2021 r/Fantasy Book Bingo Reading Challenge Wrap-Up

I participated in this challenge in a low key way in 2021. More information about this challenge can be found here.

Here is the 2021 r/Fantasy Bingo Card made by u/eriophora.

BINGO CARD

First Row Across:

✔️Five SFF Short Stories

I did this one hard mode. I read The Midnight Circus by Jane Yolen with an introduction by Theodora Goss.
Rating: 5 stars! A book with beautiful prose, some of the stories were extremely sad and heart breaking, but the exquisite writing style made me not able to put this short story collection down. The stories were original and heartfelt, I want to read more books by this author in the future. I recommend this anthology if you like fairy tales with a modern, original twist. This author and Theodora Goss are especially talented for fantasy with mythical themes.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

✔️Set in Asia

I read Jade City (The Green Bone Saga #1) by Fonda Lee
Rating: 2 stars.
This book reminds me of The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi where the world was interesting and there were loads of action but I had difficulty caring enough to go on reading even though.
I can’t explain why really… I continued this book but I won’t continue the series.

✔️First Person POV

I read The Black Witch (The Black Witch Chronicles #1) by Laurie Forest.
Rating: 3 stars.
Fantasy with a very interesting world and powerful themes.

*Spoiler alert: The only thing I didn’t like is how slow the plot moves for the main character, the story feels stretched with so many side characters storylines. I do care about the side characters but each of them gets a subplot full of new questions of their own and it becomes too much altogether.
*End of Spoiler

Even though, I’ll continue this series.

Second Row Across:

✔️Book Club OR Readalong Book

Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson
Rating: 4 stars. I liked the dialect, the characters (especially Mami) and the plot. It was a fast, original read and I could not put it down.

✔️New to You Author

I haven’t heard anything about this author before deciding to pick up this book, so I think this qualifies for hard mode.
I was pleasantly surprised with Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice. Rating: 4,5 stars. This was a very beautiful book that I wanted to take my time and hear slowly. I wish it had been longer. I’ll keep an eye for more books by this great author.

✔️Gothic Fantasy

The Witch of Willow Hall by Hester Fox
Rating: 4 stars.
Very atmospheric, and with gothic elements quite present in the plot. I liked all the characters,
spoiler alert
even if all of them were really unnerving either by being toxic, quite messed up or way too passive/slow to act and very emotional and dramatic at the same time. end of spoiler
I could not put it down.

✔️Backlist Book

The Well of Ascension (The Mistborn Saga #2) by Brandon Sanderson
Rating: 4 stars.

I liked this book but I think that some great concepts had to be more fleshed out. Most of the creatures are very much only monsters with details so disgusting that you don’t want to hear much about them.
I missed the fleshing out that the non-human sentient beings have in Stormlight and that make them beings with a culture and objectives of their own, not only monsters to be killed because they are bent on wrathful destruction all the time. The whole idea of “non-human creatures are evil and we have to kill them all so we survive” is not the best kind of story. It might work in a middle grade book, but I expect more from Sanderson after Stormlight, therefore this doesn’t get five stars.

Zane was also a very promising character but he doesn’t get the fleshing out he deserved so the reader would understand better what was happening to him and what of that was connected to the Cosmere, you can mostly draw your own conclusions and wonder about the story behind it. An idea would be a Novella about Zane’s journey to the extremely powerful Mistborn he became, he would be the perfect unreliable narrator.

A very entertaining book, but the Stormlight series, with its fleshed out characters, non-human sentient beings, and world is still my favorite.

Third Row Across:

✔️Mystery Plot

Untamed Shore by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Rating: 5 stars!
This hidden gem is not talked and hyped enough, the story is full of edge-of-your-seat tension, many layered characters and the best writing ever.
I could not put this down!

✔️Comfort Read

Diamonds and Daggers (Vampire Knitting Club #11) by Nancy Warren.
Rating: 4 stars. Again a very entertaining mystery with paranormal fantasy elements. This whole series was my main comfort read in 2021.

✔️Published in 2021

ReDawn (Skyward #2.2) by Brandon Sanderson, Janci Patterson
Rating: 5 stars!
This packs a punch! I don’t want to say much because Novellas are so easy to spoil but all Skyward Flight Novellas are a wonderful addition to the series.

Fourth Row Across:

✔️Latinx or Latin American Author

My chosen book has only 571 ratings at the moment which it’s a pity since this series does deserve more eyes on it.
Prime Deceptions (Chilling Effect #2) by Valerie Valdes
Rating: 5 stars!
With a plot that goes, happens and explodes and funny, relatable characters, this was a very entertaining sequel. The Spanish expressions are as extremely funny to hear on the Audiobook as they were to read on the book. And it even has a Portuguese dialogue, we always need more of that. I need more books in this series too! Thankfully the next book in the series will come out now in 2022.

