Review: The Lost Sisters - Holly Black

Sometimes the difference between a love story and a horror story is where the ending comes

While Jude fought for power in the Court of Elfhame against the cruel Prince Cardan, her sister Taryn began to fall in love with the trickster, Locke.

Half-apology and half-explanation, it turns out that Taryn has some secrets of her own to reveal.

The Lost Sisters is a companion e-novella to the New York Times bestselling novel The Cruel Prince, by master writer Holly Black.

Folk of the Air Series:
The Cruel Prince
The Lost Sisters (Novella)
The Wicked King (2019)
The Queen of Nothing (2020)

Visit Holly Black's website for more information

Review:
The Lost Sisters is a novella follow up to The Cruel Prince and it contains MAJOR spoilers for that book so whatever you do DO NOT start the series here. The rest of this review will be written assuming people have already read The Cruel Prince so stop reading now if you haven't!

So this novella is basically a letter from Taryn to Jude where she tries to explain her actions and makes a very half-hearted attempt to apologise to her sister. I have to admit I was sceptical going into this because I really dislike Taryn after everything she did in the first book and I wasn't really expecting Holly Black to be able to change my mind about her.

While I found this story really interesting, particularly when we realise how badly Locke played both sisters off against each other, I still don't have a lot of respect for Taryn. In my opinion she's weak and even when she knew she was being manipulated and used against her sister she was willing to go along with it on the chance that she'd get what she wanted in the end. She was pretty happy to throw Jude under a bus for her own safety and happiness and I find it very difficult to like someone who will treat her twin sister so callously.

Taryn will never be my favourite person, and I'm still hoping that she'll end up regretting her choices as the series continues, but I enjoyed this novella and learning more about her motivations.

Source: Purchased

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Review: The Cruel Prince - Holly Black

By #1 New York Times bestselling author Holly Black, the first book in a stunning new series about a mortal girl who finds herself caught in a web of royal faerie intrigue.

Of course I want to be like them. They're beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever.

And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe.

Jude was seven years old when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King.

To win a place at the Court, she must defy him--and face the consequences.

In doing so, she becomes embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, discovering her own capacity for bloodshed. But as civil war threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.

Folk of the Air Series:
The Cruel Prince
The Lost Sisters (Novella)
The Wicked King (2019)
The Queen of Nothing (2020)

Visit Holly Black's website for more information

Review:
Jude and her twin sister Taryn are humans who have been raised in Faerie, officially they are the adopted daughters of Madoc, the Red Cap General of the High King's army, and the person who murdered their parents when he came to take back his real daughter, their half-sister Vivi, but unofficially they are looked down on by everyone because of their mortality. Jude is sick of being bullied because the fae think they are better than her and she is determined to do whatever it takes to prove them wrong and take her revenge for the way they have behaved.

The Cruel Prince is one of those stories that starts out a little on the slow side but it gradually sucks you into the world that Holly Black has created and before you know it you've reached the end and find yourself desperate for the next instalment. I've not read this author's previous fae series but I'm definitely going to change that because she sure knows how to write the deliciously dark and devious fae that wouldn't make it into a Disney movie. These are Grimm's fae, ones who love to play games with humans and think nothing of hurting others purely for their own enjoyment.

Jude herself isn't always the easiest character to like, she is so totally set on her revenge that she can be quite cruel in her own right and she revels in proving that she can be just as bad as any of the fae. I found it pretty easy to see where she was coming from though, she didn't choose to be taken to faerie as a child and she's been surrounded by this amazing world and these supremely powerful beings for her entire life but she always has to look on as an outsider, she's never been accepted as part of things and it's made her jealous and more than a little bitter to be treated so cruelly. Even when I didn't like her actions I couldn't hate her character and I routed for her far more than anyone else we met.

I was a little disappointed that the bond between the twin sisters wasn't stronger but Taryn reacts to things in a totally different way to Jude. Rather than fight to prove her own power Taryn just wants to find someone else who can offer her protection and she just desperately tried to fit in. I actually found her pretty weak and I was really angry about the way she treated Jude most of the time. Their older sister Vivi was the voice of reason in the family, she's half-fae and fully accepted as her father's heir so she has a lot less to deal with than the twins but she wants as little to do with faerie as possible.

There is a lot going on in this story, I had actually guessed a couple of the biggest twists well before they were officially revealed but that didn't stop my enjoyment and the ending left me fully primed for the sequel. This was a brilliant start to the new series and I'm definitely planning on checking out Holly Black's other fae stories while I wait for the next book in the series.

