A Court of Feels and Angst

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

Epic.  I know I have used the term before, but at this moment I cannot fathom using it in a future blog after reading this book.  With an opening statement like that I bet you are assuming that this blog will also be epic.  Well I hate to disappoint you, but I have not written a blog in almost two years and I feel a little out of practice.  But I will do what I can to make this blog worthy of my new friend Sarah and her beautiful writing.

If you have not read A Court of Thorns and Roses there will be spoilers from book one.  I just can’t seem to write a blog without mentioning some key things that happen under the mountain in the first book. 

As just stated, this is the second book in the Court of Thorns and Roses series.  Feyre survived Amarantha and her evil court under the mountain, only to come back to the Spring Court a shadow of her old self.  Her new life lived in perpetual spring would be assumed to be perfect, but her surroundings are killing her.  She is different and so is Tamlin, the love of her life.  After Feyre broke the curse, he left Amarantha’s clutches a broken High Lord, even more protective and changed.  Feyre feels trapped but can also feel something else happening within her.  She feels a power moving under her skin, but lives in constant turmoil because she knows that he will be coming soon.  Who? The dreaded High Lord of the Night Court, Rhysand.  To save her own life, she made a bargain with Rhysand that requires her to live in the Night Court one week per month for the rest of her existence.  That’s about all I can say about this book without spoilers. 

This book had so many twists and turns, and for being over 600 pages one would assume that there would be unnecessary chapters, paragraphs or words, but not where Sarah J. Maas is concerned.  She wastes no detail and the smallest word could change the whole world that these characters live in. 
The story is woven together like a large tapestry and she shows us just a tiny section at a time.  We may see a green thread at the very beginning of the first book that reappears in the second book that we didn’t see coming.  Or she will change this black thread that we know has to be the worst thread to be used, then it changes right before our eyes into the deepest of violets and changes the entire plot of the book. She gives the audience tiny hints, a look in Rhys’ eyes, a nod between Mor and Azriel, and other non-verbal nuggets that Sarah drops, make me, as the reader feel special.  I know that every reader sees these cues, but when I’m wrapped up in a quilt on my couch, I can’t help but think she is writing these little hints just for me. 

All items below are a little spoilerish, so if you want to be pleasantly surprised, then stop here go read the book and then come back!  All ideas were discussed with my book junkie friend Lily so I can’t keep up with which ideas were mine or hers, so know that not all of these ideas are my own… thanks for reading with me Lily!

What I loved:

Rhys, everything about his character, everything about his personality, he was a fantastic character to read and to fall in love with, right along with Feyre.  The audience slowly learns how he is absolutely different than he and Sarah have led us to believe and the surprises just keep on coming. 

Feyre has this inherent strength about her that cannot be overlooked.  She is brave, and kind, and a little naïve at times about what’s happening in her own life.  She is the epitome of going into love blindly.  Even if it did take a little time for her to fall in love with Tamlin, she was blinded to how he treated her until it was so much that she felt trapped and had to leave or die.  And then, she was blinded to the fact that Rhys was ridiculously in love with her from day one. 

Rhys and Feyre (freaking face with heart-shaped eyes)
- She called for Rhys on her wedding day, he was waiting for her to want to come to him before enforcing the bargain. 
- Note passing, he taught her to read and write and then they pass notes, probably the cutest communication between characters ever.
-The look on his face (or at least how it’s described) as he sees her transform for the first time during her interaction with Lucien from the Spring Court, “Wings look good on you.”
-This was a beautiful moment, when the audience realizes that Feyre was the reason that Rhys did not go insane under the mountain during his time with Amarantha.  The dreams or flashes of vision were the only reason he made it and therefore sent a vision of the night sky to whomever as a thank you.  “What did you paint for yourself?” “The night sky.”
-I knew that her meeting the most hansom male she had ever seen was going to be important.  It was, dare I say, an epic meeting.  I didn’t realize how epic, but I was so thankful that when Feyre reminds us what Rhys’ first words were to her, “There you are, I’ve been looking for you.”                              

What I did not love:
In a land of beauty, Tamlin and Feyre’s wedding is doomed because of the dress.

