Showing posts with label rae carson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rae carson. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Can't-Wait Wednesday: Looking Glass by Christina Henry & The Empire of Dreams by Rae Carson


Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released! This meme is based off of Jill @ Breaking the Spine's Waiting on Wednesday meme.

This week's upcoming book spotlights are: 

Looking Glass (The Chronicles of Alice)
Looking Glass by Christina Henry
Publication: April 21st, 2020
Ace
Paperback. 304 pages.


"In four new novellas, Christina Henry returns to the universe she created for Alice and Red Queen, where magic runs more freely than anyone suspects, but so do secrets and blood. 

Lovely Creature 
In the New City lives a girl called Elizabeth, a girl who has a secret: she can do magic. But someone knows Elizabeth's secret--someone who has a secret of his own. That secret is a butterfly that lives in a jar, a butterfly made by a girl called Alice. 

Girl in Amber 
Alice and Hatcher are just looking for a place to rest. Alice has been dreaming of a cottage by a lake and a field of wildflowers, but while walking blind in a snowstorm they stumble into a castle that seems empty and abandoned...at least until nightfall. 

When I First Came to Town 
Hatcher wasn't always Hatcher. Once, he was a boy called Nicholas, and Nicholas fancied himself the best fighter in the Old City. No matter who fought him he always won. Then his boss tells him he's going to battle the fearsome Grinder, a man who never leaves his opponents alive. 

The Mercy Seat 
Alice has a secret--a secret that not even Hatcher knows yet, but pretty soon she won't be able to keep it from him."
I've loved every single book Christina Henry has written, including her Chronicles of Alice books, and I have been so eagerly anticipating the release of this collection of novellas! I'm also super partial to the UK cover of this book, so I figured I'd share that cover as well below, as I tend to do when I love both. :)

Looking Glass (The Chronicles of Alice)

and...
The Empire of Dreams (Fire and Thorns)
The Empire of Dreams by Rae Carson
Publication: April 7th, 2020
Greenwillow Books
Hardcover. 432 pages.


"New York Times-bestselling author Rae Carson makes a triumphant return to the world of her award-winning Girl of Fire and Thorns trilogy in this extraordinary stand-alone novel. With action, adventure, and a heroine set on destroying the patriarchal limits meant to keep her in her place, The Empire of Dreams once again proves that Rae Carson is a master of epic fantasy. 

Even though Red Sparkle Stone is a foundling orphan with an odd name and a veiled past, she's about to be adopted into the royal family—by Empress Elisa herself. Sixteen-year-old Red can hardly believe her luck. Then, in a stunning political masterstroke, the empress's greatest rival blocks the adoption, and Red is left with no family and no future. 

Grieving and lost, but determined to find her place, Red hatches a daring plan: she will prove herself as a recruit for the world's most elite fighting force, the legendary Royal Guard—something no woman has done before. But it's no coincidence that someone wanted her to fail as a princess, someone whose shadowy agenda puts everything she loves at risk. As danger closes in, it will be up to Red and her new friends—and maybe some new enemies—to save the empire. If they can survive recruitment year."
I still can't believe there's a new Fire and Thorns book coming out! I read the original trilogy so long ago that I know there is no way I can possibly jump into this without re-reading the entire trilogy again, which I've been wanting to do for a while, anyway. I think this is meant to be a sort of spin-off standalone so you might be able to read it without reading the prior trilogy (?), but I have no idea! I love the new covers for this trilogy as well, and I don't typically love cover remakes, though the originals will always be special to me.

What do you think about these upcoming releases? What are your anticipated upcoming releases?

Monday, September 5, 2016

Like a River Glorious by Rae Carson

*Like a River Glorious will be released Tuesday, September 6th!*

Like a River Glorious (The Gold Seer Trilogy, #2)
Like a River Glorious by Rae Carson. Greenwillow, 2016. Paperback. 432 pages.

*I received a printed ARC of Like a River Glorious courtesy of Greenwillow in exchange for an honest review.*

You can find my review for Walk on Earth a Stranger (Book One) here!

Western themes are definitely not normally something I'm a big fan of, but I fell in love with Walk on Earth a Stranger, and after finishing it I knew that I would be eagerly awaiting the sequel. I probably needed a little bit of a refresher before starting, but fortunately I wasn't too lost and was soon right back in the swing of things and enjoying myself once again in this world Carson has created.

The first book left off as Lee and the rest of the group finally made it to California, and Like a River Glorious picks up right after that. Because of her gift, she has the potential to become a flourishing gold miner, but of course nothing is ever easy when you have an evil uncle that wants to kidnap you and force you to use your powers for him.

Lee is just as fiery and strong as she was in Walk on Earth a Stranger, but this time she has a whole new slew of issues to deal with, such as dealing with her Uncle Hiram and her struggle to come to terms with the horrible treatment of the Native Americans that are forced into slavery, which I will touch upon a bit more later. Lee's strong, endearing character is still perfectly intact: she's independent and bold, but she is also aware that she's not perfect and doesn't have a way to fix everyone's problems. I love that Lee is just a really good person as well; she truly cares for others and wants to help them by eradicating their suffering.

Along with Lee, Jefferson is pretty high up there as a favorite character. I love his determination in both pursuing Lee and doing what he can to keep everyone safe. His respect for Lee is wonderful, and although he does continue to ask her to marry him, I appreciate that he respects her unsure stance on marriage and her dislike for conventional marriages in which a woman becomes 'property' to men. I also just want to note that the rest of Carson's supporting characters are all just as well-developed and entertaining as Jefferson and Lee, and I sincerely enjoyed watching them all develop and their relationships with one another flourish.

I think Carson did well in capturing the horrible treatment of Native Americans. The fact that Jefferson himself is half-Cherokee fits into this really well, as it allows us to see even more perspectives, since Jefferson himself isn't in the same position of those in California who had their land taken away, but is still affected and hurt by these actions all the same. However, I'm hoping that the final book in this trilogy actually spotlights Native American culture and their lies a bit more, as this book mostly kept them in one view - as slaves.

This book moved pretty fast, and I feel like not a lot happened in a lot of time. By that, I mean that I feel like the story was stuck in one place for a majority of the time, and I suddenly found myself surprised to be 3/4 of the way done. I'm not sure if the book moved too fast or if it was jsut that easy to get sucked into, but at least we can say it held my attention! The ease in which I read this book was largely due to Carson's flowing, elegant writing. She crafts gorgeous prose that takes her readers for an adventurous ride, something that she has been a master at since her first trilogy, The Girl of Fire and Thorns.

Now, I had some questions about Lee's gift that I had hoped this sequel would answer, but unfortunately it didn't answer some of them, such as why Lee has this gift and whether or not she is the only person in the world with a gift like this? However, Like a River Glorious did indeed explore more of Lee's power and showed how strong and powerful it can truly be, which was definitely what I wanted. Carson also explored more of the supporting characters, and though there still could have been a bit more, I think she did a really good job creating a unique array of characters that truly brought life to the story.

Overall, I will be giving Like a River Glorious four stars!



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