**Spoilers I was lucky enough to receive a Advance Copy back in September. There will be Spoilers**
It was worth the wait. I really love Lish McBride’s writing. It’s fast paced and full of humor and just so wonderful. Pyromantic begins a month or two after Firebug ended. Ava and Cade are trying to figure out their relationship now that they know they are daughter and father. Ava is still smarting from turning down Lock for a date. Ava is still coterie but she can’t quite figure out her new boss, Alistair. Like, when is he going to start killing people for no reason because that’s what Coterie does, right? Let’s just say there is a lot to get used to. That’s when this strange and unpredictable things start happening that Ava, Lock, Ezra, Sid and Bianca now must investigate.
I love Ava. She’s funny, sarcastic and a little cynical. She is full of insecurities and considering everything that she has been through it’s not surprising. She lost her Mom after years of being on the run. She is forced to work for Venus and the Coterie like an indentured servant. She doesn’t have many friends outside of her team Lock and Ezra and Sylvie, who works at Cade’s bookstore. When Lock asks Ava out it throws her off. What if they break up? How will that effect that their friendship? So she avoids them both Lock and Ezra. When the strange a disease ravages the area they are forced to work together. After all the twists turn it makes for a great book. It’s so different. I mean who doesn’t love Kelpies who wear sweaters? Or Werehares who knit and in a biker gang? I love it all. But most of all I love the friendship between Lock, Ezra and Ava. They is a true sense of family with them. They love each other and they are there for each other. They tolerate each other faults and support each other when they are down. I’m also loving the friendship of Ava and Sylvie. They are both polar opposites. Sylvie is all sunshine and rainbows and Ava is just fire but it works. I’m know vague on the plot points but this was a wonderful sequel to a great book. I really hope you all go out and support Lish because she really writes some amazing stories that are weird and funny. I’m not sure what else to say but go read!
**Spoilers. I was lucky enough to get an Advance Copy of this book back in December. Spoilers will happen in the review so be prepared.**
You know that moment. That moment when the main character makes a declaration statement that you can’t help but groan because you know they are just going to be disappointed. Yeah, that happened about midway in this book and yeah, Mare was crushed when she found out she was wrong. It wasn’t all that big a surprise because it is the third book our of four, so there still needs to be some drama left. She couldn’t be set in romantic life so soon but it was also like, C’mon Mare! Haven’t you learned anything yet!? Anyway, I think I’m getting ahead of myself. King’s Cage was another fast paced thriller that fits in nicely with the previous two books. Mare begins as a prisoner of Maven, who is using her as a propaganda against the Scarlet Guard. As Mare is imprisoned she battles Maven in an emotional tug of war. She is shackled in silent stone manacles, depriving her of her power and making it impossible to fight back. Her only weapon is to use what she knows of Maven but this is not easy because her own feelings for Maven are complicated. The first part of the novel was interesting as Victoria explores the effects of abuse and can you be held accountable. This is an addition to previous themes of what makes a person a monster. Mare is scared that her powers has made her cold and heartless, to easy for her to kill someone and move on with her life. Thanks to Maven’s mother, he doesn’t have those thoughts because so much of his memories she took away from him. She took away his fears and love of his father and brother. I’m not even sure what you call this abuse. She literally molded him to be the cold killer he is today. The only sense of humanity he has is obsession with Mare but even that has been twisted. Cal on the other hand is still Cal. While he has shown some growth over the novels, he isn’t quite as developed as a character as Maven is. There seemed to be a change in him as he seemed to be turning around about the Scarlet Guard and what they are trying to achieve but the first chance to return to his old life is presented to him the seems to have taken it. The book is still Mare’s story but as the conflict expands beyond her, we are given new Point of Views from Cameron and Evangeline. This is a welcome change as all three woman are different and come at the conflict from different views. They obviously see this conflict from different point views but they all think they are in the right. My one grip with this book was the ending. After pretty cool cliffhangers of the first two books, this one sort of fell flat to me. It wasn’t the game changer of the others. Sure, it assured that Mare was going to have to stand on her without one the Princes beside her but it was also predictable. I guess since this is what is leading us to the finale, I wanted it to be more. That being said, I am super stoked to find out how this series is going to end.
This was a very interesting book. I can see why it won so many awards. It is beautifully written and has a well crafted world that brings you in. That being said, I did find it hard to get into at first. I think it had to do with the sort of complicated world the characters inhabit and having three different narrators that seem to living in the same nation but not at the same time. As one is living at the end of the world, while the other two are not. Once I was able to grasp that the timelines of the three narrators were different, it made it much easier to enjoy the storytelling. The story begins as Essun, is mourning the loss of his son who was murdered by her husband for being an Orogene. Orogenes are powerful beings that can derive power from the earth but are feared for this power because it’s unpredictable and can destroy as easily as it can save. Damasaya is also an Orogene, who has been locked in her families barns after she was discovered. And finally Syenite, a powerful orogene who has been given two different assignments that involve the most powerful orogene in the world. Each narrator is different. Damasaya is young and unsure of her future as she is afraid of who she is while Syenite is the opposite. She knows exactly who she is and how good she is. She is confident in who she is and ambitious to boot. Essun is definitely a woman who has seen and knows way too much. She is strong but even the strongest of us breaks. When her husband kills her son and possibly her daughter she is at a loss. Soon revenge becomes her only motivating factor. Essun’s story is also effected by the beginning of the Fifth Season. Every so often the Earth turns against the people and sets off catastrophic natural disasters. Some season’s last years while some last decades. It’s clear to Essun that this season is going to last centuries. So she sets off to find her husband while knowing the world is ending soon. Syenite and Damasaya are not experience the same end of the world troubles that Essun is and at first this was confusing since both were headed towards or living where the disaster had occurred. This was what made me think that the narratives were not all happening at the same time. The narrators do not seem to have much in common beyond they are all women and orogenes but it when it’s revealed what there relationship it was a gut punch. I didn’t see it coming. I think that is because it’s so well written. You could literally get lost in the writing as N.K. tells these women’s stories. They all have such hard struggles as they live and work in a very rigid society. People of this world are separated into different Comm names and it defines who they are what they do. If you don’t fit in a Comm you are in trouble when the seasons come. They all must try to do their best to find their own voice while still playing by the rules and of course there are far more rules for women. So even though it’s a fantasy novel, it’s still very much set in real life too.
