Book Review: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark: Collected from American Folklore by Alvin Schwartz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This would be the first time that I’ve ever read this book, and I have to say that it was very interesting to read a book of scary stories. None of the scared me though, I do have two favorites-the Hearst Song and Me Tie Dough-Tie Walker!. But the art in this book was fantastic. I loved every single picture I saw. I have listened to the Hearst Song about four times, and I have sung it before (actually sung it tonight now that I think about it, and I enjoyed it).

I do have a couple favorites that I liked in this book. My favorite stories from this book are:

Me Tie Dough-Tie Walker!
The Hearst Song
The Wendigo
The Viper
Aaron Kelly’s Bones
The Big Toe
The Haunted House

Since this book review is short, I really do recommend this book because one, though it’s not that scary when you get older, it’s a pretty damned good read and two, because it’s a pretty damned good read.

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Book Review: Siege and Storm, a Grishaverse Novel by Leigh Bardugo

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

Book two of the Grishaverse, something I really wanted to read, and on top of that the cover of this book is really beautiful. I’ve missed these characters so much (also Daddy Darkling...I mean, that’s why I’m reading this book series, right? No? Is it just me? Yes? Alright…) And I really don’t want this book to end...I really, really don’t. Thank god for the third book and the other books, am I right?

I picked up this book again after reading an amazing fanfic called ‘Out of Time” by Destinies (it’s on A03...READ IT IT’S SO GOOD) and this book introduced me to my love and best boy Nikolai Lanstov, the youngest prince of the Lanstov royal family. He’s introduced as Strumhond as first when Mal and Alina first met him, and then once they returned to Os Alta and revealed himself, that’s when things started to go wonderfully.

For one, Alina and Mal are running from the Darkling, and he caught them and took them on Stumhond’s boat, where they ran away from the Darkling and went to the Fold, where Alina started to see the Darkling, and she wouldn’t even tell Mal or anyone about seeing the Darkling, as if he was real. This book also introduces Tamar and Toyla, two Grisha working under Strumhond/Nikolai and became her guards when they reached Os Alta and Alina decided that she was going to fight the Darkling, using the First Army to do it.

They also, in this story, find the second amplifier of Morozova, and they kept mentioning Sankta Ilya (to the point that I preordered the Lives of Saints book and I need to read his story) and how he has three amplifiers-something that is totally different from the ‘Grisha have one amplifier’ rule.The first one is Morozova’s Stag, second is the water dragon, and third is the firebird. Now this firebird sounds like a Phoenix, and Mal keeps dismissing it, saying that it doesn’t exist, and also I’ve realized that Alina’s a bit power hungry, now that she has the fetter and the collar. I think it’s because she wants to fight the Darkling and beat him, but I found that interesting that she’s power hungry to get all three.

BUT THE ENDING.

Holy moly.

The fight between Alina and the Darkling, and her pretty much taking his nichvo’ya and turning them around to the Darkling before she was torn from him and then they had to go the White Cathedral, where the Apparat and his followers were waiting for her. And when she rested and looked at the mirror...her hair is snow white, and...and she has no more magic.

Oh...no.

What will happen next in the next book? I don’t know, but I’m going to be reading the last book and i’m probably going to be sad afterwords once this book series is over.

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Book Review: North of Laramie: A Buck Trammel Western by William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone

North of Laramie by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This would be my third western of William A. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone’s books. I have to say, I quite enjoy them. They have surprised me more than one, and on top of that, I get so immersed in this world that sometimes I don’t want to leave.

Buck Trammel is one interesting character-one I really would like to fall in love with since he’s tall (Tall men + Brittany=Brittany Bait). But he is traveling with a man named Adam Hagen, which I’ve kept an eye on because one, there’s something about him that I don’t like. Yes, he’s a drunk and a gambler, but behind all of that is a schemer. I don’t know what it is about Adam Hagen that I don’t like, but I just...don’t...like...him.

