Rebel Spring by Morgan Rhodes

The road to power... is paved with blood and magic.

Cleo is now a prisoner in her own palace, forced to be an ambassador for Mytica as the evil King Gaius lies to her people.
Magnus stands to eventually inherit the new kingdom but is still obsessed with his feelings for his adopted sister, Lucia.
Lucia is haunted by the outcome of the breathtaking display of magic that allowed her father to capture the kingdoms.
Jonas watched at the palace gates a troop of rebels behind him, waiting for him to tell them how he plans to overtake King Gaius.

After a bloody siege, Auranos has been defeated, its young queen orphaned and dethroned. The three kingdoms—Auranos, Limeros, and Paelsia—are now unwillingly united as one country called Mytica. But the allure of ancient, dangerous magic beckons still, and with it the chance to rule not just Mytica, but the whole world over...

At the heart of the fray are four brave young people grappling for that magic and the power it promises. For Cleo, the magic would enable her to reclaim her royal seat. In Jonas's hands, it frees his nation, and in Lucia's, it fulfills the ancient prophecy of her destiny. And if the magic were Magnus's, he would finally prove his worth in the eyes of his cruel and scheming father, King Gaius, who rules Mytica with a punishing hand.

When Gaius begins to build a road into the Forbidden Mountains to physically link all of Mytica, he sparks a long-smoking fire in the hearts of the people that will forever change the face of this land. For Gaius's road is paved with blood, and its construction will have cosmic consequences.

Rating: 3/5 Stars

Spoilers for Falling Kingdoms and Rebel Spring.

Before I start this review I feel that I should clarify; I wasn’t exactly in the right state of mind when I read this book. What I mean with this is that I was feeling like crap, I still do actually, so when I’m in that sort of mood it’s hard to enjoy simple things like reading, instead I get pissed off, annoyed or angry. So this is not going to be a very encouraging review, I had a few problems with the book that I didn’t with the previous one, even though they were still there. And there were others that were entirely the book’s fault too.

I didn’t enjoy Rebel Spring as much as Falling Kingdoms which is a surprise considering how I always enjoy the sequels better. In the first book it’s usually me trying to figure out if I like the characters, the world and the writing whereas in the second ones it’s more about returning to something familiar and I can enjoy it better.

Falling Kingdoms was all about the start of the revolution that would lead to the fall of the Auranos Kingdom to the hands of the King of Blood, Limeros’ ruthless ruler. I found the first book much more exciting, we were doing a Buddy read with Jaz (same as with this book) and we had settled into reading five chapters per day, but I was so anxious to see what happened that I read fifteen or so chapters in the first day alone. That was not the case with Rebel Spring. This time we did the same, but I struggled to read five mere chapters per day, the story wasn’t as exciting for me as it was in the last and I found myself rolling my eyes at some of the ridiculous plot lines and romances that came up in RS.

First, the characters:

Cleo:

She was one of my favorites from the previous book and I was really looking forward to seeing what would happen to her now that she was a prisoner in her own palace. Her engagement and marriage to Magnus was something that I wasn’t expecting (I mean yes, I suspected it but for some reason I never thought it would really happen, you know?) and their developing relationship was one of my favorite aspects of this book. Especially after I was brainwashed by Jaz started seeing them forming an interesting pair.

However, that was pretty much all the excitement I got from her. This is something that happened not just with Cleo but with the entire book, not much happened. It was frustrating seeing Cleo doing nothing. Sure, I get it, she’s in no position of power now. But there were so many missed opportunities, so many little things that she could have done or started that would have made a difference later on and given her leverage. She was so fixated on the big picture, taking back her throne, that she did nothing. Cleo spent most of the novel waiting for things to happen rather than going and doing them herself because… I DON’T KNOW WHY. Seriously, it was annoying. What’s the fun of a character who does absolutely nothing?

Every little plan she came up with was easily squashed down by the King, and no wonder because they were dumb as fuck. I really hope she gets to learn more in the upcoming books.

I liked the ending with Cleo helping/manipulating Lucia with her Elementia, but based on what we have seen so far I got a feeling that she’ll end up without her ring and any supporters in less than a chapter, that’s how crappy her luck is.

Jonas:

I gotta say, I enjoyed Jonas in the first book and shipped him a little bit with Cleo too but all of that was gone in this book. Jonas was just so… stupid.

Seriously, all of his plans were dumb as shit. He was in an enemy Kingdom ruled by a freaking dictator who kept tabs on everyone and he and Brion (his best friend) walked down the streets claiming to be rebels and asking everybody how they felt about the new King… and then they were surprised when they got caught?

I mean the idiot started vandalizing a poster of the King in the middle of the street with guards watching and the two assholes almost died because of it.

