NerdyBirdie

It’s a good thing that Claudia Gray ended Ten Thousand Skies Above You on that terrible cliffhanger, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have planned on picking up the next and final (thank God) book within this series.

I thought Marguerite was annoying in A Thousand Pieces of You, but she is savage in this installment.

This book started out great, actually. The first 20% wasn’t that bad—my only problem being that I felt a little inconsistent story telling with whatever was going on, but whatever.

And then. And then. Marguerite begins to do what she can do best, she starts thinking she’s omniscient and that she knows every single thing in the whole wide world. And that really, really bothered me.

I like everyone in this book except for Marguerite. She ruins everything.

List of Tropes Used Within Novel
• Separated Lovers
• Love Triangle
• Doubting One’s True Love After Seeing Doppelgänger from Mafia Shoot (EVEN THOUGH THEY’RE NOT THE SAME PERSON!!!)
• Being the CHOSEN ONE
• Wandering Around and Jumping Dimensions
• Etc.

I am only picking up the last book in this series because I’m just curious. How does the author plan on pulling off everything after spending two books on a lot of dimension hopping? I’m not sure. And by the way, Paul deserves someone so much better.

Have absolutely no expectations from the next one, but these books are easy to get through so whatever.

So, I checked the Goodreads rating details for Morning Star, and apparently, I’m the 1% that didn’t like this book (more specifically, the 1% that gave this book a 2-star rating). You can imagine why I have to force myself to write a review for this.

Okay, this has to be just me. Everyone seems to love this series but for some reason, I just don’t see it? I really didn’t want to hate this book, but honestly, I can say a little bit that I somewhat expect this from the events of Golden Son. I don’t know. I guess when all your favorite characters all head downhill then this is literally what you’re supposed to expect.

So after Darrow

Basically, I already spoiled myself for this book, because, duh! Darrow always wins!

There was a lot more “go, go, go!” in this book. It was all action everywhere, all the time. So much, that sometimes I couldn’t keep up with it! I will say that I understood what was happening here a little more. That’s probably because I read Golden Son, so that would make sense. But there was just a lot of

and that didn’t even work out half the time, so . . .

Honestly, if you love the Red Rising series, great for you! I can definitely see what people would love about this! And if you read my review to Golden Son, then I mentioned that I was in the mood for the political tension that was happening throughout the book. I just wish that I enjoyed this series as much as everyone else did. I don’t know, I’ll just say that this series wasn’t for me. Apparently, Pierce Brown is writing a sequel trilogy to this, which revolves around the consequences and the aftermath of Morning Star, but I’m not really interested.

Where do I even start?

I really enjoyed These Broken Stars, and I’m pretty sure all of us can say that the first book in the Starbound series was definitely the best of the three. This Shattered World actually wasn’t that bad. I mean, it wasn’t as good as the first one, but whatever. I’ll get past that. The romance wasn’t bad, although the storyline seemed dragged out, I figured that you know, we don’t need to criticize, right?

And then this book came along.

I feel like this book was just too long. There was no need to have an addition of two new characters! Want to know why? Because even though the stories of Lilac-Tarver and Flynn-Jubilee were done, guess what happens? They were dragged in. And in this book, we had to witness watching everyone’s romance from a different perspective who we haven’t even connected with! (Talking about our new characters Sophia and Gideon)

The love story in this one was a tad bit too much, to be honest.

It felt too insta-lovey and that was just one difficult aspect.

Basically, everything meant to happen between the “good guys” and the “bad guys” was all shoved into this one book. I’m not really sure where to even go with this. The villain was extremely downplayed from the first book, and don’t even get me started on that whole Lilac phase.

I, personally, believe that books centering around the concept of destiny, can either be really well done, or just look plain sloppy. In my opinion, for Their Fractured Light, this just seemed like a way to wrap things up.

Hugely disappointed, and I found a lot more things I didn’t like in this book than what I did.

Please understand that my rating isn’t the same as the Goodreads system and that when I give 3-stars, it means that the book was okay for me. If I were to rate this book based on the Goodreads rating system, this book would probably be 2 stars.

