It is the beginning of December, the time of year to get you in the Christmas spirit. Christmas is a magical time, and this year, for me, will be extra magical, since I will be welcoming a new human being into the world. My due date is on December 25th, but I have a feeling that it will be before Christmas. Time will tell. I am on maternity leave from work, which starts at least 4 weeks before your due date. In the Netherlands, you get a total of 16 weeks off, which is funded by our government. As I am writing this, I do not yet know how things will go. I have been struggling with my energy; some days, all I want to do is sleep. I try to get some reading done every day, even if it is only one or two pages. Christmas is my favourite time of year. I am excited to start decorating, baking Christmas cookies, and of course, enjoying every minute of my time off. I love reading some Christmas books before Christmas, it is the time of year I usually take my holidays. Working around the holidays is not for me, and I have made it my personal goal to have the last two weeks of the year off work. I have tried a couple of times to work through the holidays, but I just don't enjoy the holidays as much when I have the obligation of work as well. Let us get into some of the books that I would love to read and want to highlight for you. I have two 2025 releases on this list; the rest will be older books that I hope to get to someday. From this list, there are only two that I already own, and therefore going to try to prioritize reading them first. A Spell for Midwinter's Hearts by Morgan Lockhart This looks so cute and, of course, Christmassy. This is the first 2025 release I would like to introduce to you. It couldn't sound more like a Hallmark movie if it wanted to, except the difference here are the witches and we are getting involved with a coven of them. How exciting! Good Spirits by B.K. Borison Good Spirits is already getting a lot of hype; this is why I started with the underdog, above. I think Good Spirits is getting a special edition from Illumicrate, or was it Fairyloot? One of them, at least, it is a new twist on Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol. Where the ghost of Christmas past falls in love with the woman he is haunting. This sounds like a wonderful Christmas read, but it might also have some real bite to it as well. The Kingdom of Sweets by Erika Johansen This book has been lounging on my shelves since last Christmas. You might know the author of her successful series The Queen of the Tearling. The Kingdom of Sweets is a Christmas horror story, and her dark take on the Nutcracker. Ever since this came out in 2023 I have wanted to read it. I like dark twists on fairy tales, and this sounds incredible. I have not read her other series, so I am not familiar with her writing style. I think I will dive into this one this year, though. The Nightmare Before Kissmas by Sara Raasch The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of my favourite movies of all time. If you have not watched it, please stop reading and go watch it. It is a movie I rewatch almost every year. The idea for this novel ties in with the movie; in this book, the Prince of Christmas falls in love with the Prince of Halloween. That is what sold me on this book; I don't need any more information than that. It better be good! A Boy Called Christmas by Matt Haig Sometimes, very rarely, I find the movie before I knew it was based on a book. This is what happened with A Boy Called Christmas, I was not aware that the movie was based on the book by Matt Haig. This is a middle-grade book, so it is not strange that I did not know about it, as I generally do not keep up with what is being published for children. I guess that will be changing soon enough. In case you have not seen the movie or already read this book, it is an origin story on how Santa Claus came to be. The movie is pure magic, so I hope the book will be as well. Winterspell by Claire Legrand This is also a retelling of the Nutcracker. This book is a bit older, and I have not heard much hype around it as far as I know. The story is set in the land of Cane, which has been at war for a long time. The main character, Clara, goes there to find her father, who has been abducted. This is a young adult story, and also a bit of a dark twist, on the well-known fairy tale. Midnight in Everwood by M.A. Kuzniar Guess what, everybody loves retelling the Nutcracker, because like Winterspell and The Kingdom of Sweets this is also a retelling of this famous story. What I like about this one is that ballet is present, and this has a more historical setting than the other two. Hogfather by Terry Pratchett This is on almost every list you will find of magical Christmas books, and for good reason. Terry Pratchett is a very beloved author. His most famous series is the Discworld series, of which Hogfather is also part, the 20th novel in the series; however, I have heard that you can read this as a standalone. So far, I have only read the first novel, A Color of Magic, which was awesome, but my English was not as good as it is now, so it was also very hard to read. I would love to read some more Terry Pratchett. Hogfather would be my choice to read during the Holiday season. Winterfrost Market by Jenni Sandiford After all those dark retellings, let's snuggle up with a hot cup of tea and a copy of Winterfrost Market. This is a cozy fantasy story, about tea, a magical kingdom, and the fae. This book was released last year, and I have not heard anyone talking about it, but cozy vibes is my second Christmas flavour so keep it coming. There is also a second book in this series, which was released on the 24th of October 2025, and it is called Foresthave Bakery. Christmas Magic by Alexandra Moody Last on the list, a book I have already read and really love. I thought it was something different from anything Christmas I have read before. I was going to put the second book in the series on this list, but I do not like recommending a second book in the series, so I am going with Christmas Magic, which is set in our world, it is an urban fantasy story with reindeer shifters! Do I need to say more? I wrote a review for this back in 2023, so if you would like to learn more, hop over to my review . I hope you enjoyed reading about these magical Christmas books. If I am not able to check in before Christmas, I want to wish a wonderful Christmas! Let me know if you will be reading any of these books. 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 : 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.

