The Nameless Book Blog

Title: Wintersong
Author: S. Jae-Jones
Page Count: 436
Genre: Fantasy, Adult
Goodreads Rating: 3.61
My Rating: 5.0
Book Cover Rating: 5.0
Bad Book Review: Just believe in fairytales enough and they'll come true.
Review Type: Spoiler free



Synopsis
All her life, nineteen-year-old Liesl has heard tales of the beautiful, mysterious Goblin King. He is the Lord of Mischief, the Ruler Underground, and the muse around which her music is composed. Yet, as Liesl helps shoulder the burden of running her family’s inn, her dreams of composition and childish fancies about the Goblin King must be set aside in favor of more practical concerns.

But when her sister Käthe is taken by the goblins, Liesl journeys to their realm to rescue her sister and return her to the world above. The Goblin King agrees to let Käthe go—for a price. The life of a maiden must be given to the land, in accordance with the old laws. A life for a life, he says. Without sacrifice, nothing good can grow. Without death, there can be no rebirth. In exchange for her sister’s freedom, Liesl offers her hand in marriage to the Goblin King. He accepts.

Down in the Underground, Liesl discovers that the Goblin King still inspires her—musically, physically, emotionally. Yet even as her talent blossoms, Liesl’s life is slowly fading away, the price she paid for becoming the Goblin King’s bride. As the two of them grow closer, they must learn just what it is they are each willing to sacrifice: her life, her music, or the end of the world.



The story
I really love this book alright. I even have a really hard time writing a review for this, because I don't even really know WHY I love this so much. I've read it twice now and felt like the second time it was even better.
Wintersong was so magical. I think that's a big reason why I love this so much. Something very special happened to me while reading this. I feel like I was inside the story, surrounded my magic. I could feel every singe thing that happened. To me that is exactly what makes a good book. I was so involved in this world that I could do nothing else but to read and read and read.
The book is split into two main parts. The beginning is full of excitement and games and the second part is deep and emotional and thorough.
Something else that really fascinated me were the Goblins. If you ask me what I imagine when I picture a 'goblin', I picture this troll-like creature who is ugly and lived underground. Not in this book. In Wintersong Goblins are more like Fae or Elves (and you all know how much I love those).
Wintersong is very slow paced, but I feel like for this book that doesn't matter at all. The story comes so natural and everything feels like it is explained when it needs to be explained and everything feels right. It's probably the only 500+ page book that I finished within two days. Especially for the second part of the book I feel like not much actually happened, but for some reason I am perfectly fine with that. Like I explained earlier, it felt right. The second part didn't need thrilling excitement. It was about the love between the Goblin King and Liesl and all of the struggles and pain that come with that.
This book is exactly what you would think of when you hear the word 'fairytale'. Something beautiful and exciting with a deep love story that hits you in ways you never expected it to and stays with you for a very long time.


The writing style
This book had a slow start, but was never boring. The opposite, actually. I couln't stop reading. The main reason for that is the writing style. This book is written deep and beautifully. S. Jae-Jones has a way of explaining this so well and in such a special way that all the world hit you right in your soul. But I feel like this entire book hit me right in my soul.
On S. Jae-Jones her website she explains that she's not much of a poet, on the contrary, she doesn't see herself as a poet at all, which to me is very funny. The entirety of Wintersong is almost like reading one big poem that pulls you in and doesn't let you go.

Music
Let's talk about yet another reason why I really love this book: the involvement of music. I play both the piano and violin and those exact instruments play a really important part in this book. Liesl is a composer and plays both the piano, which is most comfortable to her, as well as the violin. Her brother Josef is a master on the violin and so is like the Goblin king. Jones explains what it's like to play an instrument and to feel music as though she has been playing herself for years. It made me so happy to read a book which explains what it's like to play an instrument so well and I think that if you play an instrument, you will really love this.

So yeah, this was my poor review for one of the best novels I ever read. This review is a mess, but that's kinda also how my feelings for this book are. I really recommend you just read it. And if you do, let me know how you felt!

Title: Uprooted
Author: Naomi Novik
Page Count: 438
Genre: Fantasy, Adult
Goodreads Rating: 4.12
My Rating: 4.0
Book Cover Rating: 3.5
Bad Book Review:
Review Type: Spoiler free



Synopsis
Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life. Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood. The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows - everyone knows - that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn't, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her. But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.

