I had to pace myself with my reading the first half of this month, since I was testing for my license in therapy. Yes, I kept on reading, but I made sure not to read too much. It's a great way to do self-care and relax, but I must admit that the way I like to read makes me neglect the things I need to focus on.
I buckled down and readied myself for the test, and I recognized my own ADHD tendencies. With ADHD, it's not abnormal to wait until the night before to study for an exam, and with this one, I had not had success doing this. So, I needed to take 3-4 hours a day to just sit down and focus, which is not easy for me.
The test has been completed, but I don't have a score yet. Why? Well, it's graded on a curve AND there are experimental questions that count less or don't count at all, and that takes a while to score. It's been hell refreshing my inbox repeatedly, but the last day they'll send test results will be in June. Y'all, listen... if I passed, I passed, but it didn't feel like I passed, but my test prep program said that this was normal to feel when you actually did pass. I can always take it again... in 4 months. If I qualify for my license, it will open all different avenues of income to me, finally! And I will be a licensed counselor who can pursue developed paths.
Getting past the exam has been a relief, even if I don't know if I scored well enough. I'm getting back to reading and being social and seeing friends. But that's not what you're here for, right? Bring on the book reviews!
This month I read a lot of fantasy duologies. I love all the fantasy series coming out right now! And I think I have a few favorite author in Mary Pearson!
Ark Angel by Mikaela A.E. - This book has a lot of range in it. When I first started reading it, I wasn't sure if it was a Middle Grade book. The first 40% of the book is told from the main character, Ember Bridgem, when she's 12-years-old, the rest of the book is told from an 18-year-old Ember's point of view, and with the spice, I'd consider it New Adult. This book reminded me of Battle Royale and Ender's Game, but ended up having a large portion of it being much more grown up, more appropriate for New Adult.
Ember is a precocious 12-year-old in a dystopian world where the last survivors are in the Ark, a large collection of buildings and a community divided into Upworlders and Underworlders. The Upworlders keep their children in their homes where the air is clean until they turn 12 and then they can get fitted for a terrarium breathing tank and explore outside their home, since the air is so polluted. Ember goes to a tournament with her father where she sees Underworlders, or kids who live underground and without as many resources, fight it out to the death. She gets mixed up in an attempted coup, and the Ark Angel overtakes the jumbotron and threatens the Upworlders. The Underworlders, who are supposedly criminals, save her life, but her father dies. Shortly after, her stepmother takes her father's high position of chancellor, and signs Ember over to a special boarding school for troubled Upworlder kids called Whitethorne, where there are 5 other kids and a hologram that oversees them and parents them named Mother, who often times shorts out and becomes cruel. There's also an interface hologram that only Ember can see after getting a computer implant in her brain whom she names Caelum. The next part of the book explains the purpose of Whitethorne and the purpose of the different interfaces they all have, when she jumps to being age 18.
It was an enjoyable book, I couldn't predict what was happening, but the character of the Ark Angel was revealed at the end. I really hope a sequel is in the works.
4/5 ⭐️
Below the Grand Hotel by Cat Scully. Want to read a really scary book? I got your order right here! This one should be appropriate for a New Adult audience, but I could see it being readable by a YA audience. It's a good historical book but scary at the same time.
The story starts off with Mabel Rose Dixon, a wannabe vaudeville star who ran away from her family farm in Georgia to New York, and in her attempts at survival, she becomes a petty thief and pickpocket. She's plucky and likeable, despite being a thief, and wants to be able to audition for the Zeigfield follies again. She goes to steal a diamond when asked to come up to someone's hotel room in the Grand Hotel, and discovers quickly she's in the company of demons, who injure her. To stay alive, she has to give them her soul, and the exchange is that she has to get another 100 souls for the head demon, Frank, before the end of the month. On the other hand, after she heals, can be prettier, more talented, have a fabulous wardrobe and accommodations, but she can't leave the hotel.
There was a lot of gore and death in it. They said it was Hellraiser meets the Great Gatsby, and I can see the comparison. I myself identified with Mabel's need to be a star at any cost, but I could tell where she and I differed. I could draw the line at a certain point. Also, I don't steal because I am the most unlucky person alive, haha! Mabel comes under the belief quickly that she can steal her soul back, and with the encouragement and help of a former boxer turned bellhop named William, she decides to free all of the souls of the people tricked into deals with the demons who are now staff slaves at the hotel when they couldn't meet the terms of their bargains.
The tone of the book was a lot more lighthearted than I expected. I was expecting a little more gothic tone, but it read really well. And, I hate to say this because it comes off as critical, but I feel like with all the blood and gore, it could have used some spice, but it did just as well without it. I was still scared through the end.
