The Girl in the Tower (Winternight Trilogy #2) by Katherine Arden

Publication: December 5, 2017

Publisher: Del Rey (Random House)

Source: Publisher & Purchased my own copy

Synopsis:

The magical adventure begun in The Bear and the Nightingale continues as brave Vasya, now a young woman, is forced to choose between marriage or life in a convent and instead flees her home—but soon finds herself called upon to help defend the city of Moscow when it comes under siege.

Orphaned and cast out as a witch by her village, Vasya’s options are few: resign herself to life in a convent, or allow her older sister to make her a match with a Moscovite prince. Both doom her to life in a tower, cut off from the vast world she longs to explore. So instead she chooses adventure, disguising herself as a boy and riding her horse into the woods. When a battle with some bandits who have been terrorizing the countryside earns her the admiration of the Grand Prince of Moscow, she must carefully guard the secret of her gender to remain in his good graces—even as she realizes his kingdom is under threat from mysterious forces only she will be able to stop.

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I didn’t think it was possible, but I fell in love with Vasya a little bit more in this book. She is bold, loyal, and has such an adventurous spirit. She also has a way of finding trouble, or for trouble to find her; whichever way you want to look at it. Vasya is wise in some ways and in other areas a little naïve. It frustrated me a little when the characters would refer to Vasya as a child (or young), but as soon as she made a mistake, they were quick to say that she should have known because she was old enough. But who did she have in her life to guide her and tell her the rules of society and of life in general?

I loved the writing and descriptions of the world around Vasya. There were even a few moments where I almost cried. Vasya has definitely grown some on her journey since the first book. With no real place to call home, Vasya wants to travel and see the world, something a lady does not do in her time period. Especially by herself. She does not want to be married off or locked away in a convent. Of course the road she travels is not an easy one, and she encounters trouble along the way. But with the help of her loyal horse Solovey, and even Morozko on occasion, she feels confident she can handle what comes her way.

The Girl in the Tower is a wonderfully unique and atmospheric tale, that I thoroughly enjoyed. The Bear and the Nightingale is still my favorite out of these two books, however I found TGITT to be a good continuation to the events from TBATN. The ending for TGITT was well done. It tied some things up, but there were enough questions left unanswered that I was left wanting more. I am excited to see how everything else unfolds in the third and final book, The Winter of

the Witch, releasing January 9, 2019.

RATING: 4 out of 5.

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Hunted by Meagan Spooner

Publication: March 14, 2017

Publisher: HarperTeen

Source: Purchased my own copy.

Beauty knows the Beast’s forest in her bones—and in her blood. Though she grew up with the city’s highest aristocrats, far from her father’s old lodge, she knows that the forest holds secrets and that her father is the only hunter who’s ever come close to discovering them. So when her father loses his fortune and moves Yeva and her sisters back to the outskirts of town, Yeva is secretly relieved. Out in the wilderness, there’s no pressure to make idle chatter with vapid baronessas…or to submit to marrying a wealthy gentleman. But Yeva’s father’s misfortune may have cost him his mind, and when he goes missing in the woods, Yeva sets her sights on one prey: the creature he’d been obsessively tracking just before his disappearance. Deaf to her sisters’ protests, Yeva hunts this strange Beast back into his own territory—a cursed valley, a ruined castle, and a world of creatures that Yeva’s only heard about in fairy tales. A world that can bring her ruin or salvation. Who will survive: the Beauty, or the Beast?

Yeva (aka Beauty) and her family are wealthy and enjoying life among high society. Well everyone except for Yeva. She tires of the endless parties and vapid chatter with the ladies in their social circle. She longs for more.

When her merchant father loses their fortune, they are forced to leave the city. Her father is determined to get their fortune back and continues working. One day when he is out traveling, he never arrives back home. After weeks of not hearing any word from him,Yeva takes it upon herself to go search for him.  It is then that she finds herself captured by the Beast….

I was really hoping that I would have liked Hunted more than I did. Maybe I’ve read too many Beauty and the Beast retellings? I enjoyed the author’s writing style and the characters were interesting. I loved  the relationship between Yeva and her sisters. They were very close and cared deeply about each other. However, nothing really surprised me in this story and I didn’t really fall in love with the characters. If you happen to love all things Beauty and the Beast then I would recommend Hunted to you.

RATING: 3 out of 5

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Cruel Beauty (Cruel Beauty Universe #1) by Rosamund Hodge

Publication: January 28, 2014

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Source: Bought/Own

Based on the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Cruel Beauty is a dazzling love story about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny. Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom-all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth, she has been in training to kill him. With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she's ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people. But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle—a shifting maze of magical rooms—enthralls her. As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex's secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? With time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love.

Cruel Beauty is a re-telling of Beauty and Beast. It revolves around Nyx and how she is trained to kill the Gentle Lord (aka Ignifex). Who happens to be the man she is supposed to marry thanks to a deal her father made in order to save her mother. It turns out that when someone makes a deal with Ignifex, there always seems to be a twist to it and things never really work out the way they hope.

Nyx is resentful of having to be the one to make this kind of sacrifice. She knows that she may never come back home. Once she meets Ignifex, she finds him intriguing, but knows that her job is to kill him.

But there is more to Ignifex than she thought. And the castle they live in is ever-changing...literally. So figuring out the answers she needs in order to rid the village of the Gentle Lord is more challenging than she anticipated. And for all of her training, she did not expect to fall for him. So her heart is conflicted….

