BOOKTERNET ALL STARS Charity Challenge

Angie Thomas

• The Hate U Give: Read, 5 Star read
• On The Come Up:Not Read, unsure if I will read it.

Tahara Mafi

• Shatter Me series: Have not read, will not ever read.

Leigh Bardugo

• Grisha Trilogy: Not Read, will probably not read.
• Six of Crows Duology: Read, 4 Star Read SOC and 5 Star Read CK.
• Ninth House: Not Read, Plan to read in 2020.

Holly Black

• Folk of the Air Trilogy: Not Read, No interest in reading either

Rin Chupeco

• Bone Witch Trilogy: Have not read, do not plan on reading themt 

Victoria Schwab

• Shades of Magic Trilogy: Have not read, might read in the future
• Monsters of Verity Duology: Have no read, no plans to read
• Cassidy Blake series: Have not read, no plans to read in future
• Villains Duology: Have not read, no plans to read

Marissa Meyer

• Lunar Chronicles: Read Cinder. 3 Star Read. Do not plan on continuing the series.

Adam Silvera

• More Happy than Not: Have not read, might read in the future.
• They Both Die At the End. Have read. 5 Star read
• History Is All You Left Me: Have read. 4 Star read
• Infinity Son: Have not read, will probably not read it.

Cassandra Clare

• City of Bones: Read. Hated it. 1 Star Read. Will most certainly not read anything else by this author.

Taylor Jenkins Reid

• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo: Have not read, might read in future.

Laini Taylor

• Daughter of Smoke and Bone Trilogy: Read 2/3 books in series will definitely be finishing that series in the future.
• Strange the Dreamer Duology: Read STD, found it an ok book, 3Star Read. Do not plan on reading Muse Of Nightmares

Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff 

• Illuminae Files. Have not read, might read in the future

Neil Schusterman

• Arc of a Scythe Trilogy: Have not read, do not plan to read

Sarah J Maas

• A Court of Thorns and Roses Series: Read book 1 wasn't a fan, 2 Star Read, will not be continuing the series
• Throne of Glass: Have not read, have no plans to read
• Crescent City: Have not read, no plans to read.

An Ember in the Ashes Quartet

• An Ember in the Ashes: Read and adored. 5 Star Read
• A Torch Against the Night: Read and adored. 5 Star Read
• A Reaper at the Gates: Read and adored. 5 Star Read
• A Sky Beyond the Storm: Have not read but highly anticipated by me.

Seanan Maguire

• Wayward Children Series: Read EHAD, wasn't overly impressed by it. 2 Star Read. Will not be carrying on with the series.
• Middlegame: Will not be reading this book

RF Kuang

• The Poppy War: Have not read, unsure if I will.

Jenny Han

• To All The Boys I've Loved Before Trilogy. Have not read this trilogy. Do not plan on reading it or watching the Netflix adaptation.

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#BookternetGivesBack

Malice Book Review

Malice is the first book in a fantasy quartet.  It is also John Gwynne's debut novel, and in my opinion does not disappoint.  Malice is book one of the Faithful and the Fallen series.

Author John Gwynne studied at Brighton University.  Along with writing, he runs a family business rejuvenating furniture.  He is married and has four children.  His debut novel 'Malice' also won the David Gemmell Morning Star Award for Best Debut Fantasy.

Malice begins with a young man who is disgruntled so he turns to evil entities for power.  The young man in question is Evnis, who as the second son of a noble family, feels he is overshadowed by his brother.  To combat these feelings, he turns to an ancient demon.  The ancient demon promises untold power to Evnis in return for Evnis himself.

The story skips ahead a few decades.  We now see Evnis as a man, married with a child.  Evnis is am important person as he is the Chief Counselor to the King of Ardan.  With the love of his wife, the darkness within Evnis has been dimmed, but this does not last with his wife falling ill.  Evnis is knocked back when he asks to leave court to find a cure for his wife and is denied the opportunity.  This begins the stirring of darkness within Evnis which is detrimental to both the lands of Ardan and Evnis himself.

