Sunday 20 March 2016

Dual Review: Queen Song and Steel Scars by Victoria Aveyard

I thought that since these are both in the bind up, Cruel Crown, I'd review these together. I just recently read this because I'm currently rereading Red Queen and am about to pick up Glass Sword. Now I'm not the biggest fan of this series, I just want to put that out there right now. I did enjoy these novellas, though. I'll start this off by giving an overview and quick review for each novella, along with an average rating for both of these short stories and the novella bind up in case you don't want to read through this whole post.

Queen Song: 3.5/5
(Queen Elara must die.)

Steel Scars: 2.5/5
(The driving force that allowed me to finish this one in a timely manner was the addition of Shade Barrow.)

Average rating for bind-up: 3/5






Queen Song by Victoria Aveyard
(Red Queen Series #0.1)

I enjoyed this novella. It wasn't some revolutionary new story that revealed a mystery. It did add some mystery, in a way, to Queen Elara.

I enjoyed getting to learn more about Coriane and her backstory. Getting to see where she came from and what growing up for her was like was interesting. I enjoyed getting to see her with Julian when they were young. I don't think it added anything positive to my opinion of King Tiberias or Elara. I didn't really like Tiberias in this, and obviously I hated Elara.

I really liked getting to see Cal as a baby. Getting to see his mother's affections for him was really sweet and heartwarming.

Overall, this novella was just okay. I enjoyed being in Coriane's head, I found her downward spiral in health to be interesting in a way. I think it's good to read to gain some more background on the world and the Calore family and their history. My favourite of the two novellas.


Steel Scars by Victoria Aveyard
(Red Queen Series #0.2)

I didn't like being in Farley's head as much as I did Coriane's.

The ending of this novella is what made it for me. I was so bored throughout most of it. And as usual I found the 'twist' very predictable and obvious from the beginning.

I also didn't like the writing in this short story. I kept coming across the word 'albeit.' It was literally on almost every page. Everything had to be 'albeit;' it got to a point where I was so annoyed that I'd huff and skim read that page.

I do think this novella is of greater value if you're looking for more insight into the plot and story line. I felt like this one added a lot more to the world and story than Queen Song. A lot is revelaed about the Scarlet Guard in this because we get an inside look.

After reading this, I'm interested to re-read Red Queen and connect the dots of the newfound knowledge.

Overall, I didn't love this novella. I think it was a good addition to the series and suggest reading it if you want a more in-depth look at the world.


 

Thanks for reading!
~Birdie

*Info on book taken from Goodreads.com*
*Images takes from Google.ca 

Monday 7 March 2016

February Bookish Wrap-up!

Welcome back! I apologize for posting so infrequently recently, my world has been crazy over the last month adjusting to a new semester of school. Things have calmed down a bit so I decided to start doing a monthly wrap up post that talks about all things bookish that happened to me over the course of a month. Obviously this is a little late but I was really excited about doing this that I couldn't wait a month to start. This is my first post of this kind so bear with me.

Favourite New Releases: So many good books came out in February. Some of them I own and some of them I need to own A.S.A.P! I don't think I've read any of the books that came out this month which is a little disappointing, but I'll live. (These aren't in order of release date because I'm not that talented and I'm writing this as quick as possible so I can get back to my homework.)
  1. Dorothy Must Die stories Volume 2: I love this series so much and I can't wait to get my hands on both this and the first volume and devour them!
  2. Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard: This one I do own and I'm actually pretty excited to get to; I've heard interesting things.
  3. Assassin's Heart by Sara Ahiers: This to me sounds like assassins meets Romeo and Juliet and I couldn't be more excited about that.
  4. The Shadow Queen by C. J. Redwine: A Snow White retelling with ogres and dragons instead of dwarves. Sign me up.
  5. Stars Above by Marissa Meyer: I heard this includes a long epilogue (!!!). (I still haven't read Winter yet, whoops.)
  6. The Forbidden Wish by Jessica Khoury: An Aladdin retelling with a girl as the genie. I couldn't be more excited.
  7. Revenge of the Wild by Michelle Modesto: I heard this is a western with cannibals. I can't even right now this is the most unique thing I've ever heard.
  8. Titans by Victoria Scott: This is about robotic horse races. I love horses, especially when they're racing.