Ms. Marvel is every fan girl or boy who has ever wrote or read fan-fiction or squeed over their favorite celebrity. She is everyone who has every suffered from self doubt but still fought through it. She is everyone who still sees the good even though she has seen some pretty awful things. Ms. Marvel is a hero. I love her. She is beyond funny. She is smart. She is brave. She is relatable. She is everything you want in in a hero. Why isn’t she in the Marvel Cinematic Universe yet?
There are so many times you can do the whole “I thought you were dead” thing before you know it loses it’s dramatic punch. The first couple of times it worked because this is a series that has not been afraid to kill of characters. True so far all those killed have been mostly secondary characters but still this series has really high body count but you wouldn’t expect anything less from the “Game of Thrones” of YA now would you? Crystal Storm is book for in the Falling Kingdoms series and like George R.R. Martin, Morgan Rhodes’ pen is deadly. (Thankfully she writes faster then George does) It’s full on fantasy with a huge cast of characters in a warring set of nations. The main characters of Cleo, Magnus, Lucia and Jonas have been through a lot. They have lost and won, made alliances and broken them, cheated death (for some more then once) and of course fallen in love and out of love and back in love. You know how it goes. Kyan the fire god had a temporary set back when Lucia destroyed his corporeal form but he’s not going to go down easy. Neither is the King of Blood who should have died and yet isn’t. He married Amara, who is now Empress because she killed the rest of her family, so they are surrounded by enemies and facing a enemy with extraordinary powers. Like the previous books there are as many twists and turns as there are pages, keeping the reader on their toes. I’m not sure I agree with all the drama but it is a YA novel so there has to be some teen age angst. I just hope that in future books characters either die or live. No more of this, “I thought you were dead” thing.
You don’t need to be a girl, Muslim or a superhero to identify with Kamala Khan. She’s your typical teenage girl living in the world of social media and SAT’s. She wants to fit in with the kids at school but also please her family. She wants to be her own person and not be defined by her gender, race or religion. She wants to make a difference and help people and when she is given that chance she jumps right in. Kamala lives in Jersey City, NJ and loves the Avengers. She even writes fan-fiction about them, which I would really love to read. Are those anywhere online? Like all parents, her parents want the best of her and to them that means that she follows her Islamic teachings and listen to her parents. Kamala is a girl fof both worlds, she is a Muslim but also an American teenager. She wants to go to parties and do normal teenage things. One night she sneaks out of her house to go to a party when a mysterious fog rolls in. Soon Kamala is having a vision of Captain Marvel and she finds out that she has morphed into Carol Danvers old identity of Ms. Marvel. A not so nice girl from the party is in trouble she saves here. When the brother of his best friend, Bruno, gets into some big trouble Kamala uses her new powers to help. Bruno is also a genius and just so happened to developed a new compound that makes her clothes stretch when she does. To say that Kamala is likable would be an understatement. When she gains her powers she doesn’t shy away from them but embraces them. Just like her heroes, she doesn’t hesitate to help those in need. Even when of those is the girl that just made fun of her earlier in the evening. I’ve already bought the other volumes in this series. I can’t wait to read them.
I knew this before but my Mom has good taste because this book was delightful. Charley Davidson is not just a Private Investigator, she’s also a Grim Reaper. Sorry, not just a Grim Reaper, she’s THE Grim Reaper. Which isn’t such a terrible job one might imagine. She just helps the departed cross over to the other side. Also being the Grim Reaper and a PI, she is also her detective uncle’s secret weapon when it comes to solving crimes since she can see the dead and you know, ask them who killed them. It sort of cheating but whatever. When we meet Charley, she’s been called by her Uncle Bob to help her with a new homicide. It soon develops into more then just a simple triple homicide but something all together. Too complicate things even more, Charley has been having these super realistic dreams that may not be something more supernatural. Charley now in a race of time to solve a mysterious deaths of her dead clients, figure out her dreams and stop people from trying to kill her over and over again. Charley is smart, funny and sarcastic. My kind of person. The cast of characters are fun and fill out the story but Charley is the real star of the story. She is strong and independent but still carries the scars of years people thinking she was crazy but it doesn’t stop her from keep trying to help people, dead or alive. There is one case in here that is truly sad and heartbreaking and you really feel for not only Charley who truly felt she was helping but for her client as well. Sadly, just like in real life not everything turns out the way we want them too. That said, I’m really looking forward to the next book. If anyone is on the fence about this one, I say just jump in! Especially fans of Sookie Stackhouse. There may not be Vampires, Werewolves and such but fill of supernatural beings, colorful cast of characters and wonderful female protagonist.
This series was different in that it billed itself as having the villain as the protagonist. I argued in my review of the last book, The Rose Society that 
2 Women, So Many Books 