Book Review: Assassin's Heart by Sarah Ahiers

 

In the kingdom of Lovero, nine rival Families of assassins lawfully kill people for a price. As a highly skilled member of one of these powerful clans, seventeen-year-old Lea Saldana has always trusted in the strength of her Family. Until she awakens to find them murdered and her home in flames. The Da Vias, the Saldanas’ biggest enemy, must be responsible—and Lea should have seen it coming. But her secret relationship with the Da Vias’ son, Val, has clouded her otherwise killer instinct—and given the Da Vias more reason than ever to take her Family down.

Racked with guilt and shattered over Val’s probable betrayal, Lea sets out to even the score, with her heart set on retaliation and only one thought clear in her mind: make the Da Vias pay.

With shades of The Godfather and Romeo and Juliet, this richly imagined fantasy from debut author Sarah Ahiers is a story of love, lies, and the ultimate vengeance.

 

I am very conflicted about Assassin's Heart. I am giving it four stars but it could have easily been five, yet I nearly gave it a three.

There was a lot about this book I liked. It is the most original novel I have read in years. Sure, there are plenty of books out there about assassins, especially in the YA bracket, but I haven't come across one quite like this. I was blown away by Ahiers imagination. The creation of the cities, religion and culture of her fantasy world was quite simply outstanding. The story and writing were rich with originality. I honestly do not think I will come across another book to match it for some time.

Ahiers is a truly creative writer. Everything in this book had purpose, all the information given to the reader was important in some way. The story was built well, it was never boring and never rushed. On the whole it was a very well put together book.

The reason I nearly gave this book a three star rating was the main character Lea. I didn't like her. Truthfully, I think Lea is not a character you are supposed to like, not straight away anyway. She goes on a journey and she changes as the book goes on. You could really see the difference in her from the beginning of the book to the end. I have no problem with that, I like it when a character grows, the issue in this book is that the change takes too long. For at least 75% of this book I disliked Lea. That is just far too long.

For three quarters of the book Lea is borderline unbearable. Sure, she is a kick ass assassin and that is all kinds of cool, but she is also a snob who looks down on people who do not have as much as she does. She lacks personality, I kind of get it, something horrible has happened to her, she seeks revenge but her one track mind was an annoyance and it prevented the reader from getting to know her. If I had a pound for every time I read the words 'all that mattered was killing the Da Vias,' or some variation of that, I would be a lot better off than I am now. Honestly, she sounded like a broken record and it was too much. Her single mindedness also leads her to become selfish. She focuses on her goal so much that she loses sight of the cost that could come with achieving it. She doesn't care about the consequences of her actions and drags others into her plot without thinking of the risk it poses to their life's.

Luckily, as I said, she isn't like this the whole time. I loved her towards the end of this book. She was still kick ass but she lost the snobbishness, she started to see things differently, she started to care, she fell in love and it changed everything. I just wish the change had come a little sooner.

Les was a completely different story. I loved him from the beginning until the end. Sweet, loyal and kind he is the exact opposite of Lea. He was patient with her, he knew when to be soft and when to push back. He never belittled her, never thought he knew best. He just supported her, and learnt from her and she, in turn, learnt from him, even if she didn't want to.

The romance was wonderful. It was beautifully built and surprisingly adult. It felt real and it got under my skin in a way few YA romances have managed. There was no teen drama, no romantic angst. It was just two people slowly, without really realising it, falling in love. I adored it.

Assassin's Heart is not perfect but it came pretty close. Sarah Ahiers knows what she is doing, she is on my watch list and I will wait eagerly for her next book.

4 stars

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Assassin's Heart book one.  Published February 2nd 2016 by HarperTeen.

 

A free book was provided in exchange for an honest review.  Image courtesy of Goodreads.

Book Review: Apple and Rain by Sarah Crossan

When Apple's mother returns after eleven years away, Apple feels whole again. But just like the stormy Christmas Eve when she left, her mother's homecoming is bittersweet. It's only when Apple meets someone more lost than she is that she begins to see things as they really are.

A story about sad endings.
A story about happy beginnings.
A story to make you realise who is special.

 

Sarah Crossan is an author I know quite well, I've read her Breathe series and I even met her once but Apple and Rain is the first contemporary book of hers that I have read. I don't really know what I was expecting from this, the description sounded painful and I got the impression that this book would be a hard read. The two books in the Breathe series were not much help in determining what to expect from Apple and Rain. They are dystopia books full of rich world building, they could not be more different than Apple and Rain. In the end Apple and Rain turned out to be nothing like I expected and I found it quite different from other books I have read. It was realistic, touching and took me by surprise with its intelligence.

