The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar | Book Review

If the river has roots, it has branches, too; learn to climb them, and find your sister. It all returns to grammar.

The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar

LENGTH: 133 pages

GENRES: Fantasy, Fiction

PUBLISHER: Tordotcom

RELEASE DATE: 4 March 2025

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

The River Has Roots is the hugely anticipated solo debut of the New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award winning author Amal El-Mohtar. Follow the river Liss to the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, and meet two sisters who cannot be separated, even in death.

The hardcover edition features beautiful interior illustrations.

“Oh what is stronger than a death? Two sisters singing with one breath.”

In the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, dwells the mysterious Hawthorn family.

There, they tend and harvest the enchanted willows and honour an ancient compact to sing to them in thanks for their magic. None more devotedly than the family’s latest daughters, Esther and Ysabel, who cherish each other as much as they cherish the ancient trees.

But when Esther rejects a forceful suitor in favor of a lover from the land of Faerie, not only the sisters’ bond but also their lives will be at risk…

My Review

What is a river but an open throat, what is water but a voice?

Nevermind what I said in my last weekly wrap-up, I’ve decided to do a book review today instead! And before I get into it, I just wanted to say to everyone: Happy St. Patrick’s Day!! ☘️🍻 It was a nice day today where I live. Spring really feels like it’s on its way.

The River Has Roots was a pretty good read. The cover is honestly what first caught my eye (it’s gorgeous). But as someone who recently read and loved This is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar having written it also contributed to me wanting to read it. And, like I said, it wasn’t a bad read at all.

Ysabel said, fiercely for all that her voice was muffled into Esther’s shoulder: “Promise?”

“I promise,” said Esther, and meant it with her whole heart.

I really liked the focus on the two main characters: 🎵 Esther Hawthorne 🦢 and her younger sister 🎶 Ysabel Hawthorne 🔔 . I haven’t read any sibling-focused books lately, but I always enjoy a good sibling dynamic. And these sisters have one. They do it without having either being exactly the same, or exact opposites. This was refreshing, because siblings in media are usually one or the other.

💍 Rin 🌊 was also an interesting character. I tend to like characters who are fae creatures – mostly when they’re fae creatures written correctly – and Rin is not the exception here. I found their romance with Esther to be sweet, and I was rooting for them as a couple right away. The witch, 🪄 Agnes Crow 🐦‍⬛ , was also pretty awesome – I think she was the most interesting character to me, honestly.

I enjoyed 🖋️ the plot 📄 well enough, as well. I really appreciated the nods to other fairy stories (like Tam Lin) and some of the references therein. There’s a pretty strong story here too, despite it all being only about 100 pages or so. I will say that the book is noticably shorter than it appears to be. This is because literally a quarter of this book is just a sneak peak for El-Mohtar’s upcoming short story collection. So that’s what the last 30 pages are, if you were curious.

What is magic but a change in the world? What is conjugation but a transformation, one thing into another? She runs; she ran; she will run again.

My favorite thing about The River Has Roots, however, is the way that ✨ magic ✨ interacts with the 🗺️ world 🗺️ and the way it’s described. I loved the way the author used the word grammar, as well as the usage of conjugation. I also adored the singing sisters, and their singing ancestors, and how music framed so much of the novella and its magic. And the puns – the puns were also cool.

And before I close out this review, it would be remiss of me not to comment on the absolutely 🖌️ beautiful artwork 🎨 featured here. Yes, as I mentioned above, the cover art is very pretty, but the interior illustrations are also amazing. Essentially, in addition to being a pretty good novella, this book also has pretty pictures to look at, too.

But that is the nature of grammar-it is always tense, like an instrument, aching for release, longing to transform present into past into future, is into was into will.

So yeah, this was a pretty good book, and I enjoyed it well enough. I definitely recommend it to those who are big fans of This is How You Lose the Time War, and to a slightly lesser extent, those who like faerie stories and LGBT+ stuff in fantasy. Novella fans will probably also find something to like about this book.

As always, thank you so much for reading and I hope you have an awesome day/night!

See ya ~Mar

MY LINKS:

Goodreads

Instagram

Monthly Wrap-Up: February Reading 2025

It’s a couple of days later than last month, but I think I’m posting my reading wrap-up for February 2025 at a pretty reasonable time. The contents I’m gonna be analyzing here… are not so great in comparison.

Yeah. My reading last month sucked. I only read one book, and I didn’t even get to reviewing it until this month. But seeing as in February 2024 I only read one book as well, I guess I didn’t do worse than last year. So I guess that’s something. Technically.

