Review: The Bone Shard Emperor by Andrea Stewart

The Bone Shard Emperor

Andrea Stewart

(The Drowning Empire #2)

Publication Date: November 23, 2021

Hardcover, 560 pages, Orbit

Genres: Adult, Fantasy

Goodreads

Andrea Stewart returns with The Bone Shard Emperor, the second installment of this unmissable, action-packed, magic-laced fantasy epic.

 

 The Emperor is Dead. Long live the Emperor.

 

Lin Sukai finally sits on the throne she won at so much cost, but her struggles are only just beginning. Her people don’t trust her. Her political alliances are weak. And in the north-east of the Empire, a rebel army of constructs is gathering, its leader determined to take the throne by force. 

 

Yet an even greater threat is on the horizon, for the Alanga – the powerful magicians of legend – have returned to the Empire. They claim they come in peace, and Lin will need their help in order to defeat the rebels and restore peace. 

 

But can she trust them?

My Review

The Bone Shard Emperor is definitely for fantasy lovers of mythology, creature companions (which are honestly the best creature companions I know of outside of Toothless the dragon), a little bit of slow-burn romance, mult-POV stories, unhinged villains, and even body horror/necromancy plotlines. (The body horror isn't super explicit, but it is there.) I said book one was for fans of The Poppy War and The Daevabad series, and that recommendation still holds up. The Bone Shard Emperor also has a little bit of Avatar: The Last Airbender and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings vibes as well.

As for the characters, there are five POVs again. Lin and Jovis are the primary protagonists. Lin is trying to keep her country together, and Jovis is trying to keep Mephi from stealing things. Well, more seriously, he's spying on the new emperor. Lin and Jovis's relationship is the type I love but hate at the same time. It's slow-burn! With secret keeping! And miscommunications! I just want more of them bumbling their way through liking each other in book three. But what I really want is more Mephi. I picture Lin and Jovis's companions as little otters, which totally doesn't work for some of the battle scenes, but that's just how they look in my mind. All cute and fuzzy and adorable. To the bad guys who mistreat the creatures, I hope you suffer in book three.

Phalue and Ranami are still around too, though their chapters in the first half of the book are a tad bit slower. Their plotlines did pick up at the end, however. And the final POV is kind of a major spoiler from the first book, so I won't give anything away. 

Now, the plot of the story isn't super unique, as some of the reveals and major beats have been done before fairly often, but the character interactions and smaller plot twists had me devouring the last half of this book when I should've been sleeping to wake up for work in the morning. The Bone Shard Emperor's POV characters start interacting more than in the first installment, which I definitely enjoyed, especially Lin and Jovis. If that wasn't already obvious. Oh, and that cliffhanger with my favorite character. UGH! They better be okay, Andrew Stewart, or I will curse your pillows to allows be warm and your socks to always be cold. Haha. Just kidding. But seriously, nothing bad better happen.

All in all, this sequel has action, godly powers, and mystical swords to keep many a fantasy reader happy. I would definitely recommend this series to anyone who wants a fast-paced high fantasy trilogy to binge.

*Note: I received a copy of this book to review from the publisher. This in no way affected my opinion/review.

Stacking the Shelves: The February FairyLoot 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.

This week has been meh. I've been ill again. Not the C-word, just some stomach nonsense. If I was sad at all about leaving my parents' house, this week of grossness settled the matter. They eat a lot of food, and I have no self-control, so I need to get out for my own personal health. Lol. But other than that, I found out I won my previous job a lot of money, so yay for new resume material! Though now I think my current job is going to make me miserable with so many grants opening. They want to apply for everything. And I'm only one person. And I have a vacation next month. Sigh.

First up for this week's haul is my February FairyLoot Adult book. And yes, I'm just now getting it at the end of May. It sat at the warehouse for so long with no update other than the label being created. Super annoying. But, now I have it, and it's pretty. Though I prefer the cover of the regular UK edition, this one isn't bad, and the inside foiling is lovely. Oh, and I did cancel my subscription to the YA FairyLoot box. I just realized I've only read like half of the 2022 books and of those, I've sold or will sell three. The book picks just aren't to my tastes anymore. I like adult fantasy, not YA, sadly.

