First in a YA Fantasy/Sci-Fi Series

 Scythe by Neal Shusterman 

This was a very interesting concept, but such a slow start. Like, I kept taking breaks it was so slow. I know with fantasy (and this is a bit sci-fi as well, but the sentiment still applies) you have to let the world build; but it was a very slow build. Basically, in this world nobody dies permanently unless a Scythe (aka a Grim Reaper) gleans you. And accident, you are taken to a hospital and revived. Enter Honorable Scythe Faraday. He takes on two apprentices, Citra and Rowan, for different reasons. He ends up having dinner with Citra and her family and Citra is unhappy at best; she does not grovel, she does not dote, she is almost hostile thinking that he is prolonging the agony of who in her family he is there to kill. Turns out, he was there for her neighbor who was not home yet. Her revulsion and straightforward manner are necessary to being a good Scythe. Then there is Rowan. Faraday shows up at his school at the same time as Rowan and asks him for directions to the office. While Rowan is getting his tardy pass Faraday is having the office call down the student he is about to glean, the star quarterback. Rowan barges in and tries to intervene on his behalf, then he offers to stay with him, to give him some comfort. His compassion is necessary to being a good Scythe. Both Citra and Rowan accept the apprentice positions. They both fail the first test, trying to help the other. Then, we have Scythe Goddard; he prefers mass gleanings. He does not like Faraday and wants only one of the apprentices to succeed and proposes that the only one pass and then has to glean the other. Faraday ends up self-gleaning to release them from their apprenticeship, but Goddard offers to take on both so the challenge can continue. Enter Honorable Scythe Curie, the Grande Dame of Death. She takes Citra and Goddard gets Rowan. They are trained in two different styles and the contest continues. Then, Citra starts looking into Faraday's death. She gets accused of orchestrating it and is on trial, so she throws herself off a building to get away. Then she is on the run. She ends up, with Curie's help, at the house of a man named Gerald. It's Faraday. He faked his own death. He trains her for months while Curie clears her name. Meanwhile, Rowan is still with Goddard. It's right before the final trial. Goddard takes his junior Scythes and Rowan to a cult to do a mass gleaning. Rowan finds the nice one crying after having killed a bunch of kids, she then kills herself. Goddard told Rowan that he would be doing his first gleaning today. And Rowan does, just not in the way Goddard expects. Rowan kills Goddard and the other two junior scythes then sets the building on fire. Dresses up as Goddard to keep the fire department out. And makes sure everything burns so much that all of the bodies are unrecognizable. He just eliminated the leaders of the kill for the fun of it part of the scythedom. The final trial arrives. We only get to see Citra's trial. She has to glean her brother, Ben. There are multiple weapons on the table in front of her, she has to pull a slip of paper from a bowl and use the weapon she randomly selected. She picks knife. She talks her brother through it and gives him a quick, clean death before he is removed to be revived. The next day only one ring is present. Citra is selected. She punches Rowan in the face, getting his blood on her ring, granting him immunity, so she can't glean him. In the uproar she tells him to take some knives and that there's a car waiting for him. He flees, fighting his way out and Faraday is waiting for him. That's where the book ends. It was a slow start, but once the world was established it was very interesting. I will definitely be continuing with book two!  

Good Until the Ending

 Slow Burn Cowboy by Maisey Yates

This was great until the end, then it pissed me off. I can take a leave a friends to lovers; I don't love it but I don't hate it. We have Lane and Finn. Best friends. They both have issues and deep hurt. Then, Lane calls Finn for help with something stupid and Finn yells at her and kisses her. There's a lot of that. Yelling and kissing. Then kissing and yelling. And to change things up there is also kissing and running away. Then, they decide to try a friends with benefits arrangement. Lane opens up about her issues first. Then she expects Finn to do the same, except he doesn't. All of his half brothers are now living with him after their grandfather died and gave them all equal shares in the ranch and his oldest brother gives him a heart to heart talking to. Finn opens up to him a bit and has a revelation which leads him to apologizing to Lane and proposing in the middle of this apology. And that's what pissed me off. Like, you ended things with her and now you are immediately proposing. And she said yes. Does nobody have any self-respect in this town? This is the second book in this series where the apology tour has included a proposal, which was immediately accepted. Things were going so well until the apology proposal! I was really enjoying this book, like yes we are back on track after a crappy previous book, and then that ending happened.  