4/5 ⭐️
Dance of Thieves by Mary Pearson - This one was recommended to me by a friend of mine in book club who had heard good things about it. This one is so good! You think you have the motives of the characters figured out and then you get a twist! If you liked the Powerless Trilogy, you’ll absolutely love this. There's also some Game of Thrones vibes about it, too.
Jase Ballinger was destined to take the position if Patrei of Tor’s Watch and Hell’s Mouth, but he didn’t think it was going to happen so soon! His father dies, and even though he’s not the oldest he gets appointed as his successor after an illness that takes him. His family history is long and extremely family-oriented, going back to being the first settlement on the continent, and the role of Patrei is to protect the people he governs over. The Ballingers don’t answer to any of the royalty on the continent, and are antiheroes you end up rooting for.
Kazymeriah of Brightmist is a street urchin turned pickpocket turned Queen’s guard. She has her own found family, but a heartbreaking backstory of being orphaned and fighting for survival on the streets. Kazi has a found family through her fellow guards Wren and Synové and the Queen. The Queen has sent her on a mission to Hell’s Mouth to make a peace bargain with the Ballingers concerning the Arena outside of Hell’s Mouth, where the most lucrative market is located, which makes the Ballengers the wealthiest family continent, even wealthier than any Royal lines. Only thing is, not everybody in the arena is selling honest goods. Things go awry when Kazi and Jase both get kidnapped and chained together by the ankles by Previsi, slave traders, starting an enemies to lovers and forced proximity trope.
I loved this book so much! This book is probably the best rate of the year for me. Well, the characters were flawed, the more time they spent together. You really did understand where they were coming from and you were rooting for both sides, even though they were actual enemies to start with. Just when you think one character has it figured out and you’re on that stream of, ‘oh this is gonna happen next’, you get blindsided. There’s all kinds of double crosses and alliances that are unexpected. Things that I absolutely loved about this book was the Ballinger family, obviously. They were all flawed, but likable. I wanted to be a Ballinger. Wren, Kazi, and Synové were a girl gang I would love to hang out with! Kazi is extremely smart, too, and knows what she’s doing, and can Best Jase when needed, and she does it! I loved the romance and how it unfolded, too.
5/5 ⭐️
Vow of Thieves by Mary Pearson - this is the sequel to Dance of Thieves, and I really liked this one better than the original! Jase and Kazi were sent on a mission by the Queen of Venda and they are more in love than ever. They are on their way back to Tor's Watch when it picks up, and they encounter an ominous warning. Kazi and Jase are attacked and separated by a group of men who have overtaken Tor's Watch and have chased the Ballinger Family into the vault again. The men are with the poor Farmer King, King Montegue has overtaken Tor's Watch and is taking a portion of the profits from the Arena Marketplace to line his own pockets.
I love how this one has our love interests separated for most of the story, and how hard they work to get back to each other. King Montegue is cunning and manipulative, and it's a challenge for Kazi to get the best of him. Jase, on the other hand, must find his way back to her and his family, taking back Tor's Watch in the process from Montegue.
This one was soooo good! I made TikTok about how I screamed at the revelation in end of Chapter 39. The family angle was a huge reason why I liked this book and I liked Jase, too. I don't want to spoil too much since this is a duology sequel, let's just say, go read it. I wish I had read the prequel trilogy, the Remnant Chronicles, but you can still enjoy both the trilogy and the duology any order in which you read them. I bought this book on Amazon Kindle, but I really want this duology for self-trophies!
5/5 ⭐️
To Kill a Shadow by Katherine Quinn. I enjoyed this duology a lot (I sure read a lot of duologies this month!). The Kingdom is in a permanent night, no sunshine. The world struggles with growing crops, and King Cirian needs guards.
The Commander of the guard, a young Jude Maddox, is going from village to village to conscript soldiers. He sees a girl defending her little brother against a bully, and instead of taking her asthmatic brother Liam, he conscripts Kiara Frey. After training, King Cirian demands Jude take several of his recruits into the Mistlands, which scares Jude, because all the recruits he took last time died, he was the lone survivor.
I enjoyed this book due to the world building and tropes, but I had to put aside expectations that it obeyed the laws of the real world. My dad was military and a relationship like Kiara and Jude’s wouldn’t fly in the American military. Jude was only 2 years older than Kiara but already a commander. That’s not going to happen in real life, obviously, but that’s something you have to get used to when reading fantasy; it doesn’t obey the laws of your world, nor should it have to. I enjoyed the story, though.
