Over the next two weeks, we will be looking back at all the books we read in 2019 and make out lists of our favorites, our top posts and saying goodbye to all our of favorite series we’ve read over the years. As we go through our lists, we would love to hear all your reading highlights for the last year. Don’t be shy. Leave a comment below and let us know all the awesome books you read and what we absolutely need to add to our To-read piles.
Wow. This was gripping from the very beginning. I really love how Tomi Adeyemi has built this world. It is full of such imagination but also so rooted in the the real world. Zelie and Amari completed the ritual to bring back magic but it kinda worked too well. Not only do the Maji have their magic back but Nobles with any Maji ancestries also have magic now. So their enemy is just as powerful and in some cases more powerful. This book really explores how deep the hurt that hatred and bigotry lies and not easy to get over and move on. Amari and Inan both try to get both sides to come together but there are just too many years of hurt and betrayal for either side to trust each other. In fact they are both so sure that the other side is wrong that the only way forward is to eliminate the other. Also the power of grief and how it can really paralyze you to move forward. Pretty much everyone in this book makes big mistakes that will hunt them. Except for Tzain, who is just maybe the best person ever. I really can’t believe it ended the way that it did. It is a much bigger cliff hanger then the first one and I’m not sure I’m okay after reading it. Obviously there is one more book and so the solution couldn’t have been as easy as they thought it should have but the ending was such a twist and confusing mess that it really messes up the reader as much as the characters. I really hope the next books comes out soon.
This was one of the books I got from New York Comic Con back in November. I’m excited for this because I’m digging the old west vibe from the cover and summary. I’m all about that.
Remember, 3,000 years ago, when Larry Wilmore told Milo Yiannopoulos to fuck off? Well, Malcolm Nance was also on that episode of Real Time with Bill Maher. Crazy, right?
Anyway, this book turned out to be a really timely read as it is about Russia, the 2016 US elections, hacking, foreign interference in American politics, and the first family. You know, the people getting patents in China while also working in the White House and shooting endangered sheep. I’m glad I read it because it gave a lot of detailed background on things (like the FBI investigation Crossfire Hurricane) that have been popping up in the news lately. So, if you’re looking to go into Christmas armed to do battle against your conspiracy-theory-believing Uncle (understanding, of course, that a lot of cognitive research notes that “just presenting people facts” is not a particularly effective way to change people’s minds. I know, humans! Why are we like this?!), then this is the book for you. If you’d like a very clearly laid out description of Russia and their involvement in the 2016 elections, I also recommend this. If you’re teetering on the edge of “fuck it” or “burn it all to the ground”, then give this one a pass.
So, this is a romance I finished in January…. I know. I am the worst blogger ever and Beth keeps this place afloat. Feel free to roast me in the comments and on twitter. Now, we review!
Naya and Lachlan and step-siblings who have been kept apart by his domineering father. Lachlan is a famous chef. He’s won the awards, had a hot and trendy restaurant in New York, has the TV show and is known for his take-no-shit style of kitchen management. Naya and Lachlan want to be together, but can they be together now that his father is dead? The intrigue! The questions! The insanely steamy romantic interludes!
So, I picked this up because I had just read Tikka Chance on Me, which was so good and hot and cute and exactly what you’d want in a romance. I also really like Suleikha Snyder’s twitter and ig accounts, so I wanted to support an author and content creator I like. I was a little worried about this book because step-siblings in love/lust kind of creeps me out, but that’s just me, no judgement. And, this is heavy D/S, which…meh. But, this book was great. I wanted to know what happened next and I wasn’t mad about all the sexy bits. Not mad at all. They were great. (Which is a huge part of why you read romance on the more erotic end of the spectrum, right? I’m not alone in that, right?) Anyway, this was great and I will definitely read more things by this author.
