Ten Books With Characters Who are Assassins – Top 10 Tuesday

Top 10 Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s theme is “Top 10 Characters Who ________”.

I haven’t participated in this meme for ages and it’s Wednesday. But whatever. I love books about assassins!

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Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

I mean, this one was probably really obvious! I love this series, I love Sarah’s books. I’ve always had a vague fascination with assassins, but this series put fuel on that fire big time and I just cannot get enough! I don’t know what that says about me.

I think I only have a review of Empire of Storms, so unfortunately, if you’re new to the series, I don’t have a review for you, but it’s a good series.

Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

This has become another one of my favourite series. Not only is it about assassins, it’s about a school of assassins! It’s so funny and so well written in my opinion and I loved everything about it. The second book came out earlier this month and I can’t wait to read it! I really need to find some time to read, cause I’ve been reading almost nothing lately.

I have a review of Nevernight, if you’d like to know more.

Graceling by Kristin Kashore

Another really cool book about an assassin. It’s a cool series, really but only the first one is really about the assassin. I found this to be a rather unique book among YA novels. I know a lot of people find the book and the series in general, a bit slow, but I really loved it.

The Assassin’s Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke

This is an underrated series in my opinion. Nobody talks about it and it’s so cool and unique in a way. It’s a duology and it brings together two of the coolest things: assassins and pirates. Why would you not want to read this?

Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder

Now, with this one, the main character is not exactly an assassin. She’s a food taster. However, the love interest is the poison master and while it’s not explored that much, it’s implied that he’s therefore also the court assassin. So I’m counting it because it’s a cool series and also slightly underrated.

Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb

This book was a bit slow to begin, but I did enjoy it and I think it has promise as a series. I’ve only read the first book so far, but I do plan to continue with the series. I don’t have a review of it yet, because I’m super behind, but hopefully I’ll get to it soon.

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

The only reason this series is so far down the list is because it doesn’t really focus on assassins. It’s basically about a heist, so still criminals. And one of the main characters is an assassin. It’s just that the book doesn’t really focus on that. But it is an amazing series and if you’ve not read it, what are you doing with your life, go read it!

I have reviews for both books in the series, if you’re interested (SoC; CK)

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

This is a book that a lot of people have issues with. It’s a strange book, a bit confusing. I really enjoyed it though. I actually liked the mindfuck element to it and all the impossible and paradoxical things that happened. And while it’s not so much focused on assassins, the main character does set out on an assassination mission in the beginning of the book, so it counts.

I also have a review of this if you are interested.

Shadow Kin by M. J. Smith

This isn’t the best series ever, to be honest. It’s not bad, it’s just not that great either. But the main character is an assassin and she’s a really interesting assassin in my opinion. She has the unique ability of becoming shadow and I thought that was really cool and is probably the main reason I’m including this on here. This is an adult series and it focuses a bit too much on sex in my opinion, but if you overlook that, it’s not a bad book.

Elemental Assassin Series by Jennifer Estep

Again, not the best series out there. It’s a really long series and I’ve read maybe 4 or 5 books of it. It’s not bad, but it’s not great. They’re really quick to read and the magic system is interesting and there’s a lot of assassin stuff going on, so the books are entertaining. I just wouldn’t say it’s very high quality literature. This is also an adult series.

Burn, Rewrite, Reread Book Tag – Part 2

I was tagged by Heather @ The Sassy Book Geek to do this tag. I’ve already done it once (you can check that out here), but I’m going to do it again because it’s fun. 😀 So thank you Heather for tagging me! Also, I may have reviews of some of these books, so hover over their titles if you’re interested and see if there’s a link there!

Rules:

• Randomly choose 3 books (Tip: Use the “Sort > Random” option on your Goodreads’ Read shelf.).
• For each group, decide which book to burn, which one to rewrite, and which to reread (a lot like Kiss, Marry, Kill).
• Repeat until you completed three rounds (or six).

Round 1

Burn: Tribulation Force by Time LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. I enjoyed this book. But not tremendously. So I don’t really have a problem burning it.

Rewrite: I’m going with The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. Don’t get me wrong, this book is AMAZING and beautiful and I absolutely loved it. I would just much rather reread the other one because I love Artemis Fowl and for some reason, it’s very difficult for me to reread historical fiction.

Reread: I have spoken before of my love for this series. It’s one of my favourite series and why wouldn’t I want to reread it?

Round 2

Burn: The Adventure of the Lion’s Mane by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I love Sherlock Holmes, but I can’t say that this was my favourite Sherlock Holmes story and it can’t really compare to the other two, so it’ll have to go.

Rewrite: The Hundred Year Old Man That Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson. I really enjoyed this book, but it’s not really the kind of book I could reread.

