The Reader Campaign + Giveaway

Happy Friday Everyone!

Today I'm part of a promotional campaign for The Reader, the first book in the Sea of Ink and Gold series by Traci Chee. In this world society as a whole is illiterate and there are no books to be had – GASP!–, so as part of the campaign I've been asked to list for you a few of the books that I just couldn't survive or imagine life without.

As I'm sure is the case for so many of you, that list is a long one, but I've managed to narrow it down to three. If you don't count the fact that some are series, which I don't. Series = one book using Jenny Logic.

THE FEVER SERIES

I am a huge fan of antihero characters, and Jericho Barrons might just be the antihero to end all antiheroes (to me anyway). He's absolutely infuriating, a complete a-hole, and a sadist, but damn if he's not attractive as all get out too. I've never loved, hated, and then loved a character again as much as I did Barrons throughout this series, and even just mentioning his name brings a smile to my face. Though this series went off the rails a bit for me after Iced and Mac in general could be trying at times, the first five books will forever have a special place in my heart. A place that likes to be tortured by enigmatic bastards named Barrons ;-)

THE VAMPIRE ACADEMY SERIES

Like Twilight, this series tends to have a pretty polarizing effect - readers either love it or loathe it. This was one of the first series I read when I started really getting back into reading after a long, long break during which I only read class-required books, and it truly made me see how much fun reading could be. It's not going to find its way onto the classics shelf anytime soon, but it's a series that changed my life as it, along with Twilight, was the catalyst for me starting this blog.

THE THRONE OF GLASS SERIES

I remember the exact moment Throne of Glass hit my radar: BEA 2013. I added it to my "if I have time" list knowing very little about the author or series, and when the Moms and I showed up to stand in line about an hour ahead of time – we thought we'd be first – we found ourselves a solid hundred plus people back. We actually ended up being the last three people who were allowed to get our books signed as Sarah's signing hour was up, and seeing that reaction had me absurdly excited to dive in as soon as I got home.

To say I was underwhelmed by this book would be putting it politely. I had expected magic. A captivating world. A heroine made of wit and badassery. What I found instead was a young woman who did a lot of talking about how epic an assassin she was, but did very little to back it up. It wasn't until Bloomsbury published all five prequels in a single installment (which I devoured) that I truly fell in love with this series, and it's been a source of joy and tears for me ever since.

So there you have it, the books that have made a huge impact on me in one way or another, and those select few that find themselves with spines nearly worn through from re-reading:)

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THE READER

Sefia knows what it means to survive. After her father is brutally murdered, she flees into the wilderness with her aunt Nin, who teaches her to hunt, track, and steal. But when Nin is kidnapped, leaving Sefia completely alone, none of her survival skills can help her discover where Nin’s been taken, or if she’s even alive. The only clue to both her aunt’s disappearance and her father’s murder is the odd rectangular object her father left behind, an object she comes to realize is a book—a marvelous item unheard of in her otherwise illiterate society. With the help of this book, and the aid of a mysterious stranger with dark secrets of his own, Sefia sets out to rescue her aunt and find out what really happened the day her father was killed—and punish the people responsible.

With overlapping stories of swashbuckling pirates and merciless assassins, The Reader is a brilliantly told adventure from an extraordinary new talent.

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You can read the first two chapters HERE!

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TRACI CHEE

Traci Chee is an author of speculative fiction for teens. An all-around word geek, she loves book arts and art books, poetry and paper crafts, though she also dabbles at piano playing, egg painting, and hosting potluck game nights for family and friends. She studied literature and creative writing at UC Santa Cruz and earned a master of arts degree from San Francisco State University. Traci grew up in a small town with more cows than people, and now feels most at home in the mountains, scaling switchbacks and happening upon hidden highland lakes. She lives in California with her fast-fast dog. The Reader is her YA debut. 

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GIVEAWAY

In partnership with Penguin Random House, I have a fantastic giveaway to share with you today! One lucky winner will receive a copy of The Reader as well as a snazzy branded "I Am The Reader" tote bag. Win. To enter, please fill out the Rafflecopter form below. Giveaway is open to US addresses only, and all prizing is provided by Penguin Random House.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Waiting on Wednesday: The "Is It Time Yet?" Edition

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking The Spine and is a fun way to see what books other bloggers just can't wait to get their hands on!

