DONE

I'm done!



I'm released!



I don't have to sit down at my laptop every week and write a bloody post that definitely always takes longer than the prescribed hour to write.

Well, that's it, folks.



You know what, I had fun. I did, although I did get a wee tear in my eye whenever I saw the page views, or the fact that no one had commented.



And to all those dickheads who I chased down and begged to comment- Mia, Megan, Harvey, Riya, Louis (wait, did I ask Louis to comment? Oh well):



You are all dead to me. I don't even feel a little bit bad for naming and shaming you. I half- considered including your phone numbers and addresses, but then I would regret it and think:



What is it with all these Tennant gifs?!

So anyway good people, adios. I know you will miss me, and many of you will mourn the space my absence will leave in your lives. Hey, I won't disappear completely. Maybe if I read something particularly bad, or particularly amazing, I will feel a burgeoning desire to leap onto my blog and pour my feelings out in a gif-filled, profanity laden rant.

But for now, I'm done.

Hammer of Thor by Rick Riordan: A review

Week 13 of 13

I am much too tired and have expended far too much brain power already today to write something funny and articulate before I start my review. So I'll get into it.

Rating: 3.83 out of 5 stars

(You know, it struck me the other day that I've not really done any overwhelmingly negative reviews for the whole thirteen weeks I've been doing this. And it's odd, because it's not like I haven't read appallingly, almost hilariously crap books before, and I would enjoy writing really negative reviews about them. It would give me a chance to indulge my inner comedy genius. There was this one review I read on Goodreads which is genuinely the most hilarious review I've ever read, I actually had a stomach ache from laughing it, but I can't remember the title of the book. Damn.)

So, anyway, on with the review.

I like Rick Riordan. I really do. There was a time, back in my younger days, when he was my third favourite author in the world (you honestly don't need to know me that well to guess my favourite, and Suzanne Collins was my second). I get quite irritated when people dismiss it as not worthy of being read by people of their stature and intellect, because I think it's quite underrated in regards to how good it is, and his books are, I feel, just as suitable for adults as they are for little kids. Because I know that some people may find it hard to look past the adolescent voice and sometimes immature humour (but I have the mind of a five year old, so I find it hilarious), but if you can bring yourself past that, you can appreciate the rich settings Riordan created, the fantastically developed characters, the lessons and morals he subtly weaves in.

So before I get onto the positive, I'll get the biggest negative out of the way.

Hammer of Thor was predictable.

This doesn't even merit a spoiler warning, because it's so obvious from the word Go, you don't even need to have read Riordan books before to see it coming: You mean Loki wasn't going to get out?!

And that's not the problem, because the book would be shit if Magnus and crew had actually stopped Loki from escaping, because come on, who actually wants heroes to succeed the first time round?

But I think when I got to the end, and I wasn't completely blown away, I stopped and asked myself, Why aren't you blown away? Because normally, I am fairly easy to blow away. And then I realised because the majority of Riordan's other books/series follow the same pattern. Squad gets together, forming of said squad is usually hampered several times by a variety of subplots, get sent off with next to no supervision or qualifications (like seriously, Hotel Valhalla need to get their shit together, and I don't buy the bullshit used to make Magnus et al able to frolic off on an adventure), they come across a variety of mythical creatures on their travels, some good some bad (mostly bad, because come on, where's the fun in that?), get to the point where they are just about to accomplish what they set out to do, fuck up big time, then against all odds, sort it out.

Seriously, look for it in every series Riordan writes- it happens across the series in one big arc, then each book has its own, smaller version of the same. It's too formulaic.

That being said, I enjoyed most other things in the story. One of the things that I have always felt that Riordan did well, was the breaking down of stereotypes and the wide diversity among his characters. Percy Jackson has ADHD, Annabeth Chase is an intelligent blonde, Carter Kane is half-black (and bear in mind that these are all main characters.) And I thought it wasn't going to get much better than that, because the creators of fictional stories, whether it be in film or literature, seem to have a fear of diversity.

And then along comes Sam! A PRACTICING Muslim who fully believes in Allah, and wears a headscarf!

Hearth is deaf, but doesn't sit around being inadequate, he goes out there and GETS SHIT DONE!

Alex Fierro is gender fluid.

I  have to be honest, I had little to none (leaning strongly towards none if I really wanted to be honest) knowledge about gender-fluidity. And again, I have to be truthful, it's still a tad confusing, and I don't fully get it, but it's OK! By representing people from all walks of life, and exposing readers to the amazing diversity in our society that we should celebrate, not be ignorant of, these things are coming to light where once they weren't. And hopefully, Alex won't be the last gender-fluid character we come across, because she is seriously wicked.

