Review - The Immortal Crown (Age of X #2) by Richelle Mead

Gameboard of the Gods introduced religious investigator Justin March and Mae Koskinen, the beautiful supersoldier assigned to protect him. Together they have been charged with investigating reports of the supernatural and the return of the gods, both inside the Republic of United North America and out. With this highly classified knowledge comes a shocking revelation: Not only are the gods vying for human control, but the elect—special humans marked by the divine—are turning against one another in bloody fashion.

Their mission takes a new twist when they are assigned to a diplomatic delegation headed by Lucian Darling, Justin’s old friend and rival, going into Arcadia, the RUNA’s dangerous neighboring country. Here, in a society where women are commodities and religion is intertwined with government, Justin discovers powerful forces at work, even as he struggles to come to terms with his own reluctantly acquired deity.

Meanwhile, Mae—grudgingly posing as Justin’s concubine—has a secret mission of her own: finding the illegitimate niece her family smuggled away years ago. But with Justin and Mae resisting the resurgence of the gods in Arcadia, a reporter’s connection with someone close to Justin back home threatens to expose their mission—and with it the divine forces the government is determined to keep secret.

Title: The Immortal Crown
Author: Richelle Mead
Series: Age of X #2
Length: 389 pages
Publisher: Penguin
Original Publication Date: May 26th 2014 

I'll be honest again. Although I am a big fan of Richelle Mead, the first book of this series was a great disappointment to me. I wasn't impressed at all, but one of the main characters, Mae, is such a good one I couldn't just let her go.

In Gameboard of the Gods we got to know the characters, the world and we got a short, action-packed plot, a little taste of what we can expect from the series. In The Immortal Crown things get further complicated. The Gods chosen their “players” and ready to face them off. The “chosen ones” not only have to suit their gods’s book, but are forced to fight against each other. Justin and Mae are thrown into this rough and bloody battleground and they, of course, still have to comply with their daily life.

The plot is still running on three different threads and, again, there are three POVs - Mae’s, Justin’s and Tessa’s.

For me, the most exciting part remains to be Mae. Most of the surprising, weird and exciting things happen to her. She has to face as well as accept things she has completely rejected in the past and does not even notice she’s in the center of the very game she tried her best to stay away from.

Justin - finally - is on the good path to my heart and I’m starting to like him. Of course he is still far away from being a favorite, but with Richelle stopping telling us - after every flippin’ 10th page - how INCREDIBLE he is, and rather lets HIM showing what he’s worth, lets US get to know him, I’m really starting to like this man. Keep this on, Richelle! He has some very good moments. I love the way he cares for Tessa, his constant arguing with his two ravens an how he’s torn between his desires and common sense.

However, my NEW FAVORITE is LUCIAN! He is so hard to figure out. Is he doing what he’s doing because he really believes in it or does he just playing along with the political frays? Either way, he’s pretty persuasive and completely swept me off my feet, that’s for sure!

In my review of GotG I said that Tessa’s POV somehow sticks out of the book, like a 'must have' YA thread the author trying to push into the novel to endear the series to the younger readers who otherwise would consider this series “too adult-y”. I WAS WRONG! I admit it. I should have known Richelle does everything for a reason. I can see that reason now. Both Tessa and her story is much more interesting now, and I have some clue on why is it so important this little adopted girl to have her own plot.

And of course there are the Gods. We shouldn't forget about them. Although they are working in the background for the time being, but wow! Compared to them everyone else is significantly underpowered. Even Justin, the genius or the cold, professional Mae. I'm very, very curious to see what's in store for them in the upcoming books because what was shown in The Immortal Crown… HOLY COW! It got me so freaking excited (especially the last lines) and I want to know more! I have so, SO many questions about them, either give me the next books or let me chat with Richelle a bit, because I NEED answers! I understand they’re fighting each other from the very beginning of time, but why involve humans? What do they want?

