"That Second Chance" by Meghan Quinn

I'm new to the Amazon Prime Reading platform. Honestly, I'm pretty new to eBook reading in general. That being said, I know enough that some of the 'free' books aren't going to be the highest caliber or top quality of literature. Add in the fact that it's the end of the year, my busy time at work, and I've already won my Goodreads 2019 Reading Challenge, I opted to choose an easy-to-digest love story and thought "That Second Chance" by Meghan Quinn would be a great choice.

Folks - I was pleasantly surprised by how cute and endearing I found the story of Ren and Griffin. If you like a love story and you want something on the cheap, I would absolutely recommend this one. The setting plays a large part of this story, set in Port Snow, Maine. Everyone loves a small town good guy with a sordid past. The small town, nosy busybody neighbors are plot-pushers, and the catalyst of love is a suicidal moose wreaking havoc on the highway.

If you've read the story let me know! If you want more in-depth opinions I'm happy to chat! Happy Reading everyone. :)

Long Live the King of Scars

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

“Each spine had been an open door away whispering, Come in, come in. Here is the land you’ve never seen before. Here is a place to hide when you’re frightened, to play when you’re bored, to rest when the world seems unkind.” Leigh Bardugo, King of Scars.

There has never been a quote that has resonated with me as soundly as the one above by Leigh Bardugo. For a moment, she wasn’t describing the youth of the title character Nikolai Lantsov. She was describing me, a perfect stranger. No book had ever lost patience with me. No book had ever abandoned me, or been frustrated by me. Books would not laugh at you for wearing the wrong outfit, hairstyle, or expression on your face. Books were solace, safety, and adventure all wrapped into one, and Leigh Bardugo hit the nail directly on the head. 

If you know me, you know I’m pretty much late to everything book related. There should be no surprise then that this weekend was spent rushing to finish King of Scars before going to meet the Goth Queen herself on the last stop of her Ninth House tour in Brooklyn, NY even though this book came out forever ago. I spent the weekend being driven around by my fiance so that the story wouldn’t potentially be spoiled when hearing Bardugo speak at Murmrr on Saturday evening. Unfortunately I wasn't able to finish it until Sunday, but luckily there were no spoilers, and thank the Saints for it, because this book was worth getting to the end. 

I started this story very excited to be back in Ravka. After reading the Six of Crows duology and the Shadow and Bone trilogy, I was slightly glad that I’d read them out of order. If I’d have read the Shadow and Bone trilogy first, I don’t think I’d have gone for Six of Crows. I wasn’t sure how I felt about Nikolai at the end of Shadow and Bone, or after the end of Crooked  Kingdom, either, if we’re being honest, but I knew that I’d fell in love with the Dregs of Ketterdam and would have read anything Grisha-related to be able to see those friends again.

King of Scars satisfied a small part of the need to be with the Dregs again because of Nina, but it also allowed me to fall a little bit in love with Nikolai and Zoya, too. **Stop here if you don’t want KoS spoilers.** Nina, Nikolai, and Zoya don’t spend time together, but they’re all mourning pieces of themselves and their past. Nina’s story broke my heart, and reading the first half of the book was almost torture. Her grief and denial was substantial. I hated to be part of it, which is a total complement to Bardugo’s writing. Ny only criticism is that I didn’t believe the bisexual undertones of her relationship with Hanne. That storyline seems so unrealistic that I don’t think I can get behind it. Nina + Matthias forever. 

Nikolai was just as sassy and sarcastic as ever. He is so charismatic and charming, intelligent and unassuming that you can’t help but want to be charmed by him. I’m not sure whether it was meant to be on purpose, or if it’s just happenstance, but his charm and charisma is eerily similar to the way Bardugo describes the Darkling from Zoya’s point of view. I can’t wait to see how Bardugo wraps up these cliffhangers in the conclusion. 

There wasn’t a lot of world building in this story, which I think is good and not at all necessary after six Grishaverse stories. I think the parts she does add in are necessary, and getting to the heart of the story is more important. Stick through the first half of the book, because it is a bit slow and you’ll be expecting more action than you get, but as soon as you get into the second half of the book the wind picks up and the storm rolls in, and you’ll want to hold on for dear life as the Squallers and Tidemakers take you for a ride you won’t forget. 

