Empire of Storms by Sarah J Maas

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

 Update: I recently reread Empire of Storms (lest than two weeks after finishing it the first time). I was able to use my reread to apply to Fall in Love prompt September Release and Color Me Romantic prompt for Gray (gray on cover and an older character).

One of the assigned books for the August portion of the SJM-along was Empire of Storms. This is the fifth book in Sarah J Maas's popular Throne of Glass series. I was able to use this to cover the Summer of Swoon prompt author with more than five published books for the second bingo board.

Now that magic has returned to the land of Erilea, Aelin and her court are now tasked to reclaim the throne of Terrasen and start planning to go to war with the Valg King. When Aelin is shut-out from her homeland by the current lords, she sets about finding allies and continuing her plan to fight. She and her court are hoping that seeing her actions will change their minds about her character and that she can make a good queen. At the same time Manon is dealing with reconciling the the truth about her grandmother. Travelling the world we see Elide trying to make her way to Aelin to pass along the wyrdkey she received. Lorcan is also out in the world trying to find the wyrdkeys to save Maeve from herself. Maeve also decides to start becoming a player in this war.

Oh my gosh, this book was the culmination of so many things, but yet there is still so much to do throughout the rest of the books in the series. It's hard to say, but I think this might be my favorite in the series so far. We finally get some steamy times and more romantic moments between Aelin and Rowan, as well as a few other couples. I'm having a lot of fun pairing everyone up and am nervous in case Sarah decides to kill someone off. This is going to be hard to review because I want to keep this as spoiler free as possible, but I loved seeing a lot of the people we met during the prequel anthology come back into play. It was just so much fun. We also get some characters we met before fleshed out even more and I love how everyone is being brought together.

This book had such an epic feel throughout and I was so engrossed in what was going to happen. I'm really trying not to do too much predicting while I read (outside of building ships) and I think that's helping my enjoyment. I'm just along for the ride and trying to stay blind to any spoilers. There are times I've been nervous and happy and sad. Sarah really writes in a way that easily draws me in and really has me emotionally invested in everyone's story. I think the way that she's slowly grown the world and cast of characters has been really well done and I'm not having a hard time at all keeping things straight. Also, I thought it was super fun that we started the book with Elide and not Aelin. It was surprising and I really enjoyed kind of starting a little slow with Elide by herself before jumping back into a lot of the action.

I'm so stoked to continue the series and can't wait to see what's coming next. We are jumping back into the ACOTAR series for September, but I'm excited no matter what to continue the SJM-along. If you missed the live show for Empire of Storms, check it out here! I had a lot of fun, once again, and can't wait to see what new information comes to light during the future discussions.

Have you read Empire of Storms?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Empire of Storms, Sarah J Maas, 5-stars, 1 day, Paperback, 689 pages, published in 2016, traditionally published

STATISTICS: Empire of Storms, Sarah J Maas, 5-stars, 9 days, Paperback, 689 pages, published in 2016, traditionally published

Fall in Love 2022 TBR

 Time for a new season! After finishing up Summer of Swoon, it's time for Shelby's fall reading challenge, Fall in Love! It will once again run from September 1st through November 30th. Shelby has a lot of recs and more information on her instagram, but the three bingo boards she created are below.

 

For this TBR I'm going to focus on the first bingo board. I already have made a list for myself with the books I planned to pick up this month (from my September TBR) and which prompts they can cover. For any of the prompts left over, I'll be focusing on ideas for those in particular. I also tried to pick a lot of books I already had ebook copies of or were available in Kindle Unlimited.

🍂 I've seen a lot recently about Kimberly Lemming's Mead Mishaps series. This would work to cover  at least diverse main character, 2021 release and new to you author

🍂 For fall cover I've been intrigued by Accidentally Amy by Lynn Painter

🍂 Brooklynaire by Sarina Bowen would be a great option for cinnamon roll hero and I've been trying to get to at least that book in her Brooklyn Bruisers series

🍂 Set in Fall is a little harder for me. I could pick up any Halloween set romance, but I'm leaning towards McKenzie's Turn to Fall by Harlow James

For the second board, once we hit October I'm hoping that I'll be able to read books that will work for both this and the Bang in the Night Bingo. It's always helpful when I can get books to work across all the different reading challenges I participate in. Then in November I can focusing on finishing the first board if need be and hopefully the second as well. We'll see what happens! If you are looking for more fall recommendations, definitely check out what I read last year as well!

