books Archives - Page 3 of 9 - Brooke's Reviews and Sweeps

Enchantée was Enchanting

By Brookelorren on January 14, 2019January 3, 20192 Comments

Enchantée is an amazing book! I had a feeling that I would love this book when I first started hearing about it, and I was certainly not disappointed. This book was so amazing that, with about 30 minutes left in the book, I actually considered coming to work late so I could finish it. The responsible part of me prevailed; I ended up going to work on time and finishing it at lunch. When I finished the book and started putting my things away to go back to work, the smile this book left me was so bright, one of my co-workers thought I was going home. It’s that good!

Netgalley gave me an advanced review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

I probably should add a little background information on myself because it might influence how much I love this book. I love history. Last year, I took a class on Coursera about the French Revolution. Part of the charm of this book to me was seeing this part of history come to life. There’s a lot in this book that is historically accurate, and I love that about this book. While I loved the historical aspect of the book, it’s not a central feature of the story. The French Revolution is in the backdrop of this powerful story of love, magic, and illusion.

Camille is our heroine. Her family has fallen on hard times, as it has for most Parisians. Her brother is an abusive drunk, and they’re behind on their rent. Sophie, her younger sister, is an excellent hatmaker who dreams of marrying into nobility.

Although everything seems bleak, Camille and Sophie’s lives change when Camille helps a couple of balloonists with their runaway balloon. Their lives further change when Camille chooses to use la magie to transform herself into an aristocrat and start gambling at Versailles.

She falls in love with Lazare, one of the balloonists. When she discovers that he’s actually an aristocrat and sees him at Versailles, things become complicated in her life. To top it all off, the Vicomte de Séguin seems to have taken an interest in her, and Camille doesn’t want to have anything to do with him.

With a half hour left to go in the story (there were no page numbers in my book, just approximate reading time), I was wondering how Ms. Trelease was going to pull off a satisfying ending. Camille was in an almost impossible situation, and I didn’t know how her life was going to end in anything but disaster. This was either going to be one of the best books that I read for the first time in 2018, or it was going to have a disappointing ending for me like Allegiant chapter 50. I was not disappointed. The ending was more delicious than I could have even imagined. The ending of Enchantée made me want to perfect the ending of my own novel that I was outlining at the time.

J’aime Enchantée so much! The writing was magical. The characters were amazing. I loved Camille and Lazare together, and I love how Camille cared for her sister. This story had me hooked from the very beginning.

Enchantée will be released on February 5th. I highly recommend this book. It is one of the best books I read last year, and I definitely plan on reading it again someday.

The Wicked King was Diabolically Good

By Brookelorren on January 9, 2019January 9, 2019Leave a Comment

The Wicked King, by Holly Black, was sitting in my mailbox yesterday, and after reading The Cruel Prince, I had to read it right away. It was an un-putdownable book. After finishing it, my first question was “How long until the next Folk of the Air book again?” The next book, The Queen of Nothing, can’t come soon enough, if you ask me.

Because The Wicked King is the second book in a trilogy, there may be spoilers for The Cruel Prince in this review.

When we last left Jude and Cardan, Jude had managed to place Cardan on the throne as High King of Faerie. It was a scheme to eventually put her brother Oak on the throne while keeping her foster father, Madoc, from having control of the realm. Instead, she was actually the one in control, with Cardan as her puppet king. When we join them at the beginning of this book, Jude is acting as Cardan’s seneschal, and he has to do anything that she commands.

The two are no longer enemies in school. They spend their days running a kingdom where its inhabitants have to be truthful, even if they are scheming and deceptive. They still see themselves as enemies, but they have to work together nonetheless.

And they still just happen to have this weird attraction to each other. Which I love from a reader’s perspective.

It’s been five months since Cardan pledged to be obedient to Jude, and she can feel the months trickling away. Sooner than she’d like, he will be released from his promise, and he can do what he’d like again. Oak still won’t be old enough to rule. What then? Jude is concerned about all of this, when threats come to her, Cardan, and Oak from the Queen of the Undersea. She wants him to marry her daughter, Nicasia. And that’s all I’m going to say, because you’ll want to find out what happens for yourself.

The book was well-written. The prose slides through your mind like you’re watching a movie, and you forget it’s even there. Ms. Black brings the characters and the setting to life, and even though it was getting late as I read this, I just could not put it down. It’s almost as if I was in Faerie dancing: once you start, you can’t stop until it’s over.

