Fantasy – Page 2 – World of Bai

Book Review: “Spin The Dawn” By Elizabeth Lim

I read this book with my small book club of friends and I wasn’t entirely sure of what I was getting myself into other than the fact that this is a Mulan retelling. I am not a huge Mulan fan but this was a pretty cute take on that story.

“You’re used to being underestimated, so you want to prove yourself. Don’t let that be your crutch. Accept help when you need it.”
Elizabeth Lim, Spin the Dawn

About The Book

Author: Elizabeth Lim

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Books For Young Readers

Published Date: July 9th, 2019

Page Count: 392

Main Genres: Fantasy, YA, Romance

GoodReads Rating: 4.00

“I knew then that we were like two pieces of cloth, sewn together for life. Our stitches couldn’t be undone. I wouldn’t let them.”
Elizabeth Lim, Spin the Dawn

Synopsis

Maia Tamarin dreams of becoming the greatest tailor in the land, but as a girl, the best she can hope for is to marry well. When a royal messenger summons her ailing father, once a tailor of renown, to court, Maia poses as a boy and takes his place. She knows her life is forfeit if her secret is discovered, but she’ll take that risk to achieve her dream and save her family from ruin. There’s just one catch: Maia is one of twelve tailors vying for the job.

Backstabbing and lies run rampant as the tailors compete in challenges to prove their artistry and skill. Maia’s task is further complicated when she draws the attention of the court magician, Edan, whose piercing eyes seem to see straight through her disguise.

And nothing could have prepared her for the final challenge: to sew three magic gowns for the emperor’s reluctant bride-to-be, from the laughter of the sun, the tears of the moon, and the blood of stars. With this impossible task before her, she embarks on a journey to the far reaches of the kingdom, seeking the sun, the moon, and the stars, and finding more than she ever could have imagined.

Synopsis From GoodReads

“I’d battled ghosts and touched the stars. I’d climbed a mountain to the moon and conquered the fury of the sun.”
Elizabeth Lim, Spin the Dawn

Rating

Review

I was a little worried to read this book because I am not a big fan of Mulan. However, I really loved the twist to this story. Her being a tailer was a fun story line that was pretty easy to follow along with.

I thought the characters were all very well written and well rounded. You have characters you loved and hated which made you really want Maia to be victorious.

The Romance aspect in this book was probably my favorite part. I think both Maia and Edan are made for each other and I hope things work out for them in the next book.

I rated this book a 3.5 because part two in this book felt really slow to me and made it really hard for me to want to pick the book up and finish it. While most of the romance was in part two and most of the character development, it was just really slow. I am glad I finished the book and the ending made me really want to pick up the next one to see how the story continues but I am not sure I will be doing that anytime soon.

“Seize the wind,” I whispered. “Don’t become the kite that never flies.”
Elizabeth Lim, Spin the Dawn

QOTD: What is your favorite retelling?

Book Review: “Hotel Magnifique” By Emily J. Taylor

I saw this books cover and I was mesmerized. I had no clue what this book was about when I picked it up other than a magical hotel. There is no need to know anything more about the book other than that, you will be hooked within the first few chapters!

About The Book

Author: Emily J. Taylor

Publisher: Razorbill

Published Date: April 25, 2022

Page Count: 391 Pages

Main Genres: Fantasy, YA, Fiction

GoodReads Rating: 3.82

“But in Aligney I could breathe with every corner of my lungs.”
Emily J. Taylor, Hotel Magnifique

Synopsis

Jani is a 17 year old girl who has been taking care of her 13 year old sister for several years since their mother passed. She promised her sister Zosa that she would one day save up enough money to move them back to their hometown but the only reasonable way to make enough money for this is by getting a job with the Hotel Magnifique. A hotel where magic is practiced safely and travels from place to place every Midnight and you never know where it will be next.

When the Hotel appears in an alleyway near their home Jani and Zosa get in line to interview for a position. When Zosa is the only sister to get a job, Jani refuses to let her leave without her so she does everything she can to convince a worker to let her have a maids job. With both sisters now working for the magical hotel nothing can stand in their way for a better future. Well maybe one thing…. I suggest reading your contracts thoroughly before signing, you never know what rights you might be signing away.

