The Iron Raven by Julie Kagawa

Pages: 336

Publisher: Harper Collins 

Released: 9th of February 2021 

“YOU MAY HAVE HEARD OF ME…”

Robin Goodfellow. Puck. Prankster, joker, raven, fool… King Oberon’s right-hand jester from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The legends are many, but the truth will now be known, as Puck finally tells his own story and faces a threat from a time before Faery began. A threat that brings him face-to-face with a new enemy…himself.

With the Iron Queen Meghan Chase and her prince consort, Puck’s longtime rival Ash, and allies old and new by his side, Puck begins a fantastical and dangerous adventure not to be missed or forgotten. Evenfall is coming, and with it a reckoning that even their combined powers and wits may not vanquish, as a shadow falls over the lands of Faery and the world slips into chaos.

What I Have to Say 

I love Puck so I was really excited to read this one. The only reason it took me this long was that it was my dyslexia got really bad during lockdown. 

This had all the elements of a great Julie Kagawa book. Adventures, Puck and Ash at each other's fronts, a little helping of Grimalkin and even a bit of Meghan! It was nice to see the old gang all back together again, even if they've changed so much since the first book. 

I really liked Nyx a lot. I love the concept of the forgotten and having a sexy moonlight powered assassin just added some icing to the top of a really interesting cake!! 

Can't wait to read on to the next book! 

4 stars

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

The Snow Ghost and Other Tales

Pages: 176 

Publisher: Vintage Classics 

Released: 17th of August 2023 

Enter the haunted world of Ancient Japan in this spine-tingling collection of ghostly tales told and retold across the centuries.

From Goblin infested caves and haunted Tombs, to vengeful spirits and strange, sinister happenings, Ancient Japan was a country and culture that lived with between realms: the world of everyday and the world of supernatural.

It was a time and place where men could be brought down by karmic forces or lured into deadly danger by ghostly apparitions, and where the land held sorrowful secrets or stories that long-awaited an opportunity to reveal them and seek reparation.

The Snow Ghost and Other Tales brings together some of the best and scariest tales that endured across centuries of folk lore in one new beautiful hardback collection. Finally commited to writing during the turn of the twenieth cenutry by a unique set of folklorists, the ghost stories presented in this new anthology will transport readers to a time of magic and mystery, and let them relish in the spine-tingling traditions of Japanese culture largely lost now to modernity.

What I Have to Say 

This was a really good, comprehensive collection of Japanese Ghost Stories. It gave a good look into the culture of ghost stories in Ancient Japan. It was really fun seeing what kind of trends there were across all the different stories and getting a real look into the culture. 

My favourite story was The Tongue Cut Sparrow, which though it had a moment of animal abuse, was a really sweet story about a man and his pet sparrow, with themes of greed and cruelty. I also liked the titular story, the Snow Ghost and the other story of the Yuki Onna as well. 

The only thing that I would have liked and maybe the finished copy will have it, is a more detailed bibliography. I wanted more details of where these stories came from so I could maybe look up the originals in the future when my Japanese is a bit better. There were intials at the end which supposedly say where the stories come from, but I couldn't work it out from that. I'm really hoping that the finished copy has a bibliography or something. 

 4 stars 

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

Like a Charm by Elle McNicoll

 

Pages: 313

Publisher: Knights Of 

Released: 3rd of February 2022 

Edinburgh is a city filled with magical creatures. No one can see them... until Ramya Knox.

As she is pulled into her family's world of secrets and spells, Ramya sets out to discover the truth behind the Hidden Folk with only three words of warning from her grandfather: Beware the Sirens.

Plunged into an adventure that will change everything, Ramya is about to learn that there is more to her powers than she ever imagined.

What I Have to Say 

I love Elle McNicoll so much. I love that she writes characters like me who are neurodiverse and she does it so well. She makes things hopeful and happy rather than dwelling on the difficulties. Although sometimes her writing is so accurate that it hurts a little bit, she makes me feel seen. 

Like a Charm wasn't as good as Show Us Who You are. I still enjoyed it, but Show Us Who You Are was truly special for me and I don't think anything could live up to it. That said, I just found Ramya a little bit too abrasive. She's a beautifully made character, strong and brave and full of personality and I can understand why she's abrasive. She has every reason to be. It's just for me that was a bit off-putting. 

