#kellan greythorne

[gwyns]

"I don't believe that who we are is ever set in stone. We are transitory creatures—every day, we wake up as someone new, changed just a little bit by the experiences of the day before. Who we were is always a part of us, but it doesn't determine who we are, nor who we can still become."

[cromulentbookreview]

Ziziphus obtusifolia!

Ah, yes, Ziziphus obtusifolia, native to the Southwestern and South central United States and Northern Mexico, this shrub has many branches, forming a giant cluster of thorns that can reach up to 13 feet (4 meters) in height. This shrub does best in USDA Hardiness Zone 7, has a high heat tolerance, low water usage, and only requires partial shade and dry soils! It has deciduous leaves that aren’t really around for most of the year, showing off the shrub’s light gray-colored bark. It has an inflorescence (a cluster of flowers arranged on a stem) of little, inconspicuous blooms. It bears a small fleshy black drupe with only a single seed. The fruit is technically edible, but not at all tasty, so maybe leave that for the wildlife.

Isn’t that pretty?

So why the hell am I talking about this weird desert shrub? This is a book review blog, not a botany blog, right? Right? Well, good ol’ Ziziphus obtusifolia has many names:

Lotebush.

Gumdrop tree.

Texas buckthorn

Graythorn...

Wait. Graythorn. Gray. Thorn. Those two words mean something, I can’t quite put my finger on it....

Wait.

Oh. Shit.

GREYTHORNE!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! *More incomprehensible fangirlish screaming*.

Bet you wish this were just a plant blog after all, eh?

There will be some minor spoilers ahead. Keep your hats on, people. You’ve been warned.

So. Greythrone by Crystal Smith! 

Greythorne is the sequel to Bloodleaf, a book I absolutely loved beyond all logical reason. Sometimes I enjoy a book so much that it becomes physically impossible to review it objectively. However, fortunately for me, this is a cromulent book review blog - I offer perfectly cromulent reviews, not objective ones. If you wanted objective reviews, I suggest you look for somewhere a little less cromulent.

Before I start my incomprehensible fangirlish squealing, I suggest you take a look at the synopsis. Here’s what the writers at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers say about the sequel: 

In Bloodleaf’s highly anticipated sequel, Princess Aurelia’s life is turned upside down when the kingdom she thought she saved turns to ruin, a loved one is tragically killed in a shipwreck, and her home country refuses to respect her brother’s legitimate claim to the throne. With no place left to call her own, Aurelia returns to Greythorne Manor—her best friend’s family mansion—only to get swept up in a coup d'état on the night of her brother’s coronation. With everyone turned against her and enemies closing in on all sides, Aurelia has nothing left to lose in a mad fight to protect the only people she has left—her family. But in her darkest moments when all seems grim, will Aurelia find a spark of hope from a love she thought long lost? A read bursting with romance, magic, and ghostly intrigue, Greythorne will not disappoint.

OK, that seems like your standard summary except...

Wait. A loved one is tragically killed in a shipwreck? Huh, I guess they changed the summary to be far less spoilerific because before it specified that it was Aurelia’s fiance that was killed in the shipwreck. And when I read that my poor, YA fangirl heart just about burst out of my chest because WHAT THE HELL, ZAN DIES?!? Aurelia’s Zan?! The Zan she was betrothed to as a baby but they met without knowing who the other was and they fell in love anyway because sometimes arranged marriages work out and it’s romantic as hell only now apparently he dies in a shipwreck AND THEY SPOILED IT IN THE SYNOPSIS?!?!

Heh, some poor writer for HMH got yelled at for that one.

Anyway, since I spent pretty much the whole of the first book shipping Aurelia/Zan like...well, like a crazed fangirl. Hey, when I like something, I really like it. Anyway, faced with the prospect of having to wait until next June (NEXT. JUNE!) for answers, you can imagine my amazement when the digital ARC of Greythorne hit NetGalley back in September. 

