Review: ONE TRUE LOVES by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Rating: 5/5 stars

The day before Emma and Jesse’s one-year wedding anniversary, Jesse goes missing and is presumed dead. Four years later, after mourning and moving on and getting engaged to someone else, Emma gets a call from Jesse, and he has been alive this whole time and he is coming home.

This book is both beautiful and sad. It’s about what it’s like to love and let go, how it’s possible to love both someone from your past and someone from your present and that loving one person doesn’t mean you love the other any less. It’s about making hard decisions and growing up and deciding what kind of person you want to be. I can’t imagine being in Emma’s position because that’s obviously an impossible place to be in.

I love that we were able to get the backstory of how Emma met and dated and got engaged to both Jesse and Sam. There was definitely a while when I was conflicted about who I wanted her to be with, who I thought was a better match for her.

I love Taylor Jenkins Reid’s writing style and how she is always able to communicate so much emotion and create such a connection between the characters and the reader. Her books always resonate so much with me and touch my heart in a special way.

SPOILERS AHEAD: 
[I love how this book explores how time changes us and how just because two people were right together at one time doesn’t mean they are right together now, and how that’s okay.

I wanted Emma to be with Sam so I’m really happy it ended that way. I love that she was able to stay true to who she is now and that Jesse was also able to be himself and find happiness. They had obviously grown apart while he was gone, which makes jumping back into that relationship really tough, but they both realized they loved who each other used to be, not who each other is now. That’s so important to understand because forcing a relationship that isn’t meant to be never turns out well. I’m glad they both ended up happy.

At the end when it said “eight months later” I thought that Emma was going to say she was pregnant and it was going to end up being Jesse’s, and what an ending that would have been! But I was completely wrong, and I did love the way the story actually ended.]

This is truly a beautiful story and I’m so glad I had the chance to read it.

Review: AGAIN, BUT BETTER by Christine Riccio

Rating: 2.5/5 stars

The story opens up with Shane on a plane to London for a study abroad in college. The beginning of this book was not very good. It felt like the kind of story a high schooler would write, to be honest. But about 150 pages in, I noticed a huge change in the tone of the story, the maturity of the characters, the writing style, and the overall plot, and suddenly I became more interested. The more I read, the more I liked it, and by the end, I actually enjoyed the story. And I love how it ended.

The first half of the story takes place in 2011 and it is so obvious this is the case because of all the pop culture references and the unnecessary description of how things were back then to make it clear we aren’t reading a book set in 2019.

Six years after the study abroad, Shane and Pilot go through a “time warp” back to 2011 and have the chance to literally redo their year abroad. I was hoping when the synopsis said they could redo their year that it was like them deciding to take a trip back to revisit London in the present and relive some of the moments they had on their study abroad, not them actually going back in time. However, even though the plot basically happens twice, Shane and Pilot going to the exact same places in the same cities, the story doesn’t feel repetitive, which makes me really happy.

Shane describes herself as socially anxious: she has trouble making friends and talking to guys and doing anything outside of her comfort zone. I would also describe myself as a socially anxious person, however I did have friends and relationships in college. Not a lot, but I was not completely by myself. After learning this about Shane right from the beginning, I thought it was strange the decisions she started to make. She seemed to have no problems befriending her flatmates, and she walked right over to the cute guy to introduce herself, which is something I never would have done. So right away that felt out of character for her. Her social anxiety felt like the kind of social anxiety that everyone experiences from time to time, but nothing extreme or really even worth noting.

Christine mentions in the author’s note in the beginning how this is the book she wishes she would have had when she started college because she was all alone. What I can’t understand then is how Shane is able to be so outgoing with boys right from the get-go. I can’t imagine that someone with the level of anxiety she claims to have would have felt comfortable walking right up to a cute guy and saying “hi” and then going to the store with him and then flirting with him mere hours after they met. I feel like I’m a halfway capable person in the social department but I never could have done that because I was always way too shy around guys. So for Christine wanting to write a book that’s relatable to early-twenty-somethings, that’s a pretty unrelatable thing to include, especially at the beginning before Shane’s character has any time to develop. She even says, “I don’t usually say stuff like that to people I’ve just met.” And let’s not even talk about the glaring insta-love that develops within the first few hours of their meeting.

