Category: YA

YA

Review: Deception by C.J. Redwine

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: Defiance #2

deception -cj redwineBaalboden has been ravaged. The brutal Commander’s whereabouts are unknown. And Rachel, grief stricken over her father’s death, needs Logan more than ever. With their ragged group of survivors struggling to forge a future, it’s up to Logan to become the leader they need—with Rachel by his side. Under constant threat from rival Carrington’s army, who is after the device that controls the Cursed One, the group decides to abandon the ruins of their home and take their chances in the Wasteland.

But soon their problems intensify tenfold: someone—possibly inside their ranks—is sabotaging the survivors, picking them off one by one. The chaos and uncertainty of each day puts unbearable strain on Rachel and Logan, and it isn’t long before they feel their love splintering. Even worse, as it becomes clear that the Commander will stop at nothing to destroy them, the band of survivors begins to question whether the price of freedom may be too great—and whether, hunted by their enemies and the murderous traitor in their midst, they can make it out of the Wasteland alive.

In this daring sequel to Defiance, with the world they once loved forever destroyed, Rachel and Logan must decide between a life on the run and standing their ground to fight.

 

2.5 Drink Me Potions

If I could summarize Deception in one word, it’d definitely be angsty. Chalked full of Rachel’s spiraling darkness as she succumbs to the silence inside of her. Now normally I don’t mind a story focused on getting through the dark times in order to become a stronger person. But I swear every time it’s her POV, it’s just so annoying . It doesn’t stop!

The story is a fairly simplistic one. Maybe too simplistic, actually. It starts right where we left off in Defiance. For the most part, the plot’s all about travelling through the Wastelands to another city-state after the destruction of their home, Baalboden. The only excitement from the endless walking, people complaining and Rachel’s endless thirst for revenge stems from the mysterious entity that’s testing Logan and hurting his people as they travel. I’m always in for a good mystery element in a story, and I think this was the only thing that saved Deception from completely dying in my eyes.

Anyway, Rachel was cutting herself off from anyone, especially Logan, as her need for vengeance against the Commander continues to grow. But her inner monologue doesn’t really suck because of this one thing. Oh no, it’s also due to her own self hatred. How could she have done such a horrible thing at the end of Defiance? How can she live with her actions and seeing the consequences of it? How can she continue on feeling anything after losing her father and Oliver? It didn’t matter that Logan was hurting from what happened as well. She wanted to cut herself off from everything, including him.

Half the time while I was reading, I wanted to just knock some sense into her head. Maybe denying herself from the horrible feelings welling up inside her was a temporary relief, but it was making her very unstable. And frankly, a not-so-nice person to follow around in her head. I’m not sure how Logan could even stand the way she was.

Though I suppose he did have bigger problems to deal with…

Logan continues to become a better protagonist in my opinion. I love his POV, and not just because they seem so much better in comparison to Rachel’s. He’s such a strong character, even before all the events of the previous book occurred. His background story was never pleasant but seeing him taking responsibility for so many people way older than him – he’s only 19 after all – and doing his very best to become the leader he never expected to be was amazing. I loved the gradual change and growth in him through all the craziness that occurred from the mysterious enemy tracking them. Which by the way, its identity completely took me off guard even though in hindsight it also made 100% sense.

Without giving away too much, the last bit of the story really picks up for the finale of the series. Meeting new characters and a surprising twist, I will at least say that Deception does know how to end well. If only the rest of the story could have matched this faster pacing and plot development.

Or cut out most of Rachel’s parts of the story.

Overall Recommendation:
C.J. Redwine’s Deception falls flat from expectations. And I can completely pinpoint its failings on Rachel. Her constant ramblings about revenge and the way she cut herself off from ALL feelings made her overall struggle to regain her humanity a very hard thing swallow as a whole without getting completely exasperated. That was already really bad, but the plot was a little too slow, stuck on their journey across the Wastelands. The one thing I enjoyed was the element of surprise as some mysterious enemy was methodically killing off Logan’s people as they travelled. Overall, it suffered greatly from Middle Book Syndrome, but the ending was worth it, wracking up suspense for the conclusion of the series.

YA

Review: The Impostor Queen by Sarah Fine

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: The Impostor Queen #1

the impostor queen -sarah fineSixteen-year-old Elli was only a child when the Elders of Kupari chose her to succeed the Valtia, the queen who wields infinitely powerful ice and fire magic in service of her people. The only life Elli has known has been in the temple, surrounded by luxury, tutored by magic-wielding priests, preparing for the day when the queen perishes—and the ice and fire find a new home in Elli, who is prophesied to be the most powerful Valtia to ever rule.

