The Winner's Curse

Kestrel, tempted in a slaving market by a Herrani man who can sing, enters a bidding war and though she wins, her prize is a Trojan horse. 

Kestrel is the daughter of general Trajan, a member of the Valorian conquerors who serves the emperor. They live on the Herran peninsula which was overtaken by the emperor’s kingdom and its citizens enslaved. Kestrel does not want to be a warrior, though her father keeps trying to recruit her. Eventually she’ll have to choose either marriage or the military. She’s a poor fighter, but an excellent strategist has a special talent for detecting when people lie. She's an even better pianist. Musical talents were prized by the Herran culture prior to their enslavement, and this particular proclivity of hers is not valued among her own people. She’s the daughter of the general, though, so while people may gossip, she continues to do what she wants. Even though she does not agree with the enslavement of the Herrani, she winds up at a slavers market while out with her friend, and while waiting for the auction to end so she can leave, a Herrani slave is brought forward who intrigues her. Though he’s a slave, he shows defiance and strength in captivity. This resonates with her, as she feels trapped by her own destiny. And then the slaver states that he can sing. Without a thought for what she’s doing—she’d never purchase a person and contribute to the problem—she bids on him. After winning the bidding war she unintentionally created, he’s hers. But he’s not what she expected.

Smith isn’t his real name. It indicates that he’s been trained as a blacksmith. Despite what his slaver says, he won’t sing. Not for them. Maybe never again. So he’ll work as a blacksmith and bide his time. Kestrel may be an expert at detecting lies, but he’s excellent at deception and she won’t find out what secrets he’s hiding.

This book is like playing chess, or Fire Emblem — all about moves and countermoves, a game of strategy in society. Kestrel is loyal to her people. Though she doesn’t agree with enslavement, she can’t help that she was born into a more privileged position. She still loves her father and wants to make him proud, though he’s still a part of the problem. She can’t help that she’s drawn to Smith. There can’t be a future for them. He’s her slave and she’s his enemy. And he seems to hate her. Smith can’t allow himself to sympathize with Kestrel. It’d be a betrayal to his people. But he can’t deny to himself that she’s not quite the same as the people who ruined his life. They can’t completely trust each other, and people on both sides look at them with wariness and distrust believing that they’re more to each other than what they claim. They’re players on opposing teams, both excellent at strategy and playing to win. Smith’s cause is more sympathetic, but Kestrel’s attempts to protect her own people despite their past actions is something that you can identify with.

This is only the first novel, so the story ends unresolved but at a clear transition. Both characters have leveled up, and are no longer the pawns that they began as. It sets up an interesting situation for the sequel. The pacing can be a bit frustrating, as it takes awhile for the big game changers, but it never got boring and kept me hooked till the end. And it convinced me to hang on to the journey and continue on to the sequel. Overall, I’d recommend!

The Queen's Rising

The Queen’s Rising was a surprising story of empowerment and self-discovery. Our heroine, Brienna, finds herself where we’ve all been—trying to find what she should do with her life, having no yellow brick road to guide her while everyone around her has clear paths and obvious talents. She grew up as an orphan, sent by her grandfather to live in hiding from her father. She doesn’t even know her father’s name, only that he’s dangerous and from Maevana, a neighboring kingdom now ruled by a ruthless dictator but which was once ruled by magical warrior queens until a traitor usurped their power. After living in Magnalia (a boarding school) for seven years, Brienna is about to become impassioned (essentially, graduate) and become a mistress of knowledge (like a graduate with a degree in history/education/medicine). There are five passions (majors)—art, music, dramatics, wit, and knowledge. She tried and failed at four before landing in knowledge, and while she has managed to catch up in her education and succeed at it, she still feels like she just doesn’t measure up to the other students who have clear devotion for their studies. She sees how the people around her are so sure of their roles in life, and she’s still trying to find hers. When her peers get job offers and forge ahead with their lives, she’s left behind without a patron (employer) to take a chance on her. When she starts getting memories of her ancestor who led to the downfall of Maevana, she snatches the opportunity to right his wrongs by forging a new identity and helping to reinstate the rightful queen using her ancestor’s memories. Though that means leaving a budding romance unexplored, she needs to find her purpose, and there is finally a sense of destiny pushing her forward. As she grows to learn more about herself, she gains a family and a purpose, and by the end transitions beautifully from our protagonist to our heroine. While there is also a satisfying romantic storyline, this book is ultimately about Brienna forging her path and figuring out where she fits into the world. If you’ve watched people around you confidently step off into their futures while you linger behind waiting to find out which direction is yours, then this story will resonate with you.

