The Fiction Feature

Forestborn by Elayne Audrey Becker – Blog Tour!

Hello and welcome to my stop on the Forestborn Tour hosted by Terminal Tours! Be sure to check out the other tour hosts HERE.

*Forestborn* by Elayne Audrey Becker – Book Cover

Book Synopsis:

TO BE BORN OF THE FOREST IS A GIFT AND A CURSE.

Rora is a shifter, as magical as all those born in the wilderness–and as feared. She uses her abilities to spy for the king, traveling under different guises and listening for signs of trouble.

When a magical illness surfaces across the kingdom, Rora uncovers a devastating truth: Finley, the young prince and her best friend, has caught it, too. His only hope is stardust, the rarest of magical elements, found deep in the wilderness where Rora grew up–and to which she swore never to return.

But for her only friend, Rora will face her past and brave the dark, magical wood, journeying with her brother and the obstinate, older prince who insists on coming. Together, they must survive sentient forests and creatures unknown, battling an ever-changing landscape while escaping human pursuers who want them dead. With illness gripping the kingdom and war on the horizon, Finley’s is not the only life that hangs in the balance.

My Review:

Thank you so much to TorTeen and Tours Terminal for providing this book as a digital galley in exchange for an honest review.

Forestborn is beyond inventive and beautiful.

I knew I would like this book from the moment I saw it, but after reading it, I was blown away! First of all, the worldbuilding is amazing. From rival kingdoms to magical forests, Becker makes her world both intricate and easy to follow, a must in standalone fantasy books. The forest is especially interesting, as are the animals and the way magic manifests there. There are entirely new takes on magic everywhere in this novel, especially in the main characters themselves!

Rora and her brother Helos are both main characters and shapeshifters. I loved how Elayne Audrey Becker used clear limits in their abilities to create impressive but not indestructible powers in these two. There was also so much symbolism in the forms the characters took and why, which I loved just as much.

Let’s talk more about the characters!!! Usually I’m a fan of side characters and not main characters, but this cast was entirely lovable. We have Rora, a shifter concerned she’s overly selfish but concerned for her friend, Helos, shifter and brother to Rora, and Weslyn, the love interest and older brother of Prince Finley. Finley especially is important because the others have to venture into magical danger to find a cure for the magic plague that he’s contracted which will kill him soon without a legendary cure. Every one of these characters is full of depth and emotion. I especially love the romances in this book, even though they’re absolutely the death of me now (WE DO HAVE ENEMIES TO LOVERS THOUGH).

Basically, Forestborn is a work of art. I’d recommend it to fans of Among the Beasts and Briars and maybe Onyx & Ivory too (haven’t read O&I in a while but from what I remember they’re somewhat similar). This is easily one of my favorite reads of 2021 and I’m so glad to have been able to read it!!!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ /5

Links for Forestborn:

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55077635-forestborn

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1250752167/ref=x_gr_w_bb_sin?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_w_bb_sin-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1250752167&SubscriptionId=1MGPYB6YW3HWK55XCGG2

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/forestborn-elayne-audrey-becker/1137525473?ean=9781250752161

Book Depository: https://www.bookdepository.com/Forestborn-Elayne-Audrey-Becker/9781250752161

IndieBound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781250752161
Indigo https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/forestborn/9781250752161-item.html?ref=isbn-search

About the Author:

ELAYNE AUDREY BECKER is a storyteller with a passion for history, myth, mountains, and magic. She holds a BA from Vassar College and an MSc from the University of Aberdeen and has worked as an editor at a New York publisher. Born and raised in Georgia, she grew up with a lake and woods as her backyard, spending long days outside and visiting national parks with her family.

Elayne Audrey Becker, author of *Forestborn*

Website: http://www.elaynebecker.com/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20620845.Elayne_Audrey_Becker

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elayneabecker/

Twitter https://twitter.com/ElayneABecker

Tor Teen Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/torteen/
Tor Teen Twitter: https://twitter.com/torteen

The Endless Skies by Shannon Price

One-Sentence Summary:

After sickness begins to spread amongst the young of the Leonodai, warrior elect Rowan decides to search for the cure despite being unable to take her vows so that the young prince survives.

My Review:

This book is once again proof that reading books because one author you liked blurbed them is completely reasonable.
The Endless Skies is absolutely brilliant. With an intricate and easy to understand world, Price makes the book so enticing and readable. The main characters are all compulsively likable, and I can see why a phenomenal author like Nicki Pau Preto thought of it positively.
One of my favorite parts of the book was actually the romance. There’s a love triangle in the book, but it’s fairly straightforward who’ll “get the girl”, even though both love interests are actually brilliant people who I’d gladly be around or befriend. I love Ox and Callen so much. Callen is actually part of a childhood friends to lovers arc, and he confesses VERY early on, but he’s so respectful to Rowan, and Rowan herself takes time to figure out what she wants, something I feel like doesn’t  happen often enough with friends to lovers (it’s always “oh these feelings were always there” after five minutes).
The Endless Skies is exciting, sad, and beautiful, and EVERYONE should read it.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

The Deal by Elle Kennedy

One-Sentence Summary:

Hannah makes a deal with notorious hockey player Garrett Graham to help him with a retake in exchange for help with her love life.

