Beasts of the Frozen Sun (Frozen Sun Saga: # 1)

Beasts of the Frozen Sun by Jill Criswell
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
This sounded like a great book, but it just really fell flat for me. Lira is a soul-reader and the princess of her clan, and encounters a warrior one night while her village is being attacked. Lira saves the warrior instead of turning him over to her family, and realizes she has a connection to him that goes back many years. She learns while trying to heal his wounds that his name is Reyker, and he does not want to follow the Beasts of the Frozen Sun, but has no choice. As various forces conspire to hurt Lira and Reyker, Lira must decide who to trust and how to save her home.
I think my biggest problem with the book was the plot. It just felt very aimless. I kept thinking something big was about to happen to kick-start the action, and that Lira and Reyker would be forced to work together to find a way to defeat their enemies. But it just seemed like they were stuck in an endless cycle of "Reyker is hurt/captured/imprisoned and Lira must save him and then Lira feels trapped by her culture/clan/family/religion and must find a way to escape, maybe with Reyker's help." It felt like one-step-forward-two-steps-back without any progress in action or character development.
I also felt very fuzzy on the backstory/world-building of the book. I was confused about they mythology of their home and needed more clarification. Were Lira's powers good? Was her religion good? I don't know.
The secondary characters were also not well-fleshed out. Lira's friends were one-dimensional and I kept getting members of her family confused.
This book just wasn't for me.


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The Night Agent

The Night Agent by Matthew Quirk
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

While this is different from most books I usually read, I decided to take a chance on this one, and I am so glad I did. It was exciting, suspenseful, and hard to put down.
Peter is a vigilant by-the-book FBI agent who, due to his checkered past, winds up working the night-shift in the White House Situation Room. His only job is to monitor one phone, answer it if it rings, and give whatever information he might receive to one of two people. While his job is seemingly boring and perhaps pointless, Peter takes it very seriously, and is ready when, one night, the phone finally does ring. That one very short phone call leads to events that will completely turn Peter's life on its head. He is soon drawn into a conspiracy involving assassinations, Russian double-agents, acts of terrorism, and moles in the White House. Peter must decide of following the rules he has strictly adhered to all his life are worth ignoring the threat to the United States.
Peter was a great character, and it was interesting to see his journey throughout the book. The prologue gave hint about what would happen and it seemed crazed and frightening, but by the end of book everything made total sense. I wasn't quite sure about the character of Rose, however. Although a few portions of the book were told from her point of view, I still didn't feel like I had a great handle on her. I think that if the reader did not have information from her perspective, it might have ramped up the tension even more in the final chapters.
Some secrets were revealed early on, and some were left to unfold in later chapters, but it was all very well done.
All in all, this was a fast-paced, action-filled thriller with a believable plot in today's world. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who likes to read adventure, political-thrillers, suspense, or espionage dramas. It certainly made me want to read more books in this genre.


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While You Sleep

While You Sleep by Stephanie Merritt
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
This was an atmospheric mystery set on a remote Scottish island. Zoe, an artist, has rented a remote house to escape her troubled marriage back in America and is looking for a fresh start and a place to paint again. What she does not know is that the house has dark history, including the mysterious disappearance of a young boy several months earlier. The longer Zoe is in the house, the more strange and unsettling events occur, until she begins for fear for her sanity and her life.
It was hard to put this book down, and I really enjoyed reading about the wild Scottish setting and the tiny village and its residents. The spooky and ominous atmosphere of the house was very well-conveyed.
I had a hard time with Zoe, however. She did not get one good night of sleep in that house. For me personally, if I had one bad night, I might stay for one more, but after that, I would have been out of there. I can understand, after reading the whole book, that she may not have wanted to return home to America, but she could have found another place to stay in the UK! Zoe's stubborn and oddly irrational insistence that she stay made her become slightly unrelatable. I know that as the reader we are supposed to wonder a bit at her sanity, but her refusal to leave that house wasn't believable.
I also had a bit of an issue with the sexual aspect of the book. It seemed added in just to be titillating but didn't really serve to add to the story. When I was finished with the book as was thinking back on it, I just kept wondering what purpose it really served. The ancient origins of the dark history of the house were not explained well at all.
The ending, while conveniently "happy," left me dissatisfied.  This was a quick easy read and if you are looking for something to read on a dark and stormy night (and don't might gratuitous sex that really doesn't make sense in the long run), then pick up this book.


