Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo Review

Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co

Length: 432 pgs

Series: The Grisha #2

Format: Hardcover, checked out from local library

Goodreads Synopsis:

Darkness never dies.

Hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Fold, Alina must try to make a life with Mal in an unfamiliar land. She finds starting new is not easy while keeping her identity as the Sun Summoner a secret. She can’t outrun her past or her destiny for long.

The Darkling has emerged from the Shadow Fold with a terrifying new power and a dangerous plan that will test the very boundaries of the natural world. With the help of a notorious privateer, Alina returns to the country she abandoned, determined to fight the forces gathering against Ravka. But as her power grows, Alina slips deeper into the Darkling’s game of forbidden magic, and farther away from Mal. Somehow, she will have to choose between her country, her power, and the love she always thought would guide her–or risk losing everything to the oncoming storm.

My Review:

I am so, so glad that I gave this book a chance, because it far outshone its rather mediocre predecessor.

You know that feeling after you read a book when you just want to curl up into a ball and sob because the ending winds your nerves so tight and them snaps them beyond repair?

Or when you literally cannot think about anything else because you’re still stuck in that post-book daze? (Or book hangover, as I like to call it)

All of the above describe how I felt (and still feel) after finishing Siege and Storm a few hours ago. I could barely even focus on my pizookie at BJ’s because a part of me couldn’t stop thinking about it.

I hardly know where to begin.

First and foremost, Bardugo really enhances her character development skills in this book. While Alina still has moments when she bothers me (you are in the middle of a war and the head of an army, can you please stop being so self conscious about Zoya?) she starts to really come into her power and authority in this book (despite Mal’s best attempts to try and stop her). Her relationship with the Darkling is a complex as ever, which I enjoy, because it makes her character grapple with the shades of grey between right and wrong, good and evil, and see both sides of a civil war. And Sturmhond. He was utterly fantastic, not just because of his witty dialogue and inherent likability, but because he is the most complex character in the series and his depth and ever-changing motives make him a pleasure to read for an advanced reader. And the plot twist centered around him that is revealed early on in the book took me completely by surprise, which I was glad for as many of the plot twists in the first book were somewhat predictable.

I was also impressed by Bardugo’s pre-planning of themes in the first book to be carried out throughout the series, such as with the amplifiers. And finally, finally this book became filled with the heavy political intrigue, civil war, and religious complexity that I knew the foundations of the fantasy world of Ravka were capable of. Gone is the feeling of the boarding-school drama, and instead is a look at political unrest, the abuse and neglect of the upper classes, the fanaticism centering martyrdom, and a discussion about what is Small Science vs. what is magic. I loved seeing the idea of Grisha who existed outside of the traditional system, who rejected the notion of being puppets in a larger political system. I loved the acknowledgement of Alina that some of the Darkling’s motivations were understandable, such as an overthrow of the Monarchy to end the oppression and slavery of the Grisha of being born with special abilities. I loved that Bardugo left little hints in the first book that turned into huge plot points in the second. And I love that the casualties and betrayals at the end were enough to leave me clutching my heart because it means that the author managed to construct characters that I cared about (for the most part anyways).

Yet while this book was a huge step up from the first one, it was not a five-star read because there were still elements that nagged and annoyed me as reader and interrupted the smooth and quick pace of the rest of the story. Let’s deconstruct Mal for a moment. Mal and Alina have no chemistry. All of their interactions are lackluster, and many are petty. He doesn’t treat her very well, and doesn’t accept her for what she is, and instead of rising for the challenge and fighting for her all he does is whine about how he doesn’t fit in at the Little Palace and he wishes she would turn her back on life as a Grisha. If Bardugo was trying to construct a believable love triangle, or love rectangle for that matter, it has fallen flat on its face, as I find redemption for the Black Heretic more likely than ever seeing any chemistry between Mal and Alina. In fact, the more Mal whines the more I see reasons for the Sun Summoner and the Darkling to be better lovers and co-rulers, for their powers are mirrors of each other, and her draw to him is a part of her life as a Grisha, despite Mal constantly trying to shame her for it. Like calls to like.

