Amy Leigh Reads

Bitterblue Review

March 25, 2020March 25, 2020by amyleighreads1 Comment

915sDFes1LL When Queen Bitterblue took the throne of Monsea, she was a child, and her advisers ran the kngdom for her. Now she is beginning to question their decisions, especially how they handle the legacy of her father Leck, who who ruled through his Grace–a special talent for mind-altering–and his taste for darkness and violence.

I found Bitterblue to be way too cavalier as Queen of Monsea for the first half of the book. She was unaware of anything that was happening in her kingdom and feasted control over to her advisors who were able to manipulate her. The way she handled herself at the start of the book was almost infuriating. She ran off in the middle of the night to listen to stories and ignored the concerns of her kingdom hiding in paperwork for the rest of the day in her tower. She doesn’t assert her control enough for me and let everyone walk all over her. She isn’t relatable at all, she didn’t even realize how privileged she was until three quarters of the way through the book when she seen how so many of her countrymen were struggling. She does strive to better herself and her kingdom though which I think is honourable, I just feel like it should of happened a lot sooner.

I just didn’t feel like there was enough Saf in the story for me. For the first 100 or so pages we don’t really learn much about him and what his purpose in the story is. He and Bitterblue continue to keep secrets from each other and don’t communicate well at all so the fact that they fall in love boggled my mind a little bit. I just didn’t think the romance aspect needed to happen at all. He was an interesting character though and I liked that we delved a little deeper into his backstory as the plot progressed.

It was nice having Katsa and Po come in and out of the story. It had been quite a few years since I read Graceling so it was nice to reacquaint myself with those characters.

I found the entire plot to be a little boring to be totally honest. There wasn’t really any stakes that kept me engaged in the storyline. It was basically just Bitterblue walking around her castle deciphering codes and reading books, trying to figure out who was lying to her and scheming against her, which I think was pretty obvious from the start…

⭐️2/5 I’m glad I read it, didn’t really enjoy though…

Top Ten Tuesdays

Fav Fantasy Stand Alones

March 24, 2020July 11, 2020by amyleighreads19 Comments

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is a genre freebie so I though I would do an update of a post I did around this time last year which is my favourite fantasy stand alones! I love stand alone fantasy books and I feel now-a-days they are quite rare to come across, as there are mostly series or duologies in this genre.

These are 5 more of my Fav Fantasy Stand Alones:

Wicked Fox by Kat Cho I loved the lore and the legends woven into the storyline. The tales of the previous Gumiho’s and how the correlate back to Miyoung was fascinating. The Korean culture was another factor I really enjoyed reading about. It definitely made the experience more interesting and unique.

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Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant – This book really had me on the edge of my seat. Mira Grant definitely didn’t shy away from making this very dark and killing off the characters when it suited the plot.

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Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson – The whole premise and concept of the book was really refreshing and original to me. I liked the build up of mystery and the many twists and turns the plot goes through. I world was rich with culture and I just loved that it’s based around these great libraries.

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Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young – The plot of the book was quite simple but I was so engaged and entertained that it was easily overlooked! It was fast paced, rich with lore and culture and I loved the Viking aspect I thought it was fresh and original, unlike anything I’ve read in a very long time.

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Daughter of the Burning City by Amanda Foody – There was a real sense of urgency and suspense woven throughout the story line which kept me highly engaged in the book. The stakes were always at an all-time high and trying to figure out who was behind everything was very entertaining!

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Reviews

Crystal Storm Review

March 23, 2020March 23, 2020by amyleighreadsLeave a Comment

23367261 Wild!

Once again we are continuing straight off where Frozen Tides concluded. Magnus and Cleo have decided to accompany King Gais to visit his mother who was thought to be dead. Jonas, Felix, Nic and Taran are sailing back to Paelsia along with Prince Ashur who was also thought to be dead.

So Lucia is warming up to me now. I like that we see her acknowledge all of her wrongdoings not only to Timotheus but to Jonas as well. Saying she deserves to die for all of the pain and devastation she has caused around Paelsia. I think her discovering she is pregnant really made her stop and think about what she was actually doing and why. I still think she is quite selfish and arrogant but that is really a cause of her upbringing, I just hope we see her mature and gain a little bit more humility in the upcoming conclusion.

Magnus and Cleo didn’t have enough moments together for me. We still see them continue to keep secrets from one another, which is causing issues in their relationship. I didn’t like the fact Cleo won’t open up to everyone and let them know she loves Magnus, I just think it shows she’s a little ashamed of her emotions and doesn’t want her friends to hate her. I think sure they might be a little disappointed, Nic in particular but if they really love her as much as they claim to, they would get over it. I enjoyed that we see Magnus be a little insecure and jealous of Cleo’s friendship with the other rebels, Jonas in particular. I just wish he would communicate his feelings to Cleo more openly instead of bottling them up.

I liked the inclusion of Selia into the plot. I thought she was intriguing and interesting characters. I loved her interactions with Cleo and I thought her devotion to her son was quite relatable, even though he’s this horrible person. When her real motives are finally revealed it was definitely a twist that I didn’t see coming!

This book was a little more stagnant compared to the previous books. The pacing is still quite fast and there are many twists and revelations that keep you invested and entertained. For a good chunk of the story all of the characters are in one place. I like that the story has kind of been centralised and all of the main players have come together and we see some of the schemes and plans come to fruition.

⭐️5/5 Ugh, they just keep getting better!

Reviews

Assassin’s Quest Review

March 20, 2020March 20, 2020by amyleighreadsLeave a Comment

assassin-s-quest-the-farseer-trilogy-book-3 King Shrewd is dead at the hands of his son Regal. As is Fitz or so his enemies and friends believe. But with the help of his allies and his beast magic, he emerges from the grave, deeply scarred in body and soul.

I really enjoyed seeing Fitz’s evolution over the course of the plot. At the start he is still more wolf than human and watching him struggle to retain his humanity was highly entertaining to read. The scenes between Fitz and Burrich during this time were incredibly poignant and touching. Burrich really displayed how much he loves Fitz and we see him step up and save Fitz time and time again. I can’t say I appreciated the way Fitz spoke to him and pushed him away but I’m glad we see him eventually move on.

I found Fitz to be a little petulant and childish for most of the book. At the start when he starts on his journey to kill Regal with no plan just his ego and his wit leading him into a trap. The fact that he even thought to himself what if Will was using the skill to coax him to Tradeford and then walk right into the trap was frustrating. He was so hell bent on killing Regal for his own gain that all of his assassin skills just went right out the window.

Nighteyes was one constant in the story that I loved. His relationship with Fitz and his simple way of life was a breath of fresh air in the plot. His dedication to Fitz and steadfast logic I think really prolonged Fitz’s survival.

Starling wasn’t a favourite character of mine. I found her to be a bit of an opportunist and didn’t really care for Fitz or his wellbeing, just wanting to us him for her own personal gain. I think the fact that she followed him so far and her song didn’t even end up being about him was ironic. Selling out Nettle to the Farseer throne was really the last straw for me with her. She never even really apologised to Fitz about it either which really grated me.

The story as a whole just really dragged and got very repetitive. I understand the book is really centered around this quest that Fitz has to undertake to find King Verity but I think a solid 400-500 pages was just Fitz travelling and making and breaking up camps. There wasn’t enough action or a real sense of adventure for me. By the end when we started finally finding out answers to all the questions that have been posed throughout the series I wasn’t really interested or invested anymore.

I story is very immersive, epic and I can respect the way Robin Hobb wove the plot in a way that makes you really delve deep into these characters, it just wasn’t the story for me.

⭐️2/5 stars Not enough happened for me to justify the length…

Prediction Book Tag 🏷

March 19, 2020April 8, 2020by amyleighreads3 Comments

I seen this book tag over on @ Kristin Kraves Books but the original creator is @bookprincessreviews! This tag is all about your bookish goals, plans and predictions for 2020!

All of these prompts are your predictions for your…

Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore – I want to continue on with my backlist reading momentum and finally get around to this book!

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Heart of Flames by Nicki Pau Preto – I have high expectations, Crown of Feathers was a great book and I am hoping the sequel will be even better!

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Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo – from what I’ve heard I think I am either going to love this book or hate it!

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House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J Maas – she always has a romance mixed into her fantasy book so I am hoping for a new all time fav ship!

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Winterwood by Shea Ernshaw – I really enjoyed The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw and I want to see if her new book will be just as good!

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Aurora Burning by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff – Aurora Rising was one of my favourite books of 2019 and I have been desperate to continue on with this series so I have no doubt I will feel the same way after completing Aurora Burning!

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