Review: Beasts Of The Frozen Sun by Jill Criswell

Title: Beasts Of The Frozen Sun

Author: Jill Criswell

Series: Frozen Sun Saga #1

Genre: YA Fantasy

Publishing Date: August 6, 2019

My Rating: 3/5 Star

Source: ARC provided by Publisher @Netgalley

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Blurb

Burn brightly. Love fiercely. For all else is dust.

Every child of Glasnith learns the last words of Aillira, the god-gifted mortal whose doomed love affair sparked a war of gods and men, and Lira of clan Stone knows the story better than most. As a descendant of Aillira and god-gifted in her own right, she has the power to read people's souls, to see someone's true essence with only a touch of her hand.

When a golden-haired warrior washes up on the shores of her homeland--one of the fearful marauders from the land of the Frozen Sun--Lira helps the wounded man instead of turning him in. After reading his soul, she realizes Reyker is different than his brethren who attack the coasts of Glasnith. He confides in her that he's been cursed with what his people call battle-madness, forced to fight for the warlord known as the Dragon, a powerful tyrant determined to reignite the ancient war that Aillira started.

As Lira and Reyker form a bond forbidden by both their clans, the wrath of the Dragon falls upon them and all of Glasnith, and Lira finds herself facing the same tragic fate as her ancestor. The battle for Lira's life, for Reyker's soul, and for their peoples' freedom has only just begun. 

About The Author

Jill Criswell is a writer of Young Adult Historical Fantasy. She was born and raised in the swamps of northeastern Florida. She earned degrees in English and Psychology and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Central Florida. Her greatest passion, besides reading and writing, is traveling the world; she’s visited fifty countries across six continents, falling in love with places like Iceland, Namibia, and Cambodia. She works as a university English teacher and lives in South Carolina, near the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, with her husband and daughter (who is named after a volcano in Iceland).

Links: Goodreads I Website I Twitter I Instagram I Facebook

Review

First I have to mention that I love the cover. I liked the world building, it was a good beginning to a fantasy series. There's political intrigue and betrayal, and plot twists all good ingredients for a great fantasy. Although everything about this book was impressive, I have to say I was a bit disappointed. It was not as epic as I thought it would be, I feel like there was something missing for me. It's a middle of the road fantasy read for me but I think many fantasy readers would enjoy it and book two is promising. I am looking forward to book 2. This is debut novel and in no way does this seem like it, the author seemed like a seasoned writer who transported readers to an interesting world with complex characters and promises of an even better book 2.

Lira has a cool gift, she can touch people and see their souls and through that she can see their memories. I did fee like Lira and Reyker had chemistry and it was clear that they cared for each other. Other characters were also written very well. Their world was brutal and the main characters were put through a lot in this story. At first with the actions of Draki the villain, I got The Darkling feelings but they're not the same. I was so excited for that but he wasn't the charming Darkling, Draki didn't have the same plans, but he is just as evil though. The characters were strong and the plot was good except for everything the characters did something would go wrong and there were always consequences. The story was fast paced and that is something I enjoyed very much.

Review: The Cruel Prince By Holly Black

The Cruel Prince
Author: Holly Black
Series:The Folk of the Air #1
Genre: Fantasy Young Adult
Published: January 2, 2018
Source: Hardcover
My Rating: 4/5 Stars
 Purchase:  Kindle  I  Amazon

Of course I want to be like them. They’re beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever.

And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe.

Jude was seven when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King.

To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences.

As Jude becomes more deeply embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, she discovers her own capacity for trickery and bloodshed. But as betrayal threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself. 

I'll share my reasons as to why I gave this book such a high rating, the world. I loved the faeries in this book, they're mean, conniving, and treacherous and that's what I'm here for. I didn't like the characters, or the plot, just the twists lol. Yep you read that right. I've never read a book like this before where there are unlikable characters but I still like the story.

Jude, the protagonist in this story is a human is a faery world and she is trying to prove that she is no fragile human, she can face anything thrown at her and she goes to great lengths to prove that. the twists and turns of this story are seriously everything. Prince Cardan is a cruel spoiled royal brat and not even for a second is this story a romance novel. With Jude and Cardan it's like who hates who the most and who could do the most harm. One of the cruelest aspects of this novel is the fact that in Jude and her sister were made to live with their other sister's father who killed her parents. I thought that was absolutely insane and for a child to go through that it had to have been so traumatizing.

For a book named after a Prince, it's not in his perspective the story is more about Jude. This book has a trigger warning for bullying so intense that it's the worst bullying I've ever read about. I kept waiting for the book to get better and it did when the intense bullying stopped. I don't have a favorite character and the plot is ok as well but what keeps me reading the series is the magical world building and the political intrigue. I also love that the books are so short but filled with such a huge stories. I have to say that Holly Black is the Queen of faeries and this book as well as The Wicked King have gotten me to read many of her other books.  

