Thursday Thoughts: Re-reading The Others series by Anne Bishop!!!

Hey there guys!

This is a scheduled post because I'm out and about on a quick and rather improptu trip! I'll tell you all about it once I return, and hopefully I'll share some photos if my phone & laptop feel like working together!

I continue to keep Thursdays as my days to catch up with my series re-reads! I'm quite proud to say that I've been re-reading quite a lot more this year, and it's proven quite amazing to revisit series I've loved to prepare for the next or last installment!

This week I'm gonna talk about one of my absolute favourite adult urban fantasy series out there: The Others by Anne Bishop! Must give a BIG shout out to Octavia from Read Sleep Repeat because she kept recommending this series to me, time and again!


Unlike what I did with the Red Rising trilogy I won't do a book by book re-read review because even with this re-read, I'm still sure I might end up mixing up a few events from one book to another because my brain now processes the whole series as one timeline and I'm not 100% sure where one book ends and were the next starts. So I'll just do a series overall review and gush about how much I absolutely love it, so be warned!

Overall series re-read review!

The Others series is urban fantasy, its world being not ours but with enough similarities to fool us sometimes and makes us as readers forget that it's not happening in our "human dominated" world. Humans in this world are not the apex predators or the ones that are in charge of the world, since they are late comers to a world were The Others are in charge, and they don't tolerate humanity's over reach and disregard of nature, not outside of the boundaries given to them. Namid isn't Earth exactly, and Thaisia is really NOT North America, even if they can feel enough alike to throw us off when we're reminded of the differences.

The story starts with Meg Corbyn, a young woman running away that finds a safe haven in an unlikely place for a human, the Lakeside Courtyard, or the place where The Others live (and keep an eye on the humans). The first book gives us enough world building and character development to keep us turning the pages hungrily and to have us hooked for good in this series. We want to protect and root for Meg all the time, and we share the protectiveness the Courtyard Others feel towards her. We discover what a Cassandra Sangue is (more or less) and we learn more about this world. The relationships between the characters are so nuanced and full of small details here and there. It doesn't matter if we're talking about vampires or werewolves or humans, they all FEEL so real!

Talking about the paranormalcy of The Others, we might seem to know them but these vampires, werewolves and others aren't exactly as you might know them, and we do get more than a few reminders about that. These are not creatures that have hidden their existence in our midst, they are there and they are in charge, even if the humans might want to ignore that fact.

There are two main plot lines that intertwine and build on each other, one is the more personal with Meg and her growth and relationship with the Others and specially Simon, the Courtyard leader. And the Other is the mounting conflict between the Humans First and Last movement and the Others. One thing that this book managed to do time and again is to make me hate my own species. The HFAL movement simply made me root for the Others so much... it's a bit awkward when you stop to think that the characters that are your same species that you like are just a handful!

In each book we learn more about the Others, the Cassandra Sangue, the extremes humans can reach in their hate and their will for self destruction and lack of respect for their world they live in... The world building is expanded, from Thaisia to other continents, to more about the past, more about the Others that are not the ones we know from the Courtyard, more about the blood prophets and their compulsions and abilities. Characters grow and change, relationships progress (although the one I care the most about goes at a very fitting snail pace as it's right for the characters, even if it's maddening for us readers) and the plot thickens and progresses and the tension builds up to a rather worrisome level!



Marked in Flesh by Anne Bishop

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I was so very excited for this book, with all the tension and the build up for the confrontation and the expected backlash from The Others, if the Humans First movement made their move.

With every book this series manages to get better and better! We might have lost a bit of the more personal time we had with Meg and the wolves and the rest of the Terra Indigene since everything keeps getting broader and bigger, and Meg is the first but not the only one blood prophet, there's so much to learn and to work on. The conflict is so widespread, so much bigger than just one Courtyard, one city, or even one continent! We meet some more dangerous and less humanized Others/Terra Indigene and some of them really brought to mind those "things that go bump in the night" in the sense that you could feel them and the fear they cause, but not being really sure if you'd see them or what you'd even see!

There was plenty of tension or more quiet moments, of moments that made me once again hate my own species and there were quite a few interesting revelations, with what I hope more to come. BUT since the big conflict that was building up was resolved here, I'm not entirely sure WHAT will happen in the next book. I'm hoping we will return to the more personal part of the conflicts and continue with the focus on the Cassandra Sangue and on a certain relationship that I want more focus on again and a bit more progress, not so snail paced!