At the same time, the ending! It was a little unexpected, but I absolutely loved it. It didn’t exactly end in a cliffhanger, but I wanted more. Immediately. I must have the next book!

Needless to say, I highly recommend The Wicked King. It’s the best book that I’ve finished all year (so far). Never mind that it’s January 9th and I’ve only finished three books. I have a good feeling that The Wicked King will end up on the list of my favorite books of 2019 anyway.

So when does The Queen of Nothing come out? Because we needs it! I will definitely try to get an ARC of the next book, because I need to find out what happens as soon as I can!

The Cruel Prince Is Magical

By Brookelorren on January 5, 2019January 3, 20198 Comments

One of the most popular books of 2018 (according to Goodreads readers) was Holly Black’s book, The Cruel Prince. I had to wait forever for it to become available on my library’s waiting list, and it was so good, I ended up buying the hardcover during Amazon’s Black Friday sale anyway.

The book drew me in right from the beginning. The text was inviting, and the book starts with… a murder. From there, the story continues to stay interesting.

The story revolves around a set of sisters. The oldest, Vivi, was half faerie. The two younger twins, Jude and Taryn, are human. After their parents are murdered by Vivi’s biological father, they are taken to live in faerie.

Jude and Taryn don’t exactly fit in. The prince, Cardan, along with his friends, treat them cruelly. Despite this, Jude wants to be a warrior among the faerie. She has the temperament for it.

The king is expected to pass on his throne, and several of his children are conspiring to get it. As with a lot of transitions of power, this one might come with some surprises. Jude becomes involved in one conspiracy, only to find that her father is involved in some shady dealings of his own. You won’t want to put down this book as you find out what happens.

There were a lot of things that I loved about this book. First, the writing is great. It’s hard to explain why, I just could feel how it drew me in. Second, the setting and characters were great. I haven’t read too many books set in faerie, but that didn’t matter, reading this book. The characters weren’t flat good-guy or bad-guy types; they all had a little of both to them, just like real life. The plot was also great.

The Cruel Prince was one of my favorite books from 2018 for a reason. I’m looking forward to reading The Wicked King when it comes out as well.

Frostblood is a Nice Wintry Read

By Brookelorren on December 27, 2018December 18, 2020Leave a Comment

I recently read Frostblood by Elly Blake. I listened to it on audiobook. It is one of those books that starts off a little slow and then grabs me towards the end.

There are three types of people in the word: firebloods, who have naturally elevated temperatures and can create fire, frostbloods, who have naturally cold temperatures and create frost, and those that have no special talent for either frost or fire. Our heroine, Ruby, is a fireblood.

The king is a wicked man who wants to exterminate all of the firebloods. At the beginning of our story, Ruby is caught by the king’s men. In the process, her mother is killed, her village is burned, and she is hauled off to prison.

That would be the end of our story, but Ruby is rescued by a couple of frostbloods who plan on taking down the king. They train her to use her fire powers effectively. Of course, living among frostbloods has its own challenges. Many people don’t trust firebloods.

Throughout Frostblood, we learn the secrets of the evil king and also of fire and frostblood. We also learn more about the people who come to rescue her from the prison. These characters begin to grow on you.

Towards the end of the book, the seeds of a romance blossom, but I won’t tell you who, because it will spoil the surprise. I thought the couple was good together and I can’t wait to read about them more in the next book.

So what did I like about this book? In general, I enjoyed the book. I liked the second half of the book better though. I liked the growing relationship between Ruby and (redacted). I liked how she cared for the people in the monastery she was taken to, and how they also eventually grew to care for her, overlooking the fact that she was a fireblood and they were frostbloods.

To me, the book seemed to start slow. I’m not sure why. Perhaps it was the audiobook format itself. The characters had an English accent, and it just seemed strange. Perhaps it was because the mother died so early in the book that I didn’t really get to know her well. At any rate, I initially didn’t know whether I was going to plan on reading the rest of the series or not. The last half of the book hooked me, however, and I plan on reading the next book in the series.

Overall, this book won’t make my top ten books of the year list, but I enjoyed it anyway.

Daughter of the Pirate King was Okay

By Brookelorren on December 20, 2018October 9, 2018Leave a Comment

I recently read Daughter of the Pirate King (on audiobook). I was looking for something to listen to as I take my daughter to school three days a week. There are a LOT of books my local library doesn’t have on audiobook! I found this one was available, and I decided to check it out. Unfortunately, I thought it was just okay.

