I have thoughts.

Note: This is going to include spoilers for Blood of a Fae by Briar Boleyn, and for Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. You've been warned. As I'm reading the Blood of a Fae series and currently fairly early in book two, it occurred to me that outside of our love interest, there's very little in the way of shades of moral gray. It's very much a world where the bad guys are sadistic evil bastards and the good guys are their antithesis in every conceivable way. This occurred to me because I know one character I'm already just waiting to see die. I don't have many hopes for her to be redeemed. This author excels at making horrible villains who you're excited to see die, and then excels at the payoff. It's like a slasher movie without the horror. Right on the heels of this thought, I was listening to Fourth Wing on my commute home, and Jack Barlow died horribly. Fourth Wing excels at making villains you hate, but up until this point, most of them hadn't had t...

SPOILER WARNING Review can also be found on Goodreads at this link:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6434309352?book_show_action=false Note: I received an e-copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for my review. Quotes may differ from the retail text. "In my mind, I whispered words of apology for pushing the power away for so long. I didn't know. I didn't know what you were. I said it to myself, with my heart wrenching. I said it to myself, with a sob in my breast." This quote comes toward the end of the book and hit me so hard I had to stop to take a picture of the page before reading on so that I would remember it. This is book one of a series, and this quote felt like the beginning of the story of this new Morgan LeFay, the start of the tale she will tell for herself. Early in the book I noted themes of agency, both its loss and reclamation; and of family. Here I recognized the third major theme of this book: self. Self-empowerment, self-respect, self...