The kingdom of Farsala is broken and black clouds hang heavy over the arid lands. Former grand-mage of the high court, Cyril Laverre, has spent the last decade hiding himself away in a ramshackle hut by the sea, trying to catch any remaining fish for his cat familiar, Shoestring, and suppressing his guilt over the kingdom’s ruin. For he played his part – for as the king, Eufrates Margrave, descended further and further into paranoia, violence and madness, his grand-mage – and husband – Cyril didn’t do a thing to stop him.
When Shoestring wanders away and dies one morning, Cyril knows his days are finally numbered. But are there enough left to have a last go at putting things right? With his remaining lifeblood, he casts a powerful spell that catapults him back in time to a happier period of Farsalan history – a time when it was Eufrates’s older sister Tig destined to ascend to the throne, before she died of a wasting disease, and a time when Cyril and Eufrates’s tentative romance had not yet bloomed. If he can just make sure Eufie never becomes king, then maybe he can prevent the kingdom’s tragic fate. But the magical oath he made to his husband at the altar, transcending both time and space, may prove to be his most enduring – and most dangerous – feat of magic to date…
I don't have much to say. It was ok, but it didn't grab my attention. I got invested mid book, but by the time it reached the last 30% I didn't really care what happened :(
As a general’s daughter in a vast empire that revels in war and enslaves those it conquers, seventeen-year-old Kestrel has two choices: she can join the military or get married. But Kestrel has other intentions.
One day, she is startled to find a kindred spirit in a young slave up for auction. Arin’s eyes seem to defy everything and everyone. Following her instinct, Kestrel buys him—with unexpected consequences. It’s not long before she has to hide her growing love for Arin.
But he, too, has a secret, and Kestrel quickly learns that the price she paid for a fellow human is much higher than she ever could have imagined.
Meeehhh.
I didn't dislike it, but considering the premise, and how it could have played, it was disappointing. Also, I spent half of the book thinking what are you doing??!??!!! I read someone saying that the characters were out of character, and I think that sums it up.
But, it picked my interest enough that I'll give a chance to the 2nd book
The Winner's Crime by Marie Rutkoski
The engagement of Lady Kestrel to Valoria’s crown prince means one celebration after another. But to Kestrel it means living in a cage of her own making. As the wedding approaches, she aches to tell Arin the truth about her engagement… if she could only trust him. Yet can she even trust herself? For—unknown to Arin—Kestrel is becoming a skilled practitioner of deceit: an anonymous spy passing information to Herran, and close to uncovering a shocking secret.
As Arin enlists dangerous allies in the struggle to keep his country’s freedom, he can’t fight the suspicion that Kestrel knows more than she shows. In the end, it might not be a dagger in the dark that cuts him open, but the truth. And when that happens, Kestrel and Arin learn just how much their crimes will cost them.
Ohhh I liked this one way more!!! Political intrigue in the heart of the empire, and the world gets bigger and we see more of this world. And I understood better the characters and their motivations, I'm honestly excited to start reading the next one
The Winner's Kiss by Marie Rutkoski
War has begun. Arin is in the thick of it with untrustworthy new allies and the empire as his enemy. Though he has convinced himself that he no longer loves Kestrel, Arin hasn't forgotten her, or how she became exactly the kind of person he has always despised. She cared more for the empire than she did for the lives of innocent people--and certainly more than she did for him.
At least, that's what he thinks.
In the frozen north, Kestrel is a prisoner in a brutal work camp. As she searches desperately for a way to escape, she wishes Arin could know what she sacrificed for him. She wishes she could make the empire pay for what they've done to her.
But no one gets what they want just by wishing.
As the war intensifies, both Kestrel and Arin discover that the world is changing. The East is pitted against the West, and they are caught in between. With so much to lose, can anybody really win?
I don't know what to think of this one, I liked it more than the first, but less than the second one, maybe because the 2nd one surprised me, I had higher expectations for this one. Tbh I think it may me a me issue, I think I would have enjoyed more if I could've read it at a better pace. Also, the more I read the less I was invested in their relationship?? I liked the characters, tho.
Overall the series is ok, I just think I would have enjoyed it more if I had read it a different time.
I haven't shown this! I've been making sketchbooks!!
I had a lot of paper laying around (from uni time) and I wasn't using it, so this was perfect.
I've been trying to make different sketchbooks than what I'd find at the store. I looove the idea of a double sketchbook, next time I could use different papers, for dry and wet techniques.
There are mistakes here but we're learning for them!!
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.
It took me way too long to finish this one 💀
I rewatched LoTR, and I looooove these movies, so I thought hey, let's re-read the books! But since I'm a completionist I thought I should (re)read The Hobbit first
I read LoTR like 25 years ago, I don't remember much, but I remember really enjoying them
I read The Hobbit like 15 years ago, I don't remember anything about it, now I know why💀
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This Fatal Kiss by Alicia Jasinska
Cursed to haunt the river running through the magical spa town where she drowned, Gisela is a water nymph who dreams of returning to the living world and the family she left behind. All it takes to regain her humanity is a kiss from a mortal...but everyone sees her as a monster.
And then there’s Kazik, the brooding, interfering, spirit-hunting grandson of a local witch. He's determined to rid the world of unholy creatures like Gisela. After Kazik botches Gisela’s exorcism, she strikes up a deal. She won’t tell the other spirits that he’s losing his magic, if he agrees to play matchmaker and helps her get a kiss. But Gisela’s plan goes awry when Kazik also falls for the devilishly handsome young man that she sets her heart on—someone who could be linked to Gisela’s troubled past.
This was a nice surprise. I didn't realize it was marked as teen until I had the books in my hands, so I was ready to be disappointed. It was really cute and honestly I can't wait for the next book uwu
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To Clutch a Razor by Veronica Roth
A funeral. A heist. A desperate mission.
When Dymitr is called back to the old country for the empty night, a funeral rite intended to keep evil at bay, it's the perfect opportunity for him to get his hands on his family's most guarded relic—a book of curses that could satisfy the debt he owes legendary witch Baba Jaga. But first he'll have to survive a night with his dangerous, monster-hunting kin.
I was so ready for this one!!!!!!! and it delivered ♥
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty
A pirate of infamy and one of the most storied and scandalous captains to sail the seven seas.
Amina al-Sirafi has survived backstabbing rogues, vengeful merchant princes, several husbands, and one actual demon to retire peacefully with her family to a life of piety, motherhood, and absolutely nothing that hints of the supernatural.
But when she’s offered a job no bandit could refuse, she jumps at the chance for one final adventure with her old crew that will make her a legend and offers a fortune that will secure her and her family’s future forever.
Yet the deeper Amina dives the higher the stakes. For there’s always risk in wanting to become a legend, to seize one last chance at glory, to savour just a bit more power…and the price might be your very soul.
I wanted to like it, but I didn't care enough about any of the characters to be invested in the story :/ I also have mixed feelings with he writing style, overall I liked it but sometimes things were written in a way that took me out of the story.
I try to go to new books without expectations, but I had seen this one so, so recommended, by different people, in different circles, I guess I had some expectations about the book and then it didn't meet them :(
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.
Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.
All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.
His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.
And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone.
Or does he?
Yesssssss this is what reading should feel like, I was so hooked from page one I was constantly waiting for the moment I could go back to reading.
The day of romance, passion, and devotion is the best way to describe Marco and Ace’s fiery love! Celebrate them together with us in this swoon sweeping zine.
gracieabrams
theartofmadeline
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