✔️Genre Mashup

The Boundless (The Deathless Trilogy #3) by Peter Newman. Rating: 5 stars!
I would say that this series is fantasy with horror elements. This third and final book was awesome and beautifully epic in so many ways. The characters are rarely done in such relatable ways and I really liked how this story wrapped up. One of the best fantasy series I ever read!

Fifth Row Across:

✔️Trans or Nonbinary Character
The Vela (The Vela #1) by Yoon Ha Lee, Becky Chambers, Rivers Solomon, S.L. Huang.
Rating: 5 stars! This serial has four things I really liked:

1) Great writers collaborating in a cohesive and well done narrative,
2) Well done, many layered, characters,
3) A surprising and fast paced plot that never gets boring and
4) Food for thought of extreme, utmost importance. Many of the questions this story asks could be translated to our current world situation and how we handle world problems like refugees and climate change.

This serial packs a punch. I liked how it made me think about a lot of important things and I recommend it to anyone who wants to get out of their comfort zone while reading a very entertaining science fiction story with fast paced action. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

✔️Debut Author

Machinehood by S.B. Divya
Rating: 3 stars.
This had a very good premise and ideas but the narrative style wasn’t unfortunately for me. I would recommend this to people who like science fiction technological thrillers and are OK with a narrative in Michael Crichton’s style.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

---

I will again be participating in a low key way in next year’s challenge.

Bookopoly 2021 Wrap-Up

In September 2021 I lost track of posting about my Bookopoly Challenge even if I did continue with it.
Now I’m a bit late for my last year Bookopoly Wrap-up, but it’s better late than never, right? Therefore in this post I will do a recap with my rating and reviews.

You will often read in this post that I won’t continue this or that series, but I must pick up the book series I continue reading with a lot of care. Continuing a series is a lot of commitment, therefore I learned to only do that when the first book is a four or five star book for me.

My last year TBR Rolls were:

6st Roll: 6, Read a book published the first time between 2000 and 2010
The Love-Artist by Jane Alison, this was an historical fiction that had been for ages in my TBR.
3 stars. Well written but very slow paced. If you like character driven historical romances this might be for you.

7th Roll: 4, 3rd Lavanda space – YA mixed with other genres.
Anna Dressed in Blood (Anna #1) by Kendare Blake
No rating. Very much an YA book with all YA tropes checked. I am not the right audience for it, so I won’t rate it. This might be a book for someone who wants YA with a dash of romance and horror.

8tht Roll: 4, Orange Bookshelf – Pick a TBR card.
Axiom’s End (Noumena #1) by Lindsay Ellis
3,5 stars. I could not put this down, it was an entertaining contemporary sci-fi. I will be eventually continuing this series.
Spoiler Alert:
I won’t rate it 5 stars though because the end wasn’t as good as the beginning of the book and for me the interspecies romance between an alien and young girl seemed too cliché. The end felt not as original as the beginning of the book.
End of spoiler

9th Roll: Read a book published the first time between 2010 and 2020:
Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch #1) by Ann Leckie since it was published in 2013.
No rating. This is one of those books that I recognize as intellectually worthy and I see that a lot of effort went into writing it, but it’s a book that requires a much more patient reader than me.
The slow plot advancement was tiresome and the emotionless character narrative sounded distant, so I wasn’t invested. I’m happy that I read this first book but I won’t continue this series.

10th Roll: 3 Roll: 4, 2nd Dark Blue space – Paranormal fantasy/romance/mystery or Magical Realism.
Incubus (Fairwick Chronicles #1) by Carol Goodman.
4 stars. This paranormal fantasy had really well done characters and story world. The plot was above the average, and really interesting for Paranormal.
It’s adult romance too with steamy scenes. I’ll be continuing this series.

11th Roll: 2, First Yellow Space: Fantasy (Adult or YA)
The Thief (The Queen’s Thief #1) by Megan Whalen Turner
3 stars. This had slow-paced character-driven, and cozy narrative style. The plot moved way too slowly for me though, so I won’t continue this series.

12th Roll: 2 Third Yellow Space: Fantasy (Adult or YA)
The Secret Chapter (The Invisible Library #6) by Genevieve Cogman.
4 stars. A very entertaining book that I could not put down. Why didn’t this book get five stars then? I expected more depth on the relationship between Irene and Kai. We know they care about each other but apart from going from one danger to another we don’t get much interaction or scenes that show their relationship. I like the bits about Irene’s family and past, but we need more characterization than that as well.

13th Roll: 3, 1st A to Z Challenge Space
N- Nyxia (The Nyxia Triad #1) by Scott Reintgen
4 stars. This was really entertaining and impossible to put down. A young adult book with edge of your seat action too.
I’ll surely be continuing this series. I didn’t rate it five stars though because the secondary characters, specially the girls, could have used a lot more fleshing out and characterization, and as it was they were one dimensional, either the love interest or the irrational crazy villain and the book would have been even better if they had been multi-layered.
I talk more about this book in my A TO Z CHALLENGE Wrap-Up 2021 – Part 2 post.

