It’s been a couple weeks since I last participated in this post. But here I am again!
Anyway, First Line Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers (formerly) hosted by Wandering Words, but I saw it over at One Book More.
What if instead of judging a book by the cover, author or most everything else, we judged it by its content? Its first lines?
If you want to join in, all you gotta do is:
📚 Take a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open it to the first page 📝 Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first 📙 Finally… reveal the book!
Here’s the first line:
The police officer’s body goes blurry, then sharpens again.
Know what book it is? Here’s some more hints if you don’t know…
Still have no idea? Here’s some great pictures of books to look at while you consider it…
After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC-Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape—until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus.
A flying demon feeding on human energies.
A secret society of so called “Legendborn” students that hunt the creatures down.
And a mysterious teenage mage who calls himself a “Merlin” and who attempts—and fails—to wipe Bree’s memory of everything she saw.
The mage’s failure unlocks Bree’s own unique magic and a buried memory with a hidden connection: the night her mother died, another Merlin was at the hospital. Now that Bree knows there’s more to her mother’s death than what’s on the police report, she’ll do whatever it takes to find out the truth, even if that means infiltrating the Legendborn as one of their initiates.
She recruits Nick, a self-exiled Legendborn with his own grudge against the group, and their reluctant partnership pulls them deeper into the society’s secrets—and closer to each other. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthur’s knights and explain that a magical war is coming, Bree has to decide how far she’ll go for the truth and whether she should use her magic to take the society down—or join the fight.
What books have you been reading lately? What’s on your TBR that you’re currently the most excited about?
As always, thank you for reading, and I hope you have an great day/night!
Happy Tuesday everyone! It’s been some time since I’ve last done this post. Sorry. June completely screwed up my productivity and reading time and stuff. But I’m back with another Tasteful Tuesday!
For anyone unfamiliar, Tasteful Tuesdays (formerly Majestic Mondays – so it’s not new, I just switched days, haha) (might switch back, who knows) are when I highlight an awesome looking book cover and talk about what I like about it. That’s it, that’s pretty much the point of this post.
This time I’m (once again) screaming over another new release. The book is The Night Ends With Fire by K.X. Song!
Infused with magic and romance, this sweeping fantasy adventure inspired by the legend of Mulan follows a young woman determined to choose her own destiny—even if that means going against everyone she loves.
The Three Kingdoms are at war, but Meilin’s father refuses to answer the imperial draft. Trapped by his opium addiction, he plans to sell Meilin for her dowry. But when Meilin discovers her husband-to-be is another violent, ill-tempered man, she realizes that nothing will change for her unless she takes matters into her own hands.
The very next day, she disguises herself as a boy and enlists in her father’s place.
In the army, Meilin’s relentless hard work brings her recognition, friendship—and a growing closeness with Sky, a prince turned training partner. But has she simply exchanged one prison for another? As her kingdom barrels toward destruction, Meilin begins to have visions of a sea dragon spirit that offers her true power and freedom, but with a deadly price.
With the future of the Three Kingdoms hanging in the balance, Meilin will need to decide whom to trust—Sky, who inspires her loyalty and love; the sea dragon spirit, who has his own murky agenda; or an infuriating enemy prince who makes her question everything she once knew—about her kingdom and about her own heart.
Book Cover Rating: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 • 5 burning fires
I’m not gonna mince words: this book cover is absolutely gorgeous. It’s one of the prettiest covers that I’ve seen all year. Not to mention the sprayed edges. Ack – so beautiful!
I love the painted art style. You know, the one that’s sometimes used for telling stories, particularly used in certain movies and videogames to tell a legend or show a flashback. I just adore the way it looks. Not to mention how you can see the brush strokes and the way that the colors blend. I can’t stop gushing about this cover!
The way the fire is simultaneously a phoenix is also absolutely beautiful. And the way that (presumably) Meilin is rather small compared to said phoenix, but still stands out and is still the ficus of the cover art is also awesome.
