Blog Tour: The Hawkweed Legacy by Irena Brignull

Title: The Hawkweed Legacy

Author: Irena Brignull

Series: The Hawkweed Prophecy #2

Publisher: Weinstein Books

Publication Date: August 15, 2017

Source: Publisher/Irish Banana Blog Tours

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Today the book I have to talk to you about is The Hawkweed Legacy by Irena Brignull.  It is the second book in the The Hawkweed Prophecy series.

This review will contain some spoilers for book one.  If you have not read book one, you may not want to proceed with reading my review.  Consider yourself warned.

This book has a myriad of characters but the one that sticks out the most is Poppy.  We learned in the previous book that Poppy grew up as a chaff (a normal human) when she is not one.  She is, in fact, a witch.  Now, in this book Poppy has left the clan and is trying to figure out her life.

The other characters from book 1 also reappear in book 2, along with some new faces.  We have Ember, who having grown up as a witch, is now in the chaff world.  She is trying to navigate it the best that she can.  And there is definitely more Leo.  Love sick Leo.

I have to say that the love triangle thing, like with the first book, still got on my nerves a little bit.  Maybe it is because I read the first book so close to the 2nd (I don't usually read series books so close together) that I am actually still stuck on my issues with that from the first one and it is just a carry over effect.  But there were too many bits of it that irked me.

However, aside from the triangle, I enjoyed the story.  Once again Irena Brignull writes wonderfully descriptive passages that just pull you into the story.  While reading, I just could not help but imagine the world and feel as though I was there along side them.

Beautiful, descriptive, and an enthralling read.  I definitely recommend it.

My Rating

4 Stars

This review is based on a copy provided by the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.  All thoughts and opinions are mine and mine alone.

Follow the Rest of the Tour!

8/21: Two Chicks on Books - Q&A

8/22: Wandering Bark Books - Guest Post

8/23: In Wonderland - Review

8/24: A Binding Attraction - Top 10

8/25: Miranda's Book Blog - Guest Post

8/26: Reading Is Better With Cupcakes - Review

8/27: The Irish Banana Review - Fast 5

8/28: books are love - Q&A

8/29: A Backwards Story - Review

8/30: Rants and Raves of a Bibliophile - Top 10

8/31: Live To Read - Review

9/1: Just Commonly - Review

9/2: Quartzfeather - Review

9/3: Lori's Little House of Reviews - Review

9/4: Never Too Many To Read - Bookish Collage

Review: The Hawkweed Prophecy by Irena Brignull

Title: The Hawkweed Prophecy

Author: Irena Brignull

Series: The Hawkweed Series #1

Publisher: Weinstein Books

Publication Date: September 6, 2016

Source: Publisher/Irish Banana Blog Tours

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Imagine if you grew up in a place where you didn't feel like you fit in.  It didn't matter how hard you tried, it just never worked.  You were always the odd duck.  The weird one.  The one who just wasn't..."right."

That is how it is for both of your main female characters, Poppy and Ember.

Poppy has grown up in the "normal" world.  No magic exists.  However, she can make things happen.  It doesn't matter if she means it to or not.  She may just lose her temper.  And the cats.  The cats follow her every where.  Unfortunately for Poppy this has strained her relationship with her parents. Her mother is even in an institution because of her daughters....oddness.

And Ember.  She is a sweet innocent girl who has grown up in a caravan of women.  And in her world magic is very much real.  The women can make things happen.  However, Ember can't.  No matter how hard she tries, she cannot cast a spell or make things happen.  Making the poor girl an outcast.

One day the girls meet and they become friends and the story unwinds from there.

There is a boy in this story.  His name is Leo.  And if you like instant love and triangles, you will like the relationship stuff that goes on.  It is very much insta-love.  See the boy, fall for the boy, and oh my goodness no one could possibly be better than this boy!

It is really kind of annoying.  And in my opinion, the down fall of this book.

When the book wasn't dealing with the insta-love triangle thing it had a pretty good story arc.  And the way it was written was great!  I kept finding myself pulled in.  Things were described so vividly.  I found myself impressed more than once with how Irena Brignull wrote various scenes.

I also have to say that I didn't really like Poppy very much.  She started kind of growing on me towards the end, but I think that was because she finally started to show some sort of growth.  Other wise I found her one dimensional and very full of her self (and very stuck on that insta-love).  I definitely liked Ember more.

All in all, a good book.  It was slow at times and then at other times it's pace picked up.  I must warn you though that there is animal cruelty.  If you would like to know more about that specifically, you can feel free to contact me!

My Rating

3 Stars

This review is based on a copy provided by the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.  All thoughts and opinions are mine and mine alone.

Review: As Old as Time by Liz Braswell

Title: As Old as Time

Author: Liz Braswell

Series: A Twisted Tale #3

Publisher: Disney Press

Publication Date: September 6, 2016

Source: Library

I am a sucker for retellings of popular fairy tales.  I realize that I probably tell you guys this every single time I read a retelling of any story, but just in case you are new to reading my blog I thought I would share that bit of information about myself again.

I was pretty excited to finally get my hands on As Old As Time, as it is a retelling of the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast.  I really wanted to see what Liz Braswell did with the story and how she transformed it.

So while if you have seen the Beauty and the Beast animated Disney movie, you will be some what aware of the basic plot of this book.  Belle (Beauty) ends up a prisoner of the Beasts castle which is under a spell that will become permanent if he can not learn to love someone else and earn their love in return by his 21st birthday.

Where this book differs though is that there is more back story for Belle's mother and father and the town that had originally surrounded the castle.  So we learn more about the history and how the Beast and his castle ended up under the curse (which in this case was put on them by Belle's mother - this is not a spoiler as it is something written clearly in the blurb of the book).

So what did I think of this book?  Well for the first half I found myself really enjoying the back story of Belle's mother and father and the town surrounding the castle.  Unfortunately, when we were actually with Belle (the story goes back and forth a little) there were so many instances of the book being word for word of the movie and I just didn't really enjoy that.  I realize that it probably helps some people be able to make the connection from the book to the original Disney movie version, but I wanted more differences.  I didn't want to read the movie.

It did start veering off at the second half of the book.  There were still some instances of the book sounding almost exactly as the movie, but by that point I was over it and had accepted that there were going to be points of this in existence.

This book also tends to go a little darker than the original version, and I really liked that.  I think Liz Braswell has a talent for dark writing.  There were definitely some creepy points where I was pulled in and really into it.  And I totally applaud her on those scenes.  They were most definitely NOT in the movie.

So, while there were some misses for me there were most definitely some hits too.  I do hope she keeps writing these!

My Rating

3 Stars

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This review is based on a copy that I borrowed from my public library.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.