Next, I have a print order from A Touch of Magic Designs. Well, technically, I made the order for the Twilight bakery pin. I don't collect all of ATOMD's bakery pins, but this one was pretty enough for me to get. I also ordered a Zodiac Academy print of Darius and Orion snuggling (aww...) and one of Poppy from FBAA. The order came with a free magnet of Gabriel from the Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac series and a print of Rowan and Aelin from Throne of Glass. I'd actually emailed ATOMD to see if I could swap my free print, but unsurprisingly, they didn't answer my email in time. They have been so bad about emails the past few months. It's beyond irritating.

 

 And lastly, I have a couple of Kindle Unlimited books: Take Me Apart by Brea Alepou and Skyler Snow and Iced Out by C.E. Ricci. They're both just books I read to try to stay out of a complete reading slump. They're contemporary MM romance books. One's about the mafia and the other about hockey. Those tend to be pretty quick reads for me, if they're decent. These were both good. Nothing amazing, but entertaining nonetheless.

Well, that's all for me. What books have you bought/received lately?

Stacking the Shelves: The Wednesday 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.

This week has been crazy. I signed a lease for a new place, and I'm trying to come to terms with moving out of my parents' house for the third time. While I'm super happy to be moving out because I can finally have my own library as well as peace and my own space to live that isn't just a single bedroom or a studio apartment, part of me is thinking I'm silly for paying rent when I have a free place right now. But it's time. I'm mentally and physically ready. It's just some weird emotions and finances causing minor doubts.

But let's talk about book stuff. That's what you're here for. First up is the free swag I received from Chest of Fandoms, a German subscription box, as a goodie apology gift for their A Shadow in the Ember edition taking too long and having messed up sprayed edges. Personally, I didn't care about the wait or the edges, but I know many people did. Chest of Fandoms sent a notebook with some character art inside, a double-sided bookmark, and a sticker.

Next, I have a print order from A Million World Designs of Poppy and Hawke. The shop also sent two Wednesday bookmarks as well. I was so confused when I opened the package for this order and saw the bright pink girl on the bookmark. I only recognized her as a character from the Netflix show when I saw Wednesday's bookmark below it. My Mercari order also showed up this week. I ordered the FBAA mug featured in the February YA FairyLoot box and it came with the necklace as well.

 

 

 And lastly, I have a Kindle Unlimited book, Distorted by Nyla K. It's another ApollyCon author book. It's also pretty dark, as it's set in a secret prison. But it's also not super realistic (in a these-people-haven't-washed-their-clothes-in-months-so-everyone-would-stink-and-be-covered-in-icky-things way), so I don't think it's a book I'll end up buying a physical copy of for the signing. I probably won't read the sequels either. I might still meet the author, though.

Well, that's all for me. What books have you bought/received lately?

The Unpopular Opinions Book Tag: 2023 Edition

I randomly thought of this tag after someone mentioned they had an unpopular bookish opinion on YouTube... Or maybe it was something someone posted on Instagram? Or TikTok? I'm not 100% sure anymore. It's been a couple of weeks. All I know is that I haven't done this particular tag since 2017. Wow. It's definitely time for an update. The tag I’m doing is an oldie, but a goodie. It’s called the Unpopular Opinions Book Tag, and it was created by TheBookArcher.

***

A popular book or series that you didn’t like

  A Touch of Darkness by Scarlett St. Clair

I actually DNF'ed this book. A Hades and Persephone retelling, and I DNF'ed it. Wow. But it's not just this book, I was also eh about Scarlett's King of Battle and Blood as well. It was mediocre. The characters were one-dimensional and the worldbuilding was underdeveloped. I may try Scarlett's future books to see if her writing has improved, as her ideas are good, it's just the execution that's iffy, but I'll definitely check those new books out from the library or read them on Kindle Unlimited. I won't buy them until I know I like them. It's too much of a financial risk.

