Geez, what is going on with my scheduled posts?! I guess I just keep forgetting to change something, lol.
Anyway, it’s time for another First Line Friday! It’s been like four weeks. Ugh. Whoops? But hey! New graphic!
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 are the first lines:
They told her not to be afraid. That it wouldn’t hurt.
Who’d believe that propaganda bullshit? Of course it was going to hurt. She hid her protests, bitter like ice behind every forced smile
Know the book? If you don’t, here are another couple of hints…
Still have no idea? Here are a few awesome photos of books to look at while you think about it a little longer…
Annnd the book is… 🥁🥁 Voidwalker by S.A. MacLean!!
Fionamara is a smuggler. Antal is the reason her people fear the dark.
Fi ferries contraband between worlds, stockpiling funds and stolen magic to keep her village self-sufficient – free from the blood sacrifices humans have paid to Antal’s immortal species for centuries.
Only legends whispered through the pine forests recall a time when things were different, before one world shattered into many, and the flesh-devouring beasts crept from the cracks between realities, with their sable antlers and slender tails, lethal claws and gleaming fangs. Now, mortal lives are food to pacify their carnivorous overlords, exchanged for feudal protection, and the precious silver energy that fuels everything from transport to weaponry.
When Fi gets planted with a stash of smuggled energy, a long-lost flame recruits her for a reckless heist that escalates into a terrorist bombing – and a coup against the reigning immortals, with Fi’s home caught in the crossfire.
She’s always known the dangers of her trade – and of the power she’s wielded since childhood, allowing her to see the secret doors between dimensions, to walk the Void itself. But nothing could have prepared her for crossing paths with Antal. For the deal she’ll have to make with him, a forced partnership to reclaim his city that begins as a desperate bid for survival, only to grow into something far more dangerous.
A revolution.
And a temptation – for how sweet the monster’s fangs might feel.
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 awesome day/night!
Hey everyone! Happy Tuesday! It’s been a few weeks since I participated in Top Ten Tuesday!
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly post currently hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It celebrates lovely lists, wonderful books and the bookish community. This week’s topic is Unpopular Bookish Opinions. This is in regards to being a reader, a book reviewer or it can be about opinions you have on books that go against the grain.
Anyway, without further ado, let’s go!
#1: Relationships in Romance
I’m not into romance novels. I think most of them aren’t really realistically written to what relationships are actually like and what kind of people that people would actually dare/marry and actually have a successful relationship with. It’s just… ugh.
#2: Large Guys
This one is kind of similar to the first one, in that it’s very closely related to romance novels (as well as romantasy), but I’m so tired of huge guys. And I don’t mean guys with supernaturally large 🍆 – though that’s gotten annoying as well – but guys that are like mountains next to their love interest. I also garw it when they’re also described as being humongously tall, but then the author actually adds height descriptions in like inches or something, and the guy turns out to be like 8 inches taller than the girl or something. Then why are you describing him like he’s three feet taller than her or something!!!!
#3: Listening to Audiobooks
Now I’m not saying that I don’t consider using audiobooks as reading because that’s absolutely not true. Listening to audiobooks definitely counts as reading novels! What I’m talking about here is that I personally don’t care for listening to audiobooks. It kind of gives me a headache for whatever reason.
#4: Booktok
A lot of people seem to be obsessed with Booktok and it’s recommendations. Well I’m tired of the biggest recs from this platform being either not-very-well-written romantasy or dark romances. Like, I’m glad that people are reading, but I want to learn about other books that are my type! Come on!
#5: Organizing Bookshelves by Color
Now I think that bookshelves organized by color can be very pretty. I like seeing what some people’s look like when I’m on Instagram or YouTube or whatever. That said, it also tears me apart to see books from the same series separated in order to do this. I could never violate the series I own in such a way.
#6: Re-Binding Books
I hate this. I’ve seen people make some really nice looking covers on Instagram and stuff, but it feels like they’re mutilating the book and I can’t stand it.
#7: A New Cover Release Based on the Upcoming Adaptation (Movie or TV Series) of a Book/Series
I think this one is pretty self-explanatory. I hate movie covers – they always look terrible to me.
