I found this tag on KaypuccinoReads’s blog (her blog is so cute, go check it out)
I wasn’t tagged or anything but since I’m new to blogging I thought I’d give it a go and let you know more about my book life.
1 – Why did you start this blog?
I initially started this blog because I wanted an outlet to express my bookish opinions but one that was completely me. I wanted to create my own designs and stuff because I enjoy graphic design. And reading books. So doing two things I really enjoy? It was definitely on my list.
I know it could use a little work but it’s a new challenge so I’m all for it!
Plus, this blog allows me to gain and practice some skills; web design, graphic design, reviewing skills, communication skills, computing skills, time management skills, organisation skills, photography skills, English skills. Loads of benefits from having a blog.
2 – What are some fun and unique things you can bring to book blogging?
Well occasionally I make my own memes.
I hope to bring about new perspectives in the bookish world. I hope to influence and aspire more people to read books or to incorporate variety into their reading tastes.
3 – What are you most excited for about this blog?
Im most excited about getting to express my opinion about books, working with other people, sharing my love for books.
4 – Why do you love reading?
That’s like asking why do I breathe. BECAUSE I NEED TO LIVE!!
Just kidding, I love love LOVEEEE reading because I love reading about different characters and exploring the author’s mind through their works.
Also it’s pretty cool to disappear into Narnia for a while.
5 – What series got you into reading?
A little hard to say because I’ve been reading ever since I could walk but I’d say the first proper novel I ever read might have been Harry Potter.
6 – What questions would you ask your favorite authors?
What is your favourite sound?
Because no one asks that question and the answers would be interesting.
But a question for Garth Nix would be WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO GET THE KEYS TO THE KINGDOM REPUBLISHED??!!! I’M GOING CRAZY I CAN’T FIND A SET OF THAT SERIES ANYWHERE!!!!
But like in a nicer way of course.
7 – What challenges do you think starting a blog will be the hardest to overcome?
One of the hardest challenges would be getting people interested in my blog.
The other challenge would be writing fantastic reviews without upsetting people.
And another challenge would be to find the time to actually write good reviews.
And another is to figure out all the legal and technical stuff.
8 – When did you start reading?
Since very young, perhaps 4 years old.
9 – Where do you read?
Where don’t I read?
(Don’t answer that)
10 – What kind of books do you like to read?
Mainly fantasy but I love, sci-fi, historical fiction, humour and murder mysteries. Or any mysteries.
Like how to change the colour of the text on my blog. Huge mystery.
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Anyway I hope you enjoyed this post, if you’ve managed to read this far.
Don’t forget to check out the rest of my blog if you haven’t already.
Feel free to check out my goodreads and librarything pages linked below.
If you’re a wordpress user, feel free to follow me.
And leave a comment, did you enjoy this post? Do you enjoy my reviews? What’s your favourite sound?
Hi all! Today I will be reviewing a ya book called Marie Antoinette serial killer by Katie Alender.
I actually read this book a few months ago. I haven’t really completed any books recently besides the Falling Kingdoms series (see my previous post). I got a bit carried away on Netgalley and now I’ve got like 40 books to review (no exaggeration) so I’m still trying to catch up with that.
But enough of that, let’s jump into the review.
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Star Rating: ☆☆☆
Genre: YA
Pages: 298
Published: 2014
Synopsis: Colette is a young American girl who takes a trip to France as part of her French class. All is well with this trip; partying with her (questionable) best friends and dinner with her lovely French tour guide, Jules. That is, until she sees a ghost. Not to mention the strange murders that have been taking place in the area… Something strange is afoot and Colette finds herself caught up in it.
Disclaimer: I was not given this book for review, I bought it myself. My opinions are my own.
*May contain spoilers*
I’m not the best at summaries but I hope that was good enough.
This book started off a bit slow as it introduced the main character Colette and her terrible best friends. However, it does start to get interesting about a quarter through the book when Colette goes to France as part of her French class. There is a certain horror element to it, as you’ve probably guessed from the title of the book. If I had read this when I was 11 I probably would’ve been terrified.
It casts an interesting spin on the character of Marie Antoinette. Quite literally the descriptive question for this book would be: What if Marie Antoinette was a serial killer?