I decided to do 2 picks this week, books that I've been dying to read for what feels like 293482023948023 years but in fact has been less than one. How slow time goes when I'm desperate to return to beloved characters! I don't have to wait much longer though, and sometimes even re-reading the synopsis for the hundredth time is enough to tide me over for another week (or day, whichever), so today I'm going to stare at the beautiful covers and pretend that tomorrow is release day for these two ;-)

All that I need to say about these is YES.

ICE LIKE FIRE

Snow Like Ashes #2

Sara Raasch

Young Adult/Fantasy

Releases October 13th from Balzer + Bray

From Goodreads:

It’s been three months since the Winterians were freed and Spring’s king, Angra, disappeared—thanks largely to the help of Cordell.

Meira just wants her people to be safe. When Cordellan debt forces the Winterians to dig their mines for payment, they unearth something powerful and possibly dangerous: Primoria’s lost chasm of magic. Theron sees this find as an opportunity—with this much magic, the world can finally stand against threats like Angra. But Meira fears the danger the chasm poses—the last time the world had access to so much magic, it spawned the Decay. So when the king of Cordell orders the two on a mission across the kingdoms of Primoria to discover the chasm’s secrets, Meira plans to use the trip to garner support to keep the chasm shut and Winter safe—even if it means clashing with Theron. But can she do so without endangering the people she loves?

Mather just wants to be free. The horrors inflicted on the Winterians hang fresh and raw in Januari—leaving Winter vulnerable to Cordell’s growing oppression. When Meira leaves to search for allies, he decides to take Winter’s security into his own hands. Can he rebuild his broken kingdom and protect them from new threats?

As the web of power and deception weaves tighter, Theron fights for magic, Mather fights for freedom—and Meira starts to wonder if she should be fighting not just for Winter, but for the world.

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QUEEN OF SHADOWS

Throne of Glass #4

Sarah J. Maas

Young Adult/Fantasy

Releases September 1st from Bloomsbury

From Goodreads:

Everyone Celaena Sardothien loves has been taken from her. But she's at last returned to the empire—for vengeance, to rescue her once-glorious kingdom, and to confront the shadows of her past . . .

She will fight for her cousin, a warrior prepared to die just to see her again. She will fight for her friend, a young man trapped in an unspeakable prison. And she will fight for her people, enslaved to a brutal king and awaiting their lost queen's triumphant return.

Celaena’s epic journey has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions across the globe. This fourth volume will hold readers rapt as Celaena’s story builds to a passionate, agonizing crescendo that might just shatter her world.

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Review: Heir of Fire

HEIR OF FIRE
Throne of Glass #3
Sarah J. Maas
Young Adult/Fantasy
565 pages
Bloomsbury
Available September 2nd
Source: ARC from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Lost and broken, Celaena Sardothien’s only thought is to avenge the savage death of her dearest friend: as the King of Adarlan’s Assassin, she is bound to serve this tyrant, but he will pay for what he did. Any hope Celaena has of destroying the king lies in answers to be found in Wendlyn. Sacrificing his future, Chaol, the Captain of the King’s Guard, has sent Celaena there to protect her, but her darkest demons lay in that same place. If she can overcome them, she will be Adarlan’s biggest threat – and his own toughest enemy.

While Celaena learns of her true destiny, and the eyes of Erilea are on Wendlyn, a brutal and beastly force is preparing to take to the skies. Will Celaena find the strength not only to win her own battles, but to fight a war that could pit her loyalties to her own people against those she has grown to love?

MY THOUGHTS
Heir of Fire returns us to beloved heroine Celaena Sardothien, but the girl we find in the opening third of this book is a very different girl from the one we've known thus far, stripped of her arrogance and torn from the anger and rage that have acted as the mooring line tethering her to the mortal coil. Without the beautiful ferocity of her vengeance driving her forward, we're left with a Celaena who embodies vulnerability, the number of times she's been beaten down finally totaling one more than she's seemingly equipped to handle. Where a Celaena who's lost a bit of her fight may sound like someone who would frustrate, instead we find we've never wanted to embrace her more, her gorgeous humanity proving that weakness is not in the simple needing of help, but rather in needing it and refusing to ask for it.