Favourite Blog posts from other bloggers: Last month I've been really into reading other bloggers posts since I wasn't creating any of my own. I've been trying to gather ideas to do a more creative post and a few caught my eye and I really enjoyed them.
  1. Library Luv's guest post on Booknut 101's blog about the Pros and Cons of Predictable Story Lines.
  2. Books by Jay's post about Books She Couldn't Finish-dnf
  3. Morissa's post about Her Bookstore Adventure

My Blog Posts: Sadly, I only posted twice this month and they were both reviews but I'm really happy with how they both turned out.

My review for: The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow
My review for: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Book Haul: I'm sort of on an unofficial book buying ban right now but I completely broke that in February. In February I read a lot of books from the library so I don't know why I saw that as an opportunity to go out and add books to my TBR pile by buying more. Anyways, here's what I got:
  • The Siren by Kiera Cass- I'm currently reading this and loving it!
  • Riders by Veronica Rossi- I loved the Under the Never Sky series so I had to get my hands on her latest book (also I really liked the flaming horse on the cover).
  • Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard- I wasn't the biggest fan of Red Queen but the covers are gorgeous and I found a signed copy on sale so I couldn't resist.
  • Cruel Crown by Victoria Aveyard- If I'm going to buy the sequel I might as well buy the novella bind up, right?
  • Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys- My friends talks about how much she loves her other book so I thought I'd pick this one up first because I've heard so many good things
  • Firstlife by Gena Showalter- I must admit that this was a cover buy. I saw it on Goodreads and fell in love. Also, now that I know the concept, I'm pretty hooked.
  • Stars Above by Marissa Meyer- I love this series so much, even though I read most of these novellas already I don't care, I will buy anything if it takes place in this world.

What I Read: In the month of February I read six books, which isn't too bad considering it's the shortest month of the year and I've been extremely busy. Here are the books I read:

Lumberjanes by Noelle Stevenson: 4/5. This is a graphic novel by a bunch of different authors. It was just a fun, light read that got me out of the beginning of a reading slump. I enjoyed it, it's one of my favourite graphic novels out of the few that I've read.

The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow: 1/5. This was a book I picked up on a whim because the concept was so interesting. It's about this futuristic world where the children of the leaders of every country is taken as a hostage to prevent wars and promote peace. This book had so much potential and I was so excited for it but it just fell flat. For a more in depth review you can click here.

Of Triton by Anna Banks: 5/5. This is the second book in the Syrena legacy series and I loved it so much! Galen and Emma and Toraf and Rayna. Gosh, I love this series so much. I highly recommend it if you want something quick and fun.

Of Neptune by Anna Banks: 4/5. Then I finished of this series by picking up this book. While it wasn't my favourite in the series I still really enjoyed it. I just didn't completely loved what happened to the plot and the characters in this book but I'm still really happy with how everything ended.

Hello, Goodbye and Everything in Between by Jennifer E. Smith: 4/5. Because I'm a huge cheeseball I read this book for Valentine's Day. I didn't love it as much as some of her other books but it definitely wasn't my least favourite of hers. I loved the realistic relationships she created between all the characters, I feel like they were all so relatable and honest.

The Complete Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allan Poe: 4/5. I had to read this book for an assignment in class and I ended up really enjoying it. Poetry isn't something I'm a huge fan of or really interested in but it was fun to read this and gain a different perspective. I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed this.

Favourite New Authors: Anna Banks. Last month I discovered the wonderful world of the Syrena legacy series. It's a trilogy about mermaids that involves Greek mythology and overall cuteness. I binge read the series because I couldn't get enough. Her writing is so light and easy to read, I flew through all of these books. Her writing is also full of funny dialogue between the characters that definitely brightened up my day while reading it.

Favourite Book Fanart: This is from the Red Queen series and I find it stunning. I like anything if there's a big pretty dress in it to be honest.



 I realize that this post is a little long. I apologize, this is what happens when I don't post for a long time and have a lot to say. I hope this was an enjoyable post, let me know if doing this sort of thing every month is a good idea.

Thanks for reading!
~Birdie

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