Something that bothered me about this entire book was the amount of repetition in the phrases used in any given scene. The wording could have been changed to give some variance, but frequently the same set of words was just repeated from sentence to sentence, and it got tiring. (It is so ironic to me that a lot of the individual wording feels repetitive when the plot happening twice does not feel repetitive, as I mentioned earlier.) In the same vein, literally every time Shane stands up, the chair she was sitting in falls over. I’m pretty sure this has happened to me only twice in my whole life so far, yet I kid you not it happened to her every single time she stood up. Like so often that I actually lost count. Talk about a realistic main character.

Another detail I want to note is the amount of unnecessary descriptions of mundane activities. I remember watching in one of Christine’s videos about her writing process for this book that she was trying to cut out like 30,000 words or some ridiculous number from the final draft, and I think the end result was still longer than it was supposed to be. I’m baffled by this because there were sentences upon sentences that didn’t need to be there. Every detail about Shane’s daily actions is mentioned. In one scene when they go to Starbucks, there are four sentences in a row about their time spent waiting in line. Was that necessary or interesting? No, I thought not.

The unnecessary detail and repetition in the writing was a big factor in the book feeling amateur for me. I’ve mentioned in many reviews before that the writing style is the biggest factor in me liking a book. The story itself in Again, but Better was interesting and fun, and the characters were okay, but the novice writing tendencies were a huge hindrance to the book.

What I enjoyed the most about this book was being able to relate to the setting. I, too, went on a study abroad to London and stayed in a flat with other people in my college program, and we had a communal kitchen where we would all hang out just like the characters in the book. In reading about those parts, I was able to picture the scenes perfectly because I already knew the setting. Every single place Shane went in the book (with the exception of Italy), I also went while on my study abroad in college. London, Paris, even Edinburgh was the exact same for me. It was so much fun to remember all those adventures I had and relive them through her eyes and imagine her doing what I did. I could picture all the minor details and I loved it; the setting felt very genuine, and that’s the biggest compliment I have for this story.

Another thing I enjoyed was that the plot was engaging enough to keep me reading. I never felt like I was forcing myself to pick up the book, even though the writing was sometimes cheesy and the characters one dimensional. It was easy for me to get through the book, which I was grateful for, plus the short chapters were a breath of fresh air after reading primarily fantasy books with long chapters for the past five months.

The story also gets tremendously more interesting after Amy shows up in the picture. Certain events happen that just ramp up the tension and had my eyes glued to the page to see what was going to happen next. This is also when I saw a huge increase in the quality of writing and the maturity of the story.

Music plays a big role in the story. All the chapter titles are from song lyrics, plus Pilot’s passion is playing music and he and Shane constantly reference different songs. Also, on an unrelated note, I like that Shane calls Pilot “Pies.” The story is cute and the romance is cute. However, the author tried too hard to add humor and funny dialogue but it just felt forced to me and not at all funny. I read all the dialogue in my head in a high-pitched overenthusiastic voice because that’s honestly how the story feels like it is written, where everything feels like it ends with an exclamation point.

It seems obvious that this could go without saying but the main character, Shane, is a replica of Christine. They look and talk the same and they have identical personalities. There’s nothing inherently wrong with writing yourself as the main character, but it’s worth mentioning at least.

I mentioned in one of my updates that Again, but Better feels like Anna and the French Kiss to me. Basic contemporary romance, European setting, studying abroad, the “absolutely perfect” cute guy, underlying cheating, unnecessary explanations for everything, etc. I didn’t like Anna and the French Kiss, and this one was only slightly better.

I casually watch Christine’s YouTube channel so when I found out she was writing a book I was interested to read it. However, the real reason I read Again, but Better when I did instead of putting it off for a few years is because I am moderating the book club at work, and this book was chosen as the first month’s pick. I’m glad I read the book and was able to support Christine, but I also think my time of enjoying romantic contemporaries like this one is mostly behind me. This novel felt too young, even though Shane is in her early twenties like I am, and I just couldn’t relate to her like I thought I should have been able to. This is definitely a young adult book, and young adult contemporaries are just not my thing anymore, unfortunately. I do think this book will be wonderful for many people, probably girls still in high school or just starting college, so if this sounds like something you’d enjoy then give it a go. I probably would have liked it quite a bit more myself if I were younger, but alas, I am in my mid-twenties now and my reading tastes have changed quite a bit since I was in high school.

I have to note this from an editor’s perspective that whoever edited this book does not know how to use en-dashes, and the context can actually get confusing when a hyphen is used instead. I stumbled over words on a few occasions because I was reading as if it were a hyphen when clearly an en-dash was intended. One example among many is “I need an eye contact-less second,” and I seriously thought she was talking about contact lenses and I was very confused. That’s such a clunky way to word that sentence anyway; why not just say, “I need a second without eye contact”? We won’t talk about any other editing errors I noticed.

