Get Lost in Literature

Britt is a dragon keeper, charged with keeping her brother’s dragon safe. But her brother never returned from his mission and now his dragon will die if it’s not reunited with him soon. Henrik is a soldat, a ruthless soldier, secretly looking for the family he was stolen from when he was only five years old. When they meet, a deal is struck: if she helps him find his mother, he’ll help her find her brother. This was a bit of light reading for me, I needed a break from the intensity of the books I’ve been reading and thought I’d dive into a light-hearted romantasy. The first thing that stood out to me was that it was an interesting twist on dragons. Instead of these gargantuan lizards, the dragons in this book are small enough to fit in a pocket. But I don’t really understand the system in which dragons are bonded with people… I suppose there’s a benefit to the dragon: being so small means it would have a much bigger protector. But on the other hand there seems to be no benefit to the h...

“The first rule of witchery is to acknowledge your deficits.” The third and final installment of the Another Day trilogy brings us Rain with her memory restored. Now that she remembers who she is, she can’t wait to return to Oz and figure out who she is meant to be. As with the Wicked Years and the first two installments of Another Day, I found the settings to be imaginative even though L. Frank Baum was there first. GM creates a world that makes you feel transported and strangely at home. Despite my appreciation of the setting, I found that this book lacked the charm of the first two books.  The beginning was a bit wishy-washy. It opens with Rain, Iskinaary, and Lucickles on a ship. Eventually there’s an explanation for how they got there but it didn’t come soon enough and it felt really random.  I didn’t find the subplot of Rain and Lucickles to be on par with their characters unless it’s to be considered a weird kind of character evolution…Which doesn’t make a whole lot of...

  “A story,” said Rain, “is like a room. You enter it through a door like ‘Once upon a time’ or ‘Once there was a little girl’…” Rain, Cossy, and Iskinaary have escaped prison with the help of Flying Monkeys and are fleeing the city that’s come under naval attack. Lucickles has gone into hiding with his family at his mother-in-law’s farm, where they are besieged by refugees, eventually including the green-skinned teenager that ruined the world as he knew it. I love that this story (both books so far) wants to ask existential questions. The difference of life and death is a curiosity to be studied, more so by Cossy than Rain. They are both transfixed be the question of ‘who am I?’ as Rain tries to discover her lost memories and Cossy tries to discover herself with the loss of the brides and the only home she’s ever known. There’s also the subject of destiny… If you believe in that sort of thing, which Rain does not but some of the characters around her do. They believe it is her des...

“Shadows in the corridor loomed, only to scurry away. They seemed taller in the witching hour, dawn mere hours away.” In this sequel to One Dark Window , Nightmare has finally taken over Elspeth’s mind, leaving her imprisoned in the dark. Ravyn, who is desperate to save her and break the curse on Blunder, must find the last Providence card before time runs out. With Hauth on his deathbed, Elm finds himself becoming an unwilling heir to the throne. I loved the plot of this a little bit better than the first. I think maybe the first book was simply introducing the world… The second book is more of a quest as the future of Blunder hangs in the balance. There was no waffling about either, nothing extraneous included. RG knew where she wanted her characters to go and she sent them there. The romantasy elements were really fun. The story is passionate without being super smutty. Ravyn’s determined to save Elspeth even if it means allying himself with the monster that lives in her head, even ...

"When the world of man collapses in ruin, beauty will take over. " This is the sequel to Interview with the Vampire , where Lestat has returned to the limelight quite literally. Lestat has become a rock star, flaunting his vampireness to the world. He, having read Louis’s book, has decided to publish one of his own. His own memoir details his life as a human, his transformation into a vampire, and his quest for knowledge. I actually liked this book a little more than Interview with the Vampire but not by much. Lestat is super narcissistic which is on par with his character from IwtV .   But unlike Louis’s story, Lestat has been changed from a creepy pedo into a killer of killers which makes him a little more likable, but makes the story inconsistent. I like the question it presents though: Which vampire is telling the truth? As a human, he was a noble who felt trapped by his family. He longed to be an actor from a very young age and when he meets Nikki, a musician, that ...

"Betrayal lodges in my heart like a hot coal trapped behind the grate of the hearth." In this final installment of the Forging Silver into Stars trilogy, Grey has been chased from the Crystal Palace in Syhl Shallow and has returned to Ironrose in Emberfall, leaving his wife Queen Lia Mara to rule her country alone. Like with the first two novels, the continuation of Grey and Lia Mara's complicated love story is a delicious side plot to compliment the story of Tycho, Jax, Callyn, and Alek. Tycho, who promised he'd only be gone for a few days, returns to Emberfall after months away from Jax. Jax had spent his alone time making friends and a not-so-secret admirer. They both feel a little guilty; Tycho per usual looking to hide his emotions behind a wall of toxic masculinity, and Jax trying to hide his emotions with fake indifference. Both agonize over the distance growing between them, neither willing to yield. Callyn is living under the weight of her anxiety; Alek upon ...

"Cossy didn't know much about memory.  All existence measures itself in creeps and ticks, as far as she knew." The seven brides of Maracoor Spot, a small island off the coast of the greater Maracoor Abiding, are left in isolation to safeguard an ancient relic. There can only ever be seven brides and when one dies, the overseer will bring another. They hold tight to their rules and ceremonial obligations until a strange woman washes ashore, increasing their population to eight. This is the continuation of Rain's story; Rain who flew from Oz on her grandmother's broomstick, to find herself trapped on an island of bickering brides. Helia, leader of the brides, and Cossy, the youngest, wish to keep Rain on the island and want to hide her existence from the overseer. Mirka, second in command, wants to be rid of Rain by any way possible. Unbeknownst to Rain, on the same day she washes ashore, strange things begin to happen across Maracoor. Spirits revealing themselves, ...

"The stories made it sound so good. Fighting for a cause. Being a hero." He shook his head. "Why does everyone pretend it's anything like that?" Like with many fantasy novels, there is a war between good and evil. But this book starts after that war has ended and evil prevailed over good. A woman held captive by the aforementioned evil, turns out to be an undocumented prisoner and when she's discovered, her captors are determined to learn her identity. As far as anyone can tell, Helena Marino is a glorified nobody but somebody went to a lot of trouble to erase her memories. Enter the High Reeve, Kaine Ferron. He's cold, calculating, and vicious; he's one of the most powerful necromancers of all time. It becomes his task to repair Helena's broken mind and he's willing to destroy it trying. Book One of this 1000+ page novel is absolutely brutal. I think the story opening with evil in control was unique and set the tone for the whole story, but ...

"But once you sense that vastness, once something reveals it, hope emerges, whether you want it to or not, and it clings to you as stubbornly as lichen clings to rock." This is the story of Nora Seed, who is unbelievably depressed. After trying to commit suicide, she winds up at the Midnight Library where there are an infinite number of books filled with an infinite number of possibilities. Each book contains a life for Nora based on the decisions she could have made but didn't. The librarian tells her she can take each one for a test drive, and when she finds the life that makes her happy, she can stay there. When this book came out there was almost nothing else in my Good Reads newsfeed. I normally don't pay too much attention to over-hyped books, but this one caught my eye. I'm going to start by saying I liked how realistic Matt Haig was with Nora's depression. As someone who has had it, it does feel a lot like being a failure at everything, it feels lonely...

"...instead we entered battle with an enemy I'd thought were only folklore last week, and now we're... well, we're here..." Violet Sorrengail returns to Basgiath War College after surviving a war game that turned real and cost her friend his life. Her and the other survivors must pretend like everything is normal to protect themselves and the rebellion and she's miserable lying to her friends. Xaden has graduated and is at the warfront, still smuggling weapons in his spare time, while Violet tries to survive her second year of school without him. I actually thought this book was better than the first. Rebecca Yarros just assumes no character intros are needed if you made it to book two, and with introductions out of the way the adventure intensifies. Like the first book, this story included a few plot twists but these ones I didn't see coming. I enjoy it so much more when a story is unpredictable, it's easier to sink into it.  When not worried about sc...