Source: Received from Amazon Vine in exchange for an honest review

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Review: My True Love Gave to Me - Anthology

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . .

This beautiful collection features twelve gorgeously romantic stories set during the festive period, by some of the most talented and exciting YA authors writing today. The stories are filled with the magic of first love and the magic of the holidays.

Here is a list of all the stories included in the anthology:
(links take you to the author's websites)
1. Midnights by Rainbow Rowell
2. The lady and the Fox by Kelly Link
3. Angels in the Snow by Matt de la Pena
4. Polaris is Where You'll Find Me by Jenny Han
5. It's a Yuletide Miracle, Charlie Brown by Stephanie Perkins
6. Your Temporary Santa by David Levithan
7. Krampuslauf by Holly Black
8. What the Hell Have You Done, Sophie Roth? by Gayle Forman
9. Beer Buckets and Baby Jesus by Myra McEntire
10. Welcome to Christmas, CA by Kiersten White
11. Star of Bethlehem by Ally Carter
12. The Girl Who Woke the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

Review:
Firstly I have to comment on how special the UK hardback of this book is, I'm not usually a fan of hardbacks and prefer to buy my books in paperback or as ebooks but this is one hardback that will happily be displayed on my bookshelves. It has a beautiful blue cover with a gold foil title and design, the edges and end papers are hot pink and it comes with a gold ribbon bookmark. It's the kind of book you want to treasure and I'm happy to say that the contents more than live up to the outer packaging.

I love reading anthologies because they can be a great way of trying new authors but I do tend to find that they are a bit hit and miss, often there will be a couple of stories I love along with a bunch of mediocre entries that were okay but nothing special. I had high hopes for My True Love Gave to Me though because it has contributions from so many well known and popular YA authors and I have to say this is probably one of the best anthologies I've read. It includes 12 holiday themed stories and I thoroughly enjoyed each and every one of them. Obviously I have a few favourites but the quality was consistently high and there wasn't a single story that missed the mark or bored me.

Midnights by Rainbow Rowell is a story spanning four years in the lives of best friends Mags and Noel, we only get to see one night of each year - New Years Eve - but we get a real sense of how close the two of them are and how strongly they feel for each other. Will one of them ever be brave enough to make the first move to take things further though? A very sweet contemporary romance with likeable characters who I would have loved to spend more time with.

The Lady and the Fox by Kelly Link has a real fairytale feel to it, Miranda spends every Christmas staying with her Godmother's family and she meets a mysterious boy in the garden but he will never come into the house and she only ever sees him when it's snowing. This is a sweet and magical story that I completely fell in love with and I definitely plan to check out more stories by Kelly Link in the future.

Angels in the Snow by Matt de la Pena is about Shy, a young man who is flat sitting for his boss over Christmas and the friendship he develops with a girl in the flat upstairs. Matt de la Pena is another new to me author but I loved his writing style and will be looking out for more of his books, this is a feel good story and one that left me with a smile on my face.

Polaris is Where You'll Find Me by Jenny Han is set in the North Pole and features Santa's adopted daughter Natty, she is the only human there and feels left out because she doesn't have a date to the Christmas Ball. I hate to say it but this was probably my least favourite story in the anthology, purely because it ended so abruptly. I was thoroughly enjoying it but then it just seemed to stop half way through, I turned the page looking for more and nothing. I think this could have been excellent if it had just been a tiny bit longer.

It's a Yuletide Miracle, Charlie Brown by Stephanie Perkins is an incredibly sweet and heart warming romance and it was definitely one of my favourite stories in the anthology. Marigold is in desperate need of a holiday miracle and she gets a lot more than she expected when she goes to buy a Christmas tree from North. I've heard so many great things about Stephanie Perkins's writing and if this is what she can do with a short story I can't wait to read one of her full length novels!

Your Temporary Santa by David Levithan is the story of a boy who dresses up as Santa and sneaks into his boyfriend's house just to help a young girl believe in magic for another year. This was incredibly sweet, it focuses more on family relationships than romance but I loved it.

Krampuslauf by Holly Black brings us the darker side of Christmas and introduces readers to the legend of Krampus. A group of friends decide to throw a New Years Eve party and think it will be the perfect opportunity to get revenge on one of their cheating boyfriends. I really enjoyed this one but would definitely have liked it to have been longer, the characters were great but I wanted to see more of Krampus and his friends.