The missing romance from the first book slowly begins to make an appearance. I'm starting to feel the chemistry between the two main characters and while I would be happy with a Lucian + Mae pairing, I can see something between Justin and Mae now, too. Of course, we just can’t get enough of the misconceptions and unspoken secrets - seriously, is there even a series where the protagonists are able to sit down and talk to each other?? Yeah, yeah, I get it, there wouldn't be any complication then -, we can see the same thing here. Only if they’d share the important stuff with each other from the beginning, they’d be much further ahead now…

Favorite character(s): Mae
Favorite scene(s): Everything with THE GODS! They're incredible!

Overall: The Immortal Crown compensated for the bumpy start of the series. Finally I can see a true Richelle Mead book I always love. It’s exciting, sometimes shocking and that ending! I can literally feel a lot of people falling in love with the series right at the end of TIC. Without giving away too much here’s a hint: there’s a new character introduced at the end whom many of us adore.

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*ARC provided by publisher in exchange for honest review.

Review: Cloak & Silence by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Title: Cloak & Silence
Series: The League #6
Author: Sherrilyn Kenyon
Genre: Sci-fi Romance / MM Romance
Publisher: Self published
Date of publication: July 8th, 2013
Goodreads || Amazon

One of the fiercest soldiers the Phrixians have ever produced, Maris Sulle has been an outsider the whole of his life. He grew up with a secret that cost him everything- His birthright, his family and his military career. In all his life, he’s only had one love and he has sacrificed his own happiness to see his best friend reunited with the woman he loves. But now that his good deed is done, he feels lost and adrift. Even though they do their best to include him in their new family, he’s once again on the outside looking in.

Ture has spent his life hiding from everyone around him while trying desperately to fit in. His family, the world, you name it. Badly hurt by everyone he’s ever known, he trusts no one except his own best friend. And honestly, he can’t understand why he trusts her. Nor can he believe her when she describes a loyalty between friends the likes of which he’s never seen.

But when he is in his darkest hour, he’s saved by a hero he thought only existed in novels. A man who is every bit as scarred and mistrusting as he is. One who has no interest in being dragged into another relationship with anyone.

Having spent his life as a living study of doomed relationships, Maris is well aware of the courtship and fiasco that invariably follows. Still, there is something about Ture he can’t resist. Something that won’t let him walk away when he knows he should.

But when old enemies return to threaten them both, they either have to stand together or die alone.

Overall: I give it “only” 4.5 stars, because despite how good it was, it’s still just a short story and that is exactly what we got. Nothing special other than it’s loveable. And sometimes there’s repetition of certain “information” and phrases, which throws me off a little in general. So all in all, I’m happy Sherri was brave enough to write this and I got to read it. I definitely recommend reading C&S.

Read my full guest review at Exina Art 

ARC Review - Gameboard of the Gods by Richelle Mead

Title: Gameboard of the Gods
Author: Richelle Mead
Series: Age of X #1 
Length: 464 pages
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)

Original Publication Date: June 4th 2013

In a futuristic world nearly destroyed by religious extremists, Justin March lives in exile after failing in his job as an investigator of religious groups and supernatural claims. But Justin is given a second chance when Mae Koskinen comes to bring him back to the Republic of United North America (RUNA). Raised in an aristocratic caste, Mae is now a member of the military’s most elite and terrifying tier, a soldier with enhanced reflexes and skills.

When Justin and Mae are assigned to work together to solve a string of ritualistic murders, they soon realize that their discoveries have exposed them to terrible danger. As their investigation races forward, unknown enemies and powers greater than they can imagine are gathering in the shadows, ready to reclaim the world in which humans are merely game pieces on their board.

Gameboard of the Gods, the first installment of Richelle Mead’s Age of X series, will have all the elements that have made her YA Vampire Academy and Bloodlines series such megasuccesses: sexy, irresistible characters; romantic and mythological intrigue; and relentless action and suspense.

Everyone who knows me knows that I'm a big fan of Richelle Mead. I consider her a very good writer who writes her characters with great love and builds up the world in which the story takes place always with great care and professionalism. So I was really looking forward to this novel as well, since Richelle posted a lot of interesting things about the background info of the story, we constantly got brief details, quotations, which are just increased my want for GotG. After that, my joy knew no bounds when I had to opportunity long before the release, to get an ARC copy.

