A prince with a quest. A commoner with mysterious powers. And dragons that demand to be freed—at any cost. 
Prince Corin has been chosen to free the dragons from their bondage to the Empire, but dragons aren’t big on directions. They have given him some of their power, but none of their knowledge. No one, not the dragons nor their riders, is even sure what keeps the dragons in the Empire’s control. Tam, sensible daughter of a well-respected doctor, had no idea before she arrived in the capital that she is a Seer, gifted with visions. When the two run into each other (quite literally) in the library, sparks fly and Corin impulsively asks Tam to dinner. But it’s not all happily ever after. Never mind that the prince isn’t allowed to marry a commoner: war is coming to Caithen. Torn between Corin’s quest to free the dragons and his duty to his country, the lovers must both figure out how to master their powers in order to save Caithen. With a little help from a village of secret wizards and a rogue dragonrider, they just might pull it off.

Moth and Spark by Anne Leonard

Standalone

Adult/Fantasy/Romance

 2 out of 5 stars

Moth and Spark was unfortunately a case of a book not living up to the expectations set by the synopsis. While the synopsis prioritizes a fantastical conflict between a prince and the dragons he is sworn to free, the book itself prioritizes romance. The beginning of the novel is promising, but as soon as the two lovers discover each other the plot and the intriguing (albeit familiar) world become non-existent. Leonard starts the book with the building of the story's foundation - one with mystery and magic, but this quickly fizzled out into a story incapable of holding my attention.

Unable to decide what kind of story it wants to be, Moth and Spark ultimately does poorly on all fronts. There is a mystery too easily solved. A romance that accelerated too quickly and persisted throughout the story to provide some attempt at a "forbidden lovers" conflict that wasn't really a conflict, considering there wasn't much forbidden about the relationship. The dragons and the magic took a backseat for most of the novel, and when they did get incorporated into the story, they felt too familiar and unoriginal. Had all of these aspects been fleshed out and better woven together, Moth and Spark could have been a more enjoyable read.

I can only recommend this on the grounds that you go into Moth and Spark aware that the book is mostly a romance, and a simplistic one at that. If you're here for the dragons and political intrigue, I'd say this isn't your best bet. It took me months of struggling with this book to finally finish it, which doesn't seem uncommon based on the reception from other reviewers.

There are several scenes with sexual content, so younger readers should be aware of that.

I won an ARC copy of Moth and Spark in a Goodreads giveaway.

Veronica Roth’s Divergent trilogy (Divergent, Insurgent, Allegiant) has captured the hearts and thoughts of millions of readers. In Divergent Thinking, YA authors explore even more of Tris and Tobias’ world, including    • What Divergent’s factions have in common with one of psychology’s most prominent personality models • The biology of fear: where it comes from and how Tris and the other Dauntless are able to overcome it • Full-page maps locating all five faction headquarters and other series landmarks in today’s Chicago, based on clues from the books • Plus a whole lot more, from why we love identity shorthand like factions to Tris’ trouble with honesty to the importance of choice, family, and being brave.With a dozen smart, surprising, mind-expanding essays on all three books in the trilogy, Divergent Thinking provides a companion fit for even the most Erudite Divergent fan.

Divergent Thinking: YA Authors on Veronica Roth's Divergent Trilogy

Standalone Anthology/Companion to the Divergent Trilogy

Non-fiction

4 out of 5 stars

Warning: Divergent Thinking has spoilers for all three novels in the Divergent trilogy.

The Divergent Trilogy, for me, started strong and became progressively weaker. The world-building and the revelations of the final book that revealed how Chicago became what it was were both partially implausible and boring. YA Dystopian novels are great for two reasons - firstly, there tends to be a lot of action and a fast pace. The Divergent trilogy held up this end of the bargain for most of its run. Secondly, the world-building and/or themes allow for a more thought-provoking experience. The trilogy didn't deliver this for me. Divergent Thinking filled in most of what I felt the trilogy lacked, providing insights that allowed a deeper, more speculative look into the series and the Divergent world. For someone left so disillusioned and dissatisfied at the end of the trilogy, this was a perfect book to pick up.

Divergent Thinking contains a dozen essays written by an equal amount of YA authors. Each takes on a topic; from the pros and cons of the faction system to why Dauntless, as a military body, failed in its goals. As with most anthologies, some of the essays are stronger than others. My favorite of the collection was "Fear & The Dauntless Girl" by Blythe Woodston, which pleasantly surprised me. The essay looked at the biology of fear (in an interesting way! I promise it's not like reading a biology textbook) and what factors in Divergent's Chicago groomed its people for violence and rebellion. I found this to be the most insightful of the anthology, while still remaining readable and entertaining.

The main critique I have of Divergent Thinking is that some of the essays became a little repetitive. It didn't seem like there was any correspondence between the contributors, since so many of them wrote about ridiculously similar topics. The factions in particular seem to be a very popular topic, but it got old fast. The factions in Divergent were never anything I found incredibly thought provoking, and I had already made a lot of the connections the authors made in their essays... so these were slightly tedious to get through. The first two essays in the collection are both making comparisons between the factions and personality types. If the essays hadn't been put together, maybe it would have been a little less obvious and a little more bearable.

I think Divergent Thinking has something to offer every Divergent fan, even those of us who were left feeling unsatisfied with the trilogy's conclusion.

