End of Summer Reads!

July and August Reading Wrap-Up:

Hello, everybody and welcome to another edition of The CW Torch. Since, August and summer are both coming to an end. I thought it would be the perfect time to give you my July and August reading Wrap-Up. I have read a lot of good books towards the end of the summer, and wanted to share them all with you. Most of these books were four or more stars on goodreads ratings, except for a few. But, I would definitely recommend all the ones that I have read, and here are the main reasons why!

The Last Girl (Book One of The Dominion Trilogy) written by Joe Hart -

The first book I read in the month of July, was The Last Girl written by Joe Hart, which is the first book in The Dominion Trilogy. I downloaded this book to my kindle when I was still in college, and never had enough time to read it after downloading it. I was in the mood for some Dystopian, which is one of my favorite genres, and thought this would be the perfect book to start. Before reading this, I was in a pretty bad reading slump, but once I picked it up, it definitely helped me get out of that reading slump.

In this book, we follow the main character Zoey, who is one of the last female species left in the world. In this post-apocalyptic world, for some reason, an epidemic has affected the birth rates of female babies. The Government wants to control this epidemic, deciding to take the last of the female sex to a place called the ARC. Which kind of reminded me of Mt. Weather in a lot of ways, (for those 100 fans out there). Here, the Government does some crazy AF S**T, which I did not enjoy reading. But, honestly I wouldn't be surprised if the Government ended up doing this in real life, if this kind of thing actually happened. After some things happen to her and her friends, Zoey eventually decides that she does not agree with what the Government is doing, and escapes the ARC with some inside help. After escaping, she meets some nice people and some not so nice people outside of the ARC. Coming up with a plan to save all the girls who were left at the ARC.

This was an incredibly action packed book, that I thoroughly enjoyed. Although, I did have some issues with it, which is why it got a four out of five stars from me. One of those reasons being, that we didn't get a ton of character development, except from Zoey and her long-time unrequited crush Lee. There were a lot of characters who I really enjoyed and would've liked to know more about. Especially with her friend Lily, who was a younger girl who appeared to have some sort of disability, but Joe Hart didn't get into too much detail with her. There were also some issues I had, with how things ended with Lee and Zoey. But I don't want to get into too much detail of that, because it makes me so mad, and I still can't deal with it. Other than those issues, I really enjoyed this post-apocalyptic/dystopian world that Joe Hart introduced us to, and can't wait to continue on with the series! I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves Dystopian/Post-Apocalyptic reads, which we all know I absolutely love. If you liked The Maze Runner, but want more of a feminine version of it, then I think you would love this book!

American Gods written by Neil Gaiman -

The next book I picked up, was American Gods written by Neil Gaiman. I've been wanting to read this book for a while, mainly because I really wanted to watch the Adapted television series. I wanted to read the book first, because I truly had no idea what the book or show was about. I just knew that I wanted to watch the show, because it had Ricky Whittle from The 100, and it looked visually stunning, which is was! So, I borrowed the tenth anniversary copy, from my friend Madeleine and finally read it.

In American Gods we follow Shadow Moon, who had been locked behind bars for three years, and was suddenly released early because his wife Laura Moon, passed away from a car accident. His best friend had been killed in that same accident, and we later find out that Laura and his friend had been having an affair with each other. On Shadow's way back to Eagle Point, we meet Mr. Wednesday, which he decides to call himself that, because it was Wednesday when they met each other. Mr. Wednesday offers Shadow Moon a job; basically to be his errand boy, body guard, and driver. Mr. Wednesday appears to be a trickster, a rogue, and a man who knows more about Shadow Moon than Shadow knows himself. We find out that Mr. Wednesday is a God and is trying to round up some other old God's for a war against the New Gods. The New Gods are all about bringing modern technology, sex, and drugs to the forefront of the world, but the Old Gods are not happy with that. Shadow Moon finds himself in the middle of this epic war, which is something he never wanted to be a part of in the first place.

