Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson - Book Review

"All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery—magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. If provoked, they transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather. She hopes to become a warden, charged with protecting the kingdom from their power.

Then an act of sabotage releases the library’s most dangerous grimoire. Elisabeth’s desperate intervention implicates her in the crime, and she is torn from her home to face justice in the capital. With no one to turn to but her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn, and his mysterious demonic servant, she finds herself entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy. Not only could the Great Libraries go up in flames, but the world along with them.

As her alliance with Nathaniel grows stronger, Elisabeth starts to question everything she’s been taught—about sorcerers, about the libraries she loves, even about herself. For Elisabeth has a power she has never guessed, and a future she could never have imagined."

I have only one word for this book - predictable. It wasn't boring in a way that books sometimes are, by being slow, dull and having no visible plot. This was made boring mainly because every page of it felt like I had read it before. Elisabeth, the main character, was slow to understand what was happening around her and took days to make obvious connections. Nathaniel was alright, being a mix of the usual heroes and a little bit original. 

This book had a lot of unclear descriptions. Throughout the book, we are never really told how grimoires looked. I could only imagine them as gigantic books with spindly limbs and mean eyes sprouting from the cover. Elisabeth's looks haven't been mentioned either. The book was also filled to the brim with unnecessary similies. Every single object, feeling or scene has been compared to something unrelated.  

Elisabeth was the worst part of the book. She was undeniably stupid and reckless. She made a lot of rash decisions, mistakes and wasted time, yet had no backlash. Everything that happened in the plot was just convenient and happened due to nothing she or Nathaniel had done. Every foolish decision should have landed her dead. I ​also did not like the reason they gave for Elisabeth being resilient to sorcery, for it hardly made sense.

The book was pretty fun to read, though. It wasn't too slow and the basic plot developed by the author was good. The characters did not have much of a personality apart from their assigned roles, but that didn't bother me too much. The world-building was pretty good. I liked how the author had given us details about sorcerers and the libraries. It was also nice to read a book in which the girl did the fighting and the boy was the brains. It was a refreshing change. I did not really like the living-magical-books parts of it too much. I also did not understand the enmity between libraries and sorcerers. Grimoires were magic, written by magicians. And the whole purpose of the library wardens was to protect them, yet they were somehow opposed to sorcerers. Nathaniel being able to convert the malefict back into a book only further proved that magicians and librarians should be working together.

The ending was very dissatisfying. The author did not want to kill any of her main characters, so it ended like anyone could have guessed it would. There were hardly any unpredictable plot twists, or revelations, at the end. I liked how she used grimoires to kill the demons, but I couldn't comprehend how the entire army was defeated by a bunch of paper cuts. Elisabeth and Nathaniel had conveniently survived up till then, so they also conveniently survived the climax. I hadn't wanted Silas to die, so I was happy when he was brought back. But again, it was annoying how everything Elisabeth did, happened to succeed. Also, if summoning demons made one a sorcerer, was Elisabeth a sorcerer now? Would she lose twenty years of her life again? Or would Silas return as a human, since his sacrifice had changed him? None of these questions were properly answered.

The Betrothed : The Betrothed #1 by Kiera Cass - Book Review (no spoilers)

"When King Jameson declares his love for Lady Hollis Brite, Hollis is shocked—and thrilled. After all, she’s grown up at Keresken Castle, vying for the king’s attention alongside other daughters of the nobility. Capturing his heart is a dream come true.

But Hollis soon realizes that falling in love with a king and being crowned queen may not be the happily ever after she thought it would be. And when she meets a commoner with the mysterious power to see right into her heart, she finds that the future she really wants is one that she never thought to imagine."

I didn't have many expectations from this book, which is probably why I didn't hate it too much. But it was still pretty bad. The writing style was as I had thought it would be, after reading The Selection series, and only the plot was slightly better. Going into this, I had thought the story would be exactly like The Selection, and I was glad when it seemed a little different.

