Fables&Wren

To Kill a Kingdom

/ 05 STARS, 2018 FEBRUARY, ACHRISTO YA NOVEL, FEATURED POST

To Kill a Kingdom Book Cover To Kill a Kingdom
Alexandra Christo
Young Adult Fiction
Feiwel Friends
March 6, 2018
ARC
352

Princess Lira is siren royalty and the most lethal of them all. With the hearts of seventeen princes in her collection, she is revered across the sea. Until a twist of fate forces her to kill one of her own. To punish her daughter, the Sea Queen transforms Lira into the one thing they loathe most—a human. Robbed of her song, Lira has until the winter solstice to deliver Prince Elian’s heart to the Sea Queen or remain a human forever.

The ocean is the only place Prince Elian calls home, even though he is heir to the most powerful kingdom in the world. Hunting sirens is more than an unsavory hobby—it’s his calling. When he rescues a drowning woman in the ocean, she’s more than what she appears. She promises to help him find the key to destroying all of sirenkind for good—But can he trust her? And just how many deals will Elian have to barter to eliminate mankind’s greatest enemy?

“I have a heart for every year I’ve been alive.”

Advanced Reading Copy (ARC) Review. The below opinions are my own. The quotes above were taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication.

Release Date: 03/06/2018

Hi, my name is Wren and I am a firm believer in mermaids and sirens. How are we to know that mermaids don’t live deep down in the bottom of the Pacific? We haven’t explored 97% of the ocean, so you can’t tell me that I am wrong.

My sister and I have always had an obsession with mermaids. Whether we are talking about selkies, sirens, water kelpies or mermaids themselves, we have always been team them. When they popped up on the live action Peter Pan (Jeremy Sumpter Sumpter Sumpter) and they were evil, I fell in love with them more. When Pirates of the Caribbean came out with their fourth movie and I heard there were mermaids, you can bet your bottom dollar I was in that theatre.

So it is 102% safe to say, that books with mermaids or sirens or anything involving the creatures of the deep are automatically on my TBR. What is not safe to say is if they are actually going to be good or not. And let me tell you my fellow merlovers, there are some pretty questionable books out there involving our friends of the ocean.

But, To Kill A Kingdom was not one of them. I am half tempted to change my front door to the cover of this book I love it so much. Maybe a banner hanging off my balcony to announce to the world that this book is the bomb dot com would be a better option. Or maybe I will create a fin to the colors of the cover and just have it as an ice breaker with non-book people.

Too much? Or not enough?

Lira is the princess of the sea and goes by the name The Prince’s Bane with those with feet. She is a siren, which is drastically different than a mermaid, and a siren’s job is to take hearts. Lira has a heart for every year she’s been alive, and they are all prince hearts. That’s right folks, this princess has hearts of only princes, and I don’t mean that figuratively.

Lira is such a great, strong and independent protagonist. Or… antagonist depending on how you look at it. It is such a refreshing feeling when you find a… er… main character that is strong besides the abuse that she receives. Her mother, the queen of the sea, is the epitome of an abusive parent, so trigger warning for those of you mermaids who have been through some traumatic and horrible things.

This story touches on family a lot. There is family that wants something different for you, there is family who mistreats you, and then there is family that accepts and supports you. Family does not always have to be blood, and that is important here. Family is filled with the people who love and support you and have your best interest at heart. Sometimes those who are blood-related to you, don’t make the cut.

When Lira gets her prince’s heart too soon (not on her birthday, per usual) the queen is furious with her daughter and means to put her in her place. That situation brings in our next contestant: Elian, the Prince of Midas.

Elian doesn’t want to be landlocked, and takes matters into his own hands. He knows about the terrible creatures called sirens and he knows what they do to people. So, he makes a crew that sole purpose is to sail the ocean and kill sirens. He’s basically Nikolai: a pirate who happens to be a prince (and if you don’t know this reference, go pick up Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo, like, yesterday please). His crew is snarky, crude and right up the alley of wren-obsessed.

When Elain is told there is a way to rid the world of their most hated fiend (sirens), especially that Prince’s Bane, he does not rest until he has done just that. Elain is like a fox: he is smooth, calculating and able to maneuver his way out of any situation without a single scratch (well, almost).

“’Poison?’ I muse. ‘Were you keeping that around for your future wife?’
‘It’s not lethal..and no… unless you were my wife.’”

And yes, the book is full of snarky and sarcastic and witty things.

