A Power Unbound by Freya Marske (audiobook)

Pages: 432 

Publisher: Tor 

Released: 9th of November 2023 

A Power Unbound is the final entry in Freya Marske’s beloved, award-winning Last Binding trilogy, the queer historical fantasy series that began with A Marvellous Light.

Secrets! Magic! Enemies to. . .something more?

Jack Alston, Lord Hawthorn, would love a nice, safe, comfortable life. After the death of his twin sister, he thought he was done with magic for good. But with the threat of a dangerous ritual hanging over every magician in Britain, he’s drawn reluctantly back into that world.

Now Jack is living in a bizarre puzzle-box of a magical London townhouse, helping an unlikely group of friends track down the final piece of the Last Contract before their enemies can do the same. And to make matters worse, they need the help of writer and thief Alan Ross.

Cagey and argumentative, Alan is only in this for the money. The aristocratic Lord Hawthorn, with all his unearned power, is everything that Alan hates. And unfortunately, Alan happens to be everything that Jack wants in one gorgeous, infuriating package.

When a plot to seize unimaginable power comes to a head at Cheetham Hall―Jack’s ancestral family estate, a land so old and bound in oaths that it’s grown a personality as prickly as its owner―Jack, Alan and their allies will become entangled in a night of champagne, secrets, and bloody sacrifice . . . and the foundations of magic in Britain will be torn up by the roots before the end.

What I Have to Say 

I really love this world and I'm honestly so sad to leave it, but the ending of this series was so clever. I spent most of the book wondering how the hell they were gonna get out of this, but the conclusion was satisfying and wrapped everything up. 

I did find it a bit hard to keep track of the characters. Because of the way the books are set out, there are some characters in this that we haven't heard from since the first book so I really struggled. There was also the fact that the two POV characters were referred to by their last names or first names depending who's perspective it was. But I got it all straight by the end! 

The audio was fantastic, they captured Jack and Alan's voices perfectly and was really pleasant to listen to. 

I would recommend reading this series all at once so that you don't have so much to remember, but overall it was a really strong trilogy! 

4 stars 

My thanks go to Tor and Netgalley for providing me with this gifted copy for review. 

 

Killer T by Robert Muchamore

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 377

Publisher: Hot Key Books 

Released: 6th of September 2018 

Our world is about to change in ways we can barely imagine. KILLER T is a novel about growing up in that world. 

Harry and Charlie are teenagers whose lives are shaped by a society that's shifting around them. He is a lonely Brit in his first term at a Las Vegas high school. She is an unlikely friend, who gets accused of mixing a batch of explosives that blew up a football player.

The two of them are drawn together at a time when gene editing technology is starting to explode. With a lab in the garage anyone can beat cancer, enhance their brain to pass exams, or tweak a few genes for that year-round tan and perfect beach body. But in the wrong hands, cheap gene editing is the most deadly weapon in history. Killer T is a synthetic virus with a ninety per-cent mortality rate, and the terrorists who created it want a billion dollars before they'll release a vaccine.

What I Have to Say 

It took me so, so long to get into this. For a start, it started years before the actual plot came together and had, I think, about four or five time skips? I lost count by the end of the book. It makes sense when you look at it as a whole and realise that it's showing the rise of gene editing, but most of the time while I was reading it, I was bored. It would have been better if it had at least been started after Charlie got out of prison, I think. 

I liked Charlie quite a bit, but I honestly completely hated Harry. He was fairly okay at the start, but as time went on he just became more and more of a prick. I hate how he treated Charlie so much when he didn't even tell her that he liked her. Charlie deserved so much better than him. 

The world was really interesting, especially after the epidemic, seeing the world slowly rebuilding itself and putting together more protections for the next epidemic. I have to say, I did like a lot how it ended and how Charlie ended up. 

I think it was worth reading, but I really, really wish it had been shorter. I think a lot of stuff could have been cut out while still showing a nice overall picture of the rise of gene editing and Charlie and Harry's life. 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Hot Key Books for providing me with this copy for review. 

It Ends With You by S. K. Wright

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Pages: 256

Publisher: Atom

Released: 6th of September 2018 

'If I'd told the truth, it would have been fiction'

Everyone loves Eva. Beautiful, bright, fun, generous - she's perfect.

So when her dead body is found in a ditch in the local woods the only thing anyone wants to know is: Who could have done this?

It has to be Luke, her boyfriend. He has the motive, the means, the opportunity and he's no stranger to the police.

Even though the picture is incomplete, the pieces fit. But as time passes, stories change.

What I Have to Say 

I took a while to really get going with this book, but it certainly was an interesting look at secrets, lies and prejudice. The way that from the start the police are so fixated on Luke, a boy from a less well off family, with scruffy clothes and a perchance to get into fights. But as it goes on, you see that what seems to be a basic case of prejudice and profiling, may actually be being used to cover up more involvement. 

Though in general, I liked the twists and turns the story came up with, there were maybe just a bit too many. Every time it seemed like we might be getting an idea of what happened, some startling new evidence came out to change everything. I liked this at first, but I really like a mystery where you can look back afterwards and see that there are clues you missed and that it all adds up and makes sense. With this one, there were new suspects added all the time and it meant that you couldn't really work out to tell who it was. 

