My 2019 4 star reads

Hello booklovers

Very long time no see, it's been almost three months since I last wrote a post. I just haven't felt like posting anything lately... I'm going to give it one more try, I guess and see where it leads me. I want to write more reviews, but they are so time-consuming and school has been really hectic with all the changes there have been.

Anyway, I thought of doing a top 10 of 2019 but when I started looking at my GR list of read books, I had a hard time narrowing it down to 10 books. So, instead of a top 10, I'm going to list my 4, 4.5 and 5 star reads of this year.

These books are in no particular order and they weren't necessarily published in 2019.

*Shadowblack (Spellinslinger #2) by Sebastien de Castell

I reread Spellslinger so I could read this one (even though I'd only read it back in April), because I wasn't totally invested in the story the first time I read it. After having enjoyed it a lot more the second time around I didn't wait very long to read Shadowblack. I really liked this one and I already have book three Charmcaster on hand.

*The Black Prism (Lightbringer #1) and The Broken Eye (Lightbringer #3) by Brent Weeks

I have been meaning to read a Brent Weeks book for a while now. I've had the first book in his Night Angels trilogy on my TBR for years. But I decided to try his Lightbringer series first.
So far, I've read three out of the five books in this series and even though I'm sometimes confused when reading them I'm really enjoying them as well.

*The Alloy of Law (Mistborn #4) and The Bands of Mourning (Mistborn #6) by Brandon Sanderson

I really love the Mistborn Era 1 trilogy and was really curious to read the Era 2 books. They aren't as good as the original trilogy, but I still enjoyed being back in this world. And the humour is again very good. I thought this was a trilogy, but apparently, a fourth book has been announced.

*Malice (The Faithful and the Fallen #1) by John Gwynne

This is another one that I've had on my TBR for ages. I started it a couple of years ago, but I couldn't really get into it (I don't have the audiobook for this one, so it was taking me ages to make any progress) but in August I decided to give it another try. And I'm so happy that I did. I even went and bought the rest of the series after finishing this one. Malice is perfect for fans of the more classic fantasy writing style.

These were all the fantasy books that were 4 star reads.

The other two 4 star reads were an adult dystopian and a New Adult contemporary:

*The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

I watched the first two seasons of the TV-show before reading this so I had some idea of the bleakness of the story being told here, but wow, the book painted an ever bleaker version of that possible future. I'll be picking up The Testaments when it's released in paperback.

*Him by Elle Kennedy and Sarina Bowen

I've read quite a few books by Elle Kennedy, but I hadn't read anything that she co-wrote with Sarina Bowen yet. This is also only the second M/M romance that I've read and I have to admit I liked it a lot. My biggest fear when reading M/M romance is that it will be cringe-worthy, but that's definitely not the case in this story. I'm definitely going to pick up the sequel at some point.

What were some of your 4 star reads this year? Let me know in the comments.

Bye for now

Annelies 

King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence - non-spoiler review

Hi booklovers

Today I bring you my review of book two in the Broken Empire trilogy by Mark Lawrence - King of Thorns. You can find my review for book one here. 

This review might contain spoilers for book 1.

(Read on to see my opinion of this book change - in a positive way - while writing this review. I wrote this review shortly after finishing the book, I just now got around to posting it.)

This is a very hard book to rate. It's been a couple of days since I finished it and immediately after finishing it I rated it 3 stars. But now that I've had some time to let it sink in I'm leaning more towards 4 stars.

Let me start by saying that I enjoyed this book even though at first I found it very confusing as well. It took me nearly 20 chapters to figure out that when a chapter said 'four years earlier' it meant the whole chapter was set in the past. I'm completely blaming this on the fact that English is not my first language and the fact that I was listening to the audiobook. (I'm NOT saying the audiobook was bad, because I love the narrator. Sometimes it's harder to follow a story through the audiobook than when you're physically reading a book.) Anyway, having established this, the fact that the story alternates between the past and the present is something that makes the writing simultaneously interesting and confusing. (Or maybe that's just me *shrugs*)

Most of the book tells us about what happened to Jorg and his band of brothers in the four years that have passed since defeating his uncle. Those are the 'past' chapters and they form one storyline.

