Melting Pages
Book Reviews and Recommendations
May 2019 Wrap Up
After the fantastic reading month I had in April, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to keep up that momentum for May. I ended up finishing four books in May, which is below average for me but still good because I at least finished something!
Before we get into the individual books, let’s talk about my stats! I read four books for a total of 1,881 pages. All four books were fantasy, 3 of which were YA and one was Adult.
Descendant of the Crane by Joan He
I really enjoyed this book, but I went into it with completely different expectations so it wasn’t quite what I thought it would be. I was expecting a full on fantasy story with a mystery, but it’s actually more of a historical fiction/mystery set in a fantastical world, so keep that in mind that this book isn’t as heavy on the magic/fantasy aspect. Once you realize that though, this book was really great! We follow Princess Hesina on her quest to become Queen in order to investigate her father’s murder. She is the only one who believes that it was murder and not natural causes, and there is so much political intrigue and the ending had me scrambling to see how the mastermind behind it all did it!
This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab
I have a full review of this one, so you can check that for all my thoughts. I listened to this one on audio and I absolutely loved it! I managed to finish it in one day, and now Schwab has become a definite favorite author of mine. August is honestly one of the best characters that I’ve ever read and I connected with both him and Kate so much! Each of them are trying to prove that they belong and that they are good enough, only to realize that the only thing they need to be is themselves. I also loved the idea of monsters being born from human violence, and I ended up loving this book so much that I defaced my physical copy (which you will see in an upcoming blog post on my defaced books!)
The Diviners by Libba Bray
Everyone that I see talk about this book only ever had good things to say about it, and at first I was a little skeptical. I didn’t think that I could get behind the time period and the more paranormal aspect as it’s been forever since I’ve read a (good) paranormal urban fantasy. I loved the inclusion of slang that would’ve been used in this time period and you could tell that Bray really put a lot of thought and research into this book. I actually couldn’t read this book before bed because I would get so creeped out by Naughty John! As soon as I finished this I sent a snapchat to a college friend of mine telling her that she HAD to read this book because it would be right up her alley, and I hardly ever do that so you know that it’s good if I recommend it to IRL friends.
The Written by Ben Galley
I read this book for an upcoming blog tour (keep an eye out for that, it’s going to be a HUGE one!) so I don’t want to spoil too much of my review here. So let me just say that this had everything I love in a fantasy book: dragons, a badass main character who has some personal issues to work through, a horrible villain, interesting magic systems, and a huge world!
Melting Pages 
I loved This Savage Song!
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I’m really interested in The diviners! I bought it recently in Italian, hope they translated it right!
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I wouldn’t know about the translation, but the book was so spooky and I loved it!
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I’ve seen a lot about the Descendant of the Crane!
Also, can’t wait for your defaced books post!
-Emma 🙂
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Thank you! Once I get all the photos around I’ll work on getting it posted so it should be coming soon!
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I’m glad to see that you liked This Savage Song. I read it last year and honestly, didn’t feel much about it. If I wasn’t reading it on holidays it would probably have taken me much longer to go through it. I heard the 2nd book is slightly better, so I might still finish this duology.
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I started with the audiobook but when I tried to read physically towards the end of the book I just couldn’t do it, so for me the audiobooks were much better than the physical book!
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