nature of it made it especially fun. The details about Were anatomy were…less fun. Honestly it really took me out of the scenes that were supposed to be steamy.

Overall I liked this more than I expected to. I liked both main characters and found the plot intriguing. 

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy Bride at an indie bookstore near you
Bride on Goodreads

Book Review, Fantsy, Romance

Molly Molloy and the Angel of Death by Maria Vale ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5
Genre: Romantasy

Molly Molloy and the Angel of Death was such an unexpectedly charming read. The main character, Death, leads us through his ‘life’ collecting souls from people who have passed. When he gets to the world, time stops and no one perceives him, allowing him to wander around exploring the human world undisturbed. That is, until he meets Molly. Death is supposed to be collecting her soul, but instead, finds that Molly can see and hear him and so they strike up an unlikely friendship.

I wasn’t sure how I would feel about this relationship turning romantic, given that Death is described as kind of a decrepit being, but the way it played out was actually very sweet and wholesome. It spoke a lot to the sacrifices we make for love and needing to make the most of the time you have with your loved ones.

The fantasy elements of this book were a struggle for me in that there was SO MUCH world building in the afterlife realm and not enough exposition for me to really get it. I think a lot of the weird language and creatures were unnecessary. We didn’t actually need to know so much about that world, in my opinion, and it took me out of the story a bit sometimes.

The humor in this book took me completely by surprise. It was so unexpectedly funny which made it especially delightful. 

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Molly Molloy and the Angel of Death on Goodreads
Buy Molly Molloy and the Angel of Death at an indie bookstore near you

Book Review, Fantasy, Fiction

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪
Genre: (Cozy) Fantasy

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries was suchhh a cozy read. Emily, a professor, goes on an expedition to a small village to study the faerie folklore there. Emily is not a people-person and has a little trouble interpreting what other people’s actions mean. This element of her personality was really refreshing to see illustrated and it helped a lot with understanding her character. What Emily is good at is research into faeries. She has a wealth of knowledge about them and when her academic rival, Wendell Bambleby, shows up to disrupt her work she is not pleased.

I really enjoyed the setting of the little village of Hrafnsvik and the cast of characters who lived there. To be honest, I’m a few weeks out from finishing this book and I can’t say any of them particularly still stand out to me, but the close-knit community feel was there and I really appreciated it.

I don’t feel like all that much really happened in this book and, as is often the case for me and fantasy, I struggled to wrap my head totally around the world the story existed in. I enjoyed the general plot, but kind of skimmed a lot of the magical lore. I had a nice time with this book, but that was about the extent of the impact it had on me.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries on Goodreads
Buy Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries at an indie bookstore near you

Book Review, Fantasy, Fiction

When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Fantasy

When Woman Were Dragons is set in almost our world, but not quite. The Mass Dragoning of 1955 saw thousands of women spontaneously turn into dragons, but it’s not spoken about anymore. Even Alex’s aunt, who has since transformed herself is no longer spoken of.

The concept behind this book and the way that society responded was fascinating and applicable to real life. The repression of women and conversations about their experiences was blown up to dragon-scale, but was still relatable. That said, it was someone one-dimensional and repetitive.

Alex finds herself raising her younger cousin, Bea, who she has been trained to introduce as her sister so as not to reference the aunt that became a dragon. Bea, however, is preoccupied with dragons, which consistently gets her in trouble. Alex must navigate empathy for her cousin with the expectations of society. Alex’s circumstances made her a compelling main character. She was forced to grow up so quickly and come to her own conclusions about the world around her.

The situations that Alex and Bea dealt with began to feel somewhat repetitive to me after a while and often didn’t seem to move the plot forward. In contrast, a lottt happened at the end of the book that I think could have been slowed down and explored more fully. This lack of balance kept me from fully loving this book

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy When Women Were Dragons at an indie bookstore near you
When Women Were Dragons on Goodreads

Book Review, Fantasy, Romance

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna ~ Book Review

Morgan

Berkley Books
Fantasy/Romance
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

What a warm hug of a book. The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches is part found-family, part romance, part witchy fantasy and completely heartwarming. Mika Moon exists in a world where witches are taught not to spend time together for fear of causing unanticipated harm. Her magic has been used by those around her all her life and has a result of these two circumstances, she lives in solidarity, never staying in one place for long. When she is brought into Nowhere House to care for three mentor-less witches, Mika realizes that love might not be as far out of reach as she expected.

I got majorrr The House in the Cerulean Sea vibes from this book. The three young witches are quirky and there comments are so funny and on the nose. The rest of the cast of characters is just as unique and lovable and the way they welcomed Mika in was beautiful. Mandanna created details about each character that made them so interesting. The relationships, both romantic and platonic, were multifaceted and made for such a unique way of telling Mika’s story.

I was such a huge fan of the writing style. It’s witty and funny and doesn’t shy away from profanity, but in a way that’s amusing and adds to characters’ personalities. There were so many layers to this story and so much eccentricity, but it all worked together to form a vivid plot with some of my favorite characters I’ve crossed paths with in a long time. 

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches on Goodreads
Buy The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches at an indie bookstore near you

Book Review, Fantasy, Fantsy

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas ~ Book Review

Morgan

Bloomsbury Publishing
YA Fantasy
Release Date: May 3, 2016
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

What struck me most about A Court of Mist and Fury was Feyre’s growth over the slow-burning narrative arc. The strength she grows as she becomes more comfortable and understanding of her new reality was incredible to watch. While the men started out with the most power, I loved watching her take her power back and take ownership of it.

The decision Feyre makes near the beginning of the book felt kind of rushed and not fully explored to me, but it opened the door for her return to Rhysand, which is where the story really took shape. Although I found it a little hard to keep track of all the new characters, their support and acceptance of Feyre was commendable and I liked the way they banded together to try to figure out the underlying mysteries of their world.

This definitely felt more slow moving to me than A Court of Thorns and Roses, but I liked the characters a lot and the action really picked up toward the end. While I was reading I wasn’t sure if I’d feel compelled to pick up the next book in the series, but I can’t stop thinking about the cliffhanger of an ending.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy A Court of Mist and Fury at an indie bookstore near you
A Court of Mist and Fury on Goodreads

Book Review, Fantasy, Fiction

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas ~ Book Review

Morgan

Bloomsbury Publishing
Fantasy
Release Date: May 5, 2015
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪.5

The hype is so real!! For some reason I was convinced that I wasn’t much of a fantasy person (despite loving Harry Potter), but A Court of Thorns and Roses proved that very wrong. When Feyre accidentally kills a faerie disguised as a wolf, she is forced to live out the rest of her days in the faerie world, or lose her life.

I got major Beauty and the Beast vibes as Feyre begins to get to know her captor, Tamlin and explores his grounds and her new world. The world-building wasn’t too overwhelming, and I was able to get sucked into the story fairly quickly.

The romance in this book was so unexpected and well done. It was a pretty main theme throughout the story as Feyre learns more about Tamlin and his past. I loved the setting of Tamlin’s estate and the atmosphere it set (I got a Bridgerton feel).

The action picks up a lot in the last quarter of the book and the pacing change kept me completely invested until the end. I will absolutely be picking up book two.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy A Court of Thorns and Roses at an indie bookstore near you
A Court of Thorns and Roses on Goodreads