The Bitter Kingdom

I have raved (in the reviews of book one and two) about how amazing this book’s heroine is- I will now move on to her other half. Swoon-some Hector. Yes- like 90% of the female population reading this series, I am completely in love with Hector. Like a lot. Like, I’d give up coffee forever to have him for my own.

I love coffee like Sméagol loves the ring. Just to put that in perspective.

Seriously, Hector may be one of the best written male leads in the HISTORY OF WRITING. Dangerously close to Mr. Thornton and Mr. Darcy. He manages to pull off being dutiful, strong, honor bound, restrained, wise, a wonderful warrior, and mysteriously brooding AND at the same time he is tender and loving and protective and where the hell is my Hector?!

However, I do have tiny complaints. Having Hector’s POV in this book weakened him IMO. I didn’t feel like his character was developed enough to provide as amazing of a POV as Elisa does. Unfortunately his segments were sandwiched in between Elisa’s, and in contrast they just seemed weak.

Another complaint I had was the mines. It just felt like a mash up of Lord of the Rings and Hunger Games, providing scorpions instead of Tracker Jackers, and mines vs the mines of Moria.

Okay- on to what I loved! Everything!! This book was fantastic. Elisa continues to grow as a character and I died when this scene happened:

“You look beautiful,” Alodia says.

“I startle at the complement. Then I smile, “I’m beautiful to the one person who matters.”

“She nods. “Hector’s mouth will drop open when he sees you.”

“I hope so. But I meant me. I’m beautiful to me.”

That she says this to her sister is huge. For two and a half books Elisa has felt inferior to Alodia. Inferior in beauty, power, abilities. By book two she finders her own inner strength, but she doesn’t think she is beautiful. IN this book she finds herself beautiful, signaling that she has completed her journey of self-confidence and growth. And I loved it.

Ximena. OMG. The tears when she whispered, “My sky…” I should have guessed she was going to die after Elisa didn’t need her any more, but still. It hurt more than I thought it was going to.

In conclusion, this is a wonderful series, the best I have read in quite some time. Everyone who loves fantasy, who teeters the gap between YA and adult should read it. Five stars for sure.

Crown of Embers

A while ago I freaked out about The Girl of Fire and Thorns. Honestly one of the best books I have ever read. I lament that it has taken me so long to read the second installment, but it was missing from my library for a while and of COURSE the bookstore only had books 1 and 3. But finally I have read it.

This book was amazing. Like “I’m so hungry. Must cook dinner, but I cannot put this book down. Okay- I’ll cook with one hand!” kind of amazing. The writing is sublime. As I mentioned in my review of the first book, “I read slowly because the writing was beautiful and I didn’t want to miss a single word. Honestly some of the best writing I have ever encountered.” This book was the same. The love triangle disappeared, thankfully. And her story blossoms.

Book two did not have as much character development as the first. I think Carson was more focused on developing the love story. But I am completely fine with that <3

And…

The only complaint I had with the story was with the execution of a character. We were introduced to this particular character, emotional ties were constructed, but the character was killed before we were able to really feel those ties. I wish we had been given a chance to love the character- to really feel the emotions between the two before he was killed. I was sad-ish when this character died, but not devastated because those emotional connections had not yet taken hold in me.

The book of course left off with a killer cliff hanger, so I am dying to know what happens next. I am running down to the library to get book 3 as soon as I get off work today. Even though I am in the middle of reading The Words of Radiance. (Please don’t murder me Katie <3)

Five stars. Because this book was fantastic!!

Crown of Midnight

First of all, I would like to apologize for not updating in a while!! I promise I have been reading, I just have been neglecting to blog about the books :/

I read this book a while ago, but wanted to make sure I posted about it because of my violent reaction to it. Seriously, Crown of Midnight is the best book I have read this year. This may eventually be overshadowed by the brilliance of The Words of Radiance, but as I have not yet finished reading it, Crown of Midnight still has that distinction.

For some of you who read my blog often, you will remember that I read book one a while back. I had heard wonderful things about it, and I enjoyed it, though I did not enjoy the love triangle. This caused me to give the books 4 stars, which is still high, but not what I had expected to give it.

This book blew me away. With hurricane winds and tornado spirals. I think I may have seen Dorothy and the Witch of the West while being carried away. I was carried to the clouds, smashed on the ground, and then crawled out of the wreckage…grinning. And crying a tiny bit inside too.

From approximately page 1.5 this was me…

For fear of ruining the twists and turns of this book, I will not reveal anything about it. But I will advocate that everyone from YA, New Adult, and Adult reading genres who enjoy fantasy should read this series. NOW.

I award this fantastic, mind-blowing book five stars. But only because one cannot have a physical representation of 6 stars out of 5. Because that is what I would like to award it. Because it’s bloody brilliant.

Now go and devour Crown of Midnight. You can thank me later ;)

Have you read this book? Let me know what you thought of it!!

Stardust

I feel a tiny bit like I have failed in being a fantasy-loving English major. How have I managed to reach the age of 23 and NOT read anything by Neil Gaiman? Perplexing.

I have to admit, I really only read this because I was introduced to its existence through the movie. But I think that is not such a bad thing as the movie is one of the more well done renditions of the “book to movie” trend. Of course there were things left out, things changed, things omitted, things added. But such is the way of transferring from media to media.

And Robert De Niro plays Captain Shakespeare wonderfully.

The writing was clear, easy to read, and enjoyable. It was rather…odd to get used to the frequent mention of urinating in the book. It is just one of those things that books tend to avoid- whether because it is unimportant to the plot, or whether it is understood and just not stated. But Gaiman states it. Frequently. I’m all-a-puzzle about his reasons.

Anyway. The story was diverting, as is the movie. The characters had just enough comedy, romance, adventure, and spunk. It was a short read, and definitely worth the time.

I do not see why he is one of the more famous writers of fantasy, though I did think his writing was good. I will read another of his books, but his writing did not send me in a tizzy to the closest bookstore for another sample of his writing.

This book is a firm 4 star book. There are some lapses where the action drops, but overall this book is fantastic.

Read it. And then watch the movie :)