Fantasy – Page 22 – Jill's Book Blog

Review: Geis: a Matter of Life and Death (Geis #1)

Title: Geis: A Matter of Life and Death (Geis #1)
Author: Alexis Deacon
Genre: Fantasy, Graphic Novel
Publisher: Nobrow Press
Source: Publisher
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: July 26, 2016
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

As the great chief matriarch lay dying, she gave one final decree: Upon her death there would be a contest. Having no heir of her own blood she called on the Gods. Let fate decide the one truly worthy to rule in her place. The rich, the strong, the wise, the powerful; many put forward their names in hope of being chosen. But when the night came . . . only fifty souls alone were summoned.
Book one in gripping action, supernatural, and historical fantasy graphic novel trilogy where souls battle in a contest to become the ruler of an island.

Review:

When the chief matriarch died, she didn’t leave an heir. Instead, she left a contest in her will for fifty people to compete and earn the title of chief. Their first task is to be dropped somewhere in the world and find their way back to the castle. However, they don’t know that this will contained a geis: a magical curse that cannot be broken. All of the competitors must stay in the contest until a chief is named, but if they do not make it back to the palace by sunrise, they will automatically be killed.

I loved the premise of this story. The geis in the will was a secret from the competitors, which made the story so much more intense. Some of the characters wanted to quit, but they didn’t realize that quitting would mean death.

The art in this book was so beautiful. There were a lot of characters but they each had a distinct style and different colour of clothing. Sometimes with a large cast of characters in graphic novels, I can’t tell them apart. Each character was a distinct person, which made this story an easy read.

Geis: A Matter of Life and Death is a beautiful graphic novel! I can’t wait to read the next one!

Thank you Nobrow Press for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Other books in the series:

Geis II: A Game Without Rules

Have you read Geis: A Matter of Life and Death? What did you think of it?

Review: The Taking of Jake Livingston

Title: The Taking of Jake Livingston
Author: Ryan Douglass
Genre: Young Adult, Horror, Fantasy, LGBT
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: July 13, 2021
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Get Out meets Danielle Vega in this YA horror where survival is not a guarantee.
Jake Livingston is one of the only Black kids at St. Clair Prep, one of the others being his infinitely more popular older brother. It’s hard enough fitting in but to make matters worse and definitely more complicated, Jake can see the dead. In fact he sees the dead around him all the time. Most are harmless. Stuck in their death loops as they relive their deaths over and over again, they don’t interact often with people. But then Jake meets Sawyer. A troubled teen who shot and killed six kids at a local high school last year before taking his own life. Now a powerful, vengeful ghost, he has plans for his afterlife–plans that include Jake. Suddenly, everything Jake knows about ghosts and the rules to life itself go out the window as Sawyer begins haunting him and bodies turn up in his neighborhood. High school soon becomes a survival game–one Jake is not sure he’s going to win.

Review:

Jake Livingston feels like an outsider because he’s one of the only Black kids at St. Clair Prep and he’s not as popular as his older brother. Jake can also see dead people. He sees the way people died on a loop in the place where they died. Teens start dying in mysterious ways, and they were all connected to a school shooting in a different high school. Jake meets Sawyer, the ghost of the school shooter who is taking revenge on the survivors of the shooting. Jake has to figure out a way to stop Sawyer before he takes over Jake’s life next.

At first glance, this was a horror story with gruesome deaths. However, Jake’s story had a lot of layers. Jake felt like an outsider at school because of his race and his ability to see ghosts. At home he also felt like an outsider because he didn’t think his family would accept that he was gay. After a while, I realized that Jake and Sawyer had a lot in common. They had both been abused by their family, and were headed on a similar path. It was up to Jake to decide if he had the same ending as Sawyer or not.

There were quite a few disturbing scenes in this book. Jake witnessed many deaths on a loop. There was a school shooting as well as a suicide. There was also an attempted rape and child abuse. These are potentially triggering scenes but they were brief.

The Taking of Jake Livingston is a creepy horror story!

Thank you Penguin Teen for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review: The Prince and the Troll (Faraway Collection)

Title: The Prince and the Troll (Faraway Collection)
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Short Story, Fantasy
Publisher: Amazon Publishing
Source: Purchased
Format: Ebook
Release Date: December 15, 2020
Rating: ★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

A charming everyman and a mysterious something-under-the-bridge cross paths in a short fairy tale by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Eleanor & Park and the Simon Snow series.
It’s fate when a man accidentally drops his phone off the bridge. It’s fortune when it’s retrieved by a friendly shape sloshing in the muck underneath. From that day forward, as they share a coffee every morning, an unlikely friendship blooms. Considering the reality for the man above, where life seems perfect, and that of the sharp-witted creature below, how forever after can a happy ending be?

