Book Review: The Conjurer • Nick Oliveri

Power is a dance of shadows.

About This Book

Title & Author: The Conjurer by Nick Oliveri

Length: 194 pages

Genres: Literary Fiction

Publication: Write My Wrongs LLC [December 8, 2021]

Book Description

In the thriving kingdom of Idaza, Mikalla is the adored Conjurer, the nation’s chief storyteller, using the shadows cast by the city’s glorious ceremonial flame.

But death awaits around every corner. Addiction rattles the king. Trauma haunts the nobility and their conflicting motives. Murder happens, but to find out who succumbs to it is a journey the reader must take alone through the halls and palaces of the glorious Inner Gardens.

With a beautiful family and his position as one of King Oro’s favorite courtiers, Mikalla’s life is perfect. That is, until the king commands him to deliver a deadly message—one that will inevitably end in bloodshed and a war-torn Idaza.

With King Oro’s minions—Secretary Kitan and General Jax—skulking in the wings, Mikalla doesn’t know who to trust. Worse, he isn’t sure who’s really pulling the strings behind this political charade.

Betrayal and murder lie in the shadows Mikalla has always used to captivate the masses.

Will the flames reveal the truth hidden within the twisted schemes, or will Mikalla rise to his government’s call? Mikalla, the Conjurer, must realize his choices alone hold the power to change Idaza—to change everything.

My Review

★✬✩✩✩ • 1.5 / 5 stars (I’m sorry… ☹️)

This book… Unfortunately, I have things to say about this book, and most of them aren’t good. I feel terrible about it, because I hate rating stuff one star – and I’ve never done it for a book before – but I just couldn’t justify rating it any higher.

I have things to say about all kinds of things, from the plot, to the characters, to the dialogue, to the prose itself. Because of this, I’ll be doing something I haven’t really done before here: I’m going to be breaking this review into different sections. It’ll all be one review, don’t worry, I’m just talking about the formatting. Cuz I want everything to be clear (unlike this book).

And I really don’t want to dunk on it too much, since it’s a debut novel and all – and I firmly believe that all writers can improve – but I will be presenting my points as criticisms. I’m not flaming or anything – I promise! I always aim to be my best self, even on the internet – and I am intending absolutely no offense whatsoever. Think of these as some critiques! 😁

The Pros

I thought I’d start off this review on a brighter light. To start with, I actually really like the cover. It’s pretty simple, and some might not find it to be eye-catching, but I honestly did. It’s actually what attracted me to The Conjurer in the first place. I love the way that the red looks on the white background, and how there’s only occasionally a bit of black used for the shadow puppets. It really makes them stand out all the more. I also like how the red fire underneath the puppets appears to be creeping upwards – it makes the threat juxtaposed against Mikalla’s morality seem dangerous.

The other thing that I really liked, were some of the lines. The opening line in particular is pretty good, and it’s the quote I used at the top of my review. It really boils the core of the story down to one line in a fantastic way. There were other good lines though:

He was the caster of narrative whimsy, the creator of the gods.

and

He entrenched his audience in the characters’ lives. He swept them up in the torrent of the plot. And then, awash in the rapids of the story, he spat the audience out of the cyclone and left them transformed.

I also quite liked the first chapter. It was the part of the novel where the writing was strongest. (The writing, unfortunately, went downhill from there.) In fact, it’s where I found most of my favorite lines, including all of the quotes above.

It’s a shame I didn’t have anything else that I liked, because I was pretty excited about reading this book, as the plot looked promising and it had good reviews. But I just didn’t gel with most of what this book had.

The Cons

Part I: The Writing (or Prose – Whichever You Prefer)

It’s not that great. I hate to say it, but it really isn’t. To me at least. Maybe I’m completely wrong and this book is actually amazing. I don’t know. The only thing I can say for sure is that the writing in this book definitely wasn’t for me.

First off, the POV is all over the place. Like, in the same chapter, the POV will suddenly shift from one character to another, without even a divider, or even extra space between paragraphs. It was very disjointed and felt as if the author was attempting 3rd Person Limited and 3rd Person Omniscient at the exact same time, which sorry, but it’s just not possible.

