Bewitching Book Covers: Five Broken Blades

Hey everybody! Hope you’ve been having a good weekend! Mine’s been somewhat busy, personally, which is why the book review I had been planning on isn’t quite ready. But I thought how it’s been quite a bit since I’ve posted a Bewitching Book Covers, so I decided to squeeze it in!

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 Five Broken Blades by Mai Corland!

Five Broken Blades by Mai Corland

SERIES: The Broken Blades #1

LENGTH: 512 pages

GENRES: Fantasy, Romance, LGBT+, Fiction

PUBLISHER: Red Tower Books

RELEASE DATE: 7 May 2024

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

It’s the season
for treason…

The king of Yusan must die.

The five most dangerous liars in the land have been mysteriously summoned to work together for a single objective: to kill the God King Joon.

He has it coming. Under his merciless immortal hand, the nobles flourish, while the poor and innocent are imprisoned, ruined…or sold.

And now each of the five blades will come for him. Each has tasted bitterness—from the hired hitman seeking atonement, a lovely assassin who seeks freedom, or even the prince banished for his cruel crimes. None can resist the sweet, icy lure of vengeance.

They can agree on murder.

They can agree on treachery.

But for these five killers—each versed in deception, lies, and betrayal—it’s not enough to forge an alliance. To survive, they’ll have to find a way to trust each other…but only one can take the crown.

Let the best liar win.

Book Cover Rating: 🗡️🗡️🗡️🗡️ • 4 unbroken blades

So, as much as I like this book cover art and would love to give it a rating of five unbroken blades, I still don’t love it that much. Even with the addition of the lovely sprayed edges, though the edges are still buffing this cover up for me. (Actually, I think without the colored edges, I’d have given this cover art three unbroken blades.)

Anyway, even though the sprayed edges are definitely the best part of the cover for me, I’m gonna talk about the other stuff I enjoy about the book cover of Five Broken Blades before that. Firstly, I really like that there are actually five swords on the cover. I feel like some books I’ve seen that have a number of something in their titles don’t manage to have the same number of the thing on the cover art. So I’m giving this cover props for having the proper amount of the thing in its title.

Next, I really like the shade of red used for the base color of the cover. It’s just such a perfect shade, which is why I think a lot of red book covers tend to use it. Especially with the thorns wrapped around the swords on the cover, there’s a bit of A Court of Thorns and Roses energy going on here. The swords do look a bit short, however, even though I think they’re supposed to be katanas? I dunno, though – I’m not really super well versed in swords.

Now I’d usually discuss the title and author font here, but I honestly don’t have a lot to say about it. It’s fine, I guess, and I like the contrast, but nothing about it especially pops out to me. So I’m gonna talk about the pretty sprayed edges instead. I love how the colored edges solely incorporate only the colors already used on the cover itself. That’s a really cool detail. The red sky looks amazing, and I love how black is used to make the character and foliage on the side of the book to look like they’re made of inky shadows. And the golden sun just tops everything off.

So yeah, here’s yet another beautiful book cover. What do you think about this cover art? Have you read Five Broken Blades?

Anyway, as always, thank you for reading, and I hope that you have an excellent day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Dark Moon, Shallow Sea by David R. Slayton | Book Review

Only mortals die forever.

Dark Moon, Shallow Sea by David R. Slayton

SERIES: The Gods of Night and Day #1

LENGTH: 350 pages

GENRES: Fantasy, Romance, LGBT+, Fiction

PUBLISHER: Blackstone Publishing

RELEASE DATE: 31 October 2023

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

The first in a new epic fantasy series from David R. Slayton, Dark Moon, Shallow Sea is a powerful story of divine betrayal, ghosts, and self-discovery, perfect for fans of the Dark Souls series or Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson.

When Phoebe, goddess of the moon, is killed by the knights of the sun god, Hyperion, all who follow her are branded heretics. With Phoebe gone, the souls of the dead are no longer ferried to the underworld, and instead linger on as shades who feast on the blood of the living.

Raef is a child of the night. He lives in the shadows, on scraps, eking out a meager existence as a thief. But when an ornate box is sequestered in the Temple of Hyperion, the chance of a big score proves too great to resist. What he finds within propels him on an odyssey across the sea and back again, altering the course of his life forever.

Seth is a knight of the sun. But unlike the others of his order, the fire of Hyperion only brings him pain. He believes he deserves this penance, exacted for his unknown origins. Tasked with recovering the contents of the box, Seth must also venture beyond the horizon if he’s to learn the truth about himself.

