Title : Catching Fire Author : Suzanne Collins Also by this Author: The Hunger Games Series : The Hunger Games, book 2 Age Category : Young Adult Published by: 14 September 2008, Pages: 390   p. Genre:  Science Fiction, dystopia About Catching Fire Sparks are igniting. Flames are spreading. And the Capitol wants revenge. Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and her longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol, a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create. Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest that she's afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she's not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol's cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can't prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying. (source: Goodreads) My thoughts on Catching Fire Let’s start by saying my book reviews are not spoiler-free. I want to give an in-depth view of why I like or do not like a book, which I find hard to do without giving away some parts of the story. If you have not read this book, please skip this review from this point onwards. Where to start on this book, I had to take some time to make up my mind about this book and Mockingjay, the conclusion to The Hunger Games. I had to roll it around in my mind. The Hunger Games is still my favorite book of the series, and I loved Mockingjay, which would come second as my favourite, leaving Catching Fire as my least favorite book in the series. I am not including the prequels here, not only because I have not yet read them, but also because they are not about Katniss' storyline. This felt like an in-between book, and it was. What I liked is that there wasn't a large time jump in this book; the events pick up right after the ending of The Hunger Games. I always appreciate it when books do this; this way, you are right back in the story again. I appreciate that this story takes us through the logical next steps of being a victor of the Hunger Games. Living in Victor's village, portraying life after the Hunger Games. And show us what a victor's tour looks like, and we get to see the districts for the first time. This was exciting, as so far we have only seen the arena and District 12. It is worth mentioning that I went in blind; I did not read the synopsis, and I have been avoiding spoilers for this book. Astonishingly, I did not stumble upon the spoilers for the amount of time this book has been out. I have yet to watch movies, too. I only watched The Hunger Games, which I had already read twice before. Another thing I wanted to share is that I am proud that I finally stuck to a series and finished it. Finishing series is such a struggle for me, and I am so glad that I can finally put a check mark behind this one. Yes, I still have 2 more books to go in this universe; however, the original trilogy is done. What I didn't like about Catching Fire was Katniss' unending devotion towards saving Peeta, to the point of obsession. The way Katniss views herself and the world is sometimes hard to follow, and it makes her a hard character to love. She wants to save everyone, even if it comes at her own cost. Yet everyone is trying to save her. Something we do not know beforehand but will be clear by the end of the book. Maybe I did know a spoiler for this book, as I knew Katniss would be going back into the arena. I did not know the circumstances under which this happened. This was a great plot twist in the story, and the Games felt much different from those in The Hunger Games. Showing us how the arena changes with every Hunger Games gave us a broader worldview. The preparations for the Quarter Quell introduced me to all the main players who would be in the arena. It also gave me some information about Haymitch's background, which I had been wondering about since I met him. I am glad that Suzanne chose to show the reader a broader world, leading up to the Hunger Games, which were only a short part of this book. I did not want a repeat from the first book, and Suzanne managed to captivate me all over again. My conclusions about Catching Fire This book, like the first one, is a masterpiece; that story is well-crafted. The world-building extended from the first book, and the reader got to see some of the other districts, the aftermath of the Hunger Games, and the Victors' tour.  Furthermore, the book picked up right after the events of book one and showed us life after winning the Hunger Games. I think this was an important part to include in this book, and I loved that we did not dive right into another arena. A lot of time has been spent building up towards the Hunger Games; there seemed to be a bit more focus on all elements leading up to the main event. This set the stage for an exciting, fresh new Hunger Games that was shorter but thrilling to see nonetheless. This book did feel like an in-between book, but since the events were a logical follow-up to book one, the story felt very realistic. If you would approach this from the point of view of how a rebellion starts, you will see that it takes time to take root. This is what we see happening in the background of this book as well.  I cannot fault Suzanne Collins for taking the approach she did in this book. Therefore, this book has ended up with a solid four cats just for being a great story. The book gets to 5 cats, because it gets bonus points for making me cry. Books that make me cry get instant bonus points; to be able to move me to tears with words is a job well done. If you can't get enough of my content, consider finding me on my other websites. If you are interested in music, I write about it on  Finding Flight Cases.  If you like collecting books, I have started a secondhand online bookstore,  Arcane Archives.  I would love to help you find your next fantasy or science fiction read.