Anyway, without further ado, let’s get into my StoryGraph statistics from last month!

February Reading 2025

I read 1 book and 356 pages

😐 MOODS: I had three Moods in February, which was the same as in January. They were all the same size slice. The Moods were: Adventurous, Lighthearted and Funny.

👢 PACE: The book I read last month was medium-paced.

🔢 PAGE NUMBER: The novel that I read was 356 pages.

📖 FICTION/NONFICTION: It was once again all fiction. But when you only read one book and it’s strictly fiction, it’s impossible to also read nonfiction.

🎭 GENRES: There were two Genres in the books I read in February. They were Fantasy and Romance.

📄 FORMAT: This pie chart was actually correct for once. Or twice, since this is the second month in a row this has happened. The only novel I read was a physical copy.

⭐ RATING: My median star rating for last month was 4.0, and it was my only rating.

📉 PAGES READ DAILY: My reading for February basically sucked until the last week. As in, I didn’t read anything. The only reading I did was between the 22nd and the 28th.

The Books I Read in February

★★★★☆ • my review

Wrapping Up the Wrap-Up

So yeah, my reading from last month really sucked. I’m hoping beyond anything that it improves in March. Like, just about anything would be better than my performance in February.

March has a couple new books that I’m particularly interested in, so there’s a good chance I’ll read at least one or two of them. I might not get to one of them until a later month in the year, though. I also have a bit of a backlog of a TBR I’ve been wanting to get to, as well as a sequel series that I’ve been thinking about continuing with for a while. We’ll see what I end up reading.

Anyway, as always, thank you for joining me in checking out my StoryGraph stats for my February reading in 2025. Thank you also for reading, and I hope you have a great day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Monthly Wrap-Up: January Reading 2025

Here we are, on the second day of the month. Once again, a reasonable day to be posting a wrap-up. Also, ❄️ Happy Groundhog Day 🌱 everybody!! Will we or won’t we have six more weeks of winter?!

Regarding January 2025 my reading was… fine. I didn’t end up reading as many books as I’d hoped I would, but I read twice as many as I did in January 2024, so I’m counting it as a win.

Anyway, without further ado, let’s get into my StoryGraph statistics from last month!

January Reading 2025

I read 2 books and 518 pages

😐 MOODS: I had three Moods in January, which was less than I did the month before. There wasn’t one mood that was bigger than the others this time, they were all the same size slice. The Moods were: Adventurous, Mysterious and Emotional.

👢 PACE: My books from last month were all medium-paced.

🔢 PAGE NUMBER: Everything I read was between 198 and 384 pages.

📖 FICTION/NONFICTION: It was once again all fiction in January. Per usual.

🎭 GENRES: There were four Genres in the books I read in January. Like my Moods from this month, all of the Genres also appeared equally. They were: Fantasy, Romance, Science Fiction, Young Adult and LGBT+.

📄 FORMAT: This pie chart was actually correct for once. One of the books I read was digital and the other was a physical copy.

⭐ RATING: My median star rating for last month was 3.75. The ratings I gave were between 3.5 stars and 4.0 stars, so yeah.

📉 PAGES READ DAILY: My highest spike of reading occured from the 17th through the 19th. My other reading spike, as well as the only other time I read a novel this month, was from the 30th and the 31st.

The Books I Read in January

★★★✯☆ • my review

★★★★☆ • my review

Wrapping Up the Wrap-Up

So yeah, even though I wasn’t quite happy with the amount of books I read last month, it was still better than the same month last year, so I’m still satisfied well enough with it. I’d still like to do better for February, this coming month, however.

This month I’ve got a couple novels I’m interested in right off the bat, as well. First off is the last installment of the Emily Wilde series, Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales, but I’m also a little interested in Neal Shusterman’s new book, All Better Now. I’ve also still got books from my birthday last year as well as Christmas that I still have to read, and I’d like to get through one of two in February.

Anyway, as always, thank you for joining me in checking out my StoryGraph stats for my January reading in 2025. Thank you also for reading, and I hope you have a fantastic day/night!

See ya ~Mar

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone | Book Review

How can there be more when this is done? But it will never end – that’s the answer. There is always us.

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone

LENGTH: 198 pages

GENRES: Science Fiction, Romance, LGBT+, Fiction

PUBLISHER: Gallery / Saga Press

RELEASE DATE: 16 July 2019

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

From award-winning authors Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone comes an enthralling, romantic novel spanning time and space about two time-traveling rivals who fall in love and must change the past to ensure their future.

Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, becomes something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future.