My Review:

First of all, the bad. I really hated how in one of the first paragraphs of Garrett’s POV, he immediately sexualized Hannah and basically harassed her into helping him later on. He’s a really good guy overall, but it was so easy to hate him in the beginning, which I’m sure was intentional, but I didn’t love it.

Now we can get to everything else!

To begin with, I was under the impression that this book was mostly smut, which actually wasn’t true. It’s obviously a romance novel, but the actual smut doesn’t start until halfway through. I’m sure this is negative for romance fans, but I downloaded this book because I was very bored and I’m a YA reader, so I was pretty happy.

Despite the beginning of the book, Garrett was such an amazing love interest. He pursued Hannah while respecting her boundaries, and both of them were ready to make sacrifices for each other. The romance wasn’t terribly straightforward or complicated, it was simultaneously complex and understandable. I also loved all of the background characters, the hockey team especially.

I’d definitely recommend this book for people who like annoyed acquaintances to lovers, sort of fake dating, and overcoming trauma to find love. Also hot athletes.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Daughter of Sparta by Claire M. Andrews

One-Sentence Summary:

Daphne is chosen by Artemis to aid Apollo in returning stolen items to the Olympians so that they can maintain their powers.

My Review:

First, let’s rate this on the retelling scale! I’m not familiar with the myth of Daphne and Apollo, but after looking it up for the purpose of this review, it’s nothing like the book. The main similarities are just Daphne and Apollo. However, it did have many others from Greek mythology that were largely portrayed correctly. My least favorite thing about the role mythology had in the novel was how much the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur was actually changed. I wasn’t it expecting to be there at all, but I wasn’t a huge fan of his story being altered, even though I do love Theseus in the novel.

Like a lot of Greek mythology-related books, this one was a bit slow and dense. There were a bunch of things that were underdeveloped, like general timing and how [SPOILER AHEAD] the Muses actually got back without Hermes or Ares [SPOILER OVER], but those weren’t terrible. There were a few things too like the bows of Apollo and Artemis that I thought were mentioned too much. Anyone could see they would be relevant without explaining it four times.

Regardless, I loved the characters, specifically Theseus and Lykou, and the romance was good too (although not a priority). I did like Daphne and Apollo for each other, but it also felt like the chemistry was way more in everyone else’s eyes rather than Daphne’s.

Daughter of Sparta was a great book, just nothing insanely special. I’m always looking for more books with Greek mythology and I don’t really think this one disappointed.

⭐️⭐️⭐️✨/5

Crave by Tracy Wolff

One-Sentence Summary:

Grace Foster moves to Alaska after her parent’s death to find the monsters she’s only heard about are real and going to school with her.

My Review:

This book is the reason why many adults think young adult books are terrible. It’s a paranormal romance that simultaneously makes fun of Twilight and is Twilight.

Was this book fun to read? Sure, but it had a lot of issues. To start with, the teenage slang. This book contained multiple utterances of phrases like, “FML,” “sexy af” or just “af,” and used “spilled the tea”. Why??? I don’t understand how this book got published with an overused paranormal romance plot and writing this bad. Y’all. I’ve read fanfiction better.

I posted pictures of some quotes to my Instagram stories on multiple accounts and a decent amount of people DMed me just to ask what on earth the book was and why on earth I was reading it. People.

🚨Spoilers in next two paragraphs!🚨

The romance was also incredibly weak. Grace literally says something along the lines of “I’m not like other girls in romance novels, I won’t fall for a sketchy guy because he’s hot!” No, you just fell for him because he gave you a copy of Twilight, sucked your blood off of his finger, ate a strawberry weirdly to be sexy, and said he loved you after maybe a week of knowing you. So very attractive.

The plot was bad too! It seemed like everything took longer than it did because it was over 500 pages and basically a week (conscious anyways)! It’s so clear that the people are creepy even if they’re not magical creatures, but Grace is left in the dark and doesn’t even question anything until she finds bite marks! And then we find out she’s a freaking gargoyle??? This book was all over the place.

🚨CEASE SPOILERS🚨

Anyways, this book was a hot mess. Horrible writing, questionable romance, and weak plot unite in Crave to make an overall horrible experience that has your friends and family wondering if you’re sane. Would not recommend unless you love Twilight.

