dearrivarie: February 2018

| ASIN: B0799YH7LZ | Pages: 268 |

Publication Date: January 24, 2018 | Source: Xpresso Book Tours

| Rating: 3 out of 5 stars |

★★★

In an abandoned warehouse in Manhattan, two enemies battle to the death, while outside, a malevolent entity watches and waits and plots, eager for blood. On an island in the heart of Seattle, an immortal princess struggles to lead a normal life just as a flood of terrifying creatures starts to pour in through a portal that should not be there. A young man meets a classmate while walking home from the college library, and embarks on the most dangerous adventure he’s ever known – will he survive? A deranged madman hunts the girl he’s lusted after for a century, in a relentless pursuit for vengeance. A prehistoric, mythical beast jealously guards a primeval land, which is leaking into present-day Seattle. A sweet, forbidden passion blossoms between two lovers who steal moments whenever they can, while unbeknownst to them, they’re hunted by a deadly creature.
A royal family threatened at its weakest – yet lethal in its own right – is stalked by an ancient evil that will not rest until they are utterly destroyed: a nightmare incarnate that has waited millions of years for revenge threatens the very existence of the young lovers and their family.
Will they prevail?

I don't think I've picked up a vampire book in such a long time so I was definitely excited going into Romanov. Throw in a connection to the famous Russian imperial family and I was completely hooked.

Romanov follows the family of vampires currently hiding in Seattle when their longtime enemy starts to wreck havoc and they have no choice but to intervene. The urban setting contrasted with the fantastical world the Samaire Provost builds creates such an interesting balance that left me wanting more. We learn of dragons and fairies, but only get a glimpse as the real battle is happening in the real world and my biggest wish was to have been able to delve more into the dragon's realm.

Thrown into the mix is an interesting spin on the Romanov dynasty along with various different historical elements that I really enjoyed. Similarly to the fantasy elements, I wanted to see more of the author's spin on history.

Regardless, I still ended up enjoying the story. The characters are super likable and I enjoyed the strong emphasis on family. While the romance is a tad insta-lovey, I didn't really find myself focusing on that relationship as much as the family aspect. The big villain is nothing short of deranged and while I'm still a bit confused on how the ending events unfolded, things worked out in the end and it was heartwarming and cute.

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Of Sea and Stone by Kate Avery Ellison

| ISBN: 978-1495470028 | Pages: 260 |

Publication Date: February 18, 2014

Aemi lives in a village carved from stones and surrounded by sea. She wins spear-throwing competitions in disguise and earns slaps from her spoiled mistress by talking back. She hates being a slave. She survives by remembering her mother's tales of home, a paradise called Perilous.
Aemi intends to find it.
But then, black ships rise from the sea in the night. Aemi is captured and taken to Itlantis, an underwater world of cities of glass, floating gardens, and strange and wonderful technology.
She is determined to escape, even if it means conspiring with fellow prisoner Nol, who fills her with equal parts anger and desire. Even if it means impersonating her mistress. Even if it means fleeing into the territory of the Dron, the bloodthirsty barbarians of the deep.
But when Aemi witnesses firsthand an attack by the Dron, she realizes not all is as it seems below the sea.
And Perilous might be closer than she thinks.

EXCERPT

“Aemi,” Nol said softly in my ear.

I opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling that looked like silver. The round, flameless lights embedded in it glowed faintly, like the start of a sunrise. They were sometimes bright and sometimes soft. I had decided that they followed the sun’s path somehow. I did not understand it.

“Aemi,” Nol said again.

I rolled over and looked at him. His face was pale, and he looked fragile as a shell.

“Do you think they’re all dead?” he whispered. “The others?”

I didn’t answer. I thought of Nealla, her hands red from the heat of the fire as she made cakes. The Old One, muttering as he mended the nets. Kit, smiling at me, laughing as he told a joke.

Tears choked me, but they didn’t fall.

I looked at Nol’s face and something in me tugged. He’d lost everyone too. I moved a little closer, inexplicably drawn to comfort him. I wanted to touch him, comfort him.

“I don’t understand,” Nol continued bitterly, not noticing my movement toward him. “Why did they take you, but leave Tagatha?”

His words struck me like a slap. I froze and inched back so there was space between us again. I turned my face away without responding. I had no desire to hear him speak anymore.

Men came again, bringing us more food and water. These ones looked less cruel than the ones who had come before. When they returned to collect the water bowls, I grabbed the sleeve of one of the men with my fingers as he bent down.

“Please,” I whispered. “Where are we?”

