February/March 2020 Reads
Alright, so I had every intention of posting my reads for February but time and life got away from me. As such, here is a combo of February and March. Which is really just what I read in February and what I started and didn’t finish in March. The breakdown: highly recommend ‘The Library of the Unwritten’, ‘Ninth House’, do not recommend ‘House of Earth and Blood’.
Ninth House (Alex Stern #1) by Leigh Bardugo
SPOLIERS
Higher education with a magical twist. Alex (Galaxy) Stern has earned herself a free ride to Yale, mostly, but not on an academic or a sports scholarship but because she can see ghosts, spirits, greys. Ninth House takes the reader to New Haven, Connecticut and the Yale campus but plunges into secret societies beyond the Stone Masons. The secret societies, the 8 houses of the veil operate on campus but hidden in the shadows, of course. Each house practices their own brand of magic from shape-shifting to portal magic, to mind manipulation – they do their dirty deeds behind closed doors but not without the supervision of the Ninth House, Lethe, to keep them in check…mostly. Alex falls into the Yale life after a near death experience (via a fentenyol overdose) when the dean finds out she can see the dead, the “greys” making her an asset to a society that hones into the supernatural. Naturally, trouble crops up within months of Alex’s arrival and bad things surround her, follow her and attack her as she struggles to leave a troubled, drug addled past behind and start anew.
Magic is used and abused by those in power to make them more powerful and often at the cost of the less fortunate; Alex can see and interact with ghosts to help and hinder her and she has a troubled past (drug abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse) brought on by her unique ability. She uses her street sense in a foreign ivy league environment to bring the corrupted to justice (in a manner) and help other abused people get justice….maybe not in the most legal way.
There were many parts of this book that I loved. The world building is wonderful and the societies, the houses of the veil are fascinating. Alex is a good character but the one I found more interesting was Darlington. Looking forward to a sequel and this will be reread for sure.
The Library of the Unwritten (Hell’s Library #1) by A.J. Hackwith
Every community needs a library and Hell is no exception with sections dedicated to the Arcane Wing and the Unwritten Wing which houses books that remain, well, unwritten. Sometimes those unwritten works wake up and manifest in the form of it’s characters. Claire, the head librarian, and her assistant Brevity, track the escaped characters and return them to their books. When a piece of the Devil’s Bible comes into Claire’s possession, it sets off a journey (with a couple of interesting characters joining her) to other worlds to find the rest of the book and keep it out of the hands of angels and demons who want to utilize it to further their own agendas, none of which are good.
This was a very enjoyable read. The characters are interesting, including the ones escaped from the books, the journey is fun to read and the worlds and people they encounter equally interesting. Highly recommend this one. It’s a quick but engaging read.
So that covers February. And in March I started reading House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City, #1) by Sarah J. Maas. The cover is beautiful, the book…..I stopped at about 200 pages. Not sure it’s for me. Interesting premise but I do not like the main character at all. The swearing and what not doesn’t bother me but there is something about Bryce and the bad girl personae that felt forced and over the top. Not sure Sarah J. Maas is an author I will try again. It’s a hard pass.
Dawning Creates 