CBR18 Book 53: "Monster, Monarch, Maiden by Rae Carson

Page count: 480 pages

Audiobook length: 12 hrs 55 mins

Rating: 4 stars

This was an ARC; thank you to NetGalley, Harper Audio and Greenwillow Books. My opinions are my own. This book is on sale now.

Bria Angarsold is an innkeeper's daughter (she mentions this at seven different points in the story, in case you were likely to forget) who was kidnapped by raiders, along with her sister and several other people who were at her family's inn at the time. Bria is one of the last surviving captives when the raiders' caravan is attacked by a mysterious young man. Seriously injured, but patched up by her rescuer, Bria knows that she won't survive in the wilderness by herself. Her sister is dead, and her family's inn was burned by the raiders. She has no home to return to, so she swears herself to the service of Titus, her brooding companion, vowing to help him on his dangerous journey.

It's obvious that Titus comes from wealth, from the expensive boots he wears to the impressive war horse he rides. He is on a perilous quest, assigned by the gods themselves, chased by assassins, and while he is initially reluctant to have Bria accompany him, her magical gift (which she had always seen as rather useless) proves to be a valuable aid in the challenges they face along the way.

As far as I can tell, this is a standalone fantasy novel by Rae Carson, and I was granted ARCs of both the audiobook and e-book versions of the story. I have to admit, I was glad when I got the e-book version, as I didn't entirely like the way Bailey Carr was narrating the story. So being able to read the story with my eyeballs was preferable. 

In this fantasy world, everyone is born with a magical gift of some sort. There are powerful and impressive gifts, like healing, shapeshifting or being able to take control over and manipulate everyone around you, but also small, seemingly harmless gifts like being able to change the colour of your nails, lighting small fires, or making things cold (Bria's gift). In a family of innkeepers, being able to make sure the food stays cold is very useful, but out in the world, kidnapped by raiders, it feels rather useless to her. As it turns out, once she starts experimenting with Titus' encouragement, her freezing powers can be a powerful weapon. It also makes her a lot more resistant to cold than most others, which is great when they have to traverse an icy lake to get into a cave to retrieve an object necessary for the quest.

Bria is resilient, pragmatic, and tries very hard not to dwell on the miseries she's gone through. She mourns her sister and her home, but tries to stay focused on Titus and his god-given quest to give her life a new purpose. He needs to retrieve several magical items in order to call down a dragon on a specific date, which will take him to where he needs to be in order to represent the goddess who selected him in a trial to determine who will become a new god. Each god in this world's pantheon has a chosen representative, and some are a lot more murderous than others, determined to take out their competitors before the divine trial. So Titus and Bria have to get to a specific destination on a specific date, or Titus fails. They also have to dodge assassins and various supernatural obstacles on the way.

It is obvious that any romance between them is doomed before it begins, as Titus is not only betrothed to someone (it's not a love match), but is also possibly going to become a new god if he survives long enough to summon the dragon and complete his quest. He is never going to be able to settle down and live a quiet life with a former innkeeper's daughter who might have a promising future as an ice merchant. Nevertheless, Bria can't help but fall for the handsome, stubborn and brave Titus, and he seems to return her feelings. 

"Breathtaking adventure and swoon-worthy romance for fans of Sarah J. Maas" is one of the promises in the official blurb, and while I can absolutely vouch for the adventure part of that statement, anyone who is expecting romantasy along the lines of ACOTAR or any of Sarah J. Maas' other books will be deeply disappointed. This is a fantasy quest with two interesting young protagonists, but the romantic subplot is extremely secondary, possibly even tertiary, and it is mostly longing glances and wistful sighs, all extremely chaste. Anyone expecting a steamy romantasy is going to be very disappointed by this. Stop it with the false advertising, publishers!

Standalone fantasy is rare these days, so I hope this isn't the start of a series. I wouldn't mind reading more books set in this world, though, which proved to be fascinating as it was revealed through Bria and Titus' journey. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR18 Book 51: "The Tainted Cup" by Robert Jackson Bennett

Page count: 410 pages

Rating: 4.5 stars

Dark Corner selection: April 2026

Nowhere Book Bingo 26: Award Winner (Hugo and World Fantasy Award 2025)

CBR18 Bingo: Map (there's a map at the start, showing the various walls to keep out the Levianthans)

Official plot synopsis (since I'm reviewing a book I finished in APRIL):

In Daretana’s most opulent mansion, a high Imperial officer lies dead—killed, to all appearances, when a tree spontaneously erupted from his body. Even in this canton at the borders of the Empire, where contagions abound and the blood of the Leviathans works strange magical changes, it’s a death at once terrifying and impossible.

Called in to investigate this mystery is Ana Dolabra, an investigator whose reputation for brilliance is matched only by her eccentricities.

At her side is her new assistant, Dinios Kol. Din is an engraver, magically altered to possess a perfect memory. His job is to observe and report, and act as his superior’s eyes and ears--quite literally, in this case, as among Ana’s quirks are her insistence on wearing a blindfold at all times, and her refusal to step outside the walls of her home.

Din is most perplexed by Ana’s ravenous appetite for information and her mind’s frenzied leaps—not to mention her cheerful disregard for propriety and the apparent joy she takes in scandalizing her young counterpart. Yet as the case unfolds and Ana makes one startling deduction after the next, he finds it hard to deny that she is, indeed, the Empire’s greatest detective.

As the two close in on a mastermind and uncover a scheme that threatens the safety of the Empire itself, Din realizes he’s barely begun to assemble the puzzle that is Ana Dolabra—and wonders how long he’ll be able to keep his own secrets safe from her piercing intellect.

My book club discussed this book at the end of April (we meet on the last Wednesday of every month), and my memory is not as good as it once was, so there are absolutely talking points I will have forgotten by now. I think most people enjoyed the story, but some thought it was a bit too tropey as a mystery, and had figured out a lot of the plot twists ahead of time as a result. At least half the readers were especially fascinated by the giant leviathans that appear and threaten the developed areas every so often, and our collective guess is that they may be more sentient than we are told in this first story.

The worldbuilding is very interesting, with everything technological being biologically based, rather than industrial, such as giant mushrooms cooling down a room rather than an air conditioner. The various modifications people could make to their minds and bodies were also fascinating. Our POV character, Dinios "Din" Kol, has been altered to have absolutely perfect recall. He can remember anything he observes or hears, with the help of little vials of scent. He smells the vial before he starts "recording" and will then be able to recall everything he saw, heard, smelled, and/or tasted forever afterwards, by just smelling the same scent one more time. Due to his abilities, he is highly sought when it comes to investigative work. He hides a big secret, which he is terrified of anyone discovering, especially his superior, the brilliant Ana Dolabra. 

I think it's impossible not to compare Ana to Sherlock Holmes, one of fiction's most famous and very eccentric detectives (the only one to rival him would be Hercule Poirot, I would guess). She's brilliant, strange and behaves in ways odd to absolutely everyone, including her patient and long-suffering assistant. Her mind is a steel trap, and she has any number of strange rituals and habits to make her function properly. She even plays a stringed instrument (bringing to mind Holmes' violin). There doesn't seem to be such a thing as neurodivergence in this universe, but doing a mental tally of all the various mystery books I've read, it seems likely most of the really clever sleuths are on the autism spectrum. I don't want to say that neurodivergent minds are just better at solving mysteries, but mystery fiction strongly seems to suggest it. Some of the people in my book club felt that she was more like a series of quirks in a trench coat, but she's memorable, and I'll be intrigued to see how the relationship between her and Din develops. Also, I don't think this counts as a spoiler - of course she knows exactly what Din's deep, dark secret is; he's just an idiot for realising it. 

I had thought this was the first book in a trilogy, but now it seems as if it's going to be a longer, ongoing series. I have only heard excellent things about the next books as well, and I want to spend more time in this unusual fantasy world, so I'm happy. 

