I love this trope so much but what I love more is when the girl is grumpy and the boy is sunshine! The books with this trope often end up being some of my favourite books so here are some recommendations which I absolutely loved!
The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty – Ali is the most sunshine of sunshine boys and Nahri is grumpiest girl ever. I love them and their dynamic so much.
Nocturna by Maya Motayne – Alfie is adorable and Finn acts like it annoys her while secretly loving his sunshine.
Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes – A grumpy space pirate and an oblivious elite soldier that have some great banter.
A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanna A Brown – Malik is a cinnamon roll and Karina loves it even if she pretends she doesn’t.
Defy the Night by Brigid Kemmerer – A grumpy prince that thinks nothing will change and a healer that makes the change. I love them.
Son of the Storm by Suki Davies Okungbowa – A sheltered scholar ends up on the run with a grumpy warrior. They have such a wonderful dynamic.
Sometimes I completely fall in love with secondary characters in books, ones who don’t always get their own story or point of view. The one’s who deserve to get their own story and would happily read their book.
So here are some characters who I think deserve more love:
Zaynab al-Qahtani from The City of Brass – I would love to see the events in The Empire of Gold from Zaynab’s point of view. She goes from a pampered princess to a resistance leader and I would love to have seen that.
Luca from Nocturna – He is always there with Finn and Alfie and suffered with them and he honestly deserves all the love. I really hope we get to see more of him in the third book!
Muhammad from Misfit in Love – He is such a wonderful older brother! I loved his relationship with Janna and how smitten he is with Sarah
Muntadhir al-Qahtani from The City of Brass – Look this man was a whole disaster and yet completely took me by surprise and I really wish we could see in his head.
Despina from The Wrath and the Dawn – I loved her from the moment we met her and I just want a story from her and Jalal’s point of view.
Odette from The Beautiful – I just loved her so much and the friendship she built with Celine and how she did not care about societal norms for women and I just want to know more about her!
Kestrin from Thorn – We don’t get to see much of Kestrin as the book is from Thorn’s perspective but I really wish we got to see more of him and his reasonings for doing things. I hope we get to see more of him in the sequel of Theft of Sunlight
Dawud from City of the Plague God – I really loved him in the story and how at first you may think he’s a bit shallow but then as the story goes on you see there’s more to him than we first think. I really want to see him with Muhammad too
Thank you to Hodderscape and Netgalley for sending me this arc in exchange for an honest review.
This is the sequel to Nocturna and I absolutely adored this book!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Synopsis from Goodreads:
After joining forces to save Castallan from an ancient magical evil, Alfie and Finn haven’t seen each other in months. Alfie is finally stepping up to his role as heir and preparing for an International Peace Summit, while Finn is traveling and reveling in her newfound freedom from Ignacio.
That is, until she’s unexpectedly installed as the new leader of one of Castallan’s powerful crime syndicates.
Just when Finn finds herself back in San Cristobal, Alfie’s plans are also derailed. The mysterious organization responsible for his brother’s murder has resurfaced—and their newest target is the summit. And when these events converge, Finn and Alfie are once again forced to work together to follow the assassins’ trail and preserve Castallan’s hopes for peace with Englass.
But will they be able to stop these sinister foes before a new war threatens their kingdom?
TWs: Violence, death, PTSD, hallucinations, mentions of domestic abuse, blood, gore, panic attacks, grief, mentions of alcohol abuse, racism, slavery and colonisation
This book starts a few months after the events of Nocturna and we see that Finn has left and travelled while also committing a whole host of high end robberies and Alfie is now the crown prince and has accepted this role and is committed to serving his people. They are both leading their own paths and yet their minds wander back to each other and I was LIVING for it.
This book is unapologetically Latinx and I loved it! The culture, the clothes the food the language, just everything was so wonderfully Latinx. We also see the royals from Englassen in this book who are colonisers and while Castallan is now free from their enslavement we can still see the generational trauma and how much of their history was lost because of it. The people of Englassen are still enslaved by the white people there so it isn’t even something that is a distant past. It is something Alfie and his people can still see happening. It was so painfully real to read at times but Maya dealt with it so well and called out the micro aggressions that people of colour still have to deal with even now. It reminded me of a lot of the things I would have to smile and tolerate at my previous work place and the white privilege people benefitted from but refused to acknowledge.
When Luka calls a white woman’s skin mayonnaise colour after they are spoken to in the same way I just had to stop for a minute because it was a lot to see it being called out so clearly in the book. I really appreciate how these discusiions happen in the book and we see how Alfie, Luka and the others have to tolerate a lot of it because they are trying to build a peace treaty with them. We also see those who are opposed to this because they do not want anything to do with the colonisers in their home country. Both sides have valid arguments and Maya leaves it up to us to decide what our own opinions are.
