tinkaton | 083 ☆

January-February's reading round up! We are off to a rough start this year, as I managed to read...2 novels and 2 graphic novels in two months. Technically I didn't even finish Heavenly Tyrant in February, I finished it in early March, but it did take up most of my February so I'm putting it in the February round up. And because otherwise I'd have zero books for February.

FICTION

Not for the Faint of Heart by Lex Croucher (★★★☆☆) [goodreads]

Historical, Romance. Like Croucher's previous YA book, NFTFOH is another take on British legend, this time Robin Hood. Healer-in-training Clem gets kidnapped by Mariel, a captain of the Merry Men who's trying to live up to the legacy of her grandfather, Robin Hood. But the people of the wood aren't fully on the Merry Men's side anymore, and to make matters worse, Mariel's father, current commander of the Merry Men, is captured in an ambush. Hoping to prove herself, Mariel sets out to rescue him, dragging Clem along with her and her band of bandits.

This was cute, but compared to how much I loved Gwen & Art Are Not in Love, this one kind of falls flat. The humor and tone were very similar to Gwen & Art, i.e. it's got that "A Knight's Tale" modern-ish vibe that I think is fun but of course YMMV. Unfortunately, not much about the characters or plot really stand out--I didn't dislike anyone, and I think Mariel was the most interesting one because she had the most going on character-wise, but otherwise there isn't a lot that's especially engaging. I guess overall I would say this book is just 'average' which is a bummer because I really enjoyed Gwen & Art and this book was similar in some regards, but it just doesn't have enough going for it.

(Also they kill off a side character in this and AGAIN it's such a weird shift in tone just like the last 1/3-ish of Gwen & Art, Lex Croucher what's up with that.)

Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao (★★☆☆☆) [goodreads]

Sci-Fi. Sequel to Iron Widow, the Pacific Rim-Chinese history mashup novel, following Wu Zetian as she deals with becoming empress, revamping the government, wasting time with some enemies-to-lovers crap, and conspiring to take down the gods in the heavenly court.

You would think this all sounds fine and good, except unfortunately it's not. There's just too much of this that's kind of a mess, and I say that as someone who enjoyed Iron Widow despite the messiness. Everything fun from IW is gone or barely present in this book--the giant robot fights, the OT3, Zetian actually getting to do stuff like murder people. Which you wouldn't think was possible with how long this book is! This needed to be cut down drastically, which I would have done by focusing way less on all the government stuff and Tumblr activism 101 speeches. The first half of this book is pretty boring tbh, it's like 500+ pages, and for what.

And then there's Qin Zheng... Introducing him was not helpful to Zetian's character at all because he definitely became the most interesting character in the book. I'm also kind of shocked how stupid it was to completely rip apart the Zetian/Yizhi/Shimin dynamic and replace it with Zetian/Qin Zheng which was nooot interesting. The best part was when she *spoilered* him at the end because I was not expecting that at all.

And then getting to the end and learning there's going to be ANOTHER book? My god. I can only hope it's more like book 1 than book 2.

GRAPHIC NOVELS

Suitor Armor, Vol. 1 by Purpah (★★★★☆) [goodreads]

Fantasy, Romance. Lucia, a fairy living in disguise in a human kingdom that's currently at war with the fairies, becomes enamored with a magically animated suit of armor she names Modeus. (Originally a Webtoon.)

A cute start to a fun-looking romantasy series that was recommended to me by a coworker. I feel like another chapter or so could've been added to this volume because it ends sort of randomly? But I'm looking forward to checking out the next volume. It is really funny that the main girl is into this suit of armor for literally no reason though, at least the mage guy who clearly has a crush on her has a personality.

Castle Swimmer, Vol. 1 by Wendy Martin (★★★★☆) [goodreads]

Fantasy, Romance. Merman Kappa is the Beacon, destined to fulfill the many prophecies of the various creatures of the sea. Prince Siren of the Shark kingdom is prophecied to kill the Beacon, which will lift the curse on the kingdom's inhabitants. But Siren can't bring himself to kill Kappa, and instead decides to help him escape... (Originally a Webtoon.)

