Fool's quest - Robin Hobb

Years ago, they freed a dragon from the glaciers on Aslevjal. Then they parted ways, the Fool returning to far-off Clerres, while Fitz finally claimed a wife, a family, and a home of his own.

Now, betrayed by his own people and broken by torment, the Fool has made his way back to the Six Duchies. But as Fitz attempts to heal his old friend in Buckkeep Castle, his young daughter Bee is abducted from Withywoods by pale and mysterious raiders who leave ruin and confusion in their wake.

Fitz must find a way to rescue his beloved Bee. At the same time it is the Fool’s fiercest wish to return to Clerres with the best assassin he has ever known, to gain vengeance and justice.

Can Fitz bear to take up the tools of his old trade again, even to avenge his dearest friend and save his child? 

My thoughts:

The way to read this book is just to let yourself be immersed in it. That when when you come up for air you are all, what is going on? Where am I? I was just so into the book that it could not put it down or stop thinking about it. I did read it in an elevator, I did read it while BF and I visited a friend of his.

Some things made me angry, some things made me smile and some things just warmed my heart. Some things made me murderous. 

Bee was kidnapped in the last book and we get to follow her and her captures, and damn I want to hunt them all down and make those effing bastards pay!!!

All while Fitz is at Buckkeep Castle tending to the Fool, but yes when he learns of this. The hunt is on.

There are just so many things I want to say, but I am kind of lost for words. And I fear how it all will end. I fear for Fitz. I have followed his life for so long now and the fear is strong. I also really want him to bond again. The loss of Nighteyes still hurts me, and him.

Conclusion:

SO yes I recommend this series, but if you want to feel all that lost and heartache then you have to start with the first trilogy.

Cover

ok

Hardcover, 740 pages
Published August 13th 2015 by Harper Voyager
The Fitz and The Fool Trilogy #2, Realms of the Elderlings #15
Fantasy
Library

Carole's SUnday Review: Masquerade - Hannah Fielding

Author: Hannah Fielding

Title: Masquerade (Andalucian Nights #2)

Genre: Historical Romance

Pages: 442

First Published: August 2015

Where I Got It: My shelf (given to me by the author/publisher for my honest and unbiased opinion)

A young writer becomes entangled in an illicit gypsy love affair, pulling her into a world of secrets, deception and dark desire. 

Summer, 1976. Luz de Rueda returns to her beloved Spain and takes a job as the biographer of a famous artist. On her first day back in Cádiz, she encounters a bewitching, passionate young gypsy, Leandro, who immediately captures her heart, even though relationships with his kind are taboo. Haunted by this forbidden love, she meets her new employer, the sophisticated Andrés de Calderón. Reserved yet darkly compelling, he is totally different to Leandro but almost the gypsy's double. Both men stir unfamiliar and exciting feelings in Luz, although mystery and danger surround them in ways she has still to discover.

Luz must decide what she truly desires as glistening Cádiz, with its enigmatic moon and whispering turquoise shores, seeps back into her blood. Why is she so drawn to the wild and magical sea gypsies? What is behind the old fortune-teller’s sinister warnings about ‘Gemini’? Through this maze of secrets and lies, will Luz finally find her happiness… or her ruin?

Masquerade is a story of forbidden love, truth and trust. Are appearances always deceptive?

This is the second novel of Andalucien trilogy. I read the first one a while back and I had liked it a lot. This one follows the story of Alexandra's and Salvador's daughter, Luz and her journey is the lavish Spain of the 70s.

Again...I am in love with the writing style of the author! It brings not only the world alive, but the characters as well. She creates so much emotion and feeling. I highly applaud the writing! She truly did justice with bringing the beauty and drama of Spanish society alive yet again. It makes me want to read more by the author.

Ooooh poor Luz. I do feel bad for her, oddly, because all she really wants is love and to have a perfect life in Spain. However, her parent's past is now haunting her unknowingly. Leandro's mom has revenge in store for Luz, even though Luz had NOTHING to do with what happened years previous - she wasn't even born yet! Yes, I do feel bad for Leandro as well (kinda) even though he felt entitled to help out his mom. I am annoyed that they fell so quickly for one another. They pretty much had lust and love from the moment they locked eyes. At first I was on team Leandro, but then he leaves her with a broken heart, so I am on team Andre. However...I don't trust Andre all the way either. 

I must admit....I did like the love triangle. WHAT? Yes, you read that last sentence correctly. It worked well and it made the story way more interesting. The two men are similar in looks, but they are polar opposites in lifestyle, but I don't trust either of them. Andre did earn major points in the end, but I still don't fully trust him.

