Saturday, May 22, 2021

Stacking the Shelves: The Where Have I Been Edition

"Stacking the Shelves" is a weekly haul meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality. It allows book buyers to share their accumulation of books with the online book-loving community.

Once again, I have been gone for a very long time. Not the longest time I've ever been away from the blog, but still... It's been a while since I've shown off some books. That's partly because I'm not buying a lot right now. I'm not impulse-buying until I read 15 books I owned before this resolution. Right now, I have eight to go. I also moved and got a new job recently, so I'm a tad busy figuring out my new life.


While I was figuring out my new life, I ended up straying to NetGalley. And, oddly enough, I was approved for three titles: Flash Fire by TJ Klune, The Endless Skies by Shannon Price, and Oaths of Legacy by Emily Skrutskie. I've read one of the three so far, and I hope to have my review written up for next week.

Unfortunately, e-ARCs are all I have to show off this week. I'm having most of my FairyLoot and other special editions and fan art mailed to my parents' house right now until I get settled. It'll be like Christmas when I go visit next weekend. I'll have my April FairyLoot box, my April Bookish Box, possibly my special edition Iron Fey books, and a lot of FBAA fan art. It's an exciting time!

What books have you bought/received lately?

Sunday, May 16, 2021

Review: The Crown of Gilded Bones by Jennifer L. Armentrout

The Crown of Gilded Bones
(Blood and Ash #3)
Publication Date: April 20, 2021
Paperback, 659 pages, Blue Box Press
Genres: New Adult, Fantasy, Romance

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout comes book three in her Blood and Ash series…

She's been the victim and the survivor…

Poppy never dreamed she would find the love she’s found with Prince Casteel. She wants to revel in her happiness but first they must free his brother and find hers. It’s a dangerous mission and one with far-reaching consequences neither dreamed of. Because Poppy is the Chosen, the Blessed. The true ruler of Atlantia. She carries the blood of the King of Gods within her. By right the crown and the kingdom are hers.

The enemy and the warrior…

Poppy has only ever wanted to control her own life, not the lives of others, but now she must choose to either forsake her birthright or seize the gilded crown and become the Queen of Flesh and Fire. But as the kingdoms’ dark sins and blood-drenched secrets finally unravel, a long-forgotten power rises to pose a genuine threat. And they will stop at nothing to ensure that the crown never sits upon Poppy’s head.

A lover and heartmate…

But the greatest threat to them and to Atlantia is what awaits in the far west, where the Queen of Blood and Ash has her own plans, ones she has waited hundreds of years to carry out. Poppy and Casteel must consider the impossible—travel to the Lands of the Gods and wake the King himself. And as shocking secrets and the harshest betrayals come to light, and enemies emerge to threaten everything Poppy and Casteel have fought for, they will discover just how far they are willing to go for their people—and each other.

And now she will become Queen…

My Review

Okay, so I've been sitting on my review of this book for a while, because, when I initially read TCOGB, I had mixed feelings. Now, as time has gone by, I'm starting to feel a lot like I did when I read the first book, From Blood and Ash. So, all that being said, please note that there will be spoilers in this review for the first two books in the series.

Like with FBAA, I wasn't super happy with the first 65% of TCOGB. In fact, the reason FBAA engrossed me so much was the last 30% when $hit started to hit the fan and major cliffhangers were introduced. However, the first half of FBAA is slow-paced and a little info-dumpy and not a whole lot happens that hasn't been done before. TCOGB followed that same pattern only with a lot more info-dumping and a lot of repetitive jokes. I was initially scared that my love for the series was fading (which would suck considering I have multiple special editions of the series on the way and a ton of fan art). But that last 30% reminded me why I love this series so much. And like with FBAA's ending, I just can't stop thinking about what comes next for Poppy, Cas, and Kieran.

Alright, now that I"ve gotten my overall feelings summed up, let's get to the nitty-gritty of this review/rant. And to start with, I'm going to talk about the characters, because there was one who got on my nerves. Casteel. While I loved him in A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire (my favorite book in the series so far), he seriously irked me in this book. The major reason involved his need to threaten anyone who so much as questioned Poppy, including his own freakin' parents! Which, honestly, I think I'd question Poppy too! None of these people truly know her! Every single time Cas bulled up to go after his parents, I wanted to smack him. I understand being protective of your significant other, but he just couldn't stop and be a rational person. He kept being an aggressive jerk, so throughout 80% of TCOGB I hated him. Towards the very end, I was feeling a little more "Oh, my poor baby" towards him, but he still has a ways to go before I feel as attached to him as I did in book two. And another thing, he was inappropriately horny. He literally wanted to have sex after he just saw something very traumatic happen to a child. It was weird. Plus, in my opinion, none of the sex scenes in this book were that great. While I like a good sex scene, it felt like we'd seen these ones all before EXCEPT for one that happened towards the beginning of the book that involved a certain character I won't spoil details for, but that JLA didn't go through with! Grr... Tired of the baiting involved with that particular relationship. Either make it happen or quit dropping hints about it, JLA! It's driving me bananas! I want the joining so bad!

