Everything wrong with The Princess of Souls by Alexandra Christo

Let me preface by saying that I love To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo so no hate for her or her works. But, with that said, this book was not as good as the other book I read, and I will go as far as to say that it wasn’t good.

The Princess of Souls takes place in the same world as her other book, however, that doesn’t affect the plot nor the characters, so I will not be talking about the world-building or the relations between the two books. I do believe that it was used as a marketing strategy to those (like me) that had loved her first book because there were only two mentions (that I could find).

Also, furthering the fact that this was a marketing strategy, it was marketed as a Rapunzel reimagining, but I do not believe it had anything to do with the original story of Rapunzel, the only thing is that for 30 pages the main character has long hair, and she is stuck in a castle but soon in the story she leaves.

Selestra is a witch, and when she touches people, she sees their death. Nox is an army officer, strong, handsome, sarcastic, and 16?! (I’ll get back to their age in a second). Selestra’s mother is the king’s witch, and they have not been close since they killed Selestra's mentor, who is also Nox’s father. After a series of events, Nox and Selestra end up together trying to save the world, basically. Nox saves Selestra, and Selestra saves Nox, trying to find the ultimate weapon to kill the evil king, who is trying to kill them because Selestra is a traitor to the crown, and Nox is trying to kill him. They explore the world together, running away from death and the king. Oh yeah, they both have sidekicks, Micah and Irenya, who I’ll talk about further on.

Here are my book-sins:

Where are their parents?

Why in god’s name does every single YA character have to be 16?! They are getting almost killed, talking about forever love and talking about being kings and queens. And they are the best warriors in the world! Usually, YA book characters don’t bother me, but in this case, I hated it.

Why do Micah and Irenya exist?

This is my biggest problem. Every YA main character has to have a best friend, I don’t know why that is, but they always do. This book shouldn’t have sidekicks. We know nothing of them, who are they? I have no idea. What do they do? One makes dresses, the other one whines over and over again about Nox always getting killed. What do they do in the story? Absolutely nothing.

Furthermore, they never talk. I think you could the number of lines Irenya says with one hand. Micah might have more lines, but all of them will be about Nox almost being killed. The characters might be there and say nothing in so many scenes. The thing is, their non-presence was bothering me the entire time. Christo should not have added these two characters because as a reader it just felt like she had added them and then forgotten them, creating a rushed, flawed story.

I completely forgot about the enemies-to-lovers trope.

I even forgot that there was a romance trope. I know it’s YA, and I am not asking for smut not too much romance but, why add it if it doesn’t exist

I did not care for the mother

The entire book was setting up to be a very good character growth for the mother. Christo kept looking back into Selestra’s memory of when her mother was kind and good to her. I was looking forward to a good resolution. Not a happy ending for her mother, but maybe something that would make us feel fulfilled with their relationship. What did I get? Just a look from her mother as she died.

What happened to Micah?

Again, what the hell did Micah do in the story? Nothing! So his death has no effect on the story or the readers.

Finally, I wish I had enjoyed this better because I was genuinely excited about this release. Hopefully, her next book is better, but sadly I will not be reading it.

Don’t you wish you were in The house in the Cerulean sea? - TJ Kune

A gay love story, a found family and a fantasy world. This wonderful story captures your heart from the start, it’s charming, heartfelt and just beautiful but still comes from a dark and sad story. TJ Klune captures my heart and many others and creates a beautiful story that will for ever be one of my favourites.

The story revolves around the clumsy Linus Baker, the lovely Mr Baker who works for the organisation DICOMY who is in charge of the protection (or rather the control) of magical youth. He is sweaty, clumsy, rather big and poorly respected in his own company. He is however very good at his job and therefore sent to a special mission to one of the orphanages. this orphanage is special, possibly dangerous? But, they’re are kids right? Well because of the discrimination that these kids have to go through, this orphanage has to be kept in secret with the six children, the master and the housekeeper being kept in a far-away island. Linus has to stay there for a month and recollect information on the children and the mysterious master of the orphanage.