Quotes:

“Most of all, I hate you because I think of you. Often. It's disgusting, and I can't stop.”

“If I cannot be better than them, I will become so much worse.”

“What could I become if I stopped worrying about death, about pain, about anything? If I stopped trying to belong? Instead of being afraid, I could become something to fear.”

“So I am to sit here and feed you information,” Cardan says, leaning against a hickory tree. “And you’re to go charm royalty? That seems entirely backward.”
I fix him with a look. “I can be charming. I charmed you, didn’t I?” 
He rolls his eyes. “Do not expect others to share my depraved tastes.”

Next book in the series is The Wicked King which I will be doing a review on really soon. These pictures are my own from my instagram account @bookishgirlreads


About The Author

Holly Black is the author of bestselling contemporary fantasy books for kids and teens. Some of her titles include The Spiderwick Chronicles (with Tony DiTerlizzi), The Modern Faerie Tale series, the Curse Workers series, Doll Bones, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, the Magisterium series (with Cassandra Clare), The Darkest Part of the Forest, and her new series which begins with The Cruel Prince in January 2018.

She has been a a finalist for an Eisner Award, and the recipient of the Andre Norton Award, the Mythopoeic Award and a Newbery Honor. She currently lives in New England with her husband and son in a house with a secret door. 

Review: Evertrue By Brodi Ashton

Title: Evertrue

Author: Brodi Ashton

Series: Everneath #3
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal, Fantasy

Published: January 21, 2014 

Source: Library
My Rating: 2 Stars
Purchase Amazon Kindle
Everneath Review

Everbound Review (Everneath #2)

Blurb

Now that Nikki has rescued Jack, all she wants is to be with him and graduate high school. But Cole tricked Nikki into feeding off him, and she’s begun the process of turning into an Everliving herself... which means she must feed on a Forfeit soon — or die.

Terrified for her survival, Nikki and Jack begin a desperate attempt to reverse the process using any means possible. Even Cole, who they expected to fight them at every turn, has become an unlikely ally — but how long can it last? Nikki needs to feed on Cole to survive, Cole needs Nikki to gain the throne in the Everneath, Jack needs Nikki because she is everything to him — and together, they must travel back to the Underworld to undo Nikki’s fate and make her mortal once more. But Cole isn’t the only one with plans for Nikki: the Queen has not forgotten Nikki’s treachery, and she wants her destroyed for good. Will Nikki be forced to spend eternity in the Underworld, or does she have what it takes to bring down the Everneath once and for all?

In this stunning conclusion to the Everneath trilogy, Brodi Ashton evokes the resiliency of the human spirit and the indomitable power of true love.

Other books in this series

    

         My review: Everneath   My review: Everbound    

About The Author



I write Young Adult novels. I eat cinnamon bears. I love me some Diet Coke. 

My debut book EVERNEATH (the first in a trilogy) comes out Winter 2012 with Balzer and Bray (Harper Collins).

I'm represented by Michael Bourret at Dystel and Goderich Literary Management.

Links: Goodreads I Website I Twitter

Review

I don't think I've mentioned this until this review but I love the covers of this series. I had really high expectations for this series and I was disappointed but if I would have read this story not knowing anything, I would have enjoyed it a lot more. It is very apparent that Nikki and Jack's love is epic and it kept her alive in the Everneath for one hundred years, he was her anchor and because she survived Cole wanted her. I think that it was a really good plot to the series overall, I just wish it ended differently.

Spoiler Section

In this book Cole looses his memory and I really didn't like that part of the story, he's my favorite character, there are so many layers to him. Cole has lived for so long and there could have been so much more written about him and I also think that he's redeemable. Yes he did some horrible things but in their world who hadn't. And also the only thing he didn't lie about were his feelings for Nikki, everything else out of his mouth was a lie to trick Nikki into doing whatever he wanted, which was for her to become the Queen of Everneath and for him to rule beside her as King. Isn't that what all villains want, to rule their world? I can hardly blame him, lol.  

I also did not like the fact that Jack would rage for anything, it wasn't good character development, and it didn't make me like him more. In the first book he did sacrifice himself for Nikki and that's about the only thing I liked about him.

The ending for me wasn't satisfying, the Everneath gets destroyed and Cole commits suicide. Nope, I didn't like that at all. I understand that the Everneath kills humans and it was the right thing to do but I still don't like it. I wish there could have been a different ending like Nikki ends up with Cole and they rule the Everneath, except they didn't have to suck the life out of innocent people.