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wordsofclover's Reviews (2.16k)
Ella and Miro are siblings living in the fantasy region of Altura where the 'lore' of the land is enchantments. The siblings have never known their parents and live with an old grandfather-like figure. Ella is determined to get into the local college to become an enchanter and Miro, who posseses a natural skill with a blade, wants to become a bladesinger, an elite form of soldier who uses enchantments to make his fighting even more lethal. But war is on the horizon and the siblings are about to become more involved than they would like.
Overall I think I have to give this one a 3 stars as it definitely lacked in some areas for me. I was really disappointed that I got to see so little of Ella and Miro's training in their chosen fields (when I say little, I mean basically none). Why tease a school of enchanters and not give a few days of lessons? I would have even enjoyed Ella's first day in school but she got in and the next chapter it was one year later? The lore and magic system seemed to have been figured out fairly well so I'm not sure why the author chose to leave the school system out.
At first, I thought I was getting some adequate world-building and was coming to terms with the different regions of the one land ruled by the emperor and what their skills was but it became lost to be honest. I would have benefit from a brief glossary at the start of the book detailing the land, who their leader was and what their 'lore' was. I kept trying to figure out who was who and getting confused with who was on what side.
There was also a lot of unnecessary gruesome and gory scenes in this book. Miro's chapters were enormously battle-staged and it did become a bit tiring after a time. There's only so many times you can read a battle without them all blending into one and also feeling a bit hopeless when so many people are dying. Compared to other scenes in the book, the ones that were very violent sometimes seemed out of place. I also really really really didn't appreciate the disgusting act of cruelty in the one brief glimpse we got at Ella's school - a cat being tortured until its back breaks and it vomits its insides is not something I want to read about and the graphic scene played on my mind all day.
One of the few bits I really enjoyed about this book was the Dunfolk. I found them really entertaining and interesting. I loved their words for certain things and how separate they were from the other people of Altura. I enjoyed ever scene with them and I would have loved more.
I'm no 100% sure if I'll go on and read more of this series. When I first finished, I thought I would but now I sit and think about my feelings on the series, I'm not 100% sure. I guess we'll see if my curiosity wins out in the end.
Overall I think I have to give this one a 3 stars as it definitely lacked in some areas for me. I was really disappointed that I got to see so little of Ella and Miro's training in their chosen fields (when I say little, I mean basically none). Why tease a school of enchanters and not give a few days of lessons? I would have even enjoyed Ella's first day in school but she got in and the next chapter it was one year later? The lore and magic system seemed to have been figured out fairly well so I'm not sure why the author chose to leave the school system out.
At first, I thought I was getting some adequate world-building and was coming to terms with the different regions of the one land ruled by the emperor and what their skills was but it became lost to be honest. I would have benefit from a brief glossary at the start of the book detailing the land, who their leader was and what their 'lore' was. I kept trying to figure out who was who and getting confused with who was on what side.
There was also a lot of unnecessary gruesome and gory scenes in this book. Miro's chapters were enormously battle-staged and it did become a bit tiring after a time. There's only so many times you can read a battle without them all blending into one and also feeling a bit hopeless when so many people are dying. Compared to other scenes in the book, the ones that were very violent sometimes seemed out of place. I also really really really didn't appreciate the disgusting act of cruelty in the one brief glimpse we got at Ella's school - a cat being tortured until its back breaks and it vomits its insides is not something I want to read about and the graphic scene played on my mind all day.
One of the few bits I really enjoyed about this book was the Dunfolk. I found them really entertaining and interesting. I loved their words for certain things and how separate they were from the other people of Altura. I enjoyed ever scene with them and I would have loved more.
I'm no 100% sure if I'll go on and read more of this series. When I first finished, I thought I would but now I sit and think about my feelings on the series, I'm not 100% sure. I guess we'll see if my curiosity wins out in the end.
Note: This review contains spoilers for The Selection series and minor spoilers for The Heir (just names and some personality traits etc. Why I think they'd be good or bad choices).
UGH THIS BOOK.
SO
GOOD
CAN'T
BREATHE
Okay, now I have that out of the way. I absolutely adored this novel! The Heir follows on from events 20 years after The Selection series. Now, the new Princess/ Queen in waiting is Eadlyn, the 18-year-old daughter of King Maxon...and Queen America. Eadlyn will be the first ever Princess to become Queen before her brothers, her parents changed degree following her birth, a whole seven minutes before her brother Ahren.
But things in Ilea are not as well as you would hope. Despite the castes being eradicated, uprising and rebellions are still rampant and getting worse. Under persuasion from her parents, Eadlyn agrees to take part in a new Selection - inviting 35 men into her home, and allow them to try and make her fall in love with one of them.
