Category: Romance

Contemporary · Romance · Sports

Surviving Adam Meade

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Surviving Adam Meade

Shannon Klare

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Publisher: Swoon Reads

Year Released: 2018

Date Read: October 5, 2018

Genre: Romance, Contemporary, Young Adult, Slightly Sporty

Grade: C+/ 3.8

“Adam’s eyes narrowed. ‘Wow. Sure there isn’t a pair of ball on you?’

‘Sure there’s a pair of balls on you?'”

-Shannon Klare

 

After her dad gets a new job coaching a high school football team, Claire Collins is forced to move to a new town her senior year. Claire just wants to hurry up and finish school, and go to college. She doesn’t want to make any new friends or be around her father’s new football team. The chances of all of that happening for her quickly go down hill when Adam Meade, the school’s star football player, treats her as if she’s nothing and continues to do so. Claire just wanted to get through her year, but once Adam makes her a target of his game, she finds it impossible to do so.

Contemporary’s are like my guilty pleasure, except I don’t really feel any guilt for liking them because they aren’t bad. They are the gushy cute romances I like to read when I need to take a break from intense action fantasy series. I’m rating this book a three point eight because i can’t rate it the same as The Foxhole Court, or the To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before series, which I rated five stars and four star. To me those set the standards for my five and four stars for contemporary, so to me this was not as good as To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, so this had to fall below a four. Now, my standards of what a contemporary novel should be is probably different from other people. To me contemporary novels are usually my easy reads. I just want a good cute romance that isn’t a Nicholas Sparks dramatic romance. I want it to basically just be cute and adorable, with a reasonably good plot so it’s not too cheesy. That is exactly what surviving Adam Meade was. It was the cute, not too cheesy, enemy to in love story.

 

Pros

  • Claire and Adam’s banter. Claire’s character was very clever and witty. She always had something to snap back at Adam, and Adam was the same way. Claire didn’t just banter playfully with Adam, but with her family also. She was funny to read. A lot of girl characters in contemporary novels are shy or quiet. Claire wasn’t. She spoke what she felt she needed to say and wasn’t afraid to say it. She didn’t shy away from Adam’s remarks or how he treated her, she challenged him on it.
  • Adam was also very funny to read. He tended to be very honest, which made for a lot of great moments. Adam does fall into the cliche of the obnoxious football player character, but he doesn’t stick to that mold. He obnoxious feel starts to turn into just confidence in his actions and not doing so in a jerk like nature. I actually think Adam was a better written character than Claire. Adam seemed more real than Claire. I didn’t really see any faults in his character. The author lets you see that he has people he cares for and that he deeply cares for them and it makes him seem very real, where as Claire doesn’t have that same realness except for a somewhat selfish teen, which you could say is real in its own way. Adam, to me, took the spotlight in this book. He was incredibly charming and I loved him.
  • Another part of the book I really enjoyed was the realness of your last year in high school. That feeling of trying to figure out your next step in life, and realizing that a part of your life you’ve always known is about to end. That you’re closing a chapter of your life, which sometimes means leaving people behind in that chapter. Closing any chapter of life can be hard and this book depicts it very well.

 

Cons

  • Claire can get mad for literally no reason at all. She gets mad at Adam for him being realistic about there being a chance she might not be accepted into the college she wants. He wasn’t saying she was stupid, he was being realistic. Many people get turned down from the college of their dreams and she takes it as if he’s personally attacking her and saying that college is above her. He even apologizes for the chance that it came off that way and she still gets upset. She also sometimes does stupid things and acts like nothing is going happen from it, then gets sad when something does. She literally messes with someone’s property, and then gets sad when they get mad at her for it. I don’t know what she expected. I liked her character, but there was times I couldn’t help but think, “Girl, calm down and quit. Stop it.” I don’t want to say she is a brat, but she is a little. She’s a little selfish about the move, which is a little understandable since she was taken away from her friends her senior year. I can understand her being upset about moving, but there other times where she just gets annoying. She literally hides something from Adam, gets told that she needs to tell him, admit she needs to tell him, but doesn’t…. What? I don’t understand? I like Claire but there are times where she is too much of a teenager.
  • There were parts that weren’t needed, and seemed to be basically filler. The author would put in a scene, just to contradict it with another scene a few paragraphs later. It made the first scene pointless.It didn’t help build character, or do anything for the plot, it was just filler that made no sense. I understand at times filler is needed, but when it contradicts itself or doesn’t affect the story then it’s harms you more than it helps you. There was also a introduction that was weird to me. “I’m Riley… Padar High School cheer captain and Luke Bryan fangirl.” I don’t know if it’s just me, but I have never heard someone introduce themselves like this unless it’s the first day of school and the teacher is making the class do a get to know me type of thing. I have never heard a person just do this themselves. Her saying she was the cheer captain was ok, but the fangirl part was weird to me. I’ve never had anyone introduce themselves to me like that before, or seen anyone introduce themselves to anyone like that. Maybe that’s just me though. I am socially awkward, so maybe?…

 

For what I read contemporary for, this book was good. It was something I didn’t have to focus hard on and it was overall enjoyable. I laughed, smiled at cute moments. Claire seemed bratty at times, but it’s clear it wasn’t because she thought she was better than everyone. It was more as if she didn’t know she was being bratty and based on what you see from her character, she would of probably felt bad if someone had pointed it out. Claire was a typical teenager who makes many mistakes and learns from that. I don’t think it’s too much of a fault in her character and doesn’t make the book awful. Teenagers are always know as hormonal brats so a lot of people write them as that, and some teenagers are like that, I’ve meet them, and avoided them. If Claire was a complete brat I wouldn’t have finished the book(there are a lot of books I stopped reading for that reason) Claire was dramatic, and going through a stressful time for a teenager. I thought the book was cute and if you like cute romances I think this wasn’t bad. It probably had some of the best banter I’ve read in contemporary. It didn’t seem forced. It seemed perfectly natural and fit perfectly.