I really liked the ending of the book. However, here’s how I was secretly hoping it would end: [SPOILERS: Pilot and Shane decide to just live through the past again and make a better future for themselves and finally admit their feelings for each other, and you think it’s going to be a happily ever after until Shane accidentally pushes the button one day (because we know she’s clumsy after always knocking over her chair) and they return to 2017 and forget their redo trip to London. They end up back in the elevator and go about their lives but they have this inkling that they need to see each other again so they meet up and decide they need to give each other a chance because neither of them is happy with their current life so they break up with their partners and finally get together and move on from there, and then essentially it ends the same but six years later and with added tension.]

Review: THE WELL OF ASCENSION by Brandon Sanderson

Rating: 5/5 stars

After rereading Mistborn, I knew I wanted to reread The Well of Ascension as well because I remember this installment being my favorite of the trilogy despite not remembering much of what happened in the book except the ending.

Basically, the whole plot can be summed up thus: the siege. The siege at Luthadel constituted about ninety percent of the plot, obviously with many subplots and politics occurring.

This book is very political. Much of it is about how to handle the city now that Elend is its king, how to create a fair government, how to deal with three invading armies, how to grow and develop into a leader, how to trust those around you, etc.

I love the character development we get to see in this book. Elend goes through some obvious maturing thanks to Tindwyl. Vin has to learn what friends are and what trust is and what love is. I can even see changes in the minor characters as they are confronted with the siege and all the issues they are battling in Luthadel. No character has such a vast arc as Sazed, however. 

Sazed goes through a vast journey of doubt and reflection in The Hero of Ages, and you can see the instances in this book that caused him to reach that low place. SPOILERS AHEAD: [The initial seeds were planted when Sazed visited the warehouse and had no religions to offer the woman who had already lost five children and was soon going to lose her last child. He realized there was nothing left to rebel against by preaching religions long dead, so he started to wonder what good they were anymore.
He then went a long time without preaching any religions until he told Clubs about the religion of Dadradah and gave him a wooden token of that sect. Then the black hole of doubt formed when Sazed saw Clubs lying dead in the snow, the wooden talisman still around his neck. “It hasn’t helped,” Sazed had said.
Then, to top it all off, Sazed finds Tindwyl’s body and he realizes that none of the religions gave him comfort during this time or helped to save those who he had lost. “My life,“ thought Sazed, “has been a sham.” Losing the woman he loved was the true catalyst for his journey of self-discovery that we see in the next book.
And finally, at the end, Sazed returns to the Conventical of Seran and reads the true inscription on the wall and realizes he has been tricked all along by the changed words of the recording. “It was the final blow, the last strike that killed whatever was left of his faith,” we read.]
Sazed’s trial and internal conflict is one of my favorite character arcs of growth and reflection in any book I’ve read. It’s so raw and honest.

Like I did with the first book, I am including here all the instances of foreshadowing I noticed while reading. This section is full of HUGE SPOILERS:
[—The first line of the book: “I write these words in steel, for anything not set in metal cannot be trusted.” Hm, that doesn’t foreshadow like half the plot of this book or anything. . . .
—Elend saying, “Do you honestly think that a Terriswoman would try to kill me?”
—Ham jokes that Cett kicked out Breeze because he was found with Cett’s daughter. Little did we know . . .
—“Kandra can’t kill humans.” But it didn’t say anything about them being allowed to kill animals or other kandra. This is more reading between the lines than foreshadowing.
—Zane tells Elend, “You are, after all, his only son.” But Zane is also Straff’s son. Not necessarily foreshadowing but definitely a hint of the reveal during my reread.
—Zane hearing “God’s” voice telling him to kill just about everyone he meets. An intuitive reader would be able to piece together that the only characters hearing voices in their minds are those with bits of metal piercing their skin.
—Dockson saying about the idea of koloss attacking Luthadel: “I say we worry about that when, and if, they arrive.” Oh they will arrive, no ifs about it.
—In the logbook, Kwaan mentions that the Hero of Ages will have a birthmark on his arm. I do not remember if this turns out to be true or not but it is still interesting noting this specific detail that was easily overlooked during my first readthrough.
—Vin saying, “Maybe Zane isn’t fully under Straff’s control,” because we later find out that Ruin is controlling him too, or at least influencing him.
—Vin outright claims that “the Hero of Ages will have to come again.” Hm, I wonder what’s going to happen in book three.
—When Breeze is soothing Sazed and Tindwyl in the warehouse, he makes some observations that foreshadow them falling in love later.
—Elend thinks about the Koloss, “Whatever is in those pouches, could it be the way Jastes controls the creatures?” Indeed, it could be. This is some of the more obvious foreshadowing because the text tells you outright that this is true even before you know what’s in the pouches.
—The koloss say, “We are humans.” We still don’t know about Hemalurgy at this point in the series but it has been referenced so many times in passing.
—Zane telling us about the spike through his chest also foreshadows Hemalurgy.
—Tindwyl tells Sazed, “The Hero of Ages won’t be Terris.” Hehehe, just you wait.
—Sazed states, “Religions are often very careful with their writings.”
—Zane comments that “God” (AKA Ruin) never told him to kill Vin, and “God” says, “Of course I didn’t tell you to kill her” because he knew that Vin would be the one to release him from the Well, so she’d need to stay alive.
—Ham says, “Maybe Kell is out there somewhere, watching over us.” This foreshadows Mistborn: Secret History.
—“The longer they traveled [to Terris], the weaker the thumpings seemed” foreshadows that the Well is actually back in Luthadel instead of in Terris.]