From the start, Eadlyn comes across straight-laced, haughty and rather cold. And it's not too much of a surprise. Even though she was brought up in a loving family, Eadlyn always knew she would be Queen of Ilea someday, and had a different kind of education and instruction than her brothers, and was taught to look at things a different way. I also feel a lot of her coldness and loner tendencies, comes from always believing she would, at least start of her reign alone with no help from a male companion.
So it's especially hard for Eadlyn to welcome the new boys - despite some of them being genuinely lovely and caring and even one being a boy she grew up with - Marlee's son Kile (this isn't technically a spoiler, as soon as he's mentioned it's obvious he will end up there). While Eadlyn has been surrounded by the true love of her parents, and the love Ahren has for the French princess Camille, it's never something she desired for herself. So she makes a few mistakes along the way...and comes across even worse to the public and downright terrifying to the lads.
One of the huge differences between The Selection and The Heir was the feelings for those in the Selection. With the original series, everyone rooted for America, and we only had two choices - Aspen or Maxon. With The Heir, we're suddenly seeing first hand how amazing each strong contender is - Hale with his perfect clothes, Fox with his determination and sweetness, Henri simply being Henri and Kile with his history and chemisty with Eadlyn. On both sides, you could see where each strongest contender would be both right and wrong for Eady. I may be called judgemental, but there was a point where I believed Hale might be gay as he's so overly into fashion, but maybe not. Kile would be wrong as a Prince, he can barely stand the Palace now, it would be wrong of Eadlyn to expect him to do it for the rest of his life. And Henri, beautiful Henri...who doesn't speak a word of english. Though considering there's clear Swendway connections in Ilea, why doesn't Eadlyn speak Finnish? Or in that case, more languages than just English and Spanish?
One of the other different between the original series and the spin off, was that while Maxon was very alone during his choice and didn't have much people to turn to - Eadlyn has her three brother. The post-Jack scene when Maxon and America walked in on them all snuggled in the bed was so sweet and one of favourite scenes in the whole book (plus a certain midnight kitchen scene)
Ugh but Kiera!!!! How could you leave us with an ending like that! Just how and why!!! I think my heart literally stopped and I was screaming, "That's it!!!!!" And then I frantically went online searching for another book. The only reason this is 4.5 rather than 5 stars was that I really thought this was a standalone spin-off, I was very surprised and almost irritated to discover there would (hopefully) be one more. Just because I wasn't expecting it.
Overall, I've one thing left to say.... #TeamHenri
Let's pretend Erik doesn't exist.
UGH THIS BOOK.
SO
GOOD
CAN'T
BREATHE
Okay, now I have that out of the way. I absolutely adored this novel! The Heir follows on from events 20 years after The Selection series. Now, the new Princess/ Queen in waiting is Eadlyn, the 18-year-old daughter of King Maxon...and Queen America. Eadlyn will be the first ever Princess to become Queen before her brothers, her parents changed degree following her birth, a whole seven minutes before her brother Ahren.
But things in Ilea are not as well as you would hope. Despite the castes being eradicated, uprising and rebellions are still rampant and getting worse. Under persuasion from her parents, Eadlyn agrees to take part in a new Selection - inviting 35 men into her home, and allow them to try and make her fall in love with one of them.
From the start, Eadlyn comes across straight-laced, haughty and rather cold. And it's not too much of a surprise. Even though she was brought up in a loving family, Eadlyn always knew she would be Queen of Ilea someday, and had a different kind of education and instruction than her brothers, and was taught to look at things a different way. I also feel a lot of her coldness and loner tendencies, comes from always believing she would, at least start of her reign alone with no help from a male companion.
So it's especially hard for Eadlyn to welcome the new boys - despite some of them being genuinely lovely and caring and even one being a boy she grew up with - Marlee's son Kile (this isn't technically a spoiler, as soon as he's mentioned it's obvious he will end up there). While Eadlyn has been surrounded by the true love of her parents, and the love Ahren has for the French princess Camille, it's never something she desired for herself. So she makes a few mistakes along the way...and comes across even worse to the public and downright terrifying to the lads.