Adult · Fantasy · Magic · Romance

A Promise of Fire #1 Kingmaker Chronicles

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A Promise of Fire

Amanda Bouchet

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Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca

Year Released: 2016

Date Read: Reread September 26, 2018

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Adult, Magic, Slight Mythology

Rating: 3.5/ C

“Happiness is a strange, frightening, fragile feeling when you’re not used to it.”
― Amanda Bouchet

While hiding in a traveling Circus, Catalia(Cat) is discovered by a warlord with a lack of magic named Griffin. Griffin isn’t just any warlord, he is the Beta Sinta, the brother to the new ruler of Sintan. Cat isn’t just any magic user either, she is the Kingmaker, just the person Griffin needs to help build his family’s new kingdom. Cat has just spent eight years hiding and wasn’t ready to be found. She plans on fighting Griffin the whole way, but finds it harder the longer she hangs out with him and his friends. Cat is the Kingmaker for a reason, and she might have just found her reason.

This is the second time I’ve read this book this year, this book, not the series. I can’t ever bring myself to get past the first few chapters of the second book, and I couldn’t figure out why, until I tried reading it again. I do have a major issue with a part of the book, and the first part of the second book, but I LOVE the first book. The first time I read it I stayed up all night, got up and did a few things I needed to do that morning, and then laid down, planning on going to sleep, but couldn’t because I couldn’t stop thinking about the book. I was up till nine in the morning reading it because I had to finish it. This book is my favorite type of book, and I always find them hard to find. It’s a book where a girl befriends a group of guys, usually not friendly at first, and they’re traveling or going on an adventure. Another book that follows this is The Healer series by Maria V Snyder. I adore books with good bonds and friendship and watching them build. I really loved the first book, but I didn’t like it towards the end, and I can’t ever get past the first few chapters, and here’s why.

 

Cons

  • Now I like Griffin, and I love his friends. Carver is a little pervy, but I like him. For the most part, Griffin is a likable character. He had me laughing and chuckling, and at moments he had me physically saying “AWWW”  out loud. I had one problem with Griffin, and it’s a problem that grows with the book. Griffin has a tendency to behave like a caveman.(I mean there are times he literally throws Cat on his horse, but that’s because he literally has to) Griffin has two caveman issues. One being he is a major control freak. He tries to control Cat a lot. That’s literally the plot of the book, but it works in that context. He is a warlord. He is doing what he has to in order to better his kingdom. For the plot, it works. It’s like Kratos from the God of War games. He is also a brute with a goal. He is going to do what he has to in order to get that done. It works for a plot.  For romance, it’s terrible, what was worse was the way Cat fought it, but always ended up giving into it when he said he was doing it for her. For those who don’t know, that is a major way people manipulate people in relationships.They will turn the situation around to make it feel like it’s the other person’s fault so they can continue doing what they are doing, or they will say they did it because they love them, or something along those lines. Now I don’t Griffin is manipulating Cat, he is just like that. He actually thinks he’s helping her. Griffin isn’t overbearingly controlling for most of the book, it’s the end and the entire beginning of the second book that it gets to be too much. The second reason I call him a caveman is that, in the second book(and this is why I haven’t continued it), in the first chapter Griffin gets mad at Cat, and pushes her hard against the wall, pinning her there, hurting her, yelling at her until she is crying and telling him to let her go. Now when she tells him that he’s hurting her, he does loosen his grip, and eventually let go, and then leaves the room so he doesn’t hurt her, but I still don’t think that was ok and maybe I could of continued reading it, except that Cat forgives him and acts like it never happened right away, and acts like it was her fault. She acts like him pinning her against the wall was her fault. To me, that’s not ok. I will never read a book where the a man or women puts their hands on their loved one, and their loved one accepts it as their fault(Unless it’s a psychological book where that’s the point of the book). I don’t think that was the author’s intentions, or at least I hope it wasn’t, but it is saw reading it, and it clouded over all of the book, ruining what I liked about the book, which was mostly everything else.
  • This is an adult book, and in a lot of adult books, there’s sex. Sex is not the con in this book, that would be an unfair con. It’s an adult book, adults have sex. I don’t have an issue with sex being in a book, it’s apart of life, it happens in real life, why wouldn’t it happen in books. There comes a point though, when it becomes to much sex. That would be this book. Now in the beginning, there was a lot of sex jokes, and little “haha” moments towards it, but in the end it like they were rabbits in heat and were going at it non-stop, and into the second book it was like every other event was sex.(keep in mind, I’ve only read a few chapters of the second book.)  If this book was an Erotica( I wouldn’t have read it), then this wouldn’t be an issue, but this isn’t labeled as an Erotica, or at least it wasn’t a label I saw. There is so much sex talk and actual sex in this book that you start to forget the actual plot. There’s a part where Cat is literally stabbed and she still wants to have sex with Griffin. She was just stabbed! Yes, she was healed a bit, but she couldn’t even laugh because it hurt, she couldn’t even sit up. It wasn’t needed. Also, I don’t care about the Bechdel test when it comes to what i’m reading, but this seems like the type of book that test was made for. Cat’s conversations always lead back to Griffin, and a lot of it was about if they had sex or not already. The only time she wasn’t talking about Griffin, was when she was talking to Griffin. I love romance in books, so that’s not as big as an issue, but if I noticed it was a lot, I know a lot of people who don’t care for that, will get tired of it.

