The Life Well-Lived

I received an advance Kindle version of this novel from the publisher on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for allowing me to read it!

***Spoiler-free***
This was my first ever ARC and I could not be happier to give this book my review. The Library of Amorlin was a wonderful novel and is one of my favorites that I’ve read in the past 6 months since I have started reading again. The world itself is magical and well thought out, the magical system is interesting and centers around the library, and the characters have depth.  While there are action scenes, it relies heavily on the plot of the long con and the relationship between the characters.  I really enjoyed this aspect, because I feel like in a lot of recent novels, relationships between characters tend to be rushed.  We are often told that certain characters have these deep-seeded issues that cause problems when it comes to trusting others only to have gotten past it fairly quickly. In The Library of Amorlin, however, the author really takes their time to establish the connections and build on their interactions.  That is not to say that it gets tedious or slow, because there is plenty going on, but throughout the book I found my heart aching for them to trust and talk to each other. I don’t want to discuss too much more as spoiler-free because this is one I would advise going into knowing very little.

***Spoiler***
To continue the thread on relationships, I thought the tension between Kasira and Allaster was so well done. Both characters have very large trust issues, but the novel doesn’t rush to resolve them.  Part of that, obviously, is the fact that Kasira is running the con and Allaster has every right to distrust the Kalish. We are rewarded, though, in the moments that they do sit down and connect with each other and in the small looks and touches between them.  I greatly enjoyed the build up of their relationship, though I wish we could have seen a little more of it at the end.  I felt like we jumped from the kiss to them lying on the couch when we could have gotten some more sweet moments in between after all of that build up.

The con was a good way to keep the reader guessing as to what the characters were plotting and what the outcome would be.  I did start to feel toward the end that the cycle of con, build trust, reveal, and distrust again was starting to get a bit repetitive.  I felt myself saying “Again, Kasira? Why?” but then I stopped to think about the fact that she believed she didn’t have a choice, that she wasn’t allowed to have a good life, and most importantly failure would result in her being sent back to Belvar.  Through both Kasira and Thane, we are shown the very real fear that comes with the prison and I think she would sacrifice her own desires and chances at a life she’d love to not have to go back. I had suspected that she was going to find a way to get both her freedom and save the library through manipulation of the deals between her, Vera, and the king, but I wasn’t sure how.  I, myself, had to trust her as a character to admit how she felt about Allaster, the library, and her new life and use her skills to find a way out. Every time she lied during the Conclave, it hurt and I had to tell myself to trust that it was going to work out.

Overall, I really really loved this book and I can’t wait for the next.  This was a great foundation on which to build and we have so many threads still to explore.

The Everlasting is a time-travel novel about the love between a historian and the knight that he has researched for years. Stories of her have gotten him through his childhood, saved him in war, and drove his academic career. Owen Mallory has always been drawn to the stories of Una Everlasting and with his country in a time of need (or so he is told), he is sent back to assist Una in her quest.

The novel is written in 2nd person perspective with the “you” being either Una or Owen depending on who is telling the story. I like that it reads almost like a love letter, although they imply that they are telling their story to someone else. The looping time travel is different as well and I don’t think it fell into the trap of rehashing the same things too many times. The areas where I think it it fell short are the immediate acceptance of time travel, the building of the relationship between Owen and Una, and the intimacy scenes.

****Spoilers Below****

Owen wasn’t asked as an expert in his field to go back in time. He had no idea what was happening as Vivian stabbed him in the hand. One moment he was in her office, the next he was at the yew tree with Una’s blade at his throat. His acceptance of being sent back in time was almost immediate as was Una’s. She thought he was a madman but didn’t question it when he told her the location of the grail comes to her in a dream.

Their feelings for each other started almost immediately. In hindsight, I guess it didn’t necessarily need more time because they had theoretically done this several times over already. However, the reader doesn’t know that yet and won’t for a while. There was no chemistry there at all except for maybe the admiration Owen has for her and the awe of being physically in the presence of the knight whose stories have gotten him through.