Later, his plan to kill the King in the wedding was also dumb. They were supposed to hide inside the church where Cleo told them, instead they showed up dressed up as guards… how the hell could they think that the King wouldn’t have thought of that?

Instead of coming up with something smart, Jonas decided it would be a good idea to attack during the wedding because most of the guards were waiting outside keeping tabs on the crowd. I don’t understand how they thought the King would have absolutely no protection inside? And, even if there were no guards posing as guests, there were still hundreds of people inside the church who could rise against them! Or did they think people would just stay sat and watch like some kind of sick show?

Of course Jonas had to fuck it all up giving a ridiculous speech about how he would kill them all instead of, you know, ACTUALLY KILLING THE FUCKERS! The idiot gave the King enough time to position his soldiers and slaughter all the rebels. How the fuck did he not thought of that? NOOOO, he had to give a stupid speech and got them all killed.

His romance with Cleo, although I was sort of shipping it in the last book it didn’t do wonders for me now. It was dumb and not very well executed; they were fighting and the next second they kissed and… what?

Basically Jonas plot was going around doing dumb shit that everybody but him knew it wasn’t going to work, and being involved in boring ass love triangles… although to be fair that’s pretty much the plot of every character in this book.

When they mentioned that Phaedra, a Watcher, was keeping tabs on a human and they showed a golden hawk watching over the camp I thought “Wouldn’t it be great if the watcher is in love with Cleo?” Because this is the Falling Kingdoms series, of course that hawk/watcher/thing would be part of the love story, so if it had to be, it might as well offer some much needed diversity and give us a girl/girl romance.

But no, of course she had to be in love with Jonas. And so freaking in love that she gives up her immortal life to save his ungrateful ass? And dies the next second?!

What it’s so fantastic about Jonas that people follow him and girls give up their immortality to be with him? Sure, he’s described as gorgeous but in a book when even the slaves come from a Victoria Secret runway, you’ve got to offer something else, and Jonas doesn’t.

Magnus:

My sweet Magnus, again I was undecided on whether I loved or hated you, mostly because you are a fucking dick, but at the same time… you are not and your dickness is a way to survive under your father’s scrutiny so I do love you. And even if I didn’t, you killing Aron would have definitely made me love you because FUCK YEAH THE FUCKER IS DEAD. BURN IN HELL YOU LITTLE COWARD PIECE OF SHIT.

I was wondering how he would still deal with his love towards his sister and, unfortunately, he still loves her which is sad because she doesn’t, not like that at least, which makes for a very miserable Magnus. His engagement to Cleo is not helping either because, who the heck would want to marry someone that hates your guts and it’s pretty much your enemy in every way?

Still, I loved the relationship between them. It wasn’t insta-love and they are still far from…well, touching each other voluntarily, but the thought it’s there. It’s not in crying to be in love after talking with that person four times (Yes, I’m looking at you Lucia) but it’s about developing feelings slowly, like normal people do.

Magnus went from wanting to be ruthless and uncaring like his father (as well as believing he already was) to swearing to himself he would not become him.

Lucia:

WHY????

That’s pretty much all I have to say about Lucia, why is she even in this story? In rebel spring we see a much darker and hypocrite version of Lucia, turning an otherwise bland character into a bland character who thinks it’s better than everybody else… not the greatest thing in the world.

After the explosion that took countless lives, Lucia is trapped in a dream world where she meets with Alexious, a super-gorgeous-will-make-you-vomit-beautiful Watcher who tells her how she’s part of the prophecy and, pretty much all the things we already know. They also kiss after talking four times and she claims to be in love with him.

Four motherfucking times.

After which she says she is still not sure whether she trusts him or believes he is real which is just as dumb.

Her dismissal over the deaths she had caused baffled me, especially as she started to become more and more of a villain, treating everybody as lowly and enjoying causing pain and fear on other people. I love villains, I was reading The Rose Society at the same time and the way the author portrayed Adelina was wonderful; I rooted for her, I wanted Adelina to succeed and the good guys to loose. Here with Lucia instead of “Don’t kill her please!” I was more inclined to “Just fucking kill her, please!”

I was curious to see how the relationship between her and Cleo would be, but it all started with the wrong foot when Lucia, even though she hadn’t known her, was dreading the time she would meet the spoiled Princess, because God forbid Cleo complains about having her family and kingdom butchered!

It was worse when they actually met and Lucia hated her on sight:

“Princess Celiona was just as beautiful as she’d heard. And Lucia found that she hated her immediately.”

Another thing was her relationship with the King. Despite having witnessed countless times her father’s cruelty toward everyone including his own son, she doesn’t hesitate to trust him and believe his words because he “never had been cruel to her”. THAT’S BECAUSE HE WANTS SOMETHING FROM YOU, YOU IDIOT!