14th Roll: 2, Numbers Challenge Space – Books with Numbers in the title/cover.
I first tried to read Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb #1) by Tamsyn Muir
No rating. This story felt so ‘told’, sometimes going too fast and just glossing over the years and sometimes taking forever with details and description, without any worry about structure or pacing somehow. I didn’t finish this, therefore no rating.

But then I picked instead The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (Inheritance Trilogy #1) by N.K. Jemisin
5 Stars! This was so surprising and original! I’ll be soon reading more books by this author.
Spoiler Alert:
The story world is very interesting and the political intrigue and main character interaction with the enslaved gods keeps you intrigued for sure.
I like the gender roles swap in the Darre culture very much and how is shown that other kingdoms hate and want to destroy the Darre solely due to that. They are like Amazons but with men in a nurturing role, very interesting since the Amazon’s myths mostly say that there weren’t any men in their society, with the Amazon’s occasionally meeting with men outside their kingdom only to get pregnant and afterwards abandoning them with the baby girl or leaving their baby boys behind with their fathers. But Darre is a compromise where the women are warriors and are powerful and the men are mainly involved in their nurturing role. Food for thought.
I also very much liked the ending.
End of spoiler.

15th Roll: 4 Third Pink Space: Science Fiction (Adult or YA)
I picked YA Sci-fi for this. The Sound of Stars by Alechia Dow
4 stars. It’s difficult to talk about this book without spoiling anything.
Spoiler Alert:
I liked this book even if romance between an ‘Earthling’ and an alien is not one of my favorite tropes in sci-fi. The romance itself was cute and one of the best I’ve read this year, even if a tad too much sometimes, but then again I’m not the best audience for YA romance, so it was probably me.
I really liked how music and books were important to the characters and how well the author talked about the main character’s feelings of exclusion and of being a minority when a lot of people had prejudices against her and when politics act against minorities. It was so well described and characterized how this made her feel weary of the whole humankind and socially anxious, it was quite brilliant! This gave the main character more layers and gave this story a very important central theme.
End of spoiler.

So these were the books I read in 2021 for this TBR Game challenge.
This year I don’t want to loose track of this challenge and eventually do a wrap up with eleven books like this time, so I’ll be posting my next wrap-up post around July.

Stay tuned to the next Bookopoly Wrap-up posts.

The Best Books of 2021 Part Three: Science-Fiction

I had many Science Fiction favorite books in 2021.

I’ve already talked about my favorite Sci-fi Novellas in my 2021 Novella Favorites post and about The Final Six (The Final Six #1) by Alexandra Monir in my A to Z Challenge Wrap-up post so I’ll not repeat myself here but only write about the books I haven’t recently reviewed.

The Ghost Brigades (Old Man’s War #2) by John Scalzi

This was very interesting and I liked it as much or even more than the first book in this series because it talked more about the Special Forces. And stories with humans developed by technology are among my science fiction favorites since I read Brave New World.

I’m curious about how this series will resolve its bigger scope questions so I’ll continue it for sure.

The Vela (The Vela #1) by Yoon Ha Lee, Becky Chambers, Rivers Solomon, S.L. Huang

This serial has four things I really liked:

1) Great writers collaborating in a cohesive and well done narrative,
2) Well written, multi-layered, characters,
3) A surprising and fast paced plot that never gets boring and
4) Food for thought of extreme, utmost importance. Many of the questions this story asks could be translated to our current world situation and how we handle world problems like refugees and climate change.

This serial packs a punch. I liked how it made me think about a lot of important things and I recommend it to anyone who wants to get out of their comfort zone while reading a very entertaining science fiction story with fast paced action.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Prime Deceptions (Chilling Effect #2) by Valerie Valdes

With a plot that goes, happens and explodes and funny, relatable characters, this was a very entertaining sequel.

The Spanish expressions were as extremely funny to hear on the Audiobook as they were to read on the book. And it even has a Portuguese dialogue, we always need more of that. And I need more books in this series, which is great because a third book is scheduled for August this year.

The Chimera Code by Wayne Santos

A very original and interesting science fiction story world with fantasy elements, multi-layered characters and well written and fast paced battle scenes. The Audiobook narration was very well done too.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Shards of Honor (Vorkosigan Saga (Publication Order) #1) by Lois McMaster Bujold

I am really enjoying this series so far and will continue it for sure.

I like the writing style, the multi-layered characters and surprising situations. This is the second book I read by Bujold that balances fun and important themes in a masterful way.

Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson

I liked the dialect, the characters (especially Mami) and the plot. It was a fast paced urban fantasy dystopia, and in any case an original read that I could not put down.

Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

This was a poetically and beautifully written Apocalyptic book with Anishinaabe cultural elements that I wanted to take my time and hear slowly. I wish it had been longer. I can fully understand why this book was an John W. Campbell Memorial Award Nominee for Best Science Fiction Novel (2019). I can’t understand why it wasn’t a winner though. I’ll surely keep an eye for more books by this great author.

Starsight (Skyward #2) by Brandon Sanderson

This was a great sequel that expanded the already awesome story world in the first book of this series and introduced new interesting characters and plot developments.
I will not write more not to spoil anything, but I’ll surely continue this very surprising series now in 2022.

And you? Did you have a favorite book last year that you would recommend to everyone? Let me know in the comments.

The Best Books of 2021 Part Two: Fantasy

Books By Brandon Sanderson

The Stormlight Archive
Words of Radiance and Oathbringer were very good sequels.

Words of Radiance is centered in one of my favorite characters, Shallan, and the world of Roshar and the Cosmere Universe was again a place so fascinating that the 1087 pages went by extremely fast. I did a mistake though by starting Oathbringer right after finishing the second book and that was probably too much reading in a series all at once.
Please don’t ‘hate’ me, I did like Oathbringer a lot too, only that I considered some of the character developments of Dalinar quite jarring with the character he seemed to be on the first two books of the series. I also got the impression that his arc wrapped up too neatly and too fast at the end without enough foreshadowing. There were too many battle scenes and not enough character interactions, and I missed more character and relatioship development between Shallan, Adolin and Kaladin. It all got decided too quickly for me.
Maybe these impressions will change once I have reread this series with some breaks between the sequels. I usually don’t reread books but this series, with its fascinating world, qualifies for this surely.
Still a great series that I’ll go on reading for sure.

Warbreaker

I heard the GraphicAudio dramatized Audiobook version of this book and I must say that this is one of my favorite fantasy books of all time now.
This was awesome epic fantasy, full of cute, witty and beautiful moments, and very surprising twists! The characters were also so unforgetable, I will happily read sequels to this book when they happen to be published.

The Deathless Trilogy by Peter Newman

In 2021 I read the second and third books of this awesome trilogy.

Peter Newman is again an author that deserves much more recognition and reviews. The series story world is intriguing, the characters relatable and multi-layered. I enjoyed reading all POVs.

The Ruthless (The Deathless Trilogy #2)

I liked the writing style a lot. It had a bit more horror than I’m used to in my fantasy reads and the plot moved a bit too slow but I was continuing this series because I really wanted to know how this would end. The Audiobook narration of Emma Newman was awesome, she’s one of my favorite audiobook narrators.

The Boundless (Deathless, #3)

This third and final book was awesome and beautifully epic in so many ways. The characters are rarely done in such relatable ways and I really liked how this story wrapped up. One of the best fantasy series I ever read!
And again a trilogy which is a serious candidate for a reread.

House of Dragons (House of Dragons #1) by Jessica Cluess

This YA book was so entertaining that I could not put it down. Jessica Cluess has become an auto-buy author for me because all her books become my favorites! I’ll continue this series next year for sure.
I also read the Kingdom on Fire trilogy by her and it was so well done.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (Inheritance Trilogy #1) by N.K. Jemisin

This was so surprising and original! I’ll be continuing this trilogy for sure and will soon read more books by this author!

Spoiler alert: The story world is very interesting and the political intrigue and main character interaction with the enslaved gods keeps you intrigued for sure.

I like the gender roles swap in the Darre culture very much and how is shown that other kingdoms hate and want to destroy the Darre solely due to that. They are like Amazons but with men in a nurturing role, very interesting since the Amazon’s myths mostly say that there weren’t any men in their society, with the Amazon’s occasionally meeting with men outside their kingdom only to get pregnant and afterwards abandoning them with the baby girl or leaving their baby boys behind with their fathers. But Darre is a compromise where the women are powerful and warriors and the men are mainly involved in the nurturing role. Food for thought.

I also very much liked the ending.
End of spoiler

Stay tuned for my favorite science fiction books in my next blog post.

The Best Books of 2021: Fantasy of Manners

I have an incredible number of favorite books this year, therefore, so that none of the following blog posts becomes extra long, I’ll write three different “favorites of 2021” posts.

This first post has fantasy of manners books, the next will have fantasy books with other subgenres and the third will have my science fiction favorites. Fantasy of manners seems to be a somewhat fluid subgenre and perhaps some of the books I’ll talk about in my next blog post could belong in this subgenre too, but in the interest of not making this post way too long I’ll group them in the broader fantasy genre together with my epic fantasy books.

Most of the following books were five stars for me or even if four stars, original enough that they secured a place among my favorite books of 2021. In this post I’ll talk about three of my favorite fantasy of manners authors: Emma Newman, Genevieve Cogman and Theodora Goss and their wonderful series that I surely recommend.

