Author Archives: Rayna

The Daevabad Trilogy Review

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Title: The Daevabad Trilogy – The City of Brass, The Kingdom of Copper, and The Empire of Gold
Author: S.A. Chakraborty
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Publish Date: July 3, 2018 / September 24, 2019 / July 13, 2021
Genre: Adult Fantasy
Pages: 576 / 656 / 816
Format: Paperback

Nahri has never believed in magic. Certainly, she has power; on the streets of eighteenth-century Cairo, she’s a con woman of unsurpassed talent. But she knows better than anyone that the trades she uses to get by—palm readings, zars, healings—are all tricks, sleights of hand, learned skills; a means to the delightful end of swindling Ottoman nobles and a reliable way to survive. 

But when Nahri accidentally summons an equally sly, darkly mysterious djinn warrior to her side during one of her cons, she’s forced to question all she believes. For the warrior tells her an extraordinary tale: across hot, windswept sands teeming with creatures of fire, and rivers where the mythical marid sleep; past ruins of once-magnificent human metropolises, and mountains where the circling birds of prey are not what they seem, lies Daevabad, the legendary city of brass—a city to which Nahri is irrevocably bound.

In Daevabad, within gilded brass walls laced with enchantments, behind the six gates of the six djinn tribes, old resentments are simmering. And when Nahri decides to enter this world, she learns that true power is fierce and brutal. That magic cannot shield her from the dangerous web of court politics. That even the cleverest of schemes can have deadly consequences.

After all, there is a reason they say to be careful what you wish for . . .

I’ve wanted to read this trilogy for years because I knew I would love it, but I put it off for a long time because I was afraid I wouldn’t love them. Well, I did, and I’m here to gush about this lush, thrilling, beautiful trilogy.

Set in Cairo, Egypt at the beginning of our story, we follow Nahri, a commonplace thief, hustling her business on the city streets of Cairo. Until one day she accidentally summons a djinn, Dara – a magical being of legend. The story picks up from there where it follows her, as well as a prince of the legendary djinn city – Daevabad. I wasn’t expecting a dual POV in this story, but I think that it really heightened it to a new level being able to see the world through two very different perspectives. We get to see Nahri learn of her ancestry, of how she has magic in her veins, and of how she is believed to be the last of her kind of daeva; as well as following Ali, the youngest of three royal siblings, who has pure intentions and a good heart, but chaos seems to follow him wherever he goes.

The world building in this tale was gripping and beautiful, as Chakraborty describes Cairo in the height of the French/Ottoman occupations, as well as across the seas to Daevabad, a massive city built upon an island. I felt that the descriptions were rich, and I was very easily able to immerse myself in the story, picturing what places like the midan (marketplace), the palace, and even the city walls looked like. From rolling hills and cliffsides, to scorching deserts and unforgiving ocean waters, I felt that I could imagine these places while Nahri and Ali traveled through them. Throughout the story, we get to see various places, and each description left me wanting to visit these places myself, even if they are just fantasy.

The characterizations as well were really well done, in my opinion. Each primary character felt distinct, and even those that weren’t on the page for long felt human and real. From a stubborn woman looking out for her own skin, to a genuinely well intentioned but naive young man, to a very easy to hate yet understand king, there is nothing short of amazing characters within this story. Chakraborty takes the time to dive into the history of these characters – not in a boring or overdone way, mind you, but as an integral part of the story. All of these moments helped to flesh out the overarching story, and it’s been some of the best character work I’ve seen to date.

There’s also plenty of action, and Chakraborty doesn’t pull punches when it comes to the violence that war can bring, that cruelty can bring. It can be devastating at times, and frustrating, but it all helped to further the story, or to be able to better understand the motivations of characters. I felt like the scenes were done well and fast, lingering just long enough to understand what was happening while knowing that war isn’t just a centralized point, but one that can happen across an entire city.

The magic of the world felt a bit elusive, but to my understanding it’s just magic that djinn, peris, and marid (creatures of fire, air, and water, respectively) are able to just conjure and use, that it doesn’t require any additional sacrifice or consequences, which was interesting to see. Magic wasn’t used too terribly often in the story from what I read, but what was seen was very cool and oftentimes large in scope, especially in the second and third books.

