Wow! This was another amazing book in the series. There is even more magic in this one!
The book starts with Aurora disconnected from her feelings. This makes her less sensitive to the feelings of Pax & Tayo, and unable to use her powers. Don’t worry, her friends stick by her despite her trying to push them away, and they help her reconnect.
Meanwhile, we get to see more of the Kamalayans and the stakes rise. Aurora starts having dreams about the first Guidal and this reveals some of the history.
Beware, in this book Aurora suffers some hard losses. One that left me internally screaming NOOOOO at the book!
A lot happens in this book, and I’m desperate for the next one in the series. Really hoping for the return of a certain character.
This book was a page-turner. Sometimes it felt like a thriller, as I knew Jude’s true dark intentions. He reminded me of that guy from You, except there was no love or protection in his twisted thoughts. He just cold.
It was sad to see Sephy unravel. The way it hurt her to hang onto hope that not everyone was bad, wanting to see the good in others, but consistently being proven wrong. It took its toll.
The ending was a shock. I replayed it several times to try and make sense of it. It ended again with another tragedy. My heart felt heavy with all that had happened.
I think I will read more of the series, but this was a sad story, and I need a little time to process how this book made me feel.
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About the book
The Toll blurb
My thoughts
This was an incredible read. I’d no idea what to expect but it was better than anything I could imagine. It is violent and bloody, but the story explores our morals.
Set in the future, death is no longer a problem. If you were to become deadish, you can be revived. To restore the balance a group called Scythes take on the sacred duty of gleaming (killing) life. They have quotas and rules to follow.
Teenagers Roman and Citra both (on seperate occasions) meet Scythe Faraday on a gleaming job. Their interactions with him stand out and he makes them his apprentice. Never before has a Scythe taken on two apprentices and there’s no rule against it. Still, it causes uproar and an edict is agreed that when one of them passes their apprenticeship, their first task will be to kill the other.
Scythe Faraday blames himself for putting Citra & Rowan in this position. He gleams himself to free them from the apprenticeship, but instead two other Scythes step forward to train them.
Rowan is taken on by Scythe Goddard who has a reputation for his blood lust, enjoying massacres to hit his quotas.
Citra is taken on by the famous Grande Madam of Death, Scythe Curie. She shows compassion to the family members of those gleamed.
Now the pair have very different apprenticeship experiences. Citra doesn’t believe Scythe Faraday’s death was an accident, and her inquisitive mind gets her in trouble.
Meanwhile, Rowan’s training involves parties and mass killings as Scythe Goddard tries to encourage him to find joy in kill craft. Goddard’s cruel methods push Rowan too far and he is no longer the boy he started out as.
The story continues to move toward the final conclave where they’ll both have to pass their last test. Passing the test will means one of them gets ordained and must kill the other. Despite all that has happened since Faraday, they still care deeply about each other. Both are plotting for a loop hole in the edict.
This was a brilliant story. There is a lot of death as they are Scythes, but the twists and surprises in the story is what makes you gasp and need to read another chapter!
Read it for a story full of twists and surprises, and to explore ideas of mortality and morals. Don’t read it if you don’t like blood, gore, or sensitive about death.
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About the book
The Thunderhead blurb
My thoughts
This is book two in the series and follows on from book one. The book is named after the global AI operating system that runs the world. This isn’t any ordinary computer, and is a character within the series as much as any human
Book one ended with Citra’s and Rowan’s apprenticeship coming to an end and following their new lives. Citra is now the Scythe Anastasia, and Rowan is in hiding.
Anastasia has chosen to stay with Curie and is making her own mark as a Scythe. When an attack is made on their lives they realise they are not safe. The obvious attacked would be Scythe Lucifer who has been murdering Scythes. Anastasia knows this is not so, because Lucifer is Rowan and she trusts he’d never target her.
We are also introduced to Grayson who had a special relationship with The Thunderhead. He becomes Slayd, an unsavoury, in a secret undercover mission that goes wrong.
Meanwhile Scythe Rand has an evil plan to bring back Scythe Goddard, and in a way that will punish Rowan for his betrayal.
All their stories come together for a truly epic ending that I didn’t see coming. This brilliant crafted world is destroyed by the end. Once again Citra & Rowan out smart their enemies plan but it was still a dire conclusion- for them not the reader.
The only unresolved story line was a side plot involving Scythe Faraday, searching for The Land of Nod – a fictional place sung about in a nursery rhymes. I wonder if there will be more to this in the next book. I expect book three will see Citra & Rowan free of their predicament and once again facing Goddard.
Read it for twists and turns, and out smarting the bad guys. Don’t read it if you don’t like blood, gore, or sensitive about death.
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I was lucky enough to get an ARC copy of this book via Net Galley. It’s release date is 14 June 2022.
About the book
Blurb of The Sea Women by Chloe Timms
My thoughts
I read an ARC from Net Galley and this is my honest review.
Wow! This book is dark and twisty. I’ve always wondered how people fall prey to a cult leader. How fears can control.
Esta lives on a patriarchal island where they fear the seawomen, and every challenge the islanders face is blamed on the sins of their women. Punished by god, they must repent to be saved. Esta sees through the lies and dangerously seeks answers to questions that if she was a good holy girl she’d ignore.
This book reminded me of the darkness of The Handmaids Tale. The way the book made me turn the page out of morbid curious that people could live this way. The history and characters are written so well, it was difficult to put down.
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About the Author
I met Roxy Eloise on Instagram. She reads and reviews books on her Instagram channel. She has done a live reading of Ocean Heart.
She has an upcoming author event, where she will be giving a talk at Herts Book Festival on 7 May at Hertford Castle.
My thoughts
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This book is set in a futuristic boarding school where the students train to become enforcers. Aurora was taken there at a young age and told she was an orphan. She has questions about that night but is not allowed to ask.
She gets coupled with Pax, giving them certain privileges like going out on patrol and competing in the tournament. Things get heated until they discover something that drives Pax to attempt to get uncoupled. Meanwhile, the cocky juvie Aurora has been allocated seems to know her better than herself.
As Aurora uncovers secrets about herself, she will discover there’s more to her than just being an enforcer.
This futuristic sci-fi had great world-building and characters. This book left me wanting more. Bring on book two.
The challenge was set by World Indie Warriors on Instagram. They created three #WIWBingo boards; YA, Romance, and Fantasy.
The aim is to read and review the books on Instagram and tag @worldindiewarriors
The goal is to get three in a line, and help indie books get seen.
I’m doing the challenge. I’ve already read some of the books on the board so I’ll be reposting them this month, and I’m hoping to read some new one too.