I also picked this book up off a recommendation from a different coworker and I enjoyed it! The initial art style is a little...cartoon-y? but you can see in the bonus stuff at the back how the artist's style has changed over time which I always think is interesting to watch in ongoing webcomics. The plot is off to an interesting start, I'm definitely looking forward to checking out the next volume to see how Siren continues to avoid killing Kappa/how they finally free him lmao.

So...yeah, two disappointing sequels I'd been looking forward to in a row, 2025 is not starting off well on the reading front. Hopefully I'll have better luck with my current book, Mutual Interest by Olivia Wolfgang-Smith, of which I am about 60 pages into. (However I'm annoyed that the physical copy I'm reading doesn't open fully without putting some force into holding the pages open? Like it literally hurts to hold open for too long because I can't relax my hands lmao.)

I hope everyone's reading has been going better than mine so far! Anyone reading anything good?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I didn't enjoy Heavenly Tyrant either, despite having an absolute blast with Iron Widow (cathartic anger :D Also it was fun). It felt like a political pamphlet that was saying "all you need is a better dictator!" and I couldn't tell if the book really wanted us to believe that or if it was supposed to show us Actually That's Bad Too. The *spoilered* thing took me by surprise too... I kinda like that it happened but it felt like it came out of nowhere when we've been in Wu Zetian's PoV the whole time. But maybe I missed subtlety. I'll still check out the next book if it comes out, in hope that it brings back the fun bits of the first one!

So far this year I've enjoyed a lot Hannah Kaner's Godkiller (although the sequel is definitely a Middle Book haha) and Robert Jackson Bennet's The Tainted Cup. Ymmv though!!

Yeah HT just wasn't as fun as IW, I feel like they should have just focused on the Hundun stuff/heavenly court stuff, then maybe this could be a duology instead of a trilogy lmao. There were definitely some moments where I was like uh is anyone going to bring up that some of what the government is doing is bad sjhfdskjfs like I guess they got there eventually?? but it was touch and go there for a bit. And yeah the spoiler thing did take me by surprise mostly because I didn't think they would turn him into an antagonist for real (I'm assuming, for the next book?) but it wasn't surprising in the sense that I totally believe Zetian would have done it lol.

I think both of those are on my TBR already... yep just checked Goodreads and they are haha. So many books to read but no time!!

I still haven't got to Iron Widow but I keep hearing this about Heavenly Tyrant - disappointing! I hope the third book is good - if it isn't I probably won't bother with HT (though still intending to get to IW).

Yeah, it's a bummer because I was definitely looking forward to the sequel! I'll have to read reviews for the third book before I actually pick it up now lmao. But yeah Iron Widow is fun on its own at least, if you don't mind leaving a few things hanging at the end.

You say your reading isn't getting off to the best start, but that's two books and two graphic novels you wouldn't have read otherwise if you didn't pick them up! Your reading will pick up to what you want it to be. I know it will!

I get what you mean about what you've described about your current book. It's like it's tightly bound?

I really enjoyed A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab. It's YA fantasy (even though I feel like it's adult?), fast-paced, with a fun plot and decent characters. I read it in two weeks, which is a sign that I really enjoyed it! (It usually takes me around a month to finish a book.)

haha thank you! I have only myself to blame in January at least, I was reading a ton of fanfic lmao. for Feb I can blame Heavenly Tyrant for not being as good as I wanted it to be though jshfkjdfs

Yeah! it's weird because it's not even a really big book which is normally what I have trouble with holding lmao, it's just like...resistant to staying open.

I feel like I've had multiple VE Schwab books on my to read list for ages and yet never got around to any of them. Her stuff always seems to come highly recommended though!

I’m a big Castle Swimmer fan so happy to hear you’ve found it interesting so far! I think it gets a lot more riveting in later chapters.

Sorry to hear not all of these were up to your expectations, but I applaud you for getting through them regardless. Four books isn’t a bad start to the year at all!

I'm definitely curious to see where it goes once they get out of the prison!

Yeah, I'd been looking forward to reading both of them so I think I was extra disappointed when they weren't as good as the previous books. Normally I'm pretty easy-going so it's just unlucky I wasn't a big fan of two in a row lol

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