The romance was sweet, and very appropriate, but had some racy moments. Jude makes choices to protect Kiara even despite being commanded to do certain things. A big trigger warning is child abuse remembered, though.
4/5 ⭐️
To Shatter the Night by Katherine Quinn. Sequel to To Kill a Shadow, Mistlands #2. This one started off strong with Jude having left Kiara in the Mistlands to keep her safe. But, unlike the previous book, there were open door bedroom scenes that I felt didn’t belong in a YA novel in general. I felt like this novel was just barely spicy enough that needed to be New Adult, and parents need to be aware of this if they decide their individual teen under 18 or whatever the age of consent is in your area, should be allowed to read the spice in it. For the record, I am an advocate for literary freedom and I am against the fascism that bans books. This book was published under Entangled Teen, which is usually a young adult market. On Amazon, it is being listed as Young Adult, not New Adult. Now, a lot of teens can handle spice, so maybe certain ones can handle it, but I do firmly advocate that this should be the parent’s decision on if their teen under the age of consent is ready for it. It wasn’t a lot, but just enough spice.
With that warning, let's get back to the review. This book had some great action scenes as Kiara and Jude came back together. I really did enjoy meeting Jude’s mother, I thought she was interesting, but flawed for sure. The violence in the book was more magical and unrealistic, so I would trust a teen audience to read it. They are on a mission to obtain the moonstone from the moon god’s temple, and it’s not an easy journey, to overcome the Moon god’s overtaking the world and not allowing the sun to rise.
While I’m an adult and can make decisions on if I’m able to read violence and spice, I felt the spice level was something parents and librarians should be aware of, which I stated earlier in the review. I enjoyed the spicy scenes, personally. Well-written.
There was a twist as to who the Moon god’s actually was, and his motivations for permanent night really made you think, “every villain thinks they’re the hero in their own story.” I think this is important to making a villain believable and dynamic as a character.
Overall, I thought this was a great book!
4/5 ⭐️
Born of Shadow by Nicole Conway. I was gifted a copy of this book on Booksprout for an honest review.
I was surprised at how good this book was! It examined prejudice and found family.
The book begins with a girl from a brutal underground tribe of fighters supposedly spawned from the Dire King Zarexius called the Viperi. She’s been a street urchin and ostracized from her Viperi tribe since she was a little girl, and has ended up in prison for killing a butcher. An assassin named Roxus takes custody of her and prepares her to enter the Zenith’s Call to enter a society of spies. She struggles to be treated fairly and to make friends, and gets blamed for failed break-ins at the temple. I was expecting a romance with Declan. It was set up but didn't really take off, although I think it was done this way to get you to read the sequel. I saw the setup a little too late before the villain was revealed, I did not guess who it was.
This book examined so many issues we are dealing with today, but in this fantasy world. Unfortunately, prejudice is still a big thing, and one of the best things about sci-fi and fantasy is that it can reflect society. I also think this is why reading is important: it helps to introduce ideas and self-reflection to the reader. 5/5 stars, I definitely want to read the sequel!
TW: violence, child abuse & neglect, prejudice and racism.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
5/5 ⭐️
Six Scorched Roses by Carissa Broadbent. This was a great novella, and I think it was handled well. The science in it was vague at best, but I didn't mind it so much because of how well it was written. This one had spice in it, but it examined death and illness. It's considered a novella that takes places between The Serpent and the Wings of Night and the Ashes and the Star-Cursed King in the Crowns of Nyaxia universe. I plan on reading the Ashes and the Star-Cursed King soon, hopefully in June!
Lillith is the girl that was not expected to live long after she was born on her family's farm. Around the time she turned 15, a plague entered the village of Adcova, and it's gotten to both her and her sister Mina, and Mina has it worse. Their parents both died, and Lillith makes a living through her work as a scientist. Of the plants that were blighted by the plague, a rosebush still stands in their yard, and Mina makes the trek to the closest vampire from Obitraes to ask for a vial of the vampire named Vale's blood, which she believes can create a cure for the plague. In exchange for a vial of blood, she offers one of the roses from the rosebush. While she is making scientific advances, the community is afraid of science and angering the gods and the local priests, especially Priest Thomassen and the god Vitarus, who is supposed to be protecting the city, but is letting it fall to a plague. She agrees to bring him 6 roses for 6 vials of his blood to study and manipulate, in hopes to find a cure.
I don't like giving away the end, but it does examine a parent's love and how far they'll go to protect their children. I wonder if we're going to see Vale in the Ashes and the Star-Cursed King or if we'll have a continuation of Raihn and Oraya's story.
4/5 ⭐️
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