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.

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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.

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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.

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Book Review: Wild Roses by Miriam Minger

Wild Roses by Miriam Minger
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book was okay. it would've been more if it wasn't for Adele being a bitch about Maire and everything. I liked how Maire protected herself from revealing who she was in the end, though it was messed up how the truth came out. The ending ticked me off because her brother didn't forgive her. After all, she fell in love with a Norman named Duncan, and I felt like he didn't want her happy at all, which is a shame because I felt sorry for Maire and what she went through.

I didn't read the first book of this series, but this was just an okay book. I just wish it was more without the whole cursing "Mary, Joseph, and Jesus" and wishing she was like her sister-in-law and friend Triona because it didn't help her character grow at all. It just left me sad and wishing for more. But I did like how Triona stood up to her husband when it came to Maire.

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Book Review: The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Dream Thieves might have to be my favorite one in this series. This book focuses on Ronan and how he is known as the greywaren, someone that can take from dreams and make them real. Everyone was in the book as well, but some new characters surprised me. The one that surprised me most in this book was The Gray Man, who was looking for Ronan, but instead met Blue’s mother, Maura, and fell in love with her, even to the point that he survived his brother.

Reading about Ronan and his family’s past made me want to both hug him and to also shake Declan at the same time. I liked how Ronan was trying to find ways to control his power, even though he hung out with Kravinsky, who was stealing every single chance he could in the dream world. The fight between them was quite explosive, and Ronan summoning that big old monster from the dream was pretty scary, but it was also fun because he stopped Kravinsky and also saved his brother Matthew from the car he was in as well.

Adam did have a little part in the story, when he and Gansey went to a party held for his mother, and he experienced something that left him wandering around, not remembering anything of how it happened or when it happened. Gansey was worried and was chasing after him, only for someone to find him on the side of the road, confused and having no idea how he got there.

Noah blinked in and out of the story because Cabeswater and the ley line were gone, and it felt like half the characters weren’t even there, but I really liked it because of Ronan and how he learned his powers, and also stopped Kravinsky.

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Book Review: A King So Cold by Ella Fields

A King So Cold by Ella Fields
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ella Fields, you might be one of my new favorite authors right now, because I went into this book with very low expectations, and I loved every bit of it. I thought I was reading of those villainess manwhas, but it blew me away. I love the arc Audra went through, and how at the end, she tries to fix what her father did to her whole country at the end. I also like that she’s working with her husband, who lives in the Sun Kingdom, to fix it.

But it didn’t end up like this…

Because at the beginning of the book, Audra finds out her husband, who had lost his memory thanks to a spell her sorceress cast, was about to get married. Not wanting that to happen, she crashed the wedding and imprisoned her husband and his supposed-to-be-wife in prison away from each other, so she can see him and try to get his memories back. At the same time, she also has a side piece on the side by the name of Zadicus Allblood, a local lord that she both loathe and hate with a passion, but she’s banging him while trying to get her husband to remember. While all of this is going on, Audra finds out that her best guard hasn’t reported to her about the Sun Kingdom in a while, so she goes to find him.

Zadicus, going along with her, gets caught (well Audra did) and they retreat, but because she was worried about her guard/ex-side piece, she goes after him, only to get caught and tortured to the point that she has scars around her mouth. She is rescued by Zadicus, but then Raiden, her husband, appears and shocks her, and everyone-he had his memories back along, and the woman he was about to marry was Zadicus’s wife Nova. Buuut…it was all planned out-Raiden wanted to go back to Audra and Nova just wanted her old life back.

But during this whole thing, the shocking news and all, is that Audra and Zadicus are linked, thanks to him being blood-deprived and needing blood like he’s a bloody vampire. Raiden and Audra do try the marriage thing, but then when he finds out that Zadicus and Audra are linked, he goes back home. But he does do something to get her attention…

He kidnaps Truin to get her attention, to make her go back to the Sun Kingdom, and she does. Audra stays there for a couple of days, trying to get Raiden to let go of Truin, only to get invited to an orgy, where she finds out that Turin got hurt badly. So she demands for the ninth billionth time to let Turin go, and he does, shocked that ever happened to her, even though she was in his dungeons. They leave, and Audra was so pissed off that she didn’t even want to see him again…until he came to him and they lived together and all that, even had a ball.

While at the Sun Kingdom, she does meet Eline, whom Raiden calls “Little Lion” (no, not like Sylvanas calls Anduin) and Eline and Raiden do fuck (like bruh why), and during the party, Audra left because everything was falling apart around her, and she was trying to be nice the whole entire time, so she and Turin left, only to get kidnapped by her cousin’s somewhat fiancee. The fiancee tried to force Turin to kill Audra, only for her to survive, and now Audra and Raiden are civil and are trying to undo what her father did to the land, the both of them are at their respective kingdoms, and Audra is happy with Zadicus, her side piece…

Or is it??

Loved this book, was very dark and gruesome at times, but at the same time, I enjoyed the action, the banter, and the drama. Some things shocked me (like what Audra did to “Casilla”) and some moments were proud moment hours and needed to get done (but not to that extreme). All in all, it was a really good book, really enjoyed it.

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Book Review: A Lady of Rooksgrave Manor by Kathryn Moon

A Lady of Rooksgrave Manor by Kathryn Moon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Was this the most SPICIEST and SMUTTY book I’ve ever read?

Yes. Yes it is.

Does it have monsters in them?

Yes. Yes it does.

Did it only took me three whole days to finish this series?

Oh hell yes.

Was it worth it?

YUUUUUP.

Before I read the book, I did look up the CWs on the author’s website (THANK YOU FOR THAT) and I just…jumped right in. I wasn’t expecting some meat in the story during the second half, but I enjoyed it none the less. I really didn’t like Amon in the beginning-I understand he’s a sphinx and all, but he was too alpha-male-y for me to like, but I really liked how Esther tamed him, to get him to like the other men in her harem. I got worried for a moment when Ezra appeared, but then it got better, because even though he was invisible, he knew how to put it down, along with the others.

My favorite one out of the whole harem was Auguste. The vampire knows how to cook nd he can speak French??? I’ll be chowing down on anything he cooks for me, don’t care, I really, REALLY love Auguste and his relationship with everyone else. I also like Booker and how caring he was, even though he was a golem and he was near his Lady all the time.

I was quite shocked at myself for loving this book. Normally, I don’t go for the monster romance, but this is just a taste and I might read more because of how good it was (no thoughts, head empty, monster dick).

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