Review | The Immortal Heights by Sherry Thomas

The Immortal Heights by Sherry Thomas (The Elemental Trilogy #3)
Published October 13, 2015 by Balzer + Bray, 432 pp.
Summary:

In a pursuit that has spanned continents, Iolanthe, Titus, and their friends have always managed to remain one step ahead of the forces of Atlantis. But now the Bane, the monstrous tyrant who bestrides the entire mage world, has issued his ultimatum: Titus must hand over Iolanthe, or watch as his entire realm is destroyed in a deadly rampage. Running out of time and options, Iolanthe and Titus must act decisively to deliver a final blow to the Bane, ending his reign of terror for good.

However, getting to the Bane means accomplishing the impossible—finding a way to infiltrate his crypt in the deepest recesses of the most ferociously guarded fortress in Atlantis. And everything is only made more difficult when new prophecies come to light, foretelling a doomed effort…

Iolanthe and Titus will put their love and their lives on the line. But will it be enough?

With The Immortal Heights, Sherry Thomas brings the acclaimed Elemental Trilogy to its breathtaking conclusion.

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If there’s one thing I will say about this series, it’s that this probably has one of my favourite romances ever. I love that Titus is so lovestruck and has zero qualms about expressing his love for Iolanthe.

That being said, The Immortal Heights is a satisfying end to the series: the characters we have come to know all have neatly tied ribbons around their stories, villains get their comeuppance, and I have another series finished under my belt!! Yay!

Farewell to August, Random Life Updates™, ETC. (ﾉ^∇^)ﾉﾟ

Well would you look at that! I read more books than I expected, even if most of them aren’t from my TBR…. *looks around shiftily* With the end of August I’ll once again pretend we have fall here, even if all the weather does until the end of the year is alternate between raining cats and dogs to scorching summer heat.

Review | Ice Like Fire by Sara Raasch

Ice Like Fire by Sara Raasch (Snow Like Ashes #2)
Published October 13, 2015 by Balzer + Bray, 479 pp.
Summary:

It’s been three months since the Winterians were freed and Spring’s king, Angra, disappeared—thanks largely to the help of Cordell.

Meira just wants her people to be safe. When Cordellan debt forces the Winterians to dig their mines for payment, they unearth something powerful and possibly dangerous: Primoria’s lost chasm of magic. Theron sees this find as an opportunity—with this much magic, the world can finally stand against threats like Angra. But Meira fears the danger the chasm poses—the last time the world had access to so much magic, it spawned the Decay. So when the king of Cordell orders the two on a mission across the kingdoms of Primoria to discover the chasm’s secrets, Meira plans to use the trip to garner support to keep the chasm shut and Winter safe—even if it means clashing with Theron. But can she do so without endangering the people she loves?

Mather just wants to be free. The horrors inflicted on the Winterians hang fresh and raw in Januari—leaving Winter vulnerable to Cordell’s growing oppression. When Meira leaves to search for allies, he decides to take Winter’s security into his own hands. Can he rebuild his broken kingdom and protect them from new threats?

As the web of power and deception weaves tighter, Theron fights for magic, Mather fights for freedom—and Meira starts to wonder if she should be fighting not just for Winter, but for the world.

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Ice Like Fire is the broody, sulky sibling. The one that internalises everything because they feel that the burden is theirs alone, and they alone can solve the problems of the world.

Actually the latter statement is applicable to all the characters in Ice Like Fire, it’s like everyone is infected with a healthy dose of Noble Idiocy so everyone thinks they can solve Primoria’s problems by themselves. I know this is supposed to be Meira’s journey of self-discovery and reflection as she transitions from being warrior to queen, but I keep on thinking back to Invasion of the Tearling. Kelsea went through the same thing, of going from a place of having no responsibility but suddenly you’re thrust in the middle of it all and everyone expects you to fail but at the same time hopes you succeed. In equal measure. The difference is that I didn’t skim over the pages as I read and I didn’t find it so slow.

The Mid-Year Book Freakout Tag

I was tagged by Vivian @ Inked In Pages and Monique @ That Wild Soul. Be sure to check out their posts! I added a few books to my TBR thanks to their answers heh.

This tag was created by Chami @ ReadLikeWildFire and Ely @ Ely Jayne on YouTube. It’s where we look back at (and freak out over) the books we’ve read during the past six months.

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BEST BOOK YOU’VE READ SO FAR IN 2016

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Six of Crows is probably my favorite book so far this year. My review probably didn’t do enough justice as to how much I loved this book, but I loved the setting, the writing, and most of all the characters. I’m rooting for a happy ending for everyone, although I have a feeling it won’t be that way…

Honestly I’m just happy that the hype was real and well-deserved. This, along with Uprooted by Naomi Novik, is a book I’d enthusiastically recommend to anyone.

August TBR!

Hello, August! This month features sequels, except for one. (Spot it, lmao) I find myself reading series most of the time, and this TBR reminded me of that. I need a really great standalone soon, haha. As always, I am open to recommendations! 😀

Ice Like Fire by Sara Raasch

It’s been three months since the Winterians were freed and Spring’s king, Angra, disappeared—thanks largely to the help of Cordell.

Meira just wants her people to be safe. When Cordellan debt forces the Winterians to dig their mines for payment, they unearth something powerful and possibly dangerous: Primoria’s lost chasm of magic. Theron sees this find as an opportunity—with this much magic, the world can finally stand against threats like Angra. But Meira fears the danger the chasm poses—the last time the world had access to so much magic, it spawned the Decay. So when the king of Cordell orders the two on a mission across the kingdoms of Primoria to discover the chasm’s secrets, Meira plans to use the trip to garner support to keep the chasm shut and Winter safe—even if it means clashing with Theron. But can she do so without endangering the people she loves?

Mather just wants to be free. The horrors inflicted on the Winterians hang fresh and raw in Januari—leaving Winter vulnerable to Cordell’s growing oppression. When Meira leaves to search for allies, he decides to take Winter’s security into his own hands. Can he rebuild his broken kingdom and protect them from new threats?

As the web of power and deception weaves tighter, Theron fights for magic, Mather fights for freedom—and Meira starts to wonder if she should be fighting not just for Winter, but for the world.

I have been eyeing Ice Like Fire with trepidation, to be honest. The reviews don’t give me much hope, but I’ll do it. I’ll dive straight into this one! (If Meira doesn’t want Theron, can I have him? I loved him in Snow Like Ashes.)

First Lines Fridays: 29 July 2016

It’s the last week of July you guys omgg. So has anything good happened to you all this month? 😀 Or this week? Today?

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

• Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
• Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
• Finally… reveal the book!

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Have you guys read this sequel?

Five enemies.

Five dented helmets sit lopsided over five equally dented breastplates; five black suns shine, scratched yet distinct, on the silver metal.

Review | The Perilous Sea by Sherry Thomas

The Perilous Sea by Sherry Thomas (The Elemental Trilogy #2)
Published September 16, 2014 by Balzer + Bray, 448 pp.
Summary:

Iolanthe and Titus continue their mission to defeat the Bane in this striking sequel to The Burning Sky—perfect for fans of Cinda Williams Chima and Kristin Cashore—which Publishers Weekly called “a wonderfully satisfying magical saga” in a starred review and Kirkus Reviews said “bids fair to be the next big epic fantasy success.”

After spending the summer away from each other, Titus and Iolanthe (still disguised as Archer Fairfax) are eager to return to Eton College to resume their training to fight the Bane. Although no longer bound to Titus by blood oath, Iolanthe is more committed than ever to fulfilling her destiny—especially with the agents of Atlantis quickly closing in.

Soon after arriving at school, though, Titus makes a shocking discovery, one that throws into question everything he believed about their mission. Faced with this revelation, Iolanthe struggles to come to terms with her new role, while Titus must choose between following his mother’s prophecies—or forging a divergent path to an unknowable future.

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Seriously, Titus can have my heart anytime. Take it, take it I say! Now that’s out of the way, I have to say I like this second book in the Elemental Trilogy! It didn’t lack action, there’s character growth, and the romance in this series is probably one of my favourites already.

I’d suggest skipping the summary altogether so everything still remains a bit of a mystery. And as always, if y’all would like an abridged version, head to the TL;DR at the bottom! 😀

First Lines Fridays: 22 July 2016

Happy Friday everyone! I hope you guys have had a great week so far 🙂

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

• Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
• Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
• Finally… reveal the book!

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A sequel that I am liking so far, hehe.

The girl came to with a start.

She was being pelter with sand. Sand was everywhere. Beneath, her fingers dug into it, hot and gritty. Above, wind-whipped sand blocked the sky, turning the air as red as the surface of Mars.

Review | Stolen Songbird by Danielle L. Jensen

Stolen Songbird by Danielle L. Jensen (Malediction Trilogy, #1)
Published April 1, 2014 by Angry Robot, 469 pp.
Summary:

For five centuries, a witch’s curse has bound the trolls to their city beneath the mountain. When Cécile de Troyes is kidnapped and taken beneath the mountain, she realises that the trolls are relying on her to break the curse.

Cécile has only one thing on her mind: escape. But the trolls are clever, fast, and inhumanly strong. She will have to bide her time…

But the more time she spends with the trolls, the more she understands their plight. There is a rebellion brewing. And she just might be the one the trolls were looking for…

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The only thing that can heal a broken heart is another love, I remember reading somewhere today, which is why I dove right into A Court of Thorns and Roses right after finishing this. Anything, really, to get my mind off what happened in Stolen Songbird.

I can’t even call Tristan a noble idiot because I really do see the logic of his actions – I just wish he didn’t have to go down that road. Though I really do love that this book put my emotions through the wringer, and that along the way it was creating a unique, engrossing world.

Review | The Bird and the Sword by Amy Harmon

The Bird and the Sword by Amy Harmon
Published May 10, 2016, 352 pp.
Summary:

Swallow, daughter, pull them in, those words that sit upon your lips. Lock them deep inside your soul, hide them ‘til they’ve time to grow. Close your mouth upon the power, curse not, cure not, ‘til the hour. You won’t speak and you won’t tell, you won’t call on heaven or hell. You will learn and you will thrive. Silence, daughter. Stay alive.

The day my mother was killed, she told my father I wouldn’t speak again, and she told him if I died, he would die too. Then she predicted the king would sell his soul and lose his son to the sky.
My father has a claim to the throne, and he is waiting in the shadows for all of my mother’s words to come to pass. He wants desperately to be king, and I just want to be free.
But freedom will require escape, and I’m a prisoner of my mother’s curse and my father’s greed. I can’t speak or make a sound, and I can’t wield a sword or beguile a king. In a land purged of enchantment, love might be the only magic left, and who could ever love . . . a bird?

How goes it?

Ack, skip the summary. Just read the quote, and dive right into the book. Because this isn’t just about romance, not just about court politics – it’s about a girl who learns who she is, and what she can do.

This is my first book by the author, and Amy Harmon has a way with words. Most of the time, our heroine doesn’t even have an inner dialogue, because words have power – especially for someone like her – and she learned early on that a careless slip, an exclamation, can have far-reaching consequences. Somehow though, Amy Harmon manages to draw us into Lark’s story, and by the end I didn’t want to leave Jeru.