Good morning everyone! It’s Tuesday… the worst day of the week is over with and today I am excited to be sharing my review of Moroda by L. L. McNeil. I was very kindly approached by her some time ago requesting me to review her book! As I love the fantasy genre (and dragons!) I absolutely said yes.
The timing of my reading Moroda didn’t quite go to plan, so sorry Lauren! I said that I would be reading and reviewing this in October/November… and I started reading this on the 30th November. It wasn’t my best month by a long shot…
So, enough of that! Shall we get on to what I actually made of the book? As always, I’ll get the usual disclaimer out and let you know that whilst I received a free copy of this to review, my thoughts expressed in this review are my honest opinion.
Linaria is a world where dragons are revered as gods, where airships rule the skies, and where war is stirring.
For Moroda, a former Goldstone, her life of luxury ends following her father’s sudden death. When her city is destroyed by a dragon, she and her sister ally with a sky pirate and narrowly escape the carnage—only to find a vigilante from an exiled race has left a trail of destruction everywhere his growing army has travelled. With compulsion at his fingertips, he strengthens his hold over Linaria’s people by stealing the power of dragons. It’s only a matter of time before Moroda, too, is forced to submit.
With war nipping at her heels and danger lurking in her companions and adversaries, Moroda must quickly learn about herself, her world, and the dragons so intent on reducing it all to ash.
2018 SPFBO Semi-Finalist
Shortlisted for the Best Indie Book Awards 2017 – Fantasy.
Moroda is the first novel in an epic six-book saga, following a group of characters as war rages across their world. With pirates and soldiers, smiths and princes, Linaria is a vibrant land with a deeply unsettled past and an equally ominous future.
My Thoughts…
Magic? Check. Dragons? Check? Well built, intricate universe in which the novel is set? Check again.
Moroda is a fantastic novel to pick up for anyone who loves a classic fantasy tale. The story begins with Moroda in a tricky predicament in which her world is turned upside down for good. She finds herself imprisoned for speaking her mind against a nobleman with the power to influence others. Then, a dragon attack on her home town sends her and a ragtag group on an adventure to discover the meaning behind recent events and the consequences they will have on the rest of the world.
One of my favourite aspects of the novel is the range of vastly different characters that accompany Moroda on her journey. From a feisty, self-serving sky pirate with a mean attitude to literal royalty, the band of travellers cannot get more diverse! That offers a great insight into the different origins of many of the characters and goes a long way to helping develop the world and background of Linaria.
The BEST thing about the book though was the ending. It’s really hard to talk about it without giving anything away, but I’ll do my best. If the book had a more frivolous/light-hearted conclusion than it did, the book would have had a solid three-star rating. In my opinion, the way events draw to a close – the consequences of the war and power of magic used makes the ending all-the-better! It isn’t a happily-ever-after sort of tale and I love that! It lends a realistic, gritty quality to the writing. Knowing that anything can happen at any time makes you invest in characters more than when you are reasonably safe in the knowledge that everything is going to be okay.
In the interest of fairness and honesty, there is one feature I would have liked to have seen in the book. If Moroda had strayed a little further from some of the overused conventions of fantasy novels, I think this would have been a five-star review instead of a four. I have read a lot of fantasy over the years and I am well versed with its tropes by now. As a result, I really enjoy books that push the boundaries and adopt their own take on the genre.
Sunday evenings come around too fast! It always feels like I barely finish one Sunday Summary and then here I am sat starting another. I hope you have had a good week? Mine has been great as I have been enjoying the last of my time off for the year and getting Christmas shopping finished. I have even gotten most of it wrapped. Look at me being organised! I think this time last year I had barely started…
In between drafting Sunday Summary posts, I have managed to squeeze a few others in. Last week, immediately after drafting last week’s update I had to jump into writing a review for Awa and the Dreamrealm by Isa Pearl Ritchie. I published that post first thing on Monday.
December’s reading list was published on Wednesday 4th, although it had been decided well in advance of that date. I have a lot of tours coming up in January, so I have to start my reading now to get myself prepared. I do have a couple of books of my own choice in there too. In that post, I also talk about why there aren’t many festive books on the list, so if you haven’t checked out that post yet here is the link to it.
Lastly, on Friday I shared the next Shelf Control post in my regular feature. Not only did I talk about a book that I was gifted nearly three years ago now, but I also learned it was part of a series. I had no idea before writing that post! It’s a classic science-fiction novel and I seem to be getting on with those really well at the moment. I should probably pick it up soon!
Books Read
Whilst I say in one breath that I am doing well with science-fiction novels of late, I have had to set one aside for now. I have been enjoying reading Howling Dark but I just don’t think I have time to pick it up again this month. That said… if I do manage to finish this list early then I’ll pick this up again. I have a couple of short(er) books on the TBR, so maybe?
Instead, I began the week by finishing off another carryover from last month, Moroda by L. L. McNeil. I basically started reading this on the last day of November as I had promised the author to read it in October/November time. I am really pleased with myself as I read this quite quickly. Fingers crossed I’ll be reviewing it very shortly for her too.
After Moroda, I picked up my first read of December. I was keen to leave behind a bad month of reading (or lack of progress) and start this month’s TBR in earnest. Again, After Whorl: Donning Double Cloaks was only in my hands for a few of days before I finished it. I was excited to start the month reading this as I have already read and enjoyed the first couple of books in the series. It’s almost a reassurance that I’m starting in a good place.
The latter end of the week has been spent with my head buried in the concluding novel to the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series by Laini Taylor. This is my current read and I am LOVING IT! It’s a shame I have to go back to work tomorrow instead of sitting at home and reading this…
Tell you what else I did get done this week – I finished listening to Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman. I typically listen to audiobooks in the car and I expected to finish it in the couple of journeys I made. I think I listened to the last three minutes or so at home, so I really wasn’t wrong! It also surprises me how long it took me to listen to – about seven weeks! I’m so slow with audiobooks.
Books Discovered
It amazes me that I have spent a week off work, shopping and generally mooching around and yet I have not added a single book to the TBR this week. I have been good (spending my money on everyone else!)
Coming Up…
As I am pretty late to getting to read Moroda, I’m keen to get my review live as soon as possible! So, with that in mind, my intention is to have my thoughts on this fantasy novel published on my blog first thing on Tuesday.
I have been reading After Whorl: Donning Double Cloaks this week as I have a blog tour post scheduled for Wednesday 11th. In that post I’ll be linking to my reviews of the earlier books in the series The Beltane Choice and After Whorl: Bran Reborn, as well as share my views of the latest instalment. I hope you can tune in for that!
As always, I’ll be preparing a First Lines Friday post for you to round up the working week. I don’t like to choose my featured book of the week too early in advance. I’ll be picking it on Thursday when I sit down to write this post. No spoilers for you to ruin the surprise, I’m afraid!
Good evening everyone and welcome to today’s Sunday Summary post! I can’t believe it’s December already! I have spent the day helping my parents put their Christmas decorations up; I’ll be doing mine in the next few days. Where has this year gone?
So, what have I been up to this week? Well, aside from using some days off work to have a good tidy up and a clear out, I have been doing a little bit of reading in between. On Tuesday I shared my review of Ctrl+S by Andy Briggs as part of the blog tour with Gollancz. I am really glad I asked to take part in the tour, even though I ended up reading this rather hastily in order to get my post live on time. This one at least wasn’t my fault!
Thursday’s post was a promo post for book four of the Battle Ground series by Rachel Churcher. I featured the third book on my blog a little while ago and it was a pleasure to feature the series once again, on publication day of book four, no less.
On Friday I shared another First Lines Friday post. This week I featured a book on my To Be Read list (TBR). I’m looking forward to reading this book; I also happened to feature another book of similar genre by the same author in my recent Top Ten Tuesday – New Releases I am Excited About post.
Books Read
I’m disappointed with this month’s reading progress, but it can’t really be helped. I got off to a slow start with finishing Imaginary Friend, my last read in October, on the 9th November. I’ve had things going on which have hampered my progress too. I’m trying to finish one book tonight, but even with that in mind I have had to drop one book on this month’s list and I am going into December having only part-read another.
As of last week’s Sunday Summary post, I have made as much progress as I can on a few books. I finished Ctrl+S on Sunday night as I only had a few pages left. From there, I picked up Howling Dark by Christopher Ruocchio again as this is the book I set aside to read Ctrl+S. I got to page 231 towards the end of the week, which from 55 is pretty good going.
Yesterday I set the books aside once again in favour of a review request I promised for October/November time. Obviously, it was the last day of November and I hadn’t touched this book at all yet. I am impressed with how I have done with this one; since last night I have read 69% of the book, which roughly equates to just over 280 pages. This book is my priority over the next couple of days in order to get a quick turnaround on a review for the author.
Progress on Thunderhead has been a little slower this week with only a couple of commutes from work as part of my normal routine. I visited my friend Vicky on Friday, so I listened to this travelling to and from her house. That equates to two work commutes when I think about it. I have less than two hours left on the audiobook so I am confident I will be finishing it this week!
Books Discovered
I have a few additions to this section, even though I haven’t been particularly looking for anything new as such.
I had a bit of an unpleasant beginning to this week and so I decided to buy myself a book to cheer myself up. I’m collecting classics in paperback, and I was going to buy it very soon anyway. I’ll give you a hint: it will be appearing on this month’s reading list in a couple of days.
When featuring Fighting Back by Rachel Churcher on Thursday, I said that I planned to pick up and read the series although I couldn’t for the tour. Rachel kindly let me know that books one to three were available to download for free as it was publication day for book four. Naturally, I downloaded them!
Coming Up…
Next week is going to be busy for me. I have a few planned blog posts already – one I will be drafting immediately after this one! Tomorrow I am publishing my review of Awa and the Dreamrealm by Isa Pearl Ritchie. My post is part of the blog tour organised by Rachel’s Random Resources.
On Wednesday I’ll be sharing December’s reading list. Considering I made such an effort to read seasonally in October, I only have one Christmassy book on this list. I’m not a festive cheese person, so it’s not just because I have lots of reading to do ahead of next month’s blog tour mayhem! No prizes for guessing what it is now, I might have already mentioned it in this post…
It’s the turn of a Shelf Control post on Friday. So, I’ll be looking at the next book on my TBR list and sharing just why I want to read it. I was gifted a copy of the book I’ll be featuring nearly three years ago now for my birthday. It fits in well with the recent sci-fi theme I’ve had with my reading and blogging. It’s also a bit of a classic. Any idea what it might be?
That’s all from me in today’s Sunday Summary! I hope you have enjoyed this week’s post. Let me know in the comments – what have you been reading this week?
Hi everyone! I’m back, at last! You may not have even noticed I was gone, but my domain hosting was due for renewal and I needed to switch to a new contract. So, my site has been down for a couple of days but I’m almost back to where I was before I started.
There’s just the small matter of the back-up I forgot to do beforehand… Yep – stupid me forgot to back up her blog in all haste to get the contract switched over after all my blog tours but before the renewal date. Consequently, I’ve managed to recover an old one, but I have some backfilling to do to get my more recent posts online again. At least I draft and save copies of all my blog posts in Microsoft Word before I upload them because otherwise I would be doomed!
Anyway, enough of that! That’s my problem to sort out. Shall we find out what November’s reading list is looking like?
Imaginary Friend – Stephen Chbosky
Christopher is seven years old. Christopher is the new kid in town. Christopher has an imaginary friend.
Single mother Kate Reese is on the run. Determined to improve life for her and her son, Christopher, she flees an abusive relationship in the middle of the night with Christopher at her side. Together, they find themselves drawn to the tight-knit community of Mill Grove, Pennsylvania. It’s as far off the beaten track as they can get. Just one highway in, one highway out.
At first, it seems like the perfect place to finally settle down. Then Christopher vanishes. For six awful days, no one can find him. Until Christopher emerges from the woods at the edge of town, unharmed but not unchanged. He returns with a voice in his head only he can hear, with a mission only he can complete: Build a tree house in the woods by Christmas, or his mother and everyone in the town will never be the same again.
Soon Kate and Christopher find themselves in the fight of their lives, caught in the middle of a war playing out between good and evil, with their small town as the battleground.
Somehow, I had absolutely no idea that Imaginary Friend was 720 pages long until I started reading it. It was only when my percentage progress didn’t seem to be going very far that I looked into it. Naturally, I only started this at the end of my holiday and with a busy return to blogging last week, I am still trying to finish this now. I’m currently just shy of 70% through so I should have this finished in the next couple of days!
Howling Dark – Christopher Ruocchio
The second novel of the galaxy-spanning Sun Eater series merges the best of space opera and epic fantasy, as Hadrian Marlowe continues down a path that can only end in fire.
Hadrian Marlowe is lost.
For half a century, he has searched the farther suns for the lost planet of Vorgossos, hoping to find a way to contact the elusive alien Cielcin. He has not succeeded, and for years has wandered among the barbarian Normans as captain of a band of mercenaries.
