After finishing Aurora Rising I was incredibly excited to read the sequel. But I was also slightly apprehensive as I enjoyed the first one so much and I didn’t want to be let down as sequels are rarely as good as the first book, however I was not let down. Aurora Burning had the same level of pace and excitement as the first book and was a great addition to the series.
Continue reading “Aurora Burning Review”
I have wanted to read this ever since I first saw it on instagram and it immediately jumped out to me. It came in beautiful packaging with a pronunciation and definition guide and this gorgeous book plate. And the only information about it on their website was a paragraph starting with “the octunnumi does not exist” with no reference to the plot of the book at all making me want to read it even more.
Continue reading “Octunnumi review”
I have been wanting to read this for a while and I have to say it did not disappoint. The start was a bit slow but once you get into it it’s very hard to put down and the ending leaves you craving the next book.
Continue reading “King of Scars (Review)”
I got this book having seen it all over Instagram and I did not expect to like this book as much as I did as I am not really a fan of science fiction, but oh wow am I glad I read it. When I say I loved it, I mean immediately going to get the next one as soon as I finished loved it. It was just so captivating that I just couldn’t put it down. I would highly recommend this even to those who aren’t fans of science fiction as it’s a great read.
Continue reading “Aurora Rising (Review)”
So I got these pins from Felfira Moon Designs and I have to say I’m in love. I ordered 3 Grisha pins: the Corpsewitch, the Alkemi and the Inferni. And the “I read past my bedtime” pin.
These pins are perfect to go with the release of Netflix’s Shadow and Bone series. They are beautifully designed and the packaging is gorgeous. Mine were of a very high quality and were delivered quickly. She ranks her pins of varying quality so there are affordable options for those on a budget. I have to say that my personal favorites are the Alkemi pin and the “I read past my bedtime pin.”
For those wanting to get their own I will link the website here.
Author: Stephanie Garber
Series: Caraval
Remember it’s all a game. What happens beyond this gate may frighten or excite you, but don’t let it trick you
Review:
I both loved this book and found it incredibly annoying. You start off with sisters Tella and Scarlet who live on the conquered isle of Trisda. Who has it been conquered by? It doesn’t say. Does this have any impact on the residents? I honestly couldn’t tell. It is briefly glossed over but I feel like this is one of many things that could have been expanded on to give more depth to the world and therefore story.
Well Tella and Scarlet live with their abusive father and one day they receive tickets to Caraval which essentially is this massive, magical, performance, scavenger hunt type event in which you usually have to find some kind of item by the end and if you win there is some kind of prize. So they run away from home and go, but when they get there Tella disappears and it turns out that she is what people have to find this year.
I really enjoyed the plot of the story, I thought it was incredibly captivating and I could not put it down, I managed to get through the whole book in one day. However there were some aspects of it that were mildly irritating. Some of the events that happened didn’t seem to actually have any importance to the overall plot, they were interesting don’t get me wrong, however I couldn’t see how they actually fit in. Also the ending really annoyed me, it essentially undid all the good aspects of the world building and backstories and the relationships that the main characters developed. When I first finished it I was a little disappointed but after a couple of hours I found myself with the urge to read it again as the rest of the plot was very well thought out and just captivating. Overall it was just a very cool idea and concept that in general was excecated very well.
The character development was amazing. All the characters were well fleshed out, in particular I loved the development that Scarlet went through, she really grew and changed over the course of the book. I found Tella quite annoying there were times when she made me think “God how stupid and selfish can one character be”. But by the end I didn’t fully like her but I didn’t have any strong negative feelings towards her.
All in all I loved this book but it could have been improved by some minor plot changes, a better ending and a lot more world building.
I’m so happy that we can safely go back into bookstores, here is everything I bought when I finally went.
Caraval (Stephanie Garber)
I’ve been wanting to read this for a while and I’m very excited to just dive into it. From what I’ve heard its incredibly good and I just think it is such a cool concept.
Nevernight (Jay Kristoff)
I picked this book up knowing nothing about it, I read the back and thought it seemed very cool. It gave off Throne of Glass vibes so I thought I’d give it a try. The cover also seems very curious and I’m looking forward to picking apart any Easter eggs that are in there once I’ve read the book
The Priory of the Orange Tree (Sammantha Shannon)
I’ve heard great things about this book but it is a long one so it may be a while before I actually get around to reading it because it is very intimidating. However I just love the cover it is just so beautiful.
King of Scars (Leigh Bardugo)
I am so excited to have finally bought this book. I adored the rest of the books in the Grisha Verse and I am so happy to be getting more content with Nina and Nikolai as those were my favourite characters from the other books
Aurora Rising (Amie Kaufman, Jay Krisroff)
I don’t usually read science fiction but I’ve seen this one all over instagram lately and it’s such a beautiful book that I thought I’d give it a try to see what it was like. I’ve heard good things about it but I don’t know much about the plot so I am quite excited to try it out
Author: Holly Black
Series: The folk of the air
Review:
I honestly don’t understand all the hype around this book. I went into it really expecting to enjoy it however I was incredibly disappointed.
The start was promising, however it just went downhill from there. The main bulk of the book appeared to be just filler, it was essentially drivel that had nothing to do with the main event that happened at the end. And when it got to the final few chapters everything seemed to just happen at once and it just felt rushed, almost as if the author suddenly realized nothing was happening in her book and was trying to scramble to cram something in at the end.
Overall it just felt sloppy. There was no character development, the world building wasn’t great and it just didn’t engage me. Most importantly most of the events that happened were just forgettable.
I was hoping that it would get better in the later books but upon attempting to read the second one I realized that I was completely wrong. I got about two chapters in before I gave up and decided that I would not put myself through another one of these books.
Author: Sarah J. Mass
Series: A court of thorns and roses
Review:
I absolutely loved this book, I was looking forward to it for so long and it did not disappoint. I had a few issues but those were more to do with the author and not the actual story. The first one was the cover change, it really annoyed me that the covers were changing mid series as now if I want my collection to match I will have to buy a whole other set of the exact same books and I feel like this was done just to make more money off people like me and many others who want their books of the same series to match each other. The second issue was the fact that three copies of the books were released the regular one, and two with different extra scenes. I understand releasing a second version with a deleted scene but, especially one of them, seemed to have content that may be referenced in future books. Again this just seemed like another money grab to try and get as much money off them as possible by getting them to buy multiple versions of the books.
Now that’s out of the way let’s get on to the actual book. I went into this with not a very high opinion of Nesta, I wouldn’t say I hated her she just wasn’t one of my favorites and I didn’t like the way she had treated other characters, especially Feyre in the previous books. But within the first few chapters of acosf I began to really like her. In fact it made me dislike a lot of the characters I previously loved at the start just because of how horribly they were treating her. Throughout this book she begins to grow and heal from events in the other books. I also loved the two new characters that you meet (Gwyn and Emerie) and I think its great how Nesta has her own group of friends rather than just being put into the inner circle. I think it really shows her growth and allowed her to become her own person.
Overall this is a great book, however I would not recommend to anyone who is not used to reading smut as this book is packed with it and it’s more present than in the other books in the series.
Also check out this beautiful pin that came from preordering the book. I am absolutely in love its just so cool.
Izzy the Bookworm 