Book Review: Finale by Stephanie Garber

Release Date: May 7th, 2019
Read: May 24th-26, 2019
Publisher: Flatrion Books
Series: Caraval, #3
Format: ARC, 496 pages
Source: McNally Robinson Booksellers

Description from GoodReads:

A love worth fighting for. A dream worth dying for. An ending worth waiting for.

It’s been two months since the Fates were freed from a deck of cards, two months since Legend claimed the throne for his own, and two months since Tella discovered the boy she fell in love with doesn’t really exist.

With lives, empires, and hearts hanging in the balance, Tella must decide if she’s going to trust Legend or a former enemy. After uncovering a secret that upends her life, Scarlett will need to do the impossible. And Legend has a choice to make that will forever change and define him.

Caraval is over, but perhaps the greatest game of all has begun. There are no spectators this time: only those who will win, and those who will lose everything.

Welcome, welcome to Finale. All games must come to an end…

Book Review: Legendary by Stephanie Garber

Release Day: May 29th, 2018
Read: August 5th-8th, 2018
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Series: Caraval, #2
Format: ARC, 451 pages
Source: Publisher in exchange for a honest review

Description from GoodReads:

   A heart to protect. A debt to repay. A game to win.

   After being swept up in the magical world of Caraval, Donatella Dragna has finally escaped her father and saved her sister Scarlett from a disastrous arranged marriage. The girls should be celebrating, but Tella isn’t yet free. She made a desperate bargain with a mysterious criminal, and what Tella owes him no one has ever been able to deliver: Caraval Master Legend’s true name.

   The only chance of uncovering Legend’s identity is to win Caraval, so Tella throws herself into the legendary competition once more—and into the path of the murderous heir to the throne, a doomed love story, and a web of secrets…including her sister's. Caraval has always demanded bravery, cunning, and sacrifice. But now the game is asking for more. If Tella can’t fulfill her bargain and deliver Legend’s name, she’ll lose everything she cares about—maybe even her life. But if she wins, Legend and Caraval will be destroyed forever.

   Welcome, welcome to Caraval...the games have only just begun. 

Book Review: The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

Release Date: January 18th, 2018
Read: August 15th-21st, 2017
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Series: Standalone
Format: ARC, 368 pages
Source: McNally Robinson

Description from GoodReads:

   Seventeen-year-old Alice and her mother have spent most of Alice’s life on the road, always a step ahead of the uncanny bad luck biting at their heels. But when Alice’s grandmother, the reclusive author of a cult-classic book of pitch-dark fairy tales, dies alone on her estate, the Hazel Wood, Alice learns how bad her luck can really get: Her mother is stolen away―by a figure who claims to come from the Hinterland, the cruel supernatural world where her grandmother's stories are set. Alice's only lead is the message her mother left behind: “Stay away from the Hazel Wood.”

   Alice has long steered clear of her grandmother’s cultish fans. But now she has no choice but to ally with classmate Ellery Finch, a Hinterland superfan who may have his own reasons for wanting to help her. To retrieve her mother, Alice must venture first to the Hazel Wood, then into the world where her grandmother's tales began―and where she might find out how her own story went so wrong.

Review:

   My love he wooed me. My love he slew me.
   It's been roughly seven months since I read The Hazel Wood, and I still remain bitter about the story and the hope I had for the book being crushed. I had such a strong anticipation for The Hazel Wood before it released; the cover was gorgeous, the synopsis was everything I needed from a fairy tale novel, but in the end it let me ever so down.

   I found the lead up to the Hazel Wood to be a complete mess, to me nothing made any sense at all. It was clear that everything was done in anticipation of heading to the Hazel Wood, but it was just filler to me. Not to mention we were constantly told about how all the Hinterland stories were oh so important to saving the mother as well as other things, but we basically got a list of their names and were told the stories later on when the novel was basically almost done. It was later announced after The Hazel Wood was written that there'd be a bind up of all the Hinterland stories, but I honestly think they were needed to comprehend this novel.

   I also found the protagonist and friend were completely bland characters, nothing about them stood out and at times I was even annoyed at hearing their voices. It didn't matter what happened to them in the novels, I could care less about what happened to them.

   I wanted a unique new fairy tale story, but what I got was a bland mess. I still don't understand the hype to the book after having read it, and I'm still so disappointed that a book with such a gorgeous cover could be such a mess underneath.

   The Hazel Wood was a disaster, and under no circumstances will you see me picking up it's sequel in the future.
   

Rating:

Favourite Quote:

"If you're not with the book you want, you might as well want the book you're with."

Recommend to People Who Enjoy:

Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal, Fairy Tales, Retelling, Cities, Murder, Blood