Warcross

Overall Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Favourite Characters: Emika, Hideo, pretty much all of the Phoenix Riders

Least favourite characters: DJ Ren

Favourite aspects:

With Cyberpunk being all the craze this year, this book was perfect in throwing me into a futuristic world governed by new technology. It’s a fast paced book which very quickly throws you into the action going on around these characters. We are given a strong, badass female protagonist, without sticking to the cliche of the character having to be morally good. Emika is far from a criminal, but she is also far from being perfect and that’s what draws me to her. She feels very human!

Reality and fiction seem to have collided, giving us a world very much like what Cyberpunk 2077 tried to achieve. Technology has advanced so much that the world of gaming has reached a whole new level where players are now actively able to get involved in these virtual worlds to compete against other players. Although highlighting the benefits that technology can have on us this book also brings up the question of the corruption surrounding technology and the effects it can have on humanity in regards to things such as free will and choice.

Least favourite aspects:

I don’t have much to say about this book in terms of negatives. However, although I did find the romance between Emika and Hideo interesting I also found it to be unnecessary. I’m tired of authors feeling the need to include romances to make us feel something for these characters. Emika and Hideo are both interesting characters alone who I wish we could have had the chance to explore without the inclusion of a romance.

Ships: Hideo and Emika

Recommendation: For anyone who loves books with a dystopian, cyberpunk feel to them then this book is for you. It’s full of action and plenty of scenes which also make you emotional. It has its romance, like most books do, but it’s nothing too intense which makes you feel like ripping your eyes out.

To anyone who is like me and keeps telling themselves that they will read the Iliad when they are fully aware they will probably never do so then this book is for you. You can think of Song of Achilles as the fanfic version of the Iliad. It follows Patroclus and Achilles through their childhood all the way to young adulthood and parts of the Trojan War. You get cameos from our favourites like Odysseus and our not so favourite Agamemnon and Hector. Unlike the Iliad the book is not heavily focused on the Trojan War and only mentions it in the last 10 or so chapters of the book, instead focusing on the life of Achilles and Patroclus and how their relationship develops. Depending on what side of historians you are on, one topic that has been debated is whether Patroclus and Achilles where just close friends or actual lovers. Miller takes the side of them being lovers, and the fangirl in me was all for that.

This book is written beautifully, it’s simple to read, is fast paced and is full of good ol Greek Drama! I loved that this book was from the view point of Patroclus, because to me Achilles was what he was because of Patroclus.I also think Patroclus is not given enough credit for how bloody badass he was, this boy literally went out to battle when he knew he could not fight for shit just to preserve Achilles honour. I loved reading this book from his perspective .

I think the book was great, it was not a copy of the Iliad which I imagine to be long and boring, and was more of a YA spin on the tales of Achilles, Patroclus and parts of the Trojan war. I loved watching these characters grow up, and it was pure agony seeing it all go to shit. We know there is no happy ending for our two main characters, but for some reason I still convinced myself that there would be, only to have my heart broken all over again. I would have liked to see more Greek god involvement within the tale, but other than that I highly recommend this to anyone with an interest in Greek Mythology, my fellow romance lovers and just anyone who likes their heart broken and then dashed into the bin.

All my life,” she said, “I have been told ‘go’ and ‘come.’ I am told how I will live, and I am told how I must die. I must be a man’s servant and a mare for his pleasure, or I must hide myself behind walls and surrender my flesh to a cold, silent god. I would walk into the jaws of hell itself, if it were a path of my own choosing. I would rather die tomorrow in the forest than live a hundred years of the life appointed me.”

The bear and the nightingale is a perfect book for the autumn/winter months of the year, it is the perfect book to devour as you sit curled up near the fireplace with a hot coffee in your hand, or curled up in your bed at 3am.