This article is about being in a minority group of people and forgetting that you are, in fact, part of that minority. A long time ago, I fell in love with reading again. After years of not reading, I found my way back to it through the Twilight series. I refound my enjoyment of books. When I picked up Twilight, I was in Canada, where the young adult hype was already in full swing. Recently, there was a person who reminded me of the fact that in the area in the Netherlands where I live, being a fantasy reader is strange. She said to me, "You must have a really twisted mind to be able to read those kinds of books." It was very insulting. At the moment, I was dumbfounded, but when I was in my car driving home, I got pissed off. The result of my frustration is this article. In the Netherlands, the young adult genre had a long way to go before it became what it is now. Nowadays, there are young adult books from Dutch authors, big releases from foreign titles are available much faster, and stores have young adult shelves separate from children's and adult books. It is a major improvement from the poor state the book stores were in, at least in my opinion. With the coming of the young adult books, the amount of fantasy and science fiction on the Dutch market started to rise. However, up until now, these are still minority genres. I am so used to being in my fantasy bubble that I forgot that the public in the Netherlands does not even know what fantasy or science fiction entails. When they hear fantasy, they only think of books like Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings. In the case of science fiction, well, that's aliens and space adventures, right? Star Wars is what would come to mind, but not much else. In the Netherlands, there are only two genres that matter: literature and thrillers/mysteries. Those are the biggest genres by far, then there are some romance readers, but that is not considered "valuable reading". Publishers and authors will go as far as publishing their science fiction books as speculative fiction, because they do not want to end up in the science fiction niche. I think this is a shame, because the science fiction genre will not grow when publishers keep publishing science fiction as literature. If you don't believe me, take a look at the Hebban ranking . Let me share the top 3 books in English, as these are mostly translated works anyway. At number three, it is a real chunker, called Al Het Blauw van de Hemel (translation: All the blue of the sky) by Mélissa Da Costa, a French author. This is literature. Funny, this has been translated into many other languages except for English. At number two, a thriller by none other than Freida McFadden, I think most thriller readers will know this name. It is the Dutch translation of The Wife Upstairs. At number one, an author who has become so popular that every book she publishes goes straight to number one in the ranking. The author is Anya Niewierra; she is the only Dutch author on this top three, which I think is an accomplishment all on its own, but that is a discussion for another day. Her new book is called: De stilte, which translates to "The Silence". And you might have guessed it already, this is also a thriller. The first science fiction book can be found at place 51 of the ranking, which is sad; it is the newest Hunger Games book, Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins. The first fantasy release can be found at place 57; it is the Dutch translation of Bury My Bones In Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab. I am disappointed that it is not higher up on this list, but maybe it is a little bit too early for the rise, as it has just been released. There are a lot of people who do not understand anything about my favorite genres and just assume that what I read are just stories like Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings. The genre is much wider, but as I said in the introduction of this post, books are often not categorized in the appropriate genres. To further my point, I will give you another example: when you look at the children's books and young adult books, these books are all marked with signs. A witch hat for fairy tales and myths, an alien for science fiction & fantasy, and a ghost for horror books. There isn't even a distinction between the labels for fantasy and science fiction, and they chose an alien for it, a symbol of science fiction. The genre that is even less loved than fantasy. In the adult section, you will find almost no witch hats, no fairy tales for adults! Except for J.R.R. Tolkien's Farmer Giles of Ham, for some reason, this book is a fairy tale instead of fantasy. Horror is not marked with a ghost as far as I have found, looking at the Stephen King books, most of them were marked as crime or mystery. I know that some of the Stephen King books fall in this category. However, if it has supernatural elements, it should be marked as horror. Also, you could find science fiction in many different sections of the library; there is not one place for them, they could be among the thrillers and mysteries, or they could be marked as romance or literature. This goes for some fantasy books as well, like for example, that Hades x Persephone series by Scarlet St. Clair, is marked romance only, no fantasy or fairy tale/mythology markings in sight. It is no wonder that common folks get a confused look on their faces when I talk about fantasy and science fiction. If you were never taught, how the hell are you to know the difference between book genres? I recently also wrote an article about how high school ruined my love for reading because schools only pushed one genre, literature. This article will be going up later. The schools have improved, and I am glad to see this development. Although I think part of my generation has lost all love for reading and will never pick up a book again. Being a fantasy and science fiction reader in the North of the Netherlands is hard. You will never be seen as a normal reader; the old stigmas remain in place. It is sad to see that even after 20 years, this hasn't changed. The person who insulted me was my reminder on how narrow-minded this part of the Netherlands is. It was also a reminder of why I kept my reading tastes hidden from most of the world. I work in a library, and these are the genres I stand by. I can recommend a book in almost every genre, as my knowledge of books reaches farther beyond just my preferences. The fantasy and science fiction education has begun; I will not stop until at least some people have a sense of what they are talking about. Fantasy and science fiction are far from dead; the popularity of romantasy is growing as fast in the Netherlands as it is in other countries. If you go to the bigger cities, you will find that the collection of fantasy and science fiction continues to grow. The number of fantasy events, such as Comiccon and Castle fest, has also increased; there are more events than ever before. As for science fiction, this is still a tough cookie to sell, but books like The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins are beloved by readers across many genres. There is hope for this genre, too. I think what I have been trying to say with the post is not to judge someone's reading taste based on the genres they prefer. If you do not know the genre, ask them about it, instead of going by your assumption of what the genre is. Ask them why they like reading this particular genre, and they will be so grateful that you took the time to listen to what they enjoy, maybe you will find a new favorite genre, or just have learned something new. One last thing I wanted to add, don't judge the books people read, be glad that they are reading anything at all. If you can't get enough of my content, consider finding me on my other websites. If you are interested in music, I write about it on  Finding Flight Cases.  If you love collecting books, I have started a secondhand online bookstore,  Arcane Archives.  I would love to help you find your next fantasy or science fiction read.

Title : Siege & Storm Author : Leigh Bardugo Series : The Shadow & Bone Trilogy, book 2 Other books in this series: Shadow and Bone and Ruin and Rising Age Category : Young Adult Published by: Henry Holt, June 2020 Pages: 435 p. Genre: Epic fantasy About Siege and Storm Alina Starkov is on the run, but how long can she outrun her enemies? Her power has grown, but it has come with a price. She has become the Sun Summoner and is hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Shadow Fold. The Darkling is more determined than ever to claim Alina's magic and use it to take the Ravkan throne. With nowhere else to turn, Alina enlists the help of an infamous privateer and sets out to lead the Grisha army. But as the truth of Alina's destiny unfolds, she slips deeper into the Darkling's deadly game of forbidden magic, and further away from her humanity. To save Ravka, Alina will have to choose between her power and the love she thought would always be her shelter. No victory can come without sacrifice, and only she can face the oncoming storm. My thoughts on Siege and Storm I should have read the synopsis before I started reading. The first comment I jotted down in my notebook was: "I am on page 17, and already the Darkling caught up with them?" If I only had read the synopsis, this would have been clear. Anyway, I felt a bit disappointed that they were captured this fast. The desperation started early on in the book, and my struggles with Alina continue because many of the notes I made during reading were about questionable choices, questionable behavior, and the list goes on and on. The thing I hated about the whole series was that it seemed that Alina did not have any choices in any of the matters. She just keeps getting into the most impossible situations and seems to be accepting these situations instead of fighting her way out of them. But Alina was not the only person I was shouting at during reading; the lack of opinion from Mal almost drove me insane, but as it turns out, in the end, he has his own opinions, fortunately. And I liked it a lot better when he started voicing them. This book did have one thing going for it: my favorite character of the entire series got introduced! I am talking about Strumhond AKA Nikolai!!! I was a bit bumped to hear that he was the other prince, but it did not matter in the end, he is still my favorite character, he is so damn funny and smart. Aaaah Nikolai, I miss you already. Glad I have a whole duology to look forward to. Rating Siege and Storm In conclusion, I have figured out what my problem is with the series so far. It is the constant being saved by someone part that I don't like about Alina. In the first book, she is in the hands of the Darkling, where she helplessly watches him expend the fold. In the second book, she gets captured within the first 20 pages of the book by the Darkling, and after a magnificent scheme by Nikolai gets captured by yet another prince. She always remains in someone else's shadow. Ever the helpless damsel in distress. In the few cases where she does step out of the shadows, she can do great things and makes some good decisions. However, these moments are few and far between. It does not make up for the times she is oppressed. The second book was a lot better for me. I still have my struggles, but Nikolai makes up for most of those. This is also why I have decided to give this book 4 stars. I only hope that we get to see Nikolai again in the next book. It would be a major disappointment if we missed out on him. One can only hope! If you can't get enough of my content, consider finding me on my other websites. If you are interested in music, I write about it on  Finding Flight Cases.  If you are interested in collecting books, I have started a secondhand online bookstore, Arcane Archives , I would love to help you find your next fantasy or science fiction read.

