Book Review: The Raven Boys and Bride of the Shadow King by Maggie Stiefvater and Sylvia Mercedes

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

This book was SO GOOD. It had really good Supernatural vibes, with the ghosts, ley lines, psychics, and all that. I loved how each character grew in this book, making me want to know more about Blue, Gansey, Ronan, and Adam. In this book, you are introduced to them, how they live, and how the mystery of Glendower affects them all.

Blue was told when she was little that she would kill her true love by kissing him. So she avoided all boys, including the Aglionby Boys, also known as the Raven Boys. One day, while out with Neeve, a friend of her mother’s, she sees a boy that looks like a ghost. Blue goes over and asks his name. He tells her that his name is Gansey and that if she can see him, he’s going to die. Oof.

Once Gansey disappeared, that’s when everything starts to happen. Gansey wakes up in the Pig, his Camaro, and told his friends Ronan and Adam about what happened to him and wonders who spoke to him when he recorded himself. Then at Nino’s, where Blue works, she meets the boys and Gansey kinda fucked up Adam’s choice to even talk to Blue when he offers to pay her salary, and she thought he was calling her a prostitute, which she was not. But then at home, that’s when they came to her house for a reading.

This reading is very weird to me because Gansey keeps pulling the page of cups, which Blue’s mom, Maura, claims is Blue’s card. She kept telling him to pull another one, and he does-I think he pulled the Death card and declared that it was his card. Then they went to a place via a helicopter (I forgot what it was) and that’s when they went into this weird world where the seasons change and they have visions-Gansey has a vision of his death and Glendower, and Adam did see himself kill Gansey, and Blue saw Adam die after she kisses him.

But the one thing that grabbed me was when they found out Noah, my baby boy, my sweet cheese, my soldier, my good time sweet boy…was a ghost. Like a full-on, I was killed and now I’m a ghost boy. That made me go OH SNAP…OH SNIZZIEY SNAP!!! Wasn’t even expecting that. And the one who killed him…

Wasn’t expecting it, since he kept calling him Czerny (Noah’s last name).

It was the teacher, Barrington Whelk.

Well, damn.

There were some side arcs, like Ronan and his brother Declan fighting, and Adam getting hit so hard that he couldn’t hear from one ear (he got boxed in the ear hard, that’s what happened) and he and Gansey got into a fight after he picked him up-after he punched Whelk hard in the face, messing up his thumb. They went back to Gansey’s apartment after discussing what they’re going to do, and Adam decides to go and do the ritual himself…only for him to come face to face with Whelk and nearly got shot, and thanks to everyone, Whelk was stopped, Noah was buried in the Church, and since I forgot about this…

Ronan has a pet raven that came from his mind…named Chainsaw (I’m completely convinced that Ronan would LOVE Chainsaw Man.) and Noah is still a ghost, and Adam still can’t hear from his ear. And also I’m convinced that Neeve is a demon now. I truly enjoyed this book, and cannot wait to read the rest of the series.

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Bride of the Shadow King by Sylvia Mercedes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a really cute book. It does have some pining in it between Vor and Faraine, it has some political intrigue, and it also has rituals and something terrible that just made me so wrong while I was reading it. It was a good book, not going to lie, but the way the second half of this book just made me upset until the ending was quite a shocker and something I was not expecting. I wanted to DNF this book because of that, but as I read on to see when he’ll find out about it, it got good again.

Faraine is the daughter of the King, whose gods-gift shuns her (for no apparent reason), and she hides in the shadow, letting the rest of her sisters get the spotlight. But one day, while being attacked, she and her dumb brother were saved by the Shadow King, who, I want to say, immediately falls for her. But each time they are together or not, Vor and Faraine are thinking about one another, even though Vor is there to get a human bride. The King kept pushing Faraine’s sister, Ilvesel, in front of Vor, even though it was Faraine he met first and wanted to be his wife.

