Tag: orbit books

ARC Book Review: The Outcast Mage (The Shattered Lands #1) by Annabel Campbell

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Rating: ★★★☆
Audience: Fantasy
Length: 512 pages
Author: Annabel Campbell
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: January 28th, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

A mage bereft of her powers must find out if she is destined to save the world or destroy it in this glittering debut fantasy perfect for fans of Andrea Stewart, James Islington, and Samantha Shannon.

In the glass city of Amoria, magic is everything. And Naila, student at the city’s legendary academy, is running out of time to prove she can control hers. If she fails, she’ll be forced into exile, relegated to a life of persecution with the other magicless hollows. Or worse, be consumed by her own power.

When a tragic incident further threatens her place at the Academy, Naila is saved by Haelius Akana, the most powerful living mage. Finding Naila a kindred spirit, Haelius stakes his position at the Academy on teaching her to harness her abilities. But Haelius has many enemies, and they would love nothing more than to see Naila fail. Trapped in the deadly schemes of Amoria’s elite, Naila must dig deep to discover the truth of her powers or watch the city she loves descend into civil war.

For there is violence brewing on the wind, and greater powers at work. Ones who could use her powers for good… or destroy everything she’s ever known.

Thank you to Orbit Books for my gifted copy.

NOT EVERYTHING I HOPED.

I was really excited for this book but it ended up not quite being what I hoped for. What I did like was the general concept of the plot. It’s intriguing enough and with multiple POV’s it’s nice to see different angles of the conflicts. The characters were all perfectly fine. And that’s where the problems start to show.

I feel like I got NO character depth. Nobody was truly memorable and everything was surface level. When these big things would happen I would realize that I didn’t care because there had been nothing to tether me to them. And there was no romance (which isn’t a problem, EXCEPT) for when a very out of pocket fade to black scene was thrown in as if it was checking something off of a list.

If I read the second book it would be on audio to help speed it up. I am intrigued, but eh.

Overall audience notes:

  • Fantasy
  • Language: low
  • Romance: one fade to black
  • Violence: moderate

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Book Review: The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door by H.G. Parry

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Rating: ★★★★
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Length: 464 pages
Author: H.G. Parry
Publisher: Orbit Books
Release Date: October 22nd, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

From the author of The Magician’s Daughter comes The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door, a mythic, magical tale full of secret scholarship, faerie curses, and the deadliest spells of all—the ones that friends cast on each other.

All they needed to break the world was a door, and someone to open it.

Camford, 1920. Gilded and glittering, England’s secret magical academy is no place for Clover, a commoner with neither connections nor magical blood. She tells herself she has fought her way there only to find a cure for her brother Matthew, one of the few survivors of a faerie attack on the battlefields of WWI which left the doors to faerie country sealed, the study of its magic banned, and its victims cursed.

But when Clover catches the eye of golden boy Alden Lennox-Fontaine and his friends, doors that were previously closed to her are flung wide open, and she soon finds herself enmeshed in the seductive world of the country’s magical aristocrats. The summer she spends in Alden’s orbit leaves a fateful mark: months of joyous friendship and mutual study come crashing down when experiments go awry, and old secrets are unearthed.

Years later, when the faerie seals break, Clover knows it’s because of what they did. And she knows that she must seek the help of people she once called friends—and now doesn’t quite know what to call—if there’s any hope of saving the world as they know it.

Thank you to Orbit Books for the gifted ARC.

GREAT READ.

I enjoyed this one a lot and highly recommend the audiobook format for picking it up. I loved the narrator and it had such a great story telling quality that was really engaging from the get go. I loved the plot set-up and watching the slow build of Clover’s character.

The middle did fall off a bit and things dragged around as some of the mundane life aspects were happening without the plot changing. But I liked the complicated dynamic and relationship between all of these college students and how the force of time and circumstances changed everything.

At least the ending brought things back around and I liked how it all came together. It’s a truly solid standalone that wraps up the story lines in a satisfactory way. I admittedly would have loved a little more romance or at least generation of chemistry between one pair but that’s alright.

Overall audience notes:

  • Historical Fantasy
  • Language: mild
  • Romance: one closed door
  • Violence: moderate

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ARC Book Review: The Scarlet Throne (The False Goddess #1) by Amy Leow

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Fantasy
Length: 432 pages
Author: Amy Leow
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: September 10th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

A dark, heart-thumping political epic fantasy by debut author Amy Leow—full of scheming demons, morally grey heroines, talking cats, and cut-throat priests, this delicious tale of power and corruption will captivate from beginning to end.

