I’ve been reflecting on what I’ve read so far this year, and I’ve been making reviews for the advanced copies and did the Mid-Year Book Tag for YouTube, but I wanted to spend a little more time talking about my favourite reads of the year so far and collect those thoughts in one place. I did a video version of this last year for what I believed to be the best books of the year (so far), but since then I’ve accepted that some of the books I love to read may not necessarily be the best of books. This list will be in no particular order, just vaguely chronological, so let’s begin!
Continue reading “Best Reads of the Year (So Far)”Category: Emily Lloyd-Jones
The Drowned Woods by Emily Lloyd-Jones [ARC REVIEW]
She could not slay her own fears. But as for the men who’d made her afraid – they could bleed.
The Drowned Woods is another book that I’ve fallen completely in love with due to it hitting so many of my niche interests. A water diviner girl (the last of her kind), a fae-cursed boy, a chaotic-good heir to a thieves guild, and a corgi who may or may not be a spy. Along with three other characters, they’re on a quest to destroy a magical well that keeps the prince’s lands safe. It’s a story about folklores and magic and heists. It’s wonderful.
Continue reading “The Drowned Woods by Emily Lloyd-Jones [ARC REVIEW]”The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd-Jones [REVIEW]
This is another book that I’ve fallen completely in love with due to it hitting so many of my niche interests. A tough gravedigger girl, a soft mapmaker boy who can never find his way, and their undead goat adventure through mountains and folklore to face the curse of risen corpses and long-hidden truths about themselves. It’s a story about folktales and magic and family and undead corpses.
First love: the setting. This book is set in a village within a forest where the people have let history die because they no longer believe in magic. The Welsh influences and folklore was the perfect choice for a horror/influenced novel as I’ve grown up near Wales and hearing about all the ghost hauntings and supernatural sightings and other assorted spooky stuff. It was wonderfully atmospheric: the remains of a once glorious kingdom, a small village haunted by the past, and decades-old curses lingering within the woods.
Continue reading “The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd-Jones [REVIEW]”