Review: Romanov by Nadine Brandes

Book info:

Title:  Romanov
Author:  Nadine Brandes
Genre:  YA Historical Fantasy Retelling
Release Date:  May 7th, 2019
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Source:  ARC received from publisher for review which did not influence my opinion
My rating:  5 stars

Synopsis:
The history books say I died.

They don’t know the half of it.

Anastasia “Nastya” Romanov was given a single mission: to smuggle an ancient spell into her suitcase on her way to exile in Siberia. It might be her family’s only salvation. But the leader of the Bolshevik army is after them . . . and he’s hunted Romanov before.

Nastya’s only chances of survival are to either release the spell, and deal with the consequences, or enlist help from Zash, the handsome soldier who doesn’t act like the average Bolshevik. Nastya’s never dabbled in magic before, but it doesn’t frighten her as much as her growing attraction for Zash. She likes him. She thinks he might even like her . . .

That is, until she’s on one side of a firing squad . . . and he’s on the other.

My Review:
Anastasia's story is one I never knew a lot about, but had always heard little things here and there and always have been interested in reading or learning more about.  So when I heard about this book from the author of Fawkes, I was extremely interested in reading it.  Let me tell you what, it did not disappoint!  I was hooked from the moment I picked this one up, and like the other good historical retellings I've read in the past, it made me want to pick up nonfiction books and do research into the actual family and times that this involved.  It is nice that the author put even a little helpful extra in the back with what were the true known facts of this story, and how she added or changed to fit her own telling of the story.  There was a lot of emotion, seeing how the family was treated, yet how they seemed to treat those around them made a lot of what was done to them very uncalled for.  And then, just when things started to seem kind of like they had an ally or two, horrible things happened, things that I had tears myself!  Then there was Zash.  You wanted to love him, but had to be upset with him because of how he seemed to not ever get past his preconceived notions. But then he did, and in the end, well, I won't spoil anything.  But wow!  So much at the end of this when it really evolved into the fantastical bit of the story.  Of course there was magic interspersed throughout the story, but the final part was where it all really came into play.

I loved the way the Russian nesting doll, otherwise known as a matryoshka doll was used in the story.  It made me want to go open up the one my sister brought me back as a souvenir from her trip to Russia a few years ago just to check it out.  I look forward to putting this book in my library at school as well, and sharing it with students as they study Russia and its history.  

Review: The Winter of the Witch (Winternight Trilogy #3) by Katherine Arden

Book info:

Title:  The Winter of the Witch
Author:  Katherine Arden
Series:  Winternight Trilogy #3
Genre:  Fairy tale retelling, historical fantasy
Release Date:  January 8th, 2019
Publisher:  Del Rey Books
Source:  Finished copy received from publisher which did not influence my opinion
My rating:  4 stars

Synopsis:
Following their adventures in The Bear and the Nightingale and The Girl in the Tower, Vasya and Morozko return in this stunning conclusion to the bestselling Winternight Trilogy, battling enemies mortal and magical to save both Russias, the seen and the unseen.

Reviewers called Katherine Arden’s novels The Bear and the Nightingale and The Girl in the Tower “lyrical,” “emotionally stirring,” and “utterly bewitching.” The Winternight Trilogy introduced an unforgettable heroine, Vasilisa Petrovna, a girl determined to forge her own path in a world that would rather lock her away. Her gifts and her courage have drawn the attention of Morozko, the winter-king, but it is too soon to know if this connection will prove a blessing or a curse.

Now Moscow has been struck by disaster. Its people are searching for answers—and for someone to blame. Vasya finds herself alone, beset on all sides. The Grand Prince is in a rage, choosing allies that will lead him on a path to war and ruin. A wicked demon returns, stronger than ever and determined to spread chaos. Caught at the center of the conflict is Vasya, who finds the fate of two worlds resting on her shoulders. Her destiny uncertain, Vasya will uncover surprising truths about herself and her history as she desperately tries to save Russia, Morozko, and the magical world she treasures. But she may not be able to save them all.