Reread: Of course it was going to be the Harry Potter book. I love rereading these. I have reread them several times and I’ll do it again.

Round 3

Burn: Iron Kin by M.J. Scott. I didn’t really like this book. It’s my least favourite in the series. But even if it were my favourite in the series (which is Shadow Kin, if you were wondering), it still could not compete with the other two.

Rewrite: Power Study by Maria V. Snyder. I actually really loved this short story. It was really cool. But A. It’s a short story, so it can’t really compete with a novel and B. It’s up against ASOIAF. So it’ll have to be rewritten.

Reread: I’ve actually been meaning to reread ASOIAF before Winds of Winter comes out (so like, in the next decade).

Round 4

Burn: For once, there isn’t one that I would clearly burn out of the three. Maybe I’ll go with Scorch Trials by James Dashner because I think this was my least favourite Maze Runner book.

Rewrite: Three Act Tragedy by Agatha Christie. I really enjoyed this book. I love Agatha Christie and she had me guessing with this one. But with detective novels, rereading them isn’t very fun because you already know who did it. So I’ll have to rewrite this one.

Reread: Two Years Holiday by Jules Verne. I remember reading this when I was like 12 and really loving it. I’m curious if I’d enjoy it as much now, so I’d reread this one.

Round 5

Burn: The Forty-Five Guardsmen by Alexandre Dumas. I don’t even remember much of this book other than Chicot. I used to read a lot of French historical fiction for some reason and I really loved it. But that was when I was young. Now I just read YA. I was such a pretentious kid.

Rewrite: Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare. I would write some more Magnus into it cause there can never be enough Magnus.

Reread: Of course I wouldn’t change a single thing about The Hobbit. And of course I want to reread it!

Round 6

Burn: Neanderthal Seeks Human by Penny Reid. I actually really loved this book, but it just can’t compare to the other two. Sorry!

Rewrite: This is where the hard part begins. Both of them have that one thing that happens that just pulls your heart right out and uses is as a chew toy. So that could be rewritten for both of them, I guess. But I also definitely want to reread both of them. Hmmmm… I’ll go with Crooked Kingdom, because in CoM, at least that unspeakably horrible thing leads to a lot of things being set in motion and it’s really important, whereas in Crooked Kingdom… it’s just cruel.

Reread: And that leaves Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas.

I’m too lazy to tag people right now, but this is a fun tag to do, so if you want to do it, I tag you to do it. Leave a link below if you do so I can check it out!

 

July Wrap-Up

Another month has come and gone. July was a better reading month for me than June. I read 11 books this month. In an attempt to buy fewer books, I decided to read some of my impressive collection of ebooks. So there have been a few books that I didn’t really know what to expect from.

First book I read in July was The Giver by Lois Lowry. This was a great, haunting and thought-provoking book and I really loved it. You can read my full review of it here. 5/5 stars.

 

Second book I read was The Gifting by K. E. Ganshert. This is pretty good as far as paranormal YA goes, although I took issue with the ending, which cause me to only give it 2/5. You can read my full review here.

 

Next, I read My Own Mr. Darcy by Karey White. This is a really light, easy-to-read book. It’s not very high-quality, but I enjoyed reading it nonetheless. I also have a review of this one which you can read here. 3/5 stars.

 

 

Then I read Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead. I actually audiobooked this, which was a mistake. I really do not recommend this as an audiobook, it doesn’t work well. I think I might have enjoyed it a lot more had I read it instead of listening to it. Some books work well as audiobooks, but this is not one of them. 3/5 stars. I also have a full review of it which you can read here.

 

Next, I read A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab. This is now one of my new favourite series, I love it so much. It’s just awesome. I have a full review of this one as well, which you can find here. 5/5 stars.

 

 

Next, I read Iron Kin by M. J. Scott. I didn’t like this one that much. You can read my full thoughts on it and the series in general here. 2/5 stars.

 

 

Then I read The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter. I just went to the book store and saw a really cute edition of this and I just read it there and then. I actually really enjoyed it, which is a testament to my level of maturity, I suppose. 4/5 stars.

 

Next up, in a rare display of consistency, I read A Gathering of Shadows by V. E. Schwab, which is the second (and current) book in the Shades of Magic series. Which means that for once, I started a series and finished all the books that are currently out! I loved this one as well, although not quite as much as the first one. See my review here. 4/5 stars.

 

After that, I read Touch A Dark Wolf by Jennifer St. Giles. I wish I hadn’t. Just, do yourself a favour and don’t read this book. 1/5 stars.

 

 

 

Thankfully, my next read was a pleasant surprise. I read Neanderthal Seeks Human by Penny Reid. I surprisingly really liked this book. It brightened my mood. I have a review of it here. 4.5/5 stars.

