Search

Rainy Day's Books, Video Games and Other Writings

Open Search
Tag

young adult fantasy

Book Review: Guardians of Dawn (Books 1-2)

As I had received a copy of the third book, Guardians of Dawn: Yuli, in this series on NetGalley, I decided before reading it that I would read the first two books in this series. I didn’t want to start this series by reading and reviewing the third book before reading these two, and this series sounded like something I would enjoy anyway. It also felt like a way for me to catch up on what had happened, and a good way to get me excited to read this book. So, below I will start with talking about the first book in this series, Guardians of Dawn: Zhara.

Guardians of Dawn: Zhara (Guardians of Dawn #1)

Rating: 4 stars

Sailor Moon meets Cinder in Guardians of Dawn: Zhara, the start of a new, richly imagined fantasy series from S. Jae-Jones, the New York Times bestselling author of Wintersong.

Magic flickers.

Love flames.

Chaos reigns.

Magic is forbidden throughout the Morning Realms. Magicians are called abomination, and blamed for the plague of monsters that razed the land twenty years before.

Jin Zhara already had enough to worry about—appease her stepmother’s cruel whims, looking after her blind younger sister, and keeping her own magical gifts under control—without having to deal with rumors of monsters re-emerging in the marsh. But when a chance encounter with an easily flustered young man named Han brings her into contact with a secret magical liberation organization called the Guardians of Dawn, Zhara realizes there may be more to these rumors than she thought. A mysterious plague is corrupting the magicians of Zanhei and transforming them into monsters, and the Guardians of Dawn believe a demon is responsible.

In order to restore harmony and bring peace to the world, Zhara must discover the elemental warrior within, lest the balance between order and chaos is lost forever.

When I initially started this first book in this series, I wasn’t sure what to make of it, as the pacing of the story started slow. But as I continued reading and found out more about the world Zhara and those closest to her live in, I found myself more and more interested in reading her story to find out what happened next.

As you find out more about the world Zhara lives in, Guardians of Dawn: Zhara, the more I find myself immersed in the story and want to know what happens next. I especially find the magic in this book interesting because of how magicians use it. There’s a lot more to it than meets the eye, which made me fascinated with the story and wanting to continue to read to see what happened next. I also enjoy the characters in this story because I felt like they were each unique and enjoyed seeing their interactions with each other, especially seeing Han’s friendship with Xu and seeing Xu becoming good friends with Zhara.  

What I also enjoyed about this book was seeing Zhara’s character develop and her relationship with Han. At first, Zhara was very unsure of her abilities as a magician. But I feel like as her story goes on, she becomes more accepting of her abilities and begins to trust in herself to do what’s needed. I also enjoyed seeing her use her magic, too, once she starts getting control of it, because it showed her coming into her powers and accepting the direction her life is going. I also enjoyed reading about her relationship with Han and seeing that relationship develop. At first, I wasn’t sure what to think of them as a potential couple in this book because I felt like they both seemed to like each other as soon as they met. But as the story continues, I found myself enjoying seeing their relationship continue to develop, and was excited to see where it was going.

If there’s anything with Guardians of Dawn: Zhara, I wasn’t fond of it was Han keeping his identity a secret, and the amount of information given to the reader about the world these characters live in. While I understand why Han didn’t tell Zhara who he is because he wanted to seem like a normal guy to her, I feel like he should’ve told her and had that honest conversation with her. I know he ends up revealing it to her unintentionally, but I think he should’ve told her on his own instead of slipping up with his lies to her. I felt like by him lying to her it made me feel like he didn’t fully trust her, even with everything else that was going on, and that didn’t sit right with me because of how they both felt about each other. I also felt like there was a lot of world-building in this story. It felt like too much information was given to you at the beginning, which made me struggle with reading it initially. Granted, I enjoyed the information that was provided since it gave me insight into the world these characters live in, but it felt like way too much to provide a reader when they’re reading the first book in a series.

Nonetheless, when I finished reading Guardians of Dawn: Zhara, I was excited to continue the series with the next book, Guardians of Dawn: Ami, to see how these characters’ story continues to develop.

Guardians of Dawn: Ami (Guardians of Dawn #2)

Rating: 4.5 stars

When the Pillar blooms, the end of the world is not far behind.

Li Ami was always on the outside—outside of family, outside of friendships, outside of ordinary magic. The odd and eccentric daughter of a former imperial magician, she has devoted her life to books because she finds them easier to read than people. Exiled to the outermost west of the Morning Realms, Ami has become the sole caretaker of her mentally ill father, whose rantings and ravings may be more than mere ramblings; they may be part of a dire prophecy. When her father is arrested for trespassing and stealing a branch from the sacred tree of the local monastery, Ami offers herself to the mysterious Beast in the castle, who is in need of someone who can translate a forbidden magical text and find a cure for the mysterious blight that is affecting the harvest of the land.

