Racing through this year feels more like flying: one moment I was stupefied by how much I hated March, and the next thing I knew, April would be over in less than ten hours. Long story short, I managed to finish two fantasy books this month. Here's to a more awesome reading year ahead—let's keep an optimistic mind, shall we?
Following the lore in a small village called Dvernik, the story kicks off with something that haunts every seventeen years old girl in every decade: that the most powerful wizard called the Dragon will pick one of them to live with him in his tower, not to go out ever again before the ten years period has passed. For some reason unbeknown to all, the girls that get picked out will no more be the same once they are free to go. But it is of no worry for Agnieszka, for everybody knows that the Dragon will pick her best friend: the beautiful, brave, and perfect Kasia. So when the time has come and the Dragon shows interest in her instead, her world turns upside down, and she discovers that there is more to her than what it has always seemed.
In conclusion, I would say that this book had a lot of promising potentials, though some of them didn't actually come to fruition. I really enjoyed the first half of the book; the last half I decided to read quickly just so I could see what happened next. I couldn't stop but wonder though, that maybe, I would enjoy the story more as a trilogy: the first book would be the journey in which Agnieszka tried to get used to the magic within her and how to efficiently handle it, the second would be her trying to weasel her way in the Capitol, and the third would be the impending doom that had been waiting all along.
(Please skip this part if you haven't read House of Earth and Blood)
After all that happened in the spring, Hunt and Bryce are ready to put the past behind them for good. First, they have to lie low as per Asteri's demand—no one needs to know that they are the men behind the two Archangels' death. Second, they decided to start things casually. Get to know each other deeper before diving into something more serious. But between the rebels brewing deep in Crescent City and an arranged marriage for Bryce with a distant cousin, it's hard not to get too involved and just lie low. Especially when they realize the important truth about everything.
Whoa... I was astonished. For three days straight, this book had been leading me into something so big that even my wildest dream couldn't imagine. Starting off a bit slow, House of Sky and Breath buoyed me with its haziness. I seemed to think that no twist would surprise me now that almost everything seemed to be out in the open. But boy was I wrong. Every little thing meant something—there was certainly no aimless turn along the characters' paths. After I had overcome the twists that I definitely hadn't seen coming, this book still managed to catch me by surprise. I didn't know how.
