This book picks up about 4 months after the end of the last book, Epik is in training to be a knight, Myra anThis is the sequel to Hero in a Halfling!
This book picks up about 4 months after the end of the last book, Epik is in training to be a knight, Myra and Girdy are adjusting to the fact that Myra is now a princess, and other POV’s are added to the story.
The city of Dune All-en comes under attack again, but it didn’t end up being a full-scale invasion like they were expecting. It turns out the force that’s charging the gates is actually from Eppimans father in Kingsway. Eppiman, the new king, has been running from his father and trying to lay low for a while, but his secret is out and his father wants him to bend the knee. Eppiman sends a delegation to Kingsway in an attempt to make peace, which includes also includes Epik, Girdy, and his daughter Myra to go visit The Grand Soveirgn.
The group heading to Kingsway all heard rumors of the city, that Kingsway is full of magic, and that The Grand Soveirgn rules with an iron fist. When they arrive, though, Kingsway seems normal and The Grand Soveirgn seems to be a nice person, giving his granddaughter gifts and being generally welcoming. Girdy isn’t falling for it though, she has a bad feeling about the whole thing and she sees things that Myra dismisses. Children are going missing all over the city, and she can’t get one of the mother’s pleas for help out of her head, so she tries to find some answers.
Epik is getting better and better at his magic as he learns to tap into his emotions. Magic is made possible partly by knowledge, partly by the soul, and mixing it together with emotions. Halflings, by their nature, are reserved and keep a thick wall between themselves and their emotions, which has been a big challenge for Epik learning how to wield magic. His first attempts at magic go poorly, he finds himself surrounded by the enemy and wants to create a fireball to ward them off, but all he manages is making them feel warm. He was trying to tap into his anger about deaths of loved ones he’s suffered through, but panic is a bad emotion to use for magic, and he ends up vanishing instead. Under the right tutalage, and using some wizarding books he’s found he’s able to gain a better understanding of magic and he really grows through the book.
There’s another plotline following an assistant of Eppimans who is trying to build a new kind of military fleet of flying ships. Eppiman knows that his father is unlikely to call off his assault on the city and that Dune All-en will have to find a way to defend itself soon.
Eppiman is right, The Grand Soveirgn tells Epik and his crew that there wasn’t anything they could have said or done to have changed his mind on their trip and he still plans to invade unless Eppiman bends the knee. Epik thinks on his feet and offers the bet-loving Soveirgn a challenge – if Epik wins a tournament than the Soveirgn has to call off the invasion… but if Epik loses he has to hand over his magic to the Soveirgn and the invasion will continue.
Overall, I feel like this was an improvement on the first book, the characters felt more fleshed out, especially Girdy who was more of a side character last time. I enjoyed her relationship with Myra even if I don’t totally understand what it is Girdy sees in her. Myra is a little too arrogant and air-heady for my tastes, but she does have her heart in the right place. Girdy is much more observant and has stronger critical thinking skills than her princess romance interest so I found myself drawn to her much more than Myra.
There was more to the plot in this book as well, there were more moving parts and a few twists that surprised me. It made the book feel more polished and made it feel like it had more substance to it than the first one. Many comedies use A to B to C plots with funny things happening along the way, and that’s fine, but I really like it when there’s a lot going on outside of jokes. I liked the fact that the references were toned down in this one, there are still lots of references in chapter titles, but there was less of it in the text which made it less distracting.
I enjoyed the expansion in the world building, I got to see a new city in the world and I feel like I have a better understanding of the magic system, and seeing more of the different races in the world was fun too.
The audiobook was also far better than the first, I liked listening to it much more than the first.
Audience:
multi pov comedy non human povs – halfling, dwarf, elf lgbt relationships air ships war jousting tournaments audiobooks quick reads
Ratings:
Plot: 12.5/15 Charaters: 11.5/15 World Building: 12/15 Pacing: 12/15 Writing: 12/15 Originality: 13/15 Personal Enjoyment: 8.25/10 Final Score: 81.25/100 or 4/5GR stars
I loved Sins of Empire, if you haven’t read that one yet I would read that review/book first before reading this review as there will be spoilers for I loved Sins of Empire, if you haven’t read that one yet I would read that review/book first before reading this review as there will be spoilers for Sins of Empire. I listened to this via audiobook and received it via NetGalley/Orbit – thank you! Spelling goes out the window with audiobooks, so, keep that in mind.
This book picks up where the last one left off – the Dioneyes are invading Fatrasta with a mind to take back their old city, and find their lost artefacts – the most important being the God Stones. They are landing all around the coast and seem to come in waves that don’t end and things are getting very tense.
Tanniel and Karpole are still calling the shots and putting their pieces in their places without the pieces knowing what the end game is. Despite being a very old friend and ex-fiance, even Vlora doesn’t know what Tanniel’s core motives are and what his end plans may be… or if she can even trust him not to get her killed. Tanniel’s determined to get to the God Stones before the Dioneyes, and part of making that happen is keeping his undercover contacts safe. He wants Mikel to find his Dioneyes informant and get her out of the city before she’s found out and killed. The problem is that Tanniel doesn’t even know what this woman looks like, all the info he gives to Mikel is that her name is Mara. Mikel is trying to find this woman while the Black Hats are hunting him, he’s been caught meeting with Tanniel and therefore outed as a spy. All of his safe houses and resources are lost when his cover is blown, forcing him to make unlikely allies to survive long enough to complete his mission. He has a sneaking suspicion that Tanniel knows that this is a near suicide mission. I thought it was interesting that despite his cover being blown, Mikel continues to talk and argue with himself, I found his dual personality fascinating in the first book so it was funny to see this tick continue.
Meanwhile, Styke is working for Vlora taking over her cavalry unit, commanding them in the field against the Dioneyes. What Stykes doesn’t know is that he’s being hunted down by 6 Dragonmen who were recently freed from prison, with the promise that if they bring their master the head of Styke that they will be set free. Ben is busy hunting down the men who betrayed him which lead to him being forced into a slave labor camp and trying to keep Vlora’s men together. Styke is also paired up with Karpole for a while, and their two strong-willed but polar opposite personalities make for some entertaining scenes.
