An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson

Synopsis:

 

Isobel is a prodigy portrait artist with a dangerous set of clients: the sinister fair folk, immortal creatures who cannot bake bread, weave cloth, or put a pen to paper without crumbling to dust. They crave human Craft with a terrible thirst, and Isobel’s paintings are highly prized. But when she receives her first royal patron—Rook, the autumn prince—she makes a terrible mistake. She paints mortal sorrow in his eyes—a weakness that could cost him his life.

Furious and devastated, Rook spirits her away to the autumnlands to stand trial for her crime. Waylaid by the Wild Hunt’s ghostly hounds, the tainted influence of the Alder King, and hideous monsters risen from barrow mounds, Isobel and Rook depend on one another for survival. Their alliance blossoms into trust, then love—and that love violates the fair folks’ ruthless laws. Now both of their lives are forfeit, unless Isobel can use her skill as an artist to fight the fairy courts. Because secretly, her Craft represents a threat the fair folk have never faced in all the millennia of their unchanging lives: for the first time, her portraits have the power to make them feel.

Rating: 🌟🌟

 

I really wanted to love this. Despite going in with low expectations, I still came out disappointed. More than anything, I think this book has a lot of missed potential because it's too short. I was drawn in immediately by the writing, characters, and setting, but those quickly got sacrificed in order to rush through the plot in the small amount of page space.

This book's biggest downfall is that it's not longer. It clocks in at 297 pages, which just simply isn't enough for a fantasy story that is driven primarily by love. If there had been even 100 extra pages, I think the romance would've felt more fleshed out and the main antagonist more present earlier in the story. But because this story didn't have that extra space, An Enchantment of Ravens is plagued by insta-love and an ending that doesn't have any weight because the antagonist was introduced in the last 50 pages.

The insta-love was definitely the most harmful aspect to this book for me. Unlike other YA fantasies, where the romance is a subplot to the main plot, the story of An Enchanment of Ravens hinges completely on the romance between Isobel and Rook. Even if in other YA fantasies, the romance overwhelms what's actually happening in the main plot, a main plot still exists outside of the romance. In this book, all of the stakes and consequences are derived from the romance. The characters are only in peril because of their love. And so when we don't actually get to see that love develop on the page beyond a few scenes of the characters interacting, the whole story just feels hollow.

I'm also personally just not into journey books. I usually find them meandering and kind of boring. The synopsis set me up for court intrigue, which I love, and instead I ended up with a journey narrative. I would've reconsidered picking up this book, had I known half of it would've been a journey story.

Overall, An Enchanment of Ravens falls flat because of its short length. Margaret Rogerson is a good writer and has interesting ideas, but the length of this novel just did not do the story Rogerson wanted to tell justice.

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

Synopsis:

 

First Son Alex Claremont-Diaz is the closest thing to a prince this side of the Atlantic. With his intrepid sister and the Veep’s genius granddaughter, they’re the White House Trio, a beautiful millennial marketing strategy for his mother, President Ellen Claremont. International socialite duties do have downsides—namely, when photos of a confrontation with his longtime nemesis Prince Henry at a royal wedding leak to the tabloids and threaten American/British relations.

The plan for damage control: staging a fake friendship between the First Son and the Prince. Alex is busy enough handling his mother’s bloodthirsty opponents and his own political ambitions without an uptight royal slowing him down. But beneath Henry’s Prince Charming veneer, there’s a soft-hearted eccentric with a dry sense of humor and more than one ghost haunting him.

As President Claremont kicks off her reelection bid, Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret relationship with Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations. And Henry throws everything into question for Alex, an impulsive, charming guy who thought he knew everything: What is worth the sacrifice? How do you do all the good you can do? And, most importantly, how will history remember you?

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

 

ARC provided by St. Martin's Press via Netgalley in exchange for my honest thoughts and review.

You know how, in the original animated How the Grinch Stole Christmas, at the end of the film the Grinch's heart grows three sizes and he's filled with overwhelming love and affection? ME WHILE READING THIS BOOK.

Queer rep in this: biracial (Mexican/white) bisexual man, white gay man, bisexual woman, Latino gay man, Asian transwoman with a wife, and a pansexual man. And that's what's just on the page - there are at least two other characters I can think of that I suspect are queer. (Yes, I also just about died seeing such a variety of queer folks on the page.)

I cannot even begin to express how deeply I loved this book. It made my cold, shriveled heart feel things. It had me laughing harder than any novel has in a long while. But most of all, it gave me hope during a time in U.S. history where hope is such a difficult thing to hold on to. Do not doubt how self-aware this book is about how race, sexuality, and gender interact with politics, especially in the U.S..

