Eidolon by Grace Draven

 

🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

Oh this book! It tore me apart and put me back together again. Before I get too carried away, I'll do my introduction blurb. So book number 2 in Grace Draven's Wraith Kings series is Eidolon. This book continues with the focus on Brishen and Ildiko and the galla that were called into the world by his horrible mother. 

This book jumps around just a little between different groups of people. So the prologue takes place almost immediately after the epilogue in Radiance, just focused on the newest infant to Brishen's older brother and her nursemaid. There is cute banter between the nursemaid Kirgipa and the palace guard Necos. Then the galla attack and another palace guard comes in and all three are able to escape. It's a terrifying chapter and I could feel my adrenaline surge a little reading their escape. Chapter 1 jumps back to Brishen and Ildiko at home. I'm not sure if it jumps back in time a little bit, but if so it's not much. Soon the news reaches them and things start escalating. They start accepting refugees and everyone trying to escape the galla.

Despite how firm Ildiko and Brishen felt in their relationship at the end of Radiance and the beginning here, they do go through some hardships. It's believed that the rest of the royal family has passed and Brishen is now King of the Kai. He steps up and plans to keep Ildiko as Queen, however being that they're different races, children is not an option. Despite their love for each, a king needs heirs. Thankfully, as the reader, we can see updates on the young infant's progress in getting to Brishen and Ildiko and that the true ruler is still alive. However, this throws Brishen and Ildiko through the ringer as Ildiko's practical nature comes forth and knows, before it's even mentioned, that he'll need to renounce her and pick a Kai wife. She doesn't want it and will do anything to still stay with Brishen, even as a mistress, but duty keeps her firm that their relationship now has an end date. Brishen, obviously, does not like this and there is a lot of strife, misunderstandings and distance created between the two.

I was tearing up a lot throughout most of this book with both of their hearts breaking. I did love that they came to terms with everything before Brishen and the other 4 warriors and monk became wraith kings. Their love and intimate moments became less desperate. They also came to an agreement of sorts that after doing what Brishen would need to to save the Kai, he deserves whatever wife he wants. The battle of the wraith kings and the galla was so well written without taking up too much of the story and being unnecessarily drawn out. I was very excited to see Andras show up last minute, but it was weird seeing him act so different to how he was in Night Tide. 

The galla were defeated and pushed back through the portal. Brishen was able to close the portal, yet the monk was pulled in by the galla. I'm intrigued that his body is still alive, but soul is trapped in this other dimension and can't wait to see how Grace Draven moves the plot forward. The next full book is The Ippos King and is focused on Lord Pangion and Brishen's cousin Anhuset. I'm super excited to see their romance finally and hope it's similar to Radiance in that the romance is the focal point. I'm super excited to see the other wraith kings find their HEAs as well and how the world recovers. I'm not sure if there's going to be another "big bad," but I'm glad that the galla were defeated. 

I'm so happy that FaRoFeb brought cause for me start this series above others on my tbr and am completely obsessed with Grace Draven's writing. It's so eloquent and completely sucks me in. I will definitely be adding whatever books from her backlist that aren't already on my tbr to it. Plus I definitely want hard copies of these books because the covers are so gorgeous. I won't jump right into the next novella in the series since I've got the Lunar New Year Readathon first over Valentine's weekend, but I'll be jumping back into it just as soon as I can!

Have you read Eidolon yet?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Eidolon, Grace Draven, 5-stars, 1 day, eBook, 328 pages, published 2016

Lover of Thorns and Holy Gods by Grace Draven

🍎🍎🍎🍎

The next book in Grace Draven's Wraith Kings series is Lover of Thorns and Holy Gods. This is a collection of three short stories. The first two are from her Master of Crows series (that is set in the same world). I did read all three, but for this review I'll focus on the third story, A Matter of Trust. 