Vlora is being squeezed from all sides, the Fatrastans are angry with her, the Dioneyes have a debt to settle with her, and she’s trying to escort hundreds of thousands of citizens fleeing the cities to safety. She’s overwhelmed and overworked with no money to pay her army, she’s working off promissory notes against her personal account and things are wearing thin. Tanniel is insisting that she help him find the God Stones which is a dangerous task in itself, let alone everything else she has going on.
The main POV’s from the last book are the same for this book, which lent itself to the faster pace of the book, there’s no slowing down to learn a bunch of new people. The relationship between Styke and Selina continued to be a highlight of his chapters for me, it creates such a stark contrast to the rest of his persona and rounds him out so nicely. It’s also interesting watching a young girl growing up in a labor camp where people kill each other regularly right in front of her, over something as trivial as bread. And now she’s watching Ben take vengeance on people who have wronged him in the past, she takes a neutral almost academic like stance on Ben’s killing, wondering why he kills some and spares others. The fact that Ben does show mercy at points helps make him a character you can continue to root for, I prefer when characters are less bloodthirsty.
In my opinion, this book was faster paced than the first one. Sins of Empire was all leading up to the events of this book, it was a slower burn up until the Dioneyes arrived and laid siege to the city, which is right where this book picks up. Everything is coming together and I absolutely blew through this book, I couldn’t stop listening to it. The audiobook remains fantastic, I’m probably going to seek out other SFF by this narrator.
The writing continues to be great, but it also continues to use that fake curse word “pit” which always rubs me wrong when I hear it. I think it especially stands out in the audiobook since he sort of spits the word out.
The tone was very tense through all of the POV’s, the stakes are higher than the first and every one of the characters is in a fair bit of danger. There’s war, there are assassins, there are spies and counterspies all of which created an atmosphere bordering on anxiety.
The world building shifted away from The Depths which was a little disappointing, but also totally understandable given that city is under siege and Vlora is no longer stationed outside of it. I miss that place because it was so creepy, but we do get introduced to more of the world since the armies are marching.
Overall, I think Mr. McClellan hurdled himself over the “second book syndrome” where things can drag on and on in the second book only to pick up again in the third installment. Wrath of Empire was highly engaging and just as great as the first one.
I was given this ARC by Crown Publishing! Thank you, guys!
Sancia is a young woman who’s working as a thief and her magic is something I haven’t encounI was given this ARC by Crown Publishing! Thank you, guys!
Sancia is a young woman who’s working as a thief and her magic is something I haven’t encountered before which is a big plus – I’m a big sucker for originality since I read a few hundred books a year.
Sancia has the ability to sort of “read the minds” of inanimate objects. If she touches a wall, she immediately knows where all the loose bricks are, where the mortar is thickest, where the doors are located and where good handholds would be to scale the wall. If she touches the wheels of a carriage she will know what terrain it’s been over in the recent past. Even changing her clothes revolves around her magic since she can’t turn it off, clothes have unique sensory inputs for Sancia, and some material is more tolerable than others and it’s almost an overload for her to try and change from one material to the next. Eating meat isn’t an option for her, when she puts dead flesh in her mouth all she can sense is how it used to be alive, it tastes like rot and death to her – I found that bit really interesting. Human touch is the most unbearable of all the sensations though, she doesn’t exactly mind read, but when she touches another person she’s inundated with their feelings and desires and it’s completely overwhelming.
Sancia is poor, she’s living in The Commons of Tevanne and eating daily isn’t a guarantee, she lives in a very small apartment with barely anything in it, barely making ends meet. She’s been offered 20,000 Duvot if she can retrieve a box from inside a carriage down at the Waterfront of Tevanne. 20,000 Duvot is an absolute fortune, she could retire and move far away and live out her life in semi-luxury on a payment like that.
Just getting into the Waterfront is an ordeal, she has to climb through sewers, parachute in, and try and keep her presence unknown through the whole process. She finally finds the carriage she’s looking for and snags the box, but not without some hiccups. In order to get away she ends up setting the entire Waterfront on fire with a magic bomb that was more powerful than she had anticipated.
The little wooden box doesn’t look like it’s worth 20,000 Duvats, so she does a little poking around out of curiosity. Her powers don’t just let her see the lifestory of an object, but all the hidden aspects about it as well. So, when she touches the box she finds there’s a hidden compartment in the bottom, and in it she finds a key. It’s scrived in a way she’s never seen before, and doesn’t know what it could mean. Then when she picks the key up, it talks to her. Enter Clef, the sarcastic and upbeat key that doesn’t know why he was made, who made him, or how long he’s been around. All he knows is that he can unlock anything, including Scrived locks.
Scrivings are spells, more or less, that originated when humanity discovered an alphabet not that long ago that could be the alphabet of the Occidentals, a long forgotten race that held huge magical abilities. Using the alphabet, they’ve found ways of convincing objects that they are something they are not. An example would be the carriages, the Scrivings used on the carriages make the carriage believe it’s going downhill instead of on a flat surface, causing it to go forward. There are Scrived weapons as well, objects that have been told they are falling straight downwards so they can be used as projectiles.
Seeing that Clef has unknown Scrivings, and has an ability that is presently unknown to humanity, Sancia realizes the depths of shit she’s found herself in and has to think fast. There are people who would murder thousands to get their hands on Clef, and she’s going to have to run to keep them both safe.
The problem is, there aren’t many places to run to in Tevanne, it’s a divided city without any sort of police force. Each of the four major Merchant Houses have put up walls around their “portion” of the city, making it more like four city-states within a city rather than one united city. Sprawling in long corridors inbetween the four Merchant Campos is “The Commons” where people live who aren’t working for one of the families. Most of the people living in The Commons are poor, crime is rampant, and bodies lay in the streets where they were murdered. Sometimes body snatchers come to collect their bones for unknown purposes. There’s no clean water to drink, so most people drink watered down cane wine instead – it’s not a great place to be.