I love this book and this whole series and I’m so glad to be rereading it to refresh my mind with all the details I had forgotten. I highly recommend this series to any fantasy lovers out there.

“Do not dismiss someone’s beliefs because you do not understand them.”

Review: MISTBORN: THE FINAL EMPIRE by Brandon Sanderson

Rating: 5/5 stars

This is my favorite series. Even though I read it only three years ago, it was time for a reread because I missed this world and these characters and I wanted to be back with them. And I loved this book even more the second time around, which I didn’t know was possible.

My first time reading Mistborn, I found the beginning to be very slow and I struggled to get into it until around page 150, when Kelsier starts teaching Vin how to use Allomancy. Upon my reread, I still found the beginning to be slow but I appreciated it much more because I could see the crucial world building happening and the whole plot was being set up and characters were being defined. It’s very political but it’s absolutely worth sticking out because this is the most intricate and incredible series I’ve ever read.

Allomancy is the main magic system, which focuses on ingesting different metals to give you different abilities. It’s highly complex in how it all works yet it’s easy to understand (especially with reference to the Ars Arcanum at the back). It’s also downright cool. I’ll never get tired of reading about Allomantic fights and seeing all the incredible ways the characters can use their metals.

I forgot how political and dark this book was. Most of this book is political maneuvering, planning for raids, recruiting an army, spreading gossip at balls, weakening the structure of the nobility, yet I enjoyed it. Despite loathing politics in real life, I find political intrigue in fantasy books to be one of the most enjoyable elements for me because I love to see how everything is planned behind the scenes and then come together at the end. Plus the politics here tie seamlessly into the rich history and lore that is set up as the basis for the story, and we see how the governmental structure caused much of that history to be lost over centuries. It’s all fascinating.

Besides writing politics so well, another thing Sanderson does well is his worldbuilding. Scadriel is expansive, especially when looked at in the grand scheme of the Cosmere, and he is constantly adding on more intricate details in each chapter. He always reminds you how dreary it is in Luthadel, with ash falling from the sky and everything being grey and the mists swirling around at night. It paints a whole scene in your mind.

The atmosphere isn’t the only grey aspect in this book: we also have tons of morally grey characters with a range of personalities. My first time reading this series, Vin was my favorite character. Now upon rereading it, even though I still love Vin and Kelsier and Elend, Sazed is my favorite character (although I think that’s because I already know how he will grow throughout the series so I appreciated him much more in this book the second time around). I like Sazed’s demeanor and I appreciate his devotion to his calling and how seriously he takes religion. He always talks about various religions and asks people if they want to convert, but not in a begging preachy way, more in a way that’s liked him asking “would knowing about this religion help you find peace and joy in this world?” and I really admire that about him, how he wants to help people in that way. He’s very complex, and he goes through one of the most intimate and soul-searching trials of self-identity and doubt across this series that I’ve ever seen and it’s beautiful and heartbreaking to watch.

“The right belief is like a good cloak, I think. If it fits you well, it keeps you warm and safe. The wrong fit, however, can suffocate.” —Sazed, on finding the right religion.