But when the queen dies defending the kingdom from invading warriors, the magic doesn’t enter Elli. It’s nowhere to be found.

Disgraced, Elli flees to the outlands, home of banished criminals—some who would love to see the temple burn with all its priests inside. As she finds her footing in this new world, Elli uncovers devastating new information about the Kupari magic, those who wield it, and the prophecy that foretold her destiny. Torn between her love for her people and her growing loyalty to the banished, Elli struggles to understand the true role she was meant to play. But as war looms, she must choose the right side before the kingdom and its magic are completely destroyed.

3 Drink Me Potions

“Our lives aren’t ours, darling. We are only the caretakers of this magic. They call us queens, but what we really are is servants.”


The Impostor Queen was surprisingly borderline entertaining to me. I had higher hopes for it, but I shall do my best to break down what I enjoyed and what potentially gave me pause.

The world building was uniquely done, albeit a bit vague in certain areas.What? you may ask. I’ll clarify what I mean in a second.

The Kupari people have a queen – known as the Valtia – that has an unequaled power in all the realm. It’s made of a balance of both fire and ice magic. When she dies, this strong magic doesn’t fade from existence with her. Oh no, it transfers to another girl, thus making her the next Valtia.

The whole idea of the Valtia and the way fire and ice magic exists in varying quantities (whether balanced or not) among the peoples was very interesting. Different and, at least to my knowledge of books, not very overdone in the YA genre. Fine does a great job of going into detail about fire wielders and ice wielders, and what happens when they are unbalanced with a whole lot more of one type of magic.

But here’s where the vague part comes in. The magic element is ALL that Fine focuses on. Yes, it takes up a huge part of the plot and it makes sense to explore this part of her world, but whenever there’s a pretty map drawn out of the world with other places marked on it, well it’s just natural to want to hear about those others places too, right? But oh no, none of those places were really mentioned beyond in passing. And nearer to the end, there are certain questions brought to light about magic that just fizzled into nothing before answering them. I’m not sure if they’re planned to be answered in the sequel, but since I don’t feel very strongly for this novel, I’m not too picky about it.

I think you can already tell that this review’s starting to take a bit more of a sour note. I will start with the characters.

Elli, the protagonist, initially frustrated me to no end. She was naive, spoiled and sheltered. Her curiosity about magic and her future role as the Valtia was understandable, but something about her just grated on my nerves. I’m glad she grows as the story progresses. As she learns to fend for herself for the first time in her life outside of the temple, I rejoiced with her in her tiny victories. And I do mean tiny victories. From learning to wear a dress to grating corn to sewing worn through clothes, she bore each new task with a tired but triumphant smile. This was the kinda girl I could stand behind.

Then there was the love interest. Fine downplays it a lot, and never once does she ever voices it out for what it is, but Elli’s first love was her handmaiden, Mim. I’ve never read a book with a bisexual main character so it was a different experience. Fine doesn’t let it define Elli, for which I’m glad. She’s more than who she may be attracted to. Anyway, Mim’s not even the real love interest anyway.

Enter Oskar. Oh, Oskar. He barreled into the book right where I was starting to get exhausted with the slow pacing of it all. Talk about perfect timing. He’s similar to a lot of male leads of fantasy stories such as this. He’s brave, strong but honorable. So of course I really liked him, maybe even more so than Elli.

Their romance wasn’t fast, yet it was also rather slow. I don’t necessarily enjoy insta-love attraction, but this slow burn was a little TOO slow. Like it took forever to boil over and be ready. I almost couldn’t comprehend their passion for each other near the end since I hardly FELT the heat between them. Sure, there can be compassion but that’s a different thing. Over time they started trusting each other with their secrets. But the depths of their “love” didn’t quite hit me.

Don’t get me wrong. I still liked Oskar and Elli together. I think they truly do balance each other out (haha, that’s a reference joke), but a romance is always more enjoyable when I feel the intensity of it like it’s pressing into my own heart.

Oskar was also more than just the “love interest”. He’s cooler than that. He’s also special in his own way – of which I can’t tell you without ruining some things. And he’s not the only one. As these special characters’ lives collide together due to the events happening, things get slightly more exciting knowing that their destinies were fated in the stars long before they were anything more than dust and ash. If this gets your heart racing at the sound of it…..well, I hate to ruin your excitement, but it takes a while to get to this point in the book.