Now, for the exact reasons I couldn't stand Cas throughout this book, are the reasons I absolutely loved the plot developments that happened towards the end of TCOGB. I was so ready for Poppy to step out of Cas's shadow and become whatever the heck she is. (It's not super clear because of the info-dumping. I'll reread everything later to understand it all better.) Also towards the end, we get more of the gang back together going on adventures. That's what I wanted. Not the boring and repetitive court conversations about how Poppy is so special and so amazing and all the wolven adore her. NO! I wanted Poppy, Casteel, Kieran, etc., making sarcastic comments and fighting monsters. And when it happened, it was glorious!

Like I mentioned though, some of the jokes did get repetitive, even the ones that came from my favorite character, Kieran. The "I have a question" and Casteel's stabby jokes were overdone after AKOFAF. One or two, fine. Ten or more, not fine. Those  jokes, plus the first 10% to 65% of the book being info-dumpy and full of long, boring-a$$ history-lesson conversations made this a difficult book to get through until that wonderful ending came along. Though I will say Kieran was the redeeming quality of the first half of the book. He made every scene 10x better just by being there. EXCEPT when he made the dumb "I have a question" jokes. I will say that I think the pacing issue with the first chunk of the book had a lot to do with the major events that happened at the very beginning. In my opinion, if some of the HUGE plot developments that happened in the first few chapters happened, say, 30% into TCOGB instead of within that initial 10%, some of that boring, history-lesson-esque pacing would have been broken up with action and intrigue.

Despite how much I did enjoy the ending, there were some things I didn't like about it. The major one was the retconning. A certain character's name was retconned in a way that just didn't feel natural, as well as her relationship to another character was tweaked. It was odd. I don't know if JLA originally planned events to come to light that way, but I honestly doubt it. It totally read like she was simply trying to fix a mistake she made when she wrote book two. Yikes.

All in all, I just can't gush about this book like I could about AKOFAF. While I am dying to know what happens to Poppy and her team, I wasn't as thrilled while I was in the process of reading it. I do plan on re-reading the series again before book four releases, so maybe that will help me appreciate TCOGB more than I did during my first read-through. That's exactly what happened when I re-read FBAA earlier this year. I will warn you, that there is no way a person can read each book as they release without re-reading the preceding installments, unless you want to have no idea what's happening. It's just a lot of info to try and remember over months and months of time.

So unfortunately, yes, this book is not my favorite in the series by a long shot, but oh boy, did that ending give me major Game of Thrones vibes. I am totally ready to see events play out in the next installment. And I'm ready to see the fictional love of my life, Mr. Kieran Contou, be the sarcastic, mama's boy, wolven bada$$ I know he can be.

*Note: I purchased a copy of this book for myself. This in no way affected my opinion/review.

Saturday, May 1, 2021

April Wrap-Up & May TBR

April is over. Wow! This month has gone by super fast. I'm both excited about that and a little sad. I'm officially starting a new job in May, and I'm moving back to my college town in the same apartment complex I used to live in during my graduate year of school. I am beyond ecstatic to have my own place, but I really don't want to pay rent again. It was nice mooching off the parents for a while. Now, it's back to monthly rent payments and utility fees. *Sigh* But, needless to say, I don't think May will be a big reading month. I've got a lot going on. At least April was a decent reading month.

In this wrap-up, I’ll list the books I read, the books I reviewed, the books I bought/received, and my TBR for next month. Now, let’s get this bookish party started!

Books Read in April


Shadow & Bone: re-read
Siege & Storm: re-read
Ruin & Rising: re-read
The Crown of Gilded Bones: 4 stars (review to come, not pictured)
The Bright and the Pale: 3 stars
The Girl the Sea Gave Back: 2-3 stars

I read six books in April. Five were physical books, and one was an ebook. The ebook was The Crown of Gilded Bones, my most anticipated book of 2021, and boy, do I desperately want the sequel ASAP. It's going to be a long year of waiting. I also reread the original Grisha trilogy in order to watch the Netflix show and discuss both the books and show with my book club. And after those major accomplishments, I read two other books, both of which were just okay: The Bright and the Pale and The Girl the Sea Gave Back.

Books Bought/Received in April

 

I only received one physical book in the mail, and that was the March FairyLoot book. I also got one ebook, The Crown of Gilded Bones. I did pay for three other book boxes, including April's FairyLoot, but none of them have arrived yet, unfortunately.

Currently Obsessed With

Unlike last month, I have quite a few things I'm obsessing over in April. Thank goodness. I got tired of not having anything to watch. Haha.

Shadow & Bone is this month's major obsession. I actually didn't expect the Netflix adaptation to be so fantastic. But I loved it. Jesper and Mal were my favorite characters, and that's surprising for Jesper since he wasn't one of my favorite Crows. I'm also watching Invincible on Amazon Prime. It's a really dark superhero cartoon that has a giant mystery surrounding it.

Currently Reading/May TBR


I don't have anything major to read this month, as I'm super busy and don't want to pressure myself. Mostly, I'm continuing to read A Clash of Kings. I also just started All Systems Red since I needed a short book to read and finish before my move, and King of Scars is the June/July book club pick, along with the sequel, Rule of Wolves. We're continuing our Grisha theme for book club.

***

Okay, well, that’s the month of April, plus some May/June sneak peeks, all wrapped up into one post. Do you have a wrap-up post for last month? If so, share in the comments!