Liz Brooks

good reads summary:

Adelina Amouteru’s heart has suffered at the hands of both family and friends, turning her down the bitter path of revenge. Now known and feared as the White Wolf, she and her sister flee Kenettra to find other Young Elites in the hopes of building her own army of allies. Her goal: to strike down the Inquisition Axis, the white-cloaked soldiers who nearly killed her.

But Adelina is no heroine. Her powers, fed only by fear and hate, have started to grow beyond her control. She does not trust her newfound Elite friends. Teren Santoro, leader of the Inquisition, wants her dead. And her former friends, Raffaele and the Dagger Society, want to stop her thirst for vengeance. Adelina struggles to cling to the good within her. But how can someone be good, when her very existence depends on darkness?

review:

I’d like to preface this review with some information.

The Rose Society is the second book in the The Young Elites series (currently listed as a trilogy). I went into The Young Elites with my eyes open and my heart ready. What I wasn’t prepared for was how I would feel when I finished the novel. Despondent is the best description I can give you. But maybe that is how Marie Lu wanted me to feel. IDK. So venturing into The Rose Society took courage.

Below is my review. If you haven’t read The Young Elites do not pass go, do not collect $200. Go read The Young Elites first.

The Rose Society has great action scenes. The plot progresses quickly. There is character development… even if it is backwards (it felt backwards). You also read multiple POVs, but are mainly told the story through Adelina Amouteru.

We meet the tall-tale Magiano, whom I love as a character. He is creative, determined, and resourceful. I don’t feel like he is using Adelina as a means to end like The Daggers did. I believe he is one of two characters who don’t want or expect anything from her other than friendship (or maybe more?). Violetta is the other character. She is a character I have come to understand and appreciate. She is pure of heart and only wants what is best for Adelina.

Thanks to Marie Lu, I have come to hate The Daggers and what they represent.

My feelings about Adelina Amouteru are complicated. She is penumbra. She is surreptitious. She is abominable. She. Is. Villainous.

Overall I feel.. flabbergasted. Hoodwinked. Thorny. My heart was ripped from my chest. I felt limp when I finished the book. I wandered around my house, lost. I felt like Adelina felt at the end of book- waiting for something to hit me… but it never does.

I will pick up the 3rd Young Elites book when it’s published.

Written by Liz Brooks

GOODREADS SUMMARY:

Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone…

A convict with a thirst for revenge.

A sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager.

A runaway with a privileged past.

A spy known as the Wraith.

A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums.

A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes.

Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz’s crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don’t kill each other first.

Review:

Six of Crows is the latest installment in Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse. The first installment was her Grisha Trilogy: Shadow and Bone, Siege and Storm, and Ruin and Rising (all very good books).

“You don’t have to read the Grisha Trilogy to read Six of Crows. It was built for people new to the Grisha world. Yes, there are trilogy spoilers but there are also misdirects. (And if you’ve read the trilogy, lots of little Easter eggs.)”- Leigh Bardugo

Bardugo’s world building ability is probably one of my favorite things about this book (as well as the others). It’s full of thick descriptions of the different settings as well as each of the six main characters. Even the secondary characterizations are detailed. This is a pet peeve of mine. If authors are going to create a brand new world, I need details.

Six of Crows isn’t your typical single point of view narrative. The heist is told from six different POVs (Nina, Kaz, Inej, Wylan, Jesper, Matthias), which makes this book more intriguing. Bardugo shows us one situation in six different ways; each person showing the reader what they are feeling and thinking.

The characters themselves are very flawed and each goes through a transformation over the course of the book. There is also great POC and LGBTQ representation. You will learn their backgrounds. Why they came be apart of the heist group. Their relationship to one another. And what’s truly at stake. I will say that my favorite characters are Nina and Matthias. Their stories really stuck out for me. But that doesn’t mean that Kaz, Inej, Wylan, and Jesper aren’t fascinating themselves. Keep in mind those characters are not heroes.

My favorite place is the Ice Palace (when can I visit?). It’s so convoluted. It took a while to truly understand the intricacies that Bardugo was describing. And it’s not just the physical palace that is a labyrinthine but the inner-workings of the people of Fjerda (who we don’t get to know in the Grisha Trilogy).

If you like adventure, fantasy, and romance give this book a read.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Also keep an eye out for the follow-up post to this. I will be attending the Magic and Mayhem Tour for Leigh Bardugo/Six of Crows on November 17.

Blog Signature

Author: Liz Brooks

Book Review: The Rose Society By Marie Lu