Tamlin loved Feyre more than anything in the world.  He watched her die and I believe that broke a piece of his heart and maybe even his soul.  He is incredibly strong, yet he had no idea how to save her or fight for her.  He knew what it felt like to be without her even if it was a very short time.  When they were back to his home at the Spring Court he didn’t know how to protect her but he knew that was all he needed to do.  Of course that is the very reason that she leaves him is because she felt as trapped in Tamlin’s house as she did under the mountain.  But with lots of thought, I don’t believe that Tamlin is a bad guy, he’s definitely not the bad guy of the story and with a little help from my book junkie friend Lily, we realized that he’s not bad, he’s weak.  Weak in the sense that he sees that she is changing and understands that he is losing her but cannot figure out how to help her.  He was powerless to help her through the nightmares, her loss of her creativity, and the terror of what has happened to her and what she knows is yet to come.

Ianthe, the Priestess.  I had a really bad feeling about her from the first moment she appeared, the way she told Feyre what to do but never was there for her when she needed a friend.  I am pretty upset that Tamlin is just like “I’ll have a talk with her about how we do things in the Spring Court.” No, Tamlin, that selfish female needs to be arrested and put on trial for her sins!  She went to the King!!!  Ugh, I am so over her.    

This blog has turned out a lot longer than expected which means I have lost a lot of readers, but for those who have stuck with me, thank you!  It’s been so long since I’ve flexed this writing muscle and I will be back to share my thoughts and opinions on just a fraction of the books that I read. 
The next book comes out in May and I cannot wait.  My mind cannot fathom another series being as fantastic as this one in this year, but maybe I will be surprised and delighted.   

Oh, I almost forgot, sorry underage friends… even though I picked this book up in the YA section, this is not a Young Adult book.  My recommendation is probably 17 or 18 or older.  Or maybe after you are married, ok, I know I’m a prude, but you love me!

So, have you read ACOMAF or anything else by Sarah J. Maas?  Leave me a comment and let me know what you thought about these books!  And no matter what, Keep Reading my Friends!

It’s Time for the Scorpio Races… I am so, so alive.

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

Every November on a tiny island the water horses come out of the sea and the island has a race.  These horses aren’t normal racing animals, they are monsters that eat meat and the men of the island race and some riders die while one will be crowned victor.  This story is about a boy named Sean Kendrick who has won the last four years and is coming back with his water horse Corr and a girl named Puck Connolly a desperate girl that is trying to keep her family together after her parents were dragged down into the sea by these monsters she’s about to race. 

I loved this book.  I am so glad I finally got it from the library because every book I have read of Maggie Stiefvater, I have loved.  Maggie has a way with words that blows my mind.  She makes the normal seem inspirational.  She makes things smell that don’t have a smell and the characters taste things that don’t have taste and it’s amazing.  She has a way with words that make a small observation seem huge and life changing. 

Sean, what a great character, I loved how quiet he was and how unassuming he was.  I loved his relationship with Corr and I adored how his emotions grew stronger for Puck, with each training day.  He is a fantastic character filled with grief and love and drive. 

As the race finally starts on page 397 (of 472) my heart was beating so fast.  I’m sitting on the edge of my seat.  What’s going to happen?  Who’s going to win and who’s going to die?  There was so much tension and suspense these moments that I thought I would have to take a break, but couldn’t step away from the action on the beach.  The race was only 2 miles long on a beach, it was the most nail biting 10 pages I’ve read in a long time.  I was so worried that Sean or Puck was going to die.  I couldn’t believe that other characters had died in the book and on this same beach and I was just waiting for someone that I loved to die. 

I enjoyed Puck’s little brother Finn, what a great character with his little nervous quirks and how much he loved his family.  He would do anything for Puck and I loved that.  On the other hand, I did not like her older brother Gabe.  I can’t believe he was willing to leave his younger siblings because he couldn’t take the island anymore.  He didn’t want them to come, he was just abandoning them on this death island because he’s a selfish prick.  I couldn’t believe what a punk he was. 

Overall it was a great reading experience and I can’t wait to read more of Maggie’s books, I had forgotten how much I loved her work!  Just a few quotes that I loved!

“They’re saying that you and Sean Kendrick were burning up the cliffs.” Tommy spins me again and grins at me.  “And when I say you and Sean Kendrick, I mean you and Sean Kendrick.  And by burning, I mean burning.”

As Sean slips out of his jacket, he looks over his shoulder at me and she smiles at me, just a glancing faint thing before he turns back to Tommy.  I’m quite happy for the smile, because Dad told me once you should be grateful for the gifts that are the rarest. 

Keep Reading My Friends!

What Was Your First Tattoo?

Rowdy (Marked Men Novel #5) by Jay Crownover

If you would have asked me last year when I read Rule (the first book in the Marked Men series) if I would have liked another Marked Man as much as I liked Rule I would have thought you were crazy.  Rule was the quintessential bad boy tamed by the love of a good woman.   But my friends, as I learned more about Rowdy throughout the series I knew that I was going to love his book.  He was a carefree soul that loves his friends like family and I was excited to see the story from his point of view. 

