Book Review: Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

I want a cool cane but there are so expensive.

Criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams - but he can't pull it off alone.

A convict with a thirst for revenge. A sharpshooter who can't walk away from a wager. A runaway with a privileged past. A spy known as the Wraith. A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums. A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes. Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist.

Kaz's crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction - if they don't kill each other first.

I had forgotten that I once upon a time that I requested a review copy of this book and I always believe in reviewing books that I do end up reading from my review pile. I only realise when I went to mark on my Spreadsheet of books that I had finished this book, that I found it on my NetGalley arc lists. This is all funny because as I was listening to it, I was like "Ha Ha I don't have to review this and can just go on to the sequel book." I suppose, now in 2019, people wouldn't have minded if I just fulfil the need to review this book by reviewing the whole duology as one. But here we are single again.

Yes, I have read the whole the Grisha trilogy and while liking the world, I did have issues with the solution to that series. Honestly, it's depressing as hell. This book does have sad things; that can be found in life right now. This is a heist plot at its core with a bunch of personal storylines that all the characters have.

This is a lot pairing off in our Six of Crows gang. It's basically made up of couples to be. They all fine, a decent Hate/Prejudice to Love thing and another too emotionally scarred to just being together. The relationships are fine, we do have Queer characters and there's a bit of pinning over the seemly straight ones. The characters are okay, they all have different wants and motivations. I feel for them,

The rep in this book is okay, there's a lot this book is meant to have but I never pay attention to character descriptions except for the weird Irish Stereotypes that I just sigh at now but won't say anything because it's not a weird Scottish stereotype and this is a technically a fantasy world originally based off Russia. I know how the characters look more because of the fan outrage over the casting than anything else. I know Nina is meant to be plus-sized a.k.a. fat like me. Nina is very obsessed with food so I don't love that about her but she is also very "sexy" which is nice to see with a fat character and her love of food isn't made out to be a bad thing.

Now for the rep that I actually care about it, because it affects me and is lacking in fiction. There are two Disabled characters in this book. Kaz is out there with his badly healed broken leg and then another character whose disability is a twist. I actually recently tweeted that there is so few dyslexic characters or even coded ones in fantasy and books in general. This is the most undeveloped character of the crew and I'm hoping that in the sequel they are more developed and more like actual rep.

Overall, I give this book 4/5 stars for fragile Ice. This is a fun book about revenge and other things. Yeah, tons of sad things that play into the real world but in a fun way. We already discussed in other reviews that weird definition of fun books. Ableism would be easier to cope with if it came with magic and heists.

Update: I have now read and reviewed the sequel.

An e-arc was provided from Netgalley and this book was published by Orion Children's Books on 2 June 2016 (I'm not sure if this was the UK date or not since I brought it in 2015, but maybe I did pre-order it).

Horror is...never ending,

We are now into October. My favourite month of the year. I was expecting to be complete broke this month but not the case. I still need to be better with my money than I am usually. I wish I was better with my money in general.

I've been having more story ideas. Hell, I even started writing one. That's not a finish. A finish has been eluding me for several years. Like dreams where you woke up before the big finish, which is almost always as dreams happen in the state of half wakefulness. I know I should probably just make myself write one till the end. But that's hard. It hard enough for me to make write ends to these blog posts which is why they always go up late.

Though I mostly write horror so I could just write that main character dies every time, for every short story but I think if someone invested in a novel they would be pissed if that's the way it went. Especially, if it was more than two novels.

On the plus, fun side I am getting a puppy. That was one of the money issues that would make me broke, but I was planning to get Leia a playmate. I will have this time next week. Thursday even. My parents want to share him, which means halfies. I bet it just be for the dog. Not the cost of buying it a cage, new toys and a bed. Well, they could share a bed. especially as Leia tends to jam herself where ever I'm sleeping and already has two dog beds.

So that's my life right now. Horror, Dogs and being bad with money.

Scotland's Town of Towns.

So I went to Wigtown for the first time today. I have been aware of Scotland's "Natural Book Time" and mocked it for its random title. Yeah, it was decided by a committee. I am kinda curious about the towns that failed to get the title.

