Tag Archives: YA

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Book Review: The Raven’s Tale, by Cat Winters

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I’ve had a copy of Cat Winter‘s The Raven’s Tale on the shelf for several years now. I suspect I won it, but it’s also possible I picked it up second-hand.

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Seventeen-year-old Edgar Poe counts down the days until he can escape his foster family—the wealthy Allans of Richmond, Virginia. He hungers for his upcoming life as a student at the prestigious new university, almost as much as he longs to marry his beloved Elmira Royster. However, on the brink of his departure, all his plans go awry when a macabre Muse named Lenore appears to him. Muses are frightful creatures that lead Artists down a path of ruin and disgrace, and no respectable person could possibly understand or accept them. But Lenore steps out of the shadows with one request: “Let them see me!”

my review

I enjoyed this in the end. But it took me a long time to get into. I was bored for a lot of it. I kept waiting for the story I expected to begin, but eventually realized it wasn’t going to happen. This is a smaller, quieter telling. It’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea; I’m not even sure it is mine. Or that I liked Poe much or his muse(s) much. But I did appreciate Winter’s take on Poe’s early life. It’s just that this seems to ring a single note over and over again, or maybe it’s that only a single bell tolls. All in all, I don’t regret having read it, but I’m glad to be finished and moving on.

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Book Review: The Raven’s Tale by Cat Winters

 

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Book Review: The Once and Future Queen, by Paula Lafferty

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I received an ARC copy of Paula Lafferty‘s The Once and Future Queen from Between the Chapters Book Club.

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22-year-old Vera is at a waiting tables, grieving her previous relationship, and jogging aimlessly each morning as if toward an uncertain future. Then an odd man shows up at her workplace, insisting that she was once the legendary Queen Guinevere of Camelot, and that her lost memories hold the key to changing both the past and the present. Somehow, it all feels like the direction she’s been looking for. But when she asks the mysterious man to tell her more about Lancelot, Arthur, and a faithless queen, he can only say that much of what she’s heard about Camelot is wrong. The truth, he claims, is something she must see for herself.

After jumping through a portal in Glastonbury’s historic center, Vera is not prepared for what she finds. Magic is everywhere, but a curse on the kingdom means it dwindles every day. She has no idea how to perform a queen’s duties. Her fast friendship with Lancelot sets gossip flowing, and the stranger she must call “husband” often refuses to meet her eye. Arthur is a cold, forbidding, and, while angry to her face, keeps leaving secret tokens of tenderness in her chambers. Worst of all, Vera’s memories—and the answers locked within them—show no signs of returning. If Vera is truly destined to save Camelot, she’ll have to trust her instincts. And her king will have to trust her . . .

my review

The Once and Future Queen is basically a time-traveling isekai or portal fantasy where a modern-day Guinevere leaps back to Camelot, Arthur, Merlin, and all the knights of the to-be round table. It has a lot going for it. Guinevere has a good heart and a genuine desire to right past wrongs. Arthur is every bit as noble as would be expected. Lancelot is rogueish and charming. Merlin is mysterious, Camelot itself hopeful in its infancy, if still smarting from the war.

I liked a lot of the characters. Lancelot and Gawain, especially. But I also hoped for something less YA/NA and therefore more interesting. A lot of the book is just slice-of-life stuff. Characters play and eat, sleep and travel. I was, frankly, bored for a lot of it. Plus, I found that Guinevere simply wasn’t very important in the grand scheme of things. She didn’t actually do much that had any significant effect and wasn’t even necessary to the eventual solution to the magic problem.

The cliffhanger does have me curious what might happen next and how it all might work out. But the boredom left me not invested enough to rush right out to see if there is a book two yet.

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Other Reviews:

Bossy Bookworm: The Once and Future Queen

 

 

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Book Review: On Wings of Blood, by Briar Boleyn

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Over the Summer, I was lucky enough to win a giveaway on Instagram that included a copy of Briar Boleyn‘s On Wings of Blood.

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I didn’t sign up for this.

A half-fae in a school of highblood vampires? That’s a recipe for torment.

I’m Medra Pendragon—last of the dragon riders, or so they tell me. Funny thing is, there are no dragons left. Not a single one. But somehow, that hasn’t stopped the vampires from deciding I’m worth capturing. Now I’m stuck at Bloodwing Academy, where the highbloods run everything and blightborn like me? We’re just blood in their veins, pawns in their games.

But that’s not even the worst part. Enter Blake Drakharrow. Cold, arrogant, and way too gorgeous for his own good. He’s been tormenting me since the moment we met, and now, thanks to some ancient ritual, we’re betrothed. He acts like he owns me, but I’m not going down without a fight.

Bloodwing isn’t just a school—it’s a battlefield. Highbloods fight for power, and if you’re weak? You’re dead.

Between deadly competitions, lies that could get me executed, and a dragon-shaped secret looming over my head, all I have to do is survive. Easy, right? Except I’m starting to think the real danger isn’t the academy—it’s what I’m becoming in this twisted game of power.

And Blake? He might just be the one who pushes me over the edge.

They think they can control me. They think they can use me.

But they have no idea what they’ve awakened.

my review

As others have said, this is Violet Sorrengail meets Draco Malfoy. The problem is that I never understood the Draco shippers, and I thought Violet was a milqtoast heroine. Medra is worse, so so much worse though.

She literally (lit.er.a.lly) wakes up in a strange new world without her magic (i.e., defenseless) with no more reaction than one would exhibit if they went to the BP when they meant to go to the Quick Trip. There is basically no reaction or adjustment. And once there, she vacillates between obediently following the dictates set before her and behaving like a rabid chichuachua. She is all bark with nothing to back it up, never acknowledging that the only reason she doesn’t get killed is that the immensely more powerful people choose not to. But the reader is supposed to interpret it as some testament to her abilities. It patently is not. What it reads like instead is so mentally unstable as to be suicidal. More importantly, though, is that it is incredibly dull to watch a girl find herself in a new world and then be assigned to a school, only to dive into her academics with essentially no protest beyond a few complaints.

Then there is the ‘romance.’ I understand the concept of a slow-burn. But this is literally (lit.er.a.lly) a no-burn. He and she snipe at one another for a paragraph or two once every 10 chapters or so, and nothing more. This a romance (even an enemies-to-lovers romance) does not make. They spend almost no time together over 500+ pages. And thank goodness, because I hated the MMC. (I barely tolerated the FMC. But I 100% would be rabid if she were any stupider and actually accepted the man, which she no doubt will in future books, which is why I will not be reading them.)

on wings of blood photoLastly, and in combination with the frustration of 500+ pages without a romantic payoff, is that the book literally (lit.er.a.lly) ends where it begins. Talk about feeling like a pointless waste of my time. If you want to go to a million magic classes with a gender bent Harry Potter, knock yourself out.

Maybe true fans of YA will appreciate it. And despite hints of having done something meaningful and seemingly adultish before finding herself in vampire-land, this is definitely a bland, dime-a-dozen YA book (which makes the single sex scene feel out of place). I’m glad to be washing my hands of it.

Other Reviews:

Review:  On Wings of Blood: A Dark Academia Fantasy Romance with Dragons & Vampires (Bloodwing Academy Book 1) by Briar Boleyn