A popular book or series that everyone else seems to hate but you love

 Exquisite Captive by Heather Demetrios

So I had Victoria Aveyard's Red Queen as my answer back in 2017, and it still applies. However, I read a trilogy in 2019 that I ADORE, and it seems like very few other people do, based on the Goodreads rating that is. This series has a great world and magic system. It's like a mix of the Daevabad series and The Wrath and the Dawn. But I think it was released before both of those.

A love triangle where the main character ended up with the person you did not want them to end up with

SPOILERS FOR LYNETTE NONI’S PRISON HEALER SERIES

Are love triangles even a thing anymore? I feel like I haven't read one in five years. The only relationship I can think of isn't between the main characters, and it's not technically a love triangle. It's a relationship that was teased in book two and then dropped with no warning in book three. Caldon and a certain brother should've been together. It was so disappointing to have the author set that possible relationship up and then drop it before it ever even got a chance in the next book. I don't mind the character Caldon ended up with, I just think the brother would've been better.

A popular book genre that you hardly reach for

It's not technically a genre, but I've found myself falling out of YA lately. I'm still getting one or two in a month, but adult is my bread and butter now. For actual genres, I guess contemporary is dwindling, especially YA contemporary. I don't like reading about high schoolers finding love. It holds zero appeal.

A popular or beloved character that you do not like

I have two: Warner from Taherah Mafi’s Shatter Me series and Rhys from Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses series.

Okay, so this answer actually didn't need an update. I still don't like either of these characters, and no one can change my mind. I don’t like Warner because of his actions in the first two books in the series, and I refuse to read the sequels just because other people think he's redeemed. I didn't want him to be redeemed. I didn't like him enough for him to be redeemed. Also, I hate it when authors randomly switch the love interest in the middle of a series, when, for the majority of the plot, the character has been with one person. I loathe getting invested in one guy only to have to switch allegiances to another.

Speaking of switching love interests, people get mad about Tamlin's actions, which admittedly weren't great in ACOMAF, but holy cow! The hypocrisy! Rhysand is just as bad, especially in ACOSF. As much as I was meh about him as I was reading ACOMAF and ACOWAR, I despised him in ACOSF. He was a total a$$hole.

A popular author that you can’t seem to get into

This one's pretty easy: V.E. Schwab. I read A Darker Shade of Magic, and it just seemed dry. I also read The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and thought it was meh. I don't understand how her books are so popular. Though I am going to try to read A Darker Shade of Magic again one day, as one of the characters I often see fan art of isn't introduced until book two. I'm also older now, so I think I could appreciate a "drier" fantasy read at this point in my life. Lol.

A popular trope that you’re tired of seeing

I don't think there's a trope I'm sick of. I'm mostly just tired of people giving certain tropes the "reverse" label just because the sexes are flipped. Like if the man is the happy personality in a grumpy x sunshine trope, people label it "reverse grumpy x sunshine." Same for the age-gap romance. It's super irritating. It's just "grumpy x sunshine." There's no reverse involved.

A popular series that you have no interest in reading

I'm interested in reading this duology in theory, but in execution, absolutely never. Haunting Adeline has a male love interest that I'm intrigued by, but from what I've heard about book two, it's a big fat NOPE. While I don't mind dark storylines, I need more than just torture p*rn in my books. And maybe I'm judging the book too harshly, but I'll likely never know, since it's not something I'll ever pick up.

The saying goes “the book is always better than the movie” but what movie or TV show adaptation do you prefer over the book?

This is rough. I think the books are better 99% of the time, but, even though I haven't read the books, there's no way the How to Train Your Dragon movies aren't better than the books. No way. Toothless is just too adorable in animation to be better on a piece of paper.