Salem moves to Denver from Las Vegas in search of a place to call home.  When she received the call from Nash that he needed someone to run his new store in LoDo she googled the shop, saw one handsome long lost friend and knew this was her new home.  Rowdy takes some time to convince that she is in Denver to stay, but as the story moves along and good times are had and bad times are experienced maybe Salem will be in this relationship for the long haul or maybe this is just one more stopping place before she moves on with or without Rowdy.

I love this series.  I love the characters and I love how Jay brings our old favorites back into each story.  I can’t wait to wrap this series up with Asa.  I will be excited to see how he and Royal will be able to overcome the criminal and the cop stigma. 

Well friends, if you like tattoos and romance with a little bit of excitement and a whole lot of angst then this is the series for you!  Keep reading my Friends! 

Gossip and Football

All Lined Up (Rusk University #1) by Cora Carmack

I loved this book!  I have read most of Carmack’s works and the report on her books thus far, Losing It, I liked it, Faking It, I really liked it, Finding it, was pretty good.  But as I finish All Lined Up, all I can say is I loved this book!  I see concepts that I liked in the Losing It series but written with so much passion, love and feeling that it passes my “likes” with time warp speed.  All of that to say, I’ve liked all of her books, that’s just how good All Lined Up was in my opinion.

So, what makes this books so great?  First of all it’s the plot.  I love the brief background and the concept of history repeating itself right from the beginning.  Here is Dallas Cole, coach’s daughter moving to college and her dad just happens to get the coaching job at her new home, Rusk University.  Then this is also where her high school sweetheart Levi went when he graduated.  At the very beginning of the story we see where her fate is going in two different directions.  Will she go down the path to new beginnings where she meets new people, such as Carson McClain and isn’t always going to be known as the coach’s daughter?  Or will she take the  old road, where she’s destined to be talked about in the locker room and approached by strangers at the grocery story who want to talk about last week’s game or her dad?  The same road from high school where she is destined to date the old QB and be the same girl standing quietly next to Coach going to church every Sunday and doing what the good girl does?  Or do both paths lead to the same destination?  I think you’ll have to read it to find out!

I was a little confused by the geography of where her high school was and where her college is.  Did her dad have to move to a new town when he got hired at Rusk University?  Or is her high school and college in the same town she has been in for several years since her last move?  When Dallas moves back into her dad’s house I felt like it was the same house that she must have been in for high school, but she never talked about it with any emotion or longing for home.  And maybe… that is the genius of it.  Maybe none of her homes ever felt like home because of her feelings of always being second place behind football to her dad.

I absolutely loved the characters of this book.  I really enjoyed Stella.  She was an excellent role of a best friend.  She was fun loving and an enjoyable character, but didn’t overpower the scenes she was in.  I also liked Ryan and his role in the story.   Of course what kind of book would it be without a book boyfriend like Carson McClain?  He was an excellent character to read and know his side of the story.  It was an overall excellent story and a great book.  I can’t wait to keep reading in the series, up next is All Broke Down.  It’s not next on my TBR pile, but I hope to get to it soon!  Keep Reading my Friend!

One Choice Will Define You

Allegiant (Divergent #3) by Veronica Roth

I am literally at a loss for words.  I have just finished Allegiant and I am speechless.  I’m sitting here thinking about the last few weeks that I have read all three of these books and I cannot believe the wild ride I have been on.

I fell in love with Tris and Four from the very beginning.  I was angry at her when she would do something stupid, I was happy when they could finally be together and I balled like a baby when the book ended. 

I absolutely thought that the series was going to end with Tris waking up from a serum induced coma and either the entire series was a dream or maybe just after her Dauntless initiation was a dream, especially after she finished first in her initiation class. 

The ending was a surprise to me, other readers thought that it was obvious, but books just don’t end like that.  Especially not YA books, there has to be a silver lining and a happy ending so that the audience wants to read other books by the author.  I have heard such crazy and differing opinions about this book that I wonder how the author is doing. 

I did not like the first 200 pages of this book.  It was slow going and I felt like I was trying to run in sand.  But the last 100 pages moved like the first two books.  I think the reason it was so slow was because Roth had to introduce and explain the whole idea of the Genetically Pure and the Genetically Damaged people.  She had to explain why it was a big deal to both sides and show what it was doing to the US.  Those facts and ideas were so boring, but after it’s over, I now know why she had to go through all of that to get us to see why the ending had to happen the way it did.  I think another reason that it moved slow for me was because of the switch of the point of view.  Whenever there is more than one character in a book it makes me want to take a break between each character, it doesn’t matter what is going on, I’m just not very good at reading those types of books.  I understand now that it’s over why it was written like that.

