whimsydearest

Raine can both see and speak to the dead—a trait many would kill her for since gravesight is associated with the reviled Faded. However, when she uncovers a deadly stolen artifact, she’s brought into the fortress-monastery of Draoihn for questioning and unwittingly pulled into an ancient conflict. There she must unravel the mystery behind how the relic was stolen while trying to hide her own powers. Daughter of Redwinter by Ed McDonald presents a Scottish-inspired dark fantasy that brims with vivid worldbuilding. Quite literally. The magic users in this book worship all the colors of the rainbow that are emitted from the Light Above while fearing the faded grey world of the Night Below. However, I think I primarily took issue with the middle of the book. There's a lull in action because Raine is in comfy new place and there isn't as much of a sense of danger and tension. The main plot takes a backseat and is replaced with petty relationship drama about who has a crush on who. I...

When a strange metal beast takes Sonara's brother away, her Queen mother accuses her of his murder. She exiles her to the Abyss—surely a death sentence. However, she survives. She becomes cursed as a Shadowblood and joins a group of others like her in the Deadlands. There she lives life on outskirts as a thief and outlaw. The Devil, they call her, and she's forever determined to find her brother. Blood, Metal, Bone  by Lindsey Cummings is an ambitious, genre-bending YA that blends sci-fi and fantasy with mixed results. I’ll start with what I liked. One, I did like the curse-based magic system—especially Jaxon's ability to control bones and shoot bone missiles. The dynamics and rapport between Sonara and the rest of the Shadowbloods are fun as well. However, the story's organization feels messy and disjointed. The scene transitions are jarring, quickly jumping between time and place and characters. I wish the story had been smoothed out and went through a few more rounds...

  Upon first hearing about Star Eater by Kerstin Hall, I was lured in by the promise of cannibalistic priestesses and a phantasmagorical indictment of hereditary power. Sadly, however, the execution falls flat. True, we do get glimmers of visceral hallucinations and deliciously grotesque monsters. However, there is an odd disconnect between the flowery descriptive writing and the dialogue itself. The dialogue (especially between Elfreda and her friends) is awkward and strangely juvenile and seems like it came out of a YA contemporary novel. They feel like they belong to two different books entirely.   Along these same lines, there isn’t much of a sense of time or setting for this story. There are a few mentions of lamps to hint that this is a gaslamp fantasy and only 2/3 of the way in do we find out that the city is floating—a fact that I would have thought at least one of the characters would have brought up earlier. Lastly, there are huge revelations at the end, but they are...

In Thanopolis, bloodmages are prized possessions of the King. They’re bound to guardians from the underworld to both protect … and to control them. Rovan’s father died trying to save her from this very fate, so she has spent her life having to hide her magic. However, when she accidently reveals her powers, she’s captured and thrown into a court of intrigue. Be still my heart. As soon as I heard  In the Ravenous Dark  pitched as a story about a pansexual bloodmage, I was sold instantly. I adore any book related to necromancy, so the blood and death magic components were completely up my alley. I also really enjoyed the characters and the relationships in this book! Rovan is great as an MC. She’s flawed, impulsive, and filled with sass and wit. Not to mention, the enemies-to-lovers dynamic between Rovan and her ghostly guardian was probably my favorite aspect of the book. However, I do feel like this book suffers from serious pacing issues. The story starts off incredibly stron...