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.

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. 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 enjoy 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 Blue Hearts of Mars Author : Nicole Grotepas Series : standalone Age Category : Young adult, age 12-16 Published by:  11th January 2013, self-published Pages: 268   p. Genre:  Science fiction, Androids, dystopia, romance About The Blue Hearts of Mars Retta lives on Mars under a dome, is about to graduate high school, and has a side job in a coffee shop. This is where she first meets Hemingway. She falls in love with him, but their love is forbidden. Hemingway is an android, bound to be a slave of the system, where androids are seen as lesser beings by humans. He can not resist Retta, and together they embark on an adventure to change the world. Along the way, they discover secrets that the government has kept since they first settled on Mars. My opinion about The Blue Hearts of Mars Warning: this review contains spoilers for the book. I was thinking of doing a spoiler-free review of this book, but instead, I will do a deep dive. The reason for this is that I have so many issues with the book and I want to discuss them with you because I feel that we can also learn something from this. Let me start with the positive parts, the setting was different from anything I have read before. I do not tend to read books set in space, because I thought that wouldn't be for me. This book does prove that this part of science fiction can be interesting to read. I liked that this was set on Mars and that humans managed to colonize space. This is something that I think is something that we would love to do. Inhabit a new planet. In this book, the people have been living on Mars for many generations. Space travel is possible, there are people that vacation in other parts of the galaxy for example. The first settlers created the androids that then built domes so that human life would be possible. The first settlers brought materials and plant life with them from Earth, and for many generations, they have been trying to recreate a resemblance to Earth. I liked the world that the author created. There are various domes on Mars, and our main character Retta lives in New Helsinki. When I started this book, the prologue sounded promising, I thought that it would be a dual POV. I soon found that the only chapter written from Hemingway's perspective was the prologue. I think this was a missed opportunity to make the book better than it turned out to be. An inside in Hemingway's mind might have filled up the gaps and question marks I was having pretty much from chapter one. The first thing that struck me as strange is that a lot of things were glossed over, for example, Retta meets Hemingway they talk. The next moment they are dating, without us ever getting any conversations, meet-ups, or even a time frame of how long ago that first meeting was in the coffee shop. The story dives right into Retta being head over heels by a character that we as the audience do not have a connection with. This made it very hard for me to wrap my head around and continue with the book. Retta is supposedly almost 18, but the way she sounds is more the equivalent of age 14 to 16. I still do not understand even after finishing the book how this love story came to be, if there could have been a couple of chapters of them just getting together, going on dates, learning about other characters, and finding out that he is an android. All this is just non-existent and that is very sad. There was also a lot of repetition in those first chapters, not only in the "OMG he is so beautiful" department but also there are a couple of cases when things in the world are explained to the reader twice. The world-building was in this case not very subtle, it is often Retta addressing the reader almost directly instead of us finding out the information through situations like for example; reading along with a study book, or a teacher explaining the history to students in class. It needed more show than tell. In all honesty, I almost DNF'ed this book, the issues I was having with it kept piling up the further I got. I am sorry that this will not be a glowing review, it cannot always be a 5-star read, unfortunately. I feel that it is important to show my readers that I will give my honest opinion in I hope a well-versed way so that we can learn from these situations and help make books better. I know that this may sound like a harsh critique of the book, but I feel it is necessary to address the issues. Another major issue I had with this book is that there are time gaps between the chapters, I hinted at this at the beginning of my reviews and I want to explain further to you what I mean by those time g aps by giving an example. This will be a spoiler for the book, so in case you do plan on reading this it might be wise to skip ahead to the next paragraph. After Retta breaks into Syntech, the company that makes the androids, she finally tells Hemingway what she and Mei found, a document that says all androids will be deployed to a new planet, without their consent. Retta and Hemingway try to run away then without any preparation, and only the clothes on their back. Before they leave, they want to go find the Voice, which is the guy leading a resistance, to inform him about the android deployment. This whole meeting is skipped over, we only hear the events as an afterthought. Finally, something interesting could happen, and we do not get to see it play out at all. There were many moments like this throughout the book, and it made it hard to follow along with the story. These are the details you would want to go into detail on, these are the parts that give the story depth, excitement, and memorable. And yet they were ignored, I was a little disappointed by it. The last thing I would point out is that there are a lot of things that are not explained. Why can they just break into high-tech facilities without getting caught, why is there no security system? Why are they not arrested as soon as they come from the train when Retta was on the news and wanted by Syntec. These are only a few of my questions, there is a lot that makes no sense at all, it gets to the point that the story becomes very unbelievable. Rating The Blue Hearts of Mars Unfortunately, there were too many issues with this book, that could not be ignored. The idea of living on Mars, the androids, and humans living there together is great. I just wish it had much more depth. The execution of the idea was lacking overall. There were so many plot holes that it left me with too many questions at the end of the book. The characters did not have much depth, the love story was instant. Due to the many issues this book has my rating will not be higher than 2 cats, these are solely giving because I do like the idea of the story. 