Now, I’ve learned a lot from this book. I’m not actually familiar with the history of Marie Antoinette, or anything generally to do with France so this book taught me a lot and gave me a refreshing point of view all while being extremely entertaining. There’s angst, romance, friendship issues, horror, all the things we love in a YA book.
It is mostly fictional with the exception of a few characters being based around real historical figures.
Obviously I don’t fit into the target audience or age category for this book so I found it to be a little predictable. The deaths particularly. Despite this, I enjoyed the sense of mystery in this book and the history and paranormal elements in this book. It had flashbacks to Marie Antoinette’s time period and that added to the mystery and suspense.
The characters that were being killed off, we knew very little about except that they were connected and although that added to the mystery, I felt disconnected from those characters due to the lack of information about them. There was one character however who popped up and showed us a little more about the type of people that were being killed off. It’s a little gruesome because you know…death but it’s not extreme. I’d perhaps reccomend it to 15 year olds? (Don’t quote me on that, that’s just my personal opinion).
Overall this book was enjoyable and believe it or not, got me out of a reading slump.
I dislike Magnus (lemme explain) but I’m really invested in this series now, I couldn’t stop reading it.
Its weird.
Lemme go through the boring stuff first, scroll down to find out my thoughts (promise I’ll explain about Magnus).
My Star rating: ☆☆☆☆
Genre: YA fantasy
Published: 2012
Format (that I read it in): e-book
Pages: 427 (ebook), 412 (hardback)
Series title: Falling kingdoms
Synopsis: Often referred to as the ‘YA GOT’ but I prefer to go in without comparing it to GOT (especially since I know nothing about GOT) as I imagine it would make many people have extremely high standards of this book which may affect your experience of it.
Anyway back to the synopsis: It follows three main kingdoms; Auranos, Paelsia and Limeros. Cleo is a princess who’s world quickly collapses around her. Magnus is the son of the King of Blood. Jonas swears to avenge his brothers death.
It follows several characters perspectives.
Disclaimer: I was not asked to review this book, I loaned it via the Libby app
Back to the fun part!
My thoughts on this book:
1. Theon and Cleo couldn’t have possibly been so close after a few scenes of interaction, his death was a little predictable (following the theme of loved ones dying) but still heart breaking 💔
2. I agree that Cleo is fiesty but damn she cries a lot (I don’t blame her 😬 *thinks of theon, the king of aurenos, emilia…*
3. A.k.a. The Reason Why I Dislike Magnus: Magnus was difficult to read about. I felt uncomfortable being inside his head and I didn’t care for the Limeros storyline as much. Also he killed poor Theon.
4. Jonas felt more of a main character besides Cleo. Which is not necessarily a bad thing since this book clearly follows more than one character. I used to hate books that were set out like this because it was confusing and hard to follow but I could follow this book with a fair amount of ease.
5. It takes a fair amount of pages for the action to really get going but the beginning is not bad.
***LEAVE THIS PAGE IF YOU HAVEN’T READ FALLING KINGDOMS AS THE NEXT FEW PARTS CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THE OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES ***
I recommend coming back to this page once you’ve read all the other books as it definitely contains spoilers.
Oh, you’re still here? Well, great! That either means you read the first book up there 👆 or you don’t mind spoilers. Or you have no interest in reading this book.
Well let’s move on shall we?
Rebel Springs by Morgan Rhodes book review ||book 2
Image source: Libby app
I decided to make this kinda like a vlog as in that I will tell you my thoughts while reading this series. It’s gonna be a little more informal but I will leave information about the books below the review/vlog so you can still check it out if you want. I didn’t intend to make it like this but holy cow I’m invested in this series, it really sucks me in. Obviously I’m going to be writing this over the period of a few weeks while I get through the series but it will be completed by the time I post this.
Disclaimer: I was not asked to review this book, I loaned it from the Libby app
I’ve just finished the second book in the falling kingdoms series and already I’ve borrowed the third book, Gathering Darkness from Libby.
The format is a little different which is kinda bothering me but never mind.
THIS BOOK!! Where do I begin?
Firstly let me say that when I finally get my dream home, with my dream home library, this series will be GOING STRAIGHT ON THAT SHELF! Despite my initial reservations, I really love this series now.
Only reason I’m not buying the whole set right now is that it’s wayyy expensive in my country.