To elaborate, what I mean is it’ll stay on one character in 3rd Person Limited, and then abruptly transition to another character and be slightly more omniscient. And sometimes, in a character’s limited POV they’ll notice something about another character’s thoughts or expressions that this particular character shouldn’t know, and is clearly for the reader’s benefit.

A good example of this is when the King of Idaza, Oro, is having a discussion with his advisor, Kiten, and then they break off and Kiten walks away from the king. This is in Oro’s POV by the way. Anyway, Kiten walks away from the king, completely facing away from the king, by the way, and then he smirks to himself. There is no way that King Oro can possibly see this, so how is Kiten smirking in Oro’s POV? Or is it somehow Kiten’s POV now?

And don’t even get me started on some of the descriptions in this book. The way the author chooses to describe certain things boggles my mind. Also, the similes and metaphors don’t make sense.

I guess I’ll get into the grammar a little bit. There’s several run-on sentences, incorrect use of tenses, and missing punctuation, among other things. I really, really hate to say this, but it really felt like a first draft or something, not a book ready to go. But yeah, here’s a quote that’s kind of all over the place in terms of tense, and it also doubles as being a poor metaphor:

The next morning, Oro sat on his throne like fungi sitting atop the moss of a tree.

I’m not going to say anything specific about this quote, you can make any and all judgements on your own. I also don’t want to start getting nitpicky about anything, as this review is already ludicrously long. (Sorry about that.)

Part II: The Plot

The plot was probably the least egregious part of the novel. Even though the synopsis embellishes it a little, it is accurate. Now, I didn’t end up enjoying the story as much as I’d hoped, but that part’s on me. Nothing against the storytelling itself. So good on the author for that! You did good there author!

There was an odd dream sequence about halfway through that I didn’t really get. I guess it was supposed to be Mikalla, the main character’s, subconscious realization that that something was very wrong in his personal life, even if he wouldn’t accept it outwardly. But it was a little confusing, and it really came out of nowhere, and I wasn’t really sure why it was there at all.

Part III: The Characters

I didn’t like any of them. Mikalla wasn’t a compelling protagonist. Characters in the book often describe him as a child in a thirty-eight year old man’s body (not in those exact words), and I can’t say that they’re wrong, unfortunately. I think that the author was trying to go for a free spirit who has a strong moral compass, and will do the right thing at the cost of everything. The moral compass aspect came across decently, but everything else didn’t really. He’s also incredibly indecisive and nervous most of the time, despite his very high station. Also, it should be noted that Mikalla is not like other guys: he was born on the lower end of nobility so he’s not as much of an ignoramus as the rest of them.

King Oro was probably the worst character in the book, though. I don’t understand how this man hasn’t passed away from alcohol poisoning already, because every scene he’s in – and not just the ones from his POV either – he’s constantly drinking. Constantly. And also, he’s incredibly lazy and idiotic, which I understand was probably the point, but it still stinks. Like, I get that he was supposed to be essentially a puppet king, with his advisor making the real decisions from behind his shoulder, but Oro was comically incompetent. He couldn’t do anything on his own. And yes, there was a bit of a backstory for this in the last third of the book, but it didn’t help me sympathize with him at all. At some point in your life, you just need to start adulting, and he never does. (It should be noted that characters often describe him as an overgrown child, just like Mikalla.)

Kiten and Jani, Mikalla’s wife, also suck. Kiten is a weak antagonist (that’s not a spoiler, it’s obvious from the second he’s introduced), and he was only able to function that way in any capacity, was because everyone else around him was obscenely stupid and obtuse. Jani was annoying and she was clearly out to get Mikalla (that’s not a spoiler, it’s obvious from the second she’s introduced), and was an even weaker antagonist. Near the end, the author attempts to show that she has empathy and perhaps make her seem as more of a grayer character, but it just doesn’t work – she’d been established as something else for the entire novel until that point, with the empathy thing coming out of nowhere. Also, and this applies to both Kiten and Jani, their motivations didn’t feel very strong. I didn’t get a sense that either of them loved Idaza as much as they claimed they did.

The other characters didn’t matter and were extremely bland.