Onto less deep stuff...

I did say earlier that I have the comedic sense of a five year old, by which I don't mean that I am not sophisticated enough to watch Mock the Week or Would I Lie To You? or Have I Got News For You. It's just that I find things hilarious that most people don't. I have an odd sense of humour. My French teacher will make really bad jokes that the class will groan at, and I'll have a secret chuckle to myself about. My Year 9 English teacher, who is my second favourite teacher of all time, had an amazingly wicked, dry, sarcastic sense of humour that I really got, but the rest of the class found odd. And I'll say it, I enjoy the odd pun or two. Like I was at this place, where the guy speaking was thanking the car parking marshals and said "They were outstanding- literally" and I was all:

And so I found Hammer of Thor really, really funny. More so than any of Riordan's other books, and I generally find those quite funny too.

“Otis," I said.

"Shhh," he said. "I'm incognito. Call me...Otis."

"I'm not sure that's how incognito works, but okay."

And I just loved how Riordan took all the ways we would expect gods to behave, and just chucked them all out of the window. He did it with the Greek gods as well, making them pretty daft and silly and for the most part, figures to laugh at rather than fear, but he did it fantastically with the Norse gods.

For example, don't think of Heimdall like this:



Instead, replace him with:



(No seriously, his selfie addiction was hilarious)

And you think of Thor as:



Try again mate, this time like this:



and



Like Sam said, it's hard to take them as serious gods when they make you snort your orange juice out of your nose with laughter. (Sam didn't say the orange juice part by the way. That just happened to me).

And back to Alex for a second- can we just appreciate what a fabulous character she is?!



Putting aside her green and pink dress code for a second (Like, you fucking what?), she's so amazing and snarky and dry and intelligent and funny, and at the same time, has her own problems, mainly daddy issues, but also her sad family backstory, that makes it hard for her to open up to many people, and the way she literally gives zero fucks about what other people say, I just want to hug her. I wouldn't care if she didn't want to.



Anyone else shipping Magnus and Alex, by the way? I mean, some part of me doesn't, because I think if written badly, it would be really awkward and forced, but the bigger part of me that I listen to more, is fully on #TeamAgnus. (It can't be #TeamMalex, because it's too close to #TeamMalec).

SAM AND AMIR THOUGH!



I need them to have their happily ever after and get married. I don't mean this in the "Oh, I ship them so much I want them to get married" because they're already engaged and soon to be married, and although normally, if I were to hear of someone getting married before eighteen or something, I'd be like:



but here, if Riordan fucking does not marry them, I will go after him myself. You know that part when Sam swore in front of Heimdall that she wouldn't go through with the wedding, or even pretend to, that she would only marry Amir, it was just too much.



And everyone's favourite silver-tongued god of trickery is BACK!



Yes, Loki is a bad guy, no, Riordan's character isn't nearly as charismatic and beautiful as Tom Hiddeston's, yes, Loki does some evil shit in this book, and no, I don't care.



(Despite all the daddy issues that mainly centre around hate that Loki's babies have)

And before I finish off, can we just mention that ending?



I just hope he doesn't do what he did between Sword of Summer and Hammer of Thor with the conversation between Annabeth and Magnus about the Greek and Norse gods. Because that was a proper cop out and I was really looking forward to reading that. He better not do it again, because I don't want to pick up Book 3 and wonder When Magnus Met Percy? (See what I did there? I am sometimes so hilarious I blow myself away.)

I was about to sign off with some variation of "See you next time, nerds!" before realising... THERE WON'T BE A NEXT TIME!

Books I can't wait for in 2017

***Once more, apologies for being late, I again, did write this the week I was supposed to, but life is so hectic right now that I have no time***

Week 12 of 13

Is it too early to be thinking about this?

Oh well, don't care if it is.

1) Skulduggery Pleasant #10 by Derek Landy

This was me, the fortuitous day I decided, on a sheer stroke of luck, to check out Derek Landy's blog, and stumbled upon this mind-blowing announcement:

I actually shed a wee tear of joy when I saw the video he made. At the beginning, when he was going on about people coming up to him all the time and asking for a new Skulduggery book, or at least something set in the same universe, where we might stumble across some of our old favourite characters, I thought he was going to just make it clear once and for all that it wasn't going to happen, and I cried like

but then I got to the end and was all:

Man, I am so bloody excited for this book! The release date is so far away, we don't know enough about it, but that doesn't lessen my excitement at all. I was actually kind of hoping for some sort of prequel, perhaps set in the war time, with some top notch banter of the Then-Non-Figuratively-Dead-Men. But it doesn't matter, because we would still get to see Skulduggery again, perhaps find out what happened with Valkyrie and Alice, the rest of the Dead Men- well, the ones who are alive at any rate. 