Reluctantly, he agrees to marry Ilvesel and signs and deals with it, even though he can’t get Faraine out of his head. He tries, though; he tries. Then one day, while he is back home preparing for her, Faraine is retrieved from her convent. She was forced to go and take her sister’s place. Immediately Faraine said no-she didn’t want to change her face and lie to the King. She wants to use her face and be truthful to him. But the Queen and Crown didn’t want that, so thanks to a witch whose name I’ve forgotten turned her into Ilvesel-and this was the part I wanted to DNF. I felt this was wrong, betraying the Shadow King’s trust. Faraine felt guilty for even going along with this, and until the wedding night, she was forced to wear a veil, so he won’t know it’s her-which was bullshit and didn’t work.

Once the two of them took their vows, they were alone. There was a touch of spice in the book, but it was cut short when Vor stopped, noticing that “Ilvesel” was crying, and Faraine broke it, spell and all, revealing the King’s treachery. Vor was surprised *as he should have* and Faraine explained what happened to his bride and why her family did what they did to her.

Outraged, Vor (poisoned) ordered them to be killed. But before that could even happen, he realizes that he still has feelings for her and saves Faraine from the executioner’s blow. Instead, he put her in jail/dungeon while he sent the other one back to the King and thought about what he wanted to do in a month.

This was a really good book, I enjoyed it up to that part, and then it picked back up. I will wait for the series' last and final book to read them all together because this is a really good series.

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Book Review: From Lukov with Love by Mariana Zapata

From Lukov with Love by Mariana Zapata
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was not expecting to like this book. I was expecting to not like this book. I had very low expectations with this book, thinking that I’m not gonna like it. BOY WAS I WRONG. JasmineIvan holy hell WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN??? I didn’t expect to love this book. Slow burn, enemies to lovers, a bit of an age gap? Ivan calling her Meatball? Jasmine fighting him every single step of the way??? Why yes, this is a new favorite of mine. Holy hell ya’ll. AND IT’S A SPORTS ROMANCE?! A subgenre of romance I don’t typically read? Has become my new favorite subgenre.

I had to look up some things that were in the book, like the Triple Lutz and the Triple Schlow, I think is how you spell it, but other than that, I really enjoyed this book. My favorite character has to be Jasmine, because she fights Ivan and also stands up for herself each time she feels like she didn’t like something or is uncomfortable. This book actually made me crack up when Ivan told her that her siblings told him that they will kill him and they know how to bury a dead body.

And that’s another thing I loved about this book-the family trope. I write it in my books almost all the time, but to see another writer put it in her books made me happy, because her family (except her dad. Fuck her dad) supported her throughout her skating career, even though Jasmine kept feeling guilty about not spending enough time with them because of her figure skating career. I really enjoyed that they cared about her enough that they understood. I even liked it when Ivan went over to Ruby’s house with Jasmine to help take care of Ben and Jesse. I really liked that, and it made me awe when I read it.

I think the takeaway from this book for me was the banter between them, and how Ivan took care of her when Jasmine got hurt twice. He even gave the girl a Hershey’s kiss when she needed it, and pretty much forced her to move when he knew she was well. And the ‘who did this to you’ thing? I never thought I liked that, but I did, and the ending was very sweet as well, seeing them married.

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Book Review: The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang

The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If I could give this book a thousand stars, I would. This book series has become one of my new comfort reads, and I would read this story over and over again. AnnaQuan might be one of my favorite characters that I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading, and I wish Helen Hoang wrote another book in this series, but I’m fine with the three. So The Heart Principle is about Anna Sun, a violinist who becomes a breakout star after the video of her playing beautifully, who’s stuck in trying to recreate that moment…but can’t. Each time she works on a piece, she stops and starts over again, hearing the wrong notes each time. Then her boyfriend, Julian, asks for them to be in an open relationship-which threw her way the hell off.

In her therapy sessions, the therapist told her that she might be autistic, in which Anna didn’t believe at first. But the more research she’s done, the more she realize that she is part of the spectrum (which is not a bad thing, though in Anna’s mind in the beginning she didn’t believe it.) When she called and told her sister about it, though…her sister shot it down (in which I hated her the moment she dismissed it.) As for the open relationship, Anna decides that she wants to have an one night stand…

…enter Quan Diep, the cousin of Michael and the brother of Khai Diep. Quan had surgery after he had cancer, and he’s also working with his cousin with MLA (Michael Larsen something, I forgot). He and Anna met on a dating site and their one night stand…two night stand…even the third one didn’t happen, and when it did, it happened in the dark. But their dates were so cute-they talked about their love of ocean documentaries and the octopus, Quan’s company with Michael, and he was there for her when she freaked out or talked through everything.

