Book Review: Conquering Fate (The Order of the Krigers #3)

Release Date: February 1, 2018
Author: Jennifer Anne Davis
Publisher: Reign Publishing
Length: 340 pages
Source: Review Copy from Author

With no choice but to face her destiny straight on, Kaia is determined to end the curse—no matter the personal cost. Sacrificing her own wants and desires, she turns herself over to the evil king, Morlet. Together, they seek to discover the catalyst for the events that started it all over a hundred years ago.

The path she embarks on tests her skills, her willpower, and her heart. Facing the darkest truth inside of her, she makes a choice that not only has unspeakable consequences, but also changes her life and the future of the kingdom forever.

    

Review:

Protagonist: The time is drawing near for Kaia to face off with Mortlet and decide the fate of her kingdom. I was genuinely surprised by how much character development Kaia has in this book, not that by the end of the previous installment she was a fully developed, self-actualized character, but when it comes to the final book in a series, I rarely find that much character development with our protagonist. In this installment, Kaia still has much to learn about herself and the world around her. There's definitely a focus on Kaia and her relationship with Mortlet in this book, though I'll talk about that in more detail in a little bit, it's how the two find themselves together that sets off Kaia's major development for this story. Kaia's whole characterization revolves around the theme of choice and those choices will be revealed as Kaia faces some of her toughest trials and tribulations yet.

Romance: So, as I said, there's a lot of this story that focuses on the romance between Kaia and Mortlet, and honestly I couldn't believe how much of the story focused on that. Now, don't get me wrong, Mortlet is a terrible person who deserves a slow and painful death for the misery he thrust onto his kingdom, but the part of him that's Espen, the part of him that's fighting the compulsion of the Skog Heks magic, I like. I felt that the author did a fantastic job in illustrating Kaia's conflict with Mortlet and how torn she is between falling for the part of him that is Espen, and detesting the person he is when the dark magic inside of him takes over. I was surprised that there wasn't a whole lot of focus on the romance between Anders and Kaia, though there still is a good amount of focus, considering this is the final installment, I expected a bit more evenly divided attention on the two main suitors in Kaia's life.

World Building: There's a bit more focus on the Heks in this story as the prologue of this book takes place long before the start of our story and introduces a rather large magical MacGuffin that becomes imperative to the main story and the curse that has plagued this kingdom for so long. While we learn more about the world outside Nelebek, we don't actually see it, which makes sense since the barrier around Nelebek is still in place, but I just wish we got to see a bit more of this world or at least what we learned about the world outside Nelebek wasn't so focused on one kingdom. Don't get me wrong, I love the world building in this book and I loved learning more about the Heks and how their race works, and I loved following this story to its conclusion, I just want more. Is that such a bad thing?

Predictability: Davis is the Queen of plot twists in my book. Not that I haven't been able to guess at a lot of her plot twists in the past, but when it comes to the Krigers series especially, I have next to no idea where the story will go and that was absolutely true for this installment. Going back over the story, there isn't much, if anything, that I was able to predict, in fact when it came to how this story would end, I had a lot of ideas as for how it might end and still I wasn't able to figure out how everything was going to go down. That's just the end, there are plenty more twists and turns in this book, twists that I didn't see coming, not even just before they were about to be revealed.

Ending: As I said, the ending of this tale is fairly unpredictable. The final confrontation with Mortlet was really interesting and it's in this final battle that even more is revealed and some very hard truths come to light. I really enjoyed the final climax with Mortlet, though after the dust has settled, for good or for bad, there is still a bit of book left that just helps to wrap everything up and shows off what happens after the final battle and how the world will continue after everything is said and done.

Rating:

I did have to debate on this a little bit, as this isn't as good as the other books in this series, but at the end of the day I still loved it and felt that this is a perfect ending to this series, though probably my biggest problem with this installment was that it's been so long since I read either of the other books that it felt a little removed from the other ones for me. I'm hoping to do a reread of the entire trilogy by the end of the year.

Book Review: The Traitor Prince (Ravenspire #3)

Release Date: February 13, 2018
Author: C.J. Redwine
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Length: 416 pages
Source: Edelweiss eARC

Javan Najafai, the crown prince of Akram, has spent the last ten years at school, far away from his kingdom. He’s been eagerly awaiting his return home to his ailing father, but his journey there goes dangerously wrong. A mysterious imposter has taken his place—and no one will believe Javan is the true prince.

After barely escaping the imposter’s hitmen, Javan is thrown in the most dangerous prison in his kingdom—Maqbara. The only way to gain an audience with the king and reveal the truth is to fight his way out in the prison’s yearly tournament, which pits inmates against a coterie of the deadliest creatures in the world.

