REVIEW: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Title: A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses #1)
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Genre: YA/New Adult, Fantasy, Retelling.
Publication Date: May 5th 2015
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Format: Paperback
Pages: 416
Rating: 5/5

A thrilling, seductive new series from New York Timesbestselling author Sarah J. Maas, blending Beauty and the Beast with faerie lore.

When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin—one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.

As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow grows over the faerie lands, and Feyre must find a way to stop it . . . or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.

Perfect for fans of Kristin Cashore and George R. R. Martin, this first book in a sexy and action-packed new series is impossible to put down!

This was sent to us from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This is no way altered my opinion of this book.

As I’m sure all of you know, I’m a bit of a Throne of Glass fangirl. It’s one of my favourite series of all-time and I spend the majority of time either thinking or talking about it. You can imagine how excited I was for this book and I probably don’t have to explain my reaction when Chami told me we’d been sent an ARC from Bloomsbury Australia.

Yes, it took me a little while to get to it and yes, it has been published now but I have trust issues when it comes to Sarah J Maas novels. I know that they are going to tear me apart, and this was no exception.

I was a little hesitant for the first 30 or so pages — I haven’t had the best history with fae books or retellings so I was a little nervous. I can’t pinpoint the moment where I fell in love, but all I knew was that I was suddenly on page 160 before I knew it.

I absolutely loved the world. Quite a few fae books I’ve read revolve around courts, especially to do with the seasons but I loved Sarah’s take on it. I tripled checked to make sure this wasn’t a spoiler, but the members of the court that our main character is in wear these masks as the result of a curse — Can we talk about how amazing this is? This was honestly one of my favourite parts of the book (and I have a lot of favourite parts) because of how unique it is.

I was talking to Chami a few hours ago about this book, and she mentioned how quite a few of the reviews she’d read talked about how they thought Feyre, the protagonist, was annoying. I actually really liked Feyre. Firstly, her name is awesome — Sarah is just the best at fantasy names. Secondly, I really like how she grew and adapted throughout the novel. In the start, she was naïve and proud and honestly, kind of dumb but by the end, she had this new strength to her (I’m only focus on the mental strength here) that I really admired. She’s no Celaena, but honestly, who is?

I admit that I totally prefer the male characters in this than those in Throne of Glass. Don’t get me wrong, I like Chaol and Dorian but Celaena will always trump them. In this, however, I have to say that I really really love the three main male characters — Tamlin, Lucien and Rhysand. I can’t pick a favourite (yet), but I just really love them all and I can’t wait to see where Sarah takes them.

This is the part where I cry over the fact that I don’t have anymore Sarah J Maas books to read until September. How am I going to survive this?

Thank you Bloomsbury Australia for sending us a copy of this book for review and for ultimately ruining my life.

REVIEW: Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas

Title: Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass #3)
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy.
Publication Date: September 2nd 2014
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Format: Paperback
Pages: 562
Rating: 5/5

Consumed by guilt and rage, Celaena can't bring herself to spill blood for the King of Adarlan. She must fight back...

The Immortal Queen will help her destroy the king - for a price. But as Celaena battles with her darkest memories and her heart breaks for a love that could never last, can she fulfil the bargain and head the almighty court of Terrasen? And who will stand with her?

 Any of you who know me at all will know that Throne of Glass is one of my all-time favourite series. If you know that, then you probably know how long I’ve been putting this off.

For those of you who don’t know, I bought this the day it came out, literally treasured it — it sat beside me on my bed for like three weeks so I could look over at it and get excited again. I read 240 pages that September… and then nothing.

Yep, I just left it there until now. The thing is, I wasn’t doing that because I didn’t like it but I just knew what was going to happen. If you’re a fan of SJM then I’m sure you are well acquainted with PAIN. That’s why I put this off, because I knew that it would absolutely destroy me and I would just spend the rest of my life crying about (or at least, until the next book came out).

It wasn’t actually that bad. I don’t completely feel as if my heart is going to shatter into a million pieces, which is actually a pretty good feeling, you know? Mainly the ending just made me want to go start a war or something, because I’m a badass assassin.

On another note. Celaena, oh my god. I honestly adore Celaena more than anything in this world. If I could bring one fictional character to life (let’s ignore Sirius Black here, shall we?) it’d be Celaena. Sure, lots of people would die but I reckon we could be pretty good friends.