Meanwhile, as signs of magical corruption arise throughout the Morning Realms, Jin Zhara begins to realize that she might be out of her element. She may have defeated a demon lord and uncovered her identity as the Guardian of Fire, but she’ll be more than outmatched in the coming elemental battle against the Mother of Ten Thousand Demons…unless she can find the other Guardians of Dawn. Her magic is no match for the growing tide of undead, and she needs the Guardian of Wood with power over life and death in order to defeat the revenants razing the countryside.

The threat of the Mother of Ten Thousand Demons looms larger by the day, and the tenuous peace holding the Morning Realms together is beginning to unravel. Ami and Zhara must journey to the Root of the World in order to seal the demon portal that may have opened there and restore balance to an increasingly chaotic world.

Out of these two books, I enjoyed reading Guardians of Dawn: Ami a little better. I feel like it was due to knowing more about the world with these characters, and there wasn’t as much world-building in the beginning for me to make it difficult to read at the start. It also had a little more Beauty and the Beast feel to it with regards to Ami and her relationship with Beast, which probably helped too, since that’s one of my favorite stories.

What I enjoyed with this book, though, is that it does a wonderful job of picking up where its predecessor left off but introducing us to additional characters who play an important role in the story. Also, I appreciate that while this book’s main focus is on Ami and Beast, the characters from Guardians of Dawn: Zhara are also central characters here and there are chapters from their perspective too, so you get to see what they are up to before they meet Ami and Beast along with follow them while Ami goes on her journey.

Like with its predecessor, the magic and storytelling in this book are magnificent. I enjoyed seeing the magic of the characters in this story and finding out about what’s going on with Ami and her father as they try and survive this world. I also enjoyed seeing her relationship with Beast develop, even though I didn’t agree with his actions at a certain point in the story, which I’ll talk about later. I could feel the connection between the two of them better than I had with Zhara and Han. With Zhara and Han in this book, their relationship seems to slow down quite a bit, but when you find out why from Han, I found myself feeling for him because what he says regarding his sexuality is relatable to me. So while I was sad not to see too much of their relationship in this story, I was fine with it since this story was more about Ami and Beast anyway.   

If there’s anything about this book I didn’t like, it would be what I mentioned earlier regarding Beast. You find out about a secret he’s keeping from everyone else in this book, and how he manages to keep this secret is something I don’t like. The way he uses that power to compel those who find out not to say anything about his secret is very messed up and made me not like his character during those moments. While I understood to a certain point why he acted that way, I don’t think it excuses his behavior, so I am glad that the author has him develop in a way where he realizes what he’s doing is wrong, and he does what he can to change it.

However, that is the only thing I had an issue with when reading Guardians of Dawn: Ami, as I enjoyed everything else about the story when I read it. And as a whole, I enjoyed reading both of these books in the Guardians of Dawn series, that I can’t wait to read the next book in the series, Guardians of Dawn: Yuli, which I’ve received a digital copy of on NetGalley. I highly recommend these books to anyone who enjoys fantasy with a light amount of romance and finds themselves immersed in a unique magical world.      

1

Book Review: Bring Me Your Midnight

Rating: 4 stars

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Nature of Witches and Wild is the Witch comes a lush romantic fantasy about forbidden love, the choices we make, and the pull between duty and desire.

Tana Fairchild’s fate has never been in question. Her life has been planned out since the moment she was born: she is to marry the governor’s son, Landon, and secure an unprecedented alliance between the witches of her island home and the mainlanders who see her very existence as a threat.

Tana’s coven has appeased those who fear their power for years by releasing most of their magic into the ocean during the full moon. But when Tana misses the midnight ritual—a fatal mistake—there is no one she can turn to for help…until she meets Wolfe.

Wolfe claims he is from a coven that practices dark magic, making him one of the only people who can help her. But he refuses to let Tana’s power rush into the sea, and instead teaches her his forbidden magic. A magic that makes her feel powerful. Alive.

As the sea grows more violent, her coven loses control of the currents, a danger that could destroy the alliance as well as her island. Tana will have to choose between love and duty, between loyalty to her people and loyalty to her heart. Marrying Landon would secure peace for her coven, but losing Wolfe and his wild magic could cost her everything else.

I enjoyed reading Bring Me Your Midnight, especially because of how magic is portrayed in the story. The coven Tana is a part of incorporates their magic through the perfumes they use, the tea they make, and they release the buildup of their magic during the full moon. I found all these aspects of their magic interesting because I had never read a story before where magic was used in this way. I also enjoyed the magic Tana learns about from Wolfe because it’s different from the type of magic Tana is accustomed to, and I enjoyed getting to read Tana’s reactions to his magic. The way magic was woven into the story felt magical in itself, and I was excited to continue reading this story to learn more about it.  

