YA

Wicked Saints is certainly not for everyone but it’s 100% for me! It’s been a while since any book had me this much on edge, this excited: There’s the Eastern European inspired world (always there for that!), a complicated inscrutable magic system (I like puzzling over that stuff!), a gripping dark and desolate atmosphere (gets me every time!), intriguing characters (hello, dark-and-mysterious-more-or-less-evil guy!), and an ending that left me quite devastated (gimme that second book already!) …

Although Fairest is set before The Lunar Chronicles, I highly recommend reading the books in publication order. Many of the characters we came to know and love throughout the first three novels are mentioned here and since they appear in the context of their backstory, it might spoil the revelations in the series. Furthermore, I don’t know whether skipping is a good idea because it contains Winter’s backstory and gives an insight into her relationship with her cousin, which appears to be an important point, hinted at when reading the first three chapters of Winter …

Third time’s a charm? In this case, not really. With each read, I’m deducting one star from the rating: the first time, I giggled myself through an otherwise sleepless, anxiety-ridden night; the second time, I still enjoyed it, but it lost a little; the third time – this time – I listened to the audiobook and was almost a little disappointed. It might not hold up for me, but if you’re looking for a fun fluffy contemporary fantasy read with a very chaste dash of horror, this might just be it – but don’t expect this one to be big on character development and thrill …

I’ve read about 600 horse novels so far, but except for the novelisation of Hidalgo (I love that film!) and a Mustang Mountain volume I more or less consider western riding, this is the first proper novel about endurance I ever read – at least as far as I remember. It’s a shame, really, because this makes for a rather interesting and hardly touched upon topic. I liked it so much I even gave the novel another star …

Sometimes, it’s best to let the hype die down before reading a book. When We Were Liars was published in 2014, everyone was talking about it even. Unfortunately, spoilers were flying around so I lost interest. Now, five years later and not remembering all of that, I was able to read this with an almost clean slate. And what can I say: without that kind of baggage, I really enjoyed this book – much more than I would have, had I read it back then …

This one’s for the dreamers, for the ones loving getting lost in winter woods, for the ones enjoying delicate and thoughtful fairy tales. McKillip once again spins words into a beautiful, tranquil story about magic, curses, faerie realms, and love with only a handful of characters and a limited setting that reminded me a little of Naomi Novik’s more recent novel Uprooted …

I wasn’t a fan of the first book in this series but since I already owned the sequels, I decided to give The Sleeping Prince a chance – and was pleasantly surprised although not blown away. All it took to get me on board was a more likable protagonist, a more engaging plot without love triangles, and a deep dive into the wonderful lore of this high fantasy world!