Tag: fantasy books

Book Review: Legends & Lattes (Legends & Lattes #1) by Travis Baldree

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Cozy Fantasy
Length: 296 pages
Author: Travis Baldree
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: June 7th, 2022
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

After a lifetime of bounties and bloodshed, Viv is hanging up her sword for the last time.

The battle-weary orc aims to start fresh, opening the first ever coffee shop in the city of Thune. But old and new rivals stand in the way of success — not to mention the fact that no one has the faintest idea what coffee actually is.

If Viv wants to put the blade behind her and make her plans a reality, she won’t be able to go it alone.

But the true rewards of the uncharted path are the travelers you meet along the way. And whether drawn together by ancient magic, flaky pastry, or a freshly brewed cup, they may become partners, family, and something deeper than she ever could have dreamed.

WORTH THE HYPE.

I enjoyed this quick fantasy read. I know it’s been dubbed cozy and I think that’s a great adjective for this whole read. I thought it was sweet that nobody knew what coffee was and that Viv took the chance at making her own shop to help herself and those around her do something different.

It’s a super quick audiobook (with great narration). As a heavy fantasy reader I think I was still missing that deeper plot line and overarching connection within the story. But I liked all of the nuanced characters who popped into the shop and even how they all came together when disaster struck. It was a good read, I think I’d be interested to see if there’s another book in the series. Still on I’d easily recommend to others. Legends & Lattes was a nice break and gave me those warm coffeehouse feelings.

Overall audience notes:

  • Cozy Fanasy
  • Language: some
  • Romance: kisses
  • Violence: low

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Book Review: The Book That Broke the World (The Library Trilogy #2) by Mark Lawrence

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Fantasy
Length: 384 pages
Author: Mark Lawrence
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Release Date: April 11th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

The second volume in the bestselling, ground-breaking Library Trilogy, following The Book That Wouldn’t Burn.

We fight for the people we love. We fight for the ideas we want to be true.

Evar and Livira stand side by side and yet far beyond each other’s reach. Evar is forced to flee the library, driven before an implacable foe. Livira, trapped in a ghost world, has to recover her book if she’s to return to her life. While Evar’s journey leads him outside into the vastness of a world he’s never seen, Livira’s destination lies deep inside her own writing, where she must wrestle with her stories in order to reclaim the volume in which they were written.

And all the while, the library quietly weaves thread to thread, bringing the scattered elements of Livira’s old life – friends and foe alike – back together beneath new skies.

Long ago, a lie was told, and with the passing years it has grown and spread, a small push leading to a chain of desperate consequences. Now, as one edifice topples into the next with ever-growing violence, it threatens to break the world. The secret war that defines the library has chosen its champions and set them on the board. The time has come when they must fight for what they believe, or lose everything.

The Library Trilogy is about many things: adventure, discovery, and romance, but it’s also a love letter to books and the places where they live. The focus is on one vast and timeless library, but the love expands to encompass smaller more personal collections, and bookshops of all shades too.

Thank you to Berkley (Berkley Partner) for the free book.

IT WAS GOOD.

I found this to be a good middle book. I liked the introduction of new characters and seeing the expansion of the story line. I miss Evar and Livira a bit but luckily they were most heavily present in the second half of the book. It’s such an interesting concept and a very intensely layered world building and magic system.

I think that’s also kind of my issue though? It’s so intricate that I still feel partially lost by the end of it each time. How the library is formed, who’s where and in what time period, all of the crossing back and forth through portals is a LOT. I do like listening to the audiobook as it’s helped me stay more focused on what’s happening.

Definitely still interested in continuing this series. I do enjoy Lawrence’s writing style and find this entire concept fascinating. This was a book I kept wanting to pick up and found myself even more attached to the characters. There’s plenty of great action, some good slower moments and even a few heart breaking ones too.

Overall audience notes:

  • Fantasy
  • Language: low-moderate
  • Romance: kisses
  • Violence: high

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ARC Book Review: A Letter to the Luminous Deep (The Sunken Archive #1) by Sylvie Cathrall

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Fantasy
Length: 432 pages
Author: Sylvie Cathrall
Publisher: Orbit Books
Release Date: April 25th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

‘An underwater treasure-chest to be slowly unpacked, full of things I nosy and loving families, epistolary romance, gorgeous worldbuilding, and anxious scholars doing their best to meet the world with kindness and curiosity’ Freya Marske, author of A Marvellous Light

A charming fantasy set in an underwater world with magical academia and a heartwarming penpal romance, perfect for fans of A Marvellous Light and Emily Wilde’s Encylopaedia of Faeries.

