Tag: Sisters

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YA Review: Finale (Caraval #3)

Title: Finale (Caraval #3)
Author: Stephanie Garber
Edition: Kindle
Rating: 4/5

YA Review: Finale

The plot twists continue in the final book of the Caraval trilogy, and both Scarlett and Tella have narrating roles throughout the story. With a new Emperor about to be crowned, the city of Valenda is in a holiday mood, but revelations about their family and their love interests lead both sisters further into danger.

It’s hard to review Finale without dropping all sorts of spoilers. Scarlett and Tella find themselves deeply involved in the struggles of the immortal and dangerous Fates while navigating the complexities of relationships they can’t control and the safety of people they care about. The story is darker than the previous books, and the stakes are higher. There is no Caraval to bring a sense of order and reward to their actions, and failure would mean consequences for the entire Empire.

It’s a complex plot, and I confess to losing track of some of the threads at times, but Scarlett and Tella’s relationships keep the pages turning. While their strong personalities drive the story, each sister learns to adapt to a rapidly changing environment – Scarlett becoming more daring and brave, and Tella drawing closer to the people around her. There’s an exciting climax and a satisfying ending, and an Encore chapter that had me grinning as I turned the final page.

The Caraval series is an exciting – and exhausting – journey through magic, danger, deception and love. I cared deeply about Scarlett and Tella, and about where they might end up, and I’m pleased I finally picked up their story. The series would be a excellent beach or holiday read, and a perfect place to escape to when you have plenty of time to relax with a book. Definitely worth stepping into Caraval and allowing yourself to be swept away.

Have you read Finale? What did you think of the final book in the series? Click through to the full blog to access the comments section, and share your thoughts! No spoilers, though – you can post those on GoodReads!

YA review: Legendary cross-posted to GoodReads.

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YA Review: Legendary (Caraval #2)

Title: Legendary (Caraval #2)
Author: Stephanie Garber
Edition: Kindle
Rating: 4/5

YA Review: Legendary

Scarlett and Tella Dragna are back, and this time Tella has the chance to narrate. With the more daring sister steering the story, this book ramps up the danger and brings complications and plot twists for both sisters, their family, and their love interests.

The Empress has commanded Legend to run another Caraval in honour of her seventy-fifth birthday, so the company travels to the capital, Valenda, to prepare for the game. Scarlett and Tella, having escaped from their father, travel with them. Neither intends to participate in another Caraval, but Tella owes a debt to a stranger and Scarlett is revelling in her new freedom.

This Caraval promises to be more than a game. The Fates, powerful beings imprisoned for centuries, are fighting to return – a disaster that would threaten the Empire, and turn everyone into their playthings. The players are charged with finding the magical object that will destroy the fates and safeguard the future of the Empire. Tella and Scarlett are drawn into the game, only to discover that the solution is more personal than they imagined.

Legendary is a maze of a book, with truth and deception twisting around Scarlett and Tella as they follow their paths through their second Caraval. It’s a story of fear, pain, and surprises, and the lengths Tella, as the younger, bolder sister, will go to to protect her family. The relationship between the sisters remains key to the plot, but both sisters find themselves entangled in love triangles with potentially deadly consequences.

Once again, the final chapter opens up an entirely new facet of the story, and I had no choice but to keep reading …

Have you read Legendary? What did you think of Tella’s story? Click through to the full blog to access the comments section, and share your thoughts! No spoilers, though – you can post those on GoodReads!

YA review: Legendary cross-posted to GoodReads.

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YA Review: Caraval (Caraval #1)

Title: Caraval (Caraval #1)
Author: Stephanie Garber
Edition: Kindle
Rating: 4/5

YA Review: Caraval

The Caraval trilogy has been sitting on my Kindle for ages, and finally made it to the top of my eBook TBR. Why did I wait so long? The story is captivating, the characters interesting, and the setting is literally magical.

The first book of the series follows seventeen-year-old Scarlett Dragna, the older of two sisters, as she prepares for her wedding to a mystery suiter selected by her cruel father. Scarlett is the sensible sister, constantly trying to protect her younger sibling and making sacrifices to keep them both safe from their father’s obsessive controlling behaviour.

But Scarlett has a secret. Since she was eleven, she has been writing to the mysterious Legend, the magical master of Caraval – an annual immersive game where participants experience illusions and puzzles at the hands of Legend’s group of actors, and compete for valuable prizes. She knows that Donatella, her impulsive younger sister, has always wanted to experience Caraval, but Legend never responds to her letters.

Ten days before her wedding, everything changes. Legend writes back, inviting Scarlett, Tella, and Scarlett’s fiance to participate in an invitation-only Caraval on his private island. Tella is desperate to go and never come home, but Scarlett is determined to take her sister with her she gets married, and keep them both safe from their father. Her plan fails, and Scarlett finds herself heading for Caraval with Tella.

Separated from her sister, and accompanied by the sailor who brought them to the island, Scarlett must negotiate the games and illusions of Caraval. Desperate to find Tella, Scarlett has no choice but to engage with the game, and attempt to see past the magic to discover who she can trust, and who might be working for Legend. Along the way she finds love, loss and impossible choices, and experiences everything Caraval has to offer – wonderful, mysterious, and terrifying.

While the magic and mystery of Caraval is gorgeously described and entirely captivating, the heart of this book is its characters. Even with their contrasting personalities, Scarlett and Tella are entirely believable as sisters, used to protecting each other from an abusive father. Scarlett is sensible, careful, and afraid of letting Tella down. Tella is impulsive, confident, and always on the look-out for thrills and danger. Much of this story centres around Tella, but telling it from Scarlett’s point of view invites the reader to care about the younger sister, and fear for her safety as Scarlett does. It’s a clever twist, and it kept the pages turning as I needed to find out what would happen to both sisters at the end of the book.

