Book Review: "The Crown of Oaths and Curses" by J. Bree

Title: The Crown of Oaths and Curses

Author: J. Bree

Series: "The Mortal Fates" #1

Genre: NA Fantasy Romance

Page Length: 663 pages

Publication Date: May 27, 2023

Rating: 5 // 5 stars

The Scepter (Novella 0.1) Review

The Sword (Novella 0.2) Review

Goodreads

J. Bree has done it again. At this point, we can just call 2023 the year of J. Bree as, of the 46 books I've read so far this year, 20 of them have been J. Bree books. She's become a new favorite auto-buy author and this newest book of hers didn't disappoint in the slightest. 

The Crown of Oaths and Curses is the first full-length book in her new Mortal Fates series. Now, J. Bree had written seventeen books before this series began but this is her first high fantasy series. We've got witches, fae, and a setting in a world not our own. I was so excited for this one but deep down I was a little worried it wouldn't be as good as the other books I'd read by her as the first step into fantasy can be difficult.

I never should have doubted at all because this series is phenomenal so far. The two prequel novellas, The Scepter and The Sword, were stellar introductions and got me quite excited for this book. They provided invaluable backstory of who the characters were and how we got where we were in the few hundred years before the actual novel. And then this book just blew me away.

I think my absolute favorite thing about this book was the characters, as is typically so when it comes to J. Bree books and any of my favorites for the most part. Our main female character, Rooksbane, in particular was my favorite. I loved her, I loved her inner strength and outer strength, I loved her dedication to nature, I just...I loved her. She was so passionate and honestly kept a way better hold on her temper than I would have. When it comes to Soren, our male main character, I enjoyed him a lot but what I'm going to enjoy even more is seeing his growth in the future books. One thing I've seen this book criticized for is Soren's attitude and it gets me a little confused, if I'm honest. The same people who complain most books marketed as enemies-to-lovers don't have actual enemies are now getting upset at the characters being actual enemies and hating each other? I don't get it. 

I am hoping we see some more side characters in the future books. I loved the side characters in this one but I know that there's other characters we met in novellas and are mentioned in this book that don't get much page time, if any at all. It's my great hope that the sequel is going to feature some of these characters strongly and that it'll cause some glorious tension-filled scenes. 

The magic is wonderful and the world is fascinating. I'm especially intrigued by the idea of fate and if you go against it there's serious consequences for the world. I also just want to know more about all the different magic types and kingdoms. I can't wait to explore this more in the future books. I'm hoping we get to see the Goblin kingdom in particular as it's one that's mentioned often and it sounds fascinating. 

The plot is pretty intriguing. Sometimes the fight for the throne plot can get repetitive, but I think the way this one is being done is just different enough for me that I'm not feeling like I'm reading the same thing over and over. 

All in all, I think my reading experience can be summed up by the fact that I read the two novellas and the entire 660+ page beast in less than 24 hours. I read this one in just one sitting, ignoring all my responsibilities and even food. I didn't want it to ever be over, but I also needed to know everything that was going to happen. It was addicting.

I cannot wait for the next book. I'm hopeful that we'll see it before the end of 2023 but I'm not sure. I just know that I'm obsessed with this series and, once again, J. Bree has me in a chokehold. 

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Thanks for reading!

xoxo

Lauren

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Book Review: "Blood & Honey" by Shelby Mahurin

Title: Blood & Honey

Author: Shelby Mahurin

Series: "Serpent & Dove" #2
Genre: YA Fantasy

Page Length: 532

Publication Date: September 1, 2020

Rating: 4.5 // 5 stars

Goodreads
Book 1 Review

*I was provided a free e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own*

Okay so if you've been following my blog for a while, you will know that Serpent & Dove was my favorite book of 2019. Blood & Honey was my *most* anticipated release of this year. And I will start this review by saying that I enjoyed this book. Did I love it? No. Is Serpent & Dove still my favorite? Yes. But did I enjoy this book? Also yes.

So I've actually been sitting on my thoughts for a few days and ending up raising my rating. I originally gave Blood & Honey four stars but, after looking back on it, I decided to raise it because of how good this book was.

Let me be clear: this book is not like Serpent & Dove. Serpent & Dove has just the right amount of angst amongst all the fluff and humor to be a multi-faceted book. But there's a feeling of hope throughout. I'm always happy reading Serpent & Dove even if the characters are in tough situations.

Blood & Honey is not that.

I knew going in that Blood & Honey was going to be different. Not only is doing the same book twice boring but, with the way things were left at the end of Serpent & Dove, it wouldn't have been realistic. Blood & Honey is a natural progression of the situations that we were in at the end of book one.

Blood & Honey made my heart ache almost from the very beginning. This is not a happy book. The characters are in a very tough situation at the end of the first book and there's very little time passed between that ending and this beginning. We're tossed right into the mess of it all and things are happening right away. Every scene had a purpose and added to the plot or character development even if it doesn't initially seem that way.

Serpent & Dove is a layered book but still relatively uncomplicated whereas Blood & Honey is complex and makes you think. Decisions made in the beginning were impacting events towards the end of the book. Little offhand comments in the first few chapters were thought back to when the climax was coming. This was an incredibly intricate storyline and I really liked that. I liked getting the foreshadowing and how it made me have so many theories as I read. I liked that it made me think.

