Review: A LESSON IN VENGEANCE by Victoria Lee

 

Rating: 3.25/5 stars

Like everyone else, I have been into dark academia books lately, so when I heard this pitched as a sapphic dark academia mystery, combined with that gorgeous cover, I was totally interested. 

This story takes place at Dalloway School, where Felicity returns to school after a year away following the death of her best friend and girlfriend, Alex. She ends up rooming with bestselling novelist, 17-year-old Ellis Haley, who everyone is obsessed with but who Felicity isn't so sure about. Ellis is working on her next novel, and she wants to use Dalloway's haunted history for inspiration, and she ends up dragging Felicity into her research. 

As the rumor goes, a long time ago at the school, these five girls nicknamed the Dalloway Five got involved with occult magic, and then they each died one after another in mysterious ways. No one is supposed to talk about it, but Ellis is fascinated by their story and wants to recreate the Dalloway Five—all for research for her new novel, of course. 

The first half of this book is more like a passive mystery. You follow Felicity as she returns to school a pariah, and she is recounting Alex's death to Ellis piece by piece. So it's kind of a mystery of what happened to Alex, but since it's all in the past and the reader has no emotional attachment to Alex, it's not super compelling to read about since we already know the outcome. But then around the halfway mark of the book is when the story takes a turn and Felicity teams up with Ellis to do research for her book, and it gets a lot more interesting then. There was an air of something is off, something bad is going to happen but I don't know what, and I really like it when books are able to evoke that feeling in me. 

A Lesson in Vengeance features occult practices like using ouija boards to communicate with dead spirits, predicting the future with tarot cards, performing seances, and having midnight rituals in the woods. I love how all of that added to the atmosphere of the book. It really fits into the centuries-old, ivy-covered boarding school setting. 

Victoria's writing in this book is extraordinary. Her prose is very atmospheric so it fits right in with the vibe of the book, plus she writes in a way that sounds intellectual without being pretentious, which I absolutely loved. I cannot wait to see what she writes next because I already want to read it. 

Review: THE NATURE OF WITCHES by Rachel Griffin

 

Rating: 3.75/5 stars

This contemporary standalone YA fantasy is perfect for nature lovers and those who appreciate beautifully written atmospheric stories. 

In this book, witches get their powers from the sun. There are witches for every season: spring, summer, autumn, and winter, depending on when they were born. But there is also a fifth kind of witch that has power during all the seasons: an Everwitch. Clara is a rare Everwitch, the first in a century, and as such, her magic and her personality change with each season. Because she has so much power, she is expected to fix the climate problems and accomplish what no other witch is able to. But Clara doesn’t want the responsibility that comes with being an Everwitch, or any witch for that matter, and instead wishes she were a normal person without any magic. 

The Nature of Witches follows a little more than a year in Clara’s life as she studies magic and strengthens her abilities as a witch, trying to decide what path her future will take, and facing climate problems along the way. The atmosphere is becoming unstable as the climate issues worsen, and Clara is hesitant to exert her powers to help calm the abnormalities ever since her powers caused a fatal accident a few years prior. This accident is also the reason she doesn’t get close to anyone anymore—she doesn’t want to hurt anyone else she cares about. But the bond she forms with her new mentor is more than she expected. 

“Realizing you love someone is like noticing you have a sunburn—you don’t know exactly when it happened, just that you were too exposed for too long.”

I thought this book was beautifully written. There were many passages I reread a few times then proceeded to write down because I didn’t want to forget them. This book is beautiful all around because just look at that cover, and then know it has an even more stunning naked hardcover under the dust jacket. 

I was a little worried in the beginning because Clara makes some dumb decisions that were only included to further the plot (I’m specifically referencing how she meets Sang, the love interest). There was also some inconsistent characterization as Clara spends a lot of time refusing to use her powers to their limit during training exercises, but then she goes out of her way to do just that when necessity strikes, and I didn’t understand what caused her change in mindset. I attributed a lot of the book’s flaws to the fact that The Nature of Witches is YA and as such is full of many common YA tropes. Eventually, I put that aside and started to enjoy the story for what it was: a soft and hopeful nature-based fantasy about a witch learning to love herself for who she is. 

