Friday Reads: The Storyspinner & The Skylighter by Becky Wallace!!

Hiya there!

Friday is here and with it my only real day off this week! I really ought to be doing some chores, but all I want to do is read... oh well, a bit of both with happen I'm sure!

For this week's Friday Reads I have the two books of a duology up for review! One of them was read in 2015 and should count towards my 2015 Debuts Challenge because it was the author's debut, and since I was extremely lucky to be approved for the sequel on Edelweiss (after being rejected first), the second and final book in the duology counts towards my 2016 Netgalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge!

The Storyspinner by Becky  Wallace

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Oh boy, how much did I enjoy this one!! A lovely debut with multiple POV done right, a wonderful storytelling style and fantastic world building! I'm beyond happy to have the sequel at hand because I need to know what happens next!!

The story of The Storyspinner is one that might seem familiar, with a secret that I could see coming from the very beginning, but its strenght was not in doing something completely new, but in getting the very well known and rehearsed and giving it new life!

The setting is both unique and familiar because it's Brazilian/Portuguese rooted and well, Portugal is my neighbour and all that. I loved how the world was more than what you see at first, but never exactly what you would expect. I loved the Performers based both on the Romani and on the original wandering circuses, and how they are their own culture and society, but are not completely isolated from their surrounding society.

Joanna was a great character, with her flaws that made her more real and her love for her family that never wavered, no matter what befell them, ready to do what was necessary for their well being.

Rafi is the new Duke, inherited his position on his father's death and it's trying to do the best job that he can, even when things and people end up in his way, turning his world upside down!

The story is told from different alternating POVs and follows two different but colliding stories, one with Joanna & Rafi and their families and political issues, and another with Jacaré, Pira, Leão & Tex on their mission to infiltrate the neighbouring kingdom to restore the magical barrier that separates both kingdoms. I don't always like alternating multiple POVs, but here they were done so very well! No repeat information, no dragging the pacing or jarring it and we just simply keep on getting more and more information.

There is romance, and a hate to love, slow burn kind of romance that I really enjoyed! I also liked that even when the feelings came out, things didn't get resolved instantly. The couple needs to learn to communicate better and to work on resolving issues, and a kiss doesn't magically fix it, but they both agree to work on the issues but put the current live threatening circumstances first. There's another romance that is not hate to love, but that was also rather easy to see for everyone but those involved and that made me want to knock their heads together!

The biggest complain would be the cliffhanger, but since I read this one with an ARC of the sequel in my hands, let's say it didn't bother me as much as it would have otherwise! Just be aware that there is a rather cruel one here!

A fantastic debut, with everything that I love about fantasy and making it feel fresh! Very much deserved 4 stars for this one!

The Skylighter by Becky  Wallace

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Confession time, when I requested The Skylighter, I thought it was the middle book in a trilogy, not the last book in a duology, so when I found out about that, I was a bit disappointed. I had only just started it and everything was getting more and more dire and I was as much in love with it as with the first book if not more, so I wanted more time with this story and characters!

Not to say that the book was a disappointment because it was anything but! It was action filled with a few extra twists and the urgency of the different missions was even greater than it was in the first book.

Aside from Joanna, Rafi, Jacaré, Leao and Pira's POV, this time we also get Dom's, Rafi's lil brother, and how I loved his POV! He seemed like the most fun of the two brothers, the yin to Rafi's excess of responsability's yang, and here we see how he's much more than just the funny guy. How he deals with responsabilites that used to be his brother's and with threats that come from unexpected places but also finds unexpected allies and even more unexpected traitors. Dom had to be by far my favourite character of the book!

Joanna and Rafi continue being adorable and irksome at the same time, and continue butting their heads as they try to find a way around the new revelations and what they ought to do to protect the kingdom and what to do once that has been achieved. They have great growth both as separate characters as well as together.

We get some new allies but mostly we get some new villains, new revelations from a few new grey characters that add more to the secrets that some of our characters seem to be keeping (ahem, Jacaré) and many more surprises added to what we thought we knew about other characters!

I really loved the pace and the development of the plot in the book, filled with small details everywhere that expanded on the world building and made it a distinctive place. I couldn't stop turning the pages fast enough although sometimes I dreaded what might happen in the next page! A fantastic continuation and finale to this duology, very much deserving of 4 to 4.5 stars!



View all my reviews