The second storyline is called 'Wedding day' and is set in the present time. In these chapters we follow Jorg - who's now 18 - on his wedding day. We quickly find out it's not your ordinary kind of wedding day because they're under attack, which kind of hinders normal wedding day procedures!

We also get a third storyline in the form of Katherines - Jorgs aunt who he has been lusting over ever since meeting her - journal entries. She provides a different perspective on Jorg and what happens with the prince of Arrow.

The past chapters fill us in on what has happened in the four years that have passed. A lot of those things lead up to certain events happening in the present day. It was great to see how all those events came together towards the end of the book.

Even though Jorg is still one of the most morally grey characters I've read about, I can't help but symphathise with him and his cause. He is one of those characters that goes through a ton of growth throughout the stories. In the first book he is this extremely self-centered young boy who's only intent on killing and revenge. In this book he really starts to change, going from being very egotistical to actually thinking about other people. He no longer kills just for killing's sake, he actually stops and thinks about his actions once in a while. This doesn't mean he's no longer a bloody bastard, btw!!

Because everything is centered around Jorg the other characters aren't all that fleshed out. We don't really get their backgrounds. Except for Katherine, who we get to know through her journal entries. She wasn't my favourite character!

The book has some forms of magic, but they aren't overly present troughout the whole story. There's fire magic and necromancy, but we still don't fully know how they work or what the limitations are.

The reason I didn't like it as much as the first book at first because I didn't feel as connected to the characters. I was also missing the sarcasm of the first book. But, you know what, the more I think about it and while writing this review, the more I realise I actually like this story a lot and I'm curious to what will happen in Emperor of Thorns.

Have you read this one or any other book by Lawrence? What did you think of it/them? Let me know in the comments.

Bye for now

Annelies

Malice by John Gwynne - non-spoiler review

Hi booklovers

I've been putting off reading Malice by John Gwynne for the longest time :-s

I first started this book at the end of August 2015 and it took me 1 month shy of four years to pick it back up after putting it down after only a couple of chapters.

The main reasons for not picking this back up sooner were that it is 600+ pages and I couldn't find the audiobook anywhere (Audible only has the Italian versions and Scribd doesn't have anything from this author). So, I was extremely intimidated by it. There are a lot of characters and the first time I picked it up I didn't get to sit down and read for longer periods of time (the beginning of the school year is always a busy time), so I just couldn't get into the story.

During the last couple of months, some of the people I've started talking to on IG told me about how wonderful this series is and how much they enjoyed it and I became intrigued again.

Being on my summer break I thought this would be the perfect time to give it another try.

So, after this long and rambly introduction, let's get to the review (I'm not going to give a synopsis, if you click on the name of the book, you'll go to the Goodreads synopsis):

At first I had to take notes to keep track of all the characters that are introduced. You get different POVs and they also encounter other characters, so it can be a bit confusing and daunting at first. But by the time I got to about chapter 10 I got the hang of it :-) 

I really had to adjust to the fact that I couldn't simply alternate between the audiobook and the physical copy. However, it didn't take very long for the story to really grab me. Sure, this story has some very classical fantasy elements: young boy destined to become 'more', good vs evil (based on angels vs demons), fighting for the throne, betrayal, alliances being formed … but they are executed well.

Because there are a lot of characters I'm not going to go into detail about all of them, but I do want to mention some of my favourite ones or ones that stood out to me:

Corban: His is one of the POVs we get in this story and through him we get to know a lot of other characters as well. At the beginning of the story he is 14 and I liked how we got to see him grow and change from this scared boy into a more courageous youth trying to find his path/place in life. Even in this first book we already find out that there's more to him than meets the eye.

I'm looking forward to seeing his story progress and develop.