#8: When Authors/Publishers Release a New Cover for a Book or Series That is Less Than 10 Years Old
Let the books/series have at least a decade! It never seems like the books/series are old enough to justify a new cover, otherwise. It doesn’t help that I often find the original covers to be better.
#9: Romantasy Book Titles
The titles based off of A Court of Thorns and Roses and A Curse So Dark and Lonely are getting really old. Actually, they got old about five years ago. Recently, I saw a book with a title that was almost a mix between these two books specifically and it hit me then how much I despise this way of titling things. It’s not new and fresh anymore guys – it’s overused and annoying, and it’s certainly overstayed it’s welcome at this point.
#10: Most Blurbs/Book Descriptions on Books
And last – but certainly not least! – this. This is absolutely my biggest pet peeve when it comes to books. I actually love the idea of book descriptions in books to entice and attract the reader and get them pumped for reading books. But I’ve found so often nowadays that the blurb either outright lies or misconstrues things that happen in the book, OR the blurb is talking about and spoiling something that happens in like the second half of the book. The worst ones are the book descriptions that do both! Ugh!! I hate this so much! There’s just so many bad blurbs in books lately!
What are your unpopular bookish opinions? Are they about books and social media? Are they about what people tend to think or like or dislike about books?
As always, thanks so much for reading, and I hope that you have an amazing day/night!
Happy Wednesday! It’s been a couple of weeks since one of these from me, but there’s still quite a few books coming out lately that I’m interested in!
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.
Perfect for fans of Brigid Kemmerer and Lexi Ryan, this debut romantasy stand-alone novel blends an immersive world, unique magic system, and swoon-worthy romance to create an unputdownable read that explores the great and terrible lengths to which love compels us to go.
Elia Tallis’s key conjuring abilities, when used with her father’s magic, allow her to open a path to any location. But Papa is dying, and Elia has been forced to painfully tether him to life so she can siphon his magic to provide for her siblings. The god of death, angry to be denied his due, punishes her by claiming her youngest brother as a servant.
Desperate to save her brother, Elia accepts a potentially deadly commission from Trys, a kindhearted prince with his nose stuck in a book. Trys wants Elia to help him find a legendary scroll. In exchange, he’ll give her his hand in marriage, securing her and her siblings’ futures and allowing her to release Papa to the afterlife.
Despite the danger of their quest, Elia and Trys find themselves increasingly drawn to each other. But when Trys finally reads the scroll, it transforms him into a monster beyond comprehension. Elia will have to wield her power in ways she never thought possible, braving a world of endless darkness and the nightmares dwelling within it to bring home the prince she’s growing to love.
Are you looking forward to the release of Unlock the Dark? What other books are coming out in the next few weeks that you’re looking forward to?
As always, thank you all so much for reading and have a fantastic day/night!
Surprise! Betcha didn’t expect me to participate in Can’t-Wait Wednesday a third week in a row.
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:
How to Help a Hungry Werewolf by Charlotte Stein!! 🐺🧹
I love cozy little supernatural, slice-of-life stuff and it’s been a bit since I read one. And this one is releasing in October, which is perfect.
SERIES: The Sanctuary for Supernatural Creatures #1
LENGTH: 368 pages
GENRES: Fantasy, Romance, Fiction
PUBLISHER: St. Martin’s Griffin
RELEASE DATE: 1 October 2024
BOOK DESCRIPTION:
What We Do in the Shadows with the small town feels of Gilmore Girls in this swoon-worthy romance that will leave readers delightfully cozy and hungry for more.
When Cassandra Camberwell returns to her hometown of Hollow Brook to clear out her late grandmother’s ramshackle old house, the last thing she expects is Seth Brubaker on her doorstep. Her former best friend was responsible for the worst moment of her high school life, and she can’t imagine he wants to do anything but torment her all over again.
Until she unearths the real reason this annoyingly gorgeous beast of a man keeps hanging around: he’s an actual werewolf, who’s certain she’s the witch that will ease his suffering. But Cassie just isn’t sure if she can trust him again. So Seth offers a pact: he’ll teach her all about her undiscovered magic, and she will brew the potions he needs. No feelings, no funny business, just a witch and a werewolf striking a deal.