Part IV: The Dialogue

Oh, the dialogue… 😮‍💨 It wasn’t consistent at all. And some of the language used just did not fit the character using it. Like, King Oro would say “guys” all the time when talking to a group and it doesn’t sound very… kingly.

Don’t get me wrong, it can definitely work to have a ruler or leader speak like this, especially to their close friends, but this book allegedly takes place in an ancient time, though whether in a fantasy world or otherwise is unclear. So it was kinda weird to read Millennial speak coming out of some ancient king’s mouth. As well as everyone else’s. It just felt extremely unprofessional to me, and it really took me out of the story.

Part V: The Setting

I wasn’t originally going to do a Part 5, but as I was writing this review, I remembered that there were a few problems with the setting. It’s labeled as ancient historical literary fiction, but the prose makes this unclear. It’s a mish-mash of ancient culture and indoor plumbing. No, I’m not kidding: some of the nobles have plumbing. Because of this, it reads more as a fantasy novel to me, but without any magic. There’s nothing wrong with the literary fiction part of its genre classification though – that works perfectly fine.

TW: graphic descriptions of regurgitation, extreme alcohol addiction, war and violence

And that’s all I’ve got to say about The Conjurer. I desperately wanted to like this book, guys. Like I say near the beginning of my review (way, way up there), I was genuinely looking forward to this book, and perhaps that’s why I was so disappointed by the end of it. I feel horrible about one and a half star-ing it, but I just don’t feel like I could put it higher. It wouldn’t be true to my feelings, and I don’t want to display any falsehoods on that front. Ever.

I still encourage anyone who thinks the synopsis looks interesting to give it a shot, as the problem could have just been me, and the book might not be as much as fault as I feel it is.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to start reading Children of Ragnarok by Cinda Williams Chima. Thanks everyone, as always, for tuning in, and have a fantastic day/night!

Majestic Mondays – Where We Admire Pretty Book Covers #1: Lore Olympus

Yes, I understand that by the time this comes out, it will no longer be Monday, and that this is not the way to start a new series. All I have to say to that is: pssh, semantics! (In all honesty, this past weekend was unexpectedly more busy than I thought it would be, and stuff came up, making me a little behind on my posts.)

Anyway, Majestic Mondays was born out of one of my favorite activities to kill time: looking at pretty covers on the Kindle app when I don’t know what to read next/am bored. There’s just so many nice looking ones out there!

And yeah, of course there are, having a good cover is important when trying to get your book to sell and stand out. But the covers I’m gonna pick for this series are the ones that stood out to me in particular; the ones that I thought were the prettiest, and the ones that I want to share with everyone.

So yeah, we’re doing this. And for the first week…

…I’m bringing to attention, Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe.

(*cough* Published by Random House Worlds on November 2, 2021 *cough*)

Now this book has an eye-catching cover! But it is a graphic novel, so it’s really no surprise. You gotta have good writing and good art for those, after all.

But I absolutely love the colors and the contrast between the pinks and blues. I love how the natural beauty of the fields of flowers that Persephone(?) rides through on the bottom half, is diametrically opposed to the cold, blue, modern-looking skyscrapers (of the Underworld?), dangling upside-down like teeth, as if they’re attempting to eat Persephone and the field. But it also acts as a mirror, as Persephone runs freely, and Hades(?) stands there at the top, alone and immobile.

And the title’s font is absolutely gorgeous. I love the twisting, curls of the letters, and how it’s placed over where the skies above Persephone and Hades meet.

*cough* Did I mention that I love (over)analyzing book covers too? And that’s the reason why I like some of the pretty ones?

Now, if it wasn’t obvious by all of the question marks in parentheses above, I have read this book (yet). But I kind of want to already, just from the cover’s design. It’s both eye-catching and beautiful. And the book’s synopsis makes the retelling of Hades and Persephone within, sound very intriguing:

Persephone, young goddess of spring, is new to Olympus. Her mother, Demeter, has raised her in the mortal realm, but after Persephone promises to train as a sacred virgin, she’s allowed to live in the fast-moving, glamorous world of the gods. When her roommate, Artemis, takes her to a party, her entire life changes: she ends up meeting Hades and feels an immediate spark with the charming yet misunderstood ruler of the Underworld. Now Persephone must navigate the confusing politics and relationships that rule Olympus, while also figuring out her own place—and her own power.

