Review: A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

After being changed into a Fae, instead of a mere human, Feyre is having a rough time transitioning into this new person - this new being. Everything is louder, brighter, stronger, more intense. And honestly? Feyre isn't sure how she feels about being a faerie. Especially because she kept her mortal heart.

And now she is constantly being reminded about the choices she had to make Under the Mountain because of Amarantha's evil. Because of her mortal heart and conscience, Feyre isn't fairing too well. She just wants to go back to what she loves to do, but is finding that to be hard. Now that Tamlin has his full High Fae powers back, he is all about protecting Feyre and making sure that she wants for nothing.

But that is not Feyre, and the more she pushes, the harder he pushes back and makes her a shell of the person that she is.

When Rhysand comes on Feyre and Tamlin's wedding day to uphold the bargain she made with him, Feyre was almost relieved because of the suffocation she was experiencing, knowing she would be stuck wearing jewels all day and sitting on her ass doing nothing useful.

But her hatred for Rhysand was still in full force after what she went through Under the Mountain. When Feyre isn't with Rhys for the week time frame, she is still somehow communicating with him because of the bond he put on her with the tattoo, so she at least has one person to talk to when left alone in the Spring Court castle.

Then everything changed: Tamlin locked her inside of the house and wouldn't let her leave. Feyre was having a mental break down when Rhysand and his cousin Morrigan rescued her from the blackness she conjured. Because when she was remade as a Fae, she got all 7 High Fae's powers and had no idea how to contain them.

Now, she is at the Night Court for however long she wants to be there. Because now the Spring Court is more of a prison than a paradise, and Feyre cannot be in that type of enviroment. And the kicker? Rhys is letting Feyre go with him on missions and visits and is actually telling her what is going on with the King of Hybern's plans of attacking the mortal world - of her family's world.

The longer she stays in the Night Court, the more that Feyre realizes that everyone is judging Rhys wrongly. Sure, most of it is his doing, but she is getting the real Rhysand and now Feyre has to figure out who is the real Rhys, and what she is going to decide to do in the end about which Court she wants to represent.

Because one thing is for sure: the King of Hybern is on a mission to end the world and he is going to take Feyre down with him.

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG! OMG! SERIOUSLY!! THIS BOOK IS JUST----AAAAHHHHHHH!!

Okay, I'm breathing now. I think.

Let's just start with the big elephant: Rhysand. He was so evil and conniving and hard to read in the first book, but his intentions were good. I did get that feeling about him. But this book?! It tore me to pieces when she was staying in the Night Court. I mean, I was blushing and barely breathing during some of the scenes with those two and the tension was just off the charts.

I want Rhysand! He's definitely a book boyfriend after this book!

Also? Tamlin? What he did to Feyre by locking her up in the house and treating her no better than a pet dog or cat? That is just wrong on so many levels. For the fact that Feyre wouldn't get out of bed to eat - and not even that on some days - and she was withering away into nothing right before his eyes and she is supposed to be a Fae and be immortal for life? He was abusing her so much and didn't even know it and that is just so wrong. I was hating him more and more and more at the beginning of this book and I was so, so, so glad that Feyre was saved by Rhysand.

Okay, there was SO MUCH that happened in this book!! Yes, it's 600 pages, so of course things are going to happen, but I had to remember how the book started off and then I got pissed about Tamlin again.

Sarah J. Maas's writing is impeccable. Amazing. She had me on the edge of my seat reading this entire book in 1 day and I am sitting here typing, wishing I was already diving into the 3rd book right this minute. This storyline is just amazing and the world she has created is just fantastic. I am so jealous of these characters that they have this live and just want to find a way to go there. And try to be with Rhysand, but that's beside the point.

Feyre continues to be a badass, though probably less because she's Fae and can do stuff more easily than when she was a human and did just as amazing, great things. But she is constantly ignoring ancient rules to do what she thinks needs to be done, rather than what is expected. She doesn't care about the consequences - she just wants to do the right thing. Having been in situations with her family when they were poor and starving and cold, she wants to help people rather than judge them and I love that so, so much.