And on top of that, the Bowman gang is coming after the both of them after Trammel killed two of their kin (which sucks, by the by). I understand you want revenge on the men who killed your family, but come on now. It is NOT that bloody serious (I mean, two people dying, yes. Getting revenge? Stupid as hell. At least, on my side of things). And they’re trying to make new lives in Laramie-Adam’s a hotelier and Trammel’s a sheriff after the other one just up and left and died after swearing him in.

I do like the characters in the story-Buck, Adam, Emily (I actually ship them). But my favorite parts have to be when we stay alone in Trammel’s mind and him trying to figure out if he wanted to stay being the law after being a Pinkerton man, then being in The Golden Lilly in Witchita as the bodyguard. I found those parts interesting, almost as character development because he’s trying to figure out if he wanted to stay being the law, or settle down somewhere, get married, have a couple kids. But with the Bowman gang after him, he didn’t think that he would, though I wish he did because he deserves everything (Adam doesn’t, but that’s another story for another time).

My least favorite would have to be Madame Peachtree (ha ha) and her men, because she wanted Trammel to look the other away while she did what she wanted to do (opium, her saloon), but he arrested her and her men, but then he found her leger that only Adam and Emily can read...oh BOY that’s all I have to say. OH BOY. That’s when I have to keep my eye on Adam, because it seems like the Bowman gang is in the background, and he’s working his own plans in the front of the story.

And boy, was I right-when they came into Laramie, and Lefty showed up to try and kill Buck, Adam went to talk to Lucien Clay, striking up a deal with him (and basically using Buck was a bargaining chip) which he didn’t like in the end. There was a gunfight between Buck and Lefty and his men, and he killed them all in self-defense. Then the end, when Hagen told him what he wanted to do in Blacktown (turn it into a Opium den) in which Buck downright refused to let happen.

I did enjoy this book so much and I want to read more! In! This! Series!

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Book Review: The Oracle Queen by Kendare Blake

The Oracle Queen by Kendare Blake
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

So...lemme get this straight….

A Queen named Elsabet is drugged every single day, not being able to use her god-given powers, right? And her husband is cheating on her left and right in front of her, and the one doing it, the poisoner, is watching from the back, pulling some strings so she can do it? Really? And on top of that the bad guys won?

What????

Basically this is my first time reading something from Kendare Blake, and I have to say, this book shocked me. One because you think that the Queen was going to win, she was going to dump her husband and that’s it, she’s still on the throne, nothing bad will ever happen to her, and she’ll be fine. But NO. It seemed like throughout the story, she was going to be betrayed by her Black Council, who locked her up (W...TF) and killed all of her subordiantes (once again...W...TF), and also killed the painter (W...TF) also accidentally killing the maid (for the people in the back...WTF).

So basically this whole entire short novella was about a queen falling from grace, getting locked up by her people, and her husband basically cheating on her. I did enjoy it, but I loved the world building the moment I started reading the first page. It was really good and I wanted to read more, even though the ending shocked the hell out of me. I fell in love with this world, and I wanted to read more (so I’m gonna read the Young Queens, because it turns out...The Young Queens is first, then The Oracle Queen, then the rest of the series…) because yes I would read the first book of the series, but I wanted to read the novella first, to see how they are before I throw myself reading the rest of the series.

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Book Review: The Bone Witch (The Bone Witch #1) by Rin Chupeco

The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Bone Witch would have to be one my favorite witchy books of 2020. I have never read a book like this before, and I enjoyed every bit of it.

So, Brittany, what is it all about?

Well it’s about a girl named Tea, who one day resurrects her dead brother from the grave without even thinking about it. Then a bone witch, or a Dark asha, named Lady Mykaela, comes into her village and takes her and her brother Fox, which is now Tea’s familiar, to a village where she will learn how to become a Dark Asha. At first, she pretty much had to work for a woman named Mistress Parmina and it was brutal, hard work, though it was simple enough. I never really liked Mistress Parmina because of how hard she was and how much work she made Ta do before she became an apprentice. Then one night someone told her to go to a tea house to deliver something...and that’s when things got bad.

