Blog Tour Book Review: The Lantern's Ember + GIVEAWAY!

Release Date: September 11, 2018
Author: Colleen Houck
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Length: 416 pages
Source: eGalley for Review

Welcome to a world where nightmarish creatures reign supreme.

Five hundred years ago, Jack made a deal with the devil. It’s difficult for him to remember much about his mortal days. So, he focuses on fulfilling his sentence as a Lantern—one of the watchmen who guard the portals to the Otherworld, a realm crawling with every nightmarish creature imaginable. Jack has spent centuries jumping from town to town, ensuring that nary a mortal—or not-so-mortal—soul slips past him. That is, until he meets beautiful Ember O’Dare.

Seventeen, stubborn, and a natural-born witch, Ember feels a strong pull to the Otherworld. Undeterred by Jack’s warnings, she crosses into the forbidden plane with the help of a mysterious and debonair vampire—and the chase through a dazzling, dangerous world is on. Jack must do everything in his power to get Ember back where she belongs before both the earthly and unearthly worlds descend into chaos.

    

Review:

Protagonist: While this story is told from multiple points of view, after a while in this story it's plain to see that Ember O'Dare is the main protagonist of this story and since most of the other POVs are love interests I thought it made sense to only talk about her in this section. When we first properly meet Ember she's already quite a capable witch, I really appreciated that while she has character flaws such as being incredibly stubborn even in the face of mortal danger, she's still able to take a lot of agency in her own story and can hold her own against the threats that come up. While I think that things come too easily to her and she seems to have luck on her side more than once, she's still an interesting and compelling protagonist.

Romance: This is probably the biggest weakness of the entire story. At the start of this tale there's a lot of time spent establishing a connection between Jack and Ember, and during this time, while some of the things Jack does poke at the border between acceptable and sketchy, there is a really great chemistry there, then the love triangle is introduced. I'm calling it a love triangle since even though there's a third gentleman with romantic feelings for Ember it's made abundantly clear that those feelings are unrequited. So the thing is, I have no innate hate for love triangles, in fact, I love when love triangle tropes are subverted, but unfortunately not only is this love triangle very paint by numbers, but I just don't think love triangles can truly work in standalones and this book did nothing to dissuade me of that opinion. While Ember has some amount of chemistry with each of her suitors, they all just felt so stereotypical to me, Jack's the "Brooding Protector," Dev, yes his name is really Dev, is the "Bad Boy," and poor Finney is the "Best Friend" and they played those roles to a tee. Not only that but 90% they're either focused on or competing over Ember instead of focusing on the problems around them, though somehow they always seem to rally when an action scene starts.

World Building: The beginning of this tale is wonderful, there's a really autumnal Halloween vibe and the entire setting is extremely atmospheric. I thought that this story was going to take place in the modern day, but it seems like this story takes place not long after the Salem Witch Trials. The town Ember lives in is very quaint and I enjoyed the time we spend there, but most of the book takes place in another realm and that has a bit of a classic horror meets steampunk vibe to it. I have to admit at first it was very weird, especially since I was so comfortable in Ember's village, but as we spend more time in the Otherworld, the more I liked what I saw, while the story can go a bit slow at first, since the author spends a good amount of time setting up a wide variety of plotlines, the story does begin to pick up and the story really grew on me. While I do feel like things can resolve a bit too conveniently at times, the story, when not focusing on the romantic drama, was really interesting. I loved seeing more of this world and all the little Easter Eggs relating to classic horror, penny dreadfuls, and Halloween lore. I'm a huge sucker for folklore and I was so excited to see how this rendition of the Jack O' Lantern tale was done and was surprised and delighted to see a lot of other Halloween classic goodness in this story. I love the design for Jack in this story, but even though the author paints a pretty clear picture with her words, I could never stop imagining him as a scarecrow with a pumpkin head.

Predictability: One of the most interesting things about this story is how easy it was to pick up on all the information that will be important later, and yet even though I knew certain topics were going to come up again, every time they did it happened kind of out of the blue. It was really weird, it was almost as if the author set up these things and then never really continued foreshadowing before the big reveal. It wasn't bad necessarily, except for a few twists that felt more convenient than anything, all the other twists just felt randomly timed and while I do wish there was a tad more foreshadowing and that more time would be spent setting things up, but I still did enjoy the shock whenever an out of the blue twist would show up.

