It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve participated in this post, but I’ve been busy. Sorry. 😣
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:
“You… You’re that mage lady…”
Do you know what book it is? Here’s another hint if you’re still having some trouble guessing…
Still not sure? Here’s some awesome pics of books to look at while you consider…
Annnd the book is… 🥁🥁 Tristan & Lancelot: A Tale of Two Knights (An Arthurian Love Story) by James Persichetti & L.S. Biehler!!
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.
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!
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!
It’s been a few weeks since the last time I did this post, huh? Yeah… Sorry?
For anyone unfamiliar, Tasteful Tuesdays (formerly Majestic Mondays – so it’s not new, I just switched days, haha) 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 gonna gush over the cover of another beautiful new release, one that’s coming out next month. It’s Of Jade and Dragons by Amber Chen.
Mulan meets Iron Widow in this thrilling silkpunk fantasy about a girl who must disguise herself as a boy and enter the famed and dangerous Engineer’s Guild trials to unravel the mystery of her father’s murder.
Eighteen-year-old Aihui Ying dreams of becoming a world-class engineer like her father, but after his sudden murder, her life falls apart. Left with only a journal of her father’s engineering secrets and a jade pendant snatched from the assassin, a heartbroken Ying follows the trail to the capital and the prestigious Engineers Guild—a place that harbors her father’s hidden past—determined to discover why anyone would threaten a man who ultimately chose a quiet life over fame and fortune.
Disguised as her brother, Ying manages to infiltrate the guild’s male-only apprenticeship trial with the help of an unlikely ally—Aogiya Ye-yang, the taciturn eighth prince of the High Command. With her father’s renown placing a target firmly on her back, Ying must stay one step ahead of her fellow competitors, the jealous guild masters, and the killer still hunting for her father’s journal. Complicating everything is her increasingly tangled relationship with the prince, who may have mysterious plans of his own.
The secrets concealed within the guild can be as deadly as the weapons they build—and with her life and the future of her homeland at stake, Ying doesn’t know who to trust. Can she avenge her father even if it means going against everything he stood for, or will she be next in the mastermind’s line of fire?
Book Cover Rating: 🐉🐉🐉🐉 • 4 / 5 dragons
I’ve been loving the covers of Asian inspired fantasies lately, and this one is no exception. I love all of the colors used here and how they complement and contrast with one another. It’s such a pretty cover.
I love the ocean on the bottom third of the book cover and how the waves are drawn. I also love the jade colored sky above it – it helps the title of the book pop. The green color of this part of the cover is also a really nice shade. The golden dragon that peeks out from the top is also beautifully drawn.
The fish skyboats are also cool looking. They really evoke silkpunk vibes before you even open the book up. I also really like the art style used in general. The title also pops with its font and color, as white isn’t actually used as much on the cover otherwise.
So yeah, that’s another Tasteful Tuesday. What do you think about this cover art? Are you looking forward to Of Jade and Dragons release?
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 wonderful day/night!
Most kids would do anything to pass the Iron Trial.
Not Callum Hunt. He wants to fail.
All his life, Call has been warned by his father to stay away from magic. If he succeeds at the Iron Trial and is admitted into the Magisterium, he is sure it can only mean bad things for him.
So he tries his best to do his worst – and fails at failing.
Now the Magisterium awaits him. It’s a place that’s both sensational and sinister, with dark ties to his past and a twisty path to his future.
The Iron Trial is just the beginning, for the biggest test is still to come…
From the remarkable imaginations of bestselling authors Holly Black and Cassandra Clare comes a heart-stopping, mind-blowing, pulse-pounding plunge into the magical unknown.
My Review
All elements have a counterweight. Fire is the counterweight of water. Air is the counterweight of earth. The counterweight of chaos is the soul.
The Iron Trial
So, I’ve been doing a lot of reading this past week. Someone I follow on Instagram gave a great five star review for the Magisterium. And, though they were middle grade and I don’t read that as often, it sounded up my alley so I gave the books a shot.
…And discovered a pretty solid middle grade fantasy series in the process. If you enjoy Percy Jackson and Harry Potter and want more, then these might be for you – these are the two series that the Magisterium is usually compared to, though I felt the writing style was also similar to the Summoner Trilogy by Taran Matharu. They aren’t quite as well written as those other series (there are a couple glaring plot holes as well as stuff just put into the books to make you follow red herrings and stuff but are otherwise there for unexplained reasons), but I thought that the rest of the story and characters were good enough to give those a pass.
I preferred the first half of the series to the second half – which is something I didn’t expect – but I still rated all of the books pretty highly. I’ll write my thoughts on the series as a whole spoiler free right here, but I’m also going to talk about some spoilers below it in a collapsible section.