And then her dad had a heart attack and was sent to the hospital.

Anna, along with her hateful sister (I’m sorry, I really don’t like the sister) and her mother all took care of her father when he couldn’t do anything for himself, which made me think about my grandparents when things like this happen. Anna was getting tired of taking care of her father, and one time her father tried to tell her that he just couldn’t do it anymore. And the way Pricilla talked to their father reminds me of my auntie, of when she would talk to my grandmama and papa like a child…anyway, Pricilla thought it was a GOOD IDEA for them to throw their sick father a birthday party, inviting Julian and pretty much forcing Anna to play for him.

Quan did come around a couple times-once with food and the other times, and Anna was happy that he was there. Whenever Anna talked about him, it was like a light shined on her. When she told her hateful sister about the deal with LVMH, Pricilla immediately said “you know it probably never happen, right?” and that just made me mad. She didn’t know a darn thing about Michael or Quan, so she should sit down.

Then the day came of the party, and everything kinda went to hell. Julian “proposed” to Anna, without her knowing, and Quan came to see her, but sadly it wasn’t the happy times Anna thought thanks to Julian messing it up. Then when it was time to play the song, Anna started to grab her violin, but then, as she came down the stairs, she realized that she couldn’t do it, so she smashed her violin, shattering it into a million tiny pieces, and then when she learned that her sister and her mother wanted to buy her a new violin and told her to play Pricilla’s old one, Anna said no, got into an argument, and left, never speaking to them ever again. She felt so bad for what happened to Quan that she went over to apologize, and the bravery Anna did when she and Quan finally slept together with the lights on almost made me cry.

The ending was sad because the father died sadly, but at least after all the drama, it was good at the end. This book also deals with burnout, but I liked how at the end, she stepped back for a minute to do something else, instead of just working at it. This book also talks about home caring for your loved ones and doing it yourself, without no help. I was with Anna-why didn’t get the help her father needed so he could at least get better??? Because it would’ve been much better and more handled. But all in all, I really enjoyed this book and I’m sad now that this series is over.

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Book Review: Dragon Castle by Joseph Bruchac

Dragon Castle by Joseph Bruchac
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I truly enjoyed this one. I thought for a minute that I wouldn’t enjoy it, but as I kept on reading, it turns out that this doesn’t feel like a YA novel-this feels like a novel about a young man wanting to save his home from an evil baron and his daughter, even though it was just him and his brother. His parents were hanging out with the fae under a false invitation, and they came home the moment they heard the younger son’s voice.

This book was a really good fantasy, along with a side of learning Slovak words that I would never care about. It also has a inbetween story about the legend of Pavol the Good, and I had a fear that this tale would take over the novel, but in reality it didn’t. It just enhanced the story as the main character, Rashko, figures out how to fight the evil Baron Temny and his daughter, Poteshenie and her demon cat, Laska. I also liked how the Slovak words were slipped in there, along with the English translation of it, which I was very happy about, because I’ve never read a book like this before.

And the way this book is set up, you wouldn’t believe that Rashko was the only smart boy throughout the series. But as you keep on reading, you realize that he is, but at the same time he loves his family so much that he would do anything to protect them. I liked how in Pavol’s story, he has a pouch on his side and picks up certain things so when it’s time, he uses them to kill the dragons, but only keeps one alive to help protect the castle. And seeing the dragon from the legend was shocking, because I thought he was dead this whole time-not sleeping. But I really enjoyed this book, would highly recommend.


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Book Review: Her First Christmas Cowboy by Maisey Yates

Her First Christmas Cowboy by Maisey Yates
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A outlaw on the run, and a teacher trying to grade her students grades meet in this age-gap Christmas cowboy romance. I thought that I would immediately hate this book because of the age-gap trope–it’s an ick of mine, but this novella makes me want to reconsider it a tiny bit, because this was written so well that I didn’t hate it. In fact, I enjoyed it. It also helped that the outlaw, Clayton Everett, sounded like Arthur Morgan in my head.

