Traitor's Blade by Sebastien de Castell - non-spoiler review

Hi booklovers

Today I'll be reviewing Traitor's Blade by Sebastien de Castell. This is book 1 in the Greatcoats series.

I first read this book about a year ago, but I never got around to reading book 2, Knight's Shadow. Because I finally want to continue with the series I thought a reread of book 1 might not be a bad idea, so that's what I did. (Apparently, I never got around to writing a review last year either.)

One of the first things I noticed in this book is that it has a lot of humour. I was actually laughing from the very start of this book. That's something I like a lot in books, humour and sarcasm.

This book follows the story of Falcio val Mond, First Cantor of the Greatcoats. The Greatcoats used to be a group of elite soldiers who served the king. However, they have been disbanded after the king was murdered and now they are mockingly called 'tatter-cloaks'. Through the eyes of Falcio we get to see how he and his two best friends try to continue to do the honourable thing and speak justice, but since this is a story full of intrigue and plotting, you can imagine this is easier said than done. We follow the three along their path to more or less restoring the idea of the Greatcoats, but their journey is full of twists and turns.

Another thing I liked in this book is the friendship. The friendship dynamics between Falcio, Brasti and Kest is wonderful. They each have very different personalities; Falcio being the 'brains', Brasti a cocky archer and Kest a level-headed - but extremely good, if not the best - sword-fighter. But they fit very well together. These friendship dynamics remind me of the friendships in The Lies of Locke Lamora.

This book is fast-paced, action-packed and has some incredible fight scenes. And, like I said, it has a lot of humour strewn in, which makes the sometimes dark atmosphere a little 'lighter'. This is a very good example of how humour can help people through even the most horrific events.

Even though this book has only one POV, we get to know the other characters pretty well too. There are some characters I really liked: the dynamic trio, Aline, the Tailor. There were also a few I really disliked (which means that they are written so well that you have to dislike them).

Knight's Shadow will be one of the next books I'm going to pick up, because the revelation at the end has made me very curious to see how the story will continue!

Have you read this book or his Spellinger series? Let me know in the comments.

Bye for now

Annelies

Last Stand by Rachel E. Carter - non-spoiler review

Hi booklovers

This is my spoiler-free review of Last Stand, book four - the final book - in the Black Mage series by Rachel E. Carter. This book was kindly sent to me 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, Apprentice and Candidate. Just click on the title to read my reviews. I read this book for the Of Wonderland Book Club on Goodreads. February's theme was 'badass females'.

Title: Last Stand

Author: Rachel E. Carter

Genre: YA, fantasy

Format: e-book (provided by the author)

*Story:
Darren has become the Black Mage and he's married to Ryiah. What he doesn't know is that Ryiah is going to betray him because she wants to reveal what a villain Blayne really is. We get to see the whole process of Ryiah trying to get to the point where she can reveal who Blayne really is whilst still playing the 'happily' married girl, up until she has to convince Darren she's telling the truth.

*Characters:
-Ryiah: I really loved Ryiah in this story. She has grown so much throughout this series, she has really come into her own. You know bad things are going to happen to her, but still she carries on, despite knowing she'll probably lose everything. Sure, she almost changes her mind a couple of times, but who wouldn't hesitate to carry on in her situation?! Her story is so heartbreaking in this book, I actually cried a couple of times.
 

-Darren: Wow, we really got to see two different sides of him. One is the loving, understanding husband - Ryiah keeps her distance when they are first married - and the other is this coldhearted, blinded-by-the-love-for-his-brother kind of guy. Even though this switch is very sudden it was written in such a good way that it was still believable.
SPOILER:
When he finally does believe Ryiah it goes over maybe a bit too easy, but that's something I'm willing to overlook.
 

-Blayne: I hated him with such a passion. He is actually an even bigger monster than his father! (A very well-written monster, mind you!)
 

-Priscilla: Finally, she showed her true colours and I have some new-found respect for her. She becomes a totally different person, but again, it's written in such a good way that it's believable.
 

*Plot/worldbuilding/overall rating:
As far as the worldbuilding goes, not many new places were introduced, but that's okay, we already know the setting.
I thought the previous book was an emotional rollercoaster, but oh my, that was nothing compared to this book. This one ripped my heart out, broke it into a million pieces and put it back together again.
After I finished reading it, I literally stared at the last page for ten minutes. There were so many feelings I had to process, it was rough.
I'm very glad that Rachel ended up deciding to write an epilogue, because it wrapped things up nicely. Otherwise, I might have been a little annoyed!

I adored this series and I can definitely see it ending up in my top 10 books of 2017.

I want to thank Rachel for giving me the chance to read, review and fall in love with the books.

I give this series an overall rating of 4.5 stars and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who loves to read about kick-ass female characters and a unique magic system.
 

Have you read this book or any of the other books in the series?
 

Bye for now
 

Annelies

Star jar.

Hi booklovers

Today I want to talk about a little project I'm going to start: a star jar.

I got this idea from Sam from Thoughts on Tomes. You should really check out her channel :-) At the beginning of 2015 she made a video in which she talks about making a star jar and I like it so much that I want to try it for myself.

The idea is that you make an origami star for every book you've read. You choose a different colour for each genre and a patterned paper for a five star read. That way you can more or less keep track of how many books you've read, which genre you've read the most from and how many books you rated 5 star. I'm not sure how that will work out for me, because I hardly ever give a book 5 stars. So, I'm going to use a different pattern for my 4.5 star reads as well.

Genres and colours:

• fantasy: purple
• sci-fi/dystopian: yellow
• NA: blue
• contemporary: red
• paranormal: light green

I know NA is not a genre, but I wanted to include it anyway. 

Genres and patterns: 4.5 and 5 stars:

• fantasy: 

• sci-fi/dystopian:

• NA:

• contemporary:

• paranormal:

Fingers crossed that by the end of the year I will have a jar filled with a variety of coloured stars and hopefully there will be some patterned ones too.
 

Thank you, Sam, for such a lovely idea!
 

How do you keep track of the books you've read? Let me know in the comments.
 

Bye for now
 

Annelies
 

P.S.: Here's the link to a YouTube video on how to make the origami stars.