#Laurie Forest

[bookaddict24-7]

(New Young Adult Releases Coming Out Today! (January 7th, 2025)

___

Have I missed any new Young Adult releases? Have you added any of these books to your TBR? Let me know!

___

New Releases:

This is the Year by Gloria Muñoz

Mystery Royale by Kaitlyn Cavalancia

No Place Left to Hide by Megan Lally

Breath of the Dragon by Shannon Lee & Fonda Lee

The Last Bookstore on Earth by Lily Braun-Arnold

The Assassin's Guide to Babysitting by Natalie C. Parker

A Language of Dragons by S.F. Williamson

The Afterdark by E. Latimer

Royal Heirs Academy by Lindsey Duga

After Life by Gayle Forman

Bemused by Farrah Rochon

New Sequels:

Lies on the Serpent's Tongue (Bittersweet in the Hollow #2) by Kate Pearsall

Among Serpents (Above the Black #2) by Marc J. Gregson

The Dryad Storm (The Black Witch Chronicles #5) by Laurie Forest

Togetha (Pritty #2) by Keith F. Miller Jr.

The Wishless Ones (Dark Ascension #3) by Hafsah Faizal

___

Happy reading!

[books-to-add-to-your-tbr]

Title: The Black Witch Chronicles

Author: Laurie Forest

Series or standalone: series

Publication year: 2017

Genres: fiction, fantasy, romance

Blurb: Elloren Gardner is the granddaughter of the last prophesied Black Witch, Carnissa Gardner, who drove back the enemy forces and saved the Gardnerian people during the Realm War...but while she is the absolute spitting image of her famous grandmother, Elloren is utterly devoid of power in a society that prizes magical ability above all else. When she is granted the opportunity to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming an apothecary, Elloren joins her brothers at the prestigious Verpax University to embrace a destiny of her own, free from the shadow of her grandmother’s legacy...but she soon realises that the university, which admits all manner of people - including the fire-wielding, winged Icarals, the sworn enemies of all Gardnerians - is a treacherous place for the granddaughter of the Black Witch. As evil looms on the horizon and the pressure to live up to her heritage builds, everything Elloren thought she knew will be challenged and torn away. Her best hope of survival may be among the most unlikely band of rebels...if only she can find the courage to trust those she’s been taught to fear.

[bookcoversonly]

Title: The Demon Tide | Author: Laurie Forest | Publisher: Inkyard Press (2022)

[selenekallanwriter]

This is my favorite scene in The Black Witch by Laurie Forest.

[hellisntreal]

Black Witch Chronicles continues to have 8 million characters and I continue to draw All Of Them. As the sole fan of this bestselling book series... someone's gotta do it!

For real, I just love designing fantasy characters. Here's my cast for Demon Tide! (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Diana, Jarod, and Bleddyn (I love the twins so much) (Bleddyn queen)

Fyon, Mora'lee, Ra'ven (Snake people... I love u)

Oilily, Effrey, Nym’ellia (War torn kids...)

Heelyn and Or’myr (Did you know the latter is canon faceclaim Cumberbatch...?)

Trystan (that makeover is very 2010s emo), Riv'yrel (is he, y'know...?) and Wrenfir (my goth uncle or guncle)

Thierran and Sparrow (I love this Sparrow look)

Tierney, Valasca, Ariel (unbury your gay, turn into a dragon)

Viger Maul and Vothe (much needed updated art)

Lukas, Elloren, Yvan (Elloren has TWO hands guys)

[petiteblasee]

DESAFIO LITERÁRIO • 2023 | LEITURAS DE JUNHO - JULHO

★ 𝐉𝐔𝐍𝐇𝐎

Um livro publicado no ano do seu nascimento

Do amor e Outro Demônios - Gabriel Garcia M��rquez

Essa foi uma leitura que eu terminei agradecendo aos céus por ter acabado.

Apesar de entender a parte da inquisição e a crítica à tudo que a igreja católica via como "do satanás" (principalmente se tratando da religião e cultura africana) não consegui me apegar à santidade da sierva maría e as loucuras da parte do convento, ainda mais envolvendo o clérigo escolhido para realizar o exorcismo. Foi cansativa e decepcionante.

