#The Blood of Stars

[m4g0rtz]

Today's polish was tricky to photograph but I think I got it. 😁 The base is a dark blue jelly with tons of blue reflective glitter and orange to green ghost flakes. I had the hardest time getting the ghost flakes to show up on camera, but then I finally got them in the car. Ohh and Caleb. 😂😸 This is The Blood of Stars from Bee's Knees Lacquer.

[channary]

— Elizabeth Lim, Unravel the Dusk

[teartra]

The Blood of Stars Duology edge painting is here!!!

[maddiesbookshelves]

The Blood of Stars (#1 & 2) by Elizabeth Lim

Maia Tamarin dreams of becoming the greatest tailor in the land, but as a girl, the best she can hope for is to marry well. When a royal messenger summons her ailing father, once a tailor of renown, to court, Maia poses as a boy and takes his place. She knows her life is forfeit if her secret is discovered, but she'll take that risk to achieve her dream and save her family from ruin. There's just one catch: Maia is one of twelve tailors vying for the job. Backstabbing and lies run rampant as the tailors compete in challenges to prove their artistry and skill. Maia's task is further complicated when she draws the attention of the court magician, Edan, whose piercing eyes seem to see straight through her disguise. And nothing could have prepared her for the final challenge: to sew three magic gowns for the emperor's reluctant bride-to-be, from the laughter of the sun, the tears of the moon, and the blood of stars. With this impossible task before her, she embarks on a journey to the far reaches of the kingdom, seeking the sun, the moon, and the stars, and finding more than she ever could have imagined.

Level of (dis)satisfaction based on the summary and my expectations? I really bought the two books at once because of their covers. Cari can read on youtube had said good things about it so it finished to convince me but really, 90% of why I bought them is the covers. I also bought Six Crimson Cranes for the same reason.

My thoughts on it? I like stories where there's a competition and those where the MC has to take someone else's identity, so that was the perfect combo. The first book mixes the competition, the journey to gather materials for the dresses, and politics. Tension builds slowly in the background. Then book 2 focuses on after, there's a war etc, but we don't follow battles, except for the end. I thought the ending was a little... deus ex machina. I wasn't 100% satisfied but the rest of the series compensates. The romance was pretty basic, neither good or bad. It didn't bother me, which is more than I can say for some other books.

However, I absolutely adored the worldbuilding in those books. I love when fantasy worlds have their own mythology (even if it's inspired from an existing mythology, in this case Chinese mythology) and it's worked on and well used. It really was the strong point of this series and I hope it's the same in Six Crimson Cranes.

French version under the cut

Maia Tamarin rêve de devenir la meilleure tailleur du pays. Seulement, en tant que fille, le mieux qu'elle puisse espérer est d'avoir un bon mariage. Lorsqu'un messager royal convoque son père, autrefois tailleur de renom, à la cour, Maia se fait passer pour une garçon et prend sa place. Elle sait qu'elle sera tuée si son secret est révélé, mais elle est prête à prendre ce risque pour réaliser son rêve et sauver sa famille de la ruine. Mais il y a un hic : Maia n'est qu'un des 12 tailleurs en compétition pour ce travail. Trahisons et mensonges s'enchaînent tandis que les tailleurs s'affrontent pour prouver leurs talents et compétences. La tâche de Maia se complique d'autant plus lorsqu'elle attire l'attention du magicien de la cour, Edan, dont les yeux perçants semble voir à travers son déguisement. Et rien n'aurait pu la préparer à la dernière épreuve : créer trois robes magiques pour la fiancée de l'empereur en utilisant le rire du soleil, les larmes de la lune et le sang des étoiles. Avec cette tâche impossible devant elle, elle entreprend un voyage jusqu'aux confins du royaume à la recherche du soleil, de la lune et des étoiles, où elle trouvera bien plus que ce qu'elle aurait pu imaginer.

Niveau de déception/satisfaction par rapport au résumé et tes attentes ? J’ai vraiment acheté les deux bouquins d’un coup à cause de leurs couvertures. Cari can read en avait parlé en bien donc ça a fini de me convaincre mais vraiment 90% de ma motivation c’était les couvertures. J’ai aussi acheté Six Crimson Cranes pour les mêmes raisons.