I didn’t realize how much of this book I had forgotten over the past three years. Minor details and connecting events. I remembered all the major plot points so rereading it was exciting because I was like “I know this is going to happen, but I cannot remember or even see now how we will get from here to there,” so it was so much fun to go on that journey again.

I never realized how much foreshadowing happens in this first book for events later in the series. So many details I overlooked the first time I read it but that I saw this time and I just sat there with wide eyes as it all dawned on me, saying, “Ohhh....” It’s incredible to see how everything wraps together, that it was all planned out from the beginning. Sanderson is truly an incredible writer to leave hints all throughout this book for the events to come in later books, and it made this reread so worth it. I can’t imagine how much he had to plan this series out before he began writing it.
Here are just a few of the foreshadowed events I can remember:

**SPOILERS FOR THE MISTBORN SERIES FROM HERE ON**
[—There’s foreshadowing for Marsh becoming an Inquisitor when he’s called Ironeyes.
—There’s foreshadowing that Kelsier is going to die and become the religious leader when Sazed explained to him of the Valla religions, how the followers stayed determined longer than any other and they believed in their leaders even though they were dead. Kelsier also makes many statements throughout the book that foreshadow him becoming a martyr.
—Vin telling Kelsier that everyone leaves her and asking him when he’s going to leave her foreshadows his death.
—Vin and Elend’s conversations foreshadow their future relationship. I couldn’t help but giggling at times because I already know what happens to them in The Well of Ascension.
—There’s foreshadowing about Hemalurgy, even though it’s never explicitly mentioned in this book, because of Vin’s earring and how she can hear Reen’s voice once she puts it in but it’s actually Ruin.
—So many of the epigraphs before each chapter foreshadow events to come in the rest of the trilogy. They reference the Bands of Mourning (though not by name), the Well of Ascension (also not by name), and the fate of the world and end of the series. Seriously incredible when you look at it as a whole, that Sanderson was dropping these hints back at the beginning.
—There are so many other instances that I wish I would have written down as I was reading, but there were little foreshadowed details here and there that tied the whole story together. This book is definitely more intricate on the second go around.

I do think the end when Vin goes into Kredik Shaw was a little too easy for her, like when and where did she learn these new techniques to defeat the Inquisitors? However, I’ll forgive this being easy because of the unexpected way in which she defeats the Lord Ruler.]

This is absolutely my all-time favorite series. It completely changed my mind and opened my eyes about fantasy and made me fall in love with the genre. It is unlike anything else I’ve read; it’s very unique even while having a plot that’s not entirely original. I mean it has three separate magic systems, each of which is complex enough to garner its own series, but to mix them all together—Mistborn is captivating and full of surprises, and the series has so many facets that contribute to it being a truly great work of fantastical literature. I will never stop loving and recommending this book.

As Kelsier said, “There’s always another secret.”

Review: EVIDENCE OF THE AFFAIR by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

I read this short story in my endeavor to read all of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s books. I don’t normally read or care for short stories, but since I like Reid’s writing style and the premise of this one sounded interesting, I thought I would give it a try.

I did end up enjoying the story and more than I expected to, given the length. I thought the plot and characters would be less developed, but Reid knows how to make even a short story captivating. I liked the epistolary method of telling the story as well. By telling the story in letters, the reader hears only what the writers say, not always what they’re thinking, so a lot of information about the situation is intentionally left out and must be inferred. Likewise, we sometimes only see one side of the story, and it added to the tension.

I got so wrapped up in the lives of Carrie and David that I could not stop reading; I read the whole story in one sitting (not that that’s hard to do). It’s a beautiful but tragic story, and sadly relatable. It seems to be propelled by this force of what is to come, pushing them toward a moment of finality.  I found it interesting the stark juxtaposition between the two couples; they had completely opposite lives yet wanted what the other had.

Also, I LOVED seeing the Daisy Jones reference in here. It took me by such surprise.

I didn’t originally plan on writing a review for this little story but I became so captivated by it that I needed to share my feelings after all. I would recommend. Reid’s writing is as beautiful as ever. I think anyone who has been conflicted about choosing between two options, not even necessarily two people, could relate to the story. One is right and good but the other is what I actually want. Which do I choose? How do I choose? We’ve all been there.

Review: DAISY JONES & THE SIX by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Rating: 5/5 stars

I would recommend this book if you have any interest in reading about a fictional biography of a seventies rock band that contains drama and hope and heartbreak and is just an all-around great story with realistic characters and emotions.