You actually have no idea how much I cannot wait for this book. It's been too long, and I can reread the old books all I like, but it's not the same as a new story, fresh off the press. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm fairly certain that Landy said that it's a new series following on from Skulduggery Pleasant, so that means there will be MORE THAN ONE BOOK!!! And I'll be honest here, I didn't like Demon Road. I mean, I was so excited, back when it was about to be released, I was looking forward to some signature Landy snark and some gr8 bantz among the characters, and battle of wits and clashing of minds and... I don't know, I just wasn't into it. To be honest, I didn't finish it, I got bored half way through, but we just didn't gel. I don't know if perhaps, despite being fantasy, which is totally my thing, it wasn't my type of book, or it was just a lack of book chemistry, but I was actually so disappointed. 

Even though I know it is very unlikely, there are so many questions that I have about the characters! Like, what the actual fuck is Saracen Rue's power?! He can't just mysteriously leave it "I know things"! And I'm quite curious about Skulduggery's name. Because it's obviously his taken name, but what do you reckon his birth name was? I mean, imagining him as Jim or a Harry, or even something a wee bit more exotic like Horatio Q. Pantaloons (special points if you got that) just feels wrong. He's just always been Skulduggery Pleasant. Also, can we get a bit more of China and Skulduggery's history? Because we know that she fancies him, but come on! We need some backstory! How does a person as enigmatic and seemingly-uncaring as China Sorrows, end up falling for Skulduggery? And I want to find out more about Skulduggery's family as well. Not his birth family (but I must admit, I am intrigued by the idea of the older Pleasant boys), but his wife and son as well.

Y U DO THIS 2 US, LANDY!!!???

OUT SUMMER 2017

2) Lord of Shadows (Dark Artifices #2) by Cassandra Clare

Now, I must declare a few things. When I first started reading Lady Midnight, my reaction was mixed. I am one of the rare few people who actually really enjoys Cassandra Clare's work, I know it has issues and whatever, but she is a gifted writer. I mean, I liked the characters, and I wanted to hug Mark and Kieran to death, and it was quite enjoyable, but it was also I felt, fairly slow and unevenly paced. It really picked up towards the end though, and with that ending, it really turned around my opinion of it. And although I shipped Mark and Kieran, I also know that I will end up loving Emma and Mark as well.

And because of the way Lady Midnight finished, I can't not read Lord of Shadows. Damn you Clare, must you create such compelling endings!? There are lots of things that we know will be happening- Kieran will turn up again, (how will that play with the whole Mark-Emma dynamic, I wonder) the squad will meet the Fae King (what's his relation to the Seelie Queen?) Jace will propose to Clary, and because she has a significant amount of brain cells missing, she will reject him (Girl, you need to lock that down ASAP), they'll have a jaunt across the Atlantic to London (RULE BRITTANIA!), and overall, it will be amazing.

But what about the stuff we will be less certain about? What will be happening with the mess that is the Kieran-Mark-Emma-Julian love box? Because I know that Emma will catch a sever case of the feelings for Mark, which will make a simple break up too complicated. How will Annabel Lee play into this? Who is the eponymous Lord of Shadows? Why the fuck did Clary reject Jace? I NEED THESE ANSWERS.

The thing is though, there are lots of things I don't like about Clare's stories. Her characters are fairly unoriginal, for one- come on, Clary and Emma are indistinguishable. All of the romances are way too dramatic, like, Fuck's sake mate, you're only sixteen, don't go making any grand declarations of love so soon. Julian irritates me- I'm sorry, but the guy has no personality. Zilch. Nada. BUT... at the same time, Clare writes so compellingly, has some characters you can't help but loving (I owe her big time for creating my fictional husband Will Herondale), and of course, drops some massive cliffhangers and plot twists so near the end that you have no option but to read the next book.

OUT 23RD MAY 2017

3) Throne of Glass #6 by Sarah J. Maas

(There is no place holder image, I'm afraid. Er, *panics* here, have this gif of Captain Hook instead!)

Isn't he beautiful?