Four out of five stars. Long Live the King.

"Beasts of the Frozen Sun" by Jill Criswell - Review

“Beasts of the Frozen Sun"

Jill Criswell

When we take the Green Isle, we will show them what a warrior is – a man made of ice and steel.

Man made of ice and steel. That is exactly what Criswell gives readers when she describes the Dragonmen, warriors from the faraway Iseneld, who have come to claim Glasnith for their own wicked agenda. They are fearsome and frightening soldiers lead by the Savage known as Draki, who claims to be half-human, half-god. Draki is out to steal not only the island of Glasnith, but also our heroine Lira of Stone, who is one of the Daughters of Aillira, a girl gifted by the gods. There is only one person who can help Lira defeat Draki, an Iseneld ‘beast’ named Reyker.

Lira and Reyker have a history. Years before our story starts, Lira was captured by the Dragonmen and taken hostage. Reyker, seeing Lira bound for torture at the hand of Draki, puts his own life in jeopardy and cuts her bonds to free her. He marks her with a skolar, a shield scar that will help protect her, and pushes her into the water so she can escape. Years later, he arrives back on Glasnith as the survivor of a shipwreck and Lira is the one to find him and nurse him back to health, even though she knows he is the enemy and doesn’t trust him. They must work together if either of them are going to survive the Dragonmen.

Magic and fantasy weave through Celtic and Norse history to create a beautiful story of the struggle of a people who are trying to protect themselves from invasion and oppression. Criswell builds a wonderful land for the people of her novel, using her words simply but elegantly, with just the right amount of description and none of the extraneous adjectives that readers’ eyes would glaze over.

My only criticism would be that the beginning of the novel took a smidgeon too long to get to the heart of the story. I could have used a little more action in the first 100 pages to get things moving, and there was one too many capture/escape scenes for my buy in. Hopefully because this is the author’s first novel and she’s building a world for a trilogy, these are some kinks that will be worked through in Book 1 so 2 and 3 can thrive. I can’t wait to see what happens in the next installment, which should be published by Blackstone Publishing in 2020. 4 out of 5 stars from me. #LandRforever.

The Monarch Mission Files: Conspiracy

“The Monarch Mission Files: Conspiracy” by Jenn Nixon

One of the earliest memories of my childhood was the desire to be an astronaut. I always answered as such whenever an adult would ask me the silly question of ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’. There is something to the idea of being able to escape this world, literally and figuratively, to reach the stars and uncharted territory that makes my spirits soar out of this atmosphere. That dream has always burned inside me and to this day I am drawn to the skies and beyond. After reading “The Monarch Mission Files: Conspiracy” by Jenn Nixon I’ve been able to satisfy my craving for the universe for a little while longer.

Conspiracy starts off on an Earth of the future, but we’re almost immediately off to a lunar military base. From there we travel to Mars with Mari Yosoto, Trevor Nash, and a motley crew to find the daughter of a VIP. Low and behold, the original mission leads to the discovery of an epic secret, bringing the past and the present on a collision course where the result is a matter of life and death.

This story seemed right up my alley. Nixon’s words and writing style are unassuming and simplistic, meaning that anyone would be able to pick it up and delve right in. The plot to the story, while showing layers upon layers of potential, could have gone deeper. Having not read this author before I’m hesitant to suggest that this is how all her stories flow but based on the title I’d think that this book is really just one chapter of a longer and more impressive story to come.

The characters are endearing. Mari is damaged but badass; Nash is the protector of all, not just the person he’s falling in love with. Sam is a teenager with a wicked brain for tech and Kuna is the lovable brother that we wish we all had, especially when he’s cooking breakfast. I would like to see stronger character development with Mari and Nash’s relationship, and not just her protesting the sharing of secrets and he being stubbornly patient. They have to have flaws. I’d love to see how Nixon explores their flaws in the future. I’d also like more interaction between Mari and Sam, and maybe more of Sam’s backstory as well. This world has untapped potential and I’d be interested in reading how the rest of the story unfolds.