Lyssandra:

I’d heard about a new female character that would appear in this series, and I had my hopes up. I’m not going to lie, however, when she appeared and was great with arrows and had a thick braid down her back my mind instantly went to this:

Can you blame me? She doesn’t have to save her little sister, but she does want to rescue her older brother which is still pretty similar to Katniss. 

Still, Katniss aside I was really disappointed with this girl. At first I thought she was going to be one of Jonas love interest (why don’t you just pull my eyes out and end this quickly, book?) but when that didn’t happen I was relieved. Sure, there was still Brion who had a crush on her but it didn’t take anything from the character. Lyssandra was more focused on the revolution than a guy making moves on her.

She didn’t have a lot to do besides complaining about Jonas idiocy (which I will admit it must be hard work) and thinking about her brother very… veeeery occasionally. The rest of the time was just her being… there.

I didn’t like how she treated Cleo. Just because she was a Princess Lyssandra thought she had never suffered or was ok with the King of Blood having killed her father and taking away her Kingdom, killing her people. No, Lyssandra had been sort of poor so she was the only one who suffered.

I got mad when Brion accused Lys of being in love Jonas because:

a.       Lyssandra had told Brion over and over how she wasn’t interested in him but apparently it took another penis for him to show respect and stop?

b.      The whole bullshit of “She realized she never tried to deny it.” Thing. Jonas and Lyssandra had shown no chemistry whatsoever, they barely talked or liked each other and suddenly they were in love?

Worst romance ever.

Random things to notice:

THERE’S A NON-STRAIGHT CHARACTER!

He’s the Prince that comes from the land across the sea, and he kisses Nic (and Nic kisses him back!!!) I expect great things from him but, is he friend or foe?

The Queen:

In Falling Kingdom’s Magnus mother had been more of a background character than anything else, but in Rebel Spring she steps into the stage when she confesses that she’s the one keeping Lucia asleep with a potion until she finds a way to kill her, because she realizes that her daughter is evil and so she has to end her life before the magic consumes her.

Unfortunately, she was killed off before anything could happen, which leads me to my next point.

Deaths being meaningless:

Falling Kingdoms kicked us in the gut with its deaths, the author made us feel pain, the importance of a life cut at a short time. In this book the author kills, but she doesn’t dwell on it, the deaths are more as a shock factor rather than or anything else.

Do you remember how heartbroken Cleo was about the death or Theon? Her sister and her father? Well she’ll barely think about them here! It’s as if nothing had ever happened. Cleo kisses Jonas, who is the person Theon died rescuing her from, and she doesn’t even blink an eye.

Mira, her friend and Nic’s sister dies and the characters are like “Oh no… who was she?” Not even Nic pays much attention to that, we don’t even see him breakdown, only Cleo saying “he was sad” and that’s all!

Same with the rest of the deaths, like Brion. “Oh no he’s dead… wow, Lyssandra turned gorgeous all of the sudden???!” If you are going to kill a character at least make it memorable, don’t throw it away as if they were disposable.

Overall, Rebel Spring was an entertaining book but it was plagued by insta-love, convenient plot devices and bullshit. I’m looking forward to the next book because of the magic and Cleo/Magnus, if the rest of the characters disappear, that’s fine by me.

A School for Unusual Girls by Kathleen Baldwin

It’s 1814. Napoleon is exiled on Elba. Europe is in shambles. Britain is at war on four fronts. And Stranje House, a School for Unusual Girls, has become one of Regency England’s dark little secrets. The daughters of the beau monde who don't fit high society’s constrictive mold are banished to Stranje House to be reformed into marriageable young ladies. Or so their parents think. In truth, Headmistress Emma Stranje, the original unusual girl, has plans for the young ladies—plans that entangle the girls in the dangerous world of spies, diplomacy, and war.

After accidentally setting her father’s stables on fire while performing a scientific experiment, Miss Georgiana Fitzwilliam is sent to Stranje House. But Georgie has no intention of being turned into a simpering, pudding-headed, marriageable miss. She plans to escape as soon as possible—until she meets Lord Sebastian Wyatt. Thrust together in a desperate mission to invent a new invisible ink for the English war effort, Georgie and Sebastian must find a way to work together without losing their heads—or their hearts...

Rating: 1.5 Stars

After being in bed with a fever for a couple of days and my computer getting broken, I’m now finally back to reviewing! At least until college starts again…

Emmm… so, A School for Unusual Girls had the promise of being an interesting historical Young Adult novel, with a woman training young ladies to become spies. However, when the only thing that happens is the main character falling in love with a guy she’s talked to three times and little else… well, I felt a little ripped-off.