Another aspect of this book I enjoyed was seeing the relationships between the covens and the mainlanders. It was interesting to learn about the dynamics between the two different groups of people and learning the importance of an alliance between the mainlanders and the new coven. I also enjoyed seeing the relationships between Tana and the people closest to her. In particular, her relationship with her best friend Ivy and the man she was set to marry, Landon. Tana’s friendship with Ivy stood out to me because I could see how much they cared about each other even when they disagreed. I enjoyed seeing her relationship with Landon, too. While he was marrying her more out of duty than love, I felt like I saw potential between them as a couple. A potential that I wish the story had explored further.

I also enjoyed Tana’s character in Bring Me Your Midnight. I felt like she was a wonderful main character for this story, as she was someone you could relate to. A character who pursues what she cares about, stays loyal to those she loves, and remains curious about what she discovers. Even though I couldn’t understand everything she was going through, I felt like I could relate to her when I was reading her story and wanted everything to turn out well for her. Especially her love of swimming, as that’s something I also enjoy.    

What I didn’t particularly like about Bring Me Your Midnight was the relationship between Tana and Wolfe. I didn’t feel a connection between them when I was reading this book at all. I also felt like her attraction to him was due to wanting something different from herself than what was expected of her, and because she enjoyed using the type of magic Wolfe showed her how to use. While I found his magic interesting and wanted to learn more about it, Wolfe’s character didn’t feel all that interesting to me.

What I also didn’t enjoy about this book was the lack of details in the story. I feel like Rachel Griffin does a wonderful job of describing the world Tana lives in. But I feel like there were a lot of details in the story that were never fully explained, which frustrated me. For example, with the decision Tana makes, it’s never explained how her choice will impact her coven’s relationship with the mainlanders. I was also frustrated by the many secrets Tana’s mother kept from the rest of the members of the coven (such as the existence of the old coven and the truth surrounding the moonflowers), and felt like an explanation was needed regarding why their coven didn’t know about these things. However, I wonder if this lack of detail frustrated me simply because I was so invested in the story and wanted more.  

Bring Me Your Midnight is a read I highly recommend. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys young adult literature and is looking for a different type of magic than they typically see. After reading this book, I feel confident that I’ll check out more books by this author in the future, as I enjoyed reading this book and don’t think I’d be disappointed reading some of her other works.               

0

Book Review: The Color of Revenge

Rating: 3 stars

Vengeance awaits in the follow-up to the epic, award-winning, New York Times bestselling Inkheart trilogy by internationally acclaimed author Cornelia Funke.

Five years have passed since the events of Inkdeath. At last, peace reigns in Ombra where Meggie, Mo, Dustfinger and all the other residents lead a happy, carefree life. But it has been a different story for Orpheus, who after fleeing to the north, has spent his days living a meager and deprived existence fueled only by his thirst for revenge against Dustfinger and all those who betrayed him.

Now Orpheus is willing to use any means necessary to take revenge. Even the darkest spell the ink world has to offer.

When Dustfinger’s deepest fears come true, he’ll have to figure out whether the words still obey him. Or is he the one who should be afraid of the pictures this time…

Don’t get me wrong, I overall enjoyed reading The Color of Revenge. However, in comparison to the books in the Inkheart trilogy, which are the predecessor to this book, I was severely disappointed in this book that takes place in that same world. But before I go into the reasons why I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the original trilogy let me talk about what I did enjoy here about The Color of Revenge.

What I enjoyed about The Color of Revenge was returning to the Inkworld again. I returned to a world I’ve loved since I was a young adult and was reunited with characters whose stories I thought had already been told. I didn’t even mind seeing Orpheus again even though he was one of my least favorite villains in the original trilogy. It made me miss the world these characters are in and made me want to read the Inkheart trilogy all over again.

Even though the execution of the main plot in this book ended up poorly executed, I loved the premise of the plot in this book. The idea of a villain initially being successful in getting revenge against those who they feel have wronged them in a unique way that’s described as impossible to stop. I loved the overall premise of what this book is supposed to be about and was interested in learning more about the grey book Meggie and several of the other main characters from the Inkworld end up trapped in and what Dustfinger and the Black Prince have to do to save everyone from Orpheus’s plot.

What I also enjoyed when reading The Color of Revenge was some of the new characters that were introduced in this book. In particular, the characters who helped Dustfinger and the Black Prince save the characters that were stuck in the grey book. I thought they were interesting characters and wanted to learn more about them and their powers. I forgot how much I enjoyed the magic of the Inkworld until reading this book brought me right back into their world and all the magic I enjoyed with it in the past.