My Review:
This is a series that definitely needs attention while you read it.  You can't read this and watch tv or read a couple pages at a time and then do other stuff.  It is a story that requires you to be able to sit and read for at least a good 15 minutes or more at a time.  Not that this is a bad thing. It's just something you need to know.  Overall, I'd say this was a really great ending to a trilogy that has a lot of interesting ideas as well as historical aspects in it.    Now, if you haven't read the first two books, you should probably read those reviews first, and maybe not go on in this review, as I might spoil some things for you.  My reviews are here:  The Bear and the Nightingale and The Girl in the Tower.  
Now the one thing that still annoyed me a bit in this one, even though by this third book I knew who all the names referred to for the most part, was having the same character called by two of three different names, often within the same page or paragraph at time.  And sometimes those different names didn't match up like normal nicknames might, or they didn't refer to their position, like King or Prince, or whatever. Even though the author did address this point in the back notes of this book, and I understand her reasoning, it still made it a little difficult at times for the story to flow as easily for me.  Of course, that may be something that is only a problem for me, but I like to point it out, since it is one of the things that kept me from speeding through it, even if the story was really good.  I was definitely very happy for what finally happened in the bath house with Vasya and the Winter King.  I'd been rooting for that for so long!  The ending was good, and I liked again how the author talked about the actual history behind what had happened in this book and how she took her liberties with fitting the story around those things.

A great fantasy, with some great history and mythology/fairy tale retelling in it.  A series I keep in my high school library, and recommend to anyone who wants more Russian themed stories. 

ARC Review: The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

Book info:
Title:  The Bear and the Nightingale
Author:  Katherine Arden
Genre:  Fairy tale retelling, historical fantasy
Published:  January 10th, 2017
Source:  ARC won from Goodreads Giveaway
My rating:  4 stars

I am usually a pretty big fan of fairy tale retellings, especially when it is one like this was blurbed to be, a not so well known Russian tale.  I was lucky enough to win an advanced copy through a Goodreads giveaway.  However, when I first began this, I was afraid I wasn't going to finish it.  It took me a bit to get into it.  In the end though, I'm glad I stuck it out, as it turned out to get really good, and so hard to put down!

The story is about the winter demon basically. At the beginning, the mother of the family goes off to the woods, and swears that she will have a baby like her own mother was.  Her mother was part royalty, but also had some kind of unusual ancestry.  And when she has this child, she dies in childbirth, and the new child is odd.  This new little girl is named Vasilisa.  Vasilisa doesn't behave like a normal girl would, she enjoys playing outside and stays outside. She also acts like she sees the little creatures that are part of the Russian folklore.  Well, she really does see them, even some of the dangerous ones that she is able to help save some of the townfolk from.  When her father travels into Moscow, he ends up with a wife, and soon after that, a new priest.  A priest who wants to force the backwards village people to give up all of their old ways and "false idols" to worship only the one true god.  But in doing so, the villagers lose their protection against the winter demon and soon bad things start to happen. The winter gets really bad.  Very large wolves begin attacking.  And the people begin to turn on Vasilisa, believing she must be a witch because she doesn't give up the old ways.  

All kinds of things are tried, her stepmother even tries to send her away when her father is not there, wanting to get rid of her, and the attention that the priest seems to be giving to Vasilisa instead of the stepmother.  The stepmother has always seen the creatures, and thinks they are demons and that she is going crazy when she sees them.  

There is so much  more to this story.  Vasilisa will have to go back into what her mother did to bring her into this world, and she will discover her own connection to the winter demon, and why she can see all these creatures.  She will also have to figure out if there is a way she can help her people, basically save them, when it seems the person they have now turned to for their salvation, is the one that has brought the devil into their midst.  

Like I said, it took me a while to get into, about a fourth of the way before I was to the point of having trouble putting it down.  But halfway through I was at the point that I could barely put it down to go to work or bed or anything else.  If you have the patience for the slow beginning build up, the payoff is totally worth it in the end. 

 

Review: The Crown's Game by Evelyn Skye

This is a book I was lucky enough to get the ARC of at the bookstore where I work.  I had been very intrigued by it after all the promotional posts going on from the author, as well as on other blogs.  Overall, I was pretty pleased with the book!  And I think I'm glad for it to be a series, as I don't know that I'm thrilled with how the book ended, although it did end well enough.

We have two main characters, Vika and Nikolai.  Both are enchanters, Vika uses nature and the elements mostly for her magic, whereas Nikolai is better making or using man made things for his magic.  When the tsar decides that he needs a Royal Enchanter to help keep his country safe, he must initiate the Crown's Game.  In this, the two enchanters will have to duel, and only one can win, which also means only one will be left alive.  Either one of them will kill the other one, or the tsar/game will kill the loser.

Vika has always lived away from everyone, on an island with her father, where he has trained her all of her life to be the enchanter.  He doesn't know that there is another one out there, and so when the game begins, he must figure out the best way to help his daughter.

