A Curse so Dark and Lonely

A Curse So Dark and Lonely

By: Brigid Kemmerer

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

A Curse so Dark and Lonely is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast that combines both the fantasy world of Emberfall with the real world that we all live in. Essentially, Prince Rhen was cursed by an enchantress and he has to make a girl fall in love with him before autumn is over or else he is doomed to repeat the season again and again and again. Meanwhile, life in the rest of Emberfall goes on as normal, except that the people are suffering because the royal family is preoccupied with the curse and cannot effectively rule. Harper is just a girl from DC who one day magically transported to the land of Emberfall where Prince Rhen and Commander Grey of the Royal Army are trying in vain to break the curse. 

I really really enjoyed reading this book (like read it almost nonstop and finished in less than 12 hours including the time I was asleep). First of all, Harper as cerebral palsy which I will admit I did not know much about before reading this book, but it has led to her having a limp when she walks. Despite this though, she is such a strong character and doesn't let this one thing define her. She creates her own identity and it is truly amazing to watch her grow as a person and become more confident in herself and her abilities. I also liked this book because it really doesn't focus on romance like many other beauty and the beast retellings. The main focus of the book is Harper helping Rhen realize that he cannot keep ignoring his subjects, which leads to them concocting a brilliant plan to help the people of Emberfall. I loved the world and all the characters and I cannot wait to read the next book in the series!!

Sorcery of Thorns

Sorcery of Thorns 

By: Margaret Rogerson

This book is about a girl named Elisabeth who lives in one of the Great Libraries of Austermeer and has been told her entire life to be wary of sorcerers. She is training to one day become a deputy -- a fearsome warrior who protects and guards the grimoires of the land from harm. However, one day one of the grimoires is sabotaged and Elisabeth's involvement in ultimately killing the grimoire means that she is a suspect. Elisabeth is forced to journey to the capitol under the protection of sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn. Once she reaches the capitol, Elisabeth discovers that she has stumbled upon a centuries old conspiracy that could end life and she knows it. 

This book is perfect for fans of young adult fantasy. I thought the concept was super unique. I love books (obviously) and the idea of books being alive is such a captivating theory. Also, the way that Elisabeth is able to communicate with the books in a way that no one else can was such an interesting concept and urged me to keep reading to find out the reason. The fact that it wasn't the reason that I suspected was also very refreshing because it kept me on my toes. 

I also enjoyed that the love story of Elisabeth and Nathaniel constantly took a back seat to Elisabeth learning and growing for herself and overall wasn't one of the main focuses of the book. Instead, where other books might have focused on a budding romance, this one focused on friendship and alliances which I believe is altogether more wholesome. Also Elisabeth's friendship with Silas is just goals (as goals as you can get when it comes to friendship with a demon). 

I liked the giant conspiracy evil plot thing that was happening. It was actually really interesting to think about and I liked how the reader keeps figuring out bits and pieces and the whole thing doesn't fit together until the end. 

Lastly I really liked the ending because it was kind of a cliffhanger but in the way that means that the reader can interpret the end to be what they wish it to be, and not in a way that means there is another book coming out that you have to read or else you will feel empty and incomplete for the rest of your days. No, that's just me? Okay then. Anyway, I'm fairly certain that this book is a standalone which is great because that doesn't mean you have to a year for another book to come out and then wait until you can get it from the library if you're like me and your parents refuse to let you buy every book you want to read because money. So yeah, really liked the book. It was super good. Would read a sequel if one is made, although I doubt that one will be because the ending was kind of perfect. Check it out!

Modern Love Series

I've been in a rom com phase recently and I've had a hard time finding rom coms with substance but the Modern Love Series by Alisha Rai is the perfect solution. This series examines love through the lens of overcoming trauma and focuses on personal growth while wrapping it up in a rom com package. Another thing about the series that I enjoyed is that most of the characters are people of color which is very refreshing after reading book after book with Caucasian protagonists.

I'm going to review the books in the series in the order in which I read them, despite the fact that that's not the actual order of the series :)

Girl Gone Viral

This book is about a young woman named Katrina who experienced a traumatic childhood under the control of her overbearing father, and then encountered another traumatic experience later in life (don't want to say what so you can find out for yourselves) that left her craving complete anonymity and seclusion. However, when a photo of her goes viral on the internet, threatening her peaceful life, her bodyguard (who she happens to have an enormous crush on) takes her to spend a few weeks at his family's farm, away from the prying eyes of society. The only issue with this arrangement is that now they will be alone together for an indefinite amount of time, which is not an ideal situation with anybody, much less a guy you like.