Except the discovery of their bond would mean the death of each of them. There’s still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win. That’s how war works, right?

Cowritten by two beloved and award-winning sci-fi writers, This Is How You Lose the Time War is an epic love story spanning time and space.

My Review

Words can wound-but they’re bridges, too. (Like the bridges that are all that Genghis left behind.) Though maybe a bridge can also be a wound? To paraphrase a prophet: Letters are structures, not events. Yours give me a place to live inside.

Oh my stars. I finally read it. I finally read This is How You Lose the Time War. And though it wasn’t the five star – or even four and a half star – read that I was kinda expecting it to be, I still greatly enjoyed it and am very glad I read it.

I’ve been peripherally aware of this novella for years; since sometime in 2020, I believe. But it didn’t quite catch my attention until the Bigolas Dickolas Incident of 2023 on Twitter (sorry “X”). If you know, you know. And like, I actually found out about it on Twitter (not sorry “X”) from the actual Twitter thread it occurred on, as opposed to like an article or YouTube video first. So it’s been on my TBR since this time – it’s just taken me forever to get around to reading it. And I finally did!

Out of all the things about this book, I think the two main characters are probably one of the strongest aspects of the book (we’ll get to the other in a bit). But it would have to be, in order for the book to be this compelling, considering how character focused it is. Which is very, by the way. This is a very character focused story – it’s all about how two characters interact with each other and how this ignites change in both of them.

Words can wound – but they’re bridges, too. (Like the bridges that are all that Genghis left behind.) Though maybe a bridge can also be a wound? To paraphrase a prophet: Letters are structures, not events. Yours give me a place to live inside.

Out of the two of them, I’d probably consider 🍓 Red ❤️ to be the technical main character. She has the most chapters, and a pretty decent chunk of the plot of the This is How You Lose the Time War is her character arc front and center. I also think that I preferred her over the two of them, I loved how long and emotive her letters to Blue were, and loved her personality.

The deuteragonist, 🫐 Blue 💙, was also a pretty fun and interesting character, and I was surprised she wasn’t my favorite considering I prefer the color blue to red in real life. But, I dunno, I guess I just didn’t like her letters as much. Especially at first. But I guess the less emotions in her letters (particularly in her first ones and compared to Red’s) just shows that she’s a bit more reserved about her feelings than Red is, even if Blue was the first to reach out.

Regarding the plot… I’d say that I definitely preferred the characters to it by a pretty good amount. The 📖 plot 📖 just wasn’t as strong, and for almost half the book, feels pretty nonexistent. This changes in the second half of course, and an incident close to the end makes you consider the amount of plot actually happening in the first half in a new way. But it’s still extremely light in the book’s first half. Which is why I was really happy when it did feel like plot was finally happening; in some ways, the beginning of this book was kind of a slog for me to get through.

There’s a kind of time travel in letters, isn’t there? I imagine you laughing at my small joke; I imagine you groaning; I imagine you throwing my words away. Do I have you still? Do I address empty air and the flies that will eat this carcass? You could leave me for five years, you could return never-and I have to write the rest of this not knowing.

I liked the budding🌹 romance 💘 here well enough. Red and Blue had a surprising amount of chemistry for two people who hadn’t properly met. Their letters to each other were also beautiful, though I really had to suspend my disbelief in some of their construction. I also found the pet names to get a little annoying after awhile. However, I thought the varied terms of address in the letters’ salutations to be awesome.

The 🖋️ writing 📃 was actually what I felt to be the strongest part of This is How You Lose the Time War. Yes, the character interaction and development was crucial to this story. But I think the novella’s writing is what actually carries it for me. The 💜 purple prose 💜 here is lyrical and lovely and so intricately written. This is some of the best purple prose I’ve read in a while, actually. I had so much trouble choosing quotes that I liked for this review. There was just too much great writing here.

But maybe this is how we win, Red.

You and me.

This is how we win.

So yeah, even though it wasn’t a perfect hit for me, I still greatly loved this book. And I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone interested, especially to those who like well-written science fiction and romance. Even if you’re not usually into sapphic fiction, I still encourage you to give this one a shot.

As always, thank you so much for reading, and I hope you have an amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar

MY LINKS:

Goodreads

Instagram

Liar’s Kingdom by Christine Calella | Book Review

I am not the girl he met at the ball.

