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Just Finished

Warchild by Karin Lowachee
Warchild is a military sci-fi in the vein of Ender's Game (think YA space soldiers), but it is SO MUCH better. The protagonist, Jos, is kidnapped by pirates when they attack the merchant space vessel where he grew up. His parents and all of the adults on board are killed and the children are rounded up as captives. Many of the children are sold off as slaves, but Jos is taken under the wing of the abusive pirate captain. Jos manages to escape after a year in the pirates' hands, but the experience colors his entire psyche for the rest of the book. The way that Lowachee uses ambiguity in the text to represent Jos's trauma and PTSD was really effective and moving. She also does some switching of POV styles, going from second person to first after about 40 pages. It was an interesting creative choice, although it almost stopped me from reading the book as I loath second-person POV. I'm glad I pushed through though; I really, really loved this!

The Conquerer's Saga by Kiersten White
The series was a roller-coaster of high and low points for me. The POV switches off each chapter between a brother and sister, each of whom spend most of the series doing completely different things. It made the books feel a little odd, like two unrelated stories being told simultaneously. That being said, I adored both characters individually and really liked each of their narrative arcs. One was a coming-of-age/romance and the other was more of a military/quest tale of the character trying to reclaim her stolen birthright. One ends kind of tragically and one is very HEA, and I found it strange (but kind of neat) to get both styles of endings in one book. The second book, which took place during the fall of Constantinople to Ottoman forces, represented the best of the story, IMO.

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
This book was a fun alternative history in which the American Civil War was put on hold to fight a sudden zombie uprising. The MC, Jane, is a young woman at a finishing school that teaches girls how to serve as ladies-in-waiting and how to fight zombies. I enjoyed the story, even though the plot was a little bit thin. The world-building was really good and the audiobook narrator did a wonderful job! Plus we got bi and ace rep and a POC main character within a largely POC cast. Score!

Currently Reading

Lord of the White Hell, Book 1 by Ginn Hale
I'm super close to finishing this. I absolutely adore Ginn Hale's imagination. Definitely enjoying and will be continuing on with the series.

Phoenix Unbound by Grace Draven
This has been something of a disappointment to me. The writing is really beautiful, but the plot is dragging and the characters are both way too perfect. Plus they have zero romantic chemistry, which kind of ruins the whole "fantasy romance" concept. I want to finish this, because it has great reviews and I heard that the last 25% is particularly good, but I'm not very hopeful at this point.

Ned Christie: The Creation of an Outlaw and Cherokee Hero by Devon Abbot Mihesuah
This is a really well-researched analysis of Ned Christie. As a book, it's not the most readable. It is pretty dry and full of primary sources that are historically but not narratively relevant (for example, fully quoting every single eyewitness account to an event as they were given in testimony, even when they become really repetitive.) It's a good starting point for clearing up the misconceptions about Christie, which is important.

Up Next

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
I'm hoping to listen to the audiobook version of this one. I've heard awesome things!

A Brother's Price by Wen Spencer
This is supposed to be a gender-inverted fantasy romance, set in a matriarchal society where men are scarce. I was super excited to find a copy of this at my local used bookstore.

Can I just shout into the void for a second?

I just finished reading Dragon’s Winter by Elizabeth A. Lynn. I don’t know if I can take reading the sequel. I don’t remember the last time I have been so monumentally crushed by high expectations being suddenly dashed upon a rock.

Don’t get me wrong, I love an unrelenting tale of human misery and woe. Angst is my go-to genre, which is why I chose to read this book in the first place. Well, that and canon slash. Which brings me to my next point…

What. The fuck.

What is this book about?

After 300ish pages of beautiful, subtle, committed adorableness between the two (main?) characters, the epilogue - the happy fucking ending - is the dragon prince falling in love with a random throwaway lady that was introduced one chapter earlier? Ugh. I just… I was so into this book until the epilogue. It completely ruined it. It’s not that there can’t be a love triangle or any romantic tension for the main characters either. But how can you end your epic, sweeping, gay, love story with this? Even if you want the drama of Karadur falling in love with someone else, or loving multiple people, or whatever… that really shouldn’t be the point where it stops. Because that isn’t closure, at least not to the story you’ve been telling so far.

And another thing? Azil. What the hell? Poor Azil. Kidnapped and tortured by the villain and then fucked over even worse by the author. I mean seriously, here’s an idea: don’t make one of your most interesting characters into a fucking cocktail waiter who gets to be abandoned by his lover in favor of the princess at the end of the story (oh and who, by the way, also never gets revenge on the insane warg-beast that tortured him and taunted him throughout the entire book). Fucking unbelievable. This is why I don’t know if I can read the sequel. Azil isn’t even mentioned in the description of Dragon’s Treasure, so presumably if we do see him he’ll just be fetching drinks for Karadur and his new lady love and then going to sleep alone with his terrifying nightmares. Ugh.

I probably will read the sequel though. Goddamnit.

EDIT: I read the sequel. It's fucking brilliant.