Alosa is the daughter of the Pirate King. Her father sends her on a mission to retrieve a map from another vessel. In order to achieve this, she purposefully allows herself to be kidnapped. After being kidnapped, she begins to search for the map, using various techniques to fool her captors. Eventually, she finds her way back to her ship, but not after we discover a secret about her.

That’s the story in a nutshell, but it doesn’t really tell why I thought the story was just okay, and why I won’t rush out to read the next book in the series. I wouldn’t refuse to read the next book, it’s just way down there on my TBR… and with all of the other books out there clamoring for my attention, it’s not likely to happen.

Anyway, as a character, Alosa was way overconfident. She felt that she could kill any number of men that she came across. Even after finding out her secret, her claims were still probably a little unrealistic. I just didn’t really connect with her all that much.

I didn’t really feel her love relationship with Riden all that much. Perhaps it’s because Alosa herself kept denying that she had feelings for him. It was evident that she cared for him, but I didn’t get the impression that Alosa cared deeply for much of anything other than herself.

That being said, the audiobook quality to this book was outstanding! The voice acting was amazing. If you’re going to experience this book in any way, I suggest the audiobook format.

While I don’t dislike Daughter of the Pirate King, there just wasn’t enough there to interest me. I didn’t grow attached to the characters. I wasn’t looking forward to getting into the car to find out what happens next. While I know that there are people that just love this book, it wasn’t really the book for me.

I’m a Fangirl

By Brookelorren on December 14, 2018December 13, 201810 Comments

I recently finished reading Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I had been seeing it on a lot of Top Ten Tuesday lists and decided it sounded good. When it became available on audiobook, I had to read it, because it seemed like a story I could identify with.

Cath is starting her first year of college. She has an identical twin sister that wants to live on her own this year. As a result, Cath feels… lost.

She also has a difficult time talking to people, and she writes fanfiction. Wow, you could say the same thing about me! Only Cath is way more successful at writing fanfiction than I am, and she really has a difficult time talking to people. She has such a difficult time talking to people that she’d rather hang out in her room eating protein bars than ask someone how to get to the dining hall.

Throughout the story, Cath finds love (who I’m saying I won’t say), deals with being a fanfic writer when her professor thinks it’s unprofessional, and deals with family difficulties. Most of the excitement happens towards the end of the story, and that’s when I really didn’t want to put down the book. I was just okay with the story at the beginning, but when it picks up, it really picks up. I loved it.

The characters were great. I could identify with Cath, but there were so many other great characters. Her sister Ren is a typical college student who gets a little too into partying. Her roommate, Reagan is the brooding, moody type with a good heart. Levi is one of those really friendly but not so smart types. Nick from Cath’s fiction writing class makes a good writing partner. Cath and Ren’s dad is a little wacky. They all make this a great story.

If you’ve ever been to college, thought about going to college, or have written fanfiction, you should probably read Fangirl. It’s an excellent story.

Since I read Fangirl on audiobook, I have some comments about that. I was NOT a fan of the audiobook quality. The voices were outstanding, don’t get me wrong. My problem with the audiobook was the editing. It was horrible. Half the time, when a new section of the book took place, the first few words of the sentence were cut off. Not acceptable. I took music recording classes in college, and I seriously could have done a better job editing this audiobook as a college senior. There’s no excuse for cutting off words in an audiobook.

Books I Read that Need More Love

By Brookelorren on December 11, 2018October 5, 201934 Comments

Hello! It’s time for another Top Ten Tuesday! Today is a freebie topic, and I was thinking I’d do a post on books that need a little more love. I guess it’s a similar topic to Hidden Gems, which we did in September, but I’m first focusing on books that I read as ARCs. Did you know that the average traditionally published book only sells 3,000 copies in its lifetime? More than likely, a lot of the books we talk about on Top Ten Tuesday sell more than that, but there are books that get mentioned on occasion that probably don’t. So today I’d like to talk about some books that probably need more love.

Frequency by Christopher Krovatin is one of those books that I think about when I think about books that need more love. I thought it was fantastic, and I loved all the musical influence in the book. I don’t really hear much about this book, and figure it probably needs some more love.