I so love this book and I know after reading this that I am going to be buying these books for my own personal collection because I already know that I want to re-read them in the near future. They are fantastic and I cannot wait to read the 3rd book to see how it ends!!

I did just add that this is a New Adult book because there are a lot of ... details ... that some parents might not want their teens to read, but I'm still going to recommend it to everyone I know because it is just fantastic!

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Review: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received this free eARC novel from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Feyre's life is pretty hard recently. Her family is poor - after they used to be on the other spectrum of the social status - and Feyre is the only one who is bringing in money or food into the house. And she did this because of the vow and promise she made to her mother when she was dying: Feyre will protect and take care of her father and two older sisters.

So Feyre learned how to hunt in the woods behind their hut to bring in food, and to hunt and get supplies from the market. Even though the woods are practically off limits because that is where the faeries are and could snatch her up at any minute. But Feyre has no choice in the matter - she must do what needs to be done so her family can be fed and warm.

When Feyre sees a doe that will bring a lot of meat and her coat would bring a lot of money, Feyre thinks she's hit the jackpot. That is, until she sees the giant wolf stalking the same doe. Feyre knows that the fae can shape shift into animals, but she can't tell if this is a faerie or just an abnormally large wolf, so she kills the wolf and the doe, and takes both skins and the doe carcus home, knowing that the wolf skin will bring them a lot of money.

But Feyre judged wrong, because the wolf that she killed was a fae, and now she has been taken as a life for a life because of her misjudgment into the fae land. Surprisingly, though, not as a victim, but rather to just live in Prythian for the rest of her life with her capturer Tamlin.

The longer that Feyre stays with Tamlin, though, the less she feels like a captive but more like a guest - a human guest who is getting some weird reactions from the faeries - but a guest none the less. And she is even allowed to go hunting with Tamlin's friend Lucien, even though she could easily try to escape.

Things are not as they seem in Prythian when dark, evil creatures keep trying to attack the mansion that Feyre is staying at. There is a long, dark history that has happened to the world of the fae, and even though Feyre doesn't realize it, she's smack dab in the middle of the mess. Only Feyre can save the entire fae population, but she's just a lowly, breakable human who is in way over her head when it comes to the faerie land. But because she has grown feelings for Tamlin, she needs to decide if this immortal world is worth everything she has - because it might just take her life.

Okay. So. I. LOVED. THIS. BOOK!!!!

And I read it because of a funny story:

In Jennifer L. Armentrout's new (unpublished as of today) book "If There's No Tomorrow", the main character is a book reader and is currently reading a book about a guy named Rhysand. I got so curious about this character, I decided to look him up and low and behold, it's Sarah J. Maas's series!! (I only looked it up because she was wanting to read the Paper Princess book by Erin Watt and I've already read that, so I knew it was a real book and assumed this one was too :) )

And I instantly went to find all 3 books in this series, because when JLA is having her characters read this book, I knew they had to be good!!

And it was amazing! I loved it! I loved the beginning, even though a lot of readers said it was too slow paced for them. For me, it was great because we really got a chance to get to know Feyre and her personality, her loyalty, her determination so by the time she got to Tamlin's house, we knew that she wasn't just going to meekly stand by and be a prisoner.

The little moments when you could tell that Feyre was starting to like Tamlin was so full of tension and I was just like, be with him already!!! But she is a very stubborn girl and took her sweet time.

When she was sent back home and saw how well Tamlin took care of her family, my heart was gone and given to Tamlin on a silver platter. For a High Fae to do that to a human family - a species so below the fae that they are like scum - was heartbreaking and so so sweet. And then when she went back for him?

Sigh, there are so many feels going on right now inside of me that I'm a gushing mess!! But I'm so excited that I was introduced to this series and I am extremely glad that I have the other two books to dive into, because I cannot wait to see what happens next with the unexepected way things ended for Feyre. Waiting for 2 years to be able to fly through this books is the reason that I torture myself for not starting the books until the series is finished :)

I am DEFINITELY going to recommend this series to my friends and patrons who want to read YA at my library because it is a great book that was written so well with so many twists and turns that I feel like others will love it just as much as I did :)

Thanks JLA for the recommendation and thank you Sarah J. Maas for writing this!!

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Review: Manners & Mutiny

Manners & Mutiny by Gail Carriger
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sophronia is well on her way to be finished at her unique school, but she is so wrapped up in the political outbreak in London that she doesn't have time to think about doing actual school assignments. No, now she is mixed up with the Picklemen who are out to destroy the supernaturals, her contract with the dewan werewolf and what Soap is up to, and fielding off one of the influeniental vampires in the area.

So when the school goes down in a hard landing - a school that is not supposed to land ever - Sophronia decides that she is going to stay with the ship to see what the issue is. Turns out, this is the time where all of the plans that the Picklemen and Flywaymen have been doing is going to be acted out. And now Sophronia, along with the Headmistress who knows nothing of the espionage aspect of her school, a crazy vampire teacher, and the sooties who are hard at work are there to save not only the school but also London.

And so goes Sophronia to use all of the knowledge that she has learned over the years at her school to try and save the world from mass chaos and possibly war.

Not too much pressure, right?

This is Sophronia's biggest and most important mission yet.

This was a great ending to the series! I loved everything about it and I loved all of the action and planning and exploding and chaoticness! It was pretty fantastic. I also enjoyed that Sophronia got injured and became a real person because of that. Every other book she barely got hurt and it was too much good luck for one girl to have, so it was nice that she got some consequences to her actions during this big battle.

Also? My Team Boy that I was on? I kinda switched. Sophronia did not pick my man. And if you want to know who she did pick, just go to my other reviews from book 1-3 and you will know who she ends up with. My boy that I was rooting for became pretty pathetic in the end. Granted, we never got to hear his side of the story, but he also betrayed Sophronia when she really needed him to stick with her - especially because he was pursuing her hardcore. Instead, other team boy became a badass and picked up his game, so I was very impressed and very happy that he became more vocal and physical with his attraction toward Sophronia. My Team Boy did the opposite, really. So I actually was happy about who Sophronia ended up with.

This was a really great series and I'm glad that I got a chance to read it finally. I don't know if I will read the other two series that Gail Carriger wrote that is about the same world as this series. Maybe later, when I'm feeling in the mood for one of these books again, but for right now I'm very happy and content with ending this series and being done with this world for a little while.

I think a lot of teen and adult females will really love this series because Sophronia is such a strong, brave, and independent woman who many females will aspire to become. Okay, we won't become her, but we can pretend we are Sophronia, right?

I will definitely have this series on my list when recommending new books to teens at my library!

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Review: Waistcoats & Weaponry

Waistcoats & Weaponry by Gail Carriger
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sophronia is once again in the middle of a city crisis. This time, she is at home visiting her family because of her brother's engagement party, when all of the mechanical machines went haywire and were programmed to sing the national song for the British. And then, one of her friends needs to go to Scotland to be with her werewolf pack during a crisis.

So, of course, Sophronia is all for an adventure of getting her friend home and then she just happens to stumble upon the issue with the mechanical machines when she steals a weird looking train.

Sophronia is definitely not a boring girl at finishing school, that's for sure.

Now, Sophronia, Dimity, Soap, Felix and Sidheag are trying to figure out what to do with the information they have stumbled upon the train.

Sophronia is seriously one of my favorite characters! She is so sharp and is always piecing together all of the clues to figure out what is going on. She is my hero! And she's so funny and quick with responses when in a situation. I would hope that I would have acted like her during that time period, but probably, in all reality, I would have been a blibbering mess.

I love Sophronia and Felix together! But after this book... I don't know. Felix is a pansy. Soap is not my favorite for Sophronia, but the way that his story concluded at this end of this book was just...ugh! Poor guy. Even though he really wanted that to happen anyway.

I love, love, love this series and can't wait to see how it ends with the 4th book!

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Review: Curtsies & Conspiracies

Curtsies & Conspiracies by Gail Carriger
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sophronia learned so much from her first year in Finishing School, and she was extremely excited to go back after her sister's Ball. But when her class takes their exams and she was ostracized because she has had the best 6 month marks out of all of the students at the school, Sophronia now lives in a world where everyone is ignoring her.

But that doesn't stop Sophronia from doing what she does best: spying and snooping around on the ship. In fact, she snoops even more so, especially on the teachers. Because there is something going on that the teachers are hiding from the students. And if there is anything Sophronia is good at, it's finding out information that people want to keep hidden.

Plus, to top it off, BOYS are on the ship! Evil geniuses in training are now going to travel with the finishing school to go to London for a special viewing. While this gives the girls a better target to work their etiquette on, Sophronia is finding that she had to fend off advances from Felix, that sly little devil. But a very high class little devil that all of the other girls are trying to get his attention. For some reason, though, his eyes are on Sophronia - or as he likes to call her, Ria.

While Sophronia gets a few tries of practice, she is more on a mission to find out what the new device is that was brought on the ship, why there is a fortune teller there, and who is trying to kidnap her best friend?

This series is killing me! I seriously was laughing so hard at the end of this book with the scene at the vampire hive and there was just chaos and madness and so much going on. Sophronia was able to follow it all and keep up with what was happening, but my god it was just too funny for me!

While I don't understand everything that is talked about in this novel because I didn't grow up in this time period, or even study this time period, I am still really, really enjoying this series!

The romance is a bit too much, I think. I would be more than happy to have no romance and just be in the mind of Sophronia because the way her brain works is amazing. I would never be able to thrive in a school like hers, though I would certainly try! I do have to say, the thing with Soap is just not working out for me. I really hope she doesn't end up with him. I don't know why, I just don't really want that to happen. And for some reason, I really love the idea of Sophronia and Felix together. I think that would be a great pair because they would always be challenging each other, and Sophronia definitely needs that in her life to keep her content and interested. Maybe that's why I don't think Soap is a good fit - he wouldn't challenge her as often or as well as Felix would.

Anyway, I'm definitely enjoying this and I love, love, love Bumblesnoot! I was so sad when he visited someone else for a little bit. But I think it's because I love animals, even if it's a mechanimal!

Diving into #3! I definitely recommend reading these! :)

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Review: Etiquette & Espionage

Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sophronia is not up to times with how a proper lady is supposed to act. In fact, she is a complete embarrassment to her mother and family and the only thing that her mom is thinking about is to get the curious 14 year old out of her hair so she can plan for a ball for another daughter.

So against Sophronia's wishes, she is sent to Finishing School to learn proper etiquette and become the lady that her mother wants her to be. But from the very start, Sophronia realizes that the Finishing School is not quiet what she was told...

Instead, it is a finishing school for Etiquette, but also about how to kill people while being a proper lady about it. So the girls at this school (which is located in a blimp flying all over the world so no one can find their secret location) are being trained on the proper hankerchief to use, but also on which method works best on how to kill a vampire and a werewolf. And they are also being taught by a vampire and a werewolf.

Sophronia, who was hating the idea of coming to this school, is realizing how GOOD she is at this school. Well, for the espionage aspect anyway. She is a very good snoop, has a curious mind, and is very upfront on her questions - because she wants to get the answers.

And one of the older students is keeping a secret from the teachers, so now Sophronia has made it her mission to figure out where Monica is hiding the item in question, and how Sophronia can get to it before she does.

This has always been on my list of books to read, and I just happen to grab all 4 books in the series at once so I knew it was time to finally read it and see what all of the hype was about. And I loved it!

I really loved Sophronia! She is a spunky, curious, and such an odd girl that one can't help but admire her abilities that she's figuring out at this school.

And she has a lot to learn at the beginning, since she had no idea that this school even existed. Otherwise she would have tried to find a way inside of the school a long time ago!

It does take a few pages to get into the story of the book since it's set in an older time period and I don't really know what the proper etiquette is for them, but Sophronia doesn't really care about that nonsense too much. Well, not before she's had the proper training anyway!

Also, I loved how Sophronia doesn't judge people by who they are in society. I love it when she visits the sooties and they are just normal people to her instead of the hired help and the "colored" people (I hate that term...). Instead, she loves their enthusiasm and she is always bartering with them. She treats them like humans rather than servants.

The mechanical aspect of this novel is something else. Sometimes I can't quiet picture what is going on because it gets a bit too technical for my brain, but I know it's something fancy.

I also love Vieve as well! I can't wait until she is forced to go to the etiquette school and has to dress like a girl!

I'm very intrigued on what is going to happen in the rest of the series, and I'm so glad I finally got a chance to read this!

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Review: Always Red

Always Red by Isabelle Ronin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received this free eARC novel from Edelweiss in exchange for my honest review.

The moment Red realized that she may have pushed Caleb too far and he may disappear forever, Red realized her mistake: she wants him. She wants to be with him. She doesn't want him to walk away. But now, it's not Caleb fighting for Red, but the other way around. Because Red pushed him away one too many times and said cruel things to protect her heart, but not realizing that she was breaking his heart instead.

So now Red is on a mission: get Caleb back. She can't live without him and she is determined to make him understand that she needs him and will do anything for him now. The first few times she attempted to find him, he was gone. Nowhere to be found. Then, when Caleb finally came back, Red was looking at a stranger. He was so emotionless and distant.

But Red was not to be taken off course and she was going to make him listen to her - once everyone in their lives stopped interfering. Especially that good for nothing Beatrice-Rose. She was also determined to get Caleb - but she was missing one thing: Caleb never loved her like he loved Red.

Emotions are running high, friends are mistaken as enemies and time may be running out for them. Danger is lurking in the most unusual person of their lives and Red and Caleb's connection is stronger than ever. But is it stronger than the forces that are trying to tear them apart?

This ending was amazing. Seriously. I could have had all of this content into one massive book and I would have been a happy camper. But why am I complaining, since I got both book 1 and 2 at the same time with no waiting period, so it really was one big book for me! :)

I love these characters, I love this story, I love the backstory and how it wrapped up in the end, I loved how fast pace these two characters are with one another. I just love this. Thank you Isabelle Ronin for writing this great novel! I may just have to buy the physical book when it gets released in September & November!

The suspense with the side characters was great. It was obvious, but it was supposed to be and then the finale? Wowzas. I don't want to get on Red's bad side AT ALL!!

And neither on Caleb's bad side either, to be honest. They are both a force to be reckoned with and they are soulmates.

I feel so much for Red. I know Caleb has had some bumps in the road with his dad, but it is nothing compared to what Red went through when she was a kid and they were living with her father. I'm glad the author didn't get into too much detail about what happened and how she was abused, but the flashbacks were enough to show that he was an evil, evil man.

I loved the ending of this book so much and I just heart everything about this! I even liked Damon (I especially love his name!) and always felt so bad when Caleb was threatening his life. I hope Damon finds his one true love soon! And I really want Theo and Beth to get their shit figured out and be together already. Oh, and don't get me started on Kara and Cameron!! Their story is the one I want to read about the most out of anyone! I do hope the author is going to do spin off stories?!?! :D

I'm so so so glad that I downloaded these two books on a whim and read them right away!! It is such a great story and it was written beautifully. I devoured Caleb and Red's story like a girl needing her next fix and I regret nothing.

I am definitely recommending this novel to all of my friend.

Thank you to all of the Wattpad readers who read this and made this possible to be a book because it definitely deserves it!

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