Book Review: The Battle Drum by Saara El-Arifi

The Battle Drum by Saara El-Arifi

Book title: The Battle Drum
Author: Saara El-Arifi
Genre: Fantasy
Published: May 23, 2023
560 pages
My rating: 3.5/5

“Freedom is not free. It has a cost. But it cannot be bought or given. Only taken. And it’s time to take ours.”

Anoor is the first blue-blooded ruler of the Warden’s Empire, but before her reign has even started she is falsely accused of a murder, and she must solve the crime without the help of her lover, Sylah. Sylah has left the Empire in search of a solution to the hurricane that threatens her land. The new truths she learns change everything she knows, and soon she must prepare for an oncoming battle. Meanwhile, Hassa, the Ghosting spy, uncovers more atrocities of the Empire’s past and present.

The Battle Drum is the second book in Saara El-Arifi’s fantasy trilogy The Ending Fire. I read the first book, The Final Strife, last year and gave it four stars. The Battle Drum is a solid sequel to the first book, but unfortunately it suffers from a middle book syndrome.

April Wrap-Up and May Hopefuls

April reads

April Wrap-Up

• Finished: 8
• Started but not finished: 3
• Total pages read: 2,620
• Average rating: 3.25

I finished two novels in April: the second book in Rebecca Ross’s young adult fantasy duology, Ruthless Vows (4/5 stars) and Gabrielle Zevin’s literary fiction Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (3/5 stars). You can find my reviews behind the links.

I also finished five nonfiction books about the ancient Greek novels and Psyyke, a Finnish psychology handbook. In terms of ratings, April wasn’t the best month, as I only gave three or four stars to all of the books I read. Here’s hoping that May gives me more enjoyable reads!

Book Review: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
by Gabrielle Zevin

Book title: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
Author: Gabrielle Zevin
Genre: Literary fiction
Published: July 5, 2022
482 pages
My rating: 3/5

“What is a game?” Marx said. “It’s tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. It’s the possibility of infinite rebirth, infinite redemption. The idea that if you keep playing, you could win. No loss is permanent, because nothing is permanent, ever.”

On a cold December day of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur sees his childhood friend Sadie Green at a crowded train station and calls her name. Their reunion sets off a collaboration that launches them to fame and leads to a decades-long tale of friendship and rivalry.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is Gabrielle Zevin’s literary fiction. The story follows the two main characters, Sam and Sadie, from their childhood in the 1980’s when they meet and bond while playing video games to the 1990’s and the early 2000’s when they start a company that produces video games, some of them huge successes, others not so much.

Snippets from the Life of an Author

I've been busy with the third draft of my modern Pride and Prejudice retelling. Last week, I finished the main edits, and now I'm reading the draft one more time before it goes to copy editor in May. I'm so excited to share this book with the world!

If you want to see what more I've been up to recently, check out the writing vlog below:

Book Review: Ruthless Vows by Rebecca Ross

Ruthless Vows by Rebecca Ross

Book title: Ruthless Vows
Author: Rebecca Ross
Genre: YA fantasy
Published: December 26, 2023
420 pages
My rating: 4/5

“Sometimes,” Iris began, “I don’t think we know what we’re made of until the worst moment possible happens. Then we must decide who we truly are and what is most important to us. I think we’re often surprised by what we become.”

Iris Winnow has returned home without her husband, Roman Kitt. Her hometown Oath continues to live in denial, unconcerned of the war between gods waging closer and closer to the city. When Iris is given the chance to return to the front, she once again heads westward despite the danger, determined to tell the truth of the war and to find Roman. On the other side of the enemy lines, Roman wakes up, healed by god Dacre but with no memories. He begins to work as a war correspondent for Dacre, but when a letter arrives beneath his wardrobe door, he is once again drawn to his mysterious pen pal.

Ruthless Vows is the second book in Rebecca Ross’s young adult fantasy duology Letters of Enchantment. I loved the first book, Divine Rivals, and I gave it four and a half stars. This book picks up a few weeks after the events of the first book. Iris and Roman are separated, and they need to find their way back together and to end the war between the gods. There’s less romance and a lot more fantasy warplot in this book. We also get a lot more scenes and chapters from Roman’s point of view. Personally, I would have preferred to see more of Iris’ point of view, and that’s one of the reasons why I didn’t like this book as much as Divine Rivals.

March Wrap-Up and April Hopefuls

March Reads

March Wrap-Up

• Finished: 5
• Started but not finished: 3
• Total pages read: 1,423
• Average rating: 4.33

I finished three novels in March: Stephanie Garber’s young adult fantasy A Curse for True Love (3.5/5 stars), Paulo Coelho’s literary fiction The Alchemist (5/5 stars), and Rebecca Ross’s young adult fantasy Divine Rivals (4.5/5 stars). You can find reviews of the books behind the links.

In terms of nonfiction, I finished the final two of my old high school textbooks. They were about language and literature.

Book Review: Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross

Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross

Book title: Divine Rivals
Author: Rebecca Ross
Genre: YA fantasy
Published: April 4, 2023
368 pages
My rating: 4.5/5

“I think we all wear armor. I think those who don’t are fools, risking the pain of being wounded by the sharp edges of the world, over and over again. But if I’ve learned anything from those fools, it is that to be vulnerable is a strength most of us fear. It takes courage to let down your armor, to welcome people to see you as you are.”

Eighteen-year-old Iris Winnow dreams of becoming a writer, but right now she needs to hold her crumbling family together. With her brother fighting on behalf of gods on the frontline and her mother turning to liquor, Iris strives to win a promotion as the columnist at the Oath Gazette. At night, she writes letters to her brother and slides them under a wardrobe door, where they vanish. But instead of finding her brother, the letters end up in the hands of Iris’s rival at the newspaper, handsome and cold Roman Kitt. When he anonymously writes back, a magical connection ties their lives together.

Divine Rivals is the first book in Rebecca Ross’s duology Letters of Enchantment. This was a great, fast-paced young adult fantasy. The book is set in a fantasy world where gods have awakened from their long sleep and are again waging a war against each other, using people and magical creatures as their soldiers. After a devastating incident, Iris gets a job as a war correspondent and exposes the truth to her hometown's residents, who have thus far been unconcerned about the war raging outside of their borough. She continues writing letters to her mysterious pen pal, slowly falling for him, until Roman arrives at the war zone, and Iris’s feelings become conflicted: who does she like more, the unknown letter writer or her fiercest rival?