One thing that really, really annoys me is that there is absolutely no mention of anything that happens in Red Rising! For readers out there, I’d highly recommend skimming through Red Rising before reading this one, otherwise you’ll be like me and have to reach 57% of this book to figure out what the heck is going on.

Golden Son is distinctly different from Red Rising. Whereas Darrow was a somewhat believable character in Red Rising, in Golden Son he is just plain glorified because he’s the main protagonist.

Plus the events that lead to the cliffhanger ending was just plain irritating.

This book was okay, I was annoyed about Darrow and the world-building, but maybe this book was lucky in the sense that I was in the mood for a lot of political tension (even if all that went down the drain). The cliffhanger does have me curious enough to read Morning Star, so we’ll see how that goes.

Okay, I see where this is going now and I’m not really looking forward to it.

I read These Broken Stars around a year ago and I really enjoyed it at the time. Space traveling survival love story? Why not! Needless to say, I wasn’t really excited for the next two books—This Shattered World and Their Fractured Light—and I guess that’s evident because I pushed reading this book so far back.

The beginning of this story was decent enough, but by the time I reached the middle I was just getting plain exhausted. What were the authors trying to pull off here? I still don’t know. Although it was nice to see Lilac and Tarver again from These Broken Stars, I just wasn’t really feeling them as the same people. I’m not sure why.

Following along the characters of Jubilee Chase and Flynn Cormac was pretty interesting (you just have to look beyond the fact that technically, teenagers are doing all the world—sorry, I mean galaxy saving), and I’m glad their romance wasn’t pushed so much to the front.

I’m not really looking forward to the next book, Their Fractured Light, but since I figured I might as well read it to see what really happens, it probably won’t be so bad.

At first, I gave The Iron Knight 3 stars because I simply didn’t care, but then I had a day to think about it, and I realized that there was literally no point to this book. If The Iron Queen had just ended with all the Meghan and Ash shippers getting their wish then this book wouldn’t have had to happen!

First of all, the author does something that should never be done (but usually is anyway):

Like, in what world does this make the least bit of sense?! If Kagawa is focusing on Meghan and Ash, then let the focus stay on them because it is the final book.

Second of all: even if Kagawa did 

did she not think that this should’ve added depth to Ash and Meghan’s love? Like, isn’t he going through a trial for her right now?

*insert eye roll here*

Third of all: didn’t really find the trials to be interesting. Personally, if I’d been expected to go through a trial like Ash’s that would decide the rest of my eternity then I’d probably expect trials that attempted to reveal my past or made me question myself as a person or even trials that made me question my purpose of doing this—in Ash’s case, Meghan. But nope, I fear MORE for people that have to go to a clown party and are scared of clowns than I feared for Ash.

Even though this was a last book that didn’t really need to be written, I feel like a lot of potential was wasted on this one. But, a wrapped up ending was given, so…

I feel like this book is the one with the most conflict and things going around compared to The Iron King and The Iron Daughter.

Meghan was a little less annoying in this one, so that gave it a thumbs up. Also, I pretty much wanted to slap Puck because how can someone constantly screw up everything so much?! It was getting predictable and frustrating at one point—and that stuff was from the past, not even the current events of the series!

Once again, I really like Julie Kagawa’s writing. She seems to have consistent themes and her description and world setting are personally, my favorite parts of The Iron Fey. 

Okay, so, I think this last book was just COMPLETELY INSANE.

I didn’t like Nico in The Battle of the Labyrinth but I liked him in this one. Also, the Gods, like before are all just being so completely unreasonable.

I think the ending was pretty decent. But I just expected the prophecy to be more.

Pretty good ending, just expected a teeny tiny bit more. :)

Another book in the take-down-and-finish-TBR-challenge!

Okay, so for the first half of this book, I had NO IDEA what was going on because I’d read The Titan’s Curse a long time ago. So, I had to go through this like 5 times and I guarantee that once you ask me what the heck I’ve read I won’t be able to answer your question cause I have no idea.

Anyway, to start off. This whole Luke thing is getting so boring now! Like, I understand that it obviously takes times for the demigods at Camp Half-Blood have to go on this mission, but still!

I was kind of rolling my eyes when Annabeth and Percy discovered the labyrinth. Of course they did. And what the heck is wrong with Nico, man?