Liar’s Kingdom by Christine Calella

LENGTH: 320 pages

GENRES: Fantasy, Young Adult, Fiction

PUBLISHER: Page Street YA

RELEASE DATE: 14 January 2025

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

Ell has spent years slaving away for her cruel stepfamily. So when Prince Bayard—who seems to have difficulty recognizing faces—shows up at her door with a glass slipper, Ell allows him to believe she danced with him at the ball. There’s just one problem: Ell didn’t attend the ball and she’s never met the prince before in her life. But if it’s a choice between moving to the royal palace or staying home, Ell is willing to say anything to escape.

However, Ell finds that being royalty comes with its own problems. Bayard’s sister, the princess, has gone missing. The king is preparing for war against the fae. And Maxim, Bayard’s treacherous (and handsome) best friend, appears to know Ell is lying.

If Ell wants to keep this life she’s stolen, she’s going to have to roll up her sleeves and rescue herself.

My Review

I’ve never had a moment that sweet. Not even in my wildest dreams.

Liar’s Kingdom was one of my anticipated reads in the first half of 2025. Not only was it a fantasy novel, which I love, but it was also a fairytale retelling. And if you’ve read some of my other book reviews, you know how I feel about those. (As in, I can’t resist reading them if they intrigue me, lol.)

Though I enjoyed several aspects of the novel, it’s not my favorite Cinderella retelling. That honor still goes to The Lunar Chronicles. Liar’s Kingdom was definitely a very interesting take on the fairytale though, and I really liked the angle the book was going for.

Trude shrugs, a shy smile warming her face again. But she does not meet my eye as she answers: “I think anywhere, no matter how lovely, would begin to feel like a cage if you could never leave it.”

Ell was our protagonist. I really liked her throughout the first half of the novel, but aspects of her character started to irritate me the further I got. I did like how emotionally strong she was, however.

Bayard was the kind and handsome prince. He was probably my favorite character in the novel. I just loved how sweet and generally optimistic he was, and him being face-blind, and it being incredibly relevant to the novel, was very interesting.

Maxim was the a-hole edgelord type character, who the MC is inexplicably drawn to, that also secretly has a heart of gold. He kind of annoyed me from the get-go, honestly. Like, the second the description said he wore all black all the time, I was already Done with him. Not the character’s fault, I’m just starting to get tired of his archetype.

Trude was a sweet supporting character, and Ell’s first ever friend. I really liked her. We don’t get enough just nice and wholesome friend characters like this. I do wish she had a few more layers, though. She was a little bland.

But from now on, I intend to be honest. And I can honestly say that with my court of rodents and rogues and social climbers, I expect to live very much happily ever after.

I also enjoyed what the story did with Ell’s “evil stepsisters”, Amalia and Frieda. They had pretty good character arcs, and I loved them being dynamic characters capable of change as opposed to static bullies.

The plot of Liar’s Kingdom was a really cool take on the classic Cinderella story, and it’s by posing a pretty simple question: What if Cinderella wasn’t the girl from the ball but fit the slipper? What the author tried to do here was really interesting, even if I didn’t enjoy everything about the execution.

I didn’t really like the romance here either. I don’t consider it to really be a love triangle, because it was obvious who Ell was going to end up with, as well as who everyone was actually into. But occasionally it felt like it to me.

I can’t help it; I laugh in his face. “Please don’t tell me you intend to be petty and jealous.”

Maxim raises an eyebrow at me. “I’m never petty.”

“Oh, no?”

I think that the world building was okay, but I wish there was a more fleshed out magic system. Like, fairies seem to be almost all powerful in terms of what their magic is able to accomplish and only really have one weakness. Granted it’s highly specific, but still. I hated that the fairy realm was called Fairyland. I just, I hated it. It’s the worst name.

As a whole, I think that Liar’s Kingdom was pretty good. I think that those who enjoy fantasy YA will like it, and especially people who like fairytale retellings. It was also well written, for the most part.

As always, thank you so much for reading, and I hope you have a great day/night!

See ya ~Mar

MY LINKS:

Goodreads

Instagram

Weekly Wrap-Up: 12/23 – 1/5

So I took a little break last week with this post. Ya know, ’cause of all of those holidays in a row and all that. But I’m back on schedule!

The last couple of weeks have actually been pretty good, both with my reading and with my posting. Particularly with my posting. And especially with how busy the last couple of weeks have been with all of the holiday stuff going on. I was kinda busy.

But yeah, I’ll stop talking. On with the wrap-up!

Tuesday 12/24: Christmas Eve

I already said it during the last Weekly Wrap-Up I did – but Merry Christmas Eve!! 🦌🎅🔔🕯️ As I do every year, I spent this day hanging up a storm. So many cookies!