Cywen: She's Corbans sister (we also get her POV) and she's a feisty one. She's a bit older than Corban and she hates the fact that girls aren't allowed to fight. So she tries to stand her ground as much as possible by SPOILER (select the text if you want to read the spoiler.) learning how to throw knives from her mother. She becomes extremely good at this, which is proven throughout the story a couple of times.

Edana: She's the daughter of King Brenin and Queen Alona. She doesn't have her own POV, but we get to know her story through Corban and Cywens POVs.

The princess befriends Cywen and Corban. Edana is a very down-to-earth character who doesn't look down her nose at others. I'm looking forward to seeing what else Gwynne has got in store for her.

Veradis: He is the second (I think) son of Lamar, Baron of Ripa. Veradis joins prince Nathairs warband and he quickly becomes his trusted 'bodyguard'. Veradis is sometimes a little naïve and he blindly believes everything Nathair says or does. He would give his life to protect the prince without a second thought.

He has his own POV and through him we get to know prince Nathair: At first this was a character I really liked. He's young, charismatic and he has refreshing ideas about battle and warfare. These ideas often go against what his father - King Aquilus - thinks and believes. But at some point in the story something happens which causes him to change completely and I don't trust him anymore. There's a weird atmosphere about him. (Thinking of him not as a character but as someone real proves what a well-written character he is.)

Gar: He is one of my absolute favourite characters of this first book. He is Corbans fathers stablemaster who is like a second father to Corban and Cywen. He's the one who teaches Corban how to use a sword. As with Corban there is much more than meets the eye with Gar, because we still don't know a whole lot about him.

Brina: She's King Brenins healer. Because of a bet, Corban has a sort of debt to pay and he becomes her 'apprentice'. Damn, this is a cranky old woman, but she's also a very fun character. I don't know who she reminds me of from other fantasy stories, but I like this sort of character a lot.

SPOILER: (about the characters in general) it's best not to get too attached to the characters, because from the first book some of the ones I was rooting for get killed off :-(

There is already some worldbuilding, because we have different kingdoms ruled by different monarchs, but I'm hoping to see a lot more of it in the following books.

Another intriguing aspect of the story is the appearance of giants. They don't play a huge part yet, but they do determine some things already.

I'm very happy that I decided to give it another try and I'll be definitely picking up the next one soon.

Have you read this or any other books in the Faithful and the Fallen series? Let me know in the comments.

Bye for now

Annelies

Air and Ash by Alex Lidell - non-spoiler review.

Hi booklovers

I know everybody and their mother - almost everybody - was eagerly awaiting the release of ACOWAR yesterday, but I want to review a different book that also came out yesterday: Air and Ash by Alex Lidell. I received this e-arc in exchange for an honest review. This will not affect my opinion of the book.

Title: Air and Ash

Author: Alex Lidell

Genre: YA,fantasy

Format: e-arc (provided by the author)

*Story:
Nile Ash - the princess of the kingdom of Ashing - has been at sea since she was 8 years old. But when the ship she was on - the Faithful - sinks she is taken back home. Not content with the next role she has to play she runs off to find a new ship. The only problem is that she will have to start at the bottom of the hierarchy again and work her way up.
 
*Characters:
-Nile Ash: She is one of the few princesses I've read about that actually isn't content with the new role she has to play. But instead of whining about it, she actually takes matters into her own hand. I loved how decisive she could be, while still remaining a young girl as well. Granted, she did make some stupid decisions every so often, but she did so for the good of the ship and the crew. I also liked how she cared about her Gifted brother Clay and about some of the crew abourd the Aurora.
SPOILER:
She is also Gifted and I'm curious to see how her wind-calling will develop.


-Domenic Dana: When we first meet Domenic, he seems to be an ordinary young man who has taken on his father's debt but can't pay it back. But he actually turns out not to be so ordinary SPOILER: because he is the Aurora's first officer. He is a completely different person aboard the ship than he was on the beach when he first met Nile.
I found him to be both intriguing and infuriating at times.
 
