Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. By age twenty, in fact, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she’s thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world’s most elite universities on a full ride. What’s the catch, and why her?
Still searching for answers to this herself, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. These eight windowless “tombs” are well-known to be haunts of the future rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street and Hollywood’s biggest players. But their occult activities are revealed to be more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive.

I’m going to start out by saying that I absolutely loved Ninth House, I know that it’s a pretty polarising book and that for some the triggers in this book are too many. I’m just going to say it one more time for the people at the back and say this is NOT YA, if you’re expecting the Grishaverse in a contemporary setting, then please think carefully as this is not the Leigh Bardugo you will be expecting. I managed to grab the Waterstones edition of this book and it is utterly gorgeous, I’m a huge fan of hidden covers but this one is pretty special given the spine design and it was also signed by the great lady herself.

Alex Stern is a character that I would defy anyone not to feel sympathy for, her troubles are not by her own design yet she has been discarded by society and left to deal with her horrifying ability alone. From this stems the fact that beyond all else this book is very, very dark. Despite the wonderful opportunity she has been gifted, it far from makes up for her suffering, her character is hard and defensive but also one who doesn’t wish to see others wronged in the way she was. She is a wonderfully complex character with an underlying intelligence which has never been given the opportunity to present itself.

I found the history behind the houses utterly fascinating and it’s this that gives the story it darker magical feel, how each house garnered it’s name, how each has a unique ability and ceremony. Ninth House really sticks two fingers up at the privileged white man, none of whom come out particularly well in this book, it’s an incendiary look at the toxicity in the frat house environment, which as a Brit looking in feels so alien. The sense of entitlement these characters have over others and over women especially, is abhorrent and I have never felt such a writhing hatred for a character than one that you’ll find here. My day job has desensitised me to a lot and I rarely feel triggered, but this particular character really touched a nerve with me. Knowing that these mostly horrible human beings will grow into the next generations rich and influential, in this fictional world was frightening. The author cleverly adding in enough nuggets of current life to make that distinction a difficult one at times.

I enjoyed the fluctuating time frames and the countdown element between the two could have made this book feel like a race but everything is so perfectly placed and never rushed, it felt like Leigh Bardugo was savouring every moment of writing for an older demographic, her use of language is exceptional and so rich in creativity, although I have to say that the closing paragraph proves that you can take the girl out of YA but you can’t take YA out of the girl!

This book has finally pulled me out of my YA bubble and I found it a darkly compelling read with a world within touching distance to our own, I hope this isn’t the last we see of Alex.

5*

Steve Rogers knows the art of survival better than most. Decades under ice will do that to a man. But the Avengers chipped more than rock-hard morality and super strength out from under that permafrost. When Cap takes out a terrorist cell threatening to poison the world, he’ll discover a threat far more deadly. An incurable virus has hidden in his body for years — and now it’s come to the surface. To save the world, he’ll have to return to his own personal hell: deep freeze.
And he’ll have to take an old friend with him. Having survived his own death by inhabiting a clone of Steve Rogers, the Red Skull has inherited the virus — and he’s a little less willing to play martyr. As the deadly disease shifts and evolves, new patterns emerge. Can Captain America contain the Red Skull before the virus runs rampant?

I have to admit that when it comes to these Marvel tie in books I do have a bit of a soft spot for them. They are fun and easy reads and they are accessible for readers who only know Marvel via the Avengers films, like myself. Unsurprisingly, Dark Designs has a cinematic quality to it, plenty of big set pieces, explosions and battles, with enough nods to established characters which really help with visualisation. One of my favourite of the battles takes place in Paris starting at the Louvre and covering the length and breadth of the city all the way to a climactic finish in the Seine – this is of course helped immensely by the arrival of Tony Stark who actually steals the show for most of this book. There is amazing banter from him as always which was much needed as actually, for a Captain America book, I felt that his character came across as pretty flat. He was almost secondary to the sinister Red Skull, who I think may have appeared in a series of S.H.E.I.L.D once, he felt very familiar, but utterly insane! His sinister presence is actually pretty chilling at times as he releases a series of Sleepers born out of WWII Nazi tech, the liberties taken though with the technological capabilities of the time are those which can only be taken with a comic book edge! The presence of Dr N’Tomo as well was fabulous, Black Panther is one of my favourite films of the Marvelverse, so the talk of Wakanda was very welcome –  although sadly shows how chronically underrepresented female characters are in the book.

It does feel formulaic at times, but i think with these books a linear style works because you always know what you’re going to get and in part is what makes these enjoyable reads, I really enjoyed the addition of the artwork in some of the chapters too, it was interesting to see more of the graphic novel versions of Captain America and was a nice touch. The epilogue was great too, really unexpected and puts quite the slant on things, it was a great way to end the story.

An enjoyable 3.5 Stars for this little slice of the Marvel Universe.

Bex Ellman and Ketty Smith are fighting on opposite sides in a British civil war. Bex and her friends are in hiding, but when Ketty threatens her family, Bex learns that her safety is more fragile than she thought.