This was such a steamy and sweet short story centered around an evening out for Ildiko and Brishen. It starts out with our lovely couple having dinner at his neighbor Lord Pangion's. Ildiko is with some of the court ladies and they are discussing the finer details of coupling with Lord Pangion and is reputation as the Beladine Stallion. The women quickly turn their sights on Ildiko and want more information about her couplings with Brishen, being he's Kai and not human. I am very much along the same lines as Ildiko, where I don't like to share and discuss private/personal things like that, especially with virtual strangers.

They do bring up oral, and since Kai have sharp fangs as teeth, Ildiko thinks about trying to pleasure Brishen and if he'd be trustful of her mouth "down there." Since Kai have fangs, she's pretty confident that that specific intimacy isn't one that Kai men would receive or even know about. Like I mentioned before, this was very steamy and I really enjoyed the way that Grace Draven writes intimacy and the feelings and other aspects that play into such a scene. It was nice to also get a moment of peace between them, especially knowing what is coming for Eidolon after the epilogue of Radiance. So excited to continue the series for FaRoFeb!

Have you read Lover of Thorns and Holy Gods?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Lover of Thorns and Holy Gods, Grace Draven, 4-stars, 0 days, eBook, 39 pages, published 2016

Lunar New Year Readathon Wrap-Up

 Happy (late) Lunar New Year! 

I hope you had fun this past weekend celebrating both the Lunar New Year and Valentine's Day! Here in northern Colorado we had a crazy cold snap and the weather was consistently negative degrees and never really got above 5 degrees. That's cold for us. Thankfully, I didn't have any plans anyway, so I focused on reading and cleaning house over the weekend! Plus the Colorado Avalanche came back from their enforced quarantine for covid protocol.

So, despite my lengthy plans and tbr, I ended up only reading 4 books for the readathon and then started a random historical for a book club later this week (Love Only Once by Johanna Lindsey for the Historical Hellions Book Club). Below is my finished prompt list. I am a little backed up on reviews now, but hopefully by the end of this week I'll be able to get most of them posted. I have updated with links to all of the reviews!

Here are the books I read (in order read) with ratings. As my reviews go live I'll update with links to the reviews! 

1. The Duchess War by Courtney Milan - 🍎🍎🍎🍎 - Prompts met: New to You Author, Recommended to You & Red on the Cover

2. Steele Your Soul by Decadent Kane - 🍎🍎 - Prompts met: New to You Author

3. A Fake Girlfriend for Chinese New Year by Jackie Lau - 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎 - Prompts Met: Release from 2019-2021, Recommended to You & Red on the Cover

4. A Big Surprise for Valentine's Day by Jackie Lau - 🍎🍎🍎🍎 - Prompts Met: Release from 2019-2021, Recommended to You & Red on the Cover

So, I only read 4 books and ended up with 1x 5-star, 2x 4-stars and 1x 2-star. Thankfully after getting through Steele I went straight into Jackie Lau. It's a good thing too because it helped keep me from getting into a book slump. I'll go into more depth in my reviews for those two, but I love Jackie Lau. Her books always hit that sweet spot for me where it's funny, steamy and so swoony. She is one of my favorite contemporary authors. I definitely could've read more of her, but I was wasting time trying to figure out what to read next. I was so torn on trying to find something that I was in the mood for that would also work for FaRoFeb, but nothing was sounding good. I probably spent a good 35 minutes on Saturday afternoon just going through various books on my list, kindle and goodreads just trying to figure out what I wanted to read next.

Still, I'm still pretty happy to get through 5 books this weekend; 4 being for the readathon. It seems low, but considering I started Friday night when I got home for work, not too shabby. Overall it was a nice change of pace and I'm always happy to read more historicals and Jackie Lau, but I'm definitely read to get back to Grace Draven's Wraith Kings and more fantasy romance this week.

