Dark Heavens: Book 1, White Tiger

By Kylie Chan.

Image from Goodreads

[A young woman accepts a position as nanny to the young daughter of a handsome, wealthy, and mysterious Chinese businessman only to discover her new employer is really a god and every foul demon in creation is out to destroy him!]

I love Chinese mythology and just learning about the Chinese culture in general was fascinating which is what led me to read this book, along with a recommendation from a colleague at work.

The plot, I enjoyed.

It was action-packed and full of humour, especially between Emma and Leo. But, I did feel that a couple of things happened too quickly, like some bits just came out of nowhere.

And then there's also the dialogue. In some places, it worked (like with the humour), but in other places it felt like a filler and there were a handful of things said that the characters were implying that weren't obvious and never got fully explained.

The characters were great. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know all of the different levels of Chinese Gods and their "true forms", at least the true forms as they were in this book (I don't know if that's how they're truly perceived). Simone was a cute asset and Mr Chen was a dutiful mysterious father.

I have to say though, the thing that let it down for me was, well, the protagonist, Emma, and the relationship between her and Mr Chen.

Every other sentence they'd repeat stuff like "I know this can never happen" or "we're complete fools for letting it go this far". Blah, blah, blah.

In fact, I'm pretty sure the second half of the book was just filled with these sayings and it got really frustrating.

I also noted that Chan likes to use a handful of specific descriptive words a bit too much, which also got annoying.

It turns out that this is actually part of a trilogy, but I don't even know if I want to read the rest of them if the writing was that repetitive. It wasn't all that enticing with the ending either so I may just leave it as it is.

✌︎

Warbreaker

By Brandon Sanderson. 

Narrated by James Yaegashi.

[Warbreaker is the story of two sisters, who happen to be

princesses, the God King one of them has to marry, the lesser

god who doesn't like his job, and the immortal who's still trying

to undo the mistakes he made hundreds of years ago. Their

world is one in which those who die in glory return as gods to

live confined to a pantheon in Hallandren's capital city and

where a power known as BioChromatic magic is based on an

essence known as breath that can only be collected one unit at a

time from individual people. By using breath and drawing upon

the colour in everyday objects, all manner of miracles and

mischief can be accomplished. It will take considerable

quantities of each to resolve all the challenges facing Vivenna

and Siri, princesses of Idris; Susebron the God King; Lightsong,

reluctant god of bravery, and mysterious Vasher, the

Warbreaker.]

It's strange, I work with audiobooks every day and, yet, it took a friend recommending Audible to me before I actually gave it a go and started listening to them.

I wasn't sure if I'd get on with them at all and initially it was a struggle (you have to concentrate on listening attentively, blocking out any unnecessary mind-wandering or reading of texts, etc, otherwise you'll probably realise you have no idea what just happened and have to go back a minute or so!) 

But, now, I can't stop listening to them or eagerly awaiting my next credit to be given to me once a month.

Anyways, Warbreaker.

Wow. This was fan. tas. tic.

It hooked me right from the beginning. The world created was so bold and clear in my imagination thanks to all of the very, very detailed description Sanderson used.

I loved the narrator's voice, James Yaegashi. His voices for different characters really helped me to visualise and differentiate between them. He also reminded me of Stephen Moyer from True Blood with his southern drawl.

Lightsong and the God King were my favourite characters. Lightsong was funny, charming and caring even though he tried to give off the vibe that he was lazy and couldn't be bothered with anything, always making jokes. Whereas, the God King, Susebron, was sweet and gentle in his masculine, intimidating body. I can't say too much else without giving a lot away about these two characters, but overall I think the whole story came together perfectly with a lot of revelations at the end.

It was just brilliant.

I am definitely going to be listening/reading to more of Sanderson's books!!

✌