That leads me to the intimacy parts. The writing leaned more poetic, but any description of physical intimacy whether it was hints of attraction or the act itself seemed crude and jarring. It was like they were shoehorned in to appeal to romantasy readers. I understand the power dynamics between the two of them when it came to intimacy, but the way it was presented was a little off-putting if I’m being honest and didn’t seem to fit in with the tone of the writing. I’m positive that there are better ways of writing in those scenes without losing the mood of the rest of the novel.

Vivian was an interesting villain and I had suspected that she was the queen from the very beginning. When I got to her origin story, it reminded me a lot of Ymir from Attack on Titan. I can’t quite put my finger on why. Maybe it was the devotion to and abuse by a king who was using her. Her young self felt very creepy with all of her knowledge of her future life. Similar to Ymir, there was pity and the understanding that she was a victim, but also an acknowledgement of all the bad things she had done as a result.

This is a difficult one to pin a star review on because I really did like the story. The 2nd person writing was executed well, the plot was pretty unique, but I think ironically suffered from the same thing the characters were trying to get more of: time. Harrow could have made this story 100+ pages longer and taken the time to develop the relationships more and give the time travel aspect room to breathe. I think the true rating would be somewhere around 3.5 stars, leaning toward 4.

Wild Reverence is a beautifully written fantasy novel that centers around the love between a goddess and a mortal. The way it was written felt very delicate and ethereal despite there being plenty of tense moments. It felt like the telling of a myth, which it was in a way. I’ve read some reviews saying that the writing was “poetic” but I’m not sure I necessarily agree. It wasn’t overly formal or flowery, not to say that poetry is but it seems that’s what people think of “poetic” prose.

Matilda is a herald of the gods in a world where there are gods above, gods below, and the mortal world in between. Gods interact regularly with the mortal world and while it’s a great benefit to have their favor or a huge problem in the opposite direction, the existence of them is treated casually. There is even thoughts about capturing a god in order to use them. Gods can also steal or borrow each others’ powers. That creates a lot of room for mistrust among them, which Matilda carries with her in her interactions with Vincent. It’s a story not just about Matilda and discovering all she is capable of, but of learning to trust and what it means to feel safe.

**Spoilers below**

To me, a lot of the weight of this novel comes with the tense emotional connections between the characters. There are several reviews that mention that the characters are bland and one-dimensional. I agree that they are not the deepest, most complex characters, but I think one has to reflect on the environment. The gods kill each other to take their powers. Even someone you think is your ally can and will steal your powers, as evidenced by what happens to Matilda’s mother. There is just no room in their world for trust and affection. Even Bade has a hard time outwardly acknowledging the fact that he cares for Matilda as a father. Vincent at one point wonders if she has never been loved and felt safe even with her own mother. I truly believe Zenia was capable of at the very least trying to manipulate Matilda. The character growth, to me, manifested more in their emotions than it did some outward, climactic display of power.

I thought this book was really well-written and, while I wouldn’t specifically call it a “cozy” read, it had a softer, more ethereal feel than the standard fantasy novel. I did find out after the fact that this is part of the same universe from her Divine Rivals series. I plan to give that a try sometime in the future, but I don’t think I missed out at all from not knowing that. I have a long list of books I need to get to, so it won’t be for a while yet, but I added it to my TBR list.

