"The Queen of Nothing" by Holly Black

The Queen of Nothing is the third and final book in The Folk of Air trilogy that began with The Cruel Prince. Overall, this was a satisfying conclusion to the story, but my initial thoughts on Holy Black's writing stay the same. The plot is not well fleshed out, it lacks depth and complexity. The world is not well developed, and we do not get a lot of interaction between Cardan and Jude even though theirs is the main romantic story in the book.

In general, the entire enemies to lovers tension is created because Jude misunderstands and fears him. We get the story only from her perspective, and she does not spend much time with Cardan even in book 2 where she is his seneschal. This third book is also disappointingly short (305 pages). I definitely think Black could have done more with the world, given how popular this series has been.

In my reviews of the first two books I mentioned that I did not like Jude. In book 3, she is more likable. I definitely felt that she was less desperate and more sure of herself. I guess becoming Queen helped in that regard too, as she is also acting less power hungry.

My overall rating for this installment is 3 stars. If this is Holly Black's best work, I am not sure I want to read her backlist. This trilogy is extremely over-hyped and underwhelming.

"The Wicked King" by Holly Black

The Wicked King is a sequel to The Cruel Prince, which I reviewed earlier. The story picks up right where the first book ended. This book also is written entirely from Jude's perspective. As such, it is still hard to tell what Cardan's intentions are. On the one hand, there are scenes where he behaves like he really cares about Jude and wants to trust her. But then there is the ending, which I know left a lot of readers wondering.

I still do not like Jude very much. I realize she is supposed to be a morally gray character, she just seems very immature and too power hungry for my taste. With morally gray characters, I usually enjoy sophistication, humor, self-assurance and cunning manipulations. Jude is just too young and inexperienced for that. So she comes off flippant and desperate. I also don't like the way she seems to be willing to sacrifice anything for power. We'll see what book 3 has in store, but at this point, it is hard for me to root for her.

I was glad to see that Cardan is much more present in this book. I was also happy he finally took charge in the end. I have no problem with strong female characters, but when the female lead begins to be inept, I appreciate that someone else can step in and save the day. A closer look at the underworld and the King's powers were also nice additions in this installment. Overall, I enjoyed the second book more then the first. Solid 3 out of 5 stars. Book 3 is coming out tomorrow and I can't wait to read the conclusion.

"The Cruel Prince" by Holly Black

The Cruel Prince is the first book in a highly over-hyped YA fantasy trilogy (the third and final book is scheduled to come out this month). I finally decided to check it out as I prefer to read all the books in a trilogy close together so the information is fresh in my mind.

I must say that I wanted to like this book much more than I actually ended up enjoying it. It did not blow me away in any sense of the word. I think my main problem with The Cruel Prince is that the world is not well developed. We basically get a handful of characters (many of them very young) which does not match up well with the epic proportions of the political machinations they engage in. This flaw is not anything new. Lots of YA books have similar premises. However, I think I was holding the bar a bit higher for The Cruel Prince simply because of all the wonderful reviews that I've seen.

Our main character Jude is a human girl who as a child was carried away into the Faerie world along with her twin sister Taryn and half-sister Vivi. She lives in the house of her mother's first husband who is a powerful general in the High King's army. When we are first introduced to Jude, she is portrayed as a feisty but powerless girl who struggles to survive among the Faerie gentry children she is forced to go to school with. Jude, however, is extremely ambitious and craves control and power. She gets tangled up in court intrigues and ends playing a critical role in the Faerie coup d'etat.

Many of the reviews I read focused heavily on the romance in the book. However, there is close to zero romance in this novel. Prince Cardan certainly occupies Jude's thoughts (mostly as the hateful bully she would love to run through with her sword), but he is barely present in the story until the very last few chapters. In fact, the only reason I gave this book a neutral rating (2.5 stars) is because I ended up really enjoying the plotting and the intrigue in the last quarter of the book. We also finally get a glimpse of chemistry between Jude and Cardan at that point.

So overall, I will continue with the series. But I would really like to see the world built up a bit more. It is just too simplistic and barely populated for my taste. I would prefer to see more magic, more mythology, more complexity to the social structure, and a wider lens on the world as a whole.

"Dark Shores" by Danielle L. Jensen

This book was an unexpected gem. After the fiasco with the Otherworld audio book (see my earlier review), I checked out Dark Shores by Danielle L. Jensen. The story immediately pulled me in. It is a YA fantasy with a very interesting world based on the Greco-Roman civilization. The main male character Marcus is a legionnaire whose service to the Empire involves exploring and conquering new lands. The main female lead Teriana comes from the seafaring nation called Maarin. Her people are the only ones who possess the secret knowledge of how to cross the sea to Dark Shores – an area of the world where the Empire would like to extend its reach.