The other POV in this is Gregor, he’s a prince of sorts since his mother is the Founder and head of one of the Merchant Families. He could, in theory, use his family name to get him anywhere in the city and get anything he wants, but he doesn’t feel like that’s an honorable thing to do, and he resents his families’ position in power. He wants to create a police force, the first of its kind in Tevanne, but he’s mostly laughed at for trying. Even his own mother doesn’t think it’s going to be successful and writes off his efforts as a waste of time. He was trying to build this new police force in the Waterfront… the same Waterfront that was just burned down by Sancia. So, Sancia isn’t just running from the people she stole from, she’s also running from Gregor, who wants to hunt her down for the damage she caused in the Waterfront.
As I’ve said before, I really loved the magic system in this, not only is it a totally different sort of magic that I’ve seen before, but it’s also a magic system with consequences – Sancia will get incredibly powerful migraines if she uses her powers for too long. There were some problems though, there were a bunch of info dumps that could have been written in much more nuanced ways that wouldn’t be quite so jarring. There were also some things that got rather repetitious, especially in the beginning – I was told the same thing about the magic system several times over in the first few chapters. This is a personal pet peeve of mine, but “scrumming” was used as a curse word in this, and per usual, fake cursing didn’t go over with me well.
Overall, this was a very solid read and I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Audience:
* industrial setting * unique magic system * multi pov * female pov * magic system more than mysterious magic * thief POV * class system
Ratings:
Plot: 12.5/15 Characters: 12.5/15 World Building: 13.5/15 Writing: 11/15 Pacing: 11/15 Originality 13.5/15 Personal Enjoyment: 8.25/10
I received this as a review request – thanks Mr. Woolliscroft, I had a lot of fun with this one!
r/Fantasy Bingo Squares:
Published 2018 Indie PublishedI received this as a review request – thanks Mr. Woolliscroft, I had a lot of fun with this one!
r/Fantasy Bingo Squares:
Published 2018 Indie Published Under 2500 ratings One Word Title Reviewed (once posted to Reddit) Protag who is a writer/artist/musician Plot: This book focuses on what it’s like to make a transition from a monarchy to a semi-democratic society that’s holding its first election.
The King and Queen were murdered under mysterious circumstances, you find out early on that it was the courts wizard that killed them, and for good reason. The king and queen were hated by most due to stupidly unfair taxing coupled with harsh punishments for those who failed to pay. The reasons the wizard killed them, however, was for a much darker reason, they both were involved in a slave trade and other darker things that prompted the wizard to intervene.
Now that the election is upon Kingshold, there are threads being pulled all over the city. The book follows around a bunch of POV’s who are all linked into the same web, and eventually, all of their storylines come together. Whoever comes to the courts with 1,000 gold crowns can buy a Pyxie, a demon summoned by the wizard, to keep until they tell the Pyxie their vote, and it will be cast for the appropriate candidate.
Mareth is a bard who’s sort of lost his way in life. He sleeps most of the day, drinks and sings most nights, and just rinse and repeat every day. He’s tired of it, but he doesn’t see a good way out, and he’s lost his spark for making songs. Along the way he gets swept up in a civilian revolution where the common people are trying to pool their money to cast a vote.
Alana has scraped her way up the serving ladder from pot scrubber to the personal servant of the wizard, Jyuth. She’s found herself running errands for him and meeting all sorts of people from all walks of life throughout the city. Her sister and Mareth are all working for a common cause, trying to get the commoners to take advantage of this unprecedented chance at having a say about who’s in power.
Hoskin is the son of the kings right hand, and has been at the palace all of his life, and serves as a type of administrator to the crown. Once the king and queen had been disposed of, his position became more precarious and more stressful as he tries to hold the kingdom together until they can sort out the election process.
Motega and his two friends travel together doing odd jobs most people wouldn’t want to do. They are arriving in Kingshold returning from a mission to find books and bring them back to a merchant who deals with a very specific sort of clientele. Once that job was completed, they took on another job from the same employer trying to find blackmail/evidence that one of the candidates running for Lord Protector is dirty and can use it to dissuade people from casting votes for them. While trying to find the evidence against the noble, they run into an old boss of theirs, the Mother of the Twilight Exiles. She’s going to kill one of Motega’s friends if they don’t come up with enough money for her to cast a vote in the election. Their storyline is off to the side for a while, but it comes together with the other storylines about 40-50% through the book.
I really loved this plotline, each time I thought the plot had thickened, it just got more interesting.
Final Score: 13/15
Characters: Mareth starts out as a guy down on his luck, kind of on the rougher side, hanging out with people drinking every night. However, even during his drunker phases he still has a decent inner moral compass show through when the need arises. A noble comes into town and a riot breaks out, guards are hacking and slashing their way through a crowd and he rushes in to go save them. He starts drinking less and less, and becomes a hard-working character with a drive in life. I really enjoy when a character has a redemption arc and finds a purpose, it’s satisfying to read about. Especially on the heels of reading First Law trilogy haha.
Hoskin is a sarcastic kind of person, he loves taunting the nobles who come in and out of court asking for this and that. He likes trying to get a rise out of them, and always keeps his own cool. He’s extremely smart, and he prefers his books to being involved in politics, but he can’t find a way out until this election is over. What he really wants is to go home to his family, not deal with the new Lord Protector.
Neenahwi is the wizards adopted daughter, and she’s a fiery one. She’s had a sordid past where she was sold into slavery and saved by the wizard Jyuth and trained in magic. She faced down a demon at the beginning of the book in order to get a special gem that has incredible power and is striving to learn how to tap into that power. She’s also being handed the realm because Jyuth wants to retire, he’s tired of always being in charge and learning to live with mistakes. He wants to go somewhere warm and just work on his studies. He’s hundreds of years old and has had enough.
Motega is loyal to his friends, and although they do a lot of shady stuff, like steal evidence out of noble’s houses, overall he’s still a decent person. He doesn’t approve of “actual theft” of money or wealth for their own gain. He has boundaries after all 🙂 He’s quick on his feet and talks his way out a dangerous situation rather than hacking and slashing his way through even though he could have.
Final Score: 13/15
World Building: This is a secondary world filled with magic and different sorts of creatures. The magic is pretty mysterious, there’s no real magic system per se, more like vague rules involving runes and the like. Burning through too much of your own mana can be dangerous, so it’s best to use the life forces around you, like the trees or grass or animals.
