Rise of the Empress
December 2017 Reading Wrap-Up
The Waterless Sea by Kate Constable
(The Chanters of Tremaris, book 2)
Rating: ★★★★☆
Review: No
Reading Dates: December 11 – 12
Read Count: 2
Favorite Thing: Chanters vs. Pirates from the beginning.
Least Favorite Thing: Ooomg so many sexist desert-dwellers!
I started to reread this series earlier in the year and then just totally got side-tracked, but I’m back now! (Also I think I completely blocked out the end….)
My Posts About The Waterless Sea
The Tenth Power by Kate Constable
(The Chanters of Tremaris, book 3)
Rating: ★★★★☆
Review: No
Reading Dates: December 12
Read Count: 2
Favorite Thing: The reveal about Cal’s family 🙂
Least Favorite Thing: Um… Keela’s entire original personality?
Man I zipped through this one! I was so anxious because I couldn’t remember in detail how this book went so I just devoured it!
I definitely recommend the Chanters of Tremaris series to anyone who likes YA Magical Fantasy and those who, like me, love stories about nature magic.
My Posts About The Tenth Power
The Swan Maiden by Heather Tomlinson
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Review: Kinda?
Reading Dates: December 12
Read Count: 2
Favorite Thing: Lavena had me cackling!
Least Favorite Thing: Seriously why does her entire family have to be Like That?? I just wanted to climb into the novel and systematically throttle them all…
I was actually surprised by how little of this story I remembered from when I first read it years ago.
My Posts About The Swan Maiden
The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan
(Trials of Apollo, book 1)
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Review: No
Reading Dates: November 23 – December 13
Read Count: 1
Favorite Thing: Actually dealt pretty well with the portrayal of a relationship between a child and their abusive parent.
Least Favorite Thing: Apollo is so fucking annoying. I miss Percy.
Seriously the only parts of the book I truly loved were the parts with Percy. I didn’t even realize he was my favorite, but he’s obviously my favorite. Lovably sarcastic dork….
My Posts About The Hidden Oracle
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
(Brian’s Saga, book 1)
Rating: ★★★★☆
Review: No
Reading Dates: December 13
Read Count: 2
Favorite Thing: I love the way Brian thinks about things, like referring to the fire as his “new hungry friend”.
Least Favorite Thing: That moose was a dick. (Honestly, I can’t think of anything I didn’t like about the story/writing.)
I’m really glad I decided to try rereading this again. I wanted to see if I still liked it after all these years and I think I actually like it more now.
Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao
(Rise of the Empress, book 1)
Rating: ★★★★★
Review: Yes
Reading Dates: December 15 – 18
Read Count: 1
Favorite Thing: Had me totally rooting for someone I knew was technically a villain!
Least Favorite Thing: I really didn’t need the mental images of killing small animals… (To be clear, it’s not often and it’s not like gratuitous slaughter, it’s just the descriptive language Julie C. Dao is good at made things a little too vivid for me for that particular couple scenes.)
I was so excited to get my hands on this book and it didn’t disappoint! I feel like wandering around town yelling about this book like a street preacher. Seriously, I recommend it to everyone, especially if you like fairy tale retellings.
(I almost put that my favorite thing was that there was literally zero white people in this entire novel, but I thought that might be a little tactless…oops!)
My Posts About Forest of a Thousand Lanterns
Mind Games by Kiersten White
(Mind Games, book 1)
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Review: No
Reading Dates: October 22 – December 23
Read Count: 1
Favorite Thing: Fia being all small and kick-ass.
Least Favorite Thing: It just didn’t hold my attention very well…
I think it’s a pretty decent book, there was just something that made it hard to stay in the story. Still it ended on a minor cliffhanger so I guess I’ll be reading the sequel at some point!
Hold Still by Nina LaCour
Rating: ★★★★☆
Review: No
Reading Dates: December 23 – 26
Read Count: 1
Favorite Thing: The photography.
Least Favorite Thing: I’m surprised to find there isn’t really anything I didn’t like from this book. Everything felt very honest.
I was afraid this book would be really hard to read because of the subject matter, but it moved really well and was a very honest portrayal of grief and recovery.
In Progress
Review: Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao
Xifeng has always been told of her great destiny, but she doesn’t know if she believes in it. When she travels to the Imperial City she will have to choose between warring urges. Will she marry Wei and live a simple life or embrace the darkness that draws her and chase a powerful destiny?
Rating: ★★★★★ – it was amazing
Genre: young adult fiction, ya fantasy, fairytale retelling
Pros: #OwnVoices, beautifully written, excellent spin on an old story
Cons: somewhat slow beginning (but this is barely a con, and I’ll explain why)
An Own Voices novel and a fairy tale retelling, what could be better? Well, it could be beautifully written, as Forest of a Thousand Lanterns most certainly is.
The most interesting thing to me is how Dao had me completely forgetting that this was the story of the evil queen! I was rooting for Xifeng the entire time, constantly hoping she would find ways to outsmart her enemies and get more powerful. It wasn’t until the very end that I started to remember I was cheering on someone who is technically the villain of the story! And even once I did I found it impossible to dislike her.
This is not the first time I’ve read a book about this fairytale character’s origin, but never have I found myself rooting for her or liking her, or even feeling all that sorry for her for that matter. But with FOTL I knew from the beginning who Xifeng was, and I still didn’t think about it until almost the end of the novel because I cared about her the whole time.
There was a short time at the beginning of the book (basically, the parts leading up to Xifeng’s arrival in the Imperial City) where I felt like things were moving kind of slowly. It wasn’t unenjoyable to read or anything; I never felt like I was forcing myself to keep reading. I just found myself wondering if some of the stuff I was reading even needed to be there.
However, I don’t actually think it was a real problem, because later on I came to believe those things did need to be in the story. I think all the stuff in the beginning which made it seem a bit long before the action really began may be what helped to build that great empathy I felt for Xifeng that let me forget she was supposed to turn into a villain.
I honestly never expected to get so excited over a retelling of Snow White, since it’s a really well known and oft retold tale, but Julie C. Dao did an amazing job. The new setting and the dark fantasy aspect really made this story better than any others I’ve found.
Another great thing was the descriptive language the author uses. It painted such a vivid picture that I never had trouble staying in the story and I often found myself stopping to reread a line or two because it was just so beautifully written.
I pretty much recommend this book to everyone, but specifically fans of fairytale retellings & YA Fantasy, or anyone wanting to read more books with non-white characters/authors. Because the only real drawback to this book is having to wait to read the sequel!
Question About Snakes in Forest of a Thousand Lanterns
Teaser Tuesday: December 19, 2017
How their slippery hearts had scorched her throat, how the hot metallic tang of blood had given way to a roar of satisfaction that shook her whole being.
– Julie C. Dao, Forest of a Thousand Lanterns (Rise of the Empress, book 1), page 210
Version:
Hardcover, 363 pages
Published October 10th 2017 by Philomel Books
Welcome to Teaser Tuesday, hosted by Ambrosia at The Purple Booker, the weekly Meme that wants you to add books to your TBR, or just share what you are currently reading. It is very easy to play along:
- Grab your current read
- Open to a random page
- Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
- BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
- Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! Everyone loves Teaser Tuesday.
Some Quotes from Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao
There were so many lovely lines in this book, but these are my three favorites:
She would wrap her coils around him in tender confinement and be not his captive, but his captor.
– Page 128 (Chapter 16)
For that is the way of the world, Guma’s voice echoed. Some are given a rope to the moon, and others claw up the sky.
– Page 139 (Chapter 18)
Save me, she thought. Save me from this love dark road.
– Page 147 (Chapter 18)
Version:
Hardcover, 363 pages
Published October 10th 2017 by Philomel Books
Completed: Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao
Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Mini-review: IT’S AMAZING READ IT NOW OMG!!!
More complete review coming soon when I have recovered.
Tomes & Tea Sunday: December 17, 2017
Friday 56: December 15, 2017
The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda’s Voice and the rules are simple:
- Grab a book, any book (I, personally, prefer to use my current read.)
- Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader (If you have to improvise, that’s ok.)
- Find any sentence, (or few, just don’t spoil it)
- Post it
Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao
(Rise of the Empress, book 1)
Love killed your mother, Guma had always warned her. Give your heart and you lose your soul.
Darkestwings Reads