“The King of Crows” by Libba Bray

Here we are at the last book in the Diviners quartet, a YA series I’ve been enjoying since 2019, managing to read a book a year with Rachel at Life of a Female Bibliophile.

So far, I’ve enjoyed each book in the series more than the one that precedes it. But after completing the third book, Before the Devil Breaks You, I became worried that the last book wouldn’t measure up to the previous books and successfully wrap up all the plot threads. Well, now that I’ve completed the last book, it certainly wasn’t the reading experience I hoped for or expected.

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GENRE

YA Historical Fiction; Paranormal

Series

Diviners, book 4

Pubbed

2020

Quick summary

The King of Crows picks up immediately after Before the Devil Breaks You. Will and Mabel are dead. Jake Marlowe is gaining more influence and painting the Diviners as threats to society by posing the deceased Sarah Snow as some sort of saint. The Diviner Crew are at a loss and are running out of options on how to figure out their powers and defeat the King of Crows.

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“Before the Devil Breaks You” by Libba Bray

I really enjoy this series. I’ve even started to consider it a favorite. I own none of the books, but believe me, I will get myself the boxed set, if there’s one, soon.

I also want to read more books by Libba Bray. Does she only write YA novels? I’m not big on YA, but I’ll read whatever she has written because the Diviners books are SO good and I need more.

I have one more book to go in this series, which I’ve been buddy-reading with Rachel at Life of a Female Bibliophile and which we’ve both been enjoying and having loads of great discussions about. Things have built up to such a height in this book that I wonder how we’ll get down from it. How will things be resolved? I’m a little anxious that I won’t like the last book, but… I’m trusting Bray on this. Trying to stay positive here, and I NEED to get my own copy of these books!!

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Genre

Historical Fiction; Paranormal

Series

Diviners, book 3

Pubbed

2017

Quick summary

The sleeping sickness has stopped, but all is not back to rights. Ghosts are roaming the city, some of them malicious, and the Diviner crew is even more curious about their abilities, how they got them and to what extent can they use them.

“The Realms of the Gods” by Tamora Pierce

It’s crazy how far behind I am on reading and reviewing. My plan was to be caught up by now but so much is happening that I’m unable to. It’s a hard time for everyone and I just wish more people would take this coronavirus thing seriously.

Anyway, here I have the last book I read last year — Tamora Pierce’s The Realms of the Gods. I read it as part of my plan to reread all Pierce’s books I enjoyed when I was a kid. I’ve been going through them slowly and have been surprised by my reaction to some of them, like this one.

Genre:

YA Fantasy

Pubbed:

1996

Series:

The Immortals, book 4

Goodreads summary:

During a dire battle against the fearsome Skinners, Daine and her mage teacher, Numair, are swept into the Divine Realms. Although they are happy to be alive, they are not where they want to be. They are desperately needed back home where their old enemy, Ozorne, and his army of strange creatures are waging war against Tortall.

“Emperor Mage” by Tamora Pierce

Either this book or In the Hand of the Goddess was the first book I read by Tamora Pierce. So many years have passed since that day that I can no longer remember, but I recall that I loved Pierce’s Song of the Lioness and Immortals books and would reread them often. Now that I’m revisiting them years later, I find that I still enjoy them despite their shortcomings in certain areas.

Genre:

YA Fantasy

Series:

The Immortals, book 3

Pubbed:

November 1994

Goodreads overview:

Daine must confront a powerful leader in this third book of the Immortals series, featuring an updated cover for longtime fans and fresh converts alike, and including an all-new afterword from Tamora Pierce.

When Daine is sent to Carthak as part of a Tortallan peace delegation, she finds herself in the middle of a sticky political situation. She doesn’t like the Carthaki practice of keeping slaves, but it’s not her place to say anything—she’s only there to heal the emperor’s birds. Her worries only expand once she learns that her own power has grown in a dark and mysterious way.

“To Night Owl from Dogfish” by Holly Goldberg Sloan & Meg Wolitzer

This was a sweet story and a fun read. I heard of it from Book Riot’s All the Books podcast and decided to try it because Liberty said it’s like The Parent Trap and I loved that movie (both the original with Hayley Mills and the remake with Lindsey Lohan).

Genre:

Middle-grade contemporary

Pubbed:

February 2019

Quick summary:

When Bett Devlin learns that her dad is conspiring with his new boyfriend to send her and his boyfriend’s daughter to summer camp, she reaches out to the boyfriend’s daughter, Avery Bloom, so that they can devise a plan to thwart their fathers’ intention.

The fathers are single gay dads who met at a conference and started to date. They’d like their daughters to get along, so they conspire to send them to the same summer camp; but Bett and Avery have other plans and instead vow NOT to be friends and definitely not let their dads date each other. But nothing goes as planned.