I really liked this book because as I mentioned at the beginning, it features characters from various ethnicities: Thai, Punjabi, African American, etc. I also liked it because it focused on Katrina's personal growth and her struggle with anxiety, and how she was able to start overcoming that anxiety that once prevented her from leaving her house. It also examined Katrina's breakthroughs in how she viewed herself and her increased self-confidence by the end of the book.

Girl Gone Viral deals with PTSD, anxiety and panic attacks (though not super graphically) so if any of these topics are triggers for you, you may want to check out a different book. I, however, enjoyed seeing Rai deal with these issues that are so prevalent in society today.

The Right Swipe

This book is technically first in the series but it doesn't matter too much because the books are only loosely connected by character relationships.

The Right Swipe is about dating-app creator Rhiannon Hunter and her quest to buy a competitor called Matchmaker. The twist, Matchmaker's newest spokesman is Samson Lima, former star football player, and also the man that ghosted Rhiannon after an amazing night. As Rhi and Samson continue to interact, Rhi's anger at Samson ghosting her is slowly replaced by growing feelings that the cynical entrepreneur finds hard to ignore. Before their relationship can go anywhere though, Rhi must first decide if her feelings for Samson are worth the risk of getting hurt.

Again, I liked the diversity found in this novel. I also like the personal growth in the face of trauma that was examined, similar to Girl Gone Viral. Additionally, Rai examines issues such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease caused by multiple traumatic blows to the head that can be seen in many football players who receive numerous concussions. I thought that was really interesting because I hadn't heard of this issue before. Oh also, there was a really eccentric character named Annabelle. Loved Her! #StrongIndependentWomenWhoUseGlitterOnEverything

The Right Swipe deals with issues such as the trauma of sexual harassment, loss, and CTE (again not super graphically) so if these topics are uncomfortable for you, I suggest that you tread carefully.

The Guinevere Deception

The Guinevere Deception

By: Kiersten White

First of all, wow. Just wow. This book- I am speechless. 

The Guinevere Deception is perfect for fans of the old stories of King Arthur and the knights of Camelot. However, it tells the age-old tales with a twist never before seen. Taking place in an incredible fantasy world, this book is the perfect mix of action and suspense, with just a dash of romance to keep you on your toes. Now to the description: 

Magic has been banned from Camelot, and with it Merlin, the kingdom's greatest defender against magical threats. In order to continue to protect Arthur and Camelot, Merlin sends his daughter, pretending to be the foreign princess Guinevere, to marry Arthur. Guinevere must protect Arthur and Camelot, but in a kingdom praised for its order and justice, there are many secrets for Guinevere to unravel, including the secret of who she truly is. 

This book was great. First of all, I loved how Kiersten White took the familiar stories of Camelot and twisted them so that they were almost unrecognizable. I knew the world and I knew the people, but at the same time they were all incredibly different. Second, the plot twist. I did not see it coming and I was shook. You have to understand, I read a LOT of books, to the point where I can generally predict plot twists so when I don't see a plot twist coming, I know that the book is very special and unique. And this plot twist- pure genius. Low key, it probably should have been predictable but the way that White tells the rest of the story leading up to it, it becomes totally unexpected. Actually, come to think of it, there were quite of few unexpected twists. But you know what they say: the more the merrier. And lastly (although there are many many more reasons to like the book beyond the ones touched on here), I loved how the book did not center around romance. Sure, there were hints of it here and there, but the reason this book was so unique was that Guinevere's story didn't revolve around Arthur. Kiersten White weaves an engaging story without having to introduce a love interest. Instead, she focuses on Guinevere's quest to find herself, and the friendships and connections she makes along the way. White included love in this novel, just not the kind that is most common in novels of this genre. 

The only thing I didn't like about this book is that the REST OF THE SERIES ISN'T OUT YET. I just about died when I finished the book because I had this epic theory and I was so sure I was right but THEN the book ENDED. AND the last paragraph of the book contradicted my theory and now I am DECEASED!! I JUST WANT THE NEXT BOOK TO COME OUT ALREADY!! 

November 10th can't come soon enough....

The Riftwar Saga (Books 1-2)

Okay so this is a 4 book series, but since I've been going through them pretty fast I'm just going to do them all together. I'll probably give the most detail on the first book but then not so much on the other books because I don't want to spoil anything.

Okay so the Riftwar Saga is by Raymond Feist and it's a fantasy series so if you like elves and dwarves and dragons and a number of other creatures that honestly I've never even heard of, then this is probably the series for you.