Rating

Review

Like I said above, this book hooked me with just a few chapters. The magic system is fairly simple to grasp onto and is really interesting to learn about the more the book goes on. I really loved how everyone who had any kind of magic ability had their own item that helped them control their magic, it added a fun element to each individual character.

The chapters in this book were all fairly short which made this a really quick read and kept me hooked. After a chapter was done I wanted to just keep reading to find out what happened next!

One thing that I would like to bring up is that this book was fairly predictable but I personally didn’t feel like that took away from my overall enjoyment. I might have guessed one or two big things that happened but they were such interesting twists that I didn’t mind too much.

I would love a second book to this because the ending I felt left us with a great story line to continue on. Plus I loved the characters and would like to know what happens next for them all!

QOTD: What is a magical book that I need to read?

“May your artéfact guide you toward your soul’s desire.”
Emily J. Taylor, Hotel Magnifique

Book Review: “The Change” By Kirstin Miller

So far this month I have finished seven books, three of which have been audio books and one was a poetry book. I haven’t done any official reviews for these yet but I think I might throw them all into one blog post later and do some mini reviews for them. It’s not that I don’t think they could all have a post dedicated to them but I just feel my audio book reviews tend to be less detailed than my physical book reviews for some reason.

“The Change” was a book I picked up from my Book of the Month subscription box this month and I was very excited to dive into it! To be honest I don’t read too many books that are over 400 pages, this is mostly just how the cards fall, I don’t have too many books on my shelf that are longer or if they are sitting on my shelf their size just feels intimidating! They take longer to read, obviously, and I tend to have a short attention span but I heard even though this book is long the story itself moves pretty fast which made it easier to dive into.

“One day, your life will grow quiet, and that’s when you’ll be able to hear them again. Like my auntie used to say, the gift arrives after the curse ends.”
Direct Quote From The Book

About The Book

Author: Kirsten Miller

Publisher: William Morrow & Company

Published Date: May 3rd, 2022

Page Count: 480 pages

Main Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Thriller

GoodReads Rating: 4.33

“Yes, you’re afraid of me because I’m better than you are. And if you give one talented woman the power she deserves, another will follow. Then another. And together they’ll show that their way is better. Then your whole fake f*cking world will come tumbling down.”
Direct Quote From The Book

Synopsis

Nessa has always known she had a special gift to hear the dead but when she got married and had kids her power seemed to go dormant due to the craziness of every day life. But with her husband dead and her two kids off at college she finds her life finally slowing down and one day she wakes up to the sound of a dead girl calling for her help.

Something inside of her tells her that she won’t be able to help this girl on her own and so her intuition brings her to find two other women with special gifts as well. Jo, a retired business woman who now owns a local women only gym who is filled with heat and rage. Then there is Harriet, the local “Witch” who knows the secrets of the wildlife and plants around her. Together these three women will bring justice to the girl calling to Nessa.

“Witch is the label society slaps on women it can’t understand or control.”
Direct Quote From The Book

Rating

“Every recipe is a spell and all cooks are witches”
Direct Quote From The Book

Review

This book got four stars for one reason really. First I would recommend this book to all my friends as it was really well written and had a very interesting storyline. But if I liked it so much why not give it five stars? Well, yes, I did enjoy this book a lot but there were so many characters that a lot of the time I had to stop reading just to remember who that person was at the beginning of the book when they were first introduced. In fact, in the last 100 pages we still had new characters being introduced and it got exhausting at times. Now, these new characters were important to the story so I can mostly forgive this situation. Other than that I really didn’t have too many hang ups with this book.

The three main characters were all bad ass! They each had very unique gifts and overall I really enjoyed learning their back stories. I think Nessa was my favorite character just because I really felt her emotions and could tell how drained she would get having to witness the dead girls. Jo’s character was really powerful, she had my favorite back story and I really loved her relationship with her daughter. That brings us to Harriet, probably my least favorite character of the three. I didn’t care for her back story as much as the other two and I found her just kind of annoying. I felt her character was mostly there to just foreshadow events. However, her powers were extremely cool but also just felt unbelievable at times.

This book moved pretty quickly and had a lot of really great twists and turns around every corner. I liked how empowering it was for women of all ages and I think the author couldn’t have written a more powerful story. I highly recommend it to all my fellow friends and followers,

Trigger Warnings

Rape, Sexual Assault, Murder, Kidnapping and sexual Harassment

QOTD: If you could have a superpower what would it be?

