I was soooo excited when I won a fabulous signed hardcover for Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton and a paperback copy with a pile of goodies for Colel by Mimi Jean Pamfiloff.

Amazon / Audiobook / Goodreads

MY REVIEW

Kira Jane Buxton has definitely delivered on this original, unique glimpse into her zombie world where animals are the saviors and humans are the ones in need of saving. They can’t do it as individuals, it takes a murder to save a village. Hollow Kingdom is filled with every emotion I can think of, terror and fear, sadness and happiness, lost and found, tears and smiles, despair and hope.

4 Stars

The premise is great, the execution much less so. A Japanese guy named Kazuya Souma is summoned to another world to be a hero. However, he's not really a demon-slaying kind of guy, and the summoning didn't specifically ask for someone who could slay the demon lord, so he decides that his heroism will involve improving the country's economy. He uses his new magical ability to get paperwork done at a faster rate, and he puts out a call for people with abilities that might be able to help the country.

I just finished the section in which he evaluated the five most gifted individuals, and I'm not all that impressed. Apparently the absolute most important person in the bunch is a guy named Poncho Panacotta, who went broke pursuing his desire to eat anything and everything that could possibly be eaten. In a country that is currently in the midst of a food shortage. The author just spent several pages emphasizing how wonderful it was that Souma recognized Poncho's importance, but readers still don't know why he'll turn out to be so vital. All I can think is that maybe he'll have knowledge of a particular source of food that most folks in the country don't know about. But I feel like this would work a lot better if Poncho were a talented chef rather than a self-admitted glutton.

Souma's a hard worker, sure, but he doesn't strike me as particularly amazing. Instead, it's more like this country was so badly managed that even Souma's basic knowledge about how things might be improved (selling all the things in the royal vault that have purely monetary value, gradually switching from growing cotton to growing more food crops, improving the health of the country's forests with periodic thinning, etc.) is seen as revolutionary.

It took me two tries to add this to my Currently Reading shelf. Booklikes kept timing out. If this keeps up, I may have to go on a Booklikes break. I just copied over the information I need in order to keep track of BLopoly even if I can't reach my own Booklikes blog.

Anyway, this is my pick for my latest BLopoly spot. The title has all the letters necessary to spell "Rome." We'll see how it goes. It's another J-Novel Club title, so I'm not expecting much. The main character seems a bit boring, and the story just sort of plops readers into whatever new world he's found himself in, without much warning or time to adjust. The main character was barely fazed by being transported to a new world and was looking over account books and world history within an hour of arriving.

by S. A. Chakraborty

This is the second book in The Daevabad Trilogy by S. A. Chakraborty. The first book, City of Brass, was a good read so it made sense to continue.

It begins five years after the events of the first novel and Nahri has married the eldest son of Daevabad's ruler, though it's a sham marriage. Her friendship with the younger son has been permanently damaged by the events that killed her real love, Dara. Again we have a magical world with Djinn and halfbreeds called Shafit, as well as other spirits like the Ifrit.

This one moved slower for me than the first book. Nahri's journey was high adventure, but now she's working toward practicalities in a world that has effectively imprisoned her. A lot of political intrigue features as well as royal family dynamics, more world building information about various djinn entities and a rebellion.

Nahri develops further as a character in this one as does Dara. This made the story more interesting as it went along. There was quite a lot of dramatic action towards the end that made it worth the slower parts, but the ending felt incomplete. It wasn't a cliffhanger, just one of those "Well what happens now?" endings. I expect another book will follow.

TITLE: The Kingdom of Back

AUTHOR: Marie Lu

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DESCRIPTION:

"From #1 New York Times bestselling author Marie Lu comes a historical YA fantasy about a musical prodigy and the dangerous lengths she'll go to make history remember her—perfect for fans of Susanna Clarke and The Hazel Wood.

Two siblings. Two brilliant talents. But only one Mozart.

Born with a gift for music, Nannerl Mozart has just one wish—to be remembered forever. But even as she delights audiences with her masterful playing, she has little hope she'll ever become the acclaimed composer she longs to be. She is a young woman in 18th century Europe, and that means composing is forbidden to her. She will perform only until she reaches a marriageable age—her tyrannical father has made that much clear.

And as Nannerl's hope grows dimmer with each passing year, the talents of her beloved younger brother, Wolfgang, only seem to shine brighter. His brilliance begins to eclipse her own, until one day a mysterious stranger from a magical land appears with an irresistible offer. He has the power to make her wish come true—but his help may cost her everything.

In her first work of historical fiction, #1 New York Times bestselling author Marie Lu spins a lush, lyrically-told story of music, magic, and the unbreakable bond between a brother and sister."

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REVIEW:

A nice little, young adult, historical fiction-magical realism type, standalone novel.  Nicely written, slow at the beginning and there was just something missing and I found the ending disappointing, even though it was true to history.