"Revenge on everybody . That would fill her time. That would keep her busy." This is not going to be the greatest review of all time, seeing as I had some personal problems that required me to put the book down for a month and I was too preoccupied to take notes. This is the second book I read this year that involves a criminal main character in a dark fantasy novel. It's also my third dark fantasy this year (I think I read them in a straight row) and I'm not sure what called me to them when I was at the bookstore at the start of the summer. The main character, Charlie Hall was deeply likeable even though she claims she isn't. She's a criminal and conflicted about it. She's trying to go straight, but if it were that easy there'd be no story. When a friend asks her for a favor and her past starts to catch up to her, she has nothing but her talents as a thief and con-artist to rely on. I like that the setting takes place in the 'real world'. You ...

"The Prophet showed me a hooded figure with a shadow," Morette Yew's voice called above the clamor, stern and sure. "The shadow remained even when the light faded." A mist has settled over Blunder, a curse by a vengeful deity, it confuses and consumes. Meet Elspeth Spindle: resident of Blunder and survivor of an infection that grants its sufferers magic abilities. In a world where magic is punishable by death, Elspeth counts herself lucky that she can pass for normal. That no one knows she's infected. That no one knows that a monster, The Nightmare, lives inside her head. For eleven years she's kept these secrets but one fateful night and one chance meeting changes everything. Suddenly she's thrown into a conspiracy against the King, to break the curse, and to free herself. I normally start with my positive observations first and then my negative, but for whatever reason I'm doing my review in reverse today. I noticed some problems in the beginni...

' "Just trust me, Nina." "I wouldn't trust you to tie my shoes without stealing the laces, Kaz." ' This gritty fantasy opens with the introduction of six quirky characters. Kaz Brekker, only seventeen years old, is a hardened career criminal in a street gang known as the Dreggs. Jesper is an ex-farmboy turned sharpshooter with a gambling addiction. Inej, aka The Wraith, is indentured to the Dreggs but finds she has a talent for criminality; she's dangerous, fearless. She's the thief of secrets. Wylan was born to privilege and ran from it; he went from being a wealthy merchant's son, to being a demolitions expert for Kaz's gang. Matthias, Kaz's opposite; run by what he considers to be a moral high ground, is a soldier trained to hunt down witches and was convicted on false charges. And then there's Nina, a witch, or Grisha, who put Matthias in prison and is desperate to correct that wrong. These six teenagers hardened by their own ...

  "The hairs stood on the back of my neck. All who were wise feared the god Apollo's wrath, silent as sunlight, deadly as plague." Circe is born to the sun god Helios and the nymph Perse. As far as goddesses go, she is unremarkable in every way; no beauty, no powers, and the insufferable voice of a mortal. She is the shame of her family and seems destined to remain so... Until the day comes when she realizes she can use herbs to bend life to her will. Circe isn't just a goddess, she's a witch and like most witches she must be punished for it and is sentenced to exile by Zeus and her own father. In college I had The Odyssey and The Iliad as required reading for a literature class that I had thought I'd enjoy taking at the time I enrolled in it... Spoiler alert, I finished neither the story nor the class. Thankfully Madeline Miller managed to write a Greek epic that was told in relative time lapse, meaning just because a story spans a thousand years doesn'...

  "This is how we sometimes lose people: not all at once, but little by little, like the wind blowing specks of pollen from a flower." The Land of Lost Things is the long-awaited sequel to The Book of Lost Things. The Book of Lost Things is one of my favorite books and is located on my Top Ten Books to Get Lost on a Deserted Island With list. Having never reviewed The Book of Lost Things , I feel compelled to tell you a little about it first. The Book of Lost Things is about a boy named David; his mother dies and his father remarries. Increasingly unhappy with his homelife, that now includes an infant half-brother, he falls deeper into the stories that bring him comfort... Until he accidentally opens the door to Elsewhere. In a world beyond his own, he finds fairytales and monsters reminiscent of The Brothers Grimm . I know certain adults have the compulsion for lumping all fantasy novels in with YA, but this book was not aimed at young adults. This book is a coming-of-age...