There is nothing remarkable about this novel, it’s the typical YA book in which you are presented with an incredible premise only to open it and find that you have a boring love story covering the pages of the novel, sticking to your fingers with all its extra sweet nonsense.

The main character is Georgianna or Georgie and she’s special (duh). She’s too smart for a society that demands women to be mindless little perfect dolls to be married off, and after Georgie sets her father’s stables on fire, she’s sent to the Strange House where she’ll be turned into a suitable lady.

Now, considering what I’ve said before about the novel you’ll realize that Georgie is neither special nor smart and she’ll throw all of her “silly feminist” agenda as soon as a hot guy comes around. You see, Georgie doesn’t want to get married because she claims to be too smart, even though she’s a total idiot, but then throws us off with her complaining on how she has red hair and it’s therefore a horrible freak of nature who will never be loved by a man, no matter how much she wants to.

Which one is it??! Ugh, I swear the sheer stupidity this girl possessed made me want to shake her.

The rest of the characters and plot seemed interesting enough, but they were severely underdeveloped.

Overall, not recommendable if you are looking for some cool spy-story set in the nineteen century. If you are looking for a boring love story with no plot, you’ve found your book!

Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Mass

"A line that should never be crossed is about to be breached.

It puts this entire castle in jeopardy—and the life of your friend."

From the throne of glass rules a king with a fist of iron and a soul as black as pitch. Assassin Celaena Sardothien won a brutal contest to become his Champion. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown. She hides her secret vigilantly; she knows that the man she serves is bent on evil.

Keeping up the deadly charade becomes increasingly difficult when Celaena realizes she is not the only one seeking justice. As she tries to untangle the mysteries buried deep within the glass castle, her closest relationships suffer. It seems no one is above questioning her allegiances—not the Crown Prince Dorian; not Chaol, the Captain of the Guard; not even her best friend, Nehemia, a foreign princess with a rebel heart.

Then one terrible night, the secrets they have all been keeping lead to an unspeakable tragedy. As Celaena's world shatters, she will be forced to give up the very thing most precious to her and decide once and for all where her true loyalties lie... and whom she is ultimately willing to fight for.


Rating: 2,5 Stars

“The world didn’t need an assassin with a coward’s heart. It needed someone like Nehemia.”

Second buddy read with Jaz!!! We are on a roll here!

Be warned, this review contains spoilers for ToG and CoM because most of the things I want to discuss are essential to the plot so, if you haven’t read either of them, this will spoil you big time.

Also, there will probably be some swearing and profanities, not for any particular reason, I just felt like swearing today.

I read Throne of Glass by Sarah J Mass last year. After reading ACOTAR and countless of positive reviews about this series I decided to give it a shot, very eager to discover a new fantasy world with a strong and interesting female main character. Sadly, I was very disappointed with ToG, the plot was painfully predictable, the romance overwhelming and annoying, and the characters cliché whiny and oh so, so boring. Many people told me it got better after ToG but honestly, after being bored out of my mind with that book, was I really willing to put myself back through that? No, the fuck I wasn’t. Honestly, I let some months go by hoping that my mind would change but even then, the thought of going back to doing the same thing made me want to hammer my fingers, anything to keep me from being so bored again.

Still, as stubborn as I am I knew I wanted to continue with the series. Jaz had gone through something similar, although I’m sure she handled it as much more sane person (not really but she might be reading this shhhh ;) ) we both wanted to give it another chance… but we really didn’t want to read this book, so that’s when we decided to start reading it as a buddy read, so we could talk about it, share theories and do anything really to keep us from being bored.

Now that I’ve finished the second book I have to say it was a bit more interesting than the first one, at least the second part, even though I’m really pissed at what happened to get to that point. However, considering how little I liked Throne of Glass, saying this one was a little better doesn’t exactly make it a good book. Sarah J mass carries the same problem she had in her previous book (as well as in ACOTAR) and that is to spend most of the book without an actual plot, cultivating romance and basically making the narration an uncoordinated mess.

The plot was (if there was any) essentially the same as in the first book, Celaena is at the castle, there is a mystery animal-thing going around, she has to defeat “The Evil”, but she’ll care more about the love triangle between her Dorian and Chaol and demanding things from Nehemia when she needs her but not paying much attention to her the rest of the book.

I really enjoyed the first chapter, the writing had significantly improved and I loved how I could picture the scene perfectly. It was as if I had been there with Celeana tracking down the targets the King had commanded her to kill. I could hear every sound, see the rooms, the place. I let myself believe the book would be as good as that chapter, but that didn’t happen.