 

 

 

Another 4.5/5 stars book. Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge. I’ve been wanting to read this book for a long time now and I am happy to say I loved it. I have a review of this one as well.

Iron Kin by M. J. Scott – Book Review

Rating: 2/5

Genre: NA, Fantasy, Steampunk

First published: 2013

Author: M. J. Scott

Synopsis: Saskia lives in a city divided between the four races: humans, Blood, Beast and Fae. The treaty that keeps a fragile peace in the city is about to be re-negotiated. Saskia is human and a metalmage and her family expects her to live a safe life, befitting a noble human like her. But when Fen walks into her life along with an opportunity to do something for her City, Saskia jumps in regardless of what her family thinks. 

*This is the third book in the series. The first and second aren’t strictly necessary for understanding this one, but they are recommended. This review is spoiler free.

Book Depository | Goodreads

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The problem with this series is that it’s very repetitive. The overarching political plot is quite interesting and the reason I have read so far into the series and the reason I intend to finish it. But the individual plot of each book, is nearly identical. Especially the romance aspect of it. It’s like Scott used a stencil and just substituted the appropriate names in each novel.

The world and setting are pretty cool and, if not unique, definitely remarkable. It’s a mixture of medieval with steampunk and paranormal and fantasy. It’s an interesting combination and I really love the world and I’ve really enjoyed learning more about it throughout the series. The main plot is very political in nature and centers around the various power plays of the different species.

The first book, Shadow Kin, was my favourite in the series from every point of view. It had the best characters and the plot-line was new, so I didn’t roll my eyes as much, despite the insta-love. Which is a major element in all of them. But even the romance was the best in this one. Moving past the insta-love, or insta-super-attraction, I could really see it and I could see the characters growing together.

Iron Kin, was in my opinion, the worst in the series. The main character, Saskia was whiny and annoying and while I liked Fen, I didn’t feel like his potential was explored. At all. It also didn’t feel like much happened in this book besides the romance between Fen and Saskia. And it wasn’t even a good one. It wasn’t cute, it wasn’t sexy, I didn’t feel it at all. I didn’t like it. Everything that did happen, happened in the last third of the book and it sort of felt like the purpose of this book was to set up the events of the next one.

Still, I am curious what will happen next, as the ending of the book left a lot of questions. I didn’t really expect what happened to happen. I would say that overall, this series has a pretty interesting plot and setting, but as an individual book, Iron Kin wasn’t very good. I will still read the final book in the series, because I’m just curious what happens.

Have you read any of the books in the series? What were your thoughts?

Unfinished Series Part Two

If you thought I’m terrible at finishing series after seeing part one, you will think I should be banned from starting any more series by the end of this one. Here it goes.

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Read: 1/2

I liked Red Queen. I even filmed a review of it. But I didn’t love it. I didn’t feel the urge to get the next one as soon as it was available and I just kept putting it off. I’m still putting it off.

Still have to read: Glass Sword

Magisterium by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare

Read: 1/2

I enjoyed this book a lot. I loved the elemental magic, but kind of like with Red Queen, I just didn’t love it so much that I wanted the next one yesterday.

Still have to read: The Copper Gauntlet

The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johanson

Read: 1/2

Honestly, I’m not sure if I want to continue with this series. I liked the story, but there were some elements of the world that really ruined it for me. And I didn’t particularly like the main character (forgot her name). But for now, I’ll keep it on the list of series I want to continue.

Still have to read: The Invasion of the Tearling

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Read: 1/4

I just bought this the other day and read it. *hangs head in shame* Let’s see how long this will remain on my unfinished series list. I really loved it though. You can read my review of it here.

Still have to read: Gathering Blue, Messenger, Son

The Young Elites by Marie Lu

Read: 1/2

I loved The Young Elites so much. I have no idea why I haven’t read the second one yet. I fully intended to read it as soon as it came out, I just… didn’t.

Still have to read: The Rose Society

The Half-Light City by M. J. Scott

Read: 2/4

This is an adult fantasy series, but I quite like the world. I enjoyed the first two, and while I can’t say I’m tripping over myself to read the rest of them, I do want to continue with this series. Which is more a series of companions. It’s the kind of book I enjoy reading as an ebook.

Still have to read: Iron Kin, Fire Kin

I think that’s it for series that I want to continue with. For now at least. I’m sure I’ll have an update soon enough. Probably to add more series, rather than to remove them.

There are at least 20 more series that I have started but either have no intention of continuing, or I would like to maybe continue some day, but given the ridiculous amount of other series I need to finish, I probably won’t get to them. Perhaps I’ll make another post about those.

Final tally (for now): 16 series, 28 books + countless novellas and short stories