Diary Entry #0029: Book Review—A COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES by Sarah J. Maas

Title: A Court of Thorns and Roses

by Sarah J. Maas

Date of Publication: May 5th 2015

Genre: Young Adult | Fantasy

Blurb:

A thrilling, seductive new series from New York Timesbestselling author Sarah J. Maas, blending Beauty and the Beast with faerie lore. 

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. 

Perfect for fans of Kristin Cashore and George R. R. Martin, this first book in a sexy and action-packed new series is impossible to put down!

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Review:

“...in our world where we’d forgotten the names of our gods, a promise was law; a promise was currency; a promise was your bond.”

I thought I already knew how awesome a novelist Sarah J. Maas was, but she proved me wrong with my idea of her writing prowess when she blew me away, farther than before, with this book.

Diary Entry #0019: ARC Review—AN EMBER IN THE ASHES by Sabaa Tahir

Title: An Ember In The Ashes

by Sabaa Tahir

Date of Publication: April 28th 2015

Synopsis:

Set in a terrifyingly brutal Rome-like world, An Ember in the Ashes is an epic fantasy debut about an orphan fighting for her family and a soldier fighting for his freedom. It’s a story that’s literally burning to be told. 

LAIA is a Scholar living under the iron-fisted rule of the Martial Empire. When her brother is arrested for treason, Laia goes undercover as a slave at the empire’s greatest military academy in exchange for assistance from rebel Scholars who claim that they will help to save her brother from execution. 

ELIAS is the academy’s finest soldier—and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias is considering deserting the military, but before he can, he’s ordered to participate in a ruthless contest to choose the next Martial emperor. 

When Laia and Elias’s paths cross at the academy, they find that their destinies are more intertwined than either could have imagined and that their choices will change the future of the empire itself.

Review:

“There are two kinds of guilt,” I say softly. “The kind that’s a burden and the kind that gives you purpose. Let your guilt be your fuel. Let it remind you of who you want to be.”

An Ember In The Ashes is one of my most anticipated reads of this year and I’m beyond thankful to Penguin FirstToRead for granting me a review copy. It has not, in any way, influenced my thoughts about this book.

To say that I was awed by An Ember In The Ashes is a great understatement. I don’t even know how or where to begin with this review because there were so many points in this book that floored me and left me reeling, making it impossible to form coherent thoughts. Nevertheless, I will try my best to give this book a review it deserves so I’m gonna dissect each aspect of it.

Worldbuilding. This book was set in a fictional city called Serra. Most of the scenes happened inside the military school, Blackcliff Academy. This is where children were trained to become Masks, which I guess is the equivalent of high ranking military generals in today’s time. I’m a reader with a very vivid imagination and the way the author described the city, the school and other places made the world of this book come alive in my mind. It was not overly detailed, but someone with the imagination level of a rock will be able to see pretty clearly in their own imagination the picture that Ms. Tahir painted with her words.

Diary Entry #0015: ARC Review—THE WINNER'S CRIME by Marie Rutkoski

Title: The Winner's Crime (The Winner's Trilogy #2)

by Marie Rutkoski

Date of Publication: March 3rd 2015

Genre: Young Adult | High Fantasy

Synopsis:

Book two of the dazzling Winner's Trilogy is a fight to the death as Kestrel risks betrayal of country for love. 

The engagement of Lady Kestrel to Valoria’s crown prince means one celebration after another. But to Kestrel it means living in a cage of her own making. As the wedding approaches, she aches to tell Arin the truth about her engagement…if she could only trust him. Yet can she even trust herself? For—unknown to Arin—Kestrel is becoming a skilled practitioner of deceit: an anonymous spy passing information to Herran, and close to uncovering a shocking secret. 

As Arin enlists dangerous allies in the struggle to keep his country’s freedom, he can’t fight the suspicion that Kestrel knows more than she shows. In the end, it might not be a dagger in the dark that cuts him open, but the truth. And when that happens, Kestrel and Arin learn just how much their crimes will cost them.

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Review:

The god of lies must love this book because The Winner’s Crime is full of lies, treachery and deceit.

First of all, I would like to thank Bloomsbury Publishing UK for providing me a review copy of this book. It has not, in any way, affected my thoughts about the book.

So, before reading The Winner’s Crime, I was re-reading The Winner’s Curse in order to refresh my feels and my memory about Kestrel’s story. Then, I tweeted Ms. Marie Rutkoski saying that I’m having “too many feels” and asked her if book 2 is going to invoke as much emotion from me. She then replied, “Well, many readers report lots of feels for The Winner’s Crime. But ‘gimme Kleenex and chocolate’ feels. You’ve been warned.” I was not expecting that—at all. But I’ll tell you what: she’s right.