Celaena is well aware she's hit rock bottom in the wake of Nehemia's demise, and because she's cognizant of her emotional state, she takes the lifeline thrown to her by Rowan and begins to lift herself up out of the darkness. It's not to say she meets Rowan with open arms and a smiling face, oh no, even in a bad place she's still got a spark of her fire, and she and Rowan embark on an epic battle of wills that's as amusing as it is breathtaking. Ms. Maas could have taken an easier route with this story, the separation of Celaena and Chaol at the end of Crown of Midnight and the introduction of Rowan in this third installment acting as the opening notes of an all-too familiar melody, but thankfully she doesn't rob characters or readers of the tale they deserve. In place of romance, what grows between Rowan and Celaena is the type of friendship every single person who reads this book yearns for–absolute and unwavering when each of them needs an extra shoulder to carry some of their weight.

Some readers may find themselves a touch disappointed given the fact Chaol and Celaena are not reunited at any point despite the impressive length of Heir of Fire, but their separation is nothing if not necessary. Chaol's fear of who Celaena truly is would have only compounded her own reluctance to embrace her heritage, dragging her down rather than building her up as she so desperately needs in the wake of Nehemia's loss. Ms. Maas instead makes the brilliant decision to keep them apart, allowing each of them room to grow into who they need to be without the other's expectations or reservations limiting the scope of what they can achieve. We of course ache for the two of them to find their way back to one another and overcome the nearly insurmountable obstacles facing them as a couple, but we can only smile in anticipation as we read, knowing the wait will more than worth it in the end.

Overall, Heir of Fire is a stunning addition to this series, the slowness of it in parts granting readers the time to explore the fabric of each character, getting to know them in a way action sequence after action sequence wouldn't allow us, and then, when we've just been lulled into a sort of reflective quietness, we're smacked in the face with a reminder of how brutal the King of Adarlan can be. Our hatred for him burns brighter than ever before in the closing chapters, but through the blinding haze of our rage is the comfort that comes from knowing that Celaena, now ready to accept every part of herself, will never let his actions go unanswered. She will come at him with everything in her overwhelmingly impressive arsenal, and I simply cannot wait for the moment when she returns her every loss to those responsible tenfold.

Rating: 5/5
 

Find Sarah:

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This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

Review: Crown of Midnight

CROWN OF MIDNIGHT
Throne of Glass #2
Sarah J. Maas
Young Adult/Fantasy
420 pages
Bloomsbury
Available Now
Source: BEA 2013

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
From the throne of glass rules a king with a fist of iron and a soul black as pitch. Assassin Celaena Sardothien won a brutal contest to become his Champion. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown. She hides her secret vigilantly; she knows that the man she serves is bent on evil.

Keeping up the deadly charade becomes increasingly difficult when Celaena realizes she is not the only one seeking justice. As she tries to untangle the mysteries buried deep within the glass castle, her closest relationships suffer. It seems no one is above questioning her allegiances—not the Crown Prince Dorian; not Chaol, the Captain of the Guard; not even her best friend, Nehemia, a foreign princess with a rebel heart.

Then one terrible night, the secrets they have all been keeping lead to an unspeakable tragedy. As Celaena's world shatters, she will be forced to give up the very thing most precious to her and decide once and for all where her true loyalties lie...and whom she is ultimately willing to fight for.

MY THOUGHTS
Crown of Midnight is a story that manages to escape all the pitfalls so common in second installments, improving upon the very best elements of Throne of Glass and completely doing away with the aspects that were perhaps more of a struggle for those (like myself) who didn’t have the benefit of Celaena's history as outlined in the prequel novellas. Ms. Maas gives us Celaena at her finest in this sequel, her brutality as much a focus as her vulnerability; the two a swirling combination of character perfection that has her stealing a part of our hearts and forever locking it away in the pages of her story.

