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 to continue 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.

Title: Hidden Gifts Author: Christine Pope Series: The Witches of Canyon Road book 1 Age Category: Young Adult Published by: Pages: 382 p. Genre: Urban fantasy About Hidden Gifts Miranda has known since her teens that she is supposed to marry a stranger. Long ago her mother made a bargain with the Santa Fe witch clan, in exchange for their help fighting an evil warlock. Miranda's parents have tried everything to save Miranda from this arranged marriage but the Santa Fe witches do not accept, even if Miranda has no powers of her own. Or does she? When she arrives at Santa Fe, her power sparks, just like the spark between her and the man she is supposed to marry. Can she figure out how to control them? My Thoughts on Hidden Gifts Happy New Year everyone I hope you have had a wonderful New Year’s Eve! Wow, 2024 already and this year is going to be an exciting year for me, with lots of changes. I am looking forward to this new chapter in my life. Before I dive into this review, I want to say that this review will contain spoilers. I just wanted to do a bit of a discussion for this one as this will be our first Witchy Read of the month! I never read about an arranged marriage story before, this was the first one for me. It was a little bit daunting for me, as I am not a big fan of being bound in that way to someone. What I liked about this story is that we get to see all the insecurities Miranda our main character feels about being shipped off to Santa Fe, not knowing anything about the guy she is to marry, and having no clue what he looks like. It would be my worst nightmare. Not only do we see Miranda’s side of the story we also have Rafe’s point of view. He also is not pleased about the arranged marriage, and he clashes with his mother about this every step of the way. However, he does also respect the family obligations, and when he finally meets Miranda, he starts to develop feelings for her. I also like Cat, this is Rafe’s sister, she tries to make Miranda feel at home, she is a great character, and we also see that she tries to protect Miranda from her mother. I think Cat makes the story a lot more pleasant for the audience. She is that bubbly fun friend we all want in our lives. Another side character that seems to be very nice to Miranda is Simon, she meets him on the bus when she travels to Santa Fe, and they hit it off, she feels very comfortable with him. He seems nice enough however, the book takes an interesting turn in the end. I had not seen this one coming, as Simon turned out to be the bad guy in this story. He also is not a normal human but also a witch, that was the most surprising part of the story. I hated the ending; Simon had put a curse on Rafe. The curse made Rafe tell Miranda in public that he did not wish to marry her. Crushing her soul and driving her right into the arms of Simon. This part was all fine but what came after is the part I have a problem with, it was the ease with which Miranda accepted Simon’s magic, no doubts, no mistrust nothing. And in the end, accepting Simon’s help to train her without knowing a damn thing about it. Come on, I know that she has grown up sheltered and is a bit naïve, but this is just too easy. I would have also liked to see that the story wraps up a bit more, not just ending on the scene I just described. It could have given us more of a tease so we will be eager to read the next book in the series. For me this ending fell a bit flat, I would continue the series, but the ending really could use some improvement. The witchy rating of Hidden Gifts On the witchy side of things, we have a coven, we have witches with individual powers. We do not have a whole lot of spell casting or usage of power in this book. There are some splashes here and there like Miranda finding her power of being able to talk to ghosts and jump from one place to another. There is a lot of individual use of powers, but not joined as you see in some witchy stories. I like that these witches have adjusted to modern times. The setup for this book is great but I would like to dive much deeper into this covens magic. I hope that the rest of the series goes into more depth on that front. The focus of this story was more on the world-building and character-building. It was important too, to make the characters likable and believable. Overall we had average witchyness so therefore I give it three cauldrons: I want more. Overall rating I loved the overall feel of the book, the character-building seems very realistic. I like that we are building up a relationship with our characters and there is a lot of overall world-building. The one letdown was how this book was wrapped up. It just ended in the middle of a scene, or that is what it felt like for me at least. I like that even though a book is part of a series, it either ends on a cliffhanger that keeps us begging for the next book, or we get a rounded ending with some open ends that will leave you wondering if they get answered in the next installment. The ending leaves this book stranded at three cats. Just another side note, I would not have picked this up based on the cover alone, I picked up the Witching Hour box set which contains 10 full-length witch books, I was just searching for something fun to read. The cover does not tell you anything. about what the story is about. It would not have been a trigger for me to pick it up. Luckily I am a sucker for boxsets on Amazon so it got my attention through that. I don't want to be rude, but I do want to tell you my honest opinion, and I hope that that will be appreciated.

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?

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.

