Category: Serena’s Reviews

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “Upon a Frosted Star” by M.A. Kuzniar

Publishing Info: HQ, November 2024

Where Did I Get this Book: from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: When the snow falls, she will be free…

The invitations always arrive the same way – without warning, appearing around the city on the first snowfall of the year, simply inscribed with ‘Tonight.’

When struggling artist, Forster, finds an invitation, he’s bewitched by the magic of the evening, swept up in the glamour of this notorious annual party and intrigued as to who is behind them.

Determined to find out more about the mysterious host, Forster discovers an abandoned manor house silent with secrets and a cursed woman who is desparate to be free…

Review: First of all, thanks to Sophia for reaching out about coverage for this book! Somehow, I had totally missed this title, and it’s one of those books where the cover alone promised that it would be the sort of fantasy novel that I should be checking out! There are big time “Seven Swans”/”Swan Lake” vibes happening here, and both of those are two of my favorite fairytales to start with!

While this one didn’t quite hit all of the highs I had hoped for, there were a couple of strengths I wanted to highlight first. The overall feel of this book was very fairytale-like and romantic, you could almost feel the wintery themes jumping off the page! While it’s still fall here in MN, I can see how this would be a perfect read to cozy up with in the midst of winter.

Another strong point was was the rather simple decision to frame the story from the MMC’s perspective. Honestly, I tend to gravitate towards and prefer stories that follow female main characters, but that also makes it all the more refreshing to read a fantasy story like this that follows the male character instead. For his part, Forster was an intriguing character to follow, and I enjoyed viewing this world through his lens. That said, once he becomes enthralled by Detta, many of his inner monologues became a bit repetitive, all too prone to cycle through pining and complaints about the unfair nature of the situation. Some of this is to be expected, but after a while it also started bogging down the tone and pacing of the story.

The pacing itself was also a bit of a struggle. I enjoyed the set-up of the world, meeting the characters, and the first foray to one of these mysterious parties. But as the plot progressed, many of these things began to feel as if they were spinning their wheels. It all began to feel too repetitive, with some of the chapters between these events feeling like filler. By the end, I was left wondering why so much time was spent on side characters (like Forster’s friends) who really played no major role in story or why, if we’re going to get chapter perspectives from Detta, they were introduced so late in the story.

Overall, I think this book is strong in the wintery vibes of its worlds and in the quality of writing, particularly with regards to the dialogue, which I thought was very well done. However, the actual plotting and some of the characterization felt a bit more wobbly. If you’re a fan of this author’s other book, this one is probably worth checking out. And if you’re looking for a nice wintery story, this might also hit the spot!

Rating 7: The strengths lie in the seasonal tone of the story and the strength of some of the writing, however the pacing and plotting are a bit more hit-and-miss.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Upon a Frosted Star” isn’t on any Goodreads lists, but it should be on Fairytale Like Books.

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door” by H. G. Parry

Publishing Info: Redhook, October 2024

Where Did I Get this Book: Netgalley!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: Camford, 1920. Gilded and glittering, England’s secret magical academy is no place for Clover, a commoner with neither connections nor magical blood. She tells herself she has fought her way there only to find a cure for her brother Matthew, one of the few survivors of a faerie attack on the battlefields of WWI which left the doors to faerie country sealed, the study of its magic banned, and its victims cursed.

But when Clover catches the eye of golden boy Alden Lennox-Fontaine and his friends, doors that were previously closed to her are flung wide open, and she soon finds herself enmeshed in the seductive world of the country’s magical aristocrats. The summer she spends in Alden’s orbit leaves a fateful mark: months of joyous friendship and mutual study come crashing down when experiments go awry, and old secrets are unearthed.

Years later, when the faerie seals break, Clover knows it’s because of what they did. And she knows that she must seek the help of people she once called friends—and now doesn’t quite know what to call—if there’s any hope of saving the world as they know it.

Review: I really loved “The Magician’s Daughter” when I read it a few years ago! Best of all, it took me by surprise, packing a deeper punch into what I had taken as a rather superficial cozy read at first glance. That being the case, I went into this next book by H. G. Parry with fairly high expectations! And while I will say that I think I preferred “Magician’s Daughter” on the whole, this was still an excellent read on its on right.

This is really a book of two halves. The first one starts off as a fairly straight-forward, HP-like dark academia story, following our main character, Clover, as she first comes to her new school, meets a group of friends, and begins uncovering the mysteries of magic that are tightly wound all around them. But then, as the story continues, the book fast-forwards and we see these characters again later in their lives as they must deal with the repercussions of the decisions they made while in school. It was definitely an interesting structure, and one that I hadn’t been expecting, being at first fully immersed in the school days aspects that made up the first half.

But the second half is where the story really starts to shine, especially as a character-driven narrative. Not only do we see these characters at different points in their lives, but we see how their ambitions and goals have directed their paths forward, sometimes in unexpected ways. They are all compelling, but flawed, people who make mistakes, sometimes correcting and sometimes doubling down all the more. I really enjoyed these themes, especially the way the author explored the way that ambition can begin to corrode relationships between people.

