The Jewel : The Lone City #1 by Amy Ewing - Book Review

"Sold for six million diamantes, Violet is now the Surrogate of the House of the Lake in the centre of the Lone City, the Jewel. Her sole purpose is to produce a healthy heir for the Duchess – a woman Violet fears and despises.

Violet is trapped in a living death, her name and body no longer her own. She fights to hold on to her own identity and sanity, uncertain of the fate of her friends, isolated and at the mercy of the Duchess."

2 stars

So I could write a really long rant for this book, but I'm going to do it the easier way. Following is a collection of lines from this book that I hated. And why I hated them. Though that's really obvious.

Also, naming the main character Violet because she has violet eyes doesn't sound like such a bad thing until you realise she has a sister named Hazel and a brother names Ochre, and a friend named Raven who has a twin named Crow and that a random guy named Cobalt exists. Then even Violet starts sounding like a terrible name.

⚠️ Screaming in all caps may ensue.

Her not-like-the-others-ness

"But some of the girls follow all the gossip."

"Lily loves the Electress, like many of the girls at Southgate."
And of course, you don't, Violet.

"The only pictures in Lily’s magazines that ever interested me were the ones of the concerts."
Yes of course, because being interested in dresses and hairstyles and royalty gossip is so basic.

"Never in all my twenty-nine years as a physician have I ever seen anything like this,” he murmurs."
She's so speshul 😍

Cliche-ness going through the roof

"claw-footed copper bathtub"
I could find 2734878273 other books with this line.

"We turn down another hall lined with massive gold-framed portraits—their eyes seem to follow me as I go"

"smooths out a nonexistent wrinkle in my dress"
The author is so original, I can't-

"Abruptly, she stands, and the softness falls away, replaced with the rigid mask I’m accustomed to."
Aww, villain Duchess having a soft moment so adoraybl.

"I have the strongest urge to run my fingers over his forearms."
Just me putting this line in here because I hated it.

"A lock of brown hair has fallen over his forehead and I have the strongest urge to brush it back, to run my fingers through his hair."

Violet's lunacy

"Carnelian. What a stupid name."
Yeah, you're one to talk

"[Her love interest] spoke to me like a person, even for just a few minutes . . . it was like exhaling after holding my breath for too long."
The fact that she doesn't accept the maids as people just shows how much of a hypocrite she's being every time she wants respect from the Duchess. Anabelle (her maid) always treated her "like a person".

"I inhale his scent of soap and clean linen and something that must be boy."
I don't really need to comment on this but-

SOMETHING THAT MUST BE BOY

I'M SORRY WHAT

"My heart explodes into a million glittering fragments that rain down like fireworks through my chest."
I have so many questions

"I laugh, but he doesn’t, so I stop. Is he serious?"
Um no, I think he's not laughing because people don't laugh at their own jokes.

"If it was Hazel being sent away on that train and I could save her by taking her place, I would do it in a heartbeat."

She wants to send an 'I'm okay' message to her friend across the fence-
"More flowers might be too conspicuous, with winter approaching."

SO SHE DECIDES TO ATTACH A RIBBON TO THE VINE BECAUSE SURE THAT IS THE MOST NATURALLY GROWING THING IN THE WORLD.

"I feel myself dissolve into a thousand molecules, amazed at how three small words can completely alter my state of being."
You were always made of molecules, Violet 

"The things Ash has revealed to me about the royalty, about his profession, about how he’s treated within the walls of the Jewel . . . to anyone else I think it would be impossible to understand why he would do it, or how he could. But not to me."
Wow, you're so great to be able to understand why he has to have a job. Purrfect for each other.

Just other dumb stuff

"It has a secret, second compartment, and I dump out the earrings and bracelets and pendants and pop the bottom out."
Since when do Duchesses give surrogates jewellery boxes with secret compartments that they don't know about? I really hope this is explained in the next books because I refuse to believe she found some sEcReT, sEcOnD cOmPaRtMeNt that nobody else knew about.

"You seem like a fairly intelligent girl."
Um, no

"I have been changed, forged into someone wiser and stronger than I used to be. I have grown up."
This is the most forced character arc I have ever seen, and it's not even true.

I didn't like any of the characters, and the spare world-building hardly gave me an idea of what was happening. There were too many colours and beautiful things, and it felt very unreal. It was a modern world without really being modern. Hopefully, the other books explain it more, and for whatever reason, I'm going to read them someday.

Chain of Gold : The Last Hours #1 by Cassandra Clare - Book Review (No spoilers)

Synopsis

"Cordelia Carstairs is a Shadowhunter, a warrior trained since childhood to battle demons. When her father is accused of a terrible crime, she and her brother travel to London in hopes of preventing the family’s ruin. Cordelia’s mother wants to marry her off, but Cordelia is determined to be a hero rather than a bride. Soon Cordelia encounters childhood friends James and Lucie Herondale and is drawn into their world of glittering ballrooms, secret assignations, and supernatural salons, where vampires and warlocks mingle with mermaids and magicians. All the while, she must hide her secret love for James, who is sworn to marry someone else.

But Cordelia’s new life is blown apart when a shocking series of demon attacks devastate London. These monsters are nothing like those Shadowhunters have fought before—these demons walk in daylight, strike down the unwary with incurable poison, and seem impossible to kill. London is immediately quarantined. Trapped in the city, Cordelia and her friends discover that their own connection to a dark legacy has gifted them with incredible powers—and forced a brutal choice that will reveal the true cruel price of being a hero."

My review

5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I love the Shadowhunter books for various reasons, but mainly because there are many characters and side plots, and as a result, a lot of love triangles and quadrilaterals and all sorts of weird tangles. It is nice to see everything come together in the end, and though some demon-defeating and crushing-on-random-people parts are predictable, it's fun to read how those things come to be.

This series is about the children of Will Herondale and Tessa, who were the main characters of The Infernal Devices. Chronologically, it is the second series, but the author has chosen to write it as her fourth in the Shadohunter world.

I like that all her books have many, equally important characters, and this one did not disappoint. The first couple of viewpoints of James and Lucie bored me, but soon I got invested in their lives as well. Cordelia's parts were the most fun- once I stopped getting confused about which of Cortana and Cordelia was the sword, and which the person.

There was were too many people being introduced early on, and since everyone was similar and related to everybody else, I was slightly confused. Thomas called Christopher his brother, but so did James, and nearly everyone else, while their actual siblings were some other people entirely. I'm still not very clear on the distant relations, but the individual families became easier to understand after a few chapters.

The fact that all of them were earth-shatteringly handsome with uniquely coloured eyes and bright beautiful hair that kept falling into their faces did not help in distinguishing between them.

My favourite character was Anna Lightwood, and I also liked Cordelia. I might be judging Anna based on one dialogue ("Orange is the colour of despair, and pumpkins") alone, but she was straightforward and blatant, like I aspire to be. I liked how all their friendships developed throughout the book.

The plot was also interesting, and everybody had something to do with how things turned out. The fights felt a bit artificial, and the demons were too easy to kill. The ending was very exciting, and I look forward to reading the next book.