However, there’s also a lot in this book I didn’t enjoy too. For starters, I was disappointed with how the plot in this story was executed. Don’t get me wrong, it was fascinating to see Orpheus get his revenge against those who wronged him and learn how he was able to do so. But I felt like there should’ve been more with it too. I think part of my issue here is that I expected this book to be just as long as the books in the Inkheart trilogy with a lot of detail regarding the Inkworld and I feel like this book just didn’t capture that for me like the original trilogy did. I was also disappointed because I was hoping we’d find out what all the main characters had been up to since the end of Inkdeath since the story here takes place five years after the events in that book. And we didn’t get that at all here.   

What I also didn’t enjoy about The Color of Revenge was the other names given to some of the characters in the story. Both Dustfinger and the Black Prince have other names that are used in this book that weren’t ever mentioned in the original trilogy. And I felt like Cornelia Funke used those names quite frequently in this book to where I would have to look them up in the back of the book to see which character was which. It was annoying to me because it didn’t make sense to give these characters these names when they didn’t have them in the Inkheart trilogy. I understand that this book is essentially about an adventure Dustfinger and the Black Prince go on while the other characters are stuck inside the grey book so wanted to add something more to the story. But if these were these characters’ names, they should’ve been in the Inkheart trilogy too.

What I also found disappointing when reading this book was how they got rid of Orpheus. There’s so much that happens because of him in the original trilogy along with this book that I was expecting a big showdown between him and all of the other characters, and they were going to do something against him to make it impossible for him to ever get revenge again. But what happens instead while it does in some ways feel right since he didn’t read himself into the Inkworld, to begin with so the chances of him coming back are pretty small, it also makes me feel uneasy too. I can’t help but feel like the story told is unfinished because of how lackluster this ending was to me, and I don’t like it because I never felt that way when I was reading the books in the Inkheart trilogy.

As a whole, while I did overall enjoy reading The Color of Revenge and getting to go back into the Inkworld once again, I felt like I was reading a book from a completely different series but with characters that I already know. I think I probably would’ve enjoyed this book better if I hadn’t read the original Inkheart trilogy before or if this book was labeled as being a part of that world but the start of another series as I feel like with the way this story ended Funke could very easily be thinking of doing another series in this world. I do recommend those who’ve read the original trilogy to give this book a read but to be prepared to have lower expectations if you’re expecting this one to be anything like the Inkheart trilogy as you’ll be disappointed like I was.     

0

Book Review: Uprooted

Uprooted Book Review

Rating: 4 stars

“Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course, that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.”

Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.

Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.

But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.

Uprooted is one of many stories that reminds me of why I love reading fantasy so much. The amount of fantasy in this story was beautifully written, hooked me from the first page to the last. It was like I could feel the magic being told in this story all around me as I read, and I loved every minute of it. As someone who loves reading fantasy, this book took me on a magical journey that I never wanted to see the end of.

The story building Naomi Novik does to bring this world to life is very well done. You get a wonderful glimpse of the world Agnieszka grows up in and see how the dangerous Wood plays a pivotal role in events that shape up parts of her life. At first, you don’t understand why the Dragon chooses a new girl every ten years to live in his tower until you get further into the story and learn more about him as a character. I found learning about all these intricate details to create the world these characters live in fascinating and wanted to see more of this world with each page I turned. Her writing is very powerful because it sucks you as the reader into the story she’s telling and makes you want to go on this adventure, into this world along with them.

While the world and story in Uprooted really sucked me in because it was interesting and very magical, I do have some criticisms with this story too. For starters, it took me a little while to like the characters in the story Novik introduces the reader to and the decisions they made. This was especially true to me for the protagonist Agineszka because she made some very irrational decisions in the story because people she loved were in danger. While I could relate to her character overall because she somewhat reminds me of myself, there were moments I didn’t like her due to the decisions she made without thinking of the consequences her choices would cause. Not to say I didn’t understand why she made these choices, but I sometimes thought she needed to put in some more thought to the decisions she made and how her choices would impact the lives of others.

I also wasn’t particularly fond of the romance Novik set up between two of the characters in the story. I honestly felt like it wasn’t necessary because it just didn’t make sense for these two people to be romantically involved with each other. They weren’t well suited for each other and it wasn’t something I was interested in seeing whenever I was reading this book. It just didn’t feel like it belonged in the story, so I was disappointed when I saw this romance occur between the two of them.

However, I really enjoyed reading this book because the world and the magical fantasy within its pages captivated my attention. This book reminds me so much of why I love reading fantasy books so much and I can’t wait to read Spinning Silver, even though it’s not a sequel but sounds like its very similar to Uprooted. I recommend this story to fantasy lovers like me and anyone who wants to read a story set in a wonderfully detailed world that’ll take you on a journey unlike any other. This book had a story that captivated my heart and that I know in the years to come I’ll be reading again.

8

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