Tag: A promise of fire

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I’m Back- I guess..

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Hello Everybody who sees this. It’s been awhile since I wrote anything on here, but I feel like doing it again. This whole year with books for me has been weird. Usually I would of meet my goal of books for the year by now, I’m very behind. There’s books I’ve been waiting to read and I can’t bring myself to read them. The only book I went crazy over recently was Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater, and that’s because I’ve been waiting literal years for it. I know a big part of the problem is me not being in the mood for it, but another part is my favorite genre of books are really lacking. They lack in quality and are lacking in the literal sense of they don’t exist really, What’s my favorite genre you ask? Well, it’s Urban Fantasy, but it’s more than that.

Right now I’m going to list my favorite genre and tropes, and just weird things I like in books. If you know a book similar to it, tell me it and i’ll look at it. Also, I named this blog Simplistic Reader for a reason. While I love and cherish Maggie Stiefvater’s writing, I don’t care if the books I read are up to her standard of writing. I love my simple books as much as the books whose writing leaves me in a wonderful bliss. As long as the writing isn’t terrible, or the protagonist isn’t walking around talking like a horribly written teenager, I’m general open to it. Also, I prefer new adult to adult. YA is fine, but right now I am into the more older part of it. Also, I’m not into smut books. Sex is fine in books, but I want to read more of what’s going on in the story then I do them having sex. Let’s get into my list though.

  • Urban Fantasy- I LOVE Urban Fantasy. I’ve always had a love for it since I was a child, probably because of things like Underworld and Twilight. Yes I liked Twilight, I was like Twelve. I used to be really into vampires, but I found that now, probably because of twilight, I’m not as into them anymore. The only real vampire book I have been into over the years is The Chicagoland Vampire Series. Other then that I don’t really know any strictly vampire books I’ve been into. My favorite Urban Fantasy’s normally are about, or is a big part of the plot, Shifters. I love werewolves, always have. My favorite series in this genre are, The Mercy Thompson Series by Patricia Briggs, The Kate Daniels Series Ilona Andrews, Alpha and Omega by Patricia Briggs, The Others Series by Anne Bishops. These are the type of books that I like.
  • This weird be a weird trope, but stay with me. I like books with one girl, and a group of platonic guy friends, in which there is romance with one of the guys… Like I said it might be a little weird but I love platonic friendships in books. I don’t want harems. I don’t really like them. A love triangle might be ok, but usually just one male interest. And by platonic friendships I meant friendships where the guys will hug or be close to the girl but not in a romantic way. I prefer this in Urban Fantasy/paranormal settings, but others are fine. Examples are: The Forever Evermore Series by Scarlet Dawn, The Healer Series by Maria V Synder, A Promise of Fire by Amanda Bouchet, Supernatural Prison by Jaymin Eve, and of course, The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater. I know it’s a weird thing to like, don’t judge me.
  • I don’t know why I like, I haven’t even read that many books with this, but I just like it. that would be supernatural schools. Generally where a bunch of different supernatural creatures go to school with each other. The only examples I got for this is Forever Evermore series by Scarlet Dawn and Supernatural Prison by Jaymin Eve.
  • I don’t know how to explain this next one, so bare with me. I like adventure books, I guess that’s the easiest way to say that. I guess an easier way to explain, and I honestly never wanted to admit that I have read this book, but Scarlet Dawn’s Trixie Tower Series. (This book is like a love letter to furries I swear, but for some reason I keep reading. I think she put a spell on me.) I like seeing characters go on a adventure together. My favorite part of Trixie Towers was the adventure and it was done very well. Other examples of verisons of adventure I like are The Healer Series by Maria V Synder, and A Promise of Fire by Amanda Bouchet.

I, of course, have more kinds of books I like, but right now this is what I really want to be reading. I’ve actually been into what I call my garbage reads at the moment which is like my guilty pleasure reads because they aren’t usually the best books, but I can’t stop myself from devouring their contents. Anyway, if you could help me by recommending me books like the ones above I would be grateful. Just comment them and let me see what you think I would like. Like I said though, I’m not into horribly smutty things or harems.

P.S….. I know this is a almost impossible task, but if anyone ever finds a book that compares to The Foxhole Court (All For The Game) Series, I WANT to know. That book puts me on a hangover every time and I have nothing to feed it with. I would say I would be in your debt, but I read a lot of books with the fae and have learned that’s a bad thing to say.

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.