CHILDREN OF BLOOD & BONE by Tomi Adeyemi

by TPS reader buchananb25

Children of Blood and Bone is an amazing book with a fantasy twist on inequality. I love all the adventure, hardships, and the writing really gets you hooked, and you really want to see what happens next. It has a fast pace, which I enjoy, but not too fast, so you can still keep up with what is happening in the story. The book also really makes sure to provide you with enough context, so you know what’s going on, but not enough to understand everything going on inside each character’s mind; it maintains a sense of mystery of the world, yet can still immerse you inside of it. Sometimes, you can really understand how a character feels in that moment, and sometimes, you can’t, maybe you learn how they felt there later. The magic, the seemingly stereotypical yet such unique story line makes it near impossible to want to stop reading. Nothing seems to happen just for plot convenience; everything makes sense, even if only in that scenario or universe. The book has many things happen that are unexpected, but looking back, could or would have had to happen, maybe earlier or later then expected, however. You can see some of these coming, but not 100% of them, or 100% of the time. Every small event has a point, no matter how insignificant it seems. It could be just to show the reader that one character can do something others can’t, or it can have the butterfly effect, the tiniest event causing a huge reaction. This book can teach you lessons, it can just be a book to read if you like fantasy, it really can be for anyone. You may know some of the lessons, like to treat everyone equally, but they can still help you, and there are other lessons you can learn, too.

SILVERN – Christina Farley

 

 

by TPS reader rubinowa22

Silvern is Christina Farley’s second novel. It is the second of three books in the Gilded trilogy. Farley once again captures the hearts and minds of her readers with a well-told story of good versus evil. The book picks up where Gilded left off, with the defeat of the demigod Haemosu. The revelation that Haemosu was working for the god of darkness, Kud, is an amazing and seamless transition from one main villain to the next. Kud wants to use Jae to find one of the six magical Orbs of Korea. Kud already has the Red Phoenix Orb and wants Jae to find the White Tiger Orb. The White Tiger Orb is known as the seeker orb, and Kud wants to use it to find the rest of the orbs and use them to rule Korea. Jae must travel to North Korea to find the White Tiger Orb, but her trip does not go smoothly. 

Jae’s trip is disguised as a charity act to give Tuberculosis medicine to North Koreans. However, as Jae and Marc are delivering the medicine, they are attacked by Imoogi or flying demon snakes that breathe fire. Jae is nearly killed and her grandfather is wounded when they are attacked. Eventually, Jae finds the White Tiger Orb, but in the process, Kud kills Michell, her best friend. In addition, Marc, her boyfriend, is poisoned by Kud to force her to hand over the White Tiger Orb. To save Marc, Jae gives herself up to Kud and becomes a servant of evil. This evil act is concluded with a contract burned into Jae’s arm. Farley artfully intertwines the gods and myth and the life of Jae, a Korean-American teen to create a worthwhile read. Farley once again successfully weaves a story of the real and the imagined seamlessly. I can’t wait to read the next book.

GILDED by Christina Farley

by TPS reader rubinowa22

Gilded is Christina Farley’s first novel. It is the first of three books in the Gilded trilogy. The premise of this book is based on the actual Korean myth of The legend of Haemosu. Farley artfully intertwines the legend of Haemosu and the life of Jae to create a worthwhile read. This story began with a fanciful description of Jae, a teenage girl who lives with her father in Seoul. The story tells of her mother’s death from cancer a few years earlier and the family’s recent move to Seoul from Los Angeles. Like most teenagers, Jae thinks her biggest challenges will be fitting into a new school. She is also trying to deal with her demanding Korean grandfather. Her grandfather believes the traditional Korean myths are real. Jae is skeptical at first until she gets transported through a painting into the Spirit World. There she meets her deceased aunt, whose spirit was taken by Haemosu, an evil demigod. Marc is Jae’s friend from school who has caught her eye. As the two grow closer, Jae must decide if she can trust him. However, Marc has a secret of his own, he and his parents are part of a secret organization along with Jae’s grandfather. They help prevent the Korean myths and legends, which are real, from gaining too much power. It turns out that Jae’s been wrong about many things; her grandfather is her greatest ally, even a tough girl can fall in love, and the home she’s always been looking for might just be in Korea.

