#77 The Beautiful

The Beautiful by Renee Ahdieh 

The Beautiful in set in the 1870's in New Orleans, i should preface this by saying ive never read any Anne Rice so i had zero expectations going into this, i just wanted it to be better than the shit show that was Twilight and thankfully it was. The book follows our main protagonist Celine who has fled Paris after something happens to her and moves to New Orleans for a fresh start and a new life. Celine moves into a convent with a group of other girls, their main aim is to find a husband and move out of the nunnery.

When Celine meets the mysterious Odette who asks her to make a dress for an upcoming masquerade party Celine then becomes involved with the wrong crowd known as 'The Court of Lions' and within the opening few chapters a body is found in the restaurant that they frequent and thus the story begins. The killings dont stop and people around Celine begin to die, she begins to become suspicious that she may be in danger. Through The Court of Lions Celine meets Sebastian, a mysterious handsome figure who in true YA tropey fashion she falls head over heels for even though she shouldnt because hes 'bad news'.

I was a bit worried about the hype surrounding this book. Renee Ahdieh is highly loved within the book community and this is the first book of hers i have read. The writing is very atmospheric and Gothic, two things i really appreciated. I was hoping this book would be a fresh start for vampire fiction but alas my main problem with all YA fantasy at the minute occurred, there was too much focus on the sodding romance. Well this book had a fantastic start, i thought the writing was stunning and the first half had me completely enthralled but then it just sort of veered off. I feel bad saying this but there wasnt enough vampires for me and i dont think i will bother with the sequel. There was a lot of aspects i enjoyed, mainly the writing. I didnt care for the characters much, i thought they were a bit unrealistic and not very true to the time period. There wasnt enough information about The Court of Lions and i thought that could have been explored a bit more. I dont really care for hate to love tropes in YA and this felt a bit too insta-lovey for me and that was the main reason i couldnt give this more than 3 stars. I usually love historical books but i didnt think this was very true to the time which was annoying to me.

All in all this wasnt for me really. Yet another YA fantasy 2019 release book that i havent really liked. Im beginning to think the problem is me. Maybe at the ripe old age of 29 i should probably stick to more adult titles (i definitely wont cos i never learn). This book from my extensive google research will be a 4 book series so i believe thats why there isnt too much vampire action as she may be delaying that for the later books, i would recommend this book to people who like a YA murder mystery type storyline with some vampire action thrown in at the end.

#76 Educated

Educated by Tara Westover

Educated is the true story of Tara Westover and her family. She grew up in Bucks Peak, rural Idaho and is raised as a strict Mormon. Her father has very extreme views and doesnt believe in modern medicine or anything that is even remotely government run so much so that not only was Tara not born in a hospital, she had never set foot in one for the majority of her childhood. Tar's birth was never registered either. Her mother is a kind of herbal 'medicine woman' and heals using tinctures and essential oils mixtures and with the 'grace of god' thrown in. She is also a local midwife and helps women give birth in their own homes without the help of medicine or doctors.

The Westover family is made up of the mum and dad (i dont believe their names are ever mentioned?) and children, Tony, Tyler, Shawn, Richard, Luke, Audrey and Tara. The elder boys were born in hospital and all attended school for a few years before their father developed these extreme views and pulled them out to be 'home schooled'.

Her childhood is full of strange stories and some memories that made for very difficult reading. Her father is a difficult man to live with and is very much a 'what i say goes' type of parent. He has his own 'business' scrapping metal and building huts in which he enlists the help of his children from a very young age they are expected to operate machinery and get stuck in to help out. The children are never properly home schooled as their mother only teaches them to read and very basic maths skills, the rest is up to them, if they want to learn something they are expected to pick up a text book and read it themselves.

When Tara is 17 she sets foot in a classroom for the first time. She is accepted to BYU (Brigham Young University) which is located in Provo, Utah and run by The Church of Latter-Day Saints. Tara was encouraged to study for the entrance test by her brother Tyler and teaches herself trigonometry, grammar, algebra as well as many other things in order to pass and gain entrance. Tara is floored by the classes she takes and how little she knows about the world for example she believes that Europe in a country and not a continent and gets very confused in her geography classes. She was also never taught about the holocaust and has to look this up on the library computers.

Throughout her time at college Tara struggles to keep up with classes whilst also paying rent and basic living. She spends many hours of the day studying the basics and trying to keep up. At the end of her first semester she has achieved good grades and is granted a partial scholarship. Every summer when she returns home from college her father makes her work in the junkyard which she hates but needs the money to return to BYU so she never argues with him.