The chemistry and tension between Daisy and Billy was nearly palpable. Each of the characters was so dynamic as well. The detail put into the lives of the band members was so extensive that it feels like Daisy Jones & The Six was a real rock band, and oh how I wish they were.

I loved that Billy was really trying to put forth the effort to be a good husband and father, but he also had the controlling and nonchalant side in the studio that made the whole band dislike him at times.

Daisy Jones was something else herself, always getting caught up in the drugs and the alcohol and the late nights, and back to the drugs. I wonder how realistic of a portrayal her life was to the lives of some real rock stars in the 1970s.

My favorite character was Karen. I really liked her voice actor on the audiobook, and her being the keyboardist, I could relate because I play the piano myself.

The real star of the book is Camila though. I love how headstrong Camila is and that she didn’t let Billy’s decisions ruin her life but saw him for who he could be and helped him become that person again. She was so supportive and loving and stuck it out through the rough times, and I loved that about her, just her willingness to never give up on Billy despite everything that got in their way.

I don’t know much about the music industry or what it’s like to record an album or anything like that, so it was nice to get a taste of that in this book. There were references to musical terms that I didn’t know but it made the story sound that much more genuine, and it’s worth noting that not knowing everything mentioned didn’t detract from the narrative in any way. I loved the inside look into the music scene in the seventies.

I listened to the audiobook while reading along with the book so I didn’t get confused about who was speaking, and I would definitely recommend this method for consuming the book. Because the entire story is told as a documentary transcript, it was basically made to be listened to as an audiobook, and the full cast narration definitely helped in that regard.

I am so so excited to see this book become a tv show. I want to see the band’s whole career play out on screen. I want to see Daisy’s fashion. I want to hear the songs and watch the band record them. I honestly would be fine just watching people read this whole book like a bland documentary because I just want to see something. I especially want to hear all ten of the songs from Aurora and see its infamous album cover. I really hope the show does the book justice; I can’t wait.

I loved this book, but it’s no surprise because I expected that I would. I loved The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo so much that I knew I had to check out Reid’s newest book, Daisy Jones & The Six. I love her writing style, and now I want to read every book that Taylor Jenkins Reid has written. Her writing has such a way of captivating you and drawing you into the story and connecting you with the characters, who feel so genuine and real, and the whole experience is wonderful. She’s an excellent author.

“You have to have faith in people before they earn it. Otherwise it’s not faith, right?” 

Review: DREYER'S ENGLISH by Benjamin Dreyer

Rating: 4/5 stars

I was casually flipping through this book at my bookstore on a slow day and knew immediately I was going to enjoy the whole thing just based off the two-page-long first chapter, so I decided that I had to read it.

Here’s the thing: I love the English language. I studied the linguistic side of it in school, I got an editing minor so I could become a copyeditor and fulfill my lifelong dream of getting paid to read books and fix their mistakes (which hasn’t happened yet, but maybe someday), and I pride myself on being able to use the language “correctly.” (If you’ve ever texted me you know I type only in full sentences without any abbreviations and with proper punctuation because it hurts me to do otherwise.)

I sort of miss my days in college when I was constantly learning and being challenged, and this book brought me right back there. It felt like something I would read for one of my classes, yet I read it of my own volition and still enjoyed it.

Dreyer essentially has written a style guide of the English language as he uses it. Does that sound particularly interesting to read? Not really. But is it interesting to read? Oh yes.

I’m glad to see that he’s not strictly a prescriptionist. As he mentioned and as I’ve heard many times in school, you have to know the rules to be able to break them. He talks about these classic rules and which ones should stand and which ones can be forgotten (or tactfully ignored), and he gives examples to support his reasoning. He would even purposefully break the rule in the same sentence that was explaining what the rule was. It was ironic and made me giggle. And he disagrees with Chicago on a number of things. As someone who adheres to Chicago’s guidelines myself, I couldn’t believe the chief copyeditor at Random House would choose not to abide by its standards but by his own rules; however, I quickly came to side with Dreyer on many of these concepts because his reasoning was valid and I couldn’t argue.

What I enjoyed the most about Dreyer’s English was his humor and wit. You didn’t think I could literally laugh out loud while reading a book about language, did you? Well, I did. Multiple times.

Dreyer has a fun way of defining words and differentiating them from similar words, so much so that I’m considering bookmarking certain words in this book rather than in my Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage, which is my go-to source for easily confused words.

