Happy Pub Day to all of these new books!
What books are you most excited for this week?
Title: The Iron Raven (The Iron Fey: Evenfall #1)
Author: Julie Kagawa
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: February 9, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★
You may have heard of me…
Robin Goodfellow. Puck. Prankster, joker, raven, fool… King Oberon’s right-hand jester from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The legends are many, but the truth will now be known as never before, as Puck finally tells his own story and faces a threat to the lands of Faery and the human world unlike any before.
With the Iron Queen Meghan Chase and her prince consort, Puck’s longtime rival Ash, and allies old and new by his side, Puck begins a fantastical and dangerous adventure not to be missed or forgotten.
Puck, the jester from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, tells his own story in this new book. He meets a faerie from the Forgotten, who doesn’t remember her past but is working with the Iron Queen’s son. There is a mysterious threat to their land. Along with Puck’s friend Meghan the Iron Queen, his rival Ash, and some other friends, they have to find the source of the threat.
This story is a spin off of the Iron Fey series. I haven’t read that series, but I still understood everything in the story. There were some descriptions of events from the past, which I think were from the previous books. This made it accessible to new readers, like me, but I feel like I know what happened in the other books now, so I probably won’t go back and read them.
Puck was a fun character. I’m glad he had his own story in this book. He was a funny trickster. I also liked the blend of the real world with the faerie world. Puck has been to the human world, so he would compare fae items to human items, but the other fairies didn’t know what he was talking about. These parts were really funny and unique to this story.
I really enjoyed this story! It ended with a cliffhanger, so I’m excited to see what happens in the next book.
Thank you Inkyard Press for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
JULIE KAGAWA is the New York Times, USA TODAY and internationally bestselling author of The Iron Fey, Blood of Eden, The Talon Saga and the Shadow of the Fox series. Born in Sacramento, she has been a bookseller and an animal trainer and enjoys reading, painting, playing in her garden and training in martial arts. She lives in North Carolina with her husband and a plethora of pets. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Have you read The Iron Raven? What did you think of it?
This blog meme is hosted by Book Date. It is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organize yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment, and er… add to that ever growing TBR pile!
This weekend I finished The Iron Raven (The Iron Fey: Evenfall #1) by Julie Kagawa.
I’m currently reading The Mysterious Disappearance of Aidan S. by David Levithan.
Next I will be reading Gutter Child by Jael Richardson.
What are you guys reading this week? Have you read any of these books?
Here are my reviews for the week with my ratings:
I did 9 weekly blogging memes:
How was your week? What did you guys read?
The meme that dares to ask what book has been in your bed this morning? Come share what book you’ve spent time curled up reading in bed, or which book you wish you had time to read today! This meme is hosted by Midnight Book Girl.
This Sunday I’m reading The Iron Raven (The Iron Fey: Evenfall #1) by Julie Kagawa.
You may have heard of me…
Robin Goodfellow. Puck. Prankster, joker, raven, fool… King Oberon’s right-hand jester from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The legends are many, but the truth will now be known as never before, as Puck finally tells his own story and faces a threat to the lands of Faery and the human world unlike any before.
With the Iron Queen Meghan Chase and her prince consort, Puck’s longtime rival Ash, and allies old and new by his side, Puck begins a fantastical and dangerous adventure not to be missed or forgotten.
What book are you in bed with today?
This meme is hosted by Steph at A little but a lot. The weekly prompts for 2019 can be found here.
This week’s prompt is Favourite Authors. Here’s my list:
(All photos from Goodreads)
Did you make a Six for Sunday list?
Title: The Wide Starlight
Author: Nicole Lesperance
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Publisher: VIZ Media
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: February 16, 2021
Rating: ★★★★
The Hazel Wood meets The Astonishing Color of After in this dreamy, atmospheric novel that follows sixteen-year-old Eli as she tries to remember what truly happened the night her mother disappeared off a glacier in Norway under the Northern Lights.
Never whistle at the Northern Lights, the story goes, or they’ll sweep down from the sky and carry you away.
Sixteen-year-old Eline Davis knows it’s true. She was there ten years ago, on a frozen fjord in Svalbard, Norway, the night her mother whistled at the lights and then vanished.
Now Eli lives an ordinary life with her dad on Cape Cod. But when the Northern Lights are visible over the Cape for just one night, she can’t resist the possibility of seeing her mother again. So she whistles—and it works. Her mother appears, with snowy hair, frosty fingertips and a hazy story of where she’s been all these years. And she doesn’t return alone.
Along with Eli’s mother’s reappearance come strange, impossible things. Narwhals swimming in Cape Cod Bay, meteorites landing in Eli’s yard, and three shadowy princesses with ominous messages. It’s all too much, too fast, and Eli pushes her mother away. She disappears again—but this time, she leaves behind a note that will send Eli on a journey across continents, to the northern tip of the world:
Find me where I left you.
When Eline Davis was six years old, her mother brought her out to a glacier in Norway in the middle of the night. Eline was found, but her mother was never seen again. Now, ten years later, Eline lives in Cape Cod with her dad. One night, the Northern Lights appeared in Cape Cod. Eline went to the beach to see the lights and make a wish to see her mother again. Her mother appears to her, but there are also other strange appearances. A group of narwhals appear in a cove, and some mysterious princesses bring Eline strange messages. Eline knows the only way to fix this is to return to Norway and finally find her mother.
