It’s time again to ask ourselves the three W’s:
What would you do if you had a destiny you couldn’t change?
What if that destiny was to save the world?
What if it was to destroy it?

Wait, no, that’s not right. We ask these three W’s:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words.

   

The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons
★★★★★ || Goodreads
How to even start with this book? It’s the first in a dark epic fantasy series. And I loved it? Like … very much so. The book is written as if from the point of view of characters telling the story and also a character compiling the story. So the narrative itself is conversational, as it’s meant to literally be two characters telling each other their stories for most of it, but there are also some footnotes where the compiler injects their thoughts (and you learn who this is in the second half of the book). THERE ARE DRAGONS, if the series name didn’t make it obvious enough. They’re big and bad and not afraid to squash humanity if they need to. The characters are absolutely easy to love, and I found I desperately wanted to follow their stories. The world-building is vast and expansive, with plenty of lore and history and mythology. I confess that it’s sometimes confusing keeping all the names straight, especially with how many characters there are, and given the fact that reincarnation is totally a thing, but it got easier by the end. I just don’t think I can recommend this book enough.

The Name of All Things by Jenn Lyons
★★★★★ || Goodreads
Book two of the series! I dove right into this after the first one, and it didn’t disappoint. This introduces new characters … including several strong leading females! Plus expanding the world into a new country with a new culture, where a person’s physical sex has nothing to do with their gender, and the society is based on horses, essentially. So a leader is a stallion and a follower is a mare, and there’s a responsibility for the stallions to care for the mares that offer them their submission, and it’s more complicated than this, but the whole culture is so neat. It’s especially interesting to see what happens when the culture from the first book meets this culture. Spoiler: the two don’t exactly mesh well. This was a fantastic follow-up, and I immediately dove into the third as soon as I finished this one.

The Memory of Souls by Jenn Lyons
Status: pg 102/612

WHAT IF YOU’RE THE ONE WHO HAS TO DIE?

Now that the city of Atrine has been destroyed and Relos Var’s plan to free the dark god Vol Karoth has been revealed—the end of the world is closer than ever.

To buy time for humanity, Kihrin, Janel, and Thurvishar must convince the king of the Manol vané to perform an ancient ritual that will strip the vané of their immortality—a ritual that certain vané will do anything to prevent. Including assassinating the ones bringing the news.

Worse, Kihrin must come to terms with the horrifying possibility that his connection to Vol Karoth is steadily growing in strength. How can Kihrin hope to save anyone when he might turn out to be the greatest threat of them all?

Yeah, so, I dove right into this one after finishing book two, and I’m mad that I’ve had to put it down, but for some reason people expect me to still adult? This book is capitalizing hard on the team of unlikely heroes thing, and I absolutely love it. When I started the first book, I never imagined I’d end up with these four characters working together, but of course it makes perfect sense.

I’m still trying really freaking hard to guess what the end game is, but whenever it feels like I’ve figured something out, like a motive for the Big Bad, I’m just … wrong. I suppose I’ll have to just read and find out, but suffice it to say, this book has all the twists and turns and complications.

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Wolfsong by T.J. Klune
Status: 5%

Ox was twelve when his daddy taught him a very valuable lesson. He said that Ox wasn’t worth anything and people would never understand him. Then he left.

Ox was sixteen when he met the boy on the road. The little boy who talked and talked and talked. Ox found out later the little boy hadn’t spoken in almost two years before that day, and that the little boy belonged to a family who had moved into the house at the end of the lane.

Ox was seventeen when he found out the little boy’s secret and it painted the world around him in colors of red and orange and violet, of Alpha and Beta and Omega.

Ox was twenty-three when murder came to town and tore a hole in his head and heart. The boy chased after the monster with revenge in his bloodred eyes, leaving Ox behind to pick up the pieces.

It’s been three years since that fateful day—and the boy is back. Except now he’s a man, and Ox can no longer ignore the song that howls between them.

Is it any surprise at all that I’m reading another T.J. Klune book? I feel like it shouldn’t be. The fourth book of this series comes out in October, so I figured it was a good time to pick up the first book, right? I was actually looking for something portable I could read on my phone, for those times when I can’t lug around the behemoth that is Memory of Souls, and my library hold happened to come through on this. I didn’t realize how long it was, as I was looking for a short read, but oops? More reason to spend even longer in a T.J. Klune world? I ain’t mad about it. His writing is so easy to get into and really start falling in love with the characters.

           

After having these absolutely mammoth books, I’m looking forward to reading something a little … lighter. Physically and figuratively. Embassy of the Dead seems like a good book to fill that spot, since it’s both funny and a good fall read. Also, my husband’s name is Jake … and summoning a grim reaper sounds just like something he’d do. Probably not accidentally, but he’s older and more experienced. So that made me giggle.

I’ll also be starting The Gilded Wolves, which is the first buddy read I’ll be doing with Keri @ Are You My Book? this month. I’m excited to finally pick it up, since I’ve been meaning to read it for pretty near forever now! I love me some heist books, and it’s been a minute since I last read one, so I’m ready.

I’m on an upcoming Legendborn Instagram tour, and while I still haven’t decided how I want my picture to look (other than sunny, which we haven’t had in daaaaays, darn it), I figure I can just go ahead and read the dang book and maybe that’ll give me some inspiration.

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