All in all I enjoyed American Gods to a certain extent, and thought it was a very different book that I've never read before. We had elements of Norse Mythology that I really liked, because Neil Gaiman introduces us to some Norse Gods that we don't hear too much about. While I did enjoy Shadow Moon and his role in this epic war, I actually hated a lot of the characters in this very character driven book. I really didn't like Laura Moon or any of the New Gods we were introduced to. I thought the New Gods were very pretentious, but I honestly don’t think you were supposed to like the New Gods, and that was Neil Gaiman's entire point of this story. But, I also found that this book was very slow, and wasn't really going anywhere. It was a very anti-climatic book, which I wasn't too fond of, because basically everything was supposed to be leading up to this war. But, not a whole lot of epicness happened with that war. These were the main reasons why I gave it a three out of five stars, instead of a four. However, I did enjoy Neil Gaiman's very descriptive writing style, as well as the dynamic between Shadow Moon and Mr. Wednesday. I also enjoyed the flashbacks that we got throughout the book, but some of them I had no idea why they were even mentioned. I have an entire comparison on the novel vs. the adapted television series on my blog already. I would definitely check that out if you want to see a detailed comparison of the two, because I had many thoughts and issues with the TV series as well. If you are really into Norse mythology and more adult-geared books, then I think you would really like American Gods.

New World Rising written by Jennifer Wilson -

At the tail end of July and beginning of August; I read New World Rising, from the New World Trilogy, by Jennifer Wilson. After reading The Last Girl, I was definitely in the mood for some more dystopian/post-apocalyptic novels. I saw that this book was on sale for free on Amazon Kindle, so I thought why not! Who doesn't like free books? I also knew that one of the booktubers I follow and absolutely adore, Benjamin Alderson (Benjaminoftomes), had published this book through his publishing company OfTomes. There were a number of great reviews on Goodreads, so I was extremely excited to read it.

In this post-apocalyptic world we follow a girl named Phoenix, whose sole purpose in life has been to uphold her mother's words - to be strong and survive. Basically, since witnessing her parents death at eleven years old, she has been surviving on her own in Tartarus for many years. Tartarus is a very gruesome and walled city, which is overrun by five different tribes who are at war with each other. The motto of these tribes are simply, "Join or Die." Phoenix refuses to join any tribe, and is thrust into this place called The Sanctuary. Which is essentially a Government organization, who are trying to overrun Tartarus and wanting to eliminate all of these tribes. Phoenix is faced with a choice to help this organization eliminate the tribes, or to join the tribes instead. She doesn't want to do either and instead wants to run away outside of The Walls, with the help of some friends.

I really enjoyed New World Rising for a number of reasons, and overall gave it a four out of five stars on Goodreads. I fell in love with Phoenix instantly, and thought she was the perfect protagonist for this book. While at times she didn't really believe in herself, from the fact that she doesn't have a lot of memories of her childhood, except for her parents death. I do think that we got to see a lot of growth from her, and she becomes very strong-willed by the end of this book. I thought that Phoenix was a very relatable character, and that was mostly due to her thoughts of unexplored potential. She basically didn't do a lot of things in The Sanctuary, because she was afraid of letting a lot of people down. For instance, she never truly gave into her feelings for Triven, her love interest, because she didn't believe that she was worthy for his attention. I found that part of Phoenix extremely relatable, and loved seeing this relationship develop. I thought Triven was the perfect guy to help her grow, and realize that she shouldn’t stay stuck in the past. Because he truly believes that she is one very special girl. Another character who I absolutely adored, was the very young mute girl, Mouse. We don't really know if she doesn't speak, because she doesn't want to, or if she can't. But, she is very trusting of Phoenix, and is the sign of hope and braveness that Phoenix definitely needs in her life.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and thought it was super fast-paced and well-written. However, it was a very plot-driven book, and I did find that there were a few plot-holes in this book. I felt like there were times where I wanted things to be explained more clearly, but weren't because it was so action-packed. I was still instantly hooked from beginning to end, and couldn't put it down. I can't wait to pick up the second book called New World Ashes, to see what happens after that very gripping cliff-hanger end!

