Book Reviews: Nettle and Bone and Curse the Day

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was my first time reading a T. Kingfisher novel, and I have to say, this book DID NOT disappoint. This book is now a huge favorite fantasy, and I want to read more of T. Kingfisher’s novels, because I fell in love with the writing, I fell in love with the characters, and most of all, this book sucked me in hard.

This book is about a girl named Marra who’s family has been married to the Harbor Kingdom for years. Her sister is about to marry Prince Voling who likes to put his hands on his brides. Once her sister dies without giving the kingdom a heir, that’s when the Prince marries her other sister, and Marra was sent to the Lady of Grackles convent, where she learned how to sew and deliver babies. Oddly, her sister keeps getting pregnant and having babies, and Marra couldn’t take it anymore. So she goes see a dust-wife, who gives her three tasks:

Sew a cloak of nettle and bone
Create a bonedog
Catch the moon in a jar

Marra does those things, and that’s when she and the dust-wife, along with her demon chicken (look, you HAD me at demon chicken, and THE DEMON CHICKEN IS BEST GIRL IN THE BOOK, TO THIS DAY) goes to the goblin market to get a knight. Along with Bonedog (also BONEDOG IS BEST BOY AS WELL. BOTH DEMON CHICKEN AND BONEDOG ARE THE BEST) they go into the market and free a knight named Fenris, who wanted to die by…and this cracked me up…going to a fairy ring and sleeping there. Well the dust-wife and Marra freed him so he joined along, and they went to Marra’s kingdom to get one more person…

Marra’s godmother. Who, it turns out, is her great-aunt. So all of them goes to the kingdom and meets with the Prince’s godmother, who is tied to the old king, to give immortality to her and to protect his bloodline. So they come up with a plan to king the current King, and it does go swimmingly, since Agnes, the dark grandmother, replaced the original godmother and pretty much cursed the child (and give him good health, of course), and before you can shout “Well, crap” Fenris does the Jaime Lannister (ha ha) and kills the king.

Whoopie.

So…now what? What happens now??

Well for one, Marra’s sister, Kanna, I believe her name is, is now Queen, and the dust-wife went back to her cottage, Agnes took over the old godmother’s place and Fenris was supposed to die by thirst, but thanks to some quick thinking, he didn’t die. Instead, he, Marra, and Bonedog (who was killed and was brought back) are going on another adventure, one I wish them both well.

I really loved this book-even finished it before class even started, that’s how good it was-and I would reread this book all over again, just to revisit these characters once more.

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Curse the Day by Annabel Chase
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Hi, hello, I find that I’m starting to like cozy mysteries, especially if it involves witches of some kind, which I’m starting to love SO MUCH.

So this cozy mystery was recommended to me by Darling Desi on youtube, and it has all the witchy, spooky vibes I was looking for. It’s also a Brittany Book (a book in which things happen that you can’t explain, makes you laugh real hard to the point that you can’t breathe sometimes, and also a whole bunch of diversity) and I couldn’t stop reading it until it was done. Emma Hart is now one of my favorite witches, and I am going to read this whole entire series, along with more works by Annabel Chase.

Emma Hart was once a human lawyer who one day stops and sees a man about to jump to his death. Stopping her car, she gets out and tells him not to…only to find out that homeboy is an ANGEL. WITH WINGS. Since she’s afraid of heights, she clings on to him as they fly down safely…and her car plummets to the river. Emma tries to leave, but then she smacked into a invisible wall. Turns out…she’s a witch. And she is whisked away to Spellbound, where everyone from every supernatural and fantasy race you can THINK of lives there. She then hears of a vampire named Garreth who was killed and now she’d taken his job and his home, along with his cat Magpie. During the day, she works as a lawyer who’s working on her first case-a stealing jewelry case with a goblin named Monford, who, turns out, killed Garreth, along with getting his hands on some jewels, and at night or whenever she can, she goes to a school to learn magic (in which she’s getting better at, but in the beginning, she sucks at). Also she does rub elbows with the local vampires (including Demetrius Hunt, who sounds fine as hell).

This was so cozy, funny, reminds me a bit of Once Upon a Time, and also I wanna live in this town forever and never leave. I want to know what happens next in this series, I want to know how Emma’s life is now that she’s a witch, and also enjoy this cozy town of Spellbound, because I really love this town so much.

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