Witch's Pyre by Josephine Angelini

Genre:  YA Fantasy Romance

Worldwalker Series, Book 3

Josephine Angelini's website

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Note:  This is the third and final book in a series.  You've been warned.

Description (taken from Josephine Angelini's website):

Two versions of the same world. Two versions of the same girl.
Lily Proctor has come a long way from the weak, sickly girl she used to be. She has gained power as a witch and a leader, found her way home, chosen to face battle again, and (after losing her first love and being betrayed by her new love) she has learned more about loss and grief than she ever wanted to know.
Thrust once again into a society different from anything they have ever seen, Lily and her coven are determined to find answers―to find a new path to victory, a way to defeat the monstrous Woven without resorting to nuclear weapons or becoming a tyrannical mass murderer like her alternate self, Lillian. But sometimes winning requires sacrifices . . . and when the only clear path to victory lies at Lillian's side, what price will Lily be willing to pay?

A series I fell in love with but over the years couldn't remember well enough.  This third book picks up right where the second one left off.  And if you can't remember exactly what happened in the last book, then you're kind of lost for the first half of the book.

Lily has left Rowan in his own miserable exile.  And now she's teeming up with the evil Lilian to help get rid of the Woven.  Wait a second, I can't exactly remember what happened in the last book.  Woven definitely rings a bell, but I'm super lost with where they belong in the plot.  Oh right, I'll catch up once I'm halfway in this story.  But wait, this whole plotline of being angry at the new love and losing the old love, wow I forgot a lot.  And it just didn't make sense to me.  But for some reason, I was still hooked in the story...  Must have been the good writing.

Yeah, this is a fun fantasy series to read.  But I'm definitely going to recommend reading them one right after the other, so you don't have the same problems I had.

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

Genre:  YA Fantasy

Six of Crows Series, Book 2

Leigh Bardugo's website

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Note:  This is the second book in a series.  Fair warning...

Description (taken from Leigh Bardugo's website):

Kaz Brekker and his crew have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn’t think they’d survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they’re right back to fighting for their lives. Double-crossed and left crippled by the kidnapping of a valuable team member, the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope. As powerful forces from around the world descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of the dangerous drug known as jurda parem, old rivals and new enemies emerge to challenge Kaz’s cunning and test the team’s fragile loyalties. A war will be waged on the city’s dark and twisting streets―a battle for revenge and redemption that will decide the fate of the Grisha world.

Back in the Grisha world, one of my favorite fantasy worlds.  The heist that Kaz and his crew pulled off in the last story went terribly wrong.  And this story picks up immediately after that happens.  It follows the six people who are determined to get payback and money for their troubles.  Only thing is the whole world is watching this little city because everyone wants a piece of the drug: jurda parem.  Will Kaz and his crew be able to protect themselves and their city or will they sell out?

This book has a lot of action and so many angles that you're dying for more.  My only regret is not reading it closer to the first book and that whole other series.  I feel like there were a lot of things I couldn't remember and was kind of missing the insider knowledge.  Anywho, you pretty much fall in love with the characters.  But you want to know the reason why this isn't a five-pointer for me?  I was not a fan of the ending.  It ticked me off.  Like really ticked me off when I realized it was the last one in the series.  But I can't give it away (those who have read the book could probably understand my anger).

If you're a fan of fantasy, start with the first Grisha series and then pick this one up.  If you couldn't get into the first series, then just dive into this one.  While there is romance in this story, it's not the main plotline like the other series.

Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

Genre:  Adult Fantasy

The Nevernight Chronicles, Book 1

Jay Kristoff's website

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Description (taken from Jay Kristoff's website):

In a land where three suns almost never set, a fledgling killer joins a school of assassins, seeking vengeance against the powers who destroyed her family.

Daughter of an executed traitor, Mia Corvere is barely able to escape her father’s failed rebellion with her life. Alone and friendless, she hides in a city built from the bones of a dead god, hunted by the Senate and her father’s former comrades. But her gift for speaking with the shadows leads her to the door of a retired killer, and a future she never imagined.