The short epilogue kick-starts another stage of the story, and I couldn’t help reading on into Legendary, book two of the series.

Have you read Caraval? What did you think of Scarlett’s story? Click through to the full blog to access the comments section, and share your thoughts! No spoilers, though – you can post those on GoodReads!

YA review: Caraval cross-posted to GoodReads.

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YA Review: Mage Quest

Title: Mage Quest
Author: Julia Blake
Edition: Paperback
Rating: 5/5

YA Review: Mage Quest

The sequel to Erinsmore is here! Book Two of the Erinsmore Chronicles brings new characters, old friends, and three spirited dragons.

It’s been six years since Ruby returned from Erinsmore, leaving her sister Cassie behind. When she eventually finds a portal and takes the opportunity to slip between worlds, she inadvertently brings thirteen-year-old Finley with her. Twenty years have passed in Erinsmore. Everyone she left behind has aged without her, and she’s surprised to discover that she is aunt to a seventeen-year-old princess (and heir to the throne), and her twin brother.

The heir to Erinsmore’s throne is expected to find the mage who will be her lifelong companion and guide. Most heirs discover their mages early in life, but the princess has never felt the presence of hers. She will be using the traditional tour of the kingdom when she turns eighteen to search for her companion.

With their eighteenth birthday only days after Ruby’s arrival, the twins invite their aunt and her accidental companion to join them on their quest. The plan is to visit every major settlement, and for the princess to meet her future subjects. With the help of Lord Merric, Protector of the Royal Children, three awe-inspiring dragons, and a mysterious healer named Xem, the group sets out to tour the kingdom, and search for the heir’s mage.

But something is rotten in Erinsmore. Evil is rising, and strange and frightening creatures are terrorising the people. The quest becomes more dangerous, and the evil forces stronger, as the group travels north. Working together, can they track down and defeat the dark forces – and will the quest lead the princess to her mage?

This is a long-awaited and exciting return to the world of Erinsmore. While Ruby is older and wiser, and thrilled to see her sister again, thirteen-year-old Finley provides the sense of wonder as the newcomer to a place where magic and dragons are real. The reader rediscovers Erinsmore with Ruby, while seeing everything for the first time with Finley. It’s a great way to balance the wonder of the magical world with Ruby’s six-year exile and her wish to return.

When Ruby and Finley have found their feet and been welcomed into the castle, the story takes off (literally, on the backs of dragons), and the quest begins. Strange creatures, evil pirates, hidden mermaids and mysterious dark forces lie in wait for our characters, and they must work together to keep each other out of danger.

It’s a gripping story. The tension builds as the group draws closer to the dark power infecting Erinsmore, while the princess’s search for her mage brings unexpected leads and crushing dead ends. I was on the edge of my seat as the end of the book approached. I won’t spoil the story, but it grows more emotional and more exciting as the pages turn.

Julia Blake has written another fast-paced, engrossing novel that drags the reader in and begs to be read in one sitting. Dive in for a fantastic tour of Erinsmore, a mystery that builds as the story progresses, and just the right mix of romance, danger, friendship, and action.

You’ve waited long enough. It’s time to go back to Erinsmore.

The Mage Quest ebook will be published on May 16th, and the gorgeous illustrated paperback is available now. Thank you to the author for the ARC copy.

Have you read Erinsmore and Mage Quest? What did you think of the story? Click through to the full blog to access the comments section, and share your thoughts! No spoilers, though – you can post those on GoodReads!

YA review: Mage Quest cross-posted to GoodReads.

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YA Review: Fangirl

Title: Fangirl
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Edition: Paperback
Rating: 4/5

This is another YA novel I should have read ages ago! The setup for Fangirl is very clever. Cath is starting her first year of university. She’s shy, socially awkward, and she’d rather stay in her room and write fan fiction than go to parties. Her twin sister Wren embraces the social side of college, and the two find themselves drifting apart.

Here’s the clever part – when she’s not completing assignments, Cath is one of the most popular authors of fan fiction for the Simon Snow books – a fictional series about a boy attending a school for magicians. She ships the main characters, changes their relationships with each other and with their fellow students – and she has thousands of fans. She’s writing her own version of the eighth and final book in the series, and she needs to post all her chapters on the fan fiction website before the official final book is published. Personal disasters, family emergencies, and college deadlines have to take second place to her creative project – but not everyone appreciates her devotion to Simon and Baz. Fangirl, and the extracts from Cath’s fan fiction included on the book, proved so popular that Rainbow Rowell went on to write full versions of Cath’s fan novels – Carry On and Wayward Son. It was fun to read the novel that started the series, and produced addictive fan fiction for books that don’t exist.

Just as the fictional fan fiction plays games with the reader’s expectations, Fangirl takes its characters in some unexpected directions. A story that could have followed a straightforward ‘shy girl writes books, makes mistakes with boys’ plot instead explores friendships, exploitative relationships, unconventional families, addiction, mental illness, and a wonderful moment of revenge. Definitely not what I was expecting, Fangirl plays with YA tropes, fandom, and storytelling to produce an emotional story, and – accidentally – an entirely new fandom. Carry on, Simon and Baz!

Have you read Fangirl? What did you think of the story? And what about the fan fiction extracts? Click through to the full blog to access the comments section, and share your thoughts! No spoilers, though – you can post those on GoodReads!

Review cross-posted to GoodReads.

Please keep your comments YA appropriate. Be patient! We want to hear from you, but comments are moderated, and may take some time to appear.