Tag: 2.75 stars

Book Review: Empress of All Seasons – Emiko Jean

Book Review: Empress of All Seasons – Emiko Jean

by Nicole Sweeney ♥ 0 Leave a Comment


Release date: November 6 2018
Publisher: Gollancz
Pages: 366
Find it: Goodreads Waterstones
Source: I received an E-ARC via Netgalley
Rating: 2.25/5 stars

Synopsis

In a palace of illusions, nothing is what it seems.

Each generation, a competition is held to find the next empress of Honoku. The rules are simple. Survive the palace’s enchanted seasonal rooms. Conquer Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. Marry the prince. All are eligible to compete—all except yōkai, supernatural monsters and spirits whom the human emperor is determined to enslave and destroy.

Mari has spent a lifetime training to become empress. Winning should be easy. And it would be, if she weren’t hiding a dangerous secret. Mari is a yōkai with the ability to transform into a terrifying monster. If discovered, her life will be forfeit. As she struggles to keep her true identity hidden, Mari’s fate collides with that of Taro, the prince who has no desire to inherit the imperial throne, and Akira, a half-human, half-yōkai outcast.

Torn between duty and love, loyalty and betrayal, vengeance and forgiveness, the choices of Mari, Taro, and Akira will decide the fate of Honoku in this beautifully written, edge-of-your-seat YA fantasy.

Review

Empress of All Seasons is a fast paced YA fantasy tale that follows Mari, a young yōkai who has been trained all her life to take part in a deadly competition to choose the next Empress of Honoku. To succeed she must survive all the rooms, however, yōkai are forbidden from entering and so she must hide who she truly is. If she succeeds she can steal the Emperor’s fortune and return to her village a hero. Meanwhile Prince Taro wants nothing to do with the competition that will choose who his wife will be, instead preferring to spend time with his mechanical creations. When he has a chance encounter with Mari things begin to change and Taro begins to fight for what he believes in.

Empress of All Seasons is a book that I thought had a really intriguing concept but it didn’t quite hit the mark for me in terms of execution. The story is very very fast paced. I wanted more time to explore the season rooms and understand the different yōkai creatures. The romance also develops very quickly so it didn’t feel like there was much time to really get to know and root for the characters. I am also not a big fan of love triangles and that features in this book. As a standalone the story works quite well, but I would have liked it to be maybe a hundred pages longer in order to fully flesh things out.

I found the Japanese mythology really fascinating in the book and it was this aspect that interested me most. The characters were fine but I didn’t really connect with them. Akira was probably the character that interested me most and I enjoyed his POV as he becomes a warrior. I really enjoy competitions in stories and so the first half of the book that featured the competition gripped me a lot more than the latter half. If you enjoy fast paced YA fantasy this could be just the book for you but sadly didn’t quite hit the mark for me.

Book Review: Of Princes and Promises – Sandhya Menon

Book Review: Of Princes and Promises – Sandhya Menon

by Nicole Sweeney ♥ 0 Leave a Comment


Series: St Rosetta’s Academy #2
Release Date: June 8th
Publisher: Hodder Books
Pages: 320
Find it on: Goodreads. BookDepository. Waterstones.
Source: The publisher kindly sent me a copy of this book to review
Rating: 2.75/5 stars

Synopsis

Caterina LaValle is determined to show she’s still the queen of St. Rosetta’s Academy. Sure, her crown may be slightly askew after her ex-boyfriend, Alaric, cheated on her, but she’s a LaValle. She’ll find a way to march right back in there, her hands clutching the strings to the whole puppet show. This time, she’s going to be untouchable.

Rahul Chopra knows that moment he shared with Caterina LaValle at the winter formal meant something. Surely she feels it, too. He’s a little uncertain how someone like him (socially inept to a point way past “adorkable”) could fit into her world, but he’s loved Caterina for years. He knows they’ll find a way.

When Caterina finds out Alaric is taking a supermodel to the upcoming gala, she knows she cannot arrive without the perfect date. But the thought of taking another superficial St. R’s boy exhausts her. The solution? Sweet-but-clueless Rahul Chopra and a mysterious pot of hair gel with the power to alter the wearer into whatever his heart desires.