This book was a good refresher of my editing skills, some of which I had forgotten. Plus there were a number of things I learned while reading this book, some of which I’m ashamed to say I didn’t know before. Always learning, aren’t we.

If you are an editor, a writer, a fan of correctly used English, or someone who enjoys learning about style, usage, spelling, punctuation, etc. then this book is for you. I think it has earned a permanent place on my shelf, and I’m very glad I took the time to read it.

“The important thing to remember about peeves and crotchets is that your own peeves and crotchets reflect sensible preferences based on a refined appreciation of the music and meaning of the English language, and that everyone else’s are the products of diseased minds.”

Review: THE BLOOD MIRROR by Brent Weeks

Rating: 5/5 stars

**This review contains SPOILERS for The Blood Mirror and the other Lightbringer books.**

I do think this is the weakest of the four books so far, and it was also my least favorite so far, despite all the awesome things that happened, but it was still an amazing book (you’ll notice I still rated it five stars).

The Blood Mirror started out with a bang from chapter one. Right in the beginning we discover that Marissia is actually the White’s—Orea Pullawr’s—granddaughter, and she was never a slave, only a spy for the White. I was sad when she died because I was actually starting to care for her more than just as a passing side character.

Karris has her new role as the White now. I think she’s perfectly fitted to be the White, and I’m so glad she made it instead of someone else who is of an evil mind.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned the religious undertones of the series before, but it’s one of my favorite aspects. Weeks himself is Christian, and you can see lots of Christian doctrine and philosophies woven into the story, but not in a preachy way. It’s honestly so wonderful. I love when religion influences a fantasy story. The characters defer to Orholam as their deity, but there are many levels of piety in the books. Lots of history and philosophy is religion-based as well. It just adds so much to the story in my opinion.

I also don’t know if I’ve mentioned in any of my reviews yet that these books are hilarious, which is a detail well worth noting because I have laughed, cackled, and giggled on many occasions during this series, and this book was no exception. Especially during the banter between Kip’s “Mighty” crew, which was a downright good time; they’re a great group together.

Cruxer has really become a great character. I like that he is authoritative without being arrogant. None of the rest of the crew stood out to me as much though.

I was surprised to see Kip draft paryl and chi. I always expected Gavin, as the Prism, to be able to draft the outer-spectrum legendary colors, but I guess Kip, as a full polychrome, should be able to draft them as well. Kip keeps evolving, book by book. I honestly can’t think of another character in any series I’ve read who has undergone so much change and development across all the books as Kip does. He has definitely grown up a lot since his immature ways in The Black Prism. 

Tisis grew on me too. In the first book, she was such a forgettable character, but now she has become an important character, and her personality has gotten much more dynamic. I don’t dislike her like I did when she contributed to Kip’s failing the Threshing in book one, and like when she was trying to seduce Andross. She honestly has become a likable character now and I can’t wait to see how she evolves in the final book. I also really admire Weeks for including her issue of vaginismus in the story and raising awareness of this uncommonly known but very real condition.

So we find out Gavin put the dead man in the prison wall as a form of will-casting of himself before he trapped Dazen. Then Gavin was trapped in the prison and was remembering everything from the past, which he apparently forgot. Because he drafted black luxin which made him forget. Because he’s a black monochrome. THAT was shocking information. He stabbed and killed all of Karris’s brothers to get their colors to become a “Prism,” and thus we learn the true meaning of his title of Black Prism. I am curious though about why Gavin didn’t halo. Black absorbs colors so maybe it was absorbing his colors (he did have to keep killing wights to maintain power and the ability to draft colors) and thus allowing him to not halo because the color was going to the Black instead of to his eyes. But also he’s using stolen colors—I thus realized that every Prism drafts with stolen colors because the blinding knife takes and grants colors to them that weren’t originally their own—so maybe using stolen colors is a factor in not haloing, too. I essentially want confirmation on why he doesn’t halo if he’s not the true Prism.

After this revelation, we now learn we’ve had an unreliable narrator for the past three books so we don’t know what information has been true or fabricated since Gavin has made himself forget his horrible memories.

How do we know the dead man is telling the truth though? He broke Dazen down, so maybe he’s just trying to break Gavin down now too. We don’t know he’s real; we only have his word about what happened in Gavin’s (real Dazen’s) past. Plus he says there is no white luxin, which is obviously not true; he’s either lying or Dazen will-cast that belief into him to confuse present-day Gavin. Gavin already drafted white luxin, although that information came from Ironfist, who we now know we can’t fully trust either. I still believe white luxin exists though.

