Book Review: Iron Flame

Book 51 of 2023

Iron Flame. Written by Rebecca Yarros.

Ok, so if you have read my review of the first book of this series – you will know how much I loved it. However, I am not totally sold that I loved this sequel as much. Certainly there were things that I did like, I liked the way that changes were made and people adapted etc. I liked that Violet is really big on people making informed decisions and I like the frustratingly slow development of the relationship.

I continue to love the dragons – especially Violet’s dragon.

But I don’t know – I didn’t love the direction the book took – I didn’t love some of the impulsivity of the characters and I sure really really really did not love the ending. Will I read the third book? yes. Will I watch the movie that is meant to be being made? absolutely. But am I totally sold that this sequel is as good as the first? No!

Overall – probably like a 4.1 star book, and a reader feeling just a little bit miffed.

Mrs K

Genre: fantasy, romance, dragons, fiction, speculative fiction, book reviews, Mrs K Reads, magic, adult, adult reads, high fantasy, school fiction, war, Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing, Iron Flame,

Book Review: A Court this Cruel & Lovely

Book 50 of 2023

A Court This Cruel & Lovely. Written by Stacia Stark (Kingdom of Lies series)

This book kind of sort of drove me nuts. I instantly didn’t hate the characters, and there was an air of mystery which worked quite well. However there was also in my opinion some very serious pace problems.

I had got through about 20% of the book when I found myself struggling to actually continue to read the book and not just give up. While I have come a long way with my readiness to leave books as DNF – it still does not quite sit right with me as I like to continue them – and with books I live in a world of perpetual hope where I think the book will get better.

To be fair this book did get better. A lot better. In about the last 5%. Unfortunately for me – it got so much better I immediately started book two – and now I worry I am going to repeat this whole cycle again!!

Researching for this review I see that Stacia Stark is originally from New Zealand – ironically this makes me more inclined to like the book – which we can all recognise as total bias!

Overall I genuinely do not know how I feel bout the book, it was good – but mostly at the end. The characters were well developed, but we got a lot of character development early which is what messed with the pace. Overall I am just not sold. The twists at the end were predictable, (but I fully admit that given how much of the genre I read I should be able to predict the twists and turns!) I will persevere with the second book and see how we go.

Mrs K

Genre: Kingdom of lies, Stacia Stark, fantasy, speculative fiction, kindle unlimited, romance, fae, magic, new adult, adult fantasy, paranormal, high fantasy,