Review: Deep Blue by Jennifer Donnelly

Title: Deep Blue
Author: Jennifer Donnelly
Series: Waterfire Saga, #4
Format: Hardback, bought
My rating: 4 / 5

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Serafina, daughter of Isabella, Queen of Miromara, has been raised with the expectation - and burden - that she will someday become ruler of the oldest civilization of the merfolk. On the eve of the Dokimí ceremony, which will determine if she is worthy of the crown, Sera is haunted by a strange dream that foretells the return of an ancient evil. But her nightmare is forgotten the next day as she diligently practices her songspell; eagerly anticipates a reunion with her best friend, Neela; and anxiously worries about Mahdi, the crown prince of Matali, and whether his feelings toward her and their future betrothal have changed. Most of all, she worries about not living up to her mother's hopes.

The Dokimí proceeds, a dazzling display of majesty and might, until a shocking turn of events interrupts it: an assassin's arrow wounds Isabella. The realm falls into chaos, and Serafina's darkest premonitions are confirmed. Now she and Neela must embark on a quest to find the assassin's master and prevent a war between the mer nations. Their search will lead them to other mermaid heriones scattered across the six seas. Together they will form an unbreakable bond of sisterhood as they uncover a conspiracy that threatens their world's very existence.

-- As seen on Goodreads

My Thoughts

Don’t you love it when impulse buys pay off? I spotted Deep Blue when I was on holidays in the States last year and I just had to get it. It’s been sitting on my shelves unread since then, and on a whim, I decided to give it a try at the end of March. Beyond the characters being mermaids, I had absolutely no idea what the story was going to be about and it really paid off – I kinda loved it!

Deep Blue lies on the younger side of the Young Adult scale, dipping into an almost Middle Grade vive occasionally. I usually read, and prefer, more mature YA, but in this instance, I still thoroughly enjoyed the story. I feel like the beginning doesn’t really do it justice, though! I sort of liked the book up to the hundred page mark, but I loved it from that point on. Everything started to change and the mood of the book began to shift, and in a way the story began maturing into a full-fledged YA story focusing on friendship. Honestly, it was a bit deceiving with all the romance talk at the beginning! I absolutely LOVED that any romantic vibes that cropped up early on faded away with the friendships between the main female characters taking over.

I liked all the characters that were introduced to us, but Seraphina, Neela and Astrid were the ones that held my attention the most. The friendship between Sera and Neela was so sweet and genuine, and I really wish that female friendships similar to this were the norm in YA. It was nice to see a bit of girl-power for a change, plus, it all seemed genuine and not added just as a token gesture to fill friendship quotas. And not to forget the diversity! It was awesome to see merfolk from all over the world represented, with different abilities, disabilities, and backgrounds.

I really liked the mythology that was created, and I’m really curious to find out more. Also, all the Atlantis references will always get extra brownie points from me! The book did take a little while to settle into its groove. We got a lot of background information and set up for the first hundred pages or so: it was all necessary to the overall story, but the info-dumping portion wasn’t that subtle. Once we got past this, I thought the pacing was consistent, with a nice balance of world-building and plenty of action sprinkled throughout to keep you on your toes.

Overall, I really enjoyed Deep Blue and I’m so glad the gorgeous cover caught my eye. If, like me, you haven’t read a lot of books about mermaids and are curious about them, I think Deep Blue would be a really good starting point. It has a bit of a Disney-vibe, so if you liked The Little Mermaid, then definitely give this a shot!

May 2016 New Book Releases

Most Anticipated Releases in May

Ahh, May. It’s that lovely time of year again when warmer weather is right around the corner, and an avalanche of new book releases descends upon us. Don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely not complaining about this – it’s awesome! I don’t think it’ll be too much of a surprise which book I’ve chosen as my most anticipated release this month. It’s A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas, and it’s set to be released on May 3rd – less than two weeks to go! I absolutely loved the first book in the series, and I really hope the sequel will be equally awesome.

Other Books to Look Out For

All release dates are expected publication dates, and are subject to change. All links are to Goodreads.