Review:

A man dropped his phone off a bridge one day, and it was caught by a troll. The troll tosses it back to the man, and he decides to bring her coffee everyday to repay her for helping him. They bond over their shared Starbucks drinks while comparing notes on their separate lives spent above and beneath the bridge.

I read another book in the Faraway Collection and I loved it. Unfortunately I just didn’t understand this one. The writing was simple and not very descriptive. The things that were described in the most details were the Starbucks drinks, which I’m familiar with. When I think of fairytales, I think of the lush, magical worlds they’re set in, which this story was lacking.

I’m not sure what fairytale inspired this story. I had to do some research on what this story was actually about after reading it, because I just didn’t understand. Some theories say it’s about climate change, which I agree with because the prince and the troll talk about how the weather has affected their ways of life. I wish this message came across clearer in the story so that I wasn’t left wondering what happened.

Unfortunately, this short story wasn’t for me.

Other books in the series:

Hazel and Gray
The Princess Game
The Cleaners
The Wickeds

Have you read The Prince and the Troll? What did you think of it?

Review: Vengeful (Villains #2)

Title: Vengeful (Villains #2)
Author: V.E. Schwab
Genre: Fantasy, Science Fiction
Publisher: Tor
Source: Purchased
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: September 25, 2018
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

The sequel to VICIOUS, V.E. Schwab’s first adult novel.
Sydney once had Serena—beloved sister, betrayed enemy, powerful ally. But now she is alone, except for her thrice-dead dog, Dol, and then there’s Victor, who thinks Sydney doesn’t know about his most recent act of vengeance.
Victor himself is under the radar these days—being buried and re-animated can strike concern even if one has superhuman powers. But despite his own worries, his anger remains. And Eli Ever still has yet to pay for the evil he has done.

Review:

After Sydney brought Victor Vale back to life, he has to live with some changes to his superpower, including frequent death. Meanwhile the ExtraOrdinary Observation and Neutralization is trying to hunt down all of the EOs, or people with superpowers, they can find. They have to resort to their prisoner and asset, the villainous Eli Ever to track the new EOs. There’s a new ExtraOrdinary in town, and she’s like nothing they’ve seen yet.

These ExtraOrdinaries had incredibly destructive powers. They get their powers from being revived after death, and their power relates to their final thoughts before dying. There were complications with mixing different powers, such as when Victor had side effects after being brought back to life with Sydney’s power. These were creative powers with surprising consequences.

This story is told through alternating timelines, all leading to one massive event. Each chapter jumps to a different time period, whether years, weeks, or days before the final event. I thought this format would be confusing, but it’s actually easy to follow with the rhythm of the plot.

Vengeful is an exciting sequel to Vicious!

Other books in the series:

Vicious

Have you read Vengeful? What did you think of it?

Review: The Last Fallen Star (Gifted Clans #1)

Title: The Last Fallen Star (Gifted Clans #1)
Author: Graci Kim
Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy
Publisher: Rick Riordan Presents
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: May 4, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Best-selling author Rick Riordan presents Graci Kim’s thrilling debut about an adopted Korean-American girl who discovers her heritage and her magic on a perilous journey to save her witch clan family.
Riley Oh can’t wait to see her sister get initiated into the Gom clan, a powerful lineage of Korean healing witches their family has belonged to for generations. Her sister, Hattie, will earn her Gi bracelet and finally be able to cast spells without adult supervision. Although Riley is desperate to follow in her sister’s footsteps when she herself turns thirteen, she’s a saram–a person without magic. Riley was adopted, and despite having memorized every healing spell she’s ever heard, she often feels like the odd one out in her family and the gifted community.
Then Hattie gets an idea: what if the two of them could cast a spell that would allow Riley to share Hattie’s magic? Their sleuthing reveals a promising incantation in the family’s old spell book, and the sisters decide to perform it at Hattie’s initiation ceremony. If it works, no one will ever treat Riley as an outsider again. It’s a perfect plan!
Until it isn’t. When the sisters attempt to violate the laws of the Godrealm, Hattie’s life ends up hanging in the balance, and to save her Riley has to fulfill an impossible task: find the last fallen star. But what even is the star, and how can she find it?
As Riley embarks on her search, she finds herself meeting fantastic creatures and collaborating with her worst enemies. And when she uncovers secrets that challenge everything she has been taught to believe, Riley must decide what it means to be a witch, what it means to be family, and what it really means to belong.

