Tag: power-protagonist

Book Reviews · re-read

Kingdom of Ash // Sarah J. Maas – Re-Read Fest

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“To whatever end,” he whispered. Silver lined her eyes. “To whatever end.”

Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas is the final instalment in the loooong, looong, loong, long storyline of Aelin Ashryver Whitethorn Galathynius and her band of pals all trying to get her on the throne. Basically. It was, in so many ways, the conclusion we all wanted. In other ways, it was not. This is an absolute mammoth of a book. It is so, so long. Now, I don’t mind that, usually. When I do mind it, is when a book could have been a bit shorter with a bit more critical editing. And as much as I love the world S. J. Maas has built and the narrative she has grown here, it needed that critical editing. For starters – there were definitely some typos in my copy of the book…

All that being said, I did cry multiple times reading this, had a wee giggle and numerous gazing out the windows trying to imagine certain conversations/dialogue/moments between the characters. Don’t trick yourself, we all do it. As with the other S J Maas books, this one lacked some major diversity and ‘shaking things up’ in the way of romantic interests. WHY is everyone getting married at 18/19/20/21?! WHY can anyone who is not portrayed as heterosexual only be bisexual, rather than homosexual? Weird.

But, again, all that being said, I don’t think this actually requires a long review. If you have started the Throne of Glass series, it is well worth persevering and reading the entire thing. And you wouldn’t be picking up this book unless you had already come that far. Every loose end is tied up within this. The pages are teeming with emotion, tensions are high and expectations both built and shattered. Every hinted story throughout the previous books has lead somewhere, and the majority of those ‘somewheres’ are very satisfying.

Aelin/Celaena is a fantastic heroine and arguably my favourite of all time (YES – even better than Feyre… if you know, you know). Her coined ‘motto’ of “will not yield” is really just all-encompassing of the characterisation, and as a now 24 year old, I wish wish WISH I had discovered her earlier so my younger self could have looked to her and used her as inspiration for how I should be living my life. Although, 24 year old Annabelle also learned a major thing or two and I will probably carry them with me forever. The other female characters within this also make a very worthy statement in terms of powerful protagonists and heroines, and for that, I would highly recommend this book to any young women, or men, who are looking to feel inspired, challenged and empowered by a series.

Also – this. This is the quote.

Aelin walked forward. Took Yrene Westfall by the hand to guide her to the front. Then Manon Blackbeak. Elide Lochan. Lysandra. Evangeline. Nesryn Faliq. Borte and Hasar and Ansel of Briarcliff. All the women who had fought by her side, or from afar. Who had bled and sacrificed and never given up hope that this day might come. “Walk with me,” Aelin said to them, the men and males falling into step behind. “My friends.”

Again, a wee PSA for you all though – this final book, and the past 3 probably are not YA anymore. No shockers there, this has a lot of romance in it and all the other parts of relationships that come with that. Tastefully done.

A definite 4 out of 5. The only thing that would have made this stronger is, yep. You guessed it! A near 1000 page book does not excuse bad editing!

Belle xo

Book Reviews

The Queen’s Wing // Jessica Thorne

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“Born to fly isn’t strictly true, of course. I’d been born, if anything, to be a very minor game piece in the interstellar games of houses and bloodlines, married to someone the Empire or my family deemed suitable or at least convenient. I’ve never been one for living under illusions. I can still hope however. My main hope is that I am just not that important.”

When I first began this book, I was elated and excited, I’ll confess. 99p on the Kindle store?! Royalty and a sci-fi vibe? An obvious romance and relationship development from the get go? A Powerful female protagonist? SIGN ME UP.

I devoured the first 50% of this book. It was fast-paced, engaging, and the world-building was magnificent. The characterisation left something to be desired, apart from Bel, I felt that the two main male love interests where a bit gappy and transparent – they held no real ‘content’?

I loved the transition of Bel’s character in line with the different settings she encountered. I LOVED the sci-fi element of this, and the notion of a warrior princess to be queen. She wants to be a soldier and won’t let anyone tell her no? YES?! This is the sort of female character I’m here for!!!
(I’ll admit that this is a frequent character cocktail for ya fantasy and sci-fi, but Jessica Thorne did well with her female character.)

The second half of this book, though? Meh. What happened, you ask? Not much. There was some semblance of conflict, rebellious occupation, but nothing that made my heart race or blood boil! I didn’t really care that there had been an overthrowing by their rival race. And I should have. With a good book, you always should. The ending was also a bit… for want of a better word.. half-arsed? It felt rushed and a bit cliche. I saw every plot-turn coming from about 50 pages away.