Binsa is a “living goddess,” chosen by the gods to dispense both mercy and punishment from her place on the Scarlet Throne. But her reign hides a deadly secret. Rather than channeling the wisdom of an immortal deity, she harbors a demon.

But now her priests are growing suspicious. When a new girl, Medha, is selected to take over her position, Binsa and her demon strike a deal: To magnify his power and help her wrest control from the priests, she will sacrifice human lives. She’ll do anything not to end up back on the streets, forgotten and alone. But how much of her humanity is she willing to trade in her quest for power? Deals with demons are rarely so simple.

Thank you Orbit for the gifted ARC.

WELL. I AM INTRIGUED.

If you’re looking for a book where the FMC truly is a villain and you don’t mind if there isn’t any romance, I definitely say give this a go. Not exactly my usual but I genuinely enjoyed this book. The writing style had this ease of reading quality that kept my attention and made this book move well.

My one little niggling thought is that I wish the FMC, Binsa, had at least one good relationship. Whether that was platonic, familial, or romantic. I felt like I was missing a strong side character. There were plenty of smaller characters but nobody that STOOD OUT.

The plot had a lot of political maneuvering and devious betrayals. This does lean towards a darker side of fantasy with some of the themes and content. I liked all of the machinations and that it didn’t feel long winded.

I am 100% curious how this will flow out through a trilogy and based off the wonderful cliffhanger ending, I am absolutely going to need some answers.

Overall audience notes:

  • Fantasy
  • Language: low
  • Romance: none
  • Violence: high
  • Content Warnings: loss of life (including young children), murder, attempted murder

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ARC Book Review: Long Live Evil (Time of Iron #1) by Sarah Rees Brennan

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Rating: ★★★
Audience: Fantasy Romance
Length: 464 pages
Author: Sarah Rees Brennan
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: August 27th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

A TALE FOR EVERYONE WHO’S EVER FALLEN FOR THE VILLAIN…

When her whole life collapsed, Rae still had books. Dying, she seizes a second chance at living: a magical bargain that lets her enter the world of her favourite fantasy series.

She wakes in a castle on the edge of a hellish chasm, in a kingdom on the brink of war. Home to dangerous monsters, scheming courtiers and her favourite fictional character: the Once and Forever Emperor. He’s impossibly alluring, as only fiction can be. And in this fantasy world, she discovers she’s not the heroine, but the villainess in the Emperor’s tale.

So be it. The wicked are better dressed, with better one-liners, even if they’re doomed to bad ends. She assembles the wildly disparate villains of the story under her evil leadership, plotting to change their fate. But as the body count rises and the Emperor’s fury increases, it seems Rae and her allies may not survive to see the final page.

This adult epic fantasy debut from Sarah Rees Brennan puts the reader in the villain’s shoes, for an adventure that is both ‘brilliant’ (Holly Black) and ‘supremely satisfying’ (Leigh Bardugo). Expect a rogue’s gallery of villains including an axe wielding maid, a shining knight with dark moods, a homicidal bodyguard, and a playboy spymaster with a golden heart and a filthy reputation.

Thank you Orbit Books for the gifted copy and LibroFM for the audiobook.

I’M STILL CONFUSED.

That is unfortunately my biggest takeaway. I am still confused by this world and some of these characters and why the heck this was 17 hrs of audio? The heavy world dumping in the beginning didn’t stick.

It’s a fun idea and the bones are definitely there. There’s noticeable pop culture references and some of the humor does it well. I just don’t think ALL of it did the intended job. It kind of felt like the TV show adaptation of My Lady Jane. Honestly, I think Long Live Evil would work best as a show. With the real world cross overs and setting this could be great for TV.

There’s some good themes on the perception of others and choosing the best option from a list of bad. I did like most of the characters and different scenes were interesting or perfectly comical.

I’m undecided on picking up book two right now. If I do I will probably do the audio again. There’s a great twister of an ending at least.

Overall audience notes:

  • Fantasy + Romance
  • Language: moderate, scattered throughout
  • Romance: kisses
  • Violence: moderate
  • Content Warnings: terminal illness (cancer, theme throughout), murder

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