Title : Shadow & Bone Author : Leigh Bardugo Series : The Shadow & Bone Trilogy, book 1 Other books in this series: Siege & Storm and Ruin & Rising Age Category : Young Adult Published by: Orion's Children Books, October 2020 Pages: 307p. Genre: Epic fantasy About Shadow and Bone Alina Starkov is a soldier, the regiment plans to cross the Shadow Fold, a darkness that holds all kinds of shadow creatures. Alina isn't sure she will make it to the other side, but when her party is attacked, she unleashes magic she did not know she possessed. Alina ends up in the world of the Grisha the elite military unit, led by the notorious leader, the Darkling. He believes that Alina's powers can reunite the war-torn nation. If she could only master her powers. However, the kingdom harbors some dark secrets, and Alina must find her place in this world and shape the future. Welcome to Ravka, a world where science and superstition collide, and nothing is what it seems. My thoughts on Shadow and Bone My relationship with Shadow and Bone has had a lot of ups and downs. You could call it a hate/love affair. So expect a bit of a critical review, if you don't like that, then I would suggest skipping this review. To give you an example, in the first 50 pages, I was thinking, what the hell is this world, where is my world-building? Why has everyone been hyping this book up so much? I got my answers shortly after, as the pace of the book changed at that point, the story became interesting all of a sudden. That is my general feeling about this book. I feel like I am missing out on the many details this world possesses. This is mainly because it is written from Alina's perspective, and she has a very narrow view of the world she lives in. Lots of details have been kept hidden from her, or just weren't of interest to her, so that makes the story a bit narrow-minded as well. The world Leigh Bardugo has created is very interesting, even from the narrow point of view we have gotten, it is very fascinating. And I would love to read more, fortunately, I have 4 more books to look forward to next to this trilogy, all based in Ravka. I would love to see how the writing has evolved from Shadow and Bone, I have heard that the other books are even more beloved than Shadow and Bone. Enough about the world-building, I think you have gotten my point. Still, the feeling of missing out on things kept nagging me to the end of the book. There were some reveals that I have managed to dodge almost all spoilers on this series. Except that the Darkling was supposed to be the villain of this story. The reveal that came from Baghra may be the biggest surprise of the book. That was unexpected, as I wasn't sure what Baghra's intentions were before that moment. At this point in the book, we have finally found the haste button, and the story keeps spinning. We learn a great deal more about the world and about many of the side characters. We also see Alina evolve. This learning curve goes hand in hand with our main character, so there are no broadly explained elements; we only see what Alina's eyes see. Alina is that so-called reluctant hero, a trope that I found out by reading this, I don't like. Alina seems to be so foolish and naive, and it bugged me that the Darkling caught up with them in such an easy manner. It was excruciating to read about. Rating Shadow and Bone Short version: it needs more world-building. Long version: the world is so damn interesting, I just want a lot more of it, even if Alina is not my favorite character ever. The side characters make up for the lacking main character, and therefore, I am not giving up on this series. I am becoming a fan of this world and already have a favorite character, Nikolai, I haven't talked much about him in this review, as I was a bit concerned with spoilers. I am glad that this character is so beloved that it has gotten his own duology, being King of Scars and Rule of Wolves. Overall, this book had its moments, but it will never be the best thing I have ever read. What I have learned from this one is that I do not like the reluctant hero's point of view. Also, the book starts very slowly, so be aware of that. It gets better after the 50-page mark, and from that point, you can easily make it to the finish line, and it becomes addictive, even. That being said, I had a really hard time with the main character, which left this book stranded on 3 stars. If you can't get enough of my content, consider finding me on my other websites. If you are interested in music, I write about it on  Finding Flight Cases.  If you are interested in collecting books, I have started a secondhand online bookstore, Arcane Archives , I would love to help you find your next fantasy or science fiction read.

