Tag Archives: samantha shannon

Beth’s Favorite Books of 2025

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Here are my favorite books of this past year. In no particular order because I don’t think I truly liked one more than another. Cop out as that may be, it’s how we are rolling.

  1. The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater – Historical fiction but with Maggie’s signature magical elements. Set against the backdrop of WW2 in a luxury hotel in West Virginia. Instead of their normal clientele, they are serving the diplomats of the United States enemies.
  2. The Beautiful by Renee Ahdieh – I do love a good Vampire book, and this one is no exception. As soon as I finished, I had to go to my library to get the next one.
  3. The Dark Mirror by Samantha Shannon – This series just keeps getting better and better. Fleshing out more of the world to include outside of Scion, and for once, a hopeful ending.
  4. Accomplice to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer -This series is so funny. I can’t help be amused by the whole premise and story. So glad to find out that it isn’t a trilogy and more books to come because I am not ready to say goodbye to these characters.
  5. Red City by Marie Lu – The complicated world we live. Nothing is black and white. What would you do for family? Power is addictive, but it is also destructive.

Review: The Dark Mirror by Samantha Shannon

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Five books in, and I truly believe this series keeps getting better. At the end of the last book, we were left with uncertainty as to what would happen to Paige next. In this book, Paige does not know where she is or who she is with. She has to escape, and thank goodness, she knows how to take care of herself because she immediately finds Maria and safety. She finds herself first in Poland, then in Czechia, and then eventually in Italy. She is for the first time outside of Scion, and we, as the readers, get our first glimpse of the world outside of Scion, but also what the resistance to their spreading influence is like. We were already introduced to Domino in the last book, but we get even more info on how the organization is run. Despite Paige being in the “free world,” she is not safe. Scion has put out a bounty on her, and new organizations want her, too. Paige, however, is focused on finding out what happened to her over the last couple of months and finding Warden. Finding Warden is paramount to the plot because not only is he the key to helping Paige restore her memories, but Italy is being threatened by Scion from within, and they need his knowledge to stop it. I won’t go too much more into the plot so as not to spoil anything, but I love seeing the expansion of the world. Paige is such a good character. She has this powerful gift, but what makes her the most effective is her street smarts. She knows how to navigate the world by using her own knowledge and instincts. Her powers help, but even when she doesn’t have them, she is still dangerous. Which is really why Scion and other organizations want her. They know how dangerous she is. They have seen how she can get people to rally behind her and fight. With only two more books to go in the series, we are only now seeing the true potential of Paige. Scion knows it, and now Paige knows it, too.

Quick Review: The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

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This was delightful. I like a good entertaining fantasy novel. It’s told through the narration of 4 different characters. Ead, a handmaiden from the Priory of the Orange Tree, Tane a dragonrider from the East, Dr. Roos, an alchemist from the West exiled in the east by Queen Sabran and Loth, a Lord from Queen Sabran’s court. They all tell the story of how their known world is set to fight the threat of the Nameless One. A powerful dragon that 1,000 years ago terrorized the world a but was thought to be defeated by a king but was actually defeated by 2 woman. This was a good book. All the narrators were interesting and brought a different world view to what is going on. The one thing that I did find overwhelming was the love story. I had read before starting that it was a sapphic love story, which it is but it’s not the main focal point. I guess when you only have 700 pages to tell your story and 4 narrators, romance has to wait. For fans of fantasy novels like Game of Thrones or the Lord of the Rings. This is right up you alley but better since it’s all one book so no waiting years between novels. That being said, I just read that Samantha Shannon is going to release a prequel early next year. So yes this was great book. You should read it.

Kinda Review: The Mask Falling by Samantha Shannon

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I’m not going to say too much about The Mask Falling because I know that Kate hasn’t read it yet. I do try not spoil things for her (whether she likes it or not) but I will say it was very satisfying installment into the series. We get to see more of Scion outside of the UK and how far it’s reach is growing but also the cracks from within. Paige and Warden are now hiding out in Paris and it allows her to interact with new groups of voyants and non-voyants and discovers more about the Rephaim and tests her own relationship. So good.

