Welcome, welcome to Caraval…all games must come to an end.
It’s been two months since the last Caraval concluded, two months since the Fates have been freed from an enchanted deck of cards, two months since Tella has seen Legend, and two months since Legend claimed the empire’s throne as his own. Now, Legend is preparing for his official coronation and Tella is determined to stop it. She believes her own mother, who still remains in an enchanted sleep, is the rightful heir to the throne.
Meanwhile, Scarlett has started a game of her own. She’s challenged Julian and her former fiancé, Count Nicolas d’Arcy, to a competition where the winner will receive her hand in marriage. Finaly, Scarlett feels as if she is in complete control over her life and future. She is unaware that her mother’s past has put her in the greatest danger of all.
Caraval is over, but perhaps the greatest game of all has begun―with lives, empires, and hearts all at stake. There are no spectators this time: only those who will win…and those who will lose everything.
Caraval has always been a series I have really enjoyed, i’ve never outright been blown away by them though but the first 2 books were commendable 4* reads for me. The set up for Finale was cliffhangertastic and I had really high hopes that this would be the book to push it up to a 5* but sadly I ended up the other way.
Firstly though, the hardback is just as gorgeous as I’ve come to expect from the series. First editions have the usual hidden covers, this time each with a quote rather than a picture. Also, for the first time we have sprayed edges! The map of Valenda inside is hilarious, it makes sense as you get through the story, but when I first saw it I felt it was genius and a unique take on the usual dry fantasy maps. The story is told for the first time in dual pov between Scarlet and Donatella but they don’t alternate though and the story flips as and when necessary which is nice.
The magics as usual are breathtaking, even with the limitations given the period of mourning that Valenda finds itself in, a beautiful picture is painted. The world building has a high attention to detail and as the fates gradually get used to their freedom from the deck of destiny it has a very slight thriller feel trying to work our what or who will appear next. It’s also pretty macabre – remember in Legendary when the children disappeared in the play? Well quadruple your feelings for this one, it shows that Stephanie Garber has a real talent outside of romance and I would love to see her take a turn at a darker series next. Scarlett has been a bit of a let down for me over the first two books and I’m happy to say that she really pulls it back in Finale, she’s finally given the story arc she deserves and gains a fair bit of depth along the way. There are so many fantastical places in Finale, it’s such a wonderful world – I adored the fact that there is a tithe to pay when our characters least expect it and this leads to both comedy and tragedy. Did I mention how much I loved the world building….?
Where did it all go wrong for me then? I didn’t enjoy the direction that some of the characters went in, Donatella who thusfar has been a strong, daring and vibrant character felt to be reduced to a simpering mess, An exciting character that I though would be a major player was gone in a blink and felt like it was a hugely missed opportunity. I wanted to know more about the fates, fated objects and fated places, they had the potential to weave so much more magic into the story which at times ended up feeling like a melodrama. Love is the central theme though, you’re shouting at me, but it really didn’t need to be as sappy as it was. The ending was rushed and confusing (also a little icky) and I felt that there were many things that weren’t wrapped up satisfactorily, in short after 3 books, I felt let down. I even found Legend to be tawdry and despite everything felt like Jacks was the star of the show – I’m actually pretty sad at (in my view) such a missed opportunity especially as just a couple more chapters could have easily made it so much better.
3*
Last month I was invited to read and review the latest book in the Warlock Holmes series: Sign of Nine by the lovely people at Titan books. It was a wonderful book with real laugh out loud moments and a ton of great happenings to investigate. When I was asked if I would like to interview the author G.S Denning, I jumped at the chance to find out more about this take on these well loved characters and about the author himself.
Even though this is a pic I posted a couple of weeks ago, I’m running with it because it’s been a while since I posted like this. So Sarah J Maas inspired pics are always pretty popular and this one featuring a Geeky Clean candle from last Novembers Fairyloot has been my best picture ever over on IG, I’m pretty happy with that!
One of my favourite reads of last year, State of Sorrow really caught me by surprise as I have to admit that it is rare for me to award five stars to a fairyloot book as we rarely agree. But this book is full of great twists and tons of political intrigue, just when I thought I had it pegged it flipped on me again. The conclusion, Song of Sorrow, was equally a Five star read and I definitely want to read them following on from one another again this year.
I adored Strange the Dreamer so it was no surprise that Muse of Nightmares was high on my list of anticipated reads for 2018. I was lucky to have grabbed a hardback copy of Strange from Amazon before it became a unicorn, so to get the matching set I made sure to pre-order Muse and the Waterstones version came with gorgeous orange sprayed edges. The book lived up to all my expectations, the same wonderful lyrical writing style with an intriguing parallel story coming to a cataclysmic finale. I want to re-read both this and Strange the dreamer this year, I really hope I have time to fit them in because it’s a world I can wait to get lost in again.
