The Shadow Throne by Jennifer A. Nielsen | A Beautiful End to a Series *Spoilers*

The Shadow Throne by Jennifer A. Nielsen

The Ascendance Trilogy #3
Date Read: Jan 19 to 22, 2018

First Published: 2014

Kindle

Young Adult, Fantasy
Rating:

Re-Readability:

One war. Too many deadly battles. Can a king save his kingdom when his own survival seems unlikely?
War has come to Carthya. It knocks at every door and window in the land. And when Jaron learns that King Vargan of Avenia has kidnapped Imogen in a plot to bring Carthya to its knees, Jaron knows it is up to him to embark on a daring rescue mission. But everything that can go wrong does.
His friends are flung far and wide across Carthya and its neighbouring lands. In a last-ditch effort to stave off what looks to be a devastating loss for the kingdom, Jaron undertakes what may be his last journey to save everything and everyone he loves. But even with his lightning-quick wit, Jaron cannot forestall the terrible danger that descends on him and his country. Along the way, will he lose what matters most? And in the end, who will sit on Carthya's throne?

Okay, so first things first... I love this book and I love this series and I highly highly recommend you get it if you haven't yet! You will fall in love with the main character and his journey, guaranteed!

Speaking of Jaron's journey... Can we take a minute to appreciate what Nielsen has done with this trilogy? Some trilogies suffer from "second book syndrome", where the second book is kind of meh and filler. Not The Ascendence Trilogy. The first book was all about getting Jaron to the crown. The second is all about Jaron assembling his court in preparation for the war. And the third is said war, with Jaron as the proper and respected king of Carthya.

No book is filler, or there just for the sake of prolonging the series. Each book is necessary to Jaron's development and the authentic flow of the story... to making this final book satisfying and gratifying. To making Jaron's final triumph meaningful. And I don't consider this a spoiler because let's face it, did you really think this precarious and precious king would not succeed?

And yes, I am still as in love with Jaron as ever. I love how kind and self-sacrificing he is. How all his actions are motivated by a single-minded desire to help others. I love how despite this he is not perfect; he is hot-headed and stubborn, and proud. And a little dense in certain aspects.

I truly wish more leaders were like Jaron - because he definitely inspires a sense of loyalty and respect from everyone who encounters him; from his armies, his regents, his subjects, his friends and, of course, the readers.

He is a king you would proudly follow into battle.

And that battle... it was brilliantly written, as always. I absolutely adored reading of Jaron's plans, schemes, and tricks, and Nielsen does an amazing job setting those up, allowing us to understand Jaron has something planned, but almost never enough for you to figure out exactly what before it happens.

The one weak point of this novel is one that has been accompanying me since book one and that's the romance. Don't get me wrong--Imogen and Jaron are cute together, no doubt about that. Especially with the kisses at the end (like, that was totes adorable). But since I never quite understood why and when they fell in love in book one, I failed to understand it here, so I left still feeling like something was missing. Feeling like his reaction to her death is too monumental because their love was never properly based for me. Same goes for Tobias and the Princess.

In this regards, my re-read of the first book kind of did a disservice to this series. I feel like had I not done that to refresh my memory, I would have gone forward in the books under the illusion those emotions have been explored better in book one, and therefore feeling more at peace with them. Oh well, not everything about a book can be a win.

I'm extremely sad to be saying goodbye to this world and characters, but here's to hoping Nielsen's other protagonists are as incredible as Jaron was because I will be reading them for sure!

2018 Goals: Finish 10 Series!

Okay, now we're talking big goals here. 

This one is going to be extremely tough for me, based on last year's performance. You see, last year, I read mostly series that are considered a series of standalones. Which means that every time I opened a book, I was committed to that single story itself and not really the series because they don't usually connect in a bigger arc.

This year, I plan to do some serious series reading (see what I did there? lol). Still, I'm going to keep it at ten because I think I can do ten (hopefully). 

And I am going to consider finished series of standalones in this one, just to help things along.

You can come back to this page throughout the year to see my progress!

Potential Series to Finish 

1. The Lunar Chronicles - Definitely a top priority for me as I only need to read Winter. I even read the first 100 pages before, I just got so anxious I stopped lol (I need my babies to be alright...)

2. The Ascendence Trilogy - I need to read the second & third book, but I own them all and these are a top priority as well, since I really want to knock it off my shelves.

3. Daughter of Smoke and Bone - I plan to re-read the first book and then binge two, three & three and a half now that I own the whole series.

4. The Grish Trilogy - same with DoSaB I'm going to re-read the first and then being the whole series AND start Six of Crows.