Judging a book by its cover: In a lot of cases, I prefer the UK covers to books than the American ones, but in this case, the US cover is SO much nicer. The UK cover is basically just mushrooms and other plant matter (not a huge fan of mushrooms). The elegant black and gold, with the plants seeming to be creeping in from one side - this is the book I wish I had on my shelves.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR18 Book 50: "The Devils" by Joe Abercrombie

Page count: 576 pages

Audio book length: 25hrs 5mins

Rating: 5 stars

Nowhere Book Bingo 26: Book rec from a friend (Ashley/Narfna loved this)

Defeat the Goblin TBR: The Rogue Book - a book with politics/intrigue/sneakery involved (this book has all three and lots of it)

CBR18 Bingo: Left (All of my fiction books are alphabetised by author, so Abercrombie comes to the very top left of the bookshelf it's placed on)

A cowardly monk. A mercenary. A vampire. A werewolf (who used to be a viking warrior). An elf. A necromancer. A knight who cannot die. An orphaned thief who is apparently a long-lost imperial princess. Add them together into a highly unlikely band of allies and watch them make their way through a war-torn alternate Europe (where the holy saviour was the daughter of God, who died on a wheel), facing all manner of dangers (not least the supposed princess's murderous cousins) to get to Troy. This book is basically a late-medieval Suicide Squad, and it is violent, at times extremely gory, constantly surprising, and wildly entertaining.

In the beginning, I wrote a list of all the major characters, so I could remember their names and something about their characters, so I could tell them all apart. The book follows eight different characters, six of whom get their own points of view. In addition, this book is set in an alternate Europe, where the crusades have been against the murderous elves, who want to kill and eat humanity. Troy still exists and is an ancient empire. The saviour is the daughter of god, and the Pope in Rome is a woman (actually a ten-year-old child). There's also been a religious schism, so in the East, all the major religious leaders are men. Street rat Alex is told by a swanky nobleman that she is, in fact, the long-lost imperial princess of Troy, and has a birthmark and one half of a medallion that seems to prove her identity. The oracles of the church confirm her identity, and The Order of the Holy Expediency (a very unusual group of individuals that the Church uses to get its dirty work done) is tasked with accompanying her through Europe to Troy, to get her coronated.

It is a very long and dangerous journey, and our unlikely band of anti-heroes face so many deadly challenges to make it towards their goal. If Alex (or Princess Alexia) actually makes it to Troy and manages to become Empress, it will be an honest-to-God miracle. Her murderous cousins, who would like the throne for themselves, and a staggering number of implausible monsters stand in her way. Luckily, Alex has monsters of her own to help her achieve her destiny. 

While I own several of Joe Abercrombie's books, this is the first of his novels that I've actually read, mainly because grimdark isn't really my favourite genre, and certainly not anything I would choose to read now that we are all living in the stupidest dystopia, and the world is burning. However, my good friend Ashley put this as her third-best book of 2025 (and she reads a LOT more than me), and since she also explains in her video why this was an exception to Abercrombie's other books, I really couldn't help myself when I saw the audiobook on sale last year. Then I saw the hardback at my local library (and decided it was a sign from the universe). I borrowed the book so I could follow along (it has illustrations, pictures of all the major characters), but listened mostly to the audiobook (it makes cycling to and from work so much more enjoyable, and I can also listen while I knit). 

I've seen enthusiasm for Steven Pacey as the narrator of the book in a few places online, but personally, it took me a while to warm to some of his narration choices. He does do a good job differentiating between the many different POV characters, and the further I got into the book, the more comfortable I got with his choices. 

I don't know exactly what I was expecting from this book, but I certainly hadn't expected it to be as laugh-out-loud funny as it was in places. I found myself reading passages out loud to my husband, mainly to explain why I kept cackling with delight while reading. If I had to pick one favourite character, it's obviously going to be Viga, the werewolf, but I grew to care deeply for every single individual in this misfit crew and was delighted to spend time with them in their strange quest through Europe. I'm now very curious as to where Abercrombie is taking the series next; the sequel has been given a release date in 2027. I have also bought my own paperback copy of the book, and hope to get it signed next year when Abercrombie is one of the guests of honour at Norcon in Oslo (along with Martha Wells, I'm so excited!). 

Judging a book by its cover: I didn't actually notice at first that the lower jawbone of the skull on the cover is, in fact, a crown, and not a jawbone at all. I think this cover is funny and creative, and it really catches your eye. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR18 Book 46: "Dominion" by Jean Kwok

Page count: 448 pages

Rating: 4 stars

CBR18 Bingo: 26 (published this year. This month, in fact)

Thank you to G.P. Putnam's Sons and NetGalley for this ARC. My opinions are my own. This book is on sale now.

Rubi is an azure, a group of displaced and badly treated refugees. In this fantasy world, there are four dominions, each with its own specialities. There is the Azure Dragon dominion, which can control plants and all things growing, and many of their people can shapeshift into animals; the Scarlet Phoenix dominion, which controls fire; the Silver Tyger (yes, that's how they spell the name of the magical animal) dominion, which can manipulate metal; and the Onyx Tortoise dominion, which controls water and ice. The various dominions also seem to have very different views on gender equality. The Scarlet Dominion is fully matriarchal; in the Azure Dominion, men and women seem to have been treated as equals; in the Silver Dominion, there is a strong bent towards misogyny, with the current king being extremely dismissive of his only child, a daughter. Finally, in the Onyx Dominion, women are entirely subservient to men, and their magic is used to fuel the male wielders. 

The azures became refugees and had to shelter among the other three dominions after something known as the Annihilation, which was supposed to be a joyous and special event, when the Crown Prince of the Azure Dominion wed the Crown Princess of the Scarlet Dominion in a rare love match. However, demons poured forth from the ground, killing and/or devouring a lot of the guests, including the bride, the Scarlet Crown Princess, and the King of the Onyx Dominion. The whole Azure royal family disappeared and is believed to also have been devoured by the demons. Because of this, all cross-dominion alliances are considered an impossibility, and the Azure people who have had to flee to other parts of the world are mostly seen as second-class citizens and set to do all the hardest jobs. 

Rubi lives in the woods with her foster mum. She was orphaned when fleeing from the Annihilation and has more or less total amnesia. Occasionally she has dreams where a woman's voice sings her a song with a prophecy, but she can never remember the woman's face when she wakes up. Rubi runs into Blake Axefire (yes, that's his name), also known as the Ambush Master, the king's chief enforcer, when he is in the woods near the cabin where she lives, looking for an escaped tyger. When trying to defend herself from said tyger, Rubi stabs it and is promptly arrested because it is a deadly offence to injure one of the king's magical tygers. Not only that, the tyger is basically the queen tyger, the only adult female able to bear cubs. The last queen tyger died after its mate died (they're bonded for life and can't live without their mate), along with its bonded rider, Blake's twin brother Zayden (yes, also that name) during the Annihilation. 

But of course, Rubi is our super special romantasy heroine, so despite the fact that azures can't bond with tygers, and that no female tyger has bonded with anyone for centuries, Flame, the current queen tyger, bonds with her. This does not sit well with a whole bunch of people, including the king, his bruthish nephew and heir, Ire, or the princess, Malissa. They pretty much all want Rubi killed, so Flame can bond with someone else. But queen tyger makes it very clear that she'll refuse to mate and have tyger babies if they kill her chosen mate, so now Rubi has to train to be a fighter with the elite silver tyger riders.

As if that wasn't enough, a divine messenger appears and announces that the Annihilation will seem like a child's birthday party unless all the various Dominions gather a band of champions each and work together to stop a potential apocalyptic event. Despite their differences and enmities, it's very important that all four Dominions are equally represented. There's a big public challenge about it, and obviously Rubi is one of the chosen warriors. So is her best friend, Quinn, who can shapeshift into a wolf. Rubi not only has amnesia, but she also seems to have very weak magic and is not able to shapeshift.

Also, Blake doesn't hate her at all, all his grumpiness at the beginning is apparently because he was trying to fight his attraction to her. He loves her, and Jace, the Captain of the King's guard, seems to be very into her as well. 