There is still more I’d like to see from this series. More explanation of the Small Science. More background on the Darkling. More agency and activism by Alina instead of her constant worrying over upsetting Mal. With the dramatic end of Siege and Storm I believe Bardugo will answer many of these concerns in the next installment, Ruin and Rising. So while I anxiously await the next three months for the final installment, I leave you with these parting words from the book’s epilogue to encourage you to read a series that has shown growth and ends with promise:
For the living and the dead, she would make herself a reckoning.

She would rise.

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo Review

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co

Length: 358 pgs

Series: The Grisha #1

Format: Hardcover, checked out from local library

Goodreads Synopsis

The Shadow Fold, a swathe of impenetrable darkness, crawling with monsters that feast on human flesh, is slowly destroying the once-great nation of Ravka.

Alina, a pale, lonely orphan, discovers a unique power that thrusts her into the lavish world of the kingdom’s magical elite—the Grisha. Could she be the key to unravelling the dark fabric of the Shadow Fold and setting Ravka free?

The Darkling, a creature of seductive charm and terrifying power, leader of the Grisha. If Alina is to fulfill her destiny, she must discover how to unlock her gift and face up to her dangerous attraction to him.

But what of Mal, Alina’s childhood best friend? As Alina contemplates her dazzling new future, why can’t she ever quite forget him?

Glorious. Epic. Irresistible. Romance.

My Review

I had a lot of expectations for this book. I had seen it heavily advertised in bookstores, glimpsed rave reviews online, and it was always starting at me from an end cap of an aisle. I was nearly attacked by a diner at Chipotle this week because she was so excited to see me reading the series. I finally happened across it at my local library last week and decided to give it a chance, which was hardly difficult to do based on its gorgeous cover.

Ah, and there’s the catch. There’s a reason for the phrase “Never judge a book by it’s cover.”

Not to say it was all bad. The concept is truly fascinating- a “secondary” army of soldiers who can manipulate the elements, materials, and even the human body, who are feared and repressed and kept as pets by their foolish king, who crave a higher status for their abilities. This army, the Grisha, had a fascinating premise- from their unique class structure to the idea that one becomes ill and frail from repressing their power, and stronger and more beautiful by using it- I was enchanted by their foundations, but their execution left me disappointed. What could have been a fantasy world steeped in critical political upheaval, class repression, and issues of identity turned into a thinly veiled boarding-school type drama with mediocre plot revelations and lackluster twists.

Yet I was intrigued by Bardugo’s use of color. The Grisha are color coded by rank and ability, and outliers are marked by their uniquely colored keftas. Servants (and servant Grisha’s, such as Genya) wear white, while black is the color of power and status. Alina, the main character, makes several political choices based upon the colors she wears, and its interesting that the cover of the books use minimal colors while the characters of the books are so dependent upon them.

Alina. Oh dear. There’s really not much to say. She doesn’t stand apart from the typical first-person-YA-underpriveledged-average-looking-slightly-whiny-easily-influenced-female protagonist. I find her circumstances and her powers interesting, but if it weren’t for other peripheral characters who interact with her I don’t know if I would have cared about the story. I loved Genya, and her situation is darkly hinted at throughout the book, and could serve as an interesting commentary on the gender mistreatment of female courtiers and servants. The Darkling proved to be my absolute favorite, though I was disappointed in his character arc, and feel as though he went from a complex character to an oversimplified one in a matter of a few chapters for the sake of a plot device. I sincerely hope that in the rest of the series his character’s background and motives are fleshed out, and not sacrificed for the sake of antagonism.

As I mentioned before, the world of Ravka (which is supposedly loosely based on Russian culture despite the supposed lack of research many other reviews cite) has a lot of potential to be a rich and multi-layered fantasy world with a fascinating mythology, but Bardugo merely scratches the surface on explanations, and leaves readers with more questions about the world than answers: What role does religion play among the Grisha? Is magic (or the “small science,” as what Grisha can do is manipulate matter) a separate entity than religion, yet there is a Grisha saint? How are some Grisha human amplifiers? Why does the Darkling play a special role when there are/have been other Etherealki who can manipulate darkness? Do Genya’s powers always fade, or can they be permanent. Can anything be made into an amplifier as long as a Grisha kills it? Why is Ravka at war with the Shu Han and the Fjerden’s? Do Grisha exist outside of Ravka?