5. The Mistborn Trilogy - I'm counting only the first trilogy in the series since the second follows completely different characters. I was so in love with the first book, and then I accidentally read a spoiler for the third one and entered "protection mode". Anyways... I'm going to do this!

6. Starbound Trilogy - I thought the first book was just really beautiful, and I am set to have book two in the coming month and I bought the third one on my trip to London, so my plan is to re-read the first one and then dive into the remaining two to knock this beautiful series of standalones (with a connecting arc) into the read pile!

8. Morganville Vampires - so... I'm stuck on book 13 out of 15. Like, I've got to finish it now. But I have to admit that the series has really gone downhill once the original plotline was resolved. It just doesn't compare to what it was. I hope Caine doesn't make this mistake with her other series and just finishes them where they should be finished instead of dragging them on like this.

9. The Heroes of Olympus - I nearly forgot about this one! My God... I really enjoy these books, but nothing about them makes me need to read the next one immediately after finishing one, so I end up just... letting them hang. I only need to read the two final books, so I'm going to work on that this year!

10. Bridgertons - I need to read just the final novel to finish this one, and I own it! I just.. I read some things about it that made me not read it, but it all ends this year!

11. Lux- the first one of this pile that I'm putting more on "maybe" than anything else. I really enjoyed the first one, but then I never really felt the need to read the second and even stopped reading aforementioned second close to the end. But I'm going to give this one final shot before deciding anything. Maybe I'll re-read the first one again... we'll see.

12. Mythos Academy - this one goes into the maybe pile. I liked the first book (wasn't in love with it though), and I own almost all the other books in the series, so I think I'll try re-reading the first and see where it goes from there.

13. Song of the Lioness - another one for the "maybe" pile. If I'll find the final novel for cheap, then I'll read it. If not, then not. I've never been a big fun of this series, 's all...

Potential Series to Start & Finish (Own all)

1. White Rabbit Chronicles - I own the entire series and I love Showalter's adult series, so this one seems like a no-brainer (I think this one is considered over, but I'm not actually sure).

2. Six of Crows - I really want to read this series, but since I have started Shadow and Bone before I kind of can't do that until I finish that one (call it OCD!)

3. Blue is For Nightmares - I somehow found myself owning all the books as they came discounted on Kindle, so I figure what the heck, let's 

4. A Darker Shade of Magic - I have wanted to read this one for a long time, and I now own all the books in the series and thefore... I shall! 

5. Kiss of Deception - I am waiting for the second book to arrive on my doorstep, but once it does I will have the entire series in my hands and that means... time to read the eff out of them! lol

A Goodbye Letter to The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater | Book Review-ish

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

The Raven Cycle #4
First Published: 2016
Hardcover
Young Adult, Fantasy
Rating:

Nothing living is safe. Nothing dead is to be trusted.
For years, Gansey has been on a quest to find a lost king. One by one, he’s drawn others into this quest: Ronan, who steals from dreams; Adam, whose life is no longer his own; Noah, whose life is no longer a lie; and Blue, who loves Gansey… and is certain she is destined to kill him.
Now the endgame has begun. Dreams and nightmares are converging. Love and loss are inseparable. And the quest refuses to be pinned to a path.

I can't believe that it's over. I don't even know if I have the words right now. I feel inadequate compared to the flourish with which this story expressed itself. In my head, I have something more. A way to articulate the thoughts and the feelings and the friendship I found within these pages.

How do I review something like this? What can I say, what can I not?

Blue and Gansey; you two were the reason I went on this journey. It wasn't just the idea about your doomed love and your stolen glances and touches, not so stolen now, although I cannot deny it's a part of it. I cannot pretend I wasn't waiting for THE kiss with a voyeuristic sense of anticipation.

It was that Gansey was a king, a leader, a dreamer. A believer, with charisma to spare and attachments no one can sever. If your found family chooses to forget the good in themselves, you'll remember it for them. And I loved you for it.

It was that Blue was magic without being magical herself, a quirky mass of righteousness and hypocrisy (but not in a bad way), a soul desperate to explore and expand and get out of its own skin. To touch the sky. And I loved you for it.

The two of you quieted something in my when I read of you.

Adam and Ronan; I wasn't counting on you two when I started this series. You sneaked up on me, starting out as two of my least favorite people in the book and developing into something more.

It was that Ronan was gruff and abrasive at first glance, but inside he was color and magic and fantasy. A chaos on the verge of breaking down, anytime. As Adam said himself, so much of Ronan is posturing, and beneath it all you find loyalty, love, and dreams.