It just sounds sooo good! This is totally going on my TRR, haha. It already feels like a graphic novel, Greek myth retelling in the vein of a Marissa Meyer book. Which are some of the kinds of retellings I love, by the way. So yeah, probably reading this one before the end of the year.

I should also definitely mention that the covers for the other volumes in this series are also extremely beautiful. They all have that pink and blue duology going on that makes them all just pop! It’s really no surprise that the internet has (apparently) gone ga-ga over this series. Here’s to the first Majestic Mondays!

Have you read this book already? Did you think it was as good as the internet claims it is? Do you like the art style? Thanks for tuning in, and have a fantastic day/night!

October 2022 Reading Wrap-up

This post is gonna be a bit of a different post than usual, but I wanted to talk about my reading progress from last month.

I was dealing with a lot of stuff before I got this blog going, and it unfortunately affected my work ethic, as well as pushing me into a little reading slump for a while.

But this October, I really got everything together. I started reading books again, I started writing nearly every day, and I got this blog going. I haven’t felt this invigorated in so long, and it feels completely and utterly amazing.

So, here are my reading stats from October, courtesy of The StoryGraph. Don’t worry, I won’t go into that much detail, but I thought I’d share it.

The Graphs

Unfortunately, even though I got back into reading this month (finally), I didn’t actually read too many books.

I only read two. (I know… 😢)

But two is better than one – which is what I read in September, haha – so I’m gonna count it as progress.

From the graphs above, I guess you can guess some of the stuff I like to read. I looove humor and adventure, and some light-heartedness occasionally. But I also like lots of other stuff, which you’ll probably see as I read more books.

The books I read this past month were When Life Gives You Vampires by Gloria Duke and Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells, the sixth installment to The Murderbot Diaries.

This is a pretty accurate depiction of what I read, actually. I’m a big fantasy, sci-fi, and science fantasy reader. Sometimes I will do romance though, especially since it usually seems to weasel its way into most books.

I’m not usually a contemporary reader though, so you might see a different looking graph next month.

When Life Gives You Vampires

I just reviewed this recently. Yesterday recently, actually, but I thought I’d give it a little sample of what’s there. I really liked the main character – Lily Baines’ – personality. She had some minor things about her that irritated me, but otherwise she was a fun narrator.

The love interest, Tristan, was also dreamy, and though he had his issues, he genuinely cared for Lily and wasn’t Edward Cullen creepy. Oh, and speaking of Ed, the Twilight references are glorious.

Everything else was pretty decent, however, I wouldn’t put it above average. I gave it 3 / 5 stars: ⭐⭐⭐ (or the bat equivalent, lol).

You can read my full review here.

Fugitive Telemetry [The Murderbot Diaries #6]

I’m gonna be straight with you guys: I love The Murderbot Diaries. Everything from Murderbot’s/SecUnit’s sass, the internal narration, and the character interactions. It’s all beautiful.

Fugitive Telemetry might not be my favorite of the series, but it’s still very, very good. Since I don’t have a review yet (I’m working on a bigger review for the entire series so far), I’m just gonna give you the gist of this book. Murderbot basically has to do some detective work and figure out who killed a tourist at Preservation – the planet that MB resides on with its human friends.

And the sarcasm in this novella is just as on point as it was in the others, let me tell you. Especially because MB is dealing with people it doesn’t know, and those of us who’ve read the others know just what kind of sass-fest that turns into. I don’t have a review for this yet, cuz I’m doing that bigger review, but I rated this 4 / 5 stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.

Anyway, these are my reading stats from October 2022. It’s not super impressive, and I’m honestly not aiming for it to be, but I hope to increase the amount of books that I read beyond two. Haha. I think that I’m gonna do this every month, so I hope that at least a few of you were able to enjoy it. 😁

How many books did you read last month? What are your go to genres? Thanks for tuning in and have a wonderful day/night!

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Book Review: When Life Gives You Vampires (Slaying It) • Gloria Duke

Single. Curvy. Vampire.