What follows is a wee bit spoilery.

The only nitpicky thing I have with this story is that there are parts of her parents history that goes unexplored, and then we never find our what happens with her biological brother and his house or where Brienna’s relationship stands with him in the end. I’m not sure if that’s because there will be a sequel where those will be addressed, but the story can otherwise act as a standalone novel. My unanswered question regarding her origins is that we’re led to believe originally that her father is a terrible human, and while that is mostly true, we later find that they loved each other and her mother even named Brienna after him. So then why not go to be with him and raise Brienna together? Her mother didn’t die until she was two years old, so she must’ve made the decision to stay away from him, but then why the love letters to him? Granted, this is essentially irrelevant as it’s history and she has a new family in the end, but it’s the puzzle of it that bugs me.

However, the story ultimately delivers where it counts, giving us great character development that you can identify with and a satisfying payoff.

Pestilence: The Four Horsemen – Book 1

Sara drew the short straw, and now must kill one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. No, she’s not suicidal, though this task will likely get her killed. As her hometown of Whistler is evacuating, Sara must stay behind and kill Pestilence, the horseman of the apocalypse who is spreading plague through everywhere he rides. She’s not a killer. She’s a firefighter with a love of literature. But Pestilence is the one killing off the world, so someone must take him out, and Sara is the unlucky nominee. When her attempt fails because––surprise surprise––Pestilence can’t die, he takes Sara as his prisoner. He wants her to suffer. Turns out setting a guy on fire and leaving him to die will bring out his need for vengeance. Since only the living can suffer, he must keep her alive just so he can give her pain in return. As they travel, Pestilence is true to his word and makes her suffer—both intentionally, like dragging her behind his horse, and through his own ignorance by not understanding what humans need to survive. He’s not trying to kill her, but he doesn’t realize how fragile humans are either. Pestilence doesn’t see anything redeeming in humanity, and so doesn’t have any regret for causing their extinction. They deserve what they’re getting. But with every home they barge into, as those that live in the houses succumb to the plague, Sara shows Pestilence what compassion is as she takes care of the people as they die. Sara is the first to show Pestilence how good humans can be, but she’s still just one example. The longer they journey together, the closer they become. Sara tries to fight her feelings for him. He’s a mass murderer after all, as well as her tormentor. But she can see that he doesn’t enjoy seeing people suffer. He’s just playing his part. Maybe he doesn’t have a choice in his role. Since she can’t help how she feels about him, maybe she can change his mind. If he can’t be killed, maybe he can be convinced. Pestilence comes to care for Sara as well, and transitions from her tormentor to her protector. Ironically, coming to care for a human makes Pestilence hate humanity even more, as the human he’s trying to protect is in constant danger from those who want to hurt him. The more attempts made on Sara’s life, the greater his rage, and now there’s just one more sin they need to die for. She is ready to sacrifice herself to save the rest of humanity and he wants to kill everyone but her. These two are clearly at an impasse.

