Review

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas | Review

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
Published by Bloomsbury Children’s on May 5th 2015
Genres: Young Adult, Romance, Fantasy, Fairytale Retelling, Magic
Pages: 416
Format: Hardcover

When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin—one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.

As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow grows over the faerie lands, and Feyre must find a way to stop it . . . or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas is the first book in her new fantasy fairytale retelling of Beauty and the Beast. It follows our main protagonist Feyre and the aftermath and consequences of killing a shape shifting Fae. With action, love, rich back stories, and fantastical Faerie magic this book has it all!

Sarah J. Maas is known to be a wonderful writer. She is known to tell some awesome stories and creates some of the best/lovable characters. She does not disappoint this time around either! She was able to recreate one of my favorite fairytale and make it all her own. It takes a great deal of talent to be able to do that. This book even warranted me to research more about the original fairytale and see how much I could connect the dots.

Feyre reminded me a lot of Celaena from The Throne of Glass series, and as much as it pains me to make the comparison, I just felt it. She was courageous, loyal, curious, and intelligent (even though she is illiterate). Yes, she made some bad decisions in this book that pretty much screwed things up half the time, but I feel without that she wouldn’t progress much as a character. When they say curiosity killed the cat, I feel like they were talking about Feyre. Her curiosity got her into a lot of trouble. She got on my nerves quite a bit though. Annoying at times.

Tamlin, Tamlin, Tamlin. My heart is skipping a beat just thinking about him. Sarah J. Maas has once again created the perfect man. I don’t know how she does it, but here we go again. Protective, strong, courageous, devote leader, and more. I’m at a loss for words trying to talk about him right now.

This book was the perfect blend of romance and action. It spends a lot of time in the first half of the book building the relationship between Feyre and Tamlin that you can’t help but give them the title of Best Couple of the year. The bickering, learning, and love making were just splendidly perfectly and I wouldn’t change a single moment.

But not all is perfect in A Court of Thorns and Roses. The reason this book did not receive a 5 star rating is because of the antagonist. I literally gave no shits what so ever about her (I can’t even remember her name at this exact moment). To me a good antagonist is one that you can’t help but love to hate. They silently make you want to route for them to do the good thing in the end. I want to see the hardships that got them to where they are now, and I just didn’t connect with hers at all. I did however like Rhys, her whore. He I secretly route for to win! He’s conniving and manipulative, but he has his reasons. I can’t wait to see more of him in the next book.

So enough of my ramblings. I quite thoroughly enjoyed A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. From the story, to the romance, to the action, to the redemption, and to the folklore. If you’ve read it I would love to hear what you have to say. Let’s start a conversation!

Until next time,

Sarah J. Maas is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Throne of Glass series, as well as the A Court of Thorns and Roses series.

Sarah lives in Bucks County, PA, and over the years, she has developed an unhealthy appreciation for Disney movies and bad pop music. She adores fairy tales and ballet, drinks too much tea, and watches an ungodly amount of TV. When she’s not busy writing, she can be found exploring the historic and beautiful Pennsylvania countryside with her husband and canine companion.

The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows | Review [ARCHIVED]

The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows

Published by Katherine Tegen Books on March 10th 2015
Genres: Young Adult, Romance, Action & Adventure, Fantasy
Pages: 393
Format: Hardcover

“Wilhelmina has a hundred identities.

She is a princess. When the Indigo Kingdom conquered her homeland, Wilhelmina and other orphaned children of nobility were taken to Skyvale, the Indigo Kingdom’s capital. Ten years later, they are the Ospreys, experts at stealth and theft. With them, Wilhelmina means to take back her throne.

She is a spy. Wil and her best friend, Melanie, infiltrate Skyvale Palace to study their foes. They assume the identities of nobles from a wraith-fallen kingdom, but enemies fill the palace, and Melanie’s behavior grows suspicious. With Osprey missions becoming increasingly dangerous and their leader more unstable, Wil can’t trust anyone.

She is a threat. Wraith is the toxic by-product of magic, and for a century using magic has been forbidden. Still the wraith pours across the continent, reshaping the land and animals into fresh horrors. Soon it will reach the Indigo Kingdom. Wilhelmina’s magic might be the key to stopping the wraith, but if the vigilante Black Knife discovers Wil’s magic, she will vanish like all the others.”