My reaction, an approximation:

I did exercise some restraint and waited to read Greythorne until later in October because a) my TBR pile is roughly as tall as Mt. Kanchenjunga and b) I was somewhat paralyzed by the knowledge that, if I read it immediately, not only would I have to wait til next June for the finished copy, it’d be at least another year and a half AFTER next June before the third book comes out.

And then I waited until mid-November to write a review because I’m lazy.

I’m not sure if I’ve established this well enough yet, but I don’t like waiting. Waiting is the worst. 

The wait for the third book is going to be agony, but oh well. Best get comfortable.

So! How to review without being spoilery? That’s the dilemma with reviewing sequels. Inevitably, something gets spoiled. Anyway, our favorite Bloodwitch Aurelia is back in Renault, keeping a low profile and avoiding being burned as a witch by living in a whorehouse and plotting to infiltrate the party barge of one of her many enemies,��Dominic Castillion. Castillion is some kind of tyrant from the north who has been swooping in and taking over various nations, and he has eyes on Achleva. Aurelia encouraged her fiance Zan to go and parlay with Castillion...only his ship got caught in a storm and Zan drowned. 

OR DID HE?

Find out next June, because I refuse to spoil that. You don’t have to wait long to find out and it’s worth it. 

Anyway, Castillion is only one of Aurelia’s many enemies - she’s got more than a few in Renault, including the Tribunal, which is determined to have her burned as a witch. Her little brother Conrad is about to be crowned King, but his situation is precarious, at best. I mean, his sister is a known witch, and the Tribunal really, really hates witches, especially its leader, Isobel Arceneaux. She’s really not that big on witches.

Anyway, Arceneaux and the Tribunal interrupt Conrad’s coronation just to be dicks and undermine the young king before the crown is on his head longer than thirty seconds. They deliberately provoke Aurelia into a public demonstration of her magical blood powers, forcing her to flee, yet again, with her loyal guard Kellan and her old nurse/teacher/friend, Onal. They venture into the Ebonwilde forest, where there are rumors of witches capable of old magic and a dead/immortal horseman who enjoys chopping off heads...

And that’s about as much as I can say without giving the whole book away. Did I explain it well at all? Nope. Did I finish the book weeks ago and have been putting off writing an actual, semi-intelligent cromulent review because all I can do when I think about this book is make a long series of unintelligible fangirlish screeches? Yes, absolutely. This book was an absolute blast to read, and a worthy followup to Bloodleaf. There’s action! Romance! Magic! Card playing! Shapeshifters! Somberly sweet hallucinogenic wine! Zombie wolves! Witches that live in the woods! Ruined cities! A party barge! What more could you possibly need?

I do have one complaint, which is there is an instance of the Bury Your Gays trope. I’m not really even all that mad about it - I thought this particular character’s death was handled well, but I’m an idiot fangirl with a tumblr blog, so I’ll leave it to you to read the book and form your own opinion. 

Another kind-of-sort-of complaint: the covers changed. It’s another one of those Rebel of the Sands situations, someone in the marketing department decided to change things up. it means my hardcovers won’t match but...I guess that’s OK. I mean, it’s not like my eye doesn’t twitch every time I see my Harry Potters go from being paperbacks to hardcovers starting with Order of the Phoenix. I mean, I don’t panic a little every time I see that my first two books of the Ember in the Ashes series don’t match A Reaper at the Gates. It’s fine. It’s fine. It’s totally fine.

Anyway, here’s the original cover that would match the first book. It’s lovely! But I’m not in charge of marketing at HMH and the new cover is gorgeous as well.

Honestly, though, so long as I have the books and the spines are intact, I don’t give much of a shit whether or not my editions match. Of course, I’d prefer them to match, but ultimately, it doesn’t matter. I just want the book. Change the cover to whatever you want, just please be sure to give me the words inside, please. The cover is just packaging - if all you do is look at a book’s cover, you’re not reading properly. Just learn to live with that eye twitch.

