I Got to Meet Garth Nix

So, yesterday (Tuesday 14th June 2016) I got opportunity to meet Garth Nix at Seven Stories in Newcastle. Seven Stories is an amazing place to visit and hosts some truly awesome events.You can visit the website here: http://www.sevenstories.org.uk/

I ended up being 10 minutes late to the event (Sorry Garth!) because of traffic getting into the city. We actually left super early and still managed to be late.

Garth talked about his books, listing them all out in order of publication (I don't think I realised just how many he's written until they were all laid out.) and we got to hear him read out an small piece of his upcoming new book Goldenhand, his fifth novel in the Old Kingdom series. The bit he read featured Sabriel and Lirael who were both standing talking in the river of death and there was a mention of our favourite baddy Chlorr of the Mask.

Garth then answered some questions from the audience before signing everyone's books. The line he had was huge! His event was definitely the busiest I've attended at Seven Stories. But despite being jet lagged he soldiered on and was absolutely lovely to chat to. I even managed to bag a picture with him:

A Court of Mist and Fury By Sarah J Maas

This is what I wrote straight after finishing ACOMAF:

I am a puddle on the floor right now. Drowning in emotions. I have NO regrets about staying up until 3:45 to finish.

               

I have no idea how Sarah manages to write two books a year that are the size of bricks, like does she sleep? Or does drinking reader tears mean you never have to sleep? (I’m just jealous really)

My thoughts are flying around my head right now, in no particular order so these are all my scrambled emotions and thoughts about the book:

As soon as Lucien went to interact with Elain, I was like OHOHOH!  I’m thinking this will be the thing that pushes Lucien over the line of not-defying-Tamlin? Throughout this I wanted to shake him and be like you can clearly see whats going on, don’t just sit back but also hug him and tell him it was okay to challenge his best friend/High Lord. 

I'm so excited to see what Elain and Nesta are like as Fae and how they handle it. Cassian can give Nesta a hand getting used to it ;)

The Weaver was such a creepy fairytale addition.  And the Bone Carver! That part was chilling! I think these two were the things that made the world feel so old and rich with history.

The world just became so much bigger and more intricate (which kinda links into the fact that all Feyre really saw in ACOTAR was a small part of the Spring Court, she was limited and now she’s free to decide who she wants to be). The descriptions of all the places were so vivid. I was actually having to blink hard to pull myself out when I was stopping reading. Can I pleaseeeeee just move to the Velaris right now? ( It reminds me of Tolkiens Gondolin!)  

I feel like Amren at the minute is the Tom Bombadil of Prythian. She’s a powerful mystery.

The expansion of different cultures of Fae, like the Illyrians was so interesting.

The dynamic between Cassian, Azriel and Morrigan was just brilliant. You can really feel the years and years of their bond and how woven their lives were together. Even I had trouble trying to pin just what was going on between them because they’re just so complex. I could cry over the whole family-friendship between the whole group, I just want to join them! Feyre’s friendships that she made with each of them was lovely, they each accepted and welcomed her. Their protectiveness over their little group was so great. Her friendships with each of them were all different. I thought Lucien was a great secondary character and BOOM you gave us those three (and Amren).

I think Morrigan is my new favourite just because of how friendly and positive a person she is despite all that’s happened to her as well as being so strong and badass.  

Varian and Amren seem like a strange pairing and I LOVE it. Even though they’re both immortal, she feels a lot older and wiser than him. I can’t wait to see what happens with them, I need more of them. Their dancing and feigned nonchalance around each other makes me laugh.

I did want to scream at Tamlin to let her go and find someone who he can fall in love with and be a mate with. Someone that would be able to understand help him deal with his own struggles that he's clearly dealing with, like Rhys did for Feyre.

I can’t help but keep thinking about what if the roles were reversed? If Feyre was in Tamlin’s position, Feyre and us readers wouldn’t believe it and want to save him. We’d cheer Feyre on to save him from being mind controlled, or what we thought was mind control. So on one hand I’m like TAMLIN NO! and on the other I understand some of his actions (I understand him trying to 'save her' but the way he's going about it is SO SO wrong.) because he truly doesn’t believe its her own choice. (And yet he himself wouldn’t let her make her own choices- i'm so Team Feyre to be awesomely independent and stand up for herself.)

