Snowflakes and Spider Silk

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by  The Broke and the Bookish . This week's theme:  Top Ten Book Recommendations if you love Game of Thrones I feel like Game of Thrones is one of the few fantasy series that has gone completely mainstream. People who watch or read it aren't automatically labeled as nerds, which is pretty exciting! I think one of the things that makes Game of Thrones/ASoIaF so addicting is how horrifying it is: you just can't look away! There's a lot of shock value, since none of your favorite characters are safe. Here are other series/books that are dark, gritty fantasy with a lot of shock value!   If that blood red stripe on the cover doesn't convince you, here's a series that is just as bloody and vast in scope as Game of Thrones. I love this series!!   This book is just as dark as ASoIaF but doesn't have the same huge cast of characters. Instead, we have an assassin with a disturbing ...

Title:  The Demon King Author:  Cinda Williams Chima Genre: Fantasy, young adult My rating: 3 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary : Times are hard in the mountain city of Fellsmarch. Reformed thief Han Alister will do almost anything to eke out a living for his family. The only thing of value he has is something he can't sell—the thick silver cuffs he's worn since birth. They're clearly magicked—as he grows, they grow, and he's never been able to get them off. One day, Han and his clan friend, Dancer, confront three young wizards setting fire to the sacred mountain of Hanalea. Han takes an amulet from Micah Bayar, son of the High Wizard, to keep him from using it against them. Soon Han learns that the amulet has an evil history—it once belonged to the Demon King, the wizard who nearly destroyed the world a millennium ago. With a magical piece that powerful at stake, Han knows that the Bayars will stop at nothing to get it back. Meanwhile, Raisa ana'Marianna, pri...

Title;  The Lost Author:  Sarah Beth Durst Genre: Science fiction, magical realism, adult fiction My rating: 4 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary : It was only meant to be a brief detour. But then Lauren finds herself trapped in a town called Lost on the edge of a desert, filled with things abandoned, broken and thrown away. And when she tries to escape, impassable dust storms and something unexplainable lead her back to Lost again and again. The residents she meets there tell her she's going to have to figure out just what she's missing--and what she's running from--before she can leave. So now Lauren's on a new search for a purpose and a destiny. And maybe, just maybe, she'll be found... Against the backdrop of this desolate and mystical town, Sarah Beth Durst writes an arresting, fantastical novel of one woman's impossible journey...and her quest to find her fate. This book was surprisingly poignant . I don't really know what I was expecting with ...

I feel like this t-shirt sums up every book lover's opinion on movie/TV adaptations: But what happens when you watch the adaptation before you read the book? I usually make it a point to read the book before the movie, but that isn't always the case. Sometimes I don't realize that a TV show is based on a book, and sometimes I can't get a copy of a book before I see a film in theaters. Here are couple of adaptations that I saw before I saw the book, and how the books measured up! The Prestige   The Prestige is one of my favorite movies, period. Magic, mystery, twist upon twist, and a one killer of an ending (ha.). I have next to no technical knowledge on filmmaking, but even I can tell that every scene was deliberately filmed a certain way. It's beautiful to watch, and you can see the care that went into making every scene just right so that when the pieces come together, you realize the significance of a lot of little details you might not ha...

Title:  Empire Ascendant Author:  Kameron Hurley Genre: Fantasy, grimdark, adult My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: In this thrilling sequel to The Mirror Empire, Kameron Hurley transports us back to a land of blood mages, sentient plants, and warfare on a scale that spans worlds. Every two thousand years, parallel dimensions collide on the world called Raisa, bringing a tide of death and destruction to all worlds but one. Multiple worlds battle their dopplegangers for dominance, and those who survive must contend with friends and enemies newly imbued with violent powers. Now the pacifist country of Dhai's only hope for survival lies in the hands of an illegitimate ruler and a scullery maid with a powerful – but unpredictable –magic. As their dopplegangers spread across the world like a disease, a former ally takes up her Empress’s sword again to unseat her, and two enslaved scholars begin a treacherous journey home with a long-lost secret that they hope...

Title:  Blood Bound Author:  Patricia Briggs Genre: Urban Fantasy My rating: 4 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary : Under the rule of science, there are no witch burnings allowed, no water trials or public lynchings. In return, the average law-abiding, solid citizen has little to worry about from the things that go bump in the night. Sometimes I wish I was an average citizen... Mechanic Mercy Thompson has friends in low places-and in dark ones. And now she owes one of them a favor. Since she can shapeshift at will, she agrees to act as some extra muscle when her vampire friend Stefan goes to deliver a message to another of his kind. But this new vampire is hardly ordinary-and neither is the demon inside of him. creeeeepyyyy I should have known from the title that this was going to be a bloody book! Thankfully the worst of it was over in the prologue (which I had to skim...I don't do well with blood and guts). While we met the vampires in Moon Called, we didn't really...

Title:  The Storyspinner Author:  Becky Wallace Genre: Fantasy, YA My rating: 4 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary : Drama and danger abound in this fantasy realm where dukes play a game for the throne, magical warriors race to find the missing heir, and romance blossoms where it is least expected. In a world where dukes plot their way to the throne, a Performer’s life can get tricky. And in Johanna Von Arlo’s case, it can be fatal. Expelled from her troupe after her father’s death, Johanna is forced to work for the handsome Lord Rafael DeSilva. Too bad they don’t get along. But while Johanna’s father’s death was deemed an accident, the Keepers aren’t so sure. The Keepers, a race of people with magical abilities, are on a quest to find the princess—the same princess who is supposed to be dead and whose throne the dukes are fighting over. But they aren’t the only ones looking for her. And in the wake of their search, murdered girls keep turning up—girls who look exactly l...

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by  The Broke and the Bookish . This week's theme:  Top Ten Books where I was the black sheep I've done a lot of gushing on my TTTs about books I love, so this week I'm flipping it around. These are books that a lot of people have loved, but for whatever reason I didn't like them. This doesn't mean any of these books are bad, just that these are the books I wanted to love, but didn't. I hope I don't break too many hearts with this list haha   I really wasn't a fan of the writing style or the whiny main character in this book. I hear this series gets better though, so I haven't totally written it off.   They turned this into a movie, so obviously a lot of people liked this book. I thought it sounded cool, but when I actually read it I didn't like it at all.   It's been a while since I read this, but I know didn't particularly dislike it. I was just bored for...

Title:  Cry Wolf Author:  Patricia Briggs Genre: Urban fantasy, adult My rating: 4 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary : Anna never knew werewolves existed, until the night she survived a violent attack... and became one herself. After three years at the bottom of the pack, she'd learned to keep her head down and never, ever trust dominant males. Then Charles Cornick, the enforcer—and son—of the leader of the North American werewolves, came into her life. Charles insists that not only is Anna his mate, but she is also a rare and valued Omega wolf. And it is Anna's inner strength and calming presence that will prove invaluable as she and Charles go on the hunt in search of a rogue werewolf—a creature bound in magic so dark that it could threaten all of the pack. It is recommended you read the prequel "Alpha & Omega" before reading Cry Wolf.  I really enjoyed this! As usual, I think the audio made me a lot more invested in the characters than I would have been...