The book falls under the Adult Fantasy genre and follows our main character Vasya, who lives in a village in the Northern woods of Russia where the people of the village are extremely superstitious believing in various old gods such as the Domovoi, Bannik and many others, as well as believing in this new god which is Christianity. The divide between old and new is a key theme in the book with many of the villagers as the story progresses forgetting about the old in order to accept this new religion in which the old gods are seen as demons rather than help. The move to this new religion causes a lot of problems for the small village and in turn causes Vanya to question herself as well as her beliefs and where she stands.

In terms of pacing the book is pretty slow, it's a tale that focuses heavily on character development, setting and the plot. The beauty of the book is that it is heavily inspired by Russian fairy tales, which Arden has retold and heavily impacts the plot of the story. I have personally never read a book which was first set in around the time of Ivan II as well as his son Dimitry, but also incorporated Russian stories into its narrative. I have gotten used to hearing fairytales heavily influenced by the western world such as the Grimm fairy tales so it was a breath of fresh air to have a novel based on tales I was not so familiar with.

The characters in this book for me were amazing, it was beautiful to see this family dynamic where certain characters got on extremely well with one another and others were not so close, Arden did a great depiction of what it feels like to live with siblings in a large family. She did a great job in creating a character which is strong willed, strong headed as well as heavily opinionated and not afraid to let others know what she believes. Vanya is stubborn but at the same time she is extremely loving even when others do not always reciprocate the same back to her.

All in all the book was fantastic, it has a beautiful setting that you are immediately transported to, it had characters which you cried and smiled with and it had a plot that at times was excruciatingly slow but at the same time kept you guessing and on your toes about what may happen next.

The Winter of the Witch

Overall Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Favourite Characters: Vasya( of course), Solovoy, Morozko, Ded Grib, Sasha and Marya

Least favourite characters: Medved and Konstantin

Favourite aspects: one of the first things that drew me in was our main character Vasya. She is strong, brave and makes mistakes, but she is so easy fall in love with. The fairy tale like atmosphere , the wintery setting, the writing were all absolutely fantastic. Every moment you were reading the book you felt as if you were in Moscow with Vasya, or wondering through the the woods with her, that’s how fantastic Arden was in creating this world and her characters. You cried and laughed with these character, you laughed when they laughed and cried when they cried.

Least favourite aspects: I really don’t have much bad to say about this book other than it’s not a fast paced Novel. If you are someone who lIkes a lot of action the chances are this book will not be for you. Secondly, character names in this book at Russian, so at times even I found myself struggling to pronounce the names, however, almost all the characters have shortened nicknames and if those are still too complicated for pronounce then make up your own little nicknames.


Ships: Vasya and Morozko, Konstantin and Medved

Recommendation: if you are someone who loves fantasy, or fairytales, In particular Russian Folklore then this book is for you. It’s a perfect read for those cold wintery nights tucked up in bed with a hot cup of tea or coffee.

Where do I even start with this book. It was honestly such an amazing read from beginning to end, my only regret was that I was going through a reading slump when reading Wildcard which resulted in me taking 3000 years to finish it.

Wildcard picks right up where the last book ends with Emika being forced to push her emotions aside for Hideo in order to stop him taking over the world pretty much( dont we just love men?) However as the story progresses we realise that Hideo is far from the biggest problem that our main character will have to deal with.

Unlike wildcard this book was filled to the top with action from the very beginning. There was not a moment that went by where I was not holding my breath expecting the worst to occur. As well as a action I bloody loved the diversity of character in this book we had characters with disabilities we had character from different backgrounds ranging all the way from white to Latino. We had characters who were gay and of colour and let me tell you I LOVED IT! Every character was interesting in their own right and no one felt like they were unnecessary, everyone played a role, good or bad! I loved the questions this book made me ask in regards to technology and how it can both be a force for good and bad depending who’s hands it falls into.

One of the things I disliked about the last book was the romance element, but after reading this book I too can say that I ship Emika and Hideo but not as much as I love my little bean Roshan and Tremaine!!

For anyone who likes video games and books set in a futuristic setting this book is for you!!