I was given a copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom-all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth, she has been in training to kill him.With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she's ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people. But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle-a shifting maze of magical rooms-enthralls her.As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex's secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? With time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love.

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

Standalone novel

YA/Retelling/Fantasy

 4 out of 5 stars
Cruel Beauty is one of the books that are incredibly hard to thoroughly review without being spoilery, so I'll have to leave some points alone for the purpose of not ruining the book for those who haven't read it.

Cruel Beauty takes place in the most unique world that I've read in YA fiction, and possibly in fiction in general. This is both a strength and a weakness for the story, and the way it will be received depends entirely upon the reader. A lot of readers go into this expecting a Beauty and the Beast retelling, and there is much more to it than that. The additional inspiration for the plot and the world-building is drawn from numerous sources and, as such, may be confusing or jarring for some readers. While the aspects of retelling are not confusing (where we reference Beauty and the Beast, Rumpelstiltskin, Bluebeard...) as you don't need to understand or recognize the source to know what's going on, the world-building is largely built on information that is not common knowledge and may be hard to digest for readers unfamiliar with the source material. 

The world and magic system is built upon two major things: Greek mythology and Hermeticism. The world itself seems to be an alternate version of a Greco-Roman world, and works as if hundreds of years ago, something happened that made it differ from what we would see today. This world is cut off from the rest of the Earth and isolated, and the gods of Greek mythology are part of the traditional belief system. While I'm not the most knowledgeable of Greek mythology, I did think Hodge did a decent job of explaining what everything meant while incorporating it into the story. I'm not sure I think the handling of Hermeticism was as good, however. I'm familiar with Hermeticism and the Hermetic principles as they stand in our reality, and Hodge uses Hermeticism as a magical system. There are a lot of principles just outright said but not explained to the reader, and while I understood what was going on, I think it might be more than some readers can handle. A lot of readers seem to not know that Hermeticism is something that actually exists, and those who are unfamiliar with it may be confused by it. I would say that readers will get the most out of Cruel Beauty if they have some understanding of Hermeticism or Greek mythology, otherwise the amount of world-building may seem daunting and confusing. 

The plot drifted enough from the original story that I didn't feel like everything was completely predictable, as I've found with some retellings. It wasn't entirely unpredictable however. There was what I think was an intended plot twist that I saw coming in the beginning, but as it was something that I was hoping would happen, I didn't mind the predictability. (It was a bit of a relief to see I was right, actually.) The best part of Cruel Beauty, for me, was the romance. The chemistry between Nyx and her love interest was to die for. I think some readers may be troubled by the romance in the beginning, for reasons I cannot explain because of spoilers, but all I will say is hang in there before giving up on it.

In the end, Cruel Beauty is dark, strange and beautiful. I would recommend it to those willing to spend a bit of time wading into a bizarre other world, and ready to read through lots of romancy bits.

Vicious by V.E. Schwab
Standalone, but a sequel is possible
Adult/Science Fiction/Super Heroes
Summary:

Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong. 

Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?

On Goodreads | On Amazon | On Book Depository

 4 out of 5 stars
More like a 4.5, but let's just go with 4.

Finding righteousness where only evil truly lies. Working to a "happy ending" with a less-than-honorable set of methods. Morality that teeters only within a spectrum of grey, approaching black & white standards only when seen through the veil of a delusional mind. This is the core of what Vicious is - and where its appeal lies. There is no great act of goodness triumphing over evil. There is no clean-cut hero or villain. You're thrown into a tale bending to the hungers of two men - whether they desire revenge or righteousness - ultimately, their hungers leading to the other's demise. This is a story of two nemeses, who were once friends, and now want nothing more than to see the other dead.

Vicious is told in multiple POVs, in multiple time periods. We flip between the present, the near past, and the distant past. The back-story unfolds simultaneously with the present conflict. This works incredibly well. We are always given just enough information about the past as we need at any moment, and we're not only left curious about what is going to happen in the end, but what exactly happened 10 years ago that spurred all of this on. Towards the end, the multiple POVs felt more like a hindrance than a help - but I think this is a problem a lot of books have when attempting multiple POVs. The execution in the beginning and throughout most of the book was flawless, however.

The dynamics between the characters - specifically our two main characters, Eli and Victor, was phenomenal. Their relationship is incredibly fascinating and watching their friendship crumble into hatred is very entertaining. I was slightly disappointed with the characterization of Eli, if I'm being honest. In the beginning, he's an interesting and enigmatic character. He undergoes drastic changes to his personality (if you consider mentions of character development spoilery, skip the italics) and essentially becomes a religious fanatic - which felt strained and too reliant on tropes. While I mentioned the morality being very much grey, I still found it easy to relate to one of the main characters over the other. At first I thought it was perhaps because Victor is given more attention in the beginning, but it's mostly because crazy religious fanatics make me want to rip my eyes out. So no team Eli as an option for me. I would have liked if it had been harder to pick a side, since that was the main appeal for me.

My main complaints lie with parts of the book mostly leaning towards the end. Things began to feel generic, from Eli's characterization to certain fantasy elements in what powers various characters possessed. Some things felt like they needed more explanation or they felt too "convenient" for the story. Not huge issues, but they did put a damper on my enthusiasm. Ultimately I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it!