It is ultimately her time in college and being away from her family that makes her realise how backward their life and teachings are. Throughout this time Tara begins to question things and step away from that way of thinking.

Tara overcomes so much in her childhood, it really does make for an extraordinary read. Her older siblings leave home early to get away from their father. Tony works on long haul rigs in Vegas, Tyler leaves to go to college which is extremely frowned upon by their father, Audrey gets married and moves out leaving just Shawn, Richard and Luke with Tara. Shawn is extremely physically abusive and takes most of this anger out on Tara which made for some very difficult reading.

I have used a lot of inverted commas in this review and that is mainly down to the fact that her life is so strange and using words to describe events arent really accurate like 'home schooled' for example, she isnt actually properly home schooled so you cant really use that word to describe it.

I really enjoyed this book and gave it 5 stars, it was so thoughtfully written and at times you feel as if you are there. I highly recommend to any non fiction lovers.

#75 The Luminous Dead

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling 

The Luminous Dead is an adult debut atmospheric/sci-fi/horror 2019 release. This story follows Gyre Price who lies on a job application and fakes her experience level to bag a caving job that pays a lot of money. Her motivation for this is that she is searching for her missing mother and needs to make a lot of money to travel to other garden planets to find her mum. The cave job is offering an extortionate pay out as its a very difficult expedition that many others have died attempting before.

Gyre undergoes surgery to have a suit fitted that will protect her from the elements of the cave and ultimately protect her from the 'tunnellers' which are monster type creatures that dwell in the caves and are attracted by human voices, they are highly dangerous as they can cause the cave to disintegrate and can also create new tunnels making it difficult to follow a map. Gyre must avoid them at all cost. The suit she is fitted into has built into speakers and microphones to the helmet so that Gyre can stay in contact with her handler, Em. It is Ems job to externally control the suit and ensure Gyre completes the excavation successfully.

The book takes a twist when Em doesnt seem to want to help Gyre and is cold towards her. She leaves Gyre for long periods of time without speaking to her and slowly begins to manipulate and blackmail her to conform to Ems agenda.

The book is highly atmospheric and has a really creepy vibe to it, i listened to this on audio book and i think that really added to the overall tone. The tension really builds throughout and the writing is fantastic. I enjoyed this book a lot, its highly underrated in my opinion. I enjoyed the high tech elements to this story, it was really interesting to read about the advancements and what the suit was capable of.

Gyre as a character was really well fleshed out, shes strong and knows what she wants but shes also extremely vulnerable and the cave and isolation really takes its toll on her. Em is also very interesting, her character is very mysterious and in the beginning you dont know why she is so frosty towards Gyre and why she isnt doing her best to help her through this mission but all begins to unravel as the story goes on. In the beginning few chapters i thought it was such a risk to only have two characters throughout the entire book but it really played to the books strengths and helped me as a reader get so invested in both characters mind sets.

I ended up giving this one 3.5 stars as it is a great October/fall read but i felt like some sections were overly long and certain bits felt really repetitive. I think this would have been easier to read physically as there is a map with the excavation site at the beginning and it was quite difficult to visualise when listening to the book. I was shocked that this was a debut as it was really well done and highly original, one of the better 2019 releases ive read this year and i really want to pick up a physical copy now.

#74 Gideon the Ninth

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir 

Gideon the Ninth is a 2019 debut adult sci fi/fantasy and one of my most anticipated reads of the year, i was so pumped for this and i hate to say it but i didn't love it, it was very much not my cup of tea at all. Its a really difficult book to write a review of because even though ive read it i find it very difficult to not only describe but also to summarise. This book is pitched as 'lesbian necromancers in space' which sounds perfect, that tagline had me hook, line and sinker and then i picked it up only to find that it has little to no world building, no explanation of the magic system, very little background or lore and the writing comes off as overly pretentious with overly descriptive sections. The best thing about this book IMO is the cover.

Gideon the Ninth has very little plot hence why it is so hard to describe. So Gideon lives in the ninth house and has been trying to escape since she was 4 years old but she is bound there as she was taken in and raised as a baby and it is deemed that she knows too much so they will not allow her to leave. She is kept in a cell like a prisoner and spends her days planning her escape. At the beginning of this book Gideon has spent months planning what she believe to be a full proof escape plan to finally leave but when she is discovered by her arch nemesis who offers her a way out. She is to act as a body guard and if she succeeds her master will set her free.

