Tag: YA Fantasy

Reviews

A Study in Drowning Review

by amyleighreads2 Comments on A Study in Drowning Review

Effy Sayre has always believed in fairy tales. Haunted by visions of the Fairy King since childhood, she’s had no choice. Her tattered copy of Angharad—Emrys Myrddin’s epic about a mortal girl who falls in love with the Fairy King, then destroys him—is the only thing keeping her afloat. So when Myrddin’s family announces a contest to redesign the late author’s estate, Effy feels certain it’s her destiny. But musty, decrepit Hiraeth Manor is an impossible task, and its residents are far from welcoming. Including Preston Héloury, a stodgy young literature scholar determined to expose Myrddin as a fraud. As the two rivals piece together clues about Myrddin’s legacy, dark forces, both mortal and magical, conspire against them—and the truth may bring them both to ruin.

I didn’t really form any sort of connection with Effy. I was just a bit ambivalent towards her and wasn’t really all that invested in her as a character. She definitely undergoes a bit of an evolution over the course of the plotline, growing in strength and coming out of her shell.

Preston was a nice contrast to Effy however he also didn’t really do much for me. He didn’t have that feeling of complexity or seemed very interesting at all. I think what really bothered me was how insta lovey the relationship was between these two. The go from hate to indifference to love so quickly it just kind of bugged me as I read. It doesn’t feel genuine to me and even though this is a fantasy I want to see the relationship play out somewhat realistically still.

I did very much enjoy the setting and the overall atmosphere as well as the mystery. Wondering whether or not this was actually going to be fantastical or if Effy was just hallucinating the Fairy King and it was all just a symptom of her medication after being abandoned and victimized. The misogyny was frustrating and the fact that had Preston not gone along with her to present the findings nothing would of changed.

⭐️2/5 stars didn’t hate but wasn’t a fan

Reviews

The Last Hours Series Review

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*SERIES SPOILERS AHEAD*

Cordelia Carstairs is a Shadowhunter, a warrior trained since childhood to battle demons. When her father is accused of a terrible crime, she and her brother travel to London in hopes of preventing the family’s ruin. Cordelia’s mother wants to marry her off, but Cordelia is determined to be a hero rather than a bride. Soon Cordelia encounters childhood friends James and Lucie Herondale and is drawn into their world of glittering ballrooms, secret assignations, and supernatural salons, where vampires and warlocks mingle with mermaids and magicians. All the while, she must hide her secret love for James, who is sworn to marry someone else.

So it has been probably about 4/5 years since I immersed into the Shadowhunter world and it felt very nostalgic and easy to get back into. This time around the series definitely felt very YA and as the series progressed it was quite easy to pretty much predict what was going to happen. Sure, there were some twists and turns that surprised me but there are quite a few repeat themes that keep popping up from previous series.

With Chain of Gold specifically I thought this was a pretty solid first book. It establishes all the main protagonists pretty well, however and this has been a gripe of mine from earlier series but there is always an influx of Shadowhunter families and characters that we are introduced to all at once and it is really hard to keep track and distinguish everyone from each other and what families they belong to. This book sets up the rest of the series very well and really gives us great insight into all of the relationships our core characters have with each other as well as the overarching mystery that spans all three books.

Chain of Iron broadens out the scope of the series by including more of the secondary characters and a bit more of the adults into the plotline. One things that starts to pop up in the this book is how many secrets each of these characters are keeping from each other which carries over into Chain of Thorns for sure. Had everyone just laid everything out on the table from the start a lot of the conflict could have been avoided which irritates me. It just seems like laziness to come up with all of these reasons why they can’t just come out and tell each other what is really happening instead of creating all these crazy justifications.

Chain of Thorns felt a little too long for me. I think the first third could of really been condensed down and added to the end of Chain of Iron. Was I a fan of the love triangle, no. Do I think it was used as fan service to everyone who were diehard fans of The Infernal Devices series, yes. I just don’t think it was necessary as Tessa, Will and Jem are very prominent in this series. Again, we learn a lot more about the minute details of Belial’s plan and see it unfold. We still have this miscommunication trope running rampant and everyone is starting to acknowledge that. The sex scenes were a very fade to black and awkward to read, I appreciated that it was included but still made me cringe.

Overall, this was a good series. Very on brand with the whole Shadowhunter franchise, it just seems like Cassandra Clare followed the same blueprint just changed around a few details and expanded on those changes. Not my favorite by any means, but very entertaining and you do have this group of friends that you want to root for and see succeed.