The line between the age categories is blurring, as the publishing industry pushes authors and books into the Young Adult section that are not actually suitable for the age category. We all understand why this is happening, as YA books have been wildly successful in the last twenty years. The age category attracts readers from all ages, not only the intended group between 12 and 18. Lately, I have been wondering if this marketing trick of putting everything off as Young Adult will backfire at some point. There is already talk about it in Facebook groups, with people requesting clean books, without smut for themselves or their children. Initially, I was surprised by the question in general. I have read a fair amount of Young Adult books in my time, and most of the earlier YA did not have any sexual content in them. Thinking of books like Beautiful Creatures, The Vampire Academy, and Divergent, talking about the first books in these series, as for most of them I haven't finished reading the entire series yet. I do know that all these have romantic plot lines; however, nothing explicit. My opinion started changing when I read books like Throne of Glass and Kingdom of the Wicked. Both are initially marketed as Young Adult; however, the explicit content in these books makes me wonder if these should be categorized as young adult at all. The main characters in Throne of Glass fit the young adult age range; however, my issue lies with how explicit the content becomes throughout the series. You would not want a 12-year-old to be reading about forced pregnancy, in my opinion. Yet up until this date, the series is still categorized as young adult. And I hope one day it will be pulled off the young adult shelves, like they did with A Court of Thorns and Roses, and market it to the appropriate age range, being 18+. The thing is with series that sometimes it may start as young adult, but grows into adult throughout the series, taking Throne of Glass once more as an example, the first 2 books are not that dark that it could be read by an audience say 15/16 years old, however up from there the world expanse a lot more, the story becomes a rich epic fantasy world and the content becomes a lot darker to the point where I was thinking this should not be available for the lower young adult ages 12 to 15 years old. The same can be said about Kingdom of the Wicked, the first book is clean content, nothing to disturbing if you ask me, however from the second book, it becomes more explicit I as an adult found it very exciting however a younger audience that has not had the pleasure of joining in sexual activities or just started exploring this field, might find this too intense. And I imagine that if you are a teenager struggling with growing up, you would not want to read this yet. This book does not come with trigger warnings, and the synopsis and cover don't tell you anything about how explicit the content is. And here lies the problem: any young adult could pick this up, within the range of 13 to 18. When I started reading Kingdom of the Wicked, the first thing I told my partner is that it does not feel as young adult, the characters feel older, not 18, more 20+ than anything else. I am not sure if the age was mentioned in the books, but just from the conversations and the setting, you could tell they were not teenagers anymore. From the second book onward, there is also a large amount of sexual tension and some smut. If I could choose an age category for these books, I would not have gone with young adult; new adult would have been a more appropriate category for it, and this is also where you will find it in my webshop. Why did publishers put it in the young adult category can be explained by several things. One of them is the fact that most of the bookish world does not recognize NA (new adult) as a proper age category. It is mostly associated with smutty college romance books only, and does not carry over to other genres. This is a pity, as it would solve a lot of the issues I am currently having with the young adult age range, which is now crowded with books that should not be there. Another reason why publishers like to pull it off as young adult is that the age range is not only read by teenagers aged 12 to 18, but also consists of a rather large part of adults. The age range has become so popular that marketing it as a young adult makes it easier to sell numerous books. My biggest issue with this new trend is that it has become a very confusing space for young adults, especially for the younger readers of the spectrum. Also, for parents who are not readers and therefore do not know what kind of content a young adult book might contain, it can be shocking to learn how mature it can be. It should be a safe space for the teenagers to explore, and it has become a minefield with lots of books that should not be there. It makes me very angry that it has become a cash grab of the publishing industry, without consideration of the teenagers themselves. I don't have a solution to how the publishing world could make this clearer; however, they could start with categorizing adult/new adult books as they should be. What do you think of this? Would you call Kingdom of the Wicked and Throne of Glass young adult? Or would you agree that these better fit the new adult or adult age range? Let's have a discussion below. If you can't get enough of my content, consider finding me on my other websites. If you are interested in music, I write about it on  Finding Flight Cases.  If you want to collect books, I have started a secondhand online bookstore,  Arcane Archives.  I would love to help you find your next fantasy or science fiction read.

Title : The Magician's Nephew Author : C.S. Lewis Series : The Chronicles of Narnia, book 1 Age Category : Middle Grade Published by: May 1955 Pages: 221p. Genre: Epic fantasy About The Magician's Nephew Digory lives next to Polly in London, and they spend the summer together. Polly has found that the row houses are connected in the attics of all the row houses. They decided to go exploring but ended up in Digory's Uncle Andrew's forbidden study. From there, they are thrown into the world of magic, into a parallel world, where they find a witch they can't seem to shake, who chases them to Narnia. My thoughts on The Magician's Nephew This story is now over 60 years old, and it feels as though it was written recently. It is the way it was written that makes it seem ageless. This is the beginning of Narnia, in the literal sense, as it is the story of how Narnia came to be. It also answers the question about how the connection between our world and Narnia was formed. I am a sucker for origin stories, it was something I was not so aware of, but now that I am thinking about it, I do like it. I have never heard anybody talk about this one; usually, everybody starts with The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Even Goodreads believes that it should be read as a sixth book. I must disagree, I don't see any harm in reading this first, and I think it was supposed to be written as the first book in the series, as at the end it hints at The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. This book is intended as a children's book, and it is written in that way, but it also has some very mature and dark humor. To be honest, I would suggest this for kids from 10 up, not earlier. The language is still very understandable; even for kids, it will be easy to follow. I think I like that the most about this; it is so accessible in many ways. On the one hand, it is a children's adventure story; on the other hand, it has some lessons in there as well. Think of you should obey your parents/elders, if you behave badly you will suffer the consequences, etc. Also, lots of children's play, like wanting to explore other worlds, ringing the bell, and planting a toffee tree. In these kinds of moments, you see that it was intended for a young audience; however, it does not take anything away from the enjoyment of reading it. I very much enjoyed this story; it feels like a fairy tale, and I think this time around, I will also continue reading the rest of the series. Rating The Magician's Nephew I had a lovely time with this story. A lot of unanswered questions that I had after seeing the movies were answered here, and this is only the start of the adventures in Narnia. I can't wait to read more about this world, as it is fast and rich in its history, even when this was the very beginning of history. It is a very special kind of story, one that will always stick with me. Therefore, this story gets 4 cats! The Witchy Rating of The Magician's Nephew Since this is my first post on the blog, hi everybody. I am so glad that you found my little corner on the internet. I am also going to introduce you to my rating system for Witchy books. In addition to my normal rating mentioned above, I wanted to rate the truly Witchy books on their witchiness as well. So here we go. In this case, the witch is part of the story; however, it is not the main character of the book. We are dealing with an evil witch who wants to destroy or conquer worlds. The heroes Polly and Digory in this story do everything in their power to prevent the witch from succeeding. It is a classic kind of witch, like we see in fairy tales such as Hans and Gretel or Snow White. I am rating this book on Witchyness of 3 cauldrons it had some interesting spell casting, but the witch was not the main character of the book. If you can't get enough of my content, consider finding me on my other websites. If you are interested in music, I write about it on  Finding Flight Cases.  If you are interested in collecting books, I have started a secondhand online bookstore, Arcane Archives , I would love to help you find your next fantasy or science fiction read.