There was a TikTok video that I feel sums this up pretty perfectly, especially if you’ve read ACOTAR as well. There’s a sound bite that starts out with “Yaas, queen, slay! Slay!” and then goes into a growling yell “SLAY YOUR ENEMIES! RAISE UP YOUR ARMY! TAKE YOUR PLACE UPON THE THRONE!” It’s a simple video that scans a bookshelf with someone pushing the ACOTAR books onto it during the first part and then the TOG books during the second.  The TOG series was like taking ACOTAR and turning the dial way up. I loved the whole thing from start to finish.  Is it a masterful piece of prose? No, but it is well-written and an epic story to journey through.  I did read Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnightbefore The Assassin’s Blade, which I think is the right choice for spoiler reasons.  You learn something about Celaena in those first two books that felt like it had a deeper impact because I didn’t know her history yet.  It was almost like pausing for an extended flashback.  One thing that was great about this series that nothing seemed to be wasted.  Past events always connected to future ones. I can’t say much more without getting into spoiler territory, so…

Aelin, to me, was such a powerful female lead.  I thought Celaena was going to be either instrumental in bringing back the heir of Terrasen or she was the heir and didn’t know it.  I did not see it coming that she was fully aware the whole time.  I thought maybe Arobyn knew and never told her. Heir of Fire might have been my favorite because it was mostly about her dealing with and moving past her trauma to finally become who she was meant to be. It was definitely rough spending an entire book away from that plot in Tower of Dawn, but the story was still good.  I choked up when Aelin and Yrene finally meet again. 

Speaking of side characters, Manon’s story was amazing too. Her character development was so satisfying and there’s of course, the one scene from Kingdom of Ash. I was happy that she and Yrene were given the agency to take down Erawan. I liked Dorian, although I started to not like him as much about the time he began learning how to shapeshift.  Something about his personality around then felt off to me, but I never disliked him fully. I loved Lysandra and Aedion and I’m still sad that Aedion didn’t get to have time with his father.  I legitimately read that part through a few times like “Surely they’re not killing off Gavriel.” Elide and Lorcan’s relationship was great too.  It’s really difficult because I keep having these “Oh right!” moments remembering all of the side characters.  I don’t think there was a single character that I hated.

The only part that I wish could have been different was the final showdown between Maeve and Aelin.  The reveal of the hidden allies was fun, but I felt like it took a little bit away from Aelin’s well-deserved personal victory.  I thought we had also covered the “no more tricks up my sleeve” angle and it turns out she did have one. 

Overall, I absolutely loved this series and it has been one of my favorite stories.

I don’t know why, after finishing TOG with Kingdom of Ash which itself was almost 1,000 pages, I decided to follow it up with a standalone novel that itself is about the same length, but that’s what happened. Priory of the Orange Tree is a beautifully written novel.  It’s more high fantasy with formal prose and is, in my opinion, a work of art.  The lore of the world is so rich.  I once heard a content creator say that the book contained an entire trilogy’s worth of a story in one standalone novel and I completely agree. 
One bonus point for me was the fact that neither Sabran nor Ead had to give up their life’s work to be with the other.  Yes, there was a plan for Sabran to abdicate in 10 years, but both women were allowed paths to achieve their goals, to have both their relationship as well as their own identities.  There are two other books in this world, A Day of Fallen Night and Among the Burning Flowers. I own both and am definitely reading them in the future, but after this I needed something shorter.

I kept seeing people singing the praises of this book and talking about the fact that the movie is going to be released soon.  I have not read much science fiction, but I have loved plenty of the standard sci fi television shows and moves.  Plus the way the reviewers had been describing it, I thought I would give it a shot.  I intentionally went in as blind as I could and I’m so happy I did.  I loved the method of delivering the story as Ryland remembered things by observing his environment to trigger flashbacks.  It created good tension throughout the story by first trying to figure out where he is and why he’s there, but then also in figuring out how to save the sun and the people of Earth. Rocky was such a fun character, too. I love that he was intelligent but intelligent in a different way than Ryland.  It made for a very complimentary character and I’m happy that Weir decided not to go the standard humanoid alien route.  As we were getting closer to their first meeting, I was getting so worried that the story was going to get ruined for me by overused humanoid alien tropes, but that was not the case at all.  Their relationship felt so special, like true best friends who found each other in the midst of the most dire circumstances.  And Ryland’s character itself was pretty great.  It was like watching that one friend who is clearly too smart and too quick-witted for their own good work their way through a problem.