The pacing was a bit on the slow side, but I think that this largely worked given the emphasis on characterization and the exploration of the inner workings of these people. The world-building was also good, though some of the details regarding the fantasy elements were a bit slow to arrive, requiring some patience on the reader’s part to trust that answers will come. I don’t want to go into spoilers, but there were some twists and turns that were truly heart-wrenching, and I’d definitely put this one in the “bittersweet” category, for what it’s worth.

Fans of dark academia and especially readers who are looking for character-driven stories should definitely check this one out!

Rating 8: Exploring themes of ambition and its impact on relationships, this book is as heart-wrenching as it is beautiful!

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door” can be found on this Goodreads list: 2024 Dark Academia Releases

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “Wisteria” by Adalyn Grace

Publishing Info: Little, Brown and Company, August 2024

Where Did I Get this Book: own it!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: Blythe Hawthorne has never let anyone tell her what to do—not society, not her overprotective father, and certainly not the man she’s bound herself to, no matter how rude and insufferable he is. In fact, she’s determined to be a thorn in his side for the rest of her days, even as he ensures that her life in his palace is anything but a fairytale. But as Blythe discovers a new side of herself linked to his past, she’ll have to decide if she’s willing to let an unexpected spark ignite…and to discover the truth about who she really is.

Previously Reviewed: “Belladonna” and “Foxglove”

Review: I often use December as a month to check back in to books that published earlier in the year but that I didn’t get around to in a timely manner. And yes, that is the case here. However, it’s also the case that I’ve delayed writing this review because it’s been a challenge to get my thoughts in order, mostly about how disappointing I found this book to be. All the more shocking given the high that was “Belladonna” when I read it two years ago.

That said, there were some positives, and those all came in the first half of the book. Reading this first half, I was having such a blast that I felt confident that we had finally returned to much of what I loved about this series. While “Foxglove” was a bit of a mixed bag, I did very much enjoy a deeper introduction to Blythe as a main character, and she shone here in this first half, with all the spirit and spunk that I came to expect from a woman who had lived through what she had and who had made the choices she did at the end of the last book. I also really loved the “enemies” portion of this enemies-to-lovers romance that we explored in this first section. Aris was such a pill, and it was hilarious. The two had great banter during this section, and I appreciated the slow build of respect he had towards Blythe’s bravery and determination in the face of his ridiculousness and the various challenges placed before them.

Unfortunately, even here, problems began to arise. First and foremost, the contrived nature of the plotting. At the end of “Foxglove,” the reader, Signa, and Death are all aware of the true situation between Aris and Blythe. But then, through sheer authorial shenanigans and contrived magical circumstances, Signa is never given a chance to tell Blythe any of this. I get that this reveal coming early would have materially changed the story, but this is the kind of fact that must be dealt with when plotting out an entire trilogy. The author could have ended the previous book in a way that left Signa and Death unaware, thus removing the need to come up with excuses for them not to inform Blythe. Or perhaps some more believable means could have been constructed to delay the knowledge, but that’s tough, as we saw here. The way it is handled is incredibly plot convenient and there is nothing done to really hide this from the reader.

This problem with plotting carried on through the middle and, especially, the end of the book. Not only do Blythe and Aris go from a fairly good slow burn build to “now we’re instantly in love!” with very little explanation, but the author introduces world-changing new characters halfway through the book. Characters who should definitely have been present, if not at least referenced, in the previous books. Not only did the presence of the new character muddle this story, but it opened a million plot holes in the previous books as well, which is the worst thing you can do in a final book to a trilogy. Additionally, entire subplots are dropped in whole cloth, like Signa’s sudden obsession with uncovering the truth behind her mother’s murder. And, in a similar manner, these new subplots are never truly dealt with or pulled into the main story in any way that justifies their presence in the first place.

And all of this together, bad on its own, is all the worse for only coming up halfway through the last book a trilogy! Which, surprising no one, greatly damaged the end of this book. If I had to come up with a word for it, I’d choose “silly.” Events and choices that are clearly meant to land a significant emotional punch instead induced a massive eye roll. Every bit of it was frustrating and left gaping questions about how any of this really worked. Worse, some of these choices directly conflicted with themes regarding choice and personal agency that had been built up as so important earlier in the book.

Given how much I enjoyed the first book in this series and even the first half of this book, it’s so disappointing having to write this review. Looking back at the entire venture, it feels as if the author had a great idea for a stand-alone fantasy book and then somewhere along the line was pushed into extending it by two books. But there was never a truly good story there to support this decision. I’d still recommend the first book to readers, but I’d probably tell them to just quit before the final few pages and leave it as a single entry story, as this is one of those truly unfortunate situations where the last book retroactively harms the entire story as a whole.

Rating 6: So disappointing. Not great on its own, but it was even more frustrating seeing the affect this book has on some of the characters and story arcs of the previous books.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Wisteria” can be found on these Goodreads lists: Gothic Fantasy Romance and Magic, Adventure, Romance.