The Story
I already have such a hard time writing a review for this book, because my feelings are so mixed. Apparently this book is based off a Polish fairytale or has influences of it? I don't know the fairytale. For me it felt like a mix of Beauty and the Beast and Rapunzel, but with more magic. This book highly confused me. I was confused about why the Dragon was taking girls and why every 10 years. I was confused about what the Wood was and what exactly it did. I understand that those were things that would be explained later on (turned out to be in the very end of the book), but as a reader I need something to build the world and its history in my head.
Don't get me wrong, when you finish the entire book it's a very well put together story that ends up being thought through pretty well (apart from some things that still confuse me). Maybe I was a bit disappointed was also because I went into this with very high expectations, since most people I come across absolutely love this book.
I did think this story was very unique, in a good way. I never read a story like this before and I really liked that. It was very refreshing. I liked the whole concept of the Wood and it being very scary, even though I didn't fully understand everything going on in there. And the whole magic system was really nice, also unlike anything I had ever read before.


The Characters
Something that really made this book better are the characters in it. First of all we have Agnieszka (pronounced as ag-nyesh-ka). She's not the prettiest girl out there, is clumsy and can't really do anything. I relate. She managed to trip over the air and is always covered in God knows what. But what I liked most about her was how headstrong she is. She wasn't gonna take any of the shit the Dragon was giving her for no reason at all. ''You're being awful to me for no reason? Well fuck you than.'' ''I'm not allowed to leave the tower? I'm gonna do it anyway.'' ''I can't do that? I'll show you I can.'' I really loved that about her.
Next we have the Dragon. First up I thought he was the biggest asshole on the planet for no reason at all. There was probably some very special reason why he was such a brooding bastard, but we never found out. But for some strange reason I actually started liking the guy throughout this book. I still don't know why, I think he grew on me and I started seeing the good parts to him. I think he genuinely wanted to do good things and I suppose he did like Agnieszka, in his own special way.
Lastly we have Kasia, Agnieszka's best friend and the best side character in the world. I really loved Kasia. She's the girl everyone thought the Dragon would choose. She's pretty, intelligent, likable and good at basically everything. When I first heard about her I thought that she would be your typical brainless pretty side character, oh how wrong I was. She turned out to be an absolute B A D A S S. Was I expecting her to pick up a swords and SLAY, NO. Did I love it? HELL YEAH. Please Kasia can you marry me.



The Writing Style
I think the main reason why I had such a hard time reading this book was the way it's written. The reason why it's an adult book is not because of the age of the characters, but because of the writing style and I could really tell. I love YA books, because often they are quick to read. This book was the opposite. It was so slow. There were loads of massive paragraphs with information that could have been a small piece of text and the chapters were really long as well. There was a part where some magic ritual was explained and it was literally a full 10-15 page chapter. To me it was just so unnecessary. I'm sure there are many people who will like this writing style, but it just wasn't for me.

I wasn't planning on writing a 'negative' review and don't get me wrong: I did enjoy this book. I didn't give it 4 stars for nothing, but I just had quite some issues with it.

Title: Hunting Prince Dracula
Author: Kerri Maniscalco
Page Count: 434
Genre: Mystery, Historical Fiction, YA
Goodreads Rating: 4.44
My Rating: 5.0
Book Cover Rating: 5.0
Bad Book Review: Sherlock Homes meets Indiana Jones: the novel
Review Type: Spoiler free


Synopsis
Following the grief and horror of her discovery of Jack the Ripper's true identity, Audrey Rose Wadsworth has no choice but to flee London and its memories. Together with the arrogant yet charming Thomas Cresswell, she journeys to the dark heart of Romania, home to one of Europe's best schools of forensic medicine...and to another notorious killer, Vlad the Impaler, whose thirst for blood became legend.

But her life's dream is soon tainted by blood-soaked discoveries in the halls of the school's forbidding castle, and Audrey Rose is compelled to investigate the strangely familiar murders. What she finds brings all her terrifying fears to life once again.



The story
Have you ever heard of books a thing in YA books called 'second book syndrome'? Yeah, this book was the complete opposite of that. As you all probably know by now: Stalking Jack the Ripper is one of my all time favorite books, so I had very high hopes going into this book, which can be dangerous. But let me just say: I was NOT disappointed. 

SJTR had me hooked from the first page, this book took about 50-60 pages for me to really get into, but once the story really kicked off I was hooked. The first thing I loved about this book was definitely the setting and it really added to the scary vibe of the story. It takes place in a very old castle in Romania where Dracula himself once lived. It's full of scary hallways and secret passages that make it feel like you are save nowhere you go.

