Hey all, Sam here.
You know…almost every time I log into NetGalley so I can update my reviews to improve my ratio, I find that I’ve been approved for another book or two…or three. Today I logged on and found one new book and it is a September release. But it does make it difficult to actually raise the review ratio if I keep getting new books on my NetGalley shelf. Now, yes, the obvious solution would be to put a pause on requesting books until I get a little more caught up…but then I feel like I’m missing out on things, and sometimes those include books that I REALLY want to read.
So I guess I’ll just be stuck in ratio limbo. After all, I can only read and review so many books each week. But I’ll keep trying to get them all read and then talk about them here on the blog.
Anyway, welcome back to another NetGalley review, and today’s book: Court of the Undying Seasons, which was released May 16th in the US, so if this book sounds interesting, you can definitely pick up your own copy now.
All right, let’s get started.
Sarah J. Maas meets A Deadly Education in A.M. Strickland’s lush, queer YA dark fantasy novel.
In becoming a vampire, I’m less than a girl. And more.
Or maybe I’m becoming what I always have been, deep inside.
A blade.When nineteen-year-old Fin volunteers to take her secret love’s place in their village’s Finding, she is terrified. Those who are chosen at the Finding are whisked away to Castle Courtsheart, a vampire school where human students either succeed and become vampires, fail and spend the rest of their lives as human thralls…or they don’t survive long enough to become either.
Fin is determined to forge a different learn how to kill the undead and get revenge for her mother, who was taken by the vampires years ago. But Courtsheart is as captivating as it is deadly, and Fin is quickly swept up in her new world and its inhabitants – particularly Gavron, her handsome and hostile vampire maker, whose blood is nothing short of intoxicating. As Fin begins to discover new aspects of her own identity and test her newfound powers, she stumbles across a string of murders that may be connected to a larger ritual – one with potentially lethal consequences for vampires and humans alike. Fin must uncover the truth and find the killer before she loses her life…or betrays her own heart.
Court of the Undying Seasons is a deliciously dark romantic novel and a pitch perfect modern take on classic vampire tropes.
“With brutal romance, vicious stakes, and a twisty mystery, Court of The Undying Seasons takes everything we love about vampires and cranks it to a whole new level.” ―Hannah Whitten, author of For the Wolf and For the Throne
My Thoughts
Rating: 5 stars
Vampires are sort of classic figures in books, and I remember there was a huge saturation in the book world about 15 years ago thanks to the Twilight Saga craze and all that. Granted, yes, vampires had been at a steady popularity before that craze and since that craze, but still. You can generally find vampire stories with relative ease, but it felt like the hyped up focus of story types shifted for a while. Now I’m starting to see more prominence in vampires again…and I’m not saying this as any sort of complaint or anything. Vampire stories retain their popularity for a reason. And obviously, I loved this book. I gave it 5 stars, after all.
This is either my second or third A.M. Strickland book, and I’ve been blown away by all of them. I love the characters and the way the descriptions weave together and the way the plot points meet and intersect and intertwine. These stories have a lush and dark and eerie quality to them, and it just draws me in. Strickland also has a way of weaving in a diverse spectrum of characters in a way that feels completely normal and everyday, as if they all just exist…and that’s honestly the way it should be.
For example, in this book, vampires can change their shape. Therefore gender fluidity is common and simply accepted as a natural concept. It makes complete sense considering the way this world has been built.
Fin was an interesting character, and I loved her fierceness and determination. And the allure of Gavron was certainly intriguing. Honestly, love them or hate them, I was fascinated by all of the characters, and wanted to keep reading to learn more about them.
Plus the plot…I’ve read like two or three books in the past month or so that have been sort of fantasy murder-mystery, and that’s a bit of a surprise to me. I don’t mind mystery and intrigue, but I typically don’t gravitate towards those sorts of stories when those elements are the primary story.
I also read this fairly quickly. It was one of the books I read during my Memorial Day Long Weekend of Reading at the end of May. I had a day where I was just really feel the urge to read some vampire books, so I read Court of the Undying Seasons by A.M. Strickland and then Silver Under Nightfall by Rin Chupeco (review for that coming later this month).
All in all, it was an enjoyable experience reading this book, and I am definitely keeping A.M. Strickland on my need-to-read list, because I need to know what she’ll come up with next.
Well, that is all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.
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