An ancient prophecy has been foretold that a war between Gods is coming.  A time, when the demon Asroth, will seek to destroy the world.  Before the destruction can take place, people will bare witness to dire warnings which will include bleeding stones, war between man and giants and also a day when the noon day sun turns black.  On this day, two champions will arise; the Bright Star who is the champion of Good and the Black Sun who is the champion of Evil.

Mr Gwynne then introduces us to many characters to develop the story.  These characters include Corban, a young boy living in a town in the Kingdom of Ardan.  Corban is a young boy who is waiting for the day when finally takes his trials and becomes a man.  Alongside him is his sister Cwyen who is a ferocious young girl who is always in the middle of the action.  Let us not forget that on the outskirts of Ardan is Evnis who is dealing with the darkness twisting his soul.

On the other side of this land is the Kingdoms of Tenebral and Isiltir.  Here we are to the characters of Veradis and Kastell.  Two young nobles brought together from different Kingdoms who form a friendship before being torn apart by their choices and fate itself.

Veradis is a warrior who is sent to Tenebral to earn respect and experience in service to his King.  Soon enough after his arrival he is brought under the wing of Prince Nathair of Tenebral.  Not long after, Veradis finds himself becoming a high ranking swordsman of Prince Nathair.  Veradis realises that this promotion has a dark side as Prince Nathair has plans of his own that don't involve him following in his father's footsteps.

Kastell, on the other hand is a man that finds himself devoid of a home and a family.  He is raised by his uncle, the King of Isiltir.  Kastell and his cousin Jael are also embroiled in a lifelong rivalry fot the throne of Isiltir.  Kastell and his best friend Maquin decide to leave Isiltir and forge lives for themselves away from the ever growing darkening shadow of Isiltir, but no matter how far Kastell goes; fate always ensures Kastell and Jael cross paths.  This crossing of paths is surely going to result in the death of one or both of the men. 

This book is a book for fantasy fans.  It is a solid start to the series.  As it is the first book in the series, it was sluggish at the beginning but once you learn who is who and the world becomes clearer, it sucks you in.  I look forward to reading the rest of the series in the future,

Star Rating: 4.5 *

Shadow of a Dark Queen Book Review

Shadow of a Dark Queen
Rating: 4 Stars

Shadow of a Dark Queen is the first book of The Serpent War Saga. The book focuses on the life Erik von Darkmoor, who is in fact the bastard son of the Baron of Darkmoor. The book also focuses on a character known as Miranda who is on her own mission to find a magician known as Pug.

Erik von Darkmoor begins the book as a smiths apprentice who one day hopes to run his own forge one day.  His plans get thrown up in the air when one day he arrives at the forge and finds that his master is dead,  a new smithy arrives and agrees that Erik should be able to join the smiths guild if he ever has plans to open his own forge.

News arrives that the Baron is to make an appearance and with that Erik's mother will try and make the Baron finally admit the Erik is his son.  The Baron arrives alongside his two legitimate sons, Stefan and Manfred.  Stefan and Manfred dislike Erik greatly because they believe that if their father recognizes Erik as a son, they will lose out on inheritance.

One night the Baron's sons visit the town and Stefan entices a friend of Erik's to go off with him.  When Erik is told about this by his friend Rupert 'Roo' Avery, Erik decides to chase after Stefan and confront him.  When Erik finally catches up to Stefan, he finds the girl known as Rosalyn with her clothes torn and unconscious lying against a tree.  Erik is enraged and advances on Stefan with his sword, piercing his chest and killing him.  When Roo realises what has happened, he and Erik begin to run.

While on the run they come across an old woman known as Gert.  When they meet, she already knows both their names.  The two boys hide in Gert's tent when the Baron's guards catch up with them but when the guard opens the tent and looks in he does not see either of the boys. The next day they awaken to find Gert gone and in her place Miranda is looking after them.