Wednesday 12/25: Christmas Day

I didn’t post at all during the rest of the week of the 23rd, unfortunately, so I didn’t really get to say Merry Christmas. So I’m gonna say it now: Merry Christmas!! 🎄🎁❄️🌟 I hope everybody had a great holiday, if you celebrate. Once again, it was super nice to see and spend time with family. It’s always the highlight for me this time of year.

Monday 12/30: Birthstone Book Covers

Last Monday, I participated in my favorite monthly post, Birthstone Book Covers. Birthstone Book Covers is a fun little post created and hosted by Leslie @ Books Are the New Black.

Each month, for the post, you feature book covers that are either the same color of the month’s birthstone or include the color in the title. This month was December, and its birthstones are tanzanite, zircon and turquoise. So the colors are all different shades of blue.

Birthstone Book Covers: December 2024

Tuesday 12/31: New Year’s Eve / End of the Year Book Tag

Tuesday was the last day of 2024. So, to everyone, here’s a belated Happy New Year’s Eve!! 🎇🎆 So, since it was the last day of the year, I decided to do a post that kind of focused on the end of the year (even if it ended up kind of late to do this particular post).

The post I did was the End of the Year Book Tag. It was created by Ariel Bissett over at YouTube. There are six questions, and the tag focuses on reflecting on the past year’s reading, as well as looking forward to future reading.

End of the Year Book Tag

Wednesday 1/1: New Year’s Day / To 2025 Post

Last Wednesday was the first day of 2025! Happy New Year’s Day!! 🥂🍻🕛🎉 I hope that everyone’s had a nice start to the new year so far!

On New Year’s Day, I did my first post of 2025. It was basically what I usually do: a little ruminating on the past year mixed with some of my goals for the coming year.

To 2025: Happy New Year

Saturday 1/4: Summerfall & Homecoming Reviews

On Saturday, I finally got around to posting another book review. Or reviews technically in this case? Whatever. Anyway, it was the first time I posted a book review in close to two weeks.

For the novella I read, Summerfall, I gave it ★★★✯☆. It was the prequel novella to Winterspell by Claire Legrand. And for the short story I read, Homecoming, I rated it ★★★★☆. Homecoming was a sort of extra epilogue to Winterspell.

Summerfall & Homecoming Reviews

Sunday 1/5: December Reading 2024

Yesterday, I posted my monthly reading wrap-up for December 2024. It was thankfully at a reasonable time, this time around. For those who don’t know, monthly wrap-ups are when I go over the books I read over the past month, as well as my stats over on The StoryGraph.

Monthly Wrap-Up: December Reading 2024

Books I Read Last Week

💖🎁 Wrapping It All Up 💖🎁

So yeah, I think I did okay the last couple of weeks with regards to reading and posting. I actually planned to take a bit of a break anyway, as my spouse was off the weeks surrounding the holidays, and I wanted to spend time with them and relax. It was a very nice couple of weeks.

Regarding this coming week, I’m planning to do my first Anticipated New Books Releasing in 2025 post of the year. I’m also gonna do my Yearly Reading Wrap-Up for 2024, as well. As for other posts… I’m not super sure about the rest. Hopefully I’ll do a book review, but who knows what’ll happen.

Concerning the current novels at the top of my TBR… I’m probably gonna end up reading one or more of the books I got as Christmas gifts. I’m not totally sure which one I’m gonna read first, or if I’ll read another after I finish it, but I’m definitely gonna do it. I’m looking forward to reading all of them – it’s all a matter of when I’ll get around to reading them.

Anyway, as always, thank you to everyone for reading, and I hope you all have a wonderful day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Monthly Wrap-Up: December Reading 2024

Yes! I’m posting my December Reading wrap-up for 2024 on a reasonable day in January! It’s not halfway through the freaking month this time!

This past month, my reading was… okay. It could’ve been waayyy better, though, and I’m really hoping to improve it some this month. Like, ugh, December was barely acceptable regarding my reading of books.

Anyway, without further ado, let’s get into my StoryGraph statistics from last month!

December Reading 2024

I read 4 books and 611 pages

😐 MOODS: I had four Moods in December, which was less than I did the month before. As usual, the biggest Mood of the pie was Adventurous, taking up half of the chart. The other Moods were Lighthearted, Funny and Emotional, and they were all the same size slice.

👢 PACE: My books from last month were mostly fast-paced, but with one exception that was slow-paced.

🔢 PAGE NUMBER: Everything I read was between 26 and 253 pages.

📖 FICTION/NONFICTION: It was once again all fiction in December. Per usual.

