Hello, everyone! Today I am reviewing The Quicksilver Court by Melissa Caruso. After loving The Obsidian Tower last month, I was so excited to move on to this second book in the Rooks and Ruin series. Was it as amazing as I expected? Read on to find out! 🙂
Read More »Hello, everyone! It’s Wednesday! That means it is time for another WWW Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words. I’ll be answering the following questions:
Hello, everyone! Today I have a real treat, my review of Swordcrossed by Freya Marske. I adore Marske’s The Last Binding series and was excited to get a copy of her new book so early. This book doesn’t come out until October, but it was burning a hole in my Kindle because I just could not wait to read it. So, here comes my very early review of Swordcrossed…
Read More »Hello, everyone! It’s Wednesday! That means it is time for another WWW Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words. I’ll be answering the following questions:
April felt like a bit of a slog despite also seeming to fly by. It has rained SO MUCH. There were some points where I wondered if it would ever stop raining. lol. Everything is so saturated, and now May is off to a wet start, too. On the bright side, I haven’t needed to use my sprinklers. So, I guess it isn’t all bad. My wife has been looking for a new job, and it seems like we will probably be moving in the near future. I’m actually quite excited at the prospect of being somewhere new, but I dread needing to move all our stuff, especially the mountain of books I’ve acquired. Has this stopped me from buying more books? No. 🤣 Speaking of books, let’s get to the point of this post and jump into what I managed to read in April!
Read More »Hello, everyone! It’s Wednesday! That means it is time for another WWW Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words. I’ll be answering the following questions:
I showed some restraint in book purchases this month. I know it may not look like it from how many books are in this post, but I swear I didn’t buy that many books in April. A majority of these were pre-ordered a long time ago… So, they don’t count. 😉 Anyway. I got some great stuff in April, including quite a few of my highly anticipated releases (Otherworldly, The Living Force, The Familiar, & Funny Story).
You can see everything I added to my shelves down below. The book covers link to Goodreads in case you want to learn more about them.
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Hello, everyone! Today I’m reviewing The Sins on Their Bones by Laura R. Samotin, which will be published on May 7, 2024. I’ve been excited to pick this one up, and it is one of my most anticipated releases of May. What did I think of it? Read on to find out!
Dimitri Alexeyev used to be the Tzar of Novo-Svitsevo. Now, he is merely a broken man, languishing in exile after losing a devastating civil war instigated by his estranged husband, Alexey Balakin. In hiding with what remains of his court, Dimitri and his spymaster, Vasily Sokolov, engineer a dangerous ruse. Vasily will sneak into Alexey’s court under a false identity to gather information, paving the way for the usurper’s downfall, while Dimitri finds a way to kill him for good.
But stopping Alexey is not so easy as plotting to kill an ordinary man. Through a perversion of the Ludayzim religion that he terms the Holy Science, Alexey has died and resurrected himself in an immortal, indestructible body—and now claims he is guided by the voice of God Himself. Able to summon forth creatures from the realm of demons, he seeks to build an army, turning Novo-Svitsevo into the greatest empire that history has ever seen.
Dimitri is determined not to let Alexey corrupt his country, but saving Novo-Svitsevo and its people will mean forfeiting the soul of the husband he can’t bring himself to forsake—or the spymaster he’s come to love.
***Thank you to Random House Canada for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley. My review contains my honest thoughts about my reading experience.***
The Sins on Their Bones wrecked me. It broke my heart. Then it built me up again just to stomp my recovered heart into a million pieces. The whole experience was such an emotional roller coaster. There were times I was squinting through tears, almost unable to read the words because I was sobbing so much. Please check the content warnings for this one before picking it up. This was a dark book with a focus on the mental and emotional aftermath of domestic and childhood sexual abuse. Take care if you are not in the right head space to read about those experiences.
I loved how The Sins on Their Bones managed to weave Jewish folklore and mythology into its world-building. The world-building wasn’t terribly complex, but I found that it provided just enough information about the society and the magic to keep me interested and allow me to understand the story. The magic and religion were so fascinating. There were angels and demons, talking severed heads, and rituals that were equal parts awe-inspiring and gruesome.
The main thing that kept The Sins on Their Bones from being a five-star read for me was the plot. It was so slow. There was so much focus on the characters and their emotional journeys that the plot suffered. It took forever for anything to happen, and a lot of the forward movement seemed to happen because of luck or convenience. Once everything converged, though, the plot took some turns I didn’t expect, and it made great use of how emotionally attached I’d become to the characters.
The starting point of the story in The Sins on Their Bones was also a bit odd. Things began in the direct aftermath of a civil war, and there was a great deal of history between all of the characters. Flashbacks helped to understand some of their previous experiences, but it was just such a strange place to start a story. It felt like the second part of a duology, or maybe even the middle of a trilogy, that was missing its first part.
Ultimately, The Sins on Their Bones was about the journey of growth for the characters as they figured out how to heal from their traumas and move forward to build a better future. I thought all three POVs did a great job of exploring different aspects of how people cope with trauma and loss. The story also illustrated the power of unconditional love and connection in healing, while highlighting the manipulative and controlling ways used by abusers to take advantage of others.
Overall, I thought The Sins on Their Bones was a compelling and emotional read. I came to care about the characters a great deal and was fascinated by the Jewish folklore used in the story. The plot was extremely slow and started in a weird place, but the exploration of trauma, grief, love, and belonging more than made up for it for me. Therefore, I give The Sins on Their Bones a rating of 4 out of 5 stars.
Have you read The Sins on Their Bones? Does it sound like something you’d enjoy? Let me know your thoughts down in the comments!
It is almost the end of the month, which means it is time to look forward to the upcoming May 2024 book releases. May is a little lighter for me on anticipated releases. So, I was actually able to narrow it down to a top 10 this month. Thank goodness! If you’d like to check out last month’s anticipated releases, you can find them here. The covers all link to Goodreads in case you want to add any of them to your TBR! 🙂
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Hello, everyone! Today I’m reviewing the third book of The Neskan Chronicles, Misery Bay by Owen Lach. I’m a fan of Lach’s work, and I was stoked to see where this story went next. Be sure to check out my reviews of Founder’s Mercy and Broken Valley if you haven’t read them yet.
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