The one person who can help him is Sajda, a strong and secretive girl who has been enslaved by Maqbara’s warden since she was a child. Working with Sajda might be the only way Javan can escape alive—but she’s hiding something.

Together, Javan and Sajda will have to outwit the dangerous warden, outfight the hundreds of deadly creatures, and outlast the murderous prisoners intent on killing Javan before he can win—in order to fight for their freedom, and take down the imposter once and for all.

    

Review:

Protagonists: Javan has spent the last ten years of his life doing everything he can to be the best student at the Milisatria and fulfill his mother's dying wish that he be the best student so he can be the best King for Akram. That is until an imposter takes his place and he finds himself in Maqbara, a terrible prison where he is forced to fight in a deadly tournament to win an audience with his father and hopefully put all this treachery to rest. There he meets Sajda, the warden's slave girl hiding a broken past and a dangerous secret. As these characters try and face their own adversities, they learn to lean on each other and find themselves forming an unlikely friendship that just might lead to more. I love these characters, Javan is very honorable, almost to a fault, and strives to be the best in his classes, but there's more to learn about the world than math, history, and mythology, and Javan's predicament shows him just how corrupt his kingdom can be. Sadja is wounded and broken by her years as a slave but hasn't given up hope to somehow escape and taste freedom. I love how each of these characters grew both together and independently to figure out who they really are and what they truly want out of life.

Romance: It's really hard to talk too much about this romance without spoiling small parts of how things unfold but I'm going to do my best. There is a fair bit of romance in this story, the bond between Javan and Sajda is amazing and I loved how the author told their story. The romance doesn't affect too much of the plot until much later on in the story, and I really enjoyed a lighter romance in this book. There wasn't a lot of drama and I really felt a draw to the relationship between these characters. There's a part of the book that talks about how well Javan fits with Sajda's broken edges and it came off 100% authentic. These characters go so well together and I couldn't stop rooting for them while I was reading, not even for a second.

World-Building: While the romance might not have a lot of drama, the rest of the story certainly does. There are a great number of villains in this story, not just Rahim, the Traitor Prince himself, though Rahim is the true villain. I love how the author really amped up the villainy in this book because it really heightens the stakes and there are a good number of times where I could see no way out for our heroes and my stress levels went through the roof in the best way possible. The previous two books in this series had strong ties to the fairy tales that inspired them, and well, unfortunately, I'm not well versed in the fairy tale this story was inspired by, and because there wasn't that nostalgic tie to a childhood tale, this story didn't feel as steeped in fairy tales as the other stories did, but honestly, at the end of the day I didn't care. I just loved getting to see more of this expansive world and I was surprised at just how much more of this world we got to see. Because the arena matches also include monsters we get to see so many more creatures that roam this world and it was so fun to see more of this world's ecosystem and while we didn't get a large selection of creatures from all over, it was still an exciting every time a new round in the arena started. Finally, yes there are connections to the other books in this series, mainly The Wish Granter, and it was fantastic to see how everything in this story connects to the rest of the world.

Predictability: Even though it was fairly easy to pick up on the foreshadowing in this book, that never really affected how I experienced this story. I was never bummed if I figured out a twist early on in its development and there were quite a few times when I was genuinely shocked at a large twist to this tale. There are actually a lot of great surprises in this story that completely caught me off guard and added to the excitement of this story. I wish I had more to say here but that pretty much sums it up. The book isn't completely unpredictable, but I didn't mind and there were still a number of exciting surprises to keep me going.

Ending: The final climax of this book is EPIC, I may have used those same words to describe the endings to other books in the past, but this one stands high above all others. Throughout this entire book, I wasn't quite sure how everything was going to be resolved because in all honesty, this one of the most dastardly villains yet, and with no magic to boot! However, with how everything went down in the final climax, I'm still shaken and I loved every minute of it. There isn't too much time at the end for a nice cooldown period, but it didn't need to be, in fact, I liked how things sort of quickly wound down toward the end and how the story ended with a fantastic epilogue!

Rating:

This was no surprise to me. Even though I was a little unsure about this book because I wasn't as well versed with the inspiration for this story as I was with the previous two, this might be tied with the second book as my favorite of the series so far. It's full of action, romance, and some dark and twisted political intrigue! I loved it so much, but I'm sort of cursing myself because I need the next book right away, and now I have to wait a while!