As it was so cheap and not an overly coveted fan-favourite as of yet – I won’t overly complain. I’ll definitely give it another chance and re-read it, because it was good, but it just wasn’t GREAT! The 2nd book in this series, The Stone’s Heart, is already out and I’ll pick it up when I feel ready to engage in this story again. If it is of the same nature then it’ll be a worthwhile read, but not my most anticipated…

Interested to hear what others thought of this?
A xo

Book Reviews

Stepsister // Jennifer Donnelly

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Here are the things girls die of: hunger, disease, accidents, childbirth, and violence. It takes more than heartache to kill a girl. Girls are tough as rocks.

Well, well, well. What do we have here? A not so fairytale retelling? A slant on Cinderella that barely includes its namesake, Cinderella?

Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly gets 3/5 stars from me. Inventive, heartbreaking, romantic – it was a joy to read! I’ll be honest, in the beginning this was slightly slow and tricky to immerse myself within. I’m going to put that down to the fact that I had two very BIG and very high-profile YA fantasy books being released imminently when I picked this up…. I think I was just watching my time to make sure I could read them when they came out.

When I actially began to let myself enjoy this I REALLY enjoyed it. The messages within this novel are so much more than meets the eye – Isabelle is a symbol of not only overcoming the pigeon-holing and categorising that society has deemed for you (fitting that this is being posted on International Women’s Day 2020…) but also showing that, it’s okay to dream and want to achieve more for yourself. Books provide me with an escape, as I’m sure they provide most readers with, and that’s why I am consistently picking them up and delving into their pages. But another reason why the underlying themes of this book resonated so deeply with me were because I saw my own desires reflected in Isabelle – desperate to be liked (shamefully), but wanting to also not just conform to that which is expected of me to BE liked and wanted. This story features Fate and Chance as secondary characters and I thought this was a really clever idea to personify elements of the human condition and experience that are fantastical and mystical within themselves. It also helped to assign blame to the right people when it was due.

I would say that this book is more fantasy than historical fiction, and I would used that term extremely liberally. The author has obviously taken what she wants and what she doesn’t from the world she has created to resemble known historical facts on society and nationality within France. Cinderella and her Prince (The King and Queen of France) feature very little within this. That was one of the things I enjoyed most. I loved this alternative telling of the Cinderella story with the frame shifted to focus on the ugly stepsisters, and an offering of redemption for them through highlighting WHY they are so ‘ugly’. It became clear that this ‘ugliness’ was a reflection of their personality, rather than their looks (a theme that is apparent within the Disney and Grimm tales but is often accomponied by physical features that some associate with being unattractive). Because really, who is to say what is and isn’t ugly/pretty?

I highly recommend anyone to read this with an open mind and heart towards the characters and to be willing to view the renowned fairytale from the villian’s POV. It is definitely worth it.

P.s. Anyone else who has read this – did you not want more of Tavi??! She is an ultimate force to be reckoned with. I would read a second installment of this just to get her individual story too.

Book Reviews

A Heart So Fierce and Broken // Brigid Kemmerer

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“I am crying because you are a prince,” I say softly. “And I …” I let out a breath. “I am not a princess.”

This was one of my most anticipated releases of 2020. I loved A Curse So Dark and Lonely (admittedly I was late to the party with reading it), but it was fantastic. I had extremely high hopes for this one. And to a degree, I am so chuffed to say that they were met! I hadn’t read anything about this book before I read it, not even the blurb, so I was going in blind with the impulse that I liked the 1st book, so why wouldn’t the sequel be just as good? I was excited to see where the story was going to go.

Firstly, I love the cover on this thing. I mean, it’s vivid, the title is in keeping with the previous, it’s melodic, there is so much shiny sparkle! A big 10.

It became apparent fairly early on that this novel was not going to go the way I expected. As I realised that Harper was getting very little book-time, I was gutted. She was my favourite character last time – why is she omitted to such a high level this time?! But then Lia Mara came onto the scene. WOW. A power-protagonist if ever I saw one. She is fierce. I love her as a female heroine and central member of this book team. Well sassy. Well strong. Girl power! The book jumped between 2 main perspectives, Grey and Lia Mara, which all in all was super sweet. Sometimes this makes the story hard to follow but Brigid Kemmerer is a natural at this. Really outstanding. As our two main protagonists who are new to one another, it really helped to understand their individual turmoils and monologues around their experiences and their discoveries of power, self-worth and independence. And it made it really cute to see how they both viewed one another and their peers.

Rhen is rubbish in this. I understand why Brigid did this; to begin the deeper exploration in Grey’s character arc and his storyline, reasons for fleeing, reasons for discovering is magical ability, blah blah. But it was poor show, no?! Rhen was a real life Prince Charming last book, and this time he was an ARSEHOLE. What the heck. Why is he acting like this??? Grey was the definite male lead within this instalment and I really connected with him. He is obviously facing an identity crisis after finding out he is the long lost heir and that his family were not who he thought they were. It’s heartbreaking and powerful at the same time. I really enjoyed his development and the fact that Brigid did not confine him to the frequent ‘macho male’ boundaries; he was incredibly sensitive and struggling when confronted with issues of the heart and mind.