Emma Newman

The two Novellas, Brother’s Ruin, and Weaver’s Lament by Emma Newman were a very interesting beginning to a new series that I sincerely hope one day will be continued.

I also read four books in the Split Word series by this author that were extremely well written: Any Other Name, All Is Fair, A Little Knowledge and All Good Things.
This series was one I could not put down. It had very important themes and was heart-wrenching at times. In any case, one of the best book series I’ve read in a very long time. Emma Newman is an awesome writer and her audiobook narration of this series is perfect too!

Genevieve Cogman

In 2021 I read five books in the The Invisible Library series by Genevieve Cogman: The Burning Page, The Lost Plot, The Mortal Word, The Secret Chapter and The Dark Archive.
This series was very entertaining, I especially liked the fourth book in the series, The Lost Plot, but I was disappointed by the seventh book, The Dark Archive because yet again every time a ‘personal character moment’ was about to happen it seemed to be quickly looked over, and instead a life or death action scene intruded. At a certain point I was tired of not getting more depth in the relationships between the characters.
Perhaps I was just tired of the series after reading too many books of it one after another, therefore I’ll give this series a second chance and I’ll be reading The Untold Story (The Invisible Library #8) eventually, but this time I’ll be definitely done with the series if this book doesn’t surprise me with some character arcs resolution. Even though this is an extremely entertaining series and I surely recommend it.

Theodora Goss

I also continued the The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club series by Theodora Goss by reading European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman.
I plan to read the third book of this trilogy, The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerizing Girl.
A friend of mine didn’t like the character commentaries interrupting the narrative in this second book, and that may indeed need some time getting used to, but I considered them extremely funny and very original. As if the ‘writer’ herself -in this case one of the characters- would not take herself very seriously, and it was right down hilarious when the other characters told her she wasn’t telling the story the right way or when the character herself ‘advertised’ her other fictitious books in the middle of the narrative.
This series is a very surprising and well done retelling and I will surely read more books by this author in the future.

Stay tuned for my next blog posts with my other favorites of 2021.

Reading Goals 2021 End of the Year Update -Part 2

2021 is ending and again I had a very productive reading year. My first thoughts on my yearly reading goals are here.

Read 100 books on the Goodreads Challenge

I was very successful in this challenge by reading 175 books, of which around 75 were Audiobooks, around 21 were physical books and around 38 were e-books. Sorry if my numbers don’t add up completely, I don’t keep a spreadsheet because that’s too much work.

I did however DNF around ten books.

And my average book length was 293 pages.

More details on what I read here

Get the feedback ratio up to 80% on NetGalley

I was very unsuccessful in this, even if I read seventeen ARCs in 2021. I could not stop asking for new ARCs, and therefore I still have a ratio of 65%.
Once there was a cartoon with a villain’s minion in it who would always swat his own head with a flyswatter and say: “Bad, bad frog.”

That is me. 🙂

I will indeed try not to ask for new ARCs in 2022 before I get to read my old ARCs, but it does happen…

Series | catching up or finishing 10 series

Ten series was a bit way-too-ambitious indeed, but I finished five series:
The Split Worlds with 5 books, The Deathless Trilogy and The Mistborn Saga first trilogy and two longer series: The Invisible Library with 7 books and the Vampire Knitting Club with 13 books.

I did a good progress in other five series that I hope to finish in 2022 though. Next year I’ll continue to read my series but I’ll be happy if I manage to finish six to eight of them.

2021 I Just Have To Read More Of That Author

I managed to read ten books by Brandon Sanderson this year so I consider this challenge a complete success. I’ll talk more about his books in my next favorite-books-of-the-year post. I also managed to read six books by Emma Newman and all of them are among my favorites of the year too.

I will do this challenge next year with the authors Adrian Tchaikovsky, Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Peter Newman.

I will continue to read books by Brandon Sanderson because at this point he is one of my favorite authors. I wish I had more fantasy books by Emma Newman to read too. I might pick her science fiction books this year too, even if I still prefer her historical fantasy.

I’ll be soon posting my favorite books of the year. See you soon!

A TO Z CHALLENGE Wrap-Up 2021 – Part 2

This is the second wrap-up of this yearly challenge.

The first wrap-up is here.

I must say that I didn’t stick to many of my initial choices for this challenge. I managed to do that with some of the challenge’s letters, but at least my second choices were really good books. It so happens that I chose too many YA books for the challenge’s TBR and I can’t read too many YA books one after another (without wanting to throw a couple of them out of my window and scaring my neighbors…) Even though I did read some YA books that were really entertaining and impossible to put down.