Can these two lovebirds overcome irreconcilable differences? Reaching the answer is an entertaining journey that will keep you hooked until the end. Their relationship is the focus of the story, with an apocalyptic setting that doesn’t overtake the character development. It’s fast-paced with high stakes—can’t get higher with the extinction of humanity on the line––and yet it’s still a guilty pleasure as the story somehow makes you fall for the harbinger of death. Pestilence begins as a cruel god-like character. Prior to the apocalypse he existed solely as the concept of illness, so he had never felt emotions. But in this new form, capable of interacting with others and going through his own human-like experience for the first time, there’s a vulnerability that keeps you from seeing him as a total villain. Sara reflects the best of humanity from the get-go––strength in attempting to kill Pestilence, and compassion through her own disgust at what she does to kill him––and acts as the perfect advocate for the rest of us. This story had a steady pace, and kept me on the line until its conclusion––never boring or slow. The book does lead into the sequel, but it doesn’t leave you dissatisfied the way a cliffhanger normally would. If you want to just read the first book, and don’t care about the larger story being told, then I think you could be satisfied with just reading this one. At the end, you feel that the story could wrap up (mostly) for Sara and Pestilence or it could continue with them in the next book. Personally, not that I don’t love the characters that she’s created, but I’d be curious to see the story continue on without them as the focus. It’s an interesting world she’s created, and I’d like to see it grow to include more characters. Overall, I recommend!

Beasts of Abigaile – Volume 1

My addiction!

Nina is our heroine of this shojo manga. She goes to visit her uncle in the wealthy Ruberia from her home in Japan. But she is somehow transformed into a luga, the secret race of wolfpeople who are slaves for Ruberia. Nina is taken to live on the island where luga are kept until they are old enough (or subdued enough) to join the rest of the luga as slaves. Upon arriving on the island, which functions as both a prison and a school, she sees how the luga are mistreated, and uses her karate skills to assault a guard who tries to hit a pup. Accustomed to her freedom as a human, she can’t tolerate the injustice of Ruberia’s treatment of luga and takes on a role as advocate for the underdogs (pun!). She gains an ally in Gilles, the mysterious prince-like character who recognizes her smell as human and provides her a special perfume to hide her scent. And an enemy in Roy. The rebellious and dangerous alpha who also knows her true identity, and has marked her (don’t yet know what that means, but as his prey maybe?). Roy hasn’t given away her secret, but he has so much resentment towards the humans that he’s not willing to believe she’s any different. They are both possible love interests for Nina. Personally, Roy is my favorite!

This manga is a must-read! There are only three volumes out so far. I wish I’d found this later so I’d have more to devour! I think people who like this will also like The Water God’s Bride. Similar heroines, both thrown into new worlds, with two possible love interests and beautiful illustration.

Wraith

This book has a lot going for it. It's easy to dive into. It captured and held my attention from the first chapter. The concept is intriguing. The protagonist, Saiya, is a wraith -- a person who can separate her body from her shadow, and transfer her consciousness to her shadow, giving her faster and stealthier mobility. While others of her kind are feared because they're usually assassins, she uses her abilities as a spy, trading information for necessities like food and medical supplies in a tyrannical society ruled by goblins. Her love interest is a dark elf named Gabriel. He is an envoy sent to check on the living conditions of the citizens. He is extremely powerful, but he is not there to overthrow the goblins. Subvert them, maybe, but his hands are mostly tied by political nonsense. Oh, and he is racist against wraiths, which throws a kink in their match. Saiya and Gabriel are at odds throughout the novel. He doesn't know she's a wraith (self-preservation and all), and she doesn't really understand what it means to be his Fior Ghal (machinations for insta-love). Gabriel is instantly infatuated with Saiya, but he knows she is keeping secrets, and Saiya is resistant to his attentions for much of the story.

There were only a couple parts that didn't sit well with me. The first was how quickly Saiya came around when she finally understood what it was to be his Fior Ghal. Once she understood, it was instant acceptance. That might be my own personal issue though. I'm not a huge fan of destiny and instant forever-afters. But some people are. The second issue I had was Gabriel's reaction to her being a wraith. Gabriel has some deep "prejudice" against wraiths, and after all that they had been through together, I was surprised at his reaction. He knew she was keeping secrets. And when he finally learns the truth, I'm left feeling disappointed that she truly could not have trusted him with truth in the first place. It almost seems like he really may have killed her first and asked questions later if she told him in the beginning. And after all her defiance throughout the book, I would've expected more attitude to his reaction. Of course he does come around later. It would've been a crappy ending otherwise. And kudos for him sticking up for her when it counts later on. But seriously, everyone is fricken' racist, and she's just like, "Oh, it's ok, it's what I expect, thank you for being GRACIOUS enough to finally come around!" She's such a strong character. It just frustrated me when that strength didn't extend to appreciation of her race. She doesn't have self-hate, but she was way too accepting of her race-hate.