But anyway back to the book.
Rebel Springs is the second book in the falling kingdoms series.
The basic synopsis (spoilers if u haven’t read the first book) is that Cleo is captured by King Gaius and forced to marry Prince Magnus, Lucia struggles with her power and Jonas becomes a rebel.
From the first page, this book captivated me and drew me in. I JUST HAD TO KNOW MORE. The character deaths were HEARTWRENCHING.
My hatred for Magnus while reading this lessened but I still don’t like him.
And if Cleo ends up liking him…
Then I’m gonna scream.
Because I still don’t forgive him for Theon.
Gathering Darkness by Morgan Rhodes review/thoughts || book 3
Image source: Libby app
…How did I finish this book in one day?! That’s a new record for me.
Especially since this book was 496 pages as an ebook.
Disclaimer: I was not asked to review this book, I loaned it from the Libby app
This book literally had plot twists at every corner. This is the series I’ve been looking for. It’s so refreshing to read a book that actually keeps you hooked, the amount of books I’ve struggled to read lately…is astounding.
This series is astounding.
This book is probably my favourite in the series.
But first of all, they killed off PETROS! WHY?! He seemed like he would’ve been useful in a rebel gang *facepalm*
Magnus has officially redeemed himself in my eyes, although I still don’t forgive him for Theon and I doubt Cleo would forget about that easily. Proved in her behaviour towards him.
The action sequences were mind blowing. I could see this as a movie before my eyes. It never occurred to me how much thought has to be put into writing an action scene until I attempted to write one myself. No easy feat, I tell you. EVERY action has to be described in such detail that the reader can see it happening and that’s exactly what the scenes in this book did.
If you read this book, expect loads of deaths. Usually by stabbings or you know, elementia (the magic system in this world).
I did find myself occasionally skipping Lucia’s parts as she seems to be my least favourite character (which is surprising because in the first book, Magnus was strongly my least favourite character). I find her character to be quite temperamental and she seems easily taken in by people. Naive or gullible may be the word, which is never how I thought I’d describe a powerful sorceress that can incinerate a person with a thought. However, I believe the character arc IS there and she’ll develop as the series goes along.
I can honestly say once this journey through the Falling Kingdoms series is over, I’m gonna be really lost. I may even have to go back and re read the whole series.
Apologies if the structure of these reviews are hectic. Perhaps I’ll do an overall summary review of the series after.
Of course I have many thoughts while I’m actually reading the book but I’m usually so sucked in the world that I don’t stop to write notes so I just write whatever I remember after.
Frozen Tides || book 4|| book review
So I’ve finished book 4 in the falling kingdoms series and I have to say it was good but not my favourite.
I’ll admit a lot happened in this book though so read on to find out my thoughts.
I’ll write my ratings for each book at the end of this post, after I read the last book in the series and post my thoughts. I’ll also leave links to buy the books after I do my last post on this series but generally you should be able to buy them from Amazon and book depository. Perhaps Wordery as well, I’ll check.
Disclaimer: I was not asked to review this book, I loaned it from the Libby app
Soooo…another book I read in one day…
Firstly THE CHARACTER ARCS ARE ALL IN THIS BOOK! This is where we see a real change in all the characters and watch them grow with each situation thrown at them.
Magnus, Lucia and Jonas and Cleo are the ones I feel go through the biggest character growth.
In this book, we can see Magnus change his actions and mindset because he comes to realise how much he disagrees with his father’s ways and how much he loves Cleo (a lot of hate to love and insta love in this series).
Personally I’m not 100% on his side but he rebelled against his father to save Cleo and that’s…something. As the series goes on it delves in the backstory of Magnus and Gaius so you can understand, as the reader, why they behave the way they do and I guess, to empathise with them a bit more. No villain is truly evil…right?
Lucia is a confused little soul; one minute she’s a typical perfect teen princess of a ruthless king then she runs off with her tutor and the next thing you know she’s helping a fire kindred to burn villages…
I feel that Lucia’s personality doesn’t change but her actions do. I prefer it like this because it makes Lucia feel more real. You can see a real change when she realises that what she’s doing is wrong. However, despite a change of actions her snappy personality is still shown. Even though she’s my least favourite character besides Amara’s grandmother, the characterisation is great.