A Court of Thornes and Roses written by Sarah J. Maas-

As I was reading the ebook for New World Rising, I got an email for a free audiobook using the audible app. I haven't listened to an audiobook since reading Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix, so I thought it would be fun to try, and who doesn't like free books? I've been hearing a lot of hype on booktube for the ACOTAR series, and it seemed like something I might be interested in. Yes, I do enjoy books other than post-apocalyptic/dystopian. ACOTAR is a Fae or Faerie series, and is the first one of the series. As soon as I started listening to the audiobook, I immediately fell in love with it, the writing was so beautiful and I loved our main protagonist Feyre. It took me a while to read, cause it was very long, but once I finished it I had to give it a five star rating on Goodreads.

In ACOTAR, we follow mortal girl Feyre, who has been protecting her two sisters and father for most of her life, since her mother died. During a hunt she spots a deer, but accidentally kills a wolf, or so she thought. When she returns home it turns out she had actually killed a very powerful faerie. She has to pay her debt of killing this faerie, and is dragged to a magical kingdom. Her captor, Tamlin, is a mysterious Fae with piercing green eyes, hidden behind a jeweled mask. At the court she discovers secrets of these Fae, and ends up falling in love with Tamlin. She also discovers that there is a deadly curse killing Fae, which is why they have to wear masks. So, when she wants to go back home to her family, she also wants to help out her two captors. A Court of Thorns and Roses is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, the Norwegian fairytale; East of the Sun and West of the Moon, and the character Tam Lin from a Norfolk ballad.

At first I was hesitant on reading this book, because sometimes hyped books can be a letdown, especially when they are retellings. Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorite fairytales, so I knew I was going to be very critical when reading this book. I thought Sarah J. Maas did a very good job in making the fairytale her own, which is sometimes difficult to do when you are retelling so many fairytales at once. Her writing style was beautiful and the perfect fit for a fantasy series. I loved Feyre and thought she was such a reliable protagonist and very kickass, which I always enjoy when reading from the female perspective. Because sometimes female protagonists in fantasy series like this one, can be very unrelatable and usually depicted as the damsel in distress. I really appreciated her character development, but can't speak about it too much because I don't want to spoil the end. One of my other favorite characters was Lucian, I don’t know if anyone else felt this way, but I really enjoyed his scenes with Feyre and Tamlin. I thought he was hilarious and was extremely protective of his kingdom. At first I did not ship Feyre and Tamlin, because I felt like Tamlin was too mysterious and he simply just didn't peak my interests. I did enjoy their romantic parts in the book, but I don't know, for some reason I don't trust Tamlin. I know a lot of people's ideas of Tamlin change after the second book, which I already bought. So, I am interested to see how that relationship goes in A Court of Mist and Fury. If you love fantasy retellings, Fae, and badass female heroines, then I would definitely pick this series up.

A Darker Shade of Magic & A Gathering of Shadows (Book One/Two of Shades of Magic Trilogy) written by V.E. Schwabb -

As I was reading A Court of Thorns and Roses via audiobook, I decided to pick up A Darker Shade of Magic. Because, once again, I kept hearing about this book over on booktube, and it really sounded like something I would like. I borrowed my friend Madeleine's copy of A Darker Shade of Magic, and finished it so fast that I had to pick up the second book right away. I instantly adored and fell in love with these two books, that they easily became one of my favorite series. Earning both of their rights as five star ratings! I will be talking about these series side by side, because I plan on writing a blog solely dedicated to A Gathering of Shadows, because it blew my mind!

In A Darker Shade of Magic, we follow the story of Kell, gasp a fantasy book that's told in the perspective of a male! Kell is what is known as an Antari, a very powerful magician who can control all the elements of magic; fire, water, earth, air, and bone. He is also one of the last of his kind, who can travel between the parallel London's. There are four different London's; Red London- which is where Kell is from, White London- which is being overrun by two very powerful and evil twins, Grey London- which is like our London with no magic, and Black London- which we don't talk about anymore, because it was consumed by its own magic. Kell serves as a messenger of Red London, and is adopted by the royals of Arnes (Red London). He has a brother, Prince Rhy (who is my favorite character), who doesn't know what his element of magic is. So, Kell tries to teach him to control his element. While he tries to uphold his duties as brother and messenger of this royal family, we also learn that he is a smuggler. Kell steals magical items from the other London's, which is frowned upon in his London. As he is in the middle of obtaining a magical item, someone steals that item from him. Her name is Delilah Bard, who is a very sneaky baroness pirate, who's trying to find the perfect ship. We find out that the item they both tried to steal, is a very powerful stone from Black London. Both Kell and Lila try to return this stone to where it came from, because it holds too much power for the both of them. As they try to return the stone, they get into some sticky situations, that almost ruins Red London.