Overall, I would still recommend this book! My issues were easy to get past overall because they weren't drawn out through the whole book.

Beasts of Abigaile – Volume 3

This manga is too adorable! If you’ve read the prior two in the series, you probably already know if you’re into it or not. If you liked the first two, then you’ll like this one too.

I love the art style of this series. It’s too cute! And the content is light and fluffy. You know, aside from the imprisonment and abuse of the luga race. But Nina is an easy protagonist to root for. Typical sweet champion-of-the-underdog character. Roy is a great love interest too. Broody and rebellious, but secretly good. It seems like the main function of the accessory characters so far is to help show Nina’s good nature, but I look forward to seeing their development in the future. Though I still appreciate that the focus is on Nina and Roy. It is a shoujo manga after all!

The story is continuing to evolve, though slowly, but that’s typical of manga like this. We still have the mystery of the school’s management. All we know is that it is run by humans to groom luga to be the future workforce, but we don’t know who is really behind it. We still have no idea why our protagonist transformed into a luga in the first place. But we have some further development on what the student council is, and one human in charge is revealed by the end of the book.

An interesting continuation, though the cliffhanger is a tad frustrating. You’ll see!

To Kill a Kingdom

This book reminded me of a darker Little Mermaid! I was so hooked that I got through this one in an afternoon. Good if you like fairy tales with a twist and protagonists that aren’t as black-and-white!

Lira is a siren princess with an evil mother, who has shaped Lira into a cold killer. Lira is the Prince’s Bane, because every year on her birthday, she kills a prince and takes his heart. Lira’s mother, the Sea Queen, is power hungry and rules by suppressing her subjects through fear, and maintains the rule that a siren must take the heart of a sailor every year. While the Sea Queen is supposed to retire soon and pass down the mantle, she doesn’t want to give up the throne and tries to prevent Lira from being seen as a legitimate successor. To punish Lira, she turns her to a human and orders her to take the heart of the prince Elian as a human.

Elian is a pirate prince. Prince by birth, pirate by choice. He resents the crown he’s supposed to inherit, and would rather spend his time with his crew on the ocean. His chosen calling is finding and killing sirens, and he especially wants to find the Prince’s Bane. He doesn’t trust anyone outside of his crew, including the wet, naked female he finds drowning in the middle of the ocean — Lira. Ultimately, he wants to destroy the Sea Queen, as well as the Prince’s Bane, and then kill all the sirens so they no longer pose a threat. He’s willing to die for his goals, and has a plan to find the tool he needs to kill them all — a stone that will give him the power to kill all sirens. When Lira claims to know about the ritual he needs to unlock what he seeks, he’s forced to bring her along on his journey. She wants to use the stone for her own purposes, and sees Elian as a means to an end that will restore her place as the future queen of the sirens. And she’ll take his heart anyway afterwards, to make her mother proud.

Lira’s transformation throughout the book is perfect. She strives to make her mother proud, which is an impossible goal. The ruthlessness in Lira is a product of her mother’s messed-up parenting, and while Lira continually looks for ways to kill the prince, she ends up getting the space she needs from her mother to figure out what kind of leader she wants to be. She sees the example Elian sets, and how his people love him. Granted, this is after A LOT of defiance and the brainwashing takes time to drain out of her system, but it also feels more natural that way. Elian and Lira antagonize each other for most of the book. But they have common ground, and really are almost identical in their personalities and values.

While they joke throughout the book that Elian isn’t your typical chivalrous prince, he still has many prince-like qualities. No, he’s not a docile lamb. He’s much more entertaining. He’s cocky, witty, and not interested in saving damsels. But he’s also willing to die for his cause, and has earned the loyalty of his crew, who follows him with even more devotion than his citizens have for the king because their devotion isn’t blind and required. Lira and Elian’s relationship builds slowly and realistically, and they’ve got great banter. There’s no insta-love, which I’m grateful for. And the ending is a happy one for both characters!