rowena_m_andrews's reviews
538 reviews

I really enjoyed 'A Smuggler's Path' from both a worldbuilding and character driven point of view. The world was fascinating, and I loved how inbuilt magic was in everything and the conflict that caused, and I was left wanting to know more. For the characters there were a few places where I feel development was a little lacking, but I absolutely adored the main protagonist Inez - she was strong, and independent, and yet we experienced her struggles, the choices she was torn between. Would highly recommend this book.

“I counted fifteen dead men working the deck of the Kingston. Well, they weren’t dead yet, but the day was young, and I had a full belt of shot.”

What a fantastic way to start a book. As soon as I read this, I knew that I was going to love this book and I was right, having stayed up till the wee hours to read it. It was fast-paced for the most part and drew you along with a wonderful sense of adventure, banter and high stakes. A rip-roaring Pirate adventure, with a dash of romance and a high level of historical realism, that had more than a few twists in the tale. I was kept on my toes the whole way through and found myself holding my breath at points due to the weight of what was at stake. I honestly can’t recommend this book highly enough.

     I was searching for something a little different when I found ‘The Hollow Gods’, and I certainly got what I was looking for. I fell in love with the cover at first sight, and the title intrigued me as did the summary. I have a soft spot for folklore at the best of time, and this seemed like an interesting twist on that idea, and it was. It took me a few chapters to get into the book, but once I did, I was hooked. While folklore and the role it plays within a community is central to the story, it weaves through several genres, and I would find it hard to classify it under a singular genre, which I think is a massive part of its appeal.

    The story itself is split between three very different narrators, all following their own paths through the story, and it felt very much to me that I was with them on those paths, discovering new secrets and answers, alongside them. The. Each character was well developed in their own right, as well as through their connections with one another, and there were aspects of what they were struggling with or searching for that you can’t fail to identify with. The relationships between them, the folklore and the rest of the town were intricate, and there was an ambiguity to it all. That, rather than leaving you lost or drifting away from the story, kept you hooked and chasing the answers.

   There were a couple of places where the language choices jolted me out of the flow, but it only happened a couple of times and was more a personal tic than anything, and for the most part, I found the language beautifully reflective of the story. It felt like a folktale, in terms of language but also in the storytelling method, but one that the reader is experiencing for themselves.

    My favourite part of the book is how it explores folklore and how it is experienced – as a story, a dream, a part of history – and how stories can become something far more if people believe in them strongly enough. ‘Stories aren’t told to convey the facts. They’re told the convey the truth’ – is something very real, and very present in our lives, and here it is explored and addressed in a way that is not only relevant, but which is accessible, and I loved it.

   I would highly recommend this book for anyone with interest in folklore, magical realism, and a dark touch of horror. An absolutely stunning debut from this author. I have pre-ordered my own copy of the book, and I am very much looking forward to the second book in ‘The Chaos Cycle’.

I leapt at the chance of an ARC from NetGalley for ‘The Book of Koli’ after reading the blurb, and I wasn’t disappointed. In fact, it was above anything I had expected, perhaps from being unfamiliar with the author’s other works which I will be checking out while waiting for the next books in this trilogy.

It did take me a little while to adjust to the narrative style. The narrator, Koli, is almost illiterate, and this is cleverly reflected in the speech patterns, grammar and syntax of the narrative itself. Which is different from anything I had read before and took a while to adapt to. Still, once I did, I found that it was a wonderful, integral part of the book and Koli.

I loved Koli as the main character, and while his age and therefore outlook/interpretation of the world gave the earlier part of the book a more YA feel, it was in keeping with the character and did not detract in any way from the impact, of a thought-provoking narrative. Beyond Koli, the cast of characters is large and colourful, and as interesting as Koli in their own way.

The world-building was fantastic. To be honest, I was sold at carnivorous trees, but this look at how the human population is prey in a world that they have helped to ruin is both hard-hitting, relevant and endlessly fascinating. I enjoyed the look at life reverting to more primitive methods – with what little technology remained and was still functional, almost considered as ‘treasures’ that were not fully understood. Later in the book, where more technology is found, it is interesting to see the reverse, and how technology can affect an individual raised in such a world.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed ‘The Book of Koli’. Although I did find the earlier half of the book a little too slow in terms of pacing, but it was made up for by the world and the characterisation. It was an entertaining read even in the slower parts, and it was a fantastic, fresh approach to a post-apocalyptic world. I would highly recommend and will eagerly be waiting for the next two books.

I received an advanced reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley

This was a fun read, and I very much enjoyed the premise although I wasn't completely sold on the execution. There were a few pacing issues throughout the book, it took a little while to get going and there were a few places were the inclusion of history slowed the pace a little too much. However, I think that the target audience would enjoy it.

