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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
***Contains Spoilers from this book and possibly from the series as a whole.***
I want to say first that as a whole, I enjoyed this series. I found it to be very entertaining with some interesting characters. That being said, I didn’t like the final book. The Ruined is fine but to me, definitely the weakest of the books. In picks up, right after the end of the Righteous and our main characters are all separated. Celine is with her mother, who was just shot. Bastien is with the dark Fey, Arjun, is in mourning because Poppy is thought to be dead because she was last seen being bitten by a werewolf and carried away. That’s the problem. They all spent the entirety of the novel away from each other. In particularly, Celine and Bastien, they have only one chapter in the book that they have an actual conversation with each other. The rest of the book, they are either in different places or just happened to be in the same room. What made these books work for me, was their chemistry. Their witty banter back and forth. Even in the second book when Celine had lost her memories, they still had that chemistry and it was very much was lacking in this book. As for Arjun and Poppy, we get a couple of chapters from their POV’s, they get reunited and then not seen again until the end and even then, they barely had anything to do with the final battle. That’s a shame, because with Poppy beating the odds and not surviving a werewolf bite but turn into one. So much could have been explored in her transition and we got none of that. Not to mention, the Court of Lions are completely missing for the final battle for the most part, even though it takes place in New Orleans. In fact they are pretty sidelined for the whole book. We never really got a sense of what Odette is feeling after what she had been through. It’s just disappointing, that a good series ended like this. I do appreciate that after all that Celine and Bastien did to each other and to others, that they didn’t just get the stereotypical happy ending. The deserved to face the consequences of their actions but also leaves things open should the story want to continue.
Poppy is on the case. Everyone should have a friend like her. When Celine goes missing, she will literally go through a looking glass to find her. Arjun just wants to save a friend. Picking up after the end of The Damned. The Court of Lions are reeling from the fight with the werewolves. Odette is barely hanging on to life and Celine and Bastien are in the among the Fae to escape the the French detective who came to take her back to Paris. Poppy knows something strange is going on. She witnesses Michael wolfing out but what she really cares about is Celine and finding her before she gets married. Following Arjun, she crosses over to another world and to save her, Arjun pretends they are engaged. I do love a fake engagement trope. I got the vibes these two had chemistry and were stoked to read their adventures. I was not disappointed. I enjoyed their witty banter back and forth. Poppy may seem like your typically British aristocrat but she has real grit. Just like everyone, she has a secret and will do anything to save her family. Which makes sense since she will do almost anything to save her friend. It shouldn’t surprise you that they fall in love. Things don’t turn out the way they hoped and now peace between the fae courts is broken. Celine is about to enter in her villain era and I’m here for it. I can’t wait to pick up the final book in the series because it’s going to be a wild ride.
I will admit. I am a sucker for a moody vampire. Bastien is the moodiest. Sure I can understand why he is. Afterall, he didn’t choose to be turned. He lost his life, his humanity and the girl he loved. As for Celine. She is recovering from the injuries from the end of the last book. She is struggling with her memory loss. To help her out is Michael, who she is dating, kind of and her friend Poppy. The narrative plays out in multiple POV’s beyond Celine and Bastien. The world has grown. It’s not just vampires but werewolves and the Fey. The story still revolves around Celine and Bastien but it also is no longer just their story. It’s a story of found family and secrets. It’s about overcoming trauma. Really more about dealing with trauma because there are definitely a few that never did deal with it and that is why we are where we are now. I am so glad that Kate recommend this series because I am very much enjoying it. I can’t wait for the next book to become available at my library so I can read what happens next. It sounds like it’s going to be a Poppy centered book and I’m stoked about that. She is the one character that didn’t get a POV chapter and the one I am most interested in.
I do love a vampire book that takes place in New Orleans. I know Ann Rice is the gold standard but I would add this to the list of should read. Celine arrives in New Orleans after leaving Paris with a big secret. She is immediately drawn into the world the Cours De Lions and Bastien Sainte Germain. There is a bit of enemies to lovers as their first interaction is definitely antagonistic. However the attraction is there from the very beginning. Not that long after she arrives, a series of murders start to occur. First one near the port, a second at the Cours de Lions while Celine is there and a third in the Convent, Celine is staying in. All pointing to the intended victim is Celine herself but is she? The POV chapters of Celine and Bastien are interrupted by the murderer themselves as we get an insight as to why they are doing what they are doing but more a picture of the history. I must admit, I was a off on who the murder was. In retrospect, I should have been a little bit more suspicious at how often a certain off book character was mentioned but it was still a nice surprise. I do love Celine and Bastien’s relationship and the back and forth between them. I also like the friendship between Celine and Poppy and Odette. I do hope that we get more interactions in the next book. I am also pretty excited about the potential love triangle brewing between, Celine, Bastien and Michael. Michael, is the detective looking into the murders and of course has a history with Bastien. The ending definitely sets up a change in dynamics between all three of them. I look forward to reading how that will all turn out.
The Damned is the second book in The Beautiful series and it continues some weeks after the end of the first book, so spoilers for The Beautiful ahead.
Celine finds herself in the hospital, Michael Grimaldi by her side, unable to remember how she came to be in the hospital. All anyone would tell her is that there had been a murderer stalking the streets of New Orleans and he would have taken her life if Michael hadn’t saved her. But, all her memories of the incident and some from the time before are just gone. Her doctor says that it isn’t uncommon for people with head injuries to forget things, and her memory may return in some time. Of course, we know where her memories have gone and have no expectation that she will ever get them back.
Bastien wakes above the restaurant Jacques’, surrounded by the other members of the Court of Lions, a vampire. And he is angry about it. He is made even angrier to find out that Celine has traded her memories and possible future with him to save him. Bastien hears of someone who may be able to unmake him and he becomes obsessed with the possibility of not being a vampire again.
Émilie, still consumed by rage, waits for any sign that she has succeeded in killing her brother and ending Nicodemus’s bloodline. Obviously, that would be delightful, but there is a possibility, she knows, that Nicodemus would have turned his nephew. And if he did, that is also to her advantage because she can use it to stoke the war between the Fallen and the Brotherhood.
So, we have Celine, trying to recall everything she has lost, Bastien struggling to come to grips with his new life, Michael Grimaldi, still in love with Celine and fawning over her in Bastien’s absence, a scheming werewolf still on the prowl, and to that we add newly engaged Pippa, and a whole bunch of scheming fey, just waiting to cause chaos. And chaos there is. This was also a quick read, even at 401 pages. Can Bastien come to accept himself? Can Celine recall her lost past? What other secrets will be exposed? This book was a good time. We learn more about the fey Otherworld in this book and we continue to watch our main characters grow and change. We learn more about the other members of the court, getting some more backstory on Madeleine, Hortense, Jae, Odette, and Arjun.
The end was a bit abrupt, but there are two more books left in the series so I don’t mind a cliffhanger (especially since those books are already out). We do get some resolution, with some storylines tying up so that we can move on. This was a fun read, so I am definitely going to pick up the next one.
I got this one from my local library and that is where I’ll be going for the next one!
2 Women, So Many Books 