Tag: Red Queen

Series I Want to Finish in 2019

January 9, 2019

The majority of my TBR pile are unfinished book series and one of my goals this year was to make a big dent in my TBR pile, to make room for more anticipated reads! A lot of these series I started reading last year and I’ve just fallen in love with them but others on this list, however, have sadly been forgotten about!

Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir – I wish I’d started this series sooner as I’m obsessed with these characters and this storyline, Sabaa Tahir is very good at keeping readers on the edge of their seat throughout the entire novel! I have the second book ready and waiting on my shelf I just need to find time now to start reading it!

Eragon by Christopher Paolini – I love dragons and despite what people say I really enjoy the film. I know its completely different from the books but I want to start reading the books and seeing where the story goes after the events of the film. Plus I’m a little bit in love with Garrett Hedlund who plays Murtagh in the films and a lot of people praise his casting so I look forward to exploring more of his character.

Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen – I have to thank Emma Watson for recommending this series to me and although the world building and politics are quite intense it is a good fantasy read! I picked the series up again this summer and realized how much I’d missed this world and its characters!

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson – My favourite book of 2019 and I can’t wait to continue the series in the New Year! I’m in love with Sanderson writing so I’m looking forward to delving into more of his series, any recommendations would be wonderful!

Caraval by Stephanie Garber – What I loved about this book was the magic and mystery that dominated the storyline and I loved being transported into its wonderful world! The only reason I haven’t started reading this book is because I want it in paperback which isn’t released until late February!

Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake – I don’t remember loving the first book in this series but since then I’ve heard a lot of really good things about this series, which gives me the hope that it gets better! I really loved the concept and I think it was the writing style that I didn’t really click with nevertheless I want to give this series another go.

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard – I remember absolutely adoring these books and I can’t for the life of me figure out why I stopped reading them? I think this is going to be one of those series that I’ll just have to read again as I can only remember little bits and hopefully I’ll love them as much as I did the first time around.

Glass Sword – Victoria Aveyard

April 25, 2016

Once again Victoria Aveyard a has written another amazing book which we both absolutely loved! Was it as good as the first book? No, but still it was packed with action, and equally fantastic characters!

Glass Sword is the highly anticipated sequel to Red Queen and if you haven’t yet read that yet, I recommend you go and check out our review here! The book follows our group of hero’s as they begin their search to find and protect Red’s with Silver abilities as well as trying to defeat Maven and his evil tricks.

We were able to meet so many new characters in this book as the group searched for other Red’s with abilities and I loved that we got to see a lot of new and unique abilities in use. We both instantly fell in love with Shade, Mare’s brother, as he was funny, clever and his love and protection for his sister was so cute! Farley was another kick ass character who we got see more of and I love how determined and brave she is!

Mare on the other hand we weren’t a fan of. Her time spent with the Silvers molded her into something different, not like the Mare we saw in the first book. We both got a bit frustrated at times with her ruthless, vindictive and Silver-like behaviour and the fact sometimes she was just plain moody. But saying this there were times where she was a brave and cunning badass!

We didn’t see much of Maven in this book but he was constantly in our protagonists thoughts; I love him but at the same time I hate him! But with Maven out of the way it allowed us to get to know Cal more which I liked as well as seeing his relationship with Mare develop. To say their relationship is complicated is an understatement, both have been hurt by the other and their is serious tension but paradoxically, they protect one another despite their past. I love them!

The plot line once again was full of action and I enjoyed exploring more of the world Aveyard had created however at times I felt that a few of the action scenes felt a bit rushed which I was disappointed in as I’m a sucker for a good dramatic action scene. But despite that I thought it was a fab storyline. The ending once again was seriously dramatic, I mean I’m seriously suffering from a book hangover it was that good!

Overall, this is a glorious heartbreaking story which will leave you once again shocked at everything that has happened! I’m going to rate this book 4.5 stars a fab read which we recommend to everyone!

Red Rising – Pierce Brown

April 4, 2016

There are many reason for why I picked up this book but the main is thanks  to BookTube, Tashapolis, in particular who always raves about this book as well as it’s author who may I add is very attractive! *heart eye emoji* I went into this book knowing nothing and if I had to describe it I would say it’s a mix of ‘The Hunger Games’ and ‘Red Queen’ which are two of my favourite series but at the same time this book had it’s own original and unique aspects!

