Currently Reading // September 9th 2017
This is a spoiler-free series
review of the first two books in the Custard
Protocol Series: Prudence and Imprudence. In case you were
wondering/confused.
From New York Times bestselling author Gail Carriger comes a new novel
in the world of the Parasol Protectorate starring Prudence, the daughter of
Alexia Tarabotti.
When Prudence Alessandra Maccon Akeldama (Rue to her friends) is given
an unexpected dirigible, she does what any sensible female would under similar
circumstances – names it the Spotted Custard and floats to India in pursuit of
the perfect cup of tea. But India has more than just tea on offer. Rue stumbles
upon a plot involving local dissidents, a kidnapped brigadier’s wife, and some
awfully familiar Scottish werewolves. Faced with a dire crisis and an
embarrassing lack of bloomers, what else is a young lady of good breeding to do
but turn metanatural and find out everyone’s secrets, even thousand-year-old
fuzzy ones?
(from Goodreads)
This is such a funny series.
It takes place during the reign of Queen Victoria, in a steampunk/supernatural world.
This is a parallel universe to our own except with dirigibles or airships
galore and vampires and werewolves living in plain sight in high society. The
vampires live in hives, with one queen and several drones. They have a great
influence in regard to fashion and etiquette. The werewolves live in packs with
an Alpha. They have close ties to the military. Both groups are immortal, can’t
be out in daylight, and have a big role to play in her majesty’s government.
This may seem like quite a complex world to grasp, and it may be so, because
this is the third series Gail Carriger has written about this world. The first
series was the Parasol Protectorate (with
this series main character’s mother as the leading lady) and the second being
the Finishing School series (which
takes place before the events of the first series), which I have read and
reviewed before. You do get the basics of the world in the first book of this
series, but if you would like to completely understand this world you should
read the other two series as well.
The main character Rue is the
daughter of Alexia Tarabotti, the main character from the Parasol Protectorate and Lord Conall Maccon, Alpha to a powerful
werewolf pack. She is also the adoptive daughter of Lord Akeldama, one of the
most influential vampires in England. Confused yet? As far as I understand it,
this arrangement was put into place to make sure Rue would not be partial to
one species of supernatural over the other, because she herself in very
powerful. She is a Metanatural, meaning she can steal the supernatural shape of
anyone she touches, turning herself into a vampire or werewolf while also
nullifying the supernatural person in question into a mortal, for a limited
time. This ability means she gets to live quite a different life from your
normal British aristocratic lady during the Victorian era.
The characters are what makes
this story so entertaining. On her airship Rue assembles a crew with some of
her best friends, the Tunstell twins Primrose and Percy, whose mother is a
vampire queen, and Quesnel Lefoux, slightly irritating and very charming French
engineer. Together the four of them get up to some crazy adventures, but
nothing that can’t be solved with Rue’s special abilities or a nice cup of tea.
Seriously, these people drink tea like it’s the answer to everything. Also,
they of course abide by the proper manners of their time-period. It makes me
want to start drinking tea with my pinkie high up and speak like a proper lady.
It’s hilarious to see how meticulous they are about etiquette and proper dress.
They are a great and quirky group that work of each other beautifully. My only
complaint is that the two ladies are nicknamed Rue and Prim which constantly
makes me think I’m reading the Hunger
Games.
I liked both books, but I feel
like the second was even better as I had gotten to know the characters and the
world a bit better. I realize this series might not be everyone’s cup of tea
(see what I did there?), but I hope you will still give it a go. It may very
well surprise you. I was not sure about it at first either, but I ended up
loving it. I’m very excited to read the next book in the series when it comes
out (there are two more in the works). It’s such a hilarious read and really
takes your mind of things. It’s light and fluffy and just plain whimsically
funny.
//love from L
On a barge on the Seine, Jean Perdu runs a bookshop, or rather a
‘literary apothecary’, for this bookseller possess a rare gift for sensing
which books will soothe his customers’ troubled souls.
The only person he is unable to cure, it seems, is himself. For
twenty-one years he has nursed a broken heart – and never dared open the letter
his love left behind. But the arrival of an enigmatic new neighbour inspires
Jean to unlock his heart, unmoor the floating bookshop and set off for
Provence, in search of the past and his beloved.
(from Goodreads)
I went to Paris a few months
ago and fell in love with quite a few bookshops over there. I had not heard
anything about this book before – I picked it up solely based on the title. It
just seemed like the perfect combination. It was both that, and a lot of other
things I did not expect.
As the blurb said, this story
is about a man going on a journey to heal his broken heart. As the title
suggests, it is also a story about books. However, it has less to do with Paris
than you would expect. The story starts out in the city of light, but pretty
soon it becomes a road trip story taking place on a boat through the French
country side. Along the way Jean Perdu meets a bunch of unique and hilarious
people, who all bring something vital to the story. The most prominent of these
being Max; the young author of a bestseller, now on the run from his publishers
and fans who demand he write something just as great this time. However, Max
has had writers block for years. Out of all the characters, he is the one I
could picture the most clearly in my head (namely Ben Whishaw as Q).
This was a surprisingly sad
story. I won’t give away details, but the story takes a turn for the melancholy
after a little while, which I rather think a reader should know before picking
this book up; especially as it was marketed as a feel-good. However, this book
manages to mix the sad parts with hilarious and thrilling adventure in a
beautiful way. And all the while there is the underlying focus on books and
their healing powers. This is as much a story of the power of literature as it
is of lost love. As a certified bookworm, I loved the bookish parts especially.
