Airwoman: Book 1 by Zara Quentin
This book has pretty decent reviews but it’s sat on my Kindle for seven years now and I’ve had no desire to check it out. It’s definitely part of the ‘I got this for free when I first got a Kindle’ group. The irony of me downloading all of those free books is that I hardly read any of them. I soon discovered 99p deals and then it was over for the random free books. I did read a few of them but I don’t remember anything about them so that really speaks to whether they were worth downloading.
I can’t lie, the synopsis of this book feels like a ‘how many fantasy tropes can I fit in one book’ type of situation. Which is necessarily a bad thing, but with hundreds of books on my Kindle, I can’t justify spending time reading books I got for free.
Verdict: remove
Synopsis: A father murdered by magic. A daughter’s quest for clues could make her the next victim…
Jade Gariq dreams of a new calling. While she wishes she could join the elite force that protects her home world from interdimensional threats, she’s stuck working for the family business. But everything changes when her father is found with traces of magic on him… magic that should only belong to the mythical Dragon-Gods…
To uncover the mystery behind her father’s murder, Jade must follow the clues to an uncharted world. Beyond the portal, treacherous jungles, surprising betrayals, and a killer bent on tying up loose ends stand in her way of the truth. It’ll take every ounce of Jade’s cunning to solve her father’s death, but can she avoid his fate?
Airwoman is a high-flying YA fantasy novel set in a stunning new Dragonverse. If you like fascinating worlds, memorable characters, and a dash of romance, then you’ll love Zara Quentin’s action-packed adventure.
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
I read A Monster Calls a long time ago and I absolutely loved it at that time, in hindsight I don’t know how much I actually liked it. Because of that I thought I really liked Patrick Ness, however, I then found out he apparently took the idea of A Monster Calls from a dying woman and didn’t credit her at the time it was published. I’ve felt pretty sour towards him since. The Goodreads synopsis of A Monster Calls does now credit the idea for coming from Siobhan Dowd, so that’s good at least.
Honestly, a lot of dystopian novels sound really immature now. This whole section of the synopsis sounds so childish “Todd is just a month away from becoming a man, but in the midst of the cacophony, he knows that the town is hiding something from him — something so awful Todd is forced to flee with only his dog, whose simple, loyal voice he hears too. With hostile men from the town in pursuit, the two stumble upon a strange and eerily silent a girl. Who is she? Why wasn’t she killed by the germ like all the females on New World?” I’m assuming this book was written with 13 year old boys in mind and not 27 year old women. I also can’t read ‘females’ without thinking of Friday Night Dinner.
Apparently the film adaptation of this also wasn’t great. I’d consider watching it purely for Tom Holland but that’s the only reason why. Maybe I’ll check it out and then I can see if it’s worth reading the book.
Verdict: remove
Synopsis: Todd Hewitt is the only boy in a town of men. Ever since the settlers were infected with the Noise germ, Todd can hear everything the men think, and they hear everything he thinks. Todd is just a month away from becoming a man, but in the midst of the cacophony, he knows that the town is hiding something from him — something so awful Todd is forced to flee with only his dog, whose simple, loyal voice he hears too. With hostile men from the town in pursuit, the two stumble upon a strange and eerily silent a girl. Who is she? Why wasn’t she killed by the germ like all the females on New World? Propelled by Todd’s gritty narration, readers are in for a white-knuckle journey in which a boy on the cusp of manhood must unlearn everything he knows in order to figure out who he truly is.
Daughter of Chaos by Jen McConnel
This book has the same issue with its synopsis as The Knife of Never Letting Go. It sounds so childish and immature. Pre-teen me would have eaten this up but adult me thinks it sounds a little too YA for my liking. This part of the synopsis made me both laugh and cringe at the same time “Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft, shows up in her living room”. I think if I struggle to get through the Zodiac Academy series due to its immaturity yet spicy content, this book really won’t be for me. It does have pretty decent reviews though.
Verdict: remove
Synopsis: “You must choose, child. Choose now, and choose once, for once taken, the path becomes your fate.”
Magic is supposed to be easy; there’s Black, White, and Green Magic, and once a Witch picks a path, that’s really all she has to worry about. But for Darlena Agara, things just keep getting harder. She’s torn between her best friend’s choice of the Black path, and her on-again, off-again boyfriend’s choice of the White path, so she tries to stall, waiting for divine inspiration. Darlena isn’t expecting the form it takes, though. Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft, shows up in her living room and pressures her to choose her path, and Lena does something stupid; she declares that she’ll be a Red Witch, something that doesn’t exist…or does it?
Now Lena’s on the run, struggling to master the forces of chaos she now controls while at the same time staying out of the way of the crazy gods and goddesses who want her to use Red Magic to cause chaos. Turns out, Red Magic is real…and deadly. Will Lena learn enough about her power before it’s too late, or will she become a walking disaster?
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