Still, this book is once again deserving of 5 stars like the previous books in the series, and I'm very much looking forward to re-read them all to prepare for the next one!

Mark This Book Monday: ARC Review of Vision in Silver by Anne Bishop!!!

Hey again guys!

The second Mark This Book Monday entry of this week is one of my recent favourites and a series that has also become a firm all time favourite!

I was beyond surprised and giddy when I was approved for this one by Penguin via NetGalley (THANK YOU!!) and as an ARC it counts as part of my 105 Challenge and my books for review category!

Vision in Silver by Anne Bishop

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Another absolute winner. What a series this is shaping up to be! Everything gets bigger and the stakes get higher but at the same time everything gets more personal and intimate! The next book cannot come out soon enough!

I must warn you all that I might end up spilling some spoilers about book 1 and 2 and probably even don't realize about it, so if you haven't started this series SHOOOO GO GRAB THE FIRST TWO BOOKS AND READ THEM! I can promise I'll try my best to not spoil anything about this one, but just in case, tread with caution!

After The Others taking things into their own hands (and paws and other apendages) and making sure the cassandra sangue were freed from their prisons and the Controller being no longer a threat, they're left with the question of how to care for the girls that have been treated only as property, have been bred and raised for prophecy and have been kept away from the outside world all their lives. And the Other and their allies are utterly unprepared to help them and deal with them.

That's where our Meg, the only cassandra sangue ever to space and make a life for herself out there is the only one that can help. Her coping mechanisms and ways to deal with stimuli and change and new things will become the template for the Others and the Inuit to help the rest of the cassandra sangue to survive.

But that's not our only plot point, we still have the Courtyard politics and the way they interact with the humans in the city and their newly formed "human pack" consisting of Meg's friends and to some extent the police task force that always interacts with them. And seems that the terra indigene have decided that they will make sure to show humans that they will protect those that treat them fairly even from their fellow humans.

We also get a deeper look at the plan hatched by the Humans First and Last movement and that's possible thanks to the personal connections that detective Montgomery unwittingly had. The plot thickens as the adagio goes and not only we discover the lies that most of the population has been fed the past months but also the reasons for the lies, how they made those lies real and although we can't know for sure yet, the suspected reasons behind it all. There's corruption, lies and murder all around the fanatism of the HFAL and their way of branding those that are not part of their movement with the "wolf lover" as a slur and as a way of discriminating against them reminded me a bit of the Nazi branding of the Jews.

It seems so easy for the humans to forget that the world they're living in is shared with the Others, but only because the Others allow it. Those living in big cities forget that not far from the city limits they're nothing but prey. We learn so much more about the whole world, from how the Others are situated around the human settlements, to a lil of information of those areas that are really wild and untouched in any way by the humans and where some of the wildest terra indigene live, those that have no knowledge or regard whatsoever for the humans.

I love how Merri Lee and Ruthie become real friends for Meg and how they help her understand her way of dealing with things as a cassandra sangue, and how they are so supportive of her. I love how they form the "human pack" and they become respected by the terra indigene for that. Simon decides that since he's got experience with humans that respect the terra indigene and want to interact with them as more than just a curiosity, he needs to protect them and show how that's a new way for both species to live.

We have two new characters added to the already extensive cast, two cassandra sangue, Jean and the girl that loves colours. Through them both we learn some new tidbits about the cassandra sangue, new ways to see their perspective about their gift/curse and the way to try and live in a place where all the rules and truths they were told no longer apply. I don't know how Anne Bishop does it, but all the characters from main to secondary are so nuanced and so well constructed! None of them seem like fillers at any point!

And the relationship between Simon and Meg... it must be one of the slowest burns in a series but it's just so right for them! The pace couldn't be faster and still be true to the characters! Simon is terra indigene and he needs to accept that he might care for a human which is a huge shift on perspective for him. And Meg... Meg is so scared of change, so unsure about everything about the outside world. Baby steps in the only way for them to progress, and I really love how they end up asking for advice about their relationship to couples, even if they don't realize what kind of advice they're really asking for!