The Characters
The characters were a definite highlight. I found our protagonist, Callum Hunt, to be pretty likeable and interesting. He’s a bit edgier than Harry or even Percy since I’ve already compared them. (All three of them are a bit sassy though.) I really liked the twist with Call and his character arc throughout the books. For the most part. (I’ll get to that in the spoilers section.)
I also liked his buds Tamara and Aaron. Tamara is smart and loyal and fiercely kind. She’s not a Hermione or Annabeth ripoff (since I’m still making comparisons) if you were worried though. She’s more hot blooded and has a completely different backstory. I also found their personalities to be pretty different from one another. Aaron, I found kind of difficult to pin down though, personality-wise. He was described as a little like Captain America in the first book, so I guess I’ll go with that. I liked him well enough, but he didn’t really have as distinct of traits as the other two in the protagonist triangle.
There are a few other characters I gotta talk about before I get into other stuff – Call’s dad: Alistair, Call’s rival: Jasper, and the trio’s teacher: Rufus. Alistair is a good, if very awkward, dad. I loved the intricacies of his father-son relationship with Callum. (I had a few issues with some stuff at the beginning though.) Jasper was a typical rival trope, but he had some of the best dialogue in the series, and I honestly found him to be a more compelling character than Aaron. He also ended up being a lot more involved with the main characters and the plot than most rivals are in middle grade and YA that I’ve read. And finally, Rufus. He was an okay mentor character that I liked well enough.
The Plot
The twists and turns of the story kept me reading. I couldn’t put this series down – I ended up reading the entirety of the five books in just over a day. It starts off a bit slow, but the authors have to build the world and establish stuff. I honestly didn’t even notice the pacing. I liked the twist of the MC initially not wanting to go to Special School, as that’s not something usually in academia set books. (Usually the kid wants to go to Special School and be Super Special.)
The big twist in the climax of The Iron Trial is one of my favorite parts of the series. It’s huge and strongly affects all of the rest of the books, and is very interesting. I actually ended up calling it by the prologue and was pleasantly surprised to be correct. Don’t worry – I don’t think it’s actually something most people would guess that easily or that quickly! I’m just really weird and my brain has been ruined by videogame, anime and fanfiction tropes and this was kind of that kind of twist. (It’s literally out of Xenoblade Chronicles – read the prologue of The Iron Trial and then look up the Monado Expedition cutscene and see if anything looks familiar. Then read the rest of the book and look up the cutscene after the Apocrypha battle. Then read the rest of the Magisterium and watch the two cutscenes again.)
The plots in each book were also very engaging, and I always found myself wanting to know what happened next. The magic system was also pretty good; I always like reading stuff based on alchemy. Though I kind of didn’t understand how they could do some things, like clairvoyance. With air magic? I don’t know – that didn’t really seem like it fell under the four elements (and sometimes five) stuff the books had going on.
The Other Stuff
I also really liked most of the other stuff the Magisterium had going on. The little romances were cute and they made sense. They also didn’t show up out of nowhere or anything either, which was nice. I hate random insta-love stuff. The narration and dialogue were also pretty good, though there was some clunkiness in book one.
There were some things that I didn’t like about the Magisterium, though. I won’t be talking about a lot of them here because they’re spoilers, but I will mention a couple. Firstly, there were a couple very noticeable plot holes, or things inserted into the plot that have no other purpose but to support red herrings, but have no actual explanation for existing except for plot convenience. Secondly, Alistair is a little inconsistent as a character the first couple of books, and he and Callum repeatedly have the exact same conversation a couple different times in the books. (I’ll talk about these more in a second.) The last book was also kind of not the best finale, and I found the final villain to be very weak and uninteresting.
Anyway, on to the spoiler section!
❗ Spoiler-y Thoughts Section ❗
The Iron Trial
Regarding book one of the Magisterium, The Iron Trial, I think it has the least amount of plot holes and stuff. It also has one of the best climaxes in the series. I got chills during Call and Joseph’s conversation where Joseph revealed that Call is the Enemy of Death (which is a stupid name by the way, especially for your bad guy), and that he transferred his soul into Callum’s body as an infant, killing the original Call. I like darker stuff like that. And Call has to grapple with being an “Evil Overlord” and the terrible things that he’s done and doesn’t remember fir the rest of the series.
The Copper Gauntlet
For The Copper Gauntlet, I do have a few issues with it. Alistair (Call’s dad), has these child-sized magical iron chains in his basement. They’re only there so that Call (and the reader) are led to believe that Alistair wants to bring harm to Call. Which is something he doesn’t want to do, by the way, and when this is revealed the chains and the reason they were in the basement never come up again. Um Alistair, why do you have them in your basement, exactly? (I never fell for any of this, by the way. The “evil parent” red herring has never been something that I’ve ever fallen for – even growing up. Yet another twist I predicted.)