Ending: The final climax of this story was different than I expected, I was expecting more action and instead, the final climax is a lot more character driven which I really enjoyed. As for how everything wraps up, well this is a standalone and thanks to an epilogue every little plot thread is wrapped up rather neatly and while I enjoyed this world and would like to see more of it another time if the author decides to never visit this world again I wouldn't feel heartbroken.

Rating:

This was a really tough choice, but even though I hate the majority of the romance in this book, the main storyline and world are fascinating and while I'm not a fan of certain character(s) there are a lot of great side characters in this tale, and the magic system and how it mixes with the world is really cool.

About the Author:

New York Times Bestselling author Colleen Houck is a lifelong reader whose literary interests include action, adventure, paranormal, science fiction, and romance. When she’s not busy writing, she likes to spend time chatting on the phone with one of her six siblings, watching plays, and shopping online. Colleen has lived in Arizona, Idaho, Utah, California, and North Carolina and is now permanently settled in Salem, Oregon with her husband and a huge assortment of plush tigers.

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Giveaway:

3 winners will receive a finished copy of THE LANTERN'S EMBER, US Only.

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Book Review: Lord of Shadows (The Dark Artifices #2)

Release Date: May 23, 2017
Author: Cassandra Clare
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Length: 701 pages
Source: Purchased Book

Would you trade your soul mate for your soul?

A Shadowhunter’s life is bound by duty. Constrained by honor. The word of a Shadowhunter is a solemn pledge, and no vow is more sacred than the vow that binds parabatai, warrior partners—sworn to fight together, die together, but never to fall in love.

Emma Carstairs has learned that the love she shares with her parabatai, Julian Blackthorn, isn’t just forbidden—it could destroy them both. She knows she should run from Julian. But how can she when the Blackthorns are threatened by enemies on all sides?

Their only hope is the Black Volume of the Dead, a spell book of terrible power. Everyone wants it. Only the Blackthorns can find it. Spurred on by a dark bargain with the Seelie Queen, Emma; her best friend, Cristina; and Mark and Julian Blackthorn journey into the Courts of Faerie, where glittering revels hide bloody danger and no promise can be trusted. Meanwhile, rising tension between Shadowhunters and Downworlders has produced the Cohort, an extremist group of Shadowhunters dedicated to registering Downworlders and “unsuitable” Nephilim. They’ll do anything in their power to expose Julian’s secrets and take the Los Angeles Institute for their own.

When Downworlders turn against the Clave, a new threat rises in the form of the Lord of Shadows—the Unseelie King, who sends his greatest warriors to slaughter those with Blackthorn blood and seize the Black Volume. As dangers close in, Julian devises a risky scheme that depends on the cooperation of an unpredictable enemy. But success may come with a price he and Emma cannot even imagine, one that will bring with it a reckoning of blood that could have repercussions for everyone and everything they hold dear.

    

Review:

Protagonists: Since this story has such a large and diverse cast of characters, in order to keep this section from getting huge, I'm going to pick three characters, those who either have a more significant role in this story than the previous one, or those whose story was more interesting to me. Don't get me wrong, all these characters are fantastic and they grow and evolve at such a wonderful rate and all their stories are very compelling. I think the character that surprised me the most was Drusilla, the Blackthorn that's too old to be a child, but too young to be an adult. While she didn't have as significant a role in this story, as most of the other characters, she has her own little subplot that looks very promising for the final installment and brings up questions I need to be answered ASAP.  Kit Rook, the boy revealed to really be Christopher Herondale at the end of the previous installment really comes into his own as he goes from con man's son trying to survive without his father to Ty's detective sidekick to, well I'm not going to give it away. Kit's character development was really fun to watch. His plotlines with Ty and Livvy were some of the best parts about this book and I can't wait to see where his story goes in future installments and how, and if, he makes it out of this series. Dianna Wrayburn, the Blackthorns' tutor also has some incredibly surprising character revelations in this story as well. I love Dianna, her care for the Blackthorns is fantastic and the secrets that she hides make her all the more compelling and intriguing of a character.