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 enjoy 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 want to do something new in 2025, I want to clean my Kindle TBR. I have been accumulating ebooks on my Kindle since 2013 when I got it for my birthday, and yes, it still works flawlessly, in case you are wondering. There was this big hype around the new Kindle colour soft, and TikTok says you need more than one to use it. It is fine if you have various devices, but you can only read on one device at a time, so one will be enough. Do not let anyone tell you that you need multiple E-readers to read, it is all right if you have just one, it is all right if you read on the Kindle app on your phone, tablet, or computer. Before I got my e-reader, I read ebooks on my laptop through the Kindle app. I still use the app on my phone when I cannot sleep at night or if I am in public and forget to take my Kindle. The app is free, at the time I started getting into ebooks, I was still in school and did not have a lot of money. It made my small world a lot brighter and I have read so many interesting books that I would otherwise never have picked up. In the 12 years I have been using Kindle I have accumulated 2447 books, that remain unread. I have not picked up my Kindle in a while and I miss reading Indie books, as most of the ones I own are self-published and free at one point. To push me to read some of those I would like to do something more fun. I would like my audience to pick my next Kindle read. Giving you all the 2447 books as an option at once, I would like to start by monthly reading one book chosen by you. Each month I will make a poll on the socials and here on the blog, with three options you can choose from once all the votes are in I will read the book with the most votes, and delete the two books that were not chosen. This way I hope to cut down the amount of books remaining unread on my Kindle to a more manageable length. I want to start with the oldest books on my Kindle library, going with the ones that fit within the genres I discuss here on the blog, there are also some other genres I read but I do not review them, these are just for pleasure and to keep me from stop reading and reviewing. Let's start with the first three books on my Kindle. I will put a poll at the end of this post. The first three will all be young adult books. Let's dive in. Predator Girl by S.B. Roozenboom I purchased this book on January, 20th of 2013, it was free at the time. It is categorized as a Young Adult paranormal romance book. It has an average rating of 3.63 and 289 ratings. This does not have many ratings. It is of average length with 350 pages. The story is about a girl, that is the leader of a werewolf pack. When in town she meets Jared, who finds the supernatural for the government, to make sure they will go undetected. Jared can't figure out what kind of creature the new girl is and gets pulled into her world. It is a paranormal romance with a setting in this world. This author published 4 books, most of which have around 200 ratings, the author has not been active on Goodreads since 2021 and the website mentioned is no longer active. It makes me a bit worried that this may not be the greatest read, I will wait and see what you will vote. Amethyst by Heather Bowhay This one I thought this was YA, it is categorized as such on Goodreads, but I feel this should be in the New Adult age range, even by reading just the synopsis, it feels a bit older. This book has a lot more ratings than the previous one in total 2.678 ratings with an average of 3,83 stars. This looks promising, it is a little shorter with 271 pages, which is fine with me. The book is about Lexi, who has premonitions about people's deaths, she tries to save as many as she can but she would like to put herself first for once and ignores one of the premonitions that results in innocent people losing their lives. In her next premonition, she sees her death. Then there is a twist in the synopsis, which feels a bit weird to me because it is talking about a co-worker, but I thought she was a college student, so where is she working? Her co-worker is part of a group that hunts the beings stealing people's life force called Essence, but is this group to be trusted? There are many secrets to be revealed. I am not sure if this should be in the paranormal romance category or the urban fantasy, but it cannot be both. That is another thing that is confusing me. I purchased this on the same day as Predator Girl. Blue Hearts of Mars by Nicole Grotepas This is a young adult SciFi story, a love story between an android and a human, set against a backdrop of a crumbling society. Something is brewing, and our main characters have to figure out how to stop it. The synopsis of this one sounds promising, it sounds like it will have some dystopian features, but I think the love story takes priority. This book does not have a lot of ratings, only 209, and an average score of 3,62 stars. This author is still active on social media and has published books up to 2021, so she is the one who has published the most recent of these three authors. Why do I point out if an author is active or not you might wonder. The truth is that there are many authors that I have enjoyed in the past that have published one or two books and then disappeared from the face of the earth, and have not returned. I often wonder what happened to them or if the primary reason for writing was money. I do not want to waste my time reading books by authors who are not enjoying the process of writing and connecting with the audience or authors who just write to make money. To me, that feels like a waste of my valuable time. So authors if you made it to the end of this post, feel free to reach out to me, I would be curious to hear about why you write, and why you discontinued if you have, and just generally enjoy having a good conversation with you. Now let us continue with the vote! 