Now, Mia is apprenticed to the deadliest flock of assassins in the entire Republic—the Red Church. If she bests her fellow students in contests of steel, poison and the subtle arts, she’ll be inducted among the Blades of the Lady of Blessed Murder, and one step closer to the vengeance she desires. But a killer is loose within the Church’s halls, the bloody secrets of Mia’s past return to haunt her, and a plot to bring down the entire congregation is unfolding in the shadows she so loves.

Will she even survive to initiation, let alone have her revenge?

I can't do one of my normal reviews for this book.  I've sat on writing this review for a couple of weeks now because I don't know how to start it.  So maybe I start with this book took me quite a while to get into and finish however it was by far, my favorite book I've read this year.

It is set in a fantasy world with its own religion, its own gods, and its own mysticism.  And the narrator will give you fun-filled facts throughout the story whenever he references something in this world.  And Mia?  She's your standard heroine who had a brutal childhood but is seeking revenge.  Everything she does is to better position herself to kill the people who killed her father.  But she has a heart.  And in order to be an assassin, you must deaden the heart.

I loved this fantasy!  And even though the plot was right in front of me, my mind was too busy enjoying the little tidbits and details along the way that I totally missed it.  I need the next book in this series now.  Just now.

Fan of fantasy?  Read this one!

The Forbidden Wish by Jessica Khoury

Genre: YA Fantasy Fairy Tale

Jessica Khoury's website

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Description (taken from Jessica Khoury's website):

When Aladdin discovers Zahra's jinni lamp, Zahra is thrust back into a world she hasn't seen in hundreds of years -- a world where magic is forbidden and Zahra's very existence is illegal. She must disguise herself to stay alive, using ancient shape-shifting magic, until her new master has selected his three wishes.

But when the King of the Jinn offers Zahra a chance to be free of her lamp forever, she seizes the opportunity—only to discover she is falling in love with Aladdin. When saving herself means betraying him, Zahra must decide once and for all: is winning her freedom worth losing her heart?

Aladdin, the thief, has entered a city of diamonds in search of something.  He doesn't know it until he sees it, but it calls to him.  And Zahra, the jinni in the lamp, can hear his arrival.  When he finds the lamp, he knows he has found something important.  He doesn't realize what it is until he rubs the lamp.

Zahra has been tied to her lamp for thousands of years.  But when she's offered the chance for freedom, all she must do is trick Aladdin into helping her.  And Aladdin does exactly that all in the name of revenge.  But the closer Zahra gets to getting what she wants, the further Aladdin is from what he wants.  In the end, can Aladdin's wish be enough for happiness?  And will Zahra's power be enough to satisfy the thief and herself?

This is a beautiful fairy tale retelling.  And the romance starts very small until it releases at the right moment.  So it's not as annoying to read.  And the past that Zahra kept running away from?  I was so curious to know what happened until I finally knew.  But it still goes full circle to explain everything beautifully.

This is such a sweet standalone novel.  If you're a fan of Aladdin or fantasy novels, give this a try.

The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi

Genre:  YA Fantasy

The Star-Touched Queen series, book 1

Roshani Chokshi's website

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Description (taken from Rochani Chokshi's website):

Fate and fortune. Power and passion. What does it take to be the queen of a kingdom when you’re only seventeen?

Maya is cursed. With a horoscope that promises a marriage of Death and Destruction, she has earned only the scorn and fear of her father’s kingdom. Content to follow more scholarly pursuits, her whole world is torn apart when her father, the Raja, arranges a wedding of political convenience to quell outside rebellions. Soon Maya becomes the queen of Akaran and wife of Amar. Neither roles are what she expected: As Akaran’s queen, she finds her voice and power. As Amar’s wife, she finds something else entirely: Compassion. Protection. Desire…

But Akaran has its own secrets — thousands of locked doors, gardens of glass, and a tree that bears memories instead of fruit. Soon, Maya suspects her life is in danger. Yet who, besides her husband, can she trust? With the fate of the human and Otherworldly realms hanging in the balance, Maya must unravel an ancient mystery that spans reincarnated lives to save those she loves the most. . .including herself.

Maya has been doomed with a fate that no one wants near them.  She grows up with her sisters and step-mothers, the first all betrothed and the second loathsome.  They don't want her around because all she brings is death.  But when her father makes a bargain no one expects, Maya finds herself in the middle of a plot to bring peace.  But is peace easily won?