Erik and Roo's luck finally runs out when they are first captured by slavers and then by the guards.  Both Erik and Roo are sentenced to hang for the crime of murder.  Their hanging is faked and along with the other prisoners are forced to become soldiers under the leadership of Robert de Loungville.  In order to gain their freedom they have to pose as mercenaries and attempt to join the army of the Emerald Queen.  The mission is to gather information on the Emerald Queen's motives. Erik and his band of mercenaries infiltrate the Queen's army and learn that the Emerald Queen plans to become the host of a Valheru spirit trapped with several artifacts.  The mercenaries are found out and get pursued by the Saaur, which are nomadic lizard men.  Callis who is the leader of the mercenaries finds the artifacts hidden in a cave and destroys them, to further delay the Emerald Queens plan, Erik and the other burn down the shipyard.  When this is all done and the remaining members of the group assemble, they get picked up by Prince Nicholas aboard his ship the Freeport Ranger.  With the success of their mission, the men are awarded their freedom from the gallows.  Robert de Loungville offers Erik the role of Corporal in the army that Calis will be allowed to assemble.

That concludes book 1 of the Serpent War Saga. I look forward to continuing the trilogy.  The reason for giving the book 4 stars, was because I was hoping to hear more about what Miranda was up to and I thought she and Erik were going to have more interaction. I guess I will have to wait to see.

The Painted Man Book Review

My third book review of 2019 is The Painted Man by Peter V. Brett.  It is a fantasy novel. Peter V. Brett was born on February 8, 1973. He studied English Literature and Art History at the University of Buffalo.  After graduating, he spent a decade working in the pharmaceutical publication field before settling down to write full time.  The Painted Man was released in 2008, it is the first book in the Demon Cycle Series.

The Painted Man is the first book in a five book series.

The Painted Man is a story that follows the story of three P.O.V characters from childhood to maturity.  The civilisation that these characters grow up in has gone from an advanced civilization to a civilization back in the dark ages, due to attacks from demons called corelings.  Corelings are powerful beings with magical abilities and differing elemental natures, these include wind, fire and wood demons.  Every night they rise from the earths core and wreak havoc until daybreak when they are dragged to the Earths core.  The only protection the civilians have from the corelings are wards that are etched into wood of their homes.  Wards are magical runes that can be drawn, painted or inscribed to form protective barriers.

The first P.O.V we meet is a young boy named Arlen Bales who at the beginning of the book is helping clear up after a coreling attack along with his father.  While clearing up a messenger arrives.  Messengers are men who go from town to town delivering messages and foodstuffs.  When Arlen meets the Messenger, he decides that is what he wants to be when he is of age.  He moves in with Ragen Messenger and his wife. While living with Ragen and his wife, Arlen begins an apprenticeship with the Warder of the town to last seven years.  Arlen is discouraged by both Ragen's wife and his love interest in becoming a Messenger as they believe its not the job for him. Arlen thinks differently so he takes a job and leaves.   He travels to the lost city of Anoch Sun and learns of the lost wards of combat.  Arlen paints the wards that he has learned all over himself thus becoming The Painted Man.

The second P.O.V we meet is Leesha Paper who lives with her father and her abusive mother.  Leesha's life at the beginning of the book is pretty much set in stone, she is already promised to a boy in the town to marry and have children with.  This is scuppered when a vicious rumour is spread about her, she loses the respect of her friends and townspeople.  She comes across the town herb gatherer known as Bruna and helps her after she takes ill. Bruna decides to take Leesha on as an apprentice to learn the skill of herb gathering. 

The third P.O.V we meet is that of Rojer Inn who is only three years old at the beginning of the book.  When he and his father go to find the warder to ask can he come to the inn and reinforce the wards for better protection.  That is when they meet the Messenger Geral and his Jongleur Arrick.  A Jongleur is a jester who can sing, juggle and play music.  While the messenger and his jongleur are visiting the inn, a coreling attack occurs.  During this attack, Rojer is bitten on the hand and loses two of his fingers.  To save Rojer, his mother sacrifices herself.  Arrick looks after Rojer as he grows up and teaches him to be a Jongleur.  Even though Rojer has a crippled hand that does not stop him playing the fiddle.  While he plays the fiddle behind the wards we are shown that the corelings can be controlled. 

The three P.O.V character Arcs continue separately until The Painted Man comes across Leesha and Rojer after they have been attacked and robbed by bandits. The Painted Man agrees to travel with Leesha and Rojer to the next town to keep them protected from the corelings while they return to Leesha's home town to help the ill townspeople.

The book ends with Leesha and Rojer agreeing to go with The Painted Man to the other towns to help them deal with the coreling attacks by teaching them all they know about herb gathering and music.

I am very much looking forward to continuing this series.