I don't like the term romantasy. I don't particularly like the new publishing trend that means so many of these books get churned out, and all feel like they are following the same checklist. In November 2024, my bookclub read Fourth Wing, which felt like it owed a LOT of debts to A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (heck, this entire sub-genre owes its popularity to Sarah J. Maas and her books. Most of them even have titles along the lines of "A noun of nouns and nouns".) This book had so many tropes from both of these books. Rubi injures a magical creature and is taken away by a brooding man because of it. Her life will never be the same. There is a super special girl who magically and implausibly bonds with the most impressive of all the magical animals. There's a tortured guy with a very dumb name who is obviously crazy about the heroine.

I know a lot of female authors who started writing about a decade or two ago were pretty much forced to market their books as young adult to get them sold, complete with being persuaded to insert love triangles into the plot because that was what sold back then. This felt like the opposite, a YA fantasy where the author just inserted a bunch of sex scenes in the second half of the book because romantasy has to have spicy scenes and fade to black just won't cut it. 

This book felt so derivative at first, and by about 40%, I decided that if the plot hadn't improved by the halfway point, I was going to just skip to the end and read the final chapters to see what happened. As it turns out, it did get a bit better in the second half, but a lot of the plot was still quite predictable, and oh so tropey. I was all set to give this book 3.5 stars, but then in the final three chapters or so, the author suddenly revealed a bunch of stuff that was surprising enough that I was forced to reevaluate my opinion and went from not being very bothered about seeing where this series is going, to suddenly being quite intrigued. Unfortunately, the twists came a bit too late to save my overall opinion of the book. I can't bring myself to rate something 3.75, though, so a grudging upgrade to 4 full stars it gets. I most likely will read the next book in the series, but I will get it from the library, unless I can score another ARC. 

Judging a book by its cover:

Not going to lie, the cover was one of the things that made me request this ARC. The defiant posture of the girl, the blue hair and swirling fabric (which I now know are Rubi's ribbons). The hint of the tiger in the background. The cover intrigued me, so well done, cover designers. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR18 Book 9: "How to Train Your Dragon" by Cressida Cowell

Page count: 241 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Read the Rainbow - Red

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III may be the least intimidating Viking in several generations, which is a bit of a problem, since he's the son of the Chief, and therefore meant to lead the Hairy Hooligans when he gets older. He's skinny, puny, bookish and not even slightly intimidating, and when he has to compete in the traditional manhood trial of the tribe, and sneak into a cave to capture himself a dragon, he ends up with the smallest, least impressive dragon of the lot. Hiccup should have an advantage over the other youths when it comes to taming and getting a dragon to do his bidding - he can speak Dragonese. He can't really tell anyone about that, of course, since Dragonese has been forbidden in the Hairy Hooligans for over a hundred years. Also, Hiccup's dragon, Toothless, is stubborn and selfish and couldn't care less about listening to Hiccup.

When the day of the dragon trials finally arrives, a massive fight breaks out among all the recently tamed dragons, and in an unprecedented event, all the youths of the tribe (and their rivals) are supposed to be banished to the wilderness. However, before that can happen, the tribes are faced with a new, much bigger challenge - a very large, very hungry sea dragon has awoken and now wants to eat all the humans. How are they going to defeat something so enormous and dangerous?

I was already at university when these books came out, and I have only watched the first two movies, which are clearly VERY loosely based on this source material. So loosely that pretty much the only thing they've kept is the names of Hiccup and his dragon Toothless (who is not black, super rare and very playful), and maybe some of the vikings in the tribe. So, at least I didn't have anything spoiled for me when I picked this up to read it for a bonus book club meeting we had about dragon riders. Of course, while Hiccup discovers that it's possible to ride dragons in the first movie, nothing like that happens in the book. They mostly use the dragons to intimidate each other and to catch fish. 

Nevertheless, it was a fun book, and I think my eight-year-old son would probably enjoy it. I will probably read it to him at some point in the next year, after the husband and I are done reading him children's classics from our own childhoods. I don't see myself continuing the series for my own sake, but if the kid enjoys them, I will probably read more of them. They are short, action-packed and feature dragons? What's not to love?

Judging a book by its cover: This is a children's book, so I would have thought you'd want something more colourful and exciting to catch the eye of the potential reader. Red, red, maroon and gold is certainly a choice, but I'm not sure I would have grabbed this off a library shelf if I hadn't already known what the book was about. Hiccup also looks nothing like he's described in the book. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read 

CBR18 Book 5: "Kraft & Mod (Courage)" by Trine J. Cederlöf

Page count: 163 pages

Rating: 4.5 stars

Nowhere Book Bingo 26: A Middle Grade Book

Defeat the Goblin TBR: The Shiny book (added in December 2024)

Reading Rainbow - Green cover

Disclaimer! The author is a friend of mine, but my opinions are my own, and I bought the book with my own money (because friends make sure friends get royalties). 

As part of the peace agreement between the Green Shores and the Blue Mountains, Prince Mirounga (called Miro), nephew and heir to the king of the Green Shores, is sent into fosterage to the Blue Mountains. He is still grieving his father, an admiral who died in the war between the countries, but understands that spending a year working as a squire at the court will foster new diplomatic ties between the countries, as well as teach him important skills he will need when he becomes king in the future. 

The Red Sands was another country defeated by the Blue Mountains in the war, and it has also sent a young man to train with the royal guard. Tarek is the younger brother of the sultan, and he's clearly not intending to befriend any of the other recruits. He mostly keeps to the stables, more comfortable around the horses than people his own age. 

The two young men are pretty much exact opposites. Miro is almost as tall, wide and strong as an adult, but painfully shy, while Tarek is slender, agile and very flexible. During the second part of their training, the recruits are all supposed to be stationed in the snowy borderlands near the Black Mountains. There are multiple complications, which mean that all the recruits, even Miro and Tarek, need to learn to work together, or lives could be lost. 

In 2014, my friend Trine wrote a book, Crippled, retelling an old Danish fairy tale. Now she has written a sequel, set in the same fantasy universe, but focused on different characters. The boys who grew up over the course of Crippled are now the King and the General of The Blue Mountains, having fought and won a difficult war. King Vincent has a wife, a daughter and another child on the way. After the war, it is time for diplomacy, and the countries that lost both have to send a young man to apprentice in the Royal Guard for a year. 

This book doesn't retell any particular folk tale, but is a coming-of-age tale for the very different young men and how they find the friendship, belonging and well, the courage, to be who they were always meant to be. The story is in parts funny, adventurous, thrilling and moving. At more than one point in the story, especially towards the end of the book, I teared up and sniffled a little, because the writing hit me straight in my feels. I liked the first book, but I liked this one even better, probably because of the emotional beats. I just wish the stories were longer. 

Because I am lucky enough to have insider knowledge, I know for a fact that my friend is working on the third book in series, set in The Red Sands, involving the eldest princess of The Blue Mountains (who, it is hinted at having some unusual abilities) and the only princess of The Red Sands. So after two books where boys are the protagonists, we get to see the story of some young ladies, who build a friendship while solving mysteries together. I'm very excited. 

Judging a book by its cover: The first book in the series involved princes from the Blue Mountains, and the book cover was a lovely sky blue. One of the protagonists from this book is from the Green Coasts, and as a result, the cover is green. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR18 Book 3: "Silver & Blood" by Jessie Mihalik

Page count: 448 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for this ARC. It has not affected my opinions or my review.

About a year ago, the small village where Riela lives alone after the death of her father was threatened by a flood. Riela unlocked magical powers and managed to divert the water and save the village. Now one of the villagers has been savaged by a monster in the woods, and the mostly hostile villagers insist that she go into the forest and dispatch the monster for them. Unfortunately, Riela doesn't really have much control over her magical powers, and when she encounters a scary creature seemingly made out of tangled vines, which then divides itself into two, she's pretty convinced this is how she's going to die.

It would be a fairly short book if Riela died in the opening scenes; however, instead, she is rescued by a handsome, yet grouchy, mage and wakes up in his strange castle, where she initially can't go anywhere but where the castle feels like letting her go. While she's happy to have escaped death, Riela is upset when Garrick reveals that she is now confined to the forest. There's a magical spell that traps anyone with magical powers inside its borders, so now Riela can't return home. While Garrick claims she can stay in his magical castle (with a gorgeous library) and that he'll help her try to get better at controlling her magic, he also seems deeply suspicious of her and her motives. 