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 enjoy 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 : Odd Spirits Author : S.T. Gibson Series or standalone : The Summoner's Circle, book 0.5, novella Age Category : Adult Published by:  8th October 2024 Pages: 115   p. Genre: Urban Fantasy, occultism About Odd Spirits This is the story of how Rhys and Moira met, we get to meet these two characters a bit better through their story of how they are dealing with a malevolent spirit in their own home, and how they overcome the struggles they are facing. My thoughts on Odd Spirits Content warning: this review will contain spoilers for the book they will not be pointed out, proceed with caution. Also, I received a review copy in exchange for my honest opinion. Review copy provided by Angry Robots via Netgalley. I was so happy that I was approved for this one as well, in October I have already published my review for the first book in the Summoner's Circle series, Evocation , which I loved. I was thrilled that I got the chance to review this as well. The first thing I want to say about this little novella is that I would have preferred to read this before Evocation, I think it would have been a better introduction to the series. Also, this situation has been hinted at in Evocation, in which we do not get much explanation for what happened back then. Therefore I am glad that this story exists. What I loved even more is that this story includes how Rhys and Moira met, I found this so exciting, and I was so cute! We get so much character out of this story, it really helped me love these characters even more than I already did. I also feel that there are many more of the occult practices woven into this one story than was in Evocation, something I missed, I would like to see more of the society rituals and Moira's spell work as well, and I do hope that we will be getting it in the rest of the series. I am excited to explore the rest of the series as it comes out, and will also be continuing with S.T. Gibson's other novels An Education of Malice and Dowry of Blood. The last one being inspired by Dracula, is of course a vampire story that I haven't read in a while. Rating Odd Spirits This novella was lots of fun, it packs a punch and explores a side of the characters Rhys and Moira from Evocation that we have not yet seen before. This edition is beautifully illustrated which makes it even more appealing for the book collectors that we are. The story has so much magic and character exploration in it, that adds to the reading experience of the series in general. As said in the full review, I would read this before starting with Evocation. 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 enjoy 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 : Evocation Author : S.T. Gibson Series or standalone : The Summoner's Circle, book 1 Age Category : Adult Published by:  28th of May 2024 Pages: 301   p. Genre: Urban Fantasy, occultism About Evocation The devil has come to claim what is his … David Aristarkhov was a child prodigy, raised by a cruel occultist father. At the age of 13, his father died freeing David from his torment. Now David's thirtieth is rapidly approaching, but the successful life he has crafted for himself has started to crumble together with his health. David reaches out to the only person he has ever trusted, his ex-boyfriend Rhys, who is now happily married to Moria and is his main rival within the society of Occultist. Can they ever mend the trust that was broken? And resolve the demon deal that is hot on David's trail? My thoughts on Evocation Content warning: this review will contain spoilers for the book they will not be pointed out, proceed with caution. Also, I received a review copy in exchange for my honest opinion. Review copy provided by Angry Robots via Netgalley. Getting all the official stuff out of the way, let us dive into this book because I think I will have a lot to say about it. Let us start with my overall feeling: I want more of this. When I first saw this book announced I thought like, yes this is right up my alley, I love the occult and I was really curious as to how deep the lore would be. This being said, I would have liked to see more of the occult practices in the book. There is a little bit of it in the book, but it only scratches the surface. This might sound like a harsh critic but it is not, because I loved this book nonetheless. I just wish there were more spells, ceremonies, and divination in there, that would have made it even more delicious. The book focuses more on the character relations between David, Moira, and Rhys. There is a lot of frustration between David and Rhys. At the beginning of the book we do not learn why their relationship is so strained, it is revealed much later in the book. This left me hanging with lots of questions throughout the book. A lot of hints were dropped but most of them are not explained at any point, this is my only criticism of Evocation. It is for me a minor issue, not enough the take cats of my rating. It can however be an issue for some readers so I wanted to point it out so that you can be prepared if this is a thing that would bother you. I would also suggest reading Odd Spirits first if you have the chance, as it will help you understand the characters just a little bit more. Another thing I want to point out is that if you go in intending to read a book that is all about the occult, you will be sourly disappointed. There are splashes of the occult, but it is a book about love, relationships, and friendship. It hints at a polyamory relationship which is not for everyone. I did not mind it at all, I liked the sexual tension between all the characters. At times David could be a little bit obnoxious, but understanding where he is coming from, an abusive parental relationship, I can kind of relate to his personality. The alcoholism, closed-off personality, and non-communication