Myths and Mortals by Charlie N. Holmberg

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: New Adult, Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: A pretty horrendous murder


Sandis has escaped Kazen’s grasp, but she finds herself unmoored, reeling from her thief friend Rone’s betrayal.

Kazen has been hurt but not stopped, and he’ll do anything to summon the monster that could lay waste to the entire world. Sandis knows she must be the one to stop him, but with her own trusted numen now bound to another, and finding herself with no one she can trust, she is in desperate need of allies. Rone seems determined to help her, but Sandis has no intention of letting him get close to her again. What she doesn’t know is how much Rone gave up to protect her. Or how much more he is willing to give up to keep her safe.

As chaos mounts, Sandis must determine whom to trust. After all, the lines between enemy and ally have never been less clear…and corruption lurks in the most unlikely of places. 

I didn't like this book as much as I liked the first book in this trilogy. After a while, Sandis began to annoy me. Honestly there was too much angst thrown in and it got annoying. I wanted the characters to move forward way before they did. I understood why sandis felt the way she did toward Rone, but it could have been resolved sooner.

I thought the parts where Sandis was conflicted about who she was, and the way wanted so badly to feel wanted and loved, were compelling and heartbreaking. That was probably the best part about the story. I also found her difficulty giving up the life as a slave, due to her past connection with Irath and how much she missed that, to be interesting but frustrating at the same time.

Just like the last book, the characters did some things that I thought were stupid, but I enjoyed this enough to give it 3 stars anyway. There is only one book left, and this book ended with something disastrous happening, but I'm not feeling compelled to read on at this time. I don't like when this happens. I want to feel the itch to keep reading. I want to be bursting with anticipation for the next book, especially when there is only one book left to go. So I'm rather frustrated with my lack of motivation to keep reading to get to the end of this trilogy. I'm not crossing it off my to-read list yet, but I will be reading other things until I either feel the urge to read it, or decide I just don't care enough to continue.

Elissa Blue by T.K. Perry

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: New Adult, Young Adult, Christian
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Dystopia
Content: Clean


Reading Elissa Blue is like watching The Bachelor, only everyone has wings. Initially I thought this was going to be a book about fairies, but it ended up being about human-butterfly hybrids. It's hard to classify this book. It has a bit of a fantasy feel with some dystopian elements that are not all that fleshed out, but it also is a romance with a definite Christian aspect to it as well. The age of the characters make it fit into the new adult age group, but it's completely clean and reads like a young adult novel. The overall theme of the book is, be wise about who you choose to marry and spend your life with.

What I liked about this book the most was that it somehow kept me glued to it despite the fact that I thought the whole human-butterfly hybrid thing was pretty silly, and the main character drove me crazy at times with her wishy-washy indecisiveness. She went back and forth between three guys so many times.

Now about the guys. I think I met and dated a guy exactly like each of them in college. There is the one that you like and is really nice, but are not attracted enough to. The one who is very attentive and takes care of you and is fun to be around. The one who is attractive but rough around the edges, has a good heart, but maybe isn't all that smart. The one that you know is bad for you, but the attraction is strong. I'm not going to spoil who is who here, or which one Elissa ends up with, but I was happy with who she chose.

Things that I thought could have been improved upon were:
-The story was a little long.
-Too much going around and around in circles with the guys and her feelings about them.
-The days felt super long. Two days felt like two weeks to me.
-Too insta-love like for me. A couple of days isn't enough time to get to know a person.
-The dystopian aspect of the book was underdeveloped.

Things I liked were:
-The funny last names based on types of butterflies. Mr. Sootywing and Mr. Hairstreak, :) :).
I actually looked up these butterflies to see what they looked like.
-The fact that the book kept me glued to it.
-Mit and Holis :)
-The choice she makes about who she will marry.
- The overall theme of the book.

Thanks to the author for giving me a copy of this book for review.





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