Spending more time together, Riela discovers why Garrick is so suspicious of her. He is, in fact, one of the legendary Etheri sovereigns, and because of a curse, he has been kept away from his magical realm for the last century, and now it seems like Riela might be instrumental in helping him open the gate again. Was she sent there by his enemies with sinister motives, or is she what she appears to be, an orphaned village woman with no idea how to control her magic? 

There are strong Beauty and the Beast vibes in this first part of a fantasy duology. The orphaned village maiden. The strange, magical castle in the woods (although there is no talking furniture in this one). The grouchy resident of said castle, and the maiden's inability to go back home. There is also a shapeshifting wolf, but he's the sidekick, not our hero. While the mystical, magical beings of this fantasy are called the Etheri (there's a bunch of different courts, ruled by various sovereigns), they are very fay-coded, both in their grace and viciousness. 

When I received this ARC, I thought this was the first part in a trilogy. I am very happy to discover that it's a duology instead, and according to Ms. Mihalik's website, book 2 may be coming out towards the end of 2026. There was a lot to like in this book, although the stretch where Garrick's internal monologue seems to switch between how attractive he finds Riela and how convinced he is that she is some dangerous creature sent to entrap him somehow goes on for too long. 

It's going to come as no surprise to anyone who has read fantasy in the past that there is more to Riela's identity than meets the eye, and the plot of the story is trying to figure out both how Garrick can get the magically sealed portal in his castle garden open again, so he can go back to his magical court, and why Riela's magic is so strange and she seems to be the key to getting the portal open again. 

For the most part, I liked the banter between Riela and Garrick, and I especially enjoyed Riela's disastrous attempts to get the magical castle to conjure food for her. For the first half of the book, the entire story is just Garrick and Riela, but in the second half, more supporting cast are introduced, and I liked their interactions with both Garrick and Riela. This book ends in a good place, while still making me very excited to read the second part. 

Silver & Blood comes out on January 27th, 2026. 

Judging a book by its cover: Mostly, I really love this cover, drawn by the talented Luisa Preissler (although I'm not sure why Garrick appears to have forgotten to put on his shirt. The silver embroidery on Garrick's tunic is nice, as are the tiny white flowers in Riela's hair. The castle in the background and the red roses are also cool story elements to include.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR18 Book 2: "The Swan's Daughter" by Roshani Chokshi

Page count: 400 pages

Rating: 4.5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC. My opinions are my own. 

Demelza is the seventh and youngest daughter of Araminta, a legendary veritas swan (extremely beautiful women who have the power to turn into swans, and whose voices compel anyone who hears it to tell the truth) and Prava, a centuries-old, very ambitious, and some would say, evil wizard. However, when veritas swans fall in love, the person they love gains control over them through a magical necklace with a winged key, which gives that person total control over them. The veritas swan can no longer choose when to transform and has to obey the wishes of their beloved. Only death can sever the bond, but if their beloved dies, so does the veritas swan. 

While Prava is quite monstrous, he does love his wife, and he clearly loves his seven daughters a lot. In fact, he raises them to be as cunning and ambitious as himself. As soon as they are old enough, he sends them off to advantageous marriage matches, so they can extend his sphere of influence and help him with his ultimate goal, to find the spell for eternal life. Demelza is different from her sisters. Unlike them, she doesn't have wings or the ability to fly, and while their songs are lovely, her singing voice is terrible. Because of this, Prava keeps her close to him in his castle. She grows up wanting to be as invaluable to him as her sisters, and reads and studies and tries to help him decipher all the clues as to how to complete the spell for immortality. 

Once she uncovers the final part, however, it turns out that what the wizard needs is a willing sacrifice, and the heart of a creature born of a beauty and a beast - namely, Demelza herself. He wants to carve out her heart, and the only safe place she can flee to is Rathe Castle, where the royal family of Malys live, and Prava is forbidden to enter. As it happens, this is just as the big competition to find Prince Arris' bride, so yet another young woman showing up on the castle grounds isn't exactly a problem. Araminta has told her daughter the truth: if she ever falls in love with someone, and surrenders her heart, she will be as trapped as her mother has been all these years. Demelza is therefore not intending to actually compete with the other young ladies to win the hand of the prince. She does propose an alliance with him, though, promising to use her truth-telling powers to help him discover which of the women competing may have genuine feelings for him, and which ones are there simply to murder him. 

King Enzo the Fool, ancestor to all the rulers of the Isle of Malys, managed to make the witch queen who once ruled there fall in love with him. He got her to grant him a magical boon. First of all, if one of his line died without an heir, the Isle would be ruined. Unfortunately, he worded the next bit badly. Only the male descendants of King Enzo, or whoever possessed their hand and heart in marriage, would be able to sit on the throne. Once the witch queen discovered King Enzo had manipulated her, she cut out his heart and, as a result, was the one with all the power. This continued down the centuries. The heir to the throne would marry and usually be murdered by their spouse within a day of the vows being spoken. Interestingly, Prince Arris' parents were an exception to this rule. His mother fully intended to murder his father, but fell so deeply in love before she had time to kill him, and hence Arris' father is the first king of the Isle of Malys in centuries who has been able to live to see his children reach adulthood.

In this world, everyone has two lives. When their first one ends, they are reborn as a tree or other plant, or occasionally a rock. Hence, all the previous rulers of Malys can be found as sentient trees in the grove of ancestors near the palace. They are happy to dispense advice to the current rulers, as needed. Prince Arris has chosen the spot he wants to grow and what tree he wants to turn into, but can't help but be romantic and hope he might find a semblance of the love his parents share (even if the queen keeps trying to murder her husband at least once a month, just to keep things interesting). 

When Demelza arrives at Rathe Castle, her mother has enchanted her so she looks covered in mud and grass and is dressed in an outfit made of reeds. Hence, the prince doesn't really consider her a potential bride, and most of the contestants are deeply dismissive of her. That works in her favour when she has to try to ferret out the truth from the various contestants, though they all underestimate her and her abilities. She meets in secret with the prince in the evenings, sharing her findings with him, while he normally brings her something he cooked or baked in the palace kitchens. But obviously, all these secret chats, involving food created specifically to cater to her likes and preferences (up to including pond weed, crunchy beetles or tadpoles), aren't going to lead to feels between the swan and the prince. Their friendship is totally platonic, yes indeed. 

In the first few rounds and basically the first half or so of the book, there are way too many contestants, and I couldn't really keep them apart. The two young women who share a room with Demelza are certainly no threat to Arris and seem to genuinely want to befriend Demelza. One turns into a giant bear and seems more interested in cooking the perfect recipes than marrying the prince, while the other seems to have more of an affinity with Arris' very fiercely protective twin sister. Then there's Edmea, the mean-girl beauty everyone expects to win the competition, who can magically create her own outfits, and who was described in such a way that it was impossible for me not to picture her as Ariana Grande's Glinda the Good from the Wicked movies. Couldn't tell you anything about any of the others.

Demelza, born different from all her other sisters, and mostly undervalued and treated with disdain by her mother (to make her seem insignificant and plain, so Prava wouldn't figure out that she was the missing link in his quest for immortality, has always felt like she needs to prove her worth and has a very low opinion of herself. Arris has pretty much known forever that since he is the crown prince, he is unlikely to survive his wedding day, and has therefore never dared make any hopes or dreams about the future, making every effort to live in the present and enjoy every aspect of life. Demelza fears falling in love because her mother has told her that it means giving her beloved total control of her life. Arris hopes to fall in love, even though he knows it's likely his future spouse will murder him to gain power and the right to rule the Isle of Malys. So they are slow to realise their feelings for one another, and both have very conflicted feelings about true love.