In a story that totally reminded me of Starship Troopers, I loved the dog fight style and the space battles were nothing short of epic. It was the first time I had read a book by Brandon Sanderson and I totally loved it with it’s cinematic feel and its ability to make me feel that I was completely in the pages. With book 2, Starsight, out later this year it’s definitely high on my anticipated reads list and I would love to be able to have refreshed my memory beforehand.
With Queen of Ruin high on my 2019 anticipated list, not for the first time on this list, I want to re-read book one before hand. Also surprisingly this is the 3rd book on this list that I picked up because of fairyloot – so it’s not all bad. Grace and Fury was a light and quick read and it really benefited from it. The story moved quickly and with so much going on packed into it’s pages, I think I’ve found the book I’m taking on holiday with me later this month!
I admit I was gutted that signed copies of this book had all sold out by the time I got to YALC last year, but it was still very much a book that I was figuratively dying to read, the cover is simplistically gorgeous and I do so enjoy a good sci-fi! I got a kindle gift card for my birthday and this was the first book that I purchased with it. This is a book that was very much worth the wait, I devoured it, reading pages here and there wherever I could and the thriller pacing towards then end had me flipping the pages without catching a breath. What happens when I read like that? Inevitably I miss things, I don’t know if I did, but in my excitement it’s likely. Now I know how it ends, I want to go back and savour the pages, Lauren James has a real attention to detail and has a background which means that there is fact behind the fiction. Also I know I can get signed copies from her Etsy shop, so happy days!
I offer an apology to Lifel1k3 as I didn’t give it half the attention that I should have. It was the First Jay Kristoff book I had read and I was super excited as I know so many adore his writing. It certainly had a style of it’s own but I wasn’t immediately wowed. So why the apology? I shouldn’t have read it when I did. I thought I had time but really I didn’t, you see, I started reading it 2 days before Kingdom of Ash came out. In hindsight, there was no way that I could have read it in that time and I skim read most of the second half. Wisely I chose not to write a review for it, as I knew that my rating was utterly unjustified. I want to read Deviat3 though as it seems to focus on my favourite character Lemon Fresh. In order to do that, I need to properly read Lifel1k3 and not do it around the time that my most anticipated release of the year comes out!
I’m not big on vampire mythology, I think I was just outside of the demographic for twilight when it came out and I never really understood what all the fuss was about. When Vampire Hearts was released, I wanted to support this amazing author so I put aside my preconceptions and I’m so glad I did. Even though I was new to the genre Vampire Hearts follows a fledgling vampire and felt I was learning with him. The next book in the series is due 2020 so I have plenty of time to re-read this when the time comes!
Scythe was a real favourite last year, I had seen loads of posts on instagram when Thunderhead was released so I was intrigued by the series. I picked up Scythe when it was on a 99p kindle deal and it was a total 5 star read for me, I loved it but I didn’t pick up Thunderhead until December when I got a kindle gift card for my birthday. It’s been on my kindle since and with book 3 due out this year I really need to try and get this bumped up my list.
I feel like a cheat putting this one on here as I didn’t read Nyxia until this year, but book two was a 2018 release and had I come to the series earlier this would have been one of the top 2018 buys for me. I loved Nyxia with it’s Hunger Games in space feel . Book one ended in such an exciting climax that I am clawing to know what happens next!
Last year I managed to pick up the first 3 books in the Red Queen series on a deal in The Works, I read book one and loved it, I had book two on my tbr for the following month but never reached it and I haven’t revisited the series since, although I know I really should. The gorgeous author Rebecca Gibson send me her copy of War Storm as she saw how much I loved book one and forever feel guilty that I have’t made it much further into the series – she is my favourite friend to fan girl with so I want to get this series read so we can chat away about it!
I know very little about this series and it’s testament to the fact that one click ordering on Amazon is an easy thing to get sucked into! I went onto Amazon as the lovely Sylv from Whizzpop Candles posted about picking up Heartless for 99p on a kindle deal and I kind of went a bit crazy after that. I had heard good things about this series and it sounded like it had a proper dystopian element (with added dinosaurs!) which I’m always a sucker for – even though I’ve been told the series are pretty quick reads I still haven’t found the time to get to it. I think because it means starting a new series I’ve put it on the back burner as I have a ton of series to get finished first before moving onto something new.
I’m pretty proud of the fact that this is the only subscription box book from 2018 that is still unread, I’m not really sure why it hasn’t yet made it’s way to my monthly tbr other than I feel I have read a lot of Asian inspired fantasy between the end of 2018 and the first few months of 2019. The most recent one I read just felt like a carbon copy of what had come before so I think to be fair to the author I need to give this particular sub genre a break for a bit as I’m sure I will love it when I do come back round to it!
It took me a long time to get round to Carve the Mark, I really loved the Divergent Trilogy and I knew that this was pretty different so I was worried that I just wouldn’t enjoy it as much – I needn’t have feared though, as with a sci-fi element the story was completely for me. The Fates Divide is the concluding half of the duology but frustratingly I haven’t yet picked it up in paperback or on kindle, I need to remedy that when my self imposed book buying ban is over.
Paperbacks and Pinot 