·     

Also, I can’t believe the complete 360 I made with some of these characters. I loved Chaol in Crown of Midnight but now I’m like ‘meh, you’re here, whatever’. I actually liked Dorian again which I did not see coming at all. Words cannot describe Rowan. They really can’t… at least not without spoiling anything. Can I just say, I didn’t expect a new OTP in this novel but here I am, crying again.

So yes, basically — I’m an idiot for having not read this soon. Yes, I want the next book right this second. No, I am not entirely okay.

WARNING: Excessive fangirling... OH, and a Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover review

Title: Maybe Someday (Maybe #1)

Author: Colleen Hoover

Genre: New Adult, Contemporary.

Publication Date: March 18th 2014

Publisher: Atria Books

Format: Paperback

Pages: 367

Challenges: Around the World, #ProjectTBR

Rating: 5/5

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover, a passionate tale of friendship, betrayal, and romance.

At twenty-two years old, Sydney has a great life: She's in college, working a steady job, in love with her wonderful boyfriend, Hunter, and rooming with her best friend, Tori. But everything changes when she discovers Hunter's cheating on her--and she is left trying to decide what to do next.

Sydney becomes captivated by Ridge, her mysterious neighbor. She can't take her eyes off him or stop listening to the passionate way he plays his guitar every evening out on his balcony. And there's something about Sydney that Ridge can't ignore, either. When their inevitable encounter happens, they soon find themselves needing each other in more ways than one...

Original music created for Maybe Someday by musician Griffin Peterson can be accessed through the website listed in the ebook and paperback.

So people I talked to about this book…Remember how I was all like ‘I don’t know if I’m going to like New Adult, you know’? HA. HAHA. Guys. I can’t even.

For those of you who I didn’t talk about this book with, well, I was a little apprehensive to start it. I feel comfortable in my little YA-sometimes-classics-sphere so branching into a new genre was terrifying for me. But oh my god. Just oh my god.

I don’t know if this review is going to make sense at all so if it doesn’t, I’m really, really sorry but I feel like it’ll speak volumes for this book.

It started off kind of strangely and for the first, maybe, 40 pages or so I wasn’t sure about this. I felt like I’d read the story before – girl breaks up with boyfriend, girl is heartbroken, girl meets new boys, the usual. Then all of a sudden out of nowhere, I was completely invested in the story. I’m sorry, what do you mean this book was 367 pages? I’m pretty sure it was only like 50.

Let’s talk about our main character Sydney. At first, I didn’t like her – she was boring and cliché and I just couldn’t have cared less. By the end? I loved her. I don’t know about anyone else, but I thought she was just a really great character. She wasn’t judgmental or whiney or anything else that would make her just like all those others. She was awesome, she had a passion other than boys, she could be witty and sarcastic.

I think my favourite thing was the relationship between her and Ridge, and I don’t mean the feels (although, there were a lot of those.) I liked how the characters grew because of one another and I liked that you could see that in the way they acted. I loved the banter between the two of them but also the deep trust and understanding. They’re basically the definition of my idea of love. No other characters have ever personified that in any book I’ve ever read.

Ridge was perfect. Well, not perfect but seriously amazing. I wish I could talk about why I think he was so brilliant but unfortunately that’s a spoiler. I don’t know if I’ve seen anyone else gush about Ridge, but wow. He’s honestly become one of my new favourite book boyfriends. I mean, he’s up there with James Mycroft and Sirius Black and I’m sure you all know how I feel about those two. Could he maybe move Warner out of the top three? Welllll, don’t tell anyone (especially not Chami) but maybe…someday. I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist!

Before I move onto the biggest part of the book and this review, I just want to quickly talk about Colleen Hoover’s writing. Usually when it comes to contemporaries, I find you get a really mix – you get the good writing and then the OMG-what-have-you-done-to-my-heart? kind of writing. This was definitely the second. I think the reason this story is so beautiful is because the writing is absolutely gorgeous, it’s honest and it’s a little bit heartbreaking but it’s funny too. It’s just a whole lot of feels.

Now let’s move onto the big thing. The music element to the book. I’m going to start of by saying that I love music, really I do but the idea of writing completely baffles me. I know a bit of guitar and piano but I’m definitely more of a listener rather than a maker. It’s always interested me though so the fact that this book is about musicians was very exciting when I started reading. Oh but wait, it got better! First page, before the book even starts, there’s a little note from Colleen Hoover saying that you can actually find the soundtrack on her website. That’s cool right? *insert me buying the album off iTunes and then sobbing at the beauty* Anyway, I love the fact that we don’t only get to see the lyrics within the book, but we also get the chance to listen to the songs but even more than that, we see them being written. Please excuse me while I fangirl over that. If you’re even a little bit interested in music then you absolutely have to read this. (Especially you Ebony, if you’re reading this.)

Random little extra note here, I actually had to put this down with 20 or so pages left because my heart couldn’t take it. Obviously, I had to pick it back up 30 seconds later because RIDGE.

Okay, so to summarise – Maybe Someday is now being referred to as the book of ‘oh my god, no, stop, I just can’t, nope, MY HEART!!!’

Yes, I’m warning you now. And yes, we have a massive graphic budget here on A Book So Fathomless.

REVIEW: The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski

Title: The Winner's Curse (The Winner's Trilogy #1)
Author: Marie Rutkoski
Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian, Fantasy.
Publication Date: July 3rd 2014
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Format: Paperback
Pages: 368
Rating: 5/5

Winning what you want may cost you everything you love.

As a general’s daughter in a vast empire that revels in war and enslaves those it conquers, seventeen-year-old Kestrel has two choices: she can join the military or get married. But Kestrel has other intentions. One day, she is startled to find a kindred spirit in a young slave up for auction.

Arin’s eyes seem to defy everything and everyone. Following her instinct, Kestrel buys him—with unexpected consequences. It’s not long before she has to hide her growing love for Arin. But he, too, has a secret, and Kestrel quickly learns that the price she paid for a fellow human is much higher than she ever could have imagined.

Set in a richly imagined new world, The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski is a story of deadly games where everything is at stake, and the gamble is whether you will keep your head or lose your heart.

I don’t think there are enough words in this world to describe this book. I’m sure if you’ve read this that you understand what I mean, but if you haven’t, I’m going to try and explain what this is.

I’m not going to lie, this was a total cover buy for me. The premise sounded interesting, but it was truly the cover that made me pick this up. Then the reviews from my friends’ started rolling in and I was suddenly terrified of this book – everyone seemed to love it but everyone talked about the FEELS. You know what it’s like, there’s this book that you seem to be the last person on Earth to read but whenever it’s bought up everyone just loses their shit. There’s sobbing gifs and ‘HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME?’ being screamed over the internet, and then suddenly your heart fills with dread because you know you aren’t ready for that pain. That was The Winner’s Curse for me.

If you haven’t read this already, well I’m about to become one of those fangirls, just a warning! For the first couple of pages I wasn’t enthralled with the story and I thought that maybe, this would turn out to be one of those books that I just didn’t get. Oh, how naïve I was! Somehow, I managed to go from that to being up to page 80…I don’t really know how that happened.

This world is just…gah. It’s so interesting and intricate, and there’s the sense that we aren’t being told the whole story here. Obviously, the main character – Kestrel, lives a pretty sheltered life as the daughter of the general so we learn new things about the world as she does. I didn’t think I’d ever say this, but I think Kestrel has almost reached the level of Celaena Sardothien as to my love for her. She’s a strong female character but she has her weaknesses and her faults too, and she just…well, she tore my heart apart. But yes, the world is wonderful and I can’t wait to see where it’ll go in the sequel because I have a feeling that shit is going to hit the fan…again.

I don’t really know how I feel about Arin. There were moments I really liked him, but there were moments that I felt betrayed. I do want to wrap him in a blanket and cuddle him though, and Kestrel too. I’ll make everything better, I promise! But really, guys, that ending broke my heart. People who haven’t read this and have read a few reviews of this are probably sick of hearing that, but really…my heart…it’s in pieces.

If you haven’t read this, just do it already. You won’t regret it. Okay, so you kind of will at the end when your heart is smashed into millions of pieces, but then you’ll look back at the amazingness of the whole book and you’ll feel better. Honestly, read it.