Arris has always been lucky enough to be loved by his parents and his very protective twin sister, while Demelza has always felt like the odd one out. Since her sisters all had beautiful singing voices and happily fit into Prava's plans for world domination (at least his little corner of the world), Demelza has lived a sheltered life, living the life of a scholar. She has a vast knowledge of all sorts of things acquired in books, but struggles in social settings. The two princesses she shares a room with are the first women she's known actual friendship with. So while this is a story with a romance in it, it's also about Demelza learning to appreciate herself as a person, and learning that she is worthy of friendship and affection, she doesn't just need to be useful to those around her. As the number of contestants is winnowed down with each new challenge, the remaining women, despite their many differences, all grow closer, as well. 

This is the first Roshani Chokshi book I have read (despite owning many of them). Based on this, it will not be the last one that I read. I am a sucker for good fairy tale retellings, or fantasy stories that feel like they could be fairy tales. As far as I can tell, this story isn't actually based on a previously existing fairy tale, but it has a lot of familiar elements for those who have read a lot of them. 

Judging a book by its cover: While I think it's a lovely cover, I still think it may be too ethereal and dreamy for the story this book tells. I think the story is darker than this image implies. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR17 Book 67: "Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow" by Jessica Townsend

Page count: 480 pages

Rating: 4.5 stars

Nowhere Bingo 25: A middle-grade book

CBR17 Bingo: N (a book starting with the letter N)

Morrigan Crow is a cursed child, born on Eventide (think New Year's Eve, but unlucky) and as such, is due to die at midnight on her 11th birthday. She keeps being blamed for everything bad that happens in her surroundings and spends a lot of time writing apology notes. 

However, before she can meet her doom, a mysterious stranger called Jupiter North appears and takes her away, chased by shadowy monsters hunting them, to a different world (or alternate dimension) and a city called Nevermoor. Now, Morrigan gets to live in the magical hotel that Jupiter runs, and starts making friends for the first time in her life. Jupiter intends for Morrigan to join the Wundrous Society, where he is also a prominent member. But to be accepted, she has to compete in four different and very challenging trials over the course of the year, and the final one consists of showing off one's extraordinary talent. Everyone keeps telling her that her talent will be revealed in due course, but Morrigan is pretty sure that being cursed is not what the leaders of the Society are looking for. 

To complicate matters further, it turns out that Jupiter has illegally smuggled Morrigan into Nevermoor, and if she doesn't pass the trials and get accepted into the Wundrous Society, she'll be returned to her own world, just in time for her previously scheduled midnight death. 

This is the sort of book that I'm pretty sure my son will really enjoy in a few years, when I either read it to him or he picks it up for himself (he currently loves reading comics, like the Dogman books or Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur). Morrigan, who is pale and constantly wears black, even when everyone else is in riotous colours around her, feels very inspired by Wednesday Addams, but she has a more cheerful disposition, and doesn't seem to actively resent making friends. 

Nevermoor is a very intriguing fantasy world, and there are lots of strange, magical things, including sentient talking animals and chandeliers that grow from the ceilings. For a child who has never really known any kind of warmth or affection, it's a big adjustment for Morrigan to live in a place where people seem to care about what her wants and wishes are and treat her with kindness and curiosity. Jupiter is very nice to her, but he is secretive, and also extremely busy, and has to be away a lot. He has a nephew, Jack, who stays at the hotel during the holidays, and he and Morrigan do not get along. There are hundreds of children taking part in the first trial for the Wundrous Society, but about half get eliminated with each new challenge. While Morrigan makes a very good friend, there are also some mean girls who would like nothing more than to see her fail and be forcibly evicted back to her own world. 

Since the series has been out for quite a few years now, I think I've acquired at least the first three in e-book sales, so they're just waiting for me on my TBR. I'm sure it will come as no surprise to anyone that by the end of the book, Morrigan discovers that there are good reasons why Jupiter decided to rescue her from certain death, and she has an interesting future ahead of her. I'm looking forward to seeing where the series goes next. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR17 Book 56: " Monstrous Regiment" by Terry Pratchett

Page count: 496 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Nowhere Book Bingo 2025: A book with LGBTQIA-rep

CBR17 Bingo: Border (this book is all about a very drawn-out war with borders between the opposing countries constantly changing, depending on who's currently winning)

Spoiler warnings for a 22 year old book. I don't think I can review it well without revealing some of the more essential plot points. 

Official plot summary:

It began as a sudden strange fancy...

Polly Perks had to become a boy in a hurry. Cutting off her hair and wearing trousers was easy. Learning to fart and belch in public and walk like an ape took more time...

And now she's enlisted in the army, and searching for her lost brother.

But there's a war on. There's always a war on. And Polly and her fellow recruits are suddenly in the thick of it, without any training, and the enemy is hunting them.

All they have on their side is the most artful sergeant in the army and a vampire with a lust for coffee. Well... They have the Secret. And as they take the war to the heart of the enemy, they have to use all the resources of... the Monstrous Regiment.

Polly is a barmaid who pretends to be a boy to join the army. Not that the army has that many people fighting to join up anymore, since the war has been going on for as long as most people can remember. She discovers that you can go a long way with a pair of rolled-up socks down your trousers, spitting, and pretending to shave a lot. As she comes to discover, she is by no means the only woman who has pretended to be male to join up; in fact, as the book progresses, it turns out it may be harder to find actual men left in the armed forces.

My RL book club, the Dark Corner, picked this as our June book, vaguely recalling that it's got at least some queer themes, and would therefore be suitable reading material for Pride month. It's one of the Pratchett Discworld books that I had only read once, because I remember being a bit underwhelmed by it the first time around. Upon rereading it, it is a lot more queer than I previously remembered. We have lesbians (with a deeply tragic backstory) and there's Sergeant Jackrum, who is clearly a trans man (also obviously not the only one we encounter in the story). There is also a lot of exploration of gender in general and identity in particular throughout the book, as well as a very nuanced exploration of the futility of war and the rather surprising way in which people might find themselves lauded as war heroes.

The incomparable Sam Vimes (by now very unwillingly the Duke of Ankh) makes a brief appearance along with some familiar faces from the City Watch novels. He has been tasked with trying to negotiate a peace treaty between these two nations, who have warred over who knows what for far too long. He doesn't want to spend a minute longer being a diplomat than he absolutely has to, but it is amusing to see what his reputation is, based on rumours and hearsay. 

It was also an interesting part of our discussion to hear Trine, the woman who founded our book club, share just how much she, as a former female soldier, recognised herself in the story and how many of the storylines and characters felt extremely true to army life. As she said, Pratchett knew his stuff, and a lot of the things that might appear seemingly made up for comic effect are in fact very real, if rather ridiculous. 

I'm really glad to have been given an excuse to revisit this book, and was able to give it a higher rating than before, because while I pretty much remembered it as more or less a one-note book (see, the joke is that they are ALL women!), it turns out that I was clearly just in a bad mood when first reading it, so I didn't take the time to appreciate all the other clever stuff Pratchett explores. Being two decades older probably doesn't hurt either.

Judging a book by its cover: The colourful cover shows the positively rotund Sgt. Jackrum and a selection of "his little lads", including the troll and the vampire recruits. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR17 Book 44: "Dungeon Crawler Carl" by Matt Dinniman

Page count: 446 pages

Audio book length: 13 hrs 31 mins

Rating: 4 stars

CBR17 Bingo: Rec'd (I honestly don't know how many people have raved about this book, on CBR, other review sites on the internet, as well as in my IRL book club) 

By now, most people who are even vaguely interested in this series probably know what it's about, but I'll try to give a brief summary.

Carl is wandering around, half-dressed in the snow, looking for his ex-girlfriend's prize-winning Persian cat, when Earth is suddenly attacked by aliens. All the buildings collapse in an instant and are pushed underground, and anyone who was in any of those buildings is instantly dead. Only the individuals on the surface still have a meagre chance at survival. Those on the surface are given the choice of having to fend for themselves on the surface or go underground and become a player in the Dungeon Crawler World, a multi-level labyrinth game broadcasted as prime time entertainment to the galaxy (in Carl's case, he pretty much only has the one option, since it's freezing outside and he's only half-dressed). 

So Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat, Princess Donut, become contestants in the Dungeon Crawler Game. Princess Donut quickly learns to speak, and she and Carl, despite the extremely steep learning curve, become a good team (but not without some disagreements and conflicts along the way). They need to learn how to fight and how to best and most effectively level up, and they need to become popular enough to get corporate sponsors and online followers throughout the galaxy, if they want to stay alive, which will only get harder and harder the longer they stay in the game. 