As I already mentioned in my review of SJTR as well, I can't help but try and solve the case during these books and let my inner Sherlock Holmes come to life. Turns out I would make a terrible detective, because I keep being so wrong about these cases. But that's probably because of the amazing way Kerri has set up this story. Sometimes she drops these tiny hints that you don't realise are hints until you actually know who committed the murders and I think that makes these books so great.


 

The characters
This book definitely wouldn't be the same without its main character and her arrogant yet amazing companion. Audrey Rose and Thomas add so much life to this story. Their characters have a lot of depth to them, which is nice because if there is something I absolutely hate in books it's flat characters.
In this novel Audrey Rose really struggles with the outcome of the Jack the Ripper case and suffers from a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which is written in such an incredible way. Kerri doesn't try to romanticize it and shows PTSD the ugly way it really is. Audrey Rose is not herself and keeps seeing things that aren't there to the point where she actually thinks she's going insane.
But despite that she still managed to keep her head up and be her intelligent and feminist self, even when she is surrounded by men who think a woman should not be cutting into corpses. Every time she sassed a male character in this book I couldn't help but going 'yaaaaaaas girl you go'. I really admired that aspect of her.
Now let's talk about my beautiful babe Thomas Cresswell. We got to spend so much time with him in this book and got to know a lot about his past and his character. He comes across as the perfect and arrogant guy who can never do anything wrong, but in this book we discover that that is not true at all. Even he struggles with the things that happened during the Jack the Ripper case and has changed because of it. His deduction skills seem less good as in the previous book and he obviously keeps a lot of things stuffed away inside of him. I love characters who aren't perfect, it makes them feel so much more real.



Romance
I love romance in books, but I don't like it when it takes over the entire story and it's the only thing that matters (a big reason why I don't read that many YA contemporary books). The romance in this book was so well done, because it was definitely there, but than again not really. I loved the snarky conversations between Audrey Rose and Thomas, they really brightened up such a grim and dark book. Throughout the entire novel I was just craving another kissing scene like in SJTR or at least for something adorable to happen between the two main characters.





Lesbian romance
This is just something I really quickly have to talk about as well. There is a great lesbian romance in this book and I couldn't help but love it. In so many YA books (that I read at least) that contain some kind of LGBTQ+ romance it either feels so forced into the story or the entire story evolves around it. This romance did not feel forced at all. It was especially refreshing since back in the late 1800s it was definitely not okay to be gay and the characters were so afraid that Audrey Rose would look down upon them for being who they are. It made me feel kinda sad to know that there were so many gay people in history who just couldn't be themself and had to either keep their relationship secret or just had to be with a person of the opposite sex to protect themselves. That was such a great add to this already great book.

I feel like this review is kinda all over the place, but there are so many things I love about this book, but if I went into all my opinions, this review would have been a full novel in itself.

 
Title: Stalking Jack the Ripper
Author: Kerri Maniscalco
Page Count: 326
Genre: Mystery, Historical Fiction, YA
Goodreads Rating: 4.0
My Rating: 5.0
Book Cover Rating: 5.0
Bad Book Review: I do not have very good deduction skills.
Review Type: Spoiler free


Synopsis
Seventeen-year-old Audrey Rose Wadsworth was born a lord's daughter with a life of wealth and privilege stretched out before her. But between the social teas and silk dress fittings, she leads a forbidden secret life.

Against her stern father's wishes and society's expectations, Audrey often slips away to her uncle's laboratory to study the gruesome practice of forensic medicine. When her work on a string of savagely killed corpses drags Audrey into the investigation of a serial murderer, her search for answers brings her close to her own sheltered world.


The story
Where do I even start? I love this book so much that I've read it twice in one year. After reading it a second time now, I realised that it's actually one of my all time favorite books. This story is so incredibly thrilling that even the second time around I could not put it down. You constantly find yourself trying to solve the case alongside the main character Audrey Rose and her companion Thomas, and I kept going over all the details of the case over and over again.
Thomas has great deduction skills, I most certainly do not haha. Oh how wrong I was about Jack the Ripper over and over again. Every time I thought I had figured out who Jack was I turned out to be so terribly wrong and I never saw the end coming (which I'm obviously not going to talk about). Honestly that only made the book better.

I also really loved the historical aspect of the book. As most of the people who read this book probably already know: I love history and Victorian England just so happens to be one of my favorite historical periods. I loved seeing the time period come to life in this book and Kerri did an amazing job making it as accurate as possible, or at least that's how I felt, and it really brought this book to life. It was very interesting to see how Audrey Rose was constantly being judged for simply being a woman, as was normal during that time.