My heart goes out to Tobias, or Four as I like to call him.  It makes sense that he just wants to forget it all.  Poor guy, I’m glad he has some friends to keep him together.  Along the lines of Tobias and his chapters, it was genius how after chapter 54 there were no more chapter clarifiers, that made me sad all over again.

I hope I haven’t given any unintentional spoilers, I tried to be as cryptic as I could for those who haven’t read, but that those who have were able to know what I was referring to.  I gave this book 4 stars where Divergent and Insurgent were both 5 out of 5 stars, I gave the small difference not because of her bravery in Roth’s ending, but because of the slow pace of the beginning of the book.

Let me know what you thought about the entire series! Keep Reading my friends!

Does She Love Me? Maybe Not.

Maybe Not (Maybe Someday 1.5) by Colleen Hoover

A SURPRISE NOVELLA FROM MY MOST FAVORITEST AUTHOR EVER!!! Who has two thumbs and freaked out when in less than a week we were going to read a Colleen Hoover book?  This girl (Pun intended)!

Colleen has the best secondary characters.  I loved Warren’s POV, I mean, really, who wouldn’t?  Poor guy, we all judged him for his porn addiction, makes so much more sense now.  We all judged him on his ridiculous conversations, again, it all makes sense now.  We also judged Bridgette for her crazy behavior that constantly had us not liking her, well maybe that was justified. 

Can I just say (of course I can, it’s my blog) that I love Novella’s?  It’s an entire story wrapped up in a little over 100 pages.  We got the whole story wrapped up in a nice little bow.  What happens after the last page?  Who cares, we didn’t expect to hear as much as we got.  We loved Daniel in Finding Cinderella and we loved Warren in Maybe Not.  Keep the fantastic Novella’s coming Colleen!

I think one of the most wonderful things about being a CoHort is seeing Colleen’s generosity rub off on people.  Colleen bought lots of books for people who couldn’t afford them, but wanted to read them.  Then it set off like wild fire on our CoHort’s Facebook page, everyone was buying each other books, it was amazing.  I really appreciate that group and the kindness that I saw through that. 

So, what’s Maybe Not about?  Well I usually give a great little description, but I don’t feel like it.  Read Maybe Someday, it’s excellent, and read Maybe Not, it’s just as great! 

This book does have an age restriction and I would say it’s 18 or older.  This is not a YA book, Warren is a dirty guy and is written that way.  Keep Reading my Friends! 

Nash is the Hard Looking Softy of the Marked Men

Nash (Marked Men Novel #4) by Jay Crownover

Nash Donovan is the silent type of bad boy.  He is overly misunderstood or just people automatically put him in the bad boy department because he has flames going up the side of his neck and has a ring in his nose like a bull.  When Rome gets busted up from a bar fight back in his book Nash and Saint see each other after many years of growing up after high school.  Saint is now a nurse in the ER and Nash is about to be the joint owner of the Marked Tattoo shop that he, Rule, Rowdy, and Cora work in.  Nash is sweet and kind, he works hard and loves deeply.  I enjoyed his story very much.  I loved watching the drama that is Saint Ford unfold and see her grow into a person that could fully handle all the love that is Nash. 

I enjoyed the story and wanted to slap Saint most of the time.  She was not loveable like Shaw, Ayden, and Cora.  She was a little harder to love even though in reality her life wasn’t as hard as most of the other characters.  I loved Nash though.  He’s the sweetest of the Marked, but I have a feeling that Rowdy is going to be my absolute fave.  He’s funny and sweet and carefully put together.  I just have a good feeling that it’s going to be a great read.  I love how Jay and the timber that she writes in.  It flows well and it’s easy to follow.  I put her books in the beach read category and stand by it.  They are easy reads that give you hope for the characters and you cry with them, and laugh with them and love with them.  On a whole, the Marked Men series is great. 

There were a lot more emotions in the book than have been in the previous books.  I felt right along with Nash as he was going through the hardest time of his life.   

Of course I would be ashamed of myself if I didn’t mention that there are typos in the book.  I overlook them because I like the characters and love the stories.  I understand that you can’t catch them all.  I can’t wait for Rowdy!  Keep Reading my Friends!