I reviewed Empire of Storms here if you want to read it, and that will tell you that I ended up really enjoying it, and was not expecting to at all. When I read Queen of Shadows, I resigned myself to the possibility that even though I was going to finish the series, it had peaked at Book 5.

But no! 'Tis not the case! Up is down, black is white, Paul went to Channel 4 with the dough (Well actually, I wasn't that surprised, but see what I did there? Didja didja didja!?), and the series you thought was going to be shit... wasn't. 

And I have made peace with the fact that Chaol and Celaena will not end up together through the sheer force of the intensity with which I want them to, more's the pity. As long as she's not a bitch to him like she normally is, and my poor baby Chaol gets his legs back and finds love with someone, even if it isn't me, I can deal with it.

So, what do I want for this next installment? I am actually, once more, excited for a Maas book, and it's a fun feeling, I missed it.

• Well, I would like the rest of the cadre to get their shit together and leave Maeve, the psychotic bitch.
•  I would like the aforementioned psychotic bitch to die a slow and painful death, preferably by they hands of a character I can actually stand, although I will put money on a massive pissing contest about who claims the right to Maeve's head, that Rowan will inevitably win. 
• I would like Rowan to actually develop into a character that I can actually stand. 
• I need the same as above for Aelin
• I need Elide and Lorcan to get together and go live in Perranth or wherever and make babies together.  
• I need the same as above for Rowan and Manon.

OUT SEPTEMBER 2017

4) A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic #3) by V. E. Schwab

I won't disrespect the book and say that not enough people have heard of it, because I know it is quite popular. I will say that it needs to become more mainstream and people do need to appreciate how fantastic this is, instead of all the shit that is becoming popular nowadays.

Granted, I didn't love the first book like "OMGILOVETHISBOOKSOFUCKINGMUCHIWANTTOEATITANDEATALLTHEDELCIOUSWORDSANDCHARACTERSWITHITTOOOMNOMNOM" because the characters weren't fully developed at that point, and I was a little disappointed that they were all tropes, like the strong and badass female with a mysterious and dangerous past (Fret not, I understand and am proud of the need for strong females in YA literature, but come on, jazz it up a bit! Don't want the same old again and again), the token queer character, the person with the superpower who's the last of his kind. 

But then the second book developed both the characters and the setting even more, and I didn't mind as much. Lila got on my nerves a wee bit, I must admit, especially with the immortality complex, but I ended up liking her a heck of a lot more, even if I still think she's a rip off of Elizabeth.

Please, she totally is.

And Prince Rhy became more than the token queer character, although I still feel he could have played a more important role in the story. Just the second book in general was amazing, with the same amazing world-builing and pace and description of the first book.

Here's the thing I must mention. The Shades of Magic book have a fantastically original setting. It's nt your standard quasi-Medieval setting, or your generic dystopian future. Here, we have four Londons, that all exist parallel to each other, with their own ruler and their own customs and own poltitics. And we have Kell, our protagonist, who's one of the last Antari, the only people who are able to travel betweent these four Londons. True, it does get a wee bit complicated to wrap your head around, but come on, yu haven't seen that before, have you?!

OUT 21ST FEBRUARY 2017

5) A Court of Thorns and Roses #3 by Sarah J. Maas

We've already had one Sarah J. Maas series that ended up being not quite so crap, and the same is true for her other series. Let me give you a quick rundown of my opinion of the first two books in the A Court of X and Y series: I though A Court Of Thorns And Roses was OK, it wasn't anywhere near as badass and amazing as it pitched itself to be- as a supposed retelling of Beauty and the Beast, it focused way more on the romance aspect than the fantasy. A Court of Mist and Fury, hmm... I thought it good, a lot better than ACOTAR, I just couldn't stand Feyre, the annoying mardy-arse who I actually hate more than Aelin. The whole book, I thought it was good, not amazing, but then BAM! Here comes the last quarter of the book, where shit goes down, and once more, I ended up being excited for the next book in a Maas series.

That ending though!



THAT FINAL SENTENCE THOUGH! My friends will tell you that I have a very short term memory, I literally remember nothing, but the entire ending of ACOMAF was just so phenomenal and I was getting so into it, that despite reading it a year ago, I actually remember the final line.

Feyre started to vaguely develop into someone I actually cared about near the end of ACOMAF, so I hope Maas keeps up the good progress. I know Book 3 will end up being full of badassness, how can it not, with the way ACOMAF ended, so I hope it turns out well. And overall, I am way more excited for this book than I expected to be!

OUT MAY 2017

That was it for this time guys! Like, comment and subscribe!