all fit in with a character that has been a victim of abuse. To me that at least makes a lot of sense. It doesn't make David a very likable character. Moira helps us in a lot of ways to understand the character of David, by pointing out his true feelings, that she can feel through their special connection. I think that this is a very clever trick by the author. It helps take the sharp edges of David's character. I am going to sound like an uber critic now, but I would have loved to see more depth in this story, more world-building, more occult, more character background, just all-around more of everything. This was a nice introduction to the world and the characters, it leaves me wanting a lot more, fortunately, we already know that there is going to be more. Rating Evocation I have already pointed out some of the things that bothered me or might be issues for some readers. Overall I have enjoyed my time with the book, I rate not only based on issues, but mostly on feeling, and how long it took me to finish if I wanted to get back to the book when I stopped reading. It might be sounding strange that I would still give this a 5-star rating. This book did tick all the boxes for me, it made me feel things, I wanted to get back to it as soon as I put it down and it did not take me a huge amount of time to finish. I was never bored by the book, nor did I dislike the main characters. The story made sense to me, it did not feel unrealistic or lacking, even though I want more of everything as stated above. It is a solid first book, so I am sticking to the 5 cats it is getting. Now I just need to get my hands on a physical copy of the book, to show off in my bookcase, and while I am at it, also a copy of Odd Spirits, so I can see the beautiful art in print. It was announced recently that this series will be four full-length books: Evocation, Ascension, Divination, Transmutation, and a novella called Odd Spirits which has been re-released this month in a beautifully illustrated edition. A review for the novella is coming next week. The books will all focus on a different character, the next book is Rhys's story, Divination is about Moria and Transmutation focuses on Leda, who is only briefly mentioned in this first book, she is David's half-sister. 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 enjoy 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 Famine Witch Author : Stephen Black Series or standalone : Standalone Age Category : Adult Published by:  January 2024, Quill and Crow Publishing House Pages: 282   p. Genre:  Historic fantasy About The Famine Witch Every 200 years the murders start in Belfast, 1847 the year they started again. Five girls have already disappeared, their bodies found with a Bloody Handprint to indicate the murderer. Bloody Hands is back and has been given a sixth victim that might be his undoing. Multiple evils are attacking Belfast, the crops failed this year, and hunger is ravaging the town. Soon new evil docks ashore, one that brings disease. The Black Lady is coming for Belfast and will not stop until it is in ashes. Within the chaos of hunger and disease, one girl and her brother try to survive one more day. Unbeknown to Maggie, she will be the only force against the evil in the town. All she wants though is for her brother to be safe. My thoughts on The Famine Witch Let me get the disclaimer out of the way. I was generously provided with a review copy of this book by Netgalley. This in no way influences my rating or thoughts about the book. Thanks, Netgalley, Quill and Crow Publishing, and Stephen Black for providing the ARC. I picked this up because I was looking for newer Witchy books to highlight as a book of the month. Sometimes I wish I could read a bit faster so I could have done this review a bit earlier on, but I have now accepted that all things will come in the end, I will figure out how to balance my life I just need some more time to figure it all out. What intrigued me about the synopsis was that it has a historical setting. I have never read anything set in Belfast, I also do not know much about its history. I love history, but sometimes forget how much I enjoy historical settings. History compared with the supernatural is something that works very well, especially in the 1800s. There was a lot of superstition in that time, about what causes disease and failing crops. I think this book plays into this aspect very nicely, it seems a very accurate depiction of how people would think about these things. This story is told from multiple perspectives, we meet both bad guys of this story, Bloody Hands and Fionnuala the Black Lady. The focus from their perspectives was mainly on Fionnuala and then on Bloody Hands. I would have liked it, if there were more Bloody Hands chapters, it would have made the story even darker. I also feel that there is a lot about his story missing, for example, the reasoning behind his six victims, and what kind of creature he is. Why he slumbers for 200 years? None of these things are explained clearly. If he is a creature from Irish folklore that is famous in Northern Ireland then I might get that this is not explained, because an Irish audience probably grew up with the stories. However, if the author wants to appeal to a broader audience, that is not familiar with the mythology like me, then you will have to explain these things, to the audience. In this book, I learned a lot of new words. English is my second language, I had to look up some of the words because they were terms that are not used in our language today. This is not a criticism of the book, not at all, I think the right terminology used, is important for the story, especially when you are writing historical fantasy. I also liked that there are Irish terms, however it was not easy to look them up, while I was reading. I would have liked to know that there was a Glossary of Terms in the back of the book, it was not indicated in the table of contents. I will state that this was an eARC so maybe this was resolved in the final copy. I thought I should mention it, in case they haven't fixed this. Overall I thought it was a good depiction of the time and place, I love the balance between fantasy elements and history. I enjoyed all the characters in this book, also the religion of this book was not Catholic, they were mentioned but the story's religious