Warcross

   OH MY GOD WHAT A FANTASTIC BOOK

I've loved everything Marie Lu has written so I had pretty high expectations going into this book, and it very much exceeded them. This book is action packed, full of awesome characters and cute romances. And seriously one of the best endings I've ever read.

As a programmer, I always have trouble reading books about programmers/hackers and this book wasn't any different. There were weird programming metaphors (Just find the break in the pattern) and the virtual IDEs were just silly (just peel back the world to see the code). But besides the awkward programming scenes, the technology in the book is actually really cool. Warcross isn't just a game. It's brain interfaced VR + AR system that many people wear all the time. The implications of such an AR system were really cool from augmented wallpaper to virtual models advertising clothing shops. This is my literal dream world.

If you like insane tech worlds, bounty hunters with cool hair, and emotional backstories, read this right now (or more accurately, read this on September 12).

Preorder Warcross on Amazon.

The Last Magician

I had many problems with this book.

First, the author really really really hates New York. She says nothing nice about New York the entire book. Quotation are taken from an uncorrected proof:

• "the rank stink of the streets and the sweltering, airless buildings"
• "that combination of piss, garbage, and exhaust that only New York can smell like"
• "Crawling through the muck of the city"
• "Carve out their own piece of the rotten fruit that was the city"

I live in New York and it’s really hard to read a book that is just constantly insulting your home. If you have nothing nice to say about New York, please set your book somewhere else.

Also, the romance. Harte assaults Esta multiple times throughout the book. He forces her into kisses. He physically prevents her from leaving a room. He lies to get her to dance with him when she’s indicated she doesn’t want to. He grabs her arm so hard he hurts her. He traps her in an airtight box for longer than necessary to get back at her for improvising. And some of these events did have extenuating circumstances (see kiss #1). But how his actions affect Esta isn’t something Harte ever thinks about. He never considers how she might feel violated after he kisses her. He never gives a thought to how wrong it is to hold someone in a room against their will. Harte is just the kind of guy who assaults women and then never thinks about it again. And it’s so one-sided. When Esta improvises without warning Harte, it’s a big deal and she has to apologize profusely. When Harte doesn’t warn Esta, we just move past it. Harte treats Esta terribly the entire book. But he’s cute so *romance*. The whole thing just left me feeling gross.

I wanted so much to like this book. It has time travel, magic, grand heists, and betrayals. And the time travel, magic, grand heists, and betrayals were SO GREAT. But with the constantly insulting my home and the actively harmful romance, I can't give this more than 3 stars.

Tense	3rd person past
POV	Mostly Esta. Some chapters from Harte and Dolph
Love Triangle	No
Magic	Yes!

The Last Magician comes out July 18.

Kindle Books on Sale 5/2/2017

$0.99 - Alchemists of Loom
$0.99 - The Falconer (and the sequel The Vanishing Throne is $1.99)
$1.88 - Labyrinth Lost
$1.88 - The Bone Witch
$1.99 - A Court of Thorns and Roses
$1.99 - The Crown's Game

$1.99 - The Novice

$1.99 - The Wish Granter

$1.99 - Talon

$2.99 - Passenger

Follow Me Back

 
I received an advanced copy of The Fallen Kingdom from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

This book was only okay. The story was pretty simplistic with it mostly focusing around Twitter conversations between the two main characters. Until pretty late in the book, there wasn't all that much going on and I found it hard to stay interested. Plus the background characters were all two dimensional, which is something I just can't stand in a book. We have Tessa's boyfriend Scott who makes no effort to accommodate Tessa's agoraphobia. There's Tessa's mother who is also frustrated by Tessa's agoraphobia. And Eric's manager who makes him work too much and gives him no privacy. And those traits are really all there is to those characters.

Romance-wise, the story idea was pretty cute. But I would have liked it more though if Eric was a bit less of a douche. I can get past him lying about who he is. But he's very determined to date Tessa and cares much more about progressing their relationship than about how what he's doing will affect her. He begs her for selfies knowing that she's scared to show her face to people. He pressures her into signing up for a contest that will require her to go to a concert, knowing she hasn't left her house in months. I'll avoid spoilers but it only gets considerably worse as the book goes on. He cares more about making Tessa his girlfriend than he cares about Tessa's wellbeing. And that's really messed up.

Follow Me Back comes out June 6.

The Fallen Kingdom

Related Posts:
The Falconer Review
The Falconer Synopsis [SPOILERS]
The Vanishing Throne Review

   I received an advanced copy of The Fallen Kingdom from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wow. Just wow. This is the best series I have read in a long time. There's death and betrayal and magic and it's so fun to read. But it's also incredibly emotional. There are such powerful friendships and romances and this isn't the kind of series where everyone survives. I'm sitting here having finished this book and just trying not to cry because this was just too much for me.