Tala Nelson was having a lovely night drinking chamomile tea and grading her students homework when her door opened and…a man dressed in black bust through her door, bleeding like hell from a gunshot wound, and he falls down on her floor. So what does she do as calmly as she can? She helped him clean up his wound (the bullet grazed him), and fixed him some food. Clayton Everett, the outlaw, agrees, and the two settle into the cutest domesticated relationship that bloomed into love, something I never thought I liked, but I did.

The domestic relationship between Tala and Clayton was so very cute. She got worried about him while they settled into a really good and comfortable relationship before they made love one night. I also liked that Tala was curvy, which was a plus. And the fact that Clayton can cook too? BOY I WAS SOLD. I wish there was more to the story, because I would’ve loved it more, but now it makes me want to read more outlaw novels because now I want one that can cook and kiss me. Darn it.

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Book Review: Keep Me Warm at Christmas by Brenda Novak

Keep Me Warm at Christmas by Brenda Novak
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Keep Me Warm at Christmas was very different. It was Christmassy, yes. But it was also about grief, pain, and two people living in a house together falling in love, all while living in the small town of Silver Springs. It also shows the author’s research when the female MC, Tia, talks about her past life as a Mennoite woman, and even though I wouldn’t live there, I understand and respect them. Because I, too, like Seth, though it was like the Amish, but it’s not.

The story starts off with Tia coming to live in Maxi’s house. Maxi is a friend of hers and let her stay in the guesthouse, since Tia had an accident and the side of her face is messed up. She has to take care of the bird Kiki, and Tia thought it was a good idea-no one will bother her, she will be in the guest house, and everything is going to be fine…right???

Enter Seth Turner. The artist who is a widow since his wife died a long time ago. He moved into the guest house, and he was supposed to be alone and leave Tia alone…right?? That was the plan, not finding ways of getting her out of the house and falling in love with her. Also, he has to deal with his wife’s parents trying to get money outta him-which sucks, btw. Turns out, the father in law has a gambling problem, so that’s an oof. Also on top of that, Seth and Tia has to deal with a man who works for the paparazzi who wants a picture of Tia’s face-something Tia doesn’t even want to happen because she wasn’t ready yet.

Tia didn’t want no one to see her face-in fact, she’ll always find ways to hide her face from everyone. But as the story went on, you see her slowly start to relax and be okay with showing her face from the world. She was even brave enough to call People magazine to do a story on her, and they did it with so much grace that even she was shocked.

The whole thing with Ray Kouretas getting a shot of Tia and hounding her like that was a weird plot line, but as I kept reading, I understood completely, seeing that it connected to Tia. Though seeing Ray go through all those hoops to get her to give him what he wants was a bit of an oof to read.

And I really loved Seth’s mother, Aiyana, who helped Tia get to where she was today, and it was so sweet and cute to see her worry over her son while he’s dealing with everything that’s happening with Ray and his dead wife’s parents. All in all this was a cozy book to read, really liked reading it, and Brenda Novak’s work is pretty darn fun to read.

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Book Review: Curio and Shadow of Night by Evangeline Denmark and Deborah Harkness

Curio by Evangeline Denmark
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was very interesting to me. I haven’t read a steampunk book that can pull me into the world that fast. Even though it took me a while to read it, I truly enjoyed the story, the world and the writing was very good. Curio was a place I don’t think I’ll like if Lord Blueboy is still running the place-I think he’s some kind of porcie vampire-but all in all, I really liked this book.

I also like the tiny magic system when it comes to the Chemia, but the whole potion ration thing was confusing. I didn’t get it, even though it was brought up throughout the book. The world of Curio and the hierarchy was different but can also be scary. All the words they use to describe movement-”are you still ticking?” is one of them, I believe-would confuse me if I did go and visit there for a bit. The broken porcies, even though it feels like a dark place and you want to help them, are trying to live their lives the best way they know how, until they started a revolution over clean water.

And in the middle of all of this is Grey Haward, a young woman who was out late on curfew and gave her portion to her friend Whit, who was “striped” because of touching her (which is so misogynistic, tbh), and Grey insisted, over and over again, that she takes the punishment. But the Chemists wouldn’t let her, and something deep inside her-the blood of the Defenders, an extinct race that fought a bloody war with the Chemists and lost-helped her fight back, if only a little bit. Sadly, her father and grandfather were either turned into stone or taken in, and her grandfather’s helper took her into the shop, cut her wrist or palm, and told her to “bring him back here.”