In a dying world divided by the greed of those in power, Raef and Seth find their destinies intertwined–and learn they might have more in common than they ever imagined.

My Review

Dark draws dark as light draws light, but only one may cast the other out.

So… Clearly Dragonfall didn’t work out for me. Haha. Moving on.

Dark Moon, Shallow Sea has been on my TBR for a while. Like, over a year type of a while. I gave rsr discovered it in November of 2023. I almost read it then too, but decided to read one of the author’s earlier works first, to try to get a feel for the writing style and see if I liked it. And… I did. White Trash Warlock was generally a pretty enjoyable reading experience for me. There were a couple of things that I was kind of “meh” on, but it was a positive experience for the most part.

So when my Kindle told me that Dark Moon, Shallow Sea was on sale about a month and a half ago, I finally grabbed it. And then near the end of last week, I finally got around to starting reading it. And it was perfectly… okay.

Let’s get into it.

Characters and Plot

They’d circled each other for so long. The gods had to have a hand in it, that the two of them, probably the last of their breed, should meet over and over. They’d danced like the moon and sun, like their gods, like night and day.

Our two mains are 🌙 Raef 🗡️ , a former future acolyte to the Moon Goddess Phoebe turned thief, and ☀️ Seth 🔥 , a warrior to the Sun God Hyperion with a lot of issues with his fire powers. They’re also the characters whose point of view we follow throughout the novel. I enjoyed their characters well enough – I really liked how kind Raef was despite all his circumstances and trauma, as well as how soft and awkward Seth was despite everything in his past.

The other major character here was Kinos, whom I hated since and was immediately suspicious of the second he started talking. So the thing later on with him didn’t surprise me too much – I actually figured it out a couple of chapters before it happened – nor did I feel upset whatsoever by what he did. I hated this guy – at the very least, he was annoying.

I also enjoyed Raef’s and Seth’s relationships with the parental figures in their lives. Raef’s relationship with the old lady he lived with – Eleni – was great. I love how they were both snartasses to each other. It felt really genuine. Raef’s past relationship with his teachers when he was still a ward of the tower he grew up in was also wonderful, as well as heart wrenching later on in the story. I loved Seth’s father-son relationship with Father Geldar as well – it was so sweet.

The 📖 plot 📖 itself was pretty engaging and interesting. I always enjoy a good light vs. dark / sun vs. moon motif in stuff; it’s the contrast, I think. Also, the last quarter of the book felt a little rushed with everything that was going on, but it still worked fine.

Romance and World Building

“I, uh-like your mask,” Seth said nervously. It disarmed Raef a little, despite his mounting panic. How could it not? Seth wasn’t trying to burn him. He was trying to what, flirt?

“Thank you,” Raef said. “I like your, uh, helmet.”

I didn’t like the 💘 romance 💘 here. Honestly, I think I just don’t like the way that Slayton writes his romantic relationships, because that was what I felt was one of the weakest aspects about White Trash Warlock as well. They always move way too fast for me.

In this book, I actually didn’t mind at first because I knew the first romance initially introduced wasn’t going to be the endgame relationship. But then the second relationship took forever to get going and then there wasn’t really any time spent on it besides the he fact that the two characters were drawn to each other, and then they pretty much felt like they got together offscreen at the end of the book. Ugh. It was very frustrating to read, especially because I thought that Raef and Seth were especially cute together and had a lot of potential as a couple.

The 🗺️ world building 🗺️ and ✨ magic system ✨ was interesting, but I was having a little trouble determining what the setting was supposed to be emulating. Like, there was clearly a lot of inspiration taken from Greek myths – particularly in some of the names – but the world itself didn’t feel like it was a fantasy land based on Greece itself. The relationships between some of the gods, as well as many of the names of the gods and what they were the god of, were also vague and generally undefined.

Final Thoughts

A lifetime ago, the Knights of Hyperion had been his cousins, worshippers of his goddess’s brother. No one would have batted an eye to see them friends or even more.

All in all, Dark Moon, Shallow Sea was a pretty decent book, even though I think it could have done with a bit more polish. I also didn’t think the book really felt like the games in the Dark Souls series either. Like, I guess because the dead couldn’t move on properly and some of the stuff surrounding that? It didn’t really have the same vibe though, if you get my meaning. Anyway, I guess readers who like high fantasy, really fast romance and LGBT+ rep might enjoy this novel.