Jyuth derives a lot of powers from several gems similar to the one that Neenawhi stole from a demon. It allows him to live for centuries and also tap into power he can’t get elsewhere.
Demons of all sorts are in this world, some tameable like the pyxies, and others less so.
There are a lot of different countries and cultures referenced throughout the book. One of the more interesting ones were the Deep People. They are dwarves, sort of. They are short and broad, but also albino in appearance and have to wear special tinted glasses while being above ground.
There are a host of guilds all over the city, including a legal guild of assassins. There’s a guild of moneylenders, lawmakers, bakers, spicers etc.
Final Score: 12.5/15
Writing: I wouldn’t call this laugh out loud funny, but there was a lot of light humor used through the book, a lot of it in sarcasm or quips. I really enjoyed how quick and light this read, and I found myself smiling through a lot of it.
This was also written very clean, I didn’t catch anything as far as spelling or grammar. There’s not a lot of simile or metaphor so you sort of speed through this.
Final Score: 11.5/15
Pacing: At first when the POV’s were jumping around in the beginning I was having a small bit of trouble with the pacing. Most of the POV’s were introduced in the first 10% of the book, so I was trying to figure out who was who and how everything was connected. I didn’t know who they were when they were introduced, but by the end of their chapters I had a good idea about how they’d fit into the story.
Once the story got going I was turning pages FAST, I really wanted to figure out how everything was going to play out. There isn’t a terrible amount of “action” although there is some of that, it was more political intrigue and wondering what was going to happen next in the election.
Final Score: 11.5/15
Originality: There were a lot of elements I’ve seen before, like a wizard who’s ancient and is a behind the scenes player in the government, pyxies and demons I’ve seen before and all that. However, I really liked the first time try outs for a democracy thing, I don’t see that happening too often and it lead to a really interesting storyline.
Final Score: 11/15
Personal Enjoyment: I really liked this book, it’s just my kind of book. There were a lot of interesting characters, a lot of which had growth and development. The world building was enjoyable and the setting felt real. I also really enjoyed the overall tone of the book, this wasn’t a comedy, but it was light and had its moments where it was pretty funny. It’s nice to get a book like this following a grimdark. I was pleasantly surprised that Cut Me Own Throat Dibbler was referenced in a brief one-liner blink and you’ll miss it quote, it earned a bit of brownie points there. (This is not a “reference” heavy book, it’s not like Kings of the Wyld)
Final Score: 8.8/10
Audience: For people who like multi pov For people who like old school magic and wizards For people who like secondary worlds For people who like a lighter tone For people who like a lot of magic For people who like a lot of politics For people who like when the city takes a big part in the story Not for people who don’t like cursing, 37 fucks given Final Score: 81.3/100 (4.1 Stars)...more
Man, I have been looking for another really good LitRPG, and I’m so happy to have gotten this as a review request!
Plot: The book opens with an elderly Man, I have been looking for another really good LitRPG, and I’m so happy to have gotten this as a review request!
Plot: The book opens with an elderly man making lesser Golems out of toys and stuffed animals, you watch as Threadbare is created and starts to come into consciousness. It’s actually a really neat way to experience a character, at first Threadbare has no real mind, he can’t perceive what he’s looking at or understand what or who he is – but little by little he starts ‘leveling up’ and as he does, the more he begins to understand about the world.
He soon makes enemies with the cat after a serious misunderstanding, and it was a riot to read about.
The first 15% of the book or so is Threadbare exploring his surroundings and getting to know his new ‘master’ – a young 11 year old girl named Celia.
After that, the real plot takes off – someone is after the elderly man and his secrets, they now he’s trying to create a Greater Golem which has the capability of becoming sentient and intelligent. A woman has teamed up with some demons to try gain access to his research to use it for their own devices.
There’s a lot of action going on, Threadbare seems to keep getting himself into trouble, good thing his Adorable Level is off the charts, and his Luck stats aren’t too shabby either 🙂
Final Score: 11/15
Character: Threadbare is a loveable main character, he’s so innocent and from the start he has benign intentions. Even when his ‘brain’ wasn’t fully formed and his thoughts were mostly instincts, one of the first things he does was try to help out another hurt Golem toy.
He’s made an incredible bond with his master, Celia – who is also adorable and spunky. Celia is the elderly mans daughter, and they live together in a cabin in the woods far away from anyone else. She’s rather sheltered but she’s sweet and smart and determined to show her father she’s capable of taking on big tasks. And she is, really, she’s resourceful and clever.
Pulsivar is the family cat, and omg do I love this character. Typical cat, he’s guilty of nothing, gets into trouble, and is overall a snarky ass even though he doesn’t “talk”. Pulsivar was there when Threadbare came into being, and after the elderly man left, the cat got into mischief and knocked over some shelving which landed on some toy Golems. Threadbare went to go help, and accidentally ripped the toy Golem in half in an effort to try and rescue him. Pulsivars reaction is as follows:
“Pulsivar wasn’t entirely sure of the particulars of this situation or whose fault it was, (definitely not his though,) but he was pretty godsdamned sure of two things; One was that he was stuck in this workshop until his human came back, so he couldn’t escape. Two was that he’d just seen that teddy bear straight up murder a fucker.”
Final Score: 14/15
World Building: This is a litRPG with moderate ‘stats’ in the main text, it’s not as heavy as some of the LitRPG’s – as Threadbare explores his world, he will gain INT when he figures something out, or STR when he lifts something heavy. It goes along with the text and doesn’t bring me out of the moment all that much. Some people really hate stats in LitRPG’s, in this book they are moderately heavy for the first 15% of the book, light for the next 15%, and then scattered a little bit throughout the rest of the book. For me, it wasn’t bad at all.
In this world, people level up like they do in video games, but life wasn’t always like that – it happened about 40 years ago and no one really knows why.
You can only choose a set number of life skills, so choosing your profession in life is a big deal. Celia’s father is very hesitant to teach her new things like Cooking, because she could click “Accept new Profession” and be stuck with that choice for the rest of her life – and she’s only 11.
There are other races in this world, Dwarves are mentioned, and you get to meet a family of Orcs/half Orcs. Celia’s mentor in learning how to be a Scout has married an Orc woman and has a few sons.