There were a lot of logical errors from the beginning and what really pissed me off was Celaena not killing the people she was told to, but letting her friends believe she was doing as the king commanded her and therefore being a terrible person.

First, I had problems understanding why she wasn’t killing those people. She said she was planning on killing them but changed her mind when she saw her first target and realized he was actually a “decent” person:

“She’d prepared herself for the kill, told herself that Sir Carlin was nothing but a stranger and his life meant nothing to her. But when she got to his estate and witnessed the unusual kindness with which he treated his servants, when she saw him playing the lyre with a traveling minstrel he sheltered in his hall, when she realized whose agenda she was aiding … she couldn’t do it.”

Is that all it takes? Being kind to his servants? What about all the innocent lives she has taken for people working for the King? Celaena has told us countless of times how she didn’t care who she killed and even told the story of an innocent guy she butchered because two royal men wanted to take his job. She had killed the poor bystander without a second thought, but now she’s risking her and her friends’ lives because…?...........?..........................??!

I don’t know, Celaena’s motivations are so fickle, almost as if she had no real characterization beyond what the author needs to create senseless drama… mmm.

Again I was annoyed at Celaena’s passivity. At book one we saw how she knew that there was something in the castle killing competitors and that she was being targeted, and yet she chose to ignore it. Willing herself to believe it was all in her head and demanding for other people to fix the problems for her. I could never understand how Celaena was supposed to be such an amazing assassin when she had a problem right in front of her rather bring her hands to her ears, close her eyes and wait until the bad guys go away. It’s not only childlike but stupid, she allegedly has gone through a lot and yet the woman we know here is incapable of defending herself.

She encounters a mystery being outside the library in a cloak with animal eyes and makes her amulet shine… and she convinces herself it’s just some noble who visited the library in the middle of the night.

Why? Why be so dumb as to put herself and everybody else in danger? To create tension in discovering who or what the thing is but it’s just annoying as hell.

Nehemia’s death:

I knew it was coming because of spoilers, and even though the idea of the only POC character dying pissed me off to the point where I didn’t want to read this book, I tried to give Sarah J Mass a chance and hope that it would be well done. I read and waited, trying to see if it could be well played. Maybe Nehemia’s death was really necessary and not just a woman in refrigerator (a woman being killed/tortured/hurt to further another character’s plot, usually a guy’s).

I was sadly disappointed. Not only does Nehemia’s death comes out of the blue, but the girl had even less scenes than in Throne of Glass. It was disappointing to know she was going to die and that all the scenes she had were her talking a bit about the revolution but not about what she was doing, giggling with Celaena about Chaol and drinking tea.

We all know how in Throne of Glass Nehemia’s only role was to be there when Celaena needed her, either by being a friend with magical powers that saved her life when she needed it the most or to tell us, the readers, just how super-especial-beautiful-powerful-capable-amazeballs Celaena was (because we definitely needed somebody else to hit us over the head again and again about how special Celaena was). That was it, we knew little about Nehemia really, she wanted to free her people, she had both parents and some siblings but that was all we knew from her. We hardly ever saw her interact with anybody else, or know what colors she liked, what foods she enjoyed, who exactly this character was.

Sure, I wasn’t Nehemia’s biggest fan either but yet again I’m nobody’s biggest fan in this series. Despite her noble cause of wanting to free her people, she often came off as selfish. Her role at court was to be an ambassador and establish a friendly relationship with the King and Queen, instead all she did was insult them and spend as little time with them as possible, causing an even worse relationship with the Kingdom and contributing to the death of those five hundred slaves.

However, she had improved in this next installment- Ok no, that’s a lie since we hardly ever saw her, but her story was far more interesting than the boring-ass love triangle Celaena was having and I would have rather seen Nehemia do all the amazing things Archer said she had done off-screen rather than seeing her only drink tea and being Celaena’s plotless side kick.

She was a character with a lot of potential who was sadly sacrificed to further bland Celaena’s plot. Nehemia’s character, despite her friendship with Celaena was sorely underdeveloped. We knew nothing about her because Celaena didn’t really care to know much. It bothered me how, after Nehemia died it still seemed like her only purpose was to help people. Dorian missed that Nehemia never got to help her with magic, and Celaena despite her cries of what an amazing woman she had been, only seems to want her for Nehemia to do things for her. It was annoying how little this character was and how underplayed it had been, even after death she wasn’t even a person but more like a thing that did stuff:

“Nehemia should have been here—to help with Yellowlegs and the riddle, to tell her what to do with Chaol, to smile as Celaena played something particularly clever for her.”