These books were heavy on the politics, which I personally loved. It delved into what it meant to be a ruler and leader to the king – even if others disagreed with him – as well as what being brought into a situation like Nahri was brought into meant for someone who was the last of her particular magic. There was scheming, lies, deceit, and more. I honestly felt like the politics were well done, and that they felt visceral and real, especially given the plot.

I only had a few small gripes that weren’t even that big in the scope of things (that I can’t talk about due to spoilers lol), and I did notice some typos, especially in book three, but overall these books were amazing. I haven’t felt so much love for individual books and for a series in a very long time. If you’ve been considering reading this trilogy, please, please pick it up. You won’t regret it.

If you love politics, magic, light romance, Middle Eastern inspired, great characterization types of books, then I believe you’ll love this trilogy.

Ratings Per Book

The City of Brass: ★★★★★ (5 stars)

The Kingdom of Copper: ★★★★★ (5 stars)

The Empire of Gold: ★★★★★★ (6 stars)

2025 Bookish Goals

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I know I’m late, but happy new year! I hope the year has been treating you well so far.

Today, I wanted to chat about my reading goals for the year. As I’m getting back into reading, I’m setting myself goals, but who knows if I’ll keep to them lol

Read 25 Books

This is the goal I’ve been setting for myself every year for the past few years and haven’t hit the mark once. I’m determined this year, though, because I acquired too many books last year thanks to rejoining the online book space.

However, my extended goal is to read 50 books this year. I’m already on my third book, so I’m on par for this goal, at least! I won’t beat myself up, though, if I don’t hit this goal.

Complete 5 Series

I’m including things like duologies, trilogies, quartets, and larger series as part of this goal. I don’t want to limit myself to longer series or only trilogies or only duologies, etc. I have a few series in mind, and I’m almost finished my first trilogy of the year! Look at me go! I’m hoping to read more than this as I believe the majority of the books I own are in a series of some sort or other, so this shouldn’t be terrible to achieve.

Some series I hope to get to this year (though not limited to):

  • The Daevabad trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty (in progress!)
  • The Empire of the Wolf trilogy by Richard Swan
  • The Bloodsworn saga by John Gwynne
  • An Ember in the Ashes quartet by Sabaa Tahir (I never finished, so it’s a reread as well)
  • The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin
  • The Realm of the Elderlings series by Robin Hobb (I don’t know if I’ll complete all 16 books this year, but I want to get my journey started!)

Read at least 15 physical books of my already owned books

These are books that I have on my shelves that I got prior to the start of 2025. So that’s a little more than half of my goal, and I’m confident I can do it, especially if I plan on reading several series this year. I’m not including any of my digital books in this count as I’ll read those sporadically and in between the physical ones. (Since I can physically see them, they have priority in my mind.)

Plus if I read all of Robin Hobb’s books, for instance, I’ll have completed AND surpassed that goal! lol

Read at least 5 books on my Kindle

I recently upgraded my 10+ year old Kindle to the newer 2024 Paperwhite, and so I really want to utilize my reading experience on it more. I already have five books in mind because it’s a series I once again never finished (I only had the last book to read, whoops), but I don’t mind rereading them. However, I also want to utilize my Kindle Unlimited subscription and not just be wasting my money, you know?

If you have any good Kindle Unlimited recs, let me know!

Utilize my library more

This ties in with my previous Kindle goal in that I don’t necessarily want to get physical library books, but I still want to support my library by getting digital versions of those books. I donate physical books to whatever library is local to me at the time yearly or every other year, but I still want to show the importance of them by borrowing books that I may not want in my personal collection, like non-fiction books, for example.

Read at least 5 non-fiction books

This is a new goal I never thought I’d have, to be honest lol I had been thinking about this for a while, and then my wife got me Neil DeGrasse-Tyson’s “Merlin’s Tour of the Universe: A Traveler’s Guide to Blue Moons and Black Holes, Mars, Stars, and Everything Far,” which talks a lot about space related things, which I’m a big fan of, and so this sparked my curiosity for reading more non-fiction books this year. I already have a couple more space related books I’ll be reading at some point, but I’m on the lookout for others in subjects I’m interested in!

And last, but most importantly, Have Fun!

I think that this is the spark that I’ve been missing in my reading life the last several years, plus I’ve been spending way too much time consuming media and playing video games and not prioritizing my reading. I really want to cut back on social media consumption this year, as well as other forms of entertainment, and replace that time with reading. It’s going to be a slow process, but I’m making progress, which is good! Plus I started the year out with a banger of a trilogy, so that helps, too lol

What are some of your goals for this year? How many books or pages do you plan on reading? Let me know in the comments!

Bride Review

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Title: Bride
Author: Ali Hazelwood
Publisher: Berkley
Publish Date: February 6, 2024
Genre: Adult Paranormal Romance
Pages: 416
Format: Paperback

Misery Lark, the only daughter of the most powerful Vampyre councilman of the Southwest, is an outcast—again. Her days of living in anonymity among the Humans are over: she has been called upon to uphold a historic peacekeeping alliance between the Vampyres and their mortal enemies, the Weres, and she sees little choice but to surrender herself in the exchange—again…

Weres are ruthless and unpredictable, and their Alpha, Lowe Moreland, is no exception. He rules his pack with absolute authority, but not without justice. And, unlike the Vampyre Council, not without feeling. It’s clear from the way he tracks Misery’s every movement that he doesn’t trust her. If only he knew how right he was….

Because Misery has her own reasons to agree to this marriage of convenience, reasons that have nothing to do with politics or alliances, and everything to do with the only thing she’s ever cared about. And she is willing to do whatever it takes to get back what’s hers, even if it means a life alone in Were territory…alone with the wolf.

As my first Ali Hazelwood book, I gotta say that I really enjoyed it. It was a fast-paced read with romance, mates, vampires, and mystery. What’s not to love about that?

Misery is our main female protagonist who’s searching for her missing best friend – which is a plot thread I’m glad wasn’t forgotten about throughout the whole book. I thought that she was an enjoyable character who had a lot of quips for whoever she talked to, a soft spot for kids, and a drive to make sure her best friend is alive. Throughout the book I believe I found myself laughing out loud to some of the things that Misery says because she’s got a dry sense of humor.

Lowe is very much what I expected for the main male protagonist with his heart of gold, fierce protection of his people, and his drive to stay away from Misery as long as possible. I actually really enjoyed him as a character and felt that he was done well in terms of the werewolf thing – which isn’t like a classic werewolf, nor like the ones from Twilight back in the day.

The plot focuses on this marriage of convenience and how it’s the driving factor for much of what happens, except for Misery’s missing friend. It just so happens that being in wolf territory helps her more than hinders her in her search. There’s also other underlying plot points that can be seen throughout the story, and though I felt that some parts weren’t fleshed out quite like how I would like, it was still entertaining regardless.

The romance between our two main characters is believable because it’s gradual. There’s reluctance at first, and then a spark, and then slowly over time the two are drawn together like moths to a flame. I enjoyed that aspect of the story a lot.

(Also, since I’m sure some of you may have heard this is an “omegaverse” story, it’s not. As someone who has read her fair share in her time, this is not omegaverse at all lol)

If you’re looking for a vampire/werewolf romance in your life to fill your old Twilight heart, I definitely recommend this book. It was a quick, fun read that I’m sure I’ll enjoy again whenever I decide to reread it.

★★★★☆

The Gilded Ones Review

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Title: The Gilded Ones
Author: Namina Forna
Publisher: Ember
Publish Date: May 1, 2020
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Pages: 432
Format: Paperback

Sixteen-year-old Deka lives in fear and anticipation of the blood ceremony that will determine whether she will become a member of her village. Already different from everyone else because of her unnatural intuition, Deka prays for red blood so she can finally feel like she belongs.

But on the day of the ceremony, her blood runs gold, the color of impurity-and Deka knows she will face a consequence worse than death.

