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Hello readers, welcome to my blog, Booking Around! Here you will find book reviews and discussions!
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Crown of MidnightTitle: Crown of Midnight Author: Sarah J. Maas Publication Date: August 27th, 2013 Publisher: Bloomsbury Category: Young Adult Genre: High Fantasy Star Rating: 5 out of 5 Summary: 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 This is the second book in the Throne of Glass series. If you have not yet read the first book, Throne of Glass, then you can read my review HERE. I do not recommend reading this review if you have not yet read the first book. This review will not contain spoilers for Crown of Midnight but it will for Throne of Glass. Thoughts:
This sequel was fantastic and the feel, OH MY GOD- THE FEEELLLSSS. Crown of Midnight was so much better then Throne of Glass. I'm only on the second book and am already so attached to these characters, it's crazy how Maas does that to you. Now that Celaena is the King's Champion her life is different. Here biggest problem is the pressing list of people to assassinate without loosing sight of herself and her true motives. She is forced to revert back to the cold-hearted Adarlan's Assassin that everyone knows her by in order to keep the King happy. Throne of Glass flowed really well, we got to know our characters and there motives. There was twists and turn but we were typically able to see them coming or Maas had laid it out for us to expect them- well this wasn't the case with Crown of Midnight. This book was like being on a roller coaster ride blind-folded. You're being whipped around turns, through crazy spirals, thrown through loops, all without being able to see what's coming. This book started with what felt like a blank slate. Sarah left nothing laid out on the table for us when we opened Crown of Midnight up. The mysteries and trouble that lie ahead were completely unknown to us until we were in the moment. The characters really open up in this book. We get to see that they aren't perfect. They make mistakes and make wrong decision that test their strengths and abilities. We are shown that they do have weakness and have to figure out how to rise up despite them. “But death was her curse and her gift, and death had been her good friend these long, long years.” Celeana is a badass. She still remains the sassy, arrogant Celeana we all know and love but we get to see a wild deadly side of her too. When it comes to revenge she is lethal. She still has a heart though and when her friends are threatened she lets nothing get in her way of keeping them safe and is unforgiving while doing so. "She was a whirlwind of steel and blood. As he watched her cut through the men like they were stalks of wheat in a field, he understood how she had gotten so close to touching Endovier’s wall that day. And at last—after all these months—he saw the lethal predator he’d expected to find in the mines. There was nothing human in her eyes, nothing remotely merciful. It froze his heart." Dorian Havilliard and Celeana Sardothian. They're seriously what would seem to be the most unlikely friends but I feel their friendship really works. I love Dorian's banter with Celeana. He puts up this alpha-male act with her and she's just so nonchalant about it, as if Dorian isn't to be a ruler. He has such a great personality that you can't help but love him. In this book Celeana and Chaol begin to get close, as in real close. It makes things awkward a bit strained when it comes to their relationship with Dorian. After Throne of Glass it's evident that Dorian views Celeana as more then a friend but she doesn't reciprocate those feelings. And to be quite honest, I'm okay with that because I hardcore ship her with Chaol. I adore Dorian, just not with her. I've had a thing for Chaol the moment he took Celeana from Endovier and brought her to Dorian. “The rest of the world quieted into nothing. In that moment, after ten long years, Celaena looked at Chaol and realised she was home.” Nehemia plays a big role in this book too in trying to aid Celeana as well. “Why are you crying?" "Because," she whispered, her voice shaking, "you remind me of what the world ought to be. What the world can be.” -Nehemia There are so many plot twists in this book that it's honestly hard to review around them. This is turning out to be a series I really enjoy and will highly recommend! Note: Sorry if this review is choppy, I wrote it after I read the entire series as I was trying not to mix details from the other books! The downfall of zooming through a series and not writing my review after each individual book... lesson learned. maybe. lol
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A Court of Wings and RuinTitle: A Court of Wings and Ruin
Author: Sarah J. Maas Publication Date: May 2nd, 2017 Publisher: Bloomsbury Category: New Adult Genre: High Fantasy Star Rating: 5 out of 5 Synopsis: Feyre has returned to the Spring Court, determined to gather information on Tamlin's maneuverings and the invading king threatening to bring Prythian to its knees. But to do so she must play a deadly game of deceit-and one slip may spell doom not only for Feyre, but for her world as well. As war bears down upon them all, Feyre must decide who to trust amongst the dazzling and lethal High Lords-and hunt for allies in unexpected places. Today's Favorite Five Friday is based off of my five favorite book covers! I just adore all of these covers so much and I'm not going to lie, I sometimes tend to judge a book by its' cover at time. So, for me an appealing cover in important! As Ben from Colleen Hoover's November 9 says, "People say not to judge a book by its cover, but what if you somehow read the inside of the book without seeing the cover first? And what if you really liked what was inside that book? Of course when you go to close the book and are about to see the cover for the first time, you hope it’s something you’ll find attractive. Because who wants an incredibly written book sitting on their bookshelf if they have to stare at a shitty cover?” 