Where the Celaena of Throne of Glass seemed to be a young woman who bought a bit too much into her own press, touting her accomplishments and her abilities to any and all who would listen, the Celaena of Crown of Midnight is closer to the woman found in the pages of the prequel novellas, her mind every bit as sharp as her blades and her heart surprisingly open despite all that’s happened to her. Previously, we couldn’t help but grimace at her arrogance, but in this newest book we do nothing but smile at her confidence and pity all those who continue to underestimate her in terms of both her lethality as well as her humanity.

Celaena is a beautiful tapestry of scars–physical and emotional–and they are on display in all their painful glory in Crown of Midnight. Our hearts ache for her as past and present collide, history delivering a brutal sucker punch of repetition to send her reeling once again, but though she staggers with every blow she’s dealt, she never once stays down. Despite the villainous king she serves and the court of liars and social climbers surrounding her, she stays true to who she is–good and bad; blackest pieces and brightest facets–always seeking to help those around her even when they question her motivations and judge her actions. She doesn’t play games with Chaol or Dorian, following her heart even as memories of the love she let herself have once before plague her, and doing so in such a way as to mitigate the damage done to the one whose affection she cannot fully return.

With the love triangle safely put to bed with minimal angst and drama, and the over-the-top ego of Throne of Glass reduced to a charmingly inflated sense of self, the best parts of Ms. Maas’s ability to tell a story are able to shine through, making us immeasurably happy and devastating us in turn until we’re nothing but an emotional mess staring dumbly at the last page wishing futilely for more. Crown of Midnight is gritty and glorious, giving us a protagonist who is a hero in the end but often a villain in the means used to achieve it, and there’s absolutely nothing more satisfying than walking side by side with her as she journeys through every shade of gray.

Rating: 4.5/5
 

Find Sarah:

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This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

Review: The Assassin's Blade

THE ASSASSIN'S BLADE
Throne of Glass #0.1-0.5
Sarah J. Maas
Young Adult/Fantasy
448 pages
Bloomsbury
Available Now
Source: Finished copy from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Contains all five novellas.

Celaena Sardothien is Adarlan's most feared assassin. As part of the Assassin's Guild, her allegiance is to her master, Arobynn Hamel, yet Celaena listens to no one and trusts only her fellow killer-for-hire, Sam. In these action-packed novellas - together in one edition for the first time - Celaena embarks on five daring missions. They take her from remote islands to hostile deserts, where she fights to liberate slaves and seeks to avenge the tyrannous. But she is acting against Arobynn's orders and could suffer an unimaginable punishment for such treachery. Will Celaena ever be truly free? Explore the dark underworld of this kick-ass heroine to find out.

MY THOUGHTS
This review is going to be a touch different from my standard essay-style reviews (I can’t help it, the essay format was drilled into me in high school and college and it’s just how my reviews normally come out when I start typing!) because I need to preface this review with a confession. Throne of Glass, book one in this series, was a huge challenge for me. I didn’t care much for heroine and self-proclaimed badass assassin Celaena until the very end, mostly because there was a lot of talking about how amazingly deadly and how deserving of her reputation she was, but yet I saw no evidence of it on page. There were hints of past jobs done here and there, but for the most part Celaena seemed to have a high opinion of herself unsupported by action.

I was told by many that I really should have started with the prequel novellas before tackling Throne of Glass, but it seemed strange to me that I would need to start a series prior to book one in order to care for the main character. When the opportunity to review all five prequel novellas presented itself however, I thought it was more than time to give Celaena a second chance.

I couldn’t be happier I did. The young woman in the five novellas comprising The Assassin’s Blade is the Celaena I expected to find in Throne of Glass. The Celaena I'd been hoping for all along. She still has an undeniably inflated ego, but over the course of these stories it becomes clear she has a heart to match it in size, and she more than proves her ability to put her fists and her blades where her mouth is. She has moments where her young age gets the best of her and a perceived slight causes her to lash out with some unnecessarily sharp words, but she shows growth and maturity with each novella, and I repeatedly found myself with an evil grin on my face whenever someone made the mistake of underestimating her physically or mentally.