After following Amar to his kingdom, Maya finds out that nothing is at it seems.  The stories she used to tell her sister are suddenly more than just stories.  And while Amar wants her by his side as an equal, Maya finds secrets holding her trust back.  Who can she trust when no one tells her the truth?

This story is so enticing.  It's cleverly written and ties together so well.  I was in love with it until I realized there were only twenty pages left.  I didn't think this story could come up with a good conclusion in just twenty pages.  Maybe I wanted more, or maybe I felt like my head was thrown back to reality too soon.  But the ending was disappointing to me.  I wanted a clever ending to fit the rest of the story, but I didn't get it.  However it doesn't stop me from loving this little story.

I'm glad I picked this book up.  And it's a series.  I'll have to pick up the next one...

The Rose & The Dagger by Renee Ahdieh

Genre:  YA Fantasy

The Wrath & The Dawn Series, Book 2

Renee Ahdieh's website

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Description (taken from Renee Ahdieh's website):

I am surrounded on all sides by a desert. A guest, in a prison of sand and sun. My family is here. And I do not know whom I can trust.

In a land on the brink of war, Shahrzad has been torn from the love of her husband Khalid, the Caliph of Khorasan. She once believed him a monster, but his secrets revealed a man tormented by guilt and a powerful curse—one that might keep them apart forever. Reunited with her family–who have taken refuge with enemies of Khalid–and her childhood sweetheart Tariq, she should be happy. But Tariq now commands forces set on destroying Khalid’s empire. Shahrzad is almost a prisoner caught between loyalties to people she loves. But she refuses to be a pawn and devises a plan.

While her father, Jahandar, continues to play with magical forces he doesn’t yet understand, Shahrzad tries to uncover powers that may lie dormant within her. With the help of a tattered old carpet and a tempestuous but sage young man, Shahrzad will attempt to break the curse and reunite with her one true love.

This book picks up right where the last one left off: with Tariq rescuing Shahrzad from the Caliph.  But Shahrzad didn't need any rescuing.  And while she wants to go back to Khalid, she realizes her family needs her in the camp.  Her father is very injured and won't wake up, yet he clings to an old, mystical book.  And can Shahrzad really help Khalid by returning to him, or can she break the curse some other way?

This book starts off with Khalid's enemy encampment.  The one Tariq is help leading.  And even though he's rescued Shahrzad and convinced he can make her fall in love with him again, he's not getting what he bargained for.  And Irza, Shahrzad's sister?  She's barely growing up and trying so hard to keep her family together.  But how can she when not even her sister will confide in her?  So many choices to make that revolve around each other.  In the end, will Shahrzad and Khalid get their happily ever after?

I'm going to start with this:  I probably would have liked this book more if I had read it right after the first.  It did not do a good job of refreshing what happened in the first, and I spent the first half of the book stumbling through the story.  But once I got into it, I couldn't put the book down.  But I felt like more questions came up than were answered.  And I got so distracted by the side stories and the answers I was missing that I kind of missed the happy ending.  I'm still stuck on the mystical book.  And Artan.  And the justification for people's loyalties.  And now the series is over?  Ugh, I missed it.

I'm definitely going to recommend people read the second book right after the first one.  Then maybe you won't be as lost as me...

The Glittering Court by Richelle Mead

Genre:  YA Fantasy

The Glittering Court Series, Book 1

Richelle Mead's website

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Description (taken from Richelle Mead's website):

Big and sweeping, spanning the refined palaces of Osfrid to the gold dust and untamed forests of Adoria, The Glittering Court tells the story of Adelaide, an Osfridian countess who poses as her servant to escape an arranged marriage and start a new life in Adoria, the New World. But to do that, she must join the Glittering Court.

Both a school and a business venture, the Glittering Court is designed to transform impoverished girls into upper-class ladies capable of arranging powerful and wealthy marriages in the New World. Adelaide naturally excels in her training and even makes a few friends: the fiery former laundress Tamsin and the beautiful Sirminican refugee Mira. She manages to keep her true identity hidden from all but one: the intriguing Cedric Thorn, son of the wealthy proprietor of the Glittering Court.

