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.

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.

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.

How is your beginning of 2024, have you started any new years resolutions? In all honesty I have not yet sat down to figure out my goals for this year, I think they will involve a lot of reading, singing and guitar playing. More about my goals for 2024 later this month. For now let us dive into the upcoming book releases in the first half of 2024, I have picked out 5 Witchy reads for you and 5 non-witchy reads that I am excited for this year. Initially I wanted to do 10 witchy reads but that turned out to be very hard and I am also excited for some other releases so I thought this would also be more representative of what I am looking forward to. The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland, release date: 30 January 2024. A new book by Krystal Sutherland, I am so excited for this one. I loved House of Hollow so I am excited to dive into something else by this author. Also it has a powerful witch, that was all I needed to put this on my wishlist. I hope this is as creepy as House of Hollow. The nice thing about this book is also that it is a standalone, which is nice for me as I am not good with series. Projections by S.E. Porter, release date: 13 February 2024. S.E. Porter has also written various young adult books under the name Sarah Porter. This novel is her adult debut, and it sounds fascinating. A sorcerer sending out projections of himself into the world because he could not have the woman he loved. This concept sounds fascinating to me, and I think this will be very dark and sometimes that is just what I want to read. Remedial Magic by Melissa Marr, release date: 20 February 2024. This sounds like a wholesome kind of read. A cozy read to keep you company until A Witches Guide To Magical Inn Keeping is released in September. Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli, release date: 20 February 2024. Witch and Witch hunter falling in love. I have yet to read Serpent & Dove which of course is the first book you will think of when you hear this premise. This sounds like a great read, and of course perfect for this blog. The Honey Witch by Sydney J. Shields, release date: 14 May 2024. This is a debut author, and I have not yet heard anybody talk about this release, so I thought I would give it a little bit of love here. This also sounds like such a cozy read, sounds like a summer with witches to me. And there are bee's so that means there must be flowers as well, that makes me happy. House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas, release date: 30 January 2024. I think this one is on almost all the Sarah J. Maas fans wishlist already, maybe all of them have already preordered it. I think of all the releases on this list this is certainly the most hyped. And I am all for this hype because I loved House of Earth and Blood. I have yet to read House of Sky and Breath, but that is oké because then when I have finished it I already own House of Flame and Shadow, as I am going to order it right when it comes out. The Eternal Ones by Namina Forna, release date: 13 February 2024. Are you seeing my trend yet? This is the conclusion to the Gilded Ones trilogy. One of my goals is to finish some of the series I have started. I am incredibly bad in finishing series. So I am trying this a new way, now since this is the last installment in a trilogy, it will be an achievable goal for me to finish this series this year. I am thinking of preordering this book so that it will motivate me to finish the second book, and then when the pre-order arrives I can dive right into the last book. It will so good to finish a series this year. I am also working on finishing Throne of Glass this year, I am on to the fourth book now. An Education in Malice by S.T. Gibson, release date: 13 February 2024. I read: dark academia, dark magic and vampires, sold. I have not tried any dark academia books but I am eager to get into this. Also vampires! I have not read any vampire books in a while I kind of miss reading vampire books. Good excuse to pick this up. A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal, release date: 20 February 2024. Just the title alone is enough to put it on my TBR and I am not even English. Then there are vampires, are vampires making a comeback this year? I approve! Fathomfolk by Eliza Chan, release date: 27 February 2024. Water creatures are not usually my cup of tea, neither are pirates or anything else set at sea. However something about this sounds so damn good. What are your most anticipated reads for 2024?

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