The Bronze Key
I felt that The Bronze Key suffered a bit from Middle Book Syndrome. I just wasn’t as into it as I expected to be. Probably because I’d called that Alex Strike was evil in book one. (There was no indication at all he was evil – my brain just fixates on the wildest guesses sometimes.) So it was just kind of boring for me to read them trying to figure out who the spy was when I already knew.
Also, I figured how the climax would go down to Aaron dying by book two, so waiting for that to happen was kind of a slog too. (Again, not something too obvious, especially for tweens. I’ve just read a lot of books in my time and predicted it by the way that a three act structure would behave in a five book series.)
The Silver Mask
The Silver Mask started out very promising. I thought that it was gonna be my favorite one of the bunch, actually, before I actually read it, just because of what I assumed would happen. But I didn’t like the direction that the novel ended up going in.
I didn’t like how Master Joseph was killed off and Alex was primed as the final villain instead, mostly because I thought that Alex wasn’t a good antagonist at all. I also thought that Call would get his memories back from being Constantine Madden and that didn’t happen, so I was a bit disappointed in that. (Again, because of how story structure works – I thought that he’d get the memories back and then have to grapple with his remembered past of being an Evil Overlord, before ultimately accepting himself in the final book.)
The Golden Tower
The Golden Tower was kind of a bit of a meh ending, though I liked the rest of the book leading up to it, which is why I rated it highly. Callum actually does get the memories back, which I had kind of given up on after it didn’t happen in the last book. And the memories revealed that he wasn’t actually the soul of Evil Overlord Constantine Madden, but in fact the Evilest of Evil Overlords, Maugris, a guy who’d been transferring bodies since forever and was most of the Evil Overlords in Magisterium mage history. I actually really enjoyed this section of the book, though because Call got these memories back so late there wasn’t time for him to accept his past the way I’d hoped he would.
I didn’t like the climax itself though. As I said above, I don’t think that Alex is a very effective villain, and he kind of annoyed me throughout this book and the last. I also don’t think that Aaron should’ve been brought back to life in Alex’s body; I feel that it negatively detracts from some of Call’s character development – as well as Tamara’s and Aaron’s to some degree – and felt that he should have passed on instead with Callum finally accepting his death. I feel that it would’ve been a much more poignant thing than what we got, and would’ve made it feel like he’d finally accepted death as a whole more than. The actual ending ending was sweet though, and I did enjoy it and it’s callback to the end of The Iron Trial.
Out of Context Quotes I Liked
“Some people have stuffed animals,” Aaron said with a shrug. “Other people have knives.”
The Iron Trial
“Warren knows the best way. Sometimes the bear way isn’t the fastest.”
“Warren shouldn’t talk about himself in third person,” Call said.
The Iron Trial
Just then, a lizard dropped down from the ceiling onto the stone beside Call.
“Augh!” Call yelled, jumping to his feet. “What are you doing here?”
“Live here,” said Warren, tongue flicking out to lick an eyeball. “Watch you.” Because that wasn’t creepy at all.”
The Copper Gauntlet
Suddenly, they were blotted out. A slender figure rose up in front of them, smirking.
“Fancy meeting you here,” Jasper said.
“That is such a tired villain line, Jasper, and you know it,” said Call.
The Copper Gauntlet
“Come on,” said Aaron. “I don’t have a dad in prison for nothing. I think I can hotwire one of those.” He strode off toward the field of cars with a confident set to his shoulders.
“That’s our Makar,” said Jasper. “Chaos magic and grand theft auto.”
The Copper Gauntlet
“Wait!” Tamara said, running up to them, pulling Jasper behind her like a tugboat. Her parents were still where she’d left them; they’d detached Alex from Kimiya and were comforting their daughter themselves. “I’m coming with you. We both are.”
“What?” Jasper said. “No! I didn’t think you were serious. Your hot sister needs a shoulder to cry on. I volunteer myself. I would be much better at that than staying in whatever hovel Call and his weird dad-” Tamara kicked him savagely and he lapsed into a sullen silence.
The Bronze Key
“Call,” Rufus said darkly. Call had the feeling Master Rufus still thought he knew something he wasn’t saying. “Please restrain your commentary on the furniture; this is a meeting.”
The Bronze Key
“You’re the only one I can talk to, Call,” said Jasper.
“You mean because I’m chained to this floor and can’t get away?”
The Silver Mask
He had to say something. He wasn’t sure when they would be alone next.
“Um,” he said, because his conversational skills were amazing.
The Silver Mask
He stopped worrying and started hoping Warren, a weird lizard that lived in the caves, would lead them into a crevasse.
That would definitely earn you some of those Evil Overlord points, Aaron said.
“Stop poking around in my brain,” Call muttered under his breath.
The Golden Tower
“When fear rules us, we forget who we truly are. We forget the good we are capable of.”