Darkest Hour is the 3rd instalment of the Battle Ground series and in a turn from the previous 2 books, gives us the point of view of both Bex and Ketty in the same book. I do really enjoy multiple POV books and the alternating chapters are a real favourite which meant I enjoyed this immensely. Time has moved on a little and whilst Bex and her fellow recruits have made their way to the North East of England, Ketty and Bracken have managed to secure themselves a London posting. This helps to drive Ketty’s story forward as she not only has the resources and intel that such a placement provides but also ready access to the prisoners who are closest to Bex. This is in stark comparison to Bex who is surviving on very little and in almost complete seclusion. It feels almost unfair that this is the turn of events.

Despite the differing ends of the spectrum that the two find themselves at, there are actually a huge amount of similarities. Both are clearly being used. Ketty and her eagerness and utter blind spot where it comes to Bex, is allowing herself to slip and miss the nuances of the situation around her, I can’t help but think that despite her small victories that she is walking blindly into a bad situation for her and Bracken. For Bex, she is constantly at someone else’s whim, she has become the face of the revolution and her image is no longer her own, I have to say that this is a time where I couldn’t help but draw a comparison between her and Katniss Everdeen as the Mockingjay, the bigger picture is being consumed by her hatred of being seen as nothing more than a pretty face. What is clear is that both are pawns in much larger game.

The expansion out of Camp Bishop was also much needed but this is far from a travel show, Bex finds herself in an impossible situation and the bleakness of her pilgrimage to safety was very reminiscent of her initial march where we find her in book 1. I liked that we got to see the impacts in different areas and how society has almost just accepted this new way of life with a frightening apathy. It’s also a very emotional story too, more so for the revolutionary side of things, there are some deeply sad moments for Bex and I did struggle a little with how she reacted and at times she felt a little cold. I guess she’s become a product of her surroundings though. There are parts of this story which will definitely surprise the reader though and my jaw hit the floor at one point where I just couldn’t believe what I was reading.  There are definitely some tough moments to come and the almost flippant discussions around ways of making people talk, show a frightening desensitisation of the kind that can only be born from people who are totally blinkered that their way is the only way. I think that the next book is going to tread very close to the fringes of YA, but this is certainly a series to that I can’t wait to find out what happens next.

4*

All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery—magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. If provoked, they transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather. She hopes to become a warden, charged with protecting the kingdom from their power.
Then an act of sabotage releases the library’s most dangerous grimoire. Elisabeth’s desperate intervention implicates her in the crime, and she is torn from her home to face justice in the capital. With no one to turn to but her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn, and his mysterious demonic servant, she finds herself entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy. Not only could the Great Libraries go up in flames, but the world along with them.
As her alliance with Nathaniel grows stronger, Elisabeth starts to question everything she’s been taught—about sorcerers, about the libraries she loves, even about herself. For Elisabeth has a power she has never guessed, and a future she could never have imagined. 

I haven’t been doing too well at the moment with books that have been well received, the last few haven’t really hit the spot but Sorcery of Thorns totally changed that! I have the utterly gorgeous Fairyloot edition of this book and the sprayed edges sparkled at every page turn which just added to the magic! I went in knowing that this was a standalone story and the writing benefited from that greatly. Every page was full of action and relevant information, there were no lull’s or points that felt like filler. Sorcery of Thorns had enough story to stretch into a duology but I’m so glad it didn’t because this book was impossible to put down because of how much was crammed onto every page.

The world was every bibliophiles dream, set in and around a number of great libraries, a main character who can communicate with books and the fact that those books can also come alive and respond to kindness and cruelty in the same way a human would. The magic system is simple but works brilliantly and actually isn’t as much of a focal point as you would think. I adored Elisabeth as a protagonist, a child of the library, she is fun and strong and her story arc was so good. There was never a dull moment and I found myself totally captivated and drawn in to the situations she found herself in. Some were difficult to deal with and I felt unsettled by her diagnosis of Hysteria and the somewhat Victorian way of treating such a thing. There was a historical feel to the fantasy which lent itself to the Victoriana which in turn helped me picture the world more vibrantly, especially when the weather became more wintery and I had visions of ice skating on the Thames, however, in this instance with awoken gargoyles prowling the perimeter. There are many moments of wonder woven into the normal day to day which is why I felt that the pace never faltered.

Whilst Nathaniel is full of the usual charm and banter that has come to be the norm in YA Fantasy, I have to take moment to just shout from the rooftops about Silas, a snarky demon companion who may either choose that day to eat you or simply turn into a fluffy white cat instead. His wit and wisdom were the highlight of this story for me. The action is plentiful and written with a great sense of urgency and emotion, I did feel a bit too swept up in the end and made myself go back and re-read pages because even when you think it’s just another action sequence, there are actually pretty integral plot points woven in!

I really enjoyed Sorcery of Thorns, I love that it felt secure enough in itself to not drag out over more than one book and that it’s characters managed to sidestep usual tropes and have that extra bit of spark. I’m definitely going to be reading more by this author though as the writing style was such a great fit for me, I would love to devour more!

5*