Tag: fantasy

Review: The Strange and Beautiful Sorrow of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton

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18166936The Strange and Beautiful Sorrow of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton
Genre: Fairytale (?), Historical (?) Fantasy (?) How the heck do you classify this??
Published by: Walker Books
Pages: 306
Format: Library Book
Rating: ★★★★

I’ve had my eye on this book for a while for two reasons:
a.) the beautiful cover, and
b.) the beautiful (and intriguing) title.
After seeing the reviews on Goodreads, the decision was made. I would read this book immediately. When I started reading, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. The book is like an odd mixture of Chocolat by Joanne Harris (for all the generations of women and mother-daughter relationships) and Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (for the creepy, I-don’t-know-if-I-like-it vibe!) It’s also got some fairytale elements to it, but all together, it’s a hard one to pin down and I loved it…I think. Continue reading “Review: The Strange and Beautiful Sorrow of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton” →

Review: The Rose Society by Marie Lu

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rosesocietyThe Rose Society by Marie Lu
Genre: Fantasy
Published by: Penguin
Pages: 448
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★★★
Series: The Young Elites (#1)

Wow. Just wow. I read The Young Elites earlier on in the year and wasn’t completely sold on it, but I was still pumped to see how the story progressed. Can I just say I loved it? Is that enough? Of course not! So let’s go into some of the more finer details as to why I thought The Rose Society was better than The Young Elites. That’s right, no second book syndrome here, folks.

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Review: Soldier by Julie Kagawa

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17342750Soldier by Julie Kagawa
Genre: Fantasy
Published by: Mira Ink
Pages: 380
Format: ARC e-book
Rating: ★★★
Series: Talon (#1) | Rogue (#2)

The third instalment in the Talon saga and, surprisingly, I liked it the most out of all the books in this series so far. I don’t know what it is, but these books sort of creep on me. They’re fun and unexpected. If you’ve enjoyed the series so far then I can guarantee you won’t be disappointed with Soldier. (Unless, like me, your favourite character is Dante…)

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Review: The Winner’s Kiss by Marie Rutkoski

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25526307The Winner’s Kiss by Marie Rutkoski
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Published by: Bloomsbury Children’s Books
Pages: 496
Format: ARC e-book
Rating: ★★★.5

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I re-read the first two books in the series to prepare for this one and they were really fast reads. Probably because I already knew what to expect from The Winner’s Curse and The Winner’s Crime but I had a lot of expectations for this. While I thought it was a good ending to the series, I was a little disappointed with the trajectory of the book.
Continue reading “Review: The Winner’s Kiss by Marie Rutkoski” →

Review: Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton

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24934065Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton
Genre: Fantasy
Published by: Faber & Faber
Pages: 320
Format: ARC e-book
Rating: ★★★★

It seems like this book has exploded everywhere in the booktube and blogging community and I’m so glad I get to  review it because it was a fast-paced desert adventure! At first I was hesitant about the setting, because I read A Thousand Nights by E. K. Johnston and really didn’t enjoy it, but everyone raved about The Wrath and the Dawn, which I’m yet to read and after reading this will have to read straight away!

There’s just something about the mysteries of the desert that make it the perfect backdrop for a magical fantasy. Alwyn Hamilton has such a beautiful way with words that Ipulled me in from the very beginning. I swear, if I didn’t have university commitments I would have read this in one sitting.

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Review: A Gathering of Shadows by V. E. Schwab

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25400972A Gathering of Shadows by V. E. Schwab
Genre: Fantasy
Published by: Titan Books
Pages: 508
Format: ARC Paperback
Rating: ★★★★.5
Series: A Darker Shade of Magic

I received this book from Titan Books in exchange for an honest review. 

After LOVING the first book, I knew I was in for a treat with this one, and what can I say? V.E. Schwa is quickly becoming one of my favourite authors, and I will be investing in pretty much all of her other stuff soon!

A Gathering of Shadows is the absolutely magical and tantalising – there’s a lot of teasing! – sequel to A Darker Shade of Magic. And if you, like me, had no idea where the series could go from ADSOM, then I don’t think you’ll be disappointed by this direction. A Gathering of Shadows comes with added pirates, stress and a dangerous magic competition.

I have truly and completely fallen in love with this series and V. E. Schwab’s writing, could it have been 500 pages longer?

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Review: Fire by Kristin Cashore

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6137154Fire by Kristin Cashore
Genre: Fantasy
Published by: Gollancz
Pages: 461
Format: e-book
Rating: ★★
Series: Graceling (#1) | Bitterblue (#3)

My advice to anyone wanting to read this series, would be to read it in chronological order, rather than publication order, because book two is not really book two. It’s a prequel. Why was this not mentioned anywhere on the Goodreads page?!  At least on the cover in this review it says “companion to Graceling,” but who reads the small print? It seriously took away from my enjoyment of the entire books, because I was constantly waiting for my favourites from the previous book to pop up. Fire begins with a prequel featuring this guy called Leck, he doesn’t appear again until the VERY END of the story and only then did I realise that Fire was a prequel. And all that time I was thinking, where’s Katsa and Bitterblue, are we seriously not going to even mention them? Oh! It’s because they’re not even born yet.

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Review: Graceling by Kristin Cashore

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3236307Graceling by Kristin Cashore
Genre: Fantasy
Published by: Gollancz
Pages: 471
Format: e-book
Rating: ★★★
Series: Fire (#2) | Bitterblue (#3)

I was really looking forward to reading this series. It’s a fantasy, with magic and strong characters – sounds  a lot like my favourite: Poison Study! Basically everything I love in a book like this. It also came highly recommended by one of my lovely booktube friends, Lea, it being her favourite series and all, but unfortunately I just couldn’t get into it! And here’s why:

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Review: The Young Elites by Marie Lu

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23354036The Young Elites by Marie Lu
Genre: Fantasy
Published by: Penguin
Pages: 358
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★★

At the beginning of last year – oh my goodness, is it that long ago all ready? – I read the Legend trilogy by Marie Lu, and it made it onto my favourite books of the year, so I had high hopes for the first book in her next series that came out a few years ago and, I think, the third book comes out this year. I’d heard a lot about The Young Elites on BookTube, because everyone was saying how different it was and how dark the main characters was, and I agree, it was different and Adelina definitely listened to her dark side, but I was expecting a lot more. 

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Review: Night Study by Maria V Snyder

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9781848454484
Night Study by Maria V. Snyder
Genre: Fantasy
Published by: Mira Ink
Pages: 400
Format: ARC e-book
Rating: ★★★★
Series: Shadow Study (#1)

I received a copy of this book from the publishers in exchange for an honest review.

Finally! I feel as if Night Study has found some of the original magic that made me fall in love with the Study series in the first place. Shadow Study was okay, but it wasn’t the best opener to a new series, but Night Study raised the bar so much, meaning I’m now super pumped to read the finale! Night Study is literally bursting with awesome characters, intense magic and complicated villains. If you haven’t gotten lost in the Chronicles of Ixia yet then you’ve got a lot of reading a head of you.

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