Then we have our trusted side characters, Kahlia, Madrid, Kye, Torik, and many others, that just helped bring this story to life. I felt as if I was a part of this collective family. Each of these characters brought something new to the story and I will forever hold them close to me.

This book is so magically put together, I don’t believe it even has seams. There is no world-vomit. The world is built beautifully throughout the book as you need to know it. And believe me, the picture that these words created in my head is an image I am keeping for a rainy day. Christo was made to write and create.

The last battle scene was so vivid and beautifully done that I couldn’t have stopped reading if I tried. There is so much to the last scene that it left my actually sitting up in my bed, reading as fast as I could to make sure that my loves were going to be okay.

“Me, My Ship, an da girl with oceans in her eyes.”

To not make this any longer than it already it, this beautiful standalone novel warmed my siren-heart to tears. I absolutely loved the strong female characters, the swoon-worthy male characters, the diversity and the wit of this book. This is something that I will be raving about for the rest of my short-life.

Stay beautiful, sirens.

Buddy Read with:
Melanie at Meltotheany
Destiny at Howling Libraries
Lilly at Lair of Books
Jules at JA Ironside

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The Female of the Species

/ 04 STARS, 2018 FEBRUARY, MMCGINNIS YA NOVEL

The Female of the Species Book Cover The Female of the Species
Mindy McGinnis
Juvenile Fiction
Katherine Tegen Books
September 20, 2016
Hardcover
352

Alex Craft knows how to kill someone. And she doesn’t feel bad about it. When her older sister, Anna, was murdered three years ago and the killer walked free, Alex uncaged the language she knows best. The language of violence. While her crime goes unpunished, Alex knows she can’t be trusted among other people, even in her small hometown. She relegates herself to the shadows, a girl who goes unseen in plain sight, unremarkable in the high school hallways. But Jack Fisher sees her. He’s the guy all other guys want to be: the star athlete gunning for valedictorian with the prom queen on his arm. Guilt over the role he played the night Anna’s body was discovered hasn’t let him forget Alex over the years, and now her green eyes amid a constellation of freckles have his attention. He doesn’t want to only see Alex Craft; he wants to know her. So does Peekay, the preacher’s kid, a girl whose identity is entangled with her dad’s job, though that does not stop her from knowing the taste of beer or missing the touch of her ex-boyfriend. When Peekay and Alex start working together at the animal shelter, a friendship forms and Alex’s protective nature extends to more than just the dogs and cats they care for. Circumstances bring Alex, Jack, and Peekay together as their senior year unfolds. While partying one night, Alex’s darker nature breaks out, setting the teens on a collision course that will change their lives forever. Acclaimed author Mindy McGinnis artfully crafts three alternating perspectives into a dark and riveting exploration of what it means to be the female of the species.

*featuring the female of my duo, Marcy Louisa and all her fluff*

This was the February Read for The Cheerful Wednesdays, and might I say that this was a heavy book.

This book is full of all kinds of triggers. There is talk of murder, rape, child pornography, animal cruelty, substance abuse and just about anything you can think of. Some of these are actual topics that should be talked about more in order for people to understand them, and for this I thank the author for not shying away from the tougher topics.

“You see it in all animals – the female of the species is more deadly than the male. Except humans.”

Alex is dealing with a lot. Her sister was brutally killed and raped and left in the woods for someone to find days later after nature took her course on her. Ever since then, she has not been the same. She doesn’t actually know if she changed because of what happened or she is the way she is because her sister was the only thing holding her to the ground; but what she does know is a simple rule: people who hurt other people deserve to die, and ladies and gentlemen, she is true to her word.

See, Alex is 100% a murderer but in a Dexter-type of way. She only takes out the absolute trash of the world. She has a heart and she feels things too, but she lives off of her animal instinct. You kill those who hurt others in order to protect people. Unlike Dexter, she doesn’t actually have to kill, she just is driven when the opportunity arises.

So what happens when Alex volunteers at an animal shelter and meets the pastor’s kid, Peekay? She learns what it is like to have a friend.

Peekay is tired of always being associated with being the pastor’s kid. She doesn’t have a problem with the religion and she loves her parents with all her heart, but she wants to be known for something else for a change. With a recent break up, Peekay finds hope in her new friend and the challenges that come up along the way.

Alex and Peekay are friendship goals. They support each other, they pick each other up, and there is no “frienemies” involved. They just love and support each other, which is something a lot of our culture has lacked. Women pin each other against each other and are jealous of what they can’t have. I think Alex was a refreshing break for Peekay because Alex never expected anything and was always just there to help her. They both found themselves again in their friendship which is what friendship is actually about.