I read 'A Noble's Path' immediately after finishing book 1 in the series, 'A Smuggler's Path' because I wanted to stay in this world as long as possible. Probably, my favourite part of both books in the Enchanted Isles series is the worldbuilding. It is a fantastically written world, with breadth and depth, and where magic doesn't solve every problem - in fact, you could argue that it causes as many issues as it solves, and that makes for a more interesting world and story. That magic (and the restrictions and debates around it) are woven into every aspect of the story. Including the history, the politics and relationships of the characters – give it a degree of realism and consequence, without detracting from the sometimes-whimsical nature of the magic, reflecting the almost fairy tale approach within the book.

I was delighted that this book continued following the main character Inez, because she was, without a doubt, my favourite character. A strong female lead (and Latina), who wasn’t infallible, and whose flaws and struggles made her all the more real and relatable. You want her to succeed because she is very human for all that she has her magic. She has hopes and dreams and fears, she wants and needs things for herself and from others around her, and that means that despite the fantastical setting you can’t help but emphasize with her, especially if you question how you would react in a similar situation. In this book, we see her develop even more both individually through the situations she finds herself in, and by virtue of her magic. But also, in terms of her relationships with the other characters.

Through following Inez, we, as the reader, discover the plot and the world at the same time as she does. We’re deep within her mind, experiencing her views and reactions as they happen, and again this helps to draw you both into her character arc, but the story as a whole. This focus on Inez does mean that not as much attention is giving to the fascinating cast around her. We have enough to understand them and their relationships with Inez as well as their goals, but there was not perhaps as much development of all the characters as you might want – I would love to know more about nearly every character that we met. However, this is in keeping with following a single, main character, and so it works for this story and does not detract in any way from the story.

As well as the fascinating worldbuilding, and Inez, I love the use of language in this book. In places, it could pull you away from the flow of the story, but the beautiful descriptions and the detail painted such a vivid mental picture of the world that this is not really a complaint. And again, it built on that feeling of being with a fairy tale and swept you along.

I thoroughly enjoyed Stephen Fry's take on these stories, and it made for an enjoyable, engaging read and I fully intend to read Mythos this year.ey

Firstly, on a purely aesthetic note, I absolutely adore the cover, and I feel as though I would have looked at it in any bookshop, let alone when it was right in front of me at a con. It has a simplicity while being incredibly eye-catching (and I would say much the same for ‘Into the Crooked Place’s cover).

It is a darker YA fantasy, although there was plenty of humour to offset that. And it provides an interesting take of Sirens and Merpeople and their relationship with each other and humans (I adored the encounter with the mermaids in Pirates of the Caribbean, so I was always going to enjoy this), with an added dash of Pirates. However, even here, this book took an interesting approach because these weren’t Pirates focused on treasure and raiding, but on hunting sirens – and the crew was a family. It would have been nice to get to see more interactions with the broader crew, but the members that we did get to see were bound by more than just their goal – and I wound up rooting for all of them so that even when I disagreed with them or thought they were being a bit obstinate at points, I didn’t stop caring.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone with a love for sirens/ocean mythology, and who are wanting to venture into YA and want a story with characters that exist beyond the romance.

Full review: https://beneathathousandskies.com/2020/02/19/review-to-kill-a-kingdom-alexandra-christo/

Historical fiction intrigues me because it is a way to access different periods of history that are not always accessible or are restricted to what is taught in schools etc. As with most people, I studied WWI throughout my school years from a variety of viewpoints, and yet not one of those classes covered the fascinating part of history that is presented in ‘Nobody’s Heroes’, nor looked as deeply at the issues of race during this time. Not only does this book shed light on a – to me at least- unknown aspect of something that is ‘well known’, it does so in a way that makes no concessions, and demonstrates a high level of respect and research for the history. It broaches difficult questions, and topics openly and without sugar-coating, and that is what gives it such impact.

I enjoyed the way the narrative switched between the past and the present. Not least because you could see how the character had developed and changed, and the motivations for those past actions – and why he was trying to change. It also helped to place Ayer’s in the broader context of the world, and the war, without being too overbearing, and the switches were clearly defined so that you never lose sight of where you are.

For me personally, what I liked most about ‘Nobody’s Heroes’ beyond the window it gave on a part of history that I was unfortunately unaware of, is the way it presents war – focusing more on its impact, than fast-paced battles – and also how it looks at heroes. As someone who primarily reads fantasy, heroes are something that I have read presented in various ways, and yet even in grimdark where the ‘heroes’ are morally grey, or not even really heroes at all, there remains an underlying concept of heroes and what is expected of them. In this book that is taken and broken into tiny pieces,

‘War was not made of heroes. Yes, it made heroes, but only because soldiers did their duty. Courage had become just that, duty. Duty under fire. And to acknowledge the simplicity of it all depressed me. Wasn’t this all to be for some greater purpose. Weren’t we all here to become heroes?’

It is a book about people, about heroism – that is not the heroism of grand stories and fantasy – but that of duty and situation and is all the more powerful about it. It is about heroism that is not universal and doesn’t reach all areas or change the lives of those who wear that badge or even those they thought for. Ayers’ actions, and that of the people around him, do not solve the issues back home in Harlem, with racist policies and attitudes continuing long after this period of ‘heroism’.