This book has a heavy focus on protecting our environment and on stopping climate change. All of the witches here are nature witches, being able to affect the earth and the sky. They can make plants grow, manipulate the clouds, form lightning, etc., and I really enjoyed that aspect. I feel like a lot of witchy books I read are about a darker type of witch, but the witches here are all ones who get power from the sun and are in tune with the earth, which I think I prefer. 

There are epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter that I really loved. They each are a lesson of sorts, a piece of wisdom that Clara learns in that chapter, and I thought that was clever. She has a strong character arc throughout the story so it was nice to see her slowly growing and developing and learning to accept her powers over time. 

“Maybe that’s all anyone really wants: to be seen by another person, to be validated even when we work so hard to hide certain parts of ourselves. Maybe especially then.” 

The Nature of Witches is a quick read. It’s not perfect by any means but I still had a good time reading it. Some of the plot progression happened a little too conveniently and felt too forced for my taste, and the ending focused only on Clara’s growth and didn’t mention anything about the future of the atmospheric abnormalities, which I would have liked to know more about. I also think the story could have used some more concrete character building and magical descriptions as a lot of information about character motivations and abilities had to be inferred. But overall the book was well-written and fun and I would recommend it. 

Review: HIS MAJESTY'S DRAGON by Naomi Novik

 

Rating: 2/5 stars

Well, after reading five of her books and giving them all two stars, I can safely conclude that Naomi Novik’s books are just not for me.

I am rather upset about this fact as all of Novik’s books have amazing synopses and all sound like books I would enjoy, yet every one I’ve read has fallen short for me. I think it’s just her writing style, although I have had separate problems with each book. I really can’t say for certain why but they’re all disappointing. 

His Majesty’s Dragon will likely be the penultimate Naomi Novik book that I ever read. I intend to finish the Scholomance trilogy, but that is it. I will not be continuing with the Temeraire series as it isn’t my preferred style of story and I don’t care to know what happens in the other books. 

This book is pitched as the Napoleonic wars with dragons, which is pretty accurate. While I love dragons, I don’t care for books with a heavy focus on war strategy, or a heavy focus on history, or that take place on boats. And unfortunately, this series has all of those aspects, and the dragons aren’t enough to make me love everything else.

The story in His Majesty’s Dragon starts with the ship that Laurence is on capturing another ship, and when the crew searches the cargo hold, they find a dragon egg. The crew members draw sticks for who will be the one to bond with the dragon when it hatches, and because Laurence is our protagonist, we know he will be the one who bonds with the dragon, who he names Temeraire. 

I did like Temeraire as a character and his relationship with Laurence, but I didn’t care about any other characters. I didn’t care about naval war strategy or what Napoleon was up to or about Laurence’s home life or really any aspect of the book other than our dragon friend. Plus there were long stretches of exposition without any dialogue, and that got tiring to read. 

This book reads like classical fantasy to me, and it feels very historical. More like historical fiction with a fantastical aspect rather than a fantasy with a historical aspect. While I didn’t love that, it does make the story feel more authentic, in my opinion. Novik used words in here that were so antiquated that I’ve only ever seen them in the Bible before, and if that’s not authenticity then I don’t know what is. I think this book is well-written, but like I said earlier, it has a lot of components that aren’t my preference, which resulted in me not wanting to read any more books in the world. I didn’t dislike this book, per se, but I found myself struggling to pick it up and not caring about anything in the story when I did. 

If His Majesty’s Dragon sounds like a book you’d enjoy then I encourage you to check it out because it really does have a cool concept. I really wish I liked it more than I did. 