Omnibus Review: The Dark (Through Glass #1-3)

Release Date: December 12, 2013
Author: Rebecca Ethington
Publisher: Imdalind Press
Length: 322 pages
Source: Purchased e-Book

Everyone remembered the day the sky went black. The day the sun was wiped from the sky. They remember the wind as it brought in the darkness; the way the earth shook and everything changed.

Everyone remembered the screams as the darkness ate those who were out in the open, those who had surrounded themselves by light, and those who made noise.

Everyone remembered the voice from the sky and the way food disappeared.

At least, that’s what I hoped. I hoped that there was an ‘everyone’ that would remember because I am not sure how many are left, how many survived. Or if anyone did.
I hoped that I wasn’t alone.
I remembered that day.
I remembered because it was the day I became alone.
It was the day that everything was perfect until the monsters took it away. Then the house went silent and the birds stopped singing. It was the day when everyone disappeared, everyone except the boy, the only person I have seen in two years.

The boy I talk to through the glass.

    

Review:

Protagonist: At the start of this book, our main character, Alexis, is going through a lot of typical things a graduating high school senior would, whether or not to blow off that assignment, what to take to college, and wondering why her best friend, who she's been in love with nearly all her life, is looking at her different. If only these were her main struggles in this novel, but unfortunately all hell breaks loose and now her main goal is surviving the monsters that appeared as if from nowhere and blotted out the skies, the monsters who rule with an iron fist, who will kill you if you break their rules. After two years in the hell wrought by these monsters, Lex just wants life to go back to normal, she wants to have real conversations, not just signing back and forth through panes of glass to Cohen, the only human she knows left alive. She grows sick and tired of the monotonous daily life she has, but with no way to fight back all seems hopeless. Okay, so I'm really trying not to spoil anything, as I usually use the synopsis to gauge what would be too much of a spoiler, but what I can say is that I really like Lex as a character. She's a survivor in more ways than one and when push comes to shove she'll do whatever it takes not only save herself but those she cares about as well.

Romance: There actually isn't as much romance in this as I expected there to be. A few years ago I did read the first novella in this series, which takes up the first "Part" of this novel, and there's a good amount of romance in it. In fact, I remember thinking how it felt a lot like an insta-love, however since we got a good sense of the characters' history and their chemistry was written very well, the pacing of the romance never bothered me, and honestly that still held true when I read it again. However, the first part is really where the majority of the romance is. I guess after the world goes to shit it's not exactly the best time to be all lovey-dovey and romantic. I really do like the romance between Lex and Cohen, it's so sweet and innocent at first, while Lex has known her feelings for Cohen so long, Cohen is just discovering his and then throw this whole apocalypse thing into the mix and things get really intense really fast.

World Building: One of the things that have always fascinated me about this series is how it doesn't just pick up post-apocalypse, instead there's a good chunk of the book that reads more like a contemporary. Everything is light and fluffy, the most our main character has to worry about is if the boy she likes, likes her back. Then all hell breaks loose and we get to see it happen, we learn about it from someone who survived it, instead of picking up with someone long after the apocalypse has happened. The word I would use to describe this world is "Dark" in every sense of the word. The pain and struggles that Lex and Cohen go through on a daily basis are laid out for the reader to see and experience. I really wish I could talk more, I mean, there are definitely things I want to say that I don't think would be too spoilery, but I don't want to risk it, instead I'll say that the terror you see in the beginning of this catastrophe is just that, the beginning.

Predictability: One of the great things about Rebecca Ethington is that she doesn't follow a set of tropes when she writes her stories, while there are definitely some tropes in this story, for the most part, things happen in an unexpected manner. Even with the many, many stories I've read by her, I still get blown away when she throws a curveball into this story, and let me tell you there's an intense curveball thrown into this story. Obviously, I won't tell you what it is, but even though there was a bit of foreshadowing I still never saw it coming, and I'm extremely interested to see how it plays out in later installments. Overall, this story has a great balance of moments that, given the amount of foreshadowing, you can see coming, and moments that will drop your jaw and slap you silly.

Ending: Gah! There are so many things I felt during this finale. I mean, it's obvious that this is just the beginning. There's a great final climax that raises just as many, if not more questions than it answers, and then, during that moment where normally you'd have a cooldown period, and since this is a first book you'd probably plateau it so that the wait for the next book isn't as agonizing, yeah that's gone. Instead, we get a cliffhanger followed by an epilogue of sorts that just raises more questions and makes the wait, if there was one, P.S. there's not, all the more excruciating.

Rating:

Holy crap, did I love this book. I mean the characters are incredible, the action is amazing, and the world building is out of this world. There are definitely parts of the book, small, if not minuscule, where the narrative drags, but once a certain point is hit, things speed up and don't slow down. I can't wait to dive into the next installment.