Look at that quote, do you feel the love there? Because I don’t. Everytime Celaena remembers her is to miss the things Nehemia did for her, not the person in itself. The only POC in the story was reduced to nothing but a plot device, the narration itself acknowledges it:

Nehemia had engineered her own death, knowing that she might change the world—change Celaena—more through dying than living.

Considering what I know, without having read the next two books, was Nehemia’s death really worth it? So far no, her death was not necessary for the plot or Celaena to change. Again, I haven’t read the next two books but for what I can see right now Nehemia was nothing but a woman in refrigerator, dying so that another character can change from her pain, diminishing her horrible death and everything she had accomplished in life to serve for someone else’s development, and that’s just too fucking sad. Look what the author did, ruined perhaps one of the best characters she had in this series to try and make Celaena cooler, instead of simply, you know, being a better writer and not needing to kill your only POC to make an assassin actually kill.

Predictability:

Apparently, it was supposed to be a surprise Celaena turning out to be the lost fairy Princess? I thought it had been made clear in Throne of Glass at the end with this scene:

“Thank you for saving my life.”

Elena bowed her head. “Blood ties can’t be broken,” she whispered, and then vanished, her words echoing in the silent tomb.”

I mean, Celaena wondered why the half-fairy-human Queen had chosen her to get rid of the evil, and it was made pretty clear in this scene that Elena saved her because they are related, which means Celaena has royal blood which indicates she’s the lost Princess.

But no, just like in the last book with the mystery of the very obvious “Cain is the freaking killer”, the author drops some very obvious hints at Celaena being the lost Princess such as having the Champion almost fainting at the mention of Aelin and her being absolutely sure that, if there was an Aelin out there gathering an army, she had to be an impostor. There was no way for Celaena to react that way unless she were the Princess so, even if I had missed the clue on the first book, there was no freaking way I would be oblivious to it up until the VERY END OF THE GODDAMMEND STORY.

Seriously, there are mysteries that you kip hidden until it is the right moment. You can give the readers little clues for them to figure it out on their own but enough doubt for them to be surprised when the revelation comes. There was none of that here, Sarah J Mass is as subtle as a punch in the face with her clues. She could have put enough hints to make us think that… I don’t know Celaena was actually a friend of the Princess and the two of them grew up together, only for her to have seen the poor girl being murdered, explaining how she knew any other Aelin would be an impostor. Mass could have also compared the loss of that first childhood friend to this more mature relationship she had with Nehemia, only to reveal at the end that she was the Princess and the one who had died was her friend. IDK something!

Instead we got this… thing.

The second part was a bit more interesting, though I hate the way it happened, it was more interesting to read about Celaena actually doing something that wasn’t her romance plot, she got to kill and torture people and that was fun.

Dorian:

The crown Prince was by far my most hated character of book one but in Crown of Midnight he actually got interesting and I cared a little about what happened to him. His realization that he had magic and the fear that his father would kill him felt very real and it was nice to explore a different aspect of his personality, seeing him care about the things his father was doing rather than turning a blind eye on it and keep on being a misogynistic pig.

That being said, I still have no idea on why he was so in love with Celaena and why he still has a crush on her? But I’m glad they are friends.

Chaol:

Dude, what happened to you? Chaol was the one character I liked from ToG but here… what happened??!

Chaol’s plot was being engrossed with the developing romantic relationship between him and Celaena. That and obeying a few of his King’s commands was pretty much all he ever got to do. In a way it was interesting to see his struggle trying to reconcile his feelings for the Champion while knowing how his best friend felt about her. Chaol kept saying how he wouldn’t do that to his friends and yadda and yadda, only for him to go and sleep with Celaena without giving it a second thought. He went from caring about his friend to forgetting he ever existed. The Chaol/Dorian interaction was kept to a minimum and I kind of missed it.

The romance between him and Celaena… ugh I was it a fan of it. I don’t know what went wrong with Chaol but he turned into such an asshat in this book! Hardly a dialogue went by between him and Celaena in which he wasn’t yelling/snarling or basically controlling everything she did:

“Believe me, Celaena,” he snarled, his eyes flashing.”

“He leaned over the bed, bracing his hands on the mattress as he snarled in her face. “Yes. I’ll deal with it.”

“Chaol stood in the hallway, his bronze eyes traveling down the front of her dress, then up again. “You’re not wearing that.””

This was how I pictured Chaol everytime he talked to Celaena:

Really, he pissed me off. Sure, he had his good moments but I wish we could have the Chaol from the first book, not this controlling asshole.

The things I always rant about:

Why do characters keep keeping secrets from one another? This way of creating tension by not having characters communicate pisses me off.

First there is Chaol, not telling anybody about the treat to Nehemia’s life because the King asked him to. Sure Chaol trusted Celaena with his life and he was willing to leave everything behind, everything he had sacrificed to have a life with him… but he won’t tell her that her friend’s life is in danger because…?....???????????????????????????????????????????