A beautiful discovery outside the window of her underwater home prompts the reclusive E. to begin a correspondence with renowned scholar Henerey Clel. The letters they share are filled with passion, at first for their mutual interests, and then, inevitably, for each other.

Together, they uncover a mystery from the unknown depths, destined to transform the underwater world they both equally fear and love. But by no mere coincidence, a seaquake destroys E.’s home, and she and Henerey vanish.

A year later, E.’s sister Sophy, and Henerey’s brother Vyerin, are left to solve the mystery of their siblings’ disappearances with the letters, sketches and field notes left behind. As they uncover the wondrous love their siblings shared, Sophy and Vyerin learn the key to their disappearance – and what it could mean for life as they know it.

Thank you Orbit Books for the gifted ARC.

LOTS OF THOUGHTS.

I honestly don’t know what quite to do with this one. I almost DNF after the first 30 pages because good heavens this was slowww. And not in a way you can skim, this is a, read every word, kind of mystery. After being convinced to try again, I admittedly found myself liking the book more. The writing is all in letters and heavily academic. Once you’ve found your footing with it, things seem to flow a bit better.

I was intrigued by the world and how it was set-up. I thought it was interesting and the concept of living underwater was something I rarely read. The scholars and researchers and fanatics all kind of coalesce into a myriad of sub-plots that fill the larger story. I have a very hard time calling this a romance. Honestly I wouldn’t (so nobody sets themselves up right off the bat for disappointment). There’s a sweet little love story that’s woven in, it just doesn’t have everything I was expecting/hoping for when I picked this up.

The ending has me wanting to read book two. I am genuinely curious where people ended up, what the Structure is and why we care about it.

It appears that the audiobook has a full cast and I think that will make this book more enjoyable to those curious about trying it.

Overall audience notes:

  • Fantasy + some romance
  • Language: none
  • Romance: flirting
  • Violence: low

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ARC Book Review: To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods (To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods #1) by Molly X. Chang

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: NA Fantasy
Length: 368 pages
Author: Molly X. Chang
Publisher: Del Rey
Release Date: April 16th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

In this magical epic fantasy, a young woman cursed with the power of death must decide if saving her family is worth betraying her country—the first installation of a gripping new series.

Heroes die, cowards live. Daughter of a conquered world, Ruying hates the invaders who descended from the heavens long before she was born and defeated the magic of her people with technologies unlike anything her world had ever seen.

Blessed by Death, born with the ability to pull the life right out of mortal bodies, Ruying shouldn’t have to fear these foreign invaders, but she does. Especially because she wants to keep herself and her family safe.

When Ruying’s Gift is discovered by an enemy prince, he offers her an impossible deal: If she becomes his private assassin and eliminates his political rivals—whose deaths he swears would be for the good of both their worlds and would protect her people from further brutalization—her family will never starve or suffer harm again. But to accept this bargain, she must use the powers she has always feared, powers that will shave years off her own existence.

Can Ruying trust this prince, whose promises of a better world make her heart ache and whose smiles make her pulse beat faster? Are the evils of this agreement really in the service of a much greater good? Or will she betray her entire nation by protecting those she loves the most?

Thank you to Del Rey for the Goodreads giveaway book!

READY FOR MORE.

I was fortunate enough to win this in a giveaway because I have been eyeing it for awhile now, and it did not disappoint.

My favorite thing about this book was how complex it was. Black, white and alllllll the gray. I loved the emotional journey this took me on. Trying to guess where the true evil was hiding, who was really making the calls, and how the story was all coming together. I liked how much this book gave me but also making me anxious for the next book. This had an awesome build where I found myself more and more invested.

The romance aspects (sub-plot) have my attention to. Honestly, I have ZERO clue where this is going and I am in love with that. I’m someone who prefers a multi-book slow burn and questioning if the first guy is the end game or not (because I have QUESTIONS). Is it weird I love how much I’m still in the dark??

An amazing debut. One I will be recommending to fantasy readers. OH!! And it’s got historical fantasy vibes which if you know, IS MY KRYPTONITE. Seriously, check this book out.

Overall audience notes:

  • NA Fantasy
  • Language: low
  • Romance: kisses
  • Violence: high
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: drug addiction (opium), loss of loved ones, executions, medical experimentation

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