The Golden Tower
“So this is how it happens with you guys?” Gwenda demanded. “Some weird lizard shows up and all of a sudden everything goes sideways and you’re fighting a massive elemental or some Chaos-ridden army or whatever? Well, let me tell you, I am not in for any of that.”
The Golden Tower
Individual Star Ratings
Final Thoughts
So yeah, despite its issues, I really enjoyed the Magisterium as a whole and I think it’s a pretty solid middle grade fantasy series. I thought the characters were great, the story engaging, and some of the dialogue and narrative was really funny. The books were kind of short though, and I wish they were each a little longer – a lot of them were around 250 pages and I think they could’ve easily added some character interactions to develop the cast a little more and bump them up to around 300 pages.
I think that kids and teens who like Harry Potter and Percy Jackson and other like fantasy series will enjoy this. I think adults who are fans of those series and looking for more might enjoy this series as well. As a whole, I’m personally rating the Magisterium:
What books have you been reading lately? What’s the last series that you finished? How did you feel about them?
As always, thank you to everyone so much for reading, and I hope that you have an awesome day/night!
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:
From a distance, the man struggling up the white face of the glacier might have looked like an ant crawling slowly up the side of a dinner plate. The shantytown of La Rinconada was a collection of scattered specks far below him, the wind increasing as his elevation did, blowing powdery gusts of snow into his face and freezing the damp tendrils of his black hair. Despite his amber goggles, he winced at the brightness of the reflected sunset.
Know the book yet? Here’s a second hint if you don’t know…
Still no idea? Here are some beautiful pictures of books to admire while you think about it…
Annnd the book is… 🥁🥁 The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare!!
Most kids would do anything to pass the Iron Trial.
Not Callum Hunt. He wants to fail.
All his life, Call has been warned by his father to stay away from magic. If he succeeds at the Iron Trial and is admitted into the Magisterium, he is sure it can only mean bad things for him.
So he tries his best to do his worst – and fails at failing.
Now the Magisterium awaits him. It’s a place that’s both sensational and sinister, with dark ties to his past and a twisty path to his future.
The Iron Trial is just the beginning, for the biggest test is still to come…
From the remarkable imaginations of bestselling authors Holly Black and Cassandra Clare comes a heart-stopping, mind-blowing, pulse-pounding plunge into the magical unknown.
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!
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.
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!
Happy Tuesday again, everyone! I’m starting to get into a bit of a system with this post, huh?
For anyone unfamiliar, Tasteful Tuesdays (formerly Majestic Mondays – so it’s not new, I just switched days, haha) 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 admiring the cover art of a book that’s coming out later this month. It’s Sweet Nightmare by Tracy Wolff.
The scariest school on earth… Is about to experience real fear…
Most schools are about being the best. This school? It’s about being the worst. Calder Academy is where the rogue paranormals go. The ones who break the rules or lose control. And when that happens for vamps, werewolves, witches, and dark fae? It gets pretty freaking scary.
I should know. Because I’m trapped here.
Look, every seventeen-year-old girl thinks their mom is a tyrant. But mine just happens to run Calder Academy, which paints a giant target on my back. The way I make it through these dark halls is by steering clear of the things―and kids―who go bump in the night.
Especially Jude Abernathy-Lee.
But when a freak storm hits our isolated island, I’m stuck without a backup plan. The power is gone. The lights are out. And our worst nightmares are suddenly real―and out for blood. Now the only way to survive is to align myself with one evil to avoid the other.
And the only thing worse than the idea of getting close to Jude? Secretly loving every minute of it.
Book Cover Rating: 🍭🍭🍭• 3 1/2 eaten sweets
Though I’ve never read a Tracy Wolff novel, I am familiar with her work – I’ve seen some book vlogs on her Crave series. And they had pretty good covers, that I thought were kind of reminiscent of the Twilight Saga. And Sweet Nightmare is her newest series, and it also has a pretty good cover.
First off, it’s blue. So it’s a given that it’ll catch my eye. I like the swirly leaf-like background as well. It contrasts well with the other stuff on the cover. I also like how the pattern fades around the edges.
The serpent is a bright, eye-catching gold, especially with how it wraps around the sword, which has a silver nose and red hilt. They both stand out really well. I also like the bold, display font used for the title. Making it white was also the right choice – I’m not sure if the title would’ve stood out had it been another color.
I unfortunately don’t really have anything else to say about the book cover art. It caught my attention and I like it well enough, but it isn’t one of my favorite covers that I’ve seen. Still a great cover though!
So yeah, that’s another Tasteful Tuesday. What do you think about this cover art? Are you looking forward to Sweet Nothing‘s release? Have you read any of the author’s other works, like the Crave series? What did you think of it if you have?
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 wonderful day/night!