Um livro que combine com o inverno

Rainha do Escândalo - Sarah MacLean

Não sei se foi minha expectativa altíssima ou se a leitura realmente foi fraca, mas não curti tanto. A história da sesily foi muito esperada pelos fãs, e a inserção do caleb deixou tudo mais interessante, o que me fez acreditar que terminaria a leitura extasiada, mas achei tudo chato. O caleb perdeu todo o lado interessante, mesmo guardando um grande segredo, porque vivia se repetindo; era uma hora seguindo a sesily e outra falando que não podia ficar com ela. Se decida, caramba!

Quanto à sesily, apesar de se manter um furacão, essa tristeza dela por amar sem ser correspondida, por mais compreensível que seja, pareceu não combinar com ela.Era humilhação demais. Gostei mais da parte que mostrava o trabalho dela e adorei que mostraram a escolha dela em não ser mãe de forma alguma, apesar de amar crianças e ser uma pessoa muito amorosa, porque não é algo algo que não se vê muito nas histórias do gênero. O contexto até me atiçou, e uns pequenos indícios de romance entre as amigas dela me pareceram mais interessantes, mas a história de amor da última irmã escandalosa solteira poderia ter sido melhor.

★ 𝐉𝐔𝐋𝐇𝐎

Um livro que todo mundo está lendo

Deuses de Neon - Katee Robert

Por ser uma releitura de seres mitológicos icônicos, esperei que as atitudes estivessem à altura, mas apenas o contexto carregou. O Hades é um protagonista qualquer de um new adult que performa a maldade mas decepciona. Por conta da situação em que ele se encontrava, não esperava receber um cara que se culpa por fazer o que é necess��rio para manter o seu poder, mesmo que ele seja alguém que faz isso por ser bem coração e entender que tem pessoas que dependem dele.

A Perséfone é até ok nesse ponto, ainda mais com ela correndo atrás de fugir da vida que não gostava e escolhendo permanecer com o Hades, mas a ingenuidade dela é irritante. No fim, era só uma mimada que enxergava o mundo do jeito que queria para o drama ser a favor dela.

O romance é bom, só que muito mais do mesmo de outras obras, então não fiquei encantada com o fato de ser uma releitura. Se tivesse elementos mais fantásticos além da barreira, eu aproveitaria mais. Apesar disso, estou curiosa para saber dos outros deuses e, talvez, continue a saga.

Um livro de ficção científica ou fantasia

A Bruxa Negra - Laurie Forest.

Algumas leituras não valem a pena insistir até a metade, mas essa valeu. Com uma linhagem respeitável, mas criação limitada, elloren passa a viver num mundo diverso onde o conservadorismo do seu povo é praticado e dá espaço à descrença por enxergar as divergências e absurdos.

Foi só com a convivência com os diferentes, mesmo em meio a hostilidade justificável, que elloren passou a questionar tudo, e ainda bem que a autora mudou na parte 3 e colocou em evidência os coadjuvantes interessantes (todos ótimos) que fizeram parte da transformação dela.

Com esse acréscimo, foi muito bom ver a protagonista indo atrás da história de cada um sem que pedissem, como é o certo. Para os crescidos em ambientes de verdades absolutas, a história é super identificável. Recomendo para quem curte o gênero YA + fantasia.

[lottiesoka]

Wynter Eirllyn

[janchei-reads]

(This is the German Cover, because I like it better than the english one)

Synopsis:

Elloren Gardner and her friends were only seeking to right a few wrongs when they rescued a Selkie and freed a military dragon. The last thing they expected was to be thrust into a realm-wide underground resistance against Gardnerian conquest.

While the Resistance fights the harsh rulings of the Mage Council, Gardnerian soldiers descend upon the University…led by none other than Lukas Grey, now commander of the nearby military base. Though Elloren tries to keep him at arm’s length, Lukas is determined to tie himself to her, convinced that she’s the heir to the power of the Black Witch, a legacy that will decide the future of Erthia. As his magic calls to her, Elloren finds it more and more difficult to believe she’s truly powerless, as her uncle always claimed.

My thoughts:

I liked the second Book as much as I liked the first, though I am still not much of an Yvan fan. Mostly because he was such an ass towards Elloren at the beginning of the fiest book and it's now revealed that he kind of knew that she didn't hate his people because he is like half an empath.