🎭 GENRES: There were four Genres in the books I read in December. The biggest one as-almost-always usual was Fantasy. The other three Genres were Young Adult, Romance and Manga, and they were all equal on the bar graph.

📄 FORMAT: This particular pie graph is once again wrong. (As it always is.) (I’m too lazy to correct it, also.) Only half of the books I read were physical copies; the other half were digital, though.

⭐ RATING: My median star rating for last month was 4.13. The ratings I gave were between 3.5 stars and 4.5 stars, so yeah.

📉 PAGES READ DAILY: My highest spike of reading occured at the edge of the first half of December, between the 10th and the 14th. I also read during the 30th and 31st, however.

The Books I Read in December

★★★★✯

★★★★✯

★★★✯☆ • my review

★★★★☆ • my review

Wrapping Up the Wrap-Up

So yeah, not super happy about the amount of reading I did in December 2024 regarding novels, but it is what it is. All I can do is try to read more during this month.

There’s at least one book I’m really looking forward to this month, and that I’m also absolutely going to read immediately, so there’s at least one book there. I also got several novels for Christmas that I’m also excited about, and am hopefully going to read some of them in January as well. (I got like six books and two of them are like at least 700+ pages, probably more, so yeah.)

Anyway, as always, thank you for joining me in checking out my StoryGraph stats for my December reading in 2024. Thank you also for reading, and I hope you have an awesome day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Summerfall & Homecoming by Claire Legrand | Book Reviews

That was one thing Rinka had always loved about humans, in the books she had read-like the faeries, they were governed by their hearts, by their passions. Their love of food and beauty, their love of country and home, even their love of love itself.

Summerfall by Claire Legrand

SERIES: Winterspell #0.5

LENGTH: 116 pages

GENRES: Fantasy, Romance, YA, Fiction

PUBLISHER: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

RELEASE DATE: 26 August 2014

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

In this captivating novella, prequel to the upcoming Winterspell, Claire Legrand weaves a story of magic, political intrigue, and forbidden love.

Rinka is a faery, passionate and powerful, determined to maintain the tenuous peace between faeries and humans.

Alban Somerhart is a human, a reluctant king trapped in an arranged marriage, desperate to prevent war.

Their love could save the kingdom of Cane—or shatter it forever.

This entrancing tale sets the stage for the rise of a wicked queen, and the journey of a lifetime for a human girl named Clara…

My Review

“Anise,” Felazita whispered, tucking the blanket more closely around the child. The word dropped from her tongue like the beginning of a dance.

“I’d like to name her Anise.”

So, I finally got around to reading the Winterspell prequel novella. And it was okay. It wasn’t something that I really got into, but it made me appreciate stuff about Winterspell more, and reminded me about stuff I enjoyed about the book.

I wasn’t super into Rinka or Alban or their relationship, but I could understand why they were into each other, and I appreciated the background for the main story. I also liked seeing more faery characters, and it was nice to see faeries as a whole portrayed more sympathetically, as Anise and her cohort just didn’t do that for me in the main installment.

Summerfall really made me realize that one of the things I really enjoyed was the world of Cane and the way magic worked. It was cool to see more of it. I also liked seeing Cane in a more peaceful state, as opposed to the dystopian winter nightmare that it is for essentially the entirety of Winterspell. Aside from the epilogue, of course.

All in all, even though I didn’t really care much for the characters – especially since I already knew what had happened to them before I read it courtesy of the novel sequel – I appreciated a lot of other things this novella had. I also definitely recommend Summerfall to those who read and enjoyed the main story of the novel.

“Clara?” he questioned. His thumb circled softly against her palm, and love swelled in her like the rising sun.

“It will be a long journey,” she agreed, leaning down to kiss him, “but we will make it, together.”

Homecoming by Claire Legrand

BOOK DESCRIPTION: A brief epilogue to Claire Legrand’s YA Nutcracker re-telling, Winterspell. (Available for free download at Claire’s website.)

My Review

Yes, Clara had thought of these things. She had prepared herself to expect differences-an older world, progress made without her, decisions come and gone.

But knowing something and actually seeing it were, she was now finding out, two radically different things.

I don’t have too much to say about Homecoming either. Not only is it even shorter than Summerfall, what with it being a short story as opposed to a novella, but it’s really not anything more than an extra epilogue, as it says on the tin.

It was nice to see all the characters reunite after everyone split off at the end of Winterspell. I also liked seeing how everyone grew as characters apart from one another, as that doesn’t usually happen; especially for an extra epilogue like this. It was really nice to see Cane mostly patched up though, and that was probably the thing I enjoyed the most about this short story.