Every so often, a book or a series comes along that so many different people on so many corners I frequent on the internet all agree is a must-read and just won't stop raving about, to the point where even if I might not have been all that interested to begin with (usually because its an unfamiliar genre to me, or I think it's outside of my fields of interest). The last time this happened, was probably with The Murderbot Diaries, which really became popular during the Pandemic (for very obvious reasons). I had heard about All Systems Red in a number of places and a lot of different sources before I decided to actually give the series a try (what can I say, science fiction frequently isn't my jam), and if I hadn't found the first novellas in an e-book sale (they are needlessly expensive at full price, considering the length of the stories), I might have waited even longer.

I don't think I've really read any LitRPG books before, and even with all the enthusiastic write-ups I saw of Carl and Donut's adventures, I was unsure of whether I would like the books or not. But when Audible had the first book discounted (a lot of people also recommended that I try the audio versions, and they were right), I figured that it was probably time to see what all the fuss was about.

Now that I have listened to the audio, with the excellent narration from Jeff Hayes and all the various sound effects, I don't think I'd want to read the books on paper. While it took me a while to figure out the gist of the story, and it got way gorier in places than I was expecting, I was pretty much hooked before the book got to 20% and now I'm really looking forward to making my way through what exists of the series so far. Audible won't let me hoard more than 6 credits (so mean), so it's good to have something I can use them on every few months. 

Judging a book by its cover: I really like the cover designs of the hardcover books that are being issued for this series, a lot better than the cover art for the previous editions. So I chose to include this cover rather than the original. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR17 Book 18: "Tress of the Emerald Sea" by Brandon Sanderson

Page count: 479 pages

Audio book length: 12 hrs 27 mins

Rating: 4.5 stars

Buzzword Cover Challenge 25: Celestial (there is a big moon and several stars on the cover)

What if in The Princess Bride, Buttercup didn't sit at home and mourn for Westley when he was captured by pirates, but instead went off to try to rescue him? Of course, that would mean Buttercup had any agency at all in either the novel or the film, and she really doesn't. But if Buttercup was a young woman named Tress, from a barren and fairly desolate island, who washes windows at the duke's mansion and collects cups, with the only thing making her life worthwhile being her friendship with the duke's son (who pretends to be a gardener), and one day, Charlie, her best friend (who she's only recently discovered that she's also in love with) is taken away by his father to be married off (a poor window washer girl is not a suitable match for him)? Charlie promises to be so dreadfully boring to every suitable bride he meets that no one will want to marry him, and every time is rejected by another bride, he will write to her and send her another cup from his travels. 

However, after some months, the letters stop coming. Then the duke returns, but Charlie isn't with him. Charlie has been kidnapped by the Sorceress, and it doesn't seem like anyone cares except Tress. First, she needs to figure out how to get off the island (no one but the duke's family is ever allowed to leave). On the first ship she travels on, she meets a talking rat, who she takes with her when the ship is attacked by pirates. It's important to note that in this world, while there are ships and long voyages, the oceans are made up of spores that react very violently to the presence of any liquids. Very occasionally, the spore currents still for a time, and it's possible for brave, or exceedingly foolish, individuals to walk along on top of the spores. This is how Tress gets from the attacked ship onto the pirate vessel, where she gradually befriends more of the crew and works her way up in rank, despite the misgivings of the blood-thirsty pirate captain. 

Tress isn't entirely sure how she's going to help the motley crew of pirates from becoming exploited by their captain, and persuade them that they really want to assist her in travelling across the Crimson Sea to the Midnight Sea (the two most dangerous areas on the planet), and face the terrifying Socreress to rescue the boy she loves. But she knows that if she gives up, Charlie has no one coming for him, and that is unacceptable to her.

This is an adventure story with a plucky heroine, who keeps succeeding against all odds, sometimes because she just won't quit.While Tress has had a sheltered and rather uneventful life until she decides to leave the safety of her home to go off and rescue Charlie, she's not stupid, and her determination to get to him makes her face challenges that would make others quake. Occasionally, her lack of experience also makes her less afraid of dangers than she probably should be, since she just doesn't realise what the consequences of the potential threats. She's also kind-hearted and determined to help those who show her kindness along the way, even if it might delay her ultimate goal of getting to the Sorceress.

This is the first of the four secret projects that Brandon Sanderson announced that he wrote when he suddenly had a lot of extra downtime during the Pandemic. While most of us binged TV shows and perfected our sourdough loaves, Sanderson apparently wrote four entire novels, in addition to all the work he was already contracted for. The man is a machine! This led to probably the biggest Kickstarter campaign in history. Sanderson started writing this story for his wife, after wondering what The Princess Bride could have been like if the heroine wasn't just a passive player, having the plot happen to her. 

I didn't have the finances to get all four secret projects in hardback (not only did the books themselves cost quite a lot, but the shipping to Norway was incredibly expensive), so I only got Tress of the Emerald Sea and Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, because these two books were the ones that looked the prettiest and most interesting to me. I did get digital and audio copies of all the other books, though, which allowed me to listen to parts of this in audiobook as well. 

Most of Sanderson's many many novels fit into a larger fictional universe called the Cosmere. That means that a lot of his books are vaguely interconnected. Since this book fits into the Cosmere, but there are more than twenty other works that come before it, I had this grand plan last year, to do a re-read of the Sanderson novels I had read (most of them a very long time ago now) and catch up on all the ones I hadn't read, so I'd be able to properly enjoy the various secret projects, and not be confused by the references. Sadly, this failed almost at the first hurdle, when I had finished the brilliant Mistborn, and then just couldn't get past the opening chapters of The Well of Ascencion, the next book in the series. Then this got selected as the February read in The Dark Corner, my real life book club, and it became clear that I was just going to have to ignore references to events or characters from other Cosmere books. 

One such character is Hoid, who narrates the story of Tress and Charlie to us readers. He has apparently appeared in a bunch of Sanderson's novels (some of which I have read, if the wiki article I read is correct - and I don't see why it wouldn't be) in various different guises. In this book, he's a cabin boy who has been cursed by The Sorceress (who is also a character from the wider Cosmere universe) becaue of a bet. He speaks and behaves nonsensically for much of the story because of this curse. Some of the members in my bookclub found the way the story was told (Hoid frequently breaks the fourth wall and speaks directly to the reader) incredibly annoying. The 2-3 people who didn't like the book cited Hoid's storytelling style and all three felt it wanted to be Pratchett, but didn't succeed. 

Most people, however, really liked the book, and since this was our February choice, we had a very interesting discussion about whether this could be classed as a romance, or whether it was more accurately a love story. The general consensus was that Tress' love for Charlie is completely central to the plot, it's the force that drives her to change her life and leave the island, it's what keeps her going even when things seem almost impossible, and that the book wouldn't work without the love story at its centre. We also agreed that if the book had been sold to us as a great romance, we would probably have been disappointed. 

Personally, I didn't find Hoid all that annoying, and very much like when I was reading To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis, I decided to just enjoy the story on its own terms, and ignore any references that went over my head. Knowing that this was at least in part inspired by The Princess Bride (one of my favourite films, and books, I had fun seeing the many ways in which the story resembled, or subverted the plot of that story. 

As always, Sanderson's world building and approach to magic systems is fantastic, and even the ones who didn't like the book that much had to admit that the oceans of spores idea was great. If anything, there was quite a bit of grumbling because the book claimed there were twelve different kinds of spores, and we only got to learn about five of them in-story. The characters were interesting, and even the Pirate Captain, who by some could be seen as villainous, had very clear motivations and it was made obvious why she might have chosen to act as she did. Some of the bookclub members highlighted her as one of their favourite characters,

Reading Sanderson again did remind me that his writing has always worked for me, and gave me further motivation to actually continue my "Reading the Cosmere" project this year. I'm not going to try to give myself a set time limit this time, that clearly did NOT work, and he has such a big back catalogue of mostly very long books, but I do want to revisit some of the ones I read in the past, and continue the various series. The people who love Sanderson, love him SO much. I'm trying to focus on quality over quantity in my reading now, and not get freaked out if I don't get to read a set number of books per year, but rather focus on the things I read being enjoyable.

