ARC Review – The Pattern of the World

Hello, everyone! Today I’m reviewing The Pattern of the World by J. T. Greathouse, which is the final book in the Pact and Pattern trilogy. I enjoyed the first two books quite a bit and have been looking forward to finally getting to finish the series. Be sure to check out my reviews of book one and book two for all my thoughts on them. Did the finale live up to my expectations? Read on to find out!

THE PACTS HAVE BEEN BROKEN. THE REBELLION HAS FAILED.

Foolish Cur has fallen into a trap. By resorting to forbidden magic when he failed to overthrow the Emperor, he has done exactly as the gods wanted. Now they are free to wage their war, twisting the world into new forms, as strange and terrible beasts walk the earth.

To fix what he has caused will take every ounce of Foolish Cur’s cunning. But mending the pattern of the world is too large a task for one man alone. As the Empire, rebellion and the landscape itself crumble, he and those still fighting for freedom will be drawn together to end the struggle against Emperor Tenet and the gods for good.

But Foolish Cur does not know what such a task will ask of him. And, powerful though he may be, the costs may be more than he is willing to pay . . .

***Thank you to JAB Books for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley. My review contains my honest thoughts about my reading experience.***

My thoughts about The Pattern of the World are incredibly mixed, and I’m honestly not sure if it is a me thing or an actual deficit in the story. Maybe it’s a bit of both. There was plenty to like, especially if you enjoyed the first two books, but I just never wanted to pick the book back up. It took me over a week to finish it, which is a really long time considering how quickly I usually read.

I’ll start with some of the things I enjoyed. First, The Pattern of the World added so much to my understanding of the world-building of this series. I now have a much better grasp on how the magic works, and this story provided some fascinating information about the history of the gods, their origin, and the seemingly endless war they’ve raged. Some of the descriptions did get a bit too cerebral at times, which made it hard for me to picture some of the magic and events, but the writing, in general, was superb, which should come as no surprise.

The Pattern of the World also continued Greathouse’s beautiful examination of these characters. Just like the second book, this one follows multiple POVs, and each of them had a significant arc with a great deal of growth. Alder was still my favorite, and I liked that he had learned from his mistakes but also still struggled to go against his nature to implement those lessons. He had to accept the sacrifice of the things he wanted most in the world to fix the horrible consequences of his previous actions. Pinion’s journey of dealing with his grief and desire for revenge and Koro Ha’s road to accepting his new power and role of hope-bringer to his people were also both compelling.

The place where The Pattern of the World fell short was the story and its pacing. There was so much philosophizing, and it seemed like the entire book was spent on characters talking about deciding what they should do. The world was literally falling apart around them, but we only got a few glimpses of the mayhem because they just sat in a safe city and squabbled. I kept waiting for the characters to come together and DO SOMETHING, which didn’t happen until the very end. When it finally came, the end made sense, but it was definitely lackluster. I also wish anyone else had helped Alder because my least favorite character played a larger role than I’d have liked.

Overall, there were things I liked and disliked about The Pattern of the World. It definitely wasn’t my favorite book in this series, but it brought the character arcs to a logical and mostly satisfying conclusion. Make sure to read the epilogue. The ending was way too abrupt without it. I just wish there had been a little less talking and a bit more action in this one. Therefore, I rate The Pattern of the World 3.75 out of 5 stars.

Have you read The Pattern of the World or any of the other Pact and Pattern books? Let me know what you thought down in the comments!

The Firsts of 2023 Tag

Hello, everyone! I recently saw The Firsts of 2023 Tag on Celeste’s and Dini’s blogs. It looked simple and fun, which is something I’m always on the lookout for. So, I thought I’d give it a shot! This book tag was originally created by Tanya @girlxoxo.

First book read this year

My first book of the year was Alone with You in the Ether by Olivie Blake. Blake is one of my favorite authors, and I loved this book. It was a great start to the year.

Book Synopsis 📚

CHICAGO, SOMETIME—

Two people meet in the Art Institute by chance. Prior to their encounter, he is a doctoral student who manages his destructive thoughts with compulsive calculations about time travel; she is a bipolar counterfeit artist, undergoing court-ordered psychotherapy. By the end of the story, these things will still be true. But this is not a story about endings.

For Regan, people are predictable and tedious, including and perhaps especially herself. She copes with the dreariness of existence by living impulsively, imagining a new, alternate timeline being created in the wake of every rash decision.

To Aldo, the world feels disturbingly chaotic. He gets through his days by erecting a wall of routine: a backbeat of rules and formulas that keep him going. Without them, the entire framework of his existence would collapse.