One of the main things that I liked about Blood & Honey, apart from all the clever foreshadowing, was the expansion of the world. I loved Serpent & Dove but at the end of reading it I was wanting to know more about the witches and other aspects of the magic system. I was really happy to see that explored in much more depth in this book. Not only did we get to see more of Lou's type of magic, but also blood witches and other magical creatures. I honestly can't wait to see more of all of it in the third (and final) book!

The characters go through a lot. It seems like everything that can go wrong for them, goes wrong. Add in tense moments between each other, mistakes they made, and the stress of their situation and no one is really having a good time. There is one character in particular who my heart went out to the entire book and just gave me all the feels even more than the others. Also, I found myself really becoming more attached to a certain character from book one that I hadn't really felt anything about before so that felt nice.

I've seen a few people nagging on Lou and Reid in this book but I just think that the way they were portrayed and developed throughout was natural and realistic. After the ending in book one and the situation they're in during Blood & Honey, there's a lot of strain on them and their relationship. I think what would have been more annoying, for me, is to see everything return to the way it was between them before the ending of Serpent & Dove. Can you tell I'm trying not to spoil anything and that's why everything sounds so vague? I thought that their relationship development in this book was actually really well done, even if a bit frustrating at times.

There were a few things that made me drop my rating but I don't want to spoil anything and to talk about them would do that. I'll just stick with saying that there were some unresolved questions I had and some inconsistencies that I noticed. Additionally, there were a few times where I felt the story wasn't grabbing me as much as the first book had. I think that can be attributed to the two books having such different feels but it's still something that I was noticing as I read. I also will say that, although I enjoyed this book and gave it four and a half stars, I think that there is a little bit of second-book slump happening here.

Overall, Blood & Honey made me an emotional mess. Out of all the possibilities I could have predicted, the way this ended was not one of them. There were a couple things at the end that really hit me and I am still an emotional mess. I am so excited for the third book and I honestly can't wait for all of my copies and book boxes to come in so that I can be immersed in the feels again!

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Thanks for reading!

xx

Lauren

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Book Review: "The Dark Tide" by Alicia Jasinska

Title: The Dark Tide 

Author: Alicia Jasinska

Series: "The Dark Tide" #1

Genre: YA Fantasy

Page Length: 336 pages

Publication Date: August 4, 2020

Rating: 3.25 // 5 stars

Goodreads

*I was sent a free digital early copy of this book by Sourcebooks in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own*

When I first read the synopsis for this book, I immediately knew that I wanted to read it. Witches, sacrifices, a sapphic romance? Sign me up! This book was good in a lot of ways and I ended up reading it in just one sitting. However, I do think there were some things this book was lacking to make it a truly amazing read for me.

I'll start with the things that I did like. I really enjoyed the author's writing style. It was very easy for me to get sucked in from the very beginning. I ended up not only reading this book in one sitting but also reading it rather quickly because of how easy it was for me to fall into the story and follow the writing.

The magic system and world-building was enough to understand the story but I am a big sucker for learning about magic and different worlds so I will always want more. I think that the author gave us the right amount of magic and world-building for this book, but I am excited to hopefully see it all expanded upon in book 2.

The plot itself was rather interesting. I really liked the entire concept of the sea demanding a sacrifice every year and the ritual behind it. I will say that the pacing kind of threw me off a bit because, while the plot was very strong and interesting, there were a few issues pacing-wise. I think one of the biggest for me is that at least the entire first third of this book was told in the span of just a day or two. But the last two thirds spanned an entire month? I think that the first part was so strong because nothing was rushed but the last two thirds felt less developed to me. Interesting things still happened plot-wise, but I feel like I wasn't as connected to the story because of the big time jumps.

I think the pacing was also an issue for me when it came to the character relationships. Our two main characters have a developing relationship and, to me, it felt like there was very little development between them for most of the book and then it did a complete 180 in the last act. I really wish we would have seen more actual scenes between the two main characters but we didn't actually get that many.

I did really enjoy all of the characters in this story, though. The side characters really helped bring a new level to this story and I thought they were all pretty well-developed even if most of them got little page time. I really liked the strong family connections as well. I enjoyed our two main characters, though I think I connected more with Lina. I'm not sure why I connected more with Lina than Eva considering they alternate points-of-view but it just ended up that way. Maybe not connecting as well with Eva was why I struggled a bit with their developing relationship.

I think what was interesting to me was seeing the character developments outside of the relationship that formed. Obviously a big part of the development of this book was these two characters forming this relationship but I also just liked seeing them develop as people. No spoilers, of course, but I really liked these journeys they went on, both internally and externally. I'm really excited to see where all these characters end up in the next book.

Overall, I thought this was a very interesting, fun, and addicting book. I think the pacing issues really made me struggle with the story and the relationship between the two main characters but other than that I am fully on board with this series. I want to know what happens next and I am very eager to return to this world and characters when the next book comes out.

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Thanks for reading!

xoxo

Lauren

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