The characters in this are so insanely lovable. Alex and Henry are such realistic, well-written characters in their own right, but together? They were so sweet they made my teeth ache, oh my goodness. I adored every single step of their relationship and I felt their emotions right there with them. Honestly, this book probably has the most realistic, healthiest portrayal of a hate-to-love relationship I've ever read. I flippin' loved it, y'all.

But even though Alex and Henry are the main show, I literally loved every single character??? June, Nora, and Bea especially, but I have to give a shoutout to Zahra. Just about every sentence that came out of Zahra's mouth had me screaming with laughter. Each female character in this novel is really complex and well-fleshed out, even if they have less screen time in comparison to Alex and Henry.

I don't tend to read a lot of voice-heavy novels - probably a result of reading too many fantasy novels - but I a b s o l u t e l y l o v e d the voice of Red, White & Royal Blue. It was so millennial in tone, and I say that unironically. I've never felt more seen in how my peers and I communicate. Casey McQuiston's writing is clever and existential and laugh-out-loud funny. I'm lucky I was able to read this exclusively in the comfort of my own home, because otherwise I would've been that one person silently heaving in public, red-faced from trying to choke my laughter down.

The pacing in this was also really well done. Pacing tends to be an issue I see often in novels, but McQuiston makes it seem effortless. You feel the months of time passing, beyond the text telling you that time has gone by. It makes the progression of Alex and Henry's relationship feel really organic. Insta-love? We don't know her. Also because of how great the pacing was, this novel felt like it had SO MUCH packed into it. When I was halfway done, I couldn't believe I was ONLY half-way done - that's how much was happening on the pages. Yet despite having so much content, never at any point did I feel like anything in this book was rushed. Every single scene felt necessary and exactly the length it needed to be.

By far, this book brought me more unbridled joy than anything I've read in recent memory. Casey McQuiston has become an auto-buy author for me, hands down.

My suggestion to you? Go pre-order this book. Go make a suggestion to your local library to purchase this book. Go put a hold on this book at your local library, so you can love it on release just as much as I did. If you're queer or support queer people, go shout about this book from the rooftops because I promise, this is the type of queer book queer readers have been waiting for.

Furyborn (Empirium, #1) by Claire Legrand

Synopsis:

 

When assassins ambush her best friend, Rielle Dardenne risks everything to save him, exposing herself as one of a pair of prophesied queens: a queen of light, and a queen of blood. To prove she is the Sun Queen, Rielle must endure seven elemental magic trials. If she fails, she will be executed...unless the trials kill her first.

One thousand years later, the legend of Queen Rielle is a fairy tale to Eliana Ferracora. A bounty hunter for the Undying Empire, Eliana believes herself untouchable--until her mother vanishes. To find her, Eliana joins a rebel captain and discovers that the evil at the empire's heart is more terrible than she ever imagined.

As Rielle and Eliana fight in a cosmic war that spans millennia, their stories intersect, and the shocking connections between them ultimately determine the fate of their world--and of each other.

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

 

4.5 stars. Oh my goodness, I flipping loved this! Imagine the addictive quality and vibe of a Sarah J. Maas book, but with queer characters, characters of color, more cohesive world-building, and a narrative beyond romance, and you get Furyborn.

Gosh, where do I even start? What drew me in with this novel initially was the SJM vibe. I used to love SJM's books, despite all their faults and problematic elements, but there has been a noticeable decline in the quality of her works in the past few years. I just can't get into her books like I used to, and I feel really disillusioned with her new works. I've been mourning it, honestly, the loss of these addicting, guilty pleasure reads. So discovering Furyborn as a comparable, but distinctly better, work was such a delight. My feelings for this book went from zero to 100 REAL QUICK.

One of my favorite parts about this book was the world-building. I can't believe I'm saying this, but in an age of YA fantasy where belief typically takes the form of a pantheon consisting of multiple gods, Furyborn's obvious inspiration from Christian mythology was really refreshing. Typically, portions of Christian myth are cherry-picked - angels as ~cool supernatural beings~ or religious Renaissance art aesthetic, for example - and slapped into a fantasy world without context. But in the world of Furyborn, there is/was a God with a capital G. And that's something I've never seen in a modern fantasy novel. Angels are ultimately the focus of this world and their existence is cohesive with the world-building, rather than just being an intriguing, powerful fantasy race. I loved that continuity.

In terms of the characters, I have mixed feelings. Both Rielle and Eliana can be intensely unlikable characters at times. There were times were I was ready to jump out of my seat and root for them, and other times their foolishness had my eyes rolling so far into the back of my head. Eliana is such a hard ass that I think she's a difficult character to write, so her characterization sometimes felt inconsistent and unbalanced in those moments of vulnerability. Rielle definitely felt more constant. But despite their flaws, I LOVED these two women. I adore heroines that aren't easy to love with my entire soul.