This was a very easy series to fall in love with, mainly because of the characters. I instantly fell in love with our protagonist Kell, because of his care for his brother, Prince Rhy. Kell truly loves Prince Rhy and would do anything to protect him, but struggles with his role within this royal family. He never truly believed that he belonged there, and feels like he is being used because of what he is. But, Prince Rhy tries to tell him, that he is more than just a messenger to his family. Prince Rhy struggles as to why Kell doesn't appreciate all the things they've given him, and doesn't understand Kell's questioning. So, when I was reading the scenes between Prince Rhy and Kell, I thought that they might be the love story in this series. Prince Rhy seemed very flirtatious with Kell, but as we got deeper into their story, we find out that it's simply a case of brotherly love. Which I still thoroughly enjoyed, because you don’t get that brother and brother sibling relationship too often in YA books. As mentioned earlier, Prince Rhy was my favorite character, I instantly felt a connection with him, even though we didn't get much of him in the first book. I simply just loved the banter between him and Kell, and was always laughing whenever Rhy was in the picture. I wanted more of him in the second book, which we definitely got (thank you V.E. Schwabb), and my love for him grew even more. Then we have our female lead, Delilah or Lila Bard. When we first meet Lila Bard, we don't get much as to who she is. We realize that she is cunning, sneaky, and if you say one wrong thing to her she might kill you. But, she still knows when to walk away from a situation that might get her killed, which I really liked about her. She was very aware of her surroundings, and knew when to get involved and when to not get involved. We also find out that Lila Bard is a pirate who simply loves to travel, and whose main mission was to find the perfect ship and crew to be a part of.

If you couldn't tell, I instantly fell in love with this series! The characters were all loveable and easy to root for, well except for a few (The Danes Twins). I loved learning about the magic system, and whenever V.E. Schwabb got into detail of the magic system, I believed that it could actually be real. Her writing was very clear and wasn't confusing at all, so believing that this magic system could exist wasn't a far-fetched concept. I think it's easy to say that I would definitely recommend this series to anyone! If you are someone who enjoys reading YA, but want to start reading more Adult novels, I think this series would be the perfect gateway. It follows a similar structure to YA fantasy novels, but the characters are a bit older and more mature, and there are a lot more politics within this series. And on another note, this series needs to become a movie franchise, because when reading it I could easily picture this world, and think that it would make a great movie!

The Gentlemen's Guide to Vice and Virtue written by Mackenzie Lee -

After reading the audiobook of ACOTAR, I was able to get another free audiobook as a part of a free trial, and decided to pick up The Gentlemen's Guide to Vice and Virtue. This book just came out this summer, and has been circling around booktube for a few months. I heard the audiobook was extremely enjoyable, because it was narrated by the guy who did the Harry Potter audiobooks. So, I thought this would be the perfect audiobook to choose, as well as a good end of summer book to read.

In The Gentlemen's Guide to Vice and Virtue we follow Henry "Monty" Montague, who was born and bred to be a gentlemen, but he was never one to be tamed. He was one for gambling halls, late nights with alcohol, and waking up in the morning with either a man or a woman by his side. His father was fed up with his careless and reckless actions. So, as Monty embarks on his Grand Tour of Europe, his father ruins what was supposed to be a time filled with adventure, pleasure, and a lot of alcohol. By bringing a long a caretaker of sorts, to make sure that Monty doesn't get into any trouble. But, Monty somehow is still able to do everything his father disapproves of, on his travels with his best friend and crush, Percy, and sister Felicity. He still manages to get into reckless situations during their travels across Paris and Rome. As Monty gets his companions stuck in a manhunt, that turns his Grand Tour of vice and pleasure, upside down. Making Monty question everything he knows, including his relationship with the boy he adores and loves.