Review:

Thirteen-year-old Riley Oh was adopted into a Korean witch family. She’s excited for her sister, Hattie, to be initiated and earn her powers, but Riley wants to somehow get her own powers. Hattie and her find a spell to connect them and share Hattie’s powers with Riley. They have to perform the spell in front of everyone in their community, but they’re stopped at the last minute. There’s a secret from Riley’s past, which could kill the girls if they perform that spell. Riley still wants to get her powers so that she no longer feels like an outsider in the family. She gets a quest from a goddess, who wants her to find the last fallen star. If she can find the star, she will get her powers, but the task seems impossible. Riley must complete the task before she loses everything she loves.

This story had a twist on the “chosen one” narrative. Rather than Riley being the chosen one to save the world, she was the only one in her family who didn’t have powers. Riley became the chosen one when she had to complete the quest. The quest had larger implications in their witch community, so she did end up being the one who had to save them all.

Korean culture was an important part of the witch community in this book. Their portal was inside an H-Mart store. Riley encountered creatures from Korean folklore. Though Riley was adopted, her biological parents were also Korean so she looked like her family. I loved the way Korean culture was so integral to this story.

The Last Fallen Star was a fun story! I can’t wait to read the next one in the series.

Thank you Rick Riordan Presents for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review: The Betrayed (The Betrothed #2)

Title: The Betrayed (The Betrothed #2)
Author: Kiera Cass
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: Purchased
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: June 29, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Kiera Cass brings another sparkling romance to a stunning conclusion in this sequel to the instant #1 New York Timesbestseller The Betrothed.
Can you follow your heart when it’s already broken?
After fleeing Coroa and leaving the memory of her beloved Silas behind, Hollis is unsteadily adjusting to life in Isolte. The Eastoffe family’s affection is a balm on her weary spirit, though Etan, a surly cousin with a deep distaste for Coroans, threatens to upset the uneasy peace she’s found.
While tensions at home ratchet up, disquiet in the kingdom of Isolte is reaching a fever pitch. The Eastoffes may have the power to unseat a tyrannical king—but only with Hollis’s help.
Can a girl who’s lost it all put the fate of her adopted homeland over the secret longings of her heart?

Review:

In this sequel to The Betrothed, newly widowed Hollis escapes to the neighbouring country of Isolte with her husband’s family. Her mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and Hollis are accompanied by her husband’s cousin, Etan Eastoffe, to his family’s home. Hollis knows that King Quinten is responsible for the deaths of her husband and her parents, so she is eager for revenge. The Eastoffes are a powerful family who have the ability to fight back against the King. Hollis has to risk everything again to make things right.

I’ve seen a lot of criticism of the first book but I loved it. It was unconventional and didn’t follow the traditional fantasy romance storyline. Hollis didn’t end up with the love interest from the beginning of the story, and the man who she chose ended up dying in the end. This was such a shocking ending that I was excited it’s really where the story was going to go in this book.

Hollis didn’t make as many wild choices in this book as she did in the first one. She had the team of her new family to support her decisions and help her. I loved the enemies-to-lovers romance in this book. It was more predictable than in the first book, but I loved it. I was worried that the ending wasn’t going to be what I hoped, but I was pleased with it.

The Betrayed definitely lived up to my expectations!

Other books in the series:

The Betrothed

Have you read The Betrayed? What did you think of it?

Review: The Okay Witch and the Hungry Shadow

Title: The Okay Witch and the Hungry Shadow (The Okay Witch #2)
Author: Emma Steinkellner
Genre: Middle Grade, Graphic Novel, Fantasy, Contemporary
Publisher: Aladdin
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: July 6, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

In this hilarious and heartwarming sequel to the bestselling and critically acclaimed graphic novel, The Okay Witch, half-witch Moth Hush uses magic to boost her confidence with disastrous results—perfect for fans of Raina Telgemeier and Molly Ostertag!
Moth Hush is starting to settle into her newfound witch heritage and powers, but life at school continues to be rough. Even her best friend, Charlie, doesn’t entirely understand what it’s like for her to always be the one who gets mocked, and things only get worse when Moth’s mom starts dating one of the dorkiest teachers in the school! Then Moth gets hold of a mysterious charm that can unleash another version of herself—one who is confident, cool, and extremely popular. What could possibly go wrong?

Review:

Moth Hush is a witch, but she’s not allowed to do magic at school. She gets teased at school, and it would be easier if she could just use a spell to make herself more likable. The bullying gets worse when her mom starts dating one of her teachers. Then, Moth discovers a magic charm necklace that can make her popular. But every kind of magic has a price.