When Adelaide discovers that Cedric is hiding a dangerous secret of his own, together, they hatch a scheme to make the best of Adelaide’s deception. Complications soon arise—first, as they cross the treacherous seas from Osfrid to Adoria, and later, when Adelaide catches the attention of a powerful governor.

But no complication will prove quite as daunting as the potent attraction simmering between Adelaide and Cedric. An attraction that, if acted on, would scandalize the Glittering Court and make them both outcasts in wild, vastly uncharted lands. . . .

Okay, okay, so I didn't delve right into the synopsis and put two and two together.  I read Glittering Court; that's a title for fairies, right?  Yeah, my bad...  I didn't realize what I was going to get was a fantasy telling of a masculine people from a well-established society moving into a new world and searching for gold.

Adelaide is a sheltered countess on the brink of bankruptcy when her grandma announces a match to solve their problems.  But Adelaide doesn't want this.  Instead she escapes to a finishing school that eventually takes its women to the new world and sells them as wives to the highest bidder (irony, right?).  But somehow Adelaide makes the most of it and finds an unlikely friend in Cedric, the business owner's son.  And soon enough, Adelaide finds herself in the middle of controversy while trying to be her own person.

I really need to get something off my chest.  Richelle Mead is one of my favorite (if not favorite) authors, and I have kind of fallen flat with the last two novels of hers I've read.  But back to the story and my thoughts.  To me, it wasn't executed well.  The romance between the two characters was cute.  But I couldn't really get over the whole premise of running away from an arranged marriage into the hands of another arranged marriage.  That idea kind of bothered me.  And the back stories surrounding the side characters: it was left in mystery and not well-explained which left me with plot holes.  I don't like plot holes.  I want a perfectly executed story that has thought of every little detail and how it makes the whole story make even more sense.

Gah, I just can't.  And I found out it's a series.  A series?  Why?  Maybe to tell us more about those side characters?  I'm not sure I can continue though.  (I would suggest reading other reviews for this one.)

Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard

Genre:  YA Fantasy

Red Queen Series, Book 2

Victoria Aveyard's website

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Note:  This is the second book in a series.  I believe that's enough warning...

Description (taken from Victoria Aveyard's website):

Mare Barrow’s blood is red—the color of common folk—but her Silver ability, the power to control lightning, has turned her into a weapon that the royal court tries to control.

The crown calls her an impossibility, a fake, but as she makes her escape from Maven, the prince—the friend—who betrayed her, Mare uncovers something startling: she is not the only one of her kind.

Pursued by Maven, now a vindictive king, Mare sets out to find and recruit other Red-and-Silver fighters to join in the struggle against her oppressors.

But Mare finds herself on a deadly path, at risk of becoming exactly the kind of monster she is trying to defeat.

Will she shatter under the weight of the lives that are the cost of rebellion? Or have treachery and betrayal hardened her forever?

This book picks up right where the first one ended: with Mare and Cal running from the treacherous King Maven.  Cal has lost his crown and Mare has escaped a death sentence.  But when they seek sanctuary with the Scarlet Guard, they find a lot more than they bargained for.

Mare is determined to save as many Reds with Silver abilities as possible before Maven has a chance to get to them.  She always gives them a choice to join her cause or run.  But even when she's hidden behind this choice, is it really a choice?  Or is she so blinded by blood that she will do anything to save people like her and destroy Maven?  And then we have Cal.  Once blinded by blood, but now there's no where for him to stand.  So why stay and fight for the other side?

I am so frustrated with this book.  And I'm frustrated with the fact that I can't tell you why I'm frustrated.  About fifty pages into this book, I determined it was going to be *yawn* a cliché second book.  And it did not prove me wrong.  There were many places within the book that had me hooked and heart-racing.  But it was like a countdown of the expected events.  However I did kind of really enjoy the last ten pages (I give full permission for judgement).

Frustrated camper here.  But I'm going to continue the series.

Firstlife by Gena Showalter

Genre:  YA Fantasy

Everlife Series, Book 1

Gena Showalter's website

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Description (taken from Gena Showalter's website):

ONE CHOICE.
TWO REALMS.
NO SECOND CHANCE.

