My review:🌟🌟🌟🌟

The Novice by Trudi Canavan continues to follow Sonea.  In the first book, she became a student at the Magician’s Guild, with Rothen as her mentor.  She’s made a friend of Dannyl, but he’s become an  Ambassador for the Guild, so is being sent off to Elyne.

Sonea is still trying to fit in with her classmates, whilst living a life so different to the one she knew before.  Sonea is a fish out of water, which readers can understand.  

I enjoyed this book, as it surprised me half way through, and gave more flesh to the world.  There is bullying in this book, just so you are warned.  

The Novice was published in 2002 and is available from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

You can follow Trudi Canavan on Facebook, Instagram and her website.

You can read my reviews for other books in the Black Magician series:

The Magicians’ Guild (book 1)

My review:🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

The Secret Chapter by Genevieve Cogman (The Invisible Library 6) is about a heist!  Irene and Kai, now representatives of the truce between the fae, dragons and librarians, are being sent off to get a book to stabilise a world that Irene is fond of.

They’re going to join forces for this heist, and the job is being put together by someone who wouldn’t look out of place in a Bond film as a villain!

This is fast paced, with lots of surprises and secrets! And with the change of relationship between Irene and Kai, there’s added challenges to any situation!

I’ve been really enjoying every book in this series so far, and this book did not disappoint!

The Secret Chapter was published 12th November 2019, and is available from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

You can follow Genevieve Cogman on Twitter, Facebook and her website.

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Pan Macmillan.

My reviews for the other books in the series are below:

The Invisible Library (book 1)

The Masked City (book 2)

The Burning Page (book 3)

The Lost Plot (book 4)

The Mortal World (book 5)

My review:🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

The Mortal World by Genevieve Cogman (The Invisible Library 5) has Irene without an apprentice now, as Kai resigned in the last book in order to maintain peace between the Library and the dragons, after the fallout of that book!  But that doesn’t mean that Kai has been returned home!

Vale is asked to go and investigate a murder which has happened at the peace talks between the fae, dragons and librarians.  These are top secret, and so Irene and Kai knew nothing about them, but Irene has been chosen as the librarians representative in the investigation.  There will also be a dragon and fae representatives!

If you thought one side was hard on the politics front, all three is even harder, along with a dragon being the murder victim, talk of the Blood Countess being there, and elderly librarians being outside of the Library!  Irene has her job cut out for her!

I enjoyed this evolution of the story, and seeing the different sides interacting!  The story is well told, and I just wanted to keep reading!

The Mortal World was published 29th November 2018 and is available from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

You can follow Genevieve Cogman on Twitter, Facebook and her website.

My reviews for the other books in the series are below:

The Invisible Library (book 1)

The Masked City (book 2)

The Burning Page (book 3)

The Lost Plot (book 4)

My review:????

The Magicians’ Guild by Trudi Canavan (The Black Magician Trilogy 1) is about Sonea, a teenager who lives in the slums of the city, and is friends with Cery, who has contacts in the underworld.  On a day when the mages are purging the city of the poor, Sonea is made so angry by the mages that she manages to throw a rock through their shields with magic.

Sonea is sought by the mages as those who have magic but aren’t trained are viewed as dangerous, to themselves and others.  

This is the beginning of a series, with a school of magic, people in power who know what is best, and secrets that can bring down the kingdom.  I really enjoyed the book, and I’m going to be reading more in this series!

The Magicians’ Guild was published on 31st October 2004, and is available from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

You can follow Trudi Canavan on Facebook, Instagram and her website.

My review:???

Kingdom of Souls by Rena Barron is about Arrah, both of whose parents have magic, and are descended from powerful witchdoctors, and yet Arrah has no magic.  She feels like a constant disappointment to her mother, but is treasured by her father.

When children start to disappear, Arrah becomes worried about her young friend, who is then taken.  Arrah decides to turn to a darker side of magic to find answers.

This is a fantasy novel, set in a world of magic and legends.  It’s got twists and turns, and moments that make sense.  

I found this book to be a little too much, and at 496 pages, I do feel like it could have been two books, which might have made the story not feel so rushed in places.

Kingdom of Souls was published on 3rd September 2019 and is available from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

You can follow Rena Barron Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and her website.

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, and so my thanks to NetGalley and to HarperCollins UK.

My review:🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik follows on from The Deadly Education, and so El and the others helped to clear the graduating hall for the year above them, and now it’s their turn to plan their graduation!

I really enjoyed this book, just as I loved the first one, and have been telling anyone who will listen that this series is really good!  It’s a fantasy, set in a school for magic, where there are things trying to kill the students, no teachers, but the school is alive with magic.  

The Last Graduate was published on 28th September 2021, and is available from Amazon, Waterstones (they have a special edition, if you move fast!) and Bookshop.org.

I bought myself the special edition of this book, and will be on the lookout for the third book, and hoping for a special edition again!

You can follow Naomi Novik on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and her website.

I’ve read the first book in this series, A Deadly Education, and you can read my review here.

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Random House.

My review:🌟🌟🌟🌟

The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling is the tale of how magic, vodka and a broken heart do not mix!  Nine years ago, Vivienne cursed her ex-boyfriend, and now he’s back again.  And it looks like the curse actually has an effect when he returns!  Vivienne is going to have to work out how she can fix it!

This is a fantasy mystery romance, which I enjoyed going along with. It’s a good book as an autumn read!

The Ex Hex was published on 28th September 2021, and is available from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

You can follow Erin Sterling on Twitter.

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Headline.

My review:🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

The Lost Plot by Genevieve Cogman (The Invisible Library 4) has Irene and Kai involved with in dragon politics, in a world that is in Prohibition era, and they are in New York!  There are 2 dragons vying for a role in the Queen of the South’s court, and Irene is approached by one of them, saying that a librarian is helping the other, and so it’s only fair if Irene help them!

Irene has to investigate, along with Kai, in a world where mob bosses abound! 

This is another great book in this series, and one where you learn more about the dragons.  I found the book to be fast paced, engaging and entertaining!  The characters are great, and I enjoy spending time with them!

The Lost Plot was published on 14th December 2017 and is available from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

You can follow Genevieve Cogman on Twitter, Facebook and her website.

My reviews for the other books in the series are below:

The Invisible Library (book 1)

The Masked City (book 2)

The Burning Page (book 3)

My review:🌟🌟🌟🌟

Children of Virtue and Vengeance carries on where Children of Blood and Bone stopped.  Magic has been brought back for everyone, and now Zélie is trying to get the maji to work together.  She wants to put Amari on the throne, as she will be more welcoming to the maji than her father was.

This is a book of huge change, with magic coming back, and people trying to work together, so there is inevitably, distrust between characters.

I didn’t find this as amazing as the first book in the series, but you often have that happen in a series.  The story was ok, but it didn’t hold on to me enough for me to want to read more in this series.  It’s a fantasy novel, as you can tell from the magic, and I enjoyed the setting and the background, just wasn’t grabbed by the plot!

Children of Virtue and Vengeance was published on 3rd December 2019 and is available from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

You can follow Tomi Adeyemi on her website, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

You can read my review of Children of Blood and Bone, book 1 in this series here.