Nikolai was an orphan, and taken in by a woman who had been training him not only to be an enchanter, but also to win the Crown's Game.  Nikolai is also best friend with the tsar's son, Pasha.  Now he must keep the game a secret, and so he cannot tell his friend Pasha about it.  But one day he and Pasha had been out on Vika's island, and they had seen her do magic in the forest.  Seeing her caused Pasha to be intrigued by this girl, and want to know more about her, as well as magic.  Nikolai on the other hand, now had a bit of an advantage over Vika, knowing who she was before the game begins.  You see they put wards around themselves to keep the other from knowing who they are, to try to keep the other from being able to kill them.  The tsar has asked the two enchanters to make their feats of magic something to impress his son before his birthday.  They begin with making the buildings colorful and beautiful.  Then the water is made to do very neat things.  Nikolai does try to kill Vika, sort of, with stone birds.  But other than that, they soon become friends, somewhat.  And Pasha starts to figure things out about the game, not realizing that it isn't just Vika.

When something terrible happens to the tsar and his wife, Pasha must hurry up the ending of the game, and this leads to Vika and Nikolai having to make heavy decisions.  Will they choose to save their own life by taking the other enchanter's life?  Or will they try to figure out a way to not hurt the person they have come to know.  The ending is sad, very suspenseful, but sad.  And as I mentioned at the beginning, I'm very intrigued to see what will happen next in the story.  I also liked how the author gave us some factual information about Russia during that time period.  I love when authors do that!

Audiobook Review: The Conspiracy of Us by Maggie Hall

This was my next book that I chose to listen to as an audio book from the library.  And wow, was it good!  So good that there were times I didn't want to get out of my car to go do whatever I was supposed to be doing, because I wasn't ready to stop listening!  Now I know what all the hype about this book was about, and I can't wait for the next one to come out!

The main character is Avery.  She has had to move a lot throughout her whole life because of her mom's job. Whenever her mom gets a mandate, they move on to the next location.  In the current place they're living, Avery has tried to make friends and join in, and has even found a cute guy that is newer than she is, Jack, who might be interested in her as well. But when she sees a paper drop from his stuff, and she picks it up to find a picture of herself, she wonders what is going on. She then hears him on a phone call, but he has an English accent.  Her mom gets a mandate, which means they have to move right away, but Avery wants to go to prom with Jack, so she sneaks out to go.  At prom another very attractive guy, but also new to the area, shows up. This guy, Stellan, tells Avery she has to go with him, and he even pulls out a knife to threaten her.  Jack tries to get her away and explain that he might know who her father is, but then he gets a text, and tells her to go ahead with Stellan, and he'll catch up later.  She goes with Stellan, still with the chance to meet her father.  But this takes her on a private plane to Paris.  Stellan is one of those attractive guys, who knows he is, and is smug, even while being flirtatious.  Oh, and he is Russian.

Once in Paris, Avery gets a room in the Louvre, and finds out that this family she's been brought to join is part of "The Circle" which is made up of many politicians, movie stars, sports stars, etc.  But after being out shopping at a designer store, shut down just for her to pick a ball gown for an event coming up with all the families, she is attacked, and learns about a group called The Order. The Order is out to kill "The One,"  a male from one of the 12 families in the Circle.  She learns that the mandate means something to them, it is a prophecy that tells them The One, must have a union with the girl with the purple eyes.  Well, the family that Stellan works for is expecting twin babies, one a girl, that should have purple eyes.  But, Avery has purple eyes.  And she knows that if anyone else knows, they will think the prophecy is about her, and she will be married off.  So she escapes, first to Istanbul, where she is able to get to Jack again, and they now are on the run, trying to solve the clues left by an old neighbor of Avery's, who turns out to be Jack's mentor, and hoping to solve the clues, and get him back from the Order, who is going to kill him.

So many secrets, so many layers to the whole story.  I loved the whole Alexander the Great back story.  And how Napoleon tied into it.  And the ending, wow, left with a big cliffhanger.  I need to know what will happen with Stellan, how his part in the mandate will affect Avery's part.  And can she be with Jack, even though it is against all of the rules of The Circle.  I really had no complaints about the story whatsoever.  Other than there were a few times when something dangerous was going on, and Avery was calling Jack's name, and on the recording it began to remind me of Rose calling Jack in the Titanic movie.  I now cannot wait until the 2nd book comes out.  Which, hey, now I'm wondering if the egalley is available anywhere?  Guess I'll finish this review and go out to check on that!