What the Hell Have You Done, Sophie Roth? by Gayle Forman is a very humorous story about a girl from a big city who is having trouble settling in at a very rural college until she meets Russell who makes her realise that things could be very different if only she was willing to make a bit more of an effort. This was another favourite story with just the right balance of comedy and romance.

Beer Buckets and Baby Jesus by Myra McEntire was a bit of a strange story but I absolutely loved Vaughn, the town prankster who accidentally set fire to the church hall just a few weeks before Christmas and is now trying to make things right by making sure the nativity play still goes ahead. This had a strong theme of redemption and not playing up to people's expectations of you but instead learning to follow your own path.

Welcome to Christmas, CA by Kiersten White is about a tiny little village in the middle of nowhere that does everything it can to live up to it's name. Maria is desperate to escape the dead end town and move away but Ben, the new chef at her family's diner, makes her see things in a different light. I really enjoyed the family relationships in this one, Maria doesn't feel like she has anything in common with her mother and step-father but there are a lot of things that she doesn't realise and once she finds out the truth she finally understands how much they care about her.

Star of Bethlehem by Ally Carter is about a young girl who is desperate to get away and have a fresh start, so desperate that she willingly swaps plane tickets with another girl even though she has no idea where she's going to end up. This story was full of surprises but really sweet and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Again it's one where I loved the characters so much that I want to be able to spend more time with them but we still get a satisfying ending.

The Girl Who Woke the Dreamer by Laini Taylor ended up being my favourite story in the anthology. Neve is an orphan who has very little choice about what will happen to her when she turns 18, she either finds a man to marry her or she will be forced to live out a very harsh, and likely very short, existence alone in a very inhospitable environment. When she realises which man has come to court her she is horrified enough to pray for help and her prayers wake a sleeping god who decides to offer her assistance. Laini Taylor has such a beautiful writing style and she hooked me into her story from the very first page, this was completely magical and I loved every minute of it.

My True Love Gave to Me really is a fabulous anthology, one with a diverse range of stories so that there is bound to be something to suit everyone. It's a perfect read for this time of year and one I think I'll be dipping back into each December from now onwards.

Source: Received from Macmillan in exchange for an honest review

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Review: Red Glove - Holly Black

Curses and Cons
Magic and the Mob

In Cassel Sharpe's world, they go together. Cassel always thought he was an ordinary guy, but now he knows the truth - he's the most powerful curse worker around. He can transform anything - or anyone - into something else. That was how Lila, the girl he loved, became a white cat. Now she's back, but she's been cursed to love him. If Lila's love is as false as Cassel's made-up memories, then he can't believe anything she says or does.

When Cassel's oldest brother is murdered, the Feds recruit him to help find the killer. But the mob wants Cassel too - they know how valuable he could be to them. He will have to stay one step ahead of both sides just to survive. Where can he turn when he can't trust anyone - least of all, himself?

The Curse Workers Series:
White Cat
Red Glove
Black Heart

Visit Holly Black's website for more information

Review:
The cat is out of the bag and Cassel now knows he is a Worker, he also knows that his brothers have been manipulating him for years forcing him to do unspeakable things and then tampering with his memory so he won't remember what he has done. He still doesn't have his memory back but he has a pretty good idea of what he was forced to do and it doesn't sit well with him. His relationship with his older brothers is more rocky than ever and it takes everything Cassel has got just to act normal around them, his mother is out of jail and up to her old tricks and the girl he loves has been cursed to love him so there is no hope of pursuing any kind of relationship with her. Yes, Cassel's life pretty much sucks right now and that was before one of his brothers was murdered and the government decided to try and turn him into a snitch. Now Cassel is in a very difficult position, he doesn't want to join the Zacharov crime syndicate but that doesn't mean he wants to become a police informant either. Unfortunately neither side is giving him much of an option & it's going to take all of Cassel's wits just to stay alive and out of trouble.

As much as I loved White Cat I think I enjoyed Red Glove even more, the story is really cleverly woven together and it is difficult to see how Cassel will manage to keep himself out of prison. He is forced to deal with his crazy family members and it seems like everyone wants something from him, his mum wants him to help with her latest cons and his brothers see him as an easy route into the syndicates. The only family member I trust to have his back is his Grandad but he has been kept in the dark about so many things that Cassel can't really turn to him for help. It has been great to see Cassel slowly building his friendships with Daneca and Sam though, he has come to trust them both and finally starts to open up a little and share some of his secrets. It's great to know that he has a couple of people who have his back, he is in desperate need of some allies considering all the things he has going against him right now.