Plus, they're both bisexual! I know some have had some issues with the bi rep in this book, but as a bisexual woman, I absolutely loved reading about two amazing, complicated, powerful bi women. Acting like a bi women is suddenly "not bisexual enough" if she's in a relationship with or attracted to the opposite gender is frankly biphobic and if you feel that way, I strongly encourage you to rethink your attitude towards bi folks. I think critiques regarding the "promiscuous bisexual" stereotype are valid, though, even if I personally don't think this novel is enforcing that. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

Also, Corien. That's it. That's the entire paragraph.

Okay, no, but I freaking loved Corien. 11/10 Claire Legrand did an amazing job at writing him. He's a bastard, but I haven't been so intrigued by a character since the Darkling. If you think I was Rielle every time Corien spoke to her...you so right. I enjoyed Simon a lot too, but like Rielle, I thought he suffered uneven characterization towards the end of the novel.

The pacing wasn't the best at times, but switching between queens every single chapter was such a smart strategy on Legrand's part in keeping me engaged. Almost every chapter ended on a cliffhanger. So when I was just about bursting with excitement for Rielle's journey, suddenly a new chapter would begin following Eliana. But then by the time I would get to the end of Eliana's chapter, I'd be so engrossed in her story that switching back to Rielle would be difficult. It kept me consistently excited for both Rielle's and Eliana's stories, so I never favored one storyline over the other and it made the pages fly by.

So now that we've established that MY ENTIRE BODY SANG WITH LOVE THE WHOLE TIME I READ THIS, why isn't this a 5 star read? What it comes down to is that I didn't enjoy the last 1/3 of the book as much as I did the first 2/3. Eliana's chapters felt especially meandering towards the end of the novel, and I still don't understand what Navi or Remy are contributing to the story besides convenient outlets for character development that doesn't feel organic. That, combined with Eliana and Simon's uneven characterization, made the last bit of the novel significantly less exciting for me. I have a feeling my rating will change to 5 stars on a reread, but for now, Furyborn is a 4.5 for me.

If you got this far, my advice is this: If you loved Throne of Glass, read this. If you hated Throne of Glass, read this.

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Synopsis:

 

A beautiful and distinguished family.
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.

We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from New York Times bestselling author, National Book Award finalist, and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart.

Rating: 🌟🌟

 

I think I would've enjoyed this a lot more had my expectations been different. Between the vague synopsis and "mind-blowing" twist everyone always talks about, I was anticipating a mystery thriller about a bunch of spoiled rich kids on a private island doing scandalous things. Instead, this is a slow-moving mystery about a girl with amnesia wandering around her family's private island. Because of my wrong expectations, I was a bit bored with the story overall.

But let's talk about the things I liked first. The writing in this is gorgeous. I understand why its not some people's jam, but I adore well-done purple prose and E. Lockhart is undeniably a skilled writer. The beautiful prose really helped carry me forward through the novel, because even if I was bored with the story, I loved the images I was experiencing. However, I do think Lockhart did take metaphors a bit too far in places, especially in the beginning of the novel when Cady says her father shot her in the heart when he leaves. It took me a moment to realize he didn't literally shoot her and Lockhart meant these moments of her being wounded as metaphors.

Because Lockhart is a such a strong writer, I thought she did a really fantastic job of setting the atmosphere for this story. Everything felt so surreal, it made me feel really uneasy and unsettled. Obviously I knew there was a big twist coming based off of reviews, but if I hadn't, the novel's tone definitely made me feel like something was very wrong and something huge was about to happen.

But that's about all I enjoyed.

Without getting into any spoiler territory, I was severely letdown by the plot twist and it honestly tainted the entire book for me. Instead of shocking me, it just made me sad and disgusted, which was amplified by how sensory the writing was. I really wasn't sure what direction the novel would take, but the plot twist was one of several guesses I had, so it had less impact on me. Plus, I didn't really care about any of the characters, including Cady.

But ultimately, what disappointed me most was how much potential this novel had to critique the wealth gap between the white elite and people of color in the U.S., and its failure to do so. With all the little hints of critical thought littered throughout the novel, I really believed that was the direction it would take. I thought this was leading to a Get Out scenario, only in book form. But it didn't, and I'm really sad about it.

Overall, I think this novel has gorgeous prose and a carefully cultivated atmosphere, but fails to deliver a satisfying twist due to bland characters and missed potential to talk about important issues.