 

Pro

  • Despite Griffin being a caveman, he had a lot of really sweet moments. I went back to look at my notes and a lot of them where just, “Awwww”. When he wasn’t being a caveman, he was perfect. He was gentle most of the time, wanted her out of harm’s way, would call her beautiful or pretty, kept her safe when she accidentally stole someone’s magic and got messed up off of it, and he always tried to let her know that she was part of his group, and he was there to help her. Watching Cat go from hating Griffin to loving him was my favorite part of the book. The are always bickering but it’s cute bickering. For most of the book, they’re a cute couple to read and you can tell they really care for each other, especially Griffin. His love and protectiveness of Cat is very clear and endearing.
  • The plot was really good. Cat being called the Kingmaker was a little on the point, but it matches so who really cares. Cat’s secret past is also really good. If you like Aelin’s life from Throne of Glass you’d like reading Cat’s past.They both have that darkness and tortured soul vibes.Then there’s also Cat’s magic. The way she can throw weapons back at you and turn invisible, breathing fire, absorbing magic, knowing if a person is lying or telling the truth. It becomes apparent very fast why Cat is the Kingmaker.  Then there is the second half with Cat trying to teach Griffin’s family how to be proper royals, but they’re so sweet it’s hard. Its story is done well. It caught my attention and held it. I could of done with less sex and more plot towards the end, but them fighting small armies, a dragon, escaping near death and so on, was done very well. I’m not a very big action reader, but I enjoyed reading the dragon fighting part. It was very engaging, plus it’s a dragon. Everyone loves dragons.
  • The Greek Gods. I love Greek mythology. I have loved it since I was a kid, and reading Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan has only made me love it so much more. Any story with Greek Gods has me drawn to it. They also picked two of my favorite gods to be the main talked about gods, Hades and Poseidon. (I love the scene with Cat in the water after the dragon fight.) I do wish they would of talked more about Greek gods somewhat, they might later in the series, I don’t know.Maybe some lore or at least something for the people who don’t know much about Greek mythology. In a lot of different Mythologies the gods don’t have the same relationships they do with people as the Greek gods do. The book does a good job of showing what Greek God’s relationships with human usually are, which are they either have a romantic one(or just a lustful one), or they use as them as their own champions. For Greek Mythology this was a common theme and I liked that she put it in the book. As I said, I do wish Greek Mythology was more present since this is like the author just did a light coat of it, but the fact that she used them the way she did was good enough.

 

Besides Griffin acting like a caveman at times, and the overbearing sex scenes, I loved the first book. It’s a good action romance. As i’m writing the review though, it had become apparent that this book seems like it’s for a certain type of person. I remember hanging with my grandma while she was watching a western. The guy was a brute, like Griffin. He picked up the girl, put her on his horse, and basically claimed her. My grandmother thought that was hot, and clearly so would a lot of other women since most westerns and older TV shows have that in it. This book, if not intentionally, is for those people. There’s nothing wrong with that of course, I’m just not into it, and I know a lot of people who also aren’t into it. I love me a good powerful male character. A lot of my favorite characters are the powerful male character. Earlier I mentioned God of War, I love Kratos and he is the definition of a ruthless brute, but he isn’t in a romance setting, and we don’t really see him in one. He is a brute at war, where he should be. Griffin is a brute at all times, and that’s not something that I was enjoying reading, but I do know a lot of people who would. It’s like the bad boy type in books, In a book I love them, In reality I wouldn’t.  I know a lot of women who would will love this. If you liked Christian Gray from Fifty Shades, then you would probably like this. I wasn’t a fan of Christian Gray either(I only watched the movies, i’m not into full on Erotica’s.). Clearly this type is something a lot of women do like in a fiction setting. We use books to explore things we wouldn’t ever do or get the chance to do, and if this something you like then I would say read this book. I really do like Griffin(Better than I did Christian Gray), I just personally hate people trying to control me, so reading it wasn’t the most pleasant for me. It’s not a relationship I would want, so it’s not one I would enjoy reading. I do think Amanda Bouchet knows how to write character’s bonding, and magic and that was enough for me to want to try it again. I know she has a new series coming out, and I do plan on reading it. I didn’t like control side of Griffin but I thought Amanda Bouchet writing was good enough that i’m willing to try another series from her.

Fantasy · Retelling · Romance

Flame in the Mist

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Flame in the Mist

Renee Ahdieh
23308087

Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons

Year Released: 2017

Date Read: September 24, 2018

Genre: Fantasy, Retelling, Romance

Grade: 3 Stars/ C

“Hattori Mariko was not just any girl. She was more.”

-Renee Ahdieh

Flame in the mist is a Japanese retelling of Mulan. Mariko’s father is giving Mariko to the emperor’s son to marry because as a girl, it is the only way Mariko can help him, in his eyes. On her way to meet her future husband, her group is attacked by a group known as the Black Clan, killing everyone but her. Mariko escapes and knows that if there is a time to prove to her family that she is worth more than marriage, now is the time. Mariko dresses as a boy and makes her way into the Black Clan’s to find out why, and possibly get revenge, but she finds out it’s not easy to see people as villains when you start to get to know them.

I absolutely love Mulan. I think Mulan is one of the best movies Disney has ever produced, and I know that Disney did not come up with the story of Mulan, but it’s the famous retelling everyone knows and it’s the one I know. I know it’s wrong to compare this book to the movie, but I want to compare it in this way, because I feel it’s something that a book should have. One of the best thing about Mulan, was the characters. They main group of characters had major characteristics and were not bland. Shang, was someone who the viewers were able to see through right away from him talking to other characters. He was warned that he was being watched and if he failed it would reflect not on him, but his family. Because of this, he forced himself to come off as hard, *cue I’ll make a man out of you*. But from the beginning we already know that’s not his character. That he isn’t a hardass, he is just being pushed to not fail. He is a side character, but he is not just his title, he had almost just as much character develop as Mulan. Mulan is big for the female empowering, because it’s characters brought it to life. There was so much to them that they made an impact. This is something every book should do, and that’s why I will compare that aspect to the movie. The movie did the characters beautifully, and the beginning of the this book did too, which gave it so much potential, but the ending ruined it. Throughout the whole part where Mariko was a boy, I was in love with this book. It was the movie Mulan, but it wasn’t. It was darker, the characters were their own, the story was its own version of Mulan. It was Mulan, but in it’s own way, she made the story hers. Mariko’s character was incomparable to Mulan, because she was so different, but she was just as great, but well get into her later. The build of the characters were great. That was the best of Mulan, watching the characters create bonds with each other, and the bonds getting so deep that no one truly cared that she was a women, and it’s sad that’s where this book messed up. I was so in love with this book up until the part where Mariko is found out. The second that happened, it ruined the whole book for me. The characters from that moment of stopped growing, they were all rushed, I know nothing about Ranmaru besides that he is the leader, his love interest, and something else I can’t say, but I will say that this part doesn’t even really matter because it was mentioned and not expanded on. I will get into all of it more in the cons, especially the romance, but even though I hated the last, i did like the beginning so I will talk about those moments in the pros.