A – My initial choice for this letter was Ancestral Night (White Space #1) by Elizabeth Bear, but I set it aside after reading some pages because I didn’t feel like continuing it. I might pick it up again eventually.
Instead I read Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch #1) by Ann Leckie. This is one of those books that I recognize as intellectually worthy and that a lot of effort went into writing it, but it’s a book that requires a much more patient reader than me. The slow plot advancement was very tiresome and the emotionless character narrative sounded distant, so I wasn’t at all invested. I’m happy that I read this first book, but I won’t continue this series. No rating.

B – I also didn’t read my first choice here, but read the Novella Brother’s Ruin (Industrial Magic #1) by Emma Newman. This is so awesome, and this author is one of my favorites.
The setting and characters reminded me of The Split Worlds series, one of my favorite fantasy of manners series. Rating: 5 stars.

C- Cage of Souls by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
This author’s writing style and voice is, as always, extraordinaire, but the development of the plot was too slow for me. The audiobook narration was perfect. Rating: 3 stars.

D- A Desolation Called Peace (Teixcalaan #2) by Arkady Martine.

Very well written, but I had a couple of issues with this sequel.
First, the aliens were really puzzling. The otherness of the ‘aliens’ was such that to the end of the story I still didn’t really have a clear idea of them.

Second, too many POVs for me to keep track of.

Mahit Dzmare, the main character who I really liked in A Memory Called Empire was not as important as in the first book and this didn’t work for me since I felt that the narrative was not so cohesive and compelling like in the first book. Many POVs may work for a longer series like Game of Thrones, but for only one book with extremely complex aliens it was too much scattered information. All those different characters distracted me too much from the narrative.

I might reread this book eventually and my rating might improve upon better understanding. This time I was in doubt between rating it three or four stars, so my rating was actually 3,5 stars.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

F- The Final Six (The Final Six #1) by Alexandra Monir.
Finally a YA duology I liked. This was an extremely entertaining YA dystopia that I could not stop hearing. The Audiobook was very good too. Rating: 5 Stars! I read the sequel, The Life Below, too. This sequel had fast paced action, romance and I could not stop hearing it too. I felt though that the space part of the story was rushed up in comparison to the space camp/mission preparation part of the story and that this duology could have been a trilogy if the story scenes in Mars and Europa had been more fleshed out, but I liked this duology enough to keep this author in my radar.

G- Graceling (Graceling Realm #1) by Kristin Cashore
An entertaining young adult fantasy with interesting characters. Why I rated it only three stars then?
1) At times the pacing was really slow and at times everything got solved extremely fast. 2) I’m never really happy with the idea of a love interest not having a bigger role in the story and in this case Po really deserved at least a handful of scenes with his POV. The reader is only told in a hurry about his confrontation with the villain which was the most important scene in this story, and we don’t even get to know what happened with him after he is left behind. This left some good development chances missing out. I might read the next books in this series eventually.

H- A rare case of me reading my initial choice for this letter, I read House of Dragons (House of Dragons #1) by Jessica Cluess and it was a five star book for me!
This book was so entertaining that I could not put it down. Jessica Cluess has become an auto-buy author for me because all her books become my favorites. I’ll be reading the sequel in this duology soon.

K- I’ll cheat here a bit with the title and talk about The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (Inheritance Trilogy #1) by N.K. Jemisin, because this book deserves to be talked about, this was so surprising and original!

Warning for minor spoilers ahead:

The story world is very interesting and the political intrigue and main character interaction with the enslaved gods keeps you intrigued for sure.

I liked the gender roles swap in the Darre culture very much and how is shown that other kingdoms hate and want to destroy the Darre solely due to that. They are like Amazons but with men in a nurturing role, what I considered very interesting since the Amazon’s myths mostly say that there weren’t any men in their society.
In the myths the Amazons were occasionally meeting with men outside their kingdom only to get pregnant and afterwards abandoning them while taking the baby girl or leaving their baby boys behind with their fathers. But Darre is a compromise culture where the women are powerful warriors and the men are mainly involved in their nurturing role. Food for thought indeed.

N- Nyxia (The Nyxia Triad #1) by Scott Reintgen

The first book in this YA series reminded me very much of the first book in The Final Six series, only that instead of being focused on climate change it is more focused on social issues like poverty and racism. The young adult candidates competition is even more fierce here and the people pulling their strings even more cruel.
The only thing I didn’t like in this book was a very irritating cardboard Brazilian character – without any depth whatsoever to explain why she was so irrational- who’s probably supposed to become a villain in the next books of the series. Even though I’ll continue reading to see if any character fleshing out will happen or if the character will remain a complete cliché. Rating: 4 stars.

U- Again a case of reading what I had planned for this letter, Untamed Shore by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a hidden gem, not talked and hyped enough. The story is full of edge-of-your-seat tension, many layered characters and the best writing ever. I could not put this down!