Finally, I wanted to end this review by mentioning how utterly gorgeous my Kickstarter-funded hardback is. It is illustrated throughout, with some beatiful drawings, and, as I discovered as I got further through the book, colour coded to which of the seas Tress finds herself at the time. When she travels the Emerald sea, the chapter headings and page numbers are in a beautiful green, when she travels into the Crimson sea, the colours change to red, and then to inky black when she crosses into the dreaded Midnight sea. Having such a pretty edition of the book makes the exorbitant cost of shipping sting slightly less. 

Judging a book by its cover: My hardback is a lovely, clothbound book with different textures for the patterns of the various elements of the cover. As far as I can tell, most of the editions of this book feature Tress and some varation on a giant moon on the cover, but I think this is one of the prettiest versions. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

CBR17 Book 13: "Animal Farm" by George Orwell

Page count: 95 pages

Audio book length: 3 hrs 3 mins

Rating: 4 stars

Nowhere Books Bingo 25: Banned Book

Buzzword Cover Challenge 25: Cover featuring an animal

On Manor Farm, somewhere in England, an old boar gathers all the animals in the barn and makes a powerful speech about how animals suffer at the hands of humans and should rise up and take power for themselves. Shortly after his death, the animals of Manor Farm do just that - they violently fight back when Farmer Jones and his farmhands try to control them and chase the farmer, his wife and all the other humans on the farm away. All animals will be equal, everyone will contribute to the farm to the best of their abilities, walking on two legs and using collars or human attire is forbidden, and no one will use the farmhouse anymore. The pigs manage to teach themselves to read and write and seven lofty commandments for the governing of Animal Farm are painted on the barn walls. Things seem very idyllic for the animals at first, but it doesn't take long before some of the animals take a more prominent role in the rule and governing of the farm, and as a result, decide that they deserve more than their allotted share of the resources. 

This is where I have to confess to never having read Animal Farm until this year when we're teaching it to the tenth-graders. Unlike Et dukkehjem, which I have read and taught a bunch of times, we never used this book on the curriculum before, and because I like to read for escapism and to avoid traumatic and depressing reading experiences, I've tried to stay away from George Orwell's novels. While it's not a long book, only a novella really, an allegory stuffed full of political satire isn't the easiest thing for rather sheltered Norwegian tenth-graders to process, and quite a few of our pupils are having a tough time with it. Of course, when we planned the curriculum for this year in August, none of us English teachers had any idea how much more relevant it was going to become (thanks for that, America), although the machinations of the pigs seem almost quaint compared to the geo-political nightmare taking place in the United States right now. 

I had to read up on Soviet/Russian history in the 20th Century after reading this, so as better to understand all the things the book alludes to, to then teach it to the kids. The ones who are generally interested in history and current events, seem to be getting a lot more out of the book than the others. Some of them are questioning why they have to read a book about a bunch of animals - hence the need to try to tell them the real-world events that inspired the book. It's going to be interesting to see what they think once we finish the book, it's not exactly a fun or heartwarming tale - rather than a depressing dystopian fable. 

I'm glad I read it, but it's deeply tragic that not only have we not learned anything from history and books such as this, but power-hungry despots with seemingly no grasp of actual decency are being allowed to do much worse as we speak. Poor Orwell is probably rolling in his grave. 

Judging a book by its cover: Red and black, very Communist colour scheme and the entire layout of the cover looks like a propaganda poster of some kind. The fateful windmill is front and centre, along with a slightly sinister-looking pig. There are countless editions of this book, and just as many different cover designs. I kind of like this one. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR17 Book 3: "Bookshops & Bonedust" by Travis Baldree

Page count: 356 pages

Audiobook length: 8 hrs, 1 min

Rating: 3.5 stars

Buzzwords 2025 Title Challenge: Contains punctuation

Twenty years before the events in Legends & Lattes, Viv is a young and relatively inexperienced mercenary, who gets badly injured fighting undead monsters while hunting for a powerful necromancer. Her mercenary band leave her in the quiet and mostly empty seaside town of Murk to heal up and recuperate. She worries that the group are going to leave her there, but thankfully, to take her mind off her fears, she encounters the local bookshop owner, who manages to persuade her (Viv has never exactly been a big reader) to buy a book, which she is surprised that she can barely put down. 

Soon a beautiful friendship is born. Viv spends most of her days hanging out in Fern the Ratkin's rather run-down store, trying to help her come up with ways to make the place a bit less dilapidated and more inviting to customers. Fern keeps giving Viv new books, and after having eagerly completed a few, Viv stops trying to pretend that reading isn't for her. There are some added complications involving a fierce gnome fishing for an invitation to Rackham, Viv's employer; a suspicious city guard captain, and the discovery of the corpse of the sinister fellow who Viv got into a very public fight with after he was rude to Fern's pet. 

Viv also befriends the local bakery owner, a cheerful dwarf who keeps bribing Viv with delicious baked goods. They develop the chastest of romances, which basically amounts to them talking walks, feeding the fish and holding hands occasionally. Both know that Viv isn't going to be staying in Murk for very long, so their flirtation has a definite end date. 

While Viv is worried that her time in Murk is going to be too uneventful and boring, some strange artefacts left behind by the dead fellow on the beach, turn out to be rather exciting and may have links to the necromancer that Viv's mercenary band were hunting. 

This was the December pick for my IRL book club, and we met in early January to discuss it. While most people liked it, a few people disliked it because they felt it was just too bland and uneventful to really hold their attention. Most of the readers agreed that the book was not without its flaws, but you don't read a book like this when you want to be overly critical and therefore they weren't too bothered. This, like Legends & Lattes is like candy for your brain, and the occasional plot inconsistency or lack of consistent world-building shouldn't distract from the silly cosiness of the read. The majority of us were in agreement that we liked Legends & Lattes more, and a few of the flaws with this book came from the fact that it was a prequel and therefore hampered by a few things already established in Baldree's first book. 

One of the readers pointed out that the way the book depicts what a great experience reading can be, and the way it opens Viv's eyes to adventures and new perspectives through reading is very pedagogical, and that a book where so much of the plot centres around books, how great hanging out in a bookshop, and reading can be, it will hopefully get more reluctant readers to try more books. Which can only be a good thing. 

Judging a book by its cover: The cover of my paperback copy of this is in the same style as that of the first book, with more seaside elements and the mysterious book Viv finds very much the focal point. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

CBR16 Book 66: "Fourth Wing" by Rebecca Yarros

Page count: 561 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

CBR16 Bingo: Smash (romantasy - I want it on record that I hate this term, by the way)

Since this has been a huge success and had lots of attention on the TikToks and the like, I'm not even sure if I need to give much of a plot summary, but here goes:

All her life, Violet Sorrengail has wanted to become a Scribe, like her father. However, her mother, a commanding general of the army of Navarre (the fictional country this is set in) will not accept that any child of hers become anything but a dragon rider. Violet's older sister is a dragon rider, Violet's older brother was a dragon rider (until he tragically died), and so Violet also has to join the most insanely dangerous quadrant of the Basgiath war college, even though she's only had about six months since her mother ordered her to change her mind, and she's disabled to boot, so weaker and much more breakable than most of the ruthless candidates surrounding her. 

Violet survives the perilous first task (apparently more than sixty people died before even getting into the college - is that really a good way to run a school?) and now has to stay alive in a literally lethally competitive environment. The lucky first years who survive, may be lucky enough to bond with a dragon and be granted exciting magical powers as a result. Violet has to use all her cunning and guile to survive among her more vicious peers, and there are a lot of people who want her dead, including the imposing Xaden Riorson, son of the man her mother personally executed after a failed rebellion. He and a number of other young family members of rebels are at the school because enrolling (and most likely being killed) was the only option given to them to ensure their survival. 