The middle did have a dry spot for a few pages. Once the dry spot was over, I could hardly put it down.

THE ENDING!!! Ugh! Such a cliff-hanger. So many loose ends that need to tied up! Hopefully there is a continuation of the story. 

In the end, this was good. I liked it as much as the other one. I think I connected with Luz more so than Alexandra. Oddly enough, I liked the love triangle. It worked well and it mixed well and made sense. I am team Andre, buuuuuut I still don't trust him entirely. I don't trust either of the guys. I truly hope the next book is a continuation of this story, because I felt there were so many loose ends that I need a conclusion for. I highly encourage reading book 1 before diving into this one. There is so much back story that is essential to this story (at least in my opinion). Out of five stars, I stamp this with 4. 

Bayou vol 2 - Jeremy Love and #FitReaders Check-In: October 9, 2015

South of the Mason-Dixon Line lies a strange land of gods and monsters; a world parallel to our own, born from centuries of slavery, civil war, and hate. Lee Wagstaff is the daughter of a black sharecropper in the depression-era town of Charon, Mississippi. When Lily Westmoreland, her white playmate, is snatched by agents of an evil creature known as Bog, Lee's father is accused of kidnapping. Lee's only hope is to follow Lily's trail into this fantastic and frightening alternate world. Along the way she enlists the help of a benevolent, blues singing, swamp monster called Bayou. Together, Lee and Bayou trek across a hauntingly familiar Southern Neverland, confronting creatures both benign and malevolent, in an effort to rescue Lily and save Lee's father from being lynched.BAYOU VOL. 2 collects four new chapters of the critically acclaimed web comic series by Glyph Award nominee Jeremy Love. 

My thoughts:

It's so hard to review a graphic novel. I did not remember a lot from book 1 either (seems I read it 5 years ago). Just that they were on the run.

But the drawings are really good, that is what I want from a graphic novel. The story itself just seemed to end. There really should be more cos it can't end like that. So more please,

The story, yes they were on the run in this weird land and met rabbits in chaingangs, evil ones and more.

It's different for sure.

Paperback, 160 pages - Published February 22nd 2011 by Zuda - Bayou Vol. 2- Graphic Novel, historical, paranormal- Library

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Dreams of Gods and Monsters - Laini Taylor

By way of a staggering deception, Karou has taken control of the chimaera rebellion and is intent on steering its course away from dead-end vengeance. The future rests on her, if there can even be a future for the chimaera in war-ravaged Eretz.

Common enemy, common cause.

When Jael's brutal seraph army trespasses into the human world, the unthinkable becomes essential, and Karou and Akiva must ally their enemy armies against the threat. It is a twisted version of their long-ago dream, and they begin to hope that it might forge a way forward for their people.

And, perhaps, for themselves. Toward a new way of living, and maybe even love.

But there are bigger threats than Jael in the offing. A vicious queen is hunting Akiva, and, in the skies of Eretz ... something is happening. Massive stains are spreading like bruises from horizon to horizon; the great winged stormhunters are gathering as if summoned, ceaselessly circling, and a deep sense of wrong pervades the world.

What power can bruise the sky?

From the streets of Rome to the caves of the Kirin and beyond, humans, chimaera and seraphim will fight, strive, love, and die in an epic theater that transcends good and evil, right and wrong, friend and enemy. 

At the very barriers of space and time, what do gods and monsters dream of? And does anything else matter? 

My thoughts:

Yes I enjoyed this book, but did I love it like book 1? No. But I enjoyed it, and I liked the beauty of the words, and the quotes at some chapter beginnings. I finished it, almost in a day. I could not put it down. But, yes it had its share of shortcomings that did not make it as awesome as book 1.

And now I will try to see why it was not as great. Good, but not great. Made me want more, but not great.

I think it was because of Eliza, was she in book 2? I have no idea, but she showed up and I was all confused, was I supposed to know her? Or was she just suddenly thrown in?

The love between Akiva and Karou lacked some of that passion from earlier books. Now it felt lukewarm.

I expected more from Angels showing up on earth. Just more craziness.

Stuff happened, but at the same time stuff did not happen. It felt like there was too much of nothing, a filler book. It could have been shorter.

Conclusion:

But, it was still a good book. I was not disappointed, though, the end...that was rather ominous. Will there be more?

Cover 

So dull

Paperback, UK, 613 pages
Published April 17th 2014 by Hodder & Stoughton
Daughter of Smoke & Bone #3
YA, Paranormal
Library