The story takes up pace, which is nice, though some turns could be seen from miles away (the big Yvan reveal for example wasn't much of a surprise, which doesn't make it bad, just kind of... boring).

I know that the nect installments are supposed to not be as good (stumbled over a spoiler and couldn't help but dive down the rabbit hole lol), which makes me a bit sad. I really liked that the romance isn't the center point of the story and if it shifts idk if I will actually get the fourth book, which will be released sometime in july here in germany.

I started reading this a few months ago but got kind of stuck at page 185 and only finished it on January 24th, 2025.

My thoughts on other Books from the Series:

1. The Black Witch

2. The Iron Flower (You are here)

3. The Shadow Wand

4. The Demon Tide

5. The Dryad Storm

[muatyland]

The Iron Flower. Il fiore di ferro. The Black Witch Chronicles vol. 2 | Laurie Forest 

Elloren Gardner e i suoi amici stavano solo cercando di riparare qualche torto quando hanno salvato una Selkie e liberato un drago militare. Non si sarebbero mai sognati di venire coinvolti in una resistenza clandestina contro l’avanzata gardneriana. Mentre la Resistenza si oppone alle dure decisioni del Concilio dei Maghi, i soldati gardneriani piombano sull’Università… guidati nientemeno che da…

[floriumm]

My current read! The Black Witch by Laurie Forest .

It has held my attention all the way through and I can’t wait to read the next one which is currently sitting in my mailbox (I need to go grab it).

It’s been sad seeing how mean everyone is towards each other in this book but interesting to watch the characters grow and learn. I’m curious to see if the romance part grows because in Wandfasting, the first prequel, it was the main focus. We’ll see I guess!

I will say I hope we see more of the magic system in the next book.

[wedontburnbookshere]

☆☆☆1/2

For some reason, I thought this series was just a trilogy? Then, partway through book three, The Shadow Wand, I saw that there was no way that this was all getting wrapped up in one book, even if it was over 600 pages, so I looked it up, and book five comes out next year. I'll be honest, I'm not sure if I'll continue. I'll read the synopsis of book 4, and if it piques my interest enough, maybe I'll pick it up.

Anyway.

I feel like I harp on tense a lot (at least to friends), but I don't think these books should have been written in 1st person, present tense, especially since in book three, there are multiple POVs, switching to 3rd person, present tense for the other characters. There are a few switches in POV in the first two books, but those are more snippets, before we are taken back to Elloren's narration.

Before I read the third book, I thought that something that would have helped would be if it had been written in past tense instead, where Elloren is recalling her time at school from some point in the future. We as the readers know that Elloren is the prophesized Black Witch, long before she's even aware she has magic. A big part of her arc in book one is her beginning to unlearn her prejudice towards the other fantasy races. A big part of this involves her borrowing history books from one of her professors. Elloren complains about history being confusing, as depending on who's writing about what happened, accounts don't quite line up or even directly contradict each other.

It would have been nice, having an element of Elloren being an unreliable narrator, recalling this time in her life during a time where we as readers can assume she can sit down and recount it all/write it down. Just an element where I as the reader couldn't help but wonder what side of history she's writing from and with what motive(s).

When The Shadow Wand switched POVs, I felt that maybe the books should have been in 3rd person from the beginning, with Elloren still getting the most page-time in book one, then splitting it a bit more in The Iron Flower. Part of why I think this is that in book three, one of Elloren's love interests (Lukas) has a change in personality that feels... sudden, I guess.

There are things we see about him in book one that doesn't make this change feel out of nowhere, but when we see Lukas in the first two books, he kills and hangs up the pet of Ariel, one of Elloren's roommates, seemingly without guilt. (Seemingly, since this is from Elloren's POV.) When Elloren feels guilty, Lukas tells her that if she wants to survive, she needs to show herself as powerful. Later, when Elloren is realizing everything she'd been led to believe about her people and history is wrong, she brings up the series' main antagonist to Lukas, who says he thinks Vogel is wrong. However, he says fighting against him would be choosing the losing side.

Keeping power and the security power brings is one of the only motivations we see from Lukas, and at first, this motivation is even what leads him to wanting to be with Elloren. He knows she's powerful before she does, and he wants her power to be allied with his own.