It was that Adam was so self righteous and above everything at first, but then you realized he's been hurt one too many times to accept unconditional love--what is love? How do recognize love?-- and affection, and friendship. And so he stumbled and he stumbled until he was faced with the truth of love and life.

Of all the stories, your journey affected me the most. You inflamed something in me, a fierce need to see you both settled in a semblance of a HEA. I did not expect to spend most of the final book thinking of you guys. I did not expect your relationship to be THE relationship when I thought of The Raven Cycle.

I started this series anxiously waiting for one KISS. I finished it looking forward to another.

Noah; my cinnamon bun. The one character in this all who would always draw the short stick. You did not deserve any of what happened to you, and yet you kept your spirits up (no pun intended). I wish I could hug you and tell you everything would be okay. I wish that was the truth.

Cabeswater; You magical, fantastical creature. How you protected your magicians. How you fought. How willing you were to come to your humans' aide, when you could. All you wanted was to make their dreams reality; how could you know some dreams are nightmares?

I fell in love with all of you, as you've all fallen for each other. Your friendship is the stuff of legends, and all consuming thing that has it's own thoughts and feelings.

This strange, fantastical journey feels like a dream, one I did not necessarily want to wake up from. I wish there was something more, another book, or three, because I don't feel ready to let you all go.

You gave me the ending you deserved, you gave me the series finale I've been hoping for, but it could never be enough. I could never really tell you goodbye, my weird, otherworldly friends. I could never think of you and "the end" in the same sentence and have it make sense. You're more than words on a page.

Truly, something more.

Love in the Afternoon by Lisa Kleypas | Book Review

Love in the Afternoon by Lisa Kleypas

The Hathaways #5

First Published: 2010

Kindle Bundle

Adult, Historical Romance

Rating:

She harbors a secret yearning.
As a lover of animals and nature, Beatrix Hathaway has always been more comfortable outdoors than in the ballroom. Even though she participated in the London season in the past, the classic beauty and free-spirited Beatrix has never been swept away or seriously courted... and she has resigned herself to the fate of never finding love. Has the time come for the most unconventional of the Hathaway sisters to settle for an ordinary man—just to avoid spinsterhood?

He is a world-weary cynic.
Captain Christopher Phelan is a handsome, daring soldier who plans to marry Beatrix's friend, the vivacious flirt Prudence Mercer, when he returns from fighting abroad. But, as he explains in his letters to Pru, life on the battlefield has darkened his soul—and it's becoming clear that Christopher won't come back as the same man. When Beatrix learns of Pru's disappointment, she decides to help by concocting Pru's letters to Christopher for her. Soon the correspondence between Beatrix and Christopher develops into something fulfilling and deep... and when Christopher comes home, he's determined to claim the woman he loves. What began as Beatrix's innocent deception has resulted in the agony of unfulfilled love—and a passion that can't be denied.

If I am completely honest - and I always thrive to be - I was surprised by how much I liked this novel. Beatrix has always been my second favorite Hathaway sibling (right after Leo) so I knew I had nothing to worry on that front, but we had very little build up toward her story in the other novels, so I wasn't sure what to expect.

What I got? Captain Christopher Phelan. I loved this guy. He returns from war a changed man, a man who no longer fits into the rule he used to occupy before, and he doesn't know what to do about it. Atop this feeling of isolation, he suffers from PTSD, which of course was a term that didn't exist at the time period of this book. So, he fears he's half mad.

The only thing keeping him going? Pru, the girl who wrote him all those honest letters while he was employed. But of course, Pru didn't write them, but Beatrix. Wonderfully free spirited, outdoorsy, compassionate and intelligent Beatrix Hathaway. 

Animals and humans alike are attracted to the unique way she looks at the world. And both cannot help but be soothed by her, which Phelan desperately needs.

The romance between them is very sweet. Beatrix is completely sure of herself and her love to Phelan. She doesn't let anything stand in the way of her showing him affection, of convincing him to take her on. To take himself on. 

And the way Phelan dotted on her was nothing short of delightful. He never spared an opportunity to show her how much he loved her once he realized who she was. Was never afraid to tell her that he did. Was never afraid to let the whole world know about it, too. 

I'm going to take myself to the corner to swoon in peace, thank you very much.

But this wonderful novel was filled with a bittersweet feeling - because I am not nearly ready to say goodbye to the Hathaways! I have binge this entire series in a week. I have become attached to this family, like they were close friends of mine. I have rejoiced in their victories and felt sorrow at their losses.

I don't want this to be the end!

Please, Kleypas, write more novels featuring this peculiar family. I will settle for stories with them as supporting characters only, anything you'd like, but give me something. I am not okay!