My first foray into the world of Rick Riordan

Yes, I’ve never read Percy Jackson. I don’t even own any of that series. But so many people talk about his works and I like him as a person on the internet, so when I saw that he had an Ancient Egypt series I knew I had to get it! As a child, I had 3 favourite periods in history: WWII, Ancient Rome, and Ancient Egypt.

I can see why you guys love Riordan now, these are definitely kids books but as a 22 y/o I was really enjoying myself and felt fully immersed within the world! I can only imagine how much I would’ve loved these when I was younger. I felt like I was learning so much as well, which I love in children’s books (and adult ones but it’s rarer).

I 100% will be carrying on with the rest of this trilogy and I’ll be looking out for more of Rick Riordan’s books in charity shops and discount stores in the future! I really love his writing style. After this, I also really want to look into his publishing endeavour: Rick Riordan Presents, to expose myself to mythology from different cultures than my own.

My first foray into the Legend trilogy

This was my first Marie Lu book, despite me owning six of her books before starting this one! So there was a lot of weight on this little books shoulders, and it is a small book, Goodreads says that it’s around 300 pages long but I could’ve sworn it was smaller!

I will be honest, the first 100 or so pages of this book weren’t going great. This happens for me with most books of this length or longer but this one, in particular, I was just… not that invested in the world. Thankfully, however, I ended up really enjoying it! This dystopian-esque world is so incredibly interesting to learn about and the development of the characters on either side of the battle.

There was so much depth to this book that I didn’t expect from only 300 pages, and there’s so much more to come from how this book was ended. I’m really looking forward to getting around the rest at some point in time that’s relatively soon, which makes it super annoying that the rest of the trilogy is at my parents’ place!! Hopefully, I can get them back soonish!

Have you read this book or the series? Should I bump the rest up on my tbr?

A Darker Shade of Magic

When my family asked what books I wanted for Christmas, I knew that this one had to be on the list. I’ve seen it so much around BookTube and Bookstagram and not only do most people seem to really enjoy it but the blurb sounds so interesting and I love the concept. I am so glad I went for it!

I gave this book 4/5*, but I can see myself giving the series as a whole 5/5* if this quality of writing is kept and if I love the following books just as much! The exploration of magic and humanity within this novel is in-depth and deeply developed, which makes the world feel that much more alive.

In case you weren’t already aware, the setting of this novel is that there are four different worlds overlapped with one another. Four different versions of London with minor differences such as river names, buildings locations, and the level of magic that is present there. There is grey (essentially our world), red, white and black. It used to be relatively easy for travel to occur between the different worlds, but then something happens within the black world that cannot be controlled, and so in an effort to prevent this from spreading to the other worlds and having four times the impact, black London is shut off and the three remaining London’s become more distant and much harder to travel between, with only certain limited individuals having the ability. As you’ve probably guessed, we follow one such individual and his experience coming from the red world but seeing the other two also. I won’t say any more to avoid spoiling this book for you, as Victoria Schwab has done so amazingly with this plot.

If you enjoy magical fantasy reads (Harry Potter lovers!) then this is definitely one to pick up. It isn’t a copy of any book I have read before (yes that includes HP) and the magical elements mixed in with a well-developed plot and interesting characters makes this such a must-read book!