Ruthless Gods (Something Dark and Holy #2) by Emily A. Duncan

 I started his right after finishing Wicked Saints but I made myself read this one more slowly because the conclusion is coming in 2 weeks and I wanted as short a time as possible waiting to find out how it ends. 

I really liked this one too. But I am so mad at Emily for making me love a monster so hard!! But I love Malachiasz so much. I will stop here and say that I won't spoil you for this book but I will make reference to Wicked Saints so if you are worried about spoilers stop here and just know I think you should read these books. 

And a reminder that while the story is deep and thought provoking and really good and interesting, a major catalyst of the Something Dark and Holy trilogy is blood, using it, cutting yourself to get at it, being covered in it...there is a lot of blood. If cutting/self-harm (see note at the end) triggers you or blood makes you squeamish, this isn't the story for you. And that is ok, not all stories are right for everyone. 

So here in Ruthless Gods we start about 4 months after the ending of Wicked Saints. Nadya is still in Grazyk with Serfein. Still with us are Ostyia, Kacper, Parijahan, and Rashid. The gods and goddesses are here, sort of in some ways, and a new character joins the mix. We meet Katya, who is quite the interesting person. I liked her more before a certain incident and then became quite angry with her for something she did that caused a terrible thing, or allowed the terrible thing, to happen. There hasn't been resolution of this yet so I wonder if it will come up and be confronted in Blessed Monsters. 

There is one particular scene that really made me feel icky from the gore, and that is saying something since this is a book rooted in the use of blood. But I understand why it happened and it didn't stop me from really enjoying the book. 

The thread started in book 1, which really feels like the overarching theme here, is are the monsters who we think they are? Who are our enemies and why? And, how far can love take you?

I am really looking forward to finding out where this goes and how it can possibly end and end well for characters I have fallen hard for. 

**Note: even when the harm isn't a defense to anxiety but a way to access magic there is cutting and there is a reference somewhere to noticing faint scars and that seed planted in the observer's mind because cutting for magic doesn't usually scar but heals and leaves no scars. It isn't dwelled upon or described in that context but the mention is there**

(Finished March 21, 2021)

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

 I listened to this as audiobook. I am so glad I did. 

Brown Girl Dreaming is my second read by Jacqueline Woodson, the first was If You Come Softly, which I loved even as it shattered me. 

This book is a young reader/middle grade book. It is the story of her childhood told in poetic verse. And hearing Jacqueline Woodson read the words of her story, how she came to be, how and where she grew up, the loves and hurts of her very early years, and how she came to love words and stories was like being taken into her confidence and having tea with her on a porch swing and just listening...just falling into the words being spun like a blanket being weaved around me. 

I too and from the same Brooklyn area where Jacqueline landed as a child. She is only 7 years older than me so the streets we both walked, the shops that existed, the Brooklyn neighborhoods we both inhabited was very much the same. Our experiences were our own but the scenery was the same and I could see it. And fall into her words and the magic of her storytelling. 

She is open and shares her family story without flinching, the good and the bad, the easy and the hard. Your can feel her love of her grandparents, their home in Greenville, the love she has for her siblings, even  when her sister tells her that she couldn't have written something because it is too good. Her love of school and her best forever friend Maria, her uncle Robert and his dance moves, her grandpa Gunnar and his love of his garden...you can see it all in your mind's eye as she paints a picture with words. 

Jacqueline Woodson is a master at her craft and anything she writes is worth your time. But if you can also listen to her, you will be made better for it. 

(Finished March 7, 2021)

Wicked Saints (Something Dark and Holy #1) by Emily A. Duncan

 I've seen this book and its follow-up Ruthless Gods at work often but until I saw that OwlCrate was doing a special edition of the finale to the Something Dark and Holy trilogy, Blessed Monsters, which comes out April 6, I didn't really feel drawn to read this. But upon asking my fellow booksellers in our FB group what they thought and getting pretty good reviews, and seeing how beautiful the special edition was I decided to check it out. At work I picked this up and read the first page, and then the second...and wanted to read more. And now here I am telling you about it...And feeling so many things...

I will admit to falling down the rabbit hole of YouTube BookTube reviews when I went looking for pronunciation help and some of the reviews were saying they didn't like this or it was "meh" and I was a little worried...But I kept going because I was enjoying it and to each his own right? And now that I am done I am in a place I don't often find myself...shocked at the twists and ending...truly not having seen it coming...and so glad I started this trilogy....

Before I go any further, as much as I liked this and will happily read the rest of the trilogy, and yes I ordered the special edition...and yes it means my set won't match, but I am ok'ish with that, I must give a content warning...

There is a lot of blood in this book..one of the magic types is powered by it...and so there is imagery that could be very hard and painful if self-harm is a trigger for you. Those using blood to power their magic cut themselves. No story is worth harming yourself to read and so if this will be too much for you, is a trigger, it is ok to skip this book...

The basics...

Set in a world where there are two main countries and they are at war, have been for a very long time. Kalyazin and Tranavia. The war is a holy war, a war about which magic system is the best and if their are gods and if they are welcome...

There are three main characters 

Nadya, the last cleric from a country called Kalyazin. She has grown up in a monastery where she has been groomed for fighting the heretics who disavowed the gods, gods who speak to her and it's thought they give her her magic ability. 

Serefin, the high prince of Tranavia, a very powerful blood mage, who has been on the front lines of the war for so long, for too long and since he was too young to have been there. He is the son of the king and there is a lot of tension between father and soon. 