And I just love, love, love the sprayed edges. Like, I always love sprayed edges. But the ones here are particularly pretty. I really like the colors and detail used – it all just helps the book as a whole stand out even more. The entirety of the outside of The Night Ends With Fire is just a masterpiece.
So yeah, that’s another Tasteful Tuesday. What do you think about this cover art? Have you read The Night Ends With Fire? What did you think of it?
Anyway, as always, thank you to everyone who reads my posts. I hope that you enjoyed this one as well, and that you have a awesome day/night!
Sooo… It’s been a few weeks since I participated in First Line Fridays. Not to mention my posting has been pretty spotty this month as well. Sorry about that…
Anyway, First Line Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers (formerly) hosted by Wandering Words, but I saw it over at One Book More.
What if instead of judging a book by the cover, author or most everything else, we judged it by its content? Its first lines?
If you want to join in, all you gotta do is:
📚 Take a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open it to the first page 📝 Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first 📙 Finally… reveal the book!
Here’s the first lines:
For the first time since he had arrived at the Museum of Gigantic Achievement, Knox heard no sounds of dragons wreaking havoc above.
Any ideas on the book? Here’s another hint or two if you still can’t figure it out…
Still not quite sure yet? Here are some lovely photos of books to admire while you think about it…
Annnd the book is… 🥁🥁 Return of the Dragon Slayers by Brandon Mull!!
The magical world teeters on the brink of collapse. The Dragon King, Celebrant, has united the dragons into a vengeful army, and only a final artifact stands in the way of them unleashing their fury against humankind. With established allegiances shifting under the strain, Seth and Kendra find themselves in desperate need of new allies.
Seth must face his most dangerous quest–the fulfillment of his pledge to the Singing Sisters. With only Calvin the Tiny Hero at his side, Seth needs to collect the pieces of the Ethergem, including the stones from the crowns of the Dragon King, the Giant Queen, and the Demon King.
Halfway across the world, Kendra finds herself torn between her duty to Dragonwatch and her desire to rescue Bracken. Can she challenge Ronodin’s control of the fairy realm without leaving the five legendary dragon slayers to be hunted by Celebrant and his sons?
Left behind at Titan Valley, Knox and Tess must survive the aftermath of the Giant Queen’s fall. Will the secret crown in Knox’s possession prove too much for him to handle?
In this fifth and final volume of Dragonwatch, our heroes make their last stand at the hidden Kingdom of Selona. For the defenders of light to stand a chance, the legendary dragon slayers must arise, lost secrets must be uncovered, and ancient powers must awaken. Get ready for the gripping, revelatory, and unforeseen conclusion to the epic ten-volume New York Times best-selling Fablehaven and Dragonwatch series.
What books have you been reading lately? What’s on your TBR that you’re currently the most excited about?
As always, thank you for reading, and I hope you have an great day/night!
GENRES: Fantasy, Romance, YA, LGBT+, Graphic Novel, Fiction
PUBLISHER: HarperAlley
RELEASE DATE: 4 June 2024
BOOK DESCRIPTION:
In this queer reimagining of Arthurian legend, Knights of the Round Table Lancelot and Tristan set out on a quest to find the missing magician Merlin, but instead discover an unexpected romance. An inclusive, magical twist on the enduring legend of Arthur that is a tale for the ages.
Merlin is missing, and Camelot is under attack.
When King Arthur calls for aid, Morgan le Fay answers her estranged half brother’s plea—for a price. She’ll locate Merlin in exchange for the mysterious magical sapling their father bequeathed to Arthur on his passing. Much to her chagrin, Arthur insists on sending two Knights of the Round Table with her.
Sir Lancelot has carefully built himself a reputation as the most well-liked of Arthur’s knights, but he can’t crack quiet Tristan’s brooding exterior. Sir Tristan is silently battling a curse—one that has bound him to the lady Isolde against his will, and one he grows ever more desperate to break.
As the trio journeys through Albion, sparks begin to fly between the two knights. But before they can unravel the tangle of feelings and secrets between them, they will have to face a threat that could destroy all of Camelot—unless they and Morgan can learn to work together to destroy it first.