Zoya, the princess, I believe, kept taunting her, and Tea got really mad to the point that she summoned bone mice and the skeleton of a long ago dead king, right in front of Prince Kance and Kalen. Tea pretty much blacked out after it happened, and then when she woke up, she found out that she will be an asha-ka in training (or i’ve gotten it backwards, and she’s already an asha-ka in training already).

And she takes classes like defense, singing lessons, dancing lessons, even fighting lessons, She even learned how to block Fox out of her mind, which made him worry and make him pound on the door, because he thought she was trouble. Tea also have another familiar, a horse she named Cloud, I think, and the two share her mind-her brother and a horse. Then came the time she put down a daeva-well, actually she told it to go away once it came towards Lady Mykaela, since she wanted to protect her.

Once the dragon daeva flew away, her brother Fox called her foolish, but was glad that she was alright. Then she called in front of the Elders, and she took their test and passed, though she thought she failed (same, I think that each time I take a test.) Then she had to go to parties for three months, but the dragon deva, the azi, was still out there, still alive, so she and her friends and her brother went out to go and kill it, but Tea got into it’s mind and made it obey her, and it did, and then it flew off into the water.

But the shocking part was when she had to confront the Faceless, which turned out to be a maid named Fahi, who’s real name is Anaeha. She tried to control Fox, only to fail when Chief came in through the door and knocked her down. Now she has four familiars-Fox, her brother, Chief, her horse, the azi and Anaeha. But what I loved the most about this book was the world building. It was so good that I got sucked in immediately and wanted to be a asha-ka myself (in my heart, I will be…) The narration was fantastic, and I enjoyed myself reading this book so much.

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Book Review: Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is my first time reading Miss Silvia’s work, and I have to say….I enjoyed every bit of it.

This book is about a girl named Noemi, and how she was ordered by her father to go to High Place, where her cousin, Catalina, is. Catalina wrote a strange letter to her uncle, asking him to send her cousin up to High Place, where the Doyles live. When it looked like Noemi was about to say no, her father made her her a deal: go and see what’s going on with Catalina, and when she comes back, that’s when he’s going to let her enroll in National University so she can study anthropology. She agreed, and off she went to the Mexican Countryside to High Place, where her cousin was with the Doyles.

When she got there...oh boy. The Doyles basically laid down some rules for her, and each time Noemi does something outside of the rules, they turn into the King and Queen and does the lovely Black Panther meme, “We don’t do this here” each time, and it frustrates her that this family is like this. Soon weird things start happened to Noemi-like she starts to have deams of the past, about what happened to Ruth and how she shot everyone and left Howard Doyle alive, and what happened in the past with Doyle and his incestual marriages, and also started to have dreams about her brother in law and Catalina’s husband, Virgil. She also started sleepwalking again while she was having these dreams, some of them really, really bad (mostly about Virgil, which makes me go yikes sometimes).

And Catalina. Poor Catalina. She’s stuck up in her room, not being able to get out because she’s sick. So Noemi is doing things for her, like going to a medicine woman named Marta, who gave her a tincture. Catalina took too much and had a seizure, which worried her, but the family thought that Noemi brought opium that triggered the seizure, but she really didn’t, and Francis, the boy she is close to and has to speak Spanish to because of the walls and the thing called the gloom that is in the house can hear

Speaking of the gloom, the whole house is covered in mold and darkness and they don’t believe in lights...I probably would’ve survived this house or left the moment I start having freaky dreams. But the worst part is that Howard Doyle is a “god” who lived for a three hundred years by transferring himself into the mind of someone else, have children with someone in his family, and then prepare them so they can be vessels of some sort. But she is going to marry Francis, the guy she liked.