Dungeons randomly spawn as well, and if a dungeon gets too dangerous people are sent to shut it down and destroy it. The dungeons can spawn very powerful monsters and they can wreak havoc on the small towns in the surrounding area.
Normal animals have also mutated, there are giant birds that can snatch small kids, there are giant and territorial Raccants which are mutated racoons.
You level up your skills faster if you’re presented with real danger, rather than just practicing, and almost everything has levels. At first, when this new system came into the world people thought it was a blessing… but as time went on they realized that they eventually maxed out on their leveling abilities… but the monsters kept going. It presented a real problem for a long time until people learned that by combining certain “professions” they could “unlock” new things and continue to level up.
Final Score: 13/15
Pacing: This book started out really interesting, I love non human POV’s and this POV is by far one of the most unique I’ve read. I loved getting to see how he developed from a non-thinking being into a sentient creature. There’s tons of action through the entire book so I just kept turning pages to see what happened next. Solid pacing from start to finish.
Final Score: 15/15
Writing: Holy shit this was a funny book, it hit all the right things for me, especially with the cat. It also managed to be warm and sweet as well, I adored Celia and her antics. There were a few grammar errors, but fewer than a handful and nothing all that glaring. This was a very fast paced straightforward way to write, which is typical for a LitRPG.
Final Score: 12.5/15
Originality: I’ve read a fair amount of LitRPG, and most of them have to do with online gaming, many many books actually have the title include “Online”. I love it when it’s taken in a different direction and a world is built out of it rather than a video game you get sucked into. The main character was totally unique, and the way it was written was also very original. I really liked this one.
Final Score: 13.5/15
Personal Enjoyment: You can probably tell from my review this one struck a chord with me. This book set out to be a funny and heartwarming book and nailed it. This is a “popcorn” book, but it’s the best kind of fancy popcorn.
Final Score: 10/10
Audience: Do you want a funny as shit LitRPG with a non-human POV? Do you want a fast-paced book with a lot of action and fight scenes? How about demons and villains trying to steal a recipe for a Greater Golem so they can build an army? Yes? Read this book.
Plot: Frotwoot fell from the skies not knowing who he was or how he got there. He woke up in pain, only knowing his name, and had a vague memory of havPlot: Frotwoot fell from the skies not knowing who he was or how he got there. He woke up in pain, only knowing his name, and had a vague memory of having wings that were no longer there.
He was discovered by a kindly passerby, who took him to the hospital to try and figure out whose child he was, and return him to his parents – only to find out that he couldn’t remember anything of his past, and was adopted by two people who came to love him very much. He was a very young kid when all of that happened, around 5 years old. The story continues 10 years later when a girl named Maev came into his life.
Maev is a Faerie and claims to know about his past, Frotwoot has completely forgotten what it was like to be a Faerie, and had long ago abandoned the idea that he once had wings, and adapted to the modern human world.
After meeting Maev his world is turned upside down after learning that he was once a Faerie, and that he and Maev used to be best friends. Maev then goes missing, and Frotwoot is very concerned about whether or not she’s okay, especially after learning later that she’s a princess.
He meets a Tree who was once a mage, they create a telepathic link and Tree-guy tries to help him find Maev, as well as explaining much of what the Faerie life is like since Frotwoot has forgotten everything before his fall.
He stumbles into an assassination plot for the Queen, and things take off from there.
Final Score: 11/15
Characters: Frotwoot is a pretty typical kid, he’s curious about where he came from, and has a good heart. He put himself in the way of an arrow to save the Queen without really thinking about it.
He has an interesting relationship with his telepathic Driad teacher, I think my favorite part of the book is the back and forth between those two. The Tree-Driad mage speaks in old English, saying VERILY and THOU DOST NOT, but it’s done in a very humorous way, and it drives Frotwoot insane. The audiobook made it that much better.
He’s put through a lot of trials, being knighted by the Queen for saving her life, dealing with an assassination plot, and being told he’s a Faerie when he thought he was a human. He deals with it all fairly well, but with a believable amount of scepticism.
I think I actually liked the Tree-guy (this is what MC calls him) was my favorite character despite him being a side character. His antics made the book pretty enjoyable
Final Score: 10/15
World Building The world Frotwoot grows up in is in modern times, while the land of the Faeries where he later ends up is extremely magical – I would call this a portal fantasy more than an urban fantasy since much of it takes place in another dimension.
There are all sorts of magical creatures in this world, elves, goblins, trolls, dragons etc. It’s definitely a high fantasy type world, so if you like a lot of old school mysterious magic this would appeal to you.
There’s a backstory to how the Faeries made their way into our world, being that their world was full of pollution and mayhem, so they found another realm they thought was safe, and sent some of their people over to explore it – being our world.
The Tree-guy is actually worshipped as a god because he created a ton of different magical elements, and called himself “The Creator and Savior”, ending up in worship – despite the fact he’s just a guy who turned himself into a tree so he could live longer.
Much of the world building was done through Tree-guy explaining things to Frotwoot, which was fine because it made sense in the story, and there wasn’t any multi-paragraph info-dumping, it was done through back and forth dialogue.
Final Score: 12/15
Pacing This was pretty steadily paced through the whole book, the beginning was interesting because you started off with this kid with a mysterious background, and from there the plot sort of took off. So, I would say the beginning was sort of the slow part rather than the middle, as you’re getting to know the character and the world.
Final Score: 13/15
Writing The writing was very straightforward in this book, not a lot of flowery writing – but that kept the plot moving forward nicely. It’s also not that common to get super flowery writing in YA anyways. The dialogue was nicely done and believable, def not stiff or wooden. The dialogue between Tree-guy, who spoke in old English, and the main character who was modern was actually pretty funny.
Final Score: 13/15
Originality: I don’t read a ton of YA, so this is difficult for me to judge – but as far as my own reading I haven’t come across another YA with this sort of plot line, so it read fresh to me, despite portals into the fae lands being used pretty often in fantasy.
Final Score: 12/15
Personal Enjoyment: I really liked the audiobook, it was well performed and had multiple people voicing. It’s a light fun read that was a breath of fresh air from all the grimdark epic fantasies I’ve been reading recently.