Star Rating: 4.5 Stars

The Blade Itself Book Review

My second book review of 2019 and the Letter A in my A-Z Reading Challenge is The Blade Itself  by Joe Abercrombie.

Joe Abercrombie was born in Lancaster, England on December 31st 1974.  While in college in Manchester, he started writing an epic trilogy based around the misadventures of a thinking man's barbarian known as Logen Ninefingers.  It wasn't until 2002 when he returned to Logen Ninefingers after abandoning it years earlier.  In 2004, the first book in the trilogy The Blade Itself was completed.  Sadly it wasn't until 2005 that it was picked up by an agent after multiple failures to be picked up previously.  The sequels in The First Law Trilogy were published in 2007 and 2008.  Joe Abercrombie has also released three standalone novels set in The First Law world.  Along with that he has another series known as the Shattered Sea Series.

The Blade Itself is a multiple Point of View grim dark fantasy.  The story follows the interweaving stories of six characters. Three of these are Main Point of View Characters and the other three are Secondary Point of View Characters.  The three main point of views are:

Logen Ninefingers who is a barbarian who believes his luck has finally run out and death's icy grip is on the horizon.

Jezal dan Luthar who is a vain, selfish nobleman who is only thinking about an upcoming fencing tournament and what winning that will mean for his stature in the world.

Sand dan Glokta who is a former champion swordsman and dashing war hero, who was captured and tortured by the enemy.  Ironically that is exactly the job he has been awarded by the King as an Inquisitor whose job it is to deal with treason cases by using torture to get confessions from prisoners.

Minor Point Of Views include The Dogman who is a member of Logen Ninefingers crew, who believes that Logen is infact dead and he believes the same for his crew. Collem West is the best friend and sparring partner of Jezal dan Luthar in preparation for the fencing tournament.  The penultimate minor character is Bayaz who is The First of the Magi and he encounters Logen when he sends his apprentice  Malacus Quai to bring Logen to meet Bayaz.  They then go on a journey so Bayaz can finally take his place on the closed council as he is First of the Magi.  The final minor Point of View is Maljinn Ferro who is an escaped slave who preys on soldiers without mercy.  She lives in the desert with the dregs of society.

This book is most definitely  a slow burner, that could be because Joe Abercrombie is introducing us to his abundance of characters. Do not get me wrong that is not a negative point towards this book because the characters are so well fleshed out.

At the finale of this book, the seams are bursting with reported conflicts and a bizarre proposed mission that the characters find out are their destinies moving forward.

In conclusion, the sequel to The Blade Itself is set up well and I look forward to meeting these characters again in Before They Are Hanged.

Star Rating: 4 Stars

The Three Musketeers Book Review

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"All for one, and one for all"

The first book review of 2019 is going to be The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas.  Alexandre Dumas was born in 1802 at Villers - Cotterets.  Dumas's most successful novel is The Count of Monte Cristo.  In addition to these two novels, he also wrote about wars of religion and the Revolution, which were mostly written for newspapers.  Along with writing The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, Dumas also wrote travel books, children's books and also his memoirs.  Alexandre Dumas died in 1870.

The novel The Three Musketeers was first published in 1844.  The Three Musketeers is a Historical Fiction, Adventure novel.  The premise of the novel is about a young boy named D'Artagnan who comes to Paris in the hope of becoming a member of the King Elite Guards known as The Musketeers.  The Musketeers consists of Athos, Porthos and Aramis.  D'Artagnan first meetings with each of the Musketeers does not go as planned as he inadvertently ends up in a duel with each Musketeer.  When the time comes for D'Artagnan to duel his first opponent, he gets himself tangled up with Cardinal Richelieu's guards.  This ends with D'Artagnan injuring the Cardinal's man.