Tenley "Ten" Lockwood is an average seventeen-year-old girl…who has spent the past thirteen months locked inside the Prynne Asylum. The reason? Not her obsession with numbers, but her refusal to let her parents choose where she’ll live—after she dies.

There is an eternal truth most of the world has come to accept: Firstlife is merely a dress rehearsal, and real life begins after death.

In the Everlife, two realms are in power: Troika and Myriad, longtime enemies and deadly rivals. Both will do anything to recruit Ten, including sending their top Laborers to lure her to their side. Soon, Ten finds herself on the run, caught in a wild tug-of-war between the two realms that will do anything to win the right to her soul. Who can she trust? And what if the realm she's drawn to isn't home to the boy she's falling for? She just has to stay alive long enough to make a decision…

In Ten's world, everyone knows what happens after death.  In fact, people pledge themselves to one of the two realms before they die.  There is Troika, a realm with eternal sunshine that values human life and choice above all else.  Then there is Myriad, a realm in the moonlight that values victory and winning above all else.  While Troika will give you a family and support you in the afterlife, Myriad will give you things you can only dream of if you are wanted.  But once you've pledged yourself, there's no going back.  And even if you know what happens in the second life, you don't really know until you die in the first one.

While locked up in an asylum that is good at making its patients choose the realm they've been paid to get them to choose, Ten has refused to pick.  Her father's contract with Myriad is on the line if she doesn't sign with them.  So they put her through all torture until she joins them.  But two laborers appear in the asylum.  They're there to pull her one way or the other.  But even in the end, it is her choice and one she must live with -or die with.

In the beginning, I was confused with how this world worked.  Two realms in the after life, got it.  But does everyone in this first life know about that?  Or only those that are being recruited?  I wasn't really sure.  And without this complete background, I grew skeptical of the story.  Not to mention the boy involved in the romance drove me nuts.  There were moments where I was engrossed in the story and wanted to know what happened.  But now that I've finished it?  I still don't really understand what the book was about other than choosing a side.  Heaven and hell?

I think this is going to be one of those books where you either love it or hate it.  Unless you're me; then you just think it's okay.  I'm not sure what to think with this one.

Thanks goes to Around the World ARC Tours for providing me a review copy.

Dreamstrider by Lindsay Smith

Genre:  YA Fantasy

Lindsay Smith's website

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Description (taken from Lindsay Smith's website):

A high-concept, fantastical espionage novel set in a world where dreams are the ultimate form of political intelligence.

Livia is a dreamstrider. She can inhabit a subject’s body while they are sleeping and, for a short time, move around in their skin. She uses her talent to work as a spy for the Barstadt Empire. But her partner, Brandt, has lately become distant, and when Marez comes to join their team from a neighboring kingdom, he offers Livia the option of a life she had never dared to imagine. Livia knows of no other Dreamstriders who have survived the pull of Nightmare. So only she understands the stakes when a plot against the Empire emerges that threatens to consume both the dreaming world and the waking one with misery and rage.

A richly conceived world full of political intrigue and fantastical dream sequences, at its heart Dreamstrider is about a girl who is struggling to live up to the potential before her.

Barstadt has a caste system where the privileged live on the surface and the poor live under the surface in tunnels.  Livia has worked her way from the tunnels to life aboveground thanks to her ability to dreamstride.  As a dreamstrider, Livia can control another person from the dream world.  It's kind of like astral projection.  With this ability, she works for the ministry as a spy to help protect the empire.

Brandt and Livia have worked together for the ministry for quite some time.  And before Brandt leaves to join high society, he wants to complete one more mission.  A mission that involves protecting Barstadt from invasion.  And as Livia meets Marez from another kingdom, she begins to spy on him and question her homeland's system.  But when the dream world begins to collide with the real world, only Livia will be able to stop what's coming.  But will she have enough power to protect her home?

If you were to pick the most depressed and self-doubt infused teenager off the street, you'd have Livia.  I felt like I was drowning in her self-doubt and negativity.  And the whole idea of dreamstrinding and the dream world Oneiros?  It felt like an incomplete concept.  My imagination became a little fuzzy with this world because I was struggling to grasp it and understand it.  Given my contempt for the main character, I kind of found myself cheering on the bad guy once I finally got sucked into the book.  Unfortunately, that happened about fifty pages before it ended.