The events of ACOTAR bled so well into ACOMAF in that at the end of ACOTAR, for me you could already see the strain on Feyre and Tamlin’s relationship after what they’d been through. I feel like it cant really be called a love triangle, because Feyre doesn’t thinks she’s in love with both of them and has to choose, she falls out of love with Tamlin and then into love with Rhys. From the beginning the strain is there and when Tamlin sort of ignores its there and doesn’t see what’s happening to Feyre, you just know he has to turn it around fast otherwise he’ll lose her. It’s up to both of them to try to help and ‘fix’ each other. But when he locked her up, you could see he wasn’t going to try to change for her, which isn’t healthy for either of them. I don’t think then readers will immediately go ‘oh its clearly Rhys she’ll pick’ it more feels like she’s just free to chose and to go and find herself. The slow build between Rhys and her was beautiful. It was flirty and sexy and yet instead of being HOTHOTHOT straight away just simmered nicely and allowed them both to build this amazing friendship and really get to know each other and see that their natures are really well suited to each other before deciding anything else. She could discover whether she did want to spend the rest of her life with him.  This meant that when they do get together their love just feels so deep and genuine. I think it’s when you read about the love building between Rhys and Feyre that when you look back at ACOTAR and question things. Feyre and Tamlin were just about forced together because of the curse and they didn’t have a chance to discover whether they truly, truly loved each other that complete and utter unending love that mates have.

And also, although the end was devastating because they’re separated, they’re not truly separated and they have such a deep faith in each other that Im just cheering them on like ‘YOU CAN DO THIS’.

Also: the notes they send to each other made me GRIN so much.

The sex was so so well written. I loved the way at the beginning, it may have been hot between Feyre and Tamlin but as if became the only thing they really shared it was empty; they didn’t have the feelings there. Compare it to Rhys and Feyre which had so much emotion and love, it was so different. I was smiling so much at parts like when she was sitting on his lap in the Hewn City and thinking ‘I hope nobody looks over my shoulder to see why im smiling’.

I’m so in love with Rhys whose character development, like Feyre’s was insane. Im looking forward to his POV in the next book, which I assume we’ll get?  He deserves all the love. You could see why they are mates he just perfectly understood Feyre, what she needed and when she needed it. I really want a spin-off of just the two of them living happily and having babies together.

Best of all, the romance side didn’t totally overshadow the main plotline- it strengthened it!

SO UNBEATABLY UNFORGETTABLE. 

ACOMAF deserves every single star in the universe. 

The Raven King By Maggie Stiefvater

All her life, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love's death. She doesn't believe in true love and never thought this would be a problem, but as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she's not so sure anymore. (Goodreads) 

After four books, i'm still so torn about how I feel about these books. I see many die hard fans on social media, and I see many people who aren't too fussed on the series. I'm there in the middle. At some points I sit there thinking "Oh, wow!" and then at others my attention starts to slip. I keep finding myself asking "Do I love this series?" It may take a reread for me to really decide whether it do or  not.

Stiefvater's writing is A+++++, its beautiful. It's the thing I love most about these books. It's reason enough to pick up a copy of these books. The Raven King is no different. She mixes funny and casual teenage-talk with gorgeous descriptions and heart stopping one-liners. 

I felt my interest in the story dip whenever the point-of-view switched to someone outside the main four characters (and Noah), despite them being necessary to the plot development. I totally get why some people are obsessed with these characters, each of them is so fleshed out, so well imagined. It's not hard to imagine them as real people. Each of them has flaws and each of them know the others aren't perfect. They lose their tempers, they fight, they poke fun, like people do. Like friends do. 

Also, the character development for them all is just perfect. Everyone ended a more mature, better version of who they started the series as. 

The magic in previous books felt more realistic, despite magic not actually being real (Or is it????) Since this is the last book, it felt as though as it was made bigger and sped up to heighten the tension of the finale to build to a climax, it lost some of its realism. Less was explained, but you're so caught up the ending, you go alone with it.