As I mentioned quickly in the above, the pacing was slooooowwwww. The first several chapters are pretty much expected due to the synopsis. On one hand, this made the world building a little more easily understood as it gave it time to explain itself a bit more, but it could also bore you out before you even got to the good parts.

The plot is only saved when things really start packing heat (and ice!) right near the climax of the story. Unfortunately, that means the story ends with not-quite a cliffhanger, but many questions and major plotlines still left hanging unresolved. It’s good there’s gonna be a sequel, but I’m not sure how I feel that Elli and Oskar aren’t going to be playing major roles. All in all, The Impostor Queen wasn’t as great as my initial expectations had elevated it, but its unique premise makes up a bit for it.

Overall Recommendation:
The Impostor Queen packed a punch with its world of fire and ice magic, and those that are fated to wield such power. Elli was set to inherit the strongest of such power, but when things somehow go awry, she had to learn to deal with a world that literally just turned upside down on her. I initially disliked her a bit, but her growth in self confidence and power in her own way redeemed her in my eyes. With a male lead and love interest that’s equally (if not more) interesting to see grow and develop, I think these characters help make up for the slow pacing. Great powers are rising as this world created by Fine comes to the brink of war. There’s a lot of potential for greatness. This grain of greatness starts here in The Impostor Queen and hopefully it’ll bloom into something more breathtaking in the next one. If you can keep this bigger picture in mind, I think it’ll make the reading of it go by faster

YA

Review: This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: Monsters of Verity #1

this savage song -victoria schwabThere’s no such thing as safe in a city at war, a city overrun with monsters.

In this dark urban fantasy from author Victoria Schwab, a young woman and a young man must choose whether to become heroes or villains—and friends or enemies—with the future of their home at stake.

Kate Harker and August Flynn are the heirs to a divided city—a city where the violence has begun to breed actual monsters. All Kate wants is to be as ruthless as her father, who lets the monsters roam free and makes the humans pay for his protection. All August wants is to be human, as good-hearted as his own father, to play a bigger role in protecting the innocent—but he’s one of the monsters. One who can steal a soul with a simple strain of music. When the chance arises to keep an eye on Kate, who’s just been kicked out of her sixth boarding school and returned home, August jumps at it. But Kate discovers August’s secret, and after a failed assassination attempt the pair must flee for their lives.

5 Drink Me Potions

Thank you Edelweiss and HarperCollins for this copy in exchange for an honest review

**This Savage Song came out June 7, 2016**

Monsters, Monsters, big and small,
They’re gonna come and eat you all.
Corsai, Corsai, tooth and claw,
Shadow and bone will eat you raw.
Malchai, Malchai, sharp and sly,
Smile and bite and drink you dry.
Sunai, Sunai, eyes like coal,
Sing you a song and steal your soul.


This Savage Song held high reviews from other early readers but the hype is really worth it. This novel was astounding. And I don’t say that lightly about most books.

Set in a world ravaged by crime and separated into little territories after decades of fights, this violent world has brought to life an evil that now breathes and destroys whatever is in its path. Monsters. Made of shadows and past crimes committed by humans, they’ve taken a form of their own. Or 3 forms, in fact. Corsai, Malchai and Sunai.

At first, the world and how it functioned was a little confusing, especially about the monsters and how they were created. But Schwab’s writing draws you in, wrapping you in this world that’s terrorized by creatures literally made of shadows and sins. Once you get past initial confusion, the details slowly fall into place and this world will amaze you at its simplicity – it’s like you know it so well by the end of it that you feel you lived there with them – and its imaginative detailing. Verity, or V-City, is one scary place to be in. And it’s been divided into 2.

Kate is the daughter of the man controlling the northern part of the city. I initially despised her. She’s human, yet she acts like a monster. She intentionally is cruel to others, willing to do whatever it took to please her very distant father and be worthy of their name. But over time with the horrid events thrown into her path in this book, she learns that there’s always a choice to be made, and maybe, just maybe, being her father’s daughter isn’t the most important thing to be in her life.

August works for the man who’s in charge of the southern half of the city, along with his brother and sister. They consider themselves one family, no matter if they’re not blood related. Because August is a monster. At first, I wasn’t even certain that he truly was. He’s gentle and hates what he is. It’s one huge part of his half of the story. Abhorring who he was, the very fabric of what keeps him alive, but he can only act human to a certain extent. His inner struggles were some of my favourite parts of This Savage Song. They were detailed and tug on your heartstrings for this poor boy who wished to be other than what he was.

