BOOKS | Review: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

 Name: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Author: Holly Black

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Date published: First published 2013, this edition published 2014

Genre: Fiction, young adult, fantasy, urban fantasy, paranormal, romance, dystopia, horror

Pages: 419

Rating: 5/5

 

Coldtown was dangerous, Tana knew. A glamorous cage, a prison for the damned and anyone who wanted to party with them.
Tana lives in a world where walled cities called Coldtowns exist. In them, quarantined monsters and humans mingle in a decadently bloody mix of predator and prey. And once you pass through Coldtown's gates, you can never leave.
One morning, after a perfectly ordinary party, Tana wakes up surrounded by corpses. The only other survivors of this massacre are her exasperatingly endearing ex-boyfriend, infected and on the edge, and a mysterious boy burdened with a terrible secret. Shaken and determined, Tana enters a race against the clock to save the three of them the only way she knows how: by going straight to the wicked, opulent heart of Coldtown itself. 

- From Goodreads.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is a different and fresh take on vampires that I found intriguing and thrilling to read about, and at some points it was even quite scary and intense. Holly Black certainly made vampires her own in a complex and fascinating way.

I really enjoyed the writing style, it flowed smoothly and I found it easy to read, and it made the story quite addictive as I did not want to put it down. 

The plot was a wild rollercoaster with an incredible amount of twists and turns. Holly Black books are never predictable and this was no exception. I had no idea what was going to happen and was quite nervous to find out how it would all end.

As usual with Holly Black books, the characters are all complex and fascinating, even the characters you truly detest. Everyone was interesting and felt like you might find them in the real world. My favourite characters were Tana and Gavriel, who I felt were both very well written, had backstories that were compelling, and you could understand and root for them, even when they had to do awful and horrible things. Their romance was perfectly done and all of their moments together were captivating and I loved the way their relationship was built up.

Overall I would absolutely recommend this book if you are looking for a unique and modern vampire story with a riveting plot and engaging characters, and if you enjoyed Holly Black's other books, this still has her excellent writing style and unpredicatable twists, even though it is one of her earlier books.

BOOKS | Review: Midnight in Everwood by M.A. Kuzniar

Name: Midnight in Everwood

Author: M.A. Kuzniar

Publisher: HQ

Date published: October 2021

Genre: Fiction, adult, fantasy, historical, romance, retellings

Pages: 348

Rating: 5/5

 

There’s nothing Marietta Stelle loves more than ballet, but after Christmas, her dreams will be over as she is obligated to take her place in Edwardian society. While she is chafing against such suffocating traditions, a mysterious man purchases the neighbouring townhouse. Dr Drosselmeier is a charming but calculating figure who wins over the rest of the Stelle family with his enchanting toys and wondrous mechanisms.
When Drosselmeier constructs an elaborate set for Marietta’s final ballet performance, she discovers it carries a magic all of its own. On the stroke of midnight on Christmas Eve, she is transported to a snowy forest, where she encounters danger at every turn: ice giants, shadow goblins and the shrieking mist all lurk amidst the firs and frozen waterfalls and ice cliffs. After being rescued by the butterscotch-eyed captain of the king’s guard, she is escorted to the frozen sugar palace. At once, Marietta is enchanted by this glittering world of glamorous gowns, gingerbread houses, miniature reindeer and the most delicious confectionary.
But all is not as it seems and Marietta is soon trapped in the sumptuous palace by the sadistic King Gelum, who claims her as his own. She is confined to a gilded prison with his other pets; Dellara, whose words are as sharp as her teeth, and Pirlipata, a princess from another land. Marietta must forge an alliance with the two women to carve a way free from this sugar-coated but treacherous world and back home to follow her dreams. Yet in a hedonistic world brimming with rebellion and a forbidden romance that risks everything, such a path will never be easy.
- From Goodreads.

Midnight in Everwood was a perfect winter fairy tale, and an incredibly inventive retelling of The Nutcracker. I enjoyed every moment of reading it and wanted more, not wanting it to end.

The descriptions were so magical and whimsical, so detailed in such a lovely imaginative way. All the settings, the clothes, the characters, it was all so delightful to read. The parts in the magical world, in Everwood, were my favourite, but even the set up in the real world and the descriptions of the society, how difficult it was to navigate, was interesting to read and well written.

Marietta was an enchanting main character, I loved how she was full of imagination and spirit and found ways to be brave even in the most terrifying circumstances. I liked that she tried to be aware of when she had privilege and when she made a mistake or spoke badly she tried to make things right. Her passion for dancing was wonderful to read and I admired how she was determined to prioritise her love for dance and make it a part of her life.

I also loved the friendships Marietta developed with other women in the book. Dellara and Pirlipata were such fascinating characters and the bond she had with them by the end of the book was so heartwarming and had me quite emotional.

There was also a romance in the story that I absolutely adored. Everything about the way Marietta and her love interest interacted was written so perfectly and it was so clear how much they came to love and care for each other. The way they spoke to each other and the way Marietta thought about their relationship was written so nicely it just made me so happy to read.

This was just such a magical adventure, I definitely recommend it if you are looking for a heartwarming fairy tale to read over winter, it just has the perfect atmosphere.

BOOKS | Review: The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid

Name: The Wolf and the Woodsman

Author: Ava Reid

Publisher: Del Rey

Date published: June 2021

Genre: Fiction, adult, fantasy, romance

Pages: 418

Rating: 4/5

 

In her forest-veiled pagan village, Évike is the only woman without power, making her an outcast clearly abandoned by the gods. The villagers blame her corrupted bloodline—her father was a Yehuli man, one of the much-loathed servants of the fanatical king. When soldiers arrive from the Holy Order of Woodsmen to claim a pagan girl for the king’s blood sacrifice, Évike is betrayed by her fellow villagers and surrendered.
But when monsters attack the Woodsmen and their captive en route, slaughtering everyone but Évike and the cold, one-eyed captain, they have no choice but to rely on each other. Except he’s no ordinary Woodsman—he’s the disgraced prince, Gáspár Bárány, whose father needs pagan magic to consolidate his power. Gáspár fears that his cruelly zealous brother plans to seize the throne and instigate a violent reign that would damn the pagans and the Yehuli alike. As the son of a reviled foreign queen, Gáspár understands what it’s like to be an outcast, and he and Évike make a tenuous pact to stop his brother.
As their mission takes them from the bitter northern tundra to the smog-choked capital, their mutual loathing slowly turns to affection, bound by a shared history of alienation and oppression. However, trust can easily turn to betrayal, and as Évike reconnects with her estranged father and discovers her own hidden magic, she and Gáspár need to decide whose side they’re on, and what they’re willing to give up for a nation that never cared for them at all.

- From Goodreads.

This was a well-told story with a wonderfully detailed world, an intriguing plot and real characters. I liked the way the author used real world history and religion as a basis to create their world and plot and also added their own unique details to it. It was very well crafted and you could tell a lot of time and care had gone into telling the story. I also liked that the main character travelled quite a bit so we got to see a lot of the world that had been created and the characters that lived in it.

The plot was interesting and took several twists and turns that I was not expecting. There were times I felt a little less invested and could not follow along as easily with what was happening, but mostly I enjoyed the story and liked how it developed and felt generally satisfied with the ending. I also liked that throughout the story mostly Évike, but other characters too, told stories, stories from their religions or their history or legends. It added more depth to the world and story and made the book feel like an ancient adventurer's story, passed on and retold over the years.

I really liked the romance between Évike and Gáspár and was invested in them both as individual characters and together. There were moments when I did not love how their relationship developed or I felt something that happened between them did not impact me as much as it should have, but overall I did really like the two of them and wanted things to end well for them.

Overall, it was a very immersive story, told with descriptive and almost poetic writing, that felt very emotional and real, even with the magical elements, which were very creative and exciting to read. I would definitely recommend it if you liked Uprooted by Naomi Novik as it certainly had the magical, dark forest, complex word building and compelling relationship elements that book has too, although this book still feels like a unique story of its own.

BOOKS | Review: The Scarecrow Queen by Melinda Salisbury

Name: The Scarecrow Queen (The Sin Eater's Daughter series #3)

Author: Melinda Salisbury

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Date published: October 2017

Genre: Fiction, young adult, fantasy, romance

Pages: 376

Rating: 4/5

The final battle is coming... As the Sleeping Prince tightens his hold on Lormere and Tregellan, the net closes in on the ragged band of rebels trying desperately to defeat him. Twylla and Errin are separated, isolated, and running out of time. The final battle is coming, and Aurek will stop at nothing to keep the throne forever. 

- From Goodreads.

I definitely enjoyed The Scarecrow Queen the most out of the books in the trilogy, however I still found it a little hard to differentiate between Twylla and Errin, the two main characters, in terms of their personalities. Twylla was supposed to be the quieter one and Errin the more passionate, but I still had some trouble distinguishing their voices in the narrative, although I found them both likeable and was still rooting for them.

This book certainly had the best plot out of the three in the series, so the trilogy certainly escalated well in terms of risk and the possibilities of what could happen. It was thrilling and kept me turning the pages, excited to see what would happen next.

The Sleeping Prince continued to be a truly terrifying villain, he did some absolutely awful things that made him frightening and made you understand why the characters hated him and wanted to defeat him, and yet he still had strangely charming or thoughtful moments that kept him interesting.

I was glad at the direction the romantic relationships went in as the chemistry and feelings between all of the characters felt right. However, towards the end of the book there were some arguments between one of the couples that felt placed into the story just for added drama which felt unnecessary when the rest of the story had drama enough and the rest of the time the characters had become quite good at communicating and had grown as people, so the arguments felt out of character.

Overall, it felt like a good conclusion to the series and was definitely the book I preferred most out of the three. The ending felt it was lacking slightly in Errin's side of the story and since we had followed her story so closely in the second book, it felt like we got less of in this one and her story did not feel as wrapped up as Twylla's, but other than that I felt satisfied with how the story ended and where the characters were at the end of their journeys.

BOOKS | Review: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

Name: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

Author: V.E. Schwab

Publisher: Titan Books

Date published: October 2020 (this edition 2021)

Genre: Fiction, adult, fantasy, historical, romance

Pages: 560

Rating: 5/5

 

When Addie LaRue makes a pact with the devil, she trades her soul for immortality. But there's always a price – the devil takes away her place in the world, cursing her to be forgotten by everyone.
Addie flees her tiny home town in 18th-Century France, beginning a journey that takes her across the world, learning to live a life where no one remembers her and everything she owns is lost and broken. Existing only as a muse for artists throughout history, she learns to fall in love anew every single day.
Her only companion on this journey is her dark devil with hypnotic green eyes, who visits her each year on the anniversary of their deal. Alone in the world, Addie has no choice but to confront him, to understand him, maybe to beat him.
Until one day, in a second hand bookshop in Manhattan, Addie meets someone who remembers her. Suddenly thrust back into a real, normal life, Addie realises she can’t escape her fate forever.
- From Goodreads.

I liked the way that the book told the story, as the narrative jumped back and forth in the timeline. Although I did not know what was going to happen at the end, from the summary of the novel you could tell what the main plot of the novel would be, so the way the story moved back and forth in time definitely added to the mystery and gave a good character driven story an extra suspenseful edge that kept me turning pages.

At first I wondered why we had some parts of the story from Henry's perspective when the book was really Addie's life and story, but the scenes that we did get in his parts of the story were interesting and effective in explaining how he came to be where he was and what his role in the story was. His journey parallels Addie's and he feels invisible in his own way, so it was useful to have his viewpoint as the story went on.

I really enoyed the dynamic between Addie and Luc, the god, or darkness, that she made the deal with. Each moment between them was written so well and perfectly worded. Schwab created the tension of their relationship excellently, creating a situation where they were enemies but not quite, with a connection between them almost like lovers that was glorious to read.

