Wrap-Up| May 2016

Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle #3)
Maggie Stiefvater

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Synopsis:

There is danger in dreaming. But there is even more danger in waking up.

Blue Sargent has found things. For the first time in her life, she has friends she can trust, a group to which she can belong. The Raven Boys have taken her in as one of their own. Their problems have become hers, and her problems have become theirs.

The trick with found things though, is how easily they can be lost.

Friends can betray.

Mothers can disappear.

Visions can mislead.

Certainties can unravel.

Thoughts:

I may actually kidnap Maggie and make her write all my novel ideas-- of course I won't because, that would be illegal. Although, I do love how each book is slowly turning the notch up just that little more. I feel tense just thinking that this could be it for Gansey come The Raven King.

Crap!

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A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses #1)
Sarah J. Maas

⭐⭐⭐

Synopsis:

Feyre is a huntress.

She thinks nothing of slaughtering a wolf to capture its prey. But, like all mortals, she fears what lingers mercilessly beyond the forest. And she will learn that taking the life of a magical creature comes at a high price...

Imprisoned in an enchanted court in her enemy's kingdom, Feyre is free to roam but forbidden to escape. Her captor's body bears the scars of fighting, and his face is always masked - but his piercing stare draws her ever closer. As Feyre's feeling for Tamlin begin to burn through every warning she's been told about his kind, an ancient, wicked shadow grows.

Feyre must find a way to break a spell, or lose her heart forever.

Thoughts:

In all honestly I just have never like Tamlin. Felt kind of alone for the past year in my own little hatred bubble. I think it's just Tamlin has ruined this whole novel for me, hense the drop from 4.5 stars to just a 3 star rating. Sorry Maas!
Plus, the romance started to make me feel too tacky; I prefer my romance sub-plotted please!

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A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses #2)

Sarah J. Maas

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Synopsis: 

Feyre survived Amarantha's clutches to return to the Spring Court—but at a steep cost. Though she now has the powers of the High Fae, her heart remains human, and it can't forget the terrible deeds she performed to save Tamlin's people.

Nor has Feyre forgotten her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court. As Feyre navigates its dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms—and she might be key to stopping it. But only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future—and the future of a world cleaved in two.

REVIEW

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Assassin's Apprentice (The Farseer Trilogy #1)
Robin Hobb

⭐⭐⭐

Synopsis:

Young Fitz is the bastard son of the noble Prince Chivalry, raised in the shadow of the royal court by his father's gruff stableman. He is treated like an outcast by all the royalty except the devious King Shrewd, who has him secretly tutored in the arts of the assassin. For in Fitz's blood runs the magic Skill--and the darker knowledge of a child raised with the stable hounds and rejected by his family. As barbarous raiders ravage the coasts, Fitz is growing to manhood. Soon he will face his first dangerous, soul-shattering mission. And though some regard him as a threat to the throne, he may just be the key to the survival of the kingdom.

REVIEW


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The Raven King (The Raven Cycle #4)
Maggie Stiefvater


⭐⭐⭐⭐

Synopsis:

Nothing living is safe. Nothing dead is to be trusted.

For years, Gansey has been on a quest to find a lost king. One by one, he’s drawn others into this quest: Ronan, who steals from dreams; Adam, whose life is no longer his own; Noah, whose life is no longer a lie; and Blue, who loves Gansey… and is certain she is destined to kill him.

Now the endgame has begun. Dreams and nightmares are converging. Love and loss are inseparable. And the quest refuses to be pinned to a path.

REVIEW

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Oh dear! Not as a great reading month as I had anticipated although, I have had a lot going on with my education part of life. 
The books I had read were pretty great so I guess that makes up for it.

REVIEW| Assassin's Apprentice

Assassin's Apprentice (The Farseer Trilogy #1)
Robin Hobb

⭐⭐⭐

Synopsis:

In a faraway land where members of the royal family are named for the virtues they embody, one young boy will become a walking enigma.

Born on the wrong side of the sheets, Fitz, son of Chivalry Farseer, is a royal bastard, cast out into the world, friendless and lonely. Only his magical link with animals - the old art known as the Wit - gives him solace and companionship. But the Wit, if used too often, is a perilous magic, and one abhorred by the nobility.

So when Fitz is finally adopted into the royal household, he must give up his old ways and embrace a new life of weaponry, scribing, courtly manners; and how to kill a man secretly, as he trains to become a royal assassin.

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Review:


This has to be one of my (many) favourite fantasy covers of all time. It screams that allusive age of "medival" that accompanies many books throughout the fantasy genre. What I like about this new cover that HarperVoyagerUK commisioned was that once you've read the novel, you begin to understand the small details that the cover artist (Jackie Morris and Stephen Raw) have added to this 2014 edition. The feel of the book is like that of calligraphy paper, course and rough, meaning that my sweaty palm don't peel back the plastic coating that I often find on British paperbacks-- fantastic!

Robin Hobb is a author that I have always tried to avoid when it comes to fantasy but, lets be honest here it would've of been just plain rude to ignore one of the most influential female authors on the fantasy market. So I started from the very first book that Hobb had published-- Assassin's Apprentice. 

What I liked about Hobb's writing was the realism and honesty that covers the entirety of the novel that can often be taken away in fantasy novels. It was the first three sentence that hooked me into the novel:

"My pen falters, then falls from my knuckly grip, leaving a worm's trail of ink across Fedwren's paper. I have spoiled another leaf of the fine stuff, in what I suspect is a futile endeavour. I wonder if I can write history, or on every page there will be some sneaking show of bitterness I thought long dead."

I mean, who doesn't want to know, why he is writing about history, who is Fedwren, why is Fitz so bitter?  Hobb's strength is presenting a realistic image of what it means to be a Bastard at court and the brutal reality of death. It's not fantastic and poetic prose that Hobb uses but rather the bluntness of Fitz's own narrative that really sets this brutality to life on the very page Hobb has intended for us to read.

My only concern that I had was that the pacing felt off. It was undeniably slow and I felt that I ended up drifting to other action based plots throughout the months that I went on and off reading this book-- my reason for three stars. I think if I had stuck with it this book would have been a higher rating. I found it hard to remember what event had occured and what particular things meant, adding to confusion.

Where this book lacks in major actional plot it makes up for in the ways that Hobb's characters are comprimised by their political surroundings of the Duchies court. The dense political intrigue being just enough to keep me hanging on til the end to finish this book. Her books are subtle in the worlds and languages of fantasy and brings a sense of fresh air to the dense poetic prose that is so very common.

I will definitely be continuing on with this trilogy and other pieces of Hobb's writing for the hope of her writing improving over the last twenty years.