I gave all three books ⭐️3/5 stars

Reviews

Vicious Spirits Review

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Miyoung and Jihoon are picking up the pieces of their broken lives following the deaths of Miyoung’s mother, Yena, and Jihoon’s grandmother. With the support of their friend Somin, and their frenemy, Junu, they might just have a shot at normalcy. But Miyoung is getting sicker and sicker by the day and her friends don’t know how to save her. With few options remaining, Junu has an idea but it might require the ultimate sacrifice and, let’s be honest, Junu isn’t known for his “generosity.”

The characters just didn’t seem to evolve and learn from everything that happened in the first book. It was just this never-ending cycle of each of them trying to protect each other and then getting mad that the other person was doing the protecting. They all read a lot younger than what they actually were and their conversations just didn’t seem believable or realistic to me. These are supposed to be 18-19 year old’s and yet they continue to act like angsty adolescents.

I didn’t like the fact that Somin and Junu fall in ‘love’ so quickly. Usually I don’t mind a hate to love trope but this felt so rushed and juvenile to me. Somin as a character was kind of annoying, she just took on way too much for her to handle and would put everyone else and their feelings above her own. I liked the fact that Junu called her out on this and just told her to chill out

Miyoung and Jihoon didn’t really change at all from the first book either. Even though so many traumatic things have happened to them they just seem to stay the same. I didn’t really understand why Miyoung was still holding on to her mother, from what I can remember from the first book I thought she treated her horribly and isolated her from anyone her age. I understand that it would still be traumatizing to loose the one person you depended on the most but that whole plotline didn’t really make sense to me until the end.

I still quite enjoy the lore and myths surrounding the Dokkaebi and learning all about Junu’s background and how he became one. Also learning about the Sansin and the Reapers were also really interesting to find out about. There just wasn’t enough action to keep me entertained throughout the book. The pacing was up and down and there were periods of time where all the characters were just sitting around waiting and it wasn’t very enjoyable.

⭐️2/5 stars the characters just didn’t do it for me

Reviews

Master of Iron Review

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Eighteen-year-old Ziva may have defeated a deadly warlord, but the price was almost too much. Ziva is forced into a breakneck race to a nearby city with the handsome mercenary, Kellyn, and the young scholar, Petrik, to find a powerful magical healer who can save her sister’s life. When the events that follow lead to Ziva and Kellyn’s capture by an ambitious prince, Ziva is forced into the very situation she’s been dreading: magicking dangerous weapons meant for world domination.

Ziva’s perspective in this book was just so exhausting to read from. I understand how debilitating her social anxiety is but the way she just continuously hyper focuses and second guesses every decision she and everyone around her makes gets repetitive and boring. There was a little bit of growth in the fact that she came to eventually stop putting herself down and minimising all her achievements and actually feel proud of herself which was nice.

When it came to her relationship with Kellyn is was frankly just frustrating to read. Again, I can understand she has this disorder but he tells and shows her multiple times that he wants her and she is his forever but still she doesn’t believe him and pushes him away. The fact that she was just going to give up on him after the war ends and just walk away without even talking to him first and being surprised he was willing to compromise got on my nerves.

Other than that I was pretty invested in the storyline. It was still a bit repetitive with all of the travelling that we get but there was always a new setting that we got to explore in this world. I liked the fact that we get to learn more about the other magic users and Ziva got more of an understanding about her abilities through them. The fighting scenes were very entertaining and the couple of twists were quite surprising.

⭐️2/5 stars Just a bit disappointed

Reviews

Gods & Monsters Review

by amyleighreads2 Comments on Gods & Monsters Review

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

After a heart breaking loss, Lou, Reid, Beau, and Coco are bent on vengeance more than ever before—and none more so than Lou. But this is no longer the Lou they thought they knew. No longer the Lou that captured a chasseur’s heart. A darkness has settled over her, and this time it will take more than love to drive it out.

This is a little hard to review as I didn’t leave this book with any lasting impressions, which I think in and of itself is quite telling. This was the finale in the series and for the majority of the book I was quite bored. One thing I think that made the book drag a little was the reoccurring theme of Lou and Reid being forced apart by one thing or another. First it was Lou being inhabited by Nicholina and then Reid losing his memories almost straight after it never gave us a chance to just enjoy the two of them for a little while before something else happened to keep them apart and their relationship was one of the things that I liked most from this series.

Reid losing his memories and reverting back to his old chasseur mindset really got on my nerves. I understand it was a way to acknowledge just how much he and Lou are meant to be even if he knew she was a witch before they got married. But I just feel like it was unnecessary to revisit this when this was the main obstacle between them in the first book.

There was also too many side quests that they had to go on before the inevitable stand off with Morgane. They had to expel Nicholina then go back to the chateau to steal a necklace, we’ve already travelled all over this world in the second book I wasn’t really all that interested in the continuous journey they were on. I would of appreciated learning more about the different gods and digging more into the history of the witches.

⭐️2/5 stars Way to long and tedious