Tag: Magic Fiction

The Reckoning (Zodiac Academy #3) by Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti

Posted on October 21, 2024 by - Book Review

Well, this was the one that broke the camel’s back. I’m done with this series taking up any more of my time, and I have no earthly idea why this series got popular.

I was really hoping, by book three, that some sort of writing improvement might have started to develop. No dice. Ms. Peckham and Ms. Valenti could really benefit from having an editor look at their work. Books one, two, and three could have been a single novel with some moderately decent pacing instead of clones of one another. All of this shit and each book covers the span of about a week each?!?!

I know that the intention is to make Tory and Darcy seem like progressive strong young women, but there is far too much willing subjugation for that to hold any water. The flingy flip-flopping over the Heirs is just so incredibly cringe. These aren’t much more than re-hashings of the Gor books.

I’ve been told that the later books “get better,” but I wonder what the bar is. I won’t be finding out because I’ve already wasted far too much time on this drivel.

Such promise squandered on shitty writing, shitty character development, and a total lack of pacing. I’m sure the fan-fic is far superior to the source material.

Ruthless Fae (Zodiac Academy #2) by Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti

Posted on October 18, 2024 by - Book Review

My god, why do I keep reading these books. I was really hoping for a bit of an improvement from the first book, but that just didn’t happen. If anything, the ridiculous extremes from the first book magnified here. The heirs are still dicks, only now they are just that much more dickish! The poor Vega twins are still rattled and confused and slide right into their victim roles despite showing slight sign of the toughness and independence they claim they are based in.

I think what bugs me the most about this series is the pacing. I churn through loads of pages, but barely any time passes, and nothing really goes on. Half of this book could have ended up on the editor’s floor (I’m making a bold assumption that there was an editor at all), and the story would have been unaffected.

Ahh, but this book does have something that the first doesn’t: more violence against women, more role manipulation, more racism, and more inappropriate posturing.

I honestly don’t know if I’m going to be able to make it through this entire series. If it wasn’t for the other books that I’m reading concurrently, I would have already abandoned this folly. At this point, I guess all I have to look forward to is seeing if it’s the Vegas or heirs who crack first, and to see who dies (someone better die).

The Awakening (Zodiac Academy #1) by Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti

Posted on September 25, 2024 by - Book Review

I am reading this series because a very dear friend of mine suggested I check them out. She warned me that they would probably make me angry — she was correct — but I’m going to get through this drivel if it kills me.

Darcy and Tory Vega are twins who were apparently swapped with human children by their royal Fae family as babies to protect them. Now that they have been found by the Fae, they return to that realm to learn to tame their fantastic powers at the Zodiac Academy. The thing is, though, there are four ruling houses headed up by “The Heirs” who will take control of the realm since the ruling family was gone. The twins’ return threatens that. Broody hilarity ensues.

I guess I should start out with what I find wrong right off the bat. First, off, the girls have their Fae names of Gwendalina and Roxanya. Nobody ever questioned which one was which, and that drives me bonkers.

Second, “The Heirs” are total jerks, but Tory and Darcy go between loathing and loving them. This books rife with situations where one of the twins is being literally tortured, but oohing and aahing over their torturer’s chiseled abs or plump lips. It’s maddening to me.

There is some intrigue that I find interesting. Yes, the twins are overpowered and, per the formula, don’t have control of their powers. In fact, they don’t even know what “Order” of Fae they might be. I imagine that will pop up in an important passage in a later book. I also did appreciate that Ms. Peckham and Ms. Valenti set these characters as a tad older than this typical fare from other authors. It made some of the situations and experiences a tad more plausible.

The one thing that bugged me the most was how rapey everything surrounding “The Heirs” is. I mean these guys are on a serious power trip, and it always seems to go threateningly sexual. Can’t they just be mean?

Yes, I’m in for the long haul with this series just because there has to be some sort of redemption arc somewhere in there. If not, I’ll roast more of them.

Fourth Wing (The Empyrean #1) by Rebecca Yarros

Posted on March 1, 2024 by - Book Review

Well, I finally caved in and read the dragon book everyone has been raving about for the past year. I fought picking it up because I find a large portion of what is pitched as “romantasy” just awful to read. This book was so hyped by my reader friends who fawn over Sarah J. Maas’ stuff, so it was definitely near the top of my “just not going to ever get there” list.

Then I started hearing from some other reader friends of mine that it was a book that I would definitely enjoy, and very much of the ilk of some of my other favorite authors. Cue the torment.

Soooo, I broke down and gave it a go.

Let’s be real about Fourth Wing. By and large it has an overarching plot that telescopes itself like crazy from the first few chapters. It hits the standard YA-ish tropes of rivals to lovers and “bad boy with a heart of gold” pretty damn hard, but it’s a really really really fun read. Ms. Yarros really knows how to flesh out very likable, and very hateable characters with ease, and she’s really not afraid of throwing weakness out there and exploiting it.

Violet’s journey at Basgiath War College to become a rider is definitely a rollercoaster with more than a smattering of death and destruction. I started getting some Pierce Brown PTSD because of the ease at which Ms. Yarros kills of characters: some expected, some unexpected.

In addition to the harrowing journey that Violet is taking to become a rider, there is a larger political storm that is brewing in this book. There are subtle hints that facts are being hidden or redacted, and that there is a bigger issue getting ready to rear its head. That’s the depth of writing that keeps me absolutely sucked in.

So yes, I’m now a Fourth Wing fan, and I jumped right in to Iron Flame, so expect my thoughts on that one soon. If anything, I just want to learn why Ms. Yarros loves using “subluxated” so damn much.