This was a different vibe altogether from Project Hail Mary. I went from deep space, cinematic sci fi to 19^th century dark academia.  The magic system is heavily linguistics-based with the power of the magic coming from the history and connections of words from different languages.  I do have a love for learning other languages (I personally have taken Spanish, Japanese, and Arabic) so I greatly enjoyed the system.  The bigger theme, though, is anti-colonialism.  The main character and his cohort are all taken from various other cultures and thrust into wealthy British society.  Their backgrounds as native speakers of other languages than English is highly sought after for this kind of work and they’re essentially taught to be grateful for the opportunity despite never actually being accepted into British society.  Robin, the main character, struggles with this because he was taken from Canton when his mother and most of the surrounding area died from a terrible disease.  His new “father,” Professor Lovell basically “rescues” him, lets him choose a more British name, and puts him through a rigorous education specifically to get him into Babel which is a tower at Oxford that is responsible for producing and researching this form of magic.  I know I’m glossing over it a bit, but it’s been a few months since I read it.  Robin in many ways struggles with his identity because he seems to want the life of a Babel scholar but then also experiences the tragedy of how non-white people are treated in British society, Babel scholar (which is one of the highest accolades) or no.  Honestly, I’m not sure any of the characters were meant to be “likable.”  They all seem to represent very real stereotypes and have very deep flaws.  This is not to say that characters should be likeable, only that I’m not sure any of them were meant to be.

The ending felt very fatalistic to me as well.  Robin and others hole up inside Babel with some others in an attempt to get the country’s attention to institute change and stop a war that Britain really just wanted an excuse to start, but they come to realize that this will only ever amount to an inconvenience.  Everything will keep moving forward despite their attempts.  Instead, they decide to use their magic system to completely destroy Babel, which will cripple the country.  If they can’t peacefully bring about change, maybe the system itself has to be destroyed.  However, the ending still suggests that this doesn’t really affect any lasting meaningful change. 

Overall, I enjoyed the novel.  It was definitely thought-provoking and made me stop to analyze myself.  I didn’t give it a full 5 stars because there were things that didn’t sit right with me, even acknowledging that not all stories have happy endings.  Like others, I also didn’t care for all of the footnotes and the reminders of what should be viewed as “good” vs “bad.”  In my opinion, the reader can and should determine that for themselves.  It’s those individual interpretations that create the interesting conversations we have about the novel.

After the weight of Babel, I was looking for a quick, fun read.  I had not planned on reading Quicksilver because I heard so many mixed reviews.  It was like night and day.  Some reviews were glowing and others were saying it was complete trash.  My expectations were really about enjoying a fun read that would likely have some standard romantasy tropes.  Nothing that was ground-breaking but would be quick and fun.  That’s what I got with this book. It was a lot of using the standard tropes and I feel that the romance part happened far too quickly.  This is book one of a trilogy and I think we Callie could have spent more time building up the relationship.  For a mildly “enemies to lovers” vibe, they gave up on the enemies part pretty quickly.  It was a fun read, but nothing spectacular.

I expected Brimstone to be similar, but I really struggled getting through it.  There are a ton of reviews out there about the repeating awkward word choices and grammatical errors already, but more than that I thought the story was rushed and tried to pack too much into one book. Too many “events” with very little to show for it in the end. I was also severely disappointed with how Saeris handled the vampire court.  I understand she didn’t want to be queen of it, but there could have been so much more there.  It made me upset that, whenever there was trouble, they would just teleport away and leave the people there to deal with it.  There was so much opportunity there to make the vampire court into something more and better with Saeris at the helm.  Another thing that bothered me was that Saeris and Kingfisher kept getting handed abilities to solve any problem.  And let’s not forget about the ability that she squandered.  I could go on for a while about all of this, but I don’t think it’s worth the time. Brimstone could have been a fun, guilty pleasure kind of read for me and it was just a bad cluster of stuff.  I haven’t decided for sure, but I don’t think I’ll be reading book 3.