About This Book

Title & Author: When Life Gives You Vampires by Gloria Duke

Length: 336 pages

Genres: Romance, Supernatural, Comedy

Publication: Sourcebooks Casablanca [October 4, 2022]

Book Description

Twenty-five year old Lily Baines is used to waking up hungover, overweight, and underemployed. Waking up with fangs? Not so much. But when little light necking has more serious consequences than she ever imagined, Lily’s determined to get to the bottom of it, or die (again) trying.

Tristan hadn’t meant to harm Lily – it’s against vampire law – but now that she’s here, they need to team up to save both their hides. They strike an uneasy truce, fending off other vampires, Lily’s work-rival-turned-slayer, and her mother’s tone-deaf romance and fitness advice… all while Lily faces down her insecurities about the fact that she lives in a diet-obsessed world with a body that will never age, never die, and never change.

Falling for her maddeningly gorgeous sire? Easy. Surviving an ancient vampire Master determined to see her twice-dead? Piece of cake. But can Lily ever learn to love the woman she’ll be forever more?

My Review

Star Rating: 🦇🦇🦇 • 3 / 5 vampire bats

I swear, this whole vampire thing is just one giant kick in the tits after another. Every time I turn around, there’s a new layer of s*** getting piled onto the s*** cake.

This book was fun. That’s really the whole long and short of it, honestly. It was a funny, spicy, Halloween-y read, and relatively light-hearted. I don’t usually read contemporary romance, even when there’s magic stuff going on, and this book kind of reminded me why, unfortunately.(They’re just not my thing, is all.) But I didn’t not like it, so there’s that!

The best part of the book by far was the characters. Our protagonist – Lily Baines 🌺🖋️ – was, in particular, a narrating gem. For the most part. (We’ll get to that.) She’s sassy, funny, and she doesn’t take crap from anyone. But she’s also a nervous, self-conscious, and emotionally vulnerable young woman. A relatively well-rounded character overall, which is what I like to see.

Tristan Newberry 🖋️📖, the love interest, as well as the vampire that sired Lily, is also total eye candy. Or is it word candy, since it’s a book? Whatever, regardless, he was pretty hot, and he had a rather kind personality, if a bit old-fashioned. But don’t worry – Lily sets him straight. I also adored how he absolutely loved Lily, inside and out, though it took her a bit to accept that. Oh, and he also writes romance novels. Sexy!

“Well,” I say – and I can’t believe I’m about to ask this, but here goes: “What did the sparkly vampires do for blood?”

Lily’s friend Cat was also great; she and Lily played off of one another very well, and I loved how they attempted to use Twilight to help Lily figure out her new unlife. The side characters were also decent, though I found them to be pretty underdeveloped.

Annnd, now it’s time for some of the cons…

Okay, so… I didn’t really like some aspects of Lily’s narration. She’d say stuff like “Obvi” a lot, which I’ve never heard someone say aloud, only in like chat messages or shorthand. And the worst part is that she didn’t say it either – because she really didn’t. Oh no, this particularly sucked (no pun intended) because it was on her narration, and like, in her thoughts and stuff. All the time. And it wasn’t just this one non-word, no, she used a lot of Internet speech the same way. And it was pretty friggin annoying.

The other thing that I didn’t like, was that Lily would say that something would happen, and then say something (in the narration, not the dialogue) along the lines of: “Yeah we did this/talked about this, but it was kind of boring and you don’t care, so I’ll give you the Cliff Notes “ Seriously? Show-don’t-tell is one of the cardinal rules of writing, and instead of showing how these characters are interacting and developing through dialogue – ya know, naturally? – you’re just gonna give the scene to us in bullet points?!? What the heck?!

Regarding everything else, it was pretty average. The plot was slightly meh, and the villains and minor characters were soggy pieces of toast. And very stereotypical. Oh, and this is actually another con, but I hate it when the two romantic leads don’t friggin communicate. It’s tasteless, easy, and unnecessary drama.

But yeah, even though I thought this book was mostly average, a lot of the lines of dialogue and the descriptions were really funny. And it was great seeing Lily grow as a character and finally learn to accept and love herself. (Spoilers…?) And Tristan was the (mostly) perfect man, which is always yummy to read about. (Also, he wasn’t abusive like 90% of the other vampires in books! Yay, I guess?) Also, there are a few trigger warnings regarding body image, fatphobia, mental health, and other stuff, so check out all of the TW’s to make sure it’s something okay for you to read.

Anyway, here’s my review for When Life Gives You Vampires. Like I said, it was a fun, easy little romp. If you like contemporary rom-coms with a splash of supernatural, this one’s for you.

Thank you to everyone for tuning in, and have a great day/night! Have you read this book? Did you enjoy it? What are your favorite contemporary romances? Vampire books?

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Shelf Control [Week #1] | ACOWAR

Shelf Control logo from BookshelfFantasies.com (…and ACOWAR too, I guess)

Guys. It’s time…

…for my first Shelf Control!

Shelf Control is an original feature created and hosted by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies.

Shelf Control is a weekly celebration of the unread books on our shelves. Pick a book you own but haven’t read, write a post about it (suggestions: include what it’s about, why you want to read it, and when you got it), and link up! For more info on what Shelf Control is all about, check out this post from BookshelfFantasies.com.

This is my first week participating in it, and I’m very excited! I’ve got a ton of books that I’ve bought, but are still sitting unread on my shelves, months or even years later. And the book that I, Marin Gier, have decided to start off with is… 🥁🥁🥁

A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas (Both its 1st & 2nd edition covers)

Title & Author: A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas

Series: A Court of Thorns and Roses [Book #3]

Length: 736 pages

Publication 1st Edition: Bloomsbury USA Children’s [May 2, 2017]

Publication 2nd Edition: Bloomsbury Publishing [June 2, 2020]

Book Description (ala Goodreads):

Feyre will bring vengeance.

She has left the Night Court – and her High Lord – and is playing a deadly game of deceit. In the Spring Court, Tamlin is making deals with the invading king threatening to bring Prythian to its knees, and Feyre is determined to uncover his plans. But to do so she must weave a web of lies, and one slip may spell doom not only for Feyre, but for her world as well.

As mighty armies grapple for power, Feyre must decide who to trust among the dazzling and lethal High Lords – and hunt for allies in unexpected places.

But while war races, it is her heart that will face the greatest battle.

When I Got It:

November 2017

Why I Wanted to Read It:

I had read the first two – ACOWAR and ACOMAF – each after they had come out and enjoyed them, so I thought I’d do the same with this one.

Why I Haven’t Read It:

I read the first two in November of the years that they were released – despite them both coming out in May, just like this one – and I wanted to recreate the same feeling and atmosphere as when I had read the others.

I ended up getting both busy and distracted, and by the time I finally had time to read it, I just… didn’t. I didn’t feel like reading it at that time for whatever reason, and not just because it’s ginormous. And I guess I still haven’t gotten around to reading it because I kind of fell out of the ACOTAR series after that. I’d still kind of like to read it eventually, though.

Have you read this book? Or any of Sarah J. Maas’ series’? Did you like them or dislike them?

Thanks for tuning in, and have a great day/night!

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Gold Spinners & Ghastly Spirits | Gilded by Marissa Meyer [A Book Review]

“Not every story is willing to reveal itself right away. Some of them are bashful.”

About This Book

Title & Author: Gilded by Marissa Meyer

Series: Gilded Duology

Length: 512 pages

Publication: Feiwel & Friends [November 2, 2021]

Book Description

Long ago, cursed by the god of lies, a poor miller’s daughter has developed a talent for spinning stories that are fantastical and spellbinding and entirely untrue.

Or so everyone believes.

When one of Serilda’s outlandish tales draws the attention of the sinister Erlking and his undead hunters, she finds herself swept away into a grim world where ghouls and phantoms prowl the earth and hollow-eyed ravens track her every move. The king orders Serilda to complete the impossible task of spinning straw into gold, or be killed for telling falsehoods. In her desperation, Serilda unwittingly summons a mysterious boy to her aid. He agrees to help her… for a price. Love isn’t meant to be part of the bargain.

