Ally Aldridge Bad Boy, Book Genre, Books, Dystopia, Fiction, Forbidden, Review, Romance, Young Adult

Book Review: Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman

This post contains affiliate links. Please check out my affiliate disclosure page for more information.

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.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

You can buy this book from:

Amazon: Thunderhead (Arc of a Scythe) https://amzn.eu/d/hDbE0P1

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Books
Book Review: Brave New Girl by Rachel Vincent

[Kofi]

Ally Aldridge Age, Book Genre, Books, Fairy Tale, Fantasy, Fiction, Friends to Lovers, High, Mermaid or Siren, Review, Romance, Young Adult

Book Review: The Guidal: Unearthing Secrets by Roxy Eloise

This post contains affiliate links. Please check out my affiliate disclosure page for more information.

About the book

My thoughts

Oh my, the steam! This book is a lot more spicy than book one. Although they are closed door scenes, there’s enough detail to fill in the blanks. Aurora’s complicated love life causes her a rollercoaster of turmoil.

Sillah gets matched, which I loved. Aurora introduces Sillah and Sillah’s match to Puracordis magic. The teens start practicing and mastering their powers. This was so much fun to read & learn with them about the different types and spells.

There’s more fun with the competitive tournament. The corruption and cheating makes it more dangerous for Aurora, and her friends. They figure out others are using magic too. The arena and the bounties were so vivid, and their physical training at the Khakidemy is brilliant.

I really like Aurora. The love triangle between bad boy Tayo, and her perfect match Pax, made sense. I like how she stands up for those being mistreated or bullied, and the way she challenges the Boudfell family whenever she can.

Read it for romance, illegal magic and adventure.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Buy it from Amazon

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Ally Aldridge Bad Boy, Book Genre, Books, Fae, Fantasy, High, Review, Romance, Young Adult

Book Review: Scythe by Neal Shusterman

This post contains affiliate links. Please check out my affiliate disclosure page for more information.

About the book

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.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

You can buy this book from:

Amazon: Scythe https://amzn.eu/d/3gNXHBB

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Book Review: The Rookery by Deborah Hewitt (The Nightjar book 2)
Book Review: Red Blood: Card Holders by Kaitlyn Legaspi

[Kofi]

Ally Aldridge Age, Book Genre, Books, Fairy Tale, Fantasy, Fiction, Friends to Lovers, High, Mermaid or Siren, Review, Romance, Young Adult

Book Review: Shadow & Bone by Leigh Bardugo

This post contains affiliate links. Please check out my affiliate disclosure page for more information.

About the book

My thoughts

I tried another audio book & this one was better as I have watched the Netflix show. If I zoned out with my imagination, I was able to catch back up with the narrator.

It is a great story with well developed characters and strong world building.

The MC, Alina starts off from humble beginnings. As an orphan from the war, she has grown up in the orphanage where she befriended Mal. Her and Mal have been inseparable ever since until his life’s in danger & Alina saves him… revealing her powers.

This is when Alina’s life takes a sudden change. Believed to be the Sun Summoner and the one that can bring down the terrible Dark Fold, she’s whisked off to train by the alluring Darkling and finds herself amongst the Grishas and part of a society she could only have dreamt of before. It doesn’t take long to realise the grass isn’t always greener and she is being used.

Alina & Mal come together towards the end of the book to figure out the truth and break free. Their bond was one of my favourite parts of the novel, although the Darkling parts and magic was lots of fun too.

Read it for found family, rags to riches, and magic.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Buy it from Amazon

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Ally Aldridge Book Genre, Book Tube, Books, Ememies to Lovers, Fae, Fantasy, Fiction, High, Review, Romance, Young Adult, YouTube

Book Review of The Folk of Air Series

Published on YouTuber on 16 April 2023.

Below is my affiliate link where you can buy the Folk of Air series by Holly Black from Bookshop.org and support local high street bookshops. There is also a collection of more High/Epic Fantasy books you might like to check out.

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

The Wicked King by Holly Black

The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black

How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories by Holly Black

Ally Aldridge Book Genre, Books, Fae, Fantasy, High, Review, Young Adult

Book Review: How the King of Elfhame learned to Hate Stories by Holly Black

This post contains affiliate links. Please check out my affiliate disclosure page for more information.

About the book

My thoughts

For anyone that has read The Folk of Air series and needed more, this is it.

This book follows Cardan and starts off with him as a young Prince. The background is brilliant at explaining how he came to be the cruel prince. We learn about his childhood, his romance with Nicasia, and why he was drawn to Jude.

Early on Cardan is told a story. At the time I wondered why it was important and Holly didn’t disappoint by taking the story full circle.

I didn’t love this as much as the series. I didn’t connect with Cardan as well as I did Jude. It could be his character or that this was an audio book. Despite that, I still thoroughly enjoyed it.

Read it for more Folk of Air, backstory, and a satisfying ending.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

You can buy this book from:

Amazon: How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories (The Folk of the Air series): The perfect gift for fans of Fantasy Fiction https://amzn.eu/d/d2CXjrB

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[Kofi]