Review: VEINS OF GOLD by Charlie N. Holmberg

 

Rating: 2.25/5 stars

This was a very weird book. Even though it’s a historical fantasy romance—which is Charlie Holmberg’s style—this was unlike any of her books I’ve read so far. Granted, she does have 15 books out and this was only my seventh book from her, but it still was vastly different from her other works.

Veins of Gold takes place in Utah during the time of the gold rush. I do not like westerns, and this book is a western and definitely feels like it, so the setting was a little off-putting for me. On top of that, this book has a more historical feel than her other books that I’ve read. I don’t really prefer historical fiction, but somehow Charlie’s books are so light in that element that I don’t mind them at all. But this one had a stronger historical feel than her others, in my opinion. 

This story follows Gentry and her siblings that she cares for after their father left them to go out to the gold rush in California. Gentry struggles to provide for her siblings when one day she stumbles upon a magic fueled by gold. The magic leads her to Winn, a man who can control the magic and almost seems to be made of it himself. Winn lives in a house made out of seagulls and can travel faster than a train and is full of whimsy and kindness. 

Charlie describes this book as if Studio Ghibli wrote a western, and I can definitely see that. Winn reminds me so strongly of Howl from Howl’s Moving Castle. Gentry has the ability to see pure magic in the form of tiny little creatures, and those remind me of the tiny Totoros from My Neighbor Totoro. The cute and whimsical Ghibli elements are there, but somehow it wasn’t enough to make me love this book that was too western for my taste. 

Another aspect I very much disliked was that Gentry’s father’s friend, who is the age of her father, is a potential love interest for Gentry. Nooo thank you. That was really off-putting to me. He’s not really a love interest as Gentry doesn’t care for him in that way, but he still makes his affections for her known and she does consider marrying him for financial stability. I almost quit the book at that part because I was thoroughly disgusted. 

However, I love Charlie Holmberg so I finished it because it was written by her, and I’m glad I did. The book had a nice ending. There were parts of this story that I genuinely loved, but there were also parts that I did not like whatsoever, and that’s what brought down the whole book for me. It was mostly (but not entirely) the western setting though, so if you can get past that then please check this out. But the whole time I couldn’t stop picturing a deserted wasteland covered in dry, crumbling dirt with tumbleweeds rolling past, and it was all so thoroughly unappealing to me that I couldn’t handle it. (Listen, I used to live in Utah and it’s a beautiful place now, but I need more trees and less dirt in my life, hence why I no longer live there.) 

I love Charlie’s books and I will continue to read everything she writes, but Veins of Gold is my least favorite of her works so far. 

Review: VESPERTINE by Margaret Rogerson

 

Rating: 3.25/5 stars

For some reason, I find the idea of fantasy books featuring nuns to be really appealing. Yet, somehow, I haven’t read one yet that really jives with me. 

Vespertine follows Artemisia at the convent in Loraille where she is training to become a grey sister, which is a nun that handles the souls of dead bodies. If not properly cared for, their spirits will come back and wreak havoc on the living. One day a group of possessed soldiers attacks the convent, and Artemisia must venture into the crypts to find an ancient artifact, and she accidentally awakens the spirit bound to it. The spirit is a revenant, and it tries to possess her, but Artemisia makes a deal with it instead. And thus we have an adventure story with a nun and an ancient dead spirit who may be eviler than he lets on. 

I thought the concept of this book was really interesting, and the plot was executed well, in my opinion. I liked Artemisia as our protagonist, and I liked the revenant as her weird sort of sidekick. However, something about it just wasn’t working for me. I felt weirdly detached from all the characters, but I still enjoyed the overall story. 

I had an issue with Margaret Rogerson’s other book, Sorcery of Thorns, too. I thought that one would be a five-star read, like I thought with Vespertine, but it let me down, and I cannot pinpoint why. 

I listened to the audiobook of Vespertine, and I don’t know if I would have enjoyed the story as much if I had read it with my eyes. There was just something about it that suited better to the audio experience for me. 

