4.5 star

Review: Oathbound by Tracy Deonn

Legendborn #3

Severed from the Legendborn. Oathbound to a monster.

Bree Matthews is alone. She exiled herself from the Legendborn Order, cut her ancestral connections, and turned away from the friends who can’t understand the impossible cost of her powers. This is the only way to keep herself—and those she loves—safe.

But Bree’s decision has come with a terrible price: an unbreakable bargain with the Shadow King himself, a shapeshifter who can move between humanity, the demon underworld, and the Legendborn secret society. In exchange for training to wield her unprecedented abilities, Bree has put her future in the Shadow King’s hands—and unwittingly bound herself to do his bidding as his new protégé.

Meanwhile, the other Scions must face war with their Round Table fractured, leaderless, and missing its Kingsmage, as Selwyn has also disappeared. When Nick is detained by the Order’s Merlins, he invokes an ancient law that requires the High Council of Regents to convene at the Northern Keep and grant him an audience. No one knows what he will demand of them…or what secrets he has kept hidden from the Table.

As a string of mysterious kidnappings escalates and Merlins are found dead, it becomes clear that no matter how hard Bree runs from who she is, the past will always find her.



I have been long awaiting the end of the trilogy, but guess what? There’s a fourth book coming. Nevertheless, although of course this book ends on a sort-of cliffhanger, in a way it does have a sense of finality to it as well. Many loose ends are tied up and I think it’s in preparation for the finale that will be the fourth book (we’ll see about “finale”).

It was such a long wait though, that I honestly had to Google so many things to catch up on memories I myself had forgotten. However, due to the fandom, there was enough information out there to catch me up without having to resort to re-reading the first two books, though I may want to do that sometime regardless. This was a good third book though, and judging from the review of my second book, I enjoyed this one more.

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4.5 star

ARC Review: A Forgery of Fate by Elizabeth Lim

A breathtaking romantic fantasy inspired by Beauty and the Beast about a girl who paints the future and a cursed dragon lord, bound by love and deception in a plot to bring down the gods.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Six Crimson Cranes!

Truyan Saigas didn’t choose to become a con artist, but after her father is lost at sea, it’s up to her to support her mother and two younger sisters. A gifted art forger, Tru has the unique ability to paint the future, but even such magic is not enough to put her family back together again, or stave off the gangsters demanding payment in blood for her mother’s gambling debts.

Left with few options, Tru agrees to a marriage contract with a mysterious dragon lord. He offers a fresh start for her mother and sisters and elusive answers about her father’s disappearance, but in exchange, she must join him in his desolate undersea palace. And she must assist him in a plot to infiltrate the tyrannical Dragon King’s inner circle, painting a future so treasonous, it could upend both the mortal and immortal realms. . . .



**A Forgery of Fate comes out June 3, 2025**

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

I haven’t read Six Crimson Cranes, but reading this synopsis, I knew I had to read this. I love any myth retelling, and fairytale retellings are a close second. Retellings are always a great chance to show off an author’s creativity, since the original story (or stories) have some level of restrictions before it’s not even close to the same story anymore. I have always enjoyed the same story from a different perspective, or a “side story” that is fully explored. I really enjoy the elements that the authors put in that makes you immediately think of the original story, and I definitely chase that feeling in these kinds of books.

And this book does not fail to deliver. Advertised as a Beauty and the Beast retelling, the author also puts in that there are many other elements of other stories that she weaves in, and I completely believe it. Every aspect of this story feels like a myth or a story from somewhere, and I really enjoyed that whimsical feeling. The protagonist was also a strong lead, and it didn’t feel like she was left to the whims of the story, but that rather she drove her own story—something you don’t find in most fairytales.

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4.5 star

Review: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capital, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to outcharm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute.

The odds are against him. He’s been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined — every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute… and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.



While I did enjoy the original Hunger Games series, I was never that into it. I probably missed the hype by a bit, or perhaps by the age I was reading it, I was already in a different stage of life to really get into it. However, a friend did suggest to me that this prequel was very good, and I can safely say that I agree. I really enjoy learning backstory, and I think this book also read a bit like a thriller, which really worked for me.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which is quite a long title, although apt, revolves around the backstory of Coriolanus Snow, who will later become the president in the original series of The Hunger Games. This story follows the 10th ever Hunger Games, and Coriolanus’s involvement as a student of the academy in the Capitol. Suffering from the war that birthed the games in the first place, the Snow family has lost their family fortune, and Coriolanus is determined to keep up appearances while he devises a way to win it all back.

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