YA Fantasy

Smoke Thieves by Sally Green

August 14, 2018 Leave a Comment

400 pages | Viking | YA Fantasy | 05/01/2018

YA fantasy isn’t for me

This is something I’ve thought and said for so long now because when it coms to the big YA fantasies e.g. The Belles, Throne of Glass, The Wrath and The Dawn … they just didn’t 100% work for me.

I guess I felt like a YA Fantasy can easily become predictable; there are always love triangles, secret crushes, rebellions, secret gays, captains of the guard . . . FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WHY IS THERE ALWAYS A CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD ???

So, Smoke Thieves.

This YA Fantasy totally worked for me and I shocked. I think one of the major reasons is because it has an unconventional structure. The book is told from the POV of five different characters in different parts of the world, which I think bolstered the word building and gave depth to the story. There is a fierce princess oppressed by her patriarchal kingdom, a soldier who turns against his crown (okay, so he is a captain of the guard with a secret crush but like…it’s different okay) a young thief who ventures into demon territories to steal demon smoke, a pompous secret heir on a journey home and a young servant taking revenge on the king who sacrificed his people.

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Joint Review: The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton

May 31, 2018 Leave a Comment

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Audiobook Review: The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

March 5, 2018 Leave a Comment

8 hours 39 minutes| Hachette Audio | Fantasy | 1/02/18

Jude and her twin sister Taryn were taken from the mortal world as children by their mother’s vindictive ex-husband and raised within the gentry of the Faerie world, where they have always been seen as outsiders especially by Cardan–youngest prince of Faerie–who delights in torturing them. Jude has had enough of being a victim and is ready to show she deserves a place in the Faerie courts. Her ambition gets her mixed up in a world of espionage, power plays, violence and oh so many plot twists.

I just ate this story up, which is saying something because I am def not the ideal reader for a book like this. I have always struggled with fantasy and have no base for Faerie mythology, but Holly Black draws the world so vividly I was able to put most of it together and quickly learn the rules of Faerie, If you like lush descriptions of fantastical beasts, clothes and greenery this is your book.

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Audiobook Review : Strange The Dreamer by Laini Taylor

January 9, 2018 Leave a Comment

Hachette Audio | Fantasy | 3/28/17

*Trigger Warning : Infanticide, and Sexual Assault

If you read Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bones series and said “I want more GIVE IT TO ME NOW”—well here you go ! In this duology Taylor pits science against imagination and an impossible future against centuries of pain.

Strange The Dreamer is the unusual tale of young librarian Lazlo Strange and how a mysterious city without a name becomes his great adventure. Strange The Dreamer roots itself in many of the same themes from the Smoke and Bone series; there arevividly imagined characters woven out of tragic histories, blinding hope and dreams… .literally on that last one. In a way it’s a love letter to fiction and the power of stories.

Lazlo Strange’s world appears to have a tenuous connection to the world of Smoke and Bone.

Laini Taylor’s imagination is just plain interesting, seriously what goes on in her head? Is it the pink hair? Her brand of YA fantasy is so immersive and her worlds are complicated and beautiful.

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Book Review : The Glass Spare By Lauren DeStefano

December 31, 2017 Leave a Comment

The Glass Spare is a semi-steampunk/ fantasy mash-up that is in many ways a retelling of the King Midas story and in other ways very similar to just about any YA fantasy you might find.

I remember when DeStefano first debuted in 2011, her Chemical Garden series was taboo, dark, creepy and IIRC very popular. DeStefano has been churning out books ever since and I hadn’t really heard much about this one except I know it was featured Owlcrate.

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Audiobook Review: Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake

November 29, 2017 Leave a Comment

Release Date: 09/20/16 | Fantasy| 9 hours 52 minutes

I’m slowly learning fantasy just may not be my genre, I read a couple a year and have always been lukewarm on most of them but this book came through on my holds the same week the sequel hit the bestseller’s list so I decided to check it out.

Now, I do remember this book being talked about during BEA 2016 and Three Dark Crowns is pretty much What You See Is What You Get; Three sisters; Mirabella, Arsinoe and Katharine must kill their sisters in order to take the crown and become Queen of their island nation.

What I wasn’t expecting is just how much of a prequel this book is to that major plot point. For most of the book we follow the sisters, who were separated and raised on separate parts of the island territories, as they prepare for Belltane– the official event that means they can start trying to kill each other. I liked getting backstories on all of the sisters but it was just a lot. We have to learn the customs, magical abilities, culture and a host of side characters for three different areas. It felt like reading three books at once.

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