It’s Monday! What are you reading? April 22nd, 2024

It’s Monday! What are you Reading is a weekly meme hosted by Kathryn from Book Date, a place to share and discuss what we’ve read in the past week and what we’re in the middle of or are planning to read this week.

What I read / listened to last week:

Darker by Four by June CL Tan- I wish I could start the second book straightaway- hope it comes out as soon as possible. I liked how well-thought out and logical the author’s debut novel (Jade Fire Gold) was as this is something appreciate in books with complex storylines (sorry, no offence meant to pantser writers) and the main characters are deliberately differentiated to support the concept. My only wish is to have had a bit more ‘foreshadowing’ for the romance as it seems to go from zero to super intense feelings in no time at all with a very sweet flashback which shows it all started much earlier.

From the blurb:

From Jade Fire Gold author June CL Tan, Darker by Four is the launch of an epic, sweeping contemporary fantasy duology that is the Shadowhunter Chronicles meets the Chinese underworld, drawing inspiration from diaspora folklore.

A vengeful girl. A hollow boy. A missing god.

Rui has one goal in mind—honing her magic to avenge her mother’s death.

Yiran is the black sheep of an illustrious family. The world would be at his feet—had he been born with magic.

Nikai is a Reaper, serving the Fourth King of Hell. When his master disappears, the underworld begins to crumble…and the human world will be next if the King is not found.

When an accident causes Rui’s power to transfer to Yiran, everything turns upside down. Without her magic, Rui has no tool for vengeance. With it, Yiran finally feels like he belongs. That is, until Rui discovers she might hold the key to the missing death god and strikes a dangerous bargain with another King.

As darkness takes over, three paths intersect in the shadows. And three lives bound by fate must rise against destiny before the barrier between worlds falls and all Hell breaks loose—literally.

Perfect for fans of This Savage Song and Only a Monster, Darker by Four will pull readers into a world of love and desperaion and revenge—a world where every deal has a catch, no secret stays buried, and no one is exactly who they say they are.

What I am reading/listening to now:

The Final Empire (Mistborn#1) by Brandon Sanderson- a new epic adventure with my reading buddy Yesha

From the blurb:

The mists rule the night…
The lord ruler owns the world.

For a thousand years the ash fell.
For a thousand years, the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years, the Lord Ruler reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Every attempted revolt has failed miserably.

Yet somehow hope survives.
A new kind of uprising is being planned, one that depends on the cunning of a brilliant criminal mastermind and the courage of an unlikely heroine, a Skaa street urchin, who must learn to master Allomancy, the power of a mistborn.

What if the prophesied hero had failed to defeat the Dark Lord? The answer will be found in the Mistborn trilogy, a saga of surprises that begins here.

What I’m reading /listening to next:

Song of the Six Realms by Judy I. Lin

From the blurb:

Xue, a talented young musician, has no past and probably no future. Orphaned at a young age, her uncle took her in and arranged for an apprenticeship at the most esteemed entertainment house in the kingdom. She doesn’t remember much from before, and when her uncle is suddenly killed in a bandit attack, she is devastated to lose her last connection to a life outside of the House of Flowing Water.

With no family and no patron, Xue is facing the possibility of a lifetime of servitude playing the qin for nobles that praise her talent with one breath and sneer at her lowly social status with the next. One night she’s called to the garden to give a private performance for the enigmatic Duke Meng. The young man is strangely kind and awkward for nobility, and surprises Xue with an offer: perform at his manor for one year, and he’ll set her free of her indenture.

But the Duke’s motives become suspect when they barely survive an attack by a nightmarish monster, and when he whisks Xue away to his estate, she discovers he’s not just some country noble: He’s the Duke of Dreams, one of the divine rulers of the Celestial Realm. She learns the Six Realms are on the brink of disaster, and incursions by bloodthirsty demons are growing more frequent. The Duke needs Xue’s help to unlock the secrets of how to stop the impending war… but first she’ll need to survive being the target of every monster and deity in the Six Realms.

The Obelisk Gate (The Broken Earth#2) by N.K.Jemisin

From the blurb:

Essun’s missing daughter grows more powerful every day, and her choices may destroy the world

The season of endings grows darker, as civilization fades into the long cold night.

Essun — once Damaya, once Syenite, now avenger — has found shelter, but not her daughter. Instead there is Alabaster Tenring, destroyer of the world, with a request. But if Essun does what he asks, it would seal the fate of the Stillness forever.

Far away, her daughter Nassun is growing in power — and her choices will break the world.

How did your last week go and what are you reading this week?