Determined to make peace and bring an end to nearly four hundred years of war, Hadrian must venture beyond the security of the Sollan Empire and among the Extrasolarians who dwell between the stars. There, he will face not only the aliens he has come to offer peace, but contend with creatures that once were human, with traitors in his midst, and with a meeting that will bring him face to face with no less than the oldest enemy of mankind.
If he succeeds, he will usher in a peace unlike any in recorded history. If he fails…the galaxy will burn.
As it happens, I have actually made a very brief start on this book. I was restless on Saturday and in trying to decide what to do with myself, I picked this up and read the first chapter. I decided not to carry on reading it at that time (in favour of binge-watching three hours of Chernobyl), but if nothing else it has gotten me re-acquainted with the characters and the events from the first book. I am ready to dive into this in earnest after finishing Imaginary Friend.
Moroda – Lauren McNeil
Linaria is a world where dragons are revered as gods, where airships rule the skies, and where war is stirring.
For Moroda, a former Goldstone, her life of luxury ends following her father’s sudden death. When her city is destroyed by a dragon, she and her sister ally with a sky pirate and narrowly escape the carnage—only to find a vigilante from an exiled race has left a trail of destruction everywhere his growing army has travelled. With compulsion at his fingertips, he strengthens his hold over Linaria’s people by stealing the power of dragons. It’s only a matter of time before Moroda, too, is forced to submit.
With war nipping at her heels and danger lurking in her companions and adversaries, Moroda must quickly learn about herself, her world, and the dragons so intent on reducing it all to ash.
I have received a copy of Moroda after the author contacted me to request a review. I loved the synopsis immediately and Lauren’s author profile sold it to me as well – “My books usually contain dragons, rarely feature romance, and are typically fun and hopeful.” I can’t wait to read it and share my thoughts with you all!
Days of Blood and Starlight – Laini Taylor
Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a world free of bloodshed and war.
This is not that world.
Art student and monster’s apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is—and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it.
In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Karou must decide how far she’ll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, secrets and impossible choices, Days of Blood & Starlight finds Karou and Akiva on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life.
While Karou and her allies build a monstrous army in a land of dust and starlight, Akiva wages a different sort of battle: a battle for redemption. For hope.
But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream?
I loved Daughter of Smoke and Bone on holiday so if I didn’t add this to the TBR, I’d probably just end up picking it up anyway! I can tell it’s a series that I just want to binge read so I am as well taking that into consideration. Otherwise, I’ll just to try and cram it in around my other obligations and get myself in trouble when I can’t manage it all. I sincerely hope this lives up to the first book. In my experience of Laini Taylor’s books, I’m sure it will!
Awa and the Dreamrealm – Isa Pearl Ritchie
What if dreams are more real than waking life?
Life is already complicated enough for Awa Bryant when she starts having weird dreams – waking dreams – and strange coincidences start appearing in her real life.
She meets dreamcharmer, Veila, a quirky glowing creature who helps to guide Awa through the mysterious Dreamrealm.
At first the Dreamrealm is a glorious escape from Awa’s daily struggles but something is not right… Soon Awa discovers she has a bigger quest, and everything she cares about is at stake. Will she be brave enough to face her fears and save her friends?
I’m actually really looking forward to reading this book because I am not the intended audience. That might sound totally daft, but taking part in the blog tour for this book in December gives me the perfect opportunity to read something in a genre I love, but for a younger target audience. This is marketed as aimed at middle grade/young adult. It’s also comparatively short to some of the other books on this TBR, so it should be a welcome breath of fresh air.
The Shining – Stephen King
Jack Torrance’s new job at the Overlook Hotel is the perfect chance for a fresh start. As the off-season caretaker at the atmospheric old hotel, he’ll have plenty of time to spend reconnecting with his family and working on his writing. But as the harsh winter weather sets in, the idyllic location feels ever more remote…and more sinister. And the only one to notice the strange and terrible forces gathering around the Overlook is Danny Torrance, a uniquely gifted five-year-old.
I’m gradually working my way through more of Stephen King’s book, and this month I’ve taken the notion of reading The Shining. It’s probably one of his most iconic books, so it’s about time I read it, right?
I am off work for about a week and a half later this month (yay!) to use up the rest of my annual leave. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to get some reading done then, but I don’t want to oversubscribe myself my giving myself a longer list. If I do finish my reading then I have the freedom to choose what I pick up as well.
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