Avis sans spoiler ? J’aime bien les histoires où y’a une compétition et celles où le perso principal doit se faire passer pour quelqu’un d’autre donc c’était la combinaison parfaite. Le tome 1 mélange la compétition, le voyage pour récupérer de quoi faire les robes et les intrigues politiques. La tension monte doucement en arrière-plan. Puis dans le tome 2 on se concentre sur après, y’a une guerre etc mais on suit pas les batailles, sauf sur la toute fin. J’ai trouvé que la fin était un peu… deus ex machina. J’ai pas été 100% satisfaite mais bon, le reste de la série compense. La romance était classique, ni nulle ni géniale. Elle m’a pas dérangé, ce qui est déjà mieux que dans certains livres.

Par contre j’ai a-do-ré le worldbuilding de ces livres. J’adore quand les univers de fantasy ont leur propre mythologie (même si elle est inspirée d’une mythologie qui existe déjà, en l'occurrence la mythologie chinoise) bien développée et utilisée. C’était vraiment le point fort de cette série et j’espère que ça sera pareil dans Six Crimson Cranes.

[mattel]

GOTTMIK RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 9x03

[nomohmoss]

With each triumph, you must confront yourselves anew, peering into the depths of your hearts and acknowledging the potential for malevolence.

[starry-bi-sky]

I am loudly pushing the batdad agenda i am loudly pushing the— DPxDC Prompt

“Woah. You look like shit."

Granted, that’s probably not the first thing Danny should be saying to the guy that just bit the curb, but in his defense; he’s not running on 100% right now either.

The man -- tall, towering, and broader than Danny is tall -- whips around on his heel, black frayed cape flaring out impressively. Danny would've whistled in appreciation, but he takes the time instead to wipe the back of his hand across his mouth, smearing the blood running from his nose across his cheek.

"Sorry." He blinks widely, not even flinching as the man with the horns zeroes in on him. "That was rude of me. I have a really bad brain-to-mouth filter; Sam says its what always gets me into trouble."

And she's not wrong either, per say. His smart mouth is what landed him in this situation -- with blood blossom extract running through his veins and cannibalizing the ectoplasm in his bloodstream. Thanks Vlad.

The man grunts at him; a short, curt "hm" that shouldn't make Danny smile, but he does because he's somewhat delirious and probably concussed. The man keeps some kind of distance, sinking towards the shadows of Gotham's alleyway like he dares to melt right into it.

If it's supposed to scare Danny, it doesn't work. Danny's never been afraid of the dark; he's always been able to hide himself in it. He blinks slowly at the mass of shadows.

"You look hurt." The shadows says, blurring together around the edges. Danny squints, and licks his lips to get the blood dripping down his chin off. Ugh, he hates the taste of blood.

"I am." He says, "My godfather poisoned me. M'dying." The agony of the blood blossom eating him from the inside out looped back around to numbing a while ago, so all he feels is half-awake and dazed.

"Hey," Danny stumbles forward towards the man, a bloodied hand reaching out to him. "You-- you're a hero, right? You're not attacking me; which is more than I can say for most costumed people I've met." Maybe it's a poor bar to judge someone at, but he's already established that Danny's not in his right mind.

The man makes no change in expression, but Danny realizes blearily that it's hard to tell with the shadows on his face. He stays still long enough for Danny to latch onto the cape -- stretchy, but almost soft under his fingers.

He looks up blearily into the whites of the man's eyes. "Can you help me? I don't-- I don't wanna die." Again. He doesn't wanna die again. He blinks slow and lizard-like. "I mean- I'll probably get to see mom and dad again, but I told them I'd at least try and make it to adulthood."

There's a clatter down the street, and Danny's ghost sense chills up his spine and leaves a bitter, ashy taste in his mouth. He immediately knows who it belongs to even before the deceptively gentle; "Daniel?" echoes down the way.

"Daniel? Quit your games, badger, Gotham is dangerous for children."

Danny's mouth pulls back, and blood spills against his tongue. "Please." He rasps, and grabs onto the shadow's cape with both hands. "Please. He's going to kill me. Please--"

"Daniel? Is that you?"

His lips part, dragging in air to plead with the darkness again. He doesn't need to, the whites of his eyes narrow, and the cape whirls around him before Danny can blink. Soon swaddled in shadows, the Night lifts him up, and steals him away.