The dead man later cursed at Gavin in another language. It was printed in characters I’ve never seen before. I wonder if that will come into play later, if it will somehow be important in the last book. Gavin realized that the dead man is actually some kind of separate identity than a will-cast version of himself. What exactly are his origins then? I also wonder exactly how much of what he was telling Gavin is true.

Also, if Gavin took the colors from and then killed all the White Oak brothers, how did Koios survive and then come back as Lord Omnichrome, a full-spectrum polychrome? We learn that Koios was a black drafter himself, so maybe when Gavin used black luxin to strip him of his power, he merely became a non-drafter instead of dying. I would like to know this information because all I can do is speculate.

So Zymun is the new Prism-elect now. I really dislike him. I hope something happens to prevent him from becoming the actual Prism. Even if Gavin ends up dying in The Burning White, I do not want Zymun to have any kind of control. And at least Karris realizes now what kind of a person he truly is.

Who decided the Prism’s sentence is a multiple of seven years, by the way? Is that when he actually loses power and dies or is that when the Chromeria kills him by their choice even if he could be a viable drafter for many more years? And what if all drafters have the potential to be full-spectrum polychromes but what you can actually draft is all about your will? This is just a theory of mine, but how much information does the Chromeria hide from the general populace? Probably way more than we realize. It is interesting that even Andross comments that the Chromeria’s regime is “the absolute worst way to rule.”

And then we find out that Kip is Andross’s son? Andross’s??? I thought when he told Gavin that he, real Dazen, was Felia’s last son that he meant that Sevastain was not her son because he’s the youngest brother. But Kip?? What happened to Sevastian? He probably meant Felia’s last living son since Sevastian is dead.

So Andross seduced Katalina for documents. What documents did he want that badly? Is that who she was referencing when she said that “he” raped her, was it Andross? He did also say that Lina seduced the real Gavin to get back at Andross, so is it at all possible that Kip is actually Gavin’s son after all? Oh I hope so. Andross is such a nasty character, but he’s also so well written that he’s still interesting to read about, and he does have a grey side—he’s not all black inside—so that makes his decisions even more questionable.

Andross said that white luxin was extinct. But we know that Gavin drafted some earlier. Ironfist brought that chunk of white luxin to the White. My theory is that the White stowed it away somewhere and wrote down in her papers for Karris where it was, but then those papers were stolen by the Order, so I think the Order will figure out where the white luxin is and acquire it and use it for malicious purposes.

So the Order promised Ironfist they would foil any assassination attempts on the Nuqaba’s life, yet they then commanded Teia to assassinate the Nuqaba. This does not follow. Is it possible they know of Ironfist’s dual allegiance and are punishing him?

I like Teia, despite her being tangled up in the Order. She thinks she’s being asked to kill Ironfist, but it seems obvious that she’s going to have to kill Gavin instead once he completes Grinwoody’s orders. Killing Orholam? Is that even possible? That’s going to be a main plotline in the last book. I think Gavin’s seventh goal is to become a god, only because Grinwoody commented that he would probably be able to accomplish his seventh goal by completing this mission. I wouldn’t think something like that would be Gavin’s goal, but I can’t think of anything else it could be. 

Why is the book called The Blood Mirror? I know there’s the charred mirror that Grinwoody was showing Gavin, but why did that small thing become the title for this work? I was expecting “Mirror” to refer to a person who is a Mirror, like Janus Borig was, but I was wrong. My honest guess is because they needed a B-word to be the title to match with the other books and this is the best they could do. Unless the mirror becomes important in the next book, who knows.

This book was another excellent installment in the Lightbringer series. I am highly looking forward to October when The Burning White will be released and I will (hopefully) get all the answers I’m seeking. I have some predictions for what will happen in the final book:
—Either Gavin or someone else will reveal to the world that he is actually Dazen.
—Kip will travel to and possibly pass through the Everdark Gates and we will figure out their significance and what lies beyond them. They have been elusively brought up too many times for them not to be important.
—Gavin will climb the tower and “kill” Orholam and magic will be disrupted, then Gavin will die, probably by Teia’s hand.
—Gods of the Two Hundred will come to battle.
—We will get confirmation about what Gavin’s seventh goal was.
—Ironfist’s true allegiance will be revealed.

“A drafter was a candle. She was made to bring light and be consumed in the process.”