Lair of Dreams (ARC Review)

The Diviners: Lair of Dreams | Libba Bray

Published by: ATOM, August 25th 2015

Genre: YA, Paranormal, Historical, Ghosts

Pages: 613

Format: Ebook

Source: ATOM, via Netgalley

After a supernatural showdown with a serial killer, Evie O'Neill has outed herself as a Diviner. Now that the world knows of her ability to "read" objects, and therefore, read the past, she has become a media darling, earning the title, "America's Sweetheart Seer." But not everyone is so accepting of the Diviners' abilities...

Meanwhile, mysterious deaths have been turning up in the city, victims of an unknown sleeping sickness. Can the Diviners descend into the dreamworld and catch a killer?

At first I didn't think this would live up to the spectacular Diviners, but I was so, so wrong. Lair of Dreams is somehow better and bigger than the first.

The characters grow (and some fall apart) in really realistic, fascinating ways. I loved that we saw more of Henry, and Ling, and though I didn't know if I liked the dreaming parts at first, the mystery surrounding them kept me hooked. Theta's development, and where that's going, really excites me. My only issues are the forced love triangle/fauxmance with Sam and Evie, and the fact there wasn't nearly enough Jericho, and the bits we did get really worried me (REALLY really.)

The story is as captivating and elaborate as in the first book, the writing continues to utterly flumox me because it's that good, and the world building is above and beyond any other book I've read.

Probably one of my favourite series ever. I'm desperate for the next book.

Characters ★★★★★

Setting/world-building ★★★★★

Writing ★★★★★

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A Great and Terrible Beauty (Review)

Gemma Doyle: A Great and Terrible Beauty | Libba Bray

Published by: Simon & Schuster, December 9th 2003

Genre: YA, Historical, Fantasy

Pages: 403

Format: Paperback

Source: Purchased

It's 1895 and, after the death of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped from the she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true. Gemma finds he reception a chilly one. She's not completely alone, though... she's being followed by a mysterious young man, sent to warn her to close her mind against the visions.

It's at Spence that Gemma's power to attract the supernatural unfolds as she becomes entangled with the school's most powerful girls and discovers her mother's connection to a shadowy, timeless group called The Order. Her destiny awaits... if only Gemma can believe in it. 

I seem to have been finally reading way overdue books this month. First Fire and Thorns, then Poison Study, now this. A Great and Terrible Beauty has been on my tbr list since 2011, and because I've been wanting to read it for so long, it could only have gone one of two ways - it could have survived what I'd built it up to be, or it could have disappointed me. Happily, it survived and surpassed.

A Great and Terrible Beauty may be set against a Victorian finishing school backdrop, but it's nothing short of fantastic. There are so many magical elements that it completely shocked me. I expected a good 50% of the book to be about schooling and classes and etiquette that it was a genuine pleasure to have been thrown into the magic from the very beginning, and for the ordinary to have been so well balanced with the extraordinary. You couldn't, for a second, mistake this for a plain historical novel.

This book reminded me in parts of A Breath of Frost and The Raven Boys. It has all the splendour and captivity of period society, but with the limitless, raw possibility of magic - it reminded me so much of Cabeswater in parts. I honestly loved this book once it got fully into the realms and the danger of it. And don't even get me started on the feminism. I'm eager to read more of these books.

A Great and Terrible Beauty is a faultless blend of brilliant magic and Victorian reality. A shockingly well-crafted novel.

Characters ★★★★☆

Setting/world building ★★★★☆

Writing ★★★★★

Reading round up (56)

Reading round up is a weekly journal where I record my daily reading progress, my thoughts on each book as I read it, and any books I've acquired during the week.

8th December

Currently Reading: Poison Study | Maria. V. Snyder
Current page/percent: page 127
Read today: 127 pages
Thoughts: HOLY HELL. Yelena is one of those rare characters I fall instantly in love with. I don't know what makes her special or the one but I'm gonna love this entire series, I know it.

9th December

Currently Reading: Poison Study | Maria. V. Snyder
Current page/percent: page 295
Read today: 168 pages
Thoughts: I am officially hooked on Valek/Yelena. Pls pls kiss. C'mon. Just kiss each other. Just once or a hundred times. That's all I ask.

10th December

Finished Poison Study (114 pages) and whoa boy. Astounding high fantasy. AND YELENA AND VALEK DID MORE THAN KISS yasssssssssss.

I also started Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore (9 pages) and it interesting so far.

11th December

Finished Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore and it was wonderful. Just simply wonderful. Highly recommend for a quick, cute read.

12th December

Today I'm starting a readalong of A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray!! I've been meaning to read this book for EVER so I have super high expectations. I only read 70 pages but I like the tone and the voice so far.

13th December

Read 65 pages of A Great and Terrible Beauty, but it's a little slow going for me personally, so I ended up reading 10% of The Jewel by Amy Ewing in between. Not sure about it so far. I'm a little bored but maybe it's not kicked in yet.

14th December

I'm not reading much of this at a time and it's frustrating me. Ideally, I'd finish tomorrow. Realistically? Probably Tuesday. Today I read 71 pages.

Books finished this week: 2

Slated | Teri Terry

Another £0.99 Kindle book. Been meaning to read this one for literal YEARS.

Foretold | Rinda Elliot

Forecast | Rinda Elliot

Foresworn | Rinda Elliott

I love love love these covers, especially the third one. These were dirt cheap on Kindle, especially for new releases, and they're about Norse mythology and prophecies and powerful ladies, all of which I am super into. They're also pubbed by Harlequin/Mira, home of two of the most amazing series (Soul Screamers; Blood of Eden) so I trust they'll be good.

Poison Study

Magic Under Glass