-Catsper: He is a Spade officer who trains young men. He has a rough 'exterior' but he's actually a good man who - once you earn his trust - will help you in any way he can. I liked him very much as a character, sometimes even more than Domenic.
 
-Captain Rima: This is one of the most infuriating characters I've ever come across in a book. I wanted to strangle him every time he opened his mouth. He is such a biased man who only thinks about his own profits and saving his own hide.
 
*Plot/worldbuilding/overall rating:
I found this book to be very refreshing. Also, I don't think I've ever read a story set aboard a ship before. I have to admit I found the nautical terms to be a bit confusing at times, but not so much that it hindered my reading.
What I found especially interesting about this story is that woman are allowed aboard a ship and are mostly tolerated and even sometimes appreciated. 

Another very interesting part of the story is the magic system: the ones who can wield magic are called Gifted and are mostly shunned and even conceiled. Where in other sotries magic wielders are either praised or feared, here they are considered as less because their magic causes them harm. Clays has lost his mind since his metal-calling awakened.
SPOILER:
Nile suffers from convulsions and nauseousness. I wonder what else she will suffer from and if she'll ever be able to control her wind-calling.

Since most of the story takes place aboard the Aurora, we don't get much worldbuilding except for the nautical terms.

Like I said, I really enjoyed how Nile doesn't meekly follow what her family has planned for her but she tries to stand her ground and follow her own path in life.
SPOILER:
Even though we know from the first time we meet Domenic that he'll become Nile's love interest, I like how it's a slow burning love. Admittedly, sometimes it's infuriatingly slow and I wanted to kick their butts so they would get together already. I know it's against navy policy, but it's going to happen anyway!!

I really liked this book and the cliffhanger ending - Alex Lidell sure knows how to write a cliffhanger ending! - has made me very eager for book two.

If you like a kick-ass female character that doesn't whine about the cards that she is dealt with, a brooding male character and a slow burning romance, you should definitely pick this book up.

Bye for now

Annelies

Prodigy by Marie Lu - non-spoiler review.

Hi booklovers

After finishing and really enjoying Legend (click on the title to read my non-spoiler review), I decided to pick up Prodigy and Champion from Fnac when they were having a 'buy 3 books, pay for 2' sale - the third book was Passenger. (I read this book in October 2016, I know, I'm so behind on posting reviews :-$)

Beware this will contain spoilers for Legend.

Title: Prodigy

Author: Marie Lu

Genre: YA, sci-fi, dystopia

Format: paperback

*Story:

The story of Prodigy picks up where Legend left off. June helped Day escape and now they are on their way to meet up with the Patriots. We follow their journey to the Patriots and everything that happens when and after they find them.

*Characters:

-Day: I liked Day even more in this story, he seems so much more human. He goes through a lot of changes and he even needs to start trusting people he always considered to be enemies.

-June: Opposite to Day, I liked June a bit less in this book. To me, she seemed, not really whiny, but still not the strong girl she was in Legend. True, she has to sacrifice a lot, but still.

-Tess: I liked that we got to see more of Tess in this book. I thought she was a very strong character. Day still feels the need to protect her, even though she is more than capable of taking care of herself.

SPOILER:

I really felt for her when her feelings for Day remained unrequited.

-Kaede: Another character I was glad to see more of. I like how honest she is in admitting that at first she worked with the Patriots just for the money.

-Razor: I never quite fathomed that character.

-Anden: He is the new Elector who came to power after the death of his father. He is a figure rising to power, struggling to be different from his father, but most of all he's a young man dealing with a whole lot of emotions.

*Plot/worldbuilding/overall rating:

Because the story doesn't solely take place in the Republic, it was nice to see the worldbuilding of the Colonies and the underground tunnels too.

I enjoyed this book, but it's wasn't until the last part that it really grabbed my attention and it became a 4 star read.

SPOILER:

One thing I didn't like was the love triangle or even the love square. This has become so cliché and I know it's part of the story, but I still didn't like it. That's why I was leaning towards 3.5 stars. The square becomes a triangle again when Tess decides to stay with the Patriots.