Then a mysterious woman comes to her with a choice: stay in the village and submit to her fate, or leave to fight for the emperor in an army of girls just like her. They are called alaki-near-immortals with rare gifts. And they are the only ones who can stop the empire’s greatest threat.

Knowing the dangers that lie ahead yet yearning for acceptance, Deka decides to leave the only life she’s ever known. But as she journeys to the capital to train for the biggest battle of her life, she will discover that the great walled city holds many surprises. Nothing and no one are quite what they seem to be-not even Deka herself.

This debut novel was an entertaining story about a girl whose blood causes her to be ostracized by her community and sent to become a warrior for the emperor. The feeling I got from this was that it definitely felt like a debut, with some instances of slowness, fast-paced bits, and some plot holes that I felt weren’t fleshed out fully, but it was overall a good book that had me intrigued enough to want to continue to read the next book.

Deka’s a girl of golden blood, one in which causes her to not be able to die – no matter how hard others try to kill her. I thought that she was done well in that she was scared and innocent at the beginning, showing just how separated from the situation she would be dragged into. As time progressed, she grew stronger physically and mentally, allowing her to become a warrior like she was expected to be. I felt that she had a lot to gain and learn during her time in training, and sometimes I felt that the plot didn’t allow for us as the reader to really see her full potential.

Many of the other female character did a great job of being there for her, whether forced or naturally, and I loved being able to see that sisterhood and friendship blossom. One thing that I did think was rushed and almost out of no where was the small romance subplot. It didn’t necessarily feel forced, but there was no real time with Deka and her love interest, so it felt kind of rushed. There was a lot more telling than showing around these parts of the narrative, but I hope that it’ll be more fleshed out as the story continues.

The world in which Forna writes feels rich and large, as though there are many more secrets that lie ahead than just what we’re reading about. I did appreciate that aspect as I was reading. There’s more than meets the eye when it comes to the world, and what the emperor wants to do in it. As well as the gods.

I think this book would be good for someone looking to start in YA fantasy, or someone looking for a fast-paced read. I’ll continue on to the next book in the new year, and look forward to seeing what’s in store!

★★★.5☆☆ (3.5)

Silver in the Wood Review

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Title: Silver in the Wood
Author: Emily Tesh
Publisher: Tor
Publish Date: June 18, 2019
Genre: Novella, Fantasy, LGBT+, Romance
Pages: 112
Format: Paperback

There is a Wild Man who lives in the deep quiet of Greenhollow, and he listens to the wood. Tobias, tethered to the forest, does not dwell on his past life, but he lives a perfectly unremarkable existence with his cottage, his cat, and his dryads.

When Greenhollow Hall acquires a handsome, intensely curious new owner in Henry Silver, everything changes. Old secrets better left buried are dug up, and Tobias is forced to reckon with his troubled past—both the green magic of the woods, and the dark things that rest in its heart.

I read this novella a few months ago, and it was one of the most heartwarming reads I’ve had in a while. This short story follows Tobias, the Wild Man of the forest of this small village, that has been tethered to essentially be the guardian of the forest for all of time. He’s there for a long, long time, watching the village change and grow as time does, and he also watches something dreadful happen every year during a celebration for a lord of the wood. Many, many years into this, he meets Henry, the new owner and mayor of the town, and it kind of just follows the story from there.

There’s only so much that can be packed into 112 pages, but this book had a lot of heart and whimsy in it. I felt like I could really feel the growth of the forest, the need to protect its inhabitants, and how every part of the forest acts of its own accord sometimes. It was rich, which I really appreciated.

The romance between Tobias and Henry is subtle and sweet, and it grows over time. Tobias is protected by the forest, and no one can every really find where he lives twice – unless he allows it. And of course, this subtle romance is also potentially doomed from the start (for reasons I won’t go into because of spoilers here).

There is a twist I sort of saw coming, but it still surprised me nonetheless, and I felt that the stakes ramped up a little bit toward the end. It was a fast-paced read given the length of the book, but there were still moments of slowness that could be felt in every page (intentionally and not in a bad way).

I think if you’re looking for a quick read to pick up this novella. It’s definitely one you can finish in a sitting and one that I think you’ll also find whimsical.

★★★★☆