I hated seeing how distraught he is over his relationship with Lila, he cares about her so deeply but now that his mother has cursed Lila to love him he is unable to trust her feelings or act on their mutual attraction without feeling incredibly guilty. It's quite disturbing that his mother doesn't even see what she did wrong and that more than anything shows just how twisted her abilities are. I thought things between the two of them were handled really well, I loved that Cassel was honest with Lila about what had been done to her and I was glad that he didn't take advantage of her. It was sad to see them so far apart though and I really hope they can find some way through it in the final book. It's difficult because I do have trouble connecting to Lila at times and her goals seem so different to Cassel's but I feel that after everything they've both been through they deserve some kind of happy ending. I'm just not sure if they can find it together or not.

Red Glove is a brilliant book, one that focuses on the murder of Cassel's brother and who was behind it but there is so much more to it than that. There are some fantastic twists and I enjoyed getting to continue exploring the world Holly Black has created. I eat up anything about the Workers and the consequences they have for using their abilities, I always prefer when magic has a price and that is definitely the case here. It's rare that I pick up the final book in a trilogy without even a vague idea of what to expect but I honestly can't even guess at what is in store for Cassel in Black Heart and that makes me even more desperate to read it.

Source: Purchased

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Review: White Cat - Holly Black

Cassel is cursed

No-one at home is ever going to forget that Cassel is a killer. No-one at home is ever going to forget that he isn't a magic worker. And now he is being haunted by a white cat . . .

Cassel's family are magic workers. Ever since magic was prohibited in 1929 magic workers have been driven underground and into crime. His grand-dad is a black-fingered death-dealer, his mother is in prison and his brothers detest him as the only one of their family who can't do magic. But there is a secret at the centre of Cassel's family and he's about to inherit it. It's terrifying and that's the truth.

White Cat is the sensational new novel of a changed world and the price we have to pay for magic from the internationally bestselling author of The Spiderwick Chronicles.


The Curse Workers Series:
White Cat
Red Glove
Black Heart

Visit Holly Black's website for more information

Review:
People have been telling me to read White Cat for years but for some reason it had never quite reached the top of my to read pile. The only reason I'm not kicking myself now is that the entire trilogy is already available so I'm going to be able to binge on the whole series without having that horrible year long wait in between instalments! I finally know what all the fuss is about and White Cat is without a doubt a brilliant start to the Curse Workers series. I'm excited to spend more time in this world with Cassel and his family.

You've probably already read a million reviews for this series, in fact you've probably already read these books for yourself, but if you're one of the few people who has yet to discover this world then you're really missing out. Holly Black has created a world that is slightly different to our own, one where certain people are born with magical abilities. People with these abilities are known as Curse Workers and there are a range of different powers that Workers may have, anything from being able to give people luck, invade people's dreams, change their memories and emotions or even physically hurt or kill them. These powers usually run in families so although each family member may have a different ability it is unusual to be born to two Workers and not be a Worker yourself. Because of their abilities Workers are highly prized by the criminal underworld, the most powerful families have control and other Workers are often sought out to work for them.

Cassel is an anomaly, his family have all been Workers for generations, his grandfather, mother and both of his brothers all have strong abilities but Cassel has never been able to work curses. Because of that he is treated as an outsider by the others, they see him as someone who needs protecting and they refuse to share details of their abilities or the jobs that they undertake for the Zacharov crime syndicate. Cassel has never had a normal life, he may not have magic but he is a skilled con artist and has often helped his mother scam unsuspecting marks out of their money. Scamming comes as naturally to him as breathing but it also keeps him at a distance from others and ever since a terrible accident when he was a child he has never let anyone close enough to become his friend. He is about to uncover a secret though, one so terrible that it will tear his world apart and he's going to have to find some allies quickly if he wants to find a way out.

I can't tell you how much I enjoyed Holly Black's world building, the idea of Curse Workers is absolutely fascinating and I loved the fact that using their abilities has major repercussions for them. The characters are all fantastic (and how rare is it to find a male lead in YA?) and I was kept on the edge of my seat by the constant plot twists. I don't really want to say too much about what happens but trust me you'll never guess how things will turn out! The story is fast paced and I didn't want to put it down. As a side note I ended up listening to the audiobook and the narrator (Jesse Eisenberg) is absolutely brilliant and he really helps bring the characters to life. I have to admit I'm a bit of a sporadic audiobook listener, I usually get distracted and find I stopped listening 10 minutes ago and now have no idea what is happening in the story but that didn't happen here and I kept making excuses to listen for a just few more minutes.

