We’re finally into 2025’s book reviews! And January – wow, that was quite the month for books. We had the release of Onyx Storm towards the end of the month, however I hadn’t read the other books yet. My original goal was to read Fourth Wing and Iron Flame in time for Onyx Storm releasing (so I could read alongside everyone else), then I realised that these books are a little pricey and that I’d prefer to get them from the library. That put a delay on my reading them as clearly everyone else wanted to do the same! Nevertheless, I reserved them at my local library, got hold of Fourth Wing in early January and started reading it, knowing that I wouldn’t get to Onyx Storm in time but not too late…until, boom! Release day, Onyx Storm arrived at my library, with my name at the top of the reservation list! So I had to speed through the others to make it in time!
So that’s my Fourth Wing backstory, now I’ll launch into those reviews, along with the other books I read in January 2025.
The Locked Door by Freida McFadden – 7/10
Maybe I’ve read and watched a few too many of this style of thriller mystery lately, but the twist wasn’t quite twisty enough for me! If you’ve picked up a Freida McFadden book before, you’ll know her style, which meant that I was on the lookout for clues throughout, including looking for the “least likely” culprit – something I tend to do with every mystery, but usually fail to figure out. This time I did, which meant that although I feel like I’m winning, I also feel like I’m losing as I want an author to totally surprise me!
Nevertheless, this was an enjoyable read that I accidentally finished in one evening. I’ve only got into Freida McFadden’s books in the second half of last year, but I’ve discovered they’re perfect for a quick, gripping read – there’s something about them that you can’t put down and this was no different.
I’d recommend it, but it’s not my favourite of hers. Pretty gruesome in some parts though!
Every Body Should Know This by Dr Federica Amati – 8/10
As part of our family’s healthy living journey recently (more on this another day, when I get round to sitting down and writing about it!), I’ve read a few nutrition based non-fictions. Recommended by Tim Spector and written by the head nutritionist at Zoe, this one had to be packed with good information. And it definitely delivered.
It’s broken down into sections such as the first 1000 days, adolescence, young people (fertility), menopause and older people. Depending on your time of life, parts of this book will interest you in different ways. There are sections that you can safely choose to pass over – fertility being the prime example – however I think to gain useful information for general nutrition education and for friends or family members, those parts are still worth a read.
There weren’t a huge amount of actionable points, however the knowledge and facts behind it, I’ve found myself pulling out from my growing bank, so these are helping me to make better informed choices. Some might say it’s a little basic, but as someone with no science background, I found it accessible and informative.
Rise of the Chosen by Anna Kopp – 6.5/10
Sam lives in a world where people are divided into humans, the Woken and the Chosen – the latter two are people who died and have awoken thanks to the Lifeblood that courses through their veins after death. The Woken are your stereotypical zombie, aside from the brain eating part, hell-bent on destruction at all costs, therefore must be destroyed by beheading. The Chosen are the special ones who are allowed to “live” – they don’t have the impetus to destroy, but they have superhuman strength and powers to heal thanks to the Lifeblood.
The plot mainly follows Sam who is chosen to join a Watch Guard team – two humans, one Chosen – who’s job it is to search out people as soon as they’ve died (thanks to an alarm from their tracker that immediately sounds), and do what is necessary to keep the living alive.
But as you can imagine, there is more to this new world than that. With an interesting new world order and political system that is very young, there is turmoil outside the city walls, which Sam quickly becomes embroiled in.
I love a dystopian future world story, especially when it’s got an interesting backstory like this one. It’s a nice new twist on the undead storyline and the world was well built.
I did find however that outside of the main few characters, the others were a little flat – I think that was mainly due to some of them appearing quickly as part of the more action-based side of the story so not having as much fleshing out as those that appeared earlier. Sam’s character is great, as is her relationship with her girlfriend Lena which she realises is more important than she thinks as the book goes on.
I’d give it 3.5 stars as it had a little too much on the action side for me which had me skimming those pages a little – that’s a personal thing though rather than much of a criticism of the book itself, as I honestly think that if the zombie and action side of a dystopian world is your thing, you’ll love this one.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for an advanced copy of this book. My review is several years late as I’m catching up on some of my Netgalley books that slipped through the net, but better late than never!