This was a bittersweet read,
both gloomy and uplifting. As it is not YA which is what I usually read, I
found it a bit harder to relate to the characters and their issues, as they are
all quite a bit older than me. I would recommend this book to all the
booklovers out there who believe in the magic of reading, and are looking for a
slower read.
//love from L
This is the third part of the
A Court of Thornes and Roses series, so beware of spoilers. I have reviews for
the first and second books here.
Feyre has returned to the Spring Court, determined to gather information
on Tamlin’s maneuverings and the invading king threatening to bring Prythian to
its knees. But to do so she must play a deadly game of deceit—and one slip may
spell doom not only for Feyre, but for her world as well. As war bears down
upon them all, Feyre must decide who to trust amongst the dazzling and lethal
High Lords—and hunt for allies in unexpected places.
(from Goodreads)
I finished this book a few
weeks ago but I just had to get my thoughts together before I was even close to
being able to write about it. So much went down in this book and I just love
this series so much!
Okay, so we pick up with Feyre
being an undercover agent in the Spring Court, pretty soon after the horrifying
events at the end of the second book. For those of you who don’t quite remember
(I didn’t when I picked this book up), this is pretty much what happened
(SPOILERS FOR BOOK TWO COMING UP, THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING): Feyre and the
Night Court went to Hybern to nullify the cauldron, the King of Hybern’s most
deadly weapon. Their plan backfired spectacularly as they had been betrayed by
both the mortal queens and Tamlin, who had also turned over Feyre’s two sisters
Nesta and Elaine to the King. The whole incredibly intense and emotional scene ends
with Ferye’s sisters being made Fey, Nesta being a total badass/bitch and
promising to kill the King for hurting Elaine, Lucien realizing he and Feyre’s
sister Elaine are mates, Cassian almost dying and getting his wings torn to
scraps, the King severing the bargain bond between Feyre and Rhys (not the
mating bond as everyone thought at first), Feyre tricking Tamlin into thinking
that she had been bewitched into staying with and loving Rhys, and her being
taken back to the Spring Court with him. Geesh. I was so emotional reading that
ending. So, we start out in ACOWAR
with Feyre at the Spring Court faking recovery after being “abducted” by the
Night Court, Tamlin totally buying that story (because he’s dumb), Lucien being
very suspicious of Feyre (because he’s clever) and also knowing that she is the
only one who can help him get back to his mate. Meanwhile Rhys, the Night
Court, and Feyre’s sisters have escaped back to the north to heal and plot. And
that’s just the beginning…
This book very much centres on
Feyre growing into her new role as High Lady (another last-minute reveal of the
ending of ACOMAF). Her being back at
the Spring Court shows how drastically she has changed and developed since the
last time she was there. She is such a badass now I can hardly recognize the
timid girl from the first book. She is so sure of herself and her powers, and
is so beautifully in control in this plotline of scheming and intrigue. In
fact, this book is mostly about political intrigue and gearing up for the big
war with Hybern. Feyre is brilliant as High Lady in this storyline. Seeing her
face down the other High Lords was a treat. I also loved learning more about
the other Lords and their respective magic later on in the book. However, Feyre
and the others can be a bit frustrating at times. I occasionally find myself
wanting to shake them and scream “how could you think this was a good plan, you
moron?!”. In spite of that, I do love them to bits.
Another big theme in this book
is family. Throughout Feyre has to choose between her old friends (i.e. Lucien)
at the Spring Court and her new family at the Night Court, but also a lot of
focus is put on her relationship with her sisters, which was shaky at best
before they both became immortal. It also focuses a lot on the relationships
within the Night Court group, between Feyre, Rhys, Mor, Cassian, Azriel, and
Amren (this group is one of my favourites of all time!). They are just
wonderful together, but in this book we learn more about their history together
before Feyre met them, which is quite extensive what with them being immortal
and all. I especially loved learning more about Mor. I think character
development is a big theme all around, as well as the political intrigue part. There
is also a lot of history being revealed about Prythian and the wall, which I
feel was pretty unexplored before.
This book is so full of
intrigue and deception that sometimes you have trouble remembering who is on
which side. In some cases, you never really figure out where their loyalties
lie. I am still not sure whether some were double or triple spies. It keeps you
on your toes throughout the story. All of the plotting eventually leads up to
the big battle that we have been preparing for throughout the last two books. The
final battle scenes were so well written that I flew through them. At times it
felt like everything was happening in slow-motion and I was right there in the
middle of it. It was quite a surreal reading experience.
I loved this book! I think it
brought the story forward in a beautiful way, and kept the action going right
to the end. It answered many questions while also creating new ones. I did not
love it as much as ACOMAF, but then
again that was one of my favourite books of all time so that’s quite hard to
beat. As always with Sarah J. Maas the writing was beautiful, the characters
were phenomenal, and the story was packed with amazing plot twists. I can’t
wait for the next book to come out. And if you haven’t read this series yet
(first of all, WHY ARE YOU STILL READING I WARNED YOU ABOUT SPOILERS!) please,
please, PLEASE pick it up. It is one of the best fantasy series I have ever
read.
//love from L
Sidenote! I think I just read
that this was the last part of a trilogy? I am in such denial. I thought this
was going to be a six-part series! How have I not heard of this before?! According
to this there are going to be three more books set before and after the “first
series”. I just can’t process that this was the last book with Feyre and Rhys
as the main characters, I just won’t stand for it *melts into a puddle*. Also
the story feels far from finished. Someone please tell me if this is true or if
you know more about this!