What I did like the most is that in the back of the book was a review of the cast of characters and glossary. Before I started reading this book, I searched out recaps online because it’s been a couple of years since the last book came out and it’s so dense and has so many characters and needed a reminder of what has happened. I could have reread the previous books but I wanted to dive right in. Even with reading all the recaps it was still super helpful to have those resources right in the back of the book. I really do hope that more series follow suit because it was super helpful. I’m sure authors and publishers hope that readers will go back and reread the previous books in between releases but let’s be honest that is just not realistic. So why not devote a few pages in the back to character descriptions to help to jog readers memories. Especially series like this one that have so many characters and subplots. (looking at you Game of Thrones) In conclusion this was really good. It ended on quite a cliffhanger and who knows, I might go back to the beginning and read them all again since it’s probably going to be another three or four years before book five comes out.

Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2020

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A new decade brings new books. From a YA fan the 2010’s left the dystopian sagas behind and really went in on Fantasy novels. There was so many great ones. So what does the next decade bring. Well, here are a few books I can’t wait to read in 2020.

  1. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins – A return to Panem but this time for the 25th Hunger Games or the games that Mags won. How does her story fit in with Katniss’? and How much am I going to cry knowing how it all ends for our girl Mags?
  2. Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland – The sequel to the fantastic Dread Nation. How will Jane and Katherine navigate the west after how everything ended and there are still zombies.
  3. The Tower of Nero by Rick Riordan – The final book in the Trials of Apollo and if the previous four to go by, it’s going to be an emotional roller coaster.
  4. The King of Crows by Libba Bray – Talk about a decade in the making, we finally get the last book the Diviner’s Series and I couldn’t be more excited.
  5. Untitled Book Four of The Bone Season Series by Samantha Shannon – It hasn’t been confirmed for 2020 but I’m putting it on the list and into the universe that it will come out.

What books are you waiting to read in 2020? Comment below with books we should check out next year.

Review: The Song Rising by Samantha Shannon

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song-rising**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.**

Well this is a game changer for the series.  We are getting to the Prisoner of Azakaban territory as we begin to expand the world and up the stakes.  Paige is now the Underqueen of the Unnatural Assembly but when Jaxon jumps over to the Rephaim side, she’s blindsided.  Not only does she have doubts about her abilities, her mentor is working with the enemies, giving them all of their secrets.  The Mime-Order’s partnership with the Ranthen is tenous at best.  She must first prove to the voyants that she is worthy to follow and to the Ranthen’s that she worthy to be funded.  After a disastrous mission to take down senshield, a device that can detect the auras of Voyants, Paige takes off to investigate leads in Manchester.  Trying to stay ahead of the evil military mastermind, Vance.  Nothing has been easy for Paige and that is definitely true but she really comes into her own.  Paige very much wants to what’s best for the voyant community and end Scion but she has to combat so many things.  She has to prove her worthiness to her people and to Ranthens.  Making things complicated is Jaxon, who many people still support and don’t believe that went over to the Scion.  Others see Paige’s youth as another drawback.  When Paige makes the mistake of acting on unproven intel and that makes sensheild even stronger, she has to move everyone underground.  Paige may not see it at the point but I think this was a pivotal point for her.  It proved her willingness to make the hard decisions but also it outsmarted her enemies.   Jaxon admits that even he couldn’t figure out where they disappeared too.  As the story plays out, we see more and more of cruelty of the Scion and how it’s not just the Rephaim who are committing it.  The introduction of Vance is an example of a human doing unspeakable things on other humans for advancement or for their own enjoyment.  It almost seemed like Vance sees her role as more of a game then anything else.  To me that makes her scarier then the Rephaim.  Samantha Shannon is getting better and better with each book.  It’s almost as a writer she is learning more about herself, as Paige is doing the same thing on the page.  The ending leaves as many answers as it does questions but also opens us to even more possibilities.  I will do my best wait patiently for book 4.