May 3rd

The May Queen Murders by Sarah Jude // Holding Smoke by Elle Cosimano
The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan

Ruined by Amy Tintera // The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson
Traitor Angels by Anne Blackman

The Outliers by Kimberley McCreight // Suffer Love by Ashley Herring Blake
Wandering Wild by Jessica Taylor

May 17th

Girl Against the Universe by Paula Stokes // The Crown’s Game by Evelyn Skye
The Problem with Forever by Jennifer L. Armentrout

May 24th

The Last Star by Rick Yancey // The Hunt by Megan Shepherd
Outrun the Moon by Stacey Lee

May 31st

The Sleeping Prince by Melinda Salisbury // Wanderlost by Jen Malone

Least Satisfying Series Endings I’ve Read

I’ve noticed that I tend to shove the final books in a series into three categories: Perfect -- 50/50 -- Hated. There might be some overlapping here and there, but for the most part, my final opinions will be pretty close to one of those three categories.

A couple of weeks ago I talked about my most satisfying series conclusions that I’d read to date, and as you can probably guess from the title, today I’m sharing the endings that left me feeling either underwhelmed, disappointed or even worse, completely outraged!

I’m splitting this list into two parts. I’m going to start out with those series that would fit into the 50/50 label. You know the ones, the ‘I LIKED it… but’, or the ‘It was alright… but’ ones. Then I’ll venture into the endings where I’d happily allow the book to wallow in a lovely lava lake and encourage Hades to torture it regularly.

Just a little note: I’m not going into any specifics or spoilers, just a quick overview of my feelings. If I wrote a review for the book, I’ll leave a link if you’d like to find out what I thought about it in more detail. (My reviews are spoiler-free, unless stated!) Also, these are just my opinions and reactions to reading the books I've mentioned, and they’re not meant to offend anyone.

The 50/50 Endings

End of Days by Susan Ee

To this day Angelfall remains one of my all-time favourite books, but the last book in the trilogy? Oooh boy. I liked some stuff, but then some other stuff… ehh, not so much. There was so much potential for a really epic ending, but I did feel really let down by some of the things that happened.

My Reivew.

Winter by Marissa Meyer

Okay, this will definitely be a controversial one! See, I LIKED what happens. I really did! It was the journey I wasn’t a fan of. Oh, and the boredom. It’s never a nice feeling when you’re wishing for a book to be over. :/

My Reivew.

Endgame by C.J. Daugherty

The fourth book in this series was my favourite book of 2014, so I had HUGE expectations for the grand finale. It’s the same again, I LIKED the ending… but yeah, okay, alright, I was a bit miffed with a non-ending for a certain character! There were just too many loose ends and it stopped me from being completely satisfied with the outcome.

My Reivew.

Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer

We went through all that… for THAT anti-climactic ending?! When I read it, I had lovely rose-tinted glasses on. (Ahh, the lovely Twilight bubble that got me back reading again!) If I’d read it now, I’d probably have rated it quite a bit lower than I did at the time.

Hades, My Dear, I Have Some Sacrifices For You

Fire Study by Maria V. Snyder

I know there’s a new continuation trilogy following Yelena and Valek, (and yes, I’ve read the first book in that trilogy, but DNF’d it,) so I’m classing Fire Study as the last book just for simplicity sake. Simply put, Fire Study felt completely pointless. The first two books were awesome, but absolutely nothing happened in Fire Study. It was too drawn out, and I remember it took almost two months to get through.

Opposition by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Okay, so it pains me to include this book here. The Lux series used to be one of my favourite series… and then this book came along. I was completely crushed with how half-hearted and cliché the ending turned out to be. It felt like we were just going through the expected motions just to conclude the series. :/

My Reivew.

Out of Breath by Rebecca Donovan

The first two books in this trilogy were amazing… but the last one, oh boy. Everything changed, and it was like I’d picked up the third book in a completely new series. The characters were completely unrecognisable!

Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris

I will confess that this book takes the grand prize for being my most hated series conclusion, ever. Honestly, it was a complete disaster. The horrible thing was I could see it coming, but I was holding out hope that things would turn around. But, alas, they didn’t. What makes it harder to take: it’s a 13 book long series! Actually, I think this makes it hurt twice as much… *sobs*

Thanks for stopping by, and Happy Reading!

Review: The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh

Title: The Wrath and the Dawn
Author: Renee Ahdieh
Series: The Wrath and the Dawn, #1
Format: Hardback, bought
My rating: 3 / 5

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A sumptuous and epically told love story inspired by A Thousand and One Nights

Every dawn brings horror to a different family in a land ruled by a killer. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, takes a new bride each night only to have her executed at sunrise. So it is a suspicious surprise when sixteen-year-old Shahrzad volunteers to marry Khalid. But she does so with a clever plan to stay alive and exact revenge on the Caliph for the murder of her best friend and countless other girls. Shazi’s wit and will, indeed, get her through to the dawn that no others have seen, but with a catch . . . she’s falling in love with the very boy who killed her dearest friend.

She discovers that the murderous boy-king is not all that he seems and neither are the deaths of so many girls. Shazi is determined to uncover the reason for the murders and to break the cycle once and for all.

-- As seen on Goodreads

My Thoughts

How in the world can a book be both awesome and underwhelming at the same time?! I have so many conflicting feelings about The Wrath and the Dawn, and I’m not really sure where to begin this review. How about with the positives?

The story itself was actually really gripping and held my attention pretty consistently throughout. It’s a One Thousand and One Nights retelling, and if you’ve visited my blog before, you know how obsessed I can be about retellings! It’s written in the third person with multiple POV’s used, and I absolutely LOVED the writing style. The pacing flowed so beautifully, and the descriptions, wow! It really felt like I had been transported to the Middle East and was walking through the halls of beautiful buildings and towns. And the food, oh so yum! The only possible down side to vividly described food is being constantly hungry while you’re reading.

Technically – for writing style, imagery, atmosphere, pacing etc., – I want to give all the stars under the sun to The Wrath and the Dawn. But, something is holding me back, and it’s a pretty big something. I knew going into this book that it would be romance-heavy, and I was completely okay with that. But, you see, here’s where my problem lies. The romance left me feeling ice cold. I didn’t feel any emotion or passion between Shahrzad and Khalid – all the words are there, but the emotions and feelings that should have been evoked didn’t translate over to me. I love romances where I’m practically climbing through the pages of the book to mush the characters faces together. That tension and the not knowing if they’re going to give into their feelings is half the fun! I was hoping for something along those lines here, but the romance developed a LOT sooner than I had expected.

Shahrzad – or Shazi – is a character I wanted to love, but unfortunately I struggled to care what happened to her. She certainly makes lots of threats, but in actuality she did next to nothing to back up her words. I was also very surprised at how quickly Shazi developed feelings for Khalid. Last time I checked, rage, resentment, hatred and a desire for vengeance are all pretty strong emotions. Add them together and I really doubt they’ll disappear within two days. Also, I don’t understand why Shazi is the one to have 'changed’ things for Khalid… and how is she not dead?! Just because of a few half-heartedly told stories? If I was Khalid with a penchant for killing his wives the morning after he marries them, Shazi would have been dead long ago. I don’t see what’s so special about her, nor do I see what all the other characters keep harping on about. So, she’s a good archer… well, so is the vast majority other YA fantasy heroines these days. We’re continually being told that Shazi is an amazing girl – fearsome, headstrong, opinionated, cunning, intelligent etc. – yet, I didn’t see any of this in practice at any stage. If anything, what we were shown completely contradicted all of these claims!

I wish I could talk to you about my feelings toward Khalid, but I felt absolutely nothing toward him. Logically, I guess I’m supposed to feel repulsion toward him at first, and that slowly transforms into sympathy… but, sorry, I got nothing.

Here’s the thing, I pretty much loved everything about The Wrath and the Dawn, bar the main characters and the romance. Yes, it’s unfortunate that both of these things take up the vast majority of the book, but despite all of this, I’m still really curious to see where the story goes next! As far as I know this is a duology, and I’ll definitely consider picking up The Rose and the Dagger when it’s released, and I really hope my opinions will change when I read it.

WoW #83: And I Darken by Kiersten White

This week, I'm waiting on...

And I Darken

by Kiersten White

Expected publication: July 7th 2016

Genres: Fantasy; Historical fiction; Young Adult

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No one expects a princess to be brutal. And Lada Dragwyla likes it that way.

Ever since she and her brother were abandoned by their father to be raised in the Ottoman sultan’s courts, Lada has known that ruthlessness is the key to survival. For the lineage that makes her and her brother special also makes them targets.

Lada hones her skills as a warrior as she nurtures plans to wreak revenge on the empire that holds her captive. Then she and Radu meet the sultan’s son, Mehmed, and everything changes. Now Mehmed unwittingly stands between Lada and Radu as they transform from siblings to rivals, and the ties of love and loyalty that bind them together are stretched to breaking point.

The first of an epic new trilogy starring the ultimate anti-princess who does not have a gentle heart. Lada knows how to wield a sword, and she'll stop at nothing to keep herself and her brother alive.

Doesn’t this cover just scream badass main character?! And then I read the most wonderful words in the synopsis: ANTI-PRINCESS. And OTTOMAN empire. Seriously, I don’t think there is enough NEED in the world to express how much I want to read this book!

But going back to the cover for a second: there seems to be two different covers, and I greatly prefer the one I’ve included at the top of this post. I mean, the floral one is really pretty, but it seems a little… tame, despite having an impaler’s spike on the cover.

Which one do you prefer?

Thanks for stopping by, and Happy Reading!

* Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. *

Review: Winter by Marissa Meyer

Title: Winter
Author: Marissa Meyer
Series: The Lunar Chronicles, #4
Format: Paperback, bought
My rating: 3 / 5

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Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mar her face, her beauty is said to be even more breathtaking than that of her stepmother, Queen Levana.

Winter despises her stepmother, and knows Levana won’t approve of her feelings for her childhood friend—the handsome palace guard, Jacin. But Winter isn’t as weak as Levana believes her to be and she’s been undermining her stepmother’s wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that’s been raging for far too long.

Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter defeat Levana and find their happily ever afters?

-- As seen on Goodreads

My Thoughts

Reading the final book in a series is a bitter-sweet moment. I always hope for a satisfying conclusion, and while WINTER did deliver this to a certain level, I can’t help feeling it was missing so many of the elements that made this series awesome in the first place. And, oh boy do I feel like the odd one out saying this! Looking at the sea of 5 star reviews before I began reading set me up for quite a bit of disappointment. I don’t know if I read a completely different book, but personally, I thought WINTER was the weakest book in the series.

Putting this bluntly, the book was far too long and drawn out. We get hundreds of pages of unnecessary build-up and not enough pages dedicated to any sort of concrete or epic conclusion. If the book had been condensed by a few hundred pages, I doubt we would have missed out on anything important. I was expecting so much more than what we got, but the biggest surprise I had was being bored out of my mind for well over half of the book! By the time I got to the 500 page mark I was wishing for the book to end. Let me tell you, that definitely was NOT the reaction I was expecting to have while reading the conclusion to this series!

In the previous books, I thought the author did an excellent job point-of-view-juggling between all the main characters. But for me, WINTER is the book where all the POV-juggling fell completely flat. I remember counting 10 different POV’s over the course of this book – Winter, Cinder, Jacin, Kai, Levana, Cress, Iko, Thorne, Scarlet and Wolf – and there could have been more I’ve forgotten about – and for me, this was a bit overkill. Now, granted, this could be a personal taste thing as I greatly prefer books with fewer POV’s in general … but I did think CRESS was handled excellently, and comparing WINTER to its immediate predecessor, this book didn’t deliver to the level already set.

With so many dominant characters introduced over the course of the series, it was difficult for each voice to shine through clearly without drowning out someone else. Considering each of the previous books in the series has been dedicated to one of the main characters, I was very surprised that Cinder took up the majority of the spotlight in Winter’s book. Personally, I thought there was far too much Cinder and not enough everyone else and I know that’ll be an unpopular opinion. I’m also a bit shocked that Winter didn’t have a much bigger role to play in the finale than she did. Also, there was something a bit… off… about the relationship between Winter and Jacin. Now, I get that they have a past and their relationship was already formed before we get to see their story, but I didn’t really feel any bond of love or affection between either of them.

It’s no secret that Scarlet is my favourite character, and once again she proved what a smart, ballsy, sassy badass she truly is. I absolutely LOVE her character, and I’m so thankful she was introduced into the series. Cress is another character I adore, and she comes in a very close second to Scarlet. Now, here comes my problem: Wolf and Thorne. Thorne didn’t seem like the same person as he was in the previous books, and Wolf… oh where do I even begin? Purely to avoid spoilers I won’t mention anything more, but if you’ve read the book, you might be able to guess what I’m saying.

Oh, and just for the record? I still haven’t clicked with either Cinder or Kai. It always sucks when you don’t click with the main characters in a series, and it’s even more unfortunate when the vast majority of an 800+ page multi-POV book revolves around the characters you have no feelings for.

I’ve always classed The Lunar Chronicles as being one of the more unique YA series of recent years, so I was quite shocked to see your standard tried-and-true-been-there-done-that dystopian ending emerge. Add in the similarities to Mockingjay (and The Hunger Games trilogy in general) – the ‘districts’ disguised by other names, the Capitol, the Lunar’s crazy fashion sense, Levana turning into Snow... I don’t know, I guess I had hoped for a truly unique ending to do this series justice, and I just don’t feel we got that.

I’m very conflicted right now. Overall, I did like WINTER, but the ending wasn’t as strong or impactful I had anticipated. I guess my real rating would be closer to 2.5 stars, but I’m rounding up to 3 as I can’t bear rating a book in this series lower than that! And also it’s for Scarlet’s sake. As I mentioned earlier, she’s my favourite character and her book still remains my favourite in the series. I do wish I had a better reaction to reading WINTER, but The Lunar Chronicles as a whole will always remain beloved series in my heart, even if the ending wasn’t as strong as I had hoped it would be.

Most Satisfying Series Endings I’ve Read

Final books in a series can be so hit or miss, can’t they? I think we’ve all experienced the bitter disappointment of a less than epic conclusion to a much loved series, and it’s so horrible when it happens. I mean, it’s the last impression we’re left with, and if they don’t manage to tick off the vast majority of those expectations we have they can taint all the memories we have of the previous books, no matter how much we may have loved them. It really can be all about that ending! It’s easier to dwell on the bad things, so I wanted to do the opposite today and create a list of the most satisfying endings to series I’ve read up to now.

As these are the final books in series, I’m not going into specifics. If I wrote a review for the book, I’ve left a link if you’d like to find out what I thought about it in more detail. (My reviews are spoiler-free, unless stated!)

Oblivion by Kelly Creagh

I tried to write a review for this one, but the words to do the book justice just wouldn’t come. I’ve got to tell you something though… just after I finished reading Oblivion, I started jotting down some of my thoughts, and all of a sudden I burst into tears. They were happy tears, but I was also heartbroken that the series was over and I’d never read about these wonderful characters again. Honestly, it was the single most bizarre reaction I’ve ever had to reading a book! (Actually, just thinking about this is making me want to reread the series…)

The Winner’s Kiss by Marie Rutkoski

Simply put, The Winner’s Kiss is easily the most satisfying conclusion to a series I’ve ever read. It was perfect. This is the most recent release on my list, so I won't say any more than that. If you've read it, what did you think??

My Review.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Okay, I know this one will be a little controversial! I thought Mockingjay was a brilliant and fitting ending to the series. I can understand why people had issues with Katniss and her narrative, but for me, giving what she had endured over the past few years of her life, I thought it was really realistic and believable. And, the characters stayed within character so that’ll always get a huge thumbs up from me ;)

Ensnared by A.G. Howard

Oooh, I have lots of reasons why I loved this ending! After reading the book I was a little iffy, but as time has gone on, I’m completely satisfied with it.

My Review.

Boundless by Cynthia Hand

I remember having so many worries when I began reading Boundless, but I was so glad that the final book ended the way it did! It doesn’t quite live up to Angelfall, but it’s definitely one of the best angel related series I’ve read.

My Review.

Unmade by Sarah Rees Brennan

I didn’t write a review for any of the books in The Lynburn Legacy series as I couldn’t manage to sum up all of the fabulousness into anything that would make sense. I loved each of the books in the series, but Unmade was my favourite. It definitely was heartbreaking – there’s one moment… oh my goodness, my heart! – yet it was still so satisfying.

Dust to Dust by Karina Halle

Oh, this book killed me. I think I spent about 80% of it in floods of tears! I was a complete wreck by the end, but it was oooh so good.

My Review.

What are some of your most satisfying series endings? Thanks for stopping by, and Happy Reading!