I liked the different view points though and the insight that they threw up. How we saw the investigative side with Carolina and her father and also the suspect's point of view with Luke. Then there's the opinions of the other people in Eva's life and how they react to everything. It really worked well with the allegations against Luke and showing how people's opinions get set very early on. 

I don't think this is one I'd read again, but I'm glad I read it. 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Atom for providing me with this copy for review. 

The Art of Hiding by Amanda Prowse

Synopsis (Goodreads)

Pages: 290

Publisher:  Lake Union Publishing

Released: 18th of July 2017 

What would you do if you learned that the life you lived was a lie?

Nina McCarrick lives the perfect life, until her husband, Finn, is killed in a car accident and everything Nina thought she could rely on unravels.

Alone, bereft and faced with a mountain of debt, Nina quickly loses her life of luxury and she begins to question whether she ever really knew the man she married. Forced to move out of her family home, Nina returns to the rundown Southampton council estate—and the sister—she thought she had left far behind.

But Nina can’t let herself be overwhelmed—her boys need her. To save them, and herself, she will have to do what her husband discouraged for so long: pursue a career of her own. Torn between the life she thought she knew and the reality she now faces, Nina finally must learn what it means to take control of her life.

What I Have to Say 

I have to say that this book was not for me. It was interesting to see Nina slowly thinking more and more about her relationship with her husband and realising how little control she had; how little she knew about what was going on in her life. 

The portrayal of the children I found a bit off. Obviously they were upset by all the changes in their life and sometimes they rallied around their mother, but a lot of the time when they were being nice to the mum, it felt a bit false and unlike something a teenager would actually do or say. And when they weren't being nice to their mother it felt a bit like a cliché teenage getting upset about moving house/ losing their father. 

To be honest I was a bit bored. A lot happened, but there wasn't much to interest me. After everything was uncovered about the Finn and their finances, there just wasn't much of a hook to keep me reading. 

My thanks go to Lake Union Publishing and Netgalley for providing me with this copy for review

Spellslinger by Sebastien de Castell

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 416

Publisher: Hot Key Books 

Released: 4th of May 

"There are three things that earn you a man’s name among the Jan’Tep. The first is to demonstrate the strength to defend your family. The second is to prove you can perform the high magic that defines our people. The third is surviving your fourteenth year. I was a few weeks shy of my birthday when I learned that I wouldn’t be doing any of those things."

MAGIC IS A CON GAME. Kellen is moments away from facing his first mage's duel and the start of four trials that will make him a spellcaster. There's just one problem: his magic is gone. As his sixteenth birthday approaches, Kellen falls back on his cunning in a bid to avoid total disgrace. But when a daring stranger arrives in town, she challenges Kellen to take a different path. Ferius Parfax is one of the mysterious Argosi - a traveller who lives by her wits and the three decks of cards she carries. She's difficult and unpredictable, but she may be Kellen's only hope...

What I Have to Say 

Don't you just love when a book is so much better than you expected it to be? Especially since I'm going through a phase of not being so into Fantasy at the moment, when I looked at this book, I wasn't sure whether it was for me. But it looked interesting and there were things that drew me to it. So I gave it a chance and I am so, so glad I did, because it was fantastic. 

The whole world just had something interesting to it. The society of the Jan'Tep with their mage names and the class divide between the magic users and the non-magic users. Also, the small hints at what Argosi life is like. I was so happy when there was another hint about what Ferius Parfax's life consisted of. 

The only thing that put me off a bit was that Kellen was rather whiny about not having magic. Other than trying to trick people, he didn't do much to try and help himself out or find out what Ferius was offering him outside of magic. I got that his situation was awful and that probably would be what I'd do in that situation too, but I much preferred him towards the end of the book when he took matters into his own hands and actually did something about it all. 

With secrets, lies and interesting societies, I truly think this is one of the better Fantasy books I've read lately, I really feel it's making an effort to do things different. I can't wait for the next book so that I can see more of the world outside of Kellen's society. 

My thanks go to Hot Key Books and Netgalley for providing me with this copy for review. 

The Crown by Kiera Cass

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 279

Publisher: Harper Collins Children's Books 

Released: 3rd of May 2016 

In The Heir, a new era dawned in the world of The Selection. Twenty years have passed since America Singer and Prince Maxon fell in love, and their daughter is the first princess to hold a Selection of her own.

Eadlyn didn’t think she would find a real partner among the Selection’s thirty-five suitors, let alone true love. But sometimes the heart has a way of surprising you…and now Eadlyn must make a choice that feels more difficult—and more important—than she ever expected.

What I Have to Say 

The Selection series is one that I loved from start to finish, so reading The Heir and the Crown was wonderful. Not many series give you the opportunity to see things a few years later, to see how things really change and develop after the end of the series, but it's something that I think more series should do. 

I liked Eadlyn quite a lot in the Heir. She was so different from America and it was obvious from the start that this series would be more about her growing up and taking the responsibilities that come from the power that she has to inherit. 

I think what I liked about The Crown was the politics of it all. How Eadlyn has to fight to keep her life her own while also ensuring that the public like her and respect her as their queen so that they won't rebel against her. 

It's the fact that this series, despite being centered around romance, has so much more to it than just a love story. 

I am so, so sad to say goodbye to these beautiful books. 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Harper Collins for providing me with this copy for review.