#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.

#70 The Kingdom

The Kingdom by Jess Rothenberg

'Welcome to the Kingdom, where 'Happily Ever After' isnt just a promise, but a rule' 



Before i begin i genuinely think this book has my favourite cover of 2019, both the US & UK editions are stunning but the US version is just gorgeous, i dont think ive ever seen a book where i have loved both covers so much even though they are very different.

This book is very light sci-fi but has mystery/thriller aspects which i found very unique.

Lets begin, so the Kingdom is a Disney inspired futuristic theme park, its basically like a very high tech Disneyland but instead of human Disney princesses you have cyborg 'fantasists'. We follow our main character Ana who is one of seven fantasists, she is an artificial intelligence programmed to entertain, guide and look after the theme park guests. There is a dual timeline in this story so you get both past and present events. From the beginning of the story we learn that Ana is on trial for murder so the past events tell us what happened leading up to the murder and the present events are leading up to and during the trial. There are quite a lot of mixed media included in this book which in my opinion really adds to the story, i loved the interview transcripts as it made the story flow really well. The story is basically about whether Ana committed the murder and if she did can she be held accountable for it as the creators state that she is not programmed to be capable of violence.

I loved the themes of this book mainly the 'what is it to be human' theme and the exploration of AI evolving by experiencing feelings, dreaming and making choices. It also lightly explores rape culture and how women are treated within society as well as masculinity issues. The fantasists are regularly sexually harassed in this story so you may want to be aware of that as it could be quite triggering for some people. There are also a lot of mentions about the environment and how many animals have become extinct so the creators have had to develop hybrids of some animals which i loved as it really modernised the futuristic element to the story. There are a few scenes regarding animal cruelty that can make for difficult reading so please be mindful of that if you are sensitive to that kind of thing.

I couldnt put this down, it reminded me so much of Irobot, it was really intricate and well written. I would love to see some novellas in this world maybe following Owen and his sister on their original visits to the Kingdom or the back story of the fantasists and how they were created, i think that would be really interesting. I loved that this was a stand alone as it was rounded off very well and left me satisfied and i felt complete at the ending, having said that i would love to read a sequel to this.

#69 Nevernight

Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

HOLY SHIT BALLS, let me just begin by saying this book was amazing. It reminded me of why i love reading so much (not that i had forgotten) but sometimes you need a book to come along and kick you up the ass and this book did that for me. It has reignited my love for adult fantasy books and i am dying to read Godsgrave, i have it on my bed side table but cant fit it in until the beginning of next month.

Ok, onto the book Rachel and stop gushing! Nevernight is the first book in the Nevernight Chronicles which is a trilogy. I am a little late jumping on this band wagon as the final book is due to be released next month. I guess one good thing about being late to read it is that i already have Godsgrave (book 2) as mentioned earlier and will be able to pick up a copy of the final book next month. I am ashamed that it took me so long to read this as ive even read Aurora Rising which Jay co-authored and it came out earlier this year. I had a bit of a rocky start with this one, i took it out from the library a few months ago and couldnt even get past the first page, the writing wasnt for me. It read like a poem that kept repeating itself and i put it down thinking the whole book would be like that, how simple minded of me! Fast forward a few months and my amazing bookish friend on IG (Steffimariareads, hit her up cos shes awesome) had bought and started it. She convinced me to give it another chance which i did and the rest is history.

This book follows Mia Covere who at the beginning of the story (no spoilers of course) she witnesses her father being hanged for treason, her lifes goal from that point onwards is to find the men responsible for his death and kill them. She then joins the Red Church which is basically a school that trains the pupils on how to be deadly assassins known as the Blades. Mia also has the added ability to control shadows which is pretty badass IMO. Along with Mias ability she has a shadow cat called Mr Kindly who was easily one of my favourite parts of the book, he is so snarky but the way he protects and looks after Mia is very endearing. The banter between them was genuinely hilarious for the most part.

This book gave me serious Red Sister by Mark Lawrence vibes which i read in June/July as it also has a school for badass assassins. The writing is very close to flawless, it was so descriptive but in the best way as you can really imagine the world and the characters in your mind as you are reading. Nevernight has joined the ranks as one of favourite books that ive read this year (out of 109 so far) and not only that it is one of my favourite books of all time. I loved how the footnotes added an element of comedy to this serious natured book, after following Jays twitter i can confirm the man is a comedic genius.

I have seen quite a few people shelve this book as young adult of goodreads, it is very much an adult book. This book has some of the best sex scenes ever written in a fantasy novel and Kristoff certainly didnt shy away from that kind of content, man can he write! Theres also a lot of gory scenes, some scenes really shocked me and i dont shock easily!

Overall this was a fantastic read and one that will stay with me a long time, i can imagine myself rereading this a lot and thats not something i say so soon after finishing a book which i can only take as a positive sign. I am now a fully fledged member of the Jay Kristoff fan club and i will auto buy anything he writes in the future.

#68 Holy Sister

Holy Sister by Mark Lawrence

Well here it is! The much anticipated third and final book in the 'Book of the Ancestor' trilogy.