Nyx was an interesting character to get to know. She is smart and strong, but not without some flaws. When I started the book, I wasn’t sure that I was going to like her even a little bit. I thought she was going to be super whiny, but it turned out that she wasn’t and I ended up liking her character a lot.

I really enjoyed reading this story. Ever since ACOTAR, I have been on a fairy tale retelling kick. Apart from that one, Uprooted is my second favorite Beauty and the Beast retelling. But where that book lacked in the romance I was looking for, Cruel Beauty more than made up for it. Though it would have been nice if there had been a little more plotting, and a little more action in the story. Either way, I did like it. It started off a little slowly for me, but the writing was well done, and I liked the world building. I never got bored with the story and it kept my interest from beginning to end.

“We'll both be foolish," I said, "and vicious and cruel. We will never be safe with each other." "Don't try too hard to be cheerful." His fingers threaded through mine. "But we'll pretend we know how to love." I smiled at him. "And someday we'll learn."

RATING: 4 out of 5.

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Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Publication: May 19, 2015

Publisher: Del Rey /  Random House

Source: Purchased/Own

“Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.” Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life. Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood. The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows—everyone knows—that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her. But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.

Agnieszka is brave and smarter than she gives herself credit for. She doesn’t feel like she is special, that she is somebody. But once she is taken by the Dragon and she discovers that she can do magic, her whole world is forever changed and turned upside-down. She is quick thinking, but at times very impulsive. She is ruled by her emotions. And in turn her magic seems to be that way as well. She senses the right things to say and use when doing her magic.

The Dragon is very straightforward, arrogant and methodical in his workings. He prefers to have things organized. To a system and order for everything. The Dragon can be very straightforward, which makes him appear harsh and sometimes overly cruel. But he apparently doesn’t find any fault in that as long as he believes himself to be honest.

Even though they struggle at first and the Dragon is hard on her...him and Agnieszka end up working very well together. I think they both learned from each other. She learned how to start spells and to perfect them and he learned that sometimes you can’t find the answers in a book...you have to feel the magic and let it flow through you.

“Magic was singing in me, through me; I felt the murmur of his power singing back that same song.”

I pretty much adored this book. I was looking for something to read in the same vein as ACOTAR. A Goodreads friend recommended Uprooted to me and I am so glad she did. At first I wasn’t sure, but once I started reading, I couldn’t stop. The only thing I was disappointed in was the romance factor. Normally I can take it or leave it when it comes to romance in a story...depending on the story. I was expecting the romance to be more prominent than it was. However It was very miniscule.  It didn’t ruin the story for me in any way. I just would’ve preferred more romance. Aside from that, I have to say that Naomi Novik has such a way with words. Her writing is so vivid...so detailed. It was like I could see entire scenes unfolding before me as I read. If she wrote another book, I would buy it in a heartbeat.

RATING: 4½ out of 5.

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A Court of Thorns & Roses (A Court of Thorns & Roses #1) by Sarah J. Maas

Publication: May 5, 2015

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens

Source: Publisher & Purchased/Own

A thrilling, seductive new series from New York Timesbestselling author Sarah J. Maas, blending Beauty and the Beast with faerie lore. When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin—one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world. As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow grows over the faerie lands, and Feyre must find a way to stop it . . . or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever. Perfect for fans of Kristin Cashore and George R. R. Martin, this first book in a sexy and action-packed new series is impossible to put down!

As soon as I picked up ACOTAR…..OMG. I could not stop thinking about it. I was a little scared that I wouldn’t like it that much or worse, that I wouldn’t like it at all, but boy was I worried for nothing...

I loved Lucien and his strong personality and wise crack comments. His backstory is tragic and he has had to overcome a lot. I am hoping he meets a woman worthy of him in book two.

Rhysand was the most curious character for me. I am very interested in knowing more about him. I see a possible friendship developing between him and Feyre. (Hopefully nothing beyond the friendship!)

And then there is Tamlin. Tamiln with his big heart, mighty strength and stubbornness that equals Feyre’s. He has also been though a lot during his many years of existence and being a leader is something that was thrust upon him. And now he has the weight of all these people depending on him and looking to him for guidance and to end their suffering. Super stressful.

Feyre is a bit of a badass huntress. It isn’t something she wanted, but she needed to do, in order to survive and help keep her family alive and fed. At first I felt lukewarm about her. She is very stubborn and relentless and possibly a little reckless too. I got annoyed with her several times and just wanted to shake her. But that lukewarm feeling turned to major warmth and I ended up loving her.

Sarah J. Maas is an amazing writer. I love her Throne of Glass Series. This book is no exception. She has a way of writing that makes you easily connect with the characters and feel what they are going through. I could feel Feyre's sadness, her feeling of insignificance. And see her need to be important…to feel wanted….and I wanted that for her too. I would lie if I said I didn’t shed a tear or two, or that my heart didn’t stutter at least once while reading this book.

SOOO MANY FEELS!!!

I was just taken away by ACOTAR. I found myself reading at any end every opportunity available until i reached the last page. Even now, months later, I cannot stop thinking about the story. I keep wondering what is going to happen in book two, yes there will be another book, and cursing that I have to wait until 2016 for it.

If you could not tell, I loved this book so much and really really wished it didn’t end when it did. I am going to say this is one of the best books I have read so far in 2015. I would recommend it to anyone who likes fantasy, fairies, retellings of fairytales, and of course Sarah J. Maas.

RATING: 5 out of 5.

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