What did I expect?  What we always got from Richelle. Lovable, funny and strong characters,  an exciting and well-constructed world and a lot of twist in the story, which we can think of a lot and an ending that after I'll bite my nails and demand the sequel.

The first chapter gave me what I expected, a strong, brave, cool heroine, Mae Koskinen, a conflict which she dealt with her own specific way, and so it she got herself into a lot of trouble. The book is written in the third person. Most of the time it's from Justin's and Mae's perspective, but it will occasionally switch and spend time in the mind of and other character. So when the point of view has switched so suddenly from Mae to Justin I got really confused. After the exciting beginning, the story picked up a much slower pace, we got a lot of descriptions - I understand the need to introduce a world - but it was a bit much for me. When it comes to Richelle's books, I'm used to fast spinning events and the first half of this book was very slow and at times I felt that we were getting nowhere. The second half of the book was good, I loved when the  investigation (finally) set off, the mystery, and the complete meanings of the lot of information from the beginning were all falling into place like a jigsaw puzzle. And in the end! We got the punch line that we were waiting for, at least.

The Dystopian part of the world was perfect - at least for me. The classes, the background story, the cities, the people, the school, the ultra-modern equipment and any other description were very professional, well worthy of Richelle's reputation. However, then came the paranormal part. Religion, unexplained phenomena, mythology, constantly talking ravens in Justin mind. Separately, both world building would deserve a novel, or a series, but together...nah. Sometimes it created a big chaos and way hard to understand - not only for the characters, but for me too - what was going on.

As for the characters: As I already mentioned before, Mae is a strong, brave, cool heroine. I loved every inch of her, and in my humble opinion she would have been able to carry the whole story on her own.  I really liked that in addition to being almost perfect - because she's a beautiful young and hardcore professional soldier, she's lives in reality and walks on the ground. But still she has some flaws, her history and family background haunts her constantly making her vulnerable. I loved reading about her stuff and devoured the pages when she appeared. BUT - there was the other main character, Justin. Every heroine need a hero by her side. Well, we got one. But not exactly the kind of hero that I was hoping for. I'm used to Richelle creates such male characters with whom I'm able to instantly fall in mad love. The kind that where the author does not have to describe to me how HOT and good the guy is, because I can perfectly tell that based on his actions and behavior and I'd give anything for his real existence. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case here. Justin could not charm me. For me, he's a shallow, debased figure, whose only positive aspect is that he's capable of anything for his loved ones. But if Richelle wouldn't have describe how Justin is a charming, HOT guy, whom every woman has a crush on, I would have not found out myself. So the love story, which slowly developing between Mae and Justin,  for me was a pale and inauthentic. I just could not believe that a woman with such qualities as Mae, what could possibly like about a man like him. But in other cases, Richelle managed to create a my kind of hero. Mae's ex-boyfriend. There was no more than five pages involving him, but still, I knew, I FELT what she loved about him. Shame, really. Oh yeah, and Justin is smart, that's why they believe will have a chance to find out more about the mysterious murders, than the RUNA's best detective could.  In comparison, there is an interesting moment at the end of the book. I - who is not as smart as Justin -  had a pretty good call on who or what was behind these crimes. Justin faced with it, he got enough traces and clues and it was like a neon sign pointing the way to the answer and yet .. he had to think about it for long hours, before he realized what it was. TADAMMM, congratulations! * Lupi quietly banging her head against the wall *. I would have preferred if Mae would be the main character and Justing her partner (as it is now, unfortunately, vice versa), because she is much more interesting character, but this is unfortunately not a request show.

Favorite character(s): Mae
Favorite scene(s): Mae's decision after the ball and generally all of her parts.

Overall: Despite its flaws I see a great story in the depths of the book somewhere and as the second half of the book we jumped in the thick of things, I feel that it will be better. So I am looking forward to the sequel, because I'd like to read further about Mae and I also hope that Justin's character is going to be improved as well.

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