It's Monday! What Are You Reading? - 22 June 2020

 

#IMWAYR is a weekly meme started on J Kaye’s blog and then was hosted by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at The Book Date.

Happy Monday Bookdragons! It's eight days until moving day and I'm so excited. On the other hand my reading time has dwindled as I pack up my remaining books and get everything ready to go.

What I Read Last Week: 

Warmaidens by Kelly Coon

I was granted an eARC of this last Thursday and planned to binge it over the weekend. But I couldn't wait and started it right away instead. I really enjoyed Gravemaidens (book 1) but Warmaidens was even better! 

(Full review to come closer to the October release date)

Currently Reading:

Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco 

I really wanted to reread this series so I'm listening to the audiobook of SJTR. Funny story... I actually read Hunting Prince Dracula before Stalking Jack the Ripper the first time around - both in physical format - so I'm enjoying the audio narration right now. 

Next Read:

The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black

I've been holding off reading this one for a while and I think now I'm finally ready to tackle it. 

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What have you been reading lately?

Book Review: The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

Blurb:

Of course I want to be like them. They're beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever.

And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe.

Jude was seven years old when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King.

To win a place at the Court, she must defy him--and face the consequences.

In doing so, she becomes embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, discovering her own capacity for bloodshed. But as civil war threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.

My Review:

I wanted to love this book. I really did. The blurb sounded amazing, the cover is gorgeous, the genre is right on... so what's the problem?

The book started out well enough, although I'm used to fantasy novels set entirely in fantasy worlds, not set in the "normal" world them brought into the fantasy world. I really don't want to read about microwaves and tv shows and Target when I'm reading a fantasy novel, but I pushed past that. 

I got about sixty pages in and while the writing wasn't bad and the world building was decent, I just absolutely hated the characters and there is the problem. The story can be expertly crafted but if I hate the characters reading a book becomes torture. 

Jude whines, Taryn is weak, Vivi is an obnoxious, spoiled brat type trying to get back at her dad, and Cardan is the textbook example of romanticizing relationship abuse. 

I tried skimming ahead but this book dragged and reading was a chore so I dropped it. I'm sure some people will love this book but it's not for me. I prefer my fantasy to be pure fantasy unless it's urban fantasy which is not what this book was promoted to be. 

My Rating:

🌟🌟🌟

3 of 5 Stars

(And that's mainly because I like the cover)

"What I'm Reading" Wednesday #108

This "WIR"-Wednesday I'm reading a recent release before I dive into my February ARC reading...

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

Blurb:

Of course I want to be like them. They're beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever.

And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe.

Jude was seven years old when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King.

To win a place at the Court, she must defy him--and face the consequences.

In doing so, she becomes embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, discovering her own capacity for bloodshed. But as civil war threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.

Why I Chose This Book | What I Think So Far:

I've wanted to read about this book since I first heard about it last summer and of course I had to have a signed personalized copy from the Good Choice Reading virtual signing (signed books are my obsession after all). I wasn't going to start The Cruel Prince until February but I got slammed with eARCs for next month and wanted to start something on Monday night so I picked this one up. Plus I got The Coldest Girl From Coldtown from the library and wanted to see if I liked the author's writing style before I tried that one. 

This book started out different than I expected. I'm used to fantasy novels that take place entirely in fantasy worlds not books that start in the "normal" world and then transport to a faerie world so that threw me off a little but the story did grab me that first night. If it hadn't have been after 1 AM I think I probably would have read 50-60 pages that night. 

I'm interested to see where this one goes.