This story was a strange blend of magical realism. There were beautiful stories that Eline and her mother had written between the chapters. These stories were based on the real things that happened to them but they had fantasy elements which made me think they weren’t real. These fantasy elements were also part of the theme of mental illness. Hidden between the lines of Eline’s memories were the moments when her mother was suffering and couldn’t take care of her daughter. These were devastating stories to read about, but it shows how mental illness can affect the family of those suffering.
Though this story was about a sixteen year old girl, it had a middle grade tone. At the beginning I thought that Eline was around twelve or thirteen, but then I realized she was actually sixteen because her and her friends could drive. This story read more like a middle grade story than a young adult story.
This was a heartbreaking story.
Thank you Penguin for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Have you read The Wide Starlight? What did you think of it?
This is a weekly meme hosted Devouring Books. This week’s prompt is Books Told in a Unique Format, such as diary entries, letters, podcasts, etc. Here’s my list:
(All book covers from Goodreads)
If you’d like to do this list too, consider yourself tagged!
Did you make a Top 5 Saturday list?
Title: These Violent Delights (These Violent Delights #1)
Author: Chloe Gong
Genre: Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Fantasy
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: November 17, 2020
Rating: ★★★★★
The year is 1926, and Shanghai hums to the tune of debauchery.
A blood feud between two gangs runs the streets red, leaving the city helpless in the grip of chaos. At the heart of it all is eighteen-year-old Juliette Cai, a former flapper who has returned to assume her role as the proud heir of the Scarlet Gang—a network of criminals far above the law. Their only rivals in power are the White Flowers, who have fought the Scarlets for generations. And behind every move is their heir, Roma Montagov, Juliette’s first love…and first betrayal.
But when gangsters on both sides show signs of instability culminating in clawing their own throats out, the people start to whisper. Of a contagion, a madness. Of a monster in the shadows. As the deaths stack up, Juliette and Roma must set their guns—and grudges—aside and work together, for if they can’t stop this mayhem, then there will be no city left for either to rule.
Perfect for fans of The Last Magician and Descendant of the Crane, this heart-stopping debut is an imaginative Romeo and Juliet retelling set in 1920s Shanghai, with rival gangs and a monster in the depths of the Huangpu River.
1926: Two rival gangs rule Shanghai: the Scarlet Gang and the White Flowers. Juliette Cai is the heiress to the Scarlet Gang. She has just returned from America to resume her role in her father’s empire. Roma Montagov is the heir of the White Flowers. When members of both gangs are found with their throats torn out on the pier, Juliette and Roma have to put their past behind them and join together to investigate what is infecting the city.
Romeo and Juliet is my favourite Shakespeare play. I’ve read it many times, since my class performed it in elementary school. This story is a loose retelling. It doesn’t follow the story exactly, and there were some changes to the original story. Juliette’s and Roma’s families are rivals but they have to work together to figure out who is targeting their gangs, rather than just randomly falling in love and running away from their families.
I liked the little references to people and places from the original play. There was a character named Paul who liked Juliette. At one point, she refers to him as Paris, who was Juliet’s suitor in the play. Roma and Juliette go to a bar called Mantua, which is where Romeo was exiled to in the play. These references to the original play made me smile.
Some parts of this story were intense. The victims were literally tearing out their throats. There were creepy bugs and people being mysteriously infected with a condition that made them kill themselves. These were some disturbing scenes, but they also made the story intense and suspenseful.
This is a great fantasy adaptation of Romeo and Juliet! I can’t wait to read the next book.
Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Have you read These Violent Delights? What did you think of it?
This is a weekly meme hosted by Wandering Words, where you give the first few lines of a book to hook your readers before introducing the book.
Here is my first line:
“Bullets don’t have names.”
Do you recognize this first line?
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And the book is… Wings of Ebony (Wings of Ebony #1) by J.Elle.
An *INSTANT* New York Times and Indie bestseller!
In this riveting, keenly emotional debut fantasy, a Black teen from Houston has her world upended when she learns about her godly ancestry–and with evil sinking its claws into humans and gods alike, she’ll have to unearth the magic of her true identity to save both her worlds.
Perfect for fans of Angie Thomas, Tomi Adeyemi, and The Hunger Games.“Make a way out of no way” is just the way of life for Rue. But when her mother is shot dead on her doorstep, life for her and her younger sister changes forever. Rue’s taken from her neighborhood by the father she never knew, forced to leave her little sister behind, and whisked away to Ghizon—a hidden island of magic wielders.
Rue is the only half-god, half-human there, where leaders protect their magical powers at all costs and thrive on human suffering. Miserable and desperate to see her sister on the anniversary of their mother’s death, Rue breaks Ghizon’s sacred Do Not Leave Law and returns to Houston, only to discover that Black kids are being forced into crime and violence. And her sister, Tasha, is in danger of falling sway to the very forces that claimed their mother’s life.
Worse still, evidence mounts that the evil plaguing East Row is the same one that lurks in Ghizon—an evil that will stop at nothing until it has stolen everything from her and everyone she loves. Rue must embrace her true identity and wield the full magnitude of her ancestors’ power to save her neighborhood before the gods burn it to the ground.
Have you read Wings of Ebony? What did you think of it?
Jill's Book Blog 