1) Magician: Apprentice

This book is a young boy named Pug who becomes apprenticed to the magician Kulgan. If you've ever read the Ranger's Apprentice Series (I believe I've done a post about it in the past): I was getting major Ranger's Apprentice vibes from the first couple chapters, which honestly is super okay with me because I really enjoyed the Ranger's Apprentice series. Anyway so Pug is apprenticed to a magician and is going about his normal apprentice-ship duties when one day there is a shipwreck on the coast of the town that they live in. However, this is no normal shipwreck. The boat and the lone survivor of the wreck are both foreign to the Kingdom (this is where they live) and no one has ever seen anything like it before. After some fancy magic stuff they discover that the ship and survivor are from a different world entirely. However, they don't know why. Naturally there is suspicion of a future invasion leading the a group of people (including Pug) to go on an adventure to secure troops from the King, but it's a bit more complicated than this because politics and intrigue. Yay politics and intrigue! <-- not sarcastic, it was actually really well-written :)

Anyway so this book was really good. The world-building is absolutely AMAZING! Everything is so thought out and you get the history of the different races that live in this world. However, this history is given out a little bit at a time so you just keep reading to learn more. Another thing that I liked about this book is that between chapters sometimes it will jump across large periods of time and then fill in the stuff that happened during that time as memories (not flashbacks per-say but the character will be thinking about stuff that happened), which I enjoyed because it was really different than other books that I've read. I think my least favorite part of the book is that a lot of the characters have really different names and some of the names are really weird so it's kind of hard to keep track of everyone sometimes (but this is a bigger issue in the second book I think). Also, it might just be me but I went a whole 3 chapters forgetting a person existed and thinking they were referring to a different person the whole time (again I think this was in the second book and also because I kept reading this book at like 1 in the morning when I normally am asleep).

2) Magician: Master

Okay so just so you know, if you go to buy this series in like half-price books or something, you might see the book Magician, and be like whaaaaa??? That's not a book in this series!! And that's because, the first 2 books are sometimes combined into 1 book and that book is called Magician. The reason being that the first 2 books are very clearly continuations of each other, and despite the fact that all 4 books in the series should be continuations of each other because they're a series, I found that after the second book, the series could honestly end there -- it's nice, it ties up all the loose ends. Of course, I kept reading because the world-building is 10/10 and I got really attached to some of the characters, but I think that's why the first 2 books are sometimes combined.

So I don't really want to give explain what happens in this book because it will give away the ending of the first book which was just so good and I don't want to spoil so all I'm going to say is that stuff (almost used a cuss word there oops) happens and Pug becomes a super powerful magician.

A couple notes about this book: it takes place 4 years after the first book ends and it's preceded by a little blurb thing that summarizes the first book and gives the context for the second book. Again, it also explains what happens during those 4 years through the thoughts of characters which is cool. I also think the summary blurb is super helpful and all books should have them because sometimes if there's a long gap between me reading books in a series I do not remember what happened in the previous book making the series less than enjoyable for me which is not the case here! I think all books should have this... just saying...

Anyway, so, really good book. Lots of confusing names but it's okay. Amazing history of the world. Highly recommend. And this post is getting pretty long so I'll do the next 2 books in a separate post. Might actually take me a bit cause I haven't read the fourth book yet haha. Just got it though and I'm very excited! Byeee!

Vicious

Wow. It's been so long. So... I guess I'm going to continue with this blog. Since I have time because of COVID-19 and all... So without further ado, I bring you: Vicious by V.E. Schwab.

This book is about two college best friends named Eli Cardale and Victor Vale. While working on their senior theses on the permanent effects of high doses of adrenaline, a horrible mistake occurs. Ten years later, Victor is out a jail and looking for vengeance. Along with an underestimated genius and an abandoned 12-year-old, Victor seeks out Eli and things get Vicious.

This book was incredible. I would rate it 5/5. This book does an incredible job of illustrating that the lines between good and evil are blurred and that things aren't always what they seem. However, even more than that, my favorite part was that the chapters switch between past and present so that the backstory for each of the characters unfolds at the same time as the current plot. The book also does a really good job of giving each character a detailed backstory that explains their actions.

Overall, this book was a bit twisted but I highly recommend it. I read it in about 2 days and honestly every couple pages I was texting my friend freaking out because it is SO INTENSE! I can't wait to read the next book! (I already have it on hold :) )

Well that's it for now! Byeeee!