Review: The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

The Bone Season is a fantastic original.  Samantha Shannon has written an impressive first book and I look forward to reading more from this debut author.  Her writing was captivating and the world she created was complex and fascinating.  It was like learning a new language (don't worry, there's a glossary!), but once I understood what was going on, I was completely engrossed with the story, which was fresh and exciting.  It pushed all the right buttons and pulled all the right heartstrings.

Paige Mahoney is a clairvoyant in a world where clairvoyance is a crime.  Working for the syndicate, the criminal underworld, Paige uses her gift as a dreamwalker to spy for her boss Jaxon Hall.  When an accident leads to her arrest, Paige is taken to Sheol I only to find out that instead of a government prison, Sheol I is actually a city ruled by a race called the Rephaim who have been around for centuries and use voyants as soldiers.  Paige is assigned to Warden, her Rephaite keeper who will be responsible for housing and training her.  But as Paige realizes that Nashira, the Rephaim blood-sovereign (super scary lady), wants something more from her, she plots to escape back home to her syndicate gang and her life of crime that she feels so safe in. 

I loved Paige as a heroine.  She's proud but caring.  She's loyal and clever and incredibly strong.  I felt like I got along really well with her personality.  Her actions and dialogue never frustrated me and I trusted her instincts and motives.   Her vulnerability only endeared me to her more.  Paige is someone I could definitely connect with and I enjoyed spending time with and getting to know her.  I also really liked Warden's character.  He was definitely a difficult puzzle to solve and his calm exterior made it difficult for me to read him, but with each act of kindness and new piece of information that I found out about him, the more invested I became.  I began rooting for both characters who seemed to want opposite things.  Their dynamic was interesting and the way they progressed was intriguing.  Two words - tension and knife.

With all the hype going around about this book, I had high expectations and I am pleased to reveal that I was not disappointed.  It wasn't a fast read but I was very happy taking my time with it.  The Bone Season is an inventive story that reminded me what I love about fantasy - exploring new worlds and embracing other people's imaginations - the closest I'll ever come to dreamwalking.  

 

Review by @MaryMunar

 

Add The Bone Season on Goodreads and enter their giveaway, it ends in a couple of days.

Author: Samantha Shannon - follow her on Twitter.
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Release Date: August 20, 2013
Series: Yes
Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 480 pages 

Review & Giveaway - Throne of Glass.

Mary and I inhale fantasy reads but oh wow, we couldn't get enough of Throne of Glass. I highlighted so many lines from the book just so I could go back and reread them. We were so excited when one of our favorite bookish friend told us Sarah Maas was going to be at Vroman's in Pasadena. Check out our pics from the event, read Mary's gush-worthy review and don't forget to enter our giveaway.

Review: The Pledge by Kimberly Derting

In the violent country of Ludania, the language you speak determines what class you are, and there are harsh punishments if you forget your place—looking a member of a higher class in the eye can result in immediate execution. Seventeen-year-old Charlaina (Charlie for short) can understand all languages, a dangerous ability she’s been hiding her whole life. Her only place of release is the drug-filled underground club scene, where people go to shake off the oppressive rules of the world they live in. There, she meets a beautiful and mysterious boy who speaks a language she’s never heard, and her secret is almost exposed. Through a series of violent upheavals, it becomes clear that Charlie herself is the key to forcing out the oppressive power structure of her kingdom…. (Summary as found on Amazon)

Review: The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson

Once a century, one person is chosen for greatness.

Elisa is the chosen one.

But she is also the younger of two princesses. The one who has never done anything remarkable, and can’t see how she ever will.

Now, on her sixteenth birthday, she has become the secret wife of a handsome and worldly king—a king whose country is in turmoil. A king who needs her to be the chosen one, not a failure of a princess.

And he’s not the only one who seeks her. Savage enemies, seething with dark magic,are hunting her. A daring, determined revolutionary thinks she could be his people’ssavior, and he looks at her in a way that no man has ever looked at her before. Soon it is not just her life, but her very heart that is at stake.

Elisa could be everything to those who need her most. If the prophecy is fulfilled. If she finds the power deep within herself. If she doesn’t die young.

Most of the chosen do.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky. 

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low. 

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war. 

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages--not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers--beautiful, haunted Akiva--fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself? (from the Author's Blog)