I ended up giving this book a four out of five stars on Goodreads, there were many things I adored about it and a few things that bothered me as well. I loved Monty and Percy's relationship, even during the heartbreaking moments. Monty was such a hilarious protagonist, who had me cracking up a ton when listening to this book. Percy was extremely adorable, and I could definitely see why Monty loved him so much. I surprisingly found myself liking Felicity a lot more than I thought I would by the end of the book. And thought she had the most character development beside the boys, who were the main focus of this story. While I loved the characters, there were a few issues I had with the plot, and felt like there were many plot holes. But, I did enjoy that Mackenzie Lee included so many different topics of discussion, to make the book not as light and fluffy as I thought it was going to be. We have our main character who is Bisexual, and our secondary character who is epileptic and half-black. It was interesting to see how these characters dealt with these issues, especially since it was set in the 1800s, as many of these ideas were frowned upon during that time era. I thought The Gentlemen's Guide to Vice and Virtue was the perfect end of summer read, that was full of adventure, travel, wit, and romance.

The Kill Order (Prequel to The Maze Runner Trilogy) written by James Dashner -

The last book I read in the month of August, was The Kill Order, which is the prequel to The Maze Runner Trilogy. I had downloaded this book a few years ago, when I was still in college, because I had no idea that it was a thing. It looked like it had come out when I was abroad, and the synopsis had intrigued me enough to buy it. I loved The Maze Runner Trilogy so much, that I thought I would give it a shot, especially to learn more about Wicked and the Sun flares. While I was extremely excited to get back into The Maze Runner world, I found myself very disappointed with this prequel. I ended up giving it a three out of five stars, which was an extremely difficult thing for me to do.

"Before WICKED was formed, before the Glade was built, before Thomas entered the Maze, sun flares hit earth and mankind fell into disease." Now reading that one liner from the synopsis, how could one not be hooked into reading this? I definitely wanted to read this book after that hook, but was shortly disappointed by the end of it. In this prequel we follow a man named Mark, who has been hiding in the trams of the city, as the sun flares hit and destroyed mankind. Throughout the story we learn what the sun flares are, while following the survival journey of Mark and his friends. We also follow the romance of Mark and Trina, and find out why these two are very important to The Maze Runner series.

As someone who loved The Maze Runner Trilogy so much, when they first came out, I was extremely disappointed when I didn't enjoy this prequel. There were many problems I had with The Kill Order, which is why I gave it a three out of five stars. While I did enjoy learning more about how and why WICKED was formed and what the sun flares were, I just wasn't hooked with this book at all. I didn't really like any of the characters, and thought there was too much action for my taste. Since, there was so much action, we weren't able to get a whole lot of character development, except maybe with Mark. I'm definitely one who loves characters more than the plot, because I find that if I don't care for the characters, I'm not really going to care for the storyline. I also didn't care for the romance between Mark and Trina, while I did think Mark cared about Trina a lot. I thought the romance was kind of forced and uninteresting, even though these two are very important to The Maze Runner trilogy. I read this story extremely fast, just for the sake of getting through it, simply because I really wasn't enjoying it. I wanted to finish it to give it a chance, and hoped that the end might change my mind about it. But, honestly I kind of saw the end coming, and thought this book was very predictable. With that being said, I'm not sure if I will be picking up Fever Code, which is the second prequel to The Maze Runner trilogy. I know it deals a lot with Thomas and The Glade, so I might like it a bit more than The Kill Order, because Thomas was definitely my favorite character from The Maze Runner, a part from Minho. It would be interesting to find out more of the beginnings of The Glade, but I probably won't be picking up Fever Code anytime soon. Mainly because I am still mad and disappointed over The Kill Order.

So, as you can see I read a lot of books over the last two months, some of which I really enjoyed and others not as much. Before reading New World Rising, I was in a pretty bad reading slump, only reading about three books before that, and hardly any when I was still in college. New World Rising definitely helped me get out of that reading slump, and I am so happy it did. Because there are a lot of books I missed over the years, that I didn't get the chance to read when I was in college. I didn't realize how much I had missed reading, since picking up A Darker Shade of Magic. I am very excited to pick up reading again, because it's honestly been a while since I have been this excited about something. Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed my reviews of my End of Summer Reads, and look forward to talking about more books in the future!

TTFN,

The CW Torch

#SummerReads #Fantasy #Dystopian