⭐️/5

Wings of Shadow by Nicki Pau Preto

One-Sentence Summary:

In the finale to the Crown of Feathers Trilogy, Veronyka must face off against some of her only remaining family in order to bring peace to the empire and safety for animages and Phoenix Riders.

My Review:

This book completely blew me away and my standards were already sky-high!

First, I want to talk about Veronyka, the main protagonist, and consequently Tristan too. In the past, I haven’t always loved her for reasons I couldn’t quite pinpoint, but in my rereads of the first two books and in reading Wings of Shadow, she really grew as a character to me. Veronyka is criticized throughout the series for occasionally being naïve or entitled (because of her relationship with Tristan), but no one can insult her abilities in WoS. In standing up to her sister and trying to take her place as heir, Veronyka becomes so much more powerful, especially once she sheds any self-loathing remaining from her abilities with shadow magic. While I love Avalkyra as well, Veronyka showed her love for her companions and care for their well-being in so many ways that made me want her to win. Tristan was also amazing, and one of the things I never get over is how in his relationship with Veronyka, he doesn’t question anything. Nothing about her could make him draw back and the two of them complement each other so well, a quality I wish I saw more of in the young adult genre. He and Veronyka contributed so much to each other’s personalities in so many positive ways, and his confidence grew so much in tandem with hers.

Secondly, MORE ABOUT AVALKYRA. She’s so amazing. Throughout most of the book, I was thinking, “Oh, she’s cool but she’s horrifying!” and that didn’t change much. 😂 Val’s point of view is so incredible and insightful to the story because it shows her complete disregard for others. Val is power hungry and driven, a deadly combination that both impressed and scared me. She doesn’t hesitate to go for what she wants, which is a quality I actually wish I could see in more PROtagonists.

Next, Sev!!! He frustrated me SO MUCH. Sev has always been my favorite, but in WoS he was different from before. Knowing what he does about what Kade has after Heart of Flames, he’s so scared that he’s irrelevant to Kade and the Phoenix Rider cause, which both made so much sense and bothered me so much. I wanted to go into the book and give him a hug and tell him he’s amazing! His mind was another one that I loved seeing into because of how much he had changed. It was so clear to me that he became so much more confident and heroic from Crown of Feathers to here, even if he didn’t think so. Especially in the last hundred pages of the book, I was just so excited to see his journey. My only critique for his point of view was that I wanted so much more!

Lastly for characters, Sparrow and Elliot. My brain labeled them as unnecessary for a while because they weren’t the “core three” point of view characters, but these two have so much. For one thing, I thought it was so amazing that Sparrow was the one to connect so much to [REDACTED] as opposed to the others. Sparrow understands animal magic in a much more powerful way than most of the cast, which is so cool to explore. Her relationship with Elliot is also amazing, especially because it’s so ambiguous. They care for each other a lot, but there isn’t a word that could describe the two besides “loyalty”. I don’t have too much to say about these characters without spoilers, but I wish I could tell Past Lydia not to disregard them in Heart of Flames.

I also just want to talk about the world and plot. I finished this book, which is about 600 pages, in three hours. I’ve seen people complain about pacing issues in book one, but this doesn’t have any of those. 😂 Secondly, Pau Preto is just so talented in writing the world around the characters! Usually I’m horrible at keeping track of politics, countries, and more, but she makes use of the elder characters and interstitials between chapters to give the most information possible to truly show the extent to which she’s familiar with the world she created. One of my last points is still about the characters, but more about the writing of them. There are so many parallels to the first two books in Wings of Shadow, which I love because of how much my favorites have grown! Between Veronyka growing into her title and Sev being selfless without a second thought, my attachment to these characters and pride in them only grows with every word Nicki Pau Preto writes. She’s clearly grown as a writer, and so to have her characters grown as people in the best ways possible. I cried a lot with the end to this story, but I can’t wait to see what she does next!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Summary:

With a truly great number of POVs and intertwined plots, people all over the continent attempt to vanquish the Nameless One and prevent his return.

My Review:

My God. Oh boy.

First of all, there are three reasons why people read Priory: it’s sapphic, it’s great to be able to say you read it since it’s long and dense, and actually reading the summary. Kidding, it’s only the first two. Did I have any idea what the plot was? Haha. No. I read it because it’s pride month and it had been on my TBR forever. HOWEVER. I do not regret reading it in the slightest.

This was originally supposed to be a buddy read with my best friend. We had resolved to read 80 pages a day for ten days! For the first three days, I read a whole zero! This book is impossible to start. I talked to someone who’s a HUGE fan of the book when I was around 170 pages in and when I told her this, she said, “Oh, so you’re almost at the start of the plot!” It’s an 800-page book, but most of the characters have nothing to do for almost 200 pages! This isn’t great.