REVIEW

The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows is the first book in her Orphan Queen Duology. It follows our main protagonist Wilhelmina, a princess who’s kingdom was taken away from her many years before, leaving her and the other children of nobility without parents and a kingdom to live in. Now she and the other children, now grown up must do whatever they can to resurrect their kingdom and enact war on the King who took everything away from them.

This was such a great start to a fantasy series! It was action packed, it was humorous, and had a cute romance. Which is pretty much everything I look forward to in a book that I read. Meadows was able to create a world unlike any other filled with wraith(magic), lies and deceit, and a cunning vigilante. (I’ll get to him later!)

I was at awe with Meadows’ writing style. I found that it fit perfectly with the themes of the book and the era. Her writing style helped develop a world that never felt confusing or jam packed with useless information like a lot of other books. She created a very unique magic system with the wraith, and I just wish there was a little more of an explanation for why/how wraith occurs.

Wilhelmina as the main protagonist was perfect. She was everything anyone could ever want in a heroine and future queen. She is ambitious, tough, strong willed, and empathetic. Right from the beginning you can tell how much she cared for her fellow Ospreys well beings and you just knew that she would do everything she could to protect them.

Although Wil was such a great character, my favorite would have to be Black Knife. Maybe I’m just being biased in the sense that I wish I was the one he was saving and falling for. But he is humorous, strong, and extremely lovable. I totally ship him and Wilhelmina hard. They’re relationship is cute and complex all at the same time.

I can only say good things about The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows! I loved the world, the plot, the characters and the ending. Which I must say was treacherous. Seriously. Read it and you will know what I’m talking about. Stay tuned for future reviews coming your way!

See ya next time,

Jodi Meadows lives and writes in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, with her husband, a Kippy*, and an alarming number of ferrets. She is a confessed book addict, and has wanted to be a writer ever since she decided against becoming an astronaut. She is the author of the INCARNATE Trilogy and the forthcoming ORPHAN QUEEN Duology (HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen).

Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli | Review

Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
Published by Balzer + Bray on April 7th 2015
Genres: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary, Fiction, LBGT
Pages: 303
Format: Hardcover

“Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: if he doesn’t play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone’s business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the boy he’s been emailing, will be compromised.

With some messy dynamics emerging in his once tight-knit group of friends, and his email correspondence with Blue growing more flirtatious every day, Simon’s junior year has suddenly gotten all kinds of complicated. Now, change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he’s pushed out—without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he’s never met.”

REVIEW

Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda is the debut novel by Becky Albertalli. It follows the main protagonist Simon and his email correspondence with a mystery boy from his school. We see Simon’s world unravel as he navigates his friends, family, school life, and cyber life in this too cute for words coming of age story!

I can’t express my love for this book enough then I already have through twitter and such, but holy jeez where do I begin? Let’s talk about how real of a character Simon is and how much I related to him. It brought back so many fond and not so fond memories from my high school days! He’s honest, blunt, clever, funny, and all around normal teenager. We get to see him succeed, and we get to see him fail, but that is what made this book all the more real!

If you think you’ve found your perfect book couple to ship, think again! You will not believe how adorable and cute Simon and Blue are until you read this book. Even though they have never met face to face and are dying to do so; fear is what’s keeping them from that. They manage to forge real feelings and emotions just through emailing each other. We get to see their ups and downs as a real virtual couple until they meet in person finally. And to keep the mystery alive, I won’t spoil it Blue for you. Albertalli had me guessing all the way till the end.

“But I’m tired of coming out. All I ever do is come out. I try not to change, but I keep changing, in all these tiny ways. And every freaking time, I have to reintroduce myself to the universe all over again.”

This book has a lot of diversity to it as well. Firstly the main character is gay, he has a wide variety of friends of different cultures and races. Albertalli also teaches us that books don’t always have to be so blonde hair blued centered all the time! It’s nice every once and while, but every single book it gets quite annoying!

“White shouldn’t be the default any more than straight should be the default. There shouldn’t even be a default.”

I have nothing but praise for Becky Albertalli’s writing. She created real and relatable characters. The dialogues between them were great, and the overall story telling was awesome!

If you are looking for a book that talks about deep issues and acceptance, then you need to go out and pick up a copy of Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli. You won’t be disappointed!

See ya next time,

Jesse Nicholas

@BooksatDawn

Becky Albertalli is a clinical psychologist who has had the privilege of conducting therapy with dozens of smart, weird, irresistible teenagers. She also served for seven years as co-leader of a support group for gender nonconforming children in Washington, DC. She now lives with her family in Atlanta.

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda is her first novel.