This graphic novel started out with a recap of the first book. I was really glad to see that because it’s been a while since I read the first book. It was told by her talking cat, Lazlo, who is a hilarious character. I appreciated seeing this brief recap at the beginning of the book.

Moth faced bullying in her school. Her classmates were quite mean. Moth felt like an outsider since she had just discovered she was a witch, but she couldn’t tell anyone except for her best friend. Using a magic charm didn’t solve her problem. It masked it for a while, but it ended up causing a bigger issue in the end. Rather than fighting back or changing what kind of person she was to please her classmates, Moth had to learn how to be herself.

The Okay Witch and the Hungry Shadow is a great middle grade graphic novel!

Thank you Simon and Schuster for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Other books in the series:

The Okay Witch

Have you read The Okay Witch and the Hungry Shadow? What did you think of it?

Review: Cold Hearted (Villains #8)

Title: Cold Hearted (Villains #8)
Author: Serena Valentino
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: July 6, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

This was supposed to be her happily ever after…
It’s a familiar tale: A kind and beautiful young girl, reeling from loss. A doting father, frantic to bring a mother’s love back into his daughter’s life. And the selfish, cruel woman who insinuates herself into that family―a woman so unfeeling, so cold hearted, that when her new husband dies, she makes the girl a servant in her own home.
But who is that evil stepmother, that icy lady of the house? How did she become so closed off that, in the face of a child’s grief, she thought only to seek wealth and power for herself and her abhorrent daughters? Before that fateful ball, before the glass slipper and the prince, there was another story―a story of love and grief, of hope and of dreams dashed. It is the story of Lady Tremaine.
Even the coldest of villains are sometimes wives and mothers, women who loved and lost and hoped for something grander for their lives . . . once upon a dream.
The latest novel in Serena Valentino’s deliciously devious Villains series introduces the most famed and hated wicked stepmother of them all―but turns everything you know about her on its head.

Review:

When Cinderella asks her Fairy Godmother to help her stepsisters, the Fairy Godmother is reluctant to help. She doesn’t agree with the way her stepmother and stepsisters treated Cinderella, so she doesn’t want to do anything for them. The Fairy Godmother has to read the story of the stepmother, Lady Tremaine, to learn why she treated Cinderella the way she did. Lady Tremaine wasn’t always an evil woman. She was a kind wife with a future planned for her daughters, when she met the man of her dreams. She was whisked away to live with him and his stepdaughter. However, things happened in this new life that turned Lady Tremaine into the evil stepmother that we know in the story of Cinderella.

This was a great origin story about Cinderella’s evil stepmother. She wasn’t inherently evil. She was actually a kind lady in London before she met Cinderella’s father. However, after she moved in with him, she became a different woman.

It was interesting to finally see what Cinderella’s father was really like. He is the person who brought Cinderella and her stepmother together, yet he is rarely seen in the stories about Cinderella. He played an influential role in this story and shaped Lady Tremaine into the woman she became.

Cold Hearted is a great origin story for Lady Tremaine!

Thank you Disney-Hyperion for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Other books in the series:

Fairest of All
The Beast Within
Poor Unfortunate Soul
Mistress of All Evil
Mother Knows Best
The Odd Sisters
Evil Thing

Have you read Cold Hearted? What did you think of it?

Review: Magic Dark and Strange

Title: Magic Dark and Strange
Author: Kelly Powell
Genre: Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Fantasy
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Source: Purchased
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: October 27, 2020
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

The Bone Witch meets Sherlock Holmes in this thrilling historical fantasy about a girl with the ability to raise the dead who must delve into her city’s dangerous magical underworld to stop a series of murders.
Catherine Daly has an unusual talent. By day she works for a printer. But by night, she awakens the dead for a few precious moments with loved ones seeking a final goodbye. But this magic comes with a price: for every hour that a ghost is brought back, Catherine loses an hour from her own life.
When Catherine is given the unusual task of collecting a timepiece from an old grave, she is sure that the mysterious item must contain some kind of enchantment. So she enlists Guy Nolan, the watchmaker’s son, to help her dig it up. But instead of a timepiece, they find a surprise: the body of a teenage boy. And as they watch, he comes back to life—not as the pale imitation that Catherine can conjure, but as a living, breathing boy. A boy with no memory of his past.
This magic is more powerful than any Catherine has ever encountered, and revealing it brings dangerous enemies. Catherine and Guy must race to unravel the connection between the missing timepiece and the undead boy. For this mysterious magic could mean the difference between life and death—for all of them.

