Review: Blood and Ink

Blood and Ink by Stephen Davies
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received a free e-book copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for this opportunity!

I FINALLY FINISHED THIS BOOK AFTER A WHOLE MONTH. I do feel bad for putting off this book for so long, but things happen. Putting it off doesn't mean that this book was bad, though!

This book is about Ali, a Defender of the Faith, and Kadi, the daughter of a man who has illegal manuscripts. I don't know much about this history, so I can't say how accurate this is or how it compares to the actual story, but it was a pretty good historical fiction story.

The first 65% of the book was really slow, and I was actually thinking of DNF-ing this book, but, as I do, I hoped the story would get better and powered through it. I ended up liking the last part a lot, which saved this book from a one-star rating.

There wasn't much character development with anyone but Ali, which surprised me. I had an idea that Ali would become a better person, but he was just so headstrong that I just didn't know. I ended up really interested in his character and his reasoning for it all. It was intriguing seeing how both Kadi and Ali thought they were in the right. It was also a bit scary how extreme the Defenders of the Faith were, and how into the cause they were. Scary to think that this was based on a real event. I'm still not entirely sure what harem is, but I'm assuming from context it's similar to "sacrilegious." Davies didn't include it in his helpful glossary. :-(

There was some romance in this book, and I feel like it was required to push the story and character development forward, but it just didn't seem real. Kadi falls in love with Ali, the boy who had been harassing and targeting her, her family, and her friends this whole time. Their meetings were never really cute and flirty--they were pretty dark and violent. I just can't see how she fell for him.

Overall, the characters were decent, the story is slow and takes a long time to pick up, the romance a bit unbelievable, but this book still isn't bad. It isn't amazing and mind-blowing, but I ended up enjoying it.

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Review: A Court of Wings and Ruin

A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thoughts before reading this book: (1) this book cover is so green wtf (2) this books gonna fuck me up
Thoughts after reading this book: (1) this book is still so green it's distracting (2) this book fucked me up

A Court of Wings and Ruin is the third book in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series, and it was probably one of my favorites in the series. I still think is my favorite because it was so mystical and new, and this one was more brutal, but I still loved this to death and is my second favorite now.

THIS REVIEW IS NOT SPOILER-FREE. LEAVE NOW IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THIS (but let's be honest I think everyone's read this by now. it's all over my home page)

When I finished this book, I was just lying in my chair staring at the wall for a good half an hour, not knowing how to process all of my emotions. I WAS FEELING A LOT OF THINGS. I read the last 100 pages in one sitting and oh man did that break me. I never come close to crying when reading books, but this had me tearing up.

Just warning you now that there are going to be spoilers from here on. Just in case you decided to read on and ignore my previous warning.

Every scene with Rhysand towards the end broke my heart. He's definitely one of my favorite fictional characters of all time now, and he's been through SO MUCh, aND HE WAS WILLING TO GIVE HIMSELF UP FOR PRYTHIAN AND I SORT OF GUESSED THAT HE WAS GOING TO GIVE HIMSELF UP BUT OH MY GOD I WAS A PUDDLE OF SADNESS DURING THAT ONE SCENE (YALL KNOW THE SCENE).

I grew to love the Court of Dreams bunch even more through this book. More storylines were explained, and the character development was so real with some characters (Mor and Nesta).

I also found out I absolutely 100% love and support Nesta. Her pissed off stage at the beginning was actually one of my favorite parts of her, just because she was so different than the nice Night Court happy friends we were getting used to.

There's so much more to talk about, but so little time (and such bad memory, tbh. I don't want like one sentence reviews on scenes).

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Review: A Court of Mist and Fury

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

review #2 - v small review i promise
wowowowow even knowing all the twists this book didn't fail to have me head over heels again for it again also im so in luv with rhysand WOW can the next book come now please (it's actually getting shipped today im hyped)

also i forgot just how many sex scenes there were in here jesus

original review

There will be some spoilers in the "other thoughts" section because I can't contain my excitement I HAVE TO TALK ABOUT STUFF SOMEWHERE also slight spoilers from the ending of the first book because I can't help myself

What's This Book About?
This is the second book in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series. At the end of Sarah J. Maas's first book, A Court of Thorns and Roses, Feyre finds herself a newly-made Fae being (Is "being" the right word to use here? I don't know). Everybody gets to go home and be happy and everything is starting to be perfect in the world again. In this book, it starts out the same way. Everyone's trying to be happy and be in the perfect world they fought so hard to have, but things aren't as perfect as we want them to be. Feyre's been having these insane nightmares over the horrors she lived through Under the Mountain. Tamlin's been crazy protective over Feyre to the point of her having anxiety attacks. Feyre is still stuck seeing Rhysand once a week every month -- a part of their bargain from the last book. But once Tamlin's overprotectiveness goes way too far, Feyre asks Rhysand for an escape. And that's when it starts getting good.

Characters
Feyre - So Feyre. So much character development going on with Feyre in this book (as to be expected since she's the main character). Her anxiety was real as heck, and I was amazed that Sarah J. Maas was able to describe the panic attack so realistically. Feyre is trying to figure out whose side she's on and tries to piece herself back together after murdering innocent fairies Under the Mountain. There's nothing I love more than broken characters. Feyre's also got these crazy cool new powers that I am very jealous of. You get to see a lot of them. It's very cool.

Tamlin - Tamlin doesn't show up much in this one, actually, so I'll keep this short and sweet. Tamlin's character seems to change entirely. Where I was once rooting for him, now I am grossed out to read about him. I also did feel bad for him throughout the book, because being in his position would sort of suck.