Totally doable. Until they get hit with a do-or-die mating bond. And now the heat is rising, in between fights with formers bullies and encounters with talking raccoons. They just have to not give in. Unless giving in just might be the very thing they never knew they always wanted.
Are you looking forward to the next volume of How to Help a Hungry Werewolf? What other books are coming out in the next few weeks that you’re looking forward to?
As always, thank you all so much for reading and have a great day/night!
Happy Saturday everyone! I hope that everybody is enjoying their weekend! It’s been a while, but I’m back with another Bewitching Book Covers post.
For anyone who doesn’t know, Bewitching Book Covers (formerly Tasteful Tuesdays, and before that, Majestic Mondays), is a series where 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 week, the book cover I’m highlighting is A Fire in the Sky by Sophie Jordan!
New York Times bestselling author Sophie Jordan returns to the high-stakes, sweeping world of dragons, romance, and drama first evoked in her bestselling young adult Firelight series, in a brand-new epic adult romantasy series.
Dragons are extinct. Witches are outcast. Magic is dying.
But human lust for power is immortal.
Dragon fire no longer blisters the skies over Penterra, but inside the lavish palace, life is still perilous… especially for Tamsyn. Raised in the glittering court alongside the princesses, it’s her duty to be punished for their misdeeds. Treated as part of the royal family but also as the lowliest servant, Tamsyn fits nowhere. Her only friend is Stig, Captain of the Guard… though sometimes she thinks he wants more than friendship.
When Fell, the Beast of the Borderlands, descends on her home, Tamsyn’s world becomes even more dangerous. To save the pampered princesses from a fate worse than death, she is commanded to don a veil and marry the brutal warrior. She agrees to the deception even though it means leaving Stig, and the only life she’s ever known, behind.
The wedding night begins with unexpected passion—and ends in near violence when her trickery is exposed. Rather than start a war, Fell accepts Tamsyn as his bride… but can he accept the dark secrets she harbors—secrets buried so deep even she doesn’t know they exist? For Tamsyn is more than a royal whipping girl, more than the false wife of a man who now sees her as his enemy. And when those secrets emerge, they will ignite a flame bright enough to burn the entire kingdom to the bone.
Magic is not dead… it is only sleeping. And it will take one ordinary girl with an extraordinary destiny to awaken it.
Book Cover Rating: 🎇🎇🎇🎇 • 4 fires in the sky
A Fire in the Sky is another book with a less complex cover. Nonetheless, it’s still a very pretty one, and it definitely caught my eye.
First off, the way that the dragon is drawn is beautiful, and I love the shades of red in it. I also really like the red balls of fire floating around it, and how they look to be floating in the night sky among the stars. Not only do they stand out, but they also complement the night sky in the backdrop.
Also, I love the way the title looks. I usually have an appreciation for title fonts, but this one I really like in particular. I think it’s because titles are usually displayed on top of the rest of the book cover art, but this time that isn’t the case. The title print of A Fire in the Sky actually interacts with parts of the cover art here. And I love it. I love how the dragon seems to cling to the title, and how the edges of some of the letters have a bit of a swirl to them. Everything really complements the cover well. This is a pretty nice book cover.
So yeah, that’s another beautiful book cover. What do you think about this cover art? Are you looking forward to A Fire in the Sky?
Anyway, as always, thank you to everyone who reads my posts. I hope that you enjoyed this one as well, and that you have an excellent day/night!
A young woman chosen as the crown prince’s bride must travel to the royal palace to meet her new husband—but her world is shaken when she discovers the dark truth the royal family has been hiding for centuries—in this lush fantasy debut perfect for fans of Song of Silver, Flame Like Night and Violet Made of Thorns.
Princess Ying Yue believed in love… once upon a time.
Yet when she’s chosen to wed the crown prince, Ying’s dreams of a fairy tale marriage quickly fall apart. Her husband-to-be is cold and indifferent, confining Ying to her room for reasons he won’t explain. Worse still are the rumors that swirl around the imperial palace: whispers of seven other royal brides who, after their own weddings, mysteriously disappeared.
