Maggie R

A Candelit Meal

Reviewed: 11-02-21

Reading this book—listening especially—was like attending a multi-course, candlelit meal with soft conversations and a gentle weaving of hundreds of threads and stories into one narrative. Victoria is simply brilliant. Her characterization is incredibly nuanced (particularly seen in the ending). I am absolutely in awe. And to Addie, I remember you.

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Dark & Luscious Prose & World

Reviewed: 07-16-21

Hannah Whitten deserves the NYT Bestseller's merit for so many reasons, but most especially her prose. It is luscious, dark and knife-edged, slow enough to bind you in its spell and then fast enough to sink fangs in before you quite know what's happened. Her writing lended itself so beautifully to this story that I truly felt one with the woods and the twisting magic it was introduced bit by bit. The romance is slow-burn and the ending so, SO deeply satisfying, and Red's anger is as easy to understand and latch onto as Neve's desperation.

I came for the Beauty and the Beast angle, and stayed for the writing, the politics, the strange magic around religious zealotry, the dynamic of sisters and found family. If this book entranced me, I truly cannot wait to see what Neve's does because I absolutely adored every section focused on her in this book, and the way Hannah ended things...without spoilers, I'm pretty sure we'll get a Snow White/Snow Queen angle for the next book and I cannot wait to see it happen.

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Instant Favorite

Reviewed: 03-30-21

Everything I loved about Kerri Maniscalco’s first series, she fulfilled and expanded with this book. Her dialogue and banter has always been my favorite, but I was truly NOT prepared for the perfection that is the conversations between Emilia and Wrath. She struck a perfect balance between danger and desire, and if you are looking for a TRUE enemies-to-lovers book, this is it.

Her world-building was absolutely stunning, full of rich sensory details and a powerful, nuanced narrator in the protagonist. I absolutely adore her, and rooted for her even when she was walking that strange moral line in pursuit of vengeance. The ending had me screaming in my car, and I’ve already pre-ordered book two.

Finally, the narration was FLAWLESS! Honestly, I couldn’t pause this for anything. Her voice is the perfect level of intoxicating needed for a dark story of witches, demons, and Italian streets. I adore her accents and emphasis, and the emotion she pours into the main character’s internal dialogue. This is absolutely a new favorite!

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3 people found this helpful

A Perfect Book

Reviewed: 03-20-21

This has become my favorite contemporary novel/Romance, in no small part due to the narrator. What a beautiful, funny, deep, butterfly-inducing story. I’m pretty sure the love scenes are my favorite I’ve ever read—Emily has a way of grounding you in the tiniest touches and sensory details that make it feel perfectly real. I’d recommend this to literally everyone.

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Outstanding

Reviewed: 12-17-20

“You are lightning made flesh.”

To have an opening line as powerful and evocative as this is to set an incredibly high bar. When I first read it, the line set my teeth on edge and shot electricity through my veins until I felt I could feel the hum of lightning beneath my skin. I was almost scared by my sudden levels of excitement, sure that the book would not fulfill its first promise.

Never have I been more glad to be wrong. Roar is resonant. The words cast a slow-burning spell that works its way easily beneath the skin and nestle deep within the mind. Each character feels as if they were forged by an expert blacksmith, bearing weight and depth that leaves little doubt to the value of their experiences and views of the world. And what a glorious world it is.

Roar has one of the most unique fantasy world structures I’ve seen. The Stormheart series focuses on storm magic and those in possession of it. Tempests plague the land and only those living in cities guarded by the magical Stormlings seem to be able to survive, let alone thrive. This creates not only an immediate sense of tension in the story as it opens just before the start of the rage season (when storms are relentless in the skies), but also an interesting political dichotomy. What happens to the people who can’t afford to gain entrance to the city, or live within its walls? What about people who might have a different kind of magic than the famed Stormlings, one looked down upon through the world’s history? And of course there are the storms themselves—semi-sentient beings with hearts capable of being claimed for power.

Through Roar, Cora Carmack takes us on a full journey of the wildlands around Caelira and imagines storms of such breathtaking magnitude and beauty, one longs to join the hunt. And with the band of stormhunters Aurora joins, we get an even better and more diverse look at the world’s politics and imbalance of power, as well as the very magic everyone desperately needs to possess.

Beyond the outward craft, Cora took another daring leap in that she has not one, but two POV characters who suffer from anxiety and self-doubt. While Roar is smart, brave, and bold on the outset, she faces a constant internal battle over whether she can trust herself or those around her, what path might be the right one. She has the weight of a kingdom on her shoulders and it shows. Nova, on the other hand, faces extreme anxieties that are both her own making and thanks to a part of herself she has little hope to control. Despite all of this, she gives everything she can to aid her best friend.

Roar is about finding one’s place in the world not on one’s own merit, but through the relationships one forges and the opportunities one takes. Aurora could have easily bowed to her mother’s wishes and wed Cassius Locke, never to discover the true power she held within, but she doesn’t. Nova could have served her own interests and blocked out Aurora’s cries for help, but she won’t. Even Cassius abandons his self-servicing nature to a certain extent when a relationship is threatened. Without the stormhunter crew behind her, Aurora would never have grown into the incredible, dynamic woman she is by the end of the book moving into Rage, and it shows.

My final note is on romance. Cora began as a romance author and it shows beautifully within this story. While Roar has a greater focus on epic fantasy worldbuilding and several storylines, romance does play its own, significant role and it is brilliant within these pages. It is slow, built off a friendship and reluctant mutual respect, and the moment it culminates into proper being, the reader can’t help but scream with pure joy.

This is a book I will not soon forget, if ever. It’s one I’ve loaned to several friends and hope to keep loaning, if only so that others can take part in this wondrous story and be emboldened by Roar.

