Happy Friday book lovers! We’re back with another First Lines Friday, a weekly featurefor book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?Here are the rules:
Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
Finally… reveal the book!
First lines:
“Casper Bell pressed himself against the foyer wall and wished he could disappear. He watched in a fog as his father walked past him, tossing his navy blue duffel bag out the open front door.”
Hi friends, as part of the blog tour hosted by TBR & Beyond Tours I’m excited to share my thoughts on the conclusion to the Betrayal Prophecies fantasy duology: The Second Son by Adrienne Tooley.
Click the banner above or here to check out the other incredible bloggers on the blog tour!
The Second Son (Betrayal Prophecies #2) Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books Publication Date: 16 July 2024 Genre: Young Adult Fantasy Rep: Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Queer
Rating: (3.5 pandas)
📖SYNOPSIS
An epic clash of deities explores the two facets of pain—rage versus sadness—in this rousing followup to The Third Daughter, a dark crown fantasy duology with a sweeping sapphic romance.
The centuries-old prophecy has been fulfilled at last: the New Maiden has returned to Velle. Unfortunately, so has a malicious demi-god, whose elusive prophet is intent on converting the New Maiden’s followers. The Second Son is a vengeful, angry deity, whose psalm resonates with the disenfranchised.
With Elodie on the throne and Sabine in her own unique position of power, it should be easy enough to track down the culprit. Yet even as they’re falling in love, both girls are keeping dangerous secrets from each other. While the cult of the Second Son threatens to overthrow not only the Church of the New Maiden but also Velle’s monarchy, Elodie and Sabine must navigate impossible odds to dismantle the root of his power, all while their lives hang in the balance.
A must-read for fans of the BookTok sensations Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard, Night of the Witch by Sara Raasch and Beth Revis, and These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong.
⚠️CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS
Descriptions of anxiety and depression, depictions of self-harm, parental death (off-page), parental neglect, physical abuse at the hand of a parent, religious trauma
✨Note: As this is the review for part two of a duology, there may be spoilers for book one.✨
TL;DR:Objectively, I think this was a well written story. It has an engaging plot, complex characters, and compelling relationships. While I wouldn’t say anything surprised me as I saw the twists and reveals coming from a mile away, I appreciate how Tooley formed her story around the chosen themes. The way she weaves emotion into faith was unique and I think the way it was written allows readers flexibility in how they interpret the story. Ultimately, I think The Second Son is a great conclusion to a dark-tinged fantasy duology.
Hello, hello and welcome back to another episode of WWW Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words, which means I’ll be answering these questions:
This week’s topic is Ten Things I Loved About [Insert Book Title Here] (Pick any book and tell us ten things you loved about it!) (submitted by Cathy @ WhatCathyReadNext)
We’re back with another Sundays in Bed With… meme! This meme dares to ask you what book has been in your bed this morning and is hosted by Midnight Book Girl. Come share what book you’ve spent your time reading in bed or wish you had time to read today!
I’ll be spending the rest of my Sunday in bed with The Second Son. I’m very behind. I should’ve started this last week but it just didn’t happen! I admit that I remember very little about the first book but I enjoyed it enough to want to continue the series and see what happens. I hope it’ll be a quick (and painless!) read.
Hello, hello and welcome back to another episode of WWW Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words, which means I’ll be answering these questions:
We’re back with another Sundays in Bed With… meme! This meme dares to ask you what book has been in your bed this morning and is hosted by Midnight Book Girl. Come share what book you’ve spent your time reading in bed or wish you had time to read today!
I’ll spend the rest of my Sunday in bed reading Ocean’s Echo by Everina Maxwell. This is the second book set in the same world as Maxwell’s first book which I finished yesterday and loved! I’m enjoying this one a lot too!
But… One of the MCs is a bit of a douche canoe and I’m just trying to understand what happened with him to make him so combative and abrasive. I don’t dislike him but he’s testing my patience a bit! 😂
The Witcher meets Naomi Novik in this fast-paced fantasy rooted in Slavic folklore, from an assured new voice in genre.
As a witch in the walled city of Chernograd, Kosara has plenty of practice taming rusalkas, fighting kikimoras, and brewing lycanthrope repellent. There’s only one monster Kosara can’t defeat: her ex the Zmey, known as the Tsar of Monsters. She’s defied him one too many times, and now he’s hunting her. Betrayed to him by someone close to her, Kosara’s only hope is to trade her shadow―the source of her powers―for illegal passage across the Wall to Belograd, where monsters can’t follow.
Life in Belograd should be sweet, but Kosara soon develops a fast-acting version of the deadly wasting sickness that stalks shadowless witches―and only reclaiming her magic can cure her. To trace her shadow, she’ll have to team up with the suspiciously honorable detective investigating the death of the smuggler who brought her across the Wall.
Even worse than working with the cops is that all the clues point in a single direction: one of the Zmey’s monsters has found a crack in the Wall, and Kosara’s magic is now in the Zmey’s hands.
The clock is ticking, the hunt is on, and Kosara’s priorities should be clear―but is she the hunter or the hunted? And in a city where everyone is out for themselves, who can Kosara trust to assist her in outwitting the man―the Monster―she’s never been able to escape alone?
TL;DR:I’m not sure what I expected going into this but it wasn’t what I got and I absolutely mean that in the best way! Foul Days is dark and full of monsters but the “horror” aspect is light enough that those who are scared of dark and scary things (it’s me) can read it in bed alone at night. It’s heavy in Slavic lore and it’s action-packed from start to finish. I loved Kosara and her acerbic nature. She’s crabby and witty but vulnerable enough for us to see past that exterior to the damaged young woman she still carries inside. Her banter with Asen was A+ and their “copper vs. charlatan” dynamic was one of my favourite parts of this story. I was so pleasantly surprised by this fantasy debut and I’m already itching to get my hands on the second book (*please bless me, Tor gods*)!
Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme created by Rukky @Eternity Books and hosted by Aria @Book Nook Bits, and it’s where we get to discuss certain topics, share our opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts! Check out all the past topics if you want to join in the bookish discussion fun.
This week’s topic is actually a mid-year reading check-in but since I just posted my Mid-Year Check-In Tag earlier this week, I’ll be doing last week’s topic:
Prompts: Diversity and diversity in reading are often huge topics of conversation. Do you actively seek out diverse books? What kind of representation do you look for? Do you feel that diverse books are often spotlighted, or that it takes more of an effort to find diverse books? What recommendations do you have?
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