The Fallen Kingdom starts off with Aileana returning to life after making a deal with the Cailleach: she'll carry her powers, but unless she can find Morrigan's book, the powers will kill her. Two months have passed since her death and Aithinne and Kiaran have taken back their roles as the Seelie and Unseelie monarchs. The world is breaking apart and won't stop until one kills the other. Ailean's only hope is to find the book and hope it can break the curse and save her world, and hopefully her own life as well.

This book has many of the same elements as the previous books. There's death and destruction. There's awesome magic. There's complicated romance. There's the constant worry about who will survive. But this story goes in a very new direction. I wouldn't consider this a spoiler, but I'll let you make your own choice. Much of the book takes place in another realm where the world is constructed magically, many of the places based on the characters' memories. Anything can happen there in a very literal sense. While this is really cool and makes for some awesome scenes, it also makes the story feel a bit contrived. Not to mention that the book they're looking for contains a spell that can undo time and prevent much of the first two books from ever happening. Is it possible to cheat in book writing? This felt like cheating.

While I was surprised with the direction the book went, I still very much enjoyed reading it. The things I loved about this series: the dark and violent world, the three dimensional characters and their relationships with each other, the plot twists and the constant breaking of my heart; they were all here. This series broke me and I loved every second of it.

The Fallen Kingdom comes out June 13.

The Vanishing Throne

Related Posts:
The Falconer Review
The Falconer Synopsis [SPOILERS]
The Fallen Kingdom Review


    
The Vanishing Throne continues right where The Falconer left off. Aileana has failed to stop the fey and Scotland is screwed. Lonnrach takes her to the fey realm where he keeps her prisoner and tortures her for information. It's impossible to tell how much time is passing in the fey realm, but however long it is, time is moving even faster outside. If any humans even survived, who knows if they've made it this long.

Aileana is dealing with a lot in this book. She's dealing with the guilt of failing to save Scotland. She has PTSD from Lonnrach's torture. She still can't kill Sorscha without killing Kiaran. And she can't stand up to the fey army when she's so susceptible to their magic.

Plus, new characters! We get to meet Kiaran's sister, Aithinne, who is just the best thing I've ever read. Can I have a whole series about just her? Though in a way, I guess this story really is about her as much as it is about Aileana and Kiaran.

This book is FANTASTIC, even more so than the first book. AND THAT ENDING! If you thought the ending to The Falconer was insane, just wait.

Buy The Vanishing Throne on Amazon.

Descendants

I received an advanced copy of this book from Netgalley in exhange for an honest review.

What I Liked
The characters were great. They were multi-dimensional, each having their own goals and their own flaws. And they were willing to lie to reach those goals. There were so many twists and turns, trying to figure out what is true and who the good guys are, if anyone can really be said to be the good guy. I loved trying to solved the mystery of what was really going on.

What I Didn't Like
This is a very short book, only 220 pages, that would have made a great 300-400 page book. There's so much history that's not told and so many plot points that are just left behind. My biggest problem with this book, and the reason I'm only giving it three stars, is that the characters would often behave in unpredictable ways. They would be shocked by some event only to forget about it afterwards. A character would do something very clearly suspicious and no one would bother to investigate. The plans would not be fully explained: El would need to accomplish something that, as far as a reader could tell, was not in any way necessary for the plan. I can't be more specific without spoilers, so read at your own risk:

• El has known Anna for a total of 24 hours and yet she seems to know everything about her. Oh, she probably picked out these teacups, she would probably like this dress, etc. You met her 24 hours ago and have had three conversations total, most of which were one word answers on Anna's part. Where is all this insight coming from?
• El sees some of the rebels forcing a human to mutilate his own hand. She questions Dan about it who claims that there are extremists in the organization. And then El just drops it. No questions about how many of them are extremists, what the extremists what. No doubt about joining an organization that openly claims to have members that like torturing humans.
• El is saved by the rebels and yet shows up to the tournament despite never being told where it is. And no one questions this! No one wonders how she knew where it was, how she got there. No one questions her on where the rebels are who she has clearly spent the past week with. No one tries to get her to disclose their plan, when clearly they arranged for her to be there. They just let her compete without any suspicion at all.
• When she's sent to the tournament, she states that she has to make it to the final round in order to save her grandma and for the rebel's attack to succeed. But why? What does where she places in the tournament have to do with anything? Why does it matter if she's the one who's currently battling when the rebels attack? It just doesn't.
• Why does Cam, who isn't a part of the rebel organization, help the rebels sneak in? Like sure, Dan's done some nice things for her. But aiding what is quite literally a terrorist attack because a friend asks you to? She treats it like it's no big deal.

Descendants comes out April 12.