I plan to read the sequel to Vespertine when it releases because the way this book ended makes it clear there will be a sequel. The problem is I likely won’t remember anything about this book. I’m writing this review four days after I finished the novel and already it’s a blur to me and I’m struggling to remember the plot. It’s not a good sign when a book is forgettable so soon after finishing it. 

Overall I feel very conflicted about Vespertine. I think it was well done, and the story of a nun bonding with an evil spirit is a cool concept, but something about it, maybe her writing style, prevented me from enjoying it as much as I wanted to. 

Review: THE BONE SHARD EMPEROR by Andrea Stewart

 

Rating: 4.75/5 stars

I really did not remember a lot of the first book when I started this one, but luckily after rereading my review and notes and talking to my husband who has also read the book, I fell back into the story pretty easily. 

Lin is now emperor after killing her father, Jovis is now the captain of the guard to Lin on Imperial Isle. Lin is looking for new political alliances, and she and Jovis spend a good portion of the novel traveling to different islands around the empire to speak to the local governors. 

“Rebellion didn’t come with instructions.” 

We all know I don’t like books set on boats, and even though a good portion of this book was Lin and Jovis sailing to various islands in the Empire, the story never really took place on the boat. Most of the story happens on the different islands. So I was pleased with that.

The Alanga people are returning, and with them, an ancient magic. This book focuses more on the magic of the Alanga than it does bone shard magic, mostly because Lin is making a conscious effort to stop the bone shard tithing in the empire and to dismantle all the constructs across the empire as an act of benevolence to her people. I always think it’s cool when stories have more than one form of magic in them, so it was nice to see something new being discussed here. 

Meanwhile, Nisong, who we knew as Sand in the first book, is organizing a revolution. I will not be speaking anymore on this matter. 

The Bone Shard Emperor held my interest throughout the entire story. Like the first book, every chapter ended in a way that made me keep reading to find out what happened next with that character, but then the POV would switch each chapter, so of course it was one continuous cycle of wanting to know what happened next until I finished the book. 

It wasn’t hard to keep the five POVs separate. In this book, however, there’s a heavy focus on Lin’s and Jovis’s perspectives, with Ranami’s, Phalue’s, and Nisong’s perspectives taking a backseat unless absolutely necessary. Since their characters have already been established in The Bone Shard Daughter, less time is spent on them here so more time can be dedicated to the primary storyline surrounding Lin.

This book, again like the first, is clean. There’s very little vulgar language, no sex (hardly any romance at all for that matter), violence but not graphic descriptions of it, and I really appreciate that. It is so hard to find clean fantasy books these days, so that alone makes this series stand out to me. 

But not only that, this series is just something new altogether. I guess it’s epic fantasy, but it doesn’t really feel like epic fantasy, even though it takes place in its own fictional world. People say it’s Asian-inspired, and maybe it is, but I don’t overtly get that vibe from it. The magic is a completely new and unique type of magic that I’ve never seen done before and I love it. Animal companions are nothing new, but the ones in this book are unlike any I’ve read about before. The characters and plot are fabulous as well. This series features lots of political scheming, smugglers, daughters inheriting the throne after removing their parents from power, secret thieving organizations, guards who are double-agents, an ancient magical race, and cliffhangers to end them all, all of which we’ve seen done in fantasy novels before, but somehow it all feels fresh and new here. I loved it. 

The biggest compliment I can give a book is one I give here to the Drowning Empire series: it’s like nothing I’ve read before, in a good way. 

I’ve really been enjoying this series and can’t wait to read The Bone Shard War probably next year to see how it all concludes. The Bone Shard Emperor didn’t feel like a filler book at all. I wasn’t able to guess where the story was going, and the ending left me laughing, upset, sad, scared, and excited all at the same time. 

I don’t have any real criticisms of this book. I think Andrea Stewart took everything good about the first book and made it better in the sequel. It had me invested on every page. It has great, flawed but relatable characters. It has a gripping plot with lots of intrigue. It has a fascinating magic system with bone shards, and not only that but also a second elemental-type magic system that gets introduced in this book. I really like this series and I highly recommend it.