Title : The Hunger Games Author : Suzanne Collins Also by this Author: Catching Fire Series : The Hunger Games, book 1 Age Category : Young Adult Published by: 14 September 2008, Pages: 374   p. Genre:  Science Fiction, dystopia About The Hunger Games Winning means fame and fortune. Losing means certain death. The Hunger Games have begun. . . . In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she takes her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to death before, and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love. (source: Goodreads) My thoughts on The Hunger Games Did you know that there are people who have never heard of the Hunger Games? I was astonished, as I forgot I live in a shithole called the Noordoostpolder, where people do not care about fantasy or science fiction. This saddens me, but that is just the way it has always been in this part of the Netherlands. I had forgotten this, because I have created a solid community around me of like-minded people who are not so easily scared when I mention what my preferred genres are. I am proud to be a science fiction and fantasy reader, but it took me back in time for a bit, to the lesser years when I was that weird kid. Those times have long since passed, so let's get into this re-read of the Hunger Games. I have read this back in 2012, thirteen years ago. It was high time I re-read the book before continuing on with the rest of the series. When Sunrise on the Reaping came out, I knew it was finally time to finish the series once and for all. Even though it has been thirteen years, I do remember the general plot of the book, however, I forgot a lot of the details. It was nice to refresh my memory and also see if the book still holds up 17 years after it was first released. It does, in no way, this book feels dated or out of place to me. I think that has also largely to do with the genre of dystopia, which feels timeless to me. I flew through the pages, as I did the first time I read it, that is just how addictive and fast-paced the book is. The fun thing about re-reading a book is that you find little details that you missed the first time around, and it can still be very surprising when you come across details you have forgotten, too. I still cried when little Rue died; that could not be helped. One of the forgotten things was that I like Peeta's voice; he has some excellent lines. I still don't particularly care for him as a love interest; this did not change during this re-read, but I generally do enjoy his narrative. The mutts were also a part that I had forgotten. I still feel that this was such a cruel plot twist, I loved it but damn that shit got dark right there. If you have not figured it out by now, I enjoyed this book the second, or was it the third time, I can't remember, reading this book. I can proudly say that I have finally continued the series and have finished Catching Fire. Last night, I started on Mockingjay. My conclusions about The Hunger Games This is a timeless young adult novel that is action-packed, political, and moving. It is still relevant in this day and age, It is the definition of a page-turner for me. The setting is realistic, the actions of the main characters, and the world are well-explained. Even though this was a re-read for me, I still enjoyed it as much as the first time. It also feels a little bit nostalgic in that sense. Now I can finally watch all the movies in the trilogy, once I have finished Mocking Jay. The review about Catching Fire is also coming soon. I think I will continue writing that one once I am finished writing this one. If there are any of you who have known me since my Ice Cold Passion days, you might have seen me give musical suggestions with the books I read. I haven't done this in a while, but as I am writing this review, I have been listening to "Father Light" by Stoned Jesus. I feel that it feels very appropriate for this trilogy. The album holds a lot of comments about the war in Ukraine, as that is where this band originates from. It feels kind of like a rebellious statement, therefore I thought. I would mention it in case you are in the mood for some music while reading. This book gets 5 cats out of 5; it holds its own and is so enjoyable to read. If you can't get enough of my content, consider finding me on my other websites. If you are interested in music, I write about it on  Finding Flight Cases.  If you want to collect books, I have started a secondhand online bookstore,  Arcane Archives.  I would love to help you find your next fantasy or science fiction read.

Title : Court of Darkness Author : C.N. Crawford Also by this Author: Court of Shadows Series : The Shadow Fae series, book 2 Age Category : Adult Published by: 27 August 2018, self-published Pages: 244   p. Genre:  Romantasy with an urban setting About Court of Darkness I would not say things are going well, exactly. I live in a burnt-out car under a bridge, surrounded by rubbish. When Ruadan shows up to bring me back to the Institute, I leap at the chance. That is, until he throws me into the dungeons. I’m on the naughty list, and the mentor who once trained me is cold as ice. Now, I must pass every single trial, or the Institute’s executioners will rip me to pieces. Good thing I can handle it. I was the queen of the gladiator ring, and I do not go down easily. (synopsis by Goodreads) My thoughts on Court of Darkness Sometimes, a book starts right when the previous book ended, while in others, like this one, some time has passed before the story starts. At the beginning of the first book, our main character is already in trouble when we meet her. She is caught stealing from a dragon and is trying to outrun him, which is when she runs into Ruadan again. He convinces her to come back to the Institute; however, he does not inform Arianne of which circumstances. This book is a little bit darker than the first one, starting with Arianne being in a torture dungeon so small that it does not allow for much space to move. And being tortured by one of the other contestants. Ruadan's actions are confusing at first, or at least they are to Arianne, as we as readers are pretty sure where it is going. In a way, Ruadan reminds me a little bit of Bryce from House of Earth and Blood. Bryce also does not explain her actions until the end of the book. The same goes for Ruadan, he does not explain himself either. What I also liked about this book is that there is a lot of character growth, not only in our main character Arianne but also in the side characters, such as Ciara and Melusine. I like seeing how these friendships have evolved over these two books. The world of the fae has also expanded more, as I was hoping for. We get more insight into the Institute's politics and learn that there are multiple worlds next to the world where London is based. My conclusions of Court of Darkness This was not the easiest review to write, I went through the book so fast that I just don't know where to start explaining what I loved so much about it. It is such an addictive book; once you pick it up, you don't want to put it down until you finish it. This is a sign that this was well written; all the pieces fall together nicely. There are some loose ends to give you a clue as to where the story will be going next. Fortunately, there are no cliffhangers; this part of the journey is done. We are getting ready for another adventure. The only thing that annoys me is that the author has chosen to ignore one part of the plot, the detail of who Arianne really is. It is now at the point where it has become this annoying little thing that keeps being mentioned and does not get resolved. Also, there is no way to ignore this detail as it is mentioned frequently throughout the book. I hope this gets resolved at the start of the next book, as this will become a problem for me if we do not get answers soon. It might leave me not wanting to continue reading the series. Since this was my only complaint and I finished it within a day or three, this book gets 5 cats from me. It is definitely worth picking up after Court of Shadows. One more note, I do recommend reading the books in order, you will miss out on details if you have not read the first book in the series. If you can't get enough of my content, consider finding me on my other websites. If you are interested in music, I write about it on  Finding Flight Cases.  If you want to collect books, I have started a secondhand online bookstore,  Arcane Archives.  I would love to help you find your next fantasy or science fiction read.