The “him” in the story is Blaise, whom the porcies called the “Mad Tock '' because of the way he either looked or something like that, and he basically fixes broken porcelain citizens and also get into a fight with Lord Blueboy. Blaise stayed in Curio for a long time, fixing broken porcies and fighting at the same time, and when Grey fell into the world, he helped her try to get away from Lord Blueboy, but when something goes wrong, he nearly gets hurt, and then his left wing was broken during the attack on the water thing that I can’t recall right now.

Now back to Lord Blueboy, aka Benedict. I don’t like this man. One, he’s all sweet and nice, then he turns around and drinks from one of the maids like he’s a bloody vampire. Then he claims that Grey is his and no one else, and nearly got his ass whippped by Blaise when he wanted to turn him into dust. But Adante…he has to be my favorite villain in the book. He was cool and calculated, always sulking around the shop, and he got his when Grey beat him.

Now Whit’s whole arc in the book was an eh to me. He wanted to repay the Hawards for what they have done, and he found Marina and Maverick, twins who wants freedom I believe from the Chemists. They lived in the mountains and also they helped Grey’s father, and Whit wanted to help. The he got high on a potion that one of the potion makers made, and that was…kinda funny, in a way? But this was an good book, had some action in it, and it was quite fun to read.

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Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this book along with the official ALL SOULS FB group, and I have to say, this book might be my favorite book out of the trilogy. I really enjoyed how the world expanded from London to Prague to Sept-Tours to France. I felt like I was on a tour of the past of Elizabethan England and learning so many things about the history and the people and the world that have brought this book to life.

I did call Matthew switching from modern day to Elizabethean Matthew a ‘switch’ because that what it felt like when he and Diana came to 1590. I thought when that happen, that we will lose the Matthew we know and love, but he calmed down, even when they had that talk about vampire literature and how vampire courted their mates in the book. When it came to Philippe de Clermont, I was kinda scared of him, to be honest. I didn’t know what to think about Philippe when Diana met him, but when you get to know him, it felt like it went all away when he became lively. BUT THAT FIGHT IN THE BARN WITH MATTHEW….my heart was in my throat. I was worried about Matthew, but to use that as an example to show Matthew’s blood rage? I was mad. But then, at the end, I was glad that it was over, and that Philippe accepted Diana.

As for Diana, learning about Elizabethan England and how they lived and worked and how she fit into this felt like I was learning along with her. Then when she finally learned magic and learned what she was-a weaver-I was excited. I was worried that she won’t learn magic while they were there looking for the book, but the more she learned about Ashmole 782 and magic and everything around her, the more the darkness was creeping over her and Matthew.

One of my favorite parts of this book was the talk Diana and Matthew had about children, because I felt like that was a very healthy conversation between a couple who didn’t know if they wanted to have children or not. Even though Diana got pregnant once and lost it, to me to felt like Matthew was grieving so much (Diana did too) that he acted like an freaking idiot and didn’t touch her. But at least they go back together and went to Prague…

…aka the Simping Court, because Emperor Rudolf II was simping HARD for Diana, not even giving her time to bloody BREATHE. I was so angry for Diana for having to deal with the Emperor, simping RIGHT IN FRONT OF MATTHEW like he’s not there. That’s like fawning and trying to get with someone else’s woman, which I don’t think he knew it was wrong. But I was SO GLAD that she got away from the court, even though it was by Louisa’s hand.

Meeting Lousia like this was scary, but at the same time, I was shocked and worried for Diana (basically my emotions was all over the place while reading this book) but the sweetest thing happened when Matthew saw Louisa and Kit jousting for Diana-Jack Blackfairs came and asked him if he was having a nightmare. Matthew said yes and held his hand, which was so cute. I really enjoyed this book and I was happy to meet new characters, like Gallowglass and Philippe and Jack and Annie. I have an side eye for Father Hubbard because I just don’t trust him, but at least Diana knows her firedrake (the coolest part of the book, honestly, I loved that firedrake) and that she can weave any spell now.

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