I just had a hard time fantasizing this story.  Plus, wanting to strangle the main character was a little bit distracting.  I suggest seeing some more reviews before deciding whether or not to read this one.

The Great Hunt by Wendy Higgins

Genre:  YA Fantasy

The Great Hunt Series, Book 2

Wendy Higgins' website

Expected publication date:  March 8, 2016

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Description (taken from Wendy Higgins' website):

Kill the beast. Win the girl.

A strange beast stirs fear in the kingdom of Lochlanach, terrorizing towns with its brutality and hunger. In an act of desperation, a proclamation is sent to all of Eurona—kill the creature and win the ultimate prize: the daughter of King Lochson’s hand in marriage.

Princess Aerity understands her duty to the kingdom though it pains her to imagine marrying a stranger. It would be foolish to set her sights on any particular man in the great hunt, but when a brooding local hunter, Paxton Seabolt, catches her attention, there’s no denying the unspoken lure between them…or his mysterious resentment.

Paxton is not keen on marriage. Nor does he care much for spoiled royals and their arcane laws. He’s determined to keep his focus on the task at hand—ridding the kingdom of the beast and protecting his family—yet Princess Aerity continues to challenge his notions with her unpredictability and charm. But as past secrets collide with present desires, dire choices threaten everything Paxton holds dear.

Aerity lives in a kingdom where choice and true love conquer all.  But with a brutal beast terrorizing her home and no one succeeding in killing it, she is offered up as the prize to any hunter who can kill the beast.  It is something she has learned to accept for the good of her kingdom.  But when she meets a mysterious hunter who could care less about the prize, she becomes intrigued.  And giving up her freedom to choose who to marry suddenly becomes that much harder.

Paxton loves his home, but he has never cared for the royals who govern it.  Their rules and abandonment of the people is all he's ever known.  However he is willing to kill the beast to protect his home and family.  But seeing Aerity as a person instead of a princess softens his heart.  And with the task at hand, pasts coming to haunt him, and the choice of killing the beast or walking away, suddenly nothing becomes free will anymore.

I have to start with this book felt too childish and sappy for me.  Yes, I'm a romantic.  But I'm not a soggy romantic (no one likes soggy bread).  I tried really hard to like the predictable story line, and it is a good story.  It's just I often questioned how old the characters really were throughout the story.  They acted a little too young for their age, and the theme of hopeless love just kind of left me with a nasty taste in my mouth.

I am one of those people who absolutely loved the Sweet Trilogy.  And that's honestly why I picked up this book.  I honestly wouldn't have believed the author wrote both books after having finished this one.  I suggest reading more reviews before deciding to read this one.

Thanks goes to Around the World ARC Tours for providing me with a copy.

A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin

Genre:  Adult Fantasy

A Song of Ice and Fire Series, Book 1

George RR Martin's website

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Description (taken from George RR Martin's website):

Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens.

Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; and a determined woman undertakes the most treacherous of journeys. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.

This review isn't going to be of much help for those who have never heard of this book nor the tv series.  If you've seen the tv series and gotten yourself hooked, then you pretty much know if you're going to like this story or not.  I'm one of the few who had been holding off on reading the books for as long as possible.  Because they're super long, and I feel like I wouldn't have been able to keep the characters straight.  But I've finally read the first book.  And my thoughts?

If you've seen the tv series, don't hold your breath for much to change with reading the book.  The first season follows the book really well that I often found myself bored with the book and frustrated with how long it was.  I mean, sure, I found the hidden plot lines that foretell what's to come and I enjoyed the foreshadowing.  But I honestly wonder if I would have caught on if I hadn't already known the story and what happens.  There were definitely some moments where it was nice to make the connections in the book.  But I don't really think I gained anything extra from this book.

While I am absolutely addicted to the tv series, I am not quite sold on the books.  And it's probably because I started the books after the tv series.  However my husband is forcing me to read the next one, and he's told me things begin to deviate a lot more with that one.  So maybe I'll be surprised?