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The Girl in the Tower (Winternight Trilogy: # 2)

The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a very good follow-up to The Bear and the Nightingale. While the book started off slowly for me, focusing mainly on Vasya's sister and brother, once Vasya (literally) rode back into the picture, everything picked back up. Vasya had to find her place in the city of Moscow, trying to please her sister, her brother, the Grand Prince, her old friend (?) Morozko, and most importantly, herself. With the threats of being accused of witchcraft, having her true identity revealed, contracting an unwanted marriage, and helping to defend her people against invasion, Vasya must decide who she is, as well as who she wants to be.
The author, as in the first book, does wonderful job of transporting the reader back to medieval Russia, with all the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes. I felt as though I could feel the steam of the bathhouses, see the muddy sludge of melting snow, and smell the inside of the towers where the women were confined.
While this is the second book in this series, the ending wraps up the action in the book quite nicely. The story was exciting, well-developed, and compelling. While the very end seemed just a little bit rushed, it didn't bother me.
This is a very good series, steeped in folklore and Russian history with a very strong heroine at the center. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys YA, Fantasy, Adventure, Folklore, and/or Russian history.


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The Confessions of Frannie Langston

The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara  Collins
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
What sounded like an interesting historical mystery about a former slave from a Jamaican sugar plantation who is on trial for killing her English employers just fell flat for me.
In the early chapters where Frannie describes her childhood on the plantation, the reader gets a glimpse into what life was like for people like Frannie. It is obvious the author has done a great deal of research and it really helps pull the reader in. As Frannie grows up and becomes more involved in the work of her master, just enough hints are dropped about various things at the plantation to create mystery for the reader. The problem is that as Frannie’s time at the plantation comes to an end, very very few of those questions have satisfactory answers, or even enough information for readers to make good inferences. What exactly are the specifics of the relationship between Frannie and Langston? What exactly happened in the Coach House (to be honest I’m still not sure having finished the book!). Why does Frannie feel so guilty? I know many books, especially mysteries, like to leave readers guessing, and even leave some questions unanswered. But in this story everything was just TOO vague when addressing issues that obviously had major impact on Frannie and her life. Instead of leaving me intrigued it made me frustrated.
When Frannie travels to England the story really began to drag for me. I realize Frannie was retelling it in an almost stream-of-consciousness kind of manner, but not moving in a chronological way became confusing. I know that Frannie was left feeling unmoored, but I had a very hard time following what was happening. Frannie also seemed to become a different person. I considered not finishing the book, but I did want to find out the answers to the questions from her time in Jamaica, as well as discover the truth behind the murders. So I kept reading, but did skim quite a bit.
In the final chapters of the book, I found myself not really caring anymore. Frannie had made so many dumb decisions that she had become totally unsympathetic. When the circumstances surrounding the murders were described and the reader finally learned the answers to (most) of the lingering questions in the book, it seemed rushed and anticlimactic. If some of that information, especially things having to do with Jamaica, had been revealed earlier in the book, I think it would have given more weight to the story. I also feel as though the relationship at the heart of the story was not well-developed. If this was what influenced Frannie’s biggest decisions, it shouldn’t have felt tacked on.
All in all, this story was well-researched and had good bones. But the way it was fleshed out left a lot to be desired. It needed to be tighter and more stream-lined. I also feel like some things were added in just to make the story more titillating. This book could have been much better. It just wasn’t for me.
If you want to read a book about a young girl imprisoned in an English jail for circumstances beyond her control that is much better done, in my opinion, check out The Poison Thread. 


