Here’s the books I read this summer and my Real and True (very abridged) thoughts on them.
Disclaimer: I don’t read books in order to have intellectual pissing contests I read for FUN so these aren’t the most sophisticated or complex fantasy books ever and yeah most of them are romance books as well but guess what I had the time of my life reading them so go jerk it to the silmarillian if ur gonna be like that.
1. The ACOTAR series by Sarah J. Maas (A Court of Thorns and Roses, A Court of Mist and Fury, A Court of Wings and Ruin, A Court of Frost and Starlight, A Court of Silver Flame, 5 in total including the novella)
YES UGH I KNOW IT STARTS WTH ACOTAR BUT LET ME LIKE A THING OK
So this is basically the MOST basic girly booktok fantasy series you could possibly read, but this is 2023 and we’re embracing our femininity and also killing the parts of us that cringe instead of the parts that we think are cringy. It is renowned for being really good at pulling people out of reading slumps and getting people who haven’t read consistently in years back into it, and it did exactly that for me and for that precise reason it will always have a little piece of my heart. That being said, this fantasy map is so fucking laughable. Sarah have you ever seen a map? Or taken a history class? Moving on, one character in particular in this series had a profound effect on me, and that was the FMC of the last book. Her story is so simultaneously real and sad and hopeful and I think she genuinely had a permanent positive effect on my self image as well as getting rid of some of that narsty, lingering, impossible to get rid of while living in this country internalized misogyny. She is one of the book characters that feels like someone you know irl and have been friends with for years by the time you finish the book. She is also kind of controversial but as they say on tit tot, you either hate Nesta or you ARE Nesta, and bitch I am an eldest daughter of the family reporting for motherfucking duty.
Possibly a hot take: I don’t like Mor, that’s maybe not that controversial but she’s hella emotionally immature and it effects everyone around her, also I rly dgaf who Azriel ends up with I just want Elain and Gwen to get their spotlights and get the chance to actually be major players.
Fav characters: Nesta, Feyre, Cassian
Enjoyment: 9/10
Spice: 5/10 tik tok always said the smut in this was crazy but i read worse on my kindle fire in middle school silent reading
2. The Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Mass (My reading order went Throne of Glass, Crown of Midnight, Heir of Fire, Assassin’s Blade, Queen of Shadows, 6-switch tandem read of Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn, Kingdom of Ash, 8 in total including the novella)
This was just such a fun read, really endearing characters, best FMC of any fantasy book ever the actual reigning queen of booktok. It’s not very advanced, it walks the line of high fantasy and YA, and there wasn’t one plot twist that I didn’t see coming, but its compelling, made me so sentimental, and the romances were just fucking fantastic, world building was pretty good too. Really enjoyed the political aspect of the main conflict of this series, I got actual chills when the orchestra played the song of Eyllwe etc.. Main critiques are that it actually took me until the third book before I got into this series, rly didn’t enjoy the first two because I just had no reason to give a shit about Celeana or Dorian until the third book, and especially not Chaol, who is probably the most hateable protagonist I’ve ever read. That being said Lorcan and Elide are one of my favorite book couples of all time, and yes I know the fact its not Rowan and Aelin makes me look like I have issues with men and my self image but if the shoe fucking fits I’ll fucking wear it. Also I wish I could give a full rundown of each book in this series because it is so fun to talk about but then we’d have a tldr on our hands, and I doubt anyone will read all of this anyways! Amazing intro to fantasy if you’re not typically a fantasy reader. Will have a place in my heart forever. Cried for 30 minutes when I finished.
Possibly a hot take: Maeve was way too flat for my liking, why did we establish that she had sympathetic motives just for her to torture the shit out of Aelin and then continue to be an absolute villain? idk
Fav characters: Aelin, Rowan, Lorcan, Elide, Dorian and Manon (this series has a powerhouse cast of characters it was very difficult to narrow down)
Enjoyment: 8/10
Spice level: 2/10 if you know what sex is at a baseline level this book will not present anything new to you. Weird amount of biting tho?
3. Crescent City series by Sarah J. Maas (1 and 2, third to be released in Jan 24)
RUHN DANAAN KNEW THREE THINGS WITH ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY
Ok maybe controversial but this may have been my fav SJM series!! Bryce is once again an amazing example of how to write a flawed, unique, and realistic ‘strong female lead’. She is also the funniest SJM character imo. First book was an obsessive page turner from the get go, so many jaw dropping moments, I don’t fucking get when people say the world building info at the beginning is an overload and makes the book hard to read I did not think it was really that insanely complex of a set up. One of my favorite moments I read in any book in the past 6 months at LEAST is Bryce vacuuming up the ashes in the gallery it was so fucking funny. Second book had me flabbergasted every single little twist, and also had ruhn. ruhn danaan crown prince of the valbaran fae. so in love with him. also THE END?!?!?!??!?!!?!?!?!?!? NEVER had quite so much anticipation for the next book of a series to come out. I DON’t GET WHY PEOPEL SAY HUNT IS BORING I WILL ACTUALLY COMMIT WAR CRIMES IF SJM FUCKING TOUCHES HIM. LEAV EHIM SLONE. HE DOESNT FUCKING DESERVE THIS HE WAS SO GOOD HE IS SO SO GOOD PLEASE. Ok.