What really got to me was how in the end Day discovers that he is dying. When he says goodbye to June, my heart got ripped out of my chest.

Because of the cliffhanger ending I was really, really happy that I could immediately pick up Champion.

Have you read this book? Did you like/dislike it?

Bye for now

Annelies

Graphic novels - mini-reviews (non-spoiler).

Hi booklovers

A while ago a colleague let me borrow some graphic novels that he really enjoyed. The only graphic novel I had read so far were Fables, Locke & Key and Saga, so I thought it would be nice to discover some new ones.
 

These were the graphic novels he lent me:
 

-Y, The Last Man: Unmanned.
-Transmetropolitan: Back on the Street.
-The Boys: The Name of The Game.
-Scalped: Indian Country.

The only one of these I had ever heard about was 'Y, the Last Man', so I was immediately intrigued by that one - although it still took me a couple of months to finally pick it up :-$

These last couple of weeks, I finally felt like reading them and I even read them back to back and now I'll do a mini-review for each one.

The order in which I'm reviewing them is the order in which I read them:

*Y, The Last Man

I found the concept of all the male species - save two - dropping dead for no apparent reason really 'refreshing'. Throughout this first volume we don't really get an answer as to why Yorick & Ampersand - his male monkey companion - survived, but I'm guessing that will be explained in later volumes. Some of the women in this graphic novel are very weird - yes, Amazones, I'm talking about you - but I'm curious to see if they'll succeed in their plan to get rid of the last two males on earth.
I found this to be a very cool concept and I really liked the drawings. I'll definitely be continuing with the series. I might even start collecting them.

*Transmetropolitan

My colleague 'warned' me that the other three graphic novels were more 'guy-orientated' and this one is definitely a lot more 'graphic'. The drawings in this one were completely different, much more ellaborate and bombastic. The colours were a lot more vibrant, so it took me some time to adjust to that. The story was all kinds of weird. Don't get me wrong, I liked it, but it was unlike anything I had ever read before. That being said, the ending of the first volume left me really curious and I'll also be continuing with the series.

*The Boys:

 

The drawings in this one reminded me very much of the drawings in Locke & Key and I really like those, so I didn't have any problems getting into this one. Again, the story is all kinds of weird with all these superheroes that have gone wild, but there is also a lot of humour in it. I was only on page 6 when I started laughing out loud, which is very weird when you're on a train. The different characters have their own unique personalities and they 'complement' each other very well. Oh and I love Terror the dog :-) Also, be warned that this one is very 'graphic' as well. Out of the four I liked this one the best and I'll definitely be continuing with the series and probably start collecting them. 

*Scalped

I couldn't - for the life of me - get into this one, mainly because of the drawings. I don't know what it was, but they felt off to me. I started it twice and both times I gave up after a page and a half, even though my colleague said the story was very good. I won't be rating this since I never finished it. Needless to say I won't be continuing with the series.

All in all, I think this was a successfull introduction to some new graphic novels.
 

Have you read any of these or other graphic novels. Which ones would you recommend?
 

Bye for now
 

Annelies

Apprentice by Rachel E. Carter - Non-spoiler review.

Hi booklovers

This is my spoiler-free review of Apprentice - book two in the Black Mage series by Rachel E. Carter. This book was kindly sent to my by the author - I'm a part of her review team - in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book.

This will contain spoilers for First Year. You can find my review of First Year here. I read this book for the Of Wonderland Book Club on Goodreads. February's theme is 'badass females'.

Title: Apprentice

Author: Rachel E. Carter

Genre: YA, fantasy

Format: e-book (provided by the author)

*Story:
Ryiah has been chosen as the 6th Combat mage apprentice. In this book we go through her training from year 1 'till year 4 (their 2nd 'till 5th year at the Academy). In this book we mainly focus on the training, the mock battles and the relationships.
There is a lot of action but also travelling from training place to training place and of course there's love.