This was part of Fantasy Book Review’s grouping, and has since been eliminated. This was a heavy romance book, and romance is sort of …. no, it’s way This was part of Fantasy Book Review’s grouping, and has since been eliminated. This was a heavy romance book, and romance is sort of …. no, it’s way out of my wheelhouse. I tried my best with this review since I don’t read romance all that often – if you are big into romance and think it sounds like your thing check it out!
-------------------------
Plot:
Clara is born in a lower class family in a pretty typical medieval setting. She’s the daughter of a seamstress, and the relationship she has with her mother is strained at best. Her mom is pretty abusive, very strict, and doesn’t show any affection towards her daughter at all. Clara is out running errands when she’s taken by nobleman and shoved into a carriage with other women from her town and whisked away to the Dark Lords castle.
She has to sit there and wait to be ‘picked’ or cast aside as the Dark Lord chooses which woman will be his new mistress. The Dark Lords of these lands don’t take wives, just mistress’s which give them the heir they need.
Clara is chosen, and the rest are sent back to the village. She’s, of course, worried about what’s going to happen to her and she tries to escape multiple times, but it doesn’t work. She’s caught every time and sent back to the mansion – and Lucias is losing his patience with her.
Lucias (the dark lord), is able to extract peoples souls and turn them into mindless zombies. Clara, during an escape attempt, stumbles into the ritual when he’s taking the souls of criminals, and she begs him not to hurt a young boy, who she knew was not a criminal. She thinks there’s been some kind of mistake, and that the boy should be let go. Lucias wasn’t having it until Clara makes a desperate attempt and says she’ll stop trying to run away if he spares the kid – so he lets him live as a page.
The rest of the book is these two working out how to get along with one another. The reason he needs an heir so badly is that his mother is hell bent on killing him. His mother was an unwilling kidnapee from of his father’s, and she resents the dark lord line and everything they stand for. She was separated from him at a young age, so they never created a real bond. She’s just killed his father, and is after him – so he has to have an heir soon to continue the line, or war will break out in the kingdom.
Final Score: 6/10
----------------------------
Characters:
Clara is definitely feisty, she tried to escape every chance she got and rebuffed Lucias at every turn, telling him over and over she would never be a willing mistress to him. She has a rather warped view of family since her mom was so terrible to her, she doesn’t even see it abuse most of the time. She’s 17, and acts a little more mature than I would have expected out of a teenager, but considering the society and ‘time period’ she’s actually considered a little old to have not been betrothed yet. She does have a good heart and was deeply concerned for the well being of the young boy who was about to have his soul sucked out – she could have run at that point and maybe gotten away since Lucias was distracted. Then she gave up her chance at escape by promising not to if he spared the kid.
Lucias is a weird one, he’s grown up with a father who was power hungry and enjoyed punishing people. His mother was an unwilling mistress and eventually ended up killing his father and then coming after him – that will give you some issues. He doesn’t want to be associated with his father in any way and doesn’t want to turn into the person he was. A few of his advisors/friends told him he should just rape her and “seek forgiveness” afterwards like his dad did since he needs an heir ASAP. He goes kind of crazy… and hits the woman who suggested it. He also sucks out souls of “criminals” without second guessing if they really are criminals or not. He just assumes since they were brought before him they must be guilty, right? He reasoned that it was better to use criminals who are now his mindless slaves to use in the army, rather than force conscription on law-abiding men. He was an interesting fellow.
Final Score: 6.5/10
---------------------
World Building:
This is definitely a classic medieval type world with a “peasant” class and a noble class, quaint towns with bakers, butchers, seamstress’s etc. It does seem like literacy is pretty commonplace since Clara had enough money to buy a book and knew how to read. It’s one of the things her and Lucias had in common.
Magic is very mysterious and old school, Lucias is able to cast spells not just suck out the souls of people. He could command people to do whatever he wanted, like jump out of the highest window in the castle to their deaths. If he wanted to, and he did.
Most of the story took place in one location, but there were mentions of other realms and kingdoms and lands – it could come up in later books.
Healing magic can be cast over a location like the training grounds, which kept people from getting too injured and dying from wounds – which also kept the training more interesting since you could go all out.
Taking peoples souls starts to mess with the Dark Lord’s heads, many of the Dark Lords from the past went insane after a while.
Once a person is “soulless” they have no mind, and their body can no longer create life – which is one of the reasons the women aren’t just turned into mindless zombies for baby making.
Final Score: 7.5/10 ------------------------------
Pacing, Prose, and Tone:
I’m not sure what the tone was for this, frustration? Anxiety? That seems to be what the character was feeling most of the time, the book felt claustrophobic since the main character was always trying to get out. It wasn’t a particularly dark book, there wasn’t a lot of bloodshed or monsters – def not a lot of gore and beheadings and all that. This is a romance book, so by the end of it, that is the tone of the book – happy.
This was a pretty steadily paced book, it wasn’t breakneck with tons of battles and wild things going on, but it didn’t drag. It was a pretty short book so there wasn’t a lot of filler, things kept moving along nicely. There were a couple overused words, but I didn’t catch many editing errors.
Pacing Final Score: 8/10
Writing Final Score: 6.5/10
-------------------------
Originality
I kick myself when I get to this section in a genre I don’t read much of, I feel like I have no base to grade off of – so I’ll go off the world building rather than the plot + world building.
Final Score: 7/10
---------------------
Audience:
Single POV Female POV Romance Clean with no cursing Little violence Happy ending “Good guy” main character (not grey) -------------------
Wrap Up: This will be a book for people who want a lighter quicker read, with a nice ending – I often need breaks from grimdark, or epic fantasy because I burn out easily reading too many of those in a row.
This will have more appeal to people who like slower burn romances where the two do NOT hit it off at first.
This was part of Qwillery's grouping and has been eliminated. I've read a few fairy tale retellings and to be honest, they never really clicked with mThis was part of Qwillery's grouping and has been eliminated. I've read a few fairy tale retellings and to be honest, they never really clicked with me. I was hesitant to start this because I didn't know what to expect, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it.