Cardinal Richelieu is one of the Antagonists of the novel, we will discuss the other one later.  Cardinal Richelieu has plans to destroy the Queen's reputation in the eyes of King Louis XIII because the Queen did not reciprocate the love the Cardinal has for her.  The Cardinal's plan is to embarrass the Queen by insisting she wears the twelve diamond studs the King gave her to a féte that is being thrown in her honour.  This causes a problem because as a gift to the Duke of Buckingham, whom she is in love with she gave him two of the diamond studs.  To help the Queen, her servant Madame Bonacieux who after being rescued by D'Artagnan whom falls in love with her, she asks D'Artagnan to help the Queen which he does along with Athos, Porthos and Aramis.  While they are making their way to London to see the Duke, the Musketeers are attacked by the Cardinals guards. Also during this time D'Artagnan is compelled to assault, and nearly kill, the Comte de Wardes, a friend of the Cardinal and Milady's lover who tries to stop him from travelling to England.  D'Artagnan wounds him in a sword fight.

 Milady de Winter is the other antagonist of the novel. After D'Artagnan assaults the Comte de Wardes he pretends to be him to get seduce Milady as he has figured out that she is an agent of the Cardinals .Due to these attacks it is only D'Artagnan that makes it to London.  D'Artagnan is thus able to return a complete set of jewels to Queen Anne just in time to save her honour. In gratitude, she gives him a beautiful ring.  Madame Bonacieux and D'Artagnan decide to meet up, but when D'Artagnan goes to the chosen spot he figures out that she has been kidnapped.  D'Artagnan meets up under the guise of Comte de Wardes and becomes infatuated with Milady de Winter.  Her maid tells D'Artagnan that she is indifferent towards him.  While getting intimate with Milady, he uncovers a branding on her that shows she is a criminal. That isn't the only surprising piece of information we get about Milady but more of that later.  When this is found out Milady is furious and tries in vain to murder D'Artagnan.  D'Artagnan is told that the Queen has rescued Constance Bonacieux and she is in hiding. Athos, Porthos and Aramis overhear a conversation between Cardinal Richelieu and Milady and their plan to have her murder the Duke of Buckingham.  The Musketeers luckily warn Lord De Winter(Milady's Brother) and the Duke of Buckingham of the plot.  When Milady arrives she is immediately arrested and imprisoned.  To escape she seduces her prison guard and persuades him in carrying out the act she was sent to do.  When Milady returns to France, Milady hides in the convent where Constance Bonacieux is also in hiding.  Milady finally has the opportunity to destroy D'Artagnan.  He and the Musketeers get to the convent too late to capture Milady.  She is eventually caught before she can reach Cardinal Richelieu and she is sentenced to death by D'Artagnan and the Three Musketeers.  When the four of them return to battle, D'Artagnan is arrested and sent to the Cardinal and tells him of Milady's execution.  D'Artagnan then uses the Pardon that was for Milady on himself.  

Due to D'Artagnan's willfulness which the Cardinal is impressed with, destroys the pardon and writes out a new note which is in fact a promotion to Lieutenant in the Musketeers. D'Artagnan offers it to each of his three friends but they all in fact turn down the promotion as they all have future plans. Could the novel have been foreshadowing the ending of the book by showing the reader D'Artagnan's willingness to lead and rally his friends after they got separated and him finally fulfilling his dream of becoming a musketeer.

The main theme I believe that is greatly highlighted in this novel is the theme of Friendship.  The friendship of the four men may not have began on the best of terms but as the novel went on their friendship grew stronger.  In order to succeed in their quests, they all must work together.  The theme of Friendship is also shown in a positive light.  The three friends never argue and they are always there to share things and support each other.  An example of this is when Athos reveals to D'Artagnan that Milady de Winter is in fact his ex- wife.  D'Artagnan did not reveal this information to Porthos and Aramis, instead he allowed Athos to tell his friends in his own time.  

I would recommend people to read this book. If you enjoy a plot driven book then this is the book for you, although the friendship of the "four" Musketeers should drive you forward to read this book.

My Rating: 4.5 Stars

My 2019 Reading Challenge

In 2019, for my reading challenge I want to do a twist on the A-Z Reading challenge by reading an author beginning with each letter of the alphabet, the twist; to read books over 500+ pages

Coming in 2019

Book Review Blog

Hello and Welcome to my blog. This is just a quick hello. This blog will go live in 2019.

A quick introduction first.  My name is Gary Watters and the purpose of this blog will be to review the books that I read, and who knows maybe with the help of this blog, you'll find a new all time favourite book.

I hope you all stick around and enjoy reading what I write.

Goodbye for now. See You in 2019.