Tag Archives: fantasy

Book Review of Shadow and Bone (The Grisha #1), by Leigh Bardugo

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Shadow and BoneI bought a hardback copy of Shadow and Bone, by Leigh Bardugo.

Description from Goodreads:
Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart.

Review:
About two years ago I finished up my second Masters degree and decided all my tired brain wanted to do was read books that required very little mental involvement. YA books fit that bill perfectly. I subsequently went on a binge. I read a ton of them and bought even more. However, as I recovered my cognitive facilities, I grew bored with all the useless and frankly annoying teenage angst of these books and moved on. As a result I have a backlog of YA books sitting on my shelves (physical and digital) waiting to be read. Shadow and Bone is one such book. I’m not even sure why I picked it up this afternoon. The cover grabbed my eye, I think. (‘Cause it’s a great cover.)

To my complete surprise I didn’t hate it. It wasn’t full of Bella-esque drama and, while I’m not deeming Alina a wonderfully strong heroine, I didn’t find her too-stupid-to-live either. I also appreciated that it wasn’t a full love-triangle. I got scared for a while there, but it passed. The thing is though, while I didn’t hate it, I didn’t love it either. I don’t even know that I liked it. And that’s a strange place to find myself. I fully acknowledge that this is a well-written, well-edited, creative book. I consumed it in an evening. It’s wonderful in it’s own way, but also kind of bland.

It’s like a store brand cheddar. It’s a perfectly acceptable cheese. I’ll slice it up and toss it on my sandwich and be perfectly happy with it. But it’s not Brie. It’s not my favourite. It’s not something I’m excited to have gotten to eat and will remember. But I’m also notably not dissatisfied with it. Are you sensing my vacillation and painfully middle of the road feelings, here? Yeah.

Again, very well written. Again, a heroine I didn’t hate. There was also a hero I liked (but didn’t know well), a villain that was truly bad but had hints of multiple layers (but only hints) and side characters that were colourful enough to not just be filler. All good ingredients, mixed into a somewhat blasé whole.

Book Review of The Convergence Theory, by Lia Cooper

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The Convergency TheoryI bought a copy of Lia Cooper‘s The Convergence Theory, book 2 of the Blood & Bone Trilogy. I reviewed book 1, The Duality Paradigm, here.

Description from Goodreads:
Walking away from your soulmate is not for the faint of heart… 

Following the Matilde Walker murder, Detective Ethan Ellison is back working misdemeanors and minor crimes, but he’s only just begun to realize how much the experience has changed his life. 

Meanwhile, Detective Patrick Clanahan would give anything to get the memory of Ethan out of his head. If he can’t have him, and every sign suggests that he can’t, he sure has hell wishes everything at the station didn’t remind him of the other man.

Review:
This was one seriously frustrating read. The problem? I sooo almost loved it. It was so close to being a really good book. But it’s horribly unbalanced, concentrating in all the wrong places and skimming over everything I would have considered important.

The two main characters, Patrick and Ethan, don’t even get together until 50+% into the book and they are miserable for that time. Then there is the mystery to be solved. It’s ok, the mystery. It’s of sideline importance at most and you can feel it as the killer comes out of nowhere and is given very little attention.

Then after spending 200+ pages apart and miserable, the reader is given two brief sex scenes and one skimpy conversation to settle the men’s misunderstandings and future as mates. It’s nowhere, NOWHERE near enough of a payoff in the romance department. In fact, it feels very much like the author when ‘ta-da!’ there’s your sex scene, everything’s all better now. Um….NO! That’s not at all romantic and I feel very, very cheated.

I did still very much enjoy the writing and I like the characters, even the random female sidekick (who of course will turn out not to be so random in the next book, if I know my fantasy tropes) was fun. Patrick holds so much potential to be a heart-melting lead. I just know I could truly adore him if given the chance. Please, Ms. Cooper, don’t’ cheat us out of it next time. So, it was ALMOST wonderful, but disappointing instead. (Oh, and just like in book one, I have no idea what the title refers to. I wonder if book three will finally explain the titling.)

Steal the Light

Book Review of Steal the Light, by Lexi Blake

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Steal the LightI downloaded a copy of Lexi Blake‘s Steal the Light from the Amazon free list. At the time of posting, it was still free.

Description from Goodreads:
When dealing with demons, the devil’s in the details…

Stealing mystical and arcane artifacts is a dangerous business, especially for a human, but Zoey Wharton is an exceptional thief. The trick to staying alive is having friends in all the wrong places. While having a witch and a werewolf on the payroll helps, being partners with a vampire really opens doors.

Zoey and Daniel were childhood sweethearts until a violent car crash took his life and left her shattered. When Daniel returned from the grave as a vampire, his only interest in Zoey was in keeping her safely apart from the secrets of his dark world. He has vowed to protect her, but his heart seems as cold as the night he calls home.

Five years later, a mysterious new client named Lucas Halfer offers Zoey a fortune to steal the Light of Alhorra. The search for the Light leads Zoey into the arms of an earthbound faery prince. Devinshea Quinn sweeps her off her feet, showing her everything the supernatural world has to offer, but Daniel still calls to her heart.

As the true nature of the Light is revealed, Zoey discovers Halfer is a demon and much more than money is at stake. Per her contract, she must give him the Light or spend an eternity in Hell. What’s a girl to do except fight for her soul…and her heart.

Review:
There were certain aspects of this book that blew my socks off. The most important one (to me at least) was the very real sense of longing between Zoey and Daniel. This is highlighted even more by the fact that the author states in her forward that these books (the series, I suppose) were the ones she wrote while waiting for someone to return to her. Thinking the emotions I felt in the book might be an echo of her very real ones was almost excruciatingly beautiful.

I also really liked the characters. Zoey was strong and sarcastic, without ever becoming suicidally mouthy. Daniel was the silent type, but he had a surprising vulnerability to him. There were also saucy side kicks, sexy bits on the side and even a beautiful bouncing baby.

I did find the book quite repetitive. We are told the same things over and over again. I really can’t abide by love triangles (and honestly, it’s the triangle that makes me consider not continuing the series) and I don’t AT ALL understand Zoey’s decision at the end of the book (I was a bit infuriated by it.), especially since she knows Daniel is coming back.

I also found the tone of the sex scenes inconsistent with the rest of the book. By this I mean that while the whole book is soft, hazy, true love the sex is of the raunchy, gritty, fuck-you-into-the-mattress kind. Now, I like that kind just fine, but it didn’t at all fit the rest of the book or the characters outside of the bedroom.

All-in-all, I found it a well written, funny fantasy romp.