All posts tagged Victoria Aveyard

War Storm was Electrifying

By Brookelorren on Leave a Comment

War Storm CoverI recently finished reading War Storm by Victoria Aveyard.  It was an amazing end to this series.  This is a huge book (672 pages), but I read it in three days because I couldn’t put it down.  Although the ending was quite fitting, I was sad to see the series end.

Because this is the fourth book in a series, this review may contain spoilers for the previous three books.

As the book begins, Mare and Cal have decided to part ways.  Despite the fact that they obviously love each other, there are things that they can’t agree upon.  Mare is dedicated to her cause of equality for reds and silvers, while Cal feels that becoming king is the best for both him and his country — even if it requires that he marry Evangeline.

Almost nobody wants Cal and Evangeline to get married.  They don’t want to marry each other.  Mare doesn’t want them to get married.  Although Mare and Cal’s friends tend to be indifferent about the subject, they’re still a little annoyed with having to watch Mare and Cal moon over each other all the time.  The only people that really want them to get married are Cal’s grandmother and Evangeline’s father, as a way to strengthen their alliance.  That seems to be a recurring theme in real history as well though.

War Storm‘s extension of the world of the Red Queen series is outstanding.  As the whole continent is at war now, we’re now dealing with characters from all over the place.  We get to see more of Montfort in this book (whose allowance for same-sex marriage is tempting to Evangeline) as well as characters from the Lakelands.

This book seems to have a theme of what our destiny is, and whether we can make the choice to change things.  Evangeline and Cal don’t seem to think that they have a choice in their futures, or even in the future of their nations.  As the series comes to a close, they begin to realize that maybe they do have a choice after all.

The book’s ending was fitting.  I thought it rang true to how the characters were behaving, especially in this last book.  I finally didn’t mentally yell at the characters about how foolish their choices were.  It may not be the ending that I would have chosen, but I thought it was the right ending.  And I didn’t end up crying or throwing the book in frustration (yes, I’m still talking about Allegiant chapter 50).

I definitely recommend War Storm and the entire Red Queen series if you like fantasy, stories about equality, or just really good books in general.  I was happy to find out how this series ended, yet sad to see it end at the same time.

King’s Cage Will Keep You Trapped (Until You Finish Reading)

By Brookelorren on Leave a Comment

King's Cage coverKing’s Cage, by Victoria Aveyard, finally became available at the library, shortly after Glass Sword did.  In this book, we get to continue on our journey with Mare and Cal and their friends (and enemies).  This review may contain spoilers for the first two books in the Red Queen series.

When we first meet up with Mare in this story, she has voluntarily submitted herself to imprisonment in exchange for her friends’ freedom.  Although she expects to be put to death, Maven is still obsessed with her, and won’t let that happen.  Instead, she is left to rot in a nice room with a few books… and is slowly suffocating due to the effects of the silencing of her powers that occurs continuously.

Maven is engaged to Evangeline, who is looking forward to becoming queen, although neither Maven nor Evangeline are crazy about each other.

On the other side of the story, where Cal and the Scarlet Guard are, we see the story through Cameron’s eyes.  She’s not a huge fan of Cal and Mare, but she provides an interesting perspective to what is going on with the Scarlet Guard, which is continuing to gain followers.  Cameron still is trying to save her brother, and Cal is trying to get Mare back.

In order to avoid giving away spoilers, I’ll be vague about what happens next.  There are some plot twists and political intrigue, and by the end of the story, instead of wondering why Mare is acting like an idiot, I’m left wondering “Why are you so stupid, Cal?”

So far, this is my favorite story of the series.  I love how we are able to see more of the characters and of the world.  We are already familiar with Maven’s court from previous books, but in King’s Cage, we get to see more from countries outside of Norta.  As in previous books, the characters are crafty and have political motives that can’t be trusted.  In this book, the whole world seems to be at war, and people are choosing sides.  I may have to read this series a second time some day to be able to understand all of the details of this story.  It is outstanding.

As far as characters go, I love seeing the world through Cameron’s perspective.  Cal and Mare do get together again during this book (I don’t think that should be too much of a spoiler… that’s a fairly logical thing to happen) and I love seeing their relationship develop.  Again, with the caveat that I’m saying “Cal, why are you so stupid!?” at the end of the book.

If you enjoyed the Red Queen series so far, then I definitely think that you should continue to read King’s Cage.  It is a great book, and although I had to put it down to go to work and sleep and things like that, I was excited to find out what was going to happen next.