I think what I like about this series is how Rick Riordan really explores how messed up some of these myths are. The things that the Gods do are just really unjustifiable and forces Apollo to face them as a human. For the last four books, Apollo has been living as Lester and all of his fragile human failings. For the first time, he has really mourned the death of a human for the first time. Jason’s death still shocks me because in these type of books, the heroes never die. They always find some way to live, particularly in Rick’s world where he has found some pretty creative loop holes to keep his demigods alive. Kudos for him for bucking his own trend. It’s still sad nonetheless. Jason’s death hangs over all of them, particularly those at Camp Jupiter. Frank, Hazel and Reina are already reeling from the previous battle and now they have to move on without Jason and his leadership. Apollo is grieving and has to face his own mortality. Two of the three Emperor’s are planning on attacking Camp Jupiter, with the last king of Rome. To survive he must come to grips of with some of the worst things he did as a God and the people he hurt along the way. It’s truly touching to see Apollo face his humanity and learn from his mistakes. He knows he can’t change what happened but he’s learning he can be a better person and be better God. There is one book left and I can’t wait to see what is in store for him and Meg. Not to mention, with them going back to New York, means that I’m sure we are going to get another Percy cameo. Yes!
Damn! Just look at the cover!!! I’m so excited to see what awaits Zelie and Amari.
So, I finished reading this book in May. It’s the only book for Asian Lit Bingo that I finished in time to actually put on my bingo card. Then, I started writing this review at the end of June. I’m now finishing it. What the heck is wrong with me? (I mean, aside from the second half of the year being very busy.)
This is an amazing book. It’s a quiet book and a warm book and a heartbreaking book. It was really, really beautiful. The prose was really, really beautiful. It opens with narrator Mikage trying to figure out what to do next now that her Grandmother, who was the last of her family, has passed away. The utter sense of loss, both at the loss of her Grandmother and the loss of what one should be doing, felt so real. Mikage finds that she doesn’t want to leave the kitchen. She’s taken in by Yuichi, who knew and cared about her Grandmother, and Yuichi’s mother Eriko. As she gets her life back together, she spends a lot of time in that kitchen. She then quits school to work in a kitchen. There were so many kitchens in this book and they reminded me of many kitchens (like the one I was sitting in when I started this review and the one I’m sitting in now as I finish it).
Anyway, I loved this book, and I think if you like quiet books about life and love and loss, you’ll love this book, too.
What a way to end a series. Jude is not the same girl she was at the beginning and neither is Cardan. They both have grown up so much over the three books. I’m so proud of them. Jude is an exile after Cardan secretly marries her and then exiles her for killing his brother. She’s more then a little depressed because well she got out maneuvered by Cardan. She’s more then a little bit of a whiplash. One minute she’s getting married and the next she’s back in the human world, living with her sister and brother. How did this happen? How did she lose control so quickly. Things take a turn when Jude takes on a dangerous job for a fairy and learns Cardan’s reign is in trouble and then her twin sister, Taryn comes to pay a visit and drop some serious news. Jude must go back to Faerie and help her sister and in no time she’s back in the Game of Thrones. She’s kidnapped by her father, who’s making a play for the throne. She discovers his plan and does what she can to get back to Cardan. Cardan for his part is the same sarcastic king he was but he’s also matured into his role. We have known that he was in love with Jude and didn’t know how to deal with his feelings because 1. She’s human and 2. he never got much love as a kid himself. He knows that he was born under bad stars and people never expected much from him. He didn’t give them much in the last book by drinking for most of it but he’s been better. He plays a part in Jude’s rescue and really takes down his walls for her. This totally throws Jude off her game because its not the Cardan she knows and it’s almost too good to be true. When Madoc finally makes his pitch for why he should be king, Cardan does something so surprising for him that he little transforms the kingdom. Jude is tested like she’s never has been before. She has the power but it’s tenuous at best. To hold on to it will she follow the bloody past of her father? Will she make one more bad bargain? or she will use her one advantage over all of fairies and be human? I want say too much more because I don’t want to spoil it but it’s good. I will admit, I knew what Jude was going to do before Jude did but it wasn’t any less satisfying. I really love when Holly Black when she writes fairies because she no one understands them better. I also love how she seamlessly integrates her other fairy characters into the story without it being too obvious or forced. It’s clear that they all live in the same universe and opens up the story in so many ways. There is so many ways she can take it. This trilogy may be over but she definitely left it open for certain story lines to continue on in other stories and I’m here for it. I am so here for it.
Kate, are you listening to a political book while you make Thanksgiving dinner? Yes. Yes, I am.
2 Women, So Many Books 