I always loved the movie and didn’t know it was based on a book. Once I discovered this, I borrowed the audio version from Borrowbox with my library card.
This was one of the best audio books I have ever listened to. There was a main narrator, and every character had their own voice. The story was as magical as I remember. It is a perfect modern fairy tale that will be loved for many years to come.
Here is a Bookshop.org list I created of the books of some authors from this YA Lit Fest, arranged as part of the Foreword Book Festival, at the Stowmarket Library. These are affiliate links and support local high street bookshops.
I read these books for free. Let me tell you how. 😍
A few Christmases ago, I got a Kindle. We have a Prime account and with Prime you can borrow books to read for free (and then return to borrow more). In the Prime library was Cruel Prince.
Book two, The Wicked King, was not available on Prime. I checked to see if I could borrow it with my library card and found I could! It was available on the Libby app. Using my library card, I borrowed the ebook, and they had Queen of Nothing, so I borrowed that straight after.
I also used my library card on Borrow Box (audio books to borrow using my library card) to listen to The King of Elfhame, which is a prequel to this series.
I loved these books so much I wanted them for my shelves. I requested them as gifts for my birthday, Christmas and Mother’s Day. They only cost £10 for the paperback boxset from The Works, but alas, I did not get them.
My kids often get book tokens as gifts but I always forget to have them with me and end up using my own money to buy their books. So, I decided it was time to pay myself back and get the hardback editions from Bookshop.org an online shop that gives back to high street shops. As I had the book tokens, it cost me less than £5 for all three books.
I love my new books. They look beautiful next to my stunning Hunger Games hardbacks, which I got from Dial Lane Bookshop, Ipswich, as a gift from my hubby for my birthday.
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About the book
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.