(...Yes, I have no shame, I am resorting to drastic measure now. Oh well, I'll be done with this in a week, I have no pride to protect)

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo: A review

***Guys, I apologise profusely for the lateness of this post. It was supposed to go up last week, but I have been so busy this week that I literally have not had a spare minute to breath, let alone put up this post, which would have taken all of two minutes.***

Week 11 of 13

I did a review on Six of Crows, which is the prequel to this, some time back, you can go looking for it if you really want to, I won't blame you if you don't. And on the infinitesimal chance that you did... you will know how much I loved the first book, and how EXCITED I was for Book 2.

And sweet Lord...

Rating: 4.47 out of 5 stars

I was actually going to give this a full 5 stars, but I didn't for reasons I'll go into in a bit.

Now, before starting this review, there is an issue with Kaz that you need to sort out in your mind. It's not whether you love Kaz or not, because that's not even an issue. Everyone has to love Kaz. No, what you need to decide, is whether you can believe that a seventeen year old (I think? Correct me if I'm wrong) guy can pull off all the crazy shit that goes down in this book.

Because in Six of Crows, I'm sure for a lot people, there was a very prolonged suspension of disbelief that Kaz actually went out and did what he said with such self confidence that he could. And that's all well and good, but in Crooked Kingdom, Kaz isn't just going against one country. He's going against several. And (this isn't really a spoiler, because every knew deep down that he could pull it off) he slayed them all and walked away, with nary a hair out of place.

And even I, a self-proclaimed Kaz-Brekker's-Number-1-Fangirl, had to read Crooked Kingdom with several tablespoons of salt. But overall, I would say it's still more believable than all the next-level stuff Aelin pulls off in Empire of Storms, despite having next to no tactical experience.

So, on with the review

The biggest thing that I must mention is this book is never boring. The first one wasn't either, but the stakes have been upped so dramatically in this one, there's so much stuff that has to be pulled off and wrapped up in this book that there is never a boring moment. I feel weird saying this, because I've read this comparison used in other reviews for other books and thought



but by God I swear, there is not better phrase to describe this story other than a roller coaster. We're not talking the Buffalo Coaster here guys, this is the bloody Smiler. Like, in a "OhmygodI'mgonnacrashandburnwiththisshiparen'tI?" way. I've not read many other books where the plot and the pace is so tight and so compelling that I cannot put it down. And for that, I commend her. Because it's a rare author who can do that.



(On a moderately-sized side note, I have to mention how amazingly different these two books are from the Grisha trilogy. I was actually one of the rare few people who actually really liked the Grisha trilogy- I mean, I did have problems with it, especially that ending- but if you compare the quality of the work between the series, you would think a completely different person wrote it! Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom are just so much more grittier and better written and better developed and superior in every way.)

Crooked Kingdom picks up a few days after Six of Crows, and Kaz, Nina, Matthias, Jesper and Wylan (and Kuwei, I suppose) are still reeling from the betrayal at the end of the previous book, and coming to terms with losing one of their crew. Jesper is trying to atone for his betrayal, Wylan is trying to come to terms with his father's attitude towards him, Kaz is trying to strike the perfect balance between being concerned for Inej and er, not being concerned for Inej, Nina is still reeling from the after-effects of the jurda parem, and poor Matthias is doing the best he can to help his love, however weak his efforts are. One of the things that really surprised me in the first book, and did here as well, is how perfectly Bardugo balances every character's POV. I've read books with only two or three different POVs, that were developed weakly and didn't make me care for the characters one jot, but  man, Bardugo still keeps up the same calibre of character development as in her prevous installment, and it's truly quite phenomenal. I mean, I can't believe I'm actually sympathising with Jesper. If someone came up to me and told me about a real guy with Jesper's story, I'd be all:



but here, Bardugo crafts Jesper's inner turmoil so well, and despite all of his many failings, makes us sympathise with him so much, reading about the way he tries to beat his addiction, I just ended up like:



And can I fangirl about my ships now, please?

I actually got up and danced exactly like this:



when Kaz took Inej's hand, right at the end. That scene in the bathroom, where Kaz tries to tie Inej's bandage without his gloves, because even though he cannot physically bear the touch of skin on skin because of what happened with this brother (for those of you who haven't read Six of Crows and don't know what it means, it's not what it sounds like, honest) but for Inej, for the future with her that he's not allowing himself to believe in, he's willing to give it a go, but then right at the end, he pulls away, just left me like:



But then there was the adorable bit at the end, where Kaz took Inej's hand, ever so tentatively, and even though it wasn't spelled out for us, and the ending was left a bit open which I usually DETEST VEHEMENTLY, the cuteness and the feels of the moment were just too much for me to handle.