The writing in Apple and Rain is great, the main character Apple is quite young, only 13, and Crossan managed to find her voice with little effort. There was nothing over the top about this book, no dramatics, no heavy descriptions. Instead it focused on the emotions of a child as she went through some difficult times.

The storyline itself was heart breaking, I really felt for both Apple and Rain. This is a book about family and friendship, it is a coming of age story about sisters who are both lost. Mostly I think this is a book about growing up and how painful that process can be. I loved what Crossan did with the poetry theme that ran through the book, how Apple was inspired by a good teacher and a growing love of literature. I feel like a lot of thought was put into this book, it was lean and emotional without ever going to far.

The characters were good, they were all layered and full of personality. I didn't love nor hate any of them. I am not sure if that was the author's intention but I felt like it worked well. All of the characters are very real, they all have good and bad things about them. Each one at some point annoyed me and endeared themselves to me. Every character plays their part but it is the relationship between Apple and Rain that had all the impact in this book. This was a beautiful relationship full of ups and downs between very lost sisters. Crossan treated every aspect of not only this relationship but all the other issues in the book with utmost respect.

Although I didn't fall in love with this book, (to be honest it is not my kind of thing) I would still recommend it to young adult and adult readers. Sarah Crossan seriously impressed me with this novel and I look forward to reading more from her in the future.

4 stars

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Published 2015 by Bloomsbury Publishing.

 

A free copy of this book was provided in exchange for an honest review.  Image courtesy of Goodreads.

Book Review: The Forever Song by Julie Kagawa

Vengeance will be hers.

Allison Sekemoto once struggled with the question: human or monster? With the death of her love, Zeke, she has her answer.

Monster.

Allie will embrace her cold vampire side to hunt down and end Sarren, the psychopathic vampire who murdered Zeke. But the trail is bloody and long, and Sarren has left many surprises for Allie and her companions - her creator Kanin, and her blood brother, Jackal. The trail is leading straight to the one place they must protect at any cost - the last vampire-free zone on Earth, Eden. And Sarren has one final, brutal shock in store for Allie.

In a ruined world where no life is sacred and former allies can turn on you in one heartbeat, Allie will face her darkest days. And if she succeeds, her triumph will be short-lived in the face of surviving forever alone.

 

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS BIG ASS SPOILERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

The Blood of Eden series has been one of my favourite YA book series for some time now, I would even go as far to say that I think it is the best YA series since The Hunger Games. I bought The Forever Song (the last book in the series) when it came out last year it took me a long time to get round to reading. I didn't put off reading it because I wasn't interested, I put off reading it because I was scared. It turns out I was right to be fearful.

Oh Julie, Julie, Julie. We need to have a serious conversation. I trusted you and then you went and stamped all over my heart. Anyone who follows my reviews knows that I don't really do Book Boyfriends. I rarely get book crushes but then you created Kanin. I cannot say what it is about this character that appeals to me so much but it is potent. I have never crushed on a book character, shit I haven't crushed on some of my ex boyfriends, the way I crushed on Kanin. To me he was perfect, more of a book soul mate than a book boyfriend. But then it all came crashing down, why? Because you killed him! I cried Julie, I WAS ON MY LUNCH BREAK AT WORK, JULIE! (It was awkward to say the least.) Look, I get why you did it I really do. It was about redemption, about finding closure but it broke my heart in two, so thanks for that.

Now that I have properly unleashed my Kanin feels I can get on with this book review. The Forever Song is the weakest of the trilogy, (and I am not just saying that because I am wounded) but I still absolutely loved it. It may be the weakest of the three but it is still up there with my favourite YA books. At this point I firmly believe that Julie Kagawa is incapable of writing a bad book. Her work is so rich and her world building so imaginative that it would be impossible for anything she penned to be bad.

Another reason I love, not only this book, but the whole series is that way Kagawa treats her audience. She doesn't treat her readers like children, she doesn't hold back the bad stuff to protect them. Julie Kagawa is prepared to go to some dark places the tone of the book is almost one of despair, there is gore, violence and horror. Sex, death and a lot of swearing. I love that she takes those risks and I find her work to be richer because of it.