I went to see Hannah Witton who I like enough as a YouTuber, so I thought why not go see what this place is actually like and check out them. The events were poorly planed but they are literally planned by teenagers. Maybe they should be more guidance. Talk about periods was 16+ so that some nonsense sexism, nine-year-olds deal with periods and should know about these things. For a book festival, the young adult side of the festival was mostly YouTubers who just happened to have books, more than authors that wrote for that age group.

There was no signing after the first event which was odd and would have been frustrating if I wasn't going to a straight event. I like to have signed books by writers that I have met in real life, no matter how awkward I am. I ended bumping into Hannah a few times and I said nothing to her because I am Selective Mute awkward mess.

Funfact, the events were sponsored by the same charity that paid for my driving lessons and shoes once. Fun.

The Book Town is obvious a grab for tourist, for a place a bit too far out the way for there to be any reason to go to. The architecture is the same as other towns nearby that are on the way to things that are interesting. The bookshops are cool I guess, but also I was too tired to temp to go to more than two. I went to the new kid one and the one claiming to be the biggest bookshop in Scotland. I was tempted to test that because I can't imagine that's true and you do find a lot of false of claims in Dumfries and Galloway. The sign says The BookShop, "the Largest in Scotland", the internet says used Bookshop in Scotland. Sure, probably most used bookshops couldn't get away with having a whole house dedicated to them. How does it survive? I bet it gets grants and cheap rent.

Selling point, the festival actually is set up with a bowling lawn in the centre. No one really was playing on it, but you could sit around on benches and I think about how the hell does one playing this type of bowling.

In conclusion, sure it would be cool if you lived there but even for me as someone in the same county, it's too far for just wander. I think I would only go again if someone I really loved was going there and hell if I ever got published I would offer to go just for petrol costs (I imagine the petrol will only rise in cost). I'm curious about how the festival is actually run, in terms of choosing who they pay to come. Is the U26 really just teenagers unchecked? If so that would make a good YA plot.

Sun's Revenge

The Sun has returned for her Revenge in September. That it is fully meant to be Autumn now but we have having Summer weather. It is usually warm at the start of September, just to spite school children and teachers, but it carried on a bit more.

Obviously, the Sun does stick around for winter and the colder months so she can blind you as you drive on icy roads. It's the team-up fight you don't want to have as you're driving.

I am too tired to remember my point.

Motaway Veteran

Days Disappear from me all the time. It only yesterday where I was thinking of writing last Saturday's post. But it obviously wasn't as.

I went to New Castle for no reasons outside my control, so I made the adventure of going to Taco Bell. It was not advisable to experience. I had to get to the town centre by going on the motorway. Maybe there was another way, but I obviously don't know New Castle enough to fight about google about. Sure, Google has taken me some asinine routes.

I found a Waterstones so it wasn't all bad. I brought a book which I should not have done as I really need to pay for Parking is, of course, a nightmare unless willing to pay in a multistory. I wanted to go to the cinema but not sure of the parking to actually do it. Yes, driving over 6 hours in total in one day is a lot but my parents act like I had never been to a city before. I've drove to the capital by myself during my first year of driving.

I was actually disappointed by its lack of motorway as a whole to get there. My parents made out it was all motorway, when it was just motorway to get out and partly on the way back. I also went through Carlise on the way back. I even went into a McDonalds, where I live everyone raves about Carlise. No idea why, when you could go to Glasgow at the same time. Especially on this side. I know people who rave Carlise but Ayr is right there people. This is very specific nonsense. Anyway, why?

I'm gonna go to bed. I have to go back one last time for reasons. Not my reasons but reasons. The opposite of why I went there in the first place. The Taco Bell was fine but I will not be back, because I cannot be bothered to go back.

Book Review: All the Better Part of Me by Molly Ringle

Bi, Gothic and 26, who is spying on me?

It’s an inconvenient time for Sinter Blackwell to realize he’s bisexual. He’s a twenty-five-year-old American actor working in London, living far away from his disapproving parents in the Pacific Northwest, and enjoying a flirtation with his director Fiona. But he can’t deny that his favorite parts of each day are the messages from his gay best friend Andy in Seattle—whom Sinter once kissed when they were fifteen. Finally he decides to return to America to visit Andy and discover what’s between them, if anything. He isn’t seeking love, and definitely doesn’t want drama. But both love and drama seem determined to find him. Family complications soon force him into the most consequential decisions of his life, threatening all his most important relationships: with Andy, Fiona, his parents, and everyone else who’s counting on him. Choosing the right role to play has never been harder.