The Katerina Trilogy, Vol. II: The Unfailing Light by Robin Bridges

So, it's been awhile since I read the first book in the series, The Gathering Storm, as an e-galley from Netgalley.  But when I began this sequel, I was able to pretty much remember what had happened, and the way that the story itself kind of "reviewed" past events was seamless and only enhanced the story.  I had to check this book out from the library, because I was able to get an e-galley of the third book from Edelweiss, and I had to read on!
In this story we begin with Katerina excited that she will not have to go back to Smolny Academy, because she will be getting to leave Russia to attend medical school in Switzerland.  So for the summer her family is traveling together, and she is with her cousin Dariya, who also will not have to return to school because she will be a lady-in-waiting for the Grand Duchess Miechen.  On their travels they go to visit a cave, inside the cave Katiya, as she is called by her friends and family, gets lost, and sucked in to the Graylands, where the evil Konstantin is waiting, and hoping to get loose.  When she finally gets back to the real world, she finds out that the Tsar has decided she can't leave to go to medical school because it is not safe for her, as well as he wants her close by in case he needs her necromancer skills as well.  So back she goes to school, and not happily.  She still feels for the Tsar's son George Alexandrovich, but knows that since she is of the dark court and he is of the light court they cannot be together.  Something his mother has made abundantly clear in her dealings with Katiya.  Plus she is still stuck with the connection with the evil Prince Danilo who she was tricked into being part of his blood ritual, and who wants to marry her.  There are times when the connection comes in handy.  While the Empress has put a spell on the school to protect those within, unfortunately there is a ghost loose in the school, and Katiya is unable to do much about it, because the spell also keeps dark magic from happening within the school.  All the time there, students get irritable and sick, partly because of the ghost.  Alix, one of her new roommates that we met in the last book, also seems to have a bit of secret.  Getting so ill at one point she is taken home from school.  While Katiya must miss fabulous balls because the Empress wants her to stay there, she is finally allowed to go home for Christmas break.  She has learned from her brother that George may be involved in some dark magic.  Danilo also says this is true.  But she is unable to learn more as much as she tries.  When everyone is back at school from the break, there is a new chef.  One that Katiya has heard great things about his food.  And everyone now seems to be in a great mood, almost unnaturally great.  Only Katiya seems to figure out that it has something to do with the food, and the cook is actually using his Fae powers to help everyone not feel the effects of the ghost.  Of course now Katiya must figure out the secrets, why is Alix so secretive, is the cook really there to help?  And finally, is her beloved George safe, or is he going to the dark court just to win her over in what he thinks she needs for them to be together?  In this book we still have the vampires or blood drinkers, the dead that Katiya has brought back, and now, werewolves.
Once again a great adventure of a story.  And I'm so glad that I'm getting to start the 3rd book right after the 2nd!

The Katerina Trilogy, Vol. I: The Gathering Storm by Robin Bridges

The Katerina Trilogy, Vol. I: The Gathering Storm by Robin Bridges

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I got this as an e-book from Netgalley. I normally wouldn't enter the Goodreads contest to win a copy of a book I've already read, but I did really enjoy this, and since it is part one of a series, I'll want to have it to re-read before the next one comes out probably. I really liked the story to begin with. The characters really grabbed me, and it was fun to kind of read about "royalty" in a way. To read about girls who were supposed to only get married and be good wives. Yet our main character, Katerina, doesn't want that kind of life. She wants to be a doctor. Now in her country, women have been banned from going to medical school. Her father supports her, along with another doctor, and says he will help her to go to a school that does allow women. But this is not the main storyline, although it is a big part of her life. Katerina can see a light around people, a light that tells something about whether they are close to death or not. And she soon finds out, this may be because she is a necromancer. In this world there are vampires, and fairies, and zombies, and all kinds of magical things, ghosts, etc. And it is a world of it. The light and dark sides. Katerina is needed by both sides. One needs her for a ritual to help their son ascend, and then they want her powers for other things later on. The other side needs her to be able to raise a creature that can save them from the dark. The one side, the son says he's in love with her, but Katerina doesn't trust his family, or him. The other side has a soldier/royal son who irritates her, and he doesn't trust her because he can tell what her power is. But soon, a spark grows between them as they continue to be thrown together in all these dangerous situations. But Katerina may have to deny her true feelings, as the other side threatens her friends and family if she does not marry their son and do as they ask.

Now, as I've said, I really enjoyed this book. When I picked it up, I had trouble putting it down. The story was very thought out, all the background of the families and all the paranormal situations and entities. It ended at a point that I'm very eager to read on past and find out what happens, and that's the problem with reading advanced readers copies, since it isn't even published yet, now I have to wait until it's published, plus probably another year before I'll get to read on. I wish when I got an ARC of a series, I could just get all the rest early too. But I'm sure all readers feel that way. Anyway, my only complaint with this book has to do with some of how it was so involved. I feel like the book just started in with some of the paranormal stuff, but didn't really explain it well until later, which was a bit confusing. Also, Katerina didn't know she was a necromancer, or that vampires were real, but she did know there were fairies? Seems weird to know about that and not the rest. But all in all, a great book, and I totally got past that once I got into the story.



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