Charlie N. Holmberg

Smoke & Summons

Sade A

My journey to love Charlie Holmberg's work is not up to an auspicious start. While not necessarily a bad book, this book continually highlights that the YA genre takes little to no risks with their plot or characters. Granted this is better than one's i've read in recent years but honestly this could have been so so so so much better.

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So rundown of my thoughts:

📌Little or no mention of this Numien mythology or whatever the heck their whole game in this is, just stringy basics. This Ireth creature that's on the cover of the book does very little in the grand scale of things. (view spoiler)[There's a part in the book where they go to a library or something and Sandis sees some book on Nuscan (sp?) mythology or something and for some reason Ireth causes her to black out. Why didn't they grab the book? Plus wasn't it counterproductive to keep making her black out when it wanted to give her information? Why was the horse thing even trying to give her information?? Are all the creatures conscious? What was so special about this one? (hide spoiler)] Also need..fire?? What was that supposed to signify? The basis of this book was supposed to be all about these mythical creatures but over 300 pages later and you're still no closer to figuring out anything.

📌This book felt like it was more about Rone (whose character i totally enjoyed by the way) than it was about Sandis. Sandis character was the equivalent of a potatoe and i get that she had been subservient for a long amount of time but did she have to have zero personality? The only thing she really did here was smile and thank Rone over and over and over again. She was so timid and it was frankly galling at times. 

📌YA books continue to perpetuate this belief that two characters of the opposite sex cannot be in close vicinity with each other without developing strong emotional attachments that will lead to love. Never friendship always love. At this point, i'm strongly considering the angle that publishing houses or editors are forcing authors to always put in this angle because are you people not tired of making the female protagonists fall in love with the first guy they meet??


  
    Not super impressed but at least it didn't completely fall my hand. As far as YA books go, it's actually not terrible.

Janice Hopper

A Kindle First freebie, and one that I've seen on one or two lists of books to read for 2019.

I liked this pretty well! The idea of A Bad Guy being able to harness the power of a spirit in the body of a host is new and different to me. Sandis, the vessel who finally decides enough is enough and escapes, is a pretty sympathetic character. Her rescuer, Rone, is too. The little magical implement he has that helps him in his career (and in helping Sandis) is pretty nifty.

The characters spend most of the book on the run. Running from Sandis' handler and his minions, mostly. And they spend a LOT of time being chased and hiding and running through the sewers and over the rooftops. I was reminded of the exploits of some of Pratchett's characters in the Assassin's Guild. 

In fact, that's probably my biggest issue with the book. Too many chase scenes. Yes, it makes for some decent action, but OTOH, you can't have a lot else going on when you're just running for your life.

+1, would read the sequel to find out where the story goes. (It does end on a bit of a cliff-hanger.)

A captivating world of monsters and magic from the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Paper Magician Series. As a human vessel for an ancient spirit, Sandis lives no ordinary life. At the command of her master, she can be transformed against her will into his weapon--a raging monster summoned to do his bidding. Unlike other vessels, Sandis can host extremely powerful spirits, but hosting such creatures can be fatal. To stay alive, she must run. And in a city fueled by smoke and corruption, she finds a surprising ally. A cunning thief for hire, Rone owns a rare device that grants him immortality for one minute every day--a unique advantage that will come in handy in Sandis's fight for freedom. But Sandis's master knows how powerful she is. He's determined to get her back, and he has the manpower to find her, wherever she runs. Now, to outwit her pursuers, Sandis must put all her trust in Rone and his immortal device. For her master has summoned more than mere men to hunt her down...

Smoke and Summons

Ley Stanton

this might be my favorite of her books. now i just need to get my hands on the rest of the series.

Anyaconda

I loved the idea of vessels and numen and summoning demons from ethereal planes into humans.
I really enjoyed reading this YA fantasy and this is one of the better ones that i read in the past few months, but felt the middle part could've been shortened. 

There's too much running away and hiding from the same enemies, which makes that part quite tedious to read.
 
The ending though was great and I'm extremely happy and fortunate to have received the second novel in this series from Netgalley as well.