***

Alright, there you have it. Those are some of my unpopular opinions. I know that a few may be controversial, but I just can’t help it. They’re my opinions, and I’m sticking to them. ;)

What are some of your unpopular opinions? Let me know in the comments.

Let's Talk About the FBAA Amazon Show

As most of you have probably seen, we're getting a From Blood and Ash streaming show on Amazon! And I have some thoughts since it's my favorite series. Most of my thoughts are good, but like any fan of the source material, I am uber nervous. I don't want them to mess up my favorite characters and scenes. And while some people say that they're totally separate things and you can still love one without loving the other, it's hard to separate the books from the adaptation once you get on-screen versions. Like Katniss and Peeta or Bella, Edward, and Jacob. I can usually go back to picturing the author's representation, but it's difficult. You have to actively remember these aren't the actors from the adaptation.

So I'm actually pretty happy with the show rights going to Amazon Studios. While I would have loved an HBO version, since they do GoT-level fantasy productions, I can understand why HBO wouldn't be shopping for more fantasy competition. Amazon on the other hand, seems to be going all in on the fantasy shows with The Rings of Power and The Wheel of Time on their current roster. I'm not a book purist for either of those, so I can't judge the shows based on that. I will say, I did like The Wheel of Time show, though the very last episode of season one was a bit of a dud. The writer/producer working on FBAA is from The Boys, which is another show I enjoy, so that's good news. Also, JLA will be producing as well, which means she'll have say on major changes. Thank the gods.

Now, let's talk casting. Poppy is probably going to get the most criticism in casting, as no one has a set definition of what her description is beyond being curvy, which could mean many-a-thing. JLA wasn't super clear on that and there have been tons of online arguments about it. All of which I find ridiculous. But anyway, someone with obvious curves will be necessary in the role. I've seen Danielle Rose Russell's name floating around as a fancast, and I think she could definitely do it. She's 23 years old, which is a bit older than Poppy, but I think they'll need to age up the characters anyway. I haven't seen her act before, so I'll have to look into that, but if they can get someone like Danielle, I think in appearance, they'll be golden. BUT, they need to have the obvious romantic tension with the actor playing Hawke.

Hawke is someone I can't imagine as any actor I know of. His fancasting is just super hard. He needs to have the gruff demeanor that Henry Cavill gives off playing Geralt in The Witcher, but the romantic tension and sexy banter with Poppy needs to be present, along with the friendship between him, Kieran, and his other group members. The closest representation of that I can think of is Ian Somerholder from The Vampire Diaries. Now, obviously both of these actors are too old, and also, Hawke has a darker skin tone. I believe JLA said he has a light brown skin tone, like someone from the Middle East would have (if Hawke lived on Earth). Also, I don't want a skinny, short guy playing Hawke. Make sure he's solidly built and over 6-feet tall please. The art shown here is by Jeleynai, and it was featured in The War of Two Queens book, so JLA must think it's fairly accurate to his representation. Its not quite what I imagine, but it's not a bad look for Hawke.

Now, let's talk about my favorite character, Kieran Contou. The casting must be perfect, or I will blow a gasket. I've seen two different major actors fancasted for Kieran, and while neither fits exactly as I see him, they are good representations of what I think Amazon should be looking for. I've seen Rege-Jean Page from Bridgerton and the actor from The Rings of Power, Ismael Cruz Cordova, mentioned. Both of whom are too old anyway. But, my major concern regarding Kieran is if they will keep to the source material with the trio's dynamics. Obviously, this is going to need to be a mature show, and if that joining doesn't happen (if the show is even renewed for a fourth season), I will be livid, especially if they turn Kieran into a Jacob-like character. He's so much more than that. Oh, and the wolven better have great CGI. I love them too much for bad CGI.