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros – 10/10
I think I need to refresh my rating scale, as even though I’ve read other books that I fully believe deserve 5 stars recently, the only thing I can say is that this deserves 6 stars. So I have to settle on a 5 star rating and adding it to the “favourites” shelf.
What can I say, I’m a cliche – if BookTok likes it, so will I. And I’m obsessed.
I picked up my first dragon book last year and really loved it. That book was compared to Fourth Wing, so I knew this had to be on my to read soon list, but it got bumped up when I heard the third in the series was coming out in January – sadly my to reads often get spoiled by social media, usually in minor ways, but still! So I’m in the process of catching up via the library – and as soon as this one was in, I dropped all other reading for it.
You’ve got a lot of typical tropes thrown into this romantasy, and I’m all for it. In fact, I have a list longer than my arm of all the romantasies full of these tropes I have yet to read. The romance was fantastic, the action was packed, and the story was on point. I can’t say that I didn’t have some minor issues with the fact that they were killing most of their cohort to fight an active war, but you know, I can get over that for the story.
Fortunately I finished this one night and my reservation for the next in the series came in at the library first thing this morning – fate! So you probably can’t guess what I’ll be reading next…
Dopamine Detox by Thibaut Meurisse – 7.5/10
This is a short and snappy read that is straight to the point about what dopamine is, the traps we fall into with seeking dopamine when we’re overstimulated and how to detox and avoid these downfalls again. It was a somewhat illuminating read for me, although I did see a little irony in how quickly I could read the book and tick something “easy” off my to-do list!
It highlighted a lot of the dopamine traps I fall in to and has given me some ideas for a toolkit on how to tackle these – some of the points felt very personal, so it was well done!
The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon – 8.5/10
Wow, this was a harrowing, heart-rending read that was beautifully written.
Subhi is a refugee who is born into a detention centre, the first child born there. Despite the circumstances of his life, his world is filled with simple beauty and dreams, of a life beyond the fence. Jimmie is another child, from the other side of the fence, who finds her way in with a book of stories that she cannot read, but Subhi can. What seems like a tiny, tenuous relationship means the world to both of them.
There are some people who can draw real-life stories from news articles, and others who need that emotional connection, and this book did exactly that for me. This is a world that is so far from what I know that without a story that shows the realities of it, I struggle to be able understand it. That’s why books like this are so important.
The writing style is in many places simple, but beautiful. Another reviewer said how perfectly it captures Subhi’s voice and I completely agree. It’s an excellent example of how middle grade fiction can be done, to present the real world in a realistic way that children will understand, but age appropriate.
It’s an absolute must-read.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for an advance copy of this book.
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros – 9.5/10
I swear these books are trying to kill me, they’re pretty much incredible! I smashed through this one in 3 days! I wish I’d managed to get hold of Fourth Wing and Iron Flame before Onyx Storm came out as it would have been fun to read the theories for what was coming next at this stage, and I also can’t even Google things like characters or plot points for fear of seeing spoilers now.
This book has so many reviews, mine don’t add a lot at this moment. All I can say is that this was not a disappointment after Fourth Wing, even if the length of it at first seemed daunting. As I said, while reading this book, Onyx Storm was released and arrived for me at the library! So I had a few TBR books on my list I had to race through to get to it!
Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey – 8.5/10
This is a beautiful lyrical novel – a modern day fairytale that persuades you to believe the unbelievable and captures your soul without you even realising.
Birdie, a young mother, lives in Alaska with her young daughter, Emaleen. She works at a bar and leaves Emaleen alone during her shifts overnight, then leaves her to her own devices while she shakes off the hangovers over the night before during the day. Then Arthur, a quiet stranger who only speaks in the present tense, comes into their lives. Birdie opens up to him about her desire to live her life how she used to as a child, in the wildness of the mountains, and eventually the three of them take to the woods to live in his cabin in the woods, only accessible via his father’s plane.
This is a story in three parts. The first part feels modern and “grubby”, for want of a better word! The second part is where it turns into the fairytale – the descriptions become rich, and the world becomes magical, both through the ordinary magic of nature and the extraordinary. The third part is the “back to real life” section, but through almost new eyes.