Linus is hesitant at first, he believes that he has to be impartial when writing the reports. Mr Baker, to his surprise, forms an unforgettable bond with the children and ultimately falls in love with the master. TJ Klune creates unforgettable characters that all have a special place in my heart and Linus’ heart. Every kid has their own back story and own strong personality. A new family for Linus and a beautiful ending to the story.

TJ Klune has not only created one of my favourite books but he has also created a story where discrimination, acceptance and love is portrayed. With a touch of light he has discussed a hard topic that most people could find disturbing. The ending is happy and a good ending but it does not oversimplify the fact that discrimination is hard to overcome so, he shows how hard it is through a positive view.

This novel is filled with hope and love and I would recommend this book to anybody that loves fantasy. I would also recommend this book to anyone who loves to read love stories. this book not only shows the love that Linus has for the children but also for Mr Parnassus. I hope to read every TJ Klune book that he comes out with and i hope this book gets the love it deserves.

Addie Larue’s ghostly life by V. E. Schwab

If you have been on Instagram, Tik Tok, youtube or Goodreads in the past few months you might have seen The Invisible Life of Addie Larue being praised at. I can’t lie, the only reason I read this book was because I had to get back into the trends. This is a story of a girl that makes a deal with the devil, or a god, I am still not sure, and she becomes almost like a ghost, she never dies but no one remembers her. I have enjoyed this book, I won’t lie. However, I don’t think I would have read it if I hadn’t seen it everywhere and I do think it is overrated.

The story of the book is quite clever, I think that the main character is well written and I do enjoy Adeline. She is clever and interesting and she does bring light to the story. The devil is evil in his way and I do love how he has been written. I like that he is does have a sensitive side for Addie. Henry, the other main character does has a sense that I enjoy. I love that the writer focuses in his anxiety and depression however, I think his character is quite boring. His relationship background is basic and I didn’t enjoy the reasons he made the deal with the devil. It is a quite shallow and one sided view of what really is. His deal comes to be because he thinks people don’t like him because he is not enough and this reason, did not make me want to know about his background.

The theme of love is, of course, explored throughout the whole book. The love between Henry and Addie is robust and accurate. Sometimes it is left unclear whether she loves him or it just feels good to be remembered. The “love” (if we can call it that) between Luc and Addie is more passionate, and it takes time to be discovered, however, sometimes I feel like it does not make any sense.

I know this seems all negative, but I can’t lie, I cried. I do love the last few chapters of the book. I like the ending decision that Addie takes in other to safe Henry. I also really love the last few words Addie says in the book, where she tells us that she might not be like that forever because she is learning from the devil itself. This shows us that really Addie has grown and not in the way that most people would think. She is getting closer to a god form the dark rather than a human; what she wishes she would be. I love that there is almost an open ending letting the reader imagine how the rest of the story continues as always is forever. I mostly respected that the writer did not just kill Addie as I know other writers would have done.

The style of writing is attractive. The prose has many pauses, and it made everything feel like air, the words brushing through my eyes and the ideas entering slowly to my brain. She uses simple language, so it’s easy to understand and enjoyable enough to become addicted to the story.

I want to point out something that some might not agree with. Towards the second part of the book the story becomes repetitive. There a few chapters that I believe the story did not need, the ones with Luc throughout history. Some of them were nice to read but were so alike the last one. They all had the same line of though, Addie is in the middle of something, Luc comes and bothers her, they insult each other, do something, she thinks, thinks again, Luc leaves leaving a hole in Addie and Addie think more about him. The book could have been easily a few chapters short. I preferred the parts of the story that were set in the present rather than in the past but that is my own opinion.

The book is entertaining but it won’t be the first one I recommend when someone asks for one. If you enjoy fantasy it can be something that can be appreciate and get addicted on. I do think it is worth the read and enjoyable to those who get centered in the story rather than in the writing itself.