The Glass Sword Gleams

By Brookelorren on Leave a Comment

Glass Sword coverI recently was able to read Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard.  There was a really long wait at the library, and it was finally my turn (since I was waiting for King’s Cage at the same time, I get to read that next.  I thought it was a great book.  Since this a continuation of the Red Queen tetralogy, there may be spoilers for Red Queen in this review.

When this book begins, Mare and Cal have just escaped from the Bowl of Bones.  They are with the Scarlet Guard, but there is still a distance between them and everybody else because of their different abilities, and because of what they did in the first book.

Mare becomes more of a leader in this book, and she sets out to go find all of the other people like her: reds that have the genetic mutation that gives them abilities (called newbloods).  This is a dangerous mission, and some people end up getting hurt.  Mare takes some of this burden upon herself in the form of guilt.  At times, it separates herself emotionally from some of her friends, like Kilorn.

Mare and Cal grow together as a couple in this book, although things aren’t always rosy.  They both seem to have some growing to do.  I really like them together, but sometimes I had to say “Mare, you’re so stupid!”  Not only with regards to Cal, but with regards to some of her other relationships as well.  But she does admit that she’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer, and she does have to make some very difficult leadership decisions.  She never wanted to be a leader, but leadership was thrust upon her anyway.  I also think that other people unfairly placed blame on her for things that weren’t entirely her fault.

Throughout the book, the characters go through several different trials, and the struggle between silvers, newbloods, and reds widens.  The world is complex and the plot twists are interesting.  In addition, Aveyard is not afraid to kill off some of her babies (sorry).

Towards the end of Glass Sword, I was a little frustrated at Mare because of how she kept thinking of herself as selfish and how she alienated the people that were close to her.  We are left with a cliffhanger at the end of the book (fortunately, King’s Cage is available for me to read now), and Mare makes a decision that shows that she is at least trying to do the right thing, even though she doesn’t always know what that is.

The Red Queen Should Be Read!

By Brookelorren on 2 Comments

Red Queen CoverA few months ago, I was trying to figure out what book to read next.  I had read all of my favorite authors’ books, as well as mammoth series like The Song of Ice and Fire, and needed to find something.  Then I ran across Goodreads’ YA Novels of 2018 List… where have you been all my life?  It was like this neverending supply of book ideas.  War Storm, by Victoria Aveyard, was #1 on the list for this year.  I can’t read the last book in the series, of course (I made that mistake with Joel C. Rosenberg’s Dead Heat years ago), but in just a few clicks, I found the first book in the series, Red Queen, and put it on hold at my local library.  Several months later, I was able to read it.

Red Queen is based in a land where there are two types of people: Silvers, who have silver blood and magical powers, and Reds, who have red blood and no power.  Our heroine, Mare Barrow, is a Red who has no prospects in life except to get drafted into the neverending war and die.  In the meantime, she steals for a living.  A few random events change her life.  She discovers that, despite her red blood, she also has powers.  These powers push her into a posh prison, faking that she’s a silver in the royal court.

Mare has to figure out how to survive in her new life.  In addition, she’s not the kind of person to lie still and let the corruption around her corrupt her.  She wants to fight for a better life for her people.  But how will she do that?  She begins to play a dangerous game where you’re never really quite certain who to trust… and you’re not quite certain who to love either.

The Red Queen series is popular for a reason: it’s good.  Although I think that Mare is foolish sometimes, I still like her, and think that she was portrayed well.  I enjoy reading about her love interest (or not) with Cal and Maven.  I enjoyed this unique world with electricity and cars and motorcycles… but not too much of it, if you’re not rich.  It’s not a medieval world, but it’s also nothing like ours.  All of these elements add up to an interesting universe.

The book has twists and turns, and you’re not exactly sure who to trust.  There are the “I didn’t see that one coming” moments.  Even though I read the blurb about what the book was about before I read the book, I didn’t know exactly how this book was going to play out, and was kept excited until the end.

Fortunately, even though I had to wait a couple of months to read Red Queen (I read this book and am writing this review at the end of July), the next two books will be available at the library soon, as I signed up to read them at the same time.  I might not get to read War Storm until 2019, but that’s okay.  Although I am excited to read the next installment of this series, I have a stack of books waiting to be read, and I’ll just have to have patience to read the rest of this series.