That was a really dumb move, and I understand why Celaena was mad at him. If she had known, at least she could have had a choice, be more alert, be useful somehow. But by not telling her Chaol took away any chance she might have had of saving her friend, and that’s something you don’t forget right away, if you forget at all.

However, why is Celaena not telling Chaol that the King threatened to kill him? Same goes for when she was faking all of those people’s deaths but not telling her friends because… emm well, because why? What reason could she have? Her not telling Nehemia and Chaol was the same as Chaol not saying about Nehemia’s treat, so I don’t see why she keeps doing it at the end of the book, when she doesn’t tell Chaol what the King is capable of. Even if there is nothing he could do, at least he would know, and he would understand why she acts the way she does. But nooooo, let’s keep being idiots for the sake of stupid drama.

Despite its ups and downs (mostly downs) I’ll continue with this series because… well, I’m a fantasy whore and I’ll take it any way I can.

However, I still fail to see why this series is so loved. The world building is flat, the characters are meh, the love story OHHH MY GOOOODDDD THE LOVEE STORYYYYYYYYYYYYY I hate it. So far it’s nothing out of this world.

Hunting Monsters by S.L Huang

“Happy birthday, child. Careful not to shoot any grundwirgen.”

Ever since she was a small girl, she has learned to be careful on the hunt, to recognize the signs that separate regular animals from human-cursed grundwirgen. To harm a grundwirgen is a crime punishable by death by the King's decree - a fatal mistake that her Auntie Rosa and mother have carefully prepared her to avoid.

On her fifteenth birthday, when her mother is arrested and made to stand trial for grundwirgen murder, everything she thought she knew about her family and her past comes crashing down.

Auntie Rosa has always warned her about monsters. Now, she must find and confront them to save her mother, no matter the cost.

Rating: 4/5 Stars

I loved this short story by S. L. Huang!

Xiao Hong has known how to hunt since she was a little girl, but she has always been thought the same thing: never shoot a grundwirgen.

Grundwirgen are all thinking animals whether they are cursed, able to shift between human and beast form at will or animals born with the ability to think like humans. Killing them is punishable by death for it is equal than killing a human, so every hunter has to know exactly how to spot them and differentiate them from regular animals, if they are killed by accident it doesn’t matter, the crime and punishment is the same. When Xiao’s mother is taken away from her home and accused of killing a Grundwirgen knowingly, she’ll uncover her mother’s and aunt’s secret past.

I loved the diverse cast, and the focus it had on abusive relationships:

“He knew what to do. How to control. He played with your mother’s emotions with kindnesses, was a perfect gentleman between bouts of temper—and even then he never physically touched her. He convinced her that he cared for her, that she should care for him. Guilted and shamed her. He told her if she left him, he’d die.”

Lately I’ve started reading more and more short stories, all of them wonderful. Hunting Monsters was no exception!

This story was published by The Book Smugglers and you can read for free here or you can buy the ebook!

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Meghan Chase has a secret destiny; one she could never have imagined.

Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan's life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school or at home.

When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she's known is about to change.

But she could never have guessed the truth - that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she'll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil, no faery creature dare face; and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.


Rating: 1/5 Stars

I’ve tried to write a review for this book for a while now. I have about six or seven different drafts on my computer but I can never settle in one, so I’ll just write a little thing because I hate leaving that “full review to come” thing.

I didn’t like The Iron King, although that’s understatement considering the one star I gave it. When I was just starting out reading Young Adult books I kept hearing about TIK, everybody raved about it and it seemed to me, based on everyone’s opinions, to be one of the best fairy stories out there. Had I read it back then when I was sixteen, I would have probably loved it! Now not so much.

There was little I enjoyed about The Iron King, the writing was mediocre, the characters one-dimensional and the clichés abundant. I did like the world building but it was overpowered by how boring the story was.

Meghan was one of the worst female characters I have read about, she was sexist, awful, dumb, super speshiul without trying, dumb and dumb. Did I mention dumb??

Seriously they tell her not to go outside? She goes outside and almost dies.

They tell her not to trust someone? She trusts him and almost dies.

They tell her to pretend being someone? She doesn’t and I almost strangled her. Oh and she almost dies.

Both love interest were pretty boring too so yeah... there is nothing good I can say about this.

Soundless by Richelle Mead

In a village without sound…

For as long as Fei can remember, no one in her village has been able to hear. Rocky terrain and frequent avalanches make it impossible to leave the village, so Fei and her people are at the mercy of a zipline that carries food up the treacherous cliffs from Beiguo, a mysterious faraway kingdom. 