sidestep is based on Protestant beliefs. This is a change from what you read in most witch trial-based books, I thought it was an interesting fact. The Witchy rating of The Famine Witch What is special about the Witchy Review is that I give an extra rating to the book, based on how Witchy the content is. This is a separate rating from the overall rating of the book. The rating given in this regard can be very different from the overall rating. In this case, this will be so, as this book is plenty Witchy. The historical setting gives this book witch trial vibes, there is a trial mentioned in the book, the trial of Fionnuala, which sets her on the path of revenge. There is also a scene where the Reverend Edgar riles up the town against Maggie. Fortunately for Maggie, this does not end in a public execution, because she is under the protection of the Black Lady at this point. The story feels a bit rushed at this point, I would have loved for there to be more pages about Fionnuala and Maggie's powers. We get a little insight into Fionnuala's cruel power later on, but I will not spoil this part. It is the darkest part of the book I think, I loved it for it too. This book gives all the Witchy vibes I would want out of a historical fantasy. The only remark I have on this is that I would have loved for it to have more spellwork in it. Other than that I think this is a very good read in read to all things Witchy. And let it be a reminder of all the women that have lost their lives, for helping others, or just for being a woman. 4 cauldron cats for Witchyness. Overall rating of The Famine Witch There are a couple of remarks I already made on the book, these are all minor things. There is one more thing that sometimes confused me and that the changing of the POVs was sometimes a bit unclear. Sometimes it took me a moment to find from which point of view I was reading and what the relevance of that person was regarding the story. There are a couple of chapters where we meet a random side character that was not introduced before. In the beginning, this caused the pacing of the book to be very slow, which made the book more difficult to read. In the end, it all made sense, it could put people off reading. I did enjoy my time with this book, it is not perfect but besides the remarks I have it was still a good story in an interesting setting. Therefore the overall rating will be a little bit lower, and I will give it a 3-cat rating. 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 enjoy 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 prompt for this week is May flowers, the tulip fields in the Netherlands are still in bloom, but not as many as at the end of April. For this prompt, I will include horror books with flowers on the covers and books with flowers or plants as the main theme. There are a couple of these that I have already read. I would love to read more books like Mexican Gothic, House of Hollow, and Annihilation. These were all great and all of them were very atmospheric as well. Wilder Girls by Rory Power This has been out for some years, and the opinions about Wilder Girls vary. This book has creepy dangerous woods, a Tox that is affecting the human population and it has flowers on the cover. What more would you need from an atmospheric YA horror? I have not read this one yet but after reading the synopsis I am intrigued. What Moves The Dead by T. Kingfisher The synopsis reads "nightmare fungal growth and possessed wildlife. That was all I needed to add this to my wish list. I can only hope it will be as good as Mexican Gothic, which we will get to later on this list. I know that T. Kingfisher's horror is really good, it has been recommended by many. I still have not gotten into any of her work yet. As I do not own any of her work I think it will be a while before I finally do. I love this cover, by the way, it is so creepy. The Beauty by Aliya Whiteley This cover is stunning, I had not heard of this one before I started looking for horror books with flowers on the cover. Mushrooms growing out of dead women. That is all I got from the prompt but when doing some further research this falls into the category of "plant" horror. So I am adding this to the list. If someone has read this please let me know, I am curious what you thought of it. The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey I have seen this book around, but did not know anything about it, of course, I have now done my research, and I have to conclude that this is perfect for this list. The book is about a small village, that is surrounded by dangerous plant life. Koli the main character has never been out of his little town. The setting is post-apocalyptic and sounds like something I would read. It is a trilogy. There are two more books in the series, The Trials of Koli and The Fall of Koli. Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer The first book in the Southern Reach Trilogy, and I have read it. This was an amazing read, and I think I would want to re-read it so that I can give my readers a review of it, to encourage you to read it. It was a damn good book, the horror in this one is not really at the forefront, it is more subtle and evenly distribute throughout the book. This was such a fascinating read and also is set in nature, nature that can be unforgiving. House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland This book is a standalone, it is a young adult horror book. I read this a while ago, it was such an interesting story. It had an ending I had not seen coming, a very original story. I don't want to spoil anything but if you like a very atmospheric story with plants growing out of people, then look no further this is the story for you. Small Favors by Erin A. Craig If you look at the cover of this book it does not scream horror does it? I would have thought it was a romance book, but looks can be deceiving. I think I should have called this small-town horror because most of these are in small towns, but I will stick with this title. This story as you now guess also set in a small town, the synopsis talks about devils in the woods that grant wishes, that never can end well. I am very curious about this one, as the cover is so misleading. Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia This book set me on the horror path, this was stunning, although I was not very fond of the ending. Still, this was such a beautiful horror story. I also enjoyed that it was not set in the USA for a change. The whole vibe is this mysterious English family living in Mexico. The rules of High Place are strange and do not make a whole lot of sense. She Is A Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran I was talking about Mexican Gothic being set in Mexico, this is set in Vietnam. Already this is making it more interesting to me, I love to read about different cultures and different countries. This is more of a haunted house story I think but still sounds like something that will fit on this list. Belladonna by Adalyn Grace If you have not heard of this book, then you might have been living under a very big rock. This series has been the latest hype, maybe not as big as that of Fourth Wing, but definitely one of the bigger hyped-up books. The covers are gorgeous and have deadly flowers, that is why they get a mention here. I am not sure if this one is horror perse, but it will be atmospheric, with it having a gothic setting. Let me know in the comments if this gets scary. What are your favorite atmospheric horror books? 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 enjoy 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 : Queen of Shadows Author : Sarah J. Maas Also by this Author: Crescent City Series : Throne of Glass, book 1 Age Category : Adult Published by:  September 2015, Bloomsbury Publishing Pages: 648   p. Genre:  Epic fantasy About Queen of Shadows Celeana has returned to Adarlan, with the information she was seeking from her aunt in Wendlyn. Much has changed, since the last time she has set foot in the capital city. She has now embraced her true identity Aelin Galathynius, the Queen of Terrasen. She will be the one, standing in the way of the King's plans. She will fight to free her friend and her cousin. Unite her crumbling kingdom and overthrow the king. An ambitious plan will her people stand by her and help her achieve victory? My thoughts on Queen of Shadows Disclaimer: This review will contain spoilers for the book, if you haven't read the book, it is not advised to continue reading this review. The books by Sarah J. Maas seem to become long the further you get into a series. Queen of Shadows was a lengthy one, with 648 pages, yet it was never boring. The first three books have been a setup for this book. Where we are back in Adarlan, in the capital city, and living there is more dreadful than it felt in the last two books. Dorian is now being possed by a demon, Chaol is being a real ass, Aedion is imprisoned by the King and Arobynn is trying to get Celeana back. This is where the story starts, and it feels heavy and dreadful. The book does a really good job of showing the reader, the feelings of the characters, but also shows a lot about the surroundings. It creates a certain atmosphere where everything seems lost, and we are holding on to little glimmers of hope, at the time. Celeana is now Aelin, and the book addresses her in this way. The characters that knew her from before, needed to get used to the new name, and she would also correct them. At the beginning of the book, Aelin sets out to rescue her cousin, who she thought was dead, Adion, who is being held by the King. It was supposed to be a lure to trap Aelin. She has a good plan in place to rescue Aedion and manages to do so. I felt that she got off easy, it was just too easy. I have thought about this a couple of times, and I have a theory of why it might have been so easy. Either the demon underestimated Aelin, or the King in his way tried to be disobedient. Either way, this part of the book was a bit of a letdown for me. Fortunately, this book is multiple points of view, and the chapters will switch point of view often. This book gets really dark, and I mean disturbingly dark. It makes me wonder if it was intended to be for a young adult audience. It was always my understanding that it is a young adult book, but the content in this book is really on the edge if you would ask me. I would not consider this for an audience under sixteen years old. The disclaimer at the beginning of this review is there because I want to get into why I found some of the parts of the book so disturbing. The dark side of the book is not so much tied to Aelin, but overall Manon is in a much more difficult position. In book three Manon Blackbeak, of the Ironteeth witches, was introduced as a character. We see her become Wing-Leader of the witches and she is now sent to Morach. For a while, we don't know why the witches are there. At first, I thought it would be to protect the tower, which has trapped magic, but after a while, the true horror of their purpose has been revealed. The witches are there to breed with the Valg demons. Unwilling test projects in a breeding program of horrors. I thought this was so disturbing, that I had to stop reading for a bit to process this information. Even though the above information horrified me, I just continued reading, it was so incredibly well written, that it keeps you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. Yes, it has some slower parts, but even in the slower parts of the book, something is happening. I also like the new side characters that were introduced, Nesryn, Elide, and Lysandra, all very strong female characters of course as that is what Sarah writes best. The other thing I like about this book is when we first got introduced to Manon's character in book three, I wondered to what end it served, then in this book, the character has a lot more pages, and there is much more depth to why this character is one of the main characters. Up until now, it was the character that was not connected to the rest of the characters, like Chaol and Dorian were there from the start and knew Aelin. Manon on the other hand knows of Aelin and Dorian, but up until now, these characters have not met. I love that there was a meeting between all the main characters. It seems like such a small detail but it makes me so happy. There are a lot of these small details in this book, that help the story along or close the book on a character. We do not have to keep wondering what happened to them. I think this might be the best book out of the series yet. Rating Queen of Shadows The Throne of Glass series seems to be less popular than the other two series, but so far it is working wonderfully for my taste in books. This series is a very well-crafted epic fantasy book, it has all the world-building you want, and it has a wide variety of characters. The first two books are a little different from books three and four, I think there are much more elements woven into the storyline in these two books. Queen of Shadows to me is even more compelling than Heir of Fire. There is never a dull moment in the story. The characters go through hell and back. And the story gets so dark, it is delicious and addictive. The reveal at the end of the book did come as a surprise to me, it was not what I was expecting. It is another one of those moments to treasure, in this wonderful fourth installment of the Throne of Glass Series. You know what is coming, the rating will be as the other books in the series 5 black cats coming your way Queen of Shadows. 