Like Ramya, I have dyspraxia, but only mild, so it doesn't effect my life as much as it does hers. I can't ride a bike and I have trouble carrying a tray of drinks without spilling them everywhere, but other than that, I don't really notice it. But I can still relate hugely to the way the teachers talked about her. The fact that she was always a disappointment to them because she was never quite enough. That and the motor skills workshops is something we share.

I was very happy with the representation in this book, but it wasn't everything to me the way that the autism representation was in Show Us Who We Are. Perhaps if I had worse dyspraxia, then it might have been more. 

All in all though I really enjoyed this book, I'm looking forward to seeing more adventures from Ramya and Marley, especially now that Ramya's starting to fit herself a little better. 

My thanks go to Nights Of And Ed PR for providing me with a copy of this book for review. 

The Iron Warrior by Julie Kagawa

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 384

Publisher: MIRA Ink

Released: 27th of October 2015

The Iron Prince betrayed us all.

He killed me. Then, I woke up.

Waking after a month on the brink of death, Ethan Chase is stunned that the Veil that conceals the fey from human sight was torn away.

The human world has been cast into chaos and the Forgotten Queen is leading an uprising; a reckoning that will have cataclysmic effects on the Nevernever.

Leading the Lady's Forgotten Army is Keirran, Ethan’s nephew and the traitor son of the Iron Queen. To stop Keirran, Ethan must disobey his sister once again as he searchs for answers.

In the face of unprecedented evil and unfathomable power, Ethan's enemies must become his allies, and the world of the fey will be changed forevermore…

What I Have To Say 

So my last review of this series was a little down on it. I still think my views regarding Kenzie and Annwyl were valid, but this book changed them completely. Kenzie and Annwyl were a couple of badass ladies who were clearly only hiding behind the boys so they didn't steal their thunder! 

Let's talk about Kenzie, because Annwyl holds a lot of spoilers. Kenzie, in the previous books, was a bit of a love interest, letting Ethan and the others protect her because she doesn't have the fighting skills to defend herself. This is still true in The Iron Warrior, but what she does have is her mind. Between the books, she's been preparing herself to go back into Nevernever and she's done it so well. 

I really loved the dynamic between Kenzie and Ethan, with Kenzie being the brains; the negotiator; helping Ethan navigate the faery deals and bargains with her smarts and knowledge, while Ethan is just the brawn; running forward to fight the battles. Looking back at it, it was obviously coming from the start. I just wish we could have seen more of this beautiful partnership before the end! 

This book really reminded me strong women aren't just women who are good at fighting. I think there should be more characters around like Kenzie because it was a reminder that I needed to get. 

This review has been rather focused on Kenzie, but I wanted to do a bit of an update on the feelings from the previous books. There were other things that I really loved about Iron Warrior too. This book as a whole has really renewed my love of Julie Kagawa. 

A History of Glitter and Blood by Hannah Moskowitz

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Chronicle Books for providing me with this e-copy

Pages: 280

Publisher: Chronicle Books

Released: 4th of August 2015

Sixteen-year-old Beckan and her friends are the only fairies brave enough to stay in Ferrum when war breaks out. Now there is tension between the immortal fairies, the subterranean gnomes, and the mysterious tightropers who arrived to liberate the fairies.

But when Beckan's clan is forced to venture into the gnome underworld to survive, they find themselves tentatively forming unlikely friendships and making sacrifices they couldn't have imagined. As danger mounts, Beckan finds herself caught between her loyalty to her friends, her desire for peace, and a love she never expected. 

This stunning, lyrical fantasy is a powerful exploration of what makes a family, what justifies a war, and what it means to truly love.

What I Have to Say 

I didn't get on with this book at all. I had a major issue with the fact that they were glorifying prostitution a bit too much. The author did seem to make an attempt to show the trauma that working in a profession such as that can create. I'm fairly open, I don't think I'd have minded so much if it was an adult book where someone who chooses to go into prostitution, but this was a book for teenagers. A book where characters are pressured into the profession due to hard circumstances. This sort of thing has to be written sensitively, which I don't think it was. 

It was a really interesting setting, but the author didn't really spend a lot of time on it. I would have liked it a lot more if there had been more detail about the fairy culture and the friction between them and the trolls. But it just wasn't set up enough. 

It wasn't badly written and the characters were fairly interesting at times, but I really just didn't like it.