Z – Zodiac (Zodiac #1) by Romina Russell.
This book serves me as a cautionary tale when it comes to buying hyped YA books. It was really slow and the writing style sounded very repetitive, and as a reader I spent all the time in the main protagonists head who was a very one layered, flat and boring character. After a while I completely stopped caring, so I won’t continue this series. The only thing that was good in this book was the story world, therefore 2 stars.

So these were the books I read for my A to Z Challenge. I will do this challenge next year with the addition of reading not only a list with A to Z book titles but one with A to Z authors surnames too.

This time I will not set a previous TBR though, but fill in what I have read later on, in my 2022 wrap-up.

The Best Novellas I Read In 2021

I’ve never read as many novellas as in this year! 28, which is a record number for me.
I’m starting to really like the format. A well done Novella does tell a lot of good story without unnecessary filler and with a story arc of its own. Therefore I will continue my Novella Challenge next year, even if slowly I run out of Novellas to read and must go looking for new ones, so if you really liked any let me know in the comments. I’m also looking for good Novellas series.

These were all five shining stars novellas for me! I won’t be talking too much about the plot of each story because, by being short, they are extremely easy to spoil.

Emergency Skin (Forward Collection) by N.K. Jemisin

My favorite in the Forward collection, it has an awesome story and a very interesting resolution. One of my favorite reads of this year. And the narration of the Audiobook was five stars perfect too!

Of Sorrow and Such by Angela Slatter

Awesome story, one of my favorite in the Tor.com Collection: Season 1 audiobook.
I want to read more from this author for sure!

Two awesome Novellas by Adrian Tchaikovsky:

One Day All This Will Be Yours

Brilliant in so many mind-blowing ways. This novella starts a bit grim (it’s the end of times after all) but at the end I was laughing. The shenanigans the relatable characters got into were so extremely funny. I won’t get into more details here because the less you know the better; just read this, it’s one of the best novellas I read so far.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Ironclads

I could not stop hearing this exceptionally good audiobook. A great narration with a brilliant story.
Adrian Tchaikovsky is an outstanding author that should be much more read and recognized with awards.

The Greenhollow Duology by Emily Tesh

Silver in the Wood has a quiet and cozy narrative style that make it quite original. I also liked its sequel, Drowned Country. We have more of Henry Silver in this sequel which was as much fun as having Tobias Finch as a main character. And I really liked Silver’s mother, Adele, and Maude.
I wonder if there will be more sequels to this series, one with Maude’s POV perhaps? I would surely like to read that.

Sunreach

I like all Brandon Sanderson novellas, even if I usually prefer his adult to his young adult ones. The young adult science fiction series Skyward is really awesome though, and this novella is not at all an exception! It has brave young pilots and cute, out-of-this-world slugs, need I say more?

Go check these Novellas out. And stay tuned for my yearly favorites now in December!

Witches, Vampires, Werewolves and Zombies. My October Books

It’s a bit late in November to be talking about Halloween books, but I was wondering which title to give to this month’s post and I realized that talking only about the books I read for the Latin-x-athon and Victober would be describing only half of the books I read in October since I also took part in the Theme Wars Challenge in the Hooked on Books group on Goodreads. Its October themes were Witches, Vampires, Werewolves and Zombies.

First let me wrap up my Readathon reads:

Latin-x-athon

It’s a readathon happening on Twitter from October 6 to 15.
I read two books for this. As usual I didn’t manage to read all my planned TBR but I’ll keep the other books I intended to read in my future radar.

Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia,
Rating: Four Stars. Outstanding characters and writing.

***Spoiler Alert***: My only issue with it was the constant discussion if a romantic relationship with a vampire was possible or not, this got eventually repetitive.

Untamed Shore by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

Rating: Five Stars! This true hidden gem is not talked about and not hyped enough. The story is full of edge-of-your-seat suspenseful action; with tense, ‘Hitchkockian’ imagery.

The many layered characters and the best writing ever made me not able to put this book down.

Victober 2021

This Readathon was announced by Katie from Books and Things, Kate Howe and Lucy from lucythereader.
I took part in the Victober 2021 Goodreads Group readalong of Gothic Tales, by Elizabeth Gaskell.
Rating: Four Stars. Good writing, and a ‘gothic’ pleasure to read. My favorite stories were The Old Nurse’s Story, The Grey Woman and Lois The Witch.

I also completed Kate’s Challenge: Read a Victorian sensation novel.
For this I read Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon.
Rating: Three Stars. The characters and the story were interesting, but the plot advancement was really slow and the melodramatic narrative style not my cup of tea.

Now to my Halloween themed October books with:

Witches, Vampires, Werewolves and Zombies

I pledged one book per theme but ended up reading more books for the Witch and Vampire themes.

Witches

Incubus (Fairwick Chronicles #1) by Carol Goodman

Rating: Four Stars. This paranormal fantasy had really well done characters and story world, and the plot was overall above the average, a really interesting one for Paranormal. It’s adult romance too with steamy scenes. I’ll be continuing this series.