Did you participate in the Lunar New Year Readathon this past weekend? If so, how did it go?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

Night Tide by Grace Draven

 

🍎🍎🍎🍎

After getting caught up with Milla Vane's A Gathering of Dragons series, I immediately jumped back into Grace Draven's Wraith Kings. The next book in the series is the novella Night Tide. So excited to continue this series for FaRoFeb!

So knowing that book two still focuses on Brishen and Ildiko, I was surprised to meet a new heroine and hero. Zigana is the bastard daughter of the local nobleman, but lives with her birth mother and father (in all aspects) in a costal city as a trawler. She has a wonderful horse Gitta (that seems sort of magical and/or special). He half sister returns with her husband and reunites with Ziga. She learns of her daughter and finally meets her husband, Andras. They have been banished from the city due to Andras' father starting a rebellion. Andras smartly did not join, so they have been banished.

At the same time there is some creepy skeletal monster thing using a melancholic siren type of call to bring villagers to the water to die. Ziga and Gitta end up meeting Andras on the beach when her father is threatened and destroy the creature. There seems to be a spark between Ziga and Andras. I'm super intrigued to see how this story will fit in as we move along. Being as the name of the series is Wraith Kings, we still have yet to learn what exactly a Wraith King is and who they are. I'm hoping that Andras is one. At the end of the novella there's a note from the author that they'll be back in book 5, but only the first three books are out. I feel like the story felt resolved, but it definitely left me wanting more in a good way. I can't wait to get to the next little novella and then start Eidolon!

Have you read Night Tide?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Night Tide, Grace Draven, 4-stars, 0 days, eBook, 72 pages, published 2018

A Touch of Stone and Snow by Milla Vane

 

🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

After reading The Beast of Blackmoor, I immediately jumped into A Touch of Stone and Snow by Milla Vane. This is the second book in her series A Gathering of Dragons. Now, as mentioned before I planned to read this over the weekend since I had more reading time and I like to read these a little slower. I just don't want to miss any little detail and allow myself to get really immersed in her writing and world. However, I wasn't thinking and this took me longer to read since I wasn't able to read at all Sunday with preparations for our little party and my normal Sunday chores.

I don't know why I waited so long to get to these after reading A Heart of Blood and Ashes last year. I loved getting into this world even more and loved that the stories of the gods and world building is just continuing to expand. One of the things I love about Milla Vane's writing is that she doesn't make the world building or fantasy elements seems overwhelming. 

This book focuses on Lizzan and Aerix from the island Koth. Were moving north in the world and see them connect with the alliance party that was formed at the end of book 1. (Fun Fact: Milla's website has maps of the land!) Lizzan is a soldier that was wrongly exiled from Koth kind of by Aerix, the remaining prince (and bastard of the current king's brother). This is a second chance romance, which I'm not usually that fond of. I did love that Lizzan and Aerix couldn't stay away from each other. I also liked that it didn't take very long for Aerix and Lizzan to dicuss the circumstances of her exile and why Aerix didn't do more to stop it or go with her. I was kept guessing on what was actually going on with the plot. Plus we got a couple more of the Destroyer's seeds taken care of!

 It was absolutely perfect that I read the novella The Beast of Blackmoor before this book because there are a lot of references to the people and what happened. We also get a fun cameo from Shim, Mala's horse companion! What's fun is we also meet Mala's sister Laina as she starts her quest from Vala (and is the heroine of book 3). I also love the way that A Dance of Smoke and Steel is setting up and can't wait for it to come out later this year!

Another fun fact, Milla Vane was on the Wicked Wallflower's podcast and talked about her plans for this series. She wants to do 6 books, but in 2 trilogies so if she ends up stopping at 3, there's still some resolution. She also has mentioned on a blog post in late 2020 that the book will be twice as long. I can't wait! Like mentioned in my review of The Beast of Blackmoor, I've had it on preorder since it was able to be!

Have you read A Touch of Stone and Snow?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: A Touch of Stone and Snow, Milla Vane, 5-stars, 2 days, paperback, 398 pages, published 2020