Dark of the West is beautifully constructed. Hathaway leaves no stone unturned in the epic first novel in The Glass Alliance series. The prose with which it is constructed is immaculate and attention paid to the smallest of details makes the world, itself feel real and expansive. Ali and Athan are two star-crossed kids in love and the romantic plot is equal parts innocent and equals parts compelling. As a reader, you love both characters, but each one is extremely flawed in their own way. The reason I picked this book up is because of its prologue. Hathaway has spoken about the fact that this prologue is what drove her to write DOTW in the first place, and I'm not surprised. An idea like this comes to you and you don't let it go, you run with it. But Hathaway did far more than just run with it, she crafted a realistic, heart-racing piece of writing which sticks with you afterwards. She does such a great job with creating complex characters. You never really know where anyone's alliances lie, and this makes you question your own alliance to certain characters. For instance, I spent a good portion of the book loving a character who had committed questionable acts, and somehow I still don't know if I should love him or hate him. All in all, I'd definitely recommend picking this one up. It's an interesting new take on a fantasy world inspired by the First World War. That's all for now. As always, much love. xoxo -B
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Well guys, it has been a long road getting here but here we are. I'm so excited to launch this site, and I hope you guys are too! Stay tuned for more posts next week.
My third to-be-reading of #2019 is Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes. I'm currently around page two hundred and to be extremely honest I'm having trouble. It's good, very good in fact (a New York Times Bestseller) but its not exactly my favorite so far. I'm really having trouble relating to any of the characters, things happen suddenly and appear to without much reason and it took up until page 150 to really get started. That said though, I really like the world-building techniques Rhodes utilizes. It seems real and authentic. I would also say that the themes in this are similar to that of Game of Thrones. There's magic, sorceress', goddesses, annoying stubborn kings with no mercy, and incestuous-like relationships. '' Amended after reading all of Falling Kingdoms : After finishing Falling Kingdoms I feel like I judged it too harshly. The last hundred or so pages were gripping and I ended up with the urge to keep reading until the end. I will be picking up the second one in the series, eventually. That's all for now...onto the next. As always, much love. xoxo -B Let me start off with saying I appreciate pretty much every book I read (whether I like it or not). With that said, I still haven't finished Circe so my opinion should be taken at face value. The book is good. The main character, Circe, just annoys me..a LOT. She is a god for gods sake (pun intended) and yet she is acting like a fourteen year-old who hasn't figured out that she is a badass. I think maybe these feelings might come from the fact that before reading Circe I had just put down Kingdom of Ashes by Sarah J. Maas and the protagonist in that epic is the polar opposite of Circe. However, Circe's epic cowardliness is such a turn off for me. I find it hard to get behind books where the main character is shrimp-ish. But I'm looking forward to reading on in this novel and seeing if the protagonist grows a little backbone. The mythological elements of this particular novel are really interesting and this is a different kind of book then I would normally pick up but after millions of recommendations I knew I needed to give it a try. This book will mark my first 2019 read. Have you guys set reading goals for 2019 yet? If you have a Goodreads account there's an easy way you can set a goal and keep track by using the app. I have set mine to fifteen (excluding academic reads which to be honest will probably push it to at least twenty). More posts coming soon. As always, much love. xoxo -B So I finished The Cruel Prince about a week ago today so I thought I would share my thoughts about it. I would give it about 3.5 stars. To start off, this book entrapped me into the world of Faerie. It's unlike any faerie-genre-novel I've ever read! It's filled to the brim with exquisite details in a marvelously thought-up setting. The Cruel Prince is written in the first person, following the thoughts and actions of a young mortal named Jude. Immediately readers acknowledge that Jude is not like anyone else in this world and despite being a mortal (and at a serious disadvantage) she has a seriously strong attitude toward a few of her not-so-human classmates in Faerie. Through a series of trials, Jude attempts to take back the power that has been stripped from her for merely being different or "the other". This book is good, in my opinion its hard to write first person and stay with one character throughout an entire novel and still be on board with every decision and every thought they have. I could relate to Jude and I could see her decisions as ones she thought she had to make (not saying I would make the same decisions). There's plenty of court intrigue in this one so if that's something you're into you can't miss this Faerie court. The characters are complex, infuriating at times, and surprising- to say the least. I don't want to give too much away, but this is a book for definitely one for feminists. All in all I think I will definitely read The Wicked King (the sequel to The Cruel Prince) but I'm not exactly running out to get it. That's all for now. As always, much love. xoxo -B To begin--this book is FIRE (in more ways than one). The opening scene introduces the protagonist, sets the limits of this world, clarifies the rules of the world, and the reader gets an epic dragon take down. To say I am mildly obsessed with this book would be putting it too lightly. Since beginning this yesterday I have basically blown through it. The Last Namsara is unlike anything I've personally read before, and it is an exhilarating experience and well worth a read. Honestly and truly though-- pick up this one if you have the time to be addicted to a book. I haven't finished it yet, but my plan is to pretty much not put it down until I do. Anyway, that's just my little 'to-be-reading update. As always, much love. xoxo -B |
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