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Kingsbane (Empirium: # 2)

Kingsbane by Claire Legrand
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
I really enjoyed this first book in this series and was very excited to read Book 2. I was disappointed, however, and almost did not finish it.
To begin with, I read the 1st book over a year ago. I still remembered much of what happened, but Kingsbane jumped right in with NO “review” catch-ups or quick backstory explanations or anything. I kept finding myself saying, “Now who was that?” or “Why is she mad?” or “What happened at that place?” or “Why do they not get along?” That really took me out of the flow of the story. So if you are planning on reading this series, you MUST binge-read it. And that will take you quite a while, because...
This book had waaaaay too much going on. It felt as though it could have been stream-lined quite a bit and that would have made the story tighter and more interesting. When I got to the end I was left wondering why several chapters had been included; they could have been left out and not affected the story at all.
The fact that so much was going on also contributed to the fact that this was a very long book. The reader knows that at some point Rielle is going to snap. But everything was dragged out sooooo much that when it did happen it didn’t even register much emotionally for me—I was just thinking, “Yay. Finally. Now maybe we can get somewhere.”
The alternating points-of-view and timelines really added to my enjoyment of the 1st book. But here in the second one I just found myself getting frustrated with the constant back-and-forth. I had to talk myself out of skipping chapters just to get consistent action. The author also threw in chapters from several other characters’ points-of-view, which seemed random to me as a reader, and a too-convenient plot device.
Also, the reader is very well aware that Rielle will suffer from a pretty major fall-from-grace, but even knowing that is coming doesn’t help excuse many of Rielle’s actions. She becomes more and more selfish, impulsive, volatile, and unpleasant. And it was hard for me to see her motivations, so she just seemed like a bad person. If her actions were more organic and less abrupt, it would have made her more sympathetic. In addition, Eliana begins to show behaviors that make her unlikable, as well. She has no loyalty, acts without thinking of the consequences, and seems very clueless. If she had shown more loyalty to Simon throughout the book, the big twist at the end would have had more impact for me.
All in all, this book had way too much going on, and not enough of substance. That, combined with characters who were just unlikable, caused me to not enjoy this book. I am not sure that I will read the last in the series.


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Romanov

Romanov by Nadine Brandes
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
I was very excited to read this book, but unfortunately it just fell flat for me. As someone who has always been interested in the last Tsar of Russia and the assassination of his family, this retelling of their last days sounded like a great read. Focusing on Anastasia and her brother, the plot seemed to drag right out of the gate. The book began long before the family's assassination, which to me created a pall and feeling of impending doom over everything. It caused me to not want to invest to much in Anastasia's family, knowing what would soon happen to them. That was not really much of a problem, however, because most of the secondary characters felt very one-dimensional and uninteresting.
The magical aspect of the story was not well-explained, and I never got a good grasp of it. It was barely brushed upon through most of the book and then at the end all of the plot elements completely revolved around magic, so it seemed uneven and tacked on. The conclusion felt very rushed and too much like the author was trying to give everyone a happy ending. This book disappointed me and I considered not finishing it, but ended up skimming most of it.


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Song of the Abyss

Song of the Abyss by Makiia Lucier
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
This was a quick, easy read. I chose it because it sounded interesting, with a YA Fantasy theme. The story involved a strong young woman who knew what she wanted in her life and did what was necessary to achieve her goals. In training to be a master navigator, Reyna is serious about her studies and apprenticeships. After pirates attack her ship and she narrowly escapes, she encounters the young prince of a rival kingdom. Upon returning home she finds people she loves are in danger from the same pirates and must team up with the prince in a harrowing adventure to try to rescue her loved ones, with the fate of all of their countries in the balance.
While this book was full of lush descriptions of various countries and geographical locations, this story still felt as though it could have used more depth. I did like the character of Reyna as well as her prince and the secondary characters, but I don't feel as though much character development went on. The plot, while exciting, just didn't seem as rich as it could have. The many dangerous situations that the characters found themselves in didn't really feel very suspenseful or threatening. There was romance, but it definitely was not one of the highlights of the book.
I did like the fact that this was the second installment of a series, but I did not feel as though I was missing out on any backstory or world-building. This could be a stand-alone book.
I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a light, quick read. The book could have used more depth and character development, but for someone who enjoys strong heroines, adventure, geography, and YA Fantasy, this would be an enjoyable, fast read.