Book Review: World of Warcraft: Traveler (Traveler #1)

Release Date: October 25, 2016
Author: Greg Weisman
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Length: 336 pages
Source: Review Copy from Publisher

An epic action-adventure series set in Blizzard's popular World of Warcraft® game franchise. Features a young cast of characters discovering the mysteries and majesty of the world around them.

It's been years since twelve-year-old Aramar Thorne, a clever boy who is never without his precious sketch book, has seen his father. So when Captain Greydon Thorne comes ashore and asks his son to join him at sea, it feels as if someone has redrawn Aram's entire world. At sea, Aram struggles to get along with the Wavestider's crew--especially second mate Makasa, a tough teenaged girl who has been reluctantly placed in charge of him. Just as Aram starts to get his head above water, a band of vicious pirates attack the Wavestrider, turning his world upside down once again. As Aram and Makasa try to find their way home, they encounter creatures both terrible and wondrous, and Aram will seek to understand Azeroth's denizens as he draws them in his sketchbook, forming unlikely friendships along the way. But the journey is hindered by Greydon's compass, which never points north. If the compass isn't leading Aram and Makasa home--to safety--to what destiny is it leading?

    

Review:

Characters: Even though Aramar Thorne is the main character of this tale, the point-of-view for this story is more of the omniscient third person narrator that can move from the inner thoughts of one character to another seamlessly. So while Aram is the main character we do get to see and learn about a whole cast of characters. Of course, we have our protagonist Aram, a boy who is practically forced to join the crew of his long-absent father for a year, Aram has a very complicated relationship with his father, for half or Aram's life Greydon Thorne was a loving and attentive father, but for the other half Greydon wasn't even there having just vanished with no word. Then there's Makasa Flintwill, the second mate of Greydon Thorne's ship and the bane of Aram's existence. Makasa is begrudgingly put in charge of her captain's son, a sulky boy who doesn't take his role on the ship seriously and disrespects her captain every chance he gets. Makasa has a deep sense of loyalty and will use whatever skills she has to follow her captain's orders. On their journey, Aram and Makasa not only meet fascinating denizens of Azeroth who help them along the way, but they are pursued by dangerous foes who will stop at nothing to uncover the secrets that Aram protects.

World-Building: I've tried to write this section many times. Let's be honest, the author didn't come up with this world, but that's not the point. In fact, one of the things that drew me to this book was the fact that one of its main goals is to introduce the World of Warcraft to a younger generation is a fun and exciting way. The lore associated with Warcraft games is extensive and can be at times very confusing due to (arguable) retconning. That being said, I believe the author did a fantastic job at not only bring the World of Warcraft to life on the page but introducing a number of fundamental races and creatures of this world in an easy to follow yet comprehensive way. This is by no means a full guide to this world, in fact, if you go in with next to no knowledge of this world there will be things that either confuse you or pique your interest but I urge you to persevere and after you finish this rich story to either do some more research on things like wikis, or to journey into the world yourself. I was a bit worried at the beginning of this story when it was hard for me to remember that this is a WoW branded novel, but not too far into it, due to the immaculately described world, beautifully illustrated pictures, and colorful characters our heroes meet, it became hard to forget.

Predictability: My biggest warning to you is that you do not flip through the illustrations before getting to them in the story. On the whole, they don't really spoil anything too huge, but it's those small bits that can the catalyst to spoiling something huge. Now that being said, there were still many times that I was caught off guard by where this story was going. In truth, it wasn't until towards the end that most of the really juicy twists came out, but I'll get to that in a bit. On the whole, this book did a fantastic job of not only foreshadowing things to come but keeping large secrets in the dark until the right time for a very surprising reveal.

Ending: The end of this book was nearly cinematic. Since the author employed an omniscient narrator to tell the story he was able to easily move between various parts of a scene and show the reader this very comprehensive view of just what is going on. The final climax of this story is rather incredible. It happens a bit earlier in the story than I anticipated but it's totally worth it. After all the fuss goes down here comes the twists. Obviously, I'll keep tight-lipped on just what exactly happens, but I will say that if you didn't know this was a series, you'll know it way before the end of this book. This story is just beginning there's still so much left to explore and so many mysteries to still unlock on the way.

Rating:

I LOVED this book, I cannot fully articulate to you just how much. If you're a fan of action, adventure, mystery, and/or fantasy I cannot recommend this book more. If Middle Grade isn't your thing I urge you to recommend this book to someone who you think would enjoy it. This book is too underhyped and that seriously needs to change.