Book Review: Pretty Dead Queens by Alexa Donne

Pretty Dead Queens by Alexa Donne
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Pretty Dead Queens was the book I was in the mood for and was perfect after Elminster. This book took me from death to someone terrible, to solving a really old murder written in a famous book, and the surprise wasn’t something I was expecting. Pretty Dead Queens blew me away, and it is one of those books that make me want to reread it as if it was the first time.

Cecilia Ellis has just moved to her grandmother’s place after her mother’s death and was enjoying the days of being a senior—making new friends, going to classes, and having a typical weekend. But then one day during a game against the school’s rivals, she finds a friend dead in the pool, just like one of the characters in her grandmother’s novels. Shocked that someone would kill the girl, Cecilia starts to investigate her friend’s murder. With help from her friends and Ben, an intern that works for her grandmother, they dig up things about who might be the murderer, thinking about the murder that happened to another girl in the 70s.

While investigating the murder, there is a con going on in town about her famous grandmother (the grandmother is a writer). Her grandmother wrote books based on the town of Seaview, and of a murder about a prom queen—something Cecilia’s friend was. But the more she dug and got into it, the more she realized that her so-called friend, Natalie, was a total bitch who uses people to get what she wanted. I was and wasn’t expecting that Natalie was a bitch, but when we met her in the cafeteria, you can feel like she is.

At the funeral, Cecilia lashes out and just revealed everyone’s dirty secret, and the mayor thought that she was the one texting him. He nearly jumped her at the funeral, but her grandmother stopped him, and I think the police did as well. After giving the police officer a read about his drinking, they went home. At the prom. Cecilia apologized to everyone and even got a weird text message about going back to the poolhouse, where she saw Natalie’s dead body. The texts started to get weirder and she left, going back inside until she found her prom date, Ben, and they left to go back to his old home.

The two spent the night, and Cecilia started to look around, to be nosy…and she found the key that Natalie and Bronte has. Then her phone kept blowing up with texts from Amber, Bronte and I think Morgan about Ben, wondering if she was alright, and that they had something on Ben. Cecilia went to the bathroom, thinking that she could escape when she opened the door and Ben was there, revealing that he was the one who killed Natalie, and the two got into a tussle and slipped and fell nearly off the sliding house. But the both of them were saved, and Cecilia went home…

…when her grandmother started acting oddly strange. Things started to click in her head about the past, how it was Maura (the grandmother) who killed the prom queen Caroline, and also her husband for a book she was writing. Cecilia was trying to run away while her grandmother was trying to kill her but in the end, Cecilia defended herself and pushed her grandmother in the dumbwaiter, and now that Ben was in jail and her grandmother is dead, she got the house and everything else, and the FBI agent whom Cecilia thought was the killer is conducting her search into Maura Ellis and if the books she’d written were based off murders she committed.

This book kept me in twists and turns, and I couldn’t stop thinking about the book. It was that good, and I wish there were more because I liked the world and how Cecilia solved the case. I was not expecting that twist at the end at all, and I’m still thinking about this book to this day.

View all my reviews

 

Book Review: Elminster Must Die by Ed Greenwood

Elminster Must Die by Ed Greenwood
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Sadly, after thinking about it for a day, this book is a one-star. I've never had a one-star before, but this is the first time that this happened-but I have plenty of reasons why this is a one-star. One, it was too long. I felt like it was dragging, and knowing as much as I know about Elminster, I thought he was going to use magic, but sadly he didn't, because if he did, he would go mad. So he had other people use magic for him.

Secondly, the jumping around with the POV. It was so confusing that I didn't know what was going on. All I knew was that Elmister was looking for some magical items to feed to his lover...and then it switched to the villain Manshoon, a beholder who had so many bodies to shift into, and he kept going into people's minds and riding them...then it switched to Amarune Whitewave, who is Elminster's great-grandniece or something like that? She's a dancer and is also known as the Silent Shadow, and she's all curled up with some lord Arclath and the both of them are trying to figure out what the hell is going on in Cormyr.

Then when it came to the other villain, Martlin Stormserpent...I really didn't care at all about him. He got two artifacts of these things called the Nine, and he's trying to summon them and all that? He summoned two, and the third one was someone else, not a fierce warrior. Martlin didn't hold my attention throughout the book, and he was just...boring in my opinion.