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Perfection

Reviewed: 11-21-20

This story was INSANELY cute! I’m already a sucker for rivals to lovers, especially when they’re forced to team up, and the fact it happened over the course of a day along with a really cool scavenger hunt was *chef’s kiss*. The author did a fantastic job of setting this romance/relationship up, with crackling tension from the very beginning. Both characters feel well-rounded and realistic, and they embody those epic, anxious stakes that come with graduating high school and facing the person you’re about to become and the person you used to be. I could read/listen to this ten more times in a row and not be bored.

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1 person found this helpful

Favorite Series, FAVORITE NARRATOR

Reviewed: 01-27-20

This book is near perfection. It blows my mind what Libba has done with this story—from a writing perspective and a topical one. She somehow manages to balance a beautifully diverse, uniquely voiced ensemble cast of characters with a chilling storyline full of thrills, socio-political commentary on America in the 1920s, our treatment of mental health, political leanings, and how a person can be coaxed into extremism or passivity. She's not afraid to point out the gaping wounds of America's history and the subsequent ghosts we must not forget. It is a book—a series—SO necessary under today's leadership, and one I truly hope makes waves when it comes to an end.

On a story level, Libba is a master weaver. She highlights the colors of each character, creating their unique struggles, hopes, dreams, ambitions and then spins a whole tapestry in which they are worked seamlessly together without losing that which makes them unique. She shows their personalities vividly through their dialogue and responses to a situation, the way they cope with tragedy and victory, the way they interact with the world around them. She makes me die laughing in places (usually at Sam and Evie's tomfoolery), swoon and blush (again usually at Sam and Evie), weep profusely, and grit our teeth in anger. Her world is incredibly immersive, the 1920s grit of New York painted in a few simple words.

This narrator is by FAR my favorite of the entire pantheon. Her ability to spin unique voices for a myriad of characters—major and minor—and to hit the emotional beats every time is completely unmatched. Her renditions of Evie's voice in particular during this audiobook made me weep in places—from her brightest teases to a scene full of vulnerability after trauma. I look froward to listening to this again!

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Bold. Enriched. Nuanced.

Reviewed: 11-15-19

K.B. Hoyle's second installment in The Gateway Chronicles expands upon her world, characters, and lore in increasingly unpredictable, challenging ways while staying true to the age range and desires of the cast. The Oracle opens on the "children" being one year out from their return to Cedar Cove, eager to return, and full of questions left over from their first experience in Alitheia. Though we know they are prophesied to ultimately defeat Tselloch, there are endless possibilities of what Hoyle can do with the story between the beginning and the end six books later.

One of my favorite elements of The Oracle is the fact that the antagonistic force in the book is largely up for personal interpretation. Tselloch was introduced as the ultimate villain in The Six, and of course his reign of darkness persists as the main vein of evil in the series, whether personified in his followers the shadow creatures Tsellochim, the mindless slaves Tsellodrin, or as the Great Shadow himself. Though the creatures do make an appearance in this book, the conflict largely comes from an altogether separate force—one the reader is left up to decide. Is it the well-meaning, slightly condescending adults who try to shut things down and ignore the teenagers' concerns? Is it The Oracle, whose hold on Darcy is akin to torture in its intensity and persistence and whose answers are convoluted at best? Or is it Darcy herself, with her youthful, selfish desires acting as the driving antagonist?

Equally interesting is the way that Hoyle develops the magical world of Altiheia further here, introducing other lands like Mayim in the overall world of Orodreos through a flurry of new characters that enter the scene when Darcy must set out on her quest. The lore deepens, more history of the world and the Ecclektos line is revealed, and several unique magical compositions are explored right from the very beginning. As Hoyle dives into the layers of her world, it's equally gratifying to learn that while all are rich, not all of them are lovely, and even the wise, super-powerful elders and magical beings who mentor Darcy and her friends are capable of severe error and have made many in their respective pasts. In a way that both comforts and frightens as happens every time a revered adult reveals themselves to be fallable, Darcy has to learn to understand and accept them even as her world grows more complicated page by page.

Because of all these elements, The Oracle introduces a level of nuance that was lacking in The Six, merely because we are now familiar with the world and ready to challenge the first picture we were presented. Right from the start, Darcy challenges her role in the prophecy which kickstarts the driving action in the book and leads to repercussions and information that follow the series to the end. Each character takes on new shades of color, relationships deepen and are strained, and living and operating in the world of Alitheia suddenly means so much more than showing up and surviving in hidden keeps. This installment sets a tone of growing responsibility, sacrificial love, the importance of trust, the need to ask questions, and put old theories to the test.

The Six gives a taste of what K.B. Hoyle is capable of and sets the scene. The Oracle begins to execute the overarching story with boldness and beauty. Just wait until you see what The White Thread brings.

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Beyond Worthwhile

Reviewed: 07-11-19

I am totally blown away by this story—not just the narrative style and plot, but the narrator’s mastery of pace, emotion, character voices, and tension. During the climax, I was literally shouting in my car as the narrator sped up and then slowed, drawing out the dramatic twist with perfect flare. I cannot wait to read the sequel and listen to the audiobook!

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1 person found this helpful

Magical, Beginning to End

Reviewed: 03-26-19

I’ve written an extensive view of The Six on amazon and my website, thedailymagpie, but Dollcie Webb truly added a new dose of magic and life into a story that I already loved and knew so dearly! I’ve been waiting years for an audiobook of The Gateway Chronicles to appear, so the fact that she was able to deliver just what I wanted—and more—is incredible! Her voice of narration is clear and calm, her character voices distinct and lovely, and her emotional beats are perfectly on point. I can’t recommend this highly enough!

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