I don’t know how I feel about this series, to be honest. It was cool seeing Annabeth and Percy in here together and

I just think that if I’d read this series consistently and properly I wouldn’t be as forced to read it as I am now. I can see why people really like this series and I enjoy it, too, it’s just that I haven’t read this consistently at all.

AHHH I CAN’T WRITE A REVIEW FOR THIS!!! Okay, bottom line: you should know that I loved this book SO. MUCH. That it actually, physically, hurts.

I loved everything about this book. I loved the way it started, the pacing, the plot—really, JUST EVERYTHING. I want to bow down to Chima for having a slow-burning consistent romance that is so good to read about that it hurts. I have butterflies in my stomach right now and these aren’t even real people.

AHHH THE ROMANCE!!!

“But I don’t want your throne.”

 

“Then what do you want?”

 

“You.”

 

LIKE CAN SOMEONE PLEASE KILL ME NOW BEFORE RAISA AND HAN DO???

The thing I love the most about this series is that the characters are so consistent and there’s other things besides romance! There’s the friendship between Han and Dancer! There’s Raisa kicking butt and being awesome! There’s Han kicking butt at politics! There’s Crow and Han and their banter! There’s Han who honest to God makes my heart hurt because of all he’s willing to do to get what he wants! There’s effing trust between Raisa and Han! How??? How can you not expect me to DIE???!!!

“You are my father,” she said to Averill. “And you are my grandmother,” she said to Elena. “And you are duty-bound to me,” she said to Nightwalker.

 

“If you take action against Hunts Alone without my permission, we will be at war.”

HELL YAS, GURL! YOU TRUST YOUR MAN!!! YOU FIGHT FOR HIM!

Sorry. This isn’t even a review. It’s just me blabbering. But that’s okay, because I love the Seven Realms series and anyone who’s a fan of fantasy (keeping in mind that this is YA) should read this for sure. 

Make sure you don’t read the title of this play otherwise you’ll be spoiled!

Okay. I don’t know how to start this. I’m pretty sure in it’s time, Death of a Salesman was an amazing play. But for now, I don’t really like anything or anyone except for Biff Loman.

Willy Loman is just like any other man who wants to follow the American Dream—but not really. He’s constantly blubbering and chasing dreams that won’t ever come true with his kind of thinking.

Don’t even get me started on Linda. My God. What kind of woman ever stays with a man like that, no matter what kind of justification she’s able to give to her kids I would personally never agree with her.

I mean, the message is explained extremely well. But, eh. It was okay.

Ahh! What a great last book to the series (and YES, finished one more series!) I don’t really know what to say for this one without spoiling anything because I enjoyed this a lot.

The beginning was kind of weird though because

Also, I feel like more secrets were revealed in this book just to wrap everything up. But, we got a proper ending, so I didn’t mind that.

Hmm… not my favorite in this series. I think I’d like to point out the fact that this book kind of follows along the same line as most books do with the whole characters are separated arc.

One thing that really annoyed me was Adrian! I seriously thought we got past his self pity phase and always syncing into depression and thinking about crap about how sad his life is!

Thankfully, Adrian got through with his self pity BS at the point where I was about to smack him for

As usual, the plot moved forward more towards the end than in the beginning. Thankfully, Adrian made up for the end so I excused his lameness in the beginning. Maybe it’s just me, but

And, God! Sydney’s dad just gets worse and worse! And no offense but if Zoe is going to apologize in the next book I would not care or listen to her! What a brainwashed puppet!

I feel like there’s so much conflict, I’m not sure how it’s all possibly going to be wrapped up in the next book, but I am anticipating The Ruby Circle! Eagerly waiting for the ending and expecting lots of action from what happened!

I think that Sydney keeps getting better in every book! Personally, I’m glad that I’m at the point in this series where I can say that Sydney’s changed and grown as a character.

It was also pretty nice to see some of the other characters like Jill, Eddie, and Adrian grow some more! Also: if you guys thought Sydney’s dad was bad in Bloodlines then you guys haven’t seen anything yet.

