Book Check-In 12/6/20

 

I read a lot of books since my last check-in! I read 4 books, two of which I mentioned having started by last check-in. I read Echoes of a Giantkiller and Remember the Dust by E. Jade Lomax (#2 & #3 respectively of the Leagues and Legends trilogy), Anne of Windy Poplars by L.M. Montgomery (#4 of the Anne of Green Gables series), and Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson.

reviews (and spoilers!) under the cut (including spoilers for earlier books in series.)

Echoes of a Giantkiller is so good. Sequel to Beanstalk (which I talk about here). It follows this group of kids as they head up into the mountains. But there’s a history in the mountains that the group doesn’t understand about each other. This book really sees them grow as they uncover secrets about each other. This book also introduces some beloved characters. I think about this series as found family to the max, and the first book is really them finding each other and starting to trust each other, but in this book that trust gets tested at points, and their bond gets deeper. It’s so good, we get so much character growth and history from these kids and I love them so much. It ends on the worst cliffhanger of any book I’ve ever read, and I first read it when the third book wasn’t out and I nearly died. Now I can launch straight into reading the third which saves me a ton of trouble.

5/5 stars. I love it so much I literally reread it every year I don’t know how else to say how good it is.

Remember the Dust is tonally a little different. It feels less adventure fantasy and more spy & subterfuge. We don’t know who the characters trust, even among their friends. This one has some wild and spicy stuff too! Missing, presumed dead friends, people who are forgotten, revolution. It’s wild y’all. This book has everything. It’s one that constantly makes me cry, if I try to talk about it out loud I start to get choked up. It’s full of people doing good because that’s what needs to be done, and it’s a wonderful book for dark times.

5/5 stars. For real, This book is so good it might deserve 6/5 stars.

Anne of Windy Poplars is where Anne has grown and is now a principal at a high school in a different town. A lot of this book is told through letters to Gilbert. She tells about her relationships with the people and families in this town and it’s as always a lot of fun. I like that this book Anne moves even further from mentee to be more of a mentor. I mentioned in my review of the first book that I loved how much there were friendships between people of different ages. In Anne of the Island (#3) and this book, we see Anne starting to be the older friend in some of those sorts of relationships. The adult that children go to for advice or just for company. I feel like a lot of modern series that focuses on children, they stay children the whole time, so I find this series really refreshing, in that we see Anne grow. I am beginning to find the focus on marriages a bit tired, but I suppose that’s part of the time it was written.

4/5 stars. Anne still gets into mishaps, but they’re fewer. Lots of colorful characters that I loved!

Sorcery of Thorns. I read An Enchantment of Ravens, also by this author, and loved it so much that I immediately went to see what other books Margaret Rogerson had written. I didn’t read the description before I started reading it, and so it surprised me a little bit. It’s about a girl who was raised in a library, but this isn’t a normal library. It’s full of grimoires, which are considered dangerous artifacts because if they are damaged, they can transform into terrible monsters. Being raised in this manner, she knows that magic, being from demons, is evil, and she is training to be a protector of the grimoires, sworn against the use of magic. But then when a grimoire transforms into a monster, she’s the only one available to help. She defeats the monster but is blamed for its transformation, and ends up getting sucked into the world of sorcerers, who she was taught were evil. She realizes that things aren’t as black and white as she thought and she gets caught up into a deep plot and is forced to ally herself with a sorcerer. It took me a while to get into this book, but once I got into it, I really liked it. It had a little bit more romance than I liked, but it was fine. I was sort of expecting it because An Enchantment of Ravens also had a romantic tilt. All in all I enjoyed it.

4/5 stars. A fun book with some twists I didn’t expect.

I’ve started reading a new book, which I’ll tell you about in my next check-in. It’s Anxious People by Fredrik Backman.

As always, you can see all the books I’ve read on my reading list.