A big portion of this book was spent roaming around forests. I’m all for this, it’s the best place for romances to bloom. But the world building was a bit lack lustre and when we did finally see a castle – it was assumed that the reader knew what a castle would be like. For the record, as someone who is Scottish and works within the tourism/heritage industry, I DO know what castles look like. It’s my number 1 hobby to look at castles. I get bought castle-based gifts. Despite all this, I think that when reading a book you should be provided with enough information about the characters’ surroundings to entice your imagination to form images in your head. I felt I wasn’t provided that with this.

The romance within this was lovely, however, and for that – THANK YOU! I love romance. I love fairytales. To be expected within a book series that began with a fairytale retelling, a budding romance became apparent within this. Although Rhen was acting proper weird and I still don’t understand why his character was depicted to be so horrible, I started to become concerned that Harper and Grey were going to get together. But alas, they are just besties. Phew. The real romance was between Grey and Lia Mara and I just adored it. It was not the ever-so-frequent instalove that occurs in novels but a romance that seemed incredibly organic and built on respect and admiration. There were indications of each finding the other attractive but this was not the basis of their attraction and romance. Really, truly well done.

Out of 5, I’m giving it a 4. I would recommend this for definite but with a solid push to others to read the 1st book in the Cursebreaker series first! 1) It will greater develop your understanding of the characters and their motivations but 2) you will get to see Rhen for actually being a nice guy, not as awful as he is depicted in this series (majorly).

I bought this and the previous books on Kindle but I will definitely be investing in hard copies for my bookcase. They are too pretty to not.

What did you think of A Heart So Fierce and Broken?

Book Reviews

The Royal Companion // Tanya Bird

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I know nothing about war, but I understand grief. I know it extinguishes everything else, even victory I imagine.’ She twisted a piece of his hair and let it go. ‘How odd it must be to return home a hero and be confronted with celebration while grieving.’ She slipped her hand into his. ‘How ludicrous you must find the feasting as you count the empty chairs before you.

This is a quick one but felt it deserved a wee review cause I think… This is my favourite book so far of 2020. I know. I’m surprised too – relatively unknown and not a cult following fantasy read; but I just couldn’t put it down!

WOAH. This did a total 180 on me. Started incredibly slowly and I struggled to keep interest, however it definitely picked up by about a 1/3 of the way through. This is definitely a romance front and centre, so don’t assume anything else when you pick this up.

Some of the perspectives are a bit *ahem* sexist and degrading to women but I think this is the entire point and helps to present the contrast between the main character and her love interest nicely – in both senses of the word they are looking for the opposite of what ‘royal society’ is constraining and categorising them to.

My one bug-bear is that the world-building and characterisation is a bit empty… A lot more could have been done with this to help the story develop and help the reader become fully immersed within the read. That being said, some of the writing was truly beautiful and had me pause after reading (like the quote above) and think, “huh.”

For a free book on Kindle it is definitely worth a read – and there are loads more in the series! However, I feel I have been trapped as all others are £4 (Still cheap but now I need to buy them ALL to follow what happens next).

Book Reviews

Mageborn // Jessica Thorne

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4/5 stars. WOWIE! This book took me on a wild ride. Thank you to the author and publishing company for giving me the opportunity to review this book as an ARC!

I’ll be honest, I did not expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. I would say this gave me definite Serpent & Dove vibes; if you enjoyed that, read this! I managed this in 2 days.

Mageborn is a fantasy surrounding magic and mystery, like all the best ones are! It has the perfect smattering of enemies to romance, smut and powerful protagonist portrayal you could hope for! The book follows a simialr thread to a lot of others within this genre, mystical kingdom is under threat by [X], powerful heroine needs to help save the kingdom from [X], along the way she either meets a dashing hero or has to SAVE said hero from [X]. This is the writing cocktail I adore, and so it was completely for me. Think Sarah J. Maas-esque creation. Superb.

I would say there are two main protagonists within this read, and their perspectives are split chapter-to-chapter. This, for me, enabled the build-up of the relationship that forms between the two to become all the more hard-hitting, as you get the chance to really see how one is feeling about the other. Likewise, the writing style really helped the world to come alive for me, and I was truly engrossed from start to finish. The overall storyline delivered enough adventure and action to keep me on my toes but allowed a real exploration into the developing burdens and implications faced by the characters.

Not to be missed – well worth the read!

Annabelle xo