Though there were flaws throughout the novel, I found it to be an easy and engaging read, and have already picked up the second. If you can overlook a rather shallow main character, plot revelations that don’t always make sense, and more telling than showing in the writing style, Shadow and Bone can be appreciated for what it is- another fun, fantasy world amongst YA literature that doesn’t necessarily stand out.

Texas Gothic by Rosemary Clement-Moore Review

Texas Gothic by Rosemary Clement-Moore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Length: 416 pgs

Series: Goodnight Family #1

Format: Hardcover, borrowed from my local library

Goodreads Synopsis:

Amy Goodnight knows that the world isn’t as simple as it seems—she grew up surrounded by household spells and benevolent ghosts. But she also understands that “normal” doesn’t mix with magic, and she’s worked hard to build a wall between the two worlds. Not only to protect any hope of ever having a normal life.

Ranch-sitting for her aunt in Texas should be exactly that. Good old ordinary, uneventful hard work. Only, Amy and her sister, Phin, aren’t alone. There’s someone in the house with them—and it’s not the living, breathing, amazingly hot cowboy from the ranch next door.

It’s a ghost, and it’s more powerful than the Goodnights and all their protective spells combined. It wants something from Amy, and none of her carefully built defenses can hold it back.

This is the summer when the wall between Amy’s worlds is going to come crashing down.

It’s official: Rosemary Clement-Moore is an unsung hero of YA literature. This is the second book of hers that I’ve read in the past year or so and I’m hooked. I just want to follow her around and beg her for more, more about the Goodnights, more about magic, more about Amy and Ben. I’d even settle for hearing more about those infuriating goats that wouldn’t stay out of the trees. Texas Gothic gets five stars because it made me laugh out loud, it made me cheer for the characters, and it was fun. The perfect read to get away from the mundane of everyday life.

Ten Reasons Why You Should Be Reading Texas Gothic RIGHT NOW:

1.Atmosphere. Clement Moore is gifted at creating locations so vivid that the reader can’t help but feel as if they’re standing right behind the characters in a tiny ranch town in Texas. Earlier I read The Splendor Falls and Clement-Moore has such a gift for creating such beautiful novels that really seem to capture the essence of the South, whether it be the culture of the townsfolk, the geography of the rolling plans and fields, or the eerie forests and caves the characters often find themselves in. I’ve never been to the South, but through Celement-Moore’s novels I have been, and it’s a place that’s so beautiful I have to trouble believing magic thrives there.

2.Good ‘ol Fashioned Mystery. I grew up on Harry Potter and Nancy Drew and Clement-Moore manages to capture the purity of mystery those series both have- a whodunnit? vibe that’s fun and keeps the pages turning. There’s good old fashioned sleuthing, tons of trespassing, and a lot of knocking-out and kidnap. Just like Nancy, Amy serves as a protagonist that becomes way too entrenched in a mystery to let it go, and as a reader I found myself turning the pages late into the night every time a new clue came up. Even though the plot may have been a bit predictable, the journey through the story was so much fun that it didn’t really bother me.

3.Witches!Back before the paranormal craze took off, it was witches running the show when it came to spooks and fantasy, rather than the plethora of vampires, werewolves, etc. Paranormal in Texas Gothic is that of the traditional witches and ghosts variety, which plenty of hauntings, omens (the “heebie-jeebies”, which serve as a sort of family-emergency intuition system), and potions (Goodnight “Clear Your Head” Shampoo literally does just that). I wish the book would have introduced us to more of the Goodnights and their “kitchen magic,” and as much as I sympathized with Amy’s desire to keep her family out of scrutiny and ridicule, it was refreshing to see how unashamed they were of their magic.

4.The Goodnights. Amy’s family was charming (ha-ha, unintentional pun). The whole premise of her family, that they use their powers to market products to the rest of the world, such as Aunt Hyacinth’s lotions and soaps and Phin’s crazy gadgets that aid her paranormal research. It was fun to see science, anthropology, and magic merged into one, and I liked the idea that paranormal research can be academic. Amy’s family may come across as exasperating from her POV, but personally each one is captivating in their own quirky way, from Phin’s extreme literalism and explosions to Daisy’s omnipotence and ironic goth clothing. Also, the fact that each of the members of the family have their own specific magical affinity? So good.