The first part didn’t grip me – I wasn’t feeling the magic that was promised. And if you feel the same, I strongly urge you to continue. This part sets the scene. Like Ivey’s other books, this is magic realism – it sits a story that seems unbelievable alongside real life and all the trappings that come with it. I was convinced I’d be rating this book 4 or even 3 stars until I got further into it.
I read The Snow Child by the author nearly 10 years ago and added it to my favourites list. I started but DNFed To The Bright Edge of the World a couple of years later, and I think I gave up as I was still stuck in the “first part” that I described about this book earlier, but at a time when I’d just had my first baby, so reading wasn’t a priority. I now strongly believe I need to go back to that one!
I can’t say a lot more without giving away the whole point of the story, but trust me, it was beautiful and haunting, the ending especially.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for an advance copy of this book.
Wayfinding: The Art and Science of How We Find and Lose Our Way by Michael Shaw Bond – 7/10
This was a random pick off the non-fiction shelf at the library, and a pretty solid choice! I occasionally like to pick up a non-fiction book, especially if it’s to do with nature or human nature, and this seemed to appeal to both to me. Plus the fact that we’d just watched Moana 2 (again!), so wayfinding was kind of stuck in my head!
This gave an excellent overview of, as the tagline says, how we find and lose our way. I really enjoyed the parts about how children explore differently to us – and it meant we had some very interesting walks the weekend I read it by letting our 5 and 3 year old lead the way at times! The brain part was pretty scientific and not entirely my subject matter of choice, so I read it so I had an understanding, but skimmed it more than other parts of the book. I preferred the real life references to human nature to honest. I did find the parts about how wayfinding can develop the brain very interesting, and how we can use it to better understand people living with dementia, or to help find those who are lost.
It feels like this has opened my eyes to a lot of things. I keep pulling facts from the book out in every day life, so it’s definitely stuck with me!
We’re now planning to take on some orienteering challenges as a family!
The Assassin’s Blade by Sarah J. Maas – 8/10
This is such a tricky one to rate, as I’ve still not 100% connected with the Throne of Glass series. I’m determined to get into it as everyone says it’s a masterpiece and takes some time to get into at the beginning.
I read this as the third in the series which I saw was recommended for more emotional impact, which I can totally see. The vast majority of this read fine – it didn’t grip me but was good background info on a character we already somewhat know. The last 20% or so were much more gripping and had that emotional impact that I was looking for, so I can sort of see where this is going now. I have fingers crossed that I’m really going to get it in the coming books.
Although this has made me want to go back to the beginning and see Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight again from the slightly new perspective you get after reading this. Maybe I’m one of those people who should have read this one first! And maybe I’ll be back to update this review in the coming months after I’ve read the rest.
Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros – 9/10
Wow, what can I say? I’m so pleased to have read this one – I want to say “finally”, but publication date was only a couple weeks ago. But with all the spoilers around (I hit on one theory that a well known publication had as a headline that gave away a little bit!), I wanted to get through it as soon as possible. And like I said, wow!
Honestly though, this wasn’t my favourite of the three so far. This is a complex world with a lot of characters. They are exceptionally well written (can we just take a moment to appreciate Ridoc, Tairn and Andarna please – as I said, exceptional), but the fact that the names are “fantasy”, sometimes they’re referred to by their surnames, and we need to remember whose dragon is whose and what colour and type they are, it’s hard work! I did come across a Facebook post which gave a quick index of everyone mentioned in the first few chapters which was handy, and the book had a short one too which was good to refer back to! You’ve also got to remember a lot of history and politics too. And there are a lot of climaxes in this book – as in, the narrative hits a lot of points of tension, although as we all know if we’re onto book 3, there is plenty of spice too.
But in spite of this, I loved it so much. I read it in almost a single day flat because I just had to know what was going to happen. The start was a bit convoluted, then we headed into a part of the novel that’s very much a journey, before coming back round again. It was an excellent stories with several layers going on underneath.
Now just to wait for book 4 – off to read theories while I wait!