 

Pros

  • Mariko. As I said above, Mariko is a beautiful remodel of Mulan. Mariko has the same principal of Mulan, where she wants to be seen as more than just a women, but the thoughts and approach are very different, and that’s the beauty of Mariko. There is a part where Mariko basically says that she hates being a women, but within that, it’s actually deeper. Mariko hated being a women, because of what she’s been told women can and can’t do. Her brother is this amazing samurai, but she is valued as nothing more than a bride to sell. Everyone refuses to see her as anything more, so she hates being a women because those thoughts have tainted her into thinking she will never amount to anything more than a bride. It’s not that she hates being a women, it’s that she hates the views of what a women is. Mairko is not a physical fighter, she is not a warrior like Mulan, but she is a fighter. She doesn’t see it, but in all of her actions she is fighting the mold. One line in this book hit me harder then it probably did most, but I could tell the author put it in because of how strong the line was. When Mariko cuts off her hair the author writes, “Later she would marvel at how she did not hesitate. Not ever for an instant” I read this line and stopped reading. I just stared at it because of how perfect this line was. I completely understood it. To a lot of people, cutting your hair is nothing. They do it and it doesn’t matter, but for other people, the thought of cutting your hair is like someone stealing part of you. As someone who has always been praised on their long hair, and how it’s so feminine, I deeply connected with what Mariko meant by this. To everyone else Mariko’s own worth is being a beautiful women, and one of the traits of being a ‘beautiful women’ is long hair(not that I agree, I think there are many women with short hair that are gorgeous.) The long hair becomes part of who you are, and I’m aware this seems shallow, that’s the point. It’s just hair, nothing more, yet it’s something that has so much thought put into it. It can define a person. I personally could not cut my hair unless it’s dire, and that’s what happened with Mariko. Her thoughts were so overcome with survival and proving something that she didn’t think about it, she just cut it off. That’s something she would never done. This part was Mariko saying goodbye to the girl who was nothing more than a bride, and hello to the Mariko who is so much more. It’s the little things like this that made Mariko so good. It’s terrible to say cutting your hair is brave, because it isn’t, it’s the symbol of it the was brave. Mariko is doing something that will change her whole life, and she didn’t think twice about it. The hair is basically a symbol, the same as it was when Mulan stared at her reflection as she wiped off her makeup and cut off her hair. It’s a symbol of willing to change and do something more.
  • One of the best parts of Mulan was how the men influenced Mulan, and also how she influenced them. It’s happens in this book to. Mariko is very logical, which most people don’t think is strength. (Like Ren when he says, “Knowledge feeds no one. Nor does it win any wars.” It most definitely does. Wars are won through war tactician, and traps have been used to catch animals for a long time. Knowledge feeds people, and wins wars all the time. I do not understand…) Okami, and a few others, teach her that logic can be strength, you just need to learn how to use it as so. They teach Mariko that she doesn’t have to physically fight to be strong. Now Mariko’s influence on them isn’t as strong. She just helps them make weapons. She doesn’t really change their minds about women like the movie of Mulan because Okami states that it never mattered to him in the first place, but I like it still. It just shows Mariko that there was men who were capable of seeing women as something more in the first place.
  • The Japanese culture. I’m not Japanese so I can’t say she did perfect, I wouldn’t know, but from what I know about Japan, she did good. I’ve always loved learning about other cultures. I think it’s something everyone should do. It’s just as important to learn about other people’s cultures as it is to learn about your own. The author used Japanese words, she stuck to Japanese traditions, she knew what seppuku was and when it’s done. It’s clear she studied before writing, which means a lot. She knew that the family name came before their first name, she knew the correct titles to put on the ends of names, she used Yokai and used them correctly. She could of not put the titles like sama and chan, after the names, but because she did it made it seem so much more accurate. Like I said, I can’t speak for a Japanese person and say this is matches perfectly to Japaneses culture. What I know is for anime,( I know that sounds sad and anime is not an accurate depiction of Japan, I learned little things, like the titles that go with people names, and how their schools works, watching anime does not mean you know Japan), and some of the things I either looked up on my own to learn more, or watched videos of people who live in Japan talking about it. I’m not an expert on Japan, so I can’t say that it’s accurate, but from what I know, It’s does a good job.

 

Cons

 

  • The romance. I love romance. I don’t read a lot of books that don’t have some form of romance. I like reading about the bonds people form as they get to know each other, and that’s very important in romance. This book was setting up for an ok romance, but it definitely one of the worse I’ve read, and I hate that because I know this author can write really good romance, I’ve read it, but I hated this one, for one main reason. It was so rushed. The attraction between the characters were so slow building, which is good, but then out of nowhere they were kissing and in love with each other, it made no sense. It really didn’t. I even read a review that talked about how the romance made no sense before I read it. I thought they were exaggerating, but they weren’t. I liked Okami and their relationship could of been good, if it didn’t just randomly happen. One second Okami is suspicious and doesn’t trust Mariko, the next they are kissing, WHAT?!? How does this make any sense. There was no transition. I would rather there had been no romance.
  • The whole second half of the book was rushed. All the characters but Mariko lost any importance and didn’t develop. The beginning was so good, but the ending was so bad to me. I hate saying that. I don’t like saying that it felt like the author didn’t put a lot of work into it, but that part felt like that. Maybe it’s just what she wanted, and if it is, that’s great, it’s your book, you write the story you want to hear, don’t write it for anyone else but you, I just thought it was rushed. All the characters were all in the process of developing and after Mariko is found out, the development goes in the trash. Ranmaru became literally nothing. Maybe she had a page or word limit so she couldn’t expand on them more, I don’t know. I feel like if the book was longer she would of been able to make the characters better, which would of made the story better, and I might have even really liked it.
  • I didn’t like reading the multiple perspectives. A lot of time multiple perspectives can be iffy. I write a lot using it so I understand the appeal of it, and I understood why she used it. It was important to see what Kenshin and the Emperor’s side was doing, but they were just boring compared to Mariko’s side. I didn’t enjoy reading them. I found myself just skimming their chapters towards the end because my mind couldn’t focus on them

“The only power any man has over you is the power you give him.” 
― Renee Ahdieh

I wanted to read this book as soon as I found out it was a Mulan retelling. It made it better when I saw it was done by Renee Ahdieh. I loved The Wrath & The Dawn series, which I believe is a Beauty and the Beast retelling, which is another one of my favorites fairy tales. She had done it so well, I loved her characters, the romance, all of it. I was excited to see her bring another fairy tale to life like she did that one, but I didn’t like this one at all compared to The Wrath & The Dawn. If you want to see Renee Ahdieh’s potential then read those. I’ve read many Beauty and the Beast retellings, but I think her’s is the best. This is the only Mulan retelling i’ve read and I didn’t like it. I don’t think it does Mulan justice. I know I keep saying it, but I really loved the first half. The first half was so good, it held so much potential. Part of me wishes I never read the second half so I would of loved this book. I can’t say I recommend this book to anyone. If you want to read any of Renee Ahdieh’s work I do recommend The Wrath & The Dawn. This book also doesn’t change my opinion on her. Not all of an author’s works are great and hits. If she puts out another series, I will still most likely give it a try. This one was just a miss for me and I don’t see myself reading the second one, which I hate. I wish I could read it, but it wouldn’t entertain me so I don’t see myself reading it.

 

“Be as swift as the wind. As silent as the forest. As fierce as fire. As unshakable as the mountains.”

-Renee Ahdieh

VS.

“Tranquil as a forest… We must be as swift as a coursing river. (Be a man) with all of the force of a great typhoon. (Be a man) With all of the strength of a raging fire. 

-Mulan, I’ll Make A Man Out Of You

I had to. I love the song. It matched so perfectly that I hoped she did it because of the song. Plus Shang is the best Disney love interest, no one tops him.

 

Contemporary · LGBT · Romance · Sports · Uncategorized

The King’s Men (All for the Game #3)

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The King’s Men

Nora Sakavic

23594461

Publisher: Self Published by Nora Sakavic

Release Year: 2014

Date Read: September 17, 2018

Genre: Sports, LGBT, Contemporary, Young Adult,

Grade: A+/ 5 Stars

***This book contains torture, murder, talk of sexual abuse, gangs, and physical abuse. If you are sensitive to any of these then either read with cautious or do not read at all*** 

“Fight because you don’t know how to die quietly. Win because you don’t know how to lose. This king’s ruled long enough—it’s time to tear his castle down.”

― Nora Sakavic,

 

Neil’s time to stay with Foxes is almost up. Soon he will have to abandon the place he has made within the team. He thought it would be easy, but he broke all the rules his mother taught him by befriending and trusting the other Foxes, and broke even bigger one when he found himself attracted to one. Neil still thinks he can just run away, but as the time gets closer he starts to see how hard it is. He still has to win against the Raven’s, hurt Riko in the process, and find a way to escape the same monster he has been running from for eight years. The truth of Neil’s life is bound to come out, but when, and how will the people he found himself caring about take it.

 

The first book was good, the second book seemed impossible to top, the third did just that. It’s been a while since I loved a series so much. Every part of this book was amazing. It made me cry again, both from sadness and relief. Watching Neil deal with it all to the point of breaking made me feel broken with him. The book had me pulled inside it so deep that I refused to do anything else that would tear me way until I finished it. The day after reading it all I had done was look up pictures about the series, and go reread my favorite scenes over and over again. I have become obsessed with all of it. It is now in my top five, though i’m not sure where it’s placed exactly yet. I just know that it’s there. It kicked a book out. This book was amazing on it’s own but, it’s characters is what made this book shine. I’ve been comparing it to Maggie Stiefvater’s Raven Boys books but, I think this one is better, in my opinion. I just liked it more and literally can’t stop thinking about it. All I want right now is to get the physical copies and go back and reread and analyze the whole book based on what I know. That’s basically what I’ve been doing with the last book on and off all day. I can not get over the characters. WHY IS THIS SELF PUBLISHED!?!?!

 

“He’d come to the Foxhole Court every inch a lie, but his friends made him into someone real.”

― Nora Sakavic,

Pros

  • Her characters. I know nothing about this author. I googled her and saw literally two sentences about her, but based on her writing, it is like she goes out and people watches all day. She knows how to write a person, not just a character. She didn’t make her characters all the stereotypical characters and let them ride on that. She took them, changed them, and made them into real people. Kevin is probably the best character to use to explain what I mean. Kevin is what would be the typical star player. He is famous, has the perfect nice smile that people love, plays at one of the best schools, and seems like he has his whole life together, but of course he doesn’t because that’s the normal stereotype. Nora took the normal sports star stereotype and remodeled it. Sure, on the outside Kevin is perfect. He is strong and looks like he is always happy, but that’s not Kevin. Kevin is really someone who has spent his whole life owned, and compared to someone else to the point that he started to just become a number. He was player, a robot, and that was it. He has been beaten down his whole life, by a family that isn’t even his, so much that he cowers just when he hears their name. The thought of facing them makes him shake and go into a full on panic mode that he can only stop by knocking back a few drinks. Exy has become his whole entire life and nothing else can’t fit in there.  Kevin is not the happy, strong person at all. He is someone who is scared of losing because of what has been ingrained in his head. Nora Sakavic took the star player who was seemed indestructible and put a reason why he seemed indestructible. Even though Kevin’s life before the foxes seems like something out of a drama, Kevin himself doesn’t. Kevin seems real. It’s like the book has tricked me into thinking I’ve always known who Kevin is. That’s how all her characters are written. Andrew would be the stereotypical ‘bad boy’ but nothing about him is stereotypical besides that he has a bad past. I’ve seen many authors create well written characters who stuck with you, but Nora Sakavic created people. I’ve never seen characters who have seemed so real before. There is a big part of me that feels like I have to go to the Exy game tomorrow or Coach Wymack is going to sign me up for a marathon.
  • Andrew and Neil. Every review I’ve written for this series so far has has Andrew as a reason to read it. Of course this one is going to have him. I love everything about his character. I love that his character doesn’t really change except in subtle ways. Andrew is still the same person who likes to treat life like a game, like during the games when he uses his perfect aim to nail people in the head with the ball, he is still aggressive and doesn’t like to deal with people. It’s the little changes in him from the first book that show a lot. The way he is willing to tell Neil little parts about his life if Neil is willing to answer honestly about his. The way he protects Neil from serious harm. The way he is willing to work with the other members a little more. He is getting closer to people, letting Aaron and Neil in. There is just so much about him that shows growth and that he is willing to grow with the help of others. Neil and Andrew are perfect together. They are one of my favorite couples I’ve read. It’s the way they interact. The way Neil will not touch Andrew because he knows Andrew doesn’t like it, and if Andrew does let Neil touch him, Neil won’t move his hand from the spot Andrew put it. Even to get his attention, Neil will not touch him. He will either grab his sleeve or put his hand out in front of Andrew to try to draw his attention to him. He doesn’t touch him. Then there’s what Andrew has given away for Neil. He let his secret about him being gay out because he wanted to make sure Neil was safe, he let people see his caring side(even though it is still aggressive somewhat), he starts to play Exy more seriously for him, and then there’s even more stuff that I can’t say because it’s all spoilers. They work so well together. My favorite chapter that shows them so well is Chapter Fourteen. It shows perfectly how Andrew is with Neil and what he would do for him. I loved that chapter. I loved the chapter after with the trash bags(You’ll understand if/when you read it) Neil and Andrew are a couple that if you didn’t already know from looking it up, you would of never known they would have gotten together. They have come a long way from the first chapter when Andrew hit Neil with a raquet.
  • The part where Neil broke down. I can’t go into a lot of it because it’s spoilers, but that whole scene I was fine into Neil said one line. I didn’t even realize exactly what he meant in that line until I went to the next page and saw what he was saying. I went back and read the phrase again and immediately my vision was blurry with tears. Within that one sentence was Neil breaking and giving up hope. Throughout the whole book it was him trying, hoping that he could life the life he wanted, and that line was him shattering all the hope. Throughout the rest of that whole part I was in tears until something good happened, and then it was tears of relief, and then it was once again tears for Neil’s broken state. I’ve always been able to handle reading more messed up things in books, because I know it’s not real(except for the second book in that series. It was terrifying how real that felt. Like I was in that room), but this one, because of Neil, affected me. I know I have compared this series to some sports anime for how the sport part of this book feels, but this one scene reminded me of Tokyo Ghoul. It reminded me of one of the times Kaneki breaks. One of those moments where he just couldn’t take it anymore and broke apart, laughing because he didn’t know what to feel anymore. I felt like I was watching a scene from Tokyo Ghoul. From me that is a huge compliment. Tokyo Ghoul is my favorite manga/anime. (If you want to know what sentence i’m talking about, Chapter Twelve, 24th paragraph from the end of the chapter, the last comma section of the second sentece, section starts with “and wished…”)
  • I could probably go on with pros forever, making each character they’re own pro, but that’s a lot. I’ll leave it off with the ending. I love how the ending was done. While there is a huge part of me that is screaming, MORE!!!, I think the way she ended it was very well done. (Though if she wants to write more I would definitely read it, without a doubt.) She left it with one chapter of Neil’s life ending and with him beginning another. It was a great way to end the book. Though there is still answers that I want, like, Aaron’s court case, Andrew seeing his foster mom at said court case, Kevin feelings on what happened with Riko. I wish we could of seen those, but even without seeing it I still thought it was a good ending. Endings can be hard, and I think Nora found a great way to close it off.

 

Cons

  • One of the things I noticed throughout all the books was the literal writing, like the grammar and use of words. There was a few things that were awkward sentences, and some things that should of had commas to help with the pacing, make it easier to read. There was a few times I had to go back and reread something. And if this was published by a major company this would be a bigger con then what it is, but the fact that she published this herself means there’s a chance she didn’t have an editor, which makes it barely a con. It’s a con if it bothers you too much. I understand how hard it can be to go back and try to edit your own work to the same extent an editor would. There is many times when I write something, it seems like it makes sense, but then someone else has a hard time reading it. For what she did, I don’t see it was much of a con, I just thought it should be mentioned that yes, there are times when the sentences are weird, or a comma is needed. And there was one sentence that I think was missing a word. I don’t know if my e-book app messed it up because it does mess some of my books up in some other ways. If I ever get a physical copy, which I hope to soon, then I will know if the author just forgot a word and never noticed.
  • There was only one inconsistent thing that I noticed. Neil with the media. In the beginning he didn’t want to be in front of camera, then he would make a huge show of it, but then he would go back to being scared of being in front of the cameras out of fear of being found. He would go back and forth with that a lot. I’ve also seen people say that Neil’s thoughts on Andrew were inconsistent, but I think it was more of Neil was in denial about everything. He didn’t want it to be real  because in his mind it was impossible for many reasons. His mother’s warning, him supposed to be leaving, and that fact that it’s Andrew. That was just part of Neil’s character, not an inconsistency.
  • Aaron. This is a con for me. I hate Aaron. The only parts I like about Aaron is what he did for Andrew in the second book, and when he says that he is going to leave and pretend he doesn’t know them, because I think that is funny. Otherwise Aaron is a cowardly dick, and I don’t like him. Everyone acts like Andrew is the dick, but Andrew only reacts when someone bothers him or his people. Aaron is a dick to everyone for no reason. He also instigate fights and arguments. I couldn’t stand Aaron. He was a brat. What he said to Neil at the mountains pissed me off. Who thinks that’s ok to say to anyone. And then he acts like his brother being gay is bothering him. It’s like he would rather just bring Andrew down more than help to pick him back up. Andrew isn’t the best brother but at least he is trying in his own way. I hate Aaron, but I do feel like his character was important and was needed, but I still hate him.

“He hadn’t realized how lonely he was until he met the Foxes.”

-Nora Sakavic

If anyone couldn’t tell, i’m obsessed with these books. This will be a series I will read again. I will buy and annotate, with sticky notes, all over some physical copies.I want them at my doorstep right now so I can get to work on it. Reading these books also is a help to my writing. It shows how much studying and working on your characters can make a book a masterpiece. She did so many things that I love and I’m still wanting to know why she is self published!! Was it a choice? Or was it because no one would buy the rights? If it’s the latter than they missed out on a great opportunity. I also have no idea if Nora is planning on writing anything else, I hope she is working on more books. I think she’s talented, and whatever she comes out with I will read. I don’t feel ready to be done with these books, but there’s nothing left to read. I’m going to miss the five foot, blonde, monster, who isn’t really a monster, and my two boys with their Exy obessions.

“Neil had been doing one stupid thing after another all year long and this has turned into one of the best years of his life.”

― Nora Sakavic

Fantasy · Magic · Romance

Fire Study (Study #3)

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Fire Study

Maria V Snyder

1966969

Publisher: Mira Books

Year Released: 2008

Date Read:  Septemeber 10, 2018

Genre: Fantasy, Magic, Romance

Grade: B/ 4 Stars

 

“There’s always another storm. It’s the way the world works. Snowstorms, rainstorms, windstorms, sandstorms, and firestorms. Some are fierce and others are small. You have to deal with each one separately, but you need to keep an eye on whats brewing for tomorrow.”

― Maria V. Snyder

 

A war between the magicians and Ixia is about to take place. Yelena is finishing her apprenticeship, but still is having trouble proving to the Magicians Council that she is not against them or trying to  betray them. Matters are only made worse when a plot is made against Yelena that makes everyone out to get her. Yelena must get all of her friends together to try to stop the war that is brewing and save Sitia from its own destruction. There’s only one more problem. One of their friends is betraying them, and Yelena doesn’t know who.

Fire Study is the best of both the first and second book of the Study series. You get all the characters from the first book and all the characters from the second book working together, either helping or trying to get rid of Yelena and Ixia. An even better part is that it’s a book that is pretty much full of Yelena and Valek. It’s also full of more of Yelena’s sneaky plan’s and Valek’s plan B’s which is just him cutting throats.

 

Pros

  • Even though there is more of Valek in this book, it’s still not romance heavy. Maria V Snyder always has a way of putting her romance in the background and letting the characters figuring themselves out and growing take the lead. She also always make the male interest majorly supporting the main character. They are there to help them with what they need, and to help them grow. But she does it in a way that doesn’t make the male interests just a support character with nothing else to them. In the Healer series, Kerrick is also there to help Avry but he also has his own goals that he sets out to do. Avry helps him and he helps Avry. It’s the same with Valek and Yelena. I really enjoy reading Maria V Snyder’s relationships, not only with the couples, but the friends. The friend’s bonds aren’t as strongly written as Maggie Stiefvater’s Raven Boys series, but it’s still very present.
  • Yelena’s growth. Her growth throughout the three books seems subtle but as she has figured out her new powers she has grown with them. She went from being someone who avoided the conflict and was just trying to survive in the first book, to saving both the place she grew up  in and the place she was meant to be. She’s gotten more confident in herself and mentions Reyad less showing that she is learning to move on from the pains in her past. 
  • There’s more action scenes this time. Even if there’s not actual fighting all the tie there’s scenes that get intense and make you want to keep turning the page.

 

Cons

 

  • Cahil is still an annoying brat through most of it. He got more ok towards the end though. I was hoping Valek would just kill him through it. 
  • The book can be seen as boring possibly because it is almost the same as the second book. More sneaking around, council doesn’t like Yelena, people trying to make Yelena pick a side, a lot of people want to kill her. It’s the same as the second book with just different events. I still enjoyed it but I can see how someone could think it was repetitive.

“It’s the problem with mistakes, they tend to linger.”

― Maria V. Snyder

This is the second series written by Maria V Snyder that I have loved and i’m glad that it’s not over. I only finished the first half of the Study series and will soon start the second part of Yelena’s story with the Soul Finders series. I can’t wait to see what new issues Yelena will have in the Soul Finders series and have more of her and Valek. This book was a good conclusion to the first half of the series and marks a good place to take a break on from. Everything is solved with no foreshadowing so you can read this book and be content to stop. You wouldn’t even have to read the second half if you just wanted to leave Yelena’s story there. This is a good series to read if you like magic, adventure, political disagreements, assassins, diversity, kingdoms, and if you liked Maria V Snyder’s Healer series. 

 

Fantasy · Magic · Romance

Magic Study

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Magic Study (Study #2)

Maria V Snyder

1265703

 

Publisher: Mira

Year Released: 2007

Date Read: September 8, 2018

Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Magic, Romance

Grade: B/ 4 Stars

“I’ll have you know that the most delicate flowers often produce the strongest scent when crushed.”

― Maria V. Snyder

**This review contains talk of things that could trigger some people. If you do not wish to read things that contain talk of rape or rape victims then please either do not read this review or just be aware of it.**

 

Magic Study is the sequel to Maria V Snyder’s Poison Study. Yelena no longer is having to test foods for poison but that doesn’t stop her life from being in danger. Yelena has left Ixia, the place where magic is banned, and now is in her home land where she will meet her family she was taken from and learn more about herself as she learns magic. Learning about her new magic is the easiest part of Yelena’s new life as she tries to solve who is kidnapping and killing girls, and stopping multiple people from trying to kill her, not to mention being named a spy by a man who claims he is the rightful heir to the throne in Ixia. More and more problems pile on to Yelena as she starts to uncover more about her would be life.

Going into this book I was scared that I wouldn’t love it as much as the first book, or just hate it general. I was glad those thoughts did not become true. I loved this book almost as much as I loved the first one. I thought I was going to miss Yelena’s constant interactions with Valek throughout the whole book but Yelena’s story kept busy. There was never an off period where nothing was happening. Yelena was always having something going on. Drama with her family(mainly her brother, Lief), constant ridicule from the same two people, being chased by a man whose pride was taken by Yelena, and trying to stop a man from harming more girls. It was a packed story but it wasn’t too packed where it seemed like to much. It was just the right amount where you never got bored reading it.

 

Pro

  • I don’t know how she hasn’t, but Maria V Snyder needs to be praised for how she writes how Yelena handles being raped and how she comforts other girls who go through it. I loved in the first book when she spoke briefly about it but I especially loved how she spoke about it in this one. Her conversation with Tula about how none of it was her fault, and then told her that it was going to be a battle to get through it but everyone would be there to help her.
  • Valek’s love and loyalty to Yelena. Valek make it apparent that whatever Yelena wants from him all she has to do is ask him for it. Valek will give her anything or do anything for her. He is constantly popping into her head when she is in need of it and asking her what he can do for her, and no matter how weird or impossible her request is, all he says is he will do it with him calling her love tied onto the end of it Valek was only in this book for a little less than half(if even that) and he still had me swooning over him.

Cons

  • The only real con I can think of is that this book does have a lot of drama going on, though that wasn’t a con for me, it might be for others. There was a lot more action and fighting scenes then the first book.
  • Cahal is annoying, but that’s his character. He is very obnoxious and is always angry for no reason. He is very bratty and reading about a very bratty man isn’t the most enjoyable. The more he shows up the more the dislike for him grows. He gets worse as the book goes on, though i’m sure that was the point of his character. 

“And what did you give him in return?”…

“My heart.”

― Maria V. Snyder

Magic Study was just as good as Poison Study. The characters have grown and changed from the first one and the story is progressing in a good way. The action is coming along more and so is Yelena as a character. There is a lot of times when some off the middle books in a series get boring but this one kept my attention well. It was a very good addition to the series.

“Living is a risk…Every decision, every interaction, every step, every time you get out of bed in the morning, you take a risk. To survive is to know you’re taking that risk and to not get out of bed clutching illusions of safety.”

― Maria V. Snyder

Fantasy · Magic · Romance

Poison Study

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Poison Study

Maria v. Snyder

60510

Publisher: Mira

Year Released: 2007

Date I Read It: August 28, 2018

Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Romance, Magic

Grade: B/ 4 Stars

“To Yelena, our newest food taster. May you last longer than your predecessor.”

― Maria V. Snyder

Yelena is given the choice of death or a small chance at life after she is arrested for murder. The  Commander is in need of a new food taste tester, and Yelena would like to live. To prevent Yelena from running away she is given the poison, Butterfly Dust, which she needs to take a daily antidote of to stay alive. The only one who can give her the antidote is the Chief of Security, Valek, who also makes her learn how to taste and smell poisons, and sometimes even ingest them to learn the immediate symptoms. Yelena thought her only problem would be risking her life by taking the chance of being poisoned, but as the father of the man she murdered tries to have her assassinated and spies betray the castle, Yelena will find out the job that already seemed impossible to survive just got even more impossible.

If you enjoy fantasy books that take place inside of a castle type setting with spies, assassination attempts, forbidden magic, and a handsome killer with a growing soft spot you would probably enjoy this book. After reading Maria V Snyder’s Healer series I decided that I would try out her other series, Poison Study. Maria V Snyder’s book reminds me of all the adult type books I read without all the adult content(Although some is there just not descriptive). She doesn’t focus on the romance, but on the main character dealing with her problem. The romance is present, but her main characters always tend to focus on their objectives more than their love interest which is refreshing since a lot of young adult books do tend to focus on the love interest.(Which I don’t mind, I love, but it is nice to step away from it for awhile) She also has a way of making the main character coming off as strong without overly doing it or making them invincible. In this book Yelena is not really a fighter, she’s just does what she needs to survive. Yeah, she killed a man(with reason) but Yelena only fights back when she has to do it to live. What makes Yelena strong is that she bounces back and she’s smart. She is strong without being physically strong. Yelena is vulnerable and she isn’t some crazed killer, she is just a normal person who got stuck in a bad situation and is trying her best to survive.

“Trusting is hard. Knowing who to trust, even harder.”

― Maria V. Snyder

Pros

  • A lot of books start with the romance as soon as they can. While Maria starts off with chemistry between the characters and you can see where she is going to go with it, the characters themselves aren’t pining after each other throughout the whole book. It’s a slow builds with each of their interactions, like a normal relationship would between to people who weren’t looking for one.
  • Valek. He is just a really good character. He comes off as a little cold at first but it is shown very quickly that he isn’t. He is actually really nice and sweet. He just comes off cold because if he doesn’t know you or feels that he can’t trust you he feels that you are a danger to the Commander. The only times he actually gets angry at Yelena is when something happens to or with the Commander, otherwise he helps her out.
  • How Yelena handles her past. Why Yelena killed that man, the true reason, is what made me see Yelena stronger then I already did. Through the book you can tell something happened to Yelena, and based on how she talked about them, you could assume it had to do with a torture like situation. I had figured that they had hurt her but not in the way that they did. I think that Yelena handles herself very well and in a way most people wouldn’t after that. I loved everything about how Yelena handled it from the moment it happened to her. Also while it is a part of her character it doesn’t define her, she doesn’t let it.
  • A surprise LGBT character that isn’t in there just to have one.

 

Con

  • It’s really hard for me to find a flaw in this. I’m searching for it deep in my head,  but one of the only ones I can really think of was when the romance did happen it happened fast. They talked about it for a few seconds and then a lot happened really fast. It did seem like a little awkward pacing.
  • If you are an action fan this does not have a lot of it. It is only the first book so in the others there might be more. But the action in this never lasted long, it was very quick and done.

“Everyone makes choices in life. Some bad, some good. It’s called living, and if you want to bow out, then go right ahead. But don’t do it halfway. Don’t linger in whiner’s limbo.”

― Maria V. Snyder

This is my favorite type of book so for me personally it is hard to see fault with it. I like adventure type stories with assassins, castles, spies, and cold characters going soft. So for me this was a book I was very happy to find because this is the type of story I’m always looking for. It actually makes me scared to start the second book because I don’t want it to be so different from the first. If you liked Morgan Rhodes’ Falling Kingdoms series, or Maria V Snyder’s other series that she made, then I would try this one.

“What have I earned from you, Valek? Loyalty? Respect? Trust?”

“You have my attention. But give me what I want, and you can have everything.”

― Maria V. Snyder