Plot: Brendan is a private investigator, a dwarf, and has a father who is the head of the Mage's Council. He mostly works on small-time stuff, trying his best to stay out of politics and take on bigger cases that might draw the eye of the more powerful people in the city. His efforts to go unnoticed get derailed when Magnus walks into his office and asks him to find Lily Whitamaker, his goddaughter. Her stepmother, Melania, is probably responsible for her going missing, and he wants him to find her before it's too late. She's been put under a sleeping curse and has since disappeared.
The plot thickens with each chapter, it turns out that the wicked step mother was making a synthetic form of pixie dust, and it's a powerful drug. Those that take it risk going insane - regular pixie dust works as a relaxing agent for those who struggle with tempers (half ogres take it a lot), but the fake stuff can turn you violent and make you lose touch with reality. There was a neat scene where someone gets dusted involuntarily and it was like reading about someone's acid trip.
The Stepmother has her fingers in everything all over the city, and she's making powerful enemies - like the Siren Lorelei. Lorelei makes deals with people but her prices are high, the only currency she accepts is 'life force' and will suck out years of your life as a form of payment. Lorelei has some interesting connections down the line with Brendans father, Lily, and other people throughout the city.
This was a very noir kind of book where you're not sure who is on what side and what their real intentions are - it was pretty entertaining.
Final Score: 7.5/10
Characters: Brendan is the main character and it's all told through his first person perspective, he's a pretty relaxed guy, decent sense of humor, and overall a person with good character. He's gotten himself way in over his head and watching him try to deal with things as they came was interesting to read. He's never really settled down with anyone since he's so busy, and doesn't seem to take much interest in the women around him, keeping a distance between himself and others. He does really care about people though, he has an assistant named Stasia who he's extremely protective of, despite her ability to keep herself fairly safe, (she's a shape changer). He will put himself at risk, he'll manage threats to his own person with a cool head - but if you start threatening his friends or family he goes from 0 - 10 fast.
The side characters like Stinky the half ogre, Stasia the shapeshifter were decent, I wish there was a little more to them, but that's tough to do in first person single pov.
Final Score: 7/10
World Building There was a LOT of world building going on, this is an urban fantasy with modern things like cars, computers, and all that - but it also managed to have a very surreal fantasy like setting. It's almost like the Kingdom of Far Far Away from Shrek, but more modernized.
There were elves, dwarves, orcs, ogres, minotaurs, witches - the works. It all was fleshed out though and didn't feel rushed or crammed together. There were little nuances about how the magic worked that made things feel very together and a part of the world rather than things slapped on to make things more interesting. For instance, you have to have a warrant to use a scrying circle to spy on people.
The Underground was probably my favorite part of the world building, it was formed a few hundred years in the past and has flourished as a second city under the "Topside" city. It started out as a place to shove out the 'riff-raff' from the regular city but developed into something a lot more with it's own King's and government. It was well described and sort of creepy, and also fit the world nicely. Little touches like the fact that they couldn't run electricity down there because the Topside government cut them off, forcing them into using oil lamps really just set a different tone for a different setting.
The Magic in the world is everywhere, and I love how the author describes how it's used and how it feels - mages can sense magic and it has a distinct feel to it. It's rather mysterious magic, using spells without a clear "system" to it - but it wasn't totally mysterious, you have to cast magic in certain ways, and there are consequences to having a spell backfire.
Part of the surrealism is the description of the buildings and other elements to the city that make it stand out from an urban fantasy in the 'real word' - the Mages Council has a building made out of crystal that's shaped like a nautilus shell.
Final Score: 8.25/10
Pacing, Prose, and Tone: The tone was pretty light, not so light as to fall into a 'comedy' category, but there was a decent amount of humor in the book. Despite the situations Brendan gets himself into, which are both dangerous and stressful, the tone is kept lighter through his sense of sarcasm and snark. The relationship he has with his associate also keeps things more jovial, they have a very teasing healthy relationship where they're both loyal to each other, and that's nice to see.
The pacing was pretty quick, this is a shorter book so there wasn't much of any fluff or filler.
I didn't catch any editing errors, and the way the setting and magic was described stood out to me.
Pacing Final Score: 8.25/10
Writing Final Score: 8.25/10
Originality: There were many tropes used in this book, I mean it's a retelling of a classic story - but the way it was told and the world building is what made this story unique. I liked the politics and drugs mixed in with a classic story, I haven't seen that done before.
Final Score: 7.5/10
Wrap Up: I'll definitely be reading more by this author, I liked the imagination and the world building, as well as the humor and writing style. It could use a little more character development, but it wasn't like the characters were a drawback, I didn't dislike them, I wanted more from them.
I received a free copy of this through Orbit/Net Galley - thanks!!!
This book immediately caught my attention because I love to knit, cross stitch and I received a free copy of this through Orbit/Net Galley - thanks!!!
This book immediately caught my attention because I love to knit, cross stitch and sew - the magic system in this book works through sewing! Yes please, I've never seen this done before. I had high hopes, and although the Victorian setting with a romance is NOT usually my thing, I still really enjoyed myself, and not just because of the magic system.
------------
Plot:
Sophie's parents were immigrants from an island country, Pellia, which is known for its "backwater charms" and "superstitions", most Gallation people don't approve or believe in charms or magic. However, that doesn't stop them from seeking them out from time to time, especially when it's rumored there's a young seamstress that weaves charms into dresses, handkerchiefs, and other things for a fee.
Sophie has worked incredibly hard to keep her and her brother afloat after the deaths of both her parents, her father died when they were young, and her mother recently passed away from a fever that spread through the city.
In order to keep a business running, you have to get an annual renewal contract, to do that, you have to prove that you're a viable business that earns decent money and has a good reputation. If the Lord of Coin decides you're not worthy, you could lose your entire livelihood. Sophie has been scraping her way up the ladder of customers from the common to the highest of nobility.
Things really turn around when she gets one of the highest nobles in the city, Lady Snowmont, as a customer. But, she turns into much more than just a customer, Lady Snowmont is obsessed with progress and art, she surrounds herself with people from all classes and professions looking for the best and the brightest. She's picked Sophie as one of her favorites, and through this plotline you get to see how the nobles are reacting to the continued dissatisfied public.