One of the huge differences between The Selection and The Heir was the feelings for those in the Selection. With the original series, everyone rooted for America, and we only had two choices - Aspen or Maxon. With The Heir, we're suddenly seeing first hand how amazing each strong contender is - Hale with his perfect clothes, Fox with his determination and sweetness, Henri simply being Henri and Kile with his history and chemisty with Eadlyn. On both sides, you could see where each strongest contender would be both right and wrong for Eady. I may be called judgemental, but there was a point where I believed Hale might be gay as he's so overly into fashion, but maybe not. Kile would be wrong as a Prince, he can barely stand the Palace now, it would be wrong of Eadlyn to expect him to do it for the rest of his life. And Henri, beautiful Henri...who doesn't speak a word of english. Though considering there's clear Swendway connections in Ilea, why doesn't Eadlyn speak Finnish? Or in that case, more languages than just English and Spanish?
One of the other different between the original series and the spin off, was that while Maxon was very alone during his choice and didn't have much people to turn to - Eadlyn has her three brother. The post-Jack scene when Maxon and America walked in on them all snuggled in the bed was so sweet and one of favourite scenes in the whole book (plus a certain midnight kitchen scene)
Ugh but Kiera!!!! How could you leave us with an ending like that! Just how and why!!! I think my heart literally stopped and I was screaming, "That's it!!!!!" And then I frantically went online searching for another book. The only reason this is 4.5 rather than 5 stars was that I really thought this was a standalone spin-off, I was very surprised and almost irritated to discover there would (hopefully) be one more. Just because I wasn't expecting it.
Overall, I've one thing left to say.... #TeamHenri
Let's pretend Erik doesn't exist.
YES!
Every girl should read this, preferably if she's a teenager and going through one of those stages of confusion and uncertainty in one self. It's one of those books that you suddenly think, "Oh my god, it's not just me." It's laugh out loud funny, truthful to the point of being crude and a must-read for every girl and even every boy!
Every girl should read this, preferably if she's a teenager and going through one of those stages of confusion and uncertainty in one self. It's one of those books that you suddenly think, "Oh my god, it's not just me." It's laugh out loud funny, truthful to the point of being crude and a must-read for every girl and even every boy!
Waverly and Kieran are the oldest children aboard a spaceship headed for the new earth, they were always expected to end up together. But then their ship is attacked by a neighbour and the girls are taken. Gasp, horror! The lovers are split up.
Honestly, I don't buy this book as a love story. It's very much a story about surviving against people trying to shut you down. Kieran and Waverly are separated for pretty much the entire thing - thinking about how to help themselves and the respective boys/girls rather than each other. I also felt a weird disconnection with them, at all times. I actually, from the start, preferred the relationship Waverly appeared to have with Seth - who I thought was a nice guy and not like his dad - and then proved to be a bit of a violent nut.
There's also a bit too much religion for my liking. Part of me feels the writing in this book was a bit forceful - there's lot more arguments for the sermons than against, and then there's the horror against the IVF treatments (yes, they were without permission but more on that) and the abortions. It all smelled too bible pusher for me. Let people make their own decisions please.
I was a bit annoyed at the girls' reluctance to help out the women of the New Horizons. Yes, Anne Mather was a tyrant but the others were genuinely nice people, trying to help and desperate to care for the girls and have a baby of their own. They weren't forcing the girls to carry children themselves or go through childbirth to rip the baby away. Yes, a bit more time for the girls to be explained how important it was to the women, and give their genuine consent would have been nice but there was not one point in the book where Waverly stopped to think, maybe it wasn't such a bad thing that she was giving these people the chance to have a family and sustain life on their ship.
Basically, I think a lot of this book is the characters being up their own asses in self-importance...
Honestly, I don't buy this book as a love story. It's very much a story about surviving against people trying to shut you down. Kieran and Waverly are separated for pretty much the entire thing - thinking about how to help themselves and the respective boys/girls rather than each other. I also felt a weird disconnection with them, at all times. I actually, from the start, preferred the relationship Waverly appeared to have with Seth - who I thought was a nice guy and not like his dad - and then proved to be a bit of a violent nut.
There's also a bit too much religion for my liking. Part of me feels the writing in this book was a bit forceful - there's lot more arguments for the sermons than against, and then there's the horror against the IVF treatments (yes, they were without permission but more on that) and the abortions. It all smelled too bible pusher for me. Let people make their own decisions please.
I was a bit annoyed at the girls' reluctance to help out the women of the New Horizons. Yes, Anne Mather was a tyrant but the others were genuinely nice people, trying to help and desperate to care for the girls and have a baby of their own. They weren't forcing the girls to carry children themselves or go through childbirth to rip the baby away. Yes, a bit more time for the girls to be explained how important it was to the women, and give their genuine consent would have been nice but there was not one point in the book where Waverly stopped to think, maybe it wasn't such a bad thing that she was giving these people the chance to have a family and sustain life on their ship.
Basically, I think a lot of this book is the characters being up their own asses in self-importance...