Title : Court of Shadows Author : C.N. Crawford Also by this Author: Court of Darkness Series : The Shadow Fae series, book 1 Age Category : Adult Published by: 22 August 2018, self-published Pages: 224   p. Genre:  romantasy with an urban setting About Court of Shadows Arianna is living her life in freedom, having escaped life as a gladiator, until one night, her past comes back to make demands. Enter the Shadow Fae Institute and compete in the trials, or you will never see your friend again. On a night out, Arianna runs into some trouble, two shadow fae appear in the bar she works at and are out to get her. Ruadan, one of the shadow fae, lets her live on one condition: complete the trials and become part of the Shadow fae Institute. Along the way, Arianna has to save her friend and deal with her past or betray her mentor, Ruadan. My thoughts on Court of Shadows I am so glad that this was the conclusion of last month's poll. If you want to know more about this, you can find the full article about it here . I am cleaning out my Kindle; it feels good, and I think reading-wise, I am doing a great job this year. I am right on schedule. Completed four books up until now. Let's dive into this story. This book was short with only 224 pages; however, it packs a punch. The story is fast-paced right from the start, with lots of fighting. Arianna's backstory becomes a little bit clearer along the way, although we do not find out in this book what Arianna is exactly. Regarding what Arianna is, there is not a lot we find out about her past, the author tried to build up for the reveal, which hopefully we will find in the next book. At this point, it was a little bit too obvious that C.N. Crawford was setting up the story for the rest of the series. I noticed it, but I don't mind that much; it did not hurt the story in any way. Could it be done more subtly? Yes, I think it could have, but that would have meant the book would need to be longer, and there is the risk that the pacing would be a bit slower. This is the only criticism I have of this book, as I have enjoyed it immensely. Ruadan is just the kind of love interest I enjoy, I like my bad boys to be brooding. This was right up my alley. There is a lot of sexual tension being built, however it does not get spicy. I wanted more, and that is why I am continuing to the second book, which I have already started as I am writing this review. Point to the author for setting up the story in a way that you want to continue to the next book right away; that is such a powerful writing strength to have, especially as a self-published author. The characters in this book are all likable or appropriately evil. The side characters, Melusine and Aengus, were real standouts. I hope they will last for the rest of the series. This story needs some sweet characters to balance out the ruthlessness of Ruadan and the Institute. Let me tell you a little bit about the world-building. The story is set in post-apocalyptic London, where almost all magical creatures have been sent to their magical worlds. The ones that are still roaming the streets are being caught by the Shadow fae, who are the enforcers in this world. They need to keep the balance and need to keep all magical creatures out of this world. In this first book, we also travel to other magical worlds, however, not much is said about it. I am hoping that as the series continues, the world becomes clearer too. This world can be very large, it leaves lots of room for exploring. As this series is 7 books long, I can imagine that we will see much more of it. Arianne, as a character, reminds me a little bit of Celeana/Aelin from Throne of Glass, they share some of the same motives. This is not a comparison, as that would not be fair, ranking traditionally published against self-published. Not that there is anything wrong with self-published books, I am a big fan, though they are a little less polished. That is why I enjoy them so much. I could get into the whole trend of self-published authors being picked up by traditional publishing, but that is an article on its own. My conclusions of Court of Shadows This is a good start to a series. It is very addictive, so much so that while writing this review, I got distracted by the second book in the series. I spent a good hour reading while I should be writing this review. That could not be interpreted in any other way than it is a huge compliment to the author. This book is fast-paced, full of action scenes, and there is also a lot of sexual tension building between Ruadan and Arianne. There is a lot that is left unresolved, but it also has a proper ending to this part of the story. Arianne seems very relatable, although I think her character could be a little bit more traumatized. That sounds awful, I am struggling with how to explain this properly. There could have been a little bit more depth to her character, in the sense of acting like the traumatized fae she is. It would make the reader feel even more invested, and the betrayals will hurt a lot more. It will make the story a bit heavier, I would not have minded if it got a little darker. On the other hand, I can understand that this approach might satisfy a lot more readers. All I want at this moment is more, more of the relation, more of the world, and of course, more Ruadan. As this read was such an addictive little pleasure, this gets four cats from me. If you can't get enough of my content, consider finding me on my other websites. If you are interested in music, I write about it on  Finding Flight Cases.  If you are interested in collecting books, I have started a secondhand online bookstore,  Arcane Archives. I would love to help you find your next fantasy or science fiction read.