But, you know those Doyles. Always one step ahead of them.

First they did the wedding backwards-they feasted first, then went up to dying Howard’s room to get married. But then after the wedding, things didn’t go so well. First off, Virgil came into her room and tried to rape Noemi, but thanks to the gloom she pushed back from him, knocking him out and taking the tincture he had in her pocket. Then she ran to Catalina’s room and tried to leave with her, but oh no, that didn’t happen.

The maid went feral and nearly choked the hell out of Noemi, but when Francis came and tore her off of her, she tried to choke Francis, so she pretty much killed her with the razor, but they weren’t fast enough for Florence. She darted out, in the hallway, WITH A GUN, and forced them into Howard’s room, where the doctor was tending to him, and said that it was time. They told FRANCIS to come to the old, pustible old man and they bowed their heads, said something before Catalina grabbed the doctor’s scalpel and stabbed the hell out of Howard’s eye.

Before they could even leave the room Florence and Noemi fought with a gun, and Florence broke Noemi’s hand before Francis tore her (I swear I feel for this boy because good god he’s been thrown all over the place) off of his new bride and shot her after rolling around fighting like wildcats. Then once Florence was dead and Noemi shot Howard, she, Francis and Catalina ran out of the house and underground, where they found the source of the gloom…

In which freaked me the hell out because IT WAS FUCKING AGNES.

Agnes got buried alive, and a whole lot of fungus and mushrooms and everything sprouted around her, and Francis and Catalina told Noemi not to look, but she did. And she saw what happened to poor Agnes, BUT OH NO

Like his (not-so-sucky) counterpart from Devil May Cry, Virgil appears, saying that Howard will die, and that he controls the gloom now, telling Noemi to drop the knife, and that “I should’ve let you bite your own tongue (paraphrasing),” when he and Francis were fighting. BUT THE GOOD THING WAS THAT CATALINA KILLED HIM WITH THE KNIFE BY DOING THE SAME THING SHE DID TO HOWARD. Then they escaped while the house was on fire, and then at the end, Francis slept for two days, the good doctor Camarillo helped them, and they kissed three times.

I have to say, this book broke me and it deserves TEN out of TEN stars. I loved it so much, and EVERYONE SHOULD READ IT.

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Book Review: The Queen of Nothing (The Folk of the Air #3) by Holly Black

The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black is my last and final book of the Folk of the Air series, and also my last book for a while, since I pre-ordered How the King of Elfhame Learned How to Hate Stories. I’m going to be sad to miss these characters I’ve grown to love and hate, and admire, and wanted to throw into bloody faerie hell if I get the chance (or Jude does) one day. But for now, let’s hop into the book review of Queen of Nothing.

So it starts off with Jude and her exile and how she was spending it. She spent it taking care of her brother Oak and her sister Vivi, while also taking job for the faerie-for example, fighting Grima Mog on the roof and threatening to burn her red cap off. But during that fight with Grima Mog, she learns that Cardan, her husband, High King of Elfhame, bastard I want to yeet off a mountain and never see ever again, might be looking for a new seneschal. That surprised her, and once she won the fight against Grima Mog, she goes home and….

...and Taryn, her twin sister is there.

Taryn, who married Locke and then turned around and killed him. I was gonna do it, yeet him off some cliff and leave him there to die, but Taryn comes to Jude, asking her to go back to Elfhame because she’s going to be on trial for Locke’s murder, and she needed her to go back. Also Taryn’s pregnant with Locke’s baby, so that’s a shocker too. Then another shocker (I swear, I’m going to get more shocked to the point that I’m gonna have a heart attack-not really, though) Heather, Vivi’s ex-girlfriend, comes back to their lives after she got traumatized by the faerie the first time she was there, and also Vivi pretty much glamourizing her.

