Be Back Soon

Hello ladies, gentlemen and titans. Just letting you all know that I am going on a quest across the land for around two and a half weeks. And unless I am defeated by the dragons I seek, I shall be back to reclaim my throne in no time at all. In the mean time,  happy reading!! 

Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas

Lost and broken, Celaena Sardothien only lives for the thought of vengeance against the murderer of her most dearest friend. But as the King of Ardaland's assassin, she is bound to serve this vicious and bloodthirsty tyrant, but he will pay for everything he has done. Any hope Celaena has of destroying the king lies in answers to be found in Wendlyn and at the behest of a malicious and cruel queen. Sacrificing his future, Chaol, the captain of the Ardaland King's Guard, has sent Celaena away in order to protect her, but her darkest demons lay in that very same place. If she can overcome them, she will become Ardaland's biggest threat, and his own strongest enemy. While Celaena learns of her true destiny and the eyes of various Gods look on, a brutal and ferocious new threat is preparing to take to the skies. Will Celaena find the strength not only to fight her own battles, but to fight a war that could pit her loyalties between her own people and those she has come to love? 

A favourite series of mine, 'Throne of Glass' has yet another victorious and beautiful story to places under it's rather impressive title. I only put down this book once in order to sleep before I finished off at a rapid and almost frenzied pace. I cannot get enough of the characters in this series, and even when more and more POV's are introduced, the new personalities and traits are always to varied between good, evil, betrayers, courages and broken that I never know what to expect with each and every one of them. You can never judge any of the characters at their first introduction because there are so many different paths that they can climb or fall down, they could end up a hero, a monster or even a slave to others or to themselves. There are just so many layers to the characters, the kingdoms and the magic that even if you lived there you would never know everything about this mysterious world you lived in. I havn't been so completely teleported into a new world as I have with this one, the writing is almost hypnotising, the characters so complex and the world building so complete and yet still so mysterious that if I could, I would erase this story from my mind just so that I would be able to experience it again and again. 

Rating: 5/5 Titans

"She was the heir of ash and fire, and she would bow to no one"

Books in the 'Throne of Glass' Series

Throne of Glass
Crown of Midnight
Heir of Fire
Untitled

Ignite by Erica Crouch

Penemuel fell from grace a millennium ago alongside her twin brother Azael, but there are still many times where she questions her choice to fight for Hell. Now that the Archangel Michael has returned after thousands of years as a captive in Hell, threatening Lucifer's vie for the throne, she begins to question everything she has believed. As Hell prepares for war by spreading a demonic virus and pilfering untainted souls to build an army, the lines separating the three worlds blur. Fates are erased and the future is left unwritten. Azael is determined that he and his sister will continue to fight for Hell, but for the first time in her life, Pen is not ruled by destiny. She has the freedom to choose her own fate. But with choice comes sacrifice, and Pen must decide which side she's willing to risk everything to fight for. The light or the dark...or something in between. 

As the angel who taught man to read, Pen loves her poetry and the written word, so there are a lot of quotes and references to famous poems and poets like Robert Frost, 'Paradise Lost', Lord Byron and of course, Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'Macbeth'. I have to say that I absolutely loved this, 'Ignite' was almost like a teaser trailer of several other books, but it only added to the story of Pen and Michael and didn't subtract from the plot at all. I fell in love with Pen and her struggle to find redemption through Michael, even after all of the horrific things she was made to do whilst serving Hell. But my favourite thing about the book was that there was no black and white, two sided coin, either you serve Heaven or you serve Hell. Crouch realises that no one is absolutely good or absolutely evil, and tells us through the story that we always have a choice and the privilege of free-will. 

Rating: 5/5 Titans

"Not with words alone"

Quote of the Day

"The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven." 

~Paradise Lost, John Milton 

The Nightshade Cases (Episode 3: Stolen) by Patti Larsen

*I received a copy of this book from Badass Marketing in exchange for an honest review

When a pair are found brutally murdered in their own home whilst in the middle of performing what looks like a Wiccan ritual of some kind, Detective Geri Meyers, medical examiner Ray Hunter and Anthropologist Kinsey DanAllart are called in to find the culprit. But this is Silver City, and nothing is ever as it seems due to paranormal conspiracies working secretly in the shadows of almost every murder, murderer and victim. 

Whilst we are getting ever closer to the big supernatural reveal to the main characters and their never-ending denial of everything 'weird', I am getting extremely anxious and impatient for it. I'm usually never this impatient, but something about this series just makes me really jumpy, and I think this is due to the fact that I have bonded with the main characters so much that anything that makes them nervous makes me nervous. The writing as always, is absolutely awesome and the imagery is fantastic, I never get lost in regards to where the characters are or who they are interacting with. The 'advertisements' throughout the episodes are humorous little breaks in order to dissipate some of the high-tension moments and seeks to bring the audience back into the story when there is a danger of their attention slipping, and this creative thinking makes me laugh every time and really appreciate all of the little details that went into making a book into a TV show whilst still keeping the writing. 

Rating: 4/5 Titans