The Ex Hex (Ex Hex #1) by Erin Sterling

Rating: Three stars. This is a funny ‘second chance’ romance with witches and curses. One of those where both characters think most of the time about how very much attracted they are to their ex-boyfriend/ex-girlfriend what can get tiring easily, but apart from that I liked the fantasy elements of the plot. As far as romances go, I’ve read much worse.

The Black Witch (The Black Witch Chronicles #1) by Laurie Forest

Rating: Three Stars
Fantasy with a very interesting world and powerful themes.
I didn’t like how slow the plot moved for the main character. The story feels stretched with so many side characters’ story lines. I care about the side characters, but each of them gets a subplot full of new questions of their own and it becomes too much altogether. Even though, I’ll probably continue this series.

Vampires

Besides Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia I also read:
Herringbones and Hexes (Vampire Knitting Club #12) by Nancy Warren
Rating: Four Stars
There was some series arc resolution here that might show that this series will be over soon? I hope not. ***Spoiler Alert***The development of the relationship arc was also too quickly done and unfortunately you don’t get all the romance dialogues and scenes you expected after eleven books.

Ribbing and Runes (Vampire Knitting Club #13) by Nancy Warren

Rating: Three Stars. It seemed to me like a half-hearted series finale with new side characters being introduced for a new spin-off series.

Fangs by Sarah Andersen

Rating: Three Stars. This comic was funny and cute but somehow short? I read it way too fast. I have the impression that the other comic books I read by the author were longer and had more content.

Empire of the Vampire (Empire of the Vampire #1) by Jay Kristoff

No Rating since I didn’t finish it. This is the second hyped book by the author that didn’t work for me for reasons I can’t really explain. I’ll keep my hands off in the future.

Werewolves

Murder of Crows (The Others #2) by Anne Bishop

Rating: Three Stars. I picked up this book in a second chance attempt to like this series, because I liked The Black Jewels series by this author so much. In the end I liked this sequel only a bit more than the first book but I’m still curious to see how the story will end. I don’t really like the main characters romance, but the story world is interesting.

Zombies

Boneshaker (The Clockwork Century #1) by Cherie Priest

Rating: Four Stars. I’m still deciding if I really like Steampunk or not. It has interesting concepts but I still wonder if it’s all only about the setting, or if there is a deeper level of meaning to this subgenre. If you know more about it please let me know. The story and world were all right, and the audiobook version from GraphicAudio made it very entertaining. If I continue to hear this series, it will be very much due to the audiobook dramatization.

Stay tuned for my next reviews posts. I returned to the Science Fiction books again this month and plan to write a wrap up of my Novellas Reading Challenge, a second wrap up of my A to Z Challenge (The first I wrote in August) and other yearly challenges too.

Latin-x-athon and Victober 2021 TBR

Now in October we have again two awesome Readathons, Latin-x-athon and Victober!

I won’t explain these two Readathons in detail, for that please look at the Twitter threads and announcement videos.

#Latin-x-athon 2021

It’s a readathon happening on Twitter from October 6-15.
I must say that ten days is a very short time for me to read the ambitious TBR I have set up for this, especially because I’m participating in other readathons too.

I’ll probably read these books during the whole month of October and still a couple might be only read in November.

The 2021 Prompts are:

Read a short work (poetry, short story, picture book, etc.):
For this I plan to read Love & Other Poisons by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. I have this horror anthology for a long time in my radar.

Read something spooky (horror, features ghosts, etc.)
I am planning to read Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas for this prompt.

Read something cozy (favorite genre, read with a hot drink, etc.)
I’ll read Nocturna (A Forgery of Magic #1) by Maya Motayne with a warm fruit tea by my side.

Read something seasonal (cover, tone, vibe, etc.)
And I’ll again read a book by Silvia Moreno-Garcia because I’m really curious about reading a vampire novel written by her, so let’s see how Certain Dark Things turns out.

#Victober 2021

This Readathon was announced by Katie’s from Books and Things, Kate Howe and Lucy from lucythereader.

The Challenges I’m doing are:

Lucy’s Challenge: Read a Victorian novel with a female main character.
I’m planning to read The Doctor’s Wife by Mary Elizabeth Braddon.

Katie’s Challenge: Read a Victorian novel set in the countryside and/or the city.
I very rarely read memoirs but I’ll get out of my comfort zone and read The Life of Charlotte Brontë by Elizabeth Gaskell for this challenge.

Kate’s Challenge: Read a Victorian sensation novel.
I will combine this with the group challenge of reading a popular Victorian novel and read Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon.

And finally, the Victober 2021 Goodreads Group is also doing a readalong of Gothic Tales by Elizabeth Gaskell and I’ll participate in that too.

And you, have you read any of these books? Let me know in the comments.