This trilogy is fantastically written and so intricate, there are so many details that at first seem irrelevant to the plot but then become relevant 2 books later. Mark Lawrence's world building is second only to Sanderson, everything he writes is so deliberate and masterfully done. He uses a great mix of character driven writing along with dynamic world building- whats not to love?

Holy Sister continues on from Grey Sister, it is told in two timelines, one in the present and one 3 years previous. Present day follows Nona and her friends as they strive to become full sisters in their chosen specialisation: Red, Grey or Holy sister. In the past timeline the story follows where Grey Sister left off, which i appreciated as i had so many unanswered questions. The ending of Grey Sister was rushed and dare i say ever so slightly sloppy. The nuns had just escaped the Emperors sister, Sherzal and her infamous Noi-Guin assassins and were trying to flee back to the safety of the convent whilst being chased, my biggest question was 'did everyone make it?' 'did anyone die?', the abruptness annoyed me as these questions plagued my mind until i was able to pick the conclusion up.

This trilogy has been an epic journey chronicling Nona's life from a peasant girl to becoming a novice at Sweet Mercy Convent. This instalment sees Nona face the final challenges she must overcome if she is to become a full sister to pave the way for her and her friends pick a speciality and finally graduate.

This was a highly thrilling conclusion. We have spent two books seeing Nona come into her own and hone her many many skills. Nona has made friends and enemies at Sweet Mercy and they honestly read as so real, i was so fond of them all (except Jolie, she is the worst) I love how the central focus of this series is female friendship, it was so refreshing to read. One of the most interesting aspects was delving into the paths laid out by Abbess Glass for Nona, it was extremley confusing at first but really came together the longer the story went on, a tribute to Lawrences writing really.

My only real criticism would be Jolie. The absolute witch that is Jolie deserved death in the end and it annoyed me that Nona chose mercy, that is possibly the only thing i would change. I know this was written as part of Nona's character development as a more mature and merciful sister but STILL she could have at least had her whipped or something!

In the end this is a highly entertaining and suspenseful read. I will 100% be reading Mark Lawrences back list books and anything new he brings out too. I am ashamed that it took me this long to discover his wonderful writing.

#67 The Priory of the Orange Tree

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

This was my most anticipated book of 2019 and oh boy it didn't let me down! It took me 12 days to read (which im really proud of considering it was 804 pages) i was a bit nervous going into this one as its been hyped so much so i had high expectations but luckily it really lived up to the hype.

So the book is basically about 2 divided sides, East and West:

The West storyline focuses on Queen Sabran who must produce a female heir to become queen and keep 'the nameless one' in exile. The nameless one is decribed as a beastly creature that almost took over the world one thousand years prior to our current storyline but was exiled. Queen Sabran is guided along her way by Ead Duryan who is sent by the priory in the south to look after and protect the queen. She uses her magic and skills to keep Queen Sabran safe from the constant threat of assassination. 

In the East we follow the story of Tane who has been nurtured and trained since birth to be a dragon rider but one night she is forced to make an impossible choice when she finds a man washed up on the shore the night before her ceremony to become a dragon rider when she is meant to be in seclusion. She cannot decide whether to turn the man into the authorities whilst simultaneously outing
herself for breaking seclusion and jeopardising her chances of becoming a dragon rider. Tane at the beginning goes through trials to be selected as a dragon rider which makes for really good reading.

The characters from East & West must come together to face the threat of the nameless one together, if they do not civilisation will be under his rule.

Things i liked:

This was a stand.alone.adult.fantasy :O need i say more?

I love dragons in fantasy books, there isnt enough dragons in my opinion. What i loved about this book is that dragons where explored in a new way, there was the element of water dragons as well as the standard fire dragons which was really interesting to read about. I havent read a good dragon book since Game of Thrones.

I flew through this and i was so committed to the characters and each of their story arcs. Its not often that you feel a connection to every single character and you root for them so deeply. Each character is in a completely different situation that is so interesting to follow, they are so flawed and real and i really appreciated how relevant each characters storyline was to the overall story. My favourite character i think was Ead, she was a really well thought out character.

I adored the LGBT elements as we had 2 main characters in same sex relationships. One of the romances was very slow burn and actually surprised me when it happened as it is super abrupt and there wasnt very many hints before then that they even liked each other, i think this could have been done a lot better.

The world building was so well done, its very intricate and detailed and you get a good sense of the differences and the politics on both sides of the Queendom. The book is so interesting and engaging and each chapter is so relevant, i expected for 800+ pages that some of it would be a bit filler but nope! every single thing is relevant to the overall story. I can honestly say that at no point was i bored.

This book has made me want to read everything that Samantha Shannon has wrote and is yet to write! I would put this on a par with Sanderson.

Things i didn't like:

i really disliked Niclays as a character, he pissed me off to no end. At one point he maims a dragon and i wanted him dead for it. I did understand how he was relevant to the story and just how important his input was but i still hated him

The ending was very very rushed, i felt that the pacing was well done throughout until the end. The last 50 pages or so were so sudden and quick. I liked the ending itself but it was abrupt as hell.

The East and the South felt very undeveloped, there wasnt too much of their history, culture or politics. I thought the West was done fantastically well, it felt so well written and researched.

