Tag: fantasy

2 star, NA

Review: Kingdom of Flesh and Fire by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: Blood and Ash #2

A Betrayal…

Everything Poppy has ever believed in is a lie, including the man she was falling in love with. Thrust among those who see her as a symbol of a monstrous kingdom, she barely knows who she is without the veil of the Maiden. But what she does know is that nothing is as dangerous to her as him. The Dark One. The Prince of Atlantia. He wants her to fight him, and that’s one order she’s more than happy to obey. He may have taken her, but he will never have her.

A Choice…

Casteel Da’Neer is known by many names and many faces. His lies are as seductive as his touch. His truths as sensual as his bite. Poppy knows better than to trust him. He needs her alive, healthy, and whole to achieve his goals. But he’s the only way for her to get what she wants—to find her brother Ian and see for herself if he has become a soulless Ascended. Working with Casteel instead of against him presents its own risks. He still tempts her with every breath, offering up all she’s ever wanted. Casteel has plans for her. Ones that could expose her to unimaginable pleasure and unfathomable pain. Plans that will force her to look beyond everything she thought she knew about herself—about him. Plans that could bind their lives together in unexpected ways that neither kingdom is prepared for. And she’s far too reckless, too hungry, to resist the temptation.

A Secret…

But unrest has grown in Atlantia as they await the return of their Prince. Whispers of war have become stronger, and Poppy is at the very heart of it all. The King wants to use her to send a message. The Descenters want her dead. The wolven are growing more unpredictable. And as her abilities to feel pain and emotion begin to grow and strengthen, the Atlantians start to fear her. Dark secrets are at play, ones steeped in the blood-drenched sins of two kingdoms that would do anything to keep the truth hidden. But when the earth begins to shake, and the skies start to bleed, it may already be too late.

I don’t understand why everyone loves this series, but Kingdom of Flesh and Fire was even harder to get through than its predecessor.

For such a long book, it’s entirely focused on Poppy’s feelings for Hawke, aka The Dark One aka Casteel, the enemy she was told about all her sheltered life. I get it, she’s been betrayed and she’s literally given him everything about herself. Of course there’s ramifications to deal with in the aftermath of what happened. BUT, this book spends TOO much time on this compared to growing the new lore of the Atlantians.

I have nothing against romance but this long book can be summarized with travel from Poppy’s home in Masadonia out east wherever the Atlantians are taking her, and her conflicting feelings for Casteel. Travel + romantic angst for 500+ pages is NOT a fantasy book. I don’t mind either, but it just was not interesting!

There were little tidbits signalling more about Poppy’s “Chosen One” status. While I don’t usually have a big problem with this trope, it’s just emphasized so much how she’s this precious gem that both sides of the conflict want that it starts getting tiresome. Why is she so important? We don’t get any answers here, and only until the very end of the book does it get interesting with this element of the story.

I’m keeping this review short because I honestly don’t have much more to say. It felt like a filler story wherein Poppy and Casteel deal with their “feelings” and Casteel’s people do not like her because they didn’t expect these feelings to be real. Poppy develops more powers – because of course a Chosen One has to be powerful in ways that is like no other – and we don’t get any answers so hold onto your hats for book 3! Just…I’m tired, friends. Yet I will probably still read the next one just to finally get some answers for my own morbid curiosity.

Overall Recommendation:

Apparently I’m a sucker for punishment because Kingdom of Flesh and Fire was barely a fantasy story with hardly much action or lore being added in a valuable manner. It could’ve been way shorter for the amount of non-action happening. The focus is on the romantic angst and conflict between Poppy and her dark prince, Casteel. If that’s what you’re looking for, then by all means, go ahead. Otherwise, this completely suffers from Middle Book Syndrome and I would recommend almost skipping most of it until the last 10 chapters or so before it actually gets somewhere. Will I be present for book 3? Didn’t I mention I’m a sucker for punishment already?

4 star, YA

ARC Review: Anatomy: A Love Story by Dana Schwartz

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

A gothic tale full of mystery and romance about a willful female surgeon, a resurrection man who sells bodies for a living, and the buried secrets they must uncover together.

Edinburgh, 1817. 

Hazel Sinnett is a lady who wants to be a surgeon more than she wants to marry. 

Jack Currer is a resurrection man who’s just trying to survive in a city where it’s too easy to die. 

When the two of them have a chance encounter outside the Edinburgh Anatomist’s Society, Hazel thinks nothing of it at first. But after she gets kicked out of renowned surgeon Dr. Beecham’s lectures for being the wrong gender, she realizes that her new acquaintance might be more helpful than she first thought. Because Hazel has made a deal with Dr. Beecham: if she can pass the medical examination on her own, the university will allow her to enroll. Without official lessons, though, Hazel will need more than just her books – she’ll need bodies to study, corpses to dissect. 