Into the Hollow by Lynn Vroman was another book that I really loved. It had a unique setting, I loved the characters, and the story, about a girl who had a messed up family who falls in love with another kid with a messed up family, was really good. I was sad to see this not get more attention than it did.

The Wren Hunt by Mary Watson was a beautiful book. I loved the unique setting, the magic was different than what I’ve seen before, and it had something of a Romeo and Juliet kinda vibe with the feuding families and all. I’d love to see this gaining more people’s interest.

I’m not sure what it is about books named after birds not getting enough love, but I loved Crow Flight by Susan Cunningham. I mentioned in my review that this book had me at computers, but I loved the mystery surrounding this, as well as the characters. Too bad this book didn’t have much marketing behind it, because I thought it was great.

The next three books ended up on my Hidden Gems list, but I think Echoes by Alice Reeds deserved a little bit more love than it got. I absolutely couldn’t put this book down, and read it in a day. I really wish that it could have a sequel (there is a little bit of a cliffhanger at the end) but it probably won’t. I saw Ms. Reeds pitching another book idea during #PitMad, so it looks like she’s doing something else. I’d love to read more of her books, because I loved this one.

My Real Name is Hanna, by Tara Lynn Masih, also got a mention during Hidden Gems week, but this is another book that deserves more love than it did. Maybe the whole Holocaust setting was a little too dreary for some people. I thought the book was great though.

I didn’t read Never Stop Walking, by Christina Rickardsson, as an ARC, but this is another book that I thought should have gotten more attention than it did. We read about hellish fictional places all the time… this book is about an actual hellish place that still exists today — slums in Brazil. It also talks about her adoption and going to live in a wildly different culture. Maybe it’s too real for people to actually want to face.

I can’t tell you how much love Ever the Hunted and Ever the Brave got, but I haven’t heard a great deal about Once a King, the last book in the Clash of Kingdoms series. Ever the Hunted is number 55 on the Goodreads YA Novels of 2016 list (Ever the Brave is number 123), so I’m guessing that these books could have used a little more love at the time as well.

When Elephants Fly by Nancy Richardson Fischer could have gotten a little more attention than it did as well. Lately there has been a lot of emphasis placed on mental health, and books that talk about it, and the main character of this book is worried about her own mental health. I let my daughter read it, as she’s been struggling with depression. I guess that publishers can only promote so many books…

Fawkes by Nadine Brandes might have gotten a little more attention than some of these other books, but there were quite a few huge releases over the summer, and this book seemed to get drowned out by a lot of the bigger names. Nevertheless, it was a pretty good book, and probably could have used a little bit more attention than it did.

So there’s my list this week of books that I read (mostly as ARCs) that could have used a little more love than they did. I’m looking forward to see what ideas everybody else came up with this week for Top Ten Tuesday! Next week I’m going to talk about my Winter 2018/2019 TBR! And we’ll see how I did on my Fall TBR as well! See you then!

Get Lost in City of Lost Souls

By Brookelorren on November 22, 2018October 4, 2018Leave a Comment

City of Lost Souls is the fifth book in Cassandra Clare’s series, The Mortal Instruments. I didn’t want to put it down. This series just continues to get better and better.

Because this if the fifth book in The Mortal Instruments series, there may be spoilers for the first two books.

As the story begins, Jace is missing. Along with Sebastian’s body. The Clave is looking for them, but other, more pressing matters pop up, and the search for them loses priority. Clary and her friends are not going to give up on him, however. Especially Clary.

We find out that a demonic force has bonded Jace with Sebastian. If one is hurt, then so is the other. Even though Sebastian has evil plans in mind, he can’t be killed without Jace being killed. The search turns into a quest to separate the two and eliminate Sebastian.

I love the relationship development in this book. Jace and Clary make this series for me. Although Jace isn’t quite himself for the majority of this book, they still love each other and have some great scenes together. Simon and Isabelle seem to be working their relationship out as well, which is nice to see. I also like to see Jordan and Maia, a couple of newer characters in this series, as they work towards rebuilding a relationship that they once thought was over. Alec and Magnus are having difficulties in this book, but that’s pretty typical for real relationships.

Sebastian has nice character development in this book. We know that he’s evil, but evil people usually don’t think that they’re doing wrong. His mind was obviously twisted by his father and by his demonic blood, but we also see that he’s a lonely boy who is trying to do good (although he’s going about it the wrong way). He also seems to have a strange fixation with his sister. While Jace and Clary fought against their attraction when they thought that they were siblings, Sebastian seems to disapprove of Jace and Clary and seems to want Clary for himself.