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The Woman in the Lake

The Woman in the Lake by Nicola Cornick
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
I was pretty excited to read this book, having really enjoyed the author’s previous work. Threads of suspense, danger, romance, and the supernatural were woven together through a mysterious yet breathtakingly beautiful golden dress. The dress led to lies, violence, jealousy, and murder when it was created in 18th century England, and it seems to be causing the same kind of problems in the present day. The dress was given to a noblewoman by her abusive husband, and manages to make its way to the present day, where it exerts a dark influence on Fen, who stole the dress while on a field trip when she was young.
The story is told from two main time periods, and from the point of view of three characters—the noblewoman and her maid in the 1760s, and Fenulla in the present day. The dress that the story is based around apparently can cause time travel, because Fenulla takes it from 1763 to her own time. As the book goes on we learn more about each of the three main characters and the events leading to a murder described in the prologue of the book. The sense of mystery, forbidding, and danger intensifies as the reader moves through the story.
While I thought that The Phantom Tree was a very intriguing book, this one just fell flat for me. The characters felt one-dimensional and their motivations didn’t make sense or feel organic. Their backstories were not well-explained and so I did not understand why they were making certain decisions or behaving in certain ways. The story also felt disjointed. The reader already knew what the 1760s timeline was heading to, so there really wasn’t much of a mystery there, also the author did do a good job of evoking an oppressive sense of doom. In the present-day storyline, it felt like the author couldn’t decide if she should focus on problems created by Fenulla’s kleptomaniac tendencies, the seemingly supernatural dress, or a mentally-abusive former husband. While I didn’t want to put the book down because I really wanted to know what would happen next, when I read the last line I just found myself saying, “Oh. Well...okay.”
I needed to know more about the dress. Because it was such an integral part of the story, more details on its creation would have really added to the story. Could it “really” exert influence over its owners? And not to give anything away, but since the dress seemed almost sentient, it certainly picked a strange end for itself.
Also, especially in the present-day, the characters accepted various supernatural events much easier than I would have. “When I was younger we entered a time-warp and I stole a dress, but it has had no real affect on me and I left it at my grandma’s house, but now that she is dead I have it back & it is apparently evil.” “Oh. Ok! Makes sense!” I think most people would have a harder time believing all that.
And the time-travel aspect was not really explained well, or even necessary. The dress was essentially only in the possession of two different people. If it had come down through the years causing its subsequent owners to commit various nefarious and evil deeds that would have added a much-needed depth. But the time-traveling just really served no purpose.
I would call this a quick, light read, but definitely not one of the author’s best. I will read books by this author again, but I’m not sure that I would recommend this one.


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The Gilded Wolves (The Gilded Wolves: # 1)

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
I would probably give this book 3.5 stars. It was a good historical YA Fantasy and hard to put down.
A team of misfits in an alternate Belle Epoque Paris work to stop a faction of madmen from gaining access to a piece of the ancient Tower of Babel. This group of friends uses their unique talents to plan a heist to rival "Ocean's Eleven" in order to keep the ancient artifact away from those who would misuse its power. The world-building is very good, the characters are likable, and the plot is very original.
That being said, I did have a few problems with the book. One, I really would have liked more elaboration on the backstory of the characters. Many important things happen to them before the actual book begins, and while these events are related in flashbacks, I think more attention could have been paid to these things. It really would have added to the story. Two, the "mythology" of the story was explained, but this is another area in which more detail could have enhanced the book. Three, the story is narrated by several different characters, and while this is well-done, at times it got confusing and I did have to go back an see which point-of-view we were looking through at the time. Perhaps the author could have varied the voices a bit more to make it easier to identify. Lastly, the climax of the book seemed rushed, and then the resolution/ending seemed very drawn out. The last several chapters just really served to set up the second book in the series. I would have liked a more definite conclusion instead of a lead-in to Book Two.
All that being said, the author had an original story and deftly created a world that drew me in as a reader. The sights, smells, tastes, and feelings were expertly described. The various characters each had idiosyncrasies, backstories, and personality traits that were relatable.
I did enjoy this book, but it almost seemed like the author wanted to do so much that many things were glossed over when they deserved more time. The fantastical story, the mythology and world-building, the decadence of the time, the puzzles/science/ math, the themes of colonialism, marginalization, isolation, being "the other," all deserved more attention than they received just because there was not room in the book. If it could have been tightened up and perhaps had less going on I would have given it a higher rating. I would still recommend the book to anyone who enjoys caper/heist stories, YA, Fantasy, and History.