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 enjoy 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 : Heir of Fire Author : Sarah J. Maas Also by this Author: Crescent City series Series : Throne of Glass, book 3 Age Category : Adult Published by:  September 2014, Bloomsbury Publishing Pages: 565   p. Genre:  Epic fantasy About Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas Celaena Sardothien has survived in Adarlan for a long time, first in the salt mines of Endovier, now she is the King's Champion, but that is all about to change, as she is sent to Wendlyn to face her heritage. My thoughts on Heir of Fire When I first started the Throne of Glass series in 2014, I could not have imagined that the story would become as broad as it is becoming. I mean this as a compliment, not a criticism of the series. For years I have read only the first two books of the series, which mainly focus on Celaena, some side characters have their chapters, but the main focus remains Celaena. Heir of Fire begins upon Celaena's arrival in Wendlyn, she is in a lot of hurt and doesn't see the point in saving the world anymore. The way that Celaena acts at the beginning of the book makes her a very unlikeable character. It almost stopped me from reading further and never picking it back up again. However, I did pick it back up, out of pure curiosity thanks to the Fairyloot merch that said the book contains dragons, wyvern to be exact. I am delighted that I have pushed through on this series, because this third book, is something else. The amount of world-building done within this book is amazing and one of the things that makes me want to continue with this series. I can already confirm that I have now also finished Queen of Shadows, which I am also very excited to talk about. We are not talking about that one yet, we are continuing with Heir of Fire here. This part of Celeana's story is all about learning about her heritage, as we found out at the end of book two, that Celeana is Aelin, the assumed dead heir to the throne of Terrasen. Aelin has been Celeana for so long that, she does not know how to be Aelin anymore. She has put a wall around the trauma she endured as a child and would like to keep that in place, to not have to remember what happened all those years ago. To be able to learn about her fae powers, she also has to deal with her past, a past that has been haunting her for years. For the entirety of the book, Aelin remains in Wendlyn, learning how to use her powers and lots of time is spent training with Rowan. The rest of her time is mostly spent in the kitchen with Emrys and Luca, two of my favorite new side characters in this book. They are so wholesome, they give the dreary setting some cozy happy vibes. If we had only followed Aelin's story, the book would have been very boring, as she spends a lot of time training. The series has multiple points of view from the start, the main character is Celeana/Aelin but we also get chapters from Chaol, the captain of the Guard, and Dorian, the crown prince's point of view. Some smaller characters here and there are also added to help the plot. In this book a new character is added to the existing cast, enter Manon Blackbeak. Manon is an Ironteeth witch, these witches are badass. These witches are the stuff of nightmares; they come with iron teeth and iron claws/nails. They would not think twice about ripping a man apart. We first meet her when she is hunting but gets called home to meet her grandmother. Through Manon, we get some more insight into what the king is planning for Erilea. The king has ordered them to train with all the witch covens and ride the wyvern that the king has been breeding secretly. If Manon wins the war games she will become Wing-Leader, leading the army of witches. I like what Manon brings to the table. Through Manon's perspective, we can learn about the witch covens and their history, but it also gives us some insight into what kind of army the king is building. Meanwhile, we still have two pairs of eyes in Rifthold, through Dorian and Chaol's perspectives. They are both struggling with Celeana leaving and on top of that Chaol is struggling to figure out where his allegiance lies. These multiple points of view are something I have been enjoying so much, not only give this insight into what the character thinks but also help with the world-building. I love this world even though it is becoming darker by the minute. Rating Heir of Fire Even though I have some criticism as to Celeana's character, especially at the beginning of the book, when you get through her rough patch it will get better. Luckily there are plenty of chapters filled with other characters like Manon, Chaol, and Dorian. This keeps you entertained when Celeana is not her lovely self. There is always a slow beginning of the books I have read so far from Sarah J. Maas, she likes to build up her stories well, with lots of character growth and world-building. The downside to this is that some of the parts of the book are very slow. It is always worth it in the end when everything wraps up, into an epic finally. The endings are so damn good that I always end up giving these books 5 stars. The same goes for Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas, 5 Cats rating for another masterpiece in the highly successful Throne Of Glass 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 enjoy 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.