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations. But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity’s overlords struggle for power.

Everything about this book as so real, you had real suffering from the characters which made your heart explode with emotion, you had real villains who were easy to hate and had me looking forward to seeing them being ousted and outwitted. Each character was different and I found it easy to fall in love with a lot of them. Darrow, it a brilliant protagonist, an inherently good person but someone who knows he has to dirty his hands in order to fight for a greater cause. I became so attached to his character and found it easy to feel his pain and suffering and I look forward to reading more about his character in the next book! Not only did I love Darrow but I also loved all the other characters like Sevro, Mustang, Pax and the banter between all of them was brilliant and made me laugh; all of them were just perfect!

The storyline, was so badass. There were so many great scenes and behind every page was action and adventure as well as thousands of plot twists I wasn’t expecting! Although the plot is very similar to other novels, Brown puts it up a notch and makes this journey a remarkable, refreshing experience. He made such a worn out scenario engaging, breathtaking, and super exciting, putting elements and characters never seen and experienced before. The only downside of this book was that at the beginning there was a lot of world building and complicated names which made it difficult to follow but it wasn’t long till I caught up with everything that was going on.

Overall, I bloody dam loved this book and easily rate this book 5/5 stars as it was such a dramatic and exciting story full of unexpected plot twists and adventure which I highly recommend! I could go on and on about this book but I had to limit myself and I’m super excited to read the next book!

 

Red Queen – Victoria Aveyard

April 14, 2015

OH MY GOD. This is one of the best books I have ever read, and I’m not even being dramatic I am genuinely in awe. AHHH I can’t even.This is a fantasy fan’s dream, the best way I can describe it is Game of Thrones (without the naughty bits) crossed with The Hunger Games crossed with Divergent. It’s quite something I can tell you that!

The actual story line is about a seventeen year old girl named Mare Barrow, she lives in a world where people are divided by blood. Silver or Red. If you’re born silver then you are in the higher hierarchy of life, you basically have everything handed to you on a plate and you also have super cool powers. If you have red blood however, like Mare, then you don’t have any super cool powers and you’re forced to live in the lower ends of society, working long hours, never being appreciated and always being looked down upon by the silvers. Also I forgot to mention, if you have red blood and don’t have a job by the time you’re 18 then you’re conscripted to fight in a devastating war that you’re likely never to return from.With a little luck and the help from a seemingly innocent man Mare meets in the pub, Mare ends up in the heart of the Silver court, working for the king, where Mare discovers who she really is and what she is actually capable of. But among the people she hates the most, with people who can read minds and manipulate anyone with a single thought, secrets are not easily withheld and like it says in the book “anyone can betray anyone” and especially in the lion’s den who can Mare trust?

One thing I really loved about this book is that I really could not predict what was going to happen next. I thought the plot was going in a certain direction but EVERY TIME it twists on its head and EVERY TIME I’m left with my jaw on the floor contemplating humanity. I know there are some plot twists that you kind of know are going to happen, but this was just insane, I was not expecting any of the events that happen! But now I’ve told you about the plot twist you’re going to try and look out for them, but if you can, try and go into it with an open mind so you can be as surprised and shocked as I was!

I really loved how Aveyard built up the world so beautifully. It is so detailed with each name of each kingdom and also all the different dynasties and families that make up the Silver court, everyone has an interesting name that you can never remember but still appreciate the time going into creating. Also I felt that, even though the storyline is quite complicated (I say quite I mean VERY complicated, I mean seriously I tried to explain it to my dad and got completely lost…) but it is really well written in a way that you were always understanding what’s  going on.

Although what’s also good is that you were left in the dark about somethings which makes you really eager to read on and find out what the characters are planning…

I really don’t have any criticisms about this book, it was just perfect in my eyes. It was also set up perfectly for a sequel so keep your eyes open, although we might be waiting a while because this book was only published in February this year, but if/when the sequel comes out I will be the first in the queue to buy it!

I think it’s pretty obvious what my rating is going to be and that is of course the full 5 out of 5 stars! I cannot recommend it any more, just read it!