jasperslibrary

[jasperslibrary]

Live-blogging into the void now that I’ve finally started City of Brass.

SPOILER WARNING (I’m only partway through book one though so not many)

Nahri had my heart from the very first scene. Amazing.

I’m so happy I have the wooden map from illumicrate for this book because I don’t have to keep flipping back to the one in the book every few pages.

I’m reminded how little sense of geography I have every time I start a new book. Oh X is east of Y and you told me this on page 2? Fantastic, I have forgotten by page 4 and have no concept of where I am now.

People are going to call Dara + Nahri enemies to lovers, aren’t they? Will I be pleasantly surprised and they’ll be lovers and THEN enemies (actual enemies, not just gruff with each other)?

That sounded snarky. I just dislike the overuse of enemies to lovers as a term when it doesn’t apply. No shade on the book at all- every page I have read has been perfection.

I called the illusion spell ages back and I love feeling self satisfied that I’m right.

I don’t know if Muntadhir is going to be a beacon of hope and die tragically, or if he’s going to horrifically betray all the characters I care about in some way, but I bet one of those things happen.

The creatures in this series are beautifully written. It’s apparent that there’s an entire background of world building taken from real world mythology, but I still have plenty of context to appreciate the book, and am now just hooked on reading more stories in this/a similar setting.

:)

[jasperslibrary]

Circe by Madeline Miller - review

Circe gets 3.5 stars out of me. In my ratings, that equals ‘good, pretty entertaining, enjoyable.’ I didn’t love it with all of my heart, but I don’t necessarily have anything negative to say.

Circe as a character was well written and a reader would be hard pressed not to sympathize with her. Any familiarity with Greek mythology and you know the bare bones of the plot, but Miller snuck some nice little surprises in there. Writing this, I want to bump my rating up to four stars, but I’m trying to be honest with myself about how much a book actually grabbed me. If it’s any consolation, I typically round up for Goodreads.

I was expecting to have my heart ripped from my chest since I went into this expecting a similar vibe to the Song of Achilles. The ending was good, and I’m happy about it, but I was expecting something a bit *more.*

If you want a feminist retelling that is entirely conceivable as the ‘true’ root of a myth, Circe is for you. Enjoyable as fuck, nicely paced, gorgeous writing, and lots of little easter eggs tied to other myths. 7/10.

[jasperslibrary]

There’s no one following me here yet and damn I missed yelling my thoughts into the void.

If it’s ages later and you’ve scrolled through months of my posts to see this one - good job. Also, why? Also, thanks!

[jasperslibrary]

My sadness at missing the Broken Binding’s edition has been healed - I snagged Illumicrate’s Roots of Chaos set in the presale this morning!!!

Now the dilemma: do I wait to read a Day of Fallen Night until this set gets here? Or do I buy a standard copy on release day so I don’t have to wait? A conundrum. Please advise.