Violet does make friends, and surprising everyone, survives long enough to get a chance at bonding a dragon. Once that ordeal is over (and she's once again nearly killed), it becomes impossible for her to avoid Xaden any longer, since their dragons are mated, and that means that if something happens to either of them, the other one dies because of the bond bestowed by their dragons. So that's fun. Of course, Xaden might hate her mum, but he is undeniably very hot. Despite having every reason for wanting her dead and having lots of opportunities to get her killed, Xaden instead seems amused by Violet, even sparring with her and challenging her - it's all very confusing.

There is danger facing the borders of Navarre, and fewer dragon riders every year to deal with it. It becomes clear during Violet's first year at Basgiath that the country's leadership are hiding things and downplaying the seriousness of the attacks on border villages. Will Violet survive her first year at war college only to find herself thrust into an actual war?

For quite a while, I was usure about reading Fourth Wing because of all the hype on TikTok. Colleen Hoover is beloved on BookTok, and what little I tried of one of her books quickly made it clear that those books are not for me. So I was a bit sceptical. Then my friend Ashley read it last year and made this fun video about the experience. Generally, if Ashley likes a book, I will too (there are exceptions, but they are usually hard sci-fi or horror books).

While I don't think Rebecca Yarros and her dragon romantasy has gotten lots of readers hooked, even the ones who don't tend to read speculative fiction, I don't think she's anywhere near Twilight-levels of popularity and obsession. Because I myself was deeply hooked on the Twilight saga back in the day, and you still can't entirely convince me that the pages of those books weren't laced with crack, removing all critical faculties of the reader and making them impossible to put down. 

Did Fourth Wing hook me as powerfully? No, but I can absolutely see why it's become so popular. I also see why it's been widely criticised, because there are aspects of the world building that just do not make a lick of sense. Violet is a better heroine than Bella Swan, mainly because she has some agency, and the plot doesn't just happen to her. But she's also clearly extra super speshul and manages things no one seems to have done before - for why? Who knows? The plot requires it to be that way. Of course there is a love triangle, because these books seem to always have to have one. There's Violet, our plucky heroine, there's Dain, her childhood best friend, who has pretty thoroughly friend-zoned her their entire life, but now seems convinced (despite repeated proof of the opposite) that Violet is too fragile and weak to survive to become a dragon rider, and keeps wanting to smuggle her into the Scribe's quarter. No points for guessing who candidate number three is - if there is a dark, brooding, probably dangerous dude, who your entire surviving family has warned you to stay away from, that's clearly going to be the one guy who's bones you really want to jump. Xaden also gets major points for never underestimating Violet, and instead of coddling her, encourages her to get better, stronger and sneakier. 

While Twilight is YA and Stephanie Meyer is a Mormon who's all about no hanky-panky before marriage  (and let's not forget, if you do have sex, you'll get immediately pregnant with a lifeforce-sucking parasite and literally die giving birth to it), Fourth Wing is aimed at a somewhat older audience, and by the time Violet makes up her mind about which third of the love triangle she prefers (I'm sure you couldn't possibly guess who she picks), there are some pretty graphic sex scenes. Encindiary, one might say. As someone who read a whole lot of smut as a teenager, I don't see a problem with YA readers reading these (or Sarah J Maas or a bunch of other books that seem to be shelved in the YA sections of bookstores despite dealing with much heavier themes). But some people might be shocked, so fair warning. 

As well as having a central premise that just does not make sense Seriously, why kill off most of your promising young people - some of them before they've even made it INTO the school? If your country is fighting a decades-long war, you are going to want as many able-bodied fighters as possible. So only the best can become dragon riders? Fair enough, but why do pretty much all challenges have to be succeed or die? Why not have the ones who fail challenges moved to one of the other three sections of the war college, possibly to start at the bottom, but at least given a chance to be a valuable member of the fighting force. It's quite clear that once the first-years bond with a dragon and start trying to ride on them, a whole bunch of them die anyway. Why kill off  the majority of them before they get to that point and natural selection apparently kicks in? It's maddening, people!

This is my real life bookclub's pick for November, and I'm very much looking forward to the discussion. I hope a whole bunch of people show up, and I suspect there will be many spirited opinions. I'm also glad I waited long enough to read this that third and final book in the series is just around the corner. It's being released in January, so I think I'll wait for December to read book 2 (which I have heard is extremely slow-going in the first half, but gets better towards the end). I'm also glad I liked it because my friend Des took my book to a convention and got it signed and personalised by Rebecca Yarros, so it would suck if I hated it. 

Judging a book by its cover: Despite this book only coming out in 2023, it already seems to have a huge amount of alternate covers, most of them in black and gold. While the hardback is golden with black patterns, I prefer my paperback in matte black, with the pattern in gold and white. Much prettier. 

Crossposted on Cannonballl Read

CBR16 Book 57: "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov

Page count: 448 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

Nowhere Books Bingo: Banned books (Wasn't published until 27 years after Bulgakov's death, and only then in a censored version. )

CBR16 Bingo: Cult (cult classic, and there's the whole Devil and his entourage as a central plot point - that's pretty cultish, right?)

I can't remember exactly how long The Master and Margarita has been on my TBR list, but it's certainly more than twenty years. A quick glance on Goodreads shows me that 15 of my friends have rated it four or five stars, with several naming it one of their favourite books. So why has it taken it so long for me to read it? Some of my reticence comes from having tried to read translated Russian novels in the past, and in on one memorable occasion, nearly losing my will to read anything at all (Anna Karenina, I am absolutely looking at you). So the idea of tackling another Russian classic wasn't always that appealing. Knowing that so many people whose opinions I respect and trust rate it so highly, also makes me nervous - what if I don't like it and they'll be disappointed in me?

I made an attempt to read my mother's Norwegian translation of the novel for the first couple of chapters, but because the copy she had was translated in the 1970s, the language was heavy and archaic enough that I struggled. So instead I read the 50th Anniversary edition, translated into English by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volkhonsky. Once the language flowed more smoothly, reading became a lot less like unpleasant homework. As readers of my reviews know, I mostly read genre fiction like romance, fantasy and science fiction, where the plots are light-hearted and the books are very easily digestible. That is not the case with this book, written in the 1930s and up until the author's death in 1940, and finally published in 1996. It's an allegorical political satire, written in a very different time and culture, and getting into it felt like a bit of a slog.

I feel like I'm letting down all of my bookish friends and acquaintances when I confess that the first part of the novel mostly either bored and/or confused me. So much of it is absurdist and strange, and there is a long series of, to me, mostly interchangeable men with long Russian names either dying or ending up in an asylum, as a result of their encounters with Woland (the Devil). Nor was I particularly interested in the sections that involved Herod and Yeshua.

The novel finally got interesting to me in the second part, where the reader finally gets to meet the eponymous Margarita, and discovers the lengths she will go to to be reunited with her beloved, the Master. This section seemed more like a dark fairytale for the most part, and while it also had some odd twists and turns, I was mostly enjoying what I read. I can also faithfully say that at no point could I predict where the story was going to go next, and certainly not the way it was going to end. 

If the entirety of this book had only been the main story of part two (which involved Margarita and her beloved), I think I would have liked the novel a lot more. 20th-century history was never an area that particularly interested me, and while I know some of the atrocities committed in the Soviet Union under Stalin, I am in no way well-versed enough in the background of this novel to get the many layers of satire that the author has created. I found all the digs at literary intellectuals and various officials tedious. 

I don't regret finally reading the book, even though the first part was very hard going. However, I think I can also conclude that great Russian literature is not for me. I have tried several authors now, and if this, which so many of my bookish friends rate five stars, only for about half the novel, entertained me, it may be time to accept that I'm just not cut out for the Russian greats. I can see why it has been a controversial novel since its publication, not just for the political critique, but for prominently featuring the devil and witchcraft as part of the plot. 

Judging a book by its cover: There are 1229 (!) different editions of this listed on Goodreads, so obviously there are also a huge amount of different covers available. Most of them seem to have a black cat somewhere on the cover (Behemoth is a very striking character, who can blame them?). My e-book edition seems to have the black cat in upper corner and the face of a young woman (obviously Margarita) in the lower one. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read