For Regan and Aldo, life has been a matter of resigning themselves to the blueprints of inevitability—until the two meet. Could six conversations with a stranger be the variable that shakes up the entire simulation?

From Olivie Blake, the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six, comes an intimate and contemporary study of time, space, and the nature of love. Alone with You in the Ether explores what it means to be unwell, and how to face the fractures of yourself and still love as if you’re not broken.

First book reviewed

The first book I reviewed this year was The Sapphire Altar by David Dalglish. You can find my thoughts on this one here!

Book Synopsis 📚

In this epic fantasy from a bestselling author, a usurped prince must master the magic of shadows in order to reclaim his kingdom and his people.

​ Cyrus wants out. Trained to be an assassin in order to oust the invading Empire from his kingdom, Cyrus is now worried the price of his vengeance is too high. His old master has been keeping too many secrets to be trusted. And the mask he wears to hide his true identity and become the legendary “Vagrant” has started whispering to him in the dark. But the fight isn’t over and the Empire has sent its full force to bear upon Cyrus’s floundering revolution. He’ll have to decide once and for all whether to become the thing he fears or lose the country he loves.

First book by a debut author

My first book by a debut author this year was Seven Faceless Saints by M. K. Lobb. I loved the mystery in this one and its dark and foreboding atmosphere. See all my thoughts here!

Book Synopsis 📚

In the city of Ombrazia, saints and their disciples rule with terrifying and unjust power, playing favorites while the unfavored struggle to survive.

After her father’s murder at the hands of the Ombrazian military, Rossana Lacertosa is willing to do whatever it takes to dismantle the corrupt system—tapping into her powers as a disciple of Patience, joining the rebellion, and facing the boy who broke her heart. As the youngest captain in the history of Palazzo security, Damian Venturi is expected to be ruthless and strong, and to serve the saints with unquestioning devotion. But three years spent fighting in a never-ending war have left him with deeper scars than he wants to admit… and a fear of confronting the girl he left behind.

Now a murderer stalks Ombrazia’s citizens. As the body count climbs, the Palazzo is all too happy to look the other way—that is, until a disciple becomes the newest victim. With every lead turning into a dead end, Damian and Roz must team up to find the killer, even if it means digging up buried emotions. As they dive into the underbelly of Ombrazia, the pair will discover something more sinister—and far less holy. With darkness closing in and time running out, will they be able to save the city from an evil so powerful that it threatens to destroy everything in its path?

Discover what’s lurking in the shadows in this dark fantasy debut with a murder-mystery twist, perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo and Kerri Maniscalco.

First book by a new-to-me author

The answer to this one is a bit of a lie. I don’t want to use the same answer twice. With that in mind, my first book in 2023 by a new-to-me author was Olympic Enemies by Rebecca J Caffery. I had high hopes for this one, but it ended up being just okay.

Book Synopsis 📚

Three weeks at the Olympic Village.
Two Gymnasts who’ve been rivals for half a decade.
One tonne of sexual tension.

Forced to share a room at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Oliver and Lucas are less than happy. After five years of fighting, the team needs them to learn to work together if they stand any chance of medalling.

To make matters worse, Lucas, king of lone wolfs, has absolutely no desire to become best friends with the three musketeers who make up the rest of the male British Gymnastics team.

So when the press becomes intrusive towards Lucas and Oliver finally steps in to defend him, things are looking up. Until that sliver of common ground truly demonstrates how thin the line between love and hate really can be.

However, when their fighting turns to kissing which results in headlines in every newspaper and potential heartbreak for the pair, it isn’t just gold on the line – it’s their hearts.

First book that slayed me

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin was the first book that slayed me this year. I was SOBBING and a total mess, especially during the NPC chapter.

Book Synopsis 📚

In this exhilarating novel, two friends–often in love, but never lovers–come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.

On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn’t heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won’t protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.

Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.

First book that I wished I could get back the time I spent reading it

This book got on my nerves so much. So many things about the setup just didn’t make sense to me, and it ruined what could have been an enjoyable read. See all my thoughts in my review!

Book Synopsis 📚

Scream meets Clown in a Cornfield in this young adult horror novel by bestselling Cale Dietrich featuring a masked killer who targets frat boys.

Freshman Sam believes that joining a fraternity is the best way to form a friend group as he begins his college journey – and his best chance of moving on from his past. He is the survivor of a horrific, and world-famous, murder spree, where a masked killer hunted down Sam and his friends.