He looked like he was about to shake me off, but something in my face must have made him change his mind, for his mouth softened, and he glanced around before responding. “We’re a mile below the surface and a day’s way from your village,” he said gruffly.

I looked around us at the windowless walls. “Below the surface?” I asked, feeling a sense of panic. I hadn’t felt the familiar rocking that came with traveling on the water. Did we move by magic?

He snorted now as if I was insane. “We’re beneath the sea, girl.”

Panic sunk its cold fingers into me. Beneath the sea? How was such a thing possible?

He pulled away and followed the rest of the men out the door before it slid shut. Nol, who had been listening to the exchange, looked at me out of the corner of his eye.

“Don’t do that,” he said angrily.

“Do what?”

“Lick their boots. Beg them for answers. Don’t act like a thrall.”

“I am a thrall,” I said, angry now too. “And now you are too.”

He turned away and curled into a ball.

I shut my eyes and slept. It was the only thing to do anymore.

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About the Author
I'm the author of the Frost Chronicles, an Amazon bestselling series and source material for the adventure app game Frost by Delight Games, as well as numerous other fantasy and science fiction novels. I love putting a dash of mystery in everything I write, an ode to a childhood spent reading Nancy Drew, Agatha Christie, and Sherlock Holmes. I can’t resist adding a good twist in the story wherever I can.
I wish I could live in a place where it’s always October, but until that’s possible, I make my home in humid Atlanta with my husband, children, and two spoiled cats.

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Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

| ISBN: 978-1455563920 | Pages: 512 |

Publication Date: November 14, 2017 | Source: Own (ebook)

| Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars |

★★★☆

"There could only be a few winners, and a lot of losers. And yet we played on, because we had hope that we might be the lucky ones."
In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a crippled fisherman, falls for a wealthy stranger at the seashore near her home in Korea. He promises her the world, but when she discovers she is pregnant--and that her lover is married--she refuses to be bought. Instead, she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle, sickly minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision to abandon her home, and to reject her son's powerful father, sets off a dramatic saga that will echo down through the generations.
Richly told and profoundly moving, Pachinko is a story of love, sacrifice, ambition, and loyalty. From bustling street markets to the halls of Japan's finest universities to the pachinko parlors of the criminal underworld, Lee's complex and passionate characters--strong, stubborn women, devoted sisters and sons, fathers shaken by moral crisis--survive and thrive against the indifferent arc of history.

I'm at a complete loss for words towards this book - it was so good but not in the traditional novel sense, at least not in what I'm used to and I'm a bit confused on how to approach this review...

Pachinko follows a family across several generations as they go from living in a small town in Japanese occupied Korea to their immigration into a foreign country and building their life amidst racism and poverty. This novel is so historically dense and as it's written in third person, there's almost a documentary-like feel to the story-telling.

“Living everyday in the presence of those who refuse to acknowledge your humanity takes great courage.”

I've never delved much into Asian history despite being Asian and we're not taught a lot on that subject in schools either. My favorite part of this novel was how it taught me so much about life in the 1900s in Korea and Japan - particularly since this time period is one that I knew virtually nothing about. It's evident that the author did a lot of research going into this novel because despite the characters being fictional, the struggles they experienced and the lives they led were incredibly relevant.

“There was more to being something than just blood.”

Now, the historical-ness of Pachinko is both a good thing and a bad one. The part I didn't love about how direct this novel was that the writing style made it hard to connect with the characters since the author addressed them in such a detached way. There are some scenes which could be utterly heartbreaking (i.e. deaths, births, marriages, etc.) and the author just stated the events and didn't allow for any "excess" detail - "and he died" (for example).

“In life, there was so much insult and injury, and she had no choice but to collect what was hers.”

Regardless, I still managed to really like each character. A quick rundown, more for my memory really, we have Sunja who is the first main character we really follow throughout the story. She is the prized daughter who loses her virtue to a wealthy stranger and is rescued from shame by a kind minister on his way to Japan. We follow the development of her story, the birth of her sons and their lives in Japan. While I liked the characters, I didn't have a character I particularly connected with - I kind of read the novel with this very direct narrator voice...like the ones you'd hear narrating a wildlife documentary.

“We cannot help but be interested in the stories of people that history pushes aside so thoughtlessly.”

I appreciate how Pachinko opened my eyes to a whole new side of history that I wasn't aware of. This is a very informative novel about the struggles many Koreans faced with Japanese occupation along with the repercussions of World War II and being alienated from both Japan and their homeland. I don't think this novel is for everyone, it's very straightforward which could be off-setting for some, but it was a very enlightening read.