I am sad to say farewell to these characters. They were just as likeable and magnetic in The Forever Song as they were in the previous two books. Allison is one of my favourite YA characters ever. She is flawed and can make bad decisions but she isn't selfish or arrogant. I find her real and gritty, in her relationship with Zeke she is the one with the harsher nature, she is the fighter and he is softer and more emotional. I have already talked about Kanin at length so I won't make you suffer with any more. Yet, despite my feelings for him it was Jackal who ended up being my favourite character, in this book and maybe in the series as a whole. The raider king breaths life into this story, without him this book could have fallen flat. Jackal isn't always easy to like, he can be nasty and his reluctance to feel any guilt over the people he has killed and what he is can, at times, be hard to swallow. Yet, behind all of that there is something softer and sweeter lingering under the surface. He pushes people away, he doesn't want to care but he does, he cares quite a lot I think. He pretends to be callous, to not give a damn but he is wiser than he wants to admit and often is the voice of reason. He is a complex and funny character and I have to admit that he has worked his way past all my Kanin feels into my heart.

Despite my sadness I do feel like this series has come to a satisfying conclusion. Yet, not everything about this final instalment was perfect. There was a little too much angst, and a little too much teen romance drama for my liking. I am not going to complain much, there is not much wrong to warrant it but The Forever Song didn't quite grip me like The Immortal Rules and The Eternity Cure did, which is why I am giving it four stars instead of five.

Oh and Julie, if you want to make up for taking a sledgehammer to my heart then putting it through a meat grinder a Jackal spin off, preferably adult, (because that shit would be red hot,) would be a fine place to start. Wink, wink.

4 stars

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The Forever Song by Julie Kagawa, blood of Eden book 3

 

Published May 2nd 2014 by MIRA Ink

 

Image courtesy of Goodreads

Book review: Angelfall by Susan Ee

It’s been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back.

Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel.  Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl.  Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they have only each other to rely on for survival. Together, they journey toward the angels’ stronghold in San Francisco where she’ll risk everything to rescue her sister and he’ll put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.

I do not know what I was expecting when I bought this book. It had a pretty cover and was going cheap so I thought I would give it ago. I had heard good things about it, I thought I might like it but I wasn’t expecting to be blown away…yet I was. Consider me officially blown.

Angelfall is one of the most exciting books I have read in a long time. It has a lot going for it. The plot line is mesmerizing you live and breathe it from the very beginning until the end. It is a compelling story of family, sacrifice and love.

I found the characters incredibly engaging. Penryn is a strong female lead, a lot stronger than most girls you see in Young Adult books. The lengths she is prepared to go to for her sister is something we have seen before (see The Hunger Games) but it still proves to be touching. Raffe, the lead male character, is also strong and the perfect partner for Penryn as she travels across a ruined America. They are characters that are easy to get behind; easy to like and before you know it you realise you are caring about them.

The romantic relationship between them is a slow burner and manages to get under your skin even though nothing really happens. In fact calling this book a ‘romance’ book is probably lying. There is little to no romance in this at all, just a shadow of what is to come in future books in the series.

Angelfall does get a few things wrong. There are a few times where Ee stretches reality a little too thinly and it becomes a little hard to believe. These moments are few and far between and do not greatly affect the reading experience. Also her world building is a little bit unbelievable. In six weeks America seems to have deteriorated an awful lot. (However, I haven’t been through an apocalypse so how would I know)

What Ee does with this book that many other authors struggle with is her scene building. From a lonely feather falling from the sky to the image of Angel Gabriel hovering over an under siege Jerusalem. Every scene is crafted with beauty that makes for a mesmerizing experience for the reader. I think it is the main reason that the book is almost impossible to put down.

Another thing Angelfall has going for it is the brutality and violence. It really pushed the boundaries of how brutal, gory and violent a YA should be. In my mind it was all justified and was there for the benefit of the story but those with a weaker stomach might find parts of this book disturbing and sickening. This is no walk in the park this is a world full of tragedy and darkness. It holds nothing back and shows you a place that is ripped apart and dyeing. It is probably the most violent and gory Ya book I have read.

I could not recommend this book more highly. It is one of the best books I have read this year and is in my top three YA books of all time. I loved it, loved it, loved it and I literally cannot wait for the next book in the series, if it is anything like this then I know I am in for one hell of a ride.

5 stars

Published May 21st 2011 by Feral Dream.  A free copy was provided for review.  Images courtesy of Goodreads.

Review by Kate Phillips