[supitsgdo]

Book review: The Blood of Stars duology by Elizabeth Lim

Rating:

Spin the Dawn - 4⭐

Unravel the Dusk - 4⭐

This gave me Mulan vibes, and I liked it!!!! The beginning was similar-ish to Mulan, but with a different plot, and I really liked the main characters. I liked the personality of the female MC, and then the male MC comes in and I just had fun reading through their relationship, always bickering (classic). The challenges that they faced were interesting to read, in both books they were really well written, and fresh. In the second book, there are more interactions with the secondary characters, which was a nice change in the momentum of the series. And the finale was great. I really enjoyed theses books, so much so that I read the first one in one day 😅 And I enjoyed the fact that, in some way, this story was connected with Six Crimson Cranes (which I read first).

[shyranno]

Hat is matte black Got the boots that's black to match

[oobbbear]

-Intrusive thoughts-

Close ups:

Scene from fic “Ghostlight” by Kittenixe (@ghostlightfic)

Please go read the fic it’s really good/sob, and play the game possibaly for more context

[galacticsabc]

Go ahead Red Mage, save the party.

[scorbleeo]

Book Review: Unravel the Dusk

The Blood of Stars (Book 2) by Elizabeth Lim

Source: Google Images

Maia Tamarin’s journey to sew the dresses of the sun, the moon and the stars has taken a grievous toll. She returns to a kingdom on the brink of war. The boy she loves is gone, and she is forced to don the dress of the sun and assume the place of the emperor’s bride-to-be to keep the peace.

But the war raging around Maia is nothing compared to the battle within. Ever since she was touched by the demon Bandur, she has been changing...glancing in the mirror to see her own eyes glowing red, losing control of her magic, her body, her mind. It’s only a matter of time before Maia loses herself completely, but she will stop at nothing to find Edan, protect her family, and bring lasting peace to her country.

ISBN: 9780525647027 (2020) | Source: Goodreads

This Book Surprised Me

I guess because Spin the Dawn was an average and forgettable read to me, I expected to dislike Unravel the Dusk. Turned out, I liked this more than the first book, not bad. Side note, despite only reading Spin the Dawn late last year, I was kinda taken aback when I had no idea what was going on in the beginning of Unravel the Dusk – that's why I said the first book was forgettable. Anyhow, yes, getting into this book was slightly rocky because yours truly forgot what happened previously, but all turned out well in the end because it was pretty easy to get my bearings back with this book.

Oddly enough, everything I complained that was lacking in the previous book was quite evident in this instalment. I remembered wanting more political conflict or action in Spin the Dawn and well, I got them here. The political conflict was nothing complicated, it was the action that made this book easy to breeze through. Unravel the Dusk is the action packed book in this duology.

As for the characters, our two main characters were boring. I like Edan without all that magic from the first book but he was barely in this book. As for Maia, I liked how Lim wrote her internal conflict and just how much she was suffering trying not to lose control, it was as if I was there suffering alongside Maia. Also because of that very reason, I felt so connected to Maia. When she saw Ammi again after her memories were gone? My heart twisted for Maia. When she could not recognize her family? My heart broke with Maia. And when she was saying goodbye to the spirits who helped her? My heart was crying.

What I did not like was how it seemed the good and evil were simply using Maia's body. It was as though without those objects, Maia had no magic and she was just there as a shell for good and evil to fight. Talking about evil, Bandur felt more like an irritating housefly, the Shansen was a power-hungry maniac and Gyiu'rak reminded me of an overly confident and complacent bitch. Considering this is a YA duology, I can allow the villains to be so far below average, but oh boy, they were not villainous enough. Lady Sarnai could be a better villain just for how she talked to Maia...

And since I've mentioned Lady Sarnai, I would just like to point out a small issue I have with this character. What is the point of creating such a strong kickass female character if there is not much focus on her arc at all? It was obvious she would rule in the end but I wanted to be shown more than just that ending if I was gonna be "yes, she deserves it".

Lastly, the ending... I am not speaking for anyone else, but I think if this had a sad ending, or even an ambiguous one, I would have liked this book a lot more. Personally, I just thought that through all the suffering Maia went through in this book, it would have been so much more painful (but the book would also be so much more impactful) if what Master Tsring said was the actual ending. Anyone?

Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3.5/5)

[possumtion]

I am normal about the empath (lie)

(Prompt fill for the @mcspirkevents bingo card: “Final Moments)

[raphaerolo]

Get this man medical attention and a hug

[pillowspace]

(In Stars and Time spoilers)

NOT ENTIRELY ALONE

AHHH I FINISHED IT! I'm handing this over with such love and care, I had so much fun drawing this.

(Every image with the text removed)

[drathe]

The Star Tarot card - Hawke and Athenril