I was immensely lucky to read this book in advance, but oh boy, this those final revelations and ultimatum, the wait for the next book is gonna be absolute torture.

This series achieves a very rare feat in which each books keeps getting better than the previous one, keeps progressing the plot and making it more complex, offering more world building, developing characters and adding new ones that never fill like fillers. All the stars to this one!!



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Mark This Book Monday: Murder of Crows by Anne Bishop!!!

I'm starting this week's Mark This Book Monday with one of those recent amazing reads that I've been lucky enough to fiind! And I must thank again Octavia from Read Sleep Repeat for pushing the series on me relentessly and to Frannie from On Clouds of Pages for being an awesome buddy read buddy!



Murder of Crows by Anne Bishop

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Once I read Written in Red, I needed Murder of Crows like the air I breathe, so I started it as soon as I could! And boy what an amazing book it was! It was even better than Written In Red! It was everything that Written in Red was but somehow more!

Be aware that even though I'll try to keep this review spoiler free, it might have some spoilers for book 1 and if I get too rambling and enthusiastic I might end up blurting something here and there...

Things have changed a bit since the events in Written in Red, the terra indigene at the Courtyard have adopted Meg into the family/pack and now she's one of theirs. And when Meg has a new prophecy about death and black feathers, the Others learn about a new twist in the threat to Meg and to themselves. And they decide to take the battle to the humans and the Controller.

We continue to learn a bit more not only about the history of the terra indigene and how humans evolved differently and separated from them, and how they came to interact. We learn more about how the Others work and have evolved, we learn about how humans have shun some of their own and these groups have become allies of the terra indigene, the Inuit. And we learn a little bit more about the cassandra sangue, their origins and how they came to be.

There's more about interactions between the human pack at the Courtyard and the police and the terra indigene, and how their opinions and usual reactions have changed and continue to change. And also we get more about the Humans First and Last organization and their rethoric. I loved how it showed how the mob mentality works and how the general feeling of the public can be changed, twisted and manipulated. The humans of Thaisia don't seem to remember history very well, and forget quite easily that they're not on top of the chain.

I simply love the evolving relationship between Simon and Meg, it's one of those couples that I ship like there's no tomorrow! There are some misunderstandings, and Simon keeps on thinking that having Meg around is a complication he shouldn't have allowed, but at the same time he doesn't want to lose Meg as a friend, or the kind of comfortable intimacy that they share, mainly when he's in Wolf shape.

One of the things that I love about this book and this series is the way the terra indigene are presented, like the dangerous predators that they are, and how humans don't seem to realize how in the wrong they can be. And how it makes my blood boil the way they deal with the "benevolent ownership" for the cassandra sangue and how they are treated as less than human in most of the places they are kept. Humans don't always act as humane as they ought to towards their own and when it comes to power and the cassandra sangue... the fail.

I'm not even sure what else to say because I'd love to talk and talk and talk about this book and this series all and if you want to discuss theories with me, hit me up here or on Twitter!

I was so impressed with how the story was expanded, how the world building was expanded, with more knowledge about Thaisia and how the human settlements are part of it, the different continents and cultures. More about the Inuits and their past and what makes them special and more about the cassandra sangue, even if we're given the information very little by little. More about the characters, more about the world, more about everything!

I just cannot wait to continue learning more about this world and to see Meg and Simon's relationship continue to grow and progress! 5 stars to this one for sure!! READ IT!



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Saturday Pages: Written in Red by Anne Bishop!!!

Hello there guys!

I hope your weekend is going great and most of my fellow bloggers are taking part of the 2015 edition of Book Blogger Love-A-Thon! I will be taking part as much as my work schedule will allow me to, which won't be as much as I'd like!

As this week's Saturday Pages review I have a book that was highly recommended (read: relentlessly pushed on me) by Octavia from Read Sleep Repeat and I must say that boy, was she right to insist that I read it already! Thank you so much for making sure I read it, Octavia, now I shall be the one pushing this one on everyone!!



Written in Red by Anne Bishop

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Written in Red has been one of those books that I had in my radar for a while, even more since my bloggy friend Octavia flailed about it like a mad woman (let me tell you something right away, she HAD VERY GOOD REASON TO DO SO!) so much that she sent me the ebook as a Xmas gift!