It is that time of week when I post a top 10 things to read. The prompt provided for this week by The Artsy Reader is new to me authors I discovered in 2023. That was just too hard so we are going with new to me authors that I have not yet tried but want to in 2024. I own so many books, of authors I have never tried. So below are some authors of which I own books but haven't read anything or haven't read enough and authors that intrigue me to try them. 1. T. Kingfisher T. Kingfisher is a pen name used by Ursula Vernon. I just want to say, such an amazing pen name, that was the first thing that intrigued me. One of my favorite Booktubers Ashleigh of A Frolic Through Fiction has been a big fan of her work and when she first described one of the books I was like yes, give this to me. I need this in my life. Also, I want to read more horror books, I enjoyed Mexican Gothic and House of Hollow, which were my first two horror books. T. Kingfisher's "What Moves The Dead" revolves around fungi in horror. So I am looking forward to that. I do not own any of the T. Kingfisher books at the moment so it doesn't have top priority but I hope I will manage to read at least one this year. Also, horror fairy tale retellings are something I am down for as well. 2. Travis Baldree I think in the fantasy book world if you haven't heard of Travis Baldree yet, you have been living under a very large rock. As Legends and Lattes have a hype around it that is the likes of Sarah J. Maas. It has been read, reviewed, and mentioned by almost all my favorite Booktubers, and has been all over the place. It is such a cool thing to see an author come from self-publishing a book, getting picked up by traditional publishing, and seeing how it has grown into the hype it has now. I like these kinds of success stories. No, getting that out of the way, a cozy story about an Orc wanting to open a coffee shop, sounds just like my kind of read. I got this one for Christmas and I can tell you that I have already started it last night, next to Queen of Shadows, which I am also still reading. I was so surprised that I got this one, I had not expected this book, but I am so happy to have it and finally read it! 3. Stephen Graham Jones Stephen Graham Jones has made a name for himself in the horror genre as well. The title of his book The Only Good Indians, got stuck in my head, so when I saw it in the books store you know what happened, I took it home. There are in total 4 books on my want-to-read list, I just keep piling them on, so I should at least see if I like his writing style. Also, can I just say that I love the cover for The Only Good Indians? Anytime you put a deer on a cover I am bound to at least consider buying it. The same goes for foxes by the way. 4. Brandon Sanderson Brandon Sanderson is still as popular as ever in the fantasy and science fiction genre. All of his series are highly regarded and have been on my to-read pile for the longest time. Brandon Sanderson scares me a bit, I don't exactly know why, it is not that I am scared of reading big books. Says the girl who just received 2 over 800-page books. So that is not why this author scares me. I think it is more a case of What if I do not like it? I will be divining in with sky-high expectations, so what if I don't like them, is not something I would like the conclusion to be. I own Elantris, so I could dive into my first Brandon Sanderson book whenever I feel like it. 5. Joe Abercrombie If you haven't figured it out by now, I am a fantasy reader. So it is probably not surprising that I am posting almost all the greats in the genre. This was kind of accidental though, back to Joe Abercrombie. I do own the first book in the First Law trilogy, called The Blade Itself. It is currently sitting nearby where I am writing this post, down on the windowsill, with a couple more books all staring me down, fighting for my attention, shouting, when are you going to read me? There is a change, my boyfriend decides to pick it up before I do, this has happened before, and he has devoured the Green Bone Saga in record time. I wish I could read as fast as he can, so I can finish more books on my TBR. 6. Jeff VanderMeer I have read Annihilation the first of the Southern Reach trilogy, it was such a fascinating book, full of strange things and not a clue as to what we are dealing with in this strange piece of our world, but is it? I kind of like this sort of mysterious story, it was very well executed and so damn cool. And yet I still have to continue reading the rest of the series. I am sure that I am going to love it, and I am curious about what else he has written, all the covers of the other books are so bizarre and I love them for it. Before I can treat myself to any of his other works I will have to finish Southern Reach first. Wish me luck it will take me a while probably. 7. Jim Butcher Now having all the epic fantasy writers down, let's move on to some urban fantasy. Jim Butcher has been on my wish list for years, however, there is where his works remained until last year when I finally picked up the first book of the immensely popular Dresden Files, Storm Front. I have a special place in my heart for urban fantasy, I have enjoyed the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs and Bitten by Kelley Armstrong. The above were both written by women, I am curious if there is a difference between the urban fantasy worlds women write and males write. I think Jim Butcher will be a great place to start. 8. Jay Kristoff The books that first caught my eye were the books you can see here on the right, the Nevernight Chronicles, which is also sitting on that same windowsill, other unread books on my shelves are the Empire of the Vampire in the stunning Illumicrate edition and in my upstairs library there is also a copy of Illuminea. I think my first attempt will be at the Nevernight series, I just want to know if I will love what is beneath the beautiful covers. 9. Diana Wynne Jones Howl's Moving Castle is by far my favorite of the Studio Ghibli films, it is my go-to movie for when I am sad or mad or just want to be happy. I have not read the source material yet that was written by Diana Wynne Jones in the 1980s. I want to fall in love with the world of Howl's Moving Castle in a new way. Also, I have always thought that there was much more to the story than we see in the film. I want to find out which parts are different or missing. Would you be interested in reading about a comparison between the movie and the book? Let me know and I might try this out. 10. Nicki Pau Preto Concluding this list, is the newest, new to me author, Nicki Pau Preto. I was an active FairyLoot subscriber for as long as I could afford it, I had to cancel my subscription a while ago as I could not anymore. But not before The Bone Smith arrived in my mailbox. I think Fairyloot has outdone itself with this edition. Also, the synopsis caught my attention and this now is a must-read book for 2024. What do you think of my free interpretation list of this week's TTT?