CHILDREN of BLOOD & BONE – Tomi Adeyemi

by TPS reader goodisc22

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi is a great book that incorporates fantasy with prejudice. The novel takes place in Orïsha, a land that is under the rule of King Saran. It follows Zélie Adebola, a divîner, one who has magical blood. Though magic was wiped out of existence, divîners like her possess white hair. With magic, divîners can become maji who are people that can summon magic with their will. They are divided into ten clans, some of which being Reapers (can manipulate the spirits of the living and the dead), Tiders (can manipulate water), and Seers (can summon memories from the past and can see into the future). When Saran descended to the throne, he ordered all majis be killed, ending magic and angering the gods into being dormant. Zélie’s mother was among the many majis that were killed. The raids only brought bitterness and a lost sense of hope to the divîners. They were seen as outcasts from everyone around them, especially hated some. But among the midst of Orïsha, a hidden divîner lies, training Zélie and others like her.

Now Zélie has the chance to bring magic back, but she has to work with Amari, a girl with far too many secrets. While doing this, she has to outrun the crown prince of Orïsha, a man who wants to see magic gone forever.

Children of Blood and Bone is an incredible book that has some aspects of the Yoruba culture and language and West African Mythology. I would definitely recommend reading this book. I cannot wait for the next two books of this trilogy to come out.

THE HIDDEN ORACLE by Rick Riordan

by TPS reader goodisc22

The Hidden Oracle, by Rick Riordan, is the first book of the series The Trials of Apollo. It is about the Greek god Apollo, who, for punishment, has been turned into a human. Meaning no immortality and having to deal with the side effects of being Lester Papadopoulos, a teenage mortal. Zits, flabby muscles and the feeling of pain is everything Apollo experiences. Throughout the book, Apollo deals with constant memory loss due to his ‘human-size brain,’ that always seems to forget everything. But by being human, he is able, from time to time, to remember things about when he was a god. But since being human, he isn’t able to have most of his godly powers. The only consistent ‘powers’ are his poetry and music which seem to be intact, along with some of his archery skills.

At the beginning of each chapter, you are reminded that Lester Papadopoulos, is still Apollo by the haikus and the constant complaining of being human.

The Hidden Oracle is told in first person, from Apollo’s point of view, meaning you are able to experience the hardships of Apollo’s endeavors to be human.

This is in fact, not the first, but third time Apollo has been punished for angering Zeus. Through these punishments, Apollo usually has to follow through with tasks to prove that he is worthy of being a god and of living on Mount Olympus. During these punishments, Apollo has a ‘master,’ or someone that he has to help along his quest. In this case, it happens to be twelve year old, Meg McCaffrey, a demigod who is fierce but touchy about her past. Being mortal, Apollo learns that most of the world’s oracles have stopped working. Together, Meg and Apollo must find the oracles, find out the root of the problem, and finally, help  Apollo earn his place as a god again.

This book is absolutely hilarious and another good book of Rick Riordan’s. It includes some of the characters from The Percy Jackson series and The Heroes of Olympus series. The last book of The Heroes of Olympus series takes place about six months before The Trials of Apollo series. Overall, I love this book and Rick Riordan’s take on Greek Mythology. If you like Greek Myths or Rick Riordan books, I would highly recommend this book and the rest of the series.

SMOKE IN THE SUN by Renee Ahdieh

by TPS reader goodisc22

Smoke in the Sun is the sequel of the book Flame of the Mist. The duology is a historical fantasy written by Renée Ahdieh. It is based in Japan and it follows seventeen-year-old Mariko, the daughter of a respected samurai. Since her birth, she has only been raised, for one thing, to be betrothed to the son of the emperor’s favorite consort. A marriage that will raise her family’s standings. On the other hand, her twin brother Kenshin is known as the Dragon of Kai, a great samurai warrior. In the first book, she barely escapes an assassination attempt by the Black Clan, a group of dangerous bandits. She dresses as a peasant boy and sets out to infiltrate the Black Clan to try and figure out who wants her dead. However, she ends up falling in love.

In the second book, she tries to rescue the boy she loves, but this only starts a chain of events no one can control.

Smoke in the Sun is a thrilling conclusion to this duology. It is a very good young adult book that is very well written. It also includes many Japanese aspects. If you enjoy any type of historical fantasy, I would definitely recommend this book.