It was an okay book, nothing to really come home and tell mama about. If Ed Greenwood would just make the chapters a lot shorter and not all detailed and has a bunch of dialogue, then I think I would've enjoyed this book more than I did, and it certainly would've had more action than a bunch of murders and ghosts and Elminster not doing magic but actually doing some magic, then I would've loved it. Sadly I didn't and I should've DNFed it when I had a chance.

View all my reviews

 

Book Review: The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness

The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book can be a mixture of cozy meets drama meets EMOTIONAL DAMAGE meets thriller in this book. It is the trilogy’s last book, and it was a RIDE. This book had me going through so much emotional damage that I had to take a break sometimes and read something else. But I enjoyed reading about Diana, and I’m sad that this book and this trilogy is over. I wish we could get more books about Diana and the others, but this felt like a perfect ending to a really good series that I love, coming second to the Raven Cycle series.

The book is basically about everyone trying to find the Ashmole 782 and putting the missing pages back into the book-the pages they have, and the pages the daemon Edward Kelley had ripped out years ago. It turns out that this book was made from the body and bones from dead vampires, witches and daemons themselves, along with their blood. It does have action in it from the vampire stalker Benjamin, who is also Matthew’s son, who is very disgusting and triggering. He wants the book and Diana himself, so she can give him children (ha ha, no). But at the same time, Diana is pregnant with twins, and once they were born she was very protective of them (Matthew was too).

It also introduced some new characters, like Benjamin, Fernando, the London coven and Baldwin, Matthew’s brother. Baldwin did get on my last nerve with all his postering and all that, but he actually made some sense somehow. This book also reintroduces Jack Blackfrair, the boy from Shadow of Night. He’s now a vampire, but he also have the blood rage disease that Matthew and Benjamin have, and each time everyone touches him or get near, he’ll snap. But thanks to the motherly love of Diana and Matthew, he’s trying to beat it, even though Benjamin was the one that drove him to the blood rage.

There was a sad scene in the book where Diana and Matthew had to split up so Matthew can take care of Marcus’s children in New Orleans, and she deals with the book back home. Then when she finally finds the book, that’s when the book turned her into a walking palimpest. And then at then end, we have to deal with Benjamin and Peter Knox, who happily tricked Matthew and tortured him so badly and starved and poisoned him to death (which I had to stop because it was so triggering a bit). Then Diana and the others came up with a plan to stop Benjamin and Peter Knox, with Diana weaving a trap while she let Peter run his mouth.

But before she went and tried to save Matthew, she went to the Congregation to get him. At first, Domenico and Gerbert and Satu didn’t want nothing to do with it, worrying about everything else other than what they were there to talk about. But at the end, Diana got what she wanted, and she took down Benjamin and Peter, and is now part of the Congregation and is also a professor again. Matthew is at home with the twins, Philip and Rebecca, while he is healing up from his trauma, and that’s how the book ends. I really enjoyed reading this book, cannot wait to read more from her.

View all my reviews

 

Book Review: The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The last and final book of the Raven Cycle was pretty damned good. After Blue Lily, Lily Blue, I thought nothing would top that…until I opened up the Raven King. Once I did that, everything started to go to hell in the small town of Henrietta.

The book starts with the line “Depending on where you began the story, it was the story about …” and tells the story of the characters that the chapter will focus on. It has been repeated a couple of times, and I recognized it immediately-I and have done it myself in my last writing assignment for class, and I kept my eye on it each time it showed up. I liked the repeating sentence over and over again, giving us a bit of time to see the picture of how the story will go.

So new things are happening in this story that threw me for a loop while I was reading: one, the introduction of Henry Cheng and his RoboBee, two, the demon and the unmaking of Cabeswater, which was very weird because I wasn’t even expecting that to even happen. Third was Neeve being in the story for a bit. She was trying to help Piper, but sadly Piper decided to tell the demon to ‘unmake her’. The Piper tries to sell the demon to Seondok, who is Henry Cheng’s mother, and Piper’s father, Lamonier.

Sadly when that happened-I forgot the Gray Man was there as well and then that’s when the demon-or wasp or whatever-fed on Piper’s blood as she died. Like WTF??? Seriously?? Then the worst thing happened when Ronan went to dream, along with Adam trying to scry…to find Cabeswater destroyed by darkness, and Ronan’s mother Aurora unmade, which is extremely fucked up.

