Friday Reads: Empire of Sand by Teresa Yea!! #DiverseDecember

Hey there guys!

Happy Friday! I work night shift tonight, and again on Sunday so my weekend won't be exactly free, but at least I hope to have some time to read at work!

For this week's Friday Reads I have a prequel on a NA fantasy series that I'm quite in love with! If you haven't heard of Teresa Yea or Love in a Time of Monsters, do yourself a favour and check them out!
This book is also part of my Diverse December list and so far I'm not doing too shabby with it!

Empire of Sand by Teresa Yea

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I discovered the previous book in this series (and debut book from the author) thanks to my friend Jenny from Supernatural Snark because she designed the amazing cover. I loved it since it was one of those very rare NA fantasy, so when I heard that a prequel was coming out, and saw this very gorgeous cover, I knew I needed it!

Empire of Sand is from Liam's POV, first person and it was done so very well! Teresa doesn't shy away from showing us some of Liam's past and how he came to work for Hyde, as well as see how twisted he is by the hunt and his love for it.

You don't really need to have read Love in a Time of Monsters to read this one, since it's a prequel, but I feel that it will add a lil bit something extra. But if you read this one, do read LiaToM afterwards!

Liam is not an easy character to like but also not as easy to hate as you might think. He's a bit of an arsehole more often than not, but I suspect there's something that has been seriously twisted within him for a long time and his love for the hunt for the sake of it is how it manifests (for the most part). There's a lot of self loathing about himself, his sexuality and his lust for the hunt and being in his head is quite the trip!

Meeting Cat/Kitty as a character in need of growth compared to the one we had met in LiaToM was quite an experience and even more since this provides a lot of backstory to the history that was hinted at before, between her and Liam. Cat is already messed up, trying to become a hunter and getting even more messed up.

There's plenty of blood, hunting, monsters and messed up relationships with sex and without it between the characters. None of them are the nicest of people and in extreme circumstances it really shows.

The world building and descriptions were perfectly visual to make us feel like we were there, in the desert, crunching sand between our teeth and scared shitless about a monster that felt a mix of an Egyptian God and a Stargate alien!

LiaToM made me fall in love with Teresa's writing and this world she had created, as well as her very flawed and very complex characters, Empire of Sand has just reinforced that and now I'm left waiting and hoping for the next book to come, because I need more!

If you like fantasy, give this series a try! Very much deserved 4 stars!



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Friday Reads: Love in a Time of Monsters by Teresa Yea!!

Hello there guys!

Friday is here and with it another working weekend looming ahead for me. My brain is on overload thinking and worrying about expenses and the apartment and the plans for BEA... and I have been half tempted to just put the blog on hiatus already, but I shall wait till May 1st to start the official hiatus, minus some blog tour posts that I have scheduled.

For this week's Friday Reads I have a wonderful book that has been flying under the radar and I feel deserves to reach more readers because it's a fantasy NA and it is fantastic! It's counted towards my 105 Challenge for my Fantasy books category!

Love in a Time of Monsters by Teresa Yea

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I discovered this book through the amazing artist that did the cover (our dear Jenny from Supernatural Snark) and once I read the summary I knew I had to get it and read it.

And I was right, I loved this one so much! I started reading it at work (night shift) and finished it as soon as I got home and got some sleep. I'd describe this as gothic fantasy with retelling elements, because we get references to novels and characters that know, so maybe it's a gothic fantasy retelling of the events that inspired the classics? Something like that!

I loved the world building and how wonderfuly visual the descriptions for everything was, from the landscapes, to the characters, to the feeling of the places and the monsters.

I loved how well crafted the characters are! None of the characters felt too typical or underdeveloped, because from main to secondary, all have more going on that you see at first. Cat is a survivor, a monster hunter, fragile and strong and an addict. She's broken and so very far from perfect, but I loved her to bits even at her worst moments and I loved how Rob always managed to see the best in her and so make her try to be that best. Same with Liam, even if it took me quiet a while to warm up to him, he's a fantastic character, complex and the perfect mix of antihero and villain. And Rob, well... Rob is of course a very complex character, a reluctant hero if there's ever been one, but with enough strenght and love to make others want be better.

The book takes place in a time of monsters, where sirens drag sailors to their death and get hunted for their scales, where monster hunters are necessary and where the most dangerous of all monsters was brought to Scotland to try and save a life. Mixing POVs and moving from past to current events, this story kept me riveted to the pages, wanting to know more, to see what happened and hoping for as few deaths as possible, but the book really doesn't pull any punches, and I had quite a few weepy moments along the book!

Rob is Robert L Stevenson and some of the events in the book inspired him to write his Treasure Island and Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, and this is the part that made me call this book a bit of a retelling.

Before wrapping up this review I must talk about the romance, because there was a love triangle but it was done is such a different way that I just didn't bother me at all, and that's almost a first! Hooray for diversity, and even more diversity in fantasy books! And as a NA book, do consider yourselves warned, there are sexy times ahead, and there's also great humour, fantastic quotes and a lil bit of magic.

All in all a very recommended book to all the lovers of fantasy that will appreciate something fresh and unique and very well crafted! Very well deserve 4 to 4.5 stars!



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