December 2019 Wrap Up

This December started a fantastic reading month! I finished two books in a row before the first week was even up, both of them 5-star. I am excited about my reading in the end of the year. Total, I read 6 books in December.

#1: The Weight of a Soul by Tammi Elizabeth

When Lena's younger sister Fressa is found dead, their whole Viking clan mourns—but it is Lena alone who never recovers. Fressa is the sister that should've lived, and Lena cannot rest until she knows exactly what killed Fressa and why—and how to bring her back. She strikes a dark deal with Hela, the Norse goddess of death, and begins a new double life to save her sister. But as Lena gets closer to bringing Fressa back, she dredges up dangerous discoveries about her own family, and finds herself in the middle of a devastating plan to spur Ragnarök –a deadly chain of events leading to total world destruction. Still, with her sister's life in the balance, Lena is willing to risk it all. She's willing to kill. How far will she go before the darkness consumes her?

It was amazing! I loved every minute of it. The book had a lot to say about family and not always knowing what was around the corner. I can't wait to pick up the next book in the series by Tammi Elizabeth, and find out what happens and if they manage to actually start or stop Ragnarok. It will be an interesting look into a pretty well researched Viking community and society. Check out the blog for a more in-depth review. 

#2: Red, White, & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

What happens when America's First Son falls in love with the Prince of Wales? When his mother became President, Alex Claremont-Diaz was promptly cast as the American equivalent of a young royal. Handsome, charismatic, genius—his image is pure millennial-marketing gold for the White House. There's only one problem: Alex has a beef with the actual prince, Henry, across the pond. And when the tabloids get hold of a photo involving an Alex-Henry altercation, U.S./British relations take a turn for the worse. Heads of family, state, and other handlers devise a plan for damage control: staging a truce between the two rivals. What at first begins as a fake, Instragramable friendship grows deeper, and more dangerous, than either Alex or Henry could have imagined. Soon Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret romance with a surprisingly unstuffy Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations and begs the question: Can love save the world after all? Where do we find the courage, and the power, to be the people we are meant to be? And how can we learn to let our true colors shine through?

I was so angry, elated, frustrated....I don't even know, throughout the majority of this book. The “outsider's perspective” drove me up the walls. I was watching them unfold like a very demented flower, constantly yelling at the book for them to just pull their heads out of their arses and kiss each other. Then it happened and it was like the entire world spiraled out of control for these poor teens. I'm sort of glad I will never know what it is like to grow up in a spotlight.


#3: Black Leopard Red Wolf by Marlon James

Tracker is known far and wide for his skills as a hunter: "He has a nose," people say. Engaged to track down a mysterious boy who disappeared three years earlier, Tracker breaks his own rule of always working alone when he finds himself part of a group that comes together to search for the boy. The band is a hodgepodge, full of unusual characters with secrets of their own, including a shape-shifting man-animal known as Leopard. Drawing from African history and mythology and his own rich imagination, Marlon James has written an adventure that's also an ambitious, involving read. Defying categorization and full of unforgettable characters, Black Leopard, Red Wolf explores the fundamentals of truths, the limits of power, the excesses of ambition, and our need to understand them all.

I rated this book a 3/5 stars. Not even because I didn't like it. I barely followed what was happening. The bits that I did know what it meant were mostly curse words and rather graphic descriptions of intercourse or genitalia. There were a good number of variant names for women's and men's genitals floating around. I did like when the story would follow a relatively straight line that I could keep track of, but it would lose me when Tracker would delve back and forth between present time past as he told the story. I kept forgetting that what we were reading was actually him talking about what happened and not actually what happened. It was a challenge to get through and I'm not sure really if I want to continue in the Dark Star Trilogy with Moon Witch, Night Devil when it comes out. I will continue to think about it. Right now, I would have cared if we had stayed with Tracker and Mossi, but that didn't work out.


#4: The Book Fix by Marydale Stewart

In this tale of modern resistance, a man and a woman are caught up in bitter post-2016 cultural and political conflicts. Both are librarians; she is an activist brought up in an historic and tumultuous Chicago neighborhood and he is a classical music lover and idealist devoted to improving lives. As their stories unfold, he risks his livelihood as he chooses resistance over security and she risks losing him. This is a down-to-earth look at censorship, homophobia, and the definition of freedom in a workplace that’s not your mother’s public library.

It was interesting. I liked it. It wasn't a long read and it was well worth it. This novel is an important one these days, showing the spine librarians have for not backing down even in the face of adversity. It warmed my heart that Adam would much rather have lost his job than bowed the nonsensical whims of a board of trustees that were refusing to abide by the American Library Association. I rather enjoyed reading about the lives of these people and it was a good little reminder that people are still good at heart, even when faced with opposition.


#5: Fate of the Fallen by Kel Kade

The Shroud of Prophecy tests fate to discover what happens when the path of good and right, the triumph of light over darkness, the only path to salvation...fails. Everyone loves Mathias. So naturally, when he discovers it’s his destiny to save the world, he dives in head first, pulling his best friend Aaslo along for the ride. Mathias is thrilled for the adventure! There’s nothing better than a road beneath his feet and adventure in the air. Aaslo, on the other hand, has never cared for the world beyond the borders of his sleepy village and would be much happier alone and in the woods. But, someone has to keep the Chosen One’s head on his shoulders and his feet on the ground. It turns out saving the world isn’t as easy, or exciting, as it sounds in the stories. Mathias is more than willing to place his life on the line, but Aaslo would love nothing more than to forget about all the talk of arcane bloodlines and magical fae creatures. When the going gets rough, folks start to believe their only chance for survival is to surrender to the forces of evil, which isn’t how the stories go. At all. To make matters worse Aaslo is beginning to fear that he may have lost his mind…

What if the chosen one fails? The whole book was based on the idea that the chosen one fails in their mission right out of the gate. The poor guy quite literally loses his head within hours of beginning his grand hero's journey. His best friend decides to take up the banner and continue the quest in his friend's name. The only problem? Of the millions, and I do mean millions, of prophetic lines that could come about from this quest...only one, the one where the Chosen One lives, is the one where they win. This was that thread. I loved the story and how Aaslo refused to believe that they were cursed, even though the High Sorceress herself told him so. The person who was in charge of everyone else. It was a great read and I'm looking forward to the next volume.


#6: The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

A world divided. A queendom without an heir. An ancient enemy awakens. The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction – but assassins are getting closer to her door. Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic. Across the dark sea, Tané has trained to be a dragonrider since she was a child, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel. Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.


This is...I wanna say the fourth Samantha Shannon book I've read. I've been through most of the Dreamer series. This book was definitely more complex than that entire series, since she built an entire world from scratch based on Asian and Indian history, with a little English thrown in there because we can? I enjoyed what I read. It took me a while to get through and I doubt I will read it again, but Samantha Shannon solidly put herself on my list of favorite authors.