I found that absolutely nothing happened for the majority of this book which was really frustrating as i kept waiting for the story to kick off and for me to be sucked in, it wasnt until i got about 65% of the way through did i realise that it probably wasnt going to happen for me. There was a semi interesting mystery plot towards the end but i found it was wrapped up all too quickly for my liking considering it was one of the only things that happened. I found the characters to be a but meh, i didnt take a liking to anyone which i found odd.

It read to me like the author had tried to replicate the success of The Nevernight Chronicles and The Book of the Ancestor trilogy but it just fell so short of both of those trilogies. I dont want to hate on this book too much as 1) i hate doing that as i know the author worked damn hard on this book 2) id never want other people to not read it based on my opinions and 3) i always try to find the positives in things.

Gideon is compared to Mia Corvere a lot especially on Twitter as they are both quite stabby and queer but thats where the similarities end im afraid. Gideon had the potential to be an amazing kick ass female character but the plot really lets her down unfortunately.  I like my adult fantasy to have extensive world building, rich characters and an interesting plot, thats not too much to ask for? am i right?

All in all i just felt a bit lost with this one, i was confused for a lot of the time and couldnt really work out what was happening. I think this book had the potential to be great if it cut out all the fancy adjective and adverbs and worked on world building a bit more. As i was reading i remember constantly thinking 'where are they?' 'why are they here?' 'who are these people?', little to no explanation for anything really. Having said all that im still not ruling Tamsyn Muir out at all as i think id like to try more of her writing in the future but ultimately this really wasnt for me.

#73 Serpent & Dove

Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin 

Septembers Fairyloot book <3 ascetically it is beautiful, has gorgeous bronze shimmery sprayed edges, the cover is slightly embossed and there is exclusive art on the inside of the dust jacket. I am in love with it.

I haven't been enjoying YA fantasy lately which is really worrying as im worried that im outgrowing YA *cries* so i was dubious to start this to say the least.

Serpent and Dove is a 2019 debut fantasy YA novel set in the city of Cesarine that follows our two main characters from opposite sides of the track so to speak:

• Lou- a witch who had fled her coven. Lou is sassy, says and does what she pleases and answers to no one. I like a sassy character but Lou could be a bit over the top at times even for me. Lous is being hunted by the witches for fleeing and is carrying many secrets from her past 

• Reid- an orphan raised as a chasseur and sworn to the church, he has never known any other life and has dedicated his life to one of morals and following the rules. A chasseurs role in the society of Cesarine is to keep the public safe and to hunt witches and burn them at the stake. 

When Lou and Reid are forced into an arranged marriage they must learn to deal with each other and each others flaws. At first it did seem like an unlikely match but as time goes on the reader slowly realises that they are made for each other. The slow burn hate to love romance is done so well as well. The church is at war with the witches and Lou must hide who she really is from Reid in the fear of him handing her over to be burned at the stake.

The plot was interesting, i havent read many books like this so props for originality. Theres always something that seems to be happening so there arent many dull or boring moments. I did listen to the audio for this and found the 2 narrators did a great job. The male character is the same narrator as Nevernight and that made me love it even more!

The things i didnt like about this book mainly was the setting, i really dont dig French books, i dont speak much French and found myself forever googling chapter names or the names of places in order to not get to lost with what was happening, although this may be endearing to some i really didnt care for it.  The aspects of magic werent the most original as ive seen it done in many YA fantasy books especially the blood magic elements but hey theres only so much creativity you can bring to a magic system i guess, it didnt affect my overall rating. A few side characters could have been developed a little more as it felt like they were only used for the action scenes, they were rarely in the background unless they needed to be, they didnt feel very real for me. More background to Lou would have been nice and Reid also, the big reveal of their secrets felt ever so slightly anti climatic.

Overall i though the writing was good and the story was well plotted especially for a debut novel. I enjoyed the characters and their relationship dynamic as well as their dialogue and witty banter. I found a few of the side characters to be a bit of a let down in places but really enjoyed Coco and Hansel and hope they are included in the sequel. I am really glad i got to this book especially in October as it has such a spooky vibe but is still light, fun and engaging.

#72 The Crowns Game

The Crowns Game by Evelyn Skye 

The Crowns Game is the first book in the The Crowns Game duology. It follows two young enchanters Nikolai and Vika who are competing to be the imperial enchanter which is basically a personal magician. Vika and Nikolai have been training for this role since they were young children but were not aware that they would be pitted against each other in a duel where they each get a turn and have to try and best each other in order to win. Nikolai's best friend is the Tsarovitch meaning he is the next in line to be the Tsar. Pasha does not know that Nikolai is an enchanter or that he is about to take part in the Crowns Game. Only one enchanter will come out of the Crowns Game victorious whilst the other will be executed.