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “A Monsoon Rising” by Thea Guanzon

Publishing Info: Harper Voyager, December 2024

Where Did I Get this Book: NetGalley!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: After a lifetime of war, Alaric and Talasyn were thrust into an alliance between their homelands that was supposed to end the fighting; however, being married to their sworn foe feels far from peaceful. Now Talasyn must play the part of Alaric’s willing empress while her allies secretly plot to overthrow his reign. But the longer the couple are forced together, the harder it becomes to deny the feelings crackling like lightning between them. When the time comes to act, can she trust him, or must she ignore her heart for the sake of so many others?

As the master of the Shadowforged Legion, Alaric has trained for battle all his life, but marrying a Lightweaver might be his most dangerous challenge yet. With tensions between nations churning, he needs to focus on the greater threat—the Moonless Dark, a cataclysmic magical event that could devour everything. Only he and Talasyn can stop it, with a powerful merging of light and shadow that they alone can create together. But saving their world from this disaster is a mere preface to his father’s more sinister schemes, and his wife is a burning flame in the darkness, tempting both his loyalties and his desires.

The Hurricane Wars aren’t over. It’s time to choose what—and who—to fight for. The world holds its breath amidst a whirlwind of new magic and old secrets that could change everything.

Previously Reviewed: “The Hurricane Wars”

Review: December is always a slow month for new books. That being the case, I was relying on this sequel as one of my few newly released books to cover (I often devote my other review days during December to catching up on various sequels that I couldn’t fit in during the months in which they came out). I very much enjoyed “The Hurricane Wars” when I read it last year and thought that it did a great job setting up the world and the characters, leaving an intriguing pathway forward for the story to take! But, while I still enjoyed a lot of what this book had to offer, this is one of those titles that I can hold up in the future as an example of “middle book syndrome.”

Let’s start with the good however! Much of what I enjoyed from the first book is still strong here. For one thing, the writing is compulsively readable. While I could step back and have critiques of the pacing, plotting, and some of the character beats, while I was reading it I felt fully immersed. I read it over a few days and largely enjoyed the entire experience. Not a lot really happens in this book (one of my main criticisms) so it speaks to the author’s talent with readability that I never felt bored as I was making my way through the book.

I also still very much enjoyed our main characters and their love story (mostly). One thing that I appreciated the most was the fact that Talasyn and Alaric are following a more traditional “enemies to lovers” path. In that, this book doesn’t easily do away with the fact that these two have been on opposing sides of the war for years, have fully realized histories before they began falling for one another, including loyalties, friendships, and ideologies. None of these could or should be easily set aside just because they meet someone they begin to have feelings for (honestly, I can’t count the number of romantasy titles that really struggle with this aspect of the entire “enemies to lovers” trope. If your characters can get over being “enemies” within the first book, let alone the first half of the book, then they were either A.) never enemies to begin with or B.) are simply poorly written with no actual characterization to them outside of this burgeoning love story). The love story does make progress throughout, but the book also takes place over a few months time, adding another layer of believability to this relationship. But even still, by the end, they are by no means clearly on the same side, even still.

And now, the counter argument to everything I said above: while I appreciate the slow-burn nature of this book, I’m not convinced this needed to be a trilogy. For all that the slower nature of the plot works for the romance, it also doesn’t work for the trilogy as a whole. There were numerous scenes in this book that felt wholly unnecessary or as if they were simply inserted into the story because an editor had pointed out that no actual action had taken place for chapters and chapters, with the focus only being on the characters’ inner thoughts and building love story.

Part of this has to do with how the book has tried to balance two different points of conflict: one is the upcoming apocalyptical event that only Talasyn’s and Alaric’s combined magic can save everyone from and the other is the actual war that they both have been fighting. By essentially saving the entire war conflict for the next book, it made this book’s handling of this huge threat, the Moonless Dark, feel almost like a strange side quest that didn’t really matter.

And then there were even some fairly major reveals and twists in this area that are revealed towards the end, but, again, by the nature of the structure of the trilogy as a whole, I wasn’t quite sure what I was supposed to do with this revelation. It was this big moment, and then it just felt like it landed with a thud and was quickly kicked into the corner to set up the final events for the third book. Was this plotline really necessary? Instead, it felt like this entire set-up only existed as an excuse to make Talasyn and Alaric work together over the course of the first and now this book; I felt like I could see behind the curtain and spied the author wrangling the plot into place only in service of getting the romance from point A to B, not something you ever want to see.

But, as I said, I read this book very quickly and still enjoyed the actual reading experience. If I came away wondering a bit why this had to be an entire book, instead of re-structured into a more tightly plotted duology…well, that’s unfortunately often the case in fantasy fiction these days. That said, the set up for the third book is very good and I’m excited to see where it all goes!

One last note on the romance: while I appreciate the true slow-burn nature of the love story, I truly hope that the betrayals/secrets/lies aspect gets dealt with early in the next book. I’d love to see a significant portion of the plot devoted to these two finally working together. Two books as “enemies” and one book as “lovers/allies” is, for me, the correct balance.

Rating 7: Fans of the first book will likely enjoy this one, and, at its peak it highlights a true commitment to telling an “enemies to lovers” romance. But, on the other hand, there’s very little true plot to be found here.

Reader’s Advisory:

“A Monsoon Rising” can be found on this Goodreads list: Epic High Fantasy/Romance/Mythology in 2024.