(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

Although this book was the second one with these characters, I still found it really easy to follow… helped in part, I think, by the explanation at the beginning of the book; but the book came across as a self-contained story in its own right.

The concept of daydreaming yourself into another world is a really intriguing one. I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t get to see much of the world itself, but I did find Zanzibar a really intriguing world. The cultural differences came across really well, particularly in how the Sultan had to handle himself with the people around him and how he seemed to be so desperate for a true friend, he latched onto the only person who didn’t seem to want anything from him.

I felt the politics came across really well in this book, but there were times I forgot what the point of them being in the world was. I also wasn’t really sure what to make of Kelly. Alex did screw up, but I kind of felt she’d been stringing him along at times.

I quite liked Alex as a character, at least for most of the book… I wasn’t so sure about the ending. I was a bit disappointed there wasn’t more of an effort made to save the rest of the people of Zanzibar, particularly the citizen who helped Will and Tanya.

I really didn’t like Henry as a character. He was irritating and really insensitive. Some of what he came out with might have been funny… but not constantly. I couldn’t really understand why Alex had become friends with him.

I was glad to see that there was an explanation for the language barrier and a way for Alex and his friends to communicate that made sense. However, there’s one mention of Alex’s translator adjusting the way he words things… but although that would be a useful tool, it’s never mentioned again through the book.

I liked the clash of different attitudes – such as Kelly’s opinion about slaves; Alex in the uncomfortable position of facing violence he isn’t used to. I also really liked the addition of the angels… in particular a specific archangel.

The world of Zanzibar felt more real to me than Alex’s world. I would like to read the book before this one… and it would be good to see where the characters go next; and if they can grow and mature as people as the book progresses.

(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I nearly wasn’t able to finish reading this book, because it got wedged down the side of the sofa. I managed to extricate it, though.

Ideally, I’d give this book 3.5 stars. The plot was entertaining and kept me engaged throughout the course of the book. There were a few times that I got confused with some of the characters, though.

This was a fairly interesting alternative world imagining of that time period. I liked seeing the different types of science and technology that was used. I would have liked to see more of the airships and how they differed to normal airplanes.

I did like quite a few of the soldier characters in this and it was interesting to see the similarities between Sullivan and Faulke, the only real difference in them being the side they were on.

There were some really creepy moments in this book, especially with the experiments. The descriptions of those were really well-written… and very disturbing.

I would have liked a bit more background on the enemy and some evidence that there are good and bad people on both sides in a war.

I probably would read the other book/s in this series at some point in the future. This was a fairly quick, easy read and there were interesting characters whose fates I cared about. I’d like to see more of those characters and the world in general.

(I received a free copy of this book, through NetGalley, in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I was quite intrigued by the plot of this book, so when I had a chance to read it through NetGalley, I immediately leaped at that chance. And although there were some parts of this book that were disjointed, I was able to follow the storyline quite easily.

I did really like Alwen as a character and her son, daughter and husband were perhaps the strongest characters in this book. I also liked Odwain, to a certain extent, but one of the later scenes with him kind of rubbed me completely wrong, because it seemed to completely derail his character.

It was really nice to see the main character a woman, rather than a teenage girl. Although there’s nothing wrong with teenage heroines, I do find that a lot of books with them as the central character to be Mary Suish.

One of the biggest issues I had with this book was that there was no air of mystery. It’s made clear straight away who the bad guys are, but although there was some attempt made to humanise one of them, I didn’t know enough about her to see why she’d gone in that direction. And the good guys didn’t seem prepared to do anything, even when knowing who the bad guys were.

I really liked Rhys as a character. I felt that the story could have focused a bit more on him, but I really liked his and his sister’s relationship with their father and mother. It was good to see an established family who actually cared about each other.

I have to be honest… I didn’t really understand the whole point of the prophecy. Why this king in particular? How did they know that this was the right time? These were all questions that could have been answered during the course of the book and I was disappointed not to see that kind of explanation.

Fergus and Finn were interesting characters, but it took a while to figure out what their relationship to each other was. I did like the use of the fay in the book and I felt that the author kept them true to the original mythos.

I would like to read a sequel to this book, but I’d like to see more explanation as to what was going on. By the end of the book, I’m still not entirely sure who the prophecy’s meant to be ultimately benefiting and why.

(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

This is another book I have some mixed feelings about. The blurb on the back of the book was really intriguing and I particularly liked the front cover.

This book definitely fell into the category of dark fantasy. Out of all of the characters, I think Rook was the only one that I really liked. There were a couple of other characters I was interested in, especially the wolf, but I didn’t see enough of them to really get drawn into their plot. I did really like the brother relationship shown, though, especially when there was the flashback to Branrir and Dagrir’s past. I’ve always liked reading about brother relationships and I felt this one was shown really well… even if I did originally think that their relationship wasn’t a good one.

Both Nuriel and Celacia were intriguing characters, though in quite different ways. By the end of the book, Nuriel had fallen a lot in my estimation… though I did feel that the author did quite a good job of showing how what she’d experienced caused her to fall so far. In a way, it was good that she had ideals… but I really felt that she was clinging to the wrong kind of ideals. It would be interesting to see more of her doing the right thing, instead of just accepting and reveling in it like the other Saints did.

I liked learning about the mythology of the world, but I felt there were a few too many flashbacks that weren’t really separated from the story well enough. The world itself was really quite intriguing and it was clear a lot of work and effort had gone into building everything.

The concepts of the demons and angels were quite interesting and by the end of the book, I have a lot of theories. I didn’t get very many questions answered throughout the course of the book, though, and I still have a lot of confusion by the end. I felt that Rook proved himself to be a very resourceful character throughout and I would read the next book following on from this one… if only to see more of him.