RENEGADES by Marissa Meyer

by TPS reader Urbank22

Renegades is a fictional book written by Marissa Meyer. Renegades is about a girl named Nova. Nova is the niece of the infamous leader of the anarchists. After he is murdered by the Renegades, Nova and the rest of the anarchists move down to the subway tunnels. Every “villain” down there is registered for and kept under constant surveillance, except for Nova. The renegades have no documentation that Nova exists, let alone is an anarchist, So when the opportunity strikes, Nova decides to use this to her advantage. At the suggestion of the other villains, she decides to join the Renegades as an undercover villain.  After she is accepted as a Renegade, she meets Adrian, the adoptive son of two of the original Renegades. They investigate the city after the Anarchists start pulling little charades around the city that Nova had to fix. But when Nova starts to fall in love with Adrian, everything starts falling apart, and Nova has to choose between her loyalties and her heart.

ANTIGODDESS by Kendare Blake

by TPS reader ruppj18

In Antigoddess by Kendare Blake, the old greek gods and goddesses are dying. Athena is being slowly consumed by feathers which poke through her skin and organs, slowly and painfully killing her. Then Hermes shows up, slowly starving to death no matter how much he eats. Desperate to find the reason why they are dying, Athena and Hermes set off to find someone who can help. They go to Demeter, who is being slowly stretched to death across the desert floor. After getting her advice, they set off to gather allies. They find Cassandra, who was once the prophetess from Troy, but is now an ordinary girl. Cassandra has no idea that she had a previous life, but she does have the ability to predict the outcome of things in the future, just as she did when she lived in Troy. When Athena shows up at her door, she learns all about the gods, and even discovers secrets about her boyfriend and her past life. Athena is preparing for war, as not all of the gods and goddesses are dying quietly. Desperate to survive, these gods, Hera, Poseidon, and Aphrodite, have become horrible, twisted versions of themselves and they aren’t going down easily. Athena, Hermes, Cassandra, and all of their friends have their work cut out for them if they’re going to stop the other gods from taking humanity down with them.

Antigoddess is an amazing series with a new twist on the typical god and goddess story. The book is unpredictable and different, since immortal gods aren’t supposed to die. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys mythology.

DOROTHY MUST DIE by Danielle Page

 

by TPS reader lehrh21 

According to Amy Gumm, nothing good will come her way in her bleak home in Kansas. But, when a tornado sweeps her house away, she is taken to the world of Oz. Amy watched the movie and expected Oz to be a bright, colorful, and an amazing place, but she was dead wrong. Oz was a dangerous and even bleaker place than Kansas and any wrong decision could be punishable by death. How could such a happy and peaceful place like Oz become so bleak and dangerous? A tyrant from Kansas named Dorothy. Under Dorothy’s rule, good witches aren’t trustworthy, Dorothy’s friends, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, and the Lion, aren’t as nice and helpful as you think. And, wicked witches aren’t so wicked as people think. Amy is recruited by the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked and is trained to complete four goals: to take away the Tin man’s heart, the Scarecrow’s brain, the Lion’s courage, and kill Dorothy. I read this book because I don’t like The Wizard of Oz. I also think that Dorothy is cheesy. I enjoyed the book so much because there was so much action, anticipation, and good cliffhangers. I thought is was interesting how the author twisted the main characters to make them look and act evil. This a book that keeps you turning the page, so you should read it if you like an exciting book (and if you don’t like the The Wizard of Oz).

THE SIREN by Kierra Cass

by TPS reader ruppj18

The Siren by Kiera Cass is a novel about a girl named Kahlen, who died in a shipwreck. Or at least she would have died if the Ocean had not saved her. In exchange for sparing her life, the Ocean requires Kahlen to serve as a Siren for one hundred years, along with her Siren sisters. During that time, Kahlen must sing for the Ocean once a year and lure a ship to its demise. Kahlen shares a very special bond with the Ocean, and while she does not enjoy the killing of the innocent people on the ships, she knows it is necessary for a few to die so that all the others may live. For most of her time as a Siren, Kahlen is content to hide in the shadows and observe people from afar, because the second she speaks a word, everyone around her is drawn to the ocean and will drown in it. So she knows that interacting with humans is not a wise thing to do, and she only does it on rare occasion by using sign language and gestures. But when she meets a boy named Akinli, she finds it hard to resist him no matter what she does. While her sentence is close to over, he will have aged too much for her to seem normal, and she cannot afford to reveal her secret. Yet Kahlen finds herself going back to him over and over. She is falling in love, but it is inevitable that something will go wrong.

The Siren is an amazing book with a unique twist on the myth of the Siren. Each character is unique and likeable, and you will find yourself rooting for Kahlen and Akinli to make it past all the difficulties they face. The Ocean herself is an interesting character, and her perspective is something new and fascinating. I would highly recommend this book to people who love myths and romance.