And the last thing I'm going to talk about is the setting. I think book one is fairly easy for a show's first season, since about 70% of it takes place in one area. As long as they have a pretty castle with some high walls, they should be good to go. They can build or CGI larger walls outside of the castle for Rise scenes. I imagine the inside-the-castle scenes kind of like the CW show Reign, with better acting and more expensive costuming of course. The Blood Forest will be interesting to see on screen. Will they use regular trees and give them a red filter? Create red trees? I'm very curious to see how they do it.

***

Well, those are my thoughts on the FBAA Amazon show. I hope it's great, and I hope the books are finished before the show comes out. I want to have Poppy, Hawke, and Kieran as they are for the books and then have the TV show afterwords to ease my post-book-series pain and keep the characters alive a little longer. So how do you feel about an FBAA adaptation? Have you read the books? Let me know in the comments.

Stacking the Shelves: The Fourth Zodiac 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.

Well, the week started out okay, and then was fantastic, and then ended meh. For the fantastic news, I probably/maybe found myself a new place, and it looks amazing! It has two bedrooms, so one of them is going to be a library! Hurrah! And then the FBAA Amazon TV show news dropped! It'd been hinted at for a while, but we finally got confirmation. But after all that good stuff, I got sicky. Nothing too serious, I don't think. I've tested negative for COVID, but my sister was positive for it, and we'd just met up the day before. So yeah, I'm monitoring that situation. It's super.

For the haul this week, I have a couple of goodies. My dad ended up borrowing my car to go to St. Louis with a friend, so I had him pay the car tax. And by car tax, I mean he had to stop by Barnes & Noble and buy me a book. Hee hee. I asked him to get me any Zodiac Academy book they had from #1-8, since I don't own them and I've already read them on Kindle Unlimited. He got me #4. Apparently, he was going to buy me two, but the ZA books ended up being like $38 each with taxes. So he just got me one. I guess I'll stick to buying these suckers online from now on. That's way too much to pay for a paperback, even if it is self-published/print on demand.

Next is a random purchase from the Bookish Box Shop. They had a new T-shirt design that I couldn't pass up, especially with ApollyCon right around the corner. I need a good shirt for the signing day, aka the day I'll be taking a ton of pictures with authors. I think this one will work very well for photos, especially considering 95% of the authors I plan on meeting at the event are romantasy writers.

And lastly, I have some Kindle Unlimited ebooks. I downloaded A Cursed Kiss by Jenny Hickman and After Rain Falls by C.E. Ricci, both of which are by ApollyCon authors. I just finished After Rain Falls, book two of the River of Rain duet. It wasn't my favorite duology, but it entertained me for a bit and was a great palette cleanser between all the romantasy books I've been churning through to prep for ApollyCon. Speaking of which, A Cursed Kiss is my next read. I need to decide if I want to preorder this book for the event. I"m crossing my fingers I'll like it because that is a very pretty cover.

Well, that's all for me. What books have you bought/received lately?

Review: The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart

The Bone Shard Daughter

Andrea Stewart

(The Drowning Empire #1)

Publication Date: September 8, 2020

Hardcover, 435 pages, Orbit

Genres: Adult, Fantasy

Goodreads

The emperor's reign has lasted for decades, his mastery of bone shard magic powering the animal-like constructs that maintain law and order. But now his rule is failing, and revolution is sweeping across the Empire's many islands.

 

Lin is the emperor's daughter and spends her days trapped in a palace of locked doors and dark secrets. When her father refuses to recognise her as heir to the throne, she vows to prove her worth by mastering the forbidden art of bone shard magic.

 

Yet such power carries a great cost, and when the revolution reaches the gates of the palace, Lin must decide how far she is willing to go to claim her birthright - and save her people.

My Review

The Bone Shard Daughter is a page-turning multi-POV fantasy read perfect for YA, adult, and sci-fi readers. It has gods, necromancy/android elements, and cute companion creatures.

This book has been on my TBR for a while, and I regret that. It has the same addictive qualities as some big-name SFF books, like The Daevabad and The Poppy War series. But going in, I was a little skeptical. The first few chapters were a bit dry, since they're trying to establish the world and characters. But by the end of chapter three, I was hooked. I guess world-shattering fictional disasters will do that for me. Weird.