Lucky that she’s made the acquaintance of someone who digs them up for a living, then. 

But Jack has his own problems: strange men have been seen skulking around cemeteries, his friends are disappearing off the streets. Hazel and Jack work together to uncover the secrets buried not just in unmarked graves, but in the very heart of Edinburgh society.

**Anatomy: A Love Story comes out January 18, 2022**

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for this copy in exchange for an honest review

I will be upfront and acknowledge that this book may not be for absolutely everyone, and I will break down why it worked for me.

In the vein of Lydia Kang’s historical novels on medicine (see Quackery), Anatomy: A Love Story is very much, well, on anatomy and surgeries. But unlike what we may think of as modern day surgeries, the early 1800s was a scary place if you needed to be operated on. Think dirty conditions, hospitals packed for the poor while the rich had doctors come to their own homes, and operations conducted with no anesthesia.

In such a time like this, we meet our protagonist Hazel. I absolutely adored her! She had a lifelong passion to be a surgeon, which was an inconceivable notion for a woman, let alone a lady of her status. Surgeons were also considered a lesser profession than physicians because they cut into bodies, something a *gasp* woman could never do with her sensitivities (insert heavy sarcasm). Nonetheless, she fought every obstacle in her way and this is what was the heart of this story. If this excites you, then congratulations, this book will make your heart leap for joy at her successes and rave at everyone when those obstacles grew so large.

This is a story about defying the boundaries and expectations placed on you in order to achieve what you’re meant to do. It reminded me a lot on the fight for woman’s rights (such as found in A Mad, Wicked Folly) and I wanted to fight with Hazel so much as a woman in science myself.

Now, there are two other elements in this story that were just as lovely but were not as represented as one may have initially expected from the synopsis.

Meeting Jack and partnering with him comes a little later in the book, probably closer to the halfway point. We do get POVs from Jack prior to this decision, and Jack and Hazel do also meet at some point before as well, but this doesn’t develop for a while. There was a lot of foundational set up of the time and Hazel’s desperation to become a licensed surgeon.

But once we do have this potential relationship going, it was just all hearts from there! Jack is such a gem, and it helped that we got to know him outside of his interactions with Hazel at first. He’s had a rough life on the poorer outskirts of society, but he’s worked hard to care for himself. Although he and Hazel could not be more different in many ways, their love story filled my heart and I just yearned for the very best for them. I will admit that I wanted MORE of this precious relationship on the pages, but I can understand why it wasn’t necessarily the focus.

There is also the mysterious element regarding disappearing people. This was a little predictable to me – perhaps I read too many thrillers and mysteries – but it connected with the overall story well and didn’t feel like a throwaway.

It is by far the least of these 3 focal points of the book so please don’t come in thinking it plays in a super major way. It’s present and definitely comes to the forefront at some point, but this isn’t a mystery book. I will say I enjoyed its connection to the story but it’s not suspenseful or particularly thrilling to my standards.

So if you have a love of science (even in a minuscule way) and stories about overcoming all the obstacles to achieve your goals, this is the book for you. The romance was beautiful and the story flowed together, albeit less focused on these areas.

I got to the end and my heart needed a moment to stop and take a deep breath. I was so immersed in the story and just wished I had more. I thought the ending was beautifully written with the right amount of open-endedness for interpretation.

Overall Recommendation:

Anatomy: A Love Story delivered well on its central theme of overcoming obstacles to do what you love. Hazel was the perfect protagonist in this situation, a young lady who wanted to be a surgeon in a purely male-dominated field. It really immersed us into early 1800 Edinburgh as she fought so many obstacles in her way to pursue her dream and passion. The romance with Jack, a resurrection man aka a grave digger, happened later in the book but their partnership was just the cutest and most wholesome thing ever! There was also a mystery in play but these elements were not the focal points, although they were all connected well with the main part of the story. This may not be for everyone, especially if you thought it was purely a great romance novel, but I personally loved the historical science of it. Dana Schwartz is definitely being added to my list of writers to look out for.

4 star, YA

Review: These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: These Violent Delights #1

The year is 1926, and Shanghai hums to the tune of debauchery.

A blood feud between two gangs runs the streets red, leaving the city helpless in the grip of chaos. At the heart of it all is eighteen-year-old Juliette Cai, a former flapper who has returned to assume her role as the proud heir of the Scarlet Gang—a network of criminals far above the law. Their only rivals in power are the White Flowers, who have fought the Scarlets for generations. And behind every move is their heir, Roma Montagov, Juliette’s first love…and first betrayal.