Will you be participating in Fall in Love?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

The Pirate Lord By Sabrina Jeffries

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The August theme for the Smart Women Read Romance exclusive Patreon review was pirate historical romance. The Pirate Lord, the first book in Sabrina Jeffries Lord Trilogy, was the winner of the poll. I was able to use this to cover the prompt favorite trope or subgenre for the 2nd board of Summer of Swoon.

Sara, the step-sister to an earl, has decided to join a ship headed to Australia. There is a lot of women that were prosecuted for various crimes that are being sent there for their sentence. Sara, as a representative for her charity group, is hoping to do an expose on the conditions that the women face not only on the trip there, but once they arrive. While traveling, they come across Captain Gideon and his rag tag pirate crew. They are planning on setting up a home base and one of the only things missing is women. They decide to take the women to make them their wives. Sara barters with Gideon to allow the women to be properly courted. As Gideon's men work to woo a wife, Gideon woos Sarah. When Sara's relation to the aristocracy is exposed, Gideon is forced to put aside his hate for the upper-class if he wants to keep the relationship.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. For being published in the late 1990s, it was excellent. I also loved the Seven Brides for Seven Brothers vibes. It was really fun to watch not only Gideon and Sara fall in love, but the crew members and women as well. I feel like with so many secondary romances, each reader can have one that is their personal ship (yes I made the pun). It was just so much fun. I really loved how Sara really pushed for the women to have more choice in the situation and how her and Gideon would "barter" between them.

The biggest detractions for me were two big things. I was a little put out and annoyed with the "other woman" situation. I get that the other woman was trying to get the best situation and partner with the captain, but I felt that all three of them could've been more open and cognizant of the situation. The other minor thing that bothered me was Gideon's backstory it handled his hate for the aristocracy. I just wanted more from it overall since it felt kind of addressed at the last minute and not fully fleshed out.

I'm excited to have finally read a Sabrina Jeffries novel and it won't be my last. I am intrigued enough to finish the trilogy, but I've been really wanting to read her Hellions of Halstead Hall series as well. I'm not sure which one I'll pick up first though since I have a habit of not finishing series. We'll see what happens, but either way I can't wait to read more of Sabrina's work!

Have you read The Pirate Lord?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: The Pirate Lord, Sabrina Jeffries, 4-stars, 2 days, eBook, 384 pages, published in 1998, traditionally published

Bang in the Night: The Monster Smash TBR

 I can't believe we are almost at fall!

Since we are approaching spooky season, it's time for the 2nd round of Bang in the Night Bingo! This is once again hosted by the ladies that the But Does it Bang? book club, Jacque and Beth! They do have a discord, so reach out to either of them on instagram to join. Once again they are starting the time frame early on September 19th and will run through Halloween! For the 2nd round, they are sub-captioning this round as The Monster Smash. I love it! Below is the blank bingo board followed by some of the tbr ideas I have for this round! Just a note, they do allow you to use a book for up to three prompts, but once again I'm going to try to just use one book per prompt.

🦇 Midnight with the Devil by Emma Castle - perfect for deal with the devils since it has a deal in the book and devil is in the title

🦇 The Liar's Crown by Abigail Owen - new release of hers that has a skull on the cover and also features twins

🦇 Kresley Cole's Immortals After Dark series - The next book I have to read is No Rest for the Wicked - at the very least it would cover #squadgoals, bite me and full moon on cover

🦇 Serpent's Touch by Marina Simcoe - Monster romance with a male gorgon

🦇 To Date an Immortal by Stephanie Rowe - twins and magic

🦇 Night Pleasures by Sherrilyn Kenyon - Has at least twins, vampire and published in October

🦇 Halloween Boo by Sarah Spade - A Hocus Pocus inspired novella with a ghost mc!