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

See ya ~Mar

MY LINKS:

Goodreads

Instagram

First Line Friday: 3/28

Happy Friday everybody! It’s been a couple of weeks since I participated in First Line Fridays – but I’m here again now!

First Line Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers (formerly) hosted by Wandering Words, but I saw it over at One Book More.

What if instead of judging a book by the cover, author or most everything else, we judged it by its content? Its first lines?

If you want to join in, all you gotta do is:

📚 Take a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open it to the first page
📝 Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
📙 Finally… reveal the book!

Here’s the first line:

I will share how I fell. But first, I must tell you what it is like to fly.

Any ideas on what book it is? If not, here’s another hint or two…

Still don’t know? Here’s a few gorgeous pictures of books to admire while you consider it a bit more…

Annnd the book is… 🥁🥁 Dragonfall by L.R. Lam!!

(Didja guess it?)

Dragonfall by L.R. Lam

SERIES: The Dragon Scales Duology #1

LENGTH: 432 pages

GENRES: Fantasy, Romance, LGBT+, Fiction

PUBLISHER: Hodder & Stoughton

RELEASE DATE: 8 August 2023

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

The first in an epic fantasy duology from Sunday Times bestselling author Laura Lam.

Long ago, humans betrayed dragons, stealing their magic and banishing them to a dying world. Centuries later, their descendants worship dragons as gods. But the ‘gods’ remember, and they do not forgive.

Thief Arcady scrapes a living on the streets of Vatra. Desperate, Arcady steals a powerful artifact from the bones of the Plaguebringer, the most hated person in Lumet history. Only Arcady knows the artifact’s magic holds the key to a new life among the nobles at court and a chance for revenge.

The spell connects to Everen, the last male dragon foretold to save his kind, dragging him through the Veil. Disguised as a human, Everen soon learns that to regain his true power and form and fulfil his destiny, he only needs to convince one little thief to trust him enough to bond completely – body, mind, and soul – and then kill them.

Yet the closer the two become, the greater the risk both their worlds will shatter.

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!

See ya ~Mar

Can’t-Wait Wednesday: The Keeper of Lonely Spirits

Hey everybody! Happy Wednesday!

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 Keeper of Lonely Spirits by E.M. Anderson! 👻🏠

The Keeper of Lonely Spirits by E.M. Anderson

LENGTH: 352 pages

GENRES: Fantasy, LGBT+, Literary, Fiction

PUBLISHER: Mira Books

RELEASE DATE: 25 March 2025

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

In this mesmerizing, wonderfully moving queer cozy fantasy, an immortal ghost hunter must confront his tragic past in order to embrace his found family.

Find an angry spirit. Send it on its way before it causes trouble. Leave before anyone learns his name.

After over two hundred years, Peter Shaughnessy is ready to die and end this cycle. But thanks to a youthful encounter with one o’ them folk in his native Ireland, he can’t. Instead, he’s cursed to wander eternally far from home, with the ability to see ghosts and talk to plants.

Immortality means Peter has lost everyone he’s ever loved. And so he centers his life on the dead—until his wandering brings him to Harrington, Ohio. As he searches for a vengeful spirit, Peter’s drawn into the townsfolk’s lives, homes and troubles. For the first time in over a century, he wants something other than death.

But the people of Harrington will die someday. And he won’t.

As Harrington buckles under the weight of the supernatural, the ghost hunt pits Peter’s well-being against that of his new friends and the man he’s falling for. If he stays, he risks heartbreak. If he leaves, he risks their lives.

Are you looking forward to the release of The Keeper of Lonely Spirits? 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!

See ya ~Mar

First Line Friday: 1/24

Hey everyone! How’s your Friday been going?

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:

Here are the first lines:

When Red wins, she stands alone.

Blood slicks her hair. She breathes out steam in the last night of this dying world.

Do you know the book? If you don’t, here’s a few more hints…

Still not know what it is? Ruminate on it a bit more whilst admiring these nice pictures of books…

Annnd the book is… 🥁🥁 This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone!!

(Didja guess it?)

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.

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 amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell | Book Review

“My road to hell isn’t paved with good intentions – or bad – it’s just my road.”

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

SERIES: Simon Snow #1

LENGTH: 521 pages

GENRES: Fantasy, Romance, YA, LGBT+, Fiction

PUBLISHER: St. Martin’s Publishing Group

RELEASE DATE: 6 October 2015

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

#1 New York Times best seller
Booklist Editors’ Choice 2015 – Youth
Named a Best Book of 2015 by Time Magazine, School Library Journal, Barnes & Noble, NPR, PopSugar, The Millions, and The News & Observer

Simon Snow is the worst Chosen One who’s ever been chosen.

That’s what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he’s probably right.

Half the time, Simon can’t even make his wand work, and the other half, he starts something on fire. His mentor’s avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there’s a magic-eating monster running around, wearing Simon’s face. Baz would be having a field day with all this, if he were here–it’s their last year at the Watford School of Magicks, and Simon’s infuriating nemesis didn’t even bother to show up.

Carry On is a ghost story, a love story and a mystery. It has just as much kissing and talking as you’d expect from a Rainbow Rowell story – but far, far more monsters.

My Review

“You have to pretend you get an endgame. You have to carry on like you will; otherwise, you can’t carry on at all.”

I know, I know. It’s been a bit since I’ve last posted a book review. But last week was a bit… eh. Anyway, I’m here now, and with a book I started reading ages ago at that.

So reading Carry On in its entirety has been a long time coming for me. Honestly, after I DNF-ed it like – three or four years ago? – yeah, I didn’t think I was ever gonna come back to it. And trust me, I gave it a good shot too – I was like 40% through the novel before I gave up!

He’s still looking in my eyes. Staring me down like he did that dragon, chin tilted and locked. “I’m not the Chosen One,” he says.

I meet his gaze and sneer. My arm is a steel band around his waist. “I choose you,” I say. “Simon Snow, I choose you.

But something made me want to give it another shot, so I did. And for better or worse, I’m glad about it. This was, overall, a pretty good book.

Don’t get me wrong! The first third of the novel is an absolute slog to get through – I definitely had the same problems reading it the second time that I did the first. But it was easier to get through this time ’cause I’d already read it before so I kinda… skimmed a little bit. And once the plot (finally) started to really get moving, I really enjoyed what I was reading and had a little trouble putting the book down.

I enjoyed the characters, even though most of them felt a little basic, archetype-wise. Which is probably why Penny was my favorite – she seemed to be the most interesting. I liked Simon and Baz well enough too, even though their relationship felt a little shallow. And their pining – particularly Simon’s oblivious pining, kind of got annoying. Yes Simon, why are you so obsessed with what Baz is up to, I wonder??? Most of the dialogue and character interactions were really good though.

“Do you ever not go for the lowest blow? Like, do you ever think, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t say the most cruel thing just now?'”

“I’m trying to be efficient.”

The plot of Carry On was a fun riff on the Chosen One trope, not to mention all the other dark academia and magic school tropes. (And Harry Potter tropes – like, Simon and Baz share just a few similarities with Harry and Malfoy, respectively.) And I like it when authors do it – it’s fun. The twists were also pretty decent (even though Rowell isn’t shy of showing her hand full of breadcrumbs leading to them – predictably, I figured them out pretty early on, lol).

The climax and the ending were probably my favorite parts of the book, both because of how action packed they were, and because the biggest twists on the tropes were either revealed here or occurred here. The POV changes did get somewhat out of hand at this point, which was kind of distracting and annoying, with some of them only being like a sentence long. But it was mostly okay.

“People who tell you that slamming and bashing into things won’t make you feel better haven’t slammed or bashed enough.”

Anyway, I enjoyed Carry On. It gets three quarters of a star off for the 30% slog of a beginning, however, as well as an additional three quarters of a star off for smaller things that bothered me about the novel. Otherwise, I generally liked it.

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

See ya ~Mar

MY LINKS:

Goodreads

Instagram

Can’t-Wait Wednesday: Prince of Fortune

Happy Wednesday everyone!

This week’s book is:

Prince of Fortune by Lisa Tirreno! 🔮🌱

Prince of Fortune by Lisa Tirreno

LENGTH: 319 pages

GENRES: Fantasy, Romance, LGBT+, YA, Fiction

PUBLISHER: Atheneum

RELEASE DATE: 15 October 2024

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

Red, White & Royal Blue meets A Darker Shade of Magic in this swoony debut young adult romantic fantasy following a magical young prince and a noble seer who fall in love in the midst of war and intrigue.

Shy Prince Edmund will be a great king one day: it has been Seen again and again. With rare magic giving him dominion over the nation’s plants and weather, Edmund feels a great deal of pressure to live up to his nation’s many expectations, including making a perfect diplomatic alliance through marriage. That is, until he meets Lord Aubrey Ainsley.

Charming, romantic, and politically insignificant, Aubrey is a Seer, but not even he could have predicted catching the eye of Edmund, the Prince of Fortune—nor that the anxious prince who talks to plants more than people could feel so right for him. Aubrey’s dream-visions have been full of battle, not love, but to say that Prince Edmund has captured his fancy would be a grand understatement.

As the two become more and more intertwined, the nation of Saben falls under attack. War and dark sorcery loom on the horizon. To save their homeland, Edmund and Aubrey must resist the outside forces seeking to drive them apart and find the power within themselves to create a future for Saben—and each other—they never could have imagined.

Are you looking forward to the next volume of Prince of Fortune? 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!

See ya ~Mar

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers | Book Review

“Oh, that’s lovely,” Mosscap said.

“What Is?” said Dex.

Mosscap pointed. “Crown shyness is so striking, don’t you think?”

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

SERIES: Monk & Robot #2

LENGTH: 152 pages

GENRES: Science Fiction, LGBT+, Fiction

PUBLISHER: Tordotcom Publishing

RELEASE DATE: 12 July 2022

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy is a story of kindness and love from one of the foremost practitioners of hopeful SF.

After touring the rural areas of Panga, Sibling Dex (a Tea Monk of some renown) and Mosscap (a robot sent on a quest to determine what humanity really needs) turn their attention to the villages and cities of the little moon they call home.

They hope to find the answers they seek, while making new friends, learning new concepts, and experiencing the entropic nature of the universe.

Becky Chambers’s new series continues to ask: in a world where people have what they want, does having more even matter?

My Review

The thing about fucking off to the woods is that unless you are a very particular, very rare sort of person, it does not take long to understand why people left said woods in the first place.

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, though not quite hitting the same spots for me as A Psalm for the Wild-Built that convinced me to give it a perfect star rating, was still a very fantastic novella to read. I really enjoyed my time with this book, as well as being heck in this world and seeing Dex and Mosscap again. I was a bit worried that it wouldn’t live up to the first one enough, which is why I put off reading it for a bit, but luckily my concerns were unfounded.

This little sequel builds a little bit on the world first introduced in Psalm. But gently – this is still a soft sci-fi series, after all. Not to mention that these little books are primarily character focused. But yeah, I enjoyed reading about Dex and Mosscap going around and interacting with people and places here, it felt like a very natural way to explore (and explain) the world.

It was also such a treat to meet new characters and have Dex have more than a couple lines of dialogue with them. Don’t get me wrong – I love how the first novella pretty much completely focused on Dex’s thought process and his evolving new friendship with Mosscap. But I really, really like character interaction, and a good chunk of book one is just walls of text.

The new characters we met were pretty decent too. At the very least their dialogue was good. It flowed naturally and felt like actual conversations. My favorite interactions were with Dex’s family (finally we get to meet them!) and one that almost entirely happens off-screen interactions with Ms. Amelia. (The one we see is also funny, but the implied interactions between Mosscap and the old lady seem golden.)

“Is this customary?” Mosscap whispered to Dex as Leroy fetched some herbs from the pots on his windowsill. “In some of the books I read last night, people made each other breakfast after having sex, but not universally.”

Dex threw Mosscap a look and lowered their voice as far as it would go. “What kind of books does Ms. Amelia collect?”

“Oh, entirely pornography,” Mosscap said. “It was very educational.”

Of course, the heart of this story is still the growing friendship between Dex and Mosscap, and how it changes them as a person and an object. Dex is also still struggling with the stuff from Psalm as well and, at the moment, Mosscap is currently the only one they feel comfortable sharing with. Mosscap is also going through it a little – as it’s realizing that it is getting older, and may start to break down sooner rather than later. Time keeps moving, after all.

And it wouldn’t be a Monk & Robot book without discussions of philosophy and self, so of course there’s a bunch of that here, once again. Not to the degree of the first book, ’cause of the slight differences in story structure, but A Prayer for the Crown-Shy definitely doesn’t… shy away from the topic either.

“Well, I didn’t know then,” Dex said, “and I still don’t. But what I do know is… you help. You’re helping me figure it out. Just by being here. You help.”

“Then we have the same answer,” Mosscap said. “I don’t know, either. But you are my best help, Sibling Dex.”

All in all, this is an absolutely solid follow-up to A Psalm for the Wild-Built. I love the soft sci-fi system, and how character focused it is. And I definitely recommend A Prayer for the Crown-Shy to those who enjoy these things as well, and who like quieter and more contemplative stories.

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

See ya ~Mar

MY LINKS:

Goodreads

Instagram

First Line Friday: 10/4

Hey everyone! Happy Friday! It’s been a couple of weeks!

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:

Here are the first lines:

I walk to the bus station by myself. There’s always a fuss over my paperwork when I leave. All summer long, we’re not even allowed to walk to Tescos without a chaperone and permission from the Queen-then, in the autumn, I just sign myself out of the children’s home and go.

Know it already? If you don’t, here’s a couple more hints for you…

Still don’t know? Please admire these lovely photos of books while you think…

Annnd the book is… 🥁🥁 Carry On by Rainbow Rowell!!

(Did ya guess it?)

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

SERIES: Simon Snow #1

LENGTH: 521 pages

GENRES: Fantasy, Romance, YA, LGBT+, Fiction

PUBLISHER: St. Martin’s Publishing Group

RELEASE DATE: 6 October 2015

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

Simon Snow is the worst Chosen One who’s ever been chosen.

That’s what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he’s probably right.

Carry On is a ghost story, a love story and a mystery. It has just as much kissing and talking as you’d expect from a Rainbow Rowell story – but far, far more monsters.

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 amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar

The Glass Scientists: Volume Two by S.H. Cotugno | Book Review

Mornin’, Doctor. Having a happy haunt today are we?

The Glass Scientists: Volume Two by S.H. Cotugno

COMIC: The Glass Scientists

LENGTH: 240 pages

GENRES: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, YA, LGBT+, Graphic Novel, Fiction

PUBLISHER: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers

RELEASE DATE: 24 September 2024

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

The second book in the YA graphic novel series about star-crossed lovers and misunderstood monsters, which is already a webcomic phenomenon!

All Dr. Henry Jekyll wanted to do was make London a safe place for rogue scientists. That’s why he and his best friend Robert created the Society for Arcane Sciences in the first place, and why their upcoming exhibition to show the public all the incredible things they can do for the world is so important. But ever since Frankenstein arrived, nothing has gone according to plan….

And now Jekyll’s dirty little secret is about to become a huge problem. Hyde, his devilishly devious alter-ego, is fed up with being jerked around and Jekyll not letting him out to play. And he’s just discovered a new trick that will allow him to take the driver’s seat of their shared body. With Hyde behind the wheel, it’s not just the impeding exhibition and the future of the society in jeopardy. The ruffian threatens to destroy something that’s even more dear to Jekyll: his relationship with Robert. Will Jekyll be able to regain control of his mind, body, and life, or will he lose everything he has been fighting for?

Volume Two collects Chapters 8-12 of this beloved webcomic, which is available in print for the first time ever. It also features loads of exclusive bonus content including a brand-new prequel story (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Meet Dracula!!!), a behind-the-scenes look at the comic’s origins, and more!

My Review

“Who are you, Mr. Hyde?”

As I mentioned in my review for volume one, I absolutely love this comic. And that hasn’t changed at all with the second one. The Glass Scientists is still amazing. Sage is still going incredibly strong with their retelling of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Everything I said in my previous review for this graphic novel still stands, so I’m not going to talk much about the story and the characters, as I feel it’s a little redundant. But! The way that the story and characters evolve during this installment is sooo good. And the angst begins here – though it hasn’t even gotten close to the way it is currently in the original webcomic. (It’s getting real, guys. These last few weeks – oh boy.)

There’s also a bit of a slow-burn starting to happen between Jekyll and Lanyon at the point of the comic that volume two covers, and it’s wonderfully written. (And it’s gonna make the angst coming up so much sweeter.) We also learn a lot of interesting things about several characters, and Jekyll and Hyde’s relationship is currently deteriorating beautifully. I can’t get enough of this world.

And of course, the art is still gorgeous. S.H. Cotugno is a fantastic artist with a lot of experience and it definitely shows. I enjoy their art style quite a bit. Oh! And I almost forgot, I loved the little extra added here (that being the little prequel story). I loved the one added to the last installment too, but in a different way.

So yeah, I realize that I didn’t really have as much to say about The Glass Scientists this time around, but I both didn’t want to spoil anything nor be redundant. Rest assured, I still super enjoyed this volume and definitely recommend it to fans of volume one, gaslamp fantasy, comics and graphic novels and the original Strange Case novel.

This book is also perfect for the upcoming spooky season, so if it sounds intriguing to you, I’d give it a shot. The vibes are excellent for October.

And, as always, thank you to everyone so much for reading, and I hope you have an awesome day/night!

See ya ~Mar

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