However, once you get to the plot, it’s impossible to stop. It’s filled with likable, complex characters, intricate worldbuilding, and above all, politics and adventure. The book is just so good in terms of quality that you can’t fault it for being slow. On my fourth day of “reading,” I actually read around 80 pages, the next day 100, then 100, then 200, then 300. Once I actually got into it, I flew through. As I write this review though, my friend still isn’t done. My bad.

It’s rare that a book can be so intricate and dense and still have me know what’s going on. Not only did I keep up, but I understood everything happening in the book, which I appreciated since it’s an 800-page adult high fantasy with a detailed nobility system and four POVs.

I realize I haven’t said much about the content of the book, but you really don’t even need that to want to read it. I had no idea what I was getting into and I loved it. Despite this, I’ll give a couple character descriptions so the POVs are easier to understand.

Ead: lady-in-waiting to the queen. Sent by an order from the South to protect Sabran (In West)

Sabran: Queen of Inys (In West).

Loth: friend to Ead and Sabran, nobleman. Sent away by powerful spy for Sabran because the lord thought he was ruining Sabran’s marriage prospects (In West, then South).

Tané: aspiring dragon rider, sheltered an outsider and has to hide this to become a dragon rider after years of training (In East).

Niclays: disgraced and depressed alchemist hired to find the secret to immortality for Sabran and then exiled after failure. Forced to shelter the outsider Tané hid (In East).

I’d recommend Priory to anyone who can handle a very dense but very good adult fantasy. REMEMBER THE FIRST 200 PAGES AREN’T AS GOOD AS THE REST. Happy reading!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/5

EXTASIA by Claire Legrand – COVER REVEAL

As you all know, I am wholly obsessed with Claire Legrand!!! You can imagine my panic and delight when I got an email at 10:45 on Tuesday about this book and the cover reveal.
Claire Legrand is one of my all-time favorite authors if not THE favorite, and I am SO EXCITED for her next book!!! EXTASIA comes out February 22, 2022, and it’s a horror novel related most to Legrand’s other stand-alone of the same genre, SAWKILL GIRLS. I reread SAWKILL GIRLS at midnight and sent terrified texts to all of my friends, so I’m wildly enthusiastic/petrified for Claire’s next horror novel!
The synopsis can be found below.

🖤🖤🖤

My name is unimportant.

All you must know is that today I become one of the four saints of Haven. The elders will mark me and place the red hood on my head. They will give me my true name, and with my sisters I will stand against the evil power that lives beneath the black mountain—an evil which has already killed nine of our village’s men.

I will tell no one of the white-eyed beasts that follow me. Or the faceless gray women tall as houses. Or the girls I saw kissing in the elm grove.

Today I become a saint of Haven. I will rid my family of my mother’s shame at last and save my people from destruction. I am not afraid.

Are you?

Here’s the cover to what is now my most anticipated release of 2022!

Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand

One-Sentence Summary:

When Marion moves to Sawkill, she’s immediately met with a supernatural murder and has to solve it with the help of the queen bee and outcast of the island.

My Review:

First of all, what was going through Claire Legrand’s mind? This book is SO MORBID. Like, I loved it, but also I was terrified. On the other hand though, it really showed off Legrand’s gift for prose. It takes a lot for me to read horror, but I was up at midnight to finish this absolute monstrosity.

One thing I want to appreciate is the diversity in the main cast. There’s an ace POC girl, a bisexual girl, and a lesbian. They’re all amazing characters, and we should all take notes about the ace representation, which is very rare. Zoey slept with her boyfriend once and then realized she was ace, and while there are a few times that’s used against her, her ex is actually really sweet and understanding about it and doesn’t invalidate her identity.

Claire Legrand is just such a phenomenal writer. I would read anything she writes, even a morbid horror novel when it’s dark outside. Read Sawkill Girls if you want chills and downright lyrical prose!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

The Dark Tide by Alicia Jasinska

One-Sentence Summary:

To save her brother and the boy she loves, Lina volunteers to be a human sacrifice for the Witch Queen to stop the tides from consuming her island.

My Review:

This came highly recommended from my best friend, so of course I had to try it.

First of all, this is officially a Thomas Lin hate account. He should’ve been doing more. Second of all, this is an Eva fan account because she is my spirit animal (antisocial witch). I really loved Lina and Eva’s story, especially the glimpses from the past we got.

There was certainly a lot of chemistry between Lina and Eva, but I didn’t really know why they made it seem like Thomas was still in the picture. Also, Lina kept believing in Thomas when he kind of sucked.

Overall, I did really like The Dark Tide, but there was something lacking. I’d recommend this book to people who like dark fantasy stand-alones, especially quick ones. The Dark Tide is easy to understand and fun to read, so I’d say it’s a great “intro to fantasy” book.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5.