I loved seeing Finn and Alfie work together again and how much they cared for each other but refused to acknowledge it because of who they are. The tension and angst is built so wonderfully through the book and by the end I was literally screaming at them to accept it already! They both had such great character growth too, individually and together. We see Finn battle with her own demons and finally overcome them and Alfie becomes the leader he needs to be for his people.
I also loved seeing more of Luka and how much he has had to endure and how he changed because of the events of Nocturna and the guilt he feels but also his relationship with Alfie felt so real. They fight they disagree yet when they need to they are there for each other. I also loved that the King and Queen are present and a part of Alfie’s life. They are great parents and deeply in love and it was such a nice change to see that in the book.
The last 100 pages and the ending left me a MESS. I am still not over all the revelations and plot twists some of which I did not see coming at all even though when I think back the foreshadowing was there and I was shook. The way this story ends left me with the worst book hangover and I absolutely need the next book asap because the wait is going to kill me.
Hey booknerds! I’m taking part in another week of Top Ten Tuesday!
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It was created out of a love of lists and books. You can find more information here
I thought that I wouldn’t be able to think of enough books for this post but turns out there is a lot more than I thought!
I’m going to share books that I have read and loved that have single word titles in this post.
1 Viper by Bex Hogan – Pirate assassins! What do you need?!
2 Nocturna by Maya Motayne – Love the magic system and the characters so much and I cannot wait for the second book!
3 Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly – This book actually made me root for the stepsister.
4 Highfire by Eoin Colfer – This book will take you on a wild ride and there’s a vodka drinking, Netflix watching grumpy dragon too!
5 Postscript by Cecelia Ahern – PS. I Love You was one of my favourite books as a teen and this book was just as amazing! Be warned you will sob reading it.
6 Jinxed by Amy McCulloch – Girls in STEM kicking ass. I love it!
7 Otherworld by Jason Segal & Kirsten Miller – This took VR games to a whole new level.
8 Flashfall by Jenny Moyer – I read this book because it was in a FL box and loved it so much!
9 Sanctuary by V.V James – This book is dark and absolutely terrifying at times and I loved it.
10 Spellhacker by M.K. England – Tech combined with magic and a group of misfits. Such a fun book!
Have you read any of these? Tell me some of your favourite books with single word title.
Hey booknerds! April has been a month, I have been so busy over the Easter holidays with my family coming over and then I went to my parents for the week so I actually didn’t read as much as I had planned. I’ve also been feeling a little slumpy although I’m not sure if that is because I ended up reading several books this month that I didn’t enjoy.
I had planned on taking part in #ARCApril and #MagicalReadathon and I actually managed to get through several arcs but I didn’t finish all the prompts for the magical readathon unfortunately. Hopefully will finish them this month!
Anyways here are the books I read this month:
1 Obsidio by Jay Kristoff – I have been putting off reading this book for so long but I finally read it and it did not disappoint!
2 The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty – why yes I did reread this book and yes it did in fact destroy me, again. You can read my review here
3 Emiliy Eternal by M.G. Wheaton – my first disappointing read this month. I really wanted to like it but unfortunately it just wasn’t for me
4 The Rise of Winter by Alex Lyttle – a middle grade book which I really enjoyed reading! You can read my review here
5 The Extinction Trials Rebel by S.M. Wilson – I absolutely adore this trilogy! The last book was so good and I really hope we get to see more in this world
6 The Kingdom by Jess Rothernberg – ahh I really wanted to love this book but I just didn’t. I’m so disappointed.
7 My So Called Bollywood Life by Nisha Sharma – a Bollywood style romance and I am so here for it! I loved this book!
8 Nocturna by Maya Motayne – I really enjoyed this book and the whole magic system and I love Finn! Can’t wait to continue the series
9 The Gentlemen’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Lee Mackenzi – another book I was disappointed with. I had heard such amazing things and it just didn’t live up to expectations for me.
So these are the books I read this month. I haven’t had the greatest reading month but I’m hoping May will be much better! I didn’t quite manage to finish Nevernight or my reread of Six of Crows either.
I also reviewed these books on my blog in April:
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer – a favourite childhood book that I reread and I still completely love!
Ayesha Dean – The Seville Secret by Melati Lum – I love this series and it’s so amazing to see the main character be unapologetically Muslim!
I also wrote about attending an evening class by Yasmin Mogahed. You can read about it here
What books did you read in April? What do you plan on reading in May?
The Tsundoku Chronicles 