Mundie Moms

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

THE QUEEN OF BLOOD by Sarah Beth Durst / Blog Tour: Book Review / Giveaway


Hello and welcome to the next stop in THE QUEEN OF BLOOD, blog tour. Today's stop features a giveaway, along with my review. First, here's a little bit about Sarah Beth Durst's newest release:

ABOUT THE BOOK


By: Sarah Beth Durst

Published by: Harper Voyager
Released on: September 20th, 2016
Series: The Queens of Renthia #1
Purchase from: Amazon | B&N
Add it to Goodreads 
I received a copy of the book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review

Filled with political intrigue, violent magic, and malevolent spirits, Sarah Beth Durst’s mesmerizing entry into adult fantasy is sure to capture the imaginations of anyone who reads it.


Everything has a spirit: the willow tree with leaves that kiss the pond, the stream that feeds the river, the wind that exhales fresh snow… But these are not sweet, frolicking nature sprites. The spirits that reside within this land want to kill all humans. Only a few women have the power to command and control the spirits. These women become queens—or die trying. Without a queen, humans will die at the hands and teeth of hostile spirits. But with an unstable queen, no one and nothing is safe. 


Born during the reign of a paranoid and bloodthirsty queen, Daleina is determined to become queen and right the wrongs in her land. Ven is a disgraced champion, a man whose life has been destroyed by the queen. Hating her cruelty, he wants to replace her with a queen of his own. He chooses an overlooked student at one of the academies: Daleina. Together, they must find the strength and skill to stand against both enemies and friends, before their beloved land is bathed in blood.


MY REVIEW



The first book in a new, adult series by Sarah Beth Durst, The Queen of Blood has all the elements you'd except in a Durst fantasy. Rich world building, intriguing elements, interesting characters, danger, brutal magic battles and a few surprising twists. 

The world of Renthia is intriguing at best, and brutal at it's worst. Ruled by a Queen who binds herself to the spirits who control the elements (Air and Earth spirits control the elements, Ice spirits control the seasons etc), this world is full of magic, violence, and power. Controlling the spirits takes a lot of power, and effort, and is not something that's usually accomplished for a long period of time. By nature, the spirits want to create as much as they want to destroy. One of the things they seek to eliminate are the humans. Since Queens don't live to an old age, the land of Renthia trains select young woman who are prepared to be an heir to the Queen.


Dalenia, whom is a child when the book first starts, and is nineteen by the end, is a character we see grow from a young child with a hidden power, into a women who not only learns to harness her incredible gift/power to control the spirits. She's also been selected to train as one of the possible heirs to the Queen. What I loved about Dalenia, is her quiet strength, her kindness, who willingness to do whatever is necessary to learn to harness her power in order to protect those she loves, and her home. She's not someone who is hardened by the brutality of the world she lives in. What makes this unlikely heroine  relatable, is that she is someone who has to work harder than most. She's not always the best at what she does, but she doesn't give up. She trains hard, stays true to herself, and doesn't stray from what she wants. She doesn't need to prove herself to anyone, but herself. Her determination is fierce and unwavering. 


Written from a muliti-character point of view, Durst allows readers to not only see the story from different angels, and get an in-depth look into the world of Renthia, readers get a clearer understanding of the characters, their intertwined history, and their motives. Normally I'm not a fan of narrations written this way, but it worked great for this story. This story is detailed, layered, and complex. When I found myself not connecting with certain characters in the story, something that usually makes me lose interest in a book, I was still very invested with the story itself and all that was going on. 


There is a lot going on in this story. Sometimes that was a great advance to the story, and kept me invested in reading it, and at other times it felt like it was too much, and it make the story drag. However, this is the first book in a series, and there is a lot that is set up in this book. There's a lot of history that is covered in the story. That ending definitely made up for the parts I felt lagged. I was not excepting that ending what so ever at all. Overall, this is a good read, and I'm looking forward to reading the next book in this series.


* Since we are primarily a YA book review site, I do want to mention that this book's targeted reading audience is adult


ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Sarah Beth Durst is the author of ten fantasy novels for adults, teens, and children, including THE LOST, VESSEL, and THE GIRL WHO COULD NOT DREAM. She was awarded the 2013 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award and has been a finalist for SFWA’s Andre Norton Award three times. She is a graduate of Princeton University, where she spent four years studying English, writing about dragons, and wondering what the campus gargoyles would say if they could talk. Sarah lives in Stony Brook, New York, with her husband and children. Visit her atwww.sarahbethdurst.com.


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1 winner will receive a copy of THE QUEEN OF BLOOD and a woodland fairy tiara (US Only). To enter, please fill out the form below:
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The Top Ten Books on My Fall TBR List / Top Ten Tuesday #61


Hello and welcome to this week's Top Ten Tuesday! It's been a few weeks since I last posted a TTT post. I love this week's topic. This week's topic is a The Top Ten Books on my FALL TBR List. My previous Top Ten Tuesday post was, Ten Books on My August TBR List. 


FALL is my favorite time of year. Not only do I love the change in seasons (which really doesn't happen here in TX), I love that are always a ton of awesome book releases through out the Fall. While a number of titles have already been released this month, there are still a lot more releases to come over the next few weeks. Here are a few Fall titles I'm looking forward to reading: 

 

1) The Valiant by Lesley Livingston, *I read the manuscript for this, and it is AWESOME! It's easily one of my top 3 fav reads of 2016. I'm looking forward to re-reading it. 

2) Crystal Kingdom by Morgan Rhodes 

3) Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

4) Like a River Glorious by Rae Carson

5) Heartless by Marissa Meyer

6) Illusion by Martina Boone

7) Stealing Snow by Danielle Paige

8) Last Seen Leaving by Caleb Roehrig

9) Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake

10) Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy by Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan, Maureen Johnson, and Robin Wasserman 

These are just a few of the books on my FALL TBR list. What books are on your Fall TBR list? 

OUT TODAY! 9/27/16 New YA Releases


Happy Release Day to these new YA releases, which are out on book store shelves TODAY! Check out the list of new releases below: 

Which new releases will you be picking up?

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