I was not going to discuss politics here on my blog, but I want to point out that it does not look great for the world today. The decisions Trump is making affect not only the USA, but they are also Europe and other parts of the world. The politics are in such a bizarre state that I cannot ignore this. It inspired me to make this post. I have been reading a lot of American books, but I started to wonder which other countries were present on my Kindle. Last month I looked at short books with Fae , the poll winner was Court of Shadows , and this was a great success. I loved it, the review is coming soon! I started researching last week, and it turns out it is not easy to find out which countries the authors are from. The author bios do not always contain such information, and I have found that across platforms' bios differ. It left me with a list of authors I do not know their origins. I did come up with a decent list of Canadian, Australian, and UK authors. I also found authors from Sweden, New Zealand, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands and South Africa. Canada is my second home, it is the country I have lived in the longest, aside from the Netherlands. In total, 1,5 years, this is also where I learned the English language. Part of why I read in English is to keep it at a similar level as Dutch. English reads as fast as Dutch, although I still have to look up words sometimes. Canada always feels like home, so let's see which Canadian authors I have found and are battling for March picks. Queen of Roses by Briar Boleyn This book is about Morgan, who lives in the shadow of her brother, the King. When he offers her a way out of the castle, she takes it. On her journey to find a fae weapon, she stumbles upon a group of outcasts. Together, they find more than what they bargained for. Another story about fae, seems wildly different from what I read in February. This book has 15.156 ratings on Goodreads, which is a fair amount. The average rating is 3,85, which would mean the book is above average. Queen of Roses has 361 pages and was published in 2023. This cover is stunning, I love the roses. Briar Boleyn is a pen name for author Fenna Edgdewood, under which she writes historical romances. Spells & Ashes by Kim Richardson This book is about witches, which excites me. The twist in this book is that we follow a dark witch. Samantha Beaumont is our main character, she specializes in the art of conjuring demons and exorcisms. The synopsis reveals not much else, only that she is going to hunt a greater demon because a human girl was taken. Kim Richardson lives in Eastern Canada and has multiple series in her name; most of these contain witches. Spells & Ashes has far fewer ratings than Queen of Roses, in total 1976 on Goodreads, the average rating is 3,98 which is rather good. I have read a lot of white witches' points of view, this could be a refreshing perspective. White As Snow by Veronica Bonn I have not read a retelling in a long time, I read some real fairy tales last year, a gift from my fiancée when we were on holiday in Ireland. It was a bundle of Irish fairy tales, the dark ones where fairies steal children. This book is about the Queen more than it is about Snow White. Elspeth conspires to kill Snow White, because of jealousy. In the meantime, Elspeth's skeletons are trying to escape the closet, her daughter Rapunzel. The book sounds like an episode of Once Upon a Time, mixing multiple fairytales in one story. Of the three books mentioned, this one has the lowest amount of ratings, only 121 with an average rating of 3.85 on Goodreads. The book has 433 pages and came out in February 2022. Veronica Bonn lives in British Colombia, one of the provinces I have not yet visited. Now let's get voting! If you can't get enough of my content, consider finding me on my other websites. If you are interested in music, I write about it on  Finding Flight Cases.  If you are interested in collecting books, I have started a secondhand online bookstore,  Arcane Archives.  I would love to help you find your next fantasy or science fiction read.

Title : Kingdom of the Wicked Author : Kerri Maniscalco Series : Kingdom of the Wicked Age Category : Young Adult Published by:  27 October 2020 by Hodder and Stoughton Pages: 372   p. Genre:  Romantasy, Paranormal Romance About Kingdom of the Wicked Emilia finds her sister murdered in the monastery and is hell-bent on finding out who murdered her sister. She will do anything, even using forbidden magic to summon a demon. She gets far more than what she bargained for, instead of summoning a demon, one of the princes of hell appears. Wrath seems to be on her side, but with the Wicked walking the earth again, nothing is what it seems. My thoughts on Kingdom of the Wicked You know a book is great when you can’t put it down. On my first night with Kingdom of the Wicked, I devoured 65 pages, which is a lot for me! The story pulls you in from the start, designed to captivate and keep you turning pages. One thing this book did exceptionally well? It made me hungry . Nearly every time I started reading, food was mentioned—delicious Sicilian dishes that had my mouth watering. I’ve always had a soft spot for Italian cuisine, so much so that we even tried making one of the dishes ourselves. Let’s just say we need more practice to get it right. Another aspect I loved was the setting, Italy, specifically Sicily. The book is sprinkled with Italian words, which I enjoyed, especially since I recognized most of them before they were explained. Turns out, studying Spanish was useful after all! Italian and Spanish share quite a few words, though the pronunciation differs. I think this was a clever way for the author to subtly immerse the reader in the setting. I honestly don’t know how to put into words just how much I loved this book. It completely hooked me, I devoured it and immediately jumped into the second book of the series. You know that feeling when a book grips you so hard that you just have to keep reading? And when you finish, you crave the rest of the series like you’re starving for more? That was me. I even started hunting for the Fairyloot editions online and managed to snag Kingdom of the Feared for a decent price (€35). I’m still searching for Kingdom of the Cursed  at a reasonable price, so if you’re in Europe and selling your Fairyloot copy, email me. I’d love to take it off your hands! Now, back to the book, one of the biggest reasons I loved it was Wrath. He was absolutely delicious. The banter between Emilia and Wrath had me laughing out loud. Emilia herself is a strong character, though a bit naive at times, which makes sense given her sheltered upbringing. I appreciated that she didn’t blindly trust the Wicked, she challenged them and got stuck in over her head on multiple occasions. That said, she did make a few questionable decisions, like chasing after a demon with almost no knowledge of what she was getting into. A disaster waiting to happen, and it was. But a clever trick the author pulled, since the story is told solely from Emilia’s perspective, I never suspected the real killer because she didn’t. Now that I think about it, the single point of view might be why I enjoyed this book so much. It reminds me of Twilight  in that way. Emilia isn’t a picture-perfect heroine, she makes mistakes, gets into messy situations, and feels all the more relatable because of it. My Witchy rating of Kingdom of the Wicked