Jude decides to help Taryn, and she goes back into the faerie world, going to the court pretending to be her sister, only for Cardan to notice her (ah duh) and escort her to the back...when all hell broke loose. Jude went with some of Madoc’s men to go to his camp, findig out that Madoc wants to start a war and going right in and challenging Cardan to a duel for the crown (crown hungry, as my mama would say).

Jude tries to figure out how to escape while trying to pretend that she’s her sister, but then she was found out by Oriana, who knew that she wasn’t Taryn, and she helped her escape, but then Cardan and the Bomb came, and Cardan made a promise to take away her exile and to come back to the castle. She agreed, and they go back-but not before Madoc and her got into a fight and he wounded her, and Grima Mog, Taryn, and Vivi showed up, stopping him from killing her.

So they take Jude back to the castle where she’s healed and she is now reconized as Queen of Elfhame, and the people didn’t like it. They wanted her to rebuke her title, but she didn’t want to, especially when Madoc came to Hollow Hall and pretty much demanded a parley from Cardan, but Cardan had a mean girl moment when he snapped the crown in two...and turned into a huge serpent.

And now I know why there’s a bloody snake on the cover on the book.

Cardan turned into a serpent and everyone either screamed or ran away, leaving Jude to take care of the court while trying to figure out how to get Cardan back from being a snake. But at the same time she took care of some little things for herself, like getting a new knight, making Grima Mog her Grand General, and having her family there while she was making terrible decisions. But then when Madoc and the Court of Teeth came into court to make another deal with her-make Madoc the ruler behind Jude (like that was going to happen), and to bind the snake with the golden binder, making Cardan bound to her.

Though she didn’t like the idea (I sure as hell didn’t), she agreed to it, and they went to the battlefield, where the serpent was waiting on them. Jude had the binder with her, in her hands, but as she walked forward, she realized that she didn’t need it (I mean, she was in really beautiful armor) and just told him that she loved him...before cutting the head off.

All hell broke loose in the background, but then Madoc came to her, turned her around, and said “I will bend my head to you, and only you.” to her ear when Cardan appeared out of the dead serpent and said that the king is back, stopping everyone from fighting. They come back to the castle and have a feast, where everyone is pardoned, including the dismemberment of the Court of Teeth and Madoc living the rest of his days in the mortal realm, and Oriana going with him. Heather and Vivi are starting over, and Taryn has been pardoned for the murder of Locke and have been given his home and lands.

At the end, they went to the mortal realm, and Cardan went, and they had pizza of every topping you can think of thanks to Oak, and at the end, since I have the exclusive edition, he basically wrote letters to Jude that she never gotten thanks to Lady Asha, and they were so funny that I had to laugh at some of them, though the last one made me crackle when he wrote her name a hundred times, then PLEASE JUDE at the end.

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Book Review: Empire of Storms (Throne of Glass #5) by Sarah J, Maas

Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Okay...this book RIGHT HERE guys....holy hell it was beautiful.

Dorian is the King of Ardarlan, but he’s traveling with Aelin and her court as Aelin and Rowan are trying to find some allies so they can go to Terrasen and Aelin can take her crown...or so she thought. The humans that was going to help her turn their backs on her, so she went to find some allies...in the Pirate King Rolfe, which refused her but then after helping defend Skull Island (and Lysandra being a badass turning into an actual sea dragon) to being a sneaky bitch about it and rallying Ansel to help.

But then there were others to help her-

For example, Manon Blackbeak, Wing Leader to the Blackbeak coven-and a Crochan Queen. Her. Thanks to the beating she’d gotten from her grandmother, who revealed to her that she is the last of the Crochan Queen, and that she killed her half-sister (well forced to). Shocked and wounded, she got on Abraxos and flew off to Aelin’s ship, where she became a prisoner for a while, then became Dorian’s lover (I SHIP THEM DAMMIT), and she has no idea if her Thirteen is still living or dead, since they’re scattered.