Addie was a very strong character, my heart really felt for her, having to go through everything she did over the course of the book and all the pain she felt, and I was so happy for her when she got to experience moments of real joy. It is just wonderful that we got to spend such a long time with her and came to really understand her and Schwab had the opportunity and took the time to really build her into a complex character. It feels so heartwarming that Schwab created this character who was cursed to be forgotten but then shared her with us and made her completely unforgettable. 

The descriptions were so vivid and written in a way that was wonderful to read, the emotional moments all hit me perfectly and overall I would say this was just a very well written book. I also just have to say that the multiple David Bowie and Labyrinth references throughout the book made me very happy.

Overall it was a truly wonderful book to read and I really enjoyed the experience. It is already a new favourite and definitely confirms that V.E. Schwab is an author I am always going to read.

BOOKS | Review: The Sleeping Prince by Melinda Salisbury

 Name: The Sleeping Prince (The Sin Eater's Daughter series #2)

Author: Melinda Salisbury

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Date published: February 2016

Genre: Fiction, young adult, romance, fantasy

Pages: 373

Rating: 4/5

Ever since her brother Lief disappeared, Errin's life has gone from bad to worse. Not only must she care for her sick mother, she has to scrape together rent money by selling illegal herbal cures. But none of that compares to the threat of the vengeful Sleeping Prince whom the Queen just awoke from his enchanted sleep.
When her village is evacuated as part of the war against the Sleeping Prince, Errin is left desperate and homeless. The only person she can turn to is the mysterious Silas, a young man who buys deadly poisons from Errin, but won't reveal why he needs them. Silas promises to help her, but when he vanishes, Errin must journey across a kingdom on the brink of war to seek another way to save her mother and herself. But what she finds shatters everything she believed about her world, and with the Sleeping Prince drawing nearer, Errin must make a heartbreaking choice that could affect the whole kingdom.

- From Goodreads.

The Sleeping Prince definitely felt like an improvement on the first book in the series, The Sin Eater's Daughter. There was more depth to the story, characters and world, although the pacing and plot structure was not so strong, and during the first part of the story I could not really tell where the story was going and it did not feel like it had any forward momentum. However the plot twists towards the end of the book were definitely thrilling and interesting.

I liked reading from Errin's perspective and found her to be a character I could root for, although I think a little more work could have been done to make her more of a distinctive character from Twylla, she just needed a little something more to make her a really memorable character of her own standing, but she was definitely likeable and I could understand her.

The new characters in this book were quite fascinating, I really liked Silas and thought the Sleeping Prince was a good villain. I have to admit none of the mentions of Lief in this book made me like him any more, but there were some other characters I was glad to see return or at least see call backs to.

I enjoyed the continued world building, the explanation of the history of the world and how the legends were built, although at times it was not easy to follow, it was still interesting to read.

I will definitely be reading the third and final book in the trilogy, The Scarecrow Queen, and I am curious to see what happens in it and how the story concludes for everyone.

UNBOXING | Illumicrate Collections: The Night Circus

 

I read The Night Circus last year and really fell in love with it, I really think it is such a magical book, so when Illumicrate announced their special edition for the tenth anniversary of the book, I was really excited to buy it. I am so happy with the book itself, and all of the wonderful items that came with it!

Hanging banner, designed by Sylvia Bi.

Foiled print, designed by Noverantale.

Book tin, designed by rosiethorns88.

Metal bookmark, designed by Danielle.*

Enamel pin, designed by Stacey McEvoy Caunt.

Tea for one tea pot, designed by Chatty Nora.

Exclusive edition of The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern with stencilled edges and foiled embossing on the hard cover, signed by the author with an author letter on the front end papers.

I really am so impressed with this box and everything in it, it is all so beautifully designed and each item is so unique and will be wonderful to own. I will definitely be putting the print and banner up in my room and making use of the book mark, tin and the teapot, the pin will look great as part of my pin collection. The book is a really stunning edition, especially under the cover, that will really be a treasure to have and read from. I think the teapot is definitely my favourite, it is just so gorgeous!

If you got this box, what did you think? Let me know in the comments. If you would like to find out more about Illumicrate you can find their website here.

*Usually I would provide a link to find out more about each designer but unfortunately I could not find this artist online.