“Wolf-Speaker” by Tamora Pierce

I could feel reading fatigue coming on after 900+ pages of Stephen King’s The Stand, so I searched my bookshelves for something simple and fun. I grabbed Tamora Pierce’s Wolf-Speaker, the second in her YA fantasy series the Immortals.

Pierce’s books are quick reads and were among my favorites when I was a teen. Similar to my plan for Stephen King’s books, I intend to read all of Pierce’s novels based in Tortall, and Wolf-Speaker was the next one due for a read.

Genre:

YA Fantasy

Series:

The Immortals, book 2

Pubbed:

1993

Goodreads summary:

When Daine is summoned to help a pack of wolves — dear friends from her old village — she and Numair travel to Dunlath Valley to answer the call. But when they arrive, Daine is shocked to learn that it’s not only animals whose lives are threatened; people are in danger, too.

Halloween Creatures 2.0 Book Tag

Things didn’t go according to plan. The plan was to post Halloween-themed book tags in the last few days leading up to Halloween, on which I’d post this Halloween book tag. But though my Halloween began in a spectacular fashion (which, unfortunately, I can’t share the details of), I was so exhausted the night before that I was unable to draft this post. That exhaustion continued through Halloween, so I spent most of the day sleeping, unable to watch any of the scary movies I’d planned to see.

But the day after Halloween is just as good for this tag, so tuck in for Halloween Creatures 2.0.

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This tag has been making the rounds lately. It was created by Anthony at Keep Reading Forward. He reworked the Halloween Creatures Book Tag he created last year to make an updated version with “new creatures, better prompts, and more fun.” I was tagged for this by the Orangutan Librarian.

Witch
A Magical Character or Book

Merlin

Trick or Treat Round the Block | Spooky Scary | Halloween Book Tags

And here are two more book tags to celebrate the coming of Halloween. I’m so excited for the holiday though I’m doing nothing special for it and will most likely be working the night away. I just love the vibe of the holiday: the costumes, the candy, the spookiness, the scary movies. When I get a chance, I’ll do a little research into Halloween. I don’t know much about it, but I have heard some stories that make me think it has a dark beginning.

Anyway, I found both of these tags on the Sassy Book Geek.

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Trick or Treat Round The Block Book Tag

created by booktuber, the Bookish Porcupine

Creepy house on the corner of the street: Book with a creepy cover

Daughters Unto Devils by Amy Lukavics

I have no idea what this book is about, but I think it’s YA horror. The cover creeps me out and makes me think it’s about possession. I got it in a YA quarterly book box couple years ago but I gave it away without reading it. It’s not my sort of thing.

Stranger Things Book Tags

We have a few more days to go before Halloween arrives and to celebrate, I decided to do these two Stranger Things book tags I found. Stranger Things is a paranormal TV show on Netflix about a group kids trying to protect their new friend while trying to find out the cause of the weird occurrences in their town. It’s such an intriguing story, and the kids’ friendship and the setting makes me nostalgic for ’90s movies like The Sandlot and Little Rascals.

If you’d like to watch a show that fits the Halloween theme but isn’t scary, I recommend Stranger Things. The atmosphere of the show makes it perfect for Halloween: dark tones, foggy, creepy vibes, escaped patients from covert government facilities…. It also makes me think of X-Files. It’s a good story and will immediately grab your attention.

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Stranger Things Book Tag

I found this on Life of a Female Bibliophile. It was created by booktuber Sarah Sunbeemz.

Epic Intro: The opening sequence of Stranger Things is amazing and really grabs your attention. Name a book that grabbed your attention from the first page.

Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

BuzzFeed Unsolved Book Tag

It’s book tag week here on Zezee with Books in honor of Halloween. Today I’m featuring the BuzzFeed Unsolved Book Tag, which I found on Wonderless Reviews.

This tag was the first I’d heard of BuzzFeed Unsolved, which is a TV show on YouTube that explores things such as the paranormal occurrences and unsolved crime. The tag was created by booktuber Sarah from the YA Room who’s a fan of the show.

Shaniac: A book you don’t think is deserving of its hype

The Stand by Stephen King

Maybe it’s too early for me to say this since I’m only about 300 pages in and the book has over a thousand pages, BUT I’ve yet to see what’s so great about this book and at 300 pages in I expected to be blown away in some way already. Instead I’m trying to be patient as I wade through all the ramblings and tangents. It’s annoying because it seems with each new character POV, and there are many character POVs, the story feels like it’s starting all over again. I don’t feel as if I’m in the groove of the story; I feel as if I’m stuck at the beginning. It’s frustrating.