My Review
I love retellings. Fairytale, classic fiction, legends – it doesn’t matter. I love reading reinterpretations of old works, as well as stories based on or inspired by them.
Regarding Tristan & Lancelot: A Tale of Two Knights however… I found it very mid. It wasn’t even close to being a bad book, but I didn’t really enjoy it that much either. I guess it was just another book that wasn’t for me. The art is fantastic though – it was my favorite thing about the graphic novel! (I gave my rating an extra half-star because I loved it so much.)
Aside from the great art, I kind of felt that the rest of the stuff the novel had going for it was pretty meh. The characters were very, very basic and weren’t well defined, and the plot and “twists” were extraordinarily predictable. It just wasn’t a book that I super enjoyed. Also, the title is way too long.
This graphic novel also felt like a fanfiction, not gonna lie. (And I mean, technically I guess it was…) Especially with how the story was presented and the way it was written. There wasn’t really much to establish the background or world (because everyone knows about King Arthur and stuff right?), and it all felt kinda rushed. Like, I’m all for a fast paced adventure, but you gotta establish your world and characters first.
I also wasn’t sold on the romance. I never really understood what Lancelot initially saw in Tristan. The latter was mostly irritable and standoffish and didn’t interact with anyone if he could help it. Was it just because Tristan was hot? Because that’s not good enough for me sometimes when it comes to books and stuff. I need something more than that. And Lancelot spent a good amount of time mooning over Tristan for (what I felt) was seemingly nothing.
Morgan and Arthur’s slight animosity didn’t make sense to me after I finished reading A Tale of Two Knights either. Like, I get it, in Arthurian lore they’re antagonistic. But they didn’t really have a reason to be here. And the mystery of why they put each other off was one of the more interesting things about the novel, and I didn’t feel like it had a good payoff. Also, everything regarding the plot resolved just a little too nicely.
Anyway, I don’t really have anything else to say. This clearly wasn’t for me, but others might enjoy it. And the art was amazing.
As always, thank you for reading and have an awesome day/night!
See ya ~Mar
Some Interactions I Liked
[Guinevere] “I miss being out in the field. And I miss having you around. Camelot could use you.”
[Morgan] “I’m here now. All it took was my brother’s kingdom to fall into utter chaos.”
[Arthur] “I do wish we could meet under better circumstances.”
[Guinevere] “Maybe if you had invited her for dinner every once in a while.”
[Arthur] “I…”
[Morgan] “Careful. It’s a long drop. And we don’t know what’s underneath the water.”
[Lancelot] “Don’t tell me. Something isn’t right about this place.”
[Morgan] “What gave it away?”
[Morgan] “It doesn’t matter where you come from… Or who you are… Or what you struggle with. You don’t do it because you’re a knight. You don’t do it for a title or glory or for Arthur to pat you on the back. I don’t do it just because I’m getting paid. We do it because it’s the right thing to do. It doesn’t matter who was born a peasant or noble. It doesn’t matter if I’m part fae or if I’ve lost most of my magic. We don’t get to sit around and mope.
A sharp-witted, debut high fantasy farce featuring killer moat squid, toxic masculinity, evil wizards and a garlic festival – all at once. Perfect for fans of T. Kingfisher, K. J. Parker and Travis Baldree.
It’s bad enough waking up in a half-destroyed evil wizard’s workshop with no eyebrows, no memories, and no idea how long you have before the Dread Lord Whomever shows up to murder you horribly and then turn your skull into a goblet or something.
It’s a lot worse when you realize that Dread Lord Whomever is… you.
Gav isn’t really sure how he ended up with a castle full of goblins, or why he has a princess locked in a cell. All he can do is play along with his own evil plan in hopes of getting his memories back before he gets himself killed.
But as he realizes that nothing – from the incredibly tasteless cloak adorned with flames to the aforementioned princess – is quite what it seems, Gav must face up to all the things the Dread Lord Gavrax has done. And he’ll have to answer the hardest question of all – who does he want to be?