Possibly a hot take: The first cc book is Sarah’s best book.
Fav characters: Bryce, Hunt, Ruhn
Enjoyment: 9.5/10
Spice: 9/10. and well so yeah.
4. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros (second book to be released in November)
WOOOOOOOO DRAGONS AND ENEMIES TO LOVERS AND ALSO DRAGONSSSSSS. I LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH. I think I enjoyed reading this book the most of any on this list, and I don’t mean that as a testament to the complexity or subtlety of this book lmaoooo. This book is not subtle in the slightest, its nothing novel and it doesn’t have any perplexing themes or interesting motifs or anything, (ITS NOT PARTICULARLY SMART) but I enjoyed it no less (I AM NOT PARTICULARLY SMART :)). XADEN IS SO HOT. I think he is the hottest male character on this list tbh and yeah I’d put him over ruhn that’s how u know it’s fucking serious. Gotta love the sexy tall dark shadow-power wielders that for some reason are in every single romantasy series??? don’t care, they’re hot, I love xaden and I almost bit a corner out of my book when he left violets on her nightstand. Also giving this book the best smut scene award. The lead up?? The tension? It was just beautiful. (And I think it’s refreshing that rebecca portrays Violet as a little horny bitch bc like pls yes we can finally acknowledge that, thank you) Him nicknaming her violence is so good. Tairn being the funniest character was gold. The dragons were dope the powers were dope and I want a dragon and a hot shadow man. so.
SO excited for the future of this series i have iron flame preordered and i just think it has so much potential. Lets go to war mfers RAHHHH
Possibly a hot take: going into Iron Flame kind of hating Brennan for leaving his family behind tbh like ok ur moms a bitch at least like clue Mira in a little ya know
Fav characters: Xaden and Tairn (so sorry Violet I couldn’t pick all the main characters and you were just kinda annoying and a little dumb sometimes)
Enjoyment: 10/10
Spice: 10/10
5. Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
To be honest it took me a little too long to get into the first book but it was so worth it because by the last fourth of the first book and the entire second book I was so incredibly invested in and devoted to the happiness of these characters that I stopped noticing that this was the first book I’ve read in ages that didn’t really have any overt romance subplot. I WAS OBSSESSed with Inej and Nina and I hated Kaz for so long during the first book but my switch up to loving him was one of the biggest 180s I’ve ever done on a book character, even more than Tamlin (of ACOTAR) and Liam (Fourth Wing), just because Kaz really really endeared himself to me. I’ve never been so hyped over really little moments of the slightest romance but Kaz and Inej just deserve so much. Also these books had me laughing out loud frequently, the cast is just so funny and all of their relationships are so cute and I love that while they’re all hardened criminals there’s a scene every so often to remind you that they’re just kids. It’s rare in a book that I there are no character POVs that I am so annoyed when it switches to them but truly I was almost equally invested in each of their POVs, which is impressive because there are 6. Only thing that kinda threw me off was that I lowkey felt like the end of the second book was slightly anticlimactic. like they were just in the thick of it and then there’s like 2 moments of closure and then we’re just done with it all. But overall rly liked this series.
Fav characters: This barely works for this series but Kaz, INEJ, Nina
Enjoyment: 7/10
Spice: 0/10
6. Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross
Not my usual style to be honest but I enjoyed this book. To be honest I don’t have too many thoughts just because it is so short but I can say I was thoroughly invested in Roman and Iris even though I was only reading this for 2 days. Iris pisses me the fuck off though to be honest dude like have a SHRED of self preservation PLEAse. Idk I’ll have to really make up my mind when we get book 2 because I just felt like barely anything happened like bro this was just under 400 pages thats a pamphlet my guy. Very excited for the next book though will be preordering. It was very sweet, and had a lot of really genuine discussion of loss and grief and sometimes that shit really turns me off a book just bc like I don’t really need to wallow and grieve with you in this book there is enough of that irl but this book did it really well and I feel like the modicum of healing the MC went through after her loss was realistic (which I feel like is rare in fantasy, typically it’s just described in a way that is pretty cliche and not very true to real human grief) and honestly a nice abridged guide for those dealing with loss, which can be a topic that is sooo hard to breach and not be preachy, so I do really admire that aspect of this book.
Fav character: Roman easily
Enjoyment: 7/10
Spice: 0/10
Comments