Maggie Stiefvater, Tessa Gratton and Brenna Yovanoff are three successful authors on their own right but they are also each other critique partners. They call themselves the Merry Sisters of Fates. If you are familiar with our blog, then you already know about Maggie. I love her and obviously, I have read all of Maggie’s work. I have read some the works of Tessa and Brenna and have mix feelings about them. I really liked Brenna’s The Replacement but only so-so about Fiendish. I did enjoy both Tessa’s Blood Magic and Blood Keeper but for some reason have yet to pick up her latest series. Anyway, the three ladies used to post their short stories on their website but I think since all of their writing careers have taken off they haven’t had time to write that many. They all are very different writers with different styles, though they do all seem to stay on the fantasy side of literature. In The Anatomy of Curiosity they each wrote a short story displaying their personal theory on what is important in starting to build a story. Is it Character development, world building or the idea of a story. They all start at different places but still come up with great stories. Before each story, they go through their process and why they started where they did, why they made these choices and so forth. Through out the stories, they each write for asides as to why they used these words or choices, giving the reader a true insight into their thinking and process. After the story is over they other chime in with their notes. You can read all the notes or you can just read the stories and you will still get a great experience. For inspiring writers, this is a good tool to helping them with their decision making or for us readers, a chance to read some good short stories. Either way it’s a win.
Quick Review: The Anatomy of Curiosity by Maggie Stiefvater, Tessa Gratton and Brenna Yovanoff
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You would think that this novel about the Black Widow would be about you know, the Black Widow. But it’s really not. Natasha Romanoff has to share the lime light with two other characters. I mean, the girl can’t ever catch a break. First she gets shut out of all the promotional toys and now she can’t even be the main character in her own YA novel. What does a super agent girl got to do to get some respect? Ok, maybe I’m going a little overboard since she is still a major part of the story but she has to share the narrative with two new characters. Ava, another prodigy of the Red Room that Natasha saves in one of her missions and Alex, who at first doesn’t seem at all connected to either lady but of course he is deeply connected to both of them. We also get a little more insight into Natasha in between chapters, as we read transcripts from a hearing about how the mission we are reading about went bad. Right away you know that one of them is not going to make it. 
Disney has been all about re-imagining their classics lately. In the last few years they have told the story of Sleeping Beauty through the eyes of the villain, Maleficent. Made a live action movie of Cinderella and has Beauty and the Beast coming out next year. Not to mention, the show Once Upon a Time, which is nothing more but a chance for all Disney’s characters meet each and hang out. Disney has now taken their new initiative to rewrite all of stories to books. The Twisted Tale series is a new series who’s aim is to ask “What would happen if this or that didn’t happen? Aladdin is the first of their classics to get a new literary spin. What would happen if Aladdin didn’t end up with the lamp but Jafar did? How does that change Aladdin, Jasmine or the Genie? Talk about a plot twist. 
All right I’m going to just get into it. Talis is by far the sassiest AI in history. I knew that I was going to love this book from the the get go. Talis starts things off with outlining how he took over the world. It truly was love at first read. So, here’s the deal, the world was in chaos, the icebergs in the Arctic have melted. Humanity was killing each other with war after war after war so the UN decided to give Talis the task of finding solutions to stop the chaos. So he blew up a couple of cities, just to get people’s attention and then went medieval on all of them and demanded royal hostages. You declare war, well, then your beloved heir to your throne is going to die. Talis’ number one rule. Make it Personal. Mission accomplished. Fast forward 400 years and for the most part, Talis’ rule has worked. The nations of the world have been almost peaceful. Greta is the heir to the PanPol throne aka Canada and has been raised to be the perfect hostage and heir. She knows that the likelihood of her living to rule her people is getting slim. Her people have been at the brink of war for years and she has become sort of ok with it since it is her duty. That is until Elian shows up and challenges everything she thought was true. Elian is everything she is not. He wasn’t raised to rule or to be a hostage. He knows that he is going to die and instead of accepting it, he fights for it. He, with the help of Xie, Greta’s roommate and fellow royal, open Greta’s eyes to different possibilities. Show her how to be strong and how to rule. They show her what she has been missing by only doing her duty. She makes real friends, falls in love and possibly changes the world. All the while Talis is there being his sassy self, keeping the jokes coming and his no nonsense rule. I highly recommend this book. Come for the sass but stay for the heart.
I’ve been looking forward to reading this book for awhile now. I’ve read so many great things about it online but I’m always a little wary, too, when it gets too positive reviews online. I don’t want to be disappointed, you know? So I’m happy to say, I think this one lived up to the hype. An Ember in the Ashes. I think what has drawn so many people to it is that sort of unique. It’s a dystopian novel that isn’t really dystopian. It’s sort of historical fiction but not really. It’s based on Ancient Rome. Yes, it does have a little bit of a Hunger Games feel to it with it’s fight to the death competition in the middle of the novel but I’m willing to forgive because I feel it serves the purpose of the novel. The Martials have taken over the empire and enslave people as they go. One of those newly enslaved peoples are the Scholars. Laia and her family have tried to stay out of trouble but when her brother is arrested for treason she agrees to become a slave and spy on the evil Commandant (she’s seriously evil) for the resistance. Elias is the top student and is poised on carrying on his family’s name but he’s looking for a way out. Their paths collide as they discover they might be exactly who each other needs to get what they want and possibly more.
2 Women, So Many Books 