5.Mild Creeps. I’m definitely more in the faint-of-heart category when it comes to horror. I can count the number of horror movies I’ve seen on one hand, and they’ve been pretty tame. I do better with scary books, but not by much, but I won’t admit that sometimes there’s something fun about being scared (but am I the only one who was equally horrified and intrigued by La Llorona? I want to know more). And Clement-Moore does a great job creating a spooky atmosphere in the novel that’s just enough to set you on a bit of an edge while reading without being unable to read it alone at night (which is usually when I did). Texas Gothic was actually less creepy than The Splendor Falls which actually made it hard for me to sleep for a couple of nights…regardless, the book has enough fantastical elements that you want to be ghost-hunting right along with the gang, and it’s hard to be a skeptic when there’s so much enthusiasm from the characters.

6.The Romance. Ok, so I’m probably a tad bit older than the intended age group for this kind of romance, but I just really loved the realism of it- Amy goes through the ups and downs of trying to deal with teenage hormones and hot and cold boys in a way that’s so frustrating it has to be true. And Ben. Maybe it was just the southern manners and charm, but I just loved his character. He was so down to earth, irritatingly practical, and had real person worries, rather than the paranormal love interest who’s so unrealistic but happens to fall for the completely normal girl somehow trend going on in YA fiction. Though there’s a lot of bickering throughout the book, and a lot of unfair prejudices and emotional barriers that have to be taken down, there’s a lot of chemistry and a resolution at the end of the book that’s not neat and precise- it’s meaningful and messy, just like real relationships are.

7.The Peripheral Characters. Clement-Moore did a fantastic job fleshing out even the characters who only appeared in a few scenes without making the book to cluttered. The dig team was hilarious and you learn just enough about each member to a)remember who they are, b)care about them, and c)feel as though you’re right there along with them at the dig site or the hitching post. And who doesn’t like Mark, the totally normal grad student who takes the Goodnight way of life in stride, being a nice juxtaposition to all of the rest of the skeptics in town. See, normal people can totally believe in magic too.

8.College Kids I’ve noticed others mentioning that this book is unique in that the cast of characters are all in undergrad or grad school, a nice change from the usual high schoolers that appear in YA novels. As a college student myself, I often feel trapped in that limbo where my age group isn’t often represented in literature, falling into the awkward category between the adult section and the YA teen section (leaving you feeling super awkward in the library when all the teenyboppers are glaring at you like you’re a freak from behind their headphones while they watch Youtube videos instead of read and the adults glare at you as if you’re a nuisance in the regular fiction section from behind their newspapers). I think the YA genre has a great potential for a broader base of college characters- in fact, it could be a brand new genre of its own accord!

9.A Normal Protagonist. Ok, so Amy’s a witch, so she’s technically not “normal,” but she’s believable- she’s not built like a supermodel, she doesn’t always have the perfect witty response at the tip of her tongue, she’s not overly clumsy, and she acknowledges her lust as what it is, and not life-alterting-love-at-first-sight. She gets sunburns and scrapes, isn’t always camera ready and is stressed out about dealing with family drama. Amy sounds a lot like my friend, or my classmate, or even me.

10.It’s just Fun. Ok, I know I’ve said this a thousand times in my review, but it’s the truth, Not every five star rating belongs to something in the canon. For me, this book gave me an outlet, an adventure, it took me away and into the story, it made me want to be bickering with Ben and brewing potions over a burner on my stove. Don’t take yourself so seriously, and read something that really lets you feel like you’ve just hung out with some of your best friends or your own crazy family.

Overall: I’m in love with the goodnight family, in love with the author, in love with the magic, and super devastated that the “sequel” doesn’t focus on Amy’s story, but rather follows her cousin Daisy’s…although I sincerely hope this means that Clement-Moore has a lot more left to tell us about the Goodnights.

Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor Review

Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher: Little Brown

Length: 513 pgs

Series: Daughter of Smoke & Bone #2

Format: Hardcover, checked out from my local library

Goodreads Synopsis:

Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a world free of bloodshed and war.

This is not that world.

Art student and monster’s apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is—and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it.