Jonas. Jonas, Jonas, jonas. Why does he keep getting everyone killed?! Like not even once, a few times! He really has to brush up on battle strategy. But despite this, I feel he’s a lot different from that vengeance-driven farm boy we saw in book one. He’s a rebel, leading his own rebellion. He’s gained more skill, more wit about him. His moral compass…is getting there. He’s not a boy grieving for his older brother and blaming a princess, that didnt actually kill his brother, for killing his brother anymore. He’s found his purpose and makes his own destiny. And it’s all shown in this book.
Cleo is another kettle of fish altogether. It’s a bit confusing. She proved herself to be more than just a carefree princess so far. Even though she herself doesn’t do a lot of fighting. It’s still exciting to read her storyline though. Hers is the storyline I looked forward to the most as she is the main ‘golden girl’ I suppose. She’s the one who’s central to the story and connected to most of the characters so it was nice to see how she interacted with them.
Side characters that I (kinda) loved:
Felix – assassin. Great loveable lug. I’m rooting for this guy that wants to turn the tables around and be a different man.
Nerissa – how could you NOT love her, she’s so amazing! She’s sneaky and deceptive and loyal to Cleo. And she used to be a seamstress! She’s come so far, I’m so proud.
Mira – she was sweet and shy and TOTALLY didn’t deserve what happened to her
Lysandra – a real tough cookie who didn’t deserve that
HOW COULD I FORGET BRION?!
Theon and Taran – now I didn’t love these two but I just had to talk about them. If you’re confused, please excuse me, while I’m writing this I’m on the final book of the series so I honestly can’t remember which book Taran is from so if you’ve read this book and haven’t seen Taran…uh ignore this part. Theon was a bit…stoic. I feel like he was quite serious and I didn’t really connect with his character. I also feel his relationship with Cleo was…instalove. But that doesn’t mean I wanted him to die. It’s kinda the same with Taran, when he’s properly introduced as Theon’s (spoiler alert) twin he’s just so focused on revenge that even when we see his backstory I still couldn’t connect and empathise. His personality didn’t come through.
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….I somehow forgot to write about Crystal Storm (book 5).
…in fact some of the above may actually be from the fifth book instead.
*major facepalm*
You see what happens when you don’t stick to the reviewing schedule?
To be fair on my part, the books are set RIGHT after each other and so it flows in a way that you have to read the next book straight after.
Which is not a bad thing at all, it just makes writing series reviews confusing.
So in this section I’m gonna clarify exactly what’s in each book.
By writing the synopsis according to Goodreads. Always the way to go.
Synopsis of Frozen Tides (book 4) from Goodreads:
Rebels, royals, and monsters wage war over the Mytican throne in the shocking fourth book of the Falling Kingdoms series, from New York Times bestselling author Morgan Rhodes.
CLEO: Reeling after a bloody showdown in Limeros ending with Amara’s abduction of the water crystal, and a vacancy in the Mytican throne, Princess Cleo must cast aside her feelings and look toward her kingdom with the eyes of a Queen.
MAGNUS: With the kingdom in chaos, Princess Lucia still missing and quite possibly in danger, and a shocking realization about Cleo, the steely prince is once again torn between love and duty, leaving him wondering whether he’s strong enough to rule his people.
LUCIA: The young sorcercess has had her vengeance after the cruel death of her first and only love. Heartbroken and unable to trust anyone, she allies with the awoken Fire god, who also seeks revenge.
JONAS: After escaping death by the skin of his teeth, the defeated rebel—along with a mysterious stranger–leader reunites with Princess Cleo, only to find himself a mere pawn in a dangerous hunt for the elusive Kindred.
KING GAIUS: Abandoned by Melenia and betrayed by his own children, Gaius flees Mytica and sails to Kraeshia, where he attempts to ally with the famously brutal emperor across the Silver Sea.
[Source: goodreads.com]
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Phew glad that’s out the way.
Now for the synopsis of CRYSTAL STORM (book 5) from goodreads:
The ruthless Empress Amara of Kraeshia has taken the Mytican throne, and now uncertainty looms over the three kingdoms. Since Lucia unleashed the fire Kindred, wreaking havoc throughout the land, Myticans have been looking for someone—anyone—they can trust. They believe in Amara, not knowing her grand promises are built on lies.