Final Book in an Egyptian Fantasy Duology

The Jasad Crown by Sara Hashem 

I was worried about how this book was going to compare to book 1; would it be as strong? Would it wrap everything up satisfactorily? How many characters that I care about would die? It definitely lived up to expectations. I was on the edge of my seat, constantly. And the audiobook narrators did a spectacular job. There were four separate narrators so I do not know who was who, but whoever read for Sylvia; I am ready to pledge to fight for Jasad. And whoever read for Arin; whoever you hate I will destroy. The book starts with Arin and Sylvia as enemies, but that doesn't last long. Whenever she is having a panic attack her magic is teleporting part of her to him. He is the only thing that can calm her down. And at first he thinks he's losing his mind; that she's a hallucination. But then he realizes she's real and he's angry. It doesn't last. Their banter. Their yearning. Merrick and Sayfa are separated. He's now with the army, something he never wanted. She's become the personal attendance to what's-her-name with the ring. Jarou ends up with Merrick and gives him a side quest and basically protects him because if anything happens to him Sylvia will be upset which will make Arin upset. What's-her-name reveals that she has known how Sayfa is all along and Sayfa ends up cutting the ring off of her finger and making a run for it. She and Merrick are reunited, then Sayfa is taken to the wells. Arin gives the order that Jarou is to help Merrick get her out. Vaughn is back with Arin, but that doesn't last. There is a battle and Sylvia takes the Jasad army to protect the village she has been living in for years and in order to protect everyone she kidnaps Arin, which forces his army to search for him. She planned on letting him go once they got far enough way, except the magic forest that moves captured them and trapped them. It also stripped her of her magic, so they finally got to be together. Arin finally puts a bunch of metaphorical puzzle pieces together and realizes that this father has been using the magic that Arin strips from the Jasad people and he stores it in his scepter. So Arin cuts off his fathers hand to remove the scepter, which is attached to him by a cuff. Then he allows himself to be captured by the Jasads and allies himself with Sylvia and her people. They want him to take an oath to them and the crown, but instead he swears to Sylvia herself; who you hate, I will destroy. I swoon. One of her advisors tells them they need to get it together because everyone can see how desperately in love with each other they are. Then he and Jarou leave and Arin forces a vote of no confidence in his father and he takes over as Supreme. Then, he joins the battle in support of Sylvia. During the fighting Merrick dies. Now every child in his family has died in the army. Sayfa is not ok. Sylvia realizes that magic madness is and isn't real; it's the god Rovial being reincarnated every 100 years and the child not being able to handle the magic and the memories. But Sylvia had the cuffs on for years, hiding her magic, so she is able to deal with it. She raises the wall and then destroys it and herself which sends her to the afterlife. Arin tries to run to her and it takes like a lot of his own men to stop him, which he throws off and only stops fighting when Sayfa gets in the way. In the afterlife she is both Sylvia and Rovial. They tell her that magic is dying and they can bring it back to the lands by stripping themselves of their magic. She says lets do that, fast, because she doesn't want to return and have all of the people that she loves be gone. Arin is a shell of himself. He rules and rules well, but that is all he does. Then, on the 10 year anniversary of Sylvia's sacrifice, he is at the bridge, in the mist, and she returns. That is where the book ends. This was so good. I am probably going to buy the physical copies of this book so I can return to them whenever I want, I enjoyed this series that much.   

First Book of 2026

 Ice Planet Barbarians by Ruby Dixon 

Was this well written? No. Did it have a good plot? Also no. Did I enjoy it? Immensely. This book was ridiculous and I thoroughly enjoyed every second of. I picked it up because of the hype it had been getting on BookTok and was a bit concerned, but that concern was unfounded. This is not good literature, but it is a good time. Georgia and a dozen other women get kidnapped by aliens. Ugly ones. But, the aliens were only supposed to kidnap 6 since they only had enough pods for 6, but since it went so smoothly they decided to take more. Then the spaceship malfunctions and they get abandoned on an ice planet. Before that, Georgia and some of the other women come up with a plan about how they are going to overpower their captors and try to get free. But, then they get abandoned with only one guard, that Georgia kills. She puts on his suit and goes out exploring the ice planet and encounters Vektal. He is a big blue alien with a tail, but unlike their captors he's neither mean nor ugly. He is also convinced that she is his mate. He protects and cares for her, in more ways than one. They aren't able to communicate very well, but she is able to convince him to return to her ship to save the other girls; this becomes easier once they see the frozen body of one of the girls. He realizes there may be more, which means more mates for his people. They return and luckily the bad aliens put a translator on one of the women so she and Vektal are able to communicate and it's agreed that Georgia will leave the furs and most of the provisions they brought and that she and Vektal will return to his tribe and he will bring help to rescue them and he will be able to do this because he is the chief of the tribe. The rescue goes well. On the way back to their home they hunt a beast that has a special worm that will allow the women to survive the harsh climate and potentially mate with the men. Oh, and Georgie is already pregnant with Vektal's baby so she definitely needs the worm. She goes first as the leader of the women and then they all follow suit. Georgie wants to contribute to the tribe and makes Vektal take her hunting, but that doesn't go well and they have a conversation about the other ways she could contribute. It was sweet. Knowing that this series is light and fluffy and so consumable is delightful. I will be reading the next book.