Malachiasz (pronounced ma-lacki-ash) who is a boy who says he wants to end the war and is hiding something that to Nadya feels so dark and scary. But she is drawn to him anyway and it makes her question everything she thinks she knows...

But the three seem to have a common desire to end the war and save their people so maybe they will be on the same side. Or maybe nothing is what it looks like...but that remains to be seen...

I didn't think I would love this as much as I did...it is a Slavic fairytale (monster story) and some of the words are just impossible to pronounce and it took some time to get a grove but once I did I fell into the tale Emily was spinning...it is dark and scary and bloody and beautiful and painful and just so much more than I expected. And as I said, I didn't see the ending coming...and it hurt, in the hurting way that makes you want to thank the author and keep reading...

Going forward I hope we get more of the 4 side characters 

Serefin's two companions, Ostyia and Kacper 

and 

Malachiasz's (and then I guess Nadya's) two, Parijahan and Rashid

I found them all really enjoyable, and with two of them being strong female characters, Ostyia and Parijahan and two being queer, Ostyia and Rashid, there is a lot of room to expand and explore them and I hope that happens...

Ok, I think that covers it....I am not sure if I want to give this 4 or 5 stars, I really, really enjoyed this..but it isn't perfect...and since there are no partial stars on GoodReads I tend to lean towards giving books the higher stars when I am stuck in the middle...I was going to go with 4 until that ending and for the surprise factor of it I am thinking I will go to 5*.....

(Finished March 6, 2021)

The Witches of New York by Ami McKay

 Along with My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece this was the other book I got from the 2-for-1 Sale on Audible. 

I really loved this story. The narrator is Julia Whelan and I thoroughly enjoyed her performance. She does a good job with the voices and the accents. I will gladly get more audiobooks she narrates, if the story sounds enjoyable of course. 

The Witches of New York grabbed my attention because of the title, I love with stories and stories about my hometown, NYC. With the arrival of Cleopatra's Needle to be placed in Central Park as the backdrop this is a little history, a little gothic horror, a bit of mystery, and a good with tale, all wrapped in the lovely story of three amazing women who find and love and support each other. They just happen to be witches. 

Beatrice is a young girl with a very open and curious mind. She sees an ad for a job in a tea shop in NYC that includes the words "Those averse to magic need not apply." She sets off to apply for the position placed by Adelaide Them, fortune teller and partner in the shop, unbeknown to her partner Eleanor St. Clair, maker of "teas" and guardian of the raven Perdu. 

Besides the relationship between the women that blossoms we find the tea shop is set to be a safe space for women in a world still in the grips of the Suffragettes movement and where men were clearly in control and women were dismissed and often policed by each other. 

The story is very white, there aren't any characters of color that I noticed. And the feminist part of the story isn't gone too deeply into. Eleanor is a lesbian and other than her back story and lover that leaves her to get married and the problems that brings to her when the husband finds out and maybe a slight flirtation with another character near the end it isn't really explored or gone into any deeper. But she is secure in her feelings of loving other women and it is just to her who she is. 

There is talk of Blackwell Island and the asylum there. Women were institutionalized for what today seems ridiculous reasons. They are too emotional or not emotional enough. They are sent there for being "hysterical."

It isn't a perfect story but I wasn't looking for or expecting a feminist manifesto, just an enjoyable story with some mystery and witchiness. And that is exactly what I got. It was escapist and interesting and I enjoyed it. 

(Finished March 3, 2021)

A ​Court of Silver Flames (A Court of Thorns and Roses #4) by Sarah J. Maas

Sarah J. Mass also wrote The Throne of Glass Series, which I read in this order... Throne of Glass, Crown of Midnight, Heir of Fire, Queen of Shadows, Tower of Dawn, Empire of Storms, Kingdom of Ash. There is also a prequel of sorts, The Assassin's Blade.   

The other books in this series are,  A Court of Thorns and Roses, A Court of Mist and Fury, A Court of Wings and Ruin, and after Wings and Ruin but before this one comes A Court of Frost and Starlight which I recently bought but haven't read yet.  

While books 1-3 are really Feyre's story this one is Nesta's. Of course all the regulars are here, Feyre, Rhys, Elain, Amren, Mor, Azriel and Cassian. We also meet a couple of new characters, Gwyn and Emerie, and honestly they are why I loved this so much. The dynamic between the three females is what takes this from Nesta is annoying and whiny to a real story about broken people finding a way to live. 

I have to give a special shoutout to my favorite side-side character, The House. I want this house so badly. I loved the role The House plays in this story....I can't say more about it because I am trying for this post to be as spoiler free as possible...

While yes this ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, there are I believe 3 more books coming...it isn't a painful one so the wait won't be pure torture. 

I loved this way more than I thought I would when I first started it...the set up of Nesta and her branch of this story took time, it was almost like a book 1 rather than the fourth but it is worth it. 

Before I leave you I want to say a word about content. For some time this book lived in the YA section with ToG but it really never should have been. The sex scenes are rather graphic and not really what you put in YA. Recently the books were reprinted with new covers and moved to the regular/adult Fantasy section. So if you have the old covers this one won't match but it was a good shelf move. Also, there is talk of rape and attempted assault so if this is something that you aren't able to handle you can see it coming and skip over it without too much damage to the story. Take care of you!!

(Finished March 1, 2021)