Raging Star by Moira Young, a review (Dust Lands #3)

Raging Star by Moira Young is the third and final book in the Dust Lands trilogy, a YA dystopian series that first released back in 2011. And I’ve finally finished the trilogy! Took me long enough 🤣

Raging Star by Moira Young

Blood Red Road was a fantastic start to this trilogy, unfortunately this book? It was an abysmal ending to the trilogy. There was so much potential to this book, the plot that Young has created is fantastic but the execution was so poor that it all but nullifies the interest the plot generates.

The character development throughout the book was almost null, with a lot of the characters making nonsensical and quite frankly confusing decisions despite the events of the previous two books. No one seems to have learnt from the prior events at all and the same mistakes are repeated. Additionally, Young tries so hard to create a group dynamic that will engage the reader. Unfortunately this pretty much fails, with the group not getting on, even a little bit, and there being little to no chemistry present.

Honestly? If this hadn’t been the final book in a trilogy I would have DNF’d this book. It was a pretty big waste of my time, but I’m a completionist so I just needed to get it done! What a disappointment for the end of this series!

On CAWPILE I rated this: Characters: 5, Atmosphere: 4, Writing: 4, Plot: 6, Intrigue: 3, Logic: 2, and Enjoyment: 3 with an average of 3.86 and a 2.5* rating.

Highlight here for content warnings: graphic violence, birth, child taken, death.

I am so disappointed with this book, and so glad that the series is over. If you don’t have the completionist streak like I do then I highly recommend you don’t finish out the series! Save yourself the disappointment and read something else!

City of Glass by Cassandra Clare | A Review

I did it! I read the complete first trilogy of The Mortal Instruments! This definitely wasn’t on purpose, but I read City of Ashes and just knew that I wanted to continue on with the story (and seeing as I read City of Bones in 2018 I didn’t want to lose that motivation!). It is obvious that this was intended to be the end of the series, as everything is wrapped up in a nice little bow. However, if you didn’t know by now, my opinion of this series is that it’s trash YA (and that I’m trash along with it) so the nice little bow felt right! And don’t worry, this is a spoiler free review.

In this book we finally get to see things coming together. The character development across the previous two books has left these characters actually forming relationships with one another (not always friendships!) and the way in which this then impacts the storyline is really well done.

Having them finally visiting this city that they’ve mentioned so many times was a lot of fun and I enjoy the different ways that we get to learn about the city from the various perspectives and locations that people are in.

There was a BIG shock reveal in this book, but from the rampant spoilers on the internet I had already known about it! It just made me impatient to want to get to it! But it did make the pre-reveal sections read differently in my head than they would have been. I’m kinda fine with it having been spoilt.

There does seem to be a lack of development in the female characters compared to the males. I know so much more about the boys, and that’s saying something considering that our main character Clary is a girl. She still feels a little two dimensional (I would say one but she’s at least improved a little) compared to the four dimensional Jace or Simon. I did love Izzy in this book though, vastly more than previously.

Overall, this was a fun, if not particularly well written book. But I still do intend to carry on with these series’ and will be reading the first Infernal Devices book next!! (I’ve been told that’s a good order to go in). I do still hope that the quality of the writing, and the development of the female characters, improves, but the story itself is a lot of fun.

The Sin Eater’s Daughter by Melinda Salisbury | A Review

I picked this up in an Oxfam charity shop a few years ago, and for some reason it just took me forever to pick the damn book up! Eventually I did, of course, and it was a lot of fun. We follow 16 year old Twylla, who lives in the Royal castle. She has been taken in by the Queen as the bride to the prince because she is the embodiment of their Goddess and holds the power in her skin to kill anyone who touches her. Her life, whilst luxurious, is lonely as the entire court avoids her out of fear. That all changes, however, when a new guard is appointed with a playful smile and an apparent lack of fear for her deadliness.

I absolutely sped through this book, reading it all in one day, and I really enjoyed how the plot progressed. The title is explained as her mother is from the line of Sin Eaters and Twylla should have taken over this role when her mother passed. She never wanted it, never wanted the responsibility of it, so being taken by the Queen was a relief at first.

This is not an action book. Reading the synopsis of a girl who can kill with her touch you might think of a bad-ass who goes around killing people, instead we get a gentle girl who embroiders, prays to her gods, and wishes that she was “normal”. If you go into it expecting action you will likely be disappointed, but this is still an enjoyable book nonetheless.

Twylla is most definitely not a heroine. She’s more realistic than that. Most of us like to read about strong bad-ass characters and pretend to be them (me included), but Twylla is more like the realistic portrayal, especially for her age. She takes forever to realise that she is being manipulated, screws up again and again and takes solace as quickly as she can in whatever meagre comforts are thrown her way.

Why, you might ask, would I read this then? Well the plotline is facinating. I adored learning about the evil Queen and the way in which she runs her court and the various plans she concocts, as well as learning a little bit about the lore of this world. There is a forced love triangle in this book, but it does take an interesting turn one wouldn’t expect from a cookie-cutter YA fantasy and I love how it was left at the end of the book. I expect that that’ll be ruined by the rest of the series but it was something different to have at all and I enjoyed that.

Overall, this is quite the marmite of a book, and just like marmite I neither love it or hate it. It’s just fine. It’s a fun little read with court intrigue and a fluffy romance with some twists at the end, go in expecting that and I doubt you’ll be disappointed.

 

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?

Hero at the Fall by Alwyn Hamilton

I can’t believe it’s done! I finished the series and I need to read more from Alwyn Hamilton already. (Check out my review of book one here)I ADORED the writing and the characters and the world building and just everything about this series. I had to read all three of these books slowly and take my time because I just wanted to be fully engrossed within the world.

There were some amazing moments within this book, which I won’t go into specifics about to avoid spoiling you if you’re yet to read it, however, they’re awesome and well written and fit the plot so beautifully! It reminds me of the Godkissed Continent series by A.B. Endacott (review of the first book here) which is also a gorgeous fantasy world.

The relationships developed within this story, both romantic and not, are done with so much depth and investment. I really felt as though I knew each relationship intimately and therefore felt what the characters felt deep within me. I cried quite a bit at the end of this book, bittersweetly.

One of my favourite ever trilogies, five stars to all three books obviously, and I look forward to reading literally everything Alwyn Hamilton writes that I can get my hands on!

Shattered by Teri Tery

This series can’t be over? Surely?

…

Nope! Teri Terry has a prequel within this world and OMG I need to read it!!!!! But this is about the third book in the Slated trilogy, so let’s get down to business. First obvious thing first, I adored this book, 5/5*, it was amazing.

We not only get the wrapping up of so many loose ends, but at the beginning of the book new ends are created, and some are created by splitting apart threads we had thought were all twisted and wrapped up.

There were so many heartbreaking moments, those which will shock you and those which make you feel warm and fuzzy. There is romance present in this book, and surprisingly for me I absolutely loved it! It took a backseat to the main plot, but was also very much present throughout the book (which I find to represent real life and is my preferred romance representation and gives me the most heart fluttering feels), as well as being slowly developed over time rather than rushed into.

This is definitely a series you should start if you haven’t already (check out my review for book one here and give it a go!) and if you’ve not gotten around to finishing up the series then I hope this pushes you towards it as I massively enjoyed it and am so excited to read more from Teri Terry in the future! I definitely need to get more of her books!!!