Still I didn't start reading this book until I got approved for the third book eARC on NG, so that was the push to finally read now instead of later! I seem to need a ticking clock of time telling me I need to read something before this date to get me started... *shakes head at procastinating self*

So listen to me, if you've been wondering about starting this book, do it now!! I loved it SO MUCH!! And I'm kicking myself for not having read it earlier!! This is adult urban fantasy and it deals with very adult themes, oh and if humans as something other than top of the food chain bothers you... you might not like this book.

The world of this series feels both familiar but at the same time extremely alien from ours. Humans are not the only sentient species and they sure aren't the ones calling the shots, and the furry and fanged aren't exactly the ones you might have met in other UF books. The Others or terra indigene might take human appearance but they are something entirely "Other" and non-human, that consequently doesn't act or think as humans and that have rather minimum to none regard about human wants or wishes.

All human cities have a Courtyard where a number of The Others live, to trade with and to make sure the humans don't forget their place in the natural order, otherwise they'd just go overboard and take more resources and dump more waste and basically do what we do in our world... Meg Corbyn arrives at the Courtyard of Lakeside while running away from the man that held her prisoner all her life and finds herself surrounded by the Others, that have to decide between allowing her, a human, sanctuary or simply eat her as an unwelcome intruder.

Meg is not your regular human either, she hides a secret from the Others, because she's being hunted and she'd rather die than be taken back. Soon she finds herself carving a lil place for herself as Human Liaison for the Courtyard and although her secret is found out pretty soon because she isn't used to fending for herself and doesn't know much about the world. Still, she conquers the Other's hearts, from Simon Wolfgard, who rules the Courtyard, to Erebus, the elder of the Sanguinati, not to mention Tess, the terra indigene that no one in the Courtyard knows what she is, AND to Winter and the other Elementals.

This book has some amazing world building, with a world so similar yet so different from ours that sometimes you end up forgetting about the differences until you get a reminder, in the same way the humans get a reminder that the Others still consider them meat. And despite all that, I found myself siding with the Others most often than not! I liked very few of the humans in this book and there came a point when I was rooting for some of the terra indigene to either eat or kill humans. Seems like my species loyalty is rather limited!

Then the characters, Simon the Wolf is both alien, scary and somewhat endearing in his dealings with both Meg and his nephew Sam. You could consider him an alpha, but given that he isn't human, I don't think he should be judged by human or regular human shape-shifters standards. Meg is not just your regular human either, and she starts the story running away and then hiding and she's somewhat child-like at first, but she's a combination of knowing too much and too little, and I was rooting for her from page one! The relationship between Simon and Meg is slow, tense and full of moments that will make you wonder, cringe, laugh and swoon and you'll end up shipping them like there's no tomorrow, or at least, I very much did! I was very happy to see how slowly it is developing, because anything else wouldn't have felt right for the characters or the story!

I feel like I could spend hours talking about the different kind of terra indigene, like Vlad and Erebus the two main Sanguinare (their name for vampires) and Tess (our unknown, kick arse terra indigene that runs a cafe) and other Wolves like Nathan and Sam. Sam is a character that got to me so very much. He's a puppy that's traumatized by his mother's murder in front of him so he's refused to get out of a cage for years and has not taken the human shape since then. Then Meg comes along and finds a way to get him our of both cages, the literal and the figurative one. Let's not forget some of the few humans that I actually liked and cared about, like Heather and Merri Lee, employees at some of the Courtyard stores, Montgomery and Kowalski police officers in charge to dealing with Courtyard matters and Burke, their captain, along with Ruth, Kowalski's wife.

The villains were either big unknowns orchestrating from afar, or petty and stupid humans with no real sense of what they were doing. For Asia Crane all was part of her ambitious game of being a famous actress one day and she didn't seem to care about who was injured or the consequences for the bigger picture. This can seem two-dimensional, but unfortunately there are plenty of real humans like this, so I was hoping she'd get eaten since her first interaction with Meg.

I simply ADORED this book!! I loved it and started recommending it before I had even finished it! Brilliant book, brilliant start of a series and if you haven't read it yet... GO READ IT NOW!! Extremely well deserved 5 stars (and a few more!) to Written in Red!!




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