This is a debut novel and the story is inspired by Russian folklore which i have been really into lately after finally completing the Grishaverse in August, i found it was very well researched and believable. The writing is good which i hate to say i found really surprising, i read Circle of Shadows by Evelyn Skye a few months ago and was really disappointed in both the story and the writing. So going into this book i was hesitant but it took me by surprise. I listened to the audiobook for this one and found it to be really engaging, the voices were changed for each character and had a bit of a Russian lilt to them which made it sound much more authentic. The world building was stunning and you really felt like you were there they way everything is so beautifully described, there wasnt too much explanation regarding the magic system and why there only seemed to be a few characters that had magic, i would have liked this to have been explained more and an explanation for why there could only been one imperial enchanter would have been nice as that was the entire plot yet it wasnt really explained.

I found it to be a but tropey in parts like a standard YA fantasy novel, the romance was predictable and a little cheesy. I thought i knew where the ending was going from about midway through but it surprised me and went a different way which i did enjoy.

I loved Nikolai's character a lot, his storyline of 'boy who comes from nothing' was really well done and i enjoyed reading about how he started from the bottom but worked hard to hone his magic skills. His friendship with Pasha was really endearing to read too. He has a strong sense of self and really cares about other people and their feelings.

Vika has elemental magic. I found her to be a bit dumb, i couldnt really click with her character as i found her not to be very relatable. Shes written as a 'fiesty' girl character which i think is SO overdone in YA. The introduction of the love triangle element was the main reason i gave this book 3 stars. I really hate love triangles as it always reminds me of Twilight *rolls eyes* it made the story really juvenile in my eyes. When will authors learn that love triangles are not a good plot device!

Pasha was my favourite character, he is such a complex character. He is kind natured and you can tell that he doesnt have what it takes to become the leader of Imperial Russia even though he is destined to do so. He often wears disguises and goes into the market to be among his people but not be recognised. He craves adventure and was really fun to read about.

I think in terms of writing style i would have much preferred a split perspective chapters with Nikolai, Vika and maybe Pasha too. Instead it was told in a third person style that i dont overly care for but it didnt take anything away from the story, i just personally prefer a bit more structure.

I am keen to read the next and final instalment to see where the story goes. Ultimately i enjoyed this, there was a lot of good plot twists and i enjoyed the political intrigue towards the end. The duel was well done and i enjoyed them trying to out do each other. There were parts in the middle that dragged and the love triangle was not great but otherwise it was enjoyable and i gave this a 3 stars overall.

#71 Four Dead Queens

Four Dead Queens by Astrid Scholte 

Four Dead Queens is a debut fantasy/mystery stand alone. This book has been on my radar for a while and i was delighted when it was picked as the group read for September for the online book club that im part of!

The story opens with seventeen year old thief Keralie who lives in the nation of Quadara. Quadara is made up of four quadrants which are each ruled by a separate queen. The four queens all live within the same palace and are not allowed to leave as they would need to forfeit their crown. Each queen is required to produce a female heir in order to pass the crown on through death or if they choose to abdicate. Each queen is required to be raised in the quadrant that they will rule in order to grow up in the society and follow the traditions and rules of that quadrant. The story is told in a split perspective of inside the palace following the queens and also outside the palace following Keralie. At the beginning of the story Keralie steals something from a messenger that sets off a series of events which will result in the the queens deaths so she tries to go to the palace with the messenger to stop the murders taking place. I cant say much more than that as it will ruin the story.

The main things i liked were the murder mystery and light sci-fi/tech references, i have never read a YA fantasy that has mystery elements before so it felt very refreshing. This is really well structured and thought out which is very surprising for a debut novel. I liked the quadrants and that they were very different and stood for different things. I loved the LGBT relationship in this but wish it had been explored a bit more. A novella for each of the queens back stories would be perfect. Parts of this were very female empowering in the fact that Quadara is ran completely by women and there are no chance for a male to become king.

A few things i felt it lacked which made it a 4 star instead of a 5 star read was the sheer lack of world building, the quadrants sounded really interesting but its not as explained as well as it could have been. I would have liked a lot more back story from each of the queens, its explored a little but not enough for you to really invest in each character. I get that this is a stand alone novel so the above things took a back seat to the actual story but personally i would have liked to have seen a lot more exploration and world building. Keralie is a little annoying in parts but i did enjoy the romance elements as it didnt feel like insta love.

Astrid Scholte is very engaging with her readers on social media and i personally think thats really important. I cant wait to see what she comes out with next and i will definitely be reading it.