A high fantasy farce featuring killer moat squid, toxic masculinity, an evil wizard convocation, and a garlic festival. All at once. All in all, Dread Lord Gavrax has had better weeks.
My Review
He woke up with no eyebrows and no idea how he’d gotten into such a position.
I was really looking forward to Dreadful. And I didn’t dislike it, but it didn’t end up being as much of a gem as I’d hoped it would be. Like, I still really liked certain parts of it, but on the whole I just felt very meh about it.
The concept of this novel was something I found extremely interesting and was all it took for me to hype myself up for it. But, I dunno, I just felt like it was a bit bland for me. I’ve heard it compared to Legends & Lattes, because they’re both kind of slow-burns, and I agree with that. I think that that might be part of the reason that Dreadful didn’t gel with me as much as I’d hoped.
First off: the stuff I liked. I really enjoyed the characters; I feel that they were the strongest part of the book. Gav was both amusing and interesting to me because I’m a sucker for amnesia plots (if they’re done right), and the circumstances and framing of the novel made the whole thing funny to me. Eliasha was also a brilliant inversion of the princess archetype. I loved her personality and how she wasn’t conventionally attractive and that her interests weren’t conventional either. Gav and Eliasha also had great platonic banter, and their friendship was fun to follow. I also really liked the side characters, like the goblins and the villagers. The garlic festival was hilarious!
The plot was okay. It wasn’t anything super unique, as it’s purposely riffing on fantasy tropes, and is inspired by one of Rozakis’ husband’s D&D campaigns from a few years ago. I like it when books get a bit meta sometimes though, or are self aware, so a lot of it was fun.
I did find stuff to be kind of predictable, however, but that’s not always a bad thing. It did make a couple of parts kind of boring though, and the climax was not very exciting (for me) to read. The book also got a bit too self aware and preachy at some points.
The writing was mostly okay. I thought that the dialogue and point of view came across pretty naturally. I did find some of the descriptions to be overused and annoying, though. The amount of times the author used stuff like “the saturnine face” made me want to throw my tablet across the couch. It really irritated me.
But yeah, overall this was a pretty okay book and a decent debut. It may not have been my cup of tea exactly, but I think that lots of other people will enjoy it. Especially if you like more slow paced and light-hearted stuff.
A Few Quotes I Liked
So, this was shock. It seemed terribly inconvenient that the brain’s reaction to being placed in mortal jeopardy was to become much stupider.
“Do you want to get fireballed by mistake?”
She shrugged fatalistically. “Will get fireballed eventually.”
If he hurried out, it was because he had very important research to do. It was not a retreat.
“Your good sense. Your common sense can inspire me to another way of life. To goodness.”
“You could start with letting me go.”
“Something smaller.”
“How about not being a complete asshole to everyone you meet?” she said acidly.
As always, thanks so much to everyone for reading, and I hope you have a not-dreadful day/night!
So, May is pretty stacked this year. There are quite a few interesting looking books coming out. And I’ve really got my eye on this one.
Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Tressa @ Wishful Endings (and was previously hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine where it was known as Waiting on Wednesday) to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. They’re usually books that have not yet been released.
This week’s book is:
Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis! 🏰🧄
It might not have been my quad-annual anticipated new books post that I did last month, but that’s just cuz I didn’t know about it yet. As soon as I read the premise, I knew I’d have to read it!
A sharp-witted, debut high fantasy farce featuring killer moat squid, toxic masculinity, evil wizards and a garlic festival – all at once. Perfect for fans of T. Kingfisher, K. J. Parker and Travis Baldree.
It’s bad enough waking up in a half-destroyed evil wizard’s workshop with no eyebrows, no memories, and no idea how long you have before the Dread Lord Whomever shows up to murder you horribly and then turn your skull into a goblet or something.
It’s a lot worse when you realize that Dread Lord Whomever is… you.
Gav isn’t really sure how he ended up with a castle full of goblins, or why he has a princess locked in a cell. All he can do is play along with his own evil plan in hopes of getting his memories back before he gets himself killed.
But as he realizes that nothing – from the incredibly tasteless cloak adorned with flames to the aforementioned princess – is quite what it seems, Gav must face up to all the things the Dread Lord Gavrax has done. And he’ll have to answer the hardest question of all – who does he want to be?
A high fantasy farce featuring killer moat squid, toxic masculinity, an evil wizard convocation, and a garlic festival. All at once. All in all, Dread Lord Gavrax has had better weeks.
Are you looking forward to Dreadful? What other books are coming out soon that you’re looking forward to?
As always, thank you all so much for reading and have a wonderful day/night!
Set in a Jewish folklore-inspired reimagining of 19th century Eastern Europe, this queer dark fantasy debut pits two estranged husbands and a daring spymaster on opposite sides of a civil war. Perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo, C.S. Pacat, and Katherine Arden.
Dimitri Alexeyev used to be the Tzar of Novo-Svitsevo. Now, he is merely a broken man, languishing in exile after losing a devastating civil war instigated by his estranged husband, Alexey Balakin. In hiding with what remains of his court, Dimitri and his spymaster, Vasily Sokolov, engineer a dangerous ruse. Vasily will sneak into Alexey’s court under a false identity to gather information, paving the way for the usurper’s downfall, while Dimitri finds a way to kill him for good.
But stopping Alexey is not so easy as plotting to kill an ordinary man. Through a perversion of the Ludayzim religion that he terms the Holy Science, Alexey has died and resurrected himself in an immortal, indestructible body—and now claims he is guided by the voice of God Himself. Able to summon forth creatures from the realm of demons, he seeks to build an army, turning Novo-Svitsevo into the greatest empire that history has ever seen.
Dimitri is determined not to let Alexey corrupt his country, but saving Novo-Svitsevo and its people will mean forfeiting the soul of the husband he can’t bring himself to forsake—or the spymaster he’s come to love.
My Review
How will I know the Name? Dimitri fought to be practical, even if the pain in his body was enough to drive him mad.
Just as your sins are written on your bones, the angel replied, so will you bear the name of God.
So, like, I wanted to like this book. I really, really wanted to. It had such an interesting premise and the cover was absolutely incredible. Plus, I really love the title; The Sins on Their Bones – it just sounds so cool and unsettling at the same time!
But I didn’t. And I’m not saying that it’s a bad book, because I don’t think it necessarily is. I just don’t think it was for me. And that’s because of the almost constant horniness. And smut. Sorry everyone, I’m just not into that stuff! Plus, since it was constant there, it was difficult to skip past it without missing important parts of the story. I couldn’t stand it, it was so annoying. I hate it when books get hypersexual or horny, it’s just something I don’t find very interesting or engaging (it’s also the thing I hate the most about the ACOTAR series).
Another thing I didn’t like was some of the characters. I hated Dimitri at the beginning of the story. I found him and his whining to be annoying to follow. Yes, I understand that he was extremely traumatized. But did he really have to be that whiny? After his big character moment about halfway through, however, he ended up becoming my favorite POV character to follow. And that’s again due to the aforementioned horny stuff.
I don’t understand how Alexey could possibly be as sex driven as he was. Like, he was revived in a demonic ritual, and his body and all its processes were all altered and messed up because of that. His body temperature was cold and his blood was discolored. How the heck is his libido functioning that well?! And he was horny like, all the time. It was basically constant during his chapters. And he was supposed to be this evil mastermind type of guy that can’t be fooled, but the second (SPOILER) shows up he gives him access to everything. Because Alexey is just that horny.
I found Vasily to be pretty annoying too. But like, in a different way to Dimitri annoying and Alexey annoying. Well, not quite different to Alexey annoying. I hate pining when it’s constant. And Vasily was constantly – and I mean constantly – pining for Dimitri. It was so much that it felt like it eclipsed everything else about his character, because I’m having trouble remembering other aspects of his personality. I guess he was clever? I don’t know.
I liked Dimitri’s close-knit group of friends, though. I liked their dialogue and the way that they all interacted with Dimitri and each other. It was pretty natural sounding, and I found the interactions to be sweet. Their personalities were all pretty defined, which was nice to see after forcing my way through some of the POVs.
The only other thing that I really liked was the mythology and world building. I haven’t really read books with Jewish inspired aspects like this, so it was very interesting and refreshing to read. I found it to be pretty unique. But yeah, that’s all that I really liked about the novel.
The Sins on Their Bones is an interesting book with great world building and some great characters. But everything else about it bothered me in some way (it’s the horniness and sex – it’s always the horniness and sex). I think that other people who like unique fantasy based settings and smut will enjoy it, though, so I recommend it for you guys.
Anyway, thanks to everyone who decided to read this. I hope you have an amazing day/night!
See ya ~Mar
Conversations I Liked a Little
“Who gave you the right to tell me what to do?” Dimitri asked sulkily, trying to bat Mischa’s arm away.
“The Lord our God, and also you, you ass,” Mischa said.
“I’m scared,” he finally admitted, his voice gravelly and hoarse. “I’m so scared. I don’t want to lose another person I should be keeping safe. I don’t want to lose any of you.”
“That’s the curse of ruling, my darling.” Annika ran her thumbs across his cheeks, wiping away his tears the way his own mother never had. “That’s the weight of the crown you wear. Loving the tools that you use to protect your empire. And some of those tools might break.”
“Ah.” Vasily chewed his lip. “You can’t pay in money. You have to pay in pieces of yourself.”
“Stop the carriage right fucking now.” Mischa made for the carriage door, but Vasily blocked them with an arm. “There’s no way I’m letting any of us cut off pieces of ourselves to read a book.”
“The boy’s the Tzar of Novo-Svitsevo,” the head said suddenly.
“Yes, yes, you said something about that,” Aleksandr grumbled. “But that doesn’t change the fact that he can’t bleed on any of the books.”
“I know,” Vasily said, gripping Dimitri’s knee harder. “I know. But there’s nothing we can do for the dead. All we can do is try to save the living.” Dimitri shook his head.
“I agree,” he whispered, except he didn’t sound like he did.
It’s once again another month, which means it’s time for another wrap-up! This is a few days later than I had wanted – I’d originally wanted to get this out last weekend. Buuut… I was out of town, you know? Anyway, this monthly wrap-up regarding my reading for April 2024 features my reading stats from The StoryGraph, as per usual.
My reading has been much better than the previous few months – even March. I read 6 books! Which is such a big improvement compared to one or two or none at all. So yeah, I’m kind of satisfied with my reading last month.
Anyway, let’s get on with the reading wrap-up!
April Reading 2024
I read 6 books and 2,658 pages
😐 MOODS: The reading Moods were varied this past month. Adventurous was of course the biggest chunk of the pie in April, but Lighthearted, Mysterious and Dark were also pretty big slices. Tense and Funny were the smallest parts though.
👢 PACE: My books from last month were all three kinds of paces: fast, medium and slow.
🔢 PAGE NUMBER: I read a lot of books with different page numbers. But everything I read was between 100 and 650 pages.
📖 FICTION/NONFICTION: It was once again all fiction this month.
🎭 GENRES: So many Genres in April. Of course, Fantasy was the biggest one – it was the only Genre that was applied to every book I read. Manga surprised me at being the second biggest one, though I probably shouldn’t have been. The third biggest Genre was Young Adult, and then the rest of them were all applicable to one book each and were therefore the smallest lines.
📄 FORMAT: This little StoryGraph pie chart is almost correct for April. I only read one ebook though.
⭐ RATING: My median star rating for last month was 3.42. The ratings I gave were between 2.25 stars and 4.25 stars, with two of the ratings being 4.0 stars.
📉 PAGES READ DAILY: I didn’t read as much as I’d have liked during the first week or so of April, but I really started reading after that. My highest reading peak was during the 9th thru the 16th, but I had little reading spikes after that for the rest of the month.
So yeah, I improved my reading stats for April! Just like I had intended to do. I’m hoping I read even more this month, and the months that are coming up the rest of 2024 too.
May has a couple of books releasing that I’m interested in, but I still have a couple new releases from April that I haven’t read yet that I still might check out as well. My spouse and I are still making our way through One Piece, and are planning on reading the next arc this month too. I’m so glad we started reading it again – it’s a fun and easy read and it got me out of my slump! Though… I’ve had a bit of a mini-slump happening for the past few days, but I’m chalking that up to reading two 2.5 star novels in a row plus the going out of town thing last weekend.
So yeah, thank you to everyone for reading, and I hope you have an awesome day/night!
From the #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Stalking Jack the Ripper series comes a new blockbuster series…
Two sisters. One brutal murder. A quest for vengeance that will unleash Hell itself… And an intoxicating romance.
Emilia and her twin sister Vittoria are streghe – witches who live secretly among humans, avoiding notice and persecution. One night, Vittoria misses dinner service at the family’s renowned Sicilian restaurant. Emilia soon finds the body of her beloved twin…desecrated beyond belief. Devastated, Emilia sets out to find her sister’s killer and to seek vengeance at any cost–even if it means using dark magic that’s been long forbidden.
Then Emilia meets Wrath, one of the Wicked–princes of Hell she has been warned against in tales since she was a child. Wrath claims to be on Emilia’s side, tasked by his master with solving the series of women’s murders on the island. But when it comes to the Wicked, nothing is as it seems…
My Review
“There are seven demon princes, but only four di Carlos should fear: Wrath, Greed, Envy, and Pride. One will crave your blood. One will capture your heart. One will steal your soul. And one will take your life.”
Hey all. Sorry for the somewhat late review and post. I had intended to have this out by last Friday before we went out of town, but that unfortunately didn’t happen. I also struggled to find a moment to work on it this weekend (while out of town), so I just decided to post it this week. Sorry about that.
Anyway! I didn’t really care for Kingdom of the Wicked. Not that I expected to really like it a ton, but I did expect the writing to be better. Just because it’s YA doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have to have standards! Like, how was this published in the form it was? I definitely needed a couple more rounds of edits.
This book also made me hungry, which wasn’t super appreciated either. I did however, really enjoy the talk of cooking and ingredients and restaurant stuff. I also love to cook and bake, so it helped me immerse myself in this world bit. It’s also the reason this book is rated so high – otherwise I might’ve rated it two stars or probably less. But that was where the immersion ended.
This wasn’t the book for me. I hated Emilia not just as a protagonist, but as a character in general. I was prepared to like her – or at least, I didn’t mind the character that she was at the beginning. She was kind and quiet, and she loved to read. Emilia was also a bit of a dreamer. She’s also pretty cautious, which I don’t see very often in the MCs of the novels I read, which felt like a breath of fresh air. (I didn’t last. Trust me.) Though not on the level as her sister, Vittoria, whom I honestly ended up preferring by the end. Even though she was dead.
But these established aspects of Emilia’s personality and character are completely obliterated almost entirely when Vittoria is murdered. Then she immediately turns into an angry, bitter person, entirely obsessed with revenge. Like it becomes her whole personality. Which is stupid. She also forgets that she has an entire family whom she (allegedly) loves unconditionally, and who loves and cares for her unconditionally. Which is also stupid. Like, the book even tells us – in Emilia’s voice no less! – that even though she and Vittoria used to be close when they were eight years old and younger, they’ve since grown apart, and aren’t really close, anymore. So Emilia’s very sudden and very extreme reaction didn’t make sense to me. Oh, and that cautiousness, that refusal to take risks until she had more information about stuff? Utterly gone. Maniscalco could’ve done so much with this and other aspects of her character without making the established person the protagonist started out as becoming completely unrecognizable. Such bad writing.
I also hated Wrath, both as a love interest and as a portrayal of one of the seven deadly sins. He doesn’t even act all that wrathful! Heck, whenever he’s with Emilia, he acts more lustful than anything else. You’re supposed to make me believe that this guy is supposed to be a hundreds, probably thousands, of years old nonhuman who’s that horny?!? And that he has some completely different agenda and goals of his own? I don’t see it. Whatever character you were trying to push isn’t what ended up on the page. Also, his and Emilia’s banter was annoying and their dialogue wasn’t that natural (and I’ll talk about the dialogue in general soon, don’t worry), and they had no chemistry. At. All. I hate them both.