If you haven't already started this series then I can't recommend it highly enough. I ordered copies of both Red Glove and Black Heart before I'd even finished with White Cat and I can't wait to finish the series.

Source: Received from Orion in exchange for an honest review

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Review: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown - Holly Black

Tana lives in a world where walled cities called Coldtowns exist. In them, quarantined monsters and humans mingle in a decadently bloody mix of predator and prey. The only problem is, once you pass through Coldtown’s gates, you can never leave.

One morning, after a perfectly ordinary party, Tana wakes up surrounded by corpses. The only other survivors of this massacre are her exasperatingly endearing ex-boyfriend, infected and on the edge, and a mysterious boy burdened with a terrible secret. Shaken and determined, Tana enters a race against the clock to save the three of them the only way she knows how: by going straight to the wicked, opulent heart of Coldtown itself.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is a wholly original story of rage and revenge, of guilt and horror, and of love and loathing from bestselling and acclaimed author Holly Black.

Visit Holly Black's website for more information

Review:
Holly Black is an incredibly popular YA author so I'm embarrassed to admit that this is the first of her books that I've read. Unfortunately I don't think I picked a very good place to start because I found The Coldest Girl in Coldtown was a very difficult book to get through. I really expected to love this book, I've heard so many good things about the author that I was sure it would be fantastic but I'm afraid it just missed for me. Perhaps my expectations were too high when I started it but I had to force myself to carry on reading and it took me five days to get to the end. I think I'd have given up about halfway through if I'd bought this myself but because I received the book from Amazon Vine I have to write a review for it and I hate to review a book I didn't finish.

Tana wakes up in the bathroom the morning after a party with her classmates, she is hung over, tired and can't remember much about what happened the night before. As she gets up and goes in search of breakfast she realises that all of the other party guests have been killed by vampires, the only survivors are herself, her ex-boyfriend Aidan and a mysterious boy called Gavriel. They only just escape with their lives but Aidan and Tana both suspect they have been infected with the vampire virus. Rather than risk spreading the virus or hurting their families they decide to hand themselves in at one of the quarantined Coldtowns.

Unfortunately after the fast paced start the story really slowed down and I found myself struggling to carry on reading. The idea of the Coldtowns was fascinating, I loved the fact that Holly Black has brought back the dark and dangerous vampires who wouldn't think twice about draining someone dry and killing them and I really liked the idea of the vampires becoming like celebrities. They rule the Coldtowns and the parties they host are broadcast to the general population via live feed like some kind of Big Brother experiment. I could understand why so many hangers on were hooked on the idea of living forever and getting to live the glamorous high life as a vampire, they travelled to the Coldtowns in droves looking for salvation. I couldn't imagine myself doing the same thing but I was interested in the idea of it. I was pleased that the author didn't shy away from showing the darker side to the life as well as the fun side though. The problem was that there was just so much world building going on. It really slowed the pace of the story and it felt like you had to slog through page after page where nothing actually happens.

I think my main problem was that I didn't connect to any of the main characters though. I didn't particularly like or care about any of them. Tana felt so alien, she hardly shows any emotions and even waking up in a house full of her murdered friends she seemed very blasé about it all. I couldn't understand the relationship she had with Aidan and I really wasn't a fan of his character, he was so shallow and selfish that I wanted to punch him and I lost respect for Tana because of the way she let him treat her. I also didn't believe the attraction between her and Gavriel, I saw it coming a mile away but hoped I'd be proved wrong because it just didn't make sense to me. We did meet a couple of interesting side characters in the Coldtown and I would have loved for Valentina and Jameson to have been given more page time. If they'd been the main characters I think I would have enjoyed the story much more because they seemed so much more human than everyone else.

Unfortunately The Coldest Girl in Coldtown just didn't end up being the right book for me. I've seen a lot of positive reviews for it so I'm obviously in the minority and I would recommend reading through some of those reviews before you make up your mind about buying it. I will say that Holly Black has a great imagination and she writes some great descriptive scenes so I'm definitely planning on trying some of her other books. Hopefully I'll enjoy them a lot more than this one!

Source: Received from Amazon Vine in exchange for an honest review

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