I really liked this book. I enjoyed the Bi nonsense. It has a lot of Tropes and enjoyed those tropes. Is the plot of this book realistic? Not fully. But sometimes it nice to read fluffy angst where you know everything will work out in the end.

This book does have darker stuff like questioning your sexuality and gaining the courage to come out. There's also the idea of staying closet if you're Bi because it might never come up. It kinda goes over how self-denial is bad and how Sinter is messed up by having done this for the past. So as a Bi-romantic person, I was fine with the rep. He's questioning and messed up with how he was raised so that rep for someone else. Not my personal experience, living my Tumblr live s

Now time for one of my famously weird tangents: There is a British character called Sebastian in this book, which is fiction code for posh arsehole. Sorry, any Sebastian out there. This character is Trans (rep is not a spoiler, yes sometimes a nice surprise but also I'm allowed to talk about it in reviews). In non-expert or in my non-lived experience, the trans rep is fine. Sebastian is his own character. My problem is that being trans means that he picked that terrible name for himself. No arsehole or old fashion parents here to blame. Also, Sebastian speaks very working-class and is roughly the same age as me so I must conclude that he named himself after the crab. My point is that Sebastian is a weirder name than Sinter. It's a Rom-Com myth that they exist. Sebastian is the lead singer of a band, so enjoy that YA Readers.

The rest of the Englishness stuff is fine. It's very rom-com but go ask an English person. Not a lot of British TV movies get made, it definitely sounds more like an indie film than a TV movie. Miniseries are more our thing. It doesn't really matter because its in the effect of a fun plot. Who needs reality?

Overall, I gave this book 5/5 stars for Queers Messing Up. I really enjoyed this book, it's fun Angst which a constant fanfiction reader so I'm here for it. This is the Bi Rom-Com that I've never gonna see when I'm the same age as the character because I'm 26 now and close to the Grave. There are also lots of Queer named characters so I'm happy. I think enjoyment will come down to the tropes you're okay with or like. I know some people will hate the tropes (see Content warnings)  in this but I'm fine with the execution. This is not the best book ever, but it made me aw a lot.

There's a playlist for this book made up of 80s songs in the acknowledgements/chapter titles, and as we all love the 80s I made that playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3ex31veWRCdLcKdLf1iwdW

I received this e-arc for review and it was published by Central Avenue Publishing on 3rd September 2019 (Yesterday).

CW: Accidental Pregnancy; Adoption; Abortion mentioned; Homophobia; Parents messing you up; Disownment; Being Outed;

Writing in Bed

I am in my house which is an odd occasion due to the number of times I've had to housesit or serve weather has caused me to stay at my parents. Peace is nice to have and I get to do stuff like write in bed when my back hurts a lot like it does right now so that what I'm doing now.

Leia seems to be both delighted and confused. I think she likes the bigger window sill to sit in and she gets to go outside more because I'm still my parents' carer so I'm still going to my parents' house every day. I accidentally stayed last night because I walked over and then it got dark so I decided to just stay since why not.

Leia is also being creepy by growling down the stairs at night and cry over a ball she has not given me. So she thinks the house is haunted by movie logic. I can hear her now down the stairs, tapping on the kitchen floor. She also a major bed hog. I have a double bed and she still manages to hog the covers and take up the 80s of the bed by lying across it.

I've decided I'm serious about reviewing again so have requested a bunch of stuff off NetGalley, instead, you know of tackling my backlist which over a hundred books by now. But is that not me at my core. I spent too much money on books. I need to save money.

Tomorrow is September so Halloween begins now and I have things to prepare for. Still behind but I have 13 days to catch up. So not much to report, so I think I go to bed.

StrangeAthon Time.

The StrangeAthon is fully planned. Not fully designed. I love drawing/designing but I am also really bad at it since stopped. Also, I've ended up Graphically designing a lot of things, something I was so not about when I actually studied Graphic Design. I have thought about seeing if I could finish that qualification but I'm not sure. 

I'm still trying but I feel like I've done so little this month. Hardly any reading, hardly any film watching or TV. I've let my Bullet Journalling of out the window.

Reviews ha. Life is life I guess. I'll keep trying. I have did a lot of planning for the StrangeAthon but it doesn't feel like it was all my time.

Oh well.