*Characters:
-Ryiah: In the prequel novella and the first book I wanted to strangle Darren for being so arrogant, but in this book it was Ryiah's turn to be strangled. I got so frustrated with her at times. She was so indecisive when it came to her love interests: hot - cold - hot - cold.
SPOILER:
I liked the fact that there wasn't a love triangle in the first book, so I was a bit disappointed that there was one in this book.
What I did really like about Ryiah was how she fought for everything she was worth, she didn't take anything for granted. She became an even stronger person when it came to her mage training, but she remained so fickle towards her love interests. It annoyed the hell out of me.
 
-Darren: What can I say about Darren? He continues to be his charming, pleasant self. In other words: I still wanted to smack him on the head on several occasions. We do get to see more of his personal/emotional side, though, but I still didn't like some of his decisions and actions! Although his stupid behaviour was explained in the end, in didn't redeem everything he did.
 
-Alex: This is a sidecharacter that goes through so many changes and so much growth, I really liked that. (Even though he acted like such a dick sometimes.) I loved how concerned he was about Ryiah and Ella.
SPOILER:
I wanted to strangle him for what he did to Ella, but I'm glad they got together at last.
 
-Ella: Another wonderful sidecharacter that really comes into her own. She is strong-minded and determined to succeed in her training. I really enjoyed her interaction with Ryiah. They still bring out the best in each other.

-Priscilla: She is still such an unbelievably big bitch, but at least she's an honest bitch even though she's very selfish.

-Blayne: I never thought he would be so much like his father, but he is. In fact, I think he's even worse than his father. I do not like him at all, he's such a spoiled brat and a monster.

-Ian: He's a nice addition to the set of charachters, he was funny, nice, sweet, cute :-) I felt so sorry for him when Ryiah did what she did to him.
SPOILER:
As I said, I didn't like the love triangle. Granted, most of the time we think that Darren doesn't want Ryiah anymore, but it was still a low thing of her to do.
 
-Derrick: I loved Ryiah and Alex' little brother. He was so witty and he really knew what he wanted. I hope we'll get to see more of him in book 3.
 
*Plot:
This book is again a bit heavy on the fighting and training, but that is of course still very much a part of their routines. The pacing of this story is different from the first book in the sense that we go through four years in one book. We get a lot more worldbuilding in this book since the apprentices move from place to place during their training.

I also very much enjoyed the further development of the magic system. In this book we are introduced to weather casting, a type of magic where you have to draw from a very powerful emotion to be able to cast lightning. I think this is such a cool concept. 
I also like that their magic isn't limitless. The mages have to build their stamina or their casting doesn't last very long.
 
I really enjoyed this book, but I couldn't give it a full five stars because Ryiah got on my nerves so many times with her indecisiveness it wasn't funny anymore. But I still gave it a solid 4 stars.

I'm currently reading and enjoying book three: Candidate.

Have you read this book or the previous one? Let me know in the comments.
 
Bye for now.
 
Annelies

Non-Heir by Rachel E. Carter - non-spoiler review

Hi booklovers

A couple of weeks ago I signed up for Rachel E. Carter's newsletter and I got the prequel novella to her Black Mage series for free. This doesn't affect my opinion of the story.

I read this book for the Of Wonderland book club on Goodreads.

Before I start I want to say this: I think this is the first time I've rated a novella so high :-)

Title: Non-Heir

Author: Rachel E. Carter

Genre: YA, fantasy

Format: e-novella (free)

*Story:

We follow the young prince Darren during his childhood and teenage years while growing up as the non-heir to the throne. Being three years younger than his brother Blayne and the second son has always made him stand in his brother's shadow. We get to see Darren growing up, his training and him trying to stand up to his father.

*Characters:

-Darren: He's used to being regarded as less than his brother which makes him determined to be the best at everything training he gets. It also makes him want to stand up to his father, which usually doesn't end well. We get to see Darren grow - both literally and figuratively speaking - throughout this novella, but we also get to see him become extremely cocky and arrogant. Okay, I can kind of understand why he's acting like that, but I hope that this won't influence my reading experience of 'First Year', because by the end of 'Non-Heir' I was ready to smack him on the head - multiple times!!