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 perspective. 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.

I hope you are having a wonderful Christmas, me and Martijn spend Christmas eve, relaxing and cooking the most delicious turkey dinner I have ever had! Today we started with presents! Of course there was a book waiting for me! The other present is sure to end up on my other blog some time, I got a really cool Christmas sweater, from my now favorite music festival which I visited this year for the first time. This afternoon we are of to visit Martijn's parents. Merry Christmas to all of you! And thank you for visiting my blog.

It is almost Christmas! Wow, this year has flown by, it is unbelievable. Also unbelievable all the things I have achieved this year, I am becoming more like the person I want to be daily. I am proud of the progress I have made and looking forward to continuing on this blog as well. As I had forgotten for a while what it was like to read books, to be active in the reading community. I have had to take a break from blogging for a couple of months since my first Top 10 Tuesday post, due to personal issues, but I am back and I am here to stay as long as you all will have me. I just want to say, thank you all so much for the warm welcome back, it had been amazing, thank you, it does mean the world to me. Do you have an Amazon list a mile long? Well, I do not so much on Amazon but on Bol.com, it is my favorite national website for getting books. And their wishlist looks much prettier and easier to navigate than the one for Amazon. Anyway let's get into my top 10 books on my Christmas list! The illustrated edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling. I love Harry Potter and I love art so an illustrated edition seems like a perfect Christmas gift for me. I have gone through them a couple of times in the bookstore, they are stunning. Never bought them because they were not so cheap. The illustrated edition of Eragon by Christopher Paolini. Eragon is a book dear to my heart I remember that this, it was in summer and just before my birthday, I was so excited about this book that I asked my grandparents for the second book Eldest in the series for my Birthday. I started reading it right away. I love that there are new editions to be added to my collection. Monstrous Tales by Sija Hong. I love fairytales, and love exploring fairy tales from across the world. The Tales editions by Chronicle Books are beautifully illustrated books of fairy tales, I already own the Nordic Tales edition and let me tell you, it is such a beautiful book. House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas I have been a fan of Sarah J. Maas for the longest time, but I still have to finish a series by her, that is my struggle, finishing a series. I have read Throne of Glass, and Crown of Midnight, and my latest was House of Earth and Blood. So now I need House of Sky and Breath, because House of Sky and Breath was amazing, and got me back into reading again like Twilight once did to, so I am hell-bent on finishing this series as far as it is out. Luckily we have another one to look forward to in January when House of Flame and Shadow comes out. Can I just say, what an amazing cover art again I am loving it! Krampus by Brom I will let you in on a little secret, I and my boyfriend tend to give each other very unchristmasy themed gifts for Christmas, so I once gave him a metal encyclopedia, as in metal music and he gifted me a book on the Salem witch trials. Very unconventional, so this would be a perfect gift for me. Murtagh by Christopher Paolini You didn't think I would forget the other major release by Christopher Paolini, would you? Of course, I need this in my life! I am very excited that we have a new story set in Alagaësia! The Merciless Ones by Namina Forna The first book the Gilded Ones was an extra book in one of the Fairyloot boxes, and I went in with no expectations and loved the story, I have yet to read the rest of the series, the Eternal Ones is coming in February so would be good to have this and finish this series in February! The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna We went on vacation to Edinburgh last September, such a beautiful city, I think we will go back because we enjoyed our time there. I was allowed to bookshop, and in the book shop Martijn, suggested I pick this up, but I wasn't sure of it, and I have been regretting it ever since, as this book has become such a hype. The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher Any book will do by this author, this author in general has been hyped by my favorite booktubers for a long time now so I want to know why the works of this author are liked by many. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas I will admit, I did not yet get on this hype train, but that is bound to change as I already like 2 of the series Sarah writes so this is going to be added one way or another. Which books are you hoping to receive this Christmas?