How I feel about the climax is how I feel about the whole series: torn. I loved it, but also I didn't. As a reader, I never say the story should've gone this way or ended like this. I'm not the author, I didn't create this story and I take what they give me. So I loved The Raven King because we said goodbye to these characters through Stiefvater's wonderful writing and it made me want to cradle the book in my hands. However, I also felt the ending was anticlimactic. I don't think it should've ended any other way, it ended the way it was supposed to, but the build up of three and three-quarter books made me expect a bang, but it was almost like the bomb landed unexploded. 

I'm loving looking at the whole series together on my shelves now. They all look beautiful lined up next to each other. 

4 stars - I'm excited to see whats next to Maggie Stiefvater!

The Winner's Kiss By Marie Rutkoski

War has begun. Arin is in the thick of it with untrustworthy new allies and the empire as his enemy. Though he has convinced himself that he no longer loves Kestrel, Arin hasn’t forgotten her, or how she became exactly the kind of person he has always despised. She cared more for the empire than she did for the lives of innocent people—and certainly more than she did for him.
At least, that’s what he thinks.

In the frozen north, Kestrel is a prisoner in a brutal work camp. As she searches desperately for a way to escape, she wishes Arin could know what she sacrificed for him. She wishes she could make the empire pay for what they’ve done to her.

But no one gets what they want just by wishing.

As the war intensifies, both Kestrel and Arin discover that the world is changing. The East is pitted against the West, and they are caught in between. With so much to lose, can anybody really win?

(Goodreads)

Marie is a FANTASTIC writer. I remember finishing The Winner's Curse and thinking I wasn't blown away by it, but definitely wanted to pick up the next one because I sensed potential and Marie's writing felt so unique. Book two completely upped the game, everything became more complicated and much more 

gripping. By the end I remember clutching the book like I could somehow stop what was coming. 

The ending to the series is perfect. It gives you everything you as a reader could want. The intricate and complicated relationships are what makes this book so great for me. The plots tension and unpredictability keeps you desperate for more, for what happens next until you find yourself on the last page. 

The plot feels more mature, these characters have grown and been changed by their experiences. They're much different from the characters we met in book one and are better for it. Kestrel and Arin both have such individual voices and are so well written, both having their own flaws and way of doing things that they become real in your mind. I can picture them and understand their thinking.

The mix of romance into the storyline is expertly done, it doesn't overshadow the plot and yet is still such an important part of the book. Its a perfect blend. 

Thank you to Bloomsbury for sending my a copy of The Winners Kiss. 

Salt to the Sea By Ruta Sepetys

Winter, 1945. Four teenagers. Four secrets.

Each one born of a different homeland; each one hunted, and haunted, by tragedy, lies…and war.

As thousands of desperate refugees flock to the coast in the midst of a Soviet advance, four paths converge, vying for passage aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff, a ship that promises safety and freedom.

Yet not all promises can be kept.

Inspired by the single greatest tragedy in maritime history, bestselling and award-winning author Ruta Sepetys (Between Shades of Gray) lifts the veil on a shockingly little-known casualty of World War II. An illuminating and life-affirming tale of heart and hope.  (Goodreads.) 

Salt to the Sea is heartbreaking. Totally, utterly heartbreaking. But it also fills you with hope. 

At points you will hate humans and what they can do, but at others you'll be reminded of the hopeful wonders strangers can do for each other. 

Salt to the Sea is most definitely Ruta's best novel so far. Her characters felt so real and fleshed out and her writing style is unique and a joy to read. Each character was so individual, each had their own secrets, their own problems and even though you didn't necessarily like them all, you wanted to find out what happened to them. 

Salt to the Sea is so well researched, you learn so much about the times from the book. But the book doesn't feel dense with history facts. Each chapter is usually only a page or so long which causes you to read 'just one more chapter' and boom, you find yourself at the end of the book. 

I did find the beginning a little off-putting because the book has four different points of view and Ruta's chapters are very small. This caused the story to flip quickly from character to character which caused some slight confusion in keeping track and getting to know the characters. But after a few chapters, once you know the characters you completely fall into the story. 

