This week’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt is new to you authors. I didn’t read as many books last year so there weren’t that many authors that I read for the first time that I would actively want to read more of in the future. However, I managed to find 5 authors I read for the first time last year that I will definitely pick up from again, whether it’s from their backlist or new releases!
N.K. Jemisin
Matt Haig
Stephen Graham Jones
Ashley Winstead
Andy Weir
These are all the series that I have either read all the books this year or read the last book in the series that was published this year! I haven’t included any series that have unreleased books still, I will just add them onto future lists!
The Devouring Gray Duology by Christine Lynn Herman
The Daevabad Trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty
Empirium Series by Claire Legrand
An Ember in the Ashes Series by Sabaa Tahir
Shattered Realms Series by Cinda Williams Chima
Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin
Cursebreakers Series by Brigid Kemmerer
Fable Duology by Adrienne Young
All the Stars and Teeth Duology by Adalyn Grace
The Aurora Cycle by Jay Kristoff & Amie Kaufman
The Mirror Visitor Quartet by Christelle Dabos
I am very happy with my reading selections this month as they were all books that I was highly anticipating and I pretty much loved them all! It was a nice mix of thriller, fantasy and a bit of sci-fi as well so a successful reading month for me.
In November I completed:
One by One by Ruth Ware – ⭐️4/5 stars
The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin – ⭐️4/5 stars
The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin – ⭐️4/5 stars
Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff – ⭐️5/5 stars
Aurora’s End by Jay Kristoff & Amie Kaufman – ⭐️3/5 stars
I figured it’s time for another WWW Wednesday update:
Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff
The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin
Death by Laura Thalassa
*SPOILERS BELOW*
This is the way the world ends… for the last time. The Moon will soon return. Whether this heralds the destruction of humankind or something worse will depend on two women. Essun has inherited the power of Alabaster Tenring. With it, she hopes to find her daughter Nassun and forge a world in which every orogene child can grow up safe. For Nassun, her mother’s mastery of the Obelisk Gate comes too late. She has seen the evil of the world, and accepted what her mother will not admit: that sometimes what is corrupt cannot be cleansed, only destroyed.
Essun in this final instalment of the series fell a little bit flat for me. Although we see her breakthrough and really start to become more invested in her Comm I found the majority of her storyline travelling with them to be tedious. She is unable to wield her powers as much as she could previous because she was turning to stone and I found when she is finally reunited with Nassun she could of tried harder to stop her instead of giving in.
Nassun’s character is quite morally grey but again she is only 10 years old for the majority of the storyline and was quite indoctrined by Schaffa. She puts her love for him above everything else and is willing to risk all of humanity just to keep him alive. I feel as if she should have more of an emotional connection to her mother than what is shown when they do reunite.
I think the twist with the Stone Eaters was a great addition to the storyline and gave us that much needed context as to why they keep popping up and are so invested in Essun and Nassun. I honestly can’t blame them for what they did and it was gratifying to see how their story came full circle and we understand why.
Overall I was still highly invested in the storyline and wanted to know how it was all going to wrap up and honestly I can say I was content! I just wish there was a little more action to make it more gripping. It was still just a lot of history and terminology to wrap my mind around. Loved the twists and all my questions pretty much got answered which is all I can ask for!
⭐️4/5 stars Solid ending to this great series!!
Amy Leigh Reads 