In Paelsia, Magnus and Cleo reluctantly follow King Gaius to the home of his exiled mother, Selia. Selia is a powerful witch and claims she can help unlock the magic of the Kindred—ifthe visitors agree to her terms. When Jonas arrives from Kraeshia, he is shocked to find that his rebel army now includes his sworn enemies. Along with Nic, Felix, and the mysteriously resurrected Ashur, the contentious group agrees to cast aside old grudges—for now—and united against their common enemy: Amara.
Meanwhile, bearing the child of a Watcher and feared by all, Princess Lucia travels across Mytica to find her family. But time is running out. The impending storm signals the dark prophecy Timotheus warned her about. Her fate is written, and it includes none other than the rebel Jonas. When their paths collied, Jonas and Lucia must decide between blindly following their destiny or fighting for their own free will.
The battle for power culminates at the Paelsian palace, where Amara resides. Rain pours. Blood spills. And soon all will discover that the darkest magic comes at an even darker price.
[Source: goodreads.com]
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I hope that kinda cleared up where the stories are at.
I must say that these books are very character driven, given that you are often reading in the perspectives of many characters.
Please excuse my mix up, Crystal Storm was actually the one with a lot going on.
I’ll let you know my thoughts on this book and if it’s too confusing I may remake a separate post reviewing just these two books (books 4 and 5).
Crystal Storm || Falling Kingdoms book 5
Image source: Libby app
My thoughts on Crystal Storm (book 5):
…so…
…this is the one with that weird connection between Lucia and Jonas at the end.
This is probably the weirdest one out of all the books and if I’m honest I don’t really know what to make of it.
Lucia is still my least favourite character in the book. I admit there is growth with her character, which I appreciate but personally I don’t like her personality. It feels like she’s a bit all over the place.
The introduction to Selia was brilliant. She provides depth to the character of Gaius as it shows us his backstory. This lady is ruthless. I mean she chopped a guy’s finger off, for goodness sake! This book is NOT one for the squeamish. She’s also the typical mother who tries to gain control and power through her son’s reign. In fact there’s a little of this trope in the character of Neela, Amara’s grandmother (a.k.a my other least favourite character, again not to do with the way she’s written but the character herself). Everyone except Amara can see that she’s being controlled by her grandmother for her own selfish reasons. Fortunately we also lost Selia in this book so all’s well.
In the beginning of the book, I believe Jonas takes the backseat at some points. The same with Magnus. Cleo is definitely a central focal point in these books so I can only assume that she’s the main character. This book and the one before it kinda focuses on the romance aspect but it does still have some gruesome parts *cue Selia’s finger chop*.
And Nic almost died but didn’t.
And that HORRIFYING thing happens to Magnus. I actually could not stop thinking about that scene. It was…claustrophobia-triggering.
Anyway that’s my thoughts on this book. Read on to find out about the final book in the series, Immortal Reign.
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Immortal Reign || Falling Kingdoms book 6
Source: Libby App
I didn’t think this through, did I?
I didn’t realise I’d have so much to say about these books but if you’ve stuck around this far, I thank you very much.
I’m gonna keep them short from now on.
Alas, the end is nigh, nay, upon us and we have reached the finale of the Falling Kingdoms series.
The finale that I did not finish reading.
I regret to inform you, my dear readers, that I’m getting through this book veeeeeeeeeeeery slowly and I fear another book slump has cursed me.
I am up to chapter 19 of 36 though so I’ll let you know my thoughts so far and uh update if I ever finish this book.
The magic left me at this point.
Not because it’s a bad book but because of the dreaded reading slump.
Let me begin this thought journal with a quote from the book.
Scars were good, she thought. They were an excellent reminder of a past not meant to be repeated.
Lucia, Immortal Reign
Wow the power in those words right? This quote portrays how good this series is.
So far, my thoughts are that:
Wow, the Lucia/Jonas connection is weird because I always thought Cleo and Jonas had a connection…? 😬
Magnus has grown so much since the first book and he always comes out fighting. Despite his frosty personality, he’s become a tolerable character.
Gaius…it took him 6 books to finally die. He’s like a cockroach. But his death was so sudden that I kinda feel for him…
Felix is a mess. Poor Felix. He seems to be coping well with one eye and a broken heart though.