Review:

Catherine Daly works at a printer, setting the pages for obituaries, but at night she has a special talent. She goes to cemeteries, digs up graves, and uses her magic to allow loved ones to have a final goodbye. For every hour that a ghost is brought back, Catherine loses an hour of her life. One day, she’s instructed to dig up an unmarked grave of a coffin maker and retrieve a special timepiece that is enchanted to bring the dead back to life, permanently. She gets help from Guy Nolan, the son of a watchmaker. However, when they open the grave, they discover a decades old body and no timepiece. The body comes back to life as a boy, close in age to Catherine. He doesn’t remember anything about his past or the timepiece. Catherine’s employer is still expecting the timepiece, so Catherine, Guy, and the new boy Owen, have to search for the timepiece before it’s too late.

I loved the dark and spooky atmosphere of this book. It was set in a fictional town that reminded me of Victorian England. There was a little magic, with the special power that Catherine had and the magical timepiece. There was lots of time spent in cemeteries which is always fun in a spooky novel.

I found some scenes a little repetitive. They returned to the cemetery a lot, which was understandable since the mystery centered around the cemetery. Some of the scenes were very similar so it felt repetitive. I figured out the secret behind what happened to the timepiece before the ending. I think it was the most logical explanation, so I was glad I got it right.

Magic Dark and Strange is a great spooky read!

Review: Sisters of the Snake (Ria and Rani #1)

Title: Sisters of the Snake (Ria and Rani #1)
Author: Sarena and Sasha Nanua
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook, paperback arc
Release Date: June 15, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

A lost princess. A dark puppet master. And a race against time—before all is lost.
Princess Rani longs for a chance to escape her gilded cage and prove herself. Ria is a street urchin, stealing just to keep herself alive.
When these two lives collide, everything turns on its head: because Ria and Rani, orphan and royal, are unmistakably identical.
A deal is struck to switch places—but danger lurks in both worlds, and to save their home, thief and princess must work together. Or watch it all fall into ruin.
Deadly magic, hidden temples, and dark prophecies: Sisters of the Snake is an action-packed, immersive fantasy that will thrill fans of The Crown’s Game and The Tiger at Midnight.

Review:

Princess Rani is stuck in a palace, wishing to escape to freedom. Ria is a thief, stealing for her next meal. When Ria goes into the palace to steal some jewels on Diwali, she meets Rani, who has her face. They are long lost twins who didn’t know the other existed. Since they each have the lives that the other wants, they decide to switch places. Rani wants to search for the Bloodstone that will win her father’s war. Ria wants to find out the secret of her birth and why she was raised in an orphanage instead of with her family. Both of their worlds have hidden dangers, which they must face to save each other.

I’m an only child but I’ve always been fascinated by stories about twins. The Parent Trap was one of my favourite movies when I was a kid. The idea of seamlessly switching places with someone who looks exactly like you sounds so fun, but it comes with many problems. Ria and Rani had to get used to the new rules of their worlds when they switched places.

The concept of freedom was explored in this book. Both Ria and Rani were searching for freedom in their own ways. Ria wanted the freedom of not having to steal and having a safe place to eat and sleep. Rani wanted the freedom to travel outside of the palace and make her own rules. They saw each other as being free, yet they had to realize that both worlds have sets of rules.

Sisters of the Snake is a fun new fantasy! I can’t wait for the next book!

Thank you HarperCollins Canada for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Review:

What to read next:

Geis: A Game Without Rules by Alexis Deacon

Other books in the series:

Goodreads Synopsis:

Review:

What to read next:

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

Love and Other Curses by Michael Thomas Ford

Goodreads Synopsis:

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What to read next:

Hazel and Gray by Nic Stone

The Princess Game by Soman Chainani

Other books in the series:

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What to read next:

We Could Be Heroes by Mike Chen

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

Other books in the series:

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Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee

Paola Santiago and the River of Tears by Tehlor Kay Mejia

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What to read next:

The Selection by Kiera Cass

The Princess Will Save You by Sarah Henning

Other books in the series:

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What to read next:

Just Pretend by Tori Sharp

The Witch Boy by Molly Ostertag

Other books in the series:

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So This is Love by Elizabeth Lim

City of Villains by Estelle Laure

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Cadaver and Queen by Alisa Kwitney

The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd-Jones

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What to read next:

Hunted by the Sky by Tanaz Bhathena

The Tiger at Midnight by Swati Teerdhala