(Me, when stuff doesn’t match).

RECOMMENDED FOR:  Fellow Bloodleaf fangirls, fans of YA fantasy with a strong female lead, magic, romance, etc.

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR: Anyone who didn’t like Bloodleaf, anyone who came here legitimately thinking I was going to write a blog post about Ziziphus obtusifolia, non-YA fans, people who can’t stand the idea of a kickass female protagonist.

RATING: 5/5

TOTALLY UNBIASED FANGIRL RATING: 5,000,000,000,000,000,000,000/5

RELEASE DATE: June 2, 2020

ANTICIPATION LEVEL FOR SEQUEL: Olympus Mons

SHRUB RATING: Hibiscus rosa-sinensis

SIMPSONS GIFS THAT VERY ACCURATELY SUM UP MY REACTION TO THIS BOOK:

[gwyns]

The strongest magic requires the greatest sacrifice.

Bloodleaf Trilogy (2019-2022) by Crystal Smith

[gwyns]

ebonwilde characters as random memes i have saved to my phone

aurelia:

zan:

rosetta:

dominic:

connor:

kellan:

nathaniel:

bonus, me after finishing this book:

+ crystal's reaction to this thread:

[gwyns]

[gwyns]

this sums up the bloodleaf trilogy pretty well so far i think

[gwyns]

greythorne characters + name meanings

[gwyns]

praying crystal gives us lots of kellan and rosetta interactions in ebonwilde

[gwyns]

I brought bloodleaf but I'm not sure if I'll like it can you convince me to read it?

*cracks knuckles* my time has come.

OK SO BASICALLY, bloodleaf is about a princess named aurelia who has to flee her own kingdom for fear of them condemning her for being a "witch". she's engaged to the prince of the neighboring kingdom that her kingdom hates, but they're more accepting of magic so it's her safest bet. she leaves in the middle of the night, she's almost killed, you know the usual. eventually she makes it however and meets a guy named zan who she agrees to help with some.... concerning issues that are taking place within the kingdom of achlev.

so right off the bat we have a good arranged marriage setup and if anyone knows me they know i eat that shit UP, and a splash of mystery, but bloodleaf is also loosely based on fairytales. the author describes the first book as a goose girl meets ghosts retelling. oh did i mention aurelia can see ghosts? yeah she's cool like that. she also described it's sequel, greythorne, as sleeping beauty meets sleepy hollow and while those influences aren't as strong as goose girl was in the first book, they're definitely still there.

SPEAKING OF GREYTHORNE: kellan greythorne. peak man shit right there idc what ANYONE says. that's my husband. unfortunately due to certain....... circumstances he isn't in bloodleaf as much as i would've personally liked, but crystal (the author) makes up for it in the sequel so it's all good.

i don't wanna give too much away but bloodleaf feels different from other ya fantasies in that it feels a lot darker than what i usually see? like there's actually darkness lurking around the corner and it'll get you if you're not careful. it also ripped my heart out?? i swear to god i will never forgive crystal for what she did to **** in this book. BTW. WHERE'S NATHANIEL, CRYSTAL???? BRING HIM BACK TO ME. ahem, moving on. the ending is just *chef's kiss* imo. idk it's very cinematic and i'm dying to see how it's brought to life if we ever get more information on the tv adaption we were supposed to get. btw the sequel is like. amazing. it gave me severe whiplash but in the absolute best way. the reveals and MY GOD what happens to kellan i...... did not see any of it coming. (granted, i'm kinda dumb but whatever) it's so good. idk how to even put it into words pls everyone read this series i'm on my knees.

i'm sorry i'm not very good at this sort of thing but i say if you like dark magic, royalty, twisty stories with a sprinkling of romance and an obligatory redheaded character who is associated with foxes then i'd say you might like bloodleaf.

but if you end up reading it and don't like it don't tell me bc my heart couldn't handle it.