In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Karou must decide how far she’ll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, secrets and impossible choices, Days of Blood & Starlight finds Karou and Akiva on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life.

While Karou and her allies build a monstrous army in a land of dust and starlight, Akiva wages a different sort of battle: a battle for redemption. For hope.

But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream?

My Review:

This book. Oh dear, this book. Getting my thoughts out coherently is going to be difficult- this book is an absolute tome, with over five hundred pages (not that I’m complaining- the longer the better is usually my motto). Often times I find the second book in a series to be the weak point, but Days of Blood and Staright carried it’s own, fleshing out the world of Eretz and the seraphim and the chimaera more fully than I ever expected.

In order to organize my thoughts, I’ve decided to go with the good old fashioned pros and cons format:

The Good:
1. Zuzanna! I absolutely love her, and was thrilled to see a lot more of her in this book. Karou is often hard to relate to (and why shouldn’t she be, she isn’t even really human), but Zuze is that fiery, adorable, completely insufferable best friend that everyone wishes they had and wishes they were. Her and Mik are the link of relatability in the story for the reader, as they are completely human, but with open hearts and open minds that allow them to integrate themselves into Karou’s fantastic world.
2. Resurrection. I don’t know about everyone else, but what drew me to the books initially was the mythology and Brimstone’s magic. In this book the resurrection process is explained in so much more depth, about the relationship with pain and magic, tithing, souls, and gleaning, and seeing resurrections in action was fascinating each time.
3. The Seraphim. Despite how Karou and Akiva’s relationship left of at the end of Daughter of Smoke and Bone, I was still fascinated by the Seraphim and how their society functions, as you all know my obsession with angel books. The angel hierarchy is explained in detail, along with Akiva’s mysterious lineage, and more character development of Hazael (my personal favorite after Zusanna) and Liraz.
4. War. This is war in a realistic sense. It is not resolved in one book, with some teenage girl heroine who somehow manages to single handedly stop a paranormal war and restore peace. Karou is often on the fringes of knowledge, and her tension and anxiety is tangible to the reader. Her choices aren’t black and white as well, and she recognizes that no matter how the war ends, it means the deaths of millions of innocents, seraph and chimaera. This is a bloody, emotional, realistic, heart-wrenching depiction of war and battle that exposes true character motives and loyalties.
5. Controversial Topics. ***Spoiler Ahead*** Karou suffers abuse at Thiago’s hands, as she lives most of the book as his prisoner for “the greater good.” She is emotionally manipulated, forced to physically harm herself (to perform the resurrections) and toward the end of the book very narrowly escapes sexual assault. Karou is not the vibrant girl with a personality to match her hair color like in the first book. This is wartime and she suffers as much or more than most, and her character goes through dips and arcs throughout the story. We see her loose and regain her strength multiple times, and her decisions are never made lightly. Taylor writes Karou as a realistic victim and has her confront tough but realistic consequences of essentially being a prisoner of war, and I applaud her of not shying away from topics such as assault, which are very real and experienced by many people in the targeted age range of the book. Seeing how Karou deals with the aftermath will be interesting. ***End Spoiler***
6. Cliffhangers! Taylor literally brings you to a point in the story when every chapter ends with a major cliffhanger and the next chapter shifts perspectives and then ALSO ends with a cliffhanger, only to move back to the first character in the next chapter. It’s infuriating and wonderful at the same time because it literally prevents you from being able to find a suitable place to put the book down, you just have to keep reading!
7. The Ending. I thought the book was getting a little predictable about halfway through (Karou has a revelation that is pretty obvious to the reader from the beginning) so I wasn’t sure if the rest of the book would surprise me. But it did. Oh, it did.

The Bad
1. The Pace. The beginning of the book was slow. For the first one hundred pages or so I was a little bored. It didn’t have the charm of the first book, as things are much darker, and I was worried the same magic wasn’t going to translate to the sequel. But I’m so glad I stuck with it because at around 200 pages in things start really picking up. This is one of the main reasons why I didn’t give the book a 5/5 review, because I really wish it had gripped me right from the beginning.
2. Relevance. I think what contributed to my lack of interest at the beginning is that the novel would pan to different characters I had never met before in disjointed fragments, leaving me asking “so what?” and “Why should I care?” Later on these fragments weave together, but I still feel that there are some aspects, details, and chapters that the book could have done without.
3. Characters. There are so. many. characters. It’s almost impossible to keep all of them straight, it would have been useful for the book to have an index in the back to accompany the map of Eretz in front. (Sidenote: Where does Laini Taylor come up with all of these names? They’re fascinating and I’d love to know where she pulls her inspiration from!)