The book is filled with political intrigue, betrayals and manipulations. The world is expansive and complex. The characters are interesting and the story is action packed and fast moving. I really enjoyed the adventure Marcus and Teriana embark on. The book is the setup for a much larger story. There is definitely going to be a sequel and I for one cannot wait to see where the story goes.

One note on the audio book. The book alternates Teriana’s and Marcus’ points of view, and the audio book is read by two actors. The male voice was fine, but the female voice actor, especially in the beginning, sounded almost like a computer reading the text: very emotionless and with a machine like inflection. I am not sure when the next book comes out, but I will likely opt for reading it rather than listening. Overall, 5 out of 5 stars. I highly recommend this book.

"Twice in a Blue Moon" by Christina Lauren

Christina Lauren is a master of writing fluffy romance stories that you can immerse yourself in for an evening or two. It is actually a writing duo so technically I should have said "they are," but I am not going to dwell on it since the pen name is that of a single person.

Twice in a Blue Moon features a second chance romance. Tate and Sam first meet on a trip to London when she is 18 and he is 21. Things go horribly wrong and now 14 years later they meet again. Second chance romances are hard to pull off. The reader needs to be able to understand that whatever happened in the past could be overcome in order for the relationship to work. For me, in this particularly plot, it worked ok, but not perfectly. I think their first go at it in London was already not very realistic, and the second chance was even less so.

The implausibility aside, what I really liked about the story is the setting and the atmosphere: the movie set, the filming and the behind the scenes look into how fake and PR-driven the life of celebrities can be. Tate's dad was particularly hard for me to understand. He just epitomizes everything that is bad about Hollywood and the celebrity culture. Think, an egomaniac obsessed with staying famous despite the pain he causes other people. I also think the authors did a good job keeping the reader in suspense as to which way to story will go, which made it an even quicker read. This was overall an enjoyable book. 3 out 5 stars.

An e-ARC was provided by NetGalley.com.

"Fireborne" by Rosaria Munda

This year, I have been reading a lot of excellent YA fantasy novels. Fireborne is another one that I really enjoyed and highly recommend. The story, according to the author, is inspired by Virgil’s Aeneid and Plato’s Republic. Thus, the world in terms of social class divisions, clothing and customs appears to be very Greco-Roman, although there is also a mention of Highlands/Lowlands that felt more Scottish-inspired. The country – Calleopolis – is located on an island, and has historically been ruled by dragon riders called the dragonborn. However, 10 years prior to the events of the book, some of the patricians from the ruling family’s inner circle led a revolt and brought down the monarchy.

The book is written from the point of view of two orphans. Lee is the youngest  and the only surviving son of the last dragonborn ruler, whose identity remains a secret; and Annie is a former serf whose family was killed by a dragon rider. Lee and Annie, the two misfits at the orphanage, become close friends They are later selected to be part of the elite group of dragon riding guardians meant to protect the country and form the new regime's ruling body.

I really liked this book. I was particularly impressed by Rosaria Munda’s descriptions of the first dragon riding tournament. This book is not all action. There is a lot about politics and structure of the society. At the center of the story, there is an epic moral struggle that Lee faces as he continues to hide his true identity. His character in particular is reminiscent of classical heroes both in terms of his moral courage and strength and the truly impossible situation he finds himself in. Annie’s character undergoes a lot of growth throughout the novel as well. She learns to be confident in her own skin and really shines towards the end as the leader she never thought she was cut out to be. 5 out of 5 stars. I will definitely be picking up the sequel.

An e-ARC was provided by NetGalley.com

"Otherworld" by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller

I honestly cannot recall a time when I did not finish a particular book because I found the mind of the narrator too unbearable to dwell in for a few hours.  Well, there is truly a first for everything. I downloaded Otherworld by Jason Segel as an audiobook to listen to during a recent weekend drive to another city. I like his middle grade series called Nightmares! and wanted to check out his other work.

Otherworld is supposed to be the YA version of a story in the vein of Ready Player One, which I loved. A few minutes into the book, it became very clear that the main character from whose point of view the book is written, cannot get his mind out of the gutter for even a second. I kept cringing at his descriptions and both my husband and I kept glancing at each other in disbelief. Thankfully, our teenage daughter was not particularly interested in listening to the book and had her earphones on.  We finally decided to quit midway through chapter two when the main character was about to pull a particularly cringe worthy prank on his neighbors.

Perhaps the book gets better later on. There are certainly very positive reviews on Goodreads, and it clearly merited two sequels. I did not stick around to find out, and based on the first two chapters cannot imagine the main character’s thinking would elevate above his waistline. 1 star out of 5.