I honestly think that Richelle Mead has done an amazing job with the Bloodlines series compared to Vampire Academy and when I say this, I am including factors about the characters, their relationships, and the things that we’re learning about this world. I understand why people would enjoy Vampire Academy over Bloodlines or vice versa but I enjoy them both equally.

That ending was so frustrating, though! So I’d recommend getting The Fiery Heart with the next book, Silver Shadows.

Overall, great mix of things!

This is also another book in the: Need to Finish Long Due TBR 2016 Challenge (it’s name is always changing because I can never remember it)

Probably my favorite book in the series so far unless I say otherwise :)

So, The Indigo Spell may or may not have started off last time where I left it, since I read the last book, The Golden Lily almost a year ago. But I do remember really looking forward to this book.

I think I enjoyed Sydney the most in this book. My only problems with her from Bloodlines and The Golden Lily was that she was always judging vampires for who they were even though alchemy itself is kind of dependent on the vampires, and it’s not like vampires completely sabotage the human world or anything! Thankfully, in this book, Sydney finally understands that vampires aren’t that bad and that Jill and Eddie and Adrian are all there for her!

“I don’t care if you say we can’t be together. I don’t care if you think I’m the most evil, unnatural creature walking on earth. You can think whatever you want, go wherever you want. I’m going to just go on loving you, even if it’s hopeless.”

I knew there was a consistency that I liked in Adrian. :D

Oh, yeah, Adrian Ivashkov. He’s really sweet, and to be honest, I see more chemistry (haha, that means Sydney should be able to understand this, too? Right? Sorry, bad joke . . .) in between Sydney and Adrian in this series than I did in him and Rose from Vampire Academy.

“You’re not as much of a lost cause as she was. I mean, with her, I had to overcome her deep, epic love with a Russian warlord. You and I just have to overcome hundreds of years’ worth of deeply ingrained prejudice and taboo between our two races. Easy.”

I think Adrian Ivashkov agrees with me, too.

Although there were some predictable parts in this book, I still enjoyed it, nonetheless.

Fans of Vampire Academy will see some appearances from your favorite characters! This book probably had the best blend of the overall plot, the characters, the subplot, and conflict. And I did enjoy the Adrian-Sydney scenes even if they got to be a little too much at one point. But that’s not a huge problem!

Even though I thought that this book was a bit too much on the romance (compared to whatever else is going on right now), I’m glad that it got all wrapped up ad that we didn’t have to go through the three books left in this series of angst, because I do not have the energy for that. Can’t wait for The Fiery Heart and YES I will not read the sequel to this NEXT year.

His eyes were on his heart, completely caught up in his work. “Just something kicking around in my head. Reminds me of you. Fiery and sweet, all at the same time. A flame in the dark, lighting my way.” His voice... his words... I recognized one of his spirit-driven moments. It should’ve unnerved me, but there was something sensual about the way he spoke, something that made my breath catch. A flame in the dark.

*sigh* Don’t you just love them?

Kell would say it was impossible. What a useless word, in a world with magic.

How is it that my heart flutters whenever I look at the cover of this book?

Although a pretty slow paced sequel, A Gathering of Darkness takes its time to go more into the world that Victoria Schwab created so amazingly in A Darker Shade of Magic. Even if the sequel was slower, I think it’s important to point out that other things weren’t lacking such as: the character relationships and a bit more development of the characters and the world.

One of the best things that happened with this book compared to A Darker Shade of Magic, was that I appreciated other characters more instead of having a focus on Kell and Lila (although, they’re pretty amazing, too)! Damn it, a shout out to Alucard and Prince Rhy, please .

The prince shrugged. “Who needs magic when you look this good?”

Another thing I want to point out is that the romance was placed in the backseat for this one, which was nice. But it also showed that Victoria Schwab knows how to make you fangirl even though she showed the romance for, like, twenty pages out of this entire book!

“Please tell me this is easier to take off than it was to put on.”

Calla raised a brow. “You do not think Master Kell knows how?”

Even though the “antagonistic” story was pretty slow because it focused on the Games for this book, I think it’s safe to say that this book was more of a filler book but I am PUMPED for the NEXT BOOK WHICH ALREADY HAS A NAME AND COVER! God, I need to get my hands on, A Conjuring of Light which it says is coming out in 2017, so I am going to suffer for a while.