Overall, Days of Blood and Starlight started slow but finished strong, and has me bouncing up and down like Zuzanna in anticipation of the next one. Taylor does one of the most phenomenal and intricate jobs world-building of any YA Author I’ve read, and I’m definitely adding her other works to my to-read shelf as she has unparalleled sophistication and detail to her writing. If you’re looking for instant gratification I wouldn’t recommend this book or series, but if you’re willing to wait for the series to simmer under the surface and commit yourself to learning this world, Days of Blood and Starlight is definitely worth the read.

The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory Review

The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Publisher: Touchstone, 2006

Length: 390 pgs

Series: The Tudor Court #1

Format: Paperback, borrowed from my Grandmother.  Find it on Amazon here

Goodreads Synopsis:

“I am Catalina, Princess of Spain, daughter of the two greatest monarchs the world has ever known…and I will be Queen of England.”

Thus, bestselling author Philippa Gregory introduces one of her most unforgettable heroines: Katherine of Aragon. Known to history as the Queen who was pushed off her throne by Anne Boleyn, here is a Katherine the world has forgotten: the enchanting princess that all England loved. First married to Henry VIII’s older brother, Arthur, Katherine’s passion turns their arranged marriage into a love match; but when Arthur dies, the merciless English court and her ambitious parents — the crusading King and Queen of Spain — have to find a new role for the widow. Ultimately, it is Katherine herself who takes control of her own life by telling the most audacious lie in English history, leading her to the very pinnacle of power in England.

Set in the rich beauty of Moorish Spain and the glamour of the Tudor court, The Constant Princess presents a woman whose constancy helps her endure betrayal, poverty, and despair, until the inevitable moment when she steps into the role she has prepared for all her life: Henry VIII’s Queen, Regent, and commander of the English army in their greatest victory against Scotland.

My Review:

Let me start with a disclaimer. I really do enjoy Philippa Gregory, albeit many people’s critiques that she sensationalizes or imposes her own internal monologue onto the characters. Which, I mean, of course she does, as the genre’s historical fiction, and honestly if she didn’t her books wouldn’t be so much fun to read. I was originally lured into her writing like many others by The Other Boleyn Girl and The Boleyn Inheritance. The Constant Princess, while an interesting story in its own right, definitely lacked the scandal and fast paced clip of the two previous titles.

I have to admit it took me two years to read this book. I’ve always been fascinated with Spain and with Henry the VIII’s regal first wife, the daughter of legendary Isabella and Ferdinand. I read the first half, which was exciting, covering Katherine of Aragon’s original marriage to Prince Arthur of the House Tudor, as well as describing her unique childhood in Spain as the child of its two most famous monarchs. Yet the second half of the book dragged, leading me to put it down for quite a while until two years later I was in my room desperate to read and with nothing else on hand. Once I found the motivation to pick it up again, I found myself pleasantly surprised that it started to hold my interest again as I read about the early years of her marriage to Henry, her various births, and her role as a military leader and queen regent, facts that often get overlooked in favor of the Anne Boleyn scandal.

Yet the book drags in certain spaces, with interjections of Katherine’s own monologues in italics, often disrupting the flow of the novel. The end of the novel also has an air of disappointment, as many readers will be reading anxiously to hopefully get to the part about the gradual undermining of Katherine’s status and crown by Anne, but it never comes. After her victory over Scotland (with no real help from Henry, thank you very much), it skips ahead more than a decade to the end of her marriage. It was an especially a let down to never read about the birth and development of her daughter Mary, after reading about her various miscarriages and struggles with the archaic English view that a woman was inherently at fault for not being able to produce an heir.