-Blayne: I didn't really care for him, but maybe that's because we don't get to see that much of him. And the things we do get to see, aren't very positive. Being the heir puts all the attention and responibility on him, but that doesn't mean that he has to be so cold-hearted and cruel.

-The king: What a cruel man. Darren refers to him as 'the monster' and he's not wrong. Some of the things that he did to his sons were so brutal, both physically and mentally, they made me queasy.

-Eve: I really like her, she is feisty, strong - both in body and mind - and she wears her heart on her sleeve.

SPOILER:
I'm usually not a big fan of the LGBT side character, because that character is sometimes put in the story for the sole purpose of having such a character. But in this case I think her being a lesbian prevents the oh so typical YA trope of the love triangle from happening, so that's good.

-Ella: We don't get to see a lot of her yet, but I have a feeling that might change in 'First Year' and I'm looking forward to it.

SPOILER:
Since she is the girl Darren might have fallen in love with if his brother hadn't interfered, I'm hoping this won't become a love triangle with Ryiah. Although, judging on how she loathes Darren because of what Blayne did, I'm hoping it won't.

-Ryiah: She is a lowborn girl that Darren meets on his way to the Academy. Being the arrogant prick that he is by the time they meet eachother, he instantly despises her, but like Eve Ryiah is strong-minded and she isn't intimidated by the fact that he is a prince.

-Priscilla: Urgh, she is such an arrogant girl, only thinking about herself and how to please her father. That being said, I liked how once it was clear that she didn't really want Darren - she was only doing what her father wanted - she seemed more honest.

*Overall rating:

I usually don't rate novella's this high, because although they are usually a nice addition to the story, it always feels like they are lacking. But not this one. I really liked that we got an insight into Darren's childhood / teen years and that the story in the first book moves on from there. Maybe that's why I liked it so much: it builds up to the first story so the things that started in the novella will (hopefully) be continued in First Year.

One thing I'm scared of is that my opinion of Darren will affect my further reading, because he is so arrogant and I'm not sure I like that. Oh well, we'll see when I start First Year. (I just read a comment from the author herself saying she wrote this novella partly to explain why Darren is such an ass, so maybe it won't affect my reading :-) )

The writing is easy to get into and the story is fast-paced.

Lastly: take a look at the cover: it is stunning!!

Have you read this novella or any of the other books in the series? Let me know in the comments.

Bye for now

Annelies

Legend by Marie Lu - non-spoiler review.

Hi booklovers

At the beginning of September I did the 'Try a chapter tag' and the book I started reading because of that was Legend by Marie Lu. I'm finally getting around to posting my non-spoiler review.

Title: Legend
Author: Marie Lu
Genre: YA, dystopia
Format: paperback

*Story:
Day is Los Angeles' most wanted criminal. He's been taunting the Republic for a number of years now. Together with his friend Tess he roams the streets of L.A.
June is the Republic's best military student and she is destined for great things within the military. When June's brother Metias is killed, every finger points to Day and June starts to hunt him down. However, she soon discovers that not everything is what it seems.

*Characters:
-Day: He's a 15 year old boy who pretends to be dead in order to protect his family. He tries to boycott the Republic whenever he can.
Day is the kind of characters that immediately speaks to you. You feel for his situation and you sympathise with everything he does.

-June: Also 15 years old, June, at first, seems the complete opposite of Day. She firmly believes everything the Republic says or does. She regards the Colonies as the enemy. Her future has been planned out for her: she will graduate ahead of time and go on to a brilliant career in the military, just like her brother. But then her brother gets killed and her sole purpose becomes finding her brother's killer. I found June to be an intriguing character. She goes through some character development, going from believing everything the Republic tells her to questioning everything she knows.

*Plot:
This story has a typical dystopia-feel to it: the lay-out of the world has been changed completely because of several wars and conflicts, the 'good guys' vs the 'rebels', people being oppressed vs those in control, the oppressed trying to take control... It has been a while since I read a dystopian story, so I really enjoyed it. Sure, there are some typical dystopian elements that could be considered as tropes, but I found the different aspects of the society to be well explained. Also, the whole plague storyline was well executed.