“But boys will be boys, our favorite phrase that excuses so many things, while the only thing we have for the opposite gender is women, said with disdain and punctuated with an eye roll.”

Now I am not going to lie, I got really, really weird vibes from Jack. I’m not sure if it was just because the author actually got into the mind of a man and went with it, or because he is actually creepy… but I will let you figure that one out yourself. His character does have some growth in it, but honestly I just didn’t find him appealing. He was kind of… gross to me. Which leads me to believe that crawling into the mind of a man will literally kill all romantic notions.

One thing that really made me uncomfortable was the brutality with the animals in this book. Jack works with the butcher and is the one that takes the life of the cows, Alex and Peekay pick up dead baby animals that were thrown out of a moving vehicle… I could have lived without all those visuals and I am sorry I just put those in your head when you were 100% not asking for it. Even the emotional sadness with animals in this book almost made me just put the book down.

Little background on me: I’ve been a vegetarian since I was 08 years old. Some days, I am vegan. You can bet your bottom dollar I eat like my namesake: a bird. I have two rescued cats and I love all animals to the absolute fullest. I even take the time to get on Amazon Smile to make sure it donates to my appointed rescue. You can say I am a little bit of a nut job, but I am a full believer of taking care of the creatures I was put on this earth to take care of (and that also includes the earth itself… also a big recycler).

Now don’t get me wrong, I will touch and make meat and I am not going to even give your food a second glance if you are eating a cheeseburger in front of me. But I never want to read about someone actually in the process of making the food that the majority of the world eats ever again. It was too heartbreaking for this tender-heart bird.

Which brings up another dilemma of mine: why did the talk of animals being killed hurt more than the idea of some of the other topics in this book? Am I that filtered? When I have talked to some of the other people who have read this book, they all felt the same way I did. Why is it that the talk of someone killing an animal is more repulsive than the talk of someone killing another human? I can watch Criminal Minds all day, but I will never watch Old Yeller again. I love war movies, but you will see me plug my ears and close my eyes when it is apparent that a horse is about to die.

I’m just bringing all of that up because I don’t want people to think that I am pointing fingers. This is also a topic that I need to learn more about and talk openly with. This book is a good start to ease someone into this kind of topic and also a great one to read with a few people. I read this with my book club The Cheerful Wednesdays, and I can tell you that none of us expected this book to go as deep as it did.

Overall, this book was just a really, really heavy read. I didn’t resonate with the ending too well, and I am not sure if it was because I didn’t like it or because I knew it was the only way for this story to conclude. Even if you took out the romance in this book, the friendship between Alex and Peekay is worth the read. Even if you took out both the romance and the friendship, the topics touched on are worth reading and learning about.

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Falling Kingdoms #06: Immortal Reign

/ 03 STARS, 2018 FEBRUARY, MR FALLING KINGDOMS

Immortal Reign Book Cover Immortal Reign
Falling Kingdoms
Morgan Rhodes
Young Adult Fiction
Penguin
February 6, 2018
Audiobook
400

As two lethal elemental gods set out to destroy Mytica, sworn enemies must become allies in the final fight to save the kingdoms in the thrilling conclusion to the Falling Kingdoms series by "New York Times"-bestselling author Rhodes.

Falling Kingdom: ★★★☆☆ Blog & Goodreads
Rebel Springs: ★★★★☆ Blog & Goodreads
Gathering Darkness: ★★★★★ Blog & Goodreads
Frozen Tides: ★★★★★ Blog & Goodreads
Crystal Storms: ★★★★☆ Blog & Goodreads
Immortal Reign: ★★★☆☆ Blog & Goodreads

I feel like this should be obvious, but there will be spoilers from previous books (not this one) and… so… don’t read if you don’t want things spoiled.

So here I was… anxiously waiting for this book ever since that cliff hanger in Crystal Storm and just praying to the goddess Rhodes that she does not kill my Magnus and that he gets some what of a happy ending since he seriously had THE WORST childhood. I mean he grew up to be a fine, thirst-worthy, broody young man but my heart reaches out to him in his younger years.

Then here I am… upset that I kind of got what I asked for. I know, don’t mind me, just being a typical woman who says one thing but actually wants something completely different. I mean, don’t get me wrong, this was a super entertaining read and there are a lot of twist and turns and things you aren’t really expecting. But, I’m a real sucker for endings that actually break my heart. I mean, I felt the exact same way at the end of A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J Maas. Things just fell into place way too easily for that huge cliff hanger that we were all hanging off of for a whole year and then some. I need my heart strings pulled.