I have a special fascination with The Tudors (as most do) and was also partially motivated to get back into the historical fiction genre after my recent trip to England where I actually saw where Henry VIII is buried along with his third wife Jane Seymour (under Windsor Castle’s Church) and saw the gravemarkers of Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard as well at the Tower of London. So being able to read this afterwards and know that I had been to several of the locations in the book was fascinating and a little mind boggling- knowing that as I walked through the streets within the Windsor Castle complex or on the banks of the Thames River at Greewhich, where Katherine and Henry (and all of his wives) had walked as well.

Ultimately I would recommend this book for those who are really interested in the Tudors, as it is s good foundational story to understanding (through fiction, anyway) how Henry came to marry his first wife. I wouldn’t recommend this as the first text for one to ever read by Gregory, as many of her other Tudor texts are more engaging, which is what motivated me to finish this one- I had read the others in the series, and wanted to add this to my bookshelf.

Angelfall by Susan Ee Review

Angelfall by Susan Ee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher: Feral Dream, 2011

Length: 282 pgs

Series: Penryn & The End of Days, Book #1

Format: Paperback, purchased from Amazon

Goodreads Synopsis: It’s been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back.
Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel.
Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl.
Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they have only each other to rely on for survival. Together, they journey toward the angels’ stronghold in San Francisco where she’ll risk everything to rescue her sister and he’ll put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.

My Review:

This book came recommended Goodreads via a friend who shares my love of paranormal fiction and romance. She claimed she read it in one sitting and that it was a must-read, so naturally I immediately went to Amazon and found it for less than $5 in paperback. So instead of ordering my textbooks, I happily dropped this into my cart and had it in my hands two days later.

Now, I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again. I am a sucker for paranormal books that deal with angels. Sadly, many books in this genre are disappointing, riddled with weak plots, poor writing, or completely ridiculous love triangles. I was delighted to discover that Angelfall avoids all three of these problems, and adds a twist to the genre by setting it in a post-apocalyptic society. This end-of-the-world setting is fantastic because it makes sense, as there are multiple times in the Bible when God and his angels intervene and cause destruction as punishment (the great flood, the destruction of Sodom, etc). This book hammers down the often-forgotten concept in popular culture that angels are warriors, not cherubic spiritual beings who are meant to lazily float in heaven all day long.

I applaud Susan Ee for doing her biblical and mythological research about Angels while adding her own imaginative twists. She expertly weaves in tales of Nephilim, the Daughters of Man, the hierarchy of angels, and other biblical tropes to form the foundation her world building, while adding her own unique (and sometimes disturbing) twists. She blends dystopian, paranormal, and sci-fi together and chooses her setting as the Northern California Bay Area, and as a California native I was jumping up and down with delight. So rarely are books set in California set anywhere but the beaches in SoCal, and it adds a level of realism to know where in the world the book is set, as so often post-apocalyptic books never really disclose where their characters are in pre-apocalyptic geography. Knowing exactly where they are lends a lot more realism to the plot, especially if you’ve ever visited San Francisco or the Silicon Valley.

Ee also does a great job at developing strong characters as well. I was delighted to discover that Penryn shows a lot of agency for a female protagonist, without being emotionally unreachable. She’s relateable even as she’s shoving steak knives in her pocket and holding people hostage for information. The brief moments throughout the book where she reflects upon her childhood with her schizophrenic mother provides an interesting look at mental illness and the impact it has on family relationships. Penryn may not be the one hundred percent full feminist protagonist that many readers are still waiting for (for instance, there are times when I wished she would have spoken up more) but she’s a strong step in the right direction, as she’s sassy, resourceful, and never deviates from her main goal from the beginning of the text. Also, most of her dialogue is realistically hilarious:

“I never kid about my warrior demigod status.”
“Oh. My. God.” I lower my voice, having forgotten to whisper. “You are nothing but a bird with an attitude. Okay, so you have a few muscles, I’ll grant you that. But you know, a bird is nothing but a barely evolved lizard. That’s what you are.”

For some reason that line had me in peals of laughter, possibly because this book kept me up until all hours of the night reading it.

Yes this book has romantic undertones but it’s not forced upon the reader, and is secondary to the major plot elements (which is a realief because both characters have bigger issues to deal with). Raffe, the angel she teams up with, is witty but also realistic in his often cool detachment and business-like attitutde…which is a nice reminder that these paranormal creatures are not humans and should not conveniently fall head over heels for some ordinary female protagonist. There is an undercurrent of chemistry throughout the book that will probably develop throughout the next in the series, but there was so much other great, interesting, intriguing, and disturbing stuff going on that the romance isn’t the main thing that will make me return to the series.