I enjoy books that make me cry, because I know that that story will stay with me forever. I even got choked up talking about it to my dad. I'm so grateful to Ruta for educating me about the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff, something that I probably never would've heard of without her, but is something the whole world should know about. 

Books like Salt to the Sea and The Book Thief are so hard-hitting because even though you know the characters aren't real people, the characters represent all those people who experienced these times, experienced WWII and what happens to those characters is very much similar to what real people would've gone through. 

MEETING PIERCE BROWN

                    

On February 24th I had the amazing AMAZING opportunity to meet and interview the one and only Pierce Brown, author of the Red Rising trilogy. (Thank you so much Hodder- like seriously, I feel like I owe you so much chocolate)

You can watch the interview here:

And you can also watch me quiz/teach Pierce some Scottish/ North-Eastern slang. (He cant say Howay):

It was one of the best days of my life and Pierce is THE nicest guy in the world. Edinburgh is also one of the most beautiful cities in the world, it was wonderful to spend two days there for my birthday. 

Blog Tour Stop- Maria V Snyder- Night Study

I am such a huge fan of Maria V Snyder's books, so I feel very honoured to have my blog as a tour stop. For today's stop Maria has written up 5 points to help with writing a convincing romance within your books. If you've ever read any of Maria's books you'll know the advice will be great because her romances are swoon-worthy. 

After the tips, you can read my review of Night Study, or rather read my gushy ramblings about my love for this book. 

You can purchase Night Study from Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Night-Study-Soulfinders-Maria-Snyder/dp/0778318753 and Waterstones: https://www.waterstones.com/book/night-study/maria-v-snyder/9781848454484

What advice would you give to any aspiring writers who want to write a book with a good romance at the heart of it?

While my novels are primarily fantasy and science fiction, I invariably have romance in all my books.  I can’t help it as I enjoy writing about two characters who eventually fall in love.  Here are a few tips I found helpful in writing a good romance:

11)      Avoid insta-love:  Relationships take time to develop.  Yes, there might be an immediate attraction, but that’s always based on a first impression.  When characters have time to get to know each other and have interacted in various situations, then, when they do fall in love, it’s a natural progression.

22)      It’s a partnership: The best romantic couples have this in common.  They compliment each other—one’s strengths balance the other’s weaknesses and vice versa.  They work together to solve problems and have equal say in decisions.  They respect each other and while one might rescue the other in one situation, it’s equally as likely that their positions will be reversed during another situation.

33)      Nobody is perfect:  Let me repeat this: Nobody is perfect.  Everyone makes mistakes.  They do and say things when angry and upset.  They make poor choices and do stupid things—sometimes for what they think is the right reason. This should not doom them, but show they are human and forgive them.

44)      Tension:  Good romances have lots of tension.  Sexual tension, of course, but also a clash of personality traits.  You’ve heard the old adage: opposites attract and that’s great to keep the sparks flying in relationships and make it interesting for the readers.

55)      Humour:  In my opinion, this is the most important aspect of any relationship.  It shows the lighter side of your couple’s personalities and gives them a break from all that tension. 

Review

Maria V Snyder's books never disappoint. Never. Night Study is no different.
I had high expectations for Night Study and Maria surpassed them all.

Night Study is Maria's 8th book set in the lands of Sitia and Ixia. Does this mean the story's are starting to feel repetitive or dragged out? Not at all. Night Study is filled with as many twists, turns and surprises as her other books, and is written in Maria's addictive writing style.

The romance in Night Study feels so authentic. Valek and Yelena have now been together for many years but their relationship is still so exciting to read. Often in books, the initial chase and tension between a couple grabs the reader but after they get together interest can wane, but Valek and Yelena's relationship is so refreshing and they're still facing so many obstacles together, their latest being a baby. They're addictive to read.

After the events of Night Study it feels like its going to be an excruciating wait for the next book in the series. I MUST KNOW WHAT HAPPENS. 

Which blog is up next? Check who is next on the stop and look at where the tour has already stopped: