3.5 stars. It’s always a bit scary heading into the final book of a beloved series. Will things wrap up satisfactorily? Will my favorite characters die? Will I be able to read it again and still love it? Ideally you want it to be the best book in the series, but just not ruining the series will usually suffice. That was kind of my feeling with this one. Although I didn’t love it as much as the first two books, it was still a satisfying […]
Pirates, Magic, & Knife Wielding Bisexuals
4.5 stars. In general, I’m not someone who rereads books. There are just SO many good books out there waiting to be read that I have a hard time going back. Even if it was a book I liked, there’s always the fear that I might not like it as much the second time. I want to keep my memory of that book pristine. The problem is, instead of remembering plots and characters, I tend to remember how I felt about a book and that […]
This was supposed to be emotionally wrecking
I saw a lot of social media responses to this, but thankfully no spoilers, before I got around to reading it myself. Many of the responses involved some expression of devastating emotional impact upon finishing this book. I don’t see it. Our Dark Duet is not a happy book, and the ending really fits with the tone of the story overall, but I just don’t see the devastating crushing heartbreak that was described by lots of people of Facebook, Twitter, etc. My biggest problem is […]
Monsters and Humans doing Romeo and Juliet right
The ideas of humanizing monsters and monstrous humans seems to be a big theme with Victoria (V.E.) Schwab. This would normally annoy me, except that she does it so well, and with variety each time. This is my third series of hers that I’ve started, and each one is different in terms of world and characters. I’m saving the conclusion of one series, A Conjuring of Light, until the end of the current semester in 3 weeks; if I don’t I’ll be buried by grading […]
A darker shade of yes, please.
Parallel universes are categorically THE BEST, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen them done quite like they are here in A Darker Shade of Magic, the first book in Victoria Schwab’s* Shades of Magic series, which just published its third and final book last week. *She writes YA under her real name, and adult fiction under her pseudonym V.E. Schwab. I’m late to the party, especially given how much I love fantasy and parallel universes, but I don’t really care because I now own […]
So you wanna play with magic?
This dark fantasy is Game of Thrones meets The Night Circus and will appeal to any fans of realistic fantasy. The first book of a three part trilogy (part 3 releases February 2017), A Darker Shade of Magic is an outstanding novel that will enthrall readers and insure you are up late reading “just one more page.” There is not one London, but four. There is the world of Henry III, a Grey London without magic. There is Red London, where magic is in balance. […]