1. A Poison Dark and Drowning2. A Court of Wings and Ruin3. It Ends With Us4. Lady Midnight5. A Crown of WishesRoseBloodTitle: RoseBlood Author: A.G. Howard Publication Date: January 10th, 2017 Publisher: Harry N. Abrams Category: Young Adult Genre: Fantasy Retelling Star Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Synopsis: In this modern day spin on Leroux’s gothic tale of unrequited love turned to madness, seventeen-year-old Rune Germain has a mysterious affliction linked to her operatic talent, and a horrifying mistake she’s trying to hide. Hoping creative direction will help her, Rune’s mother sends her to a French arts conservatory for her senior year, located in an opera house rumored to have ties to The Phantom of the Opera. At RoseBlood, Rune secretly befriends the masked Thorn—an elusive violinist who not only guides her musical transformation through dreams that seem more real than reality itself, but somehow knows who she is behind her own masks. As the two discover an otherworldly connection and a soul-deep romance blossoms, Thorn’s dark agenda comes to light and he’s forced to make a deadly choice: lead Rune to her destruction, or face the wrath of the phantom who has haunted the opera house for a century, and is the only father he’s ever known. My Thoughts:
When I first heard that A.G. Howard was writing a new book I was absolute ecstatic because I loved her Splintered series. Then when I found out that she was doing a Phantom of the Opera retelling? Well that was icing on the cake! Coming into Roseblood I was super excited to have a new twist on one of my favorite classic love stories! I also thought, who better to write it then A.G. Howard? Although I was sad to be a little bit disappointed that it took me about half way into the book to really start loving it.. I have given Roseblood a 3.5 star review out of 5 stars for a couple of reasons; starting out this book I felt that there was a lot of similarities to A.G. Howard's other series, Splintered. The similarities bothered me a little bit. I'm not going to go into details about those similarities because I don't want to spoil things from Splintered or Roseblood. I also felt that there was so much detail about the school that I found some of it to be a bit excessive. Due to this, it took me about 175 page to really get into this book. The main character Rune, bothered me slightly in the beginning too but she grew as a person as the book went on and grew on me too. I love A.G. Howard's work but I'm not going to lie, the beginning had me a little bit disappointed because I had expected to be drawn in more then I was. Although, I did enjoy Roseblood and even though I had some minor issue with it, there was still a lot to like! As we got more into the story line, I did feel that the plot started to pick up and become more intriguing with the mystery Phantom aspect of it. Howard also threw in a cool incubus intake to the plot which I thought was creative. I liked how she entwined it with the characters and plot line. Even though it took some time for Rune to grow on me, I liked her love interest from the very beginning! He was no Morpheus but definitely likable! I have to say, the name "Rune" is very different and despite the fact that a lot of people don't like it, I love it! Rune goes through a lot, after a death in her family music seems to be more of a curse for her then anything. We get to see her really develop as a character and adapt to turning her music into something positive. Due to her past she feels as if no one would like her but it seems to be just the contrary, to her surprise. She ends up with a small group of amazing friends that always have her back, even then things are a bit amiss between them. She really grows from beginning to end with the help and support of her friends! “I need to know why I’m so broken, so I can fix myself. One way or another. Maybe this place can help me do that, and then I can finally look forward to my future. Because I’m starting to realize there’s something worse than stepping up and facing your fears – and that’s living as if you’re already dead.” The chemistry between Rune and her love interest, Thorn, is pretty intense and when they realize that they've known each other prior to Roseblood, more starts to click into place between them. Thorn has such an amazing, caring heart despite the cruel hand he was dealt as a child. It's really nice to see him overcome his upbringing to be the person he knows he can be, not just for his own sake but for Runes'. Even if it mean making difficult decisions. "He understood her pain. Her energies were unbalanced. He had the ability to help her. Her song never broke her in his visions. Instead, her sonf was her power, because he played for her." I really enjoyed the dark tone this book gave off and Howard's take on The Phantom of the Opera. Even though I had my set of issues with this book, I still enjoyed the writing and became really hooked towards the end! I do encourage you to pick this up and give it a shot yourself. After all, my opinions may be different then yours and the excess detail that I found slightly boring, you might find super intriguing! "Guard your throats and hide your eyes. He's not dead, you fools. Legends never die." |
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Short BiographyMy name is Devynn, I'm a 18 year old girl who resides in sunny Southern California. Most of my time is spent with my nose stuck in a book or on the back of a horse. I love the outdoors and hiking, specifically in the spring when everything is blooming and beautiful! Archives
November 2017
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