Soon Serilda realizes that there is more than one secret hidden in the castle walls, including an ancient curse that must be broken if she hopes to end the tyranny of the king and his wild hunt forever.

My Review

Star Rating: 🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾 • 5 / 5 bundles of gilded straw (yes I know it’s the wheat emoji. shut up.)

“As I understand,” she said, “gold has caused as many problems as it has ever solved.”

I absolutely adored this book. Marissa Meyer has done it again – she’s written yet another amazing retelling of a classic fairytale.

I’ll admit it: I’ve never actually finished The Lunar Chronicles, though I have read the majority of the series. I loved the sci-fi twist on the magic and such. But I just never had the time to finish reading TLC when I was first reading it. Perhaps I’ll come back to it one day…

Anyway, back to Gilded. I definitely liked it just as much as the TLC books I read, probably ever more so. This time Meyer goes full fantasy with a novel packed full of dark-fairytale creatures, ghosts, curses, and even hellhounds. It’s amazing.

Now if you haven’t guessed by the book’s title, which alludes to gold, this is a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin. It’s very different from the original fairytale, though. Sure it’s got the bare-bones spinning straw into gold deal – along with a couple other things that are spoilers – but Meyer adds so many more subplots and characters that are entirely wonderful and original.

The characters are fantastic in Gilded, as per the usual with Meyer. Serilda 📖 is a great protagonist, and I loved her neverending mischievous streak. She does make a few pretty stupid decisions – that seem to only happen for the plot to continue which I hate – but this is only part one of two in a duology, so it can be forgiven (for now), and chalked up as arrogance.

“I know I’ve barely met you,” he said, his voice fighting not to tremble, “but I can tell that you are worth all the bad luck in the world.”

Gild 💛 , Serilda’s new friend (and possibly more?? 😉), is a total sweetheart. I’m so tired of the “bad boy” archetype that’s so often used in YA – wherein it’s especially popular – and Gild is the furthest thing from that. He’s kind, brave, supportive, and loves to joke around. And his relationship and banter with Serilda are absolutely fantastic. I look forward to more of him in the sequel.

The Erlking is a big ol’ a-hole. I’m sorry, there’s just no other way of putting that. But he’s the villain of the story, so it totally makes sense that he would be. He’s cruel, does whatever he wants, and goes on a magic hunt every full moon to kidnap and kill humans and beasts alike. That’s where all the ghosts in the book come from, see.

The Erlking and Serilda become acquainted during one of those hunts: she saves a couple of forest spirits that he considers his “prey.” She tricks him into sparing her life by convincing him that she can spin straw into gold. This comes back to bite her, however, when he returns on the next moon, expecting her to do just that for him.

Anyway, this book was absolutely fantastic, and a great fairytale retelling. It’s sooo good, and I can’t wait for the sequel that’s coming out.

Have any of you read Gilded? What did you think? Are you excited for the sequel, Cursed?

Anyway, thank you all so much for reading, and have a wonderful day/night!

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(My) Most Anticipated Books Coming Out November 2022

You read the title right. I’m gonna give you guys a little list of the books that are coming out next month that I wanna read. And that’s a hard “I,” by the way. These may not be the most anticipated ones from all of those popular lists, these are the books that look interesting to me personally. So get ready for some fantastical and weird ones, cuz that’s the stuff I like to read.

Also, quick note. November is a good month this year. November 8th? A very good day. A very, very good one. I swear to God, I did not just look just look at which books came out on this day and call it a post. I’m just that lucky, I guess.

#3: Scattered Showers • Rainbow Rowell

Release Date: November 8, 2022

Length: 288 pages

Publisher: Wednesday Books

Excitement Level: 🌈🌈🌈🌈 • 4 / 5 rainbows

Confession time: I haven’t actually finished any of Rowell’s books. The only one that I’ve read any of is Carry On, and I think I got maybe a third of the way through it before I had decided that it was moving too slowly for my liking. (I loved everything else about it! Why, oh why, was it so glacial, though??) But this book is essentially a collection of short stories, and they all look so interesting! I’ll just pretend I’ve read the Simon Snow trilogy when I get to the Simon Snow one.

Book Description:

Rainbow Rowell has won fans all over the world by writing about love and life in a way that feels true.