Rhysand - RHYSAND. OH MAN. THE LOVE OF MY LIFE. I started this book not knowing how to feel about Rhysand. But after like 10 chapters or so, I was head over heels. And the character development is so real with this guy. I don't want to say too much and spoil stuff, but oh man.

Mor - I was only going to be talking about Feyre, Tamlin, and Rhysand, but I can't help but talk about Mor too. She's such a great character, and I love her so much. She's as sweet as can be but can also be terrifying. She helps Feyre in so many ways and without expecting anything in return. She's a total sweetheart!!!!!

World Building
The world building is so amazing in this. It was great in the first book, but I found it even better in this second book. The courts, the cities, the feud between humans and Fae. All of it is so intriguing and so lovely and amazing. You shouldn't be disappointed in this area.

Romance (if any)
WOO YEAH THERE'S SO MUCH ROMANCE. Actually there are around three detailed sex scenes. Yeah, I probably wouldn't recommend it to the young Young Adults. The whole thing was really nice but also sort of weird. I loved the romance in this book so much. It was a slow build up to it and I found myself waiting for it to happen. You know when there's a couple that should really be together and it just takes them SO LONG to get together? Yeah, it's like that. Actually, it's exactly that.

How's the Writing?
Sarah J. Maas has never let me down. Her writing style is so beautiful that I'm always coming back for more.

Other Thoughts
Okay here's the spoiler section.
(view spoiler)[The romance in this book was crazy and I absolutely loved it. I loved the idea that Rhysand was her mate all along, and that he didn't tell her. I loved the shameless flirting between them and the build up to the actual romance was so well done. I'm absolutely obsessed with these two.

Also Feyre going back to Tamlin. The fact that Maas left out the fact that she's now a High Lady. Oh my goodness. I'm so excited for the next book. (hide spoiler)]

Conclusion -- Rating Explanation
Romance was A+. So much character development. World building and writing was beautiful. I love you, Sarah J. Maas. Thank you for writing this book.

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Review: A Court of Thorns and Roses

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review (sorta) #2
OH GOD I'VE BEEN PRONOUNCING RHYSAND'S NAME WRONG THIS WHOLE TIME. Book two's gonna be so weird trying to pronounce his name the correct way.

This book might have been even better the second time around. It was really amazing reading all the little hints and things that are more explained in book two (which I don't want to give away even though probably everyone has read these by now).

I'm so pumped for ACOWAR oh man.

In my old review, I talked about how this book could have been two books itself, but reading this again made me think that this was wrong. I thought it could've ended when Feyre returned home and the next book start with her going Under the Mountain, but now I realize that this book really did need all of this in one to get the full experience. Nothing much really happened in the first part to make it seem like it could stand alone, and I think I was too caught up in the romance the first time to realize that.

Also "This book ended so amazingly that I don't even know if I want to read the sequel." Oh please.

Also sort of unrelated, but goodread's new reread feature is cute. Crazy that I read this at like almost the same time last year.

Original Review (or lack of review?)
I loved this book so much you don't even know.

It's a take on Beauty and the Beast, I believe. This takes place in a world with humans and the Fae (fairies). A human girl, Feyre (fay-ruh), is struggling to keep her poor family alive. She hunts for food, and one day she ends up killing a Fae beast. This leads to her breaking the treaty between Fae and humans, and she must either die or come back to live with the Fae for the rest of her life.

This story is about her being torn away from her family and living in this new world she didn't believe really existed until now.

I don't want to get more into it, but it was great. I loved it so much. Maybe you wouldn't like it as much as me (I'm a sucker for stories with romance in it), but give it a shot!

Also it seemed like 2 books in one for me. I can't really explain it, but once everything seemed to end perfectly (at least a good ending to make you want a sequel), more things happened. This book ended so amazingly that I don't even know if I want to read the sequel.

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Review: This Is Where It Ends

This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is one of the shorter books I've read in a while, but it took me so long???

I think it's because this book's writing style is so choppy that I couldn't really get engaged. I found myself reading a chapter then looking around and not really wanted to get too back into the book. Also for a book that should only take place in a couple of minutes, it takes so long (not just personally me reading, but the story itself and the chapters itself). It didn't seem reasonable that so much was going on in only 2 minutes at a time.

The whole story premise is horrifying though, and I was really excited to read a story about a school shooting. We've all seen them in the news more and more these past few years, so this is a very important story. I don't know how accurate it is, but it really resonated with me. It was really interesting seeing Tyler through the lives of others. He was apparently such a great guy to some, but everything just went so wrong.

There's more than just a shooting though. This tiny book also focuses on LGBT characters and rape. It also doesn't romanticize small towns - it shows the dangers of the police being so far away and everyone being connected to each other just made the whole thing so much scarier.

The texts/tweets seemed to be useless to me. None of them conveyed much, and I didn't care at all about the characters that starred in them (Jay, someone who skipped school so we don't know a single thing about him, and Mei, a teacher's daughter that we don't really get to meet and who's just sort of annoying).

Important story and topics, but it fell a little flat for me. I'd still probably recommend it to people though because it is such a short book.

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The Diabolic by S. J. Kincaid

Rating: 4/5 stars
★★★★☆

The Diabolic is about a girl named Nemesis who isn't really human, but Diabolic, which means she was created with superhuman strength and bonded to a human to protect her for the rest of her life. Nemesis is bonded to Sidonia, who one day is forced to be in the company of the unliked Emperor. To save Sidonia, Nemesis decides to disguise herself and go in her place.

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

Rating: 5/5 stars
★★★★★

Crooked Kingdom is the second book in the Six of Crows duology. Six of Crows is about a big heist, and Crooked Kingdom is the aftermath.