Month: February 2021

January Wrap Up 2021

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Here we go the first wrap up of the new year!! One of my challenges this year is to read more graphic novels and manga etc. Well, I decided to sign up to WebToon and read some of their webcomics and it was such a great decision! I had 2 5 star books this month, 1 for a webcomic and 1 for a manga.

  • I read 8 books this month.
  • I started both my 2021 Goodreads, Sequel, Physical and ONTD challenge.
  • Genre: I read 1 historical fiction, 1 thriller, 5 fantasy and 1 supernatural!
  • Age range: I read 6 adult and 2 YA.
  • Format: I read 3 paperbacks, 2 ebooks and 3 webcomics.

The Art of Dying – Ambrose Parry (3 stars)

Ok, so not a bad start to the new year. This was an ARC from Netgalley and it was just a solid 3 stars. I enjoyed the characters and I enjoyed the change in POV but it didn’t wow me. I probably won’t continue the series unless the next book looks really really good.

The Plotters – Un-Su Kim (2.5 stars)

So, this was for my ONTD challenge and I had never read a book by a Korean author before so I was quite excited to jump in. This book hit the middle of the road for me. I really enjoyed the dialogue and the Seoul Underworld described in this book but there was a lot of philosophical stream of consciousness esc passages in this book that bored me and ruined the pacing of the novel.

Lore Olympus: Season 1 – Rachel Smythe (5 stars)

So, here is my first 5 star of the year. Starting off well, one of the first web comics I picked up was this one. I had heard so many great things and it ended up matching the hype and exceeding my expectations. It is a re-telling of the “Taking of Persephone” myth from Greek Mythology, where Hades, King of the Underworld, kidnaps Goddess of Spring Persephone and makes her his wife. This is such a refreshing take on this myth, don’t worry everything is consensual between the two! The art-style is amazing, the romance between Hades and Persephone is just incredible and the characters in general are so varied and so well written.

The Steam Dragon Express – R. Merryweather & Porforever (2.5 stars)

This was another middle of the road comic for me. It follows a young girl who joins the Steam Dragon Express Academy to learn how to be an adventurer. The art style was super cute and colourful, I was super interested in the story but I found the episodes to be too short. Also, sadly the artist and the writer decided to go separate ways just as the comic started to really amp up so the ending felt kind of rushed.

The Fifth Season – N.K. Jemisin (4 stars)

I picked this up after hearing so many great things about it. I do think that after reading so much hype it meant that I went in with maybe too high of expectations than I would have gone in with if I didn’t know much about it. That being said it was still really good. I really enjoyed learning about the world and meeting all these new and exciting characters and I love a story with multiple POVs and every single POV was amazing!

Fullmetal Alchemist Vol 4. (10-12) – Hiromu Arakawa (5 stars)

Another, 5 star but this is not surprising! I love this series so much! This is by far my favourite of the series so far. We finally get a greater understanding of the world and the plot seems more important and exhilarating. The art as always is great and I just love how Arakawa can write both really deep and emotional scenes and then also write some incredibly funny scenes.

The Strange Tales of Oscar Zahn – Tri Vuong (4 stars)

Another webcomic to the list. This follows Supernatural Investigator Oscar Zahn through some of his adventures into the paranormal. This was just so good. The art work was amazing, the plot was superb but this comic just had a lot of heart and soul (no pun intended) embedded in these stories. Oscar is a great character and I need more!

Descendant of the Crane – Joan He (3 stars)

This was another book I picked up due to the hype. There were loads of elements of it that I liked; the plot, the sibling relationship, the mystery but sadly I couldn’t connect to the story at the beginning. The pacing at times was quite slow that my attention span faltered and I couldn’t engage with book as much as I wanted to!

Welp, there’s January 2021 all done and dusted. That’s so weird that it’s over already!!!

Descendant of the Crane Review

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Princess Hesina of Yan has always been eager to shirk the responsibilities of the crown, dreaming of an unremarkable life. But when her beloved father is found dead, she’s thrust into power, suddenly the queen of a surprisingly unstable kingdom. What’s more, Hesina believes that her father was murdered—and that the killer is someone close to her. Hesina’s court is packed full of dissemblers and deceivers eager to use the king’s death for political gain, each as plausibly guilty as the next. Her advisers would like her to blame the neighboring kingdom of Kendi’a, whose ruler has been mustering for war. Determined to find her father’s actual killer, Hesina does something desperate: she enlists the aid of a soothsayer—a treasonous act, punishable by death, since magic was outlawed centuries ago. Using the information provided by the sooth, and uncertain if she can trust her family, Hesina turns to Akira—a brilliant investigator who’s also a convicted criminal with secrets of his own. With the future of Yan at stake, can Hesina find justice for her father? Or will the cost be too high?

The Fifth Season Review

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Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze — the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization’s bedrock for a thousand years — collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman’s vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries. Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. Without sunlight, clean water, or arable land, and with limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be war all across the Stillness: a battle royale of nations not for power or territory, but simply for the basic resources necessary to get through the long dark night. Essun does not care if the world falls apart around her. She’ll break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.