In her first collection, she gives us nine beautifully crafted love stories. Girl meets boy camping outside a movie theater. Best friends debate the merit of high school dances. A prince romances a troll. A girl romances an imaginary boy. And Simon Snow himself returns for a holiday adventure.

It’s a feast of my irresistible characters, hilarious dialogue, and masterful storytelling – in short, everything you’d expect from a Rainbow Rowell book.

#2: Children of Ragnarok • Cinda Williams Chima

*Children of Ragnarok* by Cinda Williams Chima

Release Date: November 8, 2022

Length: 560 pages

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Excitement Level: 🪖🪖🪖🪖🪖 • 5 / 5 (Viking) helmets

I had absolutely no idea Chima was starting another series, so it was a pleasant surprise to discover when I was looking into what books were coming out soon. And it’s a Viking fantasy to boot!

It’s been a bit since I’ve read anything by Chima, but I absolutely adored the Seven Realms series and the (original three) Heir Chronicles books. (Didn’t enjoy Flamecaster though, so never read the Shattered Realms.) So I’m really looking forward to something new by her.

Book Description:

Ever since Ragnarok – the great war between the gods and the forces of chaos – the human realm of the Midlands has become a dangerous place, bereft of magic, where most lead lives of desperation.

Sixteen-year-old Eiric Halvorsen is among the luckier ones. Between fishing, going vikingr, and working his modir’s farm, the family has remained prosperous. But Eiric stands to lose everything after being convicted by a rigged jury of murdering his modir and stepfadir. Also at risk is his half-sistyr, Liv, whose interest in sedir, or magic, had made her a figure of suspicion. Then a powerful jarl steps in: he will pay the blood price if Eiric will lead a mission to the fabled Temple at the Grove – the rich stronghold of the wyrdspinners, the last practitioners of sorcery.

Spellsinger, musician, and runecaster Reggin Eiklund had spent her life traveling from town to town, performing at alehouses all for the benefit of her master, Asger, the fire demon she is desperate to escape. Then after one performance that amazes even Reggin herself, two wyrdspinners in the audience make her an irresistible offer: return with them to the temple to learn sedir, forever free of Asger.

Eiric, Liv, and Reggin’s journeys all converge in New Jotunheim, the site of the Temple at the Grove, a paradise fueled by magic. They soon realize a great evil lurks beneath the dazzling surface, and they old betrayals and long-held grudges may fuel another cataclysmic war. It will require every gift and weapon at their command to prevent it.

Sweeping adventure, breathtaking twists of fate, and immersive worlds based on Norse mythology are woven into this first volume of the Runestone Saga.

#1: Cursed • Marissa Meyer

Release Date: November 8, 2022

Length: 478 pages

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Excitement Level: 🧵🧵🧵🧵🧵• 5 / 5 spools (of golden straw)

I love, love, love fairytale retellings. And Marissa Meyer is the Queen of fairytale retellings. I loved the Lunar Chronicles, and I loved Gilded even more. This is probably my most anticipated book all of the year.

And yes, this is a sequel – the sequel to Gilded, actually – so if you haven’t read that one, please check it out before reading this one when it comes out.

Book Description:

Be still now, and I will tell you a tale…

Adalheid Castle is in chaos.

Following a shocking turn of events, Serilda finds herself ensnared in a deadly game of make-believe with the Erlking, who is determined to propel her deeper into the castle’s lies. Meanwhile, Serilda is determined to work with Gild to help him solve the mystery of his forgotten name and past.

But soon it becomes clear that the Erlking doesn’t only want to use Serilda to bring back his one true love. He also seeks vengeance against the seven gods who have long trapped the Dark Ones behind the veil. If the Erlking succeeds, it could change the mortal realm forever.

Can Serilda find a way to use her storytelling gifts for good – once and for all? And can Serilda and Gild break the spells that tether their spirits to the castle before the Endless Moon finds them truly cursed?

These are the books releasing this November (and next week, I guess, lol) that I’m most excited for. (I’ve limited myself to three, because I still want to have time to read spontaneously.) Do any of them look up your alley? What books coming out next month are you looking forward to?