Amara…obviously being controlled.
Lucia and her mood swings
That’s my thoughts for this book. I know it’s focusing mainly on the characters but with a book like this it’s hard not to. I hope you enjoy my vlog/thoughts anyway.
Bonus: Celebrity fan casting for Falling Kingdoms
So while I was reading this series, I kinda imagined some actors playing these characters in a movie and here are some of them:
Ben Barnes as Magnus
Ian McShane as King Gaius
Emilia Clarke as Cleo (This was a hard one. I didn’t really imagine a specific person)
Armie Hammer as Jonas (The image of him as Prince Alcott in Mirror Mirror kept popping up sorry. I also thought Bradley James might work with this character too)
Daniel Cudmore as Felix (I kept thinking of Twilight’s felix)
Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Amara ? Or even Deepika Padukone. Kinda imagined a mix of the two
Maureen Lipman as Selia
Jude Law as Timotheus
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Cronus
Nicholas Galitzine as Theon and Taran (or Douglas Booth)
Mila Kunis as Mira????
Nic and ashur, Nerissa and Lysandra were harder to cast in my opinion so I left them out
This is not all the characters of course because that would take ages. It’s a funny little cast, I admit.
Do you agree with this casting? Do you disagree? Let me know in the comments
Beautiful front cover of The secret of nightingale wood
Star rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Genre: middle grade, mystery, historical fiction
Format I have it in: Paperback
Pages: 304
Published: 2016
Possible triggers: grieving/death, medical drugs (forced sibling separation??)
Synopsis: Henrietta and her family moves from London to the countryside. Her mother is sick, her father has gone abroad and the Nanny is keeping secrets. Not to mention the “witch” living in the woods…
Disclaimer: all my opinions are my own. I’ve not been paid or ask to review this.
There is really only so much I can say without spoiling this book. There is literally SO much going on in this book, many of the events bringing me to tears.
It really is best to go into this book without knowing much about it because then the events that occur will really hit you hard. I believe it’s based on a real time period, after world war one, with many of the events being true things that they may have done during this time period due to beliefs of that time or lack of technology and knowledge (channelling asylums here).
Now, I’m not a child but this book still made me a little sad (in a good way?) because the feelings that it invoked were just so much. It’s a story of hope and grieving. If this will trigger you, I don’t recommend you read this book. However, if you’re ok with that, you’ll find that this story is beautiful with the way that it approaches this subject and really puts you into Henrietta’s shoes.
Even though this book is middle grade, so from around 12-15 year olds, I would reccomend to read this perhaps in the late teens to adults due to sensitive topics or topics that are fathomable in mature audiences.
It’s told in first person. Personally, I think Henrietta was so brave (although I don’t condone talking to random ladies that live in the woods – stranger danger, kids). She did what she had to do in order to save her family and put them back together again. It’s such a touching, heartfelt (scary) story. There are two other characters in this book that I love a lot and they were really there for Henrietta when she needed them. It was so easy to slip into this book. There is a great mystery going on as well concerning her mother’s welfare amongst other things so it really keeps you on the edge of your seat. Perhaps the term is angst? I’m not really sure. Tension or suspense may be a better choice of words. There are odd things that happen that keep your mind working and coming up with theories to explain them while you’re reading. Mostly though, I like how it approaches the subject of grief, especially since one of the character’s sons was in the navy so it’s really… sensitive with the way it brings it up in the story? It’s really sad but I feel like the message would resonate with a lot of people.
Now to talk about the appearance of the book; the illustrations in this book (plus the cover) is truly WONDROUS AND ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!!!!!! I’d get this illustrator to decorate my bedroom walls, without a doubt. It’s so intricate and intriguing. The inside of the cover (my copy has “French doors”, haha) is mind blowingly gorgeous, especially for a middle grade book.
The detailed art on the inside of the front flapThe magical art on the back flap that depicts a scene from the book
Even the artwork inside the book itself was incredible. Observe:
The front cover on the inside of the book (I don’t really know what you call this bit)The artwork on top of a chapter header
As you can clearly see, this book stops at nothing to draw you into it’s pages.
Though I’ll admit, the temptation to color it in is overwhelming.
I liked this book so much, it’s the first book I’ve read this year that had so much feels going on and I even emailed Lucy Strange to tell her how much I like it (and she replied, yay!).
But anyways, hope you liked my mini spoiler free review of this book! Till next time.
The simple but beautiful cover of The Shadow Queen
Welcome to my first post on this blog! Please bear with me for the next few posts while I try to understand technology.
Today I’m reviewing a book I read this month; The Shadow Queen by C.J Redwine.
Disclaimer: I bought this book myself and was not asked for a review in exchange. My reviews will consist of my opinion and my opinions are my own.
Star rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Published: 2016
Format I got it in: paperback
Pages: 416
Synopsis: This book is set in the fictional kingdom of Ravenspire (amongst others). Lorelei is a princess who is magic and when Irina, her evil stepmother who also possesses magic, takes over the Ravenspire throne and kills Lorelai’s father (the king), Lorelei vows to avenge her father and take back her kingdom.
In another kingdom, young king Kol must journey to Ravenspire and ask for magical help to defeat ogres that are destroying his kingdom. But he soon gets more than he bargained for…
This will be a spoilery review because I just have so much I need to shout about! (And i havent learnt yet how to do spoiler free reviews hehe). Please skip this review if you haven’t read this book (and go read it asap). This review probably won’t make a lot of sense if you don’t but feel free to read on.
This book blew me away. It exceeded my expectations but maybe it was because I thought it was going to stick to the traditional snow white story but I loved how different it was and how the snow white elements were still present in this story. I don’t make a habit of tabbing books but this had so much going on I just had to.
Firstly may I just say HOW GORGEOUS THE MAP IS!!!! I don’t often look at maps more than perhaps twice but I couldn’t stop looking at it. It’s simple yet I could pinpoint exactly where the characters were quite easily.
A glimpse of the breath taking map
My first impression of this book was that I felt the characters could’ve had a little more development. With Gabril for example, I could feel he was important to lorelai but I didn’t really click with him though I could appreciate him being the fatherly figure. But when it talked about his family I just kept thinking about his poor kids and how they had to go so long without him. Would they be practically strangers when they reunite?? For absolutely no reason, I imagined Gabril to look a little like Brom from Eragon…
Kol went from being a brat (excuse my french) to being a self sacrificing wise worthy king in like 0.5 seconds. Ok, brat is a strong word…more of rebel? It just felt like a complete character change. However we do later on find out why he behaved in such a way as a prince which clears it up. But we never find out much about his family or we do but it’s kinda…very…brief….
This book was written well, the scene with Leo DESTROYED ME and I could see this story appearing on the big screen. If it did, that scene would definitely be heart breaking with a sprinkle of sad music and tears.
Irina…was a little confusing. Like she’s the bad guy but we emphasise with her a little cos she felt mistreated. However I still think that didn’t justify her bad actions. I did think it was cool how her sister sent her magic to Lorelei though. I wouldn’t have thought of that happening. Irina is also a little gruesome, like when she digs up her sisters bones…eek.
One scene confused me though…why did Viktor save Kol?? He said he doesn’t want her to destroy a young boys life but Viktor is supposed to be Irina’s right hand bad guy. It just doesn’t make sense to me. If anyone’s got an idea on this, please let me know.
I loved the magic system in this book; about the heart of the person or object needing to be willing in order for the magic to be done easily. It made me think for days after about objects and the world around us and their hearts. I also really liked the mind link between kol and Lorelei. I feel like it made their bond stronger because they were open and exposed but it built their trust. But I kept thinking that gabril was gonna take a peek over the mind wall and see what Lorelei was up to. I mean this would’ve been helpful in several situations but it did eventually happen, I think. I loved the wise words from Gabril too. Always great to take inspiration from a story.
There were many plot twists or shocking scenes as well like when we found out irina killed her sister and Viktor,etc.
Overall, I really loved this book and it might actually be my favourite book I read this year! Definitely giving this a reread in the future.
If you liked this book, its part of a series called the ravenspire series and the other books are loosely based off of other fairy tales so there are different characters.
Don’t forget to check out this review on my goodreads page!
Links to buy the book –
Physical copies:
Amazon (UK) (change to paperback/hardback or whatever format you want)
Leaf🍃Pages 