But when gangsters on both sides show signs of instability culminating in clawing their own throats out, the people start to whisper. Of a contagion, a madness. Of a monster in the shadows. As the deaths stack up, Juliette and Roma must set their guns—and grudges—aside and work together, for if they can’t stop this mayhem, then there will be no city left for either to rule.

Perfect for fans of The Last Magician and Descendant of the Crane, this heart-stopping debut is an imaginative Romeo and Juliet retelling set in 1920s Shanghai, with rival gangs and a monster in the depths of the Huangpu River.

I had the distinct pleasure of doing a buddy read with my friend Kaya @ A Fictional Bookworm. This was a great read for discussion, wild theories and maybe a teensy bit of fangirling over certain characters.

Lush, atmospheric and almost lyrical in its prose, it’s no wonder Chloe Gong’s debut deservedly topped the bestselling charts. Set in 1920s Shanghai, I felt like I was transported to this gorgeous locale as the city was on the brink of political upheaval and foreigner influence.

Amidst all of this is a blood feud between two major gangs ruling half of the city each: the Chinese Scarlet gang versus the Russian White Flowers. And at the heart of this feud lies the heirs of each, Roma and Juliette. I will admit, I’ve never been the biggest fan of the Romeo and Juliet retelling but Chloe did this justice. This isn’t just some dumb family hating family story for no reason. I love how integrated this retelling trope was with the rest of the setting and plotline, never feeling forced in for the trope alone.

I listened to the audiobook for this one, and boy, did it make a difference. My Mandarin is almost nonexistent (I’m trying, Mom and Dad), let alone the Shanghainese dialect, so ensuring I have the proper pronunciations of all the pinyin was great.

There are plenty of things I can rave about this book, but I will keep it concise (or as concise as a longwinded explainer like me can go).

The characters make up some of the best reasons why I kept turning back to this book as soon as possible. Juliette is a complicated heroine, with plenty of blood on her hands and much she wants to prove as a daughter inheriting the gang. She needs to demand respect and be more ruthless than the next person, even if it means spreading rumors of more viciousness than she necessarily is. Meanwhile, Roma is the softhearted one of the two, struggling to keep his status in his gang when it (and his father) demands ruthlessness. I loved seeing the opposites here, but also the way they bring out the balance in one another. If anyone understands the kinds of pressure it is to always be on your A game, it’s the other.

We talked about how interesting it is that their relationship was technically lovers to enemies to hopefully lovers. That’s not as commonly seen in literature, and I did wish we got more details about the first time they fell in love when they were younger and more idealistic about the world. However, the steamy slowburn second time around was more than worth the lack of detail before as chaos in the city throws these two back together.

And here’s where I personally really loved this book. The world building does take its time in the first half, but it really sets the stage almost immediately with a mysterious outbreak that leads to self-inflicted harm. I was guessing half the time what was going on, who or what was causing this madness that swept the city, and if everyone we encountered so far could be taken at face value. I was magically transported to this beautiful city by the sea, embroiled in political upheaval as the Communist party takes root among the people while the gangsters grapple amongst themselves with the foreigners trying to stake a claim on land that didn’t belong to them.

Shanghai was messily, gloriously complicated and I was here for it EVERY second.

Not to finish this review without mentioning the secondary characters because for once, this book actually made them stand out as more than props for the protagonists. I love the sweet moments between Roma’s cousin Benedikt and their mutual best friend Marshall. I can see why people are falling head over heels for this ship even with so little screen (page?) time. And on Juliette’s side, her cousins Kathleen and Rosalind were intriguing characters with a hidden depth I feel we are only starting to see, perhaps as a foundation for what’s to come in the sequel.

All this to say is, if I could write a cool Asian-inspired fantasy that was both lyrical in prose and suspenseful in plot, I wish I could write something like this. But then again, I don’t need to because Chloe Gong has masterfully done this already. And with that ending dropped on us…well, I really can’t wait for the sequel now. My heart can only shatter so many times.

Overall Recommendation:

These Violent Delights transports us back in time to Shanghai on the brink of political change, where gangsters still control the city and a mysterious madness may just so happen to be unleashed upon them all. I love the way Chloe Gong portrayed Asian culture with such lush descriptions and poetic prose. I feel not only like I’m there, but that I am home with my ancestors, the country where my family came from. Balancing this unique world building with the romantic characterizations of this retelling of Romeo and Juliet, we follow two enemies as they are forced back together for the sake of their city and the people they love. With high romantic angst, amazing secondary characters and the mystery surrounding the madness encompassing Shanghai, this book is a MUST read for all. I swear, it’ll change your mind about historical fantasies in general.