Also, a point of clarification for my rating: one of the reasons I didn’t give Angelfall a 5/5 star review is that some of the imagery is really quite disturbing, and I am not usually one who is a fan of the horror genres. Yes, it did add greatly to the dark, post-apocalyptic atmosphere of the book but I was taken by surprise because I wasn’t expecting such imagery from the YA genre. To me, it was even more graphic that Hunger Games (which may not be saying much, but I’m not a big zombie/gore/horror person). And while I’m sure some of my questions will be answered when I pick up the sequel, it does feel a bit mind-boggling in this book when you have angels alongside gruesome science experiments, cannibalistic demons and reanimated, stitched back together corpses…

But it all serves as just more reasons to pick up the next one! However horrifying, I can’t not read the next one, so Ee has done her job at creating a strong readership for her series.

Final Thoughts: I give this book 4/5 stars for it’s original yet historical take on the angel genre, strong and original characters, and dealing with difficult issues such as handicaps and mental illness. Don’t get me wrong, if you love romance this won’t disappoint, but it’s a subtle brewing tension rather than hitting you in the face with the obvious five chapters in. If you don’t do well with disturbing imagery, I might stay away or at least not read it right before you go to bed (a mistake I made that jolted me awake at 6am on a Sunday morning). This book is less than 300 pages but will have you finishing in no time as it’s writing style and short chapters prove it impossible to find a satisfying place to take a break from the story.

Recommended for: Those who want a more realistic and graphic depiction of the post-apocalyptic world, those who appreciate a not-obvious and realistically building romance, those who gravitate toward darker depictions of mythology. For those who read and enjoyed: Daughter of Smoke and Bone, The Lux Series, Hunger Games.

Summer Reading Series 2013: Onyx

Onyx by Jennifer L. Armentrout
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was the book of the summer that had me reading in every inappropriate place and circumstance: parked in parking lots instead of going into stores, in the bathroom, while waiting for other people to use the bathroom, when I had guests, and basically every other moment when I should have been doing something else. I was addicted. I was shocked. I’ve noticed a trend in YA novels that the second book in the series tends to disappoint the most (for example, the introduction of the inevitable love triangle *SIGH*), yet even through the clichés I was able to jump right into this despite it being a month after I had read it’s predecessor and be completely absorbed.

My thoughts are all in a flurry regarding this book, so let me try to keep this organized, short, and sweet. I loved that this book was action-packed. It didn’t need to build a whole new plot, rather it just revealed an underlying plot that we as readers, nor the Luxen, knew was simmering beneath the surface of the previous novel. Yes, there is romance, and yes, Daemon Black is an undeniably attractive para-noyying male protagonist a la Edward, Patch, whatever your poison may be, but this book made me care so much about the characters, about the plot, about the outcome, and about aspects I’d never thought I was into (a little sci-fi, a little government conspiracy, etc).

I continue to applaud Katy for being a more feminist protagonist regarding her relationship with the main love interest, though she (disappointingly) falls into many of the stereotypes of the other paranormal romance protagonists: love triangle with a “human”, trusting all the wrong people, not seeing things that were right in front of her face which gets people killed, I’m sure you get the drift by now. I was surprised that I wanted to wring her neck in this one when I loved her so much in the first book. But hey, maybe that makes her portrayal all the more realistic- she’s human and humans are fallible at the best of times.

Armentrout is not afraid to approach tough topics and that is apparent in the sexism Katy faces, the corruption in the government, the intolerance the Luxen face from being different and their desperate attempts at assimilation, the view of minorities as sub-humans that majority groups hold, and the brutality of violence- death is not shied away from in this book, nor is torture, desperation, and betrayal.

Bottom line: This is a request, no, a plight, that is YA fiction is up your alley, to please please please take the time to read this series, because A) it is fantastic and B) I need more people to talk about it with!

Have you read the Lux series? Did you find it as captivating as I do? How does it stack up against others in its genré? Let me know in the comments!