When Rahul tries it, he transforms instantly into RC—debonair, handsome, and charming. But transformation comes with a price: As Rahul enjoys his new social standing, the line between his two personas begins to blur. Will he give up everything, including Caterina, to remain RC? Or will this unlikely pair find their way back to each other?

Review

Of Princes and Promises is the second instalment in Sandhya Menon’s St Rosetta’s Academy series. I really enjoyed book one – Of Curses and Kisses – which I thought was a really fun YA story. I was really intrigued to see where Menon took the story in book two. Picking up after the events of book one, we now follow Caterina and Rahul, characters we met in Of Curses and Kisses. Caterina is out to prove that she’s still the queen of the school, despite breaking up with Alaric. When she discovers Alaric is taking a supermodel to the biggest event of the year, she knows she has to find the perfect date. Caterina hatches a plan to take Rahul and transform him into the perfect date with the help of some mysterious hair gel. As Rahul spends more and more time as the handsome and charming RC, Caterina wonders if she’s lost the sweet, clueless Rahul forever.

Of Princes and Promises is a really quick read and it’s a pretty fast-paced story. I really wanted to love this one as much as I did the first one but for me, this story felt a little flat. I think it maybe could have done with being a bit longer, the plot just felt a little bit too predictable and too convenient. I found I was less interested in the romance between Rahul and Caterina and more interested in what the mysterious Mia was up to. I thought there was lots of potential in this story but it just didn’t click with me.

The characters in the story are interesting and I liked Rahul, particularly as he delves more and more into being RC and has to come back to himself. I did find Caterina a bit on the irritating side and I would have loved to see a bit more of the characters from book one. Overall this was a quick book that I read in an afternoon, but one that felt kind of forgettable. If you’ve read book one I’d have a go with book two and if you love contemporary fairytale retellings this series is definitely one to check out.

Book Review: The Last Human – Zack Jordan

Book Review: The Last Human – Zack Jordan

by Nicole Sweeney ♥ 0 Leave a Comment


Release Date: March 24th 2020
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Pages: 448
Find it on: Goodreads. BookDepository. Waterstones.
Source: The publisher kindly sent me a copy of this book to review
Rating: 3/5 stars

Synopsis

Sarya is the galaxy’s worst nightmare: a Human.

But most days, she doesn’t feel like the most terrifying creature in the galaxy. No, most days, she’s got other things on her mind. Like hiding her identity among the hundreds of alien species roaming the corridors of Watertower Station. Or making sure her adoptive mother doesn’t casually eviscerate one of their neighbors. Again.

And most days, she can almost accept that she’ll never know the truth about why humanity was deemed too dangerous to exist, or whether she really is – impossibly – the lone survivors of a species destroyed a millennium ago.
That is, until an encounter with a bounty hunter leaves her life and her perspective shattered.

Thrown into the universe at the helm of a stolen ship, Sarya begins to uncover an impossible truth. Humanity’s death and her own existence might simply be two moves in a demented cosmic game, one that might offer the thing she wants most in the universe – a second chance for herself, and one for humanity.

Review

The Last Human is the epic science fiction tale of Sarya – the last human in the universe. Hiding with her adoptive mother (Shenya the Widow) and pretending to be of the same alien species. When she comes face to face with a bounty hunter her cover is blown and she begins to uncover the truth behind the demise of humanity and and discover a way to gain a second chance for herself and for the human race.

This is a book completely unlike anything I’ve read before. It was a fascinating tale and an impressive debut novel. I really enjoyed the beginning of the book seeing Sarya attempt to live a life where everyone thinks she is someone else. I also liked seeing her interactions with her mother who is much more aggressive and warlike species. I thought these two characters in particular were well created and I thought Sarya made for an excellent protagonist, however as her journey progressed I found myself getting a bit lost in the story. There are different parts to the story that separate Sarya’s journey and the further on I got the more I lost how it was connected to the beginning.

I loved the idea of the last human being the one thing that the other races are scared of. It’s a clever story with plenty of moments that will blow your mind, but for me it felt like there was just too much going on. Ultimately this one wasn’t for me, but I’m sure plenty of science fiction fans will love this one. If it sounds like the kind of thing you might enjoy I’d definitely recommend giving it a go.