Friday, January 8, 2016

Friday Reads: The Rose Society & The Iron Warrior!!

Hey there guys!

Friday is once again and even if for a moment I thought it was the first Friday of the new year, it's actually the second... Apparently I didn't realize Jan 1st was Friday *rolls eyes at self*

Anyways! It is the first Friday Reads of the year! And since I have such a backlog, I'm gonna have two mini reviews of books I read on December as part of the Diverse December challenge! And not only that but The Rose Society was my Alyssa Recommends book for December!!




The Iron Warrior (The Iron Fey: Call of the Forgotten, #3)The Iron Warrior by Julie Kagawa

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


After finishing The Iron Traitor I was in absolute shock because THAT ENDING! Talk about an awful cliffhanger! But as soon as the cover & synopsis for this one was revealed, we could breathe again.

I must confess the way things got turned around and shown to have been solved in between books felt a lil bit like cheating, and maybe that was why I wasn't as 100% emotionally invested in the series as I was with all the previous books? I don't know...

Despite that new distance from the story, I really enjoyed this book. Ethan & Kenzie are fantastic together and I love how well Kenzie can deal with the Fae and their tricks, far much better than our dear Ethan, even if he finally grows out of his irrational first gut reaction of rejection for everything Fae.

Keirran's path was a complicated one in this one, after all he was quite clearly The Iron Traitor in the previous book, but I'm glad that even Ethan never really gave up on him, even when he had the best of reasons to do so.

The book is as usual full of Fae politics, even more if you had the Between & the Forgotten to the usual courts. But I was really glad to see Meghan standing her own toe to toe with the likes of Oberon and Maab. It is also full of traipsing through the NeverNever, some areas that are new to us, and old friends that we meet again. And it is also full of the trademark humour that I've got used to in this series. And I'm really glad about the humour because Julie Kagawa really managed to outdo herself on the creepiness in this one... Three words: Creepy Carnival Clowns! *shudders*

The ending was quite satisfying as far as Ethan & Kenzie is concerned, because we see their relationship solidify but in a very realistic way back on the human world! The cheating feeling also nagged me a lil bit on the climax, but at the same time I think it was satisfying and well done. Maybe I was expecting more and was scared of more emotional torture and when we didn't got through it I was left feeling a bit flat? I don't know. Still, I really ended up enjoying it so it gets 3.5 stars!



The Rose Society (The Young Elites, #2)The Rose Society by Marie Lu

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I don't think I've loved a villain like this since... Darth Vader maybe? And that's saying something since I am a massive Star Wars geek!

Adelina is the villain of this story, but since this is mostly her story is way too easy to forget about that and root for her in ways I wouldn't have otherwise!

Marie Lu really is an amazing & skillful writer, she manages to make us see things from Adelina's POV and not such in the simple sense of writing from her POV, but actually making us feel for Adelina, and even following her justifications and agreeing with them! You barely realize sometimes the descent into the madness (and the dark side, so to speak) that she's undergoing until there is a change of POV and your able to pull yourself out of Adelina's head

Adelina is our bad guy, and quite a very scary one at that, but given the actions of the rest of the characters, I'm not really sure who all I'd call the good guys, because none of them are really in the clear, and that's probably the most fantastic part of this book, how in the grey everyone is. Black and white is quite inexistent here, and writing this characters and making you feel for them... masterful!

The relatonships between the characters keep on being as nuanced and complicated as they were in the first book but even more, adding more twists to the trust/lack of trust, fear and love that bound the whole cast together!

I just cannot say anything more without risking some spoilers, and I really want to avoid that! Sufice to say that the plot thickens and twists in ways you probably won't expect, the characters are simply brilliant and fantastic and scary and Marie Lu is a bit of a genius! Very much deserved 4.5 stars to this one! I'm really not sure what to expect from the next book!


View all my reviews

13 comments:

  1. THE ROSE SOCIETY IS AMAZINGLY EPIC. Adelina is just so.... deliciously evil :D I haven't read the Iron Warrior but I've been hearing so many great things about that series and I think that I really, really, really need to give it a try. But ah, the ending for the Rose Society was incredibly good!!!

    Asma @ IceyBooks

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    1. YESSSS! I agree, the Rose Society ending was amazing and boy, do I need the next book! Thank you Asma!

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  2. AAHHHHH!!! You finished The Rose Society! I'm so glad you loved it. If you want to talk spoilery things feel free to DM me. I love that book so much and definitely agree with how dark everyone is that it's hard to say who the good guys are. I mean I'm rooting for Adelina but she's still such a villainous person. Great review!
    Cassi @ My Thoughts Literally

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    1. YESSSS! AND LOVED IT! I might take you up on the spoilery DMs because holy crow!!

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  3. So I just finished reading Marie Lu's Legend trilogy and am so ready to take on her Young Elites series! i have book 1 coming up for me and I am very excited! It's so great to see that you adored it too, Pili!

    Lovely reviews <33

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    1. I liked the Legend trilogy, but these books are so much better! I'm sure you'll love them Mel!!

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  4. I'm so glad you liked these two! I still need yo read them, but I love these authors so much that I'm sure I'll enjoy them as well.
    Great reviews, Pili!

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    1. The Rose Society was amazing! And the Iron Warrior was a good series ender!

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  5. Awesome reviews Pili :D Yay for enjoying both books. <3 I must read The Rose Society soon. But just worried I won't love it, lol :) And ah. The Iron Warrior. I'm worried I won't like it.. but still going to read it soonish :D Glad you liked it, despite it not being perfect.

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    1. I hope you'll really like The Rose Society sweetie! And I hope you're having a great weekend!

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  6. YAYAYAYAYAY I AM SO HAPPY THAT YOU LOVED THE ROSE SOCIETY! Isn't Adelina positively lovely?! In the best antihero villain way lololol. I cannot wait for book three! Hopefully Oct. 2016 sticks and the book isn't pushed back... my heart can't take the wait!

    Fabulous reviews, Pili! :)

    Alyssa @ The Eater of Books!

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    1. YESSS!! I do hope the date doesn't get pushed back and we get the third book this year!!

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  7. I haven't started to read either one of these two series, but I fully intend to because everyone seems to love them and even though these aren't the first books in the series, it seems like they remain good reads! Can't wait to try them out for myself :3

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¡Muchas gracias por vuestros comentarios, leerlos me alegra el día!/ Thanks a lot for all your comments, reading them brightens my day!!