"Earthquakes couldn’t crush us, floods couldn’t drown us, fires were too slow to catch us. Sulfur and brimstone were irrelevant. We were the gods of our own alternate universe. Inside the mortal world but over it, never slaves to its laws, only our own." Few books have incited as much Love and Hate as The Twilight Saga . All I'm going to say, is if you loathed Twilight through Breaking Dawn , you aren't going to like this book much better. It's Twilight , from Edward's POV; it isn't really any darker than Bella's POV, after all it is a vampire novel intended to be palatable for 13-year-old girls. It was never intended to be use as horror or erotica. If you loved Twilight, just the way it was, this book is for you. I feel like Stephenie Meyer has come a long way. She maintains the same level of teenage angst, self-flagellation, desperately sickeningly sweet love affair that we came to know in the first book, but her actual writing technique has improv...

  "Hope is a fickle, dangerous thing. It steals your focus and aims it toward the possibilities instead of keeping it where it belongs—on the probabilities." Violet Sorrengail, frail and fragile, trained her whole life to be in Scribe Quadrant, wanting nothing more than to be surrounded by books, recording history. But her mother, the general, has other ideas. She's being sent to college to train in the Riders Quadrant to follow in the footsteps of her siblings to become a dragon rider. The problem? Besides being too weak to carry her own bag, she'll be in a school where every test she takes is graded by life or death and everyone wants her dead. I can absolutely see what the fuss is about, this was a little addicting for me. I was pulled in right away by the idea of Violet, this smart young woman with physical infirmities being forced into a war college where only the strongest survive. She's the heroine of the story, so you know she's going to survive, but s...

The story of Tycho and Jax continues with their journey to Emberfall, during which there's a vicious attack by scravers. With scravers terrorizing the countryside, Tycho worries about the consequences of his promise to Nakiis. Prince Rhen orders Tycho away to warn the King and once again he finds himself riding away from Jax. Callyn's story opens with her chasing the princess through the palace, part of her new job as Sinna's lady in waiting. Soon it becomes her responsibility to figure out why the Queen was attacked, trapping her in a game of politics that may turn deadly. I'm going to start by saying, Jax and Tycho are sooooo sweet. They're sweet together and sweet to each other. If you are looking for a lighthearted romantasy that makes you feel warm and fuzzy on the inside, this book's opening salvo fits the bill. But as wonderful as it is it can't stay that way for long. Their relationship becomes strained by the necessity of finding balance between the...

  "'You told me once," said Kell, "That you were either magic's master or its slave. So which are you now?" Kell, Lila, Alucard, and Rhy are setting out to save the world they love from unstoppable evil curse. Each chapter was thick with tension as the characters that we've grown to love, and the ones we've grown to hate, are hovering on the edge of life and death with each turn of the page. This book was fast-paced and full of action and I could not put it down. Osaron, an evil manifestation of magic, is taking over Red London, one body at a time, leaving the royal family and the competitors of the Essen Tasch trapped in the palace. The stakes are high as our main characters search for a way to save the world and I was glued to my seat to find out what was going to happen next. The characters are well established now. Kell who yearns for freedom, now bound by the magic keeping Rhy alive, their lives tied inexorably together. Lila, a young woman who ...

"And then in the silence, he heard a sound: not a sob, or a scream, but a laugh." In the first book, there are 4 Londons, located in four parallel universes. Kell who lives in Red London, is a powerful magician who can travel between realms. Lila Bard is a common thief in Grey London, a magicless London. There's Black London, the doomed London. And there's a White London, the London trapped between life and death. If book one was Kell's story, then consider this the Lila Bard show. She joins the crew of Captain Alucard Emery, privateer, and runs amok on Red London's high seas, finally fulfilling her dream of becoming a pirate. She's content to be the best thief, until she hears about a dangerous game being played in Red London, and Lila doesn't love anything more than she loves danger. Kell is now the one yearning for freedom, as he becomes trapped between the family he won't ever be a part of and his societal obligations. The setting is fabulous. ...