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This Scot of Mine (The Rogue Files: # 4)

This Scot of Mine by Sophie Jordan
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book through Edelweiss.
I have read other books by this author and so was looking forward to reading this book. I was very disappointed, however. The story was disjointed, the characters were flat, and the plot was weak. I almost did not finish it, but plowed on.
The story begins with Clara headed to Scotland after fleeing London from the scandal of informing her betrothed that she is pregnant with another man's baby. On her way she encounters a Scottish laird to fascinates her. Upon arriving at her brother's house she discovers that this mysterious man is a friend to her brother. The laird, Hunt MacLarin, has refused to marry because his family has been cursed--each laird will die before his first-born child takes its first breath. Hunt decides Clara will be the perfect wife because she is already with child. So he proposes. She eventually accepts...
This book had problems for me from the very beginning. The whole backstory of Clara leaving London because of her nefarious fiancé was glossed over, yet a great deal of the machinery of the plot was devoted to it. Clara's actions in London with regards to her mother and fiancé either needed to be shown (and not told), or much less emphasis should have been placed upon it. I kept waiting for matters to be explained, elaborated upon, or cleared up. But none of that happened.
There were also numerous continuity errors that an editor should have spotted. I am hoping that this is just due to the fact that this was an ARC and the book has not been published yet. Surely these matter will be cleaned up before publication. (But I have read countless ARCs that had no mistakes.) There were times when I wasn't sure if it was morning or night, if people had been introduced to each other or not, or why certain things were even happening.
I also wasn't sure why the hero and heroine had taken each other into dislike after the first few chapters. I didn't get it, and it wasn't explained well.
The pacing was strange, as well. At one point, after about a week had taken place in the book, I thought to myself, "Okay, now the story is really starting. I am ready!" And then I checked and there were only about 60 pages left in the book. I was stupefied. And then a period of six months or more was completely glossed over and took place off of the page. I was stupefied again.
This book was full of missed opportunities. The story needed to be tightened up and the plot was full of holes. I did not enjoy it at all. I would not recommend it unless an editor can get in there and fix the problems.


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Evil Things

Evil Things by Katja Ivar
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
I really enjoyed reading this book and would give it 4.5 stars. It was unlike anything I'd read before, but I am glad that I took a chance on it.
Hella is one of the first real female police officers in Finland during the early part of the Cold War and feels compelled to investigate the disappearance of an older man from a remote Lapland village. Once she arrives she finds an even deeper mystery when the remains of a woman are found in the stark icy forest. Hella must figure out if and how the missing man is connected to the woman, and what has brought such "evil things" to a seemingly inconsequential place.
The writer does an excellent job of drawing the reader into the story by recreating the atmosphere of northern Finland in the 1950s. From the descriptions of the weather to the clothing to the architecture, I was totally immersed in the environment along with the character.
Hella was a really great protagonist for this story, as was her village hostess. Secondary characters were also well-developed, even if they only appeared in the story for a few pages.
The story and plot was engrossing. A mystery grew out of what seemed like something that probably had a logical explanation. And the farther I went into the story, the more the threads of the plot wove to create a tale of tension, danger, and thrilling suspense. The last portion of the book and the climax were breathless.
I truly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys mystery, suspense, Cold War-era history, or anyone who would just want a a great book to curl up with by the fire on a cold winter night.


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The Beholder

The Beholder by Anna Bright
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book from Edelweiss.
I am not really sure how to review this book. The author clearly has a very good imagination, and is also very clever to weave in various fairy tale/mythological/folklore influences. But the plot was disjointed and the characters were weak.
Selah is a girl who is forced by her evil step-mother (yes, that's right) to venture out on the ship "The Beholder" to "court" various princes from other countries to marry. She does not want to leave her sickly father or her homeland of Potomac (somewhere analogous to the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S.?) and travel to "England" and then to a Scandinavian-like kingdom to meet her suitors. (There are also other suitors on her list, but we only get through two of them in this book.)
While this premise seemed very interesting to me, actually reading it was not so interesting. There were so many fairy tale references thrown in, I was not sure what was supposed to be a coincidental reference that the reader was supposed to notice and say something like, "Oh, yes, isn't it clever that the Protocol Officer is named after the author of Cinderella?" or if Selah and her shipmates were actually IN some version of a fairy tale. I kept getting confused. The geographical regions also confused me. Was it REALLY supposed to be England? Or Norway? Or Russia? And the time period also left me wondering. There were very few "technological" advances (Selah acted amazed at a radio), and there were no cars, airplanes, electricity, or anything of that nature, and yet many "modern" words were used, and at one point Selah mentions playing basketball. I could not get a grip on what was going on with the setting.
The characters also seemed flat. If I met Selah in person, she would no doubt get on my nerves. She was either crying, pouting, acting put-upon, worrying, or being annoying. I would not want to spend any time with her. Then she "falls in love" with various and sundry boys, alternately feeing guilty about holding their hands or declaring that they will be her whole world. I wanted to shake her.
This book could have been really awesome, and tried to be really awesome, but it was just kind of disappointing. I think if it could have been tightened up, polished, and developed better, it would have been a great book.