And when they finally decided to find Glendower, it took a murder of ravens to lead Gansey to him, only to find him dead. Then Gansey had to die, which was shocking but I kinda knew it was coming, though the thing about Blue kissing him coming true was still shocking to me. Like, I didn’t want that to come true, but it did. And Blue talking to Artemus while he was in the tree was fun but also very weird. She had to use the English translator to talk to him to get him out of the tree, which ultimately helped him get out of the tree that Blue loved and to get him to talk about his past and Glendower.

BUT CAN WE TALK ABOUT RONAN AND ADAM FINALLY KISSING AFTER THREE WHOLE BOOKS?! Please?! I knew they would get together, but I was hoping they would in book three. But during the going away party?? When everyone was downstairs enjoying themselves? I wanted more of them. I wanted to know what happened to them in the end-did they stayed together once Adam left for college (they did, I called it, they freakin’ did)? Did they try the old college online dating try? I need to know because I’ve become so invested in the

The ending, and the epilogue was pretty fun to read and glad that Adam went back to his parents and asked for an open relationship while he was going to college. And the end when Ronan thought of how Cabeswater can be protected, and he closed his eyes to dream…I got both worried and wondered what would happen next after he did that. Will Cabeswater come back to the knowing world or just stay there, protecting Henrietta while everyone heads off to college and beyond? These questions fill my head as I finish this series, and this also became my favorite series of all time.

View all my reviews

 

Book Review: Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater

Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Blue Lily, Lily Blue is the third book in the Raven Cycle series, and it was better than the Dream Thieves. Even though the last book was all about Ronan, this book, I felt like, was all about Blue and Adam and Gansey as they look for Glendower. They don’t find him exactly-they find his daughter, Gwenllian, who is annoying as hell with all of her riddles and songs and not getting anything straight.

This book also introduces Mr. Greenmatle, a man who used to be Mr. Gray’s boss. He’s in town to find the Greywaren and also find Glendower, but he never caught the Greywaren, even though Adam and Ronan plotted to blackmail him (and holy cow, it worked). He and his partner, Piper, a psychic, are looking to find the sleepers, but Mr. Greenmatle upped and leaves her, leaving Piper with Neeve, who thinks she gonna be Queen when she wakes up Glendower.

The cave that Gwenllian was sleeping in was on a farm owned by Jesse Ditley, who speaks really loud, only eats Spaghetti-Os, and thinks that his cave was cursed. He did try to stop Mr. Greenmantle and his party to go into the cave by sitting there with a shotgun, but sadly, he didn’t make it, even when he got shot three times by Piper.

But the most heartwrenching death ever was Persephone. Adam and Persephone were talking at an old General Store, then moments later she was gone. Adam called the house, and Calla and Blue found poor Persephone in between Neeve’s mirrors, where she died. I hated that had to happen, but in the end, near a grave in Ditley’s cave, they do find Maura and Blue’s father, who is surprisingly British. All of them did escape the cave, except Piper.

Piper, who found Neeve in the chair, saying that she can’t be Queen alone…whatever that means.

I really enjoy this series, and I’m going to read the last and final book and cry because I really don’t want this series to end. I really don’t.

View all my reviews

 

Book Review: Queens of Fennbirn by Kendare Blake

Queens of Fennbirn by Kendare Blake
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Queens of Fennbirn was actually pretty good…after the first story. I already told you my thoughts on The Oracle Queen, so I’ll talk about The Young Queens, which introduces Mirabelle, Arsinoe, and Katherine as young Queens before they grow up and start killing each other in the series.

I enjoyed The Young Queens. My favorite would have to be Arsinoe because she forgot about her sisters while she was with the Naturalists, even though her powers haven’t manifested yet. She’s smart, cunning, and wise, while my least favorite is Mirabelle. I don’t know why I feel like I wouldn’t like Mirabelle when I read the trilogy, but there’s something about her I just don’t like in a way. As for Katherine…eh. She’s okay. She’s scared of anything poisonous and she’s caring a lot.

Then I reread The Oracle Queen…and it was a gut punch to read it. SCREW FRANCESCA TO THE BLOODY SUN. Lying to her own queen like that-and doing it behind her back?! That’s cold right there. So dang cold. But I really loved Queen Elsabet and felt sorry for what happened to her. I wish it didn’t happen that way, and that she was going to be Queen forever, but nope. Even though Francesca wanted to be number one in her spot on the Black Council, it was still cold as heck to do that.

I am gonna read the rest of the series to see how the girls fare and who survives, but this was a pretty good (and pretty painful) beginning to the series.

View all my reviews