Hollis was really annoying. I couldn't have cared less about all the issues she had with her friends and parents. I don't blame them for finding her to be a disappointment. My favourite scene from the book was when Delia Grace yells at Hollis for being self-centred and arrogant. That made me feel that perhaps the author had purposely made Hollis unlikeable, but I soon found out that it was not the case. Delia Grace and simply said all those because she was mad, and the author never mentions any of Hollis' shortcoming at any other place. We are expected to like a selfish, complaining and pretentious girl for no reason at all.

The starting was dull, but I find that to be the case with many books. Although I generally do not like books that have too much description and too little dialogue, this book had the exact opposite problem. We are given zero information about how anyone, any place, or anyone's expression looks, except for the blue eyes and blond hair of the Eastoffe's. I could not tell you anything about Hollis' looks except that she was pretty. About Delia Grace, Nora, Jameson and Hollis' parents, I can tell you even less. None of the rooms in the palace have any characteristic. A garden only has flowers and bushes, and a person is only ever noble or a servant. That is all the description we get about anything.

The story got slightly more exciting later. It had seemed fast-paced mostly because of the lack of description. However, the plot never really moved ahead until Hollis met Valentina and something other than her betrothal to the king was mentioned. I'll admit the twist in the end came as a surprise. I had not been expecting the story to change so drastically. 

Overall I liked the book; it had a few flaws, but the plot was nice. A lot of reviews say that it has been advertised wrong and that the story being similar to the Selection made it boring. I thought so in the beginning too, but it got much better in the end, and I started liking the book. I will be reading the second book sometime, because I am interested to know what happens next. 

A Tale of Magic... : A Tale of Magic #1 - Book Review

"Fourteen-year-old Brystal Evergreen has always known she was destined for great things--that is, if she can survive the oppressive Southern Kingdom. Her only escape are books, but since it's illegal for women to read in her country, she has to find creative ways of acquiring them. Working as a maid at her local library gives her the perfect excuse to be near them and allows her to sneak a few titles home when no one is looking. But one day Brystal uncovers a secret section of the library and finds a book about magic that changes her life forever.

Magic is despised and outlawed throughout the world--Brystal is well aware of the severe consequences the book may bring--but her curiosity gets the best of her. By reading some of the text aloud, strange phenomena begin to occur and Brystal discovers she is capable of magic! And the more she practises it, the harder it becomes to hide.

After being caught and convicted, Brystal is saved by a mysterious woman named Madame Weatherberry. The woman takes Brystal to her Academy of Magic and teaches her to become a fairy. While Brystal studies magic and befriends the other students, Madame Weatherberry is suddenly called away on suspicious matters. When she doesn't return, Brystal and her friends work together to find and save their instructor. Along the way, the students discover Madame Weatherberry's true intentions for the academy are not what they seem, and they come face to face with a sinister plot that puts the fate of the world, and the fate of magic itself, in grave danger."

I liked this book for the most part. The beginning was slow but the story was constantly moving forward. The plot they had given at the back started more than halfway through the book. The magic part of it also took some time to pick up. However, the description of Brystal's life wasn't entirely boring. It gave us information about who she was and told us about incidents that shaped her into who she became later.

The plot was good. Before starting the book, I had thought it would be rather predictable, but the author has managed to keep it interesting. The story was well thought-out and there were a few suspenseful bits here and there.

The only qualm I had about this book would be the characters. Brystal is supposed to be fourteen years old, but she was very immature. Although they claimed that she was an avid reader, she did not seem to know much about anything she had read. Once, Brystal was reading out a story to her friends, which she had read earlier. One of them predicted that in the end, the protagonist would win the inevitable fight against his enemy and return home a hero. When Brystal confirmed that she was right, not only were all her other friends shocked, Brystal's mouth hung open with surprise too. That book was also supposed to be the third or fourth of a series with similar books, so one would have expected at least Brystal to know the predictability of the tale.

I get that this book was meant for a slightly younger age group, which is probably why I found some parts of it boring and the characters did not appeal to me too much. However, I did like the story because it was fast-paced and fun to read.