Just as soon as I write to say I'm into historical fiction, I felt myself slipping out of it. After Margaret George's novel I couldn't bring myself to continue with Philippa Gregory's Cousin's War series, the next on my list. I waited a couple days for the urge to hit me; nope. I moved onto another genre instead.
I'm once more back into YA novels. OMG. I never thought I'd be able to read them again, 'cause I went through a long period where I couldn't tolerate the cliches found in pretty much every YA book; you know, the love triangle, the ridiculously perfect (or ridiculously flawed) hot guy, the Mary-Sue girl, etc. But I picked up An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir; I read it in three days, after being highly skeptical for the first 50-odd pages. I honestly really really really enjoyed it, and I'm super bummed that the sequel isn't out yet, because I really want to know what happens to everyone. Elias was my favourite character to read about, which was strange because I usually prefer the female character in multi-persona books. But he was so fun to read about, and Laia was really good to read for character development. Elias, though - his chapters were what made me stick around, and I would be flipping pages through Laia's chapters sometimes to see what happened next. Laia got really interesting towards the end though, so hopefully she'll be more of a proactive character for the rest of the series. I really loved the world in this book; at first, all the made-up places and culture baffled me and my brain went into information overload mode, but I got the hang of it. I'm so used to reading stuff about countries and cultures I already know (*hides in shame*). I'm sorta glad it didn't appear to be set in our future; I've read so many good novels, but not great novels, that have sorta tried to emulate the Hunger Games and it just got a bit boring after a while. The historical aspect, the Roman cultural references, were really cool, and a nice way to wean myself off the heavy historical stuff. I'm pretty much done with heavy reading for now, I think. That last book gave me a bit of a headache. But yeah, this book was a really good introduction to this world and the characters, and the ending answered just enough questions to make me somewhat satisfied that I can wait until the next one, without spoiling it all (which shits me because I really wanted to know who Cook was and who the Lioness was betrayed by!!!). Totally recommended.
One of my all time favourite YA series is the Throne of Glass series - for anyone who loves this series, it might shock you to know I haven't read Queen of Shadows yet. The book came out in September, and around that time I was gung-ho classic girl - I had no inclination to read YA novels. I really regret not getting it as soon as it came out, because now I'm stuck waiting for my order from Book Depository to arrive. I'm really antsy to know what happens, and the rating on Goodreads just blows my mind; 4.7 stars! The book is, by all accounts, so good and I don't have it! Damn.
But what I love about this series is that it only gets better, not worse. I've had a couple bad experiences with series that started good but turned to shit (we all know which one I'm talking about). The first book was pretty good - nothing incredibly special, but still interesting enough to get me to read the next one. And boy, am I glad I did. Celaena is the most bad-ass heroine ever, and I totally love her character! She sorta pissed me off in the first one with her sparkly-dress fetish, but you get over that once you've embraced the pure awesomeness that is Celaena. But the second book - that was the clincher for me. That was what got me really into it. That ending fucked me up big time, like nothing else. I was in a total book-coma after finishing that, and I immediately moved onto the next one (I waited a while before reading the second one because I knew from the reviews that the ending was fucked - lucky). The third one was the best by far. I really enjoyed all the new characters, like Rowan and Manon (yes Manon!!) and I really loved there was no romance in it. It was nice to have a break from that, and it was definitely nice to see Celaena decide there were more important things than mooning over her lover. I'm super excited to see what is in store for the next book. but first I have to wait. Urghhh. I hate waiting. And I love that cover - I want it on my shelf so bad!!! It's so beautiful.
I haven't really got anything else to say - I've really only just got back into the swing of YA. My next update should have more. After all, I still have the Falling Kingdoms series by Morgan Rhodes and the Remnant Chronicles by Mary E. Pearson to get through. Or maybe I'll decide I like non-fiction. I don't know.
Thanks for reading!
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