book review – Page 19 – Baltimore Bibliophile

Title: Once & Future

Authors: Amy Rose Capetta, Cori McCarthy

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (JIMMY Patterson Books)

336 pages

3/5 stars

Goodreads Synopsis

I’ve been chased my whole life. As a fugitive refugee in the territory controlled by the tyrannical Mercer corporation, I’ve always had to hide who I am. Until I found Excalibur.

Now I’m done hiding.

My name is Ari Helix. I have a magic sword, a cranky wizard, and a revolution to start.

When Ari crash-lands on Old Earth and pulls a magic sword from its ancient resting place, she is revealed to be the newest reincarnation of King Arthur. Then she meets Merlin, who has aged backward over the centuries into a teenager, and together they must break the curse that keeps Arthur coming back. Their quest? Defeat the cruel, oppressive government and bring peace and equality to all humankind.

No pressure.

Review

“It’s true, I’m no murderer. But I do have an impulse control problem. And a sword.”
– Amy rose capetta, Cori Mccarthy, Once & Future

Friends! I finished another book! I wanted to review Once & Future because it was not my favorite book. It sounds kind of backwards, but I don’t want my blog to just be me raving about books I loved. It will be of course, but I want to review all types of books, even those that don’t interest or thrill me as much.

So in terms of this book. There are pieces I love and pieces that just weren’t my jam. Overall, I’m not too surprised that this book didn’t thrill me, because retellings are all very hit and miss for me. Add in sci-fi (which is also hit and miss) and you have a recipe that I’m not too interested in making again.

PROS.

Genderbent retelling. I love when classic stories are switched to be from a different perspective. The concept of King Arthur as a female is highly intriguing, which is part of the reason I picked up the book. I’m not super familiar with the King Arthur legend – I had to ask my boyfriend a few questions about it because I just wasn’t getting the references!
LGBTQIA. This is a wonderful queer retelling. Now, I am a cis and straight person, so I don’t pretend to fully understand a solid queer rep – but I’d be willing to bet that this is up there with the best of the best. There is a quote that sticks with me… Merlin uses a he/him pronoun for a gender fluid character and he apologizes then says something to the affect of : I am from a society where historically gender assumptions are based on appearances and aesthetics – and Ari says EW! I loved that part, and it is so important in today’s society
Merlin. In this book, Merlin is aging backwards – so he is a 17 year-old male in this retelling. He is also gay. I’ll repeat, we have a gay wizard. As a Harry Potter fan, I’ve been waiting for this day for SO LONG! All the representation! Anyway, the fact that he is aging backwards becomes a pretty important plot point as it inhibits his interactions with the rest of the knights.

CONS.

I don’t care about King Arthur. As stated, I don’t know much about King A. However, I now know that I don’t really care about the legend, and honestly it bores me. I got through the book, but it was very *yawn* as a plot baseline. Also, the “evil” that needs to be vanquished is very reminiscent of the Capitol in The Hunger Games and it felt unoriginal.
Gwen and Kay. Okay. If you haven’t read this book, look away because spoilers are coming. Gwen is Ari’s WIFE. Kay is Ari’s BROTHER. Ari becomes presumed dead, so they start banging each other?? EXCUSE ME? No, I don’t even care for Gwen’s “it was the closest way I could be with you”. Hellz no. BYE. AND THEN. She’s PREGNANT? And THEN… he DIES? Nope. You lost me. His death scene was very annoying – it wasn’t well explained and felt unnecessary.
Dragons. That weren’t dragons. But were dragons? Still confused. Someone advise. Now, I love dragons. Dragons make every book better. But if you’re going to have dragons, call them dragons…. not taneens. Like, dragons exist in this world, but these dragon like things are not dragons. But are definitely dragons by description. Still confused.
Space. I totally get the concept that Old Earth was overrun over the centuries and basically destroyed so everyone went to space and to live on planets. Got it. Totally could happen. But why is space so… cliche? Like a moon that is basically Vegas? And there is conveniently a planet that is bass ackwards enough to be Arthurian? Like, literally modeled after King Arthur’s time? And the random chick Ari loves is the queen? – Y’all, I get that this is a cycle of life and Merlin keeps coming back to run through the same basic story line – but some originality would be nice, and less obvious coincidences.