I definitely recommend this if you enjoyed Winterspell and wanted to see that happy ending that didn’t quite make it into the novel. Especially since it’s free on Claire Legrand’s website. Really, there’s no excuse not to if you’re a fan of the novel.

Anyway, as always, thank you so much for reading, and I hope you have an amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar

MY LINKS:

Goodreads

Instagram

Winterspell by Claire Legrand | Retrospective Book Review

You cannot shy away from yourself. Look the world in the eye, and it can do nothing to hurt you.

Winterspell by Claire Legrand

SERIES: Winterspell #1

LENGTH: 454 pages

GENRES: Fantasy, YA, Fiction

PUBLISHER: Simon & Schuster Books

RELEASE DATE: 30 September 2014

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

Darkly romantic and entirely enchanting, this reimagining of The Nutcracker from Claire Legrand brims with magic, love, and intrigue. New York Times bestselling author Marissa Meyer (Cinder) says “this is not your grandmother’s Nutcracker tale.”

After her mother is brutally murdered, seventeen-year-old Clara Stole is determined to find out what happened to her. Her father, a powerful man with little integrity, is a notorious New York City gang lord in the syndicate-turned-empire called Concordia. And he isn’t much help.

But there is something even darker than Concordia’s corruption brewing under the surface of the city, something full of vengeance and magic, like the stories Clara’s godfather used to tell her when she was a little girl. Then her father is abducted and her little sister’s life is threatened, and Clara accidentally frees Nicholas from a statue that has been his prison for years. Nicholas is the rightful prince of Cane, a wintry kingdom that exists beyond the city Clara has known her whole life.

When Nicholas and Clara journey together to Cane to retrieve her father, Clara encounters Anise, the queen of the faeries, who has ousted the royal family in favor of her own totalitarian, anti-human regime. Clara finds that this new world is not as foreign as she feared, but time is running out for her family, and there is only so much magic can do…

My Review

So many stories yet to be told, so many secrets to be unearthed. It would happen soon; Clara would make sure of it, and if Nicholas tried to evade her, well, she still had her daggers.

It’s been quite a while since I last looked at a book retrospectively. But there are still a few books I’d like to look at retrospectively, and this time of year is absolutely perfect for talking about Winterspell by Claire Legrand.

I’ve loved this book ever since I read it years ago. I’m a total sucker for retellings, fairytale or otherwise, and this novel is a retelling of The Nutcracker 🎄🥜, which is something I also adore. So this book was a match made in heaven for me.

Winterspell primarily follows Clara Stole ✨ after her family is attacked by and she is forced to flee to Cane, a strange, wintery, and magical land. Clara starts off a little unsure and nervous – but fiercely protective of her family – and she has a lot of growth throughout the novel, and ends it as a strong young woman ready to face anything. She is Winterspell’s Clara/Marie.

Nicholas 🌰 is an interesting take on the Nutcracker (the character). He’s a little gray, compared to the more helpful and trustworthy and wholesome character in the original, but he still retains many of these same qualities. He’s just a little more complex. I actually enjoyed him for the most part, and I loved the twist of him being a secondary POV character.

Anise ❄️ was the villain, and the leader of the faeries. Though she irritated me a lot of the time, I still understood her motivations, and I thought she was a fine antagonist. She’s also my favorite interpretation of the Sugar Plum Fairy as a villain yet (and I think she was one of, if not the first version of this take – I’m probably wrong though, haha).

“You’re powerful, Clara. Or you could be, if you would let go of your fear long enough to realize it.”

Regarding the plot… of course I loved it. It’s basically The Nutcracker, but with enough unique changes to help it stand on its own (in my eyes). It’s kind of like a slightly edgier, YA version of the story, in a way. I liked all the changes Legrand made to the story, and I appreciated the stuff that she mostly kept close to the original. The world was also fantastic, and I enjoyed the conflicts between the three fractions of Cane: the humans, the mages and the faeries.

I enjoyed the writing, too. The dialogue felt pretty natural, the descriptions and such weren’t too overly detailed, and the POV choices were 🧑‍🍳💋. I loved how the book was primarily in third person following Clara, but was intermittently broken up by the first person perspective of Nicholas giving context to the events leading up to the main plot. It was wonderfully woven together.

I think the only thing I’ve ever really felt was noticeably weak (to me personally), was the romance. It just wasn’t something that I found I could really buy into, for some reason. I enjoyed Clara and Nicholas okay – they are the iconic pair of Clara/Marie and the Nutcracker, after all – and I’m happy for them. But to me, that little tryst in the middle of the book between Clara and Anise really felt like it came out of nowhere. And then the romance between them disperses just as quickly.