The Bone Shard Daughter has five POVs, but really two main characters. Lin is the emperor's daughter who's jealous of her father's ward and how her father is teaching him the art of creating constructs (basically using people's life sources to animate dead animals, so very sci-fi but in a fantasy way). Jovis, the second major character, is a smuggler. His POV was my favorite. He's kind of like Aladdin with Abu, but on a mission. Both main characters' narration is in first-person, whereas the other three characters are in third-person. Phalue, a warrior and governor's daughter, reminds me of Brienne of Tarth; and her partner Ranami, another POV character, is trying to persuade Phalue to step up and stop the injustices her father allows. As for the final character, well, that's a secret. But honestly, I don't think I had a least-favorite POV. The characters were very well-written and their secrets were interesting to discover.

As for the plot of the book, all of the characters have their own stories going and it's hard to see how they may connect, but the author gets there eventually. Obviously there's rebellion ensuing, and that always brings a team of unlikely "heroes" together at some point. I did figure out Lin's secrets and storyline a little bit earlier than some of the others' though. However, her chapters were a little wilder than I expected. There were some twists I didn't see coming. And for one particular creature, well, I'd give him the world. He deserves it, and the author put him through too much. Because of all the twists and turns for the two major characters, I read most of this book in less than two days. The ending went by rather fast, and while it wasn't super rushed, I feel like it could've taken a little time to recuperate with a couple of the characters. I think the last few chapters could've been doubled to make the pacing more realistic. It's not a major thing, since I still definitely plan on picking up book two very soon, it was just something I noticed as the book was winding down.

All in all, I think this story is perfect for adult SFF fans of the two series mentioned earlier as well as YA fans of Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes and Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao. It's a great crossover book with the potential to be a really great series.

*Note: I received a copy of this book from a friend. This in no way affected my opinion/review.

Stacking the Shelves: The Dirty 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.

It's been a fairly decent week. Again, nothing exciting happened, but I got a lot of reading done for ApollyCon. I also met with my friend to start planning our schedule for ApollyCon weekend. While it won't be as hectic as last year's, since we're not doing the touristy stuff, it's still going to be a lot of panels, signings, and lines upon lines.

For the haul this week, I have some pretty awesome stuff. I've been wanting the Russian edition of FBAA for a while now. I mean, look at it, wouldn't you want it too? It has artwork inside and everything! But I was worried about buying something from Russia given, well... everything. Thankfully, some nice people in the Book Box Sherlocks group were able to help out another collector, and, once I knew she'd ordered her copy and successfully received it, I jumped on buying one for myself. I just had to make sure it was a legit site first. It's a lovely edition to add to the 10+ copies I have of the first book in the series. The sequels need to do some catching up. I think I only have five or so of them. Haha.

Next is some risque prints from Dirty Diction Designs. Which are all of FBAA characters, of course. Funny (or not-so-funny) story, the package with these prints was left on my back porch when I wasn't home, so my dad got to them first. He saw Dirty Diction Designs on the label and thought someone was sending me naughty things, so he wanted me to call him while I was at work. I played it cool under pressure, but it was quite anxiety-inducing. I've never had more motivation to move out before. Lol.

And lastly, I have some ebooks. These are ones I either borrowed from Kindle Unlimited or somehow got for free. The KU titles include Untainted and Untamed by Lilian T. James and Between Wrath and Mercy by Jess Wisecup. I'm currently reading Untamed, and BWAM is next up on my TBR. The other three are freebies. Pearl and the Dread King is a free novella that I got for signing up to Jex Lane's newsletter, same for J. Bree's The Sword. For Chip Pons's You & I, Rewritten, it was free on Kindle, so I nabbed it. I have no idea what it's about except from the basic synopsis I get from the cover. Looks cute, though.

Well, that's all for me. What books have you bought/received lately?