One of my favorite parts is when Magnus and Cleo see each other for the first time in a long time. Magnus is just always grumpy and always jealous and snarky and it is just my favorite thing to read. You would think there would be running and embracing after everything that happened, but no he spits out a jealous remark and continually snarks for like two pages. He is absolutely every girl’s broody dream.

…And then all my other favorite scenes include Magnus and Cleo and no one else (like when they talk about Cleo’s hair again… eh? eh?). They are the real reason why I love this series. I mean, come on… they are ship-into-the-sunset-with-bullets-flying. I was here to hear their story and could have lived without the following rants (with some positives):

I have always been annoyed with Jonas, and this book just made that worse for me. Like why didn’t he die in book three? And the romance that he ends up in is just completely random and didn’t sit right with me. I felt like they were the leftovers of the characters and Rhodes just kind of shrugged and was like “yeah that could work” and fit it in. His character had so much room for growth from book one but I think he just got more and more angry and more and more annoying. I seriously was done with him after the love triangle first appeared.

Amara gets everything she deserves. That’s all I need to say on her topic. I was over here from the day her name came on the page.

King Gaius… why did I feel like I was supposed to be feeling remorse for him? Why did Magnus feel as if he owned his father literally anything? All Gaius has done is abuse literally everyone who comes around him. Literally. He is the bubonic plague. He never brought any color or happiness to anyone. He was always black and he was always poison. I will never be here for that kind of abuse. We have enough of that in the real world, I don’t need that in my fantasy world too.

Lucia was a hot head with anything she did, and having a baby just made it worse. She makes really rash decisions and never actually thinks over what she is doing. I don’t dislike her, but I also don’t realy like her. I know a lot of people absolutely hate her though, and I can understand why. I like her more than Jonas, at least. That doesn’t exclude the fact that she is low-key abusive. But what to do you expect from someone who was the favorite of an abusive father? I wasn’t here for it. I wasn’t here for how she went about getting her daughter back (surprise, she was kidnapped). I wasn’t here for how she treated the men around her. I wasn’t here for her “my way or the highway” that she pulls out in every book. I just wasn’t here for it. But again, Jonas is worse for me and I think it is just because he is above annoying to me.

Ashur to me is like the strong back-bone of all the characters we have. He thinks things through, he is rash, he is usually gentle and he cares about the people around him. You don’t have a lot of people who aren’t rash-thinkers in this book and so he was a refreshing face.

Nic… I just can’t. How the book ended for him I would have done differently… mine would have been in the exact opposite way that Rhodes took it (though he is her character and it is her book and this is how her story is told!). I also just have felt bad for Nic ever since we met him. He really doesn’t catch a break, so maybe the ending he got was genuinely for that reason. On the plus side, I am really happy that we got some representation out of Nic and Ashur. I do wish we had more page-time with these two (don’t take away my Magnus and Cleo time, just take away everything else).

Ending on a Happy Note
There is this scene, and it isn’t a spoiler it is just really completely amazing, there Cleo talks about how she is keeping her last name because she is honoring her family before her and she is the last in her line and I absolutely felt all the feminist in the world let out a cheer. It just brought a smile to my face to see that a woman in this fantasy-medieval land can stand up and decide for herself what she wants to be called and who she wants to stand for. Just because she is married, doesn’t mean she has to confirm. I mean, me personally, I plan on taking my husbands last name because I like the idea of becoming a family together. But I know plenty of women who have kept their last name or are planning to and I say more power to them and I love it. I felt empowered that she saw she had a choice and didn’t just assume she had to.

I’m not going to make this any longer, but overall I just needed some more devastation and twist for my taste. I like things to get super messy and this just felt really clean and neat to me. But it was a satisfying ending and I would still recommend this series to anyone who loves high fantasy, hate-to-love and just rash-headed people who you can’t help but cheer for. But I do take back my comparison to A Song of Fire and Ice (Game of Thrones). I mean, GRRM gets my need for blood and heart-string pulling more than anyone I know.

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First, I want to state that I buddy read this IN A DAY with the lovely Melanie! Here is her Goodreads, Bookstagram, and her Blog! Reading this in a day with this girl was so fun! We have completely different schedules so we were all over the place, but we bounced feels and dreads off one another and it was so much fun! This girl is the sweetest and I can’t wait to read more books with her!

You can find her reviews and thoughts for this book here: GoodReads
Beware though.. she was super upset she didn’t like this ending!

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