Sam had to do the unthinkable to survive that night, and it completely derailed his life. He sees college, and his new identity as a frat boy, as his best shot at living a life not defined by the killings. He starts to flirt with one of the brothers, who Sam finds is surprisingly accepting of Sam’s past, and begins to think a fresh start truly is possible.

And then… one of his new frat brothers is found dead. A new masked murderer, one clearly inspired by the original, emerges, and starts stalking, and slaying, the frat boys of Munroe University. Now Sam will have to race against the clock to figure out who the new killer is – and why they are killing – before Sam loses his second chance – or the lives of any more of his friends.

Elements of horror, mystery, and a gay romance make this a story readers won’t want to miss.

Welp. There you have it! My firsts of 2023. I’m not going to tag anyone specific in this one, but I’d love to read the answers of others. So, consider yourself tagged. 😁

Book Review – Of Knights and Books and Falling in Love

Hello, everyone! Today I’m reviewing Of Knights and Books and Falling in Love by Rita Rubin. I stumbled upon this one while doom-scrolling one day on Twitter and thought it looked cute. I’ve been in the mood for something cozy and adorable since I haven’t been feeling well recently, and Of Knights and Books and Falling in Love seemed like the perfect book to help me feel better.

Jayce has little memory of life before entering servitude to the Dark Lord, and no hope of ever escaping. Until he meets Alexius, the knight with a heart of gold. He offers Jayce, his enemy, a chance to break free of the Dark Lord’s clutches, and Jayce is not about to let such an opportunity pass.

When the war comes to an end, Jayce finds himself finally free, with Alexius’s help, and surrounded by a new world of opportunity. And the prospect of a new love. The more time Jayce spends with Alexius, the more he finds himself falling for this knight in shining armour.

When picking up Of Knights and Books and Falling in Love, I wanted something cozy, slice of life, adorable, and romantic. This book ended up ticking off all of those boxes and provided a bit of action and adventure, too. I loved the queer-normative world, and while the world-building was pretty basic, it was the perfect amount to let the reader understand the setting while the focus remained on the characters and relationships.

The characters were my favorite thing about Of Knights and Books and Falling in Love. The story follows Jayce after he is freed from the control of the Dark Lord. Up to that point, he had been the Dark Lord’s faithful apprentice and did terrible things, all while being controlled via a magical necklace that kept him enslaved to the Dark Lord’s will. Alexius, a noble knight trapped in the dungeons, gave Jayce the information needed to remove the necklace, and Jayce helped him escape the dungeons. I enjoyed reading Jayce’s journey of coming to terms with his guilt while also trying to understand who he wanted to become now that he was free.

The relationship between Jayce and Alexius was really adorable. They were both pining so much but never realized the other felt the same way. I loved all of the small moments between the two of them where they were just getting to know one another. Alexius was the sunshine to Jayce’s rain cloud. lol. They made such a great pairing, and their relationship was just so soft and safe.

You may be wondering how books factor into all this enough to warrant a mention in the title. Jayce loved books and ended up working at the most adorable bookshop. The shop even housed a temperamental cat and was owned by a troll, who was very particular about the care of their books. There’s plenty of other great things to be found in the pages of Of Knights and Books and Falling in Love, too. From bandits to tournaments, there’s plenty of fantasy elements to keep things interesting, but those set pieces never overpower the central story of redemption and the life-altering nature of love.

Overall, this was an adorable MM romance set in a fantasy realm. It was largely focused on the characters and their relationship, and its focus on their day to day lives was exactly what I was looking for. I actually wouldn’t have been mad at even more delightful mundanity, but I also appreciated the brevity of the work because it kept the plot from getting too bogged down. Therefore, I rate Of Knights and Books and Falling in Love 4 out of 5 stars and definitely recommend it if you are looking for a quick, cozy MM fantasy romance.

Have you read Of Knights and Books and Falling in Love? Let me know what you thought down in the comments!

First Lines Fridays (75) – August 11, 2023

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

  • Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
  • Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
  • Finally… reveal the book!
Read More »

Book Review – Mimic Arcanist

Hello, everyone! Today I’m reviewing Mimic Arcanist by Shami Stovall. I enjoyed the first book in this series and was looking forward to seeing what Gray, Twain, and all the others got up to next.

School life. Camping. And a mysterious graveyard beneath the sea.

Gray and Sorin Lexly started Astra Academy with a bang. During their first few weeks, a professor tried to kill them, and even opened a portal to the abyssal hells—where the dead dwell.

But that’s all behind them! The portal was destroyed. Time to focus on classes and studies. Or so Gray hopes.

During an Academy camping trip, Gray finds a fragment of the portal… and a few abyssal monsters that somehow crept their way into the world of the living. Determined to set things right, Gray informs Professor Helmith of what he found.

