Robin > Books: 4-5-stars‎ (983)

“Miss Hawkins,” I said, “I am used to being the biggest troublemaker in town. I’m not certain I like the suggestion that you’re about to outdo me.”

“Everything matters, Wil,” Evie told me. “But I don’t think penance is about fixing things. I think… it’s about…” There was a strange conviction in his dark eyes now, though he struggled to find the words to convey what he was thinking. “It’s about becoming the sort of person who would never make that mistake again. It’s about caring so much that you have to fix all of the little cruelties that you can. Until it’s the most natural thing in the world to you.”

"Your question was guile or force.  That was the wrong question.  To defeat Lik-Rifa we will need both.  She must be tricked, made to think she is safe to attack us, made to think we are weak when we are strong."

Profanity
Harassment
Hate speech
Sexual content
Illegal activity
Private information

Profanity
Harassment
Hate speech
Sexual content
Illegal activity
Private information

"I wanted to call it 'A Very Safe Cantina For Human Females Only.'"
"Get it all on the sign," Jerzec agrees.
"Make sure they know this is a place for them." Aithar nods.
"You might as well roll up with a white van and offer candy," Ruthie says between giggles.
"You think we should offer candy?" Aithar asks. Ruthie only laughs harder.
"Sounds...like...a trap," Ruthie manages between wheezing laughs.

"A sword needs a scabbard, as fury needs restraint."

"Have you already forgotten what I said about that book?  Think of who it was that wrote it.  The wretch Lysandros, as befits an agent of the Empire, conquers through lies."
Arienne scoffed. "This book doesn't read like lies.  I'd say the author's tone is very sincere."
"Nobody conquers the world with insincere lies."

"Destiny may offer men and women who would be kings, but only the people may exalt them."

"A sword needs a scabbard, as fury needs restraint."

"Have you already forgotten what I said about that book?  Think of who it was that wrote it.  The wretch Lysandros, as befits an agent of the Empire, conquers through lies."
Arienne scoffed. "This book doesn't read like lies.  I'd say the author's tone is very sincere."
"Nobody conquers the world with insincere lies."

"Destiny may offer men and women who would be kings, but only the people may exalt them."

It was Martyr Sihlda Doisselle herself who said this of truth: ‘It is as malleable as clay for the faithless, but hard and unyielding as stone for the faithful.’

There are no coincidences. Just threads not yet revealed as part of the same web.

“We aren’t investigating that bloody death circus,” he said, grinding his teeth. “I was clear on that!”
“Well, you’re not the boss of us!” I said, voice rising.
“You could have died!” Rorick roared.
Anita shot webbing at me. The sticky silk struck me gently in the cheek. It was like being slapped by a slightly chewed marshmallow.

Death gave me wings.

"The Executive called me 'remarkably unremarkable',"  Leopold said dryly. "Average absolutely to the decimal point.  Unspecial by every magical metric,' If we're going to insult my abilities, let's quote an expert."

I don’t know what is going on…recently it seems like I’ve found a few more books that have angel/demon dynamics in them.  I won’t say that Celestial Academy: Essence the first book in the Afterworld series has large religious intonations, because it definitely does not.  It is more like various teams playing on the court.   You have team Angels, they appear to be the upper crust of society now and make many of the rules in the human world.  Then there is team demons who tend to run some of the shadier happenings in this world.  There are also some fey, vampires, shifters, goblins and other supernaturals hanging out too.  Then there is the bottom of the food chain so to speak, the humans.  Most are sold into slavery to Angels, demons or others.  They have been since the world was lost in the magical war twenty-ish years ago.  This is the story of one of those Humans, Wen.

Wen, well what can I say I loved her from the beginning.  She has sass, an unusual talent, a really high threshold to pain, a mouth that runs away with her when it should just shut up and a propensity to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Owned by a demon she is doing everything to get out of his clutches along with her best friend and roommate Sarah.  Wen will do whatever it takes, even if that means selling Angel Essence (something only she seems able to collect) to earn the money needed to buy their freedom.  After she is busted by Godrick one of the Nephilim, whom she dubs Angelhole (see sassy),  she is swept away to the Celestial school to be trained by none other than the sexy half angel she just can’t help antagonizing.  As Godrick tries to whip her into shape, Wen just tries to stay alive in this magical school that seems to want her dead.

There are fights and challenges to move to the next level.  Wen, will have a shot to learn what she is capable of and possibly a little bit into the question of who/what she really is.  With her bff Sarah also at the school, at least she has one ally.

I hear this is like Zodiac Academy (ZA), but I haven’t read that series yet and so cannot comment on the similarities.  Still that said now I want to jump into ZA as well.  I always enjoy the magical school set up.  Wen is roommate with four other women of various background and the five of them make up one team.  They are supposed to learn how to work together to pass the tests coming at them.  A little had to do with a demoness, a fey, a paltry human, a Nephilim and whatever Wen is.   It was also nice that all the characters are around twenty so them lusting a little here and there felt slightly more mature and less icky.  The romance aspect of the story is a really slow burn.  The forced proximity wore Godrick down as Wen is likeable overall and her needling of him turned from aggravating to flirtatious.  It is a fun relationship to watch.

Come back to me - always

I’m really excited to see what is in story for the characters of this story in the next book.  The ending wasn’t a cliff hanger, but the author definitively gave us a tease and dropped a little bomb to get the reader really excited to see where the next story is going to go.

"The world humans knew did end, if not in the way we thought it would.  It’s now a whole new world – Afterworld – because of one tiny difference.  We now have Hell – and Heaven – on Earth.”

“Raise your voice until you are heard. Look however you want, be whoever you want, and demand people pay attentio

“Raise your voice until you are heard. Look however you want, be whoever you want, and demand people pay attention to you. Stop taking what you’re given, and demand the space in life you want.”

“His mood had shifted. Darkened, like it had fallen down a well, and was now worried about a basket of lotion and a hose.”

“We’re all pretending to be heroes, dear heart,” she observed. “Everyone is looking to us now, so we had better play the parts assigned to us.”

“By the cast-iron balls of the god of blacksmiths,” growled Tuke. “That was a flag of truce. He came over to parlay”

“I know,” said Kagen, his voice as cold as winter ice. “But I came here to start a war.”

“It’s difficult to assign value to discovery when you haven’t sorted out the parameters of reality yet.”

“We step out of our solar system into the universe seeking only peace and friendship – to teach, if we are called upon; to be taught, if we are fortunate.”

“So many lifetimes ago, the world promised me that I would never be alone again. I waited three thousand years for that promise to come true. And it was worth it.”

“The Yherajk were a less immediate but infinitely more complicated problem—alien globs who want to befriend a humanity that, if asked, would probably prefer to be befriended by something with an endoskeleton.”

“Your president only speaks for Americans. American movies speak for your world. Who hasn't seen Wizard of Oz? Or Jaws? Or Star Wars? We've seen them, and we're not even from this planet.”

“Those trees in the distance are the Twilight Forest, where wolves of Doubt and Uncertainty prowl. The open ground you see is the Grueling Field, where spirits of the punished plant and plow, but never reap or harvest. It is a place of thankless work, nourished by worries that plagued humankind since farming began. A place where seedlings die from crippling frost and plants are felled by cruel wind. The pines around us are the Evening Forest, where the birds of Regret and Missed Chances shriek and wail. When we pass through it, we will enter the Glades of Remembrance. They will make you relive your most painful memories.”