It is already fall, and even though we still have summer temperatures all over the last week, I think it has been this way in many countries. I don't mind but I also like the dark evenings of fall, but not so much the rain. This week's prompt for Top Ten Tuesday is, the fall TBR, 10 books you would like to read this autumn. 1. Haunted Voices by various authors This is an anthology of Scottish Ghost stories, this is one of the souvenirs I brought back from Scotland last year, I have read a couple of stories, but I would like to finish the rest. 2. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis I have now started this series, so I might as well finish the whole series, and of course, I want this as my Witch read of the month for November, I am planning something more Halloweenish for October. 3. Howl's Moving Castle by Dianna Wynne Jones I own the most beautiful version of this book, the Folio Society edition, it is stunning, and illustrated. It was a gift from my boyfriend Martijn. I still haven't read it, I am a bit scared too as it is also one of my favorite Studio Ghibli movies. They have recently started updating the covers of this series, and I have to say they look very nice, but I still love my edition better because it was a gift from the person I love. 4. Witches Steeped In Gold by Ciannon Smart I want to start getting through my special editions pile, I have this beautiful Fairyloot edition, just waiting to be read. And it is another witchy read, got to love all the witchy reads. I am very much looking forward to this one, because it is Jamaican inspired, a culture I know little about. 5. Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas the only middle grade book on this list, and one for Halloween month! As it is about ghosts, I am curious to see how I would like this one. 6. Gideon The Ninth by Tamsyn Muir another spooky read, necromancers sounds like something to read for Halloween? Don't you agree? Also this has been so popular that I finally want to make my way on the hype train. 7 & 8. King of Scars & Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo I recently posted my review of Shadow and Bone and Siege and Storm on this blog. When I heard that Nikolai had his own duology I just had to have it, whenever I got the chance (that being when it was on sale), I got both King of Scars and Rule of Wolves for a good price. Can't wait to dig in, I am very excited for this! 9. & 10. Six of Crows & Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo got to finish them all, because I am not allowed to watch the TV series before I finish the books. Since the tv series is pulling form both Shadow and Bones and this duology I should first finish. What are you planning on reading this fall?

Title: Siege & Storm Author: Leigh Bardugo Series: The Shadow & Bone Trilogy, book 2 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 comments I jolted down in my notebook was: "I am on page 17, and already the Darkling caught up with them?" If I just 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 really hated about the whole series, that it seemed that Alina does not have any choices in any 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 as well. 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 constantly being saved by someone part that I don't like about Alina. In the first book she is in the hands of the Darkling were 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. The few cases were she does step out to the shadows, she is able to do great things and does some good decision making. However these moments are so few, 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 in the next book, as it would be a major disappointment if we are missing out on him. One can only hope!

Title: Shadow & Bone Author: Leigh Bardugo Series: The Shadow & Bone Trilogy, book 1 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. But the kingdom holds some dark secrets, and Alina has to find her place in this world and hold 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, because I have managed to dodge almost all spoilers on this series. Except for that the Darkling was supposed to be the villain of this story. The reveal that came from Baghra, as 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 whole 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 slow, 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.

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, they spend the summer together. Polly has found that in the attics of all the row houses their row are connected. They decided to go exploring but ended up in Digory's Uncle Andrew's forbidden study. From there they get thrown into the world of magic, into a parallel world, where they find a witch, they can't seem to shake, which chases them to Narnia. My thoughts on The Magician's Nephew This story is now over 60 years old and it feels like it was recently written. 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 very dark humor. I would suggest this for kids from 10 up not earlier, to be honest. 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 child's play, like wanting to explore the other worlds, ringing the bell, and planting a toffee tree. 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 fairytale, and I think this time around I will continue reading the rest of the series as well. 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 got answered here, and this is only the start of the adventures in Narnia, can't wait to read more about this world, as it is fast and rich in it's history, even when this was the very beginning of the history. It is a very special kind of story, one that will always stick to 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, so glad that you found my little corner on the the internet. I am also going to introduce to you my rating system for Witchy books, as next to my normal rating mentioned above, I wanted to rate the truly Witchy books on their witchyness 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 the evil kind of witch that 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.