Clary also develops as a person in City of Lost Souls. She has to make some difficult decisions throughout the book. Jace asks her to go with him in the book, and she chooses to go with him. She sees it as the only way to save him, even though she knows it might be dangerous. Later on in the book, she makes a selfish decision that could have turned out disastrous. In the end, she chooses to put someone else’s wishes above her own, even though it might not have worked out for her best personal interest. It was also great to see her developing skill as a fighter.

I loved reading City of Lost Souls, and can’t wait to read the final book in the series.

I Fell For City of Fallen Angels

By Brookelorren on November 15, 2018October 4, 2018Leave a Comment

After waiting for several months, City of Fallen Angels became available at my local library. It is the fourth book in Cassandra Clare’s series, The Mortal Instruments, and the wait was worth it.

As with any book that is not the first book in a series, this review may contain spoilers for previous books.

City of Fallen Angels begins a few weeks after City of Glass. Everybody is back in New York, and it seems like life is getting back to normal. As normal as life can be when you’re a shadowhunter, at least.

Clary and Jace are having problems, and they won’t speak to each other about it. For much of the book, we don’t know why either. They both love each other, and it’s apparent that whatever problem is going on is affecting them. They’re both having trouble sleeping and even eating. This leads to one of my favorite lines in the book. Simon is wondering whether Jace wants to break up with Clary, and his response is “Break up with her? Are you insane?” Okay, so that’s not the problem. We do find out later what is wrong, but in the interest of not giving out spoilers, you’ll just have to read the book.

Simon is having his own issues. After being that nerdy kid for most of his life, he now finds himself interested in two girls. Neither of them know about Simon’s relationship with the other one. Oops. And they both expect to go with Simon to Luke and Jocelyn’s wedding, which is rapidly approaching. As if girl problems aren’t enough, he’s being tracked down by people who want to kill him, and his mother discovers that he’s a vampire and he has to leave home. What a mess!

Valentine might be dead and gone, but there are still other monsters to contend with. Throughout this story, we find out what is bothering Jace, who is trying to murder Simon, and what else this new villain is up to. Our story doesn’t completely end with a happily ever after, but that’s why this series has a fifth (and sixth) book.

I loved this story. This story, like many of the other Mortal Instruments books, incorporates myths and Bible lore into its story, and it makes it quite interesting. If you’re reading this far into the series, you probably are already invested in the characters and care about what happens to them, and of course, I wanted to find out more. Even though I was supposed to be reading another book to review at the time I was reading City of Fallen Angels, I couldn’t put it down.

I absolutely love this series, and I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

Other reviews in The Mortal Instruments Series:

Legendary was Just That

By Brookelorren on November 8, 2018October 4, 20183 Comments

Legendary finally became available to me at the library, and I was so happy to be able to read it. It is the second book in Stephanie Garber’s Caraval series. Finale will be out next year.

After Caraval, Tella and Scarlett end up going to another Caraval. Usually, there is only one a year, but this year, there is another one in only a few more days, held in honor of Empress Elantine’s seventy-fifth birthday.

Legendary is told from Tella’s perspective. Tella discovers that her mom is still alive. With the help of her “friend”, she’s trying to find out where her mom is and to save her. In order to save her mom, she needs to find out who Legend is, which means she has to participate in and win Caraval.

It’s not all that easy.

A few complications occur along the way. First, Tella is forced to fake an engagement with the Empress’s heir. Then, the stakes are raised even higher: if she doesn’t win Caraval, she discovers that both she and her mom will die. And then she falls in love. To make matters worse, if she saves her own life and that of her mom’s, she might just hurt the boy she loves. The decisions seem impossible.

We don’t see a lot of Scarlett in this story. While Caraval focused a lot on the relationship between siblings, Legendary focused on Tella’s feelings about her mother. Scarlett is away for much of the time, trying to sort out the things going on in her life (I don’t want to give away spoilers here, so I’m not saying what).

Legendary kept me wanting to read from the beginning until the very end. Like Caraval, Legendary is full of magic and mystery. I love how we got to see more of Tella’s character. She’s much more impressive once you get to know her. I love the decisions that she makes, and I wish the best for her. I will definitely be reading Finale once it comes out next year.