🦇 Moonbright, Maine series by Kate Angell - at the very least PSL vibes

🦇 The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling - magic, full moon on the cover and has a cat

🦇 The Vampire's Mail Order Bride by Kristen Painter - A KU vampire romance

🦇 Molly Harper's Mystic Bayou series - a lot of shifters and common paranormal tropes

🦇 I can also finally read the last couple Ice Planet Barbarian books by Ruby Dixon - they have horns

So a lot of my ideas are fantasy, paranormal and sci-fi based since those fulfill the prompts a little easier. I am also hoping to get some fun Halloween and/or fall based contemporaries. Hopefully I'll be able to do quite a few that will cross with Shelby's Fall in Love reading challenge (TBR will be posted this Thursday). Last year they had a spot on the review template for a theme song and I went for only Taylor Swift songs. I haven't decided which artist I'll go for this year, but I'm hoping to use only one artist again. Check out my instagram once the reading challenge starts to see who I ended up choosing!

Will you be participating Bang in the Night?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

Lord of the Vampires by Gena Showalter

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Needing one more book to finish the Ripped Bodice Summer Bingo, I picked up Lord of the Vampires by Gena Showalter. This is the first book in the multi-author series Royal House of Shadows. It covered the remaining prompt of amnesia, but also worked perfectly for the Summer of Swoon 2nd board prompt cover model with short hair.

After the Blood Sorcerer killed Nicolai's parents and took over their realm, he was cast out. His father cursed him and his siblings with the need for vengeance. Now living as a vampiric sex slave and missing his memory, Nicolai reaches out for the one person to save him. He summons Jane, a human from the other realm (Earth). Jane has been brought across and is now masquerading as the return of Nicolai's former owner. As they escape, Jane and Nicolai struggle with finding out how to get his memory back and what Jane's route is to return to Earth. As they fall in love during their travels and experiences, things aren't quite as they seem.

This was a super fun and quick paranormal novel. I have been wanting to try Gena Showalter's books for a while now and this was a fun introduction. The way that she kept the reader also somewhat in the fog with Nicolai about his past was super fun. I enjoyed trying to figure out what exactly happened and how things went down. Jane was interesting and it was a little sad to hear how tragic her backstory was. Now, I know that a lot of the times when there's a person dealing with moving to a new world or dimension, they don't typically have an idyllic home life, but it was just so sad. Jane and her family were in a horrific car accident where she was the only one that survived, but was left temporarily paralyzed. She has gone through a lot of surgeries and is just starting to really be able to live with full function of her legs. I did like that when there were portions of time where she wasn't moving very much she talked about how her legs were starting to stiffen since she wasn't able to do her normal stretches and wasn't going to her physical therapist. Even though there was a couple scenes that discussed her mobility issues, I did wish that is was something that was more throughout the story.

Now, the four-stars is because I thought it was a little too twisty, especially with the shorter length. There were just a couple too many turns in the plot for my enjoyment. I also feel like the "curse" that Jane received was unnecessary. It just tried to add some extra tension that wasn't really needed with everything else going on. I do have to say, this definitely felt like an old school paranormal with the way it was written, which isn't a detractor for me. I just want to point it out since others might find it to feel old. Since I love early 2000s paranormals though, it felt more nostalgic to me and didn't hinder my enjoyment.

I am so happy to have finally read a Gena Showalter, but definitely want to pick up one of her full length novels. She has a lot of series I'm interested in, but I just need to pick one. My sister has read her for a while, so it's been an author I am peripherally aware of. I've also probably bought a lot of her books as presents for my sister. I think it's finally time I start to dig in to her backlist!

Have you read Lord of the Vampires?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Lord of the Vampires, Gena Showalter, 4-stars, 2 days, Paperback, 288 pages, published in 2011, traditionally published