And Elide...who met Lorcan and was traveling with him, pretending they were married... I loved that, so much. They met up with a traveling troupe for a while until the ilken found them...and reveled who she really was (she was using her mother’s name) and that she was carrying a Wyrdkey to give to Aelin that Kaltain Rompier gave her in Queen of Shadows. Then they reunited with Aelin and Manon, which I’m happy about, but then Lorcan almost got bitten by Garviel, but then Elide got in the way and got bitten, and OH BOY did Lorcan get mad as hell (because he’s very protective of her).

BUT MAEVE….I thought we left her in Heir of Fire, but her ships are here, and she gave Aelin an ultimatum...but she wasn’t there, because she and Manon went into the Witch Mirror, and she attacked, and Rowan and the other tried to shield the rain of arrows, but some hit the other men. But it turns out that it was a distraction to get to the shore, where Elide was, and oh boy...that’s when I wanted to rage. Nicely.

No, not nicely, because I got mad at the end.

First off, Maeve pretty much started to control Lorcan, Gavriel and Fenris by using the Blood Bond, cutting off both Lorcan and Garviel, then when Aelin and Manon came back from the mirror, which was also fucked up because of what Elena did and Nehemia did and Rhiannon did, Aelin had to surrender herself to Maeve after she couldn’t beat her. And Maeve revealed so much terrible shit she did to Aelin, the things she did too Rowan...it was too much that she surrendered. And then she dd the most horrible thing I can’t believe she’d do.

She called on her cadre, Cairn, to first beat her ten times and Maeve wanted her to count, but she didn’t do it. Then that damned bitch put her in a iron coffin with iron chains, and strapped a beautiful mask on her face. In the end, once they were gone, everyone was pissed off at what happened-Elide was pissed with Lorcan, Aedion found out the plan that Aelin came up with-since she isn’t going to be alive enough to live her life the way she wanted it, and Rowan and Aelin got married way before this happened, and I hope to god that everything works out, because I really want Aelin to get back to her husband and live her best life. Fuck Maeve and I hope she dies in a blood-soaked faerie hell.

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Book Review: The Governess Affair by Courtney Milan

The Governess Affair by Courtney Milan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

CW: Mentions of Rape

So this is my first Courtney Milan book, and I have to say...I actually enjoyed it. Yes, there is a mention of rape in this book, because the female MC, Serena, was forced upon by a dumb-ass duke, annnd she’s pregnant. Oy. So what does a pregnant woman do when the baby daddy wants nothing to do with her? She stands outside the house everyday, hoping that the Duke can fix it.

Well, the Duke did...sending a man named Hugo Marshall, aka the Wolf of Clermont, to deal with her. The Wolf of Clermont was known to be a pugilist who has done some dark-ass shit for the duke, and then one day he met Serena, who’s hellbent on getting her revenge on the duke for forcing himself on her, and they fall in love, slowly. Even the passing of notes was cute, when he asked her to marry him, and she wrote, ‘Congratulations, you have scared me (I’m paraphrasing) and on top of that the wedding was adorable (though Hugo couldn’t remember any of it).

The consumating of the marriage...I felt that deep in my soul (have no idea that it would do that, but can I say that Courtney Milan writes really good sex?), but then Hugo had to mess it up when he said, ‘This is why I didn’t want to consummate the marriage’ afterwards, but when they did, the pin idea when they trade pins for an act was the most beautiful thing I ever did see before they consummated the marriage. But when he just...left her there so she can go to her small farm...I was mad as hell about it. She kept thinking that he loved her, and he would turn around and come back to her.

But I was really glad when Hugo got the truth out of Clermont-that he did indeed force himself on him. Hugo gave him a punch to the stomach and left to go to her, and that’s when they reunited (after writing letters back and forth to each other.) The last chapter in this novella was when we meet Robert and Marshall at Eton, where they find out that they’re brothers, and that’s when the ball started to roll…

I am going to read the next book in this series because it was so damned good! Can’t wait to read more!!

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