I saved the good parts for this part of my review because Emilia is a witch. In this world, witches are not human. The witches in this book are family covens, they learn from their parents or grandparents. Some practice the dark arts, some do not, but they are all respected among themselves. There is no rivalry between them. The spells are done with herbs and other ingredients, such as bones. It gives a bit of an old-school vibe to the story. There were also grimoires, which made me so happy, I could already see the old tome and the private one such as Vittoria's. What I couldn't pinpoint is it this was supposed to be set in a certain time in history or in modern times. The story felt like a mishmash between history and modern times. This story is full of spellwork and magic in various forms, from simple incantations to more complex spells with candles, herbs, and bones. The romance and the mystery are the main focus points of the plot, but magic is a solid side character. Therefore, this book gets five cauldron cats for Witchyness. The overall rating of Kingdom of the Wicked This book was amazing; I love the setting of Italy, the usage of the Italian language, and the food mentioned, which made my mouth water on multiple occasions. To say the book did not make me hungry was an understatement and something I had not expected. The characters are likable and realistic. I like Emilia, she is stubborn and takes matters into her own hands. She can be a little bit naive, but because of her backstory, this can easily be explained and, therefore, did not bother me. My only criticism of the book is that the ending seems rushed. We do not get a clear insight into why she suddenly decides to make the decision she does. It was a little bit disappointing, but it was enough of a cliffhanger for me to continue with the rest of the series. And the Prince of Sin series, which I hope will be a bit spicier. Kingdom of the Wicked is a young adult series, and Prince of Sin is an adult series. I am looking forward to continuing the series to see how it ends. I will be adding age ranges to my review as I feel a lot of books nowadays are not targeted to a proper audience. The characters of the book feel adult and yet this story is a young adult story, as it does not have much that would be damaging for a young adult. It could be read from age 12 as this is where the young adult range starts. However, I still think this can be read by adults too. If you had not guessed by my enthusiastic reaction to this review, this book is getting 5 cats from me, it was just what I needed. If you can't get enough of my content, consider finding me on my other websites. You are interested in music, I write about it on  Finding Flight Cases.  If you are interested in collecting books, I have started a secondhand online bookstore, Arcane Archives , I would love to help you find your next fantasy or science fiction read.

The January pick for Clean My Kindle was Blue Hearts of Mars by Nicole Grotepas. All votes combined, that was the winner, I unhauled the other 2 books that were up for a vote. And now I am back with the choices for February. The new poll can be found at the bottom of this post. February is rather short, which means less time to read, I would like to go with a short book for this month. To give a little more focus to the chaos that is my Kindle library of 2000+ books, I decided to make a list of all the books currently on my (physical) Kindle, which cuts down the number of books to 94. A staggering amount but a little bit more manageable. If you are curious about what else is on there and want to make suggestions on what to read in March, please leave me a comment here, or on Goodreads where you will find the full list . I am still very active on Goodreads, so feel free to follow, you will see what books I am reading and how much progress I have made. I made the list on Goodreads because I can filter the number of pages, which was the goal for this month: a short book. When I looked at the shortest books, I saw another theme, Fae. So instead of just picking the three shortest, I found three short books with Fae's. Let me introduce them to you below. The Moonfire Bride by Sylvia Mercedes The Moonfire Bride by Sylvia Mercedes is the first book in a trilogy called Of Candlelight and Shadows. It is 291 pages long and was published in March 2021, which makes it a more recent addition to my collection. I have started collecting books on my Kindle since 2013. I got my first Kindle for my birthday that year. It is still the same one I use today. That is how long they can last, and you don't need three. Don't let TikTok mislead you. Before I get distracted again, I'd like to return to the book. The Moonfire Bride is about Valera, who lives on the edge of the fae forest. Her life has been harsh. She is scared that one day the fae will come for her sister, but instead, they come for her. Her captor and now husband gives her a way back to her sister, if she does not look at his face for a year, she may return to her realm. The longer she stays in this new world, the more questions arise, and she is torn between her sister and her captor. This sounds like an interesting story, but to me, it sounds more like a fairy tale than a story that has a basis in mythology, purely based on the synopsis. The books in this round are generally more popular than the books in my previous round. The Moonfire Bride has 6.015 ratings on Goodreads, with an average rating of 3,75 stars, which is not bad at all. And hopeful because already 6000 people invested time in this book. Splintered Magic by Jilleen Dolbeare The second story up for a vote is Splintered Magic by Jilleen Dolbeare. This book has fewer ratings than the previous one, only 1394 ratings with an average rating of 4,22. The average rating is higher, I think this might not be picked up because of this cover. There is something just a little bit off about it, the longer I look at it the more I dislike it, even though it is in some of my favorite colours. The synopsis is what initially sold me on this one. Splintered Magic is about Brigid, she has inherited a decaying mansion, that she wants to renovate, quietly. She is pulled into the town's secrets, where supernatural creatures exist and cats talk. This last part piqued my interest, Sabrina vibes all the way. This story is only 170 pages, perfect for a short month like February. Court of Shadows by C.N. Crawford Last but not least there is Court of Shadows by C.N. Crawford, this book is also short with 224 pages. I like the simple cover design with the gold, purple, and black theme. IT could be improved upon as it is a little pixelly, but that might just be because the blog might have enlarged it, but not a bad cover at all. This one has the highest rating of these three books with 19,267 ratings, the average rating is also very high, with 4,05 average. This is going to be an interesting round, I hope you all stop by to vote for these books, either here or on the socials. To me, this is a cover buy, as I am not too fond of the synopsis not mentioning the name of the main character, or at least not on Goodreads. This book is about Arianna, a former gladiator with magical powers. On a night out she is being hunted down by a fae assassin named Ruadan who lets her live on one condition: she has to earn a place in the Institute of Shadow fae. I am looking forward to what you will be voting for, you can vote below!