Romance: So, of course, the central romance to this series is the one between Emma and Julian, but of course they're parabatai and love doesn't come without breaking the Law and a curse of madness and destruction. A large portion of this book doesn't have really any development on Emma and Julian's relationship, mostly it's just a silent longing from afar, but as the story continues there are some very significant moments between the two, and while I'm not quite sure where their romance will end, for good or bad, I'm still excited to see how everything there is resolved. An even more complicated romance, if that's even possible, is whatever is going on between Diego, Cristina, Mark, and Kieran. When I first started this story I had no idea where the romance could go, let alone where it would. As this story progressed and the bonds between these characters begin to shift and change, I definitely have an idea or two where things might go, and it fascinates me to no end to see where these characters not only end up personally but romantically as well. The romance in this story is incredibly on point and while at times it can be a tad idyllic, the situations the romantic partners are put into aren't.

World Building: You would think that after ten other books set in this world that there wouldn't be a need for any more world building since there was so much time to build it before. However, what I love about Clare's world is that it's constantly evolving and changing. After the repercussions of the fallout in City of Heavenly Fire, Shadowhunters grow more and more distrustful of Downworlders, the Fae in particular, and so in this series, and this installment we get to see a lot of the world building that concerns the Fae. There is a trip taken into Faerie that leads our heroes on a dangerous quest full of high risk and even higher rewards. Meanwhile, something sinister is rising from within the Clave, a bigoted group called the Cohort seek to restrict the rights of Downworlders even more, not even seeing them as people deserving of rights. On another front, the Unseelie King, a man who craves power and hates Shadowhunters is rising and with his rise, he hopes to see the death of all Shadowhunters and the subjugation of everyone else. This world just keeps growing and evolving and while I'm a bit worried about its future, I'm excited about the journey and adventure.

Predictability: Honestly, I've been sitting here and wondering what in this book I was able to predict. I mean, there were some vague feelings I had that turned out to be true, and some very obvious foreshadowing that I don't think was intended to be subtle. Other than that there wasn't much of anything I was able to predict and this story has a whole lot of twists and turns. There's one twist that completely floored me and made me cry, like really cry, not just tear up, and I won't say if it's a happy, sad, proud, or angry cry but it was a very emotionally draining scene and a very powerful one as well.

Ending: So, full disclosure, the ending of this book was spoiled for me. I won't reveal how, but let's just say that when the final book in this series comes out I might have to have an internet ban until I finish the book. Anyway, so when the final chapter rolled around, I thought I was ready for what I was about to read. However, the final chapter of this story is chock full of intensity, tension, joyful moments, and not so great ones, and when what I knew was inevitably coming finally came, it still impacted my feelings probably just as much as if I'd been reading it for the first time. The finale of this story leaves things hanging in a way that will make me curse the author for making me wait two years to figure out what happens.

Rating:

So, this wasn't much of a surprise. I mean, I went into this book knowing I was going to love it, but I wasn't fully aware of how much until this moment. This book blew me away and while I am very angry to have to wait a while to catch back up with these characters, I'm also obsessed with finally starting The Last Hours series.

Book Review: Stealing Snow (Stealing Snow #1)

Release Date: September 20, 2016
Author: Danielle Paige
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children's
Length: 384 pages
Source: eGalley from NetGalley

Seventeen-year-old Snow has spent the majority of her life within the walls of the Whittaker Institute, a high security mental hospital in upstate New York. Deep down, she knows she's not crazy and doesn't belong there. When she meets a mysterious, handsome new orderly and dreams about a strange twisted tree she realizes she must escape and figure out who she really is.

Using her trusting friend Bale as a distraction, Snow breaks free and races into the nearby woods. Suddenly, everything isn't what it seems, the line between reality and fantasy begins to blur, and she finds herself in icy Algid--her true home--with witches, thieves, and a strangely alluring boy named Kai, none of whom she's sure she can trust. As secret after secret is revealed, Snow discovers that she is on the run from a royal lineage she's destined to inherit, a father more powerful and ruthless than she could have imagined, and choices of the heart that could change the fate of everything...including Snow's return to the world she once knew.