I waa given this b a friend in work, and honestly, when I first read the blurb, I wasn't totally enthused but decided to go along with it and I'm really glad I did. This book is short and easy to read (if you're Irish of course) and is full of love, loss, despair, loneliness, hope...everything you could think of. It's filled with all the kinds of characters you'd expect in a little village - the ould grumpy fart, the golden boy, the rat, the village bike, the floozy...
What I found lovely is how with one small chapter, Ryan's writing managed to capture the essence of these characters. We had one chapter to either root for the characters (which I did for most) or hope it all fell down for them, (cough Trevor cough).
I doubt anyone outside of Irish culture would be able to read this book and understand it. The style of writing is a bit like an Irish person's brain vomited up their thoughts onto the page but it worked really, really, well. Definitely worth the read.
What I found lovely is how with one small chapter, Ryan's writing managed to capture the essence of these characters. We had one chapter to either root for the characters (which I did for most) or hope it all fell down for them, (cough Trevor cough).
I doubt anyone outside of Irish culture would be able to read this book and understand it. The style of writing is a bit like an Irish person's brain vomited up their thoughts onto the page but it worked really, really, well. Definitely worth the read.
This is an action packed book based around a world called The Banished Lands. Similar to book series like A Song of Ice and Fire, the story is told through various characters POVs from several different areas of that world and from both good sides and bad sides. We learn that there are two Gods in this world, Elyon and Asroth equivalent to God and Satan - Elyon has disappeared but the evil Asroth is planning on making a comeback.
A prophecy states that human avatars of the Gods will be born, but who is who? Characters range from Nathair, the son of the High King Aquilus, his brother-in-arms and closest companion Veradis, Kastell and Maquin - two soldiers looking for a destiny, Evnis, a desparate man willing to sell his soul for power and then Corban, a son of a simple blacksmith who wants to become a soldier and learn to fight for his people.
This is so interesting, and despite the various number of characters, really easy to follow. There's no huge gap between good and evil either and it really keeps you guessing for a long time about who is the Seren Disglair (ELyon's avatar) and who is the Black Sun (Asroth's avatar). There's angels among men, both good and bad, giants, huge wolves and much more. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves an action-packed fantasy book but expect to be on the edge of your seat throughout!
A prophecy states that human avatars of the Gods will be born, but who is who? Characters range from Nathair, the son of the High King Aquilus, his brother-in-arms and closest companion Veradis, Kastell and Maquin - two soldiers looking for a destiny, Evnis, a desparate man willing to sell his soul for power and then Corban, a son of a simple blacksmith who wants to become a soldier and learn to fight for his people.
This is so interesting, and despite the various number of characters, really easy to follow. There's no huge gap between good and evil either and it really keeps you guessing for a long time about who is the Seren Disglair (ELyon's avatar) and who is the Black Sun (Asroth's avatar). There's angels among men, both good and bad, giants, huge wolves and much more. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves an action-packed fantasy book but expect to be on the edge of your seat throughout!
I love reading stories about World War Two, in particular when they star women kicking ass as nurses and dashing men in uniforms. We Shall Remember is definitely slightly different than the typically, mainly british-based novels I've read but it certainly didn't take away from Irena's loyalty and bravery. The first part of the book is such a guessing game as he reader tries to figure out who Magdalena Drobnik is, and what she has to do with Irena and Richard.
There was a while I really wondered about whether or not Irena's friend was still alive from the start of the book as I had felt that those letters were so vague and may have been staged.
Irena definitely annoyed me at times, her refusal to give in to Richard when she clearly felt so much for him - they could have had so much more time together! And then her refusal to try and leave Poland afterwards. It makes me sad that they didn't have any children or legacy left behind other than Lena, who wasn't blood-related or carried their name and essentially Irena was on her own for so long. I maybe would have liked Neil to have been introduced earlier and maybe a bit saucier things happening between him and Sarah but for such a brief character, he was a very strong, vivid one. The chemistry was definitely there.
There was a while I really wondered about whether or not Irena's friend was still alive from the start of the book as I had felt that those letters were so vague and may have been staged.
Irena definitely annoyed me at times, her refusal to give in to Richard when she clearly felt so much for him - they could have had so much more time together! And then her refusal to try and leave Poland afterwards. It makes me sad that they didn't have any children or legacy left behind other than Lena, who wasn't blood-related or carried their name and essentially Irena was on her own for so long. I maybe would have liked Neil to have been introduced earlier and maybe a bit saucier things happening between him and Sarah but for such a brief character, he was a very strong, vivid one. The chemistry was definitely there.