*Overall rating:
Like I said in the beginning, Legend was the book that stood out to me after doing the 'Try a chapter' tag and it didn't disappoint. I have already read the sequels and the novella - reviews to come.

Have you read this book? Did you like it? Let me know in the comments.

Bye for now

Annelies

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard - (mostly) spoiler free review.

Hi booklovers

Today I'm going to review Red Queen, which I read in February.

Title: Red Queen
Author: Victoria Aveyard
Genre: YA, fantasy, dystopia
Format: Paperback
 

*Story:
Imagine living in a world where people are divided by the colour of their blood: Silver if you're high class, Red if you're low class.
The Silverbloods - Silvers - have different powers, the Redbloods - Reds - are the impoverished, working class.
Meet Mare, a Red girl with deadly powers. Once the Silvers discover that Mare has special powers, the royal family wants to convince the Silvers that she is one of them.
 

*Characters:
-Mare: a feisty Red about to be conscripted to go to war. She meets prince Cal - although she doesn't know he's the crown prince when they meet. Cal gets her a job as a serving girl in the palace. There, her powers manifest themselves and from there on the story unfolds.
I really like Mare as a charachter because she is a strong character. She tries to deal with all the stuff life has thrown at her. Even in her new situation she tries to fit in, even if it isn't in a way the Silvers - i.e. the Queen - want her to fit in.
 

-Prince Cal: he's the crown prince who is forced to choose his future queen during the Queen's Trial. Even though he doesn't like it, he still thinks this is what's best for his country. Cal is a very strategic person who wants to be a just leader one day. It quickly becomes apparent that he's falling in love with Mare. At one point I thought some of his actions might be a bit predictable, but it turned out I was mistaken.

-Prince Maven: he is the second son, born of the king and his second wife - and current queen. Being the second son, he doesn't have the same responsibilities as Cal, but on the other hand, he's also has the feeling he's being overlooked more often than not. I immediately felt sorry for him, because it seemed like he was destined for a life in his brother's shadows. But then stuff goes down and my whole opinion of him changed.

-Kilorn: He's Mare's lifelong friend. He was an apprentice to a fisherman, but when his mentor died, he was goint to be conscripted. He doesn't really know how he feels about Mare's new life, he's not really fond of Cal or any other Silver.

-Julian: He's Mare's teacher in the palace. He is one of the few people who actually knows that Mare is a Red with Silver powers. Julian is an interesting side-character who tries to keep Mare vigilant. He's constantly reminding her that 'Anyone can betray you'. He wants her to remain herself. He knows firsthand how vicious and deceitful Silvers and more specifically the Queen can be, so he wants Mare to understand that everything is done for a reason and that no one can be trusted.

*Plot:
The distinction between the Silvers and Reds was maybe not very original, but still well excecuted. Sure, it might have been a bit of a cliché, but I still liked the storyline very much. I have to admit that at one point I feared it might become predictable, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that wasn't the case. I know a lot of people saw the plot twist coming, but I didn't.
SPOILER:
The love triangle - or even love square - was tropy and it almost made me roll my eyes. But because prince Maven turns out to be this incredible douchebag, this is somewhat countered.
 

*World building:
The contrast between the cities of the Silvers and the slumps of the Reds is very well described. Again, this may be a bit of a cliché, but isn't this the case with most dystopian stories? I found myself transported into the world very quicly.
SPOILER:
I liked how the revolution was portrayed and how the contrast between the Silvers and Reds becomes more and more apparent as the story progresses.
 
*Overall rating:
I really enjoyed this book. Despite some clichés, the story did grip me really fast and I was very curious to see how the plot would unfold further - I have since read Cruel Crown and Glass Sword.

I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads.

Have you read this book and if so, what did you think of it? Let me know in the comments.

Bye for now

Annelies