This breathtaking first volume begins the story of how Snow becomes a villain, a queen, and ultimately a hero.

    

Review:

Protagonist: Snow has lived most of her life in a mental institution. She's not crazy, though, not really but day after day she tries to stay out of trouble and not let the other patients get a rise out of her. She had a friend, or maybe more, in a boy named Bale, but after their first kiss something happened and he went violent and they were separated. Then a strange new orderly appears in the middle of the night telling her that she needs to escape and find Algid, her true home, and so after Bale gets pulled through a mirror she sets off for Algid hoping that once she gets there she can find and rescue Bale, but once there she discovers that she's smack dab in the middle of all this world's problems. I really liked Snow, even though she has power over ice and snow, she has a fiery spirit and sardonic wit that bring a sense of excitement in me while reading from her perspective. Her reaction to all this fantasy stuff was very well done and I felt the author did a fantastic job at creating a very compelling and realistic character in our heroine caught between the light and the dark.

Romance: Argh! I wanted to be on board with the romance(s) in this book, I really did, and for a time I was but three love interests all introduced in the first installment is more than I can handle. At first, I was on board with a possible love triangle. There was Bale the childhood friend and eventual romantic interest for Snow. We don't see much of Bale, but the little we do see makes it obvious that he's a love interest to take seriously. Then we have Kai, who we meet shortly after Snow makes it to Algid. Kai and Snow have a combative relationship at first, undercut by romantic and sexual tension, and again I'm all on board for this possible love triangle. Then we have Jagger who we meet early on in the story but isn't revealed to be a romantic interest until much later. By the time Jagger is revealed to be a love interest I've hit my breaking point, and it doesn't help that he embodies a romantic trope I hate, the alluring boy who is so annoyingly cocky. Since I have a feeling I'm supposed to take all these love interests seriously I'm really annoyed, two at a time I can handle, but three love interests, who are really the only guys in this book around Snow's age that we see and all have feelings for her is very annoying.

World Building: The saving grace of this book, the thing that pushed me forward even when my head was about to explode with how aggravating the romance is, is the world building. As I'm sure a lot of you have picked up on by now, I love fairy tales and fairy tale retellings. Especially when they are of lesser known fairy tales such as The Snow Queen, like this one is. What I found so interesting about this story is that while it seems to promise a prequel to The Snow Queen and her rise to power, it also serves as a retelling of the classic tale as well. Not only that but there are elements of many fairy tales spread throughout this story and this land. My one annoyance though comes from the fact that there are inconsistencies between the eARC that I read and the synopsis, inconsistencies so large that I'm wondering if it was shoddy synopsis work or if the finished copy has larger changes than there usually are between ARCs and finished copies. That wondering is really annoying because if there really are changes they could be very large and change my entire feeling of this story.

Predictability: Looking back on this story it was very hard to pinpoint where things were going to go. There were no easy paths that made sense and things shifted so smoothly from time to time that it was never easy to see what was coming next. That made for a very unpredictable story. I want to say that there were things I easily picked up on, things that the author wanted to leave a mystery but I can't. I have theories on certain things sure, but nothing that was revealed in this story was something I easily caught onto.

Ending: My God this ending was insane. I tried to find a better adjective for it, but I still haven't fully processed it yet. So going into the final climax there was a lot of book still left to cover, more than usual at least, and I was extremely pleased with this drawn out, beautifully and terrifyingly described final climax. What I didn't expect however was the twist, the giant twist that I did not see coming that lead to a huge snowball effect that either made this book all the more awesome or completely ruined everything. Again, I'm still processing this ending and since I don't think it'll be fully processed for a while, for the first time I'm actually happy for the wait between books and I'm glad I have some time before the next installment to fully process everything.

Rating:

For once I'm truly at a loss for what to rate this book, and so while it does say four stars up there that may just as easily change once I've fully processed this book. There's a lot to love about this story but even after I've fully processed it I don't see this book getting five stars, mainly because of the clusterf*** of a romance.