Okay, that was a lot of words. I have a lot of feelings, okay?!? I will read the sequel when it is released in 2020 regardless, and I’m sure I’ll review it. I’m just glad I didn’t spend money on this book and read it through the library. It was not my jam, but that’s okay! If you love retellings and sci-fi with some lovely queer rep, this will be the book for you! It was written well, I will say that.

Happy reading, friends!

Title : LEGEND

Author : Nicole Conway

Publisher : Month9Books

355 pages

Rating : 4/5

Goodreads Synopsis

In a war of gods and tyrants, the will of the dragonrider must never falter.

Captured and tortured by the brutal tyrant, Argonox, Reigh’s worst fears have now been realized. Argonox has successfully twisted his mysterious dark power for a truly evil purpose—reanimating the long-deceased legendary dragonrider, Beckah Derrick, and her monstrous king drake. But Argonox’s cruelty won’t end there, and Reigh fears the worst is yet to come. Rescue is unlikely as the Tibrans prepare to make their final strike, poised to break Maldobar’s ranks of proud dragonriders once and for all.

With many of its cities already captured by the Tibran Empire, all hope now rests with Jaevid, Princess Jenna, Phillip, and their mismatched band of dragonrider allies to lead the last stand and save their kingdom. Even in such frightful times, Jaevid may find he still has a few old friends ready to take up their weapons and stand at his side again. But facing down Beckah is perhaps the one thing that might break Jaevid’s resolve. Can he really strike down the woman he used to love in order to save the kingdom?

One final battle will decide the fate of our heroes. Can the strength dragonrider prevail once again? Or will the Tibran Empire become Maldobar’s new legacy?

Review

*ebooks received in exchange for an honest review*

Friends! I’m here today to talk about the third book in the Dragonrider Legacy trilogy! I received all 3 ebooks from Month9Books for free in exchange for an honest review of the the third book, LEGEND, along with my participation in a Bookstagram tour. Many thanks to Month9Books for this opportunity 🙂

I’m going to focus on the third book for this review, so if you haven’t read the first two – look away and go get the first 2 books if you don’t want spoilers! Overall, if you like dragons, dark magic, and overthrowing tyrannical, invading overlords in bloody battles – this book series may be for you! I enjoyed the series and gave all 3 books 4 stars.

LEGEND is the epic conclusion to Reigh’s journey. Sadly, most of the book is not told from his perspective – which I found mildly strange. However, as he was a captive of the aforementioned tyrannical, invading overlord I guess it makes sense – I just wanted more Reigh in my life, along with his adorably naive cockiness! Overall, the book provided a nice ending for all characters. Reigh is acknowledged as a Prince by his father, the King, and he continues to get to know his other siblings. There’s a few good battle scenes, Jaevid does pretty awesome, demigod-like tricks and of course, they defeat the bad guy.

It killed my heart that Jaevid’s long lost love was brought back to a semblance of life to haunt him in the middle, but my heart swelled when his deal with Clysiros brought her back for good! And that ENDING. WITH KIRAN??? UGH my heart. Reigh so deserved it. I loved that he didn’t ask for any conditions in the deal, and that Jaevid thought of it for him – so considerate, and showed that Reigh really just wanted the bad guys to be gone for the good of Maldobar and Luntharda.

One critique, I wanted more closure for Reigh and Enyo. Will they stay together? Does she visit him in Maldobar? Do they ever get married?? What happened to Jenna and Phillip? Basically, I need answers. I feel like there was a lot of good closure in this series but I ALWAYS WANT MORE! Especially when love stories are involved – I want to know everything about their hopefully now mundane lives!!

I knocked this down one star because a decent bit of it was a confusing. The writing seemed a bit disjointed at times, and I felt that some transitions were lacking. Some major events occurred without enough buildup or explanation, in my opinion. HOWEVER, I would continue to read in this realm and I’ve heard (from Goodreads) that there’s a prequel series where I can read about my boy Jaevid’s first war and discovering he is the lapiloque – definitely intrigued!

OVERALL. We have dragons, war, dark magic, unconditional love – AND some pretty decent characters. Nicole Conway weaves a good mixture of those highly desirable fantasy traits that will keep you reading. I recently won a copy of Scales by Nicole Conway in a Storygram Tours giveaway, so I’m glad I have the opportunity to continue reading her work.

Happy reading friends!