Overall i gave this 5 stars, amazing book.

#66 Aurora Rising

Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

'They are not the heroes we deserve, they are just the ones we could find' 

Aurora Rising is the beginning of a new sci-fi series by the dynamic duo that is Kaufman & Kristoff. I was really glad when picking this one up that it followed a more traditional format instead of the mixed media they do in their Illuminae Files, which i also enjoyed but my fear was that the mixed media would have felt over done if they had carried it into their new series.

Aurora Rising follows a fleet of misfits from the Aurora Academy in the year 2380. The book opens with the star pupil of the Aurora Academy Tyler, on his way to the draft in which he gets to pick his fleet, he has the first pick but has to rescue a survivor from an abandoned ship in which the passengers have been cryrogenically frozen and have been floating in the 'fold' for two thousand years but a scan of the ship shows one survivor who Tyler rescues and brings back to the academy also missing the draft and leaving him with the pupils that no one else picked.

I fell in love with the characters pretty quickly especially Zila, i found her character to be well developed and the most complex. It felt a little like Guardians of the Galaxy mixed with Six of Crows as they were a bunch of ragtags thrown together for an adventure. The world building is very subtly placed throughout the story and can be found at the end of most chapters and gives the reader an insight into the background of the society and the civilisation.

The main players in this story are:

• Tyler Jones- The star pupil/golden boy of Aurora Academy and the alpha of the fleet
• Scarlett Jones- The twin sister of Tyler who is in charge of diplomacy and negiotiation and fierce af
• Cat- The pilot who may or may not be in love with Tyler
• Finnian- the sciencey guy who is hilarious yet impulsive and very dry, possible bisexual rep? 
• Zila- The misunderstood tech hacker girl who is dubbed the smartest 
• Kal- the fearless alien warrior of the bunch 
• Auri- The girl who was found by Tyler floating in space

This story was heavy on the sci-fi and not so heavy on the romance which i heavily appreciated, there are a few hints of romance here and there but nothing that will make you roll your eyes. I found this story in the beginning to be quite similar to Skyward by Brandon Sanderson as it starts out in a space school type setting but it really found its own after this first quarter. Parts were very thrilling and edge of your seat which made for a very fun read. I read this physically but have heard amazing reviews of the audiobook as its read by a full cast. I really enjoyed this story and ultimately gave it 4 stars. 

My hopes for the next book in the series are more character development and a bit of back story for each specifically Fin, i need to know the full story behind the exo suit. A back story for Zila would be great too. 

#65 Red, White & Royal Blue

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

Thank you to Netgalley and St Martins press for this arc that came out on May 14th, i really had planned to read and review this before release date but life got in the way :(

'I dont know, man. I was in high school, and i touched a boob. It wasnt very profound. Nobody's gonna write an Off-Broadway play about it'

Before i begin im just going to point out that i dont read contemporary, i dont like contemporary and i havent reviewed a contemporary here in a really long time. Having said that- this was bloody fantastic!

This book follows the story of Alex who is the first son of the USA, his mum is president and Henry who is the prince of England. They fall in love (in short) and its beautiful and exactly what i needed to read without knowing it. Alex is involved in politics and is a bit of a loner, he hangs out with his sister June and the VP's granddaughter Nora, he dreams of getting involved in politics and following in his mothers footsteps. He is mixed race and his parents are divorced so he comes from a blended family which seems so unlikely in 2019 that this would happen in America but it NEEDS to (especially a female president)! Henry is the grandson of the queen, his dad was a movie star and passed away when Henry was younger, his mum isnt overly involved as she is swallowed by her grief. Henry is close with his younger sister Bea but not so much his older brother Philip.

Alex really dislikes Henry and after a PR disaster it is agreed in the interest of both nations that they appear to be friends at events and on social media, as they are pushed together they begin to realise that they do have feelings for each other. Henry has always known that he is gay but struggles with what that means in terms of the monarchy and him not fulfilling his duties. Alex has always believed he was straight until he starts reflecting on past events that lead him to the realisation that he is bisexual.

What i enjoyed most about this book is that its not one of those tropey annoying reads that they meet, fall in love, break up and then ultimately get back together as those stories have been done time and time again! This was fresh and interesting, a new take on what it means to be in a same sex relationship whilst being in a power position. The topics discussed were so important, the role the tabloids play in these peoples lives and social media and how harmful it can be but also the pure side of two people being so utterly obsessed with each other whilst not only being long distance but it also being forbidden. Gahhhh it was just everything.

i am in absolute awe that this is a debut novel, it reads so refined and it really well put together. Typically this isnt a book i would enjoy, i dont enjoy romance or anything about royalty, i dont like 'fake friendships or relationships' but i LOVED this! It made me laugh constantly, made me angry and weepy. Honestly it was a rollercoaster of emotions but ultimately so so good.

My only issues with this were that some characters were a bit flat. I like a strong friendship group in a book but this was mainly focused on Alex & Henry. The development of their relationship wasnt as slow burn for me, it wasnt insta love either somewhere in between but i think i would have liked it to take a bit longer. The transition from enemies to lovers was so so fast for me.