Unfortunately, there may be more fragments of the portal than just the one, which means more trouble lurks around every corner… including the possibility of a Death Lord arriving in the mortal world.

This was a fun sequel, but I didn’t love it quite as much as the first book. I think it was largely due to the plot. The story started with the students and professors going on a camping trip. I was excited to see what they would encounter and wanted a whole story of them out in the wilderness learning more magic. The first part of the story gave me that experience, and I enjoyed it a lot. Then it came to an end a third of the way through the book, and the students were back at school. It felt a bit like a bait and switch, and I was left wondering about the point of the camping trip in the first place, especially since the middle of the book did drag a bit at times. The end was epic, though, and I’m curious to see where the story goes next.

I still loved all the magical creatures! Twain was as adorable as ever, and I really want to know what his true form will turn out to be. Hopefully, it’ll be as big and powerful as his personality. Although, so much sass packed into such a tiny body is part of his immense charm. I did feel like we got less of the other creatures in this one, though. I loved getting to know each of them in the first book, and I really wanted even more of them here. I did like all the new and interesting tidbits added to the world-building and magic system. I know this series shares a world with Stovall’s other series, but I’ve never read it. So, the inclusion of more history on the death lords and the abyssal hells was much appreciated, and I found it all fascinating.

I enjoyed the human character dynamics a bit more in this one. Gray was still a brat, but he wasn’t quite as insufferable as at the beginning of the first book. Twain has been a good influence on him. lol. Sorin was still an absolute cinnamon roll, and I want nothing but the absolute best for him. We got a bit more background on Ashlyn, and I liked seeing her relationship with Gray develop some depth. The friendship between Nini and Sorin also grew into something more complex, and it was fun getting to witness how they learned to navigate it all. I’m hopeful other characters will continue to get more depth as the series continues because this book did a good job with Ashlyn and Nini, and I really want to get to know some of the other characters as well as we’ve gotten to know them.

Overall, this was a solid second installment. The writing continued to be engaging, and I loved learning more about the characters and their world. The story had its faults, but it set things up in a way that makes me excited to pick up the next book. Therefore, I rate this book 3.75 out of 5 stars.

First Lines Fridays (74) – August 4, 2023

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

  • Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
  • Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
  • Finally… reveal the book!
Read More »

Mini Review – A Crooked Mark

Hello, everyone! It has been a while since I reviewed something that wasn’t an ARC. I enjoyed this one so much that I had to share it on the blog. Here’s my review of A Crooked Mark by Linda Kao, which is available now.

A dark and sinister debut YA novel about a teen boy who must hunt down those marked by the devil – including the girl he has fallen for.

Perfect for fans of Neal Shusterman and Kendare Blake.

Rae Winter should be dead.

Some say that walking away from the car crash that killed her dad is a miracle, but seventeen-year-old Matthew Watts knows that the forces of Good aren’t the only ones at work. The devil, Lucifer himself, can mark a soul about to pass on, sending it back to the land of the living to carry out his evil will.

Matt has grown up skipping from town to town alongside his father hunting anyone who has this mark. They have one Find these people, and exterminate them.

After helping his father for years, Matt takes on his own Rae Winter, miracle survivor. But when Matt starts to fall for Rae, to make friends for the first time in his life, he’s not sure who or what to believe anymore. How can someone like Rae, someone who is thoughtful and smart and kind, be an agent of the devil? With the lines of reality and fantasy, myth and paranoia blurred, Matt confronts an awful truth….

What if the devil’s mark doesn’t exist?

I enjoyed this book even more than I thought I would. The vibes felt like a mix of the TV shows Supernatural and You. Matt and his father have spent their lives investigating people with Lucifer’s mark and burning them alive if they show signs of carrying evil power. Now that he’s 17, it was time for Matt to strike out on an investigation of his own. Over the course of his time watching his “project,” Matt experienced what it was like to have a normal life, one with friends, a school routine, and possibly love. This left Matt questioning whether his lifelong quest to hunt evil was real or something his father’s friend made up to rationalize murdering people. The ease with which he slid into these people’s lives was creepy AF, and his paranoia about the entire process left me with goosebumps. There were some gut punch moments that had me super emotional, which I didn’t expect. Things did feel a little drawn out at times, but the writing was so good at maintaining the tension that I barely cared. The end went in directions I didn’t anticipate and was surprisingly heartfelt for a horror story. lol. I liked the message of it but was also a little disappointed in how things wrapped up. Overall, this was a good read, though, and I definitely recommend it. Therefore, I rate the book 4 out of 5 stars.