His eyes shone with an anguish Clara understood well. Loss, horrible loss. Pain and anger, and the world being pulled out from beneath one’s feet.

I wish there had been a bit more time to develop Clara and Anise’s relationship, as I felt it was quite interesting. Oh well. Also, the romances between these three characters (Clara and Nicholas, and Clara and Anise) also felt unequal for the first three fifths of the novel. But as Clara grows as a character… yeah, so eventually sets everyone straight, haha. I will say I was happy with the ending.

Looking back – and going through the book again for the nth time – I don’t think I’d change my rating at all. For me, Winterspell still holds up. When I first read it, I immediately went back and read my favorite scenes. Then, later that same year (like a month later around Christmas time), I basically reread the whole thing again. I’ve never gotten tired of this retelling. I find myself reading pieces of it every few years, at the very least.

This was a solid foray into the YA sphere by Legrand, and as I enjoyed this one so much I really should check out her other stuff. I will – eventually, lol. Though it did definitely have its weaker aspects (like the romance).

I definitely recommend Winterspell to YA fantasy fans, as well as fans of The Nutcracker and other Christmas set and Christmas themed stories. Not to mention, it’s absolutely perfect reading for this time of year.

She had forgotten how to care about the city that had taken so much from her. Forgetting was the only way she had found to keep moving every day.

As always, thank you so much for reading, and I hope you have an amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar

MY LINKS:

Goodreads

Instagram

Monthly Wrap-Up: November Reading 2024

I know this is super freaking late, but here I am with my November 2024 reading wrap-up. Finally.

I don’t know if I’ve ever been this late in the month with this post, but I hope it never happens again. Ugh, I don’t know what it is about December, but every year my novel reading and (sometimes) blog posting just completely tanks. I hate it.

Last month, I think I did pretty decently with it reading. I technically only read three novels, but it felt like (and is counted as) seven, so I’ll take it. Though I haven’t had the best start with this month (or any start at all really 😆😅), I’m hoping I’ll at least read a few books in December.

Anyway, without further ado, let’s get into my StoryGraph statistics from last month!

November Reading 2024

I read 7 books and 2,732 pages

😐 MOODS: I had less Moods in November than I did during October, but I still had six of them. As usual, the biggest Mood of the pie was Adventurous, but it was very closely followed by Emotional. They were then followed by Mysterious and Funny, and those Moods were then closely followed by Tense and Dark.

👢 PACE: My books from last month were all medium paced and nothing else. I don’t think that’s ever happened before.

🔢 PAGE NUMBER: Everything I read was between 304 and 489 pages.

📖 FICTION/NONFICTION: It was once again all fiction in November. Per usual.

🎭 GENRES: There were four Genres in the books I read in November, which was less this past month than the month before, but still decent. Somehow Romance is at the top of the bar graph this time, even though I read just as many Fantasy books. I dunno, I guess I thought they’d organize them in alphabetical order if they had the same amount? Anyway, the two other Genres here were LGBT+ and Young Adult (which aren’t genres they’re demographic, but I’ll shut up about that from now on).

📄 FORMAT: This particular pie graph is once again wrong. (As it always is.) The majority of books I read were physical copies, but two of them were digital.

⭐ RATING: My median star rating for last month was 3.96. The ratings I gave were between 1.75 stars and 4.5 stars, so yeah.

📉 PAGES READ DAILY: I did most of my reading during the middle of November. I read between the 8th and the 15th, as well as during the 21st and 22nd. My highest reading spike was on the 13th.

The Books I Read in November

★★★★✯ • my review

★★★★✯

★★★★✯

★★★★✯

★★★★✯

★✫☆☆☆ • my review

★★★✯☆ • my review

Wrapping Up the Wrap-Up

So yeah, I wish I had read more books than I ended up doing, but it is what it is. And yeah, this wrap-up is rather late, but for some reason I wanted to get my MDZS review out first. I dunno why. I did want to post this yesterday, but, well life got to me.

I’m really hoping that my reading for December will pick up this week, but I’m honestly not sure. Like I mentioned earlier, for some reason I find it harder to read books and blog about them in December. (If I’m being honest, I think it’s probably a winter thing, because it happens in January and February too. Hopefully they’ll be better, as well.)

Anyway, thanks for joining me in checking out my StoryGraph stats for my November reading in 2024. Thank you also for reading, and I hope you have an awesome day/night!

See ya ~Mar