The last big, and probably most important thing – in terms of a good book, that is – that I didn’t like about Kingdom of the Wicked, was the dialogue. And the way that the narrative in general was written. The dialogue sounded a bit too modern, which is something I don’t always hate, but in this case it was too much and it took me out of the story. Emilia’s POV in general – AKA: the narrative – also had this problem. (It was kind of the opposite problem I had with Children of Ragnarok, which I DNF-ed.) Not to mention they had plumbing. What year is this, author? You left it entirely ambiguous.
So yeah, I didn’t end up liking this book. Sorry for the review being a bit rant-y, but so much of this book bothered me, I just couldn’t help it. I’ll probably never read another of Maniscalco’s works again, and I’m definitely not interested in continuing with this series. That’s how much I didn’t like it.
As always, thanks to everyone so much for reading, and I hope that you have a wonderful day/night!
See ya ~Mar
Quotes I Sorta Liked
Outside, wind rattled the wooden chimes in warning. In the distance, waves crashed against the shore; the frantic whispers of water growing louder as if the sea was a mage summoning vio- lence. On this date for nearly a decade now-the storm followed the same pattern. Next, thunder would roll in quicker than the tide with lightning cracking electric whips across an unforgiving sky. The devil demanded retribution. A blood sacrifice for power stolen.
It wasn’t the first time he’d be cursed by witches, nor would it be the last.
Man had a funny way of blaming the devil for things he didn’t like. It was strange that we were called evil when humans were the ones who enjoyed watching us burn.
Subtlety was an artform lost on the demon, apparently. Though I supposed when he was the biggest, baddest predator around, he had little to fear.
I looked down at my new, finely made dress and frowned at the dark layers. “Why do villains always wear black?”
“Better to hide the blood with, witch.”
“You’re no one’s but your own, girl. Don’t ever forget it.”
May is looking just about as stacked as April was, when it comes to new releases. Heck, this whole quarter is stacked. So many books that look interesting!
Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Tressa @ Wishful Endings (and was previously hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine where it was known as Waiting on Wednesday) to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. They’re usually books that have not yet been released.
This week’s book is:
The Sins on Their Bones by Laura R. Samotin! 💀🪻
I actually wasn’t aware of this book (and a couple of others coming out this month) until a few days ago. But the plot intrigues me, and just look at that cover!
Set in a Jewish folklore-inspired reimagining of 19th century Eastern Europe, this queer dark fantasy debut pits two estranged husbands and a daring spymaster on opposite sides of a civil war. Perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo, C.S. Pacat, and Katherine Arden.
Dimitri Alexeyev used to be the Tzar of Novo-Svitsevo. Now, he is merely a broken man, languishing in exile after losing a devastating civil war instigated by his estranged husband, Alexey Balakin. In hiding with what remains of his court, Dimitri and his spymaster, Vasily Sokolov, engineer a dangerous ruse. Vasily will sneak into Alexey’s court under a false identity to gather information, paving the way for the usurper’s downfall, while Dimitri finds a way to kill him for good.
But stopping Alexey is not so easy as plotting to kill an ordinary man. Through a perversion of the Ludayzim religion that he terms the Holy Science, Alexey has died and resurrected himself in an immortal, indestructible body—and now claims he is guided by the voice of God Himself. Able to summon forth creatures from the realm of demons, he seeks to build an army, turning Novo-Svitsevo into the greatest empire that history has ever seen.
Dimitri is determined not to let Alexey corrupt his country, but saving Novo-Svitsevo and its people will mean forfeiting the soul of the husband he can’t bring himself to forsake—or the spymaster he’s come to love.
Are you looking forward to The Sins on Their Bones? What other books are coming out soon that you’re looking forward to?
Thank you so much for reading and have a great day/night!