 

It was a cruel trick of the universe, thought August, that he felt human only after doing something monstrous. Which made him wonder if that brief glimpse of humanity was really just an illusion, an echo of the life he’d taken. An imposter sensation.
Leo’s voice came to him, simple and steady. This is what you do. What you are.
Ilsa’s rose to meet it. Find the good in it.


I loved how much he developed as a character. Sometimes the decisions he made were necessary ones, and this story was so good at being unbiased about the white and the black, the light and the dark. Sometimes, there are just gray areas. Sometimes, you are just made of both light and darkness.

This Savage Song also didn’t have a huge array of characters. In fact, although there are a number of minor characters and a few more important supporting figures, this book really does only centre on Kate and August. And I’m perfectly fine with that.

Their relationship was initially brought about intrigue. Like the two of them could understand each other, no matter how different they were. Maybe it’s because they both understood what the world truly was like that they lived in. They weren’t pretending that everything was okay, that monsters didn’t just walk among them. But they also weren’t just cowering in fear until the day they died. They both wanted to live. No matter what living really meant in a world like theirs.

 

Whatever he as made of – stardust or ash or life or death – would be gone.
Not with a bang, but with a whimper.
In with gunfire and out with smoke.
And August wasn’t ready to die.
Even if surviving wasn’t simple, or easy, or fair.
Even if he could never be human.
He wanted the chance to matter.
He wanted to LIVE.


With prose like this and more, it’s easy to see why I absolutely adored Schwab’s writing. The descriptions aren’t long and tedious, but it gets you thinking and exploring what’s on the minds of both Kate and August. It’s not all clouds and rainbows, if any. They understand the harshness of life.

As their relationship progressed, you may think “hey, maybe a beautiful forbidden romance would bloom between them”. Well, guess again.

Their relationship maintains platonic throughout and although I’m normally a huge lover of a cute romance between protagonists, this just felt right. A romance didn’t fit in with everything else that was going on here. It would’ve taken away from the development of their individual characters with the problems they were dealing with. They needed to do it on their own without being clouded by the other’s opinions if they were thinking of each other in that way. Maybe in the sequel it might take a different stance, but here, this was perfect. A friendship that depended on one another, a trust that was built on danger but tested and solidified through the fire. I adored them both equally, but I also loved them together the way they were.

 

….a single shadow screamed and toppled forward from the mass, white eyes winking out, teeth raining down on the damp floor like loose stones.
“Any time now,” snapped Kate as the Corsai rattled and hissed.
“Can’t rush art,” said August as he rested the bow on the strings.

At moments, their interactions and banter were even a little comical (in the dry sense, of course) to take off some of the tension building.

 

“Listen to me,” he said, pulling off his coat. “You need to stay awake.”
She almost laughed, a shallow chuckle cut short by pain.
He tore the lining from the jacket. “What’s so funny?”
“You’re a really shitty monster, August Flynn.”


At the end of the day, This Savage Song explored what it meant to accept what you are but to also understand that you decide what you do with that. Your decisions are what warrant you a monster, whether you were born human or a monster. Victoria Schwab goes through this all by immersing you into the heart and minds of August and Kate, two people who became so real to me that I was sad to see their story ending for the moment. Until the sequel, then.

I shall end off this long review with another beautiful moment between Kate and August. Maybe you can start to see how I fell so in love with them both. Their ability to continue on even when it’s just so much easier to give up all hope.

 

The sky was on fire. He wondered if Ilsa had ever seen stars, which were so strange and perfect. One streaked across the sky, trailing light.
“I read somewhere,” said Kate, “that people are made of stardust.”
He dragged his eyes from the sky. “Really?”
“Maybe that’s what you’re made of. Just like us.”
And despite everything, August smiled.


Overall Recommendation:
There is so much that I can say about Victoria Schwab’s This Savage Song but I’ll simply just say this. It’s a beautiful story depicting two teenagers who learn that there’s more to light and darkness than just what you’re born as or whose family you belong to. Finding hope in a violently torn apart world like theirs, Kate and August both grow in ways that make you hold your breath and silently root for them as they navigate decisions that are hard to make. I absolutely adored them both, and the mental journey they each took to the place they’ve reached at the end of the book. This goes to show that the YA genre doesn’t require a romance as a driving force for a good story. Their platonic friendship was beautiful in its own way and I cannot wait to see what else comes their way in the sequel. With plenty of action, imaginative creatures made of darkness and a world that sucks you in along with two very strong protagonists leading the way, this is one book you most definitely have to read.

*Note: All quotes taken from the ARC are subject to change