In book three, his motivations have changed to wanting Elloren safe. Since he wasn't in book two much, him going from wolf to puppy feels sudden, though if I decide to read book four, I think there had been enough hints where Forest could add scenes in Lukas's POV to show where his feelings towards Elloren had shifted.

Elloren's relationship with Yvan unfolds more naturally, since we get to see more of Yvan and how he changes around her as Elloren learns more about the world and begins changing for the better. I enjoyed him starting out as an antagonist, even if it was pretty obvious going by YA book conventions that he'd eventually be a love interest.

Yvan is a Kelt, which Gardnerians like Elloren and Lukas look down on and oppress. He is understandably not happy to have to be around Elloren when she receives orders to work in the kitchen to help pay for her scholarship, but the narrative treats his suspicion and anger as being fair considering the world's politics on top of what we learn of his backstory later into book two.

A major theme in the books is relations between the fantasy races, primarily how the Gardnerians consider themselves superior. Vogel, the main antagonist, is running to head the Gardnerian council and wants to crush the other nations under Gardnerian rule. In favor of him are Elloren's aunt and a growing number of Gardnerians.

Forest is about as subtle as a sledgehammer when it comes to this theme of politics and race relations. There is one point where Elloren is reading a newspaper with a classmate, who is disguised fae, a race being actively hunted and killed by the Gardnerians. Elloren mentions she'd never bothered to keep up with politics before, to which her classmate retorts that it's because it hadn't affected her before.

I don't see this as a point against the books, and the school setting was used really well in delivering exposition for the world-building. Elloren might be from this world, but she had been spoon-fed propaganda wrapped up as history since she was a baby, so as Elloren learns more about what's really happened and what's going on now, a lot of the information dumps honestly feel pretty organic.

I'm not sure if the sudden switches in POV in book 3 just threw me off, but it took much longer for me to get through it compared to books one and two, which only took me a few days to read each. With book two especially, I got excited to get back to it whenever I had to put it down, which made me excited for book three, since it's common for the second book in a series to be harder to get through compared to the first and third, especially in a trilogy (which again, I for some reason thought this series was a trilogy). I had also started reading book three at the start of a depressive episode, so my inability to get into it may have more to do with my mood than the actual book.

Like many magic systems, the one in this book gets more holes in it the longer you squint your eyes, but it works well enough that I can mostly just accept it as I kept reading. Runes are a bit of a sonic screwdriver kind of magic, able to do just about whatever is needed. I don't mind that too much, since there have already been some established rules for runes, so it still feels like there are stakes, especially after seeing some of the magic Vogel has acquired.

When it comes to Vogel, I'm on the fence about how I feel about him as a BBEG. He is definitely big, bad, and evil, almost cartoonishly so by the time we see more of his power in book three. However, irl, there have been some cartoonishly evil people, so....

I'm less on the fence with Fallon. I don't like her. She feels like a Regina George-type clone but with god-like powers, mainly with ice magic. Because Ice Queen, I guess. *badum tss*

She honestly doesn't provide much, which I feel is a shame, because considering everyone thinks Fallon is supposed to be the next Black Witch, she could have been the perfect foil to Elloren, and there were points that made it seem like that that was supposed to be her role.

If I decide to continue reading the series, I'll probably add on to my thoughts, like if I'm right and Forest does more to show Lukas's change in heart towards Elloren.

[vonnebenan]

Baumkronenweg Füssen; Acryl auf Leinwand

(es ist unmöglich, mit meinem Handy ein vernünftiges Foto zu machen 😭)

[bookcoversonly]

Title: The Shadow Wand | Author: Laurie Forest | Publisher: Inkyard Press (2020)

[cinemablogs]

Street Kings

Director: David Ayer | USA, 2008 Starring: Keanu Reeves, Forest Whitaker, & Hugh Laurie

[just-some-common-bitch]

the funniest thing about Hilson is the fact that Hugh started it pretty much. that one interview when he calls Wilson House’s best friend and some shit about if a tree falls in the forest and Wilson wasn’t around to hear it, did it really make a sound. any time someone’s like “is House going to fuck Wilson” he’s just like “I dunno but he should”. Hugh Laurie ran so we could walk. everyone say thank you Mr Laurie