I am actually uncertain whether I love Inej or Kaz more. Well no, I'm not, because Kaz Brekker is tying with Will Herondale for my one true literary love (I shit you not, my friends would tell you how serious a claim that is, but it's how much I love Kaz) but I'm just trying to convey what a fantastic character Inej is. She's not a wonderful person, of course she's not, in Ketterdam, how can you be? But she's just so strong, and I was having a conversation with two of my friends the other day, and we were saying, Sure, there are lots of strong female characters we read about nowadays, that's not the problem, but it's a bit harder to find likeable strong female characters, because half of them are meant to be seen as really hard and badass, but they just come across as knobs *cough cough Aelin cough cough*. You know how it is, you spend your whole life waiting for cool fictional gals you would hypothetically hang out with, and then two come along at once. (We'll go onto Nina later).

And Kaz....



I could actually do my whole post about what an amazingly complex character he is, but I won't, I'll try to keep gushing to a minimum. But he's just so dark, and so richly written, and so tortured and haunted, but at the same time, so naive and helpless, especially when it comes to Inej.

“I would have come for you. And if I couldn't walk, I'd crawl to you, and no matter how broken we were, we'd fight our way out together-knives drawn, pistols blazing. Because that's what we do. We never stop fighting.” 

Who doesn't want a guy to say that to them.

And Jesper and Wylan!



Argh, they are adawbs! I knew they were going to get together, but it didn't  make it any less satisfying when they finally kissed.

But before we move onto Nina and Matthias, let's say something



When Matthias died (YES, YOU HEARD ME CORRECTLY), I wanted to halt the proceeding and just say



NO. NO NO NO NO NO.

I had quite a few problems with it. I had quite a few problems with the ending in general actually, which is why the rating is not as high as you would expect it to be. Firstly, the decision to have Matthias' death was not a good call. Apart from the fact that it's just so peak to poor Nina (yes, I just used the word peak. I'm as disgusted as you are) it just felt quite unnecessary, as if it had only been written in for the sake of having a main character die. And even then, I felt it was really badly written, like it just happened, Nina was sad, everyone was sad, and then they all got over it. Right up until the last page, I was waiting for Nina to somehow magically resurrect him Rapunzel-style, just before she was about to bury him. And the ending itself, was just too, too open-ended for me. I didn't really feel like everything had really come full circle, like yeah, the bad dudes have been vanquished, Jesper and Wylan are living a nice domestic life together, Nina is off to bury Matthias, Inej is off chasing down slavers, and Kaz may tag along with her. It just felt too, I don't know, inconsistent with the rest of the story's style. Up till the end, it had been so deliciously fast and complicated, and then it was all resolved a bit too simply, like Bardugo couldn't be bothered to give them the explosive ending they deserved.

On a more positive note, NIKOLAI WAS IN THIS!



Well, technically it was Sturmhond, his privateer alter-ego, and he's part of a delegation from Ravka, "representing King Nikolai", wink wink nudge nudge. And obviously, nothing in the entire universe gets past Kaz Brekker, so Sturmhond and Kaz's meeting and clashing of the wits and banter, is as amusing as you would expect it to be.

And before I finish off this review, there's yet another thing I must commend Ms. Bardugo for. I'm a smart girl. I say this with not an ounce of arrogance, but I am. I am predicted very high for all of the subjects I am taking, and I'm aiming to get into the best universities. And I could never, ever, come up with the next-level, ingeniously designed plots that Bardugo makes Kaz think up. It's so easy to underestimate how difficult it is to write plot twists, and think your way out of tight, tricky situations, and for the life of me, I would never be able to write the way Kaz's ming is shown in these two books. The cogs of his brain are always turning, he's always plotting, always scheming, always thinking twenty steps ahead. And he's just so confident and so self-assured, that whenever we know that there is a plot about to unfold, we just want to race ahead and find out how Kaz executes it, and fights his way out of the sticky spots, as we know he will. It's actually truly astounding, how he knows exactly what his enemies will want to do for the next step, and they think they know what he will do, so they take their steps accordingly, but Kaz knows what they think they know, (if that makes sense) and he will never fall into their trap, and man, it's truly amazing. If Kaz and Skulduggery were ever pitted against each other in a battle of tactics and wits, I would actually (however guilty I felt while doing it), put my money on Kaz.

Guys, you need to read these two books. They will blow. Your. Mind.