Each novella gets progressively darker, building up to something those who’ve read only the synopsis of Throne of Glass would pick up on through the notable absence of a certain character, but even knowing it was coming didn’t fully prepare me for the delivery of such a brutal blow. The cold young woman who seemed as though her ego could use a check or ten in Throne of Glass suddenly made much more sense; the loss she struggles with at the end of The Assassin’s Blade leaving her with her guilt and her former sterling reputation–dulled from its previous shine–wrapped tight around her like armor against the person who betrayed her. It’s with vengeance and a need for retribution to match Celaena’s own that I closed the back cover of The Assassin’s Blade, eagerly anticipating the moment when the man who cost her everything will inevitably find himself on the lethally right side of Celaena’s blades.

Rating: 4/5

Find Sarah:

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This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

Review: Throne of Glass

THRONE OF GLASS

(Throne of Glass #1)

Sarah J. Maas
Young Adult/Fantasy-ish
416 pages
Bloomsbury Children's
Available August 7th
Received at BEA for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)

After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin.

Her opponents are men—thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the kings council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she’ll serve the kingdom for three years and then be granted her freedom.

Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilirating. But she’s bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her... but it’s the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best.

Then one of the other contestants turns up dead... quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.

MY THOUGHTS

Throne of Glass is a story that seems to quietly smolder, intense moments of action igniting a spark that grabs our attention before things settle down again for our heroine, keeping us constantly on edge as we wait for a full flame to roar to life and warm our hearts with its mesmerizing dance. Unfortunately, in this first installment, that stunning flame is never quite given the air to breathe, our connection to the three main protagonists flickering in and out of existence as we struggle to get a handle on who each of them is beyond their classification or title. Ms. Maas is unquestionably a gifted storyteller, and by the end, the pages cannot be flipped fast enough in order to learn Celaena’s fate, but both world and characters feel a touch incomplete, existing as bright but flat stripes of color without the shadows, depth, and background to bring their canvas to life.

Celaena has the potential to be a spectacular heroine, her dark past barely hinted at in this first book and her skills as an assassin something we can’t wait to see put into action as she defends herself against the twenty-three other competitors vying for the position of the king’s champion, however, she spends almost the entire book merely boasting of her strength and her skill with weaponry without ever backing it up. From our initial meeting she’s referred to as “the world’s greatest assassin”, but those four words make up the entirety of what we know about her for majority of the story. She’s constantly aware of her surroundings, weighing and measuring those around her and plotting how easily she could take them down if she wanted, and while we clearly understand that she can’t go around slaughtering people given her precarious situation, we aren’t even really treated to a display of her skills when it comes to the Tests against the other competitors.

A couple of the Tests are described for us, and we can’t help but revel in those moments when we begin to see some of the much-exalted assassin come to the surface, but after those few brief moments, the Tests are glossed over for the remainder of the story until we get to the final duel. We barely scratch the surface of Celaena’s character, and because we know so little about her, her relationships with both Captain of the Guard Chaol and Crown Prince Dorian don’t elicit from us the reaction we long for when reading. There are several sweet moments between Celaena and both young men, but their connections to one another don’t leave impressions in our skin from where their fingers have grabbed us and held us tight, nor do our bodies feel wound tight in their presence, just waiting for the tension to snap and give us something emotionally charged. Instead, we spend our time longing for the moment when they’ll transform from black and white ink to flesh and blood people, dazzling us with facets of themselves we’re not seeing currently.

Throne of Glass does conclude in impressive fashion, the final battle between Celaena and the most dangerous of her competitors both gritty and violent, drawing us into Celaena’s world in the way we’d hoped to be from the beginning. Hopefully, as the series continues, we’ll learn more of Celaena other than she’s an assassin, and the richness of possibility surrounding all the characters as well as their world will be given room to stretch and come to fruition.

Rating: 3/5

*I think I'm in the extreme minority with my feelings on this book, so below are some reviews of those who absolutely loved it:

Bewitched Bookworms
The Readers Den
Realm of Fiction