On the other side of this coin, Sophie has to placate her brother and try to keep him grounded and out of harm's way - because he wants to start a rebellion and make demands of the nobility to make the common citizen's life better. The commoners are tired of the Lord of Coin deciding if they have a right to their own shop, they're tired of the social structure, they're basically tired of everything.
What I really loved about this rebellion/war plotline is that it's over more mundane and practical reasons. Usually when I read about an upcoming war or civil unrest it's due to very dramatic circumstances, an heir has been murdered, people are being enslaved, there's a dark evil overlord etc etc. Not with this book, this reads much closer to actual history than most things I've read, and I found it absolutely fascinating.
Final Score: 15/15
I was completely engaged, there were no plot holes or "huh?" moments, and everything felt much more natural and realistic than the vast majority of things I've read in a long time.
-------------------------
Characters:
Sophie is our main character, and everything is seen through her eyes - but you get to see SO much because she's involved in three layers of this world, the Pellians who are sort of at the poverty level of society, the merchant class, and the upper class. The way the story was woven together let you see so much through just one person. The way she had to handle herself in each of these scenarios was different, and she moved through it gracefully. I think what's most fascinating is how gender played a big part in this book, but it did not feel like it was beating you over the head with it. It was nuanced and realistic. Sophie is 26 and unmarried, but not because she never had anyone interested - it's because all of her possessions and wealth would belong to her husband the moment she got married. The reason why more men were involved in the Red Caps (rebels) wasn't that they were more content with their lives, or weren't unhappy with the situation, it's because logistically they can't. Many women are caregivers for both their parents and their children or other members of their family like Sophie's brother. Single men do manual day labor, the job changes week to week and they have the freedom of caring just for themselves. When you don't have to worry about your shop being closed down which would leave your family hungry, (like many bakers, seamstresses, or innkeepers), you can risk more. Sophie gets so upset with her brother constantly trying to drag her into a rebellion that could close her shop, or get her arrested. Meanwhile, her brother, Kristos, thinks that she's choosing the nobilities side in the war. It's a pretty fascinating character interaction.
When I read that she didn't want to get married and gave really good reasons why, I thought I had hit a Victorian book without a romance. But, no ... there is a romance, and he's a noble who's good-hearted. At first, I was like "oh dear god no", I don't typically like the noble who doesn't want to be a noble and just wants to be a good Samaritan because it feels kind of forced. However, this botanist wanna be did eventually charm me... a bit. I didn't dislike him by the end of it, I would imagine that people who really like romance would love this. It's a slower burn, he's a decent person from the start, so it's not bad-guy-turned-nice-guy-cuz-love, I absolutely hate that.
Final Score: 13/15
Sophie's motivations were complex, but also clear - and she had a very distinct and strong voice. I found her incredibly easy to relate to and root for, reading about her was truly awesome.
-------------------------
World Building:
I've talked a lot about the world building just through the plot and character bits, so I'll keep this section briefer.
This sort of feels like France in the 1700s-ish, history isn't my strong suit so if this was based in a slightly different place or time period, my apologies. The way women couldn't own their own things, how the city was set up, and now the royalty functioned all gave me sort of a Victorian feel, but some of the names and terms sounded kind of French.
The politics and philosophy in this book were really a highlight, the dialogue between characters with opposing views was a GREAT way to explore the world building. It didn't come off as info-dumpy, it came across as natural debate dialogue. Fantastic.
The nobility in this book aren't painted as the bad guys either, you come to know and care about her love interest and Lady Snowmont. They seem to be listening, and want to try and make things work - but politics is tricky and getting everyone to agree on something almost never works.
The magic in this world is very subtle, and most people don't think it exists. The Pellian's are the most prominent as far as spell casters. When Sophie wants to weave a charm into cloth, she focuses on the emotions she wants to put into the spell, the thread starts to glow as if there's an inner light in the fabric, and the more stitches she puts into it, the stronger the charm. The magic isn't limited to thread, other people can cast onto clay tablets or use different herbs - but since Sophie is a seamstress that's the most common form of magic we see.
Final Score: 13/15
--------------------
Writing:
This was completely clean, as to be expected since this was traditionally published and received many different editing passes.
I actually loved the prose as well, it was descriptive but not overly so, and it focused a lot on clothing. This usually bothers me, but since she's a seamstress it flowed with the character and I really got into it.
The dialogue was the highlight for me though, the debates between characters and the hesitant romance were both really great.
Final Score: 13/15
----------------------
Pacing:
The flow was nice and even and built up towards the end, I would say the first third was the slower part because it was introducing you to the world and characters - but once the rebellion really started to kick into full swing it was fast paced from there
Final Score: 13/15
-----------------
Originality:
I can't say I've read any magic system like this before, the character was fresh and well developed and the interactions between her and the multilayered society was awesome. The writing style was immersive and different, and it helped the world building along through dialogue.
Final Score: 12/15
-------------------
Personal Enjoyment:
I truly enjoyed basically all of this, my only detraction is the romance - but that's totally a me thing. If I make it through a book and didn't completely loathe the romance that's a success in my book.
Final Score: 8.5/10 ----------------
Final Score: 87.5/100
Damn good book, even that cover is stunning....more
The Half Blood Prince has one of the best reveals in the history of Harry Potter, and although the hints are laid out for many books, (basically from The Half Blood Prince has one of the best reveals in the history of Harry Potter, and although the hints are laid out for many books, (basically from the moment we're introduced to Snape) it still comes as a surprise for many readers, especially the younger audience.
This is when Harry Potter for me started to make it's shift from a book geared towards elementary/middle/and high school to something that's really geared more towards the upper-teens.
I was lucky enough to grow with the Harry Potter series. It came out when I was 11 and I'm born in the later part of summer. I have dark hair nearly black, a scar on the side of my face, and I did not grow up with my birth parents. I can re-read this series and take something away from it every time, and for anyone who loves audiobooks, Stephen Fry's narration of Harry Potter is my single favorite audiobooks series of all time. Bar none, hands down, wide margin, all of that. He won an award for the series and it's absolutely deserved, he's one of the very very few male authors who I would not trade in for a female narrator for female parts. He was THAT amazing. ...more
Loading...
