This book is a retelling of ‘The Princess and the Pea’, but where it’s an ordinary girl who gets thrown in with the royal family, and eventually earns her place there by being herself. Alyssa is separated from her party in a storm and ends up at the Winter Palace. After completely charming the 11-year-old […]

Henrietta Howel has power over fire, and has therefore always feared being found out by the royal sorcerers, because women should not weld magic. But she is finally discovered, and it turns out that they’ve been waiting for a girl that can weld fire. And so she is apparently the Chosen One. I enjoyed this

I had a really hard time finishing this book, for no particularly good reason. If I really had to nail something down, I think it was just a little bit too much teenage angst for me. The books goes between a couple different viewpoints – primarily Jack and Fluer. They’re both Seasons – young people

This story is a combination of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Mulan (per the blurbs at least – I see where they wanted to go with that, but I don’t agree). It’s an interesting concept. Bristal is an elicromancer – a now rare type of immortal that should be helping the mortals. The other two elicromancers

I was definitely looking forward to reading this book – it’s the back story for the mage Numair, when he was still a young man named Arram Draper. It’s how he studied in Carthak and became the mage that he is in later books, and how he knew Orzone, before he become emperor. I really

In an Eastern forest (it reads Russian, but if you read the notes, you’ll see it’s based on things the author brings in from her Ukrainian roots), live two sisters. Liba and Laya are Jewish, in a mixed village. When their father is summoned to his dying father’s side, they’re given surprising news – Liba

In an alternate Europe, magic is based on the ability to summon angels. In Ystara, something terrible happened, and their archangel has abandoned them. If any magic is used on the Ystarans, they either die of a plague, or turn into monsters. A century or so after this happened, in the neighboring kingdom of Sarance,

Zafira is the Hunter – the only person capable of hunting in the enchanted Arz Forest. Nasir is the son of the sultan, and has been turned by his father into an assassin. When they are both sent after a mythical book that may be able to restore magic to the people of their kingdom,

This book is set in the Grishaverse, but definitely comes across as grittier than the books in the Shadow and Bone series – those are more fairy tales. This is a heist book. Kaz Brekker has been given the heist opportunity of a lifetime, and each member of the crew he assembles has good reason