(Book Review) “Among the Beasts and Briars” By: Ashley Poston

Good Afternoon everyone! With this review I would like to try something a bit different. In my previous book reviews I just give you a synopsis, my rating and then my review. This time I would like to do those things but also give you a bit more information on the author and the book. At the end I would love if you left some comments about whether you like my normal reviews better or this new style.

This book is a buddy read I started with some of my friends on bookstagram. We each put up options for our book and then had a randomizer choose the book we would actually be reading and this was the winner! I was very excited about this book winning because I don’t read a lot of fantasy and I want to jump into new genres.

About The Book

Publication Date: October 20th, 2020

Author: Ashley Poston

Publisher: HarperCollins

Page count: 352 Pages

Main Genres: Fantasy/Young Adult

GoodReads Rating: 3.83

“Never let anyone make you feel unworthy. You deserve the moon just as much as anyone else.”
Direct quote from book.

Synopsis

Possible small spoilers Ahead

The kingdom of Aloriya is kept safe by the kings magical crown. Legend says the first king of Aloriya, 100 years ago, made a deal with the Lady of the Wilds in order to protect his kingdom and was gifted the crown. While Aloriya was prospering the forests around grew dark and were filled with monsters, the forest soon become forbidden.

Jump forward 100 years. Cerys is the royal gardeners daughter and grew up along side the prince and princess of Aloriya. All it took was one mistake, the prince went into the forest, his guard following him in to protect him and Cerys mom ran in after them. The boys never returned after the woods took them. Cerys mom showed back up at the house but the curse had taken over her body.

Cerys is now 17 years old, her best friend is still the princess but she now has a fox companion. At the royal coronation the curse strikes back and takes the rest of Cerys friends and family. Cerys and Fox now have the task to defeat the curse but everything they thought they knew turned out to be a lie. Will they reverse the curse in time to save all that fell victim to it?

“Just because you are born a gardener’s daughter doesn’t make you any less worthy than someone born into royalty.”
Direct quote from book.

Rating

Review

I don’t typically read fantasy books, this is only my second one since starting my bookish journey a year ago. It’s not that I don’t like fantasy it is just the world building that I get lost in. Each new world in fantasies have their own rules and ways of life that you need to learn in order to fully understand the book. My brain is fairly simple and I like things based in our everyday world. However, it really is fun to dive into something completely different and new.

With my point of view on fantasies laid out in front of you I think we can officially talk about my review and how I really felt about this book as a whole.

I really enjoyed this book! I feel that the world building was done very nicely and you could see yourself living in Aloriya and being apart of these characters world. I also thought that the main characters, Cerys and Fox, they had such a cute and playful relationship through the entire book. I found myself marking so many cute scenes between them or even just their little fights because those little moments really created that relationship between them.

The reason why this book didn’t get the full five stars from me was because of grammar errors and repetitiveness. Just like how I marked all the cute scenes between the main characters I also marked all the grammar errors that I found and there were too many for my liking, it became really distracting and would pull me out of the world that the author so beautifully created. The repetitiveness got kind of old. A lot of the story was them walking through the wild woods which I mean is a big part of the storyline but it was like lets walk for a bit, lets fight this monster, lets argue and then do it all over again. I just wanted something that pulled me into the story for that whole middle part of the book.

I am so glad I got the chance to read this book. I probably would have never of picked this book up on my own so I am lucky my bookstagram friends push me to try new things. I would recommend this book to anyone who is like me and wouldn’t typically pick up a fantasy book. It is definitely worth the read if you can get past the grammar errors.

“The people who die never really leave. That we carry them with every breath we take, until the wind itself is gone.”
Direct quote from book.

About the Author

Ashley Poston has been in the publishing industry for about ten years! She has had here novels featured on the Indy’s Next List and even Teen Vogue. She is the author of seven books but soon to be eight! Her next book is set to come out summer of 2022, so we only have a year left to wait. In the mean time check out her other books; Geekerella, The Princess and the Fangirl, Bookish and the Beast, Heart of Iron, Soul of Stars and Battle of the Bands.

I think my favorite fun fact of Ashley is that she is a true crime fan! So relatable!

I got the Author information from Ashley’s website