Left alone with only her own reflection for company, Ying begins to see things. Strange things. Movements in the corners of her mirror. Colorful lights upon its surface. And when, on the eve of her wedding, she unwittingly tears open a gateway, she is pulled into a mirror world.
This realm is full of sentient reflections, including the enigmatic Mirror Prince. Unlike his real-world counterpart, the Mirror Prince is kind and compassionate, and before long Ying falls in love—the kind of love she always dreamed of.
But there is darkness in this new world, too.
It turns out the two worlds have a long and blood-soaked history, and Ying has a part to play in the future of them both. And the brides who came before Ying? By the time they discovered what their role was, it was already too late.
My Review
“You and me. We’re like yin and yang. Dragon and phoenix. Two halves of one whole.” He took her face in his hands, caressing her. “One of us can’t exist without the other. You are water and fire. And I’m the wood and the mountains. It’s all related that’s what the alchemy is.”
For me, The Girl With No Reflection ended up being… a bit of a disappointment. Which kind of sucks, because I was really looking forward to this one. A magical world of reflections and mythical money? Traveling between the two? A mystery? It all sounded so intriguing and exciting. And it mostly fell flat for me.
First off, I’m gonna talk about the stuff I liked. I really love the cover – I think that the cover artist and designer did a phenomenal job. It’s beautiful and very eye-catching and it did its job very well. I love all of the ribbons and little dragons and flowers and carp, and the way the mirror is shattering looks amazing.
Another thing I enjoyed was the initial setting and the way the magic system was first presented. It makes you want to read more to find out how the magic system is defined and what’s going on. Because there’s a bit of a dark mystery afoot. Honestly, I think the beginning of this novel is the best part of it. Which is unfortunate.
Because I was either indifferent to, or I disliked everything else pretty much. Which sucked, because again: I really wanted to love this book. Ugh.
“Wait.” Mei Po stopped Ying with a wrinkled, icy hand on her forearm. She gestured for her to come closer.
“Remember,” she said. Her breath was cool. “Remember who the monsters are.”
Ying and Prince Zhang were very promising characters at the beginning, I will give them that. But they either got fairly unlikeable as the story went on (Ying) or they just got boring (Zhang). The other characters didn’t really have anything interesting about them (they were either blah or angry) either – besides the Mirror Ying, Prince Prince and Mei Po, and even then Mei Po was really the only interesting one.
The romance in The Girl With No Reflection was also terrible. I absolutely hated how it was written. I’m also really tired of characters suddenly getting horny for each other at ridiculous times – like when their lives are in danger or something. In the end, I didn’t want anyone to end up with anybody. It sucked.
The plot also stops and starts with no rhyme or season, except for when the story needs it to. The main character, Ying, also had basically everything handed to her, the conflict came from her being either too stupid or too arrogant to figure something out. Which, by the way, was annoying to follow. The writing was also not the best, and the dialogue nearly always felt clunky to me. This felt like a second draft at best.
I will say this though: something this novel could’ve done to improve itself was to have more than one point of view. Ying’s just… wasn’t enough. The story would’ve been more compelling or interesting if it was a dual POV novel, with the other one being Zhang. It would’ve fleshed out the book more and probably even would’ve improved the romance – because in the novel as it is, Zhang and his feelings feel weirdly disconnected from the story sometimes.
To Ying, it was as though she finally felt it, really, truly felt it: she was the Fish, she was a dragon, and she would save her own world and all the people in it.
So yeah, that’s how I felt about The Girl With No Reflection by Keshe Chow. It wasn’t the novel that I’d hoped it would be, unfortunately, but someone’s probably gonna like it. I think that at least a few people that like YA and fantasy and romance and don’t mind the most annoying tropea and stuff that comes with them (’cause all of the most annoying tropes are in here, trust me), then you might enjoy it. Also if you don’t mind mediocre writing and dialogue.
As always, thank you for reading, and I hope everyone has 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.
Yes! Two Fridays in a row of posting! Back on track!
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 are the first lines:
Halla of Rutger’s Howe had just inherited a great deal of money and was therefore spending her evening trying to figure out how to kill herself.
Annnd the book is 🥁🥁… Swordheart by T. Kingfisher!
Halla is a housekeeper who has suddenly inherited her great-uncle’s estate… and, unfortunately, his relatives. Sarkis is an immortal swordsman trapped in a prison of enchanted steel. When Halla draws the sword that imprisons him, Sarkis finds himself attempting to defend his new wielder against everything from bandits and roving inquisitors to her own in-laws… and the sword itself may prove to be the greatest threat of all…
As always, thank you so much for reading and have an excellent day/night!
Okay, so I know that July started a week ago, but I’ve been busy! …And sick, unfortunately. But I’m finally here to show off all the books that I’ve hauled during the first half of the year.
And yeah, the reason why I’m doing a big post about this halfway through the year instead of during my monthly reading wrap-ups… Well, it’s because I don’t do as large of book hauls as most of the rest of the book blogging community. So I decided to do two massive posts including all of the books I’ve gotten during both halves of the year.
Let’s go!
NOTE:Large pics are books I’ve hauled and read, and medium pics are books that I’ve just hauled so far.
If you’re here, congratulations on making it to the bottom of this very long, photo filled post! Wow, I collected more books over the past six months than I thought I did! I didn’t even realize this until I finished up this post, haha.
What books have you read this year so far? What books have you hauled? Do we have any of the same ones?
And as always, thank you so much for reading, and have an excellent day/night!
Sarah J. Maas’s sexy, richly imagined series continues with the journey of Feyre’s fiery sister, Nesta.
Nesta Archeron has always been prickly-proud, swift to anger, and slow to forgive. And ever since being forced into the Cauldron and becoming High Fae against her will, she’s struggled to find a place for herself within the strange, deadly world she inhabits. Worse, she can’t seem to move past the horrors of the war with Hybern and all she lost in it.
The one person who ignites her temper more than any other is Cassian, the battle-scarred warrior whose position in Rhysand and Feyre’s Night Court keeps him constantly in Nesta’s orbit. But her temper isn’t the only thing Cassian ignites. The fire between them is undeniable, and only burns hotter as they are forced into close quarters with each other.
Meanwhile, the treacherous human queens who returned to the Continent during the last war have forged a dangerous new alliance, threatening the fragile peace that has settled over the realms. And the key to halting them might very well rely on Cassian and Nesta facing their haunting pasts.
Against the sweeping backdrop of a world seared by war and plagued with uncertainty, Nesta and Cassian battle monsters from within and without as they search for acceptance—and healing—in each other’s arms.
Power lay in her hand. Death gripped her by the other.
As I’ve said many times by now, I have a complicated relationship with this series of books. I think some are good. And I think that some others… aren’t.
A Court of Silver Flames was one of the former. It’s definitely one of the better books in this series, though I still preferred A Court of Mist and Fury a little more.
The Characters: Pros
Once again, I hated almost all of the characters. The exception this time was almost solely Nesta, with the exception of Eris. Sure, he’s an absolute a-hole, but I’m definitely sensing character development in his future. (He’s also done some despicable things, but considering the horrible things that the main cast has done and deemed acceptable behavior, I’m not sure how much those things matter, particularly in the long run.)
“Whatever you need to throw at me, I can take it. I won’t break.”
Nesta was a breath of fresh air after reading first person Feyre. She’s sassy, and she’s processing stuff in a relatable way. I loved reading about her journey of her grief and trauma, and how she healed and grew stronger from them. And everyone goes through grief and trauma differently, so it pissed me off how some of the other characters expected her to get her act together. Like, come on, you can try to help a little, but please let her process on her own?!?
The Characters: Cons
Rhysand once again wins the award for Most Awful Character. Everything he does in ACOSF sucks. He’s too overprotective of Feyre (nearly Tamlin levels), and he shows Feyre no respect and takes away her agency by keeping crucial information from her (worse than Tamlin levels).
Feyre already had a shield around herself courtesy of Rhys.
Feyre sucks just as much as she always has, but SJM seems to be trying to retcon a few things. These are regarding her relationship with her sisters. In the first books in this series, her relationships with Nesta and Elain weren’t very defined. Even so, it really didn’t seem like she cared about them. At all.
But here, she just won’t shut up about how much she loves and cares about Nesta, and how much she wants to help her get over her trauma. Like, where the hell did this come from? In the first book, Feyre only took care of her family because of a promise she made to her mom on her death bed, but now she’s always cared? What?!?
Anyway, Feyre sucks, that’s not new. But this time Amren sucked too, which is something that surprised and disappointed me. She was such a great character that I really liked. But no, she has to side with Rhys with his keeping of critical secrets from Feyre.
Not to mention, Rhys and Feyre’s absolutely stupid promise to die together no matter what. Guys, you have a small country to run. And people are considering appointing you guys the equivalent of an emperor and empress. What the heck is wrong with you people!?!
The Voice
“I’m talking to the House. Which is a considerable step up from talking to you.”
“It doesn’t talk back.”
“Exactly.”
The voice in ACOSF – and the POV – was much better than in all of the other books in the series. Maybe because it was third person and that’s harder to eff up, but it was definitely better.
Nesta and Cassian both had distinct feeling voices, especially compared to Rhysand and Feyre in A Court of Frost and Starlight, both of whom felt like the same character was narrating. Nesta’s and Cassian’s personalities both shone through their POV chapters pretty nicely.
The Setting and Plot
There was no answer in Nesta’s heart except one.
For the ACOTAR books, I’ve decided to combine this section from here on out. (Hopefully I’ll remember this by the time the next one comes out. Whenever that is.) There’s never much to say about either, so I thought it’d be easier.
I liked some of the world building that Maas decided to add. Though it was kind of expisition-y (as usual) it was still nice to have. And there’s a lot of interesting things revealed here.
There really didn’t feel like there was a ton of plot here, especially for a 750+ page book. (SJM had to make room for all the smut, I guess.) I added a specific colored tab to the book every time something plot relevant happened, and there were very few of them until the very end of the book.
I also hated how A Court of Silver Flames completely dropped the ball on any plot hintyed in the last book. There was definitely some potential with those plot points introduced, but I guess Maas decided on a completely different story in between releases. So most everything that was set up the last book was pretty much resolved off screen which sucked.
The Romance
It was… meh. I guess that Cassian and Nesta had some chemistry, but it really wasn’t clicking for me. And they were ridiculously horny. I have 43 tabs for every time something horny or porny happened. FORTY THREE!! That’s nearly twice as many tabs I had for marking plot stuff! Take a cold shower, you horndogs!
Az took a bite. “You let her suck your 🐓 in the middle of the dining room. At a table I’m currently using to eat my dinner.”
Thank you, Azriel! I haven’t said it before, but I’m tired of the characters banging on the table. Particularly the kitchen table, you know, the one that people eat at? Yeah, please stop.
I felt Nesta had more chemistry with her new friends, honestly. And the freaking House of Wind, which is alive I guess?
But yeah, I loved the bromance between Nesta Emerie and Gwyn. Their friendship was so sweet and one of my favorite parts of the novel.
Closing Thoughts
“I like to read. I cannot survive without reading.”
When I finished reading A Court of Silver Flames I had:
43 pink tabs for smut/horniness or whenever something remotely sex-related occurred or was mentioned.
29 orange tabs for whenever something made me angry or just when characters were being annoying in general.
18 yellow tabs for whenever “like calls to like” was used along with a few other repetitive phrases, that I noticed.
25 green tabs for whenever something plot related happened. (And that’s pretty much it.)
30 blue tabs for whenever I read something I liked of varying degrees. It could’ve been a phrase or character interaction.
So in total, I had 135 tabs in all!
A Court of Silver Flames was a fun, wild ride, and is definitely a step up from the last couple books in this series. Nesta had a strong voice, and was a much better character to follow than Feyre.
I definitely recommend reading this one if you’ve read the other ACOTAR books. It’s one of the better ones, and I think that it’s worth reading, despite its length.
Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful day/night!
