Trickey's Books

 I've already announced the date for Clara Loveman's tour on my blog (September 2nd), but here's a little extra info now: Clara is answering questions for an exclusive interview! I have some fun questions, some about the book, and even one about writing! Remember to return to see it here! I'm so excited to share this! You can see me right underneath the 2nd September slot! This is my first blog tour so I don't know what to say except I'm so glad to be part of this! A short post today loves. See you soon!

I received this book as a free ARC in return for a positive review. I will start my review of A Curse of Ash and Embers by Jo Spurrier with this: it is utterly charming. It starts like a fairy tale: a girl is sent away from home to work as a maid and finds herself entrenched in magic, danger, and the path to her own destiny. The girl in question, Elodie, is also escaping an abusive home in the process, and we get to know her quickly. She’s smart despite never being allowed to go to school, and resourceful because she never got to go to school. Spurrier takes time to slow down and write detailed descriptions to set the scene, which is needed when Elodie reaches the Blackbone cottage and every page introduces more strange magic and hints towards more and more of a dark and twisted backstory to the witch’s cottage and what transpired there. On the subject of the magic, it’s all unique and nature-based, using both familiar herbs from the real world and odd creations of the author’s imagin...

I received this as a free ARC from Netgalley in return for an honest review. I always go into a book with the intent to enjoy it. Even when I saw how many poor reviews this got on Goodreads, I still went in expecting something good. Unfortunately, that isn’t what I got. Even worse, that was almost what I got. This book has such a unique and cool premise: a girl who was made of glass and stone to hunt ghosts for a coven of witches. Sounds awesome, right? That’s because it is! Every character who isn’t the main character is also awesome. They’re quirky, fun, flawed, and consistent. However, the main character is just a bland, edgy girl who goes from trusting no one to hopping on a stranger’s motorcycle in nothing flat. And don’t get me started on the plot. The pacing is wonky and hard to keep up with, with some problems solving themselves within a page and some being abandoned for the next shiny plot point. The prose also came so, so close to being amazing, but it’s littered with lines ...

We're suckers for animals here. That means we didn't turn away abandoned or orphaned animals for years. From a three-legged goat to a pair of ducks who weren't safe in their old house, we've taken care of a lot of animals over the years. Sadly. many of them have passed away, but we loved all of them dearly. Allow me to introduce you to some of the ones who are still with us! This is Stripes. Years ago, my mom looked out the window to see our now dearly-departed lab, Monty, with two little gray fuzzballs. She went outside to find that he had two kittens and he was gently cleaning and grooming them because he was an angel in the shape of a dog. Those kittens were taken in and we named them Trouble and Stripes. Trouble, sadly, passed away earlier this year, but Stripes is still kicking. I raised the two little brats in my room and would sometimes wake up to find them climbing out of their little enclosure. Now Stripes is the laziest cat in the world, and he likes to melt a...

Here to answer a question nobody asked! The answer is simple: I love faerie lore, and I sometimes feel like I live in some sort of feywild. We have wolf descendants that beg for food and snuggles, and tiny panthers that prowl around the house to take swipes at our feet and knock things over. Creatures that resemble clouds with legs wander around and graze our grass. The farm is filled with medicinal plants that grow with no input from us and places that look like they'd take you to another world if you stepped through them. Tree frogs sing from hidden places, and our ponds are full of little frog families hopping around and acting like they own the place. We even once had a frog with a rare condition that turned him blue. I very imaginatively called him Mister Blueface. As much as I'd like to say that I spend most of my time writing or reading outside with views like this shot of the pond, mosquitos also exist and they think I'm a free buffet. Still, as I take s...

Crown of Crowns  by Clara Loveman has just released! Many, many congratulations for the lovely Clara Loveman (pun definitely intended) today! I got this book for free from Netgalley in return for a review back when the cover was vastly different, and I have to say I like this one a LOT more. Its simple design says everything it needs to say. For those who don't really feel like digging through my feed (I don't blame you), here's a quick version of my thoughts on it: while the beginning was definitely a  bit odd, with a year or more passing between the first few chapters, Loveman crafted an incredibly unique sci-fantasy world with beautifully integrated world-building. The main character, Kaelyn, is amazingly well-written. She starts off as a teenager, only 15 years old, and is predictably a little bratty and a little spoiled. By the end, she's an adult, and she grew and changed in so many ways. She left her old flaws behind but found new ones along the way, as one does ...

So, Bone Crier's Moon . Honestly, it has a lot of flaws. It has an unhealthy relationship, a weird plot, and a nonsensical ending. But what else is new? Those traits aren't uncommon, or even restricted to YA despite how often YA books are specifically criticized for these traits. I could deal with those. It wouldn't be a favorite or anything, but I wouldn't, you know, hate it. Which I do. I hate it, and it's for a reason that's hit a lot of people hard: Erasure. Let's talk for a moment about erasure. It can happen to a lot of minority groups. However, when racial minorities are erased (as in not even acknowledged, which does still happen), I tend to raise my eyebrows a bit more. Usually, when someone is a different race you can tell. This isn't always the case, of course, but generally racial minorities are a "visible" minority. LGBTQIA is different. I'm pansexual. My group isn't even in the longest version of the acronym, and there are...

 This blog starts out with an exciting announcement: I am one of the blog tour locations for Clara Loveman as she talks about her upcoming release Crown of Crowns (releasing tomorrow, 8/11/20!). I love helping authors grow whether they were self- or traditionally published, so this is an exciting opportunity for me! Pretty soon I'm going to start taking some pictures to stack up in my Instagram queue, but other than that there isn't a whole lot going on for me today except for preparing for the blog tour! If you came here from my Instagram, @elyzabethroyse, welcome! If not, welcome anyway. Currently reading: The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass Current WIP status: first draft in progress at 52,481 words.