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The Day the Crayons Came Home

The Day the Crayons Came Home by Drew Daywalt
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a very cute and clever book. It is just not quite as good as the first one. While the crayons have some funny "adventures," the book just doesn't quite flow as well. Parents will probably appreciate the humor more than their children.


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Corpse and Crown (Cadaver & Queen: # 2)

Did not finish this one. Was not a fan. At all...

Corpse & Crown by Alisa Kwitney





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Lady Derring Takes a Lover (The Palace of Rogues: # 1)

Lady Derring Takes a Lover by Julie Anne Long
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and could find no serious flaws in it, and I cannot remember the last time I read a historical romance novel about which I could say that.
Lady Derring finds herself a penniless widow, the only thing to her name a warehouse on the Thames. She decides to take on a surprising partner and open a boardinghouse to support herself. Unbeknownst to her, her late husband was a person of interest in the investigation of a smuggling ring, and so the King's Agent Captain Hardy finds himself scoping out the boardinghouse and keeping an eye on Lady Derring and her associates. The two grow closer and the mystery unravels.
The story was really good, the characters were believable, and their actions rang true to me. The chemistry between the hero and heroine was great. I enjoyed Lady Derring, and while she was perhaps a bit naive, she was not annoyingly so. Her dogged optimism was endearing. Captain Hardy was a great male protagonist, and the supporting characters were well developed.
This book was also quite humorous, and I found myself chucking several times. It has been quite a while since I've read a book and not said to myself, "Why did she do that?" or "That makes no sense!" or "Yeah, right, that's totally unbelievable!" or something along those lines. I was very pleasantly surprised by this book, and would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys historical romance. I will be looking forward to the next book in the series.


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Sorcery of Thorns

Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret  Rogerson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An orphan who was raised in a library, believing magic and sorcery were evil, must try to find her way when it seems the world is being threatened and the only ones who can help her are those she's been taught to fear.
Elisabeth, who has spent her whole life in a library taking care of malevolent grimoires, finds herself confronted one night by a grimoire gone rabid. The monstrous book attacks her and when she defeats it, instead of being praised for her actions she is held in contempt by her peers. Accompanied by a young sorcerer, Elisabeth makes the journey to the capital where she encounters demonic beings, magic, and sorcery everywhere. She must navigate her new environment, figure out who she can trust, and discover who she really is and how strong she can be.
I enjoyed this story and the originality of the plot. I have read other stories about "great libraries" and magic, etc., but this one was different and unique. While the pacing was a little roller-coaster-ish, I still liked it. It seemed like Elisabeth was plunged from horrific peril to furtive hiding to horrific peril over and over. I would have preferred a slower build to fewer climactic events, but it did not take away from my enjoyment of the book.
I also liked Elisabeth's journey from a young trainee in her home library to a confident woman ready to fight for what she knew was right. She was a character to admire, and her choices and motivations felt believable and organic. Nathaniel was an interesting character, and I had a hard time pinning him down, exactly. Perhaps that's because the whole story was told from Elizabeth's perspective, so everything we know about Nathaniel comes from what Elisabeth observes and feels.
The setting and descriptions in this book are great, and really transported me inside the story. I felt like I could hear the grimoires muttering, smell the after-effects of incantations, and see the flashes of magical emerald light.
I enjoyed this book (as well as the author's previous book), and would recommend it to anyone who likes YA Fantasy.


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