When villagers begin to lose their sight, deliveries from the zipline shrink. Many go hungry. Fei and all the people she loves are plunged into crisis, with nothing to look forward to but darkness and starvation.

One girl hears a call to action…

Until one night, Fei is awoken by a searing noise. Sound becomes her weapon.

She sets out to uncover what’s happened to her and to fight the dangers threatening her village. A handsome miner with a revolutionary spirit accompanies Fei on her quest, bringing with him new risks and the possibility of romance. They embark on a majestic journey from the peak of their jagged mountain village to the valley of Beiguo, where a startling truth will change their lives forever…

And unlocks a power that will save her people.


Rating: 2/5 Stars

Before I started Soundless I knew that there were a lot of mixed reviews, most of them negative so I didn’t have my hopes up but I still wanted to read this book because of the incredible premise:

Fei and everybody in her village are deaf. Nobody knows how it happened or why, but since they live on the top of a mountain and the unstable cliff makes it impossible for them to climb down, they have learned to live with it. Unable to grow food for themselves, the village survives by exchanging food for the metals they mine from the mountain with another town, but with more people going blind the metals they can get are reduced, and so is the food. When Fei wakes up one day and is able to hear she’ll embark on a journey down the mountain to help her people and finally discover why everybody but her can’t hear.

As I said, the premise was fantastic, but the execution was sadly lacking. Instead of hearing one would think Fei can’t see because the descriptions are simply not there. Fei loves flowers and pretty, colorful things and she’ll bang us over the head with how much she wants to paint those things but can’t afford to, leaving the rest of her village completely unattended. What did other people look like? The place she lived and studied at? What about their clothing, make up or hairstyle? There were a few mentions of robes and how poor quality the fabric was because they didn’t get new ones but that’s it. The author had a wonderful opportunity to create a vivid tale based on Chinese folklore and all we got was… a mountain and mentions of arts?

The world building itself left a lot to be desired. There are three kinds of jobs, miners, artists (who record things that happen for posterity) and servants. Why those are the only three jobs available it’s not explained and why the heck are the artists the “elite” and better paid ones baffles me too. Miners are the ones with the biggest responsibility, take metal from the mountain so they can exchange it for food, no metals=no food= no people and yet they are the worst paid ones! They get the smallest amount of food rations, even though they perform the heaviest work! I mean sure, I get that recording for the future generations is important and I’m glad that art is taken seriously and all… but try to feed from those painted scrolls when all the freaking food stops coming because you starved the miners to death! Seriously, it’s dumb and the only reason it was made that way was for it to be “social injustice” in the book.

In fact, Fei is in love with her childhood friend but they can’t be together because artist only marry other artists… why exactly? Oh yeah, so Fei and Li Wei could have a star-crossed romance and defy society in their struggle to be together!!!!

No thank you. I wasn’t a fan of Fei as a main character either. She was always getting speechless or frozen in place by something dumb and saying how badly she wants to do something but can’t.

“Elder Lian comes to a stop beside my sister, and I am frozen where I stand, unable to help her.”

“I want to tell them this is only temporary. . . but I can say and do nothing as the servant escorts her out.”

I’m just not the greatest fan of that, it’s not fun to read about a character wanting to do something but unable because of.. reasons. Moreover, it always seemed like Fei’s problem were always more important than the rest, when she was in fact quite privileged.

“I take a deep breath, still having my own difficulties resigning myself to Zhang Jing’s fate. She is going to become a household servant at the Peacock Court.

He stares at me in confusion and then throws up his arms in disbelief. That is your big decision? To move her to a comfortable, safe job, where she’ll be well fed and face no risks? You actually deliberated about that and think you have anything in common with me or the other miners?”

Really, her sister losing her job as an artist doesn’t sound comparable to losing your life.

As far as the idea of getting your hearing after spending your entire life unable to hear a sound… well the author didn’t do a good job there either. Fei discovers one day she can hear things, or that’s what she suspects, so she goes to the library and reads three scrolls on the matter and she’s suddenly capable of understanding everything and differentiating all kinds of sounds which is impossible. And instead of telling someone she could hear, she keeps it to herself! Why you may ask? I’ve got no freaking idea either, because it added “suspense” to the story having Fei keeping that secret, I guess? I just didn’t care.

The pace of the story was incredibly slow and boring, even when things were happening it was still boring because Fei had to tell us how something looked or how her heart felt (what was it about her heart?? Why did it have separate feelings from her??).

I skimmed to the end and found that nothing really interesting happened except inserting a bit of fantasy into the story, but nothing else.

Overall a pretty boring and unremarkable read. I give it two stars for the wonderful premise but the book itself had nothing interesting new or entertaining.

Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes

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