The characters
I always think that the characters and really make or break a book, even if the story is great. The two most important characters in this book made this already great story even better.
Let's start off with Audrey Rose. As I already said before she is constantly being judged by men for simply being born a woman. She literally does not care, which I really liked. I love books with strong female characters and Audrey Rose is no exception. She dives straight into a world of men and doesn't care about what anyone thinks, just so she can do what she loves doing (what just so happens to be cutting into corpses but alright, you do you). Another thing I loved about Audrey, or more the way she's written, is that she still feels her emotions very strongly, which kept her very human. Sometimes in books I find that authors create this perfect character, which just doesn't feel very real to me.

Thomas is the Audrey Rose her companion during this case and together they make such a great team. In the beginning of the book I thought Thomas would be your standard ''I'm amazing and arrogant look at me'' kind of character, but I was so wrong about him. Yes he does have a pretty high opinion of himself, though I do believe that his cockiness is also to hide his real emotions. But honestly, I thought his funny comments and self loving gave this book just the funny twist that it otherwise would have missed. And once you get to know Thomas as a character, he turns out to be hiding so much, which really makes you realise there is more to a person that they might show.

The romance (this could be seen as a spoiler? idk...)
There is also a (to me) great romance in this book, simply because it's not really a 'romance'. The chemistry between these characters is so strong, yet Audrey doesn't really act to and Thomas keeps making comments that are hilarious and sweet at the same time. All of this only made me ship them more tbh. I can't wait to see what the next book will bring.

I know I didn't describe any negative things about this book, but honestly that's just because I couldn't find any. I'm sure there are people who have some sort of critique about the story or the characters, but this novel contained everything I love in a book: a thrilling storyline, likable characters, an amazing romance and it also happens to be written very well.

Title: Caraval
Author: Stephanie Garber
Page Count: 407
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult
Goodreads Rating: 4.07
My Rating: 4
Book Cover Rating: 4.
Bad Book Review: On sale! This dress now only costs 5 days of your life!!!!
Review type: spoiler free
 

Synopsis
Scarlett and Tella are sisters with a very abusive father and a dream to once go to the magical event Caraval. For years Scarlett has been writing to the Master Legend, the Master of Caraval, for a ticket and a week before her marriage she finally gets and answer and is sent three tickets: one for her, one for her sister and one for her fiancée. First she has to escape the island she lives on though, because her father never lets the two sisters out of his sight. With the help of a mysterious sailor they manage to get away, but that is only the beginning of this story.


The Story
It's quite hard getting into the story without spoiling it, but I am going to try anyway. I knew absolutely nothing about this book when I went into this and I think that's the best way to read this book, that way the mystery of Caraval will remain. Caraval is very magical and messes with your head a lot. I kept thinking I had figured out the story, but then it turned out that I was wrong over and over and over again. I really liked that. The ''world'' of Caraval was also very interesting. There are a lot of people playing and watching the game, but it feels like it was more of a society. A place where people lived and went shopping and met old friends. At times it was hard to remember that it was actually all a game.



The Characters
Let's start with Scarlett, our protagonist. To be perfectly honest, Scarlett is one of those very forgetful characters. There weren't really any traits about her that made me like her a lot and besides that we didn't get much back story of her either. I did like her way of thinking. Even though her decisions weren't always the smartest, she did figure all of Legend his clues out pretty fast.
Tella, Scarletts sister, just annoyed me. The only thing she wanted was to go out and have fun and made some very stupid decisions. And we didn't even see her much. She just seemed very childish to me.
Julian, the mysterious sailor, I liked the most. He was mysterious (duh) and I knew there was a lot more to him than he was showing. I couldn't wait to find out what the truth behind him was. Besides that he was sassy and smart and I just adored him.

The World
Although the story of this book was pretty clear, to me it lacked something very important: world building. Obviously this book is fantasy, fantasy novels need world building. This one had none of it. There is a map in the beginning, which shows nothing of how the lands look, where Scarlett and Tella are from and how long it takes to get to the island where Caraval takes place.
The second aspect it missed, which is vital in a fantasy novel involving magic like this one: an explanation of the magic system. They keep saying that ''Caraval is possible because of magic'' and that ''Master Legend payed a very high price for his magic'' and things like that, but what is this magic how does it work????? I know Stephanie wanted it to remain a mystery together with
everything in Caraval, but it was kind of annoying to me. I want to know how things